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Further lessons for Democrats from the midterms
Two organizers leave a house in Decatur, Ga., during a vote-canvassing drive on Oct. 20. (Elijah Nouvelage for The Washington Post)
Perry Bacon Jr. raised important issues in his description of the Democrats’ electoral strategy leading up to the midterms [“What drove the Democratic Party’s strong performance? Not its leaders.,” op-ed, Nov. 24]. There are, however, a couple of other points worth emphasizing.
First, young people in particular are vitally (and properly) concerned with having a livable planet for themselves and their children. Although the Democrats largely neglected the climate crisis in the run-up to the election, young people plainly recognize that there is a vast gulf between climate deniers and those who at least acknowledge the severity of the problem and, however imperfectly, are trying to do something about it.
Second, and relatedly, people as a whole have a deep-seated need to believe in something bigger than their own self-interest. Republicans understand this, which is how they routinely manage to convince White people without college degrees to vote against their own economic self-interest — albeit using a narrative that is heavily weighted toward group aggrievement, ultranationalism and fear of the other. One of the reasons President Biden’s 11th-hour focus on preserving democracy resonated with many voters (aside from being accurate) was that it called on people to look beyond their immediate self-interest and see themselves as part of a collective movement to preserve the nation’s foundational principles. Democratic leadership should indeed learn a lesson from that going forward.
Eric R. Glitzenstein, Washington | 2022-11-27T18:41:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Further lessons for Democrats from the midterms - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/27/further-lessons-democrats-midterms/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/27/further-lessons-democrats-midterms/ |
The legendary musician says he used an auto-pen to sign special edition copies of his new book
Bob Dylan performs in Los Angeles in 2012. (Chris Pizzello/AP)
It feels like a law of journalism that this story must begin with a bad pun riffing on the title of a Bob Dylan song. His fans thought twice, and it wasn’t all right? He could use some shelter from the storm? Maybe if he’d only had one more cup of coffee before … oh, maybe we should just break this law.
Book World: Bob Dylan takes us on a wide-ranging tour of songs he admires
“I’ve been made aware that there’s some controversy about signatures on some of my recent artwork prints and on a limited-edition of Philosophy Of Modern Song. I’ve hand-signed each and every art print over the years, and there’s never been a problem,” his post read. “However, in 2019 I had a bad case of vertigo and it continued into the pandemic years. It takes a crew of five working in close quarters with me to help enable these signing sessions, and we could not find a safe and workable way to complete what I needed to do while the virus was raging. So, during the pandemic, it was impossible to sign anything and the vertigo didn’t help. With contractual deadlines looming, the idea of using an auto-pen was suggested to me, along with the assurance that this kind of thing is done ‘all the time’ in the art and literary worlds.”
“To those who purchased [the] limited edition, we want to apologize,” the note read. “As it turns out, the limited edition books do contain Bob’s original signature, but in a penned replica form. We are addressing this immediately by providing each purchaser with an immediate refund.”
The state of Bob Dylan in 2018? As mysterious as ever.
Dylan, of course, is no stranger to controversy. Sometimes, it’s seemed that he’s actively courted it — from his infamous electric set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival to his appearance in a 2004 Victoria’s Secret ad to allegations that he borrowed parts of his 2016 Nobel Prize acceptance speech from SparkNotes (which he gave via recording after skipping the official ceremony).
But rarely has he explained himself or addressed so-called controversies so directly. Confounding everyone has always been something of his forte, and, for many fans, that’s one of his many enduring appeals. | 2022-11-27T18:45:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bob Dylan apologizes for book controversy in rare public statement - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/27/dylan-book-signature-controversy-refund/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/27/dylan-book-signature-controversy-refund/ |
Check in with yourself and your children, show yourself some care and create new traditions
Advice by Elena Lister
Michael Schwartzman
Just before Christmas last year, the 7-year-old daughter of Michael’s patient begged her to make cookies, but she didn’t want to. The next day, the child asked again, and her mother snapped, “No! Please stop asking.” Sobbing, the girl said: “But we always have those cookies! Gran made them every year!”
The patient’s mother had died a year ago, and it was the first Christmas without her. Just as for her family, the holidays can be an especially difficult time for those grieving loved ones. Someone new carving the Thanksgiving turkey or one less Christmas stocking to hang can accentuate a loss and reintensify grief.
Mary-Frances O’Connor, associate professor at the University of Arizona, and author of “The Grieving Brain” explains, “Grief is the natural response to being aware of a loss and, during the holidays, you are going to be more aware because we carry out all the rituals we’ve always done with the people we’re close to.”
Check in with yourself: Thinking about your own needs first regarding a loss will put you in a better place to help your child.
Michael’s patient was surprised by her impatient reaction to her daughter’s request for Gran’s holiday cookies. “I felt so upset when she asked. I didn’t know I was feeling so sad still,” she said. “It’s been nearly a year since Mom died but … it’s our first Christmas without her. I guess we’re all hurting still.”
It may seem difficult to think directly about a loss, but the idea is to parse out your thoughts and feelings to do something with them — otherwise they may catch you unawares, as they did the patient.
Check in with your children: You may not know how to talk with your child about the impact of a loss on the holidays but saying nothing can leave children worrying alone. Instead, talking to your children in a truthful age-appropriate way creates connection. Ask them what they’re thinking: “The holidays are coming up. Do you have any thoughts about how you want to celebrate?” They may not offer a fully crafted plan, but their responses will likely provide insight into their feelings. Check in at different times as a holiday approaches and share any proposed activities so they can share their thoughts.
Have a plan: Creating a plan to acknowledge your loved one’s loss can give you a sense of control and allow you to organize and allocate feelings.
For one of us, this Thanksgiving will activate memories. It is the 26th since Elena’s 6-year-old daughter Liza died. The loss will be compounded by the recent death of her beloved mother-in-law. Elena and her family have a plan in place — to decorate the Thanksgiving table with daisies, her mother-in-law’s favorite flowers, and to make the chocolate chip cheesecake that Liza loved. Before they sit down to eat, they’ll toast their departed loved ones.
Respect everyone’s grieving needs: It wouldn’t be the holidays if someone didn’t feel overwhelmed, excited, angry or distressed, and emotions are likely to be heightened when you are grieving. Things can get especially complicated when family members want to honor their loved ones in different ways. This occurred last Christmas to a patient, a father of two, whose wife had died. While his son wanted to set a place for their mother at Christmas dinner, his daughter didn’t want to celebrate the holiday. What to do?
First, make sure everyone’s voice is heard. Try to fulfill each person’s wishes in essence if not in the exact details. Find a compromise. Emphasize respect for each other’s needs.
With Elena’s help, her patient developed a plan. “We didn’t set a place at the table,” he said, “but my son made a special ornament and hung it on the tree, and my daughter brought toys and books to the Christmas Day celebration and hid from the rush of the holiday when she needed.”
He said, “it was terrible in parts, but it worked. For all of us. And next year, we’ll figure it out again.”
Create new traditions: A death can make certain rituals bittersweet, reminding us that our loved one is gone, life is fragile and change is inevitable. Consider creating a fresh tradition if old ways seem painful. One of Michael’s patients took her children camping over Hanukkah after her husband died, a new experience and one that freed them to remember their husband and dad as they wished, without the trappings of how everything used to be.
Holidays need not fit anyone else’s images of a perfect celebration. Therapist Nimali Jayasinghe says, “Normative images of large, joyous gatherings can bring on feelings of discomfort — and pressure — in those who are grieving. I’d like to see more images of people celebrating over Zoom, or in peaceful solitude, or volunteering at a community kitchen.”
Show yourself some care: Therapist Kimberly Grocher notes that many of her clients, especially women of color, “have been taught to keep pressing on, without being able to really express their grief.” She advises, “Be gentle with yourself and show some self-compassion.” Keep to routines with healthy food and enough sleep, when possible, especially for children.
Set boundaries: If you don’t have energy for the Thanksgiving parade, don’t go. Let others take the children or stay home and watch it on TV together. The holidays don’t have to be perfect.
If the holiday spirit is overwhelming, take a break. Watch non-holiday movies or get out into nature — and boost your well-being at the same time.
Aim for connection: The antidote for loss is togetherness — one that works for you. With planning, you can navigate the season, remembering your loved ones on your terms, and bringing their memories forward, Your conversations with your child as you handle these difficult times will bring you closer, creating moments to cherish.
Elena Lister, MD, is a therapist in New York City, and an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Michael Schwartzman, PhD, ABPP, is a therapist in New York City and school psychologist at Saint David’s School.
They are co-authors (with Lindsey Tate) of “Giving Hope: Conversations with Children About Illness, Death, and Loss.”
Showing gratitude is good for all of us, so why don’t we give thanks more? | 2022-11-27T18:47:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 9 tips for handling grief during the holiday season - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/23/handling-grief-holidays/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/23/handling-grief-holidays/ |
The announcement Sunday from Buckingham Palace was not a surprise, as the likelihood of such a switch was reported by the British press shortly after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Sept. 8.
But Camilla, the second wife of Charles, has done away with the traditional title and some of its duties in a modernizing move.
Can Charles III modernize the monarchy and still keep the magic?
It’s not a complete overhaul. The new role will be similar to what it has been: a member of queen’s dutiful and trustworthy inner circle. But now, it will be a less all-encompassing position, involving less regular attendance, waiting that is, on the queen. The companions will “on occasion accompany” her and support some of her official duties, said the palace statement Sunday.
Some official and perhaps dated titles have largely stuck over centuries, too — including the lady-in-waiting title of “Woman of the Bedchamber,” who helped the queen dress, and the “Mistress of the Robes,” tasked with looking after the queen’s wardrobe and jewelry. The different roles, all honorary, are part of a hierarchy that served the queen’s day-to-day life.
Long vilified as the ‘other woman,’ Camilla eases into British affection
Over her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II had her own changing slate of about a half-dozen trusted ladies-in-waiting. On the way to the April, 2021, funeral of her husband, Prince Philip, Elizabeth sat by the side of Lady Susan Hussey — perhaps her most loyal lady-in-waiting.
The new queen consort: What to know about Camilla, Charles’s wife
Alexandra Ma contributed to this report from London. | 2022-11-27T20:47:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Queen Consort Camilla appoints “Queen’s companions," once known as “Ladies-in-Waiting” - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/27/camilla-queen-consort-companions-ladies-in-waiting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/27/camilla-queen-consort-companions-ladies-in-waiting/ |
Andrej Kramaric celebrates scoring Croatia's third goal on Sunday. (Peter Cziborra/Reuters)
“We weren’t afraid of anybody,” defender Steven Vitória said. “We kept pushing forward, trying to play that attacking style. We’re proud of that. We’re going to keep working to close gaps and test the best teams in the world. That’s where we want to take our country.”
So far in this World Cup, Canada has earned style points, if not actual points, in its first appearance since its tournament debut in 1986. Defensively, though, it could not hold off Croatia, which scored eight minutes apart before intermission and added two goals in the second half to move into a first-place tie with surprising Morocco.
Belgium, the Group F favorite, sits on three points after its 2-0 upset loss to the Moroccans earlier Sunday. Group F will conclude Thursday with Morocco facing Canada and Croatia playing Belgium. Two will advance to the round of 16.
No matter how they fare in the finale, the Canadians “left a positive image of what we want for the future,” Vitória said.
The future will undoubtedly continue to feature Alphonso Davies, a former West African refugee who has become a global star at Bayern Munich. The 22-year-old winger made Canadian history Sunday with the early goal.
“Knowing people back home from east to west were celebrating somewhere,” Coach John Herdman said, “it was a great moment. We got to celebrate something we’ve been waiting a long time for.”
The good vibes did not last long. Andrej Kramaric scored the first of his two goals and Marko Livaja broke the deadlock.
The Croatians said they gained incentive from Herdman, who after the 1-0 defeat to Belgium, used an expletive during a TV interview to describe what his team would do to Croatia. The Croatians media made note of it in the buildup to this match.
“I want to thank the Canada coach for the motivation,” Kramaric said through an interpreter. “He could have chosen different words. He could have formulated it differently. In the end, Croatia demonstrated who effed who.”
Croatian Coach Zlatko Dalic, architect of the improbable 2018 run in Russia, had exchanged greetings with Herdman before the match. Afterward, though, they did not cross paths.
“That’s his way of doing things,” Dalic said. “He was obviously mad. He is a high-quality professional but it will take him time to learn some things.”
Canada was doing all the talking at the start. The goal sequence began with a long clearance by goalkeeper Milan Borjan and, in a matter of seconds, the ball was in the net.
Cyle Larin connected with Tajon Buchanan on the right flank. Drifting into the box, Jonathan David drew center back Dejan Lovren with him, which created an inviting channel. Davies accepted the invitation.
After starting his run from a deep position, he made his decisive move. Josip Juranovic did not see Davies coming and stood no chance of winning Buchanan’s high cross. Davies soared for a running, 10-yard header.
Khilafa International Stadium turned into a festival of red-clad Canadian revelers.
In the 1986 tournament debut, Canada lost all three matches by a combined 5-0. In subsequent decades, it stumbled over and over in the Concacaf qualifying phase. Early this year, the drought ended after finishing first, ahead of regional powers Mexico and the United States.
On Sunday, Canada sustained pressure, teasing its supporters with quick forays and impressing the neutral fans with a forward-thinking style. Before long, though, Croatia figured out how to contain Davies.
The pace became too fast and the play too open to remain a 1-0 game.
In the 36th minute, Ivan Perisic slipped the ball ahead to Kramaric in stride at the corner of the six-yard box for a low one-timer into the far corner.
Croatia continued taking advantage of open space and Canada’s tepid defending. In the 44th minute, Juranovic took flight from midfield, outpacing the sleek Davies and veering centrally. The Canadians closed, but after losing control, Juranovic touched the ball between Vitória’s legs to Livaja, who drove in a low shot from the top of the penalty area.
Canada’s hopes were all extinguished in the 70th minute when Kramaric set himself up for a left-footer from 14 yards. Lovro Majer added a goal in stoppage time.
“Each and every one of the players that have been on the pitch, from the first game to this game, have played with the right mentality and played fearless, played brave,” Canadian captain Atiba Hutchinson said. “But of course, we were playing on a world stage with a lot of quality [on the other teams]. There’s things we’re going to have to learn. We didn’t get the result we wanted. But we’ll learn from this. And we’ll get better at it.” | 2022-11-27T21:57:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Canada eliminated from World Cup after loss to Croatia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/canada-eliminated-croatia-world-cup/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/canada-eliminated-croatia-world-cup/ |
Her mac and cheese took more than 3.5 minutes to make. She’s suing.
“READY IN THREE ½ MINUTES” declares the packaging for Velveeta’s microwaveable mac and cheese cups. But that’s simply not true, according to one allegedly inconvenienced South Florida woman, who points out that the figure accounts for just the microwave time. It does not include other time-consuming steps such as tearing off the lid, adding water and stirring in cheese sauce, she argues.
Amanda Ramirez might not have bothered buying the Shells & Cheese product “had she known the truth,” says a proposed class-action lawsuit in which she is the lead plaintiff. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Miami, seeks more than $5 million in damages on behalf of the Hialeah woman and other purportedly hoodwinked customers. It accuses the Kraft Heinz Co., the maker of the cheesy cups, of deceptive and unfair trade practices.
“Consumers seeing ‘ready in 3½ minutes’ will believe it represents the total amount of time it takes to prepare the Product, meaning from the moment it is unopened to the moment it is ready for consumption,” the complaint argues.
Woman sues Kellogg over lack of strawberries in strawberry Pop-Tarts, seeks $5 million
The lawsuit, previously covered by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, was filed this month by William Wright of the Wright Law Office in West Palm Beach and Spencer Sheehan of Sheehan & Associates in Great Neck, N.Y. The attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday afternoon.
He went after Kellogg, arguing that the company’s strawberry Pop-Tart marketing is deceptive because the pastries contain additional fruits. He said Keebler and Betty Crocker were wrong to call their cookie and cake mixes fudge because they contained no milk fat. And he took on Keurig Dr Pepper over the words that appear on A & Root Beer cans: “MADE WITH AGED VANILLA.” That was among about 120 lawsuits over companies’ assertions that their products contain vanilla, NPR reported.
In the mac-and-cheese case, the complaint alleges that the Kraft Heinz Co. has been able to charge a premium price — $10.99 for eight 2.39 oz cups — by claiming the snack takes only 3½ minutes to make. It lays out the steps on the back of the package:
“Next, they must ‘ADD water to fill line in cup. STIR.’ Third, ‘MICROWAVE, uncovered, on HIGH 3-½ min. DO NOT DRAIN.’
Those directions, the complaint says, “show that 3-and-a-half minutes is just the length of time to complete one of several steps.” A truthful label would have stated that the product takes 3½ minutes to cook in the microwave, it adds.
Burger King Whopper 35 percent smaller than in ads, lawsuit says
Ramirez, the lead plaintiff, purchased the Velveeta Shells & Cheese cups multiple times, according to the complaint. She “is like many consumers who seek to stretch their money as far as possible when buying groceries,” it said, and “looks to bold statements of value.”
She would buy the mac and cheese again “when she can do so with the assurance its representations are consistent with its abilities, attributes, and/or composition,” according to the complaint. But for now, she can’t rely on the claims made by the Velveeta product or other similar ones claiming to be ready in a set amount of time, “because she is unsure whether those representations are truthful.” | 2022-11-27T22:45:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Woman sues, saying Velveeta Shells & Cheese prep time is deceptive - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/11/27/velveeta-mac-and-cheese-lawsuit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/11/27/velveeta-mac-and-cheese-lawsuit/ |
Abby Meyers had 23 points in Maryland’s win over Pittsburgh. (Chris Tilley/Intersport)
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Abby Meyers was just as prolific as the Maryland women’s basketball team knew she could be.
In an 87-63 victory over Pittsburgh at the Fort Myers Tip-Off on Sunday, the Princeton transfer looked every bit the player of the year she was last season in the Ivy League. The former Whitman High star finished with a game-high 23 points as the No. 14 Terrapins (6-2) pushed past the disappointment of an opening-round loss to leave Florida with back-to-back wins.
Meyers, who added five rebounds and four assists, looked comfortable from the opening tip and created space for herself and for her teammates. She powered the Terps to 36 points in the third quarter — a season high — to build a 22-point lead.
“I’ve definitely been in this game long enough to know that I can have a few games where it doesn’t meet my standard of excellence and what I know I can reach,” Meyers said. “The first two games [in Fort Myers], personally I think that I tried to do other things because my shot wasn’t falling. This game, the [third] shot was a three, I knocked it down, and I knew I had the green light. …
“The third quarter, we really wanted to be that better team and really set ourselves up for the fourth quarter and be comfortable there, and be able to put our foot on the gas throughout the second half. Shots were falling that third quarter. It felt good.”
Last time out: Maryland women bounce back with win over Towson
Maryland’s Brinae Alexander finished with 17 points, and Lavender Briggs added 10. Meyers, Alexander and Briggs — all transfers in their first seasons with the Terps — set career highs in a Maryland uniform. Shyanne Sellers added 13 points, four assists and four steals.
Maliyah Johnson (11 points) was the lone player in double figures for Pittsburgh (5-2). Pittsburgh had 18 turnovers that resulted in 22 points for the Terps.
Despite playing three games in 72 hours, Maryland looked stronger on both ends of the floor in its two wins. The Terps outrebounded Towson and Pittsburgh by a combined 83-73 margin; the difference Sunday was 43-37.
Friday’s 76-67 loss to DePaul might be what the Terps needed heading into December, with games against No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 3 Connecticut on the docket just 10 days apart. The matchup with the Fighting Irish is up Thursday in South Bend, Ind.
“I think it’s a great sign because you should be more tired on Day 3,” Terps Coach Brenda Frese said. “You could tell when we came out, there was a focus. Even on the offensive end, the ball movement, the ball wasn’t sticking and, again, there’s a lot of new players that are playing together for the first time. They’re being super intentional and being very unselfish. When we move the basketball like this, everyone’s going to be able to score and assist on baskets.”
Maryland football finishes strong by shutting out Rutgers
Minimal Miller
After a solid game Saturday against Towson, Diamond Miller cooled off Sunday. The senior finished with eight points, nine rebounds, two assists, and two blocks in 17 minutes.
Frese pulled Miller from the court less than two minutes into the game, sending a message to one of her best players. Miller returned midway through the first quarter but played just over two minutes in the second half.
“There’s a really high standard that we hold Diamond and this team to,” Frese said. “As one of our leaders and an all-American, there’s a standard of how hard we want to play on both ends of the floor, all the time. … She’ll bounce back. She’s a tremendous player that wants to win.”
Strong on defense
There weren’t many positives for Pittsburgh. The Panthers’ five starters accounted for just 30 points, and Maryland got 23 attempts from the free throw line, hitting 20.
“I loved our toughness and resiliency, and I thought it started on the defensive end,” Frese said. “We came out really aggressive.”
That carried over to the other end, where the Terps shot 42.9 percent (9 for 21) from three-point range.
“I’m disappointed in the second and third quarter, actually,” Pittsburgh Coach Lance White said. “I thought before then, we played well enough to hang around and see what would happen. We still have to learn what it takes to be a great program. … I just thought they whipped us in every category.” | 2022-11-27T23:02:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Abby Meyers powers Maryland past Pittsburgh at Fort Myers Tip-Off - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/maryland-women-pittsburgh-abby-meyers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/maryland-women-pittsburgh-abby-meyers/ |
A soccer fan holds a flag from Iran ahead of Iran's Group B match against Wales at the World Cup. (Francisco Seco/AP)
DOHA, Qatar — The U.S. Soccer Federation displayed altered images of Iran’s flag on some of its social media accounts, a switch that drew attention ahead of the U.S. men’s national team’s World Cup match against the Iranians. The federation said the change was intended to show solidarity with protests in the country and by Sunday had reverted, switching back to the official flag.
The alteration, which was visible on U.S. men’s national team social media accounts, removed a symbol in the middle of the flag associated with Iran’s clerical leaders.
The banner image on the team’s Twitter account Sunday morning featured a flag that includes Iran’s colors — red, green and white — but did not include a symbol that was added after the 1979 revolution, depicting a stylized rendering of the word for “God.” A similar image was included in a recent tweet about Group B standings. By Sunday afternoon, the official flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran had replaced the altered image on the U.S. team’s Twitter account.
Iran faces the United States on Tuesday, the final match of group play for both teams.
In a statement early Sunday, the USSF, which oversees all of the national teams, said the decision was made in recent days to “show support for the women in Iran fighting for basic human rights.” The changes were temporary, the federation said.
A State Department official said the decision wasn’t a coordinated effort between the department and the USSF. U.S. men’s national team players also weren’t looped in.
“We didn’t know anything about the posts, but we are supporters of women’s rights — we always have been,” U.S. defender Walker Zimmerman said at a news conference.
Protests in Iran broke out in September after a young woman, Mahsa Amini, died in police custody. They have since grown into a nationwide uprising channeling an array of complaints against Iran’s clerical leaders. Hundreds of people have been killed during a crackdown on protests by the authorities, according to human rights groups.
During Iran’s previous two matches, tensions surfaced between supporters and opponents of the government, including over the flag, with some anti-government critics waving a pre-revolutionary flag or concealing the symbol on the current flag with black tape. Vigorous debates have occurred within the protest movement over which flag should be displayed.
The changes appeared on the men’s national team’s social media accounts but not on the USSF website. For instance, the page that features the upcoming schedule displays the Iranian flag with the post-revolution symbol.
FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, declined to comment on the flag’s alteration.
The USSF has previously taken steps to show support for marginalized groups at this World Cup. In a media room at the team’s training center outside Doha, a large USSF logo on a wall features rainbow colors instead of red and blue, in support of the LGBTQ+ community. The display comes amid concerns over treatment of LGBTQ fans in Qatar, a conservative Muslim nation that criminalizes homosexuality, as well as efforts by FIFA to downplay the rainbow symbol, including by saying it would penalize players who wear rainbow armbands.
There was no immediate reaction from the Iran’s government to the altering of the flag. A commentary posted Sunday on the website of Iran’s semiofficial Mehr News Agency called the removal of the symbol a “strange and insulting action that was undoubtedly aimed at creating tension and destroying the focus of Iran’s team.”
The United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Iran but is engaged in a number of delicate negotiations with the country through third-party intermediaries, including an effort to restore the 2015 nuclear deal.
John Hudson contributed to this report. | 2022-11-27T23:02:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. Soccer social accounts briefly alter Iran flag in World Cup posts - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/usmnt-twitter-iran-flag-change/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/usmnt-twitter-iran-flag-change/ |
Moniker business: More first-rate tales of unusual first names
Former Maryland governor Parris Glendening isn't named after the French city or the mythic Trojan. He owes his name to a controversial 1940 novel. (Mary F. Calvert for The Washington Post)
Monday is named after the Old English word for “moon.” Fyllis Hockman of Gaithersburg is named because of her older brother’s fun with phonics.
Fyllis’s parents wanted to give her a name beginning with an F, after her father’s mother, whose name was Fanny. Her 5-year-old brother had another idea. He suggested “Phyllis,” which sounded to him like it began with an F.
Wrote Fyllis: “My parents thought, ‘Why not?’ — and I become Phyllis with an F. Which has always been great fun — and I’ve yet to meet another.”
Today we’re meeting more readers who have memorable name stories. Cosette “Cozy” Nieporent Smoller of Potomac was supposed to be born on Columbus Day. And so the plan was to name her “Columbia.”
“Luckily, I arrived two days late,” wrote Cozy. “My mother needed to give me a name beginning with C, after a deceased relative. She was reading ‘Les Miserables’ at the time. Therefore, I became Cosette, but I was usually called Cozy.”
In school, boys teased her about that nickname — “Are you really Cozy?” they asked — so in junior high she decided to use her real name.
“Then the boys called me ‘Corset,’ ” she wrote. “I later became a physician and was Dr. Nieporent. However, I was often called ‘Dr. Neosporin.’ I can’t win. I’m retired now and am just Cozy again.”
King Wiemann shares his first name with his father, who insisted that the tradition when he was born was to name the firstborn son with the mother’s maiden name.
“The truth is King was not his mother’s maiden name, nor was it my mother’s maiden name,” wrote King, who lives in Northern Virginia.
It was not a great name for a kid to have.
“There's no lasting legacy here,” King wrote. “He was the first and I am the last in the family tree with this name. I wouldn't wish my childhood name trauma on anyone.”
A few months after Norma and Burton Kirschner got married in September 1953, Burton — a young Air Force officer — learned he was being posted to Japan. At the time, a serviceman’s wife had to wait three years to join her husband there.
“Shortly before he was to leave, I had to have emergency surgery to have an ovary removed,” Norma wrote. “The doctors said that in about a year I would have to have the other ovary removed. That meant that we would never be able to have children as we would be separated for three years.”
After Burton arrived in Japan, he was among five lieutenants randomly picked to go to Hawaii for two months to study tropical meteorology. When the commanding officer in Hawaii, a Col. Duncan, heard about Burton and Norma’s plight, he told Burton to send for Norma.
“He gave us an apartment in the bachelor officers’ quarters,” Norma wrote. “Since I was unauthorized to be there, I had to be sort of in hiding.”
Meanwhile, Col. Duncan managed to get Burton assigned to the Philippines where spouses had to wait only four months to join their husbands. Duncan even arranged for Norma to quickly get a passport and a visa so she could join her husband on the flight to the Philippines.
Wrote Norma: “Several months after arriving in the Philippines, I became pregnant and named my son Mark Duncan Kirschner after the colonel.”
Parris Glendening always thought his curious first name looked good on his campaign posters: “Parris” written large in red and “Glendening” in small blue print. The Democrat used the design in three successful runs for Prince George’s County Executive and two for Maryland governor. How did he get that name?
In 1940, Henry Bellamann’s novel “Kings Row” was published. The 700-page book was controversial for the time, touching as it did on infidelity, homosexuality, incest and other taboo subjects — all very controversial in 1940.
“Two years later it became a very famous movie,” wrote Parris, of Annapolis. “Someone either gave my mother the book or she saw the movie about the time I was born (1942). Glendening family folklore is not clear which.”
Parris’s mother, Jean, was apparently so taken with the name of the young hero doctor, Parris Mitchell, and insisted her son be given the same moniker.
Wrote Parris: “Dr. Parris Mitchell was played in the movie by Bob Cummings. Ronald Reagan played Parris’ best friend Drake McHugh. Even though Reagan was a liberal back then I am still pleased that he did not play my namesake.
“That is how 80 years later, I am still a proud Parris with 2 R’s.”
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Now we’re racing toward another holiday season and the end of another year. While I have your attention in this busy season, let me ask that you consider donating to The Washington Post Helping Hand.
Our annual reader fund drive is raising money for three worthy local charities: Bread for the City, Friendship Place and Miriam’s Kitchen. For details — and to give — please visit posthelpinghand.com. | 2022-11-27T23:20:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Baby name inspiration can come from fiction, family and friends - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/27/first-name-follies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/27/first-name-follies/ |
Back-to-back tragedies have prompted a re-examination of existing local laws and whether national measures would help
Democrats are renewing their calls for a ban on assault weapons after the latest spate of multiple high-profile mass shootings, warning that their window to enact legislation is closing soon with Republicans set to take a narrow majority in the House in January.
On Nov. 19, a shooter carrying a handgun and an AR-15-style rifle opened fire inside Club Q, an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs, killing five people and injuring at least 18 others. Days later, a supervisor at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Va., killed six employees in a break room in the store with a handgun he had allegedly bought earlier that day, before apparently killing himself.
Other recent horrors — such as the shooting deaths of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex., who were killed by a gunman who bought weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition just days after his 18th birthday — have also prompted a reexamination of the ease of obtaining assault weapons.
President Biden, who has long called for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, vowed last week to double down on his efforts, including during the lame-duck session of Congress.
“The idea we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick. Just sick,” Biden told reporters on Thanksgiving. “It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.”
On Sunday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said that he didn’t think that Democrats have 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster and push through legislation to renew a ban on assault weapons, which the House passed in July. But he said he was glad that Biden was pushing them to take a vote.
“Does it have 60 votes in the Senate right now? Probably not. But let’s see if we can try to get that number as close to 60 as possible,” Murphy said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Democratic lawmakers called for more legislation to combat gun violence following mass killings in Colorado and Virginia. (Video: JM Rieger/The Washington Post)
Colorado’s red-flag law — which allows authorities to remove guns from a person deemed potentially dangerous — has been under scrutiny since the shooting at Club Q, with questions about whether the law was properly implemented. Murphy blamed failures on the authorities of the county in which the Club Q shooting happened, and warned that lawmakers should explore withholding federal funds from law enforcement agencies that refuse to implement gun laws.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) said Sunday that officials would “take a hard look” at why the red-flag law wasn’t used in this case, amid reports the suspect made a bomb threat against a family member last year.
“This is an example of a case where it might have been used,” Polis said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “It wasn’t pursued in this instance by the mother. You can also have a local sheriff agency do it. In this case, it wasn’t pursued by the local sheriff agency. I’m sure what will be looked into is why wasn’t it pursued.”
Polis said Colorado also needed to publicize the law better and explore expanding those who could seek an extreme risk protection order. However, he pointed out that some of the states bordering Colorado don’t even have background checks, which would allow someone convicted of a felony in Colorado to simply drive an hour to buy weapons and return to the state. He encouraged federal lawmakers to look at instituting additional licenses or background checks for some of the most high-powered weapons.
“The answer needs to be national as well,” Polis said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think what you really need to do if you’re serious about reducing these kinds of gun violence events and mass violence events is try to take the best ideas from all sides that work.”
Murphy emphasized that the bill sitting in front of the Senate would stop only new sales, not take away weapons from individuals who already own them.
“But if you look at some of the most high-profile mass shootings in the last couple of years, many of those mass shooters bought the weapon just days before carrying out the crime,” he said.
Any new gun control restrictions will face an uphill battle after Republicans regain control of the House in about five weeks. On Sunday, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) waved off the usefulness of new gun-related bills in the wake of the shootings in Virginia and Colorado.
“I mean, we already have many gun laws on the books. If passing a bill would simply end gun violence, then I think you would have overwhelming support in Congress for that,” Comer said on “Meet the Press.”
Richard Fierro disarmed the Club Q shooter in Colorado Springs, Colo. Being portrayed as a hero, he said: "there are heroes every day." (Video: Zoeann Murphy, James Cornsilk/The Washington Post)
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who was one of only two House Republicans to vote in support of the assault weapons ban in July, said other GOP members might support red-flag laws, depending on how they are written.
“There are ways you can write it where it preserves due process, protects law-abiding gun owners’ rights, but at the same time advances community safety,” Fitzpatrick said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s incumbent upon us to analyze the situation. Where were the gaps? Was the gap in the mental health system? Was it a HIPPA reporting issue? Was it a loophole in the background checks or is it something different?”
Murphy defended the passage of red-flag laws, even though they didn’t prevent the recent shootings in Virginia and Colorado, saying it can take time “for these big, complicated laws to be put into place.”
He praised Biden for signing into law this summer the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first gun-control legislation in 30 years, which sought to expand federal funding for state “crisis intervention programs,” including red-flag laws.
Shooting suspect’s troubled past was obscured by a name change, records show
Murphy also issued a somber warning with the approach of the 10th anniversary next month of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 children and six adults were killed.
“I think you have to understand that communities that go through a mass shooting like this — Sandy Hook, Uvalde, now Colorado Springs — they’re never the same,” he said. “Yes, it brings some measure of peace that we have passed legislation now that will at least provide a little bit downward pressure on the number of shootings in this country.”
He also noted how every holiday serves as a sad reminder to such families of an epidemic unique to the United States.
“This is a choice to allow this to continue to happen,” he said.
Maxine Joselow and Ruby Cramer contributed to this report. | 2022-11-27T23:20:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Democrats renew calls for assault weapons ban after Club Q, Chesapeake Walmart mass shootings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/27/assault-weapons-ban-congress/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/27/assault-weapons-ban-congress/ |
CLEVELAND — Nick Chubb ran for a 3-yard touchdown with 19 seconds left in overtime, and Cleveland rallied Sunday to stun Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-17 in Browns quarterback Jacoby Brissett’s final start before Deshaun Watson returns from his suspension.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Trevor Lawrence connected with Marvin Jones for a 10-yard touchdown with 14 seconds remaining and hit Zay Jones for a gutsy 2-point conversion as Jacksonville held on to beat Baltimore.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Joe Burrow threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins with 13:42 left and Cincinnati held off Tennessee for its third straight victory and fifth in six games.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Mike White threw three touchdown passes, including two to Garrett Wilson, as New York rolled over banged-up Chicago.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Tua Tagovailoa threw for 299 yards as Miami built a 30-0 lead over Houston and held on for its fifth straight win.
LANDOVER, Md. — Taylor Heinicke threw two touchdown passes in a run-heavy game in the rain, Kendall Fuller intercepted Marcus Mariota in the end zone with 58 seconds left and Washington beat Atlanta for its sixth win in seven games.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sam Darnold threw for a touchdown and recovered his own fumble for another score in his first game of the season, helping Carolina beat Denver. | 2022-11-27T23:22:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Chubb's run in OT gives Browns 23-17 win over Brady, Bucs - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/chubbs-run-in-ot-gives-browns-23-17-win-over-brady-bucs/2022/11/27/4c66cef4-6ea4-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/chubbs-run-in-ot-gives-browns-23-17-win-over-brady-bucs/2022/11/27/4c66cef4-6ea4-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
Odell Beckham Jr. taken off plane by Miami police
“Never in my life have I experienced what just happened to me,” Odell Beckham Jr. tweeted shortly after being taken off a plane set to depart from Miami. (AP Photo/Alex Menendez, File)
Veteran wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was removed from a flight out of Miami on Sunday morning after police were called to the airport.
A statement from the Miami-Dade Police Department said officers were dispatched to a “medical emergency” at Miami International Airport. Beckham, who is a free agent, appeared to be “coming in and out of consciousness” while flight attendants tried to wake him to fasten his seat belt before departure, police said.
“Fearing that Mr. Beckham was seriously ill, and that his condition would worsen through the expected 5 hour flight, the attendants called for police and fire rescue,” police said in a statement. “Upon the officers’ arrival, the flight crew asked Mr. Beckham several times to exit the aircraft, which he refused. The aircraft was deplaned, at which time Mr. Beckham was asked by the officers to exit the plane, and did so without incident.”
Police added that Beckham, 30, was escorted to an area of the terminal “where he made other arrangements.” There was no indication Beckham was cited for the incident.
NFL Sunday takeaways: QB switch sparks Jets, Jaguars’ gamble pays off
In response to a request for comment, American Airlines stated one of its planes “returned to the gate before takeoff due to a customer failing to follow crew member instructions and refusing to fasten their seatbelt.” The customer, not specifically identified by the airline, was said to have been removed, after which the flight departed approximately two hours later than scheduled.
After the incident, Beckham shared several comments on Twitter, including: “Never in my life have I experienced what just happened to me … I’ve seen it alll.”
Beckham added “comedy hr.” in another tweet, with a crying-with-laughter emoji.
Beckham was last seen on a football field helping the Los Angeles Rams win the Super Bowl in February. He tore an ACL during that game and only recently received medical clearance, per reports, to engage in football activities.
Having signed a one-year contract with the Rams in the middle of last season, after he was released by the Cleveland Browns and cleared waivers, Beckham has not been on an NFL roster thus far this season.
A report Sunday morning by NFL.com cited sources in saying Beckham was set to begin meeting with teams about joining them this season, starting this week with the New York Giants, who drafted him in 2014 before trading the former LSU star to the Browns in 2019. The website also reported Beckham planned on meeting with the Dallas Cowboys in early December and will visit the Buffalo Bills.
Beckham’s best years came with the Giants, for whom he burst on the scene and was selected to the Pro Bowl in each of his first three seasons, setting league receiving records for early career production along the way. His meteoric rise was slowed, however, by a season-ending fractured ankle in 2017, and a quad injury limited him to 12 games the following season, after which he was dealt to Cleveland amid signs that New York’s front office was unhappy with some of Beckham’s off-field behavior.
Still one of the NFL’s most high-profile stars, Beckham never seemed to fit in with the Browns, but he had a resurgence in Los Angeles, where he still maintains a residence. The flight from which Beckham was removed Sunday was headed to Los Angeles and eventually arrived at its destination, approximately two hours after originally planned (per FlightAware). | 2022-11-27T23:37:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Odell Beckham Jr. taken off plane by Miami police - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/odell-beckham-jr-miami-plane/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/odell-beckham-jr-miami-plane/ |
Small plane crashes into power lines in Montgomery, officials say
A small plane crashed into power lines Sunday evening in upper Montgomery County, trapping the pilot and a passenger, the fire department said. About 80,000 homes and businesses were reported without power.
It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured in the crash, which occurred near Rothbury Drive and Goshen Road, according to Pete Piringer, the spokesman for the county fire and rescue service. The site is north of Montgomery Village, and close to a commercial area.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. There is an airstrip for small aircraft in upper Montgomery, and it was unclear whether the plane was on an approach or takeoff. Rainy weather may have lowered operational ceilings.
Photographs of the site show the presence of transmission lines and the number of outages indicated that the transmission lines were involved.
The website Power Outage US. indicated that about 25 percent of homes and businesses in the county had lost electricity, at least temporarily.
One estimate indicated that the plane may have hit lines as high as 10 stories up. That could not be immediately confirmed. | 2022-11-27T23:41:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Plane crashes into power lines in Montgomery County, Md. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/27/plane-crash-power-lines-montgomery/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/27/plane-crash-power-lines-montgomery/ |
Maricopa County says printer glitches didn’t prevent anyone from voting
A report to the Arizona attorney general’s office blames Republicans for stoking doubts about a secure alternative available to voters
Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, on Nov. 14. (Caitlin O'Hara for The Washington Post)
PHOENIX — Maricopa County, facing a storm of GOP criticism over its handling of the Nov. 8 election, said in a report issued Sunday that problems with printers that surfaced on Election Day did not violate the Arizona Constitution or other guidelines intended to ensure free and fair elections. The county instead blamed prominent Republicans for making their own supporters suspicious of a secure alternative allowing voters who encountered mechanical issues to cast ballots.
The report comes in response to a request from the Arizona attorney general’s office election integrity unit for an account of the Election Day problems before the county is set to certify its results on Monday. State certification is set for Dec. 5.
Tom Liddy, head of Maricopa County’s civil division and a lifelong Republican, wrote in a five-page letter accompanying the report that “all voters were still provided reasonable, lawful options for voting.” But some Republican voters might have spurned one option — a secure box known as “Door 3” — because GOP leaders, including the state party chair, told voters not to use it, according to the report.
The county’s response aims to undercut claims circulated in recent weeks by Republican candidates in Arizona who have refused to accept the results of the election, in contrast to unsuccessful GOP contestants in other states. The posture of these GOP candidates has made Arizona something of a final frontier for the false claims of systematic election fraud popularized by former president Donald Trump after his 2020 loss.
Much of the in-state battle is pitting Republican officials against other Republicans who are questioning the results. The county’s election board is controlled by Republicans and is led by Bill Gates, a Republican.
Kari Lake, the GOP nominee for governor who was projected nearly two weeks to lose her race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, has refused to concede, pointing to the problems in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and more than half the state’s voters. Mark Finchem, the GOP candidate for secretary of state who lost by more than 100,000 votes, has said the issues justify a “new election.”
The mechanical glitches also feature prominently in a lawsuit filed last week by the GOP candidate for attorney general, Abe Hamadeh, who trailed his Democratic opponent by just 510 votes in the final tally and whose contest was headed to an automatic recount.
Hamadeh has asked an Arizona judge to order various county officials to correct procedural and tabulation errors that he claims they made. He also asserts that the final vote count will make him the winner. His Democratic opponent, Kris Mayes, over the weekend asked the judge to toss the lawsuit, which she described as a “fishing expedition to try to undermine Arizona’s election.”
Further afield, GOP activists have used the problems to argue that officials in Maricopa County, which was also targeted by Trump following his defeat in 2020, should be thrown out of their jobs.
The bulk of the issues arose on Election Day after printers at least 43 of Maricopa County’s 223 polling sites produced ballots with ink that was too light to be read by vote-counting machines, the report states. The problems began 20 to 30 minutes after polling locations opened at 6 a.m. and went on for hours as technicians searched for a solution.
Around 11:30 a.m., about five-and-a-half hours into voting, the county issued guidance to make changes to machines that print ballots at voting locations. Settings were ultimately changed at 71 voting locations.
The faulty ink forced voters to wait in line, travel to another location or deposit their ballots in the secure so-called “Door 3” boxes that were transferred to downtown Phoenix and counted there. An Arizona judge denied an emergency request from Republicans to extend voting hours on Election Day, finding that no one was prevented from casting a ballot.
According to an analysis by The Washington Post earlier this month, the voting locations that experienced problems on Election Day in Maricopa County do not skew overwhelmingly Republican.
The county’s report indicates that a “root cause analysis” of the problems remains ongoing. But the report maintains that all printers used on Nov. 8 “had updated firmware, were installed with uniform settings, and used the same settings that were used in prior elections,” including during the primary in August.
The report notes that the problems affected a tiny fraction of voters, none of whom were disenfranchised because they were still able to deposit their ballots in the secure boxes, which have been used for decades. Ballots deposited in “Door 3” boxes accounted for 1 percent of total ballots issued to voters in the midterm elections, according to the county report.
Liddy writes that numerous counties in the state rely entirely on such a system, in which ballots are tabulated not at individual polling places but at a centralized site.
“It cannot be the case that the limited use of the Door 3 ballot box for some voters in Maricopa County violates the Constitution, while the required use of a ballot box by every voter in over half of the state’s counties does not,” he argues.
The county’s report blames influential Republicans for sowing doubt about the secure boxes, which it describes as a “legal, secure, and reliable voting option.”
Examples appended to the report include warnings not to use the boxes from Kelli Ward, chair of the Arizona Republican Party; Charlie Kirk, head of pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA; and Tyler Bowyer, chief operating officer of Turning Point’s political arm, Turning Point Action.
“DO NOT PUT YOUR BALLOT IN ‘BOX 3’ OR ‘DRAWER 3,’” Ward wrote early in the morning on Nov. 8. Kirk warned that such ballots would not be tabulated on Election Day, telling his 1.8 million Twitter followers, “DO NOT PUT YOUR BALLOT IN BOX 3 TO BE ‘TABULATED DOWNTOWN.’”
A spokesperson for Ward did not immediately respond for comment.
Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for Kirk, said there was confusion on Election Day. “Instead of owning their mistakes, they’re now trying to pass blame onto other people who were doing their best to bring clarity in a morning unnecessarily full of chaos and confusion,” Kolvet said.
Bowyer, through a spokesperson, accused county officials of shirking responsibility for the Election Day problems. Arizona voters, he said, “should not have been forced to drop their ballots into Box 3 in large numbers.”
County officials also examined the scope of ballots cast by voters who had checked into one polling location through an electronic device but then went to another location to vote — perhaps after encountering the mechanical glitches. Those who are now questioning the results have raised concerns about whether the number of check-ins matches the number of votes cast — a possible discrepancy raised in last weekend’s letter from the attorney general’s office.
The check-in and check-out processes were covered during poll worker training and in written guidelines provided to election workers, the county report states. All told, there were 206 voters who had checked in at one location and then voted at a second location. Of those, 84 had properly checked out of the first voting location and checked in at the second location, and were issued standard ballots.
The remaining 122 voters did not check out at their first location and were given a provisional ballot when they arrived at a second voting center.
Elections officials determined the provisional ballots should count for 109 of the 122 voters, given the printer issues traced to the first locations. Ballots for 11 voters were not counted because elections officials could not verify that a printing issue took place at the voters’ first location, or there was a discrepancy between the number of voter check-ins and the number of ballots counted at the first location. Ballots for two voters were not counted because they were not properly put into envelopes and dropped into the on-site ballot box.
Monday is the deadline for the county boards to canvass the results. In her capacity as secretary of state, Hobbs has indicated her office is prepared to go to court if county governing boards do not fulfill their legal obligations on certification.
State officials, in turn, are scheduled to certify the results on Dec. 5. A spokesperson for Gov. Doug Ducey (R) told The Post last week the governor “will do his job” when it comes to certifying the results. “He certified the election results in 2020 and he has every intention of doing so this year,” the spokesperson said.
Representatives for Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who demanded the Maricopa County response, did not respond to The Post’s inquiry last week about how he intends to approach his role as a witness in certifying the results. | 2022-11-28T00:29:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maricopa County report says printer glitches did not prevent anyone from voting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/27/maricopa-county-elections-printer-toner/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/27/maricopa-county-elections-printer-toner/ |
Melvin C. High broke barriers in policing over 53 years. He died weeks before retiring.
High was assistant chief in D.C. and chief in Norfolk, Va., and Prince George’s County before serving as sheriff for 12 years.
Prince George's County Police Chief Melvin C. High died on Nov. 17 at 78, just short of the end of his term in the job. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
The year was 1969 and Melvin C. High, in his mid-20s and new to the nation’s capital, was about to make two choices that would define his life.
He became a police officer. He went on a blind date.
The date was with Brenda, a college student studying to be a teacher. At first, she wasn’t sold on the newly-sworn D.C. police officer, but with time she came to see the qualities that would make her — and eventually their wider community — fall in love. He was humble, he was sharp, he was steadfast.
Within months, they were married.
“There was no magic formula or potion,” Brenda High said. “We just liked each other and cared about each other.”
It was the launch of a lifetime together, one that would bring them a family and give Brenda a front-row seat to High’s boundary-breaking 53-year career in law enforcement.
Together, they were looking forward to High’s retirement as sheriff of Prince George’s County next month, the beginning of a quieter life after decades in public service. But just weeks before his final day in office, High fell ill from a blood infection.
On Nov. 17, at age 78, the sheriff died, Brenda and their daughter by his side.
The region’s law enforcement community has mobilized in his memory, assuming his duties at the sheriff’s office and preparing a public homegoing service for Nov. 29 to honor a man who broke barriers in policing, rising to assistant chief at the D.C. police department and becoming the first Black police chief in Norfolk before moving to Prince George’s County, where he led the police department as chief and eventually served 12 years as the elected sheriff.
Along the way, he mentored police leaders across the country and influenced the careers of the region’s top law enforcement officials.
D.C. police chief Robert J. Contee III, who met High as an 18-year-old cadet doing grunt work for the command staff, called him an “icon in law enforcement.” Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz said High was long revered by Black officers as an original reformist who endured decades of pushback to make change.
“He was the consummate professional, a true servant leader,” said Darrin C. Palmer, now interim Prince George’s County sheriff, who worked with High for nearly 20 years. “He was in great control, even in the throes of chaos … He had the strength to not just direct, but to listen, and then make sound decisions from all that input.”
Palmer, who worked with High at the county police department before following him to the sheriff’s office, was sworn into the top job hours after High died. He’ll serve until mid-December, when sheriff-elect John D.B. Carr — another High mentee — enters office.
Palmer knew he’d have to set mourning for his friend aside to focus on managing the budget, the transition and his “responsibility to this agency in the way he would have wanted it done.”
“He didn’t really settle for second-best,” Palmer said.
Before fixing the sheriff’s badge to his chest, Palmer said he asked High’s family for their blessing.
High, they said, would have wanted nothing else.
‘Fatherly’ figure
Raised by a farmer and teacher in rural Mississippi, High grew up in a home built by his father. They didn’t have much, his daughter said, but their house was a loving one. High’s mother taught him through grade school, and in his midteens, he left for college.
High studied biology at Tennessee State University, borrowing used books and lab equipment. He dreamed of medical school, but his family couldn’t afford it, so he taught high school science for a year, his family said, before joining the Marine Corps and serving in Vietnam.
Then he moved to Washington, where his sisters lived.
When High joined the police department in 1969, he was one of the few Black officers at the agency, friends and family said. At the time, Black officers like him weren’t allowed to ride in a police cruiser, let alone drive one, so he had to walk his beat.
Over his 24 years with the department, High ascended, leading the security arrangements for former president Bill Clinton’s first inauguration and earning a master’s degree and implementing the District’s first community policing effort, according to his official biography. By the end of his tenure, he was second-in-command.
He was known as “hang 'em High” because of his high standards and stern, no-nonsense approach, colleagues said. But behind the scenes, Contee recalled, High was insightful and wise, a “fatherly type of figure.”
Soon after his retirement from the D.C. department, High became chief of police in Norfolk, where he stayed for 10 years. Again, he launched a community policing initiative, the first in the city’s history. Crime rates fell and trust improved — positioning him as the ideal candidate when, in 2003, the Prince George’s County Police Department was in need of new leadership.
The county, a suburb of nearly a million people outside Washington, had transitioned from majority White to majority Black and was known nationwide as a destination for Black professionals.
But for years, community outcry had been growing over a disproportionately White force and abuse of Black residents. The department’s dogs were mauling people, and a Washington Post investigation at the time found that, by one measure, Prince George’s police had killed more people between 1990 and 2000 than any major city or county police force in the nation.
The Justice Department intervened.
Federal authorities gave the department five years to change. As the new chief, High was responsible for rebuilding trust with residents and cultivating buy-in from the officers those residents distrusted.
By 2008, when High stepped down as chief, the agency had met its deadline, with 94 percent compliance.
“He was the right man for the job at the right time,” said Mark Spencer, who was deputy state’s attorney at the time and became the department’s first inspector general under High’s leadership.
The department rewrote the its general orders, the handbook for all policies and procedures; revised the police dog practices; overhauled the use-of-force policy; and created the county’s first iteration of an early-warning system designed to flag patterns of abuse, Spencer said.
When High stepped down as chief in 2008, he had led three departments over 40 years. But he was not yet satisfied. So in 2010, he launched a campaign for sheriff — his first elected job — and won in a landslide.
It was a credit, colleagues said, to the trust he’d built in the community.
In both jobs, he met constantly with residents — publicly, privately, with staff, alone. He asked questions and listened. And though he was resistant to anything resembling a boast or brag, those who knew him said, his team persuaded him to let them tell the public about both departments’ progress.
“He is about getting the work done,” Palmer said, “and letting the work speak for itself.”
‘He was dad’
At home, High’s family was largely oblivious to his awards and accolades. Though he worked long hours, often seven days a week, and had officers across the country seeking his counsel, High tried to keep work at work.
“At home, he was dad and he was Mel, and that’s who he was,” Tracy said.
But sometimes, the line between dad and police boss blurred.
Even in college, High gave his daughter a curfew of 11:30 p.m. because, he said, he had the data — and it showed that nothing good happened later than that.
Once, when she was an undergrad at Yale University, Tracy told her parents she wanted to live off campus. But High was skeptical, worried about the safety of her preferred apartment in New Haven, and insisted on making a call — to the city’s police chief. Thirty minutes later, High called Tracy back.
She would not be living off-campus, he informed her, then or anytime in the future.
“If I can lead departments of thousands of men and women, I certainly can keep you safe,” he told her.
“I knew it wasn’t a battle I could fight,” Tracy said.
She went on to get her law degree from Harvard Law School and make partner at a law firm in New York. She got married and had a son. Her father, Tracy said, was deeply committed to her education, feeling a duty to provide opportunity. It came, she believes, from the poverty he grew up with — a frugality that never left.
Despite the family’s protest, he still paid the bills by paper check. He wore old acid-washed jeans and the same coat for 20 years. It was only a few years ago that Brenda finally convinced him to trade in his flip phone.
By the time High was ready to retire, the grandfather’s weekly phone calls with 7-year-old Christian had become a staple of the family’s week, next to Sunday Mass and his morning routine with Brenda.
Every day, he would wake and pray, then get in an hour of cardio. Brenda would make him a smoothie, then he’d drink his coffee.
Before he walked out the door, they’d have the same exchange.
“Take care,” he would say.
“I’ll see you later,” she’d answer.
High was most satisfied when he was serving, his family said, which is why they had teased him every time he retired from one policing job — only to find another. But he had promised Brenda that his third term as sheriff would be his last.
When he fell ill last month, she checked him into the hospital, where he stayed for three weeks. As he healed from the infection and complications related to his heart, High was alert and optimistic, talking to Tracy every day on the phone. They were just weeks away from a new era, one with more travel and more relaxation, maybe a condo in New York City so they could be closer to Tracy and her family.
They had wanted to throw him a retirement party, a celebration of his long career, but he had refused.
All that fuss wasn’t his style.
‘Take care and have faith’
When he was elected sheriff in 2010, High’s team from the police department followed him, improving accountability, earning the agency top accreditation and launching the county’s annual Purple Light Nights program to raise awareness about domestic violence.
But over those 12 years, they also watched as tensions between the community and the police department escalated once more, culminating in 2020 with the fatal shooting of a man by a Prince George’s officer, the nationwide racial uprising over police brutality and a lawsuit filed by Black and Latino officers about internal racism on the county force.
Once again, there was a call for new leadership. Aziz, a reformer from Texas, was hired in as chief.
Prince George’s County’s new police chief will be Malik Aziz, a deputy chief from Dallas
Soon after his arrival, High invited Aziz to his office. He understood the challenges before Aziz — and shared the encouraging message that others had given him. Aziz, High said, was the right person at the right time for the job.
“He would say ‘Take care and have faith, everything is going to be okay,’ ” Aziz said.
When Aziz would ask residents to name the best era of policing in Prince George’s, they would always say the same thing: When Sheriff High was chief.
So when High announced that his career in policing would end in December, Aziz knew he wanted to honor his legacy. So the sheriff’s office and police department staffs devised a secret plan for this fall’s graduation ceremony of the police academy’s new recruitment class.
Sitting onstage before the officers he helped shape, High learned that a leadership award had been named for him.
The sheriff, ordinarily stoic, allowed himself to beam. | 2022-11-28T00:47:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Melvin High died at 78, weeks before retiring after 53 years in policing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/27/melvin-high-dies-policing-sheriff/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/27/melvin-high-dies-policing-sheriff/ |
With Falcons linebacker Mykal Walker on his back, Commanders running back Brian Robinson Jr. falls into the end zone for a touchdown. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
In the Washington Commanders locker room, Coach Ron Rivera said he had a game ball for the running back who’d just recorded his first 100-yard game in the NFL. Teammates whooped and hollered as Brian Robinson Jr. strode into the middle of the circle wearing an oversized black baseball cap with the team’s logo. Robinson doffed the cap and put his hand up, asking his teammates for a moment.
It had been 91 days since Robinson was shot twice in Northeast Washington.
“I’ve been wanting to say this in front of the team, but since everything happened back in August, man, I promise you — everybody in this room has shown unconditional love and support, man,” he said in a video the team posted on Twitter. “Just to help me get to this point for real, man, I couldn’t be more thankful for everybody in this room, man. Y’all was people I turned to the most after going through what I went through, man. Just to have this opportunity to do what I did today, I give all y’all the credit, man. Thank y’all.”
The locker room burst into applause for the rookie who, in a breakout performance, had led the Commanders’ offense to a 19-13 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Robinson totaled 18 carries for 105 yards, adding two catches for 20 yards and a touchdown, and his ability to succeed despite Atlanta’s heavy boxes and five-man fronts highlighted the value of the role Washington needed him to fill when it drafted him in the third round out of Alabama this spring.
“His performance was outstanding,” Coach Ron Rivera said.
Third-string running back Jonathan Williams, who went to Arkansas, said every running back from the Southeastern Conference prides himself on having a tough, hard-nosed style. But he admitted Robinson had a few carries so physical Sunday that even he had to say, “Oh my gosh.”
One of them was early in the fourth quarter, when Robinson ran through an arm tackle, juked a corner, bowled over a safety and dragged two would-be tacklers for a first down.
“I’m not sure what his birthday is, but that day, God gave him a lot of strength — and some size,” Williams said. “It’s genetics.”
In the first half, offensive coordinator Scott Turner stuck to the formula he’s often used with Robinson this season. He gave him the ball on first down and second and medium. Each time, Robinson was decisive, bursting into a heavy front and grinding out four to six yards. He was a human snowplow, keeping the roads clear for the offense to stay on schedule.
Late in the first quarter, Atlanta seemed to be keying on Robinson, so Turner switched it up. He got the offense into a classic run look — tight formations, two tight ends, receiver Cam Sims — but instead called a pass. Robinson leaked out right to the flat. Quarterback Taylor Heinicke hit him in stride.
Robinson ran over corner Darren Hall, powered through linebacker Mykal Walker and extended his arm for the first receiving touchdown of his career.
“It’s you versus a defensive back,” Robinson said. “You’ve got to win at least 80, 90 percent of the time. So I pulled the trigger, and it worked out well.”
#Commanders rookie RB Brian Robinson with the first receiving touchdown of his career.pic.twitter.com/tlRICLpMwi
In the second half, perhaps sensing the run-heavy approach was wearing on the Falcons front, Turner leaned on Robinson even more. Washington’s first possession came down to a third and one, and Turner went into a tight formation again, suggesting a run up the middle. Instead, Robinson took the ball on a stretch run left and used two excellent receiver blocks to get outside for a 21-yard gain.
“I wish he was a little bit faster,” receiver Dyami Brown, one of the blockers, joked. “I'm going to take him to speed training in the offseason, so he can go score [next time].”
On the next drive, Turner started with a Robinson run (five yards). Then another (six) and another (seven) and another (two). In all, Turner called nine runs in 11 plays — six for Robinson — and Heinicke threw a touchdown to tight end John Bates for a lead the team never relinquished. Robinson had gone from snowplow to pace car.
In the locker room afterward, after Robinson’s speech, teammates gushed about the rookie. The running backs, Williams and Antonio Gibson, said he was nowhere near his ceiling. Everyone else applauded his resilience and character.
“Man, it was heartwarming,” defensive end Montez Sweat said of the speech. “With all he’s been through, you just want him to have success — and to be a part of that, it just makes it feel so much better.”
“I was so happy and proud of him with what he's gone through and just the type of person he is,” left tackle Charles Leno Jr. said. “He's an amazing person, an amazing human being, and I love everything about him.”
Commanders activate Brian Robinson Jr., setting up remarkable comeback
After a whirlwind of interviews, Robinson was back at his locker, wearing his big hat backward. He said he was trying to help promote his friend’s big-hat business. The silly moment after a win seemed so fitting for a team and player that have, improbably, emerged from a storm and found real success.
“If you want a big hat, let me know,” Robinson said, grinning. | 2022-11-28T00:51:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Commanders RB Brian Robinson Jr. racks up big yards and wears a big hat - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/brian-robinson-commanders-hat/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/brian-robinson-commanders-hat/ |
Commanders cornerback Kendall Fuller intercepts a pass in the end zone late in the fourth quarter against the Falcons, ultimately sealing Washington's win. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
Within winning football, there are winning plays. The version of the game the Washington Commanders are brandishing at the moment might be at times unsightly and is likely unsustainable. But right now, who cares?
The Commanders head into December with both a winning record and palpable momentum, both of which are rare at FedEx Field. Style points are irrelevant because the Commanders have what they so often lack: an identity.
The identity is this: Daron Payne, with the clock ticking down and a lead in peril, reading Atlanta Falcons quarterback Marcus Mariota perfectly on second and goal from the 4. Payne thought Mariota would run. Instead, Mariota set his feet for a quick pass. Payne was ready for either.
“I just got my hands up,” he said.
One of those big mitts tipped the ball in the air. In the end zone, cornerback Kendall Fuller saw Mariota’s target, the dangerous Cordarrelle Patterson, tangling with Washington safety Darrick Forrest.
“I was just trying to box out the receiver,” Forrest said.
“I was just hoping ‘D-Fo’ didn’t hit me and knock the ball out,” Fuller said. “But I was just thinking [about] getting my hands under the ball, getting my elbows tight and trying to make a play on the ball.”
That’s a winning play by winning players on a team that has now won six of seven. The latest was Sunday’s tenuous 19-13 victory over the Falcons, another down-to-the-final-seconds decision that required antacids. This is fun. It’s also fragile.
“You can look at the last play of the game by the defense,” offensive tackle Charles Leno Jr. said. “That ball, who knows what would’ve happened? Daron made sure that when it was a quick pass, he got his hands up. Once you get your hands up, anything can happen. Tipped ball, get an interception. We just got to find ways to win.”
Which is what the Commanders are doing. Their margins of victory over this run that has lifted them from the misery of a 1-4 start: five, two, one, 11 (when they scored a fluke defensive touchdown on the final play of the game against the Eagles), 13 (against the lowly Texans) and now six — when the opponent had first and goal from inside the 5 with just over a minute to go.
Fragile might describe the entire NFL. But with an offense that is limited at the sport’s most important position, it has become abundantly clear over the past six weeks how this team must get it done.
It has to run the ball. It has to play disruptive defense. And it has to make a play or two in the final minute to seal things.
That might be a fragile formula. It’s also real, and it’s working.
“We did some things to win it,” Coach Ron Rivera said. “But we also survived it.”
That’s how this group must play — as though it must claw to survive. That’s not even a reference to Rivera’s battle with cancer two seasons ago, though it came up among the players in the wake of the 100th victory of Rivera’s coaching career, playoffs included. It’s not a reference to rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr. overcoming the gunshot wounds he suffered in a preseason robbery attempt to post the first 100-yard game of his career, needing just 18 carries for 105 yards.
You can acknowledge this group’s limitations while simultaneously acknowledging there’s a togetherness about these players and coaches. Think about the increasing effectiveness of Robinson and the running game, which ground out 176 yards Sunday and has averaged 144 over the past seven weeks. That’s not just the rookie getting more comfortable. It’s the line gaining confidence, too.
“I’m doing the best I possibly can to help [Robinson] succeed,” Leno said. “Clearly, his job is based off of my job, our job as the offensive line. We’re trying to do the right thing.”
The same applies to the defense. Fuller’s game-winning interception doesn’t come without Payne tipping the pass. Payne’s tip doesn’t win the game unless Fuller secures the ball. After he emerged from the bottom of the pile — with FedEx Field truly rocking — Fuller approached Payne.
“He said, ‘I eat, you eat,’ ” Fuller said. “It always goes hand in hand.”
So together, they’re eating. Not at a white-tablecloth-and-candlelight five-star bistro. Their hands are greasy. The napkins are paper. That’s fine.
“Football isn’t a game of perfect,” Fuller said. “You’re going to give up plays. But you protect every yard.”
Protecting those final four yards Sunday — and, keep in mind, the Falcons had first and goal from the 2 before Montez Sweat hauled down Mariota on Atlanta’s first attempt — got them another win. And another win puts them in rare position for this franchise, which consistently and constantly plays from behind.
These Commanders are 7-5 as November comes to an end. Two of the three Washington teams in the past 15 years to head into December above .500 played under Jay Gruden; there was a 6-4-1 start en route to an 8-7-1 finish in 2016 and a 6-5 start that ended up 7-9 in 2018. The last Washington team to have seven wins before December: the 2008 squad, when Jim Zorn’s first team was 7-5. That group was trending downward after a 6-2 start.
This one, somehow, is going the other way. Increasingly, it’s because these Commanders know who they are, what they can and can’t do.
“They’ve gotten to where they are right now … because they believe in what they can do,” Rivera said. “There’s a lot of negativity that we’ve tried to get past and tried to work past, and [we] just constantly try to tell these guys what they can do.”
He added: “They found a common bond and common thread, and that’s doing their job and being successful and winning. They understand: It feels good. They know they’re more than capable.”
Are they capable of more? At the moment, it’s all in front of them. Win at the New York Giants next weekend, and they pull ahead of them in the NFC East. Take the bye to regroup, then face the Giants again.
Who knows? Don’t count up the wins yet. That lessens the fun. For now, go with Fuller’s reminder Sunday afternoon, the whole “football isn’t a game of perfect” bit.
It’s not, so don’t seek it here. The Commanders are far from a perfect group. But they know who they are, and right now that’s a team that has a chance to win every single week. | 2022-11-28T00:51:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | These Commanders know who they are, and that’s no small feat - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/commanders-identity-winning-falcons/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/commanders-identity-winning-falcons/ |
Wisconsin hires coveted coach Luke Fickell away from Cincinnati
Following a 4-8 start at Cincinnati, Luke Fickell went 53-10 over the past five seasons. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Wisconsin announced Sunday it hired Luke Fickell away from Cincinnati to be the Badgers’ new football coach.
While guiding the Bearcats to unprecedented heights over six seasons, the 49-year-old Fickell had become a coveted target for Power Five programs in need of a coach. In Madison, he replaces former Badgers coach Paul Chryst, who was fired last month after Wisconsin got off to a 2-3 start.
Jim Leonhard took over as interim coach of the Badgers and has gone 4-3 in that role, leading to some calls for the former Wisconsin safety to keep the job on a permanent basis. However, Athletic Director Chris McIntosh managed to land a name that should more than satisfy most supporters of the program, given Fickell’s success and Midwestern roots.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, who played at Ohio State and served as interim coach of the Buckeyes for one year after Jim Tressel resigned in 2011, Fickell on Sunday described his new position as “a destination job at a program that I have admired from afar for years.”
“My family and I are thrilled to join the Wisconsin family. … There is a tremendous foundation here that I can’t wait to build upon,” he said in a statement. “This world-class university, athletic department and passionately loyal fan base all have a strong commitment to success and I can’t wait to be a part of it.”
“Luke is one of the top football coaches in the country,” McIntosh said in a statement. “He is a proven winner, recruiter and developer of players.”
Hired by Cincinnati in December 2016, after staying with the Buckeyes as an assistant to Urban Meyer, Fickell took over a program that had just gone 4-8 and produced the same record in his first season. From 2018 through this season, though, he went 53-10, including a 13-1 campaign last season that saw the Bearcats reach No. 2 in the Associated Press Poll, their highest-ever ranking, and become the first Group of Five team to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.
That showing earned Fickell a number of coach of the year awards, as well as a two-year contract extension from Cincinnati with a raise to $5 million per year. His salary terms with Wisconsin were not immediately disclosed. Matt Rhule, the former Carolina Panthers coach hired Saturday by Nebraska, is set to make $9 million annually over eight years, according to NFL Network.
Fickell’s prowess in recruiting and player development was on display at this year’s NFL draft, where Cincinnati had nine players go off the board, including cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner at No. 4 overall and four additional players in the first 100 picks. The overall total was the third-most of any program, behind only national champion Georgia (15) and fellow SEC power LSU (10). Of the five players drafted out of Wisconsin this year, none were selected in the top 100.
At 6-6, Wisconsin is eligible for a bowl, and a loss in a postseason game could give the Badgers their first losing season since 2001. Cincinnati, placed 24th in the most recent CFP rankings, is 9-3 following a loss Friday to No. 19 Tulane. That result and a win by Central Florida on Saturday denied the Bearcats a berth in the American Conference Championship game.
Even before this season began, Fickell had been linked over the years to vacancies at programs such as West Virginia, Florida State, Baylor, Michigan State and Notre Dame.
“I am thrilled with our hire of Luke Fickell as the head football coach of the Badgers,” Wisconsin Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin said in a statement. “He is a transformative hire for our program.”
“I think it’s a home-run hire,” former Badgers coach and athletic director Barry Alvarez said Sunday (via madison.com).
“There’s a new era and I’m excited for it,” he added. “Our fans should be excited for it.” | 2022-11-28T02:23:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wisconsin hires Luke Fickell away from Cincinnati - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/wisconsin-luke-fickell/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/wisconsin-luke-fickell/ |
Celtics guard Jaylen Brown drives to the basket against Wizards defenders Monte Morris, Corey Kispert, Kristaps Porzingis and Deni Avdija during the first half Sunday. (Mary Schwalm/AP)
BOSTON — Wes Unseld Jr. had his concerns before the game, and that was knowing the Boston Celtics would be without their best player. The Washington Wizards’ coach anticipated a barrage of three-pointers from the team with the league’s top record, one that also ranked second in three-point percentage.
The absence of Jayson Tatum to rest a sprained ankle would affect the Celtics’ biggest strength, it seemed, but Unseld warned against such thinking 90 minutes before the game. When it began, he was absolutely right.
Boston made 11 3-pointers in the first half as it built a 17-point halftime lead and cruised to a 130-121 victory Sunday night. The loss was the third in a row for Washington. The Wizards (10-10) return home to host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday after all three losses came away from Capital One Arena.
Both teams were efficient in the first half, but the Wizards essentially traded twos for threes. Eight of the nine Celtics who played in the first half made a three-pointer before halftime as they shot 47.8 percent from behind the arc. The Wizards shot 51.2 percent from the field before halftime but just 27.8 percent on three-pointers.
A 14-3 stretch midway through the first quarter gave the Celtics a nine-point lead that was pushed to 14 in the second quarter on Jaylen Brown’s first three-pointer. Serving as the Celtics’ No. 1 option, Brown finished with a season-high 36 points. Boston (16-4) led 72-55 at halftime, and the Wizards never made a run in the second half.
Bradley Beal led Washington with 30 points and added five rebounds and four assists. Kristaps Porzingis had 21 points.
The Celtics’ Malcolm Brogdon poured in 17 points off the bench to go with six rebounds and four assists. Marcus Smart had 14 points, seven assists and four rebounds as seven Celtics scored in double figures.
The Wizards were without Kyle Kuzma (back), Rui Hachimura (ankle) and Johnny Davis (groin) but got Monte Morris (ankle) back. Morris returned after missing three games; he started Sunday night and finished with 16 points and eight assists.
The DNP was the first of the season for Kuzma, who had started all 19 games and was tied with Porzingis as the team’s second-highest scorer at 20.3 points.
“I wouldn’t say it was an injury,” Unseld said. “He’s played a lot of minutes. He was complaining of a sore back into yesterday evening, got some treatment this morning. ... Got treated again after the ballroom walk-through.”
Boston was without three-time all-star Tatum, who got a rest day. He was listed as questionable Wednesday but played that night and Friday before interim coach Joe Mazzulla held him out Sunday. Tatum is averaging 30.5 points.
“We'll collaborate together on what we think is important for him and our team in the short term and long term,” Mazzulla said.
Grant Williams got the start in Tatum’s place and scored five points.
Rotation tweaks
Taj Gibson played his second-most minutes of the season with 12 off the bench, which cut into Daniel Gafford’s time on the floor. Gibson finished with 12 points; Gafford had four points and three rebounds in six minutes.
Guard Devon Dotson made his first appearance of the season and went scoreless with four rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes. | 2022-11-28T02:23:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wizards' losing streak hits three as Celtics cruise to victory - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/wizards-celtics-jaylen-brown/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/wizards-celtics-jaylen-brown/ |
Raiders’ Josh Jacobs wins game, rewrites record book with epic OT run
Josh Jacobs's 86-yard run gave a lift to Mack Hollins (10) and other Raiders teammates. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
With an epic overtime gallop Sunday, Josh Jacobs didn’t just deliver his Las Vegas Raiders a stunning road win. He also ran himself into the history books.
The Raiders and host Seattle Seahawks were tied at 34 in the extra session when Jacobs took a handoff, found a hole on the right side and broke loose for an 86-yard touchdown that gave Las Vegas a 40-34 victory. It brought his rushing total for the game to 229 rushing yards, to go with 74 receiving yards.
Jacobs became the first NFL player since at least 1950 with over 225 yards on the ground and over 70 through the air in a game (per NFL Research). He also set a Raiders single-game record for rushing yards, breaking a mark of 227 set by Napoleon Kaufman in 1997.
“It was really cool to see that,” Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr said of the performance by Jacobs, a fourth-year player who was a first-round pick by the Raiders in 2019.
“Josh was really terrific today,” Seattle Coach Pete Carroll said. “He had a great game, and we didn’t tackle as well as we needed to and we didn’t scheme as well as we needed to.”
Making Jacobs’s day all the more impressive was the fact that he had picked up a calf injury during a midweek practice that caused the Raiders to list him as questionable for the game. Rather than sit out the contest, though, he played a workhorse role with a career-high 33 carries, plus six receptions.
“It’s kind of crazy, coming in and not knowing if I was going to play, looking the guys in the eyes and telling them they’re going to get everything they’ve got in me,” Jacobs said after the game.
By piling up 303 yards from scrimmage, Jacobs became just the 11th NFL player to hit the 300 mark in that category in a game. Having already scored a 30-yard touchdown in the second quarter, his overtime end zone visit made him the fourth player in the Super Bowl era with 300 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns in the same game (per ESPN).
“He’s hard to bring down. He’s a tough runner with good balance. You’ve really got to wrap him up,” Seattle defensive tackle Shelby Harris said of Jacobs. “He’s not one of those backs that gets touched and falls. He makes his money off of breaking tackles and getting those extra yards.”
Before Sunday, Jacobs had never recorded a touchdown run of more than 28 yards. He went over that mark twice in Seattle, most emphatically with his game-winning jaunt.
Unfortunately for most viewers outside of the CBS markets already showing the game, per a flood of complaints on social media, they did not see the overtime play live. The NFL’s RedZone channel stopped its coverage before Jacobs scored his touchdown, and many who switched to their CBS affiliate in hopes of catching the end of the game instead were treated to the latest episode of “60 Minutes.”
RedZone host Scott Hanson subsequently apologized online for having mistakenly encouraged his audience to watch the conclusion of Raiders-Seahawks on CBS.
Writing on Twitter that he “found out *after the show* that CBS was not carrying” the game nationally, Hanson said: “Please believe me, I would never intentionally mislead you, our loyal viewers. There is no one on earth (that I know of) who wants to show you more football than I do. However: I am an employee — not the boss. I have orders just like many of you do at your jobs.”
When he wasn’t handing the ball to Jacobs, Carr was posting some impressive numbers of his own. He completed 25 of 36 passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns, albeit with two interceptions. The Raiders’ team total of 576 net yards was the fourth most in franchise history (per the Associated Press).
Jacobs’s eye-popping day brought his season rushing total to a league-best 1,159 yards. The only Raider to win an NFL single-season rushing title was Marcus Allen in 1985. | 2022-11-28T04:21:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Raiders’ Josh Jacobs rewrites record book with epic touchdown run - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/josh-jacobs-raiders-seahawks-record-touchdown/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/josh-jacobs-raiders-seahawks-record-touchdown/ |
Aaron Rodgers leaves Packers’ game in Philadelphia with oblique injury
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers exited during the second half of Sunday night's game in Philadelphia. (Chris Szagola/AP)
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers exited the Green Bay Packers’ game Sunday night at Philadelphia because of what the team called an injury to an oblique muscle on his right side.
The four-time league MVP was playing with a broken right thumb, and he and the Packers have been suffering through a mostly miserable season.
Backup Jordan Love, a 2020 first-round pick, took over in the fourth quarter with the Packers trailing the Eagles 37-23. The Packers were trying to avoid a loss that would drop them to 4-8. Love connected with Christian Watson for a 63-yard touchdown catch on his first possession.
Rodgers left the field and headed to the locker room after being examined on the sideline. He later was shown walking from the locker room without his jersey.
Rodgers turns 39 this week. He announced in March that he would return to the Packers for this season. He and the team shortly thereafter completed a three-year contract extension worth more than $150 million. He has won the NFL’s past two MVP awards.
Jordan Love enters the game at QB. #GBvsPHI pic.twitter.com/NAhrB8SYgO | 2022-11-28T04:34:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Aaron Rodgers leaves Packers' game vs. Eagles with oblique injury - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/aaron-rodgers-injury/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/27/aaron-rodgers-injury/ |
Should I just suck it up, avoid where I can and give my body a chance to outgrow the associations? Will it outgrow the associations? It feels as if there’s no way to say something that wouldn’t be hurtful.
— Vomitty
Vomitty: It’s not silly, not even kind of.
You feel physically ill, and you’re distancing yourself from a kind, sensitive person. These are both important!
If you had asked me back when the problem first arose, then I would have urged you to be honest with your MIL. It’s not personal, and it wasn’t “about her appearance”; it was about chemicals. That’s it. So that was the thing to have said.
Because the problem persists, that’s the thing to say to her now. “There is something in your hair spray and perfume that I’ve started reacting to. I’m hoping it’s just a postpartum thing that will go away, but in the meantime, I’m wondering if you’re willing to stop using them or try different ones?”
It will be awkward, yes, and she may do exactly as you expect and take personally what is plainly not personal (because that seems to be 50 to 99 percent of the world’s favorite side hustle), but besides being tactful, civil and kind, it’s not your job to calibrate your words to elicit a specific reaction. Your job is to give the people you care about enough information to stay close, and enough room to process the information as they see fit.
Plus, when someone repels you physically, it’s really, really hard to keep that out of your body language. The truth, no matter how insulting or awkward, is probably less insulting or awkward than whatever explanation her imagination has conjured up for your recoiling.
And, yes, pregnancy can change your tastes and sensitivities permanently, and “outgrowing” isn’t always an option.
· I used to like myriad scents and have, over time, become increasingly negatively affected by them. And there’s one ingredient in particular that will cause a migraine if I’m in proximity for an extended period — and I don’t know what it is, but I do know that the people who like Scent A will discontinue if I mention my problem, then move to Scent B, which also contains it, as does Scent C, etc. Ask for a cessation of scented products altogether when she’s at your home.
· You can also provide her some face-saving space. “During the pregnancy, I developed some chemical sensitivities that are lingering, and I am having to make adjustments and, sometimes, ask other people to help me.” | 2022-11-28T05:26:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Carolyn Hax: Telling mother-in-law her scented products make me sick - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/11/28/carolyn-hax-mother-in-law-fragrances/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/11/28/carolyn-hax-mother-in-law-fragrances/ |
Have you thought of something to say when your friend returns and says: “Thanks for taking care of Tinkerbell. I bet he’ll be glad to see me. Where is he? Tinkerbell! I’m back! Tinkerbell, where are you? TINKERBELL!!!”
Then Miss Manners suggests that you get busy putting up posters around the neighborhood. She will give you a day or two before confessing to your friend, on the grounds that you were hunting frantically, but after that, you must break the sad news.
Dear Miss Manners: My wife and I were invited for Thanksgiving dinner at a new friend’s home, along with three other couples. We were asked to bring a dish to pass.
Funny: The complaints that Miss Manners usually gets are from people whose leftovers were kept by the hosts. Or snatched by other guests.
Dear Miss Manners: My husband and I had a party to celebrate a big anniversary. We asked that people not bring gifts, but someone gave us a very nice bottle of whiskey, anyway.
The problem is that we don't drink, and neither do most of our friends.
Because it’s such a nice bottle, I hate to see it go to waste. I suggested we thank the person, explain the issue and give it back, so someone else could enjoy it.
Returning a present to the giver is unpleasant, so let’s try to find it a home. | 2022-11-28T05:26:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miss Manners: How do I tell my friend I lost his cat? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/11/28/miss-manners-friend-cat-missing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/11/28/miss-manners-friend-cat-missing/ |
Almost 170 members of the Nasdaq Composite Index have reverse split so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, 12 times as many as did a forward split like Tesla. More are sure to follow, but investors should be wary: It won’t improve the financial fundamentals of these fallen angels, and can exacerbate a downward spiral.
You might think a stock price is just a number, but it has symbolic and practical importance, especially in the US.
Investors may perceive a company with a very low stock price as low quality. In a rare move for a large company, humbled industrial conglomerate General Electric Co. did a reverse split last year to bring its crumpled share price back into line with peers.
Some brokerages don’t provide research or recommend buying penny stocks, and institutional investors and mutual funds are often either reluctant or prohibited from investing in them.
Most importantly, the main US exchanges require listed companies to maintain a minimum share price of one dollar or face delisting. This is best avoided because the shares would otherwise trade on less liquid over-the-counter markets, impairing the company’s ability to raise capital and provide equity incentives to employees.
Currently, almost 500 Nasdaq companies — around 13% of the total — sell for less than a buck, similar to the 2008 financial crisis and the dotcom bust.
Biotech firms are the worst affected but there’s also a preponderance of former special purpose acquisition companies, which isn’t surprising. By convention, SPACs go public at $10 a share and hence a 90% drop — regrettably all too common in SPAC-land — puts them at risk of being booted from the exchange. Electric-vehicle manufacturer Arrival SA, scooter company Bird Global Inc. and used-car retailer Cazoo Group Ltd. have all received non-compliance warnings from their exchanges.
Companies typically have a six-month grace period to remedy a too-low share price, and extensions are sometimes available. At times of extreme market stress such as in 2001, 2009 and 2020, exchanges have cut companies even more slack.
The problem can fix itself; companies with low stock prices become takeover targets, or their prospects improve thanks to cost-cutting or a strategic overhaul, or the stock market recovers.
But many of the firms currently languishing below $1 will have to copy NYSE-listed British digital healthcare company Babylon Holdings Ltd., which announced a reverse share split earlier this month to rectify the damage caused by what it describes as its “disastrous” 2021 SPAC listing.
Others are trying to get ahead of the problem. After its stock price fell below $1.50, London-based fintech Paysafe Ltd. wrote to shareholders last week outlining the case for a reverse split, saying it would help “attract, retain and motivate employees, some of whom may be less likely to work for us if we have a low share price.”
In theory a reverse split should have no impact on the market capitalization or the overall value of the shares an investor owns. After all, nothing fundamental has changed: prior to a 1-for-10 split an investor has 1000 shares each worth one dollar; afterwards they have 100 shares each worth $10.
Reverse split stocks sometimes work out fine. Removing the threat of delisting should be a relief, and investors may differentiate between companies whose shares have been caught up in broader market turbulence and those with flawed business model and weak financials. Booking Holdings Inc., the travel reservation company, has gained 7,700% (!) since a reverse split in 2003.
Alas, it’s common for the shares to continue falling, because management is effectively sending a signal they don’t expect the stock to recover by itself and have run out of ideas to fix the problem. A reverse split can also attract short-sellers and cause a further reduction in trading volumes and liquidity, because there aren’t as many shares outstanding.
Look at SPAC-listed Hippo Holdings Inc. which completed a 1-for-25 reverse split in September: the loss-making insurance tech company’s share price has since slumped by 20%, whereas the Nasdaq has risen slightly.
Many firms that reverse split aren’t viable in the long run and either get acquired, go bankrupt or fail to meet listing requirements. Stock prices are often low for good reason. Investors who ignore that signal do so at their peril.
• Stock Splits Are Good Now: Matt Levine
• Nasdaq 100 Peaked a Year Ago. It Was a Bubble: Jonathan Levin | 2022-11-28T06:58:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | SPACs Slap Some Lipstick on Their Penny-Stock Pigs - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/spacs-slap-some-lipstick-on-their-penny-stock-pigs/2022/11/28/028f2702-6ee2-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/spacs-slap-some-lipstick-on-their-penny-stock-pigs/2022/11/28/028f2702-6ee2-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
Acclaimed Pakistani film “Joyland,” depicting a hidden romance, has drawn sharp conservative criticism.
A cyclist rides past a promotional hoarding banner of Pakistan-produced movie "Joyland" displaying outside a cinema in Lahore on November 16, 2022. - The local screening of a Pakistan-produced movie portraying a love affair between a married man and a transgender woman hangs in the balance after the film was cleared by censors, then banned by the government under pressure from Islamists. (Arif ALI / AFP) (Arif Ali/AFP via Getty Images)
ISLAMABAD — For generations, they have been a familiar sight in Pakistan’s urban landscape — tall figures in alluring, gypsy-like costumes and makeup, selling flowers on street corners or reaching out manicured hands for a few rupees. They are often hired to perform dances at festivals, clubs and all-male parties.
But although transgender people, known in Urdu as “khwaja sira” or “third gender,” have inhabited this South Asian region since the era of Mogul dynasties and British colonial rule, they have remained at the margins of this conservative society, legally recognized and protected as a minority but subject to discrimination and sometimes physical attack.
Suddenly, however, they have been thrust into the center of Pakistan’s highly charged politics.
This month, a groundbreaking Pakistani film called “Joyland,” which sympathetically portrays a romantic relationship between an unhappy married man and a transgender woman, was submitted as Pakistan’s first-ever entry in the Academy Awards after winning a prize at the Cannes Film Festival and international attention for its young creator and director, Saim Sadiq.
Just as “Joyland” was scheduled for release in Pakistani cinemas, though, a bombshell dropped. Several influential religious groups demanded that the film be banned, charging that it promoted homosexuality and spread decadent foreign values. A senator from the highly orthodox Jamaat-e-Islami party denounced it as containing “objectionable material.”
The board of censors at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which had originally approved the film’s release, reversed its decision and banned it from being shown in many areas of the country, pending further review. The only theater in the capital that had advertised the film abruptly canceled all showings for a week.
At a rally earlier this month outside the Islamabad Press Club, about 100 members of Jamaat-e-Islami’s student movement chanted slogans against “foreign conspiracies.” Muhammad Arif, 22, told a reporter that such movies are made “with an aim to promote sin in our society. It is a conspiracy of foreign powers to weaken us morally.”
Khalis Saeed, 52, an engineer who had been shopping at a nearby market, came over and joined the protest, saying it was his duty as a Muslim. As a nation, he said, “we need a strong economy and defense, but we also need a strong moral character. Homosexuality is not permitted in Islam, and such films create unrest and weaken the values of Muslim youth.”
Leaders of Pakistan’s well-organized transgender community quickly shot back, holding rallies in several cities including Karachi, a sprawling seaside metropolis that is home to an estimated 20,000 transgender people. They noted that the ban on “Joyland” coincided with international celebrations of “Transgender Remembrance Day” — and with news of the mass shooting at a LGBT club in Colorado.
“We are real people, and we deserve to be treated like human beings, not just like someone you hire to dance in your living room or give money on the streets,” said Bindaya Rana, who heads an advocacy group in Karachi called the Gender Interactive Alliance. “Some people say we are bringing bad foreign influences into the society, but we have been here for a long time. They are just scared because we stand up for our rights.”
There are no sex scenes or kisses in “Joyland.” Performances of pulsing, sensual dances routines are shown, but even brief embraces are blurred, in keeping with Pakistan’s moral norms as well as government regulations. It is low-key and slow-paced, with none of the high-decibel shootouts, evil characters or passionate fantasies of popular Pakistani films.
But the film is disturbing in a more subtle and subversive way. Set in a drab, claustrophobic, family compound in Lahore, crammed with noisy children and nosy relatives, it is instantly recognizable to Pakistani audiences. Its main character, frustrated at work and home, exudes a familiar, quiet desperation. The soundtrack is melancholy and the lighting dim.
As the man is drawn closer to his new boss, a transgender dancer and stage manager, they share moments of confusion, guilt, sorrow and tenderness — mostly unspoken. When the film reaches its tragic denouement, there are no recriminations or fights, only a sense of sadness and impossible longing that challenges long-held stereotypes and taboos in Pakistani society.
“It’s not what audiences in Pakistan are used to seeing. They want entertainment and escape. This is a good film, but it is very … different,” said a college student named Moises, one of a handful of people who came to see “Joyland” last week in a near-empty theater in Rawalpindi city, the only one then offering it in the capital region.
But by Wednesday, officials had partially removed the ban, allowing the film to be shown in many areas of the country. When “Joyland” reopened in the upscale Centaurus shopping mall in the capital, the seats were packed and the audience response largely positive.
“It’s a lovely movie, so close to reality,” said Hamid Ilyas, 19, a student. “The world is changing, and a single movie can’t harm our society or separate us from our values.” In many Pakistani movies, he said, transgender people are mocked or insulted. “If this one projects their role in society a bit differently, what’s the harm?”
Transgender and human rights activists said it has taken years of effort and legal battles to win protections and social services, such as separate health facilities, access to public jobs and the right to marry. In 2012, the Supreme Court ordered the government to provide transgender people with full constitutional rights, and in 2018, Pakistan’s legislature approved a broader array of protections under the Transgender Persons Act.
But the most sensitive issues, especially the right of transgender people to marry and declare their sex, have remained unresolved. Many have retreated to the mystical culture of Sufi Muslim shrines and beliefs, asserting that their gender is a matter of spiritual conviction. But Muslim clerics and authorities here refuse to accept that argument.
“These people are creatures of God who should have due rights,” said Ayaz Qibla, the director of Pakistan’s Council on Religious Ideology, “but they cannot be allowed to declare a self-perceived option” that they are from one sex if they were born in the other. “They need to be examined by a doctor to make that determination before being issued any official identification.”
In an interview several weeks ago with a Pakistani newspaper, Sadiq said he had no concerns about his film causing controversy, describing it as “not sensational in any way.” While noting that transgender people are often ridiculed and impersonated for laughs in Pakistan, he added, “maybe it’s time for people to grow up” and accept a film that portrays one with “sensitivity” and respect.
“Instead of being a source of pride, “Joyland” is to be sacrificed at the altar of bigotry and hypocrisy,” the editors of Dawn newspaper charged, just before the ban was lifted. Rather than “kowtowing” to religious pressure groups, they said, Pakistani authorities should get “on the right side of history,” allowing the nation’s talents to flow and its citizens a rare chance to rejoice.
Haq Nawaz Khan contributed to this report. | 2022-11-28T07:24:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pakistani film "Joyland" wins Oscar attention, puts transgender community under spotlight - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/28/joyland-movie-pakistan-transgender/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/28/joyland-movie-pakistan-transgender/ |
Boston University squares off against UC Davis
UC Davis Aggies (5-2) vs. Boston University Terriers (4-3)
BOTTOM LINE: The UC Davis Aggies and the Boston University Terriers square off in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Terriers are 4-3 in non-conference play. Boston University has a 2-3 record in games decided by 10 points or more.
The Aggies are 5-2 in non-conference play. UC Davis is second in the Big West scoring 79.3 points per game and is shooting 48.7%.
TOP PERFORMERS: Walter Whyte is scoring 13.6 points per game and averaging 5.6 rebounds for the Terriers. Jonas Harper is averaging 10.0 points and 1.9 rebounds while shooting 40.0% for Boston University.
Elijah Pepper is shooting 43.2% from beyond the arc with 2.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Aggies, while averaging 21.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.5 steals. Ty Johnson is averaging 16 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.6 steals for UC Davis. | 2022-11-28T08:30:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Boston University squares off against UC Davis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/boston-university-squares-off-against-uc-davis/2022/11/28/b26a5d32-6ef0-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/boston-university-squares-off-against-uc-davis/2022/11/28/b26a5d32-6ef0-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
Michigan hosts No. 5 Virginia after Gardner's 26-point game
Virginia Cavaliers (5-0) at Michigan Wolverines (5-1)
Ann Arbor, Michigan; Tuesday, 9:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: No. 5 Virginia visits the Michigan Wolverines after Jayden Gardner scored 26 points in Virginia’s 72-45 victory over the Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks.
The Wolverines have gone 3-0 in home games. Michigan averages 77.3 points while outscoring opponents by 7.3 points per game.
The Cavaliers are 0-0 on the road. Virginia is ninth in the ACC with 24.0 defensive rebounds per game led by Ben Vander Plas averaging 4.2.
TOP PERFORMERS: Hunter Dickinson is scoring 18.5 points per game with 9.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists for the Wolverines. Jett Howard is averaging 15.2 points and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 50.0% for Michigan.
Armaan Franklin is averaging 13.8 points for the Cavaliers. Gardner is averaging 11.4 points for Virginia. | 2022-11-28T08:31:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Michigan hosts No. 5 Virginia after Gardner's 26-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/michigan-hosts-no-5-virginia-after-gardners-26-point-game/2022/11/28/7da19cd2-6ef0-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/michigan-hosts-no-5-virginia-after-gardners-26-point-game/2022/11/28/7da19cd2-6ef0-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
A Balenciaga store in Berlin last week. (Michael Kuenne/PressCov/Sipa USA/AP)
Balenciaga had apologized just hours earlier for its new holiday campaign featuring children holding bags shaped like teddy bears wearing bondage gear when another controversy erupted last week. That led the luxury fashion house to issue its second apology in a day after a Supreme Court decision on child pornography laws was spotted in an earlier ad.
A printout of the 2008 United States v. Williams decision, which ruled on the constitutionality of law prohibiting the pandering of child pornography, was photographed among papers scattered across a desk in an ad for a black-and-white purse that retails for over $3,000. Now, Balenciaga announced it will take legal action against the production company, North Six, and set designer, Nicholas Des Jardins, for its spring 2023 campaign.
The fashion house alleged that “inexplicable acts and omissions” made without Balenciaga’s knowledge were “malevolent or, at the very least, extraordinarily reckless,” according to court documents filed Friday in the New York State Supreme Court for the County of New York. The company says it will seek at least $25 million in damages for the resulting “false association” between Balenciaga and the “repulsive and deeply disturbing subject of the court decision.”
Des Jardins’s agent, Gabriela Moussaieff, told The Post that the legal papers used in the ad “were obtained from a prop house that were rental pieces used on film [and] photo shoots.”
The image, which appeared on Balenciaga’s website, was shot in July. It showcased the “Hourglass” handbag, a Balenciaga and Adidas mash-up featuring the sporting brand’s famous white stripes against black leather and a buckle shaped like the letter “B.” A printout of the Supreme Court decision spills out of a manila folder beneath the bag in the advertisement.
The ad became the second to be pulled by Balenciaga last week — a move the company announced in a statement that also apologized “for displaying unsettling documents in our campaign.”
“We strongly condemn abuse of children in any form,” the statement adds. It followed a separate statement in which the company apologized for the way children appeared in its holiday ads.
The fallout began earlier this month, when Balenciaga unveiled its “Toy Stories” holiday campaign, which was shot by National Geographic photographer Gabriele Galimberti. The images in that ad campaign resemble Galimberti’s previous work featuring children surrounded by their toys. In this case, however, the children were photographed near wine glasses and other trinkets, while holding plush bears with battered eyes that were dressed in fishnet tops and leather harnesses.
While Balenciaga also removed the teddy bear ads, a spokesperson for the fashion house told the Daily Mail that Galimberti’s shoot would not be the subject of a lawsuit.
“I was only and solely requested to [light] the given scene, and take the shots according to my signature style,” Galimberti wrote. “As usual for a commercial shooting, the direction of the campaign and the choice of the objects displayed are not in the hands of the photographer.”
Kanye West’s antisemitism cost him Adidas and most of his empire
Priscilla Gonzalez, 27, a Mexico-based stylist and fashion content creator, referred to Balenciaga’s “Toy Stories” campaign as “an attempt at ‘let’s give people something to talk about’ gone terribly wrong.”
The edgy fashion house has gained a reputation for being “almost an anti-fashion brand,” Gonzalez said, stretching the line of what’s cool with its collections inspired by “The Simpsons” and Crocs. Earlier this year, it debuted an $1,500 leather clutch made to look like a bag of Lay’s chips.
“But just how much can you challenge what’s cool?” Gonzalez said. “There’s a thin line between being creative and essentially using children as props or having them pose with inappropriate items.”
In the age of social media, backlash over the ads spread quickly. After Balenciaga apologized over the plush bear bags it said “should not have been featured with children,” eagle-eyed social media users “started looking at previous campaigns almost with a magnifying glass and ran into the spring 2023 ad with the child pornography case document,” Gonzalez said.
Balenciaga is now being scrutinized for both ad campaigns. Kim Kardashian, who frequently wears Balenciaga items and has appeared in several of its campaigns, said in a statement on Sunday that she’s “currently re-evaluating my relationship with the brand, basing it off their willingness to accept accountability for something that should have never happened to begin with” and “the actions I am expecting to see them take to protect children.”
“All of these decisions go through so many levels of approval and eyes,” she said. “So who approved this and where did everything go wrong? There really needs to be some accountability within Balenciaga.”
Gonzalez, who used to consider Balenciaga one of her favorite brands, said there’s a lesson for the fashion industry out of the back-to-back advertisement controversies: “Brands can’t get away with these massive mistakes anymore.”
“In this digital age where anything can go viral and anyone can investigate, consumers have a really big and loud voice,” she said. | 2022-11-28T10:01:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Balenciaga campaign ad scandal, explained - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/28/balenciaga-campaign-ad-scandal-lawsuit-porn/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/28/balenciaga-campaign-ad-scandal-lawsuit-porn/ |
Mike Tomlin is staring at his first losing season in 16 years with the Steelers
Faced with what looks increasingly like a rare rebuilding year in Pittsburgh, Mike Tomlin has stuck publicly to a focus on winning the next game. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)
The phrase most closely associated with Mike Tomlin is no mere bit of coach-speak and, as immortalized on a sign outside the Pittsburgh Steelers’ locker room, has come to encapsulate his entire approach.
In December 2020, Tomlin explained it means “our job is to win.”
“Maybe the formula looks a little bit different,” the Steelers coach added at the time. “Maybe the process is a little bit more uncomfortable, based on circumstances and so forth, but the bottom line: Football is our game, our business is winning, and our intentions are to handle business.”
At that time, the Steelers were well on their way to upholding a high standard of prolonged success with a 12-4 record, and last season they arguably embodied the phrase even more closely by finding a way to scrape together a 9-7-1 campaign and a playoff appearance despite having some major on-field issues. That 2021 season was the 15th straight under Tomlin in which the team finished .500 or better — an NFL record.
This year’s team, however, is on pace to hand Tomlin his first losing record.
A 10-game stretch marked by uncharacteristically substandard play on offense and defense has resulted in a 3-7 record. That means Tomlin can afford just one more loss over the Steelers’ final seven games if he wants to avoid a streak-breaking blemish on a heretofore unprecedented career.
The good news is that the remaining schedule is not daunting. If the Steelers can find a way to split a pair of games down the stretch with the 7-4 Baltimore Ravens, they should like their chances of prevailing against the Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Las Vegas Raiders and Cleveland Browns, all of whom have losing records.
The bad news is the Steelers have been just as mediocre as any of those teams. Pittsburgh’s offense entered Week 12 ranked 27th in the NFL in yards per game (312.2) and 28th in points (17.0), while its defense is 28th in yards allowed and 26th in points allowed.
At least the offense has something of an excuse, given that it is working through the growing pains of rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett, who didn’t ascend to the starting job until five games into the season. He had been behind Mitchell Trubisky since the spring, depriving Pickett, the 20th pick in April’s draft, of some experience that could have helped him avoid playing like one of the worst quarterbacks in the league thus far.
Tomlin said last week, ahead of Monday night’s game against the Colts, that Pickett’s development was “moving in the direction that we would like it to.”
“Could it move faster? Absolutely,” the coach added. “I don’t think anybody’s that patient, including Kenny. This is not a patient man’s business. You work while you wait, and that’s what he and we are doing.”
The meaning of ‘The Standard is the Standard’: pic.twitter.com/91I6yr7Zng
It hasn’t helped that Pittsburgh’s Najee Harris-led rushing attack has mostly sputtered alongside an offensive line graded 14th worst in run blocking by Pro Football Focus. Of greater concern, though, to Tomlin could be the performance of his defense, which is the highest-paid defensive unit in the NFL (per Over the Cap).
Even there, Tomlin could find something of an excuse, were he so inclined. Linebacker T.J. Watt, the NFL’s 2021 defensive player of the year and a three-time all-pro, was injured in a Week 1 win and did not return until Week 10, which perhaps not coincidentally brought another win.
In between, Pittsburgh went 1-6 and appeared to signal a possible resignation to its fate by shipping wide receiver Chase Claypool to the Chicago Bears at the trade deadline.
When asked the following week, however, what the “goal” for his team was the rest of the way, Tomlin replied, “We’re singularly focused on this week’s opportunity, which is to win this game.”
On whether the Claypool trade suggested the Steelers might be inclined to use their remaining games to get a look at younger players, the coach stood by his mantra.
“If it’s conducive to engineering victory,” he said. “That’s our sole agenda, putting together a plan and highlighting the skills of players that produce victory.”
Those words were offered before the return of Watt appeared to re-energize Pittsburgh’s defense in a 20-10 home victory over the Saints. Then came the Steelers’ most recent outing, a 37-30 home loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in which Pittsburgh surrendered 408 yards. Despite playing without star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase and quickly losing starting running back Joe Mixon to the concussion protocol, the Bengals were able to mount scoring drives of 79, 92 and 93 yards.
“We’re not where we want to be, clearly, right now, but sitting here and sulking about it isn’t going to do anything,” Watt said afterward. “We have to be real with what we put on tape and can’t take everything personally. We have to digest the film, and we have to practice hard and then come out next week with a better performance.”
Telling reporters after the Bengals game that it was “very frustrating” to be dealing with another loss instead of being able to build on the win over the Saints, defensive tackle Cameron Heyward said, “We talk about climbing out of a hole, but we just keep digging ourselves more and more into that hole.”
To a certain degree, this year’s Steelers could be experiencing regression to the mean, given that their 2021 squad exceeded its expected record. That team was outscored 398-343, but it went 7-1-1 in games decided by seven points or fewer. So far this year, Pittsburgh is 2-4 in those games while being outscored 244-170 overall.
Another difference with last year is that those Steelers were guided by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, then clearly on his last legs in his 18th season but who had enough guile to help his team find ways to win. Pittsburgh’s defense was also slightly better in 2021, although it still ranked in the bottom half of the league after being a top-five unit the previous two years.
This season is Tomlin’s first without Roethlisberger, and it probably will be the first to end with the coach, who has gone 8-8 three times, staring forlornly upward at .500. | 2022-11-28T10:01:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mike Tomlin's Steelers could suffer first losing season in 16 years - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/mike-tomlin-pittsburgh-steelers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/mike-tomlin-pittsburgh-steelers/ |
As the government tightens its grip on the press and protesters, journalists rely on distant contacts and navigate misinformation to tell the story
A newspaper photographed in Tehran in September features a cover picture of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iranian morality police. (Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency/Reuters)
For more than two months, journalist Golnaz Esfandiari has been reporting nonstop on the protests and brutal crackdowns erupting across Iran — from more than 2,500 miles away in Prague.
It’s not easy. With foreign press virtually absent inside Iran — where authorities are arresting local journalists, restricting internet access and allegedly spreading misinformation online — distant correspondents such as Esfandiari face a deluge of challenges in getting accurate news about Iran to the rest of the world.
So she and her colleagues at Persian-language Radio Farda use secure messaging apps to communicate with their network of sources inside Iran, who could be jailed for speaking to the media. They spend hours analyzing videos from Iran to verify their authenticity. And they interview the families of protesters who have been killed.
“These people are really risking everything to send us videos of the protests,” Esfandiari said. “And they come speak to us because they trust us, and they know the state media are never going to give them a platform.”
The protests, sparked by the September death of a Kurdish Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, while in the custody of Iran’s “morality police,” have morphed into one of the most sustained challenges to the Islamic republic’s governance in decades. Authorities have responded harshly; thousands of Iranians have been arrested — at least six of them sentenced to death so far — while hundreds have been killed on the street, according to estimates kept by human rights groups.
Western news organizations have been almost entirely shut out of the country by state restrictions and security concerns. Meanwhile, the government has arrested more than 60 Iranian journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, among the reporters who helped break the story of Amini’s death, were charged with acting as CIA spies, an offense punishable by the death penalty.
But the journalists covering the uprising from afar have been amazed that, despite the many risks, ordinary people from Iran are still sharing video footage.
“We never have seen it before like this,” said Jiyar Gol, a Kurdish Iranian journalist for the BBC reporting the story from London. “They really want the world to know about what is going on. People don’t fear anymore.”
Gol established contact with Amini’s family in September and managed to send a contact inside Iran to facilitate an interview with her father. In a broadcast on BBC Persian, Amjad Amini hotly denied the official state story that his daughter suffered “sudden heart failure” after she was arrested for supposedly failing to wear a hijab according to the Islamic republic’s rules; he said witnesses told the family that she was beaten.
“He was so brave,” Gol said. “Despite intimidation and threat and the danger of being put in prison, he refused to remain silent, and he talked to us.”
Still, the dangerous climate makes it difficult for journalists to capture the scope of the government crackdowns, and it makes them unable to independently verify figures such as death tolls, having to rely on human rights organizations for much information.
It can take news organizations weeks to nail down details of events in places where their reporters could not travel. As many as 96 people were gunned down by government forces outside a prayer complex in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan on Sept. 30, according to the New York Times, an incident that had “been largely concealed from Iranians by an internet blackout.” But it wasn’t until Oct. 14 that the paper confirmed enough of the incident, through witness testimony and videos, to publish its investigation. The Washington Post and CNN have also published investigations of events that took place weeks prior using similar methods.
Evin on fire: What really happened inside Iran’s most notorious prison
Social media has played a crucial yet complex role. The primary method for people inside Iran to get information out, it has also enabled the spread of false information.
In the early days of the protests, a video circulated online purportedly showing Kurdish fighters standing guard outside Amini’s family house in Saqqez. It was a scene that could have bolstered the government’s allegations that Kurdish separatists had incited the uprising.
But Gol called his Kurdish political contacts — and discovered that the video was two years old and had no connection to Amini’s family.
“We realized it was the Revolutionary Guard deliberately spreading those videos,” Gol said. Other media outlets “simply saw it, and they showed it,” he said. “But we were very cautious.”
When a fire broke out at Evin prison, notorious for warehousing political dissidents, social media lit up with horrifying reports that some escaping prisoners had emerged into the middle of a minefield — a detail that made it into some Western news reports.
But at Radio Farda — part of the U.S.-funded but independently run Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — Esfandiari and her colleagues contacted prisoners and their families and could find no one with knowledge of such an escape. She traced the detail back to an Iranian government-aligned news agency known for false reports, then saw a quote in a more reputable news service from a prison official denying the incident.
“You have to read between the lines” of official statements, she said.
Organized disinformation efforts have only muddled the picture, said Pouria Nazemi, an Iranian freelance journalist based in Canada. Some phony social media accounts pose as critics of the government to promote false news. People sympathetic to the protests “start to reshare that [content] in the heat of the moment,” he said. “The end result is a chaotic situation, with all the disinformation and misinformation mixed together, and it could be very dangerous, because some people inside Iran risk their lives based off of this.”
But there are also “honest mistakes and rumors” that get circulated, said Radio Farda director Kambiz Fattahi. Newsweek erroneously reported earlier this month that 15,000 protesters had been sentenced to death. Fact-checkers later traced the number to an activist news agency’s estimate of the number of protest arrests, conflated with the news that Iranian lawmakers were pushing a “no leniency” policy toward those detained that could include the death penalty. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted the false information, then later deleted it, which in turn became fodder for Iranian state media to accuse Canada of spreading lies, CNN reported.
The Iranians sending videos of protests and crackdowns out of the country have become increasingly savvy about how to help others verify them, adding details such as time, date and location and providing corroborating images from different angles.
But journalists find the details they derive from eyewitnesses and citizen reporters as essential as any digital fingerprint, Fattahi said. A video may show a massive protest, yet interviews are necessary to confirm the true scope.
“We can’t be in the business of wishful reporting and thinking,” he said, “so that level of trust and access is key in terms of verification.”
Journalists are also mindful not to endanger their tipsters. “Sometimes I don’t contact my sources when something big happens, because I don’t want to create the risk. I don’t want anyone to go to jail because of me,” Esfandiari said. “If there’s something important, they will come to me and contact me.”
Meanwhile, Iranian journalists working outside the country have been subject to hacking and phishing attempts. In Britain, police have warned of “credible” threats of kidnapping or killing, and the BBC has filed a complaint with the United Nations, saying Iran has been harassing its journalists and their families. The government has denied the allegations. When a Radio Farda analyst died in Berlin this year and his body was to be repatriated back to his family in Iran, his mother said his body was instead seized by Iranian security agents.
Despite the difficulties, journalists remain committed to getting the story out to the world.
“We see that people are coming to us and trusting us,” Esfandiari said. “They have nowhere else to turn to, and they want to be heard. That’s what we do.” | 2022-11-28T10:44:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Reporting on Iran’s unrest and crackdown from afar - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/11/28/iran-journalist-mahsa-amini-radio-farda/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/11/28/iran-journalist-mahsa-amini-radio-farda/ |
Mike White and Garrett Wilson had a big day for the New York Jets on Sunday. (Adam Hunger/AP)
As November turns into December, seasons can live or die on one play. In Arizona, the Los Angeles Chargers’ two-point conversion moved them above .500. A few moments later in Seattle, Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs took a handoff in overtime, bolted through the Seahawks’ line and streaked down the middle of the field all alone, 86 yards into the end zone. The Raiders moved to 4-7, and their playoff hopes remained unlikely rather than totally extinguished.
Here is what to know from Week 12 in the NFL.
Zach Wilson should get used to the sideline. After Wilson’s dreadful performance last week and a baffling lack of accountability afterward, New York Jets Coach Robert Saleh benched him for backup Mike White. In a 31-10 thumping of the Chicago Bears, White completed 22 of 28 passes for 315 yards and three touchdowns.
Nobody is throwing any parades for beating the Bears without Justin Fields. But White allowed the Jets to play to their potential in a way Wilson has not. Wide receivers Garrett Wilson and Elijah Moore, who never clicked with the second-year quarterback, looked like one of the best tandems in the NFL.
Set to meet with teams, Odell Beckham Jr. escorted off plane in Miami
Regardless of what it means for Wilson’s future, the difference between White’s performance and his over the past two seasons is jarring. In four starts with the Jets, White has two 300-yard passing games, both of them victories. In his 20 career starts, Wilson has one, and it came last month in a loss to the New England Patriots in which he threw three interceptions. Saleh committed to Wilson long-term, but what else would you expect him to say?
White, a cult favorite in New York, probably can’t lead the Jets on a deep playoff run. But at 7-4 and in wild-card position, the Jets have too much talent, especially on defense, to prioritize the future over right now. And right now, White gives them their best chance.
It’s Jordan Love time in Green Bay. The Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive line, running backs and Jalen Hurts bludgeoned the Packers as they maintained the NFL’s best record by rushing for 363 yards. But the most compelling part of the night came at the end of Philadelphia’s 40-33 victory, when the 4-8 Packers received an impromptu glimpse of their future.
Aaron Rodgers, already dealing with a broken thumb, had to leave early in the fourth quarter after a rib injury became too painful and restrictive. In came Love, the third-year passer whose first-round selection in the 2020 draft led to friction between Rodgers and the franchise.
Love had had few chances to validate his choice, kept off the field by Rodgers’s MVP performance. In brief duty Sunday night, Love provided promise in a dying season.
Love completed 6 of 9 passes for 113 yards and a 63-yard touchdown to Christian Watson, the rookie speedster with whom, in the Packers’ most hopeful vision, he could form a lasting partnership. He also played with confidence and poise. He threw bullets to the sideline and hit Watson perfectly in stride. It was a limited sample, but it was enough to make a Packers fan feel confident about life after Rodgers, who turns 39 on Friday.
Any transition to Love would be made complicated by the four-year, $150 million contract extension Rodgers signed this offseason. But Love showed such a transition might not be so painful when it comes, at least on the field.
Bow down to the NFC East. After the Seahawks fell in overtime, the NFC playoff standings settled into startling form: If the season ended today, all four NFC East teams would make the postseason.
The Washington Commanders’ victory over the Atlanta Falcons nudged them to 7-5, good for last place in the division but still ahead of every other wild-card contender. Nobody foresaw an important December showdown between the Commanders and New York Giants, but that’s what we will get Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J., the first of two meetings between the teams in three weeks.
Svrluga: These Commanders know who they are
Washington will enter with the momentum of a three-game winning streak, and the Giants have home-field advantage and three extra days of rest. The Giants were 7-2 two weeks ago, but after losing to the Detroit Lions and then the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving, they are in a precarious spot. They must face the Philadelphia Eagles twice and travel to Minnesota to face the Vikings. If they can’t beat Washington, they could be in full spiral. For now, though, they would be in the playoffs — like every other team in their division.
The Bengals’ AFC title defense is alive. Anybody who wants to win the AFC will have to go through Joe Burrow. Cincinnati has cemented its place in the AFC playoff picture with three consecutive victories without injured star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, the most impressive of which came Sunday.
In a rematch of their divisional-round upset in January, the Bengals outlasted the surging Tennessee Titans, 20-16, even with starting running back Joe Mixon sidelined with a concussion. “The kind of game great teams win,” Burrow called it afterward. The Bengals have won seven of nine after an 0-2 start, putting themselves in position to steal the AFC North from the inconsistent Baltimore Ravens.
Last year, the Bengals rode a late-season streak all the way to the Super Bowl. Doing it again is not out of the question. Burrow’s moxie and deep passing give them a chance against any opponent. They have mitigated issues with their running game and their offensive line, and though they are not one of the NFL’s most dominant teams, they are one of the hardest to beat.
From January: Joe Burrow once made his Ohio town believe. Now he has Cincinnati dreaming.
The Ravens gave away another victory in the fourth quarter. It has been a bizarre season in Baltimore. For brief flashes, the Ravens have played like one of the leading contenders in the AFC. At other points, their offense has bogged down or their defense has leaked at the wrong time. Sometimes, such as Sunday, it all happens in the same game.
The Ravens squandered another late lead, this time at Jacksonville, losing, 28-27 when Trevor Lawrence rifled a touchdown pass with 14 seconds left and Jaguars Coach Doug Pederson went for two. Lawrence capped his breakout performance — 321 yards, three touchdowns — with a missile to the front corner of the end zone to convert.
In three of their four losses, the Ravens have led by two scores in the fourth quarter. In the other, they led by 10 at halftime. Their strengths — a strong running game led by Lamar Jackson and a stout defense — should make them experts at closing games. But crucial mistakes have doomed them — such as Gus Edwards’s fumble in his team’s red zone Sunday. And first-year defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald’s group has sputtered when trying to protect leads.
The Ravens remain in first place in the AFC North. They have the same record, 7-4, as the Bengals but are ahead based on the head-to-head tiebreaker. And their schedule should help them maintain control; their next five games are against teams with losing records.
The Broncos hit a new low. As Denver’s offense circled the drain again, a new feature become part of its nightmare season: public dissent. As nose tackle Mike Purcell came off the field in the second half of a 23-10 loss at the Carolina Panthers, he screamed at quarterback Russell Wilson, who was leading the Broncos to another horrific offensive showing.
A passionate Mike Purcell had a message for Russell Wilson pic.twitter.com/BTNnAimlyA
The Broncos, the lowest-scoring team in the NFL after importing Wilson in a massive trade and hiring purported offensive guru Nathaniel Hackett as their coach, fell to 3-8 and lost any hope of making a late-season rally. Wilson passed for 142 yards on 35 attempts, taking three sacks.
At this point, it would be a shock if Hackett returns next season and a mild surprise if he finishes this one. The Broncos’ priority needs to be figuring out how to keep Wilson’s disastrous performance contained to this season. If not, his $245 million contract extension will be an albatross. The trade already hurts; the 2023 first-round pick the Broncos are sending to Seattle would be fourth overall if the season ended today.
For the Panthers, interim coach Steve Wilks is giving team owner David Tepper something to think about. The Panthers are 3-4 since Wilks took over, and one of those losses came after wide receiver DJ Moore was assessed an excessive celebration penalty after what should have been a win-sealing touchdown. A team without much offensive talent and even less to play for is playing hard for Wilks, who used a savvy fake punt to take control against the Broncos.
How NFL teams use Black interim coaches to clean up messes
Todd Bowles had a bad day. The Buccaneers had an opportunity to effectively wrap up the NFC South against the reeling Cleveland Browns. They controlled most of their 23-17 overtime loss, and they would have won in regulation if not for a leaping, one-handed miracle of a fourth-down catch by tight end David Njoku in the back of the end zone.
The Buccaneers, specifically Bowles, blew several moments that could have made the difference. Before Njoku’s catch, the Bucs let the clock run from roughly 1 minute 15 seconds to 37 seconds without calling one of their three timeouts. The Browns had no timeouts left, so the Bucs had no reason not to conserve time for a potential response.
On their possession, the Buccaneers failed to call a timeout after a first-down completion with about 30 seconds left. When Tom Brady hit Julio Jones on the next play for 26 yards, pushing the ball to the Cleveland 48, the Bucs had only eight seconds to get into field goal range. An incompletion forced a Hail Mary attempt, and the Bucs headed to overtime with two unused timeouts.
“That clock was going to run down; we didn’t have enough to stop it right there,” Bowles said in an unconvincing explanation. “It was overtime right there, right off the top.”
It wasn’t the only time Bowles showed a lack of trust in Brady. Early in the fourth quarter, the Buccaneers faced fourth and two at the Cleveland 37. Rather than going for it, Bowles tried to draw the Browns offside and punted after a delay-of-game penalty.
Overtime proved costly, even aside from the result. Left tackle Tristan Wirfs, the Bucs’ best offensive lineman, left on a cart with a left leg injury. Wirfs was walking around the locker room with a boot on, per local reporters. If he misses time, it would add to the long list of offensive line injuries and defections the Bucs have suffered since last season. The Bucs probably will win their dismal division, but their chances to do anything more looked much worse after Sunday.
Josh Jacobs’s free agency will be fascinating. Jacobs’s game-winning, 86-yard touchdown provided an exclamation point on one of the best games any running back has had this year. The Raiders back rushed for 229 yards on 33 carries in the 40-34 victory over Seattle. He also caught six passes for 74 yards, giving him more than 300 yards from scrimmage. By day’s end, he led the NFL with 1,159 rushing yards.
How valuable is a 24-year-old who might be the most productive running back in the NFL? We’re about to find out. Last summer, the Raiders declined to exercise Jacobs’s fifth-year option, making him eligible for free agency this offseason. The NFL has devalued running backs, viewing them as fragile and interchangeable as the league has shifted toward passing.
From 2019: Josh Jacobs was homeless in middle school. This week, he could become a first-round pick.
With the proliferation of defenses designed to take away big passing plays at the expense of more rushing success, Jacobs may walk into free agency with a slight shift in how his position is valued. But he’ll have to overcome ingrained skepticism toward big money for running backs. He also has taken on a massive workload, and teams tend to shy away from big commitments to running backs on second contracts because of durability and longevity concerns. Whatever happens this offseason, Jacobs has been great. | 2022-11-28T11:10:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NFL Week 12: Mike White’s moment for the Jets, and here come the Bengals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/nfl-week-12-jets-bengals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/nfl-week-12-jets-bengals/ |
From left, Bono, Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton of Irish rock band U2 in 2017. (Anton Corbijn)
U2 has stayed together since 1976. It hasn’t always been easy.
As the band approaches a staggering 50 years together and accepts the Kennedy Center Honors, the foursome has remained intact and, more compellingly, an active, creative unit
The most important U2 almost-break-up story takes place in Berlin. It’s October 1990 and they’ve gathered at Hansa Studios, a short walk from where the Wall is being dismantled a little bit more every day. Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. have left Dublin to try to become U2 again. Or try not to become U2 again. Nobody can seem to agree.
Is this a dance record? Industrial rock? And where is that majestic and moody material that made them a household name with “The Joshua Tree?” Only three years earlier that LP sold millions, landed the band on the cover of Rolling Stone, scored a Grammy for Album of the Year and immediately became one of the definitive rock albums of its time.
Hansa is where David Bowie recorded “Heroes” with Brian Eno, the art rock visionary who is now U2’s producer. Edge and Bono are working on a demo called “Sick Puppy” that features an infectious bass line from Clayton. It’s promising, but still just a meandering jam with nonsense lyrics.
Mullen has some questions about what exactly the band is trying to accomplish. The drummer is the one who has always taken it upon himself to ask the difficult questions. He understands U2 and he doesn’t understand how he’s supposed to fit in with the drum loops they’re experimenting with.
“It was getting really tense,” says Mark “Flood” Ellis, the band’s engineer at the time. “Nothing was coming and there was a lot of doom and gloom.”
But as they keep jamming on “Sick Puppy,” a single chord change emerges. It might be an overstatement to say that single chord change set U2 on the path from being rock stars to global icons. But it might not be.
Daniel Lanois, Eno’s production partner, hears it first, a simple yet seductive A minor to G sequence. He gets it on tape and plays it for the band. It’s delicious and Bono, as he does before there are words, begins to scat over it. They move into the big studio, somebody calls out chords, and before long U2 has written “One,” the emotional centerpiece of 1991’s “Achtung Baby.” The album would become a triumph. The song would become U2’s savior.
“In the end, it’s what we needed to hear more than our audience needed to hear it,” Bono said in a recent interview with The Post. “The song ended up being about our desire to stick together. ‘We are one, but not the same.’ And that is a thematic for our band.”
The Sex Pistols lasted about three years. The Beatles a little less than eight. The Rolling Stones and the Who soldier on, but at this point their respective singer and guitarist are the only original members left.
When U2 arrives in the District this weekend to receive the Kennedy Center Honors, the four people accepting the award will be the same four who first convened as teenagers in Dublin in 1976. As they approach a staggering 50 years together, the foursome has remained intact and, more compellingly, an active, creative unit.
Staying together hasn’t always been easy nor has it been dumb luck.
“We come close to breaking up much more often than you’d think,” says Bono. “Usually after the really good albums, because they cost you in personal relationships because you’re pushing each other and get really at your elastic limit.”
Forty-six years ago, Mullen, then just 14, scribbled “Drummer seeks musicians to form band” on a piece of paper and posted it on the bulletin board at the Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin. Since that first Saturday gathering in his kitchen, U2 has followed a communal plan that’s rooted in both the contractual and the emotional. Paul McGuinness, their manager from 1978 until 2013, drew up the blueprint when they were still teenagers. There won’t be any money for a while, he told them. But what there is, you should split up evenly.
With bank accounts connected to creative destinies, they had the structure to weather the inevitable conflicts that emerge when members of a high school gang grow into wealthy men with families, frailties and differing opinions.
“It’s a band, so there have been arguments, hard arguments, not talking to each other arguments, of course there are,” says Bob Geldof, the Boomtown Rats frontman, activist and longtime friend. “But for them, they realized that the band is worth more than any individual idea.”
Finding their sound
They started by calling themselves Feedback, then the Hype, and finally, by the spring of 1978, they became U2. The musical planet they arrived on was something of a wasteland. Punk was dying as quickly as it was born. Synth pop and its accompanying poofy haircuts were becoming all the rage. And if you played loud guitar rock, you tended to do it one way — with shredding guitars, revolving drum sets and bassists who thumped out blistering rhythms.
U2 took a different approach. Using only the common elements of a rock band — guitar, bass, drums, vocals — the band landed on a signature sound that has been present since “Out of Control,” the A side of their debut EP in 1979. On that song, Edge plays a series of notes that float into a jagged harmony, Mullen smashes the snare with military precision and Bono sings with the pleading urgency that would drive first wave hits like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” to soaring heights. Though the sonic canvas would expand, the philosophy pushing it would not.
“It’s like that old adage, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” says Steve Lillywhite, who produced U2’s first three albums and has continued to work with them. “In fact, part of their art is to make it be good with limitations. Make it with what you have. A lot of music now suffers from the ability to use anything you want. You’ve got the world at your fingertips. Well, what do you want?”
Paul Hewson, renamed Bono Vox by his friends after the name of a local hearing aid shop, led with a buttery bullhorn of a voice. He was never afraid to reach or overreach, whether leaping into a crowd at Live Aid, approaching world leaders for causes or making an ill-fated deal to plant a new album on your cellphone. He’s got a voice like no other. And he doesn’t let you forget it.
“I’ve done karaoke with him,” says Geldof, “and I picked Hank Williams and frankly, anyone could sing it. He picks a song by Love. He immediately gives a profound Bono, this indrawn breath. The eyes close and he sings it better than them. For f---’s sake. Shut up. Do karaoke properly, you’re meant to be s---.”
Dave “Edge” Evans was the soft-spoken son of an engineer who rejected the traditional guitar hero. Forget Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck; he loved Television’s Tom Verlaine, PiL’s Keith Levene and John McKay of Siouxsie and the Banshees.
“They were all playing the instrument in a fresh way,” he says. “I took that as a bit of a throwdown, saying, if they can do something that’s never been done before, so can I. So it just became kind of a fundamental rule. If it sounds like white rock and a bluesy rock from the mid-’70s it’s like, no.” He bought an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man delay pedal, which allowed him to create the distinctive layers of echo that thickened and textured the sound. His playing wasn’t flashy but it was instantly recognizable.
Adam Clayton, in the earliest days, served as the de facto rock star, the guy Bono called “our posh Sid Vicious.” He had glorious hair, dated (and got engaged to) supermodel Naomi Campbell and eventually became the lone member who ended up in rehab. These days, he is married to Mariana Teixeira De Carvalho, a father and surrounded by the art collection that populates his home, Danesmoate, the 18th-century mansion in which U2 recorded much of “The Joshua Tree.”
“I’m the least virtuoso of everyone,” Clayton says about his playing, and yet imagine “New Year’s Day” or “Bullet the Blue Sky” without his bass lines.
Then there is Mullen. “The bulls--- detector,” says Clayton. He is largely self-trained as a drummer, a powerhouse who now struggles with the physical toll of a lifetime of pounding. He’s the least public of the group’s four members, by far. The interview he gave for this story was, he said, his first in seven years. He’s blunt — he says if the band plays live in 2023 it will likely be without him, as he needs surgery to continue playing — and admits the dynamics in the band are not the same as they were decades ago. As the ’80s wore on and U2’s stature grew, band decisions would be made by what they called the “Politburo,” named after the policymaking committees in most communist systems. In Mullen’s view, the system that served the band well for so long has now become more of a benevolent dictatorship.
“You only do this if you’re having the best time,” Mullen says. “And not everyone is going to make it because the price is so high. So I think the challenge is for more generosity. More openness to the process. I am autonomous and I value my autonomy. I don’t sing from the same hymn sheet. I don’t play to the same version of God. So everyone has their limits. And you only do this if it is a great time you’re having, you know?”
Making something special usually requires taking risks. And U2 has never shied away from them.
They were on an upward trajectory after releasing “War” in 1983 but instead of bringing back Lillywhite as producer, they recruited Eno. His work with Talking Heads had impressed the band; his catalogue of ambient music concerned their record label.
No matter. U2 hired him to helm “The Unforgettable Fire” and he arrived in Ireland with Daniel Lanois, his producing partner. They formed a perfect team: Eno experimented with sounds while Lanois, a guitarist and master of rhythmic music, scoured the tapes for special moments.
Eno and Lanois helped them build “Bad” from a short, echoing riff into a sprawling centerpiece about a friend’s heroin addiction. They produced U2’s first U.S. Top-40 single, “Pride (In the Name of Love),” a tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Lanois still remembers urging the prayer-like ballad, “MLK,” out of Bono to wrap the album.
“I think what we did on that record was more ethereal,” says Lanois. “I had this beautiful, Sony C500 microphone and he sang on the couch — ‘Sleep, sleep tonight’ — and it’s a tremendous tenderness that shows up on that record that may not have been there previous.”
“The Unforgettable Fire” took three months. “The Joshua Tree,” a full year.
There were moments of tension that escalated to confrontation. As they struggled with the album opener, “Where the Streets Have No Name,” Eno at one point tried to erase all recorded tracks of the song, convinced that the band needed a fresh start. Flood says that engineer Pat McCarthy forcefully stopped him, tackling the producer. (Eno declined to comment and McCarthy, in an interview, only volunteered that Edge made him promise to protect the tapes.)
On “The Joshua Tree,” Eno and Lanois were given the freedom to pursue new ideas with the purpose of reinventing what U2 could be. But eventually, McGuinness called in Lillywhite, who understood the band’s more traditional rock side. He came in largely to work on singles, which became a regular routine.
“Brian Eno’s job is to destroy U2,” says Lillywhite. “That’s why they want him. Because Brian hates guitars and drums. He will take the track and take out the guitar and drums and put on his blippity, blippity and it doesn’t sound like a record but it has something nice about it. So then I’ll take it and try to make sense of everything and sometimes get it right.”
“When Steve came in, everyone thought he was killing their favorite child,” says Clayton. “You’re going to ruffle a few feathers. But really, without Steve coming in, we’d still be mixing all those records. They’d never have been released.”
A tree falls
So how do you chop down a Joshua Tree? Or perhaps the better question is why?
That subject drove Davis Guggenheim’s 2011 feature-length documentary, “From the Sky Down.” The short answer is that the enormous growth of U2’s audience after “The Joshua Tree” briefly left the group struggling with direction. That became clear with “Rattle and Hum,” a project that started small — an indie documentary and album exploring American roots music — and ended with a Hollywood premiere and a major theatrical release. It was too much.
“Five studios, four musicians, a movie … I stopped producing recordings because ‘Rattle and Hum’ almost put me in a box,” says Jimmy Iovine, who produced Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and Tom Petty before “Rattle and Hum.”
The problem with “Rattle and Hum” wasn’t the music. It was the sense that U2 was overexposed and overreaching and it was the first time that people asked, “Just who do these guys think they are?”
“It’s a tad early for the band to be lobbying for admission to the pantheon,” The Washington Post wrote at the time.
“'Rattle and Hum’ is the sound of four men who still haven’t found what they’re looking for,” added Rolling Stone.
“I mean, obviously, we take our work seriously and it’s not to us, a kind of trivial throwaway thing,” says Edge today. “But by the same token, not everything could be made as if your life depends on it. That stuff gets tiresome as well. I think we realized that was part of the caricature that we had created around ourselves, and that again felt like going for creative freedom was to dismantle that, which was ‘Achtung Baby.’”
It was the Zoo TV Tour, launched with “Achtung Baby,” that really signaled the next era of the band. The previous time they played live, they were the stone-faced sincere rockers decked out in cowboy cosplay. This time, they were the strobe-lit entertainers, the stars of a show meant to embrace and mock fame.
Bono arrived as the leather-clad “Fly” and later transformed into a devilish character, “MacPhisto,” complete with a golden jacket. The band installed hundreds of television screens, which broadcast slogans and interviews and even, at times, closed circuit conversations from other countries. Trabants, the tiny obsolete, East German automobiles, were wired and hung for lighting. It was a meta-spectacle poking fun at the ridiculousness of spectacle itself.
“For me, that was the pivot and a brilliant one,” says R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, frontman of another band that grew from critically acclaimed in the ’80s to worldwide force in the ’90s. “The idea of calling the White House from the stage and having someone actually pick up and you realize it isn’t a trick, that’s happening in real time. They were absolutely prescient to recognize the coming wave of the digital revolution and what it meant.”
Alone, not solo
This fall, Bono embarked on a short tour to support his 576-page memoir, “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.” Working with Gavin Friday, his childhood friend and U2’s longtime creative director, the goal was to craft a stage show worthy of a Broadway run.
He first told Friday he wanted to perform only a few U2 songs for the presentation and hoped Edge could accompany him. “Don’t go out with Edge,” Friday told him. “It is braver and would show the work better if you don’t make it a U2 show.”
So the two-hour performance featured Bono acting out the book, doing impressions of central characters, and singing 14 U2 songs while backed by producer and keyboardist Jacknife Lee, harpist Gemma Doherty and cellist Kate Ellis. The sold-out shows were attended by some of his pals like President Bill Clinton, Sean Penn and Colin Farrell.
But writing a book has not changed how Bono feels about U2. There are no plans to do a solo album. For “Surrender,” U2 recorded 40 stripped-down versions of the songs featured in the memoir, with the collection set to be released next year. They also have a nearly finished album of new original songs called “Songs of Ascent.” But Bono and Edge aren’t sure when to release it. They aren’t sure about a lot.
They entered the millennium as relevant as ever. Bono, the nudgy statesman, boldly crossing political lines to raise billions for developing countries and push for debt relief. Even then, U2 was never out of mind.
“He could talk about the fact that they were trying to still make music and travel and tour,” says Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state who worked with Bono and also attended a U2 concert that left her in awe. “And yet he was always running off to talk to some government about AIDS.”
“Beautiful Day,” released late in 2000, became an inspiring, post-9/11 anthem. “Vertigo,” four years later, blasted across TV screens in an iPod commercial as U2 proved it was both a great band and on the technology vanguard.
And then came their next deal with Apple, which planted their 2014 album, “Songs of Experience,” automatically into users’ iTunes accounts. Instead of discussing the merits of “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” or Bono’s heart-twisting tribute to his late mother, “Iris (Hold Me Close),” critics shamed U2 as exhibit A in the insidious intrusion of tech spam.
Which leads to 2022. While U2 continues to make compelling, new music — just cue up the catchy twofer of “Get Out of Your Own Way” and “American Soul” on 2017′s “Songs of Innocence,” bridged by a guest spot from Kendrick Lamar — the lure of nostalgia is hard to deny. Their two “Joshua Tree” anniversary tours, in 2017 and 2019, grossed almost $400 million worldwide.
But Bono and Edge don’t want to give in that easily. During the pandemic, Edge wrote furiously. Bono loves the idea of adding those new songs to their live sets, of building up programs that allow U2 to do what it does best.
“We’re our own festival when we go out,” says Bono. “And that’s untouchable.”
The new album, he says, will move away from the band’s recent work, which has been softer. He wants Edge’s guitar to drive the music, to turn the volume up. He does not sound tired or ready for the oldies circuit. He sounds hopeful, thinking that there could be no better time for his beloved rock band.
“The country’s changed for a group like U2,” Bono says. “But I have a feeling that we have something. That if we can distill it on these next sessions, this unreasonable guitar record that we all want to make actually, I just feel there’s a moment … I don’t know if you can capture people for a whole album. But what if it was just an EP or just one song that could burst through? We don’t need it on the pop charts. We don’t. But we need people to pass it around. I think we do want that.” | 2022-11-28T11:32:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U2 celebrates Kennedy Center Honors after nearly 50 years together - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/28/u2-kennedy-center-honors/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/28/u2-kennedy-center-honors/ |
The FTX executive wanted the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to oversee crypto. So did the CFTC’s boss, Rostin Behnam.
Peter Whoriskey
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive of the FTX cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, center, after a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing in Washington on Feb. 9. Bankman-Fried was pushing hard for a bill written by the committee's leadership that would have made the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the chief regulator for cryptocurrency. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg)
The chief of the federal agency that oversees commodities markets, Behnam holds a strategic perch among the nation’s financial regulators. And the 44-year-old Washington bureaucrat was indispensable in the boyish billionaire’s ambitious plans to reshape U.S. crypto regulation.
The FTX Bahamas empire: Stimulants, subterfuge and a spectacular collapse
Behnam pushed for the legislation, too. The measure — co-sponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), whom Behnam previously served as a senior aide — would considerably expand his agency’s reach and budget. While drumming up support, he predicted that regulation by his agency might even profit crypto businesses: “Bitcoin might double in price if there’s a CFTC-regulated market,” he said this fall at a conference at Georgetown University.
Behnam repeatedly said that his agency had made no decision, but behind the scenes, according to Terry Duffy, chief executive of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, agency officials wanted to approve the proposal. They staunchly defended it in conversation with him this spring — so much so that Duffy, an opponent, told them he would sue the agency over it, he said. In his view, all of Washington seemed to be entranced by Bankman-Fried’s promises of innovation.
Bankman-Fried had given enough in political currency — donations — to expect to get an audience. The crypto mogul gave $40 million to politicians and political action committees before this month’s midterms, mostly to Democrats and liberal-leaning groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign donations. Another senior FTX official, Ryan Salame, gave large sums to Republicans.
A CFTC official said that under existing law, the agency had no authority to probe FTX or most of its affiliates. Aside from two smaller FTX-owned firms that the CFTC already regulates — LedgerX and LedgerPrime — “any suggestion that we could have regulated, examined, surveilled, reviewed, intervened or prevented the issues at the unregulated FTX or any company owned, operated or affiliated with FTX is patently false,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a company the agency regulates.
Now some are calling for more scrutiny of interactions between FTX and the agency. Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, which advocates for stricter financial regulation, is calling for an investigation into “how FTX ended up having so much influence at the CFTC.”
For a moment after FTX’s implosion earlier this month, though, it seemed that the respect between the billionaire and the CFTC had frayed. Bankman-Fried took out some of his wrath on regulators, saying in an interview with Vox, “f---Regulators … they make everything worse.”
By the next day, he wanted to make clear he didn’t mean all regulators. He tweeted that “there are regulators who have deeply impressed me with their knowledge and thoughtfulness. The CFTC has … But most are overwhelmed.”
In 2014, the agency also became the first federal regulator to nose into crypto. At the prompting of then-Commissioner Mark Wetjen, who had been nominated by President Barack Obama in 2011, the CFTC allowed a company called TeraExchange to facilitate trades based on the future price of bitcoin, a similar sort of maneuver to the financial derivatives the agency already oversaw. The agency later found that the traders on either side of the first such deal completed an offsetting transaction six minutes later in an illegally prearranged scheme. The exchange got away with a slap on the wrist, as TeraExchange simply agreed to cease and desist from any future violations. But the regulator had planted its flag over the nascent industry.
FTX bought LedgerX last year, bringing Wetjen into Bankman-Fried’s expanding constellation of crypto businesses. The crypto executive soon tapped Wetjen to serve as the architect of his aggressive Washington agenda. And Bankman-Fried continued adding former CFTC officials to his roster as he sought to build his Washington muscle. In August 2021, he brought on as general counsel of FTX’s U.S. affiliate Ryne Miller, an adviser to then-CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler, who now runs the SEC. He added Jill Sommers, another former CFTC commissioner, to the U.S. company’s board this September.
Behnam, for his part, has seen his profile rise alongside the CFTC’s over the last decade. The New Jersey native went to law school at Syracuse University, cut his teeth working for his home state’s financial regulator and then practiced law in New York. But he landed on Capitol Hill in 2011, with a job advising Stabenow on the Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees the CFTC. The committee and the agency were busy implementing the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that expanded the CFTC’s scope to include the swaps market.
Behnam jumped into that effort and spent the next six years on the committee’s staff, focusing in part on its work with the CFTC. Senate Democrats tapped him to join the commission itself in 2017, and President Biden nominated him as chairman last year. Appearing before the committee that October for a confirmation hearing, Behnam signaled he would be looking to strengthen the CFTC’s crypto powers, telling senators he wanted to work with them to “reexamine — and if appropriate, expand” the agency’s authority over digital assets.
For months before it was submitted, the CFTC held informal discussions with FTX about the proposal, and the company made alterations in response, company officials have said. By May 2022, according to Bankman-Fried, his firm had “spent tens of thousands of hours talking with the commission about this proposal.”
The participants included representatives of BlackRock, JP Morgan, Citi, Citadel, Goldman Sachs and CME. The meeting was titled “Staff Roundtable Discussion on Non-intermediation,” but it was clear to participants that the meeting was about the FTX proposal.
But the proposal also required regulators to reconsider long-standing protocols for how markets should work — removing brokers who could protect consumers and stabilize markets and replacing them in part with computer algorithms.
“I think I feel pretty compelled to say this,” Bankman-Fried began, glaring at some on the panel, a video of the meeting shows. “I’m going to be pretty blunt. Most of the traders on our platform know a lot more about these contracts than many of the people in this room, including many of the people in this room who are condescendingly talking to them about what they do and don’t know. There is some irony in, you know, some of the statements made by people attempting to protect those who know massively more than they do about the topic.”
At least through October, Behnam and the CFTC remained publicly undecided on the FTX measure. But in remarks to interested groups, Behnam repeatedly touted the proposal’s potential, saying it could be an important technical innovation akin to the shift in the ‘90s from the trading floor to computerized systems.
“They come into the traditional market space, and they’re just a bit puzzled,” Behnam said. “They’re like, ‘Why do you do it this way? We have a way that’s more efficient, where we can have trading execution that’s quicker with better pricing, and we can have settlement and custody in a much better manner.’ That’s where I think we have to learn from each other collectively.”
An agency official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a company it regulates, disputed Duffy’s claim that the CFTC had been poised to approve the application. “CFTC staff were nowhere near completing the work that would advance any recommendation to the commission,” the official said. “In fact, in the more than 11 months of review and working openly and transparently that allowed for plenty of public comment, the application did not hold up to our scrutiny.”
While the CFTC mulled Bankman-Fried’s application, the executive launched himself on a mission to help the agency expand its jurisdiction to include crypto. A legislative proposal as complicated and fraught as one dividing regulatory authority over a new, booming industry might take years to advance; Bankman-Fried, moving with characteristic speed, tried to get it done in months.
There was good reason for the crypto mogul’s urgency. He argued that the legislation from Sens. Stabenow and John Boozman (R-Ark.), the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee, would unlock a wave of institutional investment into firms such as his by giving big-money players in traditional finance the legal clarity they needed to jump into the sector.
The senators introduced their bill in early August, and Bankman-Fried was intent on pushing it into law by the end of the year, a goal he confirmed in an interview with The Post last month. The mission pitted him against a shrinking legislative calendar and detractors who criticized the bill from two sides. Consumer protection advocates said it was too lax on industry and threatened to undermine the power of the SEC, while an increasingly vocal segment of crypto die-hards argued that the bill would enshrine centralized crypto platforms like FTX and snuff out their decentralized competition.
Meet the mega-donors pumping millions into the 2022 midterms
The agency head’s support for the bill extended beyond supplying Hill staff with its outline. Before the legislation was introduced on Aug. 3, Behnam’s office attempted to get all four of the other commissioners at the agency to sign on to a unanimous statement expressing a positive view of the measure, CFTC officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal agency deliberations. The effort fell short, and Behnam was left to put out his own statement, declaring that the bill arrived at a “critical inflection point where new legislative authority is needed to clarify ambiguities.”
Behnam then made the rounds in favor of the bill. He called it a “huge step forward” in a September appearance before the Senate Agriculture Committee. Two weeks later, in what was billed as a fireside chat at NYU School of Law, he dangled the possibility that crypto investors would see a handsome return if the CFTC secured jurisdiction over the market. “Growth might occur if we have a well-regulated space,” he said, adding that bitcoin’s price could double.
Now that FTX is in ruins, the measure has encountered new resistance on the Hill and beyond. Gensler, who had refrained from commenting on it until now, noted the bill was backed by FTX. “And you sort of wonder why,” he said at the Healthy Markets Conference earlier this month. “Because it was too light-touch.” | 2022-11-28T11:32:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why the CFTC was Sam Bankman-Fried's favorite Washington agency - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/28/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-cftc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/28/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-cftc/ |
Incentives can lead employees to cheat or lie at work
American workplaces rely heavily on incentives to achieve performance targets, but focus on rewards can lead to ethical lapses, research shows
Systems like these can create a workplace culture that pulls employees away from their values, such as the Wells Fargo scandal, according to Christian Busch, director of the global economy program at at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs.
“You create this fear among people that if you don’t do ‘x, y and z,’ then you’re out,” Busch said. “Because of this setting, [workers at Wells Fargo] didn’t have a lot of psychological safety so they didn’t feel they could push back." | 2022-11-28T11:32:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Incentives can lead employees to cheat or lie at work - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/28/work-incentives-ethics-study/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/28/work-incentives-ethics-study/ |
Melting polar ice, along with warming waters and sinking land, have long been blamed for sea level rise. All are contributing in Virginia. But recent scientific advances suggest another major factor.
After that, many homes were lifted onto pilings. Donna Fauber lives just steps from the Bells’ old house and wonders how long her family be able to stay in Oyster.
Monthly data for all contiguous U.S. tide gauges from NOAA’s Sea Level Trends page were analyzed over 1993-2021, with 1993 chosen to match the first full year of the satellite sea level record. Linear trends were calculated using an approach that takes into account autocorrelated errors, following the methodology that NOAA has outlined for analyzing sea level trends.
For each site, we required that at least 70 percent of years have complete data (i.e., 12 monthly values); this affected 19 sites out of 103 in the contiguous U.S. All trends have an associated uncertainty; for Virginia, this ranges from +/- 1.15 millimeters per year at Kiptopeke, Va., to +/- 1.47 mm/yr at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, where data are unavailable after 2017.
Different methods exist for calculating sea level trends. We also examined 1993-2021 trends calculated by the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Level Center for a select group of U.S. tide gauges, and trends calculated over a slightly different period (1990-2020) by the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level. In most cases the results are similar, especially for the U.S. East Coast.
There is no long-term tide gauge record at Oyster, VA, and it is not clear which existing Virginia gauge would most closely reflect the changes there. The nearest record, at Kiptopeke, shows seas rising by 4.7 millimeters per year, somewhat lower than other Virginia records. This could reflect lower rates of land sinking, or some other factor related to the placement of the gauge, according to Molly Mitchell at the Virginia Institute of MarineScience. (Subsidence rates are not expected to change greatly going forward, and this would not affect future trends related to climate change.)
Sinking land is a factor in many U.S. tide gauge readings, not just in Virginia. U.S. sea level rise rates are highest on the Gulf Coast, where land subsidence rates also tend to be the highest, due to oil and gas and drinking water extraction, and other factors. However, satellite trends suggest that sea level rise offshore is also elevated along the Gulf Coast, just as it is along the southeastern U.S. coast.
The 1959 aerial photo of Hog Island is from the USGS’s Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center; Hog Island’s 2022 satellite imagery is from Planet Labs PBC; historical maps of Hog Island are from NOAA’s Historical Map & Chart Collection. Calculations of area changes to the Virginia barrier islands are from Robbins et al, Geomorphology, 2022.
Design and development by Hailey Haymond and Jake Crump. Editing by Monica Ulmanu, Katie Zezima, and Joe Moore. Copy editing by Mike Cirelli. | 2022-11-28T11:32:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sea level rise follows an East Coast island community that already moved once - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2022/east-coast-sea-level-rise/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2022/east-coast-sea-level-rise/ |
The pandemic has become a plague of the elderly, with nearly 9 out of 10 deaths in people 65 or older
Dozens of people take part in the second annual Covid March to Remember in New York City on Aug. 6, to honor the victims as well as survivors of the pandemic. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
President Biden may have declared the coronavirus pandemic “over,” but from John Felton’s view as the Yellowstone County health officer in Billings, Mont., it’s not over, just different.
Now, more than ever, it is a plague of the elderly.
In October, Felton’s team logged six deaths due to the virus, many of them among vaccinated people. Their ages: 80s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 90s. They included Betty Witzel, 88, described by her family as a tomboy who carried snakes in her pocket as a child and grew up to be a teacher, mother of four, grandmother of nine and great-grandmother of five. And there was Nadine Alice Stark, 85, a ranch owner who planted sugar beets and corn.
Yellowstone County made the decision early in the crisis to recognize each death individually, and Felton said that is as important as ever to acknowledge the unrelenting toll on a still-vulnerable older generation, while most everyone else has moved on.
“I think about someone’s grandfather — the plays they wouldn’t watch, the games on the football field they wouldn’t see,” he said.
S. Matthew Liao, a professor of bioethics, philosophy and public health at New York University, argued that it is possible to keep the economy open while still aggressively pursuing a national booster campaign and requiring masks in health-care settings and nursing homes, for example. But U.S. leaders have chosen not to do so, he said. That worries him.
“There’s a bit of ageism, so to speak, attached to it,” he said, adding, “People, even if they are older, they still have as much claim to live as me.”
“An additional infection,” she said, referring to covid-19, “is something that may turn something they are able to stably live with to something they are not.”
Epidemiologists tend to divide the pandemic into three distinct periods. In the first year, from March 2020 to March 2021, the United States experienced about 500,000 deaths. The toll was about the same the following year. In the third year, the nation is on track to lower that count significantly, to 150,000 to 175,000 deaths — barring a curveball in the form of a new variant.
That means that coronavirus is likely to rank third as a cause of death this year. By comparison, heart disease and cancer kill roughly 600,000 people each year; accidents, 170,000; stroke, 150,000; and Alzheimer’s, 120,000. Flu, in contrast, kills 12,000 to 52,000.
Unlike flu, which impacts both the very young and the very old, the coronavirus appears to put mostly older people at higher risk of severe disease and death. The proportion of deaths among those 65 or older has fluctuated from eight out of 10 in the first few months of the pandemic, to a low of 6 out of 10 when the delta wave struck in the summer of 2021, to a high of 9 out of 10 today.
Covid and age
The issue of age and the pandemic has been a source of tension throughout the pandemic.
When hospitals were hit with a crush of patients in the spring of 2020, some of the debates about allocating scarce resources centered on age. In documents drafted by some medical institutions, “stage of life,” a proxy for age, was sometimes recommended to be used as a tiebreaker in decisions about who should get a ventilator or a bed.
A number of experts, including Liao, expressed discomfort with such rankings. “I really disagree with that view,” he said. “You can imagine a 70-year-old who can do everything — can enjoy friendship, read books and go to movies.”
Jo Rowland, parish nurse at the Harvest Church in Billings whose job includes supporting congregation members and their families through covid illness and death, said society failed many of its elderly in another way, too: through safety protocols at the beginning of the pandemic that left them to die alone.
As more continue to fall victim to the virus, she said, we need to be more thoughtful about how to celebrate their lives and treat their deaths with dignity. “It’s a different type of grief losing an older person,” she said.
While some fault covid-19 policies for not doing enough to protect the elderly, others criticize age-based policies implemented elsewhere. In the United Kingdom, for example, a matrix of recommendations based on age left some seniors feeling they were being discriminated against. Even as stores and restaurants began to open in the summer of 2020, the National Health Service still advised people 70 and older to stay home or “shield.” In Colombia, the government sought to protect older people by closing centers that offered activities for them through August 2020. The policies became controversial for restricting freedom of movement.
Elfriede Derrer-Merk, a geriatric nurse from the University of Liverpool, and others wrote in a journal article in August that many older people felt angry and frustrated that their individuality was ignored.
The “undifferentiated way in which especially the role of age as a risk factor was discussed, and the inclusion of all people above the age of 65 into one homogeneous risk group, often neglected … the diversity of older people and their characteristics and thus drew criticism for fueling ageism in society,” the authors wrote.
‘You don’t matter’
Tara Swanigan’s father was in the first wave of deaths that occurred in 2020.
Charles Krebbs had celebrated his 75th birthday shortly before he was infected in July. He had retired from his job as an appraiser in Phoenix and was spending his time reading, gardening, picking up his grandson from school and accompanying him to his football games. He was strong and extraordinarily healthy, Swanigan recalled, but the virus nonetheless ravaged his lungs and he had to be put on a ventilator. He died that August.
Swanigan said she was heartened to hear about President Biden’s campaign to encourage older Americans to get booster shots. But she and other members of Marked by Covid, a nonprofit founded by two women who lost parents to the virus, advocate for more protections for people who are vulnerable, such as additional coronavirus testing. She continues to be shocked by how callous some people have been when she has talked about her father’s death. “Well, your dad was super old,” she recalled one man telling her on social media.
“For seniors and the immunocompromised, it’s almost like we’re saying, ‘You don’t matter. We’d rather just not be inconvenienced,’” she said.
Masks are a particular pain point.
“I was hugely disappointed when they took away the mask mandates for airplanes and other public transportation,” she said.
Given the minimal disruption to daily life from face coverings, and their major impact on curbing transmission, according to studies, she does not understand why public health leaders have stopped promoting their use.
Even one of the most recognizable seniors during the pandemic, Fauci, the National Institutes of Health scientist who is 81, no longer wears a face covering in many public appearances. In pictures from 2020, Fauci was always seen with a mask. Even when he threw the ceremonial first pitch that year on MLB Opening Day between the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals, and was outdoors and 60 feet away from another human being, he was masked.
But last month, when the infectious-disease doctor accompanied TV host Stephen Colbert to a Walgreens in New York City to get a booster shot, neither wore a face covering.
Fauci, through his office, declined to comment on that decision. But in a White House briefing on Tuesday, he talked about face coverings as just one of “multiple interventions and multiple actions” people can take to protect themselves, saying each individual should evaluate their own risks, as well as those of the people around them.
Given the scripted nature of such photo opportunities, the decision to forgo masks horrified Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California at Irvine. “The message is ‘don’t bother masking,’ ” he said in an interview. “We have given up, and the fact we’ve given up means we don’t care about a certain amount of deaths.”
Noymer, who studies covid-19 mortality, argued that the notion that we can prevent almost all deaths given the pullback of mitigation policies is disingenuous.
“I don’t think they are being totally candid” about the number of deaths the country will face, he said of U.S. officials. “I think it is bleak, and I am trying to steel myself for the winter to come.” | 2022-11-28T11:33:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nearly 9 out of 10 covid deaths are people over 65 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/11/28/covid-who-is-dying/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/11/28/covid-who-is-dying/ |
“You don’t like me having a Black Santa in my front yard?" said Chris Kennedy. "I will go and be the Santa Claus for the entire city.”
Chris Kennedy became a professional Santa Claus after receiving a racist note two years ago, demanding him to remove the inflatable Black Santa from his front lawn In Little Rock. (HBO Max/John Tully)
It’s been two years since Chris Kennedy received a racist letter demanding that he remove the Seven-foot inflatable Black Santa on his front lawn in North Little Rock.
“Please remove your negro Santa Claus yard decoration,” the letter, signed by an anonymous “Santa Claus,” read. “You should try not to deceive children into believing that I am negro. I am a caucasian (white man, to you) and have been for the past 600 years.”
Although Kennedy was deeply touched by the show of community support, he decided there was more he wanted to do to increase representation — and put the letter-writer, whose identity was never uncovered, in their place. He became a trained Santa Claus, saying he’d never seen another professional Black Santa in Arkansas.
A family got a racist note after putting up a Black Santa. Soon, neighbors began displaying their own Black Santas.
Family and friends caught wind of Kennedy’s Santa suit, and several people asked if he could take photos with their own children — who also wished to see themselves reflected in Santa.
“People definitely want this, so maybe we should start trying to make this happen next year,” Kennedy said to his wife.
Plus, “they were getting tons of requests for Black Santas,” he added, explaining that businesses and individuals can seek professional Santas on the organization’s website.
The camp is run annually in late August, and is a two-day crash course covering all things Santa Claus. It teaches prospective professional Santas — as well as Mrs. Clauses and elves — how to play the part. The program is the subject of a new documentary film, “Santa Camp,” which released on HBO Max earlier this month.
The film follows Kennedy, as well as two other Santas — a transgender man and a disabled man — as they learn the tricks of the trade alongside a group of about 100 other Santas, many of whom have worked in the industry for several decades.
“I’m definitely happy to see more diversity in all aspects,” said Kennedy.
“I could definitely tell that there were people that had to adjust and make sure they were asking the proper questions,” Kennedy said.
“I brought this, to do this here,” he said, as he tossed the original letter into a campfire. The Santas collectively clapped and cheered.
“Seeing him let go of this incredibly hurtful thing was very moving for me,” said Nick Sweeney, the film director. “It’s incredibly powerful to see Santa represented in ways that reflect America as a whole.”
“It was really brave of him to stand up in front of all these strangers and feel comfortable reading something that he didn’t really want to read,” echoed Stacey Reiss, a producer. “I love the idea that he turned something so negative in his life into something so beautiful and positive.”
“I’m going to be the Santa for kids that look like me in my area and coming here has given me the tools to be able to do that to the best of my abilities,” Kennedy told the Santas after burning the letter.
During his stay at Santa Camp, Kennedy said he learned about character development, and how to make his portrayal of Santa Claus unique to him — and reflective of his roots.
“I’m from the south side of the North Pole, where we get a little bit more sun,” Kennedy said. “I eat brownies instead of chocolate chip cookies.”
“I’m injecting who I am into Santa Claus, and injecting a lot of my culture into Santa Claus, to make my people feel seen, heard and accepted,” he said.
“One of the coolest things about the story blowing up is that there were people that were traveling for hundreds of miles,” said Kennedy, explaining that several families drove long distances to various festivals to introduce their children to him. “I don’t think there’s any better feeling in the world.”
Above all, though, “I love being able to see the smile on all children’s faces” he said.
This year, Kennedy will be the primary Santa Claus for the Southwest Little Rock Christmas parade, as well as the City of Maumelle Christmas parade. He was also Santa for the North Little Rock Northern Lights Festival — which was held on Nov. 19.
“It’s a huge deal for me that these towns are doing that,” said Kennedy.
Sweeney, the film director, said the documentary explores the question: “How can one of the most beloved traditions find its place in a changing America? Can it adapt?”
“I think from what we see in the film,” he said, “the answer is yes.” | 2022-11-28T11:33:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Professional Black Santa was harassed for Black Santa on his lawn - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/11/28/black-santa-chris-kennedy-hbo/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/11/28/black-santa-chris-kennedy-hbo/ |
In the age of texting and DMs, a ringing phone can sound like nothing but bad news
By Ellen McCarthy
(Rafael Abdrakhmanov/iStock/Washington Post illustration)
Adria Barich is a haunted woman. Her tormentor tracks her everywhere, threatening to ambush her in a dimly lit parking garage, as she drives down a desolate road or when she’s let her guard down to wash dishes or collapse on the couch.
“I’ve actually changed my ringtone a few times, because I start to associate it with terror,” says Barich, a 24-year-old California woman who works in marketing. “But every time that I do, after, like, a week or so, it just becomes terrifying again.”
“I feel anxiety. I stiffen up. I also kind of make myself pretend that I didn’t see it,” she says. “And nine times out of 10, I’m not going to answer it. If someone really needs to reach me, they can text me, leave a voice mail or continue to call me again and again and again. I wait for their next move before I decide what I’m going to do.”
She also hates that she can’t read the facial cues and body language of the person on the other end of the line. She recently chose a massage therapist based solely on the fact that the therapist has an online appointment booking system in place. (“When I have to book an appointment over the phone, there have been so many times I just agree to the first time they throw out just to get off the call.”) It got so bad that Barich recorded a new voice mail greeting to ward off repeat offenders. “Hi, it’s Adria,” she began. “I really do not like answering my phone, so if this could be a text, that would be wonderful. Otherwise, please be aware it’s probably going to take me quite some time to get back to you. Don’t take it personally. It’s just who I am as a person.”
She posted her new greeting on TikTok with the caption, “phone calls are literally the worst thing invented.” The sentiment resonated. Barich got comments from hundreds of people with similar phone phobias. One tortured soul from across the pond asked whether she could rerecord the message in a British accent, so they could use it as their own.
For the rest of us, impromptu calls have become roughly equivalent to turning up unannounced at someone’s home and smushing your face up against their window. Our comfort and patience with person-to-person calls have eroded as text messaging became the preferred way of communicating all but the gravest of news. The ringtone grows ominous. For whom does it toll?
“My mom will call me at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and my first assumption is, ‘Oh, my grandma died,’ or something happened. There’s always a moment of panic,” says Eric Wheeler, 35. “And she’s always like: ‘Hey! What’s up?’ And I’m like: ‘Well, I’m at work. What’s up with you? Can you just text me?’ ”
When Wheeler and his buddy Sean Fau decided to start a podcast, inspiration struck for the perfect show title: “Text Before Calling.” They talk about all manner of topics on their show, but this bit of modern etiquette is one subject on which they’re in lockstep.
“Hearing the phone ringing at all is bothersome to my soul,” says Fau, 42. “I despise phone calls in general.”
When he does hear that miserable noise, it sets off a cascade of split-second deliberations: “Do I really want to deal with this person right now? Do I have an excuse?”
When Wheeler and Fau agreed to hop on the line for this story, it was only the second time in a decade of friendship that they’d spoken by phone. (They communicate mostly via Twitter direct messages, and they vastly prefer it that way.)
Texts are also good. “Texts are like missiles. ‘Where is this thing?’ ‘What time are you meeting me?’ I like how succinct they are,” Wheeler says.
“It can be so discursive,” Fau says. “You’re like, ‘Okay, how are you?’ ‘Good.’ ‘I’m fine.’ ‘What’s up?’ Can we get to the point here?” Plus, he adds: “I have a distinct feeling that calling is just rude in general. It’s the idea that people only call because they need your attention right now.”
The fact that they require immediate and total attention is part of what people find unnerving about unexpected phone calls, says Jeff Hancock, founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab. Also, there’s no real time to prepare. Hancock recently learned how unsettling it is for his PhD students to receive an unplanned call from him. “It always freaks them out. They think: ‘Why would he be calling? I must’ve done something bad. What have I done?’ ”
Melissa Kristin Munds, a 34-year-old Louisiana video producer, remembers the excitement of the ringing landline during her childhood. Perhaps it was a relative or a salesperson, but it also could have been a classmate (maybe even a boy!) calling to talk to her. “There was always an element of hope and surprise and excitement,” she says.
That happy buzz is a sharp contrast to the anxiety Munds feels now, a discrepancy she captured in a recent TikTok. “It’s a disturbance. I’m being taken out of my moment, my safe space,” she says. “Back in the day, we didn’t have the resources to be prepared for everything. We went with the flow. Now we’re so used to planning out everything. We don’t like surprises.”
Munds’s phone is usually set to silent or vibrate, but she recently changed her ringtone to “Moonlight Sonata.”
“It’s calming,” she says. “So when I hear it, I don’t panic.”
Spam has taken over our phones. Will we ever want to answer them again?
To Geri Moran, 74, it’s text messages that are agitating. She’s a bookkeeper, but she also designs humorous products that she sells on Etsy — funny mugs, coasters and the like — and when she gets into her creative mode, she doesn’t want to stop to use the bathroom, never mind respond to a friend. And when a call comes to her landline she doesn’t feel a bit bad about letting the machine pick up. That’s why she tries not to give out her cell number.
“When people call your cell or text you, they expect an immediate response. That annoys the hell out of me,” Moran says. “I’ve never had anybody call me out because I responded a day or two later to an email or voice mail. But I’ve had people call me out if I don’t respond to a text in an hour or two. I have an actual life. I’m not going to interrupt myself all the time.”
Moran has no qualms about calling people out of the blue. And she’s delighted when her own phone rings. “I love talking on the phone,” she says. She thinks it offers a type of intimacy that texting can’t touch.
But there is one instance when an incoming call will make her blood pressure rise. Moran has a friend who likes to call without warning. And it’s never just a voice call; it’s always via FaceTime.
“That drives me crazy,” Moran says. “That’s next level to me.” | 2022-11-28T11:33:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Unexpected phone calls: A modern horror story - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/11/28/unexpected-phone-call-horror/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/11/28/unexpected-phone-call-horror/ |
The GOP can thank suburban N.Y. for its slim control of the House
How a red wave in a solidly blue state helped tip the balance
Perspective by Stacie Taranto
Stacie Taranto is an associate professor of history at Ramapo College of New Jersey and author of, "Kitchen Table Politics: Conservative Women and Family Values in New York" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017). She is co-editor of "Suffrage at 100: Women in American Politics Since 1920." She is an associate editor of Made By History.
Mike Lawler, Republican candidate for New York’s 17th Congressional District, greets supporters during an election-night party Nov. 9 in Pearl River, N.Y. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP)
With Republicans poised to take control of the U.S. House in January by one of the slimmest margins in history, it is clear that the much-anticipated “red wave” never materialized in this month’s midterm elections.
Except in New York state, particularly in the suburbs of New York City — where Republicans flipped three House districts, including defeating Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. These victories, plus a fourth pickup in New York’s Hudson Valley north of the suburbs, provided Republicans with crucial momentum to assume narrow control of the House.
Some are puzzling over solidly blue New York providing Republicans with the margin they needed to retake the House. Yet, history reveals that since the 1970s, New York City’s suburbs — Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, and Westchester and Rockland counties to the north, which span six congressional districts — have been a crucial swing area that has at times been pivotal for catapulting conservative Republicans into power and serving as a bellwether for the state and nation.
Control of the House and the presidency has aligned in nearly every election cycle since 1980 with the voter tallies in these suburban counties. The 2022 midterm elections proved to be no exception.
Politically, New York has three regions: overwhelmingly blue New York City (save for Staten Island), which is politically balanced by Upstate — 53 predominantly conservative, mostly rural counties that span much of the state’s surface area. That leaves the decisive swing region: the “downstate suburbs,” including Long Island.
These suburbs took on increasing importance as their population exploded in the decades after World War II. As the economy boomed and the United States confronted a severe housing shortage, legislators responded with affordable Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages tucked into the GI Bill and legislation such as the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act.
These federal policies, along with private investment, drove an unprecedented suburban boom. Mostly White Americans (due to FHA redlining and other discriminatory real estate practices) fled rental units in major cities to become first-generation middle-class suburban homeowners — and the parents of the postwar baby boom.
In New York, this pattern gave rise to the populous downstate suburbs. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Nassau County grew by 93 percent from 1950 to 1960, with adjacent Suffolk County, also on Long Island, seeing a whopping 142 percent growth rate. The area was awash in new construction, famously including the potato fields that enterprising developer William J. Levitt converted into Levittown — an all-White planned community of nearly identical mass-produced tract homes. These suburbs all shared similar demographics: Rockland County, northwest of the city, reported a population in 1960 that was 95 percent White, with over 60 percent of adults married and roughly one child under the age of 5 for every other woman of childbearing age.
Politically, most of these suburban transplants had been New Deal Democrats in the city. They were the descendants of the Southern and Eastern European immigrants who were struggling factory workers and laborers — a group that benefited tremendously from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal anti-poverty programs.
But as these transplants became more economically secure and migrated to the suburbs, they also migrated to the Republican Party — especially when faced with the hefty property taxes needed to fund the rapid growth of their new communities.
Originally, however, they were moderate Republicans, typified by New York Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, who was elected first in 1958 and was a (very wealthy) resident of Westchester County. Unlike the small faction of conservative Republicans who dominated the rural areas Upstate, suburban Republicans like Rockefeller tended to support taxpayer-funded projects designed to fuel economic growth. After all, suburban residents benefited from public investments like the Long Island Expressway that made life in their new communities easier.
But in the 1970s, as the postwar economy slowed to a recessionary crawl and New York City faced bankruptcy, the tectonic plates of New York’s suburban politics began shifting — presenting an opportunity for the conservative Republicans Upstate to expand their ranks using a three-pronged approach.
First, the economic struggles of the 1970s made traditional conservative promises to lower taxes attractive to suburban homeowners struggling under the weight of exorbitant property taxes. Many first-generation suburban homemakers also saw the promise of tax cuts as a lifeline to avoid having to work outside the home to make ends meet — something they saw as a profound step backward for their families, because their less economically secure mothers had worked outside of the home, especially during the Great Depression.
Second, many suburban voters found new conservative promises to maintain “law and order” appealing after years of local media coverage in New York City of social and political unrest, rioting and both real and perceived upticks in urban crime — even though such tumult rarely touched their own communities.
Finally, the third piece of conservatives’ newfound appeal in the suburbs was anchored in cultural traditionalism and religion. Nearly half (as high as 46 percent) of Nassau County residents identified as Catholic at various points in the 1960s, with similar demographics prevailing in nearby suburban counties. When the state legalized abortion in 1970, several Catholic homemakers on Long Island formed the New York State Right to Life Party to fight legal abortion and other feminist reforms that their church opposed and many viewed as an affront to their prized roles as full-time homemakers. Conservative Republicans augmented their coalition by joining forces with these activists — and winning the votes of suburbanites, particularly Catholic ones, who were upset to see most Democrats and moderate Republicans, including most prominently Gov. Rockefeller, becoming stalwart supporters of abortion rights in the state.
These political shifts enabled the conservative Ronald Reagan to capture New York in 1980 by combining traditional Republican strength Upstate with a targeted appeal to the downstate suburbs. He appointed William J. Casey of Long Island to manage his campaign, and promised to lower taxes, defend traditional family values, and restore American prestige abroad and tranquility at home. Reagan’s victory carried other conservatives into office in the suburbs, notably Long Island’s own Al D’Amato, who beat the long-serving moderate Republican U.S. Sen. Jacob K. Javits in both the GOP primary and the general election when Javits ran on a third-party line.
Conservative Republicans have continued to do well in these suburbs in the decades since 1980, with Democrats only making inroads there when their party wins the White House or in big blue wave midterm elections like 2018. Even in these moments, Democrats have never captured all the downstate suburban districts.
And since 1980, Reagan’s formula for winning statewide election in New York has become the playbook: Candidates must run up the numbers in their stronghold region and hold on to at least a portion of the populous downstate suburbs. This strategy enabled Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Sen. Charles E. Schumer to win statewide election this month, though by smaller margins than usual because of their weakness in the downstate suburbs. Their campaigns turned out strong numbers in New York City and the urban Democratic pockets Upstate — in part by promising to protect abortion rights, just months after the Supreme Court ended the right to an abortion nationally. Plus, they held on to a portion of the downstate suburbs (they both won Westchester County).
Their victories bolstered New York’s image as a blue state. Yet, in a climate with high inflation and a perceived uptick in crime in New York City, conservative Republicans unsurprisingly did well in the downstate suburbs, which kept Schumer’s, and especially Hochul’s, margins of victory down. Republicans swept five of the six suburban congressional districts, including all four districts on Long Island. That enabled the GOP to survive setbacks elsewhere across the country to capture the House by a narrow margin. | 2022-11-28T11:33:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The GOP can thank suburban NY for its slim control of the House - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/11/28/ny-suburbs-republican-wave/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/11/28/ny-suburbs-republican-wave/ |
Buffalo supermarket mass shooter to plead guilty to murder, other crimes
Peyton Gendron is accused in a racially motivated attack that killed 10 Black people at a Tops market
Justin Sondel
Shayna Jacobs
The man suspected of killing 10 people in a racially motivated attack at a Buffalo grocery store in May is expected to plead guilty to state charges on Monday morning.
Payton Gendron, 19, was indicted on 25 counts, including domestic terrorism and murder as a hate crime, in late May. He faced a maximum possible sentence of life in prison without parole, because New York state does not have the death penalty. But a separate federal hate crimes case, which could bring the death penalty if Gendron is convicted, is pending.
Another mass killing rocks the nation: 'We aren't numb; we're traumatized'
Police say Gendron meticulously planned the shooting, motivated by a racist ideology called the “great replacement” theory. He allegedly drove three hours from his hometown of Conklin, N.Y., to the Tops Friendly Markets in a predominantly Black section of Buffalo, wearing body armor and wielding a semiautomatic rifle, and opened fire in the parking lot and inside the store.
Thirteen people were shot, 11 of them Black.
Gendron allegedly published a 180-page racist screed online before the attack and live-streamed the shooting. He surrendered to police afterward. | 2022-11-28T11:33:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tops supermarket shooter to plead guilty in Buffalo mass killing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/28/gendron-buffalo-guilty-plea/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/28/gendron-buffalo-guilty-plea/ |
President Biden on Nov. 18. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
Agencies such as the State Department and Treasury Department will be directed to use their existing powers to “the fullest extent possible” to punish acts of conflict-related sexual violence, including through sanctions, the senior official said during a call with reporters.
The Biden administration did not provide its own data on crimes in Ukraine but pointed to an October report commissioned by the United Nations that found evidence of sexual violence against Ukrainian women and girls as “part of Russia’s military strategy,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House. The investigation, conducted by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, identified victims ages 4 to 80.
The Washington Post and other news outlets have interviewed numerous victims of sexual violence in Ukraine who have been reluctant to report their experiences to authorities, making it difficult to prosecute cases.
Biden will sign the memo as Britain kicks off an international ministerial conference to rally a global response to conflict-related sexual violence. The conference will take place in London on Monday and Tuesday.
Conflict-related sexual violence, or CRSV, is an undermeasured symptom of war. The United Nations estimates that for every rape documented in connection with conflict, there are 10 to 20 cases that go unreported.
The United Nations defines CRSV as crimes directly or indirectly linked to conflict, including rape, sexual slavery, human trafficking for the purposes of sexual violence, as well as forced prostitution, pregnancy, abortion or marriage and other human rights abuses.
At the U.N. General Assembly earlier this year, the United States set aside an additional $400,000 in funding to the United Nations’ Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, adding to its annual contribution of $1.75 million.
The White House said the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor will also provide an additional $5.5 million over the next two years, including in Myanmar, Ukraine and Sri Lanka, to aid global efforts to investigate and document acts of CRSV.
The latest U.N. report on the issue recorded 3,293 cases of CRSV in 18 countries in 2021, an increase of about 800 cases compared with the previous year. | 2022-11-28T11:33:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden to bolster response to sexual violence in Ukraine, other conflict zones - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/28/biden-bolster-response-sexual-violence-conflict-zones/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/28/biden-bolster-response-sexual-violence-conflict-zones/ |
What it’s like to live with brain fog
The condition, a form of cognitive dysfunction, affects people with long covid, cancer and other chronic conditions
Haze. Slow. Drunk. Lost. These are the words some people use to describe “brain fog.”
The condition, a form of cognitive dysfunction, has been plaguing people with certain chronic illnesses for years. But now, a new wave of people with long covid are experiencing it, casting a spotlight on the often debilitating condition.
“It’s a moment where the public and the medical community are realizing that this is real. This is what happens after certain infections,” said Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at Yale University and a co-author of a review article on covid-19-related cognitive impairment.
“I think it's their time to be recognized,” she said.
How covid brain fog may overlap with ‘chemo brain’ and Alzheimer’s
Research shows a majority of people experiencing long-covid symptoms have reported brain fog — a collection of symptoms, including impaired attention, concentration, memory and processing speed. Iwasaki and Michelle Monje, a professor of neurology at Stanford University, examined more than 100 studies relevant to cognitive dysfunction after covid.
They outlined six potential causes for covid-related cognitive dysfunction and concluded that a likely common cause is lung inflammation that causes inflammation in the brain and subsequently, the dysfunction of neural cells.
Patients who have experienced brain fog, caused by a wide range of conditions, say the effects can be life-altering and devastating. They say it keeps them from many activities such as driving, biking and public speaking. Some have had to alter their work schedules or stop working entirely. And nearly all of them say it has forced them to rely on a notebook — keeping to-do lists that include the most basic tasks such as remembering to eat.
Depending on the underlying cause, there are treatments for brain fog ranging from exercise protocols to cognitive rehabilitation, but there is no method proven to work for all patients.
How long covid reshapes the brain — and how we might treat it
Dennis Kolson, a neurologist in the Penn Neuro COVID Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania, said that since the clinic opened last year, physicians have evaluated about 350 long-covid patients for complaints, including brain fog. He said people uniformly appreciated having the chance to talk with a physician who understands their symptoms.
“'Am I like the others? Are you seeing people like me?’ I get that question every time,” Kolson said. “I say, nearly always, ‘Yes. You’re not alone.’ ”
Brain fog after covid
Edwin Hall, a 65-year-old Navy veteran from Fulton, Mo., spent 12 days during the summer of 2021 in a medically induced coma because of covid, breathing with help from a ventilator. Doctors also discovered signs of a probable stroke, though they did not know its timing, he said.
Even now, he said, he wrestles with brain fog. He searched for words to describe it.
“Lost,” he said.
He recalled an incident during a Walmart trip not long after his hospitalization that he attributes to brain fog. He and his wife went down separate aisles, and once she was out of sight, he could not remember whether she told him where she was going or think about how to handle it.
“I went into a major panic attack then and there,” he said, adding that he clung to a pillar and waited for his wife to find him.
Earlier this year, he said, his symptoms forced him to retire as the application systems manager for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Another long-covid patient, Dave Nothstein, 52, of Colorado Springs, said he is still able to work remotely for an automobile dealership but only enough hours per week to pay for his insurance.
His greatest challenges are with word recall and short-term memory.
After his long-covid diagnosis in March, Nothstein said, his brain was so foggy that he had to make detailed to-do lists to get through the day. “As silly as it sounds, it included ‘make sure to eat breakfast,’ ‘make sure to feed the dogs,’ ‘get the mail,’ ‘do the laundry,’ ‘do the dishes,’ ” he said.
He’s now working with a cognitive therapist, which isn’t covered by insurance, to try to deal with his impairment.
Cancer treatment and chronic illness can also cause brain fog
Brain fog also can affect people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (also known as chronic fatigue syndrome), fibromyalgia, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), Lyme disease and depression, experts say.
Patients who have undergone chemotherapy also report brain fog, which is often described as “chemo brain.”
The severity and duration vary but the symptoms can have “an adverse effect on occupational, familial and social lives and can result in diminished quality of life,” said Jeffrey Wefel, a professor and chief of neuropsychology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Angela Hernandez, 36, of Houston, said she fought through months of brain fog starting in 2018 after four rounds of chemotherapy for ovarian cancer.
“You know when you dream and then you wake up and you can almost remember what you were dreaming about, but then as the seconds pass, the dream gets further and further away?” she said. “That’s kind of what it felt like all the time.”
For Kelsey Botti, it started with a concussion from a snowboarding accident in 2012. Later, Botti, a 32-year-old physical therapist from Pittsburgh, was diagnosed with POTS, a syndrome often characterized by a fast heart rate, low blood pressure, and oftentimes dizziness, lightheadedness and fainting upon standing — and in some cases, brain fog.
“I wanted to cry because I was so thankful that someone was helping me, and I had a diagnosis and a direction,” she said. “And then I also wanted to cry because the person that I was, was completely gone.”
Botti underwent months of treatment that included medication and a controlled exercise program to build her tolerance. And though there were bumps and emergency-room visits along the way, she said she that her symptoms have improved.
The stigma of brain fog
One challenge in treating brain fog is that patients can appear healthy, but feel terrible, said Robert Wilson, a neurologist with Cleveland Clinic’s Neurological Institute. “If they don’t find the right medical team to understand them, they will pull away from health care and access health care less, so there are less opportunities for them,” he said.
A barrier to effectively care for patients with brain fog is the stigma attached to it, said Jacqueline Becker, a neuropsychologist at Mount Sinai who has studied cognitive impairment after covid.
“The stigma prevents people from getting adequate care where physicians tend to write them off and say, ‘No, you’re young. Don’t worry about it. You’ll get better.’ Or, ‘Look, your brain scan came back as normal. There’s nothing wrong with you,’ ” she said. “And on the other side of that, you have a patient who is really struggling to function.”
Rachael Grossman, a 22-year-old from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, said she started developing symptoms of brain fog after a bout of whooping cough when she was 17. “I was bounced back and forth to so many different physicians, told it was in my head, told it was anxiety,” she said.
Two years later, in 2019, she was diagnosed with POTS. Grossman is now a neuroscience major at Baldwin Wallace University and works part time as a medical scribe. She said she has to find ways to try to overcome her “haze.”
On bad days, she said she can spend hours studying for a test without retaining a word, struggle to perform at the level she wants to at work, or feel uncomfortable driving because she worries that she may zone out.
“It will continue to affect me, sadly, but it’s just figuring out ways to get around it,” she said. | 2022-11-28T11:34:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Long covid has pushed brain fog into the spotlight - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/28/long-covid-brain-fog/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/28/long-covid-brain-fog/ |
FILE - In this picture released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with a group of Basij paramilitary force in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 26, 2022. The niece of Iran’s supreme leader is calling for people to pressure their governments to cut ties with Tehran. Farideh Moradkhani, whose uncle is Ali Khamenei, issued the call in a video statement circulated after her Nov. 23 arrest, reported by the U.S.-based rights monitor HRANA. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, File) (Uncredited/Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader)
BAGHDAD — The niece of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is calling on people to pressure their governments to cut ties with Tehran over it’s violent suppression of anti-government protests. | 2022-11-28T11:35:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Niece of supreme leader asks world to cut ties with Iran - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/niece-of-supreme-leader-asks-world-to-cut-ties-with-iran/2022/11/28/d64493fc-6f0a-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/niece-of-supreme-leader-asks-world-to-cut-ties-with-iran/2022/11/28/d64493fc-6f0a-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
Mike Rizzo, the Nationals' longtime general manager, is set to lead the organization for another season. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
For the second straight offseason, a top task for the Washington Nationals is filling a number of new roles, many of them aimed at modernizing an operation that has lagged behind the times.
Of the 18 created positions, one is on the major league staff, five are in the research and development (analytics) department, and 12 are for player development, spread across the team’s top five minor league affiliates. Here is the full list, according to external job postings and multiple people directly involved with the club’s plans:
For the major league staff: a biomechanics expert working with pitchers
For research and development: two baseball systems engineers, two analysts and a web developer
For player development: an assistant director of player development technology and strategy; a biomechanics expert working with pitchers; a biomechanics expert working with hitters (consultant); an assistant strength and conditioning coordinator; a manager of minor league logistics; two clubhouse assistants in West Palm Beach, Fla.; and five performance associates (one each at an affiliate in Rochester, N.Y.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Wilmington, Del.; Fredericksburg, Va.; and West Palm Beach)
A guiding motive of the positions — or at least the bulk of them — is to effectively process and analyze a new stream of information from Hawk-Eye technology.
At the end of this past summer, the Nationals outfitted six of their ballparks with Hawk-Eye systems: Nationals Park and team facilities in Rochester, Harrisburg, Wilmington, Fredericksburg and West Palm Beach. Hawk-Eye data, unique in its ability to track player movement, will be the top responsibility for the performance associate at each affiliate. The data also will be critical to how the three biomechanics experts function within the organization, with one joining pitching coach Jim Hickey, quality assurance coordinator Jonathan Tosches, and David Higgins, manager of major league strategy — all members of Manager Dave Martinez’s staff.
When the team began installing the Hawk-Eye technology, multiple members of the front office were worried about not having enough manpower to sift through the coming wave of biomechanical information. Beyond giving the Nationals fresh and current ways to develop their players, the partnership with Hawk-Eye adds them to a data-sharing network that spans much of the league, which Washington can use to evaluate opponents and possible acquisitions.
Before the 2020 season, MLB switched from TrackMan radar to Hawk-Eye cameras to collect data for Statcast. By opting for Hawk-Eye’s best available tech throughout the organization, the Nationals will have access to industry-standard ball-tracking information and cutting-edge player movement data for its biomechanics experts, analytics team, coaches and strength and conditioning staff.
The personnel additions build on a facelift that started a year ago. After the Nationals’ teardown began in July 2021, ownership greenlit the expansion of what was the smallest player development staff in Major League Baseball. Washington brought on more coaches, more coordinators and — perhaps most importantly — a new director of player development technology and strategy, David Longley, who will soon oversee an assistant director along with the five performance associates. And though limited plans to improve the major league roster made it easier to spend on personnel, this second effort is intriguing for a few reasons that go beyond winning more games.
The first factor is the potential sale of the franchise. As the Lerner family continues to talk with prospective buyers, investing in technology and data-focused positions could help present the Nationals as healthy and growing in the right direction.
That doesn’t mean Washington will be mistaken for the Tampa Bay Rays or Los Angeles Dodgers when it comes to modern practices in player development and scouting. But making these changes — which are far cheaper than running a competitive payroll — can’t hurt outside perception and evaluation of the team.
Another factor, then, is how General Manager Mike Rizzo fits into the narrative of overdue growth. Rizzo, 61 and a traditional scout to his core, could soon be pitching himself and his front office to a new owner (or ownership group). If that happens, showing tangible gains in data and technology would reflect well on him, even if they are mostly in service of playing catch-up.
According to two people in the front office, Rizzo has been “very open” to adding analysts, programmers, biomechanics experts and performance associates — as well as Hawk-Eye technology at every minor league site — whereas in past years he may have been more likely to push back.
Part of that might be the effects of recognizing the need for adaptation after three consecutive last-place finishes. Looming for Rizzo, though, could be the challenge of keeping the job he has held for more than 13 years.
“We’re getting there,” Rizzo said at MLB’s general managers meetings in early November, answering a question about the first year of player development under De Jon Watson. “We’re not there yet. We have plenty of room to get better.”
Any conversation about the Nationals, data and technology should include familiar caveats. If they want to truly improve their scouting, player development and game-planning processes, they can’t stop at hiring more forward thinkers. Those forward thinkers must also be empowered by key decision-makers, whether that’s Martinez, Watson or Rizzo himself, and not be pushed into the background with their work watered down before it gets to the players — or kept from the players entirely. An increase in direct contact with the players would be a critical step.
So far, advancements of the past 12 months have not been met with necessary shifts in organizational culture. But there are still opportunities to fix that. | 2022-11-28T12:46:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nationals' rebuild continues with new data and technology personnel - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/nationals-rebuild-staff-data-technology/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/nationals-rebuild-staff-data-technology/ |
The US housing market is in an uneasy state of equilibrium. Demand has plummeted as mortgage rates hit a two-decade high, but prices haven’t declined much in part because supply remains correspondingly low. If borrowing costs don’t start to normalize by early next year though, the scales may finally tip and prices could plunge.
The start of the year, of course, is when homeowners and real estate agents start to bring new inventory to market. It’s a time-honored tradition that draws on some smart strategy and a bit of industry lore. As the thinking goes, buyers and sellers often want to get their transactions closed by summer, especially if they have children starting at new schools in September. Agents also contend that homes look their best in spring, surrounded by lush landscaping and emerald green lawns. Even if sellers don’t come out in quite their usual numbers this year, there may still be enough additional inventory to push home prices over the cliff.
Clearly, the amount of supply on the market is still extraordinarily low relative to demand. It would take just 3.3 months to work through the market’s existing home inventory, based on non-seasonally adjusted data for the most recent month. The metric had already been declining consistently for a decade through 2019, but the pandemic brought it to unthinkable lows. It’s no wonder that the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index is down only about 2% from its peak despite mortgage rates surging to 7% from 3% in 10 months.
But every year, the inventory-to-sales ratio spikes in January and February as transactions crater and the first new listings start to come online in anticipation of the spring open house season, which can set bad things in motion in times of stress. In January 2008, supply jumped by four months worth of housing to 15 months, and there was a similar spike during every January of the housing bust. The last two years have experienced unusually muted spikes in the ratio, but that won’t repeat again this winter. If you zoom in, it’s already clear that the number of months of supply has been climbing in a seasonally unusual manner. The trend line will start to look concerning if it breaks through seasonal norms from 2018 and 2019 in the months ahead.
Consider the various countervailing forces in the market heading into the 2023 inventory surge. On the one hand, some would-be sellers will decide to forgo transactions this year and hunker down in their existing homes, many financed with below-3% mortgages that they’d forfeit if they bought a new property. On the other hand, more than 30 million single-family homes and condominiums in the US — 34% of the total — are mortgage free, according to data compiled by real estate analytics firm Attom. And many more homeowners simply won’t have the luxury of waiting for the next open house season to roll around. They include but are not limited to:
• People with growing families who need to buy a bigger house;
• Seniors who need to move for health-related reasons;
• People required to move for work.
On the latter point, housing bulls will often emphasize what they see as the cosmic shift that’s come from increased working from home. But that doesn’t imply that Americans will no longer move for their jobs. Hybrid work in knowledge-based industries certainly looks poised to endure, yet many companies no longer allow working full time from whatever palm-tree-lined destination their employees choose. As of June, only about 15% of full-time employees are fully remote, according to data from the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes,(1)an online survey of US residents. That’s still much higher than anyone ever imagined before the pandemic, but it still leaves 85% who may have to sell their homes if they get fired or leave their job for a new one in another part of the country.
All told, the early 2023 inventory spike looks unavoidable, and the real question is where mortgage rates will be when the listings hit the market. If inflation continues to moderate, that could lead financial markets to anticipate a change in monetary policy later next year. That would set the stage for Treasury bonds to rally and a corresponding drop in mortgage rates. It’s a race against the clock, though, and you’d have to hope for a near-perfect run of inflation data to assuage jittery policymakers and financial market participants and bring 30-year mortgages back down below, say, 6%. Even then, it’s unlikely that rates will look anywhere near as attractive as the loans that prevailed for most of the past decade, and they might not be enough to keep the market’s delicate equilibrium intact and prices afloat.
• Have We Been Measuring Housing Inflation All Wrong?: Justin Fox
(1) Based on research of Jose Maria Barrero of the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico; Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University; and Steven J. Davis of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. | 2022-11-28T13:04:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rising Inventory Will Be the Housing Market’s Next Problem - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/rising-inventory-will-be-the-housing-markets-next-problem/2022/11/28/069db7cc-6f15-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/rising-inventory-will-be-the-housing-markets-next-problem/2022/11/28/069db7cc-6f15-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
Climate Coach
Why The Washington Post is starting a climate advice column
Advice by Michael J. Coren
For millions of people, climate change is a deeply, unavoidably personal story. When interviewing people, I often ask if they recall the moment they knew climate change was happening to them right now, the moment when climate models and warnings became real. For some, it was the blistering heat against their skin during the August 2021 heat dome in the Pacific Northwest. Or a cardboard sign asking “Is global warming the culprit?” on a car windshield smashed after Hurricane Sandy roared ashore in New Jersey in 2012.
For me, it was the morning of Sept. 9, 2020, when the dawn never came. All week, wildfires raged from Seattle to Mexico, depositing a thick layer of soot and smoke over California. Around 7 a.m., I watched a blood-red orb traverse the sky over my home in San Francisco. “Mother Nature just gave us a red card,” a friend wrote me later that night, shortly after deciding to move back to Britain, “and it’s going to get worse.”
Moments like these are a major reason I have begun hearing a question I hadn’t heard much in a decade covering climate change,: “What can I do?”
We’re launching the Climate Coach at The Washington Post to answer this question. Don’t expect lists of “101 things” or symbolic gestures. No plastic straw campaigns here. We’ll be digging into data and giving evidence-backed advice and thoughtful analysis about what matters in protecting the planet, the environment and one another.
Each week, the Climate Coach column and newsletter will host an honest discussion about the environmental choices we face in our daily lives. We’ll approach these questions with curiosity, optimism — and vigilant skepticism.
You may have heard the argument that there’s nothing ordinary people can do that matters except voting: It’s the Green New Deal or bust. But there’s a second view, one that sees individual action as critically important.
While global problems don’t seem entirely amenable to individual action, that is only part of the story. Human culture and global warming are not linear systems. They are driven by exponential curves, social contagions and threshold effects. They exist at the messy confluence of biology, economics, psychology and physics.
Take solar panels. In 2021, researchers in the journal Nature published a paper studying why people install solar panels on their roofs. Subsidies, geography and policy were all considered. The most powerful factor? Whether a neighbor already had solar panels. There was even a proximity effect. People living within two blocks of homes with panels were the most likely to buy their own. Solar panels, in other words, were contagious. With climate, we must consider social norms as well as policies and incentives.
We’ll take this as a guiding principle at the Climate Coach column. Individual climate action is more than the sum of its parts, complementing, not substituting for, transformative political and economic change.
We’ll answer your concerns and follow your interests (let me know your questions here). We’ll explore how to change your career for the climate. Savor invasive species (pass the lionfish). How to invest your savings in a stable climate. Uncover the incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act. Meet the bugs that will feed the future. Repower communities in coal country. Swap cars for people on slow streets. Try on fashion’s mend-and-repair movement. Track down sources of air pollution in your home and neighborhood. And learn, perhaps, how to worry a bit less and act a bit more on the climate.
I’ve been been working on climate issues for more than 15 years — including the last six as a reporter and editor at the news site Quartz — and I also spent several years developing climate policy for international organizations.
But for me, this column will also be personal. In June, my son, Vaughan, was born. The only Earth he has ever known is nearly 1.2° Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the one most humans have experienced. Once he is my age, he is expected to live in a world with carbon dioxide levels exceeding those that existed more than 4 million years ago, a period when forests took root in the Arctic and sea levels flooded where the cities we live in exist today.
That’s not a world I want to pass on to him or the 10 billion or so others he will be sharing the planet with by 2050, the year that scientists working under the United Nations advise the world should reach net-zero emissions to avoid the most catastrophic warming. I want Vaughan, and everyone else, to have the best possible chance in a warming world. Fortunately, that’s a choice we have as a society — and as individuals.
The Climate Coach column and newsletter will launch in January. Sign up now. | 2022-11-28T13:04:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why The Washington Post is starting a climate advice column - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/28/why-washington-post-is-starting-climate-advice-column/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/28/why-washington-post-is-starting-climate-advice-column/ |
A red spruce sapling is displayed at the Southern Highlands Reserve in Lake Toxaway, N.C., on Nov. 4. (Jacob Biba for The Washington Post)
Advocates are hoping to draw attention to the challenges the trees face in a warmer, drier world
Lake Toxaway, N.C. — In a kitchen near her office at the Southern Highlands Reserve, perched 4,500 feet high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Kelly Holdbrooks slides a paper grocery bag out of a cabinet.
She pulls out a half-dozen pine cones and holds them to the afternoon light, explaining that the seeds inside will one day be grown into saplings and planted throughout these mountains.
“This is what came off Ruby,” says Holdbrooks, the reserve’s executive director.
That would be Ruby, a.k.a Picea rubens, a 78-foot-tall red spruce that U.S. Forest Service officials had harvested the day before, a stone’s throw from the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Pisgah National Forest.
Barely 24 hours later, Ruby lay on a trailer inside a cavernous warehouse at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center, an hour’s drive away. Workers were preparing the towering tree for its two-week tour through North Carolina and Virginia to Washington, where after its official lighting Tuesday, it will spend the holiday season shimmering on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol.
But far from Capitol Hill, Holdbrooks and other advocates are hoping Ruby’s moment in the national spotlight will bring long-overdue attention to the importance of red spruce trees — and to the ways a species once threatened by logging and acid rain now faces the perils of a fast-warming climate. They also hope the choice of a red spruce as the Capitol Christmas Tree will bolster the decades-long effort to restore the trees in their natural habitats throughout the Appalachians.
“They are iconic,” Holdbrooks said.
She noted that the pyramid-shaped trees, distinguished by hardy, yellow-green needles, provide a key habitat to a range of plants and animals, including endangered species such as the Carolina northern flying squirrel and the spruce-fir moss spider — one of the world’s smallest tarantulas.
And humans fortunate enough to trek through a cool, moist red spruce forest, with its spongy turf underfoot, encounter an almost mystical escape. “It’s got this J.R.R. Tolkien thing going on,” Holdbrooks said.
She and an array of government officials, conservation workers and volunteers have ambitious plans to ensure that red spruces — relics of the last Ice Age — thrive in these mountains for generations to come.
“It pushes me every day to work harder,” she said.
‘The elephant in the room’
Red spruces have endured an array of scourges.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the species was prized by loggers hacking their way through East Coast forests. The spruce’s light color and weight, its straight grain and resilience made it ideal for building musical instruments, making paper and even sawing into lumber for construction.
“It was just a very high-quality wood,” said Stephen Keller, an associate professor of plant biology at the University of Vermont who has long studied the red spruce.
Years of heavy logging sharply reduced the presence of the stately trees, which once dominated forests throughout the Appalachian range. Slash burning and sparks from trains that were used to haul timber out of the forests triggered fires that further harmed the species.
“There was a lot of peat and organic matter, and that was just fuel for these fires,” Keller said.
The 2022 Capitol Christmas tree is a red spruce from the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina, a tree species threatened by climate change. (Video: The Washington Post)
Another serious hazard arrived decades later, when industrial pollution led to the problem of acid rain in the 1960s and ’70s. That was particularly harsh on red spruces, Keller said, because acid rain leached calcium out of the soil, the trees became susceptible to damage from midwinter warming followed by cold snaps.
The Clean Air Act eventually helped resolve that problem, and researchers started to see a slow recovery of the red spruce.
Meanwhile, the invasion of the balsam woolly adelgid, an exotic aphid-like insect from Europe that particularly ravaged Fraser firs, added yet another menace. One research paper found the pest “has wreaked considerable ecological havoc” throughout spruce-fir forests in the Southern Appalachians.
These days, however, climate change poses the most profound threat.
“The elephant in the room,” Holdbrooks calls it.
Because red spruces prefer cool, humid environments, more-extreme midsummer heat and drier conditions have put the trees under increasing stress.
Keller said numerous models that seek to predict the future distribution of the tree species “show severe reduction in suitable climate throughout most of its range.”
Katy Shallows, the restoration strategy manager for the Central Appalachians program at the Nature Conservancy, acknowledges that without help, the pockets of red spruce that have endured past challenges face a daunting future.
“We’re going to be in trouble if the climate is changing and there’s not the capacity to adapt and evolve,” she said.
Gene editing could revive a nearly lost tree. Not everyone is onboard.
But she also has optimism about what lies ahead, she said, in part because of the dedicated environmentalists who are determined not to let red spruces such as Ruby face climate change alone.
“We’ve come a long way,” she said, “but we still have a long ways to go.”
‘Things are not getting any easier’
To understand why those striving to restore red spruce forests feel so passionate about the work, Shallows said, it is important to grasp what would be lost if these ancient trees vanish.
“It’s critical to maintain red spruce forests in the highest elevations because they will be the climate refugia for many of the species that depend on them — and many of the species that are moving upslope as the climate gets warmer and drier,” she said.
Red spruces provide shelter and food to an array of birds and mammals, including the northern saw-whet owl, the black-capped chickadee and multiple types of salamanders. They also provide harbor to a plethora of plants, such as the wood sorrel and bluebead lily, and lichen with names such as Appalachian Dust Bunnies and Oosting’s Square Britches.
Without spruce-fir forests — where the two evergreens reside — those other species’ sanctuaries will shrink.
“Then those species will have nowhere to go, especially as it gets hotter and drier,” Shallows said. “We will lose a lot of that biodiversity.”
Her group and others are doing what they can to prevent that.
For decades, the Nature Conservancy and other groups have planted stands of red spruce across sites in West Virginia, western Maryland and southwestern Virginia — with a focus not only on helping to expand and connect often isolated islands of trees, but also on trying to increase the genetic diversity of the trees to make them more resilient.
Partnerships such as the Central Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative and the Southern Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative do similar work up and down the East Coast, leveraging the resources and expertise of state and federal government agencies, nonprofit organizations and private conservations groups.
Since 2009, the Southern Highlands Reserve has propagated red spruce seedlings in its modest nursery and has grown more than 10,000 saplings. It has worked with partners to plant more than 6,000 of those on public lands in Western North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
The reserve boasts that it has “an unprecedented 90 percent success rate” of survival for its red spruce trees — a figure Holdbrooks attributes to using only the hardiest seedlings and letting them mature longer before planting, so the trees will withstand winds, falling leaves and other challenges of life in the forest.
As part of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Program, the Forest Service has partnered with the reserve and promised $50,000 toward the construction of a state-of-the-art nursery that will grow red spruce seedlings. The National Forest Foundation aims to contribute at least $200,000 more for the structure, which will be built at the reserve and be a key piece of an effort to raise 50,000 red spruce trees from seed and plant them on public lands in the region.
Holdbrooks expects that when the updated greenhouse is eventually built on-site, the reserve’s capacity will be doubled and the job of caring for young trees will be easier.
The restoration efforts give the species a decent shot to endure in the age of climate change, Keller said.
“A lot of people feel a responsibility to do everything we can to make those remnant patches that are left as resilient as possible, and also to increase the numbers,” he added. “We want to give this species its best possible chance to stick around and weather the challenges that are ahead. Things are not getting any easier.”
Ruby’s legacy
Back at the Southern Highlands Reserve, Holdbrooks walks along an overlook, the mountains behind her unfurling in every direction.
She points at patches of high-elevation, dark-green forest in the distance that stand in sharp contrast to the red and orange and gold autumn leaves that cover most hillsides.
“That’s the spruce-fir forests,” she says.
Nearby, she checks on seedlings at the reserve’s two on-site greenhouses. “This is where the magic happens,” she half-jokes. Inside sit the thumb-size beginning of trees that advocates hope will grow where red spruces once thrived and, they hope, will thrive again.
“We’re just putting them back where our ancestors cut them down,” Holdbrooks says.
Meanwhile, Keller had a one-word reaction to the news that the federal government had chosen a red spruce as this year’s Capitol Christmas tree.
“Awesome,” he said.
He hopes the move will bring a wave of attention to the conservation efforts. “And if it encourages people to read and learn about it and maybe take a hike and experience these forests themselves, I think that’s amazing.”
On a recent afternoon, months after a team of biologists, silviculturists, forestry technicians and arborists first scoured the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests looking for the right tree, Ruby was in Asheville about to begin the 14-stop journey — pausing for public events at courthouses and a high school, at a zoo and in town squares — on the way to Washington. Before she was loaded onto the trailer, workers were busy decorating her upper reaches with colorful lights.
“It will not look like this again until it’s unpacked at the Capitol,” said Adrianne Rubiaco, a spokeswoman for the Forest Service, as workers readied the tree for the two-week trip.
But even after Ruby’s time on the Mall in D.C. ends, after the ornaments have been removed and her once-majestic needles wither, her story won’t quite be over.
Her pine cones and the seeds inside them remain inside that paper grocery bag at the Southern Highlands Reserve, waiting to make their way into the world.
“Her seedlings will be part of the next generation of red spruce,” Rubiaco said. “ ‘Ruby’s legacy,’ we call it. Life after the West Lawn.” | 2022-11-28T13:04:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ruby, the Capitol Christmas Tree, is part of a species in climate peril - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/11/28/capitol-christmas-tree-red-spruce/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/11/28/capitol-christmas-tree-red-spruce/ |
How comedian Sylvia Traymore Morrison would spend a perfect day in D.C.
Ask Sylvia Traymore Morrison about her five decades in comedy and she’ll promptly recall tales of hosting a roast of Muhammad Ali in Harlem, entertaining the troops abroad during the Vietnam War, and waiting in line at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles alongside David Letterman, Jay Leno and Robin Williams.
But don’t be fooled by the well-traveled D.C. native’s exploits elsewhere: The comedian, impressionist and author never abandoned her hometown.
“The reason why I actually love the whole D.C. comedy scene is because it’s so competitive,” Morrison says, citing such local luminaries as Dave Chappelle, Martin Lawrence and Wanda Sykes. “I was in LA. I moved back East to New York. I was in Miami. I was in Atlanta. But I always came back to D.C. because it was such a challenge.”
Nowadays, Morrison is tackling a new challenge: Starring in the Andy Evans-written one-woman show “The Return of Jackie Moms Mabley,” which will be performed for the first time Dec. 14 at the Carlyle Room. Audiences can also spot Morrison in Parrish Smith’s upcoming documentary “The Mecca of Comedy,” about the rise of Black comedy in D.C. from the 1980s to today.
On her perfect day in the D.C. area, the Southwest resident does what she does best: find any excuse she can to get onstage and entertain.
My perfect day starts with me waking up, getting dressed and going down to the gym. Then I’d walk a couple of blocks to my favorite McDonald’s to get myself the finest cup of hot coffee that America has to offer. I don’t know why I love McDonald’s coffee so much, especially when there’s a Starbucks right down the street from it. But I love going into McDonald’s. All I do is get a hot cup of coffee, sit there and watch the movement of the city.
I live maybe six blocks from the Capitol, and I see so much wonderful stuff going on with all of the people who march and protest. It’s heartwarming for me. I often think, “How nice would it be if I could be out here on their stage and take their mind off of what’s going on, just momentarily, and give them a few laughs?” So that would be part of my dream day.
For lunch, I would love to head down to Ben’s Chili Bowl. The proprietor Miss Virginia [Ali] always greets me and makes a big deal: “Oh, Sylvia is here! Hi, Sylvia, come on in.” I still love my half-smoke with chili, and she can throw some onions on top of it. After that, I would squeeze in an appearance on one of Cathy Hughes’s radio shows and do a couple of impressions.
If it’s a perfect Sylvia day, I’d have to visit Richard Wright Public Charter Schools and spend at least an hour entertaining the kids, because there’s nothing more rewarding and charming for me than going to a school. Another one of the things that I enjoy most is going to a senior home and performing, so I would head to Washington Seniors Wellness Center and get a few of my favorite comedians from the area to join me: Andy Evans, Tony Woods, Chris Thomas and Robin Montague.
Next, I’d go out for dinner and get crab cakes and spinach at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab. I was just there, and the food was so good I wanted to scream. And my dream day would end with me at a club onstage. Sometimes I just go sit and watch the comics, though most of the time they’ll say, “Sylvia Traymore Morrison is in the house. Can we get her to come up and do a few minutes?” I like the DC Improv, and would love to end my dream day by headlining there for a whole packed house. | 2022-11-28T13:04:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How comedian Sylvia Traymore Morrison would spend a perfect day in D.C. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/28/sylvia-traymore-morrison-dream-day/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/28/sylvia-traymore-morrison-dream-day/ |
If you ignore history, Biden looks like the only Democrat who can win
President Biden arrives for a pardoning ceremony for the national Thanksgiving turkeys on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
I’ve long been amazed at how quickly a talking point can become accepted wisdom, even when it makes no sense, and even when believing it can be perilous for a political party.
Lately, I’ve heard a few senior Democrats making the same argument about their party’s 2024 presidential nomination — that not only can President Biden beat Donald Trump or another Republican, but that he is probably the only Democrat out there who can.
Which would be persuasive, if it didn’t ignore pretty much everything we know about modern politics.
I’m not saying Biden wouldn’t win, or that he hasn’t earned the right to run again. Being underestimated is the recurring subtext of Biden’s career. Time and again, he has proved the prognostications wrong — most recently in this month’s elections.
After almost a half-century as an understudy, Biden is now clearly his party’s leading man. Aside from more polarizing contemporaries such as Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi, no other Democrat has the national stature to glide easily into the role of standard-bearer.
And, as Biden likes to point out, he is the only candidate who has managed to beat Trump. In fact, it’s been a quarter century since Democrats won a presidential campaign without Biden on the ticket. Think about that.
But just because you’ve won before doesn’t mean you will again. There’s plenty of recent history to suggest that renominating Biden would be reckless, for both the party and the country.
The cliche about presidential elections — that they’re about the future and not the past —happens to be true. Biden will be closing in on 82 by the fall of 2024, which would easily make him the oldest nominee in history. His pace and stamina remain impressive, but if anyone says he seems a decade younger than his age, they’re being kind.
His approval ratings, even at a feel-good moment for his party, hover around 40 percent, which is historically low. The odds that he will govern during a recession over the next two years, on the other hand, are alarmingly high.
Given those conditions, you would have to think that being an incumbent, in our time of perpetual dissatisfaction, is more a curse than a blessing. Consider this: In the first seven decades of the 20th century, only two incumbents lost a presidential campaign. In the 50 years since, nine sitting presidents have appeared on the ballot, and four of them (Ford, Carter, George H.W. Bush, Trump) have lost.
Three of those four presidents — all but Trump — lost to governors who promised to reform Washington from the outside.
To this point, Biden’s presidency has the feel of Gerald Ford’s or George H.W. Bush’s. He’s solid and statesmanlike, reassuring but uninspiring. His fate, like theirs, might be determined by factors beyond his control.
If Trump isn’t the nominee in 2024, Republicans will very likely choose a candidate — whether it’s Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or someone else — who fits the classic outsider profile. That would stack up well against Biden’s main weaknesses — age and establishmentarianism.
But even if Trump regains his hold on the party, the strongest contrast Democrats could offer would probably be someone younger, less familiar and untethered to the economy he or she would inherit.
It’s true that no Democrat fitting that description has a national following right now (with the possible exception of Pete Buttigieg, who might retain some outsider cred despite being the transportation secretary). But that’s what campaigns are for.
The longer Biden waits to make a decision, the longer he freezes the field of potential outsiders, and the less time any of those Democratic candidates would have to introduce themselves to the country.
In other words, with every day of uncertainty that passes, the more Biden’s renomination becomes the only viable option.
Which is why, were I someone like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer or Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, both of whom just won clear victories in their states, I’d start running now.
I’d make clear to anyone who asked that I would defer to Biden in the event that he’s actually running by the fall of 2023. But in the meantime, I’d go out and behave very much like a candidate for president, giving high-profile policy speeches and showing up in primary states.
That way, among the Biden alternatives, I’d have the news media mostly to myself for a while, and I’d already know what policies were resonating with voters if the president decided to step aside at the last minute.
No aspiring candidate should assume that Biden will end up running for reelection, even if he says he will. And leading Democrats shouldn’t assume that renominating the president is the safest course for 2024.
In reality, it might be the riskiest thing they can do. | 2022-11-28T13:05:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Nominating Biden in 2024 would be the riskiest choice for Democrats - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/biden-2024-reckless-risky/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/biden-2024-reckless-risky/ |
Congress could act on the border and ‘dreamers’ this year
By Donald Graham
Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, your important immigration goals are in danger. Can the parties do the impossible in this lame-duck session of Congress by passing a bill that achieves both their priorities on this most inflammatory of issues?
The peril to both sides stems from a careless promise made by Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the likely incoming speaker of the House. He pledged that on his watch, no “amnesty” bill will come to the floor.
For the “dreamers” who have waited decades for congressional action to give them a chance at citizenship, and the Democrats who support them, McCarthy’s pledge means continuing to wait until at least 2025. This would be terrible for the dreamers — and bad for the rest of us, too.
Just as sincerely, Republicans want to address security along the southern border. For those who want to do something about it — as opposed to merely talking about it — McCarthy’s promise also means a two-year wait. Joe Biden, who will be president until 2025, will not sign an all-enforcement border bill. (If incoming Republicans think they can force such a bill on him by parliamentary means, they should ask McCarthy how successful he was at repealing Obamacare.)
I am an independent who thinks both the Republicans and the Democrats are basically right. This country needs to better secure its southern border and enforce its immigration laws. The current situation on the border helps no one except “coyotes” whose profit helps to drive it. We should also welcome to the American family immigrants who have lived here for decades and led productive lives, particularly those who arrived as young children.
Nine years ago, I helped start a scholarship fund for dreamers, undocumented immigrants who came to this country as children. Among the 8,750 who won our scholarships, the average student came here as a 4-year-old. Most of them (the DACA recipients) had proved to the Department of Homeland Security that they had no serious criminal convictions. But unlike their high school classmates, when it came time for college, they could receive no federal grants or loans for tuition. With little money of their own, most of them had been in effect barred from college.
All of us who started TheDream.us believed the opportunity to attend college should be good for these students — and great, as well, for the rest of us. The dreamers could get a good education and pour into careers where we desperately need them. And their burning motivation would make them excellent nurses and teachers, doctors and lawyers, and businesspeople.
As rather old-fashioned Americans, we also thought these young people were being treated cruelly. If you are brought to the United States by your parents as a baby, there is nothing you can do to become a citizen. Nothing. Two dreamers have won Rhodes scholarships and they remain undocumented. More than 200 are doctors or medical students, but not citizens.
In poll after poll, 70 to 75 percent of American voters favor giving such immigrants the chance to stay here, study and work — and ultimately become citizens.
Our country needs the dreamers. We desperately need nurses; since 2005, more than 180 rural hospitals have closed. Among our scholars, the No. 1 major is nursing and health care. Education majors make up another large group, and the United States also desperately needs teachers.
Another important employer in need of help is the Army, which has missed its recruiting goals this past fiscal year by 25 percent — even after offering citizens $50,000 to enlist. Why not allow young immigrants, educated since first grade in American schools, to enlist as a path to citizenship (after all the background checks anyone wants). The military would fill its ranks with willing and able young people who love this country.
Those who pay attention to the plight of the dreamers know that, in 2012, President Barack Obama created DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) to give them a small head start. Those who came to the United States as young children, had no criminal convictions and met certain other criteria got two years freedom from deportation, as well as a work permit and a Social Security number, which had to be renewed every two years. They paid $495 to apply for or renew DACA, but then they could work. They still received no federal college aid or loans or other such benefits.
It’s hard to quickly name an equally successful federal program that cost so little. More than 800,000 DACA recipients went to work and began to pay what would, over a lifetime, amount to billions of dollars in taxes.
Yet DACA is in legal jeopardy. As recipients were enjoying their minimal benefits, Texas’s Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, spent his taxpayers’ money on a lawsuit aiming to end the program — even though Texas voters favor it 2 to 1, according to two University of Texas polls. Judge Andrew Hanen, a federal judge known for his anti-immigration sentiment, responded with a finding that DACA had been unlawfully adopted.
The ultraconservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has endorsed Hanen’s reasoning, and the lawsuit will be referred to the Supreme Court. In 2020, the justices unexpectedly saved DACA from an unrelated legal attack, but the court is different since the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett.
Hanen ruled that existing DACA recipients could keep their status and renew it “until a further order of this court” or others. But by his order, no new applications can be approved. President Donald Trump had already banned new DACA approvals in September 2017. When Biden reopened the program in January 2021, much of the federal government was still shut down by covid. Of about 80,000 young people who applied for DACA status, only about 5,000 were approved. Judge Hanen’s order seven months later stopped the program in its tracks.
This means that the vast majority of DACA-eligible students who turned 15 in 2017 or later cannot get a work permit. They can’t get a job at Starbucks or Google or anywhere else. Any employer in the United States that tries to hire them is committing a federal crime.
The Migration Policy Institute estimates that 98,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools every year. No matter how able they are or how well-educated, most will be forced to do the work their undocumented parents do: clean houses, or work off the books in restaurants or on construction jobs.
Unless Congress changes the law, over the next 10 years, about 1 million new high school graduates will never be able to work. The nurses and teachers in our scholarship program won’t staff hospitals or classrooms.
Given that Congress has not passed an immigration bill since 1986, is it possible that lawmakers might approve one during this year’s lame-duck session? It is, and here’s why:
First look at the issue from the Republicans’ point of view. They believe that the first thing they must address in immigration law is the situation at the southern border, where last year more than 2,700,000 undocumented immigrants crossed the border. Regarding dreamers, many Republican senators and representatives say, we’d like to help them but we won’t until the border situation is fixed.
Doing something about the situation on the border is a good idea. But McCarthy’s pledge binds Republicans as tightly as it does the Democrats. If the speaker will allow no help (he would call it “amnesty”) for immigrants already in the United States to come to the floor, how will he fix the border? Does he think Congress will pass and Biden will sign an immigration bill that’s all enforcement and no relief for immigrants? Of course not.
Republican lawmakers should bring forward their best ideas to reinforce the border and also be prepared to help DACA-eligible young people and others get work permits and a chance at a green card. Give a faster path to citizenship for those who serve in health care or education and in rural or underserved communities. Allow dreamers to serve in the U.S. military.
Democrats, for their part, should be prepared to listen to ideas that would secure the southern border. The current situation appears to have hurt the party in the 2022 elections and will remain a huge problem in 2024. Here is a chance for Democrats to strengthen their immigration policy, while giving deserving people a chance to work legally in the United States — and then become citizens.
Opinion|Kevin McCarthy’s border trip shows how tired this stunt has become | 2022-11-28T13:05:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Congress could act on immigration and dreamers this year - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/congress-republicans-democrats-dreamers-southern-border-immigration/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/congress-republicans-democrats-dreamers-southern-border-immigration/ |
The ultimate gate-crasher reaches the end of the line
By Rick Reilly
Dion Rich, left, helps carry Dallas Coach Tom Landry after the Cowboys beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII on Jan. 15, 1978, in New Orleans. (AP)
There are Taylor Swift tickets selling for more than $8,000 these days. That’s the kind of stuff that would befuddle Dion Rich. “Why pay when you don’t have to?” he always said.
Dion never figured he had to, having sneaked into more than 30 Super Bowls, a lifetime of Oscars and a few dozen Golden Globes. He could sneak into a zoo, steal the stripes off a zebra and be home by breakfast.
He was Zelig. I covered sports for 36 years and he and his salad-bowl haircut were everywhere I was, only in better seats. He was all elbows, 160 pounds and 153 of that was sheer guts. He’d pretend to be an old man who’d lost his grandchildren; a husband whose wife left her purse inside; Mr. Pacino’s personal assistant.
He’s in pictures with Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods. You name the celebrity, I’ll show you Dion’s grinning mug just over their right shoulder. He’s in the shot after the first Super Bowl at the very moment NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle handed the trophy to Green Bay Packers’ Coach Vince Lombardi — before it was even called the Lombardi Trophy.
One of Dion’s proudest possessions was a letter from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who rebuked him in 1999 for busting into their televised soiree. “It looks like you had quite a night last March 21st ... dancing the night away, your pockets bulging with the picture frames that were intended as gifts for our guests,” the director of security wrote. Dion would show you the letter, then an 8x10 of him with his arm around Gwyneth Paltrow. | 2022-11-28T13:05:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Appreciating Dion Rich, who died at 92 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/dion-rich-dies-super-bowl-gatecrasher-appreciation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/dion-rich-dies-super-bowl-gatecrasher-appreciation/ |
American and Iranian players pose for a group photo before their 1998 World Cup match in Lyon, France. Iran upset the Americans, 2-1, for its first World Cup win, eliminating the United States in the group stage. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
I always root for Team USA in any international sporting event. But when it comes to our World Cup match Tuesday against Iran, I think it’s more important our opponents make it to the next round.
The people of Iran are months into nationwide protests demanding fundamental change to the way their country is ruled. At its heart, what’s happening in Iran is an equality movement. Protesters’ goals are in line with U.S. ideals and liberal values generally, and their success would be a major blow to the worldwide authoritarian wave of recent years. This moment deserves attention, and no global stage is bigger than the World Cup. Billions will be watching. The longer Iran stays in, the more recognition its people and their movement will receive.
Iran and the United States have faced each other in the World Cup only once before, and more than two decades later, the impact is still felt. I remember watching the 1998 match at the Los Angeles home of an Iranian American friend of my older brother. I was 22, and it was also the first time I had ever felt something like pride for my heritage.
Moments before the match, Iran’s players offered their American counterparts flowers. It was a perfect example of the Iranian people’s hospitality and their appreciation for the splendor of nature. It must have been an incredibly disarming moment for the United States men’s national team. Iranians all over the globe, though, recognized the act as a sign of who we really are. Suddenly, the world was seeing it, too.
Iran won the game, 2-1.
Iran’s appearance at the most recent World Cup also came at a critical moment: The 2018 tournament was held a little over a month after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal with the Islamic republic. At the time, I wrote that every match Iran competed in presented an opportunity to talk about the difficult conditions facing the people of that country, from their devastated economy to the regime’s denial of basic rights. It’s the same argument this time, only with exponentially higher stakes.
Should this movement in Iran dissipate without real alterations to the ruling system, the cost for participants will be tragic. At least 450 people, including dozens of children, have already been killed, and thousands more have been arrested and imprisoned. Some protesters have already been sentenced to death for simply exercising their universal right to peacefully assemble.
Look at the intense pressure the soccer team itself is under, from all sides. It’s clear players will face repercussions when they return to Iran for any hint that they side with protesters; last week, former national team star Voria Ghafouri was arrested in Iran on charges of propaganda against the regime and damaging the team’s image for making comments critical of the regime.
Yet the team’s current players are still taking those risks.
Ahead of their first game in the cup, the team refused to sing the Islamic republic’s national anthem. That followed team captain Ehsan Hajsafi’s comments that the team is “standing beside” the “grieving families of Iran.” It’s difficult to misinterpret the sentiment of Ramin Rezaeian, who dedicated his goal in Friday’s 2-0 victory over Wales to the suffering people of his homeland.
Those calling on social media for a boycott of Iran’s team say the players haven’t been sufficiently supportive of the protests and that they are owned and operated by the regime. But the team’s words and actions in Qatar tell a different story. The best thing Iranians — and the free world — can do is wish this team success.
Nearly a quarter of a century after the first World Cup meeting of the Iranian and American teams, so much has changed in both countries and the world, but the enmity between the two governments remains frozen in time, and Americans’ understanding of Iran and its people has progressed very little.
A reciprocal gesture of kindness from the United States to match the 1998 Iranians’ white flowers would go a long way. U.S. Soccer stripping the regime’s symbol from the Iranian flag on its social media is meaningful, too. But if the U.S. team itself goes even further before the game and unmistakably voices its support for the equality movement for women, ethnic minorities and children — as the Biden administration surely hopes it will — that would be historic.
And should Iran win, it would advance to the next round of the contest for the first time, capturing even more of the global spotlight for its admirable freedom fighters. In exchange, the United States men’s national team would be eliminated. That would be a blow for this fan, but some things are even more important than soccer. | 2022-11-28T13:05:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Iran-USA World Cup match is a huge opportunity for Iran's protests - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/usa-iran-world-cup-match-significance/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/usa-iran-world-cup-match-significance/ |
Suburbanites are saving the Democrats in Georgia — and elsewhere
Canvassers listen as then-Democratic Senate candidate Raphael G. Warnock speaks in Marietta, Ga., on Jan. 5, 2021. (Kevin D. Liles for The Washington Post)
MARIETTA, Ga. — Cobb County was established in the 1830s by White Americans on land that had been occupied by Cherokees, who were forced to move west in what is now known as the Trail of Tears. It is named after Thomas W. Cobb, who was a U.S. congressman and senator representing Georgia in the early 19th century and owned enslaved Black people. Perhaps the most important figure associated with Cobb is former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who represented the county in Congress in the early 1990s and is in many ways the intellectual godfather of today’s Republican Party.
But Cobb has changed dramatically. It’s now run by a majority-Black county commission. And Cobb is part of a group of suburban counties in the Atlanta area that has become increasingly Democratic and turned Georgia into a swing state.
In the 2004 election, Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry lost Georgia by 17 percentage points, including a 25-point defeat in Cobb. Two years ago, Joe Biden very narrowly won Georgia, in part because of his 14-point victory in Cobb. Sen. Raphael G. Warnock carried Cobb by 16 points in this month’s election and will need a similar margin to defeat Republican challenger Herschel Walker in their Dec. 6 runoff.
The electoral transformation of Cobb County is part of a broader shift happening in U.S. politics. Over the past decade, Americans who live in rural areas, a group that already leaned toward the Republicans, has become even more conservative. Urban areas are increasingly Democratic, but cities such as Detroit and Philadelphia were already so left-leaning that there wasn’t much room for Democratic growth. What’s been the saving grace for the Democrats in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections has been voters in suburban areas backing the party, particularly around Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and Phoenix.
“Democrats in this county were feeling beaten down. We had been on the fringes for years,” said Mary Frances Williams, who was born in Marietta, one of the largest cities in Cobb, and lives there now.
“I really noticed things were changing in 2016. My precinct went for Hillary Clinton. I was shocked by it,” Williams told me when I met her at a coffee shop in downtown Marietta last week.
Two years later, Williams was a candidate herself, flipping a Cobb-based statehouse seat for the Democrats. The 67-year-old won reelection for a third time earlier this month.
Three factors are driving this suburban shift to the Democrats. First, the residents in these suburbs, particularly around Atlanta, are increasingly Asian, Black and/or Hispanic. In Cobb, 49 percent of residents are Asian, Black and/or Hispanic, compared with 28 percent two decades ago. In Gwinnett, another Atlanta-area county that has flipped decidedly to Democrats, about 66 percent of residents are Asian, Black and/or Hispanic compared with about a third in 2000.
Members of all three of those groups are more likely to vote Democratic than White Americans are. In many cases, people of color move from the city to the suburbs in the same metropolitan area. But particularly in the Atlanta area, many of the new people of color in the suburbs are coming here from other states.
Second, younger and more liberal-leaning White people are also moving to these suburbs, both from nearby cities and other regions. These suburban areas are seeing a surge in residents with college degrees. Increased education tends to be correlated with more progressive views on issues of race and identity and with voting for Democrats.
About 55 percent of people in Johnson County (a suburb of Kansas City) and Chester County (in the Philadelphia area) have at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with around 40 percent of U.S. adults overall. Chester voted Republican as recently as the 2012 presidential election, and Johnson did so until 2016. But Biden carried both counties in 2020, and Democratic gubernatorial candidates won them by double-digits this year.
Finally, Trump-style politics is turning off some people in these suburbs who might otherwise vote Republican. For example, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who has distanced himself from the former president, lost Cobb by only five percentage points in this year’s election, a much smaller margin than Donald Trump lost the county in 2020 and Walker lost it earlier this month.
The political story of the American suburbs is not simply a uniform shift to the left. Few suburban areas have moved toward the Democrats over the last decade as much as the counties around Atlanta have. Some of the counties around Dallas and Houston, as well as Orange County in the Los Angeles area, shifted toward the Democrats from 2012 to 2016 and again from 2016 to 2020 but moved back slightly to the Republicans this year. Voters in suburban Tampa and New York City turned sharply to the right this cycle.
But the surprisingly strong performance of Democrats in the U.S. House and in many gubernatorial and Senate races was in large part because the pro-Democratic suburban surge of the 2018 and 2020 elections didn’t ebb too much in 2022.
In the Georgia runoff, both Senate candidates are very aware of the suburbs' importance. Last week, Warnock held a rally in Fayette County, another Atlanta suburb undergoing a demographic transformation. Forty percent of its residents are Asian, Black and/or Hispanic, compared with 18 percent two decades ago. Related to that shift, Warnock lost Fayette by just three percentage points in the November election, compared with Kerry’s 43-point defeat in 2004.
Walker campaigned recently with the more suburban-friendly Kemp at an event in Smyrna, another town in Cobb.
“Cobb was one of the original White-flight cities,” said Jim Galloway, a longtime Cobb resident who was the senior political columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution until his retirement in 2020. “When I started out, Cobb was going from becoming Democratic to becoming Republican,” said Galloway, who began at the paper in 1979.
“But when I was leaving the paper, Cobb was going from being Republican to Democratic.” | 2022-11-28T13:05:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Suburbanites are saving the Democrats in Georgia — and elsewhere - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/warnock-walker-georgia-suburbs-cobb-county-democrats-senate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/warnock-walker-georgia-suburbs-cobb-county-democrats-senate/ |
A photographer cherishes ‘all the little things’ after mother’s death
Perspective by Olivier Laurent
Audrey waits for the movers on her first day in assisted living at the Plaza at Park Square, Aventura, Fla., on May 27, 2020. (Lori Grinker)
“I wasn’t close to my mother,” said photographer and filmmaker Lori Grinker. “She never told me she loved me, and our relationship was strained by my parent’s divorce and my brother’s death from AIDS in 1996. And yet, during the last year of her life, we found an intimacy we’d never had before.”
During that last year, Grinker photographed her mother’s fight against dementia and a terminal cancer diagnosis. It started in March 2020, as the U.S. shut down because of the spread of the coronavirus. “I went to Florida to help her move into an assisted-living facility, a plan suddenly derailed by covid,” she said. “Instead, for the next three months, I became her housemate, her cook, and her caregiver.”
That’s when Grinker started photographing her mother’s life and, she said, her pain. All of the little things that became part of Audrey’s last few months on Earth. The food she ate, the pills she swallowed, the waiting rooms she inhabited.
These photographs, which document the breakdown of a person, both in mind and body, have received the Bob and Diane Fund award, which encourages visual storytellers to produce stories about Alzheimer’s disease or dementia to raise awareness about these diseases. Organized by Gina Martin, the fund is named after her parents, who faced similar battles against Alzheimer’s. Previous winners include Jalal Shamsazaran, Stephen DiRado, Carole St. Onge and Maja Daniels among many others. “As a daughter of Alzheimer’s, I very much connected to Lori’s photo essay of her mother’s journey,” Martin said. “Lori captures the loss of her mother in a quiet, respectful and dignified way.”
“The judges talked about how picture essays sometimes suffer when told chronologically — but not Lori’s story about her mother,” said photographer Chip Somodevilla, one of this year’s judges. “Lori marked the march of time, and the toll of her mother’s illness, with such skillful photography that the flow felt natural.”
“From telling details to poignant moments, we follow the journey of this proud woman losing her sense of self,” added Sarah Leen, another judge and a former director of photography at National Geographic. “Lori takes us along this journey of a mother and a daughter with an empathetic eye that asks us to consider our own relationships and mortality.”
Faced with her mother’s disease, Grinker said that what was keeping them apart didn’t matter anymore. “In frailty and weakness and loss, one can discover there is something more important,” she added. “I hope these images will help others recognize the importance of all the little things and the memories connected to them. And how the smallest gesture of help is invaluable.”
With the $5,000 from the award, she plans to produce a book and an exhibition. “My mother agreed that I could share her story,” she said. “I will do that so that it might become a little easier for someone else to navigate their own journey.” | 2022-11-28T13:05:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A photographer cherishes ‘all the little things’ after mother’s death - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2022/11/28/photographer-cherishes-all-little-things-after-mothers-death/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2022/11/28/photographer-cherishes-all-little-things-after-mothers-death/ |
Post Politics Now Lame-duck Congress returning to Washington with full agenda waiting
Noted: Jon Batiste to headline Biden’s first state dinner, serenade Macron
Noted: Maricopa County says printer glitches didn’t prevent anyone from voting
On our radar: Democrats press for assault weapons ban, other gun laws after new mass killings
Analysis: Steny Hoyer sought ‘consensus.’ The next Democratic leaders may find that hard.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) arrive for an event on the South Lawn of the White House on Sept. 13. (Elizabeth Frantz for The Washington Post)
Today, the Senate returns from Thanksgiving break, with the House to follow Tuesday, for the remainder of a lame-duck session that could be very busy. The top priority: keeping the government running beyond Dec. 16. It remains unclear whether lawmakers will pass a spending bill that funds the government for the next year or whether they will try to pass a shorter-term resolution. Other pending issues include protecting same-sex marriage and changes to the Electoral Count Act spurred by the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
President Biden is also back in Washington. On Monday, he plans to welcome 2022 Nobel Prize winners to the White House and sign a memorandum directing U.S. agencies to strengthen their response to sexual violence in conflict zones, including in Ukraine.
2:30 p.m. Eastern: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Security Council spokesman John Kirby brief reporters. Watch live here.
The Post’s Gerrit De Vynck, Jeremy B. Merrill and Luis Melgar report that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) all lost about 100,000 Twitter followers in the first three weeks of Musk’s ownership of Twitter, while Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) gained more than 300,000 each. Per our colleagues:
The agenda as lawmakers return to Washington after the Thanksgiving break is almost as ambitious, The Post’s Theodoric Meyer and Leigh Ann Caldwell write in The Early 202. Per our colleagues:
The Post’s Ruby Cramer reports that agencies such as the State Department and Treasury Department will be directed to use their existing powers to “the fullest extent possible” to punish acts of conflict-related sexual violence, including through sanctions, the senior official said during a call with reporters. Per Ruby:
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden have tapped Jon Batiste, a singer, bandleader and melodica-player extraordinaire as the musical performer for their first official state dinner, the first lady’s press secretary, Vanessa Valdivia, told The Washington Post.
The Post’s Jada Yuan writes that when French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, show up as the honored guests for a day of diplomacy, followed by a lavish dinner and dancing on Thursday, they will be in for a true New Orleans-style get-down. Per Jada:
Maricopa County, facing a storm of Republican criticism over its handling of the Nov. 8 election, said in a report issued Sunday that problems with printers that surfaced on Election Day did not violate the Arizona Constitution or other guidelines intended to ensure free and fair elections.
The Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Isaac Stanley-Becker report that the county instead accused prominent Republicans of making their own supporters suspicious of a secure alternative allowing voters who encountered mechanical issues to cast ballots. Per our colleagues:
Democrats are renewing their calls for a ban on assault weapons after the latest spate of high-profile mass killings, warning that their window to enact legislation is closing soon with Republicans set to take a narrow majority in the House in January.
The Post’s By Amy B Wang notes that on Nov. 19, a shooter carrying a handgun and an AR-15-style rifle opened fire inside Club Q, an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs, killing five people and injuring at least 18 others. Days later, a supervisor at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Va., killed six employees in a break room in the store with a handgun he had allegedly bought earlier that day, before apparently killing himself. Per Amy:
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer has been doing a lot of reflecting these days. A central theme that he adopted 20 years ago upon first getting voted into the No. 2 position in the Democratic caucus has been on his mind lately.
“I talked about the psychology of consensus, the psychology of getting up in the morning and thinking, ‘I’m going to be with the team,’ knowing full well that you can’t be with the team all the time,” the Maryland Democrat said in an interview last week with The Post’s Paul Kane. | 2022-11-28T13:06:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lame-duck Congress returning to Washington with full agenda waiting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/lame-duck-congress-spending-biden/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/lame-duck-congress-spending-biden/ |
Monday briefing: Mass protests in China; Buffalo shooting suspect’s plea; Houston boil-water order; remote work; and more
Protests against China’s “zero covid” policy erupted this weekend.
How we got here: Many people are at a breaking point after nearly three years of strict rules during the pandemic.
Why now? Lockdown measures were blamed for hampering rescue efforts in a deadly fire last week, and a huge coronavirus outbreak has caused rules to be tightened in some places.
Why it matters: Mass protests like these are extremely rare in China.
The suspect in a deadly shooting in Buffalo is set to plead guilty today.
The details: The 19-year-old is accused of killing 10 people in a racially motivated attack at a grocery store in May.
What he faces: State charges include domestic terrorism and murder as a hate crime. A separate federal case, which could result in the death penalty, is pending.
What else to know: Democrats have renewed calls for a ban on assault weapons.
Early voting has started in Georgia’s Senate runoff election.
What to know: At least 70,000 people voted on Saturday. This is the only undecided Senate race after neither Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock nor Republican Herschel Walker got 50% of votes on Election Day. The runoff is Dec. 6.
The stakes: Democrats already won narrow control of the Senate, but another seat would give them more leverage.
Houston is under a boil-water order.
Why? A power outage at a purification plant yesterday called into question water safety for 2.2 million customers in the country’s fourth-largest city.
The impact: The city’s school system, which serves nearly 200,000 students, is closed today, and residents must boil tap water until further notice.
More than 300 people, mostly elderly, are still dying of covid every day.
The numbers: Nearly 9 in 10 covid deaths are people 65 or older — the highest rate of the pandemic, according to a new Post analysis.
What experts say: This trend of older, sicker and poorer people dying at disproportionate rates will continue, raising hard questions about what level of loss is acceptable.
Sea levels are rising dramatically in a hot spot off the Virginia coast.
Why? It’s another effect of climate change. The Gulf Stream, a massive current that carries heat north, is shifting.
What that means: It can accelerate sea level rise nearby. In Virginia’s Hampton Roads region, waters have risen nearly a foot and a half since 1927, and the pace has picked up over the past three decades.
The big picture: Some communities are already talking about whether to leave — a warning for the rest of the East Coast and the world.
Remote jobs are still in demand, but positions are drying up.
The numbers: Half of job applications submitted on LinkedIn are for work-from-home positions, but these roles make up only 15% of listings, a recent report found.
Why it matters: There’s a tug of war between what employees want and what employers will give, and it’s driving many Americans back into the office.
And now … if you’re deciding between a real or artificial Christmas tree: Here’s what’s best for the environment. Plus, how to manage gift-giving expectations while in debt. | 2022-11-28T13:07:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 7 things you need to know for Monday, November 28 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/11/28/what-to-know-for-november-28/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/11/28/what-to-know-for-november-28/ |
The shadow of a tick can be seen on a leaf. Every year in the United States, some 476,000 people are diagnosed with and treated for Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness. (Patrick Pleul/Getty Images)
In a study in Cell Reports Medicine, researchers explain how they pinpointed a specific set of genes that are activated in people with long-term Lyme disease. Up to 20 percent of patients suffer long-term symptoms.
The research was conducted by scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Earlier this year, several of the researchers from Johns Hopkins published a study along with scientists from the University of California at San Francisco announcing that they had developed a panel of 31 biomarkers that allowed them to accurately identify Lyme disease in 95.2 percent of patients. | 2022-11-28T13:07:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Scientists identify biomarkers that could help diagnose Lyme disease - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/28/lyme-disease-biomarkers-diagnosis/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/28/lyme-disease-biomarkers-diagnosis/ |
Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii. (AP)
Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, erupted for the first time in nearly four decades on Sunday night, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The eruption started around 11:30 p.m. local time in Mokuaweoweo, the summit caldera of Mauna Loa, inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Its last eruption was in 1984.
Officials from the USGS said that lava is contained to the summit and does not threaten communities down the mountain. But they advised that winds could carry volcanic gas and fine ash downwind.
“Based on past events, the early stages of a Mauna Loa eruption can be very dynamic and the location and advance of lava flows can change rapidly,” according to the USGS.
The USGS, which has a research camera posted on the north rim of Mokuʻāweoweo, published a series of images from before and after the eruption. | 2022-11-28T13:52:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano erupts for the first time in 38 years - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/28/hawaii-volcano-mauna-loa-eruption/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/28/hawaii-volcano-mauna-loa-eruption/ |
Commanders tight end John Bates lands in the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown catch during the third quarter of Sunday's win over the Falcons. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
Late in the third quarter Sunday, Washington Commanders tight end John Bates took off from the 16-yard line as the second in a three-route combination: post, corner and flat. Before the snap, he had seen the Atlanta Falcons in a single-high-safety defense, so when the linebackers bit on the run action and wide receiver Jahan Dotson broke inside toward the safety, he figured quarterback Taylor Heinicke would read from the post (Dotson’s route) to the corner (his).
“I had a pretty good idea that it was probably going to be coming to me,” Bates said, smiling.
As Bates broke outside, Heinicke slung the ball his way. The touchdown gave Washington the lead for good in a 19-13 victory, its third in a row. But perhaps the most notable part of the play was that Washington had scored a touchdown in the red zone.
Since Week 7, when Heinicke took over for the injured Carson Wentz, Washington has relied on a formula predicated on running the ball. The offense has sustained lengthy drives, dominated the clock and scored points with regularity, but the Commanders often stalled out in the red zone. Under Heinicke, Washington ranks 12th in red-zone drives (18), sixth in scoring on those drives (94 percent) and 21st in red-zone touchdown rate (50 percent), per TruMedia.
An inability to finish drives is particularly dangerous for an offense like Washington’s, which isn’t as explosive as a pass-first scheme and doesn’t often create separation from its opponent. The liability was highlighted against Atlanta, another ball-control team that forces opponents to maximize their limited possessions. Washington was more efficient Sunday, scoring two touchdowns and kicking a field goal in three red-zone trips, but if cornerback Kendall Fuller hadn’t made a game-sealing interception in the end zone, the Commanders leaving four points on the field would’ve been an issue.
John Bates with his first TD of 2022‼️‼️
Commanders lead 16-10 in the 3rd🏈pic.twitter.com/11EkYesDqZ
“A little better,” Coach Ron Rivera said of Sunday’s red-zone offense, citing Bates’s touchdown. But he quickly pointed to one of the Commanders’ earlier chances. In the second quarter, Washington churned to the Atlanta 14. From there, Heinicke threw incomplete for Bates; running back Antonio Gibson was stopped after a two-yard gain; and Heinicke couldn’t hit wide receiver Terry McLaurin on a short throw to the right. Washington settled for a 30-yard field goal by Joey Slye and a 10-10 tie.
“We got to punch it in,” Rivera said. “We have to punch it in.”
Svrluga: Commanders have found a fragile and frightening but winning formula
The red zone has been a problem for Washington all season. In the first six weeks with Wentz, Washington got to the red zone on 14 of 74 drives, the worst rate in the league (18.9 percent), and scored only 71.4 percent of the time, the second-worst rate. But the problem at times could be overcome because the offense was explosive enough to score from outside the red zone. In Week 5 against Tennessee, for example, Wentz threw two touchdown passes outside the red zone … before tossing a game-losing interception in it.
Since Heinicke has taken over, Washington has had an explosive play — a rush of 12 or more yards or a pass of 16 or more — on just 9.2 percent of its plays, which ranks 26th in the NFL. This heightens the importance of the Commanders making the drives they can sustain count.
Last week, Rivera suggested his team’s struggles are tied to less effective play on first down. It’s unclear whether the data supports that notion, but it’s possible Rivera sees problems because his team is more predictable in the red zone. Washington runs 58.9 percent of the time there, the eighth-highest rate in the league. If the opposing defense doesn’t fear Heinicke’s arm or believe coordinator Scott Turner will call a pass, it can put more players in the box and stuff the run.
Another factor could be the tight ends. The top three receivers at the position — Logan Thomas, Cole Turner and Armani Rogers — haven’t been consistently healthy. And even when Thomas has been on the field, he hadn’t looked like himself until Week 11. Thomas, at 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, was one of the league’s best red-zone threats in 2020 before struggling with injuries in 2021 and 2022.
“I think [tight end health is] a little bit of it,” Rivera said. “We really haven’t had the continuity of that position. ... That is a big position in the red zone for us, especially in this offense.”
That context heightens the importance of Bates’s touchdown catch. Thomas and Turner were active Sunday, but if the 6-6, 259-pounder can become a reliable red-zone target, it would be a boon for the offense.
In its win at Houston, Washington scored one touchdown and kicked two field goals on three red-zone trips (discounting a fourth on the final possession, when the game’s outcome was settled and the Commanders ran out the clock). One of the field goals raised the question of whether Washington’s floundering is tied to play-calling, Heinicke’s arm or some of both. Near the end of the first half, the Commanders marched deep into Texans territory and took their final timeout at the 6-yard line with 22 seconds left.
“Obviously, in that situation, you can’t run the ball,” Heinicke said.
On the next two plays, Heinicke threw incomplete passes. The reason those passes didn’t work, Heinicke said, was that Houston played cover-two, “and the couple plays that we called just didn’t have that cover-two beater on it. So it’s just one of those things.”
Despite Sunday’s step forward, Rivera, Heinicke and others spoke about the red zone as they have other facets of this successful stretch. The Commanders are having success but still have to improve.
“We could have been better in the red zone, clearly,” left tackle Charles Leno Jr. said. “When you get into the red zone, you want to get touchdowns, and that’s what our emphasis will be moving forward.” | 2022-11-28T14:22:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Commanders’ red-zone offense takes a step forward but still has work to do - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/commanders-red-zone-offense/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/commanders-red-zone-offense/ |
Supreme Court quiz was tough, but kids didn’t give up
3 randomly selected entrants who had all correct answers will receive a KidsPost prize package.
Our U.S. Supreme Court quiz included questions about, clockwise from top left, the Supreme Court building; the number of female justices, four of whom are pictured in a current court photo; Justice Thurgood Marshall; and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
In October, the official start of the U.S. Supreme Court’s new term, we asked KidsPost readers to test their knowledge about the court by taking a quiz. We know, it was tough. Even parents probably didn’t know all the answers.
We have included the questions and answers (with letter bolded) below. Of those kids who answered all the questions correctly, we randomly selected three to win a KidsPost prize package. The winners are Mila Dorsey, age 10, of Arlington, Virginia; Caleb Yo, 11, of Boyds, Maryland; and Madeline Guarnieri, 8, of Fairfax, Virginia. They will receive a KidsPost T-shirt, books and other goodies. To learn more about the court, go to supremecourt.gov/visiting/activities.aspx for games, coloring pages and activities.
1. What is the process through which justices are put on the Supreme Court?
A. The House of Representatives elects them.
B. The president appoints them and the Senate confirms the appointment.
C. Federal judges elect them.
D. Voters elect them.
2. How long does a justice’s term last?
B. 8 years
D. Lifetime or until retirement
3. True or false: The Constitution does not specify the number of justices the Supreme Court should have and leaves it to Congress to decide.
A. True
B. False
4. There have been 116 Supreme Court justices in history, how many have been women?
A. Four
B. Six
C. Eight
D. Nine
5. Who was the first woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice?
A. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
B. Sonia Sotomayor
C. Sandra Day O’Connor
D. Elena Kagan
6. Who successfully argued the case of Brown v. Board of Education, then later became a justice of the Supreme Court?
A. Stephen Breyer
B. Earl Warren
C. Harry Blackmun
D. Thurgood Marshall
7. When did the Supreme Court get its own building?
8. Who is the only president to also serve as the Supreme Court’s chief justice?
B. James Madison
C. William Howard Taft
D. Andrew Jackson
9. Since the late-19th century, how have justices greeted one another before they discuss a case or listen to arguments?
A. They shake hands.
B. They bow.
C. They say, “Good day, Sir [or Madam].”
D. They wave.
10. How can a justice be removed from the court?
A. A justice cannot be removed.
B. The House of Representatives impeaches and Senate convicts in a trial.
C. Other justices vote them out.
D. The president fires them. | 2022-11-28T14:35:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Supreme Court quiz was tough, but kids didn’t give up - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/11/28/supreme-court-quiz-answers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/11/28/supreme-court-quiz-answers/ |
In a first, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved a therapy that slows the onset of Type 1 diabetes. Teplizumab, developed by Provention Bio, typically delays the need for insulin shots, blood-sugar monitoring, and diet control by about two years. For some, the effect lasted years longer.
A drug that can slow the onset of the disease is a gift to people destined to develop Type 1 diabetes, which affects roughly 1-1.5 million Americans. “You don’t do anything if you have diabetes without thinking about the diabetes,” says Kevan Herold, a professor at Yale School of Medicine who was involved with the clinical studies of teplizumab. “You don’t eat, you don’t exercise, you don’t sleep, you don’t go to school [without thinking about it] — it’s there all the time.”
There are two ways to figure out who might benefit from the drug, according to JDRF, a diabetes-focused advocacy group that helped fund the development of tepliziumab through its venture philanthropy arm. The first would be to look for genetic markers linked to the disease in the heel-prick test every baby gets at the hospital. Not everyone who has those markers will go on to develop diabetes, but the screen could flag children who should be more closely monitored during their early life, says JDRF chief executive officer Aaron J. Kowalski.
That hope took decades to materialize. The treatment traded hands among biotech and pharma companies as it trudged through clinical studies. It took several champions, and investment from JDRF’s venture philanthropy group, to finally heave the drug over the finish line.
It’s rare to land on treatments that can so clearly delay the course of a disease — not to mention ones that whisper of putting off the disease for long enough they start to look like prevention. Getting this therapy to the people who need it shouldn’t also be a years-long slog. | 2022-11-28T14:35:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A Diabetes Breakthrough in Search of Patients - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/a-diabetes-breakthrough-in-search-of-patients/2022/11/28/98fcf5fe-6f21-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/a-diabetes-breakthrough-in-search-of-patients/2022/11/28/98fcf5fe-6f21-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
Analysis by David R. Baker | Bloomberg
The world is changing its entire system for producing and using energy, and it’s a bumpy ride. The “energy transition” now underway will replace the very base of the global economy — fossil fuels — with clean power sources that don’t warm the climate, such as solar and wind. It’s a delicate, decades-long switch that’s sometimes compared to rebuilding an airplane midflight. And while the transition has created investment and jobs worldwide, it has delivered shocks as well. European electricity prices jump, for example, when winds slack off. California flirts with blackouts in heat waves because old, gas-burning power plants are shutting down faster than renewable energy sources can replace them. And some industries, like airlines, can’t run on electricity, for now. While the new energy system could one day be more reliable than the old, there’s a variety of reasons why the transition is proving so difficult, and will take so long to complete. These are some of them.
Renewables are intermittent
We need better ways to store wind and solar energy. Utilities worldwide, for example, are plugging lithium-ion batteries into the electricity grid, relying on supersize versions of the same technology inside mobile phones. But those batteries typically run for just four hours before needing to be recharged. Newer types of batteries can last hours longer — but they still can’t power the grid for days or weeks.
Renewables need to reach people
Places like the sparsely populated but windy Great Plains in the US, or the remote, sun-drenched Sahara Desert, can produce a lot of energy, but high-voltage transmission lines are needed to bring the power to where people live. Those connections consistently face challenges along the route. In the US, a single family for years managed to stymie a $3 billion power line project designed to bring Wyoming wind power to Southern California. In 2021, voters in Maine rejected a transmission line that would have supplied New England with hydropower from Quebec. One reason for the push to build offshore wind farms along the US East Coast? They won’t require long power lines on land.
Many things are hard to electrify
Much of the energy transition involves electrifying things that have traditionally run on fossil fuels, like cars, home heaters and stoves. That change is finally starting to accelerate. Global electric car sales, for example, more than doubled from 2020 to 2021, accounting for 9% of new vehicle sales worldwide, according to BloombergNEF. But some huge users of energy — such as steel mills, cement plants, cargo ships and big passenger planes — don’t easily run on electricity. That has led to a search for a “clean molecule,” a storable, movable fuel that won’t warm the planet. Governments and industries alike are betting that hydrogen will be that fuel, because it can be made from water and burned without producing carbon dioxide. But building a global system to make and use hydrogen requires massive new infrastructure that will take decades. The industry also needs to be shaped carefully so that the fuel’s generation, transmission and storage won’t contribute to climate change.
Lack of money, political will or long-term planning
All three have, at times, been lacking. US President Barack Obama pumped public money into the energy transition, funding both the ill-fated solar company Solyndra LLC and Tesla Inc.’s first electric-car factory. His successor, Donald Trump, immediately reversed course. President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act devotes $374 billion to climate-related spending, including tax breaks for making and deploying clean-energy infrastructure. But there’s no guarantee future administrations will follow through or step up the pace. BNEF estimates that global investment in the transition topped $800 billion in 2021, or about 0.8% of global gross domestic product, and needs to expand fivefold by 2030 to keep the world on track to limit warming to 2C (3.6F) this century.
Extreme weather isn’t helpful
The warmer world is already generating more heat waves, floods and other catastrophes. Extreme heat pushes up electricity demand for air conditioning and refrigeration, while a more unpredictable climate can hurt power generation in multiple ways. Wildfires fed by climate change can cut solar power by blanketing the sky with smoke. Scorching temperatures and drought have crippled the reliable hydropower output from projects such as China’s Three Gorges Dam and warmed rivers so that nuclear plants in Europe that rely on the water to cool equipment had to scale back operations. With almost no carbon emissions, nuclear and hydro power are considered key tools in the energy transition.
The poor need electricity
About 770 million people worldwide, or almost 10% of humanity, still lacked access to electricity in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency. Some 2.5 billion didn’t have “clean cooking” options, meaning they had to use wood, charcoal or even dried cow dung to cook meals. For the hundreds of millions of people still trying to escape poverty, the transition is both a challenge and an opportunity. Some parts of Africa without a reliable connection to a power grid are acquiring solar panels to fuel batteries and lights — and may end up leapfrogging the fossil fuel energy system the rest of the world is struggling to replace.
We still rely on oil and gas
Given the long timeframe for switching to renewables, the world still needs fossil fuels and will for years to come. Yet investment in the field has been lagging. Institutional investors have leaned on oil executives to devote less money to expanding production and focus instead on giving more of their profits to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks. Biden threatened the industry with higher taxes unless companies agreed to increase oil production and refining. The IEA estimates that the industry needs to spend about 50% more each year through 2030 to meet global oil demand. But with the energy transition underway, oil companies aren’t sure how much petroleum the world will really need.
Wars complicate the transition
The war in Ukraine may one day be seen as a turning point in the energy transition, persuading Europe to speed up the shift. In the meantime, the invasion and the sanctions that followed created a scramble for fuel to replace Russian supplies, disrupting planning and raising prices. The continent has aggressively sucked up more natural gas on world markets to heat homes and fuel industries. | 2022-11-28T16:07:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The ‘Energy Transition’ Has Arrived. It Won’t Be Smooth - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-energy-transition-has-arrived-it-wont-be-smooth/2022/11/28/197c02fe-6f2e-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-energy-transition-has-arrived-it-wont-be-smooth/2022/11/28/197c02fe-6f2e-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
The case could determine if the federal government can be held liable for systemic prejudices that disadvantaged Black military veterans and their descendants, advocates say
These words by President Abraham Lincoln greet staff and visitors outside the Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters in Washington. (Robert Alexander/Getty Images)
The U.S. government has discriminated against “countless” Black military veterans dating back decades, rejecting service-connected disability claims disproportionately compared to White applicants, and blocking access to housing and education benefits that helped fuel the rise of America’s middle class after World War II, a lawsuit filed Monday claims.
The suit was brought by Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic on behalf of a Vietnam War veteran, Conley Monk Jr., whose applications for health care, home loans and education assistance were “repeatedly” turned away by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the court filing says. His advocates contend the case could help determine whether the federal government can be held liable for systemic prejudices that, over generations, have disadvantaged African Americans who served in the military and their families, potentially clearing a path for others to seek recompense.
Most VA workers see racism against colleagues and veterans, union survey finds
VA disability awards compensate veterans for injuries that result from military duty. Payments can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars per month while affording access to other VA programs and benefits intended to help them and their families thrive after their service obligations end. VA determines an individual’s disability rating by evaluating the severity of service-connected injuries through medical documentation and other evidence.
Other VA benefits are substantial, helping pay for college tuition and setting favorable interest rates for government-backed home loans, most of which are secured with no down payment. The education assistance and home loans contained in the original GI Bill, which became law in 1944, are credited with helping veterans and their families generate wealth after World War II. But a recent study conducted by Brandeis University’s Institute for Economic and Racial Equity found it enriched the lives of White Americans far more than Black Americans, limiting the possibilities of social advancement.
Veterans forced out for being gay are still waiting for VA benefits
Richard Brookshire, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and is the co-founder of the Black Veterans Project, said it appears VA has never examined whether race was a factor in its benefits decisions. The consequence, he said, is the denial through “gross negligence” of generational wealth and social advancement for many Black veterans.
Brookshire said VA’s leaders have been unwilling to have the “difficult conversation” about racial bias. In 2017, the agency showed interest in assessing links between race and PTSD disability claims, but the effort was shelved due to staff shortages, according to Yale’s assessment of VA records.
He worked as a driver responsible for hauling U.S. troops and supplies through areas thick with fighting. His truck was sometimes hit with gunfire, he said. During other missions, the roads were lined with enemy dead. In one horrifying instance, he watched another U.S. Marine run over a Vietnamese man, unsure whether the man was an attacker or an innocent bystander, the lawsuit says.
Monk said he developed post-traumatic stress but that no one at the time understood the condition. It would be another decade until PTSD was recognized by the American Psychiatric Association as a debilitating medical condition. When his service in Vietnam ended, Monk redeployed to a U.S. base in Japan, where he got into fights that landed him in jail. He took a deal, according to the filing, to waive his right to a court-martial and instead accept a punitive discharge from the Marines in 1970.
Marshals Service employees allege racism for decades.
At a news conference in New Haven to announce the lawsuit, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Monk is “leading the charge” in what he called “a truly historic” case. “It will help to break down the apparent discrimination against Black veterans,” the senator said.
“When we fought in the military, we were side by side,” he said. “ … Our blood is the same color.” | 2022-11-28T16:07:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Racial discrimination by Veterans Affairs spans decades, lawsuit says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/28/veterans-affairs-lawsuit-racial-discrimination/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/28/veterans-affairs-lawsuit-racial-discrimination/ |
China’s rare protests spark demonstrations of solidarity around globe
People hold up blank sheets of paper during a protest about China's “zero covid” policy in Hong Kong on Monday. (Jerome Favre/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
HONG KONG — Protests over Beijing’s strict covid response have spread from China to cities and college campuses around the world to show solidarity with the rare anti-government demonstrations erupting across the country.
In Asia, Europe and North America, demonstrators, which included Chinese nationals, attended rallies in town squares, at subway stations and outside Chinese embassies.
The protests in China were triggered by a deadly fire in Xinjiang, in the country’s northwest, which killed 10 people after emergency services could not get close enough to an apartment building engulfed in flames. Many blamed the tragedy on the government’s enforcement of its unpopular “zero covid” approach, which involves strict lockdowns and travel restrictions in an attempt to eradicate the virus completely, saying lockdown-related measures hampered rescue efforts.
Such demonstrations are extremely rare in China, where authorities move quickly to stamp out all forms of dissent. Authorities are especially wary of protests at universities, the site of pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 that ended in a bloody crackdown around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Here’s what the demonstrations around the world looked like.
Summer, a 20-year-old student from mainland China, was among dozens of people — some Chinese nationals and others Hong Kong locals — gathered by the subway station in Hong Kong’s Central district on Monday holding pieces of white A4 paper — a symbol of China’s pervasive censorship — and a flower to remember the Urumqi victims. Wearing a face mask, she was surrounded by dozens of police officers who were attempting to gather information on other protesters for potential violations of covid measures.
“The Chinese people always have a high tolerance of the government. The reason why they came out is because a lot of them cannot carry on living,” Summer told The Washington Post. “Their basic demand is only to live on. People are angry because they think their most basic rights are not protected.”
The city has not seen any large-scale protests since the pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019, after the government passed a vaguely worded security law that outlawed dissent, as well as covid social-distancing measures.
She also compared the new wave of protests to the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, adding: “What gives me hope this time is it differentiates from 33 years ago, where previously it were only demands made from students, but now it’s demands from people from all walks of life, including farmers, who felt their lives being crushed.”
“I wanted to join because I was not born yet in 1989, and now I’m 20. I felt hopeful toward this country. I hope to express my opinions on this issue so I stand out.”
Local media also reported over the weekend that students had gathered in the Hong Kong University campus to express their support for the demonstrations in the mainland, before stopping after police arrived.
Zhou Fengsuo, 55, a Chinese dissident who was imprisoned for his role helping lead the Tiananmen Square protests, was among those who attended a vigil held in Taiwan’s capital Sunday. He said a total of 200 people from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan gathered in the capital’s Liberty Square to share poems and express their support for the Chinese protesters.
“We want freedom, I think that is our basic human right. And without freedom there is no dignity,” he told The Post in a telephone interview.
The protests are a response to Beijing’s increasingly authoritarian style of rule, he said. “It’s Xi Jinping and the fact that he crowned himself again a month ago,” Zhou said, referring to the Chinese leader’s securing a third term last month. “It’s a communist regime that leaves no room for people’s freedom and their basic political rights. It’s the zero covid policy that puts people in jail in their own homes.”
He said the widespread protests reminded him of 1989, adding: “We are seeing for the first time in Shanghai hundreds of people gathered together to call for the end of CCP [Chinese Communist Party], the end of Xi Jinping’s dictatorship. It’s never happened before in the last 33 years.”
Taiwanese state news outlet CNA showed people gathering with candles at the vigil, reporting that they held up blank sheets of paper and chanted: “China needs freedom,” “Give me liberty or give me death,” “Rest in peace for the dead” and “Continue to fight.”
More than 100 protesters gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in London late Sunday, according to Sky News, which reported that they paid tribute to those killed in the Urumqi fire and accused China of detaining protesters in Shanghai.
“People in China are being oppressed,” a representative for a protest organization known as the China Deviants Group, identified only as Eve, told Sky News while wearing a face covering. “We have been oppressed for years and decades and we want to change that. Somebody needs to stand up, we need to stand up. To stand against this authoritarian regime.”
In Oxford, England, a video uploaded to Twitter by Uyghur human rights campaigner Rayhan Asat appeared to show another small vigil held outside the university town’s Bodleian Library on Sunday. Around 50 people attended the Oxford rally, Asat said. Xinjiang, the location of the deadly Urumqi fire, is home to the largely Muslim Uyghur population, who have in recent years been forced into “reeducation” programs by the Chinese government.
“I want to talk about the feeling that has brought each and every one of you out of your libraries, out of your workplaces, out of your homes to be assembled in this square today. That feeling is hope,” a man covering his face before a candlelit vigil can be heard saying in the video. “I’m sure many of you like myself could not sleep last night as we watch what happens, what’s happening in our homelands.”
College campuses across the United States are also planning vigils for the victims of the Urumqi fire, with one set to take place Monday evening at Yale University and another on Wednesday at Stanford University. Organizers at Stanford said their rally was for the fire victims, as well as “all the lives lost in China under the zero covid policy.”
Meanwhile, in Canada, a video filmed outside the Chinese consulate in Toronto and posted to Twitter on Sunday showed Mandarin-speaking demonstrators chanting slogans calling for the fall of the Chinese Communist Party and expressing solidarity with the protesters in mainland China.
People gathered for a vigil at Tokyo’s busy Shinjuku railway station Sunday to commemorate the victims of the Urumqi fire. According to Reuters, around 90 people attended, including Chinese mainland citizens. One student interviewed by the wire agency, identified only as Emmanuel, said the vigil was about more than just the fire in Urumqi: “At the core of it is China’s system.”
Lily Kuo contributed to this report. | 2022-11-28T16:08:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | China's rare protests spark demonstrations in London, Taipei, Hong Kong - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/28/china-protests-global-solidarity-vigils/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/28/china-protests-global-solidarity-vigils/ |
More than 180,000 cast ballots in early voting in Georgia Senate runoff
Sen. @ReverendWarnock waits in line to vote in Fulton County: pic.twitter.com/JhK9nw5Z51
— Dylan Wells (@dylanewells) November 27, 2022
ATLANTA — In the first and only weekend of early voting in the Georgia Senate runoff, tens of thousands of voters cast ballots in the election pitting Democratic Sen. Raphael G. Warnock against Republican challenger Herschel Walker — the last Senate contest of the 2022 midterms.
On Saturday, 70,050 Georgians turned out to vote, utilizing an extra day of early voting resulting from a lawsuit filed by Warnock, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the state Democratic Party. Republicans tried to block the effort in court but were unsuccessful.
Among those who voted on Saturday were Georgia residents who told The Washington Post that busy schedules made voting impossible during the week. The lines also included college students home for the Thanksgiving holiday who preferred to vote in person rather than rely on an absentee ballot.
Neither Warnock nor Walker captured more than 50 percent of the vote on Nov. 8, forcing the two into a Dec. 6 runoff. Democrats have already reclaimed majority control of the Senate after winning a GOP-held seat in Pennsylvania, but a Warnock win would give them 51 seats and an advantage on committees, with no need for a power-sharing arrangement with Republicans.
On Sunday, an additional 86,937 people voted. That number combined with voters in select counties who voted before Thanksgiving and the 15,305 mail ballots accepted so far means that a total of 181,711 voters had cast their ballots by the weekend.
By comparison, more than 200,000 people had already submitted a mail ballot on the first day of early voting in Georgia’s last runoff election in January 2021. And more than 1.6 million had voted in the first week, underscoring the different political environment and state of Georgia’s voting laws, which were overhauled in 2021 with new restrictions on how ballots are cast.
The stakes were higher in January 2021, with two runoff elections on the ballot that decided control of the Senate.
Through the in-person early voting, Georgians had to wait hours in line at many locations to cast their ballots. Among them was Warnock, who voted Sunday afternoon in Fulton County. The lawmaker stood in line for almost an hour before being able to vote for himself. Early voting ends Friday.
Warnock held several public campaign events over the weekend, while his opponent had none. Walker will return to the campaign trail Monday, after not holding any public events since Tuesday.
In the lead-up to the election, a group of a dozen prominent faith leaders in the state urged Black voters to cast ballots for Warnock, arguing that Walker, a businessman and former college football star, is unfit for the job.
“We believe Herschel Walker belongs in the Football Hall of Fame, but absolutely nowhere near the United States Senate,” the faith leaders wrote in an “open letter to Georgia’s African American community” released Monday.
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said ‘nothing in this world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity’ — this quote clearly describes Mr. Walker, and we must not reward his ‘sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity’ by electing him to the United States Senate,” the letter says.
The faith leaders argue that Walker has both “character” flaws and “bizarre stances on critical issues” that would make him a subpar lawmaker.
“While he may make white extremists in Georgia, out-of-state politicians, and his close friend, Donald Trump, happy, as people of faith, our priorities and expectations on issues come from a higher calling,” the letter reads.
The Walker campaign had no immediate comment on the letter.
Warnock released a video over the weekend featuring speeches from Walker showing voters reacting with disbelief to the Republican’s comments about vampires, werewolves and “good air” from the United States displacing “bad air” in China, among other topics.
“Not only does it make no sense, I don’t even understand what he thinks he’s saying,” says one woman in the video.
The ad comes days after Georgia state officials were asked to investigate reports that despite competing to represent Georgia in the Senate, Walker is getting a tax break on his Texas home that was intended only for a primary residence.
Georgia resident Ann Gregory Roberts filed a complaint to the Georgia Attorney General’s Office and Georgia Bureau of Investigation arguing that Walker is ineligible to register to vote in Georgia because his primary residence is in Texas. And that by voting in Georgia, Walker has broken the law.
CNN first reported last week that public records show Walker is on track to get a homestead tax exemption in Texas this year, which would save him about $1,500 for a $3 million home in the Dallas suburbs listed as his primary residence.
Walker took the tax break for his Texas home in 2021 and 2022 even after launching his Senate bid in Georgia, an official in the Tarrant County tax assessor’s office told CNN.
Walker, who previously played professional football for the Dallas Cowboys, lived in Texas for decades before registering to vote in Georgia in August 2021. He is well-known in Georgia due to a storied football career at the University of Georgia.
In a statement, Amanda Sherman-Baity, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said: “Every day Herschel Walker’s pattern of dishonesty and disturbing conduct grows longer — and it’s all more proof that he has no business representing Georgians in the Senate. Georgia authorities should promptly answer the call to investigate Walker’s latest scandal, and Walker himself owes voters an explanation.”
Wagner reported from Washington. Eugene Scott in Washington contributed to this report. | 2022-11-28T17:39:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | More than 180,000 cast ballots in early voting in Georgia Senate runoff - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/georgia-runoff-senate-warnock-walker/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/georgia-runoff-senate-warnock-walker/ |
Federal probe begins into crash of small plane into Maryland power lines
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating, although the cause of the crash wasn’t known
A damaged plane on the ground Monday after it had crashed into a Pepco transformer line a day earlier. (Eric Lee/for The Washington Post)
A federal probe began Monday into what caused a small plane to crash into a power line tower and power lines Sunday evening in Maryland, prompting a complex rescue effort to safely remove the pilot and passenger aboard.
The crash in suburban Montgomery County outside Washington also caused power outages to nearly 100,000 homes and businesses and led the state’s largest school district to cancel classes. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board said Monday they are investigating the incident, although neither was releasing additional information, and the cause of the crash wasn’t known.
The single-engine Mooney M20J crashed into wires near Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg about 5:40 p.m. Sunday, the FAA said. Two people onboard were pulled from the plane and onto large buckets attached to towering cranes shortly after midnight Monday.
Montgomery County fire officials said both suffered orthopedic injuries, trauma and had “hypothermia issues.” Maryland State Police identified the pilot as Patrick Merkle, 65, of Washington and his passenger as Janet Williams, 66, of Louisiana.
The aircraft, which began service in 1977, had departed from Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., according to the FAA.
Flight-tracking data shows the plane had made a trip from Gaithersburg to White Plains on Sunday morning. It then began the return trip in the afternoon, according to data from tracking service Flightradar24. The plane is registered to MFC Corp. in downtown Washington, with Patrick Merkle listed as president, according to FAA records.
Weather in Washington at the time was misty and rainy, although it wasn’t clear Monday if weather was a factor in the crash. Federal officials said investigators with the NTSB will lead the investigation.
A small plane crashed into high-voltage power lines in Montgomery County, Md., on Nov. 27, cutting power to nearly 100,000 homes and businesses. (Video: Reuters)
The crash occurred at a Pepco transmission line near Rothbury Drive and Goshen Road in the Gaithersburg/Montgomery Village area. The plane became entangled in high-voltage power lines north of Montgomery Village in Gaithersburg.
The plane appeared to be suspended or entangled in or near cabling and the latticework of a tower that supports the transmission lines. On Monday, Pepco officials said crews continued to assess damage to power equipment and the tower, and would make any necessary repairs.
Power was restored at 1:34 a.m. Monday, and the plane was removed about 3 a.m. Williams was pulled from the plane at 12:25 a.m. Residents who spent hours watching the incident clapped as she was lowered in a bucket. The pilot came down about 11 minutes later.
Before the rescue, Montgomery County Public Schools canceled Monday classes, as did Montgomery College. The crash also disrupted operations on Metro’s Red Line and at least two hospitals, officials said.
This crash was the latest to rattle the Gaithersburg community. Since 1983, there have been at least 30 airplane crashes at or near the airpark, which opened in 1959.
Six people were killed when a twin-engine jet, on its final approach to the airport, crashed into a home in December 2014. That incident raised alarm among residents, who demanded safety changes for those traveling to the airpark, which was intended to relieve aviation congestion at Reagan National Airport.
Jeff Guzzetti, a former FAA and NTSB investigator who isn’t connected to the current probe, said poor visibility caused by bad weather could be a likely cause, although he said mechanical problems can’t be ruled out.
“From my experience, it’s usually exactly what it looks like, which is an airplane encountering poor visibility and low ceilings as it’s descending near an airport and it got a little bit too close to the ground,” Guzzetti said.
He said the NTSB will examine what weather information and forecast Merkle had available before departing and whether he received updated information during his flight.
“They’re lucky to be alive,” Guzzetti said.
Dana Hedgpeth, Martin Weil and Dan Morse contributed to this report. | 2022-11-28T18:00:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maryland plane crash: NTSB, FAA to probe collision into power lines - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/11/28/maryland-plane-crash-montgomery-investigation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/11/28/maryland-plane-crash-montgomery-investigation/ |
Asa Hutchinson shows up weak-kneed Republican presidential contenders
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson speaks at a high school in Clinton, Ark., on Aug. 9, 2021. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
No one should expect Republican contenders for president to repudiate the National Rifle Association or the right-wing radicals on the Supreme Court, though both are amply warranted. But those who offer themselves as alternatives to former president Donald Trump must at a bare minimum condemn racists and antisemites and demonstrate some ability to uphold the oath of office they would take if elected.
Aside from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), there is virtually only one 2024 contender who has done this effectively. That is Asa Hutchinson, the unassuming Republican governor of Arkansas who has displayed how one can maintain staunch conservative policy credentials without sacrificing decency, honor and fidelity to democracy.
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union" on Sunday, Hutchinson condemned Trump’s recent dinner with white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for a leader that's setting an example for the country or the party to meet with an avowed racist or antisemite,” Hutchinson said. “And so it’s very troubling, and it should not happen. And we need to avoid those kinds of empowering the extremes. And when you meet with people, you empower. And that’s what you have to avoid.” He added, “You have got to be absolutely clear in your communication that this is not acceptable dogma, it’s not acceptable conversation, it’s not acceptable history and you have to disavow it.” He reiterated that Trump had “failed to do that.”
This is in direct contrast to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who routinely tramples on the First Amendment and has refused to condemn a group of demonstrators who appeared in Tampa earlier this year decked out in Nazi regalia. Meanwhile, other potential GOP candidates, such as sniveling Trump sycophants former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and former vice president Mike Pence, seem incapable of denouncing their former boss for egregious conduct.
Hutchinson, in his CNN appearance, shared an excerpt of a speech he plans to deliver at the Reagan Library on Nov. 30: “Historically, Republicans do not attack America’s democracy," the excerpt reads. "Republicans do not denigrate our political system. Republicans do not undermine confidence in America and Republicans do not attack those institutions that are fundamental to the rule of law.” That’s a message that one rarely hears from Republicans these days.
Hutchinson has also been clear in rejecting election denial, saying Trump “disqualified himself” with his conduct following the 2020 election. He’s been unequivocal about President Biden’s election and he has scolded the GOP for lashing out at the FBI after it executed the search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.
In addition, Hutchinson has demonstrated willingness to at least abide by courts’ constitutional rulings. As he told The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell in August: “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.”
Hutchinson doesn’t deserve a medal for simply stating the truth, adhering to the law or recognizing the results of a democratic election. But he has cleared the bare minimum requirements for holding public office. He has chosen not to throw red meat to the GOP’s deranged base nor to cling to Trump for fear of raising the MAGA cult’s ire. That is something.
Hutchinson’s reaffirmation of the rudimentary values of our democratic system suggests he is at least capable of upholding the oath of office. That the same cannot be said about so many other Republicans vying for the 2024 presidential primaries speaks volumes about the state of the GOP. Hutchinson remains a long shot for 2024 precisely because he resembles the pre-Trump, “normal” GOP. | 2022-11-28T18:40:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Hutchinson shows you don't have to be a MAGA cultist to run for GOP nomination - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/asa-hutchinson-2024-republican-presidential-primary/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/asa-hutchinson-2024-republican-presidential-primary/ |
Woman pleads guilty to shooting husband after he was accused of abusing kids
Authorities said Shanteari Weems shot her husband in a luxury Washington hotel after confronting him about allegations he abused kids at a day care she owned
The owner of a day-care center accused of shooting her husband in a luxury Washington hotel after confronting him about allegations that he had sexually abused children pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated assault and carrying a pistol without a license.
Seated next to her attorneys in D.C. Superior Court, Shanteari Weems, 50, of Randallstown, Md., twice said the word “guilty” when asked how she pleaded to the charges associated with the shooting this summer. If the deal with prosecutors is accepted by a judge, Weems could face up to two years in prison.
At a previous hearing, Weems’s attorney told a D.C. Superior Court judge that his client was acting in self-defense when she shot her husband in a room in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Southwest Washington on July 21.
Weems, the attorney said, had been told earlier that day that her husband, James S. Weems Jr., had sexually assaulted a child at the day care she owned, Lil Kids Kastle. The allegation came from the child’s mother, the attorney said.
Tony Garcia, Shanteari Weems’s attorney, said previously that his client drove from Baltimore County to Washington to confront her husband, a former Baltimore police officer who was working private security for the National Urban League’s convention in the city. Her husband was staying overnight at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
Shanteari Weems took her 9mm handgun for protection, knowing her husband also had a licensed handgun, her attorney said. Garcia said when she arrived at Room 853, she raised the allegations, and her husband became aggressive. In fear, Garcia said his client shot her husband twice.
She was arrested and charged with multiple crimes, including possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, aggravated assault while armed, carrying a pistol without a license outside a home or office and resisting arrest.
Assistant U.S. attorney LaVater Massie-Banks said at Monday’s hearing that Shanteari Weems’s actions were more deliberate. Massie-Banks said Weems shot her husband in the neck, and when he collapsed to his hotel room floor, she walked over and shot him in the leg, shattering his femur.
James Weems, 57, required surgery, and a metal rod was placed in his leg, the prosecutor said. The prosecutor added that Shanteari Weems’s husband weeks later needed to walk with a walker.
Massie-Banks also read from a journal found in the hotel room, in which Shanteari Weems wrote she did not plan on killing her husband, but wanted to “paralyze” him.
James Weems was charged in connection with the sex abuse while recovering in the hospital and transported to Baltimore County. He is facing more than 30 counts of child sexual abuse and assault charges in connection with at least four victims, according to Maryland court records. He remains held in a Baltimore-area jail without bond and is scheduled to go on trial in May. Prosecutors alerted a Maryland judge earlier this month that they plan to seek enhanced penalties on the charges based on the ages of the victims and witnesses involved. That could mean additional years in prison if he is convicted.
An attorney for James Weems declined to comment.
Shanteari Weems has remained in the D.C. jail since her arrest on the day of the shooting, despite her attorney’s efforts last month to have her released pending trial. Judge Michael O’Keefe denied the request.
After the hearing, two individuals who attended the hearing in support of Shanteari Weems declined to comment. Garcia said his client “cooperated” with Baltimore authorities in the prosecution of her husband’s assault case. He called the circumstances of the shooting, “a tragedy.”
“We are not asking anyone to feel sorry for her, but we are asking people to have empathy for her,” Garcia said.
O’Keefe is scheduled to sentence Weems on Feb. 3. | 2022-11-28T18:57:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Woman pleads guilty to shooting husband after he was accused of abusing kids - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/28/woman-guilty-shooting-husband-abuse/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/28/woman-guilty-shooting-husband-abuse/ |
Sippy cups, children’s Disney clothes recalled for lead poisoning risk
By Amy Joyce
Some Green Sprouts sippy cups have been voluntarily recalled due to a small piece of lead (US Consumer Product Safety Commission/CPSC)
A children’s stainless steel sippy cup has been recalled due to a lead-poisoning hazard.
Green Sprouts, maker of reusable and natural baby products, discovered that some of its cups were made with a small piece of metal that contains lead. This piece is typically inaccessible, but when the bottom of the cup is broken off, the lead piece is exposed. The company’s voluntary recall affects about 10,500 cups. They are sold at Whole Foods, Buy Buy Baby, Amazon and bedbathandbeyond.com.
“Testing of this component was omitted by the CPSC-approved third party lab because this part of the product is inaccessible under normal use,” the company said in a statement. “Had we been aware that a component containing lead in these products could become accessible, we wouldn’t have put them on the market; now that we know, we are voluntarily recalling these products.”
The company received seven reports of the base breaking off, exposing the small piece, called a “solder dot.” No injuries have been reported.
This recall isn’t entirely unusual: Bentex children’s clothing sets, specifically clothing in Disney-themed styles for young children, was recalled Nov. 23 because of lead in the textile ink on the clothing. About 87,000 units, sold at retailers such as TJ Maxx and Amazon.com, were involved. The CPSC website contains the item and batch numbers of the clothes involved in the recall.
“We are always concerned about lead,” said Patty Davis, Consumer Protection Safety Commission spokesperson. “The good news is that these were caught and recalled.”
Lead poisoning is extremely dangerous and toxic if ingested by children, and can cause neurological impairments, developmental delays and other serious health issues. Currently, the biggest and most common risk of lead poisoning to children is old lead-based paint used in houses. Water in Flint, Mich., had dangerously high levels of lead leading to a horrific human and environmental disaster, starting in 2014.
There is a strict lead limit on children’s products. In 2008, Congress passed a law limiting the amount of lead and other chemicals permitted in products, along with other toxic chemicals. This year, the CPSC seized 2 million products that did not meet U.S. safety standards, and 300,000 of those contained lead.
Many products that were not made recently, or come from other countries, do still contain lead. Also, parents need to be mindful when they purchase goods second-hand. The CPSC recommends checking a product on its website to see if it has been recalled before trying to resell.
The sippy cup recall involves 6 and 8 ounce Green Sprouts Stainless Steel cups and bottles with tracking numbers 29218V06985, 35719V06985, and 33020V06985, which can be found on the bottom of the base.
Consumers can sign up for recall notices at CPSC.gov. | 2022-11-28T19:10:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sippy cups, children’s Disney clothes recalled for lead poisoning risk - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/11/28/sippy-cup-recall-lead-poisoning/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/11/28/sippy-cup-recall-lead-poisoning/ |
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
When Republicans take control of the House in January, it’s likely that Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) will move from ranking member of the House Oversight Committee to its chairman. That likely promotion in mind, NBC’s Chuck Todd welcomed Comer to “Meet the Press” on Sunday to get a sense of what the committee and the Republican Party broadly had in mind once in power.
As might be expected, Comer pledged a slew of investigations into the Biden administration. That included — perhaps less predictably — a look at the pandemic response, going back to the administration of Donald Trump. But after a back-and-forth with Todd on the subject of gun crime, Comer pointed at a focus for his party that would have been nearly impossible to see coming: potential legislation or investigations centered on looting.
Hard to predict that as a focus. Unless, that is, one watches Fox News.
The exchange with Todd on guns was interesting and important as context for the “looting” conversation. Responding to a spate of mass-shooting events in recent weeks, Todd asked Comer whether he supported any legislation addressing the issue.
“If passing a bill would simply end gun violence, then I think you would have overwhelming support in Congress for that,” Comer said, waving the question away. Instead of laws, there needed to be better identification of those likely to commit crimes, which he suggested was downstream from the country’s “mental health crisis.”
Todd pushed back: Would he then support a law implementing mandatory waiting periods, during which this purported mental health trigger might be identified? Congress would discuss it, Comer said, but Republicans were more focused on fentanyl, which he said had killed 100,000 Americans. (In 2021, about 71,000 deaths nationally were attributed to the drug.)
The host kept pushing: Would Comer support a waiting period? Comer deflected.
“When you look at cities that have the most strict gun laws, like Washington D.C., Chicago, these are the cities with the highest rates of crimes committed with guns,” Comer said. “So you know, just simply passing more bills isn’t going to solve the problem.”
Todd was ready for this. He showed data compiled by the pro-gun-law group Everytown showing that states with the strictest laws had the lowest rates of gun deaths and vice versa. You can see a version of that data below; states with weaker gun laws (further to the left on the chart) have more gun deaths per resident (higher on the chart).
Comer pushed back, insisting that “places like rural America, where just about every other household exercises their Second Amendment rights, there aren’t a lot of crimes in these areas” — which he attributed to the higher rates of gun ownership. Of course, there are fewer crimes in rural America primarily because there are fewer people. Relative rates of gun violence, though, are often lower in big cities with large populations. (Analyses of this question are hampered by limited or outdated crime data.)
It’s worth noting that the Everytown data are somewhat misleading. A large percentage of gun deaths in the United States are suicides. If we extract those deaths from the total (using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the correlation with gun laws is far weaker. This makes sense in its own way, of course: less access to firearms means fewer suicides using firearms.
That said, the 10 states with the loosest gun laws had an average rate of non-suicide gun deaths 44 percent higher than the 10 states with the strictest laws. It’s also worth noting that two states with strong gun laws but a lot of non-suicide gun deaths — Illinois and Maryland — also have a lot of guns recovered at crime scenes that originated out of state. In other words, strong gun laws are weakened in states where guns flow in from nearby states with weaker laws.
All of this, though, is a very standard patter for a Republican politician. Crime is bad in blue cities, not red counties; gun laws don’t work; it’s the fault of mental illness. This is the narrative on Fox News, for example, which drives and reflects a lot of the conversation about crime on the political right.
Bringing us to Comer’s other proposal for fighting crime.
“We’re going to continue to protect our Second Amendment rights,” he told Todd, “but while at the same time we want to get serious about crime in America, the fentanyl crisis, as well as the looting that’s taking place in cities.”
What Comer presents to Todd, then, is that his party will focus heavily on fentanyl (which also got a pre-election bump in attention) and looting … almost certainly because these are elements of the Fox-led crime narrative that have been a focus of attention. Legislation on blocking shooters? Congress will debate it, as it always does, but Comer’s confident no laws will do any good. | 2022-11-28T19:10:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Another Fox News-driven target of likely GOP probes: ‘Looting’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/another-fox-news-driven-target-likely-gop-probes-looting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/another-fox-news-driven-target-likely-gop-probes-looting/ |
FILE - Sandra Cruz Torres, mother of Robb Elementary massacre victim Eliahna Torres, chats with Beto O’Rourke, Democratic candidate running for governor, as Cruz and her family celebrate Día de los Muertos at Torres’ gravesite in Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery in Uvalde, Texas, Nov. 2, 2022. Sandra Cruz Torres filed a federal lawsuit on Monday, Nov. 28, against the police, the school district and the maker of the gun used in the massacre. (Sam Owens/The San Antonio Express-News via AP, File) | 2022-11-28T19:11:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Uvalde mom sues police, gunmaker in school massacre - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/uvalde-mom-sues-police-gunmaker-in-school-massacre/2022/11/28/ba114818-6f4d-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/uvalde-mom-sues-police-gunmaker-in-school-massacre/2022/11/28/ba114818-6f4d-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
Bridge housing can be the link between homelessness and a home
Chandra Dawson is the chief permanent housing officer for the District charity Friendship Place. At Valley Place, an apartment building in Southeast D.C., people who once experienced homelessness can prepare for their own place. (John Kelly/The Washington Post)
A bed isn’t a house and a house isn’t a home. And when a person experiencing homelessness leaves the streets, the streets don’t magically leave the person. Just ask Chandra Dawson.
“It takes a minute just to normalize,” said Dawson, the chief permanent housing officer for Friendship Place, a nonprofit working to end homelessness in the District.
Living in a tent in a park is awful, but it allows a person some amount of control. Getting your own apartment — getting “leased up,” in the parlance of housing groups such as Friendship Place — is wonderful, but it can set a person up to fail.
Said Dawson: “They've had the rug pulled out so many times.”
That’s where Valley Place comes in. It’s a year-old apartment building in Southeast D.C. that provides what’s known as bridge housing. This is temporary housing — as long as 90 days, but sometimes longer — for people who have been living in shelters or on the streets.
Valley Place provides a sojourn between being homeless and being leased up. It has space for 52 adult participants, in one-, two- and three-bedroom, fully furnished apartments. Some residents have roommates. Some units are ADA-compliant.
It’s a safe space, but it’s something else, too: a classroom. “When you move out, your apartment will look very similar to this,” is what Dawson tells residents.
For some residents, Valley Place is the first time they’ve ever lived alone.
“They ran away in their late teens and been on the streets for years,” Dawson said.
They must learn to navigate unfamiliar spaces: their own closets (where they can store their possessions), their own kitchens and bathrooms (which must be cleaned), and a laundry room.
Simple things can seem mysterious — a thermostat, for example.
On the streets, Dawson said, “I adjust my temperature by the layers of my clothes.”
Some participants find the prospect of getting leased up “terrifying,” Dawson said. They worry: What happens if I fail?
Friendship Place is there to help keep clients from failing. Most participants have two case managers, the social workers who help clients formulate a plan for the future. Participants are required to interact at least three times a week with their case managers, Dawson said.
Some of the residents have jobs, something Dawson says surprises some people.
“Everyone assumes that homelessness means no income,” she said. “We have the working poor. In the District of Columbia it is not uncommon to work — and to work full-time — and still not have the ability to afford rent.”
Valley Place, Dawson said, “chips away at some of the stress of trying to maintain a job while experiencing homelessness. I can hang my clothes up. I can take a shower and not wonder when I wake up where I can bathe. It offers me protection. My colleagues don't have to know I'm homeless.”
Valley Place is a new pilot program managed by Friendship Place, in partnership with the Interagency Council on Homelessness and the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness. It is overseen by the District’s Department of Human Services. Community of Hope manages similar bridge housing in its Girard Street NW building.
The residents aren’t the only ones learning. Dawson and her colleagues are learning, too. A lot of the Valley Place participants came from tent encampments that have become common in the city, she said. These may be unsightly reminders of our nation’s housing crisis, our mental health crisis, our income-inequality crisis, but to those who live in them, they’re something else: communities.
Moving to bridge housing, Dawson said, provides “the added safety of housing, but there is a loss. Bridge housing also has to help fill that social gap in terms of community and companionship.”
So Valley Place has a community room where residents socialize, play cards, watch TV, enjoy game nights.
Dawson said she is constantly amazed and humbled by the resiliency of those she serves, people who have not had the benefits she’s had in terms of a supportive family and a quality education.
“It's remarkable to watch,” she said. “It takes a lot to get up each morning and put one foot in front of another when you're really not sure where you're going to land.”
Helping people put one foot in front of the other is what Friendship Place does. You can participate in that effort by giving to The Washington Post Helping Hand, our annual fundraising drive. To contribute online by credit card, visit posthelpinghand.com. To donate by mail, send a check to Friendship Place, 3655 Calvert St. NW, Washington, DC 20007. | 2022-11-28T20:33:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | On the way home, some Friendship Place clients live at Valley Place - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/28/valley-place-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/28/valley-place-dc/ |
Elon Musk, the world’s richest human, might be completely unrelatable in most ways — who among us can buy a $44 billion company on a whim or build a rocket ship to Mars because they liked reading science fiction as a kid? But, hey, he’s got at least one thing in common with the common man.
Musk on Monday tweeted a photo of his nightstand, which bore an odd array of items including two non-firing replica guns, a Buddhist amulet and … four open cans of caffeine-free Diet Coke.
At least in his apparent affinity for the calorie-free cola, he is in vast company. Even those of us who never drink the stuff are familiar with Diet Coke People. They are a tribe whose allegiance to the product goes beyond brand loyalty and into something deeper. Sure, there are other ways people organize their identities around a preference for one thing over another: sports fans, maybe, or people with those Yeti stickers on their trucks. But Diet Coke drinkers differ in that they typically engage constantly with their beloved, aspartame-sweetened potion. Many imbibe all day, every day, empty cans or bottles collecting on their desktops and (like Musk) their bedsides.
Diet Coke’s profile has ebbed and flowed since it was introduced in 1982. It has survived the four decades since, from its designation as the “in” quaff of Hollywood, through the rise of bottled water, past its association as a “mom drink.” Even now, its packaging defies the trend away from products labeled as “diet” (the currently preferred nomenclature is “zero sugar”) and concern about its health effects (a New York Times story last year about a former addict was titled “I Was Powerless Over Diet Coke”). Its can was briefly slenderized to better appeal to millennials; now it’s back to its regular shape.
In 2018, the New Yorker stuck a fork in the Diet Coke phenomenon, citing as evidence its unsavory acolytes, including former president Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein. It is, the magazine declared, “the elixir of soft-bodied plutocrats desperate to shed their shady pasts and, possibly, a few pounds.”
Still, the cult persists, with fans on Facebook and Reddit sharing photos of their stocked fridges and Mormon mommies on TikTok showing off their “dirty” versions spiked with lime and coconut syrup.
Musk has previously proclaimed his love for the beverage. “Diet Coke is amazing, especially the soda fountain version at movie theaters with salt & butter popcorn,” he tweeted in June, following up by saying he doesn’t care “if it lowers my life expectancy.” And in April, he tweeted his plan to restore the drink’s original formula:
In a 2007 interview with Inc. magazine, Musk said that at one point he was downing eight cans of Diet Coke a day along with several large coffees, a regimen he ultimately had to cut back. “I got so freaking jacked that I seriously started to feel like I was losing my peripheral vision,” he said. “Now, the office has caffeine-free Diet Coke.”
Diet Coke might be a drink of the people — you can pick up a 24-pack at yet for $12 — but even those who have the resources to drink anything else still choose it.
Trump reportedly drank as many as 12 cans a day, and he was said to have used the call button on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office primarily as a means of summoning a fresh glass. Ben Affleck is another high-profile fan; he’s been seen holding a can in paparazzi photos, and a video posted by his wife, Jennifer Lopez, revealed what looked like a soda fountain in his personal office that dispenses it (alongside, confusingly, Diet Pepsi, which the cult of DC famously abhors).
But the majority of the Diet Coke army are like people you know: the colleague who pops a can every afternoon, or the girlfriend whose car cupholder always contains at least one half-finished bottle. They will tell you how much better it is than Coke Zero or how McDonald’s sells the best version. They might have strong opinions about ice shape. Their bedside tables might not merit national attention — but they might look a lot like the one belonging to the richest guy on the planet. | 2022-11-28T20:42:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Elon Musk and the hardcore cult of Diet Coke - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/11/28/elon-musk-diet-coke/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/11/28/elon-musk-diet-coke/ |
FILE - In this image taken from police body camera video provided by New Haven Police, Richard “Randy” Cox, center, is pulled from the back of a police van and placed in a wheelchair after being detained by New Haven Police on June 19, 2022, in New Haven, Conn. Five Connecticut police officers were charged with misdemeanors Monday, Nov. 28, over their treatment of Cox after he was paralyzed from the chest down in the back of a police van. (New Haven Police via AP, File) (Uncredited/New Haven Police) | 2022-11-28T20:42:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 5 officers charged after Black man paralyzed in police van - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/5-officers-charged-after-black-man-paralyzed-in-police-van/2022/11/28/3471aa42-6f50-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/5-officers-charged-after-black-man-paralyzed-in-police-van/2022/11/28/3471aa42-6f50-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the National Palace in Mexico City on Feb. 23, 2021. (Marco Ugarte/AP Photo)
The United States is not the only North American democracy at risk from a president’s belief that he is a victim of election-rigging. In Mexico, left-wing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador lost the 2006 presidential election by less than one percentage point, cried fraud and refused to concede even after tribunals unanimously rejected his claims, and mobilized supporters to blockade a busy thoroughfare in the nation’s capital. Though Mr. López Obrador ultimately relented and presidents from other parties governed through 2018, he remained obsessed with 2006. Now that he is president — having won an undisputed election in 2018 — Mr. López Obrador is bent on remaking the electoral system he still blames for cheating him more than 16 years ago.
The president’s proposals threaten the system’s independence and with it Mexico’s hard-won transition from authoritarianism to multiparty democracy. The crucial institution Mr. López Obrador seeks to transform — the National Electoral Institute — signed off on his 2018 win. He nevertheless portrays the panel, known by its Spanish initials, INE, as biased, elitist and wasteful of taxpayer money. The president wants a new system whereby voters choose a seven-member panel from 60 candidates of whom the president, Congress and the Supreme Court would each pick about 20; they would serve for six years, the length of a presidential term in Mexico. The susceptibility to politicization of such a panel is obvious. In contrast, the current INE consists of 11 members, selected for their expertise by a nominating committee, then confirmed by a two-thirds vote of Congress; they serve for nine years each. Public opinion polls show that substantial majorities of Mexicans approve of the INE’s work. A recent European Union fact-finding mission concluded that Mexico’s existing system works and enjoys public trust — and that Mr. López Obrador’s plan “carries an inherent risk of undermining such trust.”
An increasing number of Mexicans rightly suspect that Mr. López Obrador is trying to perpetuate his party’s dominance even after his term ends in 2024, mimicking the authoritarian system that prevailed under the Institutional Revolutionary Party during the 20th century. On Nov. 13, tens of thousands of people marched through Mexico City and other cities to protest the president’s plan. Mr. López Obrador branded them as defenders of class and racial privilege — then mobilized his supporters, many of them bused in from outlying regions, for a counterdemonstration in Mexico City on Sunday, in a show of force as the country’s Congress considers the issue. Though the president probably lacks the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution, he has said that he will try to achieve his objectives through legislation, which requires only a simple majority.
Neither the Biden administration, the U.S. Congress nor the U.S. public generally should remain indifferent to these developments. The United States has many interests — trade, energy, migration, drug smuggling — in Mexico, but none is more important than ensuring democracy flourishes. Next month’s North American Leaders’ Summit with Mr. López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau provides President Biden an opportunity to deliver that message in person, and unequivocally. | 2022-11-28T20:42:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | AMLO tries to undermine Mexico's democracy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/mexico-lopez-obrador-democracy-protests/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/mexico-lopez-obrador-democracy-protests/ |
Stone Bridge gets familiar foe in semifinals; Patuxent preps for title game
Stone Bridge and Highland Springs met in last year's Class 5 state semifinals and will do so again Saturday. (Scott Taetsch for The Washington Post)
Most Stone Bridge seniors have lost just one game in their high school careers. That makes their goals a little different from other area powers. August and September are defined by learning experiences for inevitable postseason runs in November and December. They provide chances to see which players fit where, and for Stone Bridge, opportunities to figure out how it might fare against a rival down south.
After a 42-0 win over Mountain View in the Class 5 Region C final on Friday, Stone Bridge will play Richmond-area power Highland Springs in a state semifinal Saturday. It will be the third straight year the teams meet in the playoffs and sixth matchup since 2015. Though Highland Springs holds a 3-2 series edge, Stone Bridge has won the last two meetings, including an overtime championship thriller in the spring of 2021.
“We don’t shy away from it,” Stone Bridge Coach Mickey Thompson said. “Third week of the season we’re talking about, ‘Well, you can do that now, but you can’t do that against Highland Springs.’ Week 4, Week 5, [Highland Springs] is what we know we are getting ready for.”
Most players from last year’s state semifinal game return for this season’s iteration, which will be played at Highland Springs. Stone Bridge, which showed some flaws early in the season, looks different than its August squad.
Seniors Colton Hinton and Zeke Wimbush still star on offense, but Wimbush — traditionally a receiver — splits quarterbacking duties with starter Mario Suarez. The offensive line and defensive unit have jelled, Thompson said, a testament to chemistry that can take time to build.
Now, the Bulldogs are ready for the challenge.
“It’s probably my favorite thing,” Thompson said of facing the Springers. “I mean, we’ve lost our fair share. ... But when you’re playing someone you have a respect for, who plays hard and is well-coached? It’s the most rewarding thing you can get in high school sports.”
Proud Patuxent preps for title game
Patuxent Coach Steve Crounse knows all about the singular joys and strange quirks this week will provide as his team prepares for the Maryland 2A/1A championship. He took the Panthers to the state final in 2015, in his first stint as head coach. Now back with the program, Crounse and the Panthers have surged to the end of the bracket and a Saturday meeting with Baltimore powerhouse Dunbar.
“I’d be lying if I told you [this week] didn’t feel different,” Crounse said. “You’re the only sports team out there for one. There are some lonely, dark nights out there on the practice field.”
But the stage can help a team focus, and Crounse likes to tell his group to focus on the familiarity and the simplicity of it all.
“Ultimately it’s just a football game,” he said. “We go to Navy Stadium and its still a 100-yard field. It’s still football. You have to break through the pageantry of it and get to the root. You make sure the kids understand that they’ve played in a million football games and this is just a bigger venue with bigger stakes.”
The Panthers looked comfortable and confident Friday as they earned a 43-21 win over Harford Tech in the semifinals. They racked up 281 yards rushing with a stable of ball-carriers. And senior Asa Locks nabbed a pick-six at the end of the first half to give the team a boost.
None of these players were around for that trip to the state final in 2015, but Patuxent is a tight-knit football community, and that history and pride should be especially helpful this week.
“This is a really close group, and they may not have played in a lot of big Patuxent games, but they’ve attended them when they were in middle school or elementary school,” Crounse said. “They feel connected historically to the program and they just want to step up and do their part.”
Quince Orchard vs. C.H. Flowers, Thursday, 7 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium
Arundel vs. North Point, Friday, 7:30 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium
Madison at Fairfax, Saturday, 2 p.m.
Friendship Collegiate vs. Theodore Roosevelt, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. at Howard University
Zeke Wimbush, Stone Bridge: The Bulldogs prolonged their quest for a third straight state title thanks to the multi-positional senior who scored three touchdowns in a 42-0 Class 5 Region D final win over Mountain View.
Dillon Dunathan, Damascus: The senior headlined a fierce rushing attack for the Hornets by racking up 246 yards and four touchdowns as Damascus trounced River Hill, 42-7, in the Maryland 3A semifinals.
Jeremiah Roberson, Coolidge: The senior threw for 195 yards and three touchdowns, as the Colts beat Maret, 37-8, in the D.C. State Athletic Association Class A championship.
DeMatha’s tough ending
In his 33 seasons coaching DeMatha, Bill McGregor has finished on the winning and losing sides of Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship games. Those experiences didn’t lighten the anguish of losing, 7-3, to St. John’s in the final Nov. 20 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
“You put in so much time and so much energy,” said McGregor, 73. “It hurts when you lose. The Thanksgiving turkey didn’t taste quite as good.”
Still, McGregor expressed his appreciation to his players afterward. DeMatha (10-2) finished the regular season undefeated in WCAC play and featured one of the best defenses McGregor has witnessed. In October, McGregor became the fourth coach in Maryland history to surpass 300 career victories.
“We just try to take that, learn from that and carry it over,” McGregor said, “and continue the great tradition we have here at DeMatha.”
While winning DeMatha’s first championship since 2016 would have bolstered the résumé for this year’s defense, the Hyattsville powerhouse allowed 65 points against one of the D.C. area’s toughest schedules.
McGregor, who has guided DeMatha to 17 of its WCAC-record 24 championships, planned to review this season with his coaching staff Tuesday and prepare for another campaign.
“You just have to pick it up and just go from there because you have another group of young men coming up,” McGregor said. “They’re fantastic, and you can’t wait to go work with them and try to give them as fine of a season as they possibly can have.”
Friendship keeps season alive
Friendship Collegiate us headed back to the DCSAA Class AA final after knocking off defending champion Archbishop Carroll, 27-14 in the semifinals Saturday.
“Anytime you have an opportunity to compete for a championship, it’s a blessing,” said Coach Mike Hunter, who’s team will match up with Turkey Bowl champion Theodore Roosevelt. “Despite our success in this tournament over the years, we never take this opportunity to compete for granted.”
Entering the fourth quarter down 14-6, the Knights, affectionately known as the Beach Boyz, were staring down a disappointing conclusion to their season. Instead, they went on a 21-0 run to close out the game.
Running back Raynard Dugger kickstarted the run with a five-yard touchdown run that brought the Knights within 14-12 with eight minutes to play.
Then Jaylen Croskey found Diondre Wooden with three minutes remaining for a 50-yard touchdown pass. A successful two-point conversion pushed the lead to 20-14.
“The way the guys kept fighting was really nice to see,” Hunter said. “Throughout the season, we’ve struggled with keeping our heads up when facing adversity, and as a result some games really got away from us.”
The Knights (7-5) finished 3-7 last season and missed the DCSAA playoffs entirely. | 2022-11-28T20:43:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Stone Bridge gets familiar foe in semifinals; Patuxent preps for title game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/stone-bridge-gets-familiar-foe-semifinals-patuxent-preps-title-game/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/stone-bridge-gets-familiar-foe-semifinals-patuxent-preps-title-game/ |
Transcript: Protecting Our Planet: Europe’s Climate Agenda
MR. IGNATIUS: Welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m David Ignatius, a columnist at The Post. I’m pleased to be joined today by Ditte Juul Jørgensen, who is the EU European Commission’s director general for energy and is a key person making energy strategy for Europe. Welcome to Washington Post Live. Thanks for joining us.
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: Thank you very much, David, for inviting me. It's a pleasure to be here.
MR. IGNATIUS: So, let's begin by the question that's been haunting us for months, which is whether with the war in Ukraine and Russian weaponization of energy, Europe is going to be facing a cold winter this year with the possibility of rationing. Tell us how that looks. There's been some encouraging news, mild fall weather, gas storage sites seem to be filled, some reduction in demand. Are you more hopeful now that that Europe can get through this winter without real disruption?
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: Thank you very much. And indeed, I think we have done a lot to prepare for this winter. We have done a lot collectively at the European level working with member states, working with the European Parliament, but also working with our--with our global [audio distortion] the supply side, we have been reaching out to [audio distortion] like the United States suppliers but also Norway, other countries in our [audio distortion] that are suppliers of energy and have been working with them to store new supplies, additional supplies to the replace the Russian gas that has essentially been taken off the global market.
So, as you probably know, before the war, we received about 40 percent of our gas supply from Russia, and most of that was via pipeline. Russia has disrupted a lot of those flows. And we have responded by REPowerEU, saying we need to step out of this dependence from Russia. And so a lot of gas, a lot of fossil gas has been taken out of the global market and we have needed to replace supply.
So, we have worked on the supply side to get additional supplies, we have also--or alternative supplies. We have also worked on the demand side, essentially by taking measures to reduce our demand across the European Union by energy savings, by fuel switch, by process of [audio distortion]. And we have taken--put in place measures to achieve that, and again jointly at European level.
Then, we have taken measures to be more secure. And that's primarily storage that you mentioned. We've put in place a regulatory framework that requires all storage owners to fill their storage before winter, and we're above 95 percent of storage filling, so really very, very high [audio distortion] record level also compared to normal years.
And then we've taken measures. We've made suggestions to try to get the market to function optimally within the European Union. That is both to address infrastructure bottlenecks--we have had essentially fossil gas flows or natural gas flows going from east to west within our--in our internal infrastructure, and so some of that has to be adapted to and aligned with the new flows that come from other sources--in particular, of course, LNG, and again, a lot of that from the U.S. The U.S. was already our largest LNG supplier, but has very, very significantly increased supplies to the European Union over this year since the beginning of the war. So we’ve done I think what we can as we go into this winter, and in a fairly good place. That doesn't mean it's without risks or without challenges. It will be a challenging winter. But I think we have done as much as we can in terms of--in terms of preparing for that.
The other thing we have done--and I think this is critical to underline and it aligns with the--with the climate focus is, of course, to make sure that all these emergency measures are aligned with our green transition. So, we step up, we accelerate renewables, we have measures to put in place more heat pumps, more photovoltaic on rooftops, more energy efficiency investments and measures. So that is, of course, a critical point of our energy security as well as of our sustainability.
I think a bigger challenge than these coming months and this winter will actually be the winter '23-'24, because we see that the global energy markets and the global gas markets in particular remain somewhat imbalanced. There is a higher demand than supply, and so there will be--there will be challenges there [audio distortion] be significant levels of Russian gas supply, there will be challenges in filling our storages as we get into the next filling season in March/April in 2023.
MR. IGNATIUS: So, Madam Director General, let me just ask you to put all those elements together. Here it is the end of November. What is your level of confidence that Europe will, in fact, get through this winter without a significant disruption in energy supplies? Would you--would you put that, you know, towards 90 percent? Something lower? Give us a sense.
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: Well, I think I'm not sure I would like to put on a percentage because we are in a--in a very challenging set of circumstances. There's a war. There's a war going on in Europe. It's a war in our neighborhood. It's a war that Russia is waging against Ukraine in Ukraine, it there's also weaponization of energy, weaponization of gas, using gas [audio distortion] Europe and other countries in this--the European Union and other countries in this region. And so there are, of course, a number of unknowns. You saw recently, this autumn, there were sabotage; there were attacks on two pipeline systems in the European Union, Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. And so there are things that can happen that we of course need to prepare ourselves for and try to avoid, limit the risks. But it makes it difficult, I find, to put a percentage on anything.
I think what is critical is that we identify the risks, that we take measures to mitigate those risks, and then we take measures to be prepared. And then the most important thing of all I think within Europe is that we are united, that we work together for common solutions, and that we have the right provisions in place so that we know that countries across Europe will be ready to help each other. For example, we now have a neighboring country, not in the European Union but Moldova in a very tricky situation as regards security of supply in energy supply. And we are of course doing what we can.
Similarly, the Russian energy--sorry, Ukraine has been under attack by Russia, and we are doing what we can to help make sure that Ukraine has the energy infrastructure, the different pieces that they have lost in their system that have been destroyed by Russia in the Ukrainian system. So, it's a European-wide solidarity to help make sure everyone is ready for this winter and for the challenges that lie ahead.
MR. IGNATIUS: And I want to just ask you to return to the question of what happens next year, assuming that things will muddle through, if you will, this winter, the challenges of next year. Under your REPowerEU plan, do you think you can really substitute out alternative sources for Russian energy so that in the coming winter a year from now Europe will not be vulnerable to Russian energy pressure at all?
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: Well, I think it's interesting when we first launched the idea of REPowerEU earlier this year, I think there were questions [audio distortion] is it really possible with this 40 percent dependence on Russian fossil and Russian gas that we had. I think there were many questions. Well, what are you going to do? This is not possible. It’s not possible within the speed that you have in mind. And the reality now is that the supply of Russian gas into our system this month was about 7 percent compared to a normal of 40 percent. And so actually these changes, this transition has happened very, very swiftly. It's been driven by markets. So, we've seen the reduction of supply from Russia, and we've seen the increase of supply from other suppliers, more trustable, viable partners that we've been working with over the years and including the U.S. as I mentioned. And that has helped us replace the Russian gas to a large extent not fully, but to quite a significant extent.
As I also mentioned, we have, of course, invested into new infrastructure. So, we have had to invest very quickly into infrastructure to increase our imports of LNG. But also, as I mentioned [audio distortion] in these alternative sources, renewable sources, including, for example, biomethane, which is the same molecular structure as fossil gas, and which can therefore fairly quickly come in place when we can set up that--those investments and those facilities.
So, our assessment based on what are the alternatives, what can be done is that we can get quite far. But we cannot reach it, we cannot achieve it--and this is absolutely critical--without reducing our demand. We need energy savings. We need energy efficiency. If we are to keep our demand as high as it has been, it is going to be very, very difficult. So, some of the replacement effect has to be reduction of demand, energy savings, energy efficiency, and that has to be the first measure really across the board.
And what we see in those sectors is we have quite a strong regulatory framework within the European Union, and a lot has happened in terms of investments, available technologies to lower consumption. And we can do more of that. We can [audio distortion] into that. It serves the purpose of--obviously, of lowering our greenhouse gas emissions [audio distortion] lowering the energy bill for households and for businesses, and it helps keep people warm if you have a well-insulated home and if you have in place the necessary measures. So, I want to underline the importance of demand reduction, energy efficiency, and energy [audio distortion] in terms of how do we reach our REPowerEU [audio distortion] and become independent from Russian supplies.
MR. IGNATIUS: Let me ask you about another part of the energy puzzle dealing with Russia and the war in Ukraine, and that's the proposal from the Biden administration for price caps on Russian oil. There have been press reports that the EU is prepared to accept price caps in the range of $65 to $70 a barrel is what I read most recently. But you begin to see economists now joining President Zelensky of Ukraine saying, no, energy prices are falling. That doesn't do us enough good. Zelensky’s proposed a cap as low as $30 a barrel, which would really squeeze Russia. What do you think about proposals for a lower cap?
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: Well, since negotiations, are ongoing and discussions are ongoing within the European Union about level of a cap, I would not want to engage in those discussions here. That really is--there's an ongoing decision-making taking place on that. What I can say on oil is we have, of course, already put in place sanctions on a lot of the Russian energy supply. We have put in place sanctions on pipeline oil already to the European--or on oil, sorry, to the European Union. We've put in place sanctions on coal. We've put in place sanctions on energy technologies. And so this is clearly a critical sector for Russia. It has been a critical supply for us, as I mentioned, and in different energy vectors, different energy carriers. [Audio distortion] measures we place in those sectors are really very critical also for the war effort, and in terms of our support for Ukraine.
But as regards to the level of the oil price cap, as I said, that's currently under discussion. So, I wouldn't want to try to intervene in that discussion from here.
MR. IGNATIUS: Without asking you to name a specific price target, I’d just ask the general question is there a price that would be so low, a price cap, that it would have a strong risk of leading Russia just to pull its oil deliveries entirely from the market?
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: I think--I think we need obviously to integrate and analyze, well, what is the likely impact of [audio distortion]. At the same time--I think at the same time, I would not dare speculate what [audio distortion] the Russian action would be. I think we've seen so far that we have not--that that is difficult to predict. So, I think we have to be prepared for any response, for any measure, and be ready to--be ready for that, essentially. So again, I think it's about risk assessment, risk awareness, but also our own preparedness, and then our own ability to work with like-minded partners, to work with reliable partners [audio distortion] the long-term energy and climate partnerships that are needed for us all to go through the green energy transition in a way that is both secure, affordable, but sustainable as well in terms of the climate and the environment.
MR. IGNATIUS: Let me take a question from a member of our audience. John Guillemin from Massachusetts asks about reducing demand. And here's his question: Has there been a coordinated effort across all EU member states to activate citizens and get them to reduce energy consumption. During this time of conflict when energy security has been weaponized, isn't there a need for a large civic defense style mobilization, like we saw in the U.S. during World War II?
What do you think about that mobilization beyond simply encouraging demand reduction, a real mobilization?
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: I think that's a really good question and a very, very good way of looking at it. We are in a war and so we do need to--we need to stand together. We need to do what is necessary. And we actually launched in spring already a campaign for energy savings. We did it with the help of the International Energy Agency, giving very concrete piece and very specific advice to citizens about what can you do to reduce your energy consumption overall, what can you do to reduce the oil consumption, the gas consumption, the electricity consumption.
In addition to that, we have passed regulation both on reducing electricity demand and reducing gas demand, so there are clear requirements in place. And we have updated this campaign and then member state level are making campaign and putting in place measures. And these measures can be from supporting the installment of photovoltaic on rooftops [audio distortion] we can either help you with your electricity bill or we can--we can help you with the installment of these alternative measures to have clean and green supply. But I think this notion of civic engagement and really standing together is a very, very good one, and I think we are going to need to take it further to really get that [audio distortion] of common action in order for us to be ready. And again, it’s this winter but it’s also beyond that. We don’t know how long Russia’s war in Ukraine will go on and we need to make sure that we can--that we can both support Ukraine but also sustain our own energy requirements and keep people warm during the winter.
MR. IGNATIUS: Let’s talk a little bit about Europe’s energy relationship with the United States. The numbers show that Europe now gets as much natural gas--more natural gas from the United States than from Russia. That’s a startling change. Can the U.S. play a significantly bigger role as we look towards a year from now the goal of real European independence from Russia as a supplier, how much more should the U.S. be doing to make available LNG, other necessary parts of that transition?
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: As you’re saying, the U.S. has become our largest energy supplier, our largest LNG supplier. It’s very, very impressive what has happened this year already. We started with very close cooperation between President Biden and our president, Ursula von der Leyen, earlier this year and then a very, very close support to secure additional supplies.
I think more can be done. First, as you also--as your question is suggesting in terms of LNG supplies, I think there’s still scope for more. There’s capacity for more. But that of course requires export capacity and investments into that but also the necessary procedures to go through so that the infrastructure is available. So I think more LNG supplies is something that would be in the interest I think of both sides of the Atlantic.
We would also see room for close cooperation in the development of common global energy strategies. We already have very close conversations on critical raw materials, which is necessary, of course, for the clean energy transition. So I think there’s a number of areas where we can work more closely together. We’ve seen it this year [audio distortion]. I think generally if you look at the challenges we’re facing globally--and here I’m thinking obviously about the challenges in the energy sector, from the energy markets, but also more generally--it is important to develop these reliable partnerships, work with trusted partners, and to look at how can these partnerships really work going into the future. So, it’s about LNG today, but it is also about green hydrogen for the future, about [audio distortion]. There’s a lot of scope for close cooperation there.
MR. IGNATIUS: So, I want to ask you about an area of energy cooperation that’s gotten a little bit bumpy since the passage of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which includes many provisions involving energy, subsidies for energy. There’s been growing criticism from Europe about what some Europeans argue are unfair trade practices that are embodied in that act. The buy American provisions for electric vehicles are an example of that. The German economy minister said recently that he saw these American provisions as a trade war. I want to ask you if you can help us sort out the issues that are involved here. As the leading European energy overseer, regulator, what’s your judgment about what’s in this bill? What do you think needs to be examined because of unfair consequences for Europe?
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: [Audio distortion] in terms of the energy--
[Technical difficulties]
MR. IGNATIUS: We’re having trouble, as the audience, I’m sure, is aware, of getting Director General Jørgensen. We’re going to try to reconnect and get a better connection so we can hear her answers to these questions. So just hold on for a minute. We’ll be right back.
[Brief recess]
MR. IGNATIUS: Madam Director General, I’m glad we have you back with I hope a more reliable connection. So, I want to just ask you to speak a little bit that to the question of the transition that you mentioned earlier to less dependence on carbon fuels. Decarbonization is central to your broad strategy in Europe. How's that going? Is the war in Ukraine impeding that? Is it a neutral factor? Just give us your assessment of how that whole part of the energy transformation is working?
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: Well, I think the war in Ukraine and the global energy crisis, if anything, are incentives, both economic incentives but also political incentives to accelerate the green energy transition and make the changes in our system that are necessary. So [audio distortion] relies on energy efficiency, renewable energies, and then of course, also on replacing the Russian energy sources with other supplies. But it really aligns with that climate agenda, with that green new transition agenda.
And with the very, very high energy prices, there is an increased very significant incentive to be more efficient to save on energies, as we talked about, but also to move to renewables as quickly as possible.
In addition to those economic incentives, we are doing what we can on the regulatory side. So we are--have stepped up our targets. We have very specific targets for how many renewables in our system by 2030 and how much energy efficiency, and we are now stepping those up and working with member states and with the European Parliament to get that done. So, we have a regulatory agenda that supports that overall market-driven driven pressure for the energy transition.
It's clear that we can be more secure, we can be more resilient, if we have more [audio distortion] in our system, because that can reduce the dependence on imported fossil in particular on Russian fossil energy. So those agendas are really aligned. And we have this principle, it says--it goes without saying but it's important sometimes to remind yourself that we have to make sure that even when we act in an emergency, even when we take urgent measures, we have to make sure that that aligns completely with our strategic objective [audio distortion] neutrality in 2050. So that's what we check. For every measure we take, we're going to check, well, does this work also in the context of the climate crisis, which is running in parallel to the energy crisis.
MR. IGNATIUS: In the remaining several minutes that we have, I want to ask you about COP27, which ended last week in Egypt. You were at COP27. I want to ask you your scorecard. Let me just read what your colleague, the EU’s climate chief Frans Timmermans said: Too many parties are not ready to make more progress today in the fight against the climate crisis. What we have in front of us is not enough of a step forward for people and the planet.
Would you share that judgment, that frustration that came through in his comment?
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: Well, I think he very clearly expressed the European position--and that was a position expressed also by European Union member states, by ministers--that on the one hand, it was good to see progress on loss and damage, and I think the progress on loss and damage [audio distortion] our ability to take action there was very much driven by the European Union, but also the European Union working with partners to make the--to make the change.
And then [audio distortion] is disappointment that we could not take it further when it comes to mitigation, that we could not take it further when it comes to the energy transition, being more clear on fossil, being more clear on the need to face down, and be more clear on us all needing to do more on renewable energy and energy efficiency.
So, on those aspects [audio distortion] all looking forward to the next COP in 2023 to see, well, how can we--how can we step up that agenda, which is absolutely critical for us to address the climate crisis. So, there were outcomes that were welcome, that were important. But as you quoted Frans Timmermans as saying, there was also things missing, and it is disappointing from our perspective that we [audio distortion] take it further together.
MR. IGNATIUS: So as a last question, Madam Director General, what would you specifically recommend to get the world back on track, closer to being on track to meet the Paris Accord pledge to reduce significantly global emissions by 2030 and keep the level of global warming at a, we hope, tolerable level? What specific things do you think need to be done?
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: Well, I think we need to make the investments where [audio distortion] transition. We need to make the investments into our energy systems to improve them. We need to make investments into renewable energy. We need to make investments into energy efficiency. But we also need to make sure that the fossil energy that we do consume--and we do consume fossil energy--will be part of our energy system for the coming decades. So, we need to make sure that that is as clean as possible. So, we have taken measures to reduce methane emissions, for example, from the production [audio distortion] to act on that and to lower methane emissions. So, we need the investments. We need to make sure that the energy we use is as clean and green as possible. We need to lower our reduction--reduce our consumption sorry.
And then we need to work with global partners to help others come on--follow that pathway or walk on that pathway to take the necessary measures, and what we do in that regard is to develop partnerships with others partnerships on green hydrogen, partnerships where we invest in some of the energy infrastructure, energy system changes that are necessary also in the Global South, where it can be difficult to attract investments. So, I think global partnerships is another critical aspect of making the change that is necessary both for the energy transition and for the climate transition.
MR. IGNATIUS: Speaking of the Global South, the president of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, said at COP, and I'm going to quote him, “Africa needs gas. We want to make sure we have access to electricity. We don't want to become the museum of poverty in the world.” How would you answer that statement, which got significant support from other Global South delegates?
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: Well, I think these global partnerships are part of the answer. We have entered into just energy transition--just energy transition partnerships with a number of countries exactly with that in mind, to look at how can you--how can you work together, how can we benefit from [audio distortion] parts of the world to help make that transition happen.
The green energy transition and the necessary transition for climate offers a lot of opportunities, but of course, also very specific challenges. So, to give you one example, we have regions that have been relying on coal. We have a just transition program to help those regions transition out to help create other jobs in those regions so that [audio distortion] jobs, so we help people on the reskilling. We help look at, well, what are the growth opportunities, what is the potential in those regions.
And with the just energy transition partnerships with partners [audio distortion] we can do something similar and look at how do we make sure this transition happens, but also that it happens in a just way, in a fair way, and so that we have as many benefits as possible also at local level. And I think that local level benefit is as critical as the global level benefits we see of lowering greenhouse gas emissions and of improving our overall climate globally.
MR. IGNATIUS: So, Ditte Juul Jørgensen, thank you so much. This is such an important topic, and your comments were helpful and to the point. We hope you'll come back and talk about them with us again. Thanks for joining us.
MS. JUUL JØRGENSEN: Thank you very much for having invited me. Thank you for your time.
MR. IGNATIUS: So, please join us for our other programming. To check out what we have coming up on Washington Post dot live--go to WashingtonPostLive.com and register for the programs. We look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks very much for joining us today. | 2022-11-28T20:44:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Protecting Our Planet: Europe’s Climate Agenda - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/11/28/transcript-protecting-our-planet-europes-climate-agenda/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/11/28/transcript-protecting-our-planet-europes-climate-agenda/ |
Following Saturday's 5-1 loss at New Jersey, John Carlson's Capitals continue a six-game trip Tuesday at Vancouver. (Adam Hunger/AP)
VANCOUVER, B.C. — The struggling Washington Capitals have been chasing the game most of the season, and they haven’t found a way to snap out of that troublesome habit. The latest example came Saturday night in Newark, where the New Jersey Devils opened the scoring in the first period and ultimately built a four-goal lead that yielded a dismal 5-1 loss for Washington.
It has become the norm for the Capitals to get stuck playing from behind, regardless of how well they fare in the opening 20 minutes — especially when they’re away from home. The Capitals have lost six straight on the road (0-4-2) and scored first in just one of those games — a 3-1 loss to Detroit in early November. In their past four road losses, the Capitals did not lead at any point.
Last time out: Caps have no answers for old friend Vitek Vanecek or new star Jack Hughes
“It has just felt like we’ve been coming from behind almost every game,” center Nic Dowd said. “When we do get out to a lead, we play well and our team functions better because we don’t have to lean on our top guys to play heavy minutes.”
As its six-game trip continues Tuesday, Washington (9-11-3) has a chance to find its footing in Vancouver (9-10-3) — and it has positives to draw from Saturday’s lopsided loss. The Capitals played one of their best first periods of the season against the Devils, controlling the puck in the offensive zone and regularly testing goaltender Vitek Vanecek. But the former Washington netminder turned in a standout performance and the Devils grabbed the early lead when the Capitals’ penalty kill couldn’t get the job done.
“That’s the key — to get those leads and get out in front and not feel like you are chasing the game,” defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk said. “We’ve had a few good first periods where we don’t get rewarded and it feels like you earned one, but you just got to stick with it and tides will change.”
Dowd liked the Capitals’ efforts on offense in the first period Saturday, especially following a convincing home win over Calgary the day before. But once a second and third goal is on the board, the wheels can fall off. Coach Peter Laviolette has pointed to ill-timed giveaways and miscues in the neutral zone that have led to high-danger scoring chances for the opposition.
“You just start to do things that individuals [shouldn’t] do because we are pressing for goals or, as a team, you got to play certain guys more,” Dowd said. “It is also just tough on a back-to-back — and it gets tougher as the season goes on.”
Those first-period woes highlight injury-ravaged Washington’s inability to play a 60-minute game. Often, the Capitals rebound in the second and third, but they can’t fully make up for their early mistakes. The players and coaches have offered various explanations for the first-period struggles; some chalked it up to a lack of effort, while others were frustrated that the puck simply hasn’t gone in.
Regardless of the source, the Capitals need to clean them up.
“I think you just got to simplify the game early on,” winger Conor Sheary said. “If you’re high-risk and giving up odd-man rushes and stuff like that, I think that gives teams opportunities to jump ahead. Discipline is a huge thing in the first period.” | 2022-11-28T21:47:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Capitals' slow starts contribute to inconsistent beginning to season - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/capitals-slow-starts-first-period/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/capitals-slow-starts-first-period/ |
‘We the people’ need some holiday cheer, and the White House has it
The theme of the White House holiday decorations is “We the People” and includes Willow and Commander in the Vermeil Room. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
The decorations are enticing and familiar. Impressive but not overwhelming. They’re a tonic.
They’re doing their best to serve as a visual and emotional respite from the bad news that sometimes feels so relentless that one wonders if the nation’s flags shouldn’t just remain at a permanent half-staff. They’re a break from the bad blood that has citizens looking at the folks across the fence line and calling them demons rather than neighbors. The mounds of fake snow, paper-wrapped fanciful birch trees and the handmade owls and fox are doing what holiday decorations are meant to do, which is to make people pause in delight, reclaim some lost childhood memory and consider for a moment the ways in which life really is good.
It took more than 150 volunteers a week to adorn the White House for the holidays using the theme “We the People.” While there are experts who oversee the transformation, it’s the volunteers who do the carting, draping and hanging. The reliance on volunteers isn’t specific to the Biden White House. It’s a long-standing tradition. Earnest Americans are the ones who wield the glue guns in this grand institution. They affixed pompoms and jingle bells to tiny foam trees that had been attached to mini ramekins and then painted gold. They hung wooden spoons dipped in faux frosting and rolling pins in the China Room. The philosophy behind this craft-making ingenuity is that anyone can decorate as the White House does. But, of course, that’s just a lovely fairy tale for all but those who are both extravagantly endowed with free time and an abundance of creative chutzpah. But no matter. It’s not so much that folks are expected to follow the White House, it’s that they could.
These decorations aren’t an ode to exceptionalism. They’re a celebration of commonality.
They’re a counterpoint to the grandeur of the White House. They don’t take one’s breath away — although the sparkling East Colonnade, with its trees sprouting from snow banks, each branch glinting with tiny mirrored disks, is a magical and elegant welcome. The decorations encourage visitors to breathe a bit easier.
There are few displays of cacophonous color. Many of the rooms take their inspiration from nature and the quiet that comes when the leaves and blossoms fade, the snow falls and it feels like the worlds goes silent. There’s beauty in the calm. When the world is so chaotic, there’s nothing more luxurious than stillness and quiet.
The Red Room celebrates faith. Not religion, doctrines or righteousness. The room is dominated by a tower of fuchsia orchids, one of the first lady’s favorite flowers, interspersed with candles. The windows have been filled with a facsimile of rose-colored glass that calls to mind a stain-glassed window in a house of worship. But it also emphasizes people’s beautiful, stubborn devotion to optimism which is at the root of faith.
The 2022 decorations include old traditions and new ones: the creche, the gingerbread house, the trees adorned with Gold Star ornaments in honor of the country’s service members. The White House Christmas tree, at 18½ feet, scrapes the ceiling of the Blue Room. It’s decorated with the official birds of the states, territories and the District of Columbia. So many traditions have become fraught. And rightfully so. But these endure as new ones are added.
Throughout the White House, mirrored ornaments dance in the light. The administration is expecting 50,000 visitors this season and they will all be able to see themselves reflected in each corner of the White House — a reminder that as individuals, they’re part of … everything, or at least they can be. They can be part of the neighborly effort that goes into hanging pine boughs and making magic out of dollar store bargains. They are among the home cooks whipping up feasts from handed-down recipes and sharing those dishes with others. They’re responsible for filling childhoods — and adulthoods — with acts of kindness. Perhaps they’re not the ones who created these holiday traditions, but they’re the ones who can keep the faith that the best of them will endure and grow. | 2022-11-28T22:00:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘We the people’ need some holiday cheer, and the White House has it - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/28/givhan-white-house-christmas-decorations-2022/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/28/givhan-white-house-christmas-decorations-2022/ |
Gas lamps illuminate St. Louis's Gaslight Square on April 2, 1962. "Gaslighting" -- mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful -- is Merriam-Webster's word of 2022. (Jmh/AP)
In the 1944 thriller “Gaslight,” a woman notices belongings disappearing, noises coming from the attic and the house’s gas lights dimming. Her husband convinces her that it’s all in her head — that she is going insane.
The movie gave rise to the term “gaslighting,” which has exploded in popularity in recent years, especially during the Trumpian political era.
Now, it’s Merriam-Webster’s 2022 word of the year.
“In this age of misinformation — of ‘fake news,’ conspiracy theories, Twitter trolls, and deepfakes — gaslighting has emerged as a word for our time,” the dictionary company said Monday, unveiling its pick.
There was a 1740 percent increase in searches for the term in 2022, according to Merriam-Webster, with interest remaining high throughout the year. The definition? “The act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage.”
The title of the film, which was adapted from a 1938 play, has become handy for describing “lies that are part of a larger plan,” the dictionary company said. “Gaslighting” fills a space between the word “lying,” which is typically among individuals, and “fraud,” which usually involves organizations. It works in personal and political references.
It appears frequently in pop culture: a television series called “Gaslit,” centered on Nixon’s attorney general’s wife, who was the first to publicly accuse the president of being involved in Watergate, debuted in 2022. It was often used in commentary about the behavior of former president Trump, including the much-discussed Teen Vogue op-ed “Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America.” And it is also used in psychology, defining a kind of abuse that causes a victim to question his or her own perceptions.
From Well+Being: How to recognize gaslighting and respond to it
“It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, told the Associated Press.
“Gaslighting” beat out other terms more tied to specific events that occurred in 2022. Among them: “oligarch,” which spiked in interest following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; “queen consort,” the proper title for the wife of the newly crowned King Charles; and “omicron,” the Greek letter given to the coronavirus variant that shot to dominance late last year.
‘Vax’ is Oxford Dictionary’s 2021 word of the year
Also on the list was “codify,” driven by the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade; “loamy,” which saw a massive increase in lookups as the Aug. 29 answer for the word game Quordle; and “raid,” with interest peaking after the FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
The 2022 word of the year chosen by the U.K.-based Collins Dictionary was “permacrisis,” which it defined as “an extended period of instability and insecurity” and said “sums up quite succinctly just how truly awful 2022 has been for so many people.”
The publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, meanwhile, is opening the pick to the public for the first time this year. Voting continues until Friday. The choices? “Metaverse,” “#IStandWith” and “Goblin mode.” | 2022-11-28T22:13:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Gaslighting' chosen as Merriam-Webster's word of the year - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/28/gaslighting-merriam-webster-word-year/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/28/gaslighting-merriam-webster-word-year/ |
What good did the 2022 election do for Biden 2024?
It has probably done some good, but polls suggest Democratic voters remain about as ready to turn the page as before
President Biden arrives for a pardoning ceremony for the national Thanksgiving turkeys at the White House on Nov. 21. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
By almost any measure, Joe Biden registered one of the most successful midterm elections for a U.S. president in recent history — and possibly the best of any since 1962 or even 1934.
While Democrats narrowly lost the House, they actually gained ground in governor’s mansions and state legislatures, and they could even gain a Senate seat if they win in the Georgia runoff next week. The president’s party hasn’t gained ground in both governor’s and Senate races in 88 years.
All of which has ostensibly restored some confidence among twitchy Democratic officials when it comes to Biden’s stewardship of the country and his 2024 prospects. Before the election, some big-name Democrats were openly suggesting it was time to move on in two years. But as the thrust of the results was becoming clear, a series of them emphasized Biden had earned their 2024 support, and even some critics have come around, as the New York Times reported Monday.
As for whether Democratic voters have seen their concerns allayed? Thus far that appears to be another matter.
We’ve seen relatively little in the way of quality national polling in recent weeks. But much of it suggests the situation is about what it was before the election. Biden’s approval rating is virtually unchanged, with his disapproval number double-digits higher than his approval. And while there might be a slight uptick in those who think Biden should run again or could win, the data is mixed and hardly conclusive.
Perhaps the poll that’s friendliest to Biden on this front is from YouGov and the Economist. In August and late October, it showed 38 percent and 39 percent of Democrats wanted Biden to run again, respectively. But in the most recent poll, from a week ago, that number had risen to 47 percent.
Other polling confirms Biden is no longer at his low point on this measure, but it also suggests the 2022 election results weren’t necessarily the reason.
A Quinnipiac University poll released last week showed just 25 percent of Americans said Biden should run for president again in 2024. That number has hovered right around 25 percent since this summer. It was higher among Democrats — 51 percent — and that’s up from 40 percent in July. But it’s little-changed from the 47 percent of Democrats who said Biden should run again in August.
The last poll we’ll focus on is from NPR, PBS and Marist College. And this one actually suggests Biden might be in a slightly worse position when it comes to his side’s 2024 desires.
It asked a somewhat different question — not whether Biden should run again, but whether people think the party has a better chance with him or with “someone else.” In mid-October, Democrats were split between Biden and the hypothetical alternative, 41-41, and that split is very similar today, 44-46.
But despite the 2022 election results, the poll shows Democratic-leaning independents are actually more bullish on a nominee not named Biden now. They’ve gone from 51-26 in favor of that “someone else” to 71-23. So overall, Democratic-leaning voters have moved from 44-36 in favor of “someone else” to 54-38.
We’re digging into cross tabs for all of these numbers, and the margins of error are even larger when you’re isolating something like “Democratic-leaning independents.” It’s also true that Biden appears better off on these measures than he once was, and especially relative to the summer.
But we’re still dealing with a situation in which half of Democrats, at most, want a president of their own party to run again, which is very unusual. And more voters who will select the party’s 2024 nominee think someone else would do better, even if that number hasn’t necessarily risen, as the Marist poll suggests it has.
It’s worth asking just how much people view the election as an affirmation of Biden versus a repudiation of certain elements in the Republican Party. Democrats did as well as they did, after all, not because voters liked Biden, but because those who disapproved of him only “somewhat” still tilted toward the blue side — rather remarkably. Perhaps Biden gets credit for not turning himself into a lightning rod that took his party off the table for those voters, or perhaps he benefited from a choice election in which the alternative allowed itself to be the issue.
If Biden can lock down nearly half of Democratic voters, he’d still be the odds-on favorite to be the 2024 nominee. And the midterm results could dissuade would-be usurpers who might reason that there’s a premium on unity at a time in which Republicans are shooting themselves in the feet. But these still aren’t the kinds of numbers that foreclose a contested or competitive primary, nor do they suggest that Democratic voters’ confidence in the 80-year-old president’s performance and electoral fortitude has suddenly been restored to its early-2021 levels.
This just in: White House criticizes Trump’s dinner with Fuentes and Ye | 2022-11-28T22:13:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How the 2022 election might impact Biden's 2024 prospects - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/what-good-did-2022-election-do-biden-2024/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/what-good-did-2022-election-do-biden-2024/ |
New York Times, other media outlets call for end to Assange prosecution
The outlets warned the case could criminalize U.S. journalists’ work exposing government secrets
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange greets supporters from a balcony of the Ecuadoran Embassy in London in 2017. (Frank Augstein/AP)
The New York Times and four leading European news organizations called on the Justice Department to drop criminal charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, warning in an open letter Monday that the case could criminalize U.S. journalists’ work exposing government secrets and potential wrongdoing.
The news organizations acknowledged that they had been critical of Assange for releasing unredacted information in the past, and some were concerned by allegations in a federal indictment that Assange “attempted to aid in computer intrusion of a classified database.” Professional news organizations forbid reporters from gathering information through unethical or illegal means.
But much of Assange’s indictment focuses on his 2010 and 2011 disclosure of thousands of pages of classified military records and diplomatic cables about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which had been shared by former Army private Chelsea Manning. The news organizations said they partnered with Assange more than a decade ago to reveal “corruption, diplomatic scandals and spy affairs on an international scale,” and that the trove of records he made available is still being mined by journalists and historians.
The letter was signed by Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger and the editors and publishers of the Guardian (Britain), Le Monde (France), Der Spiegel (Germany) and El Pais (Spain).
“This indictment sets a dangerous precedent, and threatens to undermine America’s First Amendment and the freedom of the press,” they wrote.
Assange, who is currently detained in a London prison as he appeals an order from the British government extraditing him to the United States, says he’s the target of a political prosecution and that the U.S. prison system would not treat him humanely.
The Justice Department refrained from prosecuting Assange under President Barack Obama. After President Donald Trump took office, the Justice Department asked federal prosecutors in Virginia to revisit the case. They ultimately obtained an 18-count indictment charging the WikiLeaks founder with a hacking conspiracy and disclosure of national defense information, which officials say put lives in danger.
The indictment has stirred controversy inside the Justice Department. Prosecutors filed some of the charges under the Espionage Act of 1917, a World War I-era law that had been used to charge spies or officials leaking information from inside the government, but never publishers or broadcasters.
Two federal prosecutors in Virginia who were involved in the Assange case argued against bringing charges under the Espionage Act, concerned that, among other things, it posed risks for First Amendment protections.
Justice Department officials declined to comment on the open letter Monday.
Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said Sulzberger signed the letter in consultation with the company’s legal department. “No editors were involved,” she said.
The Washington Post also published news articles about some of the documents Assange unearthed. A spokeswoman for The Post did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
In 2019, Martin Baron, then the executive editor of The Post, criticized the Assange indictment: “Dating as far back as the Pentagon papers case and beyond, journalists have been receiving and reporting on information that the government deemed classified. Wrongdoing and abuse of power were exposed. With the new indictment of Julian Assange, the government is advancing a legal argument that places such important work in jeopardy and undermines the very purpose of the First Amendment.”
Barry Pollack, a U.S.-based lawyer for Assange, said: “Media organizations in the U.S. and abroad are right to express their concern about the criminal charges brought against Mr. Assange and the extraordinary threat to First Amendment values presented by the U.S. prosecution and extradition request.” | 2022-11-28T22:14:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New York Times, other media outlets call for end to Assange prosecution - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/28/new-york-times-assange-prosecution/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/28/new-york-times-assange-prosecution/ |
D.C. man sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison for fatal shooting
Authorities say Cecil Smith shot Harold Castle in the chest
D.C. Superior Court. (Keith L. Alexander/The Washington Post)
A District man was sentenced Monday to nearly 11 years in prison for the fatal shooting of another man in a Southeast Washington parking lot last year.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Milton C. Lee Jr. sentenced Cecil Smith, 29, to 10 years and nine months for the Aug. 23, 2021, killing of Harold Castle.
Smith pleaded guilty in April to voluntary manslaughter while armed. According to prosecutors, around 11 p.m. that August evening, the two men were standing near a parking lot in the 3900 block of South Capitol Street when Castle grabbed a bottle that Smith had placed on the hood of a vehicle. Castle then held the bottle in the air and looked at the contents. He then poured some of the remaining contents into his cup before handing the bottle to Smith. It was unclear what liquid was in the bottle, but Smith appeared to be upset after Castle poured the drink, according to an arrest warrant filed in the case.
At some point, prosecutors said, Smith turned away from Castle, reached into his right pocket, pulled out a gun and fired it at Castle. Prosecutors say Castle ran a few feet and collapsed from a gunshot wound to his chest. Smith was arrested less than week later and has been in D.C. jail ever since. | 2022-11-28T22:14:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | District man sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison for fatal 2021 shooting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/28/sentenced-fatal-shooting-castle-smith/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/28/sentenced-fatal-shooting-castle-smith/ |
This photo provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Kevin Johnson. The Missouri man sentenced to death for killing a police officer in a fit of rage over his brother’s death is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution planned for later this month, in part because the man was a teenager at the time of the killing. (Missouri Department of Corrections via AP) (Uncredited/Missouri Department of Corrections) | 2022-11-28T22:14:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Missouri Supreme Court weighs fate of death row inmate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/missouri-supreme-court-weighs-fate-of-death-row-inmate/2022/11/28/ead6421e-6f61-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/missouri-supreme-court-weighs-fate-of-death-row-inmate/2022/11/28/ead6421e-6f61-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
Don’t let China stage another Tiananmen massacre
By Jianli Yang
Chinese police pin down and arrest a protester in Shanghai on Sunday. (AP Photo) (AP)
Jianli Yang, a former Tiananmen Square protester and political prisoner of China, is the founder and president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China and the author of “For Us, the Living: A Journey to Shine the Light on Truth.”
On Oct. 13, just a few days before the start of the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress, a man staged a solo protest on an overpass in Beijing against President Xi Jinping and his draconian “zero covid” policy. I had hoped that this lone hero’s actions would trigger a wave of peaceful protest to stop Xi from continuing to harm the Chinese people — even though my hopes were tempered by an awareness that the regime’s policies of intense repression have made protests rare and almost impossible to start.
What has happened over the past week has exceeded all my expectations. First came the uprising by workers at a Foxconn factory complex protesting dismal working conditions. Then came nationwide protests after a fire in Xinjiang that killed a number of people who were reportedly unable to escape the burning building because of harsh lockdown conditions.
The demonstrations began by expressing rage over harsh “zero covid” policies, but the protesters’ demands quickly evolved into a movement demanding broader freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom from the dictates of the Communist Party. The demonstrators everywhere are largely repeating the slogans displayed by that lone protester on the Beijing bridge. “We want to eat, not do coronavirus tests; reform, not the Cultural Revolution,” read one recent banner. “We want freedom, not lockdowns; elections, not rulers. We want dignity, not lies. Be citizens, not enslaved people.”
As someone who participated in the pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989, I can’t help feeling echoes of that moment in the events taking place in China now. I was there when the Chinese Communist Party sent in troops to gun down the protesters, and I fear that history can repeat itself today. The world should not underestimate the determination of Xi and the CCP to remain in power. The regime will make full use of all the resources at its disposal, including surveillance technology, the police and the intelligence services. For that reason, the international community should make use of all the tools available to it to support pro-democracy forces and to deter the Beijing regime from resorting to force.
We hope that the protests will eventually yield the changes we seek. I see at least four conditions that must be simultaneously met for there to be a chance of achieving meaningful change in China. First, the people must be strongly discontented with the political status quo. Second, a viable democratic opposition must arise. Third, a rift has to occur within the leadership of the CCP government. Fourth, the international community will have to believe that China’s democratic opposition is viable and will opt to support it. Condition 1 has been met; Condition 2 remains a dream for the moment, while Condition 3 could yet occur if the protests continue.
These four conditions are mutually reinforcing, but I want to focus on the last.
There is much that the international community can do to assist. First and foremost, the Biden administration and other Western governments should give unequivocal and specific warnings to China about the consequences of any bloody crackdown. The international community could hold out the threat of additional economic sanctions, greater aid for Taiwan and a crackdown on the offshore wealth of China’s top political families. Should a split emerge within the CCP leadership, they can choose to speak to more open-minded leaders, rather than the hard-liners, to strengthen the legitimacy of the former.
Above all, Western governments should not repeat their mistakes of 1989, when the United States and other democracies made little effort to deter then-Chinese Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping from massacring student protesters because they did not believe he would do it. Today’s Western leaders can openly show moral support for the protesters and encourage the Chinese authorities to engage in peaceful dialogue with them.
Western governments should also seize this opportunity to collaborate more closely with human rights organizations and the Chinese diaspora to advance a greater understanding of human rights abuses within China. They may also incorporate these messages in official documents and meetings to help make the democracy movement viable and foster the growth of civil society.
Watching the treads of tanks in Tiananmen Square crush young lives made me realize that China must change. These protests have yielded a make-or-break moment for the people of China. We must maintain our faith that the Chinese people are prepared to join the vast majority of the world’s people who now live in free countries. An opening for significant change could come in the next few weeks or months — or it may take a few more years. Of course, it will never come without collective effort — and that includes the international community. Accordingly, those outside China must be ready to help bring about political change in the country.
Opinion|‘Zero covid’ has pummeled China into a crisis. Xi must react.
Opinion|Taiwanese nationalism faces a trial by empire | 2022-11-28T22:14:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Don’t let China stage another Tiananmen massacre - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/china-protesters-west-support-deter-tiananmen/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/china-protesters-west-support-deter-tiananmen/ |
Florida is no longer a swing state. That’s good news for U.S. foreign policy.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro at a July news conference in Caracas, Venezuela. (Gaby Oraa/Bloomberg News)
The Democrats’ midterm wipeout in Florida — not a single Democrat will hold statewide office next year in what was once a swing state — is bad news for the party but good news for the future of U.S. foreign policy.
President Biden, with no hope of winning the state in 2024, is now free to pursue more pragmatic policies towards Cuba and Venezuela, rather than catering to politically potent constituencies of conservative Cuban Americans and Venezuelan Americans in south Florida, as administrations of both parties have been doing for decades.
The Florida factor helps to explain why President Donald Trump rolled back Barack Obama’s attempts to normalize relations with Cuba and tightened sanctions on Venezuela beginning in 2017. After a fraudulent election in Venezuela in 2018, the Trump administration recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as president and tried to foment an uprising against the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Neither approach has achieved U.S. foreign policy objectives, but they accomplished what Trump wanted: He won nearly 70 percent of Cuban American votes in Florida in 2020.
In part because of the political risks involved, Biden has been slow to roll back Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaigns against Cuba and Venezuela. He waited until this May, after more than a year in office, to relax some sanctions on Cuba. But he stopped short of returning to Obama’s 2014 policy of normalizing relations and has maintained Trump’s ludicrous designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism despite the consensus within the U.S. intelligence community that is not actually sponsoring any terrorism. Biden has been even slower to dial back Trump’s failed approach to Venezuela.
“Biden’s political advisers were so petrified of Cuban American and Venezuelan American voters in south Florida that for two years they left in place Donald Trump’s failed policy of regime change toward Cuba and Venezuela, despite the humanitarian disasters it caused — and in the end, it gained them nothing,” William LeoGrande, a specialist in Latin American politics at American University, told me. His article in Foreign Policy this month expressed the hope that the Democratic defeat in Florida would finally break “the habit of letting domestic politics drive Cuba policy.”
Now that the midterms are over, the administration is finally taking some small, belated steps in a new direction.
On Saturday, the White House granted permission to Chevron to begin pumping oil again in Venezuela, with the profits going to pay that country’s creditors. This comes after the Venezuelan government met for the first time in a year with opposition representatives in Mexico City on Saturday, and the two sides vowed to resume discussions on holding elections in 2024. An administration official told me that further relaxation of sanctions will occur if Venezuela makes more progress on human rights.
That is the right policy to follow, because it has long been clear that U.S. pressure wasn’t going to overthrow the Maduro regime — any more than it has overthrown the Castro-created regime in Cuba despite a U.S. trade embargo that has now lasted more than 60 years.
LeoGrande told me the current situation reminds him of Nicaragua in the late 1980s. Reagan administration attempts to overthrow the Sandinista regime by backing the contra rebels had failed, but Washington still retained considerable leverage because the Sandinistas wanted to see U.S. sanctions lifted. A regional peace process resulted in the end of the war, the lifting of sanctions and the holding of internationally supervised elections in 1990 that the Sandinistas lost. “I think Biden is trying to find a similar formula in Venezuela,” LeoGrande told me.
That formula, admittedly, might not exist; Maduro may not be willing to hold a fair election even if it will result in the lifting of sanctions. But what have we got to lose? The current policy has worsened life for ordinary Venezuelans (76 percent live in “extreme poverty”) and exacerbated the immigration crisis in the United States (more than 150,000 Venezuelans have arrived at the southern border this year). But U.S. pressure hasn’t shaken Maduro’s hold on power.
It’s time for a different approach, without having to worry about the impact on Florida politics. The same is true in Cuba: There is no good reason not to normalize relations with Havana and lift the terrorism designation.
Rolling back sanctions should not be seen as Biden’s endorsement of “brutal socialist” regimes, as Republicans will charge. We can maintain relations with repressive regimes such as Bahrain, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, even while pressing them on human rights. Sanctions are sometimes necessary — they help to constrain the militaries in Iran, Russia and North Korea — but they almost never result in regime change or even human rights improvements. North Korea, after all, is one of the most heavily sanctioned countries on the planet and also one of the most Stalinist.
I’m all for prioritizing human rights in foreign policy, but we need to do so in ways that make a difference rather than engaging in symbolic, self-defeating gestures designed for domestic political advantage. The Democratic rout in Florida finally makes more rational policymaking possible toward Cuba and Venezuela. | 2022-11-28T22:14:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Florida is no longer a swing state. That’s good news for U.S. foreign policy. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/democrats-biden-florida-cuba-venezuela/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/democrats-biden-florida-cuba-venezuela/ |
WSSC Water names D.C. Water official Kishia L. Powell as general manager
Powell, a top D.C. Water official, will replace outgoing General Manager Carla A. Reid after months of upheaval at WSSC Water
WSSC Water has selected D.C. Water’s chief operating officer, Kishia L. Powell, as its new general manager, the utility announced Monday.
Powell, 48, has 24 years of experience in water and wastewater management, including as an executive for utilities in Atlanta, Jackson, Miss., and Baltimore, WSSC Water said. Since joining D.C. Water in 2020, she has overseen the IT department, operations and engineering, customer service and a $6.4 billion capital improvement program.
She will lead WSSC Water at a time when it, like many U.S. water utilities, is grappling with aging infrastructure, including bursting water pipes and sewer system overflows. As Maryland’s largest water utility, WSSC Water provides water and sewer services for 1.9 million people in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
Powell will replace General Manager Carla A. Reid, whose contract was not renewed this summer amid scrutiny of a 3-year-old billing system that has tripled in cost — from $40 million to $120 million — and has been blamed for long customer call hold times. The recent upheaval also has included a top IT contract employee who was terminated after raising concerns and a board member who was pushed out after he pressed utility leaders about the system’s procurement and soaring costs.
Reid, who has led the utility since 2016, recently called WSSC Water “an organization in crisis.”
Outgoing WSSC Water leader calls utility 'organization in crisis'
In a statement, Powell said, “I’m incredibly honored to have the trust of the [WSSC Water] commissioners and am excited to lead this world class utility in our efforts to continue investments in critical infrastructure, improving service delivery and pursuing equity for the communities we serve.”
Powell, along with other current and former leaders of Jackson’s water utility, was named in a recent lawsuit by a group of Jackson residents alleging that the city’s water-safety problems this past summer resulted from decades of neglect. Much of the city lost water for days, and residents were told to boil water for more than a month after the city’s main water treatment plant failed. The lawsuit also claims top officials ignored elevated lead levels and other safety problems in drinking water.
Powell served as Jackson’s public works director before mid-2016, when she became commissioner of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, according to her D.C. Water bio.
She did not respond Monday to a request for comment on the lawsuit’s allegations.
Jackson water crisis was 'foreseeable,' residents say in lawsuit
WSSC Water’s six-member board of commissioners approved Powell unanimously after a nationwide search, the utility said.
“We are confident that Ms. Powell’s extensive prior experiences provide her with well-rounded leadership skills that will benefit WSSC Water customers for years to come,” Commission Vice Chair Regina Y. Speed-Bost said in a news release.
Powell, who lives in Bowie, Md., will start Jan. 1. A WSSC Water spokesman said Powell’s salary had not been finalized. | 2022-11-28T23:40:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | WSSC Water names Kishia L. Powell as general manager - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/11/28/kishia-powell-wssc-general-manager/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/11/28/kishia-powell-wssc-general-manager/ |
Protesters in China demand end to country’s strict coronavirus rules
Demands that President Xi Jinping step down are very unusual in China, where protesters are often arrested for speaking out.
Protesters hold up blank papers and chant slogans as they march in Beijing, China, on Sunday. They are angered by strict anti-coronavirus measures and called for China's powerful leader to resign. (Ng Han Guan/AP)
Chinese authorities eased some coronavirus rules but affirmed their strategy Monday after protesters demanded that President Xi Jinping resign in the biggest show of opposition to the ruling Communist Party in decades.
The government made no comment on the protests or the criticism of Xi, but the decision to ease at least some of the restrictions appeared to be aimed at calming protesters. Still, analysts don’t expect the government to back down on its coronavirus strategy and note that authorities are skilled at silencing those who don’t agree with the government.
It wasn’t clear how many people were detained since protests began Friday and spread to cities including Shanghai and the capital, Beijing.
The city government of Beijing announced Monday it would no longer set up gates to block access to apartment compounds where infections are found. It made no mention of a deadly fire last week that set off the protests after people questioned whether firefighters or victims trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other anti-virus controls.
Authorities in Guangzhou, the biggest hot spot in China’s latest wave of infections, announced that some residents will no longer be required to undergo mass testing. It said the city needed to conserve resources.
Urumqi, where the deadly fire occurred, and another city in the northwest announced that markets and other businesses in areas at low risk of infection would reopen this week and public bus service would resume.
“Zero covid,” which aims to isolate every coronavirus-infected person, has helped to keep China’s case numbers lower than those of the United States and other major countries. But it has confined millions of people to their homes for up to four months, and some have complained about a lack of reliable food and medical supplies.
The ruling party promised last month to reduce disruption by changing quarantine restrictions and other rules. But public acceptance is wearing thin after a spike in infections prompted cities to tighten controls.
The ruling-party newspaper People’s Daily called for its anti-virus strategy to be carried out effectively, indicating that Xi’s government has no plans to change course.
Protests spread to at least eight major cities. Most protesters complained about strict rules, but some turned their anger at Xi, China’s most powerful leader since at least the 1980s. In a video that was verified by the Associated Press, a crowd in Shanghai on Saturday chanted, “Xi Jinping! Step down! CCP! Step down!” CCP stands for the Chinese Communist Party.
Hours after police broke up the demonstration, people returned to the same spot on Sunday for another protest. Dozens of people were detained in police sweeps and driven away in police vans and buses. The British Broadcasting Corporation said one of its reporters was beaten, kicked, handcuffed and detained for several hours by Shanghai police, then later released. | 2022-11-28T23:45:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Protesters in China demand end to country’s strict coronavirus rules - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/11/28/protesters-china-demand-end-countrys-strict-coronavirus-rules/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/11/28/protesters-china-demand-end-countrys-strict-coronavirus-rules/ |
New York man pleads guilty to hate crimes against Jewish people
“There is no place in this country for this offensive and hateful conduct,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in a statement. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A New York man faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges that he conspired to commit hate crimes in three attacks on Jewish people, in a case that drew attention to the rising number of bias-motivated attacks in that state.
Saadah Masoud, 29, of Staten Island, was charged with a federal hate crime in June, about two months after he had allegedly assaulted Matt Greenman during a pro-Palestinian rally in Manhattan. Masoud, a co-organizer of the demonstration, was accused of attacking Greenman, who is Jewish and who had an Israeli flag draped around his neck as a counterprotest, because of his religion and presumed national origin.
A Jewish activist was attacked amid rising hate. The DOJ took action.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York in October added a second count of conspiracy to commit hate crimes, alleging that Masoud had been involved in separate attacks on two other Jewish people in May and June 2021.
The additional federal charges increased the maximum potential jail sentence from 10 years to 15 years, if convicted. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Masoud faces a maximum of five years in jail, but prosecutors have agreed to recommend 18 months to 24 months, according to his lawyers.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote scheduled Masoud’s sentencing for March 3.
“Saadah Masoud deliberately targeted three victims because of their religion and nation of origin,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “There is no place in this country for this offensive and hateful conduct.”
Ohio submits updated hate-crime figures to FBI that would make 2020 U.S. tally highest since 2001
In 2020, hate crimes in the United States rose to the highest level since 2001, according to federal data, and attacks on Jewish people in New York spiked last year and in the first few months of 2022.
Gerard Filitti, a senior counsel at the Lawfare Project who represented Greenman, said the conviction “sends a clear message that hate crimes against the Jewish community will not be tolerated and there are consequences.” | 2022-11-28T23:45:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New York man pleads guilty to hate crimes against Jewish people - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/28/doj-hate-crime/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/28/doj-hate-crime/ |
The GOP’s sickness is far worse than a ‘Trump problem’
Nick Fuentes, far-right activist, holds a rally in Lansing, Mich., on Nov. 11, 2020. (Nicole Hester/Ann Arbor News via AP)
No one is buying the idea that Donald Trump’s dinner last week at Mar-a-Lago with antisemite and white nationalist Nick Fuentes was some sort of aberration — even if Trump’s claim is true that Fuentes showed up unannounced in the company of rapper (and fellow antisemite) Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
That Trump would meet with bigots and conspiracy theorists was very much on brand for someone who sees loyalty to himself as the only character trait that matters. Trump, after all, claimed moral equivalence (“very fine people on both sides”) between the neo-Nazis who chanted in Charlottesville that Jews would not replace them and a group of counterprotesters, one of whom was murdered.
Which means things like the Mar-a-Lago dinner are surely going to continue to happen as Trump forges ahead with his bid for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination. And with each instance, the far-right extremists who spew hate will continue nudging their way from the fringes into the mainstream of the Republican Party.
In the wake of the GOP’s disappointing performance in the midterm elections, it is plainly self evident that the party has a “Trump problem.” But there is a deeper problem, and that is the Republican Party itself.
Republicans cannot move past Trump, as long as they cannot bring themselves to confront him and, by association, the element he attracts. This is not the party that had the fortitude to purge the hateful John Birch Society from its ranks in the mid-1960s. As former Republican National Committee spokesman Doug Heye put it to me, today’s Republicans still think they can “outrun the crocodile.”
Since the dinner became public over the weekend, we have heard plenty of prominent Republicans denounce antisemitism, as though that is anything other than basic human decency. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who is reported to be considering a presidential bid of his own, tweeted that antisemitism is “a cancer” and declared: “We stand with the Jewish people in the fight against the world’s oldest bigotry.”
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel issued a statement: “As I had repeatedly said, white supremacy, neo-Nazism, hate speech and bigotry are disgusting and do not have a home in the Republican Party.”
But depressingly few were willing to even mention Trump himself.
One welcome exception was outgoing Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R), who told CNN: "I don’t think it’s a good idea for a leader that is setting an example for the country or the party to meet with an avowed racist or antisemite. And so it’s very troubling, and it shouldn’t happen. And we need to avoid those kinds of empowering the extremes. And when you meet with people, you empower.” Another was Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence, who said on NewsNation: “President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table, and I think he should apologize.”
Come January, there will be fewer Republicans left in Congress willing to speak out when Trump does what he keeps doing. That in itself is a testament to where the party has positioned itself with regard to the crocodile, given how many of those who did take issue with him were either wiped out in Republican primaries this year or chose to retire.
And those who have followed Trump’s example in associating themselves with extremists and their ideas will have more clout within the institution. Earlier this year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) spoke at a conference organized by Fuentes, later claiming (as Trump has about last week’s dinner) that she didn’t know who he was; House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has promised, if he becomes speaker, to restore her committee assignments, which the Democratic-controlled House stripped the Georgia congresswoman of in 2021 because of her incendiary comments.
Meanwhile, don’t expect much by way of correctives to be offered as the GOP gets ready to elect its next party chair in January. McDaniel, who was handpicked by Trump to run the party after the 2016 election and who has been a model of obeisance to him since, has indicated she plans to run for another term.
There is grumbling in the party about McDaniel’s win-loss record, with South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem telling Fox News: “I don’t know a party that can continue to lose like we have and keep their jobs.” But none of the talked-about alternatives — who include defeated 2022 New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin and MyPillow chief executive and leading election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell — represent a turn away from Trump. | 2022-11-28T23:45:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Trump's dinner with a white nationalist is no aberration - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/fuentes-ye-trump-maralago/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/fuentes-ye-trump-maralago/ |
People in Hong Kong hold sheets of blank paper and flowers in protest of China’s covid restrictions. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)
Protests erupted throughout China this weekend over the country’s “zero covid” policy, which has led the government to implement strict lockdown and testing measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The protests were triggered by a botched response to a deadly fire in Urumqi, a city in the northwest of China. Ten people died after emergency responders couldn’t get close enough to the apartment building, and protesters blame lockdown-related measures for interfering with rescue efforts.
But the protests have grown to wider criticisms of the Chinese government, including calls for President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party to step down. The treatment of Uyghurs by the state has also become a rallying cry for demonstrators. Lily Kuo, The Post’s China bureau chief, has been covering the protests. She breaks down why these protests are significant and what they could mean for the future of China’s leadership. | 2022-11-28T23:45:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The outrage over ‘zero covid’ in China - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/the-outrage-over-zero-covid-in-china/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/the-outrage-over-zero-covid-in-china/ |
In recent weeks, Elon Musk has outsourced the making of decisions about people banned from Twitter to users of the platform. (Olivier Douliery/AFP)
The advent of the internet and social media has both made it trivial to cobble together a group of opinions from an audience and created an audience for whatever putative data analysis you might offer. Perhaps you’ve noticed a glut of inexpensive polling from outlets you’ve never heard of. Maybe you’ve noticed the avalanche of news articles informing you that, to make up an example, the favorite ice cream flavor of residents of Kansas is rum raisin, research conducted by the Baskin-Robbins Polling Institute. You can whip up a survey and find an audience for it with all of the ease of filling out an online form.
For those only vaguely interested in the accuracy of what they’re measuring, this is all great. An unprecedented moment for making numbers appear and for putting those numbers in a news release. If, on the other hand, you are concerned about measuring how people actually feel about things? This is pretty grim.
Yes, online panels have expanded the ability of legitimate pollsters to reach people — pollsters who do things like attempt to weight responses to match the composition of the population. But it also means that your precise measurements compete for attention or influence against things that are hopelessly inaccurate, tainted by bias or simply invented.
In recent weeks, Musk has outsourced the making of decisions about people banned from Twitter to users of the platform. First, he asked whether former president Donald Trump should be reinstated on the platform, opting to unlock Trump’s account after 52 percent of respondents said he should. Then he asked whether there should be a “general amnesty” for suspended accounts to be reinstated. Again, responses supported the idea.
“Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk replied to the results of each poll — a snippet of Latin that equates the voice of the people with the voice of God.
But of course, Twitter polls are not the “voice of the people” to any significant extent. They are at best the voice of a subset of the people who are on Twitter. Even that is overstating things, though: They are a minor subset of Twitter users, a self-selected group that is aware of the poll being conducted. They are also very possibly automated accounts of the sort that one prominent critic spent much of the year railing against as he leveled criticisms of Twitter as a platform.
That was Elon Musk, naturally — before being forced into upholding his promise to buy the service.
It’s actually not clear whether Musk understands that Twitter polls are not particularly meaningful. In discussing his polls with users on the platform, for example, Musk embraced ideas that would plaster a veneer of accuracy on top of the fundamentally unscientific process.
One user asked whether polls couldn’t be limited to a geographic area by checking a user’s internet address, which Musk said could be done. And it can — though that wouldn’t prevent anyone from manipulating the poll by routing through a different address and it wouldn’t fix the self-selection problem that taints these polls from the outset.
When another user suggested that there should be an “all users” poll pushed to everyone on the platform — an idea that in practice would be indistinguishable from spam — Musk was receptive.
That user also gushed to Musk that with “116.6 million followers, your polls are starting to become statistically significant.” Musk seemed to agree: “When polls are about a significant question, even those who don’t follow me tend to hear about it.”
Neither of these comments uses the word “significant” in a way that pollsters would recognize as useful. Just because a poll goes to a lot of people does not mean its results are significantly representative. If you polled 50 million people about who they thought should have won the 2020 election, that 80 percent of them might choose Trump — because you only polled Trump voters — doesn’t actually tell us anything useful. Nor is a “significant” question that drives engagement meaningful: Who’s engaged and why?
Twitter polls are easily gamed in the way that polls in which participation is controlled are not. I can make a poll on Twitter and send it out to whoever I want, encouraging them to weigh in. Trump, for example, encouraged people to vote in Musk’s poll in a post on his own social media network. If anyone can participate in a poll at will — or make new accounts to increase the number of votes they can cast — that’s not “significant” as a result and therefore not significant as a question to ask. Democratic elections both police and encourage participation in a way that makes them legitimate. Twitter polls do neither, and aren’t.
One would think Musk would know this. One would expect that he would, as an adult who has run businesses involving a lot of numbers. If a Tesla executive collected signatures on a petition from a large group of employees who disliked Musk calling for him to sell the company, would he shrug and say, “Well, the people have spoken”? I propose that he would not.
But the polls give him cover. He can bring back Trump and bring back abusive accounts and point at Twitter users and then blame the users for it. Not his fault! He asked people what they wanted and they said they wanted this, so please keep buying ads from Musk’s Twitter anyway. | 2022-11-28T23:46:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hey, Elon Musk? Twitter polls are not the ‘voice of the people.’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/hey-elon-musk-twitter-polls-are-not-voice-people/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/hey-elon-musk-twitter-polls-are-not-voice-people/ |
In oral arguments in two New York public-corruption cases, justices say some efforts to influence government decisions are equivalent to lobbying
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)
The Supreme Court on Monday seemed likely to impose new restrictions on federal prosecutors battling public corruption, with the justices skeptical about the convictions of two men who profited in influence peddling during the administration of former New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D).
The justices questioned whether Joseph Percoco could be convicted of depriving the public of his “honest services,” given that he was working for Cuomo’s reelection campaign — rather than in his former role as an aide to the governor — when he accepted $35,000 in payments from a construction company. Percoco made calls to state officials on the company’s behalf just before returning to government employment.
But using one’s political influence as a private citizen is basically just being a lobbyist, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said, and “this town is full of such persons.”
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. told Nicole F. Reaves, a Justice Department lawyer defending Percoco’s conviction, that the government’s arguments for prosecuting a person who does not hold public office “sounds like … an effort to break down the concept of political power.”
Justice Clarence Thomas added it was “rather odd” that the federal government, rather than New York state, was going after Percoco. “If New York actually wanted to prosecute this activity, it had the authority to do so and the statutory basis for it,” he said.
The Supreme Court has become increasingly wary of federal prosecutors pursuing public officials for behavior that some justices have considered the normal activity of politics.
In 2016, the court threw out the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and his wife for accepting gifts in return for promoting a benefactor’s business, saying McDonnell would have had to take specific government actions on behalf of the benefactor for the behavior to be illegal. More recently, it overturned the convictions of two allies of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) for closing the George Washington Bridge to punish one of the governor’s rivals.
Yaakov M. Roth, Percoco’s lawyer, said his client “took no oath of public office” while working on the campaign and “possessed no legal authority to bind the state or make decisions for it.” What he did have, Roth said, “was influence, in his case, influence drawn from years of public service, from a close relationship to the Cuomo family, and from his senior campaign role.”
But some justices still expressed concern. Though Percoco resigned as Cuomo’s deputy to run his reelection campaign, he maintained an office in the governor’s suite and attended official meetings. He took the payment from the construction company while campaign manager, but called a state official days before returning to state employment to tell him to drop a requirement that the company negotiate a labor peace agreement.
Percoco was sentenced to six years in prison after his conviction of charges including depriving the public of the “intangible right to honest services.”
Justice Elena Kagan told Roth that “the theory of your case is basically, as long as he wasn’t in public office, you can’t charge him under this statute.” That theory could provide a blueprint for corruption, Kagan said. She speculated about a public official who “resigns his office every time he wants to take a bribe and then picks up his office again when he’s completed the bribe. And there has to be something wrong with that.”
Murder, fear and racist fliers in Fargo, N.D.
Roth replied that prosecutors must show “a nexus to official power” to prove corruption. “That needs to be what the deal contemplates, that you are selling your official power.” At the time Percoco accepted payment from the company, Roth said, he did not know he would be returning to state government.
Reaves said Percoco’s arguments were based on a “caricature” of the facts.
“While functioning as a government official and after he had decided to return to formal government employment, [Percoco] accepted multiple bribes in exchange for commanding a government agency to reverse a final decision,” Reaves said.
She said the government has a three-part test to define what it means to be “functioning” as a government official: acquiescence by others in the government to treat the person as an official; an ability to command government employees to take specific government acts; and additional indications of a government role. In Percoco’s case, Reaves said, the latter includes keeping his office in a government building and attending government meetings.
Gorsuch and others were not convinced. “I’m wondering” where such a test comes from, Gorsuch said. “It’s certainly not in the text” of the law.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she was concerned that Reaves said it was not an essential part of the test that the person return to government employment. “If the person is just sort of lingering as a result of their former engagement, why isn’t that just a lobbyist?” she asked.
In a separate case, the court considered the bid-rigging conviction of Louis Ciminelli and others who won a $750 million development contract as part of Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion revitalization project.
The justices were skeptical of how the case was prosecuted, under a theory approved by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Its “right to control” theory of fraud treats the deprivation of complete and accurate information as a kind of property fraud.
Justice Department lawyer Eric J. Feigin acknowledged that “it’s an awkward fit with property fraud as it’s been traditionally understood.” He tried to convince the justices that it was possible to convict Ciminelli under a new theory based on the facts already presented to a jury. Gorsuch and Jackson, in particular, seemed doubtful.
Ciminelli’s lawyer Michael R. Dreeben, a former career attorney in the U.S. solicitor general’s office, said no new theory should be allowed.
“The only proper judgment is a judgment of acquittal,” Dreeben said, adding that if the theory used by prosecutors fails, “so does this conviction.”
The cases are Percoco v. United States and Ciminelli v. United States.
The latest: No. 2 Republican in Senate condemns Trump meeting with Fuentes | 2022-11-28T23:46:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Gorsuch, Jackson seem skeptical of New York public corruption convictions - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/public-corruption-supreme-court-new-york/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/28/public-corruption-supreme-court-new-york/ |
Iranian and United States fans wave flags before a 1998 World Cup meeting. (Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images)
Despite the diplomatic bad blood, things appeared to be cordial among the players and the fans when they met at Stade de Gerland in Lyon. The teams posed for a joint photograph before the game, players exchanged jerseys, and the Iranian players gave their American counterparts white roses in a gesture of peace. The Americans presented their opponents with pennants.
“After all the fear that this game would create more animosity between two longtime political adversaries, the Americans and the Iranians had a love fest,” Anne Swardson wrote in The Washington Post.
There were fistfights in the stands, but they were between Iranian fans, with American fans merely bystanders. Iranian dissidents held up posters and wore T-shirts of a woman they considered their leader, and some hoisted a “Death to Khatemi” banner in opposition to then-president Mohammed Khatemi. French police ejected some fans and confiscated political banners and posters. Before the game, security screened fans’ clothing and posters for political content.
A historical echo is playing out in this year’s World Cup in Qatar, with fans denied entry or removed from games for flags or shirts seen as protests against Iran’s government. There have also been tensions in the stands between Iranian government supporters and opponents, with some opponents waving the pre-revolutionary flag.
On the field, Iran came into the 1998 match playing with house money. They were the last of the 32 teams to qualify, and were competing in their first World Cup since 1978. When the Iranians earned their World Cup berth with a win over Australia the previous year, millions of people celebrated in the streets.
“Young women were seen brazenly pulling off their black scarves, dancing with men and in some cases drinking alcohol in defiance of Islamic law,” Sports Illustrated reported. “This street party went on for hours — and the authorities did not try to stop any of it. To do so would have been unpatriotic.”
As the World Cup approached, Iran might have inadvertently lowered tensions by naming a California resident, Jalal Talebi, its coach just before the tournament. Talebi, who got the job on May 21, had been born in Tehran but left his native country in 1980 following the Islamic revolution, in search of opportunities to coach soccer when the sport was abandoned in Iran. By the time of the World Cup matchup with the U.S., he had been living in the Bay Area for 17 years. (Iran’s current coach, Carlos Queiroz of Portugal, also has connections to the U.S. — he coached the New York/New Jersey MetroStars of the MLS, now the New York Red Bulls, in 1996.)
“Most observers say the Iranian team has little chance of prevailing, partly because it has few world-class players but also because it is still roiling with controversy,” Sports Illustrated wrote in June, 1998, referring to the coaching carousel.
Talebi, like many of the participants, downplayed the politics of the match.
“'I am not a political man, I am a sportsman,'' he said, according to the New York Times. “We came here to show everyone there is no problems between people of two countries.”
Some of his players expressed a similar sentiment. But others said they were motivated by the political rivalry between the two nations.
“We will not lose the game,” vowed Iranian forward Khodadad Azizi, according to the Times. Blaming the United States for the Iran-Iraq war, he said, “Many families of martyrs are expecting us to win. We will win for their sake.”
The American players seemed to lack the same incentive.
“I hope they’re playing for the history and all that sort of stuff because that just adds to the pressure on them,” Alexi Lalas — a defender on that U.S. team and current Fox broadcaster — said before the match. “We’re mature enough and experienced enough to know this has nothing to do with government or politics.”
American coach Steve Sampson, who quit soon after the loss, told the Guardian in 2018 that FIFA and the U.S. Soccer Federation instructed him not to politicize the game, even while Iran did so.
“I think the government of Iran made it a political match,” he said. “If I was to do it all over again, I would’ve brought up the history between the two countries with the players and used it as a motivational tool to get a result. But I chose not to at the time.”
In an interview with the Associated Press this week, Lalas said the Americans underestimated how significant the match was to the Iranians beyond just soccer. He suggested that the current American team learn from that experience.
“Understanding the importance of this game, not just from a soccer perspective but from a cultural perspective, I think is crucial for the United States,” he said. “I don’t think we knew how important it was to them beyond the actual World Cup. And I think actually we purposely tried to downplay a lot of the other stuff.”
Current U.S. men’s national team Coach Gregg Berhalter, who played professionally in the Netherlands, served as a Dutch TV analyst for that ’98 showdown.
“That game just sticks in my mind and burns in my mind,” he said at a news conference Monday. “What I saw from the opening whistle is one team that really wanted to win the game and one team that didn’t really want to win the game. Iran wanted to win the game with everything.”
In another echo of that 1998 match, this year’s meeting features a late-developing off-the-field controversy: the U.S. Soccer Federation removing from its social media graphics a symbol in the middle of the Iranian flag associated with the country’s clerical leaders. The USSF said it did so to express solidarity with Iranian women fighting for human rights, but it has since deleted the posts. Iran’s soccer federation Sunday called for the U.S. to be expelled from the World Cup over the posts.
Back in 1998, Iran complained about an American movie that was airing on French television, “Not Without My Daughter,” which starred Sally Field and was based on the true story of an American woman who left Iran with her daughter in defiance of her Iranian husband. Talebi said the movie was “insulting” and “untrue.” “If they’re insulted by the movie being shown, they’ve got a lot bigger problems,” Lalas said.
His words were not prophetic. As in Tuesday’s match, the United States needed a win to advance to the knockout round. But Iran stunned the U.S., 2-1, for its first World Cup victory, ending America’s hopes after just two games, following an earlier loss to Germany. Even though the Iranians were eliminated a few days later, their victory over the U.S. was cause for celebration. Thousands of fans greeted them at the airport in Tehran, waving Iranian flags and blowing trumpets.
Steven Goff in Rayyan, Qatar contributed to this report. | 2022-11-28T23:47:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | When the USMNT met Iran at the 1998 World Cup - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/usmnt-iran-1998-world-cup/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/28/usmnt-iran-1998-world-cup/ |
FILE - A woman sits on a car as she leaves Ulsan Jungbu police station in Ulsan, South Korea on Sept. 15, 2022, for the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. A New Zealand murder suspect will be extradited to her country within 30 days, about two months after she was arrested in South Korea for possible links to two dead children found in suitcases in Auckland, officials said Monday, Nov. 14, 2022. (Bae Byung-soo/Newsis via AP, File) (Uncredited/Newsis) | 2022-11-28T23:49:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | South Korea extradites murder suspect to New Zealand - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/south-korea-extradites-murder-suspect-to-new-zealand/2022/11/28/a5b775c4-6f73-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/south-korea-extradites-murder-suspect-to-new-zealand/2022/11/28/a5b775c4-6f73-11ed-867c-8ec695e4afcd_story.html |
Two teens fatally shot in D.C., including one wounded three times before
After the first shooting, a surgeon warned the teen his body couldn’t take another gunshot wound
Babak Sarani, chief of trauma surgery at George Washington University Hospital, hugs Corey Riggins Jr. in 2018 during an event at the hospital to reunite doctors and patients. (Courtesy photo)
Corey Riggins Jr. was 15 years old the first time he was shot in the District four years ago, bullets striking his heart, liver and lung. He went into cardiac arrest three times in surgery at George Washington University Hospital.
After he recovered, the chief trauma surgeon, Babak Sarani, told Riggins his scarred organs could not take being shot a second time. He said he pleaded with the teen to get out of D.C., or whatever situation precipitated his shooting, “so this doesn’t happen to you again.”
Riggins was shot three more times in subsequent years, twice emerging with wounds to his hand and elbow, according to police and his family. The third time, early Sunday, police said, he died where he had been shot, behind a row of residences on Wheeler Road in Southeast Washington, with no chance to reach a hospital.
“It broke my heart,” Sarani said in an interview Monday. “But it was, unfortunately, predictable.”
Riggins was the 188th person killed in the District this year and was one of two teenagers killed in the city over the Thanksgiving weekend. Jakhi Snider, a 16-year-old sophomore at the Digital Pioneers Academy charter school, was fatally shot late Saturday morning on Morris Road in Southeast, shortly after family said he left his grandmother’s house to walk to a football game.
Snider was one of more than 96 juveniles shot in D.C. so far this year and the 18th person under 18 to die by homicide.
Killings and nonfatal shootings are down overall in D.C. compared with 2021. But almost twice as many youths have been shot compared with the same time last year, and the District has in 11 months surpassed the total number of juveniles killed in each of the past five years.
Mashea M. Ashton, the principal at Digital, described Snider in a letter to parents as a bright student who played football and basketball. She said the youth, known as Khi or Khi Rackz, was a “kind and loyal friend.”
The youth’s cousin, Crystal Collins, 53, said the sprawling family is close, and that Snider liked to dance and make people laugh by making silly comments or poking fun at his three younger siblings. “His mom was his number one fan,” Collins said, noting that tragedy struck the family in July when another cousin, Jaquan Bragg, was fatally shot in Northeast Washington at the age of 27.
Collins said Snider wanted to play football and go to college, and was formulating long-term goals. She said she does not believe Snider was targeted, based on conversations in the neighborhood. D.C. police said Snider was in a group in an alley when he was shot, and police were still investigating whom the shooter might have been targeting.
Snider’s grandmother, Angela Snider, 54, said he had once played for the Woodland Tigers, a youth football team that has lost many of its players to violence. She said he was with her and other relatives for Thanksgiving dinner, feasting on dishes such as chicken and baked macaroni and cheese, eating everything in sight.
Two days later, shortly after 11 a.m., he was dead.
“I just want to know why,” Angela Snider said.
Relatives of Riggins said they also lack answers. Riggins, they said, was a young man who helped his grandparents without fuss or pushback, but couldn’t escape the neighborhoods that invited danger for him and his friends.
Carla Lawson, 54, his mother, said she talked to her son on Thanksgiving but hadn’t seen him in recent days, and she wasn’t in the area when he was first shot in 2018.
Lawson said her son had attended Ballou STAY Opportunity Academy in D.C., taking up woodworking as a vocational study, but did not make it to graduation.
She said that she has three other sons and that none have been victims of violent crime. “Keep praying,” she said, noting Riggins was shot when he was 15, 17, 18 and 19 years old.
Lawson said the city did not offer her family help. Riggins’s father, Corey Riggins Sr., 49, said his son didn’t take advantage of efforts to help him.
“I guess he was scared,” he said, adding that the city needs to do more to persuade even those reluctant to accept help.
“Somebody needs to step up,” he said. “I know they got help out there. But nobody is stepping up.”
D.C. officials said they have many programs to assist crime victims, including one through the police department that can help directly or refer people to outside agencies. The city would not address Riggins’s case specifically and would not say if he was one of the 230 currently listed in the “People of Promise” program, which is designed to focus intense services toward people identified as likely to be a shooting victim or perpetrator. Riggins was not on a list reviewed by The Washington Post in September.
D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said some victims need help beyond what law enforcement can offer. “There is nothing within the police department toolbox where there is a program we would offer for people who have been shot multiple times,” he said Monday.
The first time Riggins was shot, in May 2018 in Southeast, his grandmother said, she “didn’t think he was going to make it.”
When he arrived by ambulance at George Washington Hospital, Sarani was already working on another trauma victim. He said he had to finish up with that patient before he could help Riggins. Sarani said Riggins “physically died three times” as doctors frantically worked to restart his heart and stop bleeding.
He survived, the doctor said, “only because he was so young, he was able to take that degree of injury … and come back.” But Sarani said he warned his young patient that his body could not take more punishment.
In December 2018, the hospital held a public ceremony to reunite patients with the doctors who had saved them from life-threatening injuries. Riggins was among the attendees and was photographed hugging Sarani, who said he keeps that photo on his phone as a motivator. Riggins did not speak publicly at the ceremony; the doctor said his patient had been too overwhelmed to talk. “There were rivers coming out of his eyes,” Sarani said.
The doctor said hospital staff identified Riggins as someone who needed close monitoring and who was at “extreme risk of being shot again.” He said they reached out to him in a “very aggressive way” to get him help and were joined by D.C. government officials.
But Sarani said the efforts largely failed. The doctor said he tried to persuade Riggins to say with relatives outside of D.C., “to geng their playoff possibilities during their bye week.
''We're going to look at everything - no position in particular, but everybody - and look and see what we think is going to be best,'' Saturday said following last week's 54-19 drubbing in Dallas. ''I told the guys we've got a four-week season. That's almost a quarter of the season, and it's for all the marbles. So we need the best 11 on the field.''
''You'd certainly rather have a week where you're coming off a big win in Dallas,'' center Ryan Kelly said Sunday. ''But each guy is going to have to look back and reflect on what he's done so far this year, how he wants the rest of the season to look and the rest of his career to look.''
''I'm not looking at Matt any different than anybody else, but yeah we're looking at all of it,'' he said Monday when asked about potentially benching Ryan again. ''We didn't play nearly well enough (Sunday in Dallas), especially at the end. So yeah, we're looking at it all and let's see what we can do to get ourselves a chance to win these games.''
''You're not changing coaches in the middle of the season if it's not bad, so I knew what I was signing up for,'' Saturday said. ''The effort, the energy, enthusiasm these guys are playing with, they are battling. You talk about a gut check, you talk about, `We don't quit,' I appreciate those things.
''We're going to find it, we're going to fix it.'' | 2022-12-09T00:46:54Z | sports.yahoo.com | Disastrous season has Colts mulling more changes after bye | https://sports.yahoo.com/disastrous-season-colts-mulling-more-231924228.html?src=rss | https://sports.yahoo.com/disastrous-season-colts-mulling-more-231924228.html?src=rss |
ATLANTA (AP) Mired in a monthlong slump but somehow still in playoff contention, the Atlanta Falcons are definitely planning changes during their bye week.
''You want to make sure you're bringing guys along the right way,'' Smith said. ''There have been guys that have gone out there, maybe too early, and it probably altered their career. There have been other guys that you could make a strong argument they probably should have been out there a little bit earlier.''
''There are things that we've tried to do with all of our young players, things that we do behind the scenes that we add into practices,'' Smith said. ''Some of the things that we do to try to make it hard on them to try to see where their progress is at. With a lot of our young guys, we feel pretty damn good about where they are.''
''That's not where my mind is at,'' he said after the latest setback, a 19-16 loss to the Steelers. ''At the end of the day, they have to make a decision that's best for the team, and whatever happens, happens.''
''We'll evaluate everything,'' the coach said. ''Every job.''
''It starts on third down,'' Mariota said. ''If we're not able to convert third downs, we're not getting any more plays, we're not allowing ourselves opportunities to score points. So, it always kind of starts there for the quarterback position.''
''Unless you literally don't have a phone ... yeah, you're aware of it,'' Smith said of the playoff possibilities. ''We need to get a win. So, whatever we have to do, we have to find a way to try to beat New Orleans down there.'' | 2022-12-09T00:47:13Z | sports.yahoo.com | Mariota or Ridder? Slumping Falcons ponder change at QB | https://sports.yahoo.com/mariota-ridder-slumping-falcons-ponder-234535819.html?src=rss | https://sports.yahoo.com/mariota-ridder-slumping-falcons-ponder-234535819.html?src=rss |
How do the Patriots find motivation at 6-6? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The New England Patriots are the very definition of mediocre with a 6-6 record heading into their Week 14 matchup vs. the Arizona Cardinals.
As they watch their chances of a postseason spot slip away, it could be difficult to find motivation over the final stretch of the season. Tough games await, including meetings with the Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills. That doesn't bode well for their playoff chances, especially given how the offense has performed.
So, how can this Patriots team find motivation for the final five games on the schedule? Tom E. Curran, Phil Perry and Matt Cassel discussed on a new episode of the Patriots Talk Podcast.
"You've got to be one of those teams that say we've still got an opportunity, we've got to take it one game at a time," Cassel said. "I remember I was with the Patriots in 2008 and we were sitting at 7-5 late in the season. We went on a four-game win streak and ended up at 11-5. We didn't get in the playoffs and there were a lot of reasons for that, obviously. But at the end of the day, you just gotta grind it out.
"There are gonna be teams that you see on the schedule and you say, yeah, this is a better team than we are. But at the same time, the Patriots can't worry about the end-of-year schedule. They gotta take care of business right now and it truly is one of those mentalities. It's hard to stay in that box of one game at a time, but that's what you have to do. Because they're not completely out of this playoff picture."
Perry agrees with Cassel's "one game at a time" approach.
"I'm not really sure what other choice they have," Perry said. "If you're Bill Belichick and you are planning on coaching this team for the foreseeable future, and you do want to maintain whatever it is that you can in terms of the culture that you've tried to establish here over the last 20 years, all you can do is take the first step that's right in front of you, which is try to beat the Cardinals.
"Maybe making the playoffs is a long shot, I would say it is, but if you're Bill Belichick or anybody on this team that cares about the future of this team, there's really no other way to approach it to me than to continue to try to set the bar high, win this game and move on from there."
Also discussed in the episode: What to make of Bill Belichick’s comments that he likes his offense. How the offensive line issues have limited the offense. Reaction to Charlie Weis saying the Patriots need a WR1. And a Patriots-Cardinals preview. | 2022-12-09T00:47:26Z | sports.yahoo.com | Patriots Talk: How do the Pats find motivation at 6-6? | https://sports.yahoo.com/patriots-talk-pats-motivation-6-001700210.html?src=rss | https://sports.yahoo.com/patriots-talk-pats-motivation-6-001700210.html?src=rss |
Believe it or not, the Raiders are still in the playoff hunt in the AFC. With a record of 5-7, they will likely need to win out in order to make the tournament. But their schedule doesn’t look too difficult from here on out.
For the Raiders to make the playoffs, they’ll need to get a win on Thursday Night Football against the Rams. They will do so without starting cornerback Rock Ya-Sin, who was ruled out on Wednesday with a knee injury. They also will not have defensive tackle Andrew Billings, who was also ruled out earlier this week.
The Raiders will also be without linebacker Jayron Brown, who has missed the last several weeks with an injury. They will have Denzel Perryman back in the lineup, who played exceptionally well against the Chargers in Week 13.
Here is the full list of their inactive players ahead of their Week 14 matchup with the Los Angeles Rams: | 2022-12-09T00:47:33Z | sports.yahoo.com | Raiders announce inactives ahead of Week 14 matchup vs. Rams | https://sports.yahoo.com/raiders-announce-inactives-ahead-week-235034528.html?src=rss | https://sports.yahoo.com/raiders-announce-inactives-ahead-week-235034528.html?src=rss |
CINCINNATI (AP) The Cincinnati Bengals beat AFC power Kansas City last Sunday for the third time in 11 months.
''We kind of owe these guys,'' Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard said.
''They're really on fire right now,'' said the Browns' Nick Chubb, who rushed for 101 yards and two touchdowns in the Oct. 31 win over Cincinnati.
''It's a new game. It's a new week,'' Chubb said. ''We can't go on what we did in the past. We have to look at it as today and right now.''
''I think it might be a little bit more of a quarterback run threat, but really, they've got the best rushing attack in the league, great offensive line,'' he said. ''I don't think that they're going to radically change what they do and put it all on Deshaun's hands. They're going to rely on Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt and those great backs and good receivers and try to make it easy on him.''
Njoku's leaping, left-handed catch has been the high point of the season for the 26-year-old, who has 41 catches for 464 yards and two TDs.
''I told him on the field, `Listen, dawg, you're my idol, but I'm not leaving this field until I get this jersey,' and he laughed it off,'' said Njoku, who had no previous relationship with the megastar QB. ''He said, `I promise you I'll mail you one.' And he did, so I was happy.''
The Browns wide receiver, who has steadily improved as a return specialist, took a punt back 76 yards for a touchdown last week at Houston. It was just the second TD return in the league this season, and the first for Cleveland since Travis Benjamin's 78-yarder in 2015.
''That's a great feeling,'' said Peoples-Jones, who stumbled but managed to stay on his feet during the return. ''That's been something that I wanted to do ever since I was here and definitely been one of my goals.'' | 2022-12-09T00:47:52Z | sports.yahoo.com | Rolling Bengals try to end 5-game skid against Browns | https://sports.yahoo.com/rolling-bengals-try-end-5-233356730.html?src=rss | https://sports.yahoo.com/rolling-bengals-try-end-5-233356730.html?src=rss |
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