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What to Expect in 2023Forecasting is a mug’s game in part because the potential inputs are so numerous that even the most complex models can’t possibly account for the vast range of possibilities. Or, as Ian Wilson, a former executive of General Electric Co., put it, “no amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all of your knowledge is about the past and all your decisions are about the future.”
And yet, sometimes we don’t need to look beyond the current weather patterns to see a storm is coming. If the last year taught us anything, it was to take the known risks and double them.
That was true of the geopolitical picture. By last December, over 120,000 Russian troops massed around three sides of Ukraine and intelligence services were warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat wasn’t a bluff. The drums of war were deafening, but few imagined the scale of the carnage that ensued or the impact it would have.
It was also true in the UK economy. By late last year, disruption in global supply chains and a surge in energy prices had already sent inflation on an upward path. Brexit was also becoming real: UK households were already paying £5.8 billion ($7.08 billion) in higher food bills by the end of 2021, according to research by the London School of Economics. In other words, despite Boris Johnson’s boosterish talk, the sounds of an economy screeching to a halt were audible, putting the UK on track to be the slowest-growing advanced nation in 2023.
And it was true for British politics. As last year drew to an end, Boris Johnson’s own future looked shaky, but not terminal. Reports of a booze-filled Downing Street social gatherings, at a time when the rest of the country was house-bound because of Covid, provided a focal point of public anger. Of course, there’s never just one cockroach; those stories kept coming and ultimately Johnson’s poor judgment, chaotic management style and dissembling tried the patience of even his loyal supporters. Meanwhile, two rising stars of the party – Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss – were sharpening their swords for a leadership race.
Then there was Truss’s brief but tumultuous period as prime minister. The signs from her previous ministerial roles and her campaign — and reports from those who had watched her closely for years — all suggested she was unsuited for the office. Her leadership pledges were the kind of generalizations people only tell a small selectorate, as the 170,000 Tory voters are called, but ditch when in office. So unanimous were the views that I optimistically wondered whether perhaps, like Margaret Thatcher in her day, she might end up surprising us. The surprise was one the Tories will never want to repeat. Some writing really is on the wall.
And yet one risk didn’t materialize. There were many who thought the death of Queen Elizabeth II would leave the monarchy flailing and public support diminished. It’s early days, but that transition speaks to the power of preparation and of institutions that can adapt to the times while remaining rooted in their sense of purpose.
What does any of this tell us about the year to come?
The obvious flashing red lights are in Britain’s health care and its housing sectors, both of which reflect long-standing, worsening problems that portend trouble for the government and prospects for economic growth. The more you hear hardline talk on immigration, the greater the chance these bigger problems aren’t being addressed.
An optimist might say there are also signs of more enlightened thinking. The disruption of the pandemic and the turmoil of that past year has exposed the dangers of complacency and awakened a generational opportunity for a fresh look at everything from Britain’s relationships around the world to its health care model and institutions. The leadership of both major political parties has become more centrist and focused on economic growth, policy delivery and restoring trust in public life. Labour leader Keir Starmer has a plan for the biggest decentralization of power Britain has seen.
It’s easier to tear down than to build up, of course. If we need to double our perception of the risks ahead, we should probably halve the prospect that these opportunities will be seized. That would still be something to celebrate.
Say Goodbye to Self-Isolating, WFH and Mass Testing: It’s time to rethink our Covid response to account for higher vaccination rates, natural immunity and milder variants like omicron.
Boris Johnson Kicked Off a Tory Civil War: The prime minister’s apology didn’t wash with many people — and eventually his party decided he was more of a liability than a winner.
The Doctor Won’t See You Now: The UK’s Cost-of-Surviving Crisis: Britain’s cost-of-living crisis may be the most immediate challenge for the Tories, but the growing list of problems at the NHS is the real long-term threat.
Queen Elizabeth and What It Means to Be British: Britain’s longest-serving monarch inherited the crown, but her global admiration was earned.
The Tories Are Finally ‘Ready for Rishi.’ Is it Too Late?: The Conservatives’ psychodrama has paused for now, but Rishi Sunak has warned of an “existential threat” to the party if it doesn’t change. | 2022-12-19T06:43:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Therese Raphael’s View to 2023: Sometimes the Future Is Obvious - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/therese-raphaels-view-to-2023-sometimes-the-future-is-obvious/2022/12/19/32f80ae4-7f63-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/therese-raphaels-view-to-2023-sometimes-the-future-is-obvious/2022/12/19/32f80ae4-7f63-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Kyle Kuzma finished with 22 points and 16 rebounds Sunday night for the Wizards, but LeBron James picked up the win along with a game-high 33 points. (Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES — The Washington Wizards played like they knew they had a golden opportunity Sunday night. Center Anthony Davis, the man who threw down 55 points the last time the Lakers faced Washington, had been ruled out for an extended period of time with a foot injury. Bradley Beal had returned to the court for the first time since straining his hamstring Dec. 4. Kyle Kuzma was back in his old building ready to put on a show and maybe — maybe — the Wizards could keep LeBron James at bay.
Sunday’s game ended with drama appropriate of a Hollywood script, but it was the Lakers who emerged the heroes. They beat the Wizards, 119-117, for their 10th straight loss, marking 41 days since Washington has won on the road.
A back-and-forth thriller in the fourth quarter came down to one scrambled possession.
James had the ball just inside the halfcourt line when Deni Avdija and Kuzma trapped him in a double team, forcing a turnover out of James that he ended up sending off Kuzma’s leg. A scramble for the ball ended up with James recovering and getting the ball to former Wizard Thomas Bryant for a smooth, go-ahead dunk with less than eight seconds to play. Kuzma missed a desperation three-pointer on the other end.
“I felt like they were not at our level,” a visibly agitated Kristaps Porzingis said, trying to find his words and gesturing after the game. “We just lost the game. Obviously LeBron did his thing and played well, but – some mental mistakes from us. I don’t know what to say. It’s tough, it’s tough, it’s tough. But yeah. We’re going to get out of it.
"If [Kuzma’s three-pointer] went in, it would have been a completely different movie. Nobody wants to be in this position, but we’re going to have to find a way out, to dig our way out of this.”
Washington’s 10th straight loss stung that much more because it was one of the team’s more energetic efforts of the month.
A 13-0 run late in the third quarter gave the Wizards (11-20) hope after a sluggish-looking period before halftime. Pushing in transition and scoring early in possessions during the run helped them enter the fourth quarter up 88-87, where they worked to make tough shots and relied on good offense to make up for defensive lapses.
But the Lakers (13-16) returned too many good Washington possessions with an easy bucket, such as Austin Reaves’s running floater past Kuzma to put the Lakers up 115-111, and they capitalized on every defensive misstep. After a nice jumper from Beal to tie the game with 32.8 seconds to play, Daniel Gafford said he miscalled a coverage and James drove down a wide-open lane in the middle of the paint for a ferocious dunk that got a typically starry Los Angeles crowd on its feet.
Still, the game was even until the end, when James recovered his near-turnover and too many Wizards players were already running up court, readying for an offensive possession without realizing in the melee they hadn’t secured the ball.
“We got some stops. Able to get out in transition, which I think kept them on their heels a bit, which allowed us to score early in possessions … a lot of good things," Wizards Coach Wes Unseld Jr. said. "The effort was there. Second night of a back-to-back, able to accomplish quite a bit, get Brad back in the fold, he had terrific night. See those three, Brad, KP, Kuz, play at a high level. There were a lot of positives. But, you know, there’s no consolation prizes.”
Beal in his return led the team with 29 points and went 11 for 13 from the free throw line, appearing to move as well as ever and throwing his body around on offense. Kuzma had 22 points and 16 rebounds and Porzingis, who had success playing alongside fellow center Daniel Gafford late, had 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.
But James helped make up for Davis’s absence to lead all five starters in double figures with 33 points — 13 of which came in the fourth quarter — seven rebounds and nine assists. Lonnie Walker IV added 21 points.
“It was ok. Still getting my wind back, striding out is still the biggest thing for me, mentally getting over the hurdle of it,” Beal said of how he felt after missing six games. “But for the most part I felt fine.”
Washington’s task now is to apply the same level of urgency they showed in the second half against Los Angeles to their games in Utah and Sacramento, one final back-to-back to ensure their road trip doesn’t end without a win.
"It’s very tough, a very challenging situation,” Kuzma said. “I don’t think many of us have lost 10 in a row. It’s very, very tough. Very, very tough for sure. Nobody likes to lose, let alone 10 times.” | 2022-12-19T06:43:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wizards fall just short against Lakers for their 10th straight defeat - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/19/wizards-lakers-tenth-straight-defeat/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/19/wizards-lakers-tenth-straight-defeat/ |
Ukraine live briefing: Drones attack Kyiv; Putin set to travel to Belarus
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Kyrgyzstan on Dec. 9. (Igor Kovalenko/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, came under attack again early Monday. The city’s military administration said drones were shot down in Kyiv’s airspace but two people were injured and some critical infrastructure was hit. The attacks follow a barrage of Russian missiles that struck infrastructure across seven cities last week, leading President Volodymyr Zelensky to renew his appeal to allies for better air defenses.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit Minsk on Monday for talks with his regional ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Analysts suggest Putin could be trying to set conditions for a renewed offensive against northern Ukraine or Kyiv, after a failed attempt to seize the capital early in the war. Russian forces dispatched to Belarus in October are conducting tactical exercises to determine their combat readiness, the Russian Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing the Defense Ministry. Belarus has served as a base for Russia to train thousands of conscripts, but Lukashenko has refused to commit his own troops to the conflict.
Iranian drones struck critical infrastructure early Monday, Kyiv’s military administration said, after officials worked through the weekend to restore power and heat, knocked out by strikes on Friday, to millions of city residents. Zelensky said in a video address Sunday evening that power had been restored for some 9 million Ukrainians and that transport was returning to normal in most cities.
Russia has dispatched a fleet of warships to participate in joint naval exercises with China in the East China Sea from Dec. 21 through Dec. 27, state-owned news agency RIA reported Monday, citing the Russian Defense Ministry. Beijing has walked a diplomatic tightrope since the start of the invasion, attempting to play both sides. At last month’s Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, China joined Russia to oppose using “war” to describe Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials are preparing for a special “peace summit” this winter, Zelensky said during his nightly address Sunday. Kyiv’s formula for peace will create a “new, globally important security architecture” that is applicable to Ukraine and a guarantee for other nations, he said. Zelensky had indicated earlier that Ukraine was working on several proposals ahead of a meeting Monday of the leaders of Britain, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Iceland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway.
Russia’s military leaders have embarked on a publicity campaign to make up for battleground failures, according to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank. The Russian Defense Ministry posted footage Sunday of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu apparently on a working trip to the country’s southern military district — receiving briefings from field commanders and speaking to front-line personnel — in a bid to show an official actively engaged in planning and controlling the war effort.
Russians are sending handmade gifts to troops in Ukraine, in a Kremlin-led effort to reverse declining support for the war and to spur a renewed wave of patriotic fervor. Balaclavas, amulets and chunky socks are among the items being sent to the front line.
A video address that Zelensky intended to be shown ahead of the FIFA World Cup final on Sunday — which Ukrainian officials say FIFA refused to screen in the Qatari stadium — was being shared by Ukrainian soccer stars and other allies, he said: “The world still heard our call.” FIFA did not respond to a request for comment on its decision.
Ukraine picked its entry for next year’s Eurovision song contest over the weekend. “Heart of Steel,” by electronic music duo Tvorchi, was chosen to represent Ukraine in a selection program streamed online live from a Kyiv metro station that doubles as an underground bomb shelter. On social media, the two-man group said they would “do everything to properly represent Ukraine.” The country won this year’s contest.
Front-line video makes Ukrainian combat some of history’s most watched. The Ukraine war is one of history’s most visually documented. Widespread access to cellphones and the internet means virtually anyone can find an unvarnished look at the war from the point of view of residents and fighters, writes Leila Barghouty. And soldiers, civilians, aid workers and other witnesses have posted footage of fighting and destruction in real time. | 2022-12-19T06:44:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russia-Ukraine war latest updates: More drones shot down in Kyiv - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/russia-ukraine-war-latest-updates/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/russia-ukraine-war-latest-updates/ |
York Regional Police officers stand in the lobby of a condominium building in Vaughan, Ontario, on Sunday. (Arlyn Mcadorey/Canadian Press/AP)
Five people were killed, and another was injured after a gunman opened fire at a condominium building north of Toronto late Sunday, police said.
The authorities responded to the condo in Vaughan, a city of more than 300,000 just north of Toronto, to reports that multiple people had been shot, York Regional Police said in a statement.
After law enforcement responded around 7:20 p.m., “an interaction occurred between the officers and a male subject and the subject was shot,” police said.
In addition to the five victims, the suspect was killed and pronounced dead at the scene, the police said. One person was hospitalized in “serious condition,” the police said.
An investigation was ongoing, and there was “no further threat to public safety,” police said. | 2022-12-19T07:56:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Canada condo shooting leaves 5 dead, 1 injured - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/canada-condo-shooting-vaughan-toronto/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/canada-condo-shooting-vaughan-toronto/ |
Ten of the most popular fact checks of 2022
For the past 15 years, the Fact Checker has examined the statements of leading politicians. (Video: Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)
During the second year of the Biden presidency, readers appeared most interested in fact checks that re-litigate aspects of the 2020 election, especially allegations about Hunter Biden, the president’s son. Moreover, only one fact check about President Biden’s utterances made it among our most-read fact checks this year.
By a large margin, our coverage of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and his voting record especially captivated readers, with three of our articles on Meadows among the most popular. We have listed them all together to avoid being repetitive.
Here’s the rundown.
1. Debra Meadows appears to have filed at least two false voter forms
The Fact Checker’s reporting showed that in 2020 Debra Meadows, wife of the former chief of staff, signed at least two forms — a voter registration form and the one-stop application — that warned of legal consequences if falsely completed and signed. Yet Debra Meadows certified that she had resided at a 14-by-62-foot mountaintop mobile home for at least 30 days — even though she did not live there. Our disclosure of this form was the latest in a string of revelations concerning the former chief of staff — who echoed President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020 — and his wife. Other popular articles on the Meadowses’ voting habits included “Mark Meadows was simultaneously registered to vote in three states” and “Mark Meadows, his wife, Debra, and their trailer-home voter registration.”
2. Trump’s effort to rewrite history on his support of NATO and Ukraine
Since Trump left office, we have tried to be selective in vetting his many false claims. But as always, readers love to read fact checks of Trump. Here we focused on a claim he made just days after he had lauded Russian President Vladimir Putin as “very savvy” for making a “genius” move by declaring two regions of eastern Ukraine as independent states and dispatching Russian forces to seize them. When Ukraine unexpectedly stood firm against the Russian invasion, Trump scrambled to claim he deserved credit for saving the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. With Trump, it’s hard to know whether he’s willfully ignorant or whether he has simply swallowed his own spin. Far from being a savior of NATO, he frequently sought to undermine it. He earned Four Pinocchios.
3. The truth about Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian ‘bio labs’
The Russian Defense Ministry knows how to stir up the interest of the right-leaning news media in the United States — just mention Hunter Biden. Russia for years has been seeding the ground to claim that the United States set up biowarfare labs in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics — claims that have been revived as part of the invasion of Ukraine. We already had debunked these claims in another widely read fact check but here tackled the claim, echoed by the right-wing media, that Hunter Biden was somehow involved in financing the labs. We dug into the records and discussed the deals in question with people involved. We revealed that Hunter Biden was not part of a decision to invest in a company at the center of the Russian allegations, he did not profit from it because he was kicked out of the investment firm over cocaine allegations, and the company made little money from its tiny bit of business in Ukraine.
4. Unraveling the tale of Hunter Biden and $3.5 million from Russia
This was another trip down the rabbit hole of claims about Hunter Biden. During the 2020 election, Trump claimed 42 times that Hunter had received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, a Russian billionaire and the widow of the former mayor of Moscow. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump called on Putin to reveal what he knows about it. That statement inspired us to take another look. We interviewed people familiar with the transactions, reviewed property and real estate documents and probed for leads in the emails contained on a hard drive copy of the laptop Hunter Biden supposedly left behind for repair in a Delaware shop in April 2019. It’s a complicated story, involving a web of corporate entities, that eventually leads to the purchase of millions of dollars’ worth of real estate in Brooklyn by the Russian billionaire. We found no evidence that Hunter Biden was part of those transactions.
5. A Bottomless Pinocchio for Biden — and other recent gaffes
President Biden's claim that he "traveled 17,000 miles with" Chinese President Xi Jinping can't be verified. (Video: Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)
President Biden is a self-described “gaffe machine.” Readers had asked for fact checks of a variety of recent Biden statements, but none of them seemed big enough for a stand-alone fact check. So we produced a roundup of some of the president’s recent errors of fact, made as he barnstormed the country boosting Democrats and raising contributions in advance of the midterm elections. Most noteworthy was an old claim we had debunked shortly after Biden took office, giving him Three Pinocchios — that he had traveled 17,000 miles with Chinese president Xi Jinping. On Nov. 3, the president repeated this claim for the 20th time since he became president. During Donald Trump’s presidency, we had established a new category, the Bottomless Pinocchio, to account for false or misleading statements repeated so often that they became a form of propaganda. A statement would get added to the list if it had earned a Three or Four Pinocchios rating and been repeated at least 20 times.
6. The faux outrage that President Biden is stockpiling baby formula for undocumented immigrants
Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) sparked a furor in May when she posted photos that compared what she said were stockpiles of baby formula for undocumented immigrants with empty grocery shelves for Americans in local stores. “You see the American government sending by the pallet thousands and thousands of containers of baby formula to the border, that would make my blood boil,” she said. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans quickly jumped on the bandwagon, with Abbott blaming what he called President Biden’s “reckless, out-of-touch priorities.” The problem is that the Biden administration was following the law — a law that Trump also followed. Abbott earned Four Pinocchios.
7. The truth about gas prices and oil production
In a moment of national unity against Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Democrats and Republicans kept fighting passionately over the steep increase in the cost of gasoline. Prices have already risen sharply since Biden became president — and he acknowledged that his ban on U.S. importation of Russian oil and gas could send them even higher. Partisans on all sides, as is often the case, misrepresented the facts, obscuring the complicated truth about oil production, gas prices and the role of renewables. So we produced a guide to help readers sort out the rhetoric.
8. How the falsehood of athletes dying of coronavirus vaccines spread
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) for many months has spouted dubious claims about coronavirus vaccines. He caught our attention with the comment that “we’ve heard story after story. I mean, all these athletes dropping dead on the field, but we’re supposed to ignore that.” When we investigated his sources of information, we uncovered a trail of misinformation that started with mysterious Austrian websites with ties to that country’s far-right populist party, the Freedom Party. Those stories were then recycled by right-wing media in the United States and eventually came out of the mouth of a U.S. senator.
9. Tucker Carlson says Ukraine is not a democracy. Here are the facts.
In late February, Fox News host Tucker Carlson openly questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine’s political system, openly dismissing its status as a democracy. (Video: Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has channeled many of Putin’s arguments for invading Ukraine, including that Ukraine is not a democracy. “In American terms, you would call Ukraine a tyranny,” Carlson claimed. To some extent, whether Ukraine is a democracy is a matter of opinion, so we did not offer a Pinocchio rating. But Carlson — who has expressed admiration for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his crackdown on civil liberties — is stacking the deck against Ukraine. It is a fledgling democracy, with significant growing pains, largely the result of Russian pressure and interference in its affairs. It is certainly not “a tyranny.”
10. What research shows on the effectiveness of gun-control laws
A Fact Checker analysis examining the effectiveness of current and proposed state and federal gun regulations showed mixed results in preventing mass killings. (Video: Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)
In the aftermath of the mass killing in May of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex., we deeply examined what academic research showed about the effectiveness of gun laws in preventing such tragedies. The short answer was that many proposed laws probably would not have much of an effect on curbing the mass killings that dominate the news. But they could lessen their severity, and might also bring down overall gun violence. We further expanded our inquiry into this subject with a detailed look at 41 gun-related mass killings since 2015. We found that only about one-third of these mass killings might have been prevented by any major proposals. But some ideas — such as not allowing people under age 21 to buy assault rifles and banning ammunition storage and feeding devices known as magazines that hold more than 10 rounds — might have minimized the bloodshed.
Top columns in 2022 — that were published before 2022
Many readers discover old fact checks when searching the internet for information. Here’s a list of fact checks that ranked among the top 50 in 2022 — even though they were first published in 2021. The first story on this list even made it into the top 15, even though it was published almost two years ago.
1. Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30,573 over 4 years (Jan. 24, 2021)
2. The repeated claim that Fauci lied to Congress about ‘gain-of-function’ research (Oct. 29, 2021)
3. Biden’s claim that the 1994 assault-weapons law ‘brought down’ mass shootings (March 24, 2021)
4. No, Trump did not order 10,000 troops to secure the Capitol on Jan. 6 (Dec. 15, 2021)
5. The false and misleading claims President Biden made during his first 100 days in office (April 30, 2021) | 2022-12-19T08:14:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ten of the most popular fact checks of 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/ten-most-popular-fact-checks-2022/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/ten-most-popular-fact-checks-2022/ |
Allen and UMKC host South Dakota
BOTTOM LINE: UMKC hosts the South Dakota Coyotes after Shemarri Allen scored 28 points in UMKC’s 70-64 loss to the Green Bay Phoenix.
The Kangaroos have gone 2-3 in home games. UMKC is the Summit leader with 12.1 offensive rebounds per game led by Allen David Mukeba Jr. averaging 3.2.
The Coyotes are 0-4 in road games. South Dakota is fifth in the Summit with 12.3 assists per game led by A.J. Plitzuweit averaging 2.3.
The Kangaroos and Coyotes face off Monday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Rayquawndis Mitchell is averaging 16.7 points for the Kangaroos. Anderson Kopp is averaging 0.8 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for UMKC.
Plitzuweit is averaging 12.1 points for the Coyotes. Kruz Perrott-Hunt is averaging 11.3 points over the last 10 games for South Dakota. | 2022-12-19T08:14:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Allen and UMKC host South Dakota - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/allen-and-umkc-host-south-dakota/2022/12/19/0fb476ac-7f6e-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/allen-and-umkc-host-south-dakota/2022/12/19/0fb476ac-7f6e-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
House leads New Mexico against Prairie View A&M after 22-point game
BOTTOM LINE: New Mexico faces the Prairie View A&M Panthers after Jaelen House scored 22 points in New Mexico’s 82-74 victory over the Iona Gaels.
The Lobos have gone 8-0 in home games. New Mexico is fourth in the MWC in rebounding with 35.0 rebounds. Josiah Allick paces the Lobos with 8.2 boards.
The Panthers are 1-6 in road games. Prairie View A&M averages 11.8 turnovers per game and is 2-4 when turning the ball over less than opponents.
TOP PERFORMERS: House is averaging 17 points, five assists and 2.8 steals for the Lobos. Morris Udeze is averaging 17.6 points and 6.7 rebounds while shooting 61.9% over the last 10 games for New Mexico. | 2022-12-19T08:17:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | House leads New Mexico against Prairie View A&M after 22-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/house-leads-new-mexico-against-prairie-view-aandm-after-22-point-game/2022/12/19/09a1fe58-7f71-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/house-leads-new-mexico-against-prairie-view-aandm-after-22-point-game/2022/12/19/09a1fe58-7f71-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Oral Roberts hosts South Dakota State following Lien's 20-point game
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Oral Roberts -9.5; over/under is 157.5
BOTTOM LINE: South Dakota State visits the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles after Broden Lien scored 20 points in South Dakota State’s 85-56 win over the Mount Marty Lancers.
The Golden Eagles have gone 7-0 in home games. Oral Roberts ranks fourth in the Summit shooting 36.3% from deep, led by Patrick Mwamba shooting 50.0% from 3-point range.
The Jackrabbits have gone 1-5 away from home. South Dakota State has a 2-6 record in games decided by 10 points or more.
The Golden Eagles and Jackrabbits match up Monday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Max Abmas is averaging 20 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists for the Golden Eagles. Issac McBride is averaging 1.9 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Oral Roberts.
Alex Arians is averaging 7.9 points for the Jackrabbits. Zeke Mayo is averaging 14.3 points and 6.5 rebounds over the past 10 games for South Dakota State. | 2022-12-19T08:18:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Oral Roberts hosts South Dakota State following Lien's 20-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/oral-roberts-hosts-south-dakota-state-following-liens-20-point-game/2022/12/19/0646682a-7f71-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/oral-roberts-hosts-south-dakota-state-following-liens-20-point-game/2022/12/19/0646682a-7f71-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
UT Arlington faces San Francisco on 3-game slide
BOTTOM LINE: UT Arlington heads into the matchup against San Francisco after losing three games in a row.
The Dons have gone 5-0 in home games. San Francisco is eighth in the WCC scoring 74.1 points while shooting 43.4% from the field.
TOP PERFORMERS: Khalil Shabazz is averaging 14.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.3 steals for the Dons.
Shemar Wilson is averaging 9.7 points and 8.2 rebounds for the Mavericks. | 2022-12-19T08:20:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | UT Arlington faces San Francisco on 3-game slide - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/ut-arlington-faces-san-francisco-on-3-game-slide/2022/12/19/fc37a826-7f70-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/ut-arlington-faces-san-francisco-on-3-game-slide/2022/12/19/fc37a826-7f70-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
A participant walks past a waterfall poster during the U.N. biodiversity conference (COP15) in Montreal on Sunday. (Lars Hagberg/AFP/Getty Images)
MONTREAL — Close to 200 countries reached a watershed agreement early Monday to stem the loss of nature worldwide, pledging to protect nearly a third of Earth’s land and oceans as a refuge for the planet’s remaining wild plants and animals by the end of the decade.
A room of bleary-eyed delegates erupted in applause in the wee hours after agreeing to the landmark framework at the U.N. biodiversity summit, called COP15.
The hope is to turn the tide on an ongoing extinction crisis. About a million species are at risk of disappearing forever, a mass extinction event scientists say is on par with the devastation wrought by the asteroid that wiped out most dinosaurs.
Today’s loss of biodiversity is being driven not by a space rock but by one species: humans. The loss of habitat, exploitation of species, climate change, pollution and destruction from invasive species moved by people between continents are all driving a decline in the variety of plants and animals.
Nations now have the next eight years to hit their targets for protecting life. With few legal mechanisms for enforcement, they will have to trust each other to protect habitats and funnel hundreds of billions of dollars over conservation.
“This is an incredible milestone for the world when it comes to conservation,” said Brian O’Donnell, the director of the conservation group Campaign for Nature. “We have been on a rapid path of destruction of nature for hundreds of years, and this can mark a turning point.”
As much of the rest of the world watched the World Cup and prepared for the holidays, delegates worked well past midnight over the weekend to hash out a deal, trudging through snowy streets to gather at the Montreal Convention Centre. They sought a major agreement akin to the Paris climate deal in 2015, when nations agreed to try to limit Earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).
“I feel quite exhausted because this meeting has gone on and on like a marathon,” said Huang Runqiu, the COP15 president and minister of ecology and environment for China, which co-hosted the talks with Canada.
The 10-year deal sets nearly two dozen targets. The banner commitment calls on nations to collectively conserve for wildlife at least 30 percent of land, inland waterways, and coastal and ocean areas by 2030 — the promise dubbed “30 by 30.”
The world has a long way to go to achieving that goal. Right now, only about a sixth of the continents and a 12th of the oceans have some form of protection, according to the U.N.’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
The agreement also calls for cutting by half nutrient runoff from farms, as well as the rate at which invasive species are introduced to ecosystems.
Nations also committed to reducing the risk of pesticides by 50 percent. Insect populations are seeing drastic declines in some parts of the globe as part of a potential and debated bugpocalypse.
It remains to be seen how seriously world leaders take these commitments over the coming decade. In the past, countries have fallen short of goals set in similar deals.
These whales are on the brink. Now comes climate change -- and wind power
Nations whiffed on fully meeting any of the 20 biodiversity targets set after a 2010 meeting in Aichi, Japan, the last time they set major conservation targets. No head of state other than Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended the meeting in Montreal in person. Chinese leader Xi Jinping opened the high-level negotiations remotely.
The talks in Montreal, which drew around 12,000 participants, were set to end Monday. As disagreements mounted, some attendees decided to reschedule flights. But in the end, delegates were able to come to a “30 by 30” deal on time.
A key point of tension between rich and poor countries was money. By one estimate, a staggering $598 billion to $824 billion is needed annually to reverse the loss of species worldwide.
Countries in South America and Africa — home to rainforests and other ecosystems that harbor the richest diversity of life on Earth — wanted reassurances from wealthier nations that money will flow from individual donors and foreign governments to help them protect landscapes and police against illegal poachers and loggers.
“It’s sort of a chicken and an egg,” said Andrew Deutz, a director at the Nature Conservancy. “More money, then you can take on more commitments. Show us that there’s more commitments, then we’ll give you more money.”
Susana Muhamad, the environmental minister of rainforest-rich Colombia, emphasized Sunday the agreement must “align the resources and the ambitions.”
Ève Bazaiba, environment minister for the Democratic Republic of Congo, said over the weekend her country is committed to the “30 by 30” goal. But she added her government needs financial help to protect the swaths of the Congo Basin, which has the world’s second-largest expanse of tropical forest.
“When it comes to fauna, we need to have the means to achieve this objective,” she said.
At one point last week, delegates from many developing countries briefly walked out on talks over the issue of funding. And on Monday, the Democratic Republic of Congo lodged an early-morning objection to a lack of adequate funding in the framework.
Despite the objection, China finalized the decision with a banging of a gavel, leading to a tense moment as some African nations took turns voicing their reservations with the finished deal.
In the end, the agreement put wealthier countries on the hook for sending $30 billion annually to small island nations and other developing countries by the end of the decade, a figure short of what poorer nations had initially called for.
In total, the deal calls for mobilizing $200 billion a year for conservation work from all sources, with much of the money coming in the form of funds governments spend within their own borders.
The American delegation played a role in negotiations, even though the United States is not officially party to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the treaty underpinning the talks in Montreal.
Bill Clinton signed the pact in the 1990s, but it never won ratification with a two-thirds majority in the Senate. The only other country that is not a member of the treaty is the Holy See.
But Monica Medina, the U.S. special envoy for biodiversity, went to Montreal to emphasize that the Biden administration made its own “30 by 30” conservation commitment, dubbing the plan “America the Beautiful.”
“I hope that we will have a time in the future when the Senate would ratify it,” Medina said. “But we’re contributing no matter what.”
The deal was a long time in the making. The final proceedings, originally scheduled for 2020 in the Chinese city of Kunming, were postponed and moved to Montreal due to the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the goals of the summit, which required negotiators take daily coronavirus tests, is to reduce the viral spillover from live animal markets, one theory as to how the pathogen behind covid-19 started its worldwide spread.
“This meeting was delayed by two years,” said Alfred DeGemmis, associate director of international policy for the Wildlife Conservation Society. “Governments are finally taking much needed steps to prevent the next covid-19.” | 2022-12-19T09:32:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nations strike deal to try to save wildlife from extinction at COP15 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/12/19/cop15-biodiversity-wildlife-extinction/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/12/19/cop15-biodiversity-wildlife-extinction/ |
Steven Spielberg in New York City on Dec. 11. (Noam Galai/Getty Images/Universal Pictures)
Spielberg, however, says he still worries about another legacy of “Jaws.” In an interview with BBC Radio released Sunday, Spielberg said he feels responsible for the decimation of shark populations in the decades since the film’s release.
“I still fear … that sharks are somehow mad at me for the feeding frenzy of crazy sword fishermen that happened after 1975,” said Spielberg, 76.
“‘Jaws’ was kind of a turning point,” Lowe said. “It got people thinking very negatively about sharks, which just made it so much easier to overfish them.”
Over the years, researchers have documented some of the negative portrayals of sharks in films like “Jaws.” A 2021 study concluded that 96 percent of shark films portrayed the animals as threatening. Last year, the Florida Museum of Natural History reported that sharks killed 11 people worldwide.
Gavin Naylor, who directs the Florida Program for Shark Research, said Spielberg may be too critical of himself. While Naylor notes that “Jaws” created interest in sharks, he believes people would’ve fished and sold them regardless.
“I truly and to this day regret the decimation of the shark population,” Spielberg told BBC, “because of the book and the film.” (Benchley, who wrote the “Jaws” novel, said in 2000 that he also feels somewhat responsible for the suffering of great white sharks.)
Lowe said he believes “Jaws” provoked the prevalence of shark-fishing tournaments. When other species became endangered in the 1980s, Lowe said, people overfished sharks with little pushback from the public.
Naylor agrees “Jaws” expanded sharks’ popularity, including the demand for shark fin soup in the 1990s. But he said “Jaws” has become a scapegoat for a problem that people created. | 2022-12-19T09:46:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Steven Spielberg says he regrets impact “Jaws” had on shark populations - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/19/steven-spielberg-jaws-sharks-regret/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/19/steven-spielberg-jaws-sharks-regret/ |
Monday’s bowl betting preview: Points will be scarce at the Myrtle Beach Bowl
Coach Jim Mora Jr. seemingly has Connecticut pointed in the right direction. (Bryan Woolston/AP)
There’s only one game on the bowl schedule Monday. Here’s a look at the matchup, including any players and coaches who have departed via the transfer portal or are opting out. All times are Eastern, and spreads and totals were taken from the consensus odds at VegasInsider.com.
In Conway, S.C.
Marshall (-10) vs. Connecticut
Under first-year coach Jim Mora Jr., Connecticut appeared bound to its usual spot in college football’s pecking order — the absolute basement — after a 1-4 start but rallied to win five of its final seven games to earn its first bowl berth in seven years.
Marshall has been all over the place, upsetting Notre Dame early in the season, losing four of its next six and then closing the season with four straight wins. The Herd boasts the nation’s No. 1 defense in terms of success rate and expected points allowed per play and allows only 2.8 yards per carry, which ranks second in the nation. This could pose issues for a U-Conn. team that runs the ball 64.4 percent of the time (No. 5 nationally) but ranks only 67th in rushing success rate.
Key personnel losses: Nathan Carter, the Huskies’ third-leading rusher despite not playing since September because of a shoulder injury, has entered the transfer portal.
Pick: Under 41. Neither team’s offense is at all good, and Marshall’s defense should take away the one thing U-Conn. does well. | 2022-12-19T10:12:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Myrtle Beach Bowl predictions: Take the under in Marshall vs. U-Conn. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/19/myrtle-beach-bowl-predictions/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/19/myrtle-beach-bowl-predictions/ |
Skid Row in Los Angeles. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“[S]ome have resorted to clearing encampments without providing alternative housing options for the people living in them,” it said. “Unless encampment closures are conducted in a coordinated, humane, and solutions-oriented way that makes housing and supports adequately available, these ‘out of sight, out of mind’ policies can … set people back in their pathway to housing.” | 2022-12-19T10:29:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden aims to cut homelessness 25% by 2025 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/19/biden-homeless-plan/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/19/biden-homeless-plan/ |
The vote is expected at a public meeting on Monday as the committee prepares to release its final report
Review by Jacqueline Alemany
Footage of President Donald Trump is played during a hearing in June by the Jan. 6 committee. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is set to vote to refer criminal charges against a former president to the Justice Department for the first time in American history on Monday, concluding an 18-month examination of the insurrection that shook the country’s free and fair election system.
Outside of Trump, it is still unknown what other criminal referrals the committee will make to the Justice Department. A person familiar with the proposed recommendations said that the central actors who aided Trump in his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election will be called out by name during Monday’s hearing, but it was unclear whether the committee would formally refer them for prosecution.
While referrals hold no legal weight, people familiar with the committee’s deliberations said the panel intended to make a strong statement about the need to hold accountable those responsible for inciting the Capitol assault — Trump especially.
“They should never be in a position of public trust again,” said a person involved with the committee’s work who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.
The committee will vote on the referrals in a public hearing expected to begin Monday at 1 p.m. Eastern time.
The report — at least some of which is likely to be released Monday — is expected to largely mirror the set of public hearings presented by the committee over the summer. It will be bolstered by additional evidence and information that had been omitted from previous presentations or was collected by investigators since the hearings ended, according to people involved with the committee’s work.
“The report will essentially be a summary but with a lot more detail than we were able to do in the public hearings and with direct references to transcripts and evidence,” said a person familiar with the drafting of the final report.
The Washington Post reported last month about widespread frustration among former and current committee staffers with the push by Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to drop non-Trump related findings from the final report and her sway over the committee’s final product.
Much of the report — expected to have eight chapters — is focused on Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But there will be sections and appendixes on other matters, including the fundraising that candidates conducted on the false premise that the election had been stolen, people familiar with the matter say.
Committee members have agreed to make all evidence and transcripts of depositions publicly available, according to people familiar with the deliberations, though they are likely to be released days after the report.
Trump’s choices escalated tensions and set U.S. on path to Jan. 6, panel finds
Those revelations included that she had been told that Trump tried to take the wheel of the presidential SUV from his Secret Service detail as he sought to continue onward to the Capitol after giving a speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6. She also testified that she had come across the aftermath of an apparent outburst by the president that resulted in a smashed plate and ketchup dripping down a White House wall.
The committee’s dwindling staff, along with members, have worked overtime in recent weeks to redact any sensitive information, like names of witnesses who provided depositions on the condition of anonymity and potential intelligence that could jeopardize national security.
Other government agencies have also prepared for the release of the report. Officials in the Department of Homeland Security, for example, have been reviewing the transcripts of interviews with Secret Service personnel in preparation for their release to ensure that no confidential information is released.
A subcommittee made up of the panel’s four lawyers — Cheney and Reps. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) — worked to put together recommendations on potential criminal referrals and presented them to the broader committee over the past month.
Nonpartisan groups monitoring threats to democracy, such as the States United Democracy Center, have also lobbied the committee to make referrals about attorney misconduct to state bars. States United issued a letter to Cheney and Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) earlier this month recommending that the committee refer the alleged misconduct of nine attorneys involved with Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election to state bars.
Jack Smith, the Justice Department’s special counsel investigating the plot to overturn the election, recently sent subpoenas to officials across the most closely contested battleground states asking for all correspondence with Trump or his campaign, including his lawyers.
In addition to the referrals to the Justice Department, the committee is likely to make ethics referrals for lawmakers who ignored the panel’s subpoenas.
“We’ll be considering what’s the appropriate remedy for members of Congress who ignore a congressional subpoena, as well as the evidence that was so pertinent to our investigation and why we wanted to bring them in,” Schiff said during an interview Sunday on CNN. “We have weighed what is the remedy for members of Congress. Is it a criminal referral to another branch of government? Or is it better that the Congress police its own?”
The report-writing process has been marred by disagreements. Former and current staff have complained that important findings have been overlooked and deprioritized, and continue to bristle at Cheney’s influence over the final report.
Cheney has clashed with other members and staff over her desire to keep the work squarely focused on Trump, people familiar with the matter have said. She has tussled in particular with Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), retiring member.
The two sparred extensively during a member meeting on Wednesday after Cheney insulted Murphy, people familiar with the matter said. Cheney urged Murphy to take a sober approach to the issues under discussion regarding the final report, before cautioning her not to call The Post and leak the committee deliberations, according to people familiar with the exchange.
Murphy and Cheney argued during a member retreat at the Library of Congress earlier this year, with the Florida congresswoman urging that the committee do more to examine the security and intelligence failures that led to the breach of the Capitol. | 2022-12-19T10:47:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jan. 6 committee to vote on referring Trump for criminal charges - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/trump-referrals-jan-6-committee/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/trump-referrals-jan-6-committee/ |
Viktor Vekselberg attends the congress of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow in 2018. (Maxim Shipenkov/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Western intelligence officials are investigating whether a network of wealthy and well-connected expatriate Russian investors is part of a covert effort to aid their native country in developing cutting-edge technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence through start-ups they funded in the United States, according to people familiar with the inquiries.
Before moving abroad and backing high-tech companies in the United States and allied nations, several of the expatriates were affiliated with one or more of three high-profile Russian tech initiatives: the government-subsidized Skolkovo technology area intended to rival Silicon Valley in suburban Moscow; the Russian Venture Company, a government investment vehicle to help Russian businesses develop innovative technology; and the nonprofit research administrator Russian Quantum Center, which operates 12 laboratories near Moscow.
Russian government money was included in venture funds managed by one of the expats at least as recently as 2019, according to fund postings, interviews and Russian media, an issue that has drawn investigators’ attention.
Western authorities expressed concerns over Russian technology funding as far back as 2014, when the Boston FBI publicly cautioned the Massachusetts Institute of Technology over an alliance with Skolkovo and its founding president, Viktor Vekselberg. Those concerns have intensified in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine, as authorities expand their lists of Kremlin allies to sanction with restrictions on assets or business dealings.
The Russian Venture Company was sanctioned by the U.S. government in February, and the Russian Quantum Center was added to the list in September. Also that month, the government said it might add anyone who had worked on quantum computing for Russia in the past.
Some of the expatriates have denounced the invasion of Ukraine, and many say they ended or reduced ties to Russia years ago. But those claims are not being accepted at face value, according to the people familiar with the inquiries. It is unclear what conclusions have been drawn by counterintelligence and other officials, since intelligence cases are rarely made public. The FBI declined to comment.
The reach of Russian technology has surprised officials in the past. In 2017, Russian security company Kaspersky Lab disclosed that its software had taken secret code for a U.S. hacking tool from an American customer. The discovery led to a directive that Kaspersky software be removed from U.S. government computer systems and prompted Kaspersky to abandon plans for expansion in the United States.
An official at another intelligence agency confirmed that one of the people at the center of the new network, tech security company founder and investor Serguei Beloussov, was being tracked, but said the United States had not found proof of a security breach of the sort it found with Kaspersky. Beloussov said in an interview that he had not been contacted by U.S. authorities and that he is not close to the Kremlin.
Of particular interest to investigators is Vekselberg, who has used a Northern California venture firm, Maxfield Capital, to invest in technology companies. He was named president of the Skolkovo Foundation on its launch in 2010.
Sanctioned in 2018 and again this year, Vekselberg had two U.S. properties raided in September and a yacht seized in April by authorities who said he had committed money laundering and bank fraud. Vekselberg has not been publicly charged with a crime. He could not be reached for comment.
Joining Vekselberg on the Skolkovo board was Alexander Galitsky, a talented engineer and inventor behind early virtual private networks and other gear. Long a partner with U.S. technologists, Galitsky served as coordinator for the government’s Russian Venture Company and helped start the Russian Quantum Center, which took in millions from Skolkovo to put Russia ahead in the race for next-generation computing. He also created a venture firm in California, Almaz Capital, drawing such prominent co-investors as Cisco Systems and Andreessen Horowitz and pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into tech companies. A person close to Cisco said it last invested in an Almaz fund in 2013 and does not intend to do so again. Someone close to Andreessen said there had been one small investment.
The concerns about foreign pursuit of technology know-how go back decades. Attention focused on Russia not long after Skolkovo launched, when Galitsky helped set up the partnership between Skolkovo and MIT that drew the rare warning back in 2014.
In the Boston Business Journal, a deputy agent in charge of the city’s FBI bureau wrote in a guest column: “The FBI recently released a notification to technology companies and research facilities, which include colleges and universities in the Boston area, warning them of the possible perils of entering into joint partnerships with foreign venture capital firms from Russia.
“The warning was based on the FBI’s growing concern that the purported reasons offered by the Russian partners mask their true intentions. The FBI believes the true motives of the Russian partners, who are often funded by their government, is to gain access to classified, sensitive and emerging technology from the companies.”
The article said Skolkovo “may be a means for the Russian government to access our nation’s sensitive or classified research, development facilities and dual-use technologies with military and commercial applications. This analysis is supported by reports coming out of Russia itself.”
Galitsky said by email that he had left Skolkovo and Quantum Center boards long ago and quit the board of the sanctioned Alfa Bank, the biggest private Russian bank, one day after Russia invaded Ukraine.
As the war in Ukraine escalated, Galitsky’s activities drew increased scrutiny in the United States. In April, Almaz said that despite a track record dating to 2008, it was getting revetted by Silicon Valley Bank. “We needed to prove that we are a good fund,” Galitsky told the venture capital publication PitchBook.
Galitsky told The Post that review had ended without a change in the fund’s relationship to the bank and that Almaz was continuing to invest in U.S. companies. The bank declined to comment.
American and Swiss officials have also made inquiries about Soviet-era emigre Beloussov, according to two people informed of the matters. Beloussov has led a series of major companies, including the large security company Acronis, which won U.S. government contracts, including for backing up Pentagon computers, through at least 2017. Beloussov’s first big company, a computing firm named Parallels, was backed by Vekselberg’s Maxfield Capital and others. Acronis, officially Swiss, spun off from Parallels.
Though neither his corporate nor his personal webpage mentions it in recounting his career, Beloussov helped start the Russian Quantum Center, which worked with partners as sensitive as the national nuclear authorities. Beloussov took the role of chairman of the board of trustees.
In a 2019 interview, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for digital development, Dmitry Peskov, paid tribute to Beloussov’s work for Russia and blessed his move abroad, saying that he could do more for the country from outside its borders.
“Acronis teams, even in private, do a lot for the country. The role, for example, of Serguei Belousov, the leader of the Acronis team, in launching a large state-owned quantum computing system in Russia is not very public now, but it cannot be overestimated. He understood this before others, drove ahead of others and did a lot to make this story go. Therefore, they will find how to pay their debts to the Motherland,” Peskov told the Russian business news site BFM.ru.
“If they are purely Russian, they will take on all the risks that Kaspersky took. Why would they fall into this trap? … A variety of income, profits, feedback for the country will be much greater than if they remained in Russia as a small 100 million [dollar] company.”
Beloussov said he was not paid for his work at the Russian Quantum Center, formally known as the International Center for Quantum Optics and Quantum Technologies, and that he had helped because “at the time, it seemed to everyone that scientific collaboration was a good thing.” He said his business ventures since then had no ulterior motive.
Beloussov, who has Singapore citizenship and changed his name to Serg Bell, also founded Runa Capital, a venture firm with offices in multiple cities, including, until this year, Moscow. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Beloussov criticized the attack on Twitter and told The Post he was moving Acronis employees out of Russia.
He said Acronis had already stopped selling in Russia. But a company called Akronis-InfoProtection modified and resold Acronis’s security wares, which were government-approved for use in ministries. When Akronis changed its name last year to Cyber Protect, its chief executive said Acronis “remains the key technology partner.” Beloussov said Acronis had ended the licensing deal.
Runa’s portfolio includes many companies in cutting-edge technology, including quantum computer maker Pasqal of France, Swiss “quantum-safe” security and encryption company ID Quantique, and Enteria, a German company making an operating system software for industrial devices.
As previously reported, Beloussov also hired Masha Drokova, now married and known as Masha Bucher, who was once an ardently pro-Putin teenager who starred in a documentary that featured her kissing the autocrat. Drokova became a spokesperson for Nashi, a youth group that physically harassed Putin opponents. She has since publicly repudiated Putin, adding that her disavowal put her Russian family at risk.
Drokova worked for Beloussov at Acronis, at Runa, and at his 2012 fund for investing in quantum computing, called Quantum Wave Fund, which aimed at Silicon Valley. Then Drokova began investing through her own new fund, Day One Ventures, which also took money from Beloussov. This year, she denied acting for Russia or even taking money from Russians. Fundraising pitches to potential Day One investors, seen by The Post, touted connections to Russian billionaires who were later sanctioned. Drokova said the pitches were fakes.
While independent, Quantum Wave Fund had connections to the government-funded Quantum Center besides Beloussov. The president and then chairman of the nonprofit, Sergey Viktorovich Kuzmin, became managing partner of the Quantum Wave Fund’s initial effort, according to Russian regulatory filings. Kuzmin told The Post he had never worked with the Russian government and that his name is better translated as Kouzmine.
Beloussov served as an adviser to the Russian Venture Company through 2015. After the Quantum Wave Fund, Beloussov started a new investment fund, Phystech Ventures, with others including Galitsky and former Skolkovo investment manager PetrLukyanov.
Lukyanov said Phystech took over management of the Quantum Wave Fund. Then it launched another fund, called TF II for Terra Fund, with money from the Russian Venture Company and others. The Russian fund put in about $15 million, according to its 2015 annual report. That was still in play at least in 2019, when it combined with another fund.
Beloussov said he did not participate in that fund, and Lukyanov said he resigned from it this year. Instead, the men are focused on a new firm, registered in December as Terra.VC.
Most of the money for it was to come from Russian investors, according to internal documents reviewed by The Post. But after the invasion of Ukraine, Lukyanov and the rest of the management knocked them out.
Beloussov said he has not been to Russia since 2017, and he has spoken out against the attack on Ukraine.
But he has stood by multiple previous high-level Putin supporters, including Robert Schlegel, who spoke for Nashi when it claimed credit for cyberattacks on Estonia, then served in the Russian parliament in Putin’s United Russia Party. While in parliament, Schlegel traveled abroad to facilitate alliances with movements in other countries, including Germany’s far-right Alliance for Democracy Party.
Schlegel disappeared from the Duma and the spotlight in 2016 until he was rediscovered in 2019 by a German newspaper, which found him working in Munich as a director of strategic projects for Acronis.
After the newspaper story, Acronis had one of its law firms interview Schlegel. A partner at that firm, former U.S. federal judge Eugene Sullivan, told The Post that Schlegel had committed no crime and that if he had been an intelligence risk, he would not have been granted German citizenship.
Schlegel resigned from the company but has continued to consult for it, Sullivan said. He did not respond to an interview request.
He joined Beloussov on a trip to Montenegro this year as Beloussov looked for possible business locations, according to the capital city’s investment office. | 2022-12-19T11:13:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. intelligence probing Russian investors in U.S. tech - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/19/russia-expatriates-links-probed/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/19/russia-expatriates-links-probed/ |
Financial risks grow in shadowy corner of markets, worrying Washington
This time, the big banks aren’t the problem
A flower breaks though the snow outside the Bank of England, which raised the benchmark rate Thursday by a half-percentage point to 3.5 percent — the highest level in 14 years. (Alastair Grant/AP)
As rising interest rates shake financial markets, dangers are growing in the “shadow banking system,” a network of largely unregulated institutions that provides more than half of all U.S. consumer and business credit.
Now, if the economy plunges into a recession next year as rates continue rising, some regulators fear that problems at unpoliced “shadow banks” could ricochet through the financial system or increase the number of lost jobs.
“We need to worry, a lot, about non-bank risks to financial stability,” Michael Barr, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, said in a speech earlier this month.
Private equity companies use much of that borrowed money in leveraged buyouts. Some of the deals are sizable: Blackstone Credit, Ares Capital and a Canadian pension fund last year provided a combined $2.6 billion to help finance Thoma Bravo’s buyout of Stamps.com, which took the company private.
In 2013, the Fed discouraged banks from lending to companies if the loan would push total debt to more than six times earnings. Some private credit funds, however, will exceed that limit, according to Ana Arsov, managing director at Moody’s, the credit rating agency.
Most private loans carry a floating interest rate. So the Fed’s higher rates are good for the loan-making funds’ profits. But they make it harder for the heavily indebted borrowers to make their payments, Arsov said.
“There is a significant piece of the underlying employment of the U.S. economy that is linked to this,” she added.
Financial institutions other than banks now provide nearly 60 percent of total consumer and business credit, twice the 1980 share, according to Barr. Non-bank mortgage providers such as Quicken Loans last year wrote more than 7 out of every 10 home loans.
In March 2020, amid the pandemic’s first panicky weeks, hedge funds sold massive amounts of Treasury securities to raise cash. With sellers greatly outnumbering buyers, trading in the normally liquid market — which influences the value of all financial assets — broke down. Only after the Fed took emergency action by buying $1 trillion worth of Treasurys did markets return to normal.
The Financial Stability Oversight Council, created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank legislation, initially designated four non-banks as “systemically important,” requiring them to face tighter regulations because their failure could cause a broader crisis. But the Trump administration made it harder to issue such “too big to fail” verdicts and freed the last non-bank from that special scrutiny in 2018.
Under Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, the council next year is expected to rewrite the Trump-era regulations. “The 2019 non-bank designation guidance undercuts the Council’s ability to address risks to financial stability,” said John Rizzo, a treasury spokesman. “Secretary Yellen expressed her concerns about the 2019 guidance when it was issued and continues to believe it should be reassessed.”
On Friday, the council’s annual report said non-bank institutions represented a potential weak spot for the financial system, adding that “rising interest rates or a broader economic downturn could further amplify these vulnerabilities.” The report warned of a possible “deterioration in credit quality” in non-bank lending as borrowers made “optimistic” projections of their prospects for growing revenue and cutting costs.
The Fed’s multiple rate hikes since March threaten to hurt investors who took on too much risk when money was inexpensive. Higher interest rates increase the cost of repaying debt. But they also affect investment flows, by making it possible to earn a better return on safe assets, like bonds, and making risky stocks, such as those of high-tech companies that won’t post substantial profits for years, less attractive.
An early sign of how hard the adjustment to a higher-rate environment could be came in October, when the British government bond market was rocked after bond traders rejected the new government’s tax-and-spending plan as inflationary. The frenzied trading rattled pension funds that had bet on interest rates staying low.
“Risk is definitely building up, unseen and unmonitored, and it’s going to surprise regulators just like AIG surprised regulators in 2008,” said Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, a nonprofit that promotes tighter regulation of the financial industry.
“So far, this seems to be a controlled burn, much as the Fed intended,” said Steven Kelly, senior research associate at the Yale Program on Financial Stability.
Divided over Ukraine war, G-20 summit struggles with economic agenda
Though there is no sign of an imminent crisis, some parts of the private markets have shown cracks. Blackstone earlier this month restricted investors’ withdrawals from a $69 billion private-real-estate investment trust, after requests for cash exceeded preset quarterly limits.
The fund has gained more than 8 percent so far this year by investing in Sunbelt rental housing and warehouses, outperforming the stock market. But higher interest rates have hurt real estate values, prompting some investors to cash in. Those redemptions fueled the equivalent of a bank run and caused Blackstone to bar blanket withdrawals.
Former Fed chair Ben Bernanke said in a Dec. 8 lecture, while accepting the Nobel Prize for economics, that regulation of non-banks following the 2008 crisis had been insufficient.
“My concern is that the shadow banks, which were the original source of the crisis — there’s been some regulatory change, but not nearly enough in my opinion. And that, I think, is a problem that is still there,” Bernanke said. “We need to do something about that regulatory area.”
On the same day, the Financial Stability Board, a global watchdog established by the Group of 20 leaders, said that regulators must develop more robust plans for winding down failing non-bank institutions like insurance companies. “The largest cross-border resolution challenges that need to be addressed with some urgency remain in the non-bank sector,” the group said.
Private credit funds, run by asset managers like Ares Capital, are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission as securities. But unlike banks, the funds are not judged on their potential impact on the entire financial system, which regulators call the “macro prudential” perspective.
Regulated banks, however, are increasingly involved with the shadow banks. In 2021, deposit-taking banks increased their lending to non-bank institutions such as mortgage providers by 22 percent, even as other types of loans declined amid the pandemic, according to the Fed. Those links “could increase [the] risk to banks,” the Fed said, noting non-banks’ “limited transparency.”
Indeed, regulators have little information about private market transactions, including borrowers’ financial details, how sensitive the loans are to higher rates or the risk that problems in one private credit fund could have spillover effects elsewhere. The combination of fast growth, opaque markets and debt has some analysts worried.
“It’s all completely opaque. If I was looking for a shoe to drop, that’s one I’d be worried about,” said Jeff Meli, head of research for Barclays in New York. “We’ve been lucky so far that higher rates have not been associated with a decline in economic activity.”
That’s because even after nine months of repeated Fed rate hikes, inflation-adjusted interest rates are still negative. Karen Petrou, managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics, said the stress will grow once rates move higher and really begin to slow the economy. After Thursday’s increase, the Fed now expects rates to peak next year above 5 percent and to remain there through 2023.
“It’s a very tricky situation. As rates rise, even in a mild recession, then it gets ugly,” she said. | 2022-12-19T11:17:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Financial risks grow in shadowy corner of markets, worrying Washington - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/12/18/shadow-banking-financial-risk/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/12/18/shadow-banking-financial-risk/ |
Analysis by Bill Dudley | Bloomberg
Try as it might, the Federal Reserve can’t seem to break the market’s relative optimism about the outlook for interest rates. But there’s one thing investors need to understand: The central bank has ample power to make its predictions come true.
The message from last week’s policy-making meeting was almost entirely hawkish. The Fed’s statement retained the language of “ongoing increases,” suggesting several more interest-rate hikes. Officials projected a higher-than-expected peak rate of at least 5% to 5.25% (with greater unanimity), higher inflation for longer, lower output growth and higher unemployment.
Chair Jerome Powell went further, hinting that the Fed might have to take rates higher for longer if financial conditions don’t remain sufficiently tight. He discounted reports of decelerating inflation, noting that while it was gratifying to see less price pressure in the goods market, the key was what happened to services (excluding housing). He said he wanted to see considerably more slack in the labor market than was yet evident.
The only dovish tilt was Powell’s response to a question about whether the Fed would downshift to a smaller, 25-basis-point rate hike at its next policy-making meeting in February. He didn’t answer the question directly, but he did endorse the logic of going more slowly, giving the central bank more time to assess the economy’s response to previous tightening. As Powell put it, speed is now much less important that the destination.
Yet despite the Fed’s clear warnings of more tightening to come, investors aren’t getting the message. Futures markets still suggest a peak federal funds rate of less than 5%, about 20 basis points lower than the Fed’s projections, with rate cuts beginning next summer.
First, perhaps markets doubt the Fed’s resolve, and expect it to capitulate as soon as the unemployment rate moves higher. If so, they’re wrong. Powell knows that failing to push inflation back down close to 2% would likely allow expectations to become unanchored, requiring the Fed to respond even more forcibly later. He doesn’t want to repeat the mistakes of Arthur Burns. The entire policy-making Federal Open Market Committee seems united on this point, with no participants anticipating rate cuts in 2023.
Whatever market participants might think, they need to recognize that the Fed is in control. It has the power to achieve whatever financial conditions it needs to slow growth, push up the unemployment rate and bring down inflation. If markets don’t come along willingly, it will force them.
This business cycle is highly unusual, in some positive ways: Household and business balance sheets are in very good shape, and there’s little risk of a financial cataclysm like what happened in 2008. It’s reassuring that, amid the most rapid rise in short-term rates since the early 1980s, the only significant financial blowups have occurred in crypto, with little to no contagion.
• Market Is Ready to Move On. Fed Clearly Isn’t: Jonathan Levin
Bill Dudley is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and senior adviser to Bloomberg Economics. A senior research scholar at Princeton University, he served as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and as vice chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee. | 2022-12-19T11:17:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Investors Would Be Better Off Believing the Fed - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/investors-would-be-better-off-believing-the-fed/2022/12/19/661238a4-7f8c-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/investors-would-be-better-off-believing-the-fed/2022/12/19/661238a4-7f8c-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
A bevy of amateur birders and professional ornithologists are racing to prove the ivory-billed woodpecker still exists, before federal officials remove it from the endangered species list
(Video: Arthur. A. Allen/Cornell University)
Steven Latta was trudging through the wet bottomlands of Louisiana when he spotted it: A flash of “brilliant white” rising toward the sky.
“It really left me literally shaking,” said Latta, who directs conservation and field research at the National Aviary based in Pittsburgh.
Last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moved to declare the ivory-billed woodpecker extinct. Decades of fruitless searches for the so-called “Lord God Bird,” the agency said, showed that it “no longer exists.”
But dozens of professional ornithologists and amateur birdwatchers claim the bird is still out there, pecking away undetected after the last undisputed sighting in 1944.
Now they are pointing cameras, climbing trees and deploying drones in a race to gather evidence and convince the government — and the public — that the woodpecker lives.
“I had the opportunity to see this bird, and I have some personal responsibility, some professional responsibility to convince others,” said Latta, who is lobbying the Biden administration to keep it on the government’s official list of endangered species.
Some other bird experts, however, say it is time to accept that the Lord God Bird is dead. No one, these critics say, has come forward with decisive proof — a high-quality photo, a carcass, even a feather.
“Decisions should be made on verifiable fact,” said Mark Robbins, an evolutionary biologist and manager of the ornithological collection at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute. “That has not been the case in anything that has been reported since the 1944 report.”
America’s own dodo
For centuries, the majestic “King of the Woodpeckers” reigned over forests from North Carolina to East Texas. Astonishing observers with its strength and elegance, the species earned its nickname the “Lord God Bird” for the way those lucky enough to see one would exclaim to the heavens.
But the ivory bill’s beauty hastened its undoing. During the 19th century, the bird’s population plummeted as plume hunters shot them for their feathers and beaks. Loggers, meanwhile, axed the tall hardwoods that formed the bird’s habitat.
As the woodpeckers’ numbers declined, its fame only grew. The phantom bird inspired generations of painters, musicians and other artists, including as singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens and the creators of “Woody the Woodpecker.” The bird became America’s dodo, the country’s own emblem of extinction.
But a handful of birders never gave up hope, straining to listen for the ivory bill’s telltale double knock and look for other signs of its persistence in Southern swamps.
Mark Michaels was about 8 years old when the ivory bill captured his imagination. “I was a very avid birder at the time, and the ivory bill just was this amazing icon,” he said.
The pair deployed an ivory bill decoy and imitated its drumming to try to draw out the real thing. Michaels has had 10 “possible sightings,” he said, including one last year during an overcast autumn morning that he is “absolutely positive” was an ivory bill.
“Every other time I’ve had some window of doubt. But with this one, no doubt.” he said. “I yelled, ‘Ivory bill!’”
“It discredits good science”
“We want to protect it from too many people,” Latta said. “If it was known, there’s certainly the possibility that large numbers of people could descend on the area.”
One photo shows a large bird at a distance clinging to a tree with what appears to be a white “saddle” on its back, a distinct sign of an ivory bill. A video shot from a drone and presented to Fish and Wildlife in July shows hints of a white trailing edge on the wings, another field mark.
“Taken together, these data are extremely interesting indeed,” he said by email. “Many individual images, especially in several of the videos, are difficult to reconcile as any other woodpecker than ivory-billed.”
But the appearance of the ivory bill’s smaller cousin, the pileated woodpecker, complicates this quest. Both have a red crest and black-and-white plumage, each arranged differently. To the untrained (and often the trained) eye, the two types of woodpeckers look strikingly similar.
John Dillon, president of the Louisiana Ornithological Society, wishes humans hadn’t driven the bird to extinction. “None would be happier than I to learn of its proven existence,” he wrote in a comment to Fish and Wildlife.
But he remains unconvinced by the audio and video recordings over the past 15 years. “The damage in persisting with the idea that this bird exists when there is no supporting evidence is widespread. It leaves room for charlatans at worst and unaccountable subjectivity at best, and it discredits good science.”
Robbins, the University of Kansas ornithologist, noted the National Aviary’s work has not been peer-reviewed. He called the evidence the team has presented so far “nothing short of laughable.”
We must do more to save species from the fate of the ivory-billed woodpecker
Michaels wants to gather better proof, something akin to James Tanner’s famous close-ups of wild ivory bills in the 1930s. Tanner, a Cornell-trained ornithologist, waited for weeks in a blind near a nest to photograph a mating pair.
“The birds are out there”
“No one wants to have to do that,” said Amy Trahan, a biologist at the Fish and Wildlife Service who evaluated whether the woodpecker is gone for good.
The agency’s “golden standard” for convincing proof, she said, is a photo or video that multiple independent experts interpret as an ivory-billed woodpecker.
Yet reports of the woodpecker’s death, ivory bill hopefuls note, have been exaggerated before. The bird was thought to be lost in the early 20th century only for a researcher to discover a mating pair in Florida in 1924.
“They’re not going to venture out into these swamps where there are snakes and, in some cases, there are alligators,” said Harrison, who submitted his own 10-second video of a bird in flight taken from his canoe two years ago. “Sometimes I have to get out of my canoe and I have to haul it over logs, haul it through the mud.”
For many ivory bill believers, keeping the bird on the endangered species list is critical for protecting the South’s remaining slivers of bottomland swamps. These stretches, if not home to the woodpeckers, provide habitat to flocks of ducks, herons and other birds.
But Michaels is sure he’s seen it, despite the doubters.
“I know the birds are out there,” he said. “It’s just that proving it is a really big mountain to climb.”
This article is part of Animalia, a column exploring the strange and fascinating world of animals and the ways in which we appreciate, imperil and depend on them. | 2022-12-19T11:18:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ivory-billed woodpecker is extinct, government says. Some disagree. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/12/19/ivory-billed-woodpecker-extinct/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/12/19/ivory-billed-woodpecker-extinct/ |
Jonathan Reovan's daughter, 9, in September with a tutor at the Lindamood-Bell Learning Center in Newton, Mass. The Washington Post agreed not to name the children in this report. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)
BOSTON — The worry nagged at Roxann Harvey from the time her children were in kindergarten. They couldn’t name all their letters, much less associate them with sounds. Teachers offered tepid assurances (some kids take longer than others) and frustrating advice (you should expose them to books). But Harvey worked in a library, so both there and at home, each child had shelves full of books. The teachers insisted they would catch up, Harvey recalled. “I started to wonder if I was being irrational.”
Yet as kindergarten and then first grade passed by, her children — a girl and her younger brother, two grades apart — never caught up. The gap only grew. For years, Harvey pushed the school to provide her children with help from a specialist trained in a multi-sensory reading program that helps struggling readers make connections between words and sounds — a scarce resource in many Boston public schools. The entreaties went nowhere. “Let’s give it time,” the teachers told her.
For both of her children, it wasn’t until second grade that teachers finally grew concerned. For her son, in particular, the blithe assurances gave way to ominous warnings: “We’ll all be lucky if one day he’s able to read an article in the newspaper,” one teacher told her.
An estimated 5 to 15 percent of the population has dyslexia, the most common language disability, which hinders a person’s ability to read words correctly and efficiently. But in Boston and countless other communities, Black and Latino families have a much harder time than their White peers accessing two key tools to literacy: an instructor trained in how best to teach struggling readers the connections between letters and sounds, or a private school focused on children with language disabilities. Nationally, these teachers and schools are scarce and coveted commodities, generally accessible only to those with time, money and experience navigating complicated, sometimes intransigent bureaucracies.
“A lot of people have started talking about dyslexia as a social justice issue,” said Nicole Patton-Terry, director of the Florida Center for Reading Research. “And you’re seeing them stand next to Black and Brown folks who just want high-quality education for their kids.”
In Boston, data shows that in the city’s schools — public and private — White students have greater access than Black or Latino students to the most intensive, effective reading supports. In the public system, campuses with larger White student populations tend to employ significantly more teachers trained in programs designed specifically for students having difficulty learning to read, according to a Washington Post-Hechinger Report analysis of previously unreleased data obtained through an open-records request in the spring.
At the handful of schools with a majority-White population, there’s an average of 3.5 such specialists. Schools that are 15 to 50 percent White have two specialists, on average. And schools where fewer than 15 percent of students are White — the district average — employ just one such trained professional on average.
Overall, 82 percent of White students (excluding those attending schools that don’t have any elementary grades) have access to at least one specialist at their school, compared with 70 percent of Latino students and 61 percent of Black students. More than half of White students attend schools with two specialists, compared with 36 percent of Black and Latino students.
Boston Public Schools declined multiple interview requests over the past four months. In a written statement from the district, new superintendent Mary Skipper said: “We’re responding to the need of the moment. One thing the pandemic revealed, in particular, is the further disparities in literacy achievement, which requires that we provide much more explicit evidence-based reading support for all students in every school.”
The focus is on shoring up capacity at “high-needs” schools, the district statement said. “Over the past two years,” it said, “the district has been executing on a plan to dramatically improve the delivery of literacy instruction with an emphasis on racial equity.” Dozens of BPS educators are receiving training in a specialized approach to reading instruction, known as Orton-Gillingham.
In recent years, a growing number of experts, advocates and parents have argued that educators are often too quick to blame poor reading outcomes on families, particularly low-income ones, overlooking schools’ complicity in perpetuating unequal access. “Blame for low literacy rates is placed not on the system itself, but on individual students and their families,” said a May report from Advocates for Children of New York.
Boston’s patchy and uneven safety net reflects a pervasive national problem, said Resha Conroy, founder of the New York-based Dyslexia Alliance for Black Children. “We’ve long talked about book deserts — geographic locations where there isn’t a lot of access to books,” she said. “We can apply this to structured literacy desserts — places where if your child needs a reading intervention or support, it’s very difficult to find. You have to go outside of your community.” (Structured literacy includes methodical and explicit instruction on how to build words out of letter combinations.)
Conroy became involved in racial equity in literacy after witnessing the treatment of her son, who is Black and has dyslexia, by the public schools in New York’s Westchester County. “I saw low education expectations for my son, and I heard loaded language suggesting that it was okay for him not to read,” she said during a 2022 conference focused on literacy. “I saw the stage being set to make the failure to teach him to read acceptable.”
In Boston public schools, several forces contribute to the uneven distribution of reading specialists. Research has shown that White students are more likely than Black students to be classified as dyslexic, even after controlling for literacy skills and socioeconomic status. That diagnosis typically makes it easier to obtain school-based supports. White teachers may be less likely to suspect dyslexia or another reading problem in Black students, because on average they hold lower expectations for Black students’ academic potential, according to numerous studies. (In Boston public schools, about 59 percent of the teachers are White, compared with about 15 percent of students.)
Boston’s special-education system is much more effective at assigning and attempting to remediate behavioral and emotional disabilities than reading problems, according to Elizabeth McIntyre, senior counsel at the EdLaw Project in Boston. That is partly because there is an extensive set of separate classrooms — and even entire schools — for children with emotional and behavioral disabilities but nothing similar for students with profound reading challenges.
Edith Bazile worked as a special-education teacher and administrator in the district for 32 years. “I would see everything addressed for some students except for what really needed to be addressed, which is the reading disability,” Bazile said. (The district does have a network of separate classrooms or strands for students with learning disabilities, some of whom have dyslexia. “Many teachers” in these classrooms have training in specialized reading approaches, according to the district. But unlike many other districts, Boston does not advertise any of these programs as having an explicit focus on language and reading disabilities.)
District officials have vowed to shore up reading instruction across the board. The district has been committed to phonics and the science of reading for years, its statement says, including investing in Fundations, “an explicit and systemic phonics program” for kindergarten through third grade, since 2014. The district says it has also significantly expanded professional development in the science of reading, including training over 800 educators in LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling), which schools educators in the “science of reading,” including how students learn to “decode” letters on the page and form meaning from words.
Harvey suspects that multiple factors influenced how long it took her to get reading help for her children. Her daughter’s second-grade teacher eventually endorsed time with a reading specialist, and the girl began 45 minutes of small-group instruction with the specialist each day. Her son, however, had behavioral challenges in addition to academic ones, and the school focused overwhelmingly on the behavior. Small for his age, with consistently high energy, he would run out of classrooms and hide under tables or inside recycling bins. Nearly every day, school staffers would call Harvey, asking her to come pick him up early.
In second grade, school officials recommended transferring the boy, who has autism and dyslexia, to a program exclusively for youths with disabilities — one that Harvey knew would be more focused on behavior than reading. (A state audit chastised the system for sending so many boys of color into such programs.) “By second grade, there was a really strong drive to push him out of [regular] school,” Harvey said. School officials complained that he wasn’t motivated to learn. “They were trying to build a track record of a ‘problem child,’” she said.
She believed her son’s behavior would improve if he got some help with his reading. But the school, she said, refused to give him the same kind of extra help that her daughter now received. One time, Harvey rewrote the plan the school had produced outlining her son’s special needs and services (called an individualized education program), irate over inaccuracies and language that “blamed the child,” she said.
None of her son’s evaluations suggested that he lacked the intellectual capacity to learn to read. The boy, a Pokémon aficionado, has an unusually strong curiosity and memory, reciting at request the backstories and special powers of Pokémon creatures and amassing 600 Pokémon cards, his mother said.
Harvey’s efforts eventually paid off during that second-grade year. The same reading specialist who worked with her daughter volunteered to work with the boy during her lunch hour. To Harvey, it wasn’t a coincidence that the woman was one of the few Black teachers at the school. Harvey believes the specialist saw the child’s potential in a way that other teachers failed to.
With the help of the sessions, Harvey’s son began to progress, learning new letters and sounds every week.
In Boston, families of color also have dramatically less access to private schools focused on reading remediation — and not just because they are less likely to be able to afford the tuition. The Carroll School and the Landmark School, the two largest and best-known schools for Boston-area children with language disabilities, enroll just a handful of Black students, according to the most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Both of the schools are in predominantly White Boston suburbs. At Carroll, 3 percent of the school’s 442 students were Black in the 2019-20 school year, and at Landmark, 3 percent of its 506 students were Black that same school year. (Landmark says 16 percent of students identified as people of color last school year. Carroll says that in recent years, a quarter of the school’s new families have identified as people of color.)
Many of the students who attend Landmark get public assistance with tuition. They participate in what’s known as private placement: a federal guarantee that school districts must pay costs at a private school if they can’t meet the needs of a child with a disability. Families often have to spend thousands — even tens of thousands — on private evaluations to prove their child has a disability and then lawyers who can help build a case that the school district has failed to meet their needs.
Jonathan Reovan and his husband have spent more than $50,000 over the past 18 months in an effort to get their two Black adopted children — a 9-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy who both have dyslexia, among other special needs — access to private placement and stronger reading services in Boston. The money has paid for a lawyer, an advocate who charges $150 per hour, neuropsychologists, and an intensive tutoring program for their daughter. The couple hope to recoup some of it from the school district. But they’ve felt the financial strain in the meantime, especially since Reovan left his job as a financial analyst at Harvard four years ago to advocate full time for the children. “We’ve drained the retirement funds — there’s practically nothing left,” he said.
“It’s a terrible equity issue,” Reovan said. When it comes to private placement, “you have to pay to play.”
Even when a school district agrees to private placement, families often discover that they hardly have their pick of private schools. One Boston mother spent years fighting to place her 11-year-old daughter, who is dyslexic, only to learn that the girl “didn’t fit the profile” at Landmark, according to the mother and McIntyre, who represented the family. School officials told the mother that her daughter had spatial-reasoning challenges that they could not address but provided no other details.
Josh Clark, Landmark’s head of school, said it is true that there is “a specific profile of students that we think we serve well” at his school, and that includes many students with not just a language-based disability but also attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Black and Latino students are more likely on average, he adds, to get diagnosed with an intellectual or emotional disability, because of “an inherent bias in the referral and screening process.” And they are less likely on average to have the resources to access private placement. Both of those factors contribute to the racial disparities in enrollment. “I think that Landmark is earnest in its efforts, and we know that we should do more and will do more to address the vast need across the community,” Clark said. Landmark is working with more than 50 public school districts, he said, to strengthen their language-based programs.
Reovan has experienced consistent challenges in finding language-focused private schools that will accept his children. He applied in February for his daughter to attend the Carroll School, planning to pay the $59,000 tuition out of pocket initially, and then sue the school district to get reimbursed. But Carroll officials said the girl’s “cognitive profile” did not align with her peers and refused to admit her, Reovan said.
“They are very picky,” he said. “If you have anything beyond simple dyslexia, they tend to reject you.”
Carroll’s chief enrollment and financial assistance officer, Stacey Daniels, said student diversity is a priority, but she added that the school groups students in cohorts with comparable cognitive, academic and social-emotional backgrounds. For some applicants, she said, the school doesn’t have an appropriate cohort. “For the last six years, we have been truly, deeply focused on compositionally changing the student body,” she said.
In October, Reovan made the difficult decision to move with the children to the family’s second home in rural New Hampshire. In Boston, the public and private systems tried to steer the boy toward a school focused on behavior rather than reading, Reovan said. Meanwhile, the school district denied the family’s request for tutoring reimbursement for the girl. “We exhausted so many options for [our son] and we were met with such fierce resistance to helping [our daughter] just learn to read in Boston Public Schools,” Reovan wrote in an email.
Both of Harvey’s children made steady progress once they got specialized, small-group help. Yet the struggle hardly ended. Harvey, who now serves as chair of the Boston Special Education Parent Advisory Council, said she has had to push back several times against attempts to curtail her children’s services: “At points in meetings, I heard: ‘They seem to be doing well. I don’t think we need this anymore.’ And I had to be very clear about the fact that they still weren’t reading on grade level.” Last school year, Harvey’s daughter exceeded the final level in her reading program, and she’s closing in on grade-level reading skills: As a starting ninth-grader, she tested at the seventh-grade level. And she loves it: Harvey says she sometimes reminds her daughter not to read while she walks, so she doesn’t trip.
Although she never had the money to pay for private tutoring for her children, Harvey considers herself lucky. She came into her battle with the city’s education bureaucracy with assets that not every Boston public school parent possesses: an extensive education herself, and the flexibility to advocate several hours a day when she needed to. And although, at 12, her son prefers the Dog Man books, he could read a newspaper if he wanted to. | 2022-12-19T11:18:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dyslexia drives a movement for equity and civil rights in schools - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/12/19/reading-equity-dyslexia-schools-social-justice/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/12/19/reading-equity-dyslexia-schools-social-justice/ |
New drugs to battle obesity: What you need to know
Until now, consumers largely turned to over-the-counter products in the quest to shed pounds. (Jeffrey Greenberg/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
Here’s a sobering thought for the season of expanding waistlines: More than 70 percent of U.S. adults are obese or overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, increasing their risks of an array of illnesses, including cancer, osteoarthritis and heart disease.
But new drugs are proving remarkably effective in treating people with excess weight. Studies show that the medications, self-administered in weekly injections, result in loss of 15 to 22 percent of body weight on average — much more than older generations of diet pills and enough to significantly reduce cardiovascular and other risks.
Getting the drugs has been a challenge for some patients, however. Huge demand and production problems have led to supply shortages in some cases. In addition, the costs are high and the insurance coverage for treating weight-loss — as opposed to diabetes, the original use — is patchy. But the market is changing rapidly, so stay tuned.
How do the new weight-loss drugs work?
I’ve been hearing a lot about the drugs on social media. What is that all about?
Do the drugs have side effects?
How long do the drugs have to be taken?
How much do Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro cost?
Are weight-loss drugs covered by insurance? | 2022-12-19T11:18:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New drugs to battle obesity: What you need to know - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/12/19/obesity-drugs-faq/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/12/19/obesity-drugs-faq/ |
New medications result in much greater weight loss than previous drugs for slimming down.
People who struggle with weight are finding relief with drugs developed for diabetes. But access to the medications is revealing health-care inequities. (Sergi Reboredo/VW Pics/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
Rachel Graham has battled excess weight for years, cycling through trendy diets, various drugs, even bariatric surgery. Nothing worked for long. But last summer, she started a new medication, and today is 40 pounds lighter — and still shedding weight.
“It used to be that if I saw food, I would want to eat it,” said the 54-year-old Graham, who is 5-foot-7 and 190 pounds. “Now, if I have three or four bites of food, I don’t want to eat more.”
The drug she’s taking, Mounjaro by Eli Lilly, is part of a new crop of therapies that experts are hailing as a medical milestone — a long-sought way to transform the treatment of obesity, one of the nation’s most serious health threats.
Designed for diabetes but used for obesity at higher doses, the medications induce loss of 15 to 22 percent of body weight on average — more than enough to significantly reduce cardiovascular and other health risks. That makes them far superior to old-style diet pills that delivered smaller benefits along with nasty side effects such as high blood pressure and loose stools.
But during the past year, soaring demand for the drugs has ignited a mad scramble, exposing some of the most persistent problems in the nation’s health-care system, including supply shortages, high costs and health-care inequities.
Tensions are surging as patients with diabetes and those with weight problems sometimes compete for the same medications, which are self-administered in weekly injections. Some doctors worry that the drugs, which might have to be taken for life, will overshadow the need for lifestyle changes involving diet and exercise.
Zhaoping Li, a professor of medicine and chief of the division of clinical nutrition at the University of California at Los Angeles, said the new drugs represent important tools but are not a silver bullet.
“I don’t want people to lose their attention on the fundamental issue — we really need to help each individual have the best lifestyle for their bodies and themselves,” Li said.
Mounjaro, the drug Graham is taking, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for Type 2 diabetes but not for obesity; that approval may occur next year. In the meantime, many doctors are prescribing the drug “off-label” for weight loss — which is permitted once a treatment is cleared for another use.
Another diabetes drug — Ozempic, made by Novo Nordisk — is in such hot demand for weight loss that many frustrated diabetes patients cannot find the blood sugar-lowering medication. Supplies ran short after Ozempic was touted by celebrities and others on social media as an effective off-label substitute for the company’s obesity treatment, Wegovy. That drug, a high-dose version of Ozempic, went into shortage following production problems.
Diabetes advocates, incensed that some people are using the diabetes drugs to lose a few pounds, say the treatments should be reserved for patients with blood-sugar problems. Recently, Eli Lilly tightened the terms of its coupon that sharply limit out-of-pocket costs for Mounjaro by requiring patients to attest they have diabetes.
But obesity specialists argue that patients with serious weight problems have an urgent need for new medications and that they have fewer treatment options than those with diabetes. More than 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese and another 30 percent are overweight, according to the federal government. At least 200 diseases, including heart conditions, cancer and kidney disease, are linked to obesity.
The competition among vulnerable patients “should not be happening,” said family physician Reshma Ramachandran, a health services researcher at Yale School of Medicine. “Both groups need the medications.”
Graham said she resents suggestions that people with excess weight are “stealing” medications from diabetes patients. She said she was active and athletic most of her life but that back surgery in 2017 made it difficult for her to do vigorous exercise. She said she is trying to avoid ending up like her late father, who lost both legs to diabetes.
“I am prediabetic and have been battling against becoming diabetic for the last six years,” said Graham, who lives near San Diego.
Cost and coverage issues also are affecting access to the new drugs. List prices run from about $1,000 to more than $1,300 a month, and private insurance coverage, while available for diabetes, is inconsistent for weight-loss treatments. Medicare does not cover weight-loss drugs — even though the federal health program for older Americans pays for bariatric surgery.
The high costs appear destined to increase the rampant disparities in weight-loss medicine, in which many drugs and services are available only to those who can pay out of pocket. Ramachandran said her patients of color, many of whom are uninsured, “are not able to even consider these medications,” she said.
The problem is particularly concerning for African American women, who have the highest obesity rates in the nation, obesity specialists said.
“The number one distressing and upsetting issue when it comes to these medications is that the population most in need are unable to afford or have access to it,” said Robert Kushner, an endocrinologist at Northwestern Medicine who led a late-stage clinical trial for Wegovy sponsored by Novo Nordisk.
‘Fen-phen’ legacy
For almost a decade, the American Medical Association has recognized obesity as a chronic illness. Yet in a country that glorifies thinness, excess weight remains a fraught issue, with many people, including some health-care providers, viewing obesity as the result of poor willpower, a bad diet and inadequate exercise.
“Frequently, a provider will say to a patient, ‘You know, you are too fat, and you need to move more and eat better,’” said obesity expert William Dietz, director of the STOP Obesity Alliance, an advocacy group based at George Washington University. “But there are very few people who have not tried that, and lost weight several times and then regained it.”
Complicating matters is the tumultuous history of weight-loss medications. For years, diet drugs were viewed as vanity treatments or outright quackery, and many were pulled from the market because of dangerous side effects, including death.
After World War II, amphetamines, which suppress appetite but can be addictive, were used widely for weight loss. In the late 1990s, “fen-phen” — a combination of fenfluramine and phentermine — was withdrawn after fenfluramine was linked to heart valve problems. Phentermine is still used. As recently as 2020, a drug called Belviq was voluntarily withdrawn amid concerns that it raised the risks of cancer.
During the last decade, science’s understanding of obesity has deepened, and specialists hope improved treatments and societal attitudes will follow.
“Obesity is a disease,” said Ania M. Jastreboff, an obesity medicine physician and director of Yale’s Weight Management and Obesity Prevention program. “But we should not only say it’s a disease, we should treat it as if it’s a disease.”
She led a trial testing tirzepatide, one of the new medications, for weight loss and has consulted for Lilly, Novo Nordisk and WW (formerly Weight Watchers), among other companies with interests in weight loss.
The new weight-loss medications belong to a class of drugs developed to mimic naturally occurring hormones that increase insulin production and suppresses appetite. The drugs, which include active ingredients such as tirzepatide and another molecule called semaglutide, work on brain receptors that signal satiety, creating a feeling of being full even when patients eat much less than usual, but enough to stay healthy. Semaglutide mimics a hormone called GLP-1, for glucagon-like peptide 1; tirzepatide includes that and another hormone.
The effectiveness of some of the new drugs approaches that of gastric bypass surgery, the gold standard for treating obesity.
The market for the medications could be vast. Analysts at Morgan Stanley recently said obesity drugs are “set to become the next blockbuster pharma category,” estimating global sales could reach more than $50 billion in 2030, up from $2.4 billion currently.
‘A new life’
John, a 19-year-old Connecticut college student, used to get winded walking up a flight of stairs. His back hurt, and he was prediabetic. But during the past year, while taking Ozempic, he has dropped 109 pounds, going from 305 to 196.
“It was my key to a new life,” said John, who is 5-foot-8 and spoke on the condition that his last name not be used to protect his privacy. “I have a new mind-set, and my life is completely different.”
Although John does not have diabetes, his insurance, unlike many health plans, is paying for Ozempic “off label” for weight loss.
These days, he walks up four flights of stairs at a Target store near his home “just because I can.” Sometimes, he puts off buying new clothes because he knows he might lose 10 pounds in a matter of weeks, and the clothes will be too big.
When he goes out, he said, “I’m not being stared at, like ‘Oh my God, there’s the 300-pound child.’”
The active ingredient in John’s treatment is semaglutide, which Novo Nordisk developed a decade ago as a once-a-week alternative to another diabetes drug injected daily. The FDA approved Ozempic in 2017 for patients with Type 2 diabetes.
When patients lost substantial weight, the company tested a higher dose in people who didn’t have diabetes. The result, in a key clinical trial, was an average weight loss of about 15 percent. In June 2021, the FDA approved a weekly injection of 2.4 milligrams for chronic weight management, along with a reduced-calorie diet and increased exercise. The drug, sold under the brand name Wegovy, was cleared for individuals with a body mass index of 30 and above, or a BMI of 27 or more and at least one weight-related ailment.
(BMI is a calculation based on height and weight that provides a rough estimate of body fat. People are considered overweight if they have a BMI of 25 to 29 and obese with a BMI of 30 or more, according to the CDC. The measurement has become increasingly controversial, with critics saying it does not accurately represent the health of individuals.)
Within months of being approved, Wegovy was in short supply, because of unexpectedly strong demand and production problems. In a tweet this year, billionaire Elon Musk attributed his weight loss to fasting — “And Wegovy.”
Some physicians who prescribed Wegovy for overweight patients switched them to the diabetes drugs Ozempic or Mounjaro when Wegovy became unavailable. Celebrities and others who were not obese also pursued Ozempic, fueling more than 287 million views of #Ozempic on TikTok.
“When you are in Hollywood and Beverly Hills and something is available that could give you weight loss that is effective, quick and relatively harmless, people are going to do what they are going to do to get the drug, whether they get it from Canada or Mexico or from a doctor who will prescribe it off label,” said Nancy Rahnama, an obesity specialist in Los Angeles.
Rahnama said she would prescribe Ozempic only for patients with elevated blood sugar. She prescribes Wegovy instead of Ozempic for weight loss, if it is available, because the drug is specifically approved for that use.
Novo Nordisk spokeswoman Allison Schneider, in a written response to questions, said the Ozempic shortage reflected “incredible demand coupled with overall global supply constraints.” She said the company is taking steps to ease the shortages.
Regarding Wegovy, Schneider said the company is “on track to make all dose strengths … available in December and a broad commercial re-launch is expected to commence next year.”
Clinical trial participants who took tirzepatide, the Lilly compound, lost an average of as much as 22.5 percent of their body weight, or 52 pounds, in 72 weeks or less, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Forty percent lost more than that.
The FDA, which approved Mounjaro in May for Type 2 diabetes, is expected to clear the drug for weight loss next year. Lilly said Mounjaro is not in short supply and that the company is monitoring demand “with a focus on access for people with Type 2 diabetes.”
Side effects may include nausea, diarrhea and constipation, but doctors said those problems usually disappear after doses are tailored to each patient.
Price remains an impediment for many patients wanting to use the drugs for weight loss, doctors say. A four-week course of Ozempic has a list price that averages $892; Wegovy’s price tag is about $1,350 a month, while Mounjaro is about $975. The actual cost to patients depends on their insurance or coupons provided by manufacturers and pharmacies.
Robert Gabbay, chief scientific and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association and a practicing endocrinologist, said he recently had a patient “fly in from overseas and … pay out of pocket” for one of the drugs. Other patients have told him they didn’t start taking the medication he prescribed because they could not afford it.
The nonprofit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, which assesses clinical data to determine what it considers a fair price for drugs, concluded that semaglutide provided a health benefit compared with lifestyle modification alone but that its price would have to be reduced by 44 percent to 57 percent to make it cost effective.
To increase access to the new medications, lawmakers, advocacy groups and drugmakers are pushing legislation to lift a decades-old prohibition on Medicare coverage of weight-loss drugs. The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act has been pending in Congress for years, but backers hope the emergence of highly effective drugs — and estimates showing obesity is costing the nation billions of dollars in medical bills — could provide momentum for passage.
Medicare spending on the drugs is likely to be high, given the large proportion of people who might be eligible.
The bill’s prospects would be improved if a Novo Nordisk study, expected to be completed next year, is successful. That trial is designed to show that semaglutide reduces the risk of heart attacks, stroke and death in overweight and obese patients who have had heart disease — thus proving that medication-assisted weight loss saves lives.
Managers of the federal workforce already have committed to offering weight-loss medications. The Office of Personnel Management, which oversees health-care plans for millions of government workers, clarified this year that insurers “are not allowed to exclude anti-obesity medications from coverage based on a benefit exclusion or a carve out.”
Gary Foster, chief scientific officer for WW, said the new drugs leave plenty of room for traditional weight-loss organizations such as his. WW will continue its focus on the “behavioral” side of weight loss, Foster said, helping people with healthful eating and physical activity — both of which are part of the regimen that accompanies use of the drugs.
“We see treatment advances in this field as good for people who suffer from obesity. We don’t see that as threats. There’s no alarm about this,” Foster said.
A “precision medicine” approach to obesity could further bolster the drugs. Andres Acosta, an assistant professor of medicine and a consultant in gastroenterology and hepatology at Mayo Clinic, said he is trying to perfect a test that uses biomarkers to determine which weight-loss drug will work best for each patient, to move the therapy beyond trial and error.
At Mayo, in Rochester, Minn., this is done with a battery of blood tests. But Acosta also has spun off a company, Phenomix Sciences, that uses genetics to help select the approach that will produce the greatest weight loss in each person. Someday, the company hopes to make the process as easy as swabbing the inside of a patient’s cheek.
“If we can predict who is going to lose more than 10 percent or more than 20 percent, then it will really be worth your time, effort and money,” Acosta said. | 2022-12-19T11:18:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy gain popularity, effectiveness - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/12/19/ozempic-mounjaro-wegovy-weight-loss-drugs/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/12/19/ozempic-mounjaro-wegovy-weight-loss-drugs/ |
Central Park’s ‘Gate of Exoneration’ invites reflection on racism in parks
A new memorial honors the wrongfully convicted Central Park Five. The case is part of a much longer history of racial exclusion there and in other outdoor spaces.
Perspective by Amanda Martin-Hardin
Amanda Martin-Hardin is a history PhD candidate at Columbia University researching how racism has affected access to the outdoors in the United States.
Sharonne Salaam, mother of Yusef Salaam, one of five teenagers wrongfully convicted of the 1989 rape of a jogger in Central Park, stands at the park's northeast gateway, which will be named “Gate of the Exonerated.” (Bebeto Matthews/AP)
Most of the well-known monuments in New York’s Central Park celebrate cultural icons, including William Shakespeare, Alice in Wonderland and, more recently, suffragists Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
In contrast, a new memorial being unveiled Monday, the “Gate of the Exonerated,” references a notorious moment of injustice in New York City’s history: the wrongful conviction of “the Central Park Five.” In what became known as the Central Park Jogger case, five innocent Black and Latino teenagers were found guilty of the violent rape, assault and robbery of Trisha Meili, a White woman jogging in the park in 1989.
Despite no evidence linking them to the crime, the teens’ presence in Central Park was perceived as suspicious due to stereotypes that have often marked people of color as trespassers in public parks. The intense media coverage of the case both revealed and catalyzed those stereotypes.
Police coerced the teens — Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam, all between the ages of 14 and 16 — into confessing. Even though the boys recanted their confessions during the trial, few in the press and public doubted their guilt. The media repeatedly trafficked in racist language, dehumanizing them and blaming them for Central Park’s lawlessness and decline. Local newspapers published headlines calling the Central Park Five a “wolf pack” and a “wilding,” “roving gang.” Donald Trump bought a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the state to “bring back the death penalty” to use on the teens.
The Central Park Five were incarcerated until 2002 — when another man confessed to the crime.
The Gate of the Exonerated, which will be at the entrance on 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard, offers an opportunity to examine how a history of racism in the outdoors has affected Black people and other people of color, not only in New York City parks, but across the United States. Since at least the 19th century, White authorities have attempted to remove and exclude Black people from park landscapes.
Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted envisioned the space as a democratic refuge for all New Yorkers that would foster “a sense of enlarged freedom” and provide a place to escape the challenges of urban life. Yet, an established enclave of abolitionists and free Black New Yorkers was displaced to create the park.
In 1857, the city of New York used eminent domain to demolish Seneca Village, a community of mostly Black property owners founded in 1825. Seneca Village consisted of 50 homes, an AME Zion Church (a denomination founded by a Black abolitionist), a school and a burial ground. Black abolitionists Albro and Mary Joseph Lyons — whom the city also plans to construct a memorial for — owned property in the area and operated a boardinghouse for Black sailors that served as a stop in the Underground Railroad. Seneca Village’s location, spanning from present day West 82nd to 89th Street, also provided a buffer from racial violence, which included a three-day assault against Black businesses, churches and abolitionists carried out by White rioters in the more densely-populated Lower Manhattan in 1834.
Although Seneca Village residents received some compensation for their property, their removal was an act of gentrification that benefited nearby White property owners, whose real estate value increased with their proximity to the new Central Park. Black property ownership remained rare in New York during this time, indicating the relative prosperity of Seneca Village’s inhabitants.
Part of the impetus for constructing Central Park was the emergence of outdoor recreation culture, a response to the country’s urbanization and industrialization in the 19th century. But as spaces for outdoor recreation were created, White authorities worked to segregate them. In the North, this often took the form of private outdoor resort owners systemically denying memberships to people of color, often without citing race as the reason. Municipal governments across the South implemented more explicit segregation ordinances in the outdoors under Jim Crow, in spaces ranging from small neighborhood playgrounds to sprawling state parks.
Beginning in the 1930s, New York City invested heavily in building new park infrastructure under Robert Moses. Moses served as park commissioner from 1934 to 1960 and had an outsize influence on the city’s park system. During his tenure, the city built 658 playgrounds, 20,000 acres of parklands and public beaches, and 416 miles of parkways. Although framed as serving all New Yorkers, these projects had uneven effects.
Robert Caro, Moses’s biographer, called Moses “the most racist human being I had ever really encountered.” New York City Parks historian-in-residence Thomas Campanella wrote that while Moses designed beautiful outdoor facilities in Harlem, like the grand Jackie Robinson Pool, he also included primate-themed details in a Harlem playground and referred to working-class Puerto Rican communities as “scum.” Moses also continued the city’s legacy of razing predominantly non-White communities to construct parks.
Following the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, New York City parks became sites of Black activism. In the early 1960s, Columbia University announced plans to build a large student gymnasium in Morningside Park, a public park that bordered the campus and West Harlem. However, the university proposed that members of the majority-Black community would use a separate entrance in the basement and could access only a small part of the building. Harlem residents viewed the proposed building as a symbol of racism and a struggle for control of the land. Black Columbia students began referring to the plan as “Gym Crow.” A coalition of Harlem residents and students rose up in 1968 to successfully halt the gym’s construction, but not before rising tensions ignited during student protests that temporarily shut down campus and ended with police violence against students.
Although the Central Park Five’s national condemnation and wrongful conviction is one of the most infamous examples of discrimination in the outdoors, it is not an isolated incident. The notion of a gang of non-White teens assaulting a vulnerable White woman in Central Park was explosive because it tapped into deeply held stereotypes that people of color in parks represented danger.
Today, Central Park hosts a diverse array of parkgoers. New Yorkers from every borough traverse the same park paths as domestic and international tourists. Still, in 2020, a White woman called the police on a Black birdwatcher for asking her to leash her dog, and claimed he was threatening her. A video of the altercation went viral online, prompting animated dialogue about the prevalence of bigotry in public outdoor spaces.
The words “Gate of the Exonerated” inscribed on a perimeter wall of the park will be an acknowledgment of a painful injustice that marred one of the city’s — and the country’s — most beloved and romanticized landscapes. Though the inscription is a subtle commemoration, it nevertheless offers an entry point into redressing the long history of racism in the outdoors — a history that demands a much larger national reckoning. | 2022-12-19T11:18:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Central Park “Gate of Exoneration” invites reflection on racism in parks - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/12/19/central-parks-gate-exoneration-invites-reflection-racism-parks/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/12/19/central-parks-gate-exoneration-invites-reflection-racism-parks/ |
A post-Reconstruction proposal that would have restored power to the people
Albion W. Tourgée’s largely forgotten legislation could have prevented today’s Moore v. Harper Supreme Court case.
Perspective by Brook Thomas
Brook Thomas is a Chancellor's Professor, emeritus, at the University of California, Irvine, whose work on the intersections of law and literature includes "The Literature of Reconstruction: Not in Plain Black and White and a casebook on Plessy v. Ferguson."
Members of the League of Women Voters rally for voting rights outside the U.S. Supreme Court as justices heard oral arguments in the Moore v. Harper case on Dec. 7. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
This month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Moore v. Harper, which threatens to undermine fair elections by allowing state legislatures unrestricted power to gerrymander congressional districts.
After the 2020 census, North Carolina’s Republican-controlled state legislature redrew congressional districts to maximize Republican victories, only to have a divided state Supreme Court invalidate its map because of its naked partisanship. In Moore v. Harper, the legislature claims that the court’s ruling is forbidden by Article I, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which reads, “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature, thereof.”
This effort to deny judicial oversight in drawing congressional districts is a version of the independent state legislature theory, the most publicized iteration of which was the effort of Donald Trump’s unscrupulous lawyers to give state legislatures the power to name presidential electors that overturned the popular vote. But Trump’s efforts contravened existing state laws.
What gets lost in the more substantive debates over Moore v. Harper is that history provides an example of a path not taken. In the years after the Civil War, a once-prominent North Carolina Republican laid the groundwork for an approach to protecting voting rights that is at complete odds with today’s Republican demands. Indeed, if Congress had heeded the advice of Albion W. Tourgée 132 years ago, Moore v. Harper would not exist.
After fighting to save the Union and eliminate slavery in the Civil War, Tourgée moved to North Carolina, where he spent 14 years fighting the Ku Klux Klan and trying to institute a republican form of government that guaranteed rights for African Americans. In 1868 he helped write a new state constitution, adding its prohibition on “secession.” He was extremely wary of unbridled power in the state legislature, as evidenced by the ban he included on “discrimination by the State because of race, color, religion, or national origin.” Tourgée tried to check state legislative power further with a provision that insisted on the separation of “legislative, executive, and supreme judicial powers” along with one that stressed, “All political power is vested and derives from the people.”
By 1870 white supremacists had regained control of North Carolina. That year, the states ratified the Fifteenth Amendment, plainly prohibiting infringement upon the right to vote because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Yet, Tourgée experienced firsthand the impotency of congressional legislation to enforce it in the face of widespread intimidation of African American voters in the South. That intimidation allowed Democrat Grover Cleveland to win the presidency in 1884 and install ex-Confederates in his Cabinet.
Republicans attributed Cleveland’s victory to “the suppression of the ballot by a criminal nullification of the Constitution and the laws of the United States.” During the 1888 campaign they demanded “effective legislation to secure integrity and purity of elections.” By that time, Tourgée, largely forgotten today, had become the most prominent White defender of African American rights in the country because of his best-selling Reconstruction fiction and a weekly newspaper column. When Republicans swept the White House and Congress that year, Rep. Harrison Kelley contacted Tourgée to draft a bill.
Drawing on his experience in the South, Tourgée sought to close loopholes in existing federal legislation to uphold African American voting rights. His draft bill also explicitly prohibited gerrymandering. Ironically, the constitutional basis of his bill was the same provision at the heart of Moore v. Harper. Article I, section 4, starts by granting state legislatures control over the times, places and manners of congressional elections — but then goes on to empower the U.S. Congress to take direct control itself. Even a conservative Supreme Court that had partly eviscerated the acts enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment for state and local elections upheld provisions for congressional elections in Ex parte Siebold (1879) and Ex parte Yarbrough (1884).
Sponsored by Kelley, Tourgée’s bill was initially endorsed by the Speaker of the House Thomas Reed and a prominent group of African Americans. In March 1890, despite poor health from Civil War wounds, Tourgée traveled from his transplanted home in Upstate New York to testify before the House committee charged with selecting a bill. There, however, Tourgée’s bill ran into a roadblock. The committee’s chairman was Henry Cabot Lodge, who had drafted his own bill, modeled on the ineffective enforcement acts of the early 1870s. Lodge’s bill left states in control of elections but provided supervisors to oversee federal elections under some circumstances.
Tourgée dismissed the supervisory system for being “about as valuable as a sieve would be for the purpose of a water bucket.” Lodge disagreed. Although his bill targeted suppression of African American voters in the South, it was also aimed at immigrants in Northern cities who tended to vote Democratic. Lodge cited a former New York supervisor who praised the supervisory system’s effectiveness in the North.
But what worked in New York, Tourgée countered, would not work in the South. For instance, supervision kicked in only if enough locals registered a complaint about the conduct of federal elections. Because of violent intimidation in the South, anyone who lodged a complaint would risk his life. “How many Republican Senators,” he asked, “would dare sign such a petition?” In a letter to the Detroit Plaindealer, African American M.W. Caldwell echoed Tourgée and asked: “Will Congress buy the coffins, will the President make funeral arrangements?”
Equally important, Lodge’s willingness to leave state legislatures in charge of congressional elections had major consequences. For Tourgée, only federal control could substantially reduce threats of violence and legal means of suppression. In his bill, federal, not state, officials would register voters and decide places to vote. Congress would set dates and manners of elections for the entire nation. Congress, not state legislatures, would fix congressional districts bound by strict standards to prevent the “most outrageous system of gerrymandering.” Although Tourgée’s bill left state and local elections untouched, it guaranteed that African Americans would remain voters and force congressional candidates to consider their needs.
Republicans opted for Lodge’s bill, in part because it was cheaper and in part because some benefited from gerrymandered districts. Lodge’s bill passed the House only to have the Senate version defeated by one vote, when some Republicans traded votes to get Democratic support on economic issues. Historian Eric Foner calls Lodge’s bill “the last significant effort in Congress in many decades to protect the constitutional rights of black Americans.” Others praise it as a model for the 1965 Voting Rights Act. But that praise points to the limitations of the Voting Rights Act. By providing some federal guidelines while leaving states in control, it allows the U.S. Supreme Court to undermine its effectiveness by siding with states when disputes arise.
The same year Tourgée’s election bill failed, he was contacted by a group of Afro-Creoles from New Orleans who persuaded him to embark on his most famous failure. In 1896, serving as Homer Plessy’s lead attorney, Tourgée failed to convince the Supreme Court to invalidate a Jim Crow law passed by Louisiana’s state legislature, ushering in the “separate but equal” doctrine.
In Moore v. Harper, critics of the state legislature’s argument advocate the checks and balances of separate branches of government. They do not, however, note that Congress need not defer decisions on crucial aspects of congressional elections to the Supreme Court. Congress has the power to eliminate gerrymandering of congressional districts by partisan state legislatures and to create uniform procedures for electing senators and representatives in all states. Such legislation would help restore political power to the people, as Tourgée advocated years ago. | 2022-12-19T11:18:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A post-Reconstruction proposal to restore power to the people - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/12/19/post-reconstruction-proposal-that-would-have-restored-power-people/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/12/19/post-reconstruction-proposal-that-would-have-restored-power-people/ |
How would we know if we were witnessing a revolution in Iran?
Revolutions are unpredictable. But the Islamic republic itself came to power through a similar scenario.
Analysis by Charles Kurzman
People in Iran make their way toward Aichi cemetery in Saqez after the death of Mahsa Amini. (-/AFP/Getty Images)
After weeks of protests in Iran, Iranians are asking the big question: Is the Islamic republic about to be overthrown? Some experts think it’s only a matter of time, but for all of our theoretical models and real-time news, the truthful answer is that nobody knows. Revolutions are inherently unpredictable.
Protesters in Iran have turned out for widespread demonstrations since September, when a young woman named Mahsa Amini died in police custody after being detained for not wearing “proper” hijab — the mandatory head covering for women in Iran. In early December, strikes in solidarity shut down businesses in some cities, including in Tehran at the symbolically central bazaar.
It may seem hard to imagine that unarmed protesters, no matter how numerous, could possibly dislodge an ideologically committed and heavily militarized government. But that is exactly what everybody in Iran imagines. They know that the Islamic republic itself came to power through just such a scenario.
Revolutions are unpredictable
In mid-1978, protests against the monarchy in Iran looked similarly unlikely to succeed. As I document in “The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran” — based on oral histories, journalistic accounts and government documents from Iran and the United States — demonstrations had percolated around the country for months, but few of them were very large.
Then the strikes began. Security forces would make people at one job site go back to work, but once the forces moved on to the next location, the previous site would go back on strike. Even with the world’s fourth-largest military, Iran’s monarchy did not have enough security personnel to subdue everyone at once.
Iranian women have been protesting mandatory hijab for decades
Sociologists have an analogy for this situation: Widespread protest is like a run on a bank. No bank has enough cash on hand to satisfy a large number of customers making withdrawals at the same time. Similarly, no government has enough coercive power to handle massive uprisings. Even if security forces kill or detain thousands of people, a government’s authority ultimately rests on persuading the rest of the population not to protest.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran, began to recognize this pattern in October 1978. “You can’t crack down on one block and make the people on the next block behave,” he said in one interview. The U.S. ambassador to Iran reported that the shah’s supporters were “thinking the unthinkable” for the first time, and that “it is probably healthy to examine some options which we have never before considered relevant.”
Millions of Iranians participated in mass demonstrations and a general strike, perhaps the largest percentage of the population to engage in peaceful protest that the world had ever seen. The shah fled Iran in January 1979 and Imam Ruhollah Khomeini, the symbolic leader of the opposition, returned from exile.
Still, Iran’s future was unclear. A newspaper columnist reported on the deep sense of uncertainty that characterizes moments of revolution: “In Tehran, conversations are limited to this: how will the revolution, which has gone half-way, deal with the fundamental power of the government? Will it resign? Will there be a fight? And how far would fighting go?”
Even Khomeini, serenely confident that God had willed a revolution to occur in Iran, acknowledged — the day before he took power in February 1979 — that he did not know when or how it would occur.
Iran is again in deep uncertainty
In 2022, Iranians once again have no idea what’s going to happen, or when. A large fire raged in October at Evin prison, a brutal detention site in Tehran with many political prisoners. Was the fire set by the opposition as part of a takeover, or a jailbreak? Was it set by prison officials to kill prisoners and intimidate the opposition? Few people I’ve heard from believed the official account — that nonpolitical inmates set off the fire while fighting with prison guards. And nobody knew whether this was an isolated incident or an escalation of conflict.
Confusion is a characteristic feature of any revolutionary moment, regardless of whether events lead to an actual revolution. People call routine behavior into question, and entirely new ways of being suddenly seem attainable. The situation can change from week to week, from day to day.
Social scientists and other experts cannot tell us how the current revolutionary moment will turn out, because Iranians themselves don’t know what they are going to do. After the fact, however, experts often make revolutions look retroactively predictable. We are better at explaining things when we know the outcome.
What experts might say
If the current protests end up overthrowing the Islamic republic or achieving significant government changes, experts will point to Iran’s suppression of competitive elections, which used to channel grievances into parliamentary politics. They will explain, quite rightly, that Iranians were outraged by security forces’ violence and appalled by corruption in a government that claims divine inspiration.
Iran’s economy, meanwhile, has collapsed under government mismanagement, pandemic disruptions and the long-standing U.S. embargo. A younger generation doesn’t share the governing ideology, despite being educated in the Islamic republic’s school system. And the republic’s own rise to power through mass protest has set a precedent.
But if the current protests don’t end up overthrowing the Islamic republic or achieving significant changes, experts will make that outcome seem retroactively predictable, too. There is no Khomeini to provide symbolic leadership for the current movement. The Islamic republic has had lots of experience weathering protest movements, including mass protest like the Green Movement in 2009.
Economic hardship may force people to abandon the protests and get back to work. The strikes to date have not affected government revenue from oil exports. Iran has cobbled together enough foreign partners to avoid total isolation. And security forces appear committed to the government.
Statistically, revolutions are rare, even in countries that seem “ripe” for revolution, so failure is usually a safe bet. Eventually, protests peter out, and public outrage enters historical memory.
But rare things happen, too. Just 100 days before the shah fled into exile in 1978, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency predicted that he would “remain actively in power over the next ten years.” Iranians know how that prediction turned out.
Charles Kurzman is the author of “The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran” (Harvard University Press, 2004) and a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. | 2022-12-19T11:18:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Iranians are protesting in large numbers, just like in 1978 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/iran-protests-revolution-islamic-republic/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/iran-protests-revolution-islamic-republic/ |
Perspective by Adam Kilgore
Trevor Lawrence's second season is coming together. (Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Week 15 in the NFL was an action movie with a gigantic budget and a director with a taste for gratuitous set pieces. It was a week of monumental plays rarely, if ever, seen before. A harebrained lateral returned for a walk-off touchdown? An interception shared between teammates, one of whom was flying out of bounds? A walk-off pick-six to cap a 17-point comeback? They’ll never believe it, but the audience will love it.
Trevor Lawrence is who we thought was. As a rookie, Lawrence was an innocent passenger on the Urban Meyer train wreck. In the first half of this season, he displayed only minor progress. Over the past month, though, Lawrence has begun to fulfill the promise that made him a quarterback projected to be taken first in the draft since he was in high school. Lawrence is a rocket in full launch.
His recent performance signals the Jacksonville Jaguars could soon employ one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. In a 40-34 overtime victory over the Dallas Cowboys, Lawrence erased a 17-point deficit, orchestrated a last-minute field goal drive to force overtime and passed for 318 yards and four touchdowns. Lawrence has surpassed 300 yards in three of his past four games, demonstrating full command of the offense and immense physical talent.
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The Jaguars won on one of the day’s many wild plays, when Rayshawn Jenkins snagged a tipped pass and returned it 52 yards for a walk-off pick-six, which Jenkins added to his 18 tackles. The Jaguars have won three of four, all of those victories coming against teams in the playoff picture.
Their run means Lawrence could be finishing his breakout on a larger stage. When the Tennessee Titans lost to the Los Angeles Chargers to fall to 7-7, it meant the Jaguars, even at 6-8, control their playoff fate. They finish at the New York Jets, at the Houston Texans and home for the Titans in a game that could decide the AFC South. If the Jaguars win all three, they’ll win the division.
Bill Belichick might not have it anymore. The most shocking play of the season, the kind of play that never happened to New England under Belichick’s watch, might keep the Patriots out of the playoffs and reinforced how far the greatest coach in football history has fallen.
Tied with the Las Vegas Raiders, the Patriots had the ball at their 45-yard line with three seconds left, holding no options but to try a Hail Mary or run out the clock for overtime. Rhamondre Stevenson took a handoff and found space down the right sideline before he lateraled to wideout Jakobi Meyers, who lost his mind. Meyers circled back, surveyed the field and heaved the ball to ... nobody in particular, a desperate play that a team would make if it were losing — but an insane risk in a tie game.
Raiders defensive end Chandler Jones snared the lateral at the 48-yard line. He stiff-armed quarterback Mac Jones into the Earth’s core and then cruised into the end zone for a walk-off touchdown and a 30-24 win.
The play was troubling for New England in two ways. For one, it knocked it out of the playoff picture and reduced its odds to make the postseason to 19 percent, per FiveThirtyEight. Secondly, it was not an outlier. It was emblematic of the way the Patriots have operated all season.
Belichick’s decision to make former defensive coordinator and failed head coach Matt Patricia his offensive play caller has been a disaster — as pretty much all the people Belichick sneers at predicted. The Patriots are impotent and disorganized, and quarterback Mac Jones has regressed after a promising rookie year.
For two decades, Belichick has trumpeted situational football. Patriots players would impress with their arcane knowledge of the rule book and know just when to implement that knowledge. Discipline and intelligence were pillars. The Patriots no longer play that way. They are one of the most penalized teams in the league. Before their disastrous finish, the Patriots let Keelan Cole get behind the defense in one-on-one coverage with 32 seconds left for a tying touchdown. There is no other conclusion: Belichick has lost a step.
The Lions are a wagon. On Halloween, the Lions were 1-6 after a serious of blown leads, still stuck in the organizational malaise that has doomed them for decades. After their 20-17 victory over the host Jets on Sunday, they are 7-7 and have a legitimate chance to crash the NFC playoff field.
Outside of the Philadelphia Eagles, there is no hotter team in the NFL. The Lions have won six of seven, the latest victory built with a cheeky game-winning touchdown. On fourth and inches on the first play after the two-minute warning, trailing 17-13, Jared Goff made a play-action fake, patiently waited for the play to develop and hit tight end Brock Wright alone in the left flat. Wright rumbled 51 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.
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The Lions finish at the Carolina Panthers, vs. the Chicago Bears and at the Green Bay Packers. They are likely to be favored in all three games, and if they win out, they almost certainly will make the playoffs. With Goff’s efficient passing, Aidan Hutchinson’s pass-rushing emergence and a bruising running game, they would be a frightening first-round opponent.
The Dolphins stabilized their season. Even though they are on a three-game skid and they gave themselves more work to do to ensure a playoff spot, the Miami Dolphins had to leave Buffalo feeling encouraged. They went toe-to-toe with the AFC’s top seed, proved Tua Tagovailoa does not spontaneously implode when touched by snow and rebounded after two lousy performances.
The Dolphins lost, 32-29, but probably played Buffalo tougher than when they beat them in Florida early in the season, when the Bills ran 90 plays but faltered in the red zone. On Saturday night, the Dolphins controlled much of the game and led 29-21 in the fourth quarter. Tagovailoa connected on touchdown passes to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. The Dolphins were the better team if not for Josh Allen’s superhuman running.
The Dolphins received help Sunday when the Patriots and Jets lost, keeping them in the playoff picture as the final wild card. Their remaining schedule — Packers, at Patriots, Jets — is manageable. Their performance Saturday provided a reminder that if they get in, they’ll be dangerous. The Dolphins are a bit like last year’s Cincinnati Bengals: They are not the best team in the AFC, but their offensive talent gives them an elite ceiling. On any given day, they could beat any given team because of the upside provided by Hill and Waddle in Coach Mike McDaniel’s system.
The MVP candidates had to grind it out. The battle for MVP honors is coming down to Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, and both Kansas City and Philadelphia struggled as heavy favorites Sunday. The Chiefs trailed in the fourth quarter against the Houston Texans and needed a turnover in overtime to win. The Eagles led by four after the third quarter before they asserted themselves in the fourth against the Bears.
Mark Maske's takeaways from Week 15
Whichever quarterback you favored heading into the week, Sunday probably didn’t change your mind. Hurts punched up outlandish statistics — 315 passing yards and three rushing touchdowns — but he also threw two interceptions. Mahomes was wickedly efficient, completing 36 of 41 passes for 336 yards and two touchdowns while running for another score.
The Colts are getting a new coach. Owner Jim Irsay loudly proclaimed Jeff Saturday would have an opportunity to win the full-time job when he stunned the NFL by naming him the interim coach in Indianapolis. The Colts’ collapse Saturday made that untenable. The Colts blew a 33-0 halftime lead in Minnesota, giving the Vikings the biggest comeback in NFL history in a 39-36 overtime win.
A million things have to go wrong for a team to squander that kind of lead, but it foremost has to do with coaching. Saturday drew praise after the Colts pulled an upset in his debut, but his lack of experience is starting to catch up to the Colts.
The Vikings, who clinched the NFC North, continue to be the most underwhelming 11-3 team imaginable. It takes a special kind of mess to fall behind the Colts by 33, and their point differential for the season is plus-two. But that was a miraculous, memorable day in Minnesota.
The Ravens need their quarterback back. After the Cleveland Browns’ 13-3 victory over the Ravens, Baltimore cornerback Marcus Peters — wearing a walking boot and holding a cane-like walking stick because of an injury he suffered during the game — stood outside the visitors’ locker room and greeted teammates. He noticed running back J.K. Dobbins sulking, head down. “Pick that motherf----- up, man,” Peters said. “We got a lot of hope.”
Peters’s display of leadership doubled as an incomplete statement: The Ravens do have hope — if Lamar Jackson returns from a sprained knee ligament at full health. Jackson’s value has been demonstrated with him on the sideline. Even as Dobbins shows flashes of his best self, Baltimore’s offense, methodical even when Jackson plays, has been a slog.
The notion that Tyler Huntley could be an adequate replacement for Jackson if the Ravens do not resolve his contract situation died a slow and painful death against the Browns. The Ravens tumbled out of the playoff race last year after Jackson suffered an injury, and if he does not return soon, it’s unlikely but not out of the question the same thing could happen this year.
Lou Anarumo is a warlock. The scariest opponent for any NFL offense may be the Bengals in the second half. That is because of the adjustments Anarumo, Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator, makes at halftime. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers scored 17 points in the first half as they built a two-touchdown halftime lead. In the second half, the Bengals flustered Tom Brady and bullied the Bucs into four turnovers, allowing only a cosmetic touchdown in the final minute.
With their 34-23 victory in Tampa, the Bengals took over first place in the AFC North. They could have their eyes on a bigger prize. If they beat the Bills in Week 17 and the Chiefs stumble, they could claim the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye in the AFC.
The Titans made the coolest interception of the year. At the end of the first half of their 17-14 loss to the Chargers, Titans defensive backs Roger McCreary and Joshua Kalu combined for a dazzling moment of improvisational teamwork. Justin Herbert lofted a pass into the corner of the end zone to wideout Mike Williams, the kind of ball that could only result in a spectacular catch or an incompletion out of bounds — unless the defense does something amazing.
McCreary leaped out of the end zone and over the sideline to catch the ball. Realizing he would land out of bounds, he twisted his body and, in one motion while hanging in midair, shoveled the ball to Kalu. It’s not a play anybody practices. It was a stroke of athletic genius. | 2022-12-19T11:19:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jaguars are on the rise with Trevor Lawrence, but Patriots can't close - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/19/jaguars-trevor-lawrence-patriots-bill-belichick/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/19/jaguars-trevor-lawrence-patriots-bill-belichick/ |
Urban planners and historians are mapping racial covenants to analyze the legacy of segregated neighborhoods across the United States
The town of Somerset is one of many older neighborhoods in the D.C. region that had racial covenants forbidding Black residents and other groups from buying or renting homes during much of the 20th century. (Katherine Shaver/The Washington Post)
A new map of lower Montgomery County, including some of the Washington region’s most affluent suburbs, reveals an ugly past: scores of neighborhoods deemed Whites-only for decades.
The interactive map devised by county planners shows areas of Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring and Takoma Park that had racial covenants for much of the 20th century. The restrictions, which remain written into property deeds, prohibited homes from being sold or rented to people of “negro blood or extraction” or anyone not “of the Caucasian race.” Some also prohibited Jews, as well as Asians, Armenians, Syrians and other nationalities.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1948 that courts could no longer enforce racial covenants, and the Fair Housing Act outlawed them in 1968. Their role in promoting racial segregation far beyond the Jim Crow south has been well-documented. But urban planners and historians say plotting the covenants on a map — neighborhood by neighborhood and, in some cases, parcel by parcel — lays bare the extent of discrimination in stark and often surprising ways.
The legacy of decades of housing discrimination still plagues the U.S.
Experts say such maps being compiled for cities and suburbs across the country reveal the roots of persistent racial disparities in homeownership. Affordable housing advocates say they reinforce the need to add lower-income housing in single-family home neighborhoods — areas that often overlap with those that had racial covenants. The patterns of segregation that racial covenants helped to establish, experts say, can still be seen in the demographics of many neighborhoods and public school systems.
By overlaying the maps with other data, researchers are exploring how those patterns might continue to play out in neighborhood home values, access to public transportation, government investment and health outcomes. A 2020 study found that land surfaces in areas that were subjected to “redlining” — the government-sanctioned practice of denying home loans in predominantly Black communities — were up to 12.6 degrees hotter, partly because they have less tree canopy and more asphalt and concrete.
Perhaps most importantly, researchers say, the maps require the public, particularly White residents, to grapple with a racist history close to home.
Racist housing covenants haunt property records across the country. New laws make them easier to remove.
In Montgomery, at least 41 percent of the 1,763 subdivisions surveyed inside the Capital Beltway had racial covenants between 1873 and 1952. Other areas of the county have yet to be mapped, planners said.
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“You have to be able to see the injustice,” said Rebeccah Ballo, historic preservation supervisor for the Montgomery planning department. “I think people have to see it in their communities.”
In the Washington region, mapping of racial covenants also is underway in the District, Alexandria, and Prince George’s, Fairfax and Arlington counties. Other cities include Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Seattle and cities across Washington state.
Historians say racial covenants were possible, and in some areas pervasive, in neighborhoods built in the late 19th century or first half of the 20th century — a period when suburbs boomed and Black southerners moved to northern and Midwestern cities as part of the Great Migration.
Racial covenants became more popular after 1917, when the Supreme Court prohibited zoning ordinances based explicitly on race. The deed covenants, along with legally binding agreements reached among neighbors, were considered private contracts that residents could seek to enforce in court.
“There’s a recognition that these covenants are almost everywhere,” said LaDale Winling, an associate history professor at Virginia Tech and director of a covenant mapping project for the Chicago area.
When residents see their own neighborhood was off-limits to non-White residents, Winling said, “People are horrified.”
Redlining was banned 50 years ago. It's still hurting minorities today
Historians say they, too, have been surprised at how widespread racial covenants were. Kristin Neun, co-researcher on the Arlington mapping project, said she has found covenants throughout the county, which limited Black residents to certain neighborhoods.
“It’s the extraordinary breadth of it that I certainly didn’t have any idea about,” Neun said. “People think [segregated] communities just grew up, but you start to realize maybe it’s not quite so random.”
The work comes as more governments are digitizing their 20th century land records, making deed searches easier, if still cumbersome and labor-intensive. It follows research into the racial wealth gap created when Black families were prevented from buying homes or were forced to live in less desirable areas, limiting wealth to pass down from one generation to the next.
The research also aligns with urban planners’ examination of their profession’s own role in racist land-use policies and has gained traction amid the racial justice movement surrounding the 2020 death of George Floyd.
“We’re showing systemic racism,” said Mara Cherkasky, a historian mapping covenants in the District. “Here it is, completely mapped out.”
Some local officials say the maps could lay a case for directing government funding toward historically underserved, majority-Black communities.
Cherri Branson, an acting member of the Montgomery planning board, said she has heard stories from fellow Black residents who were blocked from living in sought-after neighborhoods. She recalled her mother’s frustrations when searching for a Montgomery home in the early 1980s. Real estate agents repeatedly steered her toward lower-income neighborhoods with substandard housing and no public transportation to her job in downtown Washington, Branson said.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Branson said of seeing the Montgomery map with broad areas shaded pink, indicating racial covenants. “If you talk to any Black person over 75 in this county, they’ll tell you where segregation was and where they couldn’t buy a house … This documents that these stories are true and real.”
Branson said county officials should consult the racial covenant maps to analyze areas that lack public transportation, social services, tree canopy and amenities.
“Have these areas been neglected?” Branson said. “If the answer is ‘yes,’ then fix it.”
In Evanston, Ill., public officials cited the city’s history of racial covenants and other discriminatory practices when they designated their early local reparations payments — the first in the country — for Black residents’ home repairs, mortgage assistance and other housing costs.
Minneapolis officials cited their “Mapping Prejudice” project when they eliminated single-family home zoning in 2018 to allow duplexes and triplexes throughout the city. The project’s director, historian Kirsten Delegard, said she started researching covenants in 2016, when 25 percent of Black families owned homes in the Twin Cities compared with almost 80 percent of White families — the widest gap of any major U.S. metropolitan area.
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Single-family zoning was codified in Minneapolis in 1963, the same year the state outlawed racial covenants. The zoning reinforced patterns of segregation by keeping all-White neighborhoods more expensive, Delegard said.
“Understanding what have been pockets of structural privilege really helps planners understand how to be strategic about investments and policy decisions to undo the damage,” she said. “You need truly affordable housing in a variety of neighborhoods, or the patterns you have are going to stay in place.”
A 2019 study of Minneapolis and the surrounding county found that houses that had racial covenants had home values an average 4 percent to 15 percent higher than those that did not.
Historians with the D.C. mapping project say they have found a more complicated legacy, including a link between covenants and gentrification. Some neighborhoods east of Rock Creek Park, such as Petworth and Bloomingdale, had racial covenants. However, they became majority-Black after early 20th century “White flight” to growing — and largely segregated — suburbs, they said.
The majority-Black D.C. neighborhoods then lost government investment in amenities such as parks and attracted fewer home improvement loans, historians said. That lowered property values, leaving the areas ripe for gentrification.
“One thing covenants did was attach greater value to places that were exclusively White while devaluing areas where Black people lived,” said Sarah Shoenfeld of the Mapping Segregation Washington DC project. “That had a long-term impact.”
Shoenfeld and Cherkasky have been researching the District’s racial covenants since 2014. They have found about 25,000 in place before 1948 throughout the city, so far mostly east of Rock Creek Park, where they focused first. They said they are finding many in areas such as Cleveland Park, Palisades and Chevy Chase as they expand their search.
Acting D.C. planning director Anita Cozart said planners have used the racial covenant research as a “framework” for discussing with residents the need for more affordable housing across the city, including in areas long zoned for single-family houses.
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The need for “reparative work” to correct housing inequities underlay planners’ recommendations to add more affordable housing types in the Chevy Chase area of upper Northwest, Cozart said. She said planners also will take the history of racial covenants into account when they consider the future of single-family zoning as part of rewriting the District’s long-term growth plan in 2025.
“When you think about inclusion, you also have to look at exclusion — you have to look back and see who was excluded,” Cozart said. “It helps educate ourselves and others, that this is what’s contributed to what we see today.”
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Many historians are reluctant to say how the data should be used beyond raising public awareness, and some are wary of drawing links between racial covenants and current neighborhood conditions. More research is needed, they say, to parse the lingering effects of covenants from other factors that promoted racial segregation, such as redlining and real estate agents and developers who steered Black home buyers away from majority-White neighborhoods long after 1968.
Many point to still-legal covenants that effectively restrict neighborhoods to residents of certain incomes and, in turn, are less racially diverse by requiring that homes be of a minimum cost or size.
The battle over single-family zoning is also a fight about what to call it
Researchers across the country say the work is slow going, with much of it relying on professors and their students, as well as volunteer historians and community members.
In Montgomery, planners said they so far have used limited resources to sample property deeds dating back to when a subdivision was laid out by the developer. If they found a deed with a racial covenant, they labeled the entire subdivision as having them because that was the practice at the time. Historians in other cities say such an approach, while quicker than reviewing every parcel, misses properties where developers, builders or homeowners added covenants after a subdivision was laid out.
Ballo said Montgomery planners will update their map as they broaden their research beyond the Beltway. But they also know it won’t show all the ways Black and Asian residents, Jews and other discriminated groups were long shut out.
“Just because an area isn’t shaded pink” showing it had racial covenants, Ballo said, “doesn’t mean in any way that these neighborhoods were welcoming.” | 2022-12-19T11:19:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Historians mapping racial covenants reveal neighborhoods’ racist pasts - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/17/racial-covenants-mapping/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/17/racial-covenants-mapping/ |
How Denver used e-bike vouchers to get thousands out of their cars
The Colorado program could be a national model as cities look to motorized bikes as a way to cut emissions and ease traffic
Denver has launched an e-bike program in an attempt to lower traffic congestion and pollution. (iStock)
Davey Van Beveren hadn’t ridden a bike since he was a teenager, so to him, riding 11 miles into downtown Denver to get to work seemed like something only a hardcore cyclist would attempt.
But when the 27-year-old moved to Colorado’s largest city in March, Denver was launching a program to cut the cost of e-bikes. The money would mean Van Beveren could get a quality bike for $600 and, suddenly, that ride no longer looked like such an obstacle. He now winds through side streets near his home and onto a trail to his job at the Colorado Symphony.
“It’s just been amazing,” Van Beveren said. “I didn’t realize how much of a drag commuting by car was.”
The program proved to be such a hit across the city that getting a rebate check was like scoring concert tickets, requiring hopeful buyers to be at their keyboards at 8 a.m. the day that each month’s batch was released. Van Beveren is one of 4,726 people who used the program in its first year, while advocates say it’s become a model for other cities seeking to cut pollution and congestion.
Advocacy groups that were disappointed when a federal credit for e-bikes was dropped from the Inflation Reduction Act, which will subsidize the purchase of electric cars and SUVs, are looking for states and cities to take the lead.
“We’ve been pushing Denver’s model to our e-bike, incentive-curious city partners across the U.S. given the level of success they’ve reached,” said Noa Banayan, director of federal affairs at advocacy organization PeopleForBikes.
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Researchers at Portland State University are tracking 65 programs nationwide that are active or that have been approved to help people get on e-bikes, either through subsidies or loaning a bike. California plans to launch a statewide program next year backed by $10 million.
E-bikes, which have a motor and battery to propel riders, can cost about $2,000, putting them out of reach for many low-income families. Denver’s program has two tiers, with one that offers $400 to any city resident — an amount aimed at sweetening the deal for would-be buyers. For low-income residents, the second tier increases the voucher size to $1,200, a sum city officials say should make the bikes more widely affordable.
Two other elements of the program are designed to encourage buyers to use their bikes for transportation: a bonus of $500 for cargo bikes, which can carry children or a large load, while full-suspension mountain bikes used primarily for recreation aren’t eligible.
In all, Denver has spent $4.8 million on the vouchers, funded from a quarter-cent sales tax city voters approved in 2020 to provide funding for environmental initiatives.
The city paused the rebate program in the fall because of demand, but it plans to bring it back in 2023. In the meantime, Grace Rink, the city’s chief climate officer, and her team have been studying how participants are using their new bikes and say they are pleased with the results.
“If you think you’re seeing e-bikes everywhere, you are,” said Rink. “The momentum of it has been exciting because it has created so much chatter.”
A city survey found new e-bike riders were riding, on average, 26.2 miles per week, and that low-income buyers were riding about 32 miles per week. Respondents said they had replaced 3.4 car trips each week with bike rides.
“It’s so much faster,” said Rink, who commutes by e-bike. “It’s much less of a chore. There is an element of joy in riding the e-bike.”
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Craig Chassen, 41, and his wife decided they would both get a bike using the program. Chassen, a stay-at-home dad, said the bikes became his main way this past summer of transporting his kids and getting to a job coaching volleyball. His wife still drives to work, but Chassen said the family is driving less often.
“The kids love it,” Chassen said. “Now we’re able to go to a playground that’s a lot farther away without getting in a car.”
The program works in partnership with local bike shops, where buyers redeem the rebates. Bobby Brown, marketing manager for SloHi Bike Company, which has two locations in Denver, said that means buyers have a reliable source of help for repairs, much like drivers at a car dealership.
E-bikes became so popular in Denver that Brown said manufacturers would have to remind stores in the city that they still needed to supply dealers in other parts of the country.
“We were literally trying to get containers of electric cargo bikes because we knew we could sell all of them,” he said.
City officials say they expect seasonality in how many people use their bikes — one of the limits of trying to replace car travel. Chassen said he expects to ride a lot less as temperatures dip over the winter.
Van Beveren said on a recent day that the 22-degree temperature was too cold for a bike ride. But Denver’s weather fluctuates throughout the winter, he said, so he doesn’t expect to pack the bike away until spring.
“I want to keep doing it as much as possible on those warmer days,” he said. | 2022-12-19T11:19:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Denver e-bike subsidies: How the city used vouchers to cut car usage - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/19/denver-ebike-program/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/19/denver-ebike-program/ |
Ask a Doctor: Does stress actually cause gray hair?
While genetics seems to be a larger factor in when one grays, stress can contribute to it
Advice by Shilpi Khetarpal, MD
(Chelsea Conrad/The Washington Post/Unsplash)
Q. What causes our hair to gray? Is my hair more likely to gray if I’m stressed?
A. Many things can cause our hair to gray, including genetics and stress.
In humans, the purpose and function of hair are debatable, unlike in animals. Hair does, however, serve as an aesthetic tool and a means of nonverbal communication. The style and color of our hair can alter our physical appearance and affect our body image. Hair colors range from black and brown, to red and blond. Over time, hair slowly turns gray or white. Graying hair is perceived as a sign of old age, which can affect a person’s self-esteem, especially if it occurs prematurely.
Hair follicles have stem cells called melanocytes that produce a pigment called melanin, which gives hair its color. Melanocytes turn over to continue making melanin for a set amount of time. There are two types of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Diversity in hair color comes from the quantity and ratio of black-brown eumelanin and red-brown pheomelanin. A mutation in a certain receptor (melanocortin-1 or MC1R) leads to red hair.
As we age, these melanin producing cells go through a phenomenon called apoptosis, or programmed cell death, causing the hair to turn gray or white.
Apart from age, other factors can determine when a person’s hair will start to change color. The first is genetics — if your parents started to gray at an early age, there is a chance you will, too. Ethnicity also plays a role. It has been shown that graying occurs earlier in Caucasians compared with African Americans. A study showed that the average age of graying in Caucasians is 34 compared with 44 in African Americans.
Another reason is stress. The graying of hair most of the time is unrelated to stress, but stress can worsen the graying. Chronic stress can have multiple effects on the body, and the hair is no exception. A 2013 study showed a correlation between stress and graying of hair in mice. The theory is that melanocytes are depleted when under stress. While genetics seems to be a larger factor in when one grays, stress can contribute to it.
Other factors known to cause graying include smoking and nutritional deficiencies (such as vitamin D, B12, or ferritin). In these cases, correcting the deficiency has been shown to restore some of the pigment or color to the hair. | 2022-12-19T11:20:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Does stress actually cause gray hair? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/12/19/gray-hair-causes-stress-genetics/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/12/19/gray-hair-causes-stress-genetics/ |
The Geo Barents rescue ship, with 248 immigrants on board, disembarks in Salerno, Italy, southeast of Naples, on Dec. 11. (Massimo Pica/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
CROTONE, Italy — On a continent that has spent years trying to cut off undocumented immigration — using fences, surveillance, financial incentives and sometimes even brute force — the close-the-door strategy is faltering.
Migration across the Mediterranean has crested to the highest level in five years. New nationalities, most notably from Egypt, have joined the stream of people seeking escape to Europe. And hard-line border policies are merely driving smugglers to adapt: Soon after Greek authorities instituted a practice of harsh pushbacks, boats departing Turkey began charting a longer route — bypassing Greece and heading instead to Italy’s Calabrian coast, an area that used to see almost no arrivals.
“Here comes another,” a law enforcement official at the port of Crotone said one recent morning, watching a vessel with 80 people come into view, just four hours after the arrival of a boat with 81 others.
France accepts migrant rescue ship rejected by Italy as tensions flare
The European Union’s desire to obstruct migration on multiple fronts was reflected in a collection of deals cobbled together in the aftermath of a 2015 mass-scale wave from Africa and the Middle East. And, for a while, the strategy appeared to be working: Mediterranean crossings dipped dramatically. The issue lost political primacy, depriving nationalist parties of kindling.
But an increase in arrivals this year is showing the limits of a Fortress Europe strategy — and reviving the highly contentious issue of how to handle and divvy up those who make it to the E.U. and its borderless travel zone.
“Europe’s expectations were based on a wrong assumption — that mobility across the Mediterranean could be stopped or limited, so it would no longer be politically relevant,” said Roberto Cortinovis, a migration specialist at the Centre for European Policy Studies. “And that is impossible.”
This year, 170,000 migrants have reached the continent, according to the United Nations’ migration agency — with the majority of them crossing the Mediterranean. Such a level is still vastly reduced from the more than 1 million who arrived in 2015. But it is approaching the same level as in 2017, when Europe was only at the beginning of its fortification. The migration surge is most pronounced in Italy, which this year has received almost 100,000 people by sea. Over the prior four years combined, it received 135,000.
“We cannot handle by ourselves a flow that has grown to an unmanageable size,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said recently.
She and her new far-right coalition have latched on to the renewed salience of migration as a problem in Europe. After running on a hard-line platform, they have sought to limit the unloading in Italian ports of migrants rescued by charity vessels. That position is accelerating a clash among European powers — and has had France and Italy trading accusations about moral responsibilities.
Many groups that deal with immigrants see hypocrisy in Europe’s response to people coming from poorer — and less Christian — parts of the world. The flows across the Mediterranean are still tiny compared with the influx this year of 7 million Ukrainians, who’ve been offered automatic legal status and given freedom to choose the E.U. country where they settle.
They made the choice to flee Ukraine. But the next question is where to go.
But European policymakers say there are grounds for differentiating. In contrast with Ukraine, and even with many of the people seeking to get to European shores five or six years ago, more people are now arriving from countries untouched by war. The deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan has been a push factor, and people are still coming from war-torn Syria, but others represent nationalities with low odds of successful asylum claims in Europe.
“We see an increase of nationalities that are probably not in need of international protection,” said Ylva Johansson, the E.U. minister in charge of migration. “This is not a proper way to come to the European Union.”
There are a few broad explanations for why migration might be rising. Diminished pandemic restrictions and fears mean that more people, everywhere, can be on the move. And new economic turmoil in two northern African countries — Egypt and Tunisia — have deepened the pool of people looking for a way out.
Europe is also reckoning with the inherent riskiness of depending on an unstable country to stop migrants along the way.
In one of its most important initiatives, the E.U. has tried to compel Libya — the biggest jumping-off point for migrants — to cooperate on intercepting smugglers. European and Italian money revitalized the Libyan coast guard fleet, and Italy even tried to curry favor by brokering peace deals among feuding tribes. But this year, departures from Libya have risen. And the country’s coast guard, which has been intercepting vessels bound for Europe, is letting them pass at an increased rate.
One migration official familiar with Libya, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continued need to work with the country, said that “suddenly there are all sorts of holes in the wall.” He theorized that one or more groups could be trying to win concessions from Europe, using an increased flow of migration for leverage.
“The fact that this is so divisive in Europe is the Achilles’ heel,” the official said. “If somebody wants to put pressure on Europe, this is how you do it.”
Compared with the flow from Libya, the route to Italy from Turkey is less traveled: Roughly 17,000 migrants have arrived on Calabria’s shores this year. But law enforcement officials here say that route is crucial, because it shows just how hard migration is to suppress. It emerged in direct response to Greece’s crackdown — a widely documented practice, denied by Greek authorities, in which the coast guard blocks migrant vessels, drags them back to international waters, and sometimes sabotages their boat engines. Pushbacks are considered a violation of international law. Greece is alleged to have pushed back thousands of migrants over the past two years.
So the migrants are trying another way.
From Turkey, the route to Greece takes a matter of hours. To Italy, it takes five or six days, with smugglers charging somewhere between $8,000 to $12,000 per person, making it the most expensive pathway to Europe without documents.
The smugglers charter used or stolen motorboats and sailboats — vessels that are more seaworthy than the flimsy dinghies departing Libya. The boats are cleared of their interior furnishings and packed with people. Then, blending in with the boats of vacationers, they make their way across the Aegean and Ionian seas.
Because of its cost, the route is known as a pathway for the middle class; poorer migrants end up taking a land route out of Turkey through the Balkans, encountering a labyrinth of border closures. But even the relatively upscale route is still precarious. At this time of year, it can mean spending nearly a week in the cold. One of the passengers who recently arrived in Italy was a 10-day-old boy. There have been several recent deadly migrant shipwrecks near Greece, though it is unclear what route they were traversing.
The Washington Post witnessed a landing in Calabria one recent morning, with migrants first helped off their own boat — and onto an Italian coast guard vessel — just outside of the port.
As the vessel docked, an Italian official tried to figure out the nationalities on board — Iranians and Afghans, he was told — and workers from a slew of agencies measured body temperatures, passed out water and juice, and systematically took photographs of everybody aboard, giving them numbers and then ushering them onto a bus.
One man, wearing a Yale University hoodie, said his head was spinning from the journey. A woman, who said she’d worked at Afghanistan’s central bank before the Taliban takeover, said they’d been at sea for six days.
Several police officers stood back, watching body language, trying to discern who among the new arrivals might have served as captain.
Italian authorities have arrested dozens of boat captains — including, before the war in Ukraine, a slew of Ukrainians and Russians. But officials say that many groups are involved, not just one, making it harder to thwart.
“There is not just one mastermind,” said Giuseppe Capoccia, the head prosecutor in the port city of Crotone. “It’s an entire phenomenon.”
The prosecutor in the nearby town of Catanzaro, Nicola Gratteri, said the operation appears to be carefully organized by criminal groups, noting that migrants unfailingly arrive in one of two ports. “That’s not a matter of chance,” he said.
Unlike the Tunisians and Egyptians coming from Libya, those arriving from Turkey — often Syrians and Afghans — do not want to stay in Italy, preferring to move northward, principally to Germany. But European rules stipulate that those seeking asylum must go through the process in the country where they land. So the Syrians and Afghans choose not to begin the process. Italian authorities give them a paper obligating them to leave Italy within seven days. Then they carry on northward.
“The police know they’re not leaving Europe,” said one aid worker who deals with migrants in Crotone, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive issue.
Even with the flow that moves north, Europe’s Mediterranean countries — Italy, Greece, Spain, Malta and Cyprus — say they bear a disproportionate burden from migration. And their grievances are getting louder.
For years, northern European countries have resisted the idea of establishing quotas for redistribution. In 2015, an E.U. plan for the mandatory relocation of some 160,000 refugees fell apart amid quarreling before it was ever implemented. More recently, France drew up a much smaller voluntary program that Mediterranean countries say has obvious drawbacks. The deal emphasizes the redistribution of people in need of “international protection” — in other words, excluding the scores from countries like Egypt and Tunisia.
Since that deal, European countries have shown the capacity to squabble about even the smallest quantities of new arrivals. Italy and France exchanged insults last month when Italy refused a charity rescue ship with 234 migrants aboard and then prematurely thanked France for taking it in. And according to an internal document leaked by the civil liberties monitoring watchdog Statewatch, countries have been exceedingly slow in meeting their relocation pledges.
Belgium, citing overstretched capacity, doesn’t think it will begin taking in 100 migrants until 2023.
Bulgaria says it prefers Syrian citizens, “ideally families.”
Ireland has postponed its initial pledge of 80 people.
The document says that only about 1,000 transfers are expected to take place this year, short of the 3,000 the E.U. had been hoping for — a number that, itself, is a tiny fraction of overall arrivals. (An E.U. spokeswoman did not address the specifics of that document. The E.U. says that, so far, 207 people have been transferred from Italy to France, Germany and Luxembourg.)
“So you can call the outcome a joke,” Notis Mitarachi, Greece’s migration minister, said in an interview. He said that any program should guarantee relocation of a fixed percentage of arrivals.
Meanwhile, in what is normally one of the slowest times of the year for sea arrivals, people keep showing up on Italy’s shores. One December day, 882. Another day, 317. Another, 708. The country is on track for its busiest December since 2016.
At a camp for asylum seekers not far from the Calabrian port, a 38-year-old Egyptian said he thinks the phenomenon is “snowballing.” In his country, he said, the economy is in turmoil. Even people who work don’t necessarily receive paychecks. He has two children, he said, and felt there was no other choice than to head out alone and seek work outside the country.
“Better here than there,” he said.
Elinda Labropoulou in Athens contributed to this report. | 2022-12-19T11:20:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fortress Europe can’t stop immigration numbers from rising - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/migration-europe-numbers-increase/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/migration-europe-numbers-increase/ |
South African president survives party vote amid cash-in-couch revelations
Lesley Wroughton
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa celebrates after retaining leadership of the ruling African National Congress party. (Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
GQEBERHA, South Africa — South Africa’s ruling party endorsed President Cyril Ramaphosa as its leader on Sunday despite lingering questions over cash stuffed in his couch, hoping his personal popularity will be enough to shore up a diminishing voter base angered by crumbling infrastructure and corruption.
Ramaphosa, a wealthy business executive and the last confidant of Nelson Mandela still active in government, has positioned himself as a reformer in a government ridden by scandals. However, he has been damaged by revelations he kept at least $580,000 in cash in his couch at his game farm. His staff told investigators it came from the sale of a herd of buffalo that were never collected, an explanation a panel appointed by Parliament questioned.
The cash was later stolen, and the panel said Ramaphosa failed to properly report the theft to police. The affair emerged publicly after it was leaked by an ally of his predecessor and chief political rival, Jacob Zuma.
The panel recommended opening an impeachment inquiry against him this month, but most legislators from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) refused. Analysts said some wanted to protect the ANC, and others were afraid it could strengthen the faction loyal to the scandal-plagued Zuma.
A judicial inquiry found that Zuma and others had eviscerated the tax authorities, police, national prosecution service and other government organizations to enrich themselves and prevent investigation into the theft of public funds. Zuma was sentenced to jail for contempt of court when he refused to answer questions on the findings, a ruling that sparked riots that killed about 300 people. Zuma has dismissed the allegations.
Ramaphosa needs the ANC to win enough parliamentary seats in the 2024 national elections to a choose a president without a coalition. But he faces growing competition from other parties, strong opposition in urban areas spreading to smaller towns, and popular frustration that has been driving down the number of registered voters and turnout.
While many voters have been deserting the ANC, they haven’t turned out in large numbers for other parties. Many see the largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, as a haven for White liberals. Some voters also worry that the next-largest party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, led by firebrand ANC breakaway Julius Malema, is volatile. So the ANC has retained the lion’s share of a shrinking vote, said Collette Schulz-Herzenberg, senior lecturer in political science at Stellenbosch University.
That may be changing. The ANC has held power since the end of apartheid in 1994, when it received just under two-thirds of votes. That fell to 57.5 in 2019’s national elections. The 2021 municipal elections saw voter participation plunge, and the ANC received under half of the votes for the first time, Schulz-Herzenberg said. Many of the party faithful are so fed up with daily electricity cuts, poor public services and corruption that they are starting small grass-roots movements, which take nibbles out of both the opposition and the ANC’s support.
In Slovoville, a poor township on the edge of Johannesburg, the machinery at the gold mine next door dwarfs the one-story homes. The area showcases both the achievements of the ANC’s early days — affordable homes, a free clinic and school — and the decline of more recent years. The local primary school is partly flooded, four burst water pipes have been gushing wastewater around homes at an intersection, and the area hasn’t had power for months.
Tavern owner Mbhekeni Shongwe, 51, has voted for the ANC in every election since 1994. So have all his friends. Now they are fed up.
After their local councilman was shot dead in March, Shongwe decided to stand as an independent in June. He got 56 percent of the vote in his district, buoyed by his charitable work providing food to the needy and public demands that the nearby mine should employ locals. He wants to build sports facilities for teenagers, a rehab clinic for addicts and most of all, he says: jobs, jobs, jobs.
“Money is next to us, and people are suffering!” he exclaimed, sitting on a plastic chair under his dust-covered set of speakers. “People are fed up with the ANC and corruption.”
But the ANC was able to mobilize support more effectively in the other six voting districts and won the council seat. Now the Harmony Gold Mining Company is seeking to take Shongwe to court for leading what he said was a legally permitted demonstration to the mine.
Six women in a house down the road said they had all voted for Shongwe but would be boycotting the national elections. “No! Never!” Gertrude Mmoloawa cried out when asked whether she would vote in 2024. The ANC councilman had done nothing to address the flooding around her home from the burst pipes, she said. He did not turn up for a scheduled interview with The Washington Post and did not respond to questions on WhatsApp.
The ANC has also just lost control farther south, in the municipality of Nelson Mandela Bay, spread around a breezy seaside city of around 1.3 million, Gqeberha. A palm-lined promenade meanders along its beaches. Residents have just welcomed their sixth mayor in as many years. Leadership has whipsawed between the ANC and the Democratic Alliance, amid political gridlock that has prevented the city from solving water, housing and other crises, said its new mayor, Retief Odendaal. Both parties have 48 council seats out of 120.
He said the city had spun through 37 municipal managers in 13 years, mostly during ANC control. He alleged that the public procurement system has been deliberately paralyzed so that vendors can bypass it with kickbacks. Now he’s trying to give the Chamber of Commerce the legal right to access and repair infrastructure while he streamlines the civil service again.
“We’ve been captured,” he said ruefully, using a term that commonly refers to the deliberate paralysis of state institutions during the Zuma years.
Odendaal has also turned to Gift of the Givers, a South African aid group that works in war zones like Somalia and Yemen. Demand for its services has skyrocketed in South Africa as infrastructure crumbles and poverty spreads.
When fires threatened the city last month, the aid group rented helicopters for water dumps. At a mental health hospital, neighbors fill plastic containers with water from a borehole the group drilled.
At the historic Paterson High School, the group is refurbishing seven classrooms destroyed by fire in 2015. The government had not made repairs, so remaining rooms had to accommodate 50 students at a time, some sitting on the floor. Memories of the ANC’s past glories fighting apartheid decorate the walls. A plaque commemorates a science teacher; police pulled him out of his classroom in 1976 for anti-apartheid protests and he became the first activist to die in detention. A mural at the front reminds students they were “BORN FREE.”
Some citizens have begun to see the aid group as a parallel government. Newspaper columnists have suggested taxes should go to the group, not the government.
Eugene Johnson, the former ANC mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, said the water crisis was “an act of God,” that she had promoted water conservation and that its aging infrastructure was supporting a growing population and expensive to repair. Contracting was complicated, she said, and sometimes work was blocked by parties wanting to ensure their share. Repairs for the school were included in the 2023-24 budget, she said.
Farther north, in the small university town of Makana, residents won a 2019 court ruling to dissolve their ANC-dominated municipality after years of mismanagement left it with dry taps and areas reeking of sewage despite ballooning expenditure on water projects.
In municipal elections last year, university professors, social activists, former ANC cadres and others came together to form the Makana Citizens Front. The group took five seats — and a bigger share of the vote than other well-established opposition parties. The ANC’s majority shrank to only one seat. The mayor did not respond to requests for comment.
While backing for the ANC has been eroding, it retains a degree of popularity that goes far beyond gratitude for its liberation struggles, said Frans Cronje, founder of the Social Research Foundation. The ANC also won favor because of its performance in its first decade of rule, churning out low-cost housing, investing in infrastructure, education and health, creating jobs and adopting conservative fiscal policies.
But now polling by his organization shows that the decline in living standards is fueling a new wave of grass-roots activism.
“I’m actually very optimistic. This is the normal response of a healthy democracy to a crisis,” he said. “There’s more things holding us together than making us fall apart.”
Wroughton reported from Cape Town. | 2022-12-19T11:20:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | South African President Cyril Ramaphosa endorsed in ANC party results - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/south-africa-anc-cyril-ramaphosa-wins/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/south-africa-anc-cyril-ramaphosa-wins/ |
FBI warns of explosion of ‘sextortion’ cases targeting boys, teens
Law enforcement officials said they have directly linked at least 12 suicides to cases involving online demands for explicit photos
The Justice Department says thousands of teens and young boys are being targeted by online predators seeking sexually explicit photos and then demanding ransom to not release them. (iStock)
Federal law enforcement officials warned Monday of an explosion of “sextortion” cases targeting teenagers and young boys and said the online scheme has been linked to at least 12 suicides this year.
Officials issued a public safety alert urging parents and children to remain vigilant online ahead of the holiday break, when many children spend more time at home and online and could be vulnerable to people contacting them, asking for sexually explicit photos and threatening to release the images unless a ransom is paid.
In a news release, the FBI and Justice Department said a large portion of the sextortion crimes originate in Nigeria and the Ivory Coast and are driven by “financial gain”, not sex — a fact that a Justice Department official said makes this trend different than other child exploitation crimes that have historically been motivated by sexual attraction to minors.
The official, and an FBI official, spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with ground rules set at a background briefing.
Teen mental health issues are on the rise. Some tips for parents.
In the past year, authorities have received more than 7,000 reports related to sextortion and confirmed around 3,000 minor victims in the country, the Justice Department said. These children are contacted on social media platforms from someone using a fake account and typically posing as a female. They set their location to be somewhere near the victims and ask the boys to send sexually explicit photos, then threaten to release the illicit images unless a ransom is paid.
Most of the boys targeted are between the ages of 14 and 17, though officials say they have identified victims as young as 10. The entire interaction — from the point contact is made to when money is demanded — can unfold in just hours.
“This is a level of harassment we haven’t seen recently in regards to our children,” the FBI official said.
Officials did not disclose how much money has been collected in the sextortion schemes, but described them as “successful," with one official saying that is “why it is happening on the scale that it is.” Still, they said, in many instances the extortioners release the images even if payments are made.
Prosecution of this type of online fraud is difficult, the Justice Department said, because it’s challenging to track down the identity of the predator. And pursuing the cases can be even more complicated in cases when the suspects live abroad and would need to be extradited to be held accountable. But the issue has been receiving more attention.
In October, the Dr. Phil television show featured parents of a child who was sextorted and died by suicide.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has issued steps parents and children can take if they are victims of sextortion. They urged children to seek help before deciding whether to pay the extortioners. They also said parents and children should block the account of the predator, but not delete any communication, because those messages may be helpfulto help law enforcement investigations. | 2022-12-19T16:58:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Sextortion' cases, often originating in West Africa, are spiking in U.S., officials say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/19/sextortion-children-fbi-online/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/19/sextortion-children-fbi-online/ |
Woman from Fauquier County, Va., said she found the bones while in Kenya and kept them as souvenirs
A view of giraffe and zebra bones that a woman from Fauquier County, Va., found in Kenya and kept as souvenirs. The bones were taken by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists when they were discovered in the woman’s luggage at Dulles Airport. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
Found in the most unusual of places: zebra and giraffe bones in a traveler’s luggage at Washington Dulles International Airport.
Officials with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said last week that their agriculture specialists discovered the animal bones in the baggage of a woman from Fauquier County, Va. She told authorities she’d found them while in Kenya and kept them as souvenirs.
Having such bones is a violation of the Endangered Species and Lacey acts, along with parts of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Customs officials seized the bones on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“There are certain import and export rules that have to be followed when you’re transporting wildlife products that are protected — you have to get certain permits,” said Stephen Sapp, a spokesman for the customs and border protection agency.
Sapp said the woman told authorities she was on a trip and found them along a riverside at a property in Kenya and that the owner of the property told her she could have them. But Sapp said even though the owner said she could take them she still would have had to follow laws on importing and exporting wildlife items.
In a Twitter message, Stephen Maloney — director of field operations for the customs and border protection Baltimore field office — said, “Here’s something you don’t see everyday.” Under a photo of the bones that were seized, officials wrote, “Make No Bones About It — These Bones are Prohibited.”
The woman’s name was not released because she wasn’t criminally charged in the incident, which happened in mid-November.
She had at first declared that she had a small acacia tree twig. But after customs officials X-rayed her baggage and found “an anomaly,” authorities said, she then declared that she had the zebra and giraffe bones.
A machete, a crystal meth burrito and other items spotted by TSA
The traveler was released after officials got the bones. The acacia tree twig was allowed, officials said.
Kim Der-Yeghiayan, acting area port director of the border control’s area port of Washington, D.C., warned travelers to be careful about what items they try to bring along their travels. Typically, transportation and customs officials are dealing with people carrying weapons, firearms, fruits or pets on planes but rarely bones, authorities said.
In a statement, Der-Yeghiayan said, “I can appreciate travelers wanting to keep souvenirs of their vacations, but those souvenirs could violate United States or international law, or potentially expose our families, pets or our nation’s agriculture industries to serious animal or plant diseases.” | 2022-12-19T17:24:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Zebra and giraffe bones found in luggage at Dulles Airport - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/zebra-giraffe-bones-found-travelers-luggage-dulles-airport/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/zebra-giraffe-bones-found-travelers-luggage-dulles-airport/ |
Erdogan may have just made the biggest mistake of his political career
By Asli Aydintasbas
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a ceremony to mark an increase in capacity at a natural gas storage facility in Silivri near Istanbul on Dec. 16. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan knows a thing or two about winning elections — for example, that the best way to secure a victory is to win before the election date.
On Dec. 14, a Turkish court sentenced Erdogan’s most formidable opponent, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, to two years and seven months in prison. The court (part of a judiciary system largely controlled by the president) also subjected Imamoglu to a political ban. The younger and energetic mayor clearly poses a real threat to Erdogan, whose popularity is sagging as the country prepares for 2023 elections. The president’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is showing a significant decline in support in polls, and Turkey’s economy is facing hyperinflation that can be managed only by cash flows from friendly powers such as Russia or the Gulf Arab states.
Erdogan has always been a zero-sum politician, willing to resort to almost any means to neutralize his rivals. Yet his attempt to eliminate Imamoglu from the running comes with unprecedented risks — and it could easily backfire if the opposition plays its cards smartly.
The race in Turkey is not over by any means. The Imamoglu decision doesn’t go into effect until it is approved by an appeals court. The opposition camp — six parties that have created a united bloc — would be well-advised to respond to the president’s move by rallying behind the mayor or even considering designating Imamoglu as its candidate.
Technically, of course, the court decision was the product of Turkey’s supposedly independent judiciary, though no one doubts that it came from above. The case itself is Kafkaesque even by Turkish standards. Imamoglu is accused of insulting the judiciary when he described the authorities’ highly suspect maneuverings after the 2019 local elections as an act of “foolishness.”
If a higher court should decide to uphold the ban on Imamoglu in the next few months, the public is likely to react with anger. The opposition’s gambit would pay off. Turkish voters have traditionally punished attempts to overtly meddle with elections. That could make the Dec. 14 decision a blessing in disguise for the opposition if it shows a willingness to take bold steps.
Of course, Erdogan has other moves up his sleeve, and the Imamoglu ban is only one of a series of steps to shape the political playing field ahead of elections. After 20 years in power, and having made many enemies, Erdogan has a lot to lose. Eliminating your key rival is just a start. Turkey’s recently adopted “disinformation bill,” which, critics say, has the potential to restrict free speech and the flow of information on social media, is another risky move.
Erdogan is also playing a skillful hand in geopolitics in ways that he hopes will secure his hold on power in Turkey. He has profited economically and geopolitically from the war in Ukraine by keeping Turkey almost neutral between the West and Russia, in what he calls a “balanced” policy. Turkey is selling drones to Ukraine and helped secure the deal on Ukrainian grain exports. But it has tripled its trade with Russia, and capital inflows from unknown sources to Central Bank coffers — in the vicinity of $28 billion — have prevented an expected balance-of-payments crisis. That, in turn, has enabled the government to disburse new handouts to the public.
The Turkish president is also hoping that he can persuade Vladimir Putin to greenlight another Turkish incursion into Syria right before the upcoming elections — in the hope that this would demoralize or peel off Kurdish voters from the opposition camp by creating a hyper-nationalized atmosphere. Putin may well be open to that.
Yet even though Erdogan remains a master tactician, there are signs he has lost the people’s touch. He is giving his foremost rival an opportunity to follow his own path to political power. Back in 1998, when he was mayor of Istanbul, Erdogan ran afoul of the government, which removed him from power and served four months in jail. Turkish voters never forgave that infringement on their will and brought him back as the winner of the general elections in 2002. He is now giving Imamoglu the opportunity to follow a similar trajectory.
Last week’s decision reeks of anxiety and could become a fatal error of judgment for the Turkish government — if the opposition can manage to make the right moves. Whether Erdogan wins or loses in 2023 likely depends on how bold his rivals are. The majority of Turks clearly want change. This election is for Erdogan to win — and the opposition to lose.
Opinion|Dissolving Iran’s morality police won’t change much of anything | 2022-12-19T17:25:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Erdogan's latest move against Turkey's opposition is fraught with risk - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/erdogan-imamoglu-elections-high-risk/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/erdogan-imamoglu-elections-high-risk/ |
‘Sea monster’ graveyard mystery solved? Fossils offer signs of 230-million-year-old migration.
Adult and newly born ichthyosaurs called Shonisaurus gather in the Triassic seas more than 200 million years ago in this illustration. (Gabriel Ugueto)
Fossil experts believe they have solved a decades-old mystery: How did at least 37 school-bus-size marine reptiles die and become embedded in stone about 230 million years ago in what is now central Nevada? If the scientists from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and other institutions are correct, the fossil graveyard near an old silver mine represents an early example of migration, one of the most fundamental and deeply ingrained of all animal behaviors.
The bones found at the Nevada site come from the giant ichthyosaur Shonisaurus, which resembled an enormous, out-of-shape dolphin. Shonisaurus glided barge-like thousands of miles through an ocean known as Panthalassa, the ancient version of today’s Pacific, to breed and deliver their offspring, according to a new study in Current Biology.
The finding offers a rare window into the behaviors of prehistoric animals, something that is not always captured by individual fossils. It raises the possibility that further clues embedded in sediment and soil may offer a deeper understanding of marine reptiles that inhabited the planet long before humans.
The earliest known evidence of migration dates back more than 300 million years to ancient Bandringa sharks with long spoon bill-shaped snouts and prehistoric fish with armored plates. Today billions of animals migrate, including species as diverse as hummingbirds and humpback whales, monarch butterflies and blue wildebeests.
If so, that behavior could link the prehistoric Shonisaurus, the largest creature to travel the oceans in the Triassic period, with modern giants — the blue whales observed today with their calves in the Gulf of California. Whales tend to migrate to warmer waters to give birth, then to cooler waters that are rich in nutrients.
“One has to wonder if the same ecological rules are at play even though there are over 200 million years between [whales and Shonisauruses],” said Nicholas D. Pyenson, one of the new paper’s authors who works in the department of paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History.
Sander, who was not involved in the study, added “I’m not entirely convinced. It’s a good idea but it’s awfully difficult to prove.”
The skeletons at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in West Union Canyon show that the Shonisaurus grew up to 50 feet, five times the length of a modern dolphin, and weighed about 22 tons, the equivalent of three large elephants. Their offspring were only a few feet long.
Charles L. Camp, a University of California at Berkeley paleontologist, was first to excavate the alternating layers of limestone and mudstone at the site in the 1950s. He immediately wondered what might account for the large cluster of Shonisaurus skeletons.
“He thought it might be a mass stranding,” like those involving whales, said Neil P. Kelley, another of the paper’s authors and an assistant professor in Vanderbilt University’s department of earth and environmental sciences.
They came to view migration as the most likely scenario after eliminating other possibilities. Testing the sediment revealed an absence of the mercury levels that would have signaled volcanic activity, which is believed to have caused the largest mass extinction 252 million years ago.
“Shonisaurus definitely occurs at other locations so the genus had a broad geographic range, and it is very reasonable that these large individuals traveled long distances, as most large marine vertebrates do today,” Kelley said. “It should be possible to gather additional data in the future which could test the hypotheses we present in the paper, including migration.” | 2022-12-19T17:25:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Sea monster’ fossils offer signs of ichthyosaur migration 230 million years ago - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/12/19/ichthyosaur-nevada-fossil-paleontology/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/12/19/ichthyosaur-nevada-fossil-paleontology/ |
FILE - Texas running back Bijan Robinson reacts after scoring against Kansas during the first half of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022, in Lawrence, Kan. Robinson was selected to The Associated Press All-America team released Monday, Dec. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley, File) (Colin E Braley/FR123678 AP) | 2022-12-19T17:25:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | All-American RB Bijan Robinson leaving Texas for NFL - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/all-american-rb-bijan-robinson-leaving-texas-for-nfl/2022/12/19/862ce736-7fc0-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/all-american-rb-bijan-robinson-leaving-texas-for-nfl/2022/12/19/862ce736-7fc0-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Las Vegas Raiders president on breaking barriers in the NFL
Sandra Douglass Morgan is the first Black woman to serve as an NFL president. On Wednesday, Jan. 4 at 12:00 p.m. ET, the Las Vegas Raiders leader will join Washington Post Live to discuss helming the franchise and the opportunities and challenges facing women in male-dominated fields.
President, Las Vegas Raiders | 2022-12-19T17:26:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Las Vegas Raiders president on breaking barriers in the NFL - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2023/01/04/las-vegas-raiders-president-breaking-barriers-nfl/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2023/01/04/las-vegas-raiders-president-breaking-barriers-nfl/ |
A former member of the union representing D.C. jail employees was arrested this weekend. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
A corrections officer at the D.C. jail is accused of spending thousands of dollars of union funds on a trip to New York where he caught a Broadway musical and an NBA game.
Andra Parker was chairman of the Department of Corrections Labor Committee from June 2018 to May 2019, according to a complaint unsealed Monday in D.C. federal court. He used the union’s bank account to spend $7,000 on a December 2018 trip to New York City for himself and three friends, prosecutors say, where they saw Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, watched the Washington Wizards play the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan and racked up a $4,000 bill at the Hilton Garden Inn Times Square.
The labor committee is part of the Fraternal Order of Police.
After booking flights from D.C., court records show Parker emailed Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations about whether there was space for people at a training program being held in New York that week. He was told the two-day event was already at capacity.
Prosecutors say Parker also spent union funds on other personal entertainment, including four tickets for a Sept. 25, 2018, Diana Ross concert at Strathmore in Bethesda, Md.
Parker was arrested Saturday on one count of wire fraud. As of Monday morning, he did not have an attorney listed in public court records.
A representative for the union could not be immediately reached for comment. | 2022-12-19T17:46:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Andra Parker, D.C. jail officer, accused of stealing union funds - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/parker-dc-jail-union-fraud/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/parker-dc-jail-union-fraud/ |
Liza Poris, an outreach specialist with the charity Friendship Place, with some of the items she distributes when checking on unhoused people in Washington. (John Kelly/The Washington Post)
Liza Poris is a bit like a shepherd whose flock is scattered all over Northwest D.C.
Poris is an outreach specialist with the nonprofit Friendship Place. Three days a week — more often in extreme weather — she travels up and down Wisconsin Avenue NW connecting with people who are living outside or who look like they might be. I spent time with her on a recent Tuesday afternoon.
The first place we stop is just behind the Welcome Center Friendship Place operates at 4713 Wisconsin Ave. NW. A few tents are pitched along the edge of Fort Reno Park. Most are empty now, or their inhabitants are zipped inside and stay there as Poris announces her arrival. But inside one is a man who’s been living here about a month, Poris says. She’s been visiting him regularly.
“I remember you said you wanted some food items,” Poris says to him. “I have some hand warmers, too.”
She hands him a paper bag with beef jerky, popcorn, tuna and crackers, hand warmers and face masks.
“Stay warm,” she says.
“I’m trying,” he responds.
Poris goes to her station wagon, which is loaded with blankets, hats, gloves and other essentials. She lifts up a puffy black cylinder. “These are really awesome,” she says. “It’s a jacket and a sleeping bag in one.”
We drive north to Friendship Heights, Poris scanning the street corners and pocket parks as we go. We park off Western Avenue then walk to the Whole Foods. Poris had seen a man panhandling out front earlier. He’s not here today so we circle back to the Chevy Chase Metro Building.
Is it hard, I ask Poris, to go up to strangers who are living in the most extreme conditions — who may be gripped by addiction or mental illness — and just start talking to them?
A little, she says.
“You just are the most yourself you can be,” Poris says. “When people see you being human, it allows them to be human.”
The goal of outreach is to build a relationship, to form a bond that over time will help usher an unhoused person to the Friendship Place Welcome Center. There, a case manager may be able to aid them on their path toward housing.
Poris knows not everyone will talk with her, not at first anyway.
“I've become a more patient person because of this job,” she says.
There is a man standing at a bus stop on Western Avenue, in the shadow of the big Metro bus bays. He’s wearing a torn Washington NFL jacket, a mask on his face, and is next to a wheelchair loaded with bags. Poris introduces herself and explains what she does: checks on people to see if they need anything.
“Do you stay here?” she asks.
The man in the football jacket says he does not. He stays in Greenbelt, he says, though it’s not clear if he’s in a shelter there, in a home or living on the streets. It’s his first time in Friendship Heights and it’s the first time Poris has met him.
She asks if there’s anything he needs: food, a blanket, hand warmers?
He says he’d like a blanket. Poris walks back to her car to get one.
“If he’s going to take a blanket,” she says, “it suggests he might not have a place to stay.”
This interaction might turn into something more. Poris tells him about the Welcome Center, how a nurse-practitioner from Unity Health Care comes on Monday afternoons, how there are washers and dryers at Friendship Place, too, in case he needs to do laundry.
Poris doesn’t want to force him, but she mentions that Thursday might be a good day for him to check out the Welcome Center. She’ll be there.
Maybe, he says.
“If I don’t come, you can meet me here,” he adds.
As we walk to the car, Poris says, “I think that went well. It seems like he’s interested. He was making a plan in his head. I’ll have him lead what our relationship will be.”
There are more people to visit — a man who is charging his phone in the lobby of the library near Tenley Circle; a woman who sits on a bus shelter bench, her possessions in neatly stacked black plastic file boxes — and Poris checks on each of them.
People who do outreach work say it can take months or years of such encounters before a person is ready to take the next step. These tiny moments build trust.
Poris thinks about the one new person she met today, the man in the football jacket.
“I do hope that he comes by,” she says.
And I do hope that you will consider donating to Friendship Place, a partner in our annual fundraising drive, The Washington Post Helping Hand.
To give online by credit card, visit posthelpinghand.com. To donate by mail, send a check to Friendship Place, 3655 Calvert St. NW, Washington, D.C., 20007. | 2022-12-19T18:08:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Friendship Place outreach team makes connections — slowly - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/friendship-place-street-outreach/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/friendship-place-street-outreach/ |
New York Democrats probably should have looked into George Santos more
New York congressman-elect George Santos speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Annual Leadership Meeting at the Venetian Las Vegas on Nov. 19. (David Becker/For The Washington Post)
It is not uncommon for it to be revealed that a candidate for election to the U.S. House inflated his résumé.
It is more uncommon for such revelations to come to light only after that individual has already won election, given that there is a period of several months before the election in which the candidate’s opponents would theoretically be scouring his background for any questionable comments or claims.
It is quite uncommon for a successful candidate to the House to be the subject of a lengthy post-election report detailing a wide range of apparent misrepresentations that went unnoticed before voters weighed in.
And it is without precedent that such a report should focus on one of the single-digits pickups for that candidate’s party in the election, pickups that gave the party a narrow majority in the chamber.
So the New York Times’s article about Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.), then, is quite an achievement — and, for Santos, one that comes with surprisingly solid evidence of its existence.
What the Times found when it dug into Santos’s background is pretty remarkable. According to the paper — and uncontested by Santos, who declined to speak to the Times — the incoming House freshman claimed to have attended two colleges that have no record of his enrollment, worked at two financial firms that couldn’t verify his employment, led a nonprofit that was never registered as a nonprofit and ran a company that has no public footprint. He did briefly live in Brazil, as claimed, but he failed to mention apparent criminal charges for check fraud during that residency.
Most of this escaped the notice of his Democratic opponent, Robert Zimmerman, facing off against Santos in New York’s 3rd Congressional District. The district backed Joe Biden by 9 points in 2020, but then backed Santos by about the same amount. The Long Island district was one of four seats that the GOP gained in New York, almost half of the nine seats the Republican Party gained nationally.
There are three payments listed in Zimmerman’s spending labeled as “research consulting,” sending $22,000 to a Maryland company called Deep Dive Political Research. The last payment was dated Sept. 1, about a week after Zimmerman won the Democratic primary with 36 percent of the vote. Speaking to Semafor, Zimmerman noted that he’d elevated some questions about Santos’s background, though he didn’t have most of the details.
Santos’s dubious background also apparently evaded the detection of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the arm of the party tasked with ensuring that its candidates win election. As Semafor noted, a research document created by the DCCC mentioned the dubious nonprofit, though not much else.
The reelection bid of the DCCC’s 2022 chair, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), also appears on the chart above. His 17th District was another one of the four seats the Republican Party picked up last month.
It’s certainly not clear that revelations about Santos’s unclear background would have derailed his election. His victory wasn’t particularly close, and happened on Long Island, where local Rep. Lee Zeldin’s (R) gubernatorial bid fared well. Had this information come to light, Santos would have had time to respond, certainly dampening any negative effect.
Regardless, it didn’t come to light, meaning that the House must now consider whether Santos’s apparent misrepresentations might affect his being sworn in.
That consideration will not take long, since it almost certainly won’t.
The Constitution articulates that the House can “be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members.” But that doesn’t mean the House can simply exclude people who’ve been elected. As The Washington Post explained in 2017, the chamber’s 1967 effort to exclude New York Rep. Adam Clayton Powell landed at the Supreme Court, which, in 1969, determined that the House could enforce its required qualifications — but couldn’t create new qualifications simply to allow it to block a new legislator.
The House can vote to remove members, of course. It could, for example, very quickly move to oust Santos once seated. But Santos will join a 118th Congress in which Republican control of the House is thin-to-the-point-of-transparency. Republican legislators are not going to want to remove a member of their caucus from a district that voted for Biden in 2020 simply because he inflated his background.
It’s possible that further revelations make Santos’s position untenable in other ways, but it’s safe to assume that the GOP’s bar for excluding him will be remarkably high. If Santos is a political liability going into 2024, of course, that calculus quickly changes.
Political coverage is full of what-if musings, ones that are often fairly abstract. Not here. Here, the question is concrete: how did Santos’s gauzy personal history never became an issue in the 2022 midterm elections? This will undoubtedly lead to a lot of finger pointing within a state party that’s reeling from its poor performance in 2022. It will also likely come up among Republicans who apparently failed to notice their candidate’s Achilles heel.
One thing seems fairly certain, however. For at least a little while, the only clear, provable, delineated job on Santos’s recent résumé will be “member of Congress.”
Meeting is probably Cheney’s last major appearance as lawmaker
5:50 PMWhat to know about criminal referrals | 2022-12-19T18:16:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New York Democrats probably should have looked into George Santos more - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/new-york-george-santos-republicans-house/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/new-york-george-santos-republicans-house/ |
Pandemic prep slated to be in funding package, but not a 9/11-style panel
By Rachel Roubein
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, leads a hearing on monkeypox on Capitol Hill in September. (Sarah Silbiger/The Washington Post)
Congress is expected to include the bulk of a plan to better prepare the country for the next pandemic in a sweeping package to fund the government through September, according to multiple people familiar with the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations.
But the legislation probably will not include an effort to establish an independent task force to probe the U.S. response to the pandemic amid a slew of partisan investigations in both chambers.
In January, the leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) — released their bipartisan plan to overhaul the country’s pandemic strategy, which included measures to improve disease data collection, bolster oversight of health agencies and establish a government panel modeled after the 9/11 Commission that would probe the origins of covid-19 and the resulting federal response.
Most of the legislation, known as the Prevent Pandemics Act, will be included in the government spending bill Congress could release as soon as today. Axios first reported the news. The bill is expected to include a measure requiring the Senate to confirm the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a Senate GOP aide. However, the measure requiring lawmakers representing both parties to choose a 12-member task force to probe the pandemic response will not be included in the package. The final text of the government spending package has not been released, meaning some provisions could still shift.
Burr and Murray had been pushing congressional leadership hard to include their pandemic bill in any year-end package, believing it would be more difficult to get passed next year. The legislation has added significance for Burr, who is planning to retire and wants to further cement his legacy on pandemic preparedness legislation. And the prospects for sweeping bipartisan legislation next year are dim, with Republicans controlling the House.
Some advocates and experts have said the bill is simply a down payment on what is needed to bolster the nation’s defenses for the next pandemic. In two recent reports, Democratic congressional investigators called for significant investments and large-scale changes to the nation’s pandemic response, such as increasing public health funding, clarifying federal agencies’ roles during an emergency and boosting the nation’s stockpiles of medical and protective supplies. | 2022-12-19T18:16:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pandemic prep slated to be in funding package, but not a 9/11-style panel - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/pandemic-prep-slated-be-funding-package-not-911-style-panel/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/pandemic-prep-slated-be-funding-package-not-911-style-panel/ |
Defining ‘Asian American’ is complicated. Who gets left behind?
Asian Americans have long debated who is included in their cohort. South Asians and Southeast Asians, among others, sometimes feel overlooked by the umbrella term.
By Meena Venkataramanan
(Tara Anand/For The Washington Post)
As a child, Christian Vongdara was often forced to explain his ethnicity to classmates and teachers in his hometown of South Sioux City, Neb.
He would tell them his parents were refugees from Laos, a Southeast Asian country east of Thailand and west of Vietnam. The first time he brought sien savanh, Lao beef jerky, for lunch to middle school, he explained to his peers how it was prepared.
But “I knew in the back of my mind they would immediately forget and just label me ‘another Asian,’ or more specifically, Chinese,” said Vongdara, 25. “When we [Laotians] mention to somebody, ‘Hey, we’re Asian,’ they’re thinking of more prominent countries like Japan, Korea, China.”
Just who counts as Asian American has long been the subject of debate within America’s fastest growing racial group. The umbrella term can create a sense of community, but it can also blur the unique cultures and histories of distinct Asian ethnicities. Asia, which encompasses over 17 million square miles, about 50 countries, more than 4.6 billion people and nearly 2,300 languages, is the largest continent on Earth by both area and population.
But who’s “Asian” can be harder to pin down.
“The Daily Show” comedian Ronny Chieng reignited the debate in October when he stood in front of a photograph of Rishi Sunak, the newly named Asian prime minister of Britain, and joked that “Indians are not Asians.” The audience erupted with laughter. Chieng, who is Malaysian Chinese, went on to criticize Indians for trying to “have it both ways,” imploring them to “pick a lane” between Asian and Indian.
Many Asian American viewers — in particular, South Asian Americans — took issue with Chieng’s comments.
“I know it’s a comedy show and it’s very lighthearted, but I feel like South Asians are often not regarded as Asian even though they’re part of the Asian subcontinent,” said Muskaan Arshad, a 19-year-old Indian American from Bentonville, Ark. “And I felt a little hurt that we weren’t regarded as part of the community just in its most basic form.”
Comedian Abby Govindan, 25, said that she is a big fan of Chieng’s comedy and that it inspired her own career. But perhaps Chieng needs a map to better understand the Asian continent, she joked in a video posted to Twitter with the hashtag #MapsForRonny. The clip has been viewed more than 41,000 times. Asians around the world should “unite against a common enemy,” such as anti-Asian hate, instead of continuing to “fight amongst each other,” she told The Washington Post.
Chieng’s publicist, Sam Srinivasan, declined to comment on criticisms of Chieng’s remarks, writing in an email that she is South Asian and has worked with Chieng “for many years and will continue to proudly.”
South Asian Americans, particularly with ancestry in India and Pakistan, find it “challenging” to be seen as Asian American in the United States, according to the 2016 National Asian American Survey. The survey found that 42 percent of White Americans surveyed viewed Indians as “not likely to be Asian/Asian American,” and 45 percent expressed the same view of Pakistanis. Even some Asian American respondents don’t consider South Asians as part of their cohort.
Raised to identify as Black, Harris steps into role as a voice for Asian Americans amid rise in hate incidents
When President Biden picked Kamala D. Harris to be his vice president, media coverage of the announcement largely focused on the historic nature of having a Black woman in the White House. But fewer outlets acknowledged that she would also be the first Asian American in the position. Harris was raised by her Indian mother to identify as Black, but over time, she became more vocal about her Asian heritage. When she accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president in 2020, she told audiences, “Family is my uncles, my aunts and my chittis,” using the Tamil word for aunt.
The term “Asian American” was coined in 1968 by graduate students in California who founded the Asian American Political Alliance.
It “was partly a response to the way we had been perceived as the other, the Oriental,” said Renee Tajima-Peña, a professor of Asian American studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. “It was a declaration of our self-identity.”
It wasn’t until 2016 that President Barack Obama signed into law a measure to stop the federal government from using the word “Oriental,” an offensive term to describe Asians.
The term ‘Asian American’ was meant to create a collective identity. What does that mean in 2018?
Many Americans’ understanding of “Asian American” is shaped by the history of Asian immigration to the United States — which began primarily with Chinese immigrants. So they assume the term refers to “East Asian,” a descriptor that includes Chinese, Japanese and Korean people, said Tajima-Peña. But, she said, Filipinos also immigrated in large numbers in the early 20th century, and they make up the third-largest share of Asians in the United States.
Meanwhile, in Britain, which has a deep history of colonialism in the Indian subcontinent, she pointed out, “Asian” implies South Asian: mainly Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants and their descendants.
The umbrella term obscures the complexity of the community, said more than a dozen Asian Americans who spoke to The Washington Post, reaffirming stereotypes such as the “model minority” and the assumption that all Asian Americans are high-achieving and financially successful. It’s unfair to lump Burmese Americans and Hmong Americans, who have some of the highest poverty rates and lowest incomes of any Asian ethnic group in the United States, with Indian and Filipino Americans, who have some of the lowest poverty rates and highest incomes among Asian ethnic groups, they say.
The ‘model minority’ myth hurts Asian Americans – and even leads to violence
“It really homogenizes Asian American identity to be one thing when it really isn’t,” said Arshad, the Indian American student from Bentonville.
The distinct immigration histories of various groups can also get lost under the label “Asian American,” said Thu Pham, a 21-year-old college student whose parents came to the United States as Vietnamese refugees. Their post-Vietnam War immigration story is often overlooked in dominant narratives about Asian Americans who immigrated for purely economic reasons, she said.
“In college, I didn’t really go to a lot of the pan-Asian affinity groups just because I felt like it was very overwhelmingly East Asian, and I felt like I couldn’t relate to a lot of aspects, like, for example, how our parents came to the U.S.,” Pham said.
But Pham said there is a relative privilege to being Vietnamese American. “There’s a higher chance of [non-Asians] knowing about Vietnamese” identity in comparison to those of Lao, Cambodian or Hmong heritage, she said.
Some Asian Americans of mixed heritage say the term can also leave them feeling lost. Nina Ong, a 23-year-old Vietnamese and Chinese American, said she was raised with the “values and traditions” of the former ethnicity, but the term “Asian American” implicitly associates her with being Chinese.
Harvard’s Asian American Association is trying to be more inclusive of multiethnic, multiracial and non-East Asian students, including by celebrating holidays such as Diwali and Eid, said Kylan Tatum, 19, who is Black and Chinese American and co-president of the group.
The push to observe Diwali in the U.S. — and why some remain skeptical
An alphabet soup of acronyms has also emerged to bridge the gaps. In recent years, AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander), APIDA (Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi American), and AANHPI (Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander) have become more commonplace.
They are a welcome attempt at bringing more parts of the Asian American community into the conversation, said Sangay Mishra, an associate professor of political science and international relations at Drew University. But, he said, these acronyms must be paired with meaningful action.
“It’s not so much about nomenclature,” he said. “It’s more about [whether] these associations or spaces make an effort to actually highlight South Asian experience, highlight Filipino experience, highlight Pacific Islander experience.”
Other acronyms like URM, or underrepresented minority, exclude some Asian Americans, said Truong Nguyen. The 21-year-old Vietnamese American recalls wanting to apply to a research program for URM students when he learned the term did not include Asian Americans as an underrepresented minority and exclusively referred to Black, Latino and Indigenous students.
“Southeast Asians are underrepresented in STEM fields and in higher education, but because of the umbrella term ‘Asian American,’ … I couldn’t apply,” he said.
Banding together as Asian Americans gives the community a “chance to think about what our relationship is to other communities of color, like Black and Latinx communities,” said Bakirathi Mani, an English professor and co-director of Asian American studies at Swarthmore College.
When Marcus Magsayo, 20, a Filipino American college student, put together a large cultural event with Filipino leche flan, he learned his Latino friends also eat a version of the caramel dessert. Spain colonized both the Philippines and almost all of Latin America for more than 300 years. This connection through food — and Spanish colonialism — was an opportunity to build cross-cultural solidarity among Asian and Latino communities, said Magsayo.
The long, ugly history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S.
Given the diversity of the Asian American community, finding a common denominator can be difficult.
There isn’t a shared language or immigration history, Mani said. Instead, “I think what brings us together is this experience of being racialized in the United States … [and being] minoritized in this country.” | 2022-12-19T18:51:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Defining ‘Asian American’ is complicated. Who gets left behind? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/19/asian-american-identity-meaning/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/19/asian-american-identity-meaning/ |
Asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs triggered ‘megatsunami,’ with mile-high waves
For the first time, scientists were able to simulate the tsunami that struck 66 million years ago
October 19, 2022 at 4:18 p.m. EDT
Researchers have modeled the tsunami created by the nine-mile-wide asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs 66 million years ago. (Video: University of Michigan)
Sixty-six-million years ago, a nearly nine-mile-wide asteroid collided with Earth, sparking a mass extinction that wiped out most dinosaurs and three-quarters of the planet’s plant and animal species. Now we’re learning that the Chicxulub asteroid also generated a massive “megatsunami” with waves more than a mile high.
A study, published in AGU Advances, recently allowed scientists to reconstruct the asteroid’s impact. Scientists were able to estimate the extreme effects of the collision, which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico just north of what’s presently the Yucatán Peninsula and caused a global tsunami that brought flooding around the world.
In addition to helping piece together details about the end of the dinosaurs, researchers said the findings offered insight into the geology of the end of the Cretaceous period.
“This was a global tsunami,” said Molly Range, a scientist at the University of Michigan and the study’s corresponding researcher. “All of the world did see this.”
NASA reports smashing success with asteroid redirection test
Like a rock in a puddle
Following the asteroid’s impact, there would be extreme rises in water level in two phases, the team found: the rim wave and subsequent tsunami waves.
“If you just dropped a rock in a puddle, there’s that initial splash; that’s the rim wave,” Range said.
These rim waves could have reached an inconceivable height of one mile — and that’s before the tsunami really gets going, the paper estimates.
“Then you see a wedge effect with the water being pushed symmetrically away [from the impact site],” in the Gulf of Mexico, Range said,
After the first 10 minutes post-impact, all of the airborne debris associated with the asteroid stopped falling into the Gulf and displacing water.
“It had calmed down enough and the crater had formed,” Range said. That’s around the time the tsunami began racing across the ocean at the speed of a commercial jetliner.
“The continents looked a little bit different,” Range said. “Most of the East Coast of North America and the north coast of Africa easily saw 8 meter-plus waves. There was no land between North and South America, so the wave went into the Pacific.”
Range compared the episode to the infamous Sumatra Tsunami in 2004 that followed a 9.2-magnitude earthquake on the west coast of northern Sumatra. More than 200,000 people perished in that.
The megatsunami more than 60 million years ago had 30,000 times more energy than what occurred in 2004, Range said.
Simulating a tsunami
To simulate the megatsunami, the team of scientists used a hydrocode — a 3D computer program that models the behavior of fluids. Hydrocode programs work by digitally breaking the system into a series of small Lego-like blocks, and then calculating forces acting on it in three dimensions.
The researchers drew on previous research and assumed the meteor had a diameter of 8.7 miles and a density of about 165 pounds per cubic foot — roughly the weight of an average adult male crammed within a volume the size of a milk crate. That means the entire asteroid probably weighed about two quadrillion pounds — that’s a 2 followed by 15 zeros.
After the hydrocode produced a simulation of the initial stages of impact and first 10 minutes of the tsunami, the modeling was turned over to a pair of NOAA-developed models to handle tsunami propagation throughout the global oceans. The first was called MOM6.
“Initially we started using the MOM6 model that is an all-purpose ocean model, not just a tsunami model,” Range said. The team was forced to make assumptions about the bathymetry, or shape and slope of the sea floor, as well as the ocean’s depth and the structure of the asteroid crater. That information, along with the tsunami waveform from the hydrocode model, were pumped into MOM6.
In addition to building a model, the study researchers reviewed geologic evidence to study the tsunami’s path and power.
Range’s co-author, Ted Moore, found evidence of major disruptions in the layering of sediment at plateaus in the ocean and coastlines at more than 100 sites, supporting results from the study’s model simulations.
The modeling predicted tsunami flow velocities of 20 centimeters per second along most shorelines worldwide, more than sufficient to disturb and erode sediment.
The researchers said the geologic findings added confidence to their model simulations. | 2022-12-19T18:56:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs caused a ‘megatsunami’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/19/tsunami-dinosaur-meteor-extinction-waves/?utm_source=digg | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/19/tsunami-dinosaur-meteor-extinction-waves/?utm_source=digg |
“Avatar: The Way of Water” grossed $134 million domestically over its opening weekend. (20th Century Studios via AP)
If the past few days are any indication, it looks like the hottest travel destination this winter might be Pandora, the mysterious Earth-like world in which James Cameron’s Avatar films take place.
“Avatar: The Way of Water,” the second entry in the director’s carefully plotted franchise, debuted this weekend at the top of the domestic box office, where it earned $134 million, according to data from Box Office Mojo. The film also captivated global audiences, earning an additional $300.5 million overseas.
The “Avatar” sequel arrived in theaters 13 years after its predecessor, which made $2.92 billion across the globe and remains the top-grossing theatrical release of all time. (“Avatar” was briefly displaced by 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” but reclaimed the crown last year with a rerelease in China.) Cameron is a fixture on that all-time list; his 1997 landmark film “Titanic” still ranks third, at $2.2 billion.
Given his past achievements, Cameron was trusted with an enormous budget for “Avatar: The Way of Water.” He told GQ last month that the film, which he has been working on since 2013, would need to be “the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history” to be considered profitable.
He said he told the studio this was “the worst business case in movie history.”
The domestic earnings did fall short of opening-weekend expectations, whether in terms of the $175 million that industry analysts predicted or distributor Disney’s more modest $135 to $150 million range, according to CNBC. The $134 million sum tied with “The Batman” as the fifth-biggest domestic opening this year. But the “Avatar” sequel’s earnings could still build over the holidays.
The film has received mixed to positive reviews from critics, the more passionate of whom, such as New York magazine’s Bilge Ebiri, praised the director’s ability to balance sentimentality and brutality in service of a larger message: “Cameron’s divided self finds its fullest expression on Pandora,” Ebiri wrote in his review, “not just because he can create vast new worlds and matrices of spiritually interconnected beings but also because he can fight battles he can’t fight elsewhere.”
Others, such as The Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday, were mixed on the film. In her two-star review, Hornaday wrote that it “is frequently clunky and ham-handed in its storytelling, and the words spoken by its characters — human, humanoid and in between — aren’t particularly memorable. But there’s no denying the power of images that can only be described as transporting — literally and figuratively.” | 2022-12-19T18:56:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Avatar’ sequel dominates box office but falls short of expectations - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/12/19/avatar-way-water-box-office/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/12/19/avatar-way-water-box-office/ |
Ghana is learning the hard way why oil can be a blessing and a curse. The onset of commercial crude production helped turn the West African nation into one of the continent’s top investment destinations, but also prompted successive governments to borrow to the hilt. Skittish investors offloaded Ghana’s bonds and currency, the cedi, amid doubts over its ability to settle its debts. The concern proved to be well-founded: In late November, the government said international bond holders would be asked to accept losses of as much as 30% on their principal loans and forgo some interest as it tries to secure a $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.
The government abandoned fiscal discipline and opened the spending taps in anticipation of an oil windfall. But energy revenue wasn’t enough to cover a succession of expensive flagship projects, and it borrowed more to plug the gap. Overspending was particularly rife in election years. President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration has scrapped fees for senior high school students. In 2021, the government spent $1 billion on refinancing loans owed by private power producers, a move that was intended to reduce the state’s electricity bills. A plan to strengthen a banking industry weakened by bad loans has cost more than 25 billion cedis ($1.7 billion), and an estimated 8 billion cedis more is needed to complete the process. Covid-19 dealt a further blow to the state’s already stretched finances. After selling eurobonds for each of the previous nine years, Ghana was shut out of international capital markets in 2022 as investors lost faith in its ability to service its loans. The government shunned an initiative that would have enabled it to suspend interest payments and vowed not to ask for further support from the IMF, before changing its tune in July 2022.
State debt ballooned to 467.4 billion cedis at the end of September, representing 75.9% of GDP, up from 68.3% five years earlier. When it could no longer tap international markets, the government resorted to taking out domestic loans, paying annual interest rates of almost 30%. The central bank stepped in to provide the government with funding after it risked defaulting on the local debt, but it plans to limit further support to stay within its legal lending threshold. Lawmakers want Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to take the fall for the economic crisis and have called for his dismissal.
4. How have investors responded to the meltdown?
There’s been an exodus from the currency and bond markets. The cedi’s decline of more than 57% between January and late November 2022 made it the world’s worst performer. The premium investors demand to hold the country’s dollar bonds rather than US Treasuries exceeds 3,000 basis points, well above the 1,000 level that signals distress. Fitch Ratings downgraded its assessment of Ghanaian credit to four levels below investment grade in September, the third cut in 2022.
5. What are the authorities doing to address the situation?
In late October, Akufo-Addo dismissed speculation that an IMF funding deal could translate into losses for any of Ghana’s creditors, but his administration changed course a month later and said it would enter into restructuring negotiations. In addition to the planned debt haircut, the government was also pushing for a suspension of interest payments on foreign bonds for three years, according to Deputy Minister of Finance John Kumah. Domestic debt investors would be asked to exchange existing securities for new ones that may offer a zero coupon in the first year, 5% in the second and 10% in the third. The president has pledged to restore financial discipline by reducing total public debt to 55% of gross domestic product by 2028 and peg external debt-servicing costs to no more than 18% of annual revenue by that year. The Bank of Ghana raised its key lending rate by 10 percentage points to 24.5% in the first 10 months of 2022 to support the currency and help tame runaway inflation. Ghana’s vice president, Mahamudu Bawumia, announced that the government is considering using gold to buy oil products to stem demand for foreign exchange and support the cedi.
--With assistance from Moses Mozart Dzawu, Yinka Ibukun and Paul Richardson. | 2022-12-19T18:56:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Ghana Went From Hero to Zero for Investors - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/why-ghana-went-from-hero-to-zero-for-investors/2022/12/19/72e00608-7fc1-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/why-ghana-went-from-hero-to-zero-for-investors/2022/12/19/72e00608-7fc1-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Republican officials ask Supreme Court to preserve Title 42 border policy
Venezuelan migrants, some expelled from the United States under Title 42, stand at a camp on the banks of the Rio Bravo in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on Nov. 21. (Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)
Republican officials from 19 states have asked the Supreme Court to keep in place a pandemic-era policy that allows the government to quickly expel millions of migrants from U.S. borders, Arizona’s attorney general said Monday.
The request comes after a federal appeals court in Washington last week paved the way for the Biden administration to end the policy on Dec. 21, and to once again allow migrants who cross the southern border illegally to seek asylum without the risk of being expelled.
More than 2.4 million people have been expelled, mostly from the southern border, since the Trump administration first imposed the emergency order known as Title 42 in March 2020, saying it was intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“Getting rid of Title 42 will recklessly and needlessly endanger more Americans and migrants by exacerbating the catastrophe that is occurring at our southern border,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) said in a statement announcing the emergency request to the Supreme Court.
Immigrant advocates went to court seeking to fully reopen the borders and restore asylum proceedings, saying there was no evidence the policy protected public health and that it placed migrants — who otherwise would be able to seek protection in the United States — in extreme danger. The Biden administration has agreed the policy should cease. But the case comes as the Department of Homeland Security is struggling to deal with an influx of migrants that officials anticipate will increase in the coming weeks if the administration is allowed to eliminate the policy.
U.S. arrests along Mexico border top 2 million a year for first time
Republican officials from states including Arizona, Texas and Virginia had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to block the Biden administration’s plans to terminate the policy and to intervene in the case filed on behalf of migrant families. The officials said a large increase in migrants on the border would burden their states with added costs for law enforcement and to provide services such as health care.
A three-judge panel refused the states’ request, saying it was filed too late and noting that the lawsuit had been pending for nearly two years.
“The inordinate and unexplained untimeliness of the States’ motion to intervene on appeal weighs decisively against intervention,” said the unsigned order from a panel that included judges nominated by presidents of both parties. Judge Florence Pan is a Biden nominee; Judge Justin Walker a Trump pick; and Judge Patricia Millett, an Obama nominee.
Title 42 has allowed U.S. officials to regulate migration by expelling migrants, often within minutes of their arrival. Formal deportation hearings, in contrast, can take months or years in backlogged immigration courts, and once immigrants are in the country, it can be difficult for authorities to find and remove them. About 69,000 of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country were deported last year, federal data show.
In vacating the policy last month, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in the District of Columbia wrote that federal officials knew Title 42 “would likely expel migrants to locations with a ‘high probability’ of ‘persecution, torture, violent assaults, or rape’” — but they implemented the program nevertheless.
“It is unreasonable for the CDC to assume that it can ignore the consequences of any actions it chooses to take in the pursuit of fulfilling its goals,” Sullivan wrote. “It is undisputed that the impact on migrants was indeed dire.”
Homeland Security officials have warned that lifting Title 42 will not end immigration enforcement. Anyone ineligible for asylum could be prosecuted for the crime of crossing the border illegally, which typically does not happen with expulsions, and then deported and banned from reentering for five years.
Officials said earlier this year that they are preparing for as many as 18,000 arrivals a day, more than double current numbers, if Title 42 ends. But a federal official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal figures said last week that officials are estimating that the daily influx would range from 9,000 to 14,000.
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser issued a disaster declaration on Saturday in anticipation of Title 42 ending. The region is one of the busiest stretches on the U.S.-Mexico border, with thousands of migrants lining up in hopes of being allowed to stay.
Leeser, a Democrat, expressed concern that more migrants could end up on the streets in near-freezing nighttime temperatures, and said the city’s shelter and transportation networks are straining to keep up with the influx.
“There are significant public safety and security concerns related to the wave of migration, including but not limited to the risk of injury or loss of life with migrants in El Paso streets with little or no resources, “ Leeser said in the declaration.
Even with Title 42 in place, the U.S. government has been granting exceptions to more migrants. U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s El Paso sector, which runs from west Texas into New Mexico, took 53,284 migrants into custody in October, and expelled one third, federal records show. | 2022-12-19T19:48:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Republican officials ask Supreme Court to preserve Title 42 border policy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/title-42-supreme-court-border-el-paso/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/title-42-supreme-court-border-el-paso/ |
FedEx Field in Landover, Md., where the Washington Commanders are committed to playing home games until 2027. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
RICHMOND — The Washington Commanders may yet be welcome in Virginia, as Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has proposed spending $500,000 to study ways to encourage the NFL franchise to build a stadium in the state after lawmakers rebuffed the team earlier this year.
Youngkin included the expenditure among a package of budget amendments he proposed to the General Assembly last week. The money would not come until 2024, the second year of the state’s current two-year spending plan, suggesting that the governor is positioning for the possibility that Commanders owner Daniel Snyder will have sold the team by then.
A spokeswoman for Youngkin did not comment on the timing, but noted that Youngkin has said before that he hoped to work with lawmakers next year to explore another stadium deal. “The governor will always put the best interests of Virginia’s taxpayers first,” spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said via text message.
State Senate leader gives up on a bill to bring Commanders to Virginia
Virginia lawmakers rejected a variety of stadium incentive deals early this year amid controversy over accusations against Snyder of sexual improprieties and sexual misconduct, all of which he has denied.
Officials in Maryland and the District also bowed out of the effort to woo the team. The Commanders are committed to playing at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., until 2027 but are hoping to build a new facility somewhere in the region.
Earlier this year, Snyder — who has been the subject of NFL and congressional investigations — signaled that he is exploring the sale of all or part of the team. That could provide a reset for area officials to reconsider a deal.
“I don’t see any downside in continuing to gather information regardless of the team’s ownership discussions,” state Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D- Fairfax), whose district includes a potential stadium site, said via email. “It is a $3 billion entertainment complex that would be a major economic catalyst and have a major positive impact on quality of life in Eastern Prince William County if it is done correctly.
In the 2022 General Assembly session, Virginia lawmakers debated incentive packages that ranged as high as $1 billion to lure a stadium development complex that could also include a convention center, retail, hotels, restaurants and housing. Early proposals would have allowed the team to take a share of the state tax revenue generated by the site.
Lawmakers trimmed the potential deal to the $300 million range until even its bipartisan sponsors backed away in the face of public disapproval of Snyder’s ownership.
New ownership could reopen the door to a new Commanders stadium
The new Virginia proposal would have to be approved by the General Assembly, which convenes its next session on Jan. 11. According to the language of Youngkin’s suggested budget amendment, the money would be used to “develop relevant capabilities, conduct planning, and evaluate potential economic incentives related to the relocation of the Washington Commanders to the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
It adds that “any package of potential incentives, including the establishment of a potential Stadium Authority, shall be developed in the best interest of Virginia taxpayers.”
Youngkin has voiced support for developing a pro football stadium in the past.
The team has pursued potential sites with local governments in Loudoun and Prince William counties. Loudoun officials have worked with the Commanders to consider locating at the Waterside development, while the team has acquired the rights to purchase a 200-acre site in Woodbridge in Prince William.
Maryland’s legislature approved a $400 million deal earlier this year to develop an area around the current stadium in Landover but declined to provide any assistance for building a new stadium. Members of the D.C. Council, meanwhile, have voiced support for developing the site of the team’s old RFK Stadium, but primarily as housing; they opposed helping Snyder build a new facility. | 2022-12-19T19:57:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Commanders stadium could get another look in Virginia in Youngkin budget - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/commanders-virginia-youngkin-stadium-budget/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/commanders-virginia-youngkin-stadium-budget/ |
Read the summary of the Jan. 6 committee report
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has issued the first part of its final report — the culmination of the committee’s investigation over more than a year and half, including more than 1,000 interviews.
The full report, consisting of eight chapters, will be released later this week. The committee also plans to share video summaries of the evidence they’ve gathered.
This first section provides an overview of the committee’s findings about Donald Trump and his allies’ multipronged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. It also outlines the committee’s reasons for making criminal referrals to the Justice Department for Trump and others.
You can read it here:
Read Introductory Material to the Final Report of the Jan. 6 Select Committee | 2022-12-19T19:57:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Read the summary of the Jan. 6 committee report - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/19/jan-6-report-summary-pdf/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/19/jan-6-report-summary-pdf/ |
7 things we learned from the Jan. 6 committee report so far
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 19: A person walks down a hallway in the Cannon House Office Building where the January 6th Committee was to meet for their last session later in the day on Monday December 19, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Conspiracy to defraud the United States (18 U.S.C. § 371): By citing this law to make a criminal referral of Trump, Eastman and others, the committee says that Trump did not work alone to commit the above offense. The committee refers Trump, Eastman and others based on this law. The committee did not “attempt to determine all of the potential participants in this conspiracy, as our understanding of the role of many individuals may be incomplete even today because they refuse to answer our questions,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) during Monday’s hearing.
Conspiracy to make a false statement (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1001): This concerns the so-called “fake electors” plot. The committee alleges that Trump conspired with others to submit to Congress and the National Archives alternate slates of Trump electors from key states, which in some cases involved falsely asserting in a legal document that they had been duly elected. Some of the fake electors themselves have faced legal scrutiny because of this.
“Incite,” “assist” or provide “aid and comfort” an insurrection (18 U.S.C. § 2383): Trump was impeached for his alleged incitement of the mob but was later acquitted, despite a historic number of crossover votes by Republicans. The committee suggests Trump and others, through actions before and during the riot, satisfied each of the quoted words.
The committee has repeatedly pointed to Trump not only being negligent on Jan. 6, but perhaps approving of the violence that day (or at least perceiving some advantage in it). And the final report adds more details on that front. '
Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks texted a campaign aide during the riot that, on Jan. 4 and 5, she’d said Trump should preemptively call on those attending his speech on the Ellipse to be peaceful: “I suggested it several times Monday and Tuesday and he refused.” The request (which she did not make to Trump personally) fell upon deaf ears.
Hicks also testified that White House lawyer Eric Herschmann made a similar request — in his case, to Trump himself, according to the committee.
This builds on what we’d already learned about Trump’s attitude to the riot as violence unfolded. Both Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) and former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney have said that Trump lamented that members of Congress weren’t as upset as the mob. White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson has testified that Trump was aware that people who attended his speech before the riot were armed, before he told them to march to the Capitol anyway. And White House aide Sarah Matthews has said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told her that Trump didn’t want to call on the rioters to be peaceful — though he was ultimately prevailed upon by his daughter, Ivanka Trump.
MCENANY: I specifically referenced waving him off of the Dominion theory earlier in my testimony. …
Q: Are you saying you think he still continued to tweet that after you waved him off of it?
MCENANY: Yeah …
5. Giuliani ‘outrageous lies’ and being locked out of Stepien’s office
And during the hearing Monday Rep. Zoe Logren (D-Calif.) indicated there was new evidence of this. Some of the quarter of a billion dollars which Trump raised using false stolen-election claims was used to hire lawyers, she said. Those lawyers took actions that the committee found concerning. | 2022-12-19T19:57:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 7 takeaways from the Jan. 6 committee's final reporting and last meeting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/19/takeaways-jan-6-committee-report-introduction/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/19/takeaways-jan-6-committee-report-introduction/ |
The Freedom Caucus is restoring the framers’ objectives
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and other members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus on Dec. 13 at the Capitol. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)
In his Dec. 15 op-ed, “How right-wing Republicans could bolster our democracy,” Dan Lipinski, a Democratic U.S. House member from 2005 to 2021, argued that little actual deliberation occurs anymore in the House. And, ironically, members of the authoritarian House Freedom Caucus might be helping to correct this situation by “leveraging their votes for speaker to push for the diminishment of the imperial speakership and a return of power to individual members and committees.”
Mr. Lipinski argued that the framers’ intentions have been foiled over time: Real lawmaking is now done by House leaders and under the auspices of the House speaker. Committees, where debating over legislation ought to take place, often get bypassed in the formulation of law.
Should you ever wonder whether your vote for your congressperson has any real effect, Mr. Lipinski's seasoned perspective should go a long way toward providing an answer. And it might even give you some grudging respect for members of the Freedom Caucus as they attempt to restore the framers' original objective.
Stan Pearson, Newport News, Va. | 2022-12-19T20:27:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Freedom Caucus is restoring the Framers’ objectives - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/freedom-caucus-is-restoring-framers-objectives/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/freedom-caucus-is-restoring-framers-objectives/ |
Immigrants must be seen as more than the jobs they fill
A help wanted sign on Nov. 1 in Bedford, N.Y. (Julia Nikhinson/Associated Press)
Though I appreciated the data and information presented in the Dec. 16 front-page article “Migrant shortfall hampers economy,” it is important to recognize why these jobs aren’t being filled: because they are low-pay and high-risk, especially during the global pandemic. I agree that assigning these jobs to migrants has been harmful to the economy, but I also think it is important to note how it is harmful and dehumanizing to immigrants.
To have successful and humanitarian migration and to help people who are fleeing their homes from violence or harm, their contributions must be seen as greater than economic. Conditions must be improved for all workers; we should not rely on immigrants’ desperation and “dreams” to fill these roles.
Using an economic reason seems like a good way to increase old quotas and find some middle ground with Republicans, but for immigrants to be successful in this country, how they are viewed and treated should change, not just quotas and restrictions.
Sumi Suda, Washington | 2022-12-19T20:27:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Immigrants are more than the jobs they fill - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/immigrants-more-than-jobs-americans-wont-take/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/immigrants-more-than-jobs-americans-wont-take/ |
Trump, Bolsonaro, Meloni and the New Wave of Populism
VANDALIA, OHIO - NOVEMBER 07: Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives onstage to cheering supporters at a rally for Ohio Republicans at the Dayton International Airport on November 7, 2022 in Vandalia, Ohio. Trump is campaigning for Republican candidates, including U.S. Senate candidate JD Vance, who faces U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) in tomorrow’s general election. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) (Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
When Donald Trump was elected US president in 2016, he rode a new wave of populism that saw upstarts upsetting the established order to win power in democracies around the globe. Voters ejected Trump in 2020 after a single term, but neither his political influence nor the broader movement went away. Not all the candidates he endorsed in the November congressional, state and local elections won, but some did, and Trump proceeded with an announcement that he’d run for president again in 2024. Elsewhere, populist parties swept to power or increased their support in 2022 from Italy to Sweden, in what some see as encouragement to would-be autocrats and a threat to the acceptance of democracy worldwide.
1. What is populism, exactly?
There’s no single definition of what makes a populist. Indeed the term is often thrown around as an insult. Generally it involves opposition to the principles of liberal democracy, including respect for individual and minority rights and checks on the powers of government. Benjamin Moffitt, associate professor of politics at Australian Catholic University, identified three characteristics:
• An appeal to “the people” against a despised elite;
• Deliberate use of “bad manners” to shock the establishment and prove the politician’s credentials as one of “the people”;
• The use — or manufacture — of a crisis to justify the call to rebel.
2. Where did populism come from?
Modern populism is generally thought to have emerged in the US in the second half of the 19th century, when the People’s Party galvanized angry farmers and rural voters opposed to the raw capitalism of the Gilded Age. Europe’s fascist leaders also used populist tools, but fascism is distinct, requiring also a cult of violence and a powerful ideology based on nationalism and racial superiority. Latin America has had populist waves that began in the 1930s and parts of Asia had their turn in the 1990s.
3. Why the revival?
A common thread is the 2008 financial crisis. Rising inequality and the perception of an unjust response to the market crash — notably bailouts of Wall Street companies — eroded trust in the ability of established leaders to address shifts in the global economy, including technological change and the rise of China. With recessions likely worldwide in 2023, that remains the case. That doesn’t make populism a specifically economic phenomenon. Populists more commonly tap into issues of race and identity, including proxy subjects such as immigration, as Trump did by promising a wall along the US-Mexico border.
4. Is populism left wing or right wing?
Unlike socialism, fascism, liberalism and pretty much every other “-ism,” populism is not inherently left or right. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s populist president who lost his 2022 re-election bid, is a conservative former military officer. Mexico’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, presents himself as a radical socialist. The left-wing Five Star movement that rose to power in Italy in 2018 was populist. So is Giorgia Meloni, the head of the far-right Brothers of Italy party who became prime minister in October.
5. Can democracy and populism co-exist?
Some political scientists describe populism as a pathology or malfunction of democracy. Populists say they are rescuing democracies that have been hijacked by elites. Cas Mudde, a professor at the University of Georgia in the US, argues that the truth is somewhere in between, with populists pushing back against classic forms of democracy with a majoritarian, winner-takes-all interpretation that sets back pluralism and claims to directly represent the will of the people against illegitimate elites. That helps explain why, once in power, populists tend to quickly bump up against democratic checks and balances — in particular the courts and media.
6. How can you tell who is a populist?
One way is to watch what politicians attack. As president, for example, Trump routinely declared the “fake news” media to be the “enemy of the American people.” He also repeatedly bad-mouthed judges and courts that ruled against his policies. The European Union accused Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and officials from Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party of eroding the independence of their national court systems. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has attacked the independence of the nation’s judiciary, central bank and media. Perhaps the ultimate expression of a populist leader was Trump’s denial of his election defeat and apparent attempt to overturn it by encouraging a crowd of supporters to march on Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
7. Has populism peaked?
Probably not. In September, the ultra-nationalist Sweden Democrats emerged as the biggest winners in national elections for the first time. That was followed by Meloni’s win. True, the domino effect that many extremist parties expected after Trump’s election and the UK’s 2016 vote to leave the EU didn’t fully materialize. In France, Emmanuel Macron defeated the far-right populist Marine Le Pen for the presidency twice, each time by appealing to the political center. Still, around 44% of French voters cast their first-round ballot for a populist party of the left or right in the 2022 election. Trump, meanwhile, was still the popular favorite when he announced his candidacy for the Republican party’s 2024 presidential nomination, despite the desire among some in the party to find another standard bearer. | 2022-12-19T20:28:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Trump, Bolsonaro, Meloni and the New Wave of Populism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/trump-bolsonaro-meloni-and-the-new-wave-of-populism/2022/12/19/83fffab4-7fd1-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/trump-bolsonaro-meloni-and-the-new-wave-of-populism/2022/12/19/83fffab4-7fd1-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Man crossing Arlington Boulevard struck by driver and killed
A 76-year-old man was struck by a driver and killed while crossing Arlington Boulevard on Sunday in the Falls Church area of Virginia, police say.
Tomas Escudero Machado, of Falls Church, was killed in the early morning crash, Fairfax County police said. Attempts to contact Machado’s family were unsuccessful.
Police responded at about 6 a.m. to the intersection of Arlington Boulevard and Westmoreland Road, according to a Monday news release. Police said Machado was attempting to cross the eastbound lanes of Arlington Boulevard from the road’s median strip. There was no crosswalk at the intersection, according to police.
A driver of a 2003 Honda Accord was traveling eastbound on the roadway. Police said the driver struck Machado, then crossed over two medians and hit multiple street signs and a pole before coming to a stop. Machado died at the scene, police said.
The driver was taken to the hospital, though they did not have life-threatening injuries. Police said alcohol did not appear to be a factor in the crash, and investigators are still trying to determine the driver’s speed.
Police said this was the 22nd pedestrian-related fatal crash in Fairfax County in 2022. There were 13 pedestrian-related fatal crashes this time last year. | 2022-12-19T20:28:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Man crossing Arlington Boulevard struck by driver and killed - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/pedestrian-killed-arlington-boulevard/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/pedestrian-killed-arlington-boulevard/ |
When Charlie wasn’t touring or recording, he and his family lived on a 600-acre, 16th century estate in Devon, where they were better known for their Polish Arabian horses than for the drummer's singular place in rock history. Stories about the Watts were as likely to appear in Arabian Horse World as they were in a music publication. | 2022-12-19T20:28:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Shirley Watts, widow of drummer Charlie Watts, dies at 84 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/shirley-watts-widow-of-drummer-charlie-watts-dies-at-84/2022/12/19/47365674-7fd5-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/shirley-watts-widow-of-drummer-charlie-watts-dies-at-84/2022/12/19/47365674-7fd5-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
By Cristian Jardan and Stephen McGrath | AP
FILE - A view of the damaged building of the Ministry of State Security, in Tiraspol, the capital of the breakaway region of Transnistria, a disputed territory unrecognized by the international community, in Moldova, April 25, 2022. Moldova’s national intelligence agency said on Monday, Dec. 19 that Russia could launch a new offensive next year with an aim to “create a land corridor” to the Moscow-backed breakaway region of Transnistria. (Ministry of Internal Affairs of Transnistria via AP) (Uncredited/Ministry of Internal Affairs of Transnistria) | 2022-12-19T20:30:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Moldova intel chief: Russia could aim for breakaway region - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/moldova-intel-chief-russia-could-aim-for-breakaway-region/2022/12/19/633fd0fc-7fd5-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/moldova-intel-chief-russia-could-aim-for-breakaway-region/2022/12/19/633fd0fc-7fd5-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Dutch prime minister apologizes for centuries of slave trade
Noting that centuries of oppression still have effects today, Prime Minister Mark Rutte pledges to create a fund of 200 million euros ($212 million) for social initiatives in the Netherlands and Suriname
A ledger containing the names of enslaved people is shown at the National Archives in The Hague, Netherlands, on Dec. 19. (Peter Dejong/AP)
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte offered an official apology Monday on behalf of the Dutch government for more than two centuries of Dutch slavery — remarks that come months ahead of the 160th anniversary of its abolition.
Speaking at the National Archives, which he called “the home of our national memory,” Rutte said the story that emerges from those millions of historical documents “often is ugly, painful and even downright shameful.”
By 1814, more than 600,000 enslaved African people were shipped to the Americas, mostly to Suriname on the northern coast of South America, by Dutch slave traders, Rutte said. In Asia, potentially more than 1 million were traded in areas under the Dutch East India Company.
In his roughly 20-minute speech, Rutte outlined a brief history of the slave trade and his personal change in thinking about apologies, before offering one:
He offered his apology to enslaved people in the past, as well as their descendants. He said the apology will be echoed in seven other places where the consequences of slavery are most visible, including Suriname, Curaçao and St. Maarten.
He added that the government will create a fund for social initiatives in the Netherlands and Suriname that will aim to give the history of slavery the attention and action it deserves. The Associated Press reported that it will be a 200 million-euro ($212 million) fund.
Some activist groups had wanted the apology to come from the Netherlands’ king, and on the 160th anniversary of abolition, Reuters reported. Others called out insufficient consultation with activist groups. Rutte appeared to acknowledge this resistance when he said he knew there was no “one good moment for everybody” to make this apology.
Rutte also said he wanted to be open about his personal change in thinking on historical apologies: For a long time, he said, he thought the people of today “could not easily take meaningful responsibility for something that happened so long ago.” However, he said he realized that slavery was not something behind us, and that the centuries of oppression still have an effect today, listing discriminatory exclusion, social inequality and racist stereotypes.
“It is true that no one alive now is personally to blame for slavery,” he said, adding that it is also true that the Dutch state bears responsibility for the suffering.
He said a year of commemoration will start on July 1, the 160th anniversary of when the Netherlands abolished slavery. On that date, the king, who Rutte said “feels very engaged with this subject,” will attend the commemoration ceremony, he said.
The apology in part stems from a report from a government-appointed advisory board, published last year, that recommended a government apology with specific language about recognizing that the slave trade was a crime against humanity occurring under Dutch authority.
Rutte said Monday that people must condemn slavery “as a crime against humanity — as a criminal system which caused untold numbers of people untold suffering.”
He pointed to the national archive’s records on slavery, including books that list the names and some details of enslaved people as registered by their enslavers. “The records are dry and concise, businesslike and systematic, which makes them all the more shocking,” he said. He added that the government, and he personally, hopes that the apology and commemoration will “fill the empty pages that lie ahead with dialogue, acknowledgment and healing.” | 2022-12-19T20:54:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dutch prime minister apologizes for slave trade - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/dutch-slavery-apology-netherlands/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/dutch-slavery-apology-netherlands/ |
The case for Trump’s direct culpability for Jan. 6 violence
An image from D.C. police body-cam footage shows Mark Ponder striking an officer with a pole at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Justice Department/AP)
The riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, would not have happened had it not been for President Donald Trump’s response to his election loss the previous November. Trump’s months of dishonest and baseless claims about the election being stolen — claims that remain baseless to this day — provided the central motive for the mob’s anger. It was also Trump’s encouragement that brought the members of the mob to D.C., beginning with a tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, in which he called people to the city on Jan. 6. The enticement to his followers? The day “will be wild.”
It was wilder than most people expected. The mob surrounded and then stormed into the Capitol, forcing its way past police officers, 140 of whom were assaulted. If only for a few hours, the process of formalizing Trump’s loss was derailed, just as Trump hoped.
Since the events of that day, though, there’s been another question that’s lingered around the day: How much direct responsibility does Trump bear for the violence that unfolded? Some, pointing to Trump’s having put in place the necessary components for the mob, might simply declare that the question has been settled. Others, insisting on distinguishing between Trump’s incitement and the reaction of those outside the Capitol, have argued that the riot was an unfortunate progression of what he advocated.
With the release of a summary report from the House select committee investigating the riot — a document released two years to the day after the “will be wild” tweet — there are enough pieces in place to largely resolve the circumstantial nature of Trump’s culpability for the day’s violence. One can now make a case that Trump knew specifically that there was a risk of violence, that he pushed people to the Capitol despite that risk and that he stood aside once the violence began.
Based on the committee’s report, this is that case.
We will start in the middle.
Shortly before the mob started pushing into the Capitol, Trump was speaking just outside of the White House. Long concerned about the size of crowds at his events, he reportedly expressed frustration that a secure area just in front of the stage was only partially filled.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a senior aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, was with Trump at the time. She recalled Trump asking that the magnetometers (“mags,” as she put it) be turned off and the space filled.
“He was angry that we weren’t letting people through the mags with weapons — what the Secret Service deemed as weapons,” she explained. “I overheard the President say something to the effect of, ‘I don’t F’ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the F’ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the F’ing mags away.’”
That is enormously revelatory. Trump knew that people in the audience were armed and that he was not at risk from their weapons. And if he knew he wasn’t at risk, it suggests he knew who might be: members of Congress or other political opponents.
The committee report details the weapons seized from those who entered the secure area: “242 cannisters [sic] of pepper spray, 269 knives or blades, 18 brass knuckles, 18 tasers, 6 pieces of body armor, 3 gas masks, 30 batons or blunt instruments, and 17 miscellaneous items like scissors, needles, or screwdrivers.” Some of these probably weren’t intended to be used offensively; lots of people carry pepper spray for self-defense. It’s harder to explain away brass knuckles.
Others entered the secure area but left bags potentially containing weapons outside. Some, the report suggests, simply watched the speech from outside the secure area. As the Secret Service’s Tony Ornato texted Hutchinson, “people on the monument side don’t want to come in. They can see from there and don’t want to come in. They can see from there and don’t have to go through mags.”
Among those who didn’t pass through the metal detectors were several individuals carrying firearms.
“Three men in fatigues from Broward County, Florida brandished AR-15s in front of Metropolitan police officers on 14th Street and Independence Avenue on the morning of January 6th. [Metropolitan police] advised over the radio that one individual was possibly armed with a ‘Glock’ at 14th and Constitution Avenue,” the report states, “and another was possibly armed with a 'rifle’ at 15th and Constitution Avenue around 11:23 a.m. The National Park Service detained an individual with a rifle between 12 and 1 p.m.” This was a manifestation of numerous warnings law enforcement and the Secret Service had received about the threat of violence on the day.
None of this would have mattered had the attendees of Trump’s speech simply stayed near the White House. But during his speech, Trump called for his audience to march to the Capitol — the audience, remember, that he knew was carrying weapons.
Such a march had long been the plan. The day’s events ended up being a blend of several different rallies and protests organized by different groups. Those were eventually unified, with a website promoting the Jan. 6 events at one point encouraging a march from Trump’s speech to the Capitol. But White House lawyers recognized the danger, telling Trump’s speechwriters not to call for a march, “for legal concerns and also for the optics of what it could portray the president wanting to do that day,” Hutchinson told the committee.
So, the march idea became a planned surprise.
“On January 2, 2021, [Trump adviser] Katrina Pierson wrote in an email to fellow rally organizers, ‘POTUS expectations are to have something intimate at the [E]llipse, and call on everyone to march to the Capitol,’” the report reads. “And, on January 4, 2021, another rally organizer texted Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO, that President Trump would 'unexpectedly’ call on his supporters to march to the Capitol.” There was even a draft tweet calling for a march, a tweet never sent.
Trump, of course, wanted to go further, suggesting to the crowd at his rally that he’d go to the Capitol with them, something that Hutchinson said his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, had been excited about.
“The President’s going to be there,” she said he told her. “He’s going to look powerful. He’s — he’s going to be with the members. He’s going to be with the Senators.” This, too, had been a subject of concern among Trump’s lawyers.
Instead, Trump went back to the White House, apparently not entirely of his own volition. There, he was very quickly informed that violence had broken out on Capitol Hill. He had asked a staffer if they had watched his speech, the report states, but the staffer noted that the speech had been cut off to cover the riot.
“The President asked what they meant by that,” the report reads. “‘They’re rioting down there at the Capitol,’ the employee repeated. ‘Oh really?’ the President asked. ‘All right, let’s go see.’”
This appears to be much of what Trump did for the next several hours: see the riot unfold. There’s no indication he did anything to try to stamp out the violence as it was underway. One campaign staffer texted Trump’s longtime aide Hope Hicks cajoling her to get Trump to “tweet something about Being NON-violent.”
“I suggested it several times Monday and Tuesday,” Hicks replied, “and he refused.” Not terribly surprising given that Trump’s original pitch for the day was a “wild” protest, an idea that inspired many of those later charged with entering the Capitol.
The report, mirroring past hearings held by the committee, found no evidence that Trump spoke out against the violence or took action — before or during the riot — to stamp out any violence.
Considered in its totality, the picture presented is clear. Trump enticed people to come to Washington with his “wild” tweet. He and his allies proposed a march but, with attorneys recommending against the idea, downplayed the idea until it “suddenly” appeared in Trump’s speech.
At which point, Trump knew people in the audience were armed and law enforcement knew that there were numerous existent threats. Yet Trump called for people to march to the Capitol anyway, even enticing them further by promising that he’d join them there. At least one ally had pushed for him to insist the day’s events be peaceful; beyond one mention of being peaceful in his speech — that came as he called for the march — he declined to do so.
He soon learned the mob wasn’t being peaceful. He took no apparent action to call for them to curtail any violence for several hours.
One could argue that the riot blindsided Trump, that his entreaties to come to Washington and that his dishonesty about the election were unfortunate but well-meaning triggers for the day’s events. But the evidence compiled by the committee tarnishes that generous idea severely.
Trump knew violence was a risk and had been warned about it. He knew the crowd was capable of violence and who might be the target of that violence. He knew there was a danger in pointing people at the Capitol. He knew violence was underway soon after it began. He took no tangible steps before or at the outset of the riot to stem the violence.
Nothing he did suggests he had any problem with the way in which all of those things came together on the steps of the Capitol.
The final hearing: The House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol held its final public meeting Dec. 19 where members referred four criminal charges against former president Donald Trump and others to the Justice Department. Get live updates here. | 2022-12-19T20:58:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The case for Trump’s direct culpability for Jan. 6 violence - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/jan6-trump-responsibility/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/jan6-trump-responsibility/ |
Clark Mercer, chief of staff to former Va. governor, to head Council of Governments
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments announced Monday that Clark Mercer, the chief of staff to former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D), will take over as its new executive director early next year.
The nonprofit council, whose 300 members include elected leaders from 24 Washington area jurisdictions, provides a platform on regional issues, including transportation, climate goals, emergency-response planning and economic development.
Mercer will succeed Chuck Bean, who has led the organization for 10 years and is stepping down in February. Mercer will start in mid-January, officials said.
COG Board Chair Christian Dorsey, who serves as vice chair of the Arlington County Board, praised Mercer’s experience bringing leaders together and brokering regional agreements as assets for the organization as it advances transportation, housing, and climate goals.
Mercer “possesses all of the attributes that you could ask for to be a successful leader in our complex, tri-state region,” Dorsey said. He said Mercer’s background will serve the organization well as it pushes regional priorities in transportation, the environment, housing and land use planning, and public safety.
Want to curb traffic? Build homes near jobs and transit, COG leader says.
As chief of staff to Northam, Mercer was involved in major initiatives including the effort four years ago to lure Amazon to Northern Virginia and in the negotiations to secure dedicated funding for Metro, in partnership with the District and Maryland. Mercer served as Northam’s chief of Staff during his terms as lieutenant governor and then Governor, and oversaw a staff of more than 300.
At COG, where he will oversee a 125-person staff and $41 million budget, Mercer’s primary role will be to support the Board of Directors and its policy committees. COG also staffs the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, which develops the region’s transportation vision and coordinates future transportation plans.
Mercer said Monday that he looks forward to moving ahead with the organization’s key initiatives.
“A lot of great progress has been made in this region in recent years, but there’s still a lot more to do to create the inclusive growth and sustainable future that we all want to achieve,” he said.
Mercer is a native of Alexandria, Va., and serves as president of the Fall Line Consulting firm, which advises companies in the clean energy sector. | 2022-12-19T21:42:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Clark Mercer to head Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/19/clark-mercer-cog-executive/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/19/clark-mercer-cog-executive/ |
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is led away handcuffed by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force at the Nassau, Bahamas, courthouse on Monday. (Photo by Kris INGRAHAM / AFP) (Photo by KRIS INGRAHAM/AFP via Getty Images) (AFP Contributor#AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
NASSAU, Bahamas — Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed voluntarily to his extradition to the United States, where he has been charged with defrauding customers of his cryptocurrency exchange company, FTX, a person familiar with the matter confirmed Monday.
The decision was confirmed after a chaotic and confusing morning in court where the embattled former chief executive appeared and was expected to reverse his initial decision to fight extradition to the United States where he has been charged with one of the biggest frauds in American history.
But the session was abruptly adjourned, some 10 minutes after it began, after Jerone Roberts, a lawyer for Bankman-Fried said that he was “shocked” to find that his client was in court. Roberts said he was on his way to prison to speak with him when he learned he was in court, and decried that the proceedings were moving “prematurely” and without him taking “any part in it.”
In a heated presentation, Roberts continued to argue he had not been informed of the proceedings and initially asked for a 45-minute break to confer with Bankman-Fried. He then requested a copy of the indictment filed by U.S. prosecutors, as well as additional time to speak with his client and his legal representatives in the United States.
Prosecutor Franklyn Williams chastised Roberts, saying he did not wish to be part “of a play that was unfolding.”
Magistrate Shaka Serville allowed Bankman-Fried time to speak under supervision with his lawyers via telephone and carried on to remand Bankman-Fried back to Fox Hill prison, where he has been held for almost a week in the medical department.
Wearing a navy-blue suit with a white button-down shirt, Bankman-Fried sat on a wooden chair and spoke at the end of the brief court session, agreeing to return to court at a later time once he had spoken to his U.S. counsel.
Bankman-Fried’s legal team is preparing the necessary legal documents and said that Bankman-Fried is expected to return to court this week.
Earlier on Monday, Roberts told reporters that his client had agreed to the extradition defying “the strongest possible legal advice.”
“We as counsel will prepare the necessary documents to trigger the court,” Mr. Roberts said. “Mr. Bankman-Fried wishes to put the customers right, and that is what has driven his decision.”
It is the latest twist in the ongoing story of FTX, which has gripped the cryptocurrency world since the once-respected company collapsed over several days in November when it could no longer meet customer withdrawal demands.
The 30-year-old ex-mogul was arrested last Monday in his luxury apartment in Nassau at the request of the U.S. government on charges ranging from fraud to campaign finance violations. He was then transferred to the nation’s only prison, Fox Hill, which is notorious for its poor and unsanitary conditions.
According to a prison official who has had direct contact with him, he has spent his days since watching movies and reading news, mostly about himself.
During this time, the disgraced ex-CEO held out the hope that his lawyers would be able to secure him bail after even after it was initially denied last week by a judge on grounds that Bankman-Fried was a flight risk due to his access to “substantial resources.” His lawyers then filed a new application for bail before the Bahamas’ Supreme Court, which granted a hearing on Jan. 17.
By Friday, he was contemplating giving up his fight against extradition so that he could be brought to the U.S. to face charges, The Post reported.
Bankman-Fried was indicted in U.S. federal court a day after his arrest for engaging in scheme to defraud FTX customers by funneling their crypto assets to pay for debts and expenses incurred by his hedge fund, Alameda Research. He was also charged with using customer funds to invest in other companies and make political donations. And now, it seems, much of the money is missing.
“This is one of the biggest financial frauds in American history,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said last week in New York. The alleged fraud destroyed “billions of dollars in customer value overnight,” he added.
Until recently, FTX was one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, valued at $32 billion. The company had established a veneer of legitimacy, winning investments from respected venture capital firms, paying to have its logo on uniforms of Major League Baseball umpires and spending lavishly on Super Bowl advertising.
Bankman-Fried had also donated tens of millions of dollars to politicians, becoming the second-largest Democratic donor in the 2022 midterm elections and building a prominent position for himself in Washington.
But now, the spectacular fall of the company and its founder has deepened a sense that the crypto bubble has burst, wiping out billions of dollars of investments made by ordinary people, pension funds, venture capitalists and traditional companies.
In addition to criminal charges, Bankman-Fried also faces civil suits from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Despite the seemingly complex nature of the circumstances surrounding FTX’s collapse, the cause was “not sophisticated whatsoever,” John J. Ray III, FTX’s new CEO, told lawmakers this week. “This is just plain old embezzlement,” the corporate wind-down expert said in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee.
Gerrit De Vynck and Tory Newmyer contributed to this report. | 2022-12-19T21:42:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sam Bankman-Fried agrees to extradition from Bahamas to face U.S. charges - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/19/sam-bankman-fried-extradition-bahamas/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/19/sam-bankman-fried-extradition-bahamas/ |
A last stand. (Photographer: Bloomberg)
The panel recommended criminal charges against Trump for obstructing an official proceeding of Congress (namely the counting of the electoral votes); for conspiracy to defraud the US by denying the election results; conspiracy to make a false statement; and for inciting, assisting, or providing aid and comfort to an insurrection.
Trump’s pattern of trying to get parts of the government, including the Department of Justice, to lie about there being election fraud itself constituted fraud against the US. In fact, it would be hard to imagine a bigger fraud on the government.
But the committee provided enough evidence to conclude that Trump should be charged criminally for interfering with the electoral process and trying to block a peaceful transition. We’ve known about this evidence for some time. It’s important that an official US government body has marshaled it into the form of a formal accusation.
If Smith decides not to bring criminal charges against Trump, the Jan. 6th report will probably end up as the final word from the federal government about what went wrong on that day. It won’t on its own stop Trump from being reelected. But like the impeachments, it will function as another component of the gradual process of convincing Republican moderates that Trump is unfit to be president again. That realization could in turn signal to harder-line Republicans that it makes sense to move on to other candidates like Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
One can hope that DeSantis’s rational self-interest will guide him away from the kind of lawbreaking behavior Trump undertook. He is, after all, a former federal prosecutor himself, which means he knows how the criminal law works (and also how it doesn’t). One can also hope that someone who served in the US Navy and Congress would be more committed to the core patriotic value of democratic elections than Trump.
• New Trump Special Prosecutor Isn’t the Mueller Sequel: Noah Feldman | 2022-12-19T21:59:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jan. 6 Committee Is Right to Defend the Rule of Law - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/jan-6-committee-is-right-to-defend-the-rule-of-law/2022/12/19/08e2b028-7fdc-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/jan-6-committee-is-right-to-defend-the-rule-of-law/2022/12/19/08e2b028-7fdc-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Former President Donald Trump embarked on another White House run while facing a slew of legal troubles. They now include a recommendation from lawmakers that Trump be charged in connection with the violent attack on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while Congress was certifying the results of the 2020 election. The cases could pose distractions and produce unflattering revelations that no presidential candidate would welcome. Trump is no normal politician, though, and the legal scrutiny could feed his preferred narrative that he is being unfairly targeted by the current Democratic administration and a “deep state” bureaucracy.
Trump faces possible criminal charges by the US Justice Department over classified documents found at his home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, as well as by Atlanta’s district attorney over his attempts to change the 2020 Georgia election results. On the civil side, Trump’s hurdles include a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James that accuses him and three of his children of fraudulently manipulating the value of the company’s assets for years.
The Democrat-led House of Representatives committee that investigated the Capitol riot voted on Dec. 19 to recommend charging Trump with insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to make a false statement. Trump urged his supporters to gather in Washington that day, as Congress was certifying the results of the 2020 election, then exhorted them to march to the Capitol. The action by the Jan. 6 committee, known as a criminal referral, has no legal effect on its own, since only the Justice Department can pursue federal criminal charges. But the recommendation could add to pressure on Jack Smith, the special counsel running the Justice Department’s Trump probes, to act.
Probably not. Article II of the US Constitution, which lays out qualifications for the presidency, says nothing about criminal accusations or convictions. Trump opponents see two possible avenues to challenging his eligibility, however. One is a federal law barring the removal or destruction of government records: It says anyone convicted of the offense is disqualified from federal office. This could conceivably apply to Trump if — and this is a big if — he’s charged and convicted for taking classified documents from the White House. The other is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It says that nobody can hold a seat in Congress, or “any office, civil or military,” if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” Even before the House Jan. 6 committee recommended Trump be charged with insurrection, at least two advocacy groups said they would sue to make sure the 14th Amendment prohibition applies to Trump.
• In what may be the most serious criminal jeopardy, the FBI said it found 11 sets of documents bearing classified markings at Mar-a-Lago, a number of which were marked top secret. In their search warrant, agents said they were investigating a potential violation of the Espionage Act — which makes it a crime to remove or misuse national-defense information — along with obstruction of justice and violation of a law prohibiting the removal or destruction of government records. Days after Trump announced his candidacy, Garland appointed Smith, the former head of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, as special counsel to take over the probe. | 2022-12-19T21:59:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What Trump’s Legal Perils Mean for His Candidacy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-trumps-legal-perils-mean-for-his-candidacy/2022/12/19/aed23396-7fdc-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-trumps-legal-perils-mean-for-his-candidacy/2022/12/19/aed23396-7fdc-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
QR codes for digital payment services Alipay by Ant Group Co. and WeChat Pay by Tencent Holdings Ltd. displayed at a snack shop in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. The People’s Bank of China is pulling out all the stops to promote the e-currency digital yuan to a population far more used to transacting on a daily basis using WeChat Pay and Alipay. (Bloomberg)
The e-CNY serves two objectives. The more urgent goal is to fill a domestic hole. Usage of physical cash in China’s economy is dwindling, as it is in Sweden and some other parts of Europe. Since a nation’s money is too important to be left entirely to the private sector, authorities have come up with a digital alternative for their legal tender. However, the internationalization of the e-CNY has a different, more geopolitical, motivation. The payment instrument gives Beijing a fresh chance to realize its long-term goal of reshaping the US-centric global monetary order.
• A U.S. Digital Dollar Should Serve the Public: Menand and Ricks
• Crypto and the Dollar Are Partners, Not Rivals: Niall Ferguson
• The Post-SWIFT Era Must Get Started: Andy Mukherjee | 2022-12-19T21:59:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why the Fed Needs to Take the Digital Yuan Seriously - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-the-fed-needs-to-take-the-digital-yuan-seriously/2022/12/19/ebcf45d2-7fe0-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-the-fed-needs-to-take-the-digital-yuan-seriously/2022/12/19/ebcf45d2-7fe0-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D), had sued the landlord over unsafe living conditions He called the first-of-its-kind settlement a “major victory” for affordable housing in the District
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine during a news conference in December 2021. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
What started with a lawsuit over allegations of crumbling walls, insufficient heat and rats running around the Hawaii-Webster Apartments ended this week with an unusual settlement agreement that D.C. officials said will go beyond repairs. It will guarantee that the Ward 5 apartments remain affordable for the next 25 years.
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D), whose term ends at the end of this year, described the settlement as a “major victory” for affordable housing in the District at a time when housing prices have continued to climb and D.C. has for years struggled to retain and create enough affordable housing to keep up with the needs of low-income families.
In a historic first, the attorney general’s office folded a covenant into their settlement with property owners. This agreement would supersede any sale and be tied to the land itself rather than its owner. That means even if the landlord were to sell the property, the covenant would ensure that all 88 units of the Northeast Washington apartment complex would remain rent-stabilized for the next 25 years.
D.C. development has soared under Mayor Bowser. So have housing costs.
The covenant is immediately applicable to the sale of two vacant buildings on the property that residents have long worried would be redeveloped and turned into market-rate units, thereby driving up prices and potentially displacing more low-income families.
The settlement agreement comes nearly a year after the attorney general’s office filed suit over health and safety issues inspectors identified at the property, which spans several blocks on Hawaii Avenue NE and Webster Street NE.
Part of the lawsuit’s resolution also requires the owners to pay $1 million after the sale of the two vacant buildings is complete. The majority of that money will be put toward rent refunds to tenants, who suffered dangerous and, the attorney general said, illegal conditions for many months. Whatever is left will help to repay the District for some of the cost of litigation.
“It strikes yet another blow against an illegal and immoral business model that drives long-time residents out of their homes,” Racine said in a statement Monday. “This settlement puts money back in these families’ pockets and puts a permanent stop to a development plan that would have displaced the tenants. Instead, these residents — and dozens of others — will continue to have access to affordable homes through a covenant that will stabilize rent at this complex for 25 years.”
D.C. tenants live with insufficient heat. Spotty enforcement leaves them to fend for themselves.
After Mark Mlakar of M Squared Real Estate LLC purchased the property in late 2020, several residents said, tenants were approached about “relocating.” Some left, they said. But others refused, despite ongoing issues with rats and failing heat during cold-weather months.
Where else in the District would they be able to find a place they could afford, several asked.
“These properties are affordable to the tenants who live in them,” resident Donna Kelly, 55, said in an interview with The Washington Post earlier this year. “I like living here; it’s my neighborhood.”
The attorney general’s office said after filing suit and requesting a receiver in the case — a third-party appointed by and answerable to the court who oversees repairs needed to bring the building back up to code — the property owner began to make repairs that addressed some of the buildings’ biggest hazards, including replacing the boilers and remediating fire safety hazards. Under a court-supervised abatement plan, owners also began to implement more regular maintenance that, officials said, have “restored the property to habitable condition.”
The settlement agreement signed this week goes further and includes an option for tenants to have their apartments fully renovated. Should they take the owner up on that, the settlement states, the owner will be responsible for relocating the tenants while the renovations take place.
Fatima Guadardo, a tenant at the Hawaii-Webster apartments, said her family has endured water leaks, mold and an infestation of rats and cockroaches. But now, she said in a statement Monday, “things are much better.”
“This settlement will help bring a measure of justice for all we went through,” Guadardo said. “We work hard, but we can’t afford to pay much more in rent, so it gives me peace of mind to know that our rent won’t go up much in the coming years.” | 2022-12-19T22:00:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. brokers deal to keep apartment building affordable for 25 years - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/dc-brokers-deal-keep-apartment-building-affordable-25-years/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/dc-brokers-deal-keep-apartment-building-affordable-25-years/ |
How Elon Musk destroyed Twitter ... and how to save it
Elon Musk on March 14, 2019, in Hawthorne, Calif. (Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)
So much for free-speech absolutism.
It took less than two months for Elon Musk to turn Twitter into exactly what he had accused the social media site of being all along: a town square, with a dictator for a mayor, where policy is enacted and enforced based on caprice and political — or, in this case, personal — grudges.
As of this writing, Mr. Musk was still in charge — but a poll he conducted asking whether he should resign as Twitter chief returned a solid majority of yeses. No matter what he decides, Twitter would remain his property, and the company’s imperative would be the same: Revive Twitter as a forum and as a business by laying ground rules that apply to all, enforcing them fairly, and informing the community when and how that happens. That is, the opposite of what Mr. Musk has done.
If there’s anything to learn from the Musk era at Twitter, it’s that the free-speech absolutism Mr. Musk claimed to espouse is untenable as a guiding principle. Those running social media sites will inevitably find something they don’t want on their property. Maybe it poses a threat to someone’s physical well-being; maybe advertisers don’t want their brands next to it; maybe it gets the goat of the guy in charge. There are fair and credible ways to deal with this reality. Then there is what Mr. Musk did.
The billionaire capped off weeks of erratic rulemaking and rule-revoking by suspending the accounts of several U.S. journalists, including from The Post, last week. He said that they had posted “basically assassination coordinates” for him and his family — a claim The Post found no evidence to support. It seems he was upset that an account had been tweeting public data about his private jet, so he conjured up a policy to justify banning it and used that same policy to justify banning reporters who criticized the move. Eventually, he allowed many to return.
Next Mr. Musk exiled those who repeatedly encouraged users to join competitor services; “free promotion,” suddenly, was against the rules, too.
Twitter is both a private company and a public square. Any owner has the legal prerogative to govern by whim. But owners also bear an ethical responsibility to strike a tricky balance, protecting speech and safety at the same time. Mr. Musk has made a mockery of the enterprise, caring about speech only when it’s his own speech and safety only when it’s his own safety.
In rebuilding Twitter — or, indeed, improving trust in any number of social media sites — it is unfair to expect that these companies will establish perfect and unchanging rules governing what users can say and how they can say it. Conservatives might want more speech allowed; progressives less. They can disagree in good faith on the limits. No terms of service policy will be comprehensive enough to cover every possible situation in the impossibly vast realm of human interaction. Twitter’s decision to ban then-President Donald Trump from its platform in the pre-Musk era was an exception to its “public interest” policy in which world leaders were afforded more leeway to break rules than everyday users — based not only on the content of his tweets but also on the context of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The important thing is that social media companies try to craft and enforce their rules fairly — and keep trying. These sites are going to get it wrong sometimes, given they’re administrating millions or billions of users saying millions or billions of nonsensical things every day. What matters is that they’re set up to get it right, in aggregate, according to the public commitments they’ve made.
These companies can hardly be blamed for not having had ironclad policies in place to address a U.S. president inciting armed insurrection; it was the first — and, hopefully, the last — time. But they can be blamed for lacking procedures for how to handle situations that their rules don’t easily accommodate. It should be clear which teams are involved at which point in the conversation and where they are supposed to look for guidance — whether that’s similar policies or company’s stated values.
Content moderation has evolved beyond a takedown, leave-up binary to include interventions such as labels that add context to posts, prompts that urge users to reconsider posts and algorithms that reduce the spread of posts. Platforms should explain when they’re employing these tactics — at what scale, for what types of content and, most important, to what end. That means two things: That companies should study and publish the impact of their content moderation decisions, and that they should be able to connect that impact to their stated aims.
Without strictures that recognize the push-and-pull reality of expression on the internet, and a credible process to apply the rules, there will be nothing to guide these platforms if they’re trying to do the right thing — and nothing to constrain them if they’re not. | 2022-12-19T22:00:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | How Elon Musk destroyed Twitter ... and how to save it - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/elon-musk-twitter-destroyed-fix/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/elon-musk-twitter-destroyed-fix/ |
Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) arrive for a hearing of the House Jan. 6 comittee on Dec. 19. (Andrew Harnik/Bloomberg News)
Donald Trump cannot pass off the House Jan. 6 select committee’s final report as mere partisan opinion. His criminal liability is based on a mound of evidence, as the committee meticulously detailed.
Moreover, the committee’s “roadmap to justice” is not just a restatement of facts already made public by the committee. It is the foundation that the Justice Department could use to prosecute the former president and his underlings to the fullest extent of the law.
The report’s executive summary, which the committee released on Monday, includes four criminal referrals for Trump: insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to make a false statement. Trump lawyer John Eastman is also slated to be referred for obstruction of a congressional proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States. The committee leaves open the possibility that others might be referred for participation in such crimes, leaving it to the Justice Department to investigate.
At its core, the report lays out the evidence for critical facts:
Trump attempted to stay in power despite the vote of the American people.
He tried to concoct phony slates of electors to change the electoral vote.
He tried to pressure former vice president Mike Pence to disregard the electoral count.
When that did not work, he summoned the mob to the capital on Jan. 6, 2021, urged rally attendees (some of whom were armed) to march to the Capitol and did nothing for 187 minutes to stop the violence that ensued. In fact, while the insurrection was underway, he sent out a tweet putting a target on Pence’s back.
Never in the history of the republic has Congress taken such a momentous step of issuing a criminal referral of a former president. Then again, never in our history has a president attempted to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
While a referral has no legal significance, the roadmap puts great pressure on the Justice Department. If special counsel Jack Smith decides not to indict Trump, he will have to explain why his judgment differs from that of a congressional committee that painstakingly examined the evidence and presented it to the American people.
Let’s take a look at each of the potential charges against Trump:
In some sense, this referral should come as no surprise. The entire country saw Trump unleash the mob to stop Congress from counting the electoral votes. A majority of the House impeached Trump specifically for incitement of insurrection. And 57 senators voted to convict him on that charge.
The statute concerning such a criminal charge is fairly straightforward. Section 2383 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code states: “Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.” The committee argues that Trump “gave aid and comfort" to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists with his actions that day.
As several legal commentators have noted, prosecutors in an insurrection case would not need to prove that Trump agreed to overthrow the government, as would be required for a seditious conspiracy charge. They would only need prove he assisted in opposing the authority of the government.
Moreover, conviction under Section 2383 would bar Trump from holding federal office. In essence, a successful prosecution on these lines would accomplish what Republican senators refused to do in the impeachment trial: prevent Trump from ever regaining the presidency.
Yes, proving that Trump “gave aid or comfort” (as opposed to mere cheerleading) would be difficult. Prosecutors would likely have to overcome a First Amendment defense. But the committee’s job was not to make a final prosecutorial judgment about whether a conviction is possible; it was to confirm that the country collectively witnessed an unprecedented crime. In setting forth a voluminous record and encouraging criminal charges, it puts the onus on Smith to decide whether the totality of evidence would not be enough to persuade a jury to convict Trump of insurrection.
Obstructing a congressional proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States
These potential charges are nothing new. Legal scholars as well as federal District Judge David O. Carter (in adjudicating Eastman’s attempts to avoid complying with congressional subpoenas based on client-attorney privilege) have found it more likely than not that Trump committed such crimes. (The committee’s summary devotes substantial space to reviewing Carter’s analysis.)
In fact, multiple Jan. 6 insurrectionists have either pleaded guilty to or been convicted of obstructing a congressional proceeding under Section 1512(c) of Title 18. The executive summary released by the committee explains:
Sufficient evidence exists of one or more potential violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c) for a criminal referral of President Trump based solely on his plan to get Vice President Pence to prevent certification of the election at the Joint Session of Congress. Those facts standing alone are sufficient. But such a charge under that statute can also be based on the plan to create and transmit to the Executive and Legislative branches fraudulent electoral slates, which were ultimately intended to facilitate an unlawful action by Vice President Pence – to refuse to count legitimate, certified electoral votes during Congress’s official January 6th proceeding.
Additionally, evidence developed about the many other elements of President Trump’s plans to overturn the election, including soliciting State legislatures, State officials, and others to alter official electoral outcomes, provides further evidence that President Trump was attempting through multiple means to corruptly obstruct, impede or influence the counting of electoral votes on January 6th. This is also true of President Trump’s personal directive to the Department of Justice to “just say that the election was was [sic] corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R[epublican] Congressmen.”
Trump’s plot to create alternative electors warrants a conspiracy to defraud charge for similar reasons. This is based on Section 371 of Title 18, which the Supreme Court has ruled makes it a crime to obstruct lawful governmental functions through "deceit, craft or trickery, [or] by means that are dishonest.”
As the committee’s executive summary points out, “The evidence of this element overlaps greatly with the evidence of the Section 1512(c)(2) violations. ... President Trump engaged in a multi-part plan described in this Report to obstruct a lawful certification of the election.”
This is based on Section 1001 of Title 18, which applies to anyone who “makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation” to Congress or who “makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry.”
Trump’s attempt to compile phony alternate electors to submit to Congress could subject him to prosecution for this crime. The committee finds:
The Committee believes that sufficient evidence exists for a criminal referral of President Trump for illegally engaging in a conspiracy to violate Section 1001; the evidence indicates that he entered into an agreement with Eastman and others to make the false statement (the fake electoral certificates), by deceitful or dishonest means, and at least one member of the conspiracy engaged in at least one overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy (e.g. President Trump and Eastman’s call to Ronna McDaniel).
Other potential avenues for accountability
The Justice Department is by no means limited to these pathways of prosecution. The committee holds out the possibility that the department might pursue other charges such as seditious conspiracy if it uncovers evidence that Trump conspired with the violent armed groups that stormed the Capitol.
The Justice Department might also prosecute him under another statute (Section 372) for conspiring “to prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any person from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the United States, or from discharging any duties thereof." As the committee noted, there were “potential efforts to obstruct its investigation, including by certain counsel (some paid by groups connected to the former President) who may have advised clients to provide false or misleading testimony to the Committee.”
The committee also included this stunning revelation: “The Select Committee is aware of multiple efforts by President Trump to contact Select Committee witnesses. The Department of Justice is aware of at least one of those circumstances.”
By leaving certain matters and certain potential defendants to the discretion of the Justice Department, the committee establishes its own credibility and underscores its own limits in accumulating evidence.
Beyond prosecution, the report cites members of Congress who failed to comply with subpoenas issued to them, which the committee will refer to the House Ethics Committee for further action. This includes House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Scott Perry (R-Pa.).
Many Americans have rightly wondered whether Trump would ever be held accountable for his misdeeds. Today marks a critical, unprecedented and justifiable step toward making that happen. The ball is now in Jack Smith’s court to uphold the rule of law. | 2022-12-19T22:00:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Jan. 6 committee's criminal referrals lower the boom on Trump - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/jan-6-committee-report-trump-referrals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/jan-6-committee-report-trump-referrals/ |
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief expressed strong hopes Monday that the Ukraine war will end in 2023 and on other global hotspots condemned the Iranian government’s crackdown on demonstrators, urged all countries to fight terrorist threats from the extreme right and called on the international community to tell Israel’s new right-wing government that “there is no alternative to the two-state solution.” | 2022-12-19T22:01:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | UN chief strongly hopes war in Ukraine will end in 2023 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/un-chief-strongly-hopes-war-in-ukraine-will-end-in-2023/2022/12/19/4888997a-7fde-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/un-chief-strongly-hopes-war-in-ukraine-will-end-in-2023/2022/12/19/4888997a-7fde-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
PM Update: Cold tonight, and less windy on a chilly Tuesday
Looking wintry along the Potomac River. (CTB in DC/Flickr)
Although afternoon high temperatures made it to the low 40s, a gusty wind kept wind chills in the 30s, at best. Tonight will be a cold one, with freezing temperatures lasting a long time. It might be one of the coldest nights of the season so far. But we’ll see much colder soon enough.
Through tonight: Some high cloudiness will pass this evening. We should end up mainly clear by late evening, which will help temperatures reach lows in the 20s. A range of about 22-28 seems likely. Winds will be from the north-northwest around 5 to 10 mph with gusts to around 20 mph at times.
Tomorrow (Tuesday): It will be a frozen start. Temperatures will only sluggishly move northward. We should see a lot of sun and probably less wind than today. Never the worst combo, even with highs remaining in the chilly low 40s.
13 years ago … It’s always hard to believe what we saw in the winter of 2009-2010. The above was my scene in Glover Park, where we got about two feet of snow. The storm was “Snowpocalypse” (the original!) and it was somehow just the beginning that winter. It was also the last time we saw a white Christmas. | 2022-12-19T22:02:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | PM Update: Cold tonight, and less windy on a chilly Tuesday - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/12/19/dc-area-forecast-cold-clear/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/12/19/dc-area-forecast-cold-clear/ |
Messi’s hometown celebrates Argentina World Cup victory
Rosario, where star player Lionel Messi grew up, revels in the national team’s World Cup title.
Argentina supporters celebrate the nation's World Cup victory in Rosario, Argentina, on Sunday. Rosario is soccer star Lionel Messi's hometown. (Franco Trovato Fuoco/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The streets of Lionel Messi’s hometown of Rosario, Argentina, erupted in celebration Sunday after Argentina beat France to win its third World Cup title.
“We’re champions, which is all we wanted, more than anything for [Messi] and for the whole team,” said Santiago Ferraris, who is 25.
Argentina’s three goals in the 3-3 tie were scored by Rosario natives, with Messi, who came up from local team Newell’s Old Boys, scoring two and Ángel Di María, who once played in rival local team Rosario Central, one.
Rosario, just like the rest of the country, was frozen during the nail-biting soccer match that ended in a penalty shootout, which Argentina won, 4-2.
Tens of thousands of people descended on the National Flag Memorial, the symbol of Argentina’s third-largest city, to celebrate Argentina’s victory. People started arriving as soon as Messi lifted the trophy and were there well into the evening.
Fans also said the triumph gave the country a break from worrying about the fast-rising prices of goods and services. | 2022-12-19T22:25:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Messi’s hometown celebrates Argentina World Cup victory - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/12/19/world-cup-celebration-messi-hometown/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/12/19/world-cup-celebration-messi-hometown/ |
Wanna see E.T.’s skeleton? It just sold for $2.6 million.
The original mechatronic E.T. character from Steven Spielberg's 1982 film “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” sold for $2.6 million last weekend. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)
Someone has just purchased the beginnings of an incredible holiday gift or a very expensive jump scare.
An auction house has sold for $2.56 million the still-working original mechatronic filming model used to bring E.T. to life in Steven Spielberg’s classic 1982 film “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”
Julien’s Auctions, based in Beverly Hills, Calif., sold the item Sunday as part of its tw0-day “Icons and Idols: Hollywood” auction, Julien’s executive director, Martin Nolan, told The Washington Post on Monday.
Even if you were predisposed to think E.T. was cute, just a heads-up from Nolan: “The skin has sort of disintegrated.”
Think of the mechatronic as E.T.’s skeleton, which is as terrifying as it sounds. The auction listing explains that there are 85 points of articulation, from his eyes and fingers to his neck and abdomen. Nearly a third of those points are on his face.
The listing quotes Spielberg as having said: “We all kind of regard him as a living breathing organism, he’s a real creature, I think for me, in my experience, he is the eighth wonder of the movie world.”
The mechatronic is as much a feat of engineering as it is art. This was before CGI, so if you wanted a long-necked alien in a bicycle basket, you had to make it. That’s exactly what special effects genius Carlo Rambaldi did.
The system works on a combination of cables connected to electronic and mechanical elements made of the aluminum alloy duralumin, the listing said, and was operated by 12 professional animators. According to the listing, the mechatronic E. T.s cost about $1.5 million to create, a significant chunk of the movie’s estimated $10 million budget. That’s a lot of Reese’s Pieces.
A decade after Rambaldi’s death, his family contacted the auction house about two months ago, Nolan said, to see about selling not only the mechatronic but a maquette (a three-dimensional model of the character that designers use as reference) of E.T. and six sketches of the creature.
He said they shipped the items from Milan to London to Los Angeles for auction. Nolan said it was a smooth process through customs — there wasn’t any checkbox for extra-terrestrial mechanical skeleton on the form.
Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portrait sells for record $195 million
When asked who placed the winning bid, Nolan said the buyer wished to remain undisclosed. But he did say many museums were interested in the piece. As for the smaller items: The maquette sold for $125,000 and the sketches fetched between about $12,000 and $50,000 each.
Nolan said the Rambaldi family watched the auction from Milan and was happy with the sale.
Rambaldi also worked on “Alien” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” — so if you needed a movie alien in those days, apparently Rambaldi was your guy.
Wisconsin woman says Judy Garland’s ‘Wizard of Oz’ dress belongs to her
As for E.T.’s unique design, the listing said Spielberg sent Rambaldi photos of poet Carl Sandburg, theoretical physicist Albert Einstein and author Ernest Hemingway to study, saying: “I love their eyes, can we make E.T’s eyes as frivolous, wise and as sad as those three icons?”
Instead, Nolan said Daniela Rambaldi told him that her father used the blue eyes of the family’s Himalayan cat Kika as inspiration. (Spookily enough, Rambaldi a few years later worked on a Stephen King movie named “Cat’s Eye.”)
Rambaldi won one of his three Oscars for his work on “E.T.” His Oscar was presented to him by another one of the most animated faces in Hollywood: Eddie Murphy. Rambaldi’s award was one of the four Oscars the movie netted.
Apparently the film’s 7-year-old co-star Drew Barrymore was also captivated by E.T. She thought the alien was real and would bring him lunch, Barrymore said on her talk show in October to commemorate 40 years since the film’s release.
In Sunday’s auction, the winning bidder also got a DVD of the movie and an NFT of Daniela Rambaldi narrating a 360-degree digital animated representation of the mechatronic.
E.T. deserves a special display considering the history and price, but it may be best to avoid putting him in any windows or around tight corners so as to avoid an otherworldly scare. | 2022-12-19T22:25:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Skinless E.T. model used to film Spielberg's classic sells at auction - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/12/19/et-auction-model-spielberg-skeleton-movie/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/12/19/et-auction-model-spielberg-skeleton-movie/ |
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, Belarus, on Monday. (Sputnik/Kremlin/AP)
No such operation is considered imminent, U.S. and other Western officials say. “We do not see any type of impending cross-border activity by Belarus at this time,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters last week.
Former military officers working with the Belarusian opposition in exile say they believe the activity points to a plan to invade Ukraine by spring. Alexandr Azarov, a former lieutenant colonel in the Belarusian KGB intelligence service, said his contacts in the military tell him the training has involved maneuvers that would be required in an invasion, including river crossings. | 2022-12-19T23:13:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ukrainian fears grow of a new Russian invasion from Belarus - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/ukrainian-fears-grow-new-russian-invasion-belarus/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/ukrainian-fears-grow-new-russian-invasion-belarus/ |
Residents return home to long-awaited Northwest One redevelopment
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, city officials and residents celebrate the ribbon cutting at Rise at Temple Courts, a new development that’s the product of the city’s New Communities Initiative. (Khalid Naji-Allah via Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development)
Before Nathan Brown was forced to move, he could have been seen playing basketball in the parking lot of Temple Courts in Northwest Washington or laughing with his neighbors while they barbecued.
Brown was among hundreds of residents who lived in the Temple Courts and Golden Rule housing complexes, close to what is now the NoMa neighborhood, who were relocated more than a decade ago as D.C. pushed to revitalize the impoverished area through the New Communities Initiative.
On Monday, Brown and city officials celebrated the official ribbon cutting of the new development at the site commonly known as Northwest One — the first of the New Communities projects to follow through on a promise to reserve space and welcome back residents who once lived at the property.
“Make no mistake, the journey wasn’t easy. We’ve seen time and time again how many communities in the District don’t have the opportunity to return,” Brown said at the groundbreaking. “This building is more than just a building, it is a memorial to those we lost in this neighborhood. It is a statement that native Washingtonians will not be displaced.”
Launched by the city in 2005, the New Communities Initiative was designed to solve the problem of redeveloping areas without displacing residents. Under the plan, the city committed to preserving every unit of public housing in four neighborhoods established in the program while adding other affordable and mixed-family housing options. The old buildings were to be torn down, residents dispersed and then welcomed back into new, mixed-income units.
Still waiting for affordable housing
The at-times divisive and controversial program has made slow progress as it’s run into obstacles, criticism and lawsuits over nearly two decades. But Monday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Rise at Temple Courts was celebrated as a win — with 220 residential units, including a total of 150 dedicated affordable homes, 65 of which will be replacement units for once-relocated residents returning to the community.
“Northwest One is the site that ignited the New Communities Initiative,” said Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D). “Years ago, Golden Rule and Temple Court residents advocated for change, which took longer than originally envisioned, but today we’ve delivered on the promise made by our city more than 15 years ago.”
The original Temple Courts housing complex included 211 units and was acquired for redevelopment in 2007 and torn down in 2009. Residents were given vouchers to help pay for affordable housing elsewhere in the city or neighborhood. So far, 61 of the original residents have already moved into the new development, four are slated to move in January, and others, like Brown, have moved on to other plans.
“My family doesn’t have plans to move in to Rise at Temple Courts because now I’m organizing for the next dream, to become a homeowner in the District of Columbia,” Brown said at the ribbon cutting.
At the Northwest One site, the city invested $13.8 million in funding for the redevelopment of the first phase of the project. Construction began in November 2020 and was completed in July this year. Once the entire project is completed, Northwest One will include about 700 new mixed-income rental units, of which 211 will be public housing replacement units for the former residents of Temple Courts and Golden Rule.
Other significant moves on the New Communities Initiative have come this year. Redevelopment on the Barry Farm site in Southeast — subject of intense battles over historic preservation and displacement in the rapidly gentrifying District — began this summer with construction of the Asberry, a mixed-use building set to be completed in early 2024 with 108 affordable housing units for people 55 and older and 5,000 square feet of commercial space along Sumner Road SE.
The entire completed project at Barry Farm, officials say, will yield a mixed-income community with at least 900 affordable housing units, 380 of which will be reserved for previous residents. The city also closed on the Park Morton site, located in the Park View neighborhood in Northwest.
“I couldn’t think of a more fitting way to end the year by celebrating the success of the New Communities Initiative by being here,” said Sheila Miller, director of the New Communities Initiative. | 2022-12-19T23:31:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Residents return home to long-awaited Northwest One redevelopment - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/temple-courts-dc-redevelopment/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/temple-courts-dc-redevelopment/ |
This photo from Virginia State Police shows emergency personnel at the scene of a crash on Interstate 64 in in York County Virginia early Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. The crash occurred just after 1:30 a.m. near Williamsburg, which is located between Richmond and Norfolk. (Virginia State Police via AP) (Uncredited/Virginia State Police)
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Alcohol and speed contributed to a fatal crash involving a bus carrying more than 20 people and a tractor trailer on Interstate 64 in Virginia last week, state police said. | 2022-12-19T23:31:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Police: Alcohol, speed contributed to fatal bus, truck crash - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/police-alcohol-speed-contributed-to-fatal-bus-truck-crash/2022/12/19/d189059e-7fec-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/police-alcohol-speed-contributed-to-fatal-bus-truck-crash/2022/12/19/d189059e-7fec-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Why the Jan. 6 committee mattered
House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Oct. 19, 2021, in D.C. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack approached the end of its work Monday with a dramatic recommendation that the Justice Department charge former president Donald Trump with four crimes, including inciting or assisting an insurrection. This criminal referral is symbolic; the Justice Department is responsible for making a tough call on whether such charges would stick — and whether it would be prudent to indict a former president and current presidential candidate.
The committee has secured its legacy in different ways, providing a searing picture of what occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, and exhibiting the cowardice of those who, out of fear of Mr. Trump, refused to help it reckon with that dark day.
The public now knows much more about Mr. Trump’s culpability. New details, including videotaped testimony from former Trump aides, showed Mr. Trump had been told he’d lost the election but nevertheless leaned on state officials, the Justice Department, his vice president and others to keep him in power — a campaign that resulted in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
Monday’s hearing featured new revelations about longtime Trump adviser Hope Hicks. While the Capitol was being swarmed on Jan. 6, she texted a White House spokesman that she had urged Mr. Trump on both Jan. 4 and Jan. 5 to tweet something about how protests that day should be nonviolent, but he’d refused. Ms. Hicks recalled Mr. Trump telling her: “The only thing that matters is winning.”
Ms. Hicks is just one of the Republicans who testified about Mr. Trump. The list also includes Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Ms. Hutchinson was a star witness despite having much to lose professionally — and even as her former boss, ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, refused to testify.
The two House Republicans who served on the committee, Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), also deserve credit. Sadly, neither will return to Congress next year. But the work they did helped create a vital historical record. The committee plans to release the bulk of its non-sensitive records, including transcripts of deposition. The report they’ll put out this week will include a series of legislative recommendations for preventing a future Jan. 6.
It should not have taken courage to participate in a congressional inquiry into an attempted insurrection. Yet so many people who could have testified refused to do so. More than 30 witnesses invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, including John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn and Kenneth Chesebro.
Likewise, several House Republicans refused to comply with committee subpoenas. The committee referred the four who will remain in the House next year to the Ethics Committee: Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Scott Perry (Pa.) and Andy Biggs (Ariz.).
Jan. 6, 2021, and its aftermath should have been a unifying moment. All Americans should have recoiled the way Ms. Cheney did. Instead, too many decided to be profiles in cowardice. | 2022-12-19T23:32:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Jan. 6 committee recommends charging Trump. But that's not its legacy. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/jan-6-committee-referrals-trump-record/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/19/jan-6-committee-referrals-trump-record/ |
A news report called into question the résumé of George Santos, who won a Long Island seat in an upset
New York congressman-elect George Santos speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition leadership meeting in Las Vegas in November. (David Becker for The Washington Post)
“This is about one of the biggest messes I’ve ever seen from anyone who is about to become a member of the Congress,” said Jay Jacobs, the New York Democratic Party chairman, adding later, “I think that had voters seen this information, understood the ramifications and how egregious it really was, I don’t see how he would have won the race.”
They rallied in D.C. on Jan. 6. Now they’ll join Congress.
In a statement, Santos’s attorney criticized the Times without addressing the substance of the report.
“It is no surprise that Congressman-elect Santos has enemies at the New York Times who are attempting to smear his good name with these defamatory allegations,” Joseph Murray said in a statement posted to Santos’s Twitter.
Santos, a staunch supporter of former president Donald Trump who said he attended a rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman in November. He claimed in an archived version of his campaign website that he “began working at Citigroup as an associate and quickly advanced” and that he “was then offered an exciting opportunity with Goldman Sachs but what he thought would be the pinnacle of his career was not as fulfilling as he had anticipated.”
Representatives for both Citigroup and Goldman Sachs confirmed to The Washington Post that they had no record that Santos worked for either company. References to Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are not on Santos’s current biography page of the website.
Zimmerman, in an interview with The Post, echoed Jacobs’s calls for a probe into whether Santos made false statements on the personal financial disclosure form that candidates are required to file with the clerk of the House.
“An investigation is merited because of the serious allegations of filing false information on his financial disclosure documents and … questions about his finances [and] where his funds came from,” said Zimmerman, calling on the House Ethics Committee and the U.S. attorney’s office to look into the claims.
Some Democrats expressed disbelief on Monday that questions about Santos’s background didn’t surface more clearly during the campaign. Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Ethics Committee, noted his surprise that the issues hadn’t emerged in prior reporting and opposition research, particularly given that Santos had unsuccessfully run for Congress in 2020.
“As someone who’s had every case I’ve ever worked on vetted by opponents in both cycles, it’s difficult to overstate how many people would’ve had to drop the ball in not even verifying the mere fact of Congressman-elect Santos’ prior employment as he ran to flip a key House seat,” Jones tweeted. Jones’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Zimmerman said the allegations in the Times story are “not a shock to me.” He said his campaign learned about “many of these issues but were drowned out in the governor’s race where crimes was the focus and the media had other priorities.”
An 87-page opposition research report on Santos released during the race by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did not mention some of the issues raised in the Times story. The group’s opposition research relies on public records to verify employment and education, said a Democratic operative who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal processes. The operative also said Democrats had less time and resources than usual to scrutinize Republican nominees’ records in New York because this year’s primary was delayed to August amid a redistricting fight. Even then, Santos was considered a long shot and Democrats had other priorities.
Nonetheless, there were reports during the campaign that raised questions about Santos’s finances. The North Shore Leader reported in September that Santos filed his financial report on Sept. 6, which it said was 20 months late, “and he is claiming an inexplicable rise in his alleged net worth.”
By comparison, in his 2022 financial disclosure, Santos declared that he had assets worth between $2.6 million and $11.25 million. It also said he had income from a family business, the Devolder Organization, between $1 million to $5 million and a salary of $750,000. The Times reported that the lack of information about the company’s clients was a “seeming violation” of the requirement to disclose compensation of more than $5,000 from one source.
Tom Rust, a spokesman for the House Ethics Committee, declined to comment. Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), the chairwoman of the committee, also declined to comment through her spokeswoman, citing the panel’s confidentiality rules.
Delaney Marsco, senior legal counsel for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, said that “there are a lot of red flags” that may merit an investigation. She cited questions about whether Santos made false statements in his financial disclosure report, a potentially serious offense that could be governed by a number of laws.
“The House is responsible for determining the qualifications of its own members, and if we had a system that was genuinely built around integrity, they would refuse to seat this guy and have a special election,” said Norman Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute who helped create the Office of Compliance and the Office of Congressional Ethics. “Of course the odds of that happening are zero.”
Santos previously has been the subject of scrutiny over his attendance at the Jan. 6 rally where Trump falsely claimed he won the election. Santos later said on a podcast hosted by Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law, that it “was the most amazing crowd, and the president was at his full awesomeness that day. It was a front-row spectacle for me.”
Newsday reported this year that Santos was filmed saying he wrote a “nice check to a law firm” to help get rioters out of prison and comparing the actions of those imprisoned to “breaking into your own house and being charged for trespassing.”
Alice Crites and Michael Scherer contributed to this report. | 2022-12-19T23:32:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | George Santos faces calls for an ethics probe over report questions his resume - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/george-santos-resume-false-claims-ethics-probe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/george-santos-resume-false-claims-ethics-probe/ |
“We missed some opportunities,” Ron Rivera said of Sunday night's loss to the Giants. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
As the players dressed and grappled with their 20-12 loss to the New York Giants in prime time Sunday, Coach Ron Rivera pulled quarterback Taylor Heinicke aside and led him from the Washington Commanders’ locker room to his nearby office at FedEx Field.
Heinicke shut the door behind him and didn’t emerge for roughly 15 minutes, after which he somberly shed his pads and prepared to address a room of reporters.
“My conversation with Taylor last night, it was: ‘Hey, look, we had some really good moments during this game. We did some really good things, but we’ve got to build on it now. We’ve got to finish. We truthfully got to finish in the red zone,’ ” Rivera recalled Monday afternoon. “... As long as I’m open with him and he understands where I’m coming from, I think we both get the messaging.”
Rivera’s messaging has been consistent, if repetitive: The Commanders had opportunities and did not take advantage, a refrain he returned to many times after Sunday night’s disappointing loss in a pivotal NFC East matchup.
They had “several opportunities” to make plays on both sides of the ball. They had an opportunity to win it, “a couple opportunities” to turn the Giants back on defense, opportunities for Heinicke to use his legs to pick up first downs and opportunities to run the ball more — which could’ve opened up more opportunities to use play-action, he said.
“We missed some opportunities,” Rivera added. “… If you execute, play disciplined in a couple situations in the red zone and do what you’re supposed to, we put the ball in the end zone instead of having to kick field goals or, unfortunately, turning it over.”
For now, at least, Rivera isn’t planning to make a change at quarterback, meaning Carson Wentz will remain the backup.
“No, no,” he said. “I think that the biggest thing more than anything else is sticking with Taylor and what we’re trying to establish. It is something ... to be quite frank, I do have to think about at some point. But if we can continue to get back on track and play the way we’ve played and do the things that we’ve done, then we’ll stick with where we are. Until then, I will do that.”
But the Commanders’ blown chances against New York — especially in the red zone, where they turned only one of three drives into a touchdown — have left them in a precarious position. Their best shot at a postseason berth included a win Sunday, and now their chances have dropped to roughly 40 percent, per most playoff models. Worse, the Commanders (7-6-1) face a short week before traveling to the West Coast to face the punishing defense of the San Francisco 49ers (10-4) on Saturday afternoon.
Washington stands seventh in the NFC to claim the final wild-card spot but has only a half-game lead on the Seattle Seahawks (7-7) and Detroit Lions (7-7). The latter defeated the Commanders in September and holds the tiebreaker.
The Commanders close with two home games — Jan. 1 vs. the Cleveland Browns and Jan. 8 vs. the Dallas Cowboys — but Saturday’s matchup is critical. A loss would further erode Washington’s shot at the postseason, a shortfall that would sting given the team’s turnaround from a 1-4 start.
With Heinicke locked in as the signal-caller, Rivera’s focus is on restoring his group’s identity as a run-first team and cleaning up its mistakes in the red zone, where drives have stalled or led to turnovers.
“One of our priorities going into this game is that we’ve got to make sure we’re shored up in terms of running the ball and then understanding in terms of our protections versus some of the things that they try to do,” he said. “[If] we can run the football and we can run the football downhill, and off of that we can be a play-action team, a bootleg team, a physical-up-front team, it gives our offensive line an opportunity to fire out and not have to catch as much. ... It’s part of what we can do, and it’s been successful for us.”
Since Heinicke took over as the starter in Week 7 for a win over the Green Bay Packers, Washington has relied heavily on its running game, making the offense less explosive but more consistent. In Sunday’s loss, Washington racked up 159 rushing yards, led by 89 from rookie Brian Robinson Jr. But Robinson was given only 12 carries, including just two in the fourth quarter and not a single one in the red zone.
As Rivera noted, sticking with the running game can be difficult when you’re trailing by 11 points, as Washington was at halftime, and trying to play catch-up.
“Unfortunately, the circumstances did dictate some other things,” Rivera said. “But, yeah, I would’ve loved to continue to see if we could have fed [Robinson] — especially if we could have taken advantage of scoring in the red zone, because then the game would’ve been closer.”
Svrluga: Assigning blame for the Commanders’ loss? The coach deserves his share.
Rivera is hoping to get additional help Saturday. Defensive end Chase Young, who has missed 22 games while recovering from a serious knee injury, could be near a return. Even on a limited snap count, he would bolster a defensive line that struggled to get pressure Sunday. The Commanders also would welcome the return of cornerback Benjamin St-Juste, who has missed the past three games with an ankle injury.
On offense, tight end Armani Rogers is eligible to be designated to return to practice after a stint on injured reserve with a high-ankle sprain. If cleared, he could be activated for Saturday, giving Heinicke another big-bodied target.
“We need all hands on deck,” Rivera said. “This is what you live for. This is the crunchtime of it, and you got to want to be there and got to want to be part of it and do whatever you can to get on the field. Hopefully, some of these guys are healthy enough and ready to go, because we’re not going to expose anybody that’s not ready. But if a guy can come and make it and be out there to help us, we’d sure love to have them on the field.” | 2022-12-19T23:32:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Commanders will stay with Taylor Heinicke at quarterback against 49ers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/19/commanders-quarterback-taylor-heinicke-ron-rivera/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/19/commanders-quarterback-taylor-heinicke-ron-rivera/ |
Severe turbulence on a Hawaiian Airlines flight sent 20 people to the hospital Sunday
The accounts from the Hawaiian Airlines flight were dramatic: Passengers hit the ceiling, objects went flying, people were crying.
Sunday’s incident was the result of “severe” turbulence, the airline said, the third of four levels on a scale from light to extreme. Hawaiian chief operating officer Jon Snook said Sunday’s incident, which injured 36 people, was “relatively uncommon.”
But turbulence itself is a frequent occurrence, as any regular traveler can attest — and it typically isn’t cause for alarm, experts say. A day after the incident on the Hawaii-bound flight, a United Airlines flight headed to Houston hit turbulence, and five people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
“Turbulence is normal; it’s part of the sky,” said Patrick Smith, a commercial pilot for 30 years who runs the Ask The Pilot blog. “Every flight every day encounters some form of rough air. For crews, by and large, we look at it as a comfort issue, not necessarily a safety issue.”
The Federal Aviation Administration describes turbulence as movement of air that usually can’t be seen and often happens unexpectedly. Roughly 58 people are hurt because of turbulence every year while not wearing their seat belts, the agency says.
“It can be created by many different conditions, including atmospheric pressure, jet streams, air around mountains, cold or warm weather fronts or thunderstorms,” the agency says on its website. “Turbulence can even occur when the sky appears to be clear.”
“The bad kind is always unexpected,” he said. What’s called “clear-air” turbulence happens without visual cues.
Violent turbulence on an Air Canada flight sends 30 people to the hospital
“You can have turbulence from a thunderstorm 20 miles away from the actual worst part of the storm,” Thomas said. “Thunderstorms will create these huge up and down movements of air, and when you get that, you get these big waves that come through and you can just fly through it.”
“It can be associated with almost any kind of weather,” Smith said. “It doesn’t always matter, and it’s not always predictable.”
He said the tools that pilots have in the flight deck are “amazingly good” at predicting where, when and how bad turbulence might be. They can alter their route or altitude to try to avoid the rough air, or — if that’s not possible — give the flight attendants plenty of warning to prepare the cabin.
Climate change is already contributing to clear-air turbulence
“But in a lot of ways, it’s more art than science and sometimes you just don’t know,” Smith said. “It can get bumpy when you just don’t expect.” One place likely to be slightly less bumpy: the middle of the plane over the wings, he said. The bumpiest place to sit is in the tail of the plane, he said, though it doesn’t make a lot of difference.
Smith said the fear that a plane might flip upside down or lose a wing is “at best, science fiction.”
While worst-case scenario fears are extreme, experts say turbulence still poses a risk — especially if people are not buckled in. Snook, the Hawaiian Airlines executive, said Sunday that it wasn’t yet clear how many people on the flight were not wearing seat belts, but that the seat belt sign was on.
“You want to be cautious because the aircraft itself is going to survive,” said Mark Baier, CEO of Aviation Manuals, which provides safety information and systems to smaller flight operators. “You’re going to get thrown around the cabin, or loose objects are going to be thrown around the cabin and cause injury.” | 2022-12-19T23:33:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What causes severe turbulence, and how dangerous is it? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/12/19/severe-turbulence-cause-hawaiian-airlines/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/12/19/severe-turbulence-cause-hawaiian-airlines/ |
Duke Ellington teens resist DCPS, fear losing school ‘to bureaucracy’
The D.C. Public School system is trying to absorb the Duke Ellington School of the Arts into its system. (Sarah Silbiger for The Washington Post)
There is a place in Georgetown so sparkling and special that the first lady of France made it a point to visit — twice:
Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
Dance students here performed for first lady Brigitte Macron when she visited last month, four years after her first visit. Weeks later, a student painter was honored by Vice President Harris after she picked one of his works for her holiday cards. The choir sang at Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s investiture ceremony. Just a couple weeks ago, a sophomore in the theater department starred in an adorable Nike commercial.
It’s a crown jewel of D.C.’s educational system, public and private.
But in a tale ripe for any joke about bureaucracy — oh, what alum Dave Chappelle could do with this — the D.C. Public School system is trying to absorb this little gem into its large and lumbering network.
One of the people signing a petition to “Save Duke Ellington” said simply this about the unique, dynamic institution: “We cannot afford to lose the school to bureaucracy.”
“Safety and operations,” were among the first words that Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee used when explaining the action to me. The school is a hybrid — run partly as a public school and a little like a nonprofit, with its own board, leadership and fundraising system.
It’s unusual, but it’s worked for nearly half a century.
The students want nothing to do with the public schools that many of them fled.
And they are speaking out — it’s an art school, of course they are. They’re making TikToks, posting petitions and writing opinions. They’re planning a massive protest this week, they’re sharing poignant stories about the school’s impact on their lives.
Many feel like Trinity Marshall, who wrote alongside her signature on a petition that “duke saved my life.”
I’ve been trying to stay out of it. That sophomore in the Nike commercial is my son’s friend and classmate — they are both students in the theater department. And years before I had kids, I was one of the non-accredited professionals in the community who worked with the students, advising their school newspaper. (I’ll never forget the students’ powerful take on the first day a metal detector was installed at an entrance. They were angry at the school, and despondent about the threat of school violence.)
The school (called DESA) was founded in 1974 by Peggy Cooper Cafritz, a philanthropist, educator and former head of the D.C. School Board, and Mike Malone, a leader in the D.C. theater scene. It operated as a free, public school available to any D.C. kid, as long as they passed auditions. It’s tough to get into, and tough to finish.
The kids have regular, rigorous academic classes (my son’s doing battle with chemistry and AP history this year) in a regulation school day taught by accredited DCPS teachers.
But at 3 p.m., they change into their arts block uniforms and head into what they call the “second day,” with a full slate of arts classes. This isn’t extracurricular level stuff. It’s a challenging, conservatory-level curriculum.
The folks who teach these classes are part of why the school is in DCPS’s sights. They’re unregulated, unaccredited. And they are part of what makes it so special. A recent Fordham University study of the school explained it:
“ … DESA’s selection of its school leaders and art teachers required that they were professionals in the arts community. This factor greatly contributed to the sustainability of the school and the acceleration of learning in the arts,” the study said.
Ferebee told me he understands the importance of that.
“I do want to reiterate that we are committed to the integrity and the quality of the arts program,” he said, before another round of negotiations between DESA and the school system on Monday. “It is something I’m very proud of, it is a phenomenal arts program, and you know we want to see it continue.”
Principal Sandi Logan isn’t so sure.
“We don’t have a clear plan from DCPS about what the transition would look like,” Logan told the Washington Informer.
“We don’t have evidence of arts education investments. Arts teachers across the public schools are talking about the level of arts programming decreasing every year,” she said. “The administrative structure needs to support our arts teachers. We need support for dual instruction and infrastructure.”
But those arts teachers aren’t necessarily accredited teachers. There were allegations in the past few years of sexual assault and one was charged with sexual abuse of a minor. That pushed DCPS into takeover mode. Washington crisis management eclipsing D.C.’s soul.
Let’s be clear. Any abuse of a minor is a horrible situation. But it’s not unique to this school and there’s no way to prove a different bureaucracy would have prevented this.
In 2019, a report found sexual abusers among teachers at Washington’s most elite, private schools: St. Albans, National Cathedral and Beauvoir. The former rowing coach at Walt Whitman — the prestigious and beloved public school in Bethesda that folks fleeing the city with their kids come to — just pleaded guilty this year to sexually abusing kids.
There is also an issue of pay. While DCPS pays the accredited, core teachers a salary comparable (though much less in some cases) to those in other schools, the arts teachers get meager compensation, most of which is allocated by the D.C. Council or generated through fundraising (oh, the school fundraisers).
The school and DCPS are still in negotiations. Both sides seem to like a pathway to licensing for the arts teachers that won’t limit access to an experienced and storied faculty by imposing mundane certification requirements that will allow more robust pay and better documentation of who is teaching.
“The school does well academically, it does very well arts-wise,” said D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), who compared a DCPS plan to the Chinese takeover of Taiwan. “That community needs to be nurtured and supported.” | 2022-12-19T23:52:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Duke Ellington students push back against DCPS intervention - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/duke-ellington-students-protest-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/duke-ellington-students-protest-dc/ |
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. (Etienne Laurent/Pool Photo via AP)
A Los Angeles jury on Monday found Harvey Weinstein guilty of rape, forced oral copulation and a third sexual misconduct charge after a weeks-long trial detailing harrowing allegations against him, according to the Associated Press. This was the former Hollywood producer’s second criminal trial; he is currently serving a 23-year sentence in New York state prison, though he was granted an appeal earlier this year.
The convictions were related to one victim. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on three other counts, and Weinstein was acquitted of a sexual battery allegation made by another woman, the AP reported.
In October 2017, following explosive reports in the New York Times and New Yorker detailing decades of rape and sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein, authorities in New York, London and Los Angeles launched investigations into the film executive’s alleged behavior. He was charged in New York in May 2018 on counts of rape and sexual abuse related to two separate accusers; just hours after that trial began in January 2020, he was charged in Los Angeles with the sexual assaults of two different women in incidents said to have taken place in 2013.
In February 2020, the New York jury found that Weinstein had forced oral sex on a production assistant in 2006 and raped an aspiring actress in 2013, but it acquitted him of the most severe charges of predatory sexual assault. He received the 23-year state prison sentence the following month. In July 2021, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office indicted Weinstein on charges of sexually assaulting five different women in incidents spanning a decade. He was extradited for the indictment from New York to Los Angeles, where he pleaded not guilty to every count.
The Los Angeles trial kicked off in October following a failed bid from Weinstein’s lawyers to push court proceedings in an attempt to avoid overlap with the “swirl of adverse publicity” his team believed would accompany the November release of “She Said,” a feature-film rendering of the New York Times’ real-life investigation into Weinstein.
In opening statements, which began Oct. 24, prosecutors argued there was a pattern to how Weinstein — who long had a reputation in the entertainment industry for aggressive behavior, especially as it related to awards season campaign tactics — allegedly targeted young women in Hollywood and threatened to harm their careers if they spoke up.
Multiple women who remained anonymous testified during the trial. The first, Jane Doe #1, said she met Weinstein at a Los Angeles film festival in 2013 and that he showed up at her hotel room afterward, demanding he be let in, according to Deadline. She recalled “panicking with fear” as he allegedly forced her to perform oral sex on him, and stated to the jury that she “wanted to die” as he assaulted her in the bathroom. She added, “I wish this never happened to me.”
Jane Doe #2, an aspiring actress and playwright who previously testified in the New York trial as a supporting witness, also said Weinstein assaulted her in a hotel bathroom in 2013, according to Variety. Jane Doe #2 had showed up to the hotel expecting to pitch a script to Weinstein in the lobby, as was arranged by a relatively new friend of hers. Instead, the accuser said, the friend led her to Weinstein’s hotel suite and then left, shutting the door behind her.
Variety reported that another accuser, a masseuse identified as Jane Doe #3, testified that Weinstein trapped her in a hotel bathroom, where he allegedly groped and yelled at her while masturbating. She said she agreed to see him again on the condition that he not make her uncomfortable again, but that he repeated the behavior again later on.
Among the most high-profile accusers to testify was Jennifer Siebel Newsom, 48, the documentary filmmaker and former actress married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). Siebel Newsom, whose attorney previously confirmed to news media that Siebel Newsom was the accuser referred to in court filings as Jane Doe #4, accused Weinstein of raping her at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2005 when they met to discuss her career. She said she hadn’t expected him to be alone when she arrived, according to the AP, and that he groped her while masturbating before he then raped her.
An emotional Siebel Newsom recalled feeling nervous after she was directed to Weinstein’s hotel suite, but said in court that she didn’t leave because “you don’t say no to Harvey Weinstein. He could make or ruin your career.”
Prosecutors also aimed to highlight a pattern in Weinstein’s alleged behavior by calling upon “prior bad acts” accusers. One of them, model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, in 2015 participated in a New York sting operation by recording audio of Weinstein in which he admits to groping her and says he is “used to” behaving that way, the New Yorker reported.
Weinstein did not testify in his own defense. His lawyers pointed to what they claimed were inconsistencies in some of the accusers’ testimonies, including specific details related to Jane Doe #1′s claim that Weinstein demanded she perform oral sex on him. Prosecutors established in opening statements that Weinstein has abnormal genitalia due to a 1999 surgery in which his testicles were removed from his scrotum and relocated to his inner thighs, Variety reported. Alan Jackson, an attorney representing Weinstein, claimed that Jane Doe #1′s story changed after hearing of Weinstein’s irregular genitalia, while she maintained that she had previously made note of it to police.
British prosecutors in June authorized charges against Weinstein, citing two counts of indecent assault against a woman in 1996. (He cannot be arrested and formally charged unless extradited to England or Wales.) In August, over two years after Weinstein’s New York conviction, the states’s highest court granted him an appeal. | 2022-12-20T00:27:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape in L.A. trial - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/12/19/harvey-weinstein-verdict/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/12/19/harvey-weinstein-verdict/ |
Trump supporters rally at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)
A bipartisan bill that would make changes to how members of Congress could object to electoral will be included in the omnibus spending bill lawmakers need to approve in the coming days, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Monday night.
The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, sponsored by Collins and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), would amend the Electoral Count Act of 1887 and reaffirm that the vice president has only a ministerial role at the joint session of Congress where electoral college votes are counted. The measure would also raise the threshold necessary for members of Congress to object to a state’s electors.
Collins said that the she was “delighted” the electoral count reform bill would be included in the longer-term government spending bill, and that it was “very significant.”
Though the Senate has not yet voted on the bill, both Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) came out in support of the legislation in September.
Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who wrote the House’s version of the bill, argued that the risk of another effort to steal a presidential election remains high, as Trump continues to spread baseless claims of widespread election fraud, and as pro-Trump candidates in state and local elections around the country embrace those falsehoods.
The Senate and House bills differ chiefly in how much they would change the threshold necessary for members of both chambers to object to a state’s results. Currently, only one member each from the House and Senate are required to object to a state’s electors. The House bill would raise that threshold to at least one-third of the members of both the House and Senate, while the Senate version would raise that threshold to at least one-fifth of the members of both the House and Senate.
Unlike the Senate bill, the House bill — which passed in a 229-203 vote — saw little support from GOP lawmakers. Only nine Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the measure, and none of those nine will be members of Congress next year — either because they lost their primaries or chose to retire. Several of the Republicans who opposed the bill, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), criticized it as unconstitutional.
Trump rails against Jan. 6 committee: ‘What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger’
11:35 PMWhat Trump’s criminal referral means — and what may come next | 2022-12-20T00:54:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Electoral Count Act, crafted as response to Jan. 6, will be in omnibus bill - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/electoral-count-reform-omnibus/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/electoral-count-reform-omnibus/ |
Two fatal shootings spark calls for more police in Adams Morgan
Police, others say it is time to revisit a program in which businesses paid for extra officers to patrol the nightlife area
Adams Morgan's 18th Street strip. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post)
Two fatal shootings in Adams Morgan over the weekend have put residents and business owners in this Northwest Washington neighborhood known for its vibrant nightlife on edge, and sparked calls for a more robust police presence as patrons emerge from pandemic shutdowns.
The killings, hours and blocks apart, of Derron McQueen, 18, and Avon Perkins, 30, appear unrelated, and neither was believed to be random, according to D.C. police. They occurred in an area with little violent crime, according to police statistics.
Authorities said Perkins was shot early Saturday morning on 18th Street NW, a busy commercial strip, after a dispute. McQueen, they said, was shot in the chest while in a vehicle later that night, then pushed onto Euclid Street in a residential area a half-mile away.
Bill Duggan, who has owned the Madam’s Organ bar on 18th Street for three decades, said he was outside chatting with a musician from an establishment next door when he heard the first of several gunshots about 30 feet away.
“I turned and I watched a guy falling backward,” Duggan, 71, said of the earlier shooting. “Then I watched a guy pump four more bullets into him.”
He said the gunman then turned toward him, pointed the gun in his direction and fired into a crowd where he was standing, striking a female bystander who he said was walking out of a pizza restaurant. Police said she was not believed to have life-threatening injuries.
Duggan, who said he dove behind a flower box to escape the gunfire, later complained on a neighborhood email group that he saw no police on 18th Street from Friday night into Saturday.
The Adams Morgan Partnership Business Improvement District had for years coordinated a program, largely funded by business owners, to hire as many as a dozen off-duty police officers to keep the peace in an area crowded with bars. But the BID dissolved the program in March 2020, calling it an unnecessary expense when nightlife spots were largely shuttered because of the pandemic, according to executive director Kristen Barden. She said there had not been a conversation about restoring the program.
The mayor vowed to protect nightlife spots. Then a Commanders player was shot
Duggan said he would like to see more police, but private business owners should not have to pay for policing beyond what is covered by taxes.
“We should never have a neighborhood that has thousands of people on the street have no police,” Duggan said. “We don’t need nine or 13 officers; we can get by with two or three. But we should never be in a position where we have none.”
Morgan C. Kane, an assistant D.C. police chief in charge of patrol, said officers pay attention to the 18th Street corridor in Adams Morgan, but they are not permanently assigned there. She said that is in part because of low staffing, and in part because there is more violent crime elsewhere.
“As much as we’re able to, we’ll make sure officers give special attention” to that area, Kane said.
Salah Czapary, a former D.C. police officer who is now the acting director of the city’s Office of Nightlife and Culture, visited 18th Street after the shootings and said extra officers would be assigned to the area in the short term. That is typical after homicides. Czapary said he also will encourage a conversation about restarting the extra-duty detail.
Police said this weekend’s fatal shootings were the first homicides in Adams Morgan since 2019. Three people have been shot this year in Adams Morgan area, including the two men shot Saturday, police said.
Kane said she supported the extra-duty officers paid for by businesses and would advocate the return of that program. She noted that Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) had proclaimed the District open for business, “so I think we would revisit the posture we took prior to the pandemic.”
D.C. to deploy teams to curb violence, watch nightlife hubs on July 4
Over the summer, Bowser launched a nightlife task force to keep entertainment strips along U Street NW, H Street NE and Connecticut Avenue NW safe by deploying extra police officers and civilian conflict mediators. A Washington Commanders running back was shot and wounded along H Street in August, and a 15-year-old was fatally shot on U Street during an event in June.
Kane said 18th Street in Adams Morgan was not included in that plan because crime was comparatively low. “At the time, there were other areas we need to focus on,” she said.
The first of Saturday’s shootings occurred shortly before 1:30 a.m. in the 2400 block of 18th Street NW. Kane said Perkins, who is from Baltimore, got into an argument with another man and punched him before he was shot. A police report says he died on a sidewalk after suffering multiple gunshot wounds. Efforts to reach his relatives were not successful.
Kane said that later that day McQueen met with a person inside a vehicle. That person appears to have shot him and left him in the 1700 block of Euclid Street NW a little after 10 p.m., Kane said.
McQueen’s grandmother, Regina Williams, said her grandson lived most recently with his father in Prince George’s County, Md., but had relatives in the District as well. She said she last saw him at her house in Northeast Washington for Thanksgiving.
Williams, 55, described McQueen as a “well-mannered” teen who dressed smartly, enjoyed video games and had three siblings. She said she did not know what might have led to the shooting.
Williams said she has 14 other grandchildren ranging in age from infancy to 19.
“By the grace of God, I will make sure they’re safe,” she said. “It feels like the world has come to an end. People are just killing people. It makes no sense.” | 2022-12-20T01:02:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Two fatal shootings spark calls for more police in Adams Morgan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/adams-morgan-shootings-police/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/19/adams-morgan-shootings-police/ |
Group says FDA regulators are overwhelmed and reactive
A teenager in Ocean City, Md., vapes near the Boardwalk last June. (Shuran Huang/For The Washington Post)
An independent review of the Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco regulators described them as overwhelmed, reactive and fatigued by an oppressive workload involving e-cigarettes and called for a major effort, by several parts of the Biden administration, to remove millions of illegal vaping products from the market.
The report, by the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, also said the agency’s Center for Tobacco Products, created by federal law in 2009, has fallen short in laying out clear priorities and has been besieged by lawsuits brought by tobacco and vaping companies, on the one hand, and public health groups on the other.
The review said there are millions of illegal vaping products on the market — involving companies that should have applied for FDA authorization and never did, or others that had their applications rejected — and that a major effort is needed to remove them.
While the review faulted the FDA for enforcement shortfalls, it also acknowledged that the agency does not have the authority to clear millions of illegal products from the marketplace on its own — much of that power rests with the Justice Department.
The review group, headed by Lauren Silvis, chief of staff to former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, called on the Biden administration to establish “an interagency task force to make enforcement of the tobacco laws a government-wide priority, particularly to address the marketing of illegal products and the risks of youth use.”
In addition, the panel said the FDA should lay out a road map of priorities and explain how it will implement them, including the standard used for authorizing e-cigarettes. The group suggested that people with varying views were dissatisfied.
FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, who authorized the review following sharp criticism from Congress and advocates of the agency’s handling of e-cigarette issues, said the agency would review the report and provide an update on future action steps by early February.
“We’ve made important progress and reached science-based regulatory decisions across a broad array of products in the 13 years since Congress tasked the FDA with regulating tobacco products,” Califf said. But, he added, even greater challenges are ahead.
The report won praise from both sides in the vaping battle, but for different reasons. Anti-tobacco groups liked the emphasis on enforcement and compliance, while pro-vaping groups said the report validated their view that the center was not working effectively.
“The most important thing that could come out of this is if it results in a government-wide commitment to effectively enforcing the law clearing the market of products that the FDA has not authorized,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a leading anti-tobacco group. He also said the FDA should move to prohibit the marketing of vaping products that have not gone through agency review.
Products with applications submitted by fall 2020 are allowed to stay on the market while their items are under review.
Gregory Conley, director of legislative and external affairs for the American Vapor Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group, said: “Over and over again, the policy flaws that we have repeatedly laid at FDA’s doorstep were validated by [the report] yet the problem is that in the report there doesn’t seem to be any mechanism for forcing these problems to be corrected other than a new presidential administration.”
Califf requested the review of the FDA’s tobacco activities in July, not long after the agency ordered vaping products from Juul Labs off the shelves in the U.S. market and then suspended the order, saying it needed more time to examine “scientific issues unique to the Juul application.” The reversal was seen as an embarrassment for the agency.
The Reagan-Udall Foundation, which works closely with the agency, receives funding from the FDA, industry, nonprofit groups and private donors.
Mitch Zeller, longtime director of the tobacco center until he retired in April, said the report was accurate in saying that “one of the challenges the FDA and the center faces, at the end of the day, is that it does not call the shots.” While the FDA can take some enforcement steps on its own, such as sending warning letters to companies, “the decision-makers when it comes to using tools such as seizure and injunctions, are not the lawyers at FDA or HHS but lawyers at the Justice Department,” he said.
Califf, in asking for the tobacco review, also requested one on the agency’s food-safety regulation, a response to the furor over the infant-formula shortage this year. Earlier this month, the Reagan-Udall Foundation offered a scathing indictment of the agency’s food-safety structure and culture, and it recommended major restructuring. It faulted the agency for inadequate oversight of foodborne illness and persistently slow decision-making. Califf said in a statement that he was forming a group of agency leaders to advise him on how to implement the findings and would unveil those efforts to the public early next year.
The FDA has been under intense pressure from members of Congress and tobacco-control advocates to be more aggressive in removing flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, from the market. Congress this year gave the agency additional regulatory authority so that it could go after flavored products made with synthetic nicotine.
But the FDA received millions of applications and now says it will take until next year to finish the reviews. The agency has completed its review of the vast majority of applications, rejecting millions while approving some applications for tobacco-flavored vapes, but it has not finished reviewing the ones from companies that make up the biggest part of market share.
Zeller noted that the time frame set by the agency in 2017 had been collapsed from four years to 10 months when it lost a lawsuit. That gave the agency much less time to prepare for a deluge of applications, he said.
On enforcement, the FDA stepped up activity this fall. In October, the agency announced that the Justice Department, on behalf of the FDA, was seeking permanent injunctions in federal district courts against six e-cigarette manufacturers. The government accused the companies of selling new tobacco products without first obtaining marketing authorization from the FDA. It was the first time the FDA has initiated such proceedings to enforce the law’s premarket review requirements for new tobacco products.
This month, the Supreme Court refused to block a California law banning flavored tobacco. Voters overwhelmingly supported the ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and menthol cigarettes, in a ballot measure on Nov. 8. The law was enacted in 2020, but its implementation was delayed as opponents, led by tobacco companies, collected enough signatures to put it on the ballot.
Juul Labs, the e-cigarette manufacturer, announced this month that it has reached settlements covering more than 5,000 cases with nearly 10,000 plaintiffs. The sweeping resolutions, which litigators say will address youth e-cigarette usage, come after more than three years of legal battles. The company did not release the amount but the Wall Street Journal reported that Juul agreed to pay $1.7 billion in the broad legal settlement. | 2022-12-20T02:34:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Major effort needed to remove illegal vaping products, review finds - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/12/19/major-effort-needed-remove-illegal-vaping-products-review-finds/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/12/19/major-effort-needed-remove-illegal-vaping-products-review-finds/ |
Ask Amy: I want to tell my kids the truth about Santa
These are otherwise reasonable people who do their best to teach honesty, good communication, integrity and good values to their children. I’ve assimilated well to the point that I, too, am complicit in this charade, along with almost all my neighbors, friends, colleagues and all their relatives.
It’s important for me to keep (or at least regain) my kids’ trust despite this betrayal. How do I come clean to my kids, who are 7 and 4 and have grown to embrace this tradition?
Gaslight: You seem to be saying that in addition to everything else that’s wrong about the Santa story, offering cookies and milk to a fat man who doesn’t exist is part of the problem. Sigh.
The Santa story is a benign part of childhood that children quickly outgrow. Your older child will decode the Santa story first and might choose to maintain the mystery for the younger child’s enjoyment. That’s what my elder siblings did, anyway — and I’m grateful.
Dear Amy: I’m a 51-year-old woman. I never married and don’t have kids. I’m fine with it, I enjoy my home and freedom very much.
But I’m constantly being asked by friends, family, colleagues, and people I’ve just met why I’m not married, if I’m seeing anyone, and if I’m looking. I’m so tired of being told some form of: “It’ll happen for you someday.”
Single: One way to deal with intrusive questions is to basically repeat and reframe the question and toss it back.
Q: “Why aren't you married?”
Dear Amy: “Baker” was wondering if she should make or purchase additional gluten-free baked goods for a relative with food allergies. Baker should definitely purchase the gluten-free products, rather than attempting this in her own kitchen.
Given the amount of traditional baking she does, her kitchen is likely to be a source of gluten cross-contamination. Store bought, certified gluten-free goods will be safer for her guest, and will still be appreciated!
Grateful: For a person with celiac disease, any exposure to gluten contaminants (found as traces in most kitchens) can cause very serious symptoms. Thank you for the reminder and recommendation. | 2022-12-20T05:37:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Amy: I want to tell my kids the truth about Santa - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/12/20/ask-amy-santa-kids-believe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/12/20/ask-amy-santa-kids-believe/ |
Miss Manners: Should I immediately open wine that guests bring?
There was a time when bringing a bottle of wine to a dinner party was considered somewhat insulting, as if the guest could not count on the host to serve a decent wine.
Dear Miss Manners: I had a friend ask where I had purchased a gift so she could return it. When the store wasn’t in her area, she asked if I would return it for her. It wasn’t the wrong size, and she didn’t already have one. I genuinely thought she would like it, and my feelings were hurt.
When giving gifts, I try to give something that I think the person will like. When receiving a gift, even if it isn't what I would have chosen for myself, I always thank the person and make a point to try to really enjoy it.
Well, it was. Nowadays, many people seem to think it is an opportunity to order things without having to pay for them, and being able to return them if they do not suit.
Dear Miss Manners: Is a text acknowledgment required for birthday or anniversary cards received in the mail? My parents always send me a text thanking me for cards, and expect me to do the same. I thought thank-you notes were only required for gifts.
Etiquette does not require thanks for cards unless they contain personal letters. Your parents, however, do. Miss Manners would consider it the wiser course to go with your parents’ wishes rather than argue with them about rules. | 2022-12-20T05:37:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miss Manners: Should I immediately open wine that guests bring? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/12/20/miss-manners-host-guest-wine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/12/20/miss-manners-host-guest-wine/ |
National Health Service nurses rally Thursday outside St Thomas' Hospital in London. Their strike is the first in their union's 106-year history. (Andy Rain/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
LONDON — The British newspapers are calling it the “winter of discontent.”
Huge strikes are creating chaos in hospitals and standstills at transit hubs, as walkouts by firefighters, baggage handlers, paramedics, driving examiners, immigration officers, bus drivers, construction workers, mail carriers and railway conductors mount. The public has been warned to avoid train travel on Christmas Eve.
Most worrisome for the government — and the public — is that nurses have just gone on strike, too. Teachers are threatening work stoppages early in the new year.
Workers in wide swaths of the public sector are in open revolt against 12 years of “austerity budgets” by the Conservative Party and the soaring costs of living in 2022. Energy prices are so high here that the government stepped in to cap and subsidize home heating bills so that people wouldn’t freeze in their flats.
This follows the immolation of the previous Tory government, that of Liz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in modern British history. She had called for sweeping tax cuts but offered no way to pay for them, sending markets reeling and Truss to early retirement.
The British government is now preparing to mobilize 1,200 army troops to drive ambulances over the holidays. Civil servants from other agencies will be brought in to check passports at border crossings, if necessary.
During the worst years of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of ordinary Britons, alongside Prime Minister Boris Johnson (also gone), stood on their doorsteps during harsh lockdowns to bang pots and pans and clap their hands for National Health Service workers, hailing them as front-line heroes.
Now the nurses are saying they need more than applause. They are burned out, overworked and underpaid, they say, and want a real raise to keep up with inflation, which has topped 10 percent.
“They’re taking advantage of us,” said Rachel Ambrose, 40, a mental health nurse who works with children and teenagers in Oxford. “We don’t seek an extravagant lifestyle. We’re nurses. We just want to pay our bills. We want heat.”
Ambrose said that the nurses are “fired up, we’re angry, we’re determined,” and that these strikes “will continue because they are ignoring us.”
She pointed to staffing shortages at the NHS that undermine patient care and have nurses at a breaking point. Sick days have soared since the pandemic — and so have nurses leaving the profession or moving abroad.
Britain’s public health system is short 50,000 nurses. Half of all new hires today come from overseas because the U.K. either can’t train enough at home or pays too little to attract new workers. Brexit also has stemmed the “free movement” flow of nurses from Eastern Europe to Britain.
The government says the average nurse’s salary is now 35,600 pounds ($43,300). New nurses are paid less; experienced nurses with specialized skills are paid more; overtime also boosts salaries.
Nurses earn higher wages in the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Germany and Spain. British nurses, though, are paid more than their counterparts in France and Italy.
After one of the worst weeks of strikes in recent British history, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s new government is still refusing to sit at the table with the unions, calling the salary increases “unaffordable” and warning that the government must hold the line on wages to keep inflation in check.
The government supports a modest pay raise for ambulance crews and nurses — as recommended by independent pay-review bodies — of about 4.75 percent. The nurses union is demanding a 19 percent increase.
Sunak’s spokesperson on Monday told reporters that “it would be irresponsible to push ahead with double-digit pay awards."
But Sunak and his government ministers are learning that it is one thing to fight the railway workers and their “union bosses,” as the government brands them, and quite another to fight the nurses. The railway strikes create frustrating snarls for urban commuters and holiday travelers — which are highlighted by the anti-union tabloids. On the other hand, the nurses are revered. A YouGov poll this month found that 64 percent of Britons backed the nurses’ strike.
On Monday, Sunak called an emergency cabinet meeting to shape plans to keep the country’s vital national services going, with the army on standby.
Some 10,000 ambulance workers in England and Wales are set to go on strike Wednesday. Members of the Royal College of Nurses union walked out Thursday and are headed to the picket lines again Tuesday.
Nurses who work in emergency rooms have stayed on the job, but hospitals are struggling to maintain staffing for basic care. Many routine procedures, exams, non-emergency surgeries and other treatments have been delayed.
Some victims of heart attack or stroke are waiting almost an hour on average for ambulances — compared with the 18-minute target.
At neighborhood doctor’s offices, where most patients see their general practitioner and nurses, the staffs describe a system in crisis because of chronic underfunding and worker shortages.
Anthony Johnson, 29, a cardiac nurse in Leeds, is among those supporting the decision by the Royal College of Nursing to walk out for the first time in its 106-year history.
“We have not had pay rises that meet inflation. That’s why you see nurses going to food banks and the number of vacancies have drastically increased,” he said. “We have horrendous nurse-to-patient ratios. Our clinical guidelines are one nurse to eight patients, but we never generally meet that. The reality is, it’s one nurse to 13 patients, so it’s constantly unsafe and puts patients at risk.”
He likes working in Britain and will stay. But many are looking abroad, he warned.
“We’re training nurses for export, usually to Canada, Australia and New Zealand … where nurses can make an extra 10,000 pounds [$12,200],” Johnson said. “Rather than investing in our staff, the U.K. government is stealing nurses from other parts of the world. They are cutting pay and letting that happen.”
Julia Patterson, founder of Every Doctor, a campaign group representing 1,200 U.K. physicians, said her doctors are “really supportive and will pull together to keep patients safe in the absence of nurses. They will have to work incredibly hard, but they support their colleagues doing this.”
She noted that doctors, too, are being balloted to see if they might strike in the new year.
“People are dying because of a failure in public health,” Patterson said. | 2022-12-20T06:42:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.K. nurses strike over pay, testing a health care system in crisis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/20/uk-strikes-nurses-nhs-healthcare/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/20/uk-strikes-nurses-nhs-healthcare/ |
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Wang Yu, hailed by the U.S. as an International Woman of Courage, has already been arrested, imprisoned and harassed by the Chinese Communist Party for her work as a human rights lawyer representing activists, Uyghur scholars and Falun Gong practitioners. This year, her movements within her home country also have been restricted by a color-coded app on her phone that’s supposed to protect people from COVID-19. | 2022-12-20T07:09:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Beijing human rights activist immobilized by COVID-19 app - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/beijing-human-rights-activist-immobilized-by-covid-19-app/2022/12/20/44685b9e-802b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/beijing-human-rights-activist-immobilized-by-covid-19-app/2022/12/20/44685b9e-802b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
China wanted to set aside our difference on Ukraine – they did not want to talk about Ukraine. They did not want to talk about human rights, and other issues, and instead focus on the positive things. The European side made clear that this “compartmentalization” is not feasible, not acceptable. For us, the war in Ukraine is a defining moment for whether we live in a world governed by rules or by force. That is the question. We condemn the Russian aggression against Ukraine and support this country’s sovereignty and democracy - not because we “follow the US blindly,” as sometimes China suggests, but because it is our own position, our genuine position, we believe in that. This was an important message for the Chinese leadership to hear.
After Scholz in China, Look Out for Macron in America: Lionel Laurent | 2022-12-20T07:09:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Europe Must Avoid Wishful Thinking on China in 2023 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/europe-must-avoid-wishful-thinking-on-china-in-2023/2022/12/20/5d029aa6-802c-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/europe-must-avoid-wishful-thinking-on-china-in-2023/2022/12/20/5d029aa6-802c-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
The Best Gift You Can Get Your Kids Is in a Boring Envelope
Stuck for a last-minute holiday gift for your children?
Picture this scene on Christmas morning: Children gather excitedly around the tree, their faces light up when they see an exquisitely wrapped envelope bearing their names. Their eyes open wide in wonder, followed by … puzzlement. “What’s a SIPP?”
Merry Christmas! The short answer is: A SIPP is a Self Invested Personal Pension plan. It is an extremely tax-efficient means of saving for retirement. Contributions attract tax relief, gains build up within the SIPP free of tax, and any residual funds left after your death is usually free of inheritance tax too.
What many don’t realize, however, is that contributions up to £2,880 ($3,570) per annum can also attract tax relief at the basic rate of 20%, even when the beneficiary has no income. The addition of 20% tax relief takes the value of a £2,880 contribution right up to £3,600.
Junior SIPPs, which are available to any child up to the age of 18, are designed to take full advantage of this. You must be the child’s parent or legal guardian to open one, and you will need to provide your National Insurance number and one for your child too if they have one. Nevertheless, the process is pretty painless and it can take as little as 15 minutes to open an account online, making it an ideal last minute gift.
Yet a pension contribution at such a tender age is likely to prove the most valuable gift they will ever receive. Even compounding at a relatively modest 5% real annual growth rate over 50 years will transform the initial £3,600 investment to almost £44,000 in today’s money. In nominal terms, that could reach almost £200,000 if inflation were to average just 3% over the intervening period, even if you were to make no further contributions. And remember that the initial £3,600 only actually cost you £2,880 in the first place.
There is a wide range of investment choices too, although for this sort of ultra-long term instrument, it would be appropriate for most, if not all, of it to be exposed to the stock market. A low-cost global equity fund would probably be the best choice to begin with. As a general investing rule of thumb, longer investment horizons leave more time for short-term volatility to be smoothed out and allow compounding to work its magic.
In these straitened times, clearly £2,880 is a hefty sum to be gifting into an offspring’s pension, no matter how cherished they are. However, it is possible to start with regular monthly contributions of around £25 a month or by simply making a smaller lump sum payment. Typically, the minimum contribution is around £100, which would still gross up to £125 thanks to the tax relief.
The same principle can apply to adults too with ordinary SIPPs. Any non-working partner would be eligible for the same £720 tax uplift from £2,880 to £3,600, even if they earned nothing in any given tax year. This can be ideal for staying on track for retirement when someone takes a career break.
There are, of course, other means of helping children get into the investment habit and understand the intricacies of compound interest and tax relief. Junior Individual Savings Accounts (JISAs), for example, are a good choice for those unwilling to force their children to wait 50 years to benefit. Again, a parent or guardian must open the account, but the child is free to withdraw the money once they reach 18.
There is no tax relief, but money builds up tax-free within the JISA, and unlike a SIPP it can also be withdrawn free of tax. The annual JISA limit is higher at £9,000. For completeness, if your parents are very rich, children aged 16 or 17 are entitled to the adult £20,000 a year ISA allowance, in addition to their JISA allowance.
One trap to beware of, though, especially with interest rates rising, is that money gifted from a parent into a child’s savings account with a bank or building society might attract tax. If the annual interest is greater than £100, the income is taxed as though it accrued to the parent, not the child. For that reason, grandparents often make such contributions.
Sure, your five-year-old may not thank you for such a generous gift. But eventually they’ll appreciate the financial start. After all, a pension is for life, not just for Christmas. | 2022-12-20T07:10:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Best Gift You Can Get Your Kids Is in a Boring Envelope - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-best-gift-you-can-get-your-kids-is-in-a-boring-envelope/2022/12/20/5c26931c-802c-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-best-gift-you-can-get-your-kids-is-in-a-boring-envelope/2022/12/20/5c26931c-802c-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
In Israel, a struggle over Jewish identity and who can call the country home
Jewish immigrants snap photos and wave Israeli flags as they step off a plane upon their arrival at the Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv in 2019. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM — Julia Rodbell was teaching at a high school in Dallas when a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Rodbell was shaken by the antisemitic symbols she saw among white nationalists in the crowd, disturbed by the quiet apathy to the event in her city, and, for the first time in her life, felt afraid to be a Jew in the United States.
In the following weeks, she enrolled in a master’s program at Tel Aviv University; when it was over, she made her immigration to Israel official.
“I looked around the world at all the places it was unsafe to be a Jew, and, suddenly, America was one of them,” said Rodbell, 26, a day after receiving her Israeli government-issued immigrant documents. “In Israel, I feel comfortable. I feel at home.”
Rodbell is one of nearly 4,000 Jews who emigrated from the United States to Israel in the past year. But she has arrived just as the most religiously fundamentalist government in the country’s history comes to power, with plans to ban the immigration of Jews like her. Rodbell’s mother is not Jewish, so she does not fit the strictest, Orthodox criteria for being a Jew.
The contentious initiative could strip at least 3 million Jews around the world of their right to Israeli citizenship, according to Israeli media. It is championed by Religious Zionism, a bloc of once-fringe, far-right politicians that is slated to be the second largest in the incoming government, after Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party.
Bezalel Smotrich, Religious Zionism’s leader, promised earlier this month to change Israel’s immigration policy, which was passed unanimously in 1950 to deliver on the promise of a Jewish homeland in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
“It is a social and Jewish time bomb that must be dealt with,” Smotrich said of the policy in an interview with the ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Barama this month.
Israel’s Law of Return guarantees citizenship to any Jew, from any country in the world, who is able to prove a connection to at least one Jewish grandparent. It enabled the immigration of some 900,000 Jews from other parts of the Arab world, more than a million Jews escaping the collapse of the Soviet Union and tens of thousands more fleeing religious persecution in Ethiopia.
But Avi Maoz, head of the ultranationalist Noam party, said in a recent statement that the policy “is absurdly used to bring gentiles into the State of Israel, and to systematically lower the percentage of Jews in the State of Israel. It’s time to fix this thing, and that’s what we’ll do.”
Netanyahu has tapped Maoz to helm a newly established “Jewish identity” government agency, as well as the “Nativ” organization, which oversees immigration from the former U.S.S.R., including refugees from the Russian war in Ukraine.
According to data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, most of the Jews who have immigrated to Israel from former Soviet countries would not have qualified under Maoz’s proposed criteria, which is based on halacha, or Jewish law, rather than state law.
The proposed immigration restrictions have sent shock waves through the American Jewish community, which is facing an increase in antisemitic attacks and a reemergence of antisemitic rhetoric in the political and cultural mainstream. Some of those looking to Israel for refuge may no longer be welcome if Maoz gets his way.
Last Friday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog granted Netanyahu an extension to conclude coalition negotiations and form a government, though he added the caveat that Netanyahu “must preserve the powerful bond with the Jewish Diaspora.”
The rift between American Jews and Israel has been widening for a long time, according to Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, which represents the largest denomination of Judaism in the United States but is considered illegitimate by the Orthodox rabbinate in Israel.
“The disconnect is profound,” Jacobs said. “Zionism was never meant to be the project of the ultra-Orthodox, and the redefinition of who is a Jew is not an Israeli prerogative.”
Israel cannot afford to fracture the bond with the largest Jewish diaspora community in the world, he added.
“American Jews are standing up in their social circles, work places, social media, to lobby for the support of Israel; they meet with their congresspeople, their senators to talk in articular, clear voices about why Israel’s security matters,” Jacobs said. “Israel is part of who we are as diaspora Jews.”
Netanyahu is promising to rein in the most extreme elements of his government. He said in an interview with NBC that, on the immigration law, he had experience implementing “creative solutions to these kinds of impasses.”
“I doubt we’ll have any changes,” he added.
On Thursday, though, Likud agreed to review the law as part of coalition negotiations, a move that Netanyahu’s party once fiercely opposed.
Many fear the proposed policy shift is an attempt to sabotage the non-Orthodox forms of Judaism that have thrived in the Jewish diaspora and, with the support of American institutions and funding, have started making headway in Israel. Thirteen percent of Israeli Jews belong to the Reform and Conservative movement, according to Israel’s Bureau of Statistics, and their members increasingly bristle at the grip of the Orthodox rabbinate over marriage, divorce, burial and other aspects of personal life.
Progressive Israeli activists are preparing for battle, enlisting funds and support from Jewish allies across the world, said Anat Hoffman, co-founder of the feminist prayer group Women of the Wall, which for decades has protested the ultra-Orthodox control of the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites.
Women are forbidden from reading from the Torah, and they are relegated to a separate section. When the Women of the Wall visit, its members have been spat on, cursed, and, at times, targeted with dirty diapers. In coalition negotiations, the United Torah Judaism, a party in Netanyahu’s government, is demanding the criminalization of all non-Orthodox prayer at the wall, according to a report last week by Army Radio.
“There’s an atmosphere of fear,” Hoffman said.
At last month’s “Rosh Hodesh” prayer, activists holding umbrellas emblazoned with the slogan, “When we pray, it soars,” were physically assaulted by unidentified men who wrestled away the umbrellas, breaking some of them.
Women of the Wall will start its first day of self-defense training on the day the new government is sworn in.
“All of us have discovered that our democracies are fragile, that the rights that we thought were etched in stone are not etched in stone,” Hoffman said. “We’re fighting for the soul of Israel here.” | 2022-12-20T07:10:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In Israel, a struggle over Jewish identity and who can call the country home - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/17/israel-immigration-noam-moaz-netanyahu/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/17/israel-immigration-noam-moaz-netanyahu/ |
James Cameron hopes to end the decades-long debate on whether Jack and Rose both could have survived on the door they used as a raft after the shipwreck
Director James Cameron, center, poses with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio after winning the awards for Best Dramatic Motion Picture and Best Director for the film “Titanic” at the 55th Annual Golden Globe Awards in 1998. (Mark J. Terrill/AP)
The director recently revealed that he has commissioned a study that shows only one of the darling duo in “Titanic” could have survived, he said in an interview with the Toronto Sun. The study, which used stunt people and hypothermia experts to re-create the film’s tragic, oft-challenged scene, will be unveiled in a February 2023 National Geographic special around the time a remastered version of the blockbuster movie is scheduled to release.
They both try to climb atop the door but then fall back into the water before Rose gets on it alone, and Jack makes her promise she’ll survive. He is still hanging on to the makeshift raft, his body submerged, when a rescue boat arrives. But as Rose, lying atop the door and wearing a life jacket, tries to wake him, she realizes he’s dead.
And ever since Jack disappeared into the dark waters, fans have argued that he could’ve survived if he’d gotten on the door beside Rose.
After 20 years, these 8 ‘Titanic’ moments still won’t die. Unlike Jack.
In 2012, Cameron himself made an appearance on MythBusters when the show’s hosts, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, told him the couple would have survived had Jack gotten on the door. The hosts did an experiment showing that if one of the characters had tied Rose’s life jacket underneath the door to make it more buoyant and then propped their bodies more upright on the board, they would’ve lived.
Sarah Purkey, a professor of oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, said it’s a problem of buoyancy versus gravity. For both Jack and Rose to have survived, she said, the buoyancy of the wood would have to be equal to or greater than the force of gravity from the weight of the characters.
“That’s how boats float, and that’s how a piece of driftwood floats,” Purkey said. “And it’s going to sink if gravity is more than its buoyancy.”
The stress of that situation makes it “absolutely realistic” that Jack and Rose would not have made all the right decisions, said Gordon Giesbrecht, a professor specializing in cold stress physiology at the University of Manitoba in Canada.
“It’s just all so silly,” he said. “I can’t believe he’s been getting grief for 25 years about it.”
Though there are many known theories about the scene, it’s unclear what the study attempting to disprove them will look like. All Cameron has revealed for now is that it used body doubles for Winslet and DiCaprio, fitted them with sensors and tested their survival “through a variety of methods.”
“He’s the one that got to pick the props and tell the story,” said Purkey, the University of California professor. “So in my mind, he gets to make that door any size and any density that he wants, and that’s what makes the movie.” | 2022-12-20T07:57:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Titanic’ director says new study proves Jack could not have survived - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/20/titanic-jack-survive-study/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/20/titanic-jack-survive-study/ |
Louisiana faces No. 7 Texas following Brown's 20-point game
BOTTOM LINE: Louisiana visits the No. 7 Texas Longhorns after Jordan Brown scored 20 points in Louisiana’s 78-70 win against the McNeese Cowboys.
The Longhorns have gone 7-0 in home games. Texas ranks third in the Big 12 in rebounding averaging 36.1 rebounds. Timmy Allen paces the Longhorns with 6.0 boards.
The Ragin’ Cajuns have gone 3-1 away from home. Louisiana is third in the Sun Belt with 16.2 assists per game led by Themus Fulks averaging 5.9.
Terence Lewis II is averaging 13.8 points and 9.2 rebounds for the Ragin’ Cajuns. Kentrell Garnett is averaging 2.2 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Louisiana. | 2022-12-20T08:41:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Louisiana faces No. 7 Texas following Brown's 20-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/louisiana-faces-no-7-texas-following-browns-20-point-game/2022/12/20/66bba79a-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/louisiana-faces-no-7-texas-following-browns-20-point-game/2022/12/20/66bba79a-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Mitchell and UMKC host South Dakota State
South Dakota State Jackrabbits (5-8, 0-1 Summit) at UMKC Kangaroos (5-9, 1-0 Summit)
Kansas City, Missouri; Wednesday, 8 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: UMKC takes on the South Dakota State Jackrabbits after Rayquawndis Mitchell scored 28 points in UMKC’s 62-45 win over the South Dakota Coyotes.
The Kangaroos are 3-3 on their home court. UMKC is 1-1 in one-possession games.
The Jackrabbits have gone 0-1 against Summit opponents. South Dakota State is seventh in the Summit giving up 73.5 points while holding opponents to 45.3% shooting.
The Kangaroos and Jackrabbits match up Wednesday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Mitchell is scoring 17.5 points per game with 4.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists for the Kangaroos. Shemarri Allen is averaging 15.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.8 steals over the last 10 games for UMKC.
Zeke Mayo is averaging 13.6 points and 6.3 rebounds for the Jackrabbits. William Kyle III is averaging 9.6 points over the last 10 games for South Dakota State. | 2022-12-20T08:41:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mitchell and UMKC host South Dakota State - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/mitchell-and-umkc-host-south-dakota-state/2022/12/20/39aea8f6-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/mitchell-and-umkc-host-south-dakota-state/2022/12/20/39aea8f6-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Northern Illinois Huskies take on the Albany (NY) Great Danes on 3-game losing streak
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Northern Illinois -4.5; over/under is 142
BOTTOM LINE: Northern Illinois aims to stop its three-game losing streak when the Huskies take on Albany (NY).
The Huskies are 1-1 in home games. Northern Illinois ranks ninth in the MAC at limiting opponent scoring, giving up 77.4 points while holding opponents to 46.3% shooting.
The Great Danes have gone 1-7 away from home. Albany (NY) ranks sixth in the America East scoring 28.5 points per game in the paint led by Malik Edmead averaging 6.7.
TOP PERFORMERS: David Coit is shooting 35.0% from beyond the arc with 2.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Huskies, while averaging 12.9 points. Keshawn Williams is averaging 18 points over the last 10 games for Northern Illinois.
Gerald Drumgoole Jr. is scoring 13.6 points per game with 4.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists for the Great Danes. Jonathan Beagle is averaging 11.2 points and 7.2 rebounds while shooting 49.5% over the last 10 games for Albany (NY). | 2022-12-20T08:41:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Northern Illinois Huskies take on the Albany (NY) Great Danes on 3-game losing streak - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/northern-illinois-huskies-take-on-the-albany-ny-great-danes-on-3-game-losing-streak/2022/12/20/3d0e05be-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/northern-illinois-huskies-take-on-the-albany-ny-great-danes-on-3-game-losing-streak/2022/12/20/3d0e05be-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
The Bruins are 7-0 in home games. UCLA is third in the Pac-12 at limiting opponent scoring, giving up 62.2 points while holding opponents to 42.1% shooting.
The Aggies are 1-3 in road games. UC Davis ranks second in the Big West with 10.7 offensive rebounds per game led by Ade Adebayo averaging 1.9.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jaylen Clark is averaging 15.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.6 steals for the Bruins. David Singleton is averaging 2.3 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for UCLA.
Pepper is averaging 20.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists for the Aggies. Ty Johnson is averaging 16.5 points over the last 10 games for UC Davis. | 2022-12-20T08:42:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pepper and UC Davis host No. 13 UCLA - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/pepper-and-uc-davis-host-no-13-ucla/2022/12/20/6aa965f4-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/pepper-and-uc-davis-host-no-13-ucla/2022/12/20/6aa965f4-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Townsend leads Oakland against Michigan State
The Spartans are 3-1 on their home court. Michigan State is 2-2 in games decided by at least 10 points.
The Golden Grizzlies are 0-5 on the road. Oakland ranks seventh in the Horizon with 21.7 defensive rebounds per game led by Keaton Hervey averaging 5.8.
TOP PERFORMERS: Joey Hauser averages 1.9 made 3-pointers per game for the Spartans, scoring 13.9 points while shooting 42.9% from beyond the arc. Tyson Walker is averaging 14 points and 3.5 assists over the last 10 games for Michigan State.
Blake Lampman is shooting 32.8% from beyond the arc with 2.4 made 3-pointers per game for the Golden Grizzlies, while averaging 11 points and 1.6 steals. Townsend is shooting 54.5% and averaging 18.3 points over the past 10 games for Oakland. | 2022-12-20T08:42:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Townsend leads Oakland against Michigan State - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/townsend-leads-oakland-against-michigan-state/2022/12/20/716ec00a-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/townsend-leads-oakland-against-michigan-state/2022/12/20/716ec00a-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
GREEN BAY, Wis. — A.J. Dillon ran for two scores, Aaron Rodgers threw a touchdown pass to Aaron Jones and the Green Bay Packers kept their playoff hopes afloat with a 24-12 victory over the Los Angeles Rams.
PHILADELPHIA — Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts suffered a sprained right shoulder and his status for Philadelphia’s game at Dallas is uncertain, a person with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press.
ATLANTA — Dejounte Murray hit a pair of decisive free throws with 1.3 seconds left, Trae Young had 37 points and 13 assists, and the Atlanta Hawks held off the Orlando Magic 126-125 night to snap their six-game winning streak.
NEW ORLEANS — Giannis Antetokounmpo had 42 points and 10 rebounds in his return from a one-game absence and the Milwaukee Bucks held off a late New Orleans surge to beat the Pelicans 128-119.
PHILADELPHIA — Tobias Harris hit a 3-pointer in overtime that put Philadelphia ahead to stay, and Joel Embiid had 28 points, 11 rebounds and four assists as the 76ers extended their winning streak to a season-best five games with a 104-101 win over the struggling Toronto Raptors.
NEW YORK — Purdue maintained its grasp on No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll on Monday. Another unbeaten is closing the gap, though.
NEW YORK — St. John’s earned its first ranking in seven years after matching the best start in school history, entering The Associated Press women’s basketball poll at No. 25 on Monday. | 2022-12-20T08:42:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Monday's Sports In Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mondays-sports-in-brief/2022/12/20/8ca94822-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mondays-sports-in-brief/2022/12/20/8ca94822-803b-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Lawmakers must act swiftly to approve the so-called omnibus before a temporary spending agreement lapses at the end of this week
Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), left, and Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) talk before a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in May. The two are retiring at the end of this Congress but worked together to write a $1.7 trillion spending bill that lawmakers must pass before Friday night to avert a government shutdown. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
The 4,155-page measure, known in congressional parlance as an omnibus, included funding for key elements of President Biden’s economic agenda, new boosts to defense programs and an additional $44.9 billion in emergency military and economic assistance for Ukraine.
Democrats did not achieve all of the increases to domestic spending that they initially had sought, a concession in talks with Republicans, who are set to assume control of the House in January. But the two parties’ leaders did agree to stitch onto the measure a wide array of long-simmering and stalled bills, recognizing the omnibus marks their final major legislative opening before Congress resets in the new year.
Lawmakers appended proposals to improve pandemic readiness, extend some Medicaid benefits, help Americans save for retirement, ban TikTok on government devices and change the way the country counts presidential electoral votes. The bipartisan election bill — known as the Electoral Count Act — sought to respond to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
But Democrats and Republicans could not find compromises on other outstanding fiscal and economic debates, particularly around a package of tax credits that might have aided low-income families with children while preserving tax breaks for businesses — a slew of thorny issues that now await lawmakers in a tougher political environment next year.
“Despite having a little more work to do, the omnibus continues heading in the right direction,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Monday on the chamber floor as the bill was being finalized, adding lawmakers were “working hard to get it done before the end of the week.”
Even before negotiators clinched the final details, however, some Republicans had already rejected the approach — arguing that the talks should have been postponed until January, when the party assumes control of the House. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the chamber’s minority leader, who is vying to become speaker next year, blasted his counterparts in the Senate for engaging Democrats at all.
“Republicans are about to literally give the Biden administration a blank check,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
“Republican leadership in the Senate — and frankly, too many in the House — are walking away from using that important tool to check the executive branch,” he added.
McCarthy’s allies in the Senate, meanwhile, have raised the prospect that they could try to slow down debate even as the shutdown deadline draws near. “I don’t know why any Republican, let alone 10, would want to help them do that in those circumstances,” said GOP Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) at a news conference last week, declining to say whether he would raise “procedural objections” to a vote.
The release of the omnibus followed weeks of haggling largely among a trio of lawmakers who oversee congressional appropriations: Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.). For the two soon-retiring Senate veterans in particular, the agreement cemented their status as bipartisan dealmakers — and secures billions of dollars for political pet projects, or earmarks, for themselves and others in Congress.
The top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Kay Granger (Tex.), previously criticized lawmakers’ work on a long-term spending agreement. In the days before its release, GOP leaders in the chamber even had encouraged their members to vote against a one-week spending stopgap, known as a continuing resolution, that kept the government running while talks proceeded. If Republicans had prevailed, they would have caused a shutdown at the end of last week.
“We should be passing a continuing resolution into next year instead of buying more time to rush through a massive spending package,” Granger said during the House debate.
Partisan disputes spoiled other discussions, including a last-minute push to secure a deal on taxes. Democrats had hoped to expand the child tax credit, after an earlier policy — providing monthly payments to low-income families in need — expired last year. Republicans, meanwhile, aimed to preserve tax breaks for businesses that the party first secured under its 2017 overhaul. Ultimately, though, the two sides could not find common ground on a compromise, foreshadowing the tough fights to come in a divided Congress next year.
In brokering the current deal, Democrats and Republicans labored to put together the omnibus out of a belief that the alternatives — either a temporary fix or a year-long extension of current funding levels — could have invited political bickering and left key federal agencies, including the Pentagon, ill-equipped in the new year.
To assuage Republicans, who insisted on robust defense spending, the omnibus included nearly $798 billion for the Pentagon and related programs. Taking to the floor Monday before lawmakers released the legislation, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) touted that funding as he sought to sell the deal to his party: He heralded its inclusion of a “substantial, real-dollar increase” for defense — while pointing to what he called a “substantial real-dollar cut” to Biden’s other spending priorities.
Shelby, in a statement earlier Tuesday, added the “far from perfect” negotiations had “allowed Republican redlines to be adhered to,” and he similarly urged his colleagues to back the bill. “We need to do our job and fund the government,” he said in a statement.
“The pain of inflation on American families is real, and it is being felt right now across the federal government,” Leahy said in a statement, adding the bill “directly invests in providing relief from the burden of inflation on the American people.”
Lawmakers also provided new money for some of Biden’s top accomplishments, including bipartisan laws to boost U.S. infrastructure and to promote the domestic manufacturing of small computer chips, known as semiconductors. And the bill provisioned about $40 billion in emergency funds in response to recent natural disasters, including Hurricane Ian.
“As communities across the country work to rebuild after unprecedented natural disasters, this bill provides the urgently needed support to help families, small businesses, and entire towns and cities get back on their feet and repair damaged infrastructure,” DeLauro said.
But Democrats did not secure all of the spending they sought. In the days before negotiators released their measure, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a member of the chamber’s Appropriations Committee, warned the party would see “painful cuts,” but acknowledged that even that was “a lot better than it would be” if lawmakers had simply extended existing funding levels.
In a win for Republicans, the package allows states to start reevaluating who is still eligible for the program beginning in April. It also includes some long-sought Democratic priorities, such as allowing states to permanently extend Medicaid coverage for new mothers for 12 months and barring children from getting kicked off their Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage for a continuous 12 months, even if a family’s income fluctuates. | 2022-12-20T08:42:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Congress unveils $1.7 trillion deal to fund government, avert shutdown - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/12/20/government-spending-deal-shutdown/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/12/20/government-spending-deal-shutdown/ |
Battle and UNC Asheville host No. 10 Arkansas
BOTTOM LINE: UNC Asheville takes on the No. 10 Arkansas Razorbacks after Jamon Battle scored 21 points in UNC Asheville’s 74-73 victory over the East Tennessee State Buccaneers.
The Razorbacks are 6-0 on their home court. Arkansas is 8-1 against opponents over .500.
The Bulldogs are 3-3 in road games. UNC Asheville ranks third in the Big South with 25.4 defensive rebounds per game led by Drew Pember averaging 7.8.
TOP PERFORMERS: Anthony Black is averaging 12.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.8 steals for the Razorbacks. Ricky Council IV is averaging 18.9 points over the last 10 games for Arkansas.
Pember is averaging 19.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.9 blocks for the Bulldogs. Tajion Jones is averaging 3.3 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for UNC Asheville. | 2022-12-20T08:43:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Battle and UNC Asheville host No. 10 Arkansas - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/battle-and-unc-asheville-host-no-10-arkansas/2022/12/20/7dd15016-803a-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/battle-and-unc-asheville-host-no-10-arkansas/2022/12/20/7dd15016-803a-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Cal faces UT Arlington, aims to halt 12-game slide
BOTTOM LINE: Cal looks to stop its 12-game losing streak when the Golden Bears play UT Arlington.
The Golden Bears are 0-7 on their home court. Cal has a 0-5 record in games decided by 10 or more points.
The Mavericks have gone 1-2 away from home. UT Arlington has a 0-1 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
TOP PERFORMERS: Devin Askew is shooting 38.8% and averaging 16.9 points for the Golden Bears. Lars Thiemann is averaging 12.2 points over the last 10 games for Cal.
Shemar Wilson is averaging 9.7 points and 8.3 rebounds for the Mavericks. Aaron Johnson-Cash is averaging 8.8 points over the last 10 games for UT Arlington. | 2022-12-20T08:43:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Cal faces UT Arlington, aims to halt 12-game slide - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/cal-faces-ut-arlington-aims-to-halt-12-game-slide/2022/12/20/98d8b156-803a-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/cal-faces-ut-arlington-aims-to-halt-12-game-slide/2022/12/20/98d8b156-803a-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Cal Poly set for road matchup with the San Jose State Spartans
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: San Jose State -6; over/under is 121
BOTTOM LINE: San Jose State hosts Cal Poly in a matchup of Division 1 Division opponents.
The Spartans are 4-1 on their home court. San Jose State is fourth in the MWC with 33.8 points per game in the paint led by Omari Moore averaging 9.1.
TOP PERFORMERS: Moore is averaging 13.8 points and 4.6 assists for the Spartans. Alvaro Cardenas Torre is averaging 1.7 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for San Jose State.
Alimamy Koroma is scoring 12.6 points per game and averaging 4.9 rebounds for the Mustangs. Trevon Taylor is averaging 10.6 points for Cal Poly. | 2022-12-20T08:43:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Cal Poly set for road matchup with the San Jose State Spartans - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/cal-poly-set-for-road-matchup-with-the-san-jose-state-spartans/2022/12/20/9f9bf638-803a-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/cal-poly-set-for-road-matchup-with-the-san-jose-state-spartans/2022/12/20/9f9bf638-803a-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Cohill and Youngstown State host Central Michigan
BOTTOM LINE: Youngstown State plays the Central Michigan Chippewas after Dwayne Cohill scored 26 points in Youngstown State’s 85-81 win against the Southern Jaguars.
The Chippewas have gone 3-1 at home. Central Michigan ranks fifth in the MAC at limiting opponent scoring, allowing 70.3 points while holding opponents to 41.6% shooting.
TOP PERFORMERS: Kevin Miller is averaging 18.5 points and 5.3 assists for the Chippewas. Brian Taylor is averaging 14.5 points over the last 10 games for Central Michigan.
Cohill is averaging 17.5 points, 4.3 assists and 1.6 steals for the Penguins. Malek Green is averaging 14.4 points over the last 10 games for Youngstown State. | 2022-12-20T08:43:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Cohill and Youngstown State host Central Michigan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/cohill-and-youngstown-state-host-central-michigan/2022/12/20/a2fdc25c-803a-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/cohill-and-youngstown-state-host-central-michigan/2022/12/20/a2fdc25c-803a-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
Coppin State hosts James Madison after Sessoms' 23-point game
The Eagles are 2-0 on their home court. Coppin State ranks third in the MEAC shooting 34.5% from deep, led by Alex Rojas shooting 45.7% from 3-point range.
The Dukes are 2-2 in road games. James Madison has a 9-1 record in games decided by 10 points or more.
TOP PERFORMERS: Sessoms is averaging 23.7 points, 5.6 assists and 1.7 steals for the Eagles. Kam’Ron Cunningham is averaging 1.4 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Coppin State. | 2022-12-20T08:43:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Coppin State hosts James Madison after Sessoms' 23-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/coppin-state-hosts-james-madison-after-sessoms-23-point-game/2022/12/20/6913e01c-803a-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/coppin-state-hosts-james-madison-after-sessoms-23-point-game/2022/12/20/6913e01c-803a-11ed-8738-ed7217de2775_story.html |
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