On Milk Bar’s opening day, nobody’s playing it cool

After months of breathless, cookie-less anticipation, here we all are. The people have come. They have come to Milk Bar, the irreverent New York bakery import from Springfield's own Christina Tosi. They have come ... to wait in line. [Surprise! Milk Bar is here, and Momofuku's long-anticipated debut is just around the corner] On Day One -- surely this occasion merits capitals -- there was no way around the queue that wrapped around the corner shop positioned at the westernmost edge of downtown's glitzy CityCenterDC development. As morning stretched into afternoon, the line only grew longer. The line by about noon at Milk Bar in CityCenterDC. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) "Is this the line for Milk?" one not-quite-with-it passerby asked. Others approached the rapidly multiplying crowd with slack-jawed curiosity -- and kept on walking. A stoic, steely-eyed (or at least steely-sunglassed) special police officer kept a watchful eye on the polite, jovial and, yes, millennial-heavy crowd. But he was, presumably, getting paid to be there. Me, too, sir! Me, too! Some of my fellow line-waiters, not so much. A group of three women who sheepishly declined to give their names and occupations said they'd been urged on the excursion by one of their co-workers who had visited Milk Bar in New York. She'd already bailed. "I don't feel silly," one of her colleagues said. "It's a light Friday," added another. "Why not see what's happening?" In a matter of minutes, she was the only one left standing, charged with bringing back a dozen cookies and then some to her office across the street. Cereal milk soft serve ice cream for the hungry masses in line. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) To keep the natives from getting too restless, staff with samples of cereal milk soft serve ice cream worked the line, which had the buzz of fame bordering on celebrity in a social-media-happy world. There were selfie sticks, talk of live-tweeting and the clicking of the shutter sound-effect from cellphone cameras. Of course, the sweets -- cookies, cake truffles, crack pie, shakes, parfaits -- were the endgame, the reason for all this, right? RIGHT? Maybe? At least that's what I told myself. An hour older than when I arrived, I broke free, a Thanksgiving croissant (turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce) and a three-pack of birthday cake truffles among my haul. I bit into my foil-wrapped bagel bomb (everything dough, bacon-scallion cream cheese)


D.C. area forecast: Increasing clouds today, a few showers tonight into early Sunday

10:45 a.m. update: From 5:00 a.m… 8/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL Fall isn’t all sunshine and beautiful days, although we have had a good deal of that lately. This weekend’s seemingly more cloudy than not in the end. There is good news for weekend plans is that most of the rain potential comes during off-peak times for outdoor activities. Bad news for rain-seekers, it’s not a lot of rain. And as we head back into the work week next week, at least a couple prime autumn days are on tap. Today (Saturday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Sunday): Tomorrow night: Colorful leaves at Lake Mercer’s Dam (Bruce Sorrell via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Fairly typical fall conditions take over the area and dominate the pattern for Monday and Tuesday. Both days should be clearer than not, but each may have their own cloudy periods. If so, Monday’s wants to focus early in the day and Tuesday’s comes later in the day. Highs are in the low-to-mid 60s for the most part. Low 60s may be the main story. Overnight temperatures are in the upper 30s to mid-40s. It does seem a more widespread rain chance may come up by Wednesday. Confidence: Medium


After weeks of debating a menu, David Chang launches a new concept, Momofuku CCDC

David Chang "It's not a surprise," said the Northern Virginia native, "Every restaurant opening, my back gives out. It's just from the pressure and nerves." David Chang has developed a new menu for Washington, a noodle bar-heavy concept called CCDC. <br />(Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) Chang would prefer to deal with the throb in his back through physical therapy, but there was no time on a Thursday afternoon last week. He was still worrying over dishes, kitchen execution, public expectations, final menus and every other detail that would likely escape the attention of the average diner. So, painkillers it was for the multiple James Beard Award winner. "This is the week where I'm hoping they work," he said about the drugs. If you want to know why Chang's brand new concept, Momofuku CCDC, is only now opening for Saturday dinner, more than a day behind the launch of sister bakery, Milk Bar, you can point a finger straight at the man with the bad back. Until today, Chang had not even settled on a menu or approach for the CityCenterDC space. Would it be another iteration of the Momofuku Noodle Bar with ramen, pork buns and snacks? Would it be more open-ended and creative like the Ssam Bar? Would it include a seasonal tasting menu like the intimate Ko? Or would the D.C. location be a greatest hits collection, pulling together the best from across Chang's various restaurant concepts? [MilkBar opens with breakfast parfaits designed just for Washington.] "No, definitely not greatest hits," the chef said on Thursday, still days ahead of opening night. “This is actually a serious debate: Do we offer pork buns?" Chang was also debating whether he'd sell his exquisite, deeply flavored noodle soup, the bowl that has assumed the name of his very restaurant group: Momofuku ramen. "Yesterday," Chang said about a closed service prior to opening, "we didn’t serve Momofuku ramen. We don’t want to, because there’s a lot of ramen everywhere." Seriously, you're thinking about not serving ramen in Washington? “Yeah,” he said. C’mon, you're not serious. “I’m serious," Chang shot back. "Dude, I’m dead serious.” That'd take guts. People would complain. “I know. I’m just telling you. It’s very well we could open up and the menu will be as is, with greatest hits," the chef said. "But it’s trying to find that balance. Man, it’s not easy. It’s not


A massive construction project may be a mixed bag for Bloomingdale residents

District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority is building a 2,700-foot tunnel in Northwest Washington with the hopes of reducing neighborhood flooding. The Post tours the massive tunnel boring machine, named Lucy, as it moves about 50 feet a day underneath First Street NW. Despite its name, the tunnel-boring machine known as Lucy Diggs Slowe is moving along at a good clip, said George Hawkins, CEO of DC Water. The machine, which is named after Howard University’s first dean of women, is moving at about 50 feet a day as it bores a 2,700-foot-long tunnel underneath First Street NW, according to project engineers. The digging is on track to finish on time in December. The next phase, which will be done by April, will involve connecting the tunnel to existing sewers in the flood-prone Northwest neighborhoods of Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park. The project should put an end to the flooding. For some Bloomingdale residents, the work toward a solution has been worse than the problem. “The construction has gone on at all hours of the day, way later than it’s supposed to go on,” said Bloomingdale resident Brandon Skall, 36. “I have a 7-month-old, and there’s no chance for my baby to sleep during the day.” Plus, vibrations from the digging have damaged his home, causing keystones to fall out of the window arches, he said. DC Water is trying to minimize the massive construction project’s disruption to the community, said Hawkins. For instance, contractors are using an innovative new technique of freezing the ground around certain construction areas, creating ice walls up to 10 feet thick. The ice “minimizes dust and vibrations where we’re connecting the new tunnel to the existing sewage system,” Hawkins said. Overall, the project is a necessary evil, said Teri Janine Quinn, 39, president of the Bloomingdale Civic Association. “There have been lots of inconveniences, but once we are able to get past this construction project, I’m hopeful we will see the kind of relief we’ve been promised,” she said. More on DC Water’s big dig Meet ‘Lucy,’ a 1,582-ton tunnel boring machine that tweets Lady Bird TBM emerges from her hole Boring machine ‘Lady Bird’ is almost done with its work digging under D.C.


What Americans blame most for mass shootings (Hint: it’s not gun laws)

grown from 46 percent to 61 percent, and the share of Republicans has jumped from 58 percent to 71 percent. Here's what you need to know about the prevalence of what the FBI calls "active shooter incidents" in the U.S. The public's mixed views on gun laws — despite continued overwhelming support for expanding background checks and other specific policies — have vexed policymakers on an issue that the vast majority regard as a national problem. Fully 82 percent say gun violence is a serious problem in the United States, and 58 percent call it a "very serious" problem. Regular mass shootings have brought the issue repeatedly to the nation's front pages. As of Oct. 1, 294 mass shootings have occurred in 2015 (defined as an incident where four or more people are killed or injured by gunfire). But while many have called for stricter gun laws in their wake, the Post-ABC poll finds far more point to problems treating people with mental health issues. By a more than 2-to-1 margin, more people say mass shootings reflect problems identifying and treating people with mental health problems rather than inadequate gun control laws (63 percent to 23 percent). There are wide partisan divisions on this issue; 82 percent of Republicans say shootings reflect a failure to identify and treat people with mental health problems, compared with 65 percent of independents and 46 percent of Democrats. Americans have strong opinions about overall priorities in the gun debate, with big divisions by partisanship, between cities and rural areas, and between men and women. Nearly 8 in 10 feel "strongly" about whether new laws should be enacted to prevent gun violence (38 percent) or that gun rights should take precedence (40 percent). Seven in 10 Democrats prioritize new gun laws, while an almost identical number of Republicans say gun rights matter more. Six in 10 Democrats and Republicans line up "strongly" on one side or another. Just more than half of people living in urban areas -- 52 percent -- say new gun laws are a bigger priority than protecting gun rights. That dips to 45 percent in suburban areas and to 33 percent among those in rural parts of the country. Women are 13 percentage points more likely to prioritize new gun laws than men, 52 percent to 39 percent. The Post-ABC poll was conducted Oct. 15-18 among a random national sample of


The Daily 202: Kentucky is latest battleground in the marijuana wars

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, right, looks at Republican Matt Bevin as he responds to a question during a debate on Sunday night. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley) THE BIG IDEA: — Happy Monday morning from Richmond, Ky., where the governor’s race, just one week from tomorrow, is a true toss-up. I’m crisscrossing the state talking to voters and trailing the candidates. During a debate at Eastern Kentucky University last night, some of the biggest fireworks came over whether to allow medical marijuana. “There is unequivocal medical evidence … that there are benefits for those with cancer and epilepsy,” said Republican Matt Bevin. “It should be prescribed like any other prescription drug.” Democrat Jack Conway, running as a tough-on-crime attorney general, touted his endorsement from the Fraternal Order of Police and fretted about “a lost generation” of young people to narcotics, particularly prescription pain pills. “I don’t want to hear from some hipsters out in Hawaii saying Kentucky needs medical marijuana,” Conway said. “Medical marijuana is the only medicine I can think of that would be prescribed in joints,” Conway quipped, adding that he’s supported cannabidiol oil to treat seizures. “When I’ve met addicts … it always seems like it started with marijuana at an early age.” Bevin pushed back on the suggestion that giving “a kid with terminal brain cancer” access to medical marijuana is going to make him into a junkie or pusher. But he also defended himself, insisting that he would “never, ever” support recreational use of marijuana. “We’re on the campus of a university,” the Republican said. Addressing the students in the audience of one thousand, he asked: “Is it not already easy for you to find this on the streets? Come on! Who are we kidding? The only people who can’t get it are the people who abide by the law!” — One of the reasons the debate over marijuana is so interesting is that it does not cut neatly across party lines. Jean-Marie Lawson Spann, the Democratic candidate for Agriculture commissioner – a very powerful job in the Bluegrass State – is airing a TV commercial right now touting herself as “the only candidate” in the race who supports medical marijuana “to ease the suffering of cancer patients.” Her Republican rival for Agriculture commissioner opposes medical marijuana on the grounds that the state’s burgeoning industrial hemp industry is against it. “If you talk to hemp


Comet Lovejoy pretty much spews sugar and booze, study finds

Go home, comet. You're drunk. (Fabrice Noel) For the first time ever, scientists have detected ethyl alcohol — the kind that makes booze — in emissions from a comet. Comet Lovejoy, it turns out, is quite aptly named: The ball of ice and dust, which releases the equivalent of about 500 bottles of wine each second during its peak activity, also emits a type of sugar. [This is what it looks like when a black hole tears a star apart] This cosmic cocktail was Our new data from Lovejoy came from observations made in January 2015, when the comet's close proximity to the sun had it giving off 20 tons of water per second. Boozy, sweet water. Scientists were excited to find these and other complex molecules in the comet's emissions. Some believe that comets helped deliver these complex molecules down to Earth, essentially seeding the planet for life. [Sorry, there probably isn’t life on Rosetta’s comet — even if ‘scientists’ said so] "The result definitely promotes the idea the comets carry very complex chemistry," study co-author Stefanie Milam of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center For a while after its 2014 discovery by famous amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy (it was his fifth find), the comet was one of the brightest seen in nearly a decade. It put on some gorgeous shows for backyard stargazers, but faded from view several months ago. Read more: New study predicts the slow, inevitable death of the universe The Hubble takes a peek at galaxies from the dawn of time Scientists suggest a new, earth-shaking twist on the demise of the dinosaurs New study reveals how Rosetta’s comet got its ‘rubber ducky’ shape With 46 billion pixels, this is the largest ever image of space


NBA Eastern Conference 2015-16 preview

CENTRAL DIVISION (AP Photo/Ben Margot) The Favorites: Cleveland Cavaliers The Contender: Chicago Bulls The Dark Horse: Milwaukee Bucks The Also-Rans: Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons SOUTHEAST DIVISION (Getty Images) The Favorite: Atlanta Hawks The Contenders: Miami Heat and Washington Wizards The Dark Horse: Charlotte Hornets The Also-Ran: Orlando Magic ATLANTIC DIVISION (Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports) The Favorite: Toronto Raptors Someone has to win this division, and the Raptors have the fewest flaws, which is why they are vying for their third straight Atlantic title. After sputtering down the stretch, All-Star guard Kyle Lowry has slimmed down to improved his endurance. Meantime, a contract year should motivate DeMar DeRozan, who gained a formidable wing threat in DeMarre Carroll. There’s also front-court prowess in Bismack Biyombo and Luis Scola, who provide the size necessary to better match up in the playoffs. The Contender: Boston Celtics Boston continues to grow under Coach Brad Stevens, both figuratively and literally, making it the best bet to challenge the Raptors. By adding forwards David Lee and Amir Johnson, the Celtics have the size to go with their skilled backcourt in Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart and Isaiah Thomas. Another season of improvement should position the Celtics to make more impactful moves in next summer’s free agent bonanza. The Dark Horse: New York Knicks There is no real reason to believe in the Knicks, other than the Nets and Sixers are so bad that New York could scrape together enough wins to scare up a playoff spot. Well, maybe there’s one other reason: Carmelo Anthony. The perennial All-Star is back in the lineup after missing most of last season following knee surgery, rejoining a team that was laughable at times but, under the watching eye of Phil Jackson, has a smidge of promise with draft picks Kristaps Porzingis and Jerian Grant. The Also-Rans: Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia Sixers Still paying for the bloated contracts and free-agent whiffs made by big-spending owner Mikhail Prokhorov, the Nets don’t have much to build upon or around in the near future. Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez are capable of flashes but can no longer carry a team. The tanking talk might cease for the Sixers, who have respectable forwards in rookie Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel, but that doesn’t mean they’ll lift themselves up from the bottom. The trade of Michael Carter-Williams leaves Tony Wroten as their main perimeter option, and the


How a hip-hop mogul’s company made a mess of people’s finances

and other advocates are urging regulators to lay down rules for prepaid cards. The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Friday it was monitoring the situation with RushCard. But as debate continues over how to regulate the new products, the market is maturing. Competition from major financial institutions has reduced fees, and the cards are quickly becoming popular. Americans now use them more frequently than they write paper checks. Prepaid cards are transforming the way the poor in America manage their finances, and often for the better. [Read more: Government watchdog to monitor RushCard fiasco] As of last year, RushCard had more than 500,000 customers, many of them likely financially vulnerable. On social media, customers have been complaining to Simmons that without access to their money, they are going hungry or facing eviction. So over @RushCard! Bill collectors, late fees, & an eviction is on my mind. I bet @UncleRUSH is sitting POSH, while we look like DUCKS! @UncleRUSH @RushCard I'm Def affected sgl mom of 3 with autism in family. Need $ 4 bills and meds. Facing eviction About 68 million Americans relied on financial services outside of a conventional bank to cash checks, borrow money and more in 2013, according to federal data, generally because they lacked the funds to maintain a balance at a bank. Everyday business can be an expensive hassle for those without checking accounts. Some buy money orders, while others rely on cash for many transactions. Some pay their rent and utility bills in cash, too. Doing so often means paying fees to cash checks, and then there is the risk that the money will be stolen. [Read more: Kansas has found the ultimate way to punish the poor] Simmons hoped to save those households a little money. These days, though, many families might find they save more with a different prepaid card. On RushCard’s Pay As You Go plan, customers pay no less than $1 per transaction to use the card like a credit or debit card at the point of sale, whether to buy groceries or a new pair of shoes (according to Bankrate, a firm that collects data on interest rates and fees). These fees are capped at $10 per month. RushCard’s other plan charges a flat monthly fee of $6 to $8. Other cards, such as Chase’s Liquid or Wells Fargo’s EasyPay, charge a flat fee per month of about


We are one step closer to ‘The Jetsons’ pod

An illustration of what a station for the pod transport system might look like. (SkyTran) Traffic jams? Gone. Air pollution? Almost non-existent. Expensive public transit systems that require constant investment from taxpayers? A thing of the past. At least that’s the future SkyTran chief executive Jerry Sanders is peddling. The optimistic Sanders imagines we’ll zip around cities at a low cost thanks to his two-person pods. “We had the vision but we needed the technology to catch up. And now the technology has caught up,” said Sanders, whose company has long promised a Jetsons-like transportation network. Now SkyTran, based in Mountain View, Calif., is building a 250-meter test track in Israel to prove that its technology works. They have shown off prototypes before, but nothing at full size. Sanders says the test track will be ready by the end of the year. Construction has begun on a 250-meter test track to demonstrate the technology near Tel Aviv. (SkyTran) Then in 2016, SkyTran plans to build another test track — covering 400 square meters — also on the campus of Israel Aerospace Industries, which SkyTran is working with on the project. That track will be a loop, and include a station where passengers could get on and off. SkyTran needs to show that its technology — in which magnets help move the levitating pods down the track at speeds of up to 150 mph — really works. (During initial tests on the 250-meter track, Sanders said the pod won’t go over 37 mph.) “We’re focused on attracting those people who ride in their cars and don’t use public transportation,” Sanders said. “We can offer the commuter privacy because of our vehicle, but also freedom from some arbitrary schedule because it’s on demand.” The system’s designers say it will hover while moving due to magnets, but wheels are needed for when the pods stop. (SkyTran) He imagines it working much like an elevator. You get in a pod, push a button and go on your way. The pods would stop at stations, where passengers would enter and exit the pods. Sanders says the automated network would require fewer employees than buses or trains. He thinks thousands of people could ride on it at once, provided that a big enough network is built out for the pods. Sanders said that existing buildings could easily be retrofitted to add stations for passengers to board


There are still a lot of questions around the U.S. bombing of the MSF hospital in Kunduz

to fire. [By evening, a hospital. By morning, a war zone.] AC-130s operate with a variety of infared and low-light sensors that allow them to see almost everything on the battlefield below, albeit not in color. In order for the aircraft to fire, it must locate the friendly forces it is supporting before engaging enemy targets. Though there are now various accounts circulating about what happened that night, it is still unknown who talked to the aircraft and when. Was there an American combat controller embedded with the Afghan forces talking to the AC-130? Or was the aircraft only talking to American special forces soldiers located at the command center nowhere near the battle? Another important question raised by the hospital bombardment is whether the U.S. government can be charged with war crimes for knowingly targeting a hospital — something that Doctors Without Borders has repeatedly accused U.S. forces of doing. According to the Law of Armed Conflict and the Army field manual of the law of land warfare, “Medical units/establishments lose protection if committing ‘acts harmful to the enemy.’ Acts harmful to the enemy are not only acts of warfare proper, but also any activity characterizing combatant action, such as setting up observation posts, or the use of the hospital as a liaison center for fighting troops.” The Law of Armed Conflict also notes that even if a hospital is being used in a manner which voids its protected status that “protection ceases only after a warning has been given, and it remains unheeded after a reasonable time to comply.” [From ‘collateral damage’ to ‘deeply regrets’: How the Pentagon has shifted on the Afghan hospital attack] So in this case, even if the Taliban had been using the hospital, the United States could still possibly be at the same level of fault regardless of the Taliban’s presence. While Doctors Without Borders had called for an external investigation into the incident, the Pentagon is still conducting one of its own that has yet to be released. “My intent is to disclose the findings of the investigation once it is complete,” said Gen. John Campbell, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in an emailed statement Saturday. “We will be forthright and transparent and we will hold ourselves accountable for any mistakes made. While we desire the investigation to be timely, what’s most important is that it be done thoroughly and correctly.”


Marathon runner in Kenya arrested after allegedly cheating to win second place

Running is serious business in Kenya, where many of the world’s top long-distance athletes come from, so perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that if you try to cheat, you’ll get arrested if caught. That’s what happened to a 28-year-old man named Julius Njogu on Monday after police alleged he cheated to get second place, which comes with a $7,000 prize, at Kenya’s Nairobi International Marathon on Sunday. Njogu is now facing charges of fraud. Nairobi Stanchart Marathon According to the Associated Press, police suspect Njogu ran no more than one kilometer, which amounts to less than one mile in the 26-mile race. They say Njogu’s strategy was to hide in the crowd near the finish line and join the race in the final stretch. His plan might have worked, too, except for a few major flaws. Per the AP: “Officials said they became suspicious because Njogu showed no signs of fatigue and was not sweating…” That’s quite a feat considering the high was 84 degrees on Sunday, according to Accuweather.com. Ever heard about the proverbial tortoise and the hare!?..Mmmh that proverb came to pass, and gauze who? Julius Njogu https://t.co/2LURzIQ3r4 Other competitors, too, called out Njogu, demanding that he remove his shoes so they could examine his feet for blisters, Kenya’s Standard Media reports. The most compelling evidence, however, might have come via race director Ibrahim Hussein’s own observations. “I followed the leading team from start to finish and I didn’t see him,” the former New York and Boston marathon champion said (via the AP). “[Njogu] will not be recognized and I’m so disappointed that one can cheat in this modern age. He didn’t finish second.” The real second place finisher was Shadrack Kiptoo. He finished behind winner Joshua Kipkorir, who completed the race in two hours, 13 minutes and 25 seconds. Njogu, meanwhile, maintained his innocence, pleading with authorities to check his record. “I have run this race,” he said (via Standard Media). “We were in a pack and I left the others at the 38-kilometer mark. In fact, I was recently fourth in the Lewa Marathon. You can confirm with Lewa organizers if I am not an athlete.” Njogu’s pleas fell on deaf ears, however, and he was handed over to police. “This athlete did not complete the race,” Hussein reiterated. “He is disqualified.” The last time someone was caught cheating in the Kenyan race was


The 4 things Wal-Mart wants to do with its drones

The world’s largest retailer says it’s ready to begin tests once the FAA signs off on the exemption. As businesses await final rules for commercial drone flights, the FAA has granted exemptions to businesses that are eager to use the new technology. Wal-Mart’s competitor Amazon has been a leader in the space, detailing how it thinks drones can fly safely, and traveling overseas to test where regulations are less restrictive. Here are four scenarios in which Wal-Mart would like to start testing drones immediately, according to its application: 1. Deliver goods to customers’ homes With 70 percent of U.S. residents within five miles of a Wal-Mart, drone delivery is very intriguing for the retailer. Wal-Mart wants permission to have drones take off from delivery trucks, bring goods to a home and then return to the truck. Wal-Mart says it would obtain permission from the homeowner, as well as any other property owners in the path of the drones. It wants these tests to occur at small residential neighborhoods in the United States. Wal-Mart would be operating within the line of sight of a pilot responsible for the drone, so these flights would not be covering especially long distances. 2. Grocery pickup These tests would determine if drones could deliver goods from a store to a point farther out in its parking lot. While not specifically laid out in the application, this would like be done to improve convenience for customers, as groceries could be picked up without even entering the store. 3. Gather aerial data, and lots of it Wal-Mart says data acquired from its drones could be useful for business analytics. It could gather photos, video or data from infrared and chemical sensors. Construction companies and others have used drones to gather aerial data and better manage their operations. Wal-Mart says it wants to conduct some tests over large tracts of rural land that it owns. 4. Better manage its distribution centers Wal-Mart describes flying drones to conduct external surveillance of its buildings and parking lots. Electronic tags could be used to conduct inventories of trailers and other things. In its application Wal-Mart said it would like to test the DJI Phantom 3 Professional and DJI S900. Both weigh under four pounds. Wal-Mart for now is only testing in the United States. The news was first reported by Reuters. Disclosure: Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.


D.C. area forecast: A bleak and rainy midweek but brighter by Thursday

Two-hour radar loop of rain and storm movement through the area. Refresh page to update. TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 3/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL Here we go. A surge of cloud cover and then plenty of precipitation is on the way thanks to the combination of a warm front and the rainy remnants of the previously powerful Hurricane Patricia. This wetter weather affects our area starting today into tomorrow night before clearing by Thursday. We head into Friday and the weekend with a cooler air mass that is at least sunny and dry just in time for Halloween and our extra hour on Saturday night, but Sunday could edge a bit cloudier again by afternoon. Today (Tuesday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Wednesday): Tomorrow night: Shenandoah National Park (pablo.raw via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Thursday Friday The weekend should be mostly a pleasant affair, including Halloween. Saturday features sunny skies with highs in the cool low 60s, while partly cloudy skies Saturday night limit lows to the 40s. It’s still cool enough to require jackets in the evening hours for trick-or-treating activities. Don’t forget we get an extra hour of sleep (or wired, candy-infused kids being awake) thanks to the clocks rolling back one hour as Daylight Savings Time ends. Sunday — the first day of November — looks more on the partly cloudy side with mostly cloudy conditions by afternoon and some slight shower chances toward evening. Highs move into the warmer middle to upper 60s, though. Confidence: Low-Medium


The Daily 202: Mitch McConnell tries to boost his 2014 primary challenger

on the list of most votes cast by a single senator. - President Obama will make the case for criminal-justice reform to police chiefs gathered in Chicago today. (Juliet Eilperin and Wesley Lowery) - Bernie Sanders joined a picket line with Verizon workers in New York City. He also hired Howard Dean’s pollster Ben Tulchin. - Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey endorsed John Kasich. - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to endorse Hillary in the coming weeks. (AP) - Donald Trump will attend an RNC fundraiser in New York City on Sept. 9. (Politico’s Alex Isenstadt) - Hillary Clinton is up with an ad promoting equal pay for women. It features a cute clip of a little girl asking at a town hall if she’d get paid the same in the White House as a man. (YouTube) - Of the 66 original donors who got to stay in the Lincoln Bedroom of Bill Clinton’s White House, 34 have donated a total of $1.15 million to Hillary so far in this campaign. (Center for Public Integrity) - Another poll of Iowa, this one from Monmouth University, showed Ben Carson eclipsing Trump (he leads by 14 points, 32-18). - Ricky Gervais will host the Golden Globes on Jan. 10. (Rolling Stone) WAPO HIGHLIGHTS: — “Obama weighs moving U.S. troops closer to front lines in Syria, Iraq,” by Missy Ryan and Greg Jaffe: “The president’s most senior national security advisers have recommended measures that would move U.S. troops closer to the front lines in Iraq and Syria, officials said, a sign of mounting White House dissatisfaction with progress against the Islamic State and a renewed Pentagon push to expand military involvement in long-running conflicts overseas … The debate over the proposed steps, which would for the first time position a limited number of Special Operations forces on the ground in Syria and put U.S. advisers closer to the firefights in Iraq, comes as Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter presses the military to deliver new options for greater military involvement in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. The changes would represent a significant escalation of the American role in Iraq and Syria. They still require formal approval from President Obama, who could make a decision as soon as this week and could decide not to alter the current course.” — “Cruz’s quiet fundraising strength: A network of wealthy donors,” by Katie Zezima


Why more and more people are making plans to dine out alone

French onion soup and almost before I could plunge my spoon into its cheesy cap, another swung by to say "bon appetit!" [The most American thing there is: eating alone] So many restaurant employees visited my table at various points that I couldn't tell which one was my actual server, or whether this level of attention had anything to do with my being alone. I spotted only one other solo customer, whose phone cast an otherworldly blue-green glow onto his face. I went gadget-free and focused on what I might not have ordinarily noticed if I had someone else at the table with me: the antique agricultural tools and copper cookware on the wall; what other diners were ordering (look at that gorgeous souffle!); or what they were saying. "We're going to order a hundred-dollar bottle of wine," the gentleman at the table next to me informed his dining companion. According to OpenTable, the almost always buzzing Founding Farmers in Foggy Bottom is one of the country's top restaurants for solo diners. (Michael Temchine for The Washington Post) La Chaumiere isn’t the only D.C. restaurant to make OpenTable’s list of solo-friendly restaurants. At the completely opposite end of the dining spectrum, the buzzing hive of activity that is Founding Farmers also placed in the site's nationwide list of the top 25 restaurants for solo diners in 2015, based on the number of one-person reservations, user ratings and recommendations from the site's restaurant experts. Spots that made the list "have been consistently providing diners with excellent hospitality and [a] full dining experience, as opposed to those who tend to relegate diners solely to bar or counter seating or restaurants providing live entertainment," Caroline Potter, OpenTable's chief dining officer, told The Post by e-mail. Blue Duck Tavern The dining room at Rasika in Penn Quarter. (Greg Powers) "Because we're busy, we think it helps that a guest probably doesn't feel or look like they are dining alone even though they are," said Mary Carter, managing partner at Founding Farmers. Many solo diners there prefer a table to themselves, though they can opt to sit at a communal table if they want to interact with others. Just like with any other party size, there are a limited number of one-person reservations, Carter said. Blue Duck Tavern is located in the Park Hyatt Washington hotel, exactly the kind of setting where you might expect


States go to extraordinary lengths to obtain execution drugs

capital punishment have made it increasingly difficult for states to obtain drugs that could be used for lethal injection, while simultaneously challenging the acceptability of those drugs states can obtain in court. Among other things, death penalty opponents have pressured domestic manufacturers to stop producing the relevant drugs or selling them to state correctional institutions and filed suits to limit alternative options, such as importation of the drugs from overseas. This has been a successful tactic. States are not giving up on their efforts to carry out executions, however. BuzzFeed’s Chris Geidner and Chris McDaniel document the lengths to which some states will go to obtain the drugs required for their lethal injection protocols. Among other things, some states are seeking to obtain these drugs from overseas, despite Food and Drug Administration limits on their importation for lethal injection purposes. Their report begins: At least three states — Texas, Ohio, and Arizona — have hired outside lawyers to help them obtain execution drugs that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a related court order have declared are illegal to import, BuzzFeed News has learned. At least two of those states, Arizona and Texas, BuzzFeed News reported this past week, purchased execution drugs from overseas this summer. The states purchased sodium thiopental from Chris Harris, a drug salesman in India who has sold execution drugs to U.S. states at least six times in recent years, although none of the drugs from those shipments have ever been used in an execution. The Arizona and Texas shipments were intercepted at airports in late July and are being held by the U.S. Food and Drug and Administration (FDA), which has repeatedly warned states and others that it will not allow importation of sodium thiopental under a federal court’s 2012 order. Nonetheless, both states hired outside counsel to assist in their efforts to get the drugs. As Geidner and McDaniel note, the last execution in Ohio, in January 2014, did not go so well, and the state has not held an execution since. The state has, however, spent more than $30,000 on legal advice to help it obtain lethal injection drugs. Unless and until the drugs are obtained, no more executions will take place in the state. Efforts by death penalty abolitionists to have the capital punishment declared unconstitutional have failed. Yet the effort to prevent most executions from taking place may be succeeding.


What did Tunisia’s Nobel laureates actually achieve?

A photo taken on January 6, 2014 shows Tunisian Prime minister Ali Laarayedh (L) meeting with Tunisian mediator and Secretary General of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) Houcine Abbassi (R). FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images Now that Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet has won the Nobel Peace Prize, the political crisis it helped resolve in 2013 has become the focus of newfound scrutiny and fascination. Renewed attention is important, because the history of that high-stakes period remains a rough first draft. Once told in full, this story will offer instructive examples for Tunisia and other countries navigating choppy transitional waters. For now, though, the history of this period remains recent and raw, subject to simplified narratives spun by the Dialogue’s participant protagonists. [Past coverage: Tunisian group wins Nobel Peace Prize] So far, Tunisia’s National Dialogue has been heralded as a case of “democracy saved,” with Quartet members described as patriotic civil society organizations that placed collective over parochial interests. These organizations are understood to have thrown Tunisia a life preserver in a crisis moment, saving political actors from themselves. The Quartet has been cast as an example of civil society “outsiders,” in cooperation with allegedly apolitical technocrats, rescuing elected government – both from its purported incompetence and from unelected opponents intent on dismantling democracy. The Quartet members – especially the UGTT, Tunisia’s powerful trade union and the Dialogue’s undisputed standard-bearer – are portrayed as standing midway between Tunisia’s seemingly familiar secular actors and its “devil-we-know” Islamist political elites, yet simultaneously outside politics. In this script, the heroic Quartet enables Tunisia to peacefully negotiate the Islamists out of power without completely eroding nascent democratic institutions. Tunisia avoids collapsing into chaos or crude coup-making, like Libya or Egypt, and its transition weathers the storm. Told this way, the lessons of Tunisia’s National Dialogue story shine in bold, broad brushstrokes: strong civil society steps in to light the path forward and mediated consensus triumphs over conflict. However, that’s not quite what happened. The National Dialogue occupied one pivotal moment in a three-way struggle for power among Tunisia’s secular left, personified by the UGTT, its Islamist center-right, personified by Ennahda, and a range of political figures and economic elites connected to the old regime, personified by elements of Tunisia’s now-ruling party, Nidaa Tunis, and its Employer’s Association (UTICA). This three-way struggle has produced a counterbalancing effect that can check excesses of power, in which any two


Winners announced for annual photo contest highlighting global poverty

Grand Prize winner: Rice is the staple food of West Bengal, India, and paddy cultivation plays a major role. Men, women and even children take part. (Sujan Sarkar) Second-place winner: Fishermen fish with nets early in the morning in China. (Liming Cao) There are 2 billion people around the world who lack access to formal financial services. Over the past decade, the annual CGAP Photo Contest has sought to document the struggles and successes of those who are often excluded from the financial system. Said Greta Bull, CEO of CGAP: “The Photo Contest enables us to show in a very visual way the resilience and challenges facing the working poor. It puts a face on financial inclusion and the work we do.” The 2015 CGAP Photo Contest invited submissions in four key areas that are instrumental to advancing financial inclusion: Digital financial services and mobile banking; women’s use of financial services; microfinance for small business enterprises; and smallholder farmers and their families. The winning photo, called “Paddy Cultivation” by India’s Sujan Sarkar was chosen from more than 3,300 entries from 77 countries for its breathtaking composition and immersive quality. Second place went to Liming Cao, of China, for his stunning photo “Fishing with a Net,” and third place to Pranab Basak, from India, for “Hands for Freedom.” Winners were chosen by a panel of judges that included Associate Director at Human Rights Watch and award-winning photographer, Corinne Dufka; Director of Photography Program and Associate Professor at American University, Leena Jayaswal, and Photo Editor for The Washington Post’s photography blog, In Sight, Nicole Crowder. On what stood out to her most among this year’s winners, Jayaswal said, was “how the photographers understood their subjects and knew when to release the shutter. These photographs evoked emotions, from strength, to humor, to love.” Third-place winner: A teen girl helps her father in a potter’s village in Mankundu, West Bengal, India. Five years ago, they started the pottery in their home with a small loan from a co-operative bank. After making the clay pots, they sell them in the local market of Chandanagar. (Pranab Basak) Old Ladakhi women work in a mountain field. They grow vegetables to sell them at local market in Ladakh in northern India. (Tatiana Sharapova) An Indian man makes a traditional silk sari in the first floor of his small house in Varanasi. (Tatiana Sharapova) A woman works in the


Police are searching black drivers more often, but finding more illegal stuff with white drivers

infrequently police officers actually find anything. The federal survey from 2013 suggests that only about 3.5 percent of traffic stops end up in a search. The Times puts that number closer to 2.5 percent. Of those stops, the police turn up contraband perhaps only a quarter of the time. And so one possibility is that the police just struggle to see the trend through all the noise — and thus have trouble overcoming any unconscious bias. Take Chicago as an example, because Illinois makes this information easily available. Between 2009 and 2013, Chicago police stopped over 200,000 white drivers, but only searched 906, of which 237 had contraband. Of those searched, that’s a hit rate of 26 percent. In that same time period, they stopped over 300,000 black drivers, searched 6,593 of them, and found contraband in 1,232 cases. That’s a hit rate of 19 percent. So yes, the black hit rate in Chicago was about 70 percent the white hit rate. But in practice, the difference between 26 percent and 19 percent can be hard for officers to notice. When police are searching only a few out of every hundred cars they pull over, an individual officer might only witness a handful of positive hits in a year. That's not enough feedback to get a good sense of whether one's hunches about people are accurate, or racially tinged. The Times analysis also highlights Hoffman Estates, a small suburb of Chicago, because the police there are prolific in the number of traffic stops they make. But police there, like the police in Chicago, are quite unlikely to actually search the cars they pull over. In 2009, Hoffman Estates officers pulled over 1,815 black drivers, searched seven — and found no contraband in any those cases. That same year, they pulled over over 15,000 white drivers, searched 40, and found 13 with contraband. Recent experiments in psychology have shown what many already suspect: Racial bias is hard to extinguish from people’s minds. We expect our police officers not to let race affect their decision to search a car. But because only a tiny fraction of traffic stops result in actual contraband being found, individual officers might not get enough experience to learn whether they're conducting their searches in a biased way. Even though the overall data show that officers err on side of being more suspicious of black people, it may


New sonic tractor beam levitates objects using only sound waves

These acoustic fields are the first acoustic holograms that can exert forces on particles to levitate and manipulate them. (Asier Marzo, Bruce Drinkwater, Sriram Subramanian) We may not have real hoverboards yet, but engineers have just invented a device that can levitate tiny objects using only the power of sound — a sonic tractor beam. Researchers say the technology could create a new generation of touch screens made of millions of moving, 3-D pixels. One day, it could even be used to suspend and manipulate tiny structures inside the human body, clearing blood clots with ease. The seemingly gravity-defying device is described in a paper published Tuesday in Nature Communications. Here it is in action: Sound waves might not be the be-all and end-all in levitation tech, according to lead study author and Public University of Navarre PhD candidate Asier Marzo. "I think it is important to explore all the different technologies for contactless manipulation," Marzo told The Post. "In the past, our hands were our main tool to manipulate objects but we need new tools for solving today’s challenges." [Scientists just smashed the distance record for quantum teleportation] "Different fields can exert forces on remote objects," he explained. "And each field has its advantages and disadvantages. Magnetic levitation is powerful but restricted in reach, not very controllable and limited on the materials that can be levitated. Optical levitation exerts very weak forces, and quantum levitation even weaker ones. Using sound waves has several advantages: sound waves have the best ratio of input power to exerted force. Sound can travel through air, water and human tissue." If you've ever seen a powerful speaker in action, you know that sound waves can be very forceful. A fun way to make sound waves less invisible is to put some liquid in a speaker cone (preferably over some plastic wrap) and watch the force of sound make it dance. Liquid Sound Wave Tests So in principle, a sonic tractor beam is pretty easy to understand: You just need to tune the super-strong sound waves so that they support the object you want supported. [The new biggest thing in the universe, and why it’s a headache for scientists] Acoustic levitation itself isn't new. In fact, NASA has been using it since the '60s to create artificial gravity for experiments. But unlike previous uses of the technique, the new device doesn't have to completely surround


The Hunter’s Moon is here and it’s super (Photos)

Full moon rising over Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton, just east of San Jose, California. (Jan Null) This October’s full moon, known as the Hunter’s Moon, officially arrived at 8:05 a.m. eastern Tuesday morning. Where skies aren’t clouded over tonight, it will shine magnificently. The moon attained the name ‘Hunter’s Moon’ as it occurred when Native Americans began hunting in preparation for winter. This edition of the Hunter’s Moon is also a “supermoon” since it coincides with the moon’s closest approach to Earth in its orbit. Supermoons appear 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than a full moon at maximum distance from Earth. September’s Harvest Moon was also a supermoon, while subject to a total lunar eclipse. [Photos: September total lunar eclipse] This month’s supermoon or “perigee” moon has led to astronomically high tides, contributing to some of the historic coastal flooding in the Southeast. (NOAA) [Historic high tides from supermoon and sea level rise flood the Southeast coast] On Monday, this super- Hunter’s Moon beamed in all its grandeur in the night sky. Here are some more photos… The full moon shines brightly upon the great spires of the Air Force Memorial, October 26, 2015. (Navin Sarma via Flickr) Moon and leaves on Capitol Hill last night @capitalweather @weatherchannel @JimCantore @theHillisHome @ExposedDC https://t.co/UWKlEcZQ2a Moon over Federal Triangle @capitalweather @weatherchannel @JimCantore @angelafritz @Anaridis @StephanieAbrams https://t.co/rNTB0WgT8f Final #Supermoon of 2015. What a glorious sight in Dumfries, Virginia, USA. #supermoon2015 @capitalweather https://t.co/hWu7M41sxg Tonight's moon over Alexandria @capitalweather https://t.co/3ksLQEtdnP Hazy moon rising. @capitalweather https://t.co/OZMcd0FtGe Moon over central Md. @capitalweather @ameliasegal https://t.co/TeHK3uBlMm


My goal was to run the Marine Corps Marathon in under four hours. This is how it feels to fall just short.

my teammates possessed to put in the miles during our training runs. I had never run beyond two consecutive miles at that point, and would not until many years later. In college at the University at the Maryland, any attempts to continue running did not last long. Living just a few feet from the gym did not increase my enthusiasm for running, nor did signing up for jogging class (yes, this class existed). A friend from college recently messaged me after I posted a photo of my marathon-training group on Instagram and asked, “Remember when you hated running?” (Yes, I do.) [Photos from the 40th annual Marine Corps Marathon] It wasn’t until a few years after college that I decided to attempt to run a 5-minute 30-second mile, which was the goal I set for myself in high school that I never accomplished (my best time was 5:48). I had not raced in the mile since and was at least a minute off my goal when I began training. Armed with a determination that being young and healthy meant I was not allowed to make any excuses, it became my singular focus that summer. I planned my schedule around track practices, showing up early in the morning, or late at night after GRE prep class. A high school student approached me after one particularly tough workout and asked for whom I was running. Caught off-guard, I simply replied, “Myself.” The hard work paid off and I ended the summer running a 5:30.1 mile. Feeling inspired by my accomplishment, I decided I would start signing up for longer distance races. I haven’t stopped running since. Sunday’s race went according to plan for the most part. The weather was far more humid than I had anticipated, but I went through the first half in the pace I wanted. There were moments between Miles 17-20 near the National Mall where I felt tightness in my calves, but nothing that forced me to stop. I did not hit the runner’s wall until Mile 21 on the 14th Street Bridge. [Map of the 2015 Marine Corps Marathon route] By that point, my pace had slowed by nearly 45 seconds per mile, and the tightness in my legs became more frequent. I told myself to tough it out and slow down, but a few miles later, the cramping became too severe and I was forced to


PM Update: Showery, cool evening turns into rainier (but warmer) Wednesday

Two-hour radar loop of rain and storm movement through the area. Refresh page to update. The rain took it’s good time to get here thanks to a lot of dry air in our area, but we will probably still see some sprinkles this evening ahead of the moving in overnight. There’s even a slight chance that we hear a rumble of thunder tomorrow, and the Storm Prediction Center has put us in a marginal risk of severe weather. I’m just crossing my fingers it doesn’t get too windy — I’d like the colorful leaves to stay on the trees a little longer. Through Tonight: [Wednesday details: Heavy rain, storms possible in D.C.] Tomorrow (Wednesday): See Matt Rogers’s forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter Want our 5 a.m. forecast delivered to your email in-box? Subscribe here. A bite to eat in Capitol Hill. (Nienke Beintema via Flickr)


D.C. area forecast: Showers and storms today, then nice again through Halloween

Two-hour radar loop of rain and storm movement through the area. Refresh page to update. TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 3/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL If we’re gonna get some rain, might as well get it now and not on the weekend. Especially not on Halloween! Besides occasional rain today into tonight, we could also see a few heavy thunderstorms with gusty winds. The sun returns tomorrow as we stay mild. We’ll cool off a bit Friday and into the weekend, but with no weather worries for Halloween night. Today (Wednesday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Thursday): Tomorrow night: (Nathan Jones via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD High pressure holds court Friday and Saturday, dealing partly sunny skies and highs near 60. Looks like low-to-mid 50s during prime trick-or-treat time on Saturday evening. Don’t forget that’s the same night the clocks fall back one hour. Sunday may trend cloudier, we’ll call it partly to mostly cloudy, but should be warmer with highs into the 60s and just a chance of a few light showers. Confidence: Medium


Universities have a choice — partner with industry, or watch their best minds disappear

Swallowing their pride and partnering with industry is a better option than irrelevance. (Photo by Frank Vinken) The University of Virginia’s provost, Tom Katsouleas, once told me that less than one percent, by his estimates, of basic research is commercialized and that there may be as few as one near-term commercialization for every $10 million invested in fundamental research. This is an awful waste, especially when America is undergoing a reinvention in which entire industries are being wiped out and new ones are being created. A broad range of technologies is now advancing at exponential rates and converging, impacting entire industries. When computing, telecommunications, and consumer electronics converge, for example, we get smartphones, smart TVs, and augmented-reality systems. Computing, medicine, and sensors join to produce wearable medical devices such as the Apple Watch — which will transform health care—and Apple Research Kit, which will revolutionalize clinical trials. Uber has already disrupted the transportation industry with its GPS-based cellphone apps; Netflix has made mail-order DVD rentals obsolete with its use of storage and networks; and WhatsApp has decimated the SMS revenues of telecom providers with its mobile-data technologies. Corporate executives have no idea what to do to survive this tsunami of technology convergence; even the innovation models that they were trained on, such as Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma, have become defunct. The competition no longer comes from within an industry; it comes from elsewhere, and not having domain experts in fields such as synthetic biology, nanotechnology and robotics, most companies have no idea how to respond to these new threats. Universities, though, do have the experts. As a result of decades of government investment in basic research — in fields such as computing, medicine, sensors, artificial intelligence, digital manufacturing, robotics, nanomaterials, and synthetic biology — they have an abundance of talent and intellectual property. This is a goldmine for industry. Businesses that are under siege or are trying to expand into new markets usually look to buy start-ups or form partnerships with research universities. And some simply take what they need. What better place is there to acquire intellectual property and talent than the universities, after all? Uber wanted to urgently build self-driving cars, so it lured away more than 40 researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in January this year. Being nice or ethical didn’t matter to Uber; it took what it wanted and then came back to the university


Astronomers make a remarkable discovery in the center of the Milky Way

The young stars (red dots) slice across the center of the galaxy in this artist's rendering. The yellow star indicates our sun. (ESO/Microsoft WorldWide Telescope) Scientists have found a brand new feature at the center of our own galaxy — a disk of young stars hidden in with the old-timers. Until now, astronomers thought that the bulge at the center of the Milky Way contained only ancient stars. In fact, it seemed that all of that region's star-making materials had been used up ages ago. But in a paper published Wednesday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers announce that the bulge apparently has kept making stars. [This is what it looks like when a black hole tears a star apart] The researchers found this by studying variable stars called [With 46 billion pixels, this is the largest ever image of space] Of the 655 Cepheids they found, they were surprised to note that 35 of them were so-called classical Cepheids — a subtype of young stars. Astronomers using the VISTA telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory have discovered a previously unknown disc of young stars buried behind thick dust clouds in the Milky Way's central bulge. They were even more surprised when they mapped the young stars and realized that they were forming a disk feature across the center bulge of the Milky Way. "All of the 35 classical Cepheids discovered are less than 100 million years old. The youngest Cepheid may even be only around 25 million years old, although we cannot exclude the possible presence of even younger and brighter Cepheids," Dante Minniti of the Universidad Andres Bello, the study's second author, said in a statement. The researchers will continue to study these mysterious young stars to determine their origin. Read More: The Hubble spotted this smiley face in space Mysterious space junk is hurtling towards Earth (and scientists are super excited) Comet Lovejoy pretty much spews sugar and booze, study finds The Hubble takes a peek at galaxies from the dawn of time This dying star looks like a beautiful cosmic butterfly


How green cities make for more bats – and why that’s actually a good thing

Bats actually make for pretty good urban neighbors. (AP Photo/Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International) When Bram Stoker wrote "Dracula," he picked a huge, flapping bat to demonstrate the count’s evil character. The author tapped into the natural human instinct to fear the furry, flying creatures of the night. Now, research shows that bats love living in our increasingly green urban areas — and they’re pretty good neighbors. Community gardens, parks and green roofs within densely populated North American cities may hold unique benefits for bats. The bats, in turn, provide numerous benefits for us. They eat mosquitoes and other pests (sometimes consuming half their own body weights), disperse seeds to spread greenery and pollinate important plants. Many urban types can be found roosting in street trees, office buildings and (of course) belfries. [A cry in the dark but no answer. This is how millions of little bats are dying from a lethal fungus.] A [Ten reasons why bats are a lot cooler than you think] “Bats that do well in cities are generalists” in their flying and roosting habits, Parkins said. The brown varieties search for prey in open spaces, then snuggle in the nooks and crannies of buildings — the older and cobwebbier, the better. The red, hoary and silver-haired prefer to rest in city trees. Some species have been seen foraging around street lamps, waiting for bugs drawn to the light. But for others, light pollution in a city that never sleeps may throw off their circadian rhythms, a recent analysis published in Mammalian Biology found. Those bats spend more energy avoiding brightly lit areas. For a high-metabolism mammal, that means more stress in finding food and a place to rest, said Micaela Jemison, communications manager of Bat Conservation International, an advocacy group based in Arlington, Va.. Fun Facts About Bats This week, Jemison and other bat advocates are taking advantage of the spooky holiday to raise awareness about the winged creatures. This is the second Annual Bat Week, and organizers hope to end it with a record-breaking Halloween: They'll help volunteers at events around the country build bat houses, with a goal of making 5,000 in one day. The efforts may lean on bats' spooky reputation, but Jemison hopes most people realize that folk tales about bats thirsting for human blood are just that. “We are not interesting to bats at all,” she laughed. “We’re just


Persian Gulf may be too hot for human survival by 2090. Here’s what this means for your city.

at Berkeley and the Rhodium Group. But the chance of crossing the “extraordinarily dangerous” threshold forecast for Persian Gulf cities is slim — for now, said Robert Kopp, a co-author and associate director of the Rutgers Energy Institute. The Dubai skyline was covered in an early morning fog on Oct. 5. (Rene Slama/AFP/Getty Images) Decades from now, the chances for an “extraordinarily dangerous” U.S. event start to creep higher, Kopp said. The lethal threshold is described as a “wet-bulb” temperature of 35 degrees C, or 95 degrees F, based on a complicated formula that measures the lowest temperature a parcel of air can reach by the evaporation of water into it. Typically it requires a “dry” temperature of at least 115 degrees and humidity above 50 percent. “If you’re in the shade and you’re engaging in a 150-watt activity — moderate exercise — in an hour you’ll have a skin temperature and core temperature of 104 degrees,” Kopp said. “Those sorts of days have no precedent in the United States.” But they could for other regions, in the relatively near future, scientists say. Monday’s Nature Climate Change study said Persian Gulf cities from Dubai to Iran’s Bandar Abbas could experience summer days that surpass the “human habitability” limit, with heat and humidity so high that even the healthiest people could not withstand more than a few hours outdoors. Other Middle Eastern cities could approach the lethal threshold, including the Saudi holy city of Mecca, a destination for millions of Muslim pilgrims every year, according to the report in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change. [Scientists say California hasn’t been this dry in 500 years] Scientists have long maintained that parts of the planet could experience extreme temperatures if global warming continues at current rates. But the suggestion that major world metropolises could cross the “habitability” threshold in the 21st century surprised some climate experts. “The threats to human health may be much more severe than previously thought, and may occur in the current century,” Christoph Schaer, a physicist and climate modeler at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich, Switzerland, said in a commentary on the study’s conclusions. “Our results expose a regional hotspot where climate change, in the absence of significant mitigation, is likely to severely impact human habitability in the future,” the authors write in the study. The Persian Gulf region is already notorious for oppressive


What Hillary Clinton said on Stephen Colbert’s show, and what she might have meant

to lend. Credit becomes hard to come by, and interest rates rise. Panic ensues. In a worst-case scenario, customers read about failing banks in the paper and rush to withdraw their deposits, creating a run on banks. Even the institutions that managed their finances carefully and conservatively would be in trouble. To return all their deposits at once, these banks would have to borrow money from elsewhere in the financial sector, but they can't, because no one is lending. In the end, ordinary people could lose their savings, while others won't be able to get loans to buy a new house or a car. Neither will businesses be able to finance expansions. The economy would freeze. None of that happened after the crisis in 2008. Yet the recovery has been inadequate, as far as many Americans are concerned, and Bernanke, Geithner and other federal officials have taken heated criticism for their decisions. A couple of years later, Congress attempted to overhaul the financial system with the Dodd-Frank law. The goal was to prevent taxpayers from being on the hook for the banks in another financial crisis by setting up an orderly process, in advance, to manage assets that turn toxic. There is debate about whether the law achieved that goal. Tuesday night, though, Clinton seemed to suggest that she thought the process established by the Dodd-Frank law allowed the banks to "fail," in a sense. "Under Dodd-Frank, that is what will happen," she said, but in the rest of her answer, she didn't elaborate at all, instead reiterating her positions on Wall Street. In several ways, Clinton has argued the next president needs to do more to prepare for the next catastrophe, and she has said the largest banks should be dismembered if they can't be managed effectively. The bnaks "have to know -- their shareholders have to know -- that yes, they will fail," Clinton told Colbert. "And if they’re too big to fail, then under my plan and others that have been proposed, they may have to be broken up." Yet critics of the Dodd-Frank law argue that the process it establishes doesn't really allow banks to fail at all, but instead effectively writes the government's implicit guarantee into law. [Read more: Clinton may be ready to break up the big banks] In any case, Clinton's rhetoric is an indication of her leftward tack, especially on economic issues


Medical facilities becoming routine casualties in conflict zones

Russian aircraft have been pictured using precision guided munitions, the majority of the airstrikes carried out by Russian aircraft use “dumb” bombs. There have also been reported sittings of Russian cluster munitions. On Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Russians’ use of “dumb” bombs for 85 to 90 percent of their strikes in Syria “increases the possibility” of more civilian casualties in the four-year old conflict. In response to these claims, the Russian Deputy Minister of Defense, Anatoly Antonov, summoned the military attaches from a number of NATO countries to provide proof of their respective countries allegations that Russia is indeed targeting and bombing medical facilities — something if proven constitutes a war crime. “If there is no evidence or official information refuting, the Russian Ministry of [Defense] would estimate such stovepiping as a part of information warfare against Russia,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a written statement posted online. While Russia disputes international claims that its forces bombed hospitals, the United States has taken responsibility for bombing a hospital run by MSF in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Army General John Campbell clarified that the decision to provide air support to Afghan forces in Kunduz, which hit a hospital, was a U.S. decision. "We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility," Gen. Campbell said while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Oct. 6. The Pentagon has apologized and pledged a number of investigations into the Oct. 3 bombing, but it has yet to release any details about the circumstances that resulted in the death of 30 people, including 12 staff members and a number of patients. The attack, carried out for more than an hour by a heavily armed AC-130 gunship, burned out a large portion of the hospital — rendering it inoperable for the near future and causing MSF to evacuate the city altogether. According to MSF, the hospital was one of the only trauma centers open to the public in northeastern Afghanistan. The group has requested an external investigation, as it believes the U.S. military is incapable of investigating itself, and has also accused the United States of war crimes for intentionally targeting a hospital, something the Pentagon denies. Read more: Afghan response to hospital bombing is muted, even sympathetic Top U.S. general in Afghanistan: Hospital was ‘mistakenly struck’ The Pentagon’s evolving response to the Afghan hospital attack


How to watch a ghoulish asteroid narrowly miss Earth on Halloween

Halloween] This new large asteroid 2015 TB145 – up to 2,132 feet in diameter – is the size of a large battleship or an aircraft carrier, explains Geoff Chester, astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory. It was discovered by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS-1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) on Haleakala, Maui. The search is part of the Near-Earth Object program, funded by NASA. Asteroid 2015 TB145, The Halloween Asteroid Of 2015 "Spooky" Watching ‘Spooky’ live Grab a handful of candy corn and fire up your web browser because during daylight in North America, space broadcaster Slooh.com – nicknaming the asteroid the whimsical “Spooky” – will deliver play-by-play event coverage starting 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Hosted by astronomers Paul Cox and Bob Berman, Slooh will possibly use its telescopic observatory in the Canary Islands, and offer views from partner telescopes in Norway, Lithuania, Russia, China as well as other radio telescope observatories. “Tracking and imaging ‘Spooky’ on Halloween, when it’s making its closest approach to Earth is tricky,” says Cox. “Because of its proximity to Earth, we need to employ some special techniques to track and image it, and treat the asteroid as a ‘satellite’ – in the same way we’ve tracked the International Space Station during special live shows.” Cox explains that the asteroid’s apparent brightness increases dramatically as it draws closer to Earth this week, as it will appear as a 10th magnitude point of light moving rapidly against the background of stars – even at closest approach. “Even the largest optical telescope will only show a point of light,” he says. Radio telescopes are able to map the shape and size of the asteroid, says Cox, “This [flyby] may even show us whether it is an asteroid or a ‘dead’ comet.” Observing the rock If you wish to try observing during the night hours of Oct. 30/Oct. 31, you’ll need a telescope or large binoculars. On the evening of Friday Oct. 30, the asteroid 2015 TB145 rises around 10 p.m., in the east, as the bright, waning gibbous moon loiters above the Orion and Taurus constellations. This is a graphic depicting the orbit of asteroid 2015 TB145. The asteroid will safely fly past Earth slightly farther out than the moon’s orbit on Oct. 31 at 10:05 a.m. Pacific (1:05 p.m. EDT and 17:05 UTC). (NASA/JPL-Caltech) The asteroid will be about 12th magnitude, dim beyond what


Main Street Morning: Farmers are grappling with a huge corn surplus

sparks outrage towards Walmart. - Walmart is also testing drones for home delivery. - Walgreens is buying Rite Aide for $17.1 billion. Sales and Marketing - A grocery store refuses to sell eggs to minors ahead of Halloween. - A marketing expert lists seven steps to gain $46,000 of online promotion for under $230. - A Macau casino enlists Hollywood royalty for its ad campaign. - Angie’s List is taking on its rivals with a $100,000 contractor guarantee. Finance - PayPal’s co-founder has a new way for your customers to buy things from you without credit cards. - PayPal’s small-business lending tops $1 billion and its loan volume has reached $3 million a day. - A payment services firm adds $25 million for a global expansion. - Samsung Pay adds gift cards and more bank partners. Start-ups - Boston’s start-up boom breeds a new accelerator program for crowdfunding campaigns. - A start-up wants a slice of the $800 billion trucking business. Technology - Verizon’s new Android phone has a shatter-proof screen…and 48 hours of battery life. - A big change is coming to elevators, and it matters more than you think. - Zuckerberg: Net neutrality can be taken “too far.” Social Media - The adventure business is exploding, thanks to Instagram. - Facebook will give employees super slow Internet speeds every Tuesday to better understand markets like India. - A social media and content strategist shares his ten most essential business apps. Around the Country - An Ohio bill that will fix an unintended a small-business income tax increase is poised to see its final votes. - Rug shop owners in Colorado file a federal suit against their city, challenging the city’s declaration of blight on their property. - Why bike commuting is taking off in the nation’s car capital. - Small business loans are on the rise in Idaho. - An upcoming event in San Antonio will give small businesses the opportunity to connect with big businesses. - After 135 years of operation, a Nebraska retailer is expected to close all of its 20 stores. - Customers can now bring their dogs to restaurants with outdoor seating, thanks to a new law in New York state. - Las Vegas Cryotherapy spa aide had dreams of owning her own business, before tragically dying in inside a cryotherapy chamber. - Oil lobby launches a new campaign against the ethanol mandate. -


PowerMoves: Lobbying forces applaud Ex-Im passage in House

Rep. Stephen Fincher is the leading GOP advocate for reforming and reauthorizing the Export-Import bank, which will expire on June 30 now that Congress has left town. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) The aggressive corporate lobbying allies of the Export-Import Bank are celebrating the passage of a bill reauthorizing the credit export agency, which cleared the House on Tuesday by a vote of 313 to 118. The vote was prompted by a rare procedural maneuver initiated by Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.), called a discharge petition, which forced the House to vote on the matter despite opposition from the House Financial Services Committee. [Fincher: The House’s biggest champion of the Export-Import Bank] “We applaud the U.S. House of Representatives for overwhelmingly passing legislation which reauthorizes and reforms the U.S. Export Import Bank,” said a spokeswoman for General Electric, which lobbied Congress hard to revive the bank. “We hope the House and Senate come together quickly and deliver this long overdue legislation to the President’s desk so that our workers and suppliers can continue to build and sell American-made technology around the world.” Business Roundtable president John Engler said the bank is a “key pillar” of the group’s pro-growth policy agenda, and urged the Senate to take action quickly. Earlier this year, the Senate voted to attach a reauthorization of the bank to a highway bill, which has yet to be considered in the House. Headlines At Dickstein Shapiro, a decline in lobbying revenue in wake of Hastert scandal: On Wednesday, Hastert plead guilty to violating federal banking laws and sentencing guidelines call for between zero and six months in prison, although a judge could deviate from that standard (the maximum sentence is five years in prison). A look at Paul Ryan’s K Street network: Gun lobby pushes to loosen restrictions on silencers: Deadline for train safety technology undercut by industry lobbying: In 2008, Congress ordered railroads to install the braking system by the end of 2015, a deadline the railroad industry said should be postponed because it was too complex and costly. Since 2008, the railroad industry has spent $316 million to lobby Congress and contributed $24 million to the reelection efforts of members of Congress, “targeting in particular the chairmen and members of key committees that govern its business,” the story says. Last month, House Transportation Committee chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) introduced a bill extending the PTC deadline to at least 2018.


Pentagon watchdog to investigate allegations of Afghan child abuse

A group of Marines and Afghan National Civil Order Police in Marjah, Afghanistan on April 15, 2010. (Thomas Gibbons-Neff/The Washington Post) The Pentagon’s Inspector General is looking into a spate of recent reports regarding U.S. military commanders’ mishandling of child sexual assault cases in Afghanistan since 2011. According to a memorandum posted online Wednesday, the inspector general’s initial research into the issue is meant to establish certain criteria for “potential future work.” The watchdog’s interest in the matter is just one more element in a longstanding problem that has plagued U.S. forces and their Afghan allies for years. The issue, however, was recently brought to light in September when The New York Times published a report that highlighted U.S. service members’ encounters with Afghan troops who were sexually assaulting young boys. Many of these service members were told to ignore the abuse and not get involved. In one case, Army Special Forces Capt. Dan Quinn and Sergeant First Class Charles Martland did try to intercede when they assaulted an Afghan soldier after Quinn and Martland walked in on him assaulting a boy. Quinn was subsequently removed from Afghanistan and shortly after kicked out of the Army. Martland was also removed from the Army but has since appealed his decision. [Green Beret compares U.S. military inaction in Afghan rapes to Penn State scandal] The ensuing public outcry after the publication of the Times report forced the top U.S. general in Afghanistan to respond. Army Gen. John Campbell wrote in a statement in September that he had personally served multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan and was “absolutely confident that no such theater policy has ever existed here, and certainly, no such policy has existed” throughout his time there as commander. The newly released Inspector General memo, however, is looking into these claims and has outlined a series of questions it wants answered before proceeding with its investigation. Some are included below: How many cases of child sexual abuse alleged against Afghan government officials have Is there – or was there – any guidance, informal or otherwise, to discourage reporting by DoD affiliated personnel? [Troops detail orders to ignore sexual abuse in Afghanistan, despite general’s denial] Throughout the Afghan war, U.S. service members frequently encountered what Afghans call bacha bazi, or “boy play,” though this is the first time that anything has been done about their supposed indifference. For the many lower


One big reason REI can decide to skip Black Friday

frees up the business to do things that don't really make sense in conventional market terms," says Erbin Crowell, executive director for the Neighboring Food Co-op Association. He teaches a class on co-ops at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. While many people associate co-ops with crunchy organic farms or local health-food stores, there are 40,000 such businesses in the United States in 14 different industries, ranging from large agricultural cooperatives such as Land O'Lakes and Ocean Spray to "purchasing co-ops" such as Ace Hardware and Tru Value Hardware that count location owners as their members. The National Cooperative Business Association says 42 million Americans rely on electricity co-operatives for their power, and that the fastest growing type are worker cooperatives, in which workers own and control the business. REI is a consumer co-op, and the largest in the country. Like some credit unions and food co-ops, its membership base is composed of its customers. Yet, though REI has held that structure for 75 years, it's something the outdoor retailer is increasingly showcasing—due in part to growing desire among Americans to spend money at companies that share their values. "A lot of people know we are a co-op, but don't know what that means," said Ben Steele, the chief creative officer of REI, in an interview with The Washington Post. "We really wanted, in this moment in time, to have something that emphasizes how this organization is different." And so, the same day REI made its Black Friday announcement, it also launched a new logo, one that includes the word "co-op" for the first time since 1983. The outdoor retailer, Steele says, is "shining a light on the co-op [aspect of its brand] that frankly had gone unsung for a little while." Last year, it also rolled out an in-store line of apparel called REI Co-Op, and it is currently looking for ways to get members to participate more in its philanthropic efforts. REI's members, of which there are more than 5.5 million, pay a one-time $20 fee to join. In return, they receive discounts on in-store services, trips and classes the company offers; they have access to a credit card that gives money back on spending; and they receive a dividend each year that's equal to 10 percent of the purchases they made on full-priced items. Last year, REI paid out $123 million in dividends. Another way cooperatives are different


Rum is the next addition to D.C.’s homegrown spirits scene

the most popular product yet," says Reed Walker. "We think the taste profile [of our rum] will help expand that." Says Jefferson, who researched local yeasts and their effect on wine and alcohol production while a student at the University of Mary Washington:"I want to create a rum that has the same sort of flavor arc that fine wine does." His interest in yeast led him to develop a rum that uses a saison yeast, more commonly found in Belgian and Belgian-style beer, in its fermentation. This gives the rum "fruity, floral and honey notes," Jefferson says. "It finishes with an almost rye-like profile. I don't think [using saison yeast] is done by anyone else." The founders of Cotton and Reed designed a 500-gallon still, which was custom-built by Bridgetown Brew Systems of Portland, Ore. (Photo courtesy of Cotton and Reed) The rum is designed to be used in cocktails, so Cotton and Reed includes a large bar and tasting room as part of its 3,500-square-foot space. The cocktail program will be helmed by Lukas B. Smith of Dram and Grain, who will craft drinks showcasing the rum and also advise the distillery on other products: "spiced rum and allspice dram for now, and vermouth, bitters and amari down the line," Smith says. Like other brewery and distillery owners in Washington, Walker and Cotton met when they were working in jobs far removed from the distilling industry: In this case, the two were "contractors working at a company supporting NASA," Walker explains. After deciding they'd rather be making rum and brandy, stirring up what Walker calls "the creative juices you don't get working with an Excel spreadsheet," the duo designed their own 500-gallon still, which was custom built by a manufacturer in Portland, Ore. But they didn't have a distiller, so they made an unlikely decision and posted a "help wanted" ad on Craigslist. Around 100 people applied for the position, and Cotton and Walker eventually narrowed the choice down to two people: Jefferson and Jen Phelps, a chemical engineer who received her Ph. D from Yale. Reed and Cotton would up hiring them both. Jefferson handles distillation, while Phelps is responsible for quality control. With her technical expertise, Cotton says, "she's highly qualified to establish consistency from batch to batch. That's hard for new distilleries." Construction "should wrap up in January," Cotton says. They're keeping the warehouse's industrial vibe,


Transcript: CNBC undercard GOP debate

years younger. When I was 21, my mom was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Neither parent finished high school. She died within a year. We were wiped out from the medical bills. And if it wasn't for a Social Security survivor benefit check coming into my family, we wouldn't' have made it because my dad died 15 months later. So I... EPPERSON: But Senator Graham... GRAHAM: Wait a minute, please. I'm 22 and we're wiped out. I am 60. I'm not married. I have a military retirement. I'm in good shape. I would give up some of my benefits to help those who need it more than I do. To young people here, I will ask you to work a little bit longer because we have to. The purpose of my presidency is to save this country and to save Social Security by working across the aisle just like Ronald Reagan. This is the biggest issue facing this nation. EPPERSON: Thank you, Senator Graham. Thank you, Senator Graham. Governor Jindal, you've been a strong supporter of for-profit colleges. These are institutions that educate many veterans, minorities and working class Americans. They make up about 11 percent of the college population at these schools, but they account for 44 percent of student loan default. EPPERSON: Should for-profit schools be held accountable when they take taxpayer money and leave students deep in debt? JINDAL: (INAUDIBLE) absolutely they should be accountable. They should be accountable to their students through the market. Look, you either trust the American people to make their own choices or you don't. I know the Left thinks we need to be protected from ourselves. President Obama is trying to limit competition to the higher education market. As a result, you're going to see tuition prices continue to go up. We've had $1 trillion of student debt and counting. And he wants to exempt certain schools from the same oversight he wants to apply only to the for-profit market. For some reason, the private sector is a bad word to this president. It's not in the real world. In Louisiana, we fought so that the dollars follow the child and so the child following the dollar. What that means, from K-12, what that means is that parents and their families can decide what's the best way for their children to be educated. Higher education, we have a TOPS program, where, again,


Sarah Feinberg confirmed as new head of Federal Railroad Administration

Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Sarah Feinberg testifies during a hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee June 2, 2015. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) Sarah Feinberg, a former chief of staff to U.S. Transportation Sec. Anthony Foxx, was confirmed Wednesday as head of the Federal Railroad Administration. Feinberg has been acting administrator since January, and the vote putting her formally in charge came in tandem with Wednesday’s stopgap vote to extend transportation funding for three weeks and to delay a train-safety deadline for at least three years. While Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said in a statement that she was disappointed she and her colleagues couldn’t shorten the three to five-year delay in the Dec. 31 deadline for installing automatic-breaking technology, “I believe a strong team of Senators brought enough pressure to finally approve Sarah Feinberg” as FRA administrator. “Sarah Feinberg has brought a fresh perspective and renewed vigor to safety issues since taking over the Federal Railroad Administration,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D.-Conn.) “With dozens of outstanding safety recommendations and Congressional mandates still languishing, the need for real leadership is clear. It is imperative that Ms. Feinberg end the FRA’s old, stale way of doing business, crossing its fingers that railroads comply with the law, and instead adopt a new approach that relies on strong, aggressive enforcement practices, regardless of whether the industry likes it.” Edward R. Hamberger, president of the Association of American Railroads, said the industry looks forward to continuing to work together with Feinberg. “On behalf of America’s rail industry, we congratulate Ms. Feinberg on her confirmation. The rail industry and the dedicated men and women who work for our nation’s railroads share a steadfast commitment to safety and will continue to work closely with the FRA Administrator and her team,” Hamberger said.


Fact-checking the third round of GOP debates

gunboats and small warships of 100 years ago. The push for ships under the Reagan era (to build the Navy up to 600-ship levels) no longer exists, and ships from that era are now retiring. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus recently spoke about this problematic ship-counting exercise. There are other ways to measure seapower than just the sheer number of ships, he said: “That’s pretty irrelevant. We also have fewer telegraph machines than we did in World War I and we seem to be doing fine without that. … Look at the capability. Look at the missions that we do.” Plus, the Navy is on track to grow to just over 300 ships, approximately the size that a bipartisan congressional panel has recommended for the current Navy. As for his statement about the army, Graham is on a bit more solid ground because he’s talking about the number of troops. (Under sequestration, the number of troops was due to be reduced to 420,000 in fiscal year 2016, the lowest since 1940, but the new budget deal will likely change that.) But even then, it’s apples and oranges to compare the capabilities of a World War II army with today’s army. “G.E. just lost a contract, you know what they did? … They got the Ex-Im bank in France to support it, and what did they do? They moved manufacturing out of South Carolina, out of Texas, moved to — Hungary, and to France. G.E. is still making money. G.E. is still doing well, but American workers are out of jobs. That’s why we have to have this level playing field so we can compete with the rest of the world.” — Santorum That the Export-Import Bank levels the playing field for the U.S. economy is a common argument for reauthorizing the federal agency. But there are data limitations to how the Ex-Im Bank’s loans has affected American jobs. The Government Accountability Office in 2013 found that there are limitations to the method the bank uses to keep track of employment figures. This method plays an essential role in the bank’s jobs calculation process, the GAO found. But because of limitations out of the agency’s direct control, the GAO found that the data “cannot be used to distinguish between jobs that were newly created and those that were maintained.” GOP presidential candidates came together in Colorado for the latest round of sparring.


Bernie Sanders has a pretty revolutionary idea to change America’s post offices

have been open for a while and have established a base of customers in the neighborhood. The study found that on average, payday lending firms earn about nine cents on every dollar they loan. The Postal Service already has locations all over the country, though, and everyone who walks in to buy stamps is a potential customer. Another advantage is less tangible than bricks and mortar: trust, an invaluable resource for any financial institution. The Postal Service rates highly among government agencies in public opinion polls. Perhaps above all, the Postal Service is an agency of the federal government. If borrowers failed to repay loans, the Treasury Department could seize their tax refunds at the end of the year, allowing post offices to limit their losses and offer more favorable interest rates than payday lenders. Stiff rates People have neighborly feelings about their local post office, and proponents argue that postal banking could protect the public from loan sharks. Yet as the inspector general's report makes clear, going to the Postal Service wouldn't exactly be like borrowing $20 from your grandma. In a hypothetical example considered in that report, the Postal Service offers loans at no less than 25 percent interest and seizes borrowers' money come April 15 if they don't pay up. The inspector general argues that 25 percent interest is still far cheaper than the fees charged by payday lenders, typically equivalent to 400 percent at an annual rate or even more. It's hard to know whether Treasury's strong arm, combined with the Postal Service's existing infrastructure, could reduce costs enough to offer customers even that rate. One way the Postal Service could control costs would be by lending only to borrowers who have a good chance of repaying, said Mehrsa Baradaran, a legal scholar at the University of Georgia who has long advocated for postal banking. She said that if the Postal Service begins lending money to Americans, the program shouldn't depend on funding from taxpayers to remain solvent. "We've got to honor market principles," Baradaran said. "We're not going to offer a subsidy here." Some economists worry that because every borrower is potentially a voter as well, any public agency lending money will hesitate to deny loans for political reasons. "We will always have higher rates of default here, because we don't have investors with their money at stake," said Robert DeYoung, an economist at the


The GOP’s struggle to update its economic message

Republican presidential candidates take the stage during the CNBC Republican presidential debate at the University of Colorado in Boulder. (Mark J. Terrill/AP) Creating a business-friendly, low-tax, low-government-spending economic regime has been part of Republican orthodoxy for a long, long, long time. Almost as long as the party has existed. [The seeds of today's GOP chasms were planted long ago] But change, well, it comes to all places, people and things eventually. And what happened on-stage during the Wednesday night Republican primary debate in Colorado offered some really strong hints of what even Republicans have had to embrace and say to speak to modern America's economic concerns. The Republicans came prepared to talk all the usual Republican economic talk about the stifling capacity of regulation, the magical powers of tax and budget cuts to stimulate private-sector growth, the wonders of a simple flat tax, and so on and so forth. But the GOP base is part of America. And this is now a country in which just more than half of all American workers — 51 percent — earn less than $30,000 a year, according to federal data. And nearly 70 percent earn less than $45,000. That means talk about corporate tax rates, the competitive advantage that can be wrestled from the bankruptcy code, maximizing markets and product segments went anywhere but missing Wednesday night. But for a lot of Americans, when Carly Fiorina mentioned armies of tax strategists, they were more likely to think of a storefront tax return prep shop than the gleaming office towers where people cook up tax shelters. Tax time, for an awful lot of America, is about a chunk of refund cash that will help them catch up on overdue bills and cover big expenses — not making the next move as advised in Trump's book, "The Art of the Deal." That's why Wednesday night, during a Republican primary debate on Wall Street-centric CNBC, there were also more than a few mentions of income inequality, stagnant wages, poverty rates, job losses, the inability to save, and the essential role that Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare play in a lot of people's lives. That list describes not just lots of Americans' lives, but many Republicans' lives, too. You don't have to take The Fix's word for that. There's ample data to back that up. In 2013, the Pew Research Center found some pretty strong indicators that