The Cybersecurity 202: Privacy advocates are back in court fighting NSA surveillance. It’s an uphill battle.

measure was not included in the Defense Department appropriations bill for fiscal 2019 that passed the Senate. “The State Department has a plan ready to execute on this funding and it’s long overdue for the Defense Department, with Congressional approval, to get this funding transferred,” Portman said in an Aug. 22 statement. “The fact that Russia continues to advance their disinformation efforts makes clear the need to ramp up these programs. Now is not the time for us to shortchange them through lack of funding.” PATCHED: Some security experts are skeptical about Google's Titan security key. However, “several senior security experts, including the former chief information security officer (CISO) of Facebook, are concerned about the devices, with some pointing to how the keys are actually produced by Feitian, a Chinese company,” My colleague Hayley reported that “Google has said that the hardware that provides the keys' security is sealed before it heads to the manufacturer to guard against supply chain attacks.” PWNED: “A federal government transparency website made public dozens, if not hundreds, of Social Security numbers and other personal information in a design error during a system upgrade,” Nuala O'Connor, president and chief executive of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the glitch was “a really significant mistake,” CNN reported. — More cybersecurity news: . “If Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs the law in the coming weeks, California will become the powerhouse in a growing group of states at odds with the Federal Communications Commission in a clash that could end up before the Supreme Court.” — “The top Democrats on two House committees accused Republicans on Friday of selectively leaking to the press sensitive communications that could put a ‘confidential human source’ at risk,” — “A majority of the 25 most-populous U.S. cities now have cyber insurance or are looking into buying it, according to a Wall Street Journal survey,” — More cybersecurity news from the public sector: — A Google employee hacked the door to his office. “Last July, in Google’s Sunnyvale offices, a hacker found a way to trick doors into opening without the requisite RFID keycard,” Tomaschik's work exposed weaknesses in technology from the company Software House, which was in use at his office. — More news about cybersecurity vulnerabilities: Coming soon: Myanmar judge sentences Reuters reporters to prison: Massive fire engulfs 200-year-old museum in Brazil: British Army plays “Respect” as Aretha Franklin tribute:


Hackers used a fish tank to break into a Vegas casino. We’re all in trouble.

those vulnerabilities changing as more and more of our everyday devices become connected to the Internet? BS: What’s new with everyday devices like appliances, cars, medical devices, thermostats, consumer goods, toys and so on is that they do things. They affect the world in a direct physical manner. We used to only be concerned about bits and bytes. Now the risks are against life and property. This fundamentally changes our threat model and obsoletes a lot of the security assumptions we have been making for decades: assumptions about how authentication works, about software reliability and patching, and about the wisdom of an unregulated technology space. HF: You argue that “everyone wants you to have security, except from them.” Why is this so? BS: We’ve built an Internet where the predominant business model is surveillance capitalism. So companies like Google and Facebook want your data to be secure from hackers and governments, as long as they get to spy on everything you’re doing — because that’s how they make money. Similarly, governments are all for security, as long as they get to access your data when they want it. As long as there’s this alliance between the big Internet companies and governments to ensure we can all be spied on, we won’t get real security. HF: Why do businesses not have the appropriate incentives to fix the problems they are creating? BS: There’s the spying I just mentioned, but it also goes deeper than that. Security isn’t something the public can evaluate. Consumers can’t tell which router or refrigerator is secure, even if they were willing to pay more for that security, so it’s not something businesses can use to differentiate themselves. Even worse, the risks are long-term and theoretical, which makes businesses willing to skimp on security and hope for the best. We’ve seen this before. It’s a rare exception for an industry in the past century to improve its security and safety without being forced to by government: automobiles, airplanes, pharmaceuticals, food and restaurants, consumer goods. HF: What should government do, and how does it need to change in order to do it? BS: This is a complicated question and one that I spend most of my book trying to answer. I recommend a cocktail of different government interventions. I propose both explicit security rules and more flexible security standards. I propose liabilities when companies are negligent. I propose


Newly adopted pit bull apparently kills 64-year-old Maryland woman, police say

MARYLAND Pit bull apparently mauls, kills owner A Howard County woman was apparently mauled to death by a pit bull she adopted last month, police said Tuesday. On Monday, officers responded to a home on Tamar Drive and found Robin Conway, 64, dead in her backyard, Howard County police said. A family member found Conway about 7:20 p.m. with the dog, which she had adopted from out of state two weeks ago, standing over her, police said in a statement. The family member tied the pit bull to a fence post and then called police. The dog, which was barking and lunging on a leash when police arrived, was subdued by animal control officers and euthanized, according to the statement. A necropsy will show whether the dog had rabies or other medical problems, police said. An autopsy is being performed on Conway. No further information was available about where the dog was adopted from, according to police, and animal control officials had not previously responded to Conway’s address. — Justin Wm. Moyer Police looking for lottery ticket thieves Police said Tuesday that they are searching for four people who stole lottery tickets from a Montgomery County store before cashing in the winners. On June 29, about 9:30 a.m., officers responded to the Mike & Sons Sub Shop at 5404 Randolph Rd. in Rockville after an employee discovered a burglary, Montgomery County police said in a statement. An investigation showed someone forced entry into the restaurant through the roof between midnight and 9:30 a.m. before stealing cash and Maryland Lottery scratch-offs, the statement said. Later that day, three people cashed some of the stolen lottery tickets at locations in Silver Spring and Wheaton, according to the statement. In August, additional tickets were cashed in at various locations in Montgomery County before a store refused to redeem a stolen ticket on Aug. 10 at a 7-Eleven in Adelphi in Prince George’s County. — Justin Wm. Moyer Naval Academy signs off on ponytails The U.S. Naval Academy is allowing female midshipmen to wear ponytails and other longer hairstyles. The policy was announced during a Board of Visitors meeting Monday. Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, announced the changes in July, saying they make the Navy more inclusive. The academy conducted its own review before accepting the changes. The regulation allows braids and ponytails in service, working and physical training uniforms. The width


Maryland woman apparently killed by pit bull she adopted two weeks ago

A Maryland woman was apparently mauled to death Monday by a pit bull she adopted last month, police said Tuesday. On Monday, officers responded to a home on Tamar Drive and found Robin Conway, 64, dead in her backyard, Howard County Police said in a statement. A family member found Conway about 7:20 p.m. with the dog, which she had adopted from out of state two weeks ago, standing over her, and tied the pit bull to a fence post before calling police, the statement said. The dog, which was barking and lunging on a leash when police arrived, was subdued by animal control officers and euthanized, according to the statement. A necropsy will show whether the dog had rabies or other medical issues, police said. An autopsy is being performed on Conway. No further information was available about where the dog was adopted from, according to police, and animal control officials had not previously responded to Conway’s address. justin.moyer@washpost.com


Former U.S. ally turned implacable foe dies in Afghanistan, Taliban announces

considering himself a member of the Taliban. The network launched several high-profile attacks against U.S. and Afghan troops. Now run by one of his sons, Sirajuddin Haqqani, it also has been behind abductions of foreign nationals in Afghanistan. Jalaluddin Haqqani lost a wife, four of his sons and several other family members in U.S. airstrikes and attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan over the years. One of his sons has been languishing for the past several years in an Afghan prison under a death sentence. The government, however, has reportedly hesitated to execute him because the network since 2016 has held captive two instructors who taught at American University in Kabul; one of them is an American citizen. Haqqani was reported to have at least seven sons and possibly as many as 12. Observers, lawmakers and officials think his demise will have no major impact on the Taliban’s expanding advances on the battlefield or on efforts to revive stalled peace talks with the group. Among those who see Haqqani’s death as unlikely to affect the current political or military situation in the country is Michael Kugelman, an expert on Afghanistan at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “Given how long he had been ill, his death won’t have a big impact on the war. But still a major loss for the [Haqqani network],” he said in a tweet. In its statement, the Taliban said Haqqani was one of the great figures of the movement and helped keep it united through the years. “The actions and exploits of Haqqani Sahib and his untiring efforts to keep the Islamic Emirate [Taliban] united in the face of American invasion are golden chapters of history which future Islamic generations shall forever be proud of,” it said. Born in eastern Afghanistan in 1939, according to an interview he gave to an Arabic jihadist magazine in the 1980s, Haqqani studied at a conservative madrassa, or Islamic school, in northwestern Pakistan. He opposed Afghanistan’s monarchy and took up arms against the country’s leftist governments after the king was overthrown in 1973. When Soviet forces invaded in late 1979 and installed a puppet government, Haqqani became a key ally of the United States and Pakistan in battling the occupation, receiving large payments from the CIA and from Arabic countries. Charlie Wilson, then a Democratic congressman from Texas who lobbied for aid to the anti-Soviet Afghan insurgents, once hailed Haqqani as “goodness


‘Shocked and disappointed’: Pair of researchers say they felt pressed by federal wildlife officials to bury risk on endangered beetle

isn’t one of them." Even so, Hoback and Leasure think there is a better approach than the one they participated in. The pair of beetle biologists volunteered their considerable expertise on the beetle for a small part of a larger Fish and Wildlife document called a species status assessment, which will be used to determine whether removing protections for the beetle are warranted. Leasure and Hoback were also told their part of the work would also be spun off and published in an academic journal. A filing earlier this year hinted the agency is preparing to upgrade the beetle from endangered to merely threatened. The researchers stopped working with Fish and Wildlife well before writing any paper. For decades, the shiny, orange-spotted insect has been a bugaboo for farmers in Nebraska and oilmen in Oklahoma who have to try to avoid killing it while developing land or potentially face penalties from the government, resulting in a long-standing tug of war over its status between industry and conservationists, who say the beetles need protection. Once living nearly everywhere in the continental United States east of the Rockies, the beetle now lives in only a few corners of the country. The conversion of once-thriving habitat into farms is thought to be one of the potential drivers of the beetle’s decline. Shortly before Christmas last year, Kevin Doherty, an ecologist with Fish and Wildlife, emailed Leasure and Hoback with a request: Would they like to help the government with an analysis of the American burying beetle in Nebraska? In 2015, a coalition of land-use and oil industry groups, including the Independent Petroleum Association of America, petitioned Fish and Wildlife to delist the beetle as endangered. The government responded by beginning the species status assessment. Leasure and Hoback had recently published a map of the beetle’s habitat in Nebraska. The two are among only a handful of researchers actively studying the insect, having spent years trapping the beetles in that state to sketch out where exactly they still exist. As part of the assessment, the agency wanted to overlay the two scientists' map with with another map projecting which untilled areas may one day become farmland. The question: Where might farmers encroach on the beetle’s habitat in the future? Leasure and Hoback agreed to help — and sent the agency their beetle habitat model. But after reading the study behind the other map that


These Washington restaurants are open late — and serve delicious food

a Friday night and at the Green Zone, everyone is shouting, joyfully, as they crowd around the dance floor or watch the bartender shake up two cocktails at a time. You forget you’re in Washington, thanks in part to the food, which includes many Iraqi and Lebanese dishes you won’t find elsewhere in the city. Order the kubbat halab (a mix of beef and lamb wrapped in rice and fried until crispy), any of the mana’ish (flatbread with za’atar, labneh, cheese, vegetables or — not yet on the menu! — ask for Nutella), the muhammara (red pepper and walnut dip) or Lebanese-style falafel. Food is served until last call and comes remarkably fast — fuel for dancing or happy dreaming. 2226 18th St. NW. Open until 2 a.m. Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday; 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday. — K.E. D.C. Cafe D.C. Cafe’s extensive menu has American staples, such as burgers and meatball sandwiches, but you should try the Syrian cooking of owner Ayman Almoualem instead. Go for the combination platter (moist chicken, big flakes of gyro, fresh veggies, rice, hummus, sour cream and pita for $12.99), the falafel or moussaka. There’s also dessert: The housemade nammoura — a moist semolina cake — is made with tahini and a sugar syrup with rose and orange blossom waters. So why has this 28-year old Dupont Circle gem remained under the radar? The answer may have something to do with its decor — one room, dark and cramped, six tables and an old-fashioned Sony TV. Our tip: Eat on the patio; the food is worth it. 2035 P St. NW. Open until 2:30 a.m. Sunday through Thursday; 3:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. — Agata Popeda New Big Wong On bleary weekend mornings, when the lights in New Big Wong’s bare-bones basement dining room stay on until 5, tipsy barhoppers crash up against waves of chefs and bartenders all craving something to eat after work. The menu contains hundreds of Cantonese, Szechuan and American-Chinese dishes, but the service industry pros know what to order: Cramped tables groan under plates of dry scallop fried rice, head-on salt-and-pepper shrimp, and crispy fried pork chops. Jumbo slice this is not. But if you follow the lead of the experts, it’s some of the most delicious and satisfying Chinese food in a Chinatown that’s a shadow of its former self. 610 H St. NW. Open until


Russia suggests sabotage on the International Space Station

When a tiny hole was discovered inside a spacecraft attached to the International Space Station (ISS) last Wednesday, U.S. and Russian authorities initially suspected a micrometeoroid strike. More than 170 million pieces of space debris circle in Earth orbit, and collisions are inevitable. Authorities said last week that the leak in the Russian-made Soyuz capsule had led to a small drop in cabin pressure, but the six ISS crew members were at no point in real danger. A sealant was applied Thursday, and cabin pressure returned to normal. But the incident's fallout continued this week, after Russian officials who were subsequently tasked with examining the hole concluded that it had been drilled — potentially deliberately. Even the possibility of human interference could prove to be explosive, given that the ISS is one of the last remaining joint projects between Moscow and Washington. The station’s crew is currently composed of three Americans, two Russians and one German. Crew members arrive and depart using the Russian capsules; the leaking one had arrived in June. The hole was discovered in a section of the ship not used to transport the crew members, but with the next departure to Earth scheduled for December, any interference could have ripple effects on the space station’s operations. Investigators did not specify whether they believed the hole was drilled on Earth or in space, but Russia's Roscosmos space agency did not exclude the possibility of sabotage. “There were several attempts at drilling,” Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying by Russian media outlets. “We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space,” Rogozin said. It's not the first time that Russia is speculating about possible sabotage of its space operations. Six years ago, Rogozin’s predecessor in the job, Vladimir Popovkin, suggested that foreign powers were responsible for spacecraft launch failures at the time. And this week, Russian cosmonaut-turned-lawmaker Maxim Surayev raised the possibility that the hole may have been drilled by a station crew member who “might want to go home,” even though he acknowledged that a Russian production mistake could also not be ruled out. “I wish to God that this is a production defect, although that’s very sad, too — there’s been nothing like this in the history of Soyuz ships.” Russia said it was checking its spacecraft units in construction for similar


Helping endangered lemurs hang on

in their enclosure at the Duke Lemur Center. Lemurs also vary in the size and type of groups in which they live and in their ways of getting around. For example, sifaka lemurs leap from tree to tree, while brown lemurs tend to walk along horizontal branches. There are even differences in how lemurs carry their young. “Some stay in a nest,” Williams says, “some ride and some get parked on branches while Mom is away finding food.” Madagascar, which is about the size of Texas, is the only place lemurs live wild. Many scientists consider the island to be “megadiverse,” which means it’s one of Earth’s most rich and unique ecosystems. It’s also home to a variety of animals, including flamingos, fruit bats, crocodiles and chameleons. According to leading conservationists in a recent report, almost all — 95 percent — of lemur species are close to becoming extinct. That means they could soon cease to live in the wild. Madagascar, in addition to being one of the most ecologically diverse places on Earth, is also one of the poorest. Human activities such as illegal logging, mining of natural resources and burning forests to make room for farming have caused lemurs’ tropical forest habitat to disappear at an alarming rate. “Lemurs depend on the forest, and their habitat is being destroyed,” says Russell Mittermeier, the chief conservation officer of an organization called the Global Wildlife Conservation. “Lemurs are so important,” Mittermeier says, “and the world loves them. We shouldn’t let them disappear.” Seventeen species already have, he says, including one lemur species that was the size of a gorilla. The animals play an important role in keeping the forest healthy. Fruit-eating lemurs spread seeds as they eat. Flower-eating lemurs serve as important pollinators. The beloved animals also play a huge part in the country’s eco-tourism industry. If humans protect lemurs’ habitat, Mittermeier says, he is optimistic the resilient animals can make a comeback. What can kids do to help? Mittermeier says kids should learn everything they can about the species and why the forest is important. Then, share what you know with anyone who will listen. Spend time outside to build an appreciation for nature. Williams suggests planting a native garden, especially one that will attract pollinators, and sponsoring an animal at the Duke Lemur Center. “We can save lemurs,” Mittermeier says, “and we have the responsibility to try.” kidspost@washpost.com


Those airport security bins carry more germs than the toilets, scientists say

Next time you go through airport security, it might be worth washing your hands afterward. According to the results of a new study published by Finnish and British researchers, half of plastic airport security bins may carry viruses that cause respiratory infections. The study, published last week in the BioMed Central Infectious Diseases journal, tested swabs from surface samples of the plastic bins at Helsinki Airport that were taken at three different times during the peak of the 2015-2016 flu season. Four of eight samples contained the rhinovirus or adenovirus, which cause cold-like symptoms. The lead authors of the article, who hailed from Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare and the University of Nottingham, concluded that the screening trays "appear commonly contaminated" and that they are one of the surfaces at an airport where passengers are most likely to pick up harmful viruses. "We found the highest frequency of respiratory viruses on plastic trays used in security check areas for depositing hand-carried luggage and personal items," the scientists wrote in their journal article. "These boxes typically cycle with high frequency to subsequent passengers, and are typically seized with a wide palm surface area and strong grip." The results, they said, demonstrated that airports can serve as a potential risk zone for an "emerging pandemic threat" — a prospect that has already become a major concern in the aftermath of the 2002 SARS outbreak and the 2014 Ebola epidemic. And the preponderance of viruses on airport screening bins may be even more cause for concern among Americans, who are increasingly encountering Transportation Security Administration screeners instructing them to empty their food and snack items straight into the plastic bins. At the conclusion of the study centered on Helsinki Airport, the researchers concluded that airports should offer hand sanitizer to travelers before and after each security checkpoint and that the baggage trays should be cleaned and disinfected more frequently. "This knowledge helps in the recognition of hot spots for contact transmission risk, which could be important during an emerging pandemic threat or severe epidemic," the scientists wrote in the article. But plastic bins aren't the only place in airports where researchers found frequent presence of cold-causing viruses. On the buttons of the Helsinki Airport pharmacy's payment terminal, 50 percent of samples tested positive for the rhinovirus or the human coronavirus. Of the samples taken at the desks and glass dividers at


surface area and strong grip." The results, they said, demonstrated that airports can serve as a potential risk zone for an "emerging pandemic threat" — a prospect that has already become a major concern in the aftermath of the 2002 SARS outbreak and the 2014 Ebola epidemic. And the preponderance of viruses on airport screening bins may be even more cause for concern among Americans, who are increasingly encountering Transportation Security Administration screeners instructing them to empty their food and snack items straight into the plastic bins. At the conclusion of the study centered on Helsinki Airport, the researchers concluded that airports should offer hand sanitizer to travelers before and after each security checkpoint and that the baggage trays should be cleaned and disinfected more frequently. "This knowledge helps in the recognition of hot spots for contact transmission risk, which could be important during an emerging pandemic threat or severe epidemic," the scientists wrote in the article. But plastic bins aren't the only place in airports where researchers found frequent presence of cold-causing viruses. On the buttons of the Helsinki Airport pharmacy's payment terminal, 50 percent of samples tested positive for the rhinovirus or the human coronavirus. Of the samples taken at the desks and glass dividers at the airport's passport control checkpoint, 1 in 3 contained the rhinovirus. And when the scientists repeatedly swabbed a plastic toy dog in the airport's children's playground, they found that the toy played host to cold-causing viruses a whopping 67 percent of the time. In these cases, the scientists concluded, the best approach might be the simplest one: a good old-fashioned wipedown. "Many cleaning agents, household (antibacterial) wipes and anti-viral tissues are able to rapidly render influenza virus nonviable, offering multiple simple possibilities and opportunities for reducing the risk of indirect contact transmission," the scientists said. Frequent cleaning, they pointed out, is exactly why an unlikely surface topped the list of the most virus-free spots in the airport: the toilet. Of the 42 samples taken on toilet lids, on the flush buttons, and on the door locks, there were zero samples where scientists detected the presence of a cold virus. "No respiratory viruses were detected in a considerable number of samples from the surfaces of toilets most commonly touched, which is not unexpected, as passengers may pay particular attention to limiting touch and to hand hygiene, in a washroom environment," the scientists said.


The Energy 202: How an obscure beetle got these scientists to speak out against the government

THE LIGHTBULB The American burying beetle could be reclassified from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act. (Cindy Maynard/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) When the federal government invited beetle biologist Douglas Leasure, at the time a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Georgia, to help it assess the threat farming posed to an endangered beetle, he said he ”was happy to volunteer my time and data to help in any way that I could.” But he and his fellow beetle researcher, Wyatt Hoback, walked away from their roughly month-long stint working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service saying the agency leaned on them to work too quickly to do what they saw as good science and to meld a meticulous map they made of the insect’s habitat with another data set from a completely different region of the country. The result: The pair worry the government may use their research to unduly downplay the threat big business poses to the American burying beetle. “It felt like the Fish and Wildlife Service wanted to conclude that agriculture is not a risk to the beetle and were going to use the data in a way that made that conclusion, no matter what,” said Wyatt Hoback, a professor of entomology at Oklahoma State University. The episode Here's what happened: But after reading the study behind the other map that was to be combined with theirs, Leasure and Hoback saw some problems: Fish and Wildlife's treatment of the beetle researchers seems to be another instance of the Trump administration putting business ahead of science, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. However, Fish and Wildlife strongly disagrees with that interpretation of events. And lobbyists for industries working around the species say it is due time to reassess the beetle's endangered status since its range has ballooned 100-fold since getting federal protection. The energy and agricultural industries care about the endangered status of the shiny, orange-spotted insect because farmers in Nebraska and oilmen in Oklahoma have to try to avoid killing it while developing land or potentially face penalties. Once living nearly everywhere in the continental United States east of the Rockies, the beetle now exists only a few corners of the country. A filing earlier this year hinted the agency is preparing to upgrade the beetle from endangered to merely threatened. Read the whole story here: — Everyone is getting into podcasting:


Graphic crime scene photos among concerns for jury selection in D.C. quadruple homicide trial

Jury selection began Wednesday in the trial of the man charged in the 2015 slayings of three Upper Northwest Washington family members and their housekeeper. Attorneys on both sides have outlined the challenges in finding a panel of citizens to consider the shocking and highly publicized case. Daron Wint, 36, of Lanham, Md., is charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in the killings of businessman Savvas Savopoulos, 46; his wife, Amy Savopoulos, 47; their son, Philip, 10; and their housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57. Authorities allege that Wint bound, beat and stabbed the victims and then set their bodies on fire within the Savopouloses’ palatial home between May 13 and 14, 2015. The government says the killings were motivated by a demand for a ransom. Savvas Savopoulos had instructed an assistant to deliver $40,000 in cash to the home on Woodland Drive NW, about half a mile from the Naval Observatory. Wint had previously worked for a Savopoulos family business. His DNA was found on pizza crust at the crime scene, according to court papers. When Wint was arrested, authorities found about $10,000 in cash in a vehicle linked to him. Prosecutors said that if Wint is convicted, they will seek a sentence of life without parole. Wint has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His attorneys have said in court that they may argue at trial that another person — whom they have not publicly identified — was responsible for the killings. When Wint was arrested about a week after the slayings, D.C. homicide detectives said they thought other people may have been involved. But Wint remains the only person charged in the case. In hearings in D.C. Superior Court and court filings, defense attorneys and prosecutors said it could be difficult to find District residents whose schedules would allow them to participate in a trial expected to last about eight weeks. Some 90 prospective jurors were ushered into the courtroom Wednesday morning to answer a series of questions read to them by D.C. Superior Court Judge Juliet McKenna. Before the judge began, lawyers on both sides introduced themselves. Then Wint stood, faced the group and introduced himself in a loud voice. “Good morning everyone. My name is Daron Wint,” he said. McKenna asked the potential jurors if they had heard about the killings, sometimes called the “mansion murders,” in the media. And the judge asked if anyone would


How to snag a cheap meal at 4 of D.C.’s most celebrated, pricey restaurants

of cheeses ($10), with raw cow's milk varieties from France and the Netherlands. The seating at the bar includes benches for two instead of individual stools, making this a fun date spot. 931 H St. NW. The ‘Maria Menu’ at Del Mar, Fiola and Fiola Mare There are many ways to indulge at Fabio and Maria Trabocchi's trio of restaurants, including lobster ravioli ($60) at Fiola Mare, or a whole grilled branzino fish ($70) at Del Mar. But amid all the luxury, there's also the daily Maria Menu, a three-course, $25 lunchtime offering that promises “Mediterranean-style health conscious selections,” with lean proteins, healthy fats and low sodium. The Maria Menu goes out of its way to prove that “healthy” doesn't have to mean “dull”: Selections on a recent Fiola Mare menu included a silky heirloom tomato gazpacho with peaches and basil; a creamy and dreamy ricotta cavatelli pasta with pesto, summer squash and the sweet nip of meyer lemon; and for dessert, a custard-like budino with blueberry compote and a buttermilk sorbet. If you've wanted to sample Trabocchi's Michelin-starred cuisine but worried about the price tag, the Maria Menu is an invitation to sample some of Washington's finest cooking. Del Mar: 791 Wharf St. SW; Fiola: 601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW; Fiola Mare: 3050 K St. NW. [Review: Del Mar will make you swoon for Spain] The bar menu at Masseria Nicholas Stefanelli's Michelin-starred Masseria offers three prix fixe menus, from $98 for four courses to $143 for six. But if you don't want to splurge, there's an easier way to enjoy Stefanelli's Italian cuisine: Ask for a bar stool or a seat on the patio. The bar menu doesn't include the much-raved-about tortellini or risotto, but it's a welcoming and delicious exploration of Italian small bites: veal and pork meatballs topped with a seasonal vegetarian ragout; breadcrumb-crusted salted cod fritters; a savory, spicy pickled giardiniera; the wondrously fragrant housemade focaccia. Unlike the main menu, the price doesn't say “special occasion”: 10 of the dozen items on the menu are less than $10, starting at $2 per arancini. Pick a few items to share, order a glass of wine or one of Julien-Pierre Bourgon's outstanding cocktails, and get going. 1340 Fourth St. NE. [Review: Masseria transports diners to the Italian countryside] Happy hour at O-Ku Washington sushi lovers are always on the hunt for a new sushi-centric happy hour — who


Starbucks opens Mexico City cafe staffed by seniors

Starbucks customers in Mexico City may notice something distinct about one particular coffee shop's new employees: They're all seniors. The company recently opened its first cafe operated by people ages 50 and older, in partnership with the National Institute for Older Persons (INAPAM), a government welfare program in Mexico. Fourteen older workers will run the shop. “It’s becoming more difficult to employ people over 40 years of age,” said Christian Gurria, the chief executive of Starbucks Mexico, according to Reuters. “But the need to keep elderly people in work exists. If the opportunity is there, I’m happy to help.” Starbucks said the opening builds on an employment agreement it signed with INAPAM in 2011 to offer job opportunities to seniors to help boost their quality of life. Mexico's elderly population is increasing rapidly, according to U.N. data, following trends previously seen in Europe, owing to lower birthrates and greater longevity. People 60 and older made up 10 percent of Mexico's population in 2017, but that figure is expected to more than double to 25 percent by 2050, the United Nations projected. Mexico's expanding senior population may also become vulnerable to poverty, according to a Rand Corporation study. “One of the primary challenges facing Mexico is a growing older population. The demographic transition in Mexico combined with the lack of formal sources of income in retirement place many older persons in a state of financial insecurity,” the analysis said. Starbucks said it employs more than 7,000 people in the country, across 61 cities. The company aims to staff 120 older workers in Mexico by the end of next year. The company told The Washington Post in a statement, “Starbucks celebrates its commitment to providing opportunities to everyone and being a multi-generations company that embraces diversity and inclusion and welcomes everyone who is seeking employment.” The older workers hired to run the Mexico City cafe will receive additional benefits, the company said, including an increase in total coverage of their health insurance and an adjusted work schedule to fit their needs.


Celebrity chef Mike Isabella declares bankruptcy in wake of sexual harassment lawsuit

Mike Isabella, the celebrity chef whose company once included more than a dozen restaurants, several stands at Nationals Park and a 41,000-square-foot food hall at Tysons Galleria, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for his businesses Thursday in federal court. It’s a major setback to the chef and his Mike Isabella Concepts, which just a year ago could seemingly do no wrong in Washington. But a sexual harassment lawsuit, filed in March, was the first public crack in the Isabella empire, and it had an almost immediate effect on sales and led directly to the Washington Nationals cutting ties with the chef. It also affected the media coverage of Isabella restaurants, including an outright ban of his eateries on all Eater lists and maps. What’s more, the lawsuit came just months after the chef opened his most ambitious project, Isabella Eatery, a nine-concept food emporium that was designed to revitalize Tysons Galleria, a moribund luxury mall in Northern Virginia. The estimated $40 million project closed in August, less than nine months after it debuted. Before that closure, Isabella had shut down his Requin Brasserie in the Mosaic District in Northern Virginia, as well as two locations of Graffiato, including the original in Chinatown, his first restaurant after his star turns on “Top Chef” and “Top Chef All-Stars.” Now, he said, he hopes the bankruptcy filing can help him “stop the bleeding” and avoid closing any more restaurants. “I want to stabilize what’s going on in my company, and, obviously, once I go through this, set a path for the future to get me back to where I was,” Isabella said during a sit-down interview. “The bankruptcy is a tool for me to basically restructure my finances and have an opportunity for a fresh start.” The petition was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland in Greenbelt, just ahead of a Friday hearing in Prince George’s County Circuit Court, where Isabella is fighting to hold onto his Kapnos Taverna inside the Hotel at the University of Maryland in College Park. The landlord, Isabella said, is trying to evict him after suing in May for more than $60,000 in back rent. Isabella said he paid three months back rent and tried to renegotiate a lower monthly payment. “They weren’t willing to renegotiate,” he added. An attorney for Southern Management Corp., which manages the hotel, did not return repeated calls


Michelin’s ‘cheap eats’ list has doubled in size. What does that say about D.C. dining?

On Sept. 13, Michelin will announce which Washington-area restaurants earned coveted star ratings in its 2019 Dining Guide. But before we get to the fancy dining rooms, the French tire company releases a list of winners of its secondary designation: the Bib Gourmand, named for the company's mascot Bibendum, who's also known as the rubbery Michelin Man. At these restaurants, approved by anonymous inspectors, a diner can get two courses and a glass of wine or a dessert for $40 or less, excluding tax and tip. (Of course, some critics gripe that a list of restaurants where entrees climb over $20 isn't exactly cheap.) [Perspective: Michelin’s cheap-eats list might work in Europe, but it’s out of touch with America] The Bib Gourmand list is ostensibly more useful for everyday dining than the more famous starred reviews, and this year, the number of honored D.C. restaurants jumped from 22 to 39. Here are some first impressions of the new list (or just keep scrolling to read it). Why has the list doubled in just two years? [Perspective: Michelin is too buttoned-up to see the stars of D.C.’s dining scene] Reading the tea leaves: Who will get stars? Was Maydan snubbed? What happened to 2 Amys? Where are the Indian restaurants? Changes in the kitchen don't seem to matter. For the most part, there's no big news. 2019 Bib Gourmand Restaurants (new additions are marked in bold): Ambar Bad Saint Bidwell Chercher China Chilcano Chloe Das Doi Moi Fancy Radish Hazel Ivy City Smokehouse Jaleo Joselito’s Casa de Comidas Kaliwa Kyirisan Lapis Maketto Maydan Millie’s Mola Napoli Pasta Bar Ottoman Taverna Oyamel Pearl Dive Oyster Palace The Red Hen Royal Sababa Sfoglina Spark Spoken English Succotash Supra Thip Khao Tiger Fork Timber Pizza Co. Toki Underground Unconventional Diner Whaley’s Zaytinya


Most passengers from quarantined flight had flu or common cold, New York health officials say

The majority of sick passengers aboard a plane that was quarantined in New York have been diagnosed with “common viruses such as influenza and the common cold,” according to New York City's Health Department. All tests for Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, were negative, according to Tom Skinner, the spokesperson for The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The flight from Dubai was quarantined for hours at John F. Kennedy International Airport Wednesday after about 100 people on board complained of unknown illnesses, officials said. Passengers and some crew members complained of cough and fever on the Emirates Airline flight, according to officials from the CDC. Health officials met the plane on the tarmac where medics and federal customs agents took temperatures of passengers and evaluated symptoms. There were 549 people on board flight EK203, the CDC said. Emirates said in a statement Wednesday that 10 individuals, three passengers and seven crew members, were taken to a hospital for medical care and evaluation. That figure increased slightly on Thursday when the CDC announced that 11 people were transported to a hospital. The rest of the passengers were released after evaluations. The mayor's office described the response as a quarantine. The remaining passengers and crew were let off the plane by 12:30 p.m. Health officials may follow-up with passengers who were released, the CDC said. Photos from passengers show rows of ambulances and firetrucks on the tarmac. Larry Coben said on Twitter that fellow passengers were asked to fill out CDC forms detailing where people have recently traveled. Rapper Vanilla Ice said on Twitter that his flight from Dubai was delayed on the runway at JFK. But it was not clear if he was on the same flight. Ice did not return a request for comment. Read more: Lawsuit: A United Airlines pilot repeatedly posted sexually explicit images of a United flight attendant on various websites New facial recognition system nabs impostor at Dulles International Airport


Recession reflections: How Americans are coping from the 2008 crash

run the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The job gives him a voice in steering the nation’s economy. He has long been puzzled by the employment gap between white and black workers: “I started asking economists: What is causing that?” Kashkari turned to the Fed’s then-Chair Janet L. Yellen and then-Governor Jerome H. Powell about whether their economists should take it up. With their okay, he started the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute. Kashkari has emerged as a high-profile critic of efforts to relax post-crisis financial regulations. He says the 2010 financial reform law, known as Dodd-Frank, did not go far enough. The country’s biggest banks are still too big, he says. He was one of few Republican critics of legislation passed this year to ease rules for community and regional banks. If one of the large regional banks were to fail, it would not cause a crisis, he said, but if several did, it could. — Renae Merle Nicholas and Janet Schklair relocated from Miami to a town outside of Jacksonville in 2006 to be closer to their daughter and grandchildren. They put 20 percent down on a $275,000 home with four bedrooms and two bathrooms in a quiet neighborhood where they expected to stay in retirement. Yet, after missing mortgage payments during the recession, the Schklairs faced foreclosure threats. The incident set off a years-long legal battle against aggressive bill collectors. Four years ago, they received a loan modification, which substantially reduced their payments. They no longer fear foreclosure. “We were about to lose our house,” Nicholas Schklair, 72, said. “This is letting us hold on to even my minimal lifestyle.” Yet despite a recent upswing in home prices, they are still underwater in their loan; what they owe is about $20,000 more than the market value of the property. They are not alone. A decade after the housing market collapsed, more than 5.5 million properties have mortgages at least 25 percent larger than the value of the home, according to Attom Data Solutions, which tracks real estate data. Despite a stark shortage in housing inventory, some who bought during the boom could face a loss if they needed to sell. The Schklairs’ financial issues began soon after the move. A software company Schklair worked for began outsourcing more of its jobs. A gig with a headhunting firm didn’t work out. He felt that his age — in


The torture claims of a pop-star politician roil Uganda

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu planned on a career in music. But since the 36-year-old, better known by his stage name, Bobi Wine, ran for parliament last year, he has been thrust into the spotlight of the resistance against the longtime president of Uganda — a country that has emerged as a key security partner for the United States. Experts say Wine, a pop star turned lawmaker, may pose the greatest threat to President Yoweri Museveni's rule since the former revolutionary took power more than 30 years ago — and Museveni seems to sense that, too. Wine was campaigning for a parliamentary candidate in northern Uganda last month when protesters allegedly stoned Museveni's convoy. In the event's aftermath, Wine said security forces opened fire on his vehicle and killed his driver. He was arrested and accused of inciting violence against the president; he was eventually charged with treason. Last weekend, while out on bail, Wine managed to leave the country to seek medical treatment in the United States, carrying with him stories of alleged torture at the hands of Ugandan special forces. And his accusations raise uncomfortable questions about Washington's longtime strategic alliance with Uganda. The United States considers Uganda a key ally in East Africa and provides some $970 million in development and security assistance to the country each year. Ugandan troops are crucial participants in the African Union Mission in Somalia, where the threat of terrorist group Al Shabaab looms large. But on Thursday, Wine's lawyer Robert Amsterdam said the U.S. government should "immediately suspend military funding to Uganda." “We want the American taxpayer to know that the American taxpayer is funding this," Amsterdam said at a news conference in Washington. "The military equipment we are supplying to Uganda is being used in a war of terror against Uganda’s citizens." Human Rights Watch's Maria Burnett, who runs the organization's work in East Africa, tweeted that in 2014, the United States gave $12 million in equipment, weapons and vehicles to the Ugandan special operations forces command — the same unit that Wine said tortured him. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it will reassess assistance to Uganda. Some in Washington are concerned about what they see as an authoritarian backslide


6 restaurants to check out now, including the return of Little Sesame and Zenebech

The long-awaited return of D.C.'s best Ethiopian restaurant and the debut of a hot new hummus destination were August's biggest dining headlines. Zenebech [The 10 best Ethiopian restaurants in the Washington area, ranked] Little Sesame Guapo's of Georgetown Little Havana: [Review: Mezcalero Cocina Mexicana: You can’t go wrong with the tacos here] Dyllan’s Raw Bar Grill [First Bite: The District gets its first tinned-fish restaurant. Will it pack ’em in like sardines?] Birds Eye Eatery: Last summer, Doi Moi launched a weekend-only sandwich pop-up called Birds Eye Sandwiches. The name has been recycled for the restaurant's newest project, Bird's Eye Eatery, which offers a South Asian-influenced menu from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. during the week, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends. Highlights include dragon fruit smoothie bowls; doughnuts with Thai iced tea or Vietnamese coffee filling; egg sandwiches with bacon or Asian-spiced sausage; and fried chicken with Thai basil buttermilk and Kaffir lime chili salt. Inside Doi Moi, 1800 14th St. NW. READ MORE Eat crabs by the water — and get away from the crowds at these authentic Maryland spots How to snag a cheap meal at 4 of D.C.'s most celebrated, priciest restaurants An Asian food hall, a stunning basement bar and other new restaurants and bars to check out now


A fine burger’s worthy pedigree

The Aug. 24 Weekend article “A steak chain’s burger joint makes the cut” would have benefited from information about the lineage of the Capital Burger. The daddy of this “luxury burger” offspring is known as the Capital Grille by those of us who pay attention to detail. The Capital Grille has restaurants all over the country, and you can count on excellent food and service in each of them. I am quite familiar with the D.C. area, as I was born at the now-closed Columbia Hospital for Women in the District and raised in the Woodridge section of the city (far Northeast). Back then, Blackie’s House of Beef and O’Donnell’s seafood were among the better restaurants in the city. La Nicoise, with its roller-skate-equipped waitstaff, was a gem of French cuisine on lower Wisconsin Avenue. It is not just any capital grill located in D.C. and around the country, it is the Capital Grille wherever you go. Richard B. Collins


So Ethiopia’s new prime minister wants real democracy? Here’s what has to change first.

woreda (district) elections. These officials distribute government goods such as seeds, fertilizer, credit and other agricultural basics — and are in charge of community courts, local prisons and sometimes local militia. That means that local EPRDF officials could reward supporters and punish opponents — either by offering or refusing goods, or implicitly threatening police monitoring and harassment. And according to a Human Rights Watch investigation, that’s what happened. Kebele officials discriminated against those who were not members of the EPRDF. This pattern of patronage has made it difficult to build successful opposition parties, since the opposition could neither reward party loyalty nor protect against punishment, as the EPRDF could. If the EPRDF wants competitive democratic elections, it would have to dismantle this government-backed system of patronage and punishment. But the tentative reform agenda Abiy has put forward has already disturbed some powerful party insiders. 3. The TPLF — used to being in charge — isn’t happy Abiy’s promises have been greeted by jubilant crowds in Ethiopia and internationally. But to succeed, he has to bring along the rest of his ruling coalition. The EPRDF is a multiethnic coalition comprising four main political parties — the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement and the TPLF. That last controlled the coalition until Abiy, an Oromo, stepped in. The TPLF has publicly criticized a peace deal that Abiy brokered, which ended two decades of war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. And observers say that the TPLF opposes Abiy’s efforts to untangle the party’s involvement with certain industries and economic sectors controlled by the party, and which party members have used to line their pockets or reward “military cronies.” The TPLF could block reforms — serving as what political scientist George Tsebelis calls a “veto player.” 4. Empowering political opposition The anti-government protests have wrought serious change and may have the infrastructure to start building healthy opposition parties. But they’re not fully developed yet. After decades of being shut out of power, jailed, silenced and attacked, they aren’t yet able to compete fairly with the well-resourced and dominant EPRDF. If Abiy or the international community want free and fair elections, they need to invest in and help political dissidents who are trying to build political parties and end the local administrative monopoly on government support. And as political scientist Stephen Brown showed a decade


FTA gives thumbs-up to Metro’s expedited timeline for protecting blind passengers

Federal regulators are giving their seal of approval to Metro's expedited timeline to add safety barriers to its 7000-series trains, assuaging fears from the transit agency that federal funding could be withheld from Metro's coffers. Metro said the manufacturer, Kawasaki, will install the new safety barriers on hundreds of the stainless-steel rail cars in May 2019. Even though that misses the Federal Transit Administration's original deadline by five months, officials with the agency said in a letter this week they will not penalize Metro for the delay — as long as it sticks to the May timeline. The new cars have come under scrutiny in recent years after at least two passengers with visual impairments mistook the gap between train cars for the doorway, stepped off the platform and fell onto the tracks. The Federal Transit Administration has instructed Metro that it must retrofit the new cars with extra safety barriers similar to those that appear on older trains — steel chains that stretch from the end of one train car to the adjacent train car, blocking people from walking into the gap between the cars. The FTA said it believes the barriers that originally were installed on the new trains, which look like two black rubber tail fins sticking out from the edge of each train car, are inadequate and unsafe. But when the FTA demanded that Metro install new barriers by the end of 2018, Metro passed along word from Kawasaki that it was struggling to find suppliers to manufacture the chain barriers and said it would be impossible to meet the deadline. Kawasaki forecast that it would take until November 2019 to finish the job. If the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority missed the deadline, the federal government would have the power to enforce a penalty and withhold hundreds of thousands of dollars from the cash-strapped agency. Metro officials also feared the FTA could force them to take most of the fleet of 7000-series trains out of service — a prospect that would result in a calamitous cutback in Metro service. But federal officials later said they weren't considering such action. Two months ago, Kawasaki said it found a way to retrofit trains by May. The FTA says that timeline is acceptable, as long as no more new trains go into service without the extra barriers. "Although WMATA’s May 2019 commitment is later than the deadline stated


We have to look beyond the madness

is hard for prices to rise when goods and services can be supplied cheaply by a person in some developing country or through automation. The absence of inflation over the past 25 years is still the most remarkable trend that keeps the global growth engine chugging. But look below the surface, and the forces producing these benign circumstances all seem to be increasingly under pressure. The United States, the world’s leading architect of the international order and stability, seems determined to disrupt it. Trump is at heart an isolationist who constantly questions the value of the alliance structure that has kept the world peaceful and stable since 1945. He seems to want the United States to either withdraw from the world or turn its international role into a profitable, quasi-colonial enterprise, such as by extracting payments from Europe, Japan and the Gulf States and confiscating the oil resources of Iraq. His administration has been in major trade disputes with the United States’ top trading partners — the European Union, China, Canada and Mexico. That leaves the technological revolution that has transformed the world. But here also the trends are not entirely promising for the United States. First, the country is living off seed capital. Investments in basic science and research that were made in the 1960s and 1970s continue to undergird U.S. technology companies today. Could Amazon, Facebook and Apple have dominated the world without the Internet and GPS, both technologies developed by the U.S. government? The next wave of massive investment in science and technology is indeed taking place — but in China. And then there is the rising backlash to technology. We are in a very different world than just five years ago. Technology companies are increasingly seen as having monopoly or oligopoly power, crushing competition, ransacking consumer data and then profiting from it, intruding on privacy and being part of an elite that is utterly divorced from the rest of society. The best evidence for this is that Trump, who does have good instincts for where and when to pander, has taken to tweeting against the tech giants with regularity. Despite the Trump freak show, we are living in peaceful and prosperous times. But beneath the surface, there are currents that could disrupt the calm, especially for the United States. fareed.zakaria.gps@turner.com Read more from Fareed Zakaria’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his daily newsletter.


13 things to do in the D.C. area this weekend

Friday, Sept. 7 Culture Abuse at Rock & Roll Hotel 'Queer(ing) Pleasure' at D.C. Arts Center Kurt Braunohler at Bier Baron Tavern Hatchie at DC9 Saturday, Sept. 8 Rosslyn Jazz Festival at Gateway Park Mixtape at U Street Music Hall Fifth Anniversary Party at Escape-ism at Comet Ping Pong [ Lil Baby at The Fillmore Sunday, Sept. 9 Adams Morgan Day at 18th Street NW between Columbia Road and Wyoming Avenue Festival Salvadoreñisimo at Montgomery County Fairgrounds [ ‘Corot: Women’ at National Gallery of Art, West Building Ava Luna at Comet Ping Pong — Hau Chu, Fritz Hahn, Chris Kelly, Julyssa Lopez, Chris Richards and Savannah Stephens Correction: An earlier version of this story listed the incorrect date for Mixtape at U Street Music Hall. This version has been updated.


We’re running out of time to deter Russia

the consequences of even trying to penetrate American defenses are too grave to risk. Finally, nearly two years after the 2016 vote, members of Congress are getting closer to imposing a more robust deterrence policy. Two bipartisan bills have been introduced, one shepherded by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), and the aptly named DETER Act, whose leading co-sponsors are Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). The Senate Banking and Foreign Relations committees held hearings Wednesday and Thursday in which witnesses such as former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and former undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns, both respected experts, endorsed a deterrence approach. “Putin’s a rational person,” Mr. Burns said. “He’ll understand that those are going to be the penalties; we’ve got to make sure that he perceives we’re serious about it.” One idea is to meet future Kremlin aggression with tough, automatic sanctions. These could target the Russian energy sector, without which the country would not have much of an economy. Individualized sanctions could be aimed at top Putin cronies. Russian sovereign debt could be rendered radioactive in the West. President Trump could be legally required to impose these punishments. On top of threatening massive automatic sanctions, Congress could give federal prosecutors more authority to go after botnets and cyber wrongdoers. One of the more creative suggestions is imposing new reporting requirement on large, suspicious real estate transactions, which might help crack down on foreign money laundering via cash purchases of expensive U.S. property. The White House has been drawing up an executive order that might cover some of these bases, and senior administration officials have been working with members of Congress to craft a strategy with enough bite to satisfy lawmakers and enough flexibility to allay concerns in the executive branch about being locked into a long-term sanctions policy that might not be appropriate in future circumstances or one that inadvertently harms European allies. Given Mr. Trump’s past weakness on Mr. Putin, whatever policy that results must present the Kremlin with a sure, credible deterrent. To that end, it would be better if it were written into law rather than just an executive order. It would also be better if it came sooner rather than later. As it stands, there is little time for deterrence before November’s vote. The message from now through 2020 must be clear and consistent.


For Maryland, financial fallout from football player’s death could be tens of millions

The University of Maryland is bracing for a public reckoning with the expected release of investigative reports and possible high-profile personnel changes after the death of a football player and allegations of a toxic team culture. Looming ominously in the background of it all are financial implications casting uncertainty on both the immediate and long-term future of the school’s athletic department. Maryland athletics has for years struggled to raise funds and sell tickets. Its move to the Big Ten Conference in 2014, seen as a path to profitability for a department that was facing a multimillion-dollar annual deficit, has resulted in just enough revenue to break even. Now some stakeholders and analysts project that the financial fallout from the crisis within the football program could reach into eight figures. The economic peril could extend to multiple fronts: ●A legal settlement with the family of Jordan McNair, the 19-year-old player who died in June after suffering heatstroke during a team workout. ●Contract buyouts for coaches and administrators, including Coach DJ Durkin and two other football staffers who remain on administrative leave. ●The subsequent hiring of a new football coaching staff. ●A decrease in financial support from donors and fans, many of whom already have been reluctant to help pay off the remaining tab for a $196 million indoor football facility and who could stay away in droves from the Maryland Stadium stands this fall while the school continues to sort out the mess. “With [potential] buyouts . . . I think you have already paid a price in terms of ticket sales, donations,” said one high-level booster, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive and unsettled nature of the matters. “Then you have to factor in, what do you end up paying the McNair family? And for how long do the ramifications of it last? It easily has got be $25 million and probably more than that.” While the school has admitted to mistakes that led to McNair’s death, it’s also spending money to better understand the circumstances surrounding the tragedy. Maryland contracted with the consulting firm Walters Inc. for at least $24,000 to examine what happened at the team workout May 29 at which McNair collapsed. A broader — and probably more expensive — probe is being run by an eight-person commission that will report its findings to the University System of Maryland Board of Regents,


perhaps by the end of this month. That investigation will focus on the culture within the football program, and while many details have not been released, it is not expected to be cheap. Robert L. Caret, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, said the eight commission members are being paid for their services — a handshake agreement but not a formal contract at this point. Much of the groundwork for the investigation is being done by DLA Piper, one of the largest law firms in the country. It has been using a team of high-priced associates to interview players, coaches and staff. In making decisions on the future of the Maryland program, the regents will consider the financial implications but won’t be ruled by them, Caret said. He likened the associated costs to “data points you’re keeping in mind as you move forward.” “The board will make decisions based on principle,” he said. “The financial part will be what they have to live with, if they have to live with it.” Potential settlements The university is probably bracing for a sizable settlement with McNair’s family. Wallace D. Loh, the university president, stated publicly last month that the school will accept “moral and legal responsibility” for McNair’s death. The family recently filed three claims with the state treasurer giving notice of its intent to sue the school. Those filings, on behalf of the player’s estate, his mother and his father, triggered a review by the state attorney general’s office, which is conducting its own probe of the facts surrounding McNair’s death, according to a spokesman for that office. “They always — when there’s any potential lawsuit — do their own investigation,” Caret said. “So they’ll look at everything separately. From what I know, my understanding is they’ll go in any direction they need to go. They’ll retrace some of the steps themselves. I’m sure they’ll interview a number of the same people.” Wrongful-death charges involving university students can be costly. Universities typically carry insurance to help absorb such costs, though a school spokesman was unable to provide any details this week on Maryland’s coverage. Derek Sheely collapsed and died after he suffered a brain injury during a football practice at Frostburg State in 2011. His family filed a wrongful-death suit and eventually reached a $1.2 million settlement. The NCAA picked up more than $1 million of that, and the state


Saudi royals, a mansion in a quiet D.C. suburb — and allegations of mistreating a servant

The mansion on Aziza Court is for sale. With its eight bathrooms, six bedroom suites, 14 living areas spread out over 17,000 square feet, it is a house where, according to an old listing video, “you can envision a princess losing her glass slipper as she runs down the staircase,” a place that will fill “you with pride as you welcome heads of state, sports figures and celebrities to your next royal ball.” The listing is fitting for its past occupants, a son of the late king of Saudi Arabia and his wife, a daughter of the late crown prince. For years, the couple resided in the Great Falls, Va., mansion, where they employed nannies, cooks and other domestic workers — some of whom had traveled from faraway countries to work there. That employee relationship is at the heart of a lawsuit that was the subject of a hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on Friday, in which one of those employees claims she was subjected to human trafficking, forced labor and psychological abuse, and was paid less than $2 per hour despite consistently working 15-hour days. Simret Semere Tekle, a citizen of Eritrea, whose case has attracted the representation of several high-powered firms, is seeking damages not limited to the alleged loss of wages. Stuart Nash, an attorney for Princess Nouf Bint Nayef Abdul-Aziz al-Saud and Prince Mohammad Bin Abdullah al-Saud, called the allegations false at the hearing. “She was paid thousands of dollars above the minimum wage,” he said, adding that pictures exist that undercut her claims. “She had a wonderful life in the house. . . . They treated her wonderfully and with respect and dignity.” The allegations are the latest in what has become a recurring legal contest between diplomats and foreign officials, many of whom have diplomatic immunity, and their former live-in domestic servants. Over the past 15 years, 35 lawsuits have been filed in federal court by domestic workers alleging that they were trafficked into the officials’ homes, where they said they faced a range of unexpected circumstances including wage theft, abject isolation, and, in a few cases, repeated sexual and physical assault. Six of the cases, which were primarily filed in the Washington and New York regions, ended in default judgments worth around $1 million for the domestic workers, according to the District-based Human Trafficking Legal Center, whose president represents Tekle. Twenty-five


Sepsis can kill before you know it, so it’s wise to know the symptoms

Sepsis awareness Infection can set off a chain reaction that quickly causes death The human immune system is a wonder, an intricately constructed network of organs, cells and biological processes designed to ward off infection and disease. But sometimes the system goes into overdrive, leading to deadly consequences by releasing chemicals that cause widespread inflammation. A full-body chain reaction results, prompting rapid tissue damage, organ failure and death. This extreme reaction is called sepsis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1.7 million Americans get sepsis each year, and about 270,000 die of the illness. But just because sepsis is common doesn’t mean its signs are well known. When the Sepsis Alliance surveyed more than 2,000 adults online in 2017, the nonprofit group found that while 58 percent of respondents knew the word, few could identify all of its most common symptoms. The alliance is trying to promote awareness of sepsis during September, which it calls Sepsis Awareness Month. Sepsis progresses rapidly. Patients can become confused or disoriented. Their heart rate rises and their skin becomes clammy or sweaty. Shortness of breath is common, as is a high heart rate. Some people get a fever, or feel extremely cold or shiver. Usually, they experience extreme pain. The Sepsis Alliance, which was founded in 2007 after the death of Erin Flatley, a 23-year-old who had recently had surgery and whose symptoms were ignored, has an easy acronym to help you remember the signs and symptoms: TIME. You should call 911 or get to a hospital if you see a: ●higher or lower Temperature than normal; ●signs and symptoms of an Infection; ●a Mental decline, such as a person being sleepy or confused; and ●symptoms of Extreme illness, such as excruciating pain. Act fast if you suspect sepsis. Because it moves so quickly, you don’t have time to spare. You can also help prevent the condition by staying up-to-date on vaccines, taking care of chronic conditions and practicing good hygiene, such as hand washing and covering up cuts and infected areas. — Erin Blakemore


Updated forecast: Showers linger after an evening of heavy storms and flooding

warning until 9 p.m. Up to two inches of rain has fallen in the past hour and another 1 to 3 inches are possible. Remember never to drive across flooded roads and try to avoid routes near streams/creeks during heavy rainfall. In addition to the torrential rain, these storms feature frequent, dangerous lightning. While they are progressing to the east-northeast, they may take one to two hours to move through a particular area. After this batch moves through, more showers and storms are possible later this evening, but there should be a pause of at least an hour or two and the additional activity should be hit or miss and generally less intense. The flood warning in effect for south Arlington, Alexandria and east central Fairfax County has now been expanded to cover the District, southeast Montgomery County, northwest Prince George’s County and north Arlington until 9:45 p.m. due to the heavy storms. These storms are slow-movers and could unload one to three inches of rain. Radar shows numerous storms with heavy rain flaring up in the immediate D.C. region. These are slow which could put down hefty rain amounts in a short time. As such the National Weather Service has extended a flash flood watch, issued earlier for our western areas, over the rest of the region (except for Southern Maryland). The watch is in effect until 11 p.m. In addition, a flood warning has been issued for southeastern Arlington County, east central Fairfax County, and Alexandria until 9:15 p.m. Up to an inch of rain has fallen and another one to two inches could still fall. From 4:09 p.m. … Today’s reduction in heat and humidity bordered on imperceptible as it still hit 90 in Washington and felt like the mid-to-upper 90s. The wind has shifted direction, but it’s still a while until truly cooler air is here. It will finally arrive this weekend. And along with the cooler air comes more rain. Listen to the latest forecast: Get our daily forecasts on your Amazon Alexa device. Click here to find out how. Through Tonight: View the current weather at The Washington Post. Tomorrow (Saturday): Sunday: See Camden Walker’s forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. For related traffic news, check out Gridlock. Want our 5 a.m. forecast delivered to your email in-box? Subscribe here.


World Digest: Sept. 9, 2018

from 55 to 60 — have shaved about 15 percentage points off President Vladimir Putin’s popularity rating. Navalny hopes to tap into public anger over the proposal. He had planned to lead a protest in Moscow on Sunday, but a court last month convicted him of breaking protest laws and jailed him for 30 days. Navalny said the move was designed to derail the protests, which were held in 80 towns and cities. OVD-Info, a rights group, said police detained at least 153 Navalny supporters on Sunday in 19 towns and cities. In Moscow, an estimated 2,000 people gathered in the central Pushkin Square. Some of them chanted “Russia will be free” and “Putin is a thief” as riot police looked on and ordered them to disperse or face prosecution. — Reuters BRITAIN Johnson's 'suicide vest' article creates furor Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has compared Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan for Brexit to putting Britain’s constitution in a “suicide vest” and handing the detonator to the European Union — part of an article that drew condemnation from colleagues on Sunday. Johnson, a strong supporter of Brexit, quit May’s government in July after rejecting her proposal for close economic ties with the E.U. after the United Kingdom leaves the bloc next year. His article in the Mail on Sunday ramped up speculation that he plans to challenge her leadership. Johnson said May’s plan, which would keep the U.K. aligned to E.U. regulations in return for free trade in goods, was a “humiliation” and amounted to “agreeing to take EU rules, with no say on those rules.” He also said that by agreeing that the U.K.’s Northern Ireland must effectively remain in a customs union with the bloc to avoid a hard border with E.U. member Ireland, “we have wrapped a suicide vest around the British constitution — and handed the detonator” to the E.U. Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan tweeted that the comments marked “one of the most disgusting moments in modern British politics.” Britain is due to leave the E.U. on March 29, but divorce talks have foundered amid Conservative Party divisions over how close a relationship to seek with the bloc. — Associated Press Death toll in Japan quake nears 40: Anglophone separatists riot in Cameroon: Suspected U.S. strike kills 4 alleged militants in Yemen: Palestinian killed trying to damage Gaza fence, Israel says: — From news services


What happens when a Chinese factory city seeks a makeover? The workers making iPhones are priced out.

One afternoon, Yanhong, in cutoff jean shorts lined with lace, trimmed her mother’s eyebrows outside. Her 3-year-old daughter dashed in and out of the house in Peppa Pig pajamas. Yanhong has been working for Foxconn for about 10 years, along with her husband. She came here because she knew she could make more money than back home in her village in Henan province, about 1,000 miles north of Shenzhen. Her sparse main room is decorated with laminated signs with pictures of animals, along with the word for them in Chinese and English. On their front door, someone has hung an old garland in the shape of a person, complete with eyes and a smile. Her husband was asleep upstairs. There is a room in the back for her parents, and her family of four can fit comfortably upstairs. Living here has been good, she said. There’s a senior activity center nearby for her parents. Her father gives people rides on his motorcycle to make a little extra money, and they can store the bike in their living room. She works six days a week, and she spends most of her free time with her daughter and 5-year-old son. They go on walks nearby. They spend time at the park. The rumors about a renovation, however, have her on edge. She has heard that developers plan to knock down her little village to make room for a high rise. “A building would cost a lot more,” she said. “A big family can’t really afford it.” If she loses her home, she would have to send her children and parents back to Henan, where they would become “left-behind children.” “It’s very sad because we don’t want to be separated,” she said. “We want our kids to grow up as a family.” In the lobby of one renovated building, 20-somethings clack away on their Mac laptops. A group sits in the corner sorting roses for Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated in August in China. The renovated apartments upstairs are much smaller than the old units used to be. Some are barely bigger than a dorm room, with a tiny kitchen and bathroom. Others have a tiny second bedroom. In one corner unit, a couple is settling in for the afternoon. The wife is on the floor, playing with her two cats. She said she fell in love with the building as soon as


Court backs MIT, Harvard on CRISPR patents

PATENTS Court backs MIT, Harvard on CRISPR A U.S. appeals court on Monday allowed a research center affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University to keep patents potentially worth billions of dollars on a gene-editing technology known as CRISPR. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the validity of the Harvard and MIT patents, rejecting a challenge brought by a rival team of researchers associated with the University of California at Berkeley and University of Vienna in Austria. CRISPR allows scientists to edit genes by using biological “scissors” to find and replace selected stretches of DNA. The Broad Institute, the biological and genomic research center affiliated with MIT and Harvard, said in a statement that it was “time for all institutions to move beyond litigation” to “ensure wide, open access to this transformative technology.” Charles Robinson, a lawyer at the University of California, said the institution was evaluating further litigation options. — Reuters CRYPTOCURRENCY N.Y. approves Winkevoss exchange Two companies have won approval from New York state to issue cryptocurrencies pegged to the U.S. dollar. Gemini Trust, the digital-asset exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, received approval from the New York Department of Financial Services to launch the Gemini dollar, a statement said Monday. Paxos Trust, a blockchain firm that caters to financial institutions, also got permission to issue the Paxos Standard, which also launched Monday. The new coins will compete with Tether, Dai and other stable coins designed to track the value of the traditional currency. Tether, one of the biggest cryptocurrencies, faces concerns that it’s not actually backed by dollars as its creators claim. The Gemini dollar will offer more transparency to potential users than other stable coins, Tyler Winklevoss said. State Street will hold the U.S. dollars backing the coin, said bank spokeswoman Kerri Doherty. The currency and its dollar reserves will be audited monthly by BPM to ensure they match, Winklevoss said. — Bloomberg News Also in Business Americans increased A federal appeals court Foreign investors bought — From news services Coming today 10 a.m.: 10 a.m.:


Washington-area news in brief: Fatal violence in Southeast D.C.

THE DISTRICT Fatal violence on Sunday in Southeast An 18-year-old man was shot and killed Sunday afternoon in Southeast Washington, and another person was fatally stabbed in Northwest Washington, authorities said. The first incident unfolded around 1:13 p.m. in the 2800 block of Stanton Road SE in the Barry Farm neighborhood. D.C. police said they responded to the area for a report of a shooting and found a man suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. The man was identified as Taquan Pinkney of Southeast Washington. No arrests had been made, and police had not disclosed a motive. Police are offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information that leads to an arrest and conviction. Another person was fatally stabbed in Northwest Washington along 16th Street, police said. The fatal stabbing was reported to police around 9:24 p.m. Sunday in the 3100 block of 16th Street NW at the Sarbin Towers apartment building. The victim was identified as Israel Gomez, 37, of Northwest Washington. Police say an argument preceded the stabbing. Police on Sunday arrested 44-year-old Policarpo Casarrubias-Rodriguez, of Northwest Washington, in connection to the incident. Casarrubias-Rodriguez is charged with first-degree murder while armed. The deaths come as the D.C. region has seen more than 180 homicides this year, according to a tracking done by The Washington Post. Of those, more than 100 have been in the District, including 58 in Southeast Washington. — Dana Hedgpeth, Michael Brice-Saddler VIRGINIA Suspect charged with slaying of 82-year-old A man was charged Monday with murder in the death in July of an 82-year-old Alexandria resident, authorities said. On July 23, officers responded to the unit block of East Reed Avenue in Alexandria and found Jerry Scott dead with trauma to the upper body, Alexandria police said in a statement. The suspect, Dallas Smith, 31, has been in jail since July 25 on an obstruction charge, according to the police statement. A grand jury indicted him Monday on five felony counts: first-degree murder, burglary while armed, two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a felon. Police asked anyone with information about Scott’s death contact them at 703-746-6858. — Justin Wm. Moyer


One man shot, another stabbed in separate D.C. homicides

An 18-year-old man was shot and killed Sunday afternoon in Southeast Washington, and another person was fatally stabbed in Northwest Washington, authorities said. The first incident unfolded around 1:13 p.m. in the 2800 block of Stanton Road SE in the Barry Farm neighborhood. D.C. police said they responded to the area for a report of a shooting and found a man suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The man was identified as Taquan Pinkney of Southeast Washington. No arrests have been made, and police have not disclosed a motive. Another person was fatally stabbed in Northwest Washington along 16th Street, police said. The stabbing was reported to police around 9:24 p.m. Sunday in the 3100 block of 16th Street NW at the Sarbin Towers apartment building. The victim was later identified as 37-year-old Israel Gomez of Northwest, D.C. Police say an argument preceded the stabbing. Police on Sunday arrested 44-year-old Policarpo Casarrubias-Rodriguez, of Northwest D.C., in connection to the incident. Casarrubias-Rodriguez was charged with first degree murder while armed. The deaths come as the D.C. region has seen more than 180 homicides this year, according to a tracking done by The Washington Post. Of those, more than 100 have been in the District, including 58 in Southeast Washington. dana.hedgpeth@washpost.com michael.brice-saddler@washpost.com


World Digest: Sept. 10, 2018

six gunmen. A statement by the Tripoli-based government later said security forces had “efficiently” dealt with the incident. Libya slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that overthrew Moammar Gaddafi and led to his death. It is now governed by rival authorities in Tripoli and the country’s east. — Associated Press BRAZIL Stabbed candidate needs more surgery Brazil’s front-running, far-right presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, is still in serious condition in intensive care and will need to undergo another major surgery, the hospital where he is being treated said Monday in a written statement. Bolsonaro, 63, was stabbed at a campaign rally Thursday, throwing the presidential race into further confusion as it appears unlikely that he will be able to resume campaigning before the Oct. 7 vote. The bulletin issued by Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo contrasted with the upbeat report on Sunday that said Bolsonaro’s health had improved markedly. The new report said that his condition was still serious and that he would need additional surgery because he has a colostomy bag that needs to be removed and the intestine perforated by the stabbing needs to be repaired. There are no signs of infection, the bulletin added. The knife attack on Bolsonaro further complicated Brazil’s most unpredictable election in three decades, with the most popular politician, jailed former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, banned from running because of a corruption conviction. Police have a suspect in custody in the knife attack but say no clear motive is yet known. — Associated Press EUROPEAN UNION Brexit deal possible in weeks, negotiator says The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator was cautiously optimistic Monday about the prospects of a deal with Britain by early November. At a conference in northwest Slovenia, Michel Barnier said that a Brexit deal was “not far” and that consensus had been reached on about 80 percent of the agreement. Though Britain is due to leave the E.U. on March 29, an agreement will have to be reached months before to get the necessary ratifications through the British and European parliaments. Being “realistic,” Barnier said a Brexit deal can be reached within six or eight weeks and by early November. “I think it’s possible.” Barnier, however, acknowledged that tough issues remain — not least the matter of the border between E.U. member Ireland and Northern Ireland. — Associated Press 6 dead in Mogadishu blast: — From news services


Family smells gas and escapes Maryland home before it explodes, authorities say

A family of five escaped their Howard County home just before an explosion late Friday, authorities said Saturday. According to Howard County fire officials, the department was alerted by the homeowner to a gas leak inside the residence in the 15000 block of Bushy Park Road of Woodbine. Shortly after firefighters arrived, the department said, there was an explosion. Two adults and three children got out before the blast, according to the fire department. No one was injured; the family dog also was safe. According to an account posted early Saturday, the fire was quickly controlled. Investigators were at the site, the fire department said, to determine the cause of the explosion and find where it originated. Damage was estimated at $300,000, the department said. This story has been updated. martin.weil@washpost.com


Boris Johnson compares the latest Brexit deal to a ‘suicide vest,’ drawing sharp criticism

Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson continued to attack Britain's Brexit deal in an opinion article Sunday, saying Prime Minister Theresa May had strapped a “suicide vest” to the United Kingdom's constitution and “handed the detonator” to Brussels. "Why are they bullying us? How can they get away with it? It is one of the mysteries of the current Brexit negotiations that the UK is so utterly feeble,” he wrote. “We have a massive economy; the sixth largest in the world. We ought to be able to do that giant and generous free trade deal the Prime Minister originally spoke of. And yet it’s, ‘yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir’. At every stage in the talks so far, Brussels gets what Brussels wants. We have agreed to the EU’s timetable; we have agreed to hand over £39 billion, for nothing in return.” It was Johnson's second attack on May in less than a week. Last Monday, he wrote that the negotiated deal is a “victory” for the European Union, headquartered in Brussels, and that Britain is getting “diddly squat.” In response, May's spokesman said she would not give the piece “any further oxygen” by commenting. Johnson’s colorful critique echoes the sentiment — if not the language — of anti-Europe members of Parliament who are urging May’s government to “chuck Chequers” and start again. "Chequers” refers to the Brexit plan proposed by May in July. Under its terms, Britain would maintain its ability to trade freely with the European Union. In exchange, the country would abide by most E.U. regulations. The deal would also allow Northern Ireland to remain in a “customs union” with the bloc if the E.U. drops its push for a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Johnson resigned in response, saying at the time that the deal would make Britain a “vassal state.” Johnson's comments drew a feisty response from his political opponents. Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan called his piece “one of the most disgusting moments in modern British politics.” It should be “the political end of Boris Johnson,” Duncan wrote on Twitter. Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat said he was offended by Johnson's use of the term “suicide vest.” Tugendhat survived a suicide bombing outside his office in Afghanistan, he wrote on Twitter. “Comparing the PM to that isn’t funny,” he said. “Grow up.” May's current foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, took a more measured


Drug users keep accidentally poisoning themselves. Here’s an idea to stop them.

Ian Ayres is the William K. Townsend professor at Yale Law School. The tragic epidemic of more than 100 overdoses in New Haven, Conn., last month had health workers literally scrambling from one patient to the next on my hometown’s central green. These overdoses are better characterized as poisonings. The victims were exposed to tainted synthetic marijuana laced with Fubinaca, a powerful synthetic drug that mimics the effects of cannabis but is far more potent. The problem has reached epidemic proportions because amateur chemists here and abroad find it easy to manufacture a host of deadly synthetics. Established approaches to drug-law enforcement are inadequate to deal with this flood onto the illegal marketplace. As Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said: “We need new tactics to address synthetics.” One option to consider: drug exchanges. If needle exchanges can purge dangerous delivery devices from our streets, why not use a drug-exchange program to vacuum up the dangerous drugs themselves? State lawmakers should authorize public-health officials responding to the next tainted synthetic marijuana health emergency to trade cash or even marijuana for K2 — at least in states where recreational marijuana use is legal. The current public-health approach is to get the word out that a bad batch of drugs is being sold in the area in the hope that drug purchasers will throw away their potentially tainted product. But the news from New Haven suggests that asking dealers and people with substance-use disorders to throw away their stash is sometimes too big an ask. The New Haven Register reported that several of the people who received initial treatment for the tainted K2 returned to the green wearing their hospital bracelets and overdosed again — some more than once. Clearly, the demand for drugs persists even in the face of public-health warnings. Instead of asking addicts to give up probabilistically untainted drugs for nothing, public-health officials might, for a short time, offer people to trade for some mixture of money and pot. Some of the New Haven victims would probably have turned down such offers as they actively sought the more powerful effect of Fubinaca. But possessors who mistakenly bought the tainted K2, and dealers who were reluctant to throw away their inventory, might be more likely to make a swap. Fear of adulteration has never been greater; even seemingly organic buds can be sprayed with deadly enhancements. Student groups at several universities have


Alibaba’s Jack Ma, China’s richest man, to retire and focus on educational philanthropy

under his guidance, the Alibaba Group has become one of China's largest technology conglomerates. Often compared to Amazon.com, Alibaba's parent company has e-commerce, online payment, banking, entertainment and cloud computing businesses. It also hold stakes in several Chinese media companies, including the microblogging site Weibo. (Amazon.com chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos is the owner of The Washington Post.) Alibaba reported roughly $40 billion in revenue last year. In its most recent quarter, it reported about $10 million in e-commerce revenue. The company reported that its annual active customer base hit 524 million. Ma was Alibaba's chief executive until 2013, when he stepped down to become chairman. He founded the Jack Ma Foundation, a philanthropic organization devoted to education, in 2014. But he has remained very involved in the company he founded. When Alibaba debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014, Ma was on the podium to ring the opening bell. Shares of Alibaba fell more than 2 percent in after-hours trading on reports of his retirement. It's very unusual for a Chinese executive to retire so young. But Ma on Thursday told Bloomberg TV that he was mulling an early retirement similar to Bill Gates's early exit from Microsoft. When asked whether his retirement could happen as soon as this year, Ma smiled and said, “You’ll know very soon." Ma's retirement puts more distance between Alibaba and one of its most visible and charismatic spokesmen. Alibaba, while hugely successful in China, is not known as well overseas, and the company has been looking for ways to raise its global profile. Ma in July 2017 met with President Trump, part of several aggressive moves to introduce himself to the new administration as he pursued a deal to acquire the Dallas-based money transfer group MoneyGram. (That deal was blocked.) He also had dinner with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, following a solo dinner with the president's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump. Ma also helped broker a meeting of 20 U.S. and Chinese executives in July 2017, to discuss economic rifts between the two countries. Alibaba has not said who will succeed Ma as executive chairman; he will remain on its board of directors. Ma told the Times that he sees his retirement as the beginning of a new chapter. He will officially retire on Monday, which is his 54th birthday. In China, it's also a holiday known as “Teacher's Day."


ADHD numbers are rising, and scientists are trying to understand why

The number of children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has reached more than 10 percent, a significant increase during the past 20 years, according to a new study. The rise was most pronounced in minority groups, suggesting that better access to health insurance and mental-health treatment through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) may have played some role in the increase. The rate of diagnosis doubled in girls, although it was still much lower than in boys. But the researchers say they found no evidence confirming frequent complaints that the condition is overdiagnosed or misdiagnosed. The United States has significantly more instances of ADHD than other developed countries, which researchers said has led some to think Americans are overdiagnosing children. Wei Bao, the lead author of the study, said in an interview that a review of studies around the world doesn’t support that. “I don’t think overdiagnosis is the main issue,” he said. Nonetheless, those doubts persist. Stephen Hinshaw, who co-authored a 2014 book called “The ADHD Explosion: Myths, Medication, Money, and Today’s Push for Performance,” compared ADHD to depression. He said in an interview that neither condition has unequivocal biological markers, which makes it hard to determine whether a person has the condition. Symptoms of ADHD can include inattention, fidgety behavior and impulsivity. “It’s probably not a true epidemic of ADHD,” said Hinshaw, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco. “It might be an epidemic of diagnosing it.” In interpreting their results, the study’s authors tied the higher numbers to better understanding of the condition by doctors and the public, new standards for diagnosis and an increase in access to health insurance through the ACA. Because of the ACA, “some low-income families have improved access to services and referrals,” said Bao, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa College of Public Health. The study, published in JAMA Network, used data from the National Health Interview Survey, an annual federal survey of about 35,000 households. It found a steady increase in diagnoses, from about 6 percent of children between 1997 and 1998 to more than 10 percent between 2015 and 2016. Advances in medical technology also may have contributed to the increase, according to the research. Twenty years ago, preterm and low-birth-weight babies had a harder time surviving. Those factors increase