Three local bacon festivals for bacon lovers

News that health experts are revisiting the guidelines for saturated fat consumption could not have come at a better time, with three bacon-themed festivals coming up. Here's what carnivores need to know: Via ohlalamariadaniela Via Gifs From Last Night D.C. Bacon and Beer Festival Bad news, bacon lovers: This festival is already sold out. However, you can add yourself to a wait list or see if something will open up on Craigslist. The festival is a fundraiser for Food & Friends, and will feature pork from the Pig, Three Little Pigs, Cafe Saint-Ex, Boundary Road and others. The beer is by DC Brau, Dogfish Head, 3 Stars and Chocolate City, among others. Via Vibrantly Random Maryland Bacon Festival The folks at America Loves Bacon, an organization that produces pop-up bacon events around the country (talk about a dream job), are behind this downtown Baltimore bacon fest. You can take the MARC there on weekends now! Tickets, which range from $20-$70 for various admission levels, went on sale today. You get access to 30 vendors and food trucks, bars with bacon-themed cocktails, cooking demonstrations and eating competitions. Beer Bacon Music This festival dazzles with numbers. 10 bands! 50 bacon dishes! More than 100 beer varieties! And most promising of all: A two-ton all-you-can-eat bacon bar! You'll find Carnivore BBQ, North Country Smokehouse, Schlafly, Antietam Brewery and Brewer's Alley among the eats and drinks. Homebrewers can enter their beers in a competition, with the chance to win up to $6,000. Tickets range from $40-$65.


A few items that caught our attention on Wednesday: (Matthew Staver/Bloomberg) Medical marijuana research for PTSD nears federal approval: IRS says worker took home personal information on 20,000 employees: NSA presentation, via The Guardian The art of the NSA slideshow: How do you phase in phased retirement for feds? FOIA officers unhappy with House bill:


Tyber Bierhaus brings mussels and Oktoberfest beers to Bethesda

Bethesda resident to last night’s opening, and as soon as she saw where we were headed, she announced, "I don’t know why you’re going to even bother reviewing this place. It’s not going to be around long." She had a point: Tyber Bierhaus occupies an odd space on Old Georgetown Road between Wisconsin and Woodmont avenues. There are office buildings nearby, but not a ton of foot traffic. After decade-long occupant Uncle Jed’s Roadhouse closed in 2006, it’s been Gator Alley Cocktail Bar and Grill (2007-2008), Thimian Thai (2008-2009) and a Hooters wannabe called the Box (opened 2011, closed early 2013). What's on tap at Tyber Bierhaus? Check the small chalkboard hanging from each font. (Photo by Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) Can a European beer hall break the curse? Tyber is going for an indoor beer-garden vibe, with rows of picnic-style tables in the dining room and long communal wooden tables near the bar. Twenty gleaming silver taps hang over a curving bar, and chalkboards list the current selections. Beer banners and metal brewery signs hang on the manila-colored walls, and shelves are decorated with bundles of wheat. It looks like it was done on a budget, but it’s just a beer hall, right? Then you see the prices: Many of the beers cost $11 for a 16.9-ounce glass, or barely more than a pint. And for the most part, we’re talking about Paulaner, Staropramen or Weihenstephaner Hefeweissen – not rare IPAs or super-strong Belgian ales. (The hoppy Belgian Hommel Ale is $8 for one-third of a liter, or around 10 ounces, which is fair, and you’ll pay $10 for a similarly sized glass of Rodenbach sour.) You’re much better off getting Oktoberfest-style liter mugs of most beers: $15 for 33.8 ounces of Paulaner lager or $11 for half of that? It’s bizarre, and a complete no-brainer. The menu Beer in Montgomery County is expensive, thanks to the county marking-up alcohol. I get that. And bartenders told me last night that a happy hour is in the works soon. I hope some of the St. Arnold’s specials will migrate north -- $10 for a bowl of mussels and frites on a Monday night would be fantastic – but for right now, Oktoberfest-style boozing is the way to go. Tyber Bierhaus, 7525 Old Georgetown Rd., Bethesda. 240-821-6830. Tyber's dining room is filled with Oktoberfest-style tables. (Photo by Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post)


WH to unveil new methane strategy this month

White House counselor John D. Podesta said Wednesday the administration will unveil a new methane strategy soon. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) The White House plans to press ahead with more executive actions to curb greenhouse gas emissions in the coming weeks, including a government-wide strategy aimed at cutting methane emissions, according to top Obama advisers. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is about 25 times more powerful as a heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide, the largest human contributor to climate change. While it largely dissipates in a few decades and there is far less of it in the atmosphere than CO2, it continues to drive global warming and the administration has been looking at how to minimize methane emissions as natural gas production expands in the United States. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, White House counselor John D. Podesta said the administration is "in the throes of finalizing" the strategy, which involves agencies including the Interior Department, Energy Department and Environmental Protection Agency. Estimates of how much methane leaks into the atmosphere through leaky transmission pipes, flaring and other sources vary widely. Cornell University’s Robert Howarth has suggested somewhere between 3.6 percent and 7.9 percent of methane escapes during the production life cycle of shale gas; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology countered with a study saying it is just a fraction of that amount. In a wide-ranging talk with reporters about the administration's climate plans, Podesta and Obama's top science adviser, John Holdren, said they continue to see natural gas production and use as a way to curb the nation's carbon output. Holdren said the industry's methane emissions were "big enough" to be a target for reductions, but not large enough to nullify "the advantages of natural gas over goal in electricity generation" as well as the potential of gas to replace oil in the transport sector. Several leading environmental groups have recently called on the administration to commit to pursuing a fossil-free energy strategy, as well as to halting liquefied natural gas exports. Obama called both of those proposals unrealistic. "We remain committed to developing the resource and using it," Podesta said, adding later: "With all due respect to my friends in the environmental community, if they expect us to turn off the lights and go home, that's sort of an impractical suggestion." At the same time, Podesta said the administration did not plan to accelerate liquefied natural gas exports


‘The Americans’ recap: Hard on the soul

but the truth is actually worse. Rather than leaving the KGB in protest, Elizabeth burrowed into the organization that wounded her so badly, holding up her excellence as an agent and her ideological purity as both a shield to protect herself and a placard to shame her superiors. When she tells Brad that Andrew’s files were “a lot to hope for,” she’s expressing a wistfulness far beyond what Brad can possibly fathom. And in the show’s climactic moment, Elizabeth has an experience that powerfully returns her to the emotions she felt when she was raped. While trying to abduct a dissident Russian Jewish scientist who has become a powerful symbol of Soviet repression, and who could help the Americans cloak their submarines, Elizabeth is attacked from behind by one of his protectors. In the course of defending herself, she launches a ferocious counterattack, and Philip is forced to pull away from the scientist to stop her repeatedly slamming the trunk of the car on her attacker’s arm. Joel Fields, an executive producer on “The Americans,” told me the shocking scene was a reflection of the show’s approach to violence, which focuses more on the perpetrators than on the damage done to their victims’ bodies. “That was a real pivotal moment for her, and for us, and less about that guy and his arm,” he said. And series creator Joe Weisberg said it was intended as a powerful reflection on the depth of Elizabeth’s trauma. In the Rezidentura, Nina is experiencing a different kind of exposure. Oleg used his family connections to get his security clearance increased so he could have access to Nina’s reports to Arkady about her ongoing operation with Stan. Nina is afraid that Oleg is being read in at a level that will expose that she was initially spying for the FBI. Instead, he reacts in a way she doesn’t expect, by expressing sympathy for the fact that Nina is being required to use her body in a way that has an inevitable impact on her emotions. “I admire what you do. I’m being sincere,” Oleg tells her. “We’ve all been trained to use everything we have to accomplish our mission. Me too, believe it or not. . . . I know how difficult it is. That’s all I’m saying. I sympathize.” Nina does not really believe Oleg’s professions of concern, convinced that he is only interested


Obama: More talk, no action on Russia

Other than finger-wagging, the administration seems to be doing precious little in the wake of the invasion and annexation of Crimea. Vice President Biden was sent to Eastern Europe to make platitudinous promises of mutual defense. He says, “I want to make it clear: We stand resolutely with our Baltic allies in support of the Ukrainian people and against Russian aggression. As long as Russia continues on this dark path, they will face increasing political and economic isolation.” What does that even mean at this stage? The administration is not arming Ukraine to protect it from further aggression, it has yet to kick Russia out of international institutions and has made no move to flood the European market with liquefied natural gas, which would be reassuring to allies and undermine Russia’s economy. Secretary of State John Kerry. (Sang Tan/Associated Press) Biden was not alone in the empty-rhetoric sweepstakes. The New York Times reports, “The NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Wednesday that Russia’s military intervention was the ‘gravest threat’ to European security since the end of the Cold War. ‘This is a wake-up call, for the Euro-Atlantic community, for NATO and for all those committed to a Europe whole, free and at peace,’ Mr. Rasmussen said in a speech at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday afternoon.” But has President Obama woken up — this happened on his watch, after all — or is he busying himself with his NCAA Tournament bracket, Obamacare and saving the Senate? Biden promised that the United States would come to the aid of Baltic countries under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, but then we had an agreement to protect Ukraine as well. (The Budapest Memorandum will become the answer to a trivia question one day.) There is no catch phrase (“A nuclear Iran is unacceptable,” “We have Israel’s back,” “Bashar al-Assad must go”) that has meaning any longer, not with this president. The State Department spokesperson sounded like a parody of a State Department spokesperson: “Obviously, there are a range of options under consideration. I’m not going to get into what we are or aren’t considering. You saw seven government officials sanctioned just a couple of days ago. The question at this point is not if we will do more sanctions; it’s when.” How about now? The irony is that Obama has destroyed just about every liberal nostrum in the left-wing, anti-Bush


Interesting content on the new Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform blog

I recently discovered a new blog that may be of interesting to some Conspiracy readers — Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform. It was created by Doug Berman, of Sentencing Law and Policy fame, but lately it has also had a lot of great posts by my friend Alex Kreit, a law professor who literally wrote the book on the law of controlled substances. Here is an excerpt from a recent post by Alex about the restrictions on doing scientific research on Schedule I substances (like marijuana): The CSA, however, puts up the same roadblocks for studying all Schedule I substances, including those that we think hold medical promise. The only conceivable reasons for doing this are leakage concerns (ie, that substances approved for research will leak into the black market) or that the substance is so very dangerous that we need to be extra cautious when studying its medical value. Certainly neither of these are legitimate concerns when it comes to marijuana. The only people in the United States who have any trouble getting their hands on marijuana are researchers. And the health risks of marijuana are certainly no worse than many FDA approved drugs. And here is Alex on “industry”-backed ballot measures: I think the possibility of “industry” players running ballot measures is especially something to watch for. My own take is that this is unlikely in the near term (meaning 2014 or 2016), mainly because any ballot measure crafted by industry players would be more vulnerable to attacks from political opponents than one that is run by an advocacy organization (e.g., attacks like Project SAM’s “big marijuana” argument.) I suspect that this dynamic may not deter industry-created ballot measures for all that long. And we may see one or more in 2016. But if I had to guess, I would think 2018 is a more likely year for a wave of industry-created measures.


Here are the new names on the list of those being sanctioned over Russia’s moves in Crimea

President Obama announced new sanctions Evgeni Viktorovich Bushmin Vladimir Michailovich Dzhabarov Andrei Alexandrovich Fursenko Fursenko is a partner in Bank Rossiya. Sergei Ivanov. Victor Petrovich Ivanov. The ex-KGB officer is now head of the Russian anti-narcotics agency. Kozhin has been the head of the presidential property service since 2000, a job Putin held in the 1990s. Kovalchuk, known as "Putin's banker," is an old friend of the Russian president from St. Petersburg. He's a partner in Bank Rossiya. Naryshkin, right, welcomes Crimean Prime Minister in Moscow on March 7. (AP) Sergey Yevgenyevich Naryshkin. Naryshkin is speaker of the Duma, the Russian legislature. Oleg Evgenevich Panteleev. Arkady Rotenberg. Boris Rotenberg. The Rotenberg brothers are old judo friends of Putin. The AP, in the runup to the recent Olympics in Sochi, reported that a company in which Arkady owned a major interest won a dozen contracts to build highways in the area, for a total of at lest $3.4 billion. Igor Dmitrievich Sergun. Gennady Timchenko. Timchenko runs the Gunvor oil-trading firm that used to handle most of Russia's overseas sales. He also knows Putin from the St. Petersburg judo club. UPDATE: The Gunvor Group in a statement Thursday said Timchenko's shares were sold Wednesday in anticipation of potential sanctions. Putin, right, walks in Yakunin in Moscow in 2012. (AP) Vladimir Yakunin The head of Russian Railways is a big proponent of turning away from the West. Also: Bank Rossiya, formerly known as Aktsionerny Bank Russian Federation, 2 Liter A Pl. Rastrelli, St.Petersburg 191124, Russia; SWIFT/BIC ROSY RU 2P; Web site: www.abr.ru; e-mail: bank@abr.ru. Adam Taylor has a rundown of the significance of Bank Rossiya over here


7 things to do in the D.C. area on the weekend of March 21-23

The weekend’s best in nightlife, music and art. For even more, check out Nightlife Agenda. Violeta Edelman, left, and Robb Duncan opened their first Dolcezza in Georgetown in 2004. Now a chainlet with shops in Dupont Circle, Bethesda and Fairfax, Dolcezza's main hub of operations is moving to an industrial strip just behind Union Market. (Lavanya Ramanathan/The Washington Post) Friday-Sunday: Friday-Aug. 31: Friday-May 4: Friday: Saturday: Saturday: Sunday: Amsterdam Falafelshop


A spy agency used this artist’s work without permission

The classified slide featuring Roberto Campus's artwork. (The Intercept) Illustrators have gotten used to seeing their work being used without permission or attribution, especially online. But one of Roberto Campus's illustrations ended up somewhere he never expected: A top secret government document used to explain a targeted hacking system. An image of a cyborg monkey battling a robot that Campus created for a collectible trading card game ended up in a presentation about QUANTUM, a program run by the National Security Agency (NSA) and British Intelligence agency GCHQ. While the presentation originally released by the Intercept last week seems to have been drafted by the British, it is co-branded with the logo of the NSA's offensive hacking unit Tailored Access Operation (TAO) and appears to have been presented at a 2010 conference hosted at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade. Campus spent around two decades doing professional illustration work for comic books, trading card games, video games, and science fiction and fantasy novels, but now runs an online advertising company full time. He is currently based in Vermont, but was raised in Italy and became a U.S. citizen in 2006. The Switch spoke to Campus about the art that ended up in the presentation, his experience in the professional illustration field, and his reaction to recent surveillance revelations. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Andrea Peterson: How do you feel when you saw your work in classified presentations? Roberto Campus But I guess in the case of secret operations, I guess they figure they don't have to, because they figure nobody will see it. But it's a bit of a negative feeling. The other side of that I suppose is that they're the government and they're trying do something they feel is right so they feel they can take things as long as it's for internal use and not for commercial use . Again, I'm used to it. Yeah, you mentioned it sort of comes with the territory. Every illustrator that I know routinely finds out that some of their art is being put on T-shirts or mugs. Sometimes by one single person doing it for their own use, but more often than ever someone from China or Asia is actually making entire lines of products with stolen artwork. It's definitely more and more of a problem. [In response] we, as illustrators, are trying to minimize the


Why supporters of sanctions on Russia are so happy with Thursday’s list: It aims to hurt

Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, reacts during a meeting of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) during Russia Business Week in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, March 20, 2014. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg) To understand why the pro-sanctions crowd in the United States is so happy with Thursday's new list, it helps to read an op-ed by Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny published earlier Thursday in the New York Times. Navalny argued that the United States should be doing more in response to Russia's aggressive stance toward Crimea and Ukraine, and that previous sanctions announced earlier this week were simply not effective: First, although Mr. Putin’s invasion has already prompted the European Union to impose sanctions on 21 officials, and the United States on seven, most of these government figures cannot be considered influential. They do not have major assets outside Russia and are irrelevant to Mr. Putin; sanctioning them will not change Russia’s policy. After all the tough talk from Western politicians, this action is mocked in Russia and even seen as a tacit encouragement to Mr. Putin and his entourage, who seem to possess some magical immunity. Instead, the United States needed to target the "cronies who shuttle between Russia and the West," specifically Putin's "inner circle" and the "oligarchs whose media outlets parrot the regime lines." Navalny wasn't alone in his disappointment with the previous list. Many argued that the names simply weren't big enough, and that the individuals on the list didn't really have any reason to be hurt by U.S. sanctions. Even those targeted seemed unconcerned. "The only things that interest me in the U.S. are Tupac Shakur, Allen Ginsberg, and Jackson Pollock," said Vladislav Surkov, perhaps the best-known name on the list, "I don't need a visa to access their work." Bill Browder, a prominent advocate of sanctions on the Russian elite and one of the minds behind the "Magnitsky Act," was one of the many disappointed by Monday's list. "There are a lot more people needing to be sanctioned to have any psychological effect on Putin. The actual sanctions mechanism needs to go after individuals and companies who hold assets or economically benefit from those on the sanctions list," Browder wrote in an e-mail. "That would capture the Russian oligarch trustees and truly create panic among the ruling class in Russia." Thursday's list seems to have changed Browder's mind: Amazing!!"@OliverBullough: Wow, so US nationals are


Sanctions envy on the Potomac?

(Dmitry Astakhov / AFP/Getty Images) Like getting picked last for the playground kickball game, U.S. officials who were not picked for Russian sanctions must be feeling pretty slighted today. After all, if Washington is Hollywood for ugly people, then getting on Putin’s list is like making People Magazine’s “Most Beautiful.” Many of the nine who were sanctioned quickly sent out pride-filled responses and tweets with the hashtag SanctionedByPutin. The Russians on Obama’s sanctioned list, bragged too, tweeting that they weren’t bothered because they didn’t have assets abroad. House Speaker John Boehner’s office quickly sent word that he’s “proud to be included on a list of those willing to stand against Putin’s aggression.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said beforehand that he would be “honored” to be on the list, and on Wednesday lamented:” I guess this means my spring break in Siberia is off, my Gazprom stock is lost, and my secret bank account in Moscow is frozen.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, also on the list, tweeted a warning to Putin: “it’s one thing to pick on me, but I wouldn’t mess with Mary.” He’s referring to Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), also on the list, and who may deserve a five-point uptick in her reelection polls because of it. Knowing the political capital it bears, she tweeted that being on the list was “a badge of honor.” Curiously, White House aides like deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes and senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer are on the list, but not National Security Adviser Susan Rice. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) is on the list but not his equally worthy House counterpart Ed Royce (R-Calif.). Can’t help but wonder if these exclusions may be creating a bit of “sanctions envy” on the Potomac. At first glance, the Obama and Putin lists of aides and legislators might seem parallel. Russian business oligarchs like billionaires Mikhal Fridman and German Khan are left off of the U.S. list and American executives like Google CEO Larry Page or hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer aren’t included on the Russians. Still, while the lists might appear roughly proportionate in focusing on government officials, let’s not forget that neo-Soviet Russia is a kleptocracy. Washington has nothing even close to comparable.


Obama’s hand slap: That’s it for now

The Post reports President Obama speaks at the White House Thursday about the situation in Ukraine. (Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) Responding to Russia’s latest moves to formalize its annexation of Crimea, President Obama on Thursday announced new sanctions against Moscow and authorized possible future penalties against “key sectors of the Russian economy.” Russia promptly retaliated by banning nine U.S. lawmakers and officials from entering the country. The list of banned Americans includes Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and three top Obama aides, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. McCain responded sarcastically that his spring vacation in Siberia was now “off.” . . . . He said more top Russian officials will be subject to sanctions, as well as other individuals and a bank known for providing “material support” to the Russian leadership. Unfortunately, the hoopla didn’t amount to much from the administration, although any action is better than empty rhetoric. In fact, the president went out of the way to signal that he didn’t really want to punish Russia. Wrong: That should be our objective, namely to extract a heavy price and to shore up our European alliances. By enacting stringent sanctions only if Russia keeps going, the president gives too little weight to the Ukrainian invasion. (“The new executive order that Obama signed separately authorizes the Treasury, if Obama so decides in the future, to impose sanctions against additional Russian entities — which he described as constituting key sectors of the economy — in the event that Russia takes further action such as invading the rest of Ukraine.”) Even more troubling, the feckless European Union has decided to do absolutely nothing for now, afraid it might hurt its own economies. That is reason enough for us to begin exporting liquefied natural gas and stepping up support for our allies. The measures Obama takes seem so small compared with the invasion and annexation of part of a European state that one wonders if President Obama understands the gravity of the situation. Perhaps the president fears that stronger action and a re-evaluation of our defense posture and European policy would signal an admission of failure on his part. It would, but refusing to look at issues such as placement of anti-missile defense systems or to open up liquefied natural gas exports merely underscores how little our foes have


The problem with those viral ‘hot guy’ marathon selfies

Twenty-four-year-old Kelly Roberts thought of a novel way to make it through last weekend’s New York Half-Marathon. Instead of listening to music, or envisioning the finish line, or doing whatever else it is runners do during these things, Roberts took a series of selfies and posted them to Instagram — with a series of strange, “hot” men in the background. “Ladies and gents I present to you, hott guys of the nyc half,” she wrote, in a caption to go with this gem: Roberts, to her credit, seems to have a real sense of humor. She’s posted more than 1,400 Instagrams, many of them funny, open-mouthed selfies. Her hottie captions are light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek — figuratively, if not literally. And her viewers, whether on Instagram or The Huffington Post or The New York Daily News, generally greet her like some kind of conquering lady-hero: “Everything about your pictures I love!” “This is absolutely hilarious!!!” “Love this idea!!!” … really? I get it: Objectification is everywhere, and it’s empowering to see a lady doing the objectifying for once. On top of that, said lady is making funny faces. And running a half-marathon! That girl is a race-running, selfie-snapping monument to the modern woman, basically. And yet! She’s still taking surreptitious pictures of strangers, which is creepy, and rating their attractiveness, which is gross. Join me in a simple thought exercise: If Kelly Roberts were Ken Roberts, snapping pictures of spandex-clad girls, would we find this exercise half so amusing? Roberts’s photos are funny, though, because we can’t take them seriously. There is nothing threatening about a lady pointing out an attractive dude; on the contrary, women’s opinions on men, and on sexuality in general, are generally pretty easy to dismiss. That’s not “absolutely hilarious” — it’s actually kind of sad. And it’s certainly not empowering for people of any gender, regardless of what Roberts’s Instagram fans say.


Could your bank survive the zombie apocalypse?

Slow down, pal. (Astrid Riecken/The Washington Post) Don't freak out, but five years after the financial meltdown, there are still some banks that couldn't really withstand another shock. In the first of a two-part process, the Federal Reserve issued a report Thursday on the likelihood of 30 banks surviving a catastrophic downturn. The good news: Most banks would be just fine -- only one, Zions Bancorp, fell short of the minimum 5.5 percent "common equity tier 1 capital ratio," a measure of balance sheet strength. That means Zions would have trouble lending to Americans if stuff got real. The bad news: Some banks would barely make it. Seven institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, had a little above 6 percent common equity in the Fed's apocalyptic scenario -- 11.5 percent unemployment, 50 percent drop in stock prices, $366 billion in total losses on loans, 25 percent plummet in home prices. Again, don't freak out. The "stress test hypothesis" demanded more on the risk management front and incorporated higher capital requirements. In other words, the Fed made the test harder. Senior officials at the central bank stressed (pun intended) that having a low equity ratio doesn't mean a bank will definitely need a bailout, the underlying fear built into these tests. Also, the banks examined by the Fed could have a stellar plan to raise more capital to fight off the financial zombie apocalypse. And that is where part deux of this so-called stress test comes into play. Next Wednesday, the central bank will issue its ruling on whether capital plans the 30 banks have on hand to withstand calamity would suffice. This is the sexier part of this exercise because it determines whether banks can lavish their investors with excess capital in the form of dividends. To pass, banks must have loan books and security portfolios that could stand up under extreme economic duress (think: 2008 financial meltdown). In the face of that kind of tumult, the banks could manage operations, pay investors dividends and hold off on buying back shares. Eight of the biggest banks also have to show they could withstand the collapse of their trading partner, a demise that could lead to massive losses. Part deux is the equivalent of the SAT for banks, minus the number two pencils and multiple-choice answers. If they don't do well, the Fed gives them a second


Scandal recap Season 3, Episode 14: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

you happenes to me.” David finally confessed that Jake let him go and set up a fall guy to go to jail for James’s murder. I won’t apologize for shipping Dabby, but clearly this full disclosure makes them a target for Jake. Can we talk about Jake for a second? Jake, who a mere two episodes ago was Olivia’s dutiful (fake) boyfriend? It seems we’ve lost him too — he basically threatened to kill, Olivia, no? “Bad things happen to good people all the time.” Who are you and what have you done with Jake Ballard, lover of Olivia Pope and Lincoln Burger? It didn’t take long for Olivia, with some help from Huck and Abby, to figure out that Jake was the one who killed James. The fact that Jake admitted to the killings showed some compassion for Liv — it’s hard to see Rowan doing that. The final scene showed Jake comforting — B613’s version of comfort, anyway — James as he slipped away, so he wouldn’t die alone (we’ll ignore the fact that surely someone would have seen or heard something going on in the middle of the street). I can’t imagine Papa Pope doing that either. Papa Pope could barely summon the sensitivity required for a father-daughter chat. He relented after Oliiva confessed she just needed her Dad. And then he proved that maybe he should be chief White House speechwriter: “Everyone is worth saving. Even the monsters, even the demons!” If you thought Papa Pope was cold, his estranged wife makes him look like Heathcliff Huxtable. Maya “I don’t make bombs, I make money” Pope shot someone simply because he wasn’t the terrorist she expected to be meeting with. She has Adnan Salif so scared she’s running to Harrison for help. I'm trying to imagine what a fight between Mama and Papa Pope would look like? Entire empires would crumble. #Scandal Adnan wasn’t the only one with a poorly executed cry for help. After Huck discovered that Quinn had stolen intel about the Daniel Douglas murder, he paid her a little visit, admitting that he had planned to kill her, but then realized she wanted him to catch her on the safe’s camera. I don’t think anyone with even a cursory knowledge of “Scandal” is surprised that Huck and Quinn shared a kiss, but it’s a little late in the game, what with half of


How immigration reform could boost our national defense

our national security? A 2013 National Foundation for American Policy study found that as many as 70 percent of students in some key STEM university graduate programs in the United States are foreign-born. Much of the $6 billion in taxpayer money given by the National Science Foundation to STEM research in U.S. universities each year is spent on research conducted by these foreign students. And a 2012 Congressional Research Service study found that the ranks of foreign-born grad students in the United States are multiplying: In 1990 we had just over 91,000 foreign graduate students, while in 2009 we hosted almost 149,000 foreign graduate students studying in the United States. Our country is investing a significant amount of taxpayer money into foreign-born students and their research, yet once they graduate, we kick them out of the country. Meanwhile, STEM graduates who are U.S. citizens are typically drawn to Silicon Valley, big companies, start-ups or academic institutions. This leaves a huge gap in national defense, where the need for STEM expertise is arguably greatest. International defense contractor BAE’s outgoing U.S. CEO Linda Hudson recently spoke about immigration reform and the defense industry’s hiring problem. “For the most part, in defense we are not permitted to hire foreign nationals,” she said. “I cannot help but wonder if hobbling our ability to hire top scientists, mathematicians, programmers, and engineers who happen to have been born on foreign soil doesn’t carry national security risks of its own.” Hudson has been an outspoken proponent of the benefits of immigration reform, arguing for a path to citizenship for foreign students who want to stay and work in the United States. We cannot let politics block action critical to preserving our national defense. Congress must act, and do so quickly. We must encourage foreign students getting STEM graduate degrees from our best universities to stay here, providing them a quick pathway to citizenship. More, we have to establish mechanisms so these bright minds are able to get the necessary security clearance to work in the U.S. defense industry. The security and future of our nation depend on a strong military, one that leads the world in technological capability. Yet unless we open our eyes and figure out a way to utilize the talent we do have, we lack the incoming human capital to maintain our edge. It is past time for the House to pass immigration reform


Living paycheck to paycheck: It’s not just for the poor

When you hear the term "paycheck to paycheck" you probably think of low-income households struggling to make ends meet. That's even the title of a new HBO documentary highlighting the plight of America's working poor. But a new paper released at the Brookings Institution's BPEA conference Friday finds that a sizeable number of wealthy households are living paycheck to paycheck, too. "The Wealthy Hand-to-Mouth," by economists at Princeton and New York University, finds that roughly one-third of American households -- 38 million of them -- are living a paycheck-to-paycheck existence. These are families who hold little to no liquid wealth from cash, savings or checking accounts. But a staggering two-thirds of these households are not actually poor; while they resemble poor families in their lack of liquid wealth, they own substantial holdings ($50,000, on average) in illiquid assets. Because this money is locked up in things like their houses, cars and retirement accounts, they can't easily dip into it when times get tough. Demographically speaking, the wealthy hand-to-mouth are older, more educated and have substantially higher incomes than their poor counterparts. Perhaps the most striking difference is that while the poor hand-to-mouth tend to stay that way for long periods of time, wealthy-hand-to-mouth status is transient, lasting an average of only 2½ years. There's an important policy consideration here. Economic stimulus programs are typically targeted toward the poor, since they are the most likely to immediately spend cash windfalls on necessities that they'd otherwise be constrained against buying. But this study implies that wealthier hand-to-mouth households, because they face similar monthly constraints on their spending, would also respond positively to economic stimulus. The paper concludes that "in order to maximize the aggregate consumption response to fiscal stimulus payments, the payments should feature more moderate phasing out with household income."


Wonkbook: A sanctions tit-for-tat between the U.S. and Russia

Welcome to Wonkbook, Wonkblog’s morning policy news primer by Puneet Kollipara. To subscribe by e-mail, click here. Send comments, criticism or ideas to Wonkbook at Washpost dot com. To read more by the Wonkblog team, click here. (Photo by Alexei Nikolsky/EPA) Wonkbook’s Number of the Day: Wonkbook’s Chart of the Day: Wonkbook's Top 5 Stories: 1. Top story: Obama, Putin exchange sanctions Obama expands sanctions against top aides, associates of Putin over annexation of Crimea. Primary source: Explainers: The list of people Russia sanctioned in response. Steven T. Dennis. 5 tough steps Obama could take with Putin in Russia. Justin Sink, Jeremy Herb and Erik Wasson in The Hill. Was Romney right on Russia? Jaime Fuller in The Washington Post. Lawmakers take sanctions as badge of honor — but they're still stuck on Ukraine aid. House planning Ukraine aid bill without IMF reforms. Quotable: Obama targets inner circle of Putin in latest round of sanctions. Surprise! Russians reject Western sanctions as illegitimate, ineffective. But Russian stocks in New York tumbled. Well, so much for that idea: Fed custody holdings increase, damping speculation of Russian selloff. U.S. businesses mostly expressed sighs of relief. Obama's nuclear gamble on Russia. Why Europe hasn't been more aggressive. Why the U.S. bans crude oil exports. Other foreign policy reads: Corruption in Afghanistan could kill U.S. progress. Jordain Carney in National Journal. Missing airliner complicates Obama’s plans to visit and increase ties with Malaysia. David Nakamura in The Washington Post. Senators see U.S. aid to Israel staying firm despite cuts. Reuters. McFAUL: Debating Obama's weakness only makes our entire country weak. APPLEBAUM: Russia will never be like us. THE WASHINGTON POST: Obama should keep tightening the sanctions on Russia. IOFFE: These sanctions against Russia will hurt, and it's the Russian liberals who will suffer. HIRSH: After Ukraine, will U.S. become a energy superpower? KRAUTHAMMER: Obama's pathetic response to Putin's invasion of Crimea. ASH: America's challenge in Ukraine. WOLOSKY: How to sanction Russia — and why Obama's Iran-like approach won't work. Top opinion KRUGMAN: The timidity trap. RAMPELL: Income inequality isn’t about the rich. It’s about the rest of us. SOLTAS: It's OK if the economy overheats a bit. BLOOMBERG VIEW: The misguided war on Common Core. VINIK: The Great Recession's most frightening result: Jobless Americans who have given up. MATTHEW KLEIN: Fed shouldn't sweat the market reaction. 'Wheel of Fortune' interlude: 2. Why Obama can't do


Dan Coats channels David Letterman on Russia

When the Russian government handed down sanctions to several lawmakers and Obama advisers Thursday, the members of Congress included on the list seemingly couldn't hit "send" fast enough on statements mocking the fact that they had been banned from the country. David Letterman. (AP Photo/John Paul Filo, CBS) Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) was one of the first to respond, declaring that he was "disappointed that I won’t be able to go on vacation with my family in Siberia." But, within the hour, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) stole Coats's thunder when he dropped a statement that borrowed a similar Siberia quip: "I guess this means my spring break in Siberia is off, my Gazprom stock is lost, and my secret bank account in Moscow is frozen." Not to be outdone, Coats took to Twitter (okay, let's be honest: a Coats staffer took to Twitter) Friday morning and dropped a series of comical tweets further lamenting the many things the senator's ban from Russia will now keep him from doing. In the spirit of Hoosier native @Letterman, here are the top 10 things I won't be able to do since Putin banned me from Russia: 10. I won’t be able to complete my granddaughter’s Russian doll collection 9. I won’t be able to compare the Bolshoi Opera House with the Palladium in Carmel 8. I’ll never learn the Russian name for our dog Hoosier 7. I won’t be able to ski on the slushy slopes of Sochi 6. I won’t be able to buy Marsha a Russian mink coat for Christmas 5. I won’t be able to counsel Duma members on how to say no to a President 4. I’ll have to cancel my tennis match with Maria Sharapova 3. I won’t be able to compare Russiaville, IN with Russia 2. I won’t be able to see if borscht really does taste just like pork tenderloin 1. Our summer vacation in Siberia is a no go Your move, McCain.


Weird news from in and around D.C.

Looking Up: Angela Napili had just finished taking pictures of the U.S. Capitol’s Rotunda when she noticed the tour guide in red gesturing upward, just like Christopher Columbus was in John Vanderlyn’s “Landing of Columbus,” hanging behind the group. “I snapped a quick pic,” Napili says, “then the moment was gone.” (Angela Napili / For Express) FINALLY ‘Who Let the Dogs Out?’: Maryland City Finds Answer It was 81-year-old Mary Root, who lives near Havre de Grace, Md., according to Harford County police. Police jailed Root earlier this month after she failed to pay seven $75 citations for letting her dogs run unleashed a year ago, the Baltimore Sun reports. Root was released after one night in prison, when someone her family members described to The Sun as a “stranger” paid the required 10 percent of her $2,500 bail. NEW QUESTION But Who Let the Dogs in?! Southern Middle School in Lothian, Md., canceled classes earlier this month after three dogs chased a trio of deer into the school, Edgewater Patch reports. An alarm summoned Anne Arundel County Police to the school around 3:50 a.m., and officers found three deer with injuries from dog attacks. Two dogs were captured by Animal Control. The deer had to be euthanized. PARTY POINTERS They Should’ve Gone With ‘QVC vs. HSN’ Theme Instead An off-campus party thrown by a fraternity and a sorority from McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., sparked an administrative investigation last month after some called it racially insensitive, reports CBS-DC. The “CMT vs. BET” party featured women in cut-off shorts and cowboy boots and men in baggy pants and chains. Want to see your Big Pic in print and online? Upload it to the Washington Post Express Flickr pool and you just might.


Can’t I be sanctioned by Putin, too?

White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice (EPA/Justin Lane) National Security Adviser Susan Rice attended the daily White House press briefing Friday afternoon, a rare appearance that some could interpret as an attempt for Vlad’s attention – much like Cher sending herself flowers in “Clueless.” (Yes, that might be the first Loop “Clueless” reference ever.) The Loop highlighted a few notables left off Russia’s sanctions list Thursday, including Rice, who likely would have loved to join the nine chosen ones in their snarky and boastful tweets. Because nothing gives you Beltway street cred like Putin personally barring you from visiting Russia. (But seriously, why Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana? Did they just Google “senator” and “Russia” and find this?) So, Rice and her deputy Ben Rhodes (who was awarded a sanction) spoke to the White House press corps about Obama’s visit to Europe next week for a G7 meeting (usually the G8, but Russia didn’t get an invite). As if taunting Putin, Rice said Russia is becoming “increasingly isolated” and then fielded questions for nearly 30 minutes almost exclusively about the conflict with Russia. Asked if Russia’s actions in Ukraine means a reassessment of U.S.-Russia relations, Rice said simply, “Yes.” She continued that Russia’s integration into the broader international community after the Cold War was “predicated on the expectation that Russia would play by the rules…” Well, if that doesn’t get her on the sanctions list… RELATED: Who’s on Putin’s list? Americans are feeling the wrath of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has targeted the following high-profile Americans for reciprocal punishment after Washington sanctioned a group of leading Russian business members and politicians. Who’s been hit by Putin? View Photo Gallery —Americans are feeling the wrath of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has targeted the following high-profile Americans for reciprocal punishment after Washington sanctioned a group of leading Russian business members and politicians. Who’s been hit by Putin?


Former Bluejacket brewer Megan Parisi heads back to New England

Megan Parisi, we hardly knew you. Hired two years ago Megan Parisi will soon be head brewer at Wormtown Brewery in Worcester, Ma. (Photo courtesy Megan Parisi) But today she told The Post she has accepted a job at Wormtown Brewery in Worcester, Mass., not far from Cambridge Brewing Co., where Parisi was once lead brewer. She hopes to begin her new gig in June, but the start date will depend on when Wormtown installs the new brewery equipment in its forthcoming 10,000-square-foot facility. "I'm pretty much going back home," says Parisi, a Philadelphia native who has spent much of her life in the Boston area. Parisi says she talked to breweries in the D.C. market but opted for the 4-year-old Wormtown, in part because of its proven track record. "It was just the best fit for me," Parisi says. "Their plans for their growth for the future are really well thought out. . . Their whole business approach and projections are just very sound. There's not a whole lot of risk in getting involved." Plus, she added, she feels an affinity for Wormtown brewmaster Ben Roesch. "We have always had a lot of respect for one another and also know that we are essentially cut from the same cloth, in brewery terms," she noted. As she takes leave from the D.C. market, Parisi hopes "people will remember me as someone who was part of this exciting growth period," she says. "A lot of great folks are trying to spread the gospel of great beer — and not just good beer. I hope I was just a part of that." She was proud of Bluejacket's approximately 20 collaborative beers, including those with regional brewers such as Mad Fox, DC Brau , Dogfish Head and the Brewer's Art in Baltimore, among others.


US soldiers continue advisory role as Afghan troops train

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently said that Afghanistan doesn’t need U.S. troops to stay past the end of the year because his military already protects 93 percent of the country and is ready to take over entirely. The United States military continues to assist and advise the Afghan National Army in basic training. Photographer Scott Olson captures the Afghan National Army preparing to take the reins. Photos by Scott Olson/Getty Images A soldier with the Afghan National Army guards a gate at Forward Operating Base Thunder on March 23, 2014 near Gardez, Afghanistan. Soldiers with the U.S. Army and International Security Assistance Force civilians stationed advise and assist in procedures, training and operations at the base. CSM John Etter from Fort Smith, Arkansas with the U.S. Army’s 130th Engineer Brigade salutes a graduating Afghan National Army soldier while participating in a basic training graduation ceremony at the Afghan National Army Combined Fielding Center on March 18, 2014 in Kabul. The graduating soldiers are part of the ANA’s National Engineer Brigade whose soldiers are receiving training from the 130th Engineer Brigade. Afghan National Army soldiers receive first aid instruction during basic training at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Thunder on March 23, 2014 near Gardez, Afghanistan. Soldiers of the Afghan National Army’s 203rd Corps Engineering Kandak(battalion), stand in a doorway on their compound at Forward Operating Base Thunder on March 23, 2014 near Gardez, Afghanistan. LEFT: A soldier with the Afghan National Army’s (ANA) 203rd Corps Engineering Kandak(battalion) learn to use land surveying equipment at Forward Operating Base Thunder on March 23, 2014 near Gardez, Afghanistan. RIGHT: A soldier with the Afghan National Army gets tested on his knowledge of a remote operated vehicle during a robot operator, maintainer, and repair course in basic training at Forward Operation Base Thunder on March 23, 2014 near Gardez, Afghanistan. Soldiers with the U.S. Army’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division participate in a ceremony to recognize newly promoted non-commissioned Officers on Forward Operating Base Lightning on March 21, 2014 near Gardez, Afghanistan. The mission of the brigade is to advise and assist the Afghan National Army on nearby Forward Operating Base Thunder. Most U.S. troops no longer undertake combat roles in Afghanistan. LEFT: Soldiers with the Afghan National Army graduate from basic training during a ceremony at the Afghan National Army ‘s Combined Fielding Center on March 18, 2014 in Kabul, Afghanistan. RIGHT:


Ravitch: The best reason to oppose the Common Core Standards

to oppose the Common Core standards is because they violate the well-established and internationally recognized process for setting standards in a way that is transparent, that recognizes the expertise of those who must implement them, that builds on the consensus of concerned parties, and that permits appeal and revision. The reason that there is so much controversy and pushback now is that the Gates Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education were in a hurry and decided to ignore the nationally and internationally recognized rules for setting standards, and in doing so, sowed suspicion and distrust. Process matters. According to ANSI, here are the core principles for setting standards: The U.S. standardization system is based on the following set of globally accepted principles for standards development: *Transparency — Essential information regarding standardization activities is accessible to all interested parties. * Openness — Participation is open to all affected interests. * Impartiality — No one interest dominates the process or is favored over another. * Effectiveness and Relevance — Standards are relevant and effectively respond to regulatory and market needs, as well as scientific and technological developments. * Consensus — Decisions are reached through consensus among those affected. * Performance-Based — Standards are performance based (specifying essential characteristics rather than detailed designs) where possible. * Coherence — The process encourages coherence to avoid overlapping and conflicting standards. * Due Process — Standards development accords with due process so that all views are considered and appeals are possible. * Technical Assistance — Assistance is offered to developing countries in the formulation and application of standards. In addition, U.S. interests strongly agree that the process should be: * Flexible — Allowing the use of different methodologies to meet the needs of different technology and product sectors. *Timely — So that purely administrative matters do not result in a failure to meet market expectations. * Balanced — Among all affected interests. The Common Core lacks most of these qualities — especially due process, consensus among interested groups, and the right of appeal — and so cannot be considered authoritative, nor should they be considered standards. The process of creating national academic standards should be revised to accord with the essential and necessary procedural requirements of standard-setting as described by the American National Standards Institute. National standards cannot be created ex nihilo without a transparent, open, participatory consensus process that allows for appeal and revision.


Town Square | ‘Newhart’ lifestyle available for would-be innkeepers

(Courtesy of TruPlace) If “Newhart” was your favorite 1980s-era TV show, a bed and breakfast listed for sale at 114 Washington St. in Chestertown, Even if you don’t long to run your own cozy inn, this single-family home has its charms. The John L. Stam House was built in 1860 in the Gothic Revival Victorian style by architect A.J. Downing and restored by Michael and Marta Girone, who bought it in September 1999. The Girones preserved the original woodwork, hardwood flooring, mantels and ornate plaster ceiling and used period wallpaper The home can easily revert to a single-family usage. The signature elements of the house include a central tower containing The home, which sits on 1.3 acres, has 3,300 square feet of space with six bedrooms and six bathrooms and is priced at $675,000. For more information, contact realty agent Terry Stafford at Keller Williams American Premier Realty in Bel Air, Md. at 443-512-0090 office or visit www.MarylandTopAgent.com. (Courtesy of TTR Sotheby’s International) Parcel that was part of Mount Vernon Estate sells for $18.6M A parcel that formerly was a part of George Washington’s Mount Vernon sold for $18.6 million — the highest price on record in Northern Virginia, the highest sale in the history of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty and the highest in the Washington area in 2.5 years. Known as River View Estate, this 16.5-acre parcel is the largest privately held and developable piece of land that was once part of Mount Vernon. The land includes more than 380 feet of waterfront property along the Potomac River, is 10 miles from Washington River Heather Corey and Theresa Sullivan Twiford of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty‘s Alexandria office represented the sellers (Donaldson Group) Montgomery Village apartments to undergo renovations Cider Mill, an 864-unit garden-style apartment complex in Montgomery Village, was recently acquired for about $110 million The partners plan a $15 million renovation to the property. It is across the street from Lakeforest Mall, which is currently Cider Mill sits on 42 acres one mile from Interstate 270 and 1.5 miles from the Gaithersburg MACR commuter rail station. The Community amenities include a swimming pool, a fitness center, playgrounds, a car wash station, laundry facilities, picnic (Courtesy of ArciBIM) Green luxury apartment to be built in Bethesda Construction of Element 28, a luxury high-rise apartment building in Bethesda designed by R2L Architects, is set to begin in mid-2014. The building


Millennials aren’t abandoning brick-and-mortar banks

When's the last time you visited your local bank? A Bankrate.com survey released today found that one in five Americans hadn't visited their bank at all in the past year. But perhaps more surprising, fully 50 percent of Americans had been to their local branch at least once in the past 30 days. Back in 2012, the American Banking Association found that 39 percent of Americans chose online banking as their preferred means of managing their accounts, more than twice the share who favored visiting their local branch (18 percent). Statistics like this one, coupled with the rise of online banking and virtual tellers, have led many to start ringing the death knell for the traditional neighborhood bank branch. What's the point of taking your paycheck to a teller when you can simply snap a photo of it on your phone? But today's Bankrate survey suggests these claims of death have been greatly exaggerated. It also sheds some light on who is and isn't going to the bank. Perhaps predictably, Millennials are the age group least likely to have visited a bank branch in the past week, at 19 percent. But Millennials aren't abandoning banks completely, they're simply going less often - 23 percent visited a bank in the last month, and another third went some time in the last year. Banks' efforts to reach younger customers have come in for some ridicule lately. JP Morgan had to abandon an attempted Twitter chat last year after trolls hijacked the hashtag to lob withering criticism at the company. A recent report by the Carlisle and Gallagher consulting group found that a whopping 87 percent of Americans found banks' use of social media "annoying, boring or unhelpful." All this suggests that banks might best focus less on the social media shenanigans, and more on providing the core services their customers need. Americans aren't ready to give up on brick-and-mortar banking just yet. The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from March 6-9, 2014, among 1,003 U.S. adults.


How Erik Bruner-Yang won Cochon 555 by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin

Apron, Rappahannock and Toki/Maketto." He noted that Anda was practicing the "highest level of porky craft, plain and simple," while Fultineer "presented beautifully and put out my favorite bite of the day: the liver pudding over grits. That was scrapple magic." "Bruner-Yang," Hiersteiner added, "gave us food that just took you on a ride with textures and flavors and spice. The [fermented] sausage was fantastic, and that's a hard item to use to create distance from your competitors, all of whom make great sausage in their own right. I had a pretty difficult tie-break decision to make in the end, and I'm going quietly to my grave with my vote." Brandenburg wouldn't name his personal winner, either, out of respect for the chefs involved. The winning chef says he didn't maneuver far outside his comfort zone with the Cambodian and Chinese dishes he and his team prepared with a Large Black hog, an ash-colored breed with a complicated heritage that can be traced to England, China and other other parts of Europe. "We knew that our menu, no matter what we wanted to do, would end up being different. I know they invited us to be different," Bruner-Yang said after claiming victory. "We didn't want to do what people would classically do or even creative versions of classic . . . nose-to-tail dishes. We just stuck with what we knew and just tried to make as much food as we could." One of the keys to his menu, Bruner-Yang said, was to serve food hot on the pick-up for Cochon guests. "We have the pop-up at Union Market so we got to do a lot of our prep here," Bruner-Yang said. "So we kind of had a semi-home field advantage, compared to everyone who had to come and set up." For whatever reason, Lowe said Bruner-Yang's razor-close victory has been common this year at Cochon stops. "This year has been tighter than any other year," Lowe said. "We haven't had any landslides this year." Bruner-Yang will now compete for the King of Porc crown at the Grand Cochon contest in June at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. Bruner-Yang did not hide behind any masks. His menu was a mix of Cambodian and Chinese flavors. (Courtesy of Erik Bruner-Yang) The winning menu from Erik Bruner-Yang: Char Siu Bao Zhuxie Gao Sach Krark Prahok K'htih Laap Chrouk Zhu Rou Tan


Ex-Yale president to head Coursera MOOC site

role that he said began through informal conversations with Coursera leaders during his current sabbatical at Stanford University. His new position gives Coursera a high-profile leader from the established education world who may be able to take it into its second chapter with more organization and focus. It was co-founded by two academics, Daphne Koller, the Rajeev Motwani Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University and the Oswald Villard University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and Andrew Ng, an associate professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab. Levin said that the move from the established Ivy League to the new world of online learning is not as big a leap as it may seem: “It’s the dissemination of human knowledge. This was traditionally done through published books and articles, but this is a far more immediate and direct way to take what goes on in a Yale or Princeton classroom and make it accessible to a multitude of students.” He doesn’t believe online learning will replace brick-and-mortar schools but rather holds great promise for audiences who traditionally don’t have access to higher education, including workers over 30 and people in developing countries. “This is literally getting to millions of people whose lives are being enriched and whose employment opportunities are being enhanced,” he said. He has for years had an interest in online education. Yale first became involved in online education in 2000, in a partnership he helped start with Oxford and Stanford universities, but he said that the technology back then was rudimentary and not able to provide anywhere near the interactive experiences that Coursera now provides. He also helped launch Open Yale Courses in 2007, and supported an initiative to put Yale’s vast museum and library collections online for free use. Asked whether universities should give students course credit for taking a MOOC, he said he wouldn’t answer for any individual university, but he expects that some will start to do so. He himself has taken a few MOOCs, including one recently on economics, which gave him the opportunity to use a function that allows the professor to speak more rapidly than normal. He noted that if he were to take quantum physics, he would avail himself of the option for slower speech. With Levin’s ascension, Koller will become Coursera’s president, while Ng will become chairman of the board.


Artificial intelligence is the next big tech trend. Here’s why.

IBM Watson could be facing competition from other AI startups in Silicon Valley sometime soon. (Seth Wenig/AP) For more than 50 years, we’ve been hearing about the promise of artificial intelligence and intelligent machines, but most of the big success stories to date – the IBM Watsons of the world – have been the result of massive efforts by universities and corporate R&D labs rather than by emerging start-ups. That could change soon, as artificial intelligence shows signs of becoming the next big trend for tech start-ups in Silicon Valley. First of all, there’s the anecdotal evidence about deals getting done for promising new AI startups. One of the most talked about VC deals in March, for example, was a $40 million round for Vicarious FPC, an artificial intelligence company that had so much hype around it that the biggest names of the tech world – including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk (and Ashton Kutcher) – lined up to participate. And that comes just two months after Google made a monster $400 million bet on DeepMind, an AI start-up based in London. In fact, Google’s Larry Page was so concerned about keeping the DeepMind deal away from Facebook that he took a major role in leading the deal himself. There are also other signs of renewed interest around AI. Facebook recently opened up a new artificial intelligence lab, and quickly landed one of the top minds in “deep learning” in the nation. Google already had one of the smartest minds in the AI business –Ray Kurzweil – on its books, and has been making all kinds of lateral moves in fields like robotics that could benefit from AI. And, then, at this year’s TED Conference in Vancouver, one of the highlights of the event was the announcement of a new XPRIZE for the creation of an artificially intelligent robot capable of giving a TED Talk that earns a standing ovation from the crowd. So what’s changed in the past 12 months to make AI a potential hot new trend in the valley? One is the realization that the creation of a comprehensive AI solution such as IBM Watson – as amazing as it has been – may simply be too expensive to be economically viable over the long haul. Even IBM has been forced to admit that it needs to rethink how it does AI. The company wants Watson to


Mega-dams are a mega-waste of money and resources

investigate this question with the “outside view” or “reference class forecasting” based on literature on decision-making under uncertainty in psychology. We find overwhelming evidence that budgets are systematically biased below actual costs of large hydropower dams — excluding inflation, substantial debt servicing, environmental, and social costs. They checked their models: Using the largest and most reliable reference data of its kind and multilevel statistical techniques applied to large dams for the first time, we were successful in fitting parsimonious models to predict cost and schedule overruns. The outside view suggests that in most countries large hydropower dams will be too costly in absolute terms and take too long to build to deliver a positive risk-adjusted return unless suitable risk management measures outlined in this paper can be affordably provided. And here’s what they recommend: Policymakers, particularly in developing countries, are advised to prefer agile energy alternatives that can be built over shorter time horizons to energy megaprojects. . . . The problems of cost and schedule overrun are not unique to large hydropower dams. Preliminary research suggests that other large-scale power projects using nuclear, thermal, or wind production technologies face similar issues. The above graph shows some of their data. Their findings are not new — indeed, they cite a bunch of reports on cost overruns and power generation that doesn’t live up to promises. They also discuss the difference between inside and outside views. Insiders have optimistic projections (as should be no surprise given the work of Kahneman, Tversky and other psychologists over the past few decades) but, what is worse, they can use their insider expertise to suppress dissent. There’s also the question of opportunity cost, a principle of economics that is so simple yet so often forgotten: Large dams also exert an opportunity cost by consuming scarce resources that could be deployed to better uses, sinking vast amounts of land that could have yielded cash flows and jobs from agricultural, timber, or mineral resources. This all reminds me of the fallacy of the one-sided bet, in which only one side of an argument is considered. In this case, policymakers think of the benefits of a dam but put the costs on a different level: The implicit idea, I think, is that the benefits are real (energy, economic development, “jobs”) but that the costs are vague (“the environment,” or the idea that somebody somewhere might have to move).


Another African country is expected to pass an anti-gay law

Ethiopia's legislature is expected to pass a bill that would take away the president's ability to pardon people convicted under laws banning homosexual acts, the Associated Press reports. The move comes on the heels of the passage of harsh anti-gay laws in Uganda and Nigeria that drew condemnation from around the world. Same-sex acts were already illegal in Ethiopia, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. But during the Ethiopian New Year, the president often pardons thousands of prisoners, the AP said. The new law, endorsed last week by the Cabinet, would take away his ability to pardon people convicted under anti-homosexuality laws. When Uganda enacted its law last month, the Ethiopian minister for women, children and youth affairs sent out a tweet that seemed to criticize it. Subsequent tweets disowned the sentiment, and her Twitter account is no longer active. This map shows gay rights laws around the world, including the 10 countries where homosexuality may be punishable by death:


Reminder: Savor tickets go on sale Wednesday at noon

After a one-year hiatus, the Savor Craft Beer Festival returns to the National Building Museum on May 9 and 10. (The 2013 festival was held in New York City while the traveling Craft Brewers Conference spent the week in D.C.) Savor is the ultimate event for craft beer lovers, with unlimited samples of ales and lagers from 76 different American breweries, and a chance to hobnob with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, Garrett Oliver of the Brooklyn Brewery and other hophead celebrities. Drinks at the 2011 Savor Craft Beer Festival. (Photo by Eddie Arrossi/Courtesy of SAVOR) The cost is $135 per night, or $155 if you want to attend a one-hour "Grand Tasting" salon. Salons must be purchased when you buy the main ticket, so make sure you browse the options -- from barrel-aging beer with Sam Adams founder Jim Koch, to an introduction to new experimental hop strains with brewers from Schlafly -- in advance. Tickets go on sale to the general public Wednesday at noon, following a pre-sale to members of the Brewers Association and American Homebrew Association. The Brewers Association, which organizes Savor, won't say how many tickets they expect to be available, but note that the 2012 event at the National Building Museum sold out in less than 30 minutes. In other words, be on Savor's Ticketmaster site early tomorrow. • Read: Greg Kitsock's recap of the 2012 Savor Craft Beer Festival • More ideas: Local spring beer festivals


Is the CFPB about to break the payday lending business model?

to the average $430 loan size. "The policy response now has to be either eliminate that product altogether, or require it to be a more affordable installment loans." Bourke favors the latter option: Require lenders to take into account a borrower's ability to repay the loan over a longer period of time, with monthly payments not to exceed 5 percent of a customer's income. That, along with other fixes like making sure that fees are assessed across the life of the loan rather than up front, would decrease the likelihood that borrowers would need to take out new loans just to pay off the old ones. Now, the installment loan plan wouldn't leave the industry untouched. When Colorado mandated something similar, Pew found that half of the storefront payday lenders closed up shop. But actual lending didn't decrease that much, since most people found alternative locations. That illustrates a really important point about the small dollar loan industry: As a Fed study last year showed, barriers to entry have been so low that new shops have flooded the market, scraping by issuing an average of 15 loans per day. They have to charge high interest rates because they have to maintain the high fixed costs of brick and mortar locations -- according to Pew, 60 percent of their revenue goes into overhead, and only 16 percent to profit (still quite a healthy margin). If they were forced to consolidate, they could offer safer products and still make tons of money. (Pew Charitable Trusts) Meanwhile, there's another player in the mix here: Regular banks, which got out of the payday lending business a few months ago in response to guidance from other regulators. With the benefits of diversification and scale, they're able to offer small-dollar loans at lower rates, and so are better equipped to compete in the market under whatever conditions the CFPB might impose. It's true, these changes could result in a serious retrenchment for storefront payday lenders. Many, many small businesses would not survive, which is why groups like the CFSAA have instead asked the CFPB to simply codify its best practices into law — they prevent the worst abuses, but still allow a fairly inefficient industry to maintain the status quo. If Cordray's remarks are any indication, that's not in the cards. * Updated to reflect that the Dodd-Frank Act prohibits the CFPB from imposing usury caps.


In space, no one can hear you bicker: Russians and Americans blast off together

Carrying two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut, a Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off this morning in Kazakhstan for the International Space Station. AP reports that an engine snag had delayed the spacecraft’s arrival at the International Space Station until Thursday. But the crew — which includes cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson — is in no danger. The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-12M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 26, 2014. The Russian rocket carries U.S. astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) Russian Soyuz-FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft lifts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome on March 26, 2014. LEFT: (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) RIGHT: (VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images) Debris scatters from the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday March 26th, 2014. (VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images) A long exposure picture shows the rocket blasting off over an antenna at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 26, 2014. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) People watch as the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft blasts off from its launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome on March 26, 2014. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)


Anthony Marra among Anisfield-Wolf award winners

(Courtesy of Hogarth) Less than two weeks after accepting the “first novel” prize from the National Book Critics Circle, Washington-native Anthony Marra is among the winners of the Anisfield-Wolf awards. Presented each year by the Cleveland Foundation, the Anisfield-Wolf awards honor literature that “confronts racism and examines diversity. Marra, who now teaches at Stanford University, won the fiction prize for his debut novel, “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena,” which was also one of The Washington Post’ s top-10 books for 2013. (He is expected back in Washington on May 11 to accept the first Carla Furstenberg Cohen Literary Prize at Politics & Prose Bookstore.) The other Anisfield-Wolf winners are: Poetry: “The Big Smoke,” by Adrian Matejka, who teaches at Indiana University in Bloomington. This collection, which was also a finalist for a 2013 National Book Award, is about Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight world champion. In her Washington Post review last fall, Elizabeth Lund wrote, “This is a rich, sometimes disturbing portrait of a fascinating, flawed and complex man.” Nonfiction: “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel,” by Ari Shavit, a columnist for Jerusalem’s daily newspaper Haaretz. Last December, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen called Shavit’s work an “anguished . . .virtuous book that exhumes the dream of Zionism — and also its success.” At a ceremony at the Ohio Theatre in Cleveland on Sept. 11, Shavit will receive $10,000, and Matejka and Marra will receive $5,000 each. The Cleveland foundation also announced two lifetime achievement awards today for Sir Wilson Harris, a Guyanese writer who lives outside London, and for George Lamming, a Caribbean writer who lives in Barbados. In a statement released this morning, Henry Louis Gates Jr., who chairs the jury, said, “The 2014 Anisfield-Wolf winners are exemplars who broaden our vision of race and diversity.” The Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize was established in 1935 by a Cleveland poet named Edith Anisfield Wolf. The Cleveland Foundation, a philanthropic organization with almost $2 billion in assets, has administered the Anisfield-Wolf prize since 1963. Rita Dove, Joyce Carol Oates, Steven Pinker and Simon Schama serve on the jury panel. (Schama will be at the Author Series at the Hay Adams hotel near the White House on Thursday, March 27. For tickets call 202-638-6600.) For more information about the awards and the Cleveland Foundation, visit www.Anisfield-Wolf.org.


Whole Foods to launch monthly market serving Anacostia, Congress Heights

has four stores in D.C. already and is aggressively opening new ones in the area, having announced plans for Riverdale, H Street Northeast and the area near the Nationals Ballpark, as well as pursuing stores in Tysons Corner and at the former Walter Reed Army Hospital. At St. Elizabeths, Whole Foods employees plan to sell products from a food pavilion the District built to gin up interest in redeveloping the site. In addition to foods like organic kale and vegetable broth, Allshouse said employees would provide recipes and nutritional information to customers looking to for healthier meals. “We thought that we would bring obviously fresh produce…We thought of an organic pear and some organic apples. And then we thought some meat, so some whole chickens and some chicken breasts. And then whole fish,” he said. For all its popularity among shoppers looking for organic and natural foods, Whole Foods isn’t known as a place for bargain shopping, and will be selling its products at regular prices among neighborhoods where poverty and unemployment rates are among the highest in the city. “We’ve worked diligently to increase our discount offerings as well as our higher foodie offerings, so I think we have a full range of choices,” Allshouse said. “Sure the chicken breast we’re selling has never been given antibiotics and has an animal welfare rating. It’s still $4.99 a pound. If you went anywhere in Washington and want an all natural chicken, it’s at least $4.99 a pound….that is very competitive to what people are paying in the marketplace.” “I think people will be pleasantly surprised,” he added. “Because they’ve been hearing we’re expensive, we’re expensive, but they’re getting a can of beans for 89 cents, they’re going to get vegetable broth for $1.99….they’re going to be able to feed their family for under 10 bucks.” Gray is locked in a tight battle to win re-election, with the Democratic primary approaching April 1. The mayor is also expected to propose opening a $300 million hospital on the campus, a surprise idea that has not previously been part of planning discussions. Allshouse said the announcement from Whole Foods had nothing to do with politics. “This is what we do every day. We don’t do it in election years. We don’t do it in just Aprils and Novembers. This is what our higher purpose is,” he said. Follow Jonathan O’Connell on Twitter: @oconnellpostbiz


Payday loans aren’t the problem. The problem is poverty.

In all the discussion about how to regulate small-dollar loans -- how to preserve access to short-term credit, while protecting consumers from falling into cycles of debt -- one very important element is getting lost. No person should be living so close to the financial brink that he or she has to borrow against future wages just to pay the bills. This is not the kind of debt people take on to improve their earning potential, like a business or student loan. This is the kind of debt people take on because their tanks have hit empty, and there's nowhere else to turn. And more people are finding themselves in that situation more often these days. Here are three things that have happened in conjunction in America over the past decade: Debt loads have increased. Real earnings have stagnated. And payday lending has exploded -- while storefronts have declined from a high of 22,000 in 2007 to about 18,000 today, online lending has tripled in volume, to almost equal the $5 billion that flows through brick and mortar establishments. Debt loads have come down, but are still elevated. (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) Wages have actually sunk for the bottom 20 percent (Economic Policy Institute) The first two bear some relation to each other. Over the past half century, we've replaced healthy wages with robust access to credit: Even if you weren't earning much, you could at least borrow enough to make it feel like you were. While that problem has started to subside after the housing bubble burst, debt loads remain much higher than they were a decade ago, real earnings haven't caught up, and the U.S. personal savings rate remains half what it was in the 1960s and 1970s. That's meant that the average American has very little financial leeway when something unpredictable happens -- or if he or she just needs to scrape together enough money to pay monthly expenses, which the Pew Charitable Trusts found was the biggest reason people use payday loans. And these aren't the poorest of the poor. These are people who actually have an income stream -- it's just too small to build up a cushion, and since they may have defaulted on some of that credit they took on earlier, they don't qualify for traditional loans. Now, the paycheck-to-paycheck crowd includes 38 million Americans who are sitting on some wealth,


CNN’s MH370 coverage: Funniest moment yet!

There have been moments of idiocy in CNN’s otherwise very solid coverage of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. There was the time, for instance, when Don Lemon talked about black holes and the time Don Lemon inquired about a “supernatural” explanation. Here’s another candidate for the lowlight reel: In the waning minutes of today’s edition of “Wolf” with host Wolf Blitzer, Ryan Abernathey, an assistant professor at Columbia University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, furnished expert commentary on the difficult circumstances of the search for MH370 debris in the southern Indian Ocean. Noting that winter is coming on fast in the Southern Hemisphere, Abernathey warned of severe storms and conditions that could move objects 20 or 30 miles in one day. After Blitzer mentioned the 122 pieces of debris spotted in the water, Abernathey struck an optimistic tone: “So far the evidence seems to be consistent that this very well could be the plane debris.” Blitzer wanted to probe more on that chunk of potential news. “Why do you say that?” he asked his guest. Abernathey replied, “It’s consistent with the radar information they have, and your experts that I’ve seen on CNN say that this wreckage is consistent with a plane crash.” Brilliant: CNN on-air expert cites other CNN experts for expert opinion.


There are almost as many payday lenders as McDonald’s and Starbucks. No, really

high-cost loans to the very people who can least afford them, much like predatory mortgage lenders did in the run up to the housing crisis. All most payday lenders require is that you have a steady stream of income and a checking account. They don't weigh your credit score or ability to repay the loan based on other financial obligations. "We need ... robust consumer protections to ensure that these products are affordable and sustainable," Brown said, during the hearing on payday loans. "That means limits on costs, requirements consumers can repay their loans, products with longer repayment terms and the ability to pay down loan principal." Everything Brown called for is exactly what advocacy groups want the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to codify in regulation. It's been almost two years since the watchdog agency began supervising the payday industry, but the CFPB has yet to issue a set of long-awaited rules to govern lenders. The bureau has promised to have the rules out before the end of this year. Not everyone is on board with placing restrictions on payday lenders. Some lawmakers say further regulations will stifle innovations that could drive down the price of the loans to the benefit of consumers. They say the tougher rules would reflect the government becoming a nanny state that dictates what products are best for Americans. "God forbid we let people decide what is the most sensible thing to do in the circumstances they face," said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), during the hearing. "There is a breathtaking, underlying arrogance in the presumption by wealthy people who have never been in those circumstances that they know better than those people who make these foolish decisions and borrow money from these institutions." Toomey speaks for many Republicans, and some Democrats, who are uneasy about the prospect of the government dictating pricing (through interest rate caps) or limiting the number of payday loans Americans can take out at a time. But a new report by the CFPB raises questions about the financial implications of the lending model. The study found that over 80 percent of payday loans are rolled over or followed by another loan within 14 days, based on a study of 12 million loans in 30 states. The trouble is these borrowers are more likely to stay in debt for 11 months or longer, accruing more fees. That $15 charge to borrow $100


Evaluating faith-based prisons: a new study

but they may both have propensity scores of, say, 70%, so that they are estimated to be equally likely, ex ante, to have chosen to participate. The matching process then matches each participant to another participant with a similar propensity score; a 70% propensity participating inmate is matched with a 70% propensity non-participating inmate, even if these inmates may differ on various individual characteristics. Practitioners of propensity score matching point to certain advantages of the method over trying to match on observable variables directly. Given a participant with particular observable characteristics, it is often hard or impossible to find a non-participant with identical, or nearly identical, values of those same variables; by contrast, it is easier to match according to a single number. But propensity score matching can’t overcome the problems of selection bias in the case of faith-based prisons. To see this, suppose that there were so many non-participating prisoners that exact matching on observables was always possible; every participating inmate would be matched with a non-participant who looked exactly identical. Because these two inmates would have identical observable characteristics, they would also have identical propensity scores. Matching on propensity scores would then produce exactly the same control group as the previous set of studies, which matched on observables directly. Thus, if the direct matching studies weren’t credible, the propensity score matching studies aren’t credible either. Using the propensity score may improve the efficacy of matching, but it doesn’t alleviate the self-selection problem. More technically, the problem is that propensity score methods give the correct result if nonobservables play no role in the selection mechanism, or more precisely, if the unobserved determinants of participation play no role in ultimate success (that is, low recidivism). This assumption is quite false in the case of faith-based prison programs, where motivation to change, and possibly religiosity itself, both determine participation in the program and play a large role in whether an inmate reoffends. James Heckman and Richard Robb argue that “[t]he propensity score methodology solves a very special problem . . . that is of limited interest to social science data analysts.” Whether Heckman and Robb are right about the interest of propensity score studies in general, faith-based prison evaluation certainly seems like one area where the method doesn’t seem credible. So, while I welcome further research into faith-based prisons, I don’t think results that derive from propensity-score matching are highly credible.


No, legalizing medical marijuana doesn’t lead to crime, according to actual crime stats

In this Feb. 1, 2011 photo, Harborside Health Center employee Gerard Barber stands behind medical marijuana clone plants at Harborside Health Center in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) Opponents of medical marijuana envision all kinds of insidious ways that legalizing the drug might lead to crime. Make marijuana more accessible, and more people will use it. If more people use it, more will tumble through the weed "gateway" to cocaine, or worse. Furthermore: Once word gets out about medical dispensaries, those locations will become hotspots for criminals who now know exactly where to find prey carrying cash and drugs. Same goes for grow houses, which just invite property crime. Pondering all of these dark possibilities, it's no wonder anyone suspects mayhem in medical marijuana laws. Actual historic crime data, however, suggest there's no evidence that legalizing the drug for medicinal purposes leads to an increase in crime. In fact, states that have legalized it appear to have seen some reductions in the rates of homicide and assault. These findings come from a nationwide study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One (which is notable for the fact that no one seems to have done this crucial analysis before). Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas looked at the FBI's Uniform Crime Report data across the country between 1990 and 2006, a span during which 11 states legalized medical marijuana. Throughout this time period, crime was broadly falling throughout the United States. But a closer look at the differences between these states – and within the states that legalized the drug before and after the law's passage – further shows no noticeable local uptick among a whole suite of crimes: homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft. The robbery and burglary findings are particularly interesting, as those are the crimes we'd most likely expect to see outside of medical dispensaries. But what about the apparent declines in homicide and assault? The researchers, Robert G. Morris, Michael TenEyck, J.C. Barnes and Tomislav V. Kovandzic, caution that this may be a mere statistical artifact of their analysis. But there's also a plausible explanation: While it is important to remain cautious when interpreting these findings as evidence that MML reduces crime, these results do fall in line with recent evidence [29] and they conform to the longstanding notion that marijuana legalization may lead to a reduction in alcohol use due to


a span during which 11 states legalized medical marijuana. Throughout this time period, crime was broadly falling throughout the United States. But a closer look at the differences between these states – and within the states that legalized the drug before and after the law's passage – further shows no noticeable local uptick among a whole suite of crimes: homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft. The robbery and burglary findings are particularly interesting, as those are the crimes we'd most likely expect to see outside of medical dispensaries. But what about the apparent declines in homicide and assault? The researchers, Robert G. Morris, Michael TenEyck, J.C. Barnes and Tomislav V. Kovandzic, caution that this may be a mere statistical artifact of their analysis. But there's also a plausible explanation: While it is important to remain cautious when interpreting these findings as evidence that MML reduces crime, these results do fall in line with recent evidence [29] and they conform to the longstanding notion that marijuana legalization may lead to a reduction in alcohol use due to individuals substituting marijuana for alcohol [see generally 29, 30]. Given the relationship between alcohol and violent crime [31], it may turn out that substituting marijuana for alcohol leads to minor reductions in violent crimes that can be detected at the state level. Their analysis controlled for other potentially confounding factors: employment and poverty rates in each state, income and education levels, age and urban demographics, per-capita rates of prison inmates and police officers, as well as per-capita rates of beer consumption (per the Beer Institute). The results don't definitely prove that medical marijuana has no effect on crime (or that it might even reduce it). Maybe the researchers failed to account for some other crucial variable here, some common factor that further depressed crime in precisely these 11 states, precisely after the moment that each passed a medical marijuana law, masking the actual crime increase caused by the policy. Or, there's this interpretation, from the authors: Perhaps the more likely explanation of the current findings is that [medical marijuana] laws reflect behaviors and attitudes that have been established in those societies. If these attitudes and behaviors reflect a more tolerant populace that is less likely to infringe on one another’s personal rights, we are unlikely to expect an increase in crime and might even anticipate a slight reduction in personal crimes.


A heady history lesson with ‘Capital Beer’ author Garrett Peck

1930s-era Heurich cans are on display at the Heurich House Museum in Dupont Circle. (Heurich House Museum) Ever wonder what beer was like in Washington before DC Brau brought brewing back to the Capital in 2011? Grab a pint with local historian Garrett Peck. The beer scholar’s new book, “Capital Beer: A Heady History of Brewing in Washington, D.C.,” traces the area’s beer beginnings back to 1770, and explains why, after Prohibition, it took decades for the District to start brewing again. D.C., Alexandria and Arlington had numerous pre-Prohibition breweries. Did you uncover any you didn’t know existed while researching? Garrett Peck is a historian, beer scholar and author of “Capital Beer.” Before the Civil War, ales were most Washingtonians’ beer of choice. Lagers caught on later, because they take twice as long to brew as ales. Why did it take so long for D.C. to embrace craft brewing? But it was Prohibition that doomed local breweries. In the book, you note that around the turn of the 20th century, local breweries had the combined capacity to make 1 million barrels of beer a year, but were only producing about 250,000 barrels. How do those numbers compare to today? Visit Garrett Peck’s website for a list of his upcoming local book and beer events.


‘The Americans’ Recap: Kenny Rogers and kibbutzes

the accent in which the other man broke into Kenny Rogers’s “The Gambler” when playing drunk for a D.C. cop. But the agent is not shaken by Philip’s indictment of his tradecraft. He and the Soviet Union, he explains, share skepticism about the United States. And his argument for Israel shows a sly sense of his audience. “My kids in a communal hall. My wife works in the field with other wives. You like communism? Come to Israel. It works much better there,” he explains to his captor, offering up a vision of family that’s better integrated than Philip’s situation, where he lies to his children but is tied to his wife by profound secrets. Maybe the Mossad agent senses that in him. “I go home for Passover. I sing country-western with an accent. I hide what I do. I don’t hide who I am,” the Israeli tells the Russian at the beginning of their conversation. At the end of it, he asks Philip for his name, but then rescinds his request. “But your name isn’t your name, is it?” he muses. “Is your face your face? Are your children your children?” These are questions that have plagued Philip as long as “The Americans” has been spending time with him. That tangling up of national and personal identity is everywhere in the episode. Elizabeth, who has been using sweet Navyman Brad, tells him that she is too damaged to pursue a relationship. She fudges details and timelines, but Elizabeth is repurposing her own personal history for her national interests. Later, she plays on Martha’s personal and national interests to persuade her not to list her husband on her job application. In the Rezidentura, Arkady muses that Russians die for ideas but “Jews? They’ll die for their tribe.” Ultimately, though, he seems pleased when he hears that the Soviet Union traded the recovery of one dissident for the freedom of 1,500 Soviet Jews to leave for Israel. The bargain preserves their agent’s life and the idea of Jewish religion freedom all at once, making a different sacrifice than the one Arkady expected. And Oleg, he of the hockey tickets and the Walkman, turns out to be using his immersion in Western culture to further his rise in the Soviet bureaucracy. Having discovered why Nina is carrying on with Stan, Oleg confronts the FBI agent. “I’m a budding student of capitalism,” Oleg


Wonkbook: What you need to know about the latest health-care delay

adult workers change jobs frequently, study shows. Tom Raum in the Associated Press. Fewest Americans earning minimum wage since 2008. Eric Morath in The Wall Street Journal. Explainer: Rent prices shut out minimum-wage workers. The Huffington Post. Fire-rescue interlude: 4. Congress punts on permanent 'doc fix' Boehner says lawmakers have agreement on 'doc fix'...for now. Here's where negotiations over a permanent fix are. Er, wait a minute...maybe we don't have a deal. "Yet soon after, Reid said the deal is merely a work in progress. Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., piled on, saying he does not support a short-term fix. And on Wednesday afternoon, key House Republicans concerned with health policy said they will most likely not support Boehner’s legislation." Daniel Newhauser in Roll Call. Doctors step in, opposing short-term deal. The legislation would actually further delay Obamacare-mandated Medicaid cuts. Here's why that matters. Music performance interlude: 5. The Fed as the de facto global financial regulator? Fed gives thumbs down to five banks over capital plans. Chief among them: Citigroup. The Fed flexes its global muscle. 'Stress-test virgins' seek Fed's blessing. Aww interlude: Wonkblog roundup No, legalizing medical marijuana doesn’t lead to crime, according to actual crime stats. Emily Badger. Everything we know about how Obamacare’s March 31 deadline works. Jason Millman. There are almost as many payday lenders as McDonald’s and Starbucks. No, really. Danielle Douglas. Payday loans aren’t the problem. The problem is poverty. Lydia DePillis. Doc fix would delay Obamacare Medicaid cuts. That’s good news for non-expansion states. Jason Millman. This is who gets more time to enroll in Obamacare. Jason Millman. Poll: Most uninsured didn’t know about March Obamacare deadline. Jason Millman. Et Cetera The Democrats' new immigration strategy has some activists unhappy. Nora Caplan-Bricker in The New Republic. Student loan debt deal has a tax catch. Kelsey Snell in Politico. Cheap gas fuels chemical boom as Dow invests billions. Jack Kaskey in Bloomberg. Amid GM controversy, auto regulator has 51 people tracking 250 million vehicles. Jeff Plungis in Bloomberg. TSA calls for armed guards at airports. Ron Nixon in The New York Times. Bank of America to pay $9.3 billion to settle mortgage bond claims. Margaret Chadbourn and Aruna Viswanatha in Reuters. How Republicans are using national monuments to fight Obama. Ed O'Keefe and Juliet Eilperin in The Washington Post. Got tips, additions, or comments? Wonkbook is produced with help from Michelle Williams