Unaware he had measles, a man traveled from N.Y. to Michigan, infecting 39 people

the minivans used by virtually every family. Hatzalah members and rabbinical leaders also mobilized to search for the traveler, who was staying in a neighborhood guesthouse. When they found him a few hours later, the traveler was stunned. He told McGraw and the rabbi who found him they had to be wrong since he believed he had had the measles. “There is only one disease, and you have it,” McGraw recalled saying, as one rabbi translated into Hebrew. “He put his head down and was very emotional. I could tell from the look on his face that he was devastated. He was doing the math in his head,” counting all the people he had been in contact with, McGraw said. The traveler, as it turned out, had had hundreds of contacts with community members that health officials needed to trace. He had stayed mostly in private homes in the areas of Oak Park and Southfield. He had visited synagogues three times a day to pray and study and frequented kosher markets and pizza parlors, among 30 locations in one week. “This guy was walking around all over the community and contagious,” McGraw said. “We knew we had a really significant exposure.” Measles virus is so infectious that if an unvaccinated person walks through a room up to two hours after someone with measles has left, there’s a 90 percent chance the unvaccinated person will get sick. People can spread measles for four days before and four days after the telltale rash. Because measles is so infectious, at least 96 percent or more of a community need to be vaccinated to prevent risk of outbreak. On March 13, blood tests confirmed the traveler’s measles. The strain matched the genetic fingerprint of the New York City outbreak, McGraw said. The same day, health officials alerted the public. To get information out to the ultra-Orthodox community, health officials used its internal messaging system known as a calling post. Recorded voice messages ring on about 1,200 mobile phones. McGraw recorded a message that rabbinical leaders approved for delivery, the first of several that provided information about the disease and vaccination clinics. Over the next few weeks, Janet Snider, a pediatrician for many ultra-Orthodox families, and Gedalya Cooper, an emergency medicine doctor, both members of the Hatzalah, visited people in their homes to diagnose and test them for measles. The Council of Orthodox Rabbis of


Lawrence Cherono wins closest Boston Marathon since 1988; Worknesh Degefa dominates women’s race

A race of more than 26 miles came down to the final few agonizing yards Monday afternoon with Lawrence Cherono edging Lelisa Desisa in the closest Boston Marathon finish since 1988. On the women’s side, the finish was exactly the opposite, with Worknesh Degefa leaving no doubt as she kept her competition out of camera range for most of the race and cruised to a comfortable victory. It was the men’s race that brought drama to the 123rd running of the marathons, with a three-man battle going down to two. Nearly out of gas as the finish line loomed, Cherono and Desisa dueled with arms and legs flailing, but Cherono had just a bit more left in the tank and won in what was very nearly a photo finish. The unofficial times: Cherono of Kenya in 2:07:57, Desisa of Ethiopia in 2:07:59. Kenneth Kipkemoi, also of Kenya, faded over the final 300 yards or so and was third in 2:08:07. Scott Fauble of Flagstaff, Ariz., was the first American man across the finish line, in seventh place with a time of 2:09:09. Jared Ward, the Utah native who finished sixth in the Rio Olympics marathon, was eighth in 2:09:25. It was a gutsy finish by Cherono, who had to be helped by two race officials as he stepped gingerly to the podium for the post-race ceremony. Afterward, he said he was “so happy, so grateful” to have won. “I have never won a major marathon,” he told WBZ, “but I was determined” as the race came down to the wire. On the women’s side, Degefa, a 28-year-old Ethiopian who was running only her fourth marathon, took control of the race at about Mile 4, moving past American Sara Hall. With an unofficial winning time of 2:23:31, she easily beat 39-year-old Kenyan Edna Kiplagat, who finished second, and American Jordan Hasay, who was third. Des Linden, the American who won last year’s race, finished fifth in 2:27:00. Degefa, who came into the race with a personal record two minutes better than any other woman in the field, opened up an early lead. There were concerns that Boston’s hills might present a challenge because her previous marathons were in Dubai, but she quickly put those to rest. As she shivered after the race, Degefa told WBZ through an interpreter that she was “a little worried” at having such a large lead, “but


Meteor streaks across Washington skies late Tuesday night

A bright fireball streaked across the skies in the Washington region late Tuesday night. People throughout the District, Maryland and Virginia indicated that it seemed close to them. “Did anyone else just see the fireball in the sky in Ellicott City/Marriottsville?!!” someone asked on Twitter around 11 p.m. Many people apparently did, throughout the region. A man in the District reported “a huge bright Fireball with bright blue fire falling very close to Capitol Hill at around 11:30pm.” In a message to a reporter, Kumar Shrestha said he was certain that a search of the area might find its remnants. “It was very very close,” he said. A woman in the Arlington area exclaimed as follows in a tweet: “Guys!! That was a #FIREBALL that just came shooting through the sky- going due South along the #Potomac.” An Alexandria resident said she saw a large fireball “fall from the” sky. The American Meteor Society, a clearinghouse for fireball reports, listed a dozen from Maryland and Virginia. Reports were also received at about the same time from other parts of the country. Estimates of sighting times ranged from about 10:45 p.m. to 11:30 p. m. Eastern time. Several fireball photos were posted on Twitter feeds late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Some of the reports to the meteor society indicated that the fireball made a relatively small visual impact. The accounts classed the experience as only one on a scale of five. However, a witness in Fairfax County rated it as a three. martin.weil@washpost.com


7 places where you can buy great bread in D.C.

What separates “good” bread from mediocre? Some loaves (a sourdough boule, for example) should have a crackly crust — the kind that will scatter geometric crumbs across your cutting board as you slice into it — surrounding a slightly airy, well-hydrated crumb. Others (such as rectangular loaves of rye) fall in a small but mighty category: They’re dense, barely leavened and full of whole grains, the crust more chewy than snappy. In all cases, there should be a definite character to the flavor, due to the various wheat, grains and seeds in the mix. Depending on who you ask, you’ll hear that Washington has an exploded-sourdough-starter-size void when it comes to good bread. When Mark Furstenberg opened his first Marvelous Market bakery in 1990, it seemed revolutionary at the time — Phyllis Richman, The Washington Post’s then-restaurant critic, called it “world-class bread” — but it didn’t turn us into a city known for its savory leavened products. Bakeries opened and closed, gluten became a four-letter word and the scene didn’t rise to its potential. Nearly 30 years later, “I’m just hoping that we will become a bread city the way we’ve become a really wonderful restaurant city,” Furstenberg says. These seven spots — which include Furstenberg’s latest operation — offer bread made with care and attention, and are worth a visit. Be sure to check the individual websites for availability: Some breads are offered only on particular days. A Baked Joint Bill Chillcott leads a team of bakers who turn out loaves of country sourdough, multigrain, polenta, sesame semolina and more, some of which are available daily and others on a rotating schedule, at this Mount Vernon Square shop. They “keep things interesting with a bread of the month,” says Becca Rea-Holloway, the sales and marketing manager. Sometimes those specials prove so popular that the loaves become a menu staple, as was the case with the quinoa-turmeric, flavored with black pepper and za’atar. You can also find A Baked Joint bread at other spots around the area: It supplies loaves to Each Peach Market, Glen’s Garden Market, Organic Butcher of McLean, the Tavern from Sweetgreen and Grand Cata wine shop, plus sister stores Baked & Wired and La Betty. Be sure to try: 440 K St. NW. Open daily. Loaves $3.75 to $7.95. Bread Furst A team of seven bakers churns out dark and crusty loaves of corn rye, multigrain,


Pelosi’s warnings on Brexit and Irish peace pact trigger tense talks with British

DUBLIN — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s warnings about Brexit, the Irish peace pact and implications for U.S. trade with Britain have triggered some tense talks in private meetings between a congressional delegation and British conservatives seeking an exit from the European Union. In an address to the Irish Parliament on Wednesday, Pelosi reiterated that Congress will block any U.S. trade pact if Britain’s divorce from the European Union undermines the 1998 Northern Ireland accord that ended 30 years of deadly conflict. Pelosi (D-Calif.) had delivered the same message to British leaders during meetings in London earlier this week. “We must ensure that nothing happens in Brexit discussions that imperils the Good Friday accord, including, but not limited to the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland,” Pelosi said in a speech to mark the lower house’s centenary. “Let me be clear: if the Brexit deal undermines the Good Friday Accords, there will be no chance of a U.S.-U.K. trade agreement.” Pelosi’s tough words led to a “frank exchange of views” Tuesday between the U.S. lawmakers and members of the European Research Group, the pro-Brexit members of the British Parliament, said U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.). “It’s good to have discussions between people with honestly held opinions,” Boyle told The Washington Post on Wednesday. “There might have been one or two in the ERG who were extremely passionate and there might have been a few strong disagreements. It was a good, honest exchange, but there was no yelling or screaming.” A report in the Irish Times had characterized the encounter as “forceful and at times heated,” prompting the ERG leader, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, to suggest there were a few “snowflakes” in the meeting. “It seemed to me courteous and amiable,” Rees-Mogg said of the session in a statement to The Post. He added: “It is also wrong to say the ERG members were in any way displeased with the lunch. It was, in its way, flattering that American politicians should take such an interest in our affairs.” Boyle laughed when asked about Rees-Mogg labeling members of the congressional delegation “snowflakes.” “Look, Speaker Pelosi is one of the toughest people I know and nobody could accuse her of being a snowflake,” Boyle said. During the trip, Pelosi also met Irish President Michael Higgins and the two discussed opportunities for “deepening the long and enduring friendships” between Ireland and the


Trump vetoes resolution to end U.S. participation in Yemen’s civil war

President Trump on Tuesday vetoed a resolution that would have ended U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. The move, which had been expected, marks the second veto of Trump’s presidency. “This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future,” Trump said in a statement. The measure had passed the House on a 247-to-175 vote this month and was approved by the Senate last month with the support of seven Republicans. This month’s House vote marked the first time both chambers had acted to invoke the same war-powers resolution to end U.S. military engagement in a foreign conflict. It also represented the latest instance of Congress’s challenging Trump’s decisions as commander in chief. The veto means the United States will continue its involvement in Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, waged in the name of holding back Iran’s expansion in the region. But the Saudi-led effort, which has targeted civilian facilities and prevented aid shipments from getting to Yemenis, has been faulted by human rights organizations for exacerbating what the United Nations has deemed the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe. A senior administration official said that Trump was involved in drafting and editing the language of Tuesday’s veto statement and that he had told senators for some time he was going to issue a veto. “It should come as a surprise to nobody,” the official said. Trump viewed the Yemen vote as a rebuke of his administration after the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and urged some senators not to go along with it, according to White House and congressional aides. The CIA has concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler, ordered Khashoggi’s killing. Even so, Trump has resisted holding Mohammed responsible and has continued to embrace him and other Saudi leaders. The president has grown frustrated with Congress for some of its votes that seemed designed to admonish him, such as the decision to remove sanctions on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska — who has ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort — and the pushback against Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to secure funding for his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall. Trump’s first veto, issued last month, was of a congressional resolution disapproving of his emergency declaration. The president spent


Third measles patient confirmed in Maryland, unrelated to earlier ‘household contact’ cases

Maryland health officials confirmed Wednesday that a third person contracted measles in the Pikesville area of the state this month. The latest person to contract the disease is not connected to the previous two patients who had “household contact” with their cases, health officials said. Due to health privacy laws, officials did not release any information about the patients. However, officials released a list of three locations in Pikesville and times on April 14 that residents may have been exposed to the disease, which includes 4000 Old Court Rd., from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; Market Maven, at 1630 Reisterstown Road, from 11:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; and Seven Mile Market, at 201 Reisterstown Rd., from 12:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. State health officials said they are directly notifying people who may have been exposed at additional locations. Measles is a viral infection that is easily spread to unvaccinated people through coughing, sneezing and secretions from the mouth, according to state health officials. The virus may remain in the air for up to two hours, officials said. “It is concerning that three cases of measles have been identified in Maryland in such a short period of time,” said Deputy Secretary for Public Health Frances B. Phillips. “The measles virus can spread very easily between unvaccinated people, and there have been large outbreaks in several other areas of the country.” Phillips urged Maryland residents to ensure their families have been vaccinated for measles and other “vaccine-preventable diseases.” The first symptoms of measles include fever, runny nose and coughing, and red watery eyes, the statement said. They typically can surface up to 14 days after exposure, with a rash usually appearing on the face after the early symptoms and spreading to the rest of the body, health officials said. The three Maryland cases join the reports of up to 90 new ones recorded in the second week of April across the nation. clarence.williams@washpost.com


24 magazine covers about climate change

with plans to curb carbon emissions. But the agreement — which adds legal flesh to the bones of the 2015 Paris climate agreement — fell well short of the breakthrough that scientists say is needed to avoid the cataclysmic impacts of a warming planet. While President Trump has announced his intentions to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement, the text of the deal doesn’t allow for formal withdrawal until late 2020. In the meantime, Washington remains involved. The United States played an at-times contentious role in the recent negotiations, with its officials rankling fellow delegates by initially refusing to accept a landmark climate report and later putting on a presentation touting the virtues of fossil fuels. But fellow negotiators said the United States was mostly notable for its absence. “The U.S. was the driving force in the run-up to Paris. Once they decide to no longer be a part of the agreement, they can’t be a driver,” said Jochen Flasbarth, a top German delegate. Read the original story. De-Bugged Why are huge numbers of insects disappearing? By Ben Guarino Illustration by Isabelle Cardinal Insects around the world are in a crisis, according to a small but growing number of long-term studies showing dramatic declines in invertebrate populations. One report suggests that the problem is more widespread than scientists realized. Huge numbers of bugs have been lost in a pristine national forest in Puerto Rico, a study published in October found. The forest’s insect-eating animals went missing, too, the study authors said, though other scientists who recently reviewed the report disputed this. In 2014, a team of biologists estimated that, in the past 35 years, the abundance of invertebrates such as beetles and bees had decreased by 45 percent. A 2017 study showed a 76 percent decrease in flying insects in the past few decades in German nature preserves. The October report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that this loss of insect abundance extends to the Americas. The study’s authors implicate climate change in the loss of tropical invertebrates — moths, butterflies, grasshoppers and spiders. “Everything is dropping,” said study author Bradford Lister, a biologist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Read the original story. The drinking supplies of islands are imperiled. So is their very existence. By Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis Photo by Hugh Kretschmer More than a thousand low-lying


24 magazine covers about climate change

the original story. The Lake That Bubbled A major methane leak is a very bad sign By Chris Mooney Video by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post Katey Walter Anthony has studied some 300 lakes across the tundras of the Arctic. But sitting on the mucky shore of her latest discovery, the Arctic expert said she’d never seen a lake like this one. Set against the austere peaks of the Western Brooks Range, the lake, about 20 football fields in size, looked as if it were boiling. Its waters hissed, bubbled and popped as a powerful greenhouse gas escaped from the lake bed. Some bubbles grew as big as grapefruits, visibly lifting the water’s surface several inches and carrying up bits of mud from below. This was methane. As the permafrost thaws across the fast-warming Arctic, it releases carbon dioxide, the top planet-warming greenhouse gas, from the soil into the air. Sometimes, that thaw spurs the growth of lakes in the soft, sunken ground, and these deep-thawing bodies of water tend to unleash the harder-hitting methane gas. But not this much of it. This lake, which Walter Anthony dubbed Esieh Lake, looked different. And the volume of gas wafting from it could deliver the climate system another blow if lakes like this turn out to be widespread. Read the original story. Category Six? Hurricanes are going to get worse. And we might need a new way to label them. By Chris Mooney Photo by Dennis Hallinan/Alamy In little more than a day, 2018’s Hurricane Florence exploded in strength, jumping from a Category 1 to a Category 4 behemoth with 140 mph winds. This process — hurricanes intensifying fast — is both extremely dangerous and poorly understood. But a new study shows that as the climate continues to warm, storms will do it faster and more often, and in some extreme cases, grow so powerful that they might arguably be labeled “Category 6.” The study draws on enhanced computer power to achieve something that until now has been very difficult — capturing a reasonable representation of hurricanes in a global climate change model that simulates both the atmosphere and the oceans. Dividing the globe up into squares roughly 16 miles by 16 miles in size, researchers were able to simulate Category 4 and 5 storms, and where they currently occur around the globe — not perfectly, but in a way that was broadly


World Health Organization says measles cases up 300 percent in 2019

Measles cases increased 300 percent worldwide in the first three months of 2019 compared to the first three months in 2018, according to the World Health Organization. The 2019 increase "follows consecutive increases over the past two years,” according to a World Health Organization statement, which added, “While this data is provisional and not yet complete, it indicates a clear trend. Many countries are in the midst of sizeable measles outbreaks, with all regions of the world experiencing sustained rises in cases.” Measles is preventable by vaccine — but vaccination rates are declining. In part, that’s due to supply problems. In Madagascar, for example, infrastructure provided a challenge, contributing to a measles outbreak earlier this year. Africa had the biggest rise in measles cases — 700 percent compared to the same period in 2018. But the World Health Organization also named “vaccine hesitancy” as a top global health threat. In North America and Europe, conspiracy theories and misinformation about vaccination have also contributed to the decline. An outbreak in Ukraine, for example, was blamed in part by Alana Suprun, Ukraine’s acting minister of health, on a lack of political commitment to and public sentiment against vaccination. (In a sign of how interconnected the world and contagious diseases are, an outbreak in Israel was thought to have begun when Orthodox Jewish visitors brought the disease back from a religious trip to Uman, Ukraine.) In New York City earlier this month, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) declared an emergency and ordered mandatory vaccinations under threat of fine in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where measles cases were dramatically increasing, primarily in an ultra Orthodox Jewish community. The concept of mandatory vaccinations, or variations on that theme, are being used elsewhere, too, in an attempt to stop measles outbreaks. Italian children have been instructed not to appear at school without proof of vaccination, and Italian officials say vaccination rates have improved since the introduction of that rule. This month, the German state of Brandenburg became the first in Germany to introduce compulsory vaccination for children, amid calls for such a rule to be implemented nationwide as the number of measles cases rises. But increasing accessibility and adding requirements won’t necessarily solve the problem of measles outbreaks. According to the World Health Organization, understanding of vaccinations needs to increase if the number of measles cases is to decrease. “Responding to measles requires a range of approaches to


Consumers are buying contaminated meat, doctors’ group says in lawsuit

are naturally present in the environment as numerous studies on all types of items from foods to phones, keyboards and toothbrushes have shown. This does not mean any of those items are contaminated with feces.” A spokesman for the National Chicken Council, a trade group for the poultry industry, said USDA has “a zero-tolerance policy for fecal material entering the chiller,” referring to a large container of cold water and antimicrobial chemicals that chicken carcasses are placed in after slaughter and cleaning. This controls the growth of bacteria. “Every piece of chicken is subject to rigorous inspection by both trained company personnel and federal inspectors,” spokesman Tom Super said. The Physicians Committee filed its petition after it conducted a series of tests on chicken products purchased in grocery stories across the nation. In 2011, the group tested 120 chicken products sold by 15 grocery store chains in 10 U.S. cities for the presence of fecal bacteria. Forty-eight percent of the products tested positive, the group said. In April 2012, it tested chicken products purchased in an additional 10 grocery stores around the country: 48 percent tested positive. Then in November 2012, it tested chicken products from 10 grocery stories in Buffalo: 62 percent tested positive. “Consumers are being misled,” said Deborah Dubow Press, an attorney for the Physicians Committee, which advocates for preventive medicine through proper nutrition. “We don’t like the direction USDA is going, giving the industry more control over meat inspection. They are not doing enough to protect consumers.” Bill Marler, a prominent food-safety lawyer, said the group’s request “has merit.” Marler filed his own petition in 2009, seeking to force USDA to label five strains of E.coli as an “adulterant.” He ultimately prevailed. There are now six strains of E.coli — which is found in fecal matter — that cannot enter the marketplace in raw form. Producers must destroy it or use it in processed, cooked products. “It’s a broad brush approach; I don’t disagree with it,” said Marler, who worked with Senate and House committees in 2009 and 2010 to pass new food-safety regulations for the Food and Drug Administration. “It just says all poop in food shouldn’t be there. That isn’t an irrational point of view. If you asked most consumers whether or not there should be a ban on feces in your food most consumers would say, “That’s a really great idea.’ ” kimberly.kindy@washpost.com


Sudan and Algeria show why Jamal Khashoggi was right

Brotherhood] about their problems after the Arab Spring. He gave advice to liberals about how to connect with Islamists.” Mefreh, who runs the Committee for Justice, a Geneva-based group aimed at defending human rights activists in the Middle East, explained that the Saudi royal family saw this approach as especially threatening. Those like Khashoggi, who can bring together the religious activists and the liberals, “are very dangerous to the dictatorships. Why? Because this is exactly what they’re afraid of,” he said. “The future belongs to people who can do that. If we can manage that in Egypt, we can change the regime.” Khashoggi was not the only one to see this as a crucial task, Mefreh told me; he was merely one of the best-known. Mefreh cited former Egyptian presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh as another example of someone working toward the same end. Aboul Fotouh, an alumnus of the Muslim Brotherhood, generated considerable respect among Egyptian voters for his efforts. Under Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, however, he has spent two stints in jail and has been included on a government terrorism list. There is little evidence that Aboul Fotouh has anything to do with terrorism, but it is clear that this is a man the regime clearly does not take lightly. Before his death, Khashoggi was trying to set up several organizations to promote the cause of democracy in the region — particularly one that aimed, among other things, to provide “a counter narrative in the Arab world and the West to Arab Spring skeptics.” The events in Sudan and Algeria show that this idea lives on. We’re seeing that multitudes in the Arab world are still willing to put their lives on the line for the sake of political change. Surely they deserve whatever support we can give them. Sign up for The Washington Post Press Freedom Partnership newsletter, a curated view of the latest issues affecting press freedom worldwide through updates from The Post’s press freedom partners, and sharp commentary and analysis from Post writers, delivered monthly. Related: Read more Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression The Post’s View: Algeria shows the forces of the Arab Spring are still alive The Post’s View: What Trump should learn from the downfall of Sudan’s dictator David B. Ottaway: What Sudan’s uprisings says about the nation’s past — and the Arab world’s future


What’s in a name? The battle over alternative meat, milk and rice labeling rages on.

If you’ve had any “almond drink” lately, you might have noticed that there’s a semantics battle happening among America’s food producers, politicians and public. At its heart are the questions: How should we label products that imitate other products? Who has the right to use certain words? What do those words truly mean? Culinary innovation and the lightening of the American diet has given us an abundance of options. If we’re cutting carbohydrates, we can have cauliflower rice instead of regular rice. Folks with dairy allergies can opt for soy milk instead of dairy milk. And vegans and vegetarians — as well as people trying to scale back their meat consumption for health or the environment — have been delighted by the arrival of plant-based burgers that more closely replicate meat than veggie burgers. But legislation around the country and world aims to block newcomers from being able to use some of those words to describe their products. It’s all in service of reducing consumer confusion and protecting their businesses, say proponents of the milk and meat industries — and recently, the rice industry has joined the fight. The people who make and advocate for plant-based meats and milks, and veggie-based rices, counter that consumers aren’t buying these products because they’re confused and think they’re something else; they’re buying them because they know the products are alternatives, and these consumers want them. Here’s a briefing on the latest in the linguistic fight for your dinner plate. Rice Non-rice “rices” have proliferated in recent years, thanks to the Paleo diet, which popularized cauliflower rice. Other vegetables soon followed: Now, if you walk down the frozen aisle of a grocery store, you can buy rices made of broccoli, sweet potato, beets and butternut squash. A new form of alternative rices has popped up in recent months, too: Legume and chickpea rices are a high-protein alternative rice, from the companies Banza and RightRice. They’re made in a similar manner as chickpea pasta but cut to be rice-shaped — so they’re very similar to orzo. But in Arkansas, beginning in August, these products can no longer be called “rice.” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a bill last month that aims to protect the state’s meat and rice producers. Most of America’s domestically grown rice comes from Arkansas, and producers fear that rice alternatives will harm their businesses. “This law only affects people who want


U.S. military spending set to increase for fifth consecutive year, nearing levels during height of Iraq war

(D-Ky.), chair of the budget committee and author of the budget plan. “I don’t want as much defense spending as is in the bill. But, again, we’re involved ultimately in a three-way negotiation on the caps," Yarmuth told reporters. "We think these numbers are the ones that position us best with the Senate and the White House.” But members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, including Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), have called for the budget to devote as much funding to domestic programs as it does to the defense budget, either through boosted funding on social programs or with cuts to defense. Omar pointed out in a statement that the United States already spends more on defense than the next seven countries combined. (That was also the finding of a report by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which argues for lower deficits.) She also said the military budget funds “endless wars that damage our reputation in the world and do not make us any safer.” “Democrats need to speak to our vision instead of beginning with a compromise position,” Khanna said. “We don’t have to increase military funding in our initial offer. . . . This goes to the heart of the democratic willingness and boldness to challenge military interventionism abroad.” America’s military spending steadily climbed throughout President George W. Bush’s administration, particularly after “the surge” in 2007 dramatically increased the number of troops in Iraq. Military spending fell gradually from 2010 to 2015, as President Barack Obama sought to wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan amid the Great Recession. But defense spending rose again in 2016, the last year of the Obama administration, and has increased every year since. Overall, military spending has already increased from $586 billion in 2015 to $716 billion in 2019. Earlier this year, the Congressional Budget Office projected the United States would spend more than $7 trillion on defense over the next decade, which is in line with both the White House’s and House Democrats’ budget plans. The CBO also projects America will spend more than $40 trillion on mandatory spending programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and $7 trillion on other “nondefense” programs, such as public health programs, infrastructure investments, and education funds. There have been signs that the party’s liberal wing is willing to vote against big spending packages that increase military


Let’s build subway rail cars in the U.S.

The April 14 Metro article “Senators to Metro: No rail cars from China” stated, “No U.S. company makes subway rail cars.” The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority must not be the only one in need of rail cars in or outside the United States. With auto companies shutting plants and skilled workers being laid off, retooling for subway rail-car manufacture in the United States would be an opportunity for U.S. jobs using an infrastructure that, for the most part, is currently in place. We have the capability to shift our manufacturing and focus when a need arises, as occurred in supporting World War II efforts. Why can’t we do that in peacetime? Leslie Davies-Hilliard


The Health 202: Democrats are encouraging changes to vaccination laws as measles outbreak grows

disease stopped in 2003 because the therapy was giving infants cancer. But William writes the new treatment “appears to have completely rid the babies of their immune disorder with no side effects or complications – a result scientists have sought for decades through painstaking research and heartbreaking setbacks.” The therapy involves correcting genetic defects in the newborns’ DNA, which prompts their bodies to generate the missing parts of their immune systems. “It’s a game changer,” said pediatric immunologist Jennifer Hemall of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who was not involved in the study. “For immunologists following this disease, gene therapy has always been out there as the hope of the future. It’s exciting to see this wave of treatments actually becoming a reality.” OOF: Dozens of medical professionals, including 31 doctors, seven pharmacists, eight nurse practitioners and seven other licensed medical professionals were charged with prescribing pain killers in exchange for cash and sexual favors, our Post colleagues Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham report. The charges against medical professionals in seven states stem from the government’s largest prescription-opioid takedown and involve 32 million pain pills across 350,000 illegal prescriptions in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia, according to indictments unsealed in a Cincinnati federal court. Brian Benczkowski, an assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division said it’s the “equivalent of one opioid dose for every man, woman and child” in the region. “In a number of cases, according to the indictments, doctors across the region traded prescriptions for oxycodone and hydrocodone for sexual favors,” Sari and Scott write. “Some physicians instructed their patients to fill multiple prescriptions at different pharmacies. Prosecutors also documented how patients traveled to multiple states to see different doctors so they could collect and then fill numerous prescriptions.” They add the indictments are “part of a broader effort by the Justice Department to combat the nation’s prescription pain pill epidemic, which claimed the lives of nearly 218,000 Americans between 1999 and 2017.” OUCH: Google reportedly warned some employees in an email last week that at least one employee at the company’s headquarters in California had been diagnosed with measles, BuzzFeed News’s Stephanie M. Lee and Ryan Mac report. “We have been working with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department and they would like us to share this measles advisory, which contains information on measles, exposure risks and actions to


An Israeli flight attendant contracted measles. Officials are now urging crews to get vaccinated.

we’re now just hoping for the best.” Israeli health officials issued an alert earlier this month about a measles patient who had traveled on El Al Flight 002 on March 26 and 27 from New York to Tel Aviv. Officials told passengers and crew members to watch for symptoms and report them immediately to health-care professionals. El Al said in a statement to the Jerusalem Post that it “operates according to the Health Ministry guidelines.” "The Ministry issued precise instructions for all passengers on the flight. If you have any further questions, contact your family doctor or the Health Ministry,” the airline said. It does not appear that the patient spread the virus to others onboard. Basson said public health experts have not been able to speak with the woman because she is unconscious, but her mother told them that she had received all required childhood vaccinations, which, in the 1970s, would have included one dose of a vaccine intended to protect against measles and other childhood diseases. Israel now recommends two doses of the MMR/MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella and varicella) vaccine, but it’s not known whether the woman received the second dose. U.S. public health experts have said that one dose of the MMR vaccine is about 93 percent effective at preventing measles, an extremely contagious virus that can have serious consequences — pneumonia, hearing loss, brain damage and death. The Post’s Lena H. Sun reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends children receive two doses of the MMR vaccine — the first at 12 to 15 months of age and the second at 4 to 6 years. Sun added: Since the introduction of the measles vaccine in the 1960s, measles cases in Israel, as well as in the United States, have steadily declined. But in recent years, amid worldwide measles outbreaks and an anti-vaccine movement — sustained in part by fraudulent research that purported to show a link between autism and a preservative used in vaccines — the numbers have spiked. From March 2018 to January, more than 3,400 people have been infected with measles in Israel, the Health Ministry said. The recent outbreak there has largely affected the country’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, within which there has been more reluctance to vaccinate children, according to the Times of Israel. The United States also has been battling such outbreaks. In 2000 — almost four decades after


Fifty years later, a lifesaving technology that could have saved over 300 lives inches toward completion

Pacific freight train. The trains, weighing 1,800 tons between them, slammed into each other head-on at 84 miles an hour. The Metrolink train was split open as if by a can opener. By then, Congress already had been considering requiring some form of PTC, and the Los Angeles wreck catapulted the lawmakers into action. They passed legislation — signed into law by President George W. Bush a month later — that mandated PTC be installed on 58,000 of the nation’s 134,000 miles of railroad track, including those most heavily used by passenger rail lines. The railroad industry objected, saying it would cost billions to install computers in locomotives, put in towers along the rail bed to communicate with those computers and to train workers to use them. Once Republicans became the majority party in the Senate in 2015, the railroads were able to prevail on Congress to extend the PTC deadline by three years to 2018. “This has been mandated by Congress, but there has been delay after delay,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said in January. “Without PTC we are at risk for another PTC preventable accident.” In addition to setting Dec. 31, 2018, as the new deadline, Congress also agreed that for railroads that made “substantial progress” toward meeting that deadline, the envelope would expand for another two years until the end of 2020. The railroads warned Congress more than a year ago that most of them weren’t likely to make the 2018 deadline, and their prophecy was on the mark. Most of them made the required “substantial progress” but failed to have the PTC up and running. Ian Jefferies, president of the Association of American Railroads, said in a statement that railroads have invested $10.5 billion in PTC. “The railroads’ commitment to safety is unwavering, and this industry is proud of its accomplishments in this immense undertaking,” Jefferies said. An FRA spokesman said compliance with the December 2018 deadline is still under review and if “interim milestones” have not been met, “that would be a violation of the statutory mandate and punishable by a civil penalty.” He spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. Homendy acknowledged that some railroads didn’t meet the standards but suggested an alternative to fines. “The FRA doesn’t have to fine them,” she said. “I’m not advocating for that, because I would rather see them use their money to implement PTC.” ashley.halsey@washpost.com


‘Yes, yes, yes’: Before he became a Boston Marathon champion, he was a boy learning about sports and his own abilities in Maryland

she said. He saw them go to college, get jobs, start families — and sometimes compete on professional levels. The program also counts among its alumni Tatyana McFadden, a five-time Boston Marathon champion who, despite a fall Monday, finished second in the women’s wheelchair race. A photo Romanchuk’s family shared with me shows Daniel at about 5 years old practicing alongside McFadden in a parking lot. Herman said he and his wife weren’t able to watch the two race in Boston — and instead kept track of them through social media from their car — because they were in Virginia Beach scouting for a place to teach adaptive surfing. Kim Romanchuk, who was at the finish line when her son crossed it, said more than anything, what she wants people to see in her son’s victory is “hope in difficult circumstances.” “What can first appear impossible, or just too hard, isn’t with the help of God,” she said. “It can be not just surviving but thriving and having just an incredible life.” She was 17 weeks pregnant with her son when she and her husband learned he had spina bifida, a condition that occurs when the spine and spinal cord don’t form properly. At the time, the couple was living in Mount Airy and raising two other children who didn’t have physical disabilities. Shock was followed by an “adjustment period,” Romanchuk said, and then an acceptance of “it was just going to be a different kind of journey.” When he was younger, Daniel used braces that stretched up to his chest to walk, but traveling even short distances that way left him tired. His mother said he was 5 when he decided he only wanted to use a wheelchair, and she and her husband supported his decision. “A misconception that is widely held is that people are wheelchair-bound,” she said. “Not at all. That’s freedom. That’s your independence.” One major way her son benefited from the sports program, she said, is being able to try his skills in different areas before settling on racing. The equipment for different athletic activities can come at a high cost for children with disabilities, she said. Specialized wheelchairs are often needed and investing in one is not realistic for children who are still growing and families who are already facing many medical costs. Herman said the program tries to maintain a broad inventory, but


Instead of ‘ghosts,’ residents want housing at this former tuberculosis sanatorium

sponsored the bill after being approached by constituents eager for something to happen to the long-vacant site. “We’re optimistic that we can finally get something done here.” Glenn Dale was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011, which local leaders hoped w ould spur development. But builders expressed little interest in the site, which is just outside the Capital Beltway, nine miles from the D.C. line. Its 23 buildings, many of which are Georgian Revival in style and were built between 1933 and 1959, have deteriorated. Some are full of lead and asbestos. Residents of Glenn Dale, an unincorporated community of 13,500, say the vacant space attracts trespassers, especially around Halloween. It was declared the fourth “most haunted” place in Maryland on the Haunted Rooms website, which tracks such things. Ghost stories about the property abound. A spokeswoman for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which owns the site, declined a reporter’s request to visit, saying no one is allowed on the property. She did not respond to follow-up questions about the conditions of the site and how much its upkeep costs the agency. Nicholas Redding “Either we’re going to move forward, or if we don’t, then the condition is going to continue to slide and things are going to fall further apart,” Redding said. Prince George’s County hired the Wisconsin-based Alexander Co. to conduct a study on the Glenn Dale site, which concluded last year that the continuing-care requirement needed to be lifted to make development feasible. That study led residents to propose the legislation sponsored by Washington. “We’re tired of having an eyesore,” said Henry Wixon, president of the Glenn Dale Citizens’ Association. “Unlike in a lot of redevelopment cases, there is broad community support for this.” Wixon, who has lived in Glenn Dale since 1984, said he could envision a number of uses for the site, including housing for teachers or seniors, retail space for something such as a brewpub, or office space. He said he would be happy to have more jobs in the area, which has largely become a bedroom community. The Alexander Co., which specializes in historical preservation and adaptive reuse, might be interested in developing the Glenn Dale site, company officials said. The firm has turned the former D.C. prison complex in Lorton, Va., into a multiuse space with apartments, single-family homes, a swimming pool, and retail and commercial


Bobby Zirkin wanted to close the long-gun loophole. What happened?

WHEN THE Maryland General Assembly convened in January, there seemed to be widespread support for closing the loophole in Maryland law that required background checks for private sales of handguns but not for long guns. The issue was framed as one of simple common sense: Those prohibited from gun ownership shouldn’t be able to buy shotguns and rifles in the private market. House and Senate leaders made the matter a legislative priority. Powerful testimony was provided by families who had lost loved ones months before to a gunman wielding a shotgun at an Annapolis newspaper just miles from the State House. So why — how — did the legislature fail to take action on what had been widely described as a “no-brainer”? That is the question animating the capital after the session’s adjournment. Gun-control advocates blame Sen. Bobby Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee. “Zirkin stalled, delayed and ran out the clock on this legislation,” Andrea Chamblee, the wife of a victim in last year’s Capital Gazette mass shooting, wrote in a column for the newspaper that was highlighted in a tweet from Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts. An online petition to “hold Sen. Bobby Zirkin Accountable for Not Passing Gun Safety Legislation!” was started by Everytown for Gun Safety. Legislation to close the loophole passed both houses, and there was apparent agreement on resolving differences between the two bills, but time ran out on the last night of the session before final action could be taken. Mr. Zirkin told us criticism of him is wrong and unfair, that he supported the legislation and feels just as bad as advocates that efforts for passage were not successful. Mr. Zirkin argues there were missteps on the House side on the hectic final night of the session and there were other factors, such as a schedule shortened because of the memorial service for late House speaker Michael E. Busch. No doubt the House shares responsibility for the procedural problems on the final night, but that doesn’t explain — or excuse — why, if this bill was so important to Mr. Zirkin, he waited until the very last minute to try to get it approved. The House took early action, but the legislation sat for weeks in Mr. Zirkin’s committee, curiously delayed. Annapolis insiders say the best way to kill a bill without having to accept responsibility is to


Marty Baron keynotes the 80th annual Overseas Press Club Awards dinner

“enemies of the people,” I can think only of people who lived in service of the public’s right and need to know. I think of Anthony Shadid. Of Elizabeth Neuffer. Of the many goodhearted, dedicated people we all have worked with. I think of the sacrifices they made. There is a reason we come to events like tonight’s that goes beyond collecting prizes, as outstanding as the work truly is. It’s not just that we come together. It’s that we stand together, in a spirit of shared purpose. Competition is what gets us here. Common cause is what gives this event its true meaning. If the last several years have left our profession feeling more vilified and more pressured, they have also, in my view, left us more committed and more united. With our colleagues in this country, with our fellow journalists around the world. You could feel it in the collective fury over the savage murder in a Saudi consulate of Washington Post opinion writer Jamal Khashoggi. You could feel it years earlier at the expressions of relief when The Post’s Jason Rezaian was released on January 16, 2016, after 544 days in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, 49 nights in solitary. You can feel it in the support for the indomitable Maria Ressa, now maliciously persecuted for practicing independent journalism in the Philippines. You can feel it in the resolute support for Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, imprisoned in Myanmar for investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys. You can feel it in the continuing call for justice in the murder of Malta’s Daphne Caruana Galizia, assassinated in a 2017 car bombing as she continued her tenacious investigations into official corruption. You can feel it in how the memory of Marie Colvin of The Sunday Times is sustained years after her 2012 killing in Syria. And you can feel it in the call for Syria to account for the abduction almost seven years ago of freelancer Austin Tice and to bring about his release at long last. To be here tonight – to recite those names, to ask that we remember the many others like them, to honor your work, to recognize the inspirational daily courage of journalists, to be with you in this vital profession, to see us standing together – well, it is the greatest privilege. Thank you for the opportunity.


Fourth measles case reported in Maryland outbreak

Health officials said Friday that a fourth person in Maryland contracted measles this month. The Maryland Department of Health said the latest case is associated with exposure at a medical office building on 4000 Old Court Rd. in the Pikesville area, one of several places also linked to the third case. The agency still is investigating whether all four cases are linked. “The department has identified a link between at least three of the cases,” spokeswoman Brittany Fowler said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines three or more cases linked in time or place as an outbreak. Because of health privacy laws, officials did not release information about the patients. Officials listed three locations in Pikesville and times that people may have been exposed. They include the medical office building on Old Court Road, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 2, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. April 14 and 9:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. April 16. The potential exposure points also include Market Maven, at 1630 Reisterstown Rd., from 11:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. April 14 and Seven Mile Market, at 201 Reisterstown Rd., from 12:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. April 14. Health officials said they are directly notifying people who may have been exposed at additional locations. Measles is a viral infection that is easily spread to unvaccinated people through coughing, sneezing and secretions from the mouth, according to state health officials. The virus may remain in the air for up to two hours, officials said. Residents are urged to ensure their families have been vaccinated for measles and other “vaccine-preventable diseases.” The first symptoms of measles include a fever, a runny nose and coughing, and red watery eyes. They typically can surface up to 14 days after exposure, with a rash usually appearing on the face after the early symptoms and spreading to the rest of the body, health officials said. The Maryland cases join scores of new ones recorded recently across the nation. steve.thompson@washpost.com


Mueller’s report paints a portrait of a campaign intrigued by Russian overtures

relationships with people involved directly in Trump’s campaign — particularly through aides with their own connections to Russia. One of the first contacts came through Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who was told by London-based professor Joseph Mifsud in April 2016 that the Russians had dirt about Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, according to court documents. Mueller revealed in his report that Mifsud “maintained various Russian connections,” including with people associated with entities involved in the Russian election interference operation. The report delves deeply into the relationship between Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and figures in Russia and Ukraine with ties to Putin, revealing the extent of Manafort’s efforts to leverage his role on the campaign to get work in Eastern Europe. Immediately upon joining the Trump campaign in March 2016, Manafort instructed deputy Rick Gates to send memos announcing his appointment to four “friends” with Russia connections: three Ukrainian business titans and one Russian, the Putin ally Oleg Deripaska, the report said. Soon after, Manafort told Gates to begin sending “internal polling data” to the business executives, the report said. The man Manafort and Gates trusted to translate and disseminate the information was Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime Manafort associate assessed by the FBI to have ties to Russian intelligence, according to court documents. Gates told the special counsel he suspected Kilimnik was a “spy,” a characterization Manafort disputed. In a 2017 statement to The Washington Post, Kilimnik denied ties to Russia intelligence. That spring, Manafort briefed Kilimnik in person on the campaign. Kilimnik requested the second meeting, at a New York City cigar bar, to deliver a proposal from former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych that would guarantee Russian control over a new autonomous region in eastern Ukraine, according to Mueller. Manafort claimed he dismissed the plan as crazy, but he continued to discuss it with Kilimnik through Trump’s victory and presidency, the report said. In one email, Kilimnik wrote that with a “minor ‘wink’ (or slight push),” Trump “could have peace in Ukraine basically within a few months after inauguration.” Manafort, who was deeply in debt, told the special counsel he hoped to revive a once-lucrative consulting relationship with Deripaska and the Ukrainians. He denied bringing the peace plan to Trump or the campaign. The special counsel noted that Manafort lied repeatedly in interviews and before the grand jury about his interactions with Kilimnik, who


Teenager fatally shot inside house in Northwest Washington

A 16-year-old was fatally shot Friday afternoon inside a rowhouse in the Park View neighborhood of Northwest Washington, according to D.C. police. The shooting occurred shortly after 4 p.m. in the 700 block of Princeton Place NW, two blocks east of Georgia Avenue. The neighborhood is north of Columbia Heights. Police said the victim died shortly after arriving at a hospital. His identity was not immediately made public. D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said an officer riding a bicycle was flagged down by a person who had heard gunshots inside the home. He said police found the teenager suffering from multiple wounds. Police had a scant description of a man wearing a black mask and a black jacket. Authorities had few details. “At this point, we really don’t know what happened,” Newsham said Friday evening. The chief said it appeared the young victim lived at the residence, and that there were a few other people inside at the time. clarence.williams@washpost.com peter.hermann@washpost.com


Turkey announces arrest of 2 men on suspicion of spying for UAE

ISTANBUL — Turkey said Friday that it has detained two people suspected of spying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates and is investigating whether the suspects are connected to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, according to a statement from Turkey’s state-run news agency. The statement did not name the suspects, say when they were arrested or provide any other details about their activities. A senior Turkish official quoted by the Reuters news agency said the suspects, both men, were arrested Monday and had confessed to spying for the UAE, a regional rival to Turkey. The official said that the suspects arrived in Turkey in October and that it was “possible” they were attempting to collect information about Arab political dissidents living in the country, which has become a gathering place for exiles from the UAE and other Persian Gulf states, as well as from Syria and Egypt. The UAE’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Turkish government spokesman did not reply to a message seeking more information on the arrests. Turkey has become embroiled in a vicious dispute among the gulf monarchies that has pitted its ally, Qatar, against the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Among other complaints, Saudi and Emirati leaders have bristled at the opposing camp’s support for Islamist movements in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said Friday that the Istanbul prosecutor’s office has charged the suspects with “political and military espionage” and “international espionage.” They were expected to appear before a judge later Friday. The connection between the arrests and the Khashoggi killing, if any, is unclear. Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and contributing columnist for The Washington Post, had focused his criticism on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. A team of Saudi agents accused of killing Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 returned to Saudi Arabia on a private jet that briefly stopped in the UAE, flight records show. kareem.fahim@washpost.com


Passover holiday brings matzah — and more measles vaccine fears

one mother said the government shouldn’t have that level of control over people’s lives. “I don’t think the government should be able to tell people what to do like that,” she said. Scattering sprinkles over ice cream while sitting in a booth with padded orange seats, she said the measles are like the chickenpox, that the disease isn’t dangerous. Nobody has died from measles in the United States since 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but some children in New York City have been admitted to the intensive care unit during this outbreak. The city has identified 285 cases of measles since September, tracing the cases to unvaccinated children who traveled to Israel, where there is a large outbreak. Forty-nine of those cases were in Borough Park. Most states in the United States offer an exemption for people who oppose vaccines on religious grounds, but New York is one of many states considering ending its religious exemption for mandated school age vaccines. Those who oppose vaccines in these communities often cite examples that have nothing to do with religious beliefs. There’s often a lack of trust in the government or a concern about the safety of vaccines. Ahead of the holiday, families collected boxes of matzah and other kosher foods from Masbia Soup Kitchen. One mother in Borough Park who picked up apples there said that when her 8-year-old reacted badly to a series of shots a few years ago, she decided to stop vaccinating the younger of her nine children, who range in age from 2 to 15. The mother, who requested anonymity because she was afraid of her community’s reaction, said that she’s nervous her children could get the measles, but that she’s more nervous about vaccines. “I grew up in Switzerland and had the measles,” she said. “They made me stronger.” Another mother who was stacking frozen chickens in a box said her six children receive vaccines, but she prefers that they are delayed until the children are toddlers, around 3 years old. Most babies receive their first mumps, measles and rubella vaccine around 12 months. “You can’t live in fear,” she said, declining to provide her name. “Just keep washing your hands.” Masbia’s executive director, Alexander Rapaport, said the debate over vaccines has taken place on the fringes of his community. “There’s a pushback mentality,” among some residents when it comes to


‘Derry tonight. Absolute madness:’ Journalist killed in Northern Ireland clash

in 2019. We condemn it wholeheartedly.” Foster made the comments during a symbolically important first visit to the nationalist neighborhood, where she was warmly welcomed by a crowd of hundreds who gathered for a vigil. McKee wrote a book about the “cold case” IRA killing of Robert Bradford, a politician from south Belfast, and was working on another about young people who disappeared during the Troubles. She first gained attention for a blog post and subsequent short film, “Letter to my 14-year-old self,” describing her experience coming out as gay to her friends, family and especially her mother. “Instead of getting mad, she will reply, ‘Thank God you’re not pregnant,’ ” McKee assured her younger self. “You will crawl in her lap, sobbing, as she holds you and tells you that you are her little girl, and how could you ever think that anything would make her love you any less. You will feel like a prisoner who has been given their freedom.” McKee was named Sky News’s young journalist of the year in 2006, and Forbes magazine identified her as one of their 30 under 30 in media in Europe in 2016. John O’Doherty, director of the Rainbow Project, an advocacy group for LGBT people in Northern Ireland, hailed McKee as “a hero” who used “her own coming-out story to empower others to live as their most authentic selves.” “To lose someone like Lyra at any age is a difficult thing to accept, but to lose her at 29 in such despicable and avoidable circumstances is devastating,” he said. McKee’s partner, Sara Canning, said during the vigil on Friday afternoon that she had lost “the love of my life and the woman I was planning to grow old with.” “Our hopes and dreams and all of her amazing potential was snuffed out by a single barbaric act,” Canning said. “This cannot stand.” There has been concern that Brexit could exacerbate conflict along the Irish border. One of the points of contention in Britain’s exit plan is how to maintain the openness and invisibility of the border once Northern Ireland has left the European Union. The Republic of Ireland will remain an E.U. member. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was in Londonderry earlier this week, stressing her message to all sides that the turmoil of Brexit should never undermine the protections offered by the U.S.-brokered Good Friday Agreement. amanda.ferguson@washpost.com william.booth@washpost.com


Four people killed after SUV crashes into utility pole in Maryland; speed was a factor, police say

The phone call woke Ikia Harris a few minutes after 4 a.m. The news was bad. A relative told her that Harris’s aunt and her cousin were among four people killed in a terrible crash in Maryland. She and her husband headed into the dark on Friday, making the 25-minute drive from their home in Alexandria, Va., to Sheriff Road in Fairmount Heights, a half-mile from the D.C. line in Prince George’s County. As they drew near, she saw what was left of a crushed Chevrolet Tahoe that had slammed into a telephone pole late Thursday and debris spread across the pavement. “We saw shoes. We saw hats. We saw socks,” Harris said through sobs in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. “We saw our loved ones’ items on the ground.” The dead included the father of her aunt’s 1-year-old son and another man. “We’re trying to take it in,” Harris said. “It’s hard. We didn’t just lose one person. Not two. We lost three people.” Police in Prince George’s identified those killed as Samuel Moss, 35; Shyra Harris, 24, Antonio Price, 27; and Jasmine Davis, 21. Moss is from Capitol Heights. Harris, Price and Davis are from District Heights. Ikia Harris said the group had been to a club to celebrate Davis’s 21st birthday, which was April 15. She described the outing as a buildup to Saturday, when Shyra Harris and Price’s son turns 2. They had planned a kids party and then an outing for the adults. Ikia Harris, 29, said her aunt — Shyra — and Price were ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene. She said her cousin, Davis, was trapped in the wreckage for two hours before firefighters could free her body. Moss died at a hospital. The crash occurred about 10:30 p.m. on Sheriff Road between Cedar Heights Drive and Cypresstree Drive. Police said the SUV was traveling west when it crossed the centerline and hit the pole. County police spokeswoman Jennifer Donelan said the driver of the Tahoe was trying to get around a car trying to make a left turn. The Tahoe flipped several times before slamming into the pole, Donelan said. “We’re looking at speed as a major contributing factor,” Donelan said Friday. The posted speed limit in the area is 40 mph. Police said that other possible factors are being investigated and that it could take weeks before toxicology


These Virginia counties are ignoring the real problem in the opioid crisis: Treatment

when combined with traditional approaches, can give individuals with opioid and other addictions a fighting chance in the desperate battle to overcome the life-threatening consequences that often ensue. Traditionalists continue to advocate an abstinence-based approach and often seek to blame pharmaceutical companies as in these lawsuits. Traditionalists see true recovery as consisting only of complete abstinence from mood-altering substances. Though this approach is consistent with that of many self-help groups and has certainly been helpful for millions of people, it has many holes. People clearly benefit from prescription medications for physical or psychiatric conditions, and others are given a pass from the abstinence mentality for their use of more societally accepted substances, such as nicotine and caffeine. Effective medications, which allow people with an opioid addiction to replace high-risk opioid use with safer, “medication-assisted” therapy or treatment, are frequently frowned upon by traditionalists who insist on an outdated, one-size-fits-all model that is inconsistent with research and developing approaches. On the other side of the debate is the medical community, supporting the use of new and promising medications that can be both lifesaving and humane. Places such as Phoenix House Mid-Atlantic, based in Arlington, are successfully incorporating approaches such as office-based opioid treatment into their treatment strategies, with much success. Medications such as suboxone and methadone allow people with an opioid-use disorder (addiction) to replace high-risk opioid use with safer, medication-assisted therapy or treatment, while naltrexone blocks the effects of opioids and can be administered either orally or via a monthly injection known as Vivitrol. Naloxone (or the brand name Narcan), which is better-known, provides a lifesaving response in the case of an overdose, reversing the opioid’s effects and saving countless lives. These approaches, however, are too frequently criticized by the abstinence community and some segments of the general public for not being a permanent solution or simply replacing one addiction with another. We even limit the number of patients that physicians approved to prescribe suboxone may have on their caseloads, an unprecedented and even unfathomable reality when one considers the scope of the opioid crisis. Of course, simply throwing medication alone at a problem of this magnitude will have only a minimal impact at best. People with the complex set of problems associated with substance-use disorders need effective, trained counselors and access to a wide variety of services to enable them to return to full health and functioning. The question,


Longtime Manafort associate Konstantin Kilimnik rejects his depiction in Mueller report

to Russian intelligence, Mueller said. The report focused on his Kilimnik’s connections to Russian and Ukrainian business tycoons and his relationship with Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign chairman until August 2016, when he resigned. The two men spoke extensively during the presidential race. Manafort briefed Kilimnik on the campaign during an in-person meeting in spring 2016 in New York, according to prosecutors. That August, during a meeting at a New York City cigar bar, Kilimnik gave Manafort a proposal from former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych that would have guaranteed Russian control over a new autonomous region in eastern Ukraine, according to Mueller. They also discussed Manafort’s strategy for winning Democratic votes in Midwestern states. Before and after the August meeting, the report said, Manafort shared internal polling data with Kilimnik through Manafort deputy Rick Gates. Gates told prosecutors he sent Kilimnik the polling data via WhatsApp and then deleted the messages, according to Manafort’s instructions, Mueller said. Gates told Mueller’s office that he believed Kilimnik was a spy, a description Manafort disputed. Manafort expected Kilimnik to share the information with others in Ukraine and with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, a onetime Manafort business partner, the report said. But Kilimnik said he did not pass along the data, which he described as “pretty much open info, not different in any way from what was discussed by the media or what one could find on RealClearPolitics or other websites followed by people interested in politics.” “I did not do anything with the polling numbers,” he added. “We were discussing out of pure interest. The whole world was watching the U.S. Presidential campaign, and if I had no interest in what was going on it would have been strange at the minimum.” According to Mueller’s report, investigators were not able to determine what Kilimnik did with the data, noting that it was among the topics about which Manafort lied to prosecutors. But the report said that multiple emails Kilimnik sent to U.S. associates and media contacts in late summer 2016 referred to “internal polling” and described the state of the Trump campaign. Kilimnik said he never had a chance to explain his interactions with Manafort because Mueller’s investigators did not contact him. “I would have told this to Mueller’s people had they reached out to me,” he said. A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment. According to court filings, Kilimnik


How long does outrage over a murder last? On Wall Street, six months.

What’s the expiration date on moral outrage over a gruesome murder? On Wall Street, at least, the answer seems to be roughly six months. Six-and-a-half months ago, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was my colleague at The Post, walked into the Saudi Consulate in Turkey to take care of some paperwork. Then he vanished. In the days and weeks that followed, the world learned that a 15-member hit team dispatched by the Saudi government had strangled the 59-year-old Khashoggi, dismembered him with a bonesaw while listening to music, and disposed of his body. The CIA would conclude that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler, had ordered the assassination. The Saudi government claims otherwise, protesting that Mohammed — while known for micromanaging far more minor affairs in the kingdom — had been totally in the dark. MBS, as the crown prince is known, was shocked (shocked!) that his thugs had not merely politely kidnapped the dissident as instructed. However upsetting Khashoggi’s death was for his grieving fiancee, children, colleagues, friends and admirers worldwide, MBS was surely more outraged than them all. After all, the murder was super inconvenient for the crown prince, at least timing-wise. Khashoggi’s assassination occurred just weeks before the splashy Future Investment Initiative forum, a “Davos in the Desert” designed to highlight Mohammed’s economic and social reforms. Persuading global business elites to attend a conference with this theme so soon after the state had murdered a high-profile champion of Saudi liberalization would be complicated. And it did look as though some of these global elites had pangs of conscience — or pangs of PR concerns, anyway. At first. International executives and public figures dropped out of “Davos in the Desert” by the dozens. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, boycotted the event, explaining that the bank “couldn’t be seen in any way condoning” the murder. Goldman Sachs said its partner who had planned to attend, former White House official Dina Powell, wouldn’t go, either. The bank’s newly minted chief executive, David Solomon, proclaimed on CNBC, “This incident is unacceptable, and clearly they have to answer questions.” Goldman continued to quietly send other, more junior people, however. So did other institutions. HSBC, for instance, pulled its chief executive, John Flint, but dispatched a lower-ranking executive. Alas, even this halfhearted shunning of Saudi Arabia was brief. Whatever ties the international banking and business community pretended


The 10 best new restaurants in the D.C. area

filling food doesn’t leave much space for dessert, but trust me: The sugar-dusted churros served with lemon-lightened whipped cream are worth your while. One of the few downsides is the din. Elsewhere is better for a heart-to-heart or a catch-up with grandparents. Then again, this is a restaurant that makes you want to shout for joy, clap your hands and beat the conga drum at the entrance. IF YOU GO: Two years in the making, this room with a view on the third floor of the sleek Conrad hotel reunites brothers Bryan and Michael Voltaggio, sons of Maryland who became famous for competing against each other on the sixth season of “Top Chef.” (Michael won.) Their latest joint project is a mash note to the Chesapeake Bay and reveals the siblings’ playful nature. Expect crab, stuffed into a toasted brioche roll and garnished with crab-shaped plantain chips. But also cod, teetering on “ramen” fashioned from sliced cuttlefish and presented in a butter-kissed ginger broth. You’ll find lamb on the menu, but honestly, the heartier entree is a fist of steamed, dehydrated, roasted celery root with a length of heart of palm poking out. The whimsy looks like a veal shank but turns out to be vegan, right down to the intense-with-tomato reduction pooled around the centerpiece. The most original Key lime pie around features coconut sorbet in a thin chocolate shell resting on a soft saucer of roasted peanuts blended with coconut and, underneath it all, citrus curd. The drinks are top-flight, the kitchen shows off a red Molteni stove, and floor-to-ceiling windows give diners a bird’s-eye view of CityCenterDC. IF YOU GO: If there were an award for most improved restaurant of the year, I’d nominate Matt Baker’s airy and light-filled retreat in Ivy City. His food at Gravitas, set in a former tomato canning factory, has always been beautiful. Now, the plates have consistent palatability going for them, too. Consider a recent dinner that commenced with some one-bite snacks — a golden rice fritter with a crown of bachelor buttons, a warm oyster sharing its shell with minced ramps and a hint of pork — and went on to seduce us with a seasonal salad that could have doubled as a headdress for Dionysus, tuna sashimi striped with a crumble of nori and garlic, and morsels of rosy lamb on salsa verde alongside basmati rice. While I wish


What we learned about the 2016 campaign from the redacted Mueller report

The publication of the redacted version of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s full report summarizing his team’s findings included an enormous amount of new information. There are any number of questions that remain unanswered and enough new material that isolating all of it is prohibitive. Many details provided are centered on the period that had the most attention in the first two years of President Trump’s administration: the campaign. The Mueller report provides moments and relationships that fall between Trump’s declaration of his candidacy and his winning the presidency. Below are pieces of information we uncovered in reading the report. Not everything listed below is new; we included information necessary to understand the context of the new revelation. Did we miss something? Send an email. We’ve included page numbers for your reference. (I/10) refers to Volume One (I), page 10. Manafort sharing polling information • Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates shared polling information with their former business partner Konstantin Kilimnik multiple times over the course of the election, starting months before and continuing after an Aug. 2, 2016, meeting in which Manafort shared his “strategy for winning Democratic votes in Midwestern states,” including in Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. (I/7 and 140) • Manafort, the report states, expected Kilimnik to share the information with people in Ukraine and with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. The investigators could not determine the reason for sharing the data and did not find a connection between it and Russia’s interference effort. One possibility was that Manafort hoped to use the information and his position to be repaid on some debts. (I/129-131) • Gates suspected Kilimnik was a “spy.” The FBI believes Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence. (I/134) • Manafort and Kilimnik also met in New York on May 6, 2016, where Manafort briefed Kilimnik on the campaign, “expecting Kilimnik to pass the information back to individuals in Ukraine and elsewhere.” (I/138) The June 2016 Trump Tower meeting • According to Gates, shortly before the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016, Donald Trump Jr. claimed to have “a lead on negative information about the Clinton Foundation” that came from a group in Kyrgyzstan “to whom he was introduced by a friend.” It’s not clear if this relates to the Trump Tower meeting. (I/115) • The meeting did not work out as Donald Trump Jr. had hoped. When the Kremlin-linked


Union Pacific profit increases by 6 percent; U.S. bank will close more than 300 branches

railroad Union Pacific profit increases by 6 percent Union Pacific’s first-quarter profit chugged ahead 6 percent even though the railroad hauled 2 percent fewer carloads and dealt with massive flooding. The Omaha-based railroad said Thursday it earned $1.39 billion, or $1.93 per share. That’s up from $1.31 billion, or $1.68 per share, last year. The nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected Union Pacific to report earnings of $1.89 per share. The railroad’s revenue declined 2 percent to $5.38 billion in the period, which did not meet Wall Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $5.48 billion. Union Pacific has been working to streamline its operations by running trains on a tighter schedule so it can use fewer locomotives, cars and employees to move the same freight. The railroad said its expenses declined 3 percent to $3.42 billion. Chief executive Lance Fritz said those efforts helped the railroad rebound quickly from severe cold weather and flooding along the Missouri River and its tributaries. Most of the reduced volume in the quarter was related to weather challenges. But Fritz said the ongoing U.S. trade disputes have had an impact on grain shipments, which dropped 7 percent in the quarter. Fritz said it’s important for Congress to act soon to approve the new North American trade agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico. He also hopes the trade dispute with China can be resolved. The railroad said it still expects its volume to grow at a low-single-digit rate this year while it cuts expenses by at least $500 million. Citi analyst Christian Wetherbee said the quarter seemed a bit better than investors feared. Union Pacific operates 32,400 miles of track in 23 Western states. — Associated Press banking U.S. Bank will close over 300 branches U.S. Bank will close more than 300 branches over the next two years as it adapts to the changing ways that people get services from it and other financial companies, executives said. The nation’s fifth-largest bank was constrained for several years from making changes to its 3,000 branches by a regulatory review of anti-money laundering practices. That constraint ended late last year, and executives have since developed more detailed plans to optimize the branch network, which stretches across 25 states in the Midwest and West. During a discussion of quarterly results Wednesday, Andy Cecere, the company’s chief executive, told analysts Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp would


Trump’s most frequent contribution to the Mueller probe? ‘I don’t recall.’

One sentence in the report written by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators summarizes President Trump’s responses to their inquiries succinctly. “We viewed the written answers to be inadequate,” it says. It’s easy to see why. After battling with Trump’s attorneys for months to get an in-person interview with the president, Mueller’s investigators instead offered written questions to be answered under oath. They covered four primary topic areas: the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016, the Russian effort to interfere with the election, the proposed development project in Moscow and contacts with Russia or Russia-related issues during the campaign and transition. In total, the Mueller team asked 38 distinct questions with 37 follow-ups. Trump offered 22 distinct answers. In 19 of those answers, he claims not to remember or recall some particular issue. Often, those failures to remember what happened constitute the entirety of his response. In the past, Trump has touted his memory. In June, speaking at a news conference in Singapore, he assured reporters that he didn’t need notes about his conversation with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un because he has “one of the great memories of all time.” Unfortunately, that memory appears not to extend back to 2015, as indicated in Trump’s responses. Here’s what he couldn’t remember when asked by Mueller. That’s most of what he didn’t remember, but not everything. What did he remember? Among other things, he did remember the genesis of his comments on June 7, 2016, that he would soon be giving a speech targeting Clinton, a comment that came shortly after his son had set up a meeting with someone who Trump Jr. thought would offer new dirt on Clinton. He did remember some of the genesis of the Trump Tower Moscow deal. And he did remember that he did not know that Manafort offered to give campaign briefings to a Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska. Most or all of Trump’s denials that he remembered particular things may be true. Some may not be. Cohen, for example, has testified that he was present when Stone told Trump about an upcoming WikiLeaks release in mid-July. Cohen also testified that he remembered Trump Jr. telling Trump that a meeting was set in early June, though he doesn’t know that the comment was about the Trump Tower meeting. Had Mueller’s team been able to engage in an extended interview of Trump, it


America’s measles outlook: Spotty

A roundup of editorial cartoons from April 7 to 12.


How does measles spread? Do I need another MMR vaccine shot? How dangerous is measles? FAQ on the outbreaks.

in the data, the FDA will request further studies before approving the vaccine. Vaccinate Your Family One system, known as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, relies on individuals to report vaccine reactions. Anyone can report a reaction or injury, including health-care providers, patients and patients’ representatives, such as caregivers or attorneys. The system is co-managed by the FDA and the CDC. The purpose of VAERS is to see whether unexpected or unusual patterns emerge, potentially indicating a vaccine safety issue that needs to be researched further. Another system, called the Vaccine Safety Datalink, is a collaboration between the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office and eight large health-care organizations across the country. It conducts studies based on questions or concerns raised from the medical literature and reports to VAERS. In addition, when new vaccines are recommended or if changes are made in how a vaccine is recommended, the VSD will monitor the safety of these vaccines. The system has information on the kind of vaccine given to each patient, the date of vaccination and other vaccinations given on the same day. It also uses information on medical illnesses that have been diagnosed at doctors’ offices, urgent-care visits, emergency department visits and hospital stays. A third system, called the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment Project, or CISA, is a national network of vaccine safety experts from the Immunization Safety Office, seven medical research centers and other partners. It also addresses vaccine safety issues and conducts clinical research. A fourth system, called the Post-Licensure Rapid Immunization Safety Monitoring, or PRISM, is a partnership between the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and leading health insurance companies. It actively monitors and analyzes data from a representative subset of the general population. Are religions opposed to vaccines? No. Scholars believe no major religious group advocates against vaccinations on the basis of official doctrine, and experts say the majority support vaccinations. Large majorities of Americans from all major religious groups say healthy children should be required to receive vaccinations to attend school, according to the Pew Research Center. However, some individuals from various faith traditions believe vaccinating goes against their religious beliefs. Read more: Unaware he had measles, a man traveled from New York to Michigan, infecting 39 people Anti-vaxxers trolled a doctors’ office. Here’s how the pediatricians fought back. New York City orders mandatory measles shots in toughest action to date in U.S.


Two teens arrested in connection with shooting death of journalist in Northern Ireland

violent scene, with the caption: “Derry tonight. Absolute madness.” Clashes broke out after police carried out raids against suspected militant Irish nationalists. McKee was killed nearly 21 years to the day after a 1998 peace treaty, known as the Good Friday Agreement, was signed, ending the Troubles, the long period of violence in Northern Ireland in which Irish nationalists battled with United Kingdom loyalists and British troops. She was working on a book about young people who disappeared during the Troubles. The riots took place in a neighborhood of Londonderry that is home to a large number of Irish nationalists. Although widespread violence in Northern Ireland came to an end decades ago, tensions have not entirely de-escalated. In January, a car bomb exploded in Londonderry. On Saturday, Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy told reporters that he had “just come from a very difficult meeting with Lyra McKee’s family and her partner and, as you can imagine, they are absolutely devastated.” The shots fired at McKee were “fired indiscriminately,” Murphy said. “The gunman showed no thought for who may have been killed or injured when he fired these shots.” He appealed for people who witnessed the riots to provide cellphone footage to detectives. “I know there will be some people who know what happened but are scared to come forward,” he said. On social media, police released closed-circuit TV footage of the riots and asked viewers to send in information. The footage identifies McKee standing toward the back of a crowd, raising her phone to capture video. On Friday, Mark Hamilton, assistant chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said officials “believed that violent dissident republicans were planning attacks in this city, and we were looking for munitions and firearms that we believe may be about to be used across the Easter weekend.” McKee’s family and friends held a vigil to honor her Friday. Her partner, Sara Canning, called her death a “senseless murder” and said she was “the woman I was planning to grow old with.” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar called her killing “an attack on all of us, our nation and our freedoms.” Amanda Ferguson in Belfast contributed to this report. Read more Pelosi warns there will be no U.S.-U.K. trade deal if Brexit harms the Irish peace accord Could Brexit bring new troubles to Northern Ireland? Opinion: The Irish border is illogical — just like Brexit


Postpartum depression is one of the most common complications of childbirth. Researchers are homing in on risk factors.

also experience physical discomfort such as nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath. And sometimes, the two illnesses overlap. For instance, the latest research findings found that 64 percent of women with chronic postpartum depression also struggled with anxiety. Kate Rope, 45, a mother of two children in Atlanta, suffered from postpartum anxiety. “I had a medically complicated pregnancy, which left me feeling anxious about my health and the health of my baby,” she said. At that time, Rope was seeing a psychotherapist, but talking about her worries wasn’t enough to make them go away, she said. “By the time my baby was 9 months old, my brain was exhausted, and I wasn’t sleeping very much,” Rope added. After months of endless worry and anxiety, she saw a reproductive psychiatrist who prescribed anti-anxiety medication. “Within two weeks, I felt like I exhaled for the first time in months,” Rope said. Although Rope’s anxiety intensified after her baby was born, it had been present throughout her life. “Anxiety has always been a ‘go to’ emotion for me, especially during stressful times. But there’s a spectrum of struggle, and it wasn’t crippling until after I had my first child,” she said. Given her history, Rope was at a higher risk for a perinatal mood concern, but she was never screened for the disorder, she said. Meltzer-Brody said learning about a woman’s mental-health history should be an essential component of prenatal care. “We cannot tell women their ‘postpartum depression’ will be quickly resolved without taking into account their personal histories,” she said. Shana Averbach, a psychotherapist specializing in perinatal mental health in San Francisco, said each case of postpartum depression varies. “I adjust my treatment plan to bolster the net of support, depending on each mom’s severity of symptoms,” she said. Mothers with more severe PPD symptoms may need therapy more than once per week, group support and medication. “When necessary, I also refer women to intensive outpatient programs that provide a higher level of care,” Averbach added. The Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug for postpartum depression, called brexanolone, last month. “My hope with brexanolone is that it will be an important new treatment tool for appropriate women that suffer from severe PPD,” said Meltzer-Brody, who was the academic principal investigator for the drug’s clinical trials. Since her symptoms worsened last year, Ann is starting to recover. “I’m mostly better, but


Build a subway car factory in D.C. area? Metro asks bidders for big contract to consider it.

transit systems have created jobs in their areas in that way. Last year, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority awarded a contract to Japan’s Kawasaki with a provision that it build and test the vehicles in Yonkers, N.Y., as well as Lincoln, Neb. “In a procurement the size of a rail car purchase, we have noted other transit properties — including MTA NY — whose regions have benefited economically from assembly plants associated with their rail car procurements,” Kuo said. “Suggesting a local assembly plant in our [solicitation] was another tool to encourage and promote regional job creation.” But that suggestion also could be seen as encouraging a bid by the controversial, state-owned China Railway Rolling Stock Corp., according to U.S. industry executives. CRRC has won major contracts in recent years to make rail cars for transit systems in Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles, in part by agreeing to build assembly plants in Massachusetts, Illinois and California. CRRC also has underbid competitors, a practice that critics say is possible only because the company benefits from government subsidies. The Chinese company’s success has aroused concerns in Congress, the Pentagon and U.S. manufacturers that China will come to dominate the transit car sector. No U.S. company makes transit cars, and critics worry CRRC will eventually compete with American firms that make freight rail cars such as boxcars and tank cars. Critics also have warned China could use transit rail cars as platforms for cyberespionage or sabotage. CRRC dismisses that prospect as “ludicrous,” but technology experts say it is a risk. Companies that make transit rail cars are based in Western Europe, Canada, South Korea, China and Japan. Two that have shown interest in the Metro contract, in addition to CRRC, are South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem and the French company Alstom. The deadline for bidders, which has been extended twice, is May 31. Kawasaki, which is building Metro’s latest generation of rail cars, the 7000-series, is in the final phase of delivering the 748 cars it is constructing under that contract. It is building them in Nebraska. It is not expected to compete for the 8000-series because it is so busy with the New York MTA contract, according to Metro officials. U.S. business executives critical of CRRC said American transit agencies will get less benefit than they think by having the Chinese company build assembly plants in their regions. The critics said only a


Boston Dynamics’ latest video shows a herd of robotic dogs hauling a massive truck with ease

Boston Dynamics’ latest video of its four-legged robot, SpotMini, is just over a minute long. But that’s all the time it takes to impress upon viewers that the technology company has developed machines capable of performing a staggering new physical feat — in this case, pulling a full-size box truck up a slight incline. An individual SpotMini can carry only 31 pounds, but they apparently contain enough collective power to pull a vehicle that likely weighs at least 10,000 pounds. It only takes 10 of the 66-pound robots — hitched together like metallic sled dogs and marching with militaristic precision — to get the vehicle rolling. That unmistakable power and precision left many of the video’s nearly 2 million YouTube videos feeling deeply uneasy. “Boston Dynamics CEO: ‘Okay, team. We haven’t freaked out the YouTube crowd in about two weeks,’” a viewer named Scott Davidson wrote. "'We need to stay on top of it. What have you got?'” “Wow now that they are making an army all they need to do is give those spots mounted machine guns and the end of the world is near,” another viewer with the name BlitzSterz added. Boston Dynamics appears to delight in dropping simple yet startling videos without warning, revealing stunning advances in robotic technology without much context or comment. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment about their latest video, but a caption at the bottom hinted at the machine’s commercial debut: “These Spot robots are coming off the production line now and will be available for a range of applications soon,” the caption states. News about the SpotMini hitting the marketplace and becoming a purchasable pet of sorts has been public for months. At the CeBIT computer expo in Hanover, Germany, last year, Boston Dynamics founder, Marc Raibert, told an audience that his company was already testing SpotMini with potential customers from four separate industries: security, delivery, construction and home assistance. His presentation at the expo was reported by Inverse. Raibert also predicted that his company’s robots could one day be used for “warehouse logistics” or even to clean up dangerous environments such as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster site, where human workers are at risk. “This robot will be available next year," he said at the time, referring to SpotMini. “We’ve built 10 by hand, we’re building 100 with manufacturers at the end of this year,