Bradie Tennell secures Olympic spot; Ashley Wagner finishes off the podium

Wagner off into a disappointing sunset. The 26-year-old acknowledged she was skating for her last Olympic chance this year. While she skated a clean program, the judges appeared to take issue with her performance components more than they usually do. When she saw her score, she shook her head. Later, she told the Associated Press and others that she was "absolutely furious" with the scoring, which left her two points shy of third-place Karen Chen — and the podium. "For me to put out two programs that I did at this competition, as solid as I skated and to get those scores," Wagner said. "I am furious." Mirai Nagasu's high-flying program earned her second place, with a technical score second only to Tennell's and far above Wagner's. Chen narrowly bested Wagner with an imperfect skate. Four years ago, Nagasu won the bronze but Wagner made the Sochi Olympic team. Wagner entered this competition with a less impressive recent résumé than she did then. She needed this week to solidify her status. Perhaps because of the judges, perhaps because of a slip on a jump that left points on the table, she instead found herself mired in uncertainty. Wagner was the beneficiary of a committee decision once before. Her fate depends on the committee once again. Nagasu had been the victim of one of those decisions. The 2010 Olympian was supposed to showcase her triple axel in this competition, but after missing that jump in her short program, slipped out of it again in her free skate Friday night. But because of the unparalleled difficulty of that jump, and her program in general, Nagasu did not need perfection. As she landed her final jump, a triple Salchow, she pumped her fists. As she spun away the final seconds of her program, the crowd stood. As she skated to acknowledge the crowd, she bawled. Four years after she did all she could and was told it was not enough, Nagasu did more than she had to do. "I think I put in my vote for the Olympic team," Nagasu said. Tennell did more than any of them. Once a bona fide PyeongChang prospect after she blew away the field at the 2015 junior national championships, Tennell slid back into obscurity due to injury, reemerging with a bronze medal at this fall's Skate America. With that performance, she declared herself a contender. With


Protests threaten Iran’s ascendant role in the Middle East

BEIRUT — The eruption of political unrest in Iran has presented an unforeseen challenge to Tehran's rising influence in the Middle East, potentially threatening the country's claims to dominance just when it seemed to have secured an unassailable role. The demonstrations, triggered mostly by popular disaffection with the stagnant economy, come at a time when Iran has been boasting about its newfound clout, won mainly by intervening in the region's many wars. Iran's role as the Middle East's most consequential power has been cemented by its support for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, for the Shiite militias in Iraq fighting the Islamic State, for the Houthi rebels in Yemen and for the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon. But the interventions have been costly and, as the demonstrations have revealed, unpopular — at least with some Iranians. "No Gaza, no Lebanon, our lives for Iran," the crowds chanted at one of the first demonstrations, a reference to Iranian support for the Palestinian Hamas movement in Gaza and for Hezbollah in Lebanon. "Leave Syria alone, think about us," and "Death to Hezbollah" were among other slogans. These are a reminder that Iran's power plays in the region have come at a price, according to Mohamad Bazzi, a professor of journalism at New York University who is writing a book about Iran's role in the region and its rivalry with Saudi Arabia. "For the past few months, if not years, Iran has been viewed as ascendant. They've been, quote, winning in the Middle East," he said. "And now we find out Iranians don't approve of their government spending all this money in places like Lebanon and Syria." With the anti-government protests apparently starting to fade, there is no reason to anticipate any immediate changes to Iranian policies, either foreign or domestic. For a third straight day on Friday, the authorities organized pro-government demonstrations in numerous Iranian cities, seeking to underline their message that the anti-government protesters represented a tiny minority of Iranians whose actions had been instigated by Iran's foreign enemies, notably the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia. The spread of the anti-government protests over the past week nonetheless suggests a level of domestic unhappiness that calls into question whether Tehran's regional ambitions can be sustained, said Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle East politics at the London School of Economics. "Before the protests, you had this dominant narrative that Iran is unstoppable, Iran


‘Is this stuff legal?’ Federal position on pot makes situation foggy, draws pushback

But customer Deborah Harrison was happy to opine on Sessions as she entered the store. "I could care less what he thinks," Harrison said. "This is California, and we are going to do what we do here. He can push it if he wants to, and we can secede from the union." Tom Miller, a pipe layer in the natural gas industry, spent part of Friday morning at Boulder Botanics in Colorado, examining canisters of cannabis with strains named Gorilla Glue, Big Bubba Diesel and Dawg's Waltz. The weed sells for $150 to $250 an ounce, and Miller said he wanted to try it all. He had just arrived in the state, which has embraced legal sales. "It helps more than opioids," he said, citing his home state of West Virginia's struggle with opioid abuse. "They could use this instead of being hooked on opioids. Everyone's on pills." Marijuana is legal in much of the West, as well as in Massachusetts and Maine. In the District of Columbia, people 21 and older can grow, possess or give away modest amounts of it, and smoke it legally at home. Medical marijuana is legal and strictly regulated in the District, but selling pot for recreational use is still illegal. It also remains illegal on federal property. State laws vary, with some treating marijuana as if it were no more a drug than alcohol. There are still major kinks in the law for marijuana entrepreneurs, who struggle to find banks willing to take their money — and wind up carrying brown paper bags of cash to pay their utility bills, said Jonathan Robbins, an attorney with Akerman LLP, where he is chair of the Cannabis Practice Group. Robbins emphasized that the decision by Sessions does not change any of the nation's marijuana laws; this was purely a policy change at the Justice Department. "There certainly is less clarity," Robbins said. "We don't know as we sit here today what the practical effect of Mr. Sessions's pronouncement is going to be." His legal advice to marijuana growers and distributors: "It's very, very important that any folks who are operating in this space go to great lengths to make sure they are fully compliant with the laws of the states in which they operate." Patrick Moen, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent who is now general counsel for Privateer Holdings, which invests in the legal


A drug bust was marred by a suicide bombing in Kabul. Was it ISIS, or the ‘mafia’?

stopped us from finding the explosive vests that we suspect they possess and sell." As for Hotak's death, Ehsas expressed no regret, and said his elder brother, Hossein, who is in custody, was a ringleader. On Saturday, anger simmered in Banayee. Hotak and Hossein's brothers, Nawid and Ziarmal, stood outside their shuttered shops with white envelopes in hand, stuffed with photocopies of pictures of their slain sibling. Their clan's shura, or council, was gathered in a trash-strewn field behind the shops, sitting on red banquet hall chairs assembled in rows. At no point did anyone there acknowledge currently selling illicit goods, even if some muttered that they had in the past. "They came to our home, spewed bullets everywhere, shot my brother in his neck and dragged him out while he was bleeding to death. He was innocent! Unarmed! They shot him in the neck without even a warning shot for him to surrender," said Nawid, beset by rageful tears. "Does anything like this ever happen in your country?" In their family home, the upstairs living room carpet was still soaked with blood. A metal door was kicked in, and the walls were pocked by shallow holes where bullets must have hit as they ricocheted around the small room. Hotak's blood was smeared down the staircase leading to the front door. To the Hotaks, the suicide bombing was incidental, a militant group taking advantage of a coalescence of cops. The police display of confiscated goods? An elaborate setup. The real story, they say, is the corruption and politicization of Kabul's police. Malik Ahmad Shah, the head of the Hotak shura, said police have extorted shopkeepers in Banayee since the last presidential election, which ended controversially and almost resulted in a renewed civil war in 2014. His people are supporters of the man who prevailed as president, Ashraf Ghani, and much of the police force, according to Shah, is beholden to his rival, Abdullah Abdullah. And yes, once upon a time, you could buy drugs and alcohol here, but those days are long over, he said. "Every week, they come asking for 100,000 Afghanis," Shah said, referring to the local currency, or nearly $1,500, paid collectively by the dozen-odd shop owners. "But this month, we finally started rejecting the bribes, and this is why they are retaliating." Later, Shah would add that he was saddened by the deaths of the police


Will this tragedy change anything?

The Dec. 28 front-page article " 'I want it to stop' " reported on a family whose 15-year-old son suffering from mental illness was killed by a police officer. I am concerned for the impact this has for all of our communities and people suffering from mental illnesses. The elephant in the room is that a child died. There is a growing concern for at-risk children dying because of the actions of the police. Whether police encounter these types of events regularly, in no circumstance is it justified for a child to die. The culpability was not clearly represented, the burden of responsibility was unaddressed, and I cannot stand by and not speak up. Of utmost importance, what will be done to avert the death of another child at the hands of police? What training or methods will be changed as a result of this tragedy? Nancye L. Sadler


Falcons quiet doubters — for now — with 26-13 playoff win over Rams on the road

LOS ANGELES — The Atlanta Falcons were going to have to answer two questions at some point in their return to the NFL postseason, so they may as well have not wasted any time. The game was going to ask it of them, in the wake of their calamitous squandering of a Super Bowl, whether they liked it or not: Did they have any backbone? And had they learned their lesson? A 26-13 win on the road Saturday night against the Los Angeles Rams was an affirmative response to both queries. The Falcons existed this season as the butt of jokes, stumbling their way into the playoffs under a new offensive coordinator and engulfed by doubts. It will take more time and more victories for the sixth-seeded Falcons to no longer be known foremost as the team that blew a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl, but their performance in the first round of the playoffs here against the upstart and previously explosive Los Angeles Rams provided a promising first step. Playing the highest-scoring offense in the NFL on the road, in the Rams' first playoff game in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum since 1979, the Falcons seized an early lead, let most of it slip away before halftime and then asserted themselves not with Hollywood glitz, but with teeth-grinding grit, squeezing the life out of the Rams' season with pulverizing ball control, the welcome antithesis of how they played last year's Super Bowl. In the Super Bowl, the Falcons kept trying to outscore the New England Patriots even after they had taken a massive lead, leaving their defense helpless and breathless. Saturday night, they kept the reins on a tight game by controlling the ball. Through punishing runs and short passes, the Falcons possessed the ball for more than 37 minutes, including just more than 13 minutes in the third quarter. Their defense, fresh all night, suffocated the Rams, who averaged 29.9 points per game during the regular season. The Falcons ascended last season with offensive fireworks and gaudy numbers. Saturday night, they were content to use the Rams' mistakes — a pair of critical giveaways by second-year returner Pharoh Cooper — to build a lead and then protect it. Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman combined for 106 yards rushing, but the more meaningful total was 32: the number of rushes they tallied. Wide receiver Julio Jones gained 94 yards


Sessions’s unwise move on marijuana may backfire

form. Maryland just began permitting medical marijuana. California just legalized recreational marijuana, and Vermont is near to doing so. Mr. Sessions's move upended a tenuous deal the Obama administration made with legalization states: keep pot out of minors' hands and help combat trafficking, and federal authorities will focus on bigger priorities. This policy allowed a handful of states room to experiment with unencumbered legalization, which would have made the consequences clearer to others. Mr. Sessions's decision is unlikely to result in arrests of small-time marijuana users. But it will chill the growth of the aboveboard weed economy by deterring banks and other institutions from participating. From there, U.S. attorneys across the country will decide whether to crack down, and on whom — a few big distributors, perhaps, or a few local grow shops, too. In states with complex regulations on marijuana growing, testing and selling, some operations may move back underground rather than provide documentation to state authorities that federal prosecutors might later use against them. Mr. Sessions's move is counterproductive even for skeptics of legalization, whose only defense against a growing tide of public opinion would be evidence that full legalization has significant negative consequences. Mr. Sessions's move diminishes the possibility of drawing lessons — including cautionary ones — from the examples of legalization states. Similarly, Mr. Sessions has made it harder to learn how to regulate the legitimate weed economy, if that is the path the country chooses. More concerning is the prospect that U.S. attorneys will begin diverting limited federal resources into anti-pot campaigns from far more pressing matters. As Mr. Sessions himself said this past November, the nation is experiencing "the deadliest drug crisis in American history." That would be the opioid epidemic, which, Mr. Sessions noted, claimed some 64,000 lives in 2016. Marijuana simply does not pose the same threat, and the attorney general should have avoided any suggestion that it requires more attention right now. Mr. Sessions's decision will spur calls for Congress to finally change federal law. That is warranted, but lawmakers should be wary of swinging too far in the opposite direction. As a recent National Academies of Science review found, experts still know relatively little about marijuana's health effects. It makes no sense to lock up small-time marijuana users, but it may not make sense to move quickly to national legalization. Rather, Congress should decriminalize marijuana use, then await more information.


Saudi Arabia arrests 11 princes who protested suspension of government payments

ISTANBUL — Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that it had arrested a group of 11 princes who held a rare demonstration at a royal palace after the government halted payment of their electricity and water bills, according to a statement by the Saudi attorney general. The princes, who were arrested on Thursday after staging a sit-in, were also seeking compensation "for a death sentence that was issued against one of their cousins," the statement said, adding that the cousin was convicted of murder and executed in 2016. The arrests were the latest sign of tensions within the Saudi royal family as the kingdom's young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, assumes an increasingly dominant role in the country's affairs. Prince Mohammed, a close ally of the Trump administration, has introduced a raft of changes, including austerity measures and the easing of social restrictions that his supporters say are intended to modernize the country and diversify its economy. During his sudden rise to power, the crown prince has also sidelined his most powerful rivals and moved to silence dissenting voices in an effort to consolidate his authority before eventually inheriting the throne from his father, King Salman, analysts said. In November, the government arrested dozens of influential Saudis, including princes, cabinet ministers and business tycoons, detaining them at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Officials said the arrests were part of a determined effort to root out corruption, but the unprecedented sweep also threatened to upend the kingdom's delicate and decades-old balance of power, analysts said. On Friday, King Salman ordered the payment of bonuses to government workers and military personnel — a move intended to soften the blow of austerity measures that included a reduction of gasoline subsidies and an increase in electricity prices, as well as the introduction of a value-added tax. The attorney general, Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb, did not release the names of the princes arrested on Thursday. After they staged a sit-in at the Qasr al-Hokm palace in Riyadh, "the 11 princes refused to leave the area, disrupting public peace and order," the statement said. They were being held at a maximum-security prison outside of the capital, pending trial on a number of unspecified charges, the statement said. "No one is above the law in Saudi Arabia, everyone is equal and is treated the same as others," the statement added. kareem.fahim@washpost.com


Enthusiasm for ‘maglev’ train between D.C., Baltimore mounts — as does opposition

Supporters counter that the Maryland maglev project, estimated to cost $10 billion to $12 billion, will create jobs, spur economic development and provide a fast, green and innovative "transportation solution" using a proven technology. The system, in use in Japan, harnesses powerful magnetic forces that lift and propel trains four inches above a U-shaped guideway at speeds of up to 375 mph. "It is going to be three times as fast as anything we have now," said Wayne Rogers, chief executive of Northeast Maglev. The train would travel at 311 mph, he said. Amtrak's fastest service, the Acela Express, makes the trip from Washington to Baltimore in 32 minutes, and to New York's Penn Station in just under three hours. Acela trains run at speeds up to 135 mph, but more than half of Amtrak trains operate at top speeds of 100 mph. 'Transformational' plan Known as the world's fastest train, the maglev is faster than Japan's famous bullet trains, which travel at about 200 mph, and some of Europe's high-speed trains that travel at up to 186 mph. Discussion of a maglev system for the Washington region goes back at least two decades. The Federal Railroad Administration studied a German version of the maglev technology in the early 2000s. Interest in the project waned as the region — and country — braced for the economic recession, but picked up again with the success of the Japanese system. Japan is one of the first countries to develop and adopt maglev trains. Supporters tout the Maryland project as "transformational" for American travelers who often face delays on the country's aging rails, gridlocked roads, and in outdated airports. The Northeast Corridor, the country's busiest rail network, would benefit from additional capacity, they say. The project has the backing of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), and the state has received a $28 million federal grant to cover impact studies. If things go as planned, construction could begin as soon as 2019, with service starting in 2027, officials said. But critics aren't convinced the system is needed or economically feasible. Some residents and elected officials of communities in the proposed path of the line are concerned about the homes and businesses that would be displaced through eminent domain. They also contend the service would target the "elite business traveler" and be out of reach of most citizens, with high ticket prices and limited access


John Young, moon walker and NASA’s longest-serving astronaut, dies at 87

for fear of losing their jobs. Mr. Young vowed never to stay silent again. "Whenever and wherever I found a potential safety issue," he wrote in a 2012 memoir, "Forever Young," "I always did my utmost to make some noise about it, by memo or whatever means might best bring attention to it." He was particularly outspoken after the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members. Mr. Young witnessed the disaster from the air, while aboard a training aircraft. A NASA inquiry later determined that the explosion was caused, at least in part, by the failure of small rubber O-rings on a particularly cold day. Mr. Young contended that the astronauts were never made aware of such a potentially catastrophic technical problem. In a scathing 12-page memo, he wrote that NASA management had compromised the astronauts' safety to move forward with the launch. "There is only one driving reason that such a potentially dangerous system would ever be allowed to fly — launch-schedule pressure," he wrote. Other longtime astronauts shared Mr. Young's views, but his complaints — and his reputation as a prophet of "doom and gloom," in his words — rankled NASA's top brass. An Air Force colonel in the space program ripped Mr. Young in a letter, charging him with taking a "cheap shot" at NASA and behaving in an "irresponsible, undisciplined and unprofessional manner." Within a year, Mr. Young was relieved of his duties as chief of the astronaut corps and assigned to another job at NASA, director of engineering and safety. In 1983, Mr. Young flew his sixth and final space mission, commanding the Columbia space shuttle. As the spacecraft reentered the Earth's atmosphere, two of its three auxiliary power units caught fire, and the main computer stopped working. "Not to mince words, we were on fire when we landed," he wrote in his memoir, "though of course we didn't know it at the time." Nearly 22 years later, the Columbia — the space shuttle Mr. Young had taken on its maiden voyage in 1981 — broke apart on reentry, killing the seven astronauts onboard. Mr. Young, who was still officially an astronaut at the time, criticized NASA's internal culture, suggesting that an emphasis on cost-cutting had contributed to the potential for accidents. A space shuttle launch, he wrote in his memoir, "always scared me more


USOC, NBC respond to Nikki Haley’s suggestion that North Korea could cause U.S. to skip Olympics

down, we’re going down together.’ ” Some NBC staffers are wary of signing up for their network’s on-site coverage of the Winter Games because “they’re afraid to get nuked,” the New York Post’s Page Six reported Monday, quoting a source. The source added that network employees are usually eager to work Olympic assignments. The recent ICBM test has frustrated organizers of the Winter Games, who have grappled with low enthusiasm in the host country and lagging ticket sales. “It wouldn’t make sense for anyone to cancel tickets to PyeongChang because of fears about North Korea,” one organizer told the AP. “There’s no war; bombs aren’t being dropped on PyeongChang.” The Games have occasionally been the scene of terrorist attacks, most notably in Munich in 1972, when members of a Palestinian organization killed 11 Israeli Olympians and a West German policeman. Two other fatal attacks occurred in 1996, when a pipe bomb exploded in Atlanta, killing one person and wounding dozens of others, and in 2008, when a knife-wielding assailant in Beijing killed an American businessman and wounded his wife and their tour guide. Last month, the Trump administration placed North Korea back on the U.S.’s list of state sponsors of terrorism, but the South Korean government said that it would welcome athletes from its northern neighbor to compete in PyeongChang. North Korea has yet to indicate whether it will participate, having boycotted the Games the previous time South Korea hosted them, in the summer of 1988. One country that won’t be sending its athletes to PyeongChang is Russia. The country was banned from the 2018 Games by the IOC on Tuesday for allegedly conducting a widespread doping program, although some individual Russian athletes may be allowed to compete. Yoonjung Seo in PyeongChang and Rick Maese in Copper Mountain, Colo., contributed to this report. Read more from The Post: Lindsey Vonn on whether she’d visit the Trump White House: “Absolutely not. Nope.” Shaun White is stitched up and ready to go to the Olympics. But first he must qualify. Let’s not congratulate an IOC that awarded Russia an Olympics in the first place Russian cheating may have cost this American an Olympic medal. The ban gives her hope it won’t happen again. Steelers’ Ryan Shazier moved to Pittsburgh to continue treatment for spinal injury We asked 105 NBA media members to pick this season’s MVP so far. There’s a clear favorite.


IOC suspends Russia as penalty for doping but invites individual athletes to 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang

Russia’s flag and anthem will be absent from February’s Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, the International Olympic Committee announced Tuesday, as punishment for widespread doping Olympic officials believe was supported by the Russian government. Invited Russian athletes will compete under the name “Olympic Athlete from Russia” and under the Olympic flag. An inquiry conducted for the World Anti-Doping Agency concluded that more than 1,000 Russian athletes across at least 30 sports had been involved in “an institutional conspiracy” of doping that dated to at least 2011. The IOC has punished 19 Russian athletes and taken away 11 medals for confirmed doping violations during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.This is a developing story. It will be updated.


Will Russia be banned from the Winter Olympics? IOC to decide Tuesday

Nearly a year and a half after drawing widespread criticism for not banning Russia from the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro following allegations of a state-sponsored doping regime, the International Olympic Committee faces a similar quandary Tuesday in Switzerland, where it will decide whether to ban Russia from the upcoming Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. The IOC is expected to announce its decision Tuesday evening in Lausanne, after its executive board spends the afternoon reviewing the findings of the latest independent investigation into doping among Russian athletes, a 16-month inquiry led by the former president of Switzerland, Samuel Schmid. Pressure on the IOC to issue a blanket ban against Russia has only increased since the Rio Games, as more evidence has emerged supporting allegations made by a former director of a Moscow anti-doping laboratory that the Russian government was complicit in a widespread scheme that included sabotaging drug testing of Russian athletes during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Last December, Canadian law professor Richard McLaren released the second part of his inquiry into Russian doping, conducted for the World Anti-Doping Agency, which concluded that more than 1,000 Russian athletes across at least 30 sports, including both summer and winter events, had been involved in “an institutional conspiracy” of doping that dated from at least 2011. Last month, an IOC commission led by Swiss lawyer Denis Oswald stripped a Russian cross-country skier of his gold medal from 2014 and banned him for life. In the decision, the Oswald commission explained that it had found Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of a Moscow anti-doping laboratory, to be a credible witness, and that evidence supported his allegations that Russian government agents helped him swap out tainted urine samples from cheating Russian athletes in Sochi for clean samples. The IOC has punished 19 Russian athletes and taken away 11 medals for confirmed doping violations during the Sochi Games. Russian sports ministry officials have apologized for the prevalence of doping among the nation’s athletes, but have continued to deny any government involvement. Last week, at an event in Moscow promoting the 2018 World Cup in Russia, former sports minister Vitaly Mutko said “there is no proof” of state-sponsored doping. “Everyone is trying to make some kind of axis of evil out of us, just because we’re a great sporting power,” Mutko said. Mutko and others in Russia have sought to cast Rodchenkov as


Bobsled gold medalist among Russians disqualified from Olympics over doping

The International Olympic Committee continued to strip Russian athletes of their Sochi Olympic medals on Friday, this time disqualifying bobsledder Alexander Zubkov and speedskater Olga Fatkulina over their involvement in a state-sponsored doping program. Zubkov won gold in both the two-man and four-man bobsled competitions while Fatkulina won silver in 500-meter speedskating, part of a 33-medal haul for Russia that topped the table. But the IOC now has taken away nine of those medals — four of them gold — dropping Russia behind the United States, Norway and Canada in terms of total medals. Zubkov, who now is president of Russia’s bobsled federation, and Fatkulina also were permanently banned from future Olympics. An investigation completed last year by Canadian attorney Richard McLaren found that the Russian government doped more than 1,000 Olympic athletes in 30 sports between 2011 and 2015, tainting the country’s results at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, the 2013 track and field world championships and the 2014 Sochi Games. The IOC will announce early next month whether it will ban Russian athletes from next year’s Winter Olympics in PyeongChang as further punishment for the doping scheme. It did not issue a blanket ban of Russian athletes for last year’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, ruling that individual sports federations could decide whether specially vetted Russians could compete as “neutral” athletes. That option apparently is on the table again, though Russian sports leaders have said they would boycott the PyeongChang Games if their athletes aren’t allowed to compete under the Russian flag. Last week Read more: Oscar Pistorius’s prison sentence is more than doubled Some Olympic sports organizations keep lists of banned coaches confidential Doctor at center of USA Gymnastics scandal left warning signs at Michigan State Following sex abuse report, USA Gymnastics pledges stronger oversight of clubs Senators propose legislation to offer money, legal protection to Olympic sex abuse prevention agency


Would countries skip the Winter Olympics because of Korea tensions? France is thinking about it.

“depraved regime.” Kim shot back on Thursday, calling Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” and describing his U.N. speech as “unprecedented rude nonsense.” Trump responded Friday by saying Kim is a “madman” whose regime will be “tested like never before.” Such sabre-rattling about nuclear weapons hardly is ideal under any circumstances, but with the start of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, less than five months away, the most recent round of brinkmanship has led at least one nation — France — to consider whether attending the Games is a good idea. On Thursday, French Sports Minister Laura Flessel said in a radio interview that if “our security cannot be assured, the French Olympics team will stay at home.” PyeongChang is located just 50 miles from the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and only 100 miles to the east of two North Korean military bases where a number of missile tests have been conducted in recent years. The nations technically are still at war, and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions already were evident in 2011 when the International Olympic Committee awarded PyeongChang the 2018 Games, so the IOC knew the risks involved. But IOC President Thomas Bach said last week that he was confident the Olympics would go on as scheduled. For now, it appears France is alone in publicly sharing the level of its concerns. Reuters contacted Olympic officials from four countries — the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia — in the wake of Flessel’s comments, and none said it was considering such a drastic move. “Each host city presents a unique challenge from a security perspective, and, as is always the case, we are working with the organizers, the U.S. State Department and the relevant law enforcement agencies to ensure that our athletes, and our entire delegation, are safe,” U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky told Reuters. Flessel said France isn’t on the verge of a decision — “we’re not there yet,” she said — but the fact that she publicly aired her nation’s worries about the situation is a sign that the events of this week are reverberating well beyond the diplomatic sphere. Read more on the 2018 Olympics: NHL boss expects players, including Alex Ovechkin, to sit out the Olympics Alex Ovechkin still hoping to represent Russia at 2018 Winter Olympics Russian players leaving NHL for KHL over decision to forgo Olympics


NBC to air events live in all time zones at PyeongChang Olympics

NBC appears to have heard the siren call of sports fans who loudly complained about the network airing events on a time delay during last summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. On Tuesday, the network confirmed it will broadcast all of the events at next year’s Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, in real time. “Nothing brings America together for two weeks like the Olympics, and that communal experience will now be shared across the country at the same time both on television and streaming online,” Jim Bell, the president of NBC Olympics production and programming, said in a statement. “That means social media won’t be ahead of the action in any time zone, and as a result, none of our viewers will have to wait for anything.” NBC said its “primetime” coverage, which begins on the East Coast at 8 p.m., will begin at 7 p.m., 6 p.m. and 5 p.m., in the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones, respectively. This move, the network said, should eliminate much of the worry about spoilers, including for many of the most popular events like Alpine skiing, figure skating and snowboarding, which are slated to air during prime time. “We’re streaming it live, and social media has become so ubiquitous that hard to ignore even for people who are trying to avoid it,” Bell told the Los Angeles Times. “It just seemed like it was the right time to take this step.” The move comes as an about-face to the network’s approach to the games last summer that saw programming concentrate less on the results and more on the event’s underlying narratives. According to the network’s chief marketing officer, John Miller, the reasoning for that was because, “The people who watch the Olympics are not particularly sports fans.” “More women watch the games than men, and for the women, they’re less interested in the result and more interested in the journey,” Miller told Philly.com last year. “It’s sort of like the ultimate reality show and miniseries wrapped into one.” This theory did not sit well with many, including Post columnist Sally Jenkins, who said the approach to repackage material to air on a delay “insults viewers, and the athletes themselves. … especially female athletes.” “The Olympics is the most prominent competition in the world and 53 percent of Team USA is female, which means American women likely will bring in more medals


British cabinet shake-up notable for who stays, not who goes

— kept their jobs. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Brexit Minister David Davis all stayed put. "Clearly, she's keen to put her stamp on the party and do the things you try to do with reshuffles — bring through new talent, make the party more representative — but she's very constrained," Rob Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said of May's decisions. One constraint is keeping the delicate balance in May's top team between those who supported the "leave" agenda and those who backed "remain" in Britain's referendum on whether to stay in the European Union. Another, Ford said, is the risk of "potentially mobilizing any of the big beasts." He added: "It's the old Lyndon Johnson adage. I'll avoid the ruder version. You want them inside the tent weeing out, not outside the tent weeing in." May called last year's general election in hopes of strengthening her hand ahead of all-important Brexit negotiations. Instead, her Conservative Party now has to rely on Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to pass key legislation. The reshuffle was prompted in part by the ousting of Damian Green, May's deputy and the de facto deputy prime minister. Green was forced to step down after he made misleading statements about pornographic images found on his computer. David Lidington, the justice secretary, replaced Green on Monday but was not given Green's title of first secretary of state. In a surprise development, James Brokenshire, a longtime ally of May's, resigned from his post as Northern Ireland secretary, citing upcoming lung surgery. Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, replaced him. The reorganization will extend through Tuesday, when there could be a clutch of new mid-ranking ministers, commentators said. According to analysts, the party could promote a younger generation of politicians to try to lure some of the youth vote that has gone to the opposition Labour Party. The top-level changes announced Monday did not happen without an embarrassing gaffe. The reshuffle began when the Conservative Party's social media team tweeted congratulations to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling on his appointment as the new Conservative Party chairman. The tweet was quickly deleted, and it was announced shortly afterward that the job would in fact go to Lewis, the immigration minister. "That reign of Conservative Party chairman lasted about 37 seconds," noted Sky News's Faisal Islam. karla.adam@washpost.com


The Health 202: Can marijuana survive the disapproving glare of Jeff Sessions?

marijuana. —In Colorado, where recreational cannabis has been legal for three years, U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer said his primary concern is whether a prosecution would make the state safer. "We have more freedom and flexibility to make decisions that make Colorado safer by prosecuting individuals and organizations for marijuana crimes that significantly threaten our community safety," Troyer's office said in a statement. "Rather than give U.S. attorneys any specific direction, the memo returns trust and local control to federal prosecutors and clarifies that they know how to deploy their resources to make their districts safer," the statement continued. —While Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, called marijuana a "dangerous drug" in a statement responding to Sessions's announcement, he also said his office would concentrate on bulk cultivation and trafficking cases, and those who use the federal banking system illegally. "This office will pursue federal marijuana crimes as part of its overall approach to reducing violent crime, stemming the tide of the drug crisis and dismantling criminal gangs," Lelling said. —Adam Braverman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, issued a somewhat more bullish statement, noting that the "cultivation, distribution and possession of marijuana has long been and remains a violation of federal law." "We will continue to utilize long-established prosecutorial priorities to carry out our mission to combat violent crime, disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations and stem the rising tide of the drug crisis," he said. To cannabis lawyer Sean McAllister, the most extreme, worst-case scenario is that some U.S. attorneys decide to shut down distributors of recreational pot on a large scale. But he, too, says a more likely scenario is that prosecutors chase black market operators as they've already done. "The idea that they're going to come after some of us who have state licenses, who follow the rules, still seems a relatively low risk at this point," said McAllister, who is a member of the National Cannabis Industry Association and whose firm handles cases in Colorado, California, Oregon and Florida. Sessions's announcement, however, could prompt more members of Congress to get behind measures making marijuana legal on a federal level or at least prohibiting Justice from prosecuting recreational use in states where it's legal. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.): Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.): Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.): Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.): But for now, most people who understand the government's traditional approach to


Climate change is turning 99 percent of these baby sea turtles female

took plasma samples and released the animals. It is difficult to distinguish young male turtles from females. Their external features are unhelpful — you cannot simply flip a subadult turtle over and inspect the undercarriage. In the past, researchers cut open juvenile turtles to inspect their gonads. But the researchers want to minimize their impact on the population; the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists these animals as endangered. And laparoscopic turtle surgery is an untenable proposition at scale. Allen worked on a new technique to reveal the turtles' sex through their hormones. The scientists examined the plasma samples in a California lab. “You can’t use genetic tests,” Allen said, because “they don't have sex chromosomes like humans do.” Biologists discovered the first turtle thermometer gene in snapping turtles in 2016. Not all turtles regulate their sexes this way, but snapping turtles are like green sea turtles in this regard. Why turtle sex is linked to temperature remains unclear, though some biologists have a hypothesis: Turtles that develop in colder conditions grow larger, and it might benefit a turtle species if the larger ones are males. Previous studies had predicted that green sea turtles and other temperature-dependent reptiles might be changing in response to a warmer climate. Turtles around the world “are absolutely being affected right now,” said Owens, who has collaborated with some of the study authors in the past. “Many of the other species and populations my colleagues are studying are already showing 90 percent or more female populations.” But no one had seen anything quite to this extent. (“Holy moly” is how Allen described her initial reaction to the results of the lab tests.) If Raine Island is a baby factory, the assembly-line switch has been thrown in one direction. It churns out female turtle after female turtle. More than 99 percent of young turtles are female, the scientists found, and 87 percent of mature turtles are female. For every juvenile male, there are 116 female turtles. Doom will not come for these turtles tomorrow. In fact, the overall turtle population might briefly increase, as long as the more numerous female turtles can find males to fertilize their eggs. Turtles do not need a 50:50 ratio of males to females. “A few males can go a really long way,” Jensen said. “Male turtles mate more frequently” than female turtles do. “It’s hard to say whether it's


José Andrés offers to buy lunch for winners of Trump’s ‘Fake News Awards’

in his “Dishonest and Corrupt Media Awards.” The president, for whom “fake news” is a common refrain, announced last week that he would be highlighting the work of journalists whose truth does not align with his. “To all the winners for Mondays’s [sic] Dishonest and Corrupt Media Awards of @realdonaldtrump I want to contribute with lunch on me in any of my restaurants as a reward,” the chef tweeted. Trump later announced his plans to push the “awards” back to Wednesday. It’s not the first time the celebrity chef has had a beef with the president. Andres backed out of his restaurant concept for the Trump Hotel in Washington — it was supposed to be a Spanish-Japanese restaurant — in July 2015 after the candidate’s disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants. The move triggered a lawsuit and a countersuit, and the president and the restaurateur settled last April under undisclosed terms. Meanwhile, Andrés — a naturalized American citizen — has flexed his activism muscles. He was vocal about February’s Day Without Immigrants protest, and closed all but one of his D.C. restaurants. In September, Andrés became the face of disaster relief after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, where many people are still without power, months later. The chef’s World Central Kitchen served more hot meals than the Red Cross. And he continued to needle the Trump administration on Twitter, criticizing the president’s response to Puerto Rico, and at one point, offering a free drink to staffers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during a period of public confusion about who the agency’s director was. In short: He is very good at trolling, in addition to cooking. It’s unclear which journalists will be named in Trump’s awards, but they will have their choice of lunches at any of Andrés’s restaurants. China Chilcano, Oyamel, Jaleo and Zaytinya, are likely to be the top choices, given the low price point for Beefsteak, his veggie lunch joint. But some journalists had their hearts set on something a little fancier, like Minibar, Andrés’s restaurant that won two Michelin stars. Sorry, journos: Minibar isn’t open for lunch. And neither is Fish, Andrés’s pricey restaurant at the MGM National Harbor casino. More from Food: 2017 was the year of chicken nuggets After guests claim dress-code racism, a D.C. restaurant changes its ‘no sneakers’ policy José Andrés on Donald Trump’s victory: Life will go on, and so will business


Why infectious diseases are making a comeback

that a few big killers, notably measles, evolved from animals such as cattle. But of far greater danger as a source of new infectious diseases, now and in the deep past, is the array of wild animals in contact with humans, including birds, primates, bats and rodents. Our colonization, transformation and often destruction of ecosystems expands the zone of contact between ourselves and the next lethal pathogen. The vast majority of emerging human diseases evolved from agents that cause infection in wild animals. In short, the big story of humanity and infectious disease can no longer be pitched as a tale in which the singular rise of civilization caused a host of new diseases that were eventually overcome by the very ingenuity of advanced civilizations. The common thread of the newer history is that “emerging infectious diseases” arrive from evolution, which is unpredictable but accelerated by human transformation of global ecosystems and the construction of massive transportation networks connecting human societies. Pathogen evolution has been a great wild card across human history, playing a role in grand historic transformations such as the fall of Rome, the Black Death and the colonization of the New World. Historians have long been aware of the role of invisible germs in the shifting fortunes of human societies, but now scholarly alliances between humanists and scientists — partnerships of the laboratory and the library — are sharpening our understanding of how the smallest evolutionary changes can have the profoundest of consequences. This history puts our moment into deeper perspective. Until the combination of modern nutrition, modern hygiene and modern medicine intervened, infectious diseases were becoming an increasingly volatile menace. Just in time, the marvelous advances of modern science came to the rescue. But this rescue disproportionately favored the fortunate classes in the temperate latitudes. Above all, it did not stop evolution from tinkering, ever searching for ways to subvert our modern weapons, such as resistance to antibiotics. Evolution continues to cast forth new scourges, ready to try their fortunes on the stage of an ever more interconnected and environmentally disturbed planet. We will never revert to the position of utter helplessness faced by our pre-modern ancestors. But it is helpful to be reminded that evolution is unpredictable and directionless. The world we have made — interconnected, inequitable, complacent — is evolution’s playground, and our dominance may prove more fragile than we would like to believe.


Federal contracting in 2018: Opportunities and risks for a company town

The federal government is the primary customer of a substantial portion of our region’s technology businesses. So it bears watching what it does. Industry participants tell me that the coming year looks promising, but even so, there are reasons for concern. Bobbie Kilberg, president and chief executive of the local trade group, the Northern Virginia Technology Council, and someone with her finger on the pulse of our region’s technology economy, is optimistic that 2018 will be a good year for the government contracting industry. She points to the Trump administration’s attention to IT modernization and innovation, focusing on what she describes as the “plumbing of administration.” This modernization trend dovetails closely with areas where our local businesses have proven technology expertise. John Wood, CEO of Telos, a company that focuses on data security and integrity, said the federal government’s rapid adoption of cloud-based software should play to a regional strength. Michael Isman, managing director of Deloitte Consulting, said there will likely be opportunities in digital reality, blockchain data storage, and automation. Anita Antenucci, senior managing director at the law firm Houlihan Lokey, a mergers and acquisitions expert, points directly to our local expertise in serving the specific needs of the government customer. Emerging technologies that are driving changes in the private sector are just as necessary to the government, if not more so. When the government has what Antenucci describes as “demanding and urgent” challenges, it is our local businesses that satisfy the need. She points to cybersecurity as a specific example of this phenomenon. Chuck Brooks, a nationally-recognized observer of technology trends, agreed with Antenucci, adding that “the growth in both the number and quality of cybersecurity companies in greater D.C. has been amazing.” Owners of businesses that deliver technology solutions and products that government needs will have an additional opportunity: the potential to sell their companies to motivated purchasers. Kevin DeSanto, managing director and co-founder of KippsDeSanto and an expert on mergers and acquisitions, sees current stock market and interest rate trends as providing strong incentives for larger companies to be aggressive about purchasing smaller businesses in 2018. Antenucci strongly echoed this sentiment. Although reasons for optimism abound, there are also reasons to fear that the pace of government purchasing might be slower than the urgency of the need for new technologies would suggest. Paul Leslie, CEO of Dovel, a government contractor with a focus on health care


Rob Test 004

gasdgf This is a developing story. It will be updated.


Community deaths

Obituaries of residents from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia. Constance Jackson, GPO staffer Constance Jackson, 81, a native and lifelong resident of Washington who retired in 1994 after 25 years service at what is now the Government Publishing Office, died Nov. 13 at a hospital in the District. The cause was lung cancer, said a son, Walter Jackson. Mrs. Jackson was born Constance Cooper. She worked in the documents mailing section of GPO. Joel Markowitz, theater arts supporter Joel Markowitz, 60, a supporter of theater arts in the Washington area and creator of an arts website to review lesser-known artists and arts productions, died Nov. 7 at his home in North Bethesda, Md. The cause was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, said a brother, Saul Markowitz. Mr. Markowitz was born in Buffalo and moved to the Washington area in 1983. He reviewed dramatic productions for several websites until launching his own, DCMetroTheaterArts.com, in 2012. On his site, he specialized in writing about actors in neighborhood and community theaters and high school productions. Nona Cox, lawyer, volunteer Nona Cox, 99, who did volunteer work for Head Start, Meals on Wheels and the Democratic Party, died Nov. 11 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. The cause was a heart attack, said a son, Jeffrey Cox. Mrs. Cox, a Bethesda resident, was born Nona Fumerton in Butte, Mont. She was a law clerk in the Washington state supreme court and practiced law in Ann Arbor, Mich., before moving to the D.C. area in 1961. She was a member of Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ in Bethesda. Anna Henrich, school bus driver Anna Henrich, 89, a Prince William County, Va., school bus driver from the 1970s to the 1990s, died Oct. 9 at a nursing center in Fredericksburg, Va. The cause was heart ailments, said a grandson, Rob Henrich. Mrs. Henrich, a resident of Woodbridge, Va., was born Anna Strouse in Heiligenstadt, Germany. She came to the United States after World War II following her marriage to an American soldier stationed in Germany, and settled in the D.C. area in 1961. She did volunteer work with Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church in Woodbridge. A. James 'Al' Golato, IRS official, school board chairman A. James "Al" Golato, 94, a retired agent of the Internal Revenue Service who also served on the Bowie (Md.) City Council and chaired the Prince George's County Board of Education


Sessions stands against conservatives — including Trump — to fight marijuana

been dispelled by science, such as cannabis's gateway effect and the idea that marijuana is "only slightly less awful" than heroin. Support for cannabis reform in the United States has grown significantly over the past 25 years. Once seen as a dangerous fantasy of college stoners and hippies, legal cannabis has gone mainstream. In the latest Gallup polling from October, 64 percent of Americans supported cannabis reform for recreational adult use, and a recent Quinnipiac poll showed 71 percent of Americans opposed a federal crackdown in legal states. Over the past five years, eight states and the District have affirmed cannabis reform in statewide votes, reflecting this public approval. In 2012, Colorado and Washington state voters approved reform with 55 percent of the vote. In 2014, 56 percent of Oregonians, 53 percent of Alaskans and 65 percent of D.C. residents approved reform. And in November 2016, voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada approved reform. In fact, when the first states legalized in 2012, about 50 percent of Americans supported adult-use cannabis reform. Since states began to experiment with this policy, support has grown significantly — up 14 percentage points nationwide. Cannabis reform is now supported by a majority of Democrats, independents and Republicans. Governors — including Democrats, Republicans and independents — in the states that have legalized have told the federal government to stay away because their systems are working well and reflect the will of their citizens. Even the president has suggested that he disagrees with a policy like this. During the presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump mentioned numerous times that he supported a states' rights approach to adult-use cannabis. He did not say he supported federal intervention, an activist attorney general or a reigniting of the drug war. He said he supported states' rights on the issue. So it seems that Sessions, who has spent a career as a drug warrior — putting people in jail on drug charges as a state and federal law enforcement official and voting in favor of harsh drug policies as a U.S. senator — is acting on his own accord with this policy reversal. But at the same time, Sessions has promoted a traditional, conservative ideology that opposes unchecked federal intervention, champions states' rights and espouses free-market economics. In many ways, the Cole Memo endorses all three tenets of this ideology. It stopped U.S. attorneys from using the might of the


Trump’s aid cuts won’t make Pakistan change

a surgical uprooting of terrorist support systems inside Pakistan. The former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, agrees. “Pakistan’s military has convinced itself that it is acting in Pakistan’s national interest and that pursuing that interest is more important than U.S. aid. An aid cutoff may not be the huge price that would force Pakistan to change a policy of terrorism that is now three decades old. President Trump would have to go farther than an aid cutoff to force Pakistan’s hand,” he told me, arguing that any “limp U.S. response would simply say to Pakistan that it does not have to change.” It is telling that (notwithstanding the temptation to gloat) India’s foreign ministry avoided any hasty comment on Trump’s Twitter rant. A high-ranking Indian official who works on Afghanistan told me, “India has itself always highlighted the deceit and duplicity with which Pakistan has actually nurtured and protected various terrorist groups while pretending to be an ally in the war on terror. It is good to see that the international community is no longer being taken in by Pakistan’s lies, false narratives and propaganda. Putting an end to terrorist sanctuaries and safe havens in Pakistan is essential to bringing peace to Afghanistan and the region.” But Indian officials are aware that while Trump’s bombastic outburst gives the impression of a dramatic first-time tectonic shift in policy, American military aid has been scaled back from Pakistan several times in the past, including most recently during the Obama years. In 2011, the Obama administration suspended $800 million of military aid two months after U.S. Navy SEALs took out Osama bin Laden in a residential compound just three hours away from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. In 2015, $300 million of the Pentagon’s Coalition Support Funds were made conditional on Pakistan acting against the Haqqani network terrorist group in Afghanistan — Pakistan’s main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, has long been accused of patronizing and protecting the group. Frankly, none of it has worked. Last year, Husain Haqqani co-wrote a paper with Lisa Curtis (who today serves as part of the Trump administration) asserting that Americans need to stop viewing Pakistan as an ally. “The new U.S. administration should recognize that Pakistan is not an American ally. It has engaged in supporting the Afghan Taliban, who have killed American troops and their allies in Afghanistan,” they wrote in the Hudson Institute


Major initiative seeks to combat U.S. soldiers’ weight problems and injuries

human performance is part of the impetus behind H2F, Frost says. But the initiative is also a reaction to the current American population, which is not nearly as fit as in previous generations. Frost says it's a challenge to fight when tens of thousands of soldiers — or, as he calls them, "our primary weapons system" — are non-deployable because of weight problems and injuries. Folks signing up to serve were once in peak condition, Frost says. "I like to say that 15 to 30 years ago, recruits were better prepared. We were analogous to marinated steaks," he explains. "Throw us on the grill and we were ready to be soldiers. "Now we are getting more frozen steaks — less prepared recruits. And sometimes the gap is further — you've got to get the cow, slaughter it and process it, freeze it, then marinate it to be a better prepared soldier." One emerging issue is that soldiers are entering with poor bone density, explains Michael S. McGurk, director of research and analysis at the Center for Initial Military Training. Put them through a rigorous fitness program, and they're likely to get hurt, he says. That's obviously no fun for them, and it's not cost-effective for the military. In response, his team has created the Performance Readiness Bar, a chocolate-flavored snack that sneaks in vitamin D and calcium supplements. Soldiers can look forward to sampling that in the coming years — along with a revamped fitness test, which sits at the heart of the H2F initiative. For nearly 40 years, the Army has graded service members on just three exercises: push-ups, situps and a two-mile run. That turns out to be a pretty lousy way of judging how prepared soldiers really are for combat, McGurk says. And they know it, notes Maj. Nate Showman, a former exercise instructor at the U.S. Military Academy who's now deputy operations officer with the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) at Vicenza. These are paratroopers who load heavy stuff onto planes and then jump out of them. Showman says soldiers are often confused by the situation. "They say, 'This is what I'm tested on, but that is what you need me to do,' " he explains. The newly proposed Army Combat Readiness Test keeps the run and modifies the push-ups. (Instead, they're "T push-ups," which means you finish each rep by lying flat on the


Chinese women reveal sexual harassment, but #MeToo movement struggles for air

BEIJING — When Sophia Huang Xueqin was a young intern working for a national news agency in China, a senior male reporter and mentor tried to grope and kiss her in a hotel room where they were working together. "My mind went blank, my heart was beating really fast and my body went stiff," she said. "I didn't want to believe it had happened to me. I wondered if I had done anything wrong, to be misunderstood. I asked myself how someone I respected could suddenly put on such a different face." When her colleague refused to take no for an answer, Huang escaped only by kicking him and kneeing him in the groin, and running off to a friend's room. But she never reported the incident. Instead, she quit her job, telling people that she wanted to try something new. More than six years later, she is finally going public, inspired by the #MeToo movement spreading around the world, but dismayed that it has so far failed to take root in China. "Finally there were people brave enough to make it public and start the conversation," she said in an interview. "Unfortunately, China reacted toward #MeToo with a lot of silence. Although I could understand why that was, I really felt defeated." Huang wrote about her experience on social media, helping to fuel a conversation about widespread harassment in China — but one that is happening on the fringes of society and social media rather than in state-run media or the corridors of power. Huang has invited others to come forward. She also started a poll on WeChat, a popular messaging app in China, in which 255 female journalists shared their experiences: More than 80 percent reported they had been sexually harassed, most on multiple occasions. Yet very few women have joined her in going public. China's #MeToo moment still hasn't arrived, suppressed by a patriarchal culture and a male-dominated one-party state that obsessively protects those in power. "There is still a belief in China, deeply ingrained in traditional culture, that it is a virtue of women to be submissive to the wishes of others," said women's rights activist Ye Haiyan, whose own struggle to bring to justice a school principal for molesting six schoolgirls in 2013 — and the persecution she faced from the government and police for doing so — was recorded in the documentary "Hooligan Sparrow."


Washington Post Global Opinions adds Jamal Khashoggi, Richard Glover, Patrick Gathara, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Brian Klaas as contributing writers

The Washington Post announced that Jamal Khashoggi, Richard Glover and Patrick Gathara have been named contributing writers to Global Opinions, which features commentary from writers around the world. Vladimir Kara-Murza and Brian Klaas also join Global Opinions as contributors to the DemocracyPost blog. “Since launching in 2016, Global Opinions has given a growing number of readers—both in the U.S. and abroad—a front seat to some of the most important dialogues happening around the world and in American foreign policy,” said Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt. “As we continue to extend our international reach, we want to make some of these conversations a fixture for our readers. These five writers, who are among the leading thinkers in their respective fields and countries, will provide thoughtful analysis of the big stories in the Middle East, Kenya, Australia, Russia and in U.S. foreign relations.” Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, will offer commentary on the latest news from Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Glover, a presenter on ABC Radio Sydney, will write about current political affairs in Australia. Gathara, a writer and award-winning cartoonist, will write about political and social issues in Kenya and East Africa. Kara-Murza, vice chairman of Open Russia and former colleague of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, will write about the prospects of democracy in Russia. Klaas, a global politics fellow at the London School of Economics, will examine the state of U.S. democracy under President Donald Trump. The roster of Global Opinions contributors includes Barkha Dutt, a veteran Indian journalist, J.J. McCullough, who writes on Canadian politics, Michael McFaul, whose writing centers on U.S.-Russia relations, Turkish columnist Asli Aydintasbas, and John Pomfret, whose work focuses on China. Learn more about the writers: Richard Glover Patrick Gathara Vladimir Kara-Murza Brian Klaas


The mystery behind the fate of a top-secret satellite comes at the height of one of Elon Musk’s biggest rivalries

This story has been updated. At first, everything appeared to go smoothly. Elon Musk’s SpaceX cheered a successful liftoff of its Falcon 9 rocket Sunday evening. So did the Air Force’s 45th Space Wing, which operates the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. But on Monday, as reports surfaced that something went disastrously wrong with the classified satellite it had been hired to launch into orbit, SpaceX said that a review showed its Falcon 9 rocket “performed nominally,” or without incident. Then in a statement issued Tuesday morning, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said: "For clarity: after review of all data to date, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night. If we or others find otherwise based on further review, we will report it immediately." The mystery over what happened to the secretive satellite, known by its codename, “Zuma,” comes at a critical time for SpaceX, as it prepares to fly humans for the first time and keeps up a fierce rivalry for lucrative Pentagon launch contracts. For years, Musk proclaimed that SpaceX could save taxpayers millions by offering the Pentagon launches for far less than its chief competitor, the United launch Alliance, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. ULA, meanwhile, maintained that responsibility for national security satellites that cost hundreds of millions of dollars and help guide precision bombs and conduct surveillance should not just go to the lowest bidder. SpaceX launched Zuma on Sunday evening on its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in a mission so secretive that it is not known which government agency was responsible for the satellite, what the satellite cost or what it would do once in orbit. Northrop Grumman, which manufactured the Zuma satellite, said in a statement that it could not comment on the mission because it was classified. A website operated by the Pentagon did record a payload in space, but officials said that because the satellite is classified there were no details listed about its orbit. "It seems to me that a plausible explanation is that it got put into orbit, and stayed up long enough to get cataloged," said Brian Weeden, the director of program planning for the Secure World Foundation, a think tank. He added that if the satellite fell out of orbit it should have been noted on the website, known as space-track.org. But he added, "it would not be the first time that they've


Orgies, devil men and knife-wielding maniacs: A quick history of cannabis hysteria in California

As of last week, recreational marijuana is legal in California. And at about the same time legalization took effect, Attorney General Jeff Sessions appeared to be flirting with a federal crackdown on those states that have legalized the drug. California, of course, is not the first state to legalize the drug for recreational use, but it has generally been out in front of public policy shifts when it comes to marijuana. So now seems like a good time to look back at the state’s fascinating history with pot. Perhaps there are some lessons to be learned from that history. California was among the first states to prohibit cannabis. At the height of the temperance movement, California then toughened the penalties for possessing and selling the drug. During the mid-20th-century reefer madness, it toughened them again. As attitudes about marijuana relaxed in the 1970s, the state correspondingly relaxed those penalties. By the 1980s, the country was in the midst of a reactionary tough-on-crime wave, and California was at the fore. It was then the first state to legalize medical marijuana in the 1990s. California was home to the Haight-Ashbury counterculture movement, the Grateful Dead and Cheech & Chong. It’s also the home state of Richard Nixon, who birthed the modern drug war, and Ronald Reagan, the president who made Nixon’s war metaphor all too literal. Today, we’ll look at cannabis in California up until about the late 1960s. As I mentioned, California was among the first states to prohibit cannabis — a 1913 amendment to the state’s Poison Act made possession of the drug a misdemeanor. But oddly, as Dale Gieringer writes in his paper on the origin of cannabis prohibition in the state, that law doesn’t appear to have been in response to any notable use of the drug. In fact, if you wanted to ingest cannabis in early-20th-century California, you’d have had a tough time finding it. Spanish colonials did grow hemp in the state, a tradition that continued until the early 1800s. But hemp was grown only for fiber, and there’s no indication that cannabis was cultivated for its psychoactive properties. By the end of the 19th century, hemp production had all but ceased, and there were few references to hemp, cannabis or marijuana to be found. For his paper, Gieringer scoured news archives, literature, state records and medical publications, and found only a sprinkling of references to


Horace Ashenfelter, G-man who outpaced Soviet runner in ’52 Olympics, dies at 94

Club. Preparing for the Olympics in and out of the office, he worked overtime at the FBI, accruing the vacation hours his bosses required for a trip abroad, while training an hour or so each day. Racing up the stairways at work, he also worked out at a local park after putting his children to bed each night. Park benches, and what his wife remembered as a wooden horse he hid in the bushes, functioned as faux steeplechase barriers on his runs. Preparing for the course's water pits proved more of a challenge. The sloping pools stretch about 12 feet from the barriers, which runners leap off in an effort to propel themselves to the shallows, where the water is only a few inches deep. Mr. Ashenfelter's form was reportedly a work in progress even at the time of the Games, when according to a syndicated column by Smith, he altered his landing at the suggestion of a few Scandinavian competitors, hitting the water with one foot instead of two. The adjustment proved crucial. Before a crowd of about 70,000 people, Mr. Ashenfelter made the run of his life in the Olympic finals, going elbow-to-elbow with Kazantsev for much of the race. His last of seven laps, clocked in at 1 minute and 8.6 seconds, "would be an excellent sprint for a distance man running on the flat," the Associated Press wrote at the time. "For a man in the steeplechase, it was of heroic proportions." Jumping off a barrier and into the final water pit, Mr. Ashenfelter landed in stride and, amid the roar of a crowd that sensed the possibility of one of the Games' great upsets, launched into an unexpected sprint. His rival stumbled out of the water, appearing to lose energy, and Mr. Ashenfelter won not by a hair but by about 30 yards — a margin of some six seconds, an eternity in an Olympic race. Although steeplechase records were not officially tracked for another two years, Mr. Ashenfelter's time of 8:45.4 was considered a world record. Mr. Ashenfelter, sometimes known by the childhood nickname of Nip, became a national sensation. FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover sent his "heartiest congratulations" in a cablegram, and later that year Mr. Ashenfelter received the American Athletic Union's prestigious James E. Sullivan Award, given to the nation's most outstanding amateur athlete. Mr. Ashenfelter was the last American to receive


If you think grocery stores are playing tricks on you, they really are

items act as a speed bump, getting you to slow down and contemplate which treats you might need for upcoming holidays (or to treat yourself). Even if you don't buy these items immediately, the supermarket has put them on your mind. You'll find them placed throughout the store, making it easy for you to grab the cookies or candy you've been thinking about since you walked in. Move past the seasonal treats and you'll find yourself in the produce section. Produce is placed first in your path not to encourage you to buy more of it, but to make you feel super healthy. Once you have healthful options such as fruits and vegetables in your cart, you feel good about what you're buying. That means you're more likely to give in to the less healthful products you find throughout the store. Stores often go beyond strategic layout and also use scents to encourage you to buy certain products. Sometimes those scents go hand-in-hand with samples — such as when you can smell sausage cooking from the meat section — and sometimes grocery stores use machines to pump scents such as apple pie or chocolate chip cookies through the air, drawing you toward the bakery section. It's called "scent marketing," and yes, it works. The scents from sampling do double duty — they draw you in and encourage you to try the product, and they make you hungry. Once you try a product, you're much more likely to purchase it. But even if you don't buy the product being sampled, smelling the food and tasting a tiny bit leaves you wanting more, so you're more likely to cave and pick up foods that weren't on your list. How do you avoid giving in? Never go to the store on an empty stomach. Being hungry while shopping always leads to buying things you don't need — and that are not healthful. Grocery store shelves are also strategically laid out to sway your purchases. Companies pay top dollar to be placed at eye level, especially when they're marketing to children. Placing kid-geared (read: sugary and not so healthful) cereals where kids can see them is a major marketing tactic used by manufacturers. They know that if children can get attached to a product and beg their parents enough, chances are good that the product will end up in the cart. Get used to


a product, you're much more likely to purchase it. But even if you don't buy the product being sampled, smelling the food and tasting a tiny bit leaves you wanting more, so you're more likely to cave and pick up foods that weren't on your list. How do you avoid giving in? Never go to the store on an empty stomach. Being hungry while shopping always leads to buying things you don't need — and that are not healthful. Grocery store shelves are also strategically laid out to sway your purchases. Companies pay top dollar to be placed at eye level, especially when they're marketing to children. Placing kid-geared (read: sugary and not so healthful) cereals where kids can see them is a major marketing tactic used by manufacturers. They know that if children can get attached to a product and beg their parents enough, chances are good that the product will end up in the cart. Get used to saying no to the sugary cereals and offer your kids the healthier options that are typically at an adult's eye level. All of the sales tactics that can get you to buy less-nutritious foods also provide opportunities for supermarkets to help you make healthier choices. Placing more nutritious products at eye level or sampling fruits and vegetables can boost their sales. Some supermarkets have rolled out "Guiding Stars" or other similar programs to help you identify healthful options — and these programs have worked. "Buy one get one free" promotions or huge sales on highly processed foods can trick you into buying them to get a deal, but the same goes for healthful foods. Grocery stores are also using savings programs to encourage shopping for healthful products, because great value sells incredibly well. When you're done shopping, there's one more place that supermarkets can trick you: the checkout aisle. They are typically filled with inexpensive snacks, such as candy bars and chips. Supermarkets bank on you buying these things impulsively to eat in the car. The good news is that some grocery stores are now providing more healthful snack options at their checkouts. Shop in those checkout lanes (they're usually marked) and opt for fruit and nuts that are kept in stock. My best advice for staying on track while grocery shopping? Plan your meals for the week, write out a list of healthful items and stick to it. localliving@washpost.com


Two years ago, he clung to life, fighting a mystery illness. Now he could win Olympic gold.

PARK CITY, Utah — During the 10 days he spent near death, Torin Yater-Wallace had recurring dreams he still cannot explain. In one, he flew to 10 different states, strapped to a gurney with doctors fluttering around him and cords hooked to his body, like an episode of "House," but on airplanes. In another dream, Yater-Wallace saw himself stored in the freezer freight of a train, to keep his body temperature controlled. His thoughts, he recalled later, were crazy. Yater-Wallace, one of the best freestyle skiers in the world, woke up one morning at the end of 2015 feeling sick. He shrugged it off and went skiing. Days later, he arrived at the University of Utah hospital via airlift and was put in a medically induced coma, his lungs choked with fluid and his liver assaulted by an abscess. The illness turned out to be a rare bacterial infection, missed during several initial diagnoses. Doctors at one point told his mother and girlfriend to inform other loved ones they should make travel arrangements, in case Yater-Wallace did not survive. As he surveys the path that will probably lead to PyeongChang 2018, his second Winter Olympics, Yater-Wallace views his near-death hospital stay as only a most recent calamity surmounted. Months before his teenaged breakout in the sport, Yater-Wallace slept on friends' couches, the result of his father's scam wine business going bust. Before the Sochi Games in 2014, a physical therapist punctured a hole in his lung during what should have been a routine dry-needling therapy. "Medical things seem to just pop into my life and almost kill me all the time," Yater-Wallace said. "I literally don't know why." Yater-Wallace carries himself with the air of dude philosopher, a 22-year-old adept at extolling the virtue of an Egg McGriddle or the power of companionship from his girlfriend, Sarah Hendrickson, an Olympic hopeful in the ski jump, who spent five nights sleeping beside him while he rested in a coma. He recounts the harrowing details of his near-death experience in serene tones, coolness gained from a life of jumping on skis 15 feet in the air and spinning 1,400 degrees. He processes consequences without fear. Since his teens, Yater-Wallace has been, among peers, perhaps the world's most revered freestyle skier. "An icon of the sport, a deity in our sport," said his coach, Elena Chase. He skis with uncommon aggression and grace.


a nod to his reputation and past accomplishments. With diminished health, he finished 26th. At least coming out of Sochi, he had regained full health. He set his sights on his season and X Games and made it a goal to perform his best at PyeongChang. He didn't realize his physical traumas had just started. 'Worst thing you can imagine' One day in November 2015, Yater-Wallace woke up and thought he had the flu. He went skiing, like always. When he returned home, he shivered and ached. He drove to Utah because he needed a pair of ski boots and felt miserable in his car the whole time. In Park City, several doctors told him he had the flu. Over four days, he went to the emergency room three times. He got sent home once with Tamiflu. His temperature kept rising. Yater-Wallace's roommates and Hendrickson were out of town, but Hendrickson called his agent, Michael Spencer, to make sure he checked on him. Spencer came to his house and made him soup. He sensed something wrong. "Don't text me," Spencer told him. "Call me." At 1 in the morning, Spencer's phone rang. "Dude, I got to go the hospital," Yater-Wallace told him. "I can't even breathe." Spencer hurried him to the hospital in Park City. Yater-Wallace had horrific pain in his side, and his temperature had shot to 104. Doctors ran tests and life-flighted him to the University of Utah hospital. Delirious, Yater-Wallace insisted a helicopter would be too expensive, so they should drive. "Horribly scared," Yater-Wallace said. "I had never been so sick in my life. I hope nobody ever experiences that in their entire life." When he landed in Salt Lake City, doctors finally determined he had something far more serious than the flu. He had Streptococcus anginosus*. It rarely infects anybody, and when it does the victim is almost always over 40. Yater-Wallace was 19. Doctors had never seen anything like it. An abscess had formed in Yater-Wallace's liver, which caused his lungs to flood with fluid. It infected his gall bladder and made his organs expand. Four days after he had woken up feeling ill, doctors wheeled him into the ICU and placed him in medically induced paralysis. "Watching him in the hospital bed almost die for eight days was pretty much the worst thing you can imagine," Hendrickson said. "To have a nurse come in


A small town in Texas. A huge explosion. An unsolved mystery — and the long road back.

won't comment on it. The town's case against the fertilizer manufacturers and West Fertilizer is scheduled for a January trial in Waco. It "will reveal the explicit explosion risks known by the manufacturers of fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate," says lead plaintiff attorney Steve Harrison, and "how little of that information they shared with anyone else." But the defendants maintain that the plant and the fire department were well-informed about the detonation potential of ammonium nitrate, and that it doesn't explode if handled properly. They also argue that the ATF's ruling of a criminal act opens a flurry of questions that make it "impossible" to identify the exact cause of the disaster. Nevertheless, a "catastrophic incident" such as West's remains a risk that "exists throughout the state of Texas," according to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, and probably beyond: Across 47 states, there are at least 1,345 facilities working with ammonium nitrate, a substance over which federal authorities have limited oversight, according to the Government Accountability Office. (West Fertilizer asserts that it was regulated by "at least eight government agencies.") While the Obama administration drafted new safety rules to prevent another West, President Trump's EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, delayed their implementation to review comments from key players — state governments that argue that disclosing information about chemical facilities poses a security risk, and industry leaders, who cite the ambiguity left by the ATF ruling that the West fire was criminal. What you see in the wreckage depends on how you sort through it. "Sometimes I think that maybe it happened," Judy says, "because God said we were all drifting too far apart." That is the modern history of West: big farms swallowing small farms, Walmarts opening in Hillsboro and Bellmead, West's Main Street getting quieter, young people going off to college and not always returning. Everybody used to know everybody, older folks say, but at some point the fabric of the town began to loosen. "Maybe we were not going the direction He wanted us to," Judy says, "and maybe when this happened — whether He let it happen or not — it pulled the town back together." 'They're back' Easter 2017 came and went, as did talk of death and resurrection. The fourth anniversary came and went, as did talk of how to remember and how to move on. "Through hard work, caring relationships, perseverance, and faith, we


Was Vietnam winnable? A new book suggests yes and offers advice for the war in Afghanistan.

emphasis on governance to the fight in Iraq. He added, incidentally, that “The Road Not Taken” will help to make Lansdale more influential in the future by laying out his life and ideas. Nation-building is reviled by so many on the right. What are they misunderstanding? What they’re missing is that unless we help our allies to build up their own nations, their territory will remain a breeding ground for terrorism, extremism, disease, transnational crime and other ills that will affect us. Nation-building is the only way to secure a long-term victory. We didn’t do nation building after World War I, and look what happened. We did do nation-building after World War II, and the results were a lot more positive. We will seldom, however, do nation-building on the World War II model with hundreds of thousands of troops. More common will be the kind of nation building that Lansdale did, which involved dispatching a small number of advisers to work with foreign governments and militaries. That is, in fact, how we will win the war on terror–not with American combat troops but with American advisers. Look through a Lansdale lens: How do we win or can we win in Afghanistan? Focus on governance, and focus on supporting and advising Ashraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan, rather than imagine that we can win by simply killing the Taliban. That won’t work even if we’re dropping the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB). The key is to reduce corruption and increase government effectiveness, rather than backing warlords whose predations draw fresh recruits to the Taliban camp. We have such an imbalance in the administration in favor of military men, but we have some pretty great military figures. Does that worry you? Should we do it again? I’m not overly worried about the presence of military men such as John Kelly, H.R. McMaster and Jim Mattis in the senior ranks of the administration; they are all sophisticated thinkers with far clearer ideas about the world than the president they serve. But it does set a troubling precedent to have so many generals in positions of authority. It would have been nice if Trump had not alienated most of the normal foreign-policy pros who would be expected to staff an administration. Vietnam is also remembered for the lack of transparency and for successive presidents misleading the public. What’s the challenge in a 24/7 news


Pepco, Washington Gas say they’ll reduce rates to pass federal tax savings to customers

Pepco, Washington Gas and other utilities say they plan to pass on to customers the money they'll save in paying lower corporate income taxes under the federal tax law that took effect Jan. 1. The Republican-sponsored legislation signed by President Trump on Dec. 22 cut the federal corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Customers probably will see smaller-than-anticipated increases in gas and electricity rates or credits on their bills, utility and state officials said. The tax cut affects only private utility companies. Government-operated utilities, such as D.C. Water and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, do not pay federal corporate income taxes. Washington Gas officials say they plan to pass on an estimated $34 million in annual tax savings in the rates charged to 1.1 million customers in the District, Maryland and Virginia. The lower rates would kick in early this year, the company said. Dominion Energy, Virginia's largest utility, with 2.5 million customers, is evaluating the impact of the corporate tax cut and "how it might benefit our customers," spokesman Chuck Penn said. But consumer advocates said utilities across the United States must pass the tax savings to their customers because taxes are part of the "cost of service" that utilities are permitted to offset in the rates that state regulators approve. If those costs fall, consumer advocates said, so too must customers' bills. In the District and at least nine states, including Virginia and Maryland, commissions that regulate utility rates have said they are exploring how customers can reap the benefits of the corporate tax cuts. Sandra Mattavous-Frye, the D.C. People's Counsel, a city government official who represents the interests of utility customers, said that taxpaying utilities are required to pass on those savings, as they did after the last federal tax cut. "It's not a whether," Mattavous-Frye said. "It's a when and how much." For example, she said, Pepco recently proposed increasing rates in the District to generate an additional $66.2 million. That proposed increase in rates — Pepco has said it would raise the typical residential customer's bill by 9.24 percent, or about $7.54, monthly — must be reduced to reflect the tax savings, she said. Pepco officials have said they plan to do so in early February. The utility also has proposed increasing rates in Maryland to generate $41 million, which it says it needs to cover work done last year to


The Trump administration’s climate modeling is the Orwell Model

The big news yesterday was mudslides killing people in California. Huge mudslides following huge rainfall following huge wildfires following huge drought. You almost might detect a pattern. Almost, but not as far as the United States is concerned. The government of the United States is making climate change disappear under a mudslide of its own: covering over, covering up and washing away information about the subject altogether. The purge of climate information from government websites continues. Aside from the fact that California is a blue state and therefore considered deserving of whatever punishment it gets, don’t look for any attempts to get an understanding of why these unnatural disasters strike California or elsewhere — now, in the past or in the future. The government is publishing a Memory Hole Earth Catalogue of partial, misleading and vanished information to help guide public policy. While the mudslide sounded like a freight train according to a resident, climate change doesn’t sound like anything at all according to the government. Or look or feel like anything. It is as invisible as the carbon dioxide that is driving it. “Clean coal” really means “cleansed websites.” Scrubbers are deployed against undesirable information. The Trump administration has asserted that it is free to highlight information that supports its agenda. It surely is, and what might that agenda be? In a new “cycle of nature” loop, the administration’s agenda is to cover up information, and voilà — its energy policy will have no repercussions that the administration will tell you about. What you don’t know can’t hurt them. But it can surely hurt you, and will. It could be flooding, it could be a tornado, it could be a wildfire, it could be searing drought, it could be a hurricane. We are loading a pistol of Russian roulette with a different disaster in every chamber. And aiming it at our heads. Our heads that President Trump wants to see deprived of information about what is being aimed at us.


How it feels at Berklee College of Music, a school grappling with sexual misconduct allegations

I’m going to be in it, I need to change it.” Stahlmann wrote an essay for The Washington Post, explaining what it feels like at her school. The Berklee College of Music late last year joined a larger national conversation on sexual assault and misconduct, as the Boston Globe reported on allegations at the prestigious school. For Berklee’s students, staff and faculty, the Globe’s report led to a wave of emotions and activism on our campus in Boston. In November, members of my college community received an email from Berklee President Roger Brown, a message that was a response to the Globe article. To those who had not read the newspaper piece, the email proved surprising: Berklee was embroiled in sexual misconduct allegations. The Globe revealed that Berklee’s administration had allegedly mishandled sexual misconduct and assault cases for years. Students and faculty had been issued gag orders and cases had been shoved under the rug, according to the article. The alleged incidents involved faculty members and student victims. It was heart-wrenching to read. Based on the Globe story, it seemed that the school I love — my dream school since eighth grade — had failed us all greatly. I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Within days, a revolution was arising among students and faculty. Members of Berklee’s student body quickly organized a protest and crafted a collective list of demands backed by thousands of signatures. Hundreds of passionate students showed up to a forum about our administration’s handling of sexual assault cases. This news broke during my first semester at Berklee. But on that day, I was part of a movement fueled by years of pent-up emotion. Students packed into the Berklee Performance Center for the forum or followed along through a livestream. Brown told the crowd that 11 faculty members had been terminated in the past 13 years. “To everyone who has been harassed or abused at Berklee, I am so sorry,” he said at the time. “I apologize for this institution. It’s unacceptable. It breaks my heart. It goes against everything that makes me want to be here in the first place.” I had been part of the group that organized the protest. Two other students and I authored a speech that detailed proposed changes, as well as a timeline for action. When I got up to speak, I looked around the room and saw


We need a national policy effort to head off data breaches

Regarding the Jan. 6 news "As security flaws are revealed, tech firms barely keep up": Whether the security flaw is in software or hardware, it should be no surprise that there is no effective protection of data. The Meltdown and Spectre design flaws are of significance only because they are in hardware CPU chips and in all commercial computers installed over the past decade. Further, these hardware vulnerabilities cannot be absolutely closed without replacing the physical chip in every computer — something neither practical nor speedy. The real problem is that all cybersecurity efforts are rooted in where the data is located and not in the data itself. Move the data, and the security changes. Exploits of hardware and software vulnerabilities can be enabled only in software. Yet all computers today operate with a set of "controls and permissions" — governing all operations of the computer — that reside within each computer's software. And vulnerabilities within any software (and hardware) can be exploited to circumvent these controls and permissions. Until we relocate and embed the controls and permissions as part of the data itself, this cybersecurity problem will continue, and attackers will have the upper hand. Data security is the No. 1 problem in national and personal security, yet there is no focused effort by national policy nor industry discussion of this potential solution using data-embedded security. Frank J. Sauer The writer, a former FBI deputy assistant director for software, is researching defenses against cybercrime and cyberterrorism for Outdo Inc.


Exquisite fossils show butterflies appeared before there were flowers to pollinate

The two paleontologists dissolving rock cores more than 200 million years old were looking for vestiges of freshwater algae. Instead, tiny fragments of insect scales caught their eye — remnants that a report published Wednesday identifies as the oldest evidence of butterflies and moths. A series of fortunate events led to this discovery, which dates the insects to around 70 million years earlier than previously known, well before there were flowers around that they could pollinate. In the fall of 2012, Paul K. Strother of Boston College, an expert in prehistoric pollen and spores, traveled to Germany to the lab of Bas van de Schootbrugge, a fellow microfossil paleontologist. There they dissolved cores dating to the late Triassic and early Jurassic periods by exposing the material to a nasty acid. The acid erased everything but fossilized organic material. What grabbed Strother's attention were infinitesimally tiny scales. “It struck me that these looked like butterfly scales,” he recalled. Butterfly and moth wings are covered in tiny scales that overlap like shingles on a roof. The scientists contacted experts studying modern insects, who deflated their hopes of identifying butterflies. The scales were described as “not diagnostic,” Strother said — meaning such parts did not belong only to a specific insect group. Some mosquitoes and flies have scales, too. About a year later in Paris, Strother found himself seated at a dinner near a man named Torsten Wappler. The University of Bonn scientist, an expert in extinct insects, had just published an extensive phylogeny, or family tree, describing 479 million years of insect evolution. Strother, who kept images of the curious scales on his computer, whipped out the photos. Wappler examined them and told Strother that it would be possible to classify the insects. It would just take a lot of grunt work down the barrel of a microscope. Van de Schootbrugge enlisted an undergraduate student named Timo J. B. van Eldijk for the task. “Timo is the guy that did all the work,” Strother said. The acid reduced the rock cores to what van Eldijk called “black organic smudge.” Out of this smudge he had to isolate the scales, which to the naked eye look just like a pile of dust. He embedded the dust in a mixture of glycerol and water. Then, using a needle tipped with a human nose hair, van Eldijk managed to prod the scales into view beneath