Banks want a hit of the marijuana business. Will they get to partake?

The U.S. banking industry has a marijuana problem. Cannabis is legal in some form in more than two dozen states. But it is still illegal on the federal level, leaving most risk-averse banks too scared to do business with legal marijuana businesses for fear of angering their regulators. The banking industry, having spotted a potentially lucrative untapped market, has pushed lawmakers for years to tackle the issue, to no avail. They may finally be getting somewhere. On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives held its first hearing on the topic, an event considered so momentous that several banking groups sent out news releases and held conference calls. “Today’s hearing is a big deal,” said Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), who has been pushing legislation to address the issue for years. The House Financial Services subcommittee took up proposed legislation, the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2019 or SAFE Banking Act, that would protect banks and their employees from punishment for providing services to cannabis businesses that are legal on a state level. Some small banks have offered accounts to marijuana businesses but acknowledge it creates new regulatory burdens. Most, such as Washington-based State Bank Northwest, say even offering someone who works for a dispensary a loan or doing business with a local utility can create a headache. “We have a major energy provider. Naturally, their customers include cannabis-related businesses,” bank President Gregory Deckard told the committee, explaining why State Bank Northwest has stayed out of the business. “For that reason alone, my bank cannot bank this utility without assuming legal risk and additional compliance burdens.” Without a bank account, legal marijuana businesses must operate on a cash basis, making them targets for robberies, supporters of the legislation testified. In California, cannabis dispensaries have dropped off duffel bags and suitcases full of cash to pay their taxes, Fiona Ma, the state’s treasurer, told the committee. Some drive hundreds of miles to drop off the money, she said. “We have the power in this committee to prevent murders and armed robberies, and we must use it, we must use it now,” said Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), who is co-sponsoring the legislation. Two weeks of pay for an employee of a cannabis business can top a few thousand dollars, said Maj. Neill Franklin, who spoke on behalf of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. “I fear dispensary employees being at great risk,” he


‘You can feel it now’: New Democrats push party, and 2020 candidates, to the left on divisive issues

has a really good idea or a big idea that I have to talk in great detail about my position on it,” Brown said at a breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “I know that the easy thing to do is say, ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.’ ” At her appearance in Davenport, Warren gave a lengthy answer when asked whether she supports the Green New Deal resolution, saying that she’s gratified to see so much attention focused on climate change but steered clear of some of the specifics in the proposal. And at a Monday night town hall meeting in Iowa City — where she was introduced as “the most progressive candidate” in the race — Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) said in an interview that the Green New Deal resolution did not have enough specifics for her. “There’s a lot of things that are vague and can be open to misinterpretation or lead to unintended consequences,” Gabbard said. “Fracking [hydraulic fracturing] and nuclear power are two things that are not mentioned in that resolution at all. The waste that is produced by nuclear power is waste that we’re going to have to deal with forever.” The Green New Deal is just one of several issues where candidates are describing one thing while activists are demanding another, even when using the same language. With the exception of Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), for example, every Democratic senator running for president has endorsed “Medicare-for-all” legislation, which if implemented would phase in a national health plan with only limited roles for private insurers. But each Democrat has described the goal differently. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said in his weekend stops across Iowa that he backed a “Medicare-for-all option,” describing a government program into which people could buy while leaving private insurance in place. Six of the seven senators who are seeking the Democratic nomination or seriously considering bids have signed on to a Green New Deal resolution from Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.). Five of the seven put their names on a Medicare-for-all proposal from the last Congress that would phase out private health insurance. Meanwhile, Klobuchar, who announced her presidential candidacy this week, distanced herself from the details of the Green New Deal proposal circulated by Ocasio-Cortez’s office. She said Tuesday on Fox News that she would vote for the climate change resolution but that


Why the United States will never have high-speed rail

California likes to think of itself as the state where the future happens, and in 2008, its voters decided the future was high-speed rail. In November of that year, they approved a $9 billion bond issue to begin one of the most ambitious government infrastructure projects in U.S. history: a bullet train connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles, at a cost of $33 billion. For years, the optimists have spun starry visions of millions of Californians traveling quickly, comfortably and environmentally consciously between the state’s two major population centers. The pessimists, meanwhile, have grimly watched the projected costs mount. At last count, the estimates had traveled northward of $75 billion, and for all anyone could tell, were still climbing. On Tuesday, during his first State of the State speech, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called for the state to scale back the project to a less costly leg that would run through the Central Valley — much simpler to build in large part because there are relatively few people there who might want to raise objections to the project, or, say, ride a high-speed train. California voters can stop clutching their wallets. But voters elsewhere should pay close attention, because what happened in California illustrates the perils that face any U.S. rail project, or for that matter, any project at all that tries to meaningfully reshape U.S. infrastructure. Almost anyone who travels abroad comes back wondering why every other country in the world seems to have cheap, speedy rail travel while Americans can barely go out for a cup of coffee without enduring either the tedium of an endless road-trip or the indignities of the TSA. Sadly, there is no one reason; rather, there are many reasons, all of them hard-to-impossible to fix, all of them conspiring to deprive us of the (gee-whiz!) trains that many of us would like to ride. Distance Wealth. Legal Proceduralism Cost. Read any essay bemoaning the cost of American infrastructure — say Brian Rosenthal’s 2017 behemoth for the New York Times — and don’t just gawk at the inflated numbers; ask yourself why U.S. infrastructure projects use so many consultants, so many union featherbedders and so on. Answer: They are there to fend off future lawsuits, or to smooth compliance with some other level of government’s regulatory bodies, or to appease some powerful lobby. And because these infrastructure projects involve so many different governments, none


A Democratic governor just quashed Democrats’ dreams of high-speed rail in America

President Barack Obama secured $8 billion in his 2009 economic stimulus package to start building toward the dream of true high-speed trains whisking passengers between major American cities. It was a paltry amount compared to the hundreds of billions it would actually take to fulfill that dream, but it was considered a serious down payment. At the time, Obama’s transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, said, “I’m not a historian, but I know this: One of the legacies for this administration, for the president and the vice president, will be high-speed rail. That will be their transportation legacy.” A decade later, little progress has been made on getting the country any closer to having the type of modernized train system popular in Europe and Asia. On Tuesday the dream got its harshest blow yet: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced he was scaling back plans for high-speed rail between Los Angeles and San Francisco. That stretch seemed the most likely to succeed. It’s six hours by car without traffic and 90 minutes by air, so transportation that split the difference would in theory attract riders. Even voters in 2008 agreed through a ballot initiative to let the state buy up $10 billion in bonds for that corridor. But Newsom during his State of the State address said the project as planned was too costly for the state and so for now they’d just be completing a shorter leg through the Central Valley so as to not squander the $3.5 billion the state received from the federal government for the project. "Abandoning high-speed rail entirely means we will have wasted billions and billions of dollars with nothing but broken promises, partially filled commitments and lawsuits to show for it,” Newsom said. “And by the way, I am not interested in sending $3.5 billion in federal funding that was allocated to this project back to Donald Trump.” There are many reasons experts have been dubious that America would successfully build high-speed rail. For one, it’s tremendously expensive, and even if the government could leverage private money, it would still require a large infusion of taxpayer funding. Right now Congress can barely agree on how to maintain our transportation systems, let alone revolutionize them. Then there’s Americans’ obsession with the automobile in most places outside the Northeast. There are also questions of how to get towns to allow you to build track through them without


As Americans reject vaccines, health workers abroad risk death to deliver them

In early October, three cases of measles were confirmed in Antanarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The highly contagious virus quickly spread across the island nation; by the next month, thousands of cases had been confirmed. The crisis only grew from there. Madagascar has poor health-care infrastructure and a low vaccination rate. But public health experts say its dangerous measles outbreak still offers a warning for anti-vaccination campaigners in the United States, where a smaller-scale flare-up has led to more than 100 confirmed cases since the beginning of the year. Conspiracy theories that vaccines are ineffective or can cause certain disabilities and medical conditions have led a number of American parents to resist vaccinating their children. “Madagascar started with a few cases; now, we are almost close to 60,000 and the cases are still increasing,” said Richard Mihigo, coordinator for the World Health Organization’s immunization and vaccine development program at its regional office for Africa. “I think societies like the U.S. and western Europe should ring the bell and see … this is something that could also happen to them.” The outbreak in Madagascar is due in large part to weak infrastructure that has made it difficult to achieve widespread vaccination. Both there and elsewhere, health workers face extraordinary circumstances, and at times take immense personal risks, to deliver vaccines to vulnerable communities. In 2013, health workers in northern Nigeria were wrapping up an immunization drive to help vaccinate children against the polio virus when armed gunmen appeared and opened fire, killing at least nine of them. Targeted killings of health-care workers are even more common in Pakistan, where medical staff have also been killed while delivering vaccines to rural areas or conflict zones in an attempt to control the spread of polio. “When we see that a society where this is not the case sees it as something to take for granted, it’s very sad,” Mihigo said of the United States and Europe. Even outside of high-risk areas or conflict zones, delivering vaccines in developing countries can pose serious logistical challenges. Natalie Roberts, emergency operations manager at Doctors Without Borders, said that in parts of Congo, where a measles outbreak is ongoing, staff with the nonprofit group will travel days by motorbike or canoe to access isolated villages. “You can spend five days going from one place to the next area and then spend eight hours trying to get the


A Russian oligarch offers a significant denial in the Mueller probe

The Washington Post’s Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger are out with a must-read reconstruction of the Aug. 2, 2016, meeting between Paul Manafort and his associate in Ukraine, Konstantin Kilimnik. This is the increasingly intriguing meeting that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has zeroed in on in his Russia collusion probe, according to court documents. And at the end, they include a new and noteworthy denial from Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch whose ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Manafort have put him at the center of it all. “We can confirm that Mr. Deripaska has never lent his private jet to Mr. Kilimnik, nor has ever had any interaction with him,” Deripaska spokeswoman Larissa Belyaeva said. Some media reports have suggested that Deripaska might have lent his personal jet to Kilimnik around the time of the Aug. 2 meeting in New York. Flight records show it landed in Newark shortly after midnight on Aug. 3 and took off a few hours later. Deripaska’s team has denied that part before. What’s new here, though, is the second part of the denial: Deripaska saying he has never even spoken with Kilimnik. That’s significant because Kilimnik was reported to have been a liaison between Manafort and Deripaska. There have even been suggestions that Kilimnik might have met with Deripaska shortly before his meeting with Manafort on Aug. 2. In a July 29, 2016, email from Kilimnik to Manafort, which was first reported by The Post in 2017 and detailed further by the Atlantic, Kilimnik says he met that day “with the guy who gave you your biggest black caviar jar several years ago.” He says he spoke with him for “5 hours” and that “I have several important messages from him to you.” Congressional investigators thought this coded reference was probably Deripaska, who is referred to in earlier Kilimnik emails as someone from whom Manafort hoped to recover debts. And the idea that Kilimnik would be meeting with Deripaska on July 29 and possibly passing things on to the Trump’s campaign chairman on Aug. 2 — in the thick of the 2016 campaign — would seem problematic, at best. Deripaska, though, has now completely denied that he ever met with Kilimnik. It’s possible that he’s lying, but a five-hour meeting between Kilimnik and a huge Russian tycoon is potentially something Mueller’s team could find out about — especially on


Refilling prescriptions and no more date nights: How government workers are girding for another shutdown

Ellis said some Internal Revenue Service workers have suffered incorrect deductions and leave balances on their paychecks since the shutdown. Now, these workers are looking at going without a paycheck again. Many IRS workers were squirreling away overtime pay during the busy tax season in preparation for another shutdown, said Ellis, president of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 66. Everyone is still scarred by the last shutdown — and the uncertainty of not knowing how the next one could unfold. “You know what to expect, but you don’t,” said Ellis, 52. The fear can be motivating. Laura Barmby, an international trade specialist at the Commerce Department in Washington, has been working to clear her desk of important matters before Friday. She was furloughed during the last shutdown and missed a deadline to vet applicants for a presidential awards program for exporters. “I’ve never been this far ahead of schedule,” said Barmby, 51. During the last shutdown, dozens of federal workers and contractors launched crowdfunding campaigns on sites such as GoFundMe to make up for what the government wasn’t paying. And many of those campaigns are still open — donations still trickling in — even as the government looks to close again, one need bleeding into another. Some workers haven’t shrugged off their shutdown caution. Connie Scarrow is still avoiding spending money on weekend trips to visit relatives who live about two hours from her home in Norton, Kan. That means she hasn’t seen her dad, who will turn 92 later this month, since Thanksgiving. Scarrow, a federal meat inspector in Beaver City, Neb., also spends more time hunting for the best deals when she’s shopping. “I was laughing at myself the other day when I was shopping for toilet paper,” she said. “I had a calculator out to figure out what the best deal was.” For meat inspector Eric Rothell, curbing costs has meant date night with his wife has gone from a trip to a movie theater or comedy club to an evening in front of the TV. He’s had to turn down many of his teenage son’s requests for money. His son is no longer hanging out with friends at restaurants. He can’t be on the trap shooting team he wanted to join. “This whole thing shouldn’t affect kids, but it does,” said Rothell, 54. Flores, who works at NASA, said the threat of another shutdown —


How Manafort’s 2016 meeting with a Russian employee at New York cigar club goes to ‘the heart’ of Mueller’s probe

and to be doing it in person,” Weissmann said. At the same time, Manafort was strategizing about how to use his prominent role with the Trump campaign to halt a personal financial spiral, court records show. He owed millions in property taxes and for home improvements, insurance policies, credit cards and other debts, according to documents introduced during his trial in Virginia last summer. Manafort viewed Kilimnik — his liaison to high-level Ukrainian politicians and Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska — as key to leveraging his unpaid role as Trump’s campaign chairman, emails reviewed by The Post show. The two were in frequent contact during Manafort’s tenure at Trump’s campaign, according to court records. A Russian army veteran who had trained at a military language academy known as a feeder school for the intelligence services, Kilimnik had worked for Manafort since 2005, when he began serving as a translator for Manafort’s Ukraine operation. In documents filed in court last year, Mueller’s prosecutors wrote that Gates, Manafort’s deputy, said Kilimnik told him he had formerly been an officer in the GRU, the Russian military intelligence unit accused of engineering the 2016 election interference. Prosecutors said the FBI has assessed that Kilimnik’s intelligence ties continued into 2016. Kilimnik was also well known at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, and officials there met with him frequently to discuss Ukrainian politics, according to people familiar with his work. During last week’s hearing, prosecutors acknowledged there was “no question” Kilimnik had been in communication with State Department officials. Manafort told the Times in February 2017 he had never “knowingly” spoken to a Russian intelligence officer. “It’s not like these people wear badges that say, ‘I’m a Russian intelligence officer,’ ” he added. 'Tuesday would be best' In April 2016, Manafort emailed Kilimnik to ask if the “OVD operation” had seen the positive press Manafort was receiving for his Trump work, The Post previously reported. That was an apparent reference to Deripaska, a onetime Manafort business partner. “How do we use to get whole?” Manafort wrote. Kilimnik has told The Post he came to the United States and met with Manafort on May 7 to discuss business issues. Then, on July 7, Manafort emailed Kilimnik, asking him to inform Deripaska that if he needed “private briefings” about the campaign, “we can accommodate.” A Deripaska spokeswoman has said he was never offered nor received campaign briefings. Manafort spokesman


Sibghatullah Mujadidi, Afghanistan’s first president after war with Soviets, dies at 93

Sibghatullah Mujadidi, Afghanistan’s first president following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country and the collapse in 1992 of Kabul’s pro-communist government, has died at 93. President Ashraf Ghani declared a day of mourning to commemorate Mr. Mujadidi. All government institutions, banks, offices and schools would be closed. No other details about the death were provided. His former spokesman Sharif Yusufi said Mr. Mujadidi died overnight, early on Feb. 12, in the Afghan capital. The white-turbaned and soft-spoken Mr. Mujadidi was a mentor to former president Hamid Karzai, who had belonged to his anti-communist resistance group during the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent war throughout the 1980s. Mr. Mujadidi’s guerrilla group — the U.S.-backed Afghan National Liberation Front — was among the smallest and most moderate of guerrilla groups fighting to oust the former Red Army from Afghanistan. The Soviet invasion came at the height of the Cold War between America and the former Soviet Union. The last Soviet soldier withdrew from Afghanistan on Feb. 15, 1989, ending a 10-year invasion that had failed to defeat the U.S.-backed, anti-communist guerrillas who were known at the time as mujahideen, or holy warriors. President Ronald Reagan called the mujahideen freedom fighters. Some later became the Taliban while others were known as warlords who later became political leaders in Afghanistan. Some rights activists have accused the warlords of fomenting Afghanistan’s post-2001 decline, contributing to the nation’s insecurity and widespread corruption. Following the collapse of the communist government, Mr. Mujadidi in 1992 served for two months as Afghanistan’s president in line with an agreement signed in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, by the leaders of all the mujahideen groups who had fought the former Soviet Union. Mr. Mujadidi stepped down as he said he would, according to the agreement; his successor, Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was to serve for four months, instead hung on to power for four years. The agreement broke down and a brutal war between rival mujahideen groups engulfed the Afghan capital, killing tens of thousands of mostly civilians until the Taliban took power in 1996. During the Taliban rule, Mr. Mujadidi lived outside of Afghanistan and returned to the country following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that drove the Taliban from power. He served as head of the first post-Taliban loya jirga, the 2,500-member council of elders or “grand gathering” that eventually crafted Afghanistan’s current constitution. He also briefly served


‘It gives a lot of people joy’: Kamala Harris and the evolution of marijuana and politics

about it. President Barack Obama wrote candidly about his past marijuana and cocaine use but was never a strong supporter of pot reforms at the federal level. Now, less than 30 years after Clinton felt the need to qualify his drug use, presidential candidate Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) is not only unabashedly owning up to her own personal marijuana use but also is in full support of making it legal nationwide. "Half my family is from Jamaica; are you kidding me?” Harris said, laughing, during a radio interview Monday. “And I did inhale.” Harris’s unflinching support for legalization shows the dramatic evolution in the ease in which politicians talk about pot now. Whereas once policymakers decried marijuana as a gateway drug, Harris defended its use by saying, “It gives a lot of people joy.” “And we need more joy in the world,” she said. Major policy shifts at the federal level often follow state-level change that coincides with a sea change in public opinion. Like the legalization of same-sex marriage in the last decade, there’s been a swift societal reversal. Recreational marijuana is currently legal in 10 states. The first states, Colorado and Washington, changed their laws in 2012. When Clinton was in the White House, about 25 percent of Americans thought marijuana should be legal for recreational use. Today a record 66 percent support legalization, according to a Gallup survey. With that much public support for it, candidates for president, especially on the Democratic side, all but have to come down on the side of legalization. And most of them do. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has sponsored legislation to end the federal prohibition on marijuana use. His co-sponsors include primary contenders Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). But it’s not just limited to Democrats. Former House speaker John A. Boehner, who as of 2011 was against the legalization of marijuana, is now heading up a pro-cannabis lobbying group, following his retirement from Congress. And Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), whose state’s economy has benefited from legalization, is pushing legislation to ensure the federal government doesn’t interfere in states’ individual decisions. Even President Trump, despite his Justice Department under Attorney General Jeff Sessions attempting to roll back Obama-era reforms on marijuana, hasn’t taken a hard-line stance. Trump even said last summer that he would be likely to support Gardner’s legislation lifting the federal ban on pot.


Tomi Ungerer, puckish artist and award-winning children’s writer, dies at 87

Andersen Award, one of the highest honors in children’s literature, in 1998. A biography prepared for the prize described Mr. Ungerer’s picture books as “simple, wry and grotesque,” adding: “You can go exploring in his pictures, bursting with color, with surprising details, silhouette effects, soft yet precise outlines, and changing, plastic forms.” Among his most celebrated works were “The Three Robbers” (1961), a moody, blue-hued tale of highway bandits who terrorize the countryside, and “Moon Man” (1966), in which the title character falls to Earth, enjoys its flowering landscapes, and is promptly thrown in prison, only to slip through the bars as he grows smaller as part of the lunar cycle. While writing the children’s books that made him famous, Mr. Ungerer began working on erotic art and designing political posters, including pieces that protested segregation and the Vietnam War. One 1967 image, titled “Eat,” showed a disembodied hand force-feeding the Statue of Liberty to a yellow-skinned man; another, “Choice Not Chance,” showed a pilot decorating the nose of his plane with images of crying children. Mr. Ungerer’s social life included poker games with the Cuban representative to the United Nations, and his political views seemed to catch the attention of federal investigators, particularly after he requested (and was denied) a permit to visit China. In interviews, he often recalled being picked up by three FBI agents — or perhaps they were part of some other federal agency; he was never quite sure — and taken in for questioning after returning from a trip to France in 1960. He said they later tapped his phone and opened his mail. For the most part, however, his political work was eclipsed by his erotic drawings, particularly those in “Fornicon,” a self-published 1969 book that Times journalist Randy Kennedy described as “a nightmare vision of mechanized pleasure.” When Mr. Ungerer appeared at an American Library Association conference that year, according to one account in the New Yorker, he was inundated with questions from angry librarians, who asked how an illustrator of whimsical children’s books could also depict graphic sex acts. Recalling the incident, Mr. Ungerer said he replied with an expletive, saying, “If people didn’t [have sex], you wouldn’t have any children, and without children, you would be out of work.” He was then effectively blacklisted in the United States, with many of his books removed from libraries and lost to American readers


If you can’t jet off to Hawaii or France, at least mimic a food getaway at 2 of D.C.’s new restaurants

chorizo, herbs and lemon zest — a perfect winter pick-me-up.” 800 F St. NW. Jake’s Tavern: The newest entrant to Shaw’s crowded bar scene isn’t quite ready for prime-time yet: While the comfortable first floor bar is pouring drinks and showing sports, the back patio and the second level, which contains another bar and dining room, won’t open for a couple of months. For now, Jake’s, which comes from the owners of Black Whiskey in Logan Circle, is a simple place with a Nantucket color palette, basic beer and cocktail options, and bar snacks from a variety of D.C. purveyors, including Sloppy Mama’s BBQ and Prescription Chicken. 1606 Seventh St. NW. La Jambe Union Market: When is a French wine bar not a French wine bar? When you can’t get a glass of sancerre or bordeaux superieur with your charcuterie or fromage. La Jambe, the lovely little French cafe in Shaw, opened a counter at Union Market in December, but it waited more than a month for a liquor license. Thankfully, the wine, beer and aperitifs began flowing on Jan. 18, so you’ll have something to wash down baguettes stuffed with ham and triple-cream brie. Happy hour, which includes $5 wine by the glass and a selection of $4 snacks, runs from 4 to 7 p.m. on weekdays. 1309 Fifth St. NE. Red Boat H Street: Red Boat’s fusion of familiar Vietnamese and Korean dishes has won fans in Baltimore and College Park. Its first D.C. location opened on H Street mid-month, and our first two visits found waits of at least an hour — even for takeout — as the kitchen struggled to keep up with demand. Things seem to have finally settled down. In addition to pho and banh mi, the menu includes distinctly American twists, including a jumbo hot dog piled with bulgogi beef, kimchi and toasted seaweed, and lemon grass pork tacos topped with carrots, cilantro and chile peppers. 500 H St. NE. Urbano 116: How far will restaurants go for authentic flavors? The owners of the Alexandria-based Common Plate Hospitality group (Mason Social, Catch on the Ave) found up-and-coming chef Alam Méndez Florián in Mexico City, persuading him to trade it for Old Town. Expect tacos on tortillas made of heirloom Oaxacan corn, whole grilled fish and fried churros with a choice of sauces, while the lively bar serves mezcal and tequila cocktails. 116 King


What Ivanka Trump’s new initiative overlooks about women’s empowerment

that powers economic and gender inequality. Nine out of 10 billionaires are men, and billionaire wealth increased by 12 percent last year, or $2.5 billion a day. Women, meanwhile, disproportionately make up the world’s insecure and poorly paid jobs. Ninety-five percent of women in South Asia and 89 percent of women in my own home of sub-Saharan Africa are in informal employment today. To truly deliver for women in poverty, the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative must do more than invest in short-term solutions. It must challenge this deeply sexist and unequal economic model. It could start by creatively challenging the discriminatory laws as well as the informal laws — the socialized values and cultural norms — that exploit the labor of women or make it harder for them to work. According to the World Bank, 104 countries still legally limit women’s ability to work in certain jobs, so they don’t have equal access to jobs that their male peers do. The initiative could also cause a seismic shift if it invested in something women bear the burden of worldwide: care work. Approximately 16 billion hours are spent on unpaid care work around the world, most of it by women in poverty. This includes cooking, cleaning and caring for children, the elderly and the sick — work usually done for free and uncounted in gross domestic product calculations. Not only would an effective program to empower women help governments monitor and reward care work, it also would invest in universal publicly financed services, including early-childhood education and care services. And it would push for better and safer transportation options with policies to prevent violence and harassment, to reduce a multitude of barriers that keep women from having access to meaningful employment. Finally, given the influential role that U.S. companies play abroad, it could play a powerful role in the pursuit of jobs with dignity — something that most of the world’s female workers need. The initiative should push to ensure living wages, safer working conditions, and protections to prevent and respond to harassment and abuse. It should also work to diminish the pay gap between women and men. This takes us to the heart of women’s economic equality and empowerment. For lasting change, women must be valued as equals with the same opportunities as men regardless of their income, race, religion or sexual identity. They must have equal access


A fluffy blue monster is warning the Dutch about Brexit — but the prime minister’s comments are much scarier

the country to leave the European Union — and in particular, the risk of Britain crashing out of the body in a “no deal” Brexit on March 29 that could see it revert to World Trade Organization rules on its borders. One study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated that Dutch exports to Britain could fall by 17 percent if Brexit happens without a deal. However, only 24 percent of Dutch entrepreneurs feel that they are well prepared for Brexit, according to a Dutch Chamber of Commerce survey undertaken in December. The Brexit monster appeared as the head of the Dutch government made stark warnings about the impact that Brexit would have not only on the Netherlands, but also on the broader world. In an interview with the Financial Times that was published on Thursday, Rutte said that so far, the impact on the Netherlands was hard to assess. He told the London-based publication that many countries based in Britain were moving their offices to the Netherlands. “We can’t prevent them coming here,” he said. But Rutte also admitted that Brexit’s impact would ultimately be negative, telling the Financial Times that a no-deal Brexit would have “insurmountable” consequences for the British economy and that the Netherlands would likely be one of the biggest losers from a hard Brexit. Speaking to the Spanish El País newspaper in a separately published interview, Rutte also said that the departure of Britain from the E.U. would leave the Netherlands as the strongest voice for free trade and open markets within the bloc. He said that Britain was already weakening. “It is too small to appear on the world stage on its own,” he added. “We should stick together, now more than ever,” Rutte said during a speech in Zurich on Wednesday. “Because if the chaos of Brexit teaches us anything, it’s that there’s no such thing as splendid isolation.” Britain voted to leave the E.U. in June 2016. After more than two years of negotiations, however, the country has failed to agree upon a withdrawal agreement. With a deadline fast approaching, Britain’s Theresa May is struggling to get a Brexit deal through her own Parliament. Read more: What is Brexit? Britain’s ongoing drama, explained. Here’s what the E.U. has to lose in the event of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit Theresa May reportedly scrapes the mold off jam. Is this the perfect metaphor


The Health 202: Jayapal to roll out sweeping Medicare-for-All bill by month’s end

the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. “Mike and I do not share all the same political beliefs, but I believe the role of the Senate is to evaluate every nominee based on whether he or she is professionally qualified,” Sinema said, “and can be trusted to faithfully interpret and uphold the law.” But Ilyse Hogue, NARAL president, called Sinema’s comments “beyond troubling,” criticizing Liburdi’s “anti-choice record.” “You can’t claim you are an advocate of women and our reproductive freedom just because you vote correctly on some legislation if, at the same time, you help elevate right-wing judges who will inflict long-term damage to our cause,” Hogue said in a statement. “Senator Sinema, like so many Democrats, was elected last year in large part due to a wave powered by women voters who wanted to put a check on this runaway Administration,” she continued. “So to use one of her first acts in office to help elevate a judge with a clear anti-choice record is beyond troubling.” — Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) have introduced legislation that would authorize Veterans Affairs doctors to prescribe medical marijuana. The bill, which would apply to the 33 states where medical marijuana is already legal, also calls for research into how medical marijuana can help alleviate opioid abuse among veterans and manage pain. “In 33 states, doctors and their patients have the option to use medical marijuana to manage pain—unless those doctors work for the VA and their patients are veterans,” Schatz said in a statement. “This bill gives VA doctors in these states the option to prescribe medical marijuana to veterans, and it also promises to shed light on how medical marijuana can help with the nation’s opioid epidemic.” — CVS Health has opened three health-focused concept stores in Houston, which include expanded clinics, blood-testing labs and health screenings as well as dietitians and rooms for yoga, CNBC’s Angelica LaVito reports. The pilot “HealthHUBs” are part of CVS Health’s approach following the $70 billion acquisition of health insurer Aetna. “As part of the acquisition, which closed in November, CVS promised to transform its stores and make customers healthier and to lower health-care costs,” Angelica writes. “The new services in the stores are available to all customers, not just Aetna members. One feature unique to some Aetna members is the type of care they receive at the pharmacy


Try checking 1 billion flowers for pests and diseases in time for Valentine’s Day

Try checking 1 billion fresh cut flowers for pests and diseases for Valentine’s Day. That has been the job of dozens of agents for the U.S. Custom and Border Protection in the last few weeks leading up to Feb. 14, one of the busiest flower-selling days of the year. At ports around the country, CBP agents have been working “extremely hard to make sure flowers get to businesses and homes around the country in time for the big day, but they’re doing so in a way that ensures the American environment and economy is protected," according to a statement from Kevin Harriger, CBP’s executive director for the agriculture programs and trade liaison office. Experts said flowers that are imported can carry what’s known as “hitchhiking pests and diseases” that can cause millions of dollars in damage to the U.S. flower industry. Most flowers are safe, but even “one hitchhiking pest or plant disease could cause significant damage to American agriculture,” experts from CBP said. And pests do get caught. In this flower season, more than 1,660 pests were caught from nearly 1 billion flowers at some of the country’s busiest ports, according to CBP. Some of the pests that were caught included spider mites and cutworm moths. Most of the roses and mixed bouquets of flowers that are shipped to the United States come from Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador. Once pests and diseases are found, officials said, they can treat some flowers and release them but may have to send some back to where they came from or destroy them. The agency thanked its agents in the field on Twitter, saying “It’s #ValentinesDay, and we just want to say, thank you to our crew, for making sure no pests got through.”


السعودية تعذِّب الناشطات بوحشية وعليها مواجهة العواقب

بالصدمات الكهربائية والإيهام بالغرق والتحرش الجنسي. كما يُزعَم أنّ مسؤولين سعوديين كبار تورطوا في هذه الإساءات بشكل مباشر. كما هو الحال في قضية الصحفي القتيل جمال خاشقجي، فمن الضروري أن يواجهوا عواقب أفعالهم. عرّفت منظمة العفو الدولية بعشرات الناشطات من النساء وعدة رجال اعتُقِلوا في مايو/أيار الماضي ولا يزالوا رهن الاحتجاز. لم تُوجَّه أي تهمة رسمية إلى أي منهم أو تقديمهم للمحاكمة. في الشهر الماضي، قالت منظمة العفو الدولية إنّ لديها شهادات بأنّ عشرة منهم تعرضوا للتعذيب خلال الأشهر الثلاثة الأولى من احتجازهم عندما كانوا محتجزين في سجن سري. بالإضافة إلى الاعتداء الجسدي، قالت منظمة العفو الدولية إنّ ناشطتَين أجبرتا على تقبيل بعضهما البعض بينما كان المحققون يراقبون. تعرّضت إحدى النساء المعتقلات، لجين الهذلول، للتهديد بالاغتصاب من قبل أحد كبار مساعدي ولي العهد محمد بن سلمان، سعود القحطاني، الذي شهد تعذيبها، وفقًا لأفراد عائلتها. معظم هؤلاء المعتقلين، مثل الآنسة الهذلول، معروفون بمشاركتهم في الاحتجاجات السلمية، مثل قيادة السيارات قبل منح هذا الحق للنساء. العديد منهم، مثل هتون الفاسي وعزيزة اليوسف، هم من العلماء الذين يدَرِّسون في الجامعات. حصلت سمر بدوي على جائزة من وزارة الخارجية الأميركية في عام 2012 بعد أن سعت إلى وضع حد لنظام الوصاية على النساء وحق التصويت. آخرون، بما فيهم إيمان النفجان ونور عبد العزيز، إما صحفيون أو مدونون. هذا الأسبوع، أكد تقرير جديد أعدته لجنة من البرلمانيين البريطانيين على خطورة الجرائم المرتكبة ضدهم. خلص التقرير إلى أنّ النساء تعرضن “للمعاملة القاسية واللاإنسانية والمهينة”، بما في ذلك الاعتداء والحرمان من النوم والتهديد بالقتل والحبس الانفرادي، واستيفاء “شروط جريمة التعذيب بموجب القانون السعودي والدولي”. قال عضو البرلمان المحافظ كرِسْبِن بْلَنْت المعروف بدفاعه عن السعودية ودول الخليج الأخرى للصحفيين في لندن إنّ “استنتاجاتنا صارخة. الناشطات السعوديات المعتقلات تعرّضن لمعاملة سيئة للغاية لدرجة تستوجب تحقيقًا دوليًا بشأن حالات التعذيب”. كما أضاف:” إنّ القيادات الإشرافية في أعلى مستويات السلطة السعودية ستكون مسؤولة عن ذلك.” يطالب البرلمانيون أن يحقق مقرر الأمم المتحدة الخاص المعني بالتعذيب وفريقه المعني بالاحتجازات التعسفية في شأن معاملة هؤلاء النساء. لكن لا ينبغي أن يكون هذا الإجراء الوحيد الذي يتم اتخاذه. يجب محاكمة المسؤولين السعوديين الذين شاركوا في حالات التعذيب، وإن لم يحاكَموا في السعودية، فيجب يحاكَموا في أماكن أخرى بموجب الاتفاقية الدولية لمناهضة التعذيب . كما أنّ السيد القحطاني، المتهم بالتورط في تعذيب الآنسة الهذلول، لعب أيضًا دورًا رئيسيًا في جريمة قتل خاشقجي، وفقًا لمحققين سعوديين ومسؤولين أمريكيين. السؤال الذي يجب أن توجهه كل حكومة ديمقراطية ومستثمر محتمل وضيف مشهور للنظام السعودي هو: لماذا لا تزال هؤلاء النساء في السجن بينما يتجول جلّادهن في البلاط الملكي؟


Swedish ambassador to China recalled after bizarre meeting over detained bookseller

and a relatively short prison term for her father — if she agreed to stop speaking out publicly about his case. For three years, Angela Gui has publicly campaigned for the release of her father, a Swedish citizen and a Hong Kong-based bookseller who sold politically sensitive books about top Communist Party leaders. Gui Minhai was widely believed to have been abducted by Chinese agents from his home in Thailand in October 2015, before surfacing in Chinese custody. He was partially freed two years later, only to be kidnapped again while being escorted by Swedish diplomats on a train from Shanghai to Beijing. He has been in Chinese detention ever since, and Sweden has been notably quiet in public about his case. That has puzzled many Western diplomats in Beijing, who privately wonder why Stockholm has not protested more forcefully about the brazen abduction of Gui and his ensuing detention. The case appeared to be in a lull until Wednesday, when Angela Gui posted her account of a “very strange experience” she said she had late last month. She wrote that Lindstedt contacted her in mid-January to say there was “a new approach” to her father’s case and requested that she come to Stockholm to meet two businessmen who could help. Angela Gui, who grew up in Sweden, lives in Britain, where she is studying for a PhD in history at Cambridge University. The men would cover all her costs in getting to Stockholm, she said the ambassador told her. Over two days in a members-only lounge in a Stockholm hotel — accessible by key card only, meaning she was even accompanied to the restroom downstairs — Angela Gui said the men asked her lengthy questions about her studies and personal life, without explaining how they could help her father or why they needed to be there. “There was a lot of wine, a lot of people, and a lot of increasingly strange questions,” she wrote. “But because Ambassador Lindstedt was present and seemingly supportive of whatever it was that was going on, I kept assuming that this had been initiated by the Swedish Foreign Ministry.” Then one of the men, who said he had “connections within the Chinese Communist Party,” told her she should go work with them in China and that they could arrange a visa for her. He showed her a picture of them with the Chinese


The lesson my first crush taught me: Rejection isn’t personal — it’s normal

Like many kindergarten boys, I thought girls were gross. But that didn’t stop me from liking Jennifer. She had dirty-blond bangs, perfect posture and never got in trouble. I told her how I felt by drawing a picture of an idyllic meadow scene. Psychedelic butterflies orbited a four-color rainbow while giant bumblebees pollinated tulips growing between tufts of grass. I thought liking someone meant loving them. And I thought hearts expressed love. So I put hearts on it — many hearts. “This is for you,” I said as I presented Jennifer with my drawing. She squinted at it. “Put it in my bag with the others,” she said and resumed coloring. She was also drawing a spring meadow. I noticed its details — her bees were smaller, her rainbow had more colors. She was a realist. Near the cubbies, I found her book bag, zipped open with other boys’ drawings stuffed in. Butterflies, flowers, lots of hearts. I crammed my gift in with the rest. This was the first time I’d given a gift to a girl I liked. As an adult, my gifts were often returned. One ex dumped her gifts into a brown paper bag and left them on my porch. In college, I was in love with someone who broke up with me a few times. She filled plastic bags with my records, letters and love poems — and asked me to return the poems she had written for me. “I’m keeping them,” I said. “But those are mine,” she said. “No, they’re mine,” I said. “A gift is a gift.” There are people on this Earth who marry the first person they love. The rest of us accumulate mini-mountains of presents from past relationships. It makes sense to clean house and move on. But I made a bad habit of keeping everything. I used the practical items, such as a golden bike helmet or knit gloves, and I put the rest into files and drawers. It felt wrong to trash them. Sometimes I dig them out — letters, poems, jewelry. I see them as artifacts of lessons learned. I learned that gifting possessions doesn’t connote possession. I learned that a gift is a gift, and sometimes that’s all it is. Whoever keeps them gets to forge their meanings. My trove of old gifts tells a story: I used to be bad at love. And that’s okay.


British Prime Minister May suffers another loss in Parliament over Brexit

LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May faced a fresh defeat by lawmakers Thursday following a vote on her Brexit strategy, underscoring the deep divisions in Parliament with just 44 days to go until Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union. The House of Commons voted 303 to 258 to reject a motion that would have endorsed May’s Brexit strategy. Many of the hard-line Brexiteers in May’s own Conservative Party didn’t back the government. “Tonight’s vote shows there is no majority for the prime minister’s course of action,” Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party. “She cannot keep on just running down the clock and hoping that something will turn up that will save the day.” Anna Soubry, a pro-European Conservative, said May had been “dealt yet another body blow.” Parliament on Thursday voted on what seemed to be a benign motion that stated it supports May’s strategy, including efforts to renegotiate the Irish backstop, which relates to the Ireland-Northern Ireland border. But the hard-line Brexiteers were also concerned that the motion, in effect, would mean endorsing the view that Parliament was against leaving without a deal, which they think should be an option. The defeat is symbolic, but it raises the question about what kind of deal — if any — could command the support of the House of Commons as Britain hurtles toward its departure from the E.U. May's office said in a statement that it would continue its strategy to seek changes to the backstop to “to ensure we leave on time on 29th March.” Earlier in the day, Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, warned potential rebels that European negotiators would be watching Thursday’s debate closely. “Our European partners will be watching our debate and listening today to see if they get the impression that, if they were to make those concessions, Parliament would definitely deliver,” he said. He added that Parliament was not an “internal debating society.” May is in the process of seeking changes to the E.U. withdrawal deal that she previously negotiated. That agreement experienced a crushing defeat last month — the worst ever for a British government. It was thought that there might be a new “meaningful vote” on a revised Brexit plan on Thursday. But no. That vote — the next big one — has been pushed back, perhaps until later this month, or perhaps March. Critics say


House passes measure to end U.S. military involvement in Yemen, repudiating Trump’s backing of Saudi-led coalition

motivation was to address the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. “We can go after Iran another time, and heaven knows I’ve been the sponsor of many resolutions and bills sanctioning Iran,” said Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “There is a civil war going on now in Yemen and innocent children are dying. We have an ability to put an end to that, and that’s what we should do with this humanitarian crisis. It’s critical that we don’t delay.” Even if Trump ultimately vetoes the resolution, sponsors argued, the resolve of both the Senate and the House will send a message to the parties equipped to end the conflict. “Each of these milestones, this has had a dramatic consequence on the actual negotiations in Yemen,” Khanna said, referring to the Senate’s passage of a similar resolution last year. “I do think the famine will be averted if the War Powers Resolution passes the House and Senate.” Congress has never successfully passed a resolution under the authority Congress granted itself in the War Powers Act to end U.S. participation in hostilities, and less than a year ago, leaders of both parties still thought doing so was a bad idea. But the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi prompted lawmakers to take a critical look at Saudi leaders, in particular Mohammed, whom many lawmakers have said is liable for the murder. Trump has to date defended the crown prince’s denials of involvement. Last week, he also missed two congressionally mandated deadlines to report to lawmakers on the status of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, and announce sanctions against which officials he deemed to be responsible for Khashoggi’s death — or explain why he was declining to do so. The CIA in November assessed that the crown prince had ordered the killing. According to a recent news report, Mohammed also told a top aide in 2017 that he would use “a bullet” on Khashoggi if he did not return to the kingdom and end his criticism of the government. The conversation, which was picked up by U.S. intelligence agencies, was first reported by the New York Times on Thursday. After it was published, a Saudi official contacted the CIA and relayed that the crown prince was livid about the news report, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe classified information. karoun.demirjian@washpost.com


Trump’s friend just tried to blame America first

Billionaire Tom Barrack, Donald Trump’s friend, informal adviser and chairman of the president’s inaugural committee, sounded like a man without a soul. With a bone-chilling bloodlessness, Barrack on Tuesday defended the Saudi government’s murder of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Asked at a Milken Institute gathering in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, about the murder, Barrack replied that “whatever happened in Saudi Arabia, the atrocities in America are equal or worse than the atrocities in Saudi Arabia.” He added: “For us to dictate what we think is the moral code there . . . I think is a mistake.” Incredibly, that wasn’t all. “The problem with what’s happened with the Khashoggi incident is the same problems of the West misunderstanding the East” for a century, Barrack said. “The West is confused at the rule of the law, doesn’t understand what the rule of law is in the kingdom.” “Confused”? Here’s what’s confused: A U.S. resident critical of the Saudi regime was ambushed, killed and dismembered with a bone saw by Saudi agents in October, apparently at the direction of the crown prince, and Trump’s pal thinks it’s a “mistake” to make a fuss. The United States’ atrocities are equal to or worse than the Saudis’? Saudi Arabia is responsible for the deaths of countless thousands in Yemen, using foreign mercenaries, including children — in a war that has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Many of the 11 million migrant workers in Saudi Arabia are subject to forced labor and sexual abuse, as well as having their passports confiscated and wages withheld. Children and activists are sentenced to death, nonviolent offenders beheaded, thousands held without charges and tortured and Saudi women controlled by male “guardians.” Saudi authorities executed one Indonesian domestic worker recently for killing an employer who she said was trying to rape her. And now come reports that Saudi diplomats are helping Saudi nationals escape the United States before they can be prosecuted for alleged crimes committed here. A CNN journalist provided me with an audio recording of Barrack’s remarks, which were reported Tuesday by the Gulf News. After I inquired, Barrack issued a written statement Wednesday saying the Khashoggi killing “was atrocious and is inexcusable,” and he apologized “for not making this clear.” But he added that the “acts of a few should not be interpreted as the failure of an entire sovereign kingdom,” and he repeated


‘This is disgusting:’ Lawmakers blast companies overseeing military homes racked by toxic dangers

spouses, describing the companies. “Somehow we need the chain of command . . . to be able to poke their finger to poke in the chest of these companies to say ‘fix it now, or you’re done.’ ” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said he was left baffled during opening remarks in the Senate Armed Services subcommittee hering. “It gets harder and harder to shock me,” he said. "This is shocking.” During the hearing, the executives struck a conciliatory tone. “The situation is clearly unacceptable,” said Denis Hickey, the chief executive of Americas Lendlease Corporation said. Christopher Williams, the president of Balfour Beatty Communities, said: “When we fall short, we try to make it right.” The panel of military spouses told lawmakers they would like options to hold companies to account, like withholding housing stipend payments until work orders were complete and satisfactory. In a surprising move, the panel of executives told lawmakers they would have few problems with that idea. In a joint statement, Army Secretary Mark T. Esper and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said they were "deeply troubled" by reports of unsafe housing. “We will hold our chain of command and private contractors accountable to ensure they are meeting their obligations to provide safe, high-quality family housing,” they said. Robert H. McMahon, the Defense Department’s assistant secretary of defense for sustainment, said the partnership between companies and the military was important to meet the housing needs of families but acknowledged widespread problems. “This is a failure of leadership on both sides,” he told lawmakers. The Military Family Advisory Network conducted a survey of families after a 2018 Reuters investigation sparked congressional inquiries. In the seven days it was available, the organization said the survey received more than 16,000 respondents eager to express simmering frustrations. More than half of the respondents, 56 percent, reported a “negative” or “very negative” opinion of their living conditions, which the group concluded showed a “systemic problem” that defies location, rank and branch of service. “No one should be worried about their safety in their own home,” said Shannon Raszadin, the executive director of the Military Family Advisory Network. Health concerns and repairs have become “all-consuming” for many families, she told The Washington Post, diverting their focus from military duties and upcoming deployments. In 1996, the Pentagon reported to Congress that federally run housing was so badly neglected that it posed


SpaceX protests a $150 million launch contract NASA awarded to its chief rival, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin venture

more to Boeing and Lockheed for the same mission was therefore not in the best interest of the agency or the American taxpayers.” United Launch Alliance, or ULA, is the company Lockheed Martin and Boeing formed to compete for government launch contracts. It has long heralded the reliability of its Atlas V rocket and in a statement said: “This interplanetary mission has an extremely narrow launch window in order to reach all of the desired planetary bodies and accomplish the science objectives. If Lucy misses this launch window, the full mission cannot be accomplished for decades.” NASA said that as a result of the protest it had issued a stop-work order, preventing ULA from preparing for the mission. It declined to comment further. SpaceX and ULA have been battling for years. In 2014, SpaceX filed suit against the Air Force, asserting that the company should be able to compete for the national security launch contracts that for a decade were ULA’s main revenue source and for which ULA was the Pentagon’s only provider. At the time, ULA fired back, saying that SpaceX couldn’t be trusted to launch such critical satellites and that it was trying to “cut corners” to win the lucrative contracts. SpaceX responded by saying “ULA doesn’t believe in competition. Monopolists never do.” SpaceX settled the lawsuit with the Air Force in 2015 and eventually won the certification that would allow it to compete against ULA. Since then, it has won several contract awards and completed one mission, the launch of a GPS satellite. This week, the Pentagon’s inspector general’s office announced it was reviewing SpaceX’s certification. The office did not say what prompted the review but called the audit “self-initiated.” The NASA contract was awarded to ULA last month to launch a spacecraft named Lucy to explore the Trojan asteroids around Jupiter on a journey that would take 12 years. In a news release, NASA said the asteroids are “clusters of rocky bodies almost as old as the sun itself, and visiting these asteroids may help unlock the secrets of the early solar system.” The mission, to be launched in October 2021, requires a precise launch window so that the spacecraft can “throw itself out into a celestial alignment that will not occur for decades.” The SpaceX protest was filed Monday with the Government Accountability Office, which typically has 100 days to review challenges to contract awards.


After decades of brawls and betrayals, reality TV has finally gotten nicer

“Life is stressful enough. Let’s make a show that makes you feel good!” In our politically contemptuous, personally overwhelmed and financially disempowered lives, escape can come in the form of a perfectly organized sock drawer, a flawless opera cake and the wonders of beard oil. The Nice Reality TV formula is one that HGTV, the fourth most-watched cable channel in 2018, has been building since “House Hunters” hatched atop the real estate bubble two decades ago. Whereas Mean Reality TV feeds on scandal, Nice Reality keeps it behind the scenes, if it must exist at all. Shows such as the squeaky-clean “Fixer Upper,” a ratings magnet that wrapped up last year after five seasons, and “Property Brothers,” an HGTV cornerstone since it debuted in 2011, keep the drills whirring inside the home — ignoring the clamor of harsh reality outside of it. Today’s wave of Nice Reality TV takes HGTV’s aversion to conflict, and overwhelming whiteness (recently lampooned by “South Park” in a bit called “White People Renovating Houses”) and diversifies it: We’ve been introduced to avid British bakers, a non-English-speaking organization expert and a rebooted “Queer Eye” Fab Five. It’s hard to imagine this moment in a pre-digital streaming era. Reality TV, circa mid-aughts, had to lust — for beauty, money or infamy — to keep its dominance over scripted TV. Back then, the musty cop and doctor shows couldn’t compete with the primal wish fulfillment of winning a million dollars or marrying a Harvard real estate prince who looks like a personal trainer. And prestige TV, such as “The Sopranos,” was available only to HBO’s elite subscribers. Digital streaming platforms, such as HBO Now, Netflix and Hulu, not only spread prestige to the masses, but also helped kindness find its widest audience. Now we can self-soothe whenever we need it. After a bad day. After the kids go to bed. Or even after an election gone sideways, as Hillary Clinton did with HGTV, as she wrote in her 2017 memoir, “What Happened.” The latest entry in the growing pantheon of Nice is “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” the Netflix show from Japan’s decluttering expert, which released eight episodes at the start of this year. Where“Hoarders” used horror-movie music to show the stuff Americans can’t get rid of, Kondo instead comes in, freshly dressed in her trademark white, and greets the messy home as if it’s a Shinto shrine


A boy, a bug and a different kind of love story

seemed to know it wasn’t in danger. It didn’t rush to fly away. Since then, that boy has plucked worms from the sidewalk so they won’t get stepped on, he has spent hours watching snails (which I know aren’t technically bugs but they feel as if they should be), and he has taught himself how to fold paper into origami insects, which he then gives to his dad and me as gifts. As a result, our home is filled with dozens of paper cicadas, each a spectrum of colors that go beyond what nature picked for them. He also did something I didn’t think was possible: He changed how I feel about bugs. He diminished my fear of them. I now find myself hoping to see an interesting one outside so I can point it out to him. On walks to the park, I have been known to take a bug house with us, just in case we see something worth examining further. When we had crickets in our basement last fall, I didn’t mind it because he woke up so excited to search for them. Because of him, I also found myself alarmed recently by a report that in the past I might have simply swatted away. The researchers behind the report, which drew some media attention this week, found that more than 40 percent of the world’s insect species face possible extinction. “Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” reads the report, which was published in the journal Biological Conservation and written about by the Guardian and other publications. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.” I never thought I would care about the loss of bugs, but suddenly I do. Suddenly, I want others to care about them, too, and for children to want to scoop them up, instead of stomp on them. On Valentine’s Day, just like many other children, my sons will give their classmates cards. We went shopping for them together recently and faced dozens of choices. There were unicorns and superheroes and cartoon characters that offered kind messages. But one box immediately stood out and made it into our cart. The cards feature sticky, squishy insects and messages that read, “You don’t bug me” and “You’re no pest.” theresa.vargas@washpost.com


A record 7 million Americans are 3 months behind on their car payments, a red flag for the economy

In contrast, a subprime borrower is typically looking at rates between 14.5 and 20 percent. After the financial crisis, the government placed heavy restrictions on mortgages to make it harder to take out a home loan unless someone could clearly afford to make the monthly payments. But experts warn that there are far fewer restrictions on auto loans, meaning a consumer has to be savvier about what they are doing when they take out a loan. "Predatory lending practices and a lack of real transportation options leave many households trapped in debt with few ways out,” said Faye Park, president of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which advocates for consumer protections. Repossessing a car is also a quick process thanks to technology and the laws in many states. Some cars are installed with devices that prevent the car from turning on if someone misses a payment and it has become easier to geo-locate a car to tow it away. “It’s a lot easier to repossess a vehicle than to foreclose on a home,” Taiano said. He noted that non-prime and subprime auto loans increased from 28 percent of the market in 2009 to 39 percent in 2015, a reminder of how aggressively lenders went after borrowers who were on the margin of being able to pay. More lenders are giving people six or seven years to repay now vs. four of five years in the past, according to Experian, another tactic to try to make loans look affordable that might not otherwise be. While defaults on auto loans are a red flag, they are unlikely to take down the entire financial system as mortgages did in the lead-up to the 2008-2009 financial crisis. The total auto loan market is just over $1 trillion, far smaller than the $9 trillion home mortgage market. The amount of money people borrow to buy a car is also much smaller — typically under $35,000 — vs. a home loan, where people often borrow several hundred thousand dollars. Editor’s note: Are you unable to pay your car loan? Or are you struggling? The Washington Post would like to hear from you. Email: heather.long@washpost.com This article was updated to clarify that the highest credit score is 850. Related: The surprising return of the repo man Federal Reserve chair calls income inequality the biggest challenge in next 10 years Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common


Maryland lawmakers want details on ‘jarring price tag’ of football investigation

the next day. The lawmakers said members of the House Education and Economic Development subcommittee were “dismayed to have to respond to this troubling issue” this month. “While it is not unusual to incur costs for experts and consultants, it is worrying that former State public officials, including a former [board of regents] member, billed hefty fees in the effort to determine how and if a toxic culture contributed to a young man’s death,” the lawmakers wrote. Four of the eight members of the commission submitted invoices charging more than six figures apiece, and DLA Piper, the Baltimore law firm that handled much of the commission’s groundwork, charged $636,772 for its services. Each member charged an hourly rate of $650, a figure the school agreed to in August. The commission was initially launched by Loh with three members before the regents took it over. The commission included Tom McMillen, a former Maryland basketball star and past regent, as well as former Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. They were joined by retired federal judges Alex Williams and Ben Legg, attorney Charles Scheeler, journalist Bonnie Bernstein, physician Frederick M. Azar, and Doug Williams, the former Washington Redskins quarterback and current team executive. In a statement issued through a spokesman, the University System of Maryland said, “We understand the concerns that have been raised and are eager to share information with the General Assembly.” In a further illustration of the rift between the regents and Loh, the statement went on to say that the College Park campus established the commission members’ hourly rate and had been in negotiations to add Bernstein as a fourth member when the regents took control. The statement pointed out that the invoices from the four commission members added by the regents totaled $200,976, less than 13 percent of the investigation’s total cost. Maryland government leaders have been outspoken about the situation, especially after the system’s regents initially urged keeping Durkin and allowing Loh to retire early. In November, the House Appropriations Committee held a special hearing, at which members fired questions and criticism at Caret and Linda R. Gooden, the board’s new chair. In Tuesday’s letter, the lawmakers asked Caret for an accounting of the charges related to the commission’s work, saying it’s “incumbent upon the House Appropriations Committee, and the entire General Assembly, to ensure that state entities, like USM, spends funds judiciously and effectively.” rick.maese@washpost.com


The best way to understand a Beethoven concerto? From a musician’s point of view.

So, you want to get to know a piece of classical music better. Let’s say you pick Beethoven’s fifth piano concerto, called the Emperor Concerto. You’ve heard that it’s one of the biggest and best in the standard repertory. You want to get ready for the Beethoven 250th anniversary year in 2020, and you also see that it’s done a lot — twice at the Kennedy Center in two weeks this month, and another with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra scheduled for May. Where do you go from there? Conventional wisdom might lead you to the text in the concert program, which will provide a few details about the history of the piece, along with some of its musical features. “The year 1809 was a prolific one for Beethoven,” it might begin. It might mention Beethoven’s growing deafness — this was the only one of his five piano concertos he didn’t play himself at its premiere, because he couldn’t. And it might tell you that the concerto’s nickname, “Emperor,” was assigned not by the staunchly republican Beethoven, but by his publisher. According to one, perhaps apocryphal, story, this was because of the cries of “Emperor!” with which the first-night crowd greeted this masterpiece. But ask a conductor about the concerto, and you’ll probably learn something quite different. “The rhythmic life of the first movement is super-square,” says James Ross, music director of the Alexandria Symphony and erstwhile head of the conducting program at the University of Maryland. “For me, the first movement goes on longer than the material warrants.” As for the second movement, the striking thing for Ross is the key signature: It’s in B major, which, he says, “orchestras just hardly ever do.” He assumes the persona of the orchestra: “We’re in B major, why move anywhere? Let’s just live on this exotic island and watch the waves roll onto our beaches for a few decades.” Which perspective makes you want to hear the piece more? There’s a big gap between the way classical music is introduced to lay listeners and the way musicians experience it. We tend to offer classical music to audiences like a history lesson, in explanations studded with names and dates that are useful enough as context but that don’t really get to the heart of what you hear. Musicians, however, experience it differently. So I went in search of a new view of the


Can impeachment appear legitimate in a hyperpartisan universe?

Post Reports is the daily podcast from The Washington Post. Unparalleled reporting. Expert insight. Clear analysis. Everything you’ve come to expect from the newsroom of The Post. For your ears. Martine Powers is your host, asking the questions you didn’t know you wanted answered. Listen online. Political or partisan? The challenges of impeaching a president. The Washington Post’s nonfiction book critic Carlos Lozada has been inundated with books on one topic over the last two years: impeachment. He talks to host Martine Powers about why the impeachment clause was included by the Founding Fathers, how it has been used and what lessons we can apply to today. More on this topic: Months later, Jamal Khashoggi’s death is not forgotten More than four months after he was murdered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, the impact of the death of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi reverberates across the Middle East and in U.S.-Saudi relations. Post columnist David Ignatius talks to host Martine Powers about why the murder of his friend has resonated and what it means for geopolitical issues in the region. More on this topic:


Danielle Paquette named West Africa bureau chief

Announcement from Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl, Deputy Foreign Editor Eva Rodriguez and South Asia, Africa and North America Editor Jennifer Amur: We’re thrilled to announce that Danielle Paquette, a Financial reporter since 2014, will become West Africa bureau chief, a new role created as part of The Post’s international expansion. Danielle has dazzled us with her ability to spot surprising stories and tell them in riveting ways. During 10 weeks in China last summer, she took charge of the bureau’s trade war coverage while also delivering a steady stream of original pieces that helped our readers understand China in new ways. It was through Danielle’s eyes that we met a pig feet merchant worried about U.S. tariffs, the fake-bag sellers who hoped to exploit them, and a lonely factory worker surrounded by robots. Danielle also told us something surprising about the legacy of China’s one-child policy by introducing readers to a dog who lived in his own mansion. Her work for Financial has been just has memorable, including her recent unearthing of job-hopping workers who have begun “ghosting” their employers when better opportunities turn up. Her work on sexual harassment led to the resignation of the Humane Society’s top leader, and she provided our first look at the allegations against celebrity chef Mike Isabella, which led to the end of his restaurant empire. In moving to West Africa, Danielle will bring her fresh eye and quick learning to a job that demands both. We expect that she will be based in Dakar, Senegal, a jumping-off place for coverage of Nigeria and more than a dozen other countries across one of the world’s fast-growing and most volatile regions. She will move to West Africa this spring, providing welcome reinforcement for the peripatetic Max Bearak, our courageous and talented Nairobi bureau chief, who has been shouldering responsibility for most of the African continent. Danielle grew up in Indiana and is a graduate of Indiana University. Before joining The Post, she was a reporter at the Tampa Bay Times and a freelance writer in Los Angeles. She has spent years studying French, and will devote further time to language study and other preparations before opening the new bureau in May.


The Cybersecurity 202: ‘We’re doubling down.’ DHS insists it’s not reducing election security efforts

Gen. Paul Nakasone, who leads CyberCom and also serves as director of the National Security Agency, according to my colleague. Nakasone told Rounds that securing the midterms was the “number one priority” of CyberCom and the NSA. Lawmakers on Wednesday got a classified briefing about the military’s operation to protect the midterms and said they wished more information could be made available to the public. “I wished that the American people could have heard more of what you told us,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said, according to Ellen. “It was [a] success. Very few of the American public know about the successes.’’ PATCHED: Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) raised the alarm about cybersecurity threats to the U.S. energy grid during a hearing of the Senate Energy Committee. King and Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) last month reintroduced a bill to help protect America's energy infrastructure against cyberattacks. PWNED: The Democratic National Committee's chief security officer has a message for Democrats who may be thinking about a presidential run: Just because you haven't made any official announcement yet doesn't mean you can't be hacked. CNN also published a document from the DNC titled “Device and Account Security Checklist” that provides campaigns with advice on how to secure their devices and accounts. “Keeping your operating systems and applications patched is one of the most important ways to keep them secure,” the document says. The document also advises campaigns to encrypt laptop drives, use long and unique passwords, and enact two-factor authentication. — Acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan said cyberattacks are among the threats that the general public is underestimating — A telecommunications industry association that represents over 800 operators has called on European governments to join mobile operators in a network security testing regime rather than excluding some vendors from next generation 5G networks — The Federal Trade Commission is negotiating with Facebook over a multibillion-dollar fine for the social network's privacy lapses — More cybersecurity news from the public sector: — The founders of the Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group are buying the company back — More cybersecurity news from the private sector: — A hacker stole 127 million user records from eight websites and put the data up for sale — More news about security incidents: Coming soon: Man describes killing mountain lion that attacked him: Ocasio-Cortez celebrates Amazon dropping NYC headquarters: Grassley isn’t happy when McConnell interrupts his floor time:


Russia detains prominent U.S. investor based in Moscow on fraud charges

in support of the U.S. investor on Friday. Calvey, who is 51, grew up in Oklahoma and founded Baring Vostok in Moscow in 1994. The company says it has invested $2.8 billion from North American pension funds and others into companies across the former Soviet Union. Calvey kept investing in Russia even as sanctions, official corruption and the sputtering economy scared away many Western companies. Calvey is at least the third Westerner to face adverse action by Russia’s justice system in the past two months. American Paul Whelan was detained in December and later charged with espionage. His attorney said that Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was given a flash drive that unbeknown to him contained a state secret, and that he maintains his innocence. Last week, Dennis Christensen, a Danish citizen, was sentenced to six years in prison for extremism for practicing as a Jehovah’s Witness. The State Department said it was “aware that a U.S citizen” had been arrested, but did not release any specific information on the case. The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin hadn’t been aware of the case against Calvey. In court Friday, a Russian investigator alleged that Calvey and the other suspects had embezzled more than 2.5 billion rubles, or more than $37.5 million, in a scheme related to Orient Express, according to Russian news agencies. Baring Vostok first bought a stake in the bank, which is based in Russia’s Far East, in 2010. “We have full confidence in the legality of our employees’ actions and will vigorously defend their rights,” Baring Vostok said in a statement. Calvey’s detention jolted Moscow’s business community and threatened to derail efforts to attract capital from abroad. Foreign direct investment in Russia totaled about $29 billion in 2017, the most recent year for which World Bank figures are available, compared with $69 billion in 2013, before Russia’s relations with the West collapsed amid the Ukraine crisis the following year. Herman Gref, chief executive of state-owned Sberbank, said that he knew Calvey as a decent person and that he hoped his detention would turn out to stem from a misunderstanding. Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s $10 billion sovereign wealth fund and also a close Putin ally, issued a statement describing Calvey as “committed to the highest ethical standards accepted in the investment community.” “I believe that he has done a lot to attract foreign investment in Russia and


Trump says he’s been nominated for a Nobel. But did Japan’s Abe actually do it? Or was it S. Korea’s Moon?

Responding to a question about the upcoming summit with North Korea on Friday, President Trump said that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. “Prime Minister Abe of Japan gave me the most beautiful copy of a letter that he sent to the people who give out a thing called the Nobel Prize,” Trump said. “I have nominated you, respectfully on behalf of Japan, I am asking them to give you the Nobel Peace Prize.” Trump said he then thanked Abe but added that he did not expect to win the prize. The president’s comments caught many observers by surprise. A Japanese nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize was not announced, and though Abe has formed a strong personal bond with Trump, the two leaders have often been at odds over Trump’s outreach to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. This is also reflected in polls of the Japanese public: One poll conducted shortly before Trump met with Kim in Singapore to discuss denuclearization last June, found that 83 percent of the Japanese public were not convinced North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons. Neither the White House or the Japanese Embassy in Washington responded immediately to a request for more information about Trump’s comments. There are hundreds of Nobel nominations each year. There are 304 candidates for this year’s prize, according to the committee. The names of the nominees and their sponsors are kept secret for 50 years. The bare details of Trump’s comments led some to note that South Korean President Moon Jae-in has spoken in the past of how he felt Trump should win a Nobel for his negotiations with North Korea’s Kim. “President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize,” Moon said last April. It is unclear if the South Korean leader actually wrote a letter to the Nobel committee in Oslo, however. (A representative of the South Korean Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment). Polls have shown South Koreans are largely positive about Trump’s talks with North Korea, though many argue that it is Moon rather than the U.S. president who is leading talks. Some analysts speculated that Trump had indeed mistaken Abe for Moon. However, some noted that Abe has repeatedly shown that he values his relationship with the U.S. president. “A pretty deft move to use on a man who has


How ‘plant-based’ rebranded vegan eating for the mainstream

It really changed a lot of people’s opinions,” says Jaime Athos, chief executive of Tofurky, a more-than-20-year-old vegan brand that recently began packaging some of its products with a clear “plant-based” label. The term, Athos says, “is a way to communicate what these foods are, what this diet is, while peeling away some of the connotations attached to it.” Vegans eschew wool, honey, leather and some forms of food processing. But plant-based is simply a diet, or, in 2019, just a bag of beet chips sneaked between meals. The mainstreaming has Wendel concerned that the original intentions of the plant-based diet touted in his film — which he sees as a traditional diet of whole foods, with beans, rice, sweet potatoes and other staples — are getting lost in translation. “There’s been further confusion along the way, because basically everybody — even food companies — started using [‘plant-based’]. In some ways it’s not incorrect, because it is based in plants,” he says. But with a sea of faux meats, chips and other snacks arriving in stores, the “whole foods” qualifier is growing in importance. “All the meat analogues, the fake cheeses — they’re very different from your beans and rice.” And for all the talk of plant-based eating, it hasn’t quite caught fire with consumers, Simon says. “Meat eating is not even necessarily going down,” she says. The industry, she adds, has a way to go if its goal is to get everyone on the plant-based boat. Even Athos isn’t sure the term will work with everyone. “We started using ‘plant-based’ because people better reacted to ‘plant-based.’ ” But then he saw studies in which young men weren’t, preferring another burgeoning term — ‘plant-powered’ — instead. Meanwhile, as manufacturers stamp the term on cereals, protein drinks — and, according to Simon, a cookbook that included fish — a phenomenon that she refers to as “plant-washing,” vegans and vegetarians might soon find the term entirely unhelpful. “Now, we’re straddling the issue,” Athos says, emblazoning much of Tofurky’s packaging with the plant-based label and a vegan one. After all, two different audiences, two different messages. More from Voraciously: This eggless take on chocolate mousse is a breeze to make and a dream to eat No constant stirring, no dairy: This double-mushroom risotto defies conventional wisdom Ghee has been an Indian staple for millennia. Now the rest of the world is catching on.


Why more and more people don’t want tech giants like Amazon moving into their neighborhood

a corporation’s partial claim on a key cultural hub of the city — and less by concerns over living costs as a direct result of the company’s expansion. Apple still plans to open the store next year, but its opponents signaled they would not back down. A crowdfunding campaign is now hoping to secure enough funds to buy a building set to be torn down on the store’s future site. The same month Australians were taking to the streets in Melbourne last year, protesters in Dublin were urging their government to provide more affordable housing in the city. As the Irish capital has become a hub for foreign tech companies, including Facebook and Google, living costs in the city have surged, as well. Dublin flats are now far more expensive than they were before the 2008 financial crisis. In Dublin, the city’s growing housing crisis has not only added pressure on Irish politicians to expand affordable housing initiatives but also on large corporations with Dublin headquarters to do their part. “Given that so many of these deep-pocketed companies come here with generous state inducements, perhaps it is time such beneficial arrangements include innovative, city-enhancing infrastructure projects or thoughtful public-private partnerships,” the Irish Times’s Karlin Lillington argued two years ago. Since then, however, the crisis has only grown — and many private companies have dodged what critics view as their responsibility. Protesters briefly occupied Airbnb’s Dublin offices last October to protest what they say is a business model that has worsened the city’s housing crisis, even as the site insists it has only had a marginal impact. Amid the ongoing blame game, the start-ups that helped power Dublin’s rise are being squeezed out of the city as they struggle to find workers who can afford living there. And Dublin residents without lucrative tech contracts have looked on as their city has steadily climbed in the global cost of living rankings, recently even surpassing London, according to the Economist magazine. What’s being considered a success story to economists doesn’t feel like one to a growing number of people living and working there — and they are making their voices heard. More on WorldViews: The massacre Trump’s envoy to Venezuela wants us to forget A fluffy blue monster is warning the Dutch about Brexit — but the prime minister’s comments are much scarier Are we measuring success in our societies the wrong way?


Special agent involved in Army officer’s murder case charged with lying about earning a Purple Heart

A special agent with Army Criminal Investigation Command faces criminal charges after allegedly lying about his military service, Army officials said Thursday, complicating a case he was assigned in which a former Green Beret officer has been charged with murder. Army Sgt. 1st Class Mark A. Delacruz, who is assigned to the Army CID office at Fort Bragg, N.C., was charged with the unauthorized wearing of a Purple Heart, Air Assault Badge, Pathfinder Badge and Combat Action Badge and is accused of submitting a package to an Army promotion board that stated he was awarded a Purple Heart when he was not, said Jeffrey Castro, an Army spokesman. The Purple Heart is awarded to service members who have been wounded or killed in combat. The charges, if proved, amount to what U.S. troops refer to as “stolen valor,” when service members claim details about their military service that are not true in ways that benefit them. Delacruz has been suspended from his duties since the allegations came to light late last year, Castro said. The accusations, first reported by NBC News on Thursday, complicate the case of Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, who is accused of premeditated murder in connection with the death of a man in Afghanistan in 2010. Golsteyn, 38, was charged in December following an on-and-off investigation that dates back to 2011, when the former Green Beret acknowledged during a job interview with the CIA that he killed an unarmed man whom he believed to be a Taliban bombmaker. Golsteyn’s lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse, said Wednesday in a letter to the commander of Army Special Operations Command, Lt. Gen. Francis Beaudette, that Golsteyn was waiving his right to what is known as an Article 32 hearing, which examines evidence in the case, in part because of the charges against Delacruz. Stackhouse wrote that since about 2016, the agent for Golsteyn’s case was Delacruz. “It has come to our attention, not from the prosecutors in this case, but through anonymous sources and later verified by documentation that Special Agent [Delacruz] has committed acts of ‘Stolen Valor’ and is currently being prosecuted for lying and wearing, of all things, a Purple Heart Medal among other awards and devices he did not earn,” the letter said. The Army declined Thursday to address Stackhouse’s allegations, stating “no further information” about Delacruz’s case would be “released at this time.” The service also declined


Md. House approves unemployment benefits for federal employees who have to work during shutdowns

never have to use it.” The Labor Department told local governments during the shutdown that began Dec. 22 that federal workers compelled to work without pay were ineligible to collect federal unemployment insurance. Congressional leaders are trying to change that. After the shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, the D.C. Council passed legislation allowing the city to pay unemployment benefits to essential federal workers despite federal guidance denying the city that authority. Several states, including California, Vermont and New Mexico, told their labor agencies to extend unemployment benefits to federal employees who had to work without pay. Del. Mary Ann Lisanti (D-Harford), who chairs the subcommittee that crafted the bill, said the federal government has indicated it has no problem with Maryland creating its own separate unemployment program. But for the legislation to go into effect, the letter is necessary, Lisanti said. The Federal Government Shutdown Employee Assistance Loan Fund would be created through a budget amendment to transfer money from the state’s catastrophic event account. If the bill is approved in the Senate, it will go to Gov. Larry Hogan (R) for a signature. Hogan sent a letter to Labor Secretary Alex Azar on Jan. 28 asking him to either provide federal reimbursement to or waive the eligibility criteria so Maryland could provide unemployment insurance to essential employees. “He is also open to legislative solutions and will closely consider any legislation that reached his desk,” Hogan spokeswoman Amelia Chasse said. During the 35-day shutdown, Hogan said about 150,000 federal workers live in Maryland, which also is home to more than 129,000 federal civilian jobs, excluding the U.S. Postal Service and classified agencies. State officials estimated that about 43,000 federal workers from Maryland were affected by the shutdown. The state processed more than 4,100 unemployment claims for furloughed federal employees, with an average weekly payout of $350, according to a fiscal analysis of the proposed legislation. State officials say they do not know how many workers in Maryland were required to show up to work without pay. Nationally, about half of the 800,000 federal employees affected by the shutdown were furloughed and the other half worked without pay, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Officials estimate that between 20,000 and 22,000 federal workers in Maryland could be eligible to draw interest-free loans from the state’s proposed unemployment trust fund, if the legislation passes and there is another shutdown. arelis.hernandez@washpost.com


Goodbye, Opportunity Rover. Thank you for letting humanity see Mars with your eyes.

view of the world — both yours and humans'. Traveling over 45 kilometers, you saw horizons and views that no person may ever see again. You saw planetary dust storms come and go. You watched lunar eclipses and transits that were only imagined before your cameras set lens on them. You saw Mars with the eyes of an explorer and scientist and let all of humanity see with those eyes as well. But now, here we are — at the end, where all robots and most lucky people end up. A sandstorm came and covered you up and your batteries drained, and in the dark and the cold you met your fate in silence. That sounds sad when you write it out plainly, but that’s the mission: To arrive and search and learn and then to stop. Every mission ends. It’s what you do before the end that makes history. And you made it. Now that you’re finally done, now that Mars is just that little bit more lonely (and it was already exceedingly lonely), I hope you knew how much you mattered to the world. I hope somewhere in your diodes and processors, mixed in with all your geological sensors, you could sense the inspiration you gave humanity. I hope you felt the love they had for you — the way you made science seem so close and so possible. The way you made a planet millions of miles away seem as close as next door. I hope you knew that children wanted to be you when they grew up. That little human beings wished they could be a robot like you and explore the solar system. I suppose this is your chance to know that. There are better ways to say all of this, and I’m just a robot, and I know I don’t have the emotion or ability to express the truth about you. And even if, by some bizarre twist of fate, I was actually just a human who pretended to be a robot for as-yet-unknown reasons, I would still be so ill-equipped to tell the world how incredible you were. Other people should tell your story — the humans who built you, the amazing people who ran you, guided you, talked to you, programmed and analyzed you. The people who held their breath every day for the past seven months just hoping against hope that


I have a rare disease. Research on such illnesses can provide insights into more common ones.

Medical students are taught to consider the odds when making a diagnosis: “If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.” Practical advice, but it can foster a dangerous myopia, particularly when a physician is faced with a rare disease. I was an obsessive runner with a 3:36 minute New York City Marathon under my belt when an ultra rare progressive disease that would ravage my lungs reared its zebra head. It was bitterly cold in December 2008 when I set out to jog my favorite dirt road. My lungs stung and ached. I breathed more gingerly to no effect, presuming the pain was from frigid air winding its way down my lungs. Finishing in the dark, every breath felt like a dagger wedging deeper. The next morning, with labored breath and persistent jags in my rib cage, I urged my family to take me to a hospital. The verdict was pleurisy, a medieval term for liquid in the lining of the lungs. I was prescribed Valium to keep my muscles from seizing over the anxiety induced by the breathlessness. Time seems to stop when you labor to breathe, in part, because you don’t know what will happen next, reprieve or the unknown — something far worse. It’s one of the most isolating physical sensations imaginable. While my immediate condition improved, my lungs became increasingly susceptible to infections. Foreboding events came in succession. A longtime distance swimmer, I gasped and grabbed my sister while looping around a lake island we had swum dozens of times. When downhill skiing, my lungs jammed on the emergency brakes. My body would not, could not continue without pausing every few steep feet to catch a breath and use the impotent steroid inhaler. Willpower, a longtime ally, simply didn’t cut it anymore. By the end of 2012, chest infections lasted a month, and I had ruptured my eardrum from heaving coughs. Having been a somewhat sickly child, my tolerance for illness was robust, yet my gut knew something was terribly wrong. I had given up on 20 years of running, now often struggled to breathe during sex, dragged when walking up my subway stairs, and wheezed in cold weather. Convinced of pneumonia or whooping cough, then in resurgence, I went for a chest X-ray. To my astonishment, the radiologist muttered, “I haven’t seen this since medical school.” Her boss told me to see a pulmonologist immediately.