Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai to study at Oxford

Malala Yousafzai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her campaign against Taliban efforts to deny women education, plans to study at Oxford University. LONDON — Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai said on Thursday that she was “so excited” to be offered a place at the University of Oxford, one of Britain’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning. Yousafzai, 20, tweeted an image of her confirmation saying she has been accepted to study philosophy, politics and economics (PPE). She was one of thousands of students in Britain on Thursday who received their A-level results — the final year exams for high school students. So excited to go to Oxford!! Well done to all A-level students - the hardest year. Best wishes for life ahead! https://t.co/miIwK6fNSf “So excited to go to Oxford!! Well done to all A-level students — the hardest year. Best wishes for life ahead!” she wrote. Five years ago, the Pakistani education activist was shot in the head by the Taliban after campaigning for girls’ education. She was flown to Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city, where she received medical treatment and relocated there with her family. But far from being silenced, Yousafzai has gone on to become a global advocate for girls’ rights to education. When she was 15, she set up the Malala Fund, which advocates for girls’ education around the world. At the age of 17, she became the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. By studying PPE at Oxford, she will be following in the footsteps of her hero Benazir Bhutto, the first female prime minister of Pakistan. Bhutto was killed when her motorcade came under attack in Pakistan in December 2007. In the spring, Yousafzai revealed that she received a conditional offer at a British university but didn’t say which one. She also told CBS that she was hoping to study at Oxford, but said that the interview as part of the application process was “the hardest.” On her last day of high school, Yousafzai joined Twitter. She said that graduating was “ Responding to the news that his daughter got into Oxford, My heart is full of gratitude. We are grateful to Allah & thank u 2 al those who support @Malala 4 the grand cause… https://t.co/eDVJnjNn3j On Thursday, “Malala” was trending on social media in Britain, with many passing along their congratulations. @Malala @UniofOxford Congratulations, Malala! X Malala Yousafzai, shot in


Don’t get pregnant, shower in your clothes – Religious traditions on how to watch a solar eclipse.

the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.” A popular theory in certain evangelical circles posits that the Rapture will occur on Sept. 23, which is 33 days after this eclipse. Jewish tradition offers specific blessings that believers should say upon seeing many natural phenomena — lightning, a mountain, a flower, a rainbow — but no blessing for an eclipse. In fact, the Talmud — the rabbinical commentary on the Bible — describes an eclipse as “an ill omen for the world.” “To what can we compare this?” the Talmudic rabbis wrote. “To a king of flesh and blood who prepared a feast for his servants and set a lantern to illuminate the hall. But then he became angry with them and said to his servant: ‘Take the lantern from before them and seat them in darkness.’” Capital Weather Gang’s Angela Fritz explains how math is used to determine the timing and location of the total solar eclipse crossing the U.S. on Aug. 21. Nevertheless, some more liberal rabbis are encouraging their congregants to take Monday’s eclipse as an opportunity to give thanks to God for the wonders of the universe. Rabbi Daniel Zemel of Northwest Washington’s Temple Micah said it has been a years-long goal of his to see an eclipse; he sometimes reads an excerpt of a particularly poetic 1991 New York Times article about an eclipse in place of a prayer during Shabbat services. Zemel will finally achieve his goal: he’ll watch this eclipse from Wyoming. He provided his congregation with suggested blessings including one from the traditional morning prayer service: “Blessed are You, Adonai, creator of the heavenly lights.” The Hindu traditions are more specific. Reddy, who is a member of the board of the Hindu Temple and Cultural Society of Southern Illinois, said his community will go over the guidelines this weekend: Don’t eat any food cooked before the eclipse after it’s over. If you’ve stored any drinking water in your house before the eclipse, discard it. Try not to conceive a child around eclipse time, for fear of birth defects. Hindu scripture teaches that an eclipse occurs when an angry spirit swallows the sun: “They have a score to settle with the sun and the moon. They basically


The total solar eclipse will occur over some of the nation’s more unique landmarks

there’s a chance the lucky few that scored tickets aboard could be drinking a Corona while viewing the sun’s corona, simultaneously listening to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” during the actual eclipse itself. Talk about the stars aligning! The Batman Building Music City is going to be a key destination for the eclipse, with perhaps hundreds of thousands of “extra” tourists cramming into the city. One of the most iconic buildings in Nashville, hands-down, is the “Batman Building,” owned by Pitney Bowes and Cerberus Capital Management, and located in the heart of downtown Nashville. The two-winged AT&T building towers 617 feet above the ground. What does this mean? Well, with the sun plastered 64 degrees up in the sky at 1:27 p.m. as totality strikes, anyone standing about 270 feet to the north-northeast of the building (at a 21 degree bearing) will see the moon-sun combo “balanced” between two highest points of the structure, offering a remarkable photo op. This corresponds to the intersection of Third Avenue and Commerce Street, just outside of Another Broken Egg Cafe and Brugada. So, if you’re looking for a cool doubleheader at a spot that few others will think to snag, try your luck with the lineup! You may just capture something spectacular. Sawtooth National Forest Idaho is perhaps the crown jewel for last-minute eclipse seekers to visit, and no place in Idaho is more scenic than the serene Sawtooth National Forest. The forest comprises more than 2 million acres, and at least a half-dozen miniature mountain ranges transect the plot, which is home to several unique species. Among these is the Christ’s Indian Paintbrush. A couple hundred of the plants grow above 9,000 feet elevation on Mount Harrison. This spot affords a truly magnificent view of surrounding areas. Over 1,000 lakes pepper the region, adding to an already pristine natural beauty. In addition, Idaho has a better-than-average chance of weather that will permit eclipse viewing. Hundreds of miles to the west, however, dozens of wildfires are burning, spewing ash, soot and smoke into the upper levels of the atmosphere, where they become caught up in jet-stream winds. An upper-level low developing later in the weekend along the Pacific Coast may spiral some of this smoke inward, spreading a thin veil over much of Central Idaho. This could further amplify the colors of the eclipse, casting a beautiful sunset-like hue across the daytime sky.


Where to watch the solar eclipse in Washington

Top of the Gate, the rooftop bar at the Watergate Hotel, opens at 1 p.m. for a viewing of Monday's partial solar eclipse. (Photo by Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) Monday's solar eclipse is a very big deal: A total solar eclipse visible from the West Coast to the East Coast hasn't occurred since 1918. While D.C. will only get a partial solar eclipse, it's still worth seeing. The eclipse will begin at 1:17 p.m. and last until 4:01 p.m., according to NASA. The peak will come at 2:42 p.m., when 81 percent of the sun will be covered. If you can sneak out of the office for a few minutes, museums and science facilities in the area will be holding eclipse viewing parties with telescopes and other activities, while bars and restaurants are getting in on the act with themed cocktails and events. Remember: You shouldn't look at the eclipse without protective glasses. Though they may run out, the locations below are giving away free glasses, except where noted. If you need a pair, try your local library or Warby Parker, which has free American Paper Optics safety glasses at its stores. The American Astronomical Society also has a list of reputable vendors. [The Capital Weather Gang's guide to watching the solar eclipse in the Washington area] Jump to Museum and science facilities NASA Goddard Space Flight Center National Air and Space Museum and Udvar-Hazy Center National Archives The National Zoo: University of Maryland Observatory Bar and restaurants Citybar DNV Rooftop Bar Fairmont Hotel Radiator Top of the Gate Read more: The best events of D.C. Beer Week 9 new restaurants to try around Washington


10 things to do in the D.C. area the weekend of Aug. 18-20

The Chuck Brown Band honors the legacy of the Godfather of Go-Go during D.C.'s annual Chuck Brown Day celebration. (Photo courtesy of Full Circle Entertainment) Friday, Aug. 18 A Night at the U Street Disco at U Street Music Hall Alamo Wet Hot American Summer at Alamo Drafthouse First anniversary party at Dirty Goose: Saturday, Aug. 19 Chuck Brown Day at Chuck Brown Memorial Park: Cool “Disco” Dan memorial service at the 9:30 Club Third anniversary party at Brookland Pint: Capital Chili Cookoff at the Bullpen Sunday, Aug. 20 Brewers on the Block at Union Market DC Txakolina Fest at Maxwell Park Last day of the Arlington County Fair Read more: The best events of D.C. Beer Week Where to watch the solar eclipse in Washington How to spend the entire day with your dog in D.C., Maryland and Virginia


The Washington Post plans immersive coverage of the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse

The Washington Post is producing robust editorial and visual coverage of the 2017 solar eclipse leading up to the event on Monday, August 21st. Readers will be able to follow the solar eclipse through live video, graphics and on-the-ground reporting from more than two dozen reporters across the country. Throughout the day, The Post will offer live video programming across a variety of platforms. Beginning at 12:00 pm ET, on-air reporters Libby Casey and Nicole Ellis will host a live show on The Post’s homepage and through Facebook Live, counting down to the eclipse. The broadcast will feature Capital Weather Gang meteorologist Jason Samenow, updates from Post reporters across the country and on-set interviews with a variety of expert guests. The Post will also fly two drones above the campuses at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR (one of the first towns with total solar eclipse visibility) and Southern Illinois State University in Carbondale, IL, giving readers a bird’s eye view of the sun’s shadow as it falls across the crowds in attendance. In addition, The Post will have two more Facebook Live streams– one covering a fainting goat farm in Tennessee that falls in the path of totality and another from Jackson Hole, WY, where the eclipse is expected to be most clear. “The eclipse gives us an unprecedented opportunity to use dozens of the digital tools at our disposal to share this thrilling event with our audience. Whether readers are in the path of totality or not, we want to help them experience the awe of this event, the sense of our place in the universe that it creates, and share some of the goofy humor that it brings,” said Laura Helmuth, Health and Science editor at The Washington Post. Additional coverage includes the following - A live blog that will be updated throughout the day offering the latest from the reporters on the ground, meteorological analysis, scientific and historical context and what to expect as the eclipse approaches. - Eclipse tracker that will be accessible online, showing in real-time how the moon is moving across the sun. - Lifetime eclipse predictor which shows every total solar eclipse happening in your lifetime. - First-of-its-kind 360-degree illustration depicting how our ancestors explained eclipses. In the lead up to the Total Solar Eclipse, The Post has published over fifty pieces of written content, dozens of videos from the Capital Weather


PM Update: A few more showers into this evening; hot with late-day storms Friday

It’s already feeling like we are receiving payback for a stretch of cooler-than-normal weather that lasted almost two weeks and ended earlier this week. Today was another day of near 90 and high humidity. Plus some rain. Rain because it has to rain here every day. Right? Through tonight: View the current weather conditions at The Washington Post. Tomorrow (Friday): National Archives at dusk. (Michael Sessum via Flickr) See Matt Rogers’s forecast through the beginning of next week. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Pollen update: Eclipse chase: Join us for a never-before-seen digital experience: a live stream event of #Eclipse2017! Watch it live on 8/21 at… https://t.co/uIBbdbfoYc TWC will have people all along the path of totality and even out in the ocean on a cruise ship off the southeast coast. This is one of the first partnerships of this kind through Twitter, so it’ll be interesting to watch it unfold. Want our 5 a.m. forecast delivered to your email in-box? Subscribe here.


Americans are buying more food at Walmart

Walmart is expanding its grocery business both in stores and online by adding more organic produce. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Competition is heating up among U.S. grocery chains, but Americans are increasingly buying their food at Walmart. The retailer on Thursday said food sales had grown to their highest level in five years, as Walmart expands its grocery business both in stores and online by adding more organic produce. The company is also testing grocery delivery in New York, and has taken aggressive steps to compete with Amazon.com, which is the process of buying Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion, as well as with European discounters like Aldi and Lidl, which are ramping up their presence in the United States. “We’ve seen strong results from the rollout of online grocery, which is now in more than 900 U.S. locations,” Doug McMillon, president and chief executive of Walmart, said in a Thursday call with analysts. “We’re expanding this service in many of our markets around the world.” Earlier this year, Walmart created its own “designer” cantaloupe that it says tastes as sweet in winter as it does in summer, and a company spokeswoman says its next goal is to develop a more flavorful tomato. The company has also expanded its lineup of exclusive snacks, including Oreo O’s cereal and Jelly Donut Oreos. Food sales make up more half of Walmart’s revenue, accounting for nearly $200 billion worth of groceries each year, said Joseph Feldman, an analyst for Telsey Advisory Group in New York. (By comparison, the country’s second-largest grocery chain, Kroger, brought in $115.3 billion last year.) “There’s been a real effort to improve fresh foods — produce, meats — and they’ve been very aggressive in keeping prices low,” Feldman said. “Big picture, we’re feeling pretty good about Walmart.” In all, the company said e-commerce sales increased by 60 percent in the most recent quarter. Walmart.com is now the second-largest online retailer, behind Amazon.com, following its $3.3 billion acquisition of Jet.com last year. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.) Sales at stores open at least one year rose 1.8 percent from a year ago, marking the 12th quarter in a row of gains. Second-quarter revenue rose 2 percent to $123.4 billion, up from $120.9 billion a year ago. Earnings, meanwhile, fell 20 percent to 96 cents per share, from $1.21 per share a year


The biggest astronomical event of a generation will hit offices everywhere on Monday

Jefferson City, Mo., and the owner of a Hallmark store there, said she told all her employees to be available all weekend and all day Monday. “I'm sure we’re all going to be going out and looking at the eclipse, but we’re open for business as usual and, in fact, more than usual.” Many companies may not be prepared for the disruption, said Shirley Lerner, an employment lawyer at Littler Mendelson in Minneapolis. The solar eclipse, she said, “hasn’t really caught businesses and employers’ attention in that way they need to be thinking about.” “It's Monday. It's the middle of the workday. It's right in the middle of a lot of people’s lunch hour,” she said. “Will they be making a press to get out of the building? Will they be backing up elevators? Will there be people who just won't come to work?” She also said companies will be dealing with the many last-minute requests for the day off that employees are likely to make: “If you have a team of 15 people and you really, truly need at least half of them on the phone during the prime viewing time, you can still only have so many people leave.” Others aren't planning anything special, but expect employees to take advantage of flexible work policies to deal with disruption from the eclipse. At Lexmark in Lexington, Ky., spokeswoman Emily Rardin said that with a couple of local school systems closed, she assumes many employees will take advantage of the company's flexible work or unlimited vacation policies and work from home. Other companies — both large and small — are making an event out of the day. Firms like advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Ore., HCA Healthcare in Nashville, and The Motley Fool in Alexandria, Va., are doing everything from handing out viewing glasses for a roof-deck viewing to hosting parties with Blue Moon beer. Katherine Kummerow, an adviser for the human resources organization Archbright in Seattle, said they'd be handing out Sun Chips and “moon cheese” on Monday. “I did see someone suggest moon pies,” she said. “We liked that, but it doesn't really fit in with our wellness program.” Read also: Retirement, deferred: Workers — and companies — grapple with a new reality What Silicon Valley needs is some old-fashioned HR know-how Like On Leadership? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.


D.C.-area forecast: Late-day storms could be strong to severe; Weekend humidity lower, but still hot

* Heat advisory in effect until 8 p.m.; Flash flood watch through late tonight * TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 4/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current weather at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL It’s another day where heat-index values could crest around 100. And then we’ll be watching for storms. Some of them could be big. We’ll see if this weak cold front that helps set off the storms can also help us cool off this weekend. Today (Friday): Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast into next week. Tomorrow (Saturday): Tomorrow night: Bike tourists at the Smithsonian Castle, Aug. 17 (Joe Flood via Flickr.) A LOOK AHEAD Sunday: Sunday night: Fingers crossed, sunshine may dominate for eclipse Monday. It may be somewhat muggy though. And summery temperatures in the upper 80s to low 90s. We’ll tweak the forecast, as needed, once we get a bit closer! Confidence: Medium


The eclipse’s really early birds

do something; you can do and be anything you want to be,’ ” Wyatt recalled him telling her. She held on to her love of science, and now she's running simulations with her automated telescope-photography setup and testing battery systems that will power her picture-taking if the surge of people to the coast overwhelms the electrical grid. She's hosting a countdown podcast for a local radio station, interviewing astronomers, eclipse chasers and local officials about every facet of the celestial event. The Wyatts’ story isn’t as unusual as you might think. Just east over the Coast Range, in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Jon and Susan Brewster made a similar move to the path of totality about 16 years ago, to build a home and observatory near Monmouth. Now a senior software engineer at HP, Jon Brewster had worked at a major observatory in Hawaii and had an astronomy obsession of his own. When the couple was clouded out of their attempt to see the 1979 total eclipse on its sweep through the Northwest, he said, they immediately began to plan for their next one — in 2017. They’re so star-struck for space that even the temporary house in Monmouth proper, where they lived while they built their present dream home and telescope dome on a high hill with a clear, dark western view, needed opportunities for late-night astronomizing. “I told the realtor, we’ll meet you there at 9 o’clock at night. Do NOT turn the lights on. Meet me in the back yard and we’ll see if the sky is any good,” Brewster said. “He thought we were nuts.” If that real estate agent has any celestial inklings, he’s probably jealous now: With millions of people clamoring for spots in the path of totality where they can watch the eclipse unfold, the Brewsters get to hunker right down at home. Some 100 friends and family will join them to watch the moon’s shadow rush across the valley floor at more than 2,000 miles per hour, to watch the sun become a cold, black, miasma-wreathed disk. Then again, it could be cloudy again, Jon pointed out. “The only thing we’re promising is two minutes of darkness followed by hamburgers.” Read more: A massive atmospheric experiment is planned for the August eclipse The strangest, scariest eclipse myths throughout history America's greatest eclipse is coming, and this man really wants you to see it


Anybody could be president. We could be obliterated by nuclear war. The eclipse would still come.

On May 20, 2012, this annular solar eclipse was seen as the sun set behind the Rocky Mountains from downtown Denver. (David Zalubowski/AP) Soon, so soon, we’ll look to the heavens in awe. By the tens of millions, we’ll witness our little G-type yellow dwarf star slowly occluded by our moon. Darkness will fall, and the sun will become a ring of coronal fire. We will wonder at this through the polarized glasses we purchased online, which we hope are the real thing and not some knockoff that will leave that image burned forever into our retinas. And we will wonder what it means, because we homo sapiens are creatures that seek purpose and meaning in all things. Surely, surely, this is some heavenly commentary about something we are doing. There are those among my coreligionists who see divine warnings in blood moons and storms. They read the cosmos as earnestly as a shaman seeking meaning in monkey entrails. But that is not the eclipse’s purpose. Our sun and our moon do not stand in conjunction as some commentary on the … peculiarity … of our current administration. The bright sky of day does not dim into a preternatural dark because of some issue we’re angrily tweeting at each other about. The air does not grow cool, and the birds suddenly silent, because we human beings have or have not done something. It does so because it does, and it is because it is. If Gary Johnson were president, this eclipse would still occur. If The Rent Is Too Damn High guy were president, this eclipse would still occur. If the Cuban missile crisis had gone badly south, and our planet had sat for 50 years as a ruin of atomic slag, this eclipse would nonetheless darken the uncaring eyes of the cockroaches. To paraphrase my sacred texts, the shadow of this eclipse will fall on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. That, perhaps, is one of the things we can legitimately take away from this wonder of creation. It’s not all about us. It is not about our egos and our endless grasping, or the petty reasons we find to hate and destroy. We human beings are both wonderful and infinitesimal, both amazing and also little more than the dust to which we return. It also reminds us, perhaps, of how important and inescapable reality is. As we increasingly


After Charlottesville, the U.S. military grapples with its history of racism and extremism

is Nathan Damigo, 31, a former Marine corporal who was deployed to Iraq twice and saw combat, according to military records. The website Task & Purpose reported Thursday that he was invited to speak at the rally. The Southern Poverty Law Center has previously identified him as the founder of the white supremacist group Identity Evropa, which he started after being jailed for armed robbery. Reports of Hopper’s past as a Marine Corps recruiter surfaced Monday, and the service confirmed it Tuesday. Within hours, the service’s top officer, Gen. Robert B. Neller, issued a condemnation of racism and extremism and said it had no place in his service. “Our core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment frame the way Marines live and act,” Neller said in a statement. “Bigotry and racial extremism run contrary to these core values.” The statement was seen by some observers as a reaction to President Trump’s news conference that afternoon, in which he appeared to equate the actions of white supremacists in Charlottesville with those who opposed them. But in reality, Neller was reacting to the news about Hopper, said Lt. Col. Eric Dent, a spokesman for the general. Neller was the second service chief to weigh in about Charlottesville, following Navy Adm. John M. Richardson, who condemned the gathering of white supremacists Saturday. Other service chiefs followed — all looking to make it clear that racism is not welcome in the military. The Marine Corps also has sought to reassure people that those who Hopper helped bring into the service have been thoroughly screened. No one recruits alone, and a “multilayered, policy-based approach to screening” is used with several individuals at different levels interviewing prospective Marines, said Lt. Col. John Caldwell, a Marine spokesman. The service released a statement from Hopper’s former supervisor, Staff Sgt. Kristin Chambasian, in which she said she has stayed in touch with their former recruits and none has shown any indication of harboring racist views. “I cannot speak to when or what changed in Sgt. Hopper that resulted in his recent and current life choices, but I can say without a doubt that the Marines recruited by him and everyone else in [Recruiting Station] Charleston are a diverse population of young men and women who passed rigorous and thorough screening, interviewing, and training to earn the title of United States Marine,” her statement said. It’s an ugly return to


Maryland open houses Aug. 19-20

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This 5,000-year-old stone carving may be the world’s first drawing of an eclipse

Loughcrew cairns also contains a large stone carving of overlapping concentric circles, which could represent a view of the moon partially occluding the sun during an eclipse. This 5,000-year-old stone carving in Meath, Ireland, predating Stonehenge by at least 1,000 years, may be the world's oldest surviving depiction of an eclipse. (Michael Fox/Boynevalleytours.com) In Griffin’s telling, the larger concentric circle to the left represents the moon, while the partially occluded circle immediately adjacent represents the sun. Those circles do indeed bear a striking resemblance to a partial solar eclipse, like the one below. A partial solar eclipse is seen over the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Nov. 3, 2013. (Ebrahim Hamid/AFP/Getty Images) Other circles surrounding the pair may represent stars suddenly visible in the sky during the near-total eclipse, while the diamonds to the right could refer to stone pillars elsewhere at the site. According to Griffin’s calculations, this eclipse would have happened around sunset on a day in the late autumn, or Nov. 30, 3340 B.C. in Universal Time. Previous archaeologists working at the site had discovered charred human remains from nearly 50 individuals placed beneath a basin immediately in front of the carving, suggesting a monument of great ritual importance — “a possible human sacrifice to ‘save’ the Neolithic 'sky God' (Sun) from dying as it descended to the ‘underworld’ at the horizon, with 15 percent of its surface still ‘eaten away,’ ” Griffin speculates. Is Griffin’s interpretation correct? It’s impossible to know for sure. The people who created the carvings didn’t leave behind any writings to explain their purpose to curious onlookers 5,000 years in the future. But Griffin’s explanations were convincing enough for NASA to include his ideas in their roundup of eclipse history. Lunar scientist John Dvorak also included them in his recent book on eclipses, “Mask of the Sun,” although he notes that the meaning of the carvings is “open to debate” and that “no one knows for sure exactly what the concentric circles represent.” Other experts on astronomy and ancient culture are more skeptical of the Loughcrew eclipse hypothesis. Anthony Aveni, a professor of astronomy and anthropology at Colgate University and author of the book “In the Shadow of the Moon,” said in an email that he sees “no reason to tie [the Loughcrew carvings] in any way to eclipses. In my view you need a written record to imply with any certainty


From beer to bread and back again to solve ‘the world’s dumbest problem’

Toast beer and Regrained bars are creative ways to recycle grains (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post). Historians have long debated what came first, beer or bread. Both can be made relatively easily using grains, water and yeast, and they were some of the first accomplishments of agricultural societies. Tens of thousands of years later, innovators are looking to these ancient staples to solve a modern dilemma: food waste. Brewing beer leaves behind excess grains, and bread doesn't keep long. Rethinking how to make these and other grain-based foods is leading to some quirky and — according to our expert tasters — occasionally but not always delicious creations. Daniel Kurzrock brewed his first beer in a friend’s apartment as a freshman at the University of California at Los Angeles. Like most serious brewers, he soon began brewing from whole malted grains instead of malt extract. Soaking barley and other grains makes them germinate. When the new seedling begins to grow, enzymes are produced that convert the grain’s starches into sugar to feed the growing plant. Shortly after germination, the grains are dried, crushed and stirred around in a hot bath. Yeast is later added to the grainy broth to make beer. When Kurzrock drained the broth (called wort) from his first all-grain batch of home brew, he found himself faced with a 10-gallon jug full of leftover soppy grains. He threw it in the trash but felt guilty for tossing out so much food. Meanwhile, across the country, another student bemoaned the sight of grains in the trash. “I have a poignant memory of working with this organization in Nashville,” said Madeline Holtzman, a graduate student studying food systems at New York University. She recalls a trip to Whole Foods Market where they picked up surplus food to redistribute to soup kitchens and food pantries. There were “these seven ginormous bags stuffed with beautiful artisanal bread,” Holtzman said. They loaded up all the other food but left behind five bags of bread. All the places they delivered to were “stuffed to the gills with bread.” Kurzrock and Holtzman didn’t see trash when they looked at bags of expired bread or tubs of brewer’s mash. They saw food. Food that had to be grown on arable land where there would otherwise be native grasses or forests. Food that was produced using fresh water and fossil fuels. Food that would end up


During the solar eclipse, animals will be extremely confused

whether they go to roost. It will get very noisy if they do.” Woc Colburn thinks additional bird species and other zoo animals such as lemurs, clouded leopards and kangaroos may also begin to exhibit nighttime habits when totality hits, whether that’s waking up, going to sleep or lining up for a feeding. It’s all speculation, however, which is something Woc Colburn finds quite surprising. There is scant research on animal behavior during solar eclipses, owing primarily to the rarity of such events “Sometimes you have great research ideas and just need people to do the observations,” Woc Colburn said. “That’s not going to be a problem Monday.” Observers nationwide, including visitors to the Nashville Zoo, are being encouraged to join an ambitious and unprecedented attempt at crowdsourced scientific research by using the California Academy of Sciences’ iNaturalist app to document animal reactions. Nashville researchers also plan to scrape social media postings that tag the zoo. Spokesman Jim Bartoo said researchers will accept any analog observations that are submitted. “We’re expecting everyone to be in the 21st century,” he joked, “but if they take handwritten notes and can call us from a landline later, we will welcome that as well.” At a minimum, Bartoo said the zoo will make the data collected Monday available to other researchers. Decisions on when, how and if the observations will be further used or published won’t be made until they are gathered and analyzed. Bartoo predicts the zoo’s southern white rhinos may have a particularly interesting reaction, possibly lining up to go inside to eat, which is their routine at the end of the day. And how will they react if they aren’t fed, or when totality ends and it appears to be the middle of the day again. The zoo is located in a mostly residential area 20 minutes southeast of downtown and is preparing for as many as 15,000 visitors. Eclipse watchers are bracing for a major bummer should clouds obscure their view. While Woc Colburn agrees that would be a serious letdown, she also noted that clouds shouldn’t affect how animals react, so those who choose to spend the eclipse at the zoo won’t be wholly deprived of a unique experience. Woc Colburn said it will be interesting and potentially useful to learn how much of an impact sunlight, versus other cues, has on animal behavior. “I would have thought by


These visual aids show you exactly what the eclipse will look like in your location

the upper rim remains exposed. - If you’re south of the path of totality, the moon covers more of the upper portion of the sun. In the western United States, cities south of the path of totality will typically see the upper and left half of the sun obscured. Here’s how the eclipse will unfold in 10 major cities Below are several images and links to live animations that show how the solar eclipse will progress in Washington and nine other cities across the Lower 48 — including two in the path of totality. If you’re looking for your specific viewing location not listed below, you’ll probably find it find it here. Note from the graphics that “direction” indicates the compass-based orientation of the sun in the sky during each phase of the eclipse, while “altitude” is the sun’s height above the horizon. All times shown are local. Washington, D.C. Click here for a full animation of the eclipse in D.C. (timeanddate.com) In D.C., the partial solar eclipse begins at 1:17 p.m. The moon will approach the right-hand edge of the sun, then pivot around the center of the sun’s disk. The peak of the eclipse arrives at 2:42 p.m., when 81.1 percent of the sun will be obscured. The eclipse ends as the moon leaves the sun’s center-left edge at 4:01 p.m. Seattle Click here to watch the full animation. (timeanddate.com) Seattle lies just north of the path of totality, so residents will see a partial solar eclipse. When the eclipse starts at 9:08 a.m., the moon will approach the upper-right-hand edge of the sun. It will then pivot around the center of the sun’s disk, leaving a crescent of the sun exposed. At the peak of the eclipse (10:20 a.m.), 91.8 percent of the sun will be obscured. The eclipse ends when the moon leaves the sun’s lower left edge at 11:38 a.m. Phoenix Click here to watch the full animation. (timeanddate.com) In Phoenix, the partial solar eclipse begins at 9:13 a.m. The moon will sink down across the sun’s upper edge from nearly straight above, then slide down to cover the center-left portion of the solar disk. At 10:33 a.m. the eclipse reaches its peak, with 63.1 percent of the sun obscured. As the eclipse ends at noon, the moon’s shadow will depart the center and lower-left portion of the sun’s edge. If you’re


The next eclipse is on Mars

(J. Cowart/FU Berlin/DLR/ESA) Are you going through eclipse withdrawal? Mars has you covered. Earth typically experiences anywhere from four to seven eclipses in a year, counting partial solar eclipses (when the moon doesn't fully obscure the sun) and lunar eclipses (when the earth's shadow partially obscures the moon). On Mars, however, solar eclipses are practically a daily event. Mars has two moons — tiny, potato-shaped satellites named Phobos and Deimos, after the Greek deities of fear and dread, respectively. For a sense of how small they are, here's a NASA illustration comparing them with the size of Earth's moon. FROM LEFT: Deimos, Phobos and the Earth's moon. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/Texas A&M University)But Mars' moons orbit at a much closer distance than our own Moon orbits ours. While the moon is about 238,000 miles away from Earth (give or take), Phobos is only about 6,000 miles away from the surface of Mars. Among other things, that proximity causes it to rotate incredibly fast, circling around Mars in under eight hours. A person standing on Mars would see it cross the sky twice in one day. Because of its small size, it appears smaller than our own moon does to us. Here's what Phobos looks like in the Martian afternoon sky to the Mars Curiosity rover: (NASA/JPL/MSSS/Justin Cowart) Phobos' close, fast orbit makes it cross paths with the sun fairly often — near-daily. But because the moon is so small it never fully occludes the sun to create a total eclipse. Part of the sun's disc is always visible. The Mars Curiosity rover captured real-time video of this happening on Aug. 20, 2013. This video clip shows the larger of the two moons of Mars, Phobos, passing directly in front of the sun, in an eclipse photographed by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Aug. 20, 2013. Here are a few still shots captured by the rover during that event. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/Texas A&M University) Against the solar backdrop, you can clearly make out Phobos' irregular shape, which it partly owes to being so small that it doesn't exert enough gravity to pull itself into a proper sphere. A person weighing 150 pounds on Earth would weigh only two ounces on Phobos. “Because this eclipse occurred near midday at Curiosity's location on Mars,” NASA explains, “Phobos was nearly overhead, closer to the rover than it would have been earlier in the


The next eclipse is on Mars

Here's what Phobos looks like in the Martian afternoon sky to the Mars Curiosity rover: (NASA/JPL/MSSS/Justin Cowart) Phobos' close, fast orbit makes it cross paths with the sun fairly often — near-daily. But because the moon is so small it never fully occludes the sun to create a total eclipse. Part of the sun's disc is always visible. The Mars Curiosity rover captured real-time video of this happening on Aug. 20, 2013. This video clip shows the larger of the two moons of Mars, Phobos, passing directly in front of the sun, in an eclipse photographed by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Aug. 20, 2013. Here are a few still shots captured by the rover during that event. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/Texas A&M University) Against the solar backdrop, you can clearly make out Phobos' irregular shape, which it partly owes to being so small that it doesn't exert enough gravity to pull itself into a proper sphere. A person weighing 150 pounds on Earth would weigh only two ounces on Phobos. “Because this eclipse occurred near midday at Curiosity's location on Mars,” NASA explains, “Phobos was nearly overhead, closer to the rover than it would have been earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon. This timing made Phobos' silhouette larger against the sun — as close to a total eclipse of the sun as is possible from Mars.” Here's a wide-angle shot of a 2010 Mars eclipse taken by the Opportunity rover. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Texas A&M University) What about the other Martian moon? Deimos orbits more than twice as far away from Mars and is smaller to boot, making it much less visible in the Martian sky. When Deimos crosses paths with the sun, it's more properly called a transit, rather than an eclipse. In this photo of a Deimos transit taken by the Opportunity rover in 2004, the moon basically looks like a sunspot. (NASA/JPL/Cornell) Other planets experience eclipses, too, although we haven't observed any of them from the ground up. Here, for instance, is a Hubble telescope image of Jupiter's moon Io casting a shadow on Jupiter's surface. J. Spencer (Lowell Observatory) and NASA From Jupiter, the sun appears much smaller than it does in our own sky. A number of the planet's moons obscure it completely, creating not an eclipse but an occultation — an astronomical term for when one object is completely hidden by another one


Tips for driving during the solar eclipse

A pair of free solar eclipse glasses sit on display at a Warby Parker store in New York City. To view the solar eclipse on Aug. 21 eye protection is essential. The designer eyeglass store expects to give out thousands of pairs of the glasses before the event. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) It’s been almost a century since a total solar eclipse swept the whole width of the United States, so it’s easy to understand what all the excitement is about. But as with every big event, there are, well … traffic impacts. Not just from visitors swarming to cities where there will be full darkness, but from regular old commuters who might be startled when the sky begins to grow unexpectedly dark. Monday’s eclipse, set to begin near Lincoln City, Ore., around 10:15 a.m. Pacific time, is expected to move through the D.C. region at just after 1 p.m. Eastern time. In the nation’s capital, there won’t be full darkness when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, but you will witness a notable darkening during the crossing. This is why state departments of transportation here and across the country are on high alert — bringing on additional personnel to manage traffic around areas that expect large numbers of visitors and, in some cases, even calling in the National Guard. The federal government is also doing its part to keep roads as clear as possible. As Terena Bell reports: “The Federal Highway Administration has asked states to suspend all road construction Monday to ease the flow of traffic. FHWA also is changing interstate dynamic message boards nationwide: A total solar eclipse is coming. The sky will get dark. The sun will appear to go away in the middle of the day. Do not slam on your brakes. Do not be afraid.” Even the smallest change in normal commuting can cause traffic issues. Transportation officials, including the folks with the Maryland Transportation Authority, and AAA Mid-Atlantic are offering these tips on how to avoid trouble if you’re on the road during the eclipse: - Don’t stop along the interstate or park on the shoulder during the event. - Exit the highway to a safe location to view and/or photograph the eclipse. - Don’t take photographs while driving — keep your attention on the road ahead. - Don’t try to wear opaque eclipse glasses while operating a vehicle. - Turn your


The best places to watch the eclipse with a goat

that voted for Trump,” the Globe noted. The path of viewing spots for this month’s solar eclipse cuts overwhelmingly through places that voted for Trump.… https://t.co/QD2doffUJH The Globe's map prompted a torrent of ridicule. Aside from geographic coincidence, the eclipse's path of totality is not at all related to the results of the 2016 election. As the article dutifully noted, Trump won 84 percent of the country's 3,100+ counties — draw any arbitrary line across the country and you are virtually guaranteed that most counties in its path will have voted for Trump. The Globe map's true legacy, however, lies with the myriad parody maps it inspired. Cartographer Joshua Stevens created a map of the best places to see the eclipse and a sasquatch at the same time. Eclipses and UFO sightings followed. Breweries. Waffle Houses. North Korean missile launches. Sad Jordans. The Boston Globe taught the Internet that if you can put it on a map, you can put an eclipse over it. For that, we should all be grateful. Here at Wonkblog, we'd like to express our gratitude the best way we know how: with goats. Behold, the eclipse mash-up none of us need but which we all truly deserve right now: goat population, derived from the 2012 USDA Agricultural Census. Taking the census's tally at face value, by our calculation there are approximately 172,000 goats residing within the path of totality, representing roughly 7 percent of the 2.6 million goats counted in that year's Ag Census. Now, this is probably an undercount: The census only includes truly agricultural goat operations in its tally, so your typical backyard hobby goats are not represented here. Still, if you want to see the eclipse and pet a goat at the same time (and who wouldn't!), this map suggests some options. You can find uncommonly high concentrations of eclipse goats near the Georgia/South Carolina/North Carolina border, as well as in central Tennessee. Speaking of Tennessee, as part of the Post's wall-to-wall eclipse coverage on Monday, we will be live-streaming from a fainting goat farm in that state to solve the last remaining mystery of solar eclipses: Do they make fainting goats faint? Incidentally, the next wave of the USDA's Agricultural Census is in the field this year. That means brand-new goat population estimates are right around the corner — just in time for the total lunar eclipse of Jan. 21, 2019.


Bannon’s departure has huge implications for the U.S.-China relationship

Post opinion writer Jonathan Capehart says President Trump's white nationalist tirade came from fertile ground expertly tilled by Steve Bannon. That won't stop now that Bannon is out. The sudden departure of White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon could disarm his drive to drastically alter U.S. strategy on China. That effort was central to Bannon’s plan to transform U.S. foreign and economic policy. Now it is in limbo. Since President Trump’s transition, Bannon had been pushing for a new grand strategy that would consolidate U.S. government efforts on China, confront China economically in multiple ways and revitalize the U.S. pivot to Asia that was initiated but left incomplete during the Obama administration. Bannon was assembling a coalition of like-minded China hands both inside and outside government to help. Now, those who opposed Bannon’s China efforts inside the administration are positioned to reassert their control over the relationship and stifle many of Bannon’s key initiatives. That could be a boon for the status quo — and a relief to the Chinese government. One of Bannon’s final acts before leaving the administration was to announce in an interview that to him, “the economic war with China is everything.” He argued the United States must marshal all elements of national power to confront China in various spheres or yield world hegemony. “Bannon’s particular unique idea was that this is a civilizational challenge,” said Michael Pillsbury, who met with Bannon regularly on China over the past year. “His warning is, if they surpass us, they will have earned the privilege of redesigning the world order.” As a special assistant to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Thomas Hayward four decades ago, Bannon became enamored with the work of the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, led for decades by Andrew W. Marshall. Bannon believes the United States needs a long-term strategy for maintaining advantage over China similar to what Marshall helped devise for the Soviet Union, while acknowledging that the China challenge is much harder. Behind the scenes, Bannon had been busily operationalizing his plan to win the economic war with China. He spent 50 percent of his time on China, he liked to tell colleagues. Several of his China agenda items will continue to have advocates, including National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. As Bannon has acknowledged, he was opposed by other top officials, including National Economic Director Gary


D.C.-area forecast: A more comfortable version of summer this weekend

Columbia Heights on a sunny summer day in Washington. (Tim Brown via Flickr) TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 7/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current weather conditions at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL After swimming through some of the soupiest air you’ll ever witness around here, a return to more typical late-summer heat is here. Today feels nice in comparison, and tomorrow’s got its positives as well. We’re still near and above 90 this weekend and into early week. There appear to be cooler winds beyond, though. A teaser to be on the watch for in coming days. Today (Saturday): Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Sunday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD We’re looking at partly cloudy skies Monday for the eclipse. That should tend to mean more good views than not. There is still a slight chance a few showers may try to pop up, but I don’t think that ruins anything even if it happens. High temperatures are near 90, and humidity levels are back up a bit from the weekend. Confidence: Medium High pressure is in control and a stronger cold front is still well to the west for Tuesday. Coming off warm lows in the low to mid 70s, high temperatures run near and beyond 90. Skies should be mostly sunny early, with more clouds during the afternoon and a risk of a few storms. Confidence: Medium


Can’t find the protective glasses to watch the solar eclipse? Go old school.

The first coast-to-coast solar eclipse in almost 100 years moved across the U.S. at 2,000 mph on Aug. 21. Here are some highlights. To savor the solar eclipse, you don’t need special equipment. Go old school. Go low-tech. A partial or total eclipse can still be a memorable experience if you’re crafty and canny. As this Monday’s total solar eclipse will create a ribbon of shadow stretching from Oregon to South Carolina, other locations in the continental United States will see varying degrees of a partial eclipse. You can find your specific circumstances at the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Solar Eclipse Web page. Some places closer to the eclipse path of totality will have over 90 percent of the sun covered by the moon, while other places in the Northeast and Midwest will have less than 85 percent of the sun’s face covered. For the Washington area, this event is a partial eclipse with about 80 percent of the sun obscured, according to the observatory. The eclipse starts at 1:17 p.m. Eastern time, and the middle of the eclipse occurs at 2:42 p.m. It all ends at 4:01 p.m. President Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again rally in Phoenix. The first rule of enjoying the eclipse is to never look directly at the sun, never look at the sun through a telescope or binoculars — unless these instruments have proper (emphasis on proper!) filters. Retired NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenek gets specific and warns to never look directly at the partial phases of any solar eclipse, or the maximum phases of an annular (ring of fire) solar eclipse with your unprotected or naked eye. He said that even when most of the sun’s surface is blocked during the partial phases of a solar eclipse, the remaining, visible crescent is intensely bright and cannot be safely viewed without eye protection. Here are some old-school, low-tech ideas: Cereal Box Personal Theater The cereal box solar eclipse theater is a good way to safely view the Aug. 21 solar eclipse. Here's how to make one at home. Clear the kitchen table and find the craft scissors. Have the kids make their own cereal box solar eclipse theater. It’s a terrific way to capture the eclipse action and safe for viewing. You’ll need a cereal box, a piece of aluminum foil, tape and a small nail or pushpin. First, eat your Wheaties —


Total solar eclipse weather forecast as of Aug. 19

Below are illustrations of the cloud cover that these models are predicting as of Saturday. In the graphic below, showing the GFS model, clouds are displayed in blue. GFS model cloud cover forecast for 2 p.m. Eastern on Monday. (PivotalWeather.com) For another point of view, below is the cloud cover forecast from the European model. Shades of gray illustrate where clouds are forecast. The darker the shades, the more cloud cover predicted. European model cloud cover forecast at 2 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21. (StormVistaWxModels.com) For the Capital Weather Gang cloud cover forecast, we take into account all the models’ predictions as well as what we know about typical August conditions. Finally, note that the above maps display the model forecasts for total cloud cover, which take into account both high and low clouds. In some areas, their illustration is probably overly pessimistic because the eclipse may still be viewable through high, thin clouds. Average weather for Aug. 21 The timing of the eclipse is ideal, at least for the West. It begins just after 10 a.m. local time on the West Coast, which is usually enough time to burn off the fog that often occurs there. The intermountain areas sometimes see thunderstorms bubble up in the afternoons during this time of year. These are associated with the Southwest monsoon, a period of increased thunderstorms and rain during the late summer and early fall. But the eclipse passes through this region around noon, before most of the storms develop, so the storm risk should be low there. Clouds often pop up along the rest of the path throughout the day simply because of warmth and moisture. Those two things combined lead to rising air, which creates clouds. So the cloud risk gets greater the farther east you go. On top of that, South Carolina will see totality the latest in the day — after 2:30 p.m. NASA created the map below, which shows how, on average, the best chance of clear skies Aug. 21 is focused in western areas, and the chance of cloud cover increases as you head east. (NASA) Additional cloud cover resources: - National Weather Service eclipse forecast page - NOAA GOES-16 satellite images - Historical cloud cover information from NOAA Jason Samenow contributed to this post. Capital Weather Gang's Angela Fritz breaks down what will happen when a total solar eclipse crosses the U.S. on Aug. 21.


On the road to the path of totality for the solar eclipse

Capital Weather Gang’s Angela Fritz explains how math is used to determine the timing and location of the total solar eclipse crossing the U.S. on Aug. 21. CARBONDALE, Ill. — The warning signs hang above hundreds of miles of highway, flashing the same message from Illinois to Tennessee: “SOLAR ECLIPSE. AUGUST 21. PLAN AHEAD.” On Monday, the moon will pass in front of the sun and cast a shadow over a 70-mile-wide cross-section of the continent known as the “path of totality.” It will be the country’s first total solar eclipse in nearly 40 years, and an estimated 12 million people are expected to witness it. That estimate may well be low. A good chunk of those people will watch from somewhere along Interstate 24. It’s a smooth, straight highway that cuts across the American heartland, passing cornfields, churches, Chik-fil-As and dozens of billboards bearing stern instructions not to leave your car to look at the sun. This is the road to totality. And already, eclipse chasers are congregating here, ready for the moon’s shadow to fall on them. Rose Gilbert arrived days ago. It took the Columbia, Md., resident 11 hours to drive herself, her husband, three of their daughters and Gilbert’s octogenarian parents to Nashville, where they’ve rented a house with a view of a lake and a wide-open stretch of sky. “Suppose it’s cloudy?” asks her father, Carl Landi. He’s been skeptical about this whole endeavor since Gilbert first proposed it more than a year ago. (“Had it been up to me, I probably wouldn’t be here,” he confides privately.) “Then we’ll get in the car and drive,” Gilbert replies, not missing a beat. She and her husband, John, wouldn’t call themselves astronomy buffs. She’s a nurse; he’s a physician assistant. They don’t own telescopes or plan their vacations around celestial events. But an eclipse is different, Rose says. “It’s two whole minutes of the sun being blocked.” “That’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most people,” says John. “It’s a no-brainer,” she responds. Capital Weather Gang's Angela Fritz breaks down what will happen when a total solar eclipse crosses the U.S. on Aug. 21. So here they are, the whole family. Their cameras are outfitted with solar filters. Their eclipse glasses are NASA-certified — Gilbert double-checked. Even Landi is grudgingly looking forward to the event. T-minus three days and ready to go. Signs of the coming spectacle are


PM Update: Pleasant this evening, a chance of a storm tonight and fairly nice on Sunday

Today was nicer than Friday, but it’s certainly relative. Still plenty hot and still plenty humid. High temperatures made it to right around 90 in most spots. If Reagan National Airport managed a 90, the District will be on the cusp of reaching the average for 90-degree days in an entire year (39, as of 1987-2016) with about a month left when we could get one. It does seem likely that more are around the corner. Through tonight: View the current weather at The Washington Post. Tomorrow (Sunday): Sunrise on the Tidal Basin this morning. (Kevin Wolf via Flickr) See my forecast through the beginning of next week. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Local eclipsecast: The high-resolution models both suggest that we will have plenty of clear skies in the area at 2 p.m., which is a little prior to peak around here, but not too far off. 12km North American Mesoscale model (NAM) cloud forecast for 2 p.m. Monday … 3km NAM model for the same time … (Weatherbell.com) Both models also suggest that thunderstorms may want to fire up that afternoon, so some locations could have to deal with that for at least part of the event. You can see this beginning on the three-kilometer NAM above, particularly over the eastern ridges of the mountains. It brings storms into our area later in the day. It’s August, so you know there’s a good chance it’ll be soupy. That’s the case Monday, with temperatures probably approaching or passing 90 teamed up with high humidity. 3km NAM model temperatures at 2 p.m…. (Weatherbell.com) Three-kilometer NAM model dew points at 2 p.m…. (Weatherbell.com) Want our 5 a.m. forecast delivered to your email inbox? Subscribe here.


Holiday Puts A Bright Spot On Calendar

adults around this neighborhood knew better. They were ready with their electric-blue welding glasses and their makeshift pinhole viewers, ready to abandon the comforting warmth of their fireplaces and the lure of their televisions to see the moon sweep across the sun in a partial eclipse. It was a rare Christmas gift from the celestial spheres. It was visible throughout most of North America. The last solar eclipse on Dec. 25 was in 1954. Seen in . . . Africa. The next solar eclipse on Christmas Day won’t take place until . . . 2307 . . . off the western coast of, yet again, Africa. Yesterday was as close to a total eclipse that this area will get for the next decade, according to Astronomy magazine. So it was a precious chance, and families across the Washington region turned off the Internet and their videos and stepped into the cold air to watch nature’s performance. Dozens went to the Crosby Ramsey Memorial Observatory at the Maryland Science Center at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The observatory hosted an eclipse-viewing party with filter-equipped telescopes. Many just watched from their front yards. Some had handmade viewers; others had store-bought versions. All week long, Hands On Optics in Damascus was selling solar eclipse viewers. Astronomers caution that looking directly at the sun can cause retinal damage, so many eclipse watchers were careful to use the viewers or welding glasses. Astronomer Fred Espenak, known as “Mr. Eclipse” and one of the world’s foremost experts on occultations, posted hundreds of pages of history and tips and trivia on his Web site, sunearth.gsfc. nasa.gov/ eclipse/eclipse.htm. It served as a handy Internet guide for families who wanted to craft the right viewing equipment for spotting the old- fashioned eclipse with newly fashioned technology and data. A scientist in the Lab for Extraterrestial Physics at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Espenak describes the eclipse on his Web site as “one of the most awe inspiring spectacles in all of nature.” People have long feared, honored and respected eclipses. The historian Herodotus recorded that in 585 B.C. an eclipse fell in the midst of a ferocious battle between the Medes and the Lydians. Both sides of the seven-year war were so terrified they laid down their arms, immediately declared peace and sealed it with a marriage between the son and daughter of opposing kings. Today, some worry, with various


The National Parks: Not Just Another Pretty Facade

of protection. Indeed, scenic preservation was the major factor in establishing our first national parks-Yosemite in 1864 and Yellowstone in 1872. In addition to spectacular topography, what mattered most to the public were the conspicuous elements of nature-trees and wildflowers, rather than mice and algae. Ecological sciences were only dimly understood, and though many important biological communities were included within park boundaries, this was thanks largely to chance-because these communities occurred in areas set aside to protect scenery, the beautiful “facade” of nature. In 1916, Congress created the National Park Service to coordinate management of a steadily growing system of national parks. The legislation called for the conservation of scenery, natural objects and wildlife and for public enjoyment of these attractions in such a way that would leave the parks “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” The intent of this legislation has always been ambiguous, since it blessed both preservation and use. But in actual practice, leaving parks “unimpaired” applied primarily to the parks’ scenery, not to the subtle elements of biological communities. Scenery or Biology Banks? In developing parks to give tourists access to the great scenic attractions, park managers sought to achieve visual harmony between new construction and the natural surroundings. They located many early hotels, museums and other facilities almost on top of major features, often building in a rustic architectural style using heavy logs and stone so that the structures appear to be part of the natural scenery. Landscape architects designed roadways and bridges to blend with nautral surroundings. Attuned to such visual factors, park developers showed almost no concern for biological processes. However, managers did oppose certain intrusions-railroads, dams and reservoirs. They protected large mammals and attractive birdlife. And except for tourist areas, the mountains and valleys were kept unscarred, the trees healthy, the flatlands lush with vegetation. But maintaining scenery required little scientific research, so ecologically unsound practices crept in as well: the introduction of exotic (non-native) species; suppression of forest fires to prevent dark scars on the landscape; eradication of mountain lions and wolves, which preyed on the big, impressive game species; and spraying to prevent scenic forests from being infested and denuded by insects. Facade management thus became the accepted practice-managing scenic parks for the public’s enjoyment, but with little understanding of the biological consequences. This approach accepted nature as more or less static. Park developers could bring in thousands of


have been terminated. Predators are protected. Especially destructive exotic species have been eradicated or reduced in population, and native species re-introduced. Scientific management in the parks also benefited from recent legislation, including the Wilderness Act (1964) and the Endangered Species Act (1973). These and other laws, particularly The National Environmental Policy Act (1969) have improved the Park Service’s environmental-review processes and opened its management practices to much greater scrutiny, including public involvement in park planning. Gene Pools for the Globe Even as environmental stress on the parks increases, they are assuming yet another vital scientific role. The critical worldwide reduction of biological diversity has brought sharper focus to the concept of national parks as biological laboratories and “gene pools.” Although seriously altered in many respects, parks are still among the least disturbed natural areas. Therefore, scientists increasingly view the large natural parks as important to the biological health of the planet-reservoirs of genetic material and islands of naturalness providing baseline information against which manipulated landscapes can be tested for irreversible change or loss of species. Whether the increasing scientific importance of the parks will be supported by the public remains an open question. Scenery has long provided the primary inspiration for national parks and, through tourism, their primary economic justifiction. Despite the environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s, facade management based largely on aesthetic considerations is still acceptable to many people. Pretty scenery creates an impression of biological health and provides such overwhelming satisfaction that the general public gives little more than cursory consideration to the parks’ greater ecological complexes. Few visitors can recognize when certain animal populations are too great or too small, or whether trees and mammals (much less shrubs, grasses, and insects) are native or not. And even when human-caused ecological damage is explained to park visitors, the new conditions are often accepted as simply “another change in the scenery.” Thus, while provocative issues such as the Yellowstone fire or proposals to dam rivers in parks create intense public interest because they might affect tourism and the scenery, repeated calls for expanded, research programs (essential for sound ecological management) receive little attention or support outside the environmental community. That is a major reason why park research programs have never been fully realized, why the National Park Service has not been a leading practitioner of scientific management and why the parks continue to be biologically out of


biological diversity has brought sharper focus to the concept of national parks as biological laboratories and “gene pools.” Although seriously altered in many respects, parks are still among the least disturbed natural areas. Therefore, scientists increasingly view the large natural parks as important to the biological health of the planet-reservoirs of genetic material and islands of naturalness providing baseline information against which manipulated landscapes can be tested for irreversible change or loss of species. Whether the increasing scientific importance of the parks will be supported by the public remains an open question. Scenery has long provided the primary inspiration for national parks and, through tourism, their primary economic justifiction. Despite the environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s, facade management based largely on aesthetic considerations is still acceptable to many people. Pretty scenery creates an impression of biological health and provides such overwhelming satisfaction that the general public gives little more than cursory consideration to the parks’ greater ecological complexes. Few visitors can recognize when certain animal populations are too great or too small, or whether trees and mammals (much less shrubs, grasses, and insects) are native or not. And even when human-caused ecological damage is explained to park visitors, the new conditions are often accepted as simply “another change in the scenery.” Thus, while provocative issues such as the Yellowstone fire or proposals to dam rivers in parks create intense public interest because they might affect tourism and the scenery, repeated calls for expanded, research programs (essential for sound ecological management) receive little attention or support outside the environmental community. That is a major reason why park research programs have never been fully realized, why the National Park Service has not been a leading practitioner of scientific management and why the parks continue to be biologically out of balance. Today, when tourists go to Yellowstone, they will be confronted more than ever by the ecological story behind the facade. In a sense, the fire itself-by burning off some of the scenery-has revealed and clarified the regenerative processes of natural systems. But to what degree an increased ecological understanding might change people’s attitudes is questionable. Science has challenged traditional views of park management for more than half a century, yet interest in the scenery-the national parks as pretty places to visit-continues to dwarf real concerns for the parks ecological systems and the threats they face. Curated by producer Katherine Arcement.


Nick Saban and the Alabama football team have little time for your silly solar eclipse

Behold, the sun. Not so fast, Alabama players. (Vasha Hunt/AL.com via AP) Alabama Coach Nick Saban owns a lake house in Clayton, Ga., which might be a popular town to visit Monday. It’s one of the few cities in America that lie in the path of the total solar eclipse, meaning that, for roughly 150 seconds beginning around 2:36 p.m., anyone there with special sunglasses and an ability to angle their head upward can observe what eclipse connoisseurs dub “the sight of a lifetime.” Of course, Saban won’t be at his lake house Monday because he has to prepare his machine of a program for its season opener Sept. 2 against Florida State. He and the Crimson Tide will be practicing In Tuscaloosa, Ala., where the moon will produce slightly more than 90 percent visible blockage of the sun — still a rare sight for college kids who weren’t alive the last time a total solar eclipse was visible anywhere in America (February, 1979). A reporter asked Saban after his team’s scrimmage Saturday whether the Tide would take any precautions to prevent eye damage when taking in the eclipse. Saban responded with the enthusiasm of someone who is looking to buy a new muffler for his car. Nick Saban doesn't seem to care about the Solar Eclipse 😂 #RollTide https://t.co/nGdttioDza “We’ll set it up so if the players want to go out there and get some sunglasses and look at it, I guess they can,” he said in his patented monotone. “That’s not something that I’m really that focused on right now. I watch the Weather Channel every day and they already said what it’s going to look like in every city in America. So what’s going to be significant? If you watch the Weather Channel, you can see what it’s going to be like in Portland, Oregon. Clayton, Georgia, is the number one place in the country to have 100 percent … my house there is probably going to be the only empty house on the lake.” Saban, 65, said he watches the Weather Channel “every day,” and it informed him how the eclipse will look everywhere in America, touting the Weather Channel as the place to go for all solar eclipse appreciation. “So, I’ma watch it on TV,” Saban continued. “Maybe we should have a team meeting about how we’re going to do this; I haven’t thought about


Still need a pair of solar eclipse glasses? Here’s where to find them. (Maybe.)

which will also run you a pretty penny. Other retail chains to check Walmart ($1.00) Best Buy HobbyTown Kirklands Kroger Lowe’s Maverik Pilot/Flying J Toys “R” Us Last resort I have no doubt in my mind that there will be people selling eclipse glasses outside on the day of the big event. Make sure the glasses are dark enough: “You shouldn’t be able to see anything through a safe solar filter except the Sun itself or something comparably bright, such as the Sun reflected in a mirror, a sunglint off shiny metal, the hot filament of an unfrosted incandescent lightbulb, a bright halogen lightbulb, a bright-white LED flashlight (including the one on your smartphone), or an arc-welder’s torch. Counterfeit glasses have flooded the market ahead of the first coast-to-coast solar eclipse in a century. In the D.C. area These D.C.-area stores are SOLD OUT: Warby Parker Ace Hardware, Main Street, Fairfax Ace Hardware, Old Town Alexandria Ace Hardware/Strosniders, Silver Spring Ace Hardware, Bethesda Ace Hardware, Manassas Twins Ace Hardware, Clarendon/Courthouse Walmart, Burke Walmart, Fairfax All Lowes stores in Maryland, Virginia and the District Maketto — 1351 H St. NE. Arlington Public Libraries Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (Downtown) Montgomery County Fair I’ve received a few tips that there are two guys at a booth near the food at Montgomery County Fair selling eclipse glasses. The last I heard about this vendor was Thursday evening. Not sure if they are still available as of Saturday night. (If you are these guys, shoot me an email!) Prince George’s County Memorial Library System The Prince George’s libraries are hosting eclipse-viewing events. You need to attend one of the events to get the glasses. Given the limited quantity, young children will be prioritized. Locations: Upper Marlboro, Beltsville, Hillcrest Heights, Largo-Kettering, Laurel, Bowie, Glenarden, Hyattsville and Oxon Hill. Anne Arundel County Public Library A limited number of glasses will be provided for attendees during the library’s viewing party. Walmart I have received emails from readers saying they found some at the suburban Walmarts. The Walmart on Georgia Avenue is out of stock. The Fairfax and Burke, Va., Walmarts are also out of stock. National Zoo The zoo will be giving away glasses at its eclipse event on Monday. Millions of people watched as the eclipse cut a path of totality 70 miles wide across the United States from Oregon to South Carolina on Monday.


At the Uber for home cleaning, workers pay a price for convenience

Kushinsky thinks “virtual maid services” such as Homejoy could be next. “Even if you’re going to call yourself a ‘platform,’ and in your terms and conditions say, ‘We are not a cleaning service,’ people believe you’re going in to clean their home,” Kushinsky says. “The problem is, when you’re going into someone’s home and laying down chemicals, that just changes the game.” (Homejoy says it doesn’t train anyone, but does provide a checklist for cleaners to follow.) It’s not just the cleaning industry, of course. Lots of other businesses, including taxis and hotels, have had to face the challenge of online platforms that marshal thousands of independent contractors that pay them fees for access to a potentially vast client base. Some of them also are facing legal scrutiny: Uber, for example, is facing a class action lawsuit over a number of issues, including allegedly misclassifying drivers as independent contractors under California law. Shannon Liss-Riordan In the meantime, while banking on their higher-touch model to keep customers, the traditional cleaning services aren’t standing still. Many have adopted various forms of scheduling software that keep cleaners bouncing smoothly from appointment to appointment, or apps that help customers book from their phones. The Association of Residential Cleaning Services International’s convention in Orlando in November will include a “disruptive innovation summit,” which executive director Ernie Hartong says will focus on “megatrends and seismic shifts.” “Certainly the millennials and young folks like that, that’s the way they want to do business, and you have to do business with them,” Hartong says. But ultimately, if Homejoy survives and thrives in the marketplace — and particularly if its relationship with independent contractors stands up to regulatory scrutiny — even traditional businesses could be fast followers. “I think you’d see a pretty significant shift in that direction, because the cost associated with doing business in that way are materially less,” says Tom Stewart, the publisher of Cleaning Business Today. He devoted two publisher’s notes to the quandary, exhorting the old guard to “raise the professionalism” of their services in order to “start shaping public opinion on the importance of professionally delivered house cleaning.” — Anthony Walker at home with his daughter, Cheyenne. (Lydia DePillis/The Washington Post) Finished with his morning job, Walker is tired. He hasn’t eaten anything yet, besides a sugary soft drink, but he doesn’t stop as the downtown lunch rush begins; fast food is too


Trump’s lawyer insists nothing ‘nefarious’ in Trump Jr. Russia meeting

19, 2016. (Brian Snyder/Reuters) The president, meanwhile, took to Twitter, where he once again portrayed the Russia investigations as a media fabrication and turned his fire on his old Democratic rival. “Hillary Clinton can illegally get the questions to the Debate & delete 33,000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?” Trump tweeted Sunday morning. The president’s tweets, however, did not address his son’s missteps and obfuscations regarding the Russia meeting, which have only served to feed suspicions. Initially, Trump Jr. said the meeting focused on Russia’s moves to halt adoptions by American families, but he changed his story after new details emerged. Emails released last week show that Trump Jr. believed he was meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with possible ties to the Kremlin, who would provide damaging information about Clinton as part of a Russian broader effort to assist his father’s presidential campaign. He was joined at the meeting by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law; Paul Manafort, then a top campaign aide; and Rinat Akhmetshin, a lobbyist and possible intelligence agent in the former Soviet Union. Trump Jr. has said that nothing came of the discussion. Sekulow reiterated that he has seen no indication that the president is under investigation by either special counsel Robert S. Mueller III or by the House or Senate intelligence committees. Sekulow is part of a legal team headed by New York attorney Marc E. Kasowitz, and the White House said last week that Trump was adding veteran Washington lawyer Ty Cobb to handle the White House response to Russia-related investigations. “We have had no notification,” Sekulow said on CBS’s “Face the Nation. “Nothing has changed since James Comey said three times that he wasn’t under investigation.” Donald Trump Jr. gives a television interview at GOP convention on July 19, 2016. (Mark Kauzlarich/Reuters) Sekulow put the responsibility for the initial incomplete response regarding last summer’s meeting squarely on the shoulders of the president’s son. “The president was not involved in the drafting of the statement and did not issue the statement. It came from Donald Trump Jr.,” Sekulow said of the initial statement to the New York Times. Sekulow also said that there was nothing illegal in the meeting with Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin. “Here is the reality: The meeting in and of itself, of course, as I’ve said before, is not a violation of the law,”


The patent troll crisis is really a software patent crisis

expansive language. These often cause lawsuits, too. But software patents are particularly prone to such abuses because software is inherently conceptual. Software is a technology that represents broad classes of interactions abstractly. That makes it inherently difficult to tie down a software patent to a specific inventive concept. In contrast, mechanical devices are tied to tangible objects. If it is not clear what a word might mean in a patent for a mechanical device, the device itself serves as a reference. Indeed, in the past, the Patent Office required that patents on mechanical devices were accompanied by working models. If the model worked differently from some other device, then that other device did not infringe. It's similar for chemical patents: A chemical patent’s boundaries are determined precisely by the structure of the molecules it claims. If another chemical has a different structure, then it does not infringe the patent. But for software patents, the conceptual description alone is sufficient to obtain a patent. Computers programs designed to solve dramatically different problems can be covered by the same patent. Patent lawyers make the problem worse when they use vague words, but there is an underlying difference to begin with. Consequently, software patents are much more likely to have fuzzy boundaries and they are much more likely to be involved in a lawsuit. Research shows that a software patent is four times as likely as a chemical patent to be involved in litigation; a software patent on a method of doing business is thirteen times more likely to be litigated. Nor are these high rates of litigation a result of the newness of software patents. After hundreds of thousands have now been issued, the probability that a software patent will be used in a lawsuit has gone up, not down. Abstract patents and the law Since the nineteenth century, the courts have wrestled with doctrines aimed to exclude patents claiming abstract ideas. Samuel F. B. Morse, in his famous telegraph patent, included an abstract claim for printing characters using electromagnetism. The Supreme Court shot that claim down, while keeping his more specific claims. In 1972, citing the Morse case, the Supreme Court shot down a patent on a software algorithm. This decision was widely understood to exclude patents on most software innovations. But during the mid-1990s, the appellate court for patents, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, reinterpreted the Supreme


Bicycles and breweries go together, especially in Northern Virginia

(Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) Everyone knows that biking and brewskis go together (within reason). So it was probably only a matter of time before a Northern Virginia microbrewery ended up on a national beer aficionado’s map for bicyclists. Old Ox Brewery The magazine ranges as far afield as the Colorado-based Oskar Blues Brewery near Pisgah National Park in North Carolina to breweries such as Bear Republic off California’s Joe Rodota Trail. It says that the renaissance in craft brewing has occurred side by side with renewed interest in bicycling. The folks at Washingtonian also connected the dots around the nation’s capital. “We always recognized the power of the trail. It was always in our plan to do our best to be a trail-friendly brewery,” Old Ox Brewery President Chris Burns said in an interview this week. From the first, the family-owned brewery capitalized on its proximity to the W&OD trail, signing on to provide way-station comforts for trail users in exchange for putting up its signage. The brewery even offers bike tools for repairs, Burns said. “So long as our doors are open, anyone is welcome to come use our facilities,” Burns said. In addition, he said, the Green Lizard Cycling shop in Herndon organizes rides to the brewery and back, often at twilight. It goes without saying that the same rules apply for bikers as they do for motorists when it comes to drinking alcohol and driving. More than 900 people died in bicycle crashes in 2013, and nearly a half-million were injured, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent data. Nearly 1 in 4 of those dead bicyclists had blood alcohol levels that would have put them over the legal limit for impaired driving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says. Thirty-seven percent of fatal bicycle crashes involved a bicyclist or motorist who had been drinking. “It’s the exact same as operating a car, as far as the way you should consume,” Burns said. “You should always be responsible no matter if you’re on two wheels pedaling or in four wheels behind the [steering] wheel of a vehicle.” Read more from Tripping:


Dutch probe: Missile brought from Russia downed Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine

Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 298 people fell in a field in Ukraine. KIEV, UKRAINE — Investigators stopped short of directly accusing Russia of complicity in the attack on the Boeing 777 and declined to name any suspects publicly. But the briefing was seen in Russia and in the West as a virtual indictment of Moscow, prompting Russian protests as investigators said they would continue trying to determine who ordered the strike. Both Russia and the rebels in Ukraine deny any role in the July 2014 attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital. The findings are intended to be used in a possible criminal trial. But even if suspects are identified, it is unclear how they would be apprehended, especially if they are in Russia or in separatist-held Ukrainian territory. Investigators probing the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 release an animated representation they say shows the plane was downed by a Russian-made missile fired from rebel-held territory. The investigators concluded that the plane was shot down with a missile launched from what the Russians call a Buk TELAR battery, said Wilbert Paulissen, a senior investigator in the Dutch national police. The missile launch vehicle “was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation and after launch was subsequently returned to Russian Federation territory. This conclusion is based largely on forensic investigation,” he said. The system thought to be used in the missile firing — four surface-to-air missiles mounted on a launch vehicle — was smuggled into Ukraine from Russia just hours before the missile was fired, the investigators said at a news conference in Amsterdam. The launch system, also known as an SA-11 “Gadfly,” was returned to Russia the day after the attack, which left bodies and wreckage strewn across farms and fields of sunflowers. The U.S. State Department said the findings matched those made by American officials, and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that “we ask that Russia now engages constructively with the findings and ongoing investigation.” The evidence was based on intercepts of telephone conversations between separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine, as well as open-source photographs, eyewitness accounts and satellite data, investigators said. Much of the material was first identified by online activists and citizen journalists, including the influential Bellingcat.com website, which has been targeted by Russian government hackers, according to reports. While a


Japan is building tiny islands in the Philippine Sea. Here’s why.

around Okinotori is a unilateral declaration by the Japanese government and is not recognized by the UNCLCS. Taiwan has more than fishing on its mind Taiwan has not challenged Japan’s self-claimed EEZ, despite the fact that the waters surrounding the islet have traditionally been Taiwanese fishing grounds. Taipei’s ambiguous position is mainly because both Taiwan and Japan face a common security threat from China. The recent territorial dispute over the sovereignty of Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands further aggravated the antagonism between China and Japan — already strained by the historical legacy of Japan’s invasion during World War II. Meanwhile, Taipei has been fending off Beijing’s forceful claims to Taiwan’s sovereignty for more than 60 years. Treating the island country as a renegade province that needs to “return to the fold of the motherland,” Chinese leaders have vigorously isolated the Taipei government in the international community and threatened Taiwan with military force. Because China has been conducting underwater surveys around Okinotori in the event of military conflicts in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese military experts have long suggested that Taipei support Japan’s claim so that it can block Beijing’s activities. So why pick on Taiwanese fishing boats? The Japanese government has detained a number of Taiwanese fishing vessels since 2005 in the waters surrounding the islet — each time with a fine of roughly $40,000 to $50,000. With Korean or Chinese fishing vessels operating in the same area largely left alone, these seizures gave the impression that Japan treats Taiwan as an easy target. After the most recent incident, Taiwan’s parliament adopted a resolution denouncing the Japanese government. Taiwan’s outgoing president, Ma Ying-jeou, also dispatched patrol boats, followed by a Lafayette-class frigate, to the waters near Okinotori to protect Taiwanese fishing operations in the area. The Japanese government lodged a protest and deployed patrol boats to the area. Cool heads may eventually prevail; the common security interests between Japan and Taiwan are too grave to be ignored. In early May, Tokyo sent a special envoy — the younger brother of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — to meet Ma and President-elect Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei. Ma and Tsai expressed their willingness to resolve the dispute peacefully. Yes, there’s a double standard What are the wider ramifications here? First of all, Japan and other countries have criticized China’s frantic island-building in the South China Sea, including piling sand onto reefs to create islands, constructing military


Mitt Romney’s tax disclosure decision presents lingering problems for campaign

said that Romney had a better grasp of those issues. (Among political independents, the news is better for Romney; 44 percent say Obama better understands the economic problems faced by regular people, while 42 percent say Romney does.) It’s not likely that Romney — whether or not he releases a substantial portion of his past tax returns — will ever be entirely relatable to the average person. And in an election in a time of relative prosperity, that connection issue might doom his chances. Washington Post Opinion columnist Matthew Yglesias provided some hypothetical scenarios of what could be found in Romney’s tax returns, including profits and a low tax bill as a result of the 2007 economic crash: The vast majority of American families lost wealth in the housing bust of 2007-09 and the financial crisis that came in the middle of it, and millions lost jobs or earnings. But it was possible for a canny or lucky investor to profit from the chaos — especially for a wealthy individual with access to unusual financial products. Maybe Romney made a lot of money through bets on skyrocketing foreclosures or well-timed investments in bailed-out banks. There’s nothing wrong with smart financial planning, but making money on the crash could be awkward for a politician. President Obama’s ad campaign has also played up the fact that Romney at one point had a Swiss bank account. Yglesias also provided analysis of what could lie in these records, as they were not provided as part of his 2010 tax return disclosure: We know from the tax documents Romney has released that he once had a Swiss bank account, a fact that the Obama campaign has played up in ads. But his 2010 tax return did not include a Report on Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts form (“FBAR” to accountants) detailing his offshore investments. In 2009, the Swiss government began to relent on its traditional banking secrecy rules, and banks turned over information about tens of thousands of American tax scofflaws to the U.S. government. To help deal with the crush, the IRS staged a limited-time amnesty in 2009 for American citizens with previously nondisclosed foreign accounts to pay their back taxes without penalty. It’s possible that earlier tax documents or the 2010 FBAR would show that Romney took advantage of the amnesty. While legal, this would amount to a problematic confession of past wrongdoing.


Wal-Mart to extend health plans to same-sex partners; Bank of America to face fraud trial

Wal-Mart as a teenager and was “moved” by the decision. Wal-Mart has 1.3 million full- and part-time U.S. employees, Randy Hargrove, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said. More than half participate in health-care plans. A total of 1.1 million employees and family members are covered by the plans, he said. The retailer’s definition of domestic partners includes same- or opposite-sex spouses as well as unmarried partners who live together for at least 12 months, aren’t married to anyone else and plan to continue sharing a household indefinitely, Hargrove said. — Bloomberg News mortgage lending Bank of America must face fraud trial A U.S. government lawsuit accusing Bank of America of fraud in the sale of billions of dollars of toxic mortgage loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is on track to go to trial next month after a judge rejected the bank’s bid to dismiss the case. In an order made public Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in Manhattan said there were “genuine factual disputes” that justify letting the case continue against the second-largest U.S. bank. The order clears the way for the case to proceed toward a scheduled Sept. 23 jury trial. Only a few prominent cases tied to the financial crisis have gone to trial. The Justice Department sued Bank of America in October, joining a whistleblower lawsuit originally brought by former Countrywide Financial executive Edward O’Donnell. It alleged that Countrywide, acquired by Bank of America in July 2008, caused more than $1 billion of taxpayer losses by selling defective home loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance companies seized by the government in September 2008. The government said the loans went through a program called the “High Speed Swim Lane” — also known as “HSSL” and “Hustle” — that Countrywide devised in 2007 to speed up loan processing, even if it meant ignoring safeguards to help ensure that loans were sound and not tainted by fraud. Bank of America, in court papers, countered that HSSL was a “legitimate and good-faith effort” to develop systems for making prime loans after the collapse of the subprime market. A Bank of America spokesman, Lawrence Grayson, said after Rakoff issued his order, “This program ended before our purchase of Countrywide, as the government acknowledges. We believe there was no fraud.” — Reuters Also in Business l l l l l — From news services Coming Today l