For many millennials, FHA is the place to go for a home mortgage

financing over conventional-bank or Fannie-Freddie alternatives. Like many young couples, they’re carrying a lot of student debt — both have master’s degrees — and both have well-paying jobs. “We entered the working world with major student debt and no assets to our name,” Barron told me last week. Their jobs are “great,” he said, but “we don’t have 10 percent to 20 percent” to put down. He and Kim are frustrated that they pay a substantial amount every month in rent that does not contribute toward building equity or an investment nest egg. So “the faster we get into a home, the less money we throw away on rent.” They consulted with Steven R. Maizes, a vice president of mortgage lending for Guaranteed Rate, a large national retail mortgage banker, who walked them through the pros and cons of their alternatives. FHA turned out to be the answer. “The vast majority of these [millennial] buyers, in the absence of getting a gift from a family member, simply don’t have” enough down-payment cash, plus money to cover closing costs and post-closing money left over in the bank as reserves, Maizes said. FHA’s total package — which has some downsides as well as upsides — clinches the deal for many young first-timers. So what’s FHA’s total package? Start with down payment. FHA’s minimum of 3.5 percent is low, but it’s not best in class. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have programs requiring just 3 percent down, but they come with a variety of eligibility requirements, such as income cutoffs in some cases. VA (Veterans Affairs) and USDA (rural loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture) allow for zero down payments but have major restrictions, such as veterans status or geographic limitations. What about credit? Here’s where the differences get really important for millennials, many of whom have middling scores compared with other generational groups. FHA accepts much lower scores than Fannie and Freddie — FICOs of even less than 600. The average millennial first-time purchaser closing Fannie or Freddie loans in January had a FICO score of 748; the average for millennial purchasers using FHA was 690. Paul Skeens, president of Colonial Mortgage in Waldorf, Md., says that, as a rule, whenever low-down-payment borrowers have FICO scores below 720, “FHA is going to give [them] the lowest payment.” Now for debt-to-income ratios, or DTIs, which are often a weak point with young,


Military brass like what they hear from White House — but worry about becoming props

willingness to flout norms and rules that are intended to keep the military far from politics. More than one dozen senior officers at bases in the United States, the Pentagon and overseas spoke on condition of anonymity to describe their early impressions of the new administration. In his first few weeks in office, Trump addressed the troops at U.S. Special Operations Command, where in a striking break with protocol, he praised the military for backing him in the election. “I saw those numbers,” he said. “You like me, and I like you.” More recently, he boasted that “my generals are the most respected we’ve had in decades” and spotlighted the grieving widow of a Navy SEAL who was killed on a mission that Trump ordered in Yemen. Less than 48 hours later, he boarded an aircraft carrier, where he promised a big boost in military spending. President Trump, center, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in Newport News, Va., March 2. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) The military has welcomed Trump’s promise to increase military spending on new fighter jets, more tanks and a 350-ship Navy that will dwarf the current fleet of fewer than 300 ships. They have also enjoyed Trump’s increased attention, which some officers view as a corrective to the approach of President Barack Obama, who was described by Robert M. Gates, his defense secretary, as “deeply suspicious” of the brass. “Obama considered time spent with the generals and admirals an obligation,” Gates wrote in his memoir “Duty.” Senior military officers describe Trump, who attended a military high school but used a series of draft deferments to avoid service during the Vietnam War, as respectful and trusting of their judgment. Unlike the bombastic figure on the campaign trail, they say he listens and asks questions. And enjoys being around them. In his first month in office, Trump has met with his four-star service chiefs at least three times to discuss the needs of the force, said a senior military officer. The senior service chiefs rarely saw Obama during his last year in office, the officer said. But the attention also comes with an undercurrent of disquiet. Trump’s “America First” doctrine and transactional approach to working with allies has unnerved some senior military officers who view the U.S. military as a relatively selfless guarantor of global security. “If the president views the U.S. as a chump paying


Justice Department charges Russian spies and criminal hackers in Yahoo intrusion

the cyber investigative arm of the FSB — a rough equivalent of the FBI’s Cyber Division. That the agency that is supposed to investigate computer intrusions in Russia is itself engaged in hacking is “pretty sad,” one official said. Dokuchaev, whose hacker alias was “Forb,” was arrested in December in Moscow, according to the news agency Interfax, on charges of state treason for passing information to the CIA. He had reportedly agreed to work for the FSB to avoid prosecution for bank card fraud. Another man indicted in the case is Alexsey Belan, who is on the list of most-wanted cyber criminals and has been charged twice before, in connection with intrusions into three major tech firms in Nevada and California in 2012 and 2013. He was in custody in Greece for a time but made his way back to Russia, where he is being protected by authorities, officials said. The other hacker-for-hire is Karim Baratov, who was born in Kazakhstan but has Canadian citizenship. He was arrested in Canada on Tuesday. The indictments grew out of a nearly two-year investigation by the FBI’s San Francisco office with the aid of international law enforcement, officials said. Sanctions and criminal charges are two tools that the Obama administration began using to punish and deter nation state hackers. “They have the effect of galvanizing other countries that are watching what’s happening,” said Luke Dembosky, a former deputy assistant attorney general for national security. “They show that we have the resources and capabilities to identify the people at the keyboard, even in the most sophisticated cases.” Three years ago, the United States charged five Chinese military hackers with economic espionage, marking the first time cyber-related charges were levied against foreign government officials. After the Chinese military hackers were indicted, officials said their activity seemed to dwindle. And the indictments, Dembosky said, helped wrest a pledge in 2015 from the Chinese to stop economic cyberespionage against U.S. firms. In early 2015, the Obama administration imposed economic sanctions on North Korea for its cyberattack on Sony Pictures’ systems. And in late December, the Obama administration levied economic sanctions on Moscow for its election-year meddling. At the same time, the government sanctioned two Russian criminal hackers with no apparent connection to the Kremlin’s interference campaign. They included Belan, who is one of the four indicted in the Yahoo case. ellen.nakashima@washpost.com Brian Fung contributed to this report.


Sessions vows crackdown on drug dealing and gun crime

Attorney General Jeff Sessions praised a program that pushes mandatory minimum sentences. (Susan Walsh/AP) RICHMOND — “I am determined that this country will not go backwards,” Sessions said as he addressed law enforcement officials in Richmond. “President Trump gave us a clear directive. It’s the policy of this administration to reduce crime in America, not preside over an increase in crime, but reduce crime.” Sessions traveled to Virginia’s capital to highlight Project Exile, a two-decades-old federal program that gives felons caught carrying guns mandatory five-year prison sentences. “The crime rate in our country remains at historic lows,” the attorney general acknowledged in his remarks. “But we’re beginning to see an increase again.” He attributed that increase to less forceful prosecutions and lower sentences, a declining prison population and a growing opioid epidemic. He also said that “in this age of viral videos and targeted killings of police,” police officers in many communities were afraid to do their jobs. The solution, Sessions said, is to “hammer” drug dealers and other criminals while bringing back the drug abstinence campaigns of the 1980s and 1990s. “We have too much of a tolerance for drug use,” Sessions said. “We need to say, as Nancy Reagan said, ‘Just say no.’ There’s no excuse for this, it’s not recreational. Lives are at stake, and we’re not going to worry about being fashionable.” Sessions scoffed at the idea, promoted by some doctors and researchers, that medical marijuana can be used as an alternative painkiller to prevent or treat opioid addiction. “I’ve heard people say we could solve our heroin problem with marijuana,” he said. “How stupid is that? Give me a break!” After his speech, Sessions told reporters he believed “medical marijuana has been hyped, maybe too much.” He added that his office may rethink parts of an Obama-era policy that largely allows individual states to legalize marijuana use. Critics of Project Exile said the five-year mandatory minimum disproportionately affected poor black Americans. Sessions said he was “sensitive to these issues” but that most people in low-income African American neighborhoods want tough criminal penalties. Recalling his own time as a prosecutor in Alabama, Sessions said that “the people in those communities pleaded with us to have more police and do a better job getting thugs off the street.” Sessions’s visit came amid questions over Trump’s wiretapping claims and Sessions’s own communications with the Russian government. Sessions told


House lawmakers question NFL on drug practices

of thousands of pages of documents.” It cited drug logs, emails and interviews that illustrate the sport’s heavy reliance on pain medication, and the league’s struggle to comply with federal laws that govern the handling and administration of prescription drugs. An NFL spokesman called the claims “meritless,” but the league now must provide some answers to members of Congress. In the letter to the league, the four House members asked whether non-physicians administered medications and whether players’ medical histories were taken into account when determining treatment. They asked about the league’s record-keeping practices and whether a powerful nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory called Toradol was administered “off label?” “If administered prior to play, it would appear that Toradol could be used to mask pain caused by physical contact that subsequently occurs during a game, according to The Post’s report,” the letter states. “Did any NFL players suffer a head injury while using Toradol? Did the NFL keep records of any injuries, including head injuries, sustained by players while they were using Toradol?” The letter said the former players’ claims “are particularly troubling against the backdrop of the ongoing opioid crisis” in the United States, and asked the league whether it tracks players into retirement to see if they’ve developed addictions to painkiller medications. They also posed a half-dozen questions to the DEA, asking the agency if teams are currently in compliance and whether any punishments have been meted out for past violations. They asked the DEA to detail its efforts to provide guidance to the NFL and describe the methods used to monitor NFL teams for compliance. The letter also noted 2014 raids conducted by DEA agents to see if teams were illegally traveling with controlled substances. The players’ complaint charges that NFL teams were tipped off by a DEA employee in advance of the raids and “not surprisingly, none of them were carrying controlled substances.” The congressional members asked for more details and want to know “about what actions, if any, the DEA took after finding out that an employee tipped off the NFL in advance of the investigations, if true.” Read more The Post’s March 9 story on allegations cited in players’ lawsuit against the NFL Sally Jenkins: NFL puts profits ahead of player safety Post editorial: NFL doctors are on the wrong team Archives: Federal judge allows player lawsuit against league to proceed Archives: Pain and drugs in the NFL


Jeff Sessions: ‘Medical marijuana has been hyped, maybe too much’

Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke in Richmond. (Zach Gibson/European Pressphoto Agency) RICHMOND — “I think medical marijuana has been hyped, maybe too much,” he told reporters in Richmond after an event about violent crime. “Dosages can be constructed in a way that might be beneficial, I acknowledge that, but if you smoke marijuana, for example, where you have no idea how much THC you’re getting, it’s probably not a good way to administer a medicinal amount. So forgive me if I’m a bit dubious about that.” Sessions also cast doubt, as he has before, on the use of marijuana to curb opioid addiction. Studies have shown that medical marijuana laws and access to medical marijuana dispensaries are associated with fewer opioid deaths and less prescription painkiller abuse. During his campaign, President Trump said he was “100 percent” in favor of medical marijuana. White House spokesman Sean Spicer recently confirmed that the president sees a “big difference” between using marijuana for medical and recreational purposes. “The problem is that you’re seeing now a disagreement between Sessions and the president on the issue of medical marijuana,” said Michael Collins of the Drug Policy Alliance. “It’s concerning because the administration, the White House themselves, have sort of committed themselves to not going after medical marijuana. Sessions is out casting doubt on that.” Smoking is a necessary way to consume medical marijuana, he said, because chronic pain sufferers need the instantaneous relief other forms of the drug cannot provide. The dosage concern doesn’t make sense, he said, because there’s no evidence of fatal marijuana overdoses. A congressional provision prevents the Justice Department from spending money to interfere with state-level medical marijuana programs. However, that appropriations amendment must be reauthorized this year. Twenty-eight states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico have medical marijuana programs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Collins said the federal government could easily do research into marijuana efficacy, but that opponents of legalization are standing in the way. “The people complaining that more research needs to be done are the very people in a position to do the research,” he said. “But they’ll never do it, because they know the research will show the positives.” Independent studies have generally found marijuana to be effective for treating chronic pain, nausea and vomiting in cancer patients, and muscle spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients. But the Drug Enforcement Administration, which


Shoppers spent slightly more last month; SpaceX wins 2nd U.S. military contract

RETAIL STORES Shoppers spent a bit more at stores in Feb. Americans spent only slightly more last month at retail stores compared with January, a sign of consumer caution despite rising optimism about the economy. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that retail sales ticked up a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent in February, after gaining 0.6 percent the previous month. January’s gain was revised higher. The figures suggest job gains this year, near record-high stock prices and decent pay upturns haven’t yet lifted spending. Economists note, however, that spending probably was held back by delays in tax refund payments under a new law. Sales rose in February at furniture stores and home and garden centers but fell sharply at electronics and appliance stores. Sales also fell at gasoline stations, although that mostly reflects lower prices. Clothing stores, sporting goods retailers and department stores also all reported lower sales. — Associated Press TECHNOLOGY SpaceX wins second U.S. military contract Elon Musk’s SpaceX won its second-ever launch contract from the U.S. military by underbidding an alliance of defense industry giants. Cost was a determining factor in awarding the $96.5 million contract to Space Exploration Technologies, Claire Leon, the Air Force’s launch enterprise director, said Wednesday. SpaceX will launch an Air Force GPS satellite on an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket in 2019. SpaceX competes for military launches against United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Musk’s Falcon 9 rocket won Air Force certification for national security space missions in May 2015, breaking a lock long held by ULA. Contracts for military launches include satellites that let troops communicate on battlefields and are estimated to be valued at $70 billion through 2030, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said. “SpaceX is proud to have been selected to support this important National Security Space Mission,” said Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX. — Bloomberg News Also in Business ● U.S. businesses stockpiled more goods in warehouses and on store shelves in January, while sales growth slowed. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that business inventories grew by a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in January from the previous month. Stockpiles rose sharply at auto dealers and furniture stores. Sales, meanwhile, increased 0.2 percent. That small gain followed a 2.1 percent jump in December, the most in six years. ● Nike was chided by a consumer-protection show on state-run television in China, giving a black eye to


State Department’s 28 percent cuts hit foreign aid, U.N. and climate change

State Department employees listen to newly-appointed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the lobby of the State Department. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA) The State Department faces cuts of nearly 29 percent, with $10 billion shaved off its core program funding under proposals to eliminate climate-change initiatives and to slash foreign aid, contributions to the United Nations and cultural exchanges. The basic budget for the State Department and USAID, which houses many U.S. development and economic aid programs around the world, will shrink from $36.7 billion to $25.6 billion. The Trump budget also calls for $1.5 billion for Treasury International Programs, a 35 percent reduction from the previous year, a figure the White House included in its discussion of State’s budget. The administration also proposes $12 billion for operations in war-torn areas such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, down from more than $20 billion this year. Overall, the budget would shrink from $52.8 billion to $37.6 billion. The proposal reflects a dramatic shift in U.S. foreign policy to an “America First” focus on whether programs meet specific U.S. interests. Many of the spending cuts are in programs whose missions are deemed poorly managed or insufficient in advancing U.S. foreign policy goals. Many programs advanced by the Obama administration will be devastated. The Global Climate Change Initiative, a $350 million USAID program that helps countries invest in renewable energy and land management, would be eliminated. The same with a U.N.-affiliated Green Climate Fund, which the Obama administration gave $1 billion of $3 billion pledged, including $500 million transferred just days before President Trump’s inauguration. The budget assumes there will be reduced U.S. contributions to the United Nations, and other countries will be expected to chip in more. The United States is currently assessed 22 percent of operating costs — not just for running the New York headquarters but also for related groups such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal, the World Health Organization and dozens more. The proposal notes that in future, Washington will cap its share of peacemaking costs at 25 percent, down from 28 percent. The United States will also contribute less to international development banks, including the World Bank, which runs anti-poverty programs in developing countries. But the reduction is not huge, about $650 million over three years. While money will be set aside for humanitarian aid, including disaster relief and


Tillerson says diplomacy with North Korea has ‘failed’; Pyongyang warns of war

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, answers questions during a joint news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida after their talks in Tokyo on March 16. (Pool photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images) TOKYO — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that 20 years of trying to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program had failed and that he was visiting Asia “to exchange views on a new approach.” Soon after Tillerson’s remarks, in a sign of mounting tensions, the North Korean Embassy held an extraordinary news conference in Beijing to blame the potential for nuclear war on the United States while vowing that its homegrown nuclear testing program will continue in self-defense. North Korea has amassed a sizable nuclear stockpile and appears at the brink of being able to strike the U.S. mainland and American allies in Asia. The rising threat from the isolated military dictatorship has prompted the Trump administration to begin assessing its options for how to respond and serves as an early test for how the president will confront an increasingly volatile international situation. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said there's been "20 years of a failed approach" in the denuclearization of North Korea. Tillerson discussed the matter at a joint news conference in Tokyo, his first major trip abroad since taking office. One potential immediate response would be to strengthen existing South Korean missile capabilities or to provide Japan with new offensive missile ability. Japan’s defense chief told parliament this month that he would not rule out “first strike” capability, which would be a major departure from Japan’s postwar pacifist traditions. The United States could also field the same THAAD missile defense system in Japan that it is now installing in South Korea or take the potentially provocative stop of reinstalling American nuclear weapons at U.S. bases in South Korea. The North Korean threat could also rekindle the largely dormant idea of a domestic U.S. missile defense system. North Korea has boasted of an intercontinental ballistic missile, and experts on Asia security generally agree that such a capability is within Pyongyang’s reach. Preventing it outright would probably require a military strike on North Korean facilities, something the United States has considered an option of last resort because it would almost certainly result in an attack on South Korea and U.S. forces stationed there, perhaps with chemical or biological weapons. “I think it’s important to


Scientists link record-breaking February weather to man-made global warming

People walk along the Mall during warm weather on February 23. A new study links the month’s warm weather to man-made climate change. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) March has provided an unexpected dose of winter, but a freakishly balmy February broke more than 11,700 local daily records for warmth in the United States. The average temperature last month was 41.2 degrees — 7.3 degrees warmer than normal but three-tenths a degree behind the record, the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported last week. Oklahoma hit 99 degrees, Chicago, Illinois, had no snow and it was unseasonably toasty for most of the country east of the Rocky Mountains. A cool Pacific Northwest kept the national record from falling, said NOAA climate scientist Jake Crouch. An international science team calculated that man-made global warming tripled the likelihood for the nation’s unusually warm month. The team, known as World Weather Attribution, uses accepted scientific techniques to figure if climate change plays a role in extreme events based on computer simulations of real-world conditions and of a world without heat-trapping gases. “I don’t recall ever seeing a February like this,” said Princeton University climate scientist Gabriel Vecchi, who was part of the World Weather Attribution team that performed the study. “We expect this to happen with more and more frequency over time.” Magnolia trees bloomed early in Washington this year. Flowering trees, including the city’s beloved cherry blossoms, are at risk of dying during the March frost. (Cliff Owen/AP) Several outside scientists praised the study, including Pennsylvania State University meteorology professor David Titley, who was on a National Academy of Sciences panel that certified the accuracy of climate change attribution science. “This is the new climate normal that we all need to come to grips with,” Titley said. “And it’s stunning how quickly our climate has changed.” Natural random weather variations and climate change combined to make it a weird February, meteorologists said. Overall, NOAA said it was the sixth warmest U.S. winter on record, about 3.7 degrees warmer than the 20th century average. Oklahoma University meteorology professor Jason Furtado said he worries that the lack of deep Arctic cold plunges in February means the Gulf of Mexico never cooled down. And when severe weather season in the spring starts, the moisture coming north from warmer Gulf waters will increase the probability of nasty spring storms and tornadoes. Massachusetts already had an


D.C. community and cultural events, March 16-23

Thursday, March 16 Gentle yoga classes Garden tour with parents and kids in snugglers Washington Cathedral behind the scenes Orchid-filled greenhouse tour Portrait Spotlight Income Tax Assistance Income Tax Assistance America InSight Afterschool Lounge Lego Club Homework Help After-School workshops with Asian American LEAD “Sustainability at Work” for teens “Take 5! Lena Seikaly and Danielle Wertz Celebrate Women in Jazz The Words Beats Life Academy “Everyone” yoga “Shear Madness” “One Big Home” “Smog of the Sea” “Rachel Carson” “The Shepherd” Memoir and essay writing club NSO Concert Yoga at Northwest One Female filmmakers spotlight “Guided,” “Voices From Chernobyl” Female Filmmakers Spotlight NSO concert: “Salute to Slava” “Lucia di Lammermoor” Friday, March 17 Income tax assistance Children’s safety seat and belt inspections Preschool story time Preschool Story Time Strike a prose: narratives “Beauty and the Beast” Yoga in the Galleries Income tax assistance Enamelist June Schwarcz Africa in motion: Spelman Glee Club Everything orchids Classical organ recital Lunch bite object talk Adult coloring for St. Patrick’s Day Global Kids “Spillover: Zika, Ebola, and Beyond” “Food Evolution” Saturday, March 18 Citizenship classes Income Tax Assistance “Laundry to Legacy: Repurposing Treasured Garments Into Memory Quilts” Saturday Morning Yoga Family story time Practice with love yoga gatherings Yoga at Your Library Lego Club “Long Way North” Portrait Story Days: Vertical gardens Cathedral close-up tour: “Angels High and Low” “Cooking Up History: The Women Behind America’s First Cookbooks” “Ford Ord: A Sense of Place” “Light on Earth” Chess for all ages “Before the Flood” “The Colorado” “Parade” Sunday, March 19 Palisades farmers market “Born in China” Art Signs: Gallery Talk in American Sign Language From the drum to bebop Family Funday Sunday Create a memory book by Janet Minichiello Environmental Film Festival: “Kivalina” Shaw knitting and crochet circle Kruger Brothers and Kontras Quartet “Plastic China” “24 Snow” “Behold the Earth” Millennium Stage turns 20 Emerson Quartet concert “Colombia: Wild Magic” Shaw Knitting and Crochet Circle “Yasuni Man” Monday, March 20 Children’s safety seat and belt inspections English conversation group Yoga Mondays Income tax assistance Reader’s Theatre Mandala Mondays “Gorongosa Park: Rebirth of Paradise” “Tidewater” Yoga in Takoma Park Tuesday, March 21 Children’s safety seat and belt inspections Pop of the Tots Chair yoga classes Classical music concert Saxophonist Jeremy Koch and pianist Yu-Hsuan Liao explore the connection between traditional eastern music and Asian-inspired pieces for saxophone and piano. 12:10-1 p.m. Church of the Epiphany, 1317


Trump adviser Flynn paid by multiple Russia-related entities, new records show

has said RT, which receives Kremlin funding, is part of a network of propaganda outlets that help popularize a pro-Russian perspective on the news and has issued warning about the network dating to before Flynn entered the private sector. In January, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that RT propaganda played a role in Russia’s effort to influence the U.S. presidential election and help Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. In an August interview with The Post, Flynn dismissed concerns about the news network’s Kremlin ties, comparing the network to independent U.S. outlets. “What’s CNN? What’s MSNBC? Come on!” he said. In recent years, Flynn has advocated for closer ties with Russia to bolster the U.S. coalition to fight Islamist terrorism. He has suggested other generals have failed to speak out with potentially unpopular opinions because they were afraid to lose out on corporate board seats or other lucrative business opportunities. Others, he said, had used their rank after leaving the military “for themselves, for their businesses.” Kaspersky Lab makes some of the world’s most popular anti-virus software. The U.S. intelligence community has long suspected that Kaspersky is used by Moscow to assist Russian espionage efforts — a charge Kaspersky has denied. In a twist, though, in December, a top Kaspersky Lab official was arrested by Russian authorities and accused of spying for U.S. companies and intelligence services. A Kaspersky spokeswoman said in a statement that the company’s U.S. subsidiary paid Flynn to speak at a Washington forum in 2015 that brought together other military, government, technology and policy experts. “As a private company, Kaspersky Lab has no ties to any government, but the company is proud to collaborate with the authorities of many countries, as well as international law enforcement agencies in the fight against cybercrime,” she said. According to Cummings’s letter, Volga-Dnepr was removed from a list of approved U.N. vendors in 2007 following corruption allegations against two Russian officials who steered contracts to the firm. Colon Miller, who works in the Volga-Dnepr office outside of Houston, said Flynn was paid to speak at an event co-sponsored by the airline’s U.S. affiliate, Volga-Dnepr Unique Air Cargo. The event was titled “Middle East and Africa Logistical and Regional Security Conference.”He said payment was made to the speakers bureau by the Houston-based affiliate of Volga-Dnepr Group, which has offices in Moscow, London and other cities. Greg Miller contributed to this report.


The D.C. region needs a housing corporation to help make home prices affordable

Thousands of market-rate rental and condo apartments have been built in Washington in the past 15 years. But the building boom may be coming to an end. (Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post) Over the past 15 years, thousands of market-rate rental and condo apartments have been built in Washington to appeal to younger as well as middle-aged and older folks able to pay going rates. But the residential building boom may be coming to an end because population growth is slowing. Yet paradoxically housing costs keep rising. Housing demand in D.C. has been fueled in part by college-educated millennials coming here to live and work. Private- and public-sector jobs with good salaries awaited them in this increasingly hip, cosmopolitan, economically stable city. But The Washington Post reported recently that the cost of living, and high housing costs in particular, have begun deterring young adults from moving to the nation’s capital while motivating some to pack up and leave. And in years to come, older people and retirees desiring to move into the city, along with middle-aged wage-earners, are likely to find Washington’s residential real estate increasingly unaffordable, even with a slowdown in population growth. The impact of these changing trends may not seem alarming at the moment. But stagnant or negative population growth along with rising housing costs persisting in the long-term will be problematic for Washington. Consumer spending could diminish, adversely affecting the city’s economy. Private-sector employers could have more difficulty finding qualified workers to fill jobs. Real estate price inflation could make city neighborhoods, still relatively affordable today, less affordable. Stagnant city growth would discourage private-sector housing investment, and with less new housing being developed, the price of existing dwellings would further escalate. Suburban Washington is not immune. Real estate prices in Maryland and Virginia have been steadily going up. With decreasing affordability in the city and people increasingly seeking affordable housing in suburban communities, suburban housing prices will keep rising. Adding to all this will be the time, energy and environmental costs of increased commuting and traffic congestion. Given current transportation policies, constrained public transportation investment and slow transit system expansion, many more cars will clog road networks, with or without a driver at the wheel. These predictions suggest that over time, city and suburban inhabitants will need to be relatively well off financially. Economic constraints increasingly could push middle-income workers farther out into Washington’s sprawling outer


On the Mediterranean coast, Argeles-sur-Mer is France’s ‘capital of camping’

La Sirene boasts a huge water park, a restaurant, shops, shows and plenty more. Prices reflect its status: a four-person mobile home will set you back $1,344 for a week in mid-August. Where to eat O Malassi 30 Allee Jules Aroles 66700, Argeles-sur-Mer 011-33-4-68-21-74-27 bit.ly/OMalassi This tapas bar, located on the seafront at Argeles, offers a simple menu: the mountain board (cured ham, saucisson, pate and other charcuterie) at $19.30 and the sea board (fresh mussels, prawns, squid and a variety of other seafood) at $21.40 are very good. La Bartavelle 24 Rue de la Republique 66700, Argeles-sur-Mer 011-33-6-19-25-70-13 restaurant-labartavelle.fr/home.html Awarded a Bib Gourmand in the latest Michelin Guide, La Bartavelle is the place to come for more sophisticated grub. There are set menus at $30 and $39.60. Ty’ Breizh Rond-Point de l’Arrivee 66700, Argeles-sur-Mer 011-33-6-79-47-11-80 bit.ly/Ty’Breizh This excellent fishmonger is a small restaurant, too: Pick what you want from the impressive display of fish and other seafood and the chef will cook it for you. Prices vary, but six oysters and a glass of white wine will cost you $8.50, while a two-person “plateau de fruits de mer” — featuring oysters, crab, mussels and more — will run you $26.45. What to do Chateau Royal de Collioure (Royal Collioure Castle) Le Village 66190, Collioure 011-33-4-68-82-06-43 Collioure’s historic significance is highlighted by the huge Chateau Royal de Collioure, founded in the 13th century, that overlooks the bay. (Admission costs $4.30; free for children 11 and younger.) This ravishing town, a few miles down the coast from Argeles, offers plenty for the committed view-seeker plus an unusually high number of art galleries and some so-so restaurants. One peculiarity is the presence of French special forces, who use the town for training. A boat from Port Argeles costs $14. Book at roussillon-croisieres.com. La Aigmes de Valmy (Valmy Eagle Sanctuary) Chemin de Valmy 66700, Argeles-sur-Mer 011-33-4-68-81-67-32 en.lesaiglesdevalmy.com Perfect for animal-loving children, this bird sanctuary is a few minutes’ drive from Argeles. Expect eagles, kites, buzzards, vultures and more. Admission costs $10.20; $7 for children. ‘La Grande Balade’ — Coastal boat trip Compagnie Visionaute, Quai Marco Polo 66700, Argeles-sur-Mer 011-33-6-33-04-21-37 compagnie-visionaute.com Take a boat down the Catalan coast as far as Port-Vendres, taking in a variety of tranquil bays where you can study the sea-life through the boat’s glass hull. Admission costs $17.20; $8.60 for children 5 and older; free for younger kids. Information


Boulangerie Christophe review: If only things tasted as good as they looked

A view from the upstairs dining area of the bakery case at Boulangerie Christophe, a new spot in Georgetown. (Dayna Smith/For The Washington Post) Good bakeries are in short supply in Washington, which is one reason I made a beeline for Boulangerie Christophe when it opened in Georgetown last month. The two-story cafe is named for the recently arrived Christophe Roux, a third-generation baker who grew up near Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera. His business partner, Didier Martin, is co-owner of the nearby David Rios Salon & Spa and a friend of the chef’s since childhood. The men have a miss on their hands. The flaws at Boulangerie Christophe, where Roux’s son Benjamin serves as head baker, are not immediately evident. The bakery case on the ground floor is a roll call of French delights — croissants, eclairs, mille-feuille — and if you want to sit down and graze, a dining area upstairs beckons with a fireplace, chandeliers and walls the color of sage. As Martin puts it, “We want it to feel like home: very cozy, very relaxed.” If the service proves a bit chaotic (and some customers are prone to line-jumping), the staff is eager to please. Some rosé with your Provencal fish soup? Oui, merci. Small details, including thick cotton napkins and comfy chairs, make nice impressions. The ladies who lunch have discovered the place and make up the majority of the clientele. Provencal fish soup with rouille and croutons, left, and a meat and puff pastry at Boulangerie Christophe in Georgetown. (Dayna Smith/For The Washington Post) Co-owner and chef Christophe Roux, right, clowns around with his son, Benjamin, left, who is the head baker. (Dayna Smith/For The Washington Post) If all you sampled here was a bowl of that soup, a garlic-fueled puree of Mediterranean rockfish, you might be inclined to return. With the help of some rouille, meant to be spread on croutons, and grated cheese, a thickener for the soup, the appetizer could pass for a meal. The salmon tartare is also respectable: cubes of pink fish sparked with lemon, onion and pickles and served in a wreath of lettuce and radishes. Almost everything else is a disappointment, and I base this conclusion on three attempts to find more to like. The breads are mediocre, foremost the pale baguettes with cottony centers (and no audible crackle when broken apart). The tarts look pretty, but


War in space is becoming a real threat

Weeden says. Russia, too, has resumed similar tests. The United States is also thought to have what amount to anti-satellite rockets in the “midcourse” leg of its missile-defense system. Rocket attacks against satellites worry the Pentagon less these days than electronic ones. Satellites could use jammers to sabotage other satellites. Ground systems can already create electronic bubbles that block GPS signals. The Russians used this technology to disable a Ukrainian drone in 2014, according to a report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, cited by Weeden. Keeping space systems safe is crucial for the planet, but protection is dispersed among a jumble of overlapping and conflicting authorities. The military and the intelligence communities barely talked to each other for decades on this issue, but last year the Air Force created a Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center that will soon have about 200 representatives coordinating operations across agencies. But military liaison with private space users is still primitive. A “commercial integration cell” at the Air Force Joint Space Operations Center (yes, it’s a different entity) works with six big companies. But most commercial concerns share their satellite-location data through the Space Data Association, based in the Isle of Man. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration is eager to extend supervision of commercial flights to space activity, said Marcia Smith of Space Policy Online. The United States is even warier of sharing its space secrets than its communications intelligence. There’s no “Five Eyes” partnership yet, though Britain, Australia and Canada are creating space-operations centers that could someday share data with an Air Force unit that was established 11 years ago. One little-discussed U.S. snooping operation is the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, which has four satellites monitoring the other traffic 22,000 miles above the planet. As on Earth, the hidden danger is hacking, official or otherwise. Orbits can be changed; sensors can be blinded; data can be corrupted. Facts could become as fragile in space as on Earth, if systems aren’t protected. But first, suspicious space mavens must learn to talk with each other. When space is a battleground, such cooperation is difficult. As Goldfein said in a recent speech, “There really is no such thing as war in space, it’s just war.” Read more from David Ignatius’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. Read more on this issue: Charles Krauthammer: Space: The


Why planting milkweed won’t halt monarch butterfly decline

but they’ve evolved so it doesn’t kill them, though it sickens animals that want to eat them) and fears about the species’s future. Schoolchildren raised them from caterpillars. “Citizen-scientists” tracked them. By the end of the century, some people were calling the monarch “the Bambi of the insect world.” The butterfly’s celebrity peaked when scientists recorded a worrisome decline in its numbers around 2014 or 2015, Anurag Agrawal writes in his new book, “Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution.” There was a widespread belief that they were suffering from a dearth of milkweed — which, besides being monarch food, is an agricultural pest that farmers were eradicating with the aid of genetically modified, herbicide-resistant crops. “Plant milkweed!” became something of an environmentalist mantra. But Agrawal begs to differ. A professor in the departments of ecology and entomology at Cornell, he has been fascinated with monarchs for years. His book is a minutely detailed exploration of just about everything about them: sex lives, dining habits, internal flight guidance and, in particular, their coevolving-but-competitive relationship with milkweed. And he doesn’t think planting milkweed will solve the monarch’s problem. His skepticism began when someone suggested to him that cell towers were killing the butterflies — a theory he didn’t credit. But then he ran some numbers and found there was as strong a correlation between monarch decline and cellphone subscriptions as there was between monarch decline and herbicide-resistant corn and soybeans. Then he found that he could get almost as strong a correlation by comparing monarchs to the stock market. Actually, he could find a correlation to a whole lot of factors. He also came up with a lot of potential monarch menaces. For example: “In the state of Illinois alone, perhaps 2 million monarchs are killed by cars during the southern migration each year,” he writes. If those figures are extrapolated to the butterflies’ entire route, it could mean 20 million vehicular regicides a year. Agrawal’s bottom line: Despite all the attention to monarch butterflies and all we know about them, the data are “messy” and inconclusive. Lack of milkweed may not be the culprit, but “it is hard to argue . . . that something isn’t right” with the Bambi of the insect world. “The onus is on us to understand the problem and to try and fix it.” — Nancy Szokan


Your guide to navigating the annual Cherry Blossom Festival

more likely to crash into a person. Be patient. While Smithsonian is the closest Metro station to the Tidal Basin, it’s also jammed at blossom time. If the weather is pleasant, get off the train at L’Enfant Plaza, Federal Triangle or Foggy Bottom. Or get bonus views by exiting the Blue Line at the Arlington Cemetery station and crossing the Potomac River on the Memorial Bridge and walking past the Lincoln Memorial to the Tidal Basin. Central Washington, with its grid pattern of streets, is fairly easy to navigate. But if you set off without a walking plan, you will discover that it is, in fact, possible to get lost. Consult visitor maps on downtown streets or the ones posted by the National Park Service around the Mall. Bus shelters also often display large maps. Metro stations display maps of their surroundings. Biking. See more details at capitalbikeshare.com. While riding around the area is delightful, the bike parking is very limited at popular times. Capital Bikeshare has announced it will offer a free corral service near the Washington Monument at Jefferson Drive and 14th Street SW this weekend and this Monday through Friday. Navigation aids This section offers guidance for people navigating via smartphone. It’s just a sampler of the possibilities. Twitter. The D.C. Circulator bus system sends alerts on its Twitter feed, @DCCirculator. The Capital Bikeshare feed is @bikeshare. Getting around. Biking. Transit. The mobile version offers a basic guide to bus and rail travel, including Trip Planner, Next Train and Next Bus, as well as service advisories for when things aren’t going so well. Using the “Service Near Me” feature, you could tap in “Tidal Basin” and see all the transit options within walking distance. See also the “Tourist & New Riders” feature to find answers to frequently asked questions. The easy to manage RideDC Trip Planner app can use GPS locator services to help find nearby transit, and plan a route to your destination that may involve several modes of travel. The Post’s DC Rider app has revamped its home screen since last spring. A touch-screen map links to station names with service details. There is a trip planner feature and links to the latest stories by The Post’s transportation writers. Parking. The Parkmobile app can do some off-street parking reservations, but it’s also a way to pay for street meters without carrying a bag of quarters.


Ignoring Scottish referendum mandate would ‘shatter’ U.K. structure, official says

Scotland's First Minister and the leader of the Scottish National Party Nicola Sturgeon. (Robert Perry/EPA) ABERDEEN, Scotland — Sturgeon, speaking at a party meeting, pledged to press on with plans to hold a new Scottish referendum as announced last week, deepening a standoff with the U.K. government. Sturgeon expects to get authorization from the devolved Scottish Parliament on Wednesday to seek the terms for a new secession vote, aiming for a date once the terms for Brexit are clear but before Britain leaves the European Union. “To stand in defiance of [Scottish parliamentary authorization] would be for the prime minister to shatter beyond repair any notion of the U.K. as a respectful partnership of equals,” said Sturgeon, who is Scotland’s first minister. “Scotland’s future will be in Scotland’s hands,” she said. Scottish voters rejected independence in 2014 by a 10 percentage point margin. But Sturgeon was elected last year on a manifesto that included the possibility of a new independence vote. Under the U.K.’s constitutional arrangements, Britain’s Parliament needs to sign off on any legally binding vote in Scotland. Prime Minister Theresa May told Sturgeon last week that “now is not the time” for a new choice on independence as divorce talks for the world’s fifth-largest economy with its erstwhile E.U. partners get under way. Although May did not deny a vote outright, Scottish nationalists predict her words could build support for secession because it will look like she is telling Scotland what to do. “[May] has time to think again and I hope she does. If her concern is timing then — within reason — I am happy to have that discussion,” Sturgeon said. The two sides are in a standoff just days before Britain is expected to trigger Article 50 of the E.U.’s Lisbon Treaty and start the complex Brexit procedure. Last June’s vote to leave the E.U. has altered the political landscape and shaken the ties of the U.K.’s four nations. England, the U.K.’s most populous nation, and Wales voted to leave while the Scots and the Northern Irish wanted to keep their E.U. membership. Scottish nationalists say the U.K. government has all but ignored their proposals of a bespoke deal for Scotland within Brexit. “If [May] shows the same condescension and inflexibility, the same tin ear, to other E.U. countries as she has to Scotland, then the Brexit process will hit the rocks,” Sturgeon said. —


Trump’s budget would mean double whammy for Washington region

A person sleeps at the McPherson Square Metro station, a stop used for shelter by many homeless District residents. President Trump’s proposed budget cuts would drive up the number of D.C. homeless, experts say. (Amanda Voisard for the Washington Post) For the Washington region, the best thing about President Trump’s budget is that Congress will probably change it, officials and analysts say. Unfortunately, the result may not be a whole lot better. The White House plan, issued Thursday, would deliver a double whammy to the federal capital and its suburbs. As in the rest of the country, it would cut federal spending in ways that stick local and state governments with sharply higher costs to protect the poor, improve transportation and safeguard the environment. That could stall or reverse high-profile efforts by District Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and others to reduce homelessness and narrow the income divide in a metropolitan area marked simultaneously by great wealth and deep poverty. But the federal budget is likely to have an even greater impact on the Washington region than elsewhere because of Trump’s pledge to dramatically shrink the federal civilian workforce. The plan would cost at least 15,000 local jobs in the first year and drain at least $2.6 billion from the regional economy, according to one estimate. That would reduce tax revenue and make it harder for local governments to fill the gap created by lower federal spending on social services and other programs. “We’re potentially going to get hit with a slowing economy and a reduction in federal assistance,” Maryland state Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery) said. “It definitely has the potential to sink the regional economy into a significant recession.” The Trump administration said it wants to cut domestic programs that are wasteful, ineffective or better handled by local government. But it wants to boost spending on the military and cybersecurity, two areas important to the Washington regional economy that could partially offset reductions in agencies responsible for health, social services and the environment. Still, local officials and experts expressed increasing alarm as they analyzed the White House’s proposed budget. The initial outcry focused on headline-grabbing moves to defund the federal program to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and to potentially kill the light-rail Purple Line in suburban Maryland. The budget also would deeply cut federal funding across the region that is vital to providing more affordable housing


Okinawan anti-base activist released after five months in detention

This photo shows Henoko, in Okinawa prefecture, on Oct. 29, 2015. The United States and Japan are looking to build a Marine Corps air station in Henoko. (Kazuhiko Yamashita/Kyodo News via AP) TOKYO — Hiroji Yamashiro, a 64-year-old who leads the Okinawa Peace Action Center, had been held under highly restrictive conditions in jail while facing relatively minor charges. But Japan’s high court upheld an Okinawan district court decision — which local prosecutors had appealed — and set him free. “I couldn’t be happier to see everyone again, everyone that I’ve been longing to see again,” Yamashiro said after he was released Saturday night, greeted by crowds of cheering well-wishers. Yamashiro has been one of the most vocal opponents of U.S. military construction in Okinawa, leading protests against the building of new Marine Corps facilities. Such protests have helped delay a plan by Washington and Tokyo to close the Marine Corps air station at Futenma, a huge piece of prime land in the heart of Okinawa’s most densely packed area, and replace it with a new facility next to an existing base in a more isolated area near Henoko. The overwhelming majority of Okinawans oppose the relocation of the base from Futenma to Henoko, according to local newspaper polls. They say Okinawa bears too much of the burden of Japan’s military alliance with the United States, as it represents only 1 percent of Japan’s land mass but houses 74 percent of the U.S. bases in the country, and that the air station should be put in another prefecture. In October, Yamashiro was arrested on suspicion of cutting a wire fence around a Marine Corps helipad construction site in the forest near Takae in northern Okinawa. Three days later, prosecutors included another charge: interfering with public officers’ duties and causing bodily injury. They alleged that Yamashiro grabbed a civil servant from the Okinawa Defense Bureau and shook him, bruising his arm and hurting his neck, about two months earlier. Then, in late November, prosecutors added a third charge: obstruction, accusing Yamashiro of putting concrete blocks on the road in front of the site at Henoko 10 months earlier. Other protesters saw a political motivation behind the staggered charges: In Japan, suspects can be held for 23 days before they must be indicted or released. “Considering the relatively minor nature of the charges, it’s very unusual to keep him detained for so


For this Russian dissident, holding Putin accountable was almost deadly — twice

Vladimir Kara-Murza. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters) On Jan. 9, the Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza celebrated a signal victory in a long campaign to hold Vladimir Putin’s regime accountable for its human rights crimes. The outgoing Obama administration announced sanctions against Gen. Alexander Bastrykin, a close Putin confidant who heads the state investigative committee — the instrument used to persecute opposition activists with trumped-up criminal charges. Kara-Murza, who divides his time between Moscow and Washington, had long campaigned for the designation of Bastrykin, just as he had pushed for passage of the law under which the general was targeted — the Sergei Magnitsky Act, which mandates sanctions on Russians involved in repression and corruption. For years Bastrykin “seemed too powerful to be sanctioned,” Kara-Murza exulted in a Jan. 12 blog post. “That ceiling is now gone.” Exactly three weeks later, back in Russia, Kara-Murza felt a horrific and all-too-familiar sensation: His organs were beginning to shut down. He concluded immediately that he had been poisoned, just as he had been once before, in May 2015. His family rushed him to a hospital, where a doctor who helped save his life in the previous instance was waiting. Within hours he was in a coma, where he remained for a week. Last week Kara-Murza met me in Washington, visibly frail and short of breath, but alive. He believes he somehow survived two attempts to murder him with a sophisticated and virtually untraceable poison — the same kind of attack that has killed a host of other Putin opponents in the past decade. He was also pretty sure why he was targeted: because of his work on the Magnitsky sanctions. “It’s revenge for the Magnitsky law, pure and simple,” Kara-Murza told me. “It’s the main thing they are afraid of. They have mastered the ways of silencing the opposition at home. For now the only thing they are really afraid of is Western countries closing the havens where they stash their money and send their families.” To the extent that it still exists, the opposition to Putin inside Russia is led by Alexei Navalny, the nationalist anti-corruption crusader. This month he posted a video allegedly documenting the vast trove of mansions, villas and vineyards accumulated by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. By last week it had been viewed 9.7 million times on YouTube — proving that a lot of Russians are still interested in learning the


Britain to trigger Article 50 on March 29, signaling start of E.U. departure

The European Union flag flies in front of London’s Big Ben on Feb. 20. (Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) LONDON — The triggering of Article 50, the never-before-used mechanism for a country to leave the European Union, will set off a two-year negotiation in which the United Kingdom and its 27 erstwhile partners will have to agree on the terms of divorce. “We are on the threshold of the most important negotiation for this country for a generation,” said David Davis, Britain’s Brexit secretary. “The government is clear in its aims: a deal that works for every nation and region of the U.K. and indeed for all of Europe — a new, positive partnership between the U.K. and our friends and allies in the European Union.” Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed for months that the country will trigger Article 50 by the end of March. But Monday’s announcement of the date — March 29 — was the first official confirmation of the exact timing. Britain’s Parliament gave its final approval last week to May’s Brexit plans, and the prime minister had at one point been expected to trigger Article 50 then. Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon threw a wrench into those plans last Monday by announcing a push for a new referendum on independence from the United Kingdom, which also includes England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scottish move seemed to catch Downing Street off guard, and it may have contributed to a decision to push Article 50 notification back to the final week of March. May heads into the E.U. negotiations with her premiership, Britain’s economy and even the United Kingdom’s viability as a unified country all on the line. She came to power soon after the Brexit referendum in June and has repeatedly said that she will deliver on voters’ narrow decision to make Britain the first country to leave the E.U. On Monday, she departed on the first stage of a “listening tour” that will take her across Britain in the lead-up to the March 29 move. Her first stop was Wales, and she was expected to visit sites in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England in the coming days. Although Britain as a whole voted 52 to 48 percent in favor of leaving, majorities in both Scotland and Northern Ireland favored staying in the E.U. Sturgeon has charged that Scottish voters are being taken out of


Account openings down at Wells Fargo; UBS will stand trial for tax fraud in France

goals, employees had opened up to 2 million bank and credit card accounts without customer authorization. It’s the biggest scandal in the bank’s 164-year history and led to the abrupt retirement of its chief executive, John Stumpf. The bank was fined $185 million by federal and California regulators. To give investors and the public information on how the scandal has affected its business, the bank began providing branch activity updates starting in September. — Associated Press COURT UBS to stand trial for tax fraud in France The UBS Group will stand trial in France in a tax-fraud case that may leave the Swiss bank open to a fine of as much as $5.3 billion. The bank, which posted a $1.2 billion bond to cover any potential penalties three years ago, said Monday that it will have to answer charges that it helped wealthy clients evade taxes by stashing funds overseas. The criminal case is coming to court after settlement talks with French authorities broke down over the size of the fine. No date has been set for the trial. “UBS has made clear that the bank disagrees with the allegations, assumptions and legal interpretations being made,” the bank said. “We will continue to strongly defend ourselves and look forward to a fair proceeding.” UBS had been pushing to settle the French investigation for less than the $322 million it paid to resolve a similar case in Germany, where the wealth-management market is larger than France, people familiar with the matter said this month. France’s financial prosecutor sought $1.2 billion, the same amount as the bond, said a person familiar with the matter. — Bloomberg News Also in Business ● L’Oreal’s sale of British retailer the Body Shop has drawn interest from private equity investors who are lining up indicative bids ahead of a mid-April deadline, people familiar with the matter said Monday. L’Oreal, which bought the company in 2006, sent out information packages this month to a large number of bidders, hoping for a valuation of close to $1.1 billion. Yet most investors have valued the Body Shop at less than $7.5 million, two of the people said. ● Target has named a grocery industry veteran to help recharge its sluggish food division. The Minneapolis-based chain said Monday that Jeff Burt will assume the title of senior vice president of grocery, fresh food and beverage on April 10. Burt replaces


The food industry isn’t going to ditch pesticides any time soon, but you can in your own garden

water and air, even as they are kept in widespread use. That reality is reinforced in a new report from the United Nations, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food.” Pesticide regulation has largely failed. Pesticides are “responsible for biodiversity loss and water and soil contamination and for negatively affecting the productivity of croplands, thereby threatening future food production.” This prediction runs counter to the claim made by powerful food industry giants that pesticides are needed to feed the world’s future population. Rather, the report says, the industry’s “inequitable production and distribution systems” keep food from those who need it. It’s cheering to read that a “rise in organic agricultural practices in many places illustrates that farming with less or without any pesticides is feasible.” Green agriculture, it states, “is capable of delivering sufficient yields to feed the entire world population.” Meanwhile, there are other hopeful signs. Increasing numbers of us buy fresh organic fruits, vegetables and meat from local farmers who not only try to keep the food pure but also use practices that protect their workers and the environment. Because the least sustainably grown crops tend to be commodity foods such as the corn and soybeans that find their way into packaged, highly processed goods, taking the time to cook from scratch with wholesome basic materials is a positive step, too. When we grow food at home, we can guarantee its quality and make sure that it does no harm to the ecosystem. We are not convinced that sustainable practices will work only in home gardens and on small farms. Cultivating, mulching, solarizing and flame-weeding can all be used to reduce or eliminate weeds without herbicides. Handpicking can keep pest-insect pressure down. You can speed up the process by using a wet-dry vacuum to suck them up. Larger such machines are used on big farms. Vegetable oil squirted into the young silks of corn ears will banish corn earworms. A strong hose spray will reduce the number of aphids and spider mites. Spun-bonded polyester covers, set over crops at sowing or transplanting time, can exclude many kinds of garden pests. Rotating crops will help avoid overwintering insects in the soil, such as potato beetles and carrot maggots. This requires a diversity of crops, but diversity in itself leads to fewer pest problems than one finds with monocultures. Maintaining soil fertility will help plants repel pests.


such as the corn and soybeans that find their way into packaged, highly processed goods, taking the time to cook from scratch with wholesome basic materials is a positive step, too. When we grow food at home, we can guarantee its quality and make sure that it does no harm to the ecosystem. We are not convinced that sustainable practices will work only in home gardens and on small farms. Cultivating, mulching, solarizing and flame-weeding can all be used to reduce or eliminate weeds without herbicides. Handpicking can keep pest-insect pressure down. You can speed up the process by using a wet-dry vacuum to suck them up. Larger such machines are used on big farms. Vegetable oil squirted into the young silks of corn ears will banish corn earworms. A strong hose spray will reduce the number of aphids and spider mites. Spun-bonded polyester covers, set over crops at sowing or transplanting time, can exclude many kinds of garden pests. Rotating crops will help avoid overwintering insects in the soil, such as potato beetles and carrot maggots. This requires a diversity of crops, but diversity in itself leads to fewer pest problems than one finds with monocultures. Maintaining soil fertility will help plants repel pests. The more vigorous plants are, the more they are able to produce natural chemicals for pest resistance. Keeping poisons off the property will help sustain populations of beneficial predators in the form of birds, amphibians and predatory insects. These are just a few tactics one can pursue. In the end, it may still be up to all of us, the little people, with our hunches, our “anecdotal evidence,” our creativity, and our power to vote with our dollars and our hoes, to set things right. Tip of the Week Garden beds for vegetables and annuals should be enriched and dug before the growing season. Leaf mold combined with dry nutrients such as kelp, bone meal or greensand makes for a perfect top layer to be turned into the soil with a shovel or, better, a garden fork. Work backward in rows to avoid treading on newly turned soil. Don’t dig if the soil is wet. — Adrian Higgins More from Lifestyle: Lessons from the first ‘tiny house’ evangelist, Henry David Thoreau The design du jour for dining rooms: Mix-and-match tables and chairs Empty-nesters take up where they left off on Spain’s most storied mountain trail


Rusty patched bumblebee joins endangered species list

will come up with a plan for returning the bee to “a healthy and secure condition,” the U.S. Department of Interior said. “We will work with stakeholders to ensure collaborative conservation among landowners, farmers, industry and developers in the areas where the species is native.” The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, which asked the government to consider the matter, said it was “thrilled to see one of North America’s most endangered species receive the protection it needs.” “Now that the Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the rusty patched bumblebee as endangered, it stands a chance of surviving the many threats it faces,” said Sarina Jepsen, the group’s director of endangered species. Scientists say disease, pesticide exposure, habitat loss and climate change are among possible reasons for the decline of the bee, named for the rusty reddish patch on the backs of workers and males. Most of the grasslands and tallgrass prairies where they once thrived have been converted to farms or urban areas. The bee’s endangered listing, approved by the service shortly before President Barack Obama left office, had been scheduled to take effect February 10. But the Trump administration, which has pledged to have fewer federal regulations, said it would postpone the listing until Tuesday. Some environmental groups had feared it would be canceled altogether. Six business organizations asked the government earlier this month to push back the effective date to January 11. The groups, including the American Petroleum Institute and the National Association of Home Builders, said the Obama administration had acted too quickly and didn’t consider how the designation would affect human activities. “Once the listing decision takes effect, virtually every industry operating within the species’ range — from agriculture and crop production to residential and commercial development, from energy production and distribution to manufacturing, will be profoundly affected,” the petition said. Too little is known about the bee’s underground nesting and hibernation sites for developers to determine whether their work would do harm, the industry groups said. The Fish and Wildlife Service posted information on its website about how to determine whether an area being considered for development is likely to host rusty patched bumblebees and ways to meet requirements for protecting them. The law prohibits killing, harassing or otherwise harming listed animals, although people can obtain permits that excuse limited “takings” of endangered species as a result of doing things that otherwise are legal.


Hogan’s deep popularity in Md. weakens when voters consider 2018, Post poll finds

care and immigration and other topics, I would obviously support him,” said Walczyk, a 53-year-old Bel Air resident who works in advertising. “If he doesn’t, it could severely impact my impression of him.” Nearly 6 in 10 Democrats approve of Hogan, but much of that support is soft and can’t guarantee protection from an anti-Republican backlash at the polls in 2018. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the state’s last Republican governor, maintained a 55 percent job-approval rating just weeks before he lost to Democrat Martin O’Malley in 2006, a year that showcased how Marylanders’ frustrations with the national GOP can undermine a popular governor’s standing. Immigration provides a window into how perceptions of state and national politics can become intertwined. By a 65 to 33 percent margin, the poll finds more Marylanders oppose than support Trump’s revised executive order to temporarily block travel from six Muslim-majority countries, exempting U.S. citizens and those who received visas before late January. Hogan has resisted pressure to weigh in against the order, saying his focus is on Maryland issues. Nearly half of Maryland residents both oppose Trump’s executive order and say it is “absolutely necessary” that Hogan speak out against it. Over 8 in 10 Republicans — 83 percent — support Trump’s order, although the number falls to 36 percent among independents and 13 percent among Democrats. The poll finds that Marylanders are cool to local agencies cooperating with federal immigration authorities. A 56 percent majority doubts that increased local involvement in deportations would improve compliance with immigration laws, while three-quarters say it would make undocumented immigrants reluctant to inform police of crime. But Hogan has vowed to veto what he called an “outrageously irresponsible” bill passed by the House of Delegates that would limit the ability of state and local officials to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. The bill is awaiting action in the Senate. Bob Bajefsky, a 75-year-old retired attorney from Potomac, is among the Democrats who consider Hogan a reasonable and not overly partisan governor. But he said he has been horrified by Trump’s behavior in office and would like to see Hogan stand up to the president and refuse to assist in rounding up immigrants. “In today’s environment, with where the Republican Party is, I’m probably more strongly inclined toward Democrats than I’ve been in the past,” said Bajefsky, noting that he last voted for a GOP governor in 1966, when


Loudoun County Animal Watch

Loudoun County These were among recent cases reported by the Loudoun County Department of Animal Services. For animal shelter hours and location, and information on adoption, licensing, rabies clinics and low-cost neutering, call 703-777-0406. Injured skunk: Raccoon tale: Woodland Rd., 45000 block, Sterling, March 12. An employee at a business found a raccoon in a warehouse. An animal control officer located the raccoon, but it evaded capture by crawling through a hole in the ceiling and escaping outside. Jumping to a conclusion: Up, up and away: Hawk rescued: Southland St., 43000 block, Ashburn, March 15. A caller reported finding an injured hawk. The caller used protective gloves and gently covered the hawk to limit its stress. The Animal Services Department does not encourage the public to handle wildlife, but in this case, it helped save the hawk. An animal control officer took the hawk to a veterinarian; it was to be transferred later to a wildlife rehabilitator. — Compiled by Sandy Mauck


Maryland governor lists transportation priorities, meets top Trump administration officials

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and his wife, Yumi, saw a test of a magnetic-levitation train during a trip to Japan. (Ko Sasaki/Ko Sasaki for The Washington Post) Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) met with top Trump administration officials Wednesday in a bid to advance state interests in transportation, health care and housing. Among the transportation priorities outlined on a list obtained by The Washington Post are a new American Legion Bridge over the Potomac in Montgomery County, widening Interstate 81 in Western Maryland from four lanes to six, and roadway improvements to increase access to the Port Covington development in South Baltimore. And the list prioritizes a futuristic “superconducting magnetic levitation train system,” commonly called maglev, between Washington and Baltimore over more prosaic concerns, such as speedier buses through the Interstate 270 corridor. Missing from Hogan’s list, which was given to the National Governors Association and passed along to President Trump’s team, were the Washington region’s sagging Metro system, the Purple Line light-rail project connecting Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, and the Corridor Cities Transitway, a bus rapid-transit project in Montgomery. “In terms of the regional conversation about priorities, I think most Montgomery County leaders would think of those as being more important than the American Legion Bridge at this point,” Del. C. William Frick (D-Montgomery) said. Given heavy congestion on I-270, the 15-mile Transitway project could make a major difference in people’s lives, he said. The list was obtained by Frick through a public-records request, and he shared it with The Post. Frick said he had read about the existence of Hogan’s priority list in a Post article, which noted that it had not been made public. Frick said he informally asked Hogan’s staff for a copy but didn’t hear back, and then wrote a letter asking for a copy, with the same result. This month he filed a Public Information Act request seeking the list, and he received it Wednesday. “I was extremely disappointed that I had to go to these lengths to obtain an existing document that had already been shared outside state government. The legislature is supposed to be a partner in governing the state, and we’re not always treated that way,” Frick said. As for the content of the list itself, “I think there’s pretty glaring omissions in terms of transit,” he said. A spokeswoman for Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn deferred comment to the


Manafort is gone, but his business associate remains a key part of Trump’s operation

hacked by Russian agents were published last summer. All have denied any wrongdoing and said their alleged ties to Russia are being exaggerated to undermine the president. Manafort’s role in potential dealings with Russia gained new attention Wednesday when the AP reported that Manafort proposed in 2005 a plan to influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and the former Soviet republics to benefit the Putin government. Gates did not join the firm until the following year. Manafort said Wednesday that his work for Deripaska was designed to benefit the Russian business executive’s company, Rusal, not the Russian government. “I have always publicly acknowledged that I worked for Mr. Deripaska and his company,” Manafort said in a statement Wednesday. “I did not work for the Russian government. Once again, smear and innuendo are being used to paint a false picture.” Asked about the AP report at his daily briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday, “Nothing in this morning’s report references any actions by the president, the White House or any Trump administration official.” In the mid-1990s, Manafort and Richard H. Davis, a longtime Republican political consultant, formed Davis Manafort. Gates joined the firm in 2006. Paul Manafort talks with Trump campaign staff following the results of the Indiana state primary at Trump Tower in Manhattan May 3, 2016. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) That year, the firm wooed Deripaska as a client, telling him that their goal was to set up a $200 million fund to make a series of private equity investments and acquisitions, primarily in Russia and Ukraine, according to documents in the lawsuit. The partnership making the investments was created in the Cayman Islands in 2007. By 2014, relations between Manafort and Gates and Derispaska had soured considerably. That year, Gates and Manafort were sued by Deripaska, who accused them in a Cayman Islands court of taking nearly $19 million intended for investments, then failing to account for the funds, return them or respond to numerous inquiries about exactly how the money was used. At one point, attorneys for Deripaska claimed that they could not locate Manafort or Gates. The Russian tycoon hired a private investigator to track them down, according to a 2014 petition that Deripaska’s attorneys filed in a Cayman Islands court seeking recovery of the money. “It appears that Paul Manafort and Rick Gates have simply disappeared,” the petition


Community and cultural events in the District, March 23-30, 2017

“Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman” 21st Century Consort: Color School “Vamizi: Cradle of Coral” “Parade” Sunday, March 26 Palisades farmers market “Born in China” Art Signs: Gallery Talk in American Sign Language Luce artist talk with Christian Benefiel The Buzz About Bees: Pollinator-Plant Relationships Age-friendly afternoon: Glover Park History with Carlton Fletcher Family Funday Sunday Show-and-tell: Create a memory book by Janet Minichiello Shaw knitting and crochet circle Kruger Brothers and Kontras Quartet “24 Snow” “Behold the Earth” Emerson Quartet concert “Colombia: Wild Magic” Shaw Knitting and Crochet Circle Parker Quartet Concert “Naledi: A Baby Elephant’s Tale” “Seasons” Monday, March 27 Children’s safety seat and belt inspections English conversation group Yoga Mondays Income tax assistance Reader’s Theatre Mandala Mondays . Yoga in Takoma Park Tuesday, March 28 Children’s safety seat and belt inspections Rediscover Bartholdi Park Pop of the Tots Chair yoga classes Classical music concert Saxophonist Jeremy Koch and pianist Yu-Hsuan Liao explore the connection between traditional eastern music and Asian-inspired pieces for saxophone and piano. 12:10-1 p.m. Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G St. NW. 202-347-2635, Ext. 20. $10. Tuesday yoga Sketching: Draw and Discover Lego playtime and engineering challenge Pajama story time Yoga classes ESL English conversation club Zumba For teens and adults who want routines that are aerobic with fitness interval training within a combination of fast and slow rhythms that tone and sculpt the body. Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Through March 28. Bellevue/Lockridge Library, 115 Atlantic St. SW. 202-243-1185. Free. “An Evening with Chris Palmer: The Most Important Food Films of All Time” Film producer Chris Palmer describes the best food films of all time, illustrating his remarks with clips, and then screens the winners of this year’s Eco-Comedy Video Competition. Reception at 6:30 p.m., event at 7 p.m. Malsi Doyle and Michael Forman Theater, second Floor, McKinley Building, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW. 202-342-2564. dceff.org. Free. Wednesday, March 29 Monica Becomes a Big Sister Gallery talk Knitting in the nook Words, Beats and Life Academy Conversation pieces Introduction to American Sign Language Physicist Lawrence Krauss: Why are we here? “Taking a Cue From Cicero: Classical rhetoric for Modern Persuasion” “Renoir: The Gift of Joy” Women’s History Month with Marione Ingram Student Short Environmental Film Festival Fresh Talk Yoga for all Thursday, March 30 Adult coloring Memoir and essay-writing club Folger Consort: “Galileo’s Torch” unCHAMBERed, featuring the North Carolina Symphony — Compiled by Gerri Marmer TO


Mirabelle is the new crown jewel of downtown dining

This review appeared in The Washington Post’s 2017 Spring Dining Guide as No. 1 on a list of the year’s 10 best new restaurants. The boudin blanc at Mirabelle: “Cloudlike,” made of chicken, foie gras and cream, and served with braised red cabbage and raisins. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) 1. Mirabelle Not yet rated One of the many reasons you need to make time for Mirabelle, the new bauble from prolific restaurateur Hakan Ilhan: No Washington chef proves more meticulous than Frank Ruta. Take the vegetables in his dish of veal tongue; the carrots and spinach taste as if each had been pampered by their own kitchen minder. Equally impressive is the former White House chef’s boudin blanc, cloudlike in texture and whispering of juniper in its seasoning. The icing on the cake at one of the most fetching dining rooms in town (love the leather walls) is the presence of a dessert trolley outfitted by pastry chef Aggie Chin, whose butterscotch cremeux is the richest pudding in town, and gracious-as-it-gets attention, thanks to wine and service director Jennifer Knowles. The competition should be nervous. Prepare to drop some serious money, but also to be dazzled. Previous: 900 16th St. NW. 202-506-3833. mirabelledc.com. Open: Prices: Sound check: More of Tom Sietsema’s top 10 new restaurants 10. Colada Shop 9. Kobo 8. Fish by José Andrés 7. Bindaas 6. Tiger Fork 5. Ambar 4. Arroz 3. Himitsu 2. Sfoglina 1. Mirabelle -- The following was originally published March 24, 2017. Mirabelle, on the fast track to sublime Let me cut to the chase: It’s great to see two of Washington’s most respected talents, former Grill Room chef Frank Ruta and pastry maven Aggie Chin, cooking together again, at the just-opened Mirabelle. Georgetown’s loss is downtown’s gain. And what a lovely dining room! Mirabelle looks like no other, appointed with walnut-framed tufted leather walls, opulent lighting and semicircular booths just waiting for food lovers to sink into the cushions. There’s music, but it’s unobtrusive. As a design pal said over lunch, Mirabelle “makes you feel like you’re in a big-time place.” Equally sublime is the corner location, two blocks from the White House. Get the right seat and you can see the top of the Washington Monument. One can only imagine what a crowd there will be once the front patio opens. (Dinner service commences April 3.) Bon, bon, bon. But


Space Systems/Loral sues Orbital ATK for theft of trade secrets

ATK terminated one of its employees for allegedly downloading proprietary details of a rival company’s plan to assemble satellite parts in space. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the rival firm, Space Systems Loral (SSL), is trying to permanently bar Orbital from using the information in future contract competitions, a mark of the intense competition for federal funding among companies that build satellites and launch them into orbit. Orbital ATK declined to comment. NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Robert Jacobs said that the agency is investigating the matter and that Orbital had notified the agency of the breach. SSL’s lawsuit comes as Orbital has attempted to roll back one of SSL’s contracts with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency through a lawsuit of its own. The SSL suit alleges that an Orbital ATK employee downloaded contract documents and technical specifications for a government-funded satellite-servicing program code-named “Dragonfly.” The Dragonfly project seeks to develop a means of installing and reconfiguring radio frequency reflectors while in orbit when they need repairs. SSL, the U.S. subsidiary of Canadian aerospace giant MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, was awarded the contract under NASA’s “Tipping Point” program, which provides funding for the development of advanced robotics technologies, along with 22 U.S. companies. Orbital ATK also holds a contract through the same program. It was not clear from the documents filed Wednesday how the Orbital employee gained access to the documents. Citing communications from NASA, SSL alleges that the employee shared the documents with up to six colleagues and has since been terminated. In its lawsuit, SSL expressed apprehension that Orbital could use the information learned from the documents to undercut the firm in future contract awards. The company says the accessed documents contained financial data, business information and even design specifications. “With knowledge of this confidential information, competitors can modify their proposals to undercut any and all of SSL’s potential advantages,” the company’s complaint says. SSL asks for at least $100,000 in damages, a relatively small amount for a firm of its size. Of greater consequence is a request that Orbital be permanently barred from using any of the information contained in the documents in its technological developments or contract proposals. “SSL has no means, absent judicial intervention, of preventing Orbital ATK from incorporating SSL’s confidential and proprietary information into Orbital ATK’s own strategic plans and competing public and private sector proposals going forward,” SSL said in the complaint.


New Cabela’s megastore in Gainesville, Va., is a monument to gun rights

than 2 million acres of public hunting land. This is the third Cabela’s in the state to open in as many years. The others are in Bristol and Short Pump. “We knew we had a lot of customers here,” said Borowski, the spokesman. “This crowd — 5,000 people in two hours — definitely shows we made the right choice.” The first customers had arrived, he said, by Tuesday at 4 p.m. Now it was Thursday morning at 10, and the crowd had swelled to thousands. The night before, more than 200 people had slept outside, scattering tents, cots and sleeping bags along the perimeter of the store, waiting for it to open. “It’s almost like they were tailgating,” Borowski said. “They love this store.” Chris S., who is 41 and declined to give his last name, had driven nearly five hours from Lebanon, N.J., to be at the opening. He wore a red “Make America Great Again” cap and was looking to add an air rifle to his collection of a dozen pistols. “This is like Toys R Us for me,” he said, standing under an antler chandelier in the store’s gun library. “Since I’m here, maybe I’ll buy some ammo and scopes, some other gear, too.” Over by the store’s archery range, Michael Thompson, 22, and two friends were eyeing a display of crossbows. Between the three of them, they had 14 guns and were considering buying more. “Coming here when you’re a gun enthusiast is kind of like going to a grocery store while you’re hungry,” said Thompson, from Bristow, Va. “You just want to buy everything.” Jeff Ware reacts after using a bow and arrow to cut the ribbon for the opening of the Cabela's store. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) Firearms are seen in the gun library room. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) A multibillion-dollar industry Since its founding in 1961 as a mail-order fishing bait service, Cabela’s has built a loyal following at its 86 stores, which have become a one-stop shop for all types of outdoors gear. Last year, the company had sales of $4.13 billion, double what it did a decade earlier. In October, rival Bass Pro Shops announced plans to take over the company for about $5.5 billion. Antitrust regulators have since raised concerns about the merger. The deal has yet to be finalized. But business at Cabela’s has slipped in recent years because


How eliminating two EPA programs could affect large parts of America

initiatives if federal funding were to be drained. A 2011 study by the University of Michigan found that more than 1.5 million jobs are directly connected to the lakes, generating $62 billion in wages annually. The Rust Belt states that border the Great Lakes rely on them for shipping and transporting manufacturing goods. But the lakes’ impact on the region extends beyond the factories. According to the Brookings Institution, every dollar spent on the GLRI will bring in $2 of long-term economic gains. Among other things, the EPA fights the spread of invasive species within the lakes. These non-native animals out-compete native species and disrupt the ecological balance of the lakes. Many, like the Asian carp, have voracious appetites and no natural predators in the ecosystem. The EPA has been fighting a number of invasive species over the years. Some have already infiltrated the lakes. It’s estimated that aquatic invasive species cost the region $100 million a year. Asian carp were introduced into Arkansas lakes in the 1970s and have been spotted as close as six miles from the lakes in the Chicago River. When startled, the fish—which can grow to be up to 50 pounds—have been known to leap out of the water, high into the air. This behavior can be dangerous, risking the safety of recreational boaters and property. Another invasive species, the zebra mussel, attach themselves to surfaces and can cause problems when they block intake pipelines. They also attach themselves to docks, buoys and the lake bed. Their sharp shells have led to beach closings to protect swimmers, which hurts local tourism. The EPA is also responsible for monitoring the water quality of the lakes. When bacteria is high, local areas might close swimming at beaches. A major problem for the lakes is phosphorous pollution and associated algae blooms, which can deplete oxygen. Low oxygen levels can kill fish, putting vital fisheries at risk. In addition to funding, the EPA provides research that helps local jurisdictions make decisions as well as coordination to hold them accountable. While Trump’s proposed cuts may not pass, a significant reduction in the EPA’s budget may have wide-ranging effects. Sources: Environmental Protection Agency, Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, USGS Chesapeake Bay River Input Monitoring stations data, USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species database, USDA, Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Brookings Institution, Office of Management and Budget.


Embattled bankers embrace Trump’s call for deregulation: ‘Profit is not a four-letter word.’

banking industry has been shrinking for years, but the pace accelerated as 2010’s financial reform package, known as Dodd-Frank, was implemented, they say. And many of the rules meant to rein in large bankers, such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, have also been applied to much smaller players that are struggling to comply. Community banks, which typically have $10 billion or less in assets compared with large, global banks such as JPMorgan, which has more than $2 trillion in assets, are facing the same regulatory tests in some cases. Banks are not looking for a “pity party,” Jones said. “We are not anti-regulation. We are pro-regulation that helps us to do our job.” Small banks that struggled to afford the cost of complying with the new rules have been forced to merge with bigger players or go out of business, industry officials say. In Virginia’s Hampton Roads, there used to be 10 to 12 community banks, but now just Old Point National Bank is left, said Jennifer Register, 32, vice president of retail lending. Before the avalanche of new regulations, the nearly 100-year-old bank could approve a new equity line of credit for customers within 48 hours, said Register, who attended the conference for the first time this year. Now that process takes three to four weeks, she said. “We never did loans for people who could not afford it,” Register said, referring to larger banks that sustained huge losses during the financial crisis. “We are a community bank. Everyone is our neighbor.” That might be true, but largely absent from this week’s push are the big banks that could benefit the most from a regulatory rollback. Any effort to loosen banking regulations will probably face resistance from many Democrats and advocacy groups that say Dodd-Frank has made the financial system safer. Banks’ record profits show that despite the tougher regulatory landscape, the industry has adapted, they say. If community banks need more regulatory relief, they will need to better separate their interests from those of their larger competitors, critics say. Despite bankers’ complaints, government data shows an industry in the throes of a revival: There are fewer bank failures, fewer institutions labeled “troubled banks” by regulators and fewer unprofitable institutions. The FDIC found that of the country’s 5,913 banks, only 248 were unprofitable last year. That is lower than pre-financial-crisis levels and down significantly from the more than


Virginia man accused of bomb threat at White House checkpoint held for mental evaluation

Members of the Secret Service Uniformed Division patrol alongside the security fence around the perimeter of the White House. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) A Virginia man arrested after falsely reporting his car trunk contained a bomb at a U.S. Secret Service checkpoint outside the White House late March 18 has been ordered held by a federal judge for at least 30 days for a full mental competency evaluation. Sean Patrick Keoughan, 29, of Roanoke, will be transferred to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons for a full psychiatric screening, U.S. Magistrate Robin M. Meriweather of the District ordered late Thursday. A competency hearing is set for May 10, prosecutors and Keoughan’s defense said. Keoughan faces a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted of making a false bomb threat. An initial District examination found Keoughan incompetent at present, and he has not yet entered a plea. Prosecutors said Keoughan pulled up to a checkpoint at 15th and E streets NW at 11:05 p.m. Saturday and told officers he was carrying a bomb in a black Chevrolet Impala that was reported stolen the day before. Keoughan then said the bomb was an asteroid and that he was in telepathic communication with President Trump, the Secret Service and Delta Force through a system called “Think Talk, according to an arrest affidavit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik M. Kenerson said in a court filing that there was probable cause to believe Keoughan stole the car and that he committed the offense while under court order not to leave Virginia because of a Feb. 26 traffic stop and arrest on Interstate 66, after being found wanted pending extraditable bench warrant from Kitsap County in Washington state for allegedly operating a vehicle on June 19, 2016, while under the influence of several drugs. The car was recovered, missing a reported $800, but containing an empty six-pack carton of Keystone beer and “a metallic-looking spherical object” that initial testing “by the Smithsonian Institution do not show characteristics of meteoric metal,” Kenerson wrote.


I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD

research, he says, “I think TV addiction is probably the first addiction that people experience in life.” People can become preoccupied with television, spending more time watching it than they intended to despite negative consequences on their relationships, schoolwork, happiness and health. And, as with taking an addictive drug, consuming more TV may leave us worse off. One study found that people who binge-watched TV (defined as watching two or more episodes in one sitting) reported more depression and loneliness than those who didn’t binge. Despite my unhappiness on that TV-less sick day, I stuck with my resolution and, in early spring, I completed my PhD. One major accomplishment down. I was feeling proud until I realized I had started to transfer my TV time to Twitter and Facebook. How was that better? As an aspiring writer, I had hoped to spend my extra hours reading. I doubled my efforts, but the desire to shut off my brain again nagged at me. Reading fiction and watching a fictional show seem similar, but television fills in more of the blanks. “With a novel, we get to participate in imagination of what these characters look like or what the settings feel like,” Grabowski says. Sometimes that felt too exhausting, and I missed having the TV do the work. In August, my sister invited my cousin and me to a friend’s beach house. Soon after we arrived, my cousin discovered the TV was broken, and she wasn’t happy about it. But my sister was relieved, glad to be free from TV for a few days. We spent the days at the beach and the evenings talking, TV-free. Not long after, as the new fall shows debuted, I remained blissfully unaware; without commercials, the previews weren’t drilled into my head. Neither were endless plugs for fast food and mouthwatering snacks. I wondered if I’d achieved a better diet by not being tempted by manipulative commercials or fast-paced shows, which some research suggests can increase distracted eating. I wasn’t sure: I had lost weight, but I also was training to run a marathon. Either way, I certainly didn’t miss commercials. Did I miss any of it? As the year neared its end, my husband said he doubted I’d tune back in. I agreed. In December of 2014, I ran my fastest marathon ever, qualifying for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials and accomplishing all of my