Where marijuana is legalized, decriminalized or on the November ballot

Marijuana policy is nothing if not complicated. A patchwork of laws governs its use, possession and sale. Federally, it’s illegal. But some states have decriminalized the drug, removing criminal penalties for possession of small amounts. Some have allowed its distribution and sale for medical use. And, in Washington or Colorado, you can walk into any appropriately credentialed dispensary and buy it legally. Oregon, Alaska and D.C. could soon join that pair of states in allowing recreational sales, if voters approve ballot proposals this fall. And a number of cities—two in Maine and about a dozen in Michigan—will consider proposals to liberalize pot laws locally, too. As our colleague Marc Fisher wrote in a piece this weekend: “[I]n the hazy world of marijuana law — an alternate reality in which two U.S. states have declared the substance legal even as it remains banned under federal law — nothing is simple.” In an effort to add some clarity, our colleagues Denise Lu and Ted Mellnik put together the following guide to the state of marijuana policy in the states. Here are descriptions of its color-coding system: Orange signifies a legalization measure is on the November ballot.


Top general: U.S. needs to rethink how much it cuts the Army

operating concept known as Unified Land Operations, designed to fight battles on multiple fronts. (Sgt. Brian Erickson/ U.S. Army) Cuts currently planned to the U.S. Army may pose problems as it takes a leading role in security crises emerging around the world, including the fight against the Islamic State militant group and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, said the service’s top officer. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, said he is “starting to worry about our end strength,” a reference to the number of soldiers in the service. The Pentagon said in February that it would cut the Army to between 440,000 and 450,000 troops, its smallest size since before World War II. But “the world is changing in front of us” since those statements were made, Odierno said. “We have to have a national security debate, because there is too much going on around the world,” he said. His comments — made at the annual conference of the Association of the United States Army in Washington — come as the Army takes a leading role in both the U.S. response to the crises in Iraq and West Africa. Two-star Army generals will lead the response to both missions, with soldiers making up a bulk of both forces. Odierno also spoke following the recent release of a new Army operating concept that will alter how the service prepares for the future. Titled “Win in a Complex World,” it calls for the Army to take a leading role in managing joint operations involving other branches of the armed forces, with adaptable combinations of conventional and Special Operations troops. The Army has made a number of tough decisions as the Pentagon copes with a budget crunch after more than a decade of combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. That has included a controversial restructuring of Army aviation that removes all Apache attack helicopters from Army National Guard units, but leaves those units with multi-use Black Hawk helicopters. The plan has infuriated some state governors and members of Congress, who want to keep the Apaches in their states. Odierno noted Monday that, under the aviation plan, the active-duty Army would also cut the number of its combat aviation brigades from 13 to 10. Hundreds of the Black Hawks in those units would be sent to the Reserve, saving the Army money at a crucial time, Army officials say.


Michigan toddler dies after becoming infected with Enterovirus

when sick are all easy ways we can help stop the spread of illness." Madeline Reid died Friday, her family and friends said in a statement on a GoFundMe page, which is raising money for the 21-month-old's "departing ceremonies." A ribbon decorates a tree in front of Yardville Elementary School in Hamilton Township, N.J., after the Enterovirus-connected death of Eli Waller in September. Enterovirus patient Madeline Reid died less than three weeks later in a Detroit suburb. (Scott Ketterer/The Trentonian via Associated Press) According to the family, from Clinton Township, Reid died from complications of Enterovirus infection, including "failure in all of Maddie's organs, along with congestive heart failure and myocarditis." Although the outbreak of Enterovirus 68 has garnered a lot less attention than the handful of suspected and confirmed cases of Ebola in the United States, the respiratory illness is spreading rapidly across the country: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been at least 691 confirmed Enterovirus cases in 46 states this year. Many of those who have become ill from the seasonal virus are children, some of whom are being swept into emergency rooms by frantic parents. Reid is the second child to die while infected with the particularly severe strain of the virus this year. In New Jersey, 4-year-old Eli Waller died in his sleep late last month, and officials determined that his death was the first one directly connected to Enterovirus 68, despite his having a lack of symptoms. Four others infected with the virus also died, the CDC previously announced. But officials aren't sure what role EVD-68 played in those deaths, the AP reported. Enterovirus symptoms are usually cold-like: runny nose, fever, body aches and skin rash, according to the CDC. Rare cases cause more severe symptoms; Enterovirus D68 is known to produce breathing problems in children, particularly those with existing respiratory conditions such as asthma. While unconfirmed, health officials are looking into a litany of other severe symptoms found in those who tested positive for Enterovirus 68. Those include reports of paralysis among a small group of Colorado children who had D86 and other strains of the virus. Of a group of five children who reported paralysis-like symptoms in California last year, two also tested positive for Enterovirus 68. Related: What is Enterovirus 68? New Jersey child dies of Enterovirus Rhode Island child dies of infection associated with virus


Two years in, Union Market thrives

45 acres. 34 vendors. Since its 2012 opening, Union Market has become a foodie’s haven. But its owners want more. View Photo Gallery —45 acres. 34 vendors. Since its 2012 opening, Union Market has become a foodie’s haven. But its owners want more. When Amanda McClements quit her job as a food writer in 2012 to start her first business, she was, in her own words, scared to death. “It was an extremely intimidating time,” said the owner of home goods store Salt & Sundry. “I had no retail experience, and didn’t know the first thing about starting a business.” McClements had long wanted to open a shop on 14th Street NW, near her home in Logan Circle. But then she found another opportunity: Union Market in Northeast Washington, which was being revived from its roots as a battered warehouse district into a modern-day artisanal market. She picked the latter, and says the collaborative atmosphere at Union Market has proven helpful. “Having people who are in it together, who you can talk to about the nitty-gritty of starting a business, has been invaluable,” said McClements, who is preparing to open her first stand-alone store in Logan Circle. In the two years since its transformation, Union Market has become an informal incubator for area restaurateurs and business owners. Companies such as Red Apron Butchery, Curbside Cupcake and Takorean have opened their first physical locations at the market before expanding throughout the region. A number of established businesses, including Ris and Toki Underground, have also looked to the space at 1309 5th Street NE to experiment with new ideas and concepts. Monthly sales at the market have more than tripled since the space opened in September 2012, according to Edens, the developer that owns the project. Month-over-month sales increases range from 12 percent to 15 percent, a trend executives say they expect to continue for the next 18 to 24 months as the neighborhood continues to attract new visitors. “From our perspective, we have a thriving market with the right balance,” said Jodie McLean, president and chief investment officer of Edens. “It’s a working market and a place that brings people together. Edens hopes to eventually bring more people — not just shoppers, but also residents and workers — to the sprawling 45-acre development. Later this year, the developer plans to break ground on an apartment building on Florida and 4th Streets


Small pictures, larger truths

give you a little more background – SSgt. Bronson had already completed four combat tours, the last two in Afghanistan. Before the end of this, his fourth tour, someone in Kandahar Province finally decided enough was enough, and sent him the hell home – before the odds finally worked against him. In what is probably my best sketch in Afghanistan, I think I have accidentally captured both SSgt. Bronson’s longing for home and his uncomfortable displacement from the men he has left behind down south. But maybe I am reading too much into it and I have just been here too long. Either way, here is to Staff Sergeant Bronson and to heading home. Postscript: I desperately need to throw in a broad swathe of thanks to everyone who made this trip possible. So thanks everyone. But up for special mention are the Public Affairs Officers (PAO) in the various military branches whose lives I made utterly miserable and complicated. But most especially to Loran Doane, an ex-army PAO who understood instantly what I was about, consistently went above and beyond, and worked tirelessly to make sure I got what I wanted, didn’t get lost, and eventually found my way home. Loran, I owe you a great debt, now come home before they forget you are an American. And to separated-at-birth twin Majors Brandon Lingle and Vance Trenkel, who found ways to make the things I wanted happen against seemingly insurmountable odds. Here is to both of you for your offbeat humor and can-do attitude. Post postscript: So my hope is that over the last few weeks one or two of these ‘small pictures,’ either in words or in pencil, might have spurred you to think a little more deeply about things, and maybe even to consider things beyond your everyday ken. If that has happened then my mission here has been a success. The fruit of my labor is worth every effort if one or two people learn something that they did not know they needed to know. And even more so if a few of you pick up pencils for the first time as well. “Faces of the Fallen” is the Post’s comprehensive and searchable database of U.S. service members who have died in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. More of my Drawing the Drawdown dispatches from Afghanistan are featured in this special app, which allows you


“Consumer Credit and the American Economy,” Part I: Consumer demand for credit

seems that vestiges of the ancient and medieval view remain in more modern dress. Psychological criticisms of the modern economic view of consumer credit use have also been around for a long time, but their latest imitation of the phoenix is a body of legal literature known as Behavioral Law and Economics (BLE). This is a loosely defined grouping of legal prescriptions based uncritically upon adopting into law some theoretical ideas from a relatively young branch of economics called Behavioral Economics. BLE focuses especially on a technologically newer manifestation of consumer credit use through credit cards. More will be said about BLE later, but ultimately BLE suggests that there are limitations on the economic rationality of consumer borrowers that must be guarded against with regulation. The problem with BLE is that it conveniently ignores the well-developed ideas of traditional microeconomics without empirical evidence of the degree to which traditional economic theory needs adjustments to account for behavioral personal idiosyncrasies of individual consumer borrowers. The special province of BLE involves credit card lending, an alleged special problem for consumers because of its ubiquity, easy availability, and immediacy. For BLE proponents, credit cards appear to be an entirely new area of lending in need of repair. It has become an area where they can argue that theoretical concepts based in psychology including “hyperbolic discounting,” “mental accounting,” “shrouding of fees,” and “nudges” should translate into new regulatory spheres. A more complete view of credit cards within consumer credit is that credit cards are an outgrowth of ongoing technological change of lending in a credit industry looking for ways to reduce costs. As empirical evidence suggests, they have mostly just replaced much of small ticket household financing formerly undertaken by local banks, finance companies, and retail stores and dealers, plus assuming an increasingly important role as payments devices that involve credit only statistically but not behaviorally. To be sure, some consumers may behave psychologically irrationally in their use of credit cards, but the important question is the extent and overall importance of such behaviors. BLE should provide better empirical evidence of frequency and quantity before recommending legal changes to a system used successfully by millions of patrons. And so the ancient and medieval tradition of distaste for “immoral” use of personal credit continues into modern times. This does not mean, however, that old ideas should be replaced uncritically by newer sounding armchair empiricism that


Google brings same-day delivery service to D.C.

Google Express began deliveries in New York in May and will debut in D.C. Oct. 14. (PHILIP MONTGOMERY/courtesy Google) Google made its name finding things for people on the Internet. Now it is offering to bring them to your doorstep. Beginning Oct. 14, the tech giant will expand its Google Express same-day delivery service in D.C., Boston and Chicago, after launching it a year ago in Northern California and expanding to Los Angeles and Manhattan this spring. The service, which is being re-branded from Google Shopping Express, allows desktop, mobile or tablet users to order items from a variety of stores and — provided they are within a designated service area — receive the goods later that day. The service is similar to one that Amazon.com has begun offering in about a dozen metropolitan areas. Locally, Google Express will be available only for locations in the District of Columbia initially. It will offer goods from nine stores: Giant Food, Costco, Walgreens, Sports Authority, Staples, Babies “R” Us, Barnes Noble, New shoppers are offered three months of membership for free and beyond that are asked to either pay $95 for an annual membership, $10 per month for a monthly membership or $4.99 per order, provided those orders are for at least $15 and meet certain criteria. D.C. was chosen as a testing ground in part because of the number of locals who are pressed for time and accustomed to completing errands on their smart phones, said Brian Elliott, head of Google Shopping Partnerships. He offered working mothers as an example. “Working moms are a pretty core consumer of this because if you can think of anyone who would like more time back in their day it’s working moms,” he said. “But we want this to be available to everybody.” Many of the retailers are already partners of Google’s on Internet advertising. To include them in Google Express, Google outfits the stores with software to respond to orders and sends third-party delivery trucks to stores for pick-ups. Delivery vehicles and bags are branded with the service’s parachute logo. Elliott said the service was a natural extension of Google’s interest in providing easy-to-use technology to connect businesses with consumers. “We see places where there are long-term needs in the market to create really great user experiences, where given our tech know-how and our reach with users, that we can help make these things


$4.99 per order, provided those orders are for at least $15 and meet certain criteria. D.C. was chosen as a testing ground in part because of the number of locals who are pressed for time and accustomed to completing errands on their smart phones, said Brian Elliott, head of Google Shopping Partnerships. He offered working mothers as an example. “Working moms are a pretty core consumer of this because if you can think of anyone who would like more time back in their day it’s working moms,” he said. “But we want this to be available to everybody.” Many of the retailers are already partners of Google’s on Internet advertising. To include them in Google Express, Google outfits the stores with software to respond to orders and sends third-party delivery trucks to stores for pick-ups. Delivery vehicles and bags are branded with the service’s parachute logo. Elliott said the service was a natural extension of Google’s interest in providing easy-to-use technology to connect businesses with consumers. “We see places where there are long-term needs in the market to create really great user experiences, where given our tech know-how and our reach with users, that we can help make these things happen for merchants in a way that would be very hard for them to do on their own,” he said. The expansion puts Google more squarely in competition with Amazon, which has been expanding same-day delivery and now has a grocery service, Amazon Fresh, that is available in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Seattle areas. (Amazon.com chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.) A bevy of start-ups are getting into the mix as well. Postmates expanded its on-demand service to parts of the District last year and Instacart began offering its grocery delivery service locally this February. Even Macy’s, the 156-year old department store chain, announced recently that it was testing same-day delivery in eight large metropolitan areas, including Washington, using the Deliv service. Giant Food will be offering Google Express to shoppers even though it has its own in-house delivery service, Peapod, though it typically does not offer same-day delivery. Giant, based in Landover, is the top grocery seller by market share in the area and will begin filling Google Express orders from two stores, in Brentwood and Shaw, located in Zip Codes that fit Google’s preferences, according to Giant spokesman Jamie Miller. Miller said trying


As if flying weren’t stressful enough, now we have Ebola scares

man and his daughter were taken to a hospital for evaluation. This scenario has been repeated at least a half-dozen times since. A plane landed Oct. 7 in Midland, Tex., and a passenger traveling from Istanbul was taken to a hospital and evaluated for the Ebola virus. She had been vomiting on the plane but had no fever. The next day, a passenger reportedly joked about having the disease on a US Airways flight bound for Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. The incident prompted a hazmat crew to remove him from the plane upon landing. When exiting, he responded: “I ain’t from Africa.” On Oct. 10, someone who departed from Jordan got sick in the air and worried passengers arriving in Birmingham, Ala. “It was just a person sick,” Birmingham Fire Chief C.W. Mardis told WKRG-TV. “People get sick on airplanes all the time.” The same day, a plane was quarantined on a Las Vegas airport tarmac. Then Sunday, a passenger showing “flu-like symptoms” sparked a scare in Los Angeles and set the same evacuation procedures into motion. Early Monday, emergency medical crews responded to a flight traveling from Dallas to Nashville after someone was reported ill. That afternoon, five passengers exhibiting “flu-like symptoms” were escorted from another plane in Boston. “We were traveling, and I kept hearing coughing and coughing,” passenger Hanna Banhassi told Fox Boston. “And when we landed, we didn’t know. They told us there was some kind of emergency.” All were traveling from Dubai and two had a fever, though the state’s public health commissioner said Monday night that none had infections that were “of public health concern.” They didn’t have Ebola, MERS, or meningococcal infection, he said. Nothing to see. The international epidemic has prompted the CDC to take additional steps at five U.S. airports to screen for Ebola. Now, travelers from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are escorted to a separate screening area. They are checked for signs of sickness, questioned about potential exposure and educated about self-monitoring for symptoms the disease, according to CDC guidelines. Still, these recent incidents here in the U.S. — as well as abroad — have medical professionals worried, not so much about exposure to the disease but about the resources needed to respond to it. “If this really becomes a widespread Ebola panic, and EMS crews are getting 50 Ebola false alarms a day, the system will


The next day, a passenger reportedly joked about having the disease on a US Airways flight bound for Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. The incident prompted a hazmat crew to remove him from the plane upon landing. When exiting, he responded: “I ain’t from Africa.” On Oct. 10, someone who departed from Jordan got sick in the air and worried passengers arriving in Birmingham, Ala. “It was just a person sick,” Birmingham Fire Chief C.W. Mardis told WKRG-TV. “People get sick on airplanes all the time.” The same day, a plane was quarantined on a Las Vegas airport tarmac. Then Sunday, a passenger showing “flu-like symptoms” sparked a scare in Los Angeles and set the same evacuation procedures into motion. Early Monday, emergency medical crews responded to a flight traveling from Dallas to Nashville after someone was reported ill. That afternoon, five passengers exhibiting “flu-like symptoms” were escorted from another plane in Boston. “We were traveling, and I kept hearing coughing and coughing,” passenger Hanna Banhassi told Fox Boston. “And when we landed, we didn’t know. They told us there was some kind of emergency.” All were traveling from Dubai and two had a fever, though the state’s public health commissioner said Monday night that none had infections that were “of public health concern.” They didn’t have Ebola, MERS, or meningococcal infection, he said. Nothing to see. The international epidemic has prompted the CDC to take additional steps at five U.S. airports to screen for Ebola. Now, travelers from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are escorted to a separate screening area. They are checked for signs of sickness, questioned about potential exposure and educated about self-monitoring for symptoms the disease, according to CDC guidelines. Still, these recent incidents here in the U.S. — as well as abroad — have medical professionals worried, not so much about exposure to the disease but about the resources needed to respond to it. “If this really becomes a widespread Ebola panic, and EMS crews are getting 50 Ebola false alarms a day, the system will become seriously overextended,” Peter Taillac, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine, told the Chicago Tribune. “The response will be worse than the reality.” A passenger reportedly said, "I have Ebola," after sneezing on a U.S. Airways flight from Philadelphia to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, on Wednesday. The flight crew then alerted authorities


The reassuring news in the Texas Ebola cases

Protect Environmental workers move disposal barrels to a staging area outside the apartment of a healthcare worker who treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan and tested positive for the disease, Monday, Oct. 13, 2014, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade) A mild fever was the first sign that the nurse in Dallas was infected in Ebola. She started feeling ill last Friday. It was alarming but not a surprise. The nurse, 26-year old Nina Pham, knew she was at risk because she’d helped treat Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who was the first person diagnosed with the dreaded disease in the United States. Pham became the first – and so far only – person infected by Duncan. In the wake of her infection, U.S. health officials have pledged to review how future Ebola cases are handled. But the case is also noteworthy for another, potentially positive reason: Nearly 50 people were exposed to Ebola before the nurse, and none of them has been diagnosed with the disease. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, delivered an update Tuesday on the condition of the Dallas nurse infected with Ebola and what efforts the agency is undertaking to stop the spread of the virus in the U.S. This group of neighbors, family members and first responders are being watched carefully by health authorities. They had some degree of close contact with Duncan during the four-day period when he was contagious – from when he started showing Ebola symptoms on Sept. 24 to when the hospital finally admitted him on Sept. 28. They didn’t take any Ebola-specific precautions. They didn’t know he was infected. Some stayed in the same apartment as Duncan as his condition worsened. Yet, so far, they have not gotten sick. And their 21-day Ebola incubation period started before Pham’s. “That the casually exposed are not getting sick, it’s reassuring,” said Dr. Julie Fischer, an associate research professor of health policy at George Washington University. “What we’ve seen so far, it’s not surprising and it’s not shocking.” That’s a good thing. This entire harrowing episode is playing out as health authorities predicted. Ebola is acting as portrayed in medical textbooks, based on nearly 40 years of research. Experts said the disease is hard to catch, that an infected person is not contagious until symptoms appear and that Ebola is spread by close contact with bodily fluids


such as blood, sweat and saliva. No evidence points to anything else. “Ebola is not a terribly infectious disease,” said Dr. Joel Selanikio, a former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) epidemiologist. “It’s quite difficult to get.” The emergency entrance to Texas Health Presbyterian hospital, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014, in Dallas, Texas. Hospital officials have said they are no longer accepting new patients at this time after a healthcare worker, who was caring for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, tested positive for the disease in preliminary tests. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade) The fear behind Ebola is massive. But the virus does not appear to be any more virulent than in previous outbreaks, experts say. Doomsday predictions of Ebola mutating and becoming airborne like the flu have not played out. The “airborne” discussion has frustrated many scientists, such as Heather Lander, who holds a doctorate in experimental pathology and worked in high-security labs with Ebola. It led her to start a blog called Pathogen Perspectives, which delves into the myths and realities of the disease. “We know how this is spread,” Lander said, and those paths have not changed. “So far, what we’re seeing absolutely reaffirms what we were expecting to see.” Pham, the nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, was infected despite taking every precaution. But she also cared for Duncan during a hospital stay that included dialysis and time on a ventilator. As the disease progressed, Duncan became increasingly contagious. The viral load grew. Invasive medical procedures are known to increase the hazards to health care workers. “These are high-risk procedures,” Fischer said. CDC director Tom Frieden said Sunday that a “breach in protocol resulted in this infection,” a comment met by criticism because it sounded like he was blaming Pham. But some health officials saw Frieden’s comment as a way of tamping down fear about a novel infection route. “This is not an unknown, inexplicable action by the virus,” Fischer said. Even taking every precaution, things can go wrong. And the margin of error with Ebola is small. Some health-care workers in the U.S. are questioning the adequacy of equipment and protocol in light of reports that a Dallas nurse contracted Ebola after caring for a patient with the virus. All of this confidence, however, is built on the expectation that the virus continues to act like its historical self. Pham now faces a fight against the


The reason Americans are spending less

the holiday season, Americans are keeping their wallets shut, a new survey finds. Two-thirds of Americans say they aren’t spending as much as they could each month, according to the poll released Tuesday by Bankrate.com. And they may keep spending down even as they enter the holiday season, says Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com. “People just don’t have a lot of extra money to throw around,” he says. The most common reason people gave for keeping their wallets closed: They’re waiting for a raise. Thirty-two percent of people polled said stagnant income was their biggest concern. The next most common reason given, cited by 29 percent, is that people are trying to save more. And 16 percent said they were worried about the economy. (Bankrate.com surveyed about 1,000 people over the phone from Oct. 2 to Oct. 5.) Worries increased with age. People ages 30 to 49 — a time when people are coping with tuition payments, car payments and child-care costs — were the most likely to say they are limiting their monthly spending. And seniors were three times as likely as those 18 to 29 to say stagnant income was the main reason for cutting back. Retirees and people approaching retirement are especially strained because they are dealing with record low interest rates on bonds, which are often a primary source of income in old age, McBride says. Older consumers were also more likely to be worried about the economy than any other group. It makes sense that pay would be the No. 1 concern. As I’ve previously reported, most workers have seen hourly wages stay flat — or fall– since the recession. For college graduates, wages fell by 2.5 percent between 2007 and 2014, according to the Economic Policy Institute. For high school graduates, they fell by nearly 5 percent. One bright note: Young people are saving more. Millennials were most likely to cite the need to save as their main reason for cutting down spending. Younger consumers, who are also less likely to own a credit card, and may be overwhelmed by student loans, recognize the importance of having emergency savings. “Many of them are building a solid financial foundation,” McBride says. Read more: Chart: What American retailers are most afraid of How to help your grandchildren get through college without going into debt The real cost of putting college on a credit card


Kids come to school sick because we can’t stay home from work

in the food service business, she spent several weeks battling a cold she couldn’t fight off because she couldn’t take time off. “I’d tell you what it was like, but mostly what I remember is feverishly coughing until I spat up … in the mop sink in between making people delicious lattes,” she said. Emily Abbott, also from Georgia, said she needed her pay more than her health, but that her workplace was as understanding as they could be, though her story is almost laughable. “I fell asleep on a stack of mop heads one time while washing dishes. They let me hide in the back so I didn’t infect everyone and everything.” We’re facing a huge problem. Not only are we forcing ourselves into our jobs when we’re likely to spread disease, out of fear of workplace retribution, but we are also teaching our children to do the same thing. From the time they are 5 and 6 years old, we are dragging them to school because we can’t take time off, and showing them that it is okay, even preferable, to spread germs to other people, rather than put the health of themselves and others above work and school responsibilities. Not only this, but our children are making memories of us crawling out of bed with watery eyes and sneezy noses and shuffling off to work, and that sets an example for them to do the same as they grow into adults themselves. As we come into flu season, and are all scared out of our minds about Ebola and enterovirus 68 and other infectious diseases hitting closer and closer to home, maybe we should take some responsibility for how we spread these viruses. Our social infrastructure needs to change as well. People cannot continue to have to choose between their job security, their school success and their health. People shouldn’t have to be scared to be sick. Darlena Cunha is a freelance writer. She blogs at Parentwin and can be reached on Twitter @parentwin. Here's how the virus spreads and how contact tracing works to stop outbreaks. You may also be interested in: A tale of two maternity leaves Learning to accept help from our friends I’m a mom with cancer How to talk to your kids about Ebola Like On Parenting on Facebook for news, essays and more. You can sign up here for our newsletter.


Wonkbook: Lessons from the second U.S. Ebola case

up Russia's economy. Other environmental/energy reads: Fracking drives growth in sand mining, raises health-risk questions. Sean Cockerham in McClatchy Newspapers. Climate change poses immediate security risks, Pentagon says. Dan Lamothe in The Washington Post. How to save and sell a climate deal. Zack Colman in the Washington Examiner. EPA readies major ozone-rule change. Timothy Cama and Tim Devaney in The Hill. 'Star Wars' interlude: 4. More protests in St. Louis Protests show the many civil rights and criminal justice battles awaiting Eric Holder’s successor. Obama's no-win attorney general decision. In Ferguson, coordinated acts of disobedience as protests evolve. Long read: Police rush to buy body cameras. But with those cameras come privacy issues. Deadly force, in black and white. Other legal reads: Cash seizures fuel police spending. Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Steven Rich in The Washington Post. Inspiring interlude: Wonkblog roundup How family planning programs save taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Jason Millman. Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics for actually showing us how the real world works. Matt O'Brien. A surprising new argument against using kids’ test scores to grade their teachers. Max Ehrenfreund. The inevitable rise of Ebola conspiracy theories. Jason Millman. Where America’s college grads are moving. Jeff Guo. Major supermarket chains changed how they label meat, surprising customers and USDA. Roberto A. Ferdman. Where it’s legal to smoke weed, where it’s not — and where it soon may be. Denise Lu. St. Louis protests show the many civil rights and criminal justice battles awaiting Eric Holder’s successor. Emily Badger. The cognitive origins of Michelle Obama’s “Bruce Braley” gaffe. Bob McMurray. A Southerner explains why we shouldn’t bash the South — despite all the data. Carol Guthrie. Et Cetera For abortion foes, a national strategy built at the state level. Alana Semuels and Maria L. La Ganga in the Los Angeles Times. Maneuvering persists after courts block new voter conditions. Erik Eckholm in The New York Times. Would a leader from outside fix the Secret Service? Kevin Johnson in USA Today. Nearly 145,000 people have requested Google for the right to be forgotten. Brendan Sasso in National Journal. Migrant children: Out of sight, still in mind. David Rogers in Politico. It's 2014. All children are supposed to be proficient. What happened? Anya Kamanetz in NPR. Got tips, additions, or comments? E-mail us. Wonkbook is produced with help from Michelle Williams and Ryan McCarthy


As it turns out, meth laws have unintended consequences

are strongly opposed to it. Even that claim is somewhat complicated. Pfizer, for example, lobbied in favor of putting pseudoephedrine meds behind the counter because doing so benefited the company’s rival medication, which used a pseudoephedrine substitute. The substitute ingredient can’t be used to make meth. The only drawback: It’s just as useless at fighting cold and allergy symptoms. So far, the only proven benefit of restricting consumer access to cold and allergy medication has been a reduction (which admittedly has been dramatic in places) in the number of dangerous homemade meth labs. That isn’t insignificant. Those labs are toxic, and hazardous to police, the community and the surrounding environment. But it has come with a number of costs, including the proliferation of the smaller shake and bake labs, the infiltration of Mexican drug cartels to meet the demand, the more potent meth those cartels bring with them, the significant hassle and barriers to millions of cold and allergy sufferers (which increase considerably under a law requiring a prescription), and the monitoring, targeting, arrest, and in some cases prosecution of innocent people. Finally, even if you believe the government has a responsibility to protect people from themselves, none of this seems to have done much to reduce the availability of meth. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “[m]ethamphetamine use has remained steady, from 530,000 current users in 2007 to 440,000 in 2012.” Here’s one idea that makes too much sense for anyone to seriously consider: Legalize amphetamines for adults. Divert some of the money currently spent on enforcement toward the treatment of addicts. Save the rest. Watch the black markets dry up, and with them the itinerant crime, toxicity and smuggling. Cold and allergy sufferers get relief. Cops can concentrate on other crimes. Pharmacists can go back to being health-care workers, instead of deputized drug cops. Everybody wins, save of course for those who can’t bear the prospect of letting adults make their own choices about what they put into their bodies. (*In 2012, the Journal of Apocryphal Chemistry published an amusing step-by-step guide for cold and allergy sufferers explaining how to reverse engineer common street meth in order to make the pseudoephedrine they needed to to relieve their congestion. The authors cheekily described their article as “a simple series of transformations which allow pseudoephedrine to be obtained in a more straightforward manner than is the current norm.”)


How viruses like Enterovirus, Ebola mutate

Columbia University virologist Vincent Racaniello explains how viruses like Enterovirus D68, influenza and Ebola mutate, and why it’s hard for doctors to keep up. Enterovirus D68 isn't a new virus, but scientists say that a new strain could be the reason it is spreading so quickly and becoming so dangerous. The virus itself has actually been around for decades. Scientists discovered it in 1962; before 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed only 26 cases of the disease. Fast forward to today, when nearly 700 people across the United States have been infected. The virus is responsible for six deaths in the United States, including a 21-month-old Michigan girl and 4-year-old New Jersey boy, according to the CDC. Columbia University virologist Vincent Racaniello explains how viruses such as Enterovirus D68, influenza and Ebola mutate and why it's hard for doctors to keep up. Related: What is Enterovirus 68? New Jersey child dies of Enterovirus Michigan toddler dies of Enterovirus Rhode Island child dies of infection associated with virus


Motivated by Malala Yousafzai and the legacy of educated Muslim females

Shortly after the announcement that Malala Yousafzai had won the Noble Peace Prize, I attended the Friday sermon in Carrollton, Tex., in which Imam Abdul Nasir Jangda talked about the importance of education in every Muslim’s life. He related to us that in the Islamic tradition, God did not send down any prophets for six centuries between Jesus and Muhammad. And when he did finally communicate to humanity through Muhammad, the last Muslim prophet, God’s first command was “read” — a directive to educate ourselves. As I marveled at God’s wisdom, I thought about Malala – the girl who stood up for her education. And I also thought about the people who so heinously tried to snatch that right away from her by shooting her in the head. Had they not heard about God’s first command to Muslims? Did they not know that the Prophet Muhammad paid special attention to his wife Ayesha’s education? She was so well-educated that after his death, even his most senior disciples regarded her as their teacher. Malala faced opposition to education because she is a girl. Had they not heard the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus? The Quran says that her mother expected a boy and was dismayed when a girl was born instead. However, God did not value Mary any less because of her gender. He honored her when he placed her on the path of knowledge in a monastery full of men. A girl in a man’s profession? It was not only unthinkable, it was revolutionary. But God deemed a girl worthy and appropriate for his knowledge and service. Empowered by the fact that God gives us all strength through education, I celebrate Malala’s prize and her cause. Residents of children’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai's hometown in Swat, Pakistan, celebrated her becoming the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize recipient. As a fellow Muslim woman, I am motivated by the legacy of educated Muslim females that Malala follows. Her young age reminds me of another little girl named Nafeesa bint Al-Hassan. She was the great great-granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad. Nafeesa – meaning a precious gem- was 8 years old when she entered the realm of knowledge. By the time she was 13, she became known as Nafeesat ul Ilm — precious gem of knowledge — someone from whom adult male scholars came to benefit. Not only was she the epitome


Malala Yousafzai offers hope during a troubling period for Islam’s image

Residents of children’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai's hometown in Swat, Pakistan, celebrated her becoming the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Out of the drab, sprawling town of Mingora, in the mountain-framed Swat valley of northwestern Pakistan, a girl emerged with a spirited mind, stout heart and the promise to change a society. Her message resonated not only in her own country, but across the Muslim community of 1.6 billion people and all over the world. Malala Yousafzai, 17, the face of hundreds of thousands of girls who suffered from oppression under the Taliban, is now the world’s youngest Nobel Peace Laureate, sharing this year’s prize with a tireless activist and advocate for children’s rights from neighboring India, Kailash Satyarthi. Now exiled in Birmingham, England, where she went for treatment after Taliban extremists shot her through the head, Yousafzai, her vision, poise and perseverance in the face of a cruel brand of totalitarian extremist rule bring a ray of light into an era of unprecedented darkness. Beheadings and religious persecution are soaking Arabian deserts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen with the stains of innocent blood. As the increasingly menacing Islamic State in Iraq and Syria gnaws at the edges of whatever is left of freedom and peace in the Arab world, columnists in the West, East Asia and Arab nations are debating ownership of the right to criticize what has befallen the religion of Islam and those who claim to speak in ts name. There is a blind and passive kind of denial and resistance to the idea that some of these ills are ingrown and coming from within Muslim societies and the failures of their governments and leaders. Yousafzai is way ahead of them. For apologists wallowing in self denial, or lesser individuals who prefer to wait out these somber times without sticking their neck out, she is a breath of fresh air. “This is not the end. This is the beginning of my campaign,” she said in her acceptance speech last week. “I wanted to learn and be who I can be. I will speak up,” she said, reminding everyone that when she did raise her voice in Pakistan, “I did not wait for someone else.” Crushed by a Taliban edict banning girls from going to school, Yousafzai channeled her tears and disappointment into protest, which inspired girls and empowered them. She spoke up, not waiting for anyone


Faster lab test will check for rare respiratory virus, which means a surge in confirmed cases is coming

Immunization and Respiratory diseases, said in a statement Tuesday. The older test, which had been used by the CDC for nearly a decade, required more time and labor, and it only allowed about 40 tests to be conducted each day. This also took several weeks, Schuchat said. The new test is shorter, has fewer steps and actually lets the CDC check out multiple samples at the same time. The CDC said it will now be able to conduct about 180 tests each day and have results in just a few days. The rare enterovirus was first identified as a growing problem for children late in the summer. Enteroviruses are quite common and are responsible for between 10 and 15 million infections each year, typically in the summer and fall, according to the CDC. This particular strain, which causes breathing problems, was first isolated in California in 1962 and has only been seen occasionally since the. There is no vaccination. Between 2009 and 2013, the National Enterovirus Surveillance System received 79 reports of this strain, the CDC says. It has been blamed for three deaths in the Philippines and Japan, while researchers said earlier this year that some children suffering from polio-like symptoms in California had tested positive for this strain. This year, hospitals have reported a significant number of cases of this strain over the last two months. Hospitals in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., reached out to the CDC in August after they saw a higher number of children with breathing problems. Cases were identified in six states by early September, at which point Schuchat said it was difficult to know “just how big” the outbreak was going to be. Centers for Disease Control officials say a potentially deadly respiratory virus that has sent hundreds of kids to the hospital in the Midwest is likely to spread across the country. The rare strain spreads when an infected person coughs, sneezes or touches some kind of surface that other people touch. Almost all of the confirmed cases so far this year involved children, who do not have the immunity that adults have developed, and children with asthma or preexisting breathing issues are at a particular risk. However, while hospitals are able to test for enteroviruses, most are not able to check for a specific strain, which is why states are sending their samples to the CDC and waiting. The official


the Philippines and Japan, while researchers said earlier this year that some children suffering from polio-like symptoms in California had tested positive for this strain. This year, hospitals have reported a significant number of cases of this strain over the last two months. Hospitals in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., reached out to the CDC in August after they saw a higher number of children with breathing problems. Cases were identified in six states by early September, at which point Schuchat said it was difficult to know “just how big” the outbreak was going to be. Centers for Disease Control officials say a potentially deadly respiratory virus that has sent hundreds of kids to the hospital in the Midwest is likely to spread across the country. The rare strain spreads when an infected person coughs, sneezes or touches some kind of surface that other people touch. Almost all of the confirmed cases so far this year involved children, who do not have the immunity that adults have developed, and children with asthma or preexisting breathing issues are at a particular risk. However, while hospitals are able to test for enteroviruses, most are not able to check for a specific strain, which is why states are sending their samples to the CDC and waiting. The official numbers grew and grew and kept on growing as the CDC tested more and more samples. Meanwhile, there have been six known cases where a patient with this enterovirus died. A Rhode Island child died of a staph infection associated with the enterovirus infection, but at the time it was unclear exactly how much of a role the enterovirus played. Authorities directly blamed the enterovirus for the death of a four-year-old in New Jersey late last month, while a child in Michigan died last week while battling the enterovirus infection. The CDC also said Tuesday it has heard “informal reports” from hospitals and states suggesting that fewer enterovirus 68 infections were seen, but it does not know yet if there is any sort of national decrease occurring. A 21-month-old girl is the second child in the U.S. to die this year from a strain of the enterovirus that has infected more than 500 people. Related: What is Enterovirus 68? New Jersey child dies of Enterovirus Michigan toddler dies of Enterovirus How viruses like Enterovirus, Ebola mutate Rhode Island child dies of infection associated with virus


Report: Pentagon ‘suppressed’ finds of chemical weapons in Iraq and related U.S. casualties

found.” The Times documented its extensive report with dozens of on-the-record interviews with troops, including some who were injured, and “heavily redacted” documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The troops describe incidents in which they picked up old warheads and shells and drove them away in vehicles, becoming aware of them only when they smelled noxious odors from the chemical agents or felt sick. Sometimes when they sought treatment, they were greeted with disbelief or indifference and sent back to duty without proper testing. The Pentagon’s formal response, as the Times reported: “Rear Adm. John Kirby, spokesman for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, declined to address specific incidents detailed in the Times investigation, or to discuss the medical care and denial of medals for troops who were exposed.” It quoted Kirby as saying: “The secretary believes all service members deserve the best medical and administrative support possible … He is, of course, concerned by any indication or allegation they have not received such support. His expectation is that leaders at all levels will strive to correct errors made, when and where they are made.” The Pentagon’s press office did not immediately return a phone call from The Washington Post last night seeking comment. An Iranian soldier in Iraq wears a gas mask on March 10, 1984. (AP Photo) The weapons were produced for use in the brutal war between Iran and Iraq that lasted from 1980 to 1988. The Iraqis used mustard gas and sarin during major offensives in early 1988. It’s long been known much of the technology and expertise that created those weapons was bought by Iraq in the West, sometimes by deception but “often with the silent acquiescence of Western governments,” as The Washington Post reported in 1990, even after the Iraqis were accused of using chemical weapons against Iran and Kurds living in Iraq. After the U.S. invasion, according to the Times story, “American troops secretly reported roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs.” The Times found 17 American service members and seven Iraqi police officers were exposed to nerve or mustard agents after 2003, with the actual total probably “slightly higher.” Congress “was only partly informed, while troops and officers were instructed to be silent or give deceptive accounts of what they had found,” the Times reported. If asked, one Army major told the Times he was ordered to answer: “Nothing of significance.”


National Book Awards finalists announced

Ames’s wife. The fiction judges are Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists Geraldine Brooks and Adam Johnson, California bookseller Sheryl Cotleur, literary critic Michael Gorra and National Book Award-winning novelist Lily Tuck. They considered 417 submissions. (Courtesy of Bloomsbury) Nonfiction “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?” (Bloomsbury), by Roz Chast, the first cartoonist to be a finalists in the Nonfiction category. “No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes” (Metropolitan), by Anand Gopal, a foreign correspondent and a fellow at the New America Foundation. “Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh” (Norton), by John Lahr, a former drama critic for the New Yorker and a Tony Award winner. “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China” (FSG), by Evan Osnos, a staff writer for the New Yorker and former Beijing bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune. “The Meaning of Human Existence” (Liveright), by E.O. Wilson, the biologist who has won two Pulitzer Prizes. The nonfiction judges are editor Robert Atwan, writer Gretel Ehrlich, Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Tom Reiss, former president of Brown University Ruth J. Simmons and two-time Pulitzer Prize winning historian Alan Taylor. They considered 495 submissions. (Courtesy of Nancy Paulsen) Young Adult Literature “Threatened” (Scholastic), by Eliot Schrefer, who was an NBA finalist in 2012 for “Endangered.” “The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights” (Roaring Brook), by Steve Sheinkin, who was an NBA finalist in 2012 for “Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal The World’s Most Dangerous Weapon,” which was a Newbery Honor Book. “Noggin” (Atheneum), by John Corey Whaley, who was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree for “Where Things Come Back” (2011). “Revolution: The Sixties Trilogy, Book II” (Scholastic), by Deborah Wiles, who was an NBA finalist in 2005 for “Each Little Bird That Sings.” “Brown Girl Dreaming” (Nancy Paulsen), by Jacqueline Woodson, who was an NBA finalist in 2002 for “Hush” and in 2003 for “Locomotion.” The YA judges are authors Sharon Draper, Sherri Smith and Rebecca Stead; librarian Starr LaTronica; and bookstore owner Dave Shallenberger. They considered 294 submissions. (Courtesy of Farrar Straus Giroux) Poetry “Faithful and Virtuous Night” (FSG), by Louise Glück, a former poet laureate of the United States and winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. “Second Childhood” (Graywolf), by Fanny Howe, who won the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime


D.C. area forecast: Wet Wednesday with heavy rain and flood potential

8:55 a.m. Update: 7:35 a.m. Update: From 5 a.m. … - Today’s Daily Digit - A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 0 to 10. - 3 Heavy midday rain potential is a digit-killer, especially when it might slow the afternoon commute. - Express Forecast - Today: Extended period of moderate to heavy rain. Highs: Low-to-mid 70s. - Tonight: Chance of evening showers. Lows: Mid-50s to low 60s. - Tomorrow: Mostly cloudy. 30-40% chance of showers. Highs: Near 70 to mid-70s. FORECAST IN DETAIL Radar lightning: A band of moderate to heavy rain, potentially producing some strong winds and localized flooding, marches across the region from west to east today. Even after the main band of rain moves away, shower chances linger tonight and tomorrow. Those clouds, which have made themselves at home this week, stick around through tomorrow as well. By Friday, though, skies should clear out nicely as we transition toward a pleasant fall weekend. Today (Wednesday): Simulated radar from high-resolution NAM model shows much of the area covered by rain at noon today. (NOAA) Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Thursday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Friday through Sunday


Islamists and their charities

region’s political economy. What’s more, whatever explained the patterns and effects of social service provision in the past may no longer apply. Major changes on the ground such as the crushing of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and the dramatic move into service provision by jihadist groups raise serious questions about how these dynamics might play out in the future. Last month, therefore, a workshop by the Project on Middle East Political Science brought together a small group of scholars who have been doing innovative research on the Islamic social services sector. Their memos, along with several other recent Monkey Cage essays, have now been released as a free PDF download in the POMEPS Studies series. Those papers, and the discussions in the workshop, offer a rich window into the changing nature of Islamic social services and their relationship with political movements and parties. The specific mechanisms by which social service provision translates into votes or public support are not obvious. It is not as straightforward as just buying votes – especially as other political forces, especially local notables who are not unfamiliar with patronage, can easily do the same. As Tarek Masoud argues, “Inasmuch as social-service provision is something that any party could decide to do, why is it that only (or mainly) Islamists do it? Is there anything to prevent nonreligious parties from distributing the bottles of oil and bags of sugar that many of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s detractors credit with that movement’s rise to power in 2011?” Some efforts, such as food and medical caravans sent to swing districts, do seem blatantly electoral. But, as Melani Cammett and Steven Brooke argue, the long-term provision of social services from bricks-and-mortar agencies is very different from the cash payments or one-shot food distribution efforts that predominate at election time. Those long-term investments in communities are often thought to contribute to spreading Islamist identities and values. This has been difficult to document empirically, however. A decade ago, Janine Clark demonstrated that Islamic charities catered more to the middle class than to the truly poor, and were having such effects. Brooke’s forthcoming study of the geographical distribution of Islamist clinics, like a recent study by Mona Atia of George Washington University about Egyptian Islamic charities, should offer fascinating perspective. The dramatic turn of the Egyptian public against the Muslim Brotherhood last year suggests that this long-term cultivation of Islamist identity had not


Book on National Hotel disease shows not much has changed in D.C. since 1850s

Although one of the most posh hotels on Pennsylvania Avenue, the National Hotel’s reputation was damaged nearly beyond repair by the illness that erupted in it. It eventually had to close down until the panic subsided. – Courtesy of the Library of Congress. When Kerry Walters first sat down to write “Outbreak in Washington, D.C.: The 1857 Mystery of the National Hotel Disease” he had no way to know that upon its release the country would be in the throes of a similar episode of paranoia surrounding a public health scree to the one he was documenting in his book. Now, it’s Ebola dominating headlines and putting a nation on alert. Then, it was the National Hotel disease that enthralled the country and nearly took the life of the-President-elect James Buchanan. The book, which is scheduled to be released in a week, tells the story of antebellum-era Washington from both a national and local perspective. Incredibly, more than 150 years later, much of the analysis still rings true on both fronts. In a breezy 87 pages, Walters, a professor at Gettysburg College, describes how the National Hotel, which stood on the site that is now the Newseum, became ground zero for a nasty unknown disease that claimed the lives of a few dozen, including a handful of elected officials. And the climate surrounding the panic that ensued might as well have been ripped from today’s headlines. “The public response to the malady is a good case study of how easy it is for panic to spread. It’s also yet another example of how eager people are to embrace rumors of conspiracy, often hanging on to suspicions of foul play long after it becomes clear that such suspicions simply aren’t supported by the facts,” he writes in the introduction. “Fueled by rumor, innuendo, half-truths, partisanship and incendiary journalism, distress of the origins and scope of the National Hotel disease awakened both panic and cloak-and-dagger excitement that, for a while, terrified and titillated the American public,” Where the book becomes most interesting is in its description of the city proper. For those that aren’t familiar, D.C. was basically a progressive cesspool, where people of all walks of life practiced all manner of vice. Wild and weird. More broadly, this city is still going through the same motions it did before the Civil War began. It was almost haunting to read about. “Washington,


After California decriminalized marijuana, teen arrest, overdose and dropout rates fell

a skeptical eye on claims of plummeting academic achievement in a post-legalization world. In fact, as the report authors write: "By a variety of measures, California’s teenage behaviors actually improved dramatically after marijuana was effectively legalized — improvements that occurred more weakly or not at all among older Californians and among teenagers nationwide." Now of course this doesn't address causality, and these numbers shouldn't be taken to imply that decriminalization caused these declines. But they do show, pretty clearly, that in the two years since full-scale decriminalization went into effect, California's kids are still all right. The sky hasn't fallen. And they add to a mounting body of research that shows, for instance: - that teen drug and alcohol use continues to fall, even as more states decriminalize marijuana and make it available for medical purposes; - that states with medical marijuana laws haven't seen any uptick in teen marijuana use; - that states with medical marijuana have actually seen decreases in prescription drug overdoses; - that Alaska, where personal marijuana use has been de facto legalized for nearly 40 years, is completely average on a variety of economic and demographic indicators; - and that traffic fatalities have fallen in Colorado since legalization there. By contrast, there is little evidence of increased social harms in states where marijuana has been decriminalized. The one credible study I'm aware of is a DEA report finding that more Colorado drivers involved in car crashes are testing positive for marijuana use. But a bucket of salt is needed here: unlike alcohol, inactive marijuana metabolites remain in the body long after consumption - days or weeks, depending on frequency of use. But the presence of metabolites doesn't necessarily indicate you were high at the time of the test - only that you got high some time in the days or weeks prior. Even if we accept that more Coloradans are using marijuana, and that some of them are getting behind the wheel while stoned, we still have to note that traffic fatalities are down overall - this is likely because it's far less dangerous to drive stoned than it is to drive drunk. This would suggest that some Coloradans are using marijuana in place of alcohol, rather than in addition to it. In short, the barrier of proof facing legalization opponents is incredibly high. In order to present a compelling case against marijuana liberalization, they


Nuclear fusion energy in a decade? Lockheed Martin is betting on it.

A NASA captured image of a twisting solar flare (Reuters/NASA/SDO/WIESSINGER) What if the nuclear reaction that heats the sun could be replicated to power cities on earth? Lockheed Martin is betting that it can be done — and within a decade. The defense giant said Wednesday it is building a compact nuclear fusion reactor. The key term here is “compact.” Although nuclear fusion has been studied for decades, Lockheed is hoping to build a reactor small enough to fit on the back of a truck and ship around the globe. “Many of the approaches [to nuclear fusion] right now have significant drawbacks,” Tom McGuire, compact fusion lead for Lockheed’s California-based “Skunk Works” team, said in a phone interview. Some of those drawbacks include instability associated with the reaction, he said, or scaling problems, which means the reactor needs to be very large in order for fusion to work. “What’s different about our physics is it’s inherently small and stable,” McGuire said. The Skunk Works Group’s first step is proving that its model works, he said. Eventually, the company hopes that “instead of a construction project, we can make them in a factory,” he said. With the announcement, Lockheed joins a host of ongoing global efforts to study the potential of nuclear fusion. For example, the European Commission last week announced a $1 billion (850 million euro) initiative to develop nuclear fusion as an energy source by 2020. Here’s how nuclear fusion works: When two extremely hot atoms collide, their nuclei combine to form one, releasing massive amounts of energy. Unlike nuclear fission, which powers the world’s reactors today, nuclear fusion does not release harmful radioactive material, making it a clean form of energy. This Lockheed video explains how scientists want to harness the energy released in the fusion reaction, to potentially fuel airplanes or power cities: Lockheed Martin: Compact Fusion Research & Development Why talk about the effort now? “We’ve strategically chosen this time because of our technical progress and exposure to our patents pending,” a Lockheed spokeswoman said in an e-mailed statement. “We are also looking for partners to work with us on the project, plus we think it is important for the public and decision makers to understand the real promise that compact fusion has for our nation and the world as a near-term solution to our energy needs.” Lockheed said it would look for partners in industry


CEO Kip Tindell opens the lid on the Container Store

Container Store chairman and CEO Kip Tindell (Photo: Container Store) The past two weeks have been busy for Kip Tindell, the Container Store's chairman and chief executive. On Oct. 6, the home organization retailer released its second quarter results, reporting earnings that missed analysts' expectations and lowering its sales forecast for the year. The next day, the stock tumbled 25 percent — the same day Tindell released his first book, Uncontainable, about how the Container Store runs its business. In the days that followed, Tindell found himself in the hot seat, being interviewed about his book but having to talk about his company's performance, what it's like to go public (the Coppell, Tex.-based company did so last year), and his views on the minimum wage. The Container Store has repeatedly landed on Fortune's Best Companies to Work For list, pays its average full-time workers nearly $50,000 a year, grants them stock and has a no-layoff policy. Yet as the incoming chairman of the National Retail Federation (NRF), Tindell will be helping lead an organization that has vocally opposed an increase in the minimum wage. He recently said he would try to get the NRF to moderate its views, but he was much more, well, contained on this topic when we interviewed him. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Q. A. You know it’s not really a book tour. It’s been kind of a two-week-long quarterly call. Comparable store sales were down four-tenths of one percent to last year’s quarter. On the other hand, earnings were up 38.7 percent. Our gross margin is strong. Expenses are excellent, right where we want them. Q. A. It’s different being public, particularly for such a culturally endowed company. People were kind surprised that we did it. But we did it for a lot of good reasons, including the ability to get more stock in the hands of employees, which I’m passionate about. But you know, I think we’re going to have an excellent holiday season. The fourth quarter is what’s important to this business. It’s like a basketball game. You don’t even have to watch the game until the fourth quarter of basketball. Sixty percent of our earnings typically come in the fourth quarter. Q. You've been quoted as saying that right after you went public you thought it was absolutely the right decision but over time you've questioned it. Do


Nightlife Agenda: Restaurant anniversaries bring discounted drinks and food

way out of Hill Country on Sunday night, that night's headliner, Angaleena Presley, was checking out the posters of artists coming to the venue. She pointed to the flyer for veteran singer-songwriter Chris Knight and exclaimed, "I wish I could stay [in D.C.] and see Chris Knight! He's one of my heroes." How would she describe Knight to someone who'd never heard him? "He's like me, but a boy." Knight's voice and songwriting have a rough edge to them, the kind that make John Prine or Johnny Cash so compelling. The man from rural Kentucky -- just like Presley -- has eight albums of Americana under his belt, full of toe-tapping tunes and weary heart-on-sleeve ballads. Tickets for the 10:30 p.m. show are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. Despite globalization shrinking the world, Yuna's path to success still seems remarkable: A Muslim woman from Malaysia picked up a guitar, followed a localized, DIY route to creating music, and spread across the world stage, making a particular splash in the U.S. Of course, once you hear Yuna's package of pop-friendly acoustic folk and indie-soul, the forces behind it make sense. At Yuna's second D.C. show, she takes the stage at the Lisner Auditorium with British soul singer Alice Russell, a longtime favorite of this column. Saturday, October 18 Peach Pit Another restaurant celebrating its birthday this week: Georgetown's Eno Wine Room. To mark the occasion, the restaurant is turning into a tasting room from 6 to 8 p.m., offering pours of Thibaut Janisson, Barboursville, Tarara and other wineries accompanied by complementary charcuterie and chocolate. (There's also a $15 Anniversary Flight, if you're so inclined.) Tickets are $18 in advance from the restaurant, and $20 at the door. Increasingly cold weather spells the end of the concerts in Union Lot, an empty lot at 945 Florida Ave. NW, but not before one last show starring local indie-rock group Title Tracks, the Sea Life and Stronger Sex, beginning at 7 p.m. Food comes from several Union Kitchen trucks, ranging from Haute Saison, run by a Belgian chef who's worked in Michelin-starred restaurants, to the gourmet hot dogs of Swizzler. Since the Lot is close to Howard University's Homecoming parade route, it will host a Howard Happy Hour from 5 to 7 p.m. with DJ Grey Goon providing the music. As always, there's no cover charge, but you can RSVP and


make John Prine or Johnny Cash so compelling. The man from rural Kentucky -- just like Presley -- has eight albums of Americana under his belt, full of toe-tapping tunes and weary heart-on-sleeve ballads. Tickets for the 10:30 p.m. show are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. Despite globalization shrinking the world, Yuna's path to success still seems remarkable: A Muslim woman from Malaysia picked up a guitar, followed a localized, DIY route to creating music, and spread across the world stage, making a particular splash in the U.S. Of course, once you hear Yuna's package of pop-friendly acoustic folk and indie-soul, the forces behind it make sense. At Yuna's second D.C. show, she takes the stage at the Lisner Auditorium with British soul singer Alice Russell, a longtime favorite of this column. Saturday, October 18 Peach Pit Another restaurant celebrating its birthday this week: Georgetown's Eno Wine Room. To mark the occasion, the restaurant is turning into a tasting room from 6 to 8 p.m., offering pours of Thibaut Janisson, Barboursville, Tarara and other wineries accompanied by complementary charcuterie and chocolate. (There's also a $15 Anniversary Flight, if you're so inclined.) Tickets are $18 in advance from the restaurant, and $20 at the door. Increasingly cold weather spells the end of the concerts in Union Lot, an empty lot at 945 Florida Ave. NW, but not before one last show starring local indie-rock group Title Tracks, the Sea Life and Stronger Sex, beginning at 7 p.m. Food comes from several Union Kitchen trucks, ranging from Haute Saison, run by a Belgian chef who's worked in Michelin-starred restaurants, to the gourmet hot dogs of Swizzler. Since the Lot is close to Howard University's Homecoming parade route, it will host a Howard Happy Hour from 5 to 7 p.m. with DJ Grey Goon providing the music. As always, there's no cover charge, but you can RSVP and buy discounted drink tickets on the concert's Eventbrite page. Sure, you love beer, but have you ever thought about making your own? The D.C. Homebrewers Club is hosting an afternoon of brewing demonstrations, beer talks and beer drinking at Bardo this weekend while raising money for Common Good City Farm, a farm in LeDroit Park that helps low-income residents and educates about healthy eating. A $10 ticket includes barbecue and sides; Bardo beers cost $4 each. Sunday, October 19 Monday, October 20


Heavy rain threat in Washington, D.C. ends late afternoon

you’re in this area. At 1:01 p.m., doppler radar indicated a possible tornado near Laurel, moving northeast at 30 mph. 1:02 p.m. update: No warnings-Flood Watch continues. 1" of rain fell in Alexandria & DC last half hour! @laurynricketts @DevonLucie http://t.co/bUSuWTaZ0X 12:51 p.m. update: 12:40 p.m. update: The tornado warning, previously in effect, for the District/Arlington/Alexandria has been cancelled as the thunderstorm rotation has weakened. We have not seen any confirmed report of a tornado or funnel cloud. 12:37 p.m. update: 12:27 p.m update: TORNADO WARNING for Southeast Arlington, eastern Alexandria, and the District (east and south of downtown) until 1 p.m. The warning also includes eastern Fairfax County and western Prince George’s County. Take cover immediately in this area. A 12:23 p.m. doppler radar indicated a possible tornado near Huntington., Va. moving NE at 30 mph. Potentially in the path: Reagan National Airport, Capitol Hill, Anacostia. 12:26 p.m. update: 12:17 p.m. update: Several short small convective bands are riding NE along the leading edge of the rain plume. These are areas of concern regarding stronger downdrafts, which can bring high winds to the surface. Such instances should remain isolated and sporadic, but are non-negligible. Local severe thunderstorm warnings are possible over the next 3-4 hours. 12:07 p.m. update: First band of heavy rain, near Woodbridge, to move inside Beltway by 1230p. May contain lightning. http://t.co/FJ25g6J4FD 11:52 a.m. update: Doppler estimated rainfall totals through 11:38 a.m. (Weather Underground) Both Hagerstown and Charlottesville are checking in with about 1.5 inches, so far. We're closing in on 1½" of rain in Charlottesville since early this morning. Rain is still expected to end by mid-afternoon. Already 1.5" of #rain recorded in Hagerstown and still about 5 hours to go. Could see 3" in spots. #flooding #turnarounddontdrown 11:33 a.m. update: Precipitable water forecast from HRRR model at 1 p.m. (WeatherBell.com) 11:12 a.m. update: HRRR model simulation of rain between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. (WeatherBell.com) 10:48 a.m. update: Regarding severe weather potential over the next six hours: The morning sounding (upper air balloon) at Dulles does not reveal much instability. The risk of widespread severe thunderstorms is very low. However, winds are whipping from the south at 50 mph just a few thousand feet above the surface. Even weak downdrafts in convective cells can bring some of this fast air to the surface – so there is the potential for *isolated* strong wind gusts


The real question about chemical weapons in Iraq: Did the U.S. take care of its troops who were exposed?

Soldiers with the Iraqi Army Chemical Defense Regiment check to make sure their suits are functioning during a military exercise at Camp Taji, Iraq, in December 2009. (Photo by Sgt. Chad Menegay/ U.S. Army) It was 2009 when Iraq’s Defense Ministry launched a Chemical Defense Regiment, trained to respond to incidents involving chemical weapons that had been hidden across the country’s landscape for years. Soldiers jumped into action quickly afterward, recovering nearly 400 rounds carrying toxic materials in one three-day period that year, according to a U.S. Defense Department report. That’s just one example that U.S. troops and other Americans in Iraq knew that there were aging chemical weapons stored in numerous locations across the country. But it does little to blunt the impact of a New York Times piece published Tuesday night, which raises questions whether U.S. troops who were exposed to them received appropriate medical treatment. The piece, by veteran war correspondent C.J. Chivers, said that American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or bombs, relying on interviews with service members, U.S. and Iraqi officials and intelligence documents released through the Freedom of Information Act. The Times reported it found 17 American service members and seven Iraqi police officers who were exposed to poisonous mustard or nerve agents after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. “I felt more like a guinea pig than a wounded soldier,” said one former Army sergeant who was burned by mustard in 2007, but denied hospital treatment and medical evacuation despite requests from his commander, the Times reported. Some accounts published Wednesday suggested that the existence of old chemical weapons in Iraq was essentially kept secret, but the U.S. military has repeatedly said they were a potential threat. In 2010, for example, an Army news release stated that “numerous, pre-1991 Gulf War Iraqi chemical munitions have been discovered in Iraqi since 2004,” attributing the information to Army Capt. Clifford D. Latting, an adviser on chemical weapons for the Iraqi army. The extent to which U.S. troops discovered chemical weapons in Iraq had not previously been disclosed, however. Neither was the potential treatment of those who suffered injuries because of them, the Times reported. One example is Spec. Richard Beasley, an explosive ordnance disposal technician who was burned by sulfer-mustard in a 155mm shell his unit had detonated in March 2007. He and his sergeant carried pieces of the shell


In Mexico, a grim truth just below the surface

area as a giant cemetery. “Sometimes we heard gunshots, but other times we didn’t hear anything because we had music playing or the dogs were barking or we slept through the noise,” one woman told the Milenio newspaper. “I just shut my door and that was it.” The 28 bodies found so far were pulled from five graves, prosecutors say. But since there are at least eight more burial sites in the area, it’s possible that the students ended up in those. Authorities haven’t said how many dead were recovered from the other graves or who they think the victims were. The wait for answers is draining the patience of the Mexican public and especially the students’ classmates, who are demanding that authorities find them or free them if they’re alive. On Monday, a group of protesters stormed government offices in the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo and set them ablaze. One of the criminal suspects who may have known about the fate of the 43 students, Benjamin “El Benjamon” Mondragon, died Tuesday, allegedly shooting himself after a standoff with police in the nearby state of Morelos. Mondragon was a leader of the Guerreros Unidos, the gang blamed for the graves outside Iguala and the disappearance of the students after clashes with local police on the night of Sept. 26. The territory where the Guerreros Unidos operate is along the strategic smuggling corridor between Mexico’s ports on the Pacific coast and the capital. It was in this area that one of the first mass grave sites of Mexico’s drug war was discovered in 2010, near Taxco, just down the road from Iguala. There, forensic teams found dozens of bodies at the bottom of an abandoned mine ventilation shaft. Many of the victims were found bound and gagged, and were thought to have been thrown alive down the 500-foot shaft. Recovery teams rappelled down and returned with the remains of dozens of corpses. Asked to clarify how many victims were ultimately found in the mine, officials reached by phone in Guerrero on Wednesday said they did not know. “We didn’t have computers then,” said Tulio Armenta, a spokesman for the state prosecutor’s office. Protesters broke windows and vandalized Attorney General headquarters in Mexico City after it was discovered that bodies found in mass graves outside the town of Iguala were not those of missing students. Gabriela Martinez contributed to this report.


D.C. area forecast: A few showers this afternoon; then tons of sun through the weekend

- Today’s Daily Digit - A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 1 to 10. - 6 The humidity is still too tangible in the morning to say nothing of some shower dodging in the afternoon. - Express Forecast - Today: Patchy fog early, scattered showers late afternoon. Highs: 69-73. - Tonight: Showers end early, gradual clearing. Lows: 50-54. - Tomorrow: Sunny, less humid. Highs: 71-75. FORECAST IN DETAIL Radar lightning: The lumbering low over our heads has pushed most rains out to sea but as the day warms pop up showers are possible across the area. However, this is a small price to pay as the following four days are prime examples of why so many of us consider fall our favorite season. For gardeners with bulbs to plant (like me) the weekend is cool enough and nicely dry. Stargazers have unobstructed views for seeing the crescent moon form a triangle with Jupiter and the bright star Regulus in the Saturday predawn skies. Sports fans have a weekend beckoning you out with foam fingers, pennants and school colors. Whatever your avocation, get out and enjoy, it will be time to sit by the fire soon enough. Today (Thursday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Friday): Tomorrow night: Dupont Circle, October 15. (Ian Livingston) A LOOK AHEAD Saturday Sunday Kids going off to school on Monday need to remember that coat for a change. By midday, highs climb back to the upper 50s to lower 60s under sunny skies. Confidence: Medium-High


The D.C. area’s 10 most pricey house listings

Dramatic staircases, nine fireplaces and a 20-car driveway are among the features. View Photo Gallery —A home gym, libraries and an indoor water feature are among the amenities in these pricey properties. With the help of Rockville-based multiple-listing service MRIS, we compiled a list of some of the most expensive houses for sale in the Washington area. The properties range from a $12.9 million chateau set in the woods of McLean to a $3.99 million estate in Great Falls modeled on Shirley Plantation on the James River. Other properties on the list include a 19th-century mansion and a sleek contemporary condo that is under construction. (Sean Shanahan) • 801 Turkey Run Rd., McLean $12.9 million Agent: Deborah Shapiro and Michael Anastasia, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty Inspired by the Chateau Chambord in France, this home — more than 14,000 square feet — rests on more than two acres surrounded by a forest. The estate has five bedrooms, seven full baths and four half baths. It also has a lower-level full bar and wine cellar in a grotto-like setting, an outdoor kitchen and entertaining space, a swimming pool and parking for five cars. To read more about this home, click here. (Courtesy of HomeVisit) • 3120 Woodland Drive NW, Washington $8.1 million Agent: Marc Fleisher, Long & Foster Real Estate This elegant brick Georgian-style home in Massachusetts Avenue Heights features formal and informal entertaining spaces, including a formal dining room, a formal living room and a sunroom wrapped in floor-to-ceiling windows. Upstairs is a charming library with an arched opening to the upper-level gallery. The private half-acre lot includes a swimming pool. (Courtesy of HomeVisit) • 7700 Oldchester Rd., Bethesda $7.2 million Agent: Marc Fleisher, Long & Foster Real Estate This estate, custom built by Sandy Spring Builders in 2009, has more than 12,000 square feet of living space with seven bedrooms and eight baths. Special features include an indoor waterfall feature, two custom-milled libraries, a morning room with stone walls and a fireplace, a spacious sunroom that provides year-round indoor-outdoor living and a lower level with a basketball court, a gym, a spa bath and guest quarters. (Courtesy of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty) • 2615 30th St. NW, Washington $6.75 million Agent: Jonathan Taylor, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty This Colonial-style stone home in Massachusetts Avenue Heights has nearly 9,000 finished square feet, including a grand foyer that leads into large entertaining


The best places to eat in D.C.: Rose’s Luxury, Smoke & Barrel, Pitango Gelato and more

Best food truck TaKorean 2nd: Arepa Zone, arepazone.com, @arepazone. Best kid-friendly restaurant Ted’s Bulletin It’s no surprise to see Ted’s Bulletin own this category for the second year in a row: Homemade pop tarts are the local chain’s most famous treat, and child-friendly classics — sloppy Joes, grilled-cheese sandwiches, tater tots — are on the main menu, making the children’s menu hardly necessary. Treats like Ted’s take on Hostess Sno-Balls (exclusive to its 14th Street location) will appeal to kids and nostalgic grown-ups alike. The milkshake list is so expansive — there’s even a PB&J flavor — parents may not even notice the boozy versions. L.M. 2nd: Silver Diner, multiple locations; silverdiner.com. Best doughnut Krispy Kreme The past two years have seen the dawning of a doughnut scene in the city, with the opening of GBD, District Doughnut, and Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken, but our readers still prefer a 77-year-old classic. Krispy Kreme continues to seduce customers, especially when the “Hot Now” light on each shop signals that warm doughnuts await. While there are only three Krispy Kremes in the immediate area, more are slated to open in the next few years. H.S. 2nd: Astro Doughnuts Fried Chicken, 1308 G St. NW; 202-809-5565, astrodoughnuts.com. The Arepa Zone food truck. (Teddy Wolff Photos/For Express) Best South/Central American Arepa Zone 2nd: Del Campo, 777 I St. NW; 202-289-7377, delcampodc.com. Best frozen treat Pitango Gelato In a world of mash-ups and fusion cuisine, Pitango, which has three shops in the District and one in Reston, Va., bucks the trend. Its rotating menu boasts 20 straightforward, classic flavors, among them gianduja (chocolate hazelnut), stracciatella (vanilla chocolate chip) and pistachio. The sorbets include spicy chocolate, Bosc pear and quince. All this simplicity lets the high-quality ingredients — hard-to-find Italian pistachios, imported almonds — shine. B.M. 2nd: Dolcezza, multiple locations; dolcezzagelato.com. Best bakery Whisked! Jenna Huntsberger’s classic pies — in flavors like strawberry rhubarb, sea salt chocolate chess, and spicy Italian sausage and caramelized onion — have earned a second consecutive win for Whisked! The bakery, which also makes delicious cookies, doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar store, but regularly sells its flaky wares at local farmers markets and specialty food shops. Or sign up for its CSA to get a monthly or biweekly fix. B.M. 2nd: Baked and Wired, 1052 Thomas Jefferson St. NW; 202-333-2500, bakedandwired.com. Read the rest of the Express Best of 2014 issue.


D.C. drinking: the city’s best spots for beer, wine and cocktails

You can get five of Ping Pong’s most popular concoctions, including the two mentioned above, for $5 each, Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Try the Earl Grey Julep, crafted with black tea-infused Jim Beam bourbon, simple syrup and mint, and topped with a spicy star anise pod. Pair any of them with a $5 happy hour dim sum dish (or two, or three …). L.M. & M.C. Cocktail menu: Happy hour: Best beer selection The Black Squirrel With 57 rotating drafts and another 100-plus bottled beers from around the world, walking into this Adams Morgan bar and restaurant is like entering a beer geek’s dream (or an indecisive person’s nightmare). For example, a recent draft list featured no less than 13 pumpkin beers, including DC Brau and Epic Brewing’s pumpkin porter, Fermentation Without Representation; Southern Tier’s Pumking; and Howe Sound’s Pumpkineater. The Black Squirrel also hosts some of the city’s best beer events and tap takeovers, which are routinely full of suds you can’t soak up anywhere else in the city. R.G. 2nd: Churchkey, 1337 14th St. NW; 202-567-2576, churchkeydc.com. Best brewery DC Brau Brewing Co. Visit DC Brau to grab their limited-release double IPA, On the Wings of Armageddon, and you’ll find a line out the door. That’s one clue that D.C. can’t get enough Brau. The company, founded in 2009, increased production by nearly 50 percent this summer, but it’s still tough to keep up with demand. Every time they distribute to Pennsylvania and New Jersey, “we end up pulling back because that beer ends up being needed at home,” says co-founder Brandon Skall. “We’re still getting new people drinking our beer here.” R.G. 2nd: Port City Brewing Co., 3950 Wheeler Ave., Alexandria; 703-797-2739, portcitybrewing.com. Best outdoor drinking Libertine The way Libertine’s manager, Raymond Jones, sees it, there are two reasons the Adams Morgan bar topped this category after just over a year in business. First: the extensive cocktail list, featuring such patio-appropriate drinks as the Public Enemy No. 1, made with Pimm’s No. 1, lemonade and housemade strawberry shrub. Second: “You can’t ask for a better people-watching spot.” Enjoy the bohemian outdoor seating area for as long as the weather permits — “until December, if we can,” Jones says. L.M. 2nd: Dacha Beer Garden, 1600 Seventh St. NW; 202-524-8790, dachadc.com. Best wine bar Vinoteca Growing up means your criterion for a good drinking


D.C.’s best neighborhoods, blogs, bike lanes and more

drinks with friends,” Editor-in-Chief Sarah Anne Hughes says. That could be a guide to the city’s best pizza, a report of the D.C. Council’s latest goings-on or a story about a class on the history of punk. A.G. 2nd: PoPville, popville.com Best Local Tweeter @thblacksquirrel If D.C.’s craft beer scene had a mascot, it might be a nattily besuited rodent with an interest in live music and witticisms. This, coincidentally, is the Twitter avatar of Adams Morgan bar The Black Squirrel (2427 18th St. NW). In between announcing dinner specials and musical acts, @thblacksquirrel upholds the timeless D.C. tradition of making nerdy jokes. A recent highlight: “Yo mama is so mean, she has no standard deviation.” 2nd: @andpizza, twitter.com/andpizza Best underrated tourist a U.S. National Arboretum The primary tourist draws at the 446-acre Arboretum are the 2,000-plus flowering cherry trees, the National Capitol Columns (pillars once attached to the U.S. Capitol) and the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum (catch the miniature trees in peak autumn color from Oct. 24 to Nov. 10). Just as interesting, if not as picturesque, are less-sexy exhibits such as the brand-new Grass Roots, a thorough study of turfgrass, i.e. the stuff on lawns and golf courses. H.J.M. 2nd: FDR Memorial, 400 W. Basin Drive SW; nps.gov/frde Best nearby beach Rehoboth Beach, Del. This tranquil beach town, about two and a half hours from downtown D.C. by car, beat out Ocean City, Md., its bustling neighbor to the south. There’s plenty to do in Rehoboth besides beachy activities: Trendy restaurants line the streets, including family-friendly Salt Air and a molecular gastronomy hotspot named a(MUSE.). Baltimore Avenue is known for its LGBT-friendly hangouts. And the nearby Tanger Outlets will really help you make use of Delaware’s zero percent sales tax. 2nd: Ocean City, Md. Best political celebrity Michelle Obama Maybe it’s the arms. Maybe it’s the garden. Maybe it’s her sense of fun — her dunk on a mini-hoop during the Miami Heat’s White House visit in January spawned a thousand GIFs. Whatever it is, we just love first lady Michelle Obama, even nearly six years into her reign. Will she have the staying power of a Jackie Kennedy or a Dolley Madison? So far, so good: This is the second time Express readers have named her Best Political Celebrity. What a legacy! 2nd: President Barack Obama. Read the rest of the Express Best of 2014 issue.


America may never have a draft again. But we’re still punishing low-income men for not registering

driver’s licenses. Forty states, the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories now tie issuance or renewal of driver’s licenses to Selective Service registration. Most of those have moved to an automatic registration. Other have opt-in or opt-out provisions. Agency spokesman, Mr Tittmann, indicated that Selective Service strongly favors state laws for automatic registration when getting a driver’s license because it helps those most in need of the benefits linked to registration – young men out the mainstream, the disadvantaged, minorities, and immigrants. “This is absolutely unfair,” Rep. Mike Coffman, a veteran of both Iraq wars, says of the sanctions. Coffman, a Republican from Colorado, is among the most outspoken critics of the system. Earlier this year, he co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that would abolish the $23 million agency, suspending registration – and sanctions — except by executive order in a time of national emergency. “The Selective Service is a bureaucracy that needs to die because it no longer serves a viable purpose,” he said in an e-mail. “Even during the height of the War in Iraq and Afghanistan the Department of Defense never considered using the draft.” Says Romo, “You have 435 congressmen and so you have 435 opinions on the Selective Service.” One of them, he notes, belongs to Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, who earlier this year introduced two bills related to the draft. The first would require women to register with the Selective Service. The second calls for all citizens and residents between 18 and 25 to perform two years of military or community service and would reinstate the draft only when a clear threat to the nation is present and Congress formally has declared war or the president proclaims a national emergency. Rangel has long argued that the burden of fighting war has fallen unfairly on the shoulders of a few But, Rangel says, until the day comes that the United States is engaged in a declared war and the nation’s security is violated — or Congress passes his National Service Act — there is no reason for the Selective Service System. “Having people penalized for not registering is a fraud,” he said. Rangel emphasized that registration is current law and should be followed, but said he now intends to introduce a draft-related bill — one abolishing the service. Romo argues that if the system were abolished, the nation would lose time it


The best restaurants, bars, shops and more in the D.C. area

Read our Best of 2014 issue here.


“Consumer Credit and the American Economy,” Part 4: Consumers and High-Cost Credit

processes for mainstream credit products. The decision to use high-price credit typically is a result of the consumer’s situation rather than a lack of knowledge or information. Evidence also shows that most consumers using high-rate credit products are aware of the cost of such credit. They generally are able to recall reasonably accurate finance charges but are largely unaware of annual percentage rates for recent loans. Because most high-rate loan products have a short term to maturity, knowledge of the finance charge is generally sufficient for making informed decisions. Under this circumstance, consumers can evaluate costs and benefits without consideration of their timing. Net undiscounted benefits will not differ much from net present value of benefits. To date, efforts to determine whether the economy as a whole actually benefits from high-rate credit products have focused largely on payday loans. They have examined a wide variety of outcomes, many of which are quite far removed from the circumstances of the payday loan decision. That a $300 two-week loan used by a very small proportion of the population could significantly influence outcomes such as property crime rates, bankruptcy rates, job performance, or check returns seems almost incredible. To be convincing, these studies must ensure that the differences in outcomes are caused by differences in payday loan access rather than something else and that the consumers who have access to payday loans are similar to consumers who do not. It is not clear that these studies have succeeded. State laws that regulate payday lending are the product of a political process that also produces laws affecting many other aspects of the local economic and social environment, including the availability of other financial services, quality of educational services, and types of employment opportunities. A state that sharply limits personal or auto loan rates, for example, would hardly be inclined to authorize rate ceilings that permit payday lending. Geographic proximity or accounting for differences in a limited set of economic or social variables is unlikely to eliminate entirely the effects of other influences on outcomes. Thus, while suggestive, these studies are not fully convincing There clearly also is considerable room for more micro-oriented research into specific effects of availability of high-rate credit, although such studies can be very expensive and difficult if they involve survey work. Nonetheless, it is likely there will be more of this work in the future. Tomorrow: Regulation of Consumer Credit