12 ways to make the most out of apple and pumpkin season in Washington

a dozen and $10 for 26 doughnuts. Taste cider at Distillery Lane Ciderworks You’ll want to make any excuse to head out to this cidermaker near Frederick. Distillery Lane offers more than a dozen varieties of cider for sale, including sparkling cider aged in whiskey barrels and traditional, funky English scrumpy cider, representing one of the largest portfolios from a local cider producer. (For the kids and teetotalers, there’s nonalcoholic fresh cider, too.) Before or after your tasting flight, take a stroll around the orchard and admire some of its 3,000 trees, which feature more than 40 varieties of apples. The Frederick County farm regularly hosts special events — including this weekend — that allow visitors to take self-guided tours while picking their own apples. — B.K. and F.H. 5533 Gapland Rd., Jefferson, Md. 240-344-8856. distillerylaneciderworks.com. $6 per tasting flight. George Washington's reconstructed distillery is making apple brandy in October. (Russell Flint) Watch an apple brandy demonstration at Mount Vernon George Washington operated what was once the largest distillery in the country, and that reconstructed distillery is making booze right now. For fall, the distillery — three miles from the Mount Vernon estate but still part of the attraction — is showing how apple brandy is made. You’ll be able to see three wood-fired copper pot stills producing the brandy, watch brandy being collected from the stills and learn about the process of pressing and fermenting apple juice. Alas, no apple brandy will be available for sampling or purchase, but you can buy other distillery products, including aged and unaged varieties of both rye whiskey and peach brandy. — B.K. Through Tuesday. 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Hwy., Mount Vernon. 703-780-2000. mountvernon.org. Demonstration included with regular admission: $20, $19 seniors, $10 age 6 to 11, free age 5 and younger. Admission only to the Distillery and Gristmill site: $5 adults, $3 children, free age 5 and younger. Eat apple pie at a Michelin-starred restaurant There may be nothing more American than apple pie, but a French twist on the classic dessert isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Since 2006, Blue Duck Tavern has served a 6-inch apple pie for two with a flaky crust that nicely complements the pie’s Granny Smith apple filling and sugary, apricot-glazed top. And while Blue Duck just earned a Michelin star, the restaurant’s candlelit lounge is large enough that you don’t need to scramble for reservations. Plop


The Daily 202: Barack Obama is coming to a TV near you

leader said Thursday that her intent was to criticize Planned Parenthood when she called Adolf Hitler’s words profound in a Facebook post. ‘Great quote from Hitler in the video,’ [Peggy Mast] … the No. 3 Republican in the Kansas House, posted to her Facebook page Thursday morning. ‘Please listen to it closely. His words are profound! Let’s start using discernment.’ Mast, who is not seeking re-election, did not return phone calls. She did, however, take to social media to clarify her position. Mast’s perceived praise for the leader of the Third Reich, who ordered the slaughter of 6 million Jews, drew sharp criticism. ‘There’s nothing profound, and there’s no room in American politics for the words or thought of Adolph Hitler,’” said Kansas Interfatih Action director Rabbi Moti Rieber. DAYBOOK: On the campaign trail: At the White House: On Capitol Hill: QUOTE OF THE DAY: “*She has to be for TPP*. She called it the ‘gold standard’ of trade agreements. I think opposing that would be a huge flip flop,” Ron Klain emailed Clinton adviser Jake Sullivan almost exactly one year ago in a message released by WikiLeaks. “She can say that as President she would work to change it. She can say that it can be better. But I think she should support it.” Sullivan replied that he agreed, but others in the campaign did not. NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.: -- Here comes our fall cold front – and this time, it looks like it’s gonna be for good. -- The Capitals beat the Panthers 4-2. -- Virginia Tech hammered Miami, 37-16 -- D.C.’s beloved three-year-old panda “Bao Bao” is moving to China in the winter of 2017. VIDEOS OF THE DAY: Here's a flashback to Romney's Al Smith dinner speech: Mitt Romney's surprisingly hilarious speech at the Al Smith dinner Priorities USA released a new TV ad aimed at African Americans: Least Racist Here's Trump walking away from a local television interview (click to watch): Looks like things got hairy at the end of this Trump local interview. He just walks away: Full interview:… https://t.co/5BKX9kPvqU Some comedian responses to the third debate: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton met on the debate stage for one final showdown, and late-night comedians were tuned in for a laugh. In case you missed it, check out Chris Wallace 'dad-monishing' Trump, Clinton and the audience at the debate:


Congressman raises concern over potential use of Russian satellites for troops’ Internet service

to deployed soldiers could allow the use of Russian satellites, jeopardizing troops’ privacy and security. Previous service at bases’ Internet cafes had “stringent security measures,” Hunter wrote to Army Lt. Gen. Alan Lynn, the head of the Defense Information Systems Agency. But he said he was worried the “contracting arrangement creates unnecessary security risks, given that our deployed warfighters could be exposed to transmitting their personal information over unprotected networks that are controlled by foreign and potentially hostile entities.” In an interview, Hunter, a California Republican who served three tours as Marine, said, “this is one of the dumbest things we could do. Why give the Russians the ability to basically spy on American military personnel when there are so many other options?” A DISA spokesperson said the agency could not discuss the provisions of the contract or which companies may have submitted offers. Hunter’s concerns come at a time of heightened tension between the United States and Russia. Earlier this month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security officially accused Russia of hacking the computers of the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations in an effort to undermine the presidential election. “The U.S. Intelligence Community is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations,” said a joint statement from the two agencies. “. . . These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.” Federal law prevents using the satellites of many adversarial countries, such as North Korea and China, said Hunter, a member of the Armed Services Committee. But while there is no provision that specifically bars the use of Russian satellites, Hunter said it’s clear Russia is no ally and that the Pentagon should not be using its hardware. “It just seems that [the Department of Defense] isn’t using their heads at all,” he said. The contract would be to provide Internet service at what are known as Moral, Welfare and Recreation centers in Iraq and Afghanistan that soldiers use to stay in touch with family and loved ones. While being deployed for months at a time, troops inevitably have to transmit sensitive information, he said. “You have people talking to their family, talking about their banking,” Hunter said. “You spouse might ask you, ‘Honey, what’s the last four of your social?”


AT&T could soon own HBO, CNN and a huge list of other household names

best-sellers like “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.” That division made more than $2 billion in revenue last year alone. Time Warner was the fourth-largest media company in America last year, with roughly $28 billion in revenue. Its film division has averaged roughly $4.5 billion in annual box office sales over the last five years. This year, it is the second-highest-grossing studio, behind Disney, having pulled in more than $1.5 billion from movies such as "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," "Suicide Squad" and "Central Intelligence." In short, an AT&T-Time Warner tie-up would create one of the most powerful combinations of content and distribution America has ever seen. And the implications would be far-reaching: AT&T could offer intricate cross-promotions between different parts of its business, similar to the way it has started bundling cellular service with DirecTV, the satellite TV company it purchased last year. It could make money by licensing shows and movies to other cable companies, and also compete against them by fleshing out the offerings of its own U-verse pay-TV service. A deal would come to epitomize the rapid, dramatic changes currently affecting the media and technology space. Content producers and cable companies alike are grappling with new Internet business models, seeking fresh ways to distribute their shows online as more consumers consider ditching the traditional cable bundle. Americans' media consumption is shifting to mobile devices, which is encouraging firms such as AT&T to bet big on wireless connectivity and forcing providers of fixed broadband to hunt for new ways to compete. Industries that previously had been insulated from one another by the limits of technology are now being forced to contend with each other as entertainment and communications converge on the Internet. In 2011, Comcast became one of the first companies to acknowledge the trend by buying up NBCUniversal, which created a media and distribution conglomerate that now controls theme parks, television shows and access to the Internet. At the time, antitrust regulators permitted the acquisition under certain conditions designed to keep Comcast from using the combined company to squeeze out the competition. But some analysts say those conditions weren't effective — and that AT&T may face similar concerns. "This would probably not be a slam dunk with regulators that likely have second thoughts after watching the ineffectiveness of behavioral remedies for the approval of Comcast’s acquisition of NBC," said Walt Piecyk, a telecom analyst at BTIG.


ESA confirms the ExoMars lander crashed, possibly exploded on impact

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter view of ExoMars Schiaparelli landing site (ESA) The ExoMars Schiaparelli lander, which was slated to touch down on Mars on Wednesday, crashed on the planet after its thrusters shut off prematurely, the European Space Agency confirmed Friday. And because Schiaparelli still had fuel left in its tank, the craft may have exploded on impact. The nine thrusters on the small spacecraft were supposed to slow its descent through the Martian atmosphere, which is so thin that objects move through it at perilously high speeds. Images taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show two new features on the surface of the planet that could be evidence of the crash. At the bottom of one close-up image, a bright white spot is thought to be the parachute used during Schiaparelli’s descent. Data suggests that parachute and the spacecraft’s heat shield were successfully deployed and discarded before the final phase of the landing. A dark patch, roughly 50-by-130 meters in area and little over half a mile north of the parachute, looks like material that was blown up when Schiaparelli hit the ground. The lander, part of the joint ExoMars astrobiology mission of the ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency, would have been the first operable spacecraft from either agency to successfully touch down on the Martian surface. Schiaparelli hadn't been heard from since just before its planned landing, and by Thursday morning most scientists at ESA mission control feared the worst. The crash has overshadowed the successful orbital insertion of Schiaparelli's parent spacecraft, the Trace Gas Orbiter, which will circle the planet looking for methane for the next six years. ExoMars 2016 Schiaparelli descent sequence (ESA) Data from the orbiter is being analyzed to understand why the lander failed to achieve a soft landing. The ESA estimates that Schiaparelli began its free fall at a mile or two above the surface and was traveling more than 180 miles per hour when it hit the ground. The agency still doesn't know why the thrusters shut off prematurely. Determined to put a positive spin on things, ESA officials have repeatedly emphasized that Schiaparelli was designed as a test lander. It carried few scientific instruments and was only intended to last a few days on Mars. Its main objective was to test technologies such as the heat shield, parachute, radar and thrusters — which, one could argue it did, even though


In Mexico, we know what happens when an election’s loser won’t admit defeat

and again he refused to admit defeat. He blamed a shadowy “mafia”: Mexican media, polling firms, Calderón, former presidents Fox and Carlos Salinas de Gortari and accused the PRI of buying millions of votes. Even with Mexico’s restrictive voting laws (which require a mandatory official ID to vote) and although more than 1 million Mexican citizens were chosen at random to administer the election in thousands of polling places all over the country, López Obrador again challenged the result and asked for a recount. This time, electoral authorities agreed to go over more than half the votes in the election, an unprecedented decision. The result still favored Peña Nieto. López Obrador then called for the election’s annulment, refused to recognize the new president’s legitimacy and began a movement that would eventually lead to a new political party from which he now plans to launch his third bid for the presidency in 2018. Has López Obrador’s crusade weakened Mexico’s democratic institutions? After the 2006 uproar, the country hastily passed a set of electoral reforms that, among other things, censored negative campaigning, a direct response to the alleged “dirty war” against López Obrador. His conspiracy theories also undermined public faith in democracy, which had finally grown after flawless electoral processes in 1997 and 2000. In Latinobarómetro’s poll, a yearly survey of public opinion in Latin America, confidence in democracy in Mexico has steadily decreased. In 2005, 59 percent of Mexicans trusted democracy; by 2013, only a year into the Peña Nieto presidency, the number had fallen to 37 percent. Barely 50 percent of Mexicans believe democracy can solve the country’s problems. (Only Chile — ruled by a military dictatorship for 25 years until 1998 — ranks lower, with 47 percent.) 2018 will be López Obrador’s best chance yet to win the presidency. The corruption and conflict of interest scandals inside the PRI and the Peña Nieto administration have given new weight to his message of economic and social justice. Paradoxically, though, his previous electoral antics might be his undoing. In 2011, López Obrador admitted that the massive sit-in after the 2006 had proven “costly.” In 2012, at least, his opponents used the aftermath of the 2006 election to their advantage. What would have happened if López Obrador had taken the high road 10 years ago? Perhaps he might have already gotten a chance to reform those institutions he so brazenly dismissed. Trump


Why AT&T’s merger with Time Warner is such a huge deal

revenue last year alone. Time Warner was the fourth-largest media company in America last year, with roughly $28 billion in revenue. Its film division has averaged roughly $4.5 billion in annual box office sales over the last five years. This year, it is the second-highest-grossing studio, behind Disney, having pulled in more than $1.5 billion from movies such as “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” “Suicide Squad” and “Central Intelligence.” In short, an AT&T-Time Warner tie-up would create one of the most powerful combinations of content and distribution America has ever seen. And the implications would be far-reaching: AT&T could offer intricate cross-promotions between different parts of its business, similar to the way it has started bundling cellular service with DirecTV, the satellite TV company it purchased last year. It could make money by licensing shows and movies to other cable companies, and also compete against them by fleshing out the offerings of its own U-verse pay-TV service. A deal would come to epitomize the rapid, dramatic changes affecting the media and technology space. Content producers and cable companies alike are grappling with new Internet business models, seeking fresh ways to distribute their shows online as more consumers consider ditching the traditional cable bundle. Americans' media consumption is shifting to mobile devices, which is encouraging firms such as AT&T to bet big on wireless connectivity and forcing providers of fixed broadband to hunt for new ways to compete. Industries that previously had been insulated from one another by the limits of technology are now being forced to contend with each other as entertainment and communications converge on the Internet. In 2011, Comcast became one of the first companies to acknowledge the trend by buying up NBCUniversal, which created a media and distribution conglomerate that now controls theme parks, television shows and access to the Internet. At the time, antitrust regulators permitted the acquisition under certain conditions designed to keep Comcast from using the combined company to squeeze out the competition. But some analysts say those conditions weren't effective — and that AT&T may face similar concerns. “This would probably not be a slam dunk with regulators that likely have second thoughts after watching the ineffectiveness of behavioral remedies for the approval of Comcast’s acquisition of NBC,” said Walt Piecyk, a telecom analyst at BTIG. The atmosphere for mergers and acquisitions grew even dimmer in 2015, when the Federal Communications Commission


Back in ‘Beertown,’ where everyone wants — and gets — their say

production is conducted as a municipal meeting, in which the audience plays the role of the local citizenry. The conceit is that every five years, the town gathers for a plebiscite on the contents of Beertown’s hallowed time capsule. The quirky tradition mandates that some of the nine “ephemeral” items in the beer-barrel-shaped capsule are being considered for replacement, based on how a majority of the residents feel about three newly nominated items. The capsule contents range from historical artifacts, like a necklace made by the Native American tribe that once occupied the Beertown region, to emotionally resonant items, such as the pink slips that were sent to employees when the Beertown brewery famously went bust. The show, which sparks serious and funny debates among audience members who eagerly take up the causes for and against the inclusion of various items, is by far dog & pony’s most successful; that the group is still performing the piece speaks to its enduring popularity. To keep it relevant, though, requires understanding how tastes can shift. “Five years ago, having an audience participate in a show was not very common,” observes lighting designer Colin K. Bills, another company member. “And now, it can be a gimmick. It is on us to keep in advance of the form.” Rachel Grossman, “Beertown’s” director and originally in the show as the introverted daughter of Mayor Michael Soch (the character is now away at college), says that among the practical lessons learned is the importance of giving theatergoers as much information as possible about the concerns of “Beertown” before they take their seats in the hall. “We need to start planting the story early, in order for the audience to start forming opinions,” she explains. To that end, details are disseminated via email and social media and on well-placed informational placards before the play begins. The show’s accessibility, too, has become more sophisticated, with American Sign Language interpreters now present at every performance. In its travels with the production, the company has discovered how people in different cities react to the premise. In the Raleigh, N.C. version, for instance, the audience proved to represent a wider diversity of political points of view than in other cities; by understanding how to shepherd the discussion portion of the evening, Grossman says, “We were able to make space for those differing perspectives.” And now, on the eve of this most


a municipal meeting, in which the audience plays the role of the local citizenry. The conceit is that every five years, the town gathers for a plebiscite on the contents of Beertown’s hallowed time capsule. The quirky tradition mandates that some of the nine items in the beer-barrel-shaped capsule are permanent, but a few others are subject to replacement, based on how a majority of the residents feel about the newly nominated items. The capsule contents range from historical artifacts, like the gun used in a notorious local incident, to emotionally resonant items, such as the pink slips that were sent to employees when the Beertown brewery famously went bust. The show, which sparks serious and funny debates among audience members who eagerly take up the causes for and against the inclusion of various items, is by far dog & pony’s most successful; that the group is still performing the piece speaks to its enduring popularity. To keep it relevant, though, requires understanding how tastes can shift. “Five years ago, having an audience participate in a show was not very common,” observes lighting designer Colin K. Bills, another company member. “And now, it can be a gimmick. It is on us to keep in advance of the form.” Rachel Grossman, “Beertown’s” director and originally in the show as the introverted daughter of then-Mayor Michael Soch (the character is now away at college), says that among the practical lessons learned is the importance of giving theatergoers as much information as possible about the concerns of “Beertown” before they take their seats in the hall. “We need to start planting the story early, in order for the audience to start forming opinions,” she explains. To that end, details are disseminated via email and social media and on well-placed informational placards before the play begins. The show’s accessibility, too, has become more sophisticated, with American Sign Language interpreters now present at every performance. In its travels with the production, the company has discovered how people in different cities react to the premise. In the Raleigh, N.C. version, for instance, the audience proved to represent a wider diversity of political points of view than in other cities; by understanding how to shepherd the discussion portion of the evening, Grossman says, “We were able to make space for those differing perspectives.” And now, on the eve of this most contentious of American elections, she and


The U.N. hires Wonder Woman to fight for gender equality. But not everyone is happy about it.

Wonder Woman through her 75 years. (Courtesy of DC Entertainment) FROM HER So it’s entirely in character that as Wonder Woman turned 75 this year, and as the United Nations named her an honorary ambassador Friday in New York, the latest campaign to present the Amazonian princess as a symbol of self-empowerment has itself become fraught with politics, as some oppose the U.N. designation. On Friday, DC Entertainment and Wonder Woman brought out their big guns to publicize the new post for this “goddess of war” at the United Nations. Gal Gadot, the soldier/model/actress who was featured as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince this year in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (the character’s feature-film debut) — and who will star in the first Wonder Woman solo feature film in June — were on hand for the live-streamed event. So was Lynda Carter, the Wonder Woman from the ’70s TV show whose role remains so iconic that it has yet to be eclipsed in the popular public imagination. There is a fitting cultural synergy here. Next week, Carter will return to network TV to play the U.S. president on the CW’s “Supergirl” — an arc that appears deftly timed to the current presidential election. DC and the WB are promoting the new campaign with the hashtag #WithWonderWoman — a sentiment that feels milled from the same cloth as Hillary Clinton’s stump slogan “I’m With Her.” Some art revealed! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you amazing ladies @RealLyndaCarter @PattyJenks @GalGadot https://t.co/ZqDBzrJXqh Friday’s ceremony also kicked off a 12-month campaign in which DC and Warner Bros., in teaming with the United Nations and UNICEF, are supporting “gender equality and women’s empowerment.” Yet not everyone at the United Nations itself views Wonder Woman as an appropriate symbol for such a campaign. The character’s ambassadorship has sparked an online petition backed by hundreds of U.N. staff members, who urge Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to reconsider the appointment of what they see as an underdressed, anti-feminist figure. (This comes after multiple women were put forward for the secretary general position, and all were rejected.) And the site WomanSG.org has urged appointing an actual woman to the honorary ambassadorship, faulting the United Nations’ decision to name “a muscled version of a Barbie doll as the symbol to globally represent gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.” Somehow, this is all in keeping with Wonder


The Nobel Committee got it wrong: Ngugi wa Thiong’o is the writer the world needs now

living in. Alfred Nobel directed that the prize be awarded “in the field of literature [to] the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.” “Outstanding work” refers to literary merit, and “ideal direction” to values, indicating a role for the prize in shaping humanity’s outlook in each given year. In October 2016, the United States is saddled with a presidential candidate who peddles in misogyny and appeals to white supremacists. In many other countries, neo-liberals are vying with the far right for power, and the left is at its weakest. In light of all of this, the Nobel committee’s decision felt infuriatingly myopic. This was the year we needed a writer like Ngugi. The last time the Nobel was given to anyone outside the field of literature as conventionally understood was in 1953,when the recipient was Winston Churchill, a decision the committee justified by referring not only to his “mastery of historical and biographical description” but also to his “brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.” This was, presumably, a reference to his wartime rhetoric, though one wonders whether he would still have won had knowledge of his crimes against Britain’s former colonial subjects been more widespread. This is the importance of Ngugi. Born in 1938, the son of a tenant farmer in rural, British-occupied Kenya, Ngugi grew up working the pyrethrum farms that were once the property of his ancestors. He came of age during the Mau Mau rebellion, followed by the Churchill government’s violent response, which included the detention of 150,000 Gikuyu people in concentration camps where they were electrocuted, whipped and mutilated. He vividly describes this period in his novels “Weep Not, Child,” the first East African novel published in English, “A Grain of Wheat” and “Petals of Blood.” Later, when he turned his attention to the betrayal of the Kenyan people by the new ruling elite, he was jailed without trial and wrote the first modern novel in Gikuyu, “Devil on the Cross,” on prison-issued toilet paper. He followed this with “Decolonising the Mind,” in which he argued that Africans should write in their native languages as part of the drive for liberation from the mental shackles of colonialism. Ngugi’s decision to move away from English was a brave one for a writer hailing from Africa, a continent frequently treated as irrelevant by the rest of the world. It could, in fact, have led to his


Ex-police chief’s arrest could provide breakthrough in case of 43 missing Mexican students

the collection of key testimony to clarify the facts of Iguala,” according to the AP. Authorities have arrested 131 people, including Iguala's former mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, in connection with the mass disappearance. Prosecutors accuse Abarca and his wife of masterminding the alleged kidnapping. The two were arrested in 2014. Seventy of those arrested are police officers and alleged cartel members. Many of them have claimed they were tortured by officials, the AP reported. The students from a teaching college in Ayotzinapa, more than 150 miles away from Iguala, were last seen alive Sept. 26, 2014, when they were crammed into police cars. They traveled to Iguala that day to protest education reforms. At some point they hijacked a bus and were stopped by police officers who opened fire at them. They have not been seen or heard from since. An earlier theory on the students' disappearance was that Iguala police handed them over to drug cartel assassins, who shot them and burned their bodies outside the nearby town of Cocula, The Washington Post's Joshua Partlow reported last year. But independent investigators who've reviewed evidence in the case have disputed the theory that the students bodies were burned and claimed that Mexican authorities tortured witnesses and mishandled evidence. The outside experts, convened by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, prepared a 400-page report questioning claims by Mexican authorities on how the crime unfolded, Partlow wrote. Their investigation, which included interviews with prisoners, witnesses and government officials, found that victims' clothes found by authorities had not been examined and surveillance videos were erased. The report, which came out nearly a year after the students vanished, also point to signs that the buses the students stole were used to transport heroin into the United States, and they may have inadvertently hijacked buses that contained drugs. The students' disappearance prompted violent riots in towns including Ayotzinapa, located in the troubled rural state of Guerrero in southern Mexico. “The parents are enraged by so much waiting and so few results,” Felipe de la Cruz, whose son, Angel, is one of the missing students, told a crowd during a protest in November 2014, Partlow reported. “The flame of insurgency has been lit.” A vehicle burns in front of riot police as students of the Ayotzinapa Teacher Training College “Raul Isidro Burgos” protest, demanding the government find 43


‘Like something out of a horror movie’: Flesh-eating bacteria infection kills man in four days

Like a 'horror movie': He got an infection from the water in Ocean City, and within days he was dead https://t.co/yvksXPMg2s About 80,000 people get some form of vibriosis every year, usually from eating raw or undercooked shellfish, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For most, the worst symptoms are diarrhea and vomiting. Michael Funk was one of the unlucky ones. On Sept. 11, he was in Ocean City, cleaning his crab pots as he and his wife prepared to return to their winter home in Phoenix, according to the Daily Times of Salisbury, Md. But somewhere in the murky water lurked a strand of flesh-eating bacteria, Vibrio vulnificus. It came in contact with a cut on Funk’s leg, and within hours he began to feel ill. The infection moved rapidly. Days later, ulcerated and full of lesions, it was “like something out of a horror movie,” his wife, Marcia, told the newspaper. The flesh-eating bacteria was in his bloodstream. “The bacterium can invade the bloodstream, causing a severe and life-threatening illness with symptoms like fever, chills, decreased blood pressure (septic shock) and blistering skin lesions,” according to the Florida Department of Health’s vibriosis page. “Aggressive attention should be given to the wound site; for patients with wound infections, amputation of the infected limb is sometimes necessary.” This video produced by the Florida Department of Health answers some common questions about Vibrio vulnificus, a seawater bacteria that can cause rare but very serious infections. Doctors diagnosed vibriosis quickly, and Funk was flown to a shock trauma hospital in Baltimore, where doctors amputated his leg. But it was too late. He died Sept. 15, four days after cleaning out the crab pots. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is investigating the matter, the newspaper reported, but hasn’t issued an advisory. In 2014, officials issued a warning during a state-record outbreak in the Chesapeake Bay. All paths lead to #vibrio - see New Scientists article with a quote from yours truly #climate change #vibriosis https://t.co/b1ZHZFef2y Vibrio vulnificus A recent study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has shown that “rising ocean temperatures related to global warming “is strongly associated with spread of vibrios, an important group of marine prokaryotes, and emergence of human diseases caused by these pathogens.” To determine the bacteria’s growth, researchers used collections of plankton to determine how prevalent the microorganisms were.


Bob Dylan, Bill Murray and Henry Kissinger: When honorees don’t want their prize

want this, it will be in the lost and found.” The 81-year-old Smith responded via a PBS Twitter account: “If Mr. Kimmel could please direct me to the lost and found office I will try and be on the next flight.” Dame #MaggieSmith graciously accepts her #Emmy award -- @jimmykimmel, please advise on the location of the lost and… https://t.co/62hbcpuBAj The world of Nobel prizes is far less star-studded than that of entertainment awards, but it’s hardly free of cold shoulders. The most notable came in 1973, when the Peace Prize was awarded to Vietnamese politician Le Duc Tho and then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who negotiated a cease-fire agreement meant to bring about an end to the Vietnam War. But the conflict was two years away from ending. Awarding Tho and Kissinger the prize was so controversial, two members of the Nobel selection committee resigned in protest. Vietnam’s Tho refused it outright. Kissinger didn’t show at the ceremony, and tried to return the medal. But not once in the Nobel committee’s 115-year history has it allowed a prize to be revoked or returned. Once it’s awarded, it’s awarded for life. In the case of Dylan, this history hasn’t stopped naysayers from calling for a do-over. While Dylan has showed up to accept awards in the past — including the Presidential Medal of Freedom — now, he seems to have no interest. Why give a prize to someone who doesn’t want it? His fans see his indifference as a charming characteristic of his mysterious persona. His critics hold it up as just another reason why a man so prominent shouldn’t have been chosen in the first place. “Bob Dylan now has a chance to do something truly great for literature: reject the Nobel Prize for Literature,” poet Amy King expressed to PEN America, a writers association. “He can take a stand and declare that fame and ease of consumption should not play a role in determining merit when it comes to focusing the public eye on one writer’s books.” Dylan certainly could try to reject the prize. But first, he’d have to acknowledge that he won it. Read more: Does a musician have any right to win the Nobel Prize in literature? Reactions to Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize: Shock, elation and concern for Philip Roth The Beatles played their first U.S. concert here. Now an REI is moving in.


New census of cyber businesses reveals what the DMV does well and what we could do better.

entitled “The Cybersecurity Industry in the Greater Washington Region” explains the methodology used in the census, and provides insight to help those interested in growing our region’s cybersecurity industry. Most of the businesses that met the criteria to be included in the count were service or solution-oriented. Product-oriented cybersecurity companies are a small percentage of the overall number of businesses we found — 38 out of 967. This composition matters. Generally, service-based businesses aiming to scale up and grow quickly are limited by how easily they can hire and train new people. A business with an innovative product, on the other hand, is able to grow more rapidly because productive capacity is often as easy as making another copy. The most rapidly growing businesses in our national economy are more often product-oriented. The heavy focus on service and solution-based cybersecurity businesses in the region is less surprising given the relationship they have with the federal government. At least half received money from the federal government under a direct contractual relationship to provide cybersecurity services or solutions. And it appears that the percentage is likely significantly higher, given that many others are subcontractors and therefore not easily identified through public sources. The data unveils clear evidence of an untapped opportunity: despite tremendous commercial talent engaged in cybersecurity in our region, it is not concentrated in product-oriented innovation. And our region’s largest local customer — the federal government — has made it plain that product-oriented cybersecurity innovations are of high interest. It has opened offices in Silicon Valley and Boston because it is looking for innovation in places it perceives to have a higher concentration of product-oriented cybersecurity businesses. Two immediate challenges: first is how to help our region’s large service and solution-oriented businesses acquire product-oriented businesses and facilitate integration into the federal government’s goals. Second, how to reshape our region’s strong cybersecurity talent into product-oriented innovators. Both challenges will require significant investment and commitment. Before being able to solve a problem, it first needs to be identified. Now that we have a baseline against which to measure, we can build a stronger industry. Jonathan Aberman is a business owner, entrepreneur and founder of Tandem NSI, a national community that connects innovators to government agencies. He is host of “Forward Thinking Radio” on SiriusXM, a business and policy program, and lectures at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.


Google and Facebook contribute zero economic value. That’s a big problem for trade.

software, services and content. Ignoring the new economy risks stalling the innovation engine that is driving much of our growth. To pick just one telling data point, according to the most recent report from Kleiner Perkins analyst Mary Meeker, 12 of the 20 most valuable Internet companies in the world are U.S. based, with nearly all of the rest coming from China. Other than Apple, none of these companies even existed in 1995, yet they now have a combined market value close to $3 trillion. The scale of that success may not make enough of an impression on U.S. trade policymakers, but our innovation surplus hasn’t been lost on some of our largest trading partners, particularly the deeply troubled European Union. For the past several years, the European Union has accelerated efforts to shore up its technology businesses by restricting U.S. enterprises, inventing broad new definitions for antitrust and other anti-competitive harms. U.S. companies including Intel, Microsoft, Google and Qualcomm have been on the receiving end of whopping fines — some well over $1 billion — for increasingly creative infractions. Eighteen months ago, the European Union launched its Digital Single Market initiative, which, on paper at least, was aimed at improving digital trade among member nations. But buried in the plan was a promise to deeply scrutinize “platform” companies, notably Facebook and Amazon, which compete in multiple markets, such as search, video, advertising and e-commerce. “The way they use their market power raises a number of issues,” the plan noted ominously, “that warrant further analysis beyond the application of competition law in specific cases.” The antitrust proposals in the DSM seem to be the only part of the plan the Europeans have put into action. New investigations of Google and Amazon are taking novel approaches to defining “dominance.” Uber and Airbnb have encountered violent protests and outright bans in some countries. Streaming video services, including Netflix, are being ordered to fund local content. And after a European court voided the long-standing safe harbor that allowed U.S. companies to easily comply with complex E.U. privacy law, the United States signed a new Privacy Shield agreement. Although the court had objected solely to U.S. government surveillance, the Privacy Shield principally limits information collection and use by private companies. Seeing the writing on the wall in Europe, a growing number of U.S. companies, including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Apple and Facebook, are now


Another chef-driven diner is opening in D.C. This one will be in Shaw.

Central Michel Richard chef and partner David Deshaies is opening Unconventional Diner in Shaw. (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post) When David Deshaies was the executive chef at Citronelle, he'd often tag along with his boss and mentor, the late Michel Richard, when the esteemed chef cooked special dinners around the country. Over crummy hamburgers and beers after work at late-night diners, the two chefs would talk about a lot, including potential restaurant ideas. "'If one day you want to make money . . . make it a diner,'" Deshaies recalled Richard saying. The idea: Make the food people are familiar with, but do it well and with a modern twist. Deshaies, the executive chef, general manager and partner at Central Michel Richard, may not have thought much of the suggestion at the time. Now, however, he's preparing to follow Richard's advice. The chef is opening Unconventional Diner in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in the spring. Diners have been experiencing something of a renaissance in D.C., with the openings of Slim's Diner and Fare Well, plus the upcoming debut of Community in Bethesda. A Frenchman like Richard, Deshaies said a diner is a good fit for the Shaw neighborhood, as well as the 9,000-square-foot space he's taking over. Unconventional will be split into two parts: a 50-seat daytime cafe and pastry shop, which will offer a mix of grab-and-go and made-to-order items, and a 100-seat dinner-only, full-service dining room. “I want to do a diner, but I also want the freedom to do whatever I want,” he said. So Peking duck with steamed buns? He'd like to offer it, along with his interpretations of such classics as fried chicken, meatloaf, burgers and spaghetti and meatballs. There will be daily blue-plate specials, too — jambalaya is one possibility. “It gives me the opportunity to be unconventional but be a diner,” he said of his approach. That being said, his overall goal is to maintain a fairly tight, affordable menu that will turn Unconventional into a neighborhood spot where people can return several times a week. Deshaies spent nearly a decade as executive chef at Richard's now-closed Citronelle, beginning in 2003. Then he had a two-year stint as Richard's corporate chef, opening restaurants outside of D.C. He returned to Washington permanently in 2014 to helm Central, where he also wanted to learn the ins and outs of running a restaurant,


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What El Niño can teach us about the way climate change drives infectious disease

A driver climbs out of a window of his car after driving onto a flooded road in Van Nuys, Calif. on Jan.5 after an El Nino-strengthened storm swept through the area. (Reuters/Gene Blevins TPX) Many scientists agree that climate change will likely influence the spread of infectious diseases, from But new research, published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that higher-income nations like the United States shouldn’t write off the problem either. The study finds short-term shifts in climate and weather patterns, brought on by El Niño, have a history of influencing disease outbreaks in the United States — and these temporary changes may give us an important glimpse into what the effects of climate change may bring in the future. “There’s this idea that the vulnerabilities are really only in low-income countries,” said David Fisman, the study’s lead author and a professor of epidemiology and medicine at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He and his colleagues — co-authors For the new study, the researchers analyzed national data on hospitalizations between 1970 and 2010 to see how illness rates might change under conditions related to El Niño. They found that El Nino conditions were associated with a higher risk of vector-borne diseases — diseases carried by organisms like mosquitoes and ticks — in the western U.S., although these illnesses didn’t change much in other parts of the country. At the same time, El Niño conditions were associated with a lower risk of diarrhea and intestinal illnesses in the West, but a higher risk in other parts of the country. The change in vector-borne illnesses in the West seemed to be largely concentrated on tick-borne illnesses, such as Lyme Disease. The effect is not too surprising, according to Fisman. The warmer, wetter conditions El Niño tends to bring to the West Coast can influence the larval development of insects, as well as their biting rates. And they can also contribute to increases in mouse populations, which serve as reservoirs for the disease-carrying ticks. The changes in intestinal disease rates were slightly more difficult to explain, Fisman said. Previous studies have suggested that both unusually wet and unusually dry conditions can lead to spikes in these types of illnesses, which tend to be transmitted through contaminated water sources. The scientists have noted that it’s difficult to determine the exact mechanism driving the changes


The Pentagon demanded money back from National Guard soldiers. It’s still reviewing what to do next.

great sacrifice to their own personal lives and to their families, and we want to keep faith with them. This has our attention, and we want to make sure we’re doing everything we can within the boundaries of the law to help our people.” The California cases have attracted the attention of Congress. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R.-Calif.) said in a statement Monday that it is “disgraceful” that service members face the prospect of repaying money they were offered. “Our military heroes should not shoulder the burden of military recruiters’ faults from over a decade ago,” McCarthy said. “They should not owe for what was promised during a difficult time in our country. Rather, we are the ones who owe a debt for the great sacrifices our heroes have made — some of whom unfortunately paid the ultimate sacrifice.” My statement condemning a Pentagon effort to make California veterans pay back enlistment bonuses: https://t.co/uVk7NGVzDM Rep. Duncan Hunter (R.-Calif.) said in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter on Sunday that the Pentagon asking for the money back was “disgraceful and insulting,” and requested that Carter intervene directly. “I find it difficult to believe that either you or your leadership team was aware that such a boneheaded decision was made to demand repayment — and I ask that you utilize your authority to influence a solution, including a possible legislative fix if deemed necessary, that’s in the best interests of the individuals and families impacted,” Hunter wrote. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) added that she was “shocked by the actions of the Pentagon and the California National Guard,” and that she considers it unacceptable to “hold these brave men and women accountable for the mistakes of their superiors.” Beevers said the effort to solve the issue has been reinvigorated since media attention on the issue was raised over the weekend. McCarthy has raised interest in sponsoring new legislation to get the soldiers relief, the general said. Davis said there are parallels between the California cases and others that were resolved in June in which members of the Pentagon’s civilian bomb squad could have been required to pay back up to $173,000 each that the Defense Department determined they were erroneously paid since 2008. The decision was announced shortly after a Washington Post article detailed the hardships that members of the unit faced. In those cases, bomb squad members were


How a White House women’s office strategy went viral

still define leadership in male terms.” And while the workplace climate at the White House has changed significantly since the first term, a new study from the liberal think tank New America highlights the extent to which some structural barriers still remain there. In its report “Not Secondary but Central: Securing Gender in the Mainstream,” the group commissioned in-depth interviews with a dozen national security and foreign policy experts. Both the National Security Council and the Pentagon have launched initiatives to promote diversity within their ranks, but one of the report’s interviewees made it clear there was a limit to these changes: “You can’t talk about maternity leave in the context of the NSC. You either don’t take the job or you don’t get pregnant.” Of course, some Washington institutions have proved that they can change pretty dramatically when they decide to do it. In 1980, 3 percent of the Inter-American Development Bank’s senior professionals were female. By 2005, that share had risen to 25 percent, but five years later, it only increased to 28 percent. “That is when our shareholders said to us, ‘Make that 40 percent,’” said the bank’s executive vice president, Julie Katzman. Officials looked internally and determined that their female employees were being promoted at lower rates. They established an “emerging women leaders” training program in which they taught leadership skills and practices, such as the value of networking. The IDB came close to reaching its goal: By 2015, 38 percent of its senior professionals were women, and those who had been through the training program were promoted at higher rates than those who hadn’t. The bank is now expanding this program to the countries with which it works in Latin America, starting with the Dominican Republic. During a recent office training session, Katzman referred to my report. “We made sure they heard that story, and so they know what to do when they see someone try to do that to a woman,” she said, that the bank is enlisting men as well in women in addressing this issue. “On the one hand, we want to give voice to women. But on the other hand, we want to make sure men have the skill to listen and to hear.” And perhaps “amplification” will eventually become yet another obsolete workplace tradition — just like mimeograph machines — in the White House and everywhere else, for that matter.


Andean bear dies at National Zoo

Cisco, an Andean bear, at the National Zoo died Monday. He was 23. (Courtesy of the National Zoo) Cisco, a 23-year-old Andean bear at the National Zoo, has died, officials said. The bear, native to South America, died Monday after an emergency veterinary exam, the zoo said in a statement. Cisco had become “less active and began breathing more heavily with an occasional cough” over the past week, according to zoo officials. In human care, Andean bears typically live into their early 20s. They are the only bear species in South America and live in the Andes mountains. Over the weekend, Cisco’s symptoms got worse and his appetite declined. That prompted zoo officials to move up a vet exam scheduled for later in the week. In the exam, vets performed a chest ultrasound that found “large amounts of liquid in his lungs and abnormal soft-tissue masses within his chest cavity.” A procedure was done to remove the fluid from his chest so he could breath easier. But Cisco went into cardiac arrest, zoo officials said. “Due to his grave prognosis, the team made the decision not to resuscitate Cisco, and let him humanely pass pain-free and quietly,” the zoo said in its statement. A pathology report will give more details, the zoo said. That is expected to be completed in the coming weeks. Cisco was born in 1993 at the Calgary Zoo and came to the National Zoo in Northwest Washington in September 2013. He was on loan from the Queens Zoo. While at the National Zoo, Cisco sired two male cubs that were born in November 2014. Those cubs, Mayni and Muniri, are now at the Nashville Zoo. Craig Saffoe, curator of Andean bears at the zoo, said in a statement that Cisco “proved that older male Andean bears are quite capable of producing offspring.” Cisco, he said, “helped us learn more about Andean bears,” including about their nutrition, breeding and husbandry. That information, he said, will be shared with other zoos. One of the Andean cubs Cisco helped sire at the National Zoo. (Courtesy of the National Zoo) Andean bears are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. It is estimated there are 2,000 left in the wild. Cisco is survived at the National Zoo by a female bear named Billie Jean.


The Daily 202: Obamacare premium hikes bring another October surprise, but they may not move many voters

city of Orlando after police mistook dried doughnut glaze for crystal meth. In the officer’s defense, the sugary glaze tested positive for meth. TWICE. (Orlando Sentinel) A crew member of the International Space Station, Oleg Novitsky, attends a training session outside Moscow this morning. (Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters) -- Vladimir Putin is not messing around: Russian authorities have stepped up nuclear-war survival measures, dusting off Soviet-era civil-defense plans and upgrading bomb shelters in the biggest cities amid an increasingly confrontational posture toward Washington. Secret Service agents stand guard at the entrance of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during Trump's May visit. (Brendan Smialowski/AFPGetty Images) -- With the Republican Senate majority seeming to slip away, the knives are coming out for Ward Baker, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Money problems: Senate Democrats are in the minority yet somehow doing way better on fundraising: Recruitment failure: Spending questioned: How the NRSC managed the story: Conservative commentator Amanda Carpenter’s vocal criticism of Donald Trump has made her a target online. She talks about her experience, and her anger at Trump's supporters within the Republican party. -- PowerPost’s - Kelsey Snell describes the “nightmare” 2016 has become for female conservative pundits. “Having a conversation with one of Trumps’ female surrogates about how you sleep at night would get in the way of doing the day-to-day job,” quipped anti-Trumper S.E. Cupp. “I can’t tell you how embarrassing and uncomfortable it is to have to sit across from someone like Wolf Blitzer or Jake Tapper, two men I know and respect, and talk about the presidential nominee of my own party grabbing women’s genitals.… That is not where I thought I would be. That is not why I aspired to do [be a commentator]. It is not what made me a Republican.” - Krissah Thompson tells us about the implicit power of the first lady — or perhaps soon-to-be first spouse. “We're elected by one man,” Laura Bush once joked. “Right, right,” Michelle Obama agreed. “So we can’t waste this spotlight. It is temporary, and life is short, and change is needed. And women are smarter than men.” - Juliet Eilperin talks about the amplifying effect of a certain office strategy used by White House women, which has since her original piece been employed far-and-wide. - Finally, our graphics department crunched the federal workforce numbers for the very first time to reveal what women and


Climate change is disturbing hundreds of bird species, including our beloved osprey

A juvenile male osprey (top) with his mate have returned to nest beneath the South Capitol Bridge on the Anacostia in Washington. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) There are many epic animal migrations in nature, and one is currently underway in the D.C. area. Millions of birds are in the process of escaping the cold, polar air and flocking south, some to as far away as Brazil. Today, Washington, D.C., sits in the middle of the Atlantic Flyway, but climate change will greatly alter avian ranges and migration patterns. Even more alarming — recent reports have presented disturbing findings on the potential demise of entire bird populations. Over 300 species are “on the brink,” according to the Audubon Society, including the D.C. area’s beloved osprey. The osprey, famous for building massive nests on channel markers in the Chesapeake Bay, is in particular danger. The Audubon Society predicts the beautiful bird could lose 79 percent of its current summer range — where the bird lives and feeds — by 2080. The society notes that the osprey can live in warm climates like Florida year-round, but they worry whether the birds will find enough fish to survive. The Mid-Atlantic is also in the path of bird migrations far more subtle than honking, v-shaped geese flocks. Birds that spend summers in places like Greenland and Canada tend to stop in the D.C. region on their way back from South America. “Species diversity goes way up and a variety of warblers, orioles, tanagers, and others arrive,” said Rentz Hilyer with the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, “often being seen in more developed areas than they would be found during the summer.” A few people continue to debate whether climate change is happening. But birds are convinced, and are already responding to a warming planet and sea level rise.The National Audubon Society notes the timing of migrations is already changing and geographical ranges are shifting. “Significant northward movement occurred among 58% of the observed species—177 of 305,” the society reported in 2009. “More than 60 moved in excess of 100 miles north.” These observations are in line with average temperatures trending upward. Bird populations have been in steep decline for decades because of habitat loss due to development. Wetlands have been drained and paved over and forests continue to fragment as suburbs and other human activity like logging take their toll. The National Audubon Society and land


Aurora watch tonight — could reach as far south as the Midwest

Northern lights over Maine in 2015. (Mike Taylor) The aurora borealis may light up the skies tonight as far south as the Midwest. A G3-strong geomagnetic storm is shaking the earth’s magnetic field as a high-speed solar wind stream sweeps by. This fast solar wind emanates from a large coronal hole, a void in the sun’s corona allowing the uninhibited solar flow to escape. About a month ago, this same coronal hole caused G2-moderate storm conditions, and lit up a brilliant aurora in the process. This time it’s slightly stronger. Stable coronal hole structures affect the earth on about a 27-day period, so we could be having this same conversation again on November 21. Expect the disturbance to linger through October 26. With a new moon on October 30, the dark sky is favorable for aurora viewing, especially at high latitudes. Baseball fans will be up anyway; if the skies are clear you might get lucky. The Cubs haven’t repeated in 108 years, the Indians in 68. Recurrent anything would be a joy to either team. Even if you’re farther south than the aurora typically stretches, this might be the night you can cross it off your bucket list. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois have a shot at seeing this one, plus all the states to their north, if the clouds cooperate. In the Plains, it could reach down to Nebraska. Those of you in the state of Washington could catch a glimpse, too. Keep an eye on the planetary K index tonight. If it’s at 7, then the areas we mentioned above may be able to capture it with a long-exposure photo. If the K-index spikes higher than 7, it’s possible that areas in the Midwest could see it with the naked eye, and people in the D.C. region could catch it in a photo. Thirteen years ago, the Halloween Storms were probably the most disruptive few weeks of space weather since the space age began with Sputnik 1957. The sun caused extreme (category 5) geomagnetic storms and radio blackouts, and severe (category 4) solar radiation storms. Satellites were disabled, power grids blacked out, and aircraft re-routed during the most intense periods of the fusillade of solar eruptions.


Pentagon chief promises to resolve cases for National Guard soldiers ordered to repay bonuses

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, right, and Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, hold a news conference at the task force’s headquarters in Baghdad on Oct. 22. (Tech. Sgt. Brigitte Brantley/Defense Department via European Pressphoto Agency) PARIS — Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter promised Tuesday to resolve the cases of thousands of Army National Guard soldiers who were ordered by the Defense Department to repay bonuses they received to enlist in the military. “We are going to look into and resolve it,” he said, adding that Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work is examining the situation. “It is a significant issue.” An estimated 10,000 soldiers with the California Army National Guard were told they had to pay back enlistment bonuses of at least $10,000 to $15,000 each because they were improperly issued during the height of the Pentagon’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the issue probably extends to other states, defense officials acknowledged Monday. The California cases, first reported Saturday by the Los Angeles Times, are tied to a criminal investigation in which soldiers unknowingly accepted bonuses from recruiters that were not authorized. The issue has prompted an outcry on Capitol Hill, although Maj. Gen. Matthew Beevers, the No. 2 officer in the California Army National Guard, said Monday that Guard leaders attempted to resolve the problem through Congress two years ago, and the effort stalled. Beevers said that an effort to pass legislation that would have provided relief to affected soldiers did not find favor with the Congressional Budget Office because it would have added spending at a time when the U.S. government was attempting to cut back. “It’s important to note that we’ve kind of led the way in trying to solve this,” the general said. The California cases prompted a broad audit by the California Army National Guard that concluded recently. It found that about $30 million was not properly authorized, but it also showed that 4,000 soldiers, who could have been ordered to pay back a combined $37.2 million, received the money according to existing policies. Those soldiers were allowed to keep their money, Beevers said. One soldier involved in issuing the bonuses, Master Sgt. Toni Jaffe, pleaded guilty in 2011 to filing false claims while serving as incentive manager for the California Army National Guard. Beevers said that at least three other senior members of the Guard


Obviously biased Chicago red panda cubs pick World Series winner

Zoo animals have been picking sports winners for years now, so naturally the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago consulted with its brand-new red panda cubs to predict this year’s World Series winner. The pandas, named Waveland and Sheffield after two of the streets that border Wrigley Field, made a pretty obvious choice. BREAKING NEWS: Red panda cubs predict Chicago will win the World Series https://t.co/RiUZ25UytL https://t.co/ioBgVH53p2 Just imagine the panda carnage had they had picked the Indians.


Americans are more bullish than ever on legal weed

represents the highest level of support for marijuana legalization of any survey fielded this year, or indeed ever. An AP-NORC survey conducted in March found 61 percent support. Earlier this month, a Gallup poll showed 60 percent support. Taken together, this year's marijuana surveys suggest that Americans have grown even more bullish on the prospect of legal weed than they were in 2014, when the first retail pot shops opened in Colorado and Washington state and voters in Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., opted to follow suit. The PRRI survey, like the others, also suggests that legalization opponents are winning over conservative Republicans who have traditionally been skeptical of the merits of legalization. Nearly half of likely Trump voters — 48 percent — say that they support making the use of marijuana legal. Seventeen percent of Trump supporters feel that way strongly. As recently as last year, fewer than 40 percent of Republicans told the Pew Research Center they supported marijuana legalization. Five states are weighing whether to embark on marijuana legalization themselves. As I wrote last week, strong support for legalization nationally doesn't necessarily translate to easy victories for specific marijuana proposals on the ballot. For instance, PRRI and the other pollsters typically ask respondents whether they think the “use” of marijuana should be made legal. A person may support the idea of smoking pot in the privacy of one's home without police interference, but may nonetheless balk at proposals that would create a commercial marijuana industry selling retail marijuana products, as this year's state ballot initiatives do. Still, with three national surveys this year showing 60 percent or greater support for legalization, it seems that public attitudes have reached some sort of tipping point. From a governing standpoint, it may become increasingly difficult for policymakers to maintain a strict prohibition that nearly two-thirds of citizens oppose. One problem is that a widely opposed prohibition — 33 million American adults currently use marijuana, according to Gallup's estimate — makes scofflaws out of millions of otherwise lawful citizens. “The fruitless efforts at enforcement are creating public disregard not only for this law but for all laws,” complained Commissioner of Prohibition Henry Anderson in the 1930s. “The courts are cluttered with prohibition cases to an extent which seriously affects the entire administration of justice.” Anderson's comments were about alcohol prohibition, but they could just as easily apply to marijuana prohibition today.


This obscure government agency has a plan to put Wall Street CEOs in prison

rallying cry during the presidential election campaign. Last year, the Justice Department unveiled a new policy that would prioritize cases against individual company executives, not just corporations. But critics say enough still isn’t being done. Even after Wells Fargo acknowledged it had fired 5,300 employees over five years for setting up unauthorized accounts customers didn’t want, Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill both questioned why the bank was fined, but its’ executives were not prosecuted. “Why shouldn’t you be in jail?” Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.) asked then-Wells Fargo CEO, John Stumpf, during a House committee hearing last month. Leading the current effort is a small law enforcement agency with powers similar to the FBI. SIGTARP agents can make arrests and conduct searches. While it was established to police TARP bailouts, it also has the power to investigate any financial crime at a company that took taxpayer money. It is also the watchdog for the $40 billion in bailout funds still being doled out to large financial institutions to help distressed homeowners. But it appears SIGTARP has also found new frustrations there. In its quarterly report to Congress, the inspector general’s office questioned whether banks such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America should continue to have access to a government foreclosure prevention program. The banks and other mortgage servicers have repeatedly broken the rules that govern the Home Affordable Modification Program, known as HAMP, according to the report. HAMP was the Obama administration’s largest effort, by far, to help struggling homeowners after the 2008 financial crisis. So far, it has fallen far short of helping the number of homeowners hoped and, the inspector general’s office argued, the banks that participate in the program have repeatedly improperly broken the rules. Some have improperly either denied homeowners access to the program or wrongfully terminated them. Of the $28 billion in taxpayer money allocated for the program, only $15 billion has spent so far. The rest will be doled out over the next seven years. “Why are we paying for nonperformance? We are paying these big mortgage servicers, who violated the rules throughout the entire history of this program. At what point is somebody is going to say enough and is enough?” said Goldsmith Romero. “If a homeowner doesn’t follow the rules in HAMP they get knocked out of the program. If a bank doesn’t follow they still get paid by Treasury.”


Uber lobbying Congress to allow ride-hailing drivers onto military bases

An Uber user in Washington. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) Ride-hailing company Uber is lobbying Congress to include language in the annual defense policy bill that would allow Uber and Lyft drivers onto U.S. military installations to pick up and drop off passengers. Right now, some military installations allow ride-hailing drivers onto the premises. Each installation has its own policy that factors in security levels. The language that Uber is pushing for, which is included in the Senate-passed version of the annual defense policy bill, would instruct the Defense Department to develop and implement a uniform policy on how drivers could access all installations. The language was co-sponsored by Senate Armed Services Committee members Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.). Similar language, backed by Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), is included in the House Armed Services Committee report. The provision would allow authorized drivers to access barracks, housing areas and other lodging facilities. The DoD’s policy would have to address whether drivers could access areas that need a security clearance, or if those areas would be off-limits. One approach could be to have military spouses, retirees and Reserve service members — who already have access to bases — be Uber drivers. That would fit into an ongoing Uber initiative, announced in 2014, to recruit 50,000 military service members, spouses and veterans to become Uber drivers. UberMilitary’s advisory board is chaired by former defense secretary Robert M. Gates. “It would mean more employment opportunities for military spouses, military retirees, as well as members of the Guard and Reserve,” said Michael Campbell, Donnelly’s spokesman. Uber has been pressing lawmakers on the issue since the spring. The company is pitching it as a safety issue, saying that allowing drivers to pick up and drop off passengers closer to their housing area would discourage drunken driving. The effort coincides with a major uptick in lobbying by Uber, which this year exceeded $1 million in federal lobbying spending for the first time. The company devoted nearly $1.5 million to lobbying federal lawmakers and regulators during the first nine months of 2016 — almost double the $790,000 it spent in 2015, according to lobbying disclosure reports. Those figures capture the company’s in-house lobbying as well as what the company pays outside lobby firms. “We applaud these members for their work to encourage modernization and provide more transportation options for service members,” said Niki Christoff, Uber’s


National Symphony Orchestra executive director to step down

The NSO’s Rita Shapiro has been executive director for 15 years. (Carol Pratt) Rita Shapiro, the executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra for 15 years, is stepping down at the end of the calendar year, the orchestra has announced. The decision is said to be her own. “These last 15 years have been enormously fulfilling to me,” she said in a press statement. Shapiro has worked with the music directors Leonard Slatkin, Iván Fischer as principal conductor, and Christoph Eschenbach. She also led the music director search that led to the appointment of Gianandrea Noseda, who will take over as music director in 2017. And, after a long period during which the orchestra didn’t tour at all, it has made five international tours in the last few years. But she has also presided over an orchestra that, despite the sheltering arms of the Kennedy Center, has largely seemed to stagnate. Initiatives like the NSO in your Neighborhood program, the SoundHealth program that brings musicians to play in local hospitals, and the new Declassified series of late-night Friday programs aimed at a younger audience have signaled the orchestra’s desire to keep abreast of current efforts in the field to reach new audiences and play a greater role in the community. Nonetheless, the orchestra, despite being one of the most financially stable in the field, has never quite reached first-tier artistic status. Few would call it one of America’s leading orchestras. [The National Symphony Orchestra’s forte for falling flat.] And some of these initiatives replaced other initiatives that had to be cut for lack of funds, like the American Residencies program, which ended under Shapiro’s tenure. The orchestra has begun touring again, but its recent recording activity is scanty, despite high hopes for more work in that area when Eschenbach arrived in 2010. When Deborah Rutter took over as president of the Kennedy Center in 2014 after a successful tenure at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, many assumed that she would work to bring the NSO to the next level. Noseda’s appointment was a step in the right direction; now, Shapiro’s departure leaves room for a new administrative direction as well. “She has proven to be a positively fearless partner,” Rutter said in a press statement, “always in service to the music, always seeking innovative ways to engage with audiences, and thoughtfully guiding the orchestra in both its artistic profile and its


One of these burgers is not like the others

The Beyond Burger is the first veggie burger to crack the Whole Foods meat case. (Photo courtesy of Beyond Meat) It looks like a beef burger. Tastes like a beef burger. And for the first time ever, it’s being sold alongside sirloin, lamb and honest-to-goodness ground beef in the meat department at Whole Foods grocery stores. The Beyond Meat Burger is a plant-based protein that is making its debut this week in the meat section at 51 Whole Foods Markets stretching from Pennsylvania to Ohio, south to Kentucky and east to Maryland and the District of Columbia–launching what maybe a new era in how people think about the protein they consume. “It’s a foot in the door into the mainstream protein case where Americans buy their protein,” said Ethan Brown, the founder of Beyond Meat, a California-based company that makes plant-based vegan alternative to animal protein. “We’ve been living in the penalty box, and we’ve been knocking on the door of the meat case since the first day I started the company in 2009.” Beyond Meat represents a food version of alternative energy, with traditional meat companies like Tyson Foods hedging its bets as consumer demand increases for healthier, plant-based alternatives to meat protein. Other investors in Beyond Meat include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Seth Goldman, the creator of Bethesda-based Honest Tea and the executive chairman of Beyond Meat. Whole Foods Market is the largest natural and organic foods grocer in the U.S., operating 442 stores in the U.S., 11 in Canada and nine in the U.K. “This Beyond Meat Burger in particular cooks like a burger and looks like one,” said Joe Wood, mid-Atlantic meat coordinator for Whole Foods Market. “This is the first time a vegan meat alternative has been merchandised in the meat department at Whole Foods Market.” Whole Foods is the exclusive seller of the Beyond Burger through the end of the year, and it is stocking the product in both the meat department, where it hopes to capture traditional meat eaters, and in the dairy/alternative foods section where vegans traditionally shop. Brown believes his yellow pea-based burger’s entry into the meat case is transformational. “The future is one where the meat case is going to be called the protein case and consumers will be able to buy plant-based and animal-based protein side by side,” said Brown, 45, who worked on clean energy before he


alternatives to meat protein. Other investors in Beyond Meat include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Seth Goldman, the creator of Bethesda-based Honest Tea and the executive chairman of Beyond Meat. Whole Foods Market is the largest natural and organic foods grocer in the U.S., operating 442 stores in the U.S., 11 in Canada and nine in the U.K. “This Beyond Meat Burger in particular cooks like a burger and looks like one,” said Joe Wood, mid-Atlantic meat coordinator for Whole Foods Market. “This is the first time a vegan meat alternative has been merchandised in the meat department at Whole Foods Market.” Whole Foods is the exclusive seller of the Beyond Burger through the end of the year, and it is stocking the product in both the meat department, where it hopes to capture traditional meat eaters, and in the dairy/alternative foods section where vegans traditionally shop. Brown believes his yellow pea-based burger’s entry into the meat case is transformational. “The future is one where the meat case is going to be called the protein case and consumers will be able to buy plant-based and animal-based protein side by side,” said Brown, 45, who worked on clean energy before he tackled meat. “”We are providing energy for the body and we can pull it from a lot of different places.”It represents what we feel is the first product that mainstream omnivores are will to seek out and put at the center of their plate.” Whole Foods soft-launched the Beyond Meat Burger nine months ago in the Rocky Mountain region, where it was a big success. It also testeed the product in Pentagon City, Va., Rockville, Md. and downtown Philadelphia. “It’s not science fiction,” said Goldman. “It’s in the stores. Until now, plant-based protein was primarily carried in the freezer section.” Goldman invested in Beyond Meat 2012. Goldman, who has a strong relationship with Whole Foods dating back to the early days of Honest Tea, played a key role in getting the product distributed beyond the alternative foods’ aisle. And for good reason. “When you are selling in that part of the store, you are reaching 6 to 7 percent of the population that is vegetarian or vegan. When you sell in the meat section, you reach the 90 percent and more who are looking for protein.” Beyond Burgers are manufactured in Columbia, Mo., from pea protein isolate, plus 20 other


A casino magnate is spending millions to fight legal marijuana in three states

to reach Adelson for comment were unsuccessful. But his supporters say the billionaire's crusade against marijuana should be seen as an individual decision rather than a business one. Adelson has had two sons who have struggled with drug addiction, one of whom died of an overdose in 2005. His wife, Miriam Adelson, is a doctor specializing in drug addiction. “This is a case of someone who's been touched very deeply by drug abuse,” Kevin Sabet, of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said in an email. Sabet pointed out that legalization supporters have received much of their own financial support from billionaire backers like Soros and Peter B. Lewis of Progressive Insurance. South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa, MGM Resorts International and Boyd Gaming are also among the top five donors to the anti-legalization cause. The American Gaming Association, a lobbying group for the gambling industry, declined to comment. Adelson is also flexing his muscle in neighboring Arizona, where he recently contributed $500,000 to fight legalization. Pharma is making its presence known in Arizona as well, with a half-million dollar contribution from Insys Therapeutics, a painkiller manufacturer that is developing a drug based on a synthetic version of THC, the primary ingredient in marijuana, that's used to treat nausea and weight loss issues in cancer and AIDS patients. But the Insys donation stands out for being the only pharma contribution against legalization this election cycle in any state. Arizona is also interesting for the broad array of businesses from multiple industries chipping in to fight legalization. Since Oct. 1, the opposition has received significant infusions of cash from the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry ($498,000), heavy equipment supplier Empire Southwest ($150,000) and Discount Tire ($1,000,000), to name a few. The founder of Discount Tire, Bruce Halle, is an ally of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), who has been a vocal opponent of the legalization initiative and who has played a key role in fundraising for the opposition. Ducey's efforts on behalf of the opposition to legalization may explain why Discount Tire and other Nevada businesses have been quicker to line up against legalization than in other states. Like Nevada, support for legalization in Arizona comes primarily from various businesses working in the medical marijuana industry and from reform groups such as the Marijuana Policy Project. Heading over to the East Coast, Adelson is again a key player in Massachusetts. His $1


D.C.-area forecast: Breezy showers today, but the weekend is mostly promising

TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 4/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current weather conditions at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL Today is a bit unsettled, with the ever-present chance of showers and an increasing breeze. But the weekend pays us back handsomely. Saturday should be perfection with no excuse for staying indoors! Sunday is a bit tricky with a chance of late-day showers, but Halloween looks fine for going out and getting treats. Today (Thursday): Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend . .. Tomorrow (Friday): Tomorrow night: (John Sonderman via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Saturday Sunshine still holds early Sunday, but clouds are likely to begin gathering by afternoon. This is courtesy of a quick-moving little upper-air disturbance, and if it gets as strong as some models show, a shower late in the day is possible. Highs should still be a delight — in the mid-to-upper 60s. Skies clear overnight, and lows fall to the 40s. Confidence: Medium Halloween (Monday)


Scientists aim largest telescope possible at ‘alien megastructure’ star

UC Berkeley scientists are training the largest fully steerable radio telescope at Tabby's star, a star shrouded in mystery and speculation of extraterrestrial life. Early Thursday morning, a new and powerful effort was underway to explore a mystery 1,500 light-years away. West Virginia’s Green Bank Telescope was hard at work, sucking up information about a strange winking star. The giant radio telescope is the biggest of its kind, with a 330-foot-wide parabolic dish, making the device the largest steerable telescope on Earth. The Green Bank Telescope is tucked away among the sleepy Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia, where state and federal laws enforce an electromagnetic quiet zone to keep interference to a minimum. For astronomers and space buffs, the star in question, KIC 8462852, has been anything but quiet. The new Green Bank Telescope effort, announced Tuesday, is the deepest probe of KIC 8462852 yet, part of University of California at Berkeley’s Breakthrough Listen program — the $100 million project backed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner with support from Stephen Hawking. “We can look at it with greater sensitivity and for a wider range of signal types than any other experiment in the world,” said Andrew Siemion, of Berkeley’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Research Center, in a news release. Last year, scientists led by Louisiana State University astronomer Tabetha S. Boyajian published a lightning rod of a study: Observations taken from the Kepler spacecraft revealed that KIC 8462852, also known as Specifically, Tabby’s Star flickered. The star’s flux — its brightness — dipped by as much as a fifth over the course of Kepler’s observations, The Washington Post reported last October. By way of comparison, should a planet as huge as Jupiter swoop in front of KIC 8462852, in a move known as a transit, such a gas-giant-size journey would dim the star only by 1 percent. (Tabby’s Star is also known as the WTF Star — for Where’s the Flux. Though, we suspect the abbreviation could stand for something else too.) What’s more, the extreme dimming did not follow a constant pattern. The dips varied in duration, as though the star were blinking fast and slow. For a star of its size and age, this was unprecedented behavior. If you are familiar with what happens when a space-science mystery meets an unprecedented observation, you might be able to guess where speculation went. Even some astronomers, meticulous by profession, were


Efforts to pry back bonus payments from service members stopped

The Pentagon had been going after thousands of soldiers who had received overpayments of $15,000 or more as an incentive to reenlist during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Los Angeles Times’ David. S. Cloud reported, “Nearly 10,000 soldiers, many of whom served multiple combat tours, have been ordered to repay large enlistment bonuses — and slapped with interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens if they refuse — after audits revealed the overpayments.” In some cases, recruiters, who weren’t authorized to do so, offered the large bonuses. Susan Haley, a former Army master sergeant who deployed to Afghanistan in 2008, told Cloud that she has to send the Pentagon $650 a month as part of her repayment of a $20,500 bonus. Some soldiers have had to file bankruptcy or saw their credit ruined because of the collection efforts. This week Washington Post reporters Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Dan Lamothe reported Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter ordered the Pentagon to stop trying to collect the payments so that soldiers could appeal the clawback. In a statement Carter said: “I am ordering a series of steps to ensure fair treatment for thousands of California National Guard soldiers who may have received incentive bonuses and tuition assistance improperly as a result of errors and in some cases criminal behavior by members of the California National Guard. While some soldiers knew or should have known they were ineligible for benefits they were claiming, many others did not.” He continued: “Ultimately, we will provide for a process that puts as little burden as possible on any soldier who received an improper payment through no fault of his or her own. At the same time, it will respect our important obligation to the taxpayer.” I’m a taxpayer, and I think, given the sacrifices soldiers make, those who didn’t know they were being overpaid shouldn’t have to pay back the money. They reenlisted to serve in some dangerous areas. And, yes, a five-figures bonus is a lot of money, but it still doesn’t begin to cover the risk they took for our freedom. Color of Money Question of the Week Live Chat Today Live in the DMV area? Come to a free financial wellness workshop Sat. Oct 29 Are you struggling to budget? Stuck on how to get out of debt? If this is you, come to Catholic Charities free Financial Wellness Workshop on Sat. Oct.


For Bob Dylan, the Nobel Prize may seem like a tombstone

in Malibu, not too far from Barbra Streisand, which like everything else about Dylan may or may not tell you something. When the award was announced, some people shouted with glee. It was innovative and exciting, and not another accolade for someone you never heard of, writing in a lost language and having no hope of a movie sale. Still, that is one of the Nobel’s admirable features. It identifies the worthy but unknown. This is in contrast to the ridiculously fashionable MacArthur “genius grants,” one of which was given to Lin-Manuel Miranda, years after he had become both rich and famous from “Hamilton” as well as “In the Heights.” To recognize the famous and reward the rich is just plain offensive. Dylan’s Nobel produced a different order of controversy. The question was whether what he did was “literature” since to award a songwriter is to deny a writer-writer. My nominee would have been Philip Roth, a dazzling novelist, who is now retired and, I imagine, sitting at home dying to throw open the door that Dylan has barred shut. Or, if the Nobel Committee wanted to stray from literature qua literature, I would recommend Stephen Sondheim, something of a genius with a lyric. Or have you never listened to “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Send in the Clowns” or, somewhat different, “Gee, Officer Krupke”? In an era when we are repeatedly told that the establishment or gatekeepers are both repudiated and irrelevant, the awarding of a prize still commands attention. In this case, 18 Swedes of black-hole obscurity proclaim the genius of Dylan and the announcement not only makes the front page of the newspapers but also makes academic worthies fall all over one another arguing the merits of the selection. But the Nobel is just the most august of those ubiquitous “10 most” lists that sit at the bottom of my computer screen, tempting me from the work at hand. Someone has anointed someone. We are piqued. We look. Why? I would get a Pulitzer for knowing. I think Dylan’s award is innovative, but I cannot judge its relative worth. Is he better than Roth, worse than Sondheim? Is he in the same league with previous laureates — Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez, to pick four almost at random? Does it matter that I can recall a lyric and even where I was when


‘This could have been a tragedy’: After Metro train nearly strikes inspectors, officials institute changes

The largest union of Metro workers is renewing calls for more attentiveness to safety and heightened responsiveness from Metro leaders. Metro will be conducting a series of “safety stand-downs” after federal inspectors and Metro track workers were nearly struck by a train near National Airport station last week. “This could have been a tragedy,” said Robert Lauby, Metro board member and chief safety officer for the Federal Railroad Administration. “We could be having a very different type of meeting today.” The near-miss incident was first reported by the Federal Transit Administration on Friday; at a meeting of the Metro board’s safety committee Thursday, Metro Chief Safety Officer Pat Lavin provided a clearer picture of what took place. The incident occurred at a blind spot along the tracks, where the train’s operator had a limited line of sight, Lavin said. As the two inspectors and one Metro worker walked along the tracks, another Metro employee was stationed as a watchman about 100 feet away. When he saw the train approaching — moving faster than the temporary 10 mph speed limit — he shouted to the others to get off the track. They jumped onto the platform as the train operator saw the people on the tracks and began to slow; when the train finally came to a stop, all but the rear car of the train had passed the inspectors. Once the train stopped, the operator stuck his head out of the window, made sure the inspectors were safe, then continued on his route. The Metro workers on the tracks then reported the incident to the Rail Operations Control Center; at that point, the train and operator were removed from service. Before that incident, another train operator had been removed from service for exceeding the speed restriction on that stretch of tracks, Lavin said. Lavin outlined his initial conclusions on what went wrong to make the near-miss incident possible: The operator clearly did not understand that the speed restriction was in place at the time, Lavin said, because the discussion recorded on Metro’s radio network indicates that he did not properly repeat back the instructions provided by the control center. It is Metro’s policy that staff must repeat instructions that they receive over the radio, to ensure that they heard and understood the directions; if a dispatcher does not hear a correct repeat-back, they are supposed to request additional confirmation from


The marijuana industry created more than 18,000 new jobs in Colorado last year

Marijuana Policy Group estimates that the majority of growth in the legal marijuana industry is not coming from new, previously untapped demand for cannabis, but rather from a reduction of the unregulated black market. "It would be easy to confuse the rapid growth in marijuana sales with an inherent growth in marijuana demand," Orens and his co-authors write. "But that is not the case. Legal marijuana sales are increasing due to a supply shift — away from gray and black market suppliers, toward licensed suppliers." The elimination of the unregulated black market is often cited by legalization proponents as a benefit of creating a legal, commercial marijuana market. In Colorado and Washington, those black markets have persisted to an extent, frustrating regulators and providing fodder for legalization critics. The new report suggests, however, that the black market is being significantly reduced by legalization, and that those reductions will continue. MPG expects that by the year 2020, more than 90 percent of the market will be supplied by regulated, state-licensed dealers. The other 10 percent will come from home growers and a small fraction of unregulated and grey market dealers who manage to maintain a customer base without transitioning fully into the legal market. When that saturation point happens, the Marijuana Policy Group expects growth in the state's marijuana industry to slow. It will begin to resemble growth in other retail industries, which largely follow population growth. On the tax side of the ledger, the report finds that marijuana is already pulling in tax revenue at three times the rate of the alcohol industry. By 2020, the firm expects marijuana taxes to outstrip cigarette taxes as a revenue-generator as well. In 2015, marijuana taxes brought in about $121 million in revenue to the state. The firm expects that number to rise to about $150 million by 2020. Orens stresses that this report only looks at the economic impacts of legalization -- by design it's blind to any effects, positive or negative, that legal weed has had on public health or criminal justice. Other recent reports have attempted to quantify those factors. Orens says, furthermore, that smart regulation doesn't happen by itself overnight. "In Colorado, we have a great rule-making process where we've adjusted and evolved our rules and controls to mature with the market," he said. One of those areas of adjustment has been the regulation and labeling of edible products.


Metrorail is not opening early for the Marine Corps Marathon, and that will add to Sunday’s traffic woes

Runners pass the Lincoln Memorial near the 10-mile mark during the 2011 Marine Corps Marathon. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) Metro’s SafeTrack maintenance program makes the 41st Marine Corps Marathon more difficult. Thousands of runners and their fans will have to deal with some extra stress just getting to the start line. Other travelers may also have a tough time, because so many runners won’t have early access to Metrorail. On Sunday, Metrorail will begin service at its regular time of 7 a.m., rather than opening two hours early. Metro has made no exceptions under its SafeTrack maintenance program to the normal opening and closing hours. The 26.2-mile run through Arlington and the District commences with a howitzer shot at 7:55 a.m. The start line on Route 110 near the Pentagon will stay open for one hour, to accommodate later arriving runners. The sponsors still urge participants to build in a buffer of about two hours before their start time so that they can get through a security screen, drop off bags and get in position for the start. The course will close at 3:10 p.m., about the usual time. This year, details about parking and shuttle buses will be more important than ever. Here are more travel tips for participants, spectators and travelers simply trying to avoid getting caught up in the road closings and traffic congestion. Weather. Start/Finish. Shuttles and local buses. - From Crystal City: Free shuttles for runners only go from 23rd Street and Crystal Drive in Crystal City to the Runners Village in the Pentagon North Parking lot from 4:30 to 8 a.m. Shuttles from the Finish Festival will leave from Oak Street and Wilson Boulevard to return both runners and spectators to 23rd Street and Crystal Drive. - Gaylord National Resort: Runners-only shuttles will leave from the intersection of Waterfront Street and St. George Boulevard between 4:30 and 6:45 a.m. to reach the Runners Village. Spectator shuttles between National Harbor and the Eisenhower Avenue Metro station will begin at 6:45 a.m., with return service continuing through 5 p.m. - Reagan Building: Runners-only shuttles will leave from the Reagan Building’s 14th Street entrance for the Pentagon between 4:30 and 7 a.m. Return by Metrorail afterward, exiting at the Federal Triangle station on the Orange, Blue and Silver lines. - Ballston: Spectators and runners can take the ART 42 bus from Ballston Common Mall to Pentagon City