D.C.-area forecast: Rain chances and humidity to dwindle in the coming days

TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 5/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current weather at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL Soon we’ll see a welcome break from rain chances and humidity! We just need to get a wavering front to finally clear our region late tonight and early tomorrow. Then we’ll have summer heat without the serious mugginess. By Sunday, our region gets a much-needed chance to dry out after recent downpours! Today (Friday): 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 into next week. Tomorrow (Saturday): Tomorrow night: Sunset in the sky over the Mall on July 4. (By Marc Andre via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Sunday: Sunday night: Sun should dominate over cloud cover, and the increasing humidity stays relatively under control Monday and Tuesday. Isolated pop-up shower and storm chances are possible, but nothing major appears likely at this time. We’ll tweak the forecast as we get closer, if necessary. Both days likely feature temperature ranges of the upper 80s to perhaps mid-90s (by Tuesday). Some breezes could keep the air breathable and prevent it from stagnating. Whew! Confidence: Medium


Study: ‘Buy America’ imposes costly burdens on Metro and other transit agencies

from imposing such regulations on other industries: the U.S. doesn’t have the vibrant train networks that other countries do. If we build out a more robust intercity train network and invest in expanding intracity rail transit, then building rolling stock in the United States will naturally become a more and more attractive proposition (intercontinental train shipping is hard). But it’s much easier to do that kind of robust network build-out if our train buying is a reasonable value-proposition rather than if we overpay relative to Europe and Japan. Buy America regulations prevent U.S. transit systems from tapping into established markets for rolling stock — trains, buses, vans, and other vehicles used by transit systems, AAF argues. The study points to CRRC MA, a subsidiary of Chinese rail car maker CRRC that manufacturers rail cars for the Boston subway system, as an example of a where the agency could have merely tapped into existing makers. “It seems unlikely that the U.S.’ metro system requirements would render it unable to purchase rolling stock from foreign suppliers the same as other countries, and there is no reason to believe that is better suited to manufacturing metro cars than its parent company, CRRC,” the study said. “By refusing to take advantage of established global supply chains for metro cars, U.S. procurements for metro cars are merely paying a premium for the companies to open manufacturing locations within U.S. borders.” Further, AAF says, the profits made from Buy America policies may not always flow to U.S. companies or workers — as in Boston’s case. “Profits made from U.S. subsidiaries can flow to parent companies, meaning that the profits may not even remain in the United States,” AAF says. Metro’s rail cars are built in Lincoln, Neb., but by Kawasaki, a Japanese manufacturer. Proponents of Buy America don’t typically fall squarely along party lines; the policy is favored by many unions and populist political candidates appealing to American workers. In his April executive order, Trump directed the federal government to adhere to guidelines that prioritize American firms and goods in federal projects. “We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure more products are stamped with those wonderful words ‘Made in the USA,’ ” Trump said then. “For too long we’ve watched as our factories have been closed and our jobs have been sent to faraway lands.” The full AAF study is available here.


The Health 202: How McConnell could solve his health-care Rubik's cube

recess winds down, activists from a coalition of progressive and leftist political groups are ramping up protests against the Senate health care bill. MEDICAL MISSIVES Opioid prescriptions dropped for the first time in the modern drug crisis The national decline over 3 years, reported by CDC, may bring modest progress against the epidemic. Lenny Bernstein Trump administration to name Georgia health official as new CDC director Brenda Fitzgerald is an obstetrician-gynecologist who will take the helm at a time when disease outbreaks are on the rise around the world. Lena H. Sun Deaths from cancer higher in rural America, CDC finds The report adds to the troubling picture of health in rural America. Lena H. Sun Reliant Care Group to Pay $8.3M to Settle Medicare Claims A Missouri-based nursing home operator has agreed to pay more than $8.3 million to settle claims that it and its affiliates provided unnecessary therapy and falsely billed Medicare. New York Times INDUSTRY RX Painkiller maker stops sales at FDA request because of abuse The maker of opioid painkiller Opana ER is pulling the drug off the market at the request of federal regulators because it's being abused. Endo International PLC said Thursday it will voluntarily stop selling the pills, approved for use in patients with severe, constant pain, after... Associated Press REPRODUCTIVE WARS Lawsuits Expected Over Oregon's Abortion Funding Bill A sweeping new bill passed by Oregon lawmakers will force taxpayers to assume some of the costs of abortions, even though many oppose the procedure, anti-abortion campaigners said Thursday as a legal expert predicted the measure will draw lawsuits. Associated Press Rep. Grijalva to fight cuts to Planned Parenthood Democratic Tucson Congressman Raul Grijalva is promising to fight efforts to kill funding for Planned Parenthood. KGUN9 DAYBOOK Coming Up - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is planning to hold "Care Not Cut" rallies in Kentucky and West Virginia on Sunday. - The Senate returns from its July Fourth recess on Monday. The House returns on Tuesday. - The Bipartisan Policy Center is holding an event on solutions to long-term care financing on July 11. - The Hill is hosting an event on "The Cost of Caring: Family Caregivers and Tax Reform," featuring Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Rep. Dan Donovan (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) on July 13. SUGAR RUSH Here are five of The Post's most popular fact checks


This shipping-container farm could someday solve the food desert problem

can really accentuate some of those flavors. You can really sit down and co-design a product with a chef.” All of the produce is grown organically, and there’s little risk of the types of E. coli scares that pop-up in conventional farming. “Occasionally a fly will get in, and that’s as serious as it gets,” Ellestad said. Another key fact: Local Roots has figured out how to make the farm efficient enough that it can sell produce at a comparable cost to conventionally-grown fruits and veggies. A Local Roots container farm on the move. (Courtesy of Local Roots) “If you can only sell produce to affluent customers in the Northeast, then that’s a fantastic business but you’re not really going to change how the food system functions for most Americans,” Ellestad said. They already have a farm of several dozen containers up and running in Los Angeles, and later this year, they’re bringing one to D.C. It will be located in Laurel because it’s adjacent to Coastal Sunbelt Produce, a major food distributor in the area that has partnered with Local Roots. Co-locating the farms means that they won’t have to worry about transportation time or costs — which also means the produce will be selected for its flavor, rather than its hardiness, as many vegetables that must travel long distances are. “We’re pretty excited about the freshness, just having it grown about as local as it can get,” said Jason Lambros, vice president of purchasing for Coastal Sunbelt. “We can be a neat place for them to experiment and grow anything we can dream of, because we have the customers for it.” The flexibility and scalability of the farms has huge implications for food deserts, a term for communities that have many fast food restaurants, but few places to purchase fresh, nutritious food. Once Local Roots has scouted a location and set up a farm, its first harvest can take place only four weeks later. The company could drop a farm in the middle of Alaska, where a bag of lettuce can cost nearly $6, or in famine-stricken South Sudan, or here in Anacostia, where there are only three full-service grocery stores in Ward 3. So why don’t they? It’s about having the infrastructure to distribute the food properly, Ellestad said. “I think simply helicoptering a farm into a food desert could be part of the solution,” Ellestad said.


means the produce will be selected for its flavor, rather than its hardiness, as many vegetables that must travel long distances are. “We’re pretty excited about the freshness, just having it grown about as local as it can get,” said Jason Lambros, vice president of purchasing for Coastal Sunbelt. “We can be a neat place for them to experiment and grow anything we can dream of, because we have the customers for it.” The flexibility and scalability of the farms has huge implications for food deserts, a term for communities that have many fast food restaurants, but few places to purchase fresh, nutritious food. Once Local Roots has scouted a location and set up a farm, its first harvest can take place only four weeks later. The company could drop a farm in the middle of Alaska, where a bag of lettuce can cost nearly $6, or in famine-stricken South Sudan, or here in Anacostia, where there are only three full-service grocery stores in Ward 3. So why don’t they? It’s about having the infrastructure to distribute the food properly, Ellestad said. “I think simply helicoptering a farm into a food desert could be part of the solution,” Ellestad said. “We would want to partner with the groups that are already working in that community … we can’t operate in isolation. The food system is far too complex and localized.” For example, they could put a container farm in a neighborhood with few amenities and sell their produce to corner stores, but if the corner stores don’t have refrigerated cases for produce, it would rot. They are currently seeking partners that work in food deserts, as well as literal ones — “In the Middle East, there’s obviously huge food-supply-chain issues in those areas,” he said. Container farms could be a solution for disaster relief after earthquakes, floods or humanitarian crises. But they’re also looking a bit further. The company is talking to aerospace manufacturer Space X because these types of growing systems could one day be used to feed astronauts on long-term missions to other planets. “The opportunities are global and intergalactic at the same time,” said Ellestad. For now, they’re going to begin growing lettuce, herbs and microgreens in the area, while expanding to other cities in the United States. And as efficient as indoor growing is, Ellestad doesn’t think it will replace good, old-fashioned rain, sun and soil.


On South Sudan’s sixth birthday, here are 6 things you should know

They eventually let me through on a charter flight, but not the food.) 4. The victims are changing In the midst of the slaughter, the government and SPLM-IO sent delegates to peace talks in Ethiopia. Drawing daily expense allowances of up to $2,000, negotiators took 18 months to reach a peace deal in August 2015. These talks changed but did not end the violence. Armed men with concealed identities began attacking civilians in towns originally spared. Government soldiers also killed and raped aid workers for the first time. This pattern matches political scientist Stathis Kalyvas’s predictions about what happens when fighting forces are unequally matched but neither has full control: They sow fear by selectively killing civilians, forcing others to denounce neighbors to save themselves. According to UNICEF, both the government and rebels have abducted children to use as soldiers. Political scientist Dara Kay Cohen has found that recruitment by abduction often leads commanders to use rape to build bonds among their troops. The “epic proportions” of government and rebel sexual violence fits this trend. 5. The peace agreement is dead The 2015 peace deal established terms for a cease-fire, reconciliation process and power sharing between Kiir and Machar. None of that has happened. A war crimes court is yet to migrate from paper to practice. Machar lives under house arrest near Pretoria, after a multilateral deal with South Africa to restrict his movements. Meanwhile, Kiir has unilaterally launched his own “national dialogue” for South Sudanese to discuss the country’s future. Political scientists Andreas Hirblinger and Thania Paffenholz argue that neither the peace accord nor national dialogue have a hope without a cease-fire. 6. Prospects A stable future under Kiir or Machar seems far-fetched. Military hard-liners are threatening to step in and take over the country. But chaos and dictatorship need not reign. Amid government intimidation, torture and detention of journalists, some young South Sudanese intellectuals have nevertheless insisted on speaking out. The Sudd Institute has delivered evidence-based research about political reform options — even when its staff has literally dodged bullets. The South Sudanese Young Leaders Forum has denounced the ethnic platforms of the government and SPLM-IO leadership. These community organizers and policy analysts could run the ministries and fill the cabinet of a professional, deliberative and inclusive government. The question is how to get them there. Sophia Dawkins is a PhD student in political science at Yale University.


How Brexit could unravel one of Bill Clinton’s most historic achievements

rival, and only months from being its enemy. Although the outbreak of World War I averted an all-out civil war, it did not prevent sectarian violence from descending on Ulster during the Irish struggle for independence from Britain or the partition of the island into North and South. Northern Ireland emerged from the insanity of political violence that terrorized the country between 1969 and 1998. In 1998, Unionists and Nationalists acknowledged the other’s right to hold political views anathema to their own, thanks to honest brokers such as Britain and the United States. Subsequently, Britain operated as an outside referee, decidedly neutral, to ensure that both sides abided by their agreements and protected the rights of all citizens. That neutrality, however, is now in serious jeopardy. A power-sharing government in Northern Ireland broke down last year. The fight was ostensibly over a funding scheme controversy, but the identity politics of Brexit, brimming with conflict over immigration, trade and national meaning, loomed large. And that brings us back to May and the DUP. Brexit divides Northern Ireland. The DUP championed “leave” while Sinn Fein, along with 56 percent of Northern Irish voters, voted “remain.” The day after the referendum, Sinn Fein opportunistically began raising the specter of Irish reunification. Both sides blew past a June 29 deadline to reach an agreement, and neither side appears willing to compromise its demands. Absent that, Northern Ireland would confront the prospect of direct rule from Westminster by a DUP-backed Tory government. It’s no wonder many are skeptical of the British government’s ability to remain an honest broker. What does the future hold for Northern Ireland, the border between North and South, or May’s Conservative government? No one knows. Considering President Trump’s vocal support for Brexit, his decidedly isolationist approach to foreign policy and his deep unpopularity abroad, it seems highly unlikely the United States has the power or will to ensure Northern Ireland’s continued stability. But, one thing is certain: May’s reference to the “Conservative and Unionist Party” is an echo of the disastrous Conservative policy that enabled political violence in Ulster, and a constitutional crisis nearly a century ago. Sadly, the legacy of that constitutional crisis and the narrow, nationalistic politics that drove it continue to haunt the political realities of the present. Northern Ireland provides a cautionary note against embracing nationalism at the expense of globalism — it threatens to upend peace.


The Daily 202: Trump aides learn the perils of speaking for a president who changes his story

it was not known whether he caused the man’s death,” -- Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has announced his opposition to drilling off of the state’s coast, -- The University of Maryland will begin offering training on the burgeoning medical marijuana industry to its pharmacy students, -- National Park Service plumbers are going to battle with 19th-century pipes to keep water flowing through D.C.’s many fountains, -- The nonprofit group that has transformed the former streetcar tunnels under Dupont Circle into a subterranean art space is trying to fundraise for expansion, VIDEOS OF THE DAY: The Post's Editorial Board gathered questions for the president from readers: This is what Americans want to ask President Trump, whom The Post's Editorial Board has criticized for not taking questions from the press and the public. An Australian political journalist gave a searing assessment of Trump's G-20 performance: Does Donald Trump's awkward #G20 performance indicate America's decline as world power? https://t.co/wmwVeNjaZs https://t.co/HXgcagtyrL Turkish protesters marched from Ankara to Istanbul to decry the imprisonment of rights activists, journalists and lawmakers: Aytug Atici, a parliamentarian from the People’s Republican Party, walked from Ankara to Istanbul to protest the government’s detention of rights activists, journalists, and other lawmakers. Nikki Haley defended Ivanka Trump sitting in for her father at a G-20 meeting: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley defended Ivanka Trump after she caused an international stir by sitting in for her father during a meeting with world leaders at the Group of 20 summit. One family explained how they would be affected by the Senate's proposed cuts in Medicaid: Under a Senate Republican health-care bill, spending for Medicaid would be cut 35 percent by 2036, according to the Congressional Budget Office. For millions of children and families on the program, that could mean losing important health services. A few dozen members and supporters of the Ku Klux Klan rallied in opposition to the planned removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville. There was a much larger counterprotest: A few dozen Ku Klux Klan members and supporters protested against a city council decision to remove a confederate statue in Charlottesville Finally, the National Zoo’s panda is great at falling out of trees: According to the National Zoo, "pandas are adept climbers and will climb and fall during play sessions." Bei Bei is a male panda cub at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.


Time to get real. Cyber threats are everywhere.

We rely more and more on software and the Internet, and as their complexity grow, more and more opportunities for mischief and crime are created. Finch provides an apt illustration by comparing the U.S. space shuttle built in the 1970s, which had 400,000 lines of software code, and today’s average automobile, which has more than 100 million lines. By his estimation, “even if you imagine that only five percent of the code in a modern car could be faulty in some way, that would provide 5 million ways a car could be hacked.” Franzetti sees it similarly, adding that “technology itself creates backdoor liabilities.” So, let’s be real with each other. Cyber threats are everywhere. The integrity of our society’s public and private institutions and our personal privacy are at risk. What are we to do? The message each of these experts shared was simple: prepare for the inevitable with a clear eye and a plan. Many businesses have taken the advice of these experts and others to heart and are doing exactly that – they are preparing and planning. However, while many businesses are adapting rapidly to this new world, our government is distracted by a partisan fight over whether the Russian government hacked our last election. This is a big deal, but while it is resolved there are critical issues that can’t wait. Many individual businesses remain ill equipped to react to coordinated attacks by state-sponsored hackers. Businesses may be unable to bear the expenses suffered from a successful cyber hacking, and could fail. When these criminals are successful our society needs clear legal principles for allocating risk and liabilities among a business’ management and owners. Most importantly, our government must define clearly the circumstances when a cyber attack by another nation is evaluated as an act of war or national aggression. These are hard issues that will require thought, consideration and policy responses. It is essential that we move our government’s response to cyber threats from partisanship to leadership as soon as possible. The threat to our way of life is not fake. It’s real. 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 “What’s Working in Washington” on WFED, a program that highlights business and innovation, and he lectures at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.


Let them eat lobster: Trump and Macron will dine at expensive Paris restaurant

President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, their wives and entourages will dine Thursday at a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, one of the most expensive eateries in Paris. (Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images) PARIS — Exactly what will happen when President Trump arrives in Paris for his much-touted Bastille Day visit is anyone’s guess. For the moment, however, one thing is certain: the teetotaler president will be dined (if not wined) in lavish fashion. French President Emmanuel Macron — who drew significant criticism for inviting Trump to France in the first place — will host a dinner for his guest of honor at Le Jules Verne, a panoramic restaurant high in the Eiffel Tower with prices that match its altitude. The two presidents, their wives and their respective entourages will dine on Thursday — the night before France’s national holiday — in the restaurant, one of the most expensive in the world’s capital of haute cuisine, the French magazine Paris Match first revealed. Recently taken over by the celebrity chef Alain Ducasse, Le Jules Verne, on the second floor of France’s most recognizable landmark, features six-course tasting menus that cost 230 euros ($262). And that’s without the wine. What will be on the menu the night of the presidential visit? Details have not been released, but the restaurant’s tasting menu already includes delicacies such as oven-baked blue lobster prepared with tomato and black olives, caviar-laden golden potatoes from Noirmoutier, an island off the France’s Atlantic coast, and, for dessert, pan-seared raspberries and apricots, doused in homemade almond ice cream. Named for Jules Verne, the famous 19th century French author who wrote classics like “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” (1870) and “Around the World in Eighty Days” (1873), the restaurant bills itself as a similar voyage away from reality. If anything, the views are as much an attraction as the cuisine. Diners are treated to panoramic views of the French capital: its grand boulevards, its winding river and, at night, its famous lights. “One does not come to the Jules Verne by chance,” reads the restaurant’s website. “It is a destination that transmits a dream.” But at the same time, Le Jules Verne, despite its symbolic status as a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, bears only one of the three Michelin stars possible for restaurants of its caliber to earn. Other restaurants in its price point carry two or three stars. The


New bureau chief assignments: Anna Fifield to China, Simon Denyer to Japan

Announcement from Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl and Deputy Foreign Editor Mary Beth Sheridan: We’re happy to announce that two of our most formidable foreign correspondents will swap roles next summer, with Anna Fifield moving to China and Simon Denyer heading to Japan. Anna, our bureau chief in Tokyo since 2014, will become China bureau chief, based in Beijing. Simon, our China bureau chief since 2013, will become Tokyo bureau chief, focused on Japan and the Koreas. These moves will strengthen The Post’s coverage of Asia by building on some impressive regional expertise. Before coming to The Post, Anna served as a Financial Times correspondent in Seoul, Tehran, Beirut and Washington. She has covered North Korea extensively, including a half-dozen trips to the country, and has reported deeply on China’s relationship with the North. In moving to Beijing, Anna will join forces with Emily Rauhala, an Asia hand who joined The Post as China correspondent in 2015 after tours in Hong Kong and Beijing for Time magazine. Simon also has many years of experience in Asia, including two tours as India bureau chief, first for Reuters and then for The Post, from 2010 to 2013. He had also served as Reuters’ bureau chief in Washington and Islamabad. He is the author of “Rogue Elephant: Harnessing the Power of India’s Unruly Democracy,” which was published in 2014.


In nature, the littlest things can have the biggest impact

all the amphibians put together.” He paused to let the concept sink in, then said, “We tend to focus on birds and mammals, and I love them, too, of course, but really the mother lode of diversity are all these little things. And things like a big old snag are incredibly important to these little creatures.” Another contributor to the issue, Australia National University's David Lindenmayer, makes the case for protecting single large old trees — aging individuals whose high-up canopies and gnarled trunks provide vital habitat and resources not found in younger specimens. In southeastern Australia, where Lindenmayer works, there are 39 species that depend on the hollows formed in the trunks of older mountain ash trees. Among them is Leadbeater's possum, a critically endangered species that lives nowhere else. “They are really quite extraordinary micro hot spots,” Lindenmayer said. And it only takes a few to make “a massive difference in the ecosystem,” providing enough resources “to make that place that would otherwise be uninhabited,” he said. A forest of towering mountain ash trees. (David Lindenmayer) But large old trees, like other small natural features, are vulnerable. Industrial logging and increasing rates of forest fire have depleted the number of mountain ash older than 150 years. And though they grow quickly — as much as a meter a year — it still takes more than a century for them to reach the size at which the “Frodo effect” starts to take hold. “Poor decisions made today or yesterday will have implications for centuries to come,” Lindenmayer said. Traditionally, environmental regulations are not designed to protect a single tree or a fleeting vernal pool. But they can be. Calhoun and her colleagues recently worked with the Environmental Protection Agency to develop a program for managing temporary wetlands: Developers can pay a fee to build over pools in inhabited areas (where the ecosystem is likely stressed anyway). That money then goes to local homeowners to fund conservation of ecologically important pools on their land. “It's not a top-down approach,” Calhoun said. It suggests a way that humans and conservation can coexist. Lindenmayer said this kind of “micromanagement” of small natural features may well be the best way for scientists to get the biggest biological bang for their buck, especially as the world's human population continues to grow. Large swaths of protected land are vital for many species, he said, but


Store-brand smackdown: The country’s largest grocer is suing a rival with just 10 U.S. stores

Kroger has about 2,800 stores across the country, and last year had $115.3 billion in sales. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg) Kroger, the country’s largest supermarket chains, is suing European grocery giant Lidl, alleging that its “Preferred Selection” in-house brand is too similar to Kroger’s “Private Selection” label. The lawsuit, filed June 30, comes as U.S. supermarkets brace for increased competition from German discount chains Aldi and Lidl, and shows just how important private-label brands, which were once considered lower-quality generic products, have become to the bottom lines of supermarkets. In the filing “Lidl has competed unfairly and continues to compete unfairly with Kroger,” the lawsuit states. “As a direct result of Lidl’s wrongful conduct, Kroger has suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable injury, including, but not limited to, injury to its trademarks and to the goodwill and business reputation associated with those trademarks.” The lawsuit was filed just two weeks after Lidl debuted its first stores in the United States. The company, which has 10 stores in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, plans to open 100 locations along the East Coast by next summer. Private-label brands have grown into a booming business in the aftermath of the recession, as shoppers hunt for bargains and grocers look to beef up profit margins by playing up their in-house labels. “The recession was the best thing to happen to private-label brands,” said Diana Sheehan, an analyst for market research firm Kantar Retail. “Shoppers, whether they wanted to or not, started buying private-label to make ends meet. And they quickly realized that private-label brands had come a long way since the 1980s.” In-house brands like Costco’s Kirkland Signature and Whole Foods Markets’ 365 Everyday Value have become a valuable way for companies to cash in on consumer demand for lower-priced goods. Chains like Trader Joe’s, where stores are almost exclusively stocked with private labels, have also added to the appeal by offering exclusive goods. (Case in point: Trader Joe’s wildly popular speculoos cookie butter.) “You can’t buy Two Buck Chuck anywhere else,” said supermarket analyst David J. Livingston, referring to the nickname for Trader Joe’s line of Charles Shaw wines, which at one time sold for $1.99. “These chains take private-label brands very seriously, and every year, it becomes a bigger part of their business.” Last year, overall in-house brands accounted for $120.5 billion in U.S. sales, up 6 percent from 2013, according to


hunt for bargains and grocers look to beef up profit margins by playing up their in-house labels. “The recession was the best thing to happen to private-label brands,” said Diana Sheehan, an analyst for market research firm Kantar Retail. “Shoppers, whether they wanted to or not, started buying private-label to make ends meet. And they quickly realized that private-label brands had come a long way since the 1980s.” In-house brands like Costco’s Kirkland Signature and Whole Foods Markets’ 365 Everyday Value have become a valuable way for companies to cash in on consumer demand for lower-priced goods. Chains like Trader Joe’s, where stores are almost exclusively stocked with private labels, have also added to the appeal by offering exclusive goods. (Case in point: Trader Joe’s wildly popular speculoos cookie butter.) “You can’t buy Two Buck Chuck anywhere else,” said supermarket analyst David J. Livingston, referring to the nickname for Trader Joe’s line of Charles Shaw wines, which at one time sold for $1.99. “These chains take private-label brands very seriously, and every year, it becomes a bigger part of their business.” Last year, overall in-house brands accounted for $120.5 billion in U.S. sales, up 6 percent from 2013, according to Kantar Retail. Consumers were most likely to buy private-label milk, over-the-counter drugs and baking supplies, while they tended to stick to national brands of pet food and hair care products. At Kroger, store brands including Private Selection, which was introduced about 20 years ago, account for more than $20 billion in annual sales, and include a range of items, from herbs and produce to smoked salmon and arranged flowers. According to the filing, Kroger is seeking compensation “including but not limited to” all profits from Lidl’s Preferred Selection brand. Krogers, which has about 2,800 stores around the country, last year had $115.3 billion in sales. A spokesman for Lidl said he could not comment on ongoing litigation, but emphasized that the new brand was created in house. “We are very proud of our Preferred Selection range, which is a unique specialty brand developed by Lidl, and one that has been positively accepted by our customers,” Will Harwood, a spokesman for Lidl, said in an email. Lidl’s 10,000 stores around the world are stocked mostly with in-house products, which the company says are priced up to 50 percent lower than at rival stores. Overall, private label sales make up 25 to


The stubborn worry about climate change that just won’t go away

fast-flowing current of air known as the jet stream, causing it to weaken. However, these ideas remain controversial and debated within climate science. The study from two years ago — the precursor to this week’s new research — suggested that warming over the Arctic Ocean is accompanied by a change in the circulation of winds, which cause more cold air to flow into North America. But the researchers didn’t want to stop there. “As an extension of the paper, we thought the Arctic warming can eventually influence on the ecosystem over North America by modulating climate factors in controlling vegetation growth,” said climate scientist Jong-Seong Kug of Pohang University of Science and technology in South Korea, one of the new study’s authors, in an email to The Post. In the new study, the scientists examined temperature data from both the Siberian Chukchi Sea and the North American continent between 1979 and 2015 to confirm that unusually warm springs in the Arctic were associated with cooling in much of northern North America, as well as drying in certain areas, particularly the south-central United States. Next, they examined satellite data on plant cover over the past few decades, as well as data from on-site measurements of the carbon dioxide and other gases produced and exchanged by vegetation across the continent. These data suggest that plant productivity declines in many parts of North America during the warm-Arctic years, with the greatest effects seen around the Great Lakes Basin — probably because the vegetation in this region is particularly sensitive to the cold, the researchers note. They also note that there are some severe declines observed in the south-central United States as well, possibly caused by the decrease in precipitation. Model simulations supported the idea that these changes in vegetation were caused by the unusual climate conditions. The researchers also evaluated national crop yield data for corn, soybeans and wheat and found that agriculture suffers in some areas as well during these unusual years. The Great Plains region tends to experience declines in all three crops, and Texas has seen particularly severe declines in its corn harvest, with its productivity shrinking as low as 20 percent of its typical yield. “Crop success depends on a complicated interplay between temperature, precipitation amount, and even timing of snowmelt, and it appears from this work that recent Arctic warming may be disrupting normal patterns,” noted Francis, the


Soldier is accused of killing his wife and a New York state trooper, police say

said — had been shot on the same property but would recover. Davis would die at a hospital, less than an hour after he arrived at Walters’s home. A toddler in the Walters home was taken by child protective services, according to the Watertown Daily Times. Beach said investigators seized “a number of weapons” and didn’t know which one had killed Davis or Nichole Walters. The soldier was charged with two counts of murder — first-degree for the officer, and second-degree for his wife. Spectrum News showed troopers leading the infantryman, shirtless and shoeless, into LeRay Town Court. But his arraignment had to be delayed after Walters failed to answer the judge’s questions. “I’m not asking you whether or not you’re guilty of this charge,” the judge tells Walters in Spectrum’s footage from the courtroom. “I’m simply asking you whether or not you understand why you’re here.” “I do not, sir,” Walters replied. He had no lawyer, according to the court. The soldier and his wife Nichole Walters met her husband around the time she graduated from high school in New York, a friend told the Associated Press. The friend said she was raising a little boy with her husband. Military records show Walters enlisted in the Army in 2007 at age 23. He served two year-long tours in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, during which medals indicate he probably saw combat. Now 32, he is a staff sergeant stationed at Fort Drum. Noncommissioned officers with his rank typically oversee a squad of fewer than a dozen soldiers in an infantry unit. “He did his job and never complained. He was a good soldier when I was there,” said a soldier who served with Walters at Fort Drum and requested anonymity to discuss his relationship with Walters. The soldiers served together in the same squad during Walters’s first tour in Afghanistan in 2009, where the unit saw heavy combat, the soldier said. The soldier met Walters’s wife, Nichole, before he was reassigned to another installation. “She seemed like a good person,” the soldier said. “She was always there for him,” he added, including Walters’s second tour in Afghanistan. The soldier did not know about the killings until he was contacted by The Washington Post. “It really is a shame. It’s tragic,” he said. A study by the Rand Corp. estimated that 18.5 percent of veterans who served in Iraq and


The Energy 202: Trump could start his infrastructure push at Energy Department

taken on August 29, 2011 shows the four reactors of the Bugey's nuclear plant in Saint-Vulbas, 35 Kms east of Lyon, central eastern France. (JEAN-PIERRE CLATOT/AFP/Getty Images) -- France could close up to 17 nuclear reactors by 2025, the nation's environment minister said on Monday. The big question HURRICANE-FORCE SPIN This Week's Issue: The Uninhabitable Earth https://t.co/zBtIpS06Uh https://t.co/32ryki9osI -- About that New York magazine story... In “The Uninhabitable Earth,” David Wallace-Wells warned readers that "[i]f your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible.” He went on to describe in 7,300 words an apocalyptic, worst-case-scenario vision of Earth crippled by climate change-induced perpetual war and unbreathable air. The widely shared article sparked backlash among many climate communicators for its, in the words of The Atlantic's Robinson Meyer, "unusually specific and severe depiction of what global warming will do to the planet." Andrew Freedman writes in Mashable that Wallace-Wells gets much of the science wrong: The magazine cover story, entitled, "The Uninhabitable Earth," takes the bleakest climate science projections and assumes the worst from there. It's one of the darkest portrayals of our climate future that's been written recently, at least from a nonfiction perspective. In several places, the story either exaggerates the evidence or gets the science flat-out wrong. This is unfortunate, because it detracts from a well-written, attention-grabbing piece. It's still worth reading, but with a sharp critical eye. Eric Holthaus writes in Grist that "scaring the sh** out of [people] is a really bad strategy" for getting them to want to address climate change: The real problem is that time and time and time again, psychology researchers have found that trying to scare people into action usually backfires. Presented with the idea that the planet that gives us life might be dying, parts of our brain shut down. We are unable to think logically. Our brain’s limbic system is hard-wired to prioritize these kinds of threats, so we shift into fight-or-flight mode. And because the odds look stacked against us, most choose to flee. The real problem is that time and time and time again, psychology researchers have found that trying to scare people into action usually backfires. Presented with the idea that the planet that gives us life might be dying, parts of our brain shut down. We are unable to think logically.


National Zoo native Tai Shan turns 12

Tai Shan with a soccer ball when he lived at the National Zoo. (Courtesy of Ann Batdorf/Smithsonian’s National Zoo) Giant panda Tai Shan, who once called the Smithsonian’s National Zoo his home and now lives in China, turned 12 on Sunday. U.S.-born #panda Tai Shan celebrates 12th birthday in Sichuan https://t.co/Dx9vfoHUZL To celebrate, the panda enjoyed ice cakes. US-born giant #panda Tai Shan celebrates 12th birthday in southwest China's #Sichuan on July 9th https://t.co/OeqaFGuqvL Tai Shan became famous as the first giant panda born at the National Zoo in the District’s Woodley Park neighborhood. He went to China in 2010, as part of a long-running agreement with that country on breeding pandas. His nickname was “Butterstick” because he was tiny at birth. He is the brother of Bei Bei and Bao Bao.


Watch giant panda swing — and fall — from trees at National Zoo

According to the National Zoo, "pandas are adept climbers and will climb and fall during play sessions." Bei Bei is a male panda cub at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. What is rather hefty, covered in black-and-white fur and enjoys climbing — and falling — from trees? The National Zoo’s giant panda Bei Bei, apparently. And zookeepers shared video showing the bear doing what pandas do — climb trees. Don’t worry, panda lovers. The zoo assures viewers that pandas are capable climbers, and even though he looks like he takes a few tumbles, he is fine. Climbing and falling are part of his play sessions, zookeepers said. At several points in the short video, however, it does seem like the big fuzz-ball-bear enjoys picking tree limbs that are rather small for his weight. The limbs break and he falls. In another, he hangs upside down for a bit before falling into a grassy patch. And then one shows him gracefully scooting down a tree. Bei Bei was born Aug. 22, 2015, and is one of Mei Xiang’s three surviving cubs. The cub’s siblings — Bao Bao and Tai Shan — are in China.


This law might explain why a Russian lawyer wanted to meet with Trump

payments. In effect, they were stealing vast sums of money from the Russian state. Magnitsky learned too much about the scam, and in 2008 he was arrested. In jail he was reportedly deprived of medical care and beaten — until he died. In the wake of Magnitsky’s death, Browder launched an extraordinary crusade against the officials who had been involved in the original scam as well as Magnitsky’s death. In 2012 he convinced Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law that has now forbade 44 people, including bureaucrats and tax officials associated with Magnitsky’s death, from entering the United States or doing business with U.S. banks. The Magnitsky Act bothered the Russian leadership — in fact, it really, really bothered them, far more than it should have. In part that may have been because it focused attention on the real source of so much Russian wealth: theft from the state. In part it may have been because the powerful officials involved, like all powerful officials in Russia, care a lot about being able to travel freely to the West in order to buy property, to go skiing, to hide their money. It also set a precedent. Suddenly there was a way to target all of those gray bureaucrats, the men behind the scenes who give the orders to loot the state and kill citizens. The Magnitsky Act was the template for the sanctions that the Obama administration placed more broadly on Russian individuals and businesses in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As in the Magnitsky case, those sanctions were also very specific: They did not target Russians in general but rather prevented particular people and companies from interacting with the West, traveling and doing business here. At the time, the U.S. government explained that the sanctioned people and companies were selected for their proximity to Putin. Details are slowly coming out about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer during his father's presidential campaign in June 2016, including the identity of an eighth participant. By contrast, Putin’s response to the Magnitsky sanctions was designed to hit ordinary Russians, especially ordinary Russian children: He banned Americans from adopting them. His response to the Ukraine sanctions was similar: He banned Western food products, which led to higher prices for ordinary Russians, too. Nevertheless, a lot of very rich, very influential Russians remained angry. They deployed Veselnitskaya


A massive atmospheric experiment is planned for August solar eclipse

The Hinode spacecraft captured this image of the Jan. 6, 2011, solar eclipse. (NASA) On Aug. 21, as the moon passes in front of the sun and casts a shadow across the United States, millions are expected to gaze at the totality. Meanwhile, a smaller crowd will be glued to 150 custom-made radio receivers set up across the country. The project, called EclipseMob, is the largest experiment of its kind in history. By recording changes in the radio signal, these citizen scientists will collect data on the ionosphere — the region of the atmosphere where, miles above Earth's surface, cosmic and solar radiation bumps electrons free from atoms and molecules. It plays a crucial role in some forms of long-distance communication: Like rocks skipped across a pond, radio waves can bounce along the top of the ionosphere to travel farther around the globe. But signals passing through the ionosphere sometimes behave in unpredictable ways, and scientists still have a lot of questions about its properties and behavior. “Any solar eclipse is a good opportunity to study the ionosphere,” said Jill K. Nelson, an expert in signal processing at George Mason University in Virginia. The level of ions in the ionosphere fluctuates from day to night, decreasing in the absence of sunlight. But this change happens gradually during normal sunrises and sunsets. The sudden light-to-dark switch as it occurs during the eclipse, then, is an opportune moment to observe this layer of the atmosphere. “We’re using the radio signal strength to understand what’s going on in the ionosphere,” Nelson said. The first attempt to study radio signals during an eclipse occurred in 1912, Nelson said. But EclipseMob has a few advantages over past studies: the number of people involved, the consistency of the radio signals and, by hooking receivers to smartphones, accurate data on location and time. And because the eclipse passes over populous regions in the continental United States, the August totality will be particularly useful. EclipseMob participants are scattered, with some close to the path of the eclipse and others located in far corners of the country. The total solar eclipse in August 2017 will travel across the United States from Oregon to South Carolina. But if the moon rises in the east and sets in the west, why does the eclipse shadow travel from west to east? Dear Science is on the case. This experiment will test low-


How Trump may have helped Donald Jr. lie about his explosive Russia meeting

the Times disclosed that according to sources who had seen the email chain, it revealed that the meeting was really about sharing material about Hillary Clinton that came from the Russian government. That forced another statement from Trump Jr., in which he conceded that he had been offered information about Clinton but suggested he had no idea what the source of the information was. That last suggestion, of course, was blown up by the emails themselves. The point here, though, is that, if the president signed off on Trump Jr.’s original statement, he had to have known as he did so that the real purpose of the meeting was to get this information from (as Trump Jr. had been told) the Russian government. This has basically now been confirmed by Trump’s own lawyer. Sekulow says the president was told of the emails days ago. It is extremely likely that this means the president was told about them as his inner circle debated its initial response to the breaking story. It’s hard to imagine the president’s lawyers not telling him of the existence of these emails at that point. “It is highly likely that he would have been told about the emails before signing off on Trump Jr.’s statement, if either Trump or his lawyers were minimally competent,” Richard Painter, the chief ethics czar under George W. Bush, told me this morning. It is of course possible that Trump knew of the meeting at the time it happened (something his team denies), which would take this into dramatic new territory, and this will be fleshed out in due course. And in the larger scheme of nonstop lies coming from Trump and the White House — including about the Russia probe — signing off on this statement might seem like a routine lie, at least relatively speaking. But it’s significant. Whatever the legal relevance of this email chain turns out to be, this is the first time we have concrete confirmation of the Trump campaign’s willingness, or even eagerness, to collude with Russia’s efforts to tip the election, one that involved his son, son-in-law (Jared Kushner), and then-campaign chair (Paul Manafort). If the Times’ reporting is accurate, Trump is now directly implicated in an active effort to mislead the country about concrete, known facts that illustrate beyond doubt his campaign’s eagerness to conspire with Russia’s efforts to sabotage our democracy. This is


Earth is on its way to the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs, scientists warn

on, we're going to be looking at 50 to 75 percent of our species lost over the next hundred years.” Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity, agreed with the researchers' conclusion that the window for humans to take action is quickly getting narrow. “The study is right in raising alarm bells … especially with our change in climate,” Greenwald said. “We really need to protect as much habitat as we can now. Our population continues to expand, our consumption continues to expand. We're going in the wrong direction, quickly.” The concept of a sixth mass extinction is not new, and the study is not the first to make the case that Earth is already in the middle of it. Two years ago, some of the same researchers argued that species are disappearing at a rate unparalleled since the Cretaceous mass extinction of dinosaurs. The 2015 study found that vertebrate species have been disappearing up to about 100 times the normal rate over the last century. On a happier note, scientists point to efforts to save endangered species and their habitats. “We've dramatically increased the area protected by national parks, increased the area of the oceans that's being protected. We have reduced deforestation rate in the Amazon,” Pimm said. “I'm not trying to say that it's all good news, but there's good news out there.” And there's a chance to save endangered species — as long as humans fully commit to it, Suckling said. “Because once they go on endangered species list, they go from neglect or maybe tacit management to very active, focused efforts to save them. And those work,” Suckling said. “The good news here is that once humans decide to save individual species — and we're quite good at it — we can actually reverse this negative trend.” Concerned citizens can do practical things like planting native plans in their yard. They can also contact their representatives in Congress to show their support for habitat protection, Greenwald said, though he cautioned that the current Congress is “the most anti-endangered species in history.” The Center for Biological Diversity has tallied 34 pending bills that would weaken protections for endangered species, Greenwald said. Read more: Institute dedicated to forging peace is targeted for extinction These creatures faced extinction. The Endangered Species Act saved them. Why these researchers think dinosaurs were minutes away from surviving extinction


Rising seas below, predators above. You can see why these birds are angry.

Seaside sparrow fledglings just after leaving the nest. Too young to fly, their large feet help them run through the grass. (Elizabeth Hunter) It was a no-brainer, or so it seemed. The sea level was rising on the Georgia coast, and their little nests were being lost to flooding. There appeared to be one option: move. But it’s not quite that simple for the state’s population of about 30,000 seaside sparrows. Moving their nests to higher ground in the marsh turned into a debacle for parents. It allowed predators — raccoons, grackles, fish crows, marsh rats — easy access to eggs and squeaky hatchlings. “Seems like whenever an egg was in a nest, there was a raccoon there ready to grab it up,” said Elizabeth Hunter, a researcher who observed the birds. “It seems that there are different predators, and they are more abundant than ever.” Hunter’s study, published Wednesday in the journal The Condor: Ornithological Applications, found that the feeding frenzy isn’t exactly natural to the coast. The various predators followed coastal development, attracted by all its human garbage, which led them to the marsh and, finally, fresh sparrow eggs and bite-sized babies. Hunter said that hopefully her research will call attention to this unintended consequence of expansion and prompt improvement in waste disposal and pickup. Aerial view of seaside sparrow nesting habitat. (Todd Schneider) The study started in 2012, when Hunter was a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia; she now is at the University of Nevada at Reno. But it could not determine if the floods that led to the feast had an impact on the seaside sparrow population. Stay tuned, she said. Development doesn’t appear to be stopping. Coastal Georgia is the primary spot for seaside sparrows. But subspecies can also be found in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. As things stand, it’s just awful right now to be a sparrow and a parent in soggy coastal Georgia. By nature, these sparrows build their nests low in the marsh grass, where they can’t be seen. Imagine their sorrow when they return to nests that are soaked and eggs that have vanished, floating somewhere on a tide — or under it. A seaside sparrow nest with eggs. (Elizabeth Hunter.) Going higher seems like an easy fix. But the animal kingdom is rife with peeping Toms, animals that poach eggs and fledglings that take 10 days


The 70 mph test run that Hyperloop is hailing as a ‘Kitty Hawk moment’

bringing propulsion capabilities to about 1,000 feet of track. The company’s “Devloop” test track outside Las Vegas is 1,640 feet long and simulates vacuum conditions. “By achieving full vacuum, we essentially invented our own sky in a tube, as if you’re flying at 200,000 feet in the air,” Shervin Pishevar, executive chairman of Hyperloop One, said in a news release. “For the first time in over 100 years, a new mode of transportation has been introduced. Hyperloop is real, and it’s here now.” Hyperloop was originally envisioned by Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk in August 2013, when he released a paper called “Hyperloop Alpha” for a revolutionary high-speed mass-transit system. In Musk’s vision, trains could reach speeds as high as 760 mph, coasting on an air cushion in steel tubes that traversed large swaths of land. The pods would be propelled by linear induction motors and air compression, and, in Musk’s vision, be a safer and lower-cost alternative to other modes of travel. As The Washington Post reported: He claimed that the system would be safer, faster and cheaper than trains, cars, boats and supersonic planes, for distances of up to at least 900 miles, and said that it would be resistant to earthquakes and generate more energy through its solar panels than it would use. Hyperloop One is one of the leading groups competing to make Elon Musk's open-sourced transportation idea a reality. This animation demonstrates a test of their technology in development. Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One likened its May test run to the inaugural flight of the Wright Brothers over Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903. It remains to be seen whether being zipped through a vacuum tube becomes as ubiquitous as flying one day, but with its first test the prospect seems a bit more real. “In this historic moment, Hyperloop One tested all the system’s components, including its highly efficient motor, vehicle suspension, magnetic levitation, electromagnetic braking, vacuum pumping system and more, proving the full system’s components operate successfully as a single integrated unit in a vacuum,” Hyperloop said. With its announcement, the company also unveiled the more sophisticated pod it will be using for future tests. Dubbed the XP-1, the 28-foot aluminum and carbon fiber pod will simulate transporting passengers and cargo through Hyperloop’s network of high-speed tubes. The Hyperloop XP-1, which will be used to simulate transporting passengers and cargo through Hyperloop. (Hyperloop)


New York Magazine climate doom piece is a case study in how not to communicate risk

Climate warming over the period 2012-2016. (NASA) The New York Magazine cover story “The Uninhabitable Earth” describes the planet’s future as a litany of horrors, brought on by climate change. “It is, I promise, worse than you think,” begins David Wallace-Wells’s essay, a 7,000-word declaration of doom. This first sentence is a microcosm of what’s fatally flawed about the story in its entirety. There’s no qualification, there’s no admission it might not be so bad. While scientists and journalists debate whether Wallace-Wells presents the plausible worst-case climate change scenario accurately for later this century*, what I found troubling about the piece — as someone who writes about weather and climate risk every day — is its failure to acknowledge that the chance of the dire scenario described is actually quite low, even remote. Nor does it discuss the range of more likely outcomes, and explore their consequences — which are serious — even if not a catastrophe everywhere. As a weather communicator, it would be as if, based on an outlier computer model forecast, I decided to write a scare story about a devastating category 5 hurricane hitting Miami 10 days from now. And doing so without telling my audience that weather forecasts so far out into the future aren’t particularly reliable and that other models simulated no hurricane at all. It would draw a lot of clicks, but it wouldn’t be responsible. Chris Mooney, in his review of the story, specifically points out Wallace-Wells’s failure to offer a sense of the actual likelihood of the worst-case scenario described. “But what are the odds? That’s the crucial question,” Mooney writes, then states, “there is a good reason for hope we can avoid the very worst outcomes.” In an interview with Mooney, Wallace-Wells confesses maybe the scenario’s likelihood should have been discussed. “You raise the question of odds, and it’s a fair critique, I think,” he said. “I could’ve included some estimates of probability and likelihood, and in some earlier drafts I did work in a few of those numbers.” Wallace-Wells then makes the stunning admission that he himself feels a warming of 2.5 to 3 degrees Celsius is most likely by the end of the century, rather than the apocalyptic 6 to 8 degrees which served as the basis for his story. Fully exploring and communicating plausible worst-case scenarios is, to be sure, an important part of risk communication. But


“Why the hell am I paying more for this?” Major egg operation houses “USDA Organic” hens at three per square foot

organic porches reflects Herbruck’s commitment to the hen health and food safety that our customers and consumers demand,” Herbruck said in a statement. “Porches keep the hens safe, allowing them to be outdoors while protecting them from wild birds like ducks and geese, and predators like vermin that spread disease and can hurt or kill hens.” Although regulations for animal welfare can mean higher food prices and are sometimes dismissed as a contemporary fad of the elite, Americans — going back as far as the Puritans — have looked askance at practices they consider cruel. In 1641, a legal code in Massachusetts banned “any Tirrany or Crueltie toward any bruite Creature which are usuallie kept for man’s use.” More recently, U.S. consumers have taken a particular interest in chickens. Seeking to accommodate consumer preferences, large companies such as McDonalds, Subway, Walmart and Starbucks have announced that they will shift to cage-free products. Voters, too, have shown a willingness to reform chicken operations by effectively banning cages. In 2008, California voters approved stricter rules for confinement at laying hen operations; in 2016, Massachusetts did the same. Similar concerns for animal welfare have spurred the demand for organic eggs, which are supposed to come from birds that are not only cage-free but also allowed outside. About 12 percent of grocery store expenditures for eggs goes toward those labeled USDA Organic, and many buyers appear to think the hens are allowed out. More than 80 percent of consumers who regularly buy organic products believe it is important that organic eggs come from chickens that are allowed outside, according to a March survey by Consumer Reports. The Cornucopia Institute, a watchdog group that has sought to guard against weakening of organic standards, has complained repeatedly to the USDA about operations that keep their hens inside and publishes a consumer guide to egg brands. But exactly what the USDA Organic label signifies on a carton of eggs has become unclear. The vast majority of small “organic” egg farms in the United States do allow their hens outside. For example, all the farms that produce eggs for the Pete and Gerry’s brand are required to let their hens out. “We think that’s what consumers expect of organic eggs,” said Jesse Laflamme, co-owner and chief executive at Pete and Gerry's Organics. But some of the large egg operations — such as Herbruck's; Kreher’s in Clarence, N.Y.; and


We’re starting to shop online as often as we take out the trash

more work in outer-city communities but wiped out downtown shopping centers. Heightened interest in online shopping today is doing the same thing to the country’s storefronts — "only faster," said Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University’s business school. The trend, Cohen said, “is in a state of acceleration. And the Internet is going to keep growing.” Driving this trend, Cohen said: Older shoppers are getting less skeptical about typing their credit card number into a machine. And younger generations, he added, are adopting voice assistants, such as Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa, that can make the orders for them. Meanwhile, entry-level jobs in stores that are still thriving aren't proliferating at the rate they once did, thanks in part to automation. Over the next seven years, per the Bureau of Labor statistics, employment of cashiers in the United States is projected to grow 2 percent, while the average for all jobs is expected to increase 7 percent. “Advances in technology, such as self-service checkout stands in retail stores and increasing online sales, will continue to limit the need for cashiers,” according to the BLS website. Meanwhile, people keep remotely shopping. Amazon reported what it called record-breaking sales on Tuesday. The e-commerce giant said sales from Prime Day, its annual shopping event, surged 60 percent from last year’s 30-hour-window. (The company didn’t release any hard sales numbers.) Amazon is owned by Jeffrey P. Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post. As Prime Day hype flooded social media — the sale trended on both Facebook and Twitter — the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents retail workers, “Amazon’s brutal vision for retail is one where automation needlessly replaces good people and good jobs,” said Marc Perrone, the group’s president. An Amazon representative said the company has no plans to automate jobs at Whole Foods after announcing plans last month to purchase the high-end grocery chain: "Amazon has no plans to use the technology it developed for Amazon Go to automate the jobs of cashiers at Whole Foods. No job reductions are planned as a result of the deal." While Amazon does embrace automation — the company opened a grocery store in Seattle last year that uses door sensors instead of cashiers — it employs more than 90,000 full-time workers across its fulfillment network and aims to create roughly 25,000 more part-time warehouse jobs by next spring.


Shoplifting in Chicago dropped after a change in the food stamp program

Theft from Chicago grocery stores dropped after Illinois changed its food stamp distribution schedule. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg) Spreading out when food stamps are issued reduced theft from Chicago grocery stores by more than 30 percent, according to Before 2010, most benefits in Illinois under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the massive federal food stamp program, were given out on the first of the month. In 2010, the state enacted a new policy that spread distribution more evenly throughout the month. There are a few reasons to do this: Officials don't get hit with a huge workload all at once, and stores don’t suffer overcrowding. And previous research found that some grocery stores hike up their prices near the beginning of the month, when they know food stamp recipients will get their benefits. Packham and Carr examined crime reports from Chicago in the periods before and after the change and found that crime — particularly theft at grocery stores — dropped off dramatically after the policy was enacted in February 2010. Other research To test this idea, the researchers examined the pattern of grocery store theft each month. When the benefits were distributed mostly on the first of the month, there was a big spike in grocery store theft about three weeks later. After the policy change, that pattern disappeared. The idea at the heart of the new study is what economists call "consumption smoothing." Monthly paychecks and government benefits are often distributed at the beginning of the month. But people are better off when they spend about the same amount from week to week, rather than using all their income at once. We’re surprisingly bad at budgeting our spending ourselves, said Jennifer Doleac, a professor studying the economics of crime at the University of Virginia, so good policies can help us budget. Packham and Carr estimate that the Illinois policy reduced grocery store theft in Chicago by over 500 cases per year. The research suggests that the timing of government aid, not just the amount, can impact its effectiveness. “The state’s policy didn’t involve the provision of more benefits,” Doleac said. “They were just shifting around the timing of when those benefits are given out.” Seven states — Alaska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Vermont — currently have one SNAP distribution date per month. Because the benefits are loaded automatically onto a special debit card,


‘I just don’t know.’ Another answer-starved White House news briefing, annotated

and met separately with his national security team, and a number of meetings with members of his legislative affairs team and the Vice President specifically on health care. Lastly, he had a meeting with his Faith Advisory Board to discuss issues important to the faith community. As you all know, later tonight the President will depart for Paris, France for meetings and celebrations with America's oldest ally. Tomorrow, the President will have lunch with American military commanders, after which he will join French President Macron for a tour of the French Military Museum. After a bilateral meeting with the President, the two leaders will hold a press conference. And in the evening, President Trump and the first lady will dine with the President and his wife. On Friday, the President will attend France's annual Bastille Day celebration — the first President to do so since 1989. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United States entry into World War I, the people of France have designated America this year's national guest of honor. Troops from the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division, the first unit to arrive on French soil in 1917, will march in the parade, and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds will conduct a flyover with planes with the French air force. And after the parade, the President will return back to the United States. On the topic of previous inquiries — because I like to do my best to get back to you — yesterday I received a question from John Gizzi about whether we'd support changing Senate blue slip procedures for judicial nominees. And the White House is deferring to the Senate on this Senate procedure, and we have multiple highly qualified nominees waiting for Senate hearings, and hope the Senate can start moving them along quickly. Finally, and lastly, we understand the Chinese hospital treating Nobel Peace Prize laureate and writer, Liu Xiaobo, has invited U.S., German medical experts to China for medical consultations. We remain concerned that both Mr. Liu and his family are unable to communicate with the outside world and that he is not free to seek the medical treatment of his choosing. We continue to call on the Chinese authorities to grant him full parole and to release his wife from house arrest and provide them the protections and freedoms, such as freedom of movement and access to appropriate medical care consistent with


Thunderbirds will conduct a flyover with planes with the French air force. And after the parade, the President will return back to the United States. On the topic of previous inquiries — because I like to do my best to get back to you — yesterday I received a question from John Gizzi about whether we'd support changing Senate blue slip procedures for judicial nominees. And the White House is deferring to the Senate on this Senate procedure, and we have multiple highly qualified nominees waiting for Senate hearings, and hope the Senate can start moving them along quickly. Finally, and lastly, we understand the Chinese hospital treating Nobel Peace Prize laureate and writer, Liu Xiaobo, has invited U.S., German medical experts to China for medical consultations. We remain concerned that both Mr. Liu and his family are unable to communicate with the outside world and that he is not free to seek the medical treatment of his choosing. We continue to call on the Chinese authorities to grant him full parole and to release his wife from house arrest and provide them the protections and freedoms, such as freedom of movement and access to appropriate medical care consistent with Chinese constitution, legal system, and international commitments. And with that, I'll take your questions. Phil. Q Sarah, thanks. Has President Trump had any communication with his son, Donald Trump, Jr., over the last several days? And was he involved in helping Donald Trump, Jr. craft his statement to the press over the weekend on Air Force One, as was reported in the New York Times? MS. SANDERS: I'm not sure about specific communications and the nature of those conversations. I know that they've spoken at least at some point over the last few days, but beyond that I don't have any other further details. Q Has he helped him with his response? MS. SANDERS: Not that I'm aware of, but I just don't know the answer to that, Phil. Q So is that not true? MS. SANDERS: I've been telling you, I'm just not sure. I don't know the answer. I'll have to check and let you know. Q Okay. Can you find out? MS. SANDERS: Yeah. Matthew. Q Thank you. You opened today by talking about the strong character and integrity of Christopher Wray. He said, during the hearing today, that he does not consider Mueller's probe to be


Half a million Medicare recipients were prescribed too many opioid drugs last year

(Toby Talbot/AP) Nearly 70,000 people on Medicare's drug plan received “extreme” amounts of narcotic painkillers in 2016 and more than 22,000 others appeared to be “doctor shopping” for drugs, patterns that put both groups “at serious risk of opioid misuse or overdose,” a government watchdog reported Thursday. In all, about half a million people on the drug plan took amounts of the powerful drugs considered too large under standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the Inspector General's office of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. That number excludes people who had cancer or were in hospice, who may require large doses of painkillers. The report highlights another aspect of the prescription opioid epidemic that killed more than 15,000 people via overdoses in 2015: potential abuse by older and disabled people who qualify for Medicare Part D, the program's optional prescription drug benefit. In 2016, 43.6 million people were covered. Medicare primarily serves people who are older than 65. The opioid crisis has been most closely linked to people between the ages of 25 and 44, particularly economically stressed whites and people in rural and small-town America. But the new report shows that older people are far from immune. As pressure to rein in use of addictive painkillers has grown along with the epidemic, some older people and patients in chronic pain have pushed back, worrying that they will not be able to obtain the medications they say allow them to function. In a Washington Post poll published in December, a majority of long-term opioid users said the drugs have dramatically improved their lives by relieving intractable pain, and two-thirds said the relief is well worth the risk of addiction. Respondents who took part in The Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey on long-term, opioid painkiller use share their experiences of living with pain. The nearly 70,000 extreme users received the equivalent of 240 milligrams of morphine every day for the entire year, Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson's office reported. The CDC recommends avoiding consumption of more than 90 milligrams per day and says use of the drugs for more than three months substantially raises the risk of dependence. The most common drugs were Tramadol and pills containing hydrocodone or oxycodone. In the extreme group, 678 people received more than 1,000 milligrams a day for the entire year — a level that might indicate they


Russia may sabotage the next election, too. What will Trump and Republicans do about it?

takes the Russian election threat. In an interview with Reuters, he did say that we have to find out what happened during 2016, because “we can’t allow a thing like that to happen to our election process.” But he again dismissed the Russia story as a “hoax,” suggesting that his adamant denials of collusion are rendering him less willing to take the prospect of interference seriously. Indeed, after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he seemed eager to put the Russia meddling question behind us. What’s more, it’s unclear how seriously the Trump administration is taking the threat of future Russian sabotage. NBC News and ABC News have both reported that state officials — in both parties — are worried about the security of upcoming elections, and they report getting little guidance from the Trump administration in this regard. It’s true that the Obama administration was also criticized, justifiably, for failing to act sufficiently on Russian interference in the 2016 election. But if Trump is going to criticize this failure — as he has done — that opens his administration up to questions as to what they are doing about upcoming interference. And remember, during the 2016 campaign, Democrats similarly asked congressional Republican leaders to present a united front against Russian meddling. They refused, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) questioning whether it even happened. Democrats take new steps to guard against hacking Meanwhile, a senior Democrat tells me that the DCCC is taking a whole range of new steps to shore up its defenses against Russian interference. This includes a training program that is designed to teach operatives and staff how to better detect hacking efforts and safeguard personal and other information, and efforts to provide direction in this regard to the campaigns of Democratic House candidates. The Democrat tells me that the lessons of 2016 have taught the party that preparation for such interference is now considered an essential aspect of running a professional contemporary campaign. To be sure, the possibility of future Russian hacking efforts raises all sorts of complicated questions for campaigns. Should campaigns use information that is injected into the public domain by Russian hacking efforts, since after all news organizations cover them as newsworthy information? Or should they refrain? This question will likely be debated seriously in coming months. But one thing we do know is that one of Russia’s key goals in


Stuck at the gate waiting for your flight and feeling hungry? There’s an app for that.

travel experience and potentially growing airport revenue. The app is expected to be available at 10 to 15 major airports this year. Another app, At Your Gate, is launching at San Diego International Airport next month. This week, only a few food and retail options were available through the app, but more are expected to be added in coming days, officials with the D.C.-based Airport Sherpa said. That means, soon travelers on Concourse D will be able to order a meal from the Chick-fil-A on Concourse A or the famous Baltimore crab cake from Obrycki’s. But it’s not just food. Forgot your earphones or cellphone charger? The Airport Sherpa folks have you covered. The app gives travelers the option to pick up their order for free, and frequent travelers can even schedule meal deliveries in advance. Delivery fees range from $3.99 to $7.99, depending on the distance of the delivery. Because the experience is personalized based on the user’s itinerary, the app knows when a flight is delayed, a gate location changes or a connection is altered, and automatically makes adjustments to ensure on-time delivery, company officials said. Patrick DellaValle, co-founder of Airport Sherpa, said the app was created to enhance the travel experience for passengers by providing them a service that “users have grown accustomed to for services outside of the airport.” A recent survey found that about half of U.S. adults had ordered food delivery in the past three months. And, food delivery was most popular among millennials. America’s love for delivery services has only grown in recent years with the launch of restaurant delivery through Amazon, Uber and Google apps. The delivery option at BWI would expand options for travelers who miss out on newer dining and shopping options because they head straight to their gates after going through airport security and stay put. And some concourses offer more choices than others. Besides facilitating access to a wide range of food and retail choices to travelers, retailers will be able to reach out to more customers and increase sales, according to officials at the Pittsburgh-based Airmall, which manages the retail and food program at BWI. That will result in more revenue for the airport. “This app will give travelers access to hundreds of stores across terminals right at their fingertips,” DellaValle said. The app is available now for iOS and will soon be available for Android devices.


DOJ announces charges against 400 people for $1.3 billion in health-care fraud

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced charges against 412 people for $1.3 billion in health-care fraud in a news conference on July 13. More than 400 people across the country have been charged with participating in health care fraud scams totaling about $1.3 billion in false billings, including for the prescription and distribution of opioids. In what federal officials Thursday called the “largest ever health care fraud enforcement action” by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, 412 individuals, including 115 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, were arrested in a nationwide operation that involved more than 1,000 law enforcement agents in at least 30 states. “One American dies of a drug overdose every 11 minutes and more than 2 million Americans are ensnared in addiction to prescription painkillers,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at a news conference. “We will continue to find, arrest, prosecute, convict and incarcerate fraudsters and drug dealers wherever they are.” Sessions said the operation began with tips from people in the affected communities and from “very sophisticated computer programs that identify outliers.” The investigation particularly focused on medical professionals who were involved in the unlawful distribution of opioids and other prescription narcotics, officials said. The abuse of pharmaceutical opioids is widely blamed for a medical crisis involving tens of thousands of overdoses on heroin and fentanyl. “Last year, an estimated 59,000 people died from a drug overdose…opioids play an enormous role in that total number,” said Chuck Rosenberg, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “This is an epidemic.” Approximately 91 Americans die every day of an opioid related overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among the 412 defendants, 120 were charged with opioid-related crimes. Six of the doctors were charged with operating a scheme in Michigan to prescribe unnecessary opioids, some of which were then sold on the street. The doctors allegedly billed Medicare for $164 million in fraudulent claims, according to federal officials. A clinic in Houston allegedly gave out prescriptions for cash. Officials said one doctor at the clinic provided 12,000 opioid prescriptions for over two million illegal painkiller doses. And a rehab facility for drug addicts in Palm Beach, Fla., that is alleged to have recruited addicts with gift cards, drugs and visits to strip clubs, billed the government for over $58 million in false treatments and tests. “Narcotics officers have arrested schoolteachers, doctors, nurses and fellow law enforcement


The Washington Post partners with the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington to present the 2017 RAMMY Awards

The Washington Post today announced it will serve as exclusive media partner for Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington’s 2017 RAMMY Awards on Sunday, July 30 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Known as the region’s most prestigious award presented to members of the restaurant food and beverage industry, the RAMMYS will honor metropolitan Washington’s restaurant and foodservice community. The Post’s food and dining editor Joe Yonan will present awards in several of the 21 award categories, which include: - Joan Hisaoka Allied Member of the Year - Favorite Gathering Place of the Year - Upscale Brunch of the Year - Casual Brunch of the Year - Favorite Fast Bites of the Year - Cocktail Program of the Year - Beer Program of the Year - Wine Program of the Year - Employee of the Year - Manager of the Year - Service Program of the Year - Pastry Chef of the Year - Rising Culinary Star of the Year - Casual Restaurant of the Year - Upscale Casual Restaurant of the Year - New Restaurant of the Year - Formal Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year - Chef of the Year - Regional Food and Beverage Producer of the Year - Restaurateur of the Year For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: http://www.therammys.org/.


The best true dive bars in the D.C. area

of the “new” post office displaced the Forest Inn in 1994, when it moved to a funky little L-shaped storefront with a long, empty hallway leading to the bar and seating area. It’s simple, with beige walls and the glow of year-round Christmas lights. Sharma’s business partner, Ken Choudhary, who manages the bar, remembers when it catered to construction and landscaping crews. “We used to open at 7 in the morning to let people get their crew together and drink coffee,” he says. “Some of them were drinking beer, but they’d come back and have a beer at lunch, then they’d come back for happy hour. . . . Now you will see this neighborhood is much more federal-government people, or young people with good tech jobs.” A few years ago, the Forest Inn changed its hours to reflect the changing demographics, opening at 9 a.m. and staying open until 2 a.m., which brings “a younger crowd,” as does Friday night karaoke. Despite the influx, the Forest Inn maintains strong local ties: “All of the staff — [bartender] Linda [Theodore] and the other ladies — grew up in this area,” Choudhary boasts. “All of the staff went to Washington-Lee, Yorktown or Wakefield” high schools. Sometimes, he says, newer residents don’t get to know “the old Arlington people.” But the bartenders are helping forge local connections. Founded: Stickers for bands, local websites and graffiti artists blanket the front windows of the Velvet Lounge on U Street NW. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) Velvet Lounge 915 U St. NW. 202-462-3213. If you’re walking down U Street, it’s hard to tell what’s going on at the Velvet Lounge. You’ll probably hear the thump of a DJ mix or the roar of a punk band. But good luck trying to peek through the enormous front windows, which are plastered with stickers: bands you’ve definitely never heard of (or even heard), graffiti art on shipping labels, promos for local websites and events. Velvet, which turned 20 in May, started as the District’s upstart music venue, a place for indie and punk bands who weren’t big enough to get booked at the Black Cat or 9:30 Club. It became known for experimental noise acts and raw garage rock, as well as door policies that included selling tickets for cash on the day of the show only. The downstairs bar, dimly lit and lacking of furniture, was the


Sophomore at Johns Hopkins is found dead near campus

The Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. (Patrick Semansky/AP) Abigail Bastien (Courtesy of Johns Hopkins University) Police are investigating the death of a student who was found dead near Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus Thursday morning. Abigail Bastien was a rising sophomore from Ohio, a member of the track team and the Alpha Phi sorority, according to university officials. She had been working this summer in the cell biology department at the School of Medicine. Police found her body about 8 a.m. Thursday morning on North Charles Street, according to Jeremy Silbert of the Baltimore Police Department. Detectives have not determined a cause of death, he wrote in an email, and there were no obvious signs of foul play at the scene. Bastien was a sprinter on the track and field team. “Her coaches say that Abby always had a smile on her face, loved being a student-athlete at Johns Hopkins, and deeply cared for the members of her team,” the school’s vice provost for student affairs and senior associate dean of student life wrote in a letter to the campus community. “On behalf of the entire Johns Hopkins community, we offer our deepest sympathies to Abby’s family and friends. ” … Together, we mourn the loss of such a promising member of our community.”


House rejects controversial transgender, climate-change amendments to defense bill

undergoing transition surgery are nondeployable for up to 267 days. Similarly, regular hormone treatments renders individuals nondeployable into the future. It makes no sense to create soldiers who are unable to fight and win our nation’s wars and unfair to nontransitioning individuals who must leave their families and deploy in their place.” Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) laid out a blunter argument for the amendment: “You’re joining the U.S. military. Choose what gender you are before you join. … We’re not stopping transgender people from joining. We’re saying taxpayers in this country right now are not going to foot the bill for it.” Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), lined up to lambaste the amendment on the floor. “No one in the Pentagon has called for this,” said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.). “In fact, we know right now Secretary of Defense [James] Mattis is running a review of this issue. He does not need to be micromanaged by members of this body to advance their own agendas.” Most of the amendments offered to the defense bill deal with small-bore issues related to military policy, often tailored to a individual members’ congressional districts. But a few, like the transgender and climate-change amendments, were more closely watched. The Perry-Buck amendment to strip the climate-change report comes after now-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called climate change a potential national security threat during his January confirmation hearing. “This is to focus on those resources that pose an immediate and direct threat to our national security,” Perry said. “Litanies, literally litanies of other federal agencies deal with environmental issues including climate change.” But members of both parties — including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), chairman of the Armed Services subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities — rose to oppose the amendment. Another closely watched amendment, offered by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), would have paved the way for a new round of military base closures by eliminating language now in the defense bill prohibiting the base closure and realignment, or BRAC, process for 2018. The last BRAC process was completed in 2005. McClintock’s amendment was defeated 248-175. Democrats on Thursday questioned why House Republicans would not allow even more of the 440 filed amendments. “The Republican majority decided it’s okay to debate a bigoted amendment that prohibits medical treatment for transgender service members in transition, but they will not let the House debate an amendment


‘Junkie hunters’ lured addicts to scam ‘sober home’ in $58 million fraud, feds say

one sample into two different cups — doubling the profit. Different samples were also mixed together to create more. And instead of using in-house easy tests, the homes would ship the samples out to labs, increasing a $5-$10 expenditure to a much more pricey option. The drug tests also were worthless — if a resident failed, they were not forced to leave. Volume was key to the fraud, investigators say, and Snyder allegedly was willing to go to extreme — and illegal — lengths to keep feet walking through the door. Under Florida and federal law, patients and residents in treatment facilities and sober homes cannot receive kickbacks or bribes for their attendance. But Snyder, the affidavit says, would knock down the weekly $200 rent for residents if they went — and were then billed — for a set number of treatment sessions. According to the affidavit, the owner allegedly told one employee he would rather “eat $200 to make $5000.” Finding residents fell to “junkie hunters,” including Christopher Fuller. The affidavit describes these as essentially headhunters who were paid off the books to keep new residents coming. Witnesses told investigators Fuller would troll around AA meetings for susceptible addicts, and also had tipsters among the staffs at shady motels where addicts regularly got high. Fuller also allegedly “was known to give clients drugs or alcohol as an enticement to attend” the programs, the affidavit says. Former employees told investigators that when they informed Fuller the addicts he was dropping off couldn’t enter the program when they were still high or using, Snyder intervened, enrolling them anyway. Fuller, witnesses also told investigators, would “frequent strip clubs, casinos, and hotels and restaurants with patients and employees.” Investigators say Snyder was bilking the system from his earliest days in the business. “From at least January 1, 2011 through September 30, 2015,” the affidavit says, Snyder “submitted claims of approximately $58,209,385 to these Insurance plans.” In turn, investigators say, insurers gave Snyder $18,656,743. Snyder faces numerous regulatory and legal headaches in addition to his current federal charges. He faces an ongoing lawsuit filed on behalf of the family of Nicole Cronin, a 20-year-old Halfway There resident who overdosed after being kicked out of the home in 2012. More from Morning Mix Elite St. Paul’s School under criminal investigation after sexual misconduct revelations Judge in Hawaii rules grandparents are exempt from Trump travel ban


Jupiter’s stunning Great Red Spot, seen like never before

An artist's conception of the Juno spacecraft flying over the Great Red Spot. The image of Jupiter is not a painting — it's a mosaic made from real data taken by the Voyager spacecraft. (NASA/JPL/Björn Jónsson/Seán Doran) Imagine a storm so vast it could swallow the Earth and so powerful that it has swirled nonstop for 350 years. That is Jupiter's Great Red Spot. On Monday, NASA sent its Juno spacecraft skimming just 2,200 miles above the spot's roiling cloud tops. It was the closest any human-built object has come to the biggest storm in our solar system. The plucky probe made it through without a scratch. Now, data and stunning images are streaming back to NASA, where scientists are processing the information as quickly as they can. The raw image data is available here, and anyone with the right editing software can try their hand at processing it. It will take weeks, even months, for the science data to come out, and scientists will likely study this flyby for years to come. First JunoCam raw images of Jupiter's Great Red Spot are here! Check 'em out: https://t.co/5tqqjs8o1w https://t.co/WWWbOIJqmj The Great Red Spot has more than just good looks going for it. The massive weather system — its composition and internal dynamics are still something of a mystery — could help scientists understand weather on Earth and on worlds beyond our solar system. NASA’s Juno Mission released a video on July 5 which shows a timelapse of images taken from the Juno spacecraft between June 12 to June 29. Juno entered orbit around Jupiter on July 4 after an almost five-year journey. “If you just look at reflected light from an extrasolar planet, you’re not going to be able to tell what it’s made of,” Amy Simon, an expert in planetary atmospheres at the Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a NASA news release. “Looking at as many possible different cases in our own solar system could enable us to then apply that knowledge to extrasolar planets.” Here are a few of the best processed images to come online. We will update this post with more images as they become available. Jupiter's Great Red Spot as seen by the Juno spacecraft #Juno's flyby of #Jupiter's Great Red Spot immortalized in this GIF! Watch as @NASAJuno flies over Jupiter's cloud… https://t.co/drc9V64eyd They're here! My first processed raw map-projected image of #Jupiter's


Why Americans need to close ranks against Putin’s attack on our democracy

even worse. This is what happened when Russia worked to undermine the U.S. presidential election last year. It’s like Vladimir Putin saw the tensions and divisions in the American family, and decided to try to set fire to the family home in our moment of weakness. The divided American family has known for a while that the neighborhood thug — Russia, and more specifically Putin — has been fanning the flames he hopes will eventually consume the United States. The consensus assessment of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia tried to undermine our elections last year using influence operations, and that Russia broke into DNC computers to steal data as part of that effort, has been widely accepted by Republicans and Democrats alike (with the apparent exception of the Republican president). The Republicans who control both the House and Senate have agreed on the need to investigate, as have law enforcement and counterintelligence agencies (the FBI) and an independent counsel. The problem of Russia attacking our electoral process is one on which all sides of the American family should agree. Which is why the recent revelation that Donald Trump Jr., a key player in President Trump’s campaign last year, agreed to a meeting with a Russian lawyer who he hoped had derogatory information on Hillary Clinton, is such a shock. The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskay, offered to provide derogatory information on the Clinton campaign during the meeting with Trump Jr., ostensibly on behalf of the Russian government. Which makes it clear that Russia was hoping to go much further than just propaganda operations to undermine American democracy. It is also becoming increasingly clear that the Trump family and its advisers were willing to discuss working with the Russians to ensure that they won the election. This is something that should gravely concern all of the political branches of the American family, regardless of whom they supported for president, and regardless of what other partisan issues divide them. That the Russian attack on American democracy remains such a partisan issue today is itself gravely disturbing. (One recent poll found that 73 percent of Republicans believe Trump did nothing wrong in connection with Russia, compared with only 13 percent of Democrats who feel that way.) There is no doubt that the 2016 campaign reached new lows in negative messaging, new nadirs of name-calling and generally bad behavior on all sides. And, of course,