Drug cops raid an 81-year-old woman’s garden to take out a single marijuana plant

of marijuana, special agent Matt Fairbanks warned of the environmental costs associated marijuana cultivation on public land. Even residents carrying licenses in medical marijuana states can fall prey to the program. In a Massachusetts raid last month, Procopio told the Daily Hampshire Gazette that 10 plants were seized from a couple's back yard because they were not kept in an enclosed area protected by a lock, as the statute requires. The growers, Patti Scutari and Francesco Compagnone, dispute that, saying that their entire yard is surrounded by a fence with a locked gate. Under Massachusetts law patients may grow as many marijuana plants as necessary to meet their medical needs. This summer, a task force consisting of National Guard troops and state troopers used a helicopter to aid in seizing four marijuana plants from 81-year-old former cancer patient Paul Jackson on Martha's Vineyard, according to the Martha's Vineyard Times. Like Margaret Holcomb, Jackson didn't have a medical marijuana license. "I figured what I was growing was such a small amount, what the hell was the big deal?" Jackson told the newspaper. In 2014, marijuana eradicators in Georgia raided a retiree's garden after mistaking okra for marijuana. Margaret Holcomb's case is providing additional fodder for critics of strict anti-marijuana enforcement, particularly now since voters in Massachusetts will consider whether to legalize the plant for recreational use this fall. "This raid, and similar raids in recent weeks, exposes the rank falsity of prohibitionist claims that law enforcement resources aren't being used on marijuana enforcement," said Jim Borghesani of the group Yes on 4, which is running the campaign to legalize marijuana in Massachusetts. "It's difficult to say what's worse: the waste of taxpayer dollars or the violation of an elderly woman's peace." Efforts to reach the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts, the group opposing legalization, were unsuccessful. Holcomb told the Gazette she is considering simply growing another pot plant. "I don’t picture them out here and putting an 81-year-old woman in jail," she said. Voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada just approved recreational marijuana use. Here's what they can learn from Washington, Colorado and Oregon, states where marijuana use has already been legalized. More from Wonkblog: Marijuana really can be deadly, but not in the way you probably expect Heavily armed drug cops raid retiree's garden, seize okra plants DEA warns of stoned rabbits if Utah passes medical marijuana


8 beer festivals and parties you should go to in October

three locations of the Pizzeria Paradiso chain -- Georgetown, Dupont Circle and Old Town Alexandria -- will turn all of their taps over to seasonal beers during this five-day event. Look for a mix of styles and breweries at each of the locations. It's worth checking the online menus if there's a particular ale you're searching for: One bar might have Boulevard's Funky Pumpkin and Oxbow Oxtoberfest, while a different spot has Blue Mountain Spooky and Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest. Available at all three restaurants: a special pizza with pumpkin pesto, butternut squash, speck and toasted pumpkin seeds. Hours vary by location. eatyourpizza.com. Oct. 15-16: Northern Virginia Fall BrewFest at Bull Run Regional Park The Fall BrewFest is one of the region’s biggest seasonal festivals, with dozens of breweries and cideries from across the Mid-Atlantic region gathering for two days in Bull Run Regional Park. Admission is good for one of the two days, and the event also includes music, food, a cornhole tournament and arts and crafts booths. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. 7700 Bull Run Dr., Centreville. novabrewfest.com. $25 in advance, $35 at the gate, which includes a sampling glass and six samples. Oct. 22: Brewers on the Block at Union Market For the last two years, Brewers on the Block has been a major outdoor festival during D.C. Beer Week. This year, however, it's a stand-alone event starring 20 regional breweries, cideries and meaderies. Alongside Charlottesville's Three Notch'd, Cambridge's RAR and Baltimore's Charm City Meadworks, you can try the brand-new hyper-local beer from 3 Stars, which was brewed with hops grown at the nearby Neal Place Tap and Garden beer garden. Union Market vendors provide the food. 2 to 5 p.m. 1309 Fifth St. NE. Tickets available through Eventbrite. $29.75 includes unlimited beer samples; $50 VIP tickets allow admission at 1 p.m. and include a commemorative glass. [3 Stars and Neal Place Tap Garden team up for a hyperlocal beer] Oct. 22: RhinO’Fest at Lost Rhino Retreat Lost Rhino welcomes other Northern Virginia breweries to its Ashburn bar and restaurant for an afternoon of beer sampling — including $2 Lost Rhino brews — and snacking on a buffet of German food ($10). Expect DJs and live music throughout the afternoon. Noon to 5 p.m. 22885 Brambleton Plaza, Ashburn. lostrhinoretreat.com. Free admission. Oct. 29: The Great History of American Brewing at the National Museum of American History The final


at Union Market For the last two years, Brewers on the Block has been a major outdoor festival during D.C. Beer Week. This year, however, it's a stand-alone event starring 20 regional breweries, cideries and meaderies. Alongside Charlottesville's Three Notch'd, Cambridge's RAR and Baltimore's Charm City Meadworks, you can try the brand-new hyper-local beer from 3 Stars, which was brewed with hops grown at the nearby Neal Place Tap and Garden beer garden. Union Market vendors provide the food. 2 to 5 p.m. 1309 Fifth St. NE. Tickets available through Eventbrite. $29.75 includes unlimited beer samples; $50 VIP tickets allow admission at 1 p.m. and include a commemorative glass. [3 Stars and Neal Place Tap Garden team up for a hyperlocal beer] Oct. 22: RhinO’Fest at Lost Rhino Retreat Lost Rhino welcomes other Northern Virginia breweries to its Ashburn bar and restaurant for an afternoon of beer sampling — including $2 Lost Rhino brews — and snacking on a buffet of German food ($10). Expect DJs and live music throughout the afternoon. Noon to 5 p.m. 22885 Brambleton Plaza, Ashburn. lostrhinoretreat.com. Free admission. Oct. 29: The Great History of American Brewing at the National Museum of American History The final event of the Smithsonian's Food History Weekend is an after-hours affair examining the history of brewing. Taste ales from Williamsburg's Alewerks Brewing while Colonial Williamsburg's Frank Clark talks about brewing in the American colonies; learn about how politics met the saloon in 19th-century America and wet your whistle with beer from Baltimore's Heavy Seas; find out how breweries and private citizens dealt with Prohibition (hint: home brewing) while sipping gin cocktails made by New Columbia Distillers; and listen to brewing legend Charlie Papazian -- author of "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing" and founder of the Great American Beer Festival -- discuss why changes to federal and state laws in the 1970s set the rise of craft beer in motion, accompanied by beer from Bluejacket. There will also be access to museum exhibits and a scavenger hunt with prizes. 6:30 to 9 p.m. 1300 Constitution Ave. NW. americanhistory.si.edu. $40, includes beer samples and food pairings. [This artist is using subversive stickers to call out misleading beer labels] Read more: - 3 Stars and Neal Place Tap & Garden team up for a hyperlocal beer - Prost! 12 ways to celebrate Oktoberfest in the Washington area - This artist is using


The DEA spent $73,000 to eradicate marijuana plants in Utah. It didn’t find any.

in the United States," a mission that has become complicated as more states have legalized medical or recreational marijuana programs. Several more states have similar measures on the ballot this year. DEA records show the program has been effective in some states, most notably California. Agents pulled 2.6 million marijuana plants in 2015, seizing more than 1,600 weapons in the process. Nearly $5.4 million was funneled into that state's program. Kentucky's $1.9-million program had the next largest number of eradicated plants, more than 570,000. Nationwide, the DEA documents show that spending on the program has shrunk from about $18 million in 2014 to $14 million in the current fiscal year. Some states — including Alaska, Colorado and Vermont — stopped receiving eradication funds completely. Here's where that money's going on a state-by-state basis. California, where medical marijuana is legal, receives the lion's share of marijuana eradication funds, in part because the "Emerald Triangle" region of Northern California. The area has long been home to many of the state's legal and quasi-legal marijuana production operations, but law enforcement authorities have maintained that it also has been a haven for the grow operations of Mexican drug cartels. Kentucky also receives a large amount of money to eradicate marijuana. The state has a surprisingly rich culture of marijuana cultivation. Rounding out the top 5 marijuana eradication states are Tennessee, Georgia and, perhaps unexpectedly, Washington. The aptly nicknamed Evergreen State legalized the recreational use of marijuana in 2012, and pot shops opened for business in 2014. So it may seem odd that the DEA is spending $760,000 this year to eradicate pot plants in the state. But Washington is the only recreational marijuana state that doesn't allow people to grow their own plants for recreational use. (In D.C., incidentally, the situation is reversed: Homegrows are okay, but you can't buy weed at the store.) Washington also receives more marijuana eradication money than any other state with a recreational pot regime in place. Oregon received $200,000 this year, while Colorado and Alaska didn't take any federal money for marijuana eradication. You can also look at the 2015 marijuana eradication totals to compare the states based on how much they're spending per plant. Here's what that map looks like. New Hampshire, Louisiana, Delaware, Utah and New Jersey all spent well over $100 for every marijuana plant eradicated. Eleven states spent at least $50 per plant, while


Universities are not ‘trade schools,’ but they should prepare students for the workforce

Robert Morris University President Christopher B. Howard. (Courtesy of Robert Morris University) Universities are grappling with the best way to integrate traditional classroom learning and workforce training in the face of changing economic demands. Employers want graduates with work experience and competencies beyond the credential they’ve earned, as much as they want someone with solid communication and writing skills. Meeting all of these demands is a challenge for higher education, but not one that is insurmountable, says Christopher B. Howard. The newly inaugurated president of Robert Morris University, a small private school in Moon Township, Penn., argues that colleges and universities must find a way to produce graduates who are astute members of society and competent members of the labor market. The world as we know it in higher education ended in 2008, when the financial collapse decimated home values and other investments for millions of Americans, wrecking their plans to finance their children’s education. Eight years on, many colleges and universities struggle to navigate this new landscape, but we still have the chance to be on the right side of history — if we act now by ensuring students graduate with skills relevant for today’s workforce and an education that prepares them for an increasingly complex and unpredictable world. Consider this: In a recent survey by the College Savings Foundation, 28 percent of parents of high school students said their children had considered not attending college, up from 17 percent just one year earlier. That’s bad news for higher education and for those students. Not every good-paying job requires a college degree, however, college graduates, including millennials, continue to out-earn their less formally educated peers. A 2014 Pew Research Center report found that college-educated workers ages 25 to 32 earn a median salary of $45,000, compared to $30,000 for those with a two-year degree. According to the Georgetown University Center for Education and the Workforce, the U.S. economy will grow by 25 million jobs through 2020, and 65 percent will require some form of postsecondary education; 35 percent will require a bachelor’s degree. The demographics of some regions mean that the demand for workers will be particularly high. I’m the president of Robert Morris University (RMU) near Pittsburgh, and our region will see approximately 290,000 workers retire over the next 10 years, according to a report by the local Allegheny Conference on Community Development. The most high-demand fields, including


‘Underground Railroad Game’: Speaking race-relations truths

flip the table over, tear the tablecloth to shreds and throw the dishes against the wall. Kidwell and Sheppard remind us in this disturbing, discomfiting and disarming production — staged at off-Broadway’s Ars Nova with a mischievous zeal by director Taibi Magar — that we’re not even in the neighborhood of one nation under God. That we’ve never comprehensively and collectively undergone a reckoning with the toll of slavery and discrimination. And perhaps, one comes to feel, after 75 minutes of the play’s scathing satire, we never will. “Underground Railroad Game” is a hall-of-mirrors excursion into the chasm that opens and closes and opens again between a pair of middle school teachers in suburban Pennsylvania, Kidwell’s Teacher Caroline and Sheppard’s Teacher Stuart. One imagines as the play begins that we’re in for a mock board-of-education-approved assembly, in which a pair of educators, one black, one white, addresses the audience as if we were a raucous group of preteens. The seeming topic is a state-sanctioned lesson on the Underground Railroad — the clandestine route by which enslaved people were helped to freedom by abolitionists — that will divide the students into two Civil War teams, one Blue, one Grey. The idea is they will participate in a weeks-long activity that simulates the railroad, with the goal of spiriting to freedom, or returning to slavery, some dolls hidden around the school. That the premise is based on Sheppard’s own experience as a student in a Pennsylvania school in which just such an exercise took place adds a patina of authenticity to the activity. But this is a “game” in a larger sense, for “Underground Railroad” is an ever-evolving experience, in which the production is always one step ahead of us. To describe the metamorphosis in detail would be to cheat potential ticket buyers out of the pleasure of the show’s cascading sense of surprise. Suffice to say that the relationship between Teacher Caroline and Teacher Stuart becomes sexually and then racially charged, with the resulting carnal encounters — including some so graphic they leave nothing to the imagination — managing to reveal how ingrained our biases and resentments remain. Kidwell and Sheppard are equally magnetic here and yes, truly brave. Along with their savvy director and designers, they play enthrallingly with dynamite. Underground Railroad Game, Note: This version corrects an erroneous characterization of the experience Scott Sheppard had that inspired the play.


Juan Manuel Santos: The risk-taking Colombian president who lost a peace vote but won a Peace Prize

Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos smiles as he addresses reporters with his wife, first lady Maria Clemencia de Santos, after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, at Narino Palace in Bogota on Oct. 7. (John Vizcaino/Reuters) Long before he was a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos learned to play poker as a student at the University of Kansas, then went on to develop a reputation as a political gambler. His six-year push to secure a peace treaty with Colombia’s FARC rebels at times resembled a high-stakes game of Hold ‘Em, with Santos’s more conservative rivals playing on his right and the guerrillas on his left. With his country’s future and his presidency on the line, Santos went all in. He took a carefully crafted, hard-fought, freshly signed pact to end Colombia’s 52-year war, and bet the whole thing on a voter referendum last Sunday. Its defeat left Santos politically depleted and plunged Colombia into crisis. The polls, predicting an easy win, had bluffed him. Santos’s powerful opponents managed to convince a slim majority of voters that the president had made a bad deal that was too soft on the widely despised guerrillas. Santos got a new card to play Friday from a Nobel committee that wanted to recognize his peacemaking efforts anyway. What’s unclear is whether the award will matter enough in Colombia to keep the deal from falling apart in the coming weeks as Santos maneuvers to save it. “Colombians, this prize is for you,” he said in a nationally televised address Friday morning. “I accept the award with great humility and as an assignment to keep working for peace.” Colombians already knew that much of the world was behind Santos’s efforts to close the deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, that would extinguish a conflict that has killed 220,000 over the past half-century. Santos had the support of the Obama administration, the United Nations, the European Union and Pope Francis — an immensely popular figure in heavily Catholic Colombia. Voters sided against him anyway. The same personality traits that allowed Santos, 65, to achieve what no other Colombian leader had been able to — make a deal with FARC — were the same qualities that led to his fiasco Sunday, according to longtime friends and current and former officials who have worked with him. They characterize him as preternaturally upbeat and


Rights for indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities are crucial for Colombia’s peace

Colombian indigenous people of the Nasa ethnic group are transported on the roof of a local transport vehicle in Toribio, Colombia, on Oct. 3. (LUIS ROBAYO/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) Omaira Bolaños is the Latin America program director for the Rights and Resources Initiative and has advocated for community-based conservation, watershed management, gender equity and indigenous peoples’ tenure rights in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador and her native Colombia. She holds a PhD in anthropology and a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of Florida The Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts in ending a more than 50-year-long civil war, serves as a reminder that Colombia is taking a worthwhile journey toward peace. But how does a country find peace when more than three-quarters of its population has known nothing but war? The vote in Colombia on Sunday, which rejected the peace agreement Santos negotiated by less than half a percentage point, shows that this is not an easy path to follow. Like many other Colombians who spent most of their lives living and working amid armed conflict and the atrocities of war, I celebrated this historic opportunity to reconstruct our country and to vote yes for peace. One of the most devastating aspects of the war for me was to see indigenous, peasant, and Afro-Colombian communities who spent their entire lives investing in and caring for their territories suddenly left with nothing. Displacement has a particularly destructive impact, leading to the loss of livelihoods, languages and cultures, and to the tearing apart of social fabrics — in addition to the lives lost to violence. For a lasting peace to take root, the legal recognition of collective property rights for indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities would be an important step in addressing the war’s damages and in continuing a process of comprehensive land reform. “For indigenous peoples, the signing of peace means an opportunity to live more peacefully in our territories without being displaced, massacred, and violated as it’s happened during the more than 50 years of conflict,” said Clemencia Herrera of the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon in a recent interview. Insecure property rights were one of the major drivers of this conflict. Since the 1960s, rural communities have been losing their lands in disputes with wealthy landowners, local governments, paramilitary groups and multinational companies. As the


Here’s how attention to gender affected Colombia’s peace process

Yurluey Mendoza 33, a FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrilla fighter who joined the rebels at age 14, photographed during the 10th Conference of the FARC in the Sabanas del Yari in Colombia. (Joao Pina for The Washington Post) On Friday, October 7, 2016, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to negotiate and sign peace accords with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerillas, after 52 years of violent conflict. The award came just five days after Colombians rejected the deal in a national plebiscite, albeit by a very narrow margin, leaving the peace process in limbo. Observers Some are upset about addressing gender in the peace process A gender sub-commission was involved in the negotiations, ensuring that the agreement had an “adequate gender focus.” The accords paid attention to, among other issues, addressing gender-based violence that took place during the conflict and ensuring the political participation of women and LGBTI groups in the transition to peace. The United Nations At the same time that peace was being negotiated, the Colombian government released a new manual for teachers in public schools, with education material designed to help prevent discrimination and bullying against lesbian and gay students. Former Colombian President and current Senator Álvaro Uribe – not coincidentally, the leader of the opposition to the peace accords — actively opposed these measures. His supporters critiqued Minister of Education Gina Parody, who is openly lesbian, for the curricular reform. Uribe’s followers coupled these developments with peace-accord provisions that protect people of “diverse sexual orientations and identities.” The uribistas campaigned against what they framed as attempts to promote a “confused gender ideology.” As anthropologist Winifred Tate writes, pamphlets promoting the No campaign read, “Colombia is in danger! Of falling under the control of a communist dictatorship and the imminent passage of a gender ideology.” A new group is fighting for “God’s original design” of gender identity and the family The emerging National Movement of the Family describes itself as “neither political nor religious.” However, its mission statement says that its objective is to “fight in favor of God’s original design for the family and thus for the moral bases that allow us to construct our society.” Uribe, in his social media, echoed such views, “Saying that one is not born female or male, but that this is defined by ‘society,’ is an abuse


Believe it or not, the bees are doing just fine

Look at how happy and healthy this little fuzzball is. (Brad Smith/Flickr) You've probably heard the bad news by now that bees were recently added to the endangered species list for the first time. But if you're part of the 60 percent of people who share stories without actually reading them, you might have missed an important detail: namely, that the newly endangered bees are a handful of relatively obscure species who live only in Hawaii. The bees you're more familiar with — the ones that buzz around your yard dipping into flowers, making honey, pollinating crops and generally keeping the world's food supply from collapsing? Those bees are doing just fine, according to data released by the USDA this year. In 2015, there were 2.66 million commercial honey-producing bee colonies in the United States. That's down slightly from the 2.74 million colonies in 2014, which represented a two-decade high. The number of commercial bee colonies is still significantly higher than it was in 2006, when colony collapse disorder — the mass die-offs that began afflicting U.S. honeybee colonies — was first documented. Those 2.66 million colonies represent a greater number than just about any year since the late 1990s. How's that possible, considering all the die-offs we've been hearing about? As I wrote last year, America's beekeepers are busy at work managing their colonies and replacing the ones that die off. Beekeepers have a number of ways to replenish their stock: They can split one healthy colony into two. They can also breed their own queen bees, which can be sold to other keepers in need of a queen to start a new colony. The Obama administration announced the first national strategy to promote the health of bees and other pollinators, following the sharp decline in colony numbers in recent years. USDA bee scientist Jay Evans explains why honeybees are so important and how bees affect food prices. For the 2017 season, 3 pounds of bees plus a queen will set you back about $100 or so. The thing is, all of this colony-splitting and queen-breeding takes time, money and effort. It means that the main effects of colony collapse disorder aren't being felt by the bees themselves, but by the people who breed and manage them. Beekeeping is a business, after all. “Honey bees are not about to go extinct,” Kim Kaplan, a researcher with the


Veterans preference in federal hiring: Is it too strong?

federal hiring system in which following the process can become more important than whether or not the person who is best able to do the job gets hired.” OSC is focused on vets allegedly being treated unfairly, but the circumstances also point to complaints that the preference as structured can discriminate against the best person for the job. The belief that veterans should have some preference is strong, bipartisan and widespread. How much is the question. Should it be limited more than it is now? “The VFW supports keeping the current veterans preference program intact,” said Joe Davis, Veterans of Foreign Wars communications director. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, heard veterans’ organizations and backed off a measure to limit the preference to the first time a veteran is hired by the government, my colleague Lisa Rein reported last week. Now the preference applies no matter how many different federal jobs a veteran seeks during the course of a career. In June, McCain, one of the nation’s best known veterans, said the government must balance the advantage for veterans with the need to “hire the best talent for a variety of important national security jobs.” One of the main arguments for limiting the preference is the negative impact it can have on federal workplace diversity, particularly for women. The military is overwhelmingly male, so veterans are too. While praising the preference and veterans “who have made a great sacrifice serving our country, “the fact remains, that woman are disproportionately represented, not only in military, but also in senior level positions that are within the federal government,” said Wanda Killingsworth, president of Federally Employed Women. “The veteran’s preference has the potential to leave out a segment of highly qualified individuals during the selection process.” A 2014 survey of federal personnel officials found some who think the preference, in certain situations, “can result in the exclusion of all nonveterans without regard to their relative qualifications.” The consensus among the officials was “it would be useful to take a fresh look at the issue,” according to the report by the Partnership for Public Service and the Grant Thornton consulting firm. Max Stier, the Partnership’s president and chief executive, thinks limiting the preference to the first time hired is a good idea, but trying to fix it in isolation is not. “You can’t pull that one thread,” he said.


These are the D.C. restaurants that insiders predict will get Michelin stars

Pineapple and Pearls is a strong contender for receiving a Michelin star. (Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post) The Washington dining scene is abuzz with the anticipation of the city's first-ever Michelin restaurant guide coming later this week. But who will make the list? We already know who won't make it: Restaurants on Michelin's Bib Gourmand roster of more "affordable" eats can't receive stars, meaning the popular Filipino restaurant Bad Saint and four of José Andrés's outposts won't be included. To get further insight on who might reign victorious, The Post asked chefs, restaurateurs and others heavily involved in the industry for their predictions on which restaurants will receive one, two or the highly coveted three stars. Created before last week's Bib Gourmand announcement, the poll allowed respondents to choose any number of restaurants within a single category, as well as add write-in candidates. About 60 individuals responded. Six New York restaurants earned three stars in the city's most recent guide, but our poll results suggest D.C. won't have as much to boast about. Seventeen respondents didn't select any winners in the three-star category. And while it's certainly possible that D.C. will strike out in the category, there's a good chance the city will have at least one winner, with the most promising contenders being restaurants with fixed-price tasting menus. The leading favorite for three stars was Pineapple and Pearls, Aaron Silverman's $250-a-head Barracks Row dining room next door to his first eatery, Rose's Luxury. Not far behind was Minibar, José Andrés's longtime avant garde experience. The Minibar pick is backed by the data crunchers at General Assembly, an education organization that's holding a contest on Michelin Guide predictions. Two of the models, created by a General Assembly data science instructor and a student, used average meal prices and the prevalence of positive words in reviews, among other factors, to predict a three-star honor for the Penn Quarter restaurant. Onto the two-star results: The favorites in this category aligned heavily with the three-star picks. Again, Pineapple and Pearls landed at the top, this time sharing the No. 1 slot with Johnny Monis's Komi. Close behind: Fabio Trabocchi's duo of Fiola and Fiola Mare, plus Eric Ziebold's Métier, which also made a respectable play for three-star consideration. These favorites overlap in part with the General Assembly predictions, with one model predicting two stars for Fiola Mare, and the other pinning


Climate change has been making western forest fires worse for decades, study says

half of these observed changes can be attributed to natural climate variations, the researchers say. For example, the past few decades have seen significant declines in spring precipitation out west — a change that scientists have partly attributed to a shift in a natural, large-scale ocean-atmosphere pattern known as the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation, which can cause long-term changes in ocean temperatures and global weather patterns. “It’s this sort of compounding effect of natural climate variability aligning with climate change that has likely brought about this pretty significant increase we’ve seen in forest fire activity,” Abatzoglou said. That said, there are plenty of other factors that can affect the severity of fires besides just climate and dryness, even if these are likely the most dominant drivers. The abundance of vegetation in an area makes an obvious difference, Williams noted, as do events like lightning strikes and even some human fire management practices. Fire suppression tactics, for instance — preventing or snuffing out fires as much as possible — can lead to an overabundance of dry vegetation in some areas, increasing the likelihood of larger, more severe fires in the future. But the big message is that climate is one of the biggest drivers of the recent increases in forest fires. And the effects are growing bigger and bigger over time, Williams noted. “The fact is that this relationship between fuel aridity and forest fire area is exponential,” he said. And in the next few decades, the researchers believe we may see even bigger and more severe fires as the effects of climate change continue to grow. “Going forward in the next three to four decades…I expect fires to continue to become unrecognizable to previous generations,” Williams said. “In the 2030s, it is a very high likelihood that fires [will be] dwarfing the fires that we see today.” Past a certain point, it’s possible that so much burning will have taken place that there won’t be enough fuel to continue feeding the flames, and so the fires will naturally begin to shrink down again, he added. But for decades at least, it’s likely that forest fires will continue to grow. And that’s a reality that communities in the western U.S. should start to prepare for, the researchers note. This includes setting up fire breaks around town, planning escape routes and investing in public education about healthy fire management techniques, like controlled burning.


Harvard, MIT professors win Nobel in economics for research on contract theory

The winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is announced. Harvard's Oliver Hart and MIT's Bengt Holmström were awarded the 2016 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday for their work on contract theory, the study of how people can efficiently enter into agreements. Their contributions have shaped the thinking in a wide range of fields, from law to economics to political science, affecting how scholars think about relationships employers and employees, between entrepreneurs and investors, and between governors and the governed. British-born Hart, 68, teaches economics at Harvard University, while Finnish-born Holmström, 67, teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They will share the prize evenly and split the kr8 million Swedish krona award (about $925,000). “Oliver Hart, I’m so glad that I won it with him. He’s my closest friend here,” Holmström said to reporters shortly after learning of the Nobel decision. Holmström’s work explores how best to motivate people — how to monitor and reward them for doing their jobs. As he notes, paying for performance does not always encourage employees to work their hardest, because bosses cannot completely keep track of what everyone is doing. Holmström has shown how it can make sense to offer people fixed salaries instead of variable bonuses in situations where measures of job performance are inadequate, as they often are. Performance pay can backfire, for instance, if it encourages chief executives to prioritize short-term gains, or if it forces teachers to teach to the test. “I think it’s just such a richly deserved prize,” said Glenn Ellison, the head of MIT’s economics department. “Bengt’s work is outstanding both for answering really important questions, and for how beautifully crafted it is mathematically.” Hart has investigated how best to write contracts when the possible outcomes are hazy. He changed the way that economists think about corporations, highlighting how firms can increase efficiency not only through competition, but also through cooperation — by contracting with each other. And sometimes, he concluded, it is more efficient for companies to simply merge because a single owner would make better overall decisions. This relates to one of the central questions of government: How much should the state do itself, and how much should it delegate to outside companies? Hart's theories argue that the private firms hired by the government often face strong


The beer list at Owen’s Ordinary in North Bethesda is good enough to be the envy of any D.C. bar

The Neighborhood Restaurant Group's newest bar, Owen's Ordinary, opens Monday. (Neighborhood Restaurant Group) This post has been updated with the opening draft list. Here's a line I wouldn't have been able to write a few years ago: The Neighborhood Restaurant Group, the restaurateurs behind the beer-centric ChurchKey, Rustico and the Sovereign, is opening a new bar called Owen's Ordinary in North Bethesda's Pike & Rose development on Monday, and its list of 50 drafts is good enough to be the envy of any competitor in Washington. At least half of the taps will feature Maryland beers, while about a third of the 150 bottles will also come from the Free State. When beer lovers in Montgomery County gripe about why they don't have craft beer bars on the level of ChurchKey or the Sovereign, the answer is usually a simple one: the county's Department of Liquor Control. The DLC acts as the middleman for the vast majority of alcohol sold in the county, requiring distributors to send beer, wine and spirits to its warehouses before delivering the goods (with a markup, of course) to bars and restaurants. But the DLC's control has been eroding in recent years, beginning with a 2014 law that allowed smaller breweries and wineries to begin selling their products directly to bars and liquor stores, a change that Neighborhood Restaurant Group Beer Director Greg Engert credits with making Owen's Ordinary possible. "If I tried to do this a couple of years ago, it would [have been] much more difficult," he says. Engert first worked with the DLC about 18 months ago when he began selecting beverages for the concert venue AMP by Strathmore, also located at Pike & Rose. "They have, even in that short time, made vast changes and improvements," he says. "I'm sure that things go wrong, as they do with any distributors. But staffing has increased. They've gone to digital tracking [of products]. They're very responsive." (Still, he says he's learned to order beers far in advance and always have a backup plan in case kegs don't arrive in time.) This new relationship is why the opening menu at Owen's Ordinary will include intriguing options: sours from Michigan's Jolly Pumpkin, Oklahoma's Prairie and New York's sought-after Grimm Ales; saisons from Belgium's De La Senne and Blaugies and Texas' hard-to-find Jester King. The focus on Maryland beer is the most unusual element of Owen's


It has been 15 years and we still don’t know what will become of Afghanistan

In this photograph taken Aug. 23, 2016, medics carry a stretcher with a wounded U.S. soldier after he was brought to a hospital in Kandahar province. (Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse) On Sept. 9, 2001, a famed Tajik commander and war hero named Ahmad Shah Massoud was approached for an interview by two individuals claiming to be journalists. A bomb concealed in a video camera carried by one of them exploded, and Massoud died while being evacuated to a nearby hospital. He was known as “the Lion of Panjshir,” named for his leadership against the Soviet Union’s invasion during the 1980s, and had been the most formidable leader of the Northern Alliance against the Taliban. Al-Qaeda is the most likely suspect for his assassination, and his death removed a potentially strong ally for the United States, just before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Massoud has been lionized since his death. His courage in fighting the Red Army is well remembered, and portraits of him on billboards can be seen in northern Afghanistan to this day. Karzai’s government declared him an official Hero of Afghanistan, and the reverence shown during his funeral explains why: Hundreds of Thousands gathered for the funeral of Ahmad Shah Massoud The Lion of Afghanistan Part 3 I deployed to Afghanistan with the U.S. Army five years later in 2006, right when the war was already being described as the so-called forgotten war, just like the Korean War. The surge in Iraq was about to be in full gear. Most Americans no longer cared about Afghanistan, even as thousands of young men and women felt like they were stuck at the end of the world there. What was once a righteous crusade against Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of Sept. 11 became a footnote in the news in a matter of months. The scattered mountaintop outpost I knew might as well have been on the far side of the moon as far as the public was concerned. I spent 16 months of my life there, and few Americans could point to it on a map. When I went back to Afghanistan in 2009 for another year, this time in Wardak province, things had changed. No longer was it a few brigades stuck out in some dusty outposts on a mountaintop. Now we were deep in central Afghanistan, trying to pacify districts that had been written off by


Vladimir Putin just won an international peace prize

Sabaneta. Referencing Putin, Maduro said the prize should be given to “a leader that I believe is the most outstanding there is in the world today, a fighter for peace, for balance, and a builder of a pluripolar, multicentric world.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, meets with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during the World Energy Congress, in Istanbul, Oct. 10, 2016. The Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his brokerage of peace with his country's FARC rebels, comes with a roughly $1 million award. The Chávez award doesn't come with any cash, but rather with a smaller version of the Chávez statue. Venezuela's government is essentially broke, and imports have dried up, leaving food and medicine stocks sparse. Massive protests have filled Venezuelan streets, with demonstrators calling for elections, while there have been widespread reports of looting, as well as hunger. Maduro didn't directly mention the Nobel, nor his Colombian counterpart, though he did seem to imply that his new prize could be awarded to a FARC leader in the near future. Venezuela and the FARC, a leftist guerrilla group formally known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, share an affinity for Marxism; during the Chávez years, FARC rebels operated openly in Venezuela. Many had expected the Nobel to be given jointly to Santos and Timoleón “Timochenko” Jiménez, the FARC's commander in chief. “We'll have to award the peace in Colombia if it comes together,” Maduro said. In a referendum earlier this month, Colombians narrowly rejected a hard-fought peace deal between their government and the rebels, threatening to drag the nation back into war. So far, it appears as if the rebels have remained committed to peace, albeit warily. When Putin received the Confucius Peace Prize in 2011, its committee of judges praised his conduct in fighting insurgents in Russia's Chechnya region in 1999. Human rights organizations found widespread evidence that Russian and pro-Russian security forces carried out rape, torture and extrajudicial killings. “His iron hand and toughness revealed in this war impressed the Russians a lot, and he was regarded to be capable of bringing safety and stability to Russia,” read an English version of the committee’s statement. “He became the antiterrorist No. 1 and the national hero.” That prize was founded by a small group of self-proclaimed “patriotic scholars” and served as a rebuttal of sorts to the Nobel Peace


If Amazon is really opening brick-and-mortar grocery stores, it’s a big deal

Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery. (Reuters/Mike Segar) Rumors have been brewing for about a year now that e-commerce titan Amazon.com wants to open grocery-centric brick-and-mortar locations. In Seattle and Sunnyvale, Calif., there have been reports that outposts are in the works allowing shoppers to drive up and retrieve grocery orders they place online. On Tuesday, the buzz grew louder when the Wall Street Journal reported many such locations are in the works, and they will not only include curbside pickup, but also walk-in convenience stores where you can purchase perishables. The reports suggest Amazon wants to be a more serious player in the grocery business, and to achieve that, it believes it can’t rely on e-commerce alone. And that potentially sets up a kind of retailing showdown we haven’t quite seen before. For so long, we’ve been watching traditional brick-and-mortar retailers try to notch a win on the digital playing field that is Amazon’s home turf. Now, it appears we’re poised to watch the online shopping pioneer try to march into an arena where the likes of Walmart, Kroger and Giant have distinct advantages. (Amazon’s chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Washington Post.) To understand what’s at stake for all of these players, let’s start with a lay of the land. Grocery is something of the final frontier of the online shopping revolution, with just 2 percent or less of sales happening online. There are a variety of reasons for that: Customers have been loathe to give up control of selecting their own produce and meat, and retailers have had a hard time figuring out a durable business model, since the grocery world already operates on razor-thin profit margins. Also, about 80 percent of the U.S. population lives within 2.5 miles of a supermarket, according to Jim Hertel, senior vice president at grocery consultancy Willard Bishop. In other words, buying groceries in person simply isn’t that inconvenient, especially compared to the other types of purchases that have moved online in greater proportions. [What to expect from Whole Foods’ new, low-price grocery chain] That hasn’t stopped Amazon from trying to turn us into online grocery shoppers. For several years now, it has been experimenting with an offering called AmazonFresh, in which Prime members can pay a fee to be able to get fresh groceries brought to their doorsteps. It’s not hard to see why Amazon would want to


How Obama brought capitalism to outer space

Blue Origin promise suborbital tourist flights within a couple of years. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) SpaceX and Boeing are working toward flying astronauts to the space station. Bigelow Aerospace is building inflatable habitats that could ultimately succeed the station. In fact, one of the habitats is currently attached to the station. “It will become one of the great ironies in the history of exploration into space that someone many politicians called a socialist was a champion for the possibilities of capitalism in space,” said James Muncy, a space policy analyst at PoliSpace, a consulting firm. Obama “stepped in and said we're going to try public private partnerships, and it is working.” While the high-profile billionaires get the most attention, there are many companies pushing the frontiers. Sierra Nevada Corp., another of NASA’s beneficiaries, just announced that it had signed a deal with the United Nations to fly its first-ever space mission. Earlier this year, Moon Express, which is vying for the $20 million Google Lunar XPrize, received permission to send a robotic lander on the moon, the first commercial company to get such permission from the U.S. government. And there have been a proliferation of companies, such as Vector Space Systems and Rocketlab that plan to fly small satellites, some as tiny as a shoebox. On Tuesday, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden wrote in a blog post that the agency plans to allow commercial companies to use a “docking port” on the space station in an effort to help create “one or more future commercial stations in low Earth orbit” that would be ready to take over then the space station is retired. There is still no self-sustaining economy to keep commercial space companies alive, many of which would wither without the support of NASA or the billionaires that are funding them with their own money. And the two companies that have the contracts to restore human space travel from U.S. soil both have suffered setbacks and delays. Boeing recently confirmed an Aviation Week report that because of technical issues with its Starliner spacecraft it was pushing back flights six months and hopes to fly by the end of 2018. SpaceX, the other company NASA is relying on to fly its astronauts, had its Falcon 9 rocket blow up last month and still doesn’t know exactly why. NASA’s own vehicles, the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, have had


D.C.-area forecast: Nice weather in cruise control through the weekend

TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 9/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current weather conditions at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL October usually brings at least one stretch of superb weather, and this week certainly seems to qualify as that. Most days should see at least partly sunny skies, with comfortable highs in the 60s to mid-70s. As of now, dry weather looks to prevail into the weekend. Today (Wednesday): Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Thursday): A serene sunset on the Anacostia yesterday. (Jim Havard via Flickr) Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD High pressure holds court Friday and Saturday, delivering partly to mostly sunny skies and highs in the 60s, followed by Saturday-night lows in the mid-40s to low 50s. Skies may turn partly cloudy Sunday as high pressure shifts off the coast, with warmer highs in the upper 60s to low 70s, and a small chance of a late-day shower. Confidence: Medium


The Daily 202: Republican politicians fall back in line behind Trump after defecting

sweeping refugee camp — known as the “Jungle” — before the end of the year. (James McAuley) - Comcast is paying $2.3 million in a settlement with the FCC, after regulators accused the cable company of illegally billing customers for unwanted equipment and services. The fine comes after subscribers began complaining to the FCC that they'd been charged for premium channels, set-top boxes or video recording devices despite telling the company they weren't looking for upgrades. (Brian Fung) - Michelle Obama announced a $5 million expansion to her Let Girls Learn initiative — amassing more than $1 billion in private sector donations since she launched the effort 18 months ago. “This is personal for me,” Obama told students on Tuesday. “I wouldn’t be here — not just in this chair, but in the life that I have — without my education.” (Juliet Eilperin and Krissah Thompson) - Vladimir Putin just won an international peace prize. (Yes, really.) The Russian president — who has been accused of slaughtering thousands of civilians with deadly airstrikes in Syria, dooming a cease-fire agreement in Aleppo and meddling in the U.S. election — was bestowed a “people’s peace and sovereignty prize” by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, another odious strongman. Putin can put it on his mantel beside China's Confucius Peace Prize, which he received in 2011. (Max Bearak) - Tim Tebow stopped signing autographs after his Arizona Fall League debut in order to tend to a collapsed fan having a seizure. Tebow stayed with the man for about 15 minutes until paramedics arrived, and he promised to pray for him by name. (New York Times) - Publishers in Japan are releasing dozens of books about Trump's potential presidency. Titles include “Collapsing America: The World Will Go Mad If There’s A President Trump” and feature cover art of cartoon Trump flipping the bird. (Anna Fifield and Yuki Oda) - A 29-year-old Portland man suffered a gruesome — and rare — shark attack while surfing off the coast of Oregon. Shark sightings in the area are so uncommon that bystanders were forced to fashion homemade warning signs to other swimmers on paper plates. (Sarah Larimer) - A costume shop is under fire for selling a Halloween getup that depicts a bound-and-gagged “Parisian robbery victim,” just one week after Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint by masked men.(Lindsey Bever) - Dominos announced it will now deliver by CANOE,


What you need to know about the Michelin Guide before it’s released in Washington

Minibar is a strong contender to earn a spot in Washington's first Michelin Guide, coming Thursday. (Goran Kosanovic for The Washington Post) The Michelin Guides and their star ratings are valued the world over, but with the first-ever D.C. guide coming Thursday, you might not know where they come from or what they mean. If you need a primer on what has had the local dining scene in a tizzy, here are some basics. What is the Michelin Guide? A dining guide, essentially. It's published by, yes, the tire company, starting in 1900 when its founders launched a guide to encourage people to get out on the road in France and wear down their tires. A star rating was introduced in 1926, with the three-star system going into effect in 1931. Michelin also releases non-starred recommendations for more affordable restaurants: the Bib Gourmand (in Washington, $40 or less for two courses and a glass of wine or dessert) and cheap eats ($25 or less here) lists. How many guides are there? Washington is the 29th edition of the collection, joining fellow American cities San Francisco, New York and Chicago. (Los Angeles and Las Vegas were discontinued in 2010.) The guides, which span 28 countries and can focus on individual cities, countries or regions, include editions on London, Paris, Tokyo, Italy, Germany and, of course, France. What do the star ratings mean? Technically, one star means "a very good restaurant in its category." Two stars equate to "excellent cooking, worth a detour," and three stars are awarded for "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey." The standards, though, are tougher than they sound. There are only 127 three-star restaurants in the world. New York only has six three-star restaurants; Chicago has two; and San Francisco has five. There's a chance no D.C. restaurants will earn three stars come Thursday. At least in the United States, the rare three-star rating tends to be awarded to restaurants with pricey tasting menus created by highly-acclaimed chefs who've spent years toiling in the industry. The pressure to achieve and maintain star ratings can be immense, a cultural phenomenon that's recently been dramatized in films such as "Burnt" and "The Hundred-Foot Journey." In real life, the push for perfection and the disappointment of falling short can be devastating, as Quartz wrote last year, leading to serious soul-searching, actual tears (from Gordon Ramsay, no less) and, in at


The DEA is withdrawing a proposal to ban another plant after the Internet got really mad

for kratom use, who say the plant has helped them treat pain and stop taking more powerful and deadly opiate painkillers said they are elated. "I am in tears," Susan Ash of the American Kratom Association said in an email. "Our voices are being heard, but we still have a long road ahead of us. Lawmakers who criticized the initial announcement to ban kratom are also pleased. "Concerned citizens across the country have made it clear, they want the DEA to listen to the science when it comes to the potentially life-saving properties of kratom," said Mark Pocan (D.-Wis.) in an email. Researchers are welcoming the move, but they point out that the future of their work with the plant is an uncertain one. "It's certainly a positive development," said Andrew Kruegel of Columbia University in an email. Kruegel is one of the researchers working to develop next-generation painkillers based on compounds contained in kratom. Kruegel says that the FDA's evaluation of the drug will carry a lot of weight in the DEA's decision. But the kind of rigorous, controlled trials that the FDA typically refers to in situations like this simply don't exist for kratom. "Unfortunately, in the United States I don't think we have a good regulatory framework for handling this situation or taking perhaps more reasonable middle paths" between banning the drug outright or keeping it unregulated, Kruegel says. Still, he says, "the FDA is a scientific agency rather than a law enforcement agency, so I am encouraged that they will now be having more serious input on this important policy decision." Marc Swogger, a clinical psychologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center who has published research on kratom use and earlier called the decision to ban the plant "insane," said in an email that "I'm happy to see this. It is a step in the right direction and a credit to people who have spoken out against scheduling this plant." He added "now, the government should take into account, not just the minimal available scientific data on kratom, but the broader impact that criminalizing the use of this plant will have on vulnerable citizens." More from Wonkblog: Marijuana really can be deadly, but not in the way you probably expect Drug cops raid an 81-year-old woman's garden to take out a single marijuana plant One striking chart shows why pharma companies are fighting legal marijuana


You can now officially eat your way through four José Andrés restaurants in one night

Jaleo is one stop on the new Tour de José, which includes four of José Andrés restaurants in Penn Quarter. (Joseph Victor Stefanchik for The Washington Post) If you've ever been tempted to organize a progressive dinner through José Andrés's cluster of restaurants in Penn Quarter but never got your act together, this may be the nudge you need: There is now officially a “Tour de José.” Tickets for the tour are now available, with the dinners debuting Oct. 17. The dinner consists of 15 to 20 courses, starting at Zaytinya and continuing to Jaleo, Oyamel and China Chilcano. The tour hits all of Andrés's restaurants in the neighborhood, except for Minibar and Barmini, and costs $195, including beverage pairings, tax and gratuity. So, yes, depending on how much you want to eat or drink, it's possible you could create your own movable feast for less. Then again, the tour accommodates up to six diners, and groups will have guaranteed seating ready for them when they arrive at each restaurant. (It's also a less expensive, if different, splurge than the $275 per person experience at Minibar, which is not all-inclusive.) Expect the tour to take about three hours; restaurant management will make sure diners stay on schedule and move from place to place. Tours kick off at 5 p.m. on Sunday and 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and can be purchased at josesway.com. Read more: — What you need to know about the Michelin Guide before it’s released in Washington — Tom Sietsema’s top 10: All-Purpose is No. 1 — The beer list at Owen’s Ordinary in North Bethesda is good enough to be the envy of any D.C. bar


Food prices are dropping. Restaurant prices aren’t.

is that grocery stores and restaurants are very different business models, despite being reliant on the same products. Real estate, labor and taxes are a big part of restaurant costs. When those prices rise, they pinch the industry’s razor-thin margins. “Restaurant prices are primarily comprised of labor and rental costs with only a small portion going toward food,” according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “For this reason, decreasing farm-level and wholesale food prices have had less of an impact on restaurant menu prices.” Indeed. Menu prices have been rising at a 2.7 percent rate, according to Hudson Riehle, senior vice president for research at the National Restaurant Association. “Grocery store prices have dropped by 0.9 percent over the same period…For a typical restaurant patron, the gap between menu price inflation and grocery store price deflation is now in excess of three percentage points.” Translation: it’s getting cheaper by the day to shop at the grocery stores, rather than head for a restaurant. Don’t feel too sorry for America’s 1 million restaurants, which is the second highest private employer in the nation, with 14 million individuals, after health care. Despite a host of challenges, the industry should post $783 billion in sales this year, up five percent over last year, according to Riehle. And some restaurants, such as Olive Garden, have shown growth amidst a slumping industry. Part of the problem is cheap gasoline. Dropping gas prices in normal cycles boosts cash available for families to spend going out to dinner. But the gas savings is paying for things like higher rent and insurance. That is creating unfulfilled demand for eating out. “The slow-growth economic environment has made them much more thoughtful on how they spend their food dollar,” Riehle said. More people by far prefer eating out to shopping at grocery stores by a margin of 90 percent versus 66 percent, according the National Restaurant Association. Fifty-two percent of the dollars spent on food is spent at grocery stores versus 48 percent at restaurants. “Almost half [of consumers] report that they are not using restaurants as much as they would like in their daily lifestyle,” Riehle said. One sliver that Amazon Fresh may have spied is the growing demand over the last decade for drive-through food purchases, which can attract a segment of consumers who want to eat in but lack the time to shop.


Support for marijuana legalization hits new heights ahead of November election

A marijuana plant propagated at Josh Gender's medical marijuana-growing operation in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 7. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) National support for marijuana legalization continues to rise, according to survey data released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. A Pew poll conducted at the end of August found that 57 percent of American adults now say marijuana should be legal. That's the highest support the Pew poll has ever shown on the question, in line with other polling from Gallup and the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Perhaps more significantly, the Pew study found that opposition to legalization has dropped precipitously. In March 2015, 44 percent of Americans said they opposed marijuana legalization. That figure has fallen to 37 percent in the latest poll, meaning that legalization supporters have a 20-percentage-point lead over opponents. Pew Research Center Legalization supporters credit better public understanding of the risks and benefits of marijuana use as a driver of the shift. “There is more credible information out there than ever before,” said Mason Tvert, communications director of the Marijuana Policy Project, in an email. “As people learn that marijuana is not as dangerous as they were once led to believe, they tend to be supportive of taking a new approach.” In November, voters in five states will decide to follow the lead of Colorado, Washington and other states in legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. Polls generally show voters favor these measures, although in several cases the margins are quite small. The Pew survey found that legalization is strongly favored by every age group except for seniors 71 and older. Federal research has shown that people in their early and late middle age are among the fastest-growing segments of the marijuana market. Young people are especially supportive of marijuana legalization, Pew found. Among millennials, 71 percent support legalization while only 25 percent oppose it. Previous surveys have found that even young conservative voters favor legalization, and that young voters tend to see a candidate's support for marijuana legalization as something that would make them more likely to vote for that candidate. While states grapple with marijuana legalization, federal policy has remained largely unchanged for more than 40 years. As recently as August, the Drug Enforcement Administration denied a petition to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana for medical use.


D.C.-area forecast: Mild today, maybe a sprinkle; Leaning toward a dry weekend

Mums, October 2, 2016. (J W Comer via Flickr) TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 7/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current weather conditions at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL Chances are in your favor of staying dry today as a front cruises through with little moisture. That leads to an even drier weekend and “seasonally correct” temperatures. There should be good views of the Hunter Moon (a super full moon) rising Saturday night. A burst of warmth looks likely for early next week, and we might even take a run at 80 one more time! Today (Thursday): Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Friday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Saturday A warming trend gets started Sunday as mostly sunny skies and light winds are likely to dominate. Highs reach the upper 60s to lower 70s. Despite a clear, dry fall night lows only fall to the 50s. Confidence: Medium-High Monday


British supermarkets were running low on Marmite. Brexit just got real.

spread on toast and dipped into a boiled egg — a peculiarly British delicacy known as "soldiers." "It gets you up and gets you energy," he said as he stood outside a Tesco supermarket in southwest London. "Our mornings won't be the same again. I want to stock up. It's a disgrace." On Thursday evening, Birch got a reprieve from the need to hoard after the pricing dispute that had led to the temporary shortage was resolved. That will no doubt dishearten pro-European Marmite haters, who had finally found something about Brexit they can support. “I've always loathed Marmite,” the author S.J. Watson wrote on Twitter. “Finally I see the point of Brexit.” Surveys have shown that Brits are almost exactly split over whether they love or hate Marmite, much as they are over Brexit. (Hummus is the only food in Britain that’s more divisive.) Thursday's short-lived shortage — future historians will undoubtedly dub it the Great British Marmite Crisis of 2016 — kicked off due to a price dispute between Tesco, the ubiquitous mid-market British supermarket chain, and Unilever, the supplier of Marmite as well as a long line of less controversial grocery store items, including Ben & Jerry's ice cream and PG Tips tea. Although the shortage yielded much mirth on social media and in the supermarket aisles, it pointed to a possible disaster for the British economy as the pound continues to weaken. “It’s a very visible sign of what’s happening. Currency markets are taking the view that trade will become more expensive post-Brexit,” said Paul Johnson, director of the London-based Institute for Fiscal Studies. “The markets are making a statement of concern about the future strength of the U.K. economy.” That, Johnson said, will likely mean broad-based price increases. The Marmite flare-up on Thursday was only the start. Britain’s normally rock-solid currency has taken a nasty fall since the country opted in a 52-to-48 percent June vote to leave the E.U. The pound has been particularly battered in recent days amid concern among traders that Britain is careening toward a "hard Brexit," one that will take it out of Europe's single market and end in high tariffs between the Britain and the continent. Before the Brexit vote, the pound was worth nearly $1.49. As of Thursday, it was down to less than $1.22 — the sort of precipitous fall that is usually reserved for emerging market


currencies. The decline has made the pound the world's worst performing major currency this year. That has been a boon to British manufacturers, and has attracted bargain-hunting tourists to British shores. But it has also made foreign travel significantly more expensive for Brits, and is expected to yield sharply higher prices on imported consumer goods. Tesco apparently balked at Unilever's attempt to raise its prices even on goods, like Marmite, that are made in Britain. The impasse, according to a statement from the supermarket chain, had caused "availability issues on a number of Unilever products." At stores, supplies of Unilever products — Marmite included — were reportedly running low on Thursday. On Tesco's web site, a number of goods were completely out of stock. But by Thursday evening, both companies reported that the matter had been resolved and that supplies of Marmite, as well as Unilever’s other products, would be back to normal in stores and online. “We always put our customers first and we’re pleased it’s been resolved to our satisfaction,” the supermarket said in a statement. Tesco said the price of Marmite for consumers would remain unchanged. It was unclear whether the company had persuaded Unilever to drop its demand of a reported 10 percent increase on the wholesale price. Unilever executives defended the proposed increase, noting the higher cost of supplies sourced in Europe and the lower value of pounds paid when corporate profits are counted in euros. But Johnson said that inflation for consumers is unavoidable if the pound stays weak. And that, he noted, could do serious damage to British living standards, which have only recently begun to rise following the damage done by the Great Recession. If wages don’t increase with prices, he said, “living standards stagnate or possibly fall.” The working poor could be hit hardest, given government plans to freeze benefits for the next three years. “In a world where the price level is rising, it’s poor, working-age people who will be hit hardest,” he said. But for now, at least, the threat of a Marmite-deprived Britain appears to have passed – for good or for ill. Brexcopolypse Diary Day 122: frantically stocking up on Marmite this morning Didn't realise I should have been stockpiling Marmite before brexit like I was prepping for the goddamn apocalypse #Marmitegate Our grandparents withstood bombing raids and rationing to protect our freedom. We are screeching about


Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize for Literature

[UPDATED AT END] This just in: Bob Dylan has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” An inspired choice – from an organization that has not always made inspired choices. The list of great authors – as in earth-shakingly, mind-numbingly, inarguably great authors – who did NOT receive the Nobel Prize is a Who’s Who of the greatest writers of the last 100 years: Leo Tolstoy, Vladimir Nabokov, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Anton Chekhov, Jorge Luis Borges, Henrik Ibsen, Bertold Brecht, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, … While the Winner’s Circle has included Sully Prudhomme, Sinclair Lewis, Harry Martinson, Boris Pasternak, José Echegaray, Rudolf Eucken, Verner von Heidenstam, Erik A. Karlfeldt, Frans Sillanpää, and Pearl Buck. It is difficult to understand exactly why we pay so much attention to it; it’s just a bunch of Swedish intellectuals with no particular claim to be the arbiters of great art sitting around and picking a favorite. But we do – in large part, I think, because we think everyone else is paying attention to it, in theory at least all across the planet. And in any event, it surely is a net plus for the world that once a year a significant portion of the world’s attention is fixed, for even a few moments, on great writers (and sometimes not-so-great writers) and on what makes them great (and not-so-great). And Dylan is worthy of the attention. To those of us who grew up with him singing on our own personal soundtracks – “Freewheelin'” was, I believe, the first album I ever bought with my own money, and it may well have been the best three bucks I ever spent; I’ve said for many years that I think we’ve been fortunate to have been alive during the Bob Dylan era – the choice surely brings a smile to our faces. The greatest song-writer in English, certainly since George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, and possibly ever. I have a strong feeling that 100 or 200 years from now, when people may have forgotten all about Andre Gide (1947), Heinrich Boll (1972), and Eyvind Johnson (1974), they’ll still be playing and singing Dylan’s songs. Herein my list of the five greatest Dylan albums of all time: Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, Freewheelin’,


Reactions to Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize: Shock, elation and concern for Philip Roth

Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday, Oct. 13, for work that the Swedish Academy described as “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” In a shocking twist, this year’s Nobel Prize in literature wasn’t awarded to a novelist but to legendary musician Bob Dylan. He can add that to his Oscar, Golden Globe and 11 Grammys, among other awards. Permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Sara Danius made the announcement, and she clearly knew there may be some head-scratching, so she laid it on thick when it came to expressing Dylan’s literary achievements. “If you look back, far back, you discover Homer and Sappho, and they wrote poetic texts that were meant to be listened to,” she said. “They were meant to be performed. It’s the same way with Bob Dylan. But we still read Homer and Sappho. He can be read and should be read.” The reaction to the news has been a mixed bag. Dylan’s many fans are obviously over the moon, and enthusiasts have taken to tweeting out favorite lines. He even got a shout-out from Molly Ringwald. Now I can say I've been in a music video of a Nobel Prize winner. Congratulations Bob! https://t.co/j9rxiVhPyM But most of those weighing in have been writers, and their reactions show just how polarizing the news has been. Some think Dylan is a worthy recipient. From Orpheus to Faiz,song & poetry have been closely linked. Dylan is the brilliant inheritor of the bardic tradition.Great choice. #Nobel Asked about Nobel for Dylan: inspired & original choice. his haunting music & lyrics have always seemed, in the deepest sense, "literary." Folks: Songwriting is writing, and Bob Dylan is one of the most influential writers in the last 100 years. It's a defensible Nobel pick. This is awesome: Bob Dylan wins Nobel prize in literature 2016 https://t.co/Dvq580cDEa But there are also a lot of writers who aren’t pleased, and you can understand why. There aren’t that many high-profile awards for writing, and if musicians start scooping them up, what does that mean? I'm happy for Bob Dylan. #ButDoesThisMeanICanWinAGrammy? I totally get the Nobel committee. Reading books is hard. I'm a Dylan fan, but this is an ill conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies. Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature? What's next, Derek Jeter wins a


The Washington Post 2016 Fall Dining Guide, ‘the most expansive’ one yet

The Washington Post today released the 2016 Fall Dining Guide, naming All-Purpose with chef Mike Friedman as No. 1 on Food Critic Tom Sietsema’s Top 10 favorite restaurants list where “Pizza is the star.” The guide will appear in the Oct. 16 edition of The Post’s Magazine and features an impressive 52 new and updated reviews by Sietsema highlighting the diverse and exploding Washington, D.C. food scene. In addition to the Top 10 list, the guide includes Food Writer Tim Carmen’s take on the area’s cheap eats, Beer Columnist Fritz Hahn’s picks for the District’s go-to bars and the quick guide to the region’s restaurants. Newsy designations include Baan Thai on 14th Street as the top cheap eat and Columbia Room in Shaw as the favorite of the Washington bar scene. Sietsma writes that “Michelin and Bon Appetit decided this year that Washington is a food city worth paying attention to, but some of us have long appreciated the vibrant dining scene here…Growth has recently exploded, with about 90 restaurant debuts this summer alone and the promise of many more good things to come. That’s why this year’s dining guide is the most expansive since I became food critic in 2000.” Check out the complete 2016 Fall Dining Guide online now and in The Washington Post Magazine on Oct. 16.


China has now eclipsed us in AI research

rise of machine-learning services in our smartphones and other devices, one type of narrow, specialized AI has become all the rage. And the research on this branch of AI is only accelerating. In fact, as more industries and policymakers awaken to the benefits of machine learning, two countries appear to be pulling away in the research race. The results will probably have significant implications for the future of AI. (Office of Science and Technology Policy/The White House) If you're not familiar with the term, “deep learning” is a subset of the overall branch of AI known as machine learning — which basically involves the use of computer algorithms to perform pattern recognition and analysis. It's this type of AI that powers personal digital assistants such as Google Now, for example. The chart above was published Wednesday by the Obama administration as part of a new strategic plan aimed at spurring U.S. development of artificial intelligence. What's striking about it is that although the United States was an early leader on deep-learning research, China has effectively eclipsed it in terms of the number of papers published annually on the subject. The rate of increase is remarkably steep, reflecting how quickly China's research priorities have shifted. The quality of China's research is also striking. The chart below narrows the research to include only those papers that were cited at least once by other researchers, an indication that the papers were influential in the field. (Office of Science and Technology Policy/The White House) Compared with other countries, the United States and China are spending tremendous research attention on deep learning. But, according to the White House, the United States is not investing nearly enough in basic research. “Current levels of R&D spending are half to one-quarter of the level of R&D investment that would produce the optimal level of economic growth,” a companion report published this week by the Obama administration finds. The government is pushing for a major role for itself in AI research, and here's why: Becoming a leader in artificial-intelligence research and development puts the United States in a better position to establish global norms on how AI should be used safely. When AI stands to transform virtually everything including labor, the environment, and the future of warfare and cyberconflict, the United States could be put at a disadvantage if other countries, such as China, get to dictate terms instead.


Greek yogurt is no longer the trendiest yogurt

“The boom times ushered in by the novelty of Greek (yogurt) are fading,” says a new report. (Mike Groll/AP) Move over, Greek yogurt. The protein-rich breakfast staple, which has enjoyed an astronomical ascent in recent years, is being replaced by a new form of dairy. The latest fad: Yogurt drinks, according to a report by research firm Mintel. Yogurt smoothies, kefir and other drinks are experiencing double-digit growth because, researchers say, they offer a more portable, spoon-less alternative to traditional forms of yogurt. As a result, sales of yogurt drinks have climbed 62 percent over the past five years and are projected to grow another 11 percent this year, according to Mintel. (Sales of “spoonable” yogurt, by comparison, grew 27 percent since 2011.) Meanwhile, year-over-year sales of traditional forms of yogurt have been sliding since 2013. Greek yogurt in particular has been battling diminished sales growth in recent years. The thick, creamy product became a mainstream sensation a decade ago, The Washington Post reported last year: The breakfast favorite’s astonishingly fast growth is epitomized by the success of Chobani—perhaps the best known brand: the company, which began selling Greek yogurt in 2007, saw its sales skyrocket from just over $3 million to more than $1.1 billion in its first five years. Today, Greek Yogurt accounts for roughly half of all yogurt sales in the United States. Recently, though, the industry’s double-digit growth has tapered off. “Old fashioned Greek yogurt is definitely losing some steam,” Jared Koerten, a senior food analyst at Euromonitor, told The Washington Post in December. “We grow tired of things pretty quickly here in the United States.” But researchers say the popularity of Greek yogurt played a large role in reintroducing the dairy staple to millions of Americans, and ultimately contributed to the burgeoning success of yogurt drinks. Greek yogurt “introduced consumers to the possibility of variety, in terms of flavor, texture, and function,” the report says. Nearly half of U.S. yogurt consumers say they buy it for digestive health, while 35 percent like that it’s affordable, according to the Mintel survey. Overall, yogurt — and yogurt drink — sales are projected to rise 3 percent this year to $9.1 billion. The breakfast food is also increasingly being consumed at different times of the day, which bodes well for drinkable varieties. Among Americans who consume yogurt, 84 percent say they eat (or drink) it as a morning


A comet smashing into ancient Earth may have set off catastrophic global warming

set off the period of global warming. The glass spheres, called microtektites, are the remains of the molten rock that gets blown in the air when a massive object collides with the Earth. They contain “shocked” quartz that appears only in the wake of an impact. In 1980, the discovery of shocked quartz and tektite deposits in the Caribbean from 66 million years ago helped convince Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez that a massive asteroid may have been what killed the dinosaurs; a decade later, geophysicists discovered the Chicxulub crater off the coast of Mexico, where the impact occurred. The newly described microtektites come from the part of the fossil record where carbon starts to spike — a layer known as the Paleocene-Eocene boundary. “Those glass impact sperules r Kent has argued that a comet impact could have triggered the thermal maximum since 2003, when he reported on finding strange magnetic nanoparticles in sediment cores taken off the Atlantic coast. Comets carry large amounts of carbon-12, the isotope that became suddenly abundant during the PETM. Kent believes that an initial, instantaneous release of carbon from the impact could have set off a greenhouse effect that caused frozen methane in the seafloor to melt, releasing more carbon and starting a positive feedback cycle that made the planet hotter and hotter. The impact could also have triggered landslides in the north Atlantic that exposed the methane, and volcanic activity that was happening at the hotspot underneath what is now Iceland would have exacerbated the problem. The mikrotektites are a “coup de grace,” Kent said, “which really points to an impact.” Images of some of the microtektites discovered by Schaller and Fung. (M.F. Schaller et al., Science) They were discovered by Morgan Schaller, a geochemist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and lead author of the paper, and doctoral student Megan Fung. Fung had been examining sediment cores from various spots around the Atlantic looking for fossils of foraminifera, a class of single-celled sea creatures that was one of the main victims of the PETM warming. Months had gone by with no success, so Schaller came over to see what was wrong. “Morgan came down and kind of dumped the sample on a tray,” Fung recalled, “and in a couple of minutes found one of these sphereules.” “And then we jumped up and down and got really excited,” Schaller interjected. They both laughed. Other scientists


Here’s how legal pot changed Colorado and Washington

be at higher risk of other physical and mental health problems related to marijuana use. Opponents of legalization often point out that one highly regarded federal survey on drug use shows that Colorado is No. 1 in the nation when it comes to teen marijuana use. But experts say that the trend in that survey was in place long before Colorado voters legalized marijuana. Experts also point out that the official state survey, which uses a much larger sample size than the federal survey, indicates that Colorado teens are middle-of-the-pack on marijuana use compared to teens in the rest of the nation. “Preliminary data show that the legalization of marijuana has had little to no impact on the overall rate of youth use of marijuana,” the DPA report concludes. 2. Marijuana arrests are way down — but racial disparities remain. “Arrests in all states and Washington, D.C. for the possession, cultivation and distribution of marijuana have plummeted since voters legalized the adult use of marijuana,” the DPA finds, citing official state and municipal numbers. The reduction in arrests is “saving those jurisdictions millions of dollars and preventing the criminalization of thousands of people.” In Colorado, marijuana arrests fell by nearly half from 2012 to 2014. Marijuana possession charges in Washington state fell by a more dramatic 98 percent between 2012 and 2013. Alaska, Oregon and D.C. show similar declines. From a criminal justice standpoint, that's a significant development. A report out yesterday from the ACLU and Human Rights Watch found that in a given year, American police typically arrest more people for marijuana use than for all violent crimes combined. “By no longer arresting and prosecuting possession and other low-level marijuana offenses, states are saving hundreds of millions of dollars,” the Drug Policy Alliance writes, citing the $200 million spent on marijuana enforcement in Washington state between 2000 and 2010. Still, the DPA notes that disparities in marijuana arrest rates between black and white citizens remain, even after legalization: “While legalization substantially reduces the total number of blacks and Latinos arrested for marijuana offenses, it does not eliminate the forces that contributed to the disparity in the first place.” 3. Marijuana legalization appears to have had little impact on traffic fatalities. “In Colorado and Washington the post-legalization traffic fatality rate has remained statistically consistent with pre-legalization levels, is lower in each state than it was a decade prior, and is


This little-noticed court settlement will probably save millions of animals

announced by WildEarth this week. Wildlife Services would not discuss the court case when representatives were contacted, but a spokeswoman, Lyndsay Cole, released a statement acknowledging that the agency has “begun the process of developing a new” assessment known as the National Environmental Policy Act for managing statewide predator damage in Nevada. “Wildlife Services is dedicated to resolving human and wildlife conflicts with the most up-to-date information and best scientific analysis available,” Cole wrote. Like other conservationists, Cotton said Wildlife Service’s efforts to remove harmful invasive and nuisance species from the wild is vital. Birds at airports smash into planes. Hoards of blackbirds are known to menace cattle and steal their feed. Vultures often pour into suburban communities for warmth in winter. Feral cats roam the streets, killing nearly a billion birds each year. “But we object to their killings of native animals,” she said. “They admitted killing 17 domestic dogs because they use traps, and they’re indiscriminate.” Invasive European starlings are considered a major nuisance, and a major target of Wildlife Services, which killed 1.2 million last year. Here a group of starlings converge on a pastry, not wanting to share with a red-bellied woodpecker. (John Badman/Telegraph via AP) The analysis, conservationists have long argued, fails to take into account the benefits of predators the agency kills, such as wolves, Cotton said. When wolves that had all but disappeared from the West were reintroduced into the wild a few years ago, they triggered a cascade effect that improved the health of the landscape. Herds of elk and deer, on which wolves prey, are forced to move rather than shelter in a single place, where they denude areas of leafy vegetation that smaller animals need to survive. Deer and sheep munching everything in sight in a single location throws a habitat out of balance, because mice disappear for lack of shelter, leaving less food for birds of prey, foxes and other predators. When wolves bring down a deer or elk carcass, hungry bears benefit by stealing it. Killing wolves based on outdated science ignored other key biological realities, Cotton said. Removing key members of a pack often leaves it shorthanded and unable to take down big prey. And taking out coyotes in an attempt to reduce a pack only results in making it bigger. When male and female pack leaders are removed, every female in the pack is available to


We’re placing far too much hope in pulling carbon dioxide out of the air, scientists warn

In this July 1, 2013 photo, smoke rises from the Colstrip Steam Electric Station, a coal-burning power plant in Colstrip, Mont. (Matthew Brown/Associated Press) In the past decade, an ambitious — but still mostly hypothetical — technological strategy for meeting our global climate goals has grown prominent in scientific discussions. Known as “negative emissions,” the idea is to remove carbon dioxide from the air using various technological means, a method that could theoretically buy the world more time when it comes to reducing our overall greenhouse-gas emissions. Recent models of future climate scenarios have assumed that this technique will be widely used in the future. Few have explored a world in which we can keep the planet’s warming within at least a 2-degree temperature threshold without the help of negative-emission technologies. But some scientists are arguing that this assumption may be a serious mistake. In a new opinion paper, published Thursday in the journal Science, climate experts “[If] we behave today like we’ve got these get-out-of-jail cards in the future, and then in 20 years we discover we don’t have this technology, then you’re already locked into a higher temperature level,” Peters said. Many possible negative-emission technologies have been proposed, from simply planting more forests (which act as carbon sinks) to designing chemical reactions that physically take the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The technology most widely included in the models is known as bioenergy combined with carbon capture and storage, or BECCS. In a BECCS scenario, plants capture and store carbon while they grow — removing it from the atmosphere, in other words — and then are harvested and used for fuel to produce energy. These bioenergy plants will be outfitted with a form of technology known as carbon capture, which traps carbon dioxide emissions before they make it into the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide can then be stored safely deep underground. Even more carbon is then captured when the plants grow back again. The idea sounds like a win-win on paper, allowing for both the removal of carbon dioxide and the production of energy. But while more than a dozen pilot-scale BECCS projects exist around the world, only one large-scale facility currently operates. And scientists have serious reservations about the technology’s viability as a global-scale solution. First, the sheer amount of bioenergy fuel required to suit the models’ assumptions already poses a problem, Peters told The Washington


A new digital divide has emerged — and conventional solutions won’t bridge the gap

The new digital divide is not with people who cannot access the Internet but with people who don’t want to. (John Taggart/Bloomberg News) Though the United States has made profound progress in making Internet access universally available, a new digital divide has emerged that defies conventional solutions. Since both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have promised to expand broadband opportunities if elected president, it’s crucial for future policy decisions that we understand who is still offline and why. According to the most recent findings of the Pew Research Center, 13 percent of Americans still do not use the Internet. Of that group, the most telling variable is no longer race, sex or even income. It’s age. Over 40 percent of seniors are offline, compared with 1 percent of millennials. Two other groups stand out as digital holdouts — rural Americans (22 percent) and those with less than a high school education (34 percent). This is our new digital divide. And closing the inclusion gap demands a significant change in strategy. So far, public and private efforts have focused on access and affordability. Based on recommendations in the 2010 National Broadband Plan, the Federal Communications Commission has transformed its subsidy programs from ensuring dial-tone for the poorest Americans into support for broadband service, as well as updating how we connect schools, libraries and other civic institutions. Further, leading Internet providers, including Comcast, AT&T and, recently, Sprint, have expanded programs aimed at low-income families, signing up millions of new Internet users for roughly $10 a month. But while income undoubtedly continues to play a significant role, many who remain offline wouldn’t use the Internet even if it were free. A report just out from the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration finds, consistent with earlier surveys, that over half of those who don’t have Internet service at home say they don’t want or need it. Given the Internet’s growing importance for education, health care and jobs, non-adopters are tragically mistaken about relevance. So the focus needs to be on persuading them to join us. And join us they must. The more users who join the network, the faster each added connection increases its value. The silence of older, rural and less-educated Americans from the online conversation makes all of us that much poorer. The new digital divide can only be bridged by making digital life more relevant. And there’s a


At French ambassador’s Michelin Guide fete, D.C. chefs get starry eyed

Chef Jose Andres accepts his Michelin honor at a party at the residence of of the french ambassador, Gerard Araud (left). Photo by Daniel Swatz. In the weeks leading up to Thursday’s announcement of which restaurants had earned stars in the first Washington edition of the Michelin guide, it seemed that the city was as star-obsessed as an astronomers’ convention. Who would earn the French company’s highest honors? Who would be left (gasp) star-less? But once the word was out, the real question was: Would the new regime — with its high-stakes reviewing by undercover diners and rigid categories — bring discord to Washington’s typically collegial community of chefs? The answer could be found two steps outside the patio doors at the French ambassador’s opulent residence on Thursday night at a soiree in honor of the new guide. There, chef and TV personality Jose Andres (his Minibar was one of only three establishments to earn two stars) was engaged in a friendly chat with restaurateur Ashok Bajaj (whose eateries, particularly the beloved Rasika, didn’t make the list, in what plenty of area foodies found to be a serious slight). “You win some and you lose some,” Bajoj said diplomatically. “It’s still a wonderful thing for Washington and its culinary scene, to get this kind of international attention.” Andres suggested that the magnanimity enjoyed by Washington’s top toques — even as they compete for diners and now, those coveted Michelin stars — could offer a lesson for today’s politicians, who can’t seem to master the notion of a friendly rivalry. “They could learn something from us,” he said, clapping Bajaj on the shoulder. “We know how to get along.” Another Washington chef who was stiffed, Nora Pouillion of the Restaurant Nora, was kissing cheeks in the throng inside. Sour grapes are clearly not on her menu tonight. “Who cares?” she says of not making the list, despite being considered one of the city’s pioneers of the farm-to-table movement. “This is good for all of us — it’s a recognition that we’re not what they always said, which was ‘just some southern city full of steakhouses.'” The chefs named in the iconic red-covered guide gathered on the staircase of the ambassador’s grand home, posing gamely with a guy dressed as the Michelin Man and toasting one another with flutes of champagne. French ambassador Gerard Araud noted that the city was once, by


Why Tom Sietsema chose All-Purpose as his No. 1 restaurant in Washington

Chef and co-owner Michael Friedman in the dining room at All-Purpose. (Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post) Last year, Post Food critic Tom Sietsema chose Rose's Luxury as his No. 1 restaurant in his annual Fall Dining Guide. You wouldn't be alone if you expected Aaron Silverman's ever-popular Barracks Row restaurant to repeat the performance when it came to revealing this year's top pick. But — surprise! — Sietsema has settled on a new favorite: All-Purpose in Shaw. Yes, a restaurant that specializes in pizza. The food comes courtesy of chef Michael Friedman, who opened the hot spot with the team from his other restaurant, the Red Hen, as well as partners from Boundary Stone. “All-Purpose felt like a natural for the No. 1 spot on my annual list of favorites,” Sietsema says. “I appreciate how approachable the restaurant is. (No lines to wait in!) The owners also more than fulfilled their mission, by serving terrific updated Italian-American food and doing so both consistently and with great enthusiasm. To me, All-Purpose is the ideal neighborhood restaurant. Let's hope it inspires others.” Not only is All-Purpose vastly less expensive than Silverman's $250-a-person Pineapple and Pearls, the No. 2 restaurant in the fall guide, it actually has one less star, at three, versus P&P's four. How does that work? Sietsema explained in his live chat that “favorites are highly personal,” and part of the appeal of the more affordable All-Purpose is that it's a place he's more likely to eat at on a regular basis. “I think about value a lot,” he said. In general, Sietsema's Top 10 are a mix of splurge and everyday spots. In the special-treat category, along with Pineapple and Pearls, you can probably throw in Komi, Kinship, Minibar and the Inn at Little Washington. Assuming you can get a reservation or make it to the front of the line, your more wallet-friendly options, along with All-Purpose, are Convivial, Bad Saint, Little Serow and Rasika. (At the latter, there are plenty of entrees right around, or even under, $20.) Read more: - Tom Sietsema's 2016 Fall Dining Guide - Tom Sietsema’s 2016 Fall Dining Guide, by the numbers - 12 D.C. restaurants awarded Michelin stars