Experts fear ‘quiet springs’ as songbirds can’t keep up with climate change

In 1962, Rachel Carson warned that pesticides, particularly DDT, would lead to springs without birdsong, as she wrote in her book “Silent Spring.” Carson's forecast kick-started an environmental movement and was instrumental in the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to ban the pesticides 10 years later, so her descriptions of deathly quiet did not come to pass. But the danger of a silent spring, according to ecologists who study birds, did not evaporate with DDT. The looming threat is not chemical but a changing climate, in which spring begins increasingly earlier — or in rare cases, later — each year. “The rate at which birds are falling out of sync with their environment is almost certainly unsustainable,” ecologist Stephen J. Mayor told The Washington Post. Mayor, a postdoctoral researcher at University of Florida’s Florida Museum of Natural History, echoed Carson: “We can end up with these increasingly quiet springs.” Certain migratory songbirds can't keep pace with the shifting start of spring, Mayor and his colleagues wrote in a Scientific Reports study published Monday. Previous research noted that, in specific areas, some species can adjust to an earlier spring start, such as wood thrushes that breed sooner after arriving at Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands. But the new study was the first to survey songbirds across the entire North American continent. For 48 songbird species, the mismatch between arrival date and the onset of spring grew by an average of half a day per year between 2001 and 2012. Of the species studied, nine fared the worst, with a yawning gap between their arrival date and the spring shift: blue-winged warblers, eastern wood-pewees, great crested flycatchers, indigo buntings, northern parulas, rose-breasted grosbeaks, scarlet tanagers, Townsend's warblers and yellow-billed cuckoos. In the case of the cuckoos, for instance, spring greenery started growing 1.2 days earlier per year, although the birds arrived on average 0.2 days early. Put another way, the timing mismatch increased by an average of one day annually. The report combined satellite data with bird sightings all over North America, splitting the continent into 120-by-120 mile sections. “The novel thing about this paper is the scale at which they are showing the effect,” said Wesley M. Hochachka, an ecologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York who was not involved with this report. (Elecia Crumpton/University of Florida) Using satellite imagery, the study authors tracked the start of green-up, the sudden burst


bird research, Hochachka said, in a way no other continent can match.) There was some good news from these sightings, Mayor said. “At least 80 percent of the species don't seem to be dramatically affected yet,” he said. Some songbird species may make up for lost springtime by flying north faster. Mayor emphasized that the researchers selected the 48 songbird species to study because they were commonly spotted. It's harder to get reliable data on rare species that are threatened with extinction. The fact that scientists found nine pronounced mismatches in a relatively short timespan was notable, Hochachka said. Most studies of this type focus on smaller regions but use time scales longer than a single decade. “They have identified the really blatant cases where species' arrivals are diverging,” he said. It was too early for Mayor to speculate what characteristics separated the most-mismatched nine from the other 48 species, he said. But the ecologist said he expected these bird populations to decrease because of their poor timing. He was also worried that a lack of songbirds would go beyond silent habitats. “If birds aren’t arriving when insects emerge in the spring, we could see things like insect outbreaks or defoliation,” he said. “There are many potential impacts that we don’t have a good handle on yet.” And unlike the case of “Silent Spring,” any given EPA ban cannot curb this trend. Mayor recommended that bird fans continue to contribute data to eBird, given its scientific value. “Getting outside and observing these birds is important,” he said. Likewise, Hochachka said, it would be difficult to directly ameliorate the impact of this mismatch. But it is still possible to make birds' lives easier in other ways, he said, such as planting native or bird-friendly plants in our back yards. “There are things I think we can do in the northeast states to compensate somewhere else in the life cycle,” Hochachka said. As birds return to South and Central America along the East Coast, for instance, city lights may cause them to lose their way. Or worse, crash into windows. Reducing light pollution or installing non-reflective glass could help make the long trip a little easier. Read more Urban birds may be smarter than their country cousins, new study suggests How frigatebirds cross entire oceans without ever needing to rest These amazing little birds just broke the world record for nonstop flight


How Japan proved printing money can be a great idea

stuck in a cycle of low consumer spending leading to low business investment leading to low hiring, and then even lower consumer spending. And in the worst, everyone would go bankrupt. That's why Japan has put so much emphasis on getting its inflation rate back above zero. It wants to get into the opposite cycle of higher prices leading to higher wages leading to lower debt burdens leading to more consumer spending and then more business investment. In other words, a self-sustaining recovery. That has been the whole point of “Abenomics.” That's the shorthand for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's three-pronged plan — fiscal stimulus, monetary stimulus, and structural reforms like getting more women into the workforce — to get Japan's economy back to where it should be. And while there have been stops and starts, and debates and doubts, the reality is that it is working, emphasis on those last three letters. Which is to say that while Japan might not be where it wants to, it is getting there. Maybe the best way to tell isn't its super-low unemployment rate, but rather its super-high employment rate. That, as you can see below, has shot up since the start of Abenomics to an all-time high of 83.5 percent, making our own 78.3 percent rate look downright measly in comparison. And it means that Japan's unemployment rate hasn't fallen for the bad reason that people have given up looking for work, but for the good one that almost everyone who isn't drawing a pension has found one. It's what unfinished progress looks like. Source: Statistics Bureau of Japan What's behind this boom? It can't be the fiscal or structural parts of Abenomics, because they've barely been tried. Indeed, Tokyo's budgets have actually had more austerity than stimulus the past few years, and its attempts to shake up the country's sclerotic norms and institutions, while making a little headway, have run into quite a bit of resistance from entrenched interests. No, it's the monetary part — Japan's promise to print money for as long as it takes prices to start rising again — that has done the most. But it's still not everything they wanted. Inflation, after all, has only recently crept above zero and is still well below their 2 percent target. The oil crash and an ill-timed sales tax increase kept it in negative territory for a long time. More


The Daily 202: Trump’s chaotic White House once again makes a bad story worse

threatening to release it early unless the studio pays a ransom. The threat comes just weeks after a hacker released 10 episodes of the upcoming season of Orange Is the New Black, after Netflix refused to pay an undisclosed amount. (The Hollywood Reporter) - Veteran journalist Javier Valdez, who specialized in covering drug trafficking and organized crime, was slain in Sinaloa – the latest in a wave of killings that has made Mexico one of the most dangerous countries to be a journalist. He is the fifth journalist to be murdered in Mexico in just two months. (AP) - The city of Philadelphia sued Wells Fargo for discriminating against minority home buyers – saying the bank “steered” minority borrowers into more expensive, riskier mortgages than those offered to white borrowers. The complaint says during a 10-year period from 2004 to 2014, African American borrowers were twice as likely to receive high-cost loans when compared to white borrowers with similar credit backgrounds, and Latino borrowers were 1.7 times as likely to receive costly loans. (Jonelle Marte) - A school district employee in Tucson, Ariz., was arrested for threatening to assault and murder GOP Rep. Martha McSally – telling her in three separate voicemail messages that her “days are numbered” because of her congressional votes in support of Trump. (Katie Mettler) - A Memphis man died after dousing himself in kerosene on Facebook Live – then sprinting, in flames, into the bar where his ex-girlfriend was working. Witnesses said he tried to grab her. The incident comes as Facebook’s live-streaming feature has come under increased scrutiny, with critics saying the site must do more to crack down on violent footage. (Kristine Phillips and Peter Holley) - A 10-year-old girl in India who was raped repeatedly by her stepfather will probably be forced to give birth because of the country’s highly-restrictive abortion laws. (New York Times) - The words “Pay Trump Bribes Here” were projected last night directly above the door to Trump’s D.C. hotel, along with an arrow pointing down towards the entrance. Authorities said it is unclear where the projections came from or who was responsible. (Martin Weil and Victoria St. Martin) - A West Virginia police officer is suing his department after he refused to fire at an armed man who was pleading with authorities to “just shoot" him, a decision which he claims cost him his job. (Kristine Phillips)


A climate change solution beneath our feet

In short, they could be paid to store carbon. An increased demand for compost from farmers and ranchers could also help reduce food waste and landfill emissions. Soil food Similar to how people can feed probiotics and prebiotics to the microbes in their guts to improve their health, farmers can use cover crops and apply compost, yard waste and other organic matter to feed microbes in the soil. Reduced tillage, efficient irrigation and other methods also strengthen the soil’s ability to store carbon. Such techniques have long been used by farmers to enhance soil—particularly on organic and small farms. “This is ancient knowledge, really,” said Pelayo Alvarez, outreach director for the Petaluma-based Carbon Cycle Institute and a graduate of UC Davis. “When you increase soil organic matter in the soil, good things happen. But climate change is bringing new attention to it. And regardless of climate change, we should be doing this for many reasons—for productivity, erosion control, drought tolerance. It’s going back to our roots, no pun intended.” Sheep from Skyelark Ranch graze a field planted with a cover crop in Brooks, Calif. The grazing encourages plants to grow and capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Photo credit: Joe Proudman Ranching roots run deep The roots run deep for Scott Stone at Yolo Land & Cattle Company outside Winters, California. His late father, Hank Stone, bought the 7,500-acre ranch about 40 years ago, and it’s now owned and operated by Scott and his brother Casey. Stone is as much a natural resources manager as a rancher, with a protective eye on the ranch’s watersheds, trees, pasture and grass-fed cattle, and a genuine desire to leave the land better than he found it. He rotates his cattle frequently across the pasture to avoid overgrazing. Most of the ranch—7,000 acres—is in a conservation easement. He avoids fertilizer. And, increasingly, he composts. Rotting hay bales compost in place. Where they once fed the cows, they now feed microbes—growing greener grass and sequestering more carbon as a result. A large mound of compost rests on his lower fields, awaiting application. “It’s the right thing to do,” Stone said. “As ranchers, we’re busy here making a living, and we don’t get out to tell our story as much as we should.” He wants people to better understand that land stewardship and ranching can work together to protect the whole ecosystem. Carbon on


Thousands of U.S. troops suffering from trauma were separated from the military for misconduct, report finds

U.S. soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan in 2012. (1st Lt. Jason Uhlig/ U.S. Army) Nearly two-thirds of the 91,764 U.S. troops who were separated from the military for misconduct in a recent four-year period had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, a traumatic brain injury or another condition that can lead to misconduct, according to a report released Tuesday, raising questions about the Pentagon’s treatment of combat veterans. The Government Accountability Office found that the Defense Department needs to take action to make sure that commanders appropriately consider medical conditions when weighing what to do with service members facing misconduct allegations. Some 57,141 troops were separated from the service despite a potentially relevant diagnosis between 2011 and 2015, and 13,283 of them received other-than-honorable discharges that could prevent them from receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the report said. The report was required by Congress in a 2015 provision in the National Defense Authorization Act. Unless policy inconsistencies are resolved, the GAO said, “the risk increases that service members may be inappropriately separated for misconduct without adequate consideration of these conditions’ effects on behavior, separation characterization, or eligibility for VA benefits and services.” The Pentagon also “has little assurance” that service members who have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injury will receive required screening and counseling before they are separated, the report said. David Smith, the acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, expressed “serious concerns with the accuracy and clarity of the data” that the GAO analyzed in a March 24 letter submitted to investigators and included in the report. The numbers of total separations and service members diagnosed with post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injury and the kinds of conditions included in the report combined to “greatly exaggerate” the number of service members separated for misconduct, Smith wrote. The GAO also counted each individual who had both post-traumatic stress and a traumatic brain injury as two people, he said. “As such, the inflated figures create the false impression that the majority of service members administratively separated for misconduct had psychological health conditions that would explain their misconduct,” Smith wrote. The GAO stood by the data. The agency said that a discrepancy in separations that Smith noted stemmed largely from the Army and Marine Corps providing numbers that included service members who left active duty to join the National Guard or reserve duty, while


Was ‘2 Broke Girls’ the filthiest show to ever air on network TV?

they become friends and roommates, and embark on a dream to open a cupcake shop. Max Black (Kat Dennings), Caroline Channing (Beth Behrs) and Andy (Ryan Hansen) on “2 Broke Girls.” (Robert Voets/CBS) Q: This aired in prime time on CBS. How did they get away with all the jokes? A: There were countless more. From Season 2: “What do you do when a girl is choking?” Caroline exclaims about a customer in distress. “I just back up a few inches,” responds Oleg (Jonathan Kite), the chef. Season 4: “The Sad Ladies Book Club is reading ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ again. There’s not a dry seat in the house.” The jokes often involved Sophie (Jennifer Coolidge), Oleg’s love interest. Season 4: “Sophie, you are hot,” Max says. “The first time Oleg saw you, his soldier not only saluted, it exploded.” During the first season, Michael Patrick King of “Sex and the City” — who co-created the show with comedian Whitney Cummings — defended the show’s sense of humor, praising the writing’s “extreme wit,” while addressing its fairly early time slot. “It’s a very different world than 8:30 on Monday on CBS in 1994,” he told reporters at the 2012 Television Critics’ Association winter press tour. “I consider our jokes really classy dirty. I think they’re high lowbrow. I think they’re fun and sophisticated and naughty, and I think everybody likes a good naughty joke.” 2 Broke Girls - 1x01 - Pilot - Opening scene Q: A: Journalists occasionally found something to like. “ ‘2 Broke Girls’ is refreshing, in a way. There are tons of shows in which men are ‘allowed’ to be bad boys, but women are generally not the ones getting stoned and sleeping around,” Jezebel wrote at the time. “The show may be very problematic and only sometimes-funny, but it’s kind of fun to hear women talking so frankly about sex and enjoying being crass.” Q: How did viewers feel about the show? A: Q: Were the girls still broke when the show ended? A: Max gazes at them thoughtfully and then asks Caroline: “Is it weird I think that’s a little hot?” Read more: ‘This Is Us’ will air Thursdays after ‘Will Grace’ reboot this fall on NBC Fox felt it would be ‘extremely fraudulent’ to bring back ‘American Idol’ so quickly No, ABC says, ‘Last Man Standing’ was not canceled because of Tim Allen’s politics


Companies need workers — but people keep getting high

last year, compared with 1.6 percent in 2012. Although state laws have California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada moved last year to legalize recreational marijuana, joining Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia, meanwhile, permit medical marijuana. Under federal law, however, weed remains illegal — and employers in the United States can refuse to hire anyone who uses it, even if they have a prescription, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. In the oral fluid testing category, which picks up on recent drug use, and is typically used to test workers on the job, positive drug tests for marijuana surged about 75 percent in the United States over the past four years — from 5.1 percent in 2013 to 8.9 percent in 2016, according to Quest. The data show smaller increases in urine and hair testing (a 4.2 percent increase over the past year). Colorado and Washington, which became the first two states to legalize weed in 2012, showed the largest growth in positive tests. Urine screens that detected pot rose 11 percent in Colorado and 9 percent in Washington, the first time either state outpaced the national average since residents could lawfully light up a joint. Quest noted that employers are also increasingly encountering job applicants who take other illicit substances. Tests that turned up cocaine increased 12 percent in 2016, hitting a seven-year high of 0.28 percent, up from 0.25 percent in 2015. Positive test results for amphetamine jumped 8 percent. The culture change in pro-marijuana states hasn’t broadly altered the way employers screen applicants, said Sample, the scientist. “Ninety-nine percent of drug panels we perform in Colorado and Washington,” he said, “still test for marijuana.” Companies such as McLane, where employees operate heavy machinery, keep testing for marijuana out of concern for everyone’s safety, said Stephens, the human resources manager. The firm conducts follicle tests, which can catch traces of weed for up to three months after someone smokes. She said the company saw “a big spike” is failed tests after pot became legal. Meanwhile, Colorado's legal marijuana business is booming. By 2016, Colorado had 440 marijuana retail stores and 531 medical dispensaries, Curtis Graves, the information resource manager at the Truck and school bus drivers, for example, are required by law to prove they don’t have marijuana in their system before taking a job. Same goes for pilots, subway engineers


Tom Cotton defends his title as fastest senator, while Mike Gallagher has House honors in charity race

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) competes in the Capital Challenge Race. (ACLI) This year’s annual ACLI Capital Challenge three-mile race — a charity competition that brings out runners from the Hill, federal agencies and courts — was more eventful than usual. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) was rushed to the hospital after collapsing along the route — although he later tweeted a video of himself in a hospital bed saying that there was nothing to worry about, and that he’d just gotten overheated. “I’m fine … see you back on the Hill,” he said. I'm doing well. Looking forward to getting back to work. Thanks for all of your prayers and well wishes.… https://t.co/phXDPTeYbf With the relatively fleet-footed Tillis out of contention, Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) defended his title as the fastest senator, with Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) taking the honors for fastest female senator. On the House side, Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) bested their fields. And Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who lost her legs while serving in the Iraq War, led in the wheelchair category (she’s also a veteran of several Chicago marathons). Fewer administration types were lacing up than in previous years, but OSHA Chairman Heather MacDougall was the fastest agency head. Proceeds from the race benefit the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, a charity providing guide dogs to disabled people. And in what may be our favorite category, the “best team name” award went to “Stand By For Breaking Shews,” a group made up of WUSA-9 staffers, although they had competition from runners-up “Name Sum-day We’ll Come to our Census” (from, duh, the Census Bureau) and the “Rickety Splits” from AARP Magazine.


Would-be Boston Marathon runners miss qualification after course error adds half-mile to race

Runners line up at the timing mat at the start of the Boston Marathon in Hopkinton, Mass., last month. (Mary Schwalm/AP) Laurel Jones is convinced she ran the annual Maine Coast Marathon on Saturday fast enough to earn a spot in next year’s Boston Marathon. Too bad she ran an extra half-mile. The extra time she logged after a course marshal misdirected her and more than half the race’s participants cost them precious time. “I started freaking out,” she told Runner’s World about the moment she realized she was on track to run 26.7 miles opposed to the standard 26.2. “I, along with a bunch of other people in my situation, were at a loss about what to do.” Two-time Boston Marathon veteran Kate Von Pichel had that feeling, too. “Many of us saw our times ticking away, knowing that goal of a Boston qualifier was slipping through our fingers,” she told New Hampshire’s WMUR. The error occurred around Mile 12, course officials later explained, when a course marshal directed runners to turn down a dead end street in Kennebunk, Maine. Some runners, like Jones, didn’t think anything of it at the time as they were told they’d have to run the length of one street twice so the course would be long enough, but others became suspicious right away. “When I got to the bottom of the hill and I realized there wasn’t a cone or a course official, I said ‘Wait a second, what’s going on?’ ” said Betsy Tomlinson, who said she also would’ve qualified for the 2018 Boston Marathon had she not run the extra half-mile, told WCVB. Course officials became aware of the error only about 10 minutes before the first runner crossed the finish line, according to Runners World, and immediately took steps to correct it. However, there was only so much they could do. “Since it was not a marked spot for them to turn, we don’t know where each person turned around,” race director Charles Melton told WMUR, noting without that information race officials have no way of correcting people’s times. Even if they did, however, the notoriously strict Boston Athletic Association, which manages the Boston Marathon each year, would not accept the readjusted times. “We are only able to accept your unadjusted race results when looking towards qualification purposes for the 2018 Boston Marathon,” BAA’s Jack Fleming said in an email


Ethiopia’s candidate for the World Health Organization doesn’t like mentioning a certain disease

of childhood deaths from diarrheal diseases than Africa as a whole.” But international aid organizations have privately expressed frustration at Ethiopia's refusal to call the disease cholera; such a move would trigger an international response. Human Rights Watch says local health workers are under pressure not to refer to the disease as cholera. “We have interviewed a number of health professionals who have been pressured by government officials not to refer to cholera outbreaks as such, instead referring to outbreaks as ‘diarrhea’ or AWD,” said Felix Horne, the organization's researcher for Ethiopia. “This is emblematic of the control that government exerts over some of its health professionals — there is little space to question health policies or to challenge the government’s success narratives.” So while neighboring Somalia, South Sudan and Kenya have cholera outbreaks, Ethiopia just has diarrhea outbreaks. The Ethiopian Medical Association has endorsed Tedros’s candidacy, saying Wednesday that he would bring a fresh perspective to the WHO. “One that is rooted in the reality of what it takes to design and implement change in a country that is resource-constrained with a high disease burden,” said the association's president, Gemechis Mamo. He would not comment on the cholera-denial accusations. “We have been informed that it was acute watery diarrhea,” he said. Critics say the lack of transparency is part of the repressive nature of the state. Much of the opposition to Tedros’s candidacy emanates from the Ethiopian diaspora, which has taken to social media to criticize his ties (he is a member of the ruling party political bureau) to a government known for its poor human rights record and for suppressing debate. Their campaign even has its own hashtag. #NoTedros4WHO: Embezzled USD1.4 billion from Global Health Fund,& Now a candidate for WHO DG?! SCANDAL OF THE CENT… https://t.co/GQCiiM6O7p The opposition, though, is increasingly mixed up in the bitter ethnic politics of Ethiopia. Tedros, like many influential people in government and business, is from the northern Tigray region, home of the rebel group that overthrew the socialist regime in 1991. Some from the larger Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups, which together make up nearly two-thirds of the country’s population, allege favoritism by the government for the Tigrayans — leading Tedros supporters to dismiss their complaints as ethnically driven. The failing minority media @ESATtv which claims to stand for ALL Ethiopians irrespective of ethnicity, is against DrTedros b/c he's Tigriyan In


How Twitter got a big new study on Trump’s supporters mostly wrong

working class — 69 percent — favors some kind of legal status for illegal immigrants, and 59 percent even said they should be granted citizenship. To measure resentment against progress by racial minorities, PRRI asked participants whether they felt that discrimination against white Americans was as serious of a problem as discrimination against African Americans, Latinos and other minorities. A majority of the white working class — 52 percent — said that discrimination against whites and against other groups was equally serious. What the study said about the economy The pollsters also attempted to gauge how the survey participants felt about their economic well-being. In short, they were not confident. About a third of the white working class said it would be “very difficult” or “nearly impossible” for them to come up with $400 in an emergency. A similar share said they had cut back on food and meals in the past year to save money. Participants in the research are prominently quoted on making ends meet. “I buy the dented cans at the grocery store because they’re cheaper,” one woman said. “I don’t think anybody in Washington today would be able to do what we do as far as living a life.” Asked how their financial circumstances today compared to how they lived as children, white, working-class participants were about as likely to say that they were no better off as to say that things had improved for them. Also, 54 percent of the white working class described getting a college education as a risky gamble that may not pay off. That figures suggests many feel excluded from the country's economic progress and believe that they do not have options for improving their situation, Cox said. Overall, 60 percent of the white working class reported being in poor or fair financial condition. “The middle class can’t survive in today’s economy because there really isn’t a middle class anymore,” said one participant, a man. “You’ve got poverty level, and you’ve got your one, two percent.” A separate section of the report treats problems of mental health and addiction among the white working class, which Cox suggested could be in part a consequence of financial distress. Thirty-eight percent said that they themselves or a member of the household had suffered from depression, compared to 26 percent of white college graduates. “You can't completely divorce it from the economic experience of these


Is Mexico the second-deadliest ‘conflict zone’ in the world? Probably not.

A masked protester confronts police at the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo in Mexico during demonstrations in 2014. (Associated Press) This month, headlines have been screaming that “Mexico was second-deadliest country in 2016″ and “Mexico Now World’s Deadliest Conflict Zone After Syria: Survey,” based on a report recently released by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Even President Trump retweeted the story. The reports say that Syria had about 50,000 conflict deaths last year and that Mexico came in second with 23,000, followed by Afghanistan with 17,000. But how accurate is the news that Mexico is the world’s second-deadliest country or conflict zone? Here are four questions whose answers suggest it’s not. 1. How many drug-violence deaths did Mexico really have? The International Institute for Strategic Studies posts both its Armed Conflict Survey and information about its methodology online, and one of its experts kindly answered my questions. Perhaps the most disputable part of its characterization is the way that IISS counts Mexico’s conflict deaths for 2016: all homicides for the year. That’s a problem. Many homicides have nothing to do with organized crime. For example, men kill their intimate partners terrifyingly often. Yet these family violence deaths — and many others — are included in IISS’s figure of 23,000 conflict deaths for Mexico. So how do we know which homicides are connected to the drug-related violence in Mexico? We don’t. Ascertaining that is extremely difficult, as experts have noted. Some sources suggest between one-third and one-half of Mexican homicides are connected to organized crime. That would give Mexico about 10,000 “conflict deaths,” placing it substantially behind Afghanistan (17,000) and Iraq (16,000). 2. Can we really call Mexico a “conflict zone”? In addition to looking at traditional conflicts such as Afghanistan and Iraq, IISS classifies Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras as conflict zones because these countries’ criminal groups threaten state authority and control territory, and governments have moved against them with military responses. That IISS has developed a methodology for defining a conflict zone is admirable. But is it accurate? Many or most conflict scholars do not believe Mexico or the Central American countries above are immersed in civil conflict or civil war. For example, civil war expert Stathis Kalyvas argues that the “large-scale organized crime” in Mexico does not qualify as civil war because the violent groups do not have political goals. They want to be left


America’s love-hate relationship with the fidget spinner: Is technology to blame for our restlessness?

Fidget spinners have become the latest toy sensation, and some schools have banned them because they've become a distraction. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) You’ve probably seen the kid spinning a thing that looks like a miniature alien spaceship on his thumb and wondered what that was all about. Or maybe you’ve noticed a co-worker secretly fiddling with a cube with buttons on it under the conference table. These odd-shaped, oddly addictive objects — designed to let you channel extra energy into your fingers as you go about your day — are fidgets. And all of a sudden, it seems, they’re everywhere. Marketers compare the new obsession with Pokémon Go or the hula hoops of generations past, but a whole scientific mythology is emerging that makes them much more than a simple toy. It has to do with the idea that spinning, tapping, clicking, squeezing and bending may be able to increase your focus, relieve stress and alleviate symptoms like anxiety. “They can be very engaging,” says Katherine Isbister, a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz who is studying the phenomenon. “There’s a certain kinesthetic characteristic that makes them feel good in the hand.” Some people swear by them, especially when it comes to helping them get through boring or unpleasant tasks. Moms have been known to buy them by the bag to keep their kids occupied while running errands. But the fidgets, especially the spinny kind, are also driving a lot of other people crazy. The basic three-pronged version, which can be found for about $5 to $7 at local toy stores and for less online, is held in between your thumb and index finger. You spin and then let go of one finger so that the fidget balances on the other. These come in every color of the rainbow and then some — camo, tie-dye and, for anyone wanting some bling, rose gold. Hundreds of schools across the country have reportedly banned fidgets. Administrators at MS 442 in Brooklyn wrote in a recent Facebook post that “although seeming harmless,” they can pull student and staff attention away from class and can even be dangerous if thrown. Cristina Bolusi Zawacki, a sixth-grade English teacher, referred to them as “helicopters of distraction” in a blog post that went viral. “Trust me … fidget spinners are the effing worst,” she wrote. And just this week, a parent in Texas warned


Nine months after the Rio Olympics, a new problem emerges — defective medals

Rio Games communications officer Mario Andrada told reporters Friday (via AFP). Andrada didn’t go into exact details about what exactly he thought was happening, but he called it “completely normal.” Video: Introducing the Olympic Medals. #Rio2016Medals https://t.co/wy1a7TzxE5 Olympic gold medals, for example, are actually just 1.34 percent gold. The rest is made of sterling silver, ABC News reports. And about 30 percent of the silver in those thousands of medals awarded in Rio came from recycled silver. Temperature issues, however, aren’t the only reason some athletes are seeing defects in their medals, according to Andrada. He said some of the defects can be blamed on the athletes. “The most common issue is that they were dropped or mishandled and the varnish has come off and they’ve rusted or gone black in the spot where they were damaged,” Andrada told Reuters, adding that silver medalists have seen the most problems. Andrada said he first started hearing of issues with the medals in October, and that Rio organizers and the International Olympic Committee are now setting up a system to get the defective medals replaced by the Brazilian mint that made them. It’s unclear whether athletes were warned about how to properly care for their medals. Organizers of the 2012 Olympics in London did that, as evidenced by an interview gold medalist Jessica Ennis gave to BBC talk show host Graham Norton that year. Jessica Ennis' Gold Medal - The Graham Norton Show - Series 12 Episode 7 - BBC One The heptathlete, who took home a silver in the event in Rio, noted her 2012 gold medal came with instructions to “avoid any sort of impact or abrasion [on the medal]” and “always try to carry it in its box.” Those instructions also said to “only clean it using a soft, dry cloth … do not use any liquids, chemicals or abrasive substances when cleaning it.” They did not appear to instruct medalists about storing it at a certain temperature. Medals for each Olympic Games are slightly different, however, so what may affect one given out in 2016 may not affect another given out in 2012. The medals for the 2020 Games will be even more unique, with the promise of being the most environmentally friendly of all time. Per The Post’s Cindy Boren, the medals are slated to be composed of recycled cellphones and small appliances donated by Japanese citizens.


D.C.-area forecast: Still cloudy, cool and comfortable today; warmer with showers likely tonight into tomorrow

Calm waters at the Jefferson Memorial yesterday. (Satya Prakash Ponnaluri via Flickr) TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 7/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current weather conditions at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL An active pattern keeps our area mostly cloudy and at times unsettled at least through midweek. Today’s a lot like yesterday, with cloudy and cool conditions, but overall comfortable and dry. We’ll warm up some tomorrow through Wednesday but with a chance of showers each day as a series of disturbances work through the area. Today (Sunday): 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 midweek… Tomorrow (Monday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Tuesday


Wegmans is coming to Washington

A rendering of Fannie Mae headquarters redevelopment. (Shalom Baranes Associates) Wegmans, the regional supermarket chain with a legion of die-hard fans, is coming to Washington. The company’s first D.C. store is set to take over a portion of the sprawling Fannie Mae headquarters on Wisconsin Avenue NW, across from Sidwell Friends School, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) announced Sunday. Fannie Mae is scheduled to move out of the complex late next year, clearing the way for Wegmans to open by 2022, according to Richard Lake, founding partner of Roadside Development. The grocery store, which is expected to take up about 80,000 square feet, will be located on the lower level, with an entrance at the back of the building, Lake said. Wegmans’s move to the District — which it has been eyeing for years — is part of a broader expansion in the region. The Rochester, N.Y.-based company opened its first Virginia store in 2004 and expanded to Maryland the following year. The company now has 10 locations in Virginia and eight in Maryland. Stores are planned for Tysons Corner and Chantilly, and there have been reports that the grocer is scouting locations in Alexandria and Reston. “People know them and love them, but until now they’ve had to travel to the suburbs,” Lake said. “With this store, we’re bringing Wegmans right to their doorsteps.” The D.C. location will be one of the company’s smallest, and most urban, outposts. The supermarket chain, known for its sprawling stores, has in recent years begun planning more city-friendly alternatives. A Brooklyn location, Wegmans’s first in New York City, is expected to open next year. But that’s not to say the District’s first Wegmans will be small. The store will be about twice the size of the Whole Foods Market in Logan Circle, which measures 40,000 square feet. It will also be larger than Georgetown’s “social Safeway” (71,000 square feet) and the Giant store at City Market at O (78,000 square feet). A newer suburban Wegmans is usually at least 120,000 square feet. “We open just three or four stores each year and as such, we’re very choosy about sites,” Valerie Fox, a spokeswoman for Wegmans, said in an email. “We look for a site large enough to accommodate a store our size and adequate parking. We also look at population density. Our business model is predicated on high volume, so we need a


Wegmans is coming to Washington

of the Whole Foods Market in Logan Circle, which measures 40,000 square feet. It will also be larger than Georgetown’s “social Safeway” (71,000 square feet) and the Giant store at City Market at O (78,000 square feet). A newer suburban Wegmans is usually at least 120,000 square feet. “We open just three or four stores each year and as such, we’re very choosy about sites,” Valerie Fox, a spokeswoman for Wegmans, said in an email. “We look for a site large enough to accommodate a store our size and adequate parking. We also look at population density. Our business model is predicated on high volume, so we need a lot of customers to shop in our stores and we need to hire a lot of employees to serve our customers.” Consumer Reports routinely ranks Wegmans as one of the country’s best supermarkets. It has become something of a cult favorite among its regulars, who praise the company’s fresh produce, prepared foods and low prices. “Wegmans is a decisive win for our city,” Bowser said in a statement. “Going forward, we will continue to forge strong public-private partnerships like this one that benefit DC residents and families and help us spread inclusive prosperity throughout all eight wards.” Roadside and the Japanese home-building giant Sekisui House bought the Fannie Mae property, a 228,000-square-foot stately brick building, for $89 million late last year with plans to create a mixed-use development. The rest of the project — which is to include an additional 100,000 square feet of retail, as well as hospitality and residential components — is scheduled to be completed in 2024, Lake said. “We want to preserve [the buildings], and we are interested in working with the community and city in preserving that experience all the way through,” Lake told The Washington Post at the time. “Our vision is not to gut them and just keep the facades. It’s really to use them, to incorporate these buildings.” Wegmans, founded 101 years ago, currently has 92 stores. It previously partnered with District-based Roadside in an unsuccessful bid to redevelop the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center site in Northwest Washington. Read more: This beloved grocery chain is the latest company to face Trump-related boycotts How Washingtonians killed a perfectly good burrito cart BET is leaving Washington. Will it lose its ‘secret sauce’? Washingtonians say politics follows them everywhere, even to the strip club


Stop hoping we can fix climate change by pulling carbon out of the air, scientists warn

been recognized as one of the world’s most important natural carbon sinks, capable of storing large amounts of carbon that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere. Simply preserving the world’s forest resources — and replanting areas that have already been deforested — is viewed as an important step in protecting the climate. But for years, scientists have discussed the idea of going further by using large plantations full of fast-growing, carbon-storing trees to pull extra carbon emissions out of the atmosphere, a strategy sometimes called “afforestation.” But the amount of land and other resources this strategy would require to actually help us meet our global climate goals — namely, keeping global temperatures within at least two degrees of their pre-industrial levels — is completely impractical, according to Boysen’s new study in the journal Earth’s Future, and would require the destruction of huge amounts of natural ecosystems or productive agricultural land. Considering different scenarios for planetary emissions, Boysen and her colleagues find the land space that would be required for the amount of trees necessary to keep temperatures within a 2-degree threshold under our current climate trajectory could have “dire consequences for food production or the biosphere.” And even under more optimistic scenarios, where future carbon emissions are lower and fewer trees would be necessary, they conclude that “high inputs of managed water and fertilizers would be needed in order to avoid fierce competition for land — with potentially negative side-effects for climate and society.” It isn’t just planting forests on their own: Many scientists have suggested that a more advanced strategy may be necessary to keep to a two-degree pathway in the future — particularly now, as analyses increasingly suggest that even the emissions reduction pledges established by countries participating in the Paris climate agreement are still not enough to keep us on track. The solution that’s been proposed in numerous reports and climate models, including those released over the years by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is a technology known as bioenergy and carbon capture and storage, or BECCS. This strategy involves establishing large plantations of fast-growing trees, capable of storing large quantities of carbon, which can then be harvested and used for fuel. Biomass burning facilities would need to be outfitted with a special carbon-capturing technology, which would capture the carbon dioxide produced and store it safely away, potentially in geological formations deep underground. It’s


After high-stakes court battle, Neil Armstrong’s storied lunar bag could fetch $4 million at auction

The lunar sample bag. (Sotheby’s via Reuters). Neil Armstrong’s lunar sample bag has had a long and complicated journey over the past half-century. It started in 1969, when the off-white, purse-sized pouch flew to the moon and back with the legendary astronaut, who used it to collect the first lunar rock specimens during the Apollo 11 mission. When the bag returned to Earth, the U.S. government emptied it of its contents and dubbed it a national treasure. The bag, which still contained traces of moon dust, became a priceless museum artifact. Through a series of mix-ups, however, the government lost track of it until a few years ago, when it was accidentally put up for auction and nabbed by an Illinois woman for less than $1,000. Now, after a high-stakes legal battle over the bag’s rightful ownership, it will again be auctioned off — only this time it’s expected to sell for exponentially more. Sotheby’s New York announced over the weekend that the bag will be offered in the auction house’s space exploration sale on July 20, the anniversary of the moon landing. The bag, believed to be the only Apollo 11 artifact in private hands, is expected to fetch between $2 million and $4 million, according to Sotheby’s. “Still containing traces of the moon dust, the artifact gives a collector the chance to not only own some of the first lunar material ever collected,” Sotheby’s said, “but also the chance to own an exceptionally rare relic of humanity’s greatest achievement — landing a man on the moon.” The full story of what happened to the bag between 1969 and now has only been revealed in the past year. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, the first men to land on the moon, plant the U.S. flag on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. (NASA via AP) After taking his famed “one small step” out of the Lunar Module, Armstrong gleaned rock fragments from a basin known as the Sea of Tranquility and stashed them in the bag, labeled “LUNAR SAMPLE RETURN.” Back on Earth, its contents went to NASA’s Lunar Sample Laboratory, though some of the material clung to the bag’s fibers, leading the government to deem it so special it needed to be preserved in museums. The bag went largely forgotten until 2003, when it turned up in the garage of the president


Fearing metal contamination, greenhouse farm recalls greens sold in DC area

BrightFarms’ greenhouse in Elkwood, Va., where a contractor performing unauthorized work caused a giant recall last week. (Whitney Pipkin for The Washington Post) BrightFarms, the New York-based company that grows and distributes hydroponic produce to local supermarket chains, has voluntarily recalled more than 5,000 cases of leafy greens after discovering “small pieces of metal” on the plants at its greenhouse in Elkwood, Va. It is the first recall in the six-year history of BrightFarms, which was named among the 50 most innovative businesses in 2014 by Fast Company magazine. [BrightFarms’ idea: Greenhouses that cut short the path from plant to grocery shelf] A contractor was apparently drilling atop a greenhouse for a few days. The work “was not authorized and was actually contrary to our contract with them,” chief executive Paul Lightfoot said in a phone interview. He declined to name the contractor or specify the work. A BrightFarms employee discovered the metal pieces last week while going through a routine inspection, Lightfoot said, and the company quickly halted production and issued the recall on Thursday. Approximately 5,450 cases were affected by the recall, and most of those cases contain eight units each. To date, there have been no reports of anyone finding or ingesting metal, the CEO added. “As you can imagine, we are upset,” Lightfoot said. “The safety of our consumers is an unusually high priority for us, and this event is definitely going to result in us ensuring that the same thing doesn’t happened again.” The first course of action? The contractor will never work for BrightFarms again, the executive said. According to the Food and Drug Administration’s notice, the recall affects salad products sold at Giant stores in Landover, Md., and Carlisle, Pa., as well as the Peapod delivery service and Martin’s Food Markets in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia and Washington. Some produce may have also been distributed via the Capital Area Food Bank. The recall includes “salad products packaged in clear, plastic clamshells with best-by dates on the package of: 5/22/17; 5/23/17; 5/24/17; 5/25/17; 5/26/17,” according to the release. The salad greens include: - BrightFarms Baby Spinach (4 oz. package) - BrightFarms Spring Mix (4 oz. and 8 oz. package) - BrightFarms Spinach Blend (4 oz. package) - BrightFarms Baby Kale (3 oz. package) - BrightFarms Arugula (4 oz. and 8 oz. package) - BrightFarms Mixed Greens (4 oz. package) - BrightFarms Baby


National Zoo’s giant panda is in heat and may be ready to breed soon

they’ll watch her behavior to see how she is acting toward Tian Tian, the zoo’s giant male panda. “If they are both acting interested in one another, the keepers will give them an opportunity to breed naturally,” Zoon said. Giant pandas are solitary animals and are kept in their own respective inclosures. Baby panda Bei Bei with Mei Xiang in December at the National Zoo. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) Zoon said that if the pandas are interested they’ll vocalize by making a bleating sound like a sheep and also will probably make a chirplike sound to each other. Enter the “mesh door,” also known as the “howdy door.” According to Zoon, the door allows the two giant pandas to “see and smell each other.” The zookeepers can open the door, and “depending on who moves first when the door is open is where the pandas will interact,” Zoon said. “Mei Xiang and Tian Tian have never bred naturally successfully, but that doesn’t mean we don’t try,” Zoon said. If they don’t show signs of interacting, Zoon said, Mei Xiang will be artificially inseminated with semen from Tian Tian. But it could be several months before officials can confirm whether Mei Xiang is pregnant. She is trained to allow keepers to perform ultrasounds, but they do them only if she is willing. Giant pandas can also act as if they are pregnant — what experts call “pseudo-pregnancy” — where they mimic all the behaviors of being pregnant, including going into their dens and sleeping more and cradling toys. Mei Xiang with her cub Tai Shan in 2005. (Jessie Cohen/AFP/Getty Images) A panda’s gestation period ranges from 90 to 180 days. The average pregnancy lasts 135 days. The gestation period varies because the fertilized egg floats in the mother’s uterus before it is implanted and starts to develop. The embryo begins to develop once it attaches to the uterine wall, zoo officials said. Then, of course, the baby-panda watch begins. “We are very excited of the prospect that Mei Xiang could have another cub,” Zoon said. Mei Xiang has three surviving cubs — Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei. All of them were fathered by Tian Tian. Under an agreement with China, the zoo’s pandas are under lease to U.S. zoos. Bao Bao and her brother Tai Shan are in China. Bei Bei is still at the zoo with his mother.


WHO chooses first African to head the global health agency

their dues in time or were not represented at the 10-day gathering. In the final round of voting, there were two abstentions, observers said. Tedros told the delegates that it was “pure luck” that he was competing to lead the WHO, noting that when he was growing up in Ethiopia, he was seven years old when his younger brother was killed by a common childhood disease and that it could easily have been him. “While WHO has never had a director from Africa, no one should elect me because I am from Africa,” he said. Observers tweeted that Ethiopian delegates could be seen hugging and high-fiving one another after their countryman made it to the second round, which Tedros went on to win with 121 votes versus Nabarro's 62. I snuck a peek at the closed 2nd round of voting for the new @WHO DG. The Ethiopians have already been high-5'Ing i… https://t.co/jUKZz5mGkq The election comes at a critical time for the WHO. It has experienced huge budget cuts over the years, lost many talented staff members and was heavily criticized for its slow and ineffective response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in three West African countries that killed more than 11,000 people. A recent editorial in the Lancet said the election comes at a time of “unparalleled uncertainty” for the organization. It said: “Vastly more is expected of WHO while its role is contested and constrained.” All three candidates had pledged deep changes to the U.N. agency, promising greater accountability and transparency. The winner, who will serve a five-year term, takes office July 1, succeeding Margaret Chan, who has held the post since November 2006. The United States, its largest donor, was represented by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. He congratulated Tedros and called on the WHO to reform and strengthen the organization and “enhance the ability of all nations to protect the health of their people.” Even as he noted that “global health security begins at home,” the Trump administration's budget for 2018 calls for massive cuts in spending on U.S. scientific research, global health, disease prevention programs and health insurance for children of the working poor. As the cash-strapped WHO seeks more money to fund responses to worldwide crises, it has also been struggling to control its travel costs. The WHO, with a $2 billion annual budget, routinely spends about $200 million a year on


‘Vault of death’ gymnast scoffs at retirement at age 41

Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina was 41 at the Rio Olympics. If she competes in Tokyo in 2020, she’ll be 45. (Dylan Martinez/Reuters) Oksana Chusovitina is an extraordinary gymnast. Not only does she have five moves named after her in international gymnastics’ Code of Points, but at age 41, she’s still competing at the elite level and wants to qualify for what would be her record-breaking eighth Olympics in 2020. And yes, in case you’re wondering, the record she’d be breaking is her own. Chusovitina, who previously competed for Germany, the Soviet Union and now competes for Uzbekistan, competed in her seventh Olympics in Rio de Janeiro last summer — when she was one of just two gymnasts to attempt what’s known as the “vault of death.” Beginning with a front handspring off the vault and transitioning into two front somersaults, the Produnova, the move named after Russia’s Yelena Produnova — the first of only five women to complete it — is considered the most difficult vault in history. Oksana Chusovitina: My Rio Highlights While Chusovitina did not successfully land the vault and finished seventh in Rio, it didn’t dampen her appetite for more. Chusovitina reiterated her intention to keep going when she added another accolade to her résumé. She is now the only active gymnast in the Hall of Fame, after being inducted during a ceremony on Saturday. That distinction did not go unnoticed by the athlete during her acceptance speech. “It seems like this award is for people who retired,” Chusovitina said, using her coach Svetlana Boguinskaya to translate from her native Russian during her acceptance speech. “In this case, I am not, and you will never be alive until I retire. So keep waiting.” Chusovitina, who won team gold with the Soviet Union at her first Olympics in 1992 in Barcelona, also joked that one of the reasons she’s stuck with the sport for so long is to defy her mother. “I would like to thank my mother for longevity in the sport because she’s the one who didn’t want me to do it,” Chusovitina said Saturday. “I wanted to prove her wrong. With any child, you just want to do the opposite of what your parent tells you. So, thank you, Mom. A mother herself, Chusovitina also talked about her 18-year-old son, Alisher, who survived leukemia as a child, she said, because the gymnastics community rallied around them


Critics say Trump’s proposed military buildup isn’t happening. Wait until 2019, the Pentagon says.

the future USS Gerald R. Ford, $4 billion for two new destroyers and $3.1 billion for 15 new KC-46 tanker planes. Mattis also wants to spend more than $2 billion to buy the maximum number of “preferred munitions” that defense contractors can build, including 12,822 guided aerial bombs known as Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), 5,039 small-diameter bombs, 1,397 Hellfire missiles and 39 Tomahawk missiles. They would replenish the Pentagon’s weapons stockpile, which has been used heavily in the three-year-old military campaign against the Islamic State terrorist group, Roth said. During the presidential campaign, Trump promised a “great rebuilding of the Armed Forces,” drawing from proposals by the conservative Heritage Foundation that could cost between $55 billion and $90 billion per year, according to outside experts. The plan included adding tens of thousands of soldiers until the service reaches 540,000, building the Navy’s fleet out to have at least 350 ships, adding about 100 Air Force fighter or attack jets until the service reaches 1,200, and boosting the number of Marine battalions from 24 to 36, which would include thousands more Marines. But the proposed budget includes only moderate increases in manpower that Congress already approved. That includes adding 26,000 soldiers until there are 476,000, 5,700 sailors until there are 327,900, 3,000 Marines until there are about 185,000, and 8,100 airmen until there are 325,100. In light of deep cuts in other parts of Trump’s proposed budget, including education, Medicaid and food stamps, the Pentagon also faced questions Tuesday about why it should get more money at all. Defense officials deflected the inquiries, saying they should be handled by lawmakers as part of the larger debate about how the United States spends money. “It’s our responsibility to advocate for the force and for the need for a joint force that can do what the nation asks us to do to defend the nation,” said Army Lt. Gen. Anthony R. Ierardi, the director of force structure, resources and assessment for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “The world is a very dangerous place these days, and so I think there is a compelling — there is, I don’t think, I know there is — a compelling justification for this budget to enhance the readiness of the force.” The Trump administration is expected to introduce its 2018 budget proposal on May 23, which will likely include major cuts to programs for low-income Americans.


The maker of Bud Light is investing $2 billion to make its beer ‘more sophisticated’

ample paid maternity leave,” added beer writer Tom Acitelli in The Washington Post. “So many other, smaller — and when it comes to flavor, better — beers scream ‘America’ much more loudly.” Earlier this month, Anheuser-Busch announced it had bought its 10th craft brewery: Wicked Weed Brewing in Asheville, N.C. Other recent acquisitions include Karbach Brewing in Texas, Devils Backbone Brewing Co. in Virginia and Blue Point Brewing Co. in New York. “They want to send a very strong signal that even though they’re the biggest beer producer in the world, they remain committed to the U.S.,” said Robert Ottenstein, an analyst for Evercore ISI. “It’s a very important market for them, so this isn’t a surprise.” Craft brewers like Bryan Brushmiller, who owns Burley Oak Brewing Co. in Berlin, Md., say it’s become harder to stay afloat as Anheuser-Busch gets bigger. “There’s definitely a monopoly,” said Brushmiller, who opened the brewery six years ago. “They’re taking over distribution and, whether they mean to or not, they’re hurting smaller breweries like us.” It’s become increasingly difficult, he said, to find hops and barley as larger companies buy entire fields at discount prices. It’s also become more challenging, he said, to compete with regional breweries that get acquired by the likes of Anheuser-Busch. “All of a sudden, you’ll walk in and the IPA on tap is half the price,” he said. “Once they’re part of a corporation, they can offer lower prices. It’s just basic business.” In all, Anheuser-Busch plans to have invested $4.5 billion in the U.S. between 2011 and 2020. But will that be enough to win over Americans again? Eric Shepard, executive editor of industry publication Beer Marketer’s Insights, says it’s too soon to tell. In 2016, he estimates, Anheuser-Busch shipped 13.2 million barrels of Budweiser in the U.S., compared to 23.4 million barrels of craft beer. A decade earlier, the numbers looked starkly different: 24.2 million barrels of Budweiser, and 7.7 million barrels of craft beer. “Mainstream brands have been challenged for well over a decade now,” he said. “Craft continues to grow and Bud continues to decline. Whether Anheuser-Busch can get those sales back or not, I don’t know.” Read more: French manicures, Bud Light and fly-fishing: How Trump staffers are changing Washington Anti-Trump groups have a new target: McDonald’s Lucky Charms cannot find the magic in natural ingredients — so it’s going full-on sugar bomb


Fifth Circuit creates split on whether prospective cell-site collection is a Fourth Amendment ‘search’

Fourth Amendment for which probable cause was required. Because probable cause did not support the search in this case, and no warrant based on probable cause authorized the use of Tracey’s real time cell site location information to track him, the evidence obtained as a result of that search was subject to suppression. Importantly, Tracey went out of its way to say that it was ruling only on prospective surveillance and not on historical collection. “Nor are historical cell site location records at issue here,” Tracey states. And again: “We emphasize, however, that it is not historical cell site location information that is at issue in this case.” In my 2014 post on Tracey, I found this limit unpersuasive: The Florida Supreme Court tried to minimize the split by limiting its opinion to real-time access rather than historical access. But it’s hard to imagine how that could make a constitutional difference. That distinction matters in the statutory context because the Stored Communications Act expressly regulates historical access but does not regulate real-time access. But I don’t see how it could matter for purposes of the Fourth Amendment question of what is a “search.” Nonetheless, Tracey‘s formal limit to prospective surveillance was enough to prevent a split. Until Monday, that is. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in United States v. Wallace that the reasoning of its precedents on historical collection applies equally to prospective cell-site surveillance. In Wallace, the Texas Department of Safety had a warrant out for the arrest of a gang member. The police knew the suspect’s cell phone number, so they obtained what the opinion calls a “Ping Order” authorizing the police to determine the locations of cell site towers being accessed by a number. The opinion later suggests that the ping order was a combination pen/trap order and 2703(d) order obtained under the Texas equivalent of the federal pen register statute and the Stored Communications Act. Put another way, it was not a search warrant based on probable cause. The Fifth Circuit explains that “this information is referred to as ‘E911’ or prospective cell site data.” A state judge issued the order allowing the surveillance, and the police then “obtained the approximate, real-time GPS location of Wallace’s cell phone from AT&T.” The location information revealed where William Chance Wallace was located, and the police arrested him based on it and found him


Trump’s budget could make it harder to investigate banks that received taxpayer bailouts

those running the biggest banks. The agency has succeeded in prosecuting senior executives of mid- to small-sized banks for various misdeeds, but has failed to do the same to the CEOs of large Wall Street firms. Those executives, according to SIGTARP, are insulated by a culture that keeps its leaders in the dark about potential fraud. Goldsmith Romero has recommended that Congress pass legislation that would make it easier to prosecute CEOs in those cases, but has received little response from lawmakers. The organization has also warned that while the TARP program is nearing its end, some of the country's largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, will continue to receive billions in bailout money over the next few years. The banks remain eligible for money set aside to help distressed homeowners by lowering their interest rates and monthly payments. Trump's proposed budget is not expected to pass in its current form and has already been criticized by Democrats and even some Republicans. But the potential cut to SIGTARP's budget was a surprise to some. The budget proposal also includes cuts for Wall Street's financial regulators. The proposal would save $35 billion “through reforms that prevent bailouts and reverse burdensome regulations that hinder financial innovation and reduce access to credit for hardworking Americans,” according to proposed fiscal 2018 budget released by the Office of Management and Budget. It, for example, eliminates a $50 million a year fund used by the Securities and Exchange Commission to make technology upgrades. The Reserve Fund was created under a 2010 financial reform law, the Dodd-Frank Act, and has been called a “slush fund” by some Republicans. Democrats and supporters of the agency have said the fund was created to help the agency catch up with the technological advancements made by the companies it regulates. The budget also takes aim at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, proposing to reduce the agency's funding by $6.8 billion between 2018 and 2027. The watchdog agency is an “unaccountable bureaucracy controlled by an independent director with unchecked regulatory authority and punitive power,” the budget document said. The agency needs to be restructured and limiting its budget in 2018 would “allow for an efficient transition period.” Republicans in Congress have already proposed stripping the agency of many of its powers, including scaling back its ability to enforce rules against financial institutions or even keep a database of consumer complaints.


Will Brexit drive Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom?

Michel Barnier, center, the European Commission’s Brexit chief negotiator, and Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan, right, and others pause at the border separating Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic on May 12 in Monaghan, Ireland. (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Judy Dempsey is the author of “Das Phänomen Merkel” (Körber-Stiftung, 2013). She also edits the Carnegie Endowment’s Strategic Europe blog. During the run-up to Ireland and Britain joining the European Union in 1973, my high school class in Dublin was completely divided over the merits of joining Europe. On one side were the nationalists. They said we would lose our language and our identity. On the other side were a group of passionate supporters of Europe. Here was our chance to break our economic, political and social dependence on Britain and become part of the European continent. Little did we know at the time what impact Irish and British membership of the E.U. would have on the conflict in the British-ruled province of Northern Ireland. Back then, it was mired in sectarianism, violence and the apparently irreconcilable demands of the nationalists, who wanted unification with Dublin, and the unionists, who wanted to remain under the British Crown. E.U. membership, however, gave Ireland a new and wider perspective that was no longer confined to Britain. That, plus enlightened leadership from London and Dublin and Washington and Belfast, led to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Peace, however uneasy, descended on Northern Ireland. But Britain’s decision to leave the E.U. is already having a profound impact on the two parts of Ireland and the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom itself. Unless British Prime Minister Theresa May grasps the implications, Brexit could precipitate the breakup of the United Kingdom. The Northern Irish might choose to find their way back to Europe by uniting with the South. If Northern Ireland opts to remain within the U.K., that could lead to a hard border between the North and the South and a whole host of corresponding new problems, above all calling into question the Good Friday Agreement. Such uncertainty could reignite tensions between nationalists and unionists. “In terms of the Brexit debate on the U.K. mainland, nobody cares about the implications for Northern Ireland,” said Eunan O’Halpin, professor of contemporary Irish history at Trinity College, Dublin. But the citizens of the province clearly do. The Good Friday Agreement allows the people of Northern Ireland “to


Canada wants to legalize marijuana, but it hasn’t even fully legalized alcohol yet

pot is a dangerous substance — more dangerous, even, than alcohol. The only good argument for this kind of tightly-controlled distribution regime is the same one that defenders of Canada’s liquor monopolies usually make: that it might keep the private sector in check. “A frequently cited concern with legalization is that it will allow the rise of Big Cannabis, similar to Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol,” wrote a group of addiction specialists in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2015. “It is important that the regulations actively work against the establishment of Big Cannabis.” But Canada’s experience with public liquor monopolies indicates that similar laws for cannabis will actually end up strengthening big corporations. Behind its public facade, large swathes of Canada’s government liquor monopoly are currently controlled by some of the largest alcohol producers in the world. Ontario’s largest beer retailer, the Beer Store, is owned by a consortium of large international breweries (AB InBev, Molson Coors, and Sapporo). A 2015 survey revealed that only 10 percent of Ontarians are aware of this. The Wine Rack, Canada’s largest wine store, is owned by New York-based Constellation Brands, the world’s largest wine producer. Far from restraining Big Alcohol, Canada’s liquor laws actively deter these companies’ smaller Canadian competitors by making it illegal to sell to Canadians in any other way. Small breweries and wineries are, in turn, terrified of speaking out against the system, for fear of losing their shelf space at public and private retailers. At the core of the problem is a bizarre 90-year old federal law called the “Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act” (IILA), which makes it illegal for even a single bottle of alcohol to enter a Canadian province without first being purchased by (or on behalf of) the provincial government. Most Canadians aren’t aware of the IILA, and millions of them have probably unknowingly broken the law since it was passed in 1928. But maybe the most bizarre thing about the IILA is that it could soon collapse, bringing the entire legal basis of Canada’s liquor distribution system down with it. Last year, a New Brunswick judge dismissed the charge against Gerard Comeau after ruling that the New Brunswick law used to charge him with smuggling a dozen cases of beer across the Quebec border was unconstitutional. Ian Blue, a lawyer on Comeau’s defense team, has argued that the ruling could spell the end of


The weirdest star in the sky is acting up again

of telescopes that operate at a variety of ranges across the light spectrum. This will allow them to take spectra, that is, analyze the wavelengths of light emitted by the star to figure out what it's made of and what is blocking its light. That data will be crucial to pinpointing the source of Tabby's Star's strange behavior. For example, if a swarm of disintegrating comets is causing the dimming, they'll be very hot and close to the star, and scientists will be able to see that in the infrared part of the spectrum, according to the Verge. Good quality spectra could also help test a theory that the star is in the act of messily devouring a Jupiter-sized planet. A false-color close-up of Jupiter's stormy surface (NASA). Boyajian had predicted earlier that the star might act up again in May, and this month she was proved right. Friday, the light from Tabby's Star dropped by as much as 3 percent over a period of around 24 hours, Boyajian reported in a Q&A live stream. Now it's moving back toward normal. “It looks like the dip has mostly ended,” astronomer David Kipping of Columbia University told Science magazine. “But … in the Kepler data we saw an episode of multiple dips clustered together over the span of a few weeks.” So far, this pattern of behavior is similar to the events detected by Kepler, scientists said, so it's possible that the dimming is caused by a single object repeatedly crossing in front of the star. As for the alien megastructure theory, it's still super unlikely. Scientists haven't detected any radio signals coming from that direction, even since they started listening with the massive Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. Whatever is happening on Tabby's Star, dozens of people living on a small blue planet 1,300 light-years away (and 1,300 years later, because the light that is hitting us now left Tabby's Star in the 8th century), are intent on finding out. Boyajian, now at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, told Science that the astronomy community seized on its chance to watch Tabby's Star in action. Astronomers at a dozen different observatories took spectra over the course of just two days — some of them dropping their own ongoing projects to help. “A physical interpretation of what’s going on will take more work,” Boyajian said. “But the process has begun.”


Why are these enormous cicadas crawling out of the ground early? An expert explains.

destruction of their habitat by human activity. The current cicada distribution map. Cyan represents Brood X and pink represents Brood VI. Brood X stragglers are thought to be emerging in the Washington area. (cicadamania.com) Every new building, road or other construction destroys cicada habitat and divides the brood. Their surprising numbers might make people think, “There are so many of them, how could they be endangered?” but broods have gone extinct in the past (Brood XI in Connecticut in the 20th century) and have seemingly gone extinct (Brood X in Long Island, N.Y.) recently as well. Are there any genetic differences in cicadas between broods, or between the 17- and 13-year broods? Yes, there are. As you might imagine, genetic differences arise when different populations are isolated from each other — in terms of geography and time (because they belong to different broods). That said, the differences are not that significant. Is there a theory why cicadas have life cycles in prime numbers of years? Yes, in theory they’ve developed the relatively long (in terms of animal life spans), prime-numbered life cycle to avoid gaining a specialized predator — and no animal has, so far that we know, evolved to specifically prey on Magicicada periodical cicadas. It’s important to note that just about any and every carnivore or omnivore will gleefully eat periodical cicadas, including ants, spiders, snakes, squirrels, birds, raccoons, domestic pets and even people. Two cicadas molt in Reston, Va. (Eric Calimlim) This year, many of the cicadas are getting stuck in their exoskeletons while molting and ultimately die. Does this happen more often with stragglers, or does this happen frequently during every emergence? It happens with all emergences. However, as time goes on, it will be more and more likely. Cicadas have evolved to molt while hanging freely from vegetation (tree branches, tall grasses). Hanging allows their wings to unfurl and expand without obstruction. As we humans replace more and more vegetation with concrete or shorter grasses, cicadas are finding it harder and harder to find a good place to molt. Other issues that can interfere with a cicada’s ability to molt include: wind, rain, cold air, small predators like ants … if you’ve sprayed them with a pesticide that will kill them mid-molt as well (please don’t do that). In some areas, cicadas can be heard “singing,” so I’m assuming they are successfully mating. Will


‘That’s a big one’: Father-son team relocates 40,000 bees swarming in Virginia neighborhood

said in a statement. But he remembered chatting with Thompson, who used to work as a deputy for the sheriff’s office, and recalled that he was a beekeeper on the side. Thompson is now interim chief of the nearby Aquia Harbour Police Department and has been in law enforcement for 13 years. McCall called Thompson, whose grandfather also was a beekeeper, and asked whether he could help. Thompson, 33, and his 70-year-old father loaded equipment in a truck and drove to the bee swarm. With a light veil over his face, Thompson pulled down the branch as his dad cut the branch and the swarm fell into the box below. The bulk of the bees went into the beehive boxes below, but some landed on the surrounding sheet. “My face was right up in the whole big ball of bees,” Nathan Thompson said, recalling the story Wednesday. “And I wasn’t worried at all.” The key around honey bees, he said, is not to move too fast. “Everything with bees is about taking your time,” he said. “There’s no rushing. They don’t like quick movement. You have to mellow out and really focus.” The bees were safely deposited into a bee box and taken away. (Nathan Thompson) It is not clear how the swarm got so large or where it came from before settling in the tree. Thompson said one possibility is they came from within a wall of a nearby townhouse that was empty and their swarm got too big, so they found a larger spot in the tree. “My best guess is something happened to where they were located, and they had been there for years, and they ran out of space,” Thompson said. It took about 45 minutes to remove the swarm from the tree, but Thompson and his father waited around for a few hours to make sure all of the bees found their way to the beehive boxes before leaving, ensuring no bees were left behind. Thompson said the bees will come in handy. He might loan some to nearby produce farms that grow fruits, vegetables and soybeans to pollinate their crops. No one was seriously injured, although McCall, the nervous sheriff’s deputy, was stung twice in the rescue. Thompson was stung once on the arm. Thompson promises to harvest honey over the next year and give it to the resident who made the initial call.


Scientists just published an entire study refuting Scott Pruitt on climate change

when incorrect science is elevated to the level of formal congressional testimony and makes its way into the official congressional record, climate scientists have some responsibility to test specific claims that were made, determine whether those claims are correct or not, and publish their results,” said Santer in an interview, when asked about the framing of the research. The study wades into an ongoing and highly fraught debate over how to interpret the temperature records of the planet’s lower atmosphere, or troposphere, provided by polar orbiting satellites. Such data have often been cited by climate change doubters so as to suggest that there is no global warming trend, or that global warming has recently slowed down, and therefore to contradict thermometer-based measurements taken at the planet’s surface (which show a clear warming trend). The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, says he is not convinced carbon dioxide from human activity is the main driver of climate change and wants Congress to weigh in on whether CO2 should be regulated. But the new study finds that all of the three satellite data sets — kept by Remote Sensing Systems, the Center for Satellite Applications and Research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the University of Alabama at Huntsville — show a long-term warming trend in the middle to upper part of the troposphere. After correcting for a cooling-down of the stratosphere (the layer above the troposphere), the paper finds that the trend is roughly 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit per decade for the first two data sets, and 0.26 degrees Fahrenheit per decade for the third. The study further examined whether any shorter temperature trend in these data sets could be described as a “leveling off,” as Pruitt had put it. It did so by examining 20-year periods in the data sets and comparing those with the predictions of climate simulations that reflected the natural variations of the climate but excluded human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. These models were thus meant to represent what the climate would do on its own if humans were not altering it. The study finds warming trends for all the 20-year periods, including the “last two decades” referred to by Pruitt, although it acknowledges that the trend is somewhat lower over these later periods. But it attributes this to natural climate variations, including a very strong El Nino event in 1997 and 1998 that caused


Marijuana extract sharply cuts seizures in severe form of epilepsy

People wearing marijuana-leaf hats gather during a rally in support of cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes in Chile in 2015. (Ivan Alvarado/Reuters) An oil derived from the marijuana plant sharply reduces violent seizures in young people suffering from a rare, severe form of epilepsy, according to a study published Wednesday that gives more hope to parents who have been clamoring for access to the medication. Cannabidiol cut the median number of monthly convulsive seizures from 12.4 to 5.9 in 52 children with Dravet syndrome who took the medication over a 14-week test period, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Fifty-six children using a placebo saw the number of seizures drop only from a median of 14.9 to 14.1 per month. “Medical marijuana has been documented as a treatment for epilepsy going back to 3,800 years ago,” said Orrin Devinsky, director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at NYU Langone Medical Center, who led the research. But the randomized, placebo-controlled study represents the first research to demonstrate the product's value in a scientific way, he said. Unlike THC, the compound in marijuana that produces a high when consumed, cannabidiol is not psychoactive. The main side effects suffered by the children in the study, whose average age was just under 10, were vomiting, diarrhea and loss of appetite. But the product is not available anywhere in the world, except to about 1,500 children who are receiving it from the manufacturer, GW Pharmaceuticals, under compassionate-use rules for the condition. Dravet syndrome causes ongoing seizures, cognitive problems and risk of early death. There is no FDA-approved treatment for Dravet, so many parents have been traveling to Colorado and other states that offer medical marijuana in search of cannabidiol. Other medicines have proven largely ineffective; the children in the study had tried an average of four anti-epilepsy drugs each. GW Pharmaceuticals, which funded Devinsky's research, plans to submit the drug for approval by the Food and Drug Administration in the middle of this year with the hope that it could be available by prescription in 2018 for children with Dravet and another severe form of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. The company announced in March 2016 that an earlier stage of the study had shown the drug to be effective. “The important thing for us is that patients like this deserve a pharmaceutical solution,” said the company's chief executive, Justin Glover. “They


D.C.-area forecast: Steady rains taper off early, but afternoon storms likely to pop up

TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 5/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current weather conditions at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL Rains complicate the early-morning commute, while stray storms could make the afternoon commute a pain for the unlucky. Friday is our best bet for a rain-free day, aiding those escaping town. As for the rest of the holiday weekend, shower potential remains an ever-present threat to those barbecue plans or most any other outdoor activity. 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: Dusk on Monday at the Washington Monument. (Jim Havard via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Saturday Showers and thunderstorms are likely to be much more frequent on Sunday, so have indoor activities planned. Still, highs in the upper 70s beckon in case of dry breaks. Scattered showers continue through the night, with lows in the mid-to-upper 60s. Confidence: Medium Memorial Day Beachcast:


I’m a reporter in Mexico. My life is in danger. The United States wouldn’t give me asylum.

Friends and relatives grieve over Javier Valdez at his funeral in Culiacan, Mexico, this month. Valdez was the sixth Mexican journalist killed in 2017. (Rashide Frias/Associated Press) On Feb. 5, I walked into the United States from Mexico and turned myself over to immigration authorities for the purpose of seeking political asylum. But even though I have good reason to fear for my life, U.S. officials refused to let me stay. And now I’m in danger again. I’m a journalist in Acapulco, Mexico. For almost a year, I have been receiving death threats from Mexican federal agents over articles I wrote in Novedades Acapulco, a newspaper there. In February 2016, I witnessed abuses by the Mexican military during a traffic accident. As a journalist, I began taking photographs. Federal agents arrived and began screaming at me. They took away my camera, my identification and my credentials and began hitting me as they told me to stop taking pictures and leave the area. I filed a complaint with the Mexican National Commission for Human Rights. Immediately afterward, I began receiving threats over the phone. A few weeks later, several men arrived at my home, pointed a gun at my forehead and told me to keep quiet. I moved to a different city, but the threatening messages and phone calls continued. Eventually, I moved across the country, hoping that these men would finally forget about me. Unfortunately, it did not take long for them to find me again. I realized that there was no place in Mexico where I could go without fearing I would be killed — the same way so many of my fellow journalists have been. Just this month, award-winning reporter Javier Valdez was killed in Sinaloa. He was the sixth journalist slain in Mexico this year. Mexican journalist Javier Valdez was killed in the state of Sinaloa after attackers opened fire on his car on May 15. He's the fifth reporter to have been killed in Mexico in recent months. I had never been to the United States, nor had I planned to, so I never applied for a visa or any other form of entry document. But my life was in danger in Mexico, so I decided to do as the law indicates: I walked over the border, presented myself to authorities in El Paso and told them that I feared for my safety at home. Customs


The Energy 202: Trump administration has new energy buzzword

the troposphere. After correcting for a cooling-down of the stratosphere (the layer above the troposphere), the paper finds that the trend is roughly 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit per decade for the first two data sets, and 0.26 degrees Fahrenheit per decade for the third." LOCAL ENVIRONS From NASA (NASA) My Post colleague Angela Fritz reports on how the end of one natural crisis begot another in the iconic California region: "The rain ended California’s five-year drought, but it left 45 miles of Highway 1 cut off from the rest of California, with few services for the 450 men, women and children who live here. That means no mail delivery, a limited supply of gasoline and a single deli where you can buy eggs. Even the resident monks have been forced to pass around the modern-day collection plate known as GoFundMe to help repair the road leading to their monastery." That and previous landslides this year -- plus the emergency demolition of a sinking bridge -- has closed dozens of miles of coastline highway and strained travel for hundreds of residents. (Laris Karklis / Washington Post) How do you save the Statue of Liberty from drowning? Lady Liberty is a towering symbol of our national vulnerability to the changing planet. Bloomberg Decision whether to close Three Mile Island nuclear plant 'to be made soon' For a third straight year, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant has been shut out of a key auction to sell its power. Sea level rise predicted to double flood frequency on Louisiana coast New research foretells more of the 'nuisance floods' that swamp roads and homes. The Times-Picayune DAYBOOK Today - The Senate will consider the nomination of Dan Brouillette, a Bush administration alum, to become Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s deputy. They will also hear from Neil Chatterjee and Robert F. Powelson, who have been nominated to join the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. - The House Appropriations Committee will hold a budget hearing on the U.S. Forest Service at 9:30 a.m. - Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his home state of Montana will learn their next U.S. representative in tonight’s special election. - OPEC’s energy ministers will formally meet in Vienna today to determine whether they will extend their oil production cuts, which have helped raise prices and are set to expire next month. Signs point to widespread support among the OPEC ministers to continue the cuts.


Jayson Werth gave a great speech about organic farming (and coyote pelts)

certification and the challenges of farming next to conventional land, a world of financial hurdles and continued problems with fraudulent labeling. Werth cited a recent Washington Post report on mislabeled imported soybeans being marketed as organic, calling it “totally heartbreaking” and “really unsettling, to say the least.” His farm improved as he found effective consultants familiar with organic practices, he said, and as he invested in improved equipment, which he called the key to his success. The Werths found a way to leave out the fallow-year they had originally used every four years. They improved their soil, increased their yields and saw things turn around. Werth eventually added three more properties, giving him nearly 500 tillable acres. He created an expansive wetland and wildlife preserve, with more than a thousand trees. He removed 300 acres of invasive bush honeysuckle. (Are you still reading? It’s okay if you’re not.) And he saw the critters on his land multiply. “The neighbors who have lived in the area their whole lives have commented on the incredible changes in wildlife and habitat: grasshoppers, rabbits, squirrels, foxes, deer, quail and recently pheasants — pheasants that we haven’t seen in our area in almost 20 years,” Werth said. “They are all now common inhabitants. We are involved with our local Quails Forever chapter to improve the quail habitat. When I bought my property, there were no quails, we never saw any. Now we have many coveys; when I’m out hunting, I see them all the time. Their population is actually thriving. “Recent spikes in coyote populations were believed to be the reason for the loss of these animals, but I believe that we have proven that it’s the loss of natural habitat,” he went on. “And coyotes are not welcome down on the farm, either. We do this great thing: we get these pelts made. My wife loves ’em. You know, you throw ‘em over your shoulder when you’re cold, got that whole ‘Game of Thrones’ thing going on.” There was much laughter at all this. Werth looked around and grinned. “What?” he asked, to more laughter. “Sorry.” "They say that baseball is America’s favorite pastime. Well, going to bat for organic is America’s now time." https://t.co/bSdZOzoms4 His family has taken up beekeeping, too, and now has four hives. But Werth said making the transition from conventional to organic remains prohibitive for many farmers: they lack


The weather on Jupiter is pure art in this new Juno satellite image

Jupiter’s south pole, as seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 32,000 miles. (NASA) What’s the weather like on a gas giant and the largest planet in the solar system? Do storms form and dissipate in the same way they do on Earth? We’re hoping for answers to those questions thanks to NASA’s Juno mission — the satellite that entered Jupiter’s orbit in 2016. On Thursday, NASA released the first image of the planet’s weather — swirling clouds, turbulent winds and Earth-sized cyclones. Jupiter is, after all, more than 11 times the size of Earth. Download the full-size image here The image is an “enhanced-color” mosaic comprised of multiple, sunlit scans. The massive storms it revealed surprised Juno mission scientists. “We’re puzzled as to how they could be formed, how stable the configuration is, and why Jupiter’s north pole doesn’t look like the south pole,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator. “We’re questioning whether this is a dynamic system, and are we seeing just one stage, and over the next year, we’re going to watch it disappear, or is this a stable configuration and these storms are circulating around one another?” (NASA) Juno’s orbit is such that it spends most of its time farther away from the planet than scientists would like. But every 53 days, the satellite gets a close-up and collects 2 hours-worth of data with eight instruments. The end result is a file size that takes 36 hours to download. “Every 53 days, we go screaming by Jupiter, get doused by a fire hose of Jovian science, and there is always something new,” said Bolton. And there’s more weather research coming in July. “On our next flyby on July 11, we will fly directly over one of the most iconic features in the entire solar system,” Bolton added, “one that every school kid knows — Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.” It’s a great time for NASA satellites. From the high-resolution pictures of Earth from DSCOVR to Juno’s art-like composites of Jupiter, we’re seeing our solar system in ways we never have before.


Don’t call it ‘climate change’: How the government is rebranding in the age of Trump

for cuts, some advocates say they are shifting their talking points. Futures Without Violence, a nonprofit group that receives federal funding to fight domestic and other forms of violence, is emphasizing its role helping victims of crime instead of violence to better align with the administration’s affinity for law enforcement. “There were victims on January 18th and there were the same victims on January 20th” when Trump was inaugurated, said Kiersten Stewart, the group’s director of public policy. “Might we highlight certain voices? Of course.” Career employees are used to changing directions with new administrations. But Michael Termini, chief of staff at the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection group, is still concerned about how government employees are responding to the current environment. “It’s not somebody telling me, ‘Don’t post that,’ ” he said, “but I’m afraid that if I do, they’re going to pounce. We call that, in the whistleblowing world, a chilling effect.” Some career employees are simply keeping their heads down. “Managers are actually not moving forward with new material for fear of actually being noticed,” said one EPA employee who was not cleared to speak in public and asked for anonymity. There are cases that look like outright censorship. The EPA took down its entire climate change website, an informational resource dating back to the Clinton administration, even though climate scientists say it is accurate and career staff resisted the move. And there are changes that are almost imperceptible. At the Forest Service, the banner atop the website of its Office of Sustainability and Climate Change dropped a single word — “change” — sometime after Feb. 1, according to the Internet Archive. It now says “Sustainability and Climate.” But the rebranding is pervasive. Even an agency as focused on climate change as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is shifting its messaging. One marine scientist who works with state and local governments and other groups said that he and his colleagues are playing down climate as a factor in the protection of ocean habitats because they quickly realized that “it’s a hot potato.” “We’re being encouraged to look at things holistically,” said the scientist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. He described the change in approach as “self-driven, because we’re trying to lay low.” “We’re trying not to be explicit about climate change anymore,” the scientist said.