Rand Paul calls for release of 9/11 documents

Bob Graham (D-Fla.). The group were flanked by members of the group 9/11 Families United for Justice Against Terrorism. "The 28 pages in the report of over 800 pages go to the question of who financed 9/11 and they point a strong finger at Saudi Arabia," Graham said. Terry Strada, whose husband was killed in the attacks, brought her three children; one was four days old when his father was killed. "9/11 children are growing up in a world where we can’t trust our own government because too many truths remain hidden about who was ultimately responsible for the murder of our parents," said Kaitlyn Strada, who was 4 when her father was killed. Paul pointed out that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, saying that information that has been reported over the years "does raise question about their (the government's) support" and if it was provided to the hijackers. Massie said the 28 pages establishes a "chain of liability" around the attacks. "We cannot let page after page of blanked out documents to be obscured by a veil, leaving these family members to wonder if there is additional information surrounding these horrible acts," Paul said. Members of Congress are allowed to read the documents. When Paul opened the press conference up for questions, he nudged Graham forward after being asked whether he knew who the Saudi ambassador was at the time of the attacks. "Is this the same fellow whom George W. nicknamed Bandar Bush because of his longstanding affiliation with the Bush family. Is this the same one?" the man, Barry Kissin, asked. "I only know of one Prince Bandar," Graham said. Kissin then asked Paul if he planned to read the 28 pages "into the record, with impunity." Paul said he theoretically could. "Those are the rules. Next question," he said. A man then asked Graham if he planned to run for president. "We need some competition," Paul chimed in. No chance, said Graham -- he's "enjoying retirement." Paul later said he does not immediately plan to read the pages on the Senate floor. When asked if he thinks the pages could disrupt the U.S.-Saudi relationship, Paul said, "I see this more as just a search for the truth." On the night the Patriot Act expired, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) equated the collecting of Americans' phone records to "what we fought the revolution over."


Main Street Morning: San Francisco looks at soda tax

PASADENA, CA – SEPTEMBER 28: Twenty-ounce plastic soda bottles that are among containers that could become subject to new return deposits are seen on a store shelf in a gas station food mart on September 28, 2009 in Pasadena, California. A new initiative being considered by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would impose or increase deposits on billions of recyclable plastic containers. Some of the containers that are currently exempt but would become subject to deposits include 8-ounce juice boxes, small foil juice pouches, half-gallon non-milk containers and juice jugs larger than 46 ounces. The state’s recycling fund, begun in 1986, is nearly exhausted. The measure would take effect on July 1, 2010. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) Welcome to Main Street Morning, The Washington Post’s daily collection of news affecting entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses with a special focus on policy and government. Here’s what’s affecting my small business my clients and other entrepreneurs today. Washington - TSA airport checkpoints STILL miss 95% of weapons in smuggling tests. - The Supreme Court rules in favor of a woman who was denied a job because she wears a head scarf. - Two members of the House have a plan to mandate bank-like regulations on millions of small businesses around the country in the name of improving credit and debit card security. - The IRS changes its identity theft policy. - Bank-style rules for small business are the wrong approach to data security. The Elections - Lindsey Graham betting on his foreign experience in his White House bid. - But Scott Walker continues to maintain a healthy lead. - Hillary Clinton will hold an official launch rally on Roosevelt Island in New York City. The Economy - U.S. manufacturing growth accelerates for the first time in six months. - This 45-year chart shows that stocks are not overvalued. - Construction spending increased 2% in April. - Gold looks more attractive as the U.S. economy stumbles. People - A business owner is paying for his employees’ kids to go to college. - A Starbucks job interview includes a spelling test. - What United Airlines could learn from this cafe that defended a breastfeeding mom Management - A pet mediator offers up six tips for your small business. - Why morning is actually the worst time to drink coffee. - How to be your own mentor. - Five tips to protect your business against


Rethinking nations in the Middle East

Two youths carrying a large Jordanian flag are among thousands of Islamic Action Front supporters gathered to demand constitutional reforms during an opposition rally described as the biggest in the kingdom since the Arab Spring uprisings started in late 2010, in Amman, Jordan, Friday, Oct. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh) You couldn’t swing a dead imperialist last summer without hitting an essay about the unraveling of the Sykes-Picot system in the Middle East. The bloody disintegration of Iraq and Syria seemed to have finally ripped apart the borders created by the British and French governments in the aftermath of World War I (even if the borders in question were actually forged at San Remo). It wasn’t just the rise of the so-called Islamic State spanning and erasing the Syrian-Iraqi border. The unprecedented, synchronized popular mobilization across borders during the early Arab uprisings of 2011 gave potent form to the ideals of transnational Arab political community supplanting the limits of nation-states. As the uprisings turned darker and most of the democratic transitions failed, new challengers to nation-states in the Middle East rose to the forefront: the Islamic State; the growing de facto independence of Kurds across Iraq and Syria, with ramifications extending into Turkey and Iran; the rise of sub-regional identities carried by heavily armed militias in failing states such as Yemen and Libya; unprecedented forced displacement moving millions of people within and across borders; and raging sectarianism dividing Sunnis and Shiites. These developments have not had a singular effect on national identities, however. While some states have collapsed, creating space for new subnational identities to challenge national cohesion, most have retrenched into a fiercer form of authoritarianism. Egypt’s military coup, for instance, has been sustained by the heavy-handed promotion of extreme nationalism. Many states in the Gulf have drawn upon sectarianism to consolidate support for their regimes in ways that could have an enduring impact on popular conceptions of national identity. Battles over the proper role of Islam in public life have reshaped political discourse from Egypt and Turkey (see Senem Aslan and Kristin Fabbe in this collection) and Tunisia (Elizabeth Young). Kurds imagine new political possibilities in very different contexts, as Nicole Watts demonstrates from Halabja and Serhun Al demonstrates through the historical experience of Turkey and Iraq. In February, therefore, I convened a Project on Middle East Political Science symposium with Laurie A. Brand at the University of


Fox News’s Shepard Smith debates White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on surveillance

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com The Senate this afternoon passed legislation — the USA Freedom Act — that would curtail the eavesdropping powers of the National Security Agency (NSA), sending the bill to President Obama. At issue is telephonic surveillance, a massive controversy ever since leaks from Edward Snowden in 2013 shined a light on the NSA’s ability to vacuum up “metadata” of phone calls, though not listen to the conversations. The USA Freedom Act would keep that metadata in the possession of the phone companies, which would hand it over pursuant to a request from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. And if you want to hear some actually helpful cable-news coverage of the considerations swirling around this seismic domestic controversy, settle in for Fox News anchor Shepard Smith vs. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, in the video above. It’s slightly more than nine minutes in duration, and the Erik Wemple Blog could have sat in for double that. (H/T Mediaite)


Prof. Alice Goffman, ‘On the Run,’ and driving a gang member around, looking for a mutual friend’s killer

line between posturing and practice is at the essence of the phenomenon, won’t be heard in this context and will probably add to the strength of those who would damn her and outlaw this kind of immersion research…. As a citizen, as well as in my career as a sociologist, I’m concerned about interventions in this discussion that might embrace the flexibility of “conspiracy” and aiding and abetting laws to shut down descriptions of social life that many readers will take as resources for criticizing the government. Personally, I realize that it has not been since the Chicago 8 (then Chicago 7) that the use of conspiracy laws to shut down dissent or critical expression was something I had to think about in this country. (But maybe I have been asleep for 40 or so years.) I realize as well that labeling yourself a sociologist, like labeling yourself a journalist, gets you no privileges, but when conspiracy laws alone are the only formula available for prosecution, the abuse potential should remain the first and central concern. As someone who, in order to inform policy and advance sociological knowledge, promotes close-up descriptions of social life through immersion fieldwork, I’m concerned about the potential of this controversy to quash the whole field of participant observation research in areas of social life that the government considers rife with criminality. In the history of academic sociology, ethnographic immersion in social life on “the other side” has been an important contributor to political culture in the US, going back to studies of gangs and “vice” institutions in the 1920s, through Becker’s and others’ studies of “deviance” in the 1950s and 1960s… I see Alice in that tradition and fear that academic sociologists, the great majority of whom work at a much safer distance from the people they write about, who indeed spend virtually all of their research life within the halls of academe, will become very wary of fieldwork that takes the researcher intimately into social worlds that are rife with what the government considers crime. It should also be noted that many of the most significant contributions have been made by academics whose participation in a PhD program came after their immersion in criminal worlds (as is the case with Alice). In such cases, it is sloppy thinking and greatly misleading to frame this discussion as one about the university’s responsibility in sponsoring, organizing


South Korea shuts down primary schools as spread of MERS alarms public

The Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus is seen in an undated transmission electron micrograph from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). (Reuters) South Korea shut down 200 primary schools, canceled some public events and put more than 1,300 people in various levels of quarantine, acknowledging on Wednesday that the continuing spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome within its borders had become a crisis. Health officials announced Wednesday that five more people had been diagnosed, bringing the total infected with the virus to 30. Two patients have died. That makes the outbreak the largest outside the Arabian Peninsula, where the disease emerged in 2012. The virus, which primarily causes flu-like symptoms such as fever and cough, kills an estimated three to four out of every 10 patients infected. The situation in South Korea has alarmed the global health community because the virus has spread so fast and wide from a single individual. Other countries have imported cases in the same manner but the virus infected only a few others. How did MERS get to South Korea and why is it spreading so fast? The first known case, called an “index” case, was reported on May 20. It involved a 68-year-old man who was returning from a 16-day business trip to four Middle Eastern countries. The man was asymptomatic during his return flight but was subsequently treated at two different out-patient clinics and two hospitals which created a lot of opportunities for the virus to spread. Health care workers did not suspect the man of having MERS so he was not put in isolation. Others who have been infected include health care workers, other patients, family members and visitors. The World Health Organization reported that some of the cases were patients in the same room or ward as the man, and that their exposure may have been from 5 minutes to a few hours. Seoul’s mayor says the 35th identified case of MERS in the country is a doctor who had contact with another MERS patient. The country has at least 41 infections, the highest of anywhere outside the Middle East. Two recent cases represent an alarming development —a third generation of transmission. That is, a patient who did not have contact with the index patient but came into contact with an intermediary who had been exposed to the virus. "That raised fears that infections could now spread


149,000 people have died in war in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2001, report says

An Afghan policeman keeps watch near the site of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan early May 27, 2015. Heavily armed insurgents stormed a guesthouse in the diplomatic quarter of Kabul late on Tuesday night and were battling Afghan security forces an hour after the assault began. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail War has directly resulted in the deaths of 149,000 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan between 2001 and 2014, according to estimates in a new report released by Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute. That figure includes U.S. military members, contractors, and opposition fighters – as well as at least 26,270 civilians in Afghanistan, and 21,500 in Pakistan. These figures illustrate not only the drastic human cost of the U.S.-led 'War on Terror' that in Afghanistan since 2001 – but also that the war is not over. "While the US formally ended combat operations in Afghanistan in December 2014, U.S. uniformed troops remain advising the Afghan security forces and engaging in combat," the study's author, Boston University professor Neta Crawford notes. "The war has not diminished in intensity. Rather, in several ways, most notably, in the numbers of civilians and Afghan military and police killed, the war has escalated." Figures included in the report show that civilian deaths in Afghanistan appear to have grown over the past few years. (Costs of War) While the study finds that the vast and growing majority of these civilians appear to have been killed by anti-government forces, Crawford observes that a downwards trend in the number of civilians killed by pro-government forces appears to be reversing. (Costs of War) Crawford notes that civilian deaths are often harder to record that military deaths, and that there are other ways that war has damaged the fabric of Afghan life, most notably by causing injuries or displacing people from their homes. The report also emphasizes that the conflict in Pakistan is heavily affected and has resulted in a high number of casualties as well, with a total of 57,000 killed versus 92,000 in Afghanistan. Many of these were non-combatants, the study finds. “Civilians in Pakistan’s northwest and throughout the country commonly fall victim to violence by all parties of the fighting,” notes Crawford. Importantly, U.S. drone strikes are responsible for an unknown amount of that, with estimates of numbers killed ranging between 1,900 and 3,800, with between 5 to 73 percent of those deaths being civilians. Cost


He was certain technology would save the world. Here’s what changed his mind.

Firsthand experiences in India taught Kentaro Toyama that the digital revolution isn’t the solution to creating social change. (Euan Rocha/Reuters) For a long time Kentaro Toyama was a believer in technological utopianism. He studied physics at Harvard and earned a PhD in computer science at Yale. Toyama went on to do research at Microsoft. The work was demanding, but something was missing. “At the end of the day, I was helping to make better gadgets for wealthy people who could afford to play video games,” Toyama told me. In 2004, when his boss asked if he was interested in opening a research center in India, Toyama accepted on the spot. He’d never even been to India. But he was hungry to make more of a direct contribution to society. Here was the chance to sprinkle tech fairy dust on a developing nation and watch success after success. Except it didn’t play out like that. In his new book, Kentaro Toyama shows how a golden age of innovation hasn’t uplifted the world. (Matt McFarland/The Washington Post) Toyama spent five years in India with a team of about 10 and hatched about 50 projects. He found the projects that had a real social impact were ones in which he worked with capable organizations that were committed to their mission. Good schools with strong administrators were places where successes happened. But if he was working with an incapable nonprofit or corrupt organization, it didn’t matter how good his technology was. Toyama recalled going into a school to watch a teacher use some technology his team had created. The teacher struggled to get his computer running. He had to reboot the machine and find a different electrical outlet. Soon 20 minutes of a 40-minute class were wasted. “I saw this sort of thing happen over and over and over where the technology worked as advertised, and we could even do research on it that showed in certain conditions it outperformed not having the technology,” Toyama said. “But those special conditions in which it worked, turned out to be exactly what was missing in those places that we wanted to roll it out in.” Toyama arrived hoping to unleash his team’s technologies in places where teachers were apathetic, where headmasters weren’t focused on education and students were facing social challenges outside school. But the technology couldn’t rise above those environments. The humans mattered a lot


Kojo Nnamdi, Dana Bash, Mike Isabella, Donna Edwards and more share their favorite Washington places

something. Then they will give you car service home if you’d like.” Hotel bar “I would probably say the Jefferson, at the Quill. It has a nice drink program; it’s small, intimate, quiet, and if you need a snack there is good food from the kitchen. We’ll stay there for a staycation sometimes instead of going home.” Place to get a meal under $25 “I like ethnic food, and so I would say Daikaya. The chef there makes the best ramen around. For a beer and a bowl of ramen, you are under $20.” Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md. Donna Edwards, Place to get a meal under $25 “The new barbecue barbeque place on Connecticut Avenue√, Fat Pete’s. My son could afford to take me there! You can eat with your fingers and lick your fingers. How could you eat barbecue with a fork? Festival you never miss Smithsonian Folklife Festival. “I’ve gone every year since we moved here when I was 17. It’s a place you can take your kids, your mom and a date. But not at the same time — very, very important.” Larry Klayman Place that prompts an American history moment “The Jefferson Memorial because Jefferson’s my favorite. He believed in liberty and freedom. He was anti-government, he was anti-federalist. He said: When the people fear the government, there’s tyranny. When the government fears the people, there’s liberty.” Live music venue that features local artists “Blues Alley. I like the intimate setting. I was there a couple months ago. It’s small, it’s like a coffeehouse. You’re right up against the musicians. You can get some food. A time gone by.” Pizza place “Il Canale in Georgetown. I like thin crust. There’s a big picture of Hillary [Clinton] when you walk in. I try to look in the other direction so I don’t get indigestion.” Cardinal Donald Wuerl (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images) Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Place that prompts an American history moment “The Jefferson Memorial has special meaning for me. I first visited it in 1960 as a student at the Catholic University of America and later wrote a graduate school thesis there on our ‘philosopher-president.’ ” Spot for when you need to laugh or cry “The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is the place I go when I feel the need either to rejoice or to lament. It is filled with small,


Scenes from militarized America

although the police haven’t said whether the man was in possession of any stolen merchandise. The Guardian stories play up Rankin’s military background and the fact that the Portsmouth Police Department recruits heavily from local military bases. Here’s a clip from the recruiting video the department uses: Portsmouth Police Department Recruitment Video If you’re a regular reader of The Watch, you know that videos like this one are not at all uncommon. Police recruiting videos are too often filled with images of war, aggression and anger instead of public service, community and helping people. It’s a disturbing phenomenon for a couple of reasons. First, it brings in young people who get more excited about hurting people than about helping them. That isn’t the sort of personality we want carrying a gun and a badge. Second, it reveals a troubling image of how the department sees itself and its relationship with the community. This is the impression of the department that its leaders want to send out to the world. In most places, the SWAT team comprises only a tiny percentage of a policy agency’s personnel. (In smaller departments, it will be a larger percentage, but that’s a different problem.) Yet more than half of this video is devoted to the SWAT team. If the video is successful, it’s going to recruit a lot of cops who will never make the SWAT team but went into policing because they wanted to kick down doors and act like soldiers. Portsmouth PD certainly appears to embrace militarism, and Stephen Rankin looks to be a direct product of that policy. But one note of caution here: There’s a real problem with politicians and public officials who seem to think that policing and soldiering are similar professions. They aren’t and shouldn’t be. They’re two entirely different jobs, with different missions, which require different sets of skills. That doesn’t mean veterans should never be cops; it doesn’t even necessarily mean agencies with more veterans will have a more militaristic mindset. Many of the police chiefs, sheriffs and other law enforcement leaders I’ve talked to over the years who advocate public-service-oriented community policing and who are wary of militarization have said they’ve found that veterans can be a good influence on a police force. Part of the reason for that is that the military preaches policies such as strict rules of engagement, discipline, adherence to procedure and


Toilets in elevators? The new Japanese idea that isn’t as crazy as it sounds.

installing water and toilet facilities in all elevators. Earthquakes present a special problem for Japan. The country is located near major tectonic plate boundaries and has a long history of quakes. It also, however, has a very large and constantly growing number of tall buildings. This means that the country has about 620,000 elevators, with 150,000 or so in Tokyo alone. During big earthquakes, these elevators stop working. An earthquake in 1992 resulted in most elevators in Tokyo stopping; many didn't restart for an entire day. Another earthquake in 2005 left 64,000 elevators paralyzed, according to Cameron Allan McKean of Next City, and some people were stuck for up in elevators for almost nine hours after a quake in 2011. In response to these incidents, Tokyo created the Japan Elevator Association Kanto Branch (JEA), a body that conducted research that showed thousands of people could be stuck if an earthquake struck (the current figure stands around 17,000). JEA devised a number of methods to try to avoid this, including backup power sources and early warning systems that help people escape elevators if an earthquake strikes. These technical solutions will never work all of the time, however, and it remains likely that people will end up trapped in elevators if a large earthquake comes. Toilets, drinking water and other amenities would no doubt make those people far more comfortable until they are rescued. In fact, some local governments have begun putting portable toilets in elevators. According to Jiji Press, Tokyo's Chiyoda ward began putting in "water, blankets and emergency boxes that double as toilets" in 2014, with other parts of Tokyo planning to follow this tactic. Private Japanese companies manufacture devices intended to serve as toilets in elevators. Aqua & Air Technology shows off its product in the video below: エレベーターチェアー : DigInfo Japan's elevator industry is among the most advanced in the world – Japanese companies engineer some of the world's fastest elevators, for example. Its toilet industry also leads the world in technical advancements. As The Washington Post's Anna Fifield recently explained, upscale Japanese toilets come with features such as "bidet, seat-warmer, sterilizing and deodorizing functions, and electronic flushing." And while the ingenious idea of a toilet in an elevator may seem particularly Japanese, people get stuck in elevators everywhere. Perhaps this will soon be coming to one near you. More on WorldViews Japan wants visitors to experience its


Why armed drug cops took ‘every belonging’ from a Michigan soccer mom

from the ceiling fans. The men took her vehicles, which she said included the car seats for the smaller children. Items listed on the St. Clair County Sheriff's report of seized property from the Shattuck residence, including cash and a "Pink Hello Kitty wallet" from the bedroom of the Shattuck's 9-year-old daughter. The men who did this were officers of Michigan's St. Clair County Drug Task Force executing a search warrant on her home. Shattuck, you see, is a registered medical marijuana caregiver under Michigan's medical marijuana law. This allows her to grow a certain quantity of marijuana plants to distribute to a small number of medical marijuana patients. [Stop and seize: Police take hundreds of millions from motorists not charged with crimes] The Task Force suspected she might be out of compliance, selling marijuana to people without a medical marijuana card. Shattuck initially faced six criminal charges related to marijuana possession and distribution, three of which have since been dismissed by a district court judge, according to court documents reviewed by The Washington Post. She is awaiting her day in court on the remaining charges. St. Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon disputed elements of Shattuck's testimony in a phone interview, saying it was far less of a confrontation than Shattuck suggested in her testimony. "She's a liar, plain and simple. That's all I can tell you," he said. He says that the task force did not hang lingerie from the ceiling fans or stomp food on the floor. The Shattucks, he said, are "trying to further their cause, which at the base of it is the legalization of marijuana in the state of Michigan." The seizure of Shattuck's belongings offers a window into the unsettled world of civil forfeiture and drug laws at a time when both are facing increased challenges. A number of media investigations over the past year, including by The Washington Post, have raised questions about whether local authorities are appropriately seizing -- and keeping -- the property of people who are never convicted, or in some cases never even charged, with a crime. Meanwhile, civil forfeiture has remained an important anti-narcotics tool for local and federal authorities, who are facing a changing drug policy landscape across the country. In an interview, Shattuck, who has described herself as a "soccer mom," and her lawyer Michael Komorn rejected the sheriff's criticism. "He's never called me a liar


New images of Pluto’s moons hint at unusual behavior

This illustration depicts Pluto and its five moons from a perspective looking away from the sun. New research indicates that Pluto and Charon give smaller moons a funky orbit. (M. Showalter/NASA, SETI Institute) Pluto, once our most distant planetary sibling in the solar system and now reclassified as one of many "dwarf" cousins, is set to get a lot less mysterious this summer. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will give us our first real encounter with the dwarf planet, showing scientists just how unusual it is. New photos from the Hubble are already giving us clues. In a study published Wednesday in Nature, researchers report on the interactions of Pluto's known moons. This composite image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, at the center. Pluto's four smaller moons can be seen to the right and left. The smaller moons are far dimmer than Pluto and Charon. (M. Showalter/NASA, SETI Institute) Pluto's largest and most famous moon, Charon, is weird: Instead of acting like a typical planet-and-moon pair, the two face each other and spin together around a fixed point. Some have argued that Charon and Pluto are more of a binary system than a moon and a planet. [NASA’s New Horizons sends back its first color image of Pluto and Charon] Pluto probably has at least a few moons still too small for us to see, and researchers hope New Horizons will spot them sometime before its July flyby of the area. But for now, we know of four lesser moons: Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra. According to information gleaned from these new Hubble images, the four moons that orbit Pluto and Charon are thrown into chaos by the pair's unusual gravity. If our moon is a well-behaved child of Earth, the researchers say, these four are a bunch of ornery teens. "We are learning that chaos may be a common trait of binary systems," Douglas Hamilton, professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland and a co-author of the Nature study, said in a statement. "It might even have consequences for life on planets orbiting binary stars." [For the first time ever, a multi-star system is caught during its earliest days] Pluto and Charon's intimate dance creates an ever-changing gravitational field. For smaller objects caught in their gravitational pull, it can be a little unpredictable. To make things even more unstable, the moons are


Why you really need to stop driving on beaches

better chance against vehicles on the beach. New chicks can easily fall into the ruts made by tire tracks along the shoreline and get stuck, says Lindsay Addison, a coastal biologist with Audubon North Carolina. At the very least, they risk becoming separated from their parents this way — worst case scenario, another vehicle may come along and run them over while they’re trapped. Vehicles pose some less direct threats as well. Off-roading vehicles can be frightening and disruptive to adult birds, who may be inclined to fly away any time a vehicle comes down the beach. “If you’re repeatedly flushing birds away from young chicks, you have a lot of different things happening,” Addison says. “Chicks and eggs are exposed to temperature stress if parents aren’t able to be with them. They’re exposed to predators — crows, gulls, raccoons, foxes, coyotes. And also, if adults are stressed out really badly at a colony by too much chronic disruption, they may choose to abandon the site.” Too much driving on the beach can contribute to habitat degradation as well, says Comins. “It tends to really greatly contribute to beach erosion and certainly to the detriment of dune vegetation, which is important for stabilizing these beaches,” he says. In parts of the country where off-roading is allowed, Addison recommends local authorities at least establish a buffer zone around prime nesting areas to keep disturbances at a minimum. But these type of measures have become highly contentious in some places. At North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras National Seashore, for instance, debates over off-roading on the beach have been a source of bad blood for years. In February 2012, the National Park Service restricted off-road vehicle access to the beach to certain times and places after environmentalists filed a lawsuit calling for better protections on local wildlife. In response, a group of outraged community members created the Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance and filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the new regulations. The group argued that the National Park Service overlooked any compromises that would have maintained vehicle access to the beach and protected wildlife at the same time. The new regulations are also potentially damaging to the tourist-oriented local economy, the group said. The lawsuit was unsuccessful. But tensions are running high again this spring, after the National Park Service proposed scaling back some of the restrictions it put in place for both


Next Day’s News: Rubio winning over some of Jeb Bush’s donors, how to fix FIFA, a MERS outbreak in South Korea and more

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) stands after speaking during the Freedom Summit in Greenville, South Carolina May 9, 2015. REUTERS/Chris Keane Here’s a look at tomorrow’s top talkers from Washington Post reporters and columnists who know the topics best. ELECTION 2016: - Marco Rubio is benefiting from pockets of discontent in Jeb Bush’s sprawling money network, winning over donors who believe the 44-year-old freshman senator from Florida offers a more compelling persona and sharper generational contrast against Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. (Matea Gold and Sean Sullivan) - The nation is in the throes of an epidemic of prescription-drug and heroin abuse — a wave that’s leaving its mark on the 2016 presidential campaign, too. (Katie Zezima) HOW TO FIX FIFA: - Here are some ways to fix FIFA, many of which Blatter actually touched upon in his resignation speech: Fix the executive committee by making it smaller, get rid of “one country, one vote,” allow for some sort of oversight, and adjust term limits. (Matt Bonesteel) MERS OUTBREAK IN SOUTH KOREA: - South Korea scrambled Wednesday to try to contain an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome, a virus that has already claimed two lives in the country, with more than 1,300 people quarantined and upwards of 500 schools set to close their doors Thursday. (Anna Fifield) ENTOURAGE MOVIE: - When did people start hating the once beloved show, “Entourage?” The “Entourage” hate is real. But Hollywood is still banking on the fact that the raunchy HBO comedy — about four dudes living it up in Hollywood — still has enough fans to make a big summer weekend at the box office. (Emily Yahr)


American killed by lion went to South Africa to volunteer on a wildlife preserve

operating “as normal,” La Cock said. “The park is not closed and it is not closing,” assistant operations manager Scott Simpson told the AP on Tuesday. “We have closed off where the incident happened, so those lions won’t be seeing the public until we have had an investigation and we know what exactly happened.” The park requires visitors to keep their windows closed while driving through the grounds, La Cock said. The park has “many signs that clearly state that all windows and doors should be closed and locked at all times.” Visitors are handed a leaflet “explaining that it is imperative that windows and doors are kept locked and closed at all times” before entering the first lion enclosure, La Cock said. “Lions are predators and these animals should be handled and treated with great respect.” The park offered its “deepest sympathies and sincere condolences to the family and friends for their loss,” and wished for a “full recovery” for the tour driver. Lion Park is one of Johannesburg’s “best-known attractions,” according to South Africa’s official tourism site, and functions as “a kind of hybrid between a zoo and a game reserve.” According to the Citizen, a South African newspaper, this is the second incident this year in which a Lion Park visitor was attacked by a lion. In March, the Citizen reported, an Australian tourist “had to be rushed to hospital after he was bitten by a lion.” Simpson said the man and a friend stopped their vehicle and got out to take a picture. A lioness then stuck its head through an open window of the car and bit Smith on his left leg. Smith was immediately rushed to Fourways Life Hospital to have his injuries treated. Smith later shared his experience on Facebook, saying: “Pretty full-on but am alive, with insurance coming to the party and an influx of curious Africans wanting to see the lion man.” “The average visitor has no idea how powerful these large predators are,” Graham Kerley, director of the Centre for African Conservation Ecology, told the Telegraph this week. “The reason we are so enthralled by them is that we have this instinctive feeling of how dangerous they are and yet we get so close to them. “We become complacent because we think they are big tame animals but they are not domestic animals.” This post, originally published on June 1,


PM Update: Unrelenting rain and drizzle through Thursday

For the second straight day we were socked in with drizzle, patchy light rain and much cooler than normal temperatures. We’ll go for the dreary weather trifecta Thursday with more of the same. Through Tonight: 2-hour radar loop. Refresh page to update. Tomorrow (Thursday): See Dan Stillman’s forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter A foggy morning Tuesday in Washington, D.C. (Jarrett Hendrix via Flickr) Beautiful view: Just WOW! Double rainbow @CraterLakeNPS by Jasman Mander #Oregon #getoutdoors http://t.co/w8fFZSu9AD


Michelle Obama makes the pitch for pollinators

First lady Michelle Obama at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Whitney Museum Of American Art on April 30 in New York. (Ben Gabbe/Getty Images) President Obama isn't the only member of the First Family preaching the gospel of pollinators: On Wednesday Michelle Obama explained to a group of school children gathered on the State Floor as they prepared vegetables from the White House garden. As the schoolchildren flapped their hands in a butterfly motion, the first lady explained why the administration was joining with outside groups to launch the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge on Wednesday. The initiative, which features more than a million seed kits donated by W. Atlee Burpee & Co., aims to expand the amount of habitat available for species that pollinate fruit and vegetable crops nationwide. "Butterflies, bats, bees, birds: all of those they get attracted to the gardens," she explained, "and then they go sprinkle life around so that food grows." The event was initially planned to take place outside, but given the threat of rain, White House officials harvested vegetables in the morning and then convened the group of children indoors, where they assembled five different vegetables in honor of the fifth anniversary of the first lady's "Let's Move!" initiative. [READ: How the White House aims to help the bee keep its buzz] White House chef Cristeta Comerford explained to the kids that they would be consuming "grilled soba chicken salad with chopped White House garden vegetables," along with a dressing that used honey from the White House's apiary. The chickens, however, were not produced in-house. "Is it good?" Comerford asked the children as they dined, prompting a round of murmured assent. "Okay, thank you."


Reports allege doping violations by U.S. track star Galen Rupp and top coach Alberto Salazar

Mohamed Farah of Great Britain celebrates winning gold with silver medalist Galen Rupp of the United States, left, and coach Alberto Salazar after the Men’s 10,000m Final at the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Michael Steele/Getty Images) Alberto Salazar is legend in the world of running, having won three consecutiveNew York marathons from 1980 to 1982 in addition to a memorable win in the 1982 Boston Marathon. He’s now carving out a legendary career as a track coach, overseeing the Nike Oregon Project at the headquarters of the athletic apparel giant. Two reports Wednesday contain allegations that, as a coach, Salazar committed doping violations, particularly with his top star, Galen Rupp. The U.S. record holder in the 10,000 meters, Rupp took silver at that distance at the 2012 Games — behind another Oregon Project runner, England’s Mo Farah. Salazar and Rupp denied any wrongdoing, while Farah has not been accused of cheating. But those who went on record for articles produced by Pro Publica and the BBC include track stars Kara and Adam Goucher and a coach who formerly worked under Salazar, Steve Magness. All three have left the Oregon Project in recent years. Rupp has never failed a drug test, but Magness claimed that he had seen a medical chart which noted that the runner was taking “testosterone medication,” which is banned for competitors in almost all circumstances. According to Magness, Salazar blamed the labeling on a mistake by a lab physiologist who was suffering from ALS. But the BBC report alleges that Rupp was first given testosterone when he was a 16-year-old in high school. Prior to that, Magness claimed, he was with Rupp in Germany when Salazar mailed a paperback book. It turned out some of its pages were allegedly hollowed out to form a compartment for two pills, which were not identified but which Rupp took. “At that point,” Magness told Pro Publica, “my mind was like, this is stuff you see in movies, this is extremely strange.” Magness, now the cross-country coach at the University of Houston, also alleged that Salazar had appeared to be testing how much testosterone gel he could rub on his son before it triggered a positive test result. Another former Oregon Project employee, a massage therapist named John Stiner, said that Salazar asked him to find some testosterone gel the coach had left in his hotel room and ship it to


Five new restaurants to try in the D.C. area

we keep going, or do you have enough reasons to check out this new Southern bistro? The mini-chain restaurant is an export from Asheville, N.C., where it opened 15 years ago. The Arlington outpost is the first location to open outside of Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina, and there’s another one heading to Virginia Beach shortly. Oyster heaven at Brine. Brine This Mosaic District restaurant is a collaboration between Travis Croxton (co-owner of Rappahannock Oyster Co.) and chef John Critchley (formerly the executive chef of Bourbon Steak). Translation: Expect lots of bivalves and wood-grilled meats and seafood served alongside vegetables sourced within the Mid-Atlantic. Dishes include beef tartare served with horseradish and vegetable ash as well as baked oysters with nettles, herbs and breadcrumbs. Ankara Named after the capital of Turkey, this family-owned restaurant serves kabobs and hot and cold mezze dishes out of the space in Dupont Circle that formerly held Levante’s. The menu is overseen by chef Jorge Chicas, formerly of Zaytinya, but don’t expect to see many menu repeats: Ankara prides itself on serving contemporary takes on Turkish classics. Take the lamb burger for example, which is actually lamb kofte (meatballs spiced with cumin) shaped into a burger. Influences from the Mediterranean, Persia and the Far East also abound. Centrolina is a market-meets-restaurant. Centrolina Chef Amy Brandwein’s just-opened Italian joint at CityCenterDC is made up of two components: a small grocery full of imported Italian goods, wine and beer, local produce and grab-and-go sauces made in-house, as well as a spacious osteria where seasonal Italian dishes are served. Some good news for the indecisive — Brandwein’s rotating menu hovers around 15 items max (plus sides), including wood-fired meats and lightly seasoned vegetables, so you won’t be overwhelmed with options. Smokehouse Live Vegans may want to sit this one out. From veterans of Carmine’s and Hill Country Barbecue comes this 16,000-square-foot combination BBQ restaurant, marketplace and music venue. Dry rubbed meats — which are priced by weight — include brisket, pulled pork and short rib, which get pit smoked for up to 15 hours in ovens that can hold up to 2,500 pounds of carnage. Sundays bring a Southern-inspired brunch buffet with items like biscuit French toast, bacon sticky buns and a Thanksgiving casserole. You may also like: Know before you go: Bar Civita, a new restaurant in Woodley Park Guess the D.C. restaurant … emojis edition!


What’s not to like about a graphene spacecraft that flies by starlight? Plenty.

on a macroscopic scale”), which suggested that “significant applications such as the long-sought optical manipulation of large-scale objects including even the proposed solar sail and space transportation through laser or beam-powered propulsion could be realized.” Within the research article, too, there was also reference to the IKAROS spacecraft – essentially a giant kite launched by the Japanese space agency in 2010 that is propelled through space using light from the sun. You can think of this as a solar wind gently pushing on the kite, propelling it forward. From this perspective, graphene might be a superior material for constructing just such a spacecraft. And, indeed, efforts at creating solar sails continue to pick up speed. Just last month, researchers at the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California launched a test mission for the LightSail – a solar sail concept that has been talked about dating back to 1976, when Carl Sagan appeared with Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show” with a mock-up of the sail. LightSail Then and Now But back to the sponge. The graphene sponge illustrates the hard part about graphene research, no matter how many millions of dollars are thrown at the problem. It’s just awfully hard to scale-up manufacturing of graphene objects while maintaining the remarkable properties of the material. A crumpled-up graphene sponge made from building up layer after layer of carbon atoms is where we’re at these days. Even if the graphene spacecraft were built, it would still just be a really super-thin, high-tech kite. Take a look at all the highlighted projects on the University of Manchester’s graphene Web site – there’s not a single space exploration project highlighted, and this is at one of the biggest graphene research hubs in the world. Manchester, after all, calls itself “the home of graphene” and has a brand-new National Graphene Institute. Even within the Photon Science Institute – the Manchester research group that’s in charge of studying how light interacts with matter – there’s no mention of a graphene spacecraft propelled by sunbeams. Instead, one of the biggest projects highlighted on the Manchester Web site is something much humbler – the graphene light bulb. That’s because smaller wins right now are more important than big, out-of-the-box concepts such as the graphene spacecraft. Projects such as the graphene light bulb highlight the commercial viability of graphene, help to build out the graphene ecosystem, and attract more research


The fascinating connection between how much married people make and how likely they are to cheat

Why husbands and wives cheat is one of the most difficult, painful and unanswerable questions of society. But a new study suggests, if not a reason for infidelity, an important piece of context. It turns out, according to the study in this month's issue of the American Sociological Review, that husbands and wives cheat more when their spouses make a lot more money. In other words, husbands and wives are less likely to cheat when they are both contributing equally to the household's earnings. This chart shows the effect at work: To do the study, Christin Munsch, a sociologist at the University of Connecticut, examined data for about 2,800 heterosexual married people under the age of 32 who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a big federal research project, between 2001 and 2011. She found that the less that men and women earned in income compared to their spouses, the more likely they were to cheat. This was especially true of husbands. Men were also more likely to cheat if they made significantly more than their spouses, while women who made a lot more than their husbands were less likely to be unfaithful. People are, of course, different, and the data shouldn't be taken to mean that all marriages work best when both partners are working and for similar wages. In general, though, the couples with the least infidelity were those in which both partners were earning the same amount. The survey didn't ask people directly whether they'd cheated. Munsch was able to infer whether they'd been unfaithful based on how they answered questions about the number of sexual partners they'd had in the past year. On the whole, about nine percent of the wives and 12 percent of the husbands had engaged in extramarital sex. She then compared husbands and wives with varying economic arrangements to other couples who were similar in terms of their race, education, salaries and churchgoing habits. A finding not explained by economics The fact that women and men who make less than their partners are more likely to cheat is counterintuitive. Infidelity frequently results in divorce, so this group is putting their access to their spouses' earnings at risk by straying. But people don't always behave in a way that just seeks to raise their income, and a difference in earnings might lead to resentment, Munsch theorized. "People just don't like inequality


Virginia bets on higher-speed rail by 2025

in the commonwealth’s rail system also would support Amtrak’s vision to transform the Northeast Corridor into a high-speed system by 2040. Many Northeast trains start their route in Virginia. Amtrak’s plan calls for the replacement of its Acela Express fleet, which only rarely reaches top speeds of 150 miles per hour, with new high-speed trains that would cruise at top speeds of 220 miles per hour. Last year, Amtrak put out a request for bids for the purchase of 28 new high-speed trains. Amtrak’s plan for the busy Northeast Corridor — which currently carries about 12 million passengers annually— would make a trip from New York to Washington possible in just 94 minutes, instead of the current three hours. Other regions are undertaking similar projects. California broke ground in January for a massive $68-billion high-speed rail project that will connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. When it’s completed, it will allow passengers to travel between the two cities in less than three hours, at top speeds of more than 200 miles per hour. Illinois lawmakers last week passed a resolution championing a high-speed project that could bring 220-mile-per-hour trains to the state and urging Congress to invest $2.5 billion in high-speed rail. These rail projects however, remain a dream because of their high cost and uncommitted funding sources. The Obama administration’s High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program has made $10.1 billion available to projects across the U.S., so far investing in more than 150 projects to advance high-speed plans. But with no permanent solution in sight to replenish the nation’s dwindling transportation fund, significant progress in high-speed rail appears unlikely anytime soon. Supporters of high-speed rail say it’s time the country make investments in rail infrastructure to stay competitive. Foreign systems where high-speed rail networks have been around for decades continue to make strides in the industry. This spring a high-speed Japanese bullet train reached a top speed of 374 mph. Advocates say that while the bullet trains are a popular mode of travel for long journeys in major foreign cities, in the United States well over 85 percent of all trips are for journeys of less than 250 miles. “Across the globe, high-speed and higher-speed trains are not only an essential mode of transportation in such corridors, but also a significant driver of local development and economic growth,” Anthony R. Coscia, chairman of the Amtrak Board of directors told a


Special Forces officer under investigation by Army called to testify at whistleblower hearing

and Chris Grey, a spokesman with Army CID, declined to comment. Grey has previously disputed that Amerine is being investigated as an act of reprisal. “We reject any notion that Army CID initiates felony criminal investigations for any other purpose than to fairly and impartially investigate credible criminal allegations that have been discovered or brought forward,” Grey said last month. “As a matter of policy, we do not confirm the names of individuals who may or may not be under investigation to protect the integrity of a possible ongoing investigation, as well as the privacy rights of all involved.” Amerine said in his Facebook post that he had raised his concerns to Congress about the FBI’s “failed efforts” to recover Warren Weinstein, an aid worker who was accidentally killed in a U.S. drone strike near the Pakistani border earlier this year, and Caitlan Coleman, an American who was traveling in Afghanistan while pregnant when she was kidnapped in 2012. It is believed that she remains in captivity with her husband and child. Lt. Col. Jason Amerine, sitting at right, is shown here in Afghanistan in 2001, when he led a Special Forces team as a captain. (Photo released by the office of Rep. Duncan Hunter) The case pits the Army against one of the first heroes of the Afghanistan War. Amerine commanded a Special Forces team there in 2001, working alongside former Afghan President Hamid Karzai before he became the interim leader of Kabul’s fledgling government followed the fall of the Taliban. Amerine’s time there ended Dec. 5, 2001, when he was wounded by an American bomb that killed three other Special Forces soldiers in a friendly-fire incident. Hunter’s office has advocated fiercely for Amerine in recent days. In a May 28 letter to Army Secretary John McHugh, Hunter wrote that he was disappointed to hear that Amerine’s planned retirement after 22 years of service has been delayed “due to a baseless and retaliatory investigation.” “For the record, I have personally met with senior officials within the FBI, and I have been provided a clear understanding of where and how the informal complaint against Amerine originated,” Hunter wrote, without elaborating. “Based on this interaction and the information provided, it remains my firm belief that the Army investigation, as it currently stands, is strictly retaliatory and has severely exceeded the appropriate timeframe for reviewing such a complaint.” [Congressman shares Amerine’s plan


Subway is cutting fake colors and flavors. That won’t make it any healthier.

"They're not getting in the way of their core business of selling delicious sandwiches, which people like with tons of cheese and mayonnaise and all this other stuff," Coupland said. "But they get a lot of press from removing these tiny molecules." [What is ‘natural food?’ Even the people who make it aren’t sure.] In Subway's case, will the halo even make a difference? Subway has long advocated its healthful image, but consumer surveys by industry researcher Technomic show American diners think the chain — with its mass-produced meats, microwaves and mayonnaise-blasting guns — has lost its natural touch in the age of local foods, Chipotle and other fast-casual upstarts. Subway's chief marketing officer, Tony Pace, told the Associated Press that simpler ingredients were becoming a "necessary condition" to keep eaters happy, saying, "As their expectations go up, we have to meet those expectations." But even he was doubtful that the change was enough to save their stale sales, which dropped 3 percent last year, falling faster than all of America’s top 25 food chains. It's not the first time Subway has bowed to pressure from those wanting to slash additives that, while hard to pronounce, are approved by federal food experts and found in hundreds of other meals. [What Panera’s new salad dressing teaches us about the American food system] After "Food Babe" blogger Vani Hari petitioned Subway to drop what she called a "yoga mat" chemical, azodicarbonamide, from its bread, the chain relented, even though the additive is a recognized harmless way to add fluffiness, lengthen shelf life and improve texture. (The Food Babe has yet to convert into a Subway booster, saying on Facebook last week, "How much more profit will they have to lose before they jump on this food revolution train?") The chemicals Subway is dropping now are similarly hazard-free. Propionic acid is a common anti-spoilage additive that stops molds from growing and is, in the Food and Drug Administration's words, "generally recognized as safe." Subway is replacing it with vinegar, which is, chemically, nearly identical. "These minor ingredients become a powerful way of signaling to consumers ... who have the view that natural is somehow magical and better," said Coupland, the Penn State professor. "The only real downside is if people think, 'Hey, it’s a natural sandwich, I'm going to have a foot-long instead of a 6-inch sandwich,' and think they're getting something different."


Scientists may have solved 2011’s mysterious marine die-off along the Pacific coast

circulation or pollution drifting down river into the sea. The researchers also examined the effects of the event on a handful of marine organisms by conducting surveys along the California coast and comparing these numbers with pre-die-off population counts. The two most badly affected species were the purple sea urchin and the six-armed sea star. These two organisms were both essentially eradicated from the die-off’s impact zone, which spanned about 100 kilometers (that’s more than 60 miles) of coastline. The scientists note that for the purple sea urchin, there’s never been such a severe mass mortality event over such a large area before. [Calif. declares emergency after oil spill fouls sea and beaches near Santa Barbara] The gumboot chiton and the ochre sea star were two other organisms that were observed in large numbers washed up along the shore during the die-off. But while they obviously experienced an increase in mortality during the event, the researchers’ surveys showed that their populations did not suffer any significant declines overall. For the purple sea urchin and the six-armed sea star, however, recovery from the event could be a long and slow process. The researchers note in the paper that “recolonization is likely to rely heavily on immigration from sources outside the region,” meaning the die-off was so complete that the only real chance for recovery is if urchins and sea stars from other places start migrating into the area. This may be an easier process for the purple sea urchin than for the six-armed sea star. Urchin larvae tend to disperse away from their homes, meaning larvae from other areas might make it into the die-off zone and start to settle there. In fact the purple sea urchin has already slowly begun to show back up in the area. The sea star’s larvae, on the other hand, tend to stick close to the spots where they were born, making immigration less likely. “If someone were to come to this area, they wouldn’t know these six-armed sea stars existed here, even though this has been a main part of their species range,” said lead author Laura Jurgens, a researcher at UC Davis’s Bodega Marine Laboratory, in a statement. This paper doesn’t focus on understanding the cause of the algal bloom. However, the researchers do note that dormant phytoplankton “can persist for years in sediment and may bloom again under favorable conditions,” meaning it


Zoloft as Ebola cure? NIH researchers see promise in drugs already on the market

In February, a man walked past an Ebola campaign banner that read "Ebola must go." In May, the World Health Organization declared Liberia to be free of the Ebola virus, which has killed more than 4,700 people there. (AFP) What if the cure for Ebola were already in your local pharmacy? That's the question that Gene Olinger and his colleagues are trying to answer in a project funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and National Institutes of Health. Working off a list of Food and Drug Administration-approved, "off the shelf" drugs and adding in other common small molecules such as metals, herbs and food additives, the researchers came up with 2,700 promising compounds. They tested each in cell cultures and found that 171 appeared to have some antiviral activity against Ebola. They prioritized the 30 best for additional testing in mice. They infected the animals with Ebola and found that a number of drugs seemed to have a positive effect and that two of them actually stopped the mice from getting sick at all. Seventy percent of the group given the antidepressant Zoloft survived, and 100 percent of the group given the calcium channel blocker Vascor — typically used in heart patients to lower blood pressure — survived. In contrast, all the mice in both control groups, which received no treatment, died within 10 days. "It was quite shocking that some of these drugs worked. To be honest, we didn't think some of these would," Olinger, a scientist under contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview. Using an approved drug to treat a novel disease has many advantages for both practical and scientific reasons. It's easier to create stockpiles of pills or injections if factories are set up to the right standards and there would be less paperwork and other time-consuming bureaucracy to get through. Moreover, there would be less worry about toxic side effects since drugs on the market have already been proved safe for use in humans. Olinger cautioned that there is still a long way to go before we know whether any of the information from the study can be translated into a treatment for humans. A lot of drugs that look miraculous in mice end up doing nothing in humans. The researchers' next step is to test a handful of the drugs in guinea pigs and primates and


Court hearing postponed for Bowe Bergdahl, once-missing U.S. soldier charged with desertion

Article 32 hearing for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier recovered last year in Afghanistan after five years in captivity and subsequently charged with desertion, has been postponed until September, Army officials and Bergdahl’s lawyer said Thursday. The new date for the hearing is Sept. 17. It had been scheduled for July 8 at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Tex., and will still be held there. The proceeding is frequently compared to a grand-jury hearing in civilian court, but is open to the public. [Bowe Bergdahl, once-missing U.S. soldier, charged with desertion] Army officials said that the hearing was postponed at the request of the defense, but declined to elaborate. Bergdahl’s attorney, Eugene Fidell, confirmed that the request was made. He said it was needed to sift through evidence that has been collected, and because his team is still waiting for other information in the case to be released by the Army. “There’s a still a lot of material that we haven’t seen, and we have a pending request for a variety of pieces of evidence and investigative assistance,” Fidell said. Bergdahl, 29, was recovered May 31, 2014, by a U.S. Special Operations team in Afghanistan in a controversial swap in which the United States released five Taliban officials from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Bergdahl was charged March 25 with desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty and misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place. [For first time, Bowe Bergdahl describes publicly his harsh treatment in captivity] If convicted, he faces life in prison. Bergdahl, an infantryman, disappeared from his platoon’s combat outpost in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 30, 2009, and was taken prisoner by insurgents affiliated with the Taliban. The charges against him were authorized by Gen. Mark A. Milley, the commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C. Milley has since been selected to become the next chief of staff of the Army later this year. The Taliban officials — nicknamed the “Taliban 5” — were released by the U.S. government in return for Bergdahl and sent to Qatar. A travel ban for all five was extended recently by the Qatari government, keeping them there. Read more: Bowe Bergdahl, once-missing U.S. soldier, charged with desertion Bergdahl’s writings reveal a fragile young man Qatar to maintain travel ban on Taliban Five


Here’s what our galaxy looks like from the outside

This artist's concept depicts the most up-to-date information about the shape of our own Milky Way galaxy. We live around a star, our sun, located about two-thirds of the way out from the center. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC/Caltech) Figuring out the shape of our galaxy isn't easy when we're stuck two-thirds of the way from its center. But by using the latest mapping techniques, researchers are learning more and more about how the Milky Way might look to an outsider. The above illustration is based on new findings published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Like most estimations of our galaxy made in the past few years, the findings suggest a four-armed spiral. By tracking the star clusters within those arms, astronomers can piece together a picture of the galaxy as a whole. "Spiral arms are like traffic jams in that the gas and stars crowd together and move more slowly in the arms. As material passes through the dense spiral arms, it is compressed and this triggers more star formation," Denilso Camargo, lead author of the paper from the Federal University of Rio Grande, said in a statement. [Only 5 billion years until the Milky Way gets gobbled up] Camargo and his team used NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. WISE uses infrared to cut through the dense gas of the galaxy, allowing researchers to spot far-off star clusters. Because most star clusters are formed within the arms of our galaxy -- and spend awhile there before spreading out -- star cluster location can be used to chart the framework of the galaxy. Researchers are still learning from its data, but WISE isn't actually looking for stars anymore. In 2011, the spacecraft completed its second complete scan of the sky, and thereby its mission objective, and was put into hibernation mode. WISE was turned back on in 2013 (with the snazzy new name NEOWISE) but now it works to help NASA detect hazardous near-Earth objects. More Reading: Here’s what the sky might have looked like when the Milky Way was alive with star birth Most stars in the galaxy have planets in the habitable zone, according to new research Nine new dwarf galaxies full of dark matter found just chilling around the Milky Way


Next Day’s News: Jeb Bush to make presidential announcement on June 15, FDA considers female Viagra, MD Governor Larry Hogan eyes fast Japanese trains and more

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush gestures as he speaks to supporters during fundraiser Monday, May 18, 2015, in Sweetwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) Here’s a look at tomorrow’s top talkers from Washington Post reporters and columnists who know the topics best. POLITICS: - Former Florida governor Jeb Bush will announce if he intends to run for the GOP presidential nomination on June 15 from Miami. (Ed O’Keefe and Jose A. DelReal) - President Obama opened an intense final round of lobbying to win support for his sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal ahead of a crucial vote in the House next week, expressing confidence he will overcome deepening skepticism among fellow Democrats. (David Nakamura and Paul Kane) FIFA INVESTIGATION LATEST: - Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner says he has an “avalanche” of evidence linking FIFA, including President Sepp Blatter, to worldwide soccer corruption and promised to reveal all that he knows about wrongdoing at world soccer’s governing body. (Matt Bonesteel) CHANDRA LEVY TRIAL: - A Washington judge on Thursday granted a new trial to the man convicted of killing federal intern Chandra Levy in 2001, after prosecutors dropped their opposition to a defense request to retry the case. (Spencer S. Hsu) BEAU BIDEN: - Mandy Hitchcock received a letter from Vice-President Joe Biden in which he comforted her for the loss of her 17-month old child. She now wants to return the gesture to him, following the death of his son, Beau Biden. (Mandy Hitchcock) FDA CONSIDERS FEMALE VIAGRA: - An advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration is considering the first-ever “female Viagra” to boost women’s sexual function. Some clinical trial have shown positive results, but there are groups that are concerned about the potentially dangerous side effects. (Brigid Schulte) MARYLAND GOVERNOR EYES FAST JAPANESE TRAINS: - Imagine getting from Baltimore to Washington in 15 minutes. That’s exactly what Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan was doing Thursday when he hurtled through the Japanese countryside at 314 miles per hour. Hogan wants Maryland to get these magnetic levitation, or “maglev,” trains – and Japan wants to sell them. (Anna Fifield)


FDA advisory panel recommends approval of ‘female Viagra’

for several uncomfortable minutes. Some of the women speaking Thursday described the condition as if a switch had gone off, they don’t understand why they no longer want to have sex, and find it distressing. Before a packed hearing room, Sprout Pharmaceuticals, developers of the drug, presented the results of a series of double-blind clinical trials that showed the drug worked better than placebo to boost women’s sexual desire, increased the number of sexually satisfying events and lowered women’s distress at the loss of their libido. After 24 weeks, they said, 46 to 60 percent of the women in the trials had benefited from the flibanserin treatment. But some committee members said, after adjusting the data to take the placebo effect into account, the drug wound up helping only about 10 percent of the women in the trials. More than half the women diagnosed with low sexual desire have turned in desperation to unproven, unregulated and potentially unsafe treatments they read about on the Internet or in magazines, which could pose health risks, the pharmaceutical company presenters said. Some of those testifying were health-care practitioners who said many women have turned to such "snake oil" with dangerous results. Although the FDA approved Viagra for men in 1998, and a host of products since then, the FDA has not okayed any medications for women’s sexual function. The FDA describes this as an “unmet medical need.” Flibanserin, first developed as an anti-depressant, works on neurotransmitters in the brain that afffect sexual desire. In their presentation, FDA medical officers outlined a host of safety concerns about the drug and raised the question of the day: Whether the risks of the side effects outweighed the benefit of the drug. The most common side effects include dizziness, nausea, fainting and sleepiness. Some women had to stop taking the drug because of the side effects, and one reacted so poorly that she had to be hospitalized. FDA officials are concerned about flibanserin’s interaction with other drugs -- particularly with hormonal birth control pills and alcohol -- and the potential for flibanserin to increase accidents, from car accidents to falls and other mishaps. Some committee members were also worried about one two-year cancer study that found an increased risk in breast cancer tumors in mice that were given four times the therapeutic dose of 100 milligrams daily. One advisory panel called the potential link to cancer a


How Wal-Mart is hoping to change grocery shopping

the rest of your order so it is ready just in time for your arrival. “Our focus at this point is to make sure we nail down the customer experience, and soon enough, we’ll start rolling it out to further clubs,” said Eytan Daniyalzade, a leader on Wal-Mart’s mobile innovation team. This new feature makes clear that Wal-Mart is doubling down on its efforts to get customers to rethink the way they shop for groceries, perhaps the most mundane and essential of retail purchases. While shoppers have already moved in droves to buy clothes, electronics and books online, they have stubbornly clung to the old-school way of filling their pantries and refrigerators. In 2014, researchers with IBIS World estimated that online grocery sales were a paltry 1.9 percent of total grocery sales. With the presentations Wednesday and Thursday, it was evident that Wal-Mart’s plan of attack for winning your grocery dollars in the digital era will be to blend the in-store and online experience, to make it easy for shoppers to bounce easily from one channel to the other. [Why Wal-Mart is ditching its Celine Dion soundtrack and getting a DJ] On Thursday, the company showed off its Wal-Mart Pickup-Grocery center, one of five pilot facilities built specifically for customers to collect grocery orders that they placed online. The center is not attached to a traditional Wal-Mart store; it is a standalone location where consumers never have to leave their car to pick up their groceries. After typing their name or order number into a kiosk, they pull into a designated parking spot and Wal-Mart workers put their groceries right in the trunk. While the company will not reveal specific expansion plans, it says the offering is getting high customer satisfaction scores. Wal-Mart Pickup-Grocery facility in Bentonville, Ark. (Sarah Halzack / The Washington Post “It’s a lot of working moms. I get stories all the time about how, ‘yeah, I order online and my husband comes and picks up,” said Ellen Martinez, operations manager. Wal-Mart is still learning exactly what kinds of products customers want to order through this set-up. For example, customers using it for the first time tend to be hesitant about purchasing produce and meats they can’t touch and select themselves. But Kieran Shanahan,vice president of operations for Walmart.com, said that after three uses, customers get comfortable with having these fresh items selected by someone else. Wal-Mart


getting a DJ] On Thursday, the company showed off its Wal-Mart Pickup-Grocery center, one of five pilot facilities built specifically for customers to collect grocery orders that they placed online. The center is not attached to a traditional Wal-Mart store; it is a standalone location where consumers never have to leave their car to pick up their groceries. After typing their name or order number into a kiosk, they pull into a designated parking spot and Wal-Mart workers put their groceries right in the trunk. While the company will not reveal specific expansion plans, it says the offering is getting high customer satisfaction scores. Wal-Mart Pickup-Grocery facility in Bentonville, Ark. (Sarah Halzack / The Washington Post “It’s a lot of working moms. I get stories all the time about how, ‘yeah, I order online and my husband comes and picks up,” said Ellen Martinez, operations manager. Wal-Mart is still learning exactly what kinds of products customers want to order through this set-up. For example, customers using it for the first time tend to be hesitant about purchasing produce and meats they can’t touch and select themselves. But Kieran Shanahan,vice president of operations for Walmart.com, said that after three uses, customers get comfortable with having these fresh items selected by someone else. Wal-Mart is still figuring out exactly how to stock these facilities: While a Wal-Mart supercenter typically has more than 100,000 individual items, these smaller pick-up locations have only “several thousand” items, executives said. In the past month, Wal-Mart said it has also begun testing a version of their pick-up offering that would save shoppers an extra car trip by allowing them to pick up the groceries at their workplace. In this set-up, a truck would be stationed in an office park or other business campus — perhaps for just a few hours a day as workers are headed home, or perhaps all week long if traffic and demand are substantial enough. The trucks would contain orders that shoppers placed online. Wal-Mart will have plenty of competition as it aims to be your go-to destination for groceries. In addition to traditional supermarkets, Wal-Mart’s chief rival, Target, has said it plans to make a new play for your grocery dollars by revamping its stores to feature more fresh and healthy foods. Meanwhile, online giants Google and Amazon are experimenting with grocery delivery services, as are start-ups, such as Postmates and Instacart.


The problem with calling out ‘stolen valor’: What if you’re wrong?

him “as legit as you can get.” [Carolina Panthers running back might have given his seat to a fake Marine] Sterner is seeing this type of thing happen more and more, he told The Washington Post — guys trying to bust phonies. “There is a vigilante mentality right now in a lot of these veterans circles which is leading to — I just call it what it is,” Sterner said, before calling it bullying. [Pentagon review of how troops get recognized for heroism in final phases] “I would never recommend confronting,” said Sterner, who has only taken that step once in the all the cases he has looked into. Even then, he said, he questioned himself afterward. If you’re looking for an example of what could go wrong, look at the case of Lindsay Lowery, who in January sparked controversy with a Facebook picture that showed her in an Army uniform. Denver alt-weekly Westword Posts and personal messages to Lowery asked how she could have been in an infantry unit, which in the United States military is traditionally all male. “You can do one of two things. Prove that you held an Infantry command — which you never [expletive] did, or remove your post,” one message read. “Otherwise, you’re going to have a real bad time. Embellishing is just as bad as stolen valor. And don’t think for a second that we can’t FOIA your records. Liar.” A few hours later, the same person posted: “As a matter of fact, never mind. I’ll just have fun exposing your lying [expletive].” Lowery, a stay-at-home mother in Castle Rock who writes for the Web site Mad World News, had posted the photo on a public page where she uses her pen name, Prissy Holly. Still, her story was real — and she had the documents to prove it, she said. She explained to her accusers that she had been assigned to an infantry unit as a platoon leader, and that the unit had been in charge of a jail and so did not serve in a combat role. After that, she remembers, “hell was officially released.” (The Post has edited the profanity out of this excerpt. It isn’t censored in Westword.) [One man’s database helps uncover cases of falsified valor] These incidents keep happening for a few reasons, Sterner said. In 2012, the Supreme Court struck down the Stolen Valor Act, which


Rabies warning issued in Fairfax County

Health officials are reminding residents to be careful of animals like raccoons that may carry rabies. (Courtesy of Fairfax County) Officials in Fairfax County said they are issuing a warning of rabies after a dog was bitten by a rabid fox last week. The incident happened in the 4400 block of Upland Drive in the Rose Hill area. The dog that was bitten had been vaccinated, and animal control officers said there were “no other known exposures to the fox.” Still, officers were handing out rabies information pamphlets to area residents. This year, there have been 20 positive rabies cases in the county, compared with 50 in 2014. Rabies is transmitted through the bite of a rapid animal, animal control officers said. Most rabies cases occur in wild animals such as bats, foxes, raccoons and skunks. For more information on rabies, see the Fairfax County government Web site.


It’s Savor Week. Here’s where to drink rare beers this weekend.

six Victory beers, including the Kirsch Gose and the rare Moving Parts #4: White IPA, cost $6 from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. Savor ends at 11 p.m., but nobody wants the party to stop that early. Instead, there are a pair of after-parties, which are open to all. The Late-Night Brunch at City Tap House features a full breakfast menu and Ithaca beers from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Flying Dog sponsors the Industry After Party at Lost and Found, beginning at 11, with seven Flying Dog beers on tap, including the new Sriracha Pale Ale. Saturday, June 6 Speaking of lines, there was a queue down the block to get in to ChurchKey on Wednesday for the the D.C. debut of Asheville, N.C.'s Wicked Weed, and a number of beers kicked before 7 p.m. That's your hint to arrive early at City Tap House, where Wicked Weed is hosting a tap takeover with the ever-popular New Belgium from 7 p.m. to close. This will double as a post-Savor party venue on Saturday night. We regularly see Baltimore beers in these parts, but the Black Squirrel is taking it to another level on Saturday. Savor Charm City finds four beers each from Brewer's Art, Oliver and Union at the Adams Morgan bar, plus John Waters movies on the TVs and soft shell crab sandwiches on the menu. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. Finally, Pizzeria Paradiso once again defends our city's good name from that copycat state in the Pacific Northwest. Washington vs. Washington at the Georgetown beer bar features a throwdown between DC Brau, 3 Stars and Atlas Brew Works and Elysian, No-Li and Urban Family Brewing. We're pretty confident the home team will come out on top. Sunday, June 7 The fifth annual All 'Ale the Ladies happy hour is a networking event for women who make and love beer. Hosted by Black Squirrel owner Amy Bowman and City Paper beer writer Tammy Tuck, the guests include Capitol City brewer Kristi Mathews Griner, Devils Backbone brewer April Anderson, Denizens co-founder Taylor Barnes and D.C. Brewers Guild executive director Kathy Rizzo. (The Web site has a list of all featured guests.) The event is free, and RSVPs are appreciated. Hors d'oeuvres and a beer selected by each of the 11 guests will be served. It's worth pointing out that while this event is targeted at women, anyone is welcome.


Pentagon review of how troops get recognized for combat heroism in final phases

President Barack Obama awards the Medal of Honor to Army Staff Sgt. Ryan M. Pitts on July 21, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) More than two years ago, then-Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced the creation of the Distinguished Warfare Medal, a new military decoration that would honor service members flying drones in combat. Controversially, the new award would have been ranked higher than the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with “V,” both awards earned in the throes of combat. The plan was eventually scrapped by Panetta’s successor, Chuck Hagel, who called for a broad review to assess how well the military honors valor on the battlefield. That effort is now in its final phases, with current Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter expected to receive recommendations soon. [Obama awards more Medals of Honor than Bush — but it takes longer, too] “We anticipate the department will make announcements of the results of the review later this summer,” said Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen, a Pentagon spokesman. The year-long review is expected to assess if the awards program provides equal recognition for different troops who perform similar acts of valor, determine whether it motivates others to perform heroically, and again take on the issue of how drone operators and others who influence the battlefield from afar should be recognized. It also will review how the awards process has changed since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began and look for ways to improve it, Christensen said. [6 modern troops whose extreme heroism didn’t get the Medal of Honor] The review came after years of criticism in the military that the services do not always appropriately award service members for their heroism. As noted in this Washington Post story last July, that often manifests itself in frustration about the relatively small number of Medals of Honor that have been awarded to modern veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. To date, 16 veterans of modern conflicts have received the nation’s highest award for valor. President George W. Bush awarded five, all posthumously, while President Obama has awarded 11. By comparison, hundreds each were awarded for actions during World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The number of recent awards ceremonies for veterans whose heroism went overlooked or undervalued in previous conflicts for decades also has raised questions whether more modern cases might need attention and review. In the


Maryland Gov. Hogan is entranced by Maglev

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (Patrick Semansky/Associated Press) Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) campaigned on cutting costs. Since taking office, however, he’s expressed interest in throwing big money at numerous transportation programs — just not the transit lines that actually work and that businesses and residents want. His latest big spending idea: A $10 billion magnetic levitation train, or “maglev,” between the District and Baltimore. Hogan is in Japan right now on a trade mission, and according to WAMU’s Martin di Caro, has agreed to work with Japan and seek federal funds for a study of what it would take to build a maglev line here at home. The Federal Railroad Administration has $27.8 million available for a maglev study, but Maryland is the only state interested in the money. Japan is offering $5 billion in loans to help make the line happen, but that money would have to be paid back. The maglev line could run more than 300 miles per hour and, di Caro reports, possibly go from the District to Baltimore in 15 minutes (though time estimates for transportation facilities often are rosy before the gritty details come in). However, to run that fast, the tracks would have to be very straight. There’s no place to put very straight tracks right through the mostly suburban area in between; instead, maglev supporters expect the line to be mostly in a tunnel. According to contributor and maglev supporter Peter Dovak, Japan’s maglev (which is different from its well-known “Shinkansen” high-speed trains) will run in a tunnel for 85 percent of its length. That makes it very expensive. [Continue reading David Alpert’s post at Greater Greater Washington.] David Alpert is founder and editor of Greater Greater Washington. The Local Blog Network is a group of bloggers from around the D.C. region who have agreed to make regular contributions to All Opinions Are Local.


Main Street Morning: Detroit looks to lure start-ups

A man walks past graffiti in Detroit, Michigan, December 3, 2013. Detroit is eligible for the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history because the city is broke and negotiations with its thousands of creditors were unfeasible, a federal judge said on Tuesday in a wide-ranging ruling that also said the city could cut retiree pensions. REUTERS/Joshua Lott (UNITED STATES – Tags: BUSINESS) Welcome to Main Street Morning, The Washington Post’s daily collection of news affecting entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses with a special focus on policy and government. Here’s what’s affecting my small business my clients and other entrepreneurs today. Washington - The White House says Medicaid expansion would save billions of dollars. - A Pew poll finds that more than 72 percent of Americans believe illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay. The Elections - Rick Perry is running for president for a second time. - How the presidential election could change the retirement age. - Ted Cruz mocks Joe Biden, then apologizes. - Why Rick Santorum doesn’t want Pope Francis talking about climate change. The Economy - The International Monetary Fund asks the Federal Reserve to hold off raising interest rates until 2016. - Business executives are now taking a dimmer view of the U.S. economy, according to a survey from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. - The sharing economy has created 17 billion-dollar companies (and 10 unicorns). - Here’s the real bubble we should be worrying about. People - Bullies couldn’t stop this 8-year-old from growing his hair to donate to cancer patients. - In a first for digital media, the staff at Gawker say “yes” to unionizing. - Disney lays off 250 employees and replaces them with Indian H1-B workers. Cash Flow - Some advice on what you should be doing now to prepare for next tax season. - Popular payment service Dwolla is eliminating transaction fees. People - Let us not forget the underappreciated artistry of the professional bra fitter. Management - How to embrace the work tasks you hate. - This is the secret to hitting a home run in the hospitality franchise business. - The seven books Bill Gates wants you to read this summer. - Are you ready for National Business Etiquette Week next week? Entrepreneurs - These entrepreneurs are breaking down sex barriers – right alongside their parents. - Why this entrepreneur is happily working seven days a week.


Retail - Thirteen reasons Stew Leonard’s is actually the best grocery store in America. - April figures show that the retail industry is at zero growth. Restaurants - Subway is the latest food chain to pull artificial ingredients from its menu. Sales and Marketing - How marketers can seize the mobile moment. - In a new advertising campaign, FedEx says it can help your micro-business (no matter how patently ridiculous it is). - Verizon is giving socially transformative entrepreneurs a chance at a million dollar opportunity of a lifetime. Start-ups - The number of new businesses each year has decreased by 44.7 percent compared to before the recession. - Detroit hopes to lure tech start-ups away from Silicon Valley. - Business is blossoming for New York City’s first florist on wheels. - How to avoid failure if you want to start a business in New Jersey. - A financial expert wonders if start-up accelerators are dead. Technology - Robots could soon be packing groceries for Walmart and crafting your next cocktail at happy hour. - The Apple Watch will finally arrive in stores on June 26. - These college dropouts have thrived in the tech industry. Online - Airbnb is now offering up pricing tips for its hosts. - Yahoo will be shutting down its Maps service. - We are rapidly approaching a critical moment for the future of the Internet. Social Media - Twitter just made it easier to find strangers’ videos on Periscope. Opportunities - A conference dedicated to the designer and developer community who work with wearable tech, 3D printing, and the Internet of Things, announces a call for abstracts for its December 2015 conference. - The hot dogs and sausages market is expected to reach $80 billion by 2021. - The shunt reactor market is predicted to be worth almost $3 billion by 2019. Ideas - Ten Father’s Day gifts for the business owner. Around the Country - The two casts of “Alladin” and “The Lion King” get stuck in a New York City airport together…so hey, why not sing? - Ohio’s reaches an $11.5 million settlement with two rock salt producers who officials say conspired to drive up salt prices paid by the state and its local governments. - Local restaurants in Minnesota push to freeze wages for their tipped employees. - In an example of how hot the real estate market is in Portland,


One family pays a heavy price for demanding democracy in Bahrain

family has become a potent emblem of Bahrain’s upheaval. Zainab al-Khawaja’s father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, 54, is serving his life sentence on charges including “terrorism” and “attempting to overthrow the government.” The charges stem from role as a leader of the largely peaceful pro-democracy uprising in February and March 2011, which was crushed when King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa called on his Sunni allies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to send in soldiers. Bahrain's King Hamed bin Isa al-Khalifa, accompanied by his son, Prince Khalid bin Hamad al-Khalifa, right, greets visitors at a palace ceremony in March 2012. in Sakhir, Bahrain. (Hasan Jamali/AP) An independent inquiry also found Bahraini authorities guilty of widespread torture of detained protesters, many of whom were doctors, nurses and other professionals. In the middle of the protests, Bahraini police raided Khawaja’s home and arrested him, beating him so severely that he required surgery and metal plates to put his face back together, according to human rights activists who have monitored his case. His family and rights groups say he has been tortured and abused regularly in prison since then. He has staged hunger strikes and become one of the most high-profile prisoners. “These sentences are a joke,” said Zainab al-Khawaja’s sister, Maryam al-Khawaja, 27, who has been living in exile in Denmark for years and has become a well-known international advocate for democracy and human rights in Bahrain. “We don’t have a dysfunctional justice system, we have a highly functional injustice system,” said Maryam al-Khawaja, who spent a year at Brown University on a Fulbright scholarship and has testified in the U.S. Congress about Bahrain’s rights record. Maryam al-Khawaja said she returned to Bahrain last summer, despite fears that she might be arrested, because she was worried about the health of her father, who was on a hunger strike in prison. She said she was arrested at the airport and charged with assaulting police officers — although she said the officers actually assaulted her. She spent the next three weeks in prison. She said she went on hunger strike, demanding to be allowed to see her father. After four days without eating, she was granted a visit. She said her father was frail, emaciated and could barely walk or talk. She was allowed to leave Bahrain, but convicted in absentia of assault and sentenced to a year in prison. She said if she


Europe’s innovation deficit isn’t disappearing any time soon

law, limiting hours, guaranteeing vacation, constraining employers from laying off workers even when market demand changes. France recently considered outlawing work emails after normal work hours. That tightly and often inconsistently regulated economy, however, comes at a high cost to innovators. As Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro recently noted, Europe has plenty of innovative ideas and entrepreneurial companies. What they don’t have, he says, is the “right atmosphere to grow and prosper.” In addition to restrictive labor laws and a revenue model that “strenuously taxes those who are successful,” entrepreneurs face systemic problems when forming new companies, collaborating with academic institutions, or gaining easy access to early-stage capital. As a result, the EU has yet to produce a multi-billion, game-changing, Big Bang Disruptor. Only a few European Internet companies, such as Skype, Spotify, have even made it into the major leagues. According to the last week’s annual report on Internet trends from Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker, the fifteen most valuable Internet companies today have a combined market value of nearly $2.5 trillion. None of them are European. Eleven are from the U.S.; the other four are Chinese companies. Even more telling is the fact that every one of these companies, with the exception of Apple, was founded after 1995, well after European governments began making enormous investments in the kind of engineering and entrepreneurial environment that has driven the IT revolution in the United States and Asia. Another major obstacle for Europe’s innovators, Shapiro says, is a culture that resists “game-changing business models.” While disruptive start-ups in the sharing economy, for example, have faced plenty of regulatory backlash in the United States, the problem is even more acute in the EU’s 28 member states. Uber and Lyft, for example, continue to face existential threats in much of Europe, with France and Italy recently passing laws that restrict or ban ride-sharing services in an effort to protect “traditional” taxicabs. Though attendees at the Summit were loath to acknowledge it, Europe’s digital decline is accelerating. Earlier this week, researchers at Tufts University published findings from their Digital Evolution Index, comparing countries on their “readiness for a digital economy.” (Courtesy Bhaskar Chakravorti) While many EU countries rank high on overall digital capacity, their momentum has slowed, or worse. Most of the EU now ranks as “rapidly receding” or “slowly receding.” Ireland and Estonia are “slowing advancing.” But not one member nation