One home, a lifetime of impact

income levels.” Black buyers are more likely to be denied a mortgage loan approval than whites, which adds another major obstacle to closing the homeownership gap. According to a recent study from LendingTree, black home buyers are denied mortgages 12.64 percent of the time; the overall mortgage denial rate is 6.15 percent. It’s not just buyers who face a more difficult time getting a loan approval: LendingTree found that black homeowners were denied mortgage refinance loans 30.22 percent of the time, while the overall denial rate is 17.07 percent. “Access to credit is a major problem,” says Jung Hyun Choi, a researcher with the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute in Washington. “Due to tight credit following the Great Recession, many black households could not buy homes. Home prices have increased a lot since 2012, which means that many black households lost opportunities to build wealth.” The FICO credit score system is structured to favor people who use credit, such as credit cards and car loans, but blacks and Hispanics tend to use less credit, says Christensen. She recommends increasing access to credit by relying on rent payment history for people who don’t use credit cards. “It’s hard to close the race gap in homeownership when everything is stacked against blacks,” says Bryan Greene, fair housing policy director for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). “It’s myopic to look at immediate qualification standards and ignore that people are trying to overcome a century-old legacy of official disadvantage in housing and, on top of that, social dynamics and a lack of political will to fix this.” The pay gap between whites and blacks is part of the problem, says Williams. “Systemic racism leads to lower rates of education and lower incomes among blacks, which in turn lead to lower credit scores and a lack of savings,” says Chris Herbert, managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. “That accounts for about three-quarters of the homeownership gap, but one-fourth couldn’t be directly explained by lower incomes and lower rates of education.” An Urban Institute report found that because of knowledge transfer and down payment assistance from relatives, white young adults whose parents own a home are more likely to become homeowners. For those under age 35, a white high school dropout whose parents are homeowners is more likely to buy a home than


Athletes have the power to help America get it right, and they’re using it

Until this week, 2020 was the year sports seemed to matter least. Now it may become the year sports matter most. Not for games that were played but for those that weren’t — and that continue to be scrubbed as players across all major leagues show solidarity with social justice protesters in Wisconsin. The NBA postponed its three playoff games Wednesday and did the same Thursday, though it intends to resume its postseason at some point. The NHL postponed its playoff games scheduled for Thursday and Friday. MLB went team by team — perhaps reflecting the divisions and difficulty in reaching consensus. But with three games postponed Wednesday and seven more postponed Thursday, more than half of the sport’s 30 teams joined in the national sports protest. Washington Nationals Manager Dave Martinez was emotional Wednesday after his team’s game, saying, “Proud of the NBA and all the people who stand for justice. You know the way I feel about all this stuff. It’s horrible. We need change. We’re people.” By Thursday afternoon, the Philadelphia Phillies and Nationals, both unanimously, decided to postpone their game. “This is a humanitarian issue. It’s time to speak up,” Martinez said. “Tomorrow is Jackie Robinson Day. Jackie will be playing tomorrow.” The Phillies’ Rhys Hoskins spoke for his team, noting that the New York Mets’ Dominic Smith had broken down in sobs the previous night discussing the pervasive fear among Black people that they or their families could suffer from police brutality. “He’s a strong Black man,” said Hoskins, who is White. “If that didn’t hit you differently, well, it should hit you differently. … We’ve had team conversations this year, and things have come up that I never knew about. As a White person, we need to listen.” Of the bonding through difficult conversations this year in MLB, where some clubhouses are divided internally, the Nationals’ Josh Harrison said: “Remember the movie ’42.’ Pee Wee Reese [a Southern White player] stood up for [Robinson] when times were tough.” For decades, sports was a field of quiet crickets when it came to social consciousness. Until this week, the United States had never seen multiple games in several sports postponed simultaneously because athletes refused to play to call attention to injustice. Underscoring their anger, these postponements came during the Republican National Convention. “What stands out to me, watching the Republican convention: They’re spewing this fear. …


In music, imprisoned Jews found comfort, dignity and sometimes a lifeline

to the gas chamber. Rosé believed in her musical mission as a means to save lives. The Polish-Jewish composer and conductor Syzmon Laks viewed his role as head of the all-prisoner Birkenau Men’s Orchestra as just another Nazi manipulation. He also succeeded in gaining privileges for his musicians and in prolonging their lives, as well as saving his own, but he said those successes came at the insidious cost of persistent guilt, complicity and shame. It was precisely to avoid moral compromise that composer and conductor Herbert Zipper (1904-1997) contrived a scheme to bring music to his fellow inmates untainted by Nazi involvement. Imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp in 1938, he used his job of lugging cement as cover to scavenge for discarded wood, metal and wire. From these remnants prisoners assigned to the woodworking shop clandestinely built makeshift instruments that were then shared by the 14 members of the prisoner music ensemble Zipper formed. Every Sunday afternoon, they would gather in secret in an unused latrine to rehearse; they would spend the next three hours playing a consecutive series of 15-minute concerts for 20 to 30 inmates at a time. Beyond providing entertainment and distraction, the performances restored to the listeners a measure of dignity and self-worth. Such was also the case for many artists and musicians imprisoned at the hybrid ghetto and concentration camp of Terezin (or Theresienstadt). The Nazis promoted it as a model town for Jewish resettlement, a place where creative pursuits were supported and encouraged; in reality, Terezin was part of a propaganda campaign to deceive the Red Cross and other humanitarian visitors about the regime’s ongoing extermination of the Jews. Many of the exploited musicians, writers and artists imprisoned at Terezin were sent to Auschwitz and gassed; but they managed to document the daily horrors of their lives in numerous drawings, literary sketches and musical compositions that they hid in affirmation of art’s ability to bear witness, even if they did not live to do it themselves. In all these ways, they tuned their music to their inner needs, to sustain and nurture themselves, day by day. Today, during the pandemic, our own creative persistence honors the resilience and determination of those who came before us. Our common denominator is music. Music as Solace, Resistance and Salvation During the Holocaust and World War II By Kellie D. Brown McFarland. 310 pp. $45, paperback


The Health 202: Trump gave his pandemic pitch to voters at the White House

added that the focus was on those who developed symptoms. “Texas and Louisiana were already struggling to contain the spread of the coronavirus when Hurricane Laura hit on Wednesday night, and now some experts are warning mass evacuations could be responsible for a new wave of infections,” NPR reports. More than half a million people were ordered to evacuate before the storm hit. Officials housed people in hotel rooms or urged them to sleep in their cars, only using larger shelters as a last resort to avoid the spread of the virus. But even with these precautions, health officials worry that displacement from the pandemic could spark new outbreaks. A recent study from Columbia University, which is still under peer review, found that a hurricane evacuation could spark thousands of new virus cases. “Mental-health experts worry the psychological toll from these increasingly common cataclysms — with a pandemic now overlaid on top — could be unprecedented,” Public Integrity’s Jamie Smith Hopkins and CJI’s Dean Russell report. In a survey of hundreds of people who been affected by hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, Hopkins and Russell found that many had flashbacks and lingering anxiety. Another recent study from Columbia University found that more than half of Houston-area residents have struggled with emotional distress in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which hit the city in 2017 FEMA’s Crisis Counseling Program, however, only reaches a small fraction of survivors, and the funds only last for a year after the disaster, even though psychological effects often last much longer. The Trump administration has defended the practice as necessary during the pandemic. “Most children who cross the border without permission are supposed to go to Health and Human Services shelters that are licensed by states, offer schooling and legal services, and eventually place children with family sponsors,” the Associated Press’s Nomaan Merchant and Evens Sanon report. “Instead, the Trump administration is holding children in hotels or Border Patrol facilities for days, sometimes weeks, before expelling them.” Authorities detained 577 unaccompanied children, some as young as age one, in hotels through the end up July, up from 240 in April, May and June. Keeping kids in hotels violates anti-trafficking laws and a court settlement meant to protect migrant children. The AP also found that some contractors in hotel were skirting public health guidance. Several immigrants told the news service that government contractors instructed them to place ice


Public Integrity’s Jamie Smith Hopkins and CJI’s Dean Russell report. In a survey of hundreds of people who been affected by hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, Hopkins and Russell found that many had flashbacks and lingering anxiety. Another recent study from Columbia University found that more than half of Houston-area residents have struggled with emotional distress in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which hit the city in 2017 FEMA’s Crisis Counseling Program, however, only reaches a small fraction of survivors, and the funds only last for a year after the disaster, even though psychological effects often last much longer. The Trump administration has defended the practice as necessary during the pandemic. “Most children who cross the border without permission are supposed to go to Health and Human Services shelters that are licensed by states, offer schooling and legal services, and eventually place children with family sponsors,” the Associated Press’s Nomaan Merchant and Evens Sanon report. “Instead, the Trump administration is holding children in hotels or Border Patrol facilities for days, sometimes weeks, before expelling them.” Authorities detained 577 unaccompanied children, some as young as age one, in hotels through the end up July, up from 240 in April, May and June. Keeping kids in hotels violates anti-trafficking laws and a court settlement meant to protect migrant children. The AP also found that some contractors in hotel were skirting public health guidance. Several immigrants told the news service that government contractors instructed them to place ice under their tongues to pass a temperature check before a deportation flight. “Moderna and Pfizer, the companies leading the U.S. race for a coronavirus vaccine, disclosed this week they have enrolled more than half the people needed for the 30,000-person trials that represent the final phase of testing. But only about a fifth of participants are from Black and Hispanic communities, which have been hit hardest by the virus — lagging what several experts said should be the bare minimum of diversity,” Carolyn Y. Johnson reports. Creating a vaccine trial that reflects the U.S. population may be critical in ensuring it's widely accepted and works for everyone. “Given that Covid-19 has disproportionately caused severe illness and deaths among Hispanic, African American, and Native American populations in the U.S., it’s of critical importance that vaccine trials adequately reflect this reality,” Peter Hotez, dean of the School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told The Post.


Three things to know about military endorsements for the 2020 campaign

public’s perception of the military itself — here’s how. First, endorsements could reduce public confidence in the military as an institution. Experimental research conducted in 2018 by Michael Robinson found that the public significantly downgrades their estimation of retired officers who engage in endorsements or punditry for partisan candidates, believing both individual endorsers on the other side of the partisan spectrum and the military institution to be less trustworthy or qualified. A second challenge is that active-duty troops may follow the example set by the highly visible endorsements of retired senior officers and participate in politics more actively, further altering perceptions of the military as nonpartisan. Heidi Urben found this to be the case in her 2017 study of military social media use. In her survey of military elites, nearly 44.5 percent reported military members discussing politics on social media — and more than 78 percent either liking, retweeting or posting about political topics. A third point is that retired military endorsements during the 2020 campaign season enter a highly politicized environment, making such endorsement more contentious than during previous elections. While public confidence in the military is often high in the aggregate, it is deeply split along partisan lines. A YouGov/Economist poll in June, in the wake of the deployment of active-duty troops to Washington, D.C., during the George Floyd protests, revealed one of the widest partisan gaps in years between Democrats and Republicans (24 percentage points) on whether respondents had a “great deal” or “some” military confidence. This polarized environment may make retired military endorsements more likely to politicize the institution, yet retired military endorsements appear to be here to stay. Although research suggests that this advocacy may lower public confidence in the military on its own, these retiree endorsements come during a week where even active rank-and-file service members found themselves drawn into controversy for both the Democratic and Republican conventions. Professors: Don’t miss TMC’s expanding list of classroom topic guides. Zachary E. Griffiths (@z_e_griffiths) is an Army officer and former assistant professor of American politics at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He earned his MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2017. Michael A. Robinson The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the U.S. Military Academy, the Department of Defense or any part of the U.S. government.


Our Black family disrupted the barriers to equal access

Rahman A. Culver is an educational equity advocate who has taught in both the Prince George’s and Montgomery County Public Schools systems. Halima Aziza is a former educator and local freelancer. As schools prepare for an unprecedented school year, we now ask ourselves: How should our country seize this moment of profound cultural change to more equitably reform our nation’s approach to education? As educators and Black alumni of the prestigious Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet Program at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, we intimately understand the intersection of race and privilege. Spots in this highly coveted, highly selective program are limited to roughly 100 incoming ninth-graders from across Montgomery County. Although Silver Spring is among the more diverse communities in the nation, Montgomery Blair has come under increased scrutiny for its role in contributing to the structural barriers that restrict opportunities for students of color, resulting in paltry numbers of Black students — such as its fellow STEM specialty program at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria. In 2015, the Montgomery Blair magnet enrollment included less than 5 percent Black and less than 5 percent Latinx students. Following overwhelming White flight in the 1970s, some schools in the Silver Spring area reached a Black student enrollment rate that exceeded 70 percent. Montgomery County designed the Blair magnet program explicitly to motivate “voluntary integration” of White families to return to the school in 1985. By the 1990s, the structure and demographics of the program made it abundantly clear that the program was not designed for us; the sense of alienation was overwhelming. Another circumstance more tangibly affected us: a disparity in social capital and financial resources. Computer science classes, which focused heavily on coding, exposed a technological divide. In the early- to mid-1990s, most homes still lacked a desktop computer; those that did typically owned an IBM-compatible model with word processing and basic software. By the time we graduated high school in 1996, only about 18 percent of Black households owned a computer, as compared with 36 percent for White homes and 49 percent for Asians. Those of us who did not have access to a Mac outfitted with the same computer programming applications used in class faced enormous pressure to complete all of our work during the class period or at lunch, which often meant not eating. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed


Maryland’s nursing homes shouldn’t have been caught unprepared for the coronavirus

The Aug. 27 Metro article “3 Md. nursing homes fined” reported on fines levied against Montgomery County nursing homes. It is a tragedy. The article stated that half of the novel coronavirus deaths in the state and 15,000 infections were found in nursing home residents and staff. Maryland and our country were warned of this pandemic spreading in nursing homes in Washington state last winter. I question whether our state officials provided sufficient staff and other resources to nursing homes early on. Terrible result. Eugene Cassel Read more letters to the editor.


Five myths about manufacturing

a completely automated factory run by the Japanese company FANUC as a harbinger of the future — and said American workers needed new protections. But a survey of more than 100 leading U.S. manufacturers by AT Kearney and Drishti Technologies found that human beings “still perform 72 percent of manufacturing tasks” and produce three times the value that machines do. Full automation is often too risky, too inflexible or too expensive to be feasible. This was confirmed in a recent survey of 221 large manufacturers by Gartner, a research and advisory firm. Looking ahead to 2025, fully 79 percent “see their manufacturing operations as being composed of human driven, manual processes augmented with digital ones,” it said. Companies are learning what Tesla’s Elon Musk discovered: In 2018, after reversing course and replacing robots with humans at his Fremont, Calif., factory, Musk tweeted that “excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake … Humans are underrated.” Even with rapid advances in technology, we are unlikely to see many fully automated factories for years to come. Myth No. 4 “China is the world’s factory, more than ever,” the Economist declared in June, while Investopedia suggests that “China has become known as ‘the world’s factory’ because of its strong business ecosystem, lack of regulatory compliance [and] low taxes.” According to the World Bank, China’s $3.9 trillion in manufacturing output in 2019 surpassed that of any other country. But if you correct for its immense population, China looks far less dominant. Per capita, the United States produced 2.4 times the value of manufactured goods: $6,564 per person vs. China’s $2,710. Japan produces three times more per capita, Germany 3.3 times more and Switzerland a whopping 5.6 times more. Is China perhaps exporting more of what it produces, thereby earning the “world’s factory” nickname? In 2019, China exported $2.3 trillion worth of manufactured goods, which is 60 percent of its $3.9 trillion in manufacturing output; that’s about the same percentage the United States (in 2018) and Japan (in 2019) — and less than Germany, South Korea and many other large manufacturing countries. These nations are holding their own when it comes to supplying the world. Myth No. 5 A survey by EY, a consultancy, declares that “vastly more companies are using [3-D printing] technology — and that manufacturing will never be the same again.” Even back in 2013, Harvard Business Review was proclaiming that “3-D Printing


Several NFL teams cancel practices as part of protest over Jacob Blake shooting

Several NFL teams canceled their practices Thursday to participate in the protest taking place across professional sports over Sunday’s shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wis. The Indianapolis Colts, Green Bay Packers, New York Jets, Chicago Bears, Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos and Arizona Cardinals were among the teams to cancel or postpone practices Thursday. The Los Angeles Chargers canceled a scheduled scrimmage at SoFi Stadium. The Washington Football Team already had postponed a scrimmage scheduled for Thursday at FedEx Field. The Detroit Lions began the NFL’s movement by canceling their practice Tuesday. The NFL’s reaction also included emotional comments made by Troy Vincent, the league’s executive vice president of football operations, during a radio interview. Vincent began by saying he was “proud” of the reaction he saw Wednesday from professional athletes to protest the shooting of Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot multiple times as he entered his car with his children inside. “This [expletive], it’s got to end,” Vincent said while speaking to former NFL player Keyshawn Johnson on ESPN Radio. “But I’m so proud of these young boys, these young men and women. They did things that I didn’t think about doing. I always fought for the community but during my time, we thought we had a handle on it and obviously we didn’t. But when I saw Doc Rivers and LeBron [James] and George Hill, I think about my three boys.” Johnson told Vincent to gather himself at one point, and Vincent could be heard sobbing. “I’m sitting up here every day having a conversation about contact-tracing and how we’re going to play ball,” Vincent said. “And I’ve got a 22-year-old and a 20-year-old and a 15-year-old that I’m trying to prevent from being hunted, and their teachable moment and I’m trusting my Lord, trusting Him. I’m just — I’m proud of what the guys and the women are doing. As we would say, a unified people always defeat unified money. And I’m just proud. I’m proud.” The league and players’ union issued a joint written statement in which they called the NFL community “united more than ever to support one another in these challenging times.” They also said: “While our passions continue to run high, we are proud that our players and clubs, League and Union, are taking time to have the difficult conversations about these issues that affect the Black community


Most sports leagues pause with second day of protests, some more unified than others

flirtation with an abrupt end to the bubble, life returned to some semblance of normal Thursday, with Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard puttering around on a golf cart and Toronto Raptors Coach Nick Nurse going for an afternoon jog. Had the players chosen not to resume play, it probably would have plunged the NBA and the NBPA into a labor dispute. The two sides have yet to reach an agreement for the terms of next season, and it’s possible that a shutdown of this summer’s restart could have triggered a lockout, given the billions of lost revenue caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. The NFL may soon confront the possibility of players’ strikes. Nine NFL teams did not practice Thursday, with coaches uniformly supporting players and in some cases making the choice to cancel workouts. Some players insisted they have not ruled out sitting out games once the season begins in September. “I can’t really just go and speak on behalf of the whole league, but for us, that is something that we’re going to talk about within our groups, within our team,” New York Giants star running back Saquon Barkley said. “What’s talked about in players’ meetings stays in players’ meetings.” On Thursday evening, the NFL and the NFL Players Association released a joint statement proclaiming unity. “The NFL community is united more than ever to support one another in these challenging times,” the statement read. “We share anger and frustration, most recently as a result of the shooting of Jacob Blake. While our passions continue to run high, we are proud that our players and clubs, League and Union, are taking time to have the difficult conversations about these issues that affect the Black community and other communities of color in America. We are especially encouraged that these conversations are about how we can come together to make the necessary and long overdue changes in our country.” MLB again played a partial schedule, with some teams playing and others — including the Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies — opting not to. Seven games were postponed while the rest of MLB played on, a contrast to the wholesale stoppage of the NHL, NBA and WNBA. On Wednesday night, three games were postponed, starting with the Brewers, whose players said they had been inspired by the Bucks. St. Louis Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty decried MLB’s lack of uniformity. “Why


NHL postpones Thursday and Friday playoff games, one day after it played on amid protests

The NHL has postponed its Stanley Cup playoff games scheduled for Thursday and Friday, one day after it played on amid a widespread protest effort as pro athletes in other North American leagues refused to play in unprecedented numbers to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake. The NHL drew criticism for not joining the NBA, WNBA, MLS and some MLB teams in the protests on Wednesday, before the player-led Hockey Diversity Alliance requested the league suspend games Thursday. The decision to postpone was announced in a joint statement from the NHL and NHLPA, which noted that the league supported the players’ decision to not play. “We are obviously united and support the stand other major leagues did,” Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara said after the decision was announced. “Obviously, we thought this was the right thing to do, to take a stand.” Said Colorado center Nazem Kadri: “Morally and ethically this is the right thing to do.” San Jose Sharks winger Evander Kane, a co-founder of HDA, publicly made the request to pause play on Thursday afternoon, tweeting: “We the [HDA] have formally requested the [NHL] to suspend all playoff games today. We strongly feel this sends a clear message that human rights take priority over sports.” The NHL had two playoff games scheduled for Thursday night, with the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders playing in Toronto and the Vegas Golden Knights and Vancouver Canucks playing in Edmonton. Friday, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins were set to play in Toronto and the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars in Edmonton. All four games will be rescheduled starting Saturday, and the league will adjust the rest of the schedule accordingly. “If you look around this room there is a lot of White athletes in here and I think that is a statement … for all these athletes in here to take a stand … I go to war with these guys and hate their guts on the ice, but I couldn’t be more proud,” Ryan Reaves, of the Vegas Golden Knights, said at a news conference with NHL players in Edmonton. TSN reported Thursday afternoon that players of at least one team scheduled to play voted not to play in their Thursday game, while TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reported that more than 100 players in the bubble had a call with Kane and the Minnesota Wild’s Matt Dumba on Thursday afternoon.


Wealthy nations applaud their leaders’ covid-19 responses. The U.S. and U.K. are the exceptions.

A poll of 14 developed nations found majorities in most countries were pleased with how their governments had handled the coronavirus pandemic. More than 9 out of 10 respondents in Australia and Denmark said their countries have done a good job. But there were two countries where a majority thought otherwise: the United States and Britain. In the United States, 52 percent said they thought their government had done poorly, and 54 percent in Britain said the same. Among U.S. respondents, 77 percent, a far higher share than in the other countries surveyed, said the pandemic had heightened political divisions. Spain came in next, at 59 percent. High levels of division are unexpected during a crisis and could affect the fight against the novel virus, experts say. “Typically, a tragic event like this would have the ‘rally around the flag’ effect and increase social cohesiveness,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. In five wealthy countries, a majority of respondents said that the country had become less divided since the pandemic hit. Just 25 percent of Danes said their country was more divided due to the pandemic, the poll found, while 72 percent said it was more united. An equal number of respondents in Britain said their country was more and less divided. Pew said it gathered the data using nationally representative surveys of 14,276 adults from June 10 through Aug. 3, with all interviews conducted by phone. The margin of error ranged from 3.1 percentage points in South Korea to 4.2 in Belgium. Some governments have placed heavy importance on national unity during the pandemic. In Denmark, officials have often used the word “samfundssind,” which roughly translates as the act of putting the community’s needs above one’s own, to emphasize the need for social distancing. According to a study by Danish researcher Marianne Rathje, use of the old-fashioned word soared after Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen used it during a news conference March 11. Trine Mogensen, a professor of immunology at Aarhus University Hospital, said that in part because of the history of political cooperation in Denmark, where political parties often rule in coalitions, there had been relatively little political disagreement over the country’s covid-19 response. The country had been able to keep the virus under control through “voluntary good behavior and keeping to the rules and very little being reinforced by law,” Mogensen said.


As permanent economic damage piles up, the Covid Crisis is looking more like the Great Recession

laid off from her bookkeeping job during the Great Recession and struggling to find new work, she finally went to school and earned an associate degree. It was enough to get her work as an administrative assistant. Her new job paid less than the one she was originally laid off from, but after years of unemployment she was grateful to have any job at all. “You don’t realize that it’s comforting to get up every day and get dressed and go to work and come home and make dinner,” Frees said. “When you don’t have that? Wow! You feel like you’re out in the middle of the ocean waiting for somebody to throw you a raft.” In this recession, Frees said she believes workers like her could be adrift for a very, very long time. “I don’t think you can have a pandemic and think everything’s going to snap back to normal and we’ll be fine,” she said. “This will get worse before this gets better.” Almost a century ago, Saul Shorr founded what would later become Harold’s Kosher Market in northern New Jersey. His son Harold took over in the 1950s and focused on fresh meat. As the city of Paramus grew into one of the New York City metro area’s great retail hubs, Harold’s expanded into groceries and catered food, such as soups and pastrami sandwiches, that became fixtures at Super Bowl parties and brises. “People came from all over to shop here,” said Glen Shorr, the 66-year-old co-owner who grew up in the store. “I have customers that knew my grandfather. … I have some kids who used to work here that now come in with their kids.” Harold’s closed temporarily in April, when coronavirus cases were rising throughout New Jersey’s suburbs. Just recently, Shorr realized it no longer made sense to keep paying insurance, rent and electric bills when the future looked so uncertain. “It was kind of like the perfect storm,” Shorr said. “Everything just kept going wrong. After a while, you just say, ‘I can’t do it.’” Harold’s has since donated vanloads of groceries to a local food bank. Shorr’s 12 employees, some of whom had been with the store for more than three decades, will now join the ranks of the permanently unemployed — those who say they no longer have a job to go back to. Heather Long contributed to this report.


A defense contractor died after a bar fight with Marines, and some see a crime. Others see an accident and overzealous prosecution.

Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC). It is one of several recent incidents that have raised concerns about the conduct of America’s elite combat forces, including an alleged sexual assault by a Navy SEAL in Iraq last summer, cocaine use, and the strangulation of a Green Beret soldier in Mali in 2017. The incidents prompted a review last year by Army Gen. Richard D. Clarke, chief of U.S. Special Operations Command, which found an erosion of leadership and ethics after nearly 20 years of war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and beyond. The resulting report did not cite any specific case but said combat deployments have been “valued above all other things,” including professional development and personal maturity. “We have often been too complacent as we build, train and certify our teams for the rigors of operating in a complex world,” Clarke said. “We are renewing emphasis on proper accountability and supervision, and setting conditions for leader presence in the right places.” While military leaders say they are pursuing a culture change, they shielded details of the MARSOC case from public view. Evidence was presented at an Article 32 hearing at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in October, but the session was not announced in advance and no media covered it. The hearing went unannounced “in accordance with service regulations that prohibit including the name of accused in routine disseminations,” said Maj. Kristin Tortorici, a Marine spokeswoman. Hearings in such high-profile cases are typically disclosed. The lack of transparency, as well as inaccurate rumors about the case that spread in the Special Operations community, has stoked suspicions that the Marine Corps is hellbent on obtaining convictions to send a message. Ten other Marines were punished for “collateral misconduct” uncovered during the investigation, Tortorici said. She declined to describe the punishments, which have not previously been reported. Some of the Marines punished administratively were present during the fight and have “credibility issues” after making false statements to investigators, according to a military report detailing the case, which was first reported last year by the New York Times. As in several of the other recent cases, alcohol appears to have played a role, even though with few exceptions it is banned for deployed service members. The contractor, Richard A. Rodriguez, 45, of Raeford, N.C., was a retired master sergeant and married father with four children. He served 21 years in the Army, deploying to Afghanistan


Coronavirus cases in some European countries are rising again, but with fewer deaths. For now.

Coronavirus cases are surging again in Europe after months of relative calm, but the second wave looks different from the first: Fewer people are dying, and the newest and mostly younger victims of the pandemic need less medical treatment. Unlike the initial hit of the pandemic this spring, which overwhelmed hospitals and turned nursing homes into grim mortuaries, the European resurgence of recent weeks has not forced as many people into medical wards. But the increase is widespread, and it is unsettling societies that had hoped the worst was behind them. Paris on Friday joined some other French jurisdictions in imposing a citywide mask requirement, with cases spiking. France, Germany, Spain and others posted caseloads in recent days that had not been seen since April and early May. Spain has been hit particularly hard, with per capita cases now worse than in the United States — a notable marker in Europe, which after the initial springtime spike had generally controlled the virus more successfully than America. And with almost every European country planning a return to in-person schooling, many starting next week, public health officials are holding their breath for the impact. The surge is a first test of the efforts Europe has made to improve its resilience in the half-year since the pandemic unleashed a wave of suffering across the world. Most European countries have improved their testing capacity. They have hired contact tracers to combat big outbreaks. They have masks and gloves for their doctors and nurses. And as summer travelers return home and classes resume, experts and leaders say they hope to be able to avoid bigger lockdowns in the coming months. Many countries, including Italy, endured grinding lockdowns this spring. Now citizens are exhausted, and economies are still flagging. “I don’t think the country can survive another lockdown. And to be frank, there is no reason to,” said Ranieri Guerra, a World Health Organization assistant director general who is advising the Italian Health Ministry. “It’s very unlikely we’ll see anything like it was in the past. The likely scenario is that we’ll have some clusters here and there, even heavier than now, but very localized.” Italy was ravaged by the virus in the spring. And now it is seeing something of a resurgence. On Friday, it reported 1,469 new cases, the biggest increase in a 24-hour period since it was emerging from lockdown in early May.


Bali won’t allow tourists until 2021. These 4 destinations will probably follow.

Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya of Thailand’s tourism authority commenting in a webinar earlier this month: “I see no signal from the government that the country will open this year.” The country does have an October pilot program in place to allow some international tourists into Phuket, but only if the visitors agree to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival at a designated resort. Larger nations are also hinting that they are unlikely to reopen in 2020, with Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce recently telling investors that he predicts Australians will not be able to fly internationally until 2021, according to the New Zealand Herald. Australia and New Zealand officials have spoken about allowing a potential travel bubble between the two nations if covid-19 levels remain controlled, but New Zealand is still imposing a complete ban on almost all visitors. New Zealand’s tourism board told The Washington Post via email: “It is not known at this time when the border is likely to re-open, but the health and safety of New Zealanders will be at the forefront of any decision made by the New Zealand Government.” Australia’s tourism minister Simon Birmingham said in April during an appearance on “News Breakfast,” an Australian morning program, that citizens shouldn’t plan on being able to travel internationally come December. In August, he stressed on the same show that Australians should support the tourism industry by booking domestic stays and experiences. Another large country that heavily depends on tourism, South Africa has the most coronavirus cases in all of Africa, with 618,000 total cases. The peak of new daily cases hit in late July, after strict lockdowns and curfews imposed early in the pandemic were lifted in May. Sisa Ntshona, the chief executive of South African Tourism, told the BBC amid the outbreak last month, “I don’t foresee any international tourism happening within this calendar year.” Protests in South Africa have become commonplace as a response to the impact of covid-19. The Institute for Security Studies, also known as ISS Africa, said in a July analysis: “The pandemic has exposed socio-economic weaknesses resulting from poor policy implementation and a fundamental failure of political leadership.” The South Africa-based organization notes that an average of eight protests occurred every day in July, which is the most the country has seen in a month since 2013. Niser, of ISHTM, says he expects some nations to see similar unrest


Victim slain Thursday in D.C. is identified as Maryland man.

Police have identified a man killed Thursday afternoon in an industrial area off Bladensburg Road in Northeast Washington as Kyree Pringle, 25, of Bryans Road, Md., in Charles County. Police responded to a report of a shooting in the 2800 block of V Street at 4:01 p.m. They found Pringle’s body inside a vehicle, where he had sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the police at 202-727-9099, or text anonymously to the department’s TEXT TIP LINE at 50411.


Skywatch: What’s happening in the heavens in September

For September’s night sky, scan the southern heavens to see bright Jupiter and a dim Saturn. You can’t miss these large planets near the constellation Sagittarius. Jupiter starts the month at -2.6 magnitude (very bright,) but it wanes in luminosity as the month continues, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. Its magnitude dips to -2.4, which is still highly visible for this giant gaseous planet loitering near the handle of the constellation Sagittarius’s teapot shape. Nearby in the southern evening sky, chummy Saturn will look dull near Jupiter. The ringed planet is at +0.3 magnitude early in September, dimming as the month continues. Last fall, our red neighbor Mars was a +1.8 magnitude (hard to find) as it rose in the morning sky. This fall, the Red Planet starts September at -1.8 magnitude (very bright) by rising now in the evening’s eastern heavens around 10 p.m. It becomes delightfully brighter at -2.4 magnitude by the time we enter October. NASA’s Perseverance Rover (nasa.gov/perseverance) — launched at the end of July — zips its way toward Mars, where it is due to land at Jezero Crater on Feb. 21. Early in the month, the extroverted Venus rises at 3 a.m. and climbs above the eastern horizon about 3:30 a.m. This dazzling planet — at -4.3 magnitude (very bright) — lingers now in the constellation Gemini, but it moves quickly against the stellar background. By mid-month, Venus cruises through the constellation Cancer the crab, still in the eastern heavens before daybreak. Watch Venus move toward the constellation Leo the lion ahead of sunrise, as the planet slides toward the star Regulus (Alpha Leonis), sitting at the lion’s front. The bright planet moves closer late in September, and Venus conjuncts Regulus on Oct. 3, according to the observatory. Later in the month, Venus dulls slightly to -4.1 magnitude — which is still extremely bright. We get a bold and beautiful moon at September’s start. Catch a nearly full moon in the night’s early heavens — around 8 p.m. — on Sept. 1. By 10 p.m. that night, find the moon between the Jupiter-Saturn duo in the south and Mars, low in the east. The moon becomes officially full Sept. 2, as the lunar disc scoots toward Mars. On the morning (before sunrise) of Sept. 5, the gibbous moon approaches Mars in the western heavens, and later that night, the moon and Mars meet


2020 U.S. Open primer: Grand Slam tennis in a bubble awaits Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams

in the stands, socially distanced and wearing masks. When players arrived at the bubble — which most of the field did ahead of the Western & Southern Open — they took two coronavirus tests within 48 hours and were allowed to practice on the U.S. Open campus only after they received two negative results. Somewhat less noticeable to viewers at home will be the use of automated line judges, a system called Hawk-Eye Live, in place of human ones on all courts except Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium. There also will be a limited number of ball kids at the event, and they won’t actually be kids. All ball boys and ball girls will be 18 or older, they will follow all testing protocols and health guidelines, and they won’t be handling anyone’s towels. Players will have receptacles stationed behind the baseline and will have to (gasp) retrieve their own sweat rags. Schedule-wise, the U.S. Open is taking place a week later than it usually would. Wimbledon, which masterfully played the long game and had an insurance policy that covered cancellation because of a pandemic, won’t be played this year. The French Open, rather controversially, will begin Sept. 27, two weeks after the U.S. Open ends, leaving players competing in both little time to adjust to radically different surfaces and handle any potential problems relating to international travel amid a pandemic. A whole host of big names won’t be traveling to the Big Apple, especially on the women’s side. No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and No. 2 Simona Halep are out, as is reigning champion Bianca Andreesu. Only four of the top 10 women in the world will be in the draw. On the men’s side, the sport’s two biggest figures aren’t playing. Roger Federer previously shut down his season after having surgery on his right knee, and Rafael Nadal withdrew this month citing pandemic-related travel concerns. Without Federer and Nadal in New York, this hardly needs to be written, but the U.S. Open is world No. 1 Novak Djokovic’s tournament to lose. The 33-year-old will have the chance to win his 18th Grand Slam title and gain ground on Federer (who has 20) and Nadal (who has 19 and will be the favorite to win the French Open, his signature event). After Djokovic, last year’s runner-up, No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev, and No. 2 seed Dominic Thiem are


Man stabbed to death in Northwest D.C.

Police are looking for the person who stabbed a 33-year-old man to death in Northwest Washington on Saturday night. District police said the victim, Aaron Watts, who did not have a permanent address, was found in the unit block of Bates Street NW at 10:12 p.m. by officers responding to the report of a man lying on the ground. Police said the man had been stabbed. Watts was taken to a hospital by D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, where he was pronounced dead after lifesaving attempts, police said. Police determined that the stabbing took place about one block north of where Watts had been found, in the unit block of Florida Avenue NW. Homicide detectives are looking for a suspect. D.C. police are offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the killer. Anyone with information can call (202) 727-9099 or reach the police tip line by sending a text message to 50411, police said. As of Friday, the District had recorded 126 homicides this year, 15 percent more than the same period last year, according to D.C. police statistics.


Zoo’s giant panda allows glimpses of her newborn cub

On Thursday evening, the National Zoo’s female giant panda went to get a drink of water. She probably had no idea of the significance of this simple act or of the many people who seized eagerly on those moments when thirst took her away from her newborn cub. For when the panda mom, as seen on the zoo’s panda cam video, rolled slowly over and lumbered out of sight, she did more than merely follow animal instinct. She offered a relatively rare and highly prized glimpse of the cub she delivered Aug. 21, in what zoo staff members have described as a miracle given her age. In their first days of life, giant panda cubs, hairless and defenseless against a cold world, require the constant warm presence of their mother. The parent does not depart even to eat or drink, the zoo said. But now, it appears the cub can survive on its own for short intervals. What the zoo staff members saw Thursday evening they found heartening, they said online. Many people new to the facts of panda life might have been transfixed merely by the sight of the new and yet-to-be-named cub. It appeared to resemble a mouse, wondrously small, compared to the black-and-white roly-poly bulk of mother Mei Xiang. But panda keeper Marty Dearie spotted even more. “We were encouraged to see the cub holding up its head and using its legs to lift its body off the floor slightly,” Dearie wrote in a Friday report. “These are all good signs,” he added, “and Mei Xiang’s cub seems strong.” In addition, close inspection seemed to show the cub already assuming aspects of panda appearance that provide much of the animals’ appeal. What, after all, are pandas without those rings around their eyes? “If you look closely,” the keeper wrote, “you can very clearly see black eye patches starting to come in.” Less obvious, Dearie wrote, were the black patches on the cub’s legs and back. Ears, he wrote, were expected to follow.


New technology keeps Baltimore, seniors in touch

Each time Baltimore has faced a hurricane or other safety threat through the years, three employees in the city’s Health Department have worked the phones to ensure that senior living facilities were prepared. They would check to make sure thousands of vulnerable residents had electricity, water and other essentials. “It took all day,” said Molly Martin, assistant commissioner in the Health Department’s Division of Aging. “It was more than 400, almost 500 calls.” In recent weeks, city health officials were able to ditch the phone tree, thanks to a new computer system created by a corps of programmers from the volunteer group Code for Baltimore. The system can automatically email — and will soon be able to text — the facilities to assess needs and provide information. In the first few weeks of operation, the system has been used to email surveys asking about specific needs related to the coronavirus pandemic, checking, for example, whether facilities lack personal protective gear or whether they need help understanding government orders on testing or infection control. Health Department staff can respond directly or point facilities to outside resources. The effort to create the system began in March and accelerated when the scope of the pandemic was becoming clear. Seniors and their communities have been hit particularly hard by covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. State data shows that people ages 70 and older account for more than 70 percent of deaths in Maryland, and some of the biggest early outbreaks occurred at nursing homes. The city Health Department does not inspect or police the facilities; that’s a state responsibility. Local health officials wanted an easier way to pass on advice and information — and to gain a broader sense of immediate needs and potential longer-term issues. So far, the new system has alerted officials to facilities that have needed supplies. But Martin said responses from facilities also have alerted officials to another widespread issue: Seniors in quarantine were lonely and bored. The health officials were able to connect those with electronic devices to outside groups. For others, they arranged to deliver packets containing crossword puzzles, reading materials and other activities. “This is helping us manage our response in a way we couldn’t . . . have,” said Mike Fried, the Health Department’s chief information officer. The extra contact has been useful, particularly for explaining changing state and federal pandemic guidance, said Phil


Coronavirus update: Infections rise to more than 1,000 on University of Alabama campus

so for the staff and faculty who work with them and the surrounding communities,” Forman told The Post in an email. “If these regions were hoping to get this under control, this hurts.” The rapidly spreading infections, along with the extreme steps the university has taken to contain them, have already led some students to change their plans for the academic year. The student newspaper reported this week that one freshman decided to drop out after officials abruptly relocated students in her dorm to another building to make rooms available for isolation. “I can’t afford to go here if they’re gonna send us home,” the student, Amalia Halpin, told the Crimson White. “It’s super unfortunate, but I had to drop out of college for it. This has been an absolute disaster.” Other large institutions, including the University of Kansas and North Carolina State University, have reported significant virus outbreaks in recent days, prompting some to warn that they may shut down campus if cases spiral out of control. Like Alabama, most universities have rolled out strict measures to curb the virus spread, including mandatory masks and regular testing. But administrators and health experts alike have expressed concerns about universities’ ability to regulate off-campus activities, such as large parties, that could create ideal conditions for transmission. “We need to remain humble about what we know and don’t know” about campus outbreaks, said Forman, of Yale. Undergraduate campuses face particularly high risks because of a combination of factors, he said, including crowded housing and high concentrations of young people who appear to transmit the virus asymptomatically at a higher rate than older adults. “These items do make spread much more likely,” Forman said. “If a young person sees little personal risk, has no symptoms, and is driven by desire for social interactions, they will potentially spread much more quickly than others.” In addition to Alabama, states across the Midwest continued to report substantial upticks in coronavirus cases. Infections have trended upward over the past week in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota and the Dakotas, and have flatlined in Illinois and Wisconsin, according to The Post’s tracking. North Dakota reported a single-day record of 374 cases on Saturday. In Iowa, daily infections have topped 1,000 for three days straight. Nationwide, more than 46,400 infections were reported Saturday. The pandemic death toll in the United States was nearing 180,000. Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.


‘One death after another’ for a Maryland school shows the country’s child grief problem

job losses and, in some cases, had seen every member of their household get the virus. The Facebook post announcing Posch’s death — which came after he battled pneumonia for a month but tested negative for the coronavirus — appeared a few days after the funeral of a beloved teacher. The loss of that teacher, Kirk Gaddy, left even former students seeking support. The post telling the community about Posch contained prayers in three languages: English, Spanish and French. Many of the families the school and church serve come from immigrant-heavy neighborhoods such as Langley Park, and Maldonado says the pandemic has revealed just how few resources are available to people who can’t afford them or don’t speak English. Early on in the pandemic, she realized she needed to find a way to offer grief support to families who speak Amharic. When she couldn’t find anything on her own, she turned to Gilly Cannon, who is the director of Children’s Bereavement Services for CaringMatters, an organization in Gaithersburg, Md., that offers support to schools and families in Montgomery County. Maldonado says Cannon found a pamphlet she could give families. They also talked about the challenges that come with trying to help children who are worried about whether they will have enough to eat or where they will sleep. “Gilly said this the other day and it hit the nail on the head: How can I ask a little one in a grief support group to talk about their feelings when they don’t have a roof over their head or food in the fridge?” Maldonado says. Normally summer is a quiet time for Cannon because the organization works in conjunction with the schools. But lately, she has been hearing not only from school counselors and family therapists in Maryland, but also from people across the country who are looking for guidance on how to help young family members. Some days, she gets multiple calls, each one about a different child with a different need. Many are mourning relatives taken from them by the virus — but not all. Children are still losing people to other illnesses, suicides and homicides. On a recent day, Cannon spoke to a family member of a preschooler who lost a grandparent to cancer. Shortly after that conversation, she heard from a school counselor who was concerned about a high school student who lost one parent to


Belarus tightens grip on foreign media coverage as anti-government protests swell

decision to strip journalists’ accreditation was made by the Belarus Security Council commission on preventing terrorism and extremism, which gave no reason. It came after riot police rounded up dozens of local and international reporters Thursday, many of whom were later released. Some were held and charged with illegal assembly. The U.S. Embassy in Belarus on Saturday called for an end to the crackdown on media. “We are concerned about the continued harassment of journalists, the blocking of independent media and opposition websites, periodic Internet cuts and arbitrary detentions of civilians exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and speech,” the embassy said in a statement. Former British ambassador to Belarus Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, called the media crackdown “extremely worrying.” “You only do this if you are going to do something you don’t want the world to see,” he wrote on Twitter. Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, in self-exile in Lithuania, said the move “is another sign that this regime is morally bankrupt, and the only way it is trying to stay in power is through fear and intimidation. This tactic will not work. The Belarusian people are no longer afraid. We will win.” Among those stripped of accreditation were journalists from the BBC, U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Russian-language Current Time TV, which is associated with Voice of America and led by RFE/RL, Reuters, Deutsche Welle and German broadcaster ARD. Daisy Sindelar, acting president of RFE/RL, said the move against journalists was designed to stifle access to credible information about the crisis. “Stripping our journalists of accreditation on grounds of ‘extremism’ is a desperate and ominous move by an authoritarian government to stifle the independent media and ruthlessly control the availability of credible information inside Belarus. It’s a violation of international standards and an assault on the Belarusian people who rely on us,” she said in comments published on the RFE/RL website. Even before the election, Lukashenko threatened in late July to ban journalists from the BBC and REF/RL, falsely accusing them of calling for revolution. Authorities also denied election accreditation to many international media seeking access to the country, in an apparent effort to minimize international scrutiny of the election. Lukashenko, a former collective farm manager, has held power since 1994 through flawed elections, jailing opponents and critics, blocking rivals from contesting elections and harsh crackdowns on protests. According to


3 Afghans accused of links to insider attacks that killed U.S. troops are among Taliban prisoners to be released

to have been involved in or how many Americans were killed. Insider attacks are assaults by Taliban infiltrators of the Afghan security forces against foreign forces. (They’re often grouped together with “green on blue” attacks — assaults on foreign forces by Afghan forces with no known Taliban link.) The State Department did not respond to questions about the prisoners. Resolute Support, the U.S. military command in Kabul, and the Department of Defense referred questions to the State Department, which also declined to comment. The Afghan government said it could not immediately provide further information on the matter. A senior Afghan government official said he was “surprised” by Washington’s support for the release of Taliban prisoners linked to the killings of U.S. and foreign forces. But he said the consensus among Afghan government officials is that U.S. Afghan policy is now largely being dictated by the Trump administration’s desire to show voters ahead of the November presidential election that he is ending the war in Afghanistan. “We understand the importance of the election, of the campaign, but our only question is, ‘At what cost?’ ” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Little is known about the remaining high-value Taliban detainees beyond that they are “accused of major crimes” and are “hardcore” Taliban fighters, according to statements from the Afghan government. The release of the 320 Taliban prisoners remains one of the final hurdles before formal negotiations can start between the militant group and the Afghan government. This week, another disagreement emerged between the two sides over nearly two dozen elite Afghan troops the government says are being held by the Taliban. Afghan officials have said the talks will begin next week, but no date has been set. The presence of Taliban prisoners accused of involvement in insider attacks against Americans could further complicate the prisoner release process as it progresses. Sixty-three U.S. troops in Afghanistan have died in insider and green-on-blue attacks since the start of the conflict, according to iCasualties.org, an independent website that draws on Pentagon data to track coalition casualties in Afghanistan. The United States had been aware of French and Australian concerns regarding high-value Taliban prisoners linked to the deaths of their citizens for over a year, according to the Kabul-based diplomat, but did not begin seriously exploring possible solutions until recently. Even as


Climate news quiz: Green aviation and wild prairie grass

All right: Time to see if you’ve been paying attention to The Washington Post’s climate-related coverage. If you have, this quiz should be an easy A. Answer: B. Answer: D. Answer: B. Answer: B. Answer: D. Answer: C. Answer: B. Answer: B. Answer: D. Answer: C. 0 to 3 questions correct Climate novice: You’ve still got a lot to learn about climate change. But that’s okay: We’ve got you covered. Got a question? Ask us here. 4 to 7 questions correct Climate curious: Hey, not bad! You know a thing or two about climate change. But there’s still more to learn, and we’ve got you covered. Got a question? Ask us here. 8 to 10 questions correct Climate expert: Well done! You’re super climate-literate. You probably already know that one of the most important things you as an individual can do to combat climate change is to spread the word. Go ahead: Brag a little, share this quiz with your friends, and find out who knows the most about climate change.


Coronavirus-related unemployment is putting people’s retirement at risk

Research at Boston College found that widespread unemployment would increase the risk of people not being ready for retirement. The brief was written by Alicia Munnell, the center’s director and the Peter F. Drucker professor of management sciences at Boston College; Anqi Chen, assistant director of savings research; and Wenliang Hou, a research economist at the center. “The country has been levelled by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the researchers wrote. “Hence, the most pressing question at the moment is how retirement security has been affected by the virus and the shutdown of the economy. This crisis will affect retirement security in a very different way than the Great Recession because the destruction is occurring more through widespread unemployment and less through a collapse in the value of financial assets and housing.” The center measures the share of working-age households that are at risk of being unable to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living. The latest figures from the National Retirement Risk Index show a nearly five-percentage-point increase in retirement insecurity. The coronavirus-related surge in unemployment has probably increased the share of households at risk to 55 percent, up from 50 percent. Simply put, the pandemic has made the retirement savings gap larger. “Unemployment has not only had an immediate impact in terms of lost earnings but also a longer-term negative effect on future wages, making it more difficult to save for retirement,” Munnell said about the findings. Munnell said unemployment is far more damaging than just the wages forgone. When people finally get back to work, they often have to take a cut in pay in the period following their unemployment. “The pandemic has worsened an already bleak outlook for retirement security,” the researchers concluded. “Ensuring retirement security for an aging population was one of the most compelling challenges facing the nation before the onslaught of COVID-19. The unemployment associated with the pandemic has made the situation worse across the board.” So, what should be done to mitigate the problem? More has to be done to get people back to work. “These results underscore the need for policies that provide well-targeted assistance to employers and individuals aimed at preventing more people from becoming unemployed and getting those who are unemployed back to work quickly as the pandemic subsides,” the brief says. “The shorter the spell of unemployment, the less harm people will experience to their long-term retirement prospects.” Join me on


Pandemic-related cooking and eating habits could help curb food waste — if consumers stick to them

as Madeline Keating, who leads food waste work in Colorado for the Natural Resources Defense Council, points out, you can multitask: She once blanched and froze fading asparagus during a work call. Pete Pearson, the senior director for food loss and waste at World Wildlife Fund, hopes consumers’ increased comfort with ordering groceries in advance brings about more recurring deliveries of staples such as milk, bread and eggs. “If we think of food more as a subscription, that could in turn lead to food waste reduction just because it’s more predictable and you can match supply and demand better,” he said. Gunders said that more online grocery orders could also mean smaller produce displays at stores, meaning fruits and vegetables could spend more time in shelf-life-extending temperature-controlled storage. Online grocery orders, however, aren’t guaranteed to reduce waste. Among other factors, shoppers still have to avoid impulse buys and find uses for food that they discover isn’t quite what they expected when delivered. Like, say, when you think you’ve ordered six bananas, but six bunches of bananas arrive on your doorstep, which definitely didn’t happen to me. The massive, shelf-clearing purchases common in March may have subsided, but Brian Roe, an agricultural economist at Ohio State University, worries the pandemic’s legacy may include larger food stockpiles in people’s homes, which could lead to forgotten and ultimately wasted food. While thoughtful freezing can preserve food and avoid waste, Roe notes that it’s easy for items to be lost in a sea of icy containers. Dining at home can also reduce waste compared to frequent dining out, where over-ordering and ignoring leftovers result in more food getting thrown away. Buffets, which may cease to exist as we knew them, are notoriously wasteful. Since the start of the pandemic, people’s concerns about food waste have intensified, said Laura Gurski, a consumer goods strategy consultant at Accenture who has been tracking consumers’ attitudes. “This conscious consumer has emerged,” Gurski said, noting that Accenture’s “research is showing sustainability, limiting food waste and thoughtful choices” are becoming more important. Keating, with NRDC, said the pandemic made addressing food waste feel far more urgent. “The thing about household food waste reduction is that it really starts with a mind-set change,” she said. “It’s about being intentional about your purchases, taking the time you need to make a list, following the list and then doing inventory management … “That


For Jordan McNair’s dad, an advocate for athlete safety, the coronavirus sparks familiar concerns

Marty McNair worried when his son, Jordan, headed to a day-care center as a baby. That’s the first time he placed the safety of his child in another person’s hands. Plus, McNair admits he was an overprotective parent who wanted Jordan to one day enjoy all the opportunities he didn’t have. Jordan spent the following years moving in that direction, propelled by his athletic ability. He developed into a highly rated recruit at McDonogh School near Baltimore and attracted scholarship offers from major college programs. Jordan believed in DJ Durkin’s vision to rebuild Maryland football and lift the program into relevancy. So before signing day in 2017, after Jordan had already committed to the Terrapins, the head coach visited the family for dinner. As they ate spaghetti at the kitchen table, Marty McNair had only two questions: Would Jordan play? And because Marty co-owns a substance abuse program, he asked about Maryland’s support services in that area and for mental health. “All my other questions didn't start until Jordan was in the hospital,” McNair said. Jordan, a 19-year-old offensive lineman, suffered exertional heatstroke at a Maryland football workout in May 2018 and died two weeks later. Medical experts have said patients with heatstroke have a 100 percent survival rate when they are promptly diagnosed and treated. Maryland admitted that its staff failed to follow the proper procedures. Two years later, McNair calls his son the “poster boy for player safety at the college level.” With teams returning to play amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, conversations have again emerged about whether college football programs can adequately protect their players and prioritize their safety over revenue. Many athletes and parents have supported playing this fall as planned, while others have concerns about their school’s protocols and the long-term effects of the virus. McNair’s advocacy work focuses on heat-related illnesses, but the questions spurred by the pandemic, he said, have obvious parallels to the topics he discusses at events and in “Can My Child Play?” — his new book. “Any of us can go down on a hot day or a humid day, or any of us could contract covid,” McNair said, referencing the disease caused by the coronavirus, so parents should scrutinize the safety protocols in place at their child’s school. When McNair and Jordan’s mother, Tonya Wilson, spent two weeks with their son in the hospital, they started to realize the


Foundation donated more than 200 cold-water tubs to programs last year. During a recent webinar, McNair called the current circumstances a “double threat” because of how the coronavirus has added a layer to player safety issues that already exist. “I was looking at the TV yesterday, and it was like, ‘Wow, I miss college football,’ ” McNair said. “But at the end of the day, I’d rather have a student-athlete safe any day than to put their lives at risk for my enjoyment.” McNair’s work emphasizes education and prevention. He explains the symptoms of heatstroke and the importance of cold-water tubs. But he also motivates players to feel empowered. He wants them to feel as though they can ask a coach why a cold-water tub isn’t on the field. And it’s the same way players this year should feel as though they can question their programs if they aren’t following the proper coronavirus protocols. This summer, players in the Pac-12 organized an unprecedented player rights movement with demands related to safety, compensation and racial justice. The idea began when a couple of players had concerns about playing amid the pandemic. As they talked with athletes from other Pac-12 schools, they realized programs weren’t following uniform protocols, and that made them uneasy. Hunter Reynolds, a defensive back at Michigan, helped create College Athlete Unity, a group that empowers athletes to speak out about injustice. In the organization’s group chat, which includes hundreds of athletes, Reynolds realized many shared some concerns. The uptick in college football players speaking out and pushing for more safety protections is “a step in the right direction,” McNair said, “because at the end of the day, these student-athletes, it's their lives on the line.” McNair receives Google alerts any time a news article mentions Jordan. His name is attached to the Maryland program and its recent history. But lately, he has also been referenced a couple of times in the wake of the pandemic. His story serves as a somber warning of what’s at stake if programs don’t follow safety guidelines. Even though heatstroke and a virus differ in many ways, each prompts the same question: Are schools capable of keeping players safe? “And my answer to that: No, I don’t think they are,” McNair said. “I don’t think they are.” Read more on How college football players discovered their power and why it’s just the beginning


Trump leans into his ‘180,000 deaths is a statistic’ reelection strategy

quarantined. Trump has for some time insisted that the government's time is best spent protecting those in nursing homes and who are otherwise at risk, an approach to the pandemic that allows for more economic activity and — Trump again clearly hopes — fewer negative consequences for his reelection bid. He's also repeatedly downplayed the risks associated with contracting the virus. At times, he's insisted that 99 percent of infections are “totally harmless,” a claim that both misrepresents the deadliness of the virus and ignores the body of evidence showing that some infections yield long-term health effects and potentially permanent damage. Over the weekend, he sought to bolster the idea that the virus isn't really as deadly as experts say by retweeting a QAnon supporter's claim that a CDC report showed that 94 percent of those identified as dying from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, had other conditions at the time of their deaths. What the report actually showed was that in most cases, covid-19 killed people who were living with other conditions. As one expert on cancer put it: “600,000 die of cancer each year. 95% likely have comorbidities. Doesn’t mean cancer was not cause of their death." It's obvious that covid-19 is killing Americans when we consider the number of people who've died relative to prior years. Through the middle of May, data from the New York Times showed 88,000 more deaths in 2020 than in the average number of deaths seen from 2014 to 2019. A report earlier this month estimated that about 200,000 more people had died so far this year than would have been expected from prior years. It’s a reminder, too, that the official tally of coronavirus deaths is likely understated, not overstated. In other words, Trump's halfhearted assurances notwithstanding, a shift in the White House's strategy to allow for more widespread infections would likely mean tens or hundreds of thousands more deaths than would be seen with containment measures. Precisely how many isn't clear. At this point, the country has been averaging more than 900 deaths per day for more than a month. The number of new cases is hovering at about 41,000 per day, on average. And since early July, the percentage of deaths relative to new cases two weeks prior has been between about 1.5 percent and 1.8 percent. One projection Trump understood the risks of letting the virus


Scandal hurts gay candidates more than straight ones — but in a roundabout way

were about 30 percentage points less likely to vote for candidates — regardless of whether the candidate was Black or White, or male or female. If they had admitted to extramarital affairs, these candidates all lost over 10 percentage points in vote share. Unexpectedly, gay candidates were penalized only about 25 percentage points for embezzlement — five percentage points less than straight candidates. Further, we found no evidence of added or compounded penalties for candidates with several marginalized identities. However, it’s still harder for gay candidates to survive scandal We found that gay candidates started with a lower vote share, whether or not they had admitted to misconduct. That suggests bias. Among Republican voters, a scandal-free gay candidate was evaluated more harshly than a heterosexual candidate who admitted to an affair. The average electoral penalty for being gay — even without any allegations of corruption or an affair — was five percentage points in vote share. Candidates win elections by persuading and mobilizing a universe of voters who are considering voting for a candidate. A number of factors, notably partisanship and ideology, constrain that universe. But if some voters are less likely to consider voting for gay candidates from the outset, these candidates must attract a greater proportion of their potential voters to win. As a result, gay candidates cannot afford to lose the same amount of voter support as their straight counterparts. What this means for Alex Morse At first, our results might seem to spell trouble for Morse. But recent polling paints a slightly different picture. An internal poll run by MassLive saw Morse, the challenger, trailing the incumbent Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) by only five percentage points (41 percent to 46 percent). Of the voters polled, 85 percent of voters said they had heard about the scandal and were asked whether it had changed their opinion. Out of those voters, 55 percent said the news did not change their opinion, 21 percent said they were more likely to support Morse and 18 percent said they were less likely to support Morse. Though polling may produce unreliable estimates of how candidates will actually fare in the election, MassLive’s results suggest the allegations have not entirely derailed Morse’s campaign. Of course, in our experiment, the candidate admitted to an affair, while the allegations against Morse may well be spurious. And an actual candidate may be evaluated differently than


Fears Beirut port chemicals would be stolen may have contributed to blast

saga of official neglect, incompetence and insouciance that raises questions as to whether anyone in Lebanon fully appreciated the danger posed by the ammonium nitrate — or cared enough to find out, let alone take steps to address the risk. Oueidat, who has faced scrutiny for not taking more decisive action before the disaster, said he hadn't been made aware of the contents of the warehouse or the full risks posed by ammonium nitrate when the State Security agency sought his permission to secure the facility. The State Security agency "called me and said they were afraid of stealing," he said in an interview. "They told me there were nitrates. They didn't tell me there were other materials. I told them to secure the place and seal it so nobody can steal it." A report sent to the offices of the president and the prime minister from the State Security agency, dated July 20, confirms that theft was the foremost concern. "This substance is dangerous and is used in the manufacture of explosives. If it were stolen, the thief could use it to manufacture explosives," said the report, which outlined the steps being taken to secure the warehouse. Elsewhere, the report referred to the potential for a "catastrophe" if the ammonium nitrate were to explode. But the emphasis was on the risk of thefts. The hole in the warehouse wall and the broken door "would allow anyone to access it," the report added. Exactly what caused the initial fire or explosion that triggered the massive blast is still unknown, investigators say. One of the possibilities being investigated is that sparks from the welding undertaken by the three workers — Syrians who left the port before the explosion and are now in custody — may have ignited a fire that eventually set off the ammonium nitrate. A person close to the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing process, said the Syrians worked at the site from July 31 until the day of the blast but had already left for home when the explosion occurred. Security officials say they are also investigating whether a fire was deliberately set to mask evidence of the theft of ammonium nitrate that the State Security agency appeared to be probing. What is clear, said Jeffrey Lewis, an arms-control expert and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, is that


Our teen was diagnosed with covid-19. Months later, the worries (and headaches) remain.

most affected by it. It was just one of many mysteries we’d discover about covid-19. There were more surprises to come. Even once you test negative for covid-19 after having it, the symptoms can linger. In my case, I still have burning lungs. I looked for the same symptom in my son and was relieved to find he had no cough, no lung issues. But then my son’s headaches began. Doctors call them covid headaches. My son never had headaches before covid. He gets them now, some so strong he needs to go back to bed. And he’s still pale, and has a significantly reduced appetite. He’s part of a months-long study at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University, looking at those who have had covid-19. At each visit, before his blood is drawn and spit samples are collected, he’s asked questions about how he’s feeling. “I’m feeling better,” he told the team on his last visit. “But will the dizzy spells go away?” The researcher looked at him gently. “We’ve been hearing about dizzy spells from other patients.” “Will they go away?” he pressed. “We hope so.” The answers are no more definitive when I ask if my son can get the virus again. My son and I have antibodies. We’d hoped that meant we can’t get covid-19 in the future. But all of the researchers we’ve talked to tell us the same thing — that while antibodies are believed to give us some level of protection, they’re no guarantee and the protection may last only a few months. If the virus sufficiently mutates in coming months, they warn, we could catch a new strain, regardless of what antibodies we picked up from our first go-round. Then there are the other things researchers aren’t sure about when it comes to long-term effects of the coronavirus. They don’t know if it will impact fertility in the young people who’ve contracted it. They don’t know if it is a virus that remains in the system, and could be triggered by stress or exhaustion for years, even decades, to come. Five months after our covid-19 journey began, we count our blessings. My husband and I know people who have died of the virus. We are grateful to be alive, grateful to see our son up and about and having perfectly healthy and vigorous arguments with his younger siblings, to see color returning to his cheeks.


Mexican beach destination tries to lure tourists back in the midst of the pandemic

to GDP at nearly 9 percent. During the pandemic, that number dropped close to zero. International flights into Cabo — its main source of visitors — were down 93 percent from last summer. “It’s life or death for us,” said Rodrigo Esponda, the head of the Los Cabos tourism board. “There’s nothing else here. No industrial production. No farming or commercial fishing. It’s tourism or nothing.” Last month, Cabo San Lucas and neighboring San José del Cabo began to reopen to tourists with an advertising campaign that blended the area’s natural beauty with coronavirus recommendations. “Wear a mask,” one ad says, flashing to video of a woman snorkeling. “Practice social distancing,” it says before displaying an image of a lone surfer. Cabo Wabo, the bar founded by former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar, hung a reopening banner next to its “Mas Tequila” mural. Shops sold “My First Vacation After Covid” shirts. The frog outside of Señor Frogs was newly cleaned. But just as tourists began to trickle back, the cases in Los Cabos began to rise. It felt like an inevitability — as workers returned and international flights resumed, cases increased from around 50 per day in the state of Baja California Sur to around 150. Some of the city’s hotels hired doctors as consultants to improve their precautions. But the welcome sign is still out. “There are some residents who say, ‘Why put my family’s life in danger by inviting more visitors, restarting more flights?’ ” said Luis Humberto Araiza López, tourism minister of Baja California Sur. “It’s a delicate line between trying to support public health and economic growth.” It’s a challenge at tourist spots across Mexico. In Cancún, the largest tourist destination in Latin America, the collapse of the tourism sector — along with other pillars of the economy — has led to concerns of a rise in extreme poverty and malnutrition. Last month, the United Nations said the economic collapse in Mexico could “compromise the health and nutrition of children.” Formal unemployment in the state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancún, has increased by 23 percent since the pandemic began. Experts say that number would be far higher if the informal sector were included. Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has suggested the return of mass tourism is only months away. By the end of the year, he predicted this month, “the tourism sector will have


Traveling was once social currency. Now it might get you shamed.

The pandemic has ushered in a new era of shaming. There’s mask shaming, when someone is criticized for wearing or not wearing a mask; social distance shaming, when people are criticized for being too close; even virus shaming, when someone is criticized for getting the coronavirus. And there’s travel shaming. Before the coronavirus, travel was social currency. We asked friends and new people we met (remember meeting new people?) where they’d been and what was on their bucket list. Travel shaming back then referred to shaming someone for not traveling enough. People shared their travel experiences proudly, like a badge of honor. Once the world went into lockdown and flights were canceled, with airports and borders closed, the social status of travel changed. Travelers began to face backlash from people who felt traveling during the pandemic was putting others at risk. Unlike other breeds of coronavirus shaming, travel shaming doesn’t seem to lead to people being “canceled.” It slides quietly into direct messages or shows up passive aggressively on social media timelines. Matt Long, travel blogger and podcaster based in Upper Marlboro, Md., has taken several trips since coronavirus restrictions began to ease in the United States. “Each one has had its own kind of social shaming involved,” Long says. The travel blogger’s first trip was over Memorial Day weekend. Long drove to Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, a property on 2,000 acres in Farmington, Pa., that sponsored his two-day stay. While all of the comments on his social media posts were positive, Long was surprised by resentful messages he received from his friends. “They said, ‘I haven’t gone further than my driveway in two months, so forget you. My daughter can’t go to swim lessons, but you’re going to a resort. No, that’s not fair,’ ” Long says. But his most controversial trip was to Disney World in August. The trip was part-work, part-leisure, as the self-proclaimed die-hard Disney fan would recap the experience on his podcast and blog. “It was a lot of criticism for ‘I can’t believe you’re going down to Florida right now,’ ” Long says. “I had some locals down there [in Florida] who were not happy with me, or anyone being there from out of state, frankly, because they felt like they were literally fighting for their lives and they don’t need people from other states coming down to help make things worse.” It’s that sentiment


Students in England fell behind by average of three months during shutdown, study finds

Students in England fell behind by an average of three months during coronavirus-mandated school closures, a study released Tuesday found, giving weight to concerns over the urgency of a return to classrooms, in Britain and around the world. Of school faculty members who participated in the National Foundation for Educational Research study, 98 percent said their students had fallen behind since March, when schools switched to remote learning amid a nationwide shutdown. Boys appeared to have been affected more than girls, the study found, and poor students struggled the most. On average, teachers estimated that the learning gap between disadvantaged students and their classmates had widened by 46 percent. Educators in schools with the fewest resources were more than three times as likely to say that their students were more than four months behind, and they predicted that larger numbers of students would need intensive support to catch up. “Whilst it is crucial that children catch up, we should not assume that teachers will immediately be able to deliver the same quality of teaching, at the same speed, as before the pandemic,” said Angela Donkin, the chief social scientist at NFER. The survey sought responses from more than 3,000 teachers and administrators who taught at approximately 2,200 primary and secondary schools across England, at the end of the 2019-2020 school year. The survey did not include teachers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the other nations that make up Britain. While some schools were able to reopen in July, many parents continued to keep their children home over safety concerns. Only about 56 percent of eligible students returned, the study found, and those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds were even less likely to do so. Britain is set to begin its new school year this week, with millions of children back in classrooms, many for the first time since spring, with the encouragement of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government. But parents and teachers have expressed reservations. Some parents have said they do not plan to send their children back yet, while some schools have drawn up new behavior codes for the novel coronavirus that threaten to send students home for infractions like “malicious” coughing. On Tuesday, as roughly 40 percent of students in England and Wales returned to schools, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said he did not “underestimate how challenging the last few months have been,” but that


Walmart’s answer to Amazon Prime is cheaper and has gas discounts

the ultimate life hack for them.” Walmart said more than 160,000 items — including toys, electronics and groceries — will be eligible for free delivery under the new program. Amazon, by comparison, offered more than 10 million items for free one-day Prime delivery as of late last year. The service will cost $98 if paid annually or $12.95 month to month; Amazon Prime costs $119 annually or $12.99 month to month. Amazon Prime, which began by offering free two-day delivery, has grown to include other perks, including on-demand movies and television shows, a music streaming service and video gaming platform. The pandemic has boosted Walmart’s business and brought in many new customers who are turning to the retail giant for groceries and other necessities. Online sale jumped 97 percent in the second quarter, the company recently reported, lifting overall sales by nearly 6 percent. Analysts say the retailer also has benefited from recent investments in its stores and fulfillment networks. Walmart picked up online market share from its biggest rival, Amazon, which has struggled with timely deliveries and other issues because of the novel coronavirus. Walmart’s e-commerce sales made up 5 percent of the overall U.S. online market in June, compared with 4.2 percent in January, according to data from Rakuten Intelligence. Amazon’s share of the market, meanwhile, slipped during that period, from 42.1 percent to 38.5 percent. “When you look at essentials and grocery items in particular, those are areas where Walmart and Target have done very well during the pandemic,” said Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst for Forrester. “These are areas where Amazon has not historically been as big of a player, so it wasn’t necessarily able to get as much of that merchandise — whether toilet paper or disinfecting spray — as it needed.” Walmart reported $514 billion in revenue last year, far beyond Amazon’s $281 billion. The move comes just days after Amazon opened its first Fresh grocery store in the Los Angeles area, expanding its bricks-and-mortar presence in a challenge to traditional supermarkets and big-box retailers such as Walmart. The new store allows shoppers to fill their “smart carts,” which have sensors that can detect what’s inside, and bypass traditional checkout lines. Amazon has confirmed plans for a handful of other Fresh locations in Southern California and the Chicago area, which it said it will continue to operate and grow alongside its Whole Foods business.


A penny pinch: How America fell into a great coin shortage

up. Coin issues can be a big deal. In the early 1960s, a shortage of silver helped usher in the passage of the Coinage Act of 1965, which removed silver from circulating coins. (Although, for those keeping score, the U.S. Mint says this is not a coin shortage or supply problem. The mint says it’s a circulation bottleneck that can only be cleared up with the public’s help.) Whatever it’s called, this lack of coinage seems to be a challenge that ever-divided government, businesses and Americans can unite behind. There’s a new coin task force, complete with its own hashtag: #getcoinmoving. Businesses heavy in coins are helping businesses without. A Chick-fil-A in a South Carolina mall is inviting people to bring in their rolled coins in exchange for cash and a free sandwich. Casinos are trying to tempt would-be gamblers to empty jingling pockets in exchange for free slot play. For its part, the U.S. Mint is actually on track to produce more coins this year than it has in almost two decades, having ramped up production to fill the void. Like everything else about this pandemic, the coin shortfall is unprecedented, at least for modern times. “There is no comparison to previous events,” said Michael White, spokesman for the U.S. Mint. Simply making more coins won’t completely solve the problem — hence the U.S. Coin Task Force, established in July to pinpoint how to kick the supply chain back into gear. At the table are exactly whom you’d expect: the mint, the Fed, bank and retail industry groups, plus representatives for the big armored carriers that drive the money around, coin aggregators and federal credit unions. Among the group’s preliminary recommendations: financial institutions could give out free coin-rolling kits, and parents could use this weird time in history as a “teachable moment” for young ones learning about money. But when it comes to getting coins flowing through the economy once again, the solution will depend on swaying Americans to change new habits developed during the pandemic. For some businesses, getting enough coins in circulation is key to staying alive. Brian Wallace, president and chief executive of the Coin Laundry Association, said 56 percent of laundromats take quarters as their only form of payment. Back in June, Wallace said his association was getting calls from members saying they were limited in how many quarters they could get from banks and


PM Update: Showers possible tonight and early Wednesday ahead of a late-day storm risk

Other than a few breaks, it was gray, then more gray around the area Tuesday. Those clouds did help keep temperatures in the generally pleasant upper 70s and lower 80s. We’ll see more clouds through Wednesday and occasional chances for rain. Listen to our daily D.C. forecasts: Apple Podcasts | Amazon Echo | More options Through Tonight: View the Tomorrow (Wednesday): See Matt Rogers’s forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. For related traffic news, check out Gridlock. Corn moon: Pollen update: Want our 5 a.m. forecast delivered to your email inbox?


Maryland to enter next phase of coronavirus recovery Friday, opening theaters and concert venues

Virginia is in a third phase of coronavirus restrictions, Northam tightened policies in the Hampton Roads region at the end of July because of a spike in infections. He reduced indoor dining in restaurants to 50 percent of capacity, imposed a 10 p.m. cutoff for alcohol and banned gatherings of more than 50 people. The percentage of positive test results in that region has since declined but, at nearly 9 percent, is still higher than the statewide average of about 7 percent. Northam said he is concerned about a rise in cases in rural southwestern Virginia, where the average of 220 new cases a day rivals numbers in far more populous Northern Virginia. “This is especially concerning for a region where there are fewer hospitals,” he said. He also noted recent reports of outbreaks on college and university campuses around the state as students return for the fall. “We’re watching this very closely,” he said, noting that he speaks with college and university presidents almost daily. As long as institutions follow their approved reopening plans and work with local health departments, he said, they can move ahead with plans to resume classes. Northam criticized President Trump for reclassifying teachers as critical workers who must stay on the job even if they have been exposed to covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. “That’s the wrong thing to do,” he said. “If you are a teacher and there’s a high chance you’ve been exposed to covid-19, you should be tested and stay home until you get the results.” Northam said the virus is likely to be active through the fall and winter. He emphasized that residents should not let down their guard. The state’s infection rates are “at a more acceptable range, but we’re still not close to where we need to be to ease these restrictions,” he said. The greater Washington region reported 1,692 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, as well as 38 additional fatalities. D.C. reported 57 cases and no deaths; Maryland had 614 cases and six deaths; Virginia had 1,021 cases and 32 deaths. The daily death toll was the region’s highest number of fatalities in a single day since Aug. 6. The number of deaths in Virginia was the highest since Aug. 1. The rolling seven-day average of new infections in D.C., Maryland and Virginia was 1,595 on Tuesday, a number that has mostly held steady for more