Pope Francis and the case for climate change optimism

2 degree threshold remains far from assured, more and more scientists are expressing the opinion that 2 degrees is not a safe limit on warming — especially not in light of how temperatures and carbon dioxide levels pretty close to our own have prompted very large rises in sea level during past eras of Earth’s history. That’s why so many nations of the world want to keep the limit below 1.5 degrees C, rather than 2 degrees — even though 1.5 degrees is a nearly unattainable target. So what’s the climate’s real safe zone? Nobody can say for sure. That’s why the experiment humans are running is so unsettling — and why what happens after Paris will wind up being so important. For even assuming that Paris is a success and clean energy continues to grow like gangbusters, emissions won’t suddenly cease tomorrow, and there’s a fair amount of warming (and sea level rise) already baked into the system. And we honestly don’t know whether or not, by the time temperatures have peaked and are on the way down again, human emissions will have already in effect flipped any climate change “wild cards,” as my colleague Joby Warrick recently put it, involving the circulation of the oceans, the planet’s increasingly worrisome ice sheets, or Arctic permafrost (to name a few). Indeed, climate researcher Michael Mann recently argued that climate change risk has a “fat tail” — “the likelihood of very large impacts is greater than we would expect under typical statistical assumptions,” he observed. “Uncertainty is not our friend when it comes to the prospects for dangerous climate change,” Mann continued. So, the outlook now is definitely for a great deal more political (climate policy) and technological (clean energy industry) progress. Pope Francis is the largest global figurehead of this, and he arrives with the right message at a time when the world is primed to hear it. But even assuming prompt action in Paris this year, it’s still hard to know whether this means the planet will stay in a relative climate safe zone, and avoid any triggers or abrupt changes. The case for climate optimism, then, is simply this — action really does seem to be starting to happen. The momentum is indeed real. The case for realism, though, is that it’s still not clear how fast emissions will come down, or whether it will be fast enough.


China offers huge rewards for U.S. companies like Boeing. But it could also take that business away.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and his wife, Peng Liyuan, arrive Tuesday at Boeing Field in Everett, Wash. Xi is spending three days in Seattle before traveling to Washington, D.C., for a White House state dinner on Friday. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) President Richard Nixon flew in on a Boeing 707 when he traveled to China in 1972 to reestablish diplomatic ties with the former Cold War enemy. Just weeks after Nixon departed from Beijing, China’s top leaders ordered 10 Boeing 707 airliners, a technology without compare in China at the time. On Tuesday, when Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Seattle, he also flew in on a Boeing. And at a visit to the company’s Everett, Wash., factory on Wednesday, Xi, too, put in some orders. Boeing announced Wednesday that Chinese airlines and leasing companies agreed to purchase 300 Boeing aircraft, a package with a total value of $38 billion. (The package included some planes that had previously been ordered, reported The Seattle Times.) The company also announced plans to build a factory in China in partnership with the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or Comac, to complete interiors and paint 737s. Manufacturing airplanes is a symbolic industry for the United States -- a feat of advanced engineering, one of the nation's major exports and a bastion of American manufacturing jobs, many of which have left U.S. shores for China in past decades. It’s also an industry that has benefited hugely from China’s growth. One of every five commercial airplanes made in Boeing factories last year was sent to China, a trend analysts expect to continue as the country's rising middle class increases demand for air travel. In August, Boeing said its Chinese fleet could almost triple in the next 20 years, for sales of $950 billion. Yet, as for other American companies in China, this success may come at a future price. China has long demanded that foreign companies transfer technology and manufacture some of their products in China. In exchange for access to one of the world’s most valuable markets, foreign companies must help China build brands that may one day put them out of business. If American political candidates have a favorite punching bag, it's China. Wonkblog's Ana Swanson explains why so many candidates change their tune once elected, and just how important the U.S.-China relationship really is. Over the decades, Boeing and other American companies,


Should Pope Francis receive the Nobel Peace Prize?

Pope Francis gives a thumbs-up from the Popemobile on Constitution Avenue after meeting with President Obama at the White House on Sept. 23, 2015. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO At least one member of Congress thinks so. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) began circulating a letter to colleagues on Wednesday nominating Pope Francis for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. “Pope Francis has been a powerful advocate for peace, urging an end to conflict and support for constitutive ties among nations,” the letter states. “He has called on the world to use diplomacy and discussion to solve disputes, rather than military force, coercion or intimidation. This commitment to nonviolence, which the Pope has put into practice every day through his words and actions, is at the core of the principles behind the Nobel Peace Prize.” Schiff intends to send the letter to the Nobel Committee after gathering signatures from Democratic — and hopefully Republican — members of Congress. But the latter group might be hard to get on board. Schiff notes the pontiff’s stance on climate change and his call for nations to welcome refugees, two sources of contention for the GOP. “Through his stature as a spiritual figure, Pope Francis casts the issue of an unhealthy earth in religious terms, emphasizing our joint duty to care for the world and to pass on an unspoiled environment to future generations,” Schiff writes. Additionally, “as the world struggles to cope with a flood of refugees not seen since the end of World War II, the Pope has emerged as perhaps the leading advocate for relief,” the letter states. We’ll update readers with a signature count when we get it. Until then, worth noting that a peace prize for Francis would be historic: no pope has ever won the honor.


The pesky fly threatening Florida’s massive fruit industry

infestation is one of Florida's largest, and raises nationwide concern as the area provides produce during winter months. Adrian G. Hunsberger, a Urban Horticulture Agent of the University of Florida, shows a Carambola, also known as starfruit, among the many fruits that have been quarantined, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015, in Homestead, Fla. (Alan Diaz/AP) Florida's Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam declared a state of agricultural emergency earlier this month and an 85-square-mile area was quarantined, meaning growers were restricted from moving fruits and vegetables. Many in Redland had to halt production just as they were harvesting. "We estimated that we have mamey alone about 500,000 pounds left on the trees," J&C Tropicals operations manager Salvador Fernandez told NPR. "[As for] dragon fruit, that leaves 20 million pounds on the trees potentially." The state agriculture department issued a statement Tuesday, saying that "efforts to eradicate the pest are working." In addition to the quarantine, workers are applying pest treatments to areas where each fly is found, removing fruits from host trees and set out traps to find any more flies. [Plants send out stress signals just like animals, scientists find] But officials are still weighing whether to start aerially spraying pesticides in South Florida. Putnam told a town hall of growers Monday that spraying GF-120 would be the next step if a pregnant female, larvae or more flies in traps are found, the Miami Herald reported. The particular pesticide is approved for organic farming and Putnam called it the "last, best bullet in the gun," the paper reported. Organic farmers voiced worry about another pesticide that the state is seeking federal clearance to use, a chemical that could invalidate their organic status, the Herald reported. According to an agency spokeswoman, clearance to use that chemical is being sought only for growers who want to voluntarily hand-spray their crops. Organic growers wouldn't be required to use it, and none would risk losing certification, the spokeswoman added. The state has called upon growers to sign compliance agreements, which signal their willingness to abide by eradication efforts. Meanwhile, thousands of pounds of produce have been bagged and destroyed, rather than shipped off to market. The quarantine will lift in January, as long as no additional flies turn up. Stephen Jenner, from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, sprays an insecticide under an avocado tree where some Oriental fruit flies were found on Sept.


D.C. area forecast: Last day of sun for a while; weekend brings clouds, chance of rain

TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 9/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL For a second straight day, we enjoy bright sunshine and amazing temperatures. But then a gloomy period settles in Friday through the weekend. Although big rains probably stay parked to our south, the weekend brings clouds and a small chance of intermittent rain. Amounts are probably light but an occasional model does try to bring us more substantial totals. Fingers crossed, clouds break in time for Sunday evening’s spectacular full eclipse of the harvest full moon. Today (Thursday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Friday): Tomorrow night: Papal parade. Sept. 23. (Jim Havard via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Saturday The showers are likely to be less frequent on Sunday, especially later in the day, but clouds are still dominant. Highs range from upper 60s to lower 70s and with a bit more strength to the northeast wind encouraging one to grab a light jacket. There’s a chance there are enough breaks in the clouds by evening to allow a view of the full lunar eclipse that peaks between 10 and 11 p.m. Lows fall to the upper 50s in the suburbs to mid-60s in the city. Confidence: Low-Medium Monday


6 reasons Pope Francis’s address to Congress could be really awkward for some leaders

can best be described as a 184-page call to arms on climate change. Francis pulls few punches and takes direct aim at the United States, writing, “Those who possess more resources and economic or political power seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their symptoms.” The pope calls on the United States and other developed countries “to help pay this debt by significantly limiting their consumption of nonrenewable energy and by assisting poorer countries to support policies and programs of sustainable development.” His visit to the United States also comes in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris this December, where world leaders will seek to finalize the first legally binding treaty on climate. Francis will probably call for the strongest possible agreement and U.S. leadership in Paris. Expect a lot of cheering from Biden, and perhaps less enthusiasm from the speaker. Boehner told reporters earlier this year, “I’ll let the scientists debate the sources in their opinion of that change.” Iranian nuclear deal Boehner promised his colleagues and supporters to “”do everything possible to stop” the Iranian nuclear deal. Perhaps he should have added, except disinviting the pope to address Congress? Pope Francis has given his strong seal of approval to the deal, calling it “a definitive step toward a more secure and fraternal world” during Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square. Policy differences don’t get much more clear-cut than this divide. Same-sex marriage Adding another layer of political intrigue to the address, Biden is considering a run for the presidency. He’ll reportedly make the case that his early support for same-sex marriage helped push President Obama to the same position and preceded Hillary Clinton’s embrace. Francis drew attention when he told a group of reporters two years ago, “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?” Interpreted as a change in tone for the Catholic Church, the social teaching Biden praises generally hasn’t changed specifically on marriage. Biden hailed the Supreme Court’s recent decision on same-sex marriage, while the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declared, “It is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage.” Boehner led the charge to defend the Defense of Marriage Act when the president and attorney general refused. While addressing Congress, Pope Francis says America


Main Street Morning: Uber launches a long-distance commuter service in China

A rapidly growing grocery chain is offering a unique and potentially lucrative opportunity for grocery and retail managers. - Target plans to add 1,000 new employees. - Amazon explains and apologizes for a database snafu. Sales Marketing - Consumers are becoming increasingly more sophisticated in making environmentally friendly decisions, prompting marketers to devise ever more nuanced methods of “green communication.” - Netflix can predict how long it takes for its customers to get hooked on a show. - Five ways to protect your brand’s online reputation. Finance - How open-source and crowdfunding are creating a new business niche. Start-ups - An alcohol business start-up seminar draws a curious crowd. - The rate of Hispanic business start-ups are the highest in the Midwest. Technology - Pepsico is using 3D printing to design bigger and bolder potato chips. - Thousands of iOS apps have been infected by a malicious software. - Selfies have killed more people than sharks this year. - Microsoft explains how its new Office 16 will better help your employees work together. Online - Google Capital, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Baidu announce a joint investment. - The hybrid cloud market is predicted to grow at a 29.22 percent annual rate to 2019. - A Microsoft exec says that Azure bests both Amazon and Google in geographic coverage. - Why many Amazon merchants may be headed to Shopify. - A new Gmail “block” feature allows users to deny people in just two clicks. - It’s surprisingly easy to set up a convincing, highly-regarded fake online business. Social Media - Facebook’s new restrictions are having effects in academia, business, and politics. - Why teens may be losing their love for Twitter. Around the Country - Millennials may be causing more traffic on Phoenix freeways. - A New Jersey town has a one-of-a-kind business plan. - A 547-acre business park plan in Colorado raises concerns. - An unidentified Colorado man throws a stink bomb at a business six times. - A business fair in Kentucky aims to help minority and women business owners connect with larger companies. - A Chicago news station wishes their Jewish viewers a happy Holocaust. - Each Pot Plant the DEA destroys in Oregon costs taxpayers $60. Around the World - Uber debuts a commuter service in China. - The owner of a once-successful Liverpool marketing firm resorted to shoplifting after his business got into financial trouble. - These


Rare and red supermoon lunar eclipse to present Sunday night spectacle

last occurred 33 years ago, and won’t happen again for 18 more. On Sept. 27, 2015, there will be a very rare event in the night sky – a supermoon lunar eclipse. Watch this animated feature to learn more. The eclipse will commence once the Earth comes between the sun and the moon, casting a shadow into space. As the moon moves across that shadow (called an umbra) Sunday evening, we are perfectly placed for the lunar eclipse. (Fred Espenak) For the Eastern time zone, the partial eclipse phase starts at 9:07 p.m., when the moon moves into the Earth’s penumbral shadow, according to NASA. Our lunar neighbor – over the next hour – advances into the dark umbral shadow. At 10:11 p.m., the moon reaches totality, completely immersed in the umbral shadow – and that’s when sky watchers will see a rusty-red or “blood” moon. The reddish totality lasts an hour and 12 minutes, according to noted eclipse expert Fred Espenak, who retired from NASA, going from 10:11 p.m. until 11:23 p.m. Mid-eclipse occurs at 10:47 p.m. Entering the second partial phase, you’ll see the moon lose its red cloak – and that partial phase ends at 12:27 a.m. Science at NASA released this explainer ahead of super Harvest Moon on the night of Sep. 27. The moon will pass through the shadow of Earth, producing a lovely amber total lunar eclipse. Watching the eclipse To watch the lunar eclipse, it’s easy: Go outside and look up. But there are several places on the web where you can see it live. Griffith Observatory In Virginia, the Shenandoah National Park will host a total lunar eclipse “star party” on Sunday, September 27 at the Byrd Visitor Center, Stanley, Virginia, as park rangers, local astronomers and Greg Redfern of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory gather at the Byrd Visitor Center (mile 51, Skyline Drive) for an evening of astronomy presentations and dark-sky viewing. See the lunar eclipse and learn about the importance of protecting dark skies. Redfern will present a talk, “This Isn’t Your Granddaddy’s Moon” at the Byrd Visitor Center auditorium, 6:30 p.m. At Slooh.com, the online astronomy event website, they’re expecting a few million viewers from around the world, according to Slooh’s Michael Paolucci. Join astronomers Paul Cox and Bob Berman for the cosmic play-by-play. On Sunday, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center will webcast the eclipse live. Of Saros and


30 charts and maps that explain China today

The visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the U.S. has prompted lots of definitive articles explaining China. We here at Wonkblog put together a voluminous one of our own. But maybe you prefer not to read so many words, and just look at pictures instead. If that's the case, here are 30 charts and maps that will explain China today. You can click on any map or chart to enlarge it. Did I miss any good ones? Share them with me on Twitter. China's population is really, incredibly huge. The map below by Max Galka of Metrocosm helps to demonstrate that. The land area of each country is sized to be proportionate that country's share of the global population. China and India are massively bloated, while the U.S. has gone on a diet. In fact, many Chinese provinces have populations equivalent to Germany, the Philippines or Thailand. Max Galka, Metrocosm The Chinese language has more native speakers than any other language. The chart below Lazaro Gamio, Washington Post China is more diverse than you might think. One thing people outside of China may miss is the country's incredible diversity. A lot of Chinese are of the same ethnic group, Han, and almost everyone learns the national language, Mandarin, in school. But many people in different parts of China grow up speaking languages that are mutually unintelligible -- as different or more different from each other than European languages. "China linguistic map," Wikimedia Commons The food is diverse, too! Most Chinese restaurants market themselves in the U.S. as "Beijing" or "Szechuan/Sichuan." But those are only two of China's many yummy cuisines. Chinese food varies from sweet in Shanghai, to sour and spicy in the south, meat-and-potatoes home-cooking in the northeast, and lamb, cumin and flat breads in the northwest. In the map below, researchers at MIT used computer programs to analyze a database of recipes. They mapped the divisions below based on differences in their ingredients. MIT Technology Review China contains what could be called the world's biggest city. Since you know how big China is, you might not be surprised at the colossal size of its cities. This graphic from the World Bank charts global cities in terms of their population and land size. The report classifies the Pearl River Delta, an area of southern China across from Hong Kong, as a city, since it argues that all the


The weirdest thing about the world’s biggest beer festival

The more expensive, the merrier. (Matthias Schrader/AP Photo) For almost 20 years, an unusual thing happened in Germany around this time of year. Beer drinkers flocked to Munich by the million for Oktoberfest, a debaucherous celebration of brew, and found that the lagers and ales they came for had, once again, become more expensive. But unlike imbibers everywhere else, the patrons responded by buying more beer—not just overall, but per person. Every year, the beer sold at Oktoberfest got a lot more expensive. And yet, for the most part, festival goers didn't seem to mind—not, at least, if their spending habits were of any indication. From about 1995 until 2012, beer consumption per capita at the once-a-year brew festival rose with little interruption. The chart below, plucked from UniCredit's Research's Oktoberfest 2015 report, shows the steady rise in red (it has since fallen off a tad, which we'll get to in a second). That uptick came despite a furious increase in beer prices at the event—price increases that far outpaced both general upward price trends and beer specific inflation in Germany. This bit from the report puts the Oktoberfest beer inflation in perspective: Without getting nostalgic and blaming anybody, in 1985 the price for one Maß [one liter of beer] was 6.1 deutschmarks, or the equivalent of EUR 3.1 [or $3.50]. Since then, the beer price at the Wiesn has risen by more than 220%. This compares to just a 69% rise in German consumer prices. The chart below should help too. Bottled beer price growth looks flat by comparison over the years. Very flat. The reason the simultaneous rise in beer prices and beer demand per person at Oktoberfest is bizarre is that beer is normally what economists call an elastic good. When beer gets more expensive, people tend to buy less of it. "On average, a 1% increase in the price of beer triggers a roughly .3% decline in the demand," a report by UniCredit Research noted in 2013. At Oktoberfest, however, up until a few years ago, there seemed to be an inversion of the conventional understanding of beer economics. Ever since the early 1980s, a 1% increase in beer prices has actually resulted in a 0.3% increase in demand for beer at the festival. The suggestion, according to UniCredit Research, is that beer sold at Oktoberfest might be what is known as a giffen good, which


NASA visualizes the supersonic shockwave of a jet eclipsing the sun

are deduced from distortions of the background pattern resulting from the change in refractive index due to density gradients. This method requires very simple optics and a variety of background patterns, including natural ones, may be used. In the old method, researchers had to fly two planes to get the shot — one plane to be photographed, so to speak, and another flying directly overhead to get the image. The sun also had to be basically directly overhead, because the technique needs a really bright light source. The supersonic shockwave of jet flying over the Mojave Desert. Researchers used NASA-developed image processing software to remove the desert background, then combined and averaged multiple frames to produce a clear picture of the shock waves. (NASA) The old method produced this black and white image of a jet flying over the Mojave Desert. “A high-speed camera on the underside of a NASA Beechcraft B200 King Air captured 109 frames per second while the supersonic target aircraft passed several thousand feet underneath in straight-and-level flight at speeds up to Mach 1.09 (Mach 1 is the speed of sound, which varies with altitude, but is about 768 mph at sea level),” says NASA. “Researchers acquired imagery with a relatively simple system consisting of a laptop with a frame grabber and using natural desert vegetation as the speckled background pattern, a method the team dubbed ‘Tumbleweed Tech.'” The new method, which NASA says is patent-pending, is called Background-Oriented Schlieren using Celestial Objects, or BOSCO. They’re essentially using the old technique, but can do it from the ground as they pass in front of the sun or moon — very bright light sources, plus they both have speckled patterns on the surface when viewed with the correct filters. In the case of the sun, the speckles are actually sunspots that are hundreds of times the size of Earth itself. There’s a little bit of planning needed to make sure the jet will eclipse the sun at just the right time, relative to the camera’s position on the ground, but it’s much easier and less expensive than flying a second plane to do the experiment. Plus, NASA doesn’t necessarily need to fly their own jet to do it. “We would like to try to use the BOSCO system on things other than aircraft,” says NASA’s Michael Hill. “We could potentially perform schlieren photography on anything we could


Climate change is having a surprising effect on bumble bees: Their tongues are shrinking

Queen bumble bee, Bombus balteatus, foraging for nectar on the alpine wildflower Polemonium viscosum. (Credit: Candace Galen) Climate change is making some pretty strange things happen in the world. It’s able to alter the behavior of In a Tongue size is important in bees because it controls which flowers they can visit for nectar. Bees with longer tongues are able to collect nectar from flowers with longer corollas (that’s the tube shape a flower’s petals form, protecting the tasty nectar inside). Bees with more medium-length tongues tend to pollinate many different species of flowers. But bees with long tongues are often considered specialists, meaning they only pollinate flowers with deep corolla tubes — and this can be a beneficial arrangement for both the bee and the plant. The bee gets to collect nectar from flowers that insects with shorter tongues can’t access, meaning it has less competition for food. And the flower is pollinated by bees that are only visiting other flowers of the same type, meaning there’s a better chance its pollen is getting transferred to the correct species. This tactic works best when food is abundant. But the researchers on this study found that rising temperatures are causing flowers (of all sizes) to decline in the mountains, putting more stress on the bees when it comes to finding food. With fewer flowers to choose from overall, it makes less sense to be so specialized, says The study is “a beautiful piece of work that shows the first incidence of climate affecting an important functional trait in the bees,” said The researchers conducted their study by measuring bumble bee tongues from two different time periods: bee specimens collected between 1966 and 1980, taken from museum collections, and bees collected between 2012 and 2014. They focused on two different bumble bee species, Bombus balteatus and Bombus sylvicola, which are among the most common species at high elevations in the Rocky Mountains. They found that tongue length, between both species, has declined by 24.4 percent in all, or about 0.61 percent each year. Cameron believes it would be a good idea to conduct the same study again in five years, just to be sure that the tongue-shrinking is a long-term trend and not just “short-term cycling.” But if the trend holds true, it represents an instance of surprisingly rapid evolution in the bees. “It’s a very short period of time to


The violent beauty of the Veil Nebula reveals itself in new NASA image

3-D Flyover Visualization of Veil Nebula Eight thousand years ago, our ancestors may have witnessed what seemed like a bright new star in the sky. It was actually the death of a star -- the explosion of an orb 20 times more massive than our sun. The so-called Veil Nebula, which sits 2,100 light years away, is still expanding in the latest view from NASA. The Veil Nebula. (NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)) The nebula is currently 110 light years across, but it's going to keep getting bigger. The nebula is created by the fast-moving wave of gas sent out into space by the explosion of the former star. As that gas plows into cooler, more dense intersteller gas, it produces light. The new image comes from six combined Hubble images, and it shows just two light years of the massive structure. The gorgeous colors of nebulae come from ionized gases. In the Veil Nebula, we can see red -- from glowing hydrogen; green from sulfur; and blue from oxygen. Read More: Check out this beautiful, rose-colored nebula bursting with stars Here’s what our galaxy looks like from the outside For the first time ever, scientists spot an aurora outside our solar system This scale model of the solar system is truly mind-boggling New NASA photo captures a breathtaking sunset on Pluto


Talk about a cash infusion: Cava Grill just got another $45 million in funding

Our eyes got pretty wide when we found out that Cava Grill, the fast-casual chain of Mediterranean restaurants based in the Washington area, had pulled in $16 million in venture capital funding this spring. They almost fell out today when the company announced it has raised another $45 million to continue its cross-country expansion and beef up its operations. From left, Cava executives Brett Schulman, Dimitri Moshovitis, Ted Xenohristos and Ike Grigoropoulos. (Jeffrey MacMillan/The Washington Post) [Local chain Cava Grill is going national with plans to dip into Los Angeles and Chicago] The news comes just as Cava, founded by childhood friends Dimitri Moshovitis, Ted Xenohristos and Ike Grigoropoulos in 2006, is preparing to open the first of two planned restaurants in the Los Angeles area. Locally, the chain, which also sells a line of packaged dips and spreads at Whole Foods Markets nationwide, recently debuted a location in Terminal B at Reagan National Airport. A Dupont Circle shop is also in the works for next spring, which will bring its local count up to 13. In a press release, chief executive Brett Schulman said the latest investment will go toward a variety of initiatives in addition to the West Coast expansion, including internal and external technology, employee benefits and a new production facility for the grocery store products. The newest infusion of cash was led by global investment firm Invus. Also contributing: Leesburg-based SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, which led the spring round of funding, and Revolution Growth, which has offices in Washington and San Francisco. Related items: Cava Grill raises $16M, prepares move to Los Angeles Chipotle wannabes find D.C. the perfect place for have-it-your-way cuisine


D.C. area forecast: Cloudy, breezy, and possibly periodically wet through the weekend

TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 6/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL For sunshine lovers, it isn’t a great weekend to be in D.C. Clouds really do want to dominate through about Monday perhaps. We do think breaks in the clouds happen from time to time, with fingers especially crossed for the lunar eclipse Sunday night. Stay tuned! But in the meantime, grab a small umbrella to keep on you for a few days, and perhaps even a nighttime light jacket. [Cloudy or clear? Viewing conditions for the supermoon lunar eclipse] Satellite loop of clouds over our area. Refresh page to update. Today (Friday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast into next week… Tomorrow (Saturday): Tomorrow night: Sunday: Sunday night in Old Town Alexandria, VA (by Todd Megill on September 20 via our CWG Facebook page) A LOOK AHEAD Sunday night: We could be in for some increasing warmth for Monday into Tuesday. Early showers (20% chance) on Monday may scoot out of the way quickly to make way for some increasing sunshine which should win out over periodic clouds through Tuesday. High temperatures in the upper 70s to low 80s look likely. It should be some decent early-autumn weather! But we’ll keep you posted on any changes if they develop as we get closer. Confidence: Low-Medium


If there’s a government shutdown, this is what it means for federal retirement benefits

A sign announces the closure of the Lincoln Memorial due to the government shutdown on Oct. 1, 2013. ( Matt McClain/ The Washington Post) A partial government shutdown would interrupt the income of most federal employees, at least temporarily. But that would not be the case for government retirees, since their payments come from permanent trust funds, and the government would make sure those payments continue to go out. Retirement benefits also are a concern even for active employees, since those benefits are one of the more attractive aspects of working for the government. Following are questions and answers regarding retirement benefits for those still working and those already retired. Q. A. Because [Office of Personnel Management] retirement operations are not funded through general revenues, retirees should expect to receive their annuity payments deposited into their accounts or received in the mail on time as usual. OPM sends annuity payment tapes to the Department of Treasury in the middle of the month prior to the payment date so that Treasury has time to process the payment tapes/cut checks and ensure that annuity payments are received by the first of the month. Federal retirement annuities are timed to be received by retirees on the first business day of each month, which in this case would be Thursday, Oct. 1. All but a few retirees receive their payments by direct deposits made on that day, with paper checks for the rest timed to be delivered that day. While OPM authorizes the payments, the Treasury Department is responsible for actually processing the direct deposits and checks. Premiums in the federal health care plan and other insurance programs would continue to be withheld from those payments and thus there would be no interruption in coverage. OPM did not respond to a request for information apart from relaying a standard Obama administration statement that it remains hopeful there will be no shutdown. The Treasury Department referred questions to OMB, which provided only that same statement. Q. A. That office also processes new applications for benefits, so that also would continue. However, processing applications often involves back-and-forth between OPM and the employing agencies, and the offices involved at those agencies may be closed, causing delays. Processing of applications has been plagued for years by backlogs that result in smaller “interim” payments for many months until the full benefit is calculated. Q. A. However, some of those


Mexico’s miserable year

revealed that the president and his telenovela star wife were living in a luxurious $7 million, 10,000-square-foot house that actually belonged to a company affiliated with a business group that has received lucrative government contracts. [Luxurious presidential house draws Mexican press scrutiny] And then, of course, there was the escape of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, also know as El Chapo, from a supposedly supermax prison. The escape was a monumental embarrassment, not only for the embattled president but also for a country that had spent incredible resources to capture him (twice). Since then, things have only gotten worse for the government. Journalists, particularly those working for news magazine Proceso, have picked apart the official Ayotzinapa story, suggesting that federal police and soldiers were involved. Argentine investigators brought in to assist the Mexican government said that they were misled and manipulated. A group of experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights have released a handful of reports questioning not only the incident, but also the investigation. The most recent report, released earlier this month, said that the bodies could not possibly have been burned at the trash dump. It also said federal police and soldiers didn’t stop the attack, and that important evidence — including CCTV footage of the attacks — had been destroyed. The biggest bombshell was that the students might have been killed not because of any threat to a political speech, but because they happened to commandeer the wrong bus. [Mexico’s account of how 43 students disappeared is wrong, new report says] There were signs that Iguala buses were being used to transport heroin into the United States, the experts said in their report. The students may have inadvertently taken one of the drug-packed vehicles, prompting corrupt police, crooked politicians and a drug cartel to scramble to recover the multimillion-dollar cargo at all costs. “This report provides an utterly damning indictment of Mexico’s handling of the worst human rights atrocity in recent memory,” José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Even with the world watching and with substantial resources at hand, the authorities proved unable or unwilling to conduct a serious investigation.” People carry signs that translate to “Pena out” and “Not one more disappeared, not one more dead; Out Pena Nieto,” during a rally in Mexico City’s main square on Sept. 23, 2015. (Rebecca Blackwell/AP) The bus allegedly full of


What it looks like when a bank goes out of its way to avoid minorities

$5.5 million penalty to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Civil Penalty Fund. Justice officials treated the case as an illustration of a broader practice of banking discrimination — and of the government's intent to crack down on it. DOJ officials said the agency has more open redlining investigations now than at any time in the last six years. "Redlining is not a vestige of the past," said Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "Banks continue to build and structure their lending operations in a way that avoids or fails to really meaningfully serve communities of color." The government's complaint against Hudson City is a handbook of the many ways it's possible to do this. Between 2004-2010, the bank opened or acquired 54 branch locations; all but three were located outside minority neighborhoods. In this map of the New York area from the government's complaint, those branch locations are shown atop minority census tracts. Red areas have a black and Hispanic population greater than 80 percent. Orange areas have a black and Hispanic population above 50 percent: Hudson City Savings Bank branch locations in the New York metropolitan area opened or acquired from 2004-present, from the government's redlining complaint against the bank. The bank didn't accept mortgage applications at all of its branches, requiring some borrowers to travel to locations that happened to be farther away and in overwhelmingly white communities. The bank also offered a home improvement loan program for low-to-moderate income families, but the advertising for it specified that closings could only occur at one branch. It was in Fairfield, Conn., where the median income is $117,000 and the population is 92 percent white. In the broader New York City metro, Hudson City used 162 mortgage brokers; just 12 were headquartered in minority census tracts. Not a single one of its 47 brokers in the Camden, N.J., metro area were based in such communities. Here are its broker locations throughout the region: Hudson City Savings Bank broker headquarters locations, from a federal government redlining complaint against the bank. Not surprisingly then, from 2009-2013, less than 1 percent of the bank's loan applications in the Camden metro were from minority neighborhoods. Less than 5 percent of its applications in the New York metro were for such properties. From 2009-2013, here are all of the bank's mortgage applications: Hudson City Savings Bank loan applications, 2009-2013, from a


The Daily 202: Why Trump’s “boycott” of Fox News is a bad idea

attack Mr. Trump any time soon, according to their strategists, for fear of repercussions.” — People magazine, “From ‘girly-girl’ to fun grandma, the fun Carly Fiorina you don’t know (yet),” by Sandra Sobieraj Westfall: “I love being a girl!” says Fiorina, 61. “I like clothes. I like shoes. I like dressing up.To wit, for the three-hour Republican debate on Sept. 16, Fiorina sported a $755 pair of 3.5-inch Manolo Blahnik heels. And, like women everywhere who have to answer for their pricey shoes, she notes, “I bought them several years ago”…Fiorina, with her husband Frank, has two step-granddaughters – Kara and Morgan, who call her “CiCi.” “I think I’m a pretty fun grandma. They think I’m pretty fun,” says Fiorina… “I hurl myself down water slides and I have done many Halloween costumes. I don’t make them, but we go collect them and they they get to come and pick”…She’s also obsessed with her iphone 6 Plus: “We have emoji orgies on the phone and that amuses me.” HOT ON THE LEFT Let’s not bring the pope into the next Hobby Lobby controversy. HOT ON THE RIGHT Kanye West thinks Ben Carson is ‘brilliant.’ DAYBOOK: — What’s happening today on the campaign trail: –On the Hill: –At the White House: QUOTE OF THE DAY: NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.: — For sunshine lovers, it isn’t a great weekend to be in D.C. Clouds really do want to dominate through about Monday perhaps. We do think breaks in the clouds happen from time to time, with fingers especially crossed for the lunar eclipse Sunday night,” says the Capital Weather Gang. — Redskins QB Kirk Cousins was rattled in a 32-21 loss to the New York Giants. — The Baltimore Orioles again beat the Nationals, 5-4, sweeping the series and further reducing the Nats’ playoff chances. VIDEOS OF THE DAY: “Oh, yeah! I got a selfie!” said the kid in this video as Francis passed: “Oh, yeah! I got a selfie.” (C-SPAN) Just before Francis entered the House chamber, a woman was caught on a hot mic talking about throwing her shoe: Hot Mic During Pope's Capitol Visit Catches Woman Talking About Throwing Shoe And finally, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) got some love for his cool socks (click below to watch): The New Yorker parodies how technology companies overhype their new products. Watch a two-and-a-half minute video here.


A government shutdown probably won’t change much. But that’s the problem.

conversation with Newport about how Americans perceived their government during the 2013 shutdown — and what that could mean for a potential shutdown come Oct. 1 (that's seven days away, for those counting at home). His answers are edited lightly for length and clarity. FIX: Did the 2013 shutdown have any impact on whether people thought this country was on the right or wrong track? NEWPORT: If we use the case of the 2013 shutdown, we didn't see as much of a hit of that measure as we saw on other measures. That satisfaction measure actually bottomed out historically in 2008 with the recession (and also with the political campaign, which actually brings these issues to the forefront). And then it also dropped again in 2011, which wasn't a shutdown, but which in our measures was a pretty negative time economically. Then, as we went into 2013, we saw somewhat of a drop in October, but then it picked up in November. So, based on our data, it doesn't look like, in 2013, the big impact of the shutdown was on the measure of Americans' satisfaction with the country. FIX: So what did you see shift during the 2013 shutdown? NEWPORT: We saw an actually bigger hit on our economic confidence measure. When the shutdown came, that's what really plummeted. It was short-lived to some degree, but it was significant. We measure Americans' economic confidence on a scale of 100 to -100. During the shutdown, it was still negative, but that was better than after the recession hit in 2008, when we had seen it go as low as -60. [ FIX: Were other measures about how Americans view government affected by the shutdown? NEWPORT: Yes, competence in government dropped a bit. But that was already very low. For example, we ask how members of Congress are perceived with regard to honesty and ethics, and they are at the very bottom of the list (except for car salesmen). We ask about confidence in institutions (like education, the judicial system, the medical system, Congress). Congress is dead last of all the institutions. We just measured 25 different business and industry sectors for Americans' positive or negative images. The federal government is dead last. We also have over the last several years measured favorable ratings of both parties; if you average them together, they are as low as they've ever been. So


In ‘Quantico,’ 1970s thrillers meet ABC’s rainbow of diversity

into the recruiting class only because of his family connections, provides a way for Safran to get into issues of the bureau’s history. “What’s interesting about these institutions in the government, and in corporate America too, is they wish that everybody was slightly robotic and everybody was exactly the same, that they all follow the same rules,” Gordon explains. “When we think of FBI guys, we think of buttoned-down, buttoned-up, all kinds of buttons. And the fact of the matter is in some ways what they want is antithetical to what they need. Because if everybody’s the same, how can you have different points of view? And the only way to solve a problem is to have different points of view, to be asking questions.” The diversity of the cast isn’t the only way in which “Quantico” is a political show. “When I pitched I said, ‘It’s a sexy soap,’ because you have to tick that box, but it’s also a character study and a political thriller,” Safran told me. “I love ‘Three Days of the Condor,’ ‘The Parallax View,’ ‘The Manchurian Candidate.’ These things won’t necessarily show up in the show, but that’s what my first love is … It was a way to do a political thriller instead of, like you said, a military show. It is not ’24’ — we talk about that a lot.” He also cites Sundance’s Israel drama “The Honorable Woman” and the fifth season of “The Good Wife,” particularly the episode that followed National Security Agency agents tapping a law firm’s phone, as inspirations. “What they did so well,” Safran said of “The Good Wife,” is portraying how that wiretapping, “It’s just people’s jobs, it’s not their actual politics. You could be very much against spying on these people, but it’s still your job and you have to do it.” Those tensions might play out as generational debates in “Quantico,” pitting new recruits against their trainers. Safran and Gordon are also interested in how our assumptions work against us. Gordon pointed to “The Wrong Man,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 thriller about a man, played by Henry Fonda, who struggles to prove his innocence after he’s accused of a crime, as one template. Simon’s Zionism or Nimah’s faith are both potential assets for the bureau, but they’re also beliefs that potentially make them targets when Grand Central Station is demolished. And the central mystery gives


Cloudy or clear? Viewing conditions for the supermoon lunar eclipse Sunday night

On Sept. 27, 2015, there will be a very rare event in the night sky – a supermoon lunar eclipse. Watch this animated feature to learn more. On Sunday night starting at 9:07 p.m., the Earth will pass directly between the sun and the moon, which will cast a glowing orange shadow on our lunar satellite in a total eclipse. “To make matters more interesting, the reddish, eclipsing moon will be in ‘perigee’ phase — which means it is closest to the Earth for September,” writes our astronomy expert Blaine Friedlander, “and in fact, it is the closest point all year — what some call a ‘supermoon.’ A so-called supermoon appears 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than when the moon is farthest away from Earth.” [Look to the sky on Sunday night for a rare supermoon lunar eclipse] But will you actually be able to see this rare astronomical show, or will clouds spoil the view? The National Weather Service cloud forecast for 11 p.m. Sunday does not look great for the Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast. The coastal low pressure system that’s drenching the Carolinas is expected to remain mostly intact through Sunday as it slowly crawls up the East Coast. Cloud cover forecast for Sunday night at 11 p.m. Eastern time. Shades of blue should have adequate viewing conditions. Areas in grey will probably not get to see the eclipse. (National Weather Service) Washington, D.C., will be squarely in the grips of this storm system, which means viewing will be basically impossible. For those who want to watch but are clouded over, Slooh.com will be live-streaming the eclipse starting at 9 p.m. Eastern time. [The Aral Sea used to be the fourth largest in the world. Watch it disappear.] Sky conditions in the Northeast are highly questionable. It seems likely that New York City will be pretty cloudy on Sunday night, but areas farther north like Boston might have enough clear sky to catch a glimpse. It all depends on how far north the storm tracks by Sunday night. The Midwest is also a big question mark at this point — it’s unclear whether or not the high clouds of this system will spread into Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, and even if they do, a lucky break on Sunday night is certainly possible. [Pic of the week: Fire and ice] The European model (below) is forecasting clouds


Another breathtaking turn on the shutdown roller coaster ride

Furloughed federal workers protest outside the U.S. Capitol during the government shutdown in 2013 (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Just as House Speaker John Boehner was announcing his resignation to House Republicans Friday morning, clearing the way for Congress to avoid a closure of the government next week, the Defense Department was still in a state of full preparation for a shutdown. “As part of our effort to keep our personnel apprised of planning efforts,” Robert Work, the deputy secretary of defense, wrote in a two-page memo that was being e-mailed to employees of the government’s largest agency throughout the day, “We are providing further information on how a potential government shutdown will affect our staff and operations.” [Latest updates from Boehner resignation] Work wrote that “prudent management” requires DOD to “continue to prepare for all contingencies.” Officials at the Pentagon have updated their contingency plans and determined which civilians would be told to come to work, and which furloughed. Additional details would be forthcoming. And the decision to furlough an employee or keep them at work was in no way a reflection of their importance to the Defense Department, he wrote. The missive and its timing underscored the limbo federal agencies and their employees have been in for weeks as yet another shutdown loomed. The challenges of a bitterly divided Congress have made uncertainty the norm when one federal budget expires and lawmakers must pass another at the start of a new fiscal year. And federal officials have tried to navigate between Congress and the the morale of their employees. In recent weeks, a standoff over funding for Planned Parenthood and Boehner’s inability to hold together his fractious and increasingly conservative Republican members resulted in a scramble in the agencies that operate the government. It resulted in many hours of meetings, memos, conference calls, accounting, poring over budgets and which pots of money the spending they authorize comes from. For thousands of federal contractors the pattern was the same, although they could not guarantee their employees any salary during a shutdown. Two years ago, when the government closed for 16 days over an impasse on the Affordable Care Act, it had been 17 years since the last shutdown. The planning took up some 50 percent of many managers’ time, according to an analysis by the Government Accountability Office,the investigative arm of Congress. This round was smoother, since agencies had


I cried when I heard the new panda’s name

Wise men say: This panda should have been named “Elvis.” (Courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo) Did I really think I had a chance of convincing the Smithsonian National Zoo to name its giant panda cub “Elvis”? No, I guess not. But then, how many Republican presidential candidates really think they’re going be on the general election ballot next year? And yet they still run – to raise awareness of important issues, they say. That’s why I embarked last month on my name-the-panda-Elvis crusade. My issue: Elvis is a cool name, a cool American name. The name came to me after the new panda’s twin died. Elvis Presley was himself a surviving twin. But the similarities didn’t stop there. Like the panda, Elvis had millions of adoring fans. He had an affinity for stuffed pandas. (Really. Google it.) And he visited the White House to meet Richard Nixon, who smoothed relations with China and got a pair of pandas in the process. On Friday the zoo announced that the first ladies of China and the United States had selected the panda cub’s name: Bei Bei, which means “precious treasure.” This is not to be confused with the last panda cub – Bao Bao – which also means “precious treasure.” I expect they’ll be getting each other’s mail at the zoo. The public got to vote to pick the names of Bao Bao and her older brother, Tai Shan, which weren’t announced until the cubs reached 100 days old. That’s why I thought I had time. Time to contact the folks at the International Elvis Presley Fan Club, founded in 1968 in Hong Kong. Time to interview a famous Chinese Elvis impersonator who lives in London. Time to explore what the Chinese call Elvis Presley: Mao Wang, which is Chinese for “king of the cats.” Time to launch my change.org petition respectfully asking the National Zoo to at least include “Elvis” among its more traditional name choices when it came time to vote. Time to hire 100 Elvis impersonators to conga-line their way down Connecticut Avenue and into the zoo, all singing “(Let Me Be Your) Panda Bear.” Sadly, none of that will happen now. Friday’s name announcement is a reminder that the giant pandas aren’t really ours. They are China’s, in Washington at the pleasure of the Chinese. And I guess that’s how it should be, giant pandas not being


Full Transcript: Chinese President Xi Jinping’s toast at the Chinese State dinner

therefore, much more can be accomplished through enhanced China-U.S. cooperation. I want to assure you that such goodwill is fully reciprocated by the Chinese people. Since yesterday evening, I have had three meetings with President Obama. We had candid and in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and major issues that are vital to world peace and development. And we reached broad and important agreement. Our discussion has yielded many positive outcomes. Thirty-six years ago during his visit to the United States, Mr. Deng Xiaoping predicted that China-US relations would make major progress under new historical conditions. Bracing against wind and rain, our relations have forged ahead and made extraordinary achievements in the past 30 years and more. I’m convinced that the future of China-US relations will be even more bright. This morning my wife and Mrs. Obama visited the Panda House at the National Zoo. She later told me that she was deeply touched by the American kids’ love of panda and their curiosity about and fondness for China, the home of panda. My wife said at the event, “the seeds of China-US friendship have already taken root in the hearts of the kids.” I cannot agree more with her. Mr. President and Mrs. Obama, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, as an ancient Chinese saying goes: “Only those who take actions can achieve their goal. Only those who strive forward can reach their destination.” President Abraham Lincoln once said: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Let us continue to respect and learn from each other, turn our blueprint into reality, and find, in a creative way, a new historic chapter in China-US relations. In closing let me propose a toast to the friendship between Chinese and American people, to the prosperity of China and the United States, and the happiness of our two peoples and to the health of President and Mrs. Obama and all the friends present. Cheers. More state dinner coverage: Complete guest list for the state dinner in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping State-dinner statements: The menu and the chefs behind it can say a lot (but do they?) Tonight’s state dinner is the inaugural for social secretary Deesha Dyer Ne-Yo will perform at the state dinner in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping Will Michelle Obama avoid a diplomatic fashion controversy at the White House state dinner for China?


White House state dinner for China headlined by tech titans, Hollywood heavyweights

will be times where our interests entirely overlap,” he said. “But I think we’ll be sustained by the friendship between our two countries.” Jinping reciprocated in his toast, citing “goodwill” shared between the people of the U.S. and China and name-checked Abraham Lincoln and the popular Chinese panda cub at the National Zoo. “Much more can be accomplished through enhanced China-U.S. cooperation,” he said. And from there, the dinner was off, with the usual mix of diplomacy, fine dining, and mingling. There was butter-poached lobster and petit fours. Selfies, of course (was that director of “The Butler” Lee Daniels fist-bumping former secretary of state Henry Kissinger? OK, then). Daniels wasn’t the only high-wattage guest in the room. Ballerina of the moment Misty Copeland, designer Phillip Lim, mogul and sometime actor Mark Cuban rounded out the 200-person VIP list. R&B singer Ne-Yo, adorably accompanied to the White House by his mother, Harriet Loraine Burts, performed a 20-minute set following the meal. We don’t know whether it was because his mom or the president were in the crowd, but the R&B crooner told reporters beforehand that he had scoured his songs to make sure there wasn’t anything too risque in the mix. So no “Sexy Love”? But maybe a lot of “Champagne Life”? And somewhere, later in the evening, breathing a sigh of relief was White House social secretary Deesha Dyer, who had just pulled off her inaugural state dinner, sans any public gaffes. Earlier in the week, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the entire social team was “well aware of the microscope that they’re under right now.” With Pope Francis and President Jinping visiting within days of one another, Earnest added that Dyer was “getting a baptism by fire.” President Obama hosts China’s president Xi Jinping at the White House for a state dinner. More state dinner coverage: Diplomatic fashion crisis averted: Michelle Obama wears Vera Wang to state dinner Full Transcript: President Obama’s toast at the Chinese state dinner Full Transcript: Chinese President Xi Jinping’s toast at the Chinese state dinner Will Michelle Obama avoid a diplomatic fashion controversy at the White House state dinner for China? State-dinner statements: The menu and the chefs behind it can say a lot (but do they?) Tonight’s state dinner is the inaugural for social secretary Deesha Dyer Ne-Yo will perform at the state dinner in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping


Federal agencies roll out new plans for a government shutdown: See you in December?

every federal agency spent much of their time poring over their roster of employees to decide whether the jobs they do should be considered essential to security and safety or expendable during a shutdown. [Boehner gives up the speaker’s post in a sacrifice to rescue the House] “We’re hearing there will be a resolution,” said one Defense Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about contingency planning. [If the government shuts, don’t plan on visiting Yellowstone, financing your home or getting your tax refund ] “But we can’t count on that,” the official said. “We have to prepare for all three contingencies: a new budget, a temporary budget without new money, or a shutdown.” Most agencies relied on the plans they drew up in 2013, when another conflict in Congress, over the Affordable Care Act, forced a 16-day partial shutdown. [Who gets sent home if the government shuts down] For example, the field staff at the Agriculture Department would continue inspections of meat, poultry and eggs. Veterans’ hospitals would stay open. But all national parks and historical sites would shut. And the Internal Revenue Service “would halt taxpayer services such as responding to taxpayer questions, including telephone customer service functions,” its plan says. The Park Service added an additional closure this year that it didn’t make in 2013: special events. Any event that calls on employees for crowd control will be canceled. [Shuttering the government actually costs more than keeping it open–more than $2 billion last time] But Park Service officials also added new language for First Amendment demonstrations on the National Mall, the memorials and Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia, which could take place as long as the participants obtained a permit before the shutdown. Wheelchair-bound elderly veterans pushed aside barricades to tour the World War II Memorial in defiance of the shutdown in 2013, which closed all of the memorials in Washington. The four busloads of veterans, visiting from Mississippi as part of a once-in-a-lifetime Honor Flight tour, ignored police admonitions not to enter the memorial, as lawmakers and tourists cheered them on. [Another breathtaking turn on the shutdown roller coaster ride] A Park Service service spokeswoman told Federal News Radio that those kinds of tours would probably be covered by the First Amendment exception. To see all agencies’ contingency plans for a 2015 shutdown, click here


Jonathan Aberman: As sequestration looms, it’s our time to shine.

congressional budget process is playing out downtown, and greater Washington is reminded how dangerous it is being a company town when the mill owner is moody. (Photo courtesy of Jonathan Aberman) Yes, a government shutdown would affect our entire economy, as a portion of our workforce would be left without paychecks for period of time. However, the possibility of a reimposition of sequestration limits on federal spending is an ongoing threat. For two years, a short-term congressional agreement allowed federal expenditures to rise higher than sequestration limits. Many suggest our region has adjusted to the lower spending totals, but that is just wrong. It’s time for members of greater Washington’s business community to wake up. Let’s recognize that our federal government’s need to do more with less is a permanent condition. Efforts such as GSA’s 18F technology incubator, the Pentagon’s office in Silicon Valley and other initiatives reflect a growing desire for our federal government to acquire off-the-shelf products and commercially proven solutions. Looking at our fastest growing local companies, we’re still highly concentrated in technology services. This has to change. We need to use our proximity to the federal government more strategically. Rather than being a passive partner with government as a recipient of federal largess, our region must take advantage of its locale to drive new industries and technological changes. How do we do that? Through an intelligent interaction of policy, regulation and entrepreneurship. Let entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley ignore government and try to disrupt around it. We should acknowledge and lead the development of industries that work with it. There are several examples of opportunity. Here are just three: Personalized medicine. Virtual reality. Cybersecurity. In these instances, and a variety of others, our region is uniquely positioned to lead the discussion and expansion of industries that will drive 21st century jobs and wealth creation. As a matter of fact, our failure to resolve these distinct issues would prevent emerging industries from taking root and growing. Regulation, policy and entrepreneurship need to overlap to make intelligent decisions. This is our time to shine — our region’s big chance. Instead of reacting to external political forces, let’s jump up and take the lead. Jonathan Aberman is a business owner, entrepreneur and chairman of Amplifier Ventures, a venture capital fund focusing on national security technology innovation. He is co-host of “Forward Thinking Radio” on SiriusXM, a business and policy program.


The Daily 202: Putin trolls Obama ahead of United Nations showdown

The so-called supermoon passes behind the peak of the Washington Monument during a lunar eclipse late last night. It occurs when the full moon comes closest to the Earth making it appear bigger. It was the first time the events have made a twin appearance since 1982, and they won’t again until 2033. (AP Photo/J. David Ake) THE BIG IDEA: — Their relationship is as frosty as ever. Russia, invoking the specter of the Islamic State as an excuse to prop up murderous Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, has deployed hundreds of soldiers, 28 fighter jets, helicopters, tanks and artillery into Syria. The show of military power seems mainly designed to distract both the West and Putin’s own people from the mess he’s created in Ukraine, which triggered damaging economic sanctions. Regardless of why he’s doing it, Putin’s engagement has made Syria’s multi-front and multi-player war even more chaotic and complicated to solve. We’ve come a long way since Obama drew that meaningless “red line” in August 2012. Obama and Putin at the G8 summit in June 2013 after the Edward Snowden imbroglio. (Alexei Nikolsky/RIA Novosti via EPA) Ahead of his sit-down with Obama, [Sign up to get The Daily 202 delivered weekdays to your e-mail inbox] Russia further asserted itself in the Middle East this weekend by inking an intelligence-sharing agreement with Iraq. Iran and Syria are also involved. Meanwhile, U.S. officials remain uncertain about Putin’s Syria strategy and confused about how to respond. On the American side, the players are changing in the power struggle over U.S. policy: Russian context: Putin’s entry into Syria, like almost everything else that he does, is part of his own bid to stay in power, As a signal of the popular unease with Putin, just yesterday the Kremlin-backed contender for governor of the Irkutsk region of Siberia lost to a communist candidate. — Republicans are using today to try showing foreign policy chops — - Marco Rubio calls for the U.S. to much more aggressively counter Putin in a National Review op-ed. - Kevin McCarthy will make first significant comments as speaker apparent. His speech to the John Hay Initiative will focus on “the need for American leadership in an increasingly dangerous world.” The event is at 1:30 p.m. at the St. Regis. The Wall Street Journal’s Patrick O’Connor previews the speech and explains what the new group is about here. Register for


D.C. gets a lucky break in the clouds just in time for the lunar eclipse (Photos)

(Angela Pan via Flickr) In an amazing stroke of luck (and very good timing), the weekend’s persistent, overcast clouds parted just in time for Washington, D.C., to catch a glimpse of the supermoon lunar eclipse last night. Washingtonians had their cameras ready. The sun poked through the clouds early yesterday, bolstering hopes that skies would cooperate for the celestial viewing. But by late afternoon it was totally overcast again, and things did not look promising. At the time, we were thinking there was about a 20 percent chance that there’d be a lucky break around 9 or 10 p.m. — maybe just enough to get a fleeting glimpse before the moon vanished again behind the clouds. What happened last night far exceeded expectations. Around 9 p.m., photos of the moon began pouring in on Twitter and Facebook. Though some of us were not as lucky as others, many photographers in the D.C. region were able to capture amazing photos of this rare and spectacular event. The total lunar eclipse was particularly remarkable because it was occurring while the moon was in perigee, the closest the moon was to the Earth all year and why it’s called a supermoon. The coincidence of a supermoon and lunar eclipse is rare — it last happened 33 years ago, and won’t happen again for another 18 years. Thanks to everyone who shared their view of the eclipse with us! (Dave L. via Twitter) (Paul Sirajuddin via Flickr) (pablo.raw via Flickr) Across the globe, millions watched as the satellite turned a deep dusty orange on Sunday’s rare celestial occasion, a lunar eclipse during the moon's closest approach of the year to Earth. (Brett Bowers via Flickr) All phases of the supermoon eclipse over the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire. (Mount Washington Observatory via Facebook) (Richard Barnhill via Flickr) Fairfax, Va. (John Ernst via Flickr) The eclipse over Navy Yard. (Zack Lewkowicz via Flickr) (Jim Havard via Flickr) (Vantage Phoenix Photography via Facebook) (Phil via Flickr) (Jeff Morrow via Flickr) (Tyler Reber via Flickr) My first attempts at eclipse photography. University Park, MD @capitalweather 1/2 http://t.co/bQIGYsWxlu @capitalweather Here's the best I got before the clouds rolled in. Reston ~ 10:00p. Completely overcast now. http://t.co/C29ZbdzU0L Just WOW #Eclipse #SuperBloodMoon @capitalweather http://t.co/8gQ5k938nG A telescope, an iPhone,


Full text: Obama’s address at Union Nations General Assembly

punish Iran. Our objective was to test whether Iran could change course, accept constraints and allow the world to verify that its nuclear program will be peaceful. For two years, the United States and our partners, including Russia, including China, stuck together in complex negotiations. The result is a lasting, comprehensive deal that prevents in Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, while allowing it to access peaceful energy and if this deal is fully implemented, the prohibition on nuclear weapons is strengthened, a potential war is averted, our world is safer. That is the strength of the international system when it works the way it should. That same fidelity to international order guides our responses to other challenges around the world. Consider Russia's annexation of Crimea and further aggression in Eastern Ukraine. America has few economic interests in Ukraine. We recognize the deep and complex history between Russia and Ukraine but we cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated. If that happens without consequence in Ukraine, it could happen to any nation gathered here today. That is the basis of the sanctions that the United States and our partners impose on Russia. It is not a desire to return to a cold war. Now, within Russia, state-controlled media may describe these events as an example of a resurgent Russia. A view shared, by the way, by a number of U.S. politicians and commentators who have always been deeply skeptical of Russia and seem to be convinced a new cold war is, in fact, upon us. Yet, look at the results. The Ukrainian people are more interested than ever in aligning with Europe instead of Russia. Sanctions have led to capital flight. A contracting economy, a fallen ruble and the emigration of more educated Russians. Imagine if instead, Russia had engaged in true diplomacy and worked with Ukraine and the international community to ensure its interests were protected. That would be better for Ukraine but also better for Russia and better for the world, which is why we continue to press for this crisis to be resolved in a way that allows a sovereign and Democratic Ukraine to determine its feature and control its territory. Not because we want to isolate Russia, we don't, but because we want a strong Russia that is invested in working with us to strengthen the international system


What job cuts at Whole Foods tell us about the grocer’s future

A woman shops at the Whole Foods Market in Woodmere Village, Ohio. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) Whole Foods Market announced Monday that it was slashing 1,500 jobs over the next eight weeks, a cut that will affect about 1.6 percent of its workforce. The reduction affects only a small slice of the organic grocery chain’s workforce, and the company expects a “significant percentage” of the employees will be able to find different positions within the company. But the move is noteworthy in that it helps shed light on where the company is headed as competition in the organics business intensifies. In a statement explaining the job cuts, Whole Foods said that the decision was part of its effort to lower prices for customers and invest in better technology. And that underscores how essential the company believes it is to reposition itself in a fast-changing grocery environment. [Why supermarkets are in trouble] Whole Foods long ago earned the nickname “Whole Paycheck” thanks to its reputation for sometimes eye-popping prices on items such as grass-fed beef and local produce. But back when it largely had the organic market to itself, it didn’t feel as much pressure to bring down prices. Now, as consumers have become more interested in healthy eating and are more eager to know where their food comes from, plenty of other retailers are competing for organic grocery shoppers’ dollars. Kroger, Wal-Mart and Target have developed organics lines that have seen strong sales growth, while chains such as Trader Joe’s and Sprouts Farmers Market have been quickly expanding their fleets. That has pushed Whole Foods to find ways to deliver more value to its customers. The grocery chain has tried a host of tactics to achieve that, including a pilot of a loyalty rewards program. The company said in July that the rollout is going more slowly than anticipated because they are adjusting it based on customer feedback. Its biggest bet yet on winning over budget-conscious customers is its new chain, 365 by Whole Foods Market, which is set to open in Los Angeles and other cities in late 2016. Executives have promised these stores will be smaller than traditional Whole Foods stores and offer “everyday low prices” that they hope will appeal to a different kind of shopper. Whole Foods also suffered a spate of bad publicity earlier this year when it was found that the retailer was routinely overcharging


have become more interested in healthy eating and are more eager to know where their food comes from, plenty of other retailers are competing for organic grocery shoppers’ dollars. Kroger, Wal-Mart and Target have developed organics lines that have seen strong sales growth, while chains such as Trader Joe’s and Sprouts Farmers Market have been quickly expanding their fleets. That has pushed Whole Foods to find ways to deliver more value to its customers. The grocery chain has tried a host of tactics to achieve that, including a pilot of a loyalty rewards program. The company said in July that the rollout is going more slowly than anticipated because they are adjusting it based on customer feedback. Its biggest bet yet on winning over budget-conscious customers is its new chain, 365 by Whole Foods Market, which is set to open in Los Angeles and other cities in late 2016. Executives have promised these stores will be smaller than traditional Whole Foods stores and offer “everyday low prices” that they hope will appeal to a different kind of shopper. Whole Foods also suffered a spate of bad publicity earlier this year when it was found that the retailer was routinely overcharging New York customers for prepackaged foods. Whole Foods stock is down 38 percent so far this year, a sign that investors are perhaps unconvinced that Whole Foods has settled on a strategy that will help the company to deliver strong long-term sales growth and profitability. [The surprising way that smartphones are changing how we shop] But the job cuts are a sign that Whole Foods remains committed to finding ways to trim costs from its business and, in turn, deliver lower prices. Whole Foods has also been investing in new technology as another avenue for reaching more customers and boosting incremental sales. They’ve partnered with Instacart, the grocery delivery service, to get orders to shoppers’ homes. Executives have said that some stores are seeing up to five percent of their sales in delivery since the launch of the partnership. With their app, Whole Foods is also experimenting with a feature that allows users to order coffee or sandwiches as they set foot in the store. The company hopes these tactics will help them ride the wave of consumer interest in organics and fend off newcomers in the niche they helped to create. Whole Foods Market is cutting about 1,500 jobs


You can’t deport 11.4 million people and simultaneously grow the military

(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file) Since Donald Trump issued his campaign position paper saying that, as president, he would deport all the undocumented immigrants living in the United States, many have argued that deporting 11.4 million people would have serious economic and humanitarian repercussions. Pulling long-rooted family systems apart would be socially destabilizing. Removing a significant share of low-income labor would radically transform how we buy and sell things. Trump and others who support mass deportation tend to ignore these criticisms and change the topic to national security. But immigration and national security are related in ways rarely discussed. How would such forced deportation affect the U.S. government’s ability to grow its economy, increase military spending, and maintain military power and international standing? Right now, the U.S. population is roughly 325 million, with an average fertility rate of 1.9 per woman. According to the International Futures (IFs) modeling platform–a computer simulation of global development used to inform strategic decision-making—if today’s trends continue, the U.S. population would increase by 31 million people over the next 15 years. If this comes to pass, the U.S. economy would expand at an average annual rate just north of 2 percent. In other words, the real value of what is produced by the U.S. would increase from $17 trillion today to $22 trillion in 15 years. Assuming that military spending as a share of GDP declines from 4 percent of GDP today to around 3.7 percent of GDP by 2025, military outlays would also increase, from $720 billion today to more than $880 billion in 2030 (adjusted for inflation). Let’s assume that all associated growth would continue apace as well: including development of technology, extended diplomatic reach, and other factors usually used to measure national capabilities. Even so, growth in the U.S. would not be keeping pace with growth in China. According to a new index used by the National Intelligence Council, the U.S. currently has 20.7 percent of the world’s material and institutional capabilities–global power, in ordinary terms—while China has 15.5 percent. By 2030, according to the same forecasts, this would have flipped. China would possess 19.5 percent of global capabilities and the U.S. would be left with 16.8 percent. But mass deportation would change that forecast dramatically. If the U.S. were to get rid of 11.4 million people, fertility rates would drop proportionally (especially considering that immigrants tend to have larger families). And


Scientists might have just discovered the true origin of Hepatitis B — in a fish

possibly design more effective treatments. “This new virus is similar, but also very different from hepatitis B-like viruses found in mammals and birds, and may be a new genus,” Hahn said. How the hepatitis B-like virus is transmitted between fish is not yet understood, she said, and it is unlikely to be communicable to humans. Hepatitis-B virus infections "manifest in various ways," said a U.S. Geological Survey statement that announced the study. They attack the livers of mammals and multiply in their cells. Acute chronic liver diseases such as fibrosis, cirrhosis, bile duct cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma are associated with the virus. About 350 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis B viruses. "For decades, virologists have been looking for the origin of where this virus came from. If you know where it occurred, you can potentially see how it changed over time … they can work on those predictive models," said Luke Other authors include Vicki S. Blazer, Robert S. Cornman, Carla M. Conway and James R. Winton, all USGS researchers and biologists. [At benefit, eating snakehead to save the Chesapeake Bay] "After we did all the putting sequencing together ... and searched an online database ... all the parts of the virus were there," Iwanowicz said. "I’ve never had that experience before. It was pretty exciting to actually see that happen." Iwanowicz said an excited Indiana University professor who hoped to start investigating the finding contacted him even before the paper was published. "I really found this work very interesting," said Haitao Guo, an associate professor of microbiology at the university. "I read it one week early on a Saturday night. I e-mailed Luke immediately and said, 'Come on, let’s do something.' " Guo has studied hepatitis for more than a decade and still has a host of questions about how it came to be. He wants to track it using plasma and liver samples, and possibly create a clone, to determine how it replicates. "If it replicates better, it may replace [the hepatitis-B virus] to study some aspects of the hepadnavirus molecular biology.” Read More: Fish don't want birth control, but scientists say they get it from your pill As more bass switch sex, a strange fish story expands This fish lived in peace for 70 million years. Then it met the Army Corps of Engineers The big fish story everyone is missing in the western drought


Tokyo proposes adding baseball, softball and other sports to 2020 Olympics

Japanese Olympics officials propose new events for the 2020 Tokyo Games on Monday. (Koji Sasahara/Associated Press) Baseball and softball will see a comeback in the 2020 Olympics if host city Tokyo gets its way. On Monday, Japanese organizers recommended the return of baseball and softball to the roster of events. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred immediately welcomed the news. “Today’s announcement by Tokyo 2020 to include baseball/softball into its proposal for additional events at the 2020 Olympic Games is an exciting step forward to hopefully seeing our game return to this great platform,” he said in the press release (via NBC Sports). “We look forward to the IOC’s decision in August 2016.” Baseball and softball were Olympic events until 2012, when a 2005 International Olympic Committee decision to drop the sports came into effect. “I think they’ve made a big, big mistake,” former Los Angeles Dodgers and Team USA manager Tommy Lasorda told the Associated Press at the time. “Baseball is played by all countries now and softball, too. I think that’s really going to hurt the Olympics. I don’t want to knock the other sports, but I think this is a big mistake. I am very disappointed.” In December, however, the IOC cleared the way to allow the sports’ return. Yet, those wanting to see top American players like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout and others compete for gold might still be disappointed. Manfred, like his predecessor Bud Selig, remains adamant that national teams shouldn’t pull from the MLB’s pool of players and disrupt the regular season. [IOC paves the way for baseball and softball to come back] “The Olympics are a challenge because of the calendar,” Manfred told reporters at an April meeting of the Associated Press Sports Editors (via Salon.com). “They are particularly a challenge when the site is halfway around the world and the date falls in the middle of our regular season.” Others, including World Baseball Softball Confederation President Riccardo Fraccari, believe there is still room for negotiation. “We’re in discussions and we have a great relationship with MLB,” Fraccari told the AP on Monday. “We have plenty of time to discuss before 2020.” There is also time to discuss it before a final decision is made. Final word on the inclusion of the sports will come next August when the IOC will make a ruling at the 129th IOC Session in Rio. The IOC will also


It’s official: Port City is the best small brewery in America

breweries in any size class, "making Small Brewing Company the most competitive category by far," said GABF competition manager Chris Swersey. Eight-six of those 518 breweries won one or more medals, Swersey said, and "Port City’s three-medal performance was a superb accomplishment for a rapidly growing brewery making great beer." What's interesting is that this isn't even Port City's largest haul at the GABF: In 2013, the brewery earned four medals, including a gold for Optimal Wit, a silver for Oktoberfest, and two bronzes for anniversary beers Colossal One and Colossal Two. That still wasn't enough to claim Small Brewing Company and Small Brewer of the Year from fellow Virginia brewery Devils Backbone's "Basecamp" location in Roseland, which took home a gold, two silvers and two bronzes. Butcher is back at work, but he's already planning Port City's victory celebrations. There will be a "Medal Throwdown" at the brewery this Friday, Butcher says, and "We'll also plan a series of events around D.C. to celebrate the win. We did that in 2013: One in D.C., one in Maryland and one in Virginia." Port City wasn't the only success to come out of Virginia. Four Old Dominion breweries captured gold medals: Brothers Craft Brewing's Mild, Champion Brewing's Shower Beer pilsner, Devils Backbone's Vienna Lager and Fair Winds Brewing's Siren's Lure Saison were all named best-in-class. Lickinghole Creek's Heir Apparent was the runner-up in the Chili Beer category, while Pale Fire Brewing's Salad Days American Saison brought a bronze medal back to Harrisonburg. On the other side of the Potomac, Jailbreak Brewing's Van Dammit Belgian Strong Dark Ale was the only winner from Maryland. It's currently on draft at the Laurel brewery if you want to try it on Wednesday, when the tap room reopens. Washington D.C. had no winners. In the last five years, DC Brau is the only brewery to take home any hardware, with silver medals in 2014 and 2012. Overall, 1,552 breweries submitted 6,647 beers to be judged at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival. According to the Brewers Association, American-Style India Pale Ale was the most popular category, as it has been since 2002, with 336 breweries submitting IPAs. That's more entries than the fourth-most popular category, Session India Pale Ale (161 entries), and fifth-most popular category, American-Style Pale Ale (160 entries), combined. A complete list of winners is available on the Great American Beer Festival website.


4 free things to do during the week of Sept. 28 to Oct. 4

The Going Out Guide recommends free things to do for every day of the week. Musician Jason Isbell will be among the performers at the UNITE to Face Addiction Rally on the Washington Monument grounds this week. (Mark Zaleski/AP) We Speak Their Names… A Tribute to Warrior Women In a performance that combines, music and dance, the hip-hop theatre ensemble FRESHH Inc. Wednesday. 6 p.m. Kennedy Center, Millennium Stage, 2700 F St. NW. Mexico City Woodwind Quintet Catch a performance by the five members of the Mexico City-based chamber group, who came from the National Symphony Orchestra, the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mexico State Symphony Orchestra. Wednesday. 6:45 p.m. Mexican Cultural Institute, 2829 16th St. NW. www.instituteofmexicodc.org. RSVP. VIDA Fitness Health Expo In an effort to encourage healthy habits, Vida Fitness presents a expo featuring exercise demonstrations and fitness activities, including Zumba (6 p.m.), boot camp (7 p.m.), barre (7:45 p.m.) and candelight yoga (8:45 p.m.). Thursday. 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. 1612 U St. NW. UNITE to Face Addiction Musicians Joe Walsh, Steven Tyler, Aloe Blacc, Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, the Fray and others take to the stage for a rally to raise awareness about the impact of addiction. The show will also feature statements by celebrity guests, elected officials, inspirational speakers and other advocates. Sunday. Noon. Washington Monument Grounds (North Side), between 15th and 17th Street NW.


Evidence of defendant’s culture in a murder trial

remained on Death Row, there would be no retribution against them in Jordan by members of the Khriss family. It was my impression that Ahmed Issa’s family in Jordan believed that if Ahmed was released from prison, the ‘payment’ for his crime would be ‘taken out of the hide’ of Ahmed’s Jordanian family members by Jordanian members of the Khriss family. Crates’ “impression” is confirmed by some of Issa’s family members’ post-conviction affidavits. For instance, Issa’s mother Sarah asserted: The Kreiss [sic] family believes that my son is guilty. They wanted him to implicate Linda, as well. Nidal Kreiss sent a threatening letter to Ahmed while he was at the jail in Cincinnati. The letter told Ahmed that if Ahmed did not say that Linda was involved, that you never can tell what will happen to your brothers and sisters. This letter caused us to go into hiding out of fear. Our family expected the Kreiss family to act under the old custom of Retribution. An intermediary for the Kreiss family approached our family for money to be paid for the deaths of their loved ones. We did not have such a large sum. Miriam (Issa’s sister) stated that she never felt personally threatened, but that the Issa family … sent an offer to pay the Kreiss family for their loss by way of intermediaries who are notables of the community…. My family was afraid when we learned what had happened. In the beginning, we did not know what the Kreiss family would do. After the contract was drawn up, we could relax a little. Miriam also mentions the letter from Nidal Kreiss to Ahmed. And Jamal, Issa’s brother who testified at the penalty hearing, stated in his affidavit: The behavior of Nidal Kreiss, brother of the victims, is one of the reasons that my family went into hiding after Ahmed’s arrest in the US. Nidal had threatened Ahmed, by letter, that we, Ahmed’s siblings would be killed if Ahmed did not implicate Linda in the conspiracy…. We were afraid of what the Kreiss family would do. While there were no direct threats made, we expected retribution. The Ohio Court of Appeals addressed this issue in Issa’s seventeenth claim for relief, claiming that counsel failed to adequately investigate the issue of “family retribution.” The court concluded that Issa had not established prejudice: “[The evidence] would not have been admissible in


The bloody history of Kunduz, from Afghanistan’s ‘Convoy of Death’ to now

the 2002 rout in Kunduz. The U.S. group Physicians for Human Rights reported that it found about 3,000 Taliban fighters in the nearby Sheberghan prison, designed to hold about 800. Human rights workers were told repeatedly that some prisoners suffocated on the way there after being stuffed into sealed cargo containers. The practice was eventually detailed in a documentary. Germany took a major interest in securing Kunduz in the following years, dispatching troops from its Bundeswehr force and a provincial reconstruction team. But fighting intensified as the war dragged on, with many of the same threats that existed in other parts of Afghanistan. Interpreters were killed, insurgents launched attacks on German soldiers, and the United States eventually sent 2,500 additional troops in 2010 to bolster the force. Kunduz province also was the site of a Sept. 4, 2009, incident that drew a rebuke from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. According to an intelligence report leaked on the anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks, an airstrike was called on two tanker trucks filled with fuel that were stolen by insurgents. They were taken out by bombs from an F-15 fighter jet, killing dozens of insurgents, according to the initial report. Afghan soldiers are shown fighting against the Taliban 10 miles southwest of Kunduz on June 18, 2015. (Majid Saeedi for The Washington Post) The incident turned out to be more complicated than that, however. The Taliban had invited civilians to siphon off fuel from the trucks, turning them into targets when the airstrikes came. According to the U.N. assistance mission, 74 civilians, including children, were killed in the strike. Other reports stated that there may have been fewer civilian casualties than that, but the incident was nonetheless seen by many as a mistake. “Investigations were complicated as a result of the ensuring fireball, which incinerated a large number of people, making identification extremely difficult, the U.N. report said. “It is not disputed that some Taliban were at the site but it should have been apparent that many civilians were also in the vicinity of the trucks.” The Germans handed off their military base in Kunduz to the Afghan military in 2013, as security there remained imperiled. A June 2015 report by the Defense Department to Congress on Afghanistan noted that Afghan units in both Kunduz and the eastern province of Konar had “struggled to react quickly” to insurgent offensives. More Afghan


Drake dropped by Howard’s bookstore; Kel Mitchell bar crawled. Which VIP had the best D.C. weekend?

Life in the district didn’t slow down after the pope left town — at least not for celebs. The first annual Landmark Music Festival on the National Mall brought musical acts ranging from the mega-famous rapper Drake to indie groups such as alt-J into town. And techy VIPs, like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Apple’s Tim Cook, made a strong showing at the White House’s Chinese state dinner Friday night. See what celebs were up to in the nation’s capital this weekend: Scottish electronic band Chvrches posed by the Georgetown steps made famous by “The Exorcist” before playing at Landmark. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture of The Strokes (the festival’s Sunday headliner) played politician at the White House, #votefornikolai hashtag and all. Rapper Drake, in town to play Landmark on Saturday, caused a frenzy when he stopped by the Howard University bookstore. Singer Albert Hammond Jr. signed autographs for fans at Landmark. Former Redskins running back Clinton Portis posted this player-packed Instagram. Kel Mitchell thrilled ’90s-themed bar crawl attendees Saturday. Spoiler alert: The former Nickelodeon star still loves orange soda. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) made this insta-collage of the Chinese state dinner. Singer Ne-Yo was the musical performer for the state dinner. He brought his mom as his date (aww). Lee Daniels also brought his mom, and posted this selfie of her (Clara Watson) and POTUS. Singer Traci Braxton attended a red carpet event in D.C. for the movie upcoming movie, “Boss.” About last night Red Carpet Event in #DC supporting my cuz Tommy Skye's new movie #Boss in Theaters soon... http://t.co/twBmNNTbKN The Redskins threw out the first pitches at Sunday’s Nationals’ game. The @Redskins D-Line threw out all 7 of today's first pitches: http://t.co/NvZvE7cg15 “Arrow” actress Katie Cassidy wore stylish boots at BWI. YVR----> BWI no better place to rock @balmainparis http://t.co/M1x1COa6Zy Actor and filmmaker Alex Winter was in town to promote his new movie “Deep Web” at a TEDxMidAtlantic event this weekend. But no star got as much attention this weekend as the supermoon lunar eclipse, which crowds of people all over the city flocked outside to watch last night. So who had the best weekend? Congrats, supermoon! D.C. residents couldn’t get enough of you, despite the cloud cover and fact that you hardly looked like more than a reddish dot on a black screen in our Snapchats. Image of a supermoon over Washington DC during yesterday's total lunar eclipse


From films to forest: Hayao Miyazaki’s next earthy project

southern Japan’s Kume Island, Kyodo News reported Monday. The project was previously announced in the town of Kume’s newspaper, which released a sketch of the park that Miyazaki will create with local design firm Kume Creation. Slated for completion in 2018, the 10,000-square-meter nature facility will include integrated dorms for 30 kids, a library and trees and boulders in place of the industrial frameworks that typically dominate playgrounds. 「風の帰る森プロジェクト」を久米島島内の広報誌「広報くめじま」８月号にて、１面見開きで贅沢に掲載していただきました。ありがとうございます！ 現在プロジェクトは２週間に１度のペースで久米島町役場にてミーティングを行い、施設を利用する子どもたち… Posted by 合同会社久米クリエーション on Tuesday, September 1, 2015 Though the park’s name — “The Forest Where the Wind Returns” — is as esoteric as any of Miyazaki’s movie titles, die-hard fans shouldn’t expect to arrive in droves as they would to one of Japan’s countless other theme parks. The nature sanctuary appears to be anti-commercial: there’s no indication that it’s at all connected to Miyazaki’s film enterprise, Studio Ghibli, nor has there been any mention of branded merchandise to be sold or featured on the premises. Where commercialized entertainment otherwise reigns supreme, this approach promises to offer a breath of fresh air. Japan is home to Tokyo Disneyland, Sanrio Puroland (of Hello Kitty fame) and Pokémon the Park, just to name a few ways in which businesses have attempted to milk the booming cartoon franchises that the country has been churning out for decades. Meanwhile, Miyazaki’s park aims to be more local in its conception. According to Kyodo News, the nature sanctuary will be “made in Kumejima,” as Miyazaki will leave much of the design and construction work to local organizations drawing from the island’s existing resources. All signs point to this being a longtime dream for the animator, who has expressed concern for the future of the world’s children. In a 2008 interview with Japan Today, he lamented that consumerism has made it more difficult to reach out to children’s souls. “Rather than looking at how to stimulate domestic demand by building bridges or roads,” Miyazaki said, “we should provide a proper environment for our future generations because children are Japan’s best investment.” So while the park falls short of being the Ghibli Land of otaku fantasy, it may at least offer kids a chance to interact as intimately with nature as some of their favorite Miyazaki characters. Read more Morning Mix: How Catherine Coulson, dead at 71, became the iconic ‘Twin Peaks’ Log Lady Matt Damon has more ‘Damonsplaining’ to do — this time about alleged anti-gay comments