National Gallery of Art to begin reopening indoor exhibits next week

to welcome visitors back after an 18-week shutdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The gallery will roll out new health and safety protocols, including requiring visitors to wear masks and obtain free timed passes for entry. It will limit visitors to 500 a day. “I look forward to once again fulfilling our mission as the nation’s art museum as a space for reflection and beauty to be enjoyed by the public,” National Gallery of Art Director Kaywin Feldman said in a statement. “Our new visitor guidelines and timed entry passes will ensure that visitors can comfortably enjoy our collection as well as the ‘Degas at the Opéra’ and ‘True to Nature’ exhibitions, which have been extended to compensate for the time they were closed.” “Degas at the Opéra” now continues through Oct. 12, and “True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780-1870” runs through Nov. 29. A smaller exhibition, “Raphael and His Circle,” will not resume. The museum plans to reopen the rest of the building after D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) announces Phase 3 of the District’s reopening plan. Many other museums in the region have yet to schedule a return to welcoming visitors. The Smithsonian plans to open the National Zoo and the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., according to an email Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III sent to staff. But the institution has made no public announcements and no dates have been set. When the National Gallery reopens, visitors will be required to use the entrance at Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue NW. (The museum’s Seventh Street door will be exit only.) The NGA opened its six-acre sculpture garden in mid-June; passes are not required to visit that outdoor area, but capacity is limited. Visitors can obtain up to five free, timed passes for the West Building, open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, at nga.gov/tickets. The passes will be released online Mondays at 10 a.m. for the following week, beginning July 13. Museum-goers are asked to arrive a half-hour before their entrance time and to keep visits to 90 minutes. A limited number of walk-up passes will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, if capacity allows. Guided tours and independently led groups are not permitted. The museum’s shops will also be open. The East Building is undergoing construction and will remain closed until late fall.


Workers are pushed to the brink as they continue to wait for delayed unemployment payments

of thousands of workers like Herdez across the country have filed for jobless claims but have yet to receive payments. Many are now in dire financial straits. “We’ve been only able to make half payments on everything,” Herdez said in an interview. “We bought a large amount of groceries and have been taking things out of the freezer, but as the weeks go by, it’s hard to figure out whether to pay bills or whether we have enough food to last the week.” The issue has spilled back into public view in recent weeks, as thousands of frustrated workers awaiting payments have camped out, sometimes overnight, in front of unemployment offices in states like Oklahoma, Alabama and Kentucky. The ongoing delays are the result of a confluence of crises, experts say. A flood of new jobless applications — about 50 million — has overwhelmed state unemployment offices over the past four months. The agencies themselves are hampered by years of neglect. They rely on reduced staffs and badly outdated technology after years of budget cuts, often at the behest of business groups and Republican legislatures. Issues with fraud and user confusion over the new rules and filing process have further bogged down the process. But cases like Herdez show what happens when workers simply run out of money and the social safety net malfunctions with defaulted payments and trips to food banks. In more desperate situations, workers become homeless. “We’ve kind of abdicated our responsibility to the unemployed,” George Wentworth, a senior counsel at the National Employment Law Project and an expert on unemployment insurance. “There need to be more standards and those standards need to be rigorously enforced by the federal government.” The Department of Labor does not track the percentage of unemployment benefits that have been processed, an agency spokeswoman said in an email. The agency did not offer a comment on the issue of delays in processing benefits. But previously unreleased data compiled by Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, illustrates the scope. By the end of May, about 18.8 million out of 33 million claims — 57 percent — had been paid nationwide. That number has steadily improved from 47 percent of paid claims at the end of April and 14 percent at the end of March. In Wisconsin, where about 13 percent of claims remained unprocessed as of July 7, residents told


The Daily 202: Trump’s move to weaken key environmental law could sideline communities of color

the same. Florida has now had 269,811 confirmed case … [Republican Gov. Ron] DeSantis has recommended the wearing of face masks, but he has resisted calls to mandate it … Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez told CNN on Sunday that the county’s hospitals will soon reach capacity, but he said more beds can be added, including for intensive care. … “Health experts are concerned that people are gathering in crowds, and have expressed concern that the Republican National Convention’s nomination party for Trump is scheduled to be held in Jacksonville in August. A commissioner for a county near Jacksonville is seriously ill with the virus, according to a posting by his daughter on Facebook. … On Saturday, the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom reopened at Walt Disney World in Orlando, concerning health experts who urge people not to gather in groups. Guests at the park said that people were wearing masks and social distancing, and videos showed near-empty parks.” “Fauci no longer briefs Trump and is ‘never in the Oval [Office] anymore,’ said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Fauci last spoke to the president during the first week of June, according to a person with knowledge of Trump’s calendar,” write Yasmeen Abutaleb, Josh Dawsey and Laurie McGinley. " “DeVos made her latest statement about what schools should do on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’ In the interview with journalist Dana Bash, DeVos doubled down on calls she made last week for schools to reopen. ‘Kids need to be in school,’ she said. ‘They need to be learning, they need to be moving ahead. And we can’t — we cannot be paralyzed and not allow that or not be intent on that happening,’” Valerie Strauss reports. “DeVos said nothing, however, about what school superintendents have been saying they need to reopen: billions of dollars in additional federal funding to cover the costs of changes they have to make and personal protective equipment they need to buy.” Fairfax County, Va., schools superintendent Scott Brabrand – one of the largest U.S. public school systems – said DeVos “can’t put every kid back in a school.” “I wouldn’t trust you to care for a house plant let alone my child," “According to initial data reported by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, no one died from the virus in New York City


You don’t need to bang pots for us, but wear a mask. We’re still dying.

In a project with the Guardian, Kaiser is publishing obituaries of health-care workers who have died of covid-19. They’re up to 782, a startlingly high figure that most likely underestimates a terrible reality. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working with incomplete data, counts nearly 98,000 covid-19 cases among health-care workers, with 517 deaths. One study found that health-care workers had a 12 times greater risk of testing positive for covid-19 than people in the general population, with an even higher risk for those without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). It’s clear that the fight against the virus is not going well. Cases are rising in 40 of 50 states, with exponential growth in Arizona, Florida and Texas. New York’s worst day was April 15, when 11,571 people tested positive. By comparison, Florida logged more than 15,300 new cases on Sunday, the most by any state in a single day. That’s a greater number of cases in a similar-sized population, with one key difference: New York’s peak occurred 23 days after instituting the shutdown measures that the governor of Florida still steadfastly refuses to implement. My colleagues in Texas are now facing the risks that we in New York faced in April. Hospitals are still wary of shortages in PPE, choosing to sanitize and reuse masks that are designed to be disposable. Perhaps even more troubling are the physical implications of a covid-19 surge. One colleague described how his Texas hospital’s emergency department is boarding covid-19 patients in hallways because it has simply run out of room. Some of these patients receive high-flow oxygen or aerosol-generating treatments that can spread the virus liberally, further risking the staff members taking care of them. Working in these conditions is arduous, and burnout is common. Every piece of PPE has to be removed correctly to avoid contamination and changed between patients. One small error can mean inhaling millions of copies of the virus. The situation in Arizona is even more dire. On June 29, Arizona became the first state to formally institute crisis standards of care — a phrase that sounds benign but translates to medical rationing. It’s the first time any state has done this. Effectively, the state is giving hospitals the latitude to deny resources to some in order to save others. Importantly, this doesn’t apply only to covid-19 patients; it applies to everyone. If you have a heart attack


It was supposed to be a pregnancy full of travel. Instead, I spent it in lockdown.

IVF had actually worked — came a couple months before the first reports of the novel coronavirus in China. During those pandemic-free months, I was mostly preoccupied with how sick I felt and how nervous I was about any possible complications. But now I’m grateful to have fit in queasy Christmas visits to Florida and Pennsylvania, a sunset-filled few days in Los Angeles in January, and a long February weekend in New York, where I spent part of my time writing about the virus. In March, after canceling plans to go back to New York, we decided to take a last-minute drive to Rehoboth Beach. Delaware had no confirmed cases yet and was cold enough to keep crowds away, so we felt fairly safe walking on a mostly empty beach and eating in half-full restaurants. We washed our hands obsessively and watched “Contagion” nervously in our hotel room. Since the week we returned from that trip, we have isolated in our D.C. apartment, even as many states started to open back up. The coronavirus is still so new that information on how it affects pregnant women and babies has been scarce. We were reassured by some small studies and terrified by anecdotes. We decided to play it safe and stay home, both for ourselves and the people we loved who would be at high risk of complications if they got sick. To avoid even the smallest risk that I would test positive at the hospital and have to deliver without my husband, our lockdown grew even more strict four weeks before the due date. The world has had to bear so much tragedy in the past few months that my own disappointments have mostly faded. I still have a job, writing about travel (or the lack of it). We can work from home and create a safe bubble, still making memories over FaceTime and Zoom. So many people are suffering unimaginable loss; a few missed trips barely register on the scale. And for a while anyway, when no one was even daring to take a road trip, our misery in isolation had a globe’s worth of company. Still, sometimes I can’t stop the tears. Travel doesn’t just mean vacation; it enables physical connection. I couldn’t be home during a family member’s health scare. I wasn’t able to get back for a funeral. I have never felt so far away or


The future of travel, according to Scott Keyes of Scott’s Cheap Flights

a pandemic  — how could you expect somebody to be an expert on the minutiae of airline refund rules and Department of Transportation regulations? The fact that the airlines were behaving so poorly and really trying to take advantage of the general public’s lack of expertise or ignorance on the finer points of airline reform law told me we need to try to use our platform to help not only educate people about what their rights are, but also help advocate that airlines do better. Can you guess how many people you replied to about refunds during this time? It’s got to be thousands. It’s like 95 percent of the discussions that we have [are] on Twitter, and then we’re getting hundreds, thousands of emails as well that are happening behind the scenes. It’s the main thing on people’s mind, rightfully so. I mean, look, it’s nobody’s fault obviously that a pandemic erupted, but it’s also not the same as a normal cancellation where you might have just decided, “Oh, I just don’t want to take that trip anymore.” Public health experts say it’s unsafe to travel. Countries are closing their borders. Countries and places are adding mandatory quarantines. It’s completely unreasonable that people would be traveling right now. And so, it’s a situation where I think refunds are rightfully owed. Do you think any of the changes that we’ve seen so far will hold over after the pandemic? We talked about the low fares that I think are going to continue for a while, for at least the next couple of years. I think the enhanced cleanings [are here to stay]. Now that the cleanliness and hygiene is the difference between people traveling or not, rather than just feeling a little grossed out, all of a sudden it becomes priority number one for airlines. The things that I think are not here to stay: blocked middle seating, capacity control. Those are only going to last until we start to see a significant rebound in travel demand and in new bookings. The other thing that I wish is here to stay, but I think is probably unlikely, is the free changes on new bookings. Right now, in an attempt to try to gin up new bookings, the airlines have said that all new tickets automatically waive the change fees. That is very different from what the airlines have done


Three people slain Sunday in the District

D.C. police on Monday said a 34-year-old man was shot and killed Sunday morning in Southeast Washington, becoming the third person slain in the city that day. Around 10 a.m. Sunday, officers responded to the 3300 block of 15th Street SE for the report of a shooting, D.C. police said in a statement. They found Gary Swinson of Southeast suffering from gunshot wounds, the statement said, and he was transported to a hospital, where he died. No further information about the shooting was immediately available. Swinson’s killing followed two other homicides in the early morning hours. Police on Monday identified one of those victims as a 58-year-old Southeast Washington man. Police said an autopsy showed the victim, Paul L. Butler, was killed by blunt force trauma and his death was a homicide. His body was found about 4:30 a.m. Sunday in the 3900 block of S Street SE. In a separate incident, around 4 a.m., police responded to a report of an adult female with a gunshot wound inside a residence in the 800 block of 19th Street NE. The woman — identified as 28-year-old Shanika Williams, of Northeast Washington — died at the scene, according to a statement from D.C. police. Their killings added to a growing list of homicides in Washington in what has been an especially bloody first few weeks of July. D.C. police are offering a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the cases.


Rivals Dubai and Abu Dhabi tackle coronavirus in very different ways

social distancing rules are enforced in public places. “We have taken very strict precautionary measures across all tourism touch points and around tourist arrivals,” the Dubai tourism authority said in a statement. “Just as with other federal governments, individual emirates are able to take their own precautions and decisions on how to open up.” The number of new infections in the UAE continues to rise. The total now reaches more than 53,000 cases and 328 deaths. As in other Persian Gulf countries, there have been outbreaks among the large population of migrant workers, who often live in close quarters, and several of these neighborhoods have been targeted in testing and disinfection campaigns. The government has not revealed where infections are occurring. Dubai announced last week that the last patient had left its 3,000-bed field hospital set up at the World Trade Center in April. The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority did not respond to requests for comment on the country’s coronavirus policies. Helal Saeed Almarri “We appear in the top one to five destinations people are looking for in most of our source markets,” he said in a video statement issued to media outlets. “We are very sure that tourism in Dubai is going to overcome this very quickly. Around the world people are already looking for their next booking and what we’ve already seen is Dubai remains on top of their list.” Some of the city’s top hotels said they had received a few reservations by foreigners for July. But with the pandemic still making international travel uncertain, reservation managers said most people were asking about August and September. While Abu Dhabi has been affected by a sharp drop in global oil prices, it has been partly insulated by a sovereign wealth fund worth nearly $1 trillion. It has essentially sealed itself off from the rest of the country since the beginning of June, requiring until recently a permit to enter. To get into Abu Dhabi now, UAE citizens and residents must present a coronavirus test result less than 48 hours old. The different emirates have issued competing guidelines on which countries may be visited and whether quarantine would be required upon return. Abdulla said the differences were to be expected in such a federation, where each part has its own way of doing things according to its priorities, even as they work together for the country’s


Trump’s performance on covid-19 looks especially bad compared with the rest of the world

States with other countries, no spin or lies can obscure a basic fact: Trump’s response to the pandemic has been a world-leading catastrophe. On Sunday, Britain recorded 650 new cases of covid-19. Japan recorded 373. Germany had 138. And South Korea, a model in handling the outbreak, identified just 44. Add those four numbers up and you get 1,205 new confirmed cases. The populations of those countries put together is roughly identical to the population of the United States. And yet, Sunday, the United States recorded 58,349 new cases — by far the highest number in the world. Compared with those peer countries with a similar combined population, the new caseload in the United States is roughly 50 times worse. It’s so bad, in fact, that Florida’s new record of 15,000 new cases in a single day would place it as the fourth-worst country in the world, outpaced only by Brazil, India and the rest of the United States. To put that into perspective, Florida has 23 times more new daily cases than the worst-hit country in Europe (Britain) even though Britain has three times Florida’s population. If you adjust per capita, then, Florida’s outbreak is currently about 70 times worse than that of the worst-hit country in Europe. These aren’t cherry-picked examples. In terms of new cases Sunday, Britain was worst in Europe; Germany was fifth-worst; and Japan is around the median in Asia. The entire European Union, plus Britain — which has about 200 million more people than the United States — had roughly 2,500 cases Sunday, compared to just under 60,000 in the U.S. Trump continues to argue — and his Fox News acolytes continue to parrot — the false notion that these differences are due to testing. They are not. Britain has performed 178 tests for every 1,000 residents. The United States, by comparison, has conducted 129 tests for every 1,000 residents. Crucially, while test numbers steadily grow in the United States, some other countries are now not keeping pace — not because they aren’t testing enough but because they just have fewer sick people to test. New Zealand, for example, has done about 85 tests per 1,000 residents and they just declared its country virus-free. Countries like Germany have excess testing capacity because vast demand for it doesn’t exist. In the most recent data, about 1 in every 200 tests came back positive in Britain


Two slain early Sunday in D.C., adding to a violent month

Two people were slain in the District early Sunday, adding to an already violent month in the city, police said. About 4:30 a.m., police responded to the 3900 block of S Street SE for a report of an unconscious person. An adult male was inside, suffering from trauma. The man died at the scene, police said. His identity was not immediately released. In a separate incident, around 4 a.m., police responded to a report of an adult female with a gunshot wound inside a residence in the 800 block of 19th Street NE. The woman — identified as 28-year-old Shanika Williams, of Northeast Washington — also died at the scene, according to a statement from D.C. police. D.C. police are offering a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the cases. Police also identified the victim of a fatal shooting that occurred Friday, in what authorities say appears to have been an attempted robbery. Jose Yaxon Cuc, of Northwest Washington, died Friday around 6 p.m. in the 4900 block of North Capitol Street NE, near Fort Totten, police said in a statement. Police were looking for a man wearing a black-hooded sweater and dark blue skinny jeans who was seen running with a handgun on Farragut Place NE. Around 100 people have been killed in the District this year, more than 20 percent higher than for the same period of 2019, which set a decade high. An earlier version of this report mistakenly said a homicide victim found on S Street Southeast had been shot. Police said the death was due to blunt force trauma.


Coronavirus update: Democratic Louisiana governor issues mask mandate as state’s death toll rises

people in the country have died of the coronavirus, and more than 3.2 million confirmed cases have been reported. The daily coronavirus death toll in the United States has recently increased after months of decline, with nearly 4,500 deaths reported nationally in the past seven days and experts warning that the trend would probably worsen. Texas, Arizona and South Carolina have all seen their death toll rise by more than 100 percent in the past four weeks. Five other states — Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, California and Louisiana — have seen at least a 20 percent jump in that time span. The country reported a total of 67,211 new confirmed cases Friday, eclipsing the previous single-day record set earlier in the week by nearly 6,000. Cases continued to rise in hard-hit states in the Sun Belt, with Midwestern states also tallying significant increases. Texas set four records on Saturday: new single-day cases, seven-day average of cases, seven-day average of deaths and hospitalizations. The situation was dire inside many of Texas’s medical centers. Houston-area hospitals have been keeping patients in their emergency rooms for longer periods as they scramble to find available, staffed beds, the Houston Chronicle reported. Several counties are buying refrigerated trailers to serve as makeshift morgues, according to the Texas Tribune. The chief medical officer for San Antonio’s Methodist Hospital, Jane Appleby, posted a video warning that young people are not immune from the virus’s most serious effects. She shared the story of a 30-year-old patient who said they had attended a “covid party,” where people supposedly gather to see who will get infected. “Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and they said: ‘I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not,’” Appleby said. Even amid the pleas for more significant action and the rising infections and deaths, many state leaders have balked at issuing more stringent requirements, saying they would be difficult to enforce. The country’s approach to the pandemic has been “a tale of two cities,” said former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb. Northeastern states “sought to crush the virus,” he said, while others such as Florida, Texas and Arizona tried to manage the spread to vulnerable people. “Without a more uniform U.S. approach,” Gottlieb tweeted Friday, “it’ll be hard for either strategy to work.” Tension over statewide rules was on display in Louisiana on


The ‘Covid Cocktail’: Inside a Pa. nursing home that gave some veterans hydroxychloroquine even without covid-19 testing

said. “The Chester County Health Department was following guidance from the PA Department of Health — not just for [Southeastern], but for all congregate care settings,” she said. Wardle said the state Health Department did not order nursing homes to consider patients presumed positive for covid-19 without testing. “The department encouraged testing of symptomatic residents once an outbreak was identified,” he said. One nurse at Southeastern said she grew particularly concerned about a resident with a low-grade fever who was presumed positive, moved into a room with two sick roommates and given Plaquenil. Before the pandemic, the man had often developed fevers from heart problems and blood clots in his legs. Suddenly, she said, he was placed alongside sick people and given a drug with potentially dangerous side effects. “What if it’s something totally different and you just put him in isolation with two positive people … not even testing him?” she said. “Then they start him on Plaquenil.” He later died, the nurse said. A nursing assistant recalled the case of an elderly woman with bronchitis who was placed on the drug. Records from the home said the cocktail was given for prophylactic use. She later died, the nursing assistant said. “I just feel as though arrogance and ignorance came into play,” she said. “Granted, nobody really knows anything about covid, but I feel like they were more trying to cover themselves than really helping our residents at the end of the day, and it’s heartbreaking.” ‘It’s just not acceptable’ The relatives of several residents dosed with the drug say they were provided little information about the experimental course of treatment. Long-standing federal rules on the rights of residents in nursing homes require doctors to inform patients in advance about medication changes and discuss the risks, benefits and treatment alternatives. If patients have dementia or other cognitive impairments, homes are supposed to reach out to a primary point of contact, such as a spouse or child. Family members say the calls they received from the home about the drug treatment were brief and lacked critical details. Before he fell ill in mid-April, 87-year-old Paul Ferko had known for days that something was very wrong at his home of nine months. “He heard the taps,” said his daughter, Chrissy Diaz. “He told us that the virus that was on TV was in the home.” Diaz said she received a call


As America struggles to reopen schools and offices, how to clean coronavirus from the air

for engineering upgrades at its seven campuses in the city, just one of many planned changes. Experts say the greatest danger of coronavirus transmission is when one is in close proximity — usually within six feet — to someone who’s already sick and coughing. While much remains unknown about transmission, mounting evidence suggests the virus can also travel in aerosolized droplets that are lighter and smaller than the large droplets produced in coughs, allowing them to float and linger in air. This can happen when a person who is infected, but not necessarily showing symptoms, is talking or even just breathing. That’s one key reason that public health experts say wearing a mask is one of the most effective ways to reduce the spread of the disease. “Aerosols can accumulate, remain infectious in indoor air for hours, and be easily inhaled deep into the lungs,” a recent study in Science magazine noted. ASHRAE, which writes standards for indoor air systems, has already determined that the risk of airborne coronavirus transmission indoors is serious enough that building systems should be modified to try to stop it. Building engineers say the most important practice is to make sure that air turns over frequently, mixing in lots of fresh air, and that it passes through filters that remove viruses. “It’s the combination of ventilation and filtration that results in the indoor air quality,” Bahnfleth said. “So if you’ve got a good level of filtration and a good level of ventilation, that could be sufficient in a lot of environments. Some experts also recommend electronic devices, such as UV-C lights, that kill viruses and other microorganisms that may get past the filters. “Every 10 minutes … we’d like the air to touch a filter, or get diluted, or start to hit an electronic,” said Raj Setty, an engineer who is president and principal at Setty and Associates and is advising KIPP DC on the reopening. “Something to kill things in the air.” MERVs and HEPAs Setty recommends that KIPP DC do everything from using sanitizing mats for students to walk across at entryways, to installing special closets for personal protective equipment in classrooms, to making water fountains touchless. He is not a big fan of indoor barriers or partitions. Air vents tend to push air down from the ceiling and “pick up viruses and spread them around the room,” moving around barriers, Setty said.


The year’s Top Workplaces elevate strategies to keep employees engaged

will include the top three winners in all four categories — to be unveiled in October. AARP Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld (law firm) Appian Corp. ASM Research CACI International Inc. Capital One Financial Corp. CGI Cushman & Wakefield (commercial real estate) Cvent Erickson Living Fannie Mae JBG Smith Jim Koons Automotive Patient First The Bozzuto Group ActioNet Inc. AvalonBay Communities Carfax Centauri Century 21 New Millennium Chenega MIOS (Military Intelligence and Operational Support) Deltek Digital Management EAB (education technology and consulting) FireEye Inc. FTI Consulting Goodwin House Great American Restaurants HITT Contracting Inc. John Snow Inc. (public health research and consulting) Lincoln Property Co. Mary’s Center and Briya Public Charter School National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Noblis Inc. Northwest Federal Credit Union Panda Restaurant Group REI Systems Inc. Sandy Spring Bank Science Systems & Applications Inc. Systems Planning and Analysis Inc. Tenable Inc. (information technology) The Emmes Company (health research) The MIL Corp. (services to the federal government) Van Metre Companies Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (law firm) Acclaim Technical Services Inc. AEM Corp. (information technology) Agile Defense Aledade Inc. (health care) Alpha Omega Integration Alston & Bird (law firm) AMYX Inc. Aronson (tax and consulting firm) Array Information Technology ATCS (consulting) Bates White Economic Consulting Buckley (law firm) CapTech Ventures Inc. Case Design/Remodeling Chaney Enterprises (construction supply) Coalfire Systems Inc CollabraLink Technologies Community of Hope Compass (real estate) Cotton & Company Credence Management Solutions Custom Ink Definitive Logic DELTA Resources Inc. Dev Technology Group Inc. DPR Construction Eagle Hill Consulting Easterns Automotive Group Equinix (data center) Exit Flagship Realty Fors Marsh Group FTS International (federal government contractor) Giant Food Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill Industry Dive (business journalism) Iron Bow Technologies (IT provider) Kelley Drye & Warren (law firm) Legend Management Group Markon Solutions (professional services) Metropolitan Hospitality Group MicroPact, a division of Tyler Technologies Modus Hotels Na Ali’i Consulting & Sales National Cooperative Bank NetImpact Strategies Inc. NFM Lending Optoro (retail returns technology) Perkins Coie (law firm) Power Home Remodeling Group Praxis Engineering Technologies Premium Distributors of Virginia Premium Distributors of Washington DC/Maryland Promontory Interfinancial Network Pyramid Systems Inc. (digital technology) Rapid Finance Sayres and Associates Corp. Share Our Strength Slalom Consulting SMS Data Products Group Inc. Sofitel Washington DC Steampunk Inc. (government contracting) Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox (law firm) Tantus Technologies, Inc. Tax Analysts TBC Hotels TeraThink Corp. Thompson Creek Window Co.


Northern Virginia sees ebb in virus cases while numbers reach record highs elsewhere in state

its average daily caseload has more than doubled in the past week. Cases in the city for those 29 and younger are up about 250 percent since the last week of May. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has said that the “concerning increase” in the Hampton Roads area could prompt additional restrictions. Health experts are urging the public to follow guidelines such as wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and frequent hand-washing to help stem the spread of the virus. Virus cases had been decreasing until about mid-June in the greater Washington region, but “that has leveled off,” said Luisa Franzini, a professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health in College Park. “Now we’re starting to see an increase,” Franzini said. “People are out and about, and the virus spreads more easily that way.” The District, Maryland and Virginia reported 1,449 new cases and eight additional deaths on Monday, bringing the regional caseload to 156,075, with more than 5,800 deaths since the start of the pandemic. During the past four days, the three jurisdictions combined have recorded their biggest daily case numbers since early June. Maryland reported 418 new cases and six deaths Monday. The state’s seven-day average has increased to its highest level since June 15. At the same time, Maryland’s average number of deaths and other key metrics have held steady or ticked downward, with intensive care unit bed usage at the lowest level since March 29. Prince George’s County Health Officer Ernest L. Carter announced Monday that the county will proactively test all its public safety workers for the virus. He said the step is being taken to curb asymptomatic spread as the county gradually reopens. “It is important to know the status of our public safety employees so we can do all we can to ensure that they are not exposing the public to the virus and to ensure that we can continue to maintain continuity of operations of our government,” he said in a statement. “At this time, we have sufficient testing capacity to undertake these efforts.” Prince George’s leads Maryland in coronavirus infections, reporting 19,773 cases as of Monday. The District’s caseload also has started to rise in recent days, with its seven-day average the highest in nearly a month. The District reported 59 new cases and no deaths Monday — the


We can reopen schools — if we’re willing to rethink how they operate

explore options and hedge bets. Doing so not only reduces the chance of catastrophe, but also allows decision-makers to learn as they go and refine strategies accordingly. What might this mean for reopening schools? First, don’t open all schools at once. Policymakers should encourage schools across a state (or a metropolitan area) to stagger their start dates, reducing the risk of simultaneous outbreaks that could quickly create a statewide crisis. Some schools could open earlier than usual, getting an early start on compensating for spring’s lost learning. Second, reduce the number of students in schools and classrooms. We believe this can dramatically slow the spread of covid-19 — even if children are not especially good at wearing masks or maintaining physical distance. Mathematica researchers conducted an analysis for Pennsylvania’s state education department, running more than 25,000 simulations across six different approaches to reopening schools. The analysis found that dividing students into smaller groups, each of which attends school some days and learns from home on others, may allow schools to avoid an outbreak for five to 10 times as long as if they tried to operate normally. Rather than shutting down after a week or a month, many schools might be able to remain open for an entire semester. In addition, the analysis suggests that shrinking group sizes with part-time attendance could allow schools to open without substantially increasing the risk of large-scale outbreaks. This is not to say that everyone can attend safely: Some students and staff who are at high risk of covid-19 complications may need to teach and learn from home, and some communities with high infection rates may need to postpone reopening. And there is no way for a school to eliminate risk entirely. But for many communities, opening with small classes attending part time is nearly as safe as if the school were entirely closed. The analysis also found that mitigation practices such as wearing masks on the school bus and eating lunch in classrooms could slow the spread of covid-19 somewhat. But if all the students come to school every day (as states such as Florida and Massachusetts have proposed), with classes and school buses running at full capacity, outbreaks remain far more likely than if students were in smaller groups, coming to school part time. Pandemic math is unforgiving. Of course, having students in school only two days a week creates a logistical


In this Maryland suburb, 74 percent of new covid-19 patients are Hispanic

and Gabe Albornoz (D-At Large) — said they also want to see the county release a targeted strategy for how to test and treat more Hispanic residents. “Having press releases in Spanish is just not enough,” Navarro said. Some lawmakers incorrectly interpreted the 74 percent figure as the test positivity rate among Hispanic residents, and included it as such in the health regulation proposed Tuesday. But that was inaccurate, Gayles said. Test positivity — for all residents — has steadily declined since April. For Hispanics, it reached a low of 14 percent in June, compared with 1.8 percent for non-Hispanic white residents and 4 percent for black residents. What the 74 percent figure shows, Gayles said, is that as overall cases in the county have decreased, Hispanic residents have accounted for a growing share of new infections. Since mid-June, the county’s seven-day average in daily cases has fluctuated between 65 and 90, down from its peak of more than 250 in May. But the percent of cases involving Hispanics has grown. In April, 45 percent of Montgomery’s cases involved Hispanics. “It’s true that in the small number of new cases, the virus is disproportionately affecting the Latino community,” said Gayles, adding that the scale of the inequity is “alarming.” “But the notion that we have done nothing and ignored these communities is completely and totally wrong and inaccurate,” he said. As of Monday, 22,335 Hispanic residents had been tested in Montgomery, accounting for 18 percent of total tests. Albornoz said the health department should have recognized in March that the virus was going to disproportionately affect Hispanic residents and adopted a more aggressive testing strategy toward that community. Widespread testing is key to understanding the burden of the disease on a certain community, which can help inform what is needed to contain it, experts say. Latino people are more likely to work as essential workers and to live in the densely populated apartment buildings that can be hotbeds for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Many are also less likely to access testing, lawmakers said, either because they are uninsured or wary that being tested might pose risks to their immigration status. The latter concern has intensified since the Trump administration changed the “public charge” rule, which affects who is considered dependent on the federal government for benefits. In parts of Montgomery, advocates say, many noncitizen Latino residents


Trump has killed satire

opaque, and often exaggerated. But they are not exempt from the law of gravity, which is pulling violently on just about every sector in which Trump operates. Hotels, high-rises, resorts, conference centers: They’ve all gone off a cliff. A leading authority in the hotel and travel industries put it this way when I asked: “There is not a single positive trend for the assets in the Trump portfolio.” The Trump Organization’s flagship hotel in Washington — which the family sought to flip in the heady days just before the pandemic — sat mostly empty through the shutdown and remains far less valuable than it had been. Trump Doral, a sprawling golf resort and conference center near Miami, was sucking wind even before the pandemic. Now, crickets. With Florida’s covid-19 case count soaring past 15,000 per day, businesses just aren’t in the junketing mood. Cratering revenue from weddings and charity balls at Mar-a-Lago forced the Trump Organization to furlough hundreds of workers, while the company petitioned Palm Beach County for a rent reduction at its nearby golf course. The problem of social distancing aboard elevators and in cubicles poses a major threat to the family’s investments in skyscrapers. And the collapse of international travel is a severe blow to their multimillion-dollar gamble on a trophy golf resort in western Scotland. The president’s impulsive, unserious response to covid-19 has bollixed the nation’s business. Scoffing at masks and flouting social distancing, Trump undermined our best hopes for opening a parachute over the plummeting U.S. economy. Three of our leading economic engines — California, Texas and Florida — are struggling with the consequences of too many people emulating Trump’s reckless example. And he’s botching his own business in the process. The law firms, financial planners and trade associations that might have booked meetings at struggling Trump Doral won’t be looking to Woolery for medical advice. They’ll be more interested in the views of David De La Zerda, director of the intensive care unit at Miami’s Jackson Medical Center, who told an NPR interviewer that the surge in cases filling his beds is both younger and sicker than his covid-19 cases in the spring. Before the pandemic, Trump complained — without evidence — that serving as president was costing him “a fortune.” Now it is almost certainly true. By underestimating the problem and by failing to rally the country to a unified, medically sound response,


Trump gave up on fighting the virus. Now we’re paying for his laziness.

isn’t significant direct aid coming to offset losses in tax and fee revenue. While Congress has enacted some relief laws, including the Cares Act in March, and it’s been supplementing incomes through the Paycheck Protection Program and unemployment insurance, much greater investments are needed. Without an adequate response, individuals and communities that have the money to protect themselves will be able to do so, but the death rates will continue to climb in communities of color and among poorer Americans. Cuts in state budgets will also disproportionately harm those same communities. Already, covid-19 has demonstrated deep racial inequities. So far, excess covid-19 mortality has been borne especially by black, Latino and Native American communities. The decision to persuade the public that we must simply learn to live with thousands of infections each day disregards these inequities about who will be disproportionately harmed. In that way, it isn’t just bad public health; it’s also racist. Trump’s encouragement of defiance of methods to reduce transmission, from rejecting masks to rushing to reopen without adequate safeguards, has already accelerated the spread of the virus. But as the pandemic sweeps into more rural areas, it is possible that the administration will need to switch tactics and narrative once again. If there is a belief in this White House that the dead won’t be among “our people,” which one wishes was unthinkable, that ultimately will not hold up. The idea that rural and small-town white America is somehow culturally or biologically resistant will falter. Though inequality is racialized in the United States, the same circumstances that create the unfair odds of coronavirus infection — crowded housing, crowded workplaces, inadequate labor protections — also affect many white Americans. When confronting lethal microbes, humans rely on our wits and capacity to collaborate, as Yale professor Frank Snowden has noted. In quick order after he took office nearly four years ago, Trump dispatched with preparedness. Now, actually faced with a pandemic, he has abandoned any input from scientists. Withdrawal from the WHO removes the United States from the main forum for international cooperation. A federal government that is witless and on its own makes inevitable the grim unfolding scenario. We hope it won’t take the death toll reaching 200,000 before the administration acknowledges how disastrous the federal response has been and switches tactics. But we fear that only a change in administration can reset our path to recovery.


The Technology 202: Here’s how Trump could go after TikTok

of Huawei equipment in its networks. The country is launching a review on when to ban the purchase of Huawei kit from the country’s fiber optic network. This will be followed by a transition period, which could last up to two years. U.S. officials have long warned that Beijing could direct Huawei to spy through 5G networks, which aim to provide superfast wireless speeds. Huawei and the Chinese government have disputed the charges. Michael Kratsios will serve as acting undersecretary of defense for research and engineering in addition to his current role as U.S. chief technology officer, the Defense Department announced. Kratsios joined the White House in 2017. He is best known for spearheading initiatives in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and 5G communications technology. He has also led the White House’s private-public partnership to use supercomputers to combat the coronavirus pandemic. “In seeking to fill this position we wanted someone with experience in identifying and developing new technologies and working closely with a wide range of industry partners,” Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said in a statement. Kratsios formerly served as chief of staff to Peter Thiel, one of Trump’s most prominent Silicon Valley supporters and a co-founder of Palantir, which has more than $60 million worth of military contracts. Kratsios is a strong critic of China’s use of artificial intelligence and other technologies for alleged human rights abuses. Another way China could be siphoning American data? Bad routers. Journalist Karl Bode explains: The president’s account was suspended by the Amazon-owned company two weeks after it broadcast rallies that the company said contained language that violated its hate-speech policies, the Verge reports. (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign has been focusing on microtargeting voters on Facebook, where he has outspent the Biden campaign by approximately $12 million, Bloomberg News reports. Some activists have pushed Facebook to limit microtargeting because of the potential for abuse of the technology to suppress or mislead voters. The legislation, introduced by Reps. John Curtis (R-Utah), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), would require smart home-device makers to disclose audio and visual recording components in home devices. The bill requires the Federal Trade Commission to work alongside industry officials to establish guidelines for properly disclosing the potential for their products to contain audio or visual recording capabilities. “We should be allowed to make informed decisions about the electronic eavesdroppers


Red Wolves name for Washington could help save the species, scientist says

red wolf population on the Albemarle Peninsula is believed to be about 20. A Flickr account maintained by Wildlands Network features 100,000 publicly accessible photographs of red wolves and other wildlife taken by cameras on the site, including deer, coyotes, quail, raccoons and one of the largest black bear concentrations in the United States. For the red wolves to stave off extinction in the wild, Sutherland said it’s imperative that the Fish and Wildlife Service resume releasing the wolves from captivity. He also endorses incentive programs that would reward locals for having red wolves on their property. In the meantime, he and his colleagues continue to engage in outreach with hunters and farmers who live near the refuge, reassuring them that the red wolf, which grows to be between 50 and 80 pounds, is “not the European ‘Big Bad Wolf’ that’s inside our heads.” “The red wolf has not hurt anybody in 30 years down there in North Carolina, which is a pretty remarkable legacy,” Sutherland said. “They’re shy animals; they don’t really like people.” Red wolves have several characteristics befitting a football team. “The wolves are efficient top carnivores, and they can run down a deer and kill it,” Sutherland said. “They can take out things like raccoons and possums and beavers. Compared to a coyote, wolves have longer legs, and they’re bigger and more muscular and stronger. Their territories can be about 50 square miles, so they can cover a lot of ground. They’re fast, stealthy, disappear into the forest pretty easily when they want to. Superlative senses. They’re definitely athletic, and they’re beautiful animals. They’re pretty amazing.” Sutherland acknowledged that Washington adopting the red wolf as its mascot might perpetuate some of the myths and misconceptions about the species that he has worked hard to dispel over the years, with several fan-designed logo and uniform mock-ups for the name featuring slash marks and fangs. Still, he sees a lot more potential good resulting from the red wolf entering the national consciousness. “One would hope the current Redskins fans would show some love toward the red wolf and doing more to help save the species, because you wouldn’t want your mascot to go extinct in the wild again,” Sutherland said. “I don’t really see any negatives. I think it makes sense to have an animal mascot, and I think having a red wolf would be a great choice.”


China sanctions Lockheed Martin over Taiwan arms sales, but impact is minimal

BEIJING — China said Tuesday that it would impose unspecified sanctions on Lockheed Martin, the gargantuan American defense contractor, in retaliation for the Trump administration’s decision to continue supplying arms to Taiwan. Beijing did not spell out what these measures would entail, and Lockheed Martin has very little exposure to China. But the announcement, coming just a day after China sanctioned four American officials, represents another salvo in the hostilities between Beijing and Washington. “China is firmly opposed to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters Tuesday. “We urge the United States to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the provisions under the three China-U.S. joint communiques, stop arms sales to Taiwan and sever military ties with Taiwan, to avoid further undermining China-U.S. relations as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” Beijing considers Taiwan, which has never been part of the Communist-led People’s Republic of China, to be a breakaway province. China views Washington’s efforts to arm Taiwan as attempts to undermine Chinese sovereignty and national security. While Washington recognizes that Beijing has a “one-China” policy, it continues to support democratic Taiwan and to help the island defend itself against China, which is vastly bigger and better equipped. The State Department last week said it had approved a $620 million deal so that Taiwan could refurbish its Patriot surface-to-air, or PAC-3, missiles and extend their operational life to 30 years. “This proposed sale serves U.S. national, economic and security interests by supporting the recipient’s continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability,” the department said. This prompted Tuesday’s announcement from Beijing. “We will impose sanctions on the main contractor of this arms sale: Lockheed Martin,” Zhao said. It is not clear what kind of impact, if any, China’s action would have on Lockheed Martin. The United States has had an arms embargo on China since 1989, when the Chinese military was involved in a brutal crackdown on people calling for democracy. Since then, U.S. military manufacturers have been heavily constrained in what business they can do with China. Lockheed Martin does not appear to have much in the way of operations in China. The company generated 9.7 percent of its revenue in the Asia-Pacific region last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, almost all of it with U.S. allies and partners such as Japan,


The Cybersecurity 202: U.K. is set to bar Huawei in a major U.S. victory

the face of the mountains of evidence of NSO Group’s spyware being used to target human rights defenders from Saudi Arabia to Mexico,” Danna Ingleton, acting co-director of Amnesty Tech, said in a statement . NSO, meanwhile, applauded the decision. WhatsApp is also suing NSO for allegedly helping to hack at least 100 of its users across 20 countries. The ballots arrived after election deadlines but often through no fault of the voter, according to an NPR analysis reported by Pam Fessler and Elena Moore. The rejected ballots make up a small percentage of total ballots in most states but they’re enough to make a difference in a close election. In some states the figure is higher. Virginia, for example, rejected nearly 6 percent of mail-in ballots. And even a small percentage of rejected ballots is likely to undermine people’s faith that their vote will be counted. Even more concerning, people voting by mail for the first time are more likely to have their ballots rejected, Charles Stewart, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told NPR. That could cause chaos, with an influx of voters switching to mail voting because of the coronavirus pandemic. Democrats and advocacy groups have filed lawsuits trying to force several states to count all mail votes as long as they’re postmarked before Election Day. Republicans argue that it would create too much confusion to continue to count votes after Election Day. The president made the confirmation during an interview with Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen. The Post first reported on the U.S. Cyber Command operation last year, but White House and military officials had not previously acknowledged it, Ellen reports . The operation was a prime example of Trump administration efforts to aggressively punch back against adversaries in cyberspace. The White House expanded Cybercom’s authority to launch offensive attacks in 2018. The confirmation marked a rare Cybercom also carried out an attack against computer systems used by Iran ’ s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to target oil tankers in the Persian Gulf last August. The strike was in retaliation for the destruction of a U.S. surveillance drone. Michael Kratsios joined the White House in 2017. He is best known for spearheading initiatives in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and 5G communications technology. He has also led the White House’s private-public partnership to use supercomputers to combat the coronavirus pandemic. “In seeking to fill


Arrests along Mexico border jumped 40% last month, despite Trump administration’s immigration crackdown

are controversial because they have essentially shut the door on the ability of asylum seekers to seek safe refuge in the United States, while also waving off anti-trafficking laws preventing the rapid deportation of underage migrants who arrive without a parent. The American Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant advocacy groups filed a legal challenge last month to the expulsion system, which the Trump administration has put in place indefinitely. U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials have been anxious about the possibility of a new migration surge as a result of deteriorating economic conditions in Mexico and Central America. Mexico is facing its worse economic crisis in a century as a result of the pandemic, and the country has reported coronavirus positivity rates of nearly 50 percent in recent weeks, an indication of widespread community transmission. The U.S.-Mexico border region is a major hot spot for the virus. Three of the U.S. states with the worst outbreaks — Texas, Arizona and California — are border states. Last month’s arrest totals, while higher than May’s, were about one-third of the 104,311 detentions CBP tallied during the same period a year ago, near the peak of the Central American migration crisis. “The numbers are still quite low when put in recent historical perspective, but they have clearly gone up from the very low numbers early in the pandemic,” said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. “It probably suggests that there are many more people faced with difficult economic circumstances in Mexico during the global recession who are willing to try and see if they can get into the United States, but Central Americans are still not crossing in large numbers, probably because of Mexican enforcement measures.” In a statement, CBP acting commissioner Mark Morgan said the higher arrest numbers in June were a justification for continued construction of Trump’s $15 billion border wall project. “While the number of encounters last month are not a surprise, this increase is still extremely concerning as we continue to battle the invisible enemy: COVID-19,” Morgan said. “Therefore, it is imperative that we continue to build the border wall system and enforce CDC policies aimed at protecting the health of Americans.” Acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf, whom Trump singled out for praise during the appearance with López Obrador, played down the significance of the increase. “The real story is we have stopped catch


When the pandemic ends, a healthier ‘normal’ could help our obesity crisis. Here’s how to create it.

normal, people cooked plants and animals at home, ate something like three times a day, and obesity was rare and nobody fought about carbohydrate metabolism. But another part of the old normal made it worse: Doctors, scientists and the public health community told us weight loss was possible — easy, even — if only we ate in this one particular way. Nobody agrees on the particular way, but let’s not quibble. For the most part, we know what not to eat, but just how are we supposed to do that when that very stuff is in our face 24/7? It’s not a knowing problem, it’s a doing problem. It’s not a diet problem, it’s an environment problem. And an environment-busting pandemic is a remarkable opportunity to reshape what’s normal. Most suggestions for food environment changes are top-down, with the government and large food companies in a leading role. While I’m certainly in favor of aligning public dollars with public health (we could revamp SNAP, restructure farm subsidies, tax sugar), and it’s crystal clear that Big Food has played a major role in obesity in the United States, there’s a problem with the top-down approach: It takes time. It has taken a lot of time already. Calls for changes to subsidies, taxes and food companies’ portfolios have been going on for as long as I’ve been covering the space, with precious little to show for it. By all means, let’s keep fighting the good fight, but maybe it’s time for a little bottom-up. Besides, normal is what we, the people, decide it is. If we want a better normal, now is the perfect time to take back the food environment. Taking something back usually means taking it back from something pretty bad. When the women’s movement started “take back the night,” it was from rapists and abusers. But “take back the food environment” is from things we do want, which was what got us into this mess. Take it back from Doritos, from ramen, from hot dogs, from doughnuts. Wait, you got doughnuts? That’s why this is hard. The problem isn’t doughnuts; it’s ubiquity. We need to safeguard the joy of a raised glazed, but we shouldn’t have to face down that temptation everywhere we go. We have to give up on the idea that people who want to lose weight can succeed in the food system we’ve created. Sure, a


10 socially distant date ideas that aren’t just a walk or a video chat

Yes, we’re still in a global pandemic, which doesn’t exactly lend itself to extensive physical contact. But discouraging touch doesn’t mean discouraging romantic pursuits. The initial phase of wooing might take longer than it typically does. Though some states are loosening restrictions, limited capacity in restaurants and bars makes traditional dates difficult. So dates are being replaced with video calls and endless texts. That allows more time to evaluate what is important to you in a partner, matchmakers and other experts point out — making this an exciting time to embark on a new relationship. As long as you seek out creative ways to deepen a connection. “If you’re with someone physically, it’s just easier to learn their nuances, because you’re in their presence,” relationship coach and matchmaker Amari Ice said. “If you call each other or FaceTime, make it a habit to share something with your partner you wouldn’t normally. You just don’t have the luxury of being like you would be in person.” Here are 10 ideas for an out-of-the-ordinary social-distance date, in person or online. Go on a grocery run At the beginning of the pandemic, grocery stores were suffering from perpetual empty shelves, turning shopping into a stressful privilege check. But it can be fun and less lonely to shop through a grocery list with another person. As you make your way through the aisles, don’t hesitate to point out that sugary cereal you ate while growing up or the snack you remember from travels abroad. Find a time when the grocery store is relatively empty (typically the morning) to ensure you’re not taking away from those needing supplies. Best for: Have an outdoor picnic — six feet apart Take inspiration from creative teens by scrolling through their aesthetically pleasing dates using TikTok’s #picnicdate hashtag. Scope out an uncrowded hill or park space a few days in advance. Prepare a menu of easy-to-pack picnic fare such as bread, cheese and fruit. Curate a list of topics, or questions you want to ask one another. If you want to make your date Instagram-worthy, coordinate complementary outfits and meet before sunset or during sunrise. Best for: Give each other a room tour One of the formative moments in a relationship is the nightcap at the end of the third or fourth date and the thrill of getting an intimate glimpse of the other’s physical space (with the potential


When will sports return? Where things stand with NBA, MLB, NFL and other leagues.

get weird with a Wednesday night race that covers 500 kilometers NASCAR fires up its engines Sunday, hoping to lead sports’ return from quarantine The PGA Tour returned in early June, without fans, at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth. As for the major tournaments, the British Open has been canceled, but the PGA Championship is set for Aug. 6-9 at Harding Park in San Francisco; the U.S. Open for Sept. 17-20 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y.; and the Masters for Nov. 12-15 at Augusta National. The Ryder Cup, slated Whistling Straits in September, has been moved to 2021. A limited number of fans were to be allowed at the Memorial this weekend, but on July 14 the PGA announced that the rest of its events will be held without spectators. The LPGA Tour lost its first major June 9: The Evian Championship in France has been canceled. Rory McIlroy says a fan-free Ryder Cup isn’t worth holding, predicts it will be moved to 2021 Phil Mickelson wants to make ‘The Match’ with Tiger woods an annual event The Triple Crown has a different look. With the Kentucky Derby and Preakness postponed, the Belmont Stakes moved to the head of the three-race pack. It was held June 20 at a shorter distance at Belmont Park in New York — favorite Tiz the Law won handily — with the Derby being run Sept. 5 and the Preakness Stakes wrapping up the Triple Crown on Oct. 3. Tiz the Law lays down the law, wins Belmont Stakes to open reshaped Triple Crown season Belmont Stakes set for June 20, becoming the first of the Triple Crown races Kentucky Derby moves to September Olympic athletes will be better able to resume training as states and countries relax restrictions, but much remains unclear. Will there be another wave of illness? Will travel be possible next summer? Will fans be present for the competition in Tokyo? With Olympics postponed, Katie Ledecky focuses on educating herself — and others Simone Biles casts doubt on training if Olympics are postponed again: ‘I do not know what I would do’ Olympics to be canceled if they can’t be held in 2021 Exhibitions and local events have begun to be held in places where authorities have loosened restrictions, but the calendar remains empty until early August. As for the Grand Slam events, Wimbledon was outright


Comet Neowise is visible in the evening sky this week

you to enter your location and see when the comet will be visible in both the morning and evening sky. As an added bonus, you may be able to catch the International Space Station fly 254 overhead too. It will make a visible pass over the East Coast shortly before 5 a.m. on Thursday, and again around 9:30 p.m.. A number of other viewing opportunities are possible elsewhere and at different times. You can get those dates and times for your location here. Escaping city lights is key. Neowise has gradually been brightening over the past several weeks, probably peaking in brightness at present before it slowly begins fading away as summer wears on. Find yourself a clear, dark location with a full view of the horizon. Beaches, ballfields and farmland are ideal sites for observing. If you look in the morning, you’ll also see Venus shining brightly above and to the right of the comet. Capital Weather Gang reader Tyler Reber and his wife ventured out to Shenandoah National Park early Sunday in an attempt to capture Neowise’s splendor. Reber described the sight as “incredible.” “I didn’t even need to try and find it; it was just right there, blasting through space, but at the same time, standing still,” wrote Reber in a Flickr post. “What an awesome sight to see. Finally, 2020 has done something cool.” In areas with more light pollution, binoculars may be necessary to locate the comet. On Tuesday evening, the clouds cleared sufficiently in Washington D.C. that Neowise was just barely visible even amidst all the light pollution. It appeared as a glowing eraser-smudge, but undoubtedly would have appeared more striking in rural areas. Neowise will appear about as bright as a typical star, but you may notice a bit of smudgy luminescence above it. That’s the comet’s tail. You won’t need binoculars to see it, but they’ll certainly help. Be patient when searching the skies to find the celestial marvel. It actually has two tails — one made of dust, and the other composed of ions. Odds are you’ll only see the debris tail, but if you have a sensitive enough telescope or camera, you may notice a subtle blue hue to its left. According to SpaceWeather.com, the ion tail — probably not visible to the naked eye — is filled with ebbs and flows as the turbulent swath of material is sculpted


blasting through space, but at the same time, standing still,” wrote Reber in a Flickr post. “What an awesome sight to see. Finally, 2020 has done something cool.” In areas with more light pollution, binoculars may be necessary to locate the comet. On Tuesday evening, the clouds cleared sufficiently in Washington D.C. that Neowise was just barely visible even amidst all the light pollution. It appeared as a glowing eraser-smudge, but undoubtedly would have appeared more striking in rural areas. Neowise will appear about as bright as a typical star, but you may notice a bit of smudgy luminescence above it. That’s the comet’s tail. You won’t need binoculars to see it, but they’ll certainly help. Be patient when searching the skies to find the celestial marvel. It actually has two tails — one made of dust, and the other composed of ions. Odds are you’ll only see the debris tail, but if you have a sensitive enough telescope or camera, you may notice a subtle blue hue to its left. According to SpaceWeather.com, the ion tail — probably not visible to the naked eye — is filled with ebbs and flows as the turbulent swath of material is sculpted by buffets of solar wind. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t expect to see what is depicted in photographs. Most photographers are using long exposure times, meaning that the camera is “open” to taking in many seconds’ worth of light, yielding a more striking or prominent photograph. Neowise surprised scientists this month when it survived its close encounter with the sun, having emerged unscathed. The comet was discovered March 27, and is named after the decade-old satellite that first revealed the celestial body’s whereabouts. That satellite, the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, is reaching the end of its life cycle, soon to harmlessly burn up upon reentering Earth’s upper atmosphere. NASA scientists are working to develop a new satellite that, if funded, will allow astronomers to better probe the night skies for potentially hazardous objects, including asteroids. Many have wondered just how long Neowise will stick around in our skies. The short answer? Nobody knows. Neowise will wane in brilliance as it heads away from the sun. But through next week it will be approaching Earth. Will one of those elements dominate? Or will they offset one another? It’s unclear. That’s why astronomers have recommended looking to the


At college health centers, students battle misdiagnoses and inaccessible care

not provide treatment for her autoimmune disease, is working with students to renew their demands. “We need to guarantee that the people who are going to be putting their lives on the line going back in the fall are protected and feel safe and that we have the health care and the resources we need to be students right now,” Layton said. Students and parents have flagged problems at campus health clinics through letters, social media campaigns and court battles, but colleges have resisted scrutiny of their health operations. Earlier this year, Liberty University in Virginia sought criminal trespassing charges against two reporters who visited the campus to write a story about the college’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. About 80 of the roughly 280 colleges contacted by The Post refused to answer questions about budgets and staffing at their campus clinics. In an email last year, the chief executive of the American College Health Association cautioned members about sharing information with The Post and referenced its reporting about a viral outbreak at the University of Maryland. The association later said the message was sent to inform colleges and took no position on whether universities should comply with the requests. Olivia Paregol, who had a compromised immune system, was among dozens of students sickened by adenovirus in the fall of 2018 at the University of Maryland. When the 18-year-old freshman fell ill and went to the campus clinic in College Park, no one informed her about the virus. By the time officials disclosed it publicly, 18 days had passed, and Paregol had died. Paregol’s father, Ian, fears that campus health centers across the country are woefully unprepared to handle the pandemic. “How are they even going to possibly protect those kids?” he questioned. “They could barely function when there is no crisis.” Gracie Engelkes said she is still looking for her college to accept responsibility after she nearly died in 2016 because a nurse practitioner missed signs of meningitis during two separate visits to the University of Arkansas health center in Fayetteville. The 19-year-old freshman was hospitalized for several weeks and said she never received an apology from anyone at the health clinic — only a bill for several hundred dollars. Engelkes and her family explored filing a lawsuit but decided not to after learning that Arkansas state laws made it difficult to do so because of immunity given to


Siberian heat streak and Arctic temperature record virtually ‘impossible’ without global warming, study says

In a stark new finding, a study shows that six straight months of anomalously mild conditions in large parts of northern Siberia so far this year, along with an Arctic temperature record of 100.4 degrees (38 Celsius) that occurred in June, would have been virtually impossible without human-induced global warming. The study, released Wednesday by the World Weather Attribution project, was produced through a collaboration between climate researchers from multiple institutions in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The researchers found that the prolonged January-to-June heat, which has led to a record spike in wildfires across the Siberian Arctic, was made at least 600 times as likely by human-caused climate change. This led them to conclude such an event would be nearly impossible in the absence of global warming. The analysis shows that the six months of much above-average temperatures in the region would only occur less than about once in 80,000 years without human-caused climate change. The scientists used an increasingly well-established technique known as climate detection and attribution, which is analogous to climate change detective work, to determine whether and by how much global warming influenced the odds of an extreme climate or weather event. In this case, the researchers used statistical methods and dozens of computer models to examine six months of above-average temperatures seen during the January through June period in much of Siberia, as well as the tentative Arctic temperature record of 100.4 degrees (38 Celsius) that occurred in Verkhoyansk, north of the Arctic Circle on June 20. Even in the current climate, the study shows, the six months of unusually mild conditions stand out, with the event expected to occur less than once every 130 years. The study found that for the large region examined, temperatures during the past six months would have been at least 3.6 degrees (2 Celsius) cooler had the same weather pattern established itself in the January to June period in 1900 compared to 2020. And in Verkhoyansk, maximum June temperatures have increased by at least 1.8 degrees (1 Celsius) relative to 1900. Past studies from this group have consistently found that climate change makes heat waves more likely and more intense than they would be in the absence of human-caused global warming. But they have not reached such strong conclusions before. For example, one study of a European heat wave last year found that global


The Health 202: The race for a coronavirus vaccine isn’t slowing, even as Trump undermines Fauci

director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, told Carolyn and Lenny. Governments and private firms have pledged billions of dollars in the search for a vaccine. There are 160 vaccines currently under development, including the 21 that are being evaluated in clinical settings. Scientists are seeing some key differences between how HIV and the coronavirus work, making them hopeful a covid-19 vaccine will be successful. “Science is gambling that one or more of those efforts will yield and deploy a coronavirus vaccine within 12 to 18 months,” our colleagues write. “Researchers are heartened by the key differences between the viruses. HIV integrates itself into the body’s cells, which means a vaccine has to start working immediately to rout it. People’s immune systems are not able to naturally defeat HIV, making a vaccine even more difficult to create. And it mutates much more quickly than the novel coronavirus.” That means states, hospitals and nursing homes in need of critical supplies — some of which have reported shortages — may not be able to rely on the federal government for help, NBC News’s Jonathan Allen and Cyrus Farivar report. “For example, the Strategic National Stockpile and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have fewer than 900,000 gloves in reserve after shipping 82.7 million of them — or just 30 percent of the amount requested by state, local and tribal governments — since the COVID-19 crisis began, according to figures compiled Sunday by Health and Human Services Department officials for senior leaders of the interagency coronavirus task force effort,” they write. Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, the chief supply chain official for the White House coronavirus task force, insisted the situation is “just not that dire” – even as several states reinstitute lockdowns and others move to shut down bars as cases and deaths surge. “I’m not going to pretend to tell you that supply and demand are perfectly aligned again, because there is still some residual hunting and pecking for a few things,” Polowczyk said. “But supply and demand back orders are trending typically down, and we’re fundamentally in a volume place differently than we were in, say, March and then very early April.” Reta Mays, who was a nursing assistant at the facility in West Virginia, admitted in federal court to the killing spree that occurred in 2017 and 2018, pleading guilty to


Why Mexico and Canada are probably happy to keep the U.S. border closed

23 U.S. border counties. San Diego and Pima counties alone have recorded more confirmed cases of the coronavirus than the entirety of the areas that abut the border from the Mexican side. Six Mexican border municipalities have seen more than 1,000 cases, compared to 11 U.S. border counties. It’s not just those counties that pose risks across the international borders. The spread of the virus within the United States has been much more widespread and much more dense than in nearly any part of Mexico or Canada. Canada’s hardest-hit province, Quebec, has seen a bit fewer than 57,000 cases. Eighteen U.S. states have exceeded that total. Those same 18 states have also recorded more cases than the worst-hit region in Mexico, near its capital. Again, the United States is a much larger country. Even adjusting for population, though, the spread of the virus since the pandemic began has been much broader in the United States than its neighbors. More than 30 states have higher population-adjusted case totals than Quebec and Mexico City. That’s looking at cumulative cases since the pandemic emerged. If we consider the current state of the pandemic, using data through Tuesday, the situation is even worse. The region of Mexico with the highest seven-day average of new cases is currently Mexico City, where just under 800 new cases are being added per day. In Canada, the rate of new cases is highest in Ontario, with 127 new daily cases. Fourteen states are adding new cases faster than Mexico City. Thirty-seven are adding cases faster than Ontario. Adjusting for population, Ontario is adding fewer cases each day than anywhere in the United States besides Maine and Vermont. In other words, the worst-hit area in Canada is adding as many cases per 100,000 residents as the least-affected places in the United States. The Tabasco region of Mexico, the place where the most cases are accruing as a function of population right now, is still doing so more slowly than 16 U.S. states. That includes each of the states on the border with Mexico and the Gulf Coast except New Mexico. Trump’s warnings about the threat posed by people crossing the border were always hyperbolic at best. The pandemic has made his cautions about the threat of coronavirus traveling from one country to another a bit more on the nose. Those warnings are just getting the direction of travel wrong.


D.C. has tested 13,706 blood samples. Only 809 carried coronavirus antibodies.

onto the assay. If that happens, that’s a positive blood sample. If the assay finds nothing binding onto it, that’s a negative. Charles Shearer, a medical technician in the public health lab, says people are seeking “reassurance.” Even if they do catch the virus in the future — doctors haven’t established whether people with antibodies now can still catch it later — they can take comfort in knowing “your body has previously fought it off.” Shearer also pointed out that there’s a “private aspect and the community aspect.” The altruistic option for those who test positive: Anyone with antibodies gets information from the city about how to donate their blood, which can be used as a treatment for patients suffering from severe cases of the virus. Barbara Davis, the registered nurse supervising the Navy Yard site, said many of the patients she sees feel certain they had the coronavirus in January, before it was reported to be in Washington. Others think that if they test positive for antibodies, they can make money selling their blood. Davis has worked across the spectrum of pandemic public health — two weeks swabbing sick or worried people to test for the virus in Anacostia; months working on the covid-19 unit at a hospital where she held patients’ hands as they died without family nearby; and now this trailer, which she hopes is a part of this whole continuum that provides more comfort and scientific progress. Many of the other workers in the trailer also had been fighting the pandemic for months, just like the health-care workers they’ve often been testing. Meekail Williams, a phlebotomist from Tampa, traveled to Prince George’s County to help treat coronavirus patients in the spring, when the D.C. suburbs were hit hard. Recently, when the number of cases was exploding in Florida and her two-floor covid-19 unit in Maryland was down to just three patients, she returned home. Just a week later, D.C. Health called, asking if she could come back — to test some of those patients she had treated in the spring, and others, who want to see whether they have antibodies now. She was somewhat surprised that her own antibody test came back negative. “I was hands-on with covid patients every day since March,” Williams said. It just goes to show what many of the people she tests each day are finding out: Antibodies can be elusive.


The Daily 202: Early evidence shows Democrats with a decided edge in mail-in ballots

report. “The severity of the toll on the United States was evident in new infection figures released Tuesday, with multiple states — including Oklahoma and Nevada — hitting record highs. Florida has now reported more cases in the past week — nearly 78,000 — than most European nations have in their entire struggle with covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. “That sort of explosive growth is mirrored in other nations, though none with the sort of wealth, infrastructure and scientific know-how of the United States. Across much of the developing world, rampant coronavirus outbreaks came relatively late. But now that the virus has taken root, governments are flailing in their attempts to halt it and citizens are resisting changes to their way of life. … The struggle has been especially fraught in Latin America, where countries have been lashed by covid-19’s ferocity and many have not yet hit their peaks. Brazil has the second-highest number of covid-19 deaths in the world, at more than 74,000, while Mexico has the fourth-highest, with more than 37,000. (The United States, with at least 133,000 deaths, is far and away the global leader.)” Starting today, a new data reporting protocol for hospitals will eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a recipient of state coronavirus data. “‘No matter how you slice this, this is good news,’ [said] Anthony Fauci,” the AP reports. “The experimental vaccine, developed by Fauci’s colleagues at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., will start its most important step around July 27: A 30,000-person study to prove if the shots really are strong enough to protect against the coronavirus. But Tuesday, researchers reported anxiously awaited findings from the first 45 volunteers who rolled up their sleeves back in March. Sure enough, the vaccine provided a hoped-for immune boost. Those early volunteers developed what are called neutralizing antibodies in their bloodstream — molecules key to blocking infection — at levels comparable to those found in people who survived COVID-19, the research team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro attacked Fauci in an op-ed for USA Today, part of a continuing campaign against the doctor by Trump and his allies. In response to White House attacks, Fauci said the public can trust him. Former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Joseph Dunford Jr. won’t chair a coronavirus spending panel. “The


A number of MLB umpires will opt out of the 2020 season over covid-19 fears

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that about 10 Major League Baseball umpires have joined around a dozen players in deciding to opt out of the 2020 season, which has been significantly shortened by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Jon Heyman of MLB Network puts the number at 11, with some opting out because they have family members who are ill. Under an agreement reached between the umpires and MLB, umpires deemed to be at risk because of their age, health issues or other reasons will continue to get paid if they opt out. If just one regular season game is played this season, the umpires will receive at least 37.5 percent of their salaries, per the terms of the deal. The 60-game MLB regular season begins July 23. A number of players have decided to skip the season over concerns about the novel coronavirus pandemic, including San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, the 2012 National League MVP who announced Friday that he won’t play in 2020 after he and his wife adopted premature infant twins who are in neonatal intensive care. Other players who have opted out of the season include Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and pitcher Joe Ross, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher David Price, Colorado Rockies utility man Ian Desmond and Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Mike Leake. The AP reports there are 76 full-time MLB umpires, with 20 of them age 55 or older. Umpires from Class AAA, many of whom already have served as MLB substitutes during vacations or sick leave, will take the place of the umpires who opt out. Last week, veteran umpire Joe West said he didn’t believe the number of U.S. deaths attributed to covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, was accurate. “Those statistics aren’t accurate, I don’t care who’s counting them,” West told USA Today on Wednesday. “The government has been giving these hospitals extra money if someone dies of the coronavirus. So everybody that dies is because of coronavirus. I don’t care if you get hit by a car, it’s coronavirus.” In turn, the MLB umpires’ union distanced itself from West’s comments about the number of covid-19 deaths, saying they didn’t reflect the group’s stance on the pandemic. West, 67, was deemed to be at high risk by MLB officials and was offered the chance to opt out, which he declined. He worked a Tampa Bay Rays intrasquad game on


How to turn our collective outrage into action

should be able to devote 2 percent of their earnings to closing racial opportunity gaps. I was particularly encouraged by the announcement that Netflix will deposit 2 percent of its cash holdings in banks that serve black communities, giving them more power to lend and to help small businesses survive and thrive. We also need to diversify the faces of those who have access to the biggest pools of money. Millions of African American workers’ retirement savings are invested in the very companies that abandoned their communities. Earmarking a small percentage of pension fund investments to African American asset managers would support diversity in the financial services industry and put money in the hands of people best positioned to see potential in minority communities. Once companies start making these investments, we will need to make sure money reaches not just the arteries of the financial system but also its capillaries. Many African Americans live in communities not served by major banks and rely on small, community-based institutions. While these lenders do great work, the federal Paycheck Protection Program’s application process demonstrated that many don’t have the tools that the big banks have. Previously, the gulf between major national banks and community lenders would have been unbridgeable. Today, technology makes it possible for local institutions to do thingssuch as process loans more efficiently, which means we can get much more capital flowing through these capillaries and into communities. Large companies can help by tackling the challenges most relevant to their expertise. For example, one-third of black households in the United States still have no broadband Internet or computer, which means adults can’t work from home and children can’t learn from home. Telecommunications companies have a special responsibility to end these connectivity deserts. Health-care firms should follow the lead of nonprofit organizations such as Susan G. Komen and the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which are working to end health inequities such as those that make black women diagnosed with breast cancer 40 percent more likely to die than white women and black men 76 percent more likely to develop prostate cancer than white men. Software companies can make affordable or free tools for small businesses that face razor-thin margins to handle basic business functions such as payroll and customer acquisition. Some solutions are sector-specific, but others are universal. We all have a stake in hiring a more diverse workforce and diversifying top leadership.


Apple won’t have to pay nearly $15 billion in European taxes

court has rejected the conclusions of the commission and found in favor of Apple and the Irish state. The court found the commission was wrong in concluding the Apple subsidiaries involved were given a ‘selective advantage’ (that is, a specific benefit aimed just at them). Therefore, Ireland’s tax decisions did not constitute illegal state aid. The effective 0.005 percent tax on Apple’s subsidiary was perfectly legal. Ireland was not giving Apple any special treatment. It was just applying Irish laws. Furthermore, the court rejected the conclusions of the European Commission that Ireland’s 12.5 percent corporate tax rate should apply to the relevant activities, which were based on profits generated elsewhere. Therefore, the court found the commission was wrong to conclude the 12.5 percent rate applies, agreeing with Apple’s argument that the money was simply resting in these Irish accounts. Apple argued it intended to send the cash back to the United States — when U.S. corporate tax law made it more attractive for it to do so. This doesn’t mean the story is over. The European Commission will challenge the ruling in the E.U.’s higher court — the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). That could take two years. The commission is also likely to increase efforts to challenge smaller member-states that act as global corporate tax centers. But its strategy of using E.U. competition law to tackle corporate tax avoidance is much riskier than it would have been if the court had ruled the other way. Everyone agrees Ireland facilitated the global tax games of the Apple group, allowing Apple to radically reduce its global tax bills. Irish and U.S. corporate tax laws have changed since the initial investigation. Trump’s tax overhaul means big tech and life science firms have incentives to shift more taxable cash back to the United States and move more intellectual property rights away from places like the Bermudas to places like Ireland. The Apple tax affair clearly shows global multinationals are complex legal entities that can use complex arrangements of subsidiaries, holding groups and special purpose vehicles to minimize their tax bills. Small sovereign European states such as Ireland play a very important role in helping them do that, but they are likely to face continuing pressure from E.U. authorities and their bigger neighbors. Aidan Regan is an associate professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin


Even with the administration’s about-face on international student visas, enrollment is still set to plummet

The Trump administration unexpectedly backed off a draconian new rule that would have affected international students — but other policy damage may not be easily undone. In a federal hearing Tuesday, the government abruptly dropped its recent directive that international students whose classes go online-only because of the pandemic would be refused visas or subject to deportation. That’s a good development. Even so, thanks to other anti-immigrant policies, international student enrollment is still expected to plummet this fall to its lowest level in decades. This will seed problems in the U.S. economy for years to come. Enrollment of new international students at U.S. universities in the fall semester of the 2020-2021 academic year is projected to decline 63 to 98 percent from 2018-2019 levels, according to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis. That wide range of estimates reflects uncertainty about how other immigration measures will be implemented over the coming weeks. The most pessimistic figure in that range would place enrollment of new foreign students at its lowest level since the end of World War II. Two major U.S. policy decisions are expected to hold back enrollment. First, U.S. embassies and consulates around the world suspended routine services amid pandemic closures; that includes processing of student visas. The State Department says visa services are being phased back in, but it hasn’t given dates for when it will reopen which consulates. And even if consulates in countries that send the largest numbers of students, such as India, reopen soon, there’s likely to be a big backlog of applications to be processed. Already, there may not be sufficient time to process and approve visas for the fall semester — which at many institutions begins in weeks. Additionally, many countries are still subject to U.S. travel bans related to the pandemic. Even if consulates reopen, it’s unclear whether students from these places can get U.S. visas. At least one consulate, in Vienna, has said students may qualify for “national interest exceptions” to the travel ban; but State Department higher-ups have not issued policy. Countries subject to covid-19-related travel bans — including China, Europe’s Schengen zone and Britain — accounted for about 40 percent of international students in the United States in 2018-2019, according to the Institute of International Education. “Someone from the Czech Republic would probably be more scared of coming to the U.S. than we should be going to Czech Republic,”


Thamee got national acclaim for its Burmese food. Now it wants to become a model for racial justice.

wake of the coronavirus, says Zachari Curtis, operations director for Dreaming Out Loud. The former mushroom grower says historical inequities, starting with slavery and the inability of Black people to own land, held them back from successful farming for generations. (If you get a peach in your bag, says Curtis, it’s from a white grower. Peaches take land and time, and most Black farmers are starting from scratch.) For now, customers can expect at least one ingredient in their bags to be sourced from a Black farmer. Pantry staples, everything curated from Black and brown sources, are sold in an online marketplace but can be added to meal and other purchases at Thamee. Current notions include a chai kit from Kolkata Chai and java from Nguyen Coffee Supply — both out of Brooklyn, both owned by Asian Americans — and sumac and za’atar from Washington’s Z&Z. There are no plans to reopen for in-house dining, only aspirations when it’s safe for all involved, says Jacobson. Besides, “our brand of hospitality does not work at six feet, and our financial model cannot survive at 50 percent capacity.” Pickled tea leaf salad staged atop digital reproductions of old Burmese textiles will have to wait. But it’s full speed ahead for equality for marginalized communities. The Moment is here. And Jacobson is doing everything in her power to see that her brothers and sisters in the industry have an equal shot at success. It’s a big job, but she has had lots of practice. Just ask her muse. “Simone is always trying to save the world,” says her mother. Thamee, 1320 H St. NE, 202-750-6529. thamee.com. Beginning July 17, preordered Black Farm Bags ($19.50 for small/$39 for large) and Burma Boxes can be picked up 4 to 7 p.m. Friday and noon to 3 p.m. Saturday. Open for takeout Sunday for La Tejana breakfast tacos, coffee and drinks 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and for Burmese chicken, fish and tofu entrees from 4 to 7 p.m. A previous version of this story included mention of sommelier Erica Christian. Since its initial publication, she has left the restaurant. More from Voraciously: Chef Jonny Rhodes built a revered Houston restaurant. His next mission: Fighting ‘food apartheid.’ Cooks are nourishing protesters and a social movement by sending food to the front lines If you’re tempted to publicly criticize your restaurant takeout order, here’s a thought: Don’t.