On your next summer vacation, look for berried treasure

Home Food Preservation at the University of Georgia provides a wealth of information on how to safely prepare foraged fruits. In the berry-rich 49th state, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service provides information, recipes and tips for enjoying a long list of free-range fruits, including the peach-colored cloudberry. Scandinavians, the website notes, “make a ‘cloudberry cream,’ by mixing berries or prepared jam with sweetened whipped cream.” Before gathering wild berries in U.S. national parks, would-be foragers are encouraged to visit the specific park website or to contact the park directly in advance. “National Park superintendents have the authority to designate certain fruits, berries, nuts or unoccupied seashells that may be gathered by hand for personal use or consumption if it will not adversely affect park wildlife, plants or other park resources,” says Jeremy K. Barnum, acting assistant director of National Park Service communications. Similarly, those hoping to pick berries on national forest land should contact their local forest or grasslands office to learn whether foraging is allowed and if a permit is required, a Forest Service spokeswoman said. On their way to our plates and bowls, wild berries can take more effort to locate and handle than their grocery-store cousins. Elderberries, for example, are challenging to harvest, so they don’t show up in markets as fresh fruit. As a result, consumers don’t know about them, says Marvin Pritts, professor of horticulture at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. In general, Pritts adds, people consume a “tiny fraction” of the world’s edible plant species. We could benefit from wider-ranging appetites. The chokeberry, Pritts says, has the highest-known antioxidant level of any fruit: “It’s off the charts.” Across the continent, native North Americans dried berries and used them as sweetener. Minnesota-based Red Lake Nation Foods sells products that reflect the heritage of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians. Rashid, of American Spoon, is reminded of that history when he ventures into the natural landscape. He spent his boyhood summers roaming the family acreage, not far from where his company is now based. Now, he takes his grandchildren. “I want them to be at home in the woods,” he says. “It’s a wonderful reminder that, as good as we’ve gotten at cultivating the planet, the origin of everything is wild. This is how we got here. We’ve still got that DNA. It takes us to our roots. It connects you.” food@washpost.com


Johns Hopkins professor fired after attempted sabotage of student sit-in over private police force

as the university’s contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Povey said that he was frustrated by the protesters because they had taken over Garland Hall, the main administrative building on campus, which housed servers hosting his and several others’ research. The sit-in escalated on May 1, when students locked down the building, chained the doors shut, covered the windows and forced the administration building to close during the final week of the university’s spring semester. The lockdown prompted the university to suspend or relocate services such as financial aid, academic advising and student visas. Povey, a speech recognition researcher, said he was responsible for maintaining the servers for Hopkins’s Center for Language and Speech Processing, which were located inside Garland. After protesters locked down the building, Povey learned that it could take weeks before he could access the servers, according to a statement shared with the Sun. Meanwhile, two of the servers had failed, he wrote, and he was growing increasingly anxious about losing his and others’ research, which would affect the careers of both students and faculty. But he also didn’t like the protesters’ politics. Hours before Povey showed up with bolt cutters to break into Garland, he stood outside with signs that read, “Enough With The Progressive [expletive],” “Don’t Make Me Tell Your Mom” and “Let us get back to work.” “It was clear to me they weren’t going to get what they wanted and they were wasting our time,” he told the Sun. The Students Against Private Police group was not available for comment Friday. The lockdown was ended by police the same day as Povey’s break-in; seven students were arrested. Povey’s termination letter states that he “flagrantly and unapologetically violated JHU directives” to stay away from the building and that he “created a dangerous situation that could have ended in serious harm to our students, yourself, and others in the community.” Povey wrote that he was the one who was hurt, suffering a scratch on his back during a skirmish with protesters. “I may not have my job,” Povey concluded, “but at least I still have my dignity and my independence of thought.” The sit-in group met with university administrators on July 24 to discuss the police force and the school’s ICE contracts. University Vice Provost Kevin G. Shollenberger said it was not a negotiation. The next discussion is set for Thursday. — Baltimore Sun


Russia holds funerals for five nuclear workers who died in missile explosion

MOSCOW — As funerals were held Monday for five nuclear workers killed while testing a new missile, Russian officials said they will try to determine what went wrong and how to avoid another such accident in the future. The weapon prototype they were testing relies on small-scale power sources being developed by the Russian Federal Nuclear Center that use “radioactive materials, including fissile and radioisotope materials,” the scientific director of the center, Vyacheslav Soloviev, said in a video broadcast by a television station in Sarov, where the research institute is based. “We’re analyzing the whole chain of events to assess both the scale of the accident and to understand its causes,” Soloviev said. The missile exploded Thursday evening in the Arkhangelsk region in Russia’s far north. Three nuclear workers who were injured have been hospitalized in Moscow. The explosion of liquid rocket fuel, on a platform in Dvinsky Bay, threw several of those who died into the water, reported the Russian nuclear agency, Rosatom. A “short-term” spike in radiation levels was reported Friday by officials in the city of Severodvinsk, near the testing site, but that report was removed from the Web later that day. Dvinsky Bay already had been closed to shipping ahead of the missile test, and it will remain so until Sept. 10. The Serebryanka, a nuclear fuel cargo ship, has been at the test site since last week, according to several reports. Nuclear experts have speculated that it may be recovering radioactive debris from the bottom of the bay. American President Trump tweeted Monday that the United States is “learning much from the failed missile explosion. We have similar, though more advanced, technology.” Also Monday, Valentin Kostyukov, director of the center in Sarov, said on local television that researchers from the institute had been working at the northern test site for a year. Rosatom’s chief, Alexei Likhachev, said work on the new weapon would continue, without specifying what that weapon is. Sarov, a closed town about 250 miles east of Moscow that has been a center of nuclear research since 1946, was rocked by news of the accident in the far north. Sergei Kirienko, first deputy chief of staff to Putin, attended the funeral, as did the governor of the region and the chiefs of the nuclear program. Kirienko said the dead workers would be given posthumous state awards. “They are heroes of contemporary Russia,” Kostyukov


Distributors, pharmacies and manufacturers respond to previously unreleased DEA data about opioid sales

company along with other companies conspired to flood the nation with opioids? 3. That your company failed to report suspicious orders to the DEA and filled those orders to maximize profits? The Post also asked for comment from the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, an industry trade group. These were their public statements to The Post: AmericansourceBergen “After providing daily order reports to DEA, distributors such as AmerisourceBergen have at no time been privy to how this information was used by DEA, despite consistently seeking guidance on how to most effectively walk the tightrope of providing access to needed, FDA-approved medications while playing a role – however limited, given lack of interaction with patients – in combating the diversion of these same medications. “Only recently did DEA share any of this data with distributors or manufacturers, when it was compelled to through the passage of the SUPPORT Act in late 2018 to make limited information from the database available to distributors. “The fact that our market share of these controlled substances seems to be far smaller than our total market share is a testament to the fact that our controls played an important role in enabling us to, as best we could, walk the tight rope of creating appropriate access to FDA approved medications while combatting prescription drug diversion.” Cardinal Health “Cardinal Health is proud to operate a constantly adaptive and rigorous system to combat controlled substance diversion. We have learned from our experience and the threats the pharmaceutical supply chain faces, and as a result our anti-diversion program today is stronger and more effective as it continues to evolve. We have increased the size of our anti-diversion team, including bringing in personnel with additional regulatory, pharmaceutical, and law enforcement experience. We have developed an analytical model to evaluate our pharmacy customers, assigned threshold ordering limits to them, created a centralized database to store and track data on customers and orders, and enhanced policies and procedures for anti-diversion personnel. Over the years, we have trained thousands of our people on anti-diversion practices. Our people operate in good faith, our goal is to get it right, and we have stopped suspicious orders for the shipment of hundreds of millions of dosage units of controlled substances over the last decade. “As we fulfil our role in the closed supply chain, we are in full compliance with all applicable federal and state laws, which include


A Texas-size convenience store’s road to fame

Buc-ee’s, known for its abundant snacks and clean bathrooms, is preparing to expand to other states


Pet owner in Maryland or Virginia? Don’t let animals drink from these poisonous algae-filled ponds.

Days after three dogs in North Carolina died of algae poisoning, officials in Maryland and Virginia are warning residents to keep their pets away from certain ponds to avoid illness. The dogs in Wilmington, N.C., died after drinking from a pond that the sun had converted into a “bathtub of toxins,” as The Washington Post’s Katie Mettler reported. The water had become infested with poisonous microscopic bacteria known as “blue-green algae,” which is invisible and deadly to animals. The toxic algae impairs the nervous system, liver and kidneys in humans and animals alike, although dogs and children are most likely to fall ill. That same algae has now been found in Maryland and Virginia. The affected sites include Lake Needwood and Lake Frank in Maryland’s Rock Creek Regional Park, Montgomery Parks announced Tuesday. Maryland’s state government is also tracking harmful algal blooms via an online map. In Virginia, the state Department of Health said samples gathered in July revealed toxic levels in several spots. It issued advisories for Mint Springs Lake in Albemarle County and Flannagan Reservoir in Dickenson County. Virginia is also maintaining an online algal bloom map. Maryland and Virginia officials offered instructions for residents living near poisonous algae-filled ponds: Dangerous algal blooms, now a “major environmental problem” in all 50 states, are likely to cause more damage as the threat of climate change continues to rise, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.


The Daily 202: Clouds of economic uncertainty loom despite temporary reprieve from Trump on China tariffs

departure halls, sparking tense but largely peaceful confrontations with frustrated passengers, many of them stranded. The mood turned darker by nightfall after protesters seized two men — one a reporter for Chinese state media, another they claimed to be a Chinese government agent — and clashed with police and paramedics who tried to evacuate the pair. At one point, protesters surrounded and kicked a police van, sparking hand-to-hand clashes with riot police who fired pepper spray near the departure terminal. “On Wednesday, police warned that protesters arrested during the terminal fracas could face life in prison. Seven men aged 17 to 28 years old were detained, five for unlawful assembly and two for assaulting police officers and possession of offensive weapons, said Mak Chin Ho, assistant police commissioner. … Threats of such severe punishment fit with an approach by Beijing, and its supporters in the Hong Kong government, to dramatically raise the potential cost for taking part in demonstrations.” -- China is threatening to use military-style force in Hong Kong, hoping that threats alone will disperse protests, as students plan to continue protesting once universities resume classes next month. -- Bloody eye patches have become the latest symbol of the Hong Kong protests after a young woman was hit in the face with a projectile that many protesters believe was fired by police. -- China asked the Trump administration to back off after U.S. lawmakers, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), condemned the violence against pro-democracy activists. -- Meanwhile, Trump said the “thing” in Hong Kong — which he called a “riot” last week — is “very tough” but stopped short of criticizing China. -- Follow the money: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had quarterbacked the effort on Capitol Hill to lift sanctions on Russia’s largest aluminum producer, a company that soon afterward backed the creation of the first new aluminum-rolling mill in the U.S. in nearly four decades — built in McConnell’s home state. “Within weeks, the U.S. government had formally lifted sanctions on Rusal, citing a deal with the company that reduced the ownership interest of its Kremlin-linked founder, Oleg Deripaska. And three months later, Rusal announced plans for an extraordinary partnership with Bouchard’s company, providing $200 million in capital to buy a 40 percent stake in the new aluminum plant in Ashland, Ky. — a project heralded by Gov. Matt


Hong Kong protests after a young woman was hit in the face with a projectile that many protesters believe was fired by police. -- China asked the Trump administration to back off after U.S. lawmakers, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), condemned the violence against pro-democracy activists. -- Meanwhile, Trump said the “thing” in Hong Kong — which he called a “riot” last week — is “very tough” but stopped short of criticizing China. -- Follow the money: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had quarterbacked the effort on Capitol Hill to lift sanctions on Russia’s largest aluminum producer, a company that soon afterward backed the creation of the first new aluminum-rolling mill in the U.S. in nearly four decades — built in McConnell’s home state. “Within weeks, the U.S. government had formally lifted sanctions on Rusal, citing a deal with the company that reduced the ownership interest of its Kremlin-linked founder, Oleg Deripaska. And three months later, Rusal announced plans for an extraordinary partnership with Bouchard’s company, providing $200 million in capital to buy a 40 percent stake in the new aluminum plant in Ashland, Ky. — a project heralded by Gov. Matt Bevin (R) ‘as significant as any economic deal ever made in the history of Kentucky.’ A spokesman for McConnell said the majority leader did not know that Bouchard had hopes of a deal with Rusal at the time McConnell led the Senate effort to end the sanctions. … Democratic senators have called for a government review of the deal, prompting a Rusal executive in Moscow last week to threaten to pull out of the investment.” -- Russian villagers were told to leave their town following a missile test explosion. -- Russia said the explosion caused a 16-fold spike in radiation. -- Donald Trump Jr. visited Indonesia to tout his family’s new resorts and defend his father. -- Pakistan moved to ban single-use plastic bags. Anyone in the capital region of 1.5 million who uses, sells or manufactures the bags will face a fine. -- In a bid to retain power, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is cracking down on his own military. THE DOMESTIC AGENDA: -- The Justice Department reassigned the warden of the federal detention center where sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died. Two staffers were placed on leave. “To those who have worked in or around the MCC, Epstein’s death


I sacrificed a sheep for feminism — in honor of my mother

doing for Mom. I want her to see that I’m still moving forward. I’m still independent. Tabaski feels profound to me this year. My life changed overnight. I asked the landlady if I could buy the apartment. She said no because it’s part of a building. So then I thought: Okay, if I have money in five years, I’m going to buy the whole building. So now what was supposed to be me and Mom’s house is my house. I vowed to buy a sheep. I didn’t know what I was doing, though. I called my younger brother and asked him to go to the market with me. He was willing to do it after I said “for Mom’s memory.” We went to the sheep seller. I picked one out and negotiated with the guy. He wouldn’t lower the price. I agreed to pay 120,000 West African CFA francs (or about $205). My sheep was medium-sized. Rich people buy giant ones. If you don’t have much money, you buy a goat. I felt lucky enough to be able to buy a sheep. I kept the horns. I wasn’t allowed to do the slaughter myself because I’m a woman. So my brother did it. Then I asked my old neighbor to grill the meat. (My kitchen isn’t done yet — I’m still furnishing my apartment bit by bit.) She added raw onions and vegetables. I prepared an assortment of mango, hibiscus and baobab juices. People might ask why I didn’t just go to my brother’s. I couldn’t leave empty the apartment where my mother had passed, though. I wanted to fill it with feast — as she would want me to do. Doing anything else would feel like going backward. I gave a lot of the extra meat to people on my street. I gave loaves of bread and butter to a building with lots of kids for their breakfast. You’re supposed to give people things on Tabaski. Before the meal, I arranged the meat on one of her old silver platters. You tear it from the bones with your hands. Someday, I’d like to share this kind of feast with a family I choose to build — not out of social pressure but in the name of love. I haven’t given up on that. The sheep tasted so good. I bit into it and said, “This tastes like pride.” foreign@washpost.com


Officer shoots one of two aggressive dogs in Prince George’s County, Md.

A Prince George’s County police officer shot and seriously wounded one of two Rottweilers that had attacked a construction worker, county police said. The dog was later euthanized. The worker was taken to a hospital, where she received stitches for two bite wounds in her leg, police said. The incident occurred about 7 a.m. Friday in the 700 block of Maury Avenue in the Oxon Hill area, police said Tuesday. After the worker was attacked, officers began searching for the dogs. They were told by a second construction worker that the dogs had just tried to attack him. The dogs were found in a front yard in the 4900 block of Maury Place, and while officers tried to confine them until animal control workers arrived, a resident emerged from a nearby house. The dogs left the yard and “charged at her,” police said. Officers told her to return to her house as they ran toward the dogs to divert their attention. When the resident went back indoors, the dogs ran toward the officers, police said. The officers could not find a safe spot for themselves, and the animals approached them “in a threatening manner,” police said. One of the officers shot and wounded one of the two Rottweilers, police said. The wounded dog was tested for rabies and later euthanized, police said. The second dog is in quarantine at the county animal shelter, police said. martin.weil@washpost.com


recently broke ground in Alabama and soon will have stops in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas. “Texans held on for so long until they realized there’s a market elsewhere,” said travel blogger Brandi Perry of Columbia, Miss. “We’re begging for one in Mississippi.” It’s the reliability that keeps people coming back, said Buc-ee’s general counsel, Jeff Nadalo. They come knowing that each store is “clean, friendly and in stock,” 24/7, no matter what. Other than a few regional differences — such as a wider selection of fishing gear at Gulf Coast stores — Buc-ee’s is “insanely brand consistent,” Esser said. “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.” Arch Aplin III opened the first Buc-ee’s in Lake Jackson, Tex., in 1982. Its name and logo combine his mother’s nickname for him, “Beaver,” and the name of his Labrador retriever, Buck. Don Wasek signed on as a partner shortly after, and soon they were opening locations throughout Texas. In 2003, the chain started transitioning to the massive travel centers for which it is now known, many upward of 40,000 square feet. Its New Braunfels, Tex., location is said to be the largest convenience store in the world: 68,000 square feet; 120 fueling positions; 80 fountain dispensers; 27 cash registers; and four Icee machines. It also has 33 urinals and 50 toilet stalls. The one in Katy, Tex., holds the Guinness World Record for longest carwash. The company chose Loxley, Ala., for its first location outside Texas. The store, which is strategically located on the highway leading to the tourist-heavy Alabama Gulf Coast beaches, opened in January. Construction started in June for a second Alabama location, in Leeds, outside Birmingham. It won’t open until early 2020, but Kevin Henry of Wilsonville, Ala., says he has already mapped out the 32.9-mile route to get there. It’ll take 40 minutes, he said, saving him the 230-mile trip to the Loxley store for the best barbecued brisket sandwich he said he has ever eaten. Three more stores are in the works to open in Florida: Daytona Beach, St. Augustine and Fort Myers. Still privately held, the company said it has no plans to go public or offer franchises. Dan Parkinson, Buc-ee’s district manager, jokes that Buc-ee’s is going to “take over the world, one clean restroom at a time.” David Huff lives less than a mile away from the original store in Lake Jackson.


How a McConnell-backed effort to lift Russian sanctions boosted a Kentucky project

months or years away. On the night of his dinner in Zurich, which was first reported by Time magazine, the outcome of the sanctions debate remained uncertain, with some Republicans expressing concerns about the plan. Over the meal, Bouchard said, he told his Rusal counterpart: “Look, I don’t know what’s going to happen with sanctions. . . . I don’t know if it’s a month or 10 years, but if the day comes and sanctions go away, I’d love to meet again.” EN+ declined to comment on the dinner. In April 2018, after the poisoning of a Russian former spy in England, the United States imposed sanctions on some Russian entities, including Deripaska and his companies. “Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities,” Mnuchin said in a statement. A U.S. diplomatic cable from 2006, published by WikiLeaks, referred to Deripaska — who founded Rusal and had financial ties to Paul Manafort, the now-jailed former Trump campaign chairman — as “among the 2-3 oligarchs Putin turns to on a regular basis.” In announcing the new sanctions, the Treasury Department noted that Deripaska had been investigated for alleged money laundering and accused of “threatening the lives of business rivals” and having ties to organized crime. The U.S. government has not accused Deripaska of personal involvement in Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Deripaska sued the U.S. government earlier this year, alleging that the sanctions relied on “false rumors and innuendo and originate from decades-old defamatory attacks by Deripaska’s business competitors” and have led to the “utter devastation” of his reputation and economic well-being. He told CNBC in March that he thought the sanctions represented the “weaponizing of the financial system” and that they crushed “all concept of presumption of innocence and fair process.” The sanctions caused Rusal’s stock price to plummet and disrupted the international aluminum market, drawing complaints from some U.S. trading partners. In December, Mnuchin said the Trump administration was prepared to lift sanctions imposed on Deripaska’s companies, while keeping sanctions on Deripaska personally, to restore order to the international aluminum market. He said that Deripaska had agreed as part of the deal to reduce his ownership stake in the companies he once controlled. “These entities are undergoing significant restructuring and governance changes that sever Deripaska’s control and significantly diminish his ownership,” Mnuchin said


He gave her a bike when she was a refugee. Decades later, the Internet helped her find him.

the world if they might know his name. He had given Babakar and her mother a bike, and she wanted to express her gratitude. “As a refugee child, moving from place to place, not really knowing whether you’re going to have any safety that night, what you’re going to be eating that evening, if you’re going to be eating at all,” Babakar told The Washington Post. “It was a magical thing to be gifted something that I thought was just too big for me. And I think that gift became the basis of how I felt about myself.” That’s when people online stepped up. Within hours and hundreds of retweets later, she was working with a local journalist in Zwolle to find the man. They tracked down family members and associates. At 10 p.m., Babakar received the news. They had found him — Egbert — in Germany and were driving to meet him the following day. In the car on the way there, Babakar was a mix of emotions. She was nervous and anxious but also excited. “We’ll have just a quiet moment together to catch up,” Babakar said during the drive. “And we’ll hopefully end up with a few photos, as well.” Outside of Egbert’s house, Babakar knocked on the door. This would be her first time speaking to him in more than two decades. “It felt like seeing a long-lost relative, really, in the same way you might see someone at Christmas and you talk about nothing and everything in one go.” They spent a few hours together, getting caught up on all that had happened in the intervening years. Babakar said Egbert was proud of her. She met members of his family, and he showed her his garden and the orchids he grows. They even called Babakar’s mother, who expressed her gratitude for Egbert’s generosity some 24 years ago. After the initial tweet, Babakar saw a rush of support from around the world. Even if people couldn’t help connect her, some shared photos and stories of their own experiences as refugees. Babakar said she thinks everyone has their own red bike story and can recall a gift they received that helped them feel valued. “Even in dark and bleak times, there are always acts of kindness that can shape you for a lifetime.” Read more: Got a parking ticket? In some cities, you can pay for it


D.C. triathlete will try to emerge from a deep U.S. women’s field with an Olympic berth

six months. She opened the ITU World Triathlon Series in March in Abu Dhabi with a fourth-place finish, narrowly missing joining gold medalist Katie Zaferes, a native of Hampstead, Md., and silver medalist Taylor Spivey for what would have been a U.S. podium sweep. The Americans boast a deep field of world-class female triathletes who hope to replicate the success of Gwen Jorgensen, who won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Now 33, Jorgensen has retired from the sport and is focusing on distance running, creating an opening for Zaferes, 30, ranked No. 1 in the world; Spivey, 28, ranked No. 4; Summer Rappaport, 28, ranked No. 6; and Knibb, 21, ranked 19th. The Tokyo course is generally flat, which won’t play to Knibb’s strength on the bike. She often separates herself on hilly courses. But the classic heat and mugginess of Tokyo in August ought to make her feel at home, having grown up in the Washington area. In light of Tokyo’s often blistering summer heat, Olympic organizers announced they will move up the start time of the triathlon to 8 a.m. from the traditional 10 a.m. In addition to the men’s and women events, Tokyo 2020 will debut the sport of mixed relay triathlon, and Knibb got a taste of that at an ITU event in Edmonton on July 21, when she teamed with Rappaport, Seth Rider and Morgan Pearson for a bronze medal. This week’s race in Tokyo won’t be the only opportunity to clinch a spot on the 2020 U.S. Olympic triathlon team. As many as two athletes who finish on the podium in either the men’s or women’s races at the Tokyo test event will quality for the team. If only one American athlete earns a podium finish, the next athlete finishing among the top eight overall will also clinch a spot on the Olympic team. The next opportunity won’t come until May in Yokohama, Japan. If no one qualifies there based on performance, the third spot will be determined subjectively by the sport’s federation. Read more on ‘It’s not a time to stay silent’: American fencer explains his protest on medal stand Sam Mikulak showcases his skill and flair as he scores his sixth U.S. men’s gymnastics title Olympic gymnastics squads are shrinking for 2020. That’s good and bad for Team USA. D.C. Olympian Kat Holmes defends epee gold medal at Pan Am Games


A flight attendant who contracted measles has died amid a global rise in outbreaks

bowing its head over the death of a member of El Al’s aircrew. The company will continue to act on the matter in accordance with the health ministry’s guidelines. Once the case became known, the company acted to vaccinate the company’s aircrews. The company shares the deep grief of the family and will continue to accompany the family.” The Post previously reported that the 43-year-old flight attendant had been flying on an El Al flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Israel in late March and was later admitted to the hospital after developing encephalitis, a complication of the illness in which the brain swells. In early April, the Israeli Ministry of Health issued a warning that a flight from JFK into Israel on March 26 had a measles patient on board, though it is not known whether the flight attendant contracted the virus while on the flight. “There were no specific reports in Israel of persons who were on the same flight and developed measles,” Eyal Basson, a spokesman for Israel’s Ministry of Health said over email. In April, The Post reported that the woman had been in a coma and public-health experts were unable to speak with her to verify her vaccine record. They were able to get in touch with her mother, who told officials that her daughter had received the required vaccines in childhood. However, at the time, likely in the 1970s, the vaccine would have been a single dose, while Israel now recommends that children receive one dose at 12 months old and another during first grade. The Israeli Ministry of Health considers people born between 1957 and 1977 as not immune or “partially immune” to measles and recommends those traveling abroad to receive the necessary doses to protect against the virus. Both New York City and Israel have been fighting outbreaks of the virus amid anti-vaccine campaigns and misinformation. In Israel, instances of the virus have continued to show up primarily in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, the Times of Israel reported. The Post’s Lena H. Sun reported earlier in August that New York health officials were working to suppress the outbreak: According to the WHO, “measles is almost entirely preventable with two doses of measles vaccine, a safe and highly effective vaccine." Read more: Map: A record number of measles cases is hitting the U.S. this year. Who is being affected?


Grocery stores are adapting to more male shoppers — whom they treat like knuckleheads

More men are heading to the supermarket these days. That’s according to a new survey by Men’s Health, which found that 84 percent of men are now the primary grocery shoppers in their households, marking a 19 percent increase from a decade ago. The results “challenge many gender stereotypes related to food shopping and cooking,” said Chris Peel, publisher of Men’s Health. “Men have an active role in each stage of the food purchasing process — before getting to the store, while there and when cooking the food they’ve bought.” It is worth noting that Men’s Health surveyed only men. Other surveys of both men and women have concluded that women continue to do slightly more of the country’s food-buying: NPD Group, for example, estimates that men are the primary grocery shoppers in 41 percent of U.S. households, while market research firm VideoMining puts that figure at about 49 percent of shoppers. In any case, there is mounting evidence that more men are shopping for groceries than in previous generations. And when they do head to the store, men tend to buy many items at once, and shop alone, according to Men’s Health. The reasons for those shifts are twofold, experts say. Gender roles are shifting, which means men are taking on more household responsibilities. And Americans are increasingly putting off marriage, so “you’ve got a lot of single men who’ve got to shop for themselves,” says David W. Stewart, a marketing professor at Loyola Marymount University. And it doesn’t hurt that “there’s a younger generation of man who’s actively interested in food,” said Paco Underhill, chief executive of Envirosell, a New York behavioral research firm. Nearly half of those surveyed by Men’s Health, for example, said they’d watched cooking videos in the past year, while 93 percent said they’d prepared meals for themselves. But there are still pronounced differences in how men and women approach grocery shopping. “Men are not terribly strategic,” Stewart said. “They walk in and buy what they remember is needed. They’re buying for right now, or maybe tonight. Anything beyond that is too long-term.” Case in point: Women are most likely to buy 12-packs of beer, while men typically buy six-packs, according to Underhill. “Men tend to be hunters: They want to kill something quickly, drag it out and feel successful,” he said. “Women, though, they’re thinking ahead and planning accordingly.” Men also tend to


do head to the store, men tend to buy many items at once, and shop alone, according to Men’s Health. The reasons for those shifts are twofold, experts say. Gender roles are shifting, which means men are taking on more household responsibilities. And Americans are increasingly putting off marriage, so “you’ve got a lot of single men who’ve got to shop for themselves,” says David W. Stewart, a marketing professor at Loyola Marymount University. And it doesn’t hurt that “there’s a younger generation of man who’s actively interested in food,” said Paco Underhill, chief executive of Envirosell, a New York behavioral research firm. Nearly half of those surveyed by Men’s Health, for example, said they’d watched cooking videos in the past year, while 93 percent said they’d prepared meals for themselves. But there are still pronounced differences in how men and women approach grocery shopping. “Men are not terribly strategic,” Stewart said. “They walk in and buy what they remember is needed. They’re buying for right now, or maybe tonight. Anything beyond that is too long-term.” Case in point: Women are most likely to buy 12-packs of beer, while men typically buy six-packs, according to Underhill. “Men tend to be hunters: They want to kill something quickly, drag it out and feel successful,” he said. “Women, though, they’re thinking ahead and planning accordingly.” Men also tend to spring for pricier cuts of meat and are more easily influenced by a brand’s name or reputation, Stewart said. They are more likely to buy what is easily visible and catches their eye. As a result, supermarkets have begun adding more special displays in their stores, and rethinking their organization. “Remember: Many male shoppers come to the store without a weekly or even same-day meal plan in mind,” Kellogg’s said in a 2015 report. “Consider organizing aisles and displays around shopper missions, like ‘lunchbox essentials’ or ‘tonight’s dinner,’ and calling out these sections with clear signage so the male shopper can quickly find what he is looking for.” Other chains have begun making smaller changes: Grouping meats and barbecue sauce together, for instance, or displaying wine glasses alongside bottles of wine, Underhill said. “Part of what they’re doing is trying to make the shopping process more fun,” he said. “Men tend to get easily frustrated.” And, added Stewart, just because more American men are buying groceries doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.


Coyotes have adapted to the streets of L.A., and biologists want to know how

they prefer scavenging garbage or hunting small game. That’s why Brown spends early mornings giving chase. By testing coyote whiskers, he can figure what’s on their menu. High concentrations of corn isotopes means human food. The Park Service has also recruited volunteers to scoop coyote scat for analysis. But it might take another five years gather enough information to make conclusions about urban coyote diets, he says. Last year, the NPS tracked two coyotes living entirely in developed areas. One was a mother with five pups denning in the packed Westlake neighborhood, a 2.72 square-mile patch of city where there’s virtually no green space. Dubbed C-144, she’s believed to have one of the most urban home ranges of any canid ever studied. Her collar battery died, but she’s since been spotted in a nearby neighborhood. Other findings have been grimmer. C-146, a juvenile female who was captured last fall and used the river as a thoroughfare, was found dead in MacArthur Park. Forensic tests indicated drowning, but four types of anticoagulant rat poisons were found in her system. Brown says people are afraid of coyotes, and gathering information about how they live benefits both species. Tens of thousands of coyotes are killed by the government and hunters annually. But coyotes, as coy as their name implies, seem more scared than aggressive when confronted. Attacks are rare, Brown said, and often happen when humans feed them, which is illegal. According to one study, about a dozen coyote attacks occurred each year between 1985 and 2006. In contrast, about 4.5 million dog bites are reported every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Like all wildlife, coyotes can be dangerous if they get used to people. But even the most citified coyotes seem to go out of their way to avoid people, making their daily lives mysteries. On The Hunt While driving through the heart of L.A. in the dead of night in search of coyotes, you see pop-up vendors hawking street tacos, kids propped on car hoods passing bottles and blunts, hipsters on fixie bikes pedaling into shuttered parks. Despite the tough rep of the areas we pass, Brown said he’s has never had a problem. Chicago, where he spent six years studying Midwest coyotes, was different. “We were sleeping in the cemetery one night,” while staking out the canids, he said. That’s when a real-life cops and


Love in the time of climate change: Grizzlies and polar bears are now mating

prey is scarce. They’re not really swimmers. But shifts are afoot. “What we’re starting to see in the Canadian Arctic is three-fourth grizzlies,” Derocher said, referring to the offspring of 50-50 hybrids that then mated with grizzlies. “How do they act? Probably more like grizzly bears, living on land. As climate change continues, terrestrial habitat is going to increase, and the likelihood is the habitat for grizzlies, a terrestrial bear, is going to get better. That means a longer warming period and greater food potential.” Derocher said it will not be long before we start seeing female grizzlies bump into male polar bears, further straining the polar bear’s genetic variation. “I suspect at the same time that that’s occurring, we’ll start to see polar bears on their way out.” When will that be? Impossible to say, but some experts think that as the Arctic continues warming, it may be only a few decades, perhaps a century. There are about 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the Circumpolar Arctic, and “an order of magnitude higher for grizzlies in that area” and other brown bears, Derocher said. “It shouldn’t be a big surprise that grizzlies are moving north — everything is.” Right now, polar bears are also threatened by polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and other toxic pollution — primarily from eating seals and other animals affected by these carcinogens — that has been linked to brain damage, even causing some bears’ baculums, or penis bones, to break off. And those outcomes could affect polar-grizzly hybrids as badly as pure breeds. No matter what bear ends up as the Arctic’s future apex predator, scientists say, if the issues up north aren’t solved, it won’t matter what bears are there. Hybrids are “a normal part of the evolutionary process,” Derocher said. But if the ice disappears, “we won’t have grizzlies or polar bears in this area. If you roll the clock ahead another number of decades or a century, quite clearly it’s going to be no bears eventually.” Adam Popescu is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer. Find him on Twitter at @adampopescu. Dig Deeper: Animals + Environment Want to explore how animals have adapted to an increasingly urbanized environment? Check out our curated list of stories below. Context matters: Why more tigers live in cages than in the wild Understanding the limitations of reviving extinct species How climate change impacts how different species interact


On WhatsApp, fake news is fast — and can be fatal

be a black hole. The app’s encryption makes it impossible for WhatsApp’s security staff to read messages unless a user specifically reports them as problematic. And because WhatsApp lets people sign up with just a phone number, — unlike Facebook, WhatApp does not require users to have an email address or reveal their real name — engineers have limited visibility into users’ friends or into what they have posted in the past, cutting them off from key clues to malicious behavior. WhatsApp says the average group size is six, but it allows groups of up to 256. Conversations on these platforms are less visible to outsiders, journalists and fact-checkers who often debunk misinformation. In Colombia, Mexico and Brazil, news and fact-checking organizations have recently set up WhatsApp hotlines where people can forward along questionable content to be debunked. The organizations then return the correct story to the person who sent it and hope that person shares it with their groups. For months leading up to the Mexican election, an edited video with accompanying text began circulating on WhatsApp. The grainy footage showed a man being burned alive in the state of Tabasco, while a crowd shouted “Morena” — the political movement of the front-runner, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who won the election — in the background, implying that the man was being tortured for his political beliefs. Accompanying text blamed Obrador supporters, using a derogatory term for leftists. Many people forwarded it to the Mexican fact-checking hotline, asking whether it was real. Journalists and fact-checkers who reviewed the video said that the man was attacked because he was stealing a motorcycle, not for his political beliefs, and that the full unedited version showed the crowd shouting the names of different political candidates. The fact-checking group published an article with the facts as they understood them — citing local news reports — and sent it back to all the people who forwarded the original falsehood, asking them to spread it in their groups. They said they recognized the limitations of the strategy. In Brazil, a nationwide strike by truck drivers in May was organized on WhatsApp, said Daniel Bramatti, head of Abraji, Brazil’s association of investigative journalism, and an organizer of a WhatsApp hotline to vet news that may be fake. False stories have spread about political candidates and about the dangers of many vaccines, he said — the yellow-fever story


How Brexit ravaged the once-mighty British pound

up. There are knock-on effects. On the Beach, a British package holiday company, saw the value of its stock nosedive Friday as it had not hedged against a falling pound. “These relative price increases make it difficult for the group to gain share of market while maintaining margins,” the company said in a statement. The low pound could hit British families closer to home as well. British shoppers have long enjoyed relatively cheap food in supermarkets — the cheapest in Western Europe, according to the E.U. statistical body Eurostat — but it is estimated that about half the food Britons consume is imported. A falling pound has made imported food more expensive in the past. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that between 2007 and 2008, when there was a 21 percent depreciation in the effective sterling exchange rate, there was an 8.7 percent increase in the price of food relative to other goods. Indeed, this appears to already be happening. A 2017 report produced by the London School of Economics estimated the Brexit vote the year before had “led to an increase in aggregate UK inflation by 1.7 percentage points in the year following the referendum.” A no-deal Brexit would add to this problem, as it could add tariffs to imported foods. There are certainly silver linings to a low pound. Surprisingly, the falling pound doesn’t appear to have been hit specifically by economic factors: Many of the leading indicators for Britain remain relatively strong. Instead, analysts say, the pressure on the pound is political in nature, a result of lingering uncertainty about the possibility of Brexit negotiations and the potential for another election. For Johnson, who took over as prime minister last month, both keeping the option of a no-deal Brexit open and floating the possibility of a general election are key aspects of his political plan. Combining this brinkmanship with the general worries about the global economy — U.S. stocks tumbled at opening Wednesday on fears of a recession, while Germany announced its economy had shrunk on the same day — could keep the pound low for a while. Can it recover? Certainly. If a Brexit deal is reached, the pound will see some recovery. The British pound’s strength for decades was a reminder of the era of imperial strength. For a long time, the pound was stronger than it might have been expected to be; within


The Finance 202: Trump is blaming the Fed for the inverted yield curve. He should look at his policies.

The Wednesday evening tweets came amid growing concern within the administration that China would respond with military force to the antigovernment protests that have shut down Hong Kong’s major international airport for the past two days.” — Advantage, China: “[Trump’s] new tariffs on Chinese agricultural products are likely to hurt the Asian nation a lot less than the retaliatory duties Beijing already imposes on the U.S.,” Bloomberg News reports. “ … The amount of farm products China exports to the U.S. is much smaller than what it imports from America, even with the retaliatory tariffs in place. China shipped $3.1 billion worth of farm goods to America in the first half of this year, while it purchased $5.6 billion of U.S. agricultural items over the same period, according to Chinese customs data.” — Au ful news: “China has severely restricted imports of gold since May, bullion industry sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters, in a move that could be aimed at curbing outflows of dollars and bolstering its yuan currency as economic growth slows,” Reuters’s Peter Hobson and Yawen Chen report. “The world’s second largest economy has cut shipments by some 300-500 tonnes compared with last year — worth $15-25 billion at current prices, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.” — Pelosi says no deal if Good Friday accord is undermined: “An American trade pact with Britain is doomed if the latter’s withdrawal from the EU undermines the Northern Ireland peace accord, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Wednesday,” AFP reports. “‘Whatever form it takes, Brexit cannot be allowed to imperil the Good Friday Agreement, including the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland,’ [Pelosi] said in a statement. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement brought the decades-old Northern Ireland conflict to an end. But how to handle Northern Ireland has emerged as a core issue for Brexit negotiators.” — Retail stocks hit decade lows: “Shares of department stores Nordstrom, Kohl’s, Dilliard’s, and J.C. Penney tanked Wednesday after Macy’s lowered its profit outlook in an earnings miss that underlined challenges in the retail sector,” CNBC’s Jasmine Wu reports. “Macy’s shares closed Wednesday down 13%, while Nordstrom and Kohl’s skidded 10%, J.C. Penney dropped nearly 5% and Dillard’s was less than 2% lower. Macy’s fell to its lowest level since February 2010, while Nordstrom’s low was


Immigration activist says bail money from NFL players ‘seemed like a dream’

don’t think any parent should have to experience that. How do you do that to a child? I feel guilty about that, and I’m trying to make up for that time I couldn’t spend with him.” Bello is free while his lawyers appeal his case. He already has talked to officials at Bakersfield College about re-enrolling and said he’s two or three semesters from graduating with a business administration degree. In the meantime, he plans to continue to speak out in support of fellow immigrants. “It’s important for folks to know that there’s help, how to ask for help and being able to find those resources,” he said. “I’ll definitely be around.” “We are fighting for a world where people can speak freely without fear or reprisal,” Jordan Wells, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California said. “We would support any client, including Jose, to continue to exercise their First Amendment rights to criticize the government." Norman and Davis are both members of the Players Coalition, an independent task force of 12 members co-founded by former NFL wide receiver Anquan Boldin and Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins in 2017 that is dedicated to improving social justice and racial equality. Norman and Davis visited an immigrant respite center in McAllen, Tex., to witness the crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border firsthand in June. Norman made an $18,000 donation to the center afterward. Norman tweeted about Bello’s release Tuesday. “ICE is using detention and deportation as weapons to silence immigrant activists,” he wrote, in part. “… The contributions we are making help support your fight for peace and sanctuary; we will continue until that work is done!” “I think it’s only right for them to try to help bring about positive change,” said Bello, who hadn’t spoken to Norman or Davis as of Wednesday afternoon but looked forward to the opportunity to do so. “These are issues that affect everybody. We can only do so much on a local level. They’re national, and they’re very famous. I think it’s the right thing to do and it’s an honor just to be able to be part of that.” Read more from The Post: Athlete activism is growing and diversifying, just in time for the 2020 Olympics Coach accuses Little League World Series team of ‘dishonorable’ sign stealing USWNT breaks off mediation talks in equal pay dispute with U.S. Soccer Federation Kentucky sports


A jailed Saudi activist was told she would be released if she denied being tortured, her family says. She refused.

Loujain al-Hathloul, an imprisoned women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia, refused an offer of freedom in exchange for recording a videotaped statement testifying that she had not been tortured, her siblings said this week. Hathloul, one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent advocates for women’s rights, has been jailed for more than a year on charges that human rights groups have deemed baseless. She and other imprisoned activists have said they were tortured by Saudi authorities while in custody. Saudi Arabia has denied abusing detainees. Hathloul’s brother, Walid al-Hathloul, said Saudi officials recently visited her in prison. They “asked her to sign on a document where she will appear on video to deny the torture and harassment. That was part of a deal to release her,” he wrote on Twitter. “She immediately ripped the document,” he added. The development is the latest in a case that has drawn attention to the kingdom’s human rights record nearly a year after the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, an outspoken critic of the Saudi regime. Saudi Arabia continues to jail women’s rights activists even as it moves toward relaxing restrictive laws. Hathloul rose to global prominence several years ago as an advocate for women’s rights to drive and to move freely through the conservative gulf kingdom without male guardianship. She was arrested in May 2018 amid a crackdown on dissidents. Walid al-Hathloul said his sister had considered an earlier demand by authorities that she sign a written statement that she hadn’t been tortured, he said but she refused a videotaped statement. She reportedly told officials that by proposing the deal, “you’re simply trying [to] defend Saud Al-Qahtani who was overseeing the torture,” Walid al-Hathloul wrote, naming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s senior adviser, who was also implicated in Khashoggi’s murder. A Saudi official denied that Hathloul was tortured during detention and disputed that she was offered a deal that would guarantee her release. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia takes any allegations of ill-treatment of defendants awaiting trial or prisoners serving their sentences very seriously,” the official wrote in a statement. Hathloul’s family, however, has spoken out about the torture and sexual harassment they say she has suffered in prison. Her sister Alia al-Hathloul wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times in January that Hathloul had told their parents during a rare visit that she had been tortured between


Gene-edited farm animals are coming. Will we eat them?

labeling requirement originally introduced in a spending bill. To oversee the emerging field of biotechnology, the Reagan administration, rather than passing new laws, created a “coordinated framework” in which regulatory agencies would use their existing laws for oversight. Genetically engineered animals thus fall under the FDA’s process for approving new veterinary drugs. The regulatory path was complicated, and the research had to contend with the public “ick” factor. Van Eenennaam recalls one of her fondest scientific memories — more than a decade ago, she inserted a gene from a roundworm into a mouse and successfully showed that this could generate heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids in the rodent’s milk. The experiment was conceived as a proof of concept before extending the technology to cows, but the grant proposal was rejected. “While it may be putting the cart before the horse, the proposal has not mentioned the problem with acceptance of transgenic food products,” a reviewer wrote. “Given the ‘pure and wholesome’ public perception of milk products, it may be particularly difficult to gain widespread public acceptance for transgenic milk products — despite their benefits.” Many who worked in the field at the time recall feeling discouraged by similar rejections. “I’m angry as hell 90 percent of the time,” said Long, who now plans to move some of his work to Brazil, where the regulatory path is more certain. “It’s been a 20-year fight.” When Van Eenennaam was traveling in China a few years ago, she visited a lab where the omega-3 gene had been inserted into cows. “I kept getting these emails from researchers in China, and then I saw the cow,” she said, bringing up a photo on her computer screen. “Good on them.” Scientists were re-energized by the invention of new and more precise technologies, the most famous of which is CRISPR, short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. Using CRISPR, scientists can quickly, easily and cheaply make targeted cuts to the genome and make changes or insert new genes. Instead of introducing the foreign DNA that had triggered public skepticism, they could delete or change a single letter out of billions in an animal’s genome. Such changes happen routinely in nature — they are the basis for evolution — so scientists were hopeful that regulators and the public would see these animals differently. But in early 2017, the FDA put out draft guidance indicating that animals with


Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic says it is on the cusp of flying humans to space. But where does space begin?

added that it considers him to be “a flown astronaut because he launched and landed in a spacecraft; he was fully trained and prepared for the launch and mission to the International Space Station.” There is no precise definition of where space officially begins in international law. Unlike a body of water, the atmosphere doesn’t end at any precise point. Instead, the air gets progressively thinner the higher the altitude. Many countries prefer that ambiguity, allowing them to fly spacecraft, such as intelligence satellites, over a foreign country without crossing into another nation’s airspace. “If you’re flying an aircraft, national sovereignty matters,” said Brian Weeden, the director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation. “But if you’re a satellite, they can over fly pretty much anywhere they want without getting permission.” Weeden is in the camp that believe the lower threshold should suffice. “From a technical perspective, [50 miles] is a good working definition,” he said. It’s the definition used by the Air Force, which in the 1960s awarded astronaut wings to the pilots in the X-15 program who flew the jet 50 miles or higher. The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation also uses 50 miles in awarding what it calls “Commercial Astronaut Wings.” That definition put it in line with the military, and the FAA has said it would also help it promote the commercial space industry, part of the agency’s mandate. In 2004, the agency awarded astronaut wings the pilots in the Ansari X Prize. And it also plans to honor Virgin Galactic’s pilots should they reach 50 miles or more, according to Gregory Martin, the FAA’s assistant administrator for communications. Recently, there has been pushback against the 62-mile boundary. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has argued for the 50-mile definition based on a mathematical analysis of objects flying through the upper layers of the atmosphere. He keeps a list of astronauts and said if Virgin Galactic’s pilots crest 50 miles, they’d earn the honor of astronaut. “My plan is to count those people as astronauts and to include them on my list,” he said. And the FAI has also said it would revisit its decision to use the 100 km definition, citing “many scientific and technical discussions around this demarcation line for the ‘edge of space’ and variance around this as a boundary condition for recognition of ‘astronaut’ status,'” it


‘I don’t feel like I’m doing something wrong’: Yuppies have discovered pot — and they like it

coming onto the market with just one milligram, for “microdosing” — a trend in which no one gets high but everyone claims to feel balanced. In Washington, an intimate group of weed-curious diners supped last month on short ribs plated with marijuana-infused parsnip puree and rum cake dotted with CBD-laced blackberry and jackfruit, both part of a four-course meal cooked by a local chef whom they’d connected with via Instagram. Many of the diners “weren’t regular cannabis users at all,” says the evening’s chef, who didn’t want to be named because of the dubious legality. “I think they’re less reluctant to try edibles,” she says of the newbies. “They’re like, ‘I don’t want to smoke anything.’ ” But a gourmet meal avoids the smell and the smoke, plus it feels upscale. “It’s easier for them to wrap their head around,” she says. But maybe it’s also going to their heads. States where marijuana has been legalized have reported slight increases in pot-related DUIs and calls to poison control — most involving people who simply got uncomfortably high. Vandrey, the Johns Hopkins researcher, thinks everyone needs to proceed more carefully. We’ve understated the likelihood of addiction, he says, and we don’t truly understand dosing. Edibles and oils might look awfully attractive to new users, but what do we really know about how they’re made? “Over time, does cannabis start to replace alcohol as the drug of choice for the middle-class, middle-aged person to use on the weekends?” he wonders. “But what’s the impact of that? We don’t know.” lavanya.ramanathan Dig Deeper: Consumer culture + Weed Legal weed is changing how we do business. Want to know more? Check out our curated list of stories below. Context matters: How marijuana became mainstream The number of people older than 26 who occasionally use marijuana increased by 3.2 million in three years, and the industry has grown to accommodate its new clientele. Understanding where the war on weed still rages A swath of mostly conservative states, running from North Dakota through Texas, is home to many counties where marijuana enforcement accounts for 10 percent or more of all arrests — well above the national average. Get smart about how marijuana is competing with wine — and not just for customers Already faced with a labor shortage, wineries are now competing for workers with legalized pot farms, who have year-round harvests and easier working conditions.


Could marijuana give wine a run for its money?

they get home from work, with dinner or after they put the kids down, who will switch to cannabis,” Wark said. “There is a limited amount of ‘inebriation dollars’ in the economy, and with the legalization of a new way to become inebriated, you’ll see a migration of some of those dollars from wine to cannabis.” That threat to the market may explain why some large companies in the alcohol trade have invested in cannabis. Breakthru Beverage, one of the largest U.S. distributors of alcoholic beverages, signed a deal this month to be the exclusive distribution partner for CannTrust, a Canadian marijuana producer. Recreational use of cannabis will become legal in Canada in October. Constellation Brands, a leading U.S. alcohol beverage producer, has invested more than $4 billion in Canopy Growth, a Canadian firm breaking into the marijuana market, with an idea of producing a potpourri of weed-infused beverages for the Canadian market. And eventually, of course, to sell in the United States. (Coming soon to an all-night convenience store near you: A Cheetos-flavored drink to help with those post-pot wine munchies.) These investments are clearly designed to position the companies to move into the U.S. cannabis market as cannabis becomes legalized in more jurisdictions here. This is logical: Beverage alcohol is highly regulated in the United States. We can argue about the virtues of that, and whether the current system allows consumers access to the wines or other beverages they want to buy. But this is an industry ready to distribute a regulated product through approved distribution channels. From a regulatory standpoint, it makes sense to legalize, license and regulate cannabis through the same channel as alcohol. But that synergy won’t ease the discomfort of those who don’t want to suffer the secondhand effects of legalization. The owners of a Napa Valley restaurant called Fumé Bistro recently complained about a new marijuana distribution company called Napa Valley Fumé, sort of an Uber Eats for wine country stoners. The word fumé, from the French word for smoke, has a long history in Napa Valley, where Fumé Blanc is a synonym for sauvignon blanc, a popular white wine. The restaurant’s owners said some customers mistakenly thought the bistro was distributing pot after an article about Napa Valley Fumé ran in the Napa Valley Register. One of the owners huffed about the confusion to the paper, saying, “It’s such a drag.” food@washpost.com


We need all the animals on our fragile Earth

Regarding the Aug. 13 front-page article “New U.S. rules weaken protections for wildlife”: I am not a scientist. However, growing up, I benefited from two scientists: My father was a surgeon, and my brother became a chaired veterinary professor at the University of Georgia. When I took walks with either of them, each pointed out plants and animals. We lived near the James River, and from them I learned much about the life there. After a lifetime of hiking, I have come to believe that we need all the critters. They protect our planet’s ecosystems. When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park , they hunted the elk who were grazing on and killing the trees along the river. The wolves probably saved the river. We really do not understand how all this works well enough to end or weaken the Endangered Species Act. We need these plants and animals, especially as we are destroying our planet. We need them to address imbalances, to pollinate our food supplies, to make our rivers work and to do who knows what else. They are essential for survival here, so wisely described in “The Book of Common Prayer” for the Episcopal Church as “this fragile earth, our island home.” Frances Thompson McKay Read more letters to the editor.


Cathay Pacific CEO resigns amid Beijing pressure

HONG KONG — The chief executive of Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong’s flagship carrier, resigned Friday, the company said, after coming under intense pressure from officials in Beijing for its employees’ taking part in protests that have carried on for over two months. Rupert Hogg’s resignation was accepted by the company’s board of directors earlier in the day, a statement said. Paul Loo, the airline’s chief customer and commercial officer who additionally serves as the chief executive of the Hong Kong Express, Cathay’s low-cost arm, also resigned. The resignations, which come after the firing of two Cathay Pacific pilots previously suspended for their role in the protests, demonstrate the intensifying pressure from Beijing on some of Hong Kong’s best-known businesses after their employees backed the protests. Aviation workers have organized demonstrations at Hong Kong’s airport, participated in sit-ins and a general strike, to push their territory’s government into meeting demands of their months-long movement. Hogg will be replaced by Augustus Tang. Loo’s role at Cathay will be filled by Ronald Lam, both effective Monday. A new CEO for Hong Kong Express will be named at a later date, the company said. China’s aviation regulator ordered Cathay last week to bar employees who support or join demonstrations, which began this spring over a proposed extradition law, from doing any work involving flights to China. The Civil Aviation Administration of China also demanded Cathay hand over details of crew working in Chinese airspace. Hogg said Monday that staff could be fired if they “support or participate in illegal protests.” The company has also drawn the ire of Chinese state media, notably the English language Global Times, which has repeatedly admonished it. John Slosar, chairman of Cathay Pacific, praised Hogg’s work over the past three years, but said in a statement that “recent events have called into question Cathay Pacific’s commitment to flight safety and security and put our reputation and brand under pressure.” “We therefore think it is time to put a new management team in place who can reset confidence and lead the airline to new heights,” Slosar said. He added: “Cathay Pacific is fully committed to Hong Kong under the principle of ‘One Country Two Systems’ as enshrined in the Basic Law. We are confident that Hong Kong will have a great future.” Hogg became CEO in May 2017, and his resignation comes two days after the airline fired two


59 dogs removed from a Maryland home. One was reported missing two years ago.

Fifty-nine dogs were removed from a home Tuesday in rural Montgomery County, including one that had been missing for two years and was reunited this week with its original owner, authorities said. Animal services officers searched the home in the 20400 block of Beallsville Road in the Dickerson area after receiving a report of a dog that had been “humanely euthanized because of its poor condition,” the Montgomery County Animal Services Division said in a statement. In addition to the 59 dogs, officers also removed three cats and two turtles from the home. The animals are being treated for various medical issues, officials said. Veterinary staff found a microchip in the dog that had been reported missing and were able to return it to its owner, authorities said. County officials said the incident remains under investigation. justin.moyer@washpost.com


Best of 2012: D.C. Life

cut it, Express readers turn to the Georgetown Waterfront. In the park, you can meander down paths and pretend you’re not in a city at all. Washington Harbor, the commercial food-drink-fun complex, offers dining, steps that lead right down to the Potomac, and a come-on-in-the-water’s-fine fountain where you and your date can play like kids in a lawn sprinkler. K.P.K. 1st: “Look, Honey! George Will!” won’t quicken any US Weekly addict’s pulse. Wannabe-paparazzos should stake out Georgetown, where that scruffy dude in a baseball hat and sunglasses could be Brad Pitt. Suggested stalking locations include Café Milano, where George Clooney is a repeat customer, and Bourbon Steak, at which Robert Redford and Adam Levine (who let him in?) dined this spring. Mick Jagger and fashion designer L’Wren Scott were seen at Filomena in February, and Drake and his entourage were spotted out shopping in June. K.P.K. 1st: Since its founding in 1989, DC Central Kitchen has been fighting hunger on multiple fronts. The charity sends 5,000 meals a day to local homeless shelters, after-school programs and other destinations; offers training for culinary jobs; delivers produce to stores in D.C.’s food deserts; and serves fresh, healthy meals to low-income D.C. schoolkids. K.P.K. 1st: The course list at CHAW reminds us how much we wanted to take all these classes in college but didn’t because we thought Journalism 101 would lead to a stable career. It’s good to know it’s not too late! “We get quite accomplished artists and people who have never put brush to paper,” says director Jill Strachan. Beading and fabric dying in “Beautiful Fiber Arts” or bookmaking in “Bound and Scored” both sound like solid resume boosters. L.M. 1st: Google Translate is of limited value when you’re in Paris and really need to pee or discuss existentialism. Learn the language of love from Alliance Francaise, which offers training for babies (as young as 12 months), kids, teens and adults. Courses have adorable names like Phonétique (a look at the French accent) and Perfectionnement! (a brush-up course). Registration is still open for several fall classes. H.J.M. 1st: “Connecting with local chefs and cooking with other people is part of what LivingSocial is about,” says Alex Michael, general manager of entertainment for the coupon giant’s culinary venture. The one-off classes cover such topics as brunch cooking, cupcake baking and paella making; one upcoming offering is ominously titled “Sausage Making Class


Group Seeks to Doctor Sick Leave Law

The last thing that diners want to see when enjoying a $35.13 prix-fixe dinner during Restaurant Week — or any other meal — is a waiter sneezing in their food. And that is exactly what the Paid Sick Days for All Coalition is counting on with its latest campaign: restaurant employees dressed up as ghoulishly sick chefs. “Achoo!!! That could have been your food,” their signs read. The coalition — organized by Jews United for Justice, Restaurant Opportunities Center-DC and the DC Employment Justice Center — has been canvassing around the city this week and will be at Eastern Market on Sunday, aiming to inform consumers that a 2008 D.C. law that mandates paid sick leave excludes tipped restaurant workers and anyone working their first year on a job. They are trying to build public support ahead of a D.C. Council legislative meeting Sept. 17, when council member Marion Barry will introduce legislation to address the tipped-worker exemption. The coalition is also lobbying for the new bill to shorten the period of time before employees can accrue sick leave and to step up enforcement of the law (just 68 percent of all businesses are compliant, according to a city audit released in June). Some say the campaign — which has included workers dressed up as chefs — misrepresents the law. It is “misleading because food preparers, including chefs and all those working in the kitchen, are all covered by the [2008] paid sick leave act,” said Andrew Kline, a legislative adviser to the industry group Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington. He says the group hears that tipped workers “would prefer to call in sick and not get paid for the day and pick up a shift later.” Kline’s argument is based on the low hourly wages that tipped workers earn (the minimum wage for tipped workers in D.C. is $2.77). But the Paid Sick Days for All coalition is proposing that wages earned on a sick day would be based on the average earnings for waitstaff and bartenders in the region according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or about $10 per hour, according to Monica Kamen, a community organizer with Jews United for Justice. “We’ve heard stories of workers coming in with swine flu, pink eye and any number of diseases that could be passed on just because they could not afford” to stay home, said Kamen, who pointed


5 things you need to know about last week’s explosion in Russia

An Aug. 8 accident at Russia’s Nonoksa missile testing facility left seven dead and caused a brief radiation spike in a nearby town. What went wrong? Vague and potentially misleading statements by Russian authorities have only added to speculation that scientists were working on a nuclear propulsion system for one of the country’s more secretive weapons projects, possibly the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile. Here’s what you need to know: 1. Accidents happen frequently in the Russian military Ever since the sinking of the Kursk submarine in 2000, the Russian military has had an image of being accident-prone. There have been at least six fires on Russian submarines since 2006 — and at least three explosions at ammunition storage depots since May. In July, a fire on the Losharik deep-sea submersible in July caused 14 deaths. Repairs are a dangerous time for the Russian navy, not just with the fires on submarines in dry dock, but also with the accidental sinking of the PD-50 floating dock in 2018, which almost sank and indefinitely disabled the sole Russian aircraft carrier. But the recent deadly accidents involving nuclear-powered platforms like the Losharik and the Burevestnik missile are particularly dangerous for both the health of Russians in the vicinity and the reputation of the Russian military. 2. And the military looks to cover up the story The Russian military’s initial reaction to bad accidents is to try to cover them up. Despite evidence from atmospheric monitoring devices in Severodvinsk, the Russian military initially denied that any radiation had been released during the explosion, telling nearby residents that everything was safe and to avoid panic. It took two days for Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear agency, to explain the cause of the accident and to admit that the explosion resulted in radioactive contamination. There is still no clear explanation of what exploded — or what the military was testing. A Rosatom statement suggested the explosion resulted from tests of an isotope power source in a liquid propulsion system, leading to speculation about the type of system being tested. Experts believe it could be a nuclear-powered engine intended for Russia’s new cruise missile, a novel radioisotope thermoelectric generator or an experimental reactor meant to power one of Russia’s new weapon systems. Rumors also spread among the local population, leading to a run on iodine supplies in area pharmacies. 3. Russia is a leader in nuclear energy use It


Best of 2012: Dining

in his own kitchens here in D.C., he’s lecturing at Harvard about the “science of soft matter,” hanging out with star chef Anthony Bourdain or representing America abroad as a U.S. “culinary ambassador.” His latest adventure: reopening his avant-garde, tasting-menu-only restaurant, Minibar, on Nov. 2 in a new, larger space (9th and E streets NW). K.A. 1st: Toki Underground is actually on the second floor. The contradictions don’t end there at this uber-hip H Street noodle house. A wood-beam ceiling tops a restaurant that’s a riot of graffiti and anime wallpaper, while Taiwanese-style ramen in a traditional “tonkotsu” broth gets topped with five-spice fried chicken, homemade sriracha sauce and other creative touches from Taipei-born chef Erik Bruner-Yang. He says he’s “honoring the tradition of making ramen,” while pleasing our modern palates. E.B. 1st: Chef Johnny Monis masterminds Komi’s $135 prix-fixe meal, which marches menuless from the kitchen and includes upward of 15 courses. Expect no shortage of surprises in the carousel of modern Greek small plates, which may include slow-roasted baby goat with pita and tzatziki, or foie gras and Wagyu beef-tongue gyro. Reservations are capped at parties of four to preserve an intimate feel and can be made only a month in advance. Komi is also closed on Sundays and Mondays, so getting that elusive reservation might impress your date even more than the dining experience itself. M.S. 1st: If your date’s pockets are deep, demand a visit to the area’s most notoriously expensive restaurant, where chef Patrick O’Connell serves locally sourced classic French cuisine with a modern twist. Dinner starts at $158 per person for a six-course meal midweek, excluding beverages, taxes and tip; a high roller can easily spend a few grand. To get your money’s worth, request a behind-the-scenes kitchen tour (it’s gratis for diners). K.A. 1st: This ice cream truck for grown-ups serves sophisticated flavors — try honey lavender or Mexican chocolate — at farmers markets all over town. B.M. 1st: Order a lobster roll Connecticut-style (poached in butter) or Maine-style (in lemon mayo), or tuck into a shrimp roll or whoopie pie. B.M. 1st: Pick up fish, flowers or fancy cheeses in the South Hall six days a week. On weekends the market sprawls onto the sidewalks, where farmers hawk produce and artists sell their quirky wares. C.E. 1st: Written by Katie Aberbach, Emma Beck, Christyn Enser, Rudi Greenberg, Beth Marlowe and Morgan Schneider.


Don’t Quit Your Wining

New legislation means D.C. restaurants are free to hike their corkage fees above $25. So we found five eateries that will continue to serve wine you provide free of charge. We tapped Michael Warner, co-owner of Barracks Row’s newest wine shop, DCanter (545 Eighth St. SE; 202-817-3803), for these BYOB pairing suggestions. Dino Founding Farmers Thai Xing Mandu Etete


Science Trip

with optical astronomy. The telescopes needed to capture radio waves are huge. They’re our big eyes on the cosmos. Green Bank was founded in the 1950s and retains some vintage buildings and historic radio antennae. The site is vast, with eight telescopes towering over tree-lined meadows. Five are still operational, including the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. At 485 feet in height, it’s taller than the Statue of Liberty and one of the largest movable objects on land anywhere on Earth, a tour guide explains. Visitors must remain electromagnetically silent. You can’t use a digital camera, because the autofocus feature creates radio frequency interference. The tour bus here runs on diesel, which doesn’t require spark plugs. Even a tiny burst of radiation from a Fitbit can interfere with the astronomical business. The observatory uses a specially equipped, antennae-topped vehicle to patrol the nearby countryside nearby in search of rogue WiFi routers, cordless telephones or microwave ovens. The tour passes the Howard E. Tatel telescope, which radio astronomer Frank Drake aimed in 1960 at two nearby sunlike stars. He hoped to detect transmissions from an alien civilization. And while he didn’t find anything, his effort inaugurated the field of SETI — the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. This little vale is almost heaven for science nerds. In the observatory’s science center, vivid exhibits explain the electromagnetic spectrum. Back outside, there’s a sequence of flags and informational signs that present a scale model of the solar system. The sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are relatively close together in front of the main research building, but then it’s a big jump to the Jupiter flag, a bigger jump still to Saturn, and so on, until you’re really covering some ground, feeling the breadth of the solar system before you reach Pluto. It’s quiet in the Quiet Zone. But if you’re wandering the property, you might hear a whirring sound from the 20-meter telescope. Visible a few paces off the main road, it helps scientists track the motion of continents due to plate tectonics. The telescope is remote controlled, and a visitor watching it pivot may instinctively think of it as sentient. Maybe it just caught a glimpse of something intriguing. Maybe it senses an alien invasion in the offing. Let’s all agree that it’s good to have these big contraptions on our side. Joel Achenbach covers science and national news for The


Science Trip

wildfire and flooding. The shallowest craters have disappeared. A vivid imagination still goes a long way here, however. Squint hard at the stark surroundings. Lumber forward in pretend space boots. Take a small bunny hop. You might just think you’re on the you know what. Erin Rooney Doland is a professional writer based out of an RV traversing North America. Caitlin O'Hara, a photojournalist based in the Sonoran Desert, documents migration stories and is a founding member of the Juntos Coöp. Physics Four Sundays each year, a sprawling Energy Department facility on Long Island opens its gates to the public and turns part of its 5,000 acres into a gleeful science fair. Demonstrators freeze flowers in liquid nitrogen, fire off bottle rockets and use bell-jar vacuums to inflate marshmallow Peeps to monstrous proportions. Yet the main draw for the crowds visiting Brookhaven National Laboratory is always its monumental research operations. There’s the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a building where electrons helping scientists probe the nature of proteins zoom through a ring big enough to encircle Yankee Stadium. Next door, the laboratories of the gleaming Center for Functional Nanomaterials tailor substances atom by atom. And then comes the pièce de résistance, a $600 million marvel of engineering buried in a looping dirt berm 2.4 miles long. Behold the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. RHIC is the only operational particle collider in the United States. Physicists use it to conduct atomic demolition derbies so energetic, naysayers feared that the machine’s activity would rip open a mini black hole in New York. It instead switched on in 2000 without incident. Up close, the only thing it threatens to warp is a sense of scale. Underground, RHIC features the gentle curve of a Washington Metro tunnel. But where the subway track would run are two tubes thick as tree trunks. In them, 1,740 supercooled electromagnets propel hundreds of trillions of gold nuclei to 99.995 percent the speed of light. These twin beams move in opposite directions around the loop. Each nucleus completes 80,000 laps per second. And when the particles crash — there are six locations where the beams can cross — their familiar bindings of protons and neutrons break down. (Researchers usually collide gold nuclei, which have had their electrons stripped away. But they have smashed uranium, hydrogen and other elements, too.) Gene Van Buren, a nuclear physicist at Brookhaven, puts this in


Maryland open houses Aug. 17-18

8547 Harvest View Court 8620 Wheatfield Way 3892 College Ave 4793 Attenborough Way 8409 Ivy Dr 7764 Blueberry Hill Lane 4909 Autumn Crest Way 8547 Harvest View Ct FULTON 20759 7016 Meandering Stream Way 11281 Terrace Lane GLENELG 21737 3789 Ivory Road 3789 Ivory Rd 3326 Roscommon Dr GLENWOOD 21738 2650 Mckendree Rd HIGHLAND 20777 13735 Briaridge Ct 13436 Allnutt Lane JESSUP 20794 8803 Rose Lane WEST FRIENDSHIP 21794 13611 Fox Stream Way 13607 Fox Stream Way WOODBINE 21797 15495 Carrs Mill Rd SW 14762 Addison Way WOODSTOCK 21163 10307 Davis Ave 10214 Harvest Fields Dr MONTGOMERY COUNTY BEALLSVILLE 20839 20315 W Hunter Rd BETHESDA 20814 10415 Montrose Ave #301 5159 King Charles Way 7500 Woodmont Ave #s614 7500 Woodmont Ave #s210 10106 Dickens Ave 4320 Lynbrook Dr 10650 Weymouth St #w-102 5817 Bradley Blvd 5013 Del Ray Ave 5210 Danbury Road 10106 Dickens Avenue 5210 Danbury Rd 20815 6820 Wisconsin Ave #3010 20816 6526 Walhonding Rd 592 Brookes Ridge Ct 5002 Fort Sumner Dr 4003 Maryland Ave 20817 8940 Bradmoor Dr 9126 Willow Gate Lane 7710 Seven Locks Rd 7409 Indraff Ct 5823 Phoenix Dr 7506 Spring Lake Drive 7000 Buxton Ter 6311 Bannockburn Dr 7506 Spring Lake Dr #a 7701 Granada Dr 9004 Ewing Dr 9516 Eagle Ridge Dr 6706 Loring Ct 5623 Johnson Ave 9815 Montauk Ave 6612 Greyswood Rd BOYDS 20841 12604 W Old Baltimore Rd 15431 Barnesville Rd BRINKLOW 20862 20011 New Hampshire Ave CHEVY CHASE 20815 3501 Glenmoor Dr 7116 Western Ave 3701 Thornapple St 4620 N Park Ave #1109e CLARKSBURG 20871 12955 Clarks Crossing Dr 23133 Newcut Rd 23003 Birch Mead Rd 21882 Woodcock Way 14156 Jaeger Rd 14052 Wellspring Ave 22139 Fair Garden Lane DAMASCUS 20872 25541 Joy Lane 9915 Founders Way DARNESTOWN 20874 16210 Bellingham Dr 14601 Mockingbird Dr GAITHERSBURG 20877 18704 Capella Lane 104 Linden Hall Lane 400 Gaither St 20878 17616 Garrett Dr 430 Tschiffely Square Rd 160 Autumn View Dr 832 Lake Varuna Dr 16104 Nursery 430 Tschiffely Square Road 116 Fox Trail Ter 13120 Chestnut Oak Dr 213 Kepler Dr 225 Kepler Dr 208 Hemingway Dr 20879 7912 Brethren Dr 1238 Knoll Mist Lane 56 Cross Country Ct 20882 9706 Hickory Spring Lane 23541 Rolling Fork Way GERMANTOWN 20874 18123 Coachmans Rd 13205 Tiber Falls Way 20811 Gaelic Ct #506 20177 Club Hill Dr 19766 Teakwood Cir #46 19641 White Saddle Dr 15 Highstream Ct 12114 Island


Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency is part of a disturbing financial trend

from community banks, consumer groups and labor unions. In the lead-up to the financial crisis, giant commercial lenders GMAC and GE Capital used their banks to access cheap deposits to fund some of their risky activities, like packaging securities backed by risky mortgages, leading to billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts. Unfortunately, instead of eliminating this loophole, the 2010 Wall Street reform law called only for a three-year pause to study industrial bank charters. While there were no industrial charter applications from 2011 to 2016, Big Tech is now looking to come through the door that Congress left open, and regulators in the Trump administration have signaled willingness to entertain their applications. So far, these applications have largely been limited to firms that already offer financial services, such as the $28 billion payment company Square. But companies like Facebook and Amazon probably aren’t far behind. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Meanwhile, the 1999 law that repealed the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act also allowed banks to own and operate commercial businesses. In congressional testimony, a JPMorgan executive argued that becoming a diversified financial holding company would allow it to offer new conveniences such as opening an in-house travel agency to serve its credit card customers. It’s one thing for a bank to make a loan to, or hold publicly traded shares in, a company with millions of shareholders. But things get more treacherous when a bank is the owner and operator of a company that gives it special insights, market advantages, and the ability to influence nonfinancial businesses in a way that benefits its own financial positions but costs everyone else. For example, a bank that owns an oil terminal could give its commodity traders special insights on regional oil supplies or even seek to control the flow of oil, depending upon its bets in the oil futures markets. That is why banks are supposed to keep the businesses they own at arm’s length through financial and management firewalls, such as limits on the amount of capital a bank can commit to these businesses and prohibitions against involvement in day-to-day operations. But investigations in 2013 and 2014 by two Senate committees revealed that banks were regularly exceeding legal limits on ownership and control. Businesses that rely on aluminum, for instance, reported that a metals warehouse owned by Goldman Sachs was driving up the cost of that


Goodbye, Chrome: Google’s Web browser has become spy software

feel like a shell game that results in us sharing more personal data. I felt hoodwinked when Google quietly began signing Gmail users into Chrome last fall. Google says the Chrome shift didn’t cause anybody’s browsing history to be “synced” unless they specifically opted in — but I found mine was being sent to Google and don’t recall ever asking for extra surveillance. (You can turn off the Gmail auto-login by searching “Gmail” in Chrome settings and switching off “Allow Chrome sign-in.”) After the sign-in shift, Johns Hopkins associate professor Matthew Green made waves in the computer science world when he blogged he was done with Chrome. “I lost faith,” he told me. “It only takes a few tiny changes to make it very privacy unfriendly.” There are ways to defang Chrome, which is much more complicated than just using “Incognito Mode.” But it’s much easier to switch to a browser not owned by an advertising company. Like Green, I’ve chosen Firefox, which works across phones, tablets, PCs and Macs. Apple’s Safari is also a good option on Macs, iPhones and iPads, and the niche Brave browser goes even further in trying to jam the ad-tech industry. What does switching to Firefox cost you? It’s free, and downloading a different browser is much simpler than changing phones. In 2017, Mozilla launched a new version of Firefox called Quantum that made it considerably faster. In my tests, it has felt almost as fast as Chrome, though benchmark tests have found it can be slower in some contexts. Firefox says it’s better about managing memory if you use lots and lots of tabs. Switching means you’ll have to move your bookmarks, and Firefox offers tools to help. Shifting passwords is easy if you use a password manager. And most browser add-ons are available, though it’s possible you won’t find your favorite. Mozilla has challenges to overcome. Among privacy advocates, the nonprofit is known for caution. It took a year longer than Apple to make cookie blocking a default. And as a nonprofit, it earns money when people make searches in the browser and click on ads — which means its biggest source of income is Google. Mozilla’s chief executive says the company is exploring new paid privacy services to diversify its income. Its biggest risk is that Firefox might someday run out of steam in its battle with the Chrome behemoth. Even


Where the war on weed still rages

marijuana is bulky and pungent relative to other drugs, it’s often easy for police to root out. But given that recreational marijuana is legal throughout the West, and that two-thirds of the public supports legalization, critics view such aggressive enforcement tactics as wasteful, ineffective and even racially biased. “While drug war proponents often say they’re going after kingpins, the reality is that the police nearly always goes after the lowest-hanging fruit: people who use drugs — especially marijuana, which is easy to find — or bit players in the drug trade,” said Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supports marijuana legalization. Nationwide, a few clear patterns emerge in the county-level arrest statistics from 2016, the latest year for which data is available. A swath of mostly conservative states, running from North Dakota through Texas, is home to many counties where marijuana enforcement accounts for 10 percent or more of all arrests — well above the national average. But those conservative states are by no means alone. On the East Coast, New York and New Jersey stand out for relatively high arrest rates for marijuana possession. In New England, New Hampshire — the “Live free or die” state — also shows a high number of arrests relative to its neighbors. States that have legalized marijuana, on the other hand, tend to have lower arrest rates. Colorado and Washington, where recreational use had been legal for two years at the time the data was taken, few counties attributed more than 2.5 percent of their arrests to marijuana enforcement. Not a single county in California, which legalized the drug in 2016, met that threshold. Alabama and Kentucky — which are not known for liberal marijuana policies — also appeared to place a low priority on marijuana possession enforcement. The data shows that Dooley County, Ga., has the highest rate of marijuana arrests in the nation. Out of 422 total arrests in 2016, 230, or 54.5 percent, were for marijuana possession. The next highest was Hamilton County in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, where 43.5 percent of the 130 arrests logged in 2016 targeted marijuana offenders. That’s followed by Sterling (42.1) and Hartley (42.0) counties in Texas, with South Dakota’s Edmunds County (33.3 percent) rounding out the top five. While these counties are all small and rural, some larger counties in and around big cities also reported unusually


Suspect charged in June death on once-severely troubled DC street.

An arrest was made Friday in a fatal shooting on a relatively short street in Northwest Washington that has one of the most grisly crime histories in the city. Keandre Barber, 19, of Suitland, Md., was charged with first-degree murder while armed in the June 19 fatal shooting of Juan Marcell Grant, 29, of Northwest Washington, police said. The shooting happened in the 700 block of Princeton Place NW. On that block two months earlier, Breon Austin, 16, was shot and killed in his house by someone who burst through the back door, according to an account confirmed by police. Those two killings came more than 20 years after the 700 block of Princeton Place NW achieved notoriety. In 1997, the bodies of three women were found separately inside houses in that block. The first of the women was found May 8 of that year. She was described in The Washington Post as at least the eighth person killed on that block in the previous dozen years. After the third body was found on Nov. 18, “the neighborhood was in an uproar, it was panic,” the third woman’s daughter told The Post in 2014. Ultimately, the police identified a man who they said was a serial killer who had targeted women living on or near Princeton Place. Darryl Donnell Turner was convicted in two deaths and was given a life sentence without parole. Meanwhile, the area gentrified and, as of 2014, homicides had all but vanished, the Post account said. martin.weil@washpost.com clarence.williams@washpost.com


Why doom and gloom won’t help us fight climate change

Bruce Beehler, an ornithologist and naturalist, is the author of 12 books, the most recent being “Natural Encounters: Biking, Hiking, and Birding Through the Seasons.” Early one morning not long ago, I rose from a chair on my porch in Bethesda to gaze at a row of tall trees that borders the back of our yard. The insistent kuk kuk kuk of a pileated woodpecker had drawn my attention away from the morning newspaper and cup of tea. Suddenly, a flash of black, red and white exploded from the greenery as the big, crested woodpecker swooped across our yard and into a neighbor’s tall oak. My heart leapt at the sight of this gorgeous wild creature — joy seeping into my limbic system, giving me an agreeable rush. This was the wonder of nature at our doorstep. About an hour later, my daughter Cary, inside the house, was reviewing the news feed on her smartphone. Coming upon an article that postulated a wholesale decline of the Earth’s insect fauna, she shouted to me to come into the room so she could read me the dire take-home points of this scientific assessment. The end of our bees, butterflies, ants and dragonflies could spell a devastating extinction crisis. Her face showed alarm, and she mourned being a helpless witness to what looked like another potential step toward the downward spiral of our planet’s biosphere. The drumbeat of news about climate change and ecological degradation is deeply demoralizing. The Earth is indeed in bad shape, and the trends aren’t encouraging. (July, it turns out, was the hottest month recorded since data collection began.) Yet the big problem with bad news about the environment is that it too easily leads to resignation and then passivity. Consider Paul Kingsnorth, the former British environmental activist who suggests that the magnitude of the “ecocide” we face means that we have to come to terms with the reality that there is no hope. “We are not going to stop this from happening,” he told the New York Times a few years ago. A group of academics and activists recently published a book with an emblematic title: “Mourning Nature.” Small wonder that a series of recent polls have detected many Americans declaring that they’re experiencing “eco-anxiety.” If nature is already too far gone, why go to the trouble of trying to save it? But it is perhaps a mistaken