Which world leaders are richer than Donald Trump?

President Trump met with Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, deputy crown prince and minister of defense of Saudi Arabia, on March 14 at the White House. This Tuesday, President Donald Trump met with powerful Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House. The two men no doubt had plenty to discuss, including but not limited to regional issues in the Middle East, the threat of terrorism and oil market woes. The meeting was notable in an another way, too. Trump is a man known for his lifelong desire to accumulate wealth and the lavish way that he puts that wealth to use. And in Mohammed bin Salman, he may have met someone rare: A foreign leader who is richer than he is. True, the young prince isn't yet technically the head of state. He's currently second in line to the Saudi throne. However, many have noted that the 31-year-old Mohammed has been rising fast through the Saudi royal family, taking a prominent role in the kingdom's attempts to wean its economy off oil money and in the troubling war in Yemen. But there's no doubt that the Saudi royal family is very, very wealthy. And, like Trump, the royals are known for their opulence. Mohammed's father, King Salman, is reported to have taken 506 tons of luggage on a recent trip to Asia, including two limousines and two elevators, as well as an entourage of 1,500. There are rumors that the king is hoping to sink billions of dollars into purchasing an atoll in the Maldives. The Saud family's wealth almost certainly exceeds Trump's own net worth, which he has estimated at $8.7 billion although other sources peg it far lower. But estimating the full extent of the Sauds' wealth is surprisingly difficult. It is not publicly known how wealthy the Saudi royals are. One widely cited estimate pegs King Salman's net worth at more than $17 billion, but working out the wealth of world leaders is a notoriously fraught business. Like Trump, many don't release documents to make the full extent of their wealth known (though this is also true of many of the mega-rich who are not involved in politics). What makes it more complicated with world leaders is that it can often be hard to distinguish their wealth from that of the states they run. Largely for this reason, companies that compile


Don’t believe the hype. The Dutch election will be a vote for business as usual.

A billboard displays campaign flyers from various Dutch political parties near the parliament building in The Hague, Netherlands, on March 14. (Carl Court/Getty Images) Sam van der Staak is the Head for Europe at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). The people of the Netherlands are heading to the polls on March 15, and international attention toward the small European country is at a historic high. Will Brexit and the election of Donald Trump leave their trace on Dutch politics? Will a victory for the Dutch far right herald anti-establishment victories in France and Germany later this year, possibly bringing down both the euro and the European Union? These fears are all understandable enough. In fact, though, a strong showing by the far right is likely to have a contrary effect. If anything, it will almost surely produce a stronger political consensus within the Netherlands. The German poet Heinrich Heine reportedly once said “When the world ends I will go to Holland, because everything there happens fifty years later.” Not this time. Elections in the Netherlands are making waves in the English-speaking press: “Will the ‘Dutch Trump’ win next week’s election in the Netherlands?” asked The Washington Post. “Geert Wilders, reclusive provocateur, rises before Dutch vote,” warned the New York Times, referring to the firebrand leader of the Dutch far right. The Guardian asked “Can Geert Wilders be more than the Netherlands’ agitator-in-chief?” Such fears, subtly suggesting contagion from U.K. and U.S. populism, are doubly unfounded. There is hardly any perceptible ripple effect from Brexit or Trump, and Wilders, like other European populists, will fail to gain power even if he were to win the election. First, the impact of Brexit and Trump on the Dutch appears to be negligible. To be sure, there is a large segment of pro-Wilders voters, but their presence in the political landscape is nothing new. Critics of multiculturalism have played a prominent role in Dutch politics since the early 2000s, long before Brexit or Trump. Indeed, indications are that anti-establishment sentiment came to the fore in the Netherlands long before it made itself felt in many of the other places where it is now making headlines. Even so, a poll by respected Dutch polling organization I&O last week found that only 6 percent of Dutch voters will let Donald Trump’s election influence their vote, be it for or against populist candidates.


Woman’s headphone batteries exploded on flight to Australia, causing burns

(Australian Transport Safety Bureau) A woman flying to Melbourne from Beijing in February fell asleep while wearing noise-canceling headphones, only to awake to the sounds of a nearby explosion. The battery in her headphones had burst into flame, according to an Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation into the incident released Tuesday. Photos depicted the unidentified woman with soot on her face, her cheek and neck singed. “As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face,” she said, according to a statement posted to the ATSB website Tuesday. “I just grabbed my face which caused the headphones to go around my neck.” The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the incident occurred Feb. 19. A representative for ATSB declined to tell the Australian newspaper what brand of battery caused the explosion. The woman quickly responded to the malfunctioning device. “I continued to feel burning so I grabbed them off and threw them on the floor,” she said. “They were sparking and had small amounts of fire.” She continued: “As I went to stamp my foot on them the flight attendants were already there with a bucket of water to pour on them. They put them into the bucket at the rear of the plane.” The melted headphone cover and battery had to be scraped off the aircraft floor, according to the ATSB. The scent of torched hair and electronics lingered on the plane, disrupting the flight. “People were coughing and choking the entire way home,” the woman said. This was not the only incident to involve potentially dangerous batteries and airplanes. Hoverboards and the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 have been subject to recent airline bans over concerns about exploding batteries. More from Morning Mix: First it was Samsung phones. Now it’s exploding Samsung washing machines. No more free overhead bin on United: Is an extra fee for oxygen next? ‘This was 30 minutes of hell for this young lady’: Unaccompanied minor groped on flight


Scotland’s independence vote will complicate Brexit in some very interesting ways

European debt crisis has increased euro-skepticism in states that were previously highly pro-E. U. (Greece, Spain and Italy). The strains of the refugee crisis have heightened tensions between the EU’s East and West. Donald Trump’s erratic opposition to the European Union has not helped either. Sturgeon’s SNP party, in contrast, is a highly vocal defender of the virtues of the European Union and unfettered access to the Single Market. Moreover, by recently distancing itself from fellow separatists in the European Parliament, the SNP has demonstrated its desire to accommodate the concerns of other E.U. member-states (namely Spain), rather than antagonizing the European Union as the British Conservatives have done during Brexit and before it (in 2009, David Cameron withdrew the Conservatives from the main right-of-center grouping in the European Parliament, allying with more right-wing fringes). The Scottish referendum may shape the negotiations As Brexit negotiations move forward, the European Union may benefit from a Scottish referendum if it happens in Sturgeon’s suggested time frame. Theresa May and hard Brexit Conservatives say that they are willing to bear the economic costs of a ‘hard Brexit,’ in which Britain significantly dissociates itself from the European Union. However, their enthusiasm may be dampened by a brewing constitutional crisis, especially if the European Union starts sending encouraging signals to Scotland. While allowing a seceding region of a member-state to retain its membership would be unprecedented, it wouldn’t be the first time the E.U. accommodated varying degrees of membership status within individual sovereigns. Denmark remains an E.U. member despite the fact that Greenland, which is part of Denmark, opted to leave the bloc in 1985. Sturgeon’s announcement delayed May’s decision to trigger Article 50 this week. This demonstrates that Scottish separatism is a cause of grave concern to Conservative euroskeptics. If the European Union provides continuing membership to an independent Scotland, or supports a unique Scottish relationship with the European Union, it could potentially disrupt Britain’s constitutional relations, with serious political consequences for the government that ‘lost’ Scotland. This would be playing true hardball — if the European Union believes that Britain has been making extreme threats to win concessions during negotiations, it might, over time, come to see the attractions of doing the same. Alison Johnston is an assistant professor of political science at Oregon State University. Her work focuses on European integration, E.U. politics and the domestic causes of the European debt crises.


Good science on marijuana is so hard to find

5,000 subjects over a period of more than two decades found no association between marijuana use and cardiovascular disease. Another longitudinal study from Sweden published last month reviewing more than 50,000 men found similar results. These The root of the problem comes from considering all of the limitations on studying marijuana. Because it is considered a Schedule 1 drug by the federal government — meaning it is considered to have no medical benefits — conducting a randomized controlled trial (the gold standard in scientific experiments) on marijuana use is essentially impossible. Instead, scientists must rely heavily on self-reporting from patients, making it extremely difficult to know how much, how often or through what means subjects use marijuana — let alone what type of chemicals they’re ingesting alongside the drug. Meanwhile, without collecting massive amounts of data from marijuana users, conclusions about those with cardiovascular issues are going to be based on small numbers of people. “There’s not great infrastructure in place for us to study cannabis well,” said Aditi Kalla, lead author of the study released last week and a researcher from the Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. She notes that with more and more states legalizing marijuana, it’s becoming more acceptable to use the drug and for patients to discuss personal use with researchers. But marijuana remains a highly controversial and politicized topic. Regardless of the outcome of any marijuana study, scientists who tackle the issue do so knowing they will probably receive criticism. “This is not meant to be an anti-cannabis study,” Kalla said of her work. “We know we have limitations. We want to guide future research.” There are plenty of health implications from marijuana that research has substantiated fairly well, as evidenced by an extensive review of more than 10,000 marijuana studies by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published earlier this year. We know from this research that the drug works to treat chronic pain, multiple sclerosis spasticity and nausea and pain in cancer patients. But we’re also pretty sure that marijuana use is linked to the development of schizophrenia and an increase in traffic accidents. So it’s clear from the science so far that use of the drug has both pluses and minuses. But there are still many questions about marijuana that need to be answered — especially on cardiovascular disease. It would be wrong to justify not legalizing marijuana simply because


Ethiopia boasts about its economic progress. The body count at a garbage dump tells another story.

Rescuers work at the scene of a garbage landslide, on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa, in Ethiopia on Sunday (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) Three days of national mourning began Wednesday for the victims of a catastrophic landslide at the Ethiopian capital’s main garbage dump that left at least 113 bodies buried under a wall of trash and dirt, mostly women and children. This year has not been kind to Ethiopia, including widespread popular unrest, drought in many parts of the country, a cholera outbreak and stampede at a culture festival. Yet the deaths at the Addis Ababa landfill on Saturday stands out as a sobering counterpoint to the country's boasts of economic progress. Ethiopia’s government for the last decade has tried to put behind the familiar cliches in Western minds of famine and poverty. The numbers help their case. Ethiopia has one of the best-performing economies in Africa. But 30 percent of Ethiopia's population still lives below the poverty line. The changes are especially apparent in Addis Ababa, which was once little more than an overgrown village with a few government buildings. The city is now sprouting with glass and metal skyscrapers ringed by affluent new neighborhoods catering to an emerging middle class. But the landfill tragedy is a reminder that the slums and shantytowns are still there, too. One of them was built amid the artificial mountain of garbage, where people scrap out a living combing through the refuse. Late Saturday, they heard a roaring sound. The garbage mountain suddenly gave way, sweeping away makeshift homes and burying dozens. The growth of the capital has often outstripped efforts to manage it, creating hazards like the half-century-old landfill of Reppi, also known as Koshe or dirt in Ethiopia’s Amharic language. Located southwest of the city, just a 15-minute drive from the embassy-filled neighborhood of Old Airport that is also home to the city’s best international school, this mountain of trash is now surrounded by housing developments. Here, hundreds of men, women and children known as “scratchers” comb through the daily trash deliveries from the rest of the city, squabbling over the highly prized refuse from the wealthier neighborhoods that yield the most valuable castoffs or the best food. Overhead birds circle the more than 70-acre site, waiting for their own turn on this artificial mountain of trash Even before the latest collapse claimed dozens of lives, injuries and deaths


Obama left Trump a major climate-change report — and independent scientists just said it’s accurate

are now individually in the crosshairs. Congressional Republicans have recently criticized the Global Change Research Program and argued that funding “should only be available contingent on a finding by the administration that it is not duplicative or wasteful based on a government-wide review of climate research.” Into this cauldron comes the Special Report, which, at least in draft form, contains strong language about the human causation of climate change. In perhaps its most quotable section, it states the following conclusion: Many lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are primarily responsible for the observed climate changes in the industrial era. There are no alternative explanations, and no natural cycles are found in the observational record that can explain the observed changes in climate. (Very high confidence) That’s not to say such language will appear in the final report — the peer review by the National Academies actually faults this passage in part, calling for its “rewording,” even as it winds up mostly agreeing with it. “The concept of ‘no alternative explanations’ needs further discussion to be understood by the intended audience,” the review says. “There are lots of alternative explanations. It is just that, for a number of very solid reasons, they are not credible or cannot contribute more than marginally to the observed patterns.” A more technical statement of the same basic point found an even stronger blessing from the committee. In its second chapter, the Climate Science Special Report asserts that: Human activities continue to significantly affect Earth’s climate by altering factors that change its radiative balance (known as a radiative forcing). These factors include greenhouse gases, small airborne particles (aerosols), and the reflectivity of the Earth’s surface. In the industrial era, human activities have been and remain the dominant cause of climate warming and have far exceeded the relatively small net increase due to natural factors, which include changes in energy from the sun and the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions. (Very high confidence). Of this passage, the peer review committee says: “This finding affirms the scientific consensus that anthropogenic emissions of GHGs have perturbed the radiative balance of the Earth.” It then recommends some relatively small clarifications. What happens next is anyone’s guess. At a scientific conference in Boston in February, one expert involved in drafting the report said he had not spoken to the Trump administration. “The simple answer .


‘No one escaped’: Poland accuses 98-year-old Minnesota man of ordering a Nazi massacre

Michael Karkoc works in his yard in Minneapolis in May 2014. Poland will seek the arrest and extradition of Karkoc, who the Associated Press says is a former commander in an SS-led unit that burned Polish villages and killed civilians in World War II, prosecutors said Monday. (Richard Sennott/Star Tribune via AP) It's unclear whether the Nazi unit commander knew precisely who had killed an officer in an attack near a Polish village — but there was no doubt about who was going to be punished. In the summer of 1944, the commander turned his attention to civilians in two Polish villages and ordered his troops: “Liquidate all the residents.” The next morning, according to the Guardian, soldiers started setting villagers' homes on fire, then shooting anyone who tried to get away. “You could hear machine-gun shots and grenade explosions,” recalled Stanislawa Lipska, a survivor from one of the villages, Chlaniow. “Shots could be heard inside the village and on the outskirts. They were making sure no one escaped.” Vasyl Malazhenski, a soldier in the company, recounted that he “could see the dead bodies of the killed residents: men, women, children.” For decades, the commander who ordered the atrocity remained unknown, his war crimes unpunished even as Nazis and their collaborators have been pursued around the world. Now, Polish authorities say, they know the identity of the man who issued the kill order for the Polish villagers. After the Germans surrendered and the war ended, the commander allegedly slipped into the United States, lied about his military service and settled into a squat, one-story brick house in Minneapolis, according to the Associated Press. Poland announced Monday that it will seek the arrest and extradition of Michael Karkoc, a 98-year-old U.S. citizen who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Prosecutors are seeking his extradition despite his disease. If convicted in the killing of citizens in Chlaniow and Wladyslawin, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Karkoc's family has denied the allegations and offered a record of the older man's past that contradicts the AP's account. Karkoc's son, Andriy, called the accusations “evil, fabricated, intolerable and malicious.” “I would like to get these people in a court of law to inflict the pain we have gone through,” he said. But prosecutors had strong evidence of their own. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune Prosecutors in Germany previously launched their own investigation


A handful of Washington chefs and restaurants are finalists in the James Beard Awards

Head chef Scott Muns (left) and chef-owner Aaron Silverman (right) in the kitchen at Pineapple and Pearls, a James Beard nominee for best new restaurant. (Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post) The James Beard Foundation has announced the finalists for its coveted restaurant and chef awards, and the Washington area has plenty to be proud of. On the national level, Aaron Silverman's prix fixe Pineapple and Pearls is among the finalists for Best New Restaurant. Amy Brandwein of Centrolina and Tom Cunanan of Bad Saint were nominated in the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category, along with Cindy Wolf of Charleston in Baltimore. Mark Furstenberg of Bread Furst received a nod in the Outstanding Baker category, as he did last year. In the drinks arena, Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Diane Flynt of Foggy Ridge Cider are in the running for Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional. The Outstanding Restaurateur category featured one nominee with a location in the District: Stephen Starr (Le Diplomate). More than two dozen local contenders were in the running as semifinalists, which were announced last month. Finalists for the restaurant and chef awards were chosen by judges, committee members and previous winners. The winners will be revealed May 1 in Chicago. In 2016, the Washington area had two finalists for the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category: Peter Chang (Peter Chang) and Silverman. Wolf was also among the nominees. Silverman went on to take home the prize. Nora Pouillon of Restaurant Nora is the recipient of the 2017 James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. Schultz's Crab House in Essex, Md., has been named one of this year's America's Classics, which honor beloved regional restaurants. The Beard awards also include categories in media and books, and several nominees will look familiar to Washingtonians, as well. The Post's Food section is a finalist for Food Coverage in a General-Interest Publication. A feature on how to make bagels at home, by former Post staffer Alex Baldinger and this writer, is in the running in the Home Cooking category. Cookbook author Dorie Greenspan, who writes a regular column for The Post, received a nomination in the Baking and Dessert cookbook draw for her “Dorie's Cookies.” Ellie Krieger, another Post contributor, is a finalist in the Health book category for "You Have It Made: Delicious, Healthy, Do-Ahead Meals." In the broadcast media awards, Washington cookbook author and television host Pati


Two years after the DEA admitted marijuana is less dangerous than heroin, Jeff Sessions would like to reconsider

us.” He also doubted reports of marijuana’s effectiveness fighting opioid addiction, adding “we need to crack down more on heroin.” And my list is already out-of-date: A new report published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence last month found opioid hospitalizations decreased in states that allowed medical marijuana. Furthermore, those states saw no increase in the incidence of marijuana-related hospitalizations. That speaks to Sessions's second point: that marijuana dependency is “only slightly less awful” than heroin addiction. Drug dependency of any kind is, indeed, awful. And marijuana dependency is quite real. But there is a spectrum of “awful"-ness of drug dependency, and evidence and common sense suggest marijuana and heroin are miles apart. For starters, heroin is lethal and kills 13,000 of its users each year. Nobody ODs on marijuana alone. Second, the federal government's own research undermines any equivalency between dependency on marijuana and heroin. You can often gauge how bad a given drug addiction is by looking at what happens when a user tries to kick the habit. For heroin, the National Institute on Drug Abuse lists withdrawal symptoms including “muscle and bone pain, sleep problems, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps, uncontrollable leg movements severe heroin cravings.” Heroin withdrawal is so bad that users occasionally die from it, particularly in harsh criminal justice environments where they're unable to receive medical care. For marijuana, on the other hand, major withdrawal symptoms include “grouchiness, sleeplessness, decreased appetite, anxiety cravings.” Grouchiness and decreased appetite seem far — not “slightly” — less awful than severe pain and possible death. Finally, researchers have generally ranked marijuana use as far less harmful to individuals and society than heroin use. In a 2010 Lancet report, dozens of researchers and public health experts rated the harm potential of a variety of drugs on a 0 to 100 scale, with 100 being the most harmful. Heroin scored in the mid-50s. Marijuana was rated at a 20. Sessions's remarks are “a sort of starting gun for a new war on drugs,” according to Michael Collins of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group working to reform drug laws. “It's very disappointing that this DOJ and this attorney general are so anti-science and anti-evidence and anti-facts.” Voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada just approved recreational marijuana use. Here's what they can learn from Washington, Colorado and Oregon, states where marijuana use has already been legalized.


‘Wayne Tracker: Legends of the Caped Crusader’

account had just sent and received another climate change-related email. It could only mean one thing: The evil climate scientists were at it again. “When people say that climate change has a human cause, they have no idea,” Wayne Tracker said. His loyal butler, Halliburton, was standing by ready for action. He nodded, sympathetically. “Too true, Master Wayne.” “What is it this time?” Wayne asked. “They’re at the hole in the ozone layer, Master Wayne,” Halliburton said. “They’re trying to ENLARGE it — and blame us.” Wayne Tracker’s hands shook with rage. “Those monsters.” Wayne Tracker donned his suit and climbed into the Exxonmobile. There was nothing these scientists had not tried. He remembered months ago, how he had caught them sneaking out to melt the polar ice caps by night so that, when they blamed climate change on human activity, they would not technically be lying. He had stopped the scientists before, as they spilled oil into precious habitats and flew jets around and around the Earth to destroy its atmosphere. He knew what they were capable of. They were always disguising themselves as polar bears and tricking journalists with their tales of woe and extinction, when in reality there was no such thing as a polar bear and never had been. They had also spent decades training birds to fly into windmills and generally sabotaging green technologies. Some men just wanted to watch the world burn, and these scientists were some of those men. “Hurry,” Wayne Tracker said. Beneath his cowl, his face looked the same as Rex Tillerson’s. (Sometimes he wondered if he were not, in fact, the boring alter ego of Rex Tillerson, whose name also sounded as though it had been generated by a Macho Name Generator and who got to meet with Russian oligarchs and receive awards from them.) Wayne Tracker’s tracker was buzzing: They were everywhere! Some of them had snuck into university facilities and were distorting the temperature readings. They were authoring papers and they had tied up a peer and were forcing him to review them. How could one man possibly stop all this? Wayne Tracker catapulted into the laboratory where they were cooking the data. He released all the data points into the wind so that they could harm no one else. He roundhouse-kicked the charts back into a proper shape. A little boy who had just arrived to sue


Redskins release DE Ricky Jean Francois; re-up Ziggy Hood, Vinston Painter

Redskins defensive end Ricky Jean Francois brings down Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott in Week 2 last season. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post) One week after adding two veteran defensive linemen via free agency, the Washington Redskins released defensive end Ricky Jean Francois Wednesday, among the squad’s more vocal leaders and best-liked players. The 6-3, 313-pound Jean Francois appeared in all 32 games since joining the Redskins in 2015, starting six games last season. He would have been an expensive backup entering 2017. Cutting him will save the Redskins $4 million in salary cap space as they seek to shore up their defense this offseason. Also Wednesday, the Redskins re-signed unrestricted free agent defensive lineman Ziggy Hood and exclusive rights free agent Vinston Painter, an offensive tackle. According to people with knowledge of the decision-making, the Redskins have not ruled out making overtures to Johnathan Hankins or Dontari Poe, two of the more attractive defensive linemen remaining on the free agent market. The 6-3, 305 Hood appeared in all 16 Redskins games last season, starting 14. A former first-round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2009, Hood, 30, recorded 23 tackles (17 solo), one sack and once forced fumble last season while leading the Redskins defensive linemen with three passes defensed. The Redskins added Painter (6-4, 322) via the waiver wire in the 2016 preseason. The Virginia Tech product appeared in five games for the team. During the initial wave of free agent signings last week, the Redskins added defensive linemen Terrell McClain and Stacy McGee. They also picked up safety D.J. Swearinger. On offense, they re-signed tight end Vernon Davis and followed with the high-profile addition of wide receiver Terrelle Pryor.


‘I am Muslim, I am American’: Runners make statement with T-shirts

From left: Mohammad Bajwa, Agha Hasnain, Agha Saadat, Mudasar Chahal and Zafar Shahbaz display their patriotism at the D.C. Rock ‘n’ Roll half marathon. (Courtesy of Agha Hasnain) On paper, 31-year-old Mudasar Chahal was simply one of several thousand runners who braved the below freezing temperatures and heavy winds on Saturday morning to run the Rock ‘n’ Roll half marathon in Washington. There was nothing striking about Chahal’s finish time of 2:45:15, more than an hour and a half slower than what he ran as a teenager. But Chahal didn’t register for the 13.1-mile race to set a personal record. Wearing custom-made bright blue T-shirts with the words “I am Muslim, I am American” emblazoned on the front and back, Chahal and five of his friends running the half marathon were there to spread a message. “We are Muslim, but we are also American,” said Chahal, an Alexandria resident. “Just like everyone else, we love this country. We just happen to be Muslim. That’s the only difference.” The recent travel ban of those from majority-Muslim countries by President Trump and hate crimes against Muslims around the country motivated Chahal to take action. Chahal emigrated to the United States from Pakistan with his family at age 14, assimilating to American culture by joining the cross-country and track and field teams at Arlington’s Wakefield High. Despite having never participated in athletics in his native Pakistan, he made varsity both his junior and senior seasons for the Warriors before going off to compete at the now-defunct Virginia Intermont College, followed by one year at Cameron University in Oklahoma. In 2005 at age 18, Chahal won the Country Music half marathon in Nashville in a blistering 1:10:05 and was the runner up in 2006 — facts his friends proudly shared to fellow runners during the race. “It’s a fun sport,” Chahal said. “It relieves all the worries about your life. You go and run and you’re stress-free afterward.” Throughout his time in school, Chahal developed a love for his adopted country and became a citizen in 2012. He said he has never personally been targeted, but that he has felt disheartened by the news of violence toward Muslims — or those perceived to be Muslim — and the increasing negativity toward his religion. About a month ago, Chahal and his friends, several of whom are also accomplished runners, decided the D.C. Rock ‘n’ Roll


Three young boys kick and stone a flamingo to death at Czech zoo

piece also coming from wild nature is incalculable,” according to a zoo statement. Martin Maláč, a spokesman for the zoo, told local press the boys had expressed no remorse for what they had done. He also questioned why the children were not in school, given the time of day. Staff at the Jihlava Zoo, which is surrounded by a high fence and several other exhibit barriers, said the attack in the flamingo exhibit has left the other birds “terribly frightened” and suffering from “severe stress shock.” Zoologists worried the incident could also affect breeding of the flamingos. It took many years for the zoo to establish a group of flamingos that would reproduce naturally. “Now there has been a breach of this delicate balance,” Eliška Kubíková, the director of the zoo said initially. But Vašák told The Post in an email that as of Wednesday, the flock’s behavior was “getting normal.” Since it is almost spring, zoologists observed pairs of flamingos displaying early mating and nesting activity. “I believe the group will get to normal soon and we will again breed successfully several chicks like every year,” Vašák wrote. The deceased flamingo originated from Tanzania, Maláč said in a statement. “He was a great and successful father,” Maláč wrote. “Taking into consideration the fact that flamingos live in captivity about 30-40 years, this male was rather young.” The death of the flamingo follows a number of other fatal attacks on zoo animals worldwide. Last week, poachers broke into a French zoo, killing a 4-year-old white rhinoceros and sawing off its horn in a brutal attack that prompted international outrage. In the wake of the attack, a Czech zoo in the central town of Dvur Kralove nad Labem said it would use a chain saw to remove the horns from its herd of rare rhinos. Earlier this month, a group of visitors at a Tunisian zoo stoned a crocodile in the head, causing internal bleeding that would kill it, AFP reported. Authorities called it a “savage” act. “This week has been really awful, at least from the perspective of animals in zoos,” Maláč said. More from Morning Mix Evolutionary study unravels mystery of how cobras evolved their flesh-eating venom ‘The world waits on edge’ as April the pregnant giraffe becomes live-stream sensation A legendary one-eyed Spanish bullfighter is gored yet again. He has escaped death nearly too many times to count.


A Kansas lawmaker just compared Planned Parenthood to a Nazi death camp

the information must be provided in writing “on white paper in a printed format in black ink with 12-point times new roman font.” What is the other criticism the bill has gotten? Weinel, who is not one of Fitzgerald's constituents, told The Post that she never expected him to respond. But he did, kicking off a heated email exchange between a lawmaker and a citizen over the course of seven hours. Weinel initially compared SB 98 to a diner being forced to read the nutritional information instead of being allowed to ask for that information on their own. “The information you want provided to every patient receiving an abortion already exists and can be given to any patient at any time with very little lead time,” she wrote. “Abortion is legal, whether you like it or not, and this legislation will not prevent anyone who wants an abortion from getting one.” Fitzgerald's response was brief and to the point. “Killing children is always a bad idea,” he wrote. “Equating it to a menu choice is truly disgusting. Regards, Steve.” After a few more emails were traded, the communication ended with Weinel instructing the lawmaker to “get back to work.” “He was pretty disrespectful and rude throughout the email exchange,” Weinel said. “I was frustrated and thought I might feel less frustrated if I donated to Planned Parenthood in his name since he's fighting to make access to women's health care impossible, and I wanted to do something about it.” Despite Planned Parenthood's calls for an apology, Fitzgerald stood by his comparison during his interview with the Kansas City Star, noting that both Planned Parenthood and Nazis exterminated “innocent human life.” “How about if I make a donation in your name to the Ku Klux Klan and publish it?” he said. “If somebody made a donation to the Ku Klux Klan in your name and published it, how would you feel? What would you do? How would you react? Wouldn’t it be controversial for you to deny that or to denounce that in the strongest possible terms?” “It’s pretty controversial, don’t you think?” he added. MORE READING: The time Sean Spicer wouldn’t say whether Trump thinks microwaves spied on him Devin Nunes confirms it: The evidence of Trump Tower being wiretapped just doesn’t seem to exist There are now almost 60 Republicans with major concerns about the GOP’s Obamacare replacement bill


Frank Ruta was a White House chef. At this new restaurant, he’s aiming for Michelin stars.

Owner Hakan Ilhan spared little expense in building out Mirabelle, located near the White House. (Photo by Rey Lopez/Under a Bushel) As part of their research for Mirabelle, the forthcoming French-American destination near the White House, chef Frank Ruta and pastry chef Aggie Chin dined at as many Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris as they could fit into their schedule. As they described it, their two-week trip sounded as much like a statement of purpose as an investigation of French dining. Mirabelle, the trip suggests, will reach for the stars. As in Michelin stars, the ones awards by the famous French guide that now covers Washington. But Ruta and Chin both downplay Mirabelle's Michelin ambitions, as if the chefs' shared modesty is part of the chemistry that has made their partnership so successful at the late Palena in Cleveland Park and at the Grill Room in Georgetown. "We want to do the best that we can given the space in the kitchen and everything we have at our disposal," Chin said. "We want the best reviews. We want the best accolades. We kind of want it all. But until we start executing everything, I don’t think we can say, ‘Oh, this is definitely going to be a one-star or two-star place'.” At Mirabelle, chef Frank Ruta will riff on classic French cuisine, which he mastered while working at the White House kitchen under three presidents. (Rey Lopez/Under a Bushel) Ruta, who won a James Beard Award while at Palena, is more interested in turning Mirabelle into one of Washington's top restaurants, rather than some international destination for Michelin star-chasers. "We do want to push ourselves to get that acclaim," he said. "I mean, I think the investment is there from our owner. He’s been extremely supportive . . . He really hasn’t said 'no' too much to what we wanted to do." The owner would be Hakan Ilhan, the restaurateur who has quietly amassed a small dining empire with Alba Osteria, L’Hommage Bistro, Ottoman Taverna and Al Dente. Ilhan not only sent his Mirabelle chefs to Paris, racking up bills that would give Warren Buffett pause, but he also spared little expense for his first fine-dining establishment. He invested in custom-designed tables, brass fixtures, marble counters and hand-made wood trolleys that will roll desserts into the dining room during lunch and showcase cheeses during dinner. What's more, Ilhan instructed Norris Design


FreshDirect is coming to Washington

Courtesy of FreshDirect FreshDirect, the popular New York grocery delivery service, is expanding to Washington. Its mission: To bring produce, dairy and meat from local farms, fisheries and cattle ranches straight to peoples’ homes in about half the time it would take a traditional supermarket. Local selections will include shell crab, oysters and rockfish from the Chesapeake Bay, angus beef from Maryland farms and organic chicken from Shenandoah Valley Organic in Harrisonburg, Va. “If it typically takes 10 days for a product to get from farm to customer, we’ll do it in five,” said Jason Ackerman, the company’s co-founder and chief executive. Washington’s burgeoning food scene makes it an obvious choice for expansion, Ackerman said. The company, which has no bricks-and-mortar locations, has a warehouse in Prince George’s County and plans to hire about 50 full-time employees. Delivery will begin April 5 for residents in the District, Arlington, McLean and Bethesda. “Washington is full of busy working people,” Ackerman said. “They value great quality food, but they also need convenience.” FreshDirect is hardly the first grocery delivery service in the Washington area. A number of large supermarkets, including Giant and Safeway, offer delivery, as do third-party services like Instacart. Relay Foods, a Charlottesville-based online grocer, created a similar model when it launched in 2008. (Earlier this year the company announced plans to merge with Colorado-based Door to Door Organics.) “This is undoubtedly the future of grocery shopping,” Relay Foods founder Zach Buckner told The Washington Post in 2013. “Netflix, Apple iTunes and others have wiped the video store category off the map. The same thing is on its way for groceries.” In the case of FreshDirect, items are delivered from farms straight to the company’s manufacturing facilities, where they are prepared into meals or packed into boxes, and delivered to customers’ homes. Delivery costs $7.99 per order, or $129 for a year. The company has 3,000 workers, including roughly 50 who travel from farm to farm. “When the Alaskan fish are running, we’re there too, making sure we’re buying from the right guys,” Ackerman said. “This isn’t like buying Kellogg’s Cornflakes, where you know you’re going to get the same product no matter what. To get the best fresh food, you have to have a relationship with each fishing boat, farmer and rancher.” In the late 1990s, Ackerman was a New York City banker who noticed the grocery industry was


FreshDirect is coming to Washington

Foods, a Charlottesville-based online grocer, created a similar model when it launched in 2008. (Earlier this year the company announced plans to merge with Colorado-based Door to Door Organics.) “This is undoubtedly the future of grocery shopping,” Relay Foods founder Zach Buckner told The Washington Post in 2013. “Netflix, Apple iTunes and others have wiped the video store category off the map. The same thing is on its way for groceries.” In the case of FreshDirect, items are delivered from farms straight to the company’s manufacturing facilities, where they are prepared into meals or packed into boxes, and delivered to customers’ homes. Delivery costs $7.99 per order, or $129 for a year. The company has 3,000 workers, including roughly 50 who travel from farm to farm. “When the Alaskan fish are running, we’re there too, making sure we’re buying from the right guys,” Ackerman said. “This isn’t like buying Kellogg’s Cornflakes, where you know you’re going to get the same product no matter what. To get the best fresh food, you have to have a relationship with each fishing boat, farmer and rancher.” In the late 1990s, Ackerman was a New York City banker who noticed the grocery industry was rapidly changing. Supermarket chains were increasingly trying to compete with Wal-Mart by becoming bigger. Shoppers, meanwhile, wanted the opposite. “Consumers wanted fresh food — they wanted to know where things were coming from, and I realized supermarkets were going to be doing a worse and worse job of that,” Ackerman said. “As these chains got bigger and bigger, they were really losing the ability to manage quality.” He and Joe Fedele, co-founder of New York’s Fairway Market, knew they wanted to come up with a new model. They toyed with the idea of opening mega-stores — 100,000 square feet or larger — that would carry a variety of fresh produce. But in the end they nixed the idea of bricks-and-mortars locations altogether. “We found that nothing was more effective and efficient than not having stores,” Ackerman said. They raised $70 million to get started. (“The only useful thing about being an investment banker is that you know how to raise money,” Ackerman said.) After that, the duo hired 15 chefs, butchers and bakers, and 10 technologists. Together, they set out to find a new way to source and sell groceries. It took two and a half years of planning before


Ordinary people are exploring the secret lives of coyotes — through poop

the event beamed with pride at their discoveries — and none was scared about getting his hands dirty. “I’d like to be a scientist,” Philippe said, adding that he was eager to brag to his friends but felt pretty sure “most of the girls in my class wouldn’t like this very much.” “Hey, I’m a girl,” a 20-something woman retorted from behind a surgical mask a few feet away. Poop dissection is just one way the Park Service is trying to get the public’s help in gauging how living in and around a mega-city effects coyotes. It’s also asked ordinary people to collect scat, as well as share coyote photos and sightings. L.A.-area residents have collected more than 1,300 pieces of you-know-what since the project launched in June. Once the droppings are in Park Service hands, staff bake and wash them to eliminate parasites, and volunteers lend a hand at monthly “scat parties” like this one. “This is my fun, good-time Saturday,” said Sherry Ferber, a self-styled “scat sleuth” who travels with replica rubber raccoon droppings to better identify wildlife waste on her morning hikes. “I’m sad when I don’t see something on the trail.” Ferber, a fourth-grade teacher who lives in Liberty Canyon, the site of a planned wildlife crossing for local mountain lions, said she and other volunteers are helping to reveal the true nature of animals misidentified as threats. A coyote crosses a street in Los Angeles. (National Park Service) Park Service data prove her right about the dangers of coyotes. Biologists have been studying the animals here since 1996, radio collaring more than 150 animals, and serious conflicts with humans are rare. To reduce the likelihood of an unpleasant run-in with a coyote, the project disseminates do’s and don’ts. For example: Never feed wildlife, either intentionally or unintentionally by leaving out trash or pet food. Figuring out what coyotes are eating in a fragmented environment full of traffic, trash and dwindling open spaces is part of the Park Service’s coyote-human peacekeeping mission. Brown, who has made a career of tracking the wild canines from the city’s fringes to its urban core, knows that if he can prove the coyote diet is predominantly wild foods — and not beloved pets, as many Angelenos fear — he can help shift public perception and reduce the potential for intra-species conflict. The Park Service’s first coyote study, from May 2001


These people eat monkeys and piranhas. They also have the lowest rates of heart disease ever measured.

covering more than 10 miles of tracking. To cut a farm plot out of the jungle, they generally use metal axes and scythes — not chain saws. And, because of the thinness of the soil, they have to carve out a new plot every growing season. As a result, less than 10 percent of daylight hours consist of sedentary activity. By contrast, in the industrialized world, more than 54 percent of waking hours are counted as sedentary. Society, too, may be quite different. The Tsimane live in villages of about 60 to 200 people. They often live relatively long — the most common age at death is 70. “People often think that life in these places nasty, brutish and short,” said Benjamin C. Trumble, one of the anthropologists on the project, who lived among the Tsimane on-and-off for about two years. “But that just isn’t the case.” But while the research on the Tsimane and other groups living a “pre-modern” lifestyle suggests that heart disease may be a consequence of modernity, at least some evidence, developed by some of the same researchers, suggests otherwise. Thompson and his colleagues have performed similar scans on 137 mummies from four different ancient populations — in Egypt, Peru, Puebloans from the Southwestern United States and from the Aleutian Islands. It turns out heart disease may have been common even back then. “Atherosclerosis was common in four pre-industrial populations including pre-agricultural hunter-gatherers,” according to their 2013 paper, also in The Lancet. “Although commonly assumed to be a modern disease, the presence of atherosclerosis in pre-modern human beings raises the possibility of a more basic predisposition to the disease.” There are many reasons, of course, that the Tsimane lifestyle is unlikely to be emulated. Though they are free of heart disease, they suffer other health problems. They lack clean water and one the most common afflictions is parasitic worms — about two-thirds of adults have them. Their subsistence lifestyle seems to be slipping away, too. Many have begun adding motors to their canoes, bringing the Tsimane into much easier contact with the industrialized world. And finally, the diet is not, at least by some standards, considered tasty. “Capuchins are more like pork than chicken,” Trumble said. “The howler monkeys though, they just don't taste very good. Kind of sour.” An Australian study that found no link between total sitting time and an increased risk of diabetes.


This is a test for the analytics team

This is a test blurb. This is a developing story. It will be updated.


An asteroid hunter explains how she’s protecting Earth from a killer space rock

An artist’s conception of the NEOWISE spacecraft, which Carrie Nugent uses to search for near-Earth asteroids. (NASA, JPL/Caltech) In the early hours of Oct. 6, 2008, the astronomers who study objects in Earth's neighborhood in the solar system made a startling discovery: One of those objects was going to hit Earth. In 12 hours. Alerts were sent out to asteroid hunters around the globe, and dozens of observatories turned their telescopes to spot the swiftly approaching threat. Researchers at NASA calculated the impact site — the Nubian Desert in northern Sudan — and dispatched a fleet of airplanes to watch it fall. Fragments scattered across the desert. A professor from the University of Khartoum brought his students to search for the pieces. The rocks turned out to be a rare type of meteorite called ureilite, and they showed that the meteorite contained amino acids — important molecules for life. Caltech astronomer Carrie Nugent says stories like this, recounted in her new book “Asteroid Hunters,” illustrate what makes asteroids so fascinating to study. “They're something you can see in a telescope and also hold in your hand as a meteorite,” Nugent said. “So, in some sense, we get a free sample return mission on some of these guys.” (Simon & Schuster) Asteroids are some of the oldest objects in the solar system — scientists call them the “building blocks of planets” — and they can tell us a lot about the origins of our world and the forces that have shaped it. But that's not the only reason for hunting them. Nugent works at the space telescope NEOWISE, which uses infrared sensors to search for dark, nearby objects. The team has found more than 34,000 asteroids — including many near-Earth objects, whose closest approach takes them within 1.3 astronomical units of the sun. (An AU is the distance from the Earth to the sun, about 93 million miles.) “Most astronomical work has to do with things that are very, very far away and don’t affect our lives very much,” Nugent said. “But asteroids, as you know, can come and hit Earth occasionally. So I think it’s important to find these objects so you can predict where they are going and potentially deflect one if we find one on the way to Earth.” Speaking of Science gave Nugent a call to learn more about her book and life as an asteroid hunter.


Is this the beginning of the end of meat?

The Impossible Burger, which is made largely from potato and wheat proteins. (Impossible Foods) Patrick Brown founded Impossible Foods with the goal of supplanting the meat industry. He believes America’s 230 million omnivores can be made to trade their hamburgers and steaks for a plant-based equivalent, scienced into being. That vision may yet be a long way off -- even Brown admits as much. But next week the concept will get an important early test: Impossible Foods is opening its first large-scale facility in Oakland. The Oakland plant, which will begin to produce burgers this summer, is the first concrete sign that Impossible Foods and flagship offering are anything more than utopic moonshots. The plant will prove whether or not the concept can scale, which has implications for public health and the environment. It also has consequences for the emerging clean-meat industry, of which Impossible Foods is an early (and highly visible) player. Unlike Boca or Morningstar before them, which sought to corner the vegetarian market, these companies aim to appeal to hardcore meat-eaters by creating a meaty plant-based product. Beyond Meat, a popular vegetarian brand, has dipped a toe in those mainstream waters with its beet-juice "bleeding" Beyond Burger. And earlier this week, the start-up Memphis Meats announced that it had successfully created a lab-grown chicken strip -- at a whopping price per pound of $9,000. But few of these companies have proved that they can commercialize yet, and even those that have, like the Beyond Burger, still only sell at Whole Foods. With this new facility, a spokesperson for Impossible Foods said, the company’s production capacity will increase 250-fold -- allowing it to supply 1,000 restaurants by the end of this year. “The mission of the company is to making the existing method for producing meat obsolete,” said Brown on the phone from California, several weeks before the factory’s ribbon-cutting. “That means we need to be competitive everywhere. And soon we will be.” Proclamations like this one have earned Brown and his six-year-old company constant attention almost since its founding. A former biochemistry professor at Stanford, Brown became interested in industrial meat production after learning that it’s a major contributor to climate change: livestock account for nearly 15 percent of all greenhouse gasses, according to the United Nations. Brown became convinced that, given enough time and resources, science could essentially solve that problem by engineering plant-based “meats” that


Putin is waiting to see whether Trump will fund pro-democracy programs

Some groups have even shut down. Not long after the passage of this legislation, the government also expelled USAID from the country. And in 2015, Putin banned the NED from the country and prohibited NGOs from receiving any funding from the group. The United States has continued democracy programs despite local prohibitions. Nevertheless, USAID and the NED have continued to fund organizations, even where that’s against the local country’s laws. In Venezuela, for example, the United States has openly continued funding civil society organizations, even listing that in its annual budgets, albeit without naming recipients. USAID and the NED are undoubtedly keeping their plans in the country secret. However, the NED and its leaders continue to openly counter Russian ideological efforts throughout Eurasia. For instance, when NED President Carl Gershman testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June 2016, he said that one of the NED’s five main focuses includes pushing back against “an information offensive by Russia and other authoritarian regimes.” Through various actions, Putin has made it clear how much he despises these programs and sees them as interfering with Russian sovereignty. Russia Today, for instance, regularly runs critiques of these efforts. So will he raise this issue with the Trump administration? Trump could scale back U.S. democracy programs in Russia. But how will Trump respond? Trump’s budget plans to cut funding for the State Department and USAID. He has said that he will strengthen U.S. ties with Russia. As part of his “America First” agenda, will he eliminate U.S. democracy programs? That’s very difficult to predict. Both Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have a history of praise and involvement with Russia. Tillerson, for instance, tried to start several oil ventures in Russia, which were eventually blocked by U.S. economic sanctions. But the democracy and development community within the U.S. government will certainly push to continue its efforts in Russia and the broader Eurasia region. The most important decision in U.S.-Russia relations remains, of course, whether to continue sanctions. But watch this as well: Will U.S. democracy-promoting organizations be allowed to continue working with civil society groups in Russia and its neighbors? If not, that will be a clear signal of changed relations between the two powers. Timothy M. Gill is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research at Tulane University, and his research examines U.S. democracy promotion efforts in Venezuela.


Our innovators have the spark, but can they maintain a flame?

While our region’s start-up formation programs focus on getting businesses going, helping them grow into lasting commercial success is apparently more difficult. Take the development of new products. Venture capital is a lagging indicator for success in this area. If our region were creating exciting product start-ups, capital would follow. Sadly, data continue to demonstrate that the greater Washington region is not a primary market for venture capital. In fact, our share of national venture capital declined to 2.6 percent in 2016, down from 3.4 percent in 2015. Instead, our region excels in service-based innovation businesses. We are regularly near the top of lists of high-growth companies such as the Inc. 500. On that list in 2016, the percentage of rapidly growing businesses in the greater Washington region that identified as consulting companies increased dramatically to 46 percent (from 34 percent in 2015) and government contracting also dominated. Meanwhile, software and security companies represented only 5 percent of regional companies. This pattern is also seen in the region’s cybersecurity industry. A recent survey of the industry by TandemNSI identified more than 973 cybersecurity companies operating here and only 38 were product-based innovation companies. The rest were service-based. None of this should surprise us – entrepreneurs follow the money, and the primary customers in this region purchase technology innovation as a service. However, this business model and customer concentration does create a highly unstable situation if government funding shrinks. Our region is missing something in how to approach the challenge of growing 21st century innovation-based businesses. The delivery of product-based innovation, not services, is accelerating in the commercial sector, and arguably in the government sector as well. Our efforts to grow product companies focuses almost exclusively on inexperienced teams and startups, and in so doing we are losing sight of the larger issue: how do we retool our existing business base and get experienced entrepreneurs to grow highly scalable commercial product businesses? Offering cheap real estate or business advice for five percent ownership in a company does very little to address this challenge. We must find new approaches that focus on creating technology products that will be attractive to customers outside of the region in industries such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, precision medicine and others. The pre-existing failure of our region to create large numbers of product-based innovation businesses will be exacerbated by changes in federal spending. We urgently need greater


12 things to do in the D.C. area the week of March 20-24

Eva Moolchan, who performs as Sneaks, takes the stage at the Rock and Roll Hotel this week. (Photo by Nina Corcoran) Monday, March 20 Rebstar at the Embassy of Sweden: Tuesday, March 21 Girls Pint Out beer tasting at the Black Squirrel: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at Kennedy Center: Wednesday, March 22 The Second City at the Barns at Wolf Trap: Foxygen at 9:30 Club: Sneaks at Rock and Roll Hotel: Thursday, March 23 Environmental Film Festival's “The Lost City of Z” at National Geographic Society: Kasey Chambers at Birchmere: Friday, March 24 Celebrating Ella Fitzgerald at the Kennedy Center: Artomatic in Crystal City: Maryland Day Celebration at multiple area locations: ‘One Woman Sex the City’ at Amp by Strathmore: Read more: — The new H Street Whole Foods wants to be your neighborhood pub — Frank Ruta was a White House chef. At this new restaurant, he’s aiming for Michelin stars. — Red Apron Burger Bar: Chow down on top-notch burgers in Dupont Circle — The best sports bars in the D.C. area


Article 50: A guide to Britain’s untested plan for Brexit

funding, the future of E.U. nationals living in Britain and security arrangements all likely to be involved. It is currently unclear whether the negotiations will include a future trade deal between Britain and the E.U. or whether that will be handled separately. Any end deal will have to be approved by a “super” qualified majority (more than 72 percent) in the European Council, and it would also need the approval of the European Parliament. May has also suggested that Britain's Parliament will have a say on the final deal. What else will Britain have to do? A lot. It will have to work out not only its new relationship with the E.U. but also new trade relationships with many countries around the world. Experts suggest these separate negotiations could take years. The British government will also have to repeal the legislation that took it into the E.U. and convert E.U. law into British law. There are reports that a “Great Repeal Bill” that would include both of these elements may be revealed on the same day as Article 50 is triggered. However, it is the subject of some controversy, as it may rely on little-used powers known as the “Henry VIII clauses.” There may be other events for May to watch out for — including but not limited to another potential Scottish independence referendum and perhaps an early British election. So will Britain be out of the E.U. by March 2019? That's the plan. Whether it happens that way is harder to say. Many experts suspect that since the Article 50 process has never been implemented before, it may take a long time to go through all the details. If no deal is reached within two years, it is possible that Britain would be forced into what has been dubbed a “dirty Brexit.” Even if it does take less than two years, it may result in only a transition deal, with the hard work of reimagining Britain's relationship with the E.U. still to come. It is possible to extend the negotiating period further, but only if all 27 member states agree. And, yes, most experts seem to think that it will be possible to reverse Brexit if Britain can convince the E.U. it has changed its mind. Read more: Britain to trigger Article 50 on March 29, signaling start of E.U. departure What a real ‘Brexit Britain’ would look like


Marijuana raids are more deadly than the drug itself

the 85 fatal raids that have occurred since 2010, 61 of them -- or 70 percent -- were initiated on suspicion of drugs. The modern-day SWAT team originated in Los Angeles in the late 1960s as a way to deal with gunmen targeting police officers or civilians. But today SWAT teams are mostly used to handle routine warrant work, especially drug warrants. A 2014 ACLU study found that nearly 80 percent of SWAT deployments were to serve search warrants. Just 7 percent of SWAT deployments involved "hostage, barricade, or active shooter scenarios." Defenders of the use of tactics in drug search warrants say they're necessary to protect officer safety. "These are dangerous people we’re dealing with," an Arkansas SWAT commander told the New York Times. "If you have a dope house next door there’s probably nothing the police can do that would be overreacting." But selling drugs is not, in and of itself, a violent crime. And with certain drugs, marijuana in particular, the risk to public health of using the drug is minimal. Over half of U.S. states have legalized the drug for medical use, and eight states plus DC have legalized it for recreational use as well. But while nobody's overdosing on marijuana, police are still killing people for it -- and occasionally being killed themselves. In 2013, a SWAT team in rural Texas conducted a pre-dawn raid on the home of Henry Magee, who an informant said was growing 12 marijuana plants in his house. Groggy and disoriented by the commotion, Magee grabbed a semi-automatic rifle and began firing in the direction of the door that the officers had just battered down. His live-in girlfriend, four months pregnant at the time, thought they were being robbed. When Magee and his girlfriend heard the police announce themselves, they immediately surrendered. By then, police investigator Frederich Sowders lay dead on the floor. They later recovered 10 marijuana plants and 4 ounces of dried marijuana from his home. It took a grand jury 12 hours to acquit Magee of a capital murder charge. "All of us felt that if I were in bed and heard anything that made me get up and get a gun, and all of a sudden my door explodes in, I’m shooting," one of the jurors told the New York Times. "Why in the world would you do a full-out assault on a guy growing pot?"


Full transcript: FBI Director James Comey testifies on Russian interference in 2016 election

Mike Pence stated on several Sunday morning shows regarding Mr. Flynn's conversation with ambassador quote, "What I can confirm, having spoken to him about it, is that those conversations that happened to occur around the time that the United States took action to expel diplomats had nothing whatsoever to do with those sanctions," end quote. On January 26, the -- the acting Attorney General, Sally Yates reportedly told president Trump's White House counsel, who immediately told President Trump that Mr. Flynn was vulnerable to Russian blackmail because of discrepancies between Vice President-elect Pence's public statement and Mr. Flynn's actual discussions. On February 10, President Trump denied knowledge of this, telling reporters on Air Force One, quote, "I don't know about that," end quote, in response to questions about Mr. Flynn's conduct. The White House also publicly denied that Mr. Flynn and the Russian ambassador discussed sanctions. And of course on February 13, 2017, Mr. Flynn resigned as national security advisor. Now, Director Comey, all of these accounts are open source press reportings. Given Russian's long-standing desire to cultivate relations with influential U.S. persons, isn't the American public right to be concerned about Mr. -- Mr. Flynn's conduct, his failure to disclose that contact with the Russian ambassador, his attempts to cover it up and what looks like the White House's attempts to sweep this under the rug. Don't we, as the American people, deserve the right to know and shouldn't our FBI investigate such claims? COMEY: I can't comment. I -- I understand people's curiosity about our work and intense interest in it, and as Mr. King said, oftentimes, speculation about it. But we can't do it well or fairly to the people we investigate if we talk about it. So I can't comment. SEWELL: I'd like to turn to another topic about Mr. Flynn, his failure to disclose until pressured last week, by my colleagues on the House Oversight and Government Relations Committee, Government Reforms Committee, payments he received from Russia for his 2015 trip to the 10th anniversary Gala of RT, the Russian owned propaganda media outlet. According to the January 2017 declassified IC assessment report, RT's criticism of the United States was quote, "The last facet of its broader and long-standing anti-U.S. messaging likely aimed at undermining viewer's trust in the U.S. Democratic procedures," end quote. This January assessment points out that this was a strategy that


Forget President Trump. Come to D.C. and get to know the city behind the ‘swamp.’

the Hirshhorn Museum from offering up a playful, unsettling antidote to the current political mood in the form of a fantastic retrospective of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s work. And at a moment when the new administration is apparently devoted to the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial offers a striking argument that we all have a lot to gain by accepting our collective responsibilities to one another. (As a bonus, it has a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt that focuses on her work at the United Nations, rather than her role as first lady.) And more to the point, Washington, D.C., has vibrant cultural and culinary scenes that have nothing to do with the federal government. If you like to eat, Washington’s thriving restaurant scene is not going to live or die on Trump’s fondness for eating expensive steaks reduced to charcoal at his own hotels. Yes, the Obamas had more adventurous tastes, but their date nights tended to highlight a culinary bloom already in progress. Whether your dining adventures run to multi-course tasting menus or homey dinners cooked by immigrants who want to share the food they grew up making, Washington is full of tremendous restaurants that together make the case that America is better off when we embrace our diversity and allow ourselves to benefit from the wisdom of experts, whether they’re obsessed with local produce or cocktail history. If you want to make that dinner a pre-theater meal, D.C. has plenty of offerings, from the Arena Stage, which operates out of the stunning Mead Center for American Theater on the Southwest Waterfront, to the Woolly Mammoth, which focuses on producing new scripts and civic engagement. Do you like photography? Arrange a visit for 2018 timed to coincide with the next installment of Exposed DC’s terrific annual showcase for local photographers, which just ended its annual run downtown. And Washington is strikingly beautiful, both physically and architecturally. There are the obvious sights, such as the Tidal Basin, and less nationally famous walks, such as the Capital Crescent Trail and the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. I’ll certainly be curious to see if the team behind New York’s High Line ends up transforming the C&O Canal in Georgetown. You can take a grand stroll down 16th Street Northwest, the White House and the Washington Monument on the horizon, or you can wander down the city’s side streets, which


A big thing marijuana opponents warned you about is definitely not happening

A tag identifies the type of marijuana plant on the medical marijuana farm near Laytonville, Calif. (Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press) A state-run survey of 37,000 middle and high school students in Washington state finds that marijuana legalization there has had no effect on youngsters' propensity to use the drug. The Washington State Healthy Youth Survey found that the 2016 rate of marijuana use was basically unchanged since 2012, when the state voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use. In the survey, researchers used the measure of “monthly use,” asking students across all grade levels whether they'd used the drug within the past month. The survey's numbers show that neither the vote for legalization nor the opening of pot shops in 2014 have had any measurable effect on the rate of marijuana use among teenagers in the state. Concerns about adolescent pot use have been one of the chief drivers of opposition to legalization campaigns in Washington, Colorado and elsewhere. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently articulated the view when he told reporters that “I don’t think America is going to be a better place when people of all ages, and particularly young people, are smoking pot.” The concern is that people who start using the drug at a young age are more likely to become addicted to it later. And like any other drug, marijuana use during adolescence — particularly heavy use — can have negative effects on children's mental health and school performance. But the data coming out of Washington and Colorado strongly suggest that those states' legalization experiments, which began in earnest in 2014, are not causing any spike in use among teenagers. Teen marijuana use in Colorado decreased during 2014 and 2015, the most recent time period included in federal surveys. A separate survey run by the state showed rates of use among teenagers flat from 2013 to 2015, and down since 2011. The picture in Washington has been a little more mixed. The federal survey showed no significant change in teenage marijuana use in the most recent period. But a separate study released last year did find evidence of a small uptick in marijuana use among eighth- and 10th-graders in the state. But the Washington state findings in that study were derived from a national data set that wasn't intended to produce representative samples at the state level, said Julia Dilley, the principal investigator on a separate federally


Maryland should put actual conservation back in the Forest Conservation Act

Parsons Creek in Madison, Md., is part of the Chesapeake Watershed. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) University of Delaware entomologist Douglas W. Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, finds it curious that the American news media lament the loss of tropical forests yet “have remained silent” about the destruction of local forests. In the past eight years, developers have cut down 14,480 acres of forest in Maryland without replacement, according to records kept by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Every day in Maryland, a forest area the size of four football fields is cut down to make way for new subdivisions, strip malls and other development. Of all places, this shouldn’t be happening in Maryland. Recognizing that forests were disappearing at an alarming rate, Maryland enacted the Forest Conservation Act in 1991. The law was intended to minimize the clearing of forests by developers. The FCA is not getting the job done. Too little forest is being conserved in Maryland. A bill in the Maryland General Assembly would strengthen the forest law and protect perhaps hundreds of forest acres a year. In most cases, the legislation would require developers to replant one acre for each acre they clear. Maryland has a dire need for these trees, especially along river banks that were denuded years ago by development or farming. Trees filter polluted runoff before it reaches the streams. The bill also would give local jurisdictions the option of charging higher fees to developers who claim they can’t find a place to replant. The local governments would then use the revenue from these fees-in-lieu to replant trees. Developers are trying to block the legislation, claiming replanting would increase costs. Some local governments have joined in that lament. But those same local governments have far more to lose from doing nothing. Forests provide counties billions of dollars in ecosystem services. The forests of Prince George’s County, for instance, remove 4.3 billion gallons of polluted runoff a year. If taxpayers had to provide those services, the cost would be $12.8 billion, according to a 2015 study by the Low Impact Development Center in Beltsville. The same forests also remove 5,100 metric tons of airborne pollutants, a service worth $21 million. And some benefits cannot be adequately measured in dollars. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service says one acre of forest provides oxygen for 18 people for one day. What is the economic value of


How is D.C.’s swankiest beer festival combating declining attendance? With more beer.

promising ways. Here’s a quick guide. There are more breweries. This year’s participants, each of whom must bring two beers and have the brewery owner or head brewer stationed behind their table, represent 31 states and Washington D.C. Only 36 percent of them were at Savor last year, while 40 percent have never poured their beers at the festival. And of the 86 attendees, at least 41 are not regularly distributed in the Washington area, if they’re found here at all. (The draw was very kind to local breweries: Northern Virginia is represented by Adroit Theory, Old Bust Head, Fair Winds and “supporting brewery” Port City; D.C. has DC Brau and Right Proper, plus “supporting brewery” Bluejacket; and Maryland is sending Flying Dog and Union, so just over 10 percent of the offerings will be from our own backyard.) At the same time, the list of breweries suffers from the same problems as its predecessors. It contains some well-known names that Washington drinkers will be thirsty to try, including Odell, Lost Abbey, Melvin, FATE and Half Acre. Detractors will point out that it lacks the kind of buzzworthy names that might encourage beer geeks to drop $135 without thinking twice — say, Toppling Goliath, Suarez Family Brewers, Tree House or Aslin. Of course, Savor’s organizers can’t force some of these smaller names to enter the lottery, but they might consider some sort of incentive to get them to participate. Eighty-six breweries (up from 76 in 2016) will be pouring at this year’s Savor craft beer festival. (Photo courtesy of Brewers Association) More breweries means more space. With 10 more breweries setting up at Savor, organizers have decided to reorganize the layout of brewery tables. Ten breweries are moving up to the museum’s mezzanine level, where only one brewery, Colorado’s FATE, was located last year. The balcony will also feature tables from “individual producers,” including beer pairings created with butchers, fishmongers and cheesemongers. (More on that below.) The bulk of the breweries will remain on the main floor, but with brewery tables and taps running around the perimeter of the room, instead of grouped in fours in the middle. The idea is to make it easier to socialize and move around the room, Johnson says, as well as provide more tables and chairs, which have traditionally been in short supply at Savor. “You see people sitting on the stairs sometimes,” Johnson


A dog in Idaho was killed by a cyanide trap laid by the U.S. government

30 opossums, 57 raccoons, 21 skunks, two ravens and a black bear. The traps specifically target predatory animals. While most of the trap is buried, the part that remains above ground is wrapped in bait, which triggers a “bite and pull” reflex from an animal. When the predator tugs at it, the powder is deployed. M44 ejector - Slow motion Obviously, pet dogs are not an intended target. The traps are generally placed to eradicate coyotes, more than 100,000 of which have been killed by the devices since 2009. The USDA has a lengthy set of instructions detailing how the traps should be deployed. They are authorized for use only against wild canids (dogs, coyotes and the like) that either are suspected to carry disease or are targeting endangered animals or livestock. Each device must be inspected weekly and should be marked with bilingual signs warning people of their presence. Image from guidelines for M-44 use. (USDA) Canyon’s father told East Idaho News that his son didn’t have any warning. “We didn’t know anything about it,” he said. “There were no neighborhood notifications. Our local authorities didn’t know about this.” Only 50 yards from the device that killed Casey, the family discovered a second M-44. It’s not clear how many M-44 devices have been placed throughout the country or where. (The USDA did not respond to a request for that data by the time this article was published.) Kara Clauser of the Center for Biological Diversity gathered data on the states where animals were unintentionally killed by M-44 devices; they are mostly clustered in the west but include deaths in West Virginia and Virginia. After the death of Casey, a man from American Falls, Idaho, wrote to the Idaho State Journal to express his opposition to M-44 traps. “The idea that I could be enjoying the backcountry — or, apparently, country much closer to my home — and stumble across a land mine, courtesy of, that shoots cyanide up the face of my dog, me, my wife, or my companions is shocking to me,” Phil Bregitzer wrote. “I don’t think these should be used, and I’ve written my state and federal representatives to express my opinion. I encourage others to do the same.” Bills have been introduced in Congress on several occasions to ban M-44 devices, including in 2007 and 2012. Neither of those bills even went to committee.


The endangered listing for the rusty patched bumblebee is finally given wings

Council of America and two other groups described the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s determination under the Obama administration as a rush to judgment executed shortly before President Trump took over. “The implications of this hasty listing decision are difficult to overstate,” their petition says. They called it one of the most significant in decades in terms of its scope because of the bee’s enormous range — 13 states, including Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Rusty patched bumblebees nest in underground colonies, sometimes in fields, causing worry for farmers. The coalition argued that the fast determination brushed aside hundreds of comments on their behalf and ignored “complex biological issues, ignored clear flaws in the science and data on which the service relied in listing the rusty patched bumblebee.” What’s not complicated is the bee’s near disappearance from its entire range. The rusty patched bumblebee was so prevalent 20 years ago that pedestrians in Midwestern cities had to shoo them away. By the early 2000s, the rusty patched bee was decidedly less visible even in places such as Madison, Wis., and Minneapolis, cities that were once buzzing with them. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on March 21 officially designated the rusty patched bumblebee an endangered species. (Sarah Foltz Jordan/The Xerces Society via AP) Over the past two decades, the bee has declined in nearly 90 percent of its range. The list of suspected causes for the disappearance, according to the agency, reads like an environmental most-wanted list: farm pesticides, household herbicides, human development over bee habitat, disease and climate change. Fish and Wildlife is still “developing a recovery plan to guide efforts to bring this species back to what they believe is a healthy … condition,” but an endangered designation triggers protections such as regulations against knowingly destroying the bumblebee’s habitat and habitat creation. It also raises awareness about the plight of the bumblebee and requires a detailed, long-term recovery plan to restore its population. When the Interior Department delayed the designation last month, the Natural Resources Defense Council said the move was illegal and filed a lawsuit because it came without a public notice and public comment. “The science is clear — this species is headed toward extinction, and soon,” the NRDC said. “There is no legitimate reason to delay federal protections for this bee.” Read More Trump delayed federal protections for a bumblebee. Now a


The White House calls climate change research a ‘waste.’ Actually, it’s required by law

Floodwaters surround several houses in Rocky Mount, N.C., near the Tar River in October 2016. (Thomas Babb/News & Observer via AP) RALEIGH, N.C. — The day that President Trump’s climate science-slashing budget landed last week, his government held a public meeting here to prepare the nation’s Southeast region for rising seas, wildfires, extreme downpours and other impacts of climate change. Despite White House budget director Mick Mulvaney’s assertion Friday that studying climate change is a “waste of your money,” federal scientists are required, by a 1990 law, to do just that — and are carrying on for now, even under the cloud of budgetary uncertainty created by the Trump administration. It’s no easy task. Trump’s “skinny” budget proposes to slash many climate-related programs at agencies like NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration but often doesn’t go into specifics — raising doubts about the implications for climate science programs across 13 government agencies and the production of an exhaustive report about the impact of climate change in the U.S. that is required by law. “For each of these programs, real people live on the other side of the budget line item,” said Ali Zaidi, a Stanford energy researcher who previously served in a key role in Obama’s Office of Management and Budget overseeing funding for climate and environmental programs. “Students, small business, and sources of economic growth for communities count on this data. Now you’ve got folks waiting by the phone to learn whether they’ll be going to work tomorrow or whether the data that informs their livelihoods will still be available.” “For agencies, this means they will be less creative and more conservative,” Zaidi continued. “They will plan to the lowest possible funding level. And that will hurt both the programs and the supply chains.” Regarding the future of the $ 2.6 billion U.S. Global Change Research Program, a White House Office of Management and Budget official said it would be “premature to speak to final funding levels prior to the full budget in mid-May.” Requests for comment to the federal climate program were not returned. The program produces a sweeping report on how climate change is wracking different regions of the U.S. that is mandated every four years under the Global Change Research Act, signed into existence in 1990 by Republican president George H.W. Bush. The last installment of the report, released in 2014, ran over 800


Steve Sack, satirist of Putin and Assad, wins Overseas Press Club’s Thomas Nast Cartoon Award

by Steve Sack / Minneapolis Star Tribune (Cagle Cartoons) STEVE SACK Fortunately, Sack, the political cartoonist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, is watchful as well, because his satiric depictions of Putin and Bashar al-Assad and Kim Jong Un are dead-on. And now, the Overseas Press Club has agreed. On Tuesday, the OPC announced that Sack is this year’s recipient of its Thomas Nast Award for cartoons — one of several dozen honors and citations bestowed by the group, which rewards courageous and illuminating international coverage. by Steve Sack / Minneapolis Star Tribune (Cagle Cartoons) Sack, whose work won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize, says he is “immensely honored” to be recognized by the OPC, even as he emphasizes the role of the press in 2017. “Technology may be shrinking our world, but without the work of professional journalists to sort out what’s truly of value, we’d be left with nothing but gibberish, commercial pablum and government spin,” Sack tells The Post’s Comic Riffs. “The press is my window to the world. “To have my cartoons recognized by those whose efforts I depend on every day,” he adds, “is most gratifying.” by Steve Sack / Minneapolis Star Tribune (Cagle Cartoons) The OPC judges said that “Sack successfully harnessed all the cartoonist’s tools — caricature, composition, biting wit and solid journalism — in his impressive portfolio.” The Overseas Press Club also awarded a finalist citation to Adam Zyglis of the Buffalo News. “I was extremely happy to see Steve Sack win the top prize,” says Zyglis, who won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize. “He is a true master of the craft, and is at the top of his game right now. To be a finalist behind someone of his caliber is humbling.” by Adam Zyglis / Buffalo News (Cagle Cartoons) Elsewhere, the OPC’s President’s Award will salute those who have died covering the Syrian war — one of six honors awarded to those reporting on the conflict. And the Washington Post’s Simon Denyer, Emily Rauhala and Elizabeth Dwoskin won the Bob Considine Award for their series on China “Behind the Firewall.” The winners will be honored April 27 in New York.


Here’s why the latest Trump-Russia revelations are so important

(Ivan Sekretarev/Associated Press) Today brings yet another shocking revelation in the ever-widening Trump-Russia scandal, and Democrats are growing increasingly frustrated that this controversy isn’t an even bigger deal than it is. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) So why is it that this scandal hasn’t yet risen to the level occupied by Watergate, Iran-contra and Monica Lewinsky? I have an explanation, but first let’s look at what we learned today, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics, The Associated Press has learned. The work appears to contradict assertions by the Trump administration and Manafort himself that he never worked for Russian interests. Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and the former Soviet republics to benefit the Putin government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse. Manafort pitched the plans to Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally with whom Manafort eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006, according to interviews with several people familiar with payments to Manafort and business records obtained by the AP. Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work. This raises far more questions than I have space to ask at the moment, but among them are: Did Manafort’s $10-million-a-year contract to advance Russian interests ever end, and if so, when? He took no salary to run the Trump campaign, so who was paying him at that time? What was his role in Manafort confirmed that he worked for Oleg Deripaska but says it involved only “business and personal matters in countries where he had investments.” But if AP’s reporting is true in its entirety, As a lobbyist and political consultant in the 1980s, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked with international clients that included two dictators who were then allied with the United States. And Manafort is only one piece of the Trump-Russia puzzle. Why is it that so many Trump advisers have connections to Russia, often financial ones? Why has Trump gotten In order to answer those


Timeline: Paul Manafort’s long, murky history of political interventions

As a lobbyist and political consultant in the 1980s, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked with international clients that included two dictators who were then allied with the United States. On Wednesday morning, the Associated Press reported that former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had drafted a proposal to help advance the business interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2005. In light of that report, we’ve compiled this history of Manafort’s interactions with political campaigns and Russian interests. 1976. 1980. 1984. November 1985. Feb. 7, 1986. Feb. 25, 1986. 1988. January 1991. 1995. 1996. Late 2004. June 2005. “We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success,” Manafort wrote in the document. 2006. The relationship with Deripaska also connects Manafort to Yanukovych. At some point before parliamentary elections in March 2006, the Party of Regions officially hires Davis Manafort to help reshape the party’s image. The party gains a number of seats in the election, and Yanukovych becomes prime minister in August after extensive political wrangling. January 2006. July 2006. 2007. December 2007. 2008. 2009. February 2010. 2012. Feb. 21, 2014. September 2014. March 28, 2016. At some point, intelligence agencies allegedly surveil a call or calls between Manafort and Russian government actors. Manafort later told the New York Times that he had “never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers.” Spring 2016. In this time period, the Democratic National Committee’s email system is hacked by people who U.S. authorities believe are linked to the Russian government. June 21. Week of July 11. July 18. July 22. Aug. 14. Aug. 17. Aug. 19. Nov. 8.


Take a ride inside this luxury, “open-air” electric car

California-based Lucid Motors showcased their alpha prototype electric sedan in D.C., the Lucid Air. The Lucid Air — a forthcoming luxury sedan that promises to be all electric and capable of driving autonomously — has been parked in prime spots across Washington this week. On Tuesday, it was outside the Department of Energy. On Wednesday, Capitol Hill. The locations are no coincidence. The company behind the Air, California-based Lucid Motors, is in the process of applying for an Energy Department loan through the same program that gave rival Tesla critical funding years ago, and that President Trump proposed eliminating in his recent budget blueprint. Lucid’s director of marketing, Zak Edson, said the loan program was “an important component in accelerating” Tesla’s vehicle development and growth, and that Lucid hopes it is kept intact because it has proven to be successful in the past. He added, however, that the loan is “one of the avenues we’re pursuing” and not necessary for Lucid to reach production. The Energy Department’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program was created in 2008 to spur investment in more energy-efficient vehicles. The program has since disbursed loans to five companies — including Tesla, Nissan and Ford. The other two recipients, Fisker Automotive and Vehicle Production Group, later filed for bankruptcy. The last loan was granted in 2011. Peter Rawlinson, Lucid’s chief technology officer, explained the loan would be used to develop a production facility in Casa Grande, a town between Phoenix and Tucson in Arizona. The company plans to bring the Air to market in 2019, with the base model setting buyers back $60,000. “Ultimately we can generate up to 2,000 new jobs directly and maybe five times that number indirectly as a consequence of our plant in that state,” he said. Edson declined to specify how big of a loan the company is seeking, and an Energy Department spokesman said the agency does not comment on pending applications. Lucid is one of a few automotive start-ups, including Faraday Future and Karma Automotive, looking to break into the luxury electric vehicle market. That space to date is occupied almost exclusively by Tesla, with legacy automakers starting to trot out their own electric creations. Founded in 2007, Lucid Motors is currently backed by $130 million in venture capital from investors in the U.S., China and Japan, according to the website Crunchbase. Its executive team hails from such companies as


Mike Isabella is about to open his ninth restaurant. Is he the next José Andrés?

The dining room at Arroz has elements that draw from Moroccan architecture. (Greg Powers) Where in the world is Mike Isabella? These days, you'd be harder pressed to think of where he isn't. As part of his growing empire, the chef and restaurateur has planted his culinary flag in Italy (Graffiato, G by Mike Isabella), Japan (Yona), Mexico (Pepita), France (Requin) and Greece (Kapnos, Kapnos Taverna and Kapnos Kouzina). The pending Isabella Eatery complex in Tysons Galleria will feature spinoffs of all these concepts, plus others concentrated on cocktails, ice cream and grilled meats. But first it's a trip to southern Spain and Morocco, with a dash of Portugal for good measure, at Arroz. The next entry into the Isabella family of restaurants, also slated to be part of Isabella Eatery, opens Monday in the Marriott Marquis Washington, a stone's throw from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Isabella's expanding portfolio puts him on a level playing field with some of the area's biggest restaurateurs and follows a similar trajectory to his former Zaytinya boss, José Andrés. Andrés's restaurant group includes a wide variety of cuisines, including that of Mexico (Oyamel), Spain (Jaleo), Greece and the Mediterranean (Zaytinya), China and Peru (China Chilcano) and the United States (America Eats Tavern). The Arroz team, which includes executive chef Michael Rafidi and beverage director Taha Ismail, has spent plenty of time traveling throughout Spain and Morocco. What you'll find on the menu (not tapas, for the record) isn't exactly what you'd get in those places, but rather a contemporary interpretation: Spring vegetable bomba rice at Arroz. (Greg Powers) There's a rice dish, but don't call it a paella. Baked egg with smoked merguez at Arroz. (Greg Powers) A section of the menu is devoted to eggs. Snack carts will make the rounds in the dining room. Arroz's leche frita doughnuts. (Greg Powers) You'll want to save room for dessert. You can drink like you would at home in Morocco. Arroz, opening Monday for dinner daily, with lunch and weekend brunch to follow. 901 Massachusetts Ave. NW. 202-869-3300. Read more: For his next project, Mike Isabella is going big. Very big. Here's what you need to know about Arroz, Mike Isabella's upcoming Spanish restaurant Where to dine around the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, morning, noon and night The most exciting restaurant and bar openings planned for 2017