Sprint’s enlisting small carriers in its war on Verizon and AT&T

Softbank president Masayoshi Son speaks during a press conference in Tokyo in this April 30, 2013 file photo. (TSUNOYOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images) Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son is rallying rural wireless companies to "fight back" against the nation's top carriers, including AT&T and Verizon. Son pitched members of the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) Thursday on a roaming alliance that would effectively expand the cellular coverage of both Sprint and CCA's 100-odd members across the United States. Son said Sprint would help pay for the smaller carriers' rollout of LTE and provide them with LTE-capable devices they can sell to customers — the better to take on what he described as a "duopoly [that] is taking over our country, America." "Sprint will make a strong alliance," Son told CCA members in his remarks. "I will say, as the chairman of Sprint, we will make a commitment to make this happen." (Sprint) Verizon maintains that its own agreements with small carriers are no less robust, saying in a statement to the Post that its leasing deals with 20 rural network operators enables customers of those services to access LTE away from cities and to roam on Verizon's LTE network when traveling. Son's overtures to small wireless companies come as the company attempts to convince regulators to allow the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile. Authorities appeared lukewarm to the idea after rejecting AT&T's bid for T-Mobile just a handful of few years ago. The Federal Communications Commission says it would prefer to have four national wireless carriers over three. That isn't stopping Son's charm offensive. Earlier this month, Son vowed to bring wireless data speeds up to par with some of the fastest wired broadband connections in the United States — a claim he reiterated Thursday. "We need a new weapon to fight back," said Son. "With technology, with spectrum, with our services together, we can fight back. That's what I would like to offer to you."


Tunisia’s golden age of crony capitalism

defies previous assumptions: By the end of 2010, some 220 firms owned by Ben Ali and his extended family were taking an astounding 21 percent of all private sector profits in Tunisia. How did they manage to drive up the profits of their firms to such astronomical levels? They did so by taking advantage of and manipulating Tunisia’s investment laws. Using firm data and merging it with data on regulations on domestic and foreign entry, we are able to demonstrate extensive use of such entry barriers to expand the family coffers. Ben Ali’s relatives flocked to sectors riddled with regulations; sectors such as telecoms, air and maritime transport, commerce and distribution, banking, real estate, and hotels and restaurants. Entry restrictions to these sectors translated in greater market share, higher prices, and more money for the firms of Ben Ali’s extended family, who had privileged access. At the extreme, the rule in some sectors was Ben Ali or bust. For instance, there was the failed entry of McDonald’s into Tunisia: After awarding the franchise to the “wrong” partner, entry was denied by the government and the franchise pulled its efforts to enter the Tunisian market altogether. Regulatory restrictions are rife in sectors where Ben Ali firms are present: Approximately 40 percent of Ben Ali firms were in sectors that are subject to authorizations and restrictions to foreign direct investment (FDI). When considering firms not connected to Ben Ali, authorization requirements apply to only 24 percent of all sectors in which Ben Ali firms are not present while FDI restrictions apply to approximately 14% of such sectors. When existing regulations did not sufficiently shield the family businesses from competition, the president designed and decreed new regulations: Over a 16-year period Ben Ali signed 25 decrees introducing new authorization requirements in 45 different sectors and new restrictions to foreign investment in 28 sectors. Guess who disproportionately gained from these new regulations? Of course, Ben Ali’s family firms. Many countries effectively use entry restrictions to serve domestic interests, such as protecting consumers from poor quality goods and services or protecting growing domestic firms from unfair foreign competition. However in Tunisia such regulations did precisely the opposite – they served to protect the family’s business interests, at the expense of the Tunisian consumers and firms who had to foot the bill. Of concern, Tunisians today continue to pay the price for the discriminatory policies instituted


Lies, damned lies and sex work statistics

phenomenon in just the past few weeks. The first was a study funded by Cindy McCain and led by Dr. Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, an anti-prostitution crusader responsible for a controversial “diversion” program in Phoenix, Arizona. It claimed to have “proven” an increase of “sex trafficking” in northern New Jersey near the time of the Super Bowl, and was apparently conducted to counter the evidence that this annual story — that Super Bowls bring sex slaves” — is largely hype. The researchers claim to have subjected sex workers’ ads from Backpage.com to a “trafficking matrix.” The report doesn’t offer much explanation about how this “matrix” was designed and tested, but the text in the report indicates that among its dubious premises are the claims that tattoos are a sign of trafficking, and the dubious claim that the term kitty (a euphemism for female genitalia) is code for “underage.” Despite the absence of methodological design data and the obvious lack of experimental controls, the authors nonetheless boldly assert that 83.7% of the ads “showed signs of trafficking.” The other example Furthermore, the report’s bias is clear from the skewed proportion of its interviewees: Street workers represent less than 15 percent of the trade, but were 100 percent of the sex workers interviewed for the study. Moreover, fewer than half of street workers have pimps, and about half of the pimps are actually the employees of the women they manage, not the other way around. Yet the researchers interviewed twice as many pimps as sex workers, thus inflating their perceived importance remarkably. To the extent that it exists, coerced sex work is of course abominable, and it should be prosecuted. But the media needs to be far more skeptical of the claims of anti-sex worker activists, including those that advocate from government perches. Uncritically repeating exaggerated claims and fabricated data may seem innocuous — after all, what harm could there be in drawing more attention to the issue? But when all sex work is illegal, consensual, of-age sex workers are far more reluctant to report coercion, abusive pimps, and underage prostitutes for fear of being arrested themselves. This makes actual sex trafficking more difficult to discover. These moral panic proclamations and exaggerated or fabricated statistics are coming from activists who want stricter laws to criminalize prostitution, thus pushing it further underground. Spreading their message will only make actual sex slavery more difficult to detect.


Christie: Bridge scandal the ‘toughest time in my life professionally’

ABC US News ABC Business News New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) says in a new ABC News interview that what his aides did when they shut down two access lanes from Fort Lee, N.J., to the George Washington Bridge was "inexplicably stupid" and he insisted that he does not recall discussing the matter with a Port Authority appointee at the center of the episode at the time it was happening. Christie, in his first interview since his marathon press conference in January, continued to maintain his innocence in the bridge scandal. "Sometimes, people do inexplicably stupid things," he told Diane Sawyer. "And that's what makes it so hard then, as the guy in charge. None of it made any sense to me." Anyone who knows him, added the governor, would know that doing something "inexplicably stupid" would not please him. Earlier Thursday, a lawyer hired by Christie released his report into the matter, absolving the governor of any knowledge or responsibility. Christie reiterated that point to Sawyer and said he does not think the behavior of those involved in the incident was "inspired" by him. "This report says that I had no knowledge of it before it happened nor did I authorize it or have anything to do with it. And that's the truth," he said. The review found that Port Authority appointee David Wildstein hatched the apparently politically motivated plan to snarl traffic. According to the review, Wildstein, who has since resigned, told a Christie spokesman that he informed the governor about a traffic study on the bridge at the time of the jam. Christie said he has no recollection of such a conversation and that Wildstein most definitely did not inform him he was snarling traffic for political retribution. "I'll tell you what he didn't say. He didn't say, 'By the way governor, I'm closing down some lanes at the George Washington Bridge to stick it to the mayor.' That I'd remember," said Christie. The governor said that the episode has been the most politically trying of his life. “It's been a very, very tough time professionally,” he explained, adding that he has had trouble eating and sleeping at times. “Not the toughest time in my life, but certainly the toughest time in my life professionally." Critics of Christie responded to review released Thursday with some skepticism. State lawmakers and a federal prosecutor are separately looking into


Bad job, Self

Self magazine just made a something of itself. Self magazine apologized Thursday for publishing a picture of Glam Runners founder Monika Allen running a marathon in a tutu in its “BS” section, calling the tutu “lame” and saying “now if you told us they made people run away from you faster, maybe we would believe it.” Whoops. Monika Allen is in fact the opposite of lame. The New York Daily News notes, “the San Diego woman not only survived brain cancer, but managed to run the L.A. Marathon while going through chemotherapy.” Yup. The photo’s subjects used the Glam Runner facebook page to speak out: “Excited to see our tutus in SELF Magazine … but shocked to see that running tutus are classified as lame. Especially considering the fact that this picture is from last year’s LA Marathon when Glam Runner founders Tara and Monika ran together as superheroes … because Monika was recently diagnosed with brain cancer and was running a marathon in the middle of a year of chemo.” Now Self is falling all over itself to apologize. Editor in chief Lucy Danziger wrote, “On behalf of SELF, we sincerely apologize for our inadvertent insensitivity. I have personally reached out to Monika and her supporters online to apologize for the misstep and tell them we are trying to remedy the situation. At SELF we support women such as Monika; she is an inspiration and embodies the qualities we admire. We have donated to her charity and have offered to cover her good work in a future issue. We wish her all the best on her road to good health.” This can happen. This does happen. Bad captions can be the end of you. It is always when you are not thinking about the fact that there is a person on the other end that you get the most vigorous reminder that there is. Maybe this would not have happened before the Internet. Certainly it would have happened more slowly. Now there are so few faces without stories. Want to know more about the smiling woman on the Obamacare Web site? Here’s her story. Want to follow your favorite porn star on Twitter? You can. Those smiling strangers running in tutus are people with their own social networks and Facebook friends and lives, and they are capable of making a stir. One of the first things I did as


Watch Metro get roasted, Comedy Central-style

(Ben Claassen III/For Express) Why did the chicken cross the road? To transfer from Farragut North to Farragut West. Heard the one about the Metro rider who walked into a bar? He was fed up with waiting for his train, so he decided to take the red wine. Don’t worry — I’m not giving up my day job. I’m just trying to get you in the mood for the next installment of “Tuesdays with Funnie” at the Brixton. Once a month, event host Capital City Showcase devotes the evening to a comedic roast of one star of D.C. life. The two targets so far have been Redskins owner Dan Snyder and National Zoo fave Bao Bao. (Apparently, the beloved cub was mocked relentlessly about how giant pandas don’t like to procreate.) Picking Metro to be the third topic was a no-brainer, according to Capital City Showcase’s Christian Hunt. After all, it already has a history of participating in roasts. Just ask anyone who’s ever been stuck on a hot car in August. The setup is similar to the celebrity roasts on Comedy Central, where speakers take turns lovingly skewering the subject, who sits onstage for the whole ordeal. In the “Tuesdays with Funnie” version, a local comic serves as a stand-in for the roastee. Playing the role of Metro on Tuesday night will be Michael Foody, 32, who lives in Columbia Heights. “It’s difficult for a person to look like a train,” says Foody, who’s not entirely sure why Hunt deemed him the best fit for this job. But Foody is fond of Metro, which has dutifully ferried him around during the eight years he’s lived in Washington. He got very familiar with the system back when he had a daily mega-commute to Rockville. To portray the character, Foody will not be relying on a costume (though he’ll probably wear a Metro logo shirt). Instead, he’s been constructing a persona that’s “well-meaning but not self-aware,” says Foody, noting that Michael Scott from “The Office” is an inspiration. He’ll get his chance to zing back once the roasters are done. Has much research gone into this project? “I’ve been thinking about it, and Wikipedia-ing it. That’s the 2014 equivalent of research,” Foody says. Given how people in this town love to kvetch about Metro, Foody expects there will be no shortage of comedic material to dig into. “I’m sure delays and


New Hampshire’s push to legalize pot is dead

This is still not legal in New Hampshire. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) In January, the New Hampshire state House became the first legislative body in America to vote to legalize marijuana for recreational use. But facing a skeptical Senate and an unsupportive governor, the House this week reversed course and voted to kill its own bill. The measure had been modeled after similar laws in Colorado and Washington state, which voters ratified last November. It would have imposed a $60 per ounce tax on marijuana sold at the wholesale level, while legalizing the possession and transportation of up to an ounce of the drug for recreational purposes. It passed a preliminary vote in January by a 170-162 margin. But the bill failed to win support in the House Ways and Means Committee. The bill won bipartisan support, and generated bipartisan opposition: A Manchester Republican introduced the House bill, but the GOP-controlled state Senate signaled it would quash the measure. Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) had said she would issue a veto if the bill reached her desk. On Wednesday, the House bowed to political reality and killed the bill by a 192-140 vote. Marijuana legalization advocates will have to look elsewhere for victories this year. Legalization supporters say they have collected enough signatures to get a measure similar to Colorado and Washington’s on the ballot in Alaska this fall.


Repurposed rentals give old buildings in D.C. new life

building will be restored as well. Tom Borger, chairman of Borger Management Inc. and one of the project developers, says he expects to deliver 143 apartments, a mix of studio and one- and two-bedroom units, by summer 2015. Rental rates have not been set. While many residential conversions have been celebrated for revitalizing often-vacant buildings in D.C., some have caused a stir. Neighbors were shocked, according to 2012 newspaper reports, when they learned the building that once housed Frazier’s Funeral Home would become luxury apartments — even though the funeral home, established in 1917, had closed in 2008. Kyle Thompson, 23, who lives in a unit there, says he and his roommate hadn’t known how well-known the funeral home was. Passersby often ask him questions about it, he says. He has noticed a divide between people who are sad to see local institutions go and people who are “really excited about the revitalization of D.C.,” Thompson, a program assistant for a nonprofit, says. “It’s like a new D.C. moving forward,” he says. The building, at 389 Rhode Island Ave. NW, is part of the LeDroit Park Historic District, which encompasses dozens of buildings built between 1873 and 1910. Developers converted it into six two-bedroom units. Rents range from $2,300 to $2,900, according to Towne Residential, which showed the six units. Thompson said he didn’t even know it had been a funeral home until they toured the building, which opened for leasing this year. “It doesn’t bother me,” Thompson says of the macabre history. “I haven’t seen [ghosts] at all yet.” LEA RADICK (FOR EXPRESS) Owning History In D.C., conversions of historic buildings aren’t limited to just apartments — condos are also on the rise. One transformation is occurring in Adams Morgan at the former Italian embassy, which was built in 1925 and is on its way to becoming 115 to 130 residential units. The project started in 2011 but ground to a halt because of financing, says architect Michael Lee Beidler of Trout Design Studio. However, he says the developers hope construction will resume this year. “Il Palazzo” is expected to be completed in 2016. Plans include the restoration of the building’s exterior as well as the entry hall, ballroom and library, Beidler says. His team also aims to create a new eight-story residential tower behind the original building. The plans call for luxury apartments on the site, as well.


Revisiting the top story lines — expected and surprises — of spring training

camp and ran pain-free throughout camp, which excited him. Strasburg also proved that his right elbow, which had bone chips removed from in the offseason, was back to normal. His right elbow felt great in camp and he posted a 1.83 ERA over 19 2/3 innings. >>> A fifth starter is chosen: Well, that still hasn’t happened yet. Recent injuries to Fister this spring may make it so the Nationals don’t actually have to choose just yet. But all spring, Tanner Roark and Taylor Jordan have been neck and neck in the battle for the final spot in the rotation. They both outlasted Ross Detwiler and Chris Young for the spot and both pitched so evenly this spring that the Nationals had yet to make a decision as of Thursday. A side injury on Thursday to Fister, however, may mean that both are in the rotation to start the season anyway. Matt Williams walks through team stretch. (Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post) Three surprising story lines >>> Fister’s health: The Nationals have been lauded by baseball analysts all winter for getting the better end of this trade with Detroit. But Fister’s body hasn’t held up. He has the potential to improve the rotation, but he experienced right elbow inflammation following his first spring start on March 2. The Nationals remained publicly confident that his elbow was simply experiencing discomfort and that an MRI revealed no structural damage, but anything concerning a pitcher’s elbow causes uneasiness. After rest, Fister’s elbow improved, but as he was on track to return in time to make his first start of the regular season, he felt tightness in his side during a minor league start on Thursday and was pulled, another roadblock in his brief tenure as a National. >>> A bullpen with Detwiler and Aaron Barrett: The bullpen was always an option for Detwiler but it didn’t seem would actually happen, especially early in the spring. As he worked to show that his back was completely from last season, Detwiler competed to hold on to his old fifth starter’s spot, but it may have been too late. He focused on adding offspeed pitches into his sinker-heavy repertoire but was still learning to do so. So after only three starts, Detwiler was moved into the bullpen. He was initially upset but has calmed down, and the Nationals believe that Detwiler’s power arm can thrive


How Gregorian chants helped me find my running rhythm

Gregorian Chant - "Dies Irae" It's a question of belief whether divine intervention can help your fitness program, but I can attest that God's music can make you a faster runner. A little more than two years ago, I made the decision to become a healthier person. With the eating habits of a teenager (and a journalist who works the night shift) and the body of a reader, physical health was truly a foreign concept. I had reached my 30s, and it was time for a change. I wanted how I looked on the outside to match how I felt on the inside. So in early 2012, I ran a third of a mile in a D.C. park. It was awful. But it was a start. Then I ran in a 3-mile race, a half marathon and, on a dream trip, my dad and I traveled to Argentina last October, where I ran the Maraton de Buenos Aires. It is South America's largest, with more than 8,000 people running through the famed neighborhoods of Argentina's capital. My goal was to finish, which I did in a time of 4:55:11, averaging nearly 11 minutes per mile. I also adopted the paleo lifestyle and took up CrossFit. I've lost 60 pounds and kept it off, dropped six pants sizes and become more mindful about the decisions I make, and what it means be healthy. When it came time to train for my second marathon, I turned to Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Palestrina wasn't a running coach but a 16th century composer of sacred music. His compositions, still sung in Masses worldwide, helped revolutionize choral music in religious settings in the Western world. Palestrina popularized polyphonic music, the use of two or more vocal melodies incorporated into a single song, in the Latin rite. After much debate (and a few charges of heresy), polyphonic music was added to the Latin Mass and helped start a musical renaissance in the Middle Ages. Before this, most hymns and liturgical songs were sung in what is known as "plainchant." The most famous of this style are Gregorian chants. Said to originate from Pope Gregory the Great in the 7th century, the chants are monophonic, the singing of a phrase or verse as one melody in unison, with no accompanying harmonies. When I first started running, I would listen to whatever was on my Internet streaming station,


Will an organization receiving U.S. government funds get away with discriminatory hiring practices?

does World Vision U.S. receive? Based on data from ForeignAssistance.gov (see this table and map), the best estimate is that in fiscal year 2013, USAID awarded World Vision $145 million in funding. Development scholar Ed Carr points out the hypocrisy of government funding going to World Vision U.S. despite their discrimination against married LGBT job applicants while at the same time the Obama administration says it will review foreign aid in Uganda because of the recent passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The Washington Post reported that $6.4 million designated for the Interreligious Council of Uganda (which supported the Anti-Homosexuality Bill) has already been “shifted away.” Will the U.S. government use similar tactics to pressure an American organization with discriminatory hiring practices? The defunding of the Interreligious Council of Uganda was equivalent to 4 percent of what was reported to have been obligated by USAID to World Vision U.S. in 2013. Interestingly, following World Vision U.S.’s reversal, World Vision Canada released a statement, distinguishing their hiring practices from their American counterparts: Despite the changes in the World Vision United States hiring policy this week, World Vision Canada’s approach has remained consistent. Canada’s legal environment is quite different from that of the United States. We comply with provincial laws on this matter which prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Why are these two sister organizations in neighboring countries so different? Judging from 2007 Pew Research Global Attitudes Project (Pew GAP) data, the general population in Canada is more accepting of homosexuality than the general U.S. population. (Data: Pew Global Attitudes Project 2007; Figure: Kim Yi Dionne/The Monkey Cage) However, it’s likely not the general population that is making donations to World Vision U.S., and probably also not likely the people withdrawing (or threatening to withdraw) their donations from World Vision U.S. after Monday’s initial announcement that they would begin providing equal opportunities to Christian job applicants in legal same-sex marriages. We can’t know the demographic breakdown of World Vision U.S. donors, but if we just look specifically at Christians in the Pew GAP data (using them as a proxy to measure what we think World Vision donors might be like), there are even more noticeable differences between America and Canada in attitudes toward homosexuality: Christians in Canada are more accepting of homosexuality than Christians in America. Pew GAP data from America further breaks down the Christian demographic into whether


Pints debut at Baying Hound Aleworks in Rockville

Ruby, a local dog, stops by the Baying Hound Aleworks in Rockville. (Amy Orndorff/The Washington Post) Baying Hound Aleworks in Rockville is a nanobrewery in every sense of the word: tiny facility (just 1,350 square feet), tiny selection (five beers on tap during a recent visit) and a tiny bar with a single television. But the beagle-sized brewery just did something big. Bullmastiff big: As of March 20, it can serve pints. A new county license, lobbied for by the brewery, allows Baying Hound to serve beer without also having to serve food. It’s good news for the brewery that opened in July 2010 and could only allow visitors to tour the setup, sip samples and buy bottles to go. Tucked into an industrial park surrounded by homes, the brewery may take a bloodhound to find, but it's worth it. Besides now offering full pours, owner and brewmaster Paul Rinehart also renovated the bar and seating earlier this month. The nanobrewery has a new look and pints for sale. (Amy Orndorff/The Washington Post) The real draw, of course, is the beer. And if you're (according to the sign behind the bar) older than 147 dog years, you can sit, stay and sip. The ever-changing assortment of concoctions from Rinehart and his staff includes everything from a Korean black-rice fruit beer, to a lingonberry-and-chocolate stout, to a more traditional brown ale. Your best bet is to get an $8 flight before settling on a pint ($6-$8). Tours are offered to anyone who is interested, and there's no need to register in advance; Rinehart is happy to show anyone around anytime. There's also the tongue-in-cheek "bar stool tour," which consists of Rinehart simply pulling back the curtain separating the bar from the brewery. Baying Hound Aleworks, 1108 Taft St., Rockville (Metro: Rockville). Open 5 to 9 p.m. Thursdays, 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays and noon to 10 p.m. Saturdays. Open Sundays as of April 6.


The Wonkblog guide to efficient drinking

Lydia DePillis's story last week about the imminent demise of low-cal liquor made me realize that I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the calorie content of booze. This isn't an accident — beer, wine and liquor manufacturers are held to very different labeling standards than other food and beverage makers, and those standards don't require the familiar "nutrition facts" you see everywhere else. The history behind this is complicated and a little insane. After Prohibition, beer makers were actually forbidden from putting alcohol content information on their labels. They finally sued for the right to do so in 1987. Since then, ATF has been kicking around various labeling update proposals. Alcoholic beverage groups are generally on board with the idea, but they've been bickering among themselves over they types of information to be included on the labels. It's safe to say that nutrition facts for alcohol are quite a ways off. So to figure out exactly how many calories you'll be packing away at your next happy hour, your first stop would be the National Nutrition Database for Standard Reference. Here, the USDA maintains a hilariously arbitrary selection of nutrition facts for a variety of alcoholic beverages. You'll find three types of coffee liqueur, three preparation methods for a whiskey sour and one mysterious entry for "tequila sunrise, canned." But within the realm of things that people actually drink, they do have useful entries for distilled liquors (rum, vodka, whiskey and gin), and averages for beer (regular and light) and wine (white and red). I grabbed the calorie figures for these drinks and added a variety of others culled from elsewhere on the Web (there's a wide range of calories in beer, for instance, so I chose a handful of representatives). Among wines there isn't great caloric variety, but sparkling wines, port, and dessert wine are sufficiently distinct to warrant their own categories. For comparison purposes I added Coca-Cola, apple juice and 2 percent milk. When it comes to calories per ounce, distilled liquors lead the pack: 100-proof rums, whiskeys, vodkas and gins contain more than 80 calories per ounce. This is nearly twice as much as fortified wines and three times as much as standard table wines. The distilled liquors are also roughly eight times as calorie-dense as Guinness beer. For a great explanation of why alcohol is so calorie-dense, check out this AskScience thread on


Weird news from in and around Washington, D.C.

Red is in, white is out (hopefully) for spring: A cardinal cocks its head near Jim Havard’s Capitol Hill home on a snowy mid-March afternoon. “Our house is close to the Anacostia River and Congressional Cemetery, so there are lots of trees and open space around for wildlife,” Havard said. (Jim Havard/For Express) OMMMMM-MG Recipient: ‘Thanks, I Guess?’ Alexandria-based auction house Rasmus sold an unusual item this month: a 12-foot-tall fiberglass statue of Buddha. The gold-painted statue was part of a liquidation sale at the now-defunct Buddha Bar in the District. Local attorney and bar owner David Chung made the winning bid at $1,526, but he won’t be taking Buddha home with him, The Washington Post reports. He says it’s a housewarming gift for D.C. builder Bill Dean. RECORD HOLDERS Orange Is the New Black Lab The Humane Society of Harford County, Md., learned this month that it landed a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. They achieved the record for most dogs wearing bandanas at a single location by gathering 200 dogs outfitted in orange Humane Society kerchiefs in Bel Air, Md., on Oct. 12. Guinness officials verified the record in early March, Bel Air Patch reports. SMELLS LIKE… Actual Mascot Now Warmer Than Guy Wearing Costume Climate change could harm not only the environment but team spirit, too. The National Wildlife Federation reported this month that the University of Maryland’s beloved mascot, the terrapin, may be in danger from higher temperatures and rising seas, Capital News Service said. Buffalo, wolverines and alligators are also in danger, the report said. Want to see your Big Pic online and in print? Upload it to the Washington Post Express Flickr pool and you just might.


Everything you need to know about Facebook’s drones, lasers and satellites

years. It has to be cheap, so you can build a lot of them. And it has to be controllable — "unlike balloons," wrote Zuckerberg, in a jab at Google. Inventing the Future of Connectivity But the drones are just a platform. What's more interesting are the communications technologies Zuckerberg is considering loading onto them. Among them? Lasers. Transmitting data by light is hardly a new idea; in fact, it's how terrestrial fiber optic networks carry information over incredibly long distances very quickly. NASA is experimenting with its own laser that's been mounted on a probe bound for the moon; last year, scientists successfully These lasers provide an advantage over more traditional communications methods that rely on propagating radio waves. The farther a radio signal gets from its source, the weaker it becomes — and the more power it takes to boost the range. So long as they have a clear shot at their target, lasers are limited only by the speed of light. And they require much less power. There are downsides to lasers. Because of how narrow their beams are, they always have to hit the receiver spot-on — or poof, no Internet. "The level of accuracy required is the equivalent of needing to hit a dime from 10 miles away," wrote Zuckerberg, "or hit the Statue of Liberty from California." It'd be much easier just to aim the laser once and then forget about moving it. And that implies a satellite floating in geostationary orbit high above the Earth. Because the satellite would be in a fixed position, obtaining a laser lock would be a lot less complicated than maintaining a cheaper fleet of satellites at a lower altitude — which would amount to a bunch of constantly moving targets. (Internet.org) At the same time, beaming a laser from 20,000 miles up makes you vulnerable to obstructions — clouds, weather — in a way that beaming a laser from 300 miles up doesn't. If and when the laser gets blocked, you'll need a backup way of transmitting the Internet. And from geostationary orbit, wrote Zuckerberg, Internet by radio waves is going to introduce a bit of lag into your call with Grandma. That's why Facebook's drones are going to be so important. If the lasers don't work out, the drones could blanket a moderately dense area with microwave Internet, allowing many devices to pick up the signal


Japan loses whaling case in international court

Judges at the highest U.N. court ordered Japan to halt its whaling in the Antarctic, rejecting Japan's argument that its whaling was for scientific purposes, not for human consumption. The International Court of Justice on Monday ordered a temporary halt to Japan’s Antarctic whaling program. The long-awaited ruling said that the practice is not for scientific purposes as the Japanese had claimed. Australia had sued Japan at the United Nations’ highest court for resolving disputes between nations in hopes of ending whaling in the icy Southern Ocean. Reading a 12-4 decision by the court’s 16-judge panel, Presiding Judge Peter Tomka of Slovakia said Japan’s program failed to justify the large number of minke whales it takes under its current Antarctic program, while failing to meet much smaller targets for fin and humpback whales. The ruling is here. The decision is a major victory for Australia and environmental groups that oppose whaling on ethical grounds, though it will not mean the end of whaling, said the Associated Press. Japan has a second, smaller program in the northern Pacific. Meanwhile, Norway and Iceland reject a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling imposed by the International Whaling Commission and conduct for-profit whaling. Japan had argued that Australia’s suit was an attempt to force its cultural norms on Japan, equivalent to Hindus demanding an international ban on killing cows. The finding by a 16-judge panel at the ICJ upheld Australia’s argument that Japan’s whaling program is carried out for commercial purposes rather than scientific research, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Japan has been able to kill unlimited numbers of whales in the Antarctic under the treaty, arguing that its does so for scientific purposes. “In light of the fact the [research program] has been going on since 2005, and has involved the killing of about 3,600 minke whales, the scientific output to date appears limited,” said presiding judge Tomka.


The 18 new beers at Orioles Park

Since I’ve written so much about the beer at Nats Park in recent years — and will write more later this week — I figured I should ask the Orioles if there were any new beer developments at Camden Yards this season. Turns out there are 18 new beer developments. Or at least, 18 new beers. Well, at least 18 new fermented drinkable beer-like beverages. Here are the 18 new offerings, in alphabetical order: Angry Orchard Brewer’s Art Resurrection Bud Light Mang-O-Rita DC Brau The Citizen Dogfish Head Namaste Evolution Exile ESB Flying Dog The Truth Full Tilt Baltimore Pale Ale Keep Calm Chive On Black Lager Lancaster Strawberry Wheat National Premium Sam Adams Boston Lager Shocktop Lemon Shandy Smith & Forge Hard Cider Twisted Lemonade Twisted Tea Union Craft Brewing Blackwing Black Lager Union Craft Brewing Duckpin Pale And as long as we’re doing this, here are the other 48 offerings at the stadium. Will attempt to publish a similar list for the Nats at some point soon. Bitburger Blue Moon Bud Light Bud Light Lime Bud Light Straw-Ber-Rita Bud Light Lime-A-Rita Budweiser Coors Lite Corona Extra Dale’s Pale Ale Dogfish Head 60min IPA Evolution Lot 3 IPA Flying Dog Doggy Style Flying Dog Gonzo Porter Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat Flying Dog Old Scratch Flying Dog Raging B Flying Dog Snake Dog Flying Dog Woody Creek White Goose Island 312 Goose Island Honkers Ale Guinness Draught Heavy Seas Cutlass Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Heavy Seas Peg Leg Stout Heavy Seas Powder Monkey Heavy Seas Riptide Heavy Seas Small Craft Jack Daniels DownHome Punch Jack Daniels Lynchburg Lemonade Jack Daniels Watermelon Punch Landshark Leinenkugel Summer Shandy Michelob Ultra Miller Lite Molson National Bohemian O’Douls Omission Lager Red Stripe Redbridge Redd’s Apple Ale Shocktop Smirnoff Ice Stella The Raven Tsingtao Yuengling


Janis Jibrin and Sidra Forman on the ‘Pescetarian Plan’

pescetarian.” (Forman, a vegan, is on board due to her enthusiasm for plant-based foods.) The plan basically hews to a Mediterranean diet. It’s heavy on fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and spiked with liberal doses of olive oil, red wine and, of course, seafood. Forman meshes healthful ingredients into flavorful combos, such as haddock tacos revved up with jalapenos and lime juice. “And sometimes you just take a good ingredient, like a nice fish, and get out of the way,” Forman says. In the book, Jibrin outlines what makes a properly sized portion, and recommends eating a certain number of servings from seven different food groups each day. Stick with it, and you’ll see more benefits than just the sinking numbers on your scale, she adds. A 2013 Harvard study suggests that people 65 or older who eat fatty fish can extend their lives. Omega-3-rich fishes (salmon, halibut, trout) are thought to cut down on inflammation, lower the risk of heart disease and quash depression. Should the mercury in fish worry you? “If you pick the right seafood, you’ll have very little exposure to mercury,” Jibrin says. The book boasts handy charts revealing what to reel in (U.S.-farmed Arctic char), go easy on (hook-and-line caught rockfish) and toss back (shark and swordfish). Plus, reputable fish sellers will advise you on what’s local, sustainably farmed and low in mercury. In D.C., Forman likes Whole Foods, BlackSalt Fish Market and Union Market’s new The District Fishwife. As for produce, Forman harvests what she can from her yard and shops at an Amish co-op in Pennsylvania; Jibrin loves the Dupont Circle Freshfarm Market. Both are looking forward to the morel mushrooms that should show up soon. Flounder Baked with Grapes and Almonds Ingredients Makes Four Servings Preheat oven to 375 F. Place fish on a sheet tray and season with 1½ teaspoons of olive oil, ⅛ teaspoon of salt, and freshly ground black pepper. In a bowl, combine the grapes, almonds, parsley, lemon juice, 1½ teaspoons of olive oil, ⅛ teaspoon of salt and black pepper. Place the fish in the oven and bake for 3 minutes, then flip the fish, return to the oven until the fish is just beginning to flake but the center is still translucent, approximately 3 minutes. Take care not to overcook. Remove from oven and serve immediately, topped with grape mixture. 298 calories; 17 g fat (1.7


The Switchboard: CIA misled on interrogation program, Senate report says

(Larry Downing / Reuters) Published every weekday, the Switchboard highlights five tech policy stories you need to read. CIA misled on interrogation program, Senate report says. Access to Tesla cars only a password away, researcher says. More Wi-Fi is better: FCC expands use of 5Ghz spectrum. Facebook CEO Zuckerberg's base salary falls to $1. OKCupid seeks to block Mozilla Firefox over gay rights.


How technology is fighting to prevent a climate-change apocalypse

of carbon-free power that will wean humanity off fossil fuels. That’s just the tip of the (melting) iceberg, though, when it comes to what innovators are dreaming up to reduce the impact of global greenhouse gases. One of the most talked-about ideas in the energy sector includes carbon capture and storage — a largely unproven technology that essentially takes some of the carbon being burned from traditional fossil fuels such as coal, and converts it into a harmless gas underground so that it doesn’t enter the atmosphere. And there’s always carbon recycling – an outrageous scheme to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and recycle it for fuel, the same way you might recycle plastic bottles or paper. Where things get really interesting – and extremely controversial – is when you start talking about geoengineering, which is essentially the ability to change the earth’s climate using man-made means. Up until a few years ago, even mentioning geoengineering could get you branded as an irresponsible scientist. Just consider some of the schemes that have been proposed: arraying giant mirrors in outer space to reflect solar rays, sprinkling the Arctic with a layer of dust, embracing volcanic ash as a cooling mechanism for the planet, and spraying the stratosphere with sulfur dioxide particles. Yes, there’s a reason why geoengineering is usually referred to as “Planet Hacking” – people are trying to hack the planet in search of better solutions. Unlike a Silicon Valley hackathon, though, an extended planet hackathon could end up wrecking the Earth. Yet, that doesn’t stop the military scientists at DARPA from coming up with big ideas that might just save the planet. At the end of the day, are these “planet hacking” schemes any more fanciful than some of the ideas being espoused by NASA for terraforming alien planets? At this point, of course, it’s easy to throw one’s hands up and conclude that nothing much can be done to prevent the apocalypse. Either the plans to save the planet are too gradual and won’t save us in time – or they are too speculative and untested and may end up wrecking the planet in the process. And, given the global nature of the problem, that means that even if Elon Musk’s Teslas are the only cars on American highways and every American house has a few solar panels on the roof, it won’t do much if America’s


Wonkbook: Time’s up, Obamacare! Let’s see how you did.

creators in Washington are. EMANUEL: Those who wait for 95 percent confidence on climate risks do so at their peril. The thorny politics of higher education reform. Science interlude: 2. Revelations from Senate's CIA report could reignite debate over interrogation techniques Post exclusive: CIA misled on interrogation program, Senate report says. "Current and former U.S. officials who described the report spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue and because the document remains classified. The 6,300-page report includes what officials described as damning new disclosures about a sprawling network of secret detention facilities, or 'black sites,' that was dismantled by President Obama in 2009. Classified files reviewed by committee investigators reveal internal divisions over the interrogation program, officials said, including one case in which CIA employees left the agency’s secret prison in Thailand after becoming disturbed by the brutal measures being employed there. The report also cites cases in which officials at CIA headquarters demanded the continued use of harsh interrogation techniques even after analysts were convinced that prisoners had no more information to give. The report describes previously undisclosed cases of abuse, including the alleged repeated dunking of a terrorism suspect in tanks of ice water at a detention site in Afghanistan — a method that bore similarities to waterboarding but never appeared on any Justice Department-approved list of techniques." Greg Miller, Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima in The Washington Post. Feinstein moves to make the report public. Another revelation: Enhanced tactics didn't help U.S. nab Osama bin Laden. Slow-motion interlude: 3. As the Obamacare dust settles, a lot lies ahead for the politics of health care Interview: No break from politics on Obamacare deadline day. Explainer: Poll: Democrats rallying around Obamacare. But there's also an enthusiasm gap. Democrats try to keep hopes alive with ACA mantra. Obamacare rolls into N.H. like a political campaign, and wins. In Kentucky, Obamacare's success did nothing to change the law's politics. Remember 'Unskewed Polls'? Musical interlude: 4. How the new U.N. climate report is affecting policy (or not) U.N. climate panel: Time to act is now. Primary source: Explainers: UN Climate report: Dissecting the key messages, from the dire to the less direct. Jason Samenow in The Washington Post. Climate report authors answer 11 basic questions. Andrew C. Revkin in The New York Times. What the U.N. report says about North America. John Upton in Grist. Climate


The Hotlist: April 2014

here to stay. Some new options vying for your time and money: Roofers Union, which took over the Reef last fall, has remade its casual Adams Morgan roof deck to focus on sausages, bowls of punch and pitchers of craft beer. The Donovan House’s rooftop bar will have a new flavor when it officially opens April 11: Bartender Jon Harris is crafting a cocktail menu inspired by “Asian street drinks,” including a Pimm's Cup made with salted lemonade and some sort of boozy bubble tea. Roofers Union, 2446 18th St. NW (Metro: Adams Morgan). 202-232-7663. Donovan House, 1155 14th St. NW (Metro: Mount Vernon Square). — Fritz Hahn Tearing into tigelles (Tim Carman/The Washington Post) It's odd for a restaurant with a meat obsession to spend two years perfecting the bread basket, but the tigelle is no ordinary dinner roll. It's a specialty from Italy's Emilia-Romagna region served at Red Apron Butchery and its adjoining restaurant, the Partisan. What makes a tigelle special? A layer of lard and a special grilling machine, a tigelliera, imported from Italy by butchery impresario Nate Anda. The result is a delicate, glossy puck that you can't help but rip into pieces for pairing with your charcuterie. The Partisan, 709 D St. NW (Metro: Archives). 202-524-5322. — Alex Baldinger Baying Hound brews Rockville's beagle-sized Baying Hound Aleworks just did something Bullmastiff big: As of March 20, the brewery can serve pints of its ever-changing assortment of beers on premises. The list includes everything from a Korean black-rice fruit beer, to a lingonberry-and-chocolate stout, to a more traditional brown ale. Your best bet is to get an $8 flight before settling on a pint ($6-$8). Baying Hound Aleworks, 1108 Taft St., Rockville (Metro: Rockville). 301-637-9322. — Amy Orndorff Gin blossoms Just in time for cherry blossom season, the local distillery behind Green Hat gin has brought back its popular spring/summer gin, flavored with three kinds of citrus peels and one great local ingredient: cherry blossom petals. Expect to see it featured in cocktails around town, and for sale at better liquor stores or the New Columbia Distillers. Pro tip: It makes one heck of a gin rickey. New Columbia Distillers, 1832 Fenwick St. NE. 202-733-1710. — Fritz Hahn GCDC opens The Steak-Kim-Cheese sandwich at GCDC. (Shauna Alexander/GCDC) Grilled cheese by day, wine and cheese by night: That’s what you’ll find at GCDC, a restaurant just oozing


Switchboard: Google asks the Supreme Court to take its Wi-Fi sniffing case

A police officer stands on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court as the court hears arguments in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, March 25, 2014. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg) NSA performed warrantless searches on Americans' calls and e-mails – Clapper. The CEO of Bitcoin bans China, and the Internet’s other passive-aggressive April Fools’ jokes. Google takes Wi-Fi snooping scandal to the Supreme Court. Judge orders Mt Gox CEO to U.S. for questions on failed bitcoin exchange. Every Star Trek film, charted.


Beer Madness: Cast your votes for the Final Four

cast your vote for the Final Four of Beer Madness.. (Photo by Lexey Swall for The Washington Post) And then there were eight. The judges have spoken and Beer Madness is down to the quarterfinals. Greg Kitsock has the blow-by-blow in today's Food section, as pre-tournament Final Four favorite -- okay, my pre-tournament Final Four favorite -- Mad Fox Orange Whip fell to Troegs Perpetual IPA. • See the full Beer Madness bracket There's an interesting twist to this round: For the first time, Beer Madness readers were invited to go to Meridian Pint and sample small pours of each of the Sweet 16 matchups before casting their own votes with the bartender. The results were somewhat surprising: Readers disagreed with the judges in four of the eight contests. If it was up to them, Hardywood Singel, Starr Hill's the Love, Mad Fox's Orange Whip and Dominion Lager would be heading to the Elite Eight. One matchup, between Atlas District Common and Devils Backbone Vienna Lager, ended in a tie with readers; judges had preferred Devils Backbone. Sometimes readers and judges had very different opinions of the beer: Orange Whip thrashed Troegs Perpetual IPA by more than a two-to-one margin among readers, while the judges gave the edge to Troegs. Other contests were similarly close: Hardywood Singel squeaked out a win over Victory Swing Session Saison with just 52 percent of reader votes, while judges awarded Victory a narrow 5-4, um, victory. Readers and judges were in wide agreement about Bluejacket's Forbidden Planet kolsch, which handily beat Lost Rhino Zlaty Czech Pils. The obvious flaw in these results: Unlike the judges, readers were not tasting beers blind, and they knew exactly who they were voting for. It will be interesting to see if any of the beers that readers wanted to kick out in the last round are able to advance to the Final Four. As with the previous round, Meridian Pint will allow the public to come in, sample one-ounce pours of the participating beers in each matchup and cast a ballot for their favorite. The schedule is below. Important reminder: You can only try free beers and vote on the designated day. If you visit the Pint on Friday night, for example, you will not be able to vote for the winner of Troegs vs. Monocacy. Thursday, April 3 Friday, April 4 Monday, April 7 Tuesday, April 8


Americans finally understand that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol

A new Pew survey out today provides yet another illustration of the failure of America's drug war. By a nearly five-to-one margin, Americans agree that alcohol is worse for you than marijuana. However you slice the data up demographically, majorities say the same thing. The elderly, Republicans and Hispanics are the least likely to agree that booze is more harmful than weed, but even among these groups respondents said that alcohol was more harmful by more than a two-to-one margin. At the other end of the spectrum, blacks say alcohol is more harmful by an eight-to-one margin, while those under thirty agree by nearly seven-to-one. On the relative dangers of marijuana and alcohol, the public is now in line with what medical researchers have been saying for years. A 2010 study in the journal Lancet, for instance, graded common drugs on sixteen criteria relating to how harmful the drugs were to users, and how harmful they were to society overall. On both measures - harm to self and harm to users - marijuana scored significantly lower than alcohol. In fact, alcohol was the most dangerous of all the drugs studied, vastly more dangerous than other drugs in terms of harm to society, and behind only meth, crack and heroin when it came to harm to users. Other topline findings from the Pew survey: significant majorities approve of marijuana legalization, say that mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug crimes are a bad idea, and want the federal government to focus more on providing treatment to drug users, rather than prosecuting them. In short, it's hard to think of another arena in which federal policy is more at odds with public opinion and scientific consensus. The Pew survey suggests that in the upcoming national elections in 2014 and 2016, there's a real opportunity for candidates to distinguish themselves by taking up these issues. RELATED: House Committee kills plan to decriminalize pot in Md. GALLERY: Great stoner characters in American film From Cheech and Chong to Seth Rogen and James Franco in their latest film, “This Is the End,” certain types of cinematic characters have a predilection for White Castles, Quick Stops, surfing, bowling and lowriders. We review a few of them — and their films. View Photo Gallery —From Cheech and Chong to Seth Rogen and James Franco, certain types of cinematic characters have a predilection for White Castles, Quick Stops, surfing,


10 tips for surviving a severe allergy season

Flowering ragweed plant is a common allergen. (iStockPhoto) My colleague Brady Dennis reports Wednesday that the arrival of warmer weather will soon unleash a pollen tsunami in parts of the country where the winter has been especially long and cold. Here are some survival tips from Clifford W. Bassett, an allergy specialist and assistant clinical professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine. • Wear oversized sunglasses to block airborne pollens and molds. • Wear a hat, preferably one with a wide brim. • Avoid outdoor line drying of clothing and bed linens on a high pollen day. • Consider exercising indoors on very high pollen days. Pollen levels may peak during the mid-day and afternoon, and are generally higher on warm, dry, windy days. • Get confirmation that you have seasonal allergies, with simple in-office tests. • Begin treatment with medications such as nasal antihistamines, oral antihistamines, steroids and eye drops even before symptoms start. • Talk to your doctor about allergy shots, which can slow the progress of allergic disease. • Shower and shampoo nightly to to rinse pollens from skin and hair. Change clothes before entering your bedrooms to keep pollens out. • At home and in the car, keep the windows closed and set your air conditioner to "recirculate." Clean filters in room air conditioners frequently. Do not use fans that suck outdoor pollens into your living area. • Eliminate weeds from your yard and plant allergy-friendly greenery such as azaleas and begonias;, palm, pine, fir and dogwood trees; hibiscus, boxwood and yucca shrubs.


The end of the Putin mystique

much as they see Crimea: as Russian domain. Nazarbaev is more likely to reinforce his northern borders and tilt toward China than to seek union with Russia. The market alone will impose costs. Aleksei Kudrin, the architect of the economic reforms of the first decade of the 21st century, estimates that Russia may lose $200 billion this year in capital flight due to the conflict with Ukraine. This is real money in a country whose total annual output is $2 trillion — slightly less than that of the state of California. Furthermore, while Putin and his cronies try to stem the flow of information about their ever mounting impunity, the United States and other countries are naming names of those whose assets they are freezing. The American sanctions require the Treasury Department to publicize clues on the magnitude and location of the assets of Putin and his cronies. According to prevailing diplomatic norms, governments normally stay mum about such malfeasance on the part of the leaders of all but sworn enemies. The U.S. government heretofore has not discussed publicly what it knows about Putin’s fortune and that of his cronies. That policy has now changed. The political effects of the revelations included in the sanctions may be even more damaging to Russia’s rulers than the sanctions’ economic effects. Putin hopes that his Ukrainian gambit will discredit or shut off the information Russians get about his burgeoning malfeasance faster than that information comes out, thereby enabling him to extend the life of his increasingly tenuous reputation as a demophile. But he will almost certainly fail, all the more given the social and intellectual sophistication of Russia’s expanding urban middle class. The good news for democracy’s advocates in Russia and around the world is that Crimea is burying the Putin mystique and discrediting demophily. The Russian experience provides evidence that demophily is no substitute for democracy; government for the people ultimately requires government by them as well. ***** Past Monkey Cage posts on developments in Ukraine, Russia, and Crimea can be found by clicking here. Recent posts include: Kimberly Marten: Crimea: Putin’s Olympic diversion Henry Farrell: Five key questions — and answers — about the OSCE mission in Ukraine Oxana Shevel: To strengthen claims on Crimea, Russia and Ukraine woo Crimean Tatars Timothy Frye: The downsides of Crimea for Russia Gwendolyn Sasse: Building a federal Ukraine? Joshua Tucker: What is motivating Putin?


Step up to the plate: New dining and drinking options inside Nationals Park

There are new faces in the Nationals clubhouse this season, but you'll find even more around the stadium itself. The craft beer revolution that has swept the Washington area in recent years has finally stormed the center field gates. The food is also getting more local: An outpost of "Top Chef" Mike Isabella's G Sandwich Shop joins a second stadium location of Ben's Chili Bowl and a new concession stand specializing in local crab cakes and crab balls. • Intentional walks: Where to eat and drink near Nationals Park Mike Isabella shows off his G sandwiches at Nationals Park. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) To eat G at Nationals Park Ben's Chili Bowl New concession stands Local beers from Atlas Brew Works, DC Brau, Mad Fox, 3 Stars and Port City will be available at four District Draft carts around Nationals Park. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) To drink Local beer The Heineken Red Star Bar Craft cocktails


American attitudes on drugs are rapidly changing. Here are 5 charts that prove it.

American policy on illegal drugs is rapidly changing. As our colleague Jerry Markon reported Sunday, the U.S. drug war is shifting away from prosecuting low-level offenders and toward getting them into treatment. The shift mirrors American attitudes toward how drugs are viewed and how dangerous people perceive them to be. Here are charts from the Pew Research Center's new survey, "America's New Drug Policy Landscape," that illustrate the change. 1. An overwhelming number of respondents say U.S. drug policy should focus more on treatment than incarceration. 2. The number of respondents who believe marijuana should be legalized has steadily risen. 3. Most also believe that mandatory drug sentences are not a good thing. 4. Three-quarters of those surveyed think people should not go to jail for possessing small amounts of marijuana. 5. A majority of those surveyed believe that alcohol is more harmful than marijuana.


Russia’s deputy PM on U.S. sanctions: ‘Send me your teeth ground in impotent rage’

Dmitry Rogozin, shown in January 2012. (Yves Logghe/AP) Dmitry Rogozin is the deputy prime minister of Russia. He was one of the many Russian officials targeted by U.S. sanctions last month for their involvement in Crimea's vote to join the Russian Federation. Rogozin is known as a proud Russian nationalist, and he's not one to mince his words. So how are the sanctions affecting him so far? Let's let the man himself explain, as he did so eloquently on Twitter earlier: Dear NATO people! Enough time has passed since the EU, US, Canada, Australia, Switzerland put me on the sanctions lists I wonder if anything came up? Got sth? Have you found my accounts, money transfers, real estate, luxury cars, yachts, etc? I ask you to publish this data and make it widely available for general public If it's not possible due to the lack of all of the aforementioned, then I'll ask you to send me your teeth ground in impotent rage If you think that thx to your visa sanctions u spared y'self the ordeal of seeing me and my colleagues at your place then let me assure you Russian defence&industrial complex has plenty of other means of moving around in the world - apart from a tourist visa) Rogozin's bravado is remarkable, but perhaps not surprising. Shortly after his name was released by the U.S. State Department, Rogozin tweeted the following: Comrade @BarackObama, what should do those who have neither accounts nor property abroad? Or U didn't think about it?)http://t.co/16KUTJPXOl I think some prankster prepared the draft of this Act of the US President) Rogozin's comments are over the top and perhaps bluster, but they do get to a more important point: It's unclear whether some of the names on the U.S. sanctions list actually have any assets/bank accounts for the U.S. to target. Some, however, do, and it's manifesting itself in interesting ways. For example, the Financial Times reports today that Miley Cyrus has become involved in the sanctions controversy: One venue she is due to play at in Helsinki is partly owned by three names on the list.


‘Scandal’ recap Season 3, episode 16: ‘The Fluffer’

of course, if this weren’t ‘Scandal.’ Just one oh, look we’re in D.C. montage into the episode and Abby dials Olivia to inform her that they have a problem: Jeannine Locke has resurfaced and is promoting a memoir about her steamy affair with Fitz (the one manufactured by the gladiators). Jeannine’s got a book deal and a no-holds-barred approach to press conferences. Prompts one reporter (read: no reporter, ever): At least tell us, whether the president is a breadstick or a baguette.” End scene. Olivia did her best to keep things strictly professional with Fitz, who is still seething mad about Andrew and Mellie sleeping together. So mad, in fact, that he wants Andrew off the ticket. Olivia tells him it will hurt his campaign and forces Fitz to address the elephant in the room — the one that’s jealous and not as indifferent about Mellie as Fitz would have Liv believe. Olivia informs Andrew that he has a choice: He can be VP or he can “screw Mellie.” His inevitable choice — political power — led to a major moment between Fitz and Mellie when the First Lady burst into a closed-door meeting to tell Fitz how she really feels (and deliver a slap he’s long deserved). “You take everything from me!” Credit: Ron Tom/ABC Liv takes control of other areas of her life, teaming up with Papa Pope to take down B613. If we ignore the fact that it’s sort of ridiculous that the entire fate of B613 would lie in an algorithm, I can admit that it really was heartwarming to see Rowan and Olivia have some quality father-daughter time, even if it was over schemes to infiltrate a top-secret agency that breeds ruthless assassins. Rowan promised Olivia he would not hurt Fitz. A dad begrudgingly agreeing not to harm his daughter’s BF — how relatable! It was also nice to have David Rosen cracking jokes again. After Olivia confesses to Huck that she’s gotten her intel from Papa Pope, David deadpans: “I would have gone with anonymous former government employee.” While the Popes work on B613, the aforementioned ruthless assassins set their target on Mama Pope. Jake instructs Quinn and Charlie to track Maya, who has reconnected with an old lover and seems to get more and more brazen with each episode. Over at Pope & Associates, Harrison also works the Mama Pope angle, enlisting his


A veteran programmer explains how the stock market became “rigged”

in the industry are like, “What are you talking about?” Liquidity doesn’t depend on who the person is. It depends on whether they’re willing to buy or sell at the current price. The whole business of trying to cancel your order on another exchange, because you’re faster--how is that liquidity? That’s not liquidity. That’s phantom liquidity. That’s bunk. The lowering spreads: Reg NMS started in 2007, and that’s when high-frequency trading was born, this kind of high-frequency trading that we’re talking about in Lewis’s book. It started in 2007. Spreads were at their lowest in 2006. They have never gotten back down to that point since. What about Katsuyama's new exchange, IEX, which hopes to eliminate the networking advantage of some firms party by slowing down orders? Do you think the exchange will be successful? What they’ve done is they have 38-mile coils of fiber. If those coils were 4,000 miles long, that I could get behind. You could actually simulate 4,000 miles’ worth of cable with software, and that would mean that everybody in the United States would be on equal footing. It seems to me like IEX is equal in speed for anyone in a small, 30-mile radius. Anyone in New York, basically. That’s probably frustrating for you. Have we learned nothing from September 11, 2001? We were supposed to have redundant facilities in other places. The financial system shouldn’t all be concentrated like that one in space. Last question: if it’s only Wall Street traders and major hedge funds who are losing money-- Well, that’s not true. Then who is harmed? And why should ordinary people care? Society is harmed when a group of people don’t follow the rules, and the regulator knows about it. Then all of society loses. We don’t want people to have to make a decision whether or not they want to go into business if they have to make a decision about -- there’s a term for this on Wall Street -- regulatory risk. That should not be, ever, part of the American dream. We don’t want this wink-wink-nod-nod business. That drives smart people out. I could quantify it--everybody is losing a small amount of money. The real cost here is that we live in a society based on rule of law. I’m sorry, but you’re not getting a free pass on this. This is wrong and it needs to be corrected.


The local craft beer at Nats Park

Via @Nationals. This is from last season. A few things you need to know about the local craft beer scene at Nats Park as the home schedule begins. The local taps will be changing I noted recently that 3 Stars plans to switch up its offering every homestand this season. Well, they aren’t the only ones. Each of the five local craft brewers — 3 Stars, Atlas, DC Brau, Port City and Mad Fox — will be changing out their offerings frequently this season. (Last season, they mostly stuck with one brew apiece.) “The breweries have so many different beers, and we wanted to give our fans an opportunity to try different brews,” Nats senior director of guest experience and hospitality operations Jonathan Stahl told me. “So we worked with them to basically do a draft to decide what they wanted to do.” That’s right: a draft. All the brewers and Stahl gathered in the park a few weeks back to draft tap handles and styles. The team will now have four local beer carts, in sections 119, 138, 225 and 309. Each cart has four handles. That makes 16 total. So for any given homestand, one brewery will get four handles in the park, and the other four breweries will get three each. And they drafted homestands and then slotted in their brews, to try to make sure that everyone didn’t bring a pale ale at the same time, for example. So what do we have to start? The schedule, of course, is subject to change. But for the first homestand, the scheduled beers are Atlas District Common, Mad Fox Irish Dry Stout, Port City Monumental IPA, 3 Stars Citra Lemon Saison and DC Brau Everyday Junglist. For the second, expect Atlas Rowdy American Rye, Mad Fox Irish Dry Stout, Port City Optimal Wit, 3 Stars Movement APA, and DC Brau’s The Tradition. How do the brewers like this plan? “When we built this cart last year, we instantly started to become these brewers’ largest customers,” Stahl said. “And we wanted to make sure not to take away from other stuff they’re doing. Coming up with a schedule ahead of time allows them to plan their brewing for the entire summer.” What about those craft beer floats in the Red Porch? Yeah, beer floats. @darrenrovell Draft and bottled beer at the Red Porch at Nationals Park. http://t.co/6oJHkuouN2 The idea


The local craft beer at Nats Park

four handles in the park, and the other four breweries will get three each. And they drafted homestands and then slotted in their brews, to try to make sure that everyone didn’t bring a pale ale at the same time, for example. So what do we have to start? The schedule, of course, is subject to change. But for the first homestand, the scheduled beers are Atlas District Common, Mad Fox Irish Dry Stout, Port City Monumental IPA, 3 Stars Citra Lemon Saison and DC Brau Everyday Junglist. For the second, expect Atlas Rowdy American Rye, Mad Fox Irish Dry Stout, Port City Optimal Wit, 3 Stars Movement APA, and DC Brau’s The Tradition. How do the brewers like this plan? “When we built this cart last year, we instantly started to become these brewers’ largest customers,” Stahl said. “And we wanted to make sure not to take away from other stuff they’re doing. Coming up with a schedule ahead of time allows them to plan their brewing for the entire summer.” What about those craft beer floats in the Red Porch? Yeah, beer floats. @darrenrovell Draft and bottled beer at the Red Porch at Nationals Park. http://t.co/6oJHkuouN2 The idea for those came from Levy Restaurants. It’s a dessert that’s easy to carry back to your seats, and might be a less imposing option than a brownie sundae or apple pie. And what of the 1500 South Cap Lager? Atlas is brewing a Nats-themed local beer that will be sold outside the District Drafts carts. The team talked to all of the local breweries to gauge interest in a Nats-specific beer. Atlas wanted to do it; the beer will be available at “Baseline Brews” concessions throughout the park, and will be in addition to the draft beer Atlas will deliver for the District Drafts carts. The team is open to collaborating with other local breweries on Nats-specific products. Anything else? This isn’t local, but the team is working with Sam Adams to get specialty Sam Adams products that aren’t commonly available in the D.C. market into the Sam Adams Brewhouse in 112. That location has typically featured Sam’s seasonal products and more commonly available brews, but the team is hoping to bring in rarer Sam products. Also, the team will now offer Flying Dog 16 oz. cans in the seating bowls and in some concessions areas. And what of Firkin


Man chides ‘black hole’ MH370 coverage on CNN

CNN has gotten hammered for the March 19 segment in which host Don Lemon asked whether it’s “preposterous” to suppose that missing Malaysia Airlines airliner fell into a black hole, among other insane possibilities. Rounding up the derision that followed Lemon’s space-out would overload this blog’s content management system. All the criticism hasn’t made CNN too touchy about the matter, however. Last night on CNN, host Michael Smerconish ventured into Central Park to interview people about their views on the missing jetliner. One of the interviewees said: “There’s been theories of what? It’s like being sucked in a black hole, like I had to hear the black hole thing, which is sort of ridiculous.” Another fellow said this: “Okay, so all the TV programs are trying to bring back their good shows, you know, ABC’s trying to bring back ‘Lost’ to counteract ‘Heroes’ being brought back in, and I think it’s NBC. So I’m pretty sure this is all a advertising scheme to promote ‘Lost,’ because I mean it’s the exact same plot as the first episode.” When Smerconish asked if the guy was “serious,” the guy answered yes. Apparently the CNN memo outlawing the crowdsourcing of theories about MH370 on CNN’s air never got written. After all, Lemon’s black-hole moment came in a segment discussing people’s strange theories on Twitter. “YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED. Black hole? Bermuda Triangle?” read a chyron during the chat. In any case, the Smerconish moment confirms that folks are watching CNN, or at least clicking on stories that make fun of the network — which is almost as good. As noted last week in this space, an expert on CNN’s air said that certain ocean debris looked as if it was from a plane. When asked how he’d reached that conclusion, the expert cited other experts on CNN. No MH370 debris has been found. CNN's Don Lemon: Is Black Hole Theory For Missing Jet 'Preposterous?'


Wall Street Journal gives Western Sahara to Morocco

reporting without qualification the Spanish minister’s words, which itself would be interesting. What is more surprising is the lack of outraged reaction from international law professors, experts, NGOs, and other peace-loving types (according to my quick Google search). If someone suggested in the Journal that the West Bank was within Israel’s borders, it would lead to an immediate outcry, and and a rain of derision from learned people. (Consider Gov. Chris Christie’s “occupied territories” comment.) Similarly, one could imagine the international law outrage if the Congress authorized U.S. aid to Israel to go support its presence in the West Bank. Yet in the 2014 Omnibus Spending Bill, this is exactly what happened with Western Sahara. The action was apparently met with an international law yawn (where is Human Rights Watch when you need them?). This further evidence that, European claims to the contrary but only in the case of Israel, there is no international law prohibition on economic support or engagement for occupied or disputed territories.) There is a lesson here. The world’s dogged obsession with the Israeli-Arab conflict actually comes at the expense of attending to occupations around the world. Attention, energy, knowledge are all limited. As I wrote in the LA Times recently: Indeed, the vigor with which the international community has maintained, and increased, its objections over Israel’s presence in the West Bank may divert attention from other conquests. Putin knows this. Remarkably, Russia retained its status as a member of the “quartet” — with the U.S., EU and U.N. — seeking to broker Israeli territorial withdrawals even after it invaded Georgia. If one truly cared about international law, as opposed to its application to Israel, one would not quixotically suggest that the international community “also” deal with these other problems, but understand that the Israeli-Arab conflict has sucked much of the energy and attention from far any other such situation. Already, Secretary of State Kerry’s focus on Israel has diverted focus from Crimea, which the world is begging to treat as a write-off. Russia has already announced an economic and customs zone on the peninsula. European firms will, in a year or so, flock there. Will anyone track their activities, boycott them, or count the number of Russian “settlers” coming in? The resources for such efforts may already have been spent elsewhere. Perhaps the real way to “end impunity” is to end the focus on Israel.


Cleveland Park Bar & Grill owners to launch BBQ joint in Pulpo space

will take over the space and turn it into a barbecue joint. "It's just something we wanted to do since we moved to Cleveland Park," says co-owner Peter Balish who has operated the neighborhood pub for more than eight years with business partner, Jeff Holibaugh. Texas barbecue is expected to be on the menu at a forthcoming 'cue joint in Cleveland Park. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Even though they're both hospitality vets with more than 20 years of experience each, neither Balish nor Holibaugh have operated a barbecue restaurant before. As such, they're on a mission to find a consultant to set up their smokehouse. Balish calls it priority No. 1. The owners have already bought a high-tech smoker — an exhausted Balish couldn't immediately remember the brand — and now they're searching the region for a pitmaster who can properly install the machine and provide insights into the secretive, highly competitive world of American barbecue. Like most 'cue joints in the area, with the notable exception of the Texas-leaning Hill Country, Balish and Holibaugh's unnamed smokehouse will likely offer barbecue from all major American regions: Texas, Kansas City, the Carolinas and Memphis. It only makes sense, Balish notes. "We're not going to limit ourselves to one concept," he says. "The people who live in this city, they come from all over." The joint will serve both lunch and dinner for sit-down guests, Balish says, but it will concentrate on take-out and curbside pickups as well. The owners are working to carve out a space in back for pickup orders. They're also looking to use the upstairs space for private events and Sunday football viewing. They've even planning a live music calendar, nothing on the Hill Country scale, but likely a couple shows a month, mostly country. Balish expects a six-week build-out for the former Pulpo space. The owners plan to reconfigure the bar and add 16 taps, plus refrigeration for another 30 or 40 bottles, including brands available in the major barbecue hubs. They also plan to offer cocktails, though likely not the highfalutin kind with housemade bitters and infused spirits. Balish is thinking more along the moonshine level. The owners hope to have their new business up and running by June. As for the name, they're down to two choices, Balish says. "One has to do with my name and a weight issue," he says cryptically.


The African Ebola outbreak that keeps getting worse

recorded their first suspected cases of the disease, trouble began in remote villages. A mob attacked an Ebola treatment center in Guinea, accusing it of infecting the town with disease, according to Reuters. In other villages, people stopped shaking hands. “We fully understand that the outbreak of Ebola is alarming for the local population,” one doctor told the Independent. “But it is essential in the fight against the disease that patients remain in the treatment center.” What terrifies people so much about Ebola? For starters, there’s no cure. Because it’s such a rare disease that primarily affects poor African villages, big drug companies perhaps haven’t seen enough economic opportunity to study the virus, Bloomberg reports. Then there’s the fact that Ebola deaths are particularly gruesome. The disease comes from an infected animal — most likely the fruit bat, which infects monkeys, apes, pigs and, finally, humans. The disease is not airborne, but spreads through blood, secretions or other bodily fluids. Its early symptoms include fever and intense weakness, WHO says, then deepens with bouts of diarrhea, vomiting, and internal and external bleeding. The migratory pattern of the outbreak, which aid workers call “unprecedented,” has baffled doctors. Outbreaks before this have stayed in remote pockets of the country, but this iteration shot hundreds of miles from southwest Guinea to the coastal capital of Conakry. Exacerbating the situation is the scarcity of medical professionals in Guinea. According to the World Bank, there are only .1 physicians per 1,000 people — among the lowest ratios in the world, below even Afghanistan. This has fed animosity among some in Guinea toward the government for its perceived inability to dispense medical services — or even enforce quarantines. “You have a lot of people who have recovered from civil war and are living in war-ravaged areas with very poor infrastructures,” said Laurie Garrett of the Council on Foreign Relations. “As soon as word goes out of quarantine, you have people start trying to escape and get away from the clutches of authorities.” This has already happened, some in Guinea claim. “How can we trust them now?” Conakry resident Dede Diallo told Reuters. She’s stopped working — and keeps her kids at home, where she says it’s safe. “We have to look after ourselves.” SOURCES: Steve Monroe, deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; World Health Organization. Graphic: The Washington Post.


Why I’m excited about the promising future of medicine

will provide us with better, and better-informed, advice than our doctors do. They will take a more holistic view of our bodies, lifestyles, and symptoms than our doctors can. They will, after all, have our full medical history from childhood, know where we have been, and keep track of our medical data on a minute-by-minute basis. Most doctors still work from brief, unintelligible, hand-scribbled notes and try to make a judgment about what medicines to prescribe us in a 10- to 15-minute consultation; they treat symptoms of interest but can overlook the bigger picture of where the treatment leads. Artificial intelligence technologies will also be able to analyze continual data from millions of patients and on the medications that they have taken to determine which of these truly had a positive effect; which simply created adverse reactions and new ailments; and which did both. This will transform the way in which drugs are tested and prescribed. In the hands of independent researchers, these data will upend the pharmaceutical industry—which works on limited clinical-trial data and sometimes chooses to ignore information that does not suit it. This is just the tip of the iceberg. We learned how to sequence the genome about a decade ago, and sequencing it cost billions. Today a full human genome sequence costs as little as $1,000. At the rate at which prices are dropping, it will cost less within five years than a blood test does today. So it is now becoming affordable to compare one person’s DNA with another’s, learn what diseases those with similar genetics have had in common, and discover how effective different medications or other interventions were in treating them. Today, medicines are prescribed on a one-size-fits-all basis. In the future, you can expect to see doctors tailor treatment for diseases on the basis of an individual’s genomic information and lifestyle. We can also now “write” DNA. In the emerging field of synthetic biology, researchers, and even high-school students, are creating new organisms and synthetic life forms. Entrepreneurs have developed software tools to “design” DNA. These technologies provide the ability to generate designer drugs, therapeutic vaccines, and microorganisms. Like all technologies that modify fundamental biology without a complete understanding of how environment, DNA, protein production, and cell biology interact, this introduces new risks because we could engineer dangerous new organisms. But, used appropriately, this field may dramatically affect the development of novel,


What are the constitutional limits on compelled commercial speech?

— is consistent with how most courts and commentators characterize existing doctrine, but it unnecessarily complicates the question of constitutional protection for compelled commercial speech. Central Hudson and Zauderer are best understood not as alternatives, but as two aspects of the same underlying doctrine. That is, there is no conflict between Central Hudson and Zauderer, and courts need not choose between them. Zauderer When Central Hudson and Zauderer are reconciled in this way, it can be seen why the D.C. Circuit was mistaken to hold that mandatory disclosure requirements, such as COOL, need not satisfy Central Hudson. Misleading speech is not entitled to Central Hudson‘s protection at all. Further, even if potentially misleading speech were to be protected by Central Hudson — say, speech that has the potential to mislead some consumers in some contexts — the government clearly has a substantial governmental interest in preventing consumer deception or confusion. Thus applying Central Hudson does not prevent the government from adopting all manner of rules designed to ensure consumers are not defrauded or unduly confused by commercial messages. The question in AMI should not be whether the USDA gets to avail itself of an easier constitutional test but whether the government has any interests that are substantial enough to justify this labeling requirement — interests that go beyond simply satisfying consumer curiosity. For reasons I discuss in this essay on GMO labeling and this book chapter on nanotechnology labeling (and an as-yet-to-be-completed article manuscript on “Compelled Commercial Speech and the Consumer Right to Know”) consumer curiosity or some asserted “right to know” is insufficient to satisfy Central Hudson, not least because such a standard is infinitely malleable and would justify any potential disclosure requirement, effectively eliminating constitutional protection for compelled commercial speech. But many other government interests, such as protecting consumers from harm, protecting public health, or facilitating other regulatory goals, are often sufficient. In upholding the USDA’s COOL requirements, the D.C. Circuit wrote: we can see non-frivolous values advanced by the information. Obviously it enables a consumer to apply patriotic or protectionist criteria in the choice of meat. And it enables one who believes that United States practices and regulation are better at assuring food safety than those of other countries, or indeed the reverse, to act on that premise. Under the D.C. Circuit’s expansive application of Zauderer, these interests easily justified the COOL requirements. Under a proper reading


Retail marijuana sales in Washington face regulatory delays

Seattle still has to have a medical prescription. The state Liquor Control Board, tasked with overseeing marijuana sales, estimates the first of what will ultimately be 334 stores that receive licenses will be open by July. The delay is a product of ambiguously-worded 15-year-old legislation and strict structures in which marijuana growers will have to operate; it has served to heighten pre-existing tensions between the state’s thriving medical marijuana industry and retail sellers eager to turn a profit. And the delay is costing businesses eager to begin selling, and the state hungry for tax revenue, millions of dollars. “There’s people that are spending money and taking risk” to set up retail stores, said John Davis, CEO of the Northwest Patient Resource Center, a Seattle dispensary. “The Liquor Control Board being all over the place, this could very easily turn into a lawsuit.” Part of the blame for the delay rests with the authors of a 1998 ballot initiative that legalized marijuana for medical use. That law allowed patients to possess up to a 60-day supply of marijuana, though what constituted a 60-day supply was never defined. The state legislature passed a bill that would have imposed regulations on the medical marijuana industry in 2011, but then-Gov. Christine Gregoire (D), worried that those regulations would put state officials at risk of arrest by federal agents, vetoed it. Consequently, the medical marijuana industry has existed in a state of legal limbo for more than a decade. Dispensaries, which technically operate as “collective gardens,” operate without state regulations. Some pay their fair share of sales taxes to the state; others don’t. The authors of the 2012 measure, Initiative 502, consciously created a more regimented structure. Under the new law, marijuana is treated like alcohol: Retailers cannot grow their own product, and they cannot win a license to sell the drug without a property rental agreement. Colorado’s medical marijuana industry, on the other hand, had the most sophisticated set of regulations in the country, and the ballot measure voters passed in 2012 required the kind of vertical integration that Washington’s system prohibits. Instead of preventing retailers from growing their own crop, Colorado requires retailers to grow at least 70 percent of everything they sell. In Washington, the Liquor Control Board has moved quickly to establish the rules that will govern marijuana sales. Those rules require retail stores to have a compliant location, far enough


For politicians, corruption is worse than cheating. But hypocrisy is worse than both of them.

Vance McAllister, this one's for you. South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain, File) Quinnipiac University did a fascinating -- and remarkably well-timed Just one in four (24 percent) of voters say they would "definitely" or "probably" vote for Miller if he "created a new, well-paid position on his staff in order to hire an unqualified family member as a favor.” Contrast that with the four in ten (39 percent) people who say the would "definitely" or "probably" votes for Miller if he was "unfaithful to his wife with another woman." That finding should provide some solace for McAllister -- although the woman with whom he was caught canoodling was at the time on his Congressional staff. (She is no longer employed by McAllister.) But, wait, there's more! If you add a layer of hypocrisy to the transgressions committed by the fictitious Congressman Miller, his electoral situation gets even more dire. If voters are told Miller is touting his commitment to "cleaning up government" prior to being informed that he hired a family member to a well-paying position, barely one in five say they would definitely or probably vote to reelect him. If Rep. Miller touted himself as a "promoting moral values" before his extramarital affair is exposed, just 28 percent of voters say they would definitely or probably vote for him. Ruh, roh Congressman McAllister. Remember this? Meet Vance McAllister The conclusion from the Q poll? A politician can absolutely survive an extramarital affair -- particularly if he or she didn't spend a lot of time when running for office touting how important family was to him/her. You are certainly better off having a non-hypocritical affair than you are engaging in a bit of nepotism. But, misrepresent yourself to voters -- either as a family man or a squeaky clean on the ethics side -- and your time in elected office will likely end involuntarily. RELATED: Scandal-plagued pols -- Where are they now? Scandalized public figures have a way of bouncing back. View Photo Gallery —Public figures have a way to bounce back from scandal. Here’s a look at a few once-disgraced politicians — and what they are doing now.


Video: Pentagon’s Stiletto a technological marvel

The 88-foot long Stiletto vessel is used to test and "help accelerate the delivery of innovative maritime technologies,” according to the Navy. It is 88 feet long, has four engines and can tear across the surface at 47 knots. It sits low and sleek in the water, has a gray, menacing look, and is called the Stiletto. But the science-fiction craft the Pentagon showed off Tuesday at Gaylord National Convention Center, at National Harbor, isn’t designed to fire death rays. Rather, it’s a “program to help accelerate the delivery of innovative maritime technologies,” the Defense Department says. Translation: It’s designed to help inventors test things. It’s also itself a technological marvel and a pretty cool ride, as Washington Post videographers found.


Busy Bees!

We have killed off the bees. Oh, sure MAYBE they’re just all dying from natural causes like mites or diseases, but we know in our hearts we have something to do with it. Pesticides are the obvious suspects, one way or other weakening the immune system of the bees so they succumb to opportunistic pathogens. For me, first I read that the honeybees were ailing, but still saw them in my garden. Then I didn’t see them in my garden anymore, but their spots were taken by the robust and reliable bumblebees. And then the bumblebees stopped showing up. Now my flowers bloom in vain. All that effort of producing blossoms to attract…nothing. It is a dead spring of emptiness, and decidedly forlorn. But we’ve decided to replace all the bees with ourselves now. No, we do not pollinate flowers, but we are determined to mimic the now-departed insects with endless drone-like busyness. It’s the new thing, but not that new. Our lives are now like my kitchen utility drawer, over-filled to the point where it can no longer be opened because the implements and junk are piled up and ramming into the top of the drawer frame. For some people, lives this packed are clearly an unavoidable nightmare. For others, a fashion statement. People can’t sit still a SECOND without working their communications technology in front of everyone, friend or stranger alike. My sense of this busyness is no doubt colored by living in DC, where it is an out-and-out pathology. Any unstructured time here is viewed as abject failure, so there is a frantic forward-oriented overscheduling to ensure unstructured time doesn’t ever catch you by surprise. People can, and do get better and better at this sort of juggling, and also their capacity to complain/brag about it. Personally, I’ve always suspected that a need to fill all time with activity is symptomatic of trying to avoid facing a certain emotional emptiness. Emptiness a little like a Spring garden without bees.


Army, Marines take brunt of war wounds

Army soldiers and Marine Corps members faced most of the combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and came home with more war wounds than others. A new article from Rajiv Chandrasekaran details these painful stories. Overall, more than half of the military service members who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 returned from war in worse physical or mental health, according to the new Washington Post-Kaiser poll of military service members. Fifty-two percent of Army soldiers reported worse physical health since the wars, with the Marines, Navy and Air Force each falling below 40 percent. An equal number of soldiers and Marines (39 percent each) reported worse mental and emotional health, far higher than the rates in the Navy (20 percent) or Air Force (16 percent). Roughly eight in 10 Army and Marine veterans served on the ground in either country, while majorities in the Navy or Air Force did not. The exposure to danger for Army and Marine veterans are self-evident — far more members of these two branches served in combat roles. But Marine Corps members represent the only service branch that reported equal levels of worsened physical and mental health. More than seven in 10 Marines said they personally know a service member who attempted or committed suicide. That falls to about half for Army and Navy personnel and to less than four in 10 for Air Force members. There are a number of other, related reasons for the mental and emotional struggles among Marines: - 58 percent of Marine and Army veterans said they personally knew someone killed while performing their duties in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to a 2011 Pew Research Center poll of post-9/11 military veterans. That compared with fewer than four in 10 in the other military branches who knew someone killed. - About half of Marines (48 percent) and Army veterans (52 percent) said they experienced an “emotionally traumatic” incident in the wars, also from the Pew poll. That compares with about one-third of those in other branches. - 38 percent of Marines said they did something in the wars that made them “feel guilty,” according to the Post-Kaiser poll. Those feelings of guilt are 27 percent for Army soldiers, 19 percent in the Navy and 16 percent in the Air Force. - 57 percent of Marines said they often feel that civilians don’t understand their war experiences, as do 44 percent


Politicians don’t cheat more than regular people. They just get caught more.

The case of the Kissing Congressman -- also known as Louisiana Republican Rep. Vance McAllister -- has set off, yet again, a debate in political circles about the sexual mores (or lack thereof) of our federally elected officials. A quick glance at Wikipedia -- they have a remarkably detailed list of political sex scandals -- shows that between 2010 and 2014 six House members succumbed to sex scandals -- and that's not even including governors (Mark Sanford!) and other downballot elected officials. But, according to a Pew-Washington Post poll conducted in 2011, most people don't think that politicians cheat more than the general public. They just get caught more. Image courtesy of Pew Let's do a little math. Six of the 435 members of the House have had been forced to acknowledge sexual scandals since 2010. That's roughly 1.3 percent of the legislative body. (Yes, we recognize more than 435 people have served in Congress over the past four years but we are doing some rough estimating here.) How does that compare to statistics on cheating in the general public? According to Tom Smith, the director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Society, as quoted by Forbes in 2009: “The best estimates are that about 3 percent to 4 percent of currently married people have a sexual partner besides their spouse in a given year and about 15 percent to 18 percent of ever-married people have had a sexual partner other than their spouse while married.” Extramarital affairs are still looked upon as a grievousmoral transgression, ranking at the bottom of a 20-issue list of behavior offered by Gallup -- a positioned unchanged in the last 12 years. Having an affair ranks as more morally unacceptable than cloning humans or polygamy. Image courtesy of Gallup The conclusion? Politicians. They're just like us. In a video obtained by "The Ouachita Citizen," Rep. Vance McAllister (R-La.) is allegedly seen kissing a female member of his district office staff last December. The congressman has since issued an apology saying, "There's no doubt I've fallen short and I'm asking for forgiveness.”