Temporary employee at Md. distribution center fatally shot herself after killing 3 people, wounding 3 others

where she and her husband learned that Parker was all right. Harford County Executive Barry Glassman called the shooting a “too often occurrence,” referring to gun violence across the country. His county also is no stranger to such violence. The Rite Aid shootings come after three people were killed and two others wounded in a shooting at a Harford County business park in October 2017. And in 2016, two sheriff deputies were shot and killed at a Panera restaurant in the county. “It was another tragic event for us in Harford County,” Gahler said Thursday. “Unfortunately, all of us have been standing here before.” Mass killings — defined in federal statutes as homicides involving three or more victims — are seldom carried out by women, said Adam Lankford, a criminologist at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa who studies mass shootings. When women do commit such crimes, he said, the body count usually is relatively low. “If you look at mass shootings in the United States that have killed eight or more people, they’re all done by men,” Lankford said. He said women commit only about 10 percent of homicides overall and about 4 percent of mass killings. In many cases, Lankford said, mass killings with victims numbering in the double digits are committed by suicidal shooters seeking fame in death, and research shows that men are more likely “to be aggressive and violent” in trying achieve notoriety. In recent mass shootings by women, three people were wounded in April at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, Calif., by a disgruntled YouTube user, and three people were slain at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in February 2010 by a professor who was angry after being denied tenure. In Aberdeen, agents from the FBI and the Baltimore office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded to the shootings. About noon, dozens of SWAT team members could be seen coming from the building, and a Maryland State Police helicopter was at the scene. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said on Twitter: “The First Lady and I are grieving for the loss of life in today’s shooting in Harford County, and praying that those who were injured fully recover.” rachel.chason@washpost.com justin.jouvenal@washpost.com paul.duggan@washpost.com Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to a shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville as occurring in 2012. It occurred in 2010.


Who spread disinformation about the MH17 crash? We followed the Twitter trail.

in disseminating information about the cause of the passenger plane crash. There was an immediate global consensus that the crash was a tragedy, resulting in the deaths of all 298 passengers and crew members on board. Within hours, social media began to circulate rival explanations of what brought the plane down. Western media outlets claimed pro-Russian separatists shot it down. The Russian government, on the other hand, blamed the Ukrainian military. In September 2016, a Dutch-led joint investigating team (JIT) presented the results of its extensive investigation. The JIT found that flight MH17 was brought down by a missile from an area controlled by pro-Russian separatists. The investigators later revealed additional findings indicating that the missile originated from the Russian army. We assume that the JIT’s findings are reliable and accurate. Accordingly, we labeled social media posts that question the JIT findings “disinformation.” However, as mentioned, our focus is not on the reliability of the JIT or the Russian government, but on who spread the competing stories. How we conducted the research Our data consists of 941,028 tweets about MH17, starting from the day of the crash, July 17, 2014, and ending Dec. 9, 2016. We analyzed a random sample of 10 percent of all tweets that contained one or more keywords related to MH17. To identify which Twitter users engaged the most in the MH17 debate, we focus on those profiles that retweeted — or have been retweeted by — at least 10 other users, which puts them at the core of the network of retweets related to MH17. Citizens are highly engaged in the MH17 debate As the figure shows, the MH17 debate is highly polarized in two opposing clusters. To the left, the most-retweeted users in the cluster support the JIT findings: The plane was shot down from territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists using Russian weapons. The most popular users in the cluster to the right blame Ukraine or the West for shooting down the plane. However, some users merely expressed their condolences, without spreading or contesting disinformation. We divided the Twitter profiles into state, civil society (citizens and NGOs) and media accounts. As a combined group, citizens have a much higher impact when it comes to generating popular content than previously assumed. We also found that a majority of the citizen accounts are unlikely to be bots. Citizens are directing traffic more than we thought Our


Why is Belarus cracking down on independent journalists — and the Internet?

improper advertising and manufacturing explosive devices and explosives, as well as information containing personal data of minors who have suffered as a result of illegal actions. 2. Why implement these new amendments now? The introduction of new Internet restrictions is an indicator of the Belarus government’s intention to plan ahead and implement a long-term, comprehensive — but not overly expensive — solution to potential online activism during the 2020 election season. This has been done before — Belarusian authorities amended the mass media law a year or two before presidential elections in 2010 and in 2015. Alexander Lukashenko By introducing the restrictions now, the government allows time for the wave of discussion about the new restrictions to calm down. Its next task will be to prepare to fill the already restricted Web space with propaganda and spin to reinforce political ideologies. 3. What does this tell us about how regimes respond to online opposition generally? In a recent article in Comparative Politics, Sergey Sanovich and his co-authors outlined three ways that authoritarian regimes respond to online opposition, including offline responses, online attempts to restrict access to content, and online attempts to engage with content in an effort to change the nature of the conversation. The Belarusian example suggests that online restrictions imposed before elections minimize the need for an offline response when the elections roll around. By silencing domestic critics, preventing the emergence of political alternatives and reducing protests during elections, the government reduces the need for brutal crackdowns on opposition. And it may find it possible to limit attention on uncomfortable topics like arrests of opposition activists or falsification of the elections. At the same time, a strong focus on online restrictions, but not online engagement, in Belarus shows the government’s increasing understanding of how to control its diverse electorate. The government delays full swing propaganda until expanded propaganda opportunities during the election campaign, when audiences are more receptive to its messages. In the meantime, Internet restrictions reduce the barriers for the “Spinternet” — using propaganda and spin to promote the government’s agenda — limiting the spread of alternative information. The Internet supposedly offers the promise of a liberating world, providing citizens who live under authoritarian rule an opportunity to speak their minds and join their fellow citizens in holding their governments to account. The Belarusian example, however, provides further evidence that authoritarian rulers are determined to keep that


Man fatally shot in Southwest D.C. near Waterfront metro station.

This story has been updated. A man was shot and killed and two others were critically wounded in three separate incidents Friday morning, police said. They said one of the people wounded is a pregnant woman. The fatal shooting happened about 11 a.m. in the 900 block of Third Street SW. The victim was identified by police as Kajuan Deris Young, 27, of Southwest, Washington. The site is near the Southwest Neighborhood Library, and about three blocks northeast of the Waterfront Metro station. There was no information about what caused the gunfire. D.C. police also said a pregnant woman was shot in Southeast at about 1:15 a.m. Friday in the 2400 block of Wagner Street near Good Hope Road. Ten minutes later, police said, a man was shot in the 400 block of Rhode Island Avenue NE near Fourth Street. Both of these victims were reportedly in critical condition, police said. At least two other shootings were reported in the District Friday night. dana.hedgpeth@washpost.com michael.bricesaddler@washpost.com


U-Md. releases report on Jordan McNair, laying out timeline that led to player’s death

with cold towels. Robinson said staff feared the player might drown in a tub given his size and the athletic trainers’ “smaller stature.” Walters acknowledged there was surveillance video of the team workout but said it didn’t reveal anything significant about McNair’s condition. He also noted that “information reported to UMD attorney, athletic director, and senior administration two days post event was not representative of activity and care on the field.” Family received copy Walters wrapped up his investigation this month, but the board of regents did not see his report until Friday. Maryland President Wallace D. Loh, who was present at Friday’s meeting, also said he didn’t receive a copy of the report until Thursday night. An attorney representing McNair’s family sent the board a sharply worded letter Thursday, demanding the board halt any public release of the report until the family had a chance to review it. The letter stated the family was worried about McNair’s private medical information becoming public. The family finally received a copy of the report late Thursday night and had a chance to review it before the board convened Friday morning. The McNairs have filed three claims with the state, giving notice they plan to sue — one on behalf of McNair’s estate and others on behalf of each parent. The claims all list damages “in excess of $10 million.” Loh said at an Aug. 14 news conference that the school “accepts legal and moral responsibility for the mistakes that our training staff made.” While the Walters report listed more than two dozen recommendations for Maryland to improve its protocols, the school already has instituted a variety of measures around the football program, including an increased number of doctors and trainers present at games and practices, the addition of cooling stations at practices, more recovery breaks and increased training for strength and conditioning coaches and athletic trainers. “What was new to me,” Loh said of the report, “although we have protocols and policies, which are good, but it’s not enough that they are good. They have to be implemented. And there has to be training. And of course that’s where we are short, and we have to do a better job.” The football team continues its season under interim coach Matt Canada with a home game Saturday against Minnesota, its first Big Ten contest of the year. The players have been honoring McNair


Noseda extends NSO contract; will stay through 2024-2025 season

Gianandrea Noseda will be staying in Washington. One year into the conductor’s tenure as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Gary Ginstling, the orchestra’s executive director, announced a four-year contract extension, through 2024-2025, from the stage of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall during the orchestra’s season-opening gala Saturday night. The orchestra also announced that it has raised $10 million earmarked for special initiatives for Noseda and the orchestra, including an in-house digital media initiative, meaning that the NSO will record its own performances for streaming and for physical CD and DVD — starting with a set of the complete Beethoven symphonies to be released in 2020, the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. The announcement put to rest some anxieties that the popular Noseda might look elsewhere after the expiration of his initial contract at the end of the 2020-2021 season — concerns that were augmented with the announcement this summer that the conductor will take over as music director of the Zurich Opera in 2021-2022. (It is not unusual for major conductors to have at least two regular posts.) It was also a high point of a gala that started with a lot of energy but showed an orchestra that still has a ways to go before becoming a true international contender. With the perennially popular theme of space in music (movements of Holst’s “The Planets” were a unifying link) and the ubiquitous Joshua Bell as soloist, it was hard to break out of a sense of business as usual. The NSO, at the beginning, promised to do just that, with a rousing rendition of the national anthem followed by a “Mars” that zinged and crackled. By the end, though, the group’s usual problems with playing together had reemerged. Noseda’s commitment to the potential of this hit-and-miss group is clearly undaunted. When the Zurich post was announced, he himself pointed out that Zurich will simply replace the opera house in Turin, Italy, where he was music director from 2007 until his unexpected resignation because of governmental changes earlier this year. This appointment will make Noseda the longest-serving NSO music director since Leonard Slatkin stepped down in 2008. Coming so early in his tenure, it also allows him and the orchestra to make concrete plans for significant work together. Noseda has already overseen the appointments of six new players to the orchestra, including filling the long-vacant spot of associate concertmaster,


Russia’s drug-testing program let athletes brazenly cheat. Now it’s back — flawed as ever.

IT TOOK only three years for world anti-doping authorities to reinstate Russia’s drug-testing program — three years and the total capitulation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to Russian deceit. Reports of Russian athletes’ widespread cheating emerged in 2014, followed by two official reports finding that the Russian government was deeply involved. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Russian testing laboratory, turned whistleblower and revealed that he had helped dope dozens of athletes in the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and that the FSB, the KGB successor agency, assisted. A landmark 2016 report found that an FSB agent disguised as a sewer worker helped remove supposedly tamper-proof bottles from a testing lab through a small hole in the wall, open them without breaking their seal and refill them with clean urine. This astonishingly brazen cheating got Russia banned from the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Well, sort of. Dozens of Russian athletes were still allowed to compete under a cloud of suspicion, as they did in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. International officials reinstated the Russian Olympic Committee days after the PyeongChang Games ended. Now, following a vote this past Thursday, the country’s drug-testing program is back, despite the fact that Russian officials refused to submit to two key requirements. First, they declined to accept guilt for state-sponsored doping, embracing only the conclusions of a report that did not detail the full scale of Russian state involvement. Apparently, in the topsy-turvy logic of international sports bureaucrats, nothing says remorse like denial. Second, the Russians still have not given world anti-doping authorities access to their infamous Moscow laboratory. Instead, Russian authorities have reportedly promised to provide testing data and samples to WADA on a certain timeline. WADA officials insist that if the Russians fail to hand over the information they want, the Russian drug-testing agency will be banned once again. This is no replacement for total and immediate access to the site, its samples and its data. And, given WADA’s conciliatory attitude, Russian authorities have reason to conclude that they would ultimately face less severe consequences if their disclosure is manipulated, incomplete or improperly delayed. Athletes across the globe, including the chairman of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, are dismayed at WADA’s capitulation. And they should be. So should honest Russian athletes, whose performances will be tainted by their government’s doping conspiracy and lack of


Mold forces University of Maryland students from dorm

MARYLAND Mold forces U-Md. students from dorm Hundreds of University of Maryland students are to be moved out of their dormitory because of concerns about mold, university officials said. “Mold has been reported throughout Elkton Hall,” the university’s department of resident life said Friday. The department said rain and humidity in the Washington area has made the matter worse. In addition to working to get rid of the mold, officials said they plan to relocate students “over a number of days” from Elkton out of abundant caution. — Martin Weil Gardener beats the odds after snake bite A Montgomery County resident was bitten by a venomous snake Saturday while gardening, according to the county’s fire and rescue service. But it appears the resident beat the odds. Authorities said emergency responders described the attack as a “dry bite,” one in which no venom is injected. Copperheads are vipers, and one website specializing in snakes said odds of a dry bite from a viper have been estimated at about 1 in 5. The incident was reported in the Rockville area, near Bouldercrest Court and Hurley Avenue. — Martin Weil VIRGINIA Maryland teen dies in hit-and-run in Virginia A Maryland teenager was killed early Saturday in the Gainesville area of Prince William County when a motorist struck him and drove off, county police said. They said the 17-year-old and a relative had been doing driveway work. About 2:30 a.m., they were in a parked truck that was faced in the wrong direction on Sudley Road near Catharpin Road. When a car going west approached the truck, the occupants feared a collision and got out, police said. They said the youth tried to cross the eastbound lanes and was struck as the car swerved around the parked truck. Police said they are trying to identify the driver, who they said drove a short way, stopped and went on. They said law prevented them from naming the youth. — Martin Weil


D.C. area job market churns along despite federal drawdown

The D.C. area economy generated 64,900 new jobs in the one-year period ended in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, capping off a strong summer for the local job market. The number of federal jobs across the region dropped, however, while the category that includes federal contractors saw the largest job increase of any sector. Job creation has slowed slightly from 2017 but remains far ahead of where it was in 2013, when the so-called sequestration budget cuts brought the regional economy to a low point. “It’s a great time to be a job seeker in the Washington area,” said Anirban Basu, a regional economist with the Maryland-based Sage Policy Group. “Rarely is demand for talent greater than it is now, and more people are quitting their jobs to look for something better.” Analysts said the figure might be overstated, however, because three separate Labor Department surveys, evaluating the District, suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia, added up to a much smaller 41,300 jobs over the same period. (Labor Department jobs estimates are preliminary and are often revised as the government collects additional information.) Despite a healthy influx of new workers into the region, unemployment rates barely budged, according to the report. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.6 percent in the District, 4.2 percent in Maryland and 3.1 percent in Virginia. Job growth was strongest in the professional and business services, health care, and hospitality industries. The region lost about 4,900 federal jobs in the past year, suggesting workers may be leaving the government at a faster rate than they are arriving. The Trump administration has taken steps to trim the number of people on federal payrolls over the past 18 months. Since February the administration has been pushing to freeze federal workers' pay, which could make federal employment less attractive moving forward. Those working for federal contractors — private-sector employees hired by the government — have fared better. That category that includes federal contractors added about 23,200 jobs in the past year, according to the jobs figures released Friday. Payroll data collected by the Human Resource Association of the National Capital Area found that government contractors allocated 5.3 percent more to payroll in 2018 than in 2017, compared with an increase of 3 percent for the median worker. A boost in federal spending may be spurring the region’s economic growth. According to an analysis by the Stephen


Jordan McNair report details two attempts at Maryland to revamp athletes’ medical care

The independent investigator charged with reviewing the circumstances surrounding the death of a Maryland football player said that on two occasions the university athletic department tried to revamp the way medical care was delivered to athletes and shift oversight away from the College Park campus, according to previously redacted portions of an investigative report. Both times the proposals were nixed, the report stated. The report, written by Walters Inc., an athletic training consulting firm, was released publicly Friday evening by the University System of Maryland Board of Regents. It was largely unredacted, detailing the events and errors from the May 29 workout that resulted in the death of 19-year-old Jordan McNair. Nearly four pages, however, were blacked out and not made available until Saturday afternoon. A University System of Maryland spokesman said in a statement: “In an abundance of caution, preliminary redaction decisions were made in accordance with Maryland law to protect, among other things, privileged communications and confidential personnel and medical information. “In the hours since, the USM has had the opportunity to revisit those preliminary decisions and has determined that no redactions are necessary for this section of the report.” The redacted portions pertain to plans the school considered that would have overhauled the way medical care was administered and delivered to athletes. One of the plans, which was initially reported on last month by The Washington Post, was proposed by Kevin Anderson, Maryland’s athletic director at the time, one year before McNair’s death and nixed by Maryland President Wallace D. Loh. The plan would have shifted the administration of medical services from the athletic department to the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, a different institution within the state’s system of public universities. The Walters report also stated that, one year before that, Anderson wanted to sever its ties with the Baltimore medical school, whose physicians treat Maryland athletes, to enter into an agreement with MedStar Health. “The Athletic Director’s interest in MedStar was reported as a financial one in that MedStar promised funding for Athletics if they switched contract from UMB to MedStar,” the report stated. “The University of Maryland had a significant and growing partnership with UMB and the President did not want to damage it by switching to MedStar and consequently rejected this proposal.” The report made 27 recommendations related to medical care for athletes but did not suggest the university change


Science educators need to talk about the identity of scientists

It’s been painful to watch the fall of Brian Wansink, a Cornell University marketing professor whose work on the psychology of food consumption has had an outsize impact on academics, policymakers, the general public — and me. His widely cited research helped inform the Obama administration’s Smarter Lunchrooms program, and his bestseller “Mindless Eating” laid out simple fixes for “mindlessly losing weight,” like sitting farther from the buffet line, which were backed up with rigorous scientific studies. But in 2016, outside researchers began to scrutinize those studies and found what appeared to be serious problems. A BuzzFeed investigation uncovered emails between Wansink and junior researchers encouraging them to torture data until it yielded conclusions that would “go virally big time.” Before long, a cadre of critics had discovered inconsistencies that led to the retraction of 13 papers. Like so many others, I once loved Wansink’s approach: the clever use of bottomless bowls to test subjects’ soup consumption patterns, the admirable focus on improving children’s eating habits through simple branding tricks. In my first book, which he blurbed, I discussed his influential work on “health halos,” which showed how low-fat labels license people to eat more and how organic labels make the same food taste better. These studies aren’t among the 13 that have been retracted by major journals for apparent data tampering, but I no longer trust them. How could I, when it now seems as though the person who produced them cared more about fame than facts? More important, I no longer trust myself. I take pride in being a steely-eyed skeptic, wary of too-good-to-be-truths. Yet my critical apparatus was hijacked by Wansink’s apparent altruism and his alignment with my own beliefs about the power of branding, especially when it comes to labels such as “all-natural” or “organic.” Other than his work, there was little evidence to back up the concept of health halos, and I should have presented them as speculative. Instead, I accepted them as established fact and presented them that way to my readers, misleading them just as I was misled. It was a stark reminder of how science really works. In theory, the scientific method is objective. But in reality, science is produced, interpreted and reported by humans — humans who are fallible, biased and self-interested. In the wake of the Wansink scandal, there have been renewed calls for reforming the methods and culture of


Japan’s Abe finds himself on sidelines amid outreach with North Korea

TOKYO — As North Korean leader Kim Jong Un works the diplomatic channels from Seoul to Washington, one Asian leader finds himself out in the cold. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly expressed his determination to meet Kim and “break the shell of mutual distrust.” So far there is nothing on the horizon. Just the opposite, in fact. North Korea’s propaganda machine has gone easy on the United States this year. But it has stepped up its vilification of Japan, sparing no opportunity to remind its citizens of Korea’s suffering under Japanese colonial rule in the decades before World War II. Japan, North Korean state media argues, is nothing less than “heinous war criminal state,” populated by “island barbarians” and led by a “kingpin of corruption” who has done only evil deeds since taking power. The question is whether all that bluster matters. After all, the North had blasted the United States with a similar propaganda barrage for decades. But the fast-moving events this year have highlighted Japan’s outlier status as possible deals are cut and new relationships are formed. “There is a real danger that Abe’s Japan is going to get left behind,” said Koichi Nakano, a political-science professor at Tokyo’s Sophia University. The Japanese news media took a similar line this week, reacting coolly to the exultant mood at the summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Nikkei, an influential financial newspaper, painted a “worst-case scenario” in which North Korea gives up its intercontinental ballistic missiles but retains the ones that can target Japan. “Cooperation between Japan, the United States and South Korea is essential,” a Nikkei article said. Last year, Japan stood side by side with the United States in insisting on “maximum pressure” on North Korea until the country surrenders its nuclear weapon program. Today, “maximum pressure” has all but disintegrated, as China and Russia ease their enforcement of sanctions and South Korea talks eagerly about economic cooperation with the North. So, when Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono warned recently that sanctions should not be lifted until North Korea completely denuclearizes, Pyongyang reacted with contempt. It mocked Tokyo for trying to stand in the way of the “trend of the times.” “It has been left alone in the region, being branded as a country of pigmy politicians engaged in abnormal view on things and phenomena, anachronistic thought and stupid and unbecoming conduct,” the


From local bottles to screw caps, a decade of wine trends

Right after starting the column, and in cahoots with my friend Jeff Siegel, author of the Wine Curmudgeon blog, I founded Drink Local Wine, an organization aimed at promoting the idea of “wine from around here, wherever here happens to be.” We encouraged writers, bloggers and other journalists to visit and write about their local wineries. Over five years, we brought writers to Texas, Virginia, Missouri, Colorado and Maryland to explore these emerging wine regions. Ten years ago, you rarely read about these areas in wine magazines or travel publications such as Wine Enthusiast, the Wine Advocate, Garden & Gun or Food & Wine. Now they are the darling destinations. Winemakers deserve the credit, of course, but I’d like to think I helped push the needle. I’ve chronicled some exciting developments in local wine. I was the first to write about RdV, an ambitious project to create a “first growth” Virginia wine, met initially with skepticism but now internationally recognized for its quality. The renaissance of Boordy and the rise of Old Westminster demonstrated Maryland’s impressive growth. My four-part series on the 2015 vintage at Barboursville celebrated a local winery (and its vineyard crew) but also detailed the work that goes into producing a wine, from pruning to harvest. I wrote about the heartbreak of an Ohio vintner who saw his wines devastated by the polar vortex of 2014 and faced the hard task of revitalizing his vineyard. There were other changes in the wider world of wine. This decade saw the professionalization of sommeliers and their ascendance as arbiters of our taste in wine. And today we drink wine from countries we wouldn’t have thought of 10 years ago. We can explore the world by following a trusted importer, and through these columns, we have. We’ve rid ourselves of some of wine’s fusty old traditions. Screw caps have overcome initial market reluctance, and wine in boxes and cans have shed their Skid Row image. “Natural wines” remain controversial among the wine crowd, but they have become increasingly mainstream as mostly younger drinkers seek out wines made with fewer additives and grown organically or biodynamically. Some of my favorite columns have dealt with wine’s ability to connect us to our culture and history. I sipped a 1914 Bollinger Champagne, harvested as the Guns of August roared nearby. Thanks to the Smithsonian’s food and wine history project, I profiled pioneers of


September’s full Harvest Moon peaks Monday night, but the show will be best in the West

(This article, first published Friday, was updated Monday based on the latest cloud cover forecast.) Right on the heels of Saturday’s autumnal equinox, Monday’s full moon is the first of fall across the Northern Hemisphere. Frequently called the Harvest Moon, September’s full moon tends to coincide with the harvest as the warm breezes of summer begin to turn direction and the frozen winds of winter approach. While the moon will be quite bright at 97 percent illumination or beyond through Wednesday, according to space.com, this year’s Harvest Moon will be full at 10:52 p.m. Monday, Sept. 24, in Washington and across the East Coast of the United States. The way the September moon orbits Earth “keeps the bright, gorgeous lunar orb seemingly pinned to the twilight sky for several nights in a row,” according to Sky and Telescope. The gap between each day’s moonrise is at or near its shortest length of the year. This means more bright light on consecutive evenings for anyone out and about. It is also a great time to lazily gaze at the sky, assuming sky conditions cooperate. Unfortunately, clouds are likely to be a problem for moon watchers in and around Washington as well as a good chunk of the eastern United States and into the Upper Midwest as well. West of the High Plains, it is a different story. Scattered cloudiness may be of minor concern, but it is more clear than not as you head toward the West Coast. Per timeanddate.com, Monday’s sunset in Washington is at 7:01 p.m., and moon rise is at 7:13 p.m, although there may not be much to see. Given the proximity of sunset and moon rise in Washington and other locations in the region, the moon will climb into Monday evening’s sky during “blue hour,” which is a favorite time for photography, thanks to the pleasing light and contrast that tend to come in the period between sunset and dusk. Capital Weather Gang Photographer Kevin Ambrose has in the past also brilliantly shown how the Harvest Moon lines up with monuments on the Mall. This Earth-sky alignment can also set the stage for great photo opportunities during Tuesday morning’s sunrise and moon set, which are also quite close to one another, coming at 6:58 a.m. and 7:16 a.m., respectively. But once again, clouds may be a problem. Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning may present opportunities to


The Jewish deli is having a moment in places where you’d least expect it

Chinese food or tacos.” And Mile End, whose Brooklyn debut arguably sparked the nouveau-deli revival in 2010, planted a flag in Nashville in March. “A lot of people don’t identify deli as Jewish. They think of New York City,” said 36-year-old Joel Tietolman, a co-founder. Mile End’s Music City outpost has been a hit, Tietolman said, though not without tweaks; the Big Jewcy, a beef patty beneath a quarter-pound of smoked meat, got re-christened the Big Juicy “because people didn’t get the New York humor,” Tietolman said. “They asked if it was anti-Semitic.” In the midst of deli-mania, why did District eateries On Rye and DGS Delicatessen — the latter’s chopped liver wowed even The Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema — belly-flop within months of each other last year? Blame the cost of meat, said Nick Wiseman, the DGS co-founder who now runs D.C. hummus chain Little Sesame. “Operating a restaurant is challenging, period,” he said. “Layer labor-intensive food and super-high-quality ingredients on top, and it’s extremely difficult.” To offset costs of locally sourced provisions, Wiseman and his partners “tried to focus on drinks and make DGS a nighttime destination, but that didn’t work.” For new delis like Rye Society, that means managing expectations. “Delis make 60 percent of their sales with meat but none of the profit,” owner Rosen said. “You have to balance that but not anger people who expect a Katz’s monster. We can’t lose money on every sandwich.” In Chicago, Steingold’s switched from Wagyu beef to USDA Prime just a few months after opening. “We have to work tirelessly to lower our costs,” owner Steingold said. But those beefs aren’t stemming the deli tide. In Seattle’s hip Capitol Hill neighborhood, longtime caterer Vance Dingfelder earlier this month opened Dingfelder’s, an “Old World authentic” Jewish spot. (In an email, Dingfelder said he was “too slammed” to talk.) Mile End will open in Birmingham, Ala., next month, part of an ambitious Southern expansion. And in the deli desert of Sacramento, business partners Jami Goldstene and Andrea Lepore will open a glitzy flagship location of their Davis spot Solomon’s — named for late Tower Records founder and deli aficionado Russ Solomon — in December. A French-trained chef of Persian origin will run the kitchen. “We’ll be interpreting traditional Ashkenazi food for modern times,” said Goldstene, 60. “Deli’s a universal sort of food. It’s not just for New York Jews.” food@washpost.com


Maryland AD says he was given bad info in immediate wake of Jordan McNair’s death

whole coaching staff was present that day. He completed the running exercise that day, 10 110s, and he did complete it.” Evans initially launched the external review “to have an examination of all firsthand accounts and available documentation to establish the accurate timeline for the day and to determine whether the appropriate policies were followed,” he said in his statement. “With the report released by the Board of Regents, we now have confirmation that there were inaccuracies in the initial information shared with the university that informed my comments in the June 14th press conference,” he said in his statement. Evans previously told reporters at an Aug. 14 news conference that school employees failed to diagnose or treat McNair for exertional heatstroke at the May workout. He didn’t address the timeline that day but seemed to acknowledge that his initial explanation was incomplete. “We sat down and met with individuals on our staff to try to ascertain as best we could what transpired on that particular day and we provided you with the information that we had at that time,” he said. Before the Aug. 14 news conference, where Maryland President Wallace D. Loh accepted “legal and moral responsibility” for the mistakes that led to McNair’s death, school officials had maintained they had done all they could to treat the 19-year-old player. “I’m very confident in the personnel we have and the procedures we have in place,” Durkin said July 24. Evans had said on June 14 that the school’s medical personnel was “supporting active recovery” and “providing necessary care,” even though he’d later learn they failed to diagnose McNair with heatstroke and the player’s body’s temperature wasn’t lowered to a safe range until nearly 2½ hours after he first exhibited symptoms. Evans also said at the June news conference that McNair was transferred to a hospital at approximately 6 p.m., while the Walters report states the ambulance didn’t depart school grounds until 6:27. He told reporters that Maryland players are given a gallon of water before practice and were served lunch at 2 p.m. The Walters report stated that McNair’s water was found unopened in his locker and that all he’d eaten that day was a bowl of cereal. The school has instituted some changes, and while it took no immediate actions in response to the new report, officials say they intend to implement all of Walters’s recommendations. rick.maese@washpost.com


Violence in Congo imperils efforts to combat Ebola outbreak

the virus have been confirmed across two vast provinces, North Kivu and Ituri. Congo is massive — spanning an area roughly equal to the size of the United States east of the Mississippi River — and this is its 10th Ebola outbreak. Congo’s ministry of health has gained a reputation for being particularly adept at containing the disease, but many factors in this current outbreak make that difficult. Foremost is the conflict. Saturday’s attack was pinned on the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamist group, in local media reports, though with dozens of armed militias active in eastern Congo, establishing culpability is difficult. Another worrying development was the escape of an Ebola patient who later turned up in the lakeside town of Tchomia. That town has served as the disembarking point for tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict, who pack onto boats that take them to Uganda, on the other side. The patient later died. Her partner, whom she took with her, is in an isolation ward in nearby Kasenyi. This is the second Ebola outbreak in Congo this year. The first began in May and caused ripples of fear throughout the global health community when it reached Mbandaka, a city of more than 1 million on the banks of the heavily trafficked Congo and Ruki rivers. The international response was swift, however, and the outbreak was declared over in June with 33 deaths. Ebola’s devastating power was proved during a harrowing 30-month period between 2014 and 2016 when it swept across West Africa, killing more than 11,000 and infecting 28,000. A few cases made it outside Africa, causing even further alarm. There is no cure for Ebola, and in a majority of cases it is fatal, though chances of survival are higher the sooner it is caught. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of an Ebola outbreak to control is misinformation. In Congo’s contentious political environment, conspiracy theories about Ebola are sometimes used to cast doubts or aspersions on rivals. “We also see a very concerning trend that resistance, driven by quite natural fear of this terrifying disease, is starting to be exploited by local politicians,” Salama said at a news conference on Tuesday, “and we’re very concerned in the run-up to elections, projected for December, that that exploitation . . . will gather momentum and make it very difficult to root out the last cases of Ebola.” max.bearak@washpost.com


I conjured a fairy tale for my daughter. Will she see me as a magician, or a liar?

My daughter’s most meaningful relationship right now is with a fairy named Bea. There is a door as tall my hand, that leads from Bea’s tiny world into the world my daughter occupies when she’s with me. Through this door, they exchange letters, flowers, clover, a butterfly’s wing; small, beautiful, rotting things. My daughter’s most complicated relationship right now is with me. She is 7. She had a truth: We were a happy family. A happy mom, a happy dad, a happy daughter, and a happy son. When I told her my truth (her father and I were not making each other happy) she wasn’t sure what she could believe. She wasn’t sure she could believe anything anymore. I want my daughter to believe in something again. This is what it means to love, I think? Sometime between signing divorce mediation papers and a new lease, I sneaked into my new apartment and installed a fairy door for my son, the tooth fairy, and my daughter. I had done the same three years before, sometime between signing mortgage papers and unloading a life into the house where I thought I might finally be happy. Both times there was a ridiculous sense of urgency to get and install fairy doors. It felt like the most important thing I had to do. In the middle of the mess, I needed to make room for magic. I’m a mother. I’m a liar. I’m a magician. My daughter writes a letter introducing herself, and asks, “What’s your name?” Days later, the fairy responds, “I’m Bea, buzz buzz, like the insect!” Just like that, they are best friends. Their correspondence is a slow, deliberate thing. Bea writes to my daughter when she’s away at her dad’s house, during those stretches when I’m trying to figure out who I am. I’m a mother, but I’m not a mother. Where are my children? I’m an ex-wife. An ex-daughter-in-law. I’m a fairy. A best friend. I’m a figment of my own imagination. I write with my left hand, sometimes after I’ve had a glass of wine, to disguise my handwriting. In the beginning, my daughter was skeptical. She asked, “Do you think Bea’s real?” And I turned the question on its head like adults do, “Do you think Bea’s real?” She asks me for a handwriting sample, compares it against Bea’s. When Bea writes her a letter on


D.C. Health confirms case of Legionnaires’ disease at Northwest retirement home

they are looking for the vehicle. The victim was identified as Thomas H. Hollowell. The crash occurred about 7:30 a.m. in the 1200 block of Constitution Avenue NW, between the Smithsonian Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History. Police said Hollowell was riding his bicycle east on Constitution Avenue and was crossing 12th Street when he was hit. Police said the driver of the dark sedan went through a red traffic light and struck the bicyclist at a high speed. The driver headed north on 12th Street NW, police said. Monday’s crash occurred three days after a Montgomery County man was killed while riding an electric scooter at Dupont Circle, the first time someone using the shared scooter service has been killed in the area. That incident remains under investigation. Police have recorded 27 traffic-related fatalities this year, a slight increase over this time in 2017. Four were bicyclists. Ten were pedestrians, including the man killed on the scooter. Five were motorcyclists, seven were in cars and one was riding an ATV. — Peter Hermann MARYLAND Man struck by car dies two days later A man struck by a car while crossing the street over the weekend died two days after the accident, according to Prince George’s County police. Domingo Hernandez-Vasquez, 43, of no fixed address was in or near a crosswalk in the 7900 block of New Hampshire Avenue in Langley Park, Md., shortly before 10 p.m. on Sept. 22 when he was struck by a car, police said. Hernandez-Vasquez was walking against the pedestrian signal, police said. The driver who struck him remained at the scene. Hernandez-Vasquez was taken to a hospital in critical condition and died Monday, police said. — Lynh Bui D.C. man is arrested in fatal shooting A Northwest Washington man was arrested in a fatal shooting that occurred this month in Suitland, Md. Tyrone Smith Jr., 38, has been charged with first-degree murder and other related charges in the slaying of Anthony Burress, 50, of District Heights, Prince George’s County police said. Burress was found suffering from gunshot wounds around 11 p.m. on Sept. 2 in the 3600 block of Silver Park Drive, police said. He died Sept. 14 because of complications from the shooting, police said. Police said the shooting was the result of a dispute. Smith is in county jail and being held without bond. — Lynh Bui


Bring out the mad scientist in you with these spooktacular events

Halloween is the perfect time to show how science can bring the spook factor to life. How do you make something levitate? Why do bats like the dark? What chemicals are needed to make a magic potion? All these things can be learned at several fun Halloween events. Spend a night at the zoo with animals that like to come out after dark. You also have the chance to live like Harry Potter for a day and become the wizard you were meant to be. Discover what it feels like in a bat cave. Just make sure you don’t forget your costume! Boo at the Zoo Washington Spend Halloween after-hours with some spooky animals at the Smithsonian’s annual Boo at the Zoo. Your ticket includes a trick-or-treat bag that you can fill with sweets at more than 40 candy stations. Educational shows will take place at animal houses and exhibits, including the Reptile Discovery Center, the Great Ape House and Great Cats Circle. Where: When: How much: For more information: Great Jack O'Lantern Campfire Upper Marlboro, Maryland A mad scientist has taken over the Great Jack O’Lantern Campfire, and it’s up to you to save it! At Darnall’s Chance House Museum in Maryland, solving a pumpkin scavenger hunt is the only way you can help stop the evil scientist. Before the hunt, the scientist will put on a show and share his wicked plans to take over Halloween with explosive science experiments. Roast marshmallows by the campfire, and listen to haunted tales. Tasty treats such as popcorn and cider will also be provided. (No costume required.) Where: When: How Much: For more information: Air & Scare Chantilly, Virginia At the Air & Scare, bring your sweet tooth and go trick-or-treating around the aircraft exhibits. Scientists will be in stations with experiments that can cause a scare. Levitating objects, launching broomsticks and other freaky hands-on activities will be available at the National Air and Space Museum event. Where: When: How much: For more information: Witches & Wizards Weekend Baltimore Have you ever wanted to learn how to make a magic potion? Now is your chance. The B & O Railroad Museum is hosting a wizardry school-inspired Halloween event. At a herbology station, young wizards have the chance to grow a plant buddy. Witches will make edible potions with simple science. Run through a magical maze and customize your own wand. The


Non-bank lenders are back and even bigger than before

Enter non-bank lenders, which stand ready to make loans to people with less than perfect credit. Non-bank lenders are not subject to the same rigorous, and expensive, oversight that the Dodd-Frank act imposed on traditional banks in the aftermath of the housing crash. Scrutiny of most non-banks is further reduced by virtue of their being privately owned, and technology has helped level the playing field in mortgage lending. In addition, non-bank lenders are helped by mortgage guarantees offered by federal agencies such as the Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs, which promise to pay back investors if borrowers default. The guarantees not only reduce the risk to lenders, but also contribute to lower rates for borrowers. The FHA’s congressional mandate is to make mortgage credit accessible to the middle class. Consumers buying a home with a loan backed by the FHA can provide down payments as low as 3.5 percent, much smaller than the 20 percent that is typically required for a conventional loan. About 85 percent of FHA mortgages were originated by non-bank lenders in 2016, up from 57 percent in 2010, according to the agency. Non-bank lenders are serving many black and Latino borrowers, who tend to have less inherited wealth and are more likely to need a loan that requires a smaller down payment, according to a Brookings Institution paper this year about the rise of non-bank lenders. Non-banks originated 53 percent of all mortgages in 2016, but 64 percent of the mortgages extended to black and Hispanic borrowers, according to the Brookings paper. Non-bank loans accounted for 58 percent of the mortgages made to borrowers with low-to-moderate incomes. Instead of tapping customer deposits to make mortgage loans, non-banks fund loans using credit. Ultimately, they sell the mortgages to investors around the world, often retaining responsibility for collecting payment (and receiving fees for doing so) but no longer owning the mortgages or receiving interest income. The model works well when the economy is strong and borrowers are making payments on time. But if a recession or a housing slump hits, things can go south quickly — as they did in the crisis. The lines of credit non-bank lenders tap today could be revoked if the firms providing the credit become concerned about the lenders’ financial health. And without credit, many lenders could be forced out of business because they wouldn’t have enough capital to


Unable to get to the grocery store? Here’s what you need to know about online shopping and delivery services.

Productivity is back in town. Long gone are summer days without schedules and to-do lists. Late, lingering dinners must be tabled. Kids come home hungry and with little time to eat before homework beckons. This means being organized is a must; there is no time for a last-minute run to the store. Online grocery shopping is a key player in the game of household efficiency. As much as I love wandering the aisles of a grocery store, taste-testing new products and picking out the perfect peach, there is often no time for this. Lugging bags from store to car to kitchen is a drag, as is waiting in line when the only time you can make it to the store is when everyone else can, too. Once considered a luxury, online grocery shopping has become more common and affordable. A recent Nielsen study reveals that about a quarter of Americans buy some of their groceries online, and up to 70 percent will follow in the next six years. These days, grocery delivery services provide more than food at your doorstep. They include menu-planning tools, meal kits, farmers market quality, and same-day delivery. Sounds enticing, but with so many different fees to navigate and stores to choose from, where to begin? Here’s what to look for in an online grocer: Fee structure: Some collect delivery fees. Others charge a subscription fee for unlimited deliveries. Establish how often you will be using the service to determine whether the subscription model is cost-effective. Look for member coupons and free trials. Delivery: Same-day delivery is appealing if you are too busy to plan ahead. Short delivery windows or unattended deliveries are ideal for people on the move, while longer delivery windows can save money. Interface: Most sites offer automatic reordering. Some enable you to buy ingredients straight from recipes or easily add items to your order after checkout. If you are always on the go, you’ll want a user-friendly mobile app. Variety: Would you prefer to shop at one store, or amass items from many stores into one delivery? Decide if you are interested in extras such as meal kits, chopped vegetables, and organic, gluten-free, all-natural or local foods before you pick a service. Here are some things I have learned and mistakes I’ve made as I experimented with different online grocers: Check unit quantities. I once inadvertently ordered five pounds of sweet potatoes


the fine print. Begin with the free two-week trial. •Pros: Groceries can be delivered within an hour, making Instacart the fastest option. The personal shoppers interact with you via text if they have questions and alert you when the food is on its way, making the experience customer-friendly. The app is user-friendly. •Cons: Overall, costs tend to be higher. Fresh Direct •Product: Specializes in gourmet and natural foods with a focus on organic, gluten-free and kosher items. Claims to provide high-quality meats and seafood, freshly baked goods and meal kits and to source from local farms and dairies. •Cost: Monthly fee structure for free deliveries, or a delivery fee of $7.99 per order in the Washington, D.C., area. •Pros: Offers lots of coupons, unattended delivery, and extras such as homemade stock and chopped vegetables. •Cons: No same-day delivery or easy interface to order ingredients from recipes, and delivery is limited to the East Coast. Thrive Market •Product: Delivers healthy food and natural products at wholesale prices, about 25 to 50 percent off retail. Offers curated brands that it says meet the highest standards in the natural product category, including meat, fish, packaged foods and supplements, and pet, baby and children’s supplies. •Cost: Annual fee of $59.95 with free delivery on orders over $49. For each paid membership, Thrive offers one to someone in need. Start with a free trial. •Pros: Every product is tagged with descriptors such as nut-free, dairy-free, vegan, non-GMO, carbon-neutral and other labels that matter to their customers. •Cons: No fresh produce. Very focused on health and natural products, so if you’d prefer mainstream groceries, perhaps look elsewhere. Google Express •Product: Sources from many stores and compiles into one or a few deliveries. Retail options include Whole Foods, Costco, Giant, Staples, Walgreens and many home stores. •Cost: Each store has a per- store minimum of $25 to $35 for free delivery. Prices generally compare with those in store. •Pros: Orders can be placed via Google Assistant. •Cons: Not everything comes in one delivery, and deliveries range from same-day to three-day. If you order from many stores, you may end up paying multiple delivery fees if you do not meet minimums. Interface lacks extras such as recipes. An earlier version of this article failed to mention that Instacart charges a 5 percent service fee (7.5 percent in New York City) per order. This version has been corrected. localliving@washpost.com


Senate panel advances Syria sanctions that also target Russia

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday advanced the latest legislative effort to hit Russia with new sanctions — this time, for its support of the government in Syria and its role in what human rights advocates and international officials have identified as mass atrocities akin to war crimes. The bill would impose sanctions against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” in Syria, including his use of chemical weapons. It would also extend sanctions to individuals and entities supporting Assad’s government and its war effort — a prohibition that by definition includes countries such as Russia and Iran. The legislation is named after the Syrian defector known by the pseudonym “Caesar,” who took more than 55,000 photos documenting the torture and death of prisoners in government jails while working as a photographer for the authorities. It has already passed the House twice; Wednesday was the first time a Senate panel considered the legislation, approving it by voice vote. The Senate has resisted taking any additional actions to impose sanctions on Russia, despite pressure to do so from across the political spectrum after the Helsinki summit, in which President Trump suggested he might believe Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denials of Russian election interference, over the findings of the U.S. intelligence community. Leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations and Banking committees promised instead to do a careful review of how to counter Russia’s aggressive activities with punitive measures, including sanctions. Those sessions have taken place over the past few weeks and have included a hearing on Russia’s support of the Syrian government's war effort. Trump has resisted personally criticizing Russia harshly over its alleged election interference, though this month he signed an executive order extending sanctions to nearly three dozen Russian individuals and entities affiliated with the defense and intelligence sectors that have played a role in election interference. But on Syria, his rhetoric has been harsher. Despite his skepticism of the United States’ mission in Syria, Trump has ordered airstrikes against the Assad regime twice over chemical-weapons attacks, and his administration has promised to keep U.S. forces in Syria until Iranian-backed armed groups cease operating there. This week at the United Nations, Trump told the Security Council that the Assad regime’s “butchery is enabled by Russia and Iran.” It is unclear whether that creates more political incentive for the full Senate to vote


5G is in reach. But only if we set the right policies.

of dollars in non-tax revenue for our nation. Infrastructure policy is critical as well. All the spectrum in the world won’t make a difference if we don’t have physical infrastructure to carry 5G traffic. That’s going to be a challenge, because the 5G networks of the future will look very different from the 4G networks we know today. Instead of 200-foot cell towers dominating the landscape, 5G networks will rely more heavily on “small cells” — think more inconspicuous equipment, perhaps no larger than a pizza box, more densely deployed and operating at much lower power (the closer an antenna is to a phone, the less power is required to connect the two). We’ll also need a lot more fiber optic lines to connect all these small cells to the networks’ core. But to deploy the hundreds of thousands of small cells and miles of fiber needed for 5G, we need to streamline regulations. We will never realize the 5G future if we impose federal, state, local and tribal regulatory burdens designed for large towers on every single small cell. That’s why the FCC has cut red tape for small-cell deployment and will continue to enable companies to focus on fiber roll out, allowing them to upgrade fading copper networks and making it cheaper and easier to string fiber optic lines on utility poles. To be sure, the FCC can’t do it alone. Our government overall needs to encourage the kind of innovation that will make 5G networks pop — such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, which could help us use spectrum more efficiently and process information generated by mobile devices more quickly. The government needs to break down artificial barriers to 5G so that, for example, state-by-state licensing restrictions don’t prevent telemedicine entrepreneurs from offering medical expertise virtually. And it needs to ensure that regulators approach newer companies whose services rely on 5G connectivity — think the Airbnbs and Lyfts of the future — based on whether consumers are better off, not on old regulatory paradigms. Forty-five years ago, the visionary engineer Martin Cooper made the first-ever cellphone call. It’s incredible how quickly and profoundly wireless technology has changed our world in the years since, especially since 4G’s introduction. Even better things will be ahead if we embrace the 5G future. We can succeed and make countless consumers better off, but only if we choose to act boldly.


Looking back at a hot, soggy mess of a growing season

gloves had stained my hands yellow. The only thing that kept me going was the sight of a hummingbird perched on the fence between visits to sage blossoms. If such a fragile-looking creature could endure this, so could I. The most irritating aspect was the way the seeds stuck to my fingers. The brassicas — kale, arugula, mustards, for example — are tiny beads that love to adhere to your wet skin. The same is the case for the lettuce seeds. Actually, what was just as irritating was that the seed merchant I use is so stinting in its quantity of seed. That meant every seed was counted and had to be placed with care. After abandoning my usual sprinkling technique, I started smearing my seedy finger down the furrow, but this was only so effective. As a desperate gesture, I started flicking the seeds from my hands, like a conjurer makes flames dance. I could laugh at the absurdity of it. It was time to go and soak in a hot bath, with two of the seed beds still untouched. Restored, I returned a week later to the garden to discover that the goldfinches had suddenly lost their bright yellow plumage but not their sense that they are still at a summer picnic. I watched them alight on big leaves of Swiss chard, where they perched and pecked. Are there any positive aspects to gardening in the rain forest? You may find garter snakes perched in your shrubs as these beautiful little serpents try to dry out. Plants in free-draining soil have grown enormous; this includes pepper plants, as well as the tithonia or Mexican sunflower, now nine feet tall and covered in bees and butterflies. Among these alluring insects was a striking but uncommon zebra swallowtail, which supped at the tithonia and then moved to a zinnia. The butterfly indicates there are pawpaw trees, its larval host plant, in the nearby woods. Pawpaw fruits are now in season and seem unaffected by the rain. The flood has also brought great heft to some salvia plants that have yet to flower, including the lemon-yellow pineapple sage, and a variety named Anthony Parker. The latter produces deep purple blossoms, but won’t flower until mid- to late October at this rate. By then, this sticky and grasping summer will be over, perhaps, but it won’t be forgotten. adrian.higgins@washpost.com @adrian_higgins on Twitter


The GOP’s spin on the Russia probe doesn’t add up

contacts, citing attorney-client privilege. But he doesn’t challenge the accuracy of a series of texts and emails about his activities that have been published by columnist John Solomon in the newspaper the Hill, whose scoops haven’t gotten much attention from mainstream media outlets. How do the pieces of the Deripaska-Steele-Assange narrative fit together? In the texts and emails, supplemented by my own reporting, Deripaska emerges as a complex figure who was, in effect, playing both sides of the street in his dealings with Moscow and Washington. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked at an open Senate Intelligence Committee hearing with FBI Director Christopher A. Wray in February if “Steele was employed either directly or indirectly, by Oleg Deripaska at the time he was writing the so-called ‘Steele dossier.’ ” Wray wouldn’t respond in open session but answered “there might be more we could say there” in a classified hearing. A knowledgeable source, who requested anonymity to speak freely about sensitive legal matters, tells me that Deripaska’s lawyers had indeed hired Steele in 2012 to gather information for a British court case involving the oligarch’s aluminum business. (Deripaska’s lawyer, Paul Hauser, didn’t respond to a request for comment.) The texts illuminate Steele’s assiduous efforts on Deripaska’s behalf, in the months before the former MI6 officer began compiling the dossier, and also, the pair’s connections to Waldman. The earliest Steele reference to Waldman in the documents is a Jan. 12, 2016, text from Steele to Justice Department lawyer Bruce Ohr, in which Steele notes: “I heard from Adam Waldman yesterday that OD [Oleg Deripaska] is applying for another official US visa.” Steele said that “Agency guys” (presumably the CIA) had told Waldman that the U.S. government’s “stance on [Deripaska] is softening,” which he termed a “positive development.” Steele followed with more upbeat texts to Ohr on Feb. 8 and Feb. 21, 2016. “Our old friend OD apparently has been granted another official visa,” says one. “We reckon . . . that the forthcoming OVD [Deripaska] contact represents a good opportunity for the USG,” says another. The background to these messages is fascinating. Steele and Ohr, both Russia specialists, had known each since the late 2000s. In September 2015, the knowledgeable source tells me, Steele and Ohr helped arrange a meeting in New York between Deripaska and FBI officials. This was at the time of the U.N. General Assembly meeting, and Deripaska was traveling


Climate change is destroying our national parks at an alarming rate, study finds

that can be absorbed by forests and oceans, and excess carbon in the atmosphere has reflected sunlight back to the Earth, Gonzalez said. It is a natural process, but human activity has helped add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere at levels not seen for 800,000 years, he said. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the best way to reduce climate impact at the parks, the researchers said. The National Park Service said it relies on studies, such as the newest one, to inform policy, in which climate change is one factor among others in its decision-making. "It is our job to understand and know how to manage effects from a changing climate so that we may protect park resources, just as we manage the impacts of invasive species or erosion or wildfire,” said Jeremy Barnum, an agency spokesman, in a statement Tuesday. The agency said the study describes natural events that take place “outside the climate change conversation,” such as wildfires caused by humans. But the effects of climate change on national parks are clear and documented, the researchers said. Jack Williams, a climate researcher at the University of Wisconsin, told The Post Glacier National Park in Montana, which draws admirers for its snowy peaks and mirror-like lakes, may lose its namesake because of rising temperatures and glaciers already in retreat. “It’s very likely under the highest rates [of warming] that the glaciers would melt,” he said. Further north, in Alaska’s Glacier Bay, the once enormous Muir Glacier has melted hundreds of meters from the 1950s to 2010. At Yellowstone, drought and wildfires have thinned towering forests, and scientific projections point to fires that burn more frequently. It could turn the region into rolling grasslands, Williams said. Wildfires are naturally occurring and typically ideal for forests to clear underbrush, researchers said, but arid conditions and federal policies to stamp out fires has translated to drier and denser kindling that make fires more intense. Gonzalez, who is also the principal climate scientist for the National Park Service but spoke about his research in his capacity at Berkeley, said Yellowstone faces another threat connected to human activity. The winter cold used to kill bark beetles. But warmer seasons have extended the life of these insects, which can feast on trees longer and in greater numbers. The transforming ecosystem there may also force the iconic bison and other animals away from familiar grounds, researchers


for its snowy peaks and mirror-like lakes, may lose its namesake because of rising temperatures and glaciers already in retreat. “It’s very likely under the highest rates [of warming] that the glaciers would melt,” he said. Further north, in Alaska’s Glacier Bay, the once enormous Muir Glacier has melted hundreds of meters from the 1950s to 2010. At Yellowstone, drought and wildfires have thinned towering forests, and scientific projections point to fires that burn more frequently. It could turn the region into rolling grasslands, Williams said. Wildfires are naturally occurring and typically ideal for forests to clear underbrush, researchers said, but arid conditions and federal policies to stamp out fires has translated to drier and denser kindling that make fires more intense. Gonzalez, who is also the principal climate scientist for the National Park Service but spoke about his research in his capacity at Berkeley, said Yellowstone faces another threat connected to human activity. The winter cold used to kill bark beetles. But warmer seasons have extended the life of these insects, which can feast on trees longer and in greater numbers. The transforming ecosystem there may also force the iconic bison and other animals away from familiar grounds, researchers said. The researchers pointed to some solutions already underway. Gonzalez said the agency has made efforts to identify particularly vulnerable areas in parks, along with a focus to protect areas where life may be able to take shelter and thrive in good local conditions. The parks have also focused on reducing emissions, he said. Some parks have been proactive, Williams said. In Maine’s Acadia National Park, for instance, biologists have introduced limited numbers of trees from further south that may be better suited to a climate that will probably grow warmer in coming decades. At Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland and Virginia, a new visitor’s center was built onshore out of concerns about storms, erosion and rising sea levels, the agency said. Williams said the parks will almost certainly be different in a century than they are today, but how different will depend on decisions to either reduce emissions or allow them to escalate. But the parks will exist, in some form. “Glacier National Park may be without glaciers,” he said, “but it will still be a beautiful park.” Read more: Dam breach sends toxic coal ash flowing into a major North Carolina river Hurricane Florence, ‘just a Cat


U.S. sanctions target Venezuela’s first lady and president’s inner circle

the government while the Venezuelan people suffer.” Speaking at a news conference at the United Nations on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza called the sanctions against the first lady, in particular, “an insult to the U.N. and multilateralism.” In televised comments in Caracas, Maduro said: “Today the U.S. government released a sanction decree, no less than against the first lady Cilia Flores. Never has something like this happened. If you want to attack, attack me, but don’t mess with my family. Don’t be cowards. Her only crime is to be my wife.” U.S. officials also announced $48 million in humanitarian aid for Venezuelans. The sanctions target some of Maduro’s closest allies, including his wife, Flores, a onetime head of the National Assembly and the former lawyer of left-wing firebrand Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013 after anointing Maduro as his successor. A political figure in her own right, she is deeply linked to Maduro’s administration. Two of her nephews were convicted and sentenced in a New York court last year on drug trafficking charges. Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, is one of his most trusted advisers. She previously served as head of the Constituent Assembly, a body created last year that critics see as instrumental in awarding Maduro near dictatorial powers. When Rodríguez was foreign minister, she fiercely defended the government in several international venues, beating back anti-Maduro measures before the Organization of American States. Her brother, Communications Minister Jorge Rodríguez, was also targeted Tuesday. A trained psychiatrist, he orchestrates the country’s state media apparatus. He was also close to Chávez, serving as his vice president in 2007. Vladimir Padrino López, the minister of defense, assumed office in 2014 and helped organize the operations that put down street protests last year in which more than 100 people were killed. As Maduro’s political opponents have been jailed and hyperflation has risen at a staggering rate — hundreds of thousands of percentage points — the Trump administration has tried to pressure Maduro to step aside. Last year, officials in the administration met secretly with military officials said to be interested in a coup, though U.S. officials eventually decided not to support the plotters. But the animosity has helped Maduro form a narrative that foreigners are waging “economic war” on his government. The latest sanctions are unlikely to be the last. “The United States will continue to use every available diplomatic and economic


The great AI duopoly

Silicon Valley. It forces start-ups to take extraordinary risks to build extremely complex “moats” to maintain a competitive advantage that will protect profits and market share over the long term. It is this combination of a competitive, fight-or-die mentality married to abundant capital and a gigantic networked consumer base that is fueling China’s ascent in commercial technology. This is worth studying by American businesses. The AI revolution will have two engines — China and the United States — pushing its progress swiftly forward. It is unlike any previous technological revolution that emerged from a singular cultural setting. Having two engines will further accelerate the pace of technology. WorldPost: Lee: All data is not the same, however. China and the United States have different strengths when it comes to data. The gap emerges when you consider the breadth, quality and depth of the data. Breadth means the number of users, the population whose actions are captured in data. Quality means how well-structured and well-labeled the data is. Depth means how many different data points are generated about the activities of each user. Chinese and American companies are on relatively even footing when it comes to breadth. Though American Internet companies have a smaller domestic user base than China, which has over a billion users on 4G devices, the best American companies can also draw in users from around the globe, bringing their total user base to over a billion. Americans, so far, enjoy a distinct advantage when it comes to quality. Companies and public institutions in the United States are much more likely to use software that structures their data for immediate use. Chinese corporations and public entities are moving in this direction, in part due to increased bureaucratic incentives for utilizing data. Still, they lag substantially behind U.S. organizations in terms of accumulation of AI-ready data. But when it comes to depth of data, China has the upper hand. Chinese Internet users channel a much larger portion of their daily activities, transactions and interactions through their smartphones. They use their smartphones for managing their daily lives, from buying groceries at the market to paying their utility bills, booking train or bus tickets and to take out loans, among other things. Weaving together data from mobile payments, public services, financial management and shared mobility gives Chinese companies a deep and more multi-dimensional picture of their users. That allows their AI algorithms


Transcript: Taking Flight - The Economics of the Aviation Industry

to consume that it makes it very difficult for us to ensure that they’re making those right decisions every time. Fung: Well, one of the things that Silicon Valley has obviously struggled with very publicly is the use of flawed algorithms or algorithms that misidentify what’s valuable, what’s not, what’s a valid signal, what’s not. How are you grappling with that problem? Clark: So right now there’s a couple of different angles that we’re looking at. So the first one is that the training of those algorithms is extraordinarily important. And within our Lockheed Martin organization at a corporate level we’ve actually established what we call a verification and validation investment activity where we’re looking at how we can go do that verification and validation to deterministically identify that the algorithms are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do each and every time. And that is a very difficult problem, which is why it’s a major investment area for us at this time. Fung: Stepping back a little bit, you know, one big topic in Washington has been the president’s trade agenda and the role of tariffs across the economy. I’m kind of curious how those policies have affected your industry if at all. Silver: So from AI’s perspective, you know, the aviation industry, the aerospace manufacturers succeed despite tariffs not because of tariffs that exist. So we are obviously all for free trade, but at the same time we’re closely monitoring and communicating with our members about the impacts of any potential tariffs on our global supply chain as well as for impacts in terms of export of our products long-term. Fung: Have your members noticed changes in costs that they are facing as a result of these policies? Silver: You know, quite honestly I’m not enough in the weeds on that, and I particularly shouldn’t be able to comment. Fung: Fair enough. So, John, I wonder. You know, we’ve talked a little bit about communications technology, but I want to expand on that. You know, right now we’re seeing an explosion of consumption among people on the ground of streaming media and other data intensive applications, but when I get on a plane that’s still not really widely available to me, so what’s your expectation for those types of features in in-flight connectivity? Wade: Well, fortunately that era is now arriving, and we’re in the middle of rolling


President Trump’s U.N. press conference, annotated

is opening up plants, and these are big plants — $750 million and $1 billion plants, in some cases. So what’s happening with the steel industry is very exciting to me. It’s being rebuilt, over night. If you look at the miners and coal, if you look at energy, LNG, Japan just gave us some numbers that are incredible. They’re doubling the amount that they are going to be buying for Japan. They’re taking the LNG and they’re doubling it up. I said, “You have to do me a favor. We don’t want these big deficits. You’re going to have to buy more.” They’re buying massive amounts of equipment military equipment, and other countries are doing the same thing, because we have trade imbalances with almost everybody. It’s a rare exception that we don’t. So we are doing great, as a country. Unfortunately, they just raised interest rates a little bit, because we are doing so well. I’m not happy about that, because I know it’s going to be a question. I am not happy about it. I’d rather pay down debt or do other things, create more jobs. So I’m worried about the fact that they seem to like raising interest rates. We can do other things with the money. And — but they raised them, and they’re raising them because we’re doing so well, you know. We’re doing much better than I had projected, in terms of when I was campaigning. I said, “We were going to do this. And we’re doing much better than — than anybody ever thought possible.” And I will say, if others got in, it would’ve been just the opposite because they were going to put restrictions on, they were going to put regulations on. They were going to choke the economy, as it was already choking, but it would’ve been worse, and they were going to raise your taxes. That’s what they want to do now, if they ever got control, which I don’t think they’ll have control for a long time. So with that being said, we’ll take some questions and — yes, please. John, go ahead. We have plenty of time. QUESTION: Mr. President, thank you very much. But of course, what you’re looking forward to tomorrow is the hearings with Judge Kavanaugh . . . TRUMP: Yes. QUESTION: . . . before the Judiciary Committee. TRUMP: Yes. QUESTION: In


Scientists thought they had created the perfect tree. But it became a nightmare.

and learn to hate it. It is at its most conspicuous in early spring, when it bursts into flower. Suddenly whole rural landscapes — meadows, old pastures, woodland edges, ditches, the sides of highways and railroads — are lit up by its blossoms. From early March to mid-April, you can now track the arrival and progression of spring in the United States not as amber waves of grain but as a frothing tide of Bradford pear. You might even enjoy its beauty, until you realize that it is squeezing out native flora and reducing biodiversity. As eye-catching as the flowers are, they are simply the start of the seasonal march of this invader. Six months after the blooms appear, clusters of seedy berries invite birds to fatten up for winter. In the bird’s droppings, the seeds will germinate and advance, becoming ever more genetically diverse in the process and making the pear ever more adapted to its own spread. Its invasive tendencies became widely noticed by the late 1990s, and by the mid-2000s, it had become a weed in the District and 19 states, from Texas to New York. “While callery pear was introduced with the best of intentions, it now seems that a plague is truly upon us,” botanist Michael Vincent wrote at the time. It has now spread to 29 states. The roots of the Bradford pear But the orchards were threatened by a new disease called fire blight. George Roeding, a nurseryman in Fresno, Calif., wrote in 1916 that “in the San Joaquin Valley, which sixteen years ago was one of the great pear producing sections of California, the pear has been absolutely wiped out of existence.” In Talent, Ore., a plant scientist named Frank Reimer was using a test orchard to work on fire-blight control and found that the callery pear, first brought to the States in 1908, was highly resistant to fire blight and might be used as a rootstock onto which varieties of the European pear could be grafted. The much smaller callery fruit is used to make tea in China but is considered inedible. But to take his research further, Reimer needed lots of genetically rich wild seed from China. He turned to David Fairchild, a dynamic young botanist in Washington. Fairchild is best remembered as the guy who helped bring the Japanese cherry blossoms to the capital, by first growing 125 imported


In Japan’s Okinawa island, U.S. military bases take center stage in election

week whether Japan, a country with a large trade surplus with the United States, was contributing enough to its own defense. The hot topic on Okinawa is Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which is surrounded by housing in the ever-expanding city of Ginowan. There is a two-decade-old plan to relocate the base to a more remote site at Henoko, farther north on the island, and move nearly half the Marines to other bases in Guam, Hawaii and Australia. But Tamaki says that’s not good enough. Like the previous governor, Takeshi Onaga, who died in office last month, he opposes the expansion of the base in Henoko and wants a broader redistribution of U.S. forces to other parts of Japan. U.S. bases take up nearly one-fifth of the land on Okinawa, which is twice the size of Guam but has more than 10 times the population, at 1.85 million people. Okinawa is home to roughly half the American military force in Japan. Tamaki’s conservative opponent, Atsushi Sakima, is backed by Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He says the base relocation should go ahead, freeing up a large swath of prime land for development. But he also wants immediate measures to reduce the noise of low-flying aircraft and to lower the risks of crashes or pieces of equipment falling to the ground in residential areas. Sakima doesn’t directly mention the bases at his rallies. Instead, with LDP politicians at his side, he dangles the prospect of government subsidies and investment if Okinawa accedes to Tokyo’s wishes on the bases. “At this important juncture, we have to move from confrontation to communication,” he said. Business interests, especially in the construction industry, appear to be backing him. At Tamaki’s rallies, supporters are generally older, many of them retired. Behind their views are deeper cultural and historical sentiments, including a feeling that this island — once the independent kingdom of Ryukyu, which traded with both Japan and China — bears an unfair share of the burden of the U.S. military presence in Japan. Ethnically different from the people who live on the main islands of Japan, the people of Okinawa have long felt looked down upon. Taxi driver Seiji Hanashiro, 70, grew up on tales of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, when his hastily conscripted teenage elder brother was killed. Tens of thousands of Okinawan civilians died in the 82-day battle in which much


Time to start preparing the next round of sanctions against Russia

elections as in the DETER Act, but should also be applied to other policy domains to deter Russian aggression. Second, ongoing Russian illegal activity must be met with new sanctions. For instance, every day that Russia supports the separatist war in eastern Ukraine should be understood as a new illegal Russian action. Instead of just maintaining the originally implemented sanctions in response to Russia’s intervention in eastern Ukraine, U.S. lawmakers should lock into place by law a timetable for ratcheting up sanctions if the Russian government continues ongoing, illegal behavior. Third, sanctions should be implemented in response to concrete Russian actions or future actions, so that a specific sanction can be lifted when a Russian specific action has been reversed. Fourth, future sanctions should primarily target Russian government officials, state organizations, debt instruments issued by the Russian government, enterprises owned or controlled by the Russian state, and traditional and social media entities owned or controlled by the state. Private-sector individuals and companies should not be sanctioned unless their direct support of egregious Russian foreign policy behavior can be documented. Fifth, new legislation should be adopted that eliminates anonymous ownership of corporations and real estate, and the transfer of funds abroad through law firms. This would provide greater transparency about Russian investments and economic activity abroad. Sixth, the Kremlin’s abuse of INTERPOL – through the inappropriate use of both red notices (international arrest warrants) and red diffusions (international arrest alerts) for political purposes – must be stopped. As outlined in Section 707 of the DAASKA) Act, Congress and the Trump administration should codify in law the specific sanctions that the U.S. government will implement to deter future attempts at abusing INTERPOL procedures. Will new sanctions laws change Putin’s behavior? Unlikely. Will the threat of new sanctions deter Putin’s future behavior, especially regarding interference in our elections? Perhaps. Will a new Russian sanctions law signal American resolve to contain Putin’s rogue actions? Absolutely. Sanctions are morally justified in response to egregious, illegal actions even if they do not change comportment in the short run. Demonstrating resolve to defend international laws, rules, and norms is essential for the long-term preservation of international order. And remember, the Russian government has continued to denounce American sanctions. In response to press reports about new sanctions legislation, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that new sanctions against Russian banks would be a “declaration of economic war” and that


‘I can’t have her’: A slain jogger’s case went cold. Then a sex offender went to see his pastor.

one count of murder, MassLive reported. He pleaded not guilty and is being held on a $2 million bond. His attorney could not be immediately located. Family members would later say Melissa Millan was “a loving mother, a devoted daughter, a witty and compassionate sister.” Her co-workers at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, where she was a senior vice president, would recall her “tremendous leadership qualities” and “business acumen.” She was a divorced mother of two, an avid runner who competed in triathlons. On Nov. 20, 2014, a cold New England night, Millan changed into running gear — a bright pink jacket with reflective straps, leopard print running pants, pink sneakers and a headlamp, according to the police report — and started pounding down a running trail weaving through Simsbury around 7:30 p.m. The “Greenway” was a strip of pavement running parallel along Iron Horse Boulevard, separated from the street by a low wooden fence and lit at intervals with streetlamps. Millan huffed down the empty trail, her legs carrying her one mile, then two, occasionally entering the sudden glow from a passing car’s headlights. That same night, Leverett arrived home to an empty house. Leverett was already a known criminal. According to the Courant, in 2009 he had been arrested in Colorado on a sexual assault of a child charge. He pleaded guilty and avoided jail time. But he still had to register as a sex offender, and on that night in November in Connecticut, he returned home from a sex offender group therapy meeting in Hartford. Back in Simsbury, everyone was gone. He was lonely. Even the family dog was gone, he would later tell police. Compelled to talk to someone, anyone, Leverett decided to go for a walk on the Greenway, hoping to find a stranger to chat with. He allegedly had a lot on his mind, he would later say. Months earlier, Leverett had met a girl named Kerri. The two became friends. But Leverett worried that if the woman learned he was a sex offender, she would reject him, according to the affidavit. He was embarrassed and scared, he told police. “If I just killed somebody it would make all that go away and I wouldn’t have to explain myself,” Leverett thought, he told authorities. He drove to the Greenway, parked and walked the trail. No one was out. It was cold. Back in his car,


U-Md. continues dorm cleanup after mold woes force students to relocate

working as quickly as possible to eradicate the problem.” For some people, exposure to mold or mold spores can cause allergic reactions and lead to symptoms that include sneezing and red eyes, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Mold can also trigger asthma attacks. Even among those not allergic to mold, exposure can irritate the eyes, nose and throat. It’s relatively normal to have a few episodes of mold, said Bryan Gallion, a Maryland senior who is president of the Residence Hall Association. But the rainy weather made matters worse. “It’s definitely a less-than-ideal situation, but it’s really not one that could have been prevented," Gallion, 21, said. “I think all the relevant departments are doing everything they can to address the issue.” Maryland officials hired contractors who specialize in addressing mold, and also cleaned and replaced furniture and installed “commercial-grade dehumidifiers" in hallways, according to the statement. The university said the decision to temporarily relocate Elkton Hall residents to hotels was made “out of an abundance of caution." “We are confident that Resident Life and Residential Facilities are taking the necessary steps to protect students’ health and wellness," the Residence Hall Association, a student organization at Maryland, said in a statement. Residents of Elkton Hall were scheduled to leave the building in staggered groups, a floor-by-floor process that Jennings said allowed for deep cleaning. “They’re moving people out of the floor so they can fully clean and remediate the entire space," Jennings said. "This is the most efficient way to clean it completely. That is why they are moving people out, doing this full clean, and then moving people back in.” Jennings said in an email Thursday that the building’s seventh floor — the first listed for mold removal on the online schedule — was clean, and students could move back that morning. About 70 to 80 students live on each floor, she said. If students have concerns about mold in dorm rooms and their floor had not been cleaned, Jennings said, they should contact residential facilities officials. “And then any student who has health concerns can request an immediate move,” she said. “We do have facilities available for anyone who is experiencing health concerns.” Read More: U-Md. police investigating ‘anti-LGBTQ’ speech reported at residence hall U-Md. used a private company for a tornado warning. That can be problematic. University of Maryland announces new center for students with disabilities


Local Digest: Man arrested on rape charge in the District

THE DISTRICT Man sought on rape charge in Va. arrested A man wanted on a rape charge in Virginia was arrested Thursday after D.C. police said he barricaded himself for more than 16 hours inside his residence in Northwest Washington’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. Police said the man was taken into custody about 1:45 p.m. by D.C. officers and the FBI. Police from the District and Arlington County had tried to arrest him about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday at an apartment in the 3300 block of Mount Pleasant Street NW. Police said that he refused to come to his door and that officers waited him out. Authorities said there was no indication that anyone inside was held against their will. Arlington police said that during the barricade, the suspect made threats and was seen with a knife. He was arrested without incident. Arlington police identified the suspect as Salodus Hicks, 60. He is charged in arrest warrants with forcible rape and strangulation. Authorities said the incident occurred about 4 p.m. on Sept. 17 in the 5500 block of Columbia Pike. Police said that the victim and suspect connected through an Internet advertisement and that the woman was assaulted and raped during their prearranged appointment. “Based on the preliminary investigation, it is believed that this was a targeted attack,” Arlington police said at the time. — Dana Hedgpeth, Peter Hermann and Rachel Weiner Teen arrested in fatal Northeast shooting A teenager was arrested Thursday in the fatal shooting of a young man in July near the H Street corridor in Northeast Washington, D.C. police said. Kewon Hunter, 19, of Northeast, was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Dion DeMarco Boyd, 21, also of Northeast. The shooting occurred about 5:30 p.m. on July 30. Police did not give a motive, but details may be provided when an arrest affidavit is made public at Hunter’s initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Friday. Police said Boyd was shot in the 1400 block of Maryland Avenue NE, a block from H Street, one of the District’s nightlife spots. It was near Starburst Plaza, named for the confluence of streets that includes Benning and Bladensburg roads, H Street and Maryland Avenue. — Peter Hermann Body found in river by Lincoln Memorial D.C. police have recovered a body found Thursday morning in the Potomac River near the Arlington Memorial Bridge, near the Lincoln Memorial, according to


Skywatch: What’s happening in the heavens in October

As autumn braces for a color burst, the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars entertain from above the treetops when they take the evening stage in October. Find Jupiter in the southwestern heavens at nightfall. The planet is bright at -1.8 magnitude and it sets now just before 9 p.m., according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. By Halloween, it sets several minutes after 7 p.m. A very young, skinny moon joins the large gaseous planet on Oct. 11, but the moon plays a cosmic game of tag — heading toward Saturn a few nights later. Saturn continues to sit above the teapot’s dome in the constellation Sagittarius in the southern evening sky. The ringed planet has a 0.5 magnitude — visible from the area’s polluted night sky. The fattening moon snuggles close to Saturn on Oct. 14. Find the reddish Mars in the south-southeastern sky at dusk now. This past summer, Mars was an amazingly bright -2.7 magnitude, catching all attention. Now, the planet goes from a bold -1.3 magnitude to -0.6, according to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. The first quarter moon sashays toward Mars on Oct. 17 and catches the Red Planet on the Martian flip side Oct. 18. In early October, Venus skims the southwestern horizon after sunset. The planet disappears from our view, as it gets lost in the sun’s glare, but it makes a return in November’s morning sky. You may see a stray shooting star in the night sky when the Orionids peak Oct. 21, with about 20 shooting stars an hour, according to the Royal Astronomical Society. But don’t get high hopes, as the bright, waxing gibbous moon may scrub many of the peaking meteors from view. (The moon will be 90 percent illuminated on Oct. 21, according to the Naval Observatory.) The full moon is Oct. 24. Down-to-Earth Events: ●Oct. 1 ●Oct. 5 ●Oct. 5 ●Oct. 6 ●Oct. 6 ●Oct. 13 ●Oct. 14 ●Oct. 18 ●Oct. 19 ●Oct. 20