Could hyperbaric treatment heal the brain?

Each year, thousands of Americans suffer a traumatic brain injury. In 2013, about 2.8 million TBI-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations and deaths occurred in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of these are what are called mild traumatic brain injuries, or mTBIs — head injuries that don't cause a coma. People with an mTBI typically get better within a few weeks, but for as many as 20 percent, problems can linger for months or years. Many of these patients find themselves stuck with depression, cognitive problems, headaches, fatigue and other symptoms. Known as post-concussion syndrome, this phenomenon is often difficult to treat. Antidepressants can lift moods, painkillers can ease headaches and physical therapy may ease dizziness, but most researchers agree that these remedies don't heal the injury within the brain. Could oxygen do the trick? A growing group of scientists and physicians say that hyperbaric treatment, which exposes patients to pure oxygen at higher-than-normal air pressure, may work. "These patients don't have enough oxygen to heal the injured parts of their brains," said Shai Efrati, a researcher and physician at Tel Aviv University in Israel and a leading hyperbaric scientist. "Hyperbaric treatment massively increases the amount of oxygen available to the brain." But other researchers believe that the treatment has no merit and should not be recommended. "People want to believe that hyperbaric can fix [brain injuries], and it can't," said David Cifu, a researcher at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, who has spent much of his career treating veterans with brain injuries. Compressed air has been used by doctors since the 17th century. In 1917, two German inventors first used pressurized pure oxygen to treat decompression sickness, which occurs when undersea divers return to the surface too quickly. For the past 50 years, hyperbaric therapy has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for non-healing wounds, carbon monoxide poisoning, burns and decompression sickness. Over the past decade, doctors in the United States and internationally have begun using it to treat mTBIs. MTBIs include sports-related concussions and head injuries caused by traffic accidents. Also, between 2000 and 2017, 308,853 American service members suffered mild traumatic brain injuries, according to the Department of Defense. Patients with an mTBI typically experience symptoms that include headache, dizziness, fatigue, depression, anxiety and cognitive impairment. Known as post-concussion syndrome (PCS), this phenomenon is difficult


Landrum Bolling, college president, peace activist and presidential go-between, dies at 104

Landrum Bolling, a Quaker who preached nonviolence in the world's trouble spots, helped free a CNN journalist taken hostage in Beirut and became a backstairs adviser and go-between for President Jimmy Carter on Arab-Israeli issues, died Jan. 17 at the home of a daughter in Arlington, Va. He was 104. The cause was congestive heart failure, said a son, Dan Bolling. Mr. Bolling, a former president of Earlham College, a Quaker institution in Richmond, Ind., had no government credentials. But he was widely connected throughout the Middle East with Arab and Israeli leaders through his work with Quaker organizations and foundations committed to nonviolence, human rights and relief for the suffering. In the 1990s he was in Bosnia, working with government officials, foundations and religious organizations to curb the slaughter, or "ethnic cleansing," of Bosnian Muslims. He accompanied civil rights activist Jesse Jackson to Belgrade in 1999 on a successful mission that resulted in the release of three U.S. soldiers captured in military operations. Mr. Bolling was probably best known for his role as an unofficial messenger between Arab and Israeli officials and Carter. "Landrum was one of my heroes," Carter told Mr. Bolling's family in a condolence call. The former president's office confirmed the statement. On Mr. Bolling's 100th birthday, Carter emailed a tribute to the local newspaper in Richmond. "Knowing of his personal acquaintance with Israeli and Arab leaders and his experience in the region," Carter wrote, "I turned to him for advice and assistance while negotiating the Camp David Accords while I was president." Mr. Bolling described for Kai Bird, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author now working on a Carter biography, a typical mission for the president. He would visit Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Cairo, write up a one-page memo about the meeting and pass it along to first lady Rosalynn Carter. "Rosalynn would give the memo to Jimmy at night so we bypassed all the official channels," Mr. Bolling told Bird in 2016. "Arafat wanted to convince Jimmy Carter that he was a man of peace. I guess I passed about a dozen messages. President Carter would often write his answer in his own handwriting on the memo and have it returned to me." When Jerry Levin, CNN bureau chief in Beirut, was taken hostage in 1984 by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Mr. Bolling called Levin's wife and offered to accompany her to meet with


Photos of the ‘super blue blood moon’ from coast to coast

An astronomical event decades in the making had everyone watching the sky Wednesday morning. On the East Coast, the super blue blood moon set around 7 a.m., but on the West Coast, skygazers had to set their alarms for at least 5 a.m. to see the show. There was a lot packed into this event. It was a super moon because it turned full at the closest point to Earth in its orbit, known as perigee, appearing slightly bigger and about 14 percent brighter than normal. It was a blue moon because it is the second full moon occurring within the same month. And, most importantly, it was a blood moon because it passed through the Earth’s shadow in a lunar eclipse, which gave the moon a red hue. From East to West, photographers braved the cold morning to catch the right shot. The Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles even created a time-lapse video from their perspective, so everyone could see what totality looked like (the East Coast missed out on that part). Thanks to everyone who shared their photos and video of the eclipse!


Their job was to take guns off Baltimore streets. They admitted stealing drugs and cash instead.

they went rogue, the same officers took home hundreds of thousands of dollars in unearned overtime pay from a city struggling to pay its teachers. "It was like a way of life," former detective Jemell Rayam testified Monday. "We got away with a lot of things." Two former detectives who pleaded not guilty, Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor, are on trial in a case expected to last about two weeks and include testimony from several of their victims. Three former colleagues have taken the stand against them, providing new revelations that expand on the criminal behavior exposed in earlier plea agreements, including one from Jenkins to robbery, obstruction of justice, racketeering and violating people's constitutional rights. Once heralded as a beacon of Baltimore's commitment to rooting out street violence, the tarnished task force stands now for corruption and dysfunction in a department under federal surveillance and battling record-high murder rates. "The police department knew what was going on" with the gun squad, said Ivan Bates, a defense attorney running to succeed Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby. "Everybody knew who they were." He represented several victims who had been arrested by the unit and said he knew city prosecutors had reservations about the officers' credibility. Several of the officers have been the targets of lawsuits and internal investigations in the past. But, Bates said, especially in recent years law enforcement officials were so desperate for arrests that they let the squad run wild. "The city is in chaos, the police department doesn't work with the state's attorney, and they need to find any police who can make some arrests," Bates said. Amid the turmoil and surge in violent crime that includes the unsolved killing of a city homicide detective, the city's police commissioner, Kevin Davis, was abruptly replaced Jan. 18. The illegal activity in the gun unit was uncovered by a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation that caught one officer talking to a drug dealer on a wiretap. Only one member of the nine-member task force has not been charged with a crime: Detective John Clewell. "Clewell really didn't take the money," Rayam testified. "He wasn't part of the team." The team was productive: Nearly 3,000 cases in Baltimore involve the eight indicted officers, according to the public defender's office. And the fallout from the indictments has been substantial. Four people arrested by the unit have been let out of federal prison;


White House’s Kelly slams teacher who disparaged troops: ‘I think the guy ought to go to hell’

the newspaper. The superintendent had earlier told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that “we acknowledge it is his voice based on the research of the incident so far and knowing it came from one of our classrooms.” The Daily News also reported that “security was stepped up at City Hall and the school, and phones rang off the hook at both sites with callers demanding [Salcido] resign both posts.” Aguilera-Fort, along with school board officials and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. Pat Valdez, “met with school faculty to discuss safety issues in light of the controversy and how to move forward teaching students.” Salcido did not return a request for comment sent to the email address on his city biography page, which said he was a graduate of El Rancho High School, where he now teaches, and has served as the city’s mayor three times. He also serves as a member of the city’s History and Heritage Society Committee. He told the Los Angeles Times that he had been receiving threats since the video was published. “Because of the many vulgar and violent threats against my family I do not have any comment on the situation at this time,” he said in an email to the newspaper. Valdez, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, told the Tribune that he had ordered patrols of Salcido’s home. He also sent deputies to the home of the student who recorded the teacher’s rant. “We are monitoring social media where there has been very strong opinions on both sides,” Valdez told the newspaper. “Our priority is keeping people safe, especially students and school and city staff.” In the video, Salcido is heard speaking in loaded terms about foes of the United States, saying the military was losing to “dudes wearing freaking robes and chanclas [flip-flops]” in the Middle East. “The data is in, we don’t have a good military,” he said. “We couldn’t beat the Vietnamese. They’re a bunch of people this freaking big throwing rice at us.” He also criticized military recruiters in public schools. “It’s a lie that our military is freaking b‑‑‑‑ing,” he said. “Why, after the national anthem, do we have a killing machine fly over the freaking stadium? You know, the stealth bomber comes in. Everyone’s all like, ‘Yeah.’ Like, ‘That’s what we kill people with, woo.’ Why would that be something we celebrate?” Pentagon spokeswoman Amber Smith


Even if Trump is blatantly ignoring the Russia sanctions law, there’s not a lot Congress can do about it

the power of the purse. The Senate could hold up judicial nominees, Congress could hold hearings designed to criticize and even embarrass the Trump administration The Trump administration's logic for not implementing sanctions on Russia appears to have some holes in it, as The Fix's Aaron Blake points out. The State Department claims that the mere existence of the legislation has been a deterrent against meddling in elections, but that ignores the fact that the purpose of the sanctions was to punish Russia for past meddling. And Trump's CIA chief was on TV the other day saying Russia is still trying to tinker in and influence U.S. elections, raising the question of whether Russia actually feels deterred. So it's possible that Congress has a case to make that Trump doesn't have a good reason to withhold these sanctions. It's less likely that Republicans in Congress want to make that case. Passing sanctions was an unusually bipartisan act of Congress, but forcing Trump's hand again doesn't seem likely to be. Senate Democrats decried Trump's decision to withhold Russia sanctions Tuesday. “President Trump has failed time and time again to stand up against [Russian President] Vladimir Putin despite the assault he carried out on our democracy,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Schumer also raised questions about why the head of Russia's foreign intelligence was allowed in the United States this week despite technically being prohibited from coming here. But the GOP author of the legislation didn't seem nearly as offended by all this. “It is clear the administration is working in good faith,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said in a statement, adding, “I am committed to applying pressure, as needed, to ensure further implementation.” Legal experts say there are legitimate reasons an administration might need to withhold sanctions that it's required by law to implement. It might know something Congress doesn't about how putting these in place could harm national security. And some key Republicans seem to be giving the administration the benefit of the doubt that that's exactly what's going on. But from a purely public-perception problem, this decision probably does nothing to help shut down the narrative that Trump is soft on Russia. A recent Washington Post-ABC poll shows that about half of Americans (49 percent) believe Trump tried to interfere with the Russia investigation in a way that amounts to obstruction of justice. About half also


Government auditor says background check review process is at ‘high risk’

they can't get started because they don't have the right people cleared," said David Berteau, president of the Professional Services Council, the government contractors' trade group. The long wait times can be difficult for workers caught in the middle. The lucky ones will be paid while they wait on the sidelines, but others might have to wait. One of those biding his time is Sagar Dubey, a 31-year-old Indian national who was tapped in 2016 to be a cargo specialist in the Army Reserve through a program meant to recruit skilled workers for the U.S. military. Until the process is complete, he cannot move forward in his desire to earn citizenship. A clearance would also allow Dubey, who works for a global technology consulting group that he declined to name, to work on federal contracts and advance within his company. Dubey said some other skilled immigrants recruited through this program are much worse off. "There are people who have had kids while they were waiting for their security checks to complete," Dubey said. "There are people who have ailing parents and they can't go home," out of concern that the travel would force them to start the review process anew. Members of Congress have attempted to solve the problem by transferring oversight of clearances handled by the Defense Department — easily the largest source of clearance requests — away from OPM and to the Defense Security Service, a Pentagon subagency. The 2018 defense spending bill did just that, reversing an earlier reorganization that took the process out of the hands of the Defense Department and gave it to OPM. An Aug. 22 implementation plan published by Federal News Radio suggests that the Defense Department wants to solve the problem in large part by switching to a system of "continuous evaluation," which involves using technology to constantly monitor the workforce for red flags rather than reevaluating people every five years, as is currently the case. But industry groups say the agency has not spoken about its plans since August, raising questions about how the process is going. "Until we have a clear path from [the Department of Defense] that we can read and comment on, we have questions about how well that transition will be executed and what will be its impact on investigations that are currently underway," Berteau said. An earlier version of this story incorrectly described OPM as aaron.gregg@washpost.com


Ingvar Kamprad, founder of Ikea, dies at 91

Its logo employs the blue and gold colors of the Swedish flag, and its restaurants and food aisles — created by Mr. Kamprad in an effort to keep customers shopping — offer candy Swedish fish and traditional meatballs served with cream sauce or lingonberry jam. "Empty stomachs," Mr. Kamprad once quipped, "make no sofa sales." In addition to foot traffic from its bricks-and-mortar stores, Ikea's business has been helped along for decades by a catalogue that is translated into more than 30 languages. With about 200 million copies printed each year, its circulation reportedly rivals that of the Bible, the Koran and the "Harry Potter" books, whose magical summoning spells might be useful for finding missing dowels and screws that vanish during the assembly process. Yet while Mr. Kamprad's company has grown in prominence, the details of his personal life have become obscured by a public-relations machine that has made him a business-executive embodiment of lista, the Swedish concept of "making do" that Mr. Kamprad has described as being central to the Ikea mission. Publicly, at least, he made an art of making do, demonstrating a frugality that bordered on asceticism. He drove an old Volvo, recycled his tea bags, reportedly pilfered the salt and pepper packets at restaurants and visited markets in the late afternoon to find discounted produce. Ikea catalogues were photographed using company employees instead of models, and staff were encouraged to write on both sides of a sheet of paper. For decades, the company seemed to be thriving under his watch, as it avoided controversy and seemed to instill in its employees a near-fanatical devotion to Mr. Kamprad. That appeared to change beginning in 1994, when Sweden's Expressen newspaper uncovered documents that linked the company founder to pro-Nazi groups in the 1940s. Mr. Kamprad disavowed his participation with the groups, describing it in a letter to Ikea employees as a youthful mistake and "a part of my life which I bitterly regret." Nearly two decades later, a book by Swedish journalist Elisabeth Asbrink extended the claims, linking Mr. Kamprad to a group that succeeded the country's swastika-flying National Socialist Workers Party. His activity in the group was extensive enough that, in the same year Mr. Kamprad formed Ikea, Sweden's state police began investigating him and speculated that he held a leadership position in the organization. Around that time, Mr. Kamprad's management style also came under criticism.


DC Comics reveals the superhero that new star writer Brian Michael Bendis will take over

The super-secret writing plans for Brian Michael Bendis at DC Comics have been revealed. DC has announced that Bendis will be writing multiple Superman titles in his highly anticipated debut after his surprise departure from Marvel Comics after a successful two-decade career. Bendis’s first Superman short story (previously announced) will be illustrated by DC Comics co-publisher and fan-favorite artist Jim Lee in the 1,000th issue of Action Comics (available in print and digitally on April 18). On May 30, the first of a six issue weekly miniseries titled “Man of Steel” arrives, written by Bendis and illustrated by multiple artists, including Ivan Reis, Evan “Doc” Shaner, Ryan Sook, Adam Hughes, Kevin Maguire and rising star Jason Fabok. The miniseries will have six interconnected covers drawn by Reis and Joe Prado. DC says “Man of Steel” will add new twists to the last days of Superman’s home planet of Krypton before its destruction, as well as a new take on Kal-El/Clark Kent’s path to becoming the most recognizable superhero of all-time. On July 11, DC will debut the first issue of a new ongoing “Superman” series, written by Bendis with art by Reis. The series’ first story arc will take a look at the major happenings resulting from the end of the “Man of Steel” miniseries. That same month, Bendis will take over writing duties on “Action Comics” No. 1001 as it resumes publication on July 25, working with artist Pat Gleason. In its news release announcing Bendis’s new super-assignments, DC says Bendis will focus on making Action Comics’ stories more character-driven, while introducing new heroes and villains and putting more focus on Clark Kent’s role at the Daily Planet as a reporter. Bendis will also be bringing his creator-owned comic-book universe “Jinxworld” to DC Comics, including noir crime titles such as “Jinx” and “Scarlet.” Those titles will be available digitally in the spring. New stories from still ongoing series such as “Powers” and “The United States of Murder Inc.” are expected to arrive in 2018 as well. DC also announced a “Bendis-curated custom imprint of titles,” which will feature some of Bendis’s favorite characters, along with new characters created specifically for the imprint. Read more: Here’s why it’s a big deal that comics star Brian Michael Bendis jumped from Marvel to DC Brian Michael Bendis: With new Mafia book ‘Murder Inc.,’ writer keeps it all in the families


Style Conversational Week 1265: Obits and pieces

fired more, he told The Post. Second, the ground-based radar installations, which detected missiles, showed no evidence of an attack." The article goes on to say that while Petrov went on to be hailed as a hero in the West — there's a 2014 documentary titled "The Man Who Saved the World" — the Soviet government didn't even laud him at home, let alone remind the world how frighteningly it had screwed up. The story finally emerged in the late 1990s; Petrov lived his final years on a small pension in a town outside Moscow. PVT. EMMANUEL MENSAH (died Dec. 28, age 28) Emmanuel Mensah never knew His native land was dung.We need more "wretched refuse" just like himAnd less from Donald's tongue. (Beryl Benderly) From the New York Times, Dec. 29: "Emmanuel Mensah was a handsome, strongly built young man in his late 20s who immigrated to the Bronx from Ghana five years ago. He joined the Army National Guard but returned to his apartment on Prospect Avenue in December, after graduating from boot camp with the rank of private first class. And on Thursday night, he lost his life trying to save people from his furiously burning apartment building, one of 12 people to die in the blaze. "He brought four people out," said his uncle, Twum Bredu, who lives next door. "When he went to bring a fifth person out, the fire caught up with him." ... Private Mensah, a decorated soldier who had been awarded a medal for marksmanship and was planning to join the military police, got that family to safety, then pulled out four more people, his uncle said, before returning to the building. He never emerged; the authorities said he died of smoke inhalation." The Army later said that Mensah had rushed back into the burning building at least three times to rescue fellow residents. It awarded him the Medal of Valor and a Soldier's Medal. As The Washington Post summed up a Jan. 12 editorial in the wake of the president's comments on which countries' immigrants are more desirable: "Most Americans understand how fortunate we are to attract such heroes to our shores." STUBBS THE CAT (1997-2017) From a 2013 Wall Street Journal article by Jim Carlton TALKEETNA, Alaska—The mayor of this tiny village has been shot, fallen into a restaurant fryer, jumped off a moving truck and been mauled by a


Virginia moves toward approving cannabis oil as a medical treatment

Sixteen other states, in addition to Virginia, allow limited use of marijuana products for a narrow range of diseases, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The increased legalization of medical marijuana — including in Guam and Puerto Rico — reflects a shift in public opinion on marijuana: In 1969, 84 percent of Americans thought the drug should be illegal, the Pew Research Center said. By 2017, only 37 percent agreed. Del. Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax), chief co-patron of the Virginia bill on the Democratic side, said she's been working on the proposal for four years, ever since she was approached by a family in her district about the difficulty of controlling their daughter's seizures. The family was so frustrated with the slow pace of change that they temporarily moved to Colorado to have legal access to cannabis. Another child whose family was seeking access to marijuana oil had a seizure in the hearing room during a hearing on one of the bills, Filler-Corn said. "It is a huge, huge deal, especially for people with epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease or cancer," Filler-Corn said. "Things happen very slowly in the legislature, and this was an educational process. It took time and education and a tremendous amount of energy and passion on the part of the families." Launching a medical marijuana industry can be both time-consuming and lucrative. It took Maryland four years to license growers, producers and retail sellers before opening its first medical marijuana dispensaries late last year. If the more expansive bill passes, Virginia would seek requests for proposals for five growing and distribution facilities this spring or summer. Patients and physicians would be required to register with the state Board of Medicine to have access to the oils, which could be recommended for those suffering from specific, serious conditions. Del. Mark H. Levine (D-Alexandria) tried to pass a medical marijuana bill aimed at cancer patients last year, but the legislation died in subcommittee. Bills by state Sens. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria) and Barbara A. Favola (D-Arlington) that would have decriminalized marijuana possession and reduced penalties for its distribution failed in committee this year. Lawmakers said they believe the medical marijuana bill has gained enough support to pass because of lobbying efforts by families and individuals, the growing number of peer-reviewed scientific studies supporting medical marijuana, and the increased number of states that have made it legal. patricia.sullivan@washpost.com


The Finance 202: Here’s one unhappy side effect of the Republican tax bill

have come in after-hours trading — Jay Clayton emerges as the crypto skeptic-in-chief. Bloomberg's Robert Schmidt and Benjamin Bain: "Several weeks after becoming the top cop for U.S. markets last May, Jay Clayton began reading everything he could get his hands on about Bitcoin, realizing it was quickly evolving from a method of payment to a global investment craze. Since then, the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman has elevated digital currencies to the forefront of his agenda, asserting that many of the products fall under the agency's oversight. During Clayton's tenure, the SEC has unleashed its enforcement lawyers on companies that are illicitly raising money by selling digital tokens, put the kibosh on attempts to set up cryptocurrency mutual funds and repeatedly urged investors to take more seriously the risk of getting fleeced." — Red states catch up in employment. WSJ's Sharon Nunn and Sarah Chaney: "Although partisanship remained high last year, conservative and liberal states had at least one thing in common in 2017: job growth. Labor-market gains were shared across red states, states President Donald Trump won in 2016 and blue states, states Hillary Clinton carried. The same is true of red industries and blue industries, defined as such by how their workers vote. This a divergence from previous years, when job growth dropped sharply in red states and red-leaning industries, according to new research from job site Indeed. Employment declines in some red-state industries such as manufacturing and mining, which also create corollary jobs in other industries, tracked with drops in oil prices in 2015 and 2016. Some of the job growth in these sectors in 2017 could reflect a bounce-back in oil prices. Red states saw slightly faster job growth than blue states last year. The larger job gains in conservative states show how the benefits of a tight labor market—with the national unemployment rate at a 17-year low—are spreading. Employers, especially in red-state industries, appear increasingly open to considering less-skilled job applicants." Bloomberg News's Catherine Traywick reports "U.S. reaches oil-output milestone months earlier than expected. " See the chart shared via Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal: Coming Up Fact-checking the Democratic responses to Trump's State of the Union Address: Watch former first lady Michelle Obama talk about the gift exchange with the Trump family on Inauguration Day: Here's how lawmakers responded to the Daily Caller's Benny Johnson about what they wore to the State of the Union:


The alleged conspiracy to fix the price of chicken meat, explained

September 2016, and the second was filed by grocery chains Bi-Lo Holdings and Winn-Dixie Stores in January. Sysco and US Foods, the latest plaintiffs, declined to comment on ongoing litigation. As in any other industry, chicken companies are competitors. But beginning in 2008, the lawsuits say, they began a coordinated effort to cut the country’s chicken supply to drive up wholesale prices. Some companies closed processing plants or laid off plant workers, the suits claim. Others broke eggs before they hatched, slaughter or exported egg-laying hens, and young chickens before they grew to the typical size for market. Between 2008 and 2009, the number of broiler chickens produced in the United States fell by almost half a billion, according to the Agriculture Department. While those numbers have since risen, they haven't hit their 2008 high again. U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin weighed in on this question when he denied a request to dismiss one of the price-fixing suits in November: “Both plaintiffs’ allegation of a conspiracy, and defendants’ innocent explanations,” he wrote, “could be described as plausible.” The food distributors claim that chicken companies were in close coordination — initially via industry conferences and meetings, and later by manipulating two data services that show how many chickens, and at what price, other companies are producing. The Georgia Dock index bench marks the price of chicken for supermarkets and other retailers. Maintained by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and based on a survey of eight large poultry companies, the index was suspended in late 2016 after state employees became worried that firms were inflating their reported prices, driving up prices. The other service, and the one that matters most in cutting flocks, is a detailed industry report produced by the firm Agri Stats. By subscribing to the report, the lawsuits allege, each chicken company can see exactly how many breeding hens and eggs their competitors have — a good indicator of how many chickens they’ll hatch, and a signal to cut the company’s own production. In a statement, Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson dismissed the latest lawsuit, much as the company has dismissed the two previous ones. “Follow-on complaints like these are common in antitrust litigation,” Mickelson said. “Such complaints do not change our position that the claims are unfounded. We will continue to vigorously defend our company.” A spokeswoman for Sanderson Farms said the company will “vigorously defend” itself. The other


Meet the amateur astronomer who found NASA’s lost satellite in space

Amateur astronomer Scott Tilley was in his home office on a recent evening, using his radio equipment to scan space in a needle-in-a-haystack search for a spy satellite operated by the U.S. Air Force. Tilley, 47, launches himself on missions like this nightly. Since he was about 8, he has been a devoted but earthbound space explorer, looking for hidden satellites in the sky for hours on end. As he scanned the skies that night a few weeks ago, he did not find what he was looking for, but he came across something possibly even better: a different satellite, a weather craft NASA lost more than a decade ago. NASA had searched for the spacecraft, worth about $150 million, for two years before giving up. For an amateur astronomer, it was the stuff of dreams. “By far, it’s the most important thing I’ve discovered,” said Tilley, an electrical engineer. “It’s a pretty cool thing in my world.” Tilley, who lives in British Columbia, had single-handedly located the weather-tracking spacecraft IMAGE, which NASA launched in 2000 and lost contact with five years later. At dinner, he told his wife about his discovery. She told him to tell NASA. “I said, ‘Well, how do I do that?’ ” Tilley said. “She said, ‘If you can find a satellite in space, surely you can find who built the thing.’ ” So Tilley posted on Twitter what he had found. Then he got some names of scientists who had worked on the project and sent some emails. “When I woke up, my inbox was filled with emails from people who worked on it in the early 2000s,” Tilley said. NASA confirmed his discovery through identification data collected by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. Now the agency is trying to learn more about the condition of IMAGE and see whether it can once again collect the data the craft was initially sent up to gather. “We are all very, very excited we might get the satellite back,” said Patricia Reiff, who was co-investigator for the IMAGE satellite and is a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University. She had worked on the project since its inception in 1989. NASA had stopped looking for IMAGE in 2007 because of funding, she said, and she did not expect it to ever be found again. The problem now is, because IMAGE’s technology


Leaks, feasts and sex parties: How ‘Fat Leonard’ infiltrated the Navy’s floating headquarters in Asia

line of Blue Ridge officers who had been on the take from the contractor. The next day, the Blue Ridge docked in Hong Kong for a 72-hour visit. Newland and other officers dined and drank at Francis's expense at a swanky French restaurant, racking up a $20,000 tab; then they spent the night at the Shangri-La Hotel, where Francis covered much of the cost, the indictment states. Steve Barney, a retired Navy captain who wrote the 2006 ethics alert when he was serving as the 7th Fleet's top lawyer, said he was shocked by the allegations of his former shipmates flagrantly disregarding the rules. "There was a continuous drumbeat on ethics," he said. "Anybody who was on the staff, if they took the time to read it, would have been on notice about what the ethics rules were." Three weeks after Barney posted his ethics warning, the flagship arrived in Singapore for another port visit — and another party. On March 9, 2006, at least seven officers from the Blue Ridge attended a twilight cocktail hour held by Francis on the helipad atop the 73-story Swissôtel the Stamford, one of the tallest hotels in Southeast Asia, according to court documents and photographs of the event obtained by The Post. Afterward, the group dined in a private room at Jaan, the hotel's Michelin-starred restaurant, where they savored foie gras terrine, oxtail soup and duck-leg confit followed by a degustation of baby lamb, according to a copy of the menu from that evening. For dessert: dark Manjari chocolate gelee, with cacao nib foam, poached rhubarb and passion fruit sorbet. The officers drank Hennessy Paradis Extra cognac at $2,000 a bottle and smoked Cuban Cohiba cigars worth $2,000 a box, records show. If there was any doubt about who was paying for it, the menu proclaimed in large type that the hosts for the evening were Mr. and Mrs. Leonard G. Francis. Photographs show Francis being toasted by Newland, the 7th Fleet chief of staff. Also in attendance were Col. Enrico DeGuzman, the Marine Corps liaison to the 7th Fleet, and Lt. Cmdr. Edmond Aruffo, another 7th Fleet staff officer. Newland and DeGuzman were indicted in March on bribery and conspiracy charges, along with seven other former officers from the Blue Ridge and the 7th Fleet staff. All have pleaded not guilty. Joseph Mancano, an attorney for Newland, called the allegations against him


NASA lost contact with a satellite 12 years ago. An amateur just found its signal.

— IMAGE stopped sending pictures. The satellite had suddenly gone invisible itself. The scientists tried to figure out why. A tripped breaker in the radio was their best guess. But without a radio, they couldn't tell it to turn itself back on. After a month of silence from IMAGE, NASA published a news release that declared the satellite's mission a great success — one that was now over. “The craft's power supply subsystems failed,” the agency wrote, “rendering it lifeless.” NASA was wrong. IMAGE was not dead, but it would circle Earth for more than a decade before a man with no professional astronomy training — one who did not always accept the official explanation of events — heard its call. The 21st century moved into its second decade, and space exploration changed. New machines were sent into orbit, and some of them, like IMAGE, were lost too. In the first month of 2018, an unknown government agency used a private company to launch a secret satellite, code-named “Zuma.” It was nothing like IMAGE; it was a machine intended to be invisible to most of the world. And it failed immediately. No one has said publicly what, exactly, went wrong during the Jan. 7 launch, whether Zuma crashed back into an ocean or simply died in space. Its fate and purpose have become a mystery of the new Space Age — and all of this bothered Scott Tilley very much. Tilley is a 47-year-old electrical engineer who lives on the west coast of Canada. His hobby is radio astronomy. In a sense, it's also his cause. “Space is not owned by anybody,” Tilley told The Washington Post. “Anybody should be able to look up and know those little dots moving across the night sky are not bombs.” Secret military satellites and classified orbits bother him, so he has banded together with a small group of fellow amateurs across the world to to track down every satellite whose operators don't want it to be seen. Maybe Zuma was in pieces underwater, Tilley thought. But maybe not. So he began to scan. He used no telescope, listening instead for radio signals out there, in the invisible ocean. When Tilley caught a signal after a week of searching, on Jan. 20, he almost ignored it. Whatever it was, it was orbiting much higher than Zuma was supposed to be. There are hundreds of


CDC to cut by 80 percent efforts to prevent global disease outbreak

accurately from across the country, said Carolyn Reynolds, a vice president at PATH, a global health technology nonprofit group that helped the Congolese set up the center. This next phase of work may be at risk if CDC cuts back its support, she said. “It would be akin to building the firehouse without providing the trained firemen and information and tools to fight the fire,” Reynolds said in an email. If more funding becomes available in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, the CDC could resume work in China and Congo, as well as Ethiopia, Indonesia and Sierra Leone, another government official said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss budget matters. In the meantime, the CDC will continue its work with dozens of countries on other public health issues, such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, polio eradication, vaccine-preventable diseases, influenza and emerging infectious diseases. Global health organizations said critical momentum will be lost if epidemic prevention funding is reduced, leaving the world unprepared for the next outbreak. The risks of deadly and costly pandemic threats are higher than ever, especially in low- and middle-income countries with the weakest public health systems, experts say. A rapid response by a country can mean the difference between an isolated outbreak and a global catastrophe. In less than 36 hours, infectious disease and pathogens can travel from a remote village to major cities on any continent to become a global crisis. On Monday, a coalition of global health organizations representing more than 200 groups and companies sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar asking the administration to reconsider the planned reductions to programs they described as essential to health and national security. “Not only will CDC be forced to narrow its countries of operations, but the U.S. also stands to lose vital information about epidemic threats garnered on the ground through trusted relationships, real-time surveillance, and research,” wrote the coalition, which included the Global Health Security Agenda Consortium and the Global Health Council. The coalition also warned that complacency after outbreaks have been contained leads to funding cuts, followed by ever more costly outbreaks. The Ebola outbreak cost U.S. taxpayers $5.4 billion in emergency supplemental funding, forced several U.S. cities to spend millions in containment, disrupted global business and required the deployment of the U.S. military to address the threat. “This is the front line against


Skeleton racer Katie Uhlaender on CAS ruling: ‘It just makes me sad’

by four hundredths of a second. When the IOC banned scores of Russian athletes and stripped Sochi winners of their medals, Nikitina was among them. Uhlaender was in line for a bronze. The CAS decision, though, dashed Uhlaender's medal hopes, at least for now, with the possibility of an IOC appeal and more years of litigation pending. Uhlaender said she cried when the news came out for both personal and broad reasons. For her, the ruling meant more than her own medal. "It just makes me sad," Uhlaender said. "I thought the IOC was taking a strong stand and protecting clean athletes and the integrity, and I hope that they continue to do so, because it will add fuel to my fire and help me fight. Right now, it's not just me — a lot of athletes feel like we're believing in a movement that is dying." The CAS decision disheartened Uhlaender because, in her mind, it allowed the Russians an ill-gained victory. The CAS reasoned the athletes it pardoned could not be proved to have doped. But part of Russia's strategy, according to the IOC's report, was to destroy evidence of cheating. "To say they can't prove an athlete is dirty, that just helps Russia accomplish what they set out to do in the first place," Uhlaender said. "My thoughts were, does this mean we have to compete against the dirty athletes again? This was a huge blow to clean sport, and the integrity of sport. People are saying they can't prove they were dirty. In the same breath, you can't prove that they were innocent. They can prove the samples were destroyed to make that possible. In my mind, if they destroyed the samples with the goal of keeping the medals, then we're letting them win. It's disheartening." The ruling reinstated results from Sochi that had been thrown out, CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said in PyeongChang. The IOC could still move to prevent Nikitina and other suspected Russian dopers from competing again, but for now, their fate remains hazy. In Russia, Nikitina said she would train as if expecting to compete in the Olympics. "We were hoping for justice and it has prevailed," Nikitina said, according to the Associated Press. "It's a matter of my life, what I do, and when you're accused like that it's very unpleasant and everything falls apart for you." The timing carried


NTSB: Amtrak engineer activated emergency brake before train hit truck

of three Time Disposal employees in the vehicle. The Amtrak train was a charter carrying dozens of Republican lawmakers and their spouses, children and staff to an annual GOP retreat, held this year at The Greenbrier, a resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. More than a dozen NTSB investigators and officials from the Federal Railroad Administration have been on the scene since Wednesday evening. Officials said the investigation could take 12 to 14 months to complete. NTSB board member Earl Weener said investigators have no reason to believe the crash was anything other than an accident. "At this point, it is still classified as an accident, a grade-crossing accident," Weener said. NTSB officials said the train was traveling at 61 mph when it struck the truck. The speed limit for that area of track is 60 mph. As part of the investigation, NTSB officials are also scrutinizing safety records for Time Disposal. According to Kotowski, the firm had undergone six safety roadside inspections in recent years, and trucks were placed out of service two of those times, but the NTSB is trying to determine the nature of any defects found. He said officials at the company, which has been in business for more than three decades, have been cooperative. The company announced Thursday that it had set up a GoFundMe page to help support Foley's family. "Today at Time Disposal we find ourselves in shock," officials wrote in a post on the company's Facebook page. "Yesterday we lost an employee and a brother, his one year old son and mother of his child lost a father. . . . May he rest in peace, you will be missed by many Chris." The two other Time Disposal employees, the 20-year-old driver and another passenger, were injured in the crash and were being treated at a hospital. Among the lawmakers, only Rep. Jason Lewis (R-Minn.) was hospitalized. He was treated for minor injuries and released. Officials at the University of Virginia Medical Center said four victims from the crash have been treated and released. Two remain hospitalized — one in critical condition and the other in fair condition. The segment of track where the crash occurred is owned by CSX Transportation but leased to Buckingham Branch Railroad. A spokesman for CSX said Buckingham is responsible for maintenance, signaling and managing train traffic on the line. The crossing had gates, flashing lights and


How Kobe Bryant helped shape the defining summer of Kyrie Irving’s basketball life

the No. 1 pick this past offseason, means the future is plenty bright in Boston. “It takes time,” Irving said. “Just like anything. But being in this environment, I felt like I’ve kind of thrown myself into it, being one of the leaders on the team, trying to help and guide these guys as much as possible while giving them the space to do what they feel is best for their careers. “I don’t want to get in the way. I just want to aid them. That’s it. I’ve had some unbelievable experiences in my seven years in the league, and I know it’s going to continue, God willing, and I just try to do what’s best for our team and to integrate myself with these guys because they’re awesome. They’ve watched from the outside, and watched me go to the Finals and be in certain things and accolades, and I want the same for them.” He might be able to lead them there sooner than expected. Between the struggles of his former team — the Cavaliers have lost 12 of their past 19 games — and the way the Celtics are playing, Boston could be the team that ends the stranglehold James has had over the Eastern Conference for the past seven years. Last week, the Celtics lost a close game here against the Warriors, with Irving (39 points) and Stephen Curry (49) locked in the kind of duel they have been in so many times the past three seasons. And it wasn’t just their one-on-one matchup that made that game feel like it was being played in June, rather than late January. “It’s always fun going against those guys,” Irving said with a smile. “You demand their respect, and you’ve earned it. And they’ve earned my respect, as well. “Now being on a different team, I know most of the things they do well, and now I just bring some of those answers being with a different group to here.” Irving wanted out of Cleveland for a chance to take ownership of his own team, and to lead it to the top of the sport. He has that chance now because, with his career at a crossroads, he followed Bryant’s example. So far, it’s hard to argue with the results. Read more: Kevin Durant calls ‘bulls—‘ on LeBron James-to-the-Warriors rumors We must find Red Panda’s missing $25,000 unicycle


CDC employees are delighted that their acting director is back in charge

Department should just make her the permanent director. (The only other announcement with more comments asked employees whether they work while sick.) “HHS needs to make the obvious and easy decision to appoint Dr. Schuchat as CDC’s director permanently,” one person wrote. “Dr. Schuchat — thank goodness you’re back. You’re amazing, thank you. I echo — Dr. Schuchat for director,” added another poster. A longtime federal employee wrote, “Many, if not most, of us could earn higher wages in the private sector, but we are dedicated public health professionals and we choose to do this work in the public interest. As a CDC 'old-timer,' I have seen a few things and the work of many directors,” the post continued. “I feel it is time to go back to having a career CDC professional as director rather than having this position be so politicized.” On Friday, others in the public health field joined the call to appoint Schuchat the permanent CDC director. In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the leadership of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health asked Azar to give her “strong consideration” for the job, noting that she is well respected inside and outside the CDC, and has shown “exemplary leadership in managing emergency responses to influenza and other outbreaks.” Schuchat, who started her public health career at the CDC in July 1988, is also a two-star rear admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She has played key roles in many public health emergencies, including the 2009 swine flu epidemic, the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that started in China, and the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States. She was director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, which includes its influenza division, from 2006 to 2015. She served as acting director for six months in 2017 after Tom Frieden resigned from the post and before Fitzgerald was appointed. On Friday, she is stepping back into a familiar role, providing an update on this year’s flu season, already the worst in nearly a decade. Read more: CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald resigns because of conflicts over financial interests CDC to cut by 80 percent efforts to prevent global disease outbreak CDC employees told to avoid using these 7 words Here's what you need to know about the flu season this year


The Warriors come to Red Panda’s rescue, will buy her new unicycle

If there’s one thing that unites basketball fans in these fractured times, it is an unyielding love of Red Panda. The acrobat, whose real name is Rong Niu, has delighted spectators for years with her halftime performances, juggling bowls and plates and flicking them up atop her head with her feet, all while balancing on a rather tall unicycle. But the basketball world is reeling this week after receiving some awful news out of San Francisco: Someone either stole Red Panda’s unicycle from a baggage-claim area at the San Francisco airport or grabbed the suitcase it was in by mistake. This is obviously a terrible thing. For one, the custom-built unicycle is worth $25,000. For another, without the unicycle there’s no Red Panda, because who’s going to pay much attention to a plate-flipping woman who walks on two feet like some boring normal person. “She’s heartbroken,” her agent, Pat Figley, told KTVU on Wednesday. “It’s like her baby was kidnapped. She’s had that unicycle for 30 years.” But on Friday afternoon, the Golden State Warriors stepped in with a move that will be viewed as heroic by anyone who enjoys a quality halftime show: The team is buying Red Panda a new custom-built unicycle. “Their generosity is just amazing,” Red Panda’s agent, Patrick Figley, told Bay Area News Group. “This cloud has been lifted. She was thrilled. She’s really really appreciative. The Warriors are a great organization.” On Wednesday, the San Francisco Police Airport Division released surveillance photos to KTVU showing a man with a beard and ponytail rolling away luggage on a cart. Police say the man walked into the baggage claim area at the airport and took a black roller suitcase containing Red Panda’s unicycle from the baggage carousel. Meanwhile, the college basketball world has united in support of Red Panda. Red Panda is back on the road with a backup one-wheeler, KTVU reports, but it’s a poor substitute, apparently. “She’s doing horribly,” Figley said. “She’s dropping bowls. She’s just not used to it. The one that was stolen was custom built for her.” ESPN’s Seth Greenberg took note of Red Panda’s struggles during Wednesday night’s North Carolina-Clemson game. He seemed unaware of the tragedy that has befallen her. The third sentence is true, at least. More college sports coverage: For the Atlantic 10, an unfamiliar label: ‘one-bid league’ Police investigated Larry Nassar for abuse 13 years ago.


2017 was the most dangerous year ever for journalists. 2018 might be even worse.

Last year was the most dangerous year ever for journalists. Eighteen journalists were killed around the world in 2017, a record number were imprisoned and threats against the press seemingly have become common, even in the West. Don't expect that to change in 2018. Data published by press freedom organizations indicates that the threats faced by journalists worldwide are increasing. Reporters Without Borders, an organization that works with local journalists to monitor the treatment of the press by authorities in 130 countries, already has recorded the deaths of two journalists in January and the imprisonment of 189 others. “There are worrying developments, and they align with what we have seen in the last few years,” Joel Simon, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, told The Washington Post. “The political cost of this sort of behavior has diminished, and that tips the balance in the wrong direction.” He pointed out that President Trump has met with the leaders of all the countries that currently jail journalists in mass numbers, and that there is no indication that press freedom came up in any of them. The threats are extensive: extrajudicial executions, hostage taking by both government and nonstate actors, state-sanctioned surveillance, prosecution under obscure laws, public smear campaigns and more. Reporters around the world have been accused of terrorism, targeted as enemies of the people, and subjected to opaque and sometimes-secret legal proceedings. Many of those abuses are happening in a small number of countries, which are fueling the historically dangerous global climate. In Mexico, drug cartels and corrupt government officials have used grotesque acts of violence to silence journalists reporting on the country's drug war, and the number of journalists who have been killed, imprisoned or have disappeared has risen steadily. Of the 48 journalists killed worldwide in 2017, according to data from CPJ, six of those killings took place in Mexico, as did the first of 2018. Carlos Dominguez, a 77-year-old columnist who wrote about corruption and organized crime in Mexico for more than 40 years, was stabbed at a traffic light in Nuevo Laredo in the presence of his family on Jan. 13. No arrests have been made in his case. “There is no indication that the situation for journalists in Mexico will improve. There's a complete lack of political will to put a stop to these killings,” Margaux Ewen, the North America director


‘I’m really not to blame’: Fired Hawaii worker says false missile threat was ‘system failure’

that he has received death threats. The man repeated claims that officials in Hawaii released: that the worker heard “this is not a drill” at some point during a training exercise and assumed that the threat of an incoming missile was real. The incident occurred when a supervisor decided to give the arriving day-shift workers a spontaneous drill, according to a Federal Communications Commission report. The supervisor posed as a military official and played a message that warned workers of a fake threat that included the phrase “exercise,” three times, as well as “this is not a drill,” language that would be used during a real alert. Officials also said the worker had not heard a portion of the exercise that repeatedly declared it was an “exercise.” “I was 100 percent sure that it was the right decision, that it was real,” the man said. “I’m really not to blame in this. It was a system failure, and I did what I was trained to do.” The missile alert went out An investigation released by the state described the employee as having a poor work history; other members of the emergency management agency’s staff said that they did not feel comfortable with his work. Holt asked the man, who was shown from the neck down and wearing a Hawaiian shirt, whether he would do anything differently if he could go back. “I can’t say I would do anything differently based on what I saw and heard,” the man said. Officials said last week the worker who sent the false missile alert was not cooperating with investigators. However, the man told CNN that no one talked to him about the incident for three days, and that a supervisor asked him to provide a written statement. “There really wasn’t anything else to say,” the man said, according to the Associated Press. The man added that the incident — and ensuing stress and death threats — has led to trouble sleeping and eating. “It’s been hell for me the last couple weeks,” he told the AP. Mark Berman, Brian Fung and Amy B Wang contributed to this report. Read more: ‘I wanted to roll his head,’ cousin of murdered billionaire says in bizarre TV interview Joe Arpaio pleads ignorance after giving interview to anti-Semitic weekly. It was his fifth. A truck driver inexplicably plowed over a 2,000-year-old site in Peru, damaging the designs


Scott Pruitt pushes back on finding that would restrict pesticides’ use to protect fish

For months, chemical companies have waged a campaign to reverse findings by federal fisheries scientists that could curb the use of pesticides based on the threat they pose to endangered species. They scored a major victory this week, when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced he would press another federal agency to revisit a recent opinion triggering such restrictions. The struggle over an arcane provision of the Endangered Species Act, in which the EPA must affirm that the pesticides it oversees do not put species' survival in jeopardy, has become the latest front in the battle over a broad-spectrum insecticide known as chlorpyrifos. Pruitt denied a petition to ban its agricultural use after questioning EPA scientists' conclusions that exposure impedes brain development in infants and fetuses. Speaking to the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture on Wednesday, Pruitt said he plans to inform the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Fisheries Service "that there needs to be a consultation because we have usage data, frankly, that wasn't considered." NOAA Fisheries issued a Biological Opinion on Dec. 29, which was publicly released Jan. 9 by the environmental law firm Earthjustice, finding that the current use of chlorpyrifos and malathion "is likely to jeopardize the continued existence" of 38 species of salmon and other fish in the Pacific Northwest and destroy or harm the designated critical habitat of 37 of those species. It found another pesticide, diazinon, could jeopardize the continued existence of 25 listed fish species and could harm critical habitat for 18 of them. In allowing chlorpyrifos to stay on the market — the product is already prohibited for household products — Pruitt cited concerns raised by the Department of Agriculture, pesticide industry groups and an EPA scientific review panel about studies the agency used to conclude that the pesticide poses a serious enough neurological risk to ban its use on dozens of crops. One study, by researchers at Columbia University, found a connection between higher exposure levels to chlorpyrifos and learning and memory problems among farmworkers and children. NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Kate Brogan would not say Thursday whether it was revisiting its opinion, but she noted that officials asked in November for a significant extension to finish the analysis. She cited an agency statement that the request's denial deprived NOAA of the chance to do "collaborative work" and "fully engage the public." Earthjustice managing attorney Patti Goldman,


he wants to do, but I'm not sure that it's an option," Goldman said. "EPA has an obligation to determine that the pesticides it authorizes won't wipe out endangered species." Or as Collins put it, "Everybody is asking questions, and nobody has any answers." Earthjustice has been suing the government over this issue since 2001 on behalf of the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, and Institute for Fisheries Resources. Federal and academic researchers have studied the links between exposure to pesticides and fish mortality for years. A paper published in October in the journal Ecological Applications, written by scientists from NOAA and the U.S. Wildlife Service, found that pesticide runoff causes between 10 percent and 40 percent of coho salmon within nearly half of range in the Puget Sound basin to die before they can spawn. Other studies have shown this exposure can lead to abnormal sexual development in salmon and harm their ability to grow, swim and reproduce. In its December opinion, NOAA Fisheries also concluded that the risk to salmon and steelhead could imperil Southern Resident Killer Whales, which feed on salmon and are at risk of extinction. Collins said pesticide manufacturers see the new finding as largely similar to the "Biological Evaluation" that the EPA issued on Jan. 18, 2017, which set in motion NOAA's more detailed analysis. She noted that Fish and Wildlife is supposed to issue its own opinion on the products' impact on more than 1,800 terrestrial species, but has yet to do so. The three manufacturers of chlorpyrifos, malathion and diazinon — Dow AgroSciences, FMC Corp., and Makhteshim Agan of North America Inc. (Adama), respectively — wrote several top Trump administration officials in April to ask them to withdrawEPA's initial findings.In an April 12 email to EPA's deputy chief of staff for policy, Byron Brown, Dow AgroSciences lobbyist Megan J. Provost wrote she wanted to give him "a quick heads up" that the firms would be challenging the agency's conclusions about the three pesticides. In the email, which was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the left-leaning Environmental Working Group and American Oversight, Provost questioned how the EPA could have concluded the pesticides would "likely" harm more than 97 percent of the species in question and 98 percent of their critical habitats. "As such, we are asking that the [evaluations] be withdrawn because those


United States unveils sanctions designed to strangle Iranian-backed Hezbollah

The Trump administration on Friday slapped new sanctions on individuals and businesses suspected of links to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group the White House is hoping to isolate in its bid to curtail Iran’s influence across the Middle East. The Treasury Department announced the measures against six people and seven businesses based in Lebanon, Iraq and West Africa, a move officials described as a first step in a wave of actions targeting the group’s licit and illicit financial networks. The sanctions come as the Trump administration seeks to intensify its response to Iran’s support for armed groups from Lebanon to Syria to Yemen, which the United States has long complained have attacked American interests and allies, and posed a major threat to Gulf nations. One senior U.S. official, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized publicly to do so, described the new measures as a blow to the Revolutionary Guard Corps and its elite Quds Force, “which uses Lebanese Hezbollah as really its main means of projecting destabilizing power in conflict zones,” including Syria, Iraq and Yemen. The individuals and businesses sanctioned are believed to be linked to Adham Tabaja, a businessman who controls a real estate empire in Lebanon and who officials described as a senior Hezbollah financier. Tabaja has been the target of previous U.S. sanctions. The new sanctions reach far beyond Lebanon, targeting businesses in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Liberia that officials say sit at the nexus of Hezbollah’s cash flows. While the U.S. government has used sanctions for years as part of an attempt to constrain Hezbollah’s activity, officials acknowledge the challenge they face because of Iran’s continued support for the group. U.S. officials say Tehran provides Hezbollah an estimated $700 million a year. They must also grapple, senior officials said in describing the new sanctions, with the fact that Iran and Hezbollah may prioritize financial backing for militant activities even when overall resources decline. It’s not clear what effect such financial measures may have for the people and businesses identified on Friday. What has had a clear impact on Hezbollah’s finances, the officials said, is the group’s militant activities in Syria, where it has been deployed in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Hezbollah militants have taken significant losses in Syria, and the conflict has exacted a major toll in terms of manpower and weapons, and pension costs for


Gene Sharp, scholar who provided intellectual underpinnings to international peace movement, dies at 90

He died before a verdict was reached. In two years of organized resistance, no Otpor member was killed. Some peace activists saw the hand of Dr. Sharp's writings in uprisings from Burma to Ukraine and resistance struggles from Latin America to Africa. Regimes in Syria, Iran and Venezuela have reportedly accused him of being on the payroll of the CIA and the White House. (He denied any connection to any governments.) His books were said to have had an impact on leaders of the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square against Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Dr. Sharp said perhaps the most important lesson embraced by the young activists, whose persistence led to Mubarak's resignation, was loss of fear. "Once a regime is no longer able to frighten people," he told NPR, "and people then act wisely and keep nonviolent discipline, which is extremely important, then that regime is in big trouble." Gene Elmer Sharp was born Jan. 21, 1928, in North Baltimore, Ohio, and spent his high school years in Columbus. His father was a traveling Protestant minister, his mother a teacher. He was a 1949 graduate of Ohio State University, where he also received a master's degree in sociology in 1951. He moved to New York and worked as an elevator operator and a guide for a blind social worker. "I wasn't interested in having a real job," he told the New York Times in 2012. "I wanted subway fare and food and to research Gandhi." He protested his conscription for military service during the Korean War. Arrested and convicted as a conscientious objector, he served more than nine months in the Danbury, Conn., federal prison. He passed the time reading. Aware that physicist Albert Einstein was a pacifist, Dr. Sharp wrote to him at Princeton University for his views on conscientious objection. The scientist wrote to the 25-year-old dissident: "I earnestly admire you for your moral strength and can only hope although I really do not know that I would have acted as you did had I found myself in the same situation." Uplifted by the reply, Dr. Sharp, then working on his book "Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power," persuaded Einstein to write the foreword. It came out in 1960, five years after Einstein's death. In the intervening years, Dr. Sharp worked in the United States for pacifist A.J. Muste and spent a period


The good economic news is actually bad. Here’s why.

demobilization of more than 10 million from the armed services, the economy no longer busy producing instruments of destruction — would cause bad things. There would be "the greatest period of unemployment and industrial dislocation which any economy has ever faced." Any economy. Ever. What actually happened is remembered as the Postwar Boom. This stroll down memory lane suggests this rule: All news is economic news, because everything affects the economy, or reveals attitudes or behaviors that soon will affect it. And all economic news is bad — especially good economic news, because it gives rise to bad behavior. Consider this recent Wall Street Journal front-page headline: "Americans Save Less As Good Times Roll." The article began: "Soaring stock prices and improving job prospects" — Good news? Good grief — "have set Americans off on a spending splurge that is cutting into how much they sock away for retirement and rainy days." Between 2008 and the third quarter of 2017, the net worth of U.S. households surged from $56 trillion to $97 trillion (Good news? Remember, that's an oxymoron), but "previous busts — in the mid-2000s and the late 1990s — were preceded by periods of rising asset values and especially low saving." In December, America's household savings rate was the lowest (2.4 percent of disposable income) since the negative savings rates in 2005 and 2006, before the housing bubble burst. Many Americans, forgetting the most intractable fact — that nothing lasts — turned the equity in their homes into cash to fund immediate consumption. Today, 104 months after the recovery from the Great Recession began in June 2009 (when the savings rate was 6.6 percent), 2.5 million homes are still worth less than is owed on their mortgages. As of 2013, 45 percent of working-age households had no retirement savings. Social Security (average annual payment, $15,500), which provides 33 percent of seniors' annual income, and 90 percent for the bottom third of retirees, but only about 35 percent of a typical household's pre-retirement income, last year became America's first trillion-dollar-a-year program. Absent reforms, its trust fund will be exhausted by 2035 and benefits will have to be reduced 23 percent. A 2015 Federal Reserve study revealed that half of those surveyed said they could not gather $400 to cope with an emergency; one-third said they could not sell assets, tap retirement savings or turn to family and friends to


Memo points to FBI’s sustained interest in Carter Page, ex-adviser to Trump

Trump's friendly stance toward Putin, a position that was out of step with the rest of the Republican Party. Days after he was named to the campaign, Page gave an interview to Bloomberg News in which he predicted that a Trump victory would be financially useful for Russian associates who had been hurt by U.S. sanctions. "There's a lot of excitement in terms of the possibilities for creating a better situation," he said. Then, in July, he traveled to Russia, where he delivered a speech at Moscow's New Economic School, where he publicly criticized U.S. foreign policy. It was on this trip, Steele alleged, that Page met with top Russian officials, indicating that Sechin had offered Page and other Trump associates a hefty brokerage fee from the impending sale of Rosneft if they could ensure U.S. sanctions were lifted by a Trump administration. Page told the House committee that he did not meet with Rosneft chief Sechin on that trip. However, he said, he did briefly greet Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich after the speech and also said he visited a Moscow bar and watched a soccer match with Andrey Baranov, a top Rosneft executive. Asked whether the two men had discussed the sale of Rosneft while watching soccer, Page responded "he may have briefly mentioned it to me. I had no discussions." When pressed about whether they discussed U.S.sanctions, Page said, "Sanctions may have come up," but he added, "There was no definitive discussions about sanctions." When asked about his December 2016 trip to Moscow, Page was hesitant to name some of the people with whom he met. He acknowledged that he again saw Dvorkovich and Baranov. He said he was "interested in business" on the trip. Asked what business he was seeking, he answered, "I can't recall anything specific." Asked whether he had received any documents during one Moscow lunch, Page responded, "I'm almost positive I did not." Page also told the committee that he was in London for an energy conference either before or after his December 2016 trip to Moscow, staying for something between one and five nights at a hotel that he could not remember. In London, Page said, he had held meetings with a Russian member of his firm's advisory board named Sergey Yatsenko, who arranged for him also to meet to discuss business with the Kazakh ambassador to Britain. When the Intelligence


Many doctors are wary of medical marijuana. And Jeff Sessions hasn’t helped.

He is waiting for science to back up claims by advocates — and a growing number of patients — that cannabis can help with seizures, nausea, wasting, anxiety, cancer and a host of other ills. It's all anecdotal until the data is in, he said. "It seems we're being driven by YouTube videos now," Pushkin said. Pushkin serves as president of the Maryland State Medical Society, the state's largest doctors' association. He opposed medical marijuana during the long debate before the state legislature, but the group itself stayed neutral. "Our members are just like the public, they are split on the issue," Ransom said. But now that Maryland's program has launched — more than four years after being signed into law — the group is working to make it as orderly as possible for the doctors who want to participate. And one the of biggest quandaries for providers who may get a third or more of their income from Medicare or other federal sources: sussing out the legal risk of prescribing a drug still outlawed by the federal government. Matthew Mintz, a longtime internist at George Washington University Medical School who recently set up his own practice in Bethesda, said that liability fears are a big reason most of his peers are still wary of the cannabis program. But he decided it was worth the risk, and has written about a dozen recommendations for patients in the past month. "I've really been impressed with how medical marijuana has changed the lives of people with chronic conditions," Mintz said, citing cases of anxiety and insomnia he has witnessed. Mintz is eager for researchers to backfill some of the healing claims made about cannabis, but he is confident that the drug is safe enough for many patients to at least try. "The more we learn about it, the more we understand that it's a nonaddictive substance that's probably safer than alcohol," he said. "It's probably safer than Tylenol." Still, the process is far less precise than scribbling in Latin on a prescription pad, knowing the pharmacist will fill the order down to the milligram and type exact directions on the label. Like many participating doctors, Mintz consults with his patients, decides if they might benefit and then largely leaves it up to the dispensary to come up with a dose and type of cannabis to try. They are the experts in this


Trump’s Black History Month proclamation implies racism in the military is in the past. It’s not.

"It was not until 1948 that President Harry S. Truman ordered desegregation of the military, providing 'equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the Armed Forces without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.' It took another 5 years before the Secretary of Defense abolished the last segregated African-American military unit." The history of racism in the U.S. military goes back to before the United States was established, with black people defending a country that didn't protect them. And while many laws have changed, legislating against biased and hateful beliefs is impossible and has actually become of increased concern in recent years. To some, the lack of diversity among the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other high-level positions is a reflection of the continued challenges black people face in the military. Just last year, Protect Our Defenders, a nonprofit that deals with harassment and abuse in the military, produced a report about ongoing racial discrimination in the military. The report read: And following the riots in Charlottesville, where white supremacists sought to protect memorials honoring Confederate generals that are largely seen as symbols of racial hatred, Washington Post military reporter Dan Lamothe wrote about top military officials' concern about some service members and veterans joining right-wing extremist or white-supremacist groups, or acting out their ideologies. Trump was correct to note that blacks have been key figures in the military since before the founding of America. But the way Trump spoke about the black American experience in the military honors the patriotism of black Americans in the military without addressing their ongoing challenges with racial discrimination. A more comprehensive understanding of the black American experience as it pertains to the military could lead the president to understand why so many black Americans feel anger about his pitting the military against black Americans in his condemnation of NFL players. For these voters, pointing out racism isn't disrespectful to veterans. Instead, drawing attention to racism is meant to shed light on ongoing racial discrimination in the military. Trump often evokes respect for the military when challenging Americans fighting discrimination and injustice in the country. But never does he address that challenges remain in the armed forces, as Foreign Policy's Thomas Ricks wrote: "To believe racial discrimination ceases to exist in the military is a lie — and a dangerous one." If the president would like to see his approval ratings


Trump’s request for even more nuclear weapons is flawed overkill

BEFORE PRESIDENT TRUMP took office, the United States had started a large and expensive upgrade of its strategic nuclear forces to replace those from the Reagan era. Modernization was essential, but there had been a failure to make hard choices or set priorities. Yet now comes the Trump administration seeking even more. The Navy already is designing a new fleet of a dozen ballistic missile submarines, the Columbia class; the Air Force wants a new long-range strategic bomber, the B-21 Raider, as well as a new long-range cruise missile and replacements for existing land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Energy Department is modifying and extending the life of nuclear bombs and warheads. Now the Nuclear Posture Review, unveiled Friday, declares a need for modified nuclear warheads of lower yield than those typically put on strategic weapons such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, and also for a new, nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile. The report argues that the United States needs more "flexible" options to meet possible threats from resurgent Russia and China, and that these supplemental and "tailored" options will enhance deterrence. Maintaining a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent is essential to U.S. national security and will be for the foreseeable future. But this recommendation for additional low-yield nuclear weapons is flawed overkill. For decades, many people have assumed that a nuclear war would automatically become all-out, catastrophic war, the destruction of humanity. In fact, policymakers and specialists have long envisioned and built nuclear weapons that have less yield, and written nuclear war plans that include limited nuclear strikes. During the Cold War, Henry Kissinger was prominent in the school that argued that all-out war wasn't a credible threat, because no one would actually do it, so limited nuclear options were more credible and should be pursued. They were. Today, in addition to warheads with massive destructive force, the United States has in its arsenal more than 1,000 gravity bombs of six types and an air-launched cruise missile with lower yield options, and war plans with all kinds of limited options. The flaw in the new report is the idea that somehow there is a weakness in the U.S. nuclear deterrent that more low-yield weapons would remedy. The evidence for this is hard to find. In fact, adversaries know that the United States can deliver a strike anywhere in the world in 30 minutes with astounding accuracy. Deterrent credibility is already strong,


Russia strikes back as Syrian rebels take credit for shooting down fighter jet, killing pilot

ISTANBUL — Syria's former al-Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility Saturday for the downing of a Russian warplane in northern Syria, apparently using a surface-to-air missile to target the aircraft. The pilot was killed after he ejected and exchanged gunfire with militants on the ground, the Russian Defense Ministry and a monitoring group said. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a powerful rebel alliance that publicly split from al-Qaeda last year, said it had used a shoulder-fired weapon to down the Su-25 fighter jet as it flew low over the opposition-held town of Saraqeb. That claim was echoed by Russia's Interfax news agency, quoting the Defense Ministry, as well as the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The incident could raise tensions between Russia and Turkey, which is monitoring a "de-escalation zone" in the northern province of Idlib as part of an agreement made during Syrian peace talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana. It also raises questions about the source of the apparent "man-portable air-defense system," or MANPADS, a shoulder-fired weapon for which Syria's rebels have repeatedly pleaded from their international backers. The United States has been strongly opposed, fearing that antiaircraft weapons could fall into the hands of the country's extremist groups. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said any allegation that the United States has provided MANPAD missiles in Syria was untrue, and she denied that U.S. equipment was used in shooting down the Russian plane. "The United States has never provided MANPAD missiles to any group in Syria, and we are deeply concerned that such weapons are being used," she said. Saraqeb has come under heavy bombardment from Russian and Syrian warplanes in recent days as pro-government forces try to recapture a strategic highway linking Damascus to Aleppo. The White Helmets civil defense group said Saturday seven civilians had been killed in at least 25 strikes on largely residential areas, some of them using barrel bombs. In the hours after the Russian jet was downed, Moscow also claimed to have killed more than 30 militants in the area, Interfax reported. The agency quoted the Defense Ministry as saying it used "precision-guided weapons" to carry out the strike, but without giving details. The use of MANPADS in a province where Turkish forces are nominally present could also anger Russia. The two countries have improved ties and cooperated in Syria in recent months, but relations hit an all-time low in 2015 when Turkey,


Curiosity’s five-year journey across Mars — in one stunning photo

Earth and the sky There are 668 sols in a Martian year, but Curiosity tends to mark its anniversaries in Earth time. On Aug. 6, 2013 — one Earth year after the rover landed on Mars — NASA engineers programmed the rover to vibrate its soil analysis unit to the tune of “Happy Birthday.” A few weeks after this lonely celebration, as it rolled across the flatlands of Gale Crater, Curiosity looked straight up at the Martian sky and saw this overhead: It was the moon Phobos, crossing the sun. This wasn't actually a rare sight; Mars has two small moons, and experiences a solar eclipse nearly every day, The Post wrote. But it was one of the memorable images of Curiosity's mission and helped cement the rover's reputation as a photographer on Earth. Maybe realizing this, NASA celebrated Curiosity's second “birthday” in 2014 not with a song — but a black-and-white portrait of a tire track. Shiny objects On sol 1, better known as touchdown day at NASA's mission control, the most sophisticated rover yet built floated from space to the surface of Mars on a rocket powered “sky crane.” Its landing site was visible in the panorama photo released this week — a speck of plain inside the northern rim of Gale Crater, named wistfully after the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. Scientists had great expectations for Curiosity, which cost NASA $2.5 billion and boasted its own mobile chemistry set. It was a machine designed to keep its face in the dirt. But the rover began to defy expectations with its first scoop of soil in the fall of 2012. It spotted something shiny in the dirt and spent days studying it, only to find out it was a piece of its own plastic. NASA scientists had hoped Curiosity would make it to the base of Mount Sharp by the end of the year, The Post wrote, but those plans were quickly shot. The rover spent more than a month wandering around its landing site before beginning its long journey. Then it made its way toward the dunes, slowly, pausing again and again to take pictures or stare at eclipses or make art in the sand — a robot that knows getting there is half the fun. Read more: Curiosity Rover’s arrival on Mars revives interest in space innovation The Mars Curiosity Rover celebrates its second landing anniversary


How a prehistoric fruit wound up at your Super Bowl party

introducing it to U.S. farmers and American palates. But today, Mexico is the world's leading supplier of avocados. When California growing season ends each September, Mexican farmers kick their production into high gear, particularly in the state of Michoacan, where avocados are so lucrative that some orchards are protected by armed guards. As with kale or quinoa, one way to explain the avocado renaissance is marketing. Why else would an ancient fruit rather suddenly boom in popularity in — of all places — Brooklyn, where an "avocado bar" called the Avocaderia fills its Instagram feed with portraits of sliced avocados in artful compositions? Avocado production consumption took off beginning in the 1990s, which coincides with the first big marketing campaigns. The media-savvy Hass Avocado Board promotes the fruit as though it were a rock star, publicizing its many health benefits related to immunity, weight loss and cardiovascular disease. The Hass board shared some of its marketing secrets in a 2015 report, and among them was this unsubtle tip: "Large, illustrated ads create excitement." That helps explain how avocados ended up with the largest illustrated promotion on the planet, a Super Bowl ad, paid for by industry group Avocados from Mexico, along with a mobile game that transports users to sunny "Avocadoland" and "Guacapulco." Chefs are also responsible for innovations that fuel popularity. Avocados are ancient, but the first time The Washington Post mentioned an "avocado smoothie" was in 2000 (in an article about Eden Center, the Vietnamese shopping center in Northern Virginia ). "Avocado toast" didn't come up until 2013 . The green flesh is now mushed, salted and mounted on bread at coffee shops across America, and mocked as the bane of millennial savings accounts. Demand for avocados shows no sign of declining, and not only in the United States. The Netherlands' consumption of avocados isn't far behind America's, and China's growing appetite has surged 250 percent each year since 2012. Last spring, a three-week avocado promotion at China's 5,000 KFC restaurants had to end early when the country ran out. Can the avocado-producing countries sustain such worldwide zest? So far, yes. But growing exports are pushing Mexican farmers nearly to their limit of land, water and fertilizer. An almost endless number of global customers also pushes the price up, up and up. Last year, the cost in the United States of a single avocado more than doubled —


Kevin McCarthy’s stint as a small-business entrepreneur

government employee for his entire adult life beginning with working in Rep. Bill Thomas’s district office from 1987 to 2002.” She sparked our interest by including a photocopy of a 1986 review of McCarthy’s deli in the Bakersfield Californian, which she said she obtained by going through microfiche editions of the paper. So we dug into the records and conducted interviews. McCarthy also gave a 45-minute interview to answer our questions. Here’s what we found, with the assistance of Washington Post researcher Alice Crites and other documents provided by Pettigrew. With the passage of three decades, it’s sometimes hard to separate facts from memories, so we are not offering a Pinocchio rating. Readers can draw their own conclusions. Here’s what the Feb. 21, 1986, review by Peter Tittl said: Kevin O’s “is located in a corner of McCarthy’s Yogurt. … The full official name is Kevin O’s Delicatessen but that’s an exaggeration. The deli is only a counter and refrigerator in McCarthy’s dining room.” McCarthy’s Yogurt on Stine Street, one of the first frozen yogurt shops in Bakersfield, was owned by Kevin McCarthy’s uncle and aunt and managed by his cousin Tom. Tittl, in an email, recalled that the deli “wasn’t really distinct, all part of the operation with separate ‘Kevin O’s Deli’ signage.” Indeed, we found official California business documents for the yogurt shop, but no documents for the deli. In 2013, McCarthy posted a card on Facebook that he said his uncle had found. That actually worked out well for McCarthy. The sandwiches at the other shop were described as “ordinary” whereas at Kevin O’s “the sandwiches there are better, and the owner is a really friendly guy.” McCarthy’s edge was a sandwich bread, Dutch Crunch, that was baked fresh every day by a local baker. McCarthy credits Tittl’s review with sparking a boom in business. Although McCarthy often calls his shop “Subway before Subway,” there was already a Subway shop in Bakersfield, which opened its first store on Oak Street in Bakersfield on Nov. 17, 1984, according to a 2009 article in Bakersfield Magazine. Subway began baking fresh bread in every store in North America in 1983. Let’s back up a moment. Almost five months before the review appeared, the California lottery had started. At the time, McCarthy says, he attended a community college and made money by going to car auctions in Los Angeles, bringing them


Georgetown mansion is one of the most expensive homes for sale in the District

many Girl Scout projects. One of her more successful endeavors was raising money for a Girl Scout camp in the Shenandoah Mountains that was named Camp May Flather in her honor. Because the Flathers also owned the historic estate Tulip Hill in Anne Arundel County, they rented out the Georgetown house at times. Among those who leased it were Adm. Louis Sable, a former naval attache at the French Embassy, and R. Brinkley Smithers, a former marketing executive for IBM and Army officer who would later establish the nation’s largest foundation for alcoholism treatment and research. Flather remained in the home until her death at age 91 in 1962. She bequeathed the house and some of its furnishings to Georgetown University, which rented out the property. One of its tenants was O. Roy Chalk, an entrepreneur who headed Washington’s transit system in the years before Metro. In 1980, while Chalk was living there, the house suffered extensive fire damage. Georgetown University sold the property in 1995 to Robert W. Corby, an investment broker. The current owners bought the home in 2004. The grand entrance hall has French doors that lead to the rear terrace. To the right is the formal living room with a tasteful fireplace, sparkling chandelier, ornate millwork and 11-foot ceilings. The living room flows into a cozy sitting room that overlooks the rear gardens. The formal dining room is on the left. It too has a fireplace and a butler’s pantry that connects to the spacious kitchen, which is ideal for entertaining. Upstairs, the master suite takes up the entire front of the house. The bedroom has a fireplace. The bathroom has dual vanities and a separate shower and tub. It is connected to a spacious dressing room. Two more bedrooms with en suite bathrooms are on this floor. An additional bedroom and bathroom are on the third floor. The lower level includes a recreation room, workout room, den, bedroom and bathroom. The 0.18-acre property features a large garden, lap pool and parking for six cars. The five-bedroom, seven-bathroom, 6,900-square foot house is listed at $13,995,000. Listing: 3306 O St. NW, Washington, D.C. Listing agent: Mark McFadden, Washington Fine Properties Previous House of the Week More Real Estate: A D.C. rowhouse keeps its vintage nature while stepping into present Mortgage rates are trending higher Kipling House near Barracks Row is new condo with views of river, monuments


Millions of Americans are living in higher-education deserts, report says

Despite the indelible image of some fresh-faced 18-year-old heading out of state for college, the truth is nearly 40 percent of students attend a school less than 50 miles from home. For students who work full time or have children — a growing segment of the college population — proximity to a physical campus or at least high-speed Internet access can be critical to pursuing higher education. Yet researchers at the think tank Urban Institute say 3.1 million Americans live more than 25 miles from an open-access public college and lack a suitable Internet connection needed for online education. People living in rural and Western parts of the country are more likely to face this dual challenge, although nearly every state has pockets of physical, online or complete education deserts, according to the Urban Institute report released Friday. “Access to degrees starts with actual access, being able to get to a place where you’re able to earn a degree,” Kristin Blagg, a research associate at the Urban Institute and co-author of the report, told The Washington Post. Blagg and colleague Victoria Rosenboom used data from the Federal Communications Commission, U.S. Department of Education and the Census Bureau to identify education deserts and determine who lives in them. The pair define an education desert as a place where there are either no colleges within 25 miles or just a single community college. Based on that definition, an estimated 41 million adults lack access to a physical university, and of those people, 3.1 million also lack access to high-speed Internet. The findings align with the FCC’s 2015 Broadband Progress Report, which showed that about 63 percent of tribal land residents lack access to high-speed Internet, compared with only 17 percent of the U.S. population as a whole. The disparity is especially stark in rural areas, with about 85 percent of Native residents lacking broadband connections. “This study demonstrates what many Native Americans, rural Americans, and other Americans living in education deserts already knew: The internet has not untethered all of us from our geographic location,” the report said. “As long as broadband access depends on geography, place still plays an important role in access to higher education.” Communities with a dearth of higher education options have lower median family incomes and lower educational attainment than those in areas with access to online and physical campuses. The gap in high school completion between


Refugee athletes captivated the world at the Olympics. But many returned to a life of despair.

from foreign competitions to face many of the same hardships they faced before they were Olympians: poverty, travel restrictions and a bar on gainful employment. On the track, Lokonyen barely seems to touch the ground. Here in Kakuma, which is home to roughly 185,000 refugees, she spends her days doubled over, cooking on a fire pit and washing dishes with water from a yellow jerrycan. The Rio 2016 ID that hangs from the wall of her hut means less than the ration card, issued by the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, that lists all 15 members of her family who are still eligible for food aid. Unlike for Yusra Mardini, the refugee swimmer from Syria who has appeared in ads for Under Armour, hopes of a sponsorship deal have not materialized for the five South Sudanese athletes still living in Kenya. “We have been here for almost two years now, but what is the benefit for these young people?” said Yiech Pur Biel, who competed in the 800-meter run in Rio. “Are they going to support my career?” The International Olympic Committee and UNHCR, which jointly sponsored the Refugee Olympic Team, have publicly committed to supporting the refugee athletes even after they stop competing. Both organizations have pledged to find accommodations for them and to cover their tuition and school fees. “There has always been a commitment to supporting especially the five [South Sudanese] athletes who went to Rio,” said Raouf Mazou, the UNHCR representative in Kenya. Lokonyen said she was told last year there was no budget for her to begin a program in sports management at a Kenyan college. Her teammate James Nyang Chiengjiek, who ran the 400-meter race in Rio, said he was told the same thing. Biel is studying international relations, but on a scholarship funded primarily by the German government. His teammate Paulo Amotun is still in high school, while Anjelina Lohalith started a two-year program last fall with funding from UNHCR. Mazou said there might have been a misunderstanding between the athletes and those funding them that has resulted in the delay. Moving forward, he said, UNHCR and the IOC would support any of the five Rio Olympians in Kenya who wish to study. Since late 2015, the refugee athletes have trained at the facility in the rolling hills outside Nairobi. Lokonyen returned there in January to prepare for the Commonwealth Games in Australia. For