Monarch butterflies keep disappearing. Here’s why.

So the numbers getting back to Mexico are really low. And that's what we're waiting to hear, just how low are they? BP: Is climate change expected to affect the butterflies in any way? LB: BP: You also mentioned Midwestern agriculture as a third factor in the decline. What's happening there? LB: These crops are planted in the grassland ecosystems of the United States, where the monarchs do most of their breeding. And normally in that area there are milkweed growing all over the place on the agricultural fields and the edges of fields and the sides of roads. There are 108 species of milkweed in the United States — the whole monarch migration evolved in relation to evolution of this milkweed flora. Anyway, where they use these herbicides, it kills all emergent seedlings and all the emergent perennial plants. A paper last year by John Pleasants of the University of Iowa and Karen Oberhauser of the University of Minnesota estimated that 60 percent of milkweed has been eliminated from the grassland ecosystem. We're not just talking about one species, we're talking about the entire native flora being eliminated. The other thing herbicides do is kill sources of nectar. This is important: When monarchs come back [to the United States] they lay their eggs on milkweed, the caterpillars hatch out in four or five days and develop over a period of two or three weeks, then form the chrysalis, then a week later it hatches into an adult. These adults initially have about 20 milligrams of fat in their body that's carried over from larval development. But the butterflies that migrate back [to Mexico] have about 125 mg of fat. All that additional fat is gotten from drinking nectar from wildflowers. And this agriculture is killing off the wildflowers. BP: Why should we care about the decline of monarch butterflies? Because they're an iconic species? Or are they important to broader ecosystems? LB: There's also the fact that monarch butterfly is used in teaching biology to kids on a scale that's unequaled by any other insect in the world. So it's an incredibly strong educational tool. And the biology of the migration is absolutely unique. So you get back to the philosophical aspect of it: How many natural phenomena are we going to kill off? I think the monarch is the canary in the coal mine telling us that things


Your cup runneth over with five beer events tonight

is being honored at a roast at the Mad Fox Brewing Company. The night kicks off with a fun kick-the-keg contest between DC Brau, Devils Backbone, Lost Rhino, Mad Fox and Port City. All five breweries tap a keg of something extra-special at 6:30 p.m. The first one to be drained wins bragging rights. (My recommendation: Go for the Devils Backbone Beta Max double IPA.) There's no charge for the party, you just pay for your beers. 2) Shaw's Right Proper Brew Pub continues its string of excellent collaboration beers with the Lady Came From Baltimore, a saison brewed with Brian Strumke of Baltimore's Stillwater Ales. Right Proper co-founder Thor Cheston tells me the new brew is made with wheat, oats and cider tips, and it will be tapped for the first time tonight. A reason to head to T Street: Strumke is driving down I-95 for the occasion, and "he's bringing some cool stuff with him," Cheston says. Color us intrigued. 3) Speaking of new releases, Salisbury's Evolution Brewing Company has created a new batch of its tart Nouveau Rouge, a Flanders-style sour red ale. The official D.C. debut is at the Big Hunt tonight, where Nouveau Rouge will pour alongside six other great Eastern Shore beers: Lot 3 IPA; Lot 6 double IPA; Rise Up stout; Fall Migration, a Belgian pale ale aged in chardonnay barrels; Natural Selection, an ale brewed in collaboration with Flying Dog; and Incubator 3, a dry, unfiltered saison. 4) Atlanta's Sweetwater Brewing Company -- not to be confused with Northern Virginia's Sweetwater brewpubs -- has finally entered the D.C. market after years of teasing. Five of their beers will be available for tasting at ChurchKey tonight, including the four you're going to see a lot of around town: the hoppy 420 Extra Pale Ale, Sweetwater IPA, the sweet and malty Georgia Brown, and the summery Blue, which is made with blueberries. The one to look out for is Happy Ending, a seasonal (and strong) imperial stout pale ale from the limited-release Catch and Release line. All will be available in four-ounce pours and pints. 5) Finally, DC Brau's third annual Twist-Off is taking place at Dodge City, beginning at 9 p.m. There is an actual dance competition while DJ Soul Call Paul spins oldies and R&B, and there are always DC Brau specials. It's free and a blast. Just wear your dancing shoes.


Amazon wants to send stuff before you order it. Are other retailers doomed?

A couple weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal happened upon a 27-page patent for what Amazon.com calls "anticipatory" or "speculative" shipping, which sounds insane. Here's how it works, in a nutshell: The company crunches its streams of data to forecast generally where a certain item might be wanted, sends it on its way, and remotely directs it to the right address as soon as someone actually orders it. On the off chance that the item doesn't actually get ordered, Amazon might discount it to the person at the place it arrived, or even give it away for free. It's all based on probabilities: What people are likely to want at what time, based on user signals like wish lists and past purchases, and the cost/benefit calculus of time saved vs. packages erroneously delivered. If you can understand this, congratulations. (U.S. Patent and Trade Office) If it all works according to plan, Amazon will eat away at one of the last reasons people still go to brick and mortar stores: Immediacy. It might not be able to deliver something to you as fast as you think it, but it could get darn close. As Techcrunch points out, widespread speculative shipping could function like electrical utilities use predictive demand management to send power back and forth across the grid. We shouldn't, though, expect other retailers to lie down and let Amazon become a utility-like monopoly. Wal-Mart is hot on its heels, and the rest of the industry is scrambling to keep up. In their struggle against the Seattle-based empire, retailers are discovering that their physical locations -- increasingly thought of as useless overhead -- are a key advantage. Retail storefronts, after all, are the original hubs for data on what customers want. And big retailers are very familiar with adaptive stocking: Certain branches of different grocery stores offer different items based on the demographics around them (Goya Foods, for example, helps grocery stores understand what Latino nationalities live in the area and what they eat). They stock for the weather, big sporting events, holidays and weird food trends. Now, since more retailers are able to ship from their stores, many -- from Footlocker to Dick's Sporting Goods -- have a network of warehouses and delivery hubs that Amazon's now building from scratch. "They're trying to do what stores can do intuitively," says one retail logistics professional who asked to stay anonymous because


Rusty the red panda leaves D.C.

Rusty. (Smithsonian National Zoo/Getty Images) Rusty the red panda has left the National Zoo again, but zoo officials were actually involved this time around. You remember Rusty, the red panda who captivated a nation when he escaped from the zoo last year? He wandered, as so many newcomers do, to Adams Morgan, before ultimately being found, captured and returned to the zoo. Rusty’s day in Adams Morgan. (Photo by Ashley Foughty) The zoo announced Thursday morning that Rusty and Shama (the zoo’s other, less escape-prone panda) were being moved to the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. That’s about 70 miles from the spot where Rusty was found wandering in Adams Morgan, so hopefully he opts against any jailbreaks. The reason for the panda relocation? Another, much larger panda that recently arrived in D.C. The arrival of Bao Bao, the giant panda cub, has drawn additional visitors, which “could have compromised successful breeding” for Rusty and Shama, the zoo said in a statement. (Rusty was brought to the National Zoo from Nebraska to breed with Shama, and the breeding season is between January and March each year, in case you woke up this morning and wondered when red pandas breed.) To properly enable red panda breeding, Rusty and Shama were taken to a place where they can have “a little extra peace and quiet,” the zoo said. There are three other breeding pairs of red pandas at the facility in Front Royal. Rusty, left, shown alongside Shama at the zoo last year. (Anedra Edwards/Smithsonian National Zoo) While the zoo did report that Rusty and Shama are adjusting well to their new environment, the zoo also said that “Rusty immediately began to explore his new enclosure.” As a result, everyone in the Front Royal area should be on constant red panda watch. Another one or two non-breeding red pandas will be brought to the National Zoo this spring, which means it’s time to start pondering what kind of escape the next red panda has in mind. Perhaps something involving sitting atop Bao Bao and guiding the giant panda through the streets? A reporter can dream. Of course, we do have to at least consider the possibility that this is all a ruse. Maybe Rusty just found another way to skip town:


New federal Web site allows veterans to report abuses by colleges

(Paula Bronstein/Getty) The Veterans Affairs and Defense departments on Thursday launched a new Web site that allows student veterans to report colleges that try to take advantage of them and their educational benefits. The online portal asks veterans for examples of institutions that use high-pressure recruiting tactics, issue false or misleading statements about degree and accreditation programs, or promote costly private loans. The new Web site helps the VA and DOD comply with an executive order President Obama issued in April 2012, requiring them to act on each complaint, share them with law-enforcement agencies and conduct audits of schools that face serious or frequent allegations. The Veterans of Foreign Wars on Thursday applauded the development of the site, which had been one of the group’s priorities for the past two years. “This new complaint process will be a game-changer for student veterans, who in the past didn’t have a standardized or secure system for reporting alleged abuses,” said VFW national commander William Thien. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Sen. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) commended the rollout in a statement on Thursday, saying it would help curb exploitation. “Many for profit colleges specifically target veterans, using aggressive recruitment tactics that intentionally invoke pain and fear to pressure veterans into enrolling,” Takano said. “This Web site will provide a space for our student veterans to report these abuses.” In 2012, Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee released a scathing report on for-profit colleges, saying a sampling of dozens of schools over a two-year period found a 54-percent dropout rate, tuition levels that exceeded those of public universities and inflated job-placement claims. The analysis also showed that the schools spent more on marketing and recruitment than student instruction. Industry groups have disputed the findings Follow Josh Hicks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. Connect by e-mail at josh.hicks@washpost.com. Visit The Federal Eye, The Fed Page and Post Politics for more federal news.


Rusty and Shama are off to the ‘burbs

Today, the internet brought us the news of a belated Festivus miracle and taught us that the National Zoo’s red pandas are actually just like your 30-something (former) city friends, among other bloggy goodness. “Moved to Virginia to have babies, just like all my other 30-something DC friends.” “News outlets, Twitter, your Facebook feed — all have been infected by the awful Superbowl. … But it shouldn’t be done, and not just because it looks ugly and gives copy editors such as myself visions of cereal bowls wearing capes.” “The doughscuit is more humble. It’s got a hardworking biscuit for a dad, not a fancy croissant. It doesn’t have the little ® next to its name.” “Can I suggest The Real World: Rhodes Scholar Edition, MTV?” “I’m clutching my man-ssiere with excitement!”


5 beautiful photos from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

The moon moves between the observatory and the sun, giving it a view of a partial solar eclipse. Such a lunar transit happens two to three times each year. This one lasted two and a half hours, which is the longest ever recorded. (SDO/NASA via Reuters) If you’re looking for incredible images from space, bet on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The 6,800-pound spacecraft gathers as much as 1.4 terabytes of data a day, as it takes a photo every 0.75 of a second. With all those images there are bound to be some mind-blowing gems. It was launched in 2010 with expected costs of $850 million and should last five years. So count on seeing more incredible photos. Here’s a false-color composite image from a blast of activity originating from an active sunspot region at the center of the sun’s disk. The sun erupted with a powerful X1.2-class solar flare earlier this month. (SDO/NASA via AFP) This image shows the conditions of the quiet corona and upper transition region of the Sun in December 2013. (SDO/NASA via AFP) Here we see a magnetic filament of solar material erupting on the sun. The 200,000-mile long filament ripped through the sun’s atmosphere, the corona, leaving behind what looks like a canyon of fire. The glowing canyon traces the channel where magnetic fields held the filament aloft before the explosion. The sun is not made of fire, but plasma: particles so hot that their electrons have boiled off, creating a charged gas that is interwoven with magnetic fields. (NASA) A solar flare, left, is pictured erupting from the sun. (NASA via Reuters)


Patent trolling was up 11 percent last year

Is there a patent troll crisis? Conventional wisdom holds that there is. But a notable dissenter is David Kappos, who headed the United States Patent Office from 2009 to 2013. Kappos, who is now a lawyer at Cravath, Swain & Moore, contends that the "panicked calls for immediate action" are based on "anecdotal stories or even less -- unbound rhetoric." He claims the facts show that "the building is not on fire." But new data from 2013 shows that Kappos is wrong. Last year, patent trolls filed 18 percent more lawsuits than in 2012, suing 11 percent more companies. Patent Freedom, a company that tracks patent troll lawsuits, found that trolls filed 3,134 suits in 2013 -- that's about 52 percent of all patent lawsuits. The new data lays to rest doubts about whether the patent system is in need of an overhaul. Kappos's arguments might seem surprising to anyone who has followed the activity over patent trolls in Washington and in many state capitals during the last year. There have, indeed, been (panic-free) calls for action, but these have referenced a significant body of empirical research. The White House called for action on this issue last June and issued a report based on over a dozen academic studies arguing that patent trolls are responsible for a major harmful increase in patent litigation. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) also issued a study in August, finding a major increase in patent troll litigation. The House subsequently passed a patent reform bill by a 325 to 91 vote margin in December. The issue is now being considered in the Senate. And, following the lead of Vermont, state legislatures have also begun passing anti-troll laws. Kappos denies that trolls have increased patent litigation, dismissing almost all of the academic research on the subject. His reason? Some of those studies have not made all of their data publicly available (see an academic discussion of this issue). Patent trolls insist on non-disclosure agreements when they settle lawsuits, so some of the data cannot be released publicly; other data is proprietary, gathered by firms that provide services based on that data. Nevertheless, the findings of these various academic studies have been replicated by different researchers. I have signed a non-disclosure that allowed me to look at Patent Freedom's data. I found that the firm's methodology is sound, and its results are consistent with other data on


Today’s the deadline for Nobel Peace Prize nominations. Let’s give it to Bill Gates.

polio and fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Getting the job done doesn't take just money and medical expertise, it also requires the cooperation of leaders in the countries where those diseases are most prevalent. The campaign to eradicate polio is a good example. When Gates began focusing on the disease about five years ago, it was concentrated in just four countries: India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Polio still exists in those countries because, thanks to poverty and (in Afghanistan and Pakistan) war, they lack the infrastructure required to identify and reach unvaccinated children in remote areas. In the past five years, Gates has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the cause of polio eradication, helped raise funds from other donors and lobbied world leaders to make the disease a priority. He has promoted the use of information technology to make vaccination campaigns more efficient. In an interview with Ezra Klein last year, Gates described how aid agencies in Nigeria had begun using GPS devices to verify that vaccination workers were reaching the right households. "When they come in at the end of the day, we plug that in and see if they really went where they were supposed to go," Gates said. With help from Gates and other donors, India eradicated polio in 2011. Gates is a key backer of a multibillion-dollar plan to eliminate the disease worldwide by 2018. Some critics have questioned whether it's worth spending billions of dollars to prevent a few hundred cases of polio per year. But Gates argues that when it comes to infection rates, zero is a "magic number." Eliminating the last polio infection will guarantee that no one is ever infected with polio again. That will free up the roughly $2 billion per year the world will otherwise need to spend to fight the disease. Literalists might object that Gates doesn't meet the precise criteria for the Nobel Peace Prize. In his will, Alfred Nobel instructed that the prize go to the person who has "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." Gates hasn't focused on reducing standing armies or promoting peace congresses. But the Nobel Committee has long taken a broad view of what kinds of activities promote "fraternity between nations." In 2006, for example, the committee recognized the Bangladeshi


But Gates argues that when it comes to infection rates, zero is a "magic number." Eliminating the last polio infection will guarantee that no one is ever infected with polio again. That will free up the roughly $2 billion per year the world will otherwise need to spend to fight the disease. Literalists might object that Gates doesn't meet the precise criteria for the Nobel Peace Prize. In his will, Alfred Nobel instructed that the prize go to the person who has "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." Gates hasn't focused on reducing standing armies or promoting peace congresses. But the Nobel Committee has long taken a broad view of what kinds of activities promote "fraternity between nations." In 2006, for example, the committee recognized the Bangladeshi economist and entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus, whose microcredit programs have lifted thousands of people out of poverty. The next year, it recognized former vice president Al Gore for his work on climate change. Gore's and Yunus's work won't lead directly to fewer armed conflicts. But reducing poverty and slowing climate change would both have a salutary effect on world peace in the long run. Exactly the same point applies to Gates's efforts. Growing health and prosperity will help now-poor nations mature into the kind of wealthy, liberal democracies that tend not to go to war with one another. In the past, the Nobel Committee has tended to recognize government officials and political dissidents, not wealthy philanthropists. Bill Gates has never been elected to political office, and he hasn't suffered for his beliefs the way Nelson Mandela or Liu Xiaobo have. But his combination of wealth and leadership gives him the potential to improve the world on a scale that few others can match. And in the six years he has worked on philanthropy full-time, he has made impressive progress. Even more important, Gates is setting an example for other wealthy people to emulate. Gates and Buffett created the giving pledge, a campaign to persuade the world's billionaires to commit to giving the bulk of their wealth to charity before they die. Dozens have signed up. Awarding Gates a Nobel Peace Prize wouldn't just recognize his own contributions to public health around the world, it would also encourage other billionaires to follow his lead.


How we teach kids to cheat on tests

on test days (and then sought test information from those students who showed up). and bartered test questions (as in, “I’ll give you a math question if you give me a science one”). The culture of cheating has become so ascendant at Middleton that its principal, Denise Herrmann, says her administration is now looking to overhaul the very ways in which students are tested. “We need to improve the quality of the assessment tools used to measure student learning,” she told me. “And we also need to get to the root causes and pressures that prompt students to cheat in the first place.” Her administration will call on teachers, students and parents to weigh in on the cheating issue, and to propose solutions that ensure all voices—not just those of shocked administrators—are heard. While Middleton’s story is surprising to me—particularly as a parent of a high school student—it probably shouldn’t be. The research suggests that, whether they recognize it or not, there are plenty of schools with similar problems. The Josephson Institute of Ethics, which conducts biannual surveys of adolescent ethics, reports that the number of high school students who reported cheating on a test increased substantially, from 61 to 74 percent, in the decade between 1992 and 2002. In the Institute’s 2010 survey, the number went down to 59 percent, but it’s a specious improvement. More than 25 percent of respondents admitted to lying on one or more of the Institute’s survey questions. In September 2013, Harvard issued a similar survey to its new students. Nearly 42 percent of incoming first-years admitted to cheating on their homework prior to their Harvard acceptance. That same month, the 125 students involved in a 2012 cheating scandal at Harvard, the largest ever faced by the university, were allowed to return to school after being suspended for a year. When cheating scandals come to light, parents and pundits alike often profess their amazement. We ask how students can show such dishonesty. We shudder that their parents or teachers or coaches or exam proctors would look the other way. We blame lax security and the capricious judgment of immaturity. But all too rarely do we do what the administration at Middleton is doing: question ourselves. We don’t ponder whether the roots of cheating are in the very fabric of our competitive culture—a culture in which status points such as a prestigious alma mater, a


When incompetence is pure brilliance: J.C. Penney’s sloppy tweets grab spotlight

Here’s a look at five ideas that could affect how we live, work and play. Who kkmew theis was ghiong tob e a baweball ghamle. #lowsscorinh 5_0 1. Sloppy tweeting as a marketing gimmick. Toughdown Seadawks!! Is sSeattle going toa runaway wit h this??? Of course, if every tweet from J.C. Penney were so poorly written, the novelty and humor would quickly wear off. These stood out because they were different and daring. We aren’t expecting huge companies to be embarrassing themselves on Twitter with horrendous typing. Oops...Sorry for the typos. We were #TweetingWithMittens. Wasn't it supposed to be colder? Enjoy the game! #GoTeamUSA http://t.co/e8GvnTiEGl Last year Oreo grabbed the spotlight with its timely tweet during the Super Bowl blackout. This year, J.C. Penney may have been the biggest winner. Check back in 2015 for what some creative social media manager comes up with next. Eat a #SNICKERS, you’re not you when you're hungry RT @JCPenney Who kkmew theis was ghiong tob e a baweball ghamle. #lowsscorinh 5_0 2. A solar-powered or wireless charging iWatch? For its wristwatch, Apple has been testing a method to charge the battery wirelessly with magnetic induction, according to a person briefed on the product. A similar technology is already used in some Nokia smartphone — when a phone is placed on a charging plate, an electrical current creates a magnetic field, which creates voltage that powers the phone. Apple has also experimented with new power-charging methods for a potential smartwatch, people close to the efforts said, though such experiments are years from becoming a reality. The watch is expected to have a curved glass screen, and one idea is to add a solar-charging layer to that screen, which would give power to the device in daylight. 3. The science of better business. People aren’t rational optimizers in their daily lives; there’s something more going on. I learned that behavioral science was on the cutting edge of figuring out what that “something more” is — by systematically studying how our environment and our cognitive biases affect our decision making. 4. “The eternal present.” Mozart, for example, has more than 100,000 followers on Spotify. In a history glut, the idea of fashionability in music erodes, because new songs sit on the same shelf as songs recorded five, 25, and 55 years ago, all of them waiting to be discovered. In this eternal present, everything can be


Harris Teeter to open store near Howard University

Two local developers have teamed up on a deal that will allow Harris Teeter to open a store as part of a mixed-use project at 965 Florida Ave. NW, near Howard University. Harris Teeter plans to open a store at 965 Florida Avenue. Construction hasn’t begun yet. (Washington Post) Harris Teeter has been interested in the site for more than a year and the two developers, the JBG Cos. and MRP, will combine some privately owned properties with a city-owned parcel that MRP has won the right to develop. JBG is also building a Trader Joe’s store a few blocks west, on 14th Street NW that will open in late March. The Harris Teeter is likely to be at least two years from opening. Howard University has long been promising to bring a grocery store to its students, but the school’s town center project has been delayed so many times that grocers, seeing the apartment and restaurant boom in the area, have decided to sign on for competing projects nearby. Follow Jonathan O’Connell on Twitter: @oconnellpostbiz


Google and Cisco sign patent deal, blast ‘patent privateering’

deal with Samsung, whose popular cellphones use Google's Android operating system. In making Tuesday's announcement, Google and Cisco sought to draw a contrast with other firms that have engaged in "patent privateering." "Companies are selling patents and maintaining some back-end royalty arrangement so they can benefit from the enforcement of the patents," said Allen Lo, Google deputy general counsel for patents. That provides a way for companies to increase revenues from their patents without the kind of backlash they would face if they started threatening competitors directly. Pressed for details, neither company would say which of their competitors had engaged in "privateering." Eli Dourado, who writes about patent issues for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, warned that the practice threatens to accelerate the pace of litigation in the technology sector. While the volume of patent litigation has been growing, it is kept in check by the patent version of mutually-assured destruction. Each technology firm knows that if it launches a litigation campaign against one of its competitors, the competitor will respond in kind, resulting in a patent "nuclear war" that will cost both firms a lot of money. So major technology companies have an incentive to avoid enforcing their patents aggressively. But enlisting the assistance of nominally independent third parties allows technology companies to engage in proxy wars, reducing the danger of blowback. Because the terms of the agreements tech companies sign with trolls are typically secret, the target of a troll's litigation campaign may not be able to prove that a deep-pocketed competitor is pulling the strings behind the scenes. Even worse, Dourado said, these proxy wars can allow companies to evade their commitments to license their patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms (FRAND). Standards bodies typically require companies to make such commitments before their technologies can be incorporated into a new technology standard. But third parties are not bound by FRAND commitments. Selling patents to them can be a way to obtain higher licensing fees from standards-based technologies while complying with the letter of the standards body's rules. Google's deal with Cisco helps to ensure that neither firm will engage in patent privateering against the other. The licenses travel with the patents, so even if Cisco eventually transfers its patents to another company, the new owner still won't be able to use them as a weapon against Google. And the same point applies in reverse.


Morning Links: DEA obfuscation, U.S. will seek death penalty against Tsarnaev, your car could soon be watching you.

• New leaked slides show how the Drug Enforcement Administration uses national security information to launch drug investigations, then hides the origin of the information from judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys. Within the agency, the process is known as “parallel construction,” a wonderfully bureaucratic euphemism for lying. You didn’t really think this information would be limited to terrorist investigations, did you? • The Justice Department will seek the death penalty against accused Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. • The Transportation Department plans to mandate new technology in every vehicle that “constantly broadcasts via radio wave a car’s location, direction, speed and, possibly, even the number of passengers it is carrying.” The agency says the safety benefits will outweigh the technology’s cost. But cost probably isn’t what most people find troublesome about this. • The Pentagon doesn’t want any more tanks, but Congress and defense contractors intend to keep making them, anyway. They’ll probably just end up at your local police department. • You’d think someone ostensibly put in a position of power in part because of his temperament would be able to avoid this sort of thing.


Ethical misconduct, by the numbers

istockphoto The headlines may be filled with news about business scandals, from charges of insider trading at SAC Capital to the alleged Libor rate-rigging manipulation involving major banks. Yet workplace misconduct is actually at a historic low, according to a newly released survey from the Ethics Resource Center, a research nonprofit focused on ethical standards at both public and private organizations. The biannual report, released Tuesday, finds that 41 percent of the more than 6,400 employees surveyed have observed misconduct at work. That's down from 45 percent in 2011, the last time the survey was released, and from 55 percent in 2007, the high-water mark for the survey. The National Business Ethics Survey has been conducted since 1994, and it has been asking the question about how many employees have observed ethical wrongdoing at work since 2000. Patricia Harned, the president of the Arlington, Va.-based organization, says the findings were a surprise. In the past, a rising stock market has typically come with a rise in ethical violations. Moreover, the 2011 study found high rates of reported retaliation against employees who spoke up and pressure to compromise standards, which they thought would predict a jump in the number of misdeeds this year. But as more companies do the right things to address ethics and compliance — adding training, recasting performance evaluations to encourage ethical behavior, and reprimanding workers who don't uphold standards — the trend went the other way, she says. "We're seeing more companies across the country that have taken good, strong steps to put into place systems, incentives and are taking disciplinary measures." That's the good news, but the report also had far more alarming findings. Sixty percent of the ethical violations employees observed were done by someone with managerial authority, whether they be first-line supervisors or senior executives. This was the first time the Ethics Resource Center asked that question, so there's no historical comparison, but Harned was still concerned the percentage was so high. "There's an old saying that says fish rots from the head," Harned recalls. "In a lot of ways that's what's most troubling. When a company has senior leaders engaging in misconduct, it very much harms the culture of the organization." And while the rate of corporate wrongdoing may be at an all-time low, at least as measured by employee observations, the percentage of employees who were retaliated against for reporting ethical violations


Shakespeare — or is it Seinfeld? — in Richmond

What happened to all the campaign fire? The claims by both sides that Virginia’s problems were so pressing they needed urgent resolution? The crisis in education, health care, job creation, government ethics? The list as long as their oratory would allow? Virginia stared into the abyss. Yet here were are, fully three months later, and there has been no sea change in Richmond. Except, of course, for our leaders’ new foreign policy toward Northeast Asia. Maybe they are cleaning up the issues that former president, and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Theodore Roosevelt left unresolved after negotiating peace in the Russo-Japanese War. Can 141 people — the governor and all members of the General Assembly — win the same prize? We checked on the Nobel Peace Prize Web site. The rules are not any clearer than the reasons Richmond politicians are seeking to dictate to textbook publishers the proper names for bodies of water 10,000 miles away. What about the problems getting less attention here at home? During the campaign, our educational system needed major improvements given all the highly educated competitors elbowing for jobs in the new world economy. During the campaign, the politicians had all the answers. But now, safely elected, we have their solution: fewer Standards of Learning tests. Logically, therefore, if somewhat less testing is better, would it not be best to totally eliminate testing? If teaching to the test is our problem, eliminate the problem. There. We solved that one. Let’s turn to jobs. Where are all the promised blockbuster ideas to create the 21st century jobs our working families need? The only new proposal in Richmond happens to be from the mayor of the city, Dwight C. Jones, who recently told a mostly black audience that opponents of the plan don’t “look like us” and might not be putting the community’s interests first. Playing the race card is hardly a new idea. Nor is overstating the economic development benefits from a sports stadium. Jones is using money promised by state politicians to make it all but impossible for local taxpayers to oppose his $120 million publicly funded stadium project. There. That one’s solved too. Next, health care. During the campaign, Medicaid expansion ranked among the hottest issues. Proponents and opponents of the idea both said making the wrong decision would harm Virginia and its most vulnerable citizens. The election ended three months ago. But neither


Shaun White pulls out of slopestyle competition at Sochi Olympics

his performance. We support the athletic decisions of our athletes, and look forward to watching the entire U.S. team perform.” Roughly one hour prior, White gave no indication of his decision during a press conference with reporters, saying that the wrist injury he had suffered during slopestyle training earlier in the week had been “blown out of proportion a little bit” and joking about the challenge of balancing the conflicting schedules for practice and competition in both disciplines. “I’m just going to rely on my super strength to take me through,” White said. “That’s basically the go-to plan.” The 2014 Sochi Olympics will feature official team uniforms that range from the conservative to the ridiculous. View Photo Gallery —The 2014 Sochi Olympics will feature official team uniforms that range from the conservative to the ridiculous. Two other athletes were injured on the slopestyle course, with Torstein Horgmo of Norway forced out of the competition by a broken collarbone. Marika Enne of Finland suffered a concussion. Although the sport has its inherent dangers, White, 27, was particularly concerned about the course on Tuesday. “It’s frustrating to see it,” White told the Associated Press. “It puts a damper on the whole mood and it’s kind of like you’re getting ready to do a big trick and you see something like that. Intimidating. Unfortunate. I’m hoping the builders can make some changes and the course has a little more of a friendly vibe. But I can’t change the course. Just doing the best I can.” White, one of the few competitors entered in both slopestyle and halfpipe in Sochi, has battled a number of nagging injuries. He hurt his shoulder and ankle during qualifying events. Russia is getting ready to showcase the resort town of Sochi, host of the next Winter Olympics. Appearances notwithstanding, most of the Olympic venues have been declared ready. View Photo Gallery —Russia is getting ready to showcase the resort town of Sochi, host of the next Winter Olympics. Appearances notwithstanding, most of the Olympic venues have been declared ready. More Olympics news Shaun White, aging extreme athletes not ready to pass torch just yet Women’s ski jumpers ready to prove their Olympic mettle Ashley Wagner: ‘I’m in this to be remembered’ As Sochi Olympics near, Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin takes flight Mikaela Shiffrin: Poised to be grea These Olympics have a dangerous ring Bobsled offers a second chance


The media make us think we’re more polarized than we really are

what are the political implications of this false polarization? Counterintuitively, we find that it actually moderates citizens issue positions. Most Americans support bipartisanship, compromise, and consensus, and all but the strongest partisans respond negatively to violations of these norms. So when subjects read about polarized citizens who disagree with the opposition and eschew compromise and consensus, they react negatively to them. These individuals then become a sort of foil, telling subjects what not to believe, and as a result, subjects moderate their issue positions. Using these experimental data, we find that when subjects see polarized media coverage (relative to media coverage suggesting the electorate is more moderate), they become approximately 5 percent more moderate on traditional seven-point issue scales. False polarization is not a “self-fulfilling prophecy”: the media reporting on a polarized electorate will likely not create one. But such false polarization has a more pernicious effect as well: it increases what Shanto Iyengar and his colleagues have termed “affective polarization,” or dislike for the opposing party. By the same logic as above, subjects see the polarization and division depicted in the media, and they respond negatively to it, and in particular, they especially dislike members of the other party. We find, for example, that after seeing the polarized article, subjects rate the opposing party 4 degrees lower on a feeling thermometer, and they are almost 10 percent more likely to assign them the lowest rating on the feeling thermometer scale. They also report more things they dislike about the other party, and evaluate its members less positively on a number of different dimensions. They view their own party less favorably, too, but to a more limited extent. We also find that there is important heterogeneity in these effects. We find that much of the attitudinal moderation occurs among those who are already moderate ex ante, while the affective polarization occurs among all subjects. So the end result of this process is not a nation of moderates that dislike each other, but rather, an increasingly moderate core with extreme wings, all of whom have increased antipathy for the opposition. Our findings therefore suggest that the media likely are not shrinking mass polarization, as their moderating effects are centered on those who are already middle-of-the-road. Rather, the media help to further segment and stratify the electorate into a more moderate core turned off by polarization (as suggested by Fiorina and his


A not-so-brief history of politics and the Olympics

In 1984, the world seemed thoroughly fed up with how politics had mucked up our great biennial international sports party. Between the 11 deaths at the Munich Olympics in 1972, the deaths in Mexico City days before the 1968 Olympics, and the endless cold war of Olympic boycotting, Olympics coverage likely warranted more inches on A1 than it did in the sports section. Dave Anderson wrote in the New York Times, "As the Olympics continue to dissolve into more of a political competition than an athletic competition, they no longer seem to justify the time and trouble." The United States was trying to get the Olympics moved to a permanent location to avoid ''unwarranted and disruptive international politics." (Then New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, who won a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics as part of the American basketball team, recommended Greece.) But these people weren't paying very close attention to the Olympic games if they thought this was a recent phenomenon. Politics have been an essential part of the Olympics since Thucydides was covering them. And the international world is already getting antsy about the next Olympics location, Rio de Janeiro, where poor residents are being evicted in order to make room for splashy event spaces. Here is a collection of historical moments when the competition at the Olympics took a back bench to the politics: Screenshot of the New Yorker's February 3 cover. Boycotting the Olympics Choosing not to attend the Olympics is one of the most popular and simple ways to make a big international political statement. At the first modern Olympic Games held at Athens in 1896, the German and French teams needed quite a bit of persuading to take part in the festivities -- they weren't quite on speaking terms yet after the Franco-Prussian War, which ended over 20 years before the games. The United States fiercely debated whether to send a team to Berlin in 1936, before ultimately deciding to attend. The 1956 Olympics in Melbourne were the target of two boycotts -- one due to the Suez Canal crisis, and the other a result of the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary. After that, everyone was boycotting. In the 1960 Olympics in Rome, only 80 teams took part. The 1980 Olympics, held in Moscow and the target of perhaps the most prominent series of boycotts in Olympic history (the Cold War will do that),


The Switchboard: Lawmakers threaten to cancel key Patriot Act provision

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.). (Susan Walsh / AP) Published every weekday, the Switchboard highlights five tech policy stories you need to read. Panel to NSA: Change your ways — or else. Cable company blames 'misinformation' for failure of municipal Internet ban. Republican Senator Wants to Change How the FCC Does Business. Bill Gates masters D.C. — and the world. Lawmakers want secure payments sooner.


Weeded out

DCist, Loose Lips, WAMU-FM, D.C. Crime Stories and AP. In other news: Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe speaks, says he personally knew heart-attack victim Cecil Mills: “I am sorry for what happened and regret that it occurred” (WTTG-TV) But so many questions left unasked and unanswered (STATter911) Management prevails in police-contract arbitration; war of words ensues (Post, WTOP, DCist, Washingtonian, WRC-TV, City Desk) Planning chief Harriet Tregoning leaves for high-level HUD post (Capital Business, WBJ, Housing Complex, DCist, Washingtonian, GGW) “I don’t think this is a job that should be held for a lifetime. … You can be in this job and not do anything controversial ever. And nothing changes. What good is that?” (WBJ) Modified D.C. Promise scholarship program wins council okay over Eleanor Holmes Norton’s warnings (Post, WJLA-TV, DCist, WAMU-FM) David Catania watches and waits (Post) “‘Andy hates white people: Headline.’ Just kidding, that’s off the record, I didn’t say that.” (DofD) Former Department of Human Services employee will plead guilty to stealing $800,000 in public benefits (Post) “Hard Times at Howard U.” (NYT) Cabbies continue to resist city-mandated credit card systems (WAMU-FM) Revolving door No. 1: Catania chief of staff moves to campaign (Loose Lips) Revolving door No. 2: Gray community affairs chief moves to campaign (Loose Lips) Jim Graham starts fundraising, remains behind challenger Brianne Nadeau (Loose Lips) Kaya Henderson hires lawyer, who fought judges’ attempt to organize, as senior adviser (Post) Glitch means high school students have more time to enter enrollment lottery (Post) Paul Zukerberg notes marijuana revenue could house a lot of homeless families (Post) GWU Hospital is once again an accredited Level 1 trauma center (WBJ) Vincent Orange bill would strengthen “wage theft” penalties (DCist) Disabled parking placard fraud (WTOP) Accused Metro fraudster could get plea deal (Dr. Gridlock) Believe it or not, the St. Elizabeths ice slide was quite popular (GGW) South Dupont residents are upset about club noise (City Desk) New police commanders in 1D and 5D (Hill Rag) Schools funding should reflect higher cost of maintenance for DCPS schools over charter schools (DCFPI) Work will soon get underway on long-delayed project to turn former Italian Embassy into condos (Where We Live) Another church goes condo (UrbanTurf) You could own the home where Minor Threat played its first show (UrbanTurf) “If D.C. United wants a stadium, let it write a check for the whole thing” (Post letter) An FEMS story with


Snowboarders react to Shaun White withdrawal

The first competition of the Olympics got underway Thursday morning, and much of the chatter at the men’s slopestyle event revolved around a snowboarder who wasn’t even on the mountain competing. Shaun White pulled out of the event one day earlier, saying he wanted to focus on the halfpipe and not risk injury on the challenging slopestyle course. His decision drew mixed reaction from the remaining slopestyle competitors. “He decided a couple months ago he was gonna do slopestyle and the halfpipe, you know,” Canadian rider Sebastien Toutant said following his qualifying runs Thursday. “He knew there was going to be a lot of risk here and a lot of risk in the pipe. To take an American spot to just not do it, I think it’s bad for Americans, you know. One of the guys could’ve been here competing right now.” At least one American competitor seemed to agree, saying that White’s spot could have potentially gone to another deserving U.S. rider. The U.S. team sent the maximum four riders to compete in men’s slopestyle in Sochi. “I was a little bummed,” New Hampshire native Chas Guldemond said of White’s decision. “There were a lot of guys that I trained really hard with sitting in that fifth spot. It’s pretty unfortunate that they missed their opportunity to come to the Games. That was a pretty big blow.” Guldemond, who advanced to the event’s semifinals, said he was mostly surprised White pulled out so late, adding that, “I knew it was coming sometime this year.” Asked how he knew, Guldemond declined to comment further. Toutant was one of two Canadian riders to criticize White’s decision on Wednesday, tweeting in part, “It’s easy to find excuses to pull out of a contest when you think you can’t win.” Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he tried to elaborate on his comments and defended the course, which many criticized earlier in the week for being dangerously staged. “I just hope he was here competing with us,” Toutant said. “No matter what, if the setup is sketchy or not, we’re here competing. Just come ride with us. We’re having fun no matter what. “From the first day the setup wasn’t perfect — a lot of people got scared because the jump wasn’t built perfectly,” he continued. “Second practice was way better. Third practice was actually really fun. I mean, it’s been blue sky every


Five cringe-worthy quotes leading up to the Sochi Winter Olympics

(Getty Images) Dang it, Winter Olympics! You are making it extra hard to like you. As Olympics go, winter is always the disregarded stepchild. It’s the Loki to summer’s Thor, the bowel-activating Activia to summer’s Yoplait, the non-Beyonce Destiny’s Children to summer’s Beyonce, the synchronized swimming to summer’s regular swimming. But they’re making themselves hard to like. Even without the concerns about security — Russian President Vladimir Putin says he will enclose Sochi in a “ring of steel,” which does not sound all that secure, even as metaphors go — it seems like every day leading up to the games there’s been another case of foot inserted into mouth as far as it can possibly go. Here are just five cringe-worthy moments from the lead-up to the winter games: 5) “If I had a daughter, I’d never let her jump — it’s too much hard labor. Women have another purpose — to have children, to do housework, to create hearth and home.” — Russian men’s ski jump coach, to Izvestia newspaper (thanks to Buzzfeed for the translation) 4) Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov tells the BBC that Sochi, a city of almost 400,000, has no gay people. “We just say that it is your business, it’s your life. But it’s not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. We do not have them in our city.” (This is patently untrue, as the BBC reporter observes.) 3) “One can feel calm and at ease,” Putin said on January 17, asked about what gay visitors to the Sochi olympics could expect. “Just leave kids alone, please.” Putin insists on conflating homosexuality and pedophilia (an “odious canard,” as Mark Joseph Stern put it at Slate, that has offered a pretense for ramping up intolerance and homophobic violence). 2) “They (gays) can make propaganda about their sexual orientation among adults. But there is no need to involve children. I have already said this many times.” — Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Kozak, on Thursday. So this continues to be an insinuation that Russian officials feel comfortable making. Ugh. 1) “We were told, ‘Either you take all the dogs from the Olympic Village or we will shoot them.’ ” — Olga Melnikova, coordinating the rescue of Sochi’s stray dogs for the Oleg Deripaska-financed Good Will charity. On a lighter but no less baffling notes, here, according to the Twitter feed of Canadian skateboarder Sebastien Toutant,


The U.S. is losing market share in global science and technology. Don’t panic!

The National Science Board's 2014 set of indicators, which tracks the state of science-related funding, public attitudes, and education in the U.S. and abroad, just dropped, in all its 600-page glory. There are a ton of interesting bits scattered throughout the report, but the big takeaway is how America's doing in relation to the rest of the world: Not great, at least in terms of the percentage of the world's research funding comes from here. Meanwhile, the whole globe has rebalanced, with East and Southwest Asia now spending nearly as much as North America: Now, that could spark all kinds of declinist angst about the end of American exceptionalism. And indeed, if you're the type of person who thinks an all-powerful U.S. is the best force for stability in the world, perhaps it's cause for concern. But look at it another way: The U.S. is still pumping more money into research and development than ever. We spend twice as much in absolute terms than our nearest competitor, China, at $429 billion in 2011 compared to $208 billion. And knowledge-intensive industries are accounting for more of our GDP: We're also handing out more undergraduate and graduate degrees in science and technology, earning more patents, collecting more royalties and fees on our intellectual property, and holding steady in the percentage of journal articles in the top one percent of those cited. Student test scores are generally improving, and so is manufacturing productivity. Overall, the trajectory is positive. So, should the U.S. be worried just because other countries are investing more? The report's authors at the National Science Board, in a press call, seemed to want to convey that the U.S. should stay on its toes, and not get "complacent." Fundamentally, though, the fact that other countries are pouring more money into research and development is a good thing, and could have beneficial spillover effects. Another interesting chart shows how more and more scientific papers have multiple authors, as researchers collaborate between businesses and academia and across international borders: "Science and technology is not a zero sum game," said Ray Bowen, chair of the committee that put together the report. "There are obviously examples for development in one country that resulted in global impacts that are beneficial to all." So next time you see a headline proclaiming the U.S.'s loss of global dominance in the sciences, think for a second, look at the


No comedy in latest MLK family drama

Bernice King (John Basemore/Associated Press) The nobility and sacrifice exemplified by The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, are traits missing from their three surviving squabbling children. It seems as if they are always in court fighting each other or someone else. Or, as Andrew Young, the civil rights icon and close confident of King, said Wednesday, “They sue too quick.” And wait until you hear why he said that. Martin Luther King III and Dexter King are suing their sister, Bernice King, to get possession of their late father’s Nobel Peace Prize and his personal Bible — so they can sell them. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a Jan. 20 letter from MLK III to Bernice requested a meeting to discuss the potential sale. “The purpose of this special meeting is to discuss and vote on whether to offer for purchase at a private sale of the Nobel Peace Prize and the King Bible. And if the vote is to proceed with such a sale, to identify the person to whom. Within two days of the affirmative vote, the Nobel Peace Prize and the King Bible shall be physically delivered.” It is important to understand a couple of things about this family fight. MLK III, Dexter and Bernice gave up their inheritance to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr. Inc. in 1995. The brothers run the estate, which owns all their father’s property. Bernice heads The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, which runs the library and archives of the slain civil rights leader’s papers. By taking possession of the Peace Prize and the Bible, the King brothers claim that their sister violated that 1995 agreement. “While I love my brothers dearly, this latest decision by them is extremely troubling,” Bernice said today in Atlanta. “Not only am I appalled and utterly ashamed, I am frankly disappointed that they would even entertain the thought of selling these precious items. It reveals a desperation beyond comprehension.” She’s got that right. Consideration of a sale of the Peace Prize and their father’s Bible is stunning and should go no further than a crazy idea they were crazy enough to put down on paper. Perhaps Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey or the trustees of the Smithsonian, or a combination of the three, should make an offer to get these national treasures out of the


Anacostia’s Big Chair Coffee and Grill is back in business

major news: A real-sit down eatery and coffee shop in a neighborhood better known for its liquor store and pizza-subs-and-Chinese carryouts. Manager Bantamlak Yimenu and owner Ayehubizu Yimenu have pulled up a Big Chair for Anacostia. Again. (Tim Carman/The Washington Post) But after struggling with its finances and fishing around for a buyer, Big Chair finally collapsed last fall. Its closure inspired another round of headlines. Amid almost no fanfare, however, Big Chair Coffee and Grill has reopened. It has, in fact, been back in business since December when owner Ayehubizu Yimenu and her brother and manager Bantamlak Yimenu revamped the place. Since resuming control over Big Chair from manager Michael Sterling, who had subleased the shop for a year, the siblings have tinkered with the menu. In December, they offered both Jamaican and Ethiopian dishes, the former a nod to Sterling's legacy and the latter a nod to Yimenu's heritage. Just this week, though, Big Chair dropped the Jamaica accent. "It is costly," Bantamlak Yimenu said today, sitting at a two-top inside the reborn coffee shop and grill. "The spices and all that stuff [are costly]. Not only that, the cook is expensive. I can't afford them." The current Big Chair menu features a number of sandwiches, from chicken to fish to steak and cheese, as well as a line of "hand-crafted burgers": turkey, beef, chicken, salmon, and, of course, mini burgers. The prices hover in the $5 and $6 range. The Ethiopian dishes will remain, too. The cafe offers both a "Big Chair Ethiopian veggie combo" and a "Big Chair Ethiopian meat combo," as well as beef and lamb tibs. Since the shop reopened, Anacostia neighbors have complained Big Chair's hours have been erratic, but Bantamlak Yimenu says that will change next week when the cafe starts following regular hours (posted below). The new hours include an earlier 9 a.m. start, which should allow locals to take advantage of Big Chair's other prime offering: Ethiopian coffee. Big Chair may even start hosting Ethiopian coffee ceremonies in the future. "Not now," Bantamlak Yimenu cautions about the ceremony in which whole beans are roasted, brewed and served in house for customers. "We're not ready for it." Big Chair Coffee and Grill, 2122 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE, 202-525-4287. Hours: 9 a.m. to midnight Mondays-Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays.


Korea v. Japan, in Virginia

Reader Adam Pallotto informs me that the Virginia legislature has just passed a bill providing, That all textbooks approved by the Board of Education pursuant to § 22.1-238 of the Code of Virginia, when referring to the Sea of Japan, shall note that it is also referred to as the East Sea. The bill passed the House by 81-15 and had earlier passed the Senate by 32-4; it now goes to the governor. Here’s the backstory, according to Reuters: It was a significant victory for vocal campaigners among Virginia’s 82,000 Korean-Americans, who greatly outnumber the state’s 19,000 ethnic Japanese and showed up in the hundreds to cheer the vote in the state capital, Richmond. The vote followed intense lobbying not only by Korean-Americans but the governments of South Korea and Japan more than 7,000 miles away, which have been squabbling for years over the name for the sea, which separates their countries…. It is a source of intense bitterness for Koreans that the name “Sea of Japan” was standardized worldwide while Korea was under Japanese colonial rule, after the International Hydrographic Organization, or IHO, published its definitive “Limits of the Oceans and the Seas” in 1929. The “Sea of Japan” is apparently the dominant name (and the only one I’ve ever heard about), but the National Geographic Society “said it began including ‘East Sea’ in parentheses after the Sea of Japan in its maps in 1999 in response to growing international use of the term.” My correspondent asked: From an ideological (libertarian) standpoint, I ask how is this the proper role of government? Well, if the government is going to have government-run schools, it has to decide how to run them. In particular, someone has to make a decision about what is taught, whether it’s a teacher, a principal, a local school board, or the state board; all are government actors. And indeed, when it comes to textbooks, low-level government officials may have little power to insist that something be included in them. If Virginia officials think that it makes sense to include both names — a not implausible position, since if both names are used, it might make sense for students to learn both names — then that requirement would pretty much have to be specified at the state level, if I understand the textbook market correctly. My correspondent, however, also asked: From a practical (taxpayer) standpoint, I ask


A jobs report — and what it does and doesn’t tell us

hired and give the workers special loans to move to areas with lower unemployment. Strain's colleague at AEI, Kevin Hassett, has repeatedly argued that government should hire these workers directly. That they haven't tried anything yet, however, isn't an encouraging sign. Bidens are a train's best friend Vice President Joe Biden's passion for trains is well-documented — although his eye did wander to a particularly beautiful automobile yesterday at a autoworkers union event and he had a brief flirtation with planes before returning to his one true love. He was late for the Robert Bork hearings because his train was delayed. He once rode a train with Whoopi Goldberg. He rode trains with Hillary Clinton all the time. "He throws parties for retiring conductors, and once had a crewman serenaded by bagpipes." He even appeared on the cover of Acela Magazine once. Amtrak named a station in Delaware the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station. Yesterday he got to unveil shiny new trains, which will start running between Boston and Washington, as well as in Pennsylvania, starting today. NBC News reported that Biden called "the rail corridor 'a critical artery' supporting the nation's growth and commerce. He says the U.S. loses $51 billion in productivity each year due to highway traffic jams." However, Biden's appearance in Philadelphia to announce said productivity boosters also caused a big of a traffic problem. Per usual, Biden had prepared one line to have the press jumping for joy at its utter Biden-ness, giving him and his beloved steam engine all the media he thinks both warrant. If I blindfolded someone and took them to into the airport in Hong Kong and said, where do you think you are? They'd say, This must be America; it's a modern airport. If I took them blindfolded and took them to Laguardia Airport in New York, they'd think, I must be in some third world country. No, I'm not joking! Although some news outlets jumped on it as a gaffe, many New Yorkers came to the vice president's defense. Joe Biden said today that Laguardia seems like "it's in some third world country." Not sure why you'd insult third world countries like that LaGuardia Airport is actually much worse than Biden is saying. #LGA LaGuardia Airport is actually much worse than Biden is saying. #LGA LaGuardia Airport is actually much worse than Biden is saying. #LGA Donald Trump


Maryland open houses Feb. 8-9

200 Broad St MOUNT AIRY 1605 Kings Forest Trl 1701 Pullman Ct HOWARD COUNTY CLARKSVILLE 5800 Clipper Lane #102 COLUMBIA 5720 April Journey #75 10750 Evening Wind Ct 11235 Snowflake Ct #a9-4 11814 Far Edge Path 5204 Lightfoot Path COOKSVILLE 2020 Meadow Tree Ct ELLICOTT CITY 4907 Yarmouth Ct #77 7983 Brightmeadow Ct 8106 Wood Point Pl 8758 Wethered Dr 4501 Hemlock Cone Way 6121 Edward Hill Rd FULTON 7652 Maple Lawn Blvd #36 GLENWOOD 2807 Glenwood Springs Dr WOODBINE 1410 Woodbine Way WOODSTOCK 10203 Harrison Grant Dr MONTGOMERY COUNTY BETHESDA 5816 Plainview Rd 7500 Woodmont Ave #s510 10009 Broad St 7308 Durbin Ter 5315 Blackistone Rd 6539 Broad St 5109 Elsmere Ave 9301 Wildoak Dr 5811 Kingswood Rd 7500 Woodmont Ave NW #s807 10405 Montrose Ave #1 10625 Weymouth St #201 10626 Weymouth St #201 7582 Westlake Ter BOYDS 14420 Saturn Way CHEVY CHASE 8101 Connecticut Ave #n-308 3569 Hamlet Pl #205 2613 Spencer Rd 4620 Park Ave #1502e 7111 Oakridge Ave CLARKSBURG 11805 Skylark Rd DAMASCUS 2 Showbarn Ct 9958 Canvasback Way DARNESTOWN 13413 Scottish Autumn Lane DERWOOD 7210 Phelps Hill Ct GAITHERSBURG 18817 Lake Placid Lane 7504 Damascus Rd 124 Kendrick Pl #16 110 Chestnut St 182 Kendrick Pl #24 8516 Plum Creek Dr 20620 Plum Creek Ct 9105 Tulip Grove Rd GERMANTOWN 18040 Chalet Dr #15-201 21017 Bedelia Way #22 20226 Tidewinds Way 13748 Palmetto Cir 13034 Woodcutter Cir #145 13727 Dunbar Ter 12475 Walnut Cove Cir 20118 Timber Oak Lane #204 20331 Mill Pond Ter HYATTSVILLE 3903 Longfellow St KENSINGTON 10316 Armory Ave 4317 Dresden St 9709 East Bexhill Dr LAYTONSVILLE 8011 Warfield Rd MONTGOMERY VILLAGE 8505 Fountain Valley Dr 20324 Butterwick Way NORTH POTOMAC 14520 Dufief Mill Rd POOLESVILLE 17208 Lightfoot Lane 17233 Spates Hill Rd POTOMAC 11220 Fall River Ct 10408 Dalebrooke Lane 12009 Piney Meetinghouse Rd 13 Wetherfield Ct 18 Bridle Ct ROCKVILLE 502 King Farm Blvd #406 308 Cedar Lane 603 Azalea Dr #1 603 Azalea Dr #2 4300 Crossway Ct 7807 White Cliff Ter 1105 Crestfield Dr 10101 Grosvenor Pl #902 11801 Rockville Pike #410 7217 Old Gate Rd 5101 Clavel Ter 10101 Grosvenor Pl #2006 12513 Saint James Rd 1171 Regal Oak Dr 503 King Farm Blvd #204 6108 Tuckerman Lane 10713 Hampton Mill Ter #220 SILVER SPRING 9406 Seminole St 1118 Kersey Rd SW 14410 Bonifant Park Pl 1612 Belvedere Blvd 2006 Franwall Ave 10614 Dunmoor Dr 9521


Maine’s unwise and unconstitutional ban on disclosing the alcohol content of beers

Not all beers are created equal. Some are much stronger than others. The proliferation of micro-breweries and craft beers has meant that consumers cannot know what they’re getting in a beer unless they check. The alcohol-by-volume content of some beers is more than double that found in a Budweiser — and can be three-to-four times that found in an Amstel Light. Thankfully, it’s increasingly common for bars to list the alcohol content of beers — unless they’re in Maine. Maine has a decades-old law that prohibits advertising or otherwise promoting the alcohol content of beer. For a long time this law was unenforced. Yet as Jacob Sullum reports, the Maine Liquor and Lottery Commission is now enforcing the law and interpreting it to prohibit the disclosure of ABV-content on bar and restaurant menus. Sullum points to this story explaining that regulators fear disclosing the alcohol content of beers will encourage underage drinking and “overserving.” As you might expect, Maine’s brew pubs are not amused. Many consumers want information about the alcohol content in beers, often because they want to make sure they do not drink too much. Thus Maine’s policy could actually have the perverse effect of undermining public safety. A consumer who can safely handle two Bud Lights (4.2% ABV) might be in for a rude surprise after downing even a single bottle of Dogfish Head Brewery’s 120 Minute IPA (18-20% ABV). Set aside whether Maine’s law is a good idea, it is almost certainly unconstitutional as it is currently being enforced. Factual claims about products receive First Amendment protection, albeit the slightly diminished level of protection afforded commercial speech. In Rubin v. Coors Brewing Company (1995) the Supreme Court unanimously concluded that the federal government could not prohibit the disclosure of alcohol content on beer labels. Under this decision, it’s hard to see how a government agency could prohibit the simple listing or disclosure of beer ABV-content on bar menus, placards, and the like. While the court in Rubin noted that the government could have a substantial interest in discouraging “strength wars” among beer makers, this interest could not justify a blanket ban on disclosing alcohol content. Similarly, while Maine might be able to justify a more narrowly drawn rule preventing the promotion of alcohol strength, that’s not what Maine regulators appear to be doing. According to the news reports linked above (see also here), some legislators are


Memo to Justin Bieber: Cut out the weed

be anything but. It is linked to certain kinds of behavior — the DSM has an entry for “cannabis use disorder — and can be particularly pernicious when it comes to young people. It has a big effect on their little brains. “Several studies demonstrate associations between cannabis and collisions: drivers who use it are estimated to be some two to seven times more likely to be responsible for accidents compared to drivers not using drugs or alcohol.” Here I turn to the equally eminent Dr. Mitchell S. Rosenthal, the founder of Phoenix House, a substance abuse prevention organization. Rosenthal deals with precisely the people Groopman warns about — people who get into trouble with drugs. That may explain why he is more alarmed than Groopman about the legalization movement. In a Wall Street Journal essay, he unloads on the drug: “Pot damages the heart and lungs, increases the incidence of anxiety, depression and schizophrenia, and it can trigger acute psychotic episodes. Many adults appear to be able to use marijuana with relatively little harm, but the same cannot be said of adolescents, who are about twice as likely as adults to become addicted to marijuana.” Rosenthal says that marijuana can have a particularly powerful effect on kids — again, because their brains are not yet formed. He worries that legalizing the stuff will widen its popularity and send the message that pot, like milk, is only occasionally bad for you. I know without checking that I have written columns over the years demanding the legalization of marijuana. I certainly confessed to having “experimented” with the stuff but found it not to my liking. Still, I was of the generation for which it was a rite of passage, apiece with sexual freedom and, much more importantly, civil rights and the anti-war movement. Old fogies warned about pot, J. Edgar Hoover hated it and Richard Nixon made war against — three good reasons right there to have a toke. But more recently, the news has been grim. I attended a lecture by Eric Kandel, the Columbia University neuropsychiatrist and Nobel laureate, who was surprisingly tough on pot. It had changed, Kandel warned. It was much more powerful that the drug of yesteryear. Kandel knows the brain the way the TV traffic guy knows the roads. Stay away from marijuana, he intoned. So I say to Mr. Bieber, when a Nobel laureate


Biden helps Amtrak unveil its new electric locomotive

PHOTO: VP and @SecretaryFoxx in a new @Amtrak Cities Sprinter electric locomotive today in Philadelphia. http://t.co/VKeWmQjZmG Does this just scream “caption contest”? In a special ceremony in Philadelphia on Thursday, Amtrak unveiled the newest addition to its fleet — the Amtrak Cities Sprinter Locomotive. The locomotive is one of 70 that will operate along the Northeast corridor. More trains will be brought into operation in coming months, with all of them expected to arrive by 2015. According to Amtrak officials, the new locomotives could save more than 3 billion kilowatt hours of energy. Translated: more than $300 million in savings over 20 years. The trains were built by Siemens in a solar-powered rail manufacturing plant in California. The total cost of the new locomotives is roughly $466 million. They will replace locomotives that have been in service between 25 and 35 years. The first Cities Sprinter is expected to arrived at Union Station later today. No word on whether Vice President Biden will be aboard. Amtrak’s newest locomotive — the City Sprinter. (Photo courtesy of Amtrak)


100 Americans die of drug overdoses each day. How do we stop that?

addiction disorders on these medications? KH: We also need better ways for the public to dispose of excess of opioids. Many people don't realize that you can't legally just walk back to your doctor or your pharmacist and say, "I didn't take these 15 fentanyl tablets, can you take them?" They're not allowed to accept them. There's been some movement on fixing that in Washington, but far too slow. The DEA runs “take back prescription” days. That's fantastic, but that's one or two days a year. Disposal needs to become normative, so that when you went into Wal-Mart, for example, there would be a bin where you could just toss your extra prescriptions in, the things you didn't use. It's kind of like where we are now is like the beginning of recycling. Recycling glass and plastic was once this weird practice that a few people did. Then maybe there were special events and special centers that did recycling. Now millions of people do it without thinking,it’s automatic. We need to make it simple so that it just becomes automatic. You'd never leave leftover medication in your cabinet. You bring it back to the pharmacist on your regular trip to the grocery store. We could also implement better procedures around surgeries. We have 40 million surgeries a year. Something like 5 to 10 percent of those result in persistent pain, persistent opioid use, or both. That means we are potentially generating a large number of people at risk for prescription opioid dependence. And some of those people may end up ultimately going to the street heroin market, as did the person you knew with the back injury. There's some exciting work underway that could teach us how to reduce this risk of iatrogenic addiction after surgery. The amount of pain and fear patients have right at the time of operation predicts how much pain and opiate use they'll have later. Relaxation exercises or anti-anxiety medications administered moments before surgery could therefore produce long term benefits in terms of reduced pain and opiod use down the road. My colleague Dr. Ian Carroll is leading a clinical trial on this question now, and along with some related studies being done around the country it could teach surgical teams how to reduce post-operative pain and the risk of opioid addiction at the same time. That would be a huge benefit to public health.


The heroin and opioid epidemics

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These drugs are sold under such familiar brand names as OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet and can be found in medicine cabinets in every precinct of American society. They’re also sold illicitly on the street or crushed and laced into heroin. There have been numerous efforts by law enforcement agencies to crack down on “pill mills” that dispense massive amounts of the pharmaceuticals, as well as regulations aimed at preventing users from “doctor shopping” to find someone who will write a prescription. Those efforts have had the unintended effect, officials say, of driving some people to heroin in recent years as their pill supply dries up. The latest government survey of drug abuse shows a drop since 2010 in first-time users of illegally obtained OxyContin. But heroin use is up. It’s akin to pushing on a beanbag chair. Health officials in Maryland, for example, reported that in the first seven months of 2012, a 15 percent drop in pharmaceutical opioid overdoses was accompanied by a 41 percent increase in heroin overdoses. Market forces play a role in this drug substitution, as do the brutal realities of addiction and the need for a fix. Street heroin is much cheaper than a pharmaceutical — typically $10 a packet for heroin, compared with perhaps $80 on the street for an 80-milligram OxyContin, public health officials say. The stigma and lethality of street heroin — long viewed much more negatively than drugs such as cocaine, according to government surveys — are no deterrent to someone facing the agony of withdrawal from an opioid. “In the storm of narcotic withdrawal, any opiate port will do,” said Jim Hall, an epidemiologist at Nova Southeastern University who studies addiction. Prescription painkillers may also grease a slippery slope toward a relapse for former heroin addicts. Hoffman appears to be a case in point. He was found with a needle in his arm and dozens of heroin packets in his Manhattan apartment. The autopsy and initial toxicology tests were inconclusive, and so the precise cause of Hoffman’s death — whether he overdosed on heroin alone, for example, or in combination with one or more other drugs — is pending further investigation. But the actor revealed last year that, after being clean for two decades, he suffered a relapse into heroin use after first taking prescription pills. “The main driver of overdoses right now


Prospects for marijuana legalization in 2014

John Ross has written a very thorough Reason article documenting all of the measures for liberalizing marijuana laws likely to be considered at the state level in 2014. He counts 13 states that are considering following Colorado and Washington’s lead in legalizing marijuana possession for recreational use, and 16 that may join the 20 states that currently permit medical marijuana. Not all of these laws are likely to pass. But if a large number do, it could greatly accelerate the trend towards marijuana legalization. This is especially true if legalization hits large states such as California, where a legalization ballot initiative narrowly failed in 2010; public opinion in both California and the nation as a whole has become more favorable to legalization since then. Even many conservatives have begun to rethink the War on Drugs. Even if numerous states legalize marijuana, the drug will still be illegal under federal law. In its badly misguided decision in Gonzales v. Raich (2005), the Supreme Court ruled that Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce allows it to ban the possession of marijuana even in cases where the marijuana in question has never crossed state lines or been sold in an market anywhere. The Obama administration has taken a very equivocal position on the question of whether federal prosecutions for marijuana distributors will continue in states that legalize marijuana under their own laws. However, widespread legalization at the state level will put pressure on the federal government to repeal the federal ban. Even if it does not, federal law enforcement resources are extremely limited, and it will be difficult or impossible for the feds to enforce a marijuana ban without state cooperation. If marijuana legalization does sweep the nation over the next few years, perhaps it will also lead more people to reconsider the War on Drugs as a whole.


Bell’s Hopslam hits Washington tonight

Keep an eye out for the green Hopslam tap at local beer bars. (Courtesy of Bell's Brewing) Update: Capitol Lounge announced the date of its Hopslam tapping on Monday afternoon. One of the year's most anticipated and sought-after beers has finally arrived in Washington. Bell's Hopslam, a limited-edition double IPA made with six kinds of hops and "a solid dollop of honey," hits the taps at ChurchKey at 4 p.m. tonight, alongside a selection of other Bell's beers. (Hint: Hopslam will also be available in bottles.) If you can't make it tonight – and you really need to get in on the early side if you want a chance to try this year's batch – mark your calendars for Friday. The Black Squirrel is recreating last year's "Dueling Hops" event, which found Hopslam and Troegs' Nugget Nectar side-by-side on the draft lines. They're not exactly the same: Nugget Nectar, while also loved by hopheads, is a malty red ale that packs in five kinds of hops without being as boozy as Hopslam. (Nugget Nectar is 7.5 percent ABV, while Hopslam is 10 percent.) Both beers will be on tap at 5 p.m. So many beer lovers chase after Hopslam that it's increasingly hard to find in stores and bars, and sells out rapidly once word gets out that it's available. Because of this demand, the area's limited number of kegs will be allocated to top beer bars, but also to bars that sell a lot of Bell's. That's why you'll see it coming to Capitol Lounge this Thursday at 5 p.m., at some point soon, though no date has been announced and at a special happy hour party at Tonic in Mount Pleasant on the following Thursday, Feb. 20. Tonic is being cagey about when, exactly, you'll be able to taste Hopslam: The event announcement says that "Hopslam may be available all night or it may be tapped at a special time ... you'll have to come to find out!" Happy hour runs from 5 to 8 p.m.; Bell's beer specials include Two Hearted Ale and Smitten Golden Rye.


Having a grocery store nearby doesn’t make people eat healthier

But while Philadelphia residents are noticing the new grocery options, they're not actually eating any healthier, according to a new study in the journal Health Affairs. The paper is important because it's one of a small handful of academic studies that looks at what happens to eating habits before and after new grocery options become available. And it shows that, six months after two grocery stores opened in Philadelphia food deserts, there was no noticeable difference in body-mass index or fruit and vegetable consumption. Up until now, though, there have been exactly two studies exploring what happens to fruit and vegetable consumption when new food retail options get introduced into food deserts — neither of which were conducted in the United States. Both came out of Britain in the mid-2000s and showed mixed results as to whether, when new food options get introduced, if neighborhood residents take to them — and if, as a result, they get healthier. In this study, researchers looked at over 1,000 Philadelphia residents from different city neighborhoods with similar demographics. Some had a 41,000-square-foot supermarket put into their neighborhood, and all lived no more than 1.5 miles away from the grocery store. People noticed that the new grocery store had shown up. "The new supermarket appeared to have a positive impact on perceptions of food accessibility for residents in the intervention neighborhood," study authors Steven Cummins, Ellen Flint and Stephen A. Matthews write. "Respondents perceived grocer choice and quality and fruit and vegetable choice and quality to have improved, and the cost of fruit and vegetables was perceived to have decreased." But only about a quarter — 26.7 percent — of those who lived near the new grocery store began using the supermarket as their main food source. Among those who did adopt the new grocery store, there was no significant improvement in body-mass index or fruit and vegetable intake. "This indicates that simply providing new food retail stores is insufficient to encourage the adoption of new stores as residents' main food stores," the study authors write. The study only looks six months out after the new supermarket arrived, so it's possible that changes could surface at a later point, as more residents migrate toward the new grocery store. If anything, the new Health Affairs study mostly shows how little we know about whether expanding access to healthy food can have a meaningful, public health


Wonkbook: Can’t we just get rid of the employer mandate already?

Day: $175.1 billion. That's how much cash the "extraordinary measures" used by the Treasury Department, such as delaying payments to federal retirement funds, frees up to avoid the debt ceiling. Wonkbook's Graph of the Day: Wonkbook's Top 5 Stories: 1. Top story: Can't we just get rid of the employer mandate already? The White House is relaxing the employer mandate again. In Arkansas, 'private option' Medicaid plan could be derailed. Interview: Explainer: Having a grocery store nearby doesn’t make people eat healthier. @jimantle HealthCare.gov to be out of service. BLINDER: Is Obamacare a job-killer? Not at all. @Avik KLEIN: AOL's Armstrong needs Obamacare. JINDAL: Obamacare is anything but compassionate. @IvanTheK COHN: Are conservatives now arguing that Obamacare doesn't do enough? Music recommendations interlude: Top opinion RODRIK: Death by finance. TOOBIN: Holder v. Roberts. BROOKS: The American precariat. PONNURU: Obama is doing it wrong on free trade. Today I learned interlude: 2. Republicans still in search of debt-ceiling strategy House GOP homes in on debt-ceiling plan tied to military pension benefits. GOP debt ceiling bill includes 'doc fix' fund. It's a gamble. U.S. Treasury acts to avoid debt-ceiling breach. Literary interlude: 3. What 'fractal inequality' is, and why you should care Even among the richest of the rich, fortunes diverge. Yellen’s first testimony provides chance to set out Fed outlook. How's the labor market doing? Well, it depends on which data you consider. Fate of Fannie and Freddie lies with the courts. Explainer: The one place where economic confidence is positive is, you guessed it, D.C. This is 100-percent true interlude: 4. The NSA's deadly call The NSA's secret role in the U.S. assassination program. Will the White House’s big data privacy initiative distract from the NSA debate? Historical interlude: 5. Labor giveth and labor taketh away Why Volkswagen is helping a union organize its own plant. Labor battle rages on at Kellogg plant. Sociology interlude: Wonkblog Roundup How the U.S. government spends millions to get people to eat more pizza The White House is relaxing the employer mandate again Having a grocery store nearby doesn’t make people eat healthier Eight things ‘Downton Abbey’ can teach us about the modern economy Why Volkswagen is helping a union organize its own plant Et Cetera Auto insurers' marriage discounts face scrutiny California wins more time to fix its overcrowded prisons Got tips, additions, or comments? Wonkbook is produced with help from Michelle Williams.


14 things to love about Washington

People ask me all the time what’s to love in “This Town.” Here are a few things I tell them; let me know your suggestions as well. 1. Walking in the footsteps of giants Example: It’s not just Honest Abe at the Lincoln Memorial, it’s the ghosts of Martin Luther King Jr., of opera singer Marian Anderson and of others who changed history here. Martin Luther King Jr., giving his “I Have a Dream” speech before the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963. (AP) 2. Occasional goofiness, even in the White House 3. A strange fascination with pandas Don’t stop the Pandacam. Here’s the newest giant baby panda, Bao Bao, learning to walk. 4. The backward running man (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) Cedric Givens has befuddled Washington onlookers with his backward running for decades, and he’s only one of a cast of characters around town, including The Question Man, the stripper-turned-mayoral-candidate and the Sage of Lafayette Square. Or the ukelele-playing hipster in Bloomingdale who only sings in Portuguese, the harpist in Dupont who nails Cream’s “Sunshine of My Love” or the nearby brass band that plays late on weekend nights, outside the Krispie Kreme that pumps out the succulent smell of doughnuts you should not eat. 5. Free museums! Everything Smithsonian-related — and free concerts at 6 p.m. every evening of the year at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Here are a few of the Smithsonian’s treasures. A piece of Plymouth Rock. Louis Armstrong’s trumpet. Here are some of the 101 objects chosen by Smithsonian magazine to symbolize a nation, selected from the museum’s collection of 137 million artifacts. 6. A talent for making romance kind of geeky Here’s “My love for you is monumental” and other D.C. Valentines from our readers. Three: Is there a distinctly capital way of delivering words of romance? There is bipartisan agreement on this. See readers’ Washington love wishes — and add your own in our comments section below. 7. Cherry blossoms I know, not a surprise pick. But here are a few reader haikus along with the images. 8. Bikes, bikes everywhere (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) We’re not Amsterdam, but cyclists are ubiquitous from city bike lanes to riverside trails and towpaths, even in cold weather. 9. Sunrises, sunsets (amid monuments) We’re on our smartphones anyway, so we can’t stop but capture moments like these. And these. Here are a


How much is an Olympic medal worth? Ask Uncle Sam.

Prepare to pay, Sage Kotsenburg. (David J. Phillip / AP) Millions are watching anytime a U.S. athlete wins a medal at the Olympics and so, too, is Uncle Sam. The Internal Revenue Service goes for the gold any time an American athlete medals because they receive a cash bonus from the U.S. Olympic Committee for each medal. The bonus — $25,000 bonus for gold medal, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 bronze, according to SavingAdvice.com — is deemed to be taxable income and, as with all citizens, there may be state and federal consequences based on the level of income. According to the Web site, someone in the top, 39.6-percent bracket would pay about $9,900 for a gold. An athlete in the 28-percent bracket would pay $7,000 for a gold. Not everyone thinks that’s fair, though, and last week Reps. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Pete Sessions (R-Texas) proposed the Tax Exemptions for American Medalists Act, which was referred to the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee. “Gross income shall not include the value of any medal awarded in, or any prize money received from the United States Olympic Committee on account of, competition in the Olympic Games,” the bill states (via thehill.com). If enacted, it would take effect starting this year. “If enacted” is the tricky part, though. Bills like this one have been introduced from time to time, and President Obama has indicated that he would support and sign an exemption into law. But, so far, the bills have not come up for a vote it isn’t likely that the Winter Games will be a bigger impetus for Congress than the Summer Games in 2012, when Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) proposed an exemption. “Our tax code is a complicated and burdensome mess that too often punishes success, and the tax imposed on Olympic medal winners is a classic example of this madness,” Rubio said at the time (via thehill.com). “Athletes representing our nation overseas in the Olympics shouldn’t have to worry about an extra tax bill waiting for them back home.” Shaun White fails to medal in men’s halfpipe, Devin Logan wins silver in women’s ski slopestyle and more. View Photo Gallery —Men’s halfpipe qualification begins, Devin Logan wins silver in women’s ski slopestyle, and more. More Olympics news White easily qualifies for halfpipe finals Lauer replaces Costas on Tuesday night broadcast Miller’s decision to postpone


Figure skating gets a Beyonce remix

Ever wish figure skating routines were set to different music? The Internet has you covered. Buzzfeed recently took a cue from Twitter users who suggested that figure skating could be made more awesome by (what else?) Beyonce. The social news site set a routine by U.S. ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White to the singer’s “Drunk in Love.” The routine is actually choreographed to “Scheherazade,” but the mash-up is pretty… flawless, as Bey might say. Here’s a full version via YouTube: Ice Dance Figure Skating To "Drunk In Love" It’s a safe bet that Kate Hansen, a member of the U.S. Luge team and self-professed Beyonce fan, approves. Brian Floyd of SB Nation remixed this old Evgeni Plushenko routine, dubbing it with Ginuwine’s “Pony.” Plushenko‘s routine, set to Tom Jones “Sex Bomb,” was already pretty quirky, complete with fake muscles and a hair-combing sequence. It pairs well with the 1996 R&B hit, which famously resurfaced in the 2012 strip film “Magic Mike.” Evgeni Plushenko - Pony Bomb Routine Could Olympic figure skaters actually skate to Beyonce tunes? This Boston Globe article offers a primer on how figure skaters pick their music. The challenge? Finding a selection that spotlights the athlete’s strengths, while ensuring it’s pleasing to both the crowd and the judges. Shaun White fails to medal in men’s halfpipe, Devin Logan wins silver in women’s ski slopestyle and more. View Photo Gallery —Men’s halfpipe qualification begins, Devin Logan wins silver in women’s ski slopestyle, and more. More Olympics news Shaun White makes kids’ dreams come true White easily qualifies for halfpipe finals Lauer replaces Costas on Tuesday night broadcast Miller’s decision to postpone eye surgery is costly Plushenko gets early start in men’s figure skating Caldwell lone American to advance in cross-country Sochi taps into snow stockpile as temperatures climb While you were sleeping: Logan medals, skiiers advance Photos from Day 4


What if faith-based prison programs just attract better prisoners?

compared to 37.5% of non-completers, 17% of non-participants, and 12% of inmates at other prisons. If—to see the effect of participation rather than the effect of program completion—we lump non-completers and completers together, the rate becomes about 9%, which isn’t significantly different from the rate among non-participants at Tomoka or at other prisons. A similar faith-based program in England also reports greater disciplinary improvement among program participants. 5. Denny’s Kairos Horizon Study Dan Denny analyzed in-prison misconduct and post-release recidivism rates for participants in a Kairos Horizon program at the Davis Correctional Facility, a private, medium-security prison in Oklahoma. Denny examined three cohorts of participants, from “Year One” (2002), “Year Two” (2003), and “Year Three” (2004). The 36 Year One participants had 89% fewer misconduct reports after the program than before; the drop for the 51 Year Two participants was 80%; and the drop for the 51 Year Three participants was 84%. The average drop was 86%. Misconduct reports in the entire facility fell from 901 to 308 (a 66% drop) from Year One to Year Three, which is presumably comparable to the 80% before-to-after drop for the Year Two participants. It’s unclear from the paper how many inmates there were at the facility during this time, so it’s unclear whether the drop in misconduct among program participants is significantly different from the total decrease facility-wide. When the paper was written, only seven participants had been released, the longest-released graduate had only been out for one year, and no graduate had been re-arrested. So the author couldn’t report “true recidivism rates” by Oklahoma standards, which require a three-year post-release history. 6. Education Studies Some education studies also use this approach, neither addressing self-selection nor controlling for observable variables. One example is Janet Beales and Maureen Wahl’s assessment of the Partners Advancing Values in Evaluation (PAVE) program in Milwaukee, a privately funded voucher system that functioned parallel to the publicly funded voucher system, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). (A similar paper available online is here.) Beales and Wahl found that 63.2% of PAVE students scored above the 50th percentile in reading (60.4% in math), which was much higher than the corresponding percentages for MPCP students, Milwaukee public school low-income students, or all Milwaukee public school students. (These percentages were all between 16% and 35%.) PAVE students were similarly above the three comparison groups in reading and math test score medians


Faith-based prisons: ideas for more valid evaluations

participation level, since this introduces a new source of self-selection bias. When Johnson did a follow-up evaluation on these same inmates seven years later, he again found no significant difference in median time to re-arrest or in reincarceration rates between participating and non-participating inmates. When the sample was divided into high- and low-participating groups, high-participating inmates had a lower two-year probability of re-arrest than low-participating ones, but this effect disappeared after three years. 3. Camp et al.’s Life Connections Program Study Scott Camp and his coauthors analyzed the effect on prison misconduct of participation in the Life Connections Program. They estimated the probability of participation (i.e., propensity score) using a number of models; the fit of these models was reasonably good. Variables used included a “scale of motivation for change,” frequency of spiritual experiences and religious observance, religious affiliation, “feelings of self-worth,” custody risk, previous incarceration, age, ethnicity, “race, sex, education, marital status, and months of current incarceration” so far. There was generally no significant association between participation and misconduct in general, and no association between participation and less serious misconduct. However, there was a significant association between participation and serious misconduct: in some of the models, “slightly over 5 percent of the inmates in the LCP had an instance of serious misconduct, where for the comparison group, the number was closer to 11 percent.” Other models on serious misconduct produced differences that were smaller, but still significant. This article has a significant advantage that the others in this Subpart don’t have. I’ve argued that the problem with comparative studies, even ones based on propensity scores, is that they don’t get at the unobserved motivation to change. As I’ve noted above, though, Camp et al. explicitly include “a scale of motivation for change” in their first-stage propensity model. If this scale accurately measures motivation for change, then it can potentially solve the selection problem. Unfortunately, this scale, developed by Prochaska and DiClemente, is derived from inmates’ own self-reported views, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. 4. Education Studies As with the previous set of studies, this ground has already been trodden by education researchers, with similar methodological vulnerabilities. Unobserved motivation is as problematic with private or Catholic schools as with faith-based prisons—a student’s (or his parents’) motivation is correlated both with a decision to choose a different school and with success on outcomes like test scores.