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| House Majority Whip Scalise confirms he spoke to white nationalists in 2002 |
| Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House majority whip, acknowledged Monday that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white-supremacist leaders while serving as a state representative in 2002, thrusting a racial controversy into House Republican ranks days before the party assumes control of both congressional chambers. Read full article » |
| Delaware-size gas plume over West illustrates the cost of leaking methane |
| CUBA, N.M. — The methane that leaks from 40,000 gas wells near this desert trading post may be colorless and odorless, but it’s not invisible. It can be seen from space.Satellites that sweep over energy-rich northern New Mexico can spot the gas as it escapes from drilling rigs, compressors and miles of pipeline snaking across the badlands. In the air it forms a giant plume: a permanent, Delaware-sized methane cloud, so vast that scientists questioned their own data when they first studied it three years ago. “We couldn’t be sure that the signal was real,” said NASA researcher Christian Frankenberg. Read full article » |
| Report: Rep. Michael Grimm announces his resignation from Congress, effective Monday |
| U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) announced late Monday that he will resign from Congress effective next week.Grimm pleaded guilty in federal court last week to felony tax fraud. He privately told House Republican leaders Monday that he will resign, following calls from Democrats for him to step down. Read full article » |
| Colleges often give discounts to the rich. But here’s one that gave up on ‘merit aid.’ |
| LANCASTER, Pa. — The open secret of higher education is that private colleges competing for students often slash prices for families wealthy enough to pay full tuition.Some dangle “merit aid” to lure academic stars. Others use discounts to ensure that they enroll enough affluent students to meet their revenue targets. Read full article » |
| Backlash in Berlin over NSA spying recedes as threat from Islamic State rises |
| BERLIN — In a crescendo of anger over American espionage, Germany expelled the CIA’s top operative, launched an investigation of the vast U.S. surveillance programs exposed by Edward Snowden and extracted an apology from President Obama for the years that U.S. spies had reportedly spent monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone. Read full article » |
| The odds of Greece leaving the euro have never been higher |
| Beware Greeks bearing the same political crisis over and over again. Because eventually this will be how the euro crisis ends: not with a bailout, but a ballot.It's a tale as old as Homer, or at least it seems that way. The Greek government, you see, has once again collapsed under the weight of the country's austerity program, and anti-bailout parties are leading the polls ahead of new elections. This time, not that it really matters, the ruling coalition led by the right-of-center party New Democracy fell apart after it couldn't get its presidential nominee, a largely ceremonial role, confirmed in three tries. What does matter, though, is whether New Democracy, which is still running a close second, can hold on to power in the snap elections scheduled for Jan. 25. If it can't, then the far-left party Syriza will get its chance to lead Greece in a high-stakes game of chicken with Germany. Read full article » |
| Two children’s book authors thought military ‘brats’ deserved a new name. The brats thought otherwise. |
| Would you rather be called a brat or a champ? The answer might seem obvious. Why choose to be an unruly, impudent child when you could be a valiant victor? That’s what Debbie and Jennifer Fink thought, anyway. Read full article » |
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| POLITICS |
| Jeb Bush resigns from board of timber and real estate firm |
| In another sign that he is serious about a 2016 presidential bid, former Florida governor Jeb Bush resigned from the board of a Florida-based real estate firm, Rayonier Inc.The move, disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday, follows recent announcements that Bush would be resigning from other business obligations. Last week, he said he would be stepping down from the board of Tenet Healthcare Corp, which saw its profits rise from the enactment of President Obama's health-care initiative. Shortly before that, Bush announced he would leave his advisory role with Barclays, the British-based banking firm. Read full article » |
| How race and police became a red-vs.-blue issue |
| Few things matter more than race when it comes to views of police. But political views matter a lot as well.That was the main takeaway from our latest story on a Washington Post-ABC News poll, but we wanted to share a deeper look at the partisan and ideological gaps in how whites view the justice system and police. The chart below shows how white Democrats, Republicans and independents answered five questions in the Post-ABC poll. The Pew Research Center generously provided breakdowns from their August survey asking similar questions. Click the dropdown menu to toggle between questions. Read full article » |
| New Republican-led panel will focus on energy and environment |
| House Republicans next year will use a new oversight subcommittee to examine the Obama administration’s energy and environmental policies.Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), future chair the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced that he would form the new panel to watch over the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the departments of agriculture, energy and interior. Read full article » |
| Seattle confronts prospect of its own long-delayed Big Dig |
| SEATTLE — For an entire year, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine has been stuck deep below this city’s waterfront. Engineers still don’t know why “Bertha,” the 326-foot long, 2,000-ton behemoth custom built to create a nearly two-mile long tunnel under downtown Seattle, isn’t working. Read full article » |
| OPINIONS |
| Economic facts get in the way |
| Uh-oh. Now that the economy is doing well, what are Republicans — especially those running for president — going to complain about? And what are Democrats willing to celebrate?Last week’s announcement that the economy grew at a rate of 5 percent in the third quarter of this year — following 4.6 percent second-quarter growth — was the clearest and least debatable indication to date that sustained recovery is no longer a promise, it’s a fact. Read full article » |
| In 2016, clear choice, or clear trauma? |
| One outcome of and proof for ideological polarization is the way it has made stalwarts appear like centrists. In what world is Hillary Clinton — feminist heroine, author of Hillarycare, sworn enemy of the vast right-wing conspiracy — not progressive enough? In what parallel universe is Jeb Bush — a tax-slashing, school-voucher-supporting, pro-gun former Southern governor — some kind of moderate? Read full article » |
| Bruce F. Freed and Charles E.M. Kolb: U.S. companies shine sunlight on ‘dark money’ |
| In the nearly five years since the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United ruling, a significant movement in U.S. corporate governance has gained traction without attracting much notice: An expanding cross-section of U.S. businesses are acting independently to create a culture of transparency and accountability in regard to their influence on our political system. Read full article » |
| Steve Scalise’s lame excuse |
| The Post reports:Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House majority whip, acknowledged Monday that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white nationalist leaders while serving as a state representative in 2002, thrusting a racial controversy into House Republican ranks days before the party assumes control of both congressional chambers. Read full article » |
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| LOCAL |
| Maryland Episcopal bishop investigated in car accident that killed cyclist |
| The No. 2 Episcopal bishop in the Diocese of Maryland has been placed on administrative leave after she was involved in a car crash Saturday that killed a bicyclist.Bishop Heather Elizabeth Cook, who is the bishop suffragan, or second bishop for the diocese of Maryland, which is headquartered in Baltimore, left the scene but returned later “to take responsibility for her actions,” her bishop said in a statement. Read full article » |
| Delays on Metro’s Orange Line |
| Riders on Metro’s Orange Line should expect delays Tuesday morning.There is a problem with a signal at the West Falls Church stop. The delays, Metro officials said, are in both directions.It was not immediately clear how long the delays would last. Read full article » |
| Man who returned ‘miracle’ engagement ring inspires others to give |
| Last week, I wrote about Siranjan Kulatilake, a British man who found his neighbor’s missing engagement ring and, rather than accepting a reward, asked her for a $50 donation to the Washington Humane Society. The mother of Hayley Plack, the ring’s owner, instead gave him a check to the organization for $400. Read full article » |
| D.C. area forecast: Shifting to sunny this afternoon, staying colder through New Year’s, then rainy by weekend |
| We finally get a more winter-like pattern feel to usher in the New Year. Read full article » |
| SPORTS |
| Florida State’s unusual bond with Seminole Tribe puts mascot debate in a different light |
| TALLAHASSEE — Given the 80-odd mostly white students, the occasional ball caps and tattoos, the Tuesday morning hush and the student quickly punching her phone for the time (10:30), this Room 208 could grace most any pretty campus. Only two things hint as to the whereabouts. The preponderance of shorts means this could be in Florida, and the professor’s subject matter means this must be Florida State. Read full article » |
| Watch Otto Porter’s 16-year-old cousin sky for a ridiculous dunk |
| Wizards small forward Otto Porter comes from a distinguished family of Missouri hoopers, and it appears that another top prospect is on the way. Otto’s cousin Michael Porter Jr., currently a sophomore at Tolton High in Missouri, is rated ESPN’s No. 5 recruit in the Class of 2017. Read full article » |
| Watch a man atone for doubting Clemson’s Cole Stoudt by snorting Sriracha sauce |
| Clemson’s Cole Stoudt had created plenty of doubters before Monday’s Russell Athletic Bowl. The senior quarterback had struggled through much of the season, and after losing his starting job, he only got the nod in the bowl game because freshman Deshaun Watson tore an ACL. Read full article » |
| TV and radio listings: Dec. 30 |
| NBA7:30 p.m. Cleveland at Atlanta » NBA TV8:30 p.m. Washington at Dallas » Comcast SportsNet, WNEW (99.1 FM), WFED (1500AM)COLLEGE FOOTBALL Read full article » |
| FEDERAL GOVERNMENT |
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| GSA loses appeal in firings of top officials; appeals board orders them reinstated |
| A federal appeals panel this week upheld two rulings that the General Services Administration wrongly fired two senior executives whose staffs attended a conference in Las Vegas that turned out to be an extravagant junket for 300 employees. Read full article » |
| How long does it take to investigate an inspector general? A long time |
| Relatively speaking, federal inspectors general are not accused of wrongdoing that often, and a small number of complaints against them results in full-blown investigations. But since these public servants are high-ranking watchdogs over spending, mismanagement and corruption in government, a swift resolution in a case against them is viewed by many as a good thing. Read full article » |
| Helman’s firing upheld, a government ruling says |
| The government agency charged with making sure federal employees are treated fairly upheld this week the Department of Veterans Affairs decision to “formally remove” Sharon Helman, director of the Phoenix Department of Veterans Affairs’ Health Care System and the leader at the center of the biggest scandal in the agency’s history. Read full article » |
| NATIONAL |
| John Kerry won’t call the Islamic State by its name anymore. Why that’s not a good idea. |
| “Daesh claims to be fighting for Islam but its actions are an insult to Islam,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry said recently, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.It was a strange rhetorical choice. American officials have been referring to the Islamic State as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, since the group came out in April 2013. Read full article » |
| We’re way too obsessed with pushing science and math on our kids. |
| When I was a child, I wanted to be a scientist. For a school project, I grew my own bread mold and dressed up as Alexander Fleming. I read about Marie Curie’s travails with the enthusiastic fandom that most girls dedicate to movie stars or singers. Microbiology, entomology, neuroscience, medicine—all beckoned with promises of discoveries to be made, fundamental truth hiding behind a microscope or a tricky equation. Read full article » |
| Guideposts on the way back to Factville: Graphics from 2014 that point the way forward. |
| Every year around this time, I pick out my favorite graphs from the year that’s just ending, taken from sources to which I’m professionally linked: my own blog, PostEverything and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The criterion is simple: A graph that showed up this year with information that conveys a useful insight into economic policy. Read full article » |
| WORLD |
| Adriatic ferry fire claims 10 lives; hundreds rescued by helicopter |
| Battling a gale-force storm and monster waves, rescue crews used helicopters to pluck more than 420 people from the frigid decks of a Greek-operated ferry crippled by fire in the Adriatic Sea. At least 10 people died, officials said Monday, but left open the possibility of more people missing. Read full article » |
| Is Luis Estrada the conscience of Mexico? |
| MEXICO CITY--A Luis Estrada film is not a riddle to decipher. The themes from the famous Mexican director come blaring at you with their high-beams on, usually from the opening credits.Within the first minutes of his most famous film, the 2010 drug-war indictment “Infierno” (Hell), the main character gets deported, held up at gunpoint, robbed by police, and falls in with gangsters who have taken over his hometown; and it ends with blood dripping down the corrupt mayor’s podium and over Mexico’s eagle-and-serpent national symbols. In his 2006 film “Un Mundo Maravilloso” (A Wonderful World), about social inequality and globalization, his peasant protagonist finds himself stuck on a window ledge high up on the fictional World Financial Center, literally locked out from Mexico’s modernizing economy. Read full article » |
| ‘The Interview’ isn’t the only piece of American pop culture causing international incidents |
| One of the key takeaways of the whole "The Interview" saga is that American-made works of pop culture can be subject to very different interpretations when looked at from abroad. The now-infamous Seth Rogen and James Franco film may have seemed like a funny way to skewer one of the world's most repressive governments, but to North Korea it apparently looked like "most blatant act of terrorism and war," to use the words of one Pyongyang official. Read full article » |
| Chinese murder mystery leaves tantalizing clues |
| BEIJING — For eight years, the deaths of his neighbor’s two children have haunted Nian Bin. Police arrested Nian, tortured him into confessing to the murders and sent him to death row.But in one of the most dramatic reversals in China’s modern legal history, Nian’s lawyers showed that police manufactured evidence against him and hid other evidence pointing to his innocence. Read full article » |
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| BUSINESS |
| Five contracts to watch in 2015 |
| A mix of familiar major contracts are up for renewal in 2015, along with a few new big ones intended to shake up the way the government conducts its business. Here’s a look at five significant contracts to keep an eye on in the new year: Read full article » |
| Shake Shack files for IPO |
| Burger joint Shake Shack filed for an initial public offering on Monday, a move that the company hopes will help it grow its fleet of restaurants and take a bigger bite out of the booming fast-casual dining market. Read full article » |
| The biggest winter energy myth: That you need to idle your car before driving |
| We've all heard the idea: In winter, your car needs a little time to warm up before you can drive it. And that's why across the United States, people who live in cold and snowy places -- and especially those whose cars have remote starters -- often fire up their engines long before they start driving. Heck, they might even start the car from the kitchen in the morning, and only then start the coffee brewing. Read full article » |
| TECHNOLOGY |
| Everything we learned in 2014 about finding missing planes |
| It's been a strange year for aviation, one marked by unsatisfying mystery. Between a plane getting shot out of the sky, another that vanished forever and still another that simply flew on until it couldn't, 2014 has shone a spotlight on the tragic limits of our ability to rescue pilots in distress. Now those issues have surfaced again with the disappearance of AirAsia QZ8501. Read full article » |
| Why fingerprints scans may not be the future of digital verification |
| Fingerprint scanners are becoming increasingly mainstream -- they even come built-in many Apple devices.But researchers are finding ways to spoof biometric ID methods, and they come with their own set of privacy and security drawbacks. Read full article » |
| Not satisfied with Gmail, China seems to be blocking Google Search, too |
| It isn't just Gmail. The government of China, which this weekend launched a tweak to its Great Firewall filtering regime that blocked much of mainland China's access to Google's e-mail service, has on Monday cut off access nationwide to Google Search as well, reports one Internet intelligence expert. Read full article » |
| The Word of the Year is not actually a word. It’s this emoji: ❤ |
| Step aside words with letters, because for the first time an emoji is the the word of the year.The heart-shaped emoji (or , if you want to get more technical), is the top word in Global Language Monitor’s annual survey of English words, phrases and names. The Texas-based media company develops the lists by analyzing the frequency and usage of English words across the Internet, including sources such as Twitter, as well as the top 250,000 print and electronic new media sources. Read full article » |
| LIFESTYLE |
| The season of giving — down to the last tax-deductible minute |
| The e-mails flooding inboxes practically shout with urgency: “Time is running out!” “Don’t delay, give today!” Or this, from the Heritage Foundation: “Our country needs you today — before midnight on Wednesday — like never before.” Read full article » |
| Judd Apatow slams ‘monster’ Bill Cosby in an epic Twitter rant |
| If you’ve followed director Judd Apatow’s Twitter musings for the last several weeks, his views on the rape allegations against Bill Cosby won’t come as a huge surprise.But over the weekend, Apatow went on a lengthy anti-Cosby rampage. He slammed Cosby’s “cold” defenders for siding with the comedian. He compared Cosby’s lack of conviction in a court of law to Hitler dying without being convicted of murder. And he labeled Cosby “a rapist” and “a monster.” Read full article » |
| Life in the afterglow of TED-talk fame |
| “Holy cow.”For a moment, that’s pretty much all Susan Colantuono can say when she thinks about how her life has changed since a presentation she gave last November was posted on the TED Web site. In the three months since the video went up, the talk has been translated into 15 languages and viewed more than 1.7 million times. Colantuono has been bombarded with LinkedIn requests and invitations to speak at conferences. An agent reached out asking for her book proposal (it hadn’t been written yet). Read full article » |
| Carolyn Hax: Venting after being forced to bottle up her feelings |
| While I’m away, readers give the advice.On minimizing feelings:There is no way minimizing a loved one’s issues could possibly comfort them. It might shut them up so the minimizer won’t have to risk effort or embarrassment by being supportive, but the damage it does in the process is incalculable. Minimizing is belittling, and it’s an insidious form of verbal abuse. It runs in families. It ran in mine. Read full article » |
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