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| TOP STORIES |
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| Ex-Va. first lady gets prison term of a year and a day |
| RICHMOND — Maureen McDonnell was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in federal prison after an emotional, hours-long hearing in which the former first lady of Virginia apologized publicly for the first time since she and her husband were accused of public corruption. Read full article » |
| DHS tackles endless morale problems with seemingly endless studies |
| Afflicted with the lowest morale of any large federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security did what comes naturally to many in government.It decided to study the problem. And then study it some more. Read full article » |
| Police: In 1975 cold case, sex offender says he left mall with Lyon sisters |
| A sex offender named as a “person of interest” in the 1975 disappearance of two young sisters in Montgomery County has told detectives that he left a shopping mall with them the day they went missing and that he later saw his uncle sexually assaulting one of the girls, according to police affidavits recently unsealed. Read full article » |
| Carter arrives in Afghanistan on first trip as defense secretary |
| KABUL – Less than four days after he was sworn into office, Ashton B. Carter landed in Kabul early Saturday on his inaugural overseas trip as defense secretary to assess the progress of the war in Afghanistan and review possible changes to the timetable for withdrawing all U.S. troops from the country. Read full article » |
| In Japan, Chinese tourists are a welcome boost — if a loud, messy one |
| SAPPORO, JAPAN — Chinese tourists come to Japan for the sushi and for the shopping. But increasingly, they’re also coming for one thing that money can’t buy: fresh air. “The blue sky and the clean air are great. They’re something we don't have at home,” said Xu Jun, an agent for a steel trading company from Guangzhou, a huge manufacturing city in southern China that is blighted by pollution. Xu was visiting the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido this month. Read full article » |
| 800,000 HealthCare.gov users received wrong tax information |
| The federal government has sent incorrect tax information to about 800,000 people who purchased health insurance last year through HealthCare.gov and asked them to delay filing their returns, Obama administration officials said Friday. Read full article » |
| Full-court dress: NBA may be the most influential men’s fashion runway |
| John Wall, entourage at his side and sunglasses on his face, walked off the elevator on the fifth floor at Macy’s Herald Square in Manhattan last Thursday evening and into a small room tucked away from the public. A few minutes later, a throng of eager media members, nearly 20 in all, surrounded Wall for some rapid-fire questions. Read full article » |
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| POLITICS |
| Maureen McDonnell and the changing image of the political wife |
| Former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell raised the specter of Adam and Eve at her sentencing trial Friday, framing her and her husband's downfall just as U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer had done before. It was true, she said, that she had let the “serpent” — businessman Jonnie R. Williams — into the governor's mansion. Read full article » |
| Va. House has no immediate plans to redraw congressional map |
| RICHMOND — The speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates said Friday that he will not redraw congressional district lines while appeals are pending in a federal court case that deemed the map unconstitutional for diluting the influence of African American voters. Read full article » |
| Is ‘American Sniper’ to Iraq what ‘The Deer Hunter’ was to Vietnam? |
| "American Sniper" and "The Deer Hunter" are both films about the realities of war that received multiple Oscar nods, but how similar are they? According to "Deer Hunter" director Michael Cimino, not especially. Read full article » |
| OPINIONS |
| Scott Walker’s cowardice should disqualify him |
| What Rudy Giuliani did this week was stupid. What Scott Walker did ought to disqualify him as a serious presidential contender. As the world now knows, Giuliani, the former New York mayor, said at a dinner featuring Walker, the Wisconsin governor, that “I do not believe that the president loves America.” According to Politico, Giuliani said President Obama “wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up, through love of this country.” Read full article » |
| I’m gay. And I want my kid to be gay, too. |
| I live in the liberal bubble of Park Slope, Brooklyn, where no yuppie would ever admit to wanting their kid to be anything in particular, other than happy. But more often than not, we define happiness as some variation on our own lives, or at least the lives of our expectations. If we went to college, we want our kids to go to college. If we like sports, we want our kids to like sports. If we vote Democrat, of course we want our kids to vote Democrat. Read full article » |
| Feminist writers are so besieged by online abuse that some have begun to retire |
| Jessica Valenti is one of the most successful and visible feminists of her generation. As a columnist for the Guardian, her face regularly appears on the site’s front page. She has written five books, one of which was adapted into a documentary, since founding the blog Feministing.com. She gives speeches all over the country. And she tells me that, because of the nonstop harassment that feminist writers face online, if she could start over, she might prefer to be completely anonymous. “I don’t know that I would do it under my real name,” she says she tells young women who are interested in writing about feminism. It’s “not just the physical safety concerns but the emotional ramifications” of constant, round-the-clock abuse. Read full article » |
| When even one drink could kill you |
| The recipe, scribbled above the bar at the Brooklyn club, looked delicious — mezcal muddled with basil and lime, and a dash of club soda. But the first sip raised a familiar itch in my throat. The bartender had not rinsed the milk, an ingredient in a previous order, from the shaker, which meant my lips would now be swollen for hours. Read full article » |
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| LOCAL |
| The blanketed sculpture on a D.C. bench? That’s ‘Homeless Jesus.’ |
| The District has joined a growing number of places across the country in making space for “Homeless Jesus,” a seven-foot-long bronze sculpture of Christianity’s central figure shrouded in a blanket and lying on a park bench, identifiable only by the crucifixion wounds on his feet. Read full article » |
| D.C. area forecast: Difficult travel expected as snow arrives today and turns to a wintry mix tonight |
| Expect difficult travel as snow arrives and turns into a messy wintry mix tonight. Read full article » |
| PM Update: Chilly night, then snow and sleet changing to rain on Saturday |
| Clouds will increase rapidly overnight as the D.C. area’s next winter storm hones in on the Mid-Atlantic. Read full article » |
| SPORTS |
| Wizards suffer worst loss of season at the hands of LeBron James and Cleveland |
| When his players returned from their mini-vacation near and far for practice Wednesday evening, Washington Wizards Coach Randy Wittman warned them this season’s NBA schedule is deceiving. The all-star break, the longest in NBA history, wasn’t the usual midway point. The regular season was closer to three-quarters complete. Only 28 games remained. The stretch run, the time to battle for playoff seeding and matchups, was upon them. Read full article » |
| Cricket World Cup 2015: West Indies defeats Pakistan |
| West Indies took four wickets in the opening minutes of its bowling in its 2015 Cricket World Cup match against Pakistan, then cruised to a 150-run victory in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday night. Read full article » |
| Bradley Beal to resume basketball activities Saturday |
| There was at least one positive development for the Washington Wizards on Friday: Doctors evaluated starting shooting guard Bradley Beal’s injured right fibula in the morning and have given him the green light to resume basketball activities Saturday. Read full article » |
| Wrestling: Patriot’s Killian Cardinale, Broad Run’s Michael Battista claim Virginia state championships |
| Killian Cardinale unfastened his headgear and slumped into a catcher’s stance, the foundation of a nascent Patriot program resting upon his 106-pound frame. Cardinale’s 5-1 victory over Colonial Forge’s Levi Englman wasn’t just the first finals match to conclude at the 5A/6A state wrestling meet Friday in Fairfax — it was the first individual title in Pioneers history. Read full article » |
| FEDERAL GOVERNMENT |
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| Longtime USAID contractor embroiled in scandal fires top managers, others |
| International Relief and Development Inc., once one of the largest nonprofit contractors working for the U.S. Agency for International Development, has dismissed its board of directors and laid off 21 employees in an effort to stabilize the struggling organization, senior managers said Friday. Read full article » |
| Union enters postal talks using Danny Glover star power to expand, not cut services |
| Contract talks began Thursday between the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and a reenergized union that seeks to broaden the field of play well beyond the negotiating room.Leaders from the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) met their USPS counterparts at the Hyatt Regency after a rousing pep rally the night before at the AFL-CIO headquarters. It featured an array of pumped-up speakers, a Danny Glover video and the star himself. Read full article » |
| CRS Report of the Week: ‘The “Islamic State” Crisis and U.S. Policy’ |
| The Obama administration’s approach to fighting the Islamic State received a lot of media attention this week, largely because the White House devoted several days to a summit on discrediting the group’s propaganda efforts. Read full article » |
| NATIONAL |
| The Walmart wage bump: who gets it and who pays for it. |
| Well, would ya look at that? Walmart, tired of waiting for Congress to raise the minimum wage, says it’s doing so on its own, providing pay raises to half a million of its work force.In April of this year, according to a fact sheet the huge retailer released Thursday, they’ll increase their starting wage to $9/hour, and the next year, move those “associates’” pay up to $10, which is about what the White House proposed for the federal minimum ($10.10 by 2016). For their managers, they plan to raise the starting wage “for some of them to at least $13/hour this summer and at least $15/hour early next year.” Read full article » |
| I’m a therapist. Movies are the best tool I have to help my patients. |
| When a shy client named Angie came in needing help, I recommended an unusual course of treatment: a movie screening.Angie (whose name has been changed to protect her identity) grew up in an isolated, rural area with few friends and little exposure to life outside her family’s farm. She was a gifted computer programmer but was uninterested in her physical appearance. Her hair and clothing often looked unwashed; she wore the same denim jacket week after week. Angie had never had a boyfriend, and longed for a romantic connection. Read full article » |
| Please address me as Mister. I insist. |
| We were all gathered in the lunchroom of my Catholic grade school. I was in seventh grade, about to receive the sacrament of Confirmation. The archbishop wandered in to give us a little pre-Mass pep talk. His excellency told us to call him “Archbishop Jim.” His intention was surely to make us feel more comfortable around him, but I was shocked. He was a direct successor to the Apostles. He had the power of transubstantiation in his hands. He could forgive sins in the name of God. At a minimum, he was a lot older than me, and my parents told me to call adults “Mr. Maese,” not “Brook.” Read full article » |
| WORLD |
| Chinese soccer is terrible, and now Xi Jinping has officials jumping to fix it |
| BEIJING — For years, soccer in China has been a source of national embarrassment. It is the sport Chinese often care about most but also one that infuriates them most. For years, the most impressive ability of the men’s team has been its knack of finding new ways to disappoint. Read full article » |
| Near-disaster: This F-16 landed after half its wing was sheared off |
| Two Air Force fighter pilots whose F-16C jets collided in midair in October survived, despite one plane crashing and the other having a five-foot section of its wing sheared off, according to a report the Air Force released Friday. Read full article » |
| The misguided debate about how ‘Islamic’ the Islamic State is |
| What does the Islamic State really want? The extremist militants have carved a fiefdom of their own in the imploding nation-states of Syria and Iraq. They have proclaimed a caliphate and lured thousands of foreign fighters to their ranks. They have butchered untold numbers of innocents, enslaved women and beheaded hostages. But to what end? Read full article » |
| How a British newspaper is responding to allegations of committing ‘fraud on its readers’ |
| LONDON — British journalists have never been held in the highest regard. But the industry appeared to hit a new low in 2011 when it emerged during a phone hacking scandal that reporters at a British tabloid had hacked into a murdered teenager's cellphone. Read full article » |
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| BUSINESS |
| DynCorp loses Air Force contract; to lay off nearly 400 employees |
| McLean services contractor DynCorp International is set to lay off nearly 400 employees after losing an Air Force contract that it has served on for 35 years, the company said.Under the contract, DynCorp provided ground support equipment maintenance for the Navy’s Fleet Readiness Center in Solomons, Md. Read full article » |
| The hidden costs of being an Uber driver |
| Be your own boss and leave the drudgery of the 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday workweek behind.Those are the dreams of many workers, especially those who have faced flat wages for years while paying more for essentials such as education, health care and housing. Read full article » |
| The underrated economic benefit of parents who work less |
| The term “family-friendly” in American culture stirs images of Old Navy sales, theme park Groupons and child-protected basement screenings of "The Lego Movie." The White House is striving to change that soft connotation, connecting family-friendly workplace policies to a stronger labor force and economy. It comes just in time for election rhetoric: as the Upshot’s Nate Cohn points out, "the parent agenda" appears to an emerging focus for the Democratic party. Read full article » |
| TECHNOLOGY |
| The 12 threats to human civilization, ranked |
| Earlier this month researchers at the Global Challenges Foundation released a thorough and unsettling look at what threatens human civilization. They define a civilization collapse as a “drastic decrease in human population size and political/economic/social complexity, globally and for an extended time.” Read full article » |
| This musician is suing YouTube for libel because of its automatic takedown notice |
| Last February, a D.C.-based band called the Rasta Rock Opera was celebrating a modest viral hit, a music video featuring two young kids on a Valentine's Day date. Guitarist and composer Stevie Marco passed the video around on social media platforms to professional contacts and friends -- including the kindergarten class of one of the video's young stars. Read full article » |
| Activists in the war against revenge porn are finally seeing results |
| For years, if your intimate photos appeared online without your permission, there appeared to be little recourse. The images spread on the Web while those responsible for posting them often went unpunished. Read full article » |
| Conditions for people who make your gadgets are improving — barely |
| Apple’s latest report on the conditions in its supplier factories included an announcement that it was banning “bonded labor”in its supply chain. The move applies to workers who travel across borders and pay to get jobs in its supplier factories. Read full article » |
| LIFESTYLE |
| Can fashion launch an actress to the A-list? Meta Golding’s red carpet strategy |
| LOS ANGELES — The red carpet at the Rome Film Festival premiere of “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” was massive even by blockbuster standards: cameras in the thousands, metal barricades nearly crashing to the ground under the weight of the roaring fans. They cheered loudest that November 2013 night for Jennifer Lawrence, posing in a pale-yellow, strapless Dior gown — a choice advertising her well-documented relationship with the French haute couture house. But there was a lesser-known co-star drawing eyes, too: Read full article » |
| ‘The DUFF,’ ‘Hot Tub Time Machine 2′ and other new movies, reviewed |
| In this week’s new releases: A high school senior challenges a superficial label placed upon her by her peers in “The DUFF,” but this pseudo-feminist film fails to earn even a single star; the brand of comedy showcased in “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” caters to its audience. Read full article » |
| Colts owner Jim Irsay spends $335,500 to buy controversial Les Paul guitar |
| Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay swooped in tonight to purchase the controversial Les Paul guitar, saying he paid $335,500 to add the instrument to a collection that includes the guitar Bob Dylan played when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival and Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia’s “Tiger.” Read full article » |
| Carolyn Hax: ‘Other woman’ clueless about seductive vibe with married man |
| Adapted from a recent online discussion.Dear Carolyn:One of the people in my group of friends is a man who is married. To me he has never been anything other than a friend. I did once say to him that I would probably date him if he were single, but he wasn’t, so that was never on the table. Read full article » |
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