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| TOP STORIES |
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| Ukrainian troops begin leaving embattled transport hub |
| ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine — Hundreds of Ukrainian government forces began a chaotic retreat from a surrounded town in the east of the country Wednesday, a major defeat with uncertain consequences for the future of the grinding 10-month-old conflict. Read full article » |
| Obama administration to allow sales of armed drones to allies |
| The Obama administration will permit the widespread export of armed drones for the first time, a step toward providing allied nations with weapons that have become a cornerstone of U.S. counterterrorism strategy but whose remotely controlled power to kill is intensely controversial. Read full article » |
| Nigerian vote delay prompts suspicion of election rigging, worries of violence |
| ABUJA, Nigeria — It had been two days since Nigeria’s presidential election was postponed at the behest of the military, and Idayat Hassan’s phone was ringing nonstop. “It’s like a coup against democracy,” said the director of the Center for Democracy and Development to the ninth or 10th reporter of the day. Read full article » |
| Democrats are bracing for another Obamacare backlash |
| The Obamacare window technically just closed this weekend, but a new round of political headaches could just be beginning for the administration.That's because it's tax season, and many Americans could soon be getting an unwelcome surprise that they owe the government a penalty for skipping health insurance coverage. Read full article » |
| The 25-cent raise: What life is like after a minimum wage increase |
| PINE BLUFF, Ark. — One Friday last month, Shanna Tippen left the house where she sometimes gets by with candles and flashlights, got into her beat-up 2003 Chrysler Sebring, and drove to work to pick up her first new-and-improved paycheck. The paycheck was stamped at the top with her employer's name — Days Inn and Suites — and showed the fruits of Arkansas’ long battle over the minimum wage. Read full article » |
| Israel’s Netanyahu spent $24,000 on takeout, and it’s causing a scandal |
| JERUSALEM — After nine years with Benjamin Netanyahu as their prime minister, Israelis know a lot about him and his first lady, Sara. Now they also know how much the couple spends on hair and makeup, maid service and swimming pool water. Read full article » |
| Gulp. How’d we get to the $22 cocktail? |
| The deep, amber-colored drink is a looker, that much is true.But there is no forest of mint perking up this Manhattan at Georgetown’s Rye Bar. It does not arrive in a pineapple.It is an unfussy Manhattan. It just happens to cost $22. Read full article » |
| Again, Washington is mocked for its winter weather wherewithal — by Bostonians |
| Another piddling snowfall. Another huge shutdown. Another round of merciless mocking.This is Washington’s winter weather cycle, as predictable as partisanship and twice as bruising.The Monday night storm, a powderball that delivered two to six inches of snow to the area, shuttered schools, stuttered Metro, halted bus service and brought the federal government to its knees. Read full article » |
| Weather-related delays and closings for Feb. 18 |
| The following is a list of weather-related closings and delays for Wednesday:The federal government Read full article » |
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| POLITICS |
| What will Jeb Bush say about Iraq? |
| Shortly before Jeb Bush made his first moves toward a presidential campaign, he took to a stage in Miami and tore into President Obama on foreign policy.Bush described in a speech in December how the United States has kept thousands of troops deployed on the Korean Peninsula to help avoid a major conflict in Asia. But as he built up to his attack line against Obama, the former Florida governor stumbled — reaching for a word that threatens to loom large over his expected White House run. Read full article » |
| Congress’s biggest vote-missers — in 2 charts |
| Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Don Young (R-Alaska) are the three longest-serving members of U.S. House. They are also three of the most likely members, over their 40-plus years in Congress, to have missed a vote. Read full article » |
| VA targets Los Angeles as deadline nears for ending veteran homelessness |
| The Department of Veterans Affairs this month unveiled plans to end veterans homelessness in Los Angeles by 2016.The move came as the agency races to meet its goal of eliminating the same problem across the country by the start of next year. So far, the VA is not on pace to meet its national target, having brought only about one-third of the veteran homeless population off the street since the effort began in 2010. Read full article » |
| Have some GOP lawmakers flip-flopped on Obamacare and subsidies? |
| The Supreme Court on March 4 will hear the case of King v. Burwell, which threatens to unravel the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, because the plaintiffs argue that the health-care law does not authorize subsidies through federally run insurance marketplaces; instead, they say, the law only allows such subsidies in the 14 states (and District of Columbia) which set up their own exchanges. The subsidies, which come in the form of a tax credit, reduce the cost of premiums by as much as 89 percent. A court ruling denying subsidies to states on the federal exchange will cause the law to collapse, many experts say. Read full article » |
| OPINIONS |
| Hillary Clinton rebrands Obama’s frat house as her own |
| The 2016 campaign has acquired an unexpected story line in its early stages: All Madam President’s Men. As Hillary Clinton begins to staff her nascent presidential campaign, a paradox has emerged. When she ran in 2008, she played down her potential to make history as the first woman to be president, but her campaign was run by a woman and dominated at the top levels by women. This time, Clinton is properly emphasizing her path-breaking role, but she’s relying on the old-boy network — in large part by taking over President Obama’s heavily male campaign apparatus. Read full article » |
| Answering the atrocities of ISIS |
| There’s a very 2001 feel to President Obama’s request for authorization to use military force and the nauseating sense that we’ll be at war indefinitely. Although we haven’t suffered a catastrophic hit as we did on 9/11, we’ve been witness to atrocities — vicious promissory notes on debts to be collected — that are tailor-made to evoke an emotional response from our allies and us. It doesn’t much matter at this point who started it or what prior actions may have contributed to present circumstances. We are faced with fresh horrors that demand present actions. Read full article » |
| Can tech conservatories save the day? |
| Once upon a time, if you emerged from college with zero marketable skills but dreams of a safe career path, you went to law school. For three years and $150,000.Today, it seems, you go to a computer coding boot camp. For just three months and just $15,000. Read full article » |
| The wrong approach to Libya’s turmoil |
| THE HORRIFIC murder of as many as 21 Egyptian Christians by Libyan militants claiming allegiance to the Islamic State has underlined the need for international intervention in that North African country. But Egypt’s response to the atrocity — unilateral air attacks on what it said were Islamic State targets — offers an excellent example of what not to do. Read full article » |
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| LOCAL |
| In post-McDonnell scandal Va., pols take another stab at ethics reform |
| RICHMOND — After two rounds of ethics reform and much handwringing by legislators, political patrons in Virginia can still give elected officials unlimited donations and perks through their campaign committees. Read full article » |
| Train problems cause delays on Metro’s Yellow and Blue lines |
| Updated at 6:07 a.m.Normal service is back on Metro’s Yellow Line but now there are residual delays in the direction of the Largo stop on the Blue Line. The latest problem is an earlier train at the Franconia-Springfield station. Read full article » |
| Is court-ordered outpatient treatment of the mentally ill worth the cost? |
| Money. State and local governments never seem to have enough to meet the demand for mental health services.For years now, a much-touted solution to that problem has been mandatory outpatient treatment, also known as assisted outpatient treatment, or AOT. Such programs have typically targeted a small portion of the seriously mentally ill — sometimes less than two percent — who are frequent fliers in state hospitals and local jails, and thus responsible for a disproportionate chunk of public spending on those services. Read full article » |
| D.C. area forecast: Sudden burst of snow possible for PM rush, then another arctic attack with weekend wintry mix threat |
| Some places could see a sudden dusting to a half-inch of snow later today. Read full article » |
| SPORTS |
| Joel Ward’s late goal sparks Capitals to 3-1 win over Penguins |
| PITTSBURGH — The Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins had tried settling their differences with mayhem, with jawing and head-butting and gloved haymakers to the mouth. They had whipped Tuesday night into a slugfest, served bitter and raw with a side dish of hockey. They had ensured the latest edition of this rivalry — an eventual 3-1 Capitals win still knotted as the clock wound into regulation’s final five minutes — would find fitting resolution through more penalties. Read full article » |
| Kentucky player, Tennessee cheerleader have nice Twitter exchange after he wiped her out during game |
| During Tuesday’s Kentucky-Tennessee game, the Wildcats’ Devin Booker flew to the hoop for a layup, only to get hit from behind by a defender. That sent Booker crashing to the floor, and right into the back of a Tennessee cheerleader’s knees. Read full article » |
| Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston both plan to throw at the NFL combine |
| NFL draft geeks don’t need a reason to get excited about the league’s combine, which begins in earnest on Wednesday in Indianapolis. But no one is complaining about the extra dose of star power the event is set to receive. Read full article » |
| TV and radio listings: Feb. 18 |
| NHL7:30 p.m. Detroit at Chicago » NBC Sports Network 10 p.m. Los Angeles at Colorado » NBC Sports Network SOCCER2:45 p.m. UEFA Champions League, round of 16: Real Madrid at Schalke » Fox Sports 1 Read full article » |
| FEDERAL GOVERNMENT |
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| Readers speak out on Secret Service, whistleblowers, hiring and the CIA |
| The Federal Diary gets lots of reader reaction via e-mail, snail mail and online posts. Some of it is fit to print. Occasion-ally, we give readers a chance to speak out by publishing their letters, edited for clarity and length. Read full article » |
| DHS chief: ‘We fully expect to prevail in the courts’ with immigration |
| Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Tuesday that his department will comply with a federal judge’s order to halt the controversial immigration actions President Obama announced in November, but he expressed confidence that the administration will win its upcoming appeal. Read full article » |
| NATIONAL |
| Even the ancient Egyptians had paid sick days |
| We might think of state-supported health care as an innovation of the 20th century, but it’s a much older tradition. In fact, texts from a village dating to Egypt’s New Kingdom period, about 3,100 to 3,600 years ago, suggest that ancient Egypt had a state-supported health-care network designed to ensure that workers making the king’s tomb were productive. Read full article » |
| Scott Walker and the War on College |
| I was way out of town when the “Scott Walker Doesn’t Have a B.A.!!” brouhaha began. I see that despite my best efforts to ignore it, the meme is still persisting, with the report-and-rebuttal-dance proceeding as scheduled. Read full article » |
| I tried to use the Internet to do historical research. It was nearly impossible. |
| Since the mid-’90s, the Internet Archive has been trawling the information super highway. It’s robots crawl the Internet and copy every webpage they can find, every two months. So far, it has archived more than 430,000,000,000 web pages. Read full article » |
| WORLD |
| Egypt calls for United Nations-backed military operation in Libya |
| CAIRO — Egypt called Tuesday for a U.N.-backed military operation in Libya after a group of Egyptian Christians were beheaded there, in a sign of the growing willingness of governments in the Middle East to intervene in neighboring states awash in violence. Read full article » |
| 5 countries where police officers do not carry firearms — and it works well |
| In the United States, it seems obvious that police officers carry guns and are allowed to use them.In other places, however, this would be considered a provocation and a violation of law.In Britain, Ireland, Norway, Iceland and New Zealand, officers are unarmed when they are on patrol. Police are only equipped with firearms in special circumstances. It's a strategy that seems to work surprisingly well for these countries. Police officers there have saved lives -- exactly because they were unable to shoot. Read full article » |
| You can now buy the suit with India’s prime minister’s name in pinstripes |
| A wealthy businessman in India has bid around $200,000 for the famous — some would say infamous — suit Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wore in January when he met with President Obama. The suit's pinstripes were actually tiny letters spelling out Modi's name. Read full article » |
| Europe’s far right still loves Putin |
| Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's anti-immigrant National Front, is a politician on the rise. According to a recent survey, the far-right Le Pen would come out on top if polls for France's 2017 presidential election were held today. Read full article » |
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| BUSINESS |
| How cleaning out the coffee pot at work could help protect you from a layoff |
| The job market is improving. The unemployment rate has been going down. But big layoffs have hardly gone away: The number of job cuts planned by U.S. employers grew to a nearly two-year high in January, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The energy industry was partly to blame, but companies including American Express,eBay and IBM also have announced or have begun making big cuts. Read full article » |
| What do falling oil prices mean for the U.S. in the short and long term? |
| Since early 2014, the price of oil has plummeted. It peaked last year at $105 a barrel and is now about $50.The consumption and production of energy is a major component of the global economy. The huge drop in price has a significant impact in the United States — on corporate profits, employment and capital spending. Still, there has been a lot of misinformation — scare-mongering, really — about falling oil prices. A little context here can go a long way. Read full article » |
| How couples cope when money is an unequal yoke |
| There’s an expression in the Christian community that’s used quite often to refer to marriage. Couples are encouraged to avoid being “unequally yoked.”In other words, being with someone who does not share your faith and values. Read full article » |
| TECHNOLOGY |
| The NSA has reportedly found ways to avoid even the strongest security measures |
| The U.S. intelligence community has found ways to avoid even the strongest of security measures and practices, a new report from Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab suggests, demonstrating a range of technological accomplishments that place the nation's hackers as among the most sophisticated and well resourced in the world. Read full article » |
| Apple’s reportedly very serious about making cars. Don’t hold your breath. |
| The Apple rumor of the moment is that the tech giant is stretching its wings and getting into the automotive industry. Reports from the Wall Street Journal and Reuters stoked smoldering rumors that Apple is looking for a way to break into the car industry, devoting a boatload of resources to designing what the Journal called a "minivan"-like vehicle codenamed "Titan." Read full article » |
| Silicon Valley pays less than Bethesda. No, really. |
| Silicon Valley may have better weather, idealistic start-ups and billion-dollar tech companies, but when it comes to better pay for scientists and engineers, Bethesda is winning.No, really.The Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick area features better average pay for those who work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, according to a ranking by personal finance Web site SmartAsset. The average pay here is $100, 787, which is $463 higher than second-placed San Francisco. Read full article » |
| Americans want rich guys like Elon Musk to pay for space travel — not taxpayers |
| The huge advancements made by commercial space companies, which now fly cargo to the International Space Station and should soon send astronauts there, appear to be winning the trust of the country, according to a new poll. Read full article » |
| LIFESTYLE |
| Ratsie’s in College Park is closing, and a slice of life is slipping away |
| With its three-napkin glaze — I used at least that many to soak up the grease floating on the surface of my slice, like some gulf oil spill — this is not pizza designed to see the light of day. This is blackout pizza. This is a triangular cheese wad best consumed when you’ve already had your car keys confiscated and you’ve started making out with that loudmouth you loathed two weeks ago. Read full article » |
| If you think the music at your gym is too loud, that’s because it probably is |
| During her first workout at Orangetheory Fitness in Fairfax, Donna Reid was blown away by two things: “how hard it was and how loud it was.” The 51-year-old adored the studio’s interval training program — a mix of treadmill, rowing machine and resistance exercises — but when it came to the accompanying music assaulting her eardrums, well, that didn’t seem so sound. Read full article » |
| Need a sled? These hardware stores have got you covered. |
| I mean, snowball fights are fun, I guess, but you know what's a better way to enjoy a snow day than getting pelted in the face with ice by a stranger? Sledding. Whether you're looking for a way to entertain your kids, or you want to feel like a kid yourself, most local hardware stores have the sleds and saucers you need for an afternoon of downhill fun -- but supplies in some neighborhoods are beginning to dwindle, so you might want to act fast. Read full article » |
| Carolyn Hax: Engaging a do-nothing sister-in-law on caring for her parents |
| Dear Carolyn:My wife’s parents, in their mid-80s, returned to the United States three weeks ago after working and living in Europe and are staying with us until their household goods arrive. My wife’s sister, who lives about two miles away, has yet to even invite her parents to her home (shared with her nonworking husband and teenage son) for a visit, meal, or whatever. She has also avoided getting involved in ongoing efforts aimed at getting the parents oriented medically (visits are averaging at least one every other day) or assist in the inevitable housing decision. Read full article » |
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