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| Is there life beyond Earth? Do we even want to know? |
| It was near Green Bank, W.Va., in 1960 that a young radio astronomer named Frank Drake conducted the first extensive search for alien civilizations in deep space. He aimed the 85-foot dish of a radio telescope at two nearby, sun-like stars, tuning to a frequency he thought an alien civilization might use for interstellar communication. Read full article » |
| The fear of Ebola led to slayings — and a whole village was punished |
| WOMEY, Guinea — The lecture about the dangers of Ebola had just begun, but the village had heard enough. A group of women started chanting, to warn the others against the visitors, “They are coming to kill you.” A mob of men masked their faces, waved machetes and rushed toward the speakers. Stones began to fly. Read full article » |
| Rand Paul wins CPAC straw poll, with Scott Walker a close second |
| Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took the top spot for the third year in a row at Saturday’s Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, edging out Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) as the favorite in the last CPAC presidential preference contest before primary voting begins. Read full article » |
| Russian opposition leaders allege Kremlin links to Nemtsov slaying |
| MOSCOW — Russia’s imperiled opposition movement on Saturday accused the Kremlin of being linked to the gangland-style killing of a towering figure of post-Soviet politics, amid the first signs that the true culprits may never be known. Read full article » |
| In Britain, a heated debate over Jihadi John’s path to radicalization |
| LONDON — After the unmasking of Islamic State executioner “Jihadi John” as a West London computer programmer named Mohammed Emwazi, Asim Qureshi looked into the television cameras here and made an explosive assertion: Britain, he suggested, had created its own monster. Read full article » |
| Be wary when the travel industry says a policy is ‘for your own good’ |
| It’s for your own good. Travelers are hearing these words more often than ever, and they are being applied to increasingly unwelcome scenarios. The latest example: being unable to access WiFi in your hotel without incurring an added charge. In August, the American Hotel & Lodging Association and Marriott filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission asking the government for permission to block wireless devices in hotels.More from Travel:Travel GuideSki GuideCaribbean Guide Read full article » |
| POLITICS |
| At donor summit, GOP 2016 hopefuls talk foreign policy and fiscal issues |
| PALM BEACH, Fla. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) was wrapping up 45 minutes of talking to the Club for Growth here about economic growth and fiscal reform Saturday morning when a humbling question came hard and fast. Read full article » |
| Virginia Senate Republicans were set to sink ethics bill |
| RICHMOND — Senate Republicans were ready to sink an ethics reform bill they thought was flawed until House Speaker William J. Howell threatened to shame them publicly if they passed nothing, participants in Friday’s last-minute negotiations said. Read full article » |
| Boehner’s defeat was actually really unusual. Here’s why. |
| On Friday, the politics surrounding the continued funding of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took a surprising, and disappointing, turn for House Speaker John Boehner.Facing restive conservative Republicans who wanted to tie DHS funding to a repudiation of President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, Boehner sought to extend funding for the DHS for three weeks and arrange for conference proceedings with the Senate — which on Wednesday had passed a “clean” bill (shorn of any immigration language) to fund DHS through September. Boehner’s hope was that Republican House and Senate leaders, once in conference, would come up with a workable solution. Read full article » |
| D.C. tax revenue rises, but mayor keeps spending expectations low |
| The District’s budget gap is not as dire as originally expected. Nearly half of the current shortfall was wiped away by a rise in tax revenue from year-end holiday sales and bonuses handed out by employers, the District’s independent financial officer reported late Friday. Read full article » |
| OPINIONS |
| At what price Netanyahu? |
| Do we really need the Israeli prime minister to appear before Congress to explain the dangers and pitfalls of certain prospective deals on Iran’s nuclear weapons programs? Would we not know otherwise? Have the U.S. critics of those prospective deals lost their voice? Are they shy about expressing their concerns? Are they inarticulate or incompetent? Do they lack the wherewithal to get their message out? Read full article » |
| ‘Jihadi John,’ a graduate of my radical university |
| Before traveling to Syria and becoming “Jihadi John,” the masked English-speaker who beheads Islamic State captives on video, Mohammed Emwazi graduated with a computer programming degree from the University of Westminster. I studied international relations there, and although I never met Emwazi, I wasn’t surprised he had attended my alma mater. Read full article » |
| Boris Nemtsov’s murder is another dark sign for Russia |
| BORIS NEMTSOV was a courageous Russian politician who never gave up on the dream that the country could make the transition from dictatorship to liberal democracy. Once an elected governor and a deputy prime minister in the government of Boris Yeltsin, he stubbornly continued to speak out and organize against the regime of Vladimir Putin after other opponents fled the country or lapsed into silence. Most recently, he called on Russians to participate in a protest march Sunday in Moscow. On Friday evening, he was gunned down, gangland-style, on a bridge near the Kremlin — a terrible blow to the cause of human rights and another dark sign of where Russia is headed. Read full article » |
| Jeb Bush, CPAC piñata |
| It happened just as Jeb Bush was about to explain why he thinks conservatives need to stop being perceived as “anti-everything”: Attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference let it be known that, as part of their anti-everythingness, they are also anti-Bush. Read full article » |
| LOCAL |
| In Maryland, economic angst breaks through the veneer of a wealthy state |
| To understand the economic angst that helped elect a Republican governor in heavily Democratic Maryland, venture beyond the tony, millionaire-saturated suburbs to the working-class neighborhoods and rural towns where many people are struggling. Read full article » |
| D.C. area forecast: Wintry mix makes for a slick and messy Sunday |
| WEATHER GANG | March roars in with the gamut of snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain. Read full article » |
| Teacher: Why expanding ‘parental rights’ in public education sounds good — but isn’t |
| Leanne Riordan is a parent and public school teacher in Maryland. A Maryland native, she teaches English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) in a Pre-K to 8th grade Title I school in Southeast Baltimore. Her three daughters have attended public schools in Crofton and Annapolis in Anne Arundel County. Riordan was once a big supporter of boycotting standardized tests, recognizing how little value they offer to students, teachers and schools, but she has become concerned with the “opt-out” movement that is growing across the country as more parents decide they don’t want their children taking new Common Core tests. Her alarm is not with the idea of refusing to take a bad standardized test, but, rather, the rationale on which many in the opt-out movement are basing their decisions: the rights of parents. Riordan read some posts on The Answer Sheet about opting-out, and sent me the following e-mail expressing her opinion. Read full article » |
| Minivan in Prince George’s hits taxi, two parked cars, crashes into house |
| Perhaps a billiards player might have figured all the angles and watched it unfold in his mind. But for most others, Saturday’s chain of collisions in Adelphi, Md., took some sorting out.According to Pfc. Mike Owen, a Prince George’s County police spokesman, matters began about 5 p.m. when a vehicle collided with a taxicab near Riggs Road. Read full article » |
| SPORTS |
| Bradley Beal, Paul Pierce return to help Wizards beat Pistons, 99-95 |
| There is no single reason the Washington Wizards have spiraled into a month-long funk. Some nights the offense has sputtered. Others the defense was leaky. A spate of injuries didn’t help, depleting a roster that already was underachieving before it hit a six-game losing streak that included consecutive losses to a pair of 12-win teams this week. Read full article » |
| Cricket World Cup 2015: Sri Lanka defeats England |
| England’s difficult time at the Cricket World Cup continued with a nine-wicket loss to Sri Lanka on Saturday night in a Group A match in Wellington, New Zealand.England has won one of its first four matches and, while it may still progress to the quarterfinals, a win in the quarterfinals will require major changes. On Saturday, at least, England started fairly well. Joe Root scored 121 runs and England finished 309-6, a solid total against a better-than-average bowling attack. Read full article » |
| Capital Beltway basketball final: Matt Webber, Clinton Christian spring an upset |
| Scoreless and relegated to the role of sixth man at the start of the second half of Saturday’s Capital Beltway championship, Clinton Christian’sMatt Webber later admitted his psyche was shaken. But the freshman’s determination to play his part never wavered. Read full article » |
| TV and radio listings: March 1 |
| NHL7 p.m. Toronto at Washington » Comcast SportsNet, WJFK (106.7 FM), WFED (1500 AM)8 p.m. Anaheim at Dallas » NBC Sports NetworkNBA1 p.m. Los Angeles Clippers at Chicago » WJLA (Ch. 7), WMAR (Ch. 2), WTEM (980AM) Read full article » |
| FEDERAL GOVERNMENT |
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| This bill would halt Congress’s pay if Homeland Security shuts down |
| A potential Department of Homeland Security shutdown would directly affect lawmakers’ pocketbooks under a bill introduced in the House this week.The Democratic measure, sponsored by Reps. Brad Ashford (Neb.), Gwen Graham (Fla.), Scott Peters (Calif.) and Ami Bera (Calif.), would halt pay for members of Congress if they don’t agree to a new round of funding for the agency by Friday, in which case DHS would partially close. Read full article » |
| Fiction is fact on ‘House of Cards’: Real-life SCOTUS lawyer plays SCOTUS lawyer |
| The Washington as imagined in “House of Cards” requires some suspension of disbelief — but at least one scene this season will mirror real life.Fans who stayed home Friday to get an early start bingeing on the addictive series may have noticed a rather convincing performance by a character playing a lawyer arguing before the Supreme Court. Read full article » |
| What’s in a name? A lot, the Supreme Court says. |
| Reporters covering the Supreme Court got an important message Thursday from the court: There was an error in the transcript of Wednesday’s oral arguments in an employment discrimination case.The case involved a woman who claimed Abercrombie & Fitch denied her a job because her headscarf didn’t comport with the company’s dress code. The company argued the woman didn’t say she wore the the headscarf for religious reasons. Read full article » |
| NATIONAL |
| Meet the 91-year-old whose wartime PTSD makes him the perfect guide for today’s veterans |
| They come into our office at the VA hospital in Montrose, N.Y., hesitantly. Eyes filled with doubt, hands restless. They want us to help them file compensation claims for disabilities resulting from their military service. Some have debilitating physical injuries, but almost every one also displays mannerisms — fidgeting in their seats, knees bobbing up and down during interviews, avoiding eye contact — that indicate that they have PTSD. The symptoms jump out at me because I have lived with PTSD for more than 70 years. Read full article » |
| Why shy teachers like shy students |
| The more similar the personalities of teachers and their pupils, the more likely the teachers are to grade them highly, according to new research from Germany. The findings again open up the debate around the subtle biases teachers have about their pupils and how important it is to try to minimize their impact on children’s progress through school. Read full article » |
| How China is exploiting Edward Snowden… or thinks it’s exploiting Edward Snowden |
| Reuters’ Paul Carsten had an exclusive Wednesday on China’s crafty steps to shut out Western technology companies. In essence, China is using the outrage over Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations to kick out Western firms and open up a secure market for indigenous Chinese tech firms: Read full article » |
| WORLD |
| Shuttered for a decade, Iraq’s national museum reopens its doors |
| BAGHDAD — Iraq’s national museum in Baghdad officially reopened to the public Saturday, 12 years after it was shuttered because of the looting of thousands of ancient artifacts in the days following the U.S.-led invasion. Read full article » |
| Sweden blocks plan to honor woman who hit a neo-Nazi with a purse |
| When Danuta Danielsson stepped out of a crowd in the Swedish city of Växjö in 1985 and hit a neo-Nazi with her purse, the photo quickly became famous around the world. Danielsson was widely praised back then: Her mother had reportedly survived a German Nazi concentration camp, according to Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. Read full article » |
| Afghanistan’s new leader will attend talks at Camp David next month |
| President Obama will host Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Washington next month, the White House said on Friday, as U.S. officials consider making changes to the administration plan for ending the military mission in Afghanistan. Read full article » |
| BUSINESS |
| Colleges are trying to get students to make a course correction |
| Cleveland State University made a proposition to its students two years ago: Take a full course load of 30 credits a year and get $200 off tuition and a $200 book stipend.Only 32 percent of its undergraduates finished a degree within six years, if at all. Hundreds of students were slipping through the cracks as the cost of college went up and up — and they took on thousands of dollars more in debt.IF NOT ...Complete College, a nonprofit, recently calculated just how pricey a few extra semesters can get for college students:$22,826Extra costs in tuition, fees and room and board for every extra year at a public four-year college. Read full article » |
| Warren Buffett has some pretty questionable eating habits |
| Warren Buffett drinks his first Coke of the day for breakfast. The second comes sometime not too long after. And the third he downs before heading out from work.But that's not all: He actually has another two once he's home. Read full article » |
| Don’t let emotions lead you to an unaffordable choice of college |
| It’s that time of year when parents and high school seniors are struggling with college choices. For many, the decision isn’t easy and can lead to family feuds.A dad from Virginia wrote to me asking for my thoughts on his family’s decision about where his daughter should go to college. Read full article » |
| TECHNOLOGY |
| The epic quest to become the first $1 trillion company |
| There are plenty of reasons why Apple could become the first $1 trillion company. First of all, there’s the iPhone, still the best business on the planet ever. Then, there’s the company’s unprecedented ability, Steve Jobs or no Steve Jobs, to bring new high-end products to market each year, and make them all part of a networked mega-ecosystem. In just the past year, Apple has introduced the Apple Watch, Apple Pay, Apple HealthKit and Apple HomeKit — four potentially big innovations with the ability to invent (or re-invent) huge industries. Read full article » |
| YouTube Kids: For families, a video collection with controls |
| YouTubeKidsFor families,a video collection with controlsYouTube can be a great way to kick back, learn and explore with your children. But for some parents it can also feel dangerous, as if you’re always just a click or “recommended video” away from having to shield some eyes. Google has a new app for careful parents who want their children to use a version of YouTube made for young minds. The videos are in four categories — Shows, Music, Leaning and Explore — and have been pulled from the site’s more professional video producers such as Sesame Street, Khan Academy and the Vlogbrothers. Read full article » |
| If you thought the llama and dress memes were silly, this will make you feel worse |
| On Thursday and Friday, the Internet went gaga, first over a pair of llamas loose in Arizona, then over a dress that appeared either white-and-gold or black-and-blue depending on who was looking at it. Here at Wonkblog, we enjoyed the opportunity to shed some light on both memes, with stories on where llamas live and why there are so many in the United States, as well as a piece on the optical illusions that show color is in the eye of the beholder. Read full article » |
| Why Silicon Valley is the new revolving door for Obama staffers |
| In 2004, when Barack Obama was running for the U.S. Senate, he made his first visit to Google’s campus and saw firsthand how a search on the Internet worked. It left such a strong impression that he returned during his first presidential run vowing to protect the industry. Read full article » |
| LIFESTYLE |
| Lupita Nyong’o’s stolen Oscar gown appears to have been found |
| Authorities say they have recovered a dress that resembles the stunning, pearl-covered gown worn by actress Lupita Nyong’o on Oscar night and stolen from her hotel room days later.It was found behind a garbage bag in a bathroom. Read full article » |
| Bill O’Reilly cites conflicts that he witnessed. How much of that is true? |
| In his long and sometimes stormy career as a journalist and cable-news pundit, Bill O’Reilly has occasionally mentioned his exploits in conflict zones around the world. “I’ve been there,” he once said. “That’s really what separates me from most of these other bloviators. I bloviate, but I bloviate about stuff I’ve seen. They bloviate about stuff that they haven’t.” Read full article » |
| ‘Focus,’ ‘Maps to the Stars’ and other new movies, reviewed |
| In this week’s new releases, Will Smith stars in “Focus,” a film about a con artist and head of a criminal organization that specializes in small jobs. Julianne Moore stars in “Maps to the Stars,” a film that paints a satirical portrait of Hollywood. Read full article » |
| Carolyn Hax: How to respond to unsolicited parenting advice |
| Hi, Carolyn: My neighbor thinks I’m a bad parent. Not just a bad parent, a dangerous parent. She thinks this because I do things such as let my daughter climb the tree in our back yard and let my son play football. She believes they are going to get injured or killed doing these activities, as she has told me ad nauseam. Read full article » |
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