The Washington Post stories, Page 22
Pentagon to send thousands more troops to southern border, mostly for surveillance
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is preparing to dispatch several thousand more U.S. troops to the southern border as the military shifts its operations there from improving security at ports of entry to the vast areas between them that are less controlled, defense officials said Tuesday. Acting defense secretary Patrick M....
National Zoo, Smithsonian museums reopening after shutdown
WASHINGTON — There was no line of people waiting to rush the gates Tuesday at the National Zoo, the institution’s first day back after a partial government shutdown left the gates locked for more than three weeks. But the regulars were back, and the animals were happy to have them....
Mueller investigation is ‘close to being completed,’ acting attorney general says
WASHINGTON — The head of the Justice Department said Monday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is nearing an end - the first official acknowledgment that the probe that has ensnared President Trump may soon reach a conclusion. Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker made the comment during a news...
Roger Stone says he will ‘testify honestly’ when asked if he would consider cooperating with Mueller
Roger Stone said he will “testify honestly” when asked whether he would consider cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller after he was charged with lying, obstruction and witness tampering in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. “That’s a question that I’d have to determine after my attorneys...
Bomb blasts at cathedral in southern Philippines kill at least 20
MANILA — Explosions Sunday morning at a cathedral in Jolo, in the Philippine region of Mindanao, killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens of others, just after a landmark vote to form a new Muslim autonomous region here following decades of unrest. The blasts underscore how elusive peace remains...
Fishing imperils 40 shark species in the Galapagos
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, Ecuador — The teeming waters that surround the famed Galapagos islands support more shark species than anywhere on Earth. Schools of wide-eyed scalloped hammerheads, 40,000-pound whale sharks, reef-patrolling whitetip sharks, more than 40 species in total, many endangered, are found only here. Yet, these top marine predators, in...
Women’s March drew more moderates in its third year. Why? It’s all Trump, researchers say.
WASHINGTON - Two years in, the Women’s March is still bringing out first-timers, according to organizers and researchers who attended last Saturday’s demonstration. And they’re not who you might expect to find at a rally for the so-called “resistance.” Unlike the first march, with crowds made up almost exclusively of...
Trump administration eyes transferring control of Citgo to new Venezuelan government it has recognized
WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department plans to claim Venezuela’s U.S.-based international reserves and state-owned assets - including oil refiner and distributor Citgo - on behalf of the newly recognized government headed by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, removing them from the control of President Nicolás Maduro. In a vaguely worded statement...
Why Roger Stone is always pictured in a pose Richard Nixon made famous
Roger Stone emerged from a federal courthouse in Florida on Friday, raised his arms wide, and flashed two peace signs to the mass of press and protesters assembled just for him. The longtime Trump friend and adviser had just posted a $250,000 bond after being charged by the special counsel’s...
Whole Foods recalls products with baby spinach
Grocery chain Whole Foods on Wednesday announced a voluntary recall of numerous prepared food items containing baby spinach because of possible salmonella contamination. Whole Foods said in a notice the potentially contaminated products were sold in eight states and contain baby spinach and mesclun from Satur Farms - a Cutchogue,...
YouTube changing its algorithms to stop recommending conspiracy videos
SAN FRANCISCO — YouTube said Friday it is retooling its recommendation algorithm that suggests new videos to users in order to prevent promoting conspiracies and false information, reflecting a growing willingness to quell misinformation on the world’s largest video platform after several public missteps. In a blog post that YouTube...
Multi-week Australia heatwave is blasting through records, threatening wildlife
A multi-week heatwave in Australia has parched the landscape, triggered damaging wildfires, pushed the demand on the power grid to the brink and has toppled at least two significant records as of Thursday. The first record was broken twice in one night Jan. 18, when the low temperature in Noona,...
Senate votes down two bills to end shutdown; House Dems to offer new plan
WASHINGTON — The Senate blocked two competing bills Thursday to reopen the federal government, demonstrating that neither President Trump nor the Democrats has produced a plan so far that can end the nation’s longest government shutdown. The twin failures came on the shutdown’s 34th day, and were the first Senate...
BuzzFeed, HuffPost feel pinch in faltering digital-news economy
BuzzFeed, the progenitor of both serious news and viral listicles and quizzes, will lay off about 15 percent of its staff in the latest sign of financial turbulence for once-highflying digital-media outlets. People at the New York-based publisher said the cuts will affect about 215 employees spread across all departments,...
Surgery patients return from Mexico with deadly superbug
Tamika Capone thought she was making a smart call by traveling to Mexico for bariatric surgery. Her doctor had urged her to have the procedure to reduce her out-of-control weight and blood pressure. But her husband’s health insurance would not cover the $17,500 bill. After a friend got the surgery...
White House seeks list of programs that would be hurt if shutdown lasts into March
WASHINGTON — White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has pressed agency leaders to provide him with a list of the highest-impact programs that will be jeopardized if the shutdown continues into March and April, people familiar with the directive said. Mulvaney wants the list no later than Friday,...
Senate schedules 2 votes to reopen government
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Tuesday scheduled a pair of competing votes to reopen the federal government, announcing that he would bring up dueling proposals from President Trump and the Democrats that would amount to the first real action in the Senate since the shutdown began...
Anastasia Vashukevich, model who claimed U.S.-Russia collusion evidence, freed from jail
MOSCOW — A self-described sex trainer from Belarus who became an unlikely player in an investigation of Russian interference in the U.S. presidential campaign was released from a Moscow jail on Tuesday, a defense lawyer involved in the case said. Anastasia Vashukevich, also known as Nastya Rybka, and her partner,...
NFL will consider making pass interference calls reviewable after Rams-Saints debacle
The officiating debacle acknowledged by the NFL at the end of Sunday’s NFC title game in New Orleans, which prompted widespread criticism from fans, players and coaches over what many deemed an outcome-changing call, could lead to a significant rule change. The league and its rulemaking competition committee plan to...
TSA checkpoint worker no-shows peak at 10 percent
The number of Transportation Security Administration security airport workers who did not show up for duty Sunday reached a record 10 percent of the checkpoint workforce, leading to growing lines in several places, with the longest in Minneapolis and New Orleans. The union that represents the TSA workers, the American...
Pence links Trump’s push for border wall to Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy
On the eve of a holiday commemorating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Vice President Mike Pence seemed to liken President Trump’s push for a border wall to the civil rights leader’s legacy. Speaking Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” the vice president quoted from King’s “I Have a Dream”...
America’s original tobacco state considers hiking the smoking and vaping age to 21
RICHMOND, Va. — Some prominent legislators are backing a bill to raise the minimum age for buying cigarettes and vapes from 18 to 21 in Virginia, a state where tobacco once loomed so large that images of the leaves adorn its stately Capitol. Alarmed by rampant vaping by teens, a...
Strength, determination lift Saints WR Michael Thomas
When he returned to Taft High after winter break of his junior year, Michael Thomas carried the gift — if you want to call it that — his father, Michael Sr., had given him. They were called Gripmasters, two four-inch strips of colored plastic held together with four spring-loaded coils....
Food banks fill in for paychecks as government shutdown drags on
Thirty people lined up in the parking lot of a Giant grocery store in Alexandria, Virginia, before the food bank for federal workers opened at 9 a.m. Some waited more than an hour. More than a tenth of the food was gone in the first five minutes. “Hi there. Potatoes,...
George W. Bush delivers pizza to his unpaid Secret Service detail and calls for shutdown to end
George W. Bush has been an unintentional beneficiary of the Trump administration, his reputation buoyed with the benefit of time and an unpopular president from his own party. On Friday, he continued to embrace the role of good guy, with a photo of himself delivering pizzas to his Secret Service...
