The Washington Post stories, Page 5
Census citizenship question was crafted to aid white Republicans, files suggest
WASHINGTON — Just weeks before the Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether the Trump administration can add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, new evidence emerged Thursday suggesting that the question was crafted specifically to give an electoral advantage to white Republicans. The evidence was found in...
Farmers face a historically delayed planting season amid extreme weather
In Kendell Culp’s corner of northwest Indiana, the relentless rain began falling on his farm months ago, saturating the ground his family has nurtured for generations and delaying the kickoff of their planting season by more than a week. It eased up briefly at the end of April, enough time...
Man dead after setting himself on fire outside White House
WASHINGTON — A Maryland man who set himself on fire on the White House Ellipse on Wednesday afternoon has died, according to the U.S. Park Police. The incident occurred about 12:20 p.m. near 15th Street NW and Constitution Avenue NW. The man was taken to a hospital Wednesday and was...
7 dead, 21 missing in Budapest boat disaster
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Rescue divers and boats using spotlights and radar scanners made a last-ditch attempt to find survivors on Thursday after a sightseeing boat sank on the River Danube in Budapest during an evening downpour, leaving seven people confirmed dead and a further 21 missing. The dead and 19...
White House wanted USS John S. McCain covered up during Trump’s Japan visit
The White House asked Navy officials to obscure the USS John S. McCain while President Trump was visiting Japan, Pentagon and White House officials said Wednesday night. A senior Navy official confirmed that he was aware someone at the White House sent a message to service officials in the Pacific...
Israel to hold new elections as Netanyahu fails to form a governmentVideo
JERUSALEM — In an unprecedented move, Israel will head to elections for a second time in less than six months after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a government before a midnight deadline. Rather than give someone else the chance to do so, he forwarded legislation to dissolve the...
NFL owners expected to pursue 18-game season or expanded playoffs
As representatives of the NFL and the players’ union prepare to intensify negotiations on a new labor deal, some team owners favor revisiting the possibility of an 18-game regular season or an expanded playoff field. In exchange for securing an agreement from the players on the issue, many owners seem...
Health care industry resists White House proposal for pricing transparency
WASHINGTON — President Trump is preparing to issue an executive order to foster greater price transparency across a broad swath of the health care industry while consumer concerns about their costs for medical treatment emerge as a major issue in the leadup to next year’s presidential election. The most far-reaching...
McConnell says he would fill a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020
When President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused to consider him, blocking the nominee until after the year’s presidential election. But with his party in the White House, McConnell said Tuesday he’d try to push through any...
5 things we learn about Chris Farley in the new doc about his life, deathVideo
Chris Farley, the beloved “Saturday Night Live” cast member, died at the same age as his idol, John Belushi: 33. A&E’s new “Biography” documentary about Chris Farley, which premiered Monday, explores the life of the charismatic comedian. In it, friends and family members cover the familiar material about Farley’s struggle...
Analysis: Title of ‘best player in the league’ at stake in NBA Finals
TORONTO — There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when Masai Ujiri would have been labeled a heretic, a lunatic or both. In the moments after the Toronto Raptors advanced to the NBA Finals with Saturday’s Game 6 win, the franchise’s president, with a piece of confetti still resting...
Biden campaign says Trump’s attacks are ‘beneath the dignity of the office’Video
Joe Biden’s campaign swung back at President Trump on Tuesday, calling his attacks on the former vice president while traveling in Japan over the Memorial Day weekend “beneath the dignity of the office.” Members of both parties had criticized Trump in recent days after he tweeted that he has “confidence”...
Man traveling from Colombia ingests 246 bags of cocaine, dies midflight
A passenger of Japanese origin died midflight from Colombia to Japan after ingesting hundreds of bags of cocaine, authorities said. The man, identified only as Udo N., 42, began suffering seizures Friday on the flight, prompting an emergency landing in Hermosillo, a city in Sonora, Mexico, authorities said. Upon landing,...
While you’re sleeping, your iPhone stays busy
It’s 3 a.m. Do you know what your iPhone is doing? Mine has been alarmingly busy. Even though the screen is off and I’m snoring, apps are beaming out lots of information about me to companies I’ve never heard of. Your iPhone probably is doing the same - and Apple...
Commentary: UFOs exist, and everyone needs to adjust to that fact
The term “UFO” automatically triggers derision in most quarters of polite society. One of Christopher Buckley’s better satires, “Little Green Men,” is premised on a George F. Will-type pundit thinking that he has been abducted by aliens, with amusing results. UFOs have historically been associated with crackpot ideas like Big...
Is climate change to blame for booming tick population? Will diseases increase?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the number of tick-borne diseases is increasing at a record pace while the geographic range of ticks continues to expand. Lyme disease is the most commonly-known tick-borne disease, but other diseases, such as ehrlichiosis and STARI, have been discovered and the...
More younger women are having heart attacks — steps to minimize risk
Younger women are experiencing an alarming increase in heart attacks. According to research published last fall in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, women ages 35 to 54 accounted for 31% of the hospitalizations for heart attacks in 2014, up from 21% in 1995. Though heart disease is often seen...
Conservatives helped radicalize Nazi sympathizer, lawyer says
After Nolan Brewer pleaded guilty to charges in connection with painting swastikas on an Indiana synagogue and setting the yard ablaze, his attorney argued in court documents that the 21-year-old man did not deserve prison time. He had been influenced heavily by his wife, Kyomi Brewer, his attorney wrote in...
Here’s how to navigate online marketplaces
Back before she owned her firm, Washington interior designer Kerra Michele ran a blog that chronicled how she made over her small rental apartment with DIY projects and treasures found through Craigslist. She moved out of that starter apartment, but she still regularly buys secondhand furniture online to add a...
Utah Judge Michael Kwan suspended for bashing Trump online and in court
The Utah Supreme Court suspended a judge for six months without pay this week over disparaging remarks he made about President Trump online and in his courtroom. The court ruling points to several instances in which Judge Michael Kwan, who has sat on the justice court bench for the city...
Republican Will Hurd criticizes Trump for sharing heavily edited video of PelosiVideo
A Republican lawmaker said Sunday that he is concerned about President Trump’s sharing of a heavily edited video that spliced together several verbal pauses by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, said that by sharing the video, Trump has escalated the debate over disinformation, which is “something...
Lawyers for Noah’s Ark theme park are suing its insurance company for rain damage
It is one of the world’s classic stories. A gigantic ark gets built with the help of a higher power, a symbolic refuge from the depravity of humankind. It is a huge, grandiose structure constructed out of wood that is perhaps larger than anything comparable in the world. Then heavy...
Donovan McNabb: If Troy Aikman’s in HOF, I should be, too
Three cycles of Pro Football Hall of Fame voting have come and gone since Donovan McNabb became eligible, and the former Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins and Minnesota Vikings quarterback has yet to make it past the initial nominee stage (the 100 or so nominees each year are trimmed down to...
Barr could expose secrets, politicize intelligence with review of Russia probe, current and former officials fear
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump’s new executive order giving the attorney general broad authority to declassify government secrets threatens to expose U.S. intelligence sources and could distort the FBI and CIA’s roles in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections, current and former U.S. officials said. On Thursday, Trump allowed...
Longtime Georgia mail carrier retires, and strangers are sending him to Hawaii
Longtime mail carrier Floyd Martin retired from his neighborhood route in Marietta, Georgia, on Thursday, which might have called for a handshake or even a cake to send him off. Instead, the Atlanta suburb made a show of love and respect so big for Martin, it trended on social media,...
