This article was published more than 3 years agoCommentGift ShareThe spreading coronavirus is shaping up as a pandemic of potentially historic proportions, possibly on the scale of the global outbreak of influenza in 1957 but unlikely to be as catastrophic as the Spanish flu of 1918, according to projections by infectious disease experts who are still struggling to understand this novel pathogen.The many unknowns about the virus impede efforts to predict its trajectory. Modeling new diseases is inherently uncertain, and scientists have at times overestimated the severity of epidemics,...…This article was published more than 3 years agoCommentGift ShareThe spreading coronavirus is shaping up as a pandemic of potentially historic proportions, possibly on the scale of the global outbreak of influenza in 1957 but unlikely to be as catastrophic as the Spanish flu of 1918, according to projections by infectious disease experts who are still struggling to understand this novel pathogen.The many unknowns about the virus impede efforts to predict its trajectory. Modeling new diseases is inherently uncertain, and scientists have at times overestimated the severity of epidemics,...WW…

This article was published more than 1 year agoGift ShareIn the year she was out of prison, Gwen Levi, 76, was thriving.After serving 16 years in different federal facilities for dealing heroin, Levi was allowed to leave last June and finish her 24-year sentence in home confinement under the supervision of federal prison officials. She moved in with her 94-year-old mother in Baltimore and volunteered at prisoner advocacy organizations, hoping for a paying job to come along. She was also building her relationships with her sons and grandsons.But Levi’s season on the outside ended June...…This article was published more than 1 year agoGift ShareIn the year she was out of prison, Gwen Levi, 76, was thriving.After serving 16 years in different federal facilities for dealing heroin, Levi was allowed to leave last June and finish her 24-year sentence in home confinement under the supervision of federal prison officials. She moved in with her 94-year-old mother in Baltimore and volunteered at prisoner advocacy organizations, hoping for a paying job to come along. She was also building her relationships with her sons and grandsons.But Levi’s season on the outside ended June...WW…

This article was published more than 1 year agoCommentGift ShareOn Aug. 4, 2019, the day after a gunman who had posted a hateful diatribe against Hispanics fatally shot 23 people at an El Paso Walmart, a leader of a tea party group in Texas said on Facebook: “You’re not going to demographically replace a once proud, strong people without getting blow-back.”His wife, the founder of the group, in the Fort Worth suburbs of Tarrant County, added in a comment: “I don’t condone the actions, but I certainly understand where they came from.”Ten days later, amid a brewing backlash over the...…This article was published more than 1 year agoCommentGift ShareOn Aug. 4, 2019, the day after a gunman who had posted a hateful diatribe against Hispanics fatally shot 23 people at an El Paso Walmart, a leader of a tea party group in Texas said on Facebook: “You’re not going to demographically replace a once proud, strong people without getting blow-back.”His wife, the founder of the group, in the Fort Worth suburbs of Tarrant County, added in a comment: “I don’t condone the actions, but I certainly understand where they came from.”Ten days later, amid a brewing backlash over the...WW…

Late last month as Texans were from a historic winter storm and dayslong , the state’s chief oil and gas regulator had a clear message: Natural gas producers are not responsible for the disaster.“Some media outlets would have you believe that natural gas producers and frozen transmission lines caused the power shortages across the state,” said Christi Craddick, who chairs a three-member commission overseeing the industry, during a Texas House of Representatives Feb. 26. “But … these operators were not the problem. The oil and gas industry was the solution.”Craddick and her father, a...…Late last month as Texans were from a historic winter storm and dayslong , the state’s chief oil and gas regulator had a clear message: Natural gas producers are not responsible for the disaster.“Some media outlets would have you believe that natural gas producers and frozen transmission lines caused the power shortages across the state,” said Christi Craddick, who chairs a three-member commission overseeing the industry, during a Texas House of Representatives Feb. 26. “But … these operators were not the problem. The oil and gas industry was the solution.”Craddick and her father, a...WW…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has accused his state's largest utility company of mismanaging funds he said it should have used to upgrade an aging electrical grid prone to deadly wildfires.But over the past two decades, Newsom, a Democrat, and his wife have accepted more than $700,000 from the Pacific Gas & Electric Co., its foundation and its employees as the utility has supported his political campaigns, his ballot initiatives, his inauguration festivities and his wife's foundation, including her film projects, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post.The contributions...…California Gov. Gavin Newsom has accused his state's largest utility company of mismanaging funds he said it should have used to upgrade an aging electrical grid prone to deadly wildfires.But over the past two decades, Newsom, a Democrat, and his wife have accepted more than $700,000 from the Pacific Gas & Electric Co., its foundation and its employees as the utility has supported his political campaigns, his ballot initiatives, his inauguration festivities and his wife's foundation, including her film projects, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post.The contributions...WW…