The Washington Post National Weekly - January 17, 2016

Worst Week Rand Paul 3

Politics The GOP’s Hispanic struggle 4

Hollywood A history of crime and movies 16

5 Myths On China’s economy 23

ABCDE NATIONAL WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

Assessing the threat Officers’ newest partner in fighting crime is big data, but privacy advocates aren’t happy about it. PAGE 12

.

IN COLLABORATION WITH

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

2

HERE’S TO A HEALTHIER YOU! We’re just a few weeks into a new year, and it’s likely there are already some sworn resolutions that have come and gone.

But we’re offering up some inspiration if you’re planning to improve your fitness, lose some weight, eat healthier or generally improve your lifestyle in the coming year.

In the next four consecutive Wednesday editions of The Wenatchee World, look for our Healthier You page, with articles and advertisements on everything healthy. Fitness, healthy eating, wellness, exercise activities, how to make the most of your gym visit, dieting, exercise plans and so much more.

Look for the first Healthy You page in the January 20th edition of The Wenatchee World, and for the next three Wednesdays following.

Advertisers: your ad will reach readers in print and online through our digital editon. Contact our advertising department and inquire about the healthy discount we’re offering for these pages.

wenatcheeworld.com

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

3

KLMNO WEEKLY

WORST WEEK IN WASHINGTON

Rand Paul

by Chris Cillizza

S

en. Rand Paul found out Monday night that he wasn’t going to be on the main stage for Thursday’s Republican presidential debate in North Charleston, S.C. He didn’t take it so well.

“An artificial designation as being in the second tier is something we can’t accept,” the senator from Kentucky said in a CNN interview. “I won’t participate in anything that’s not the first tier.”

That meant that Paul took a walk on the undercard debate, which aired three hours before the main debate Thursday.

But he didn’t go quietly. In fact, Paul spent the whole week making a spectacle of himself as he pouted and whined his way through TV and radio interviews — casting himself as aggrieved by members of the media.

Paul hit his high/low in a radio interview Thursday in which he said that “99 percent of our supporters are calling in and saying, for the media, that’s where you can go” — as he stuck up his middle finger.

He flipped us the bird! Can you say “presidential”?!?

Heaping indignity upon indignity was the fact that a Des Moines Register­Bloomberg Politics poll released Wednesday showed Paul in fifth place in Iowa. Had that poll come out two days earlier, Paul would have qualified for the main­stage debate. (One of the criteria that Fox Business Network laid out for candidates to make the

KLMNO WEEKLY

JOHN LOCHER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

prime­time debate was ranking in the top five in an average of the last five polls in Iowa or New Hampshire.)

Gut punch.

Rand Paul, for picking up your ball and going home, you had the worst week in Washington. Congrats, or something. n

This publication was prepared by editors at The Washington Post for printing and distribution by our partner publications across the country. All articles and columns have previously appeared in The Post or on washingtonpost.com and have been edited to fit this format. For questions or comments regarding content, please e-mail weekly@washpost.com. If you have a question about printing quality, wish to subscribe, or would like to place a hold on delivery, please contact your local newspaper’s circulation department. © 2016 The Washington Post / Year 2, No. 14

CONTENTS POLITICS THE NATION THE WORLD COVER STORY DATA POINTS BOOKS OPINION FIVE MYTHS

4 8 10 12 17 18 20 23

ON THE COVER Officers with the Fresno Police Department in California respond to a domestic disturbance call. A number of surveillance tools give them more information when doing so.

Photograph by NICK OTTO for The Washington Post

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

4

KLMNO WEEKLY

POLITICS

Hispanic hurdle for Cruz and Rubio M ARY J ORDAN Las Vegas BY

M

aria Herrera, a 62-yearold retired casino housekeeper, feels no affinity for Marco Rubio even as he aims to make history as the first Hispanic president of the United States. As she explained: “He’s Cuban. I’m Mexican.”

“Rubio says things that are not good for Mexicans,” Herrera said, adding that she supports Hillary Clinton. “I would never vote for him just because he’s Latino.”

Rubio, whose parents are from Cuba, and Ted Cruz, whose father was born in Cuba, are competing to be the first Hispanic in the White House — and casting unprecedented attention on the nation’s growing Hispanic vote.

But in several key swing states — Nevada, Colorado, Florida and Virginia — most Latinos are not Cuban. Most lean Democratic — and identify more with their country of origin than with the broader terms, Hispanic or Latino, for those from Spanish-speaking countries. Most also oppose both Rubio’s and Cruz’s positions on immigration reform.

All of that, in addition to longstanding tensions between Cuban and Mexican immigrants, could dash the GOP’s hopes that Cruz or Rubio could do what few Republicans have been able to do in a presidential election: attract significant Hispanic support.

Mexicansaccountfornearlytwothirds of the Latinos in the United States — about 35 million people.

Cubans are the third-largest group, after Puerto Ricans, with just 2 million people, or only 3.7 percent of the Latino vote, according to the Pew Research Center.

Mexicans said in interviews it would be more meaningful to elect a Mexican American president than the first Latino. Many said they would vote for a nonLatino over a Cuban American.

In two days of interviews, not a single Mexican said he or she supported Rubio or Cruz, and even some Cubans said they don’t plan to support either.

Part of the friction between Mexicans and Cubans comes from

RONDA CHURCHILL FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Cuban-Mexican tension, other issues could dash hope of GOP votes the starkly different reception they get when they arrive in the United States. Cubans who reach U.S. shores are almost automatically granted residency and welfare benefits because of a special policy for those from the communist island — many arriving through Mexico. Mexicans who enter without legal papers live under the threat of deportation.

There are cultural distinctions, too. They speak with different accents, celebrate different customs and eat different foods. Mexico loves soccer; Cuba loves baseball.

“Except for the fact that they both speak Spanish, everything else is totally different,” said Carlos Artiles, 50, a bartender at the Florida Café Cuban Bar & Grill.

Artiles, a Cuban, quickly became a

citizen, but he sees firsthand how Mexicans, including his wife, try unsuccessfully for years and “pay thousands of dollars to attorneys to help. It’s completely unfair.”

“Like oil and water” is how Alejandro Carrillo, a Mexican salesman, describes Mexicans and Cubans. He said he believes that Cubans have it easier in the United States and often act as though they are better than Mexicans. As he shopped in Moda Latina, looking at cowboy boots and hats, Carrillo said the differences between Cubans and Mexicans extend right down to how they dress: “I never once saw a Cuban who wore boots.”

About 30 percent of Nevada’s population and 20 percent of its electorate is Latino. Mexicans far

Maria Herrera, 62, of Las Vegas says she would not vote for Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio “just because he’s Latino.”

outnumber any Latino group here, but Cubans command an outsize influence.

Cuba had a thriving casino business when Fidel Castro seized control in 1959, and many Cuban casino workers fled the island and moved to this gambling mecca.

For decades, Cubans have been influential in business, Spanishlanguage media and politics — just as they are in South Florida, home to the greatest concentration of Cubans.

Otto Merida, a prominent Cuban here who ran the Latin Chamber of Commerce for 40 years, said, “It would be a dream to have a Cuban American in the White House,” and he likes Rubio.

But early on, Merida signed up continues on next page

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

5

KLMNO

POLITICS from previous page

tosupportformerFloridagovernor Jeb Bush. “If he could catch fire,” Bush would do very well with Mexican Americans because he is married to a woman born in Mexico, he said.

Andres Ramirez, a Democratic strategist in Nevada, said that despite differences, many Cubans and Mexicans get along. Some Hispanics — no matter the nationality — will vote for a candidate “just because they’re a Latino, just like some people will vote for a woman because she is woman — but that is not the majority.”

“Surnames can matter, but people vote on policy and platforms,” Ramirez said.

Rubio, whose wife is the daughter of immigrants from Colombia, has shown more ability to win over non-Cuban Hispanics in Florida than Cruz has in Texas, when they ran their Senate races, according to exit polls.

Rubio campaigns, in both English and fluent Spanish, about being the son of immigrants who came to the United States for a better life for their children.

But Fernand Amandi, managing partner of Bendixen & Amandi International, which frequently surveys the Hispanic community, said that in a presidential election, Rubio will face much more intense opposition because Democrats will highlight the fact that he yanked his support for comprehensive immigration reform.

Cruz unequivocally — “today, tomorrow, forever” — opposes giving citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants, a great number of whom are Mexican.

Not all Mexicans interviewed were in the country legally, and some have legal status but not citizenship, and so they are not eligible to vote. But those who are citizens, such as Herrera, who was washing her clothes in a laundromat, plan to vote for Clinton.

Sergio Perez, 47, owner of the Florida Café and the Havana Grill, thinks Donald Trump is the best candidate “in these difficult times.”

“It’s a dream to have a Cuban guy as president,” he said about Rubio, whom he called “a beautiful guy, smart, charming. He could be a great vice president.”

But don’t expect Mexicans to vote for him because, Perez said, “80 percent of the Mexicans don’t like the Cuban people.”n

CAMPAIGN

WEEKLY

2016 THE FIX

Debate winners, losers BY

C HRIS C ILLIZZA

T

heseven leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination debated for the sixth time in the 2016 race Thursday night in South Carolina. I picked the winners and the losers of the night.

WINNERS

Marco Rubio: The senator from Florida has clearly been taking notes from Donald Trump.

Rubio came out hot from the start — channeling the anger of the Republican base much more effectively than he has in past debates. He also kept his message laser-focused on bashing President Obama and Hillary Clinton — an approach that allowed him to look magnanimous and big.

Rubio also re-proved his ability to drop the opposition research book on an opponent, unloading on Ted Cruz as a flip-flopper in the final moments of the debate. “That is not consistent conservatism,” Rubio said of Cruz’s voting record. “That is political calculation.”

Rubio also benefited from the fact that, despite all of the pre-debate predictions that he would be at the center of attacks from other establishment figures, he barely had a glove laid on him. Even Chris Christie, who’s never seen a showdown he didn’t want to be part of, side-stepped a chance to unload on Rubio’s lack of experience in elected office.

Donald Trump: Yes, Cruz got the better of him on the citizenship back-and-forth — although the fact that a question about Cruz’s eligibility to be president was the third one asked in the entire debate amounted to a win for Trump. And, yes, Trump’s answer on a tariff against China was, well, hard to understand (to be kind.)

But, unlike in the previous five debates, Trump seemed engaged throughout. He interjected — like in the conversation about corporate inversions — where it made sense for him to. His re-

sponse to Cruz’s attack on “New York values” was an effective piece of political rhetoric. His insistence that he is “very angry” because of the mismanagement of the country worked well, too.

Trump's performances in these debates are never home runs — he’s too undisciplined and unprepared for that. But, this was, without question, his best debate.

ence. More debates, fewer people in them!

LOSERS

Ben Carson: I mean . . . words fail. The neurosurgeon has often looked out of his depth in these debates but never more so than Thursday night. He spoke, well, almost never. And when he did manage to get the floor, he talked about the threat from an electro-

RAINIER EHRHARDT/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) collided over Cruz’s eligibility for office and Trump’s “New York values” in Thursday’s Republican debate in North Charleston, S.C. Ted Cruz: Like Rubio, the senator from Texas is just good at this. He owned Trump on a backand-forth over questions about his citizenship — and did it with a smile on his face. As he has done in each of the previous debates, Cruz showed an appealing policy (and political) profile for conservatives still looking for a candidate.

Cruz was knocked back somewhat by Trump over the “New York values” attack — hard to look like you are on the wrong side of those who helped rebuild New York City after 9/11 — and got beaten at his own game by Rubio when it came to voting records. It wasn’t Cruz's strongest debate but his “average” performance is still pretty high.

Seven-person debates: Sure, Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina didn’t like it, but the truth is that limiting the number of people on the debate stage makes for a much more watchable experi-

magnetic pulse. Um, okay. Carson’s trend line in this race has been steadily downward for the past month. Nothing he did tonight will change that.

Neil Cavuto/Maria Bartiromo: Look, moderating debates —

especially at this level with this number of candidates — is hard.

But, the key to making these debates work as they should is to force the candidates to get off their talking points — usually by asking pointed follow-up questions or allowing the candidates to go at one another. There was way too little of either in this debate, meaning that we didn’t learn as much about who the candidates really are (and what they really think) as we might have.

Two-hour debates: A debate that starts at 9 p.m. on the East Coast is tough enough. One that ends at 11:30 p.m. is beyond the pale. Can’t we limit these things to a hard two hours? Name one person who would oppose that. n

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

6

KLMNO WEEKLY

POLITICS COMMENTARY

THE TAKE

A sure thing now looks a bit shaky D AN B ALZ Des Moines BY

T

he present state of Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination is a paradox. She is now seen as both increasingly vulnerable and ultimately invincible.

The tension between the two provides the narrative that now defines the Democratic nomination contest.

Her vulnerability comes in part from a raft of new polls, which show Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont threatening to upset the once heavily favored Clinton in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

That’s a change as the Election Year opens, and one that is creating a fresh sense of urgency inside the Clinton campaign, reflected in stepped-up attacks on Sanders’s record and ideas.

Iowa is the wild card right now.

New Hampshire long has provided Sanders with a home court advantage. As Bill Clinton noted, candidates from states bordering New Hampshire almost always win the Granite State’s primary.

Sanders long has been positioned to claim the crown there on Feb. 9, but without success in Iowa on Feb. 1, the value of a victory would be significantly less.

In Iowa he has no such advantage. But neither does Clinton.

She ran third here in the 2008 caucuses behind then-senator Barack Obama and former North Carolina senator John Edwards.

She left the state with sour feelings about the caucus process, which she has been working diligently over the past months to get rid of. But Iowa remains challenging and unpredictable terrain.

Sanders is making the most of all this. The enthusiasm for his candidacy was palpable as he moved around Iowa the past week. He continues to attract big crowds — young and old — drawn to the passion of his plain-speaking style but even more to his unabashed conviction that government must use its resources — through higher taxes as needed — to rebalance the inequities of an

CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

economy that has rewarded the rich far more than everyone else.

Clinton cannot and will not match him in this potential biggovernment bidding war, though she has looked for ways to inch closer to him on some issues and to draw distinctions where she believes he is most exposed.

Right now the passion gap favors Sanders, though by how much and for how long no one can say. But it’s gotten the attention of the Clinton team.

Once past Iowa and New Hampshire, the argument goes, the calendar heavily favors her.

When African American and Hispanic voters begin to weigh in, when South Carolina and Nevada are heard from, when other Southern states get their say, she will be able to put early defeats behind her.

The Democratic establishment does not want Clinton to lose, and she continues to gather up the endorsements of establishment figures and elected officials. She came to Iowa on Monday accompanied by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. On Tuesday, she picked up the endorsement of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, drawing attention

to Sanders’s more checkered record on the issue.

Clinton wears this establishment support somewhat uncomfortably. It is a measure of the respect she enjoys after many years in the thick of the action and is an asset if the Democratic contest drags on longer than she once expected. But it also reflects the sense of obligation felt by many in the party to support her and can weigh her down as a candidate.

Sanders meanwhile won the endorsement of the progressive grass-roots group Move On, highlighting anew that right now there is a sizable gap between the party’s liberal base and its establishment wing.

Yet Sanders, too, must overcome perceptions of Clinton as the eventual nominee if he hopes to truly challenge her. Talk to people at Sanders’s rallies, and you come away with the sense that, as much as they love him, his candidacy, what he has accomplished and what he stands for, almost all would be perfectly comfortable if Clinton ultimately prevails. The Sanders supporters are there for him, but not to demonize her.

That’s a different dynamic than the one that is playing out for the

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton campaigns last week in Des Moines. Her nomination is seen as both inevitable and vulnerable, which puts pressure on her performance in Iowa.

Republicans.

Sanders is trying to overcome all this by seizing on polls that show him running better than Clinton in the general election.

The question of electability long has been one of his biggest obstacles and the fresh polls have now given him ammunition. Clinton’s advisers are confident that the electability argument ultimately favors her.

Clinton has one thing going for her in Iowa that she lacked in 2008, which is a unified operation. Her 2008 campaign was plagued by battles between her national headquarters team and her Iowa team. Most of her national advisers never really understood Iowa or the caucus process. For much of 2007, the two parts of her campaign were at war with one another.

That’s not the case this year, or so say the people inside the campaign. The national and Iowa teams have been working from the same page from the start, under the direction of campaign manager Robby Mook, Iowa director Matt Paul and Iowa caucus director Michael Halle.

Not knowing just what turnout will be on Feb. 1, they have set high goals and are determined to meet them. Whether that will be enough to overcome an unexpected surge in turnout or the power of Sanders’s organizational efforts and enthusiasm for his candidacy is the question no poll can answer.

The nightmare scenario for the Clinton team right now is a race that drags well into the early spring. Given his huge success at raising large amounts of money in small contributions, Sanders has more than enough resources to wage a long, long battle, even a losing one. The longer it goes, the more it could weaken Clinton for the general election and, more to the point, would deplete her resources just as the Republicans and their super PACs go after her.

That’s why so much now depends on what happens in Iowa. n Balz is chief correspondent at The Washington Post.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

7

POLITICS

KLMNO WEEKLY

Obama has broken up with Congress BY

M IKE D E B ONIS

T

heir tumultuous relationship nearing an end, President Obama and Congress scheduled one last date for Tuesday night, when Obama delivered his final State of the Union address. But make no mistake, the breakup was already complete.

Obama’s need to work with Congress effectively ended late last year, after lawmakers passed a two-year budget accord and approved a spending package to keep the government open for the bulk of the coming election year.

And the political reality was evident in Obama’s speech, which centered on a high-minded appeal for a more inclusive and responsive brand of politics but included no specific proposals in that area.

Instead, he called on Congress to take action only on a handful of issues whose chances of passage this year range from slim to none.

“The speech tonally was very different than previous years,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. “It’s almost like, ‘Okay, I’ve done what I can, and I’m going to continue to do what I can this next year by executive action.’ But I think he’s been on the glide path out of here, and I think the speech tonight reflected that.”

Republican leaders, meanwhile, effectively forfeited any leverage they had to force Obama to accept additional policy concessions by agreeing to the fiscal deals last year. So, after a year that saw the passage of several major policy bills on education, transportation and taxation, both parties have now pivoted firmly toward politics.

The pivot was on display in the run-up to Tuesday’s address, with Republicans and Democrats mostly talking past each other about their expectations for the speech and for the year ahead.

Asked the other week what he would advise the president to say Tuesday, the typically earnest House speaker, Paul D. Ryan (RWis.), opted for sarcasm, saying Obama ought to “take it all back.”

“Health care [reform] was

ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES

wrong; we shouldn’t have done Dodd-Frank; I want to actually lower tax rates, clear out crony capitalism, and restore the Constitution to its rightful place in American life,” Ryan said. “That’s what I would encourage him to say. Something tells me he might not say that.”

Meanwhile, the White House had given plenty of indications that the GOP-controlled Congress wouldn’t be much of a player in its list of final-year priorities — none stronger than Obama’s decision shortly after the new year began to unveil new executive actions aimed at expanding background checks for gun buyers, a proposal that GOP congressional leaders have shown no interest in taking up.

Obama’s address Tuesday mentioned several issues he planned to “push for” or “work on.” But he directly asked Congress to act on only three issues: revisiting the presidential authority to use military force against the Islamic State, approving the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, and lifting the Cuban trade embargo.

Each carries deep political com-

plications and thus little chance of advancing through Congress in a presidential election year.

“If I had to handicap, I’m not sure any of them get done this next year,” Thune said after the speech.

Those dismal prospects have driven Obama’s moves to take executive action wherever possible — actions that have inflamed congressional Republicans and created a vicious cycle that has made the prospect of bipartisan lawmaking ever more unlikely.

“He had his run, and he’s made it clear that he’s going to use every regulatory power he has, and more, to further his agenda, and I think Congress should be prepared to say — you don’t get to go beyond the law,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Monday.

However, Congress’s power to interfere with Obama’s executive actions — including not only the gun orders, but also the issuance of labor, environmental and financial rules widely loathed by conservatives — is now sharply limited.

Democrats have successfully filibustered most Republican attempts to overrule the administration’s regulatory actions, and

President Obama delivers the State of the Union speech before members of Congress on Tuesday. Vice President Biden, left, and Speaker of the House Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) are behind him.

Obama has vetoed the handful that have made it to his desk. GOP lawmakers hoped to use the appropriations process to impose policy “riders” blocking White House priorities, but during spending negotiations last year, party leaders instead used what leverage they had to win an end to the 30-year-old ban on oil exports.

That leverage is now gone. Both Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have said they intend to spend much of their legislative time and energy in the coming year on passing appropriations bills ahead of the Sept. 30 fiscal year deadline. But that is much easier said than done, especially with conservative lawmakers eager to use the power of the purse to undermine Obama, and the Senate filibuster and Obama’s veto pen standing ready to block them.

In the most likely scenario, Congress will pass a stopgap measure to continue the current spending levels until after the election.

There are a handful of matters that might still see action on Capitol Hill, but the chances for action have mostly diminished since the new year. One issue, criminal justice reform, got a passing mention from Obama on Tuesday, and several Republican lawmakers said later they saw an opportunity to work together.

But prospects for action dimmed earlier in the day when the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), said he was not inclined to compromise with Democrats on a key provision of draft legislation that would reform sentences for nonviolent criminal offenders.

By the time the presidential primary season is in full swing in mid-February, the opportunity to act on contentious legislation may have passed.

To Capitol Hill denizens, all of that made Obama’s address Tuesday more of a last hurrah than a call to action.

“He’s checking out,” said Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), a moderate who has been a rare GOP advocate of bipartisan compromise. “The president wants to preserve his legacy, but he’s checking out.” n

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

8

KLMNO WEEKLY

NATION

Silicon Valley takes the driver’s seat

BY B RIAN F UNG AND H AYLEY T SUKAYAMA

F

or the first time this year, buyers of some of the bestselling cars on the market will be greeted by a familiar logo when they get behind the wheel. And it won’t just be the automakers’.

From the Honda Accord to the Ford F-150, vehicles across the country are adding support for incar entertainment systems designed by Google and Apple. Their slick software interfaces allow drivers to make phone calls, pull up maps or directions, and even summon streaming music — using the same recognizable look and feel of an iPhone or Android device.

The move by automakers to cede the technological centerpiece of a vehicle’s dashboard did not come quickly or painlessly for Detroit engineers who have long prided themselves on their ability to understand what consumers want from their cars. Even more unnerving to some is that Google and Apple soon may be releasing cars of their own.

Apple and Google have each received pledges from roughly 40 automakers to work with their technology. Yet even as executives from either industry shake hands over these partnerships, there’s a clear undercurrent of tension in the alliance between Detroit and Silicon Valley.

Software is as central to a car’s character as the stitching on its seats or the feel of its steering wheel. And some auto industry executives are open about their need to partner with firms that are on the front lines of innovation.

Many of these tech firms are also launching projects — from driverless fleets to ride-hailing models such as Uber — that are expected to disrupt the basic business of buying or leasing a car.

“Carmakers are definitely worried that their business model is going to be seriously threatened in the next 10 years,” said Karl Brauer, analyst at Kelley Blue Book.

Added a senior auto industry executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to talk

ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES

Automakers form an uneasy alliance with tech companies by ceding the dashboard to them more freely: “It’s interesting to see how Silicon Valley looks at us, and that’s as one word — prey.”

In the face of disruptive projects emerging out West, carmakers are racing to bolster their technology prowess. At the nation’s biggest consumer electronics show this month and at the Detroit Auto Show last week, some of these companies are recasting the industrial image that has defined them for decades.

Gill Pratt, the new chief executive officer of the Toyota Research Institute, said that robotics could be a major business for Toyota in the future, and perhaps eventually its primary focus.

This month, several automakers announced partnerships that would have seemed odd just a few years ago. GM announced that it would invest a half-billion dollars into the ride-hailing company Lyft — a business that on the surface would seem to be competition to companies selling cars to consumers. Brauer said the partnership

should help GM absorb lessons that will be crucial to its survival as it adapts to a new era of mobility.

“The GM-Lyft alliance follows news of a Ford-Google alliance, both of which are only the beginning of a series of automaker-tech tie-ups we’ll see in the coming months,” added Brauer, the Kelley Blue Book analyst.

Meanwhile, Ford said recently it would work with Amazon and drone firm DJI to get cars to talk to homes and drones. And even as it signed deals with Apple and Google to build info-tainment systems for its cars, Ford said it would continue to work to make its own proprietary system an industry standard. Toyota announced it would use Ford’s system and other manufacturers, including Subaru and Mazda, said they would consider it as well.

Ford chief executive Mark Fields said that the number of nontraditional competitors coming into the industry has motivated the company to innovate and be

Ford’s Sync 3 communications and entertainment system is displayed this month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Ford has said it would work with Amazon and drone firm DJI to get cars to talk to homes and drones, and it has signed deals with Apple and Google over the infotainment systems in its cars.

more tolerant of mistakes and failure. He added that the company has been drawing lessons from the ethos of Silicon Valley after opening an office there, looking at the consumer experience in a much more holistic way.

“For years in this industry, we’ve designed vehicles in a certain way.

The switch engineer that does the turn signal doesn’t talk to the headlamp switch engineer, and you end up with an experience that, in our past, hasn’t quite worked,” Fields said at the major consumer technology conference here.

So far, Detroit’s record on creating easy technology experiences for drivers has been mixed.

Consumers have expressed particular dissatisfaction with automakers’ info-tainment systems — the primary way consumers interact with the technology of their cars. In 2013, nearly two-thirds of respondents to a Consumer Reports survey said they had problems with those systems. Those issues have persisted in recent years, dragging down the reliability ratings of some car brands, other surveys show.

Still, automakers can be defensive when it’s suggested that they don’t have the technical chops that their tech counterparts do, and that they may end up making shells to house software from the Googles and Apples of the world.

Modern automobiles are practically run on computers, after all.

Sophisticated programming helps monitor engine performance, control idling speed and can even fool environmental regulators, as Volkswagen customers infamously discovered last year.

They also remain wary of surrendering too much control over the driving experience to tech firms that may not understand the nuances of how to build a car.

“I would venture to guess that for the vast majority of this room, the most technically complex thing you own is your car,” said Raj Nair chief technical officer at Ford.

“The technical complexity we’re working with in an automobile is not just about getting on Google and researching something.

You’re trusting your life to it.” n

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

9

NATION

KLMNO WEEKLY

Outrage grows over Flint water crisis National Guard called in to help Michigan city that has gone without safe water for months

M ARK G UARINO Flint, Mich.

BY

G

ladyes Williamson likes to start her morning like anyone else: with breakfast and a shower. But for her, that means preparing her morning coffee with bottled water she now has to buy in bulk and driving 14 miles twice a week to her sister’s house in nearby Clio to bathe.

Her one word to describe her new life: “pathetic.”

Responding to calls that his administration has not done enough to help this city and its leadpoisoned water supply, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) dispatched Michigan’s National Guard this past week to help distribute clean water. By Friday, more than 30 members of the National Guard were expected to be on the ground, where they will go door to door to hand out water bottles, filters and testing kits to residents in this city of nearly 100,000.

The move comes amid rising anger after state officials took 19 months to address a health crisis caused by the government, which changed the source of Flint’s water to save money. Emails have also emerged that suggest state officials knew of the enormity of the problem and appeared to play it down.

For Williamson, 61, a former worker at the Buick engine plant in Flint, apologies, free water and promises are meaningless. She, like many other people in this city with a well-documented history of chronic unemployment and blight, said Flint residents are the collateral damage of a coverup.

She stood outside City Hall on Monday lugging a jug half-filled with orange water she says has been flowing out of her tap all summer.

“We are expendable,” she said.

As the scandal grows, the political fallout has only just begun. A joint investigation by the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency is seeking answers into the timeline of events. Dan Wyant, director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the agency tasked

JAKE MAY /FLINT JOURNAL-MLIVE.COM VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Michigan National Guard Staff Sgt. Stephen Robel, left, and Flint resident Herbert Biggs, 59, prepare to deliver cases of bottled water.

Flint children younger than 5 with elevated blood lead levels n Before the water switch n After the water switch 2.1%

Children throughout the city of Flint Children from surrounding Genesee County, excluding Flint

4% 0.6% 1%

Notes: Flint switched its water source in April 2014. These data compare blood lead levels from before the switch (Jan. 1 to Sept. 15, 2013) to after the switch (Jan. 1 to Sept. 15, 2015).

Source: Hurley Medical Center

with switching Flint’s water supply, resigned last month. And the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and Natural Resources Defense Council, among others, filed their intention to sue the city and state under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. At the center of the controversy is Snyder, who declared a state of emergency the other week, three months after Oct. 1, when he says he learned the water was tainted.

Snyder has said he waited until this month to declare a state of emergency for Flint and Genesee County because he needed a formal request from the county to act.

He also said that, since October, the state conducted over 700 water tests and distributed more than 12,000 water filters to residents, among other efforts.

Signs of a crisis first appeared in

April 2014, after the city stopped getting its water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and switched to the regional Karegnondi Water Authority, which uses Lake Huron as its source. But there was no pipeline yet built to Flint, so the city used water from the Flint River as a stopgap. Soon, residents complained of foulsmelling water pouring out of faucets in sometimes strange colors.

Months of public complaints of health problems followed, including reports of skin rashes, that led to little action by the city. A year later, in April 2015, independent testing by Virginia Tech showed elevated levels of lead in the water.

Then in September, researchers at Hurley Medical Center in Flint reported that blood tests showed that lead contamination in children younger than 5 had nearly

doubled since the water changed, and in areas in Flint where lead levels were highest, contamination in children tripled. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children younger than 6 are most at risk from lead exposure, as even low levels can cause permanent brain damage.

The researchers recommended that the city stop using Flint River water “as soon as possible.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Snyder said the number of cases of Legionnaires’ disease in Genesee County, where Flint is located, skyrocketed over the past two years.

Typical totals for the disease average from eight to 12 a year, but that went up to 45 in 2014 and 42 in 2015. Of those 87 cases, 10 people have died. Snyder said it was not clear whether the spike came from drinking Flint River water.

The city was found in violation of federal Safe Drinking Water Act provisions since January 2015, and the EPA is conducting an audit of the water system it says it will publish sometime this year. A state task force also concluded in December that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality violated the federal lead and copper rule, which calls for treating water to avoid pipe corrosion problems. The task force said the department’s failure to do so led to the contamination of Flint’s water.

Because the Flint River water’s high chloride content wasn’t treated as required, it weakened the city’s aging water distribution system, which contains a high percentage of lead pipes and plumbing, the task force said. That led to a “perfect storm for lead leaching into drinking water,” according to the Hurley report.

By the time the city switched back to the Detroit system in October, some in Flint had been drinking the water for more than 19 months. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician at Hurley who cowrote the report, said it will probably take a minimum of 10 years before any, possibly deadly, health consequences surface.

“All of these are long-term problems,” she says. “They’re irreversible.” n

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

10

KLMNO WEEKLY

WORLD

In Rio, an Olympic-sized mess D OM P HILLIPS Rio de Janeiro BY

M

ayor Eduardo Paes says the 2016 Olympic Games will change Rio de Janeiro for the better, thanks to 27 “legacy projects,” including new highways, subway stations and sanitation systems.

He is proud of an ambitious public-private partnership to build a sewer network for 1.7 million people in the city’s western zone, where waste is largely flushed untreated into storm drains and stinking rivers and canals. The area, called AP5, covers almost half of Rio. But although the new network has reached 19,000 homes, only one-fifth of them have actually connected to it. Some residents in low-income areas complain that the roughly $80 cost to hook up to the system is too high. Others simply do not think that the project, which is supposed to eventually serve about half a million homes, will succeed.

Instead of becoming a sanitation solution, the project is underscoring Brazilians’ lack of faith in their government, which has a poor record on delivering public services, and the private sector.

“People think the sewage was never treated and that it never will be treated, so they don’t believe in the project,” said Samuel Farias, 46, a sanitation technician for Foz Aguas 5, the consortium of construction and sanitation companies that is operating the project.

Brazil urgently needs sanitation improvements — only 39 percent of its sewage is treated, according to the Trata Brasil Institute, a nonprofit group that conducts studies on water and sanitation. Lack of proper sewage management is blamed for health problems such as acute diarrhea, hepatitis and skin infections, especially in children.

In 2011, the Rio city government, which had been responsible for the sewer system in AP5, awarded a 30-year contract to Foz Aguas 5 to take over the services in the area and build a new network.

The project became part of the

YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES

The mayor touts a new sewer system as a legacy of this year’s Games, but residents are skeptical government’s promised improvements associated with the 2016 Olympic Games. In June, an Olympic complex in Deodoro, a gritty neighborhood, was connected to the network.

Foz Aguas 5 has committed to spending about $640 million and building 10 treatment plants over 30 years. So far, just one existing plant is being expanded. Sandro Stroiek, president of the consortium, said it has more than doubled the percentage of sewage treated in the area, to 12 percent, largely by repairing old pipes and equipment.

But the consortium is facing an unexpected hurdle: customers who do not seem to want the service.

One reason that residents are skeptical: They say that they have been billed for years for sewage services but that the waste was simply carried off from their homes and never properly treated.

Resentment runs particularly

deep in Campo Grande, an area on Rio’s western fringe that is included in the project and is riven by open-air concrete drains and small rivers that have effectively become open sewers.

“The population pays for a service that is not provided,” said Mauro Pereira, president of a branch of the Brazilian Bar Association in Campo Grande.

About 40 percent of residents in the AP5 area do not pay any bill for sewage management, even though their waste is flushed into rivers and drains like everyone else’s, officials say. Some have irregular connections to the network; others simply are poor or know they can get away with not paying.

Many of those residents are worried that they will have to pay if they hook up to the new system, said Farias, the sanitation technician, and believe they cannot afford it — even though there are subsidies for low-income residents.

Workers collect debris on a beach at Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay, the venue for sailing during the Olympics this summer. It receives 17 million gallons of untreated sewage a day from the city system.

According to a 2015 Trata Brasil survey, 3.6 million people out of 82 million in Brazil’s biggest 100 cities are not connected to available sewer networks. Most did not want to pay the bills.

Many residents complain about the fee — around $80 — that plumbers charge to connect their homes to the new sewer pipes in Rio. That is almost half the official monthly minimum salary.

In Magalhaes Bastos, a neighborhood near Deodoro where the new network is being installed, Francisco Oliveira, 63, said the company should have paid to connect his house to the system. He and other residents said they had been threatened with fines if they did not connect. “People are doing it because they are intimidated,” he said.

Ilka de Conceição, 74, another resident, said that the work had been left unfinished in her street and that she didn’t know if it would even be completed. “I am not going to do the connection,” she said.

Foz Aguas 5 says it is trying to educate consumers on the new system and is working with Rio authorities to provide subsidies for the interconnection. It also offers free classes so residents can learn to do the connection work themselves, instead of paying a plumber.

“This is my big challenge, and I am worried about it,” Stroiek said.

Even so, he said, the company will meet a deadline to treat one-third of the area’s sewage by May 2017.

On a recent day, Alexandre Nunes, 61, walked down a Campo Grande street holding a bill he had just paid for water and sewage treatment.

He pointed to a pungent waterway where a brown snake had just slithered out of some reeds. “It all goes there,” he said.

Nunes said Campo Grande had received one benefit because of the Olympics — a bus rapid-transit line.

“Sewage, no,” he said, expressing skepticism that the new project would ever be fully implemented. “Don’t even think about it.” n

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

11

WORLD

KLMNO WEEKLY

Europe’s refugee plan goes nowhere G RIFF W ITTE Luxembourg BY

H

aving fled the ravages of the Islamic State in his native Iraq, Manaf Hamaameen landed on the Greek island of Lesbos last fall thinking he and his family would start their lives over in Britain or Sweden.

An official at the island’s main refugee camp had a different idea.

She told Hamaameen that he could save his family the arduous trip over land by agreeing to let the European Union fly them to a place he had never heard of: Luxembourg.

“From that moment, we changed the course of our journey,” said Hamaameen, who has two severely disabled young children, neither of whom can walk.

The solution to Hamaameen’s dilemma was also supposed to be the key to unlocking Europe’s struggle with an unparalleled flow of refugees. By taking people off the migrant trail and distributing them more evenly across the continent, the E.U. could bring order to a process marked by chaos.

But four months after European leaders agreed to the plan following long and bitter negotiations, the program has been crippled by a lack of cooperation — from both the countries and the refugees. Out of an intended total of 160,000 asylum seekers, the E.U. has relocated a paltry 272.

The figure — which is less than the number of asylum seekers who arrived on Lesbos every hour at the peak of the fall — is an embarrassment for E.U. leaders who advocate a common solution to a crisis that has strained European unity as no other in recent decades. With refugee flows expected to begin climbing again within weeks, it adds to the odds that Europe will ultimately have to close its borders to refugees — and that walls will rise on a continent where the ideal of free movement once flourished.

“We need to slow down the flows,” said Dimitris Avramopoulos, who as E.U. migration com-

VIRGINIE NGUYEN HOANG FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Many countries are resisting the relocation program, but so are its intended beneficiaries missioner was the relocation plan’s architect. “European solidarity is at stake.”

Avramopoulos acknowledged in an interview that the relocation program had been a disappointment. He blamed countries that remain unwilling to welcome refugees, even though nearly every E.U. member is required to accept a quota based on its gross domestic product and population. The program has been hotly contested from the start, with Hungary and Slovakia going so far as to challenge its legitimacy in court.

After reports surfaced of mass sex attacks and muggings by men of Arab or North African descent in the German city of Cologne on New Year’s Eve, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico reiterated that his government would not allow the E.U. to relocate Muslim asylum seekers to his country.

“We don’t want something like what happened in Germany taking place in Slovakia,” Fico said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Vik-

tor Orban, meanwhile, recently called for construction of “a European defense line” on Greece’s northern borders to stop refugee flows entirely — not just slow them.

Without a successful relocation program, Orban could get his way.

Avramopoulos described E.U.coordinated relocation as a direct challenge to the “xenophobia and populism that are gaining ground in Europe and undermining the European project.”

But the problems with the relocation program go beyond a lack of participation by countries. The refugees haven’t shown much interest, either.

The program may save them from a difficult transcontinental journey, but it can create other hardships. Under the rules, asylum seekers don’t get to choose where they end up. Many are loath to risk being sent to a country where they’re unwelcome — such as Slovakia. Or they already have their hearts set on a destination

Iraqi Manaf Hamaameen, living with his family in a shelter in Luxembourg, said he was promised help for his children’s disabilities and hopes the country follows through.

where they have family or friends.

Allowing the refugees to decide where they go has led to a deeply uneven distribution of the burden.

Popular destinations, such as Sweden, have been overwhelmed and have recently introduced border controls to keep refugees out. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under pressure from within her own coalition to do the same after 1.1 million people applied for asylum there last year. European leaders say the continent can no longer afford to give refugees a choice.

“It’s not shopping time,” Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s prime minister, said in an interview. “It’s on us to decide where people are able to get decent situations to live, and not on them to decide where they want to go.”

Despite Luxembourg’s wealth, it is far from the beaten path of the migrant trail. Expensive housing, a lack of jobs outside the banking sector and the confusion that comes with having three official languages are all deterrents.

“I thought Luxembourg was a part of Germany,” said Abdel elHussein, a 43-year-old Syrian, who, with his wife and three children, fled their native Aleppo. “We had never thought about Luxembourg.”

But for the past two months, it has been their home. The family is living in a former hospital building on the outskirts of this ancient city, the old sector of which is ringed by crumbling medieval walls. The children are attending local schools, learning French, German and the local tongue, Luxembourgish. Hussein’s wife, Houda el-Ali, will be receiving treatment here for her chronically infected left eye socket; the eyeball was blasted away by shrapnel before the family left Syria.

Bettel, the prime minister, said a unified European approach to the crisis can be effective. But if countries don’t follow through on the commitments they made last year, he said, the situation could deteriorate quickly in the spring, when flows are expected to pick up after a winter lull. “If we are not able to manage this, it will be a big failure for all of us,” he said. n

The Beware program scours billions of data points to analyze threats.

THEY’VE

GOT YOUR

NUMBER Software is increasingly used to extend the eyes of police. One program collects online data and calculates a “threat score” for residents as officers respond to calls. What some call a useful tool, others see as too intrusive.

BY JUSTIN JOUVENAL in Fresno, Calif.

While officers raced to a recent 911 call about a man threatening his ex­ girlfriend, a police operator in head­ quarters consulted software that scored the suspect’s potential for vio­ lence the way a bank might run a credit report. ¶ The program scoured billions of data points, including arrest re­ ports, property records, commercial databases, deep Web searches and the man’s social­ media postings. It calcu­ lated his threat level as the highest of three color­coded scores: a bright red warning. ¶ The man had a firearm conviction and gang associations, so out of caution police called a negotia­ tor. The suspect surrendered, and police said the intelligence helped them make the right call — it turned out he had a gun. ¶ As a national debate has played out over mass sur­ veillance by the National Security Agency, a new generation of technol­ ogy such as the Beware software being used in Fresno has given local law enforcement officers unprecedented power to peer into the lives of citizens.

Fresno Chief of Police Jerry Dyer, at the Real Time Crime Center, shows a screen that allows officers to pinpoint shots fired within 10 feet.

More than 90% of local police departments used some tech surveillance in 2013.

PHOTOS BY NICK OTTO FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Police officials say such tools can provide critical information that can help uncover terrorists or thwart mass shootings, ensure the safety of officers and the public, find suspects, and crack open cases. They say that last year’s attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., have only underscored the need for such measures.

But the powerful systems also have become flash points for civil libertarians and activists, who say they represent a troubling intrusion on privacy, have been deployed with little public oversight and have potential for abuse or error.

Some say laws are needed to protect the public.

In many instances, people have been unaware that the police around them are sweeping up information, and that has spawned

controversy. Planes outfitted with cameras filmed protests and unrest in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo. For years, dozens of departments used devices that can hoover up all cellphone data in an area without search warrants. Authorities in Oregon are facing an internal investigation after using social mediamonitoring software to keep tabs on Black Lives Matter hashtags.

“This is something that’s been building since September 11,” said Jennifer Lynch, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “First funding went to the military to develop this technology, and now it has come back to domestic law enforcement. It’s continues on next page

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

14

KLMNO WEEKLY

COVER STORY

from previous page

the perfect storm of cheaper and easier-to-use technologies and money from state and federal governments to purchase it.”

Few departments will discuss how — or sometimes if — they are using these tools, but the Fresno police offered a rare glimpse inside a cutting-edge $600,000 nerve center, even as a debate raged in the city over its technology.

An arsenal of high-tech tools Fresno’s Real Time Crime Center is the type of facility that has become the model for high-tech policing nationwide. Similar centers have opened in New York, Houston and Seattle over the past decade.

Fresno’s futuristic control room, which operates around the clock, sits deep in its headquarters and brings together a handful of technologies that allow the department to see, analyze and respond to incidents as they unfold across this city of more than 500,000 in the San Joaquin Valley.

On a recent Monday afternoon, the center was a hive of activity. The police radio crackled over loudspeakers — “subject armed with steel rod” — as five operators sat behind banks of screens dialing up a wealth of information to help units respond to the more than 1,200 911 calls the department receives every day.

On 57 monitors that cover the walls of the center, operators zoomed and panned an array of roughly 200 police cameras perched across the city. They could dial up 800 more feeds from the city’s schools and traffic cameras, and they soon hope to add 400 more streams from cameras worn on officers’ bodies and from thousands of local businesses that have surveillance systems.

The cameras were only one tool at the ready.

Officers could trawl a private database that has recorded more than 2 billion scans of vehicle license plates and locations nationwide. If gunshots were fired, a system called ShotSpotter could triangulate the location using microphones strung around the city. Another program, called Media Sonar, crawled social media looking for illicit activity. Police used it to monitor individuals, threats to schools and hashtags related to gangs.

Fresno police said having the ability to access all that information in real time is crucial to solving crimes.

They recently used the cameras to track a robbery suspect as he fled a business and then jumped into a canal to hide. He was quickly apprehended.

The license plate database was instrumental in solving a September murder case, in which police had a description of a suspect’s vehicle and three numbers from the license plate.

But perhaps the most controversial and revealing technology is the threat-scoring software Beware. Fresno is one of the first departments in the nation to test the program.

As officers respond to calls, the Beware program automatically runs the address. The searches return the names of residents and

“The more you can provide in terms of intelligence and video, the more safely you can respond to calls.” — Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer Fresno police monitor the department’s roughly 200 cameras and employ a threatscoring software called Beware, which automatically scans the addresses that officers are going to and uses public data to generate a colorcoded threat level: green, yellow or red.

scans them against a range of publicly available data to generate a color-coded threat level for each person or address: green, yellow or red.

Exactly how Beware calculates threat scores is something that its maker, Intrado, considers a trade secret, so it is unclear how much weight is given to a misdemeanor, felony or threatening comment on Facebook.

However, the program flags issues and provides a report to the user.

In promotional materials, Intrado writes that Beware could reveal that the resident of a particular address was a war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, had criminal convictions for assault and had posted worrisome messages about his battle experiences on social media. The “big data” that has transformed marketing and other industries has now come to law enforcement.

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said officers are often working on scant or even inaccurate information when they respond to calls, so

Beware and the Real Time Crime Center give them a sense of what may be behind the next door.

“Our officers are expected to know the unknown and see the unseen,” Dyer said.

“They are making split-second decisions based on limited facts. The more you can provide in terms of intelligence and video, the more safely you can respond to calls.”

But some in Fresno say the power and the sheer concentration of surveillance in the Real Time Crime Center is troubling. The concerns have been raised elsewhere as well — last year, Oakland city officials scaled back plans for such a center after residents protested, citing privacy concerns.

Rob Nabarro, a Fresno civil rights lawyer, said he is particularly concerned about Beware. He said outsourcing decisions about the threat posed by an individual to software is a problem waiting to happen.

Nabarro said the fact that only Intrado —

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

15

COVER STORY

KLMNO WEEKLY

interview request seeking more information about how Beware works by sending a short statement. It read in part: “Beware works to quickly provide [officers] with commercially available, public information that may be relevant to the situation and may give them a greater level of awareness.”

“Whenever these surveillance technologies are on the table, there needs to be a meaningful debate.” — Matt Cagle, Northern California ACLU not the police or the public — knows how Beware tallies its scores is disconcerting. He also worries that the system might mistakenly increase someone’s threat level by misinterpreting innocuous activity on social media, like criticizing the police, and trigger a heavier response by officers.

“It’s a very unrefined, gross technique,” Nabarro said of Beware’s color-coded levels.

“A police call is something that can be very dangerous for a citizen.”

Dyer said such concerns are overblown, saying the scores don’t trigger a particular police response. He said operators use them as guides to delve more deeply into someone’s background, looking for information that might be relevant to an officer on scene. He said officers on the street never see the scores.

Still, Nabarro is not the only one worried.

The Fresno City Council called a hearing on Beware in November after constituents raised concerns. Once council member referred to a

local media report saying that a woman’s threat level was elevated because she was tweeting about a card game titled “Rage,” which could be a keyword in Beware’s assessment of social media.

Councilman Clinton J. Olivier, a libertarian-leaning Republican, said Beware was like something out of a dystopian science-fiction novel and asked Dyer a simple question: “Could you run my threat level now?”

Dyer agreed. The scan returned Olivier as a green, but his home came back as a yellow, possibly because of someone who previously lived at his address, a police official said.

“Even though it’s not me that’s the yellow guy, your officers are going to treat whoever comes out of that house in his boxer shorts as the yellow guy,” Olivier said. “That may not be fair to me.”

He added later: “[Beware] has failed right here with a council member as the example.”

An Intrado representative responded to an

The Fresno Real Time Crime Center is used to monitor hundreds of camera feeds, but officers can also use it to access a database of vehicle license plats, locate gunfire and monitor social media for illicit activity.

Calls for ‘meaningful debate’ Similar debates over police surveillance have been playing out across the country, as new technologies have proliferated and law enforcement use has exploded.

The number of local police departments that employ some type of technological surveillance increased from 20 percent in 1997 to more than 90 percent in 2013, according to the latest information from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The most common forms of surveillance are cameras and automated license plate readers, but the use of handheld biometric scanners, social media monitoring software, devices that collect cellphone data and drones is increasing.

The surveillance creates vast amounts of data, which is increasingly pooled in local, regional and national databases. The largest such project is the FBI’s $1 billion Next Generation Identification project, which is creating a trove of fingerprints, iris scans, data from facial recognition software and other sources that aid local departments in identifying suspects.

Law enforcement officials say such tools allow them to do more with less, and they have credited the technology with providing breaks in many cases. Virginia State Police found the man who killed a TV news crew during a live broadcast last year after his license plate was captured by a reader.

Cell site simulators, which mimic a cellphone tower and scoop up data on all cellphones in an area, have been instrumental in finding kidnappers, fugitives and people who are suicidal, law enforcement officials said.

But those benefits have sometimes come with a cost to privacy. Law enforcement used cell site simulators for years without getting a judge’s explicit consent. But after criticism by the ACLU and other groups, the Justice Department announced last September that it would require all federal agencies to get a search warrant.

The fact that public discussion of surveillance technologies is occurring after they are in use is backward, said Matt Cagle, an attorney for the ACLU of Northern California.

“We think that whenever these surveillance technologies are on the table, there needs to be a meaningful debate,” Cagle said. “There needs to be safeguards and oversight.”

After the contentious hearing before the Fresno City Council on Beware, Dyer said he now wants to make changes to address residents’ concerns. The police chief said he is working with Intrado to turn off Beware’s color-coded rating system and possibly the social media monitoring.

“There’s a balancing act,” Dyer said. n

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

16

KLMNO WEEKLY

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK HOLLYWOOD

Hollywood, crime go hand-in-hand The pair have been helping each other for decades

Actor Sean Penn, top, is facing criticism after interviewing Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Hollywood stars and organized crime have given each other stories, such as the 1983 film “Scarface,” starring Al Pacino, at right.

BY

A NN H ORNADAY

I

t may be tempting to chalk up Sean Penn’s recent encounter with Mexican drug lord and prison escapee Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to the actor’s longstanding penchant for inserting himself into the heart of geopolitical intrigue.Buttheepisodecontinuesa well-established tradition of symbiotic codependence and mutual regard between Hollywood and organized crime.

Like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (“He gives her class, and she gives him sex”), organized crime and Hollywood have given each other what they needed most, whether in the form of capital, muscle and the alluring aroma of danger on the one hand, or legitimacy, proximitytocelebrityandaglamorous public image on the other.

From the days when Charles “Lucky” Luciano and Al Capone battled over Hollywood turf, to Chicago mob associate, lawyer and legendary fixer Sidney Korshak pulling strings so that MGM would let Al Pacino play Michael Corleone in “The Godfather,” show business and the mob have fit together like a brass-knuckled hand in a silk opera glove. The relationship goes back at least to the 1920s, when the Chicago “outfit” — which controlled the labor unions — arrived in Los Angeles to help studio executives ride herd on their crews. As Gus Russo, who wrote about Korshak in his book “Supermob,” told me, Hollywood “was a mob town” for decades, possibly into the 1980s.

“Many of the movies you know and love were brokered by the Chicago outfit, with their extensive labor pull,” Russo said. A particularly toothsome bit of legend and lore has it that Jill St. John got her role as a Bond girl in “Diamonds Are Forever” thanks to her friendship with the intimidatingly wellconnected Korshak — who, let the record reflect, was never indicted or convicted for any crime.

“Let’s just say that a nod from Korshak, and the Teamsters change management,” the producer Robert Evans wrote in his book “The Kid Stays in the Picture.”

UNIVERSAL/COURTESY OF EVERETT COLLECTION

“A nod from Korshak, and Santa Anita closes. A nod from Korshak, and Vegas shuts down. A nod from Korshak, and the Dodgers can suddenly play night baseball.”

Perhaps the most valuable things organized crime and Hollywood have given each other, of course, are stories. From Jesse James and Capone — whose underlings reportedly consulted with “Scarface” screenwriter Ben Hecht — to “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Goodfellas,” the exploits of criminals and outlaws have been Hollywood’s most reliable fodder, with the miscreants themselves being the movies’ most ardent audience.

As “Godfather” author Mario Puzo told Vanity Fair’s Nick Tosches in 1997, “The word ‘godfather’ had never been used in a Mafia sense.”

But after the book and the movie were released, he said, “they even started calling themselves godfathers. It’s a fairy tale.”

In the case of Penn and Guzmán, that fairy tale has taken a pointedly surreal turn, the result not just of Hollywood’s congenital fascination with tough guys, but also a media culture in which heroes and villains are now empowered to be their own Brothers Grimm. Whereas 1931’s “The Public Enemy” was adapted from an (unpublished) novel by two former colleagues of Capone’s, and both “Goodfellas”

and the book that inspired it were written by journalist Nicholas Pileggi, such formalities are laughably obsolete in the era of Twitter, citizen journalism and PR-savvy self-branding.

When Guzmán reached out to actress Kate del Castillo, who had previously tweeted supportive words for the drug kingpin, he was simply following the new rules of Controlling Your Narrative, whereby the subject neatly bypasses pesky institutions such as law enforcement and journalism and tells his story directly to the people or by way of an admiring interlocutor. In seeking to burnish his public image through a greatman biopic, Guzmán was following in the footsteps of Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa, who enlisted director D.W. Griffith to act as his cinematic Boswell (in “The Life of General Villa,” which Griffith didn’t direct, the subject played himself ). Or maybe Guzmán wanted to commission a big-screen version of a narcocorrido, the lilting Mexican folk song wherein notorious drug dealers and murderers are romanticized as populist heroes.

Whatever Guzmán had in mind in terms of genre, he was confident in the knowledge that Hollywood loves a colorful antihero, especially one who has built an empire

beyond the reach of the law. It’s safe to assume that he was hoping to establish a persona on a par with “Scarface” — the 1983 remake starring Al Pacino that has been elevated to pop culture myth — rather than “Escobar: Paradise Lost,” which opened last year to near-universal indifference.

As if Guzmán’s ambitions weren’t addled enough, del Castillo brings with her the piquant fact of having played the head of a Spanish drug cartel in the Telemundo soap opera “La Reina del Sur.” Penn’s curious role in the episode remains murky, as the authorities and the public at large sort out whether he was a useful idiot for Guzmán or, far more tantalizingly if unlikely, a crucial covert player in returning a fugitive to justice. It’s understandable that the shadowy world Penn entered to make contact with Guzmán — complete with burner phones, encryption and dead-drop email addresses — might flatter the vanity of a dashing leading man whose most recent screen role was a dashing mercenary.

Whatever his motivation, Penn’s contribution revealed that Rolling Stone was just as susceptible to celebrity as was the starstruck Guzmán: Not only did the magazine apparently agree to print the actor’s florid 11,000word story unedited, but it submitted the article to Guzmán for approval before going to press.

The facts of the case will emerge in the fullness of time — most likely, thanks to the efforts of reporters, not movie stars. In the meantime, a bizarre foray into life imitating — and almost instigating — art hints at what has kept the worlds of crime and entertainment in opportunistic thrall through generations, from their cultures of impunity to their shared capacity for colossal selfdeception. Thankfully, this chapter has so far played out more like a twisted cautionary tale than a tragedy. However it ultimately turns out, you had better believe that, somewhere in the Hollywood Hills, a producer is busy optioning the rights. n

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

17

DATA POINTS

ALABAMA ALEXANDER CITY, BRENT, CHILDERSBURG, CLANTON, FAIRFIELD, LEEDS, SYLACAUGA, TALLADEGA, WEST BLOCTON, BIRMINGHAM, TUSCALOOSA, ALICEVILLE, EMELLE, EPES, EUTAW, LIVINGSTON, NORTHPORT, JASPER, FAYETTE, SCOTTSBORO, HUNTSVILLE, BRANTLEY, BRUNDIDGE, CLAYTON, GREENVILLE, PRATTVILLE, TROY, TUSKEGEE, TUSKEGEE NATIONAL FOREST, UNION SPRINGS, ANNISTON, OXFORD, HEFLIN, ROANOKE, DALEVILLE, ELBA, GENEVA, HEADLAND, NEW BROCKTON, OZARK, SLOCOMB, EVERGREEN, ANDALUSIA, BREWTON, FLOMATON, FLORALA, FRISCO CITY, OPP, ATMORE, BAY MINETTE, CHATOM, MILLRY, MOBILE, PRICHARD, SELMA, FORKLAND, GREENSBORO, LINDEN, MARION, PINE HILL, THOMASVILLE, UNIONTOWN, OPELIKA, AUBURN, CAMP HILL, VALLEY, LAFAYETTE, PHENIX CITY, WAVERLY, CUBA ALASKA ANCHORAGE ARIZONA PHOENIX, ELOY, SIERRA VISTA ARKANSAS EL DORADO, SMACKOVER, ASHDOWN, GARLAND CITY, MINERAL SPRINGS, TEXARKANA, HOT SPRINGS, BRINKLEY, COTTON PLANT, HOLLY GROVE, KENSETT, MALVERN, LITTLE ROCK, WEST MEMPHIS, FORREST CITY, HELENA, LEXA, MADISON, MARIANNA, WEST HELENA, WYNNE, TUCKERMAN, FAYETTEVILLE, PARIS CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES, VERNON, LYNWOOD, LONG BEACH, LEMON GROVE, SPRING VALLEY, SAN DIEGO, CALEXICO, RIVERSIDE, OXNARD, TULARE, BAKERSFIELD, FRESNO, SAN FRANCISCO, HAYWARD, OAKLAND, BERKELEY, RICHMOND, MERCED, MODESTO, SACRAMENTO, CHICO COLORADO COLORADO SPRINGS, DENVER CONNECTICUT NEW BRITAIN, BRIDGEPORT, NORWALK DELA-

902

This is the number of jurisdictions with streets named for the slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States and Puerto Rico, according to Derek Alder­ man, a professor of geography at the University of Tennes­ see. They are in cities such as Chicago, out­of­the­way places such as Cuba, Ala., and national parks. But while the practice is widespread, he said, it has often been controversial.

WARE DOVER, WILMINGTON DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA JOINT BASE ANACOSTIA-BOLLING FLORIDA CALLAHAN, FERNANDINA BEACH, GREEN COVE SPRINGS, JASPER, LAKE CITY, MACCLENNY, MAYO, ST. AUGUSTINE, BUNNELL, DAYTONA BEACH, JACKSONVILLE, BALDWIN, TALLAHASSEE, APALACHICOLA, BRISTOL,

GIBSLAND,

HOMER,

KLMNO WEEKLY

MANSFIELD,

MINDEN,

SPRINGHILL,

SHREVEPORT, MONROE, RICHWOOD, BASTROP, FARMERVILLE, GRAMBLING, JONESBORO, LAKE PROVIDENCE, MARION, MER ROUGE,

RAYVILLE,

RUSTON,

WINNSBORO,

ALEXANDRIA,

BUNKIE, COTTONPORT, FERRIDAY, JONESVILLE, MANSURA, MARKSVILLE, SIMMESPORT, VIDALIA, COLUMBIA, GLENMORA, LEESVILLE, MANY, NATCHITOCHES, OAKDALE, WINNFIELD MARYLAND LANHAM, BOWIE, SEAT PLEASANT, GLENARDEN, HYATTSVILLE, LANDOVER, CAPITOL HEIGHTS, BALTIMORE MASSACHUSETTS WORCESTER, LOWELL, BOSTON, ROXBURY MICHIGAN DETROIT, PONTIAC, FLINT, SAGINAW, EAST LANSING, LANSING, BENTON HARBOR, PORTAGE, IDLEWILD MINNESOTA ST. PAUL, MANKATO MISSISSIPPI BATESVILLE, CLARKSDALE, HOLLY SPRINGS, MARKS, OXFORD, GREENVILLE, ARCOLA, CLEVELAND, INDIANOLA, HOLLANDALE, LELAND, MERIGOLD, METCALFE, MOORHEAD, MOUND BAYOU, ROSEDALE, RULEVILLE, SHAW, SHELBY, SUNFLOWER, WINSTONVILLE,

TUPELO,

AMORY,

BALDWYN,

BOONEVILLE,

CORINTH, FULTON, HOUSTON, NETTLETON, OKOLONA, PONTOTOC, VERONA, GRENADA, CHARLESTON, DUCK HILL, GORE SPRINGS, GREENWOOD, ITTA BENA, WINONA, BELZONI, BOLTON, CANTON, CARTHAGE, DURANT, FAYETTE, FOREST, KOSCIUSKO, LEXINGTON, MORTON, NATCHEZ, PICKENS, PORT GIBSON, ROLLING FORK, TCHULA, VICKSBURG, YAZOO CITY, JACKSON, MERIDIAN, HICKORY, LOUISVILLE, MACON, NEWTON, PHILADELPHIA, STATE LINE, UNION, WAYNESBORO, HATTIESBURG, COLUMBIA, LAUREL, LEAKESVILLE, LUCEDALE, PICAYUNE, POPLARVILLE, PURVIS, SUMRALL, GULFPORT, BILOXI,

COMPILED BY DEREK H. ALDERMAN, PROFESSOR OF GEOGRAPHY, UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE; GEOGRAPHERS JANNA CASPERSEN, MATTHEW MITCHELSON AND CHRIS MCPHILAMY USING GOOGLE MAPS, GOOGLE STREET VIEW, U.S. CENSUS, MELISSADATA.COM, REFERENCEUSA, ONLINE BUSINESS AND TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES. N

MOSS POINT, OCEAN SPRINGS, WIGGINS, BROOKHAVEN, MCCOMB, SUMMIT, TYLER, WOODVILLE, COLUMBUS, ABERDEEN, BELLEFONTAINE, BROOKSVILLE, CRAWFORD, EUPORA, MABEN, STARKVILLE, WEIR, WEST POINT MISSOURI ST. LOUIS,

CHATTAHOOCHEE, CRAWFORDVILLE, GREENVILLE, GRETNA,

BERKELEY, KINLOCH, HAYTI HEIGHTS, MEXICO NEVADA LAS

MADISON, MIDWAY, MONTICELLO, PERRY, QUINCY, PANAMA

VEGAS, NORTH LAS VEGAS NORTH CAROLINA WALNUT COVE,

CITY, BLOUNTSTOWN, BONIFAY, CHIPLEY, MARIANNA, PORT ST.

WINSTON-SALEM, ASHEBORO, SILER CITY, THOMASVILLE,

JOE, PENSACOLA, COTTONDALE, CRESTVIEW, DESTIN, FORT

GREENSBORO, CHAPEL HILL, GOLDSBORO, NORLINA, SMITH-

WALTON BEACH, MILTON, ALACHUA, HIGH SPRINGS, DELAND,

FIELD, WARRENTON, RALEIGH, DURHAM, ROCKY MOUNT, EN-

SANFORD, ORLANDO, HIALEAH, POMPANO BEACH, MIAMI, KENDALL, FORT LAUDERDALE, RIVIERA BEACH, BELLE GLADE,

FIELD, GREENVILLE, LEWISTON WOODVILLE, PINETOPS, SHARPSBURG, TARBORO, WASHINGTON, WILLIAMSTON, WILSON,

BOYNTON BEACH, DEERFIELD BEACH, PAHOKEE, SOUTH BAY, BRANDON, DADE CITY, DOVER, MANGO, PLANT CITY, SEFFNER,

ELIZABETH CITY, AHOSKIE, EDENTON, ALBEMARLE, MONROE, SALISBURY, CHARLOTTE, BLADENBORO, CLINTON, FAIRMONT,

TAMPA, ST. PETERSBURG, CLEARWATER, LAKELAND, BARTOW, BOWLING GREEN, DUNDEE, FORT MEADE, HAINES CITY, LAKE

LUMBERTON, MAXTON, ROSEBORO, ROWLAND, ST. PAULS, WILMINGTON, FAIR BLUFF, WHITEVILLE, KINSTON, AYDEN, GRIF-

WALES, MULBERRY, SEBRING, WAUCHULA, WINTER HAVEN, FORT MYERS, LABELLA, PUNTA GORDA, BRADENTON, PALMETTO,

TON, LA GRANGE, NEW BERN, POLLOCKSVILLE, SNOW HILL, TAYLORSVILLE, HENDERSONVILLE, ASHEVILLE NEW JERSEY

SARASOTA, ARCADIA, DUNNELLON, INVERNESS, OCALA, BROOKSVILLE, TARPON SPRINGS, SAFETY HARBOR, DUNEDIN, KIS-

EAST ORANGE, NEWARK, ELIZABETH, JERSEY CITY, PATERSON, EAST HANOVER, MORRISTOWN, GLASSBORO, SALEM, CAMDEN,

SIMMEE, LEEBURG, WILDWOOD, INDIANTOWN, STUART GEORGIA COVINGTON, ADAIRSVILLE, CARROLLTON, CARTERSVILLE,

PLEASANTVILLE, EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, BRIDGETON, ATLANTIC CITY, TRENTON, LAKEWOOD NEW MEXICO ALBUQUERQUE,

CEDARTOWN, EMERSON, KINGSTON, ROCKMART, ROME, TALLAPOOSA, GREENVILLE, LAGRANGE, NEWNAN, THOMASTON, ZE-

CIMARRON, ANGEL FIRE, WHITE SANDS, LAS CRUCES, CLOVIS, ALAMOGORDO NEW YORK NEW YORK, STATEN ISLAND,

BULON, ATLANTA, SWAINSBORO, AILEY, CLAXTON, COLLINS, GLENNVILLE, LOUISVILLE, LYONS, METTER, MILLEN, MOUNT VER-

BRONX, MOUNT VERNON, WHITE PLAINS, TUCKAHOE, BROOKLYN, HEMPSTEAD, ALBANY, SYRACUSE, BUFFALO, GENEVA OHIO

NON, SOPERTON, STATESBORO, SYLVANIA, UVALDA, VIDALIA, WADLEY, GAINESVILLE, COMMERCE, CORNELIA, JEFFERSON,

COLUMBUS, TOLEDO, NEWCOMERSTOWN, CLEVELAND, GARFIELD HEIGHTS, WINDHAM, AKRON, WARREN, YOUNGSTOWN,

ATHENS, CRAWFORDVILLE, ELBERTON, GREENSBORO, LEXINGTON, MADISON, MONROE, CALHOUN, DALTON, KEYSVILLE,

HAMILTON, CINCINNATI OKLAHOMA COYLE, LANGSTON, OKLAHOMA CITY, ARDMORE, ALTUS, DUNCAN, HOMINY, TULSA,

THOMSON, WAYNESBORO, AUGUSTA, ADRIAN, BUTLER, COCHRAN, DAVISBORO, EASTMAN, EATONTON, FORSYTH, FORT VAL-

MUSKOGEE, HENRYETTA, OKMULGEE, WAGONER, BROKEN BOW, HUGO, IDABEL, VIAN OREGON PORTLAND, EUGENE, SPRING-

LEY, GRAY, HARRISON, HAWKINSVILLE, IDEAL, IRWINTON, JEFFERSONVILLE, MCRAE, MILLEDGEVILLE, MONTEZUMA, MONTI-

FIELD PENNSYLVANIA FARRELL, ALLENTOWN, CHESTER, PHILADELPHIA PUERTO RICO SALINAS, LAS PIEDRAS SOUTH CAR-

CELLO, PERRY, REYNOLDS, SANDERSVILLE, SPARTA, WARNER ROBINS, TENNILLE, WRIGHTSVILLE, MACON, DARIEN, HINES-

OLINA HOPKINS, NEWBERRY, RIDGE SPRING, GAFFNEY, CHARLESTON, MONCKS CORNER, ST. STEPHEN, ANDREWS, CHERAW,

VILLE, SAVANNAH, WAYCROSS, BAXLEY, BRUNSWICK, DENTON, DOUGLAS, FOLKSTON, HAZLEHURST, JESUP, KINGSLAND,

DILLON, GRESHAM, HARTSVILLE, KINGSTREE, LANE, MARION, NICHOLS, PAWLEYS ISLAND, SALTERS, ANDERSON, CHESTER,

VALDOSTA, ADEL, FARGO, HOMERVILLE, LAKELAND, LENOX, NASHVILLE, RAY CITY, SPARKS, ALBANY, AMERICUS, ASHBURN,

CHESTERFIELD, ST. HELENA, PINELAND TENNESSEE CLARKSVILLE, DICKSON, CHATTANOOGA, BRISTOL, KINGSPORT, MORRIS-

BACONTON, CAMILLA, MOULTRIE, PELHAM, THOMASVILLE, TIFTON, BUENA VISTA, LUMPKIN, MANCHESTER, RICHLAND, WEST

TOWN, NEW MARKET, ROCKWOOD, KNOXVILLE, BOLIVAR, DYERSBURG, WHITEVILLE, UNION CITY, JACKSON TEXAS DENISON,

POINT, WOODLAND, COLUMBUS, ARLINGTON, BAINBRIDGE, BLAKELY, CAIRO, CLIMAX, COLQUITT, CUTHBERT, DAWSON, DONAL-

CORSICANA, ENNIS, WAXAHACHIE, DALLAS, CLARKSVILLE, COMMERCE, MOUNT PLEASANT, PARIS, SULPHUR SPRINGS, TEXAR-

SONVILLE, EDISON, FORT GAINES, LEARY IDAHO POCATELLO ILLINOIS NORTH CHICAGO, WAUKEGAN, CHICAGO, ROCK IS-

KANA, DEKALB, NAPLES, LONGVIEW, CARTHAGE, JEFFERSON, KILGORE, MARSHALL, ORE CITY, TYLER, ATHENS, JACKSON-

LAND, EAST MOLINE, BELLEVUE, PEORIA, BLOOMINGTON, ALTON, GODFREY, EAST ST. LOUIS, DECATUR, BEARSDALE, SPRING-

VILLE, RUSK, PALESTINE, CROCKETT, GROVETON, TEAGUE, LUFKIN, CENTER, CORRIGAN, DIBOLL, JASPER, KIRBYVILLE, NA-

FIELD, CENTRALIA, CAIRO, COLP INDIANA ANDERSON, INDIANAPOLIS, EAST CHICAGO, MICHIGAN CITY, GARY, ELKHART,

COGDOCHES, NEWTON, SAN AUGUSTINE, TENAHA, WOODVILLE, MAYPEARL, MINERAL WELLS, FORT WORTH, GAINESVILLE,

SOUTH BEND, LAWRENCEBURG, MUNCIE, EVANSVILLE IOWA DES MOINES, FORT DODGE KANSAS BONNER SPRINGS, LEAVEN-

WICHITA FALLS, TEMPLE, CAMERON, COPPERAS COVE, KILLEEN, ROCKDALE, THORNDALE, BREMOND, MARLIN, MEXIA,

WORTH KENTUCKY SHELBYVILLE, LOUISVILLE, GEORGETOWN, NICHOLASVILLE, PARIS, VERSAILLES, WINCHESTER, DANVILLE,

WORTHAM, WACO, SAN ANGELO, HOUSTON, CONROE, HUNTSVILLE, CLEVELAND, HUMBLE, LIVINGSTON, MONTGOMERY, WIL-

LANCASTER, STANFORD, LEXINGTON, FRANKFORT, CORBIN, COVINGTON, MAYSVILLE, ASHLAND, PADUCAH, FULTON, BOWLING

LIS, BAY CITY, EL CAMPO, SWEENY, VAN VLECK, WHARTON, BAYTOWN, DICKINSON, GALVESTON, HITCHCOCK, LA MARQUE,

GREEN, HOPKINSVILLE, HENDERSON, MADISONVILLE, PROVIDENCE, CAMPBELLSVILLE LOUISIANA VACHERIE, NEW ORLE-

LIBERTY, TEXAS CITY, KOUNTZE, ORANGE, PORT ARTHUR, SILSBEE, BEAUMONT, BRYAN, BRENHAM, CALDWELL, CALVERT, MAD-

ANS, THIBODAUX, DONALDSONVILLE, HOUMA, MORGAN CITY, NAPOLEONVILLE, PATTERSON, HAMMOND, BOGALUSA, COVING-

ISONVILLE, NAVASOTA, EDNA, PORT LAVACA, SAN ANTONIO, ALICE, CORPUS CHRISTI, BASTROP, ELGIN, GEORGETOWN, LOCK-

TON, FRANKLINTON, KENTWOOD, LACOMBE, SLIDELL, TANGIPAHOA, LAFAYETTE, ABBEVILLE, BALDWIN, BASILE, CHARENTON,

HART, SAN MARCOS, AUSTIN, COLUMBUS, FLATONIA, SMITHVILLE, LEVELLAND, LITTLEFIELD, LUBBOCK, BIG SPRING, EL PASO

CHATAIGNIER, CHURCH POINT, DELCAMBRE, EGAN, ELTON, EUNICE, FRANKLIN, GRAND COTEAU, IOTA, JEANERETTE, KAPLAN,

UTAH SALT LAKE CITY, OGDEN VIRGINIA HARRISONBURG, CHARLOTTESVILLE, RICHMOND, PORTSMOUTH, COLONIAL HEIGHTS,

MAMOU, OPELOUSAS, PORT BARRE, RAYNE, ST. MARTINVILLE, SUNSET, VILLE PLATTE, WASHINGTON, WELSH, LAKE CHARLES,

SPRING GROVE, WAVERLY, BRISTOL WASHINGTON BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, SEATTLE, TUKWILA, TACOMA, YAKIMA, SPOKANE

DEQUINCY, DERIDDER, OBERLIN, CARVILLE, DARROW, DENHAM SPRINGS, PLAQUEMINE, ST. GABRIEL, COUSHATTA, CULLEN,

WEST VIRGINIA PRINCETON, CHARLES TOWN WISCONSIN KENOSHA, MILWAUKEE, RACINE, MADISON WYOMING CHEYENNE

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

18

KLMNO WEEKLY

BOOKS

Decades later, we still want more N ON-FICTION

l

REVIEWED BY

M ICHAEL D IRDA

T SAILOR AND FIDDLER Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author

By Herman Wouk Simon and Schuster.

141 pp. $20

o the company of longlived legends such as Beverly Cleary, M.H. Abrams and Jacques Barzun, one should add novelist Herman Wouk (born in 1915). In “Sailor and Fiddler,” he offers a “reminiscent glance” at both his writing career (the “Sailor”) and his Jewish spiritual journey (the “Fiddler”). The little book’s prose is strong and clear, and Wouk comes across as still a fairly lively fellow. Apart from the shattering death of his first son at the age of 5, he’s also led an enviable life. In his 20s, he spent five years as a gagman for the great radio comic Fred Allen, a period he sums up as “a long dream in a feather bed.” During the Second World War, he served in the Pacific onboard a minesweeper, which provided him with material for his great “crazy captain book,” “The Caine Mutiny.” It received the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was transformed into a celebrated play and movie.

Oddly enough, Wouk never mentions his Pulitzer. Nor the fact that Humphrey Bogart played Captain Queeg in the film. He does, however, offer a neat summing-up of the immensely charismatic Charles Laughton, who directed the play version, retitled “The Caine Mutiny CourtMartial”: “Ugly as sin, inordinately fat, world-famous, triumphant, a terrible flop, Captain Bligh, Quasimodo, Henry Higgins, King Lear, a stooge for a TV puppet, L’Avare at the Comedie Francaise.”

Wouk’s wife, Sarah, detested Laughton: “Penetrating the Brobdingnagian façade, she found a crafty manipulator.” While the young author recognized that Sarah — both his first reader and later his literary agent — was right, Wouk nonetheless remained spellbound by the legendary actor.

Sarah Wouk, who died in 2011 at age 90, is really the only other character in “Sailor and Fiddler.” In truth, these bare-bones recollections almost demand to be fleshed out. We do hear a little about the

STEPHANIE DIANI

writer’s parents and his early passion for the works of Mark Twain and Alexandre Dumas, we’re told of his friendship with Calder Willingham, now remembered more for his screenplays (“Patton,” “The Graduate”) than for his wonderful novels (“Rambling Rose,” “Eternal Fire”), and there are tantalizing allusions throughout to the world’s great and good. Wouk, for example, attended Lyndon Johnson’s inaugural festivities and at one point noticed the president being given a dispatch, probably about Vietnam and probably containing bad news.

Just then, “Lyndon Johnson happened once to glance up and meet my look. The cold-veiled eyes of a master politician scared me.”

That’s it. One hungers for more, please. Instead the book continues with its record of a successful, upper-middle-brow literary career.

That sounds unkind, but isn’t meant to be. Like such contemporaries as James Michener and Allen Drury — both of whom, it’s worth remembering, also won fiction Pulitzers — Wouk at his best produced powerful and memorable stories of American life.

As Wouk makes clear, his successes on Broadway and the bestseller lists allowed him to live very well. An apartment on Central Park in New York. A house in the Caribbean. In later life, Wouk and his wife traveled regularly to Israel, where they enjoyed entree into the highest social and political circles. Even now, the centenarian author resides in ritzy Palm Springs, Calif. Not too shabby for “a fat short baby-faced classroom clown” from the Bronx.

In the book’s briefer “Fiddler” section, Wouk outlines his strong convictions about his religion and heritage. As early as 1959, he had published a best-selling primer to Judaism called “This is My God.” By the 1980s and ’90s, his fiction began to focus more and more on Israel. “Inside, Outside,” was a serio-comic account of a tax lawyer, from a family much like Wouk’s own, who ends up working for Richard Nixon, ultimately exercising unexpected political influence during the Yom Kippur War; it earned Wouk a letter from Joseph Heller, who called the book, “funny, warm, perceptive,” as well as

“exuberantly instructive.”

In his epilogue to “Sailor and Fiddler,” Wouk alludes to “a frank private diary” of more than 100 bound volumes. He hints that some day it might be edited for publication by one of his two surviving sons. Perhaps its pages contain just those anecdotes, conversations and sheer gossip that give so much zest to the memoirs of the famous. As it stands, “Sailor and Fiddler” is enjoyable but a little bland, serving chiefly to reintroduce Wouk’s novels to contemporary readers who might only know their names, if that. As a teenager, I devoured “The Caine Mutiny,” passed over “Marjorie Morningstar” as a “girl’s book” and, a few years later, completely missed “Youngblood Hawke.”

These, I suspect, are the Herman Wouk books that may survive and possibly attract a new generation. That may seem little enough to Wouk himself, but we should all be so lucky. n Dirda is the author, most recently, of “Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living With Books.”

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

19

BOOKS

KLMNO WEEKLY

An amnesiac you’ll never forget

Young doctor’s last words of wisdom

F ICTION

N ON-FICTION

l

REVIEWED BY

“H

A LICE L A P LANTE

el-lo!”

It’s 9:07 a.m., Oct. 17, 1965, the eve of Margot Sharpe’s 24th birthday: “The single defining moment of Margot Sharpe’s life as it will be the single defining moment of Margo Sharpe’s career.”

So begins Joyce Carol Oates’s wonderfully illuminating novel “The Man Without a Shadow.”

Margot Sharpe, fledgling neuroscientist Ph.D. at a prestigious institute, has just been introduced to “E.H.”: Elihu Hoopes, an amnesiac famous within academic neurological circles.

The hippocampus of his brain ravaged by encephalitis fever, Elihu can form no new short-term memories. Forever 37 years old, a privileged son of a rich Philadelphia family, a Renaissance man, athletic, well read, artistic, witty, Elihu is nevertheless completely incapacitated by his disability. Living with an adoring aunt, Elihu is driven to the institute several times a week to undergo batteries of tests. Not to help or heal him — that is not possible — but for the neuroscience community to gain insight into the brain. There is more than a whiff of exploitation.

From the beginning, Margot is convinced that she is special to Elihu. He leans close to her, smells her hair. Every time they meet anew, she feels his eager attention and even a sense of familiarity, although other scientists decry that as impossible. “Hel-lo!” he says, with interest, each time.

Thus begins one of the most curious and moving love affairs in contemporary fiction.

What starts out as a professional relationship between subject and scientist gradually becomes romanticized — at least on Margot’s part. Keen to make sense of his bewildering world, Elihu picks up on cues, both physical and verbal, that Margo begins to drop when he “meets” her. “Are you my wife?” he continually asks her, and if no one is around, she answers, “Yes.” The book examines the nature

of passion, affection and, above all, the loneliness that permeates even in the longest and most intimate relationships.

The scientific community feeds off Elihu, running hundreds of experiments, publishing dozens of papers. Careers are made on him, Margot Sharpe’s among them.

Decades pass, but Elihu remains 37 years old in his mind, perhaps somewhat less compliant, less gentlemanly with the institute staff, but essentially the same. And Margot, also, refuses to age. She dresses in the same clothes, wears her hair in the same eccentric side braid as it slowly turns white. Fourteen years younger than Elihu, she gradually ages beyond his ability to recognize her as a peer.

One of the extraordinary aspects of this novel is watching the simultaneous ascendancy of Margot Sharpe into the stratosphere of the neuroscience community — her groundbreaking work with Elihu honored and her scientific rigor emulated and admired—and her descent into what can only be called a kind of madness.

Oates dramatizes achingly well that when the two lovers are not together, they are utterly alone.

For Margot’s life outside the lab is a solitary one. She drinks, to excess. She has no friends. She spurns her family when they reach out. When he’s not at the institute, Elihu retreats to his bedroom in his elderly aunt’s house, watching classic movies that he has long since memorized. He occasionally surprises his watchers with the clarity of his observations: “The annihilation is not the terror. The journey is the terror.”

The book’s ending, also, is heart-rending. Not because Elihu, now in his 70s, is dying, but because Margot, returning to his bed from a brief bathroom break, realizes that Elihu has never seen her before in his life. n LaPlante is the author of “Turn of Mind” and “Circle of Wives.”

P THE MAN WITHOUT A SHADOW

By Joyce Carol Oates Ecco. 384 pp. $27.99

WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

By Paul Kalanithi Random House. 228 pp. $25

l

REVIEWED BY

N ORA K RUG

aul Kalanithi’s memoir, “When Breath Becomes Air,” written as he faced a terminal cancer diagnosis, is inherently sad. But it’s an emotional investment well worth making: a moving and thoughtful memoir of family, medicine and literature. It is, despite its grim undertone, accidentally inspiring.

In 2013, Kalanithi, a 36-year-old neurosurgeon, was found to have lung cancer. A nonsmoker who enjoyed reading and the outdoors, Kalanithi was rising through the ranks at Stanford University School of Medicine when weight loss and severe back pain sent him hobbling to the doctor. Kalanithi knew what was coming even before the CT scan results revealed multiple tumors. In that single moment, he writes, “the future I had imagined, the one just about to be realized, the culmination of decades of striving, evaporated.”

Now, he’d wear a light blue hospital gown instead of a surgical one.

The diagnosis stole not only his future, but also his identity. “Who would I be, going forward, and for how long?” he asks.

Kalanithi’s diagnosis is both a death sentence and an opportunity — albeit an unwanted one — for the kind of introspection that many of us claim to want but that never seems possible unless forced by tragedy. Raised on a steady diet of literature — Sartre, Twain, Thoreau — assigned by his mother when he was a boy in Arizona, Kalanithi is a deeply philosophical sort. His book showcases his learned background, his contemplative disposition and his kindness. His decision to go to medical school, he writes, was an effort “to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.”

Kalanithi writes in great detail about his years of training, and in these parts of his memoir, you might forget for a minute that you are reading the words of a dying

man. You’re drawn in learning about the cases, the patients, the dilemmas.

But Kalanithi is also one of those patients, a position that gives him special insight. “It occurred to me that my relationship with statistics changed as soon as I became one,” he writes. He ponders the times when “I had pushed discharge over patient worries, ignored patients’ pain when other demands pressed.

The people whose suffering I saw, noted, and neatly packaged into various diagnoses, the significance of which I failed to recognize — they all returned, vengeful, angry, and inexorable.”

His words are bracing for their honesty. He also writes beautifully about the philosophical aspect of medicine, neurosurgery in particular: “Every operation on the brain is, by necessity, a manipulation of the substance of our selves, and every conversation with a patient undergoing brain surgery cannot help but confront this fact.”

Kalanithi’s health improved for a while, allowing him to go back to work and to write more. He persevered through chemotherapy treatments, his wife, Lucy — also a doctor — writes in the epilogue. In 2015, though, things took a turn, and Kalanithi died before he completed this work. Lucy, with the book’s editor, finished the manuscript, sometimes piecing together emails and other documents into the narrative.

In one of the book’s most poignant moments, Kalanithi lies on a cot in the same hospital room where his wife is giving birth to their daughter, Cady. Holding his child for the first time, he writes, “The possibilities of life emanated before us.” A few pages later, however, he is confronting yet again the certainty of death. “Everyone succumbs to finitude,” he writes. “I suspect I am not the only one who reaches this pluperfect state.”

Only memory and words — in his case, those in this very book — “have a longevity I do not.”

Read them and, yes, weep. n

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

20

KLMNO WEEKLY

OPINIONS

Why are there so few girls in children’s books?

JENNIE YABROFF is a writer and editor living in New York.

Every night, my daughter picks out bedtime stories from the picture books on her shelf. And every night, my husband gamely asks me the same question before starting to read: “The gorilla [or dog, or pigeon, or llama, or snowplow, or crayon, or bear, or monster, or dinosaur, or fly, or cat, or tank engine] is a girl, right?” “Right,” I say. In our house, she is.

Our daughter doesn’t know how to read yet, so she can’t know that my husband and I are deviating from the text when we gender­swap Pete the Cat or Elliot the elephant or Pigeon the pigeon, and there’s nothing in the books’ illustrations or plots to suggest

that these characters need to be male. In fact, it took me a while to notice the disparity myself. But once I started paying attention, I realized I’d have to do on-the-fly editing if I didn’t want my daughter to think that the nonhuman world is predominantly the province of males.

A 2011 Florida State University study found that just 7.5 percent of nearly 6,000 picture books published between 1900 and 2000 depict female animal protagonists; male animals were the central characters in more than 23 percent each year. (For books in which characters were not assigned a gender, researchers noted, parents reading to their children tended to assign one: male.) No more than 33 percent of children’s books in any given year featured an adult woman or female animal, but adult men and male animals appeared in 100 percent of the books.

My own nonscientific research suggests that not much has changed. While there are a handful of exceptions, like Frances the badger, Olivia the pig and Lilly the mouse, they are the exceptions, not the rule. Of the 69 Caldecott Medal and Honor winners since 2000, just four — “Kitten’s First Full Moon,”

“Interrupting Chicken,” “Olivia” and “A Ball for Daisy” (which has no text but identifies Daisy as “she” on the jacket copy) — have animal protagonists that are clearly identified as female.

Recent bestseller lists are topped by books starring crayons, fish and a snowplow: all male or nongendered. Lists from Scholastic and Time magazine of the best 100 picture books include fewer than 10 female non-human characters.

What’s even more surprising is that this disparity persists in a time when gender norms are being challenged elsewhere in the culture: transgender characters on TV, gender-neutral college housing, public bathrooms with unisex signage. Last year, Target announced that it would stop dividing its toy department into “girls” and “boys.” But little has changed when it comes to children’s books.

Does it really matter if the fish or the skyscraper is a boy? And do kids even notice?

“Anthropomorphized characters have always been in the forefront of children’s books because they enable the creator to not have to make decisions about is this a tall or short, black or white . . . character,” says Marcia Wernick, a children’s literature agent who represents Mo Willems, creator of the Pigeon,

BILL O'LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST

Piggie and Gerald the elephant characters. “When kids aren’t looking for that resemblance to themselves, there can be a universality, and the characters can express all the internal emotions.”

Which, I would argue, is exactly why these books are so influential. When I read my daughter “Where the Wild Things Are” or “Madeline,” she is hearing the story of a specific boy or girl.

But when she hears story after story in which everything from the skyscraper to the very hungry caterpillar is called “he,” how can she help internalizing the idea that to be male is the rule and to be female is the exception?

Even children’s books that seem radical in other ways reinforce a male-dominated universe. The current bestsellers “The Day the Crayons Quit” and “The Day the Crayons Came Home” have been praised as parables of inclusion and celebrations of diversity. Yet not a single crayon is identified with a female pronoun. Just about everything and everyone in the books — from five of the crayons to a paper clip to a sock to Pablo Picasso to the crayons’ owner, Duncan, to his father to his little brother — is male, or not assigned a gender. The exceptions are a female teacher and Duncan’s little sister, who uses the otherwise under-employed pink crayon. To color in a picture of a princess. And is praised for staying in the lines.

“There is an unspoken understanding in children’s books that a boy won’t read about a girl, which I think is a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Betsy Bird, the collection development manager at the public library in Evanston, Ill., who blogs about children’s literature.

Two studies, one from 1978 and one from 1988, did find that boys expressed a preference for male characters, but the youngest age group studied was the fourth grade, at which point it is impossible to separate nature from nurture.

It seems entirely possible that in my daughter’s lifetime, genderspecific pronouns will sound as archaic as “thee” and “thou,” supplanted by “ze” or “zir” or some neologism of the future.

Until that happens, I will continue to seek out books with female protagonists and, as long as she lets me, will read my daughter stories about a mischievous, curious monkey and a pajama-clad, bedtimefearing llama that, in my telling, just happen to be female. As Lucia Monfried at Penguin Random House says, “When we read our children picture books, we’re saying, ‘There’s a world here that will give and give and give for the rest of your life.’ We should want to show our children that anybody can do anything.”

To which I’d add, we should want to show our kids that girls can be anything — and anything can be a girl. n

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

21

OPINIONS

KLMNO WEEKLY

TOM TOLES

High court again favors the rich DANA MILBANK writes about political theater in the nation’s capital.

Just in time for the 2016 election, the Roberts Supreme Court has found yet another way to stack the deck in favor of the rich.

By all appearances at Monday’s argument, the five Republicanappointed justices are ready to upend a 40-year precedent guiding labor relations in favor of a new approach that will deplete publicsector unions’ finances and reduce their political clout. The case, from California, involves arcane issues of “agency fees” and member optouts, but make no mistake: This is about campaign finance, and, in particular, propping up the Republican Party.

Citizens United and other recent rulings created the modern era of super PACs and unlimited political contributions by the wealthy. Because there are fewer liberal billionaires (and those who are politically active, such as George Soros and Tom Steyer, tend to shun super PACs in favor of their own projects) the only real counterweight to Republican super PACs in this new era is union money. And the Supreme Court is about to attack that, too.

The only question is how big a loss Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association will be for the unions. It’s virtually certain to be another step toward American oligarchy. The court’s conservative majority, setting aside a professed respect for precedent and states’ authority, is

putting a thumb on the scale of justice in favor of the wealthy donors who have purchased the GOP and much of the government.

Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the Democratic appointees, argued that there were good arguments on both sides of the case, but no compelling reason to “overrule a compromise that was worked out over 40 years and has lasted reasonably well.” Said Breyer: “I guess people could overrule our decisions just as easily. And you start overruling things, what happens to the country thinking of us as a kind of stability in a world that is tough because it changes a lot?”

The answer, of course, is Americans have already come to see the court as another political branch of government. Lawyer

Michael Carvin, leading the antiunion side Monday, gave further justification for that impression.

In front of the justices, he dismissed the notion “that anything could happen adversely” to unions as a result of the case. But then he went out to the Supreme Court plaza and, in front of a cheering crowd, told the truth: “It may limit their revenue somewhat, but of course they can compensate for that by being less involved in things like politics.”

And that’s exactly the goal.

The huge political consequences of the case were unstated in the chamber, but the argument was at times as partisan as a debate on the House floor. Carvin frequently interrupted and talked over the three female justices — classic “mansplaining,” as Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick observed from the press seats. Carvin referred to the other side’s argument as the “so-called opposition” and pronounced Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s surname as “Soto-my-ear.” At one point he quipped that he has a First Amendment right not to join the American Bar Association, “because virtually every word out of their mouth I disagree with.” Justice Samuel Alito guffawed.

The argument was mostly for show, because there was little

doubt the 1977 Abood decision will go down. This will make it easier for public-sector workers who benefit from collective bargaining but who don’t want to be in unions to avoid paying fees to the union, even for nonpolitical functions. Union finances will be further drained at a time when labor is historically weak.

Carvin spent his morning affirming the conservative justices. And these conservative justices left no doubt where they stood. Chief Justice John Roberts dismissed as “really insignificant” the unions’ argument about free riders.

Breyer reminded his colleagues that when the court jettisons precedent, it’s usually to right an egregious or basic wrong, such as the Plessy v. Ferguson precedent justifying segregation.

Carvin invoked Thomas Jefferson, saying the third president thought it “sinful and tyrannical” to require “people to give money which they don’t wish to give.”

It’s not known how Jefferson would have felt about publicsector unions. But what’s sinful and tyrannical is for billionaires to take over the electoral process and the government — and for the highest court in the land to take aim at the last remaining counterweight. n

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

22

OPINIONS

BY CLAY BENNETT FOR THE CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS

U.S. may have to ally with Putin DAVID IGNATIUS writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column.

Russia is emerging as an essential diplomatic and security partner for the United States in Syria, despite the Obama administration’s opposition to Moscow’s support for President Bashar al-Assad.

Russian-American cooperation on Syria now includes regular diplomatic, military and intelligence contacts. Moscow and Washington have evolved a delicate process for “deconfliction” in the tight Syrian airspace, where accidents or miscommunication could be disastrous.

Administration officials see working with Russia as the best of a bad set of options. An administration that has had trouble living with Russian President Vladimir Putin, especially after his actions in Ukraine, finds that it can’t live without him in Syria.

Washington’s hope is that Putin will support U.S. efforts to negotiate a cease-fire because he concludes it’s the only way to avoid a quagmire.

“While we remain skeptical of Russian interests and intentions in Syria, we also believe that they will be an essential part of any political solution to this conflict,” one senior administration official explained Tuesday. “The degree of communication we have with them reflects that view.”

Putin this past week seemed

to take a public step toward the U.S. position that Assad must go eventually.

In an interview with the German newspaper Bild released Tuesday, Putin hinted that he might grant Assad asylum. He said granting asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden “was far more difficult than to do the same for Mr. al-Assad.” The Russian leader also said Assad “has made many mistakes in the course of the Syrian conflict.”

Putin’s reference to asylum was taken “very seriously” by the White House, a second administration official noted Tuesday. “I think he was sending a signal about where he stands” that was consistent with what Russian officials have been telling the United States in private, the official said.

Syria was also the subject of a

KLMNO WEEKLY

KAL FOR THE ECONOMIST

phone call Monday between Secretary of State John F. Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

They talked about plans for a Jan. 25 U.N.-sponsored meeting in Geneva to organize a common opposition front. Kerry and Lavrov are likely to meet in Europe this week for more talk about the Syria negotiations, including how to keep Iran and Saudi Arabia on board.

Another Russian-American channel involves CIA Director John Brennan. His conversations include exchanges about Islamic State terrorists that threaten both countries, and crises such as the shootdown of a Russian jet by Turkey in November.

Brennan explained the counterterrorism dialogue in November at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“We’ve been exchanging information,” he said. “I think it needs to be enhanced. But I am determined to continue to work with my Russian counterparts because of the importance that I think we each can bring to this issue in terms of our insights, our information, our data, and sharing it.”

An important booster of Russian-American cooperation

is Jordan’s King Abdullah II. U.S. officials believe the monarch has sought a special relationship with Putin and hopes soon to coordinate military activities with Russia against the Islamic State.

Already, there is a joint Jordanian-Russian military coordination center in Jordan; the Jordanians hope it could be the bridge to a cease-fire in the south between rebels and the Assad regime, and a coordinated assault on the Islamic State.

So far, though, the Russians have continued pounding the anti-Assad rebels in southern and northern Syria alike.

For the past year, Jordanian officials have been discussing with their U.S. counterparts the creation of a forward operating base inside Syria that could be a rallying point for Sunni forces against the Islamic State. This base would be organized by special forces from Jordan and other Western and Arab coalition partners; U.S. officials, long skeptical of such a move, appear more supportive.

For President Obama, the willingness to work with Putin is an act of foreign policy realism or desperation, depending on your point of view. Some would argue that in Syria, the two converge. n

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

23

KLMNO WEEKLY

FIVE MYTHS

China’s economy BY

E SWAR S . P RASAD

When China’s stock market tumbles — as it did this month — world markets can’t help but feel the effects. But how worried should we be about China’s economy? It may be the second largest in the world, yet it remains opaque and misunderstood. Here are five misconceptions.

1

China’s stock market losses reflect an ailing economy.

The dramatic declines in the Shanghai Composite Index recently were linked to a report that the manufacturing sector is contracting and to broader concerns about China’s economy.

But while China’s growth has indeed slowed, the country’s stock markets don’t say much about the overall health of its economy. The total value of all stocks traded on the Chinese exchanges amounts to only around one-third of its GDP (compared with 100 percent or higher in advanced economies such as the United States). Most of the traded stocks represent firms in the manufacturing and construction industries, which have certainly hit a rough patch.

But the services sector, household income and consumption are holding up fairly well.

Additionally, while the Shanghai market is off nearly 40 percent from its June 2015 peak, it hit that peak after a massive run-up in the first half of the year, partly because of government cheerleading of the stock market.

So the levels of China’s major stock indexes are now roughly where they were one year ago.

2

China’s economic growth is driven primarily by cheap exports.

The value of exports from China is diminished by how much it imports in raw materials and intermediate goods. For instance, researchers found that only about 4 percent of the value of a “Made in China” iPhone is attributable to Chinese

manufacturers. Components imported by China from countries such as Germany, Japan and South Korea account for most of the phone’s value. Net exports — exports minus imports — have made only a modest contribution to China’s growth over the past decade.

The main economic driver has been investment in physical capital, including factories and infrastructure such as roads and railways.

Moreover, China is no longer a low-wage economy, as its wages are rising faster than those in countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam.

3

China is actively manipulating its currency.

American lawmakers’ complaints about this last summer were prompted by China doing exactly what the United States has been asking it to do: ease up on management of the renminbi’s exchange rate, relative to other currencies, so that its value can be more freely determined by market forces.

What the United States didn’t anticipate was that Beijing would cleverly do this when it was convenient for China but not for its trading partners. Rather than changing its policy at a time when the renminbi might appreciate, which would hurt China’s exports by making them more expensive, the government picked a time when market forces were pushing the currency downward, which helps China’s exports. China wasn’t being underhanded; it was protecting its interests.

Since August, China’s central

CHINA DAILY VIA REUTERS

The real driver of China’s economy is investment in physical capital, such as infrastructure or this residential project in Qingdao.

bank has been intervening in foreign exchange markets — but to keep the renminbi’s value from falling too much, not to keep it from rising too fast.

4

China cooks the books to make its economy look stronger.

5

The renminbi’s new status threatens the dollar’s dominance.

Reported GDP growth is usually suspiciously close to official growth targets. And although China’s official growth rate is 7 percent, some Western economists estimate it at 3 percent or less. There are many questions about China’s GDP growth data measured from quarter to quarter. Recent figures on electricity consumption, freight volumes and bank lending all point to much weaker growth than the composite data suggests. Over longer periods, however, the growth data is probably a more reasonable representation of what is happening in the economy and lines up with other indicators such as household income and spending.

In November, the International Monetary Fund announced that

it would recognize the renminbi as an official reserve currency.

About a quarter of China’s trade is now priced and settled in renminbi, and the IMF estimates that about 1 percent of global foreign exchange reserves are held in renminbi-denominated assets, which is more than the shares of some well-known reserve currencies such as the Swiss franc.

However, the U.S. dollar still accounts for nearly two-thirds of global foreign exchange reserves, a share that has in fact increased slightly since the financial crisis.

International investors, including foreign central banks, will continue investing in renminbi for diversification purposes. But for its currency to seriously rival the dollar, China will have to earn foreign investors’ trust. This will require not just economic reforms but also broader legal, institutional and political reforms. None of these is on the horizon, so for now, the dollar’s position is secure. n Prasad is a professor at the Cornell University Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of “The Dollar Trap.”

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016

24

Sample Flavors of the Region at the Wenatchee

Presented by Forte Architects

Wenatchee Valley Museum 127 S. Mission St., Wenatchee Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016 6pm to 9pm v $50, or $40 for museum members; group pricing available v Sample award-winning wines and tasty bites v Live music v Silent auction v Bottles of wine available for purchase v Event proceeds, including wine sales, benefit the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center v Tickets may be purchased in person, by calling 509.888.6240, or online at www.wenatcheevalleymuseum.org