The Washington Post - 16.11.2019

a2 eZ re the washington post.saturday, november 16 , 2019

corrections

l Because of a production error,

The Post published in the Nov. 15

A-section an outdated article

about AFL-CIO President

Richard Trumka warning House

Democrats not to expedite

approval of a new North

American trade deal. The story

originally appeared online o n

Oct. 9.

l John Feinstein’s column in the

Nov. 7 Sports section, previewing

the Princeton-Dartmouth

football game on Nov. 9,

incorrectly said that Princeton

fullback Cosmo Iacavazzi ran the

wing-T offense in 1964. He ran

the single-wing offense.

l An article in the Oct. 1 MLB

Playoffs special section, about

the top 12 moments of the

Washington Nationals’ regular

season, incorrectly said that

Bryce Harper would play roughly

250 games at Nationals Park in a

Phillies uniform over the next

13 years. He is set to play roughly

250 games against the Nationals

in a Phillies uniform, but half

will be at Nationals Park and half

will be in Philadelphia.

Court allows victims’

kin to sue gunmaker

The Supreme Court on

Tuesday let stand a lower-court

ruling allowing families of the

Sandy Hook Elementary School

shooting victims to sue

Remington Arms Co., the

manufacturer of the Bushmaster

AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle

used in the 2012 massacre in

Newtown, Conn., that left 27

dead, including 20 children.

washingtonpost.com/national

Gannett, GateHouse

approve merger

Shareholders of Gannett and

GateHouse Media approved a

deal Thursday to combine the

companies, creating a

conglomerate that will own more

than 250 daily newspapers.

washingtonpost.com/business

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some reports that you may have missed. read more at washingtonpost.com.

Kentucky governor

concedes election

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin
conceded his race for reelection
on Thursday, clearing the way for
Democrat Andy Beshear to be
sworn into office next month
after he defeated the incumbent
by about 5,000 votes.
washingtonpost.com/national

GOP Rep. Peter King

announces retirement

Fourteen-term GOP Rep. Peter
T. King of New York announced
Monday that he will not seek
reelection, becoming the 20th
House Republican this term to
do so. King, 75, won reelection in
2018 with 53 percent of the vote
over Democrat Liuba Grechen
Shirley, his lowest percentage
since first being elected in 1992.
washingtonpost.com/national

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BY BETH REINHARD

National Rifle A ssociation c hief

executive Wayne LaPierre, who

pushed past scattered calls for his

resignation earlier this year amid

allegations of misspending, re-

ceived a 57 percent pay raise in

2018 that boosted his overall com-

pensation t o $2.15 million, accord-

ing to the nonprofit group’s latest

tax f ilings.

LaPierre received a base salary

of $1.3 million, plus a bonus of

$455,000 and “other reportable

compensation” of more than

$427,000, the filings show. La -

Pierre also received an additional

$73,793 in “retirement and other

deferred compensation” and

“nontaxable benefits” from the

NRA and related entities, accord-

ing to the filings, which the NRA

provided to The Washington Post.

LaPierre’s pay increase comes

at a time when the gun group has

been under pressure to explain

large payments to top executives,

even as it has cut spending on

firearms training and political ac-

tivities and frozen pension bene-

fits for employees.

R evelations that LaPierre spent

hundreds of thousands of dollars

on luxury menswear and travel,

and that the NRA considered buy-

ing him a multimillion-dollar es-

tate, has led to months of internal

warfare. NRA officials have

staunchly defended their steward-

ship of NRA funds as the Demo-

cratic attorneys general of Wash-

ington and New York investigate

the t ax-exempt group’s spending.

“Wayne LaPierre’s compensa-

tion reflects his enormous contri-

butions to our members and the

freedoms for which they fight,”

NRA President Carolyn Meadows

said in a statement. “His contribu-

tions to the NRA have been trans-

formative.”

Oliver North, who was ousted

as NRA president in April after

accusing LaPierre of overspend-

ing on legal fees, received

$1.38 m illion from the group’s f or-

mer public relations agency, Ack-

erman McQueen, according to the

tax filings. That payment is just

one part of a sprawling and bitter

legal battle between the NRA and

Ackerman McQueen, which was

paid $38.3 million in 2018, more

than any other independent con-

tractor.

The NRA also reported paying

$13.8 million in 2018 to the law

firm of William Brewer III, who

has b ecome one of L aPierre’s m ost

trusted advisers. North had

claimed that Brewer had received

millions m ore over a longer period

that ended in April 2019, when the

NRA broke w ith North and Acker-

man McQueen.

NRA officials said in a state-

ment that Brewer’s firm repre-

sents the organization o n a variety

of matters and that the relation-

ship has been carefully reviewed.

North’s attorney did not re-

spond t o a request for comment.

Last y ear, LaPierre and his wife,

Susan, were interested in a

10,000-square-foot estate with

lakefront and golf course views in

Westlake, Tex., on the market for

about $6 million, according to

emails and text messages previ-

ously described to The Post. Ac-

cording to the t ax filings, a compa-

ny called WBB Investments was

“formed in connection with a pos-

sible transaction that was never

ultimately executed.”

The company was linked to the

aborted r eal e state deal, according

to two people with knowledge of

the proposed transaction who

spoke on t he c ondition of a nonym-

ity because they were not autho-

rized to speak about it.

The Post has reported that 18

members of the unpaid, 76-mem-

ber NRA board have collected

money from the group during the

past three years, according to tax

filings, state charitable reports

and NRA correspondence re-

viewed b y The Post.

The new tax filing shows that

the NRA paid another former

board member, actor To m Selleck,

$476,000 last year for “collectible

firearms.” Selleck’s attorney told

the Wall Street Journal, which re-

ported the payment several days

ago, that t he arrangement was ap-

proved by the board and that the

actor made little or no profit from

it.

Crow Shooting Supply, a fire-

arms business controlled by past

NRA president Pete Brownell, re-

ceived $3.2 million from the NRA

Foundation, the group’s charita-

ble arm. NRA officials and

Brownell have said the group be-

gan purchasing supplies from

Crow before Brownell took over

the company in 2011. Brownell is

among more than a half-dozen

NRA board members who have

stepped d own since May.

The NRA ended the year with a

$2.7 million shortfall in 2018, com-

pared with a $17.8 million short-

fall the previous year and an even

bigger hole of $45.8 million in

2016.

“The NRA’s financials are

strong and trending in the right

direction,” s aid Andrew Arulanan-

dam, an NRA spokesman.

Spending by the political a rm of

the NRA dropped from $47.1 mil-

lion in 2014 to $32.51 million in

2018, the filings show. That was

the midterm election in which

Democrats took over the House

and gun-control groups outspent

the g un lobby for t he first time.

[email protected]

carol D. leonnig contributed to this

report.

NRA chief got 57% pay raise, filings show

Daniel acker/bloomberg news

National Rifle Association chief executive Wayne LaPierre, speaking at the group’s annual meeting in

April, received $2.15 million in overall compensation in 2018, as the NRA has faced increased scrutiny.

BY SARAH KAPLAN

The bundle of ice and rock was
discovered using a telescope op-
erated out of Maryland. It was
studied up close by a spacecraft
built in the same state. So when
NASA scientists had to choose an
official name for the most distant
object they had ever explored,
they borrowed a word from the
original inhabitants of this re-
gion: Arrokoth, the Powhatan/
Algonquian term for “sky.”

“Bestowing the name Arrokoth

signifies the strength and endur-

ance of the indigenous Algonqui-

an people of the Chesapeake re-

gion,” Lori Glaze, the director of

NASA’s planetary science divi-

sion, said at a naming ceremony

Tuesday. “Their heritage contin-

ues to be a guiding light for all

who search for meaning and un-

derstanding of the origins of the

universe and the celestial connec-

tion of humanity.”

The name also replaces a nick-

name with an unintended white-

supremacist connection: “Ultima

Thule,” a medieval term used to

describe the lands beyond the

edges of maps. Nazis used it to

refer to a mythical homeland of

the Aryan people, as was reported

in Newsweek, and it remains in

use by modern far-right groups.

Arrokoth (pronounced AR-oh-

kodh) is a Kuiper belt object, one

of millions of icy bodies that exist

beyond the orbit of Neptune. As a

frozen fragment of the material

that formed the planets, scien-

tists say, it holds clues to the

earliest days of the solar system.

It was discovered in 2014 with

the Hubble Space Te lescope,

which is operated by the Space

Te lescope Science Institute in

Baltimore. Viewed through Hub-

ble’s lens, it appeared as little

more than a faint pixel of light in

a sea of black.

But just after midnight on New

Year’s Day, when NASA’s New

Horizons spacecraft swooshed

past the object, Arrokoth became

the most distant object humans

have ever seen up close. Images

streamed down to the Johns Hop-

kins University Applied Physics

Laboratory in Laurel, Md., where

New Horizons was built and op-

erated, revealed a reddish, snow-

man-shaped world.

Alan Stern, the principal inves-

tigator for the New Horizons

mission, initially defended the

Ultima Thule nickname. “Just

because some bad guys once liked

that term, we’re not going to let

them hijack it,” he told reporters

who asked about the Nazi con-

nection shortly after the January

flyby.

But new names for space ob-

jects have to be approved by the

International Astronomical

Union (IAU), which has strict

guidelines for identifying objects

in the sky. Ultimately, NASA opt-

ed to put forward the name

“A rrokoth,” which honors the Na-

tive American nation whose land

the discovery was made on.

The space agency approached

artist Phoebe Farris, a professor

emeritus at Purdue University

who is of Powhatan/Pamunkey

heritage, to seek permission from

Powhatan elders to use “A r-

rokoth.” The tribe endorsed the

choice, and it was accepted by the

IAU’s Minor Planet Center last

week.

Farris presented the new name

at the ceremony at NASA head-

quarters Tuesday.

“Since we are the original in-

habitants of what is now called

North America, known to us as

Turtle Island, it is fitting that

‘discoveries’ over our skies, on

our land and in our waters should

be given indigenous names,” she

told Agence France-Presse.

New Horizons has sailed past

Arrokoth, zooming onward

through more unexplored re-

gions of the Kuiper belt. But

scientists are still analyzing the

data collected during the brief

New Year’s flyby.

“This is, from a scientific

standpoint, just a treasure trove

of information about the condi-

tions during the birth of the

planets,” Stern said at the annual

Lunar and Planetary Science

Conference in Houston this

spring. “Everything we’ve found

so far is just the tip of the

iceberg.”

[email protected]

Space object is named Arrokoth to avoid former nickname’s Nazi connection

Choice honors original

inhabitants of the land

discovery was made on

BY BRADY DENNIS

AND JULIET EILPERIN

California and 22 other states

sued the Environmental Protec-

tion Agency on Friday, asking a

federal court to block the Trump

administration from stripping

the nation’s most populous state

of its long-standing authority to

set its own fuel-efficiency stan-

dards on cars and trucks.

“We’ve said it before, and we

will say it again: California will

not back down when it comes to

protecting our people and our

environment from preventable

pollution,” the state’s attorney

general, Xavier Becerra, said in a

statement announcing the ac-

tion. “No matter how many times

the Trump administration at-

tempts to sabotage our environ-

mental progress, we will fight for

clean air.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S.

Court of Appeals for the District

of Columbia Circuit, marks the

latest round i n an escalating fight

between the White House and

California officials over how

quickly the nation’s auto fleet

must increase its fuel efficiency.

Already, the feud has led to

several legal skirmishes, a divid-

ed automotive industry and un-

certainty in the nation’s car mar-

ket.

In mid-September, the Trump

administration acted to revoke

California’s decades-old ability to

set air pollution standards for

cars, p ickup trucks and SUVs that

go beyond those required by the

federal government. California’s

authority to set such standards

dates back to the Clean Air Act of

1970.

The administration’s move

was a high-profile example in a

broad campaign to undermine

Obama-era policies aimed at cut-

ting greenhouse gas emissions

that fuel climate change.

Asked about the lawsuit Fri-

day, EPA spokeswoman Molly

Block said the agency does not

comment on pending litigation.

But she said the administration

had the right to push ahead with

its revised mileage s tandards and

make “it clear that federal law

preempts state and local tailpipe

greenhouse gas emissions stan-

dards” as well as those for zero-

emission vehicles.

“This action will help ensure

that there will be one, and only

one, set of national fuel economy

and greenhouse gas emission

standards for vehicles,” Block

said.

California and 22 other states,

along with several cities, had

filed a separate federal lawsuit in

September against the National

Highway Traffic Safety Adminis-

tration. That suit argued that the

efforts to preempt California

from setting more ambitious

emissions standards “exceeds

NHTSA’s authority, contravenes

Congressional intent, and is arbi-

trary and capricious, and be-

cause NHTSA has failed to con-

duct the analysis required under

the National Environmental Poli-

cy Act.”

The latest filing in the D.C.

Circuit also includes a petition

asking the court to review

N HTSA’s effort to preempt Cali-

fornia’s right to set tailpipe emis-

sion standards.

California enjoys an exemp-

tion under the 1970 Clean Air Act

that allows it to get a federal

waiver to set more stringent air

pollution standards; other states

can follow the California stan-

dard. The EPA granted the state a

waiver to set tailpipe emission

standards in 2009, which is the

one the agency is trying to pull

back.

The current standoff began

last year, when NHTSA and the

EPA jointly issued the Trump

administration’s proposal last

year to revoke California’s waiver

as part of a rule that would freeze

mileage standards for these vehi-

cles at r oughly 37 miles per gallon

from 2020 to 2026. The Obama-

era standards had required these

fleets to average nearly 51 mpg by

model year 2025.

In July, California forged an

agreement after months of secret

negotiations with four compa-

nies — Ford, Honda, Volkswagen

and BMW of North America —

under which they pledged to

produce fleets averaging nearly

50 mpg by model year 2026. The

Justice Department has opened

an inquiry into whether that

accord violated antitrust law.

Meanwhile, last month other

automakers including General

Motors, To yota and Fiat Chrysler

intervened in ongoing litigation

on behalf of the Trump adminis-

tration, saying they support in-

creased fuel efficiency but that

the federal government has the

“sole purview” f or setting nation-

al standards.

The episode h as exposed a rare

policy rift within the automotive

industry — one that could pit

powerful auto manufacturers

against other industry giants in a

protracted legal battle.

Emissions from the transpor-

tation sector, including cars and

trucks, now rank as the largest

single source o f greenhouse gases

in the United States.

While some of the largest auto

manufacturers have now sided

with the Trump administration

in its legal fight with California,

Americans themselves appear to

support stricter mileage targets.

A Washington Post-Kaiser Family

Foundation poll released in Sep-

tember found that 66 percent of

Americans oppose Trump’s plan

to freeze fuel-efficiency stan-

dards rather than enforce the

Obama administration’s targets

for 2025.

A nearly identical 67 percent

majority said they support state

governments setting stricter fuel-

efficiency targets than the federal

government. Among Califor-

nians, the survey found that

68 percent oppose Trump’s relax-

ation of mileage standards, while

61 percent support California’s

stricter standards.

Currently, 13 states and the

District of Columbia have vowed

to adhere to California’s stan-

dards if they diverge from the

federal government’s. The Dis-

trict also joined California in the

suit filed Friday.

[email protected]

[email protected]

States sue for right to set fuel-e∞ciency standards

Lawsuit marks latest in

escalating emissions fight

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