Rebuilding Beirut International leaders

including President Trump met via video link

to discuss aid for Lebanon after its capital was

shattered by a giant explosion last week. A

Border arrests Pandemic measures that

expelled most migrants back to Mexico have

led to a surge in repeat crossings. A

STYLE

Banding together

Young families t ry to join

forces — and quarantine

bubbles — as the school

year approaches. C

Wikipedia at work

More than 67,000 editors

have handled covid-

entries. Here’s how the

site is dealing with it. C

In the News

THE NATION

Census advocates say

the Trump administra-

tion’s decision to end

the decennial census

count earlier than ex-

pected will result in an

undercount of Black

and Latino communi-

ties across the country,

which could have grave

effects on their areas’

federal funding and po-

litical representation. A

GOP activists and op-

eratives have sought to

get rapper Kanye West

on the November ballot,

raising questions about

whether they are part of

an effort to siphon votes

from Joe Biden. A

THE WORLD

The presidential elec-

tion in Belarus h as been

marred by intimidation,

arrests of opposition ac-

tivists and the jailing of

candidates. A

THE REGION

As students flock to

D.C.-area universities,

permanent residents are

anxious about young

people spreading the

coronavirus. B

The pandemic and the

recession it spawned

have disrupted trans-

portation plans in the

Washington region

more than any events in

memory, officials say. B

CONTENT © 2020

The Washington Post

Year 143, No. 249

BUSINESS NEWS.........................A

COMICS.........................................C

OPINION PAGES..........................A

LOTTERIES....................................B

OBITUARIES..................................B

TELEVISION...................................C

WORLD NEWS ............................. A

1

BY JULIET EILP

PHOTOS BY CAROLYN VAN HOUTEN

orchard city, colo. — On New Year’s

Day in 20 18, Paul Kehmeier and his

father drove up Grand Mesa until they

got to the coun ty line, 10,000 feet above

sea level. Instead of the three to five fe et

of snow that should have been on the

ground, there wasn’t enough of a dusting

to even cover the grass.

The men marveled at the sight, and

Kehmeier snapped a p hoto of his dad,

“standing on the bare pavement, next to

bare ground.”

Here, on Colorado’s Western Slope, no

snow means no snowpack. And no snow-

pack means no water in an area that’s so

dry it ’s lucky to get 10 inches of rain a

year. A f ew months after taking the

photo, Kehmeier stared across the land

his family had tilled for four generations

and made a h arsh calculation: He could

make more money selling his ranch’s

water than working his land.

A 20-year drought is stealing the water

that sustains this region, and climate

change is making it worse.

“In all my years of farming in the area,

going back to about 1950, 2018 was the

toughest, driest year I can remember,” said

Paul’s father, Norman, who still does a fair

share of the farm’s tractor work at 94.

This cluster of counties on Colorado’s

Western Slope — along with three coun-

SEE 2C O N A

2°C: BEYOND THE LIMIT

Where the water bakes away

Areas in and around Colorado’s Western Slope have warmed at double the global average

CAROLYN VAN HOUTEN/THE WASHINGTON POST

Paul Kehmeier, 64, walks on his 300-acre farm in Delta County, Colo., last fall. He’s a fourth-generation farmer and it’s “in his blood,” but

he took a job in town last year to help make ends meet. In a n ormal year, his farm grows 350 to 400 tons of hay; in 2018, it grew 3 0 or 40.

BY MICHAEL KRANISH

For decades, Donald Trump

has relied on broadly worded

nondisclosure agreements as a

powerful weapon against any-

one who would say something

critical of him. Among those

who have signed agreements

are a porn star, two ex-wives,

contestants on “The Appren-

tice,” campaign workers and

business associates.

But this key element of

Trump’s corporate and political

strategy has shown signs of

unraveling, even as his cam-

paign spends heavily to enforce

such agreements. He and his

allies recently have lost initial

rounds in legal battles to stop

damaging books by former top

White House of ficials and his

niece Mary L. Trump.

Now, in one of the most

sweeping efforts by a former

associate to undo nondisclosure

agreements, the Trump cam-

paign’s former Hispanic out-

reach director recently filed her

latest effort in a class-action suit

to void all such campaign con-

tracts. She says they are so

broad that they deny individu-

als their First Amendment right

to say anything critical of the

president — even as he routine-

ly takes to Twitter to mock and

deride his critics.

In a m otion for summary

SEE AGREEMENTS ON A

BY TONY ROMM,

ERICA WERNER

AND JEFF STEIN

President Trump’s new execu-

tive actions to disburse coronavi-

rus relief without congressional

approval sparked confusion and

frustr ation on Sunday among

busi nesses, Democrats and state

officials, some of whom lamented

the moves would not deliver the

necessary relief to cash-strapped

Americans.

Trump’s directives were aimed

at offering new unemployment

benefits, protecting renters from

eviction and postponing the pay-

ment of a federal tax. But some

economists and experts faulted

these policies as incomplete or

legally questionable — r aising the

prospect that the president’s at-

tempt to boost the economy may

have only a muted impact.

One of the orders allows em-

ployees making less than

$104,000 to delay until January

payment of a payroll tax that

funds Social Security and Medi-

care. Trump added he would try to

change federal rules next year to

make the deferred payments into

a permanent tax cut — but only if

he is reelected.

The tax is typically taken out of

paychecks by employers. And

businesses, payment processors

SEE STIMULUS ON A

Trump’s

orders

deemed

‘paltry’

TIMING OF TAX CUT

CAUSES CONFUSION

States may be unable

to afford unemployment

ABCDE

Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington. K SU V1 V2 V3 V

Partly sunny 93/76 • Tomorrow: Partly sunny 93/76 B6 Democracy Dies in Darkness MONDAY, AUGUST 10 , 2020. $

BY LAURA MECKLER,

VALERIE STRAUSS

AND NICK ANDERSON

It’s going to be screen time all
the time for kindergartners and
graduate students alike. Teachers
are threatening strikes. And stu-
dents are already coming home
with covid-19, the disease that has
upended American education.
The 2020-2021 school year has
dawned and it ’s more chaotic than
any before.
Plans are changing so fast that
students and parents can hardly
keep up. Districts that spent all
summer planning hybrid systems,
in which children would be in
school part of the week, ditched
them as coronavirus cases surged.
Universities changed their teach-
ing models, their start dates and
their rules for housing, all with
scant notice.
And many districts and col -
leges have yet to make final deci-
sions, even now, with the fall term
already underway in some parts
of the country.
“Plans are changing right up till
the moment that schools open,”
SEE SCHOOLS ON A

Start of

school year

is marked

by chaos

Last-minute instructional

changes, caseload growth

complicate reopenings

him “I love you.”

The unidentified off-duty po-

lice of ficer, who apparently was

at the par ty, was critically injured

and was “fighting for her life,”

D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham

said. Officials said the officer,

who is 22 years old and has been

on the force about one year, was

struck in the neck.

Authorities said there was a

dispute before shots were fired,

and police said they think there

were exchanges of gunfire. At

least 11 of the victims were wom-

en. Police initially said 21 people

had been shot but later deter-

mined one of the injured victims

had not been struck by a bullet.

Videos posted on social media

show revelers partying shoulder-

to-shoulder near Dubois Place at

34th Street SE. After the shots,

some victims fell while others

scattered; the crime scene

sprawled for blocks, with police

marking 170 pieces of evidence.

SEE SHOOTING ON A

BY PETER HERMANN,

MICHAEL BRICE-SADDLER

AND CLARENCE WILLIAMS

A 17-year-old was killed and an

off-duty D.C. police officer suf-

fered life-threatening injuries af-

ter authorities said at least 20

people were shot when a dispute

broke out early Sunday at a

cookout attended by hundreds of

people in Southeast Washington.

D .C. police said at least three

shooters opened fire from differ-

ent locations about 12:30 a.m. on

Dubois Place in the Greenway

neighborhood, sending panicked

partygoers racing for cover and

others screaming for friends and

relatives.

The dead teenager was identi-

fied as Christopher Brown.

“I really don’t understand how

my child’s life is just gone,” said

the victim’s mother, Artecka

Brown, 33. She said she last

spoke to her son two days ago

when she hugged him and told

Teen killed, 19 others

shot at D.C. block party

BY ARIANA EUNJUNG CHA

When researcher Monica Gan-
dhi began digging deeper into
outbreaks of the novel coronavi-
rus, she was struck by the extraor-
dinarily high number of infected
people who had no symptoms.
A Boston homeless shelter had
147 infected residents, but 88 per-
cent had no symptoms even
though they shared their living
space. A Tyson Foods poultry
plant in Springdale, Ark., had
481 infections, and 95 percent
were asymptomatic. Prisons in
Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio
and Virginia counted 3,277 infect-
ed people, but 96 percent were
asymptomatic.
During its seven-month global
rampage, the coronavirus has
claime d more than 700,000 lives.
But Gandhi began to think the
bigger mystery might be why it
has le ft so many more practically
unscathed.
What was it about these
a symptomatic people, who lived
or worked so closely to others
who fell severely ill, she won-
dered, that protected them? Did
the “dose” of their viral exposure
make a difference? Was it genet-
SEE VIRUS ON A

Asymptomatic

virus carriers

could be clue

for immunity

A Trump tactic that may be fraying

Legal challenge takes aim at his reliance on nondisclosure deals

ALLISON ZAUCHA FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Jessica Denson, the Trump campaign’s former Hispanic outreach

director, filed a class-action suit seeking to void the agreements.

Explainer: The details are not as

generous as Trump claimed. A

5 million cases: The United States
reaches a grim virus milestone. A

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