The Washington Post - 13.08.2019

market, with heavy action in the

Mid-Atlantic and New England.

Seems mighty specific, doesn’t

it?

There’s a congressman from

New Jersey who definitely thinks

so. He’s demanding to know

whether Lyme is part of a far-

reaching, super-secret military

bioweapons experiment from the

Cold War gone awry.

In closing legislative action

last month, Rep. Christopher

Smith (R-N.J.) added an

amendment calling for the

Defense Department’s inspector

general to investigate whether

the agency “experimented with

ticks and other insects regarding

use as a biological weapon

between the years of 1950 and

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number that has nearly tripled

over the past two decades,

according to the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention.

And since not all cases are

reported, the CDC warns, the real

number of Americans infected

with Lyme could be as high as

300,000.

What? The numbers are

growing? It must be a conspiracy.

(Does Q know about Lyme?) But a

conspiracy against whom?

It’s mostly found in white folks,

according to CDC demographic

studies. Most Lyme victims are

men, but the older women get,

the more likely they are to

succumb. The CDC map tracking

Lyme disease cases looks a little

like the ACLU’s membership

map, or L.L. Bean’s catalogue

It’s a conspiracy!

It’s okay to

promote

conspiracy

theories now,

right? Just

following the

president’s lead

here.

So here’s the one I’m all

wrapped up in: I have Lyme

disease.

The doctor called me last week

with the results of my blood test

after months of fatigue I couldn’t

explain, aches and pains that

made my movements more

Greatest Generation than Gen X,

and a fogginess I couldn’t shake.

I am one of the 30,000 cases of

the tick-borne disease reported in

the United States every year, a

ers: art history students, museum curators

and interior designers who came to swap

notes, buy gifts and admire the detailing of old

lampshades.

“Whenever you walk in, it’s like you are

walking back into a store from 20, 30 years

ago,” said Patrick Sheary, a regular customer

and the curator of furnishings for the Daugh-

ters of the American Revolution Museum.

“It was an institution,” he continued. “You

relied on it to be there in the way that it’s

always been.”

Behind its bright purple facade, the store is

crowded with thousands of artifacts dating

from the 1840s to the 1950s. Bronze curtain

hooks and ceramic doorknobs line the walls.

Chandeliers with arched arms hang from the

ceiling, demarcated by hundreds of handwrit-

ten paper price tags that dangle in the air like

tea bags.

Venture deeper inside the store, or head

SEE BRASS KNOB ON B

BY REBECCA TAN

Selling antiques is a lonely business in

Washington. And it’s about to get a little

lonelier.

After 38 years in operation, the Brass Knob,

one of the last architectural-antiques stores in

the region, is closing. Like hundreds of antique

stores across the country, the Adams Morgan

institution has wrestled with falling revenue

driven by competition from online retailers

and changing consumer preferences.

In the District, where dozens of antique

stores have closed in the past decade, the Brass

Knob was seen by some as the last holdout

against 21st-century market forces. Its depar-

ture in November will leave a gap for Washing-

tonians in search of 19th- and 20th-century

salvaged architectural details — think door-

knobs, light fixtures and fireplace mantels.

The store’s closing will also mean the end of a

small but devoted community of antique-lov-

been around for several years

now,” said Andrew Crocker, a

senior staff attorney for the Elec-

tronic Frontier Foundation.

“You’ve started to see police try-

ing to force people to unlock their

phones with their fingerprints or

faces and courts having to deal

with that.”

Fairfax police said the incident

involving the teenage girl oc-

curred May 16. The girl told detec-

tives that she went to a family

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up their fingerprints to unlock

phones, as well as face scans and

passwords.

The trend has touched off heat-

ed legal battles in some state and

federal courts over the constitu-

tionality of such searches, result-

ing in a welter of legal opinions.

Defendants often argue that such

searches violate their Fifth

Amendment rights against self-

incrimination.

“These are newer technologies

for securing devices, but they’ve

and controversial approach: She

went to a magistrate and got an

order to have Caldwell provide

his fingerprints to gain access,

but police said they ultimately

decided not to follow through

with the thumbprint.

In an age of increasing encryp-

tion, law enforcement officials

say compelling a person to coop-

erate is sometimes the only way to

retrieve make-or-break evidence.

They have asked magistrates and

judges to order suspects to give

with developmental delays, they

seized a piece of evidence that

might hold crucial evidence of the

crime: his iPhone.

The phone’s GPS might have

placed Kevin Caldwell at the

scene, contained texts between

him and his alleged accomplice or

even video of an incident, but

authorities quickly realized they

could not access any of it.

The phone required Caldwell’s

fingerprint to unlock it.

A detective resorted to a novel

BY JUSTIN JOUVENAL

When Fairfax County police

arrested a man last month in

connection with the brutal sexual

assault in May of a 15-year-old

KLMNO

METRO

TUESDAY, AUGUST 13 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL EZ SU B

JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON

A Silver Spring woman

recalls family vacations in

a beloved 1937 Packard

dubbed Marco Polo. B

MARYLAND

A former security guard is

suing Montgomery County

Public Schools, alleging

sexual harassment. B

OBITUARIES

Kary Mullis, 74, was an

unconventional Nobel

laureate who unlocked

77 ° 82 ° 85 ° 83 ° DNA research. B

8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.

High today at

approx. 3 p.m.

89

°

Precip: 60%

Wind: SSW

8-16 mph

BY ANTONIO OLIVO

Top Democrats in increasingly

blue Northern Virginia are telling

the Trump administration they’re

against plans to open a shelter for

unaccompanied minors in the re-

gion and saying their jurisdictions

should be compensated for any

potential impact on local schools

or hospitals.

In a part of the state that is

home to a large Latino immigrant

community, elected officials also

are saying they disapprove of the

way the federal government has

handled a historic wave of migra-

tion at the southern border, where

children have been separated

from their families and placed in

squalid conditions inside crowded

holding facilities.

“I am extremely concerned

about your administration’s policy

of separating children from their

families when they cross the bor-

der into the U.S.,” Sharon Bulova

(D), chair of Fairfax County’s

Board of Supervisors, said in a

letter sent Monday to the U.S. De-

partment of Health and Human

Services, which oversees care for

unaccompanied minors. “Fairfax

County wants no part in this

heartless practice.”

Last week, Alexandria Mayor

Justin Wilson (D) sent the agency

a similar letter, while Phyllis J.

Randall (D), chair of Loudoun

County’s Board of Supervisors,

said in a WAMU radio interview

that such a facility “is not good for

children.”

HHS officials did not immedi-

ately respond Monday to a request

for comment.

How much control local juris-

dictions would have in the federal

government’s effort to lease

enough space to house up to 440

unaccompanied minors would de-

pend on where the land is located

and how it is zoned, local officials

concede.

HHS wants to build a “Virginia

Residential Child Care Facility”

that would have a staff of 147 peo-

ple and be equipped with class-

rooms, sleeping areas and two

acres of outdoor space for recrea-

tion, according to a formal solici-

tation posted by the General Ser-

vices Administration.

The agency previously said the

facility would be among three new

permanent shelters constructed

in communities with large num-

bers of immigrants from Central

America, where most of the mi-

nors who have entered the coun-

try in recent years have come

from. The other proposed facili-

ties would be in Los Angeles and

central Florida.

The effort is meant to house

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BY FENIT NIRAPPIL

The instructor had a warning

for the students of the D.C. rat

academy: Don’t tell onlookers

what you’re up to.

“We don’t want anyone saying,

‘Wow, there’s a whole academy

and they are standing at the front

door of this property,’ ” said Bob-

by Corrigan, an urban rodentolo-

gist leading the class. “You are

just doing a survey. The word

‘rat’? I rather you not drop the

word ‘rat.’ ”

On a recent summer afternoon

in Adams Morgan, about 30 prop-

erty managers, private extermi-

nators and local government em-

ployees filled a dimly lit basement

conference room at the Line Ho-

tel to train as soldiers in the

District’s never-ending war on

rodents. Soon they would enter

enemy territory: an alley, a tiny

park and a row of restaurants.

The annual two-day rat acad-

emy came as rodent complaints

reach record highs in the District.

The city received more than 6,

rat complaints to its 311 service

request number last year, which

rose from about 5,000 in 2017.

After experimenting with dry

ice and solar trash cans, city

officials are testing sterilization

as the newest weapon in their

arsenal. It’s been tried elsewhere,

including New York City, with

some success.

At the rat academy, students

sat through presentations featur-

ing how to spot signs of infesta-

tion and obtaining permits for

applying pesticides.

Gerard Brown, who leads the

rat control division of the D.C.

health department, said he

relocated the rat academy from

downtown to Adams Morgan so

students can gain practical ex-

perience on the front line.

The neighborhood has a bus-

tling dining scene and, as a result,

plentiful trash — ideal conditions

for rodents.

It’s also where he grew up.

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Planned

migrant

shelter is

criticized

N. VA. LEADERS BALK

AT HOUSING MINORS

Local concerns include

HHS conditions, funding

Phone tech and rights concerns complicate quest for evidence

Courts differ on forcing

defendants to provide

fingerprints, passcodes

Rat problems? Head to the academy.

As rodent complaints

soar, D.C. health officials

educate others for battle

Brass Knob to close its door

D.C. institution hit

by online sales,

changing tastes

JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST

Customers last month at

the Brass Knob. The

Adams Morgan

architectural-antiques

store opened in 1981.

Admit it. Those were government ticks.

Petula

Dvorak