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NPR's Julie McCarthy, reporting from New Delhi, says the remains of all eight people aboard a U.S. Marine helicopter that went down in Nepal east of the capital, Kathmandu, have been recovered.

"Nepali special forces along with U.S. Marines and Air Force personnel were inserted into the crash site early Saturday. The Joint Task Force coordinating the U.S. military's disaster relief in Nepal said they are investigation why the [UH-1 ] Huey helicopter went down."

The aircraft went missing while delivering aid in the district of Dolakha on Tuesday. Contact with the chopper was lost shortly after a second quake hit the area.

The first of the bodies, including six Marines and two Nepalis, were recovered on Friday.

Lt. Gen. John Wissler, commander of the Marine-led joint task force, was quoted by The Associated Press as telling reporters in Kathmandu on Friday that his team could not immediately determine the cause of the crash or identify the bodies found.

"He described the crash as 'severe,' and said the recovery team at the site encountered extreme weather and difficult terrain," the AP says.

U.S. Marine Corps

Nepal

After the Republican presidential candidates finish their first debate this summer, many will head to Atlanta for a summit hosted by Erick Erickson, conservative activist and editor-in-chief of RedState.com.

This year, Erickson's RedState Gathering is scheduled for the same weekend as the Iowa Straw Poll.

Jeb Bush has already indicated he will go to the RedState Gathering rather than Iowa. Scott Walker, Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio and Rick Perry are also going. Most will try to attend both events, Erickson says.

Erickson has asked his guests this year to not just criticize President Obama as they make their case to be president.

"I would rather [have] them talk about where they want the country to be, should they get elected," he told NPR's Scott Simon. "What do they actually want to do as president? How do they think the country needs to be changed, and what should it look like by the end of their four years?"

Erickson objects to the media's — and the public's — fixation on candidate squabbles and "gotcha" moments.

"I'm not doing the RedState Gathering for the media or even the public at large," he says. "I'm doing it for the Conservative grassroots who are going to play an outsized role in picking the next presidential candidate for the Republicans."

Interview Highlights

Erickson's argument against Democrat-bashing — including Obama and Hillary Clinton

I think we should be judging them based on what they want to accomplish, as opposed to a 50-point plan no one's going to read or the latest red meat they can throw about the president ...

They're going to govern differently than Hillary Clinton, but when we're in the primary season, it is how these candidates are different from each other, not how they're different from the Democrats. Oftentimes, we get through several primaries before we kind of figure out how they're actually different from each other.

On promoting campaigns of substance

I'm very critical of a lot of people on both sides at the base level who've developed cults of personality. They don't know what candidate X thinks, but they just love candidate X. I think we need to figure out what candidate X thinks.

On his hopes that the politics of substance will catch on

I would like to see this done in the presidential debates. Instead of really trying to do gotcha moments between the candidates, there should be a discussion about the future of the country. There are a lot of people — not just Republicans, Democrats alike, liberals, conservatives, non-partisans — who get the sense that a lot of the leaders in Washington feel like they're just managing the decline of the country, as opposed to trying to revitalize the country. Hearing their views on that, and probing to see which sides they fall on, I think should be important for picking the president.

By the end of July during last summer's war in the Gaza Strip, more than 3,000 Palestinians crowded into a United Nations-run elementary school in Jabaliya, a northern Gaza town. They had moved there for temporary shelter after the Israeli military warned them to leave their homes.

An hour before dawn on July 30, explosions shook the classrooms and the courtyard, all packed with people.

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Palestinians collect human remains from a classroom inside Jabaliya school after it was hit by shelling on July 30, 2014. Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

Palestinians collect human remains from a classroom inside Jabaliya school after it was hit by shelling on July 30, 2014.

Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

Mahmoud Jaser was camped outside with his sons.

"We were sleeping when the attack started. As we woke up, it got worse," he said.

Shrapnel hit Jaser in the back. Three of his sons were also hurt. About 100 people were injured overall. Almost 20 were killed.

Jaser still plays those minutes over in his mind.

"My neighbor told me his children were killed," he remembers. "I saw people without legs or heads. Then I lost consciousness. I woke up in the hospital."

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Mahmoud Jaser was hit with shrapnel in the July 2014 attack. In this April photo he is surrounded by four of his sons: clockwise from upper left, Adham, Odai, Abdel Razik and Saqir. Emily Harris/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Emily Harris/NPR

Mahmoud Jaser was hit with shrapnel in the July 2014 attack. In this April photo he is surrounded by four of his sons: clockwise from upper left, Adham, Odai, Abdel Razik and Saqir.

Emily Harris/NPR

An investigation commissioned by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon recently concluded that Israeli soldiers hit the Jabaliya school with four high-explosive artillery shells.

It holds the Israeli military responsible for that attack and two others. Together, nearly 50 Palestinians were killed in the three attacks.

The U.N. inquiry found that in nearby Beit Hanoun on July 24, at least two high explosive mortars landed in a school courtyard as people gathered to evacuate to a safer shelter. Between 12 and 14 Gazans were killed, the public summary of the commission's inquiry says, and 93 people were injured.

In Rafah, bordering Egypt in the southern Gaza strip, the U.N. inquiry says a precision-guided missile targeting three men on a motorcycle struck the street outside the school gates mid-morning on Aug. 3. Fifteen people were killed, including a U.N. guard inside the school compound.

Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed in the seven weeks of fighting in Gaza. In general, Israel says that the Islamist group Hamas was storing weapons and firing from densely packed civilian areas. Israel says it targeted Hamas and that civilian deaths were not intentional.

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Israel initially denied wrongdoing in the Jabaliya and Beit Hanoun attacks. But after further examination of evidence, military prosecutors decided there is "reasonable suspicion" that soldiers may have not followed all the rules.

Prosecutors have opened criminal investigations into both attacks.

The drone attack in Rafah is still under investigation, according to Israeli deputy military attorney general Col. Eli Baron.

Israel told the U.N. board of inquiry, according to its report, that by the time it became clear the missile would strike the motorcycle outside a school, it was too late to redirect.

Baron says there is a range of possible outcomes in any of the scores of incidents under review.

"There could be a criminal indictment," he said, during an interview in his office at the Kirya, Israel's military headquarters in central Tel Aviv. "There could be disciplinary measures."

He also said military prosecutors use these investigations to examine whether battlefield guidance given to soldiers could be improved.

Even when criminal investigations are opened, as has happened regarding Jabaliya and Beit Hanoun schools, indictments are far from certain, Baron said.

"Many people think the mere fact that you launch a criminal investigation means you have, you know, a war criminal at the end of the road. And it doesn't necessarily mean that."

After a similar war in late 2008, dubbed Operation Cast Lead by the military, Israel's internal investigations led to a few convictions. According to news reports at the time, the longest sentence was seven months in prison, for credit card theft.

The U.N inquiry after that war openly called for compensation, specifically for damaged U.N. property. Israel paid the U.N. more than $10 million.

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In April, the courtyard of Jabaliya elementary school was full of materials to rebuild the destroyed classrooms. Emily Harris/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Emily Harris/NPR

In April, the courtyard of Jabaliya elementary school was full of materials to rebuild the destroyed classrooms.

Emily Harris/NPR

Jaser, who now walks with pain and takes medication to calm his nerves, says he'd like Israel's investigation to result in financial help for survivors now too injured to make a living.

But a neighbor, Tala Abu Ghnaim, who was also at the school when it was hit, dismisses the notion that it's even possible to compensate for the damage done.

"What, they can kill us then 'compensate' us?" he asked. "We want safety."

Asked whether Israel would consider compensation this time, Col. Baron said he didn't know.

"Obviously that's a political decision," he said. "The [U.N.] secretary general said nothing about compensation in his [recent] report."

That doesn't mean it won't come up, says Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Moon.

"If there is a need to pursue the issue of compensation, we'll pursue it," he says.

But he said the real priority is a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

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Fatiyeh abu Gamar, far left, stands with her 11 children. Their father — her husband — was killed while working as a guard at the school in Jabaliya. Emily Harris/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Emily Harris/NPR

Fatiyeh abu Gamar, far left, stands with her 11 children. Their father — her husband — was killed while working as a guard at the school in Jabaliya.

Emily Harris/NPR

Meanwhile, the Beit Hanoun school is back up and running, with two shifts of students daily, as is usual in crowded Gaza schools. The badly damaged classrooms of the Jabaliya school are being completely rebuilt.

Eleven children who lost their father in that attack are struggling to rebuild their lives. Their mother, Fatiyeh Abu Gamar, now a widow, says she simply misses her husband being around to take care of the family.

He was often unemployed she said, but "when he was alive nobody dared to interfere in our family life. It's different now," she says.

Now male relatives are trying to tell her what to do, including take her daughters out of university.

Her youngest, a 9-year-old boy, says when he grows up he wants to kill Israelis in revenge for killing his father. Abu Gamar says she told him no — we don't know exactly who did it. Israeli prosecutors say they don't know either yet, and they may never.

Gaza Strip

Israel

Many U.S. passengers who have been wedged into coach-class seats on long flights might welcome more flying options — even if that competition came from overseas.

But the chief executives for Delta, United and American airlines say it's not fair if such competition involves big government subsidies given to state-backed carriers.

Persian Gulf carriers, namely, Qatar Airways, Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways, are "dumping airline seats" into the U.S. market, and covering market losses with government subsidies, United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek said Friday at the National Press Club.

The Gulf carriers say the accusations are untrue, and they are not violating any rules.

Smisek, joined by Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson and American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, said subsidized seats on trans-Atlantic flights may help the foreign carriers, but are "quite detrimental to U.S. jobs."

The pilots, flight attendants and other U.S. airline workers in the audience cheered such remarks. Their unions have joined with management to pressure the White House to investigate practices they say violate "Open Skies" agreements that govern international airline competition.

Earlier this month, the Obama administration said it is launching a review of the matter. U.S. airline executives say the Gulf carriers have "flooded" the U.S. market with about 11,000 new daily seats, traveling from this country to Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi.

Last week, Qatar Airways said it would launch three new U.S. destinations – Boston, Atlanta and Los Angeles – next year.

Delta's Anderson said the Gulf carriers' surge in to U.S. markets is disproportionate to demand, and clearly the result of subsidization.

"The evidence is overwhelming," he said.

But groups representing passengers strongly disagree. They say U.S. carriers have benefited from mergers that did not get tough anti-trust scrutiny; bankruptcy filings that shifted pension obligations to the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corp.; and other forms of relief.

"These airlines want to close down the U.S. market to foreign carriers with no regard for consumers or airports in the U.S. that have lost air service and robust competition due to consolidation," said a statement from the Business Travel Coalition.

On Thursday, Etihad, an UAE-based airline, released its own report, saying Delta, American and United have received more than $70 billion in subsidies since 2000, mostly in the form of pension guarantees and creditor protections in bankruptcy.

U.S. carriers say Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections are not a "subsidy" as established by international laws.

If the Obama administration doesn't do more to check the growth of the Gulf carriers in this market, then airlines will seek action from Congress. Anderson said Delta has been a leader in raising objections and will continue to do so.

"We've been at it over two years and we're not going to stop," he said.

Airlines

The plastic orange mesh fences that once separated Ebola patients in the "red zone" from visitors in the "green zone" have collapsed. Corrugated metal roofing sheets flap in the wind. Some of the tents that served as isolation wards are still in good shape, but many of the tarps used as partitions are torn and frayed.

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Dr. Michael Mawanda, from the World Health Organization, walks past goggles left to dry during the last days of operation at the Ministry of Defense ETU. Jason Beaubien/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Jason Beaubien/NPR

Dr. Michael Mawanda, from the World Health Organization, walks past goggles left to dry during the last days of operation at the Ministry of Defense ETU.

Jason Beaubien/NPR

"Here we are going through to what used to be the red zone," says Dr. Michael Mawanda from the World Health Organization as he leads me through the grounds of a defunct 300-bed field hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. "As you can see the structures over there, those are patient wards."

During this Ebola outbreak some of the largest Ebola isolation units ever constructed were built in Liberia. The country has 21 in total, many of which were built by the U.S. military as part of President Obama's response to the crisis.

But now that Liberia has been declared Ebola free, the country is trying to figure out whether to tear down these field hospitals, repurpose them or keep them operational in case the disease makes a comeback

This isolation unit, known as the Ministry of Defense ETU, opened in October. The last Ebola patient walked out the gate free of the virus on Feb. 11.

Even though the current WHO protocols assume that the virus can't survive on beds or medical equipment for more than a week, Mawanda's team is still disinfecting everything here to reassure people that that there's no risk to the public.

"We are there to ensure that these processes happen — the cleaning process, the decontamination," he says. They also decide "what should be repurposed reused and what shouldn't be."

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A boot-drying rack sits empty at the Ministry of Defense Ebola Treatment Unit in Monrovia. Jason Beaubien/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Jason Beaubien/NPR

A boot-drying rack sits empty at the Ministry of Defense Ebola Treatment Unit in Monrovia.

Jason Beaubien/NPR

Leftover equipment, like drip stands and beds, can be reused at another hospital but they will be thoroughly sanitized first, says Mawanda's colleague, Ling Kituyi.

"You can imagine yourself," Kituyi says. "Even in the U.S., if you got something and people in that a hospital knew it came from an Ebola treatment unit, they might object and say, 'How do we know that's safe?"

Before anything can leave here, it has to be washed twice in a strong chlorine solution.

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The Ministry of Defense ETU opened in October and closed in February. Now it awaits decommissioning. Jason Beaubien/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Jason Beaubien/NPR

The Ministry of Defense ETU opened in October and closed in February. Now it awaits decommissioning.

Jason Beaubien/NPR

There is still concern here that the outbreak might somehow come back, or that cases might come in from neighboring Sierra Leone or Guinea. So only 14 of Liberia's 21 Ebola treatment units are being dismantled. The U.S. military built the majority of them as the hallmark of President Obama's multi-billion-dollar response to the crisis. But those American-built field hospitals didn't open until after the number of cases started to drop dramatically.

Some of the U.S. Ebola treatment units or ETUs never saw a single patient.

But Tolbert Nyenswa, who led the Liberian government's Ebola response, the building of these unused field hospitals. When construction started, Nyenswa says, this is what Liberia was asking for.

"When the U.S. came in, we gave them where ETUs [should be built] and the number of beds of ETUs to be built, and they did that effectively," he says.

Block By Block, Health Workers Lead Liberia To Victory Over Ebola May 9, 2015

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It's Like The Story Of Job: Ebola Survivors Who Continue To Suffer May 15, 2015

Not to be outdone, the Chinese built the most lavish of any of the ETUs. While the others are in tented structures, the Chinese hospital is an air-conditioned, modular building. It offered patients private rooms and has closed circuit video monitors so nurses could check on a patient without the danger of going to their bedside.

But the Chinese ETU is right next to the national soccer stadium, and there's now a fight over whether to move it, dismantle it or find some new use for the hospital where it stands.

Compared to the problems Liberia had just a few months ago, the problem of what to do with too many Ebola treatment beds is a refreshing change.

ebola

Liberia

You'd recognize actress Elizabeth Banks if you saw her — blonde, attractive, funny — whether she's playing an exhausted pregnant woman in What to Expect When You're Expecting, or an inappropriate a cappella judge in the 2012 movie Pitch Perfect.

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Elizabeth Banks directed Pitch Perfect 2, and she also returns as impolitic a cappella judge Gail Abernathy-McKadden. Universal Pictures hide caption

itoggle caption Universal Pictures

Elizabeth Banks directed Pitch Perfect 2, and she also returns as impolitic a cappella judge Gail Abernathy-McKadden.

Universal Pictures

Now she's taking on a different role: Directing Pitch Perfect 2. It's a tall order since the first one was such a surprise hit — it only cost $17 million to make, but earned more than $100 million worldwide.

And much like the first film's success, singing heroines the Barden Bellas are fresh off a victory, though theirs was onstage at a college championship, rather than at the box office. So to raise the stakes, Banks took the big fish out of their small pond, and dropped them in an ocean. In Pitch Perfect 2, the ladies are competing in the world championships.

Banks tells NPR's Audie Cornish she thinks these films are just like sports movies. "In the first film, especially, it was really structured like The Bad News Bears," she says. "It's a group of misfits who have to come together, who practice, who have competitions, they have to keep winning in order to keep going — so very much like a sports movie."

Interview Highlights

On her particular inspiration for this movie

Our model was Rocky IV. Because we spent a lot of time talking about Ivan Drago — we have a new competitor, a German group called Das Sound Machine, and we wanted Das Sound Machine to sort of be like our Ivan Drago, and the Bellas are our Rocky ... I think they look villainous but weirdly sexy.

On the tribal nature of a cappella

I think it's a good metaphor for life, generally — you know, all of these voices have to work together in harmony to be its best, and I think that's something that on an almost subconscious level people are responding to with these films. This particular type of music, I think, really requires all the part, and that dovetails really nicely with our teamwork themes.

Movie Reviews

Staying In Tune Isn't So Easy In 'Pitch Perfect 2'

On moving into directing

Monkey See

The Hard Work And Close Bonds Of Competitive College A Cappella

I started thinking about it probably maybe five years ago. You know, I directed plays in college, and it's something that I've sort of always put in the back of my mind ... and I started just sort of seeking out small opportunities. So one of the first things I did was direct a short film for the Farrelly brothers. And I did it by essentially guilting them into letting me direct it. I said, you don't have any women writers, directors, nobody. And I knew that they sort of trusted me in a weird way ... so I had been working towards this moment, towards the moment of directing a big feature.

On why more actresses don't move into directing

It's really the time commitment — and if you're going to direct a movie, you know, I think that's why Ben Affleck always stars in his movies. I mean, that would be my theory — I don't chat to him about it! But, you know, I think if you're going to take that amount of time to direct, you don't want to just leave your acting career on the side. That's what brought us to the dance, that's what we all love to do.

Weekend Edition Sunday aired a feature piece last week about the experience of Little Rock, Ark., cartographer Andrea Zekis as she transitioned from male to female. It focused on her experience at her workplace, the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department, and was told largely through the voices of Zekis and her coworkers as they recalled events from several years ago.

Clair Gustafson, a listener, wrote to my office with several concerns about the story. I'm going to focus on the part of the complaint that was about the language.

Gustafson wrote: "Andrea's birth name and pronouns were used for much longer than they had to be. The idea that it's okay to call trans people, especially trans women, by names and pronouns they no longer use actually literally puts trans people in physical danger." Similarly, "QueenKylee," a commenter at NPR.org, called the story "problematic," noting that "calling someone by their birth name is not only offensive to that person, but in some cases, puts them at risk."

Language issues come up frequently when NPR addresses transgender stories, including former Olympian Bruce Jenner's recent announcement that he identifies as a transgender female. Some would prefer that NPR use no pronouns when referring to transgender persons. Jenner told ABC News' Diane Sawyer that he still preferred to be referred to as "he."

NPR's policy is laid out here. The main highlights:

People define their gender identities and we respect their decisions.

We respect their wishes if they change their names.

We respect their wishes on whether to be referred to as "he" or "she."

Regarding Gustafson's complaint about the Weekend Edition Sunday piece, Sarah Gilbert, supervising senior editor for Weekend Edition, wrote in an email that the staff talked through the language issues carefully when assembling the piece. "We decided to let Andrea set the parameters on language, and what you hear is her choice of words on her own experience. She described herself as Gary at work until she came out as Andrea: we respectfully followed her lead."

The show's host, Rachel Martin, added in an email to me: "This is, in many ways, new territory for journalists – covering transgender issues and the language associated with them." She said, "We thought a lot about every pronoun we used and how it reflected back on Andrea's transition. If possible, we tried to avoid pronouns altogether in certain situations – always trying to balance the particular sensitivities of this story with the natural constraints of storytelling and the need to refer back to Andrea's previous life for narrative purposes. We tried very hard to strike that balance."

That seems appropriate to me. I understand Gustafson's larger point but it's almost certain that not every transgender person will see the issues in the same way. Given that this was a specific story about a specific situation, it seems reasonable to let the subject set the boundaries on this question.

Given that this was a specific story about a specific situation, it seems reasonable to let the subject set the boundaries on this question.

I had one concern of my own about the piece, however. Zekis was identified only as a cartographer; she is also the co-founder and executive director of the Arkansas Transgender Equality Coalition, which has advocated for federal protections against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

I asked the Weekend Edition staff why that fact was not noted. Gilbert replied: "We wanted specifically to talk about the experience of transitioning in the workplace," and Zekis co-founded the advocacy group in 2014, "well after she transitioned in 2010." It would have been "absolutely necessary" to mention the affiliation had it been current while she was transitioning, Gilbert added, "Not least because her position could have affected how she was treated or how she chose to handle things." But, she said, "In retrospect, we could have been clearer about her story since that time."

I agree. My take is that the affiliation should have been mentioned no matter what, so that listeners who knew of her affiliation would not have to do the math themselves — and those who didn't would know that the story's main subject is an active advocate for a cause related to the story.

Mark Memmott, NPR's standards and practices editor, agreed, as well, telling me, "A reference to Andrea Zekis' advocacy work would have told listeners and Web readers more about her commitment to the issues she is facing. Some listeners and readers might have put more stock in what she was saying, knowing that her experience has led her to take action. Some might have put less stock in what she was saying, thinking that being an advocate affects her credibility. It was valuable information. In our Ethics Handbook we stress the importance of identifying 'who is speaking.' We aim to add 'the context that describes where that person is coming from.'"

transgender

On Language

It's harvest time in the coca fields of southern Colombia. Using his bare hands, Franklin Canacuan expertly strips the bright green leaves from his 5-foot-tall coca bushes.

But over the years, Colombian police planes have sprayed his fields with a powerful weed killer.

It's part of a government program to destroy coca leaves, which are used to make cocaine. Since it began in 1994, the program has received more than $2 billion in U.S. funding.

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Franklin Canacuan strips the leaves from his coca bushes in southern Colombia. He says his daughter became ill after she was doused with weed killer while playing outside. John Otis for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption John Otis for NPR

Franklin Canacuan strips the leaves from his coca bushes in southern Colombia. He says his daughter became ill after she was doused with weed killer while playing outside.

John Otis for NPR

Now, due to health concerns, the Colombian government has decided to ground the spray planes.

Canacuan, the coca farmer, says his 8-year-old daughter became ill briefly after being doused by the rain of defoliant while playing outside.

"It makes people sick. It gives them a fever and skin rashes on their arms." he tells me. "It happens right after the planes pass over."

It's impossible to verify Canacuan's claims. However, misgivings about glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide used to kill coca, are growing.

Daniel Mejia directs the Drug and Security Research Center in Bogota. He conducted a four-year study of coca-growing regions and found that such health problems increased immediately after these areas were fumigated.

"In our own study we find that exposure to glyphosate used in the spraying campaigns in Colombia causes respiratory, dermatological problems and miscarriages," he says.

The Word Health Organization has raised an even bigger red flag. In March, its cancer research arm concluded that glyphosate "is probably carcinogenic to humans."

That prompted the Colombian government on Thursday to order a phasing out of the program. Justice Minister Yesid Reyes said the crop-dusting flights will probably end by October.

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Janeth Cuaran picks coca leaves in her 2-acre field in southern Colombia. Most coca growers sell their crops to FARC guerrillas. John Otis for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption John Otis for NPR

Janeth Cuaran picks coca leaves in her 2-acre field in southern Colombia. Most coca growers sell their crops to FARC guerrillas.

John Otis for NPR

Still, it's an awkward time for Colombia to holster a key weapon in its war on drugs.

"For first time in more than eight years, the United States government concluded that coca cultivation and cocaine production in Colombia has increased and increased rather dramatically," says William Brownfield, the U.S. State Department's top anti-drug official.

Colombia's coca crop expanded by 39 percent last year, he says. That means cocaine production may have jumped from 185 tons to 245 tons. Brownfield said a more aggressive spray campaign might have reduced those numbers.

The program is dear to the hearts of U.S. officials because they helped invent it. FARC guerrillas control many of the coca fields and frequently attack ground-based eradication teams. So Colombia opted for aerial eradication with American crop-dusters and glyphosate, which is used by agro-industry all across the globe.

"To the best of our knowledge there is not one single verified case of cancer being caused by glyphosate," Brownfield says.

Monsanto, which manufactures of glyphosate, points to many scientific studies showing that the herbicide poses no risk to humans. It claims that the World Health Organization report ignored this research.

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As it turns out, coca farmers routinely handle toxic chemicals. Near the town of La Hormiga, I meet Sandra Trejo, a former coca farmer who has switched to growing black pepper. She got out of the drug trade, in part, because turning coca leaves into cocaine requires mixing powerful solvents, like acetone and sulfuric acid.

"People use very strong chemicals without protection, like goggles, overalls or facemasks," Trejo says. "So we can't blame all the problems on glyphosate."

But Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos says there are other reasons for scrapping the spray program. He says that going after big-time smugglers rather than peasant coca farmers can be a more effective way to fight drugs.

drugs

Colombia

Lawmakers working on fixes to the justice system say that unrest in places like Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore is pushing them to act.

"The whole idea of a young man dying in police custody, the confrontations with police, the looting and burning of innocent minority owned businesses," Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said on the Senate floor this month. "The question arises, what can we do?"

There's an unusual bipartisan consensus in Washington on the need to overhaul the justice system. Presidential candidates from both political parties are talking about how to reduce the prison population and lawmakers are negotiating on legislation designed to do just that. But those proposals may not go far enough for many advocates.

In the Senate, Cornyn and Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, are considering a slate of reform proposals.

"The expectations are very high," says Christine Leonard of the Coalition for Public Safety. The group includes unlikely allies such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Koch Brothers. And Leonard says it's advocating for changes to the corrections system.

"The whole idea of a young man dying in police custody, the confrontations with police, the looting and burning of innocent minority owned businesses," Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said on the Senate floor this month. "The question arises, what can we do?" Molly Riley/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Molly Riley/AP

"I would argue that we have already waited too long and that the cost for the American taxpayers of $80 billion a year toward corrections is not the appropriate level of investment that people want when there are other things our communities need," she adds.

Now, this is where things get complicated. There are two sets of ideas about how to move ahead. One set of reform proposals puts more weight on changing federal sentencing laws at the front end. That means, fewer people get sent to prison in the first place to serve long mandatory sentences for drug crimes.

President Obama, the deputy attorney general and other top Democrats are pressing for that option. But key Republicans on Capitol Hill seem to favor another approach. They want to change the law to make it easier for low-risk inmates to earn credits to leave prison months or years early. They also want to create a federal commission to study all the other problems, such as rebuilding confidence in police.

Law enforcement supports the idea of a commission. But many advocates say the problems have been studied already — and they worry a commission could cost even more money yet lead nowhere.

"We have to think big right now," says Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit working to change sentencing laws and seek alternatives to incarceration. "Our sentencing policies have become so excessive that tinkering around the edges is not going to get us very far."

Mauer says if Congress wants to help restore minorities' trust in police, it should go big on sentencing reform.

"Half the people in federal prison are there for a drug offense, a substantial majority of those are African-American or Latino," Mauer says. "All the evidence we have shows that the war on drugs has had an unwarranted, disproportionate racial effect and there's nothing we could do that would help to reverse that more than substantial sentencing reform across the board."

Cornyn and Grassley have been skeptical about dialing back penalties for drug crimes, though, in favor of legislation that would require federal prison officials to assess the risk many types of inmates pose and to provide them classes and training that could lead to their early release.

With a limited amount of time for the Senate to act this year, the question is whether the Obama administration and its allies in Congress can convince Republicans to agree to some modest changes in drug sentences. They're seeking, among other ideas, to limit the 10-year mandatory minimum penalty for many drug offenses to the leaders or organizers of drug rings, U.S. sources tell NPR. That change could apply to thousands of defendants every year.

Longtime advocates say Congress has only weeks to move on criminal justice reform before the presidential race brings action to a halt.

The crows freaked out. The dogs howled. And just as the sun was beginning to set, a second earthquake struck Nepal.

Animals react to earthquakes before they strike. People react after they hit. And in Nepal, Tuesday's 7.3 magnitude earthquake, coming almost three weeks after the April 25 quake, prompted a primal response.

The Two-Way

Nepal Update: Quake's Death Toll Rises; U.S. Chopper Still Missing

Parallels

Nepali Village Struggles To Recover From Earthquake

"You could hear chunks of buildings just falling," says Cindy Stein, director of global programs at the Real Medicine Foundation, speaking from Nepal. "People were saying this prayer you say when you're dying. A lot of the people around us were volunteers [from Nepal] and their families were not with them. The women were hysterical."

The prayer Stein is talking about is a Buddhist chant usually heard only during funerals, says Venerable Metteyya Sakyaputta, a monk in his 20s from Lumbini, Nepal. At that moment, everyone, fearing the end of their lives, was chanting. He and other volunteers had been working with Stein to gather supplies for remote villages and nunneries when the earthquake struck.

"It was a very powerful experience, and just seeing the panic and chaos was heart-wrenching," Sakyaputta says. "It had been more than two weeks [since the initial earthquake] and people were just trying to get back to their lives. I could see they were on the verge of their nerves."

Traffic came to a complete halt and people ran into the streets of Kathmandu, panicking. Half an hour later, yet another quake hit. This one registered 6.3. Tremors continued throughout the night and into the next day.

The second wave of earthquakes came just as the country was starting to transition into the rebuilding phase, Stein says.

i

Cindy Stein, from the nonprofit Real Medicine Foundation, was working in Kathmandu when the second earthquake struck. Courtesy of Real Medicine Foundation hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Real Medicine Foundation

Cindy Stein, from the nonprofit Real Medicine Foundation, was working in Kathmandu when the second earthquake struck.

Courtesy of Real Medicine Foundation

The situation is even more difficult than before, she tells Goats and Soda. Procuring helicopters remains a challenge, and many roads that had been cleared in the past two weeks are now blocked again.

Oxfam America, which has about 100 mostly Nepalese volunteers already on the ground, plans on getting more help to Nepal. The group has 35 tons of equipment — including tents, water and sanitation supplies — to deliver by truck, says Darius Teeter, vice president of program. That will be even harder because of new landslides.

"We are in a race against time [with] monsoon season coming in June," he says. "We're adding more people, not subtracting."

But the first thing the agency did, he says, was to send local volunteers home to check on their families.

"The second earthquake has increased the already desperate need [for permanent housing]," says Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International.

"We're really focused on the long-term rebuilding of communities," he says. "Our volunteers are out there helping families clear rubble and salvage any materials that can be used for rebuilding."

Goats and Soda

Virtual Volunteers Use Twitter And Facebook To Make Maps Of Nepal

Community members have also stepped up for search and rescue efforts. "It's a hard job," Stein says. "We had Matteya and other monk leaders bring them snacks. And we told [the local volunteers], 'If this is what you want to do you need to be committed because we're going to be here for a while.' "

Even those who didn't have training.

"We had some friends within the Nepalese mountain biking communities who just sort of stopped what they were doing," she says. The professional cyclists used their mountain bikes to deliver supplies to hard-to-reach areas. Families shared what food and other household items they had gathered from their homes with others.

"We realized after an hour [of] continuous tremors that it was going to be dark soon and nobody was going to sleep inside," Stein says. People were camping out in open spaces all over Kathmandu. She and her team decided to set up a camp in an open field at the Nepal Academy that would shelter nearly 350 people. The majority, she says, are families who were too afraid to sleep at home.

They needed food but the local supermarket was closed for repairs and guarded by security. Stein says she didn't know what to expect as she approached the guards to let her in. "I went up to them and asked nicely, that there is a camp and we needed supplies," she says. "We were just going to get in and grab some things."

The guards were amazing, she beams. "We had a big pot to make tea, and we had biscuits and noodles."

People are extremely hopeful, Stein says, but not naive. They're frustrated with the government, and they want assistance from the outside. But ultimately, she says, they want to be the ones to rebuild their country.

relief efforts

Nepal

Earthquake

Here's a map of a system of roads that links the suburbs within a city. The map shows the travel time in minutes at 7:00 a.m. on each section of road.

Question: Julio lives in Silver, Maria lives in Lincoln and Don lives in Nobel. They want to meet in a suburb on the map. No one wants to travel for more than 15 minutes. Where could they meet?

Mathematics: Charts

CD SALES OECD hide caption

itoggle caption OECD

In January, the new CDs of the bands 4U2Rock and The Kicking Kangaroos were released. In February, the CDs of the bands No One's Darling and The Metalfolkies followed. The following graph shows the sales of the bands' CDs from January to June.

Question: In which month did the band No One's Darling sell more CDs than the band The Kicking Kangaroos for the first time?

A) No month

B) March

C) April

D) May

Financial Literacy: Shares

GRAPHING SHARES OECD hide caption

itoggle caption OECD

Question: Which statements about the graph are true:

The best month to buy the shares was September: True or false?

The share priced increased by about 50 percent over the year: True of false?

Goats and Soda

Take A New Test Aimed At The World's English-Language Learners

Answers: Park or Silver; April; first statement is true, second is false

For more questions, take a look at the sample test.

Education

Senate leaders were all smiles Wednesday after they broke a 24-hour impasse and announced they had reached a deal on how to move forward on a fast-track trade negotiating bill. That legislation would give the president expedited authority to enter into a trade agreement with Pacific Rim countries, otherwise known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP.

But how senators will vote on this bill depends largely on how they feel about TPP. And there's one problem.

"I bet that none of my colleagues have read the entire document. I would bet that most of them haven't even spent a couple hours looking at it," said Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who has acknowledged he has yet to read every single page of the trade agreement.

Because, as Brown explained, even if a member of Congress were to hunker down and pore over a draft trade agreement hundreds of pages long, filled with technical jargon and confusing cross-references –- what good would it do? Just sitting down and reading the agreement isn't going to make its content sink in.

And the White House isn't letting senators to do much else than sit down and read.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, seen here speaking about the trade bill Tuesday, told NPR "I bet that none of my colleagues have read the entire document. I would bet that most of them haven't even spent a couple hours looking at it." Brown acknowledged he has yet to read every single page of the trade agreement. Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Alex Wong/Getty Images

To study the draft TPP language, senators have to go to the basement of the Capitol and enter a secured, sound-proof room. There, they surrender their cell phones and other mobile devices, and sit under the watchful gaze of an official from the U.S. Trade Representative's office while they peruse the pages. Any notes taken inside the room must be left in the room.

Only aides with high-level security clearances can accompany lawmakers. Members of Congress can't ask outside industry experts or lawyers to analyze the language. They can't talk to the public about what they read. And Brown says there's no computer inside the secret room to look something up when there's confusion. You just consult the USTR official.

"There is more access in most cases to CIA and Defense Department and Iran sanctions documents — better access to congressional staff and others — than for this trade agreement," said Brown.

The White House defends the restrictions, pointing out that 12 countries are still negotiating a sensitive trade agreement and publicizing trade terms before they're finalized could make bargaining more awkward.

It's a reasonable point, says Robert Mnookin, who heads the negotiation program at Harvard Law School.

"The representatives of the parties have to be able to explore a variety of options just to see what might be feasible before they ultimately make a deal. That kind of exploration becomes next to impossible if you have to do it in public," said Mnookin. "In private, people can explore and tentatively make concessions, which if they publicly made, would get shot down before you really had a chance to explore what you might be given in return for some compromise."

The White House points out the final TPP language will be made public 60 days before the president signs the agreement. But by then, negotiations will be over and changes to the language can't be made. And the Senate is set to vote very soon on a bill that forces lawmakers to give up their rights to amend the agreement.

There's a long-running truth on Capitol Hill that lawmakers rarely read the bills they vote on. But Brown says this is different. The White House is making it considerably harder for lawmakers to discuss or analyze a trade agreement that is key to how they will vote on the fast-track bill.

"That's why people are so troubled about this agreement. It really begs the question — the secrecy begs the question — what's in this agreement that we don't really understand or know about?" Brown said.

The secret hallway

I asked Brown to show me where inside the Capitol the secret TPP room was and he led me down a spiral staircase to metal double doors in the basement, each emblazoned with a sign that read "No public or media beyond this point."

Then he dashed off to a meeting, and I stood there, fighting the temptation to yank one of the doors open.

Within seconds, the doors abruptly parted on their own. A baffled-looking man with gray hair and spectacles poked his head out. A camera was slung around his neck. I saw Capitol Hill press credentials on his chest.

A member of the media had made it into the Secret Hallway!

"How did you get in there?" I asked. "It says no public or media beyond this point!"

Turns out he had wandered into the hallway by way of a back hallway that is totally accessible to the public.

What? After all this secrecy fuss, it's that easy? I wondered how close I could get to this so-called secret TPP language.

We rounded the corner, and he led me through a carpeted hallway, past Senate meeting rooms and staffers, all the way to a non-descript door marked "Exit." I pushed open the door and found myself in a long, long hallway that looked nothing like the rest of the Capitol. No marble floors. No paintings. No plush carpets. Just fluorescent light, bright white walls and a low ceiling.

The Secret Hallway.

Here's a photo.

i

The Secret Hallway Ailsa Chang/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Ailsa Chang/NPR

The Secret Hallway

Ailsa Chang/NPR

But sorry, that's as far as I got — before a Capitol Hill police officer who heard my heels clicking on the floor kindly asked me to leave.

Foreign policy is becoming a big issue in the 2016 election. For the first time in years, some polls show as many voters concerned about foreign affairs as domestic issues.

And for Republican voters it's the No. 1 issue.

GOP candidates have been talking a lot about foreign policy and national security on the campaign trail, bashing the president and his former secretary of state for what they say is a disastrous and incoherent approach to the rest of the world. To a person, they promise that if they are elected they'd be tougher, kill more bad guys, and give more support to the U.S.'s allies. But this new focus on foreign policy raises some questions for the leading Republican candidates. Here are a few:

1. For Jeb Bush: What exactly does "Being Your Own Man" mean?

This was a rough week for Bush. First, he said if he knew then what we know now about Iraq he would have done the same thing that his brother did and go to war. But then he said he misheard the question and, given another chance to answer it, he tried to clarify matters by saying, well, he didn't know what he would do. And besides, Bush said, that was a "hypothetical."

On Wednesday, a man in Reno, Nev., where Bush was campaigning, helpfully pointed out to him that running for president IS hypothetical, as in, "If I was President I'd...."

Bush's difficulty separating himself from the least popular aspects of his brother's legacy prompted a chorus of responses from his Republican rivals. Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Ben Carson and Rand Paul have all said if they knew then what we all know now about the non-existent "weapons of mass destruction," they would NOT have gone to war. And Bush's wobbly answer to a question he had to know would come up caused much head scratching among his supporters. Was it family loyalty? Or stubbornness? Or, since its been the 13 years since he last ran for office, was Bush just plain rusty?

2. For Marco Rubio: When will he go beyond the boilerplate?

The Florida senator claims to have the deepest foreign-policy experience of anyone in the GOP. In the four years he's been in the Senate, he's served on the Foreign Relations and the Intelligence committees. But his speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York Wednesday, laying out what he called "a doctrine for the exercise of American influence in the world," Rubio didn't go much beyond mainstream GOP hawkish rhetoric. He is comfortable answering questions on the subjects, but, so far, he's been largely non committal on some of the specifics.

It's hard to imagine any of the Republicans, or even Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, arguing with Rubio's "three pillars" — adequately fund the U.S. military, use American power to protect U.S. economic interests, and reinforce our alliances while advancing the rights of religious minorities and women. Rubio didn't explain, however, what he'd do if it was America's allies who were persecuting women, or what kind of power he'd use to protect U.S. economic interests in "airspace , cyberspace, or outer space." So far, despite his own proclamations of foreign-policy depth, it hasn't yet helped him achieve the stature he seeks — even within the GOP foreign-policy establishment.

3. For Scott Walker: When will you graduate from foreign policy 101?

Like the other governors in the race, Walker has a disadvantage, because he hasn't been directly involved in foreign policy, other than promoting Wisconsin cheese overseas. Walker has other formidable strengths as a candidate, but even he admits foreign policy isn't at the top of that list.

Walker got pummeled for saying that fighting union protesters in Wisconsin was good preparation for fighting the Islamic State militant group. And he's now made two trips abroad — one to London, where he got tangled up in comments about evolution and punted on questions of foreign policy, and, on a recent trip to Israel, he avoided the press altogether.

After some missteps, he's been getting tutored by Republican foreign-policy experts. But in a nomination battle where foreign policy will play a larger-than-usual role Walker needs to keep hitting the briefing books and show he's mastered them.

4. For the eventual nominee: What if Rand Paul is right?

Paul is the exception to the new Republican hawkishness. He says it's time for a president who shows some reluctance to intervene overseas. And he's posing this question to his rivals for the nomination: "Is it a good idea to go into the middle east, topple a government and hope that something better rises out of the chaos, because recent history seems to show that you know what, we're not getting something better, we're getting something worse?"

The other candidates think Republican primary voters are ready for a muscular, more interventionist foreign policy, and recent polls suggest they're right. But that may not be true in a general election, where voters may be more open to Paul's "reluctant interventionist" approach. It might be hard for the eventual GOP nominee to transition to a light touch after months of saber rattling.

2016 Presidential Race

Scott Walker

Jeb Bush

Marco Rubio

Republicans

On his big break

I was in [Omaha, Neb.,] and I was working for very little money and it was hard. I was working six days a week and I wanted to get out of Omaha. ... Then one night I get a call from Atlanta, Ga., from WSB, which was [one of] the most distinguished stations certainly in the South, and one of the most respected in the country. They were in the middle of the civil rights movement and the news director said, "We hear wonderful things about you. We've looked at your tape. We'd like you to fly down here. There's an opening in our 11 o'clock news."

Now, I was a 25-year-old white Yankee being invited to come down to be a prospect to anchor the 11 o'clock news in the largest and most important city in the South. I flew down and at the end of the weekend they said, "We've got a job for you." ...

By August of that year, NBC came and said, "We'd like you to go work for us full time." And my boss in Atlanta was not happy but then he said to me later, "We're just not going to be able to keep you, Tom. You go with our blessing." ... My first assignment was to cover this actor who was running for the Republican nomination for governor and the Democratic Party thought that he couldn't possibly win — and I was on the buses with Ronald Reagan and covering his campaign. That was a big break.

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On his difficulty pronouncing one letter

I have an "L" issue and I think ... over the years [it has] diminished a lot. I was unaware of it until I left South Dakota, and then I go back and listen to other people in South Dakota and it's not uncommon. In our family we had chronic hearing loss and I really think that it came out of that, that I didn't hear it the right way at the right time. I had a brother who had a really severe hearing loss and as a result his speech pattern is even more pronounced, although it has been a lot better now. I also grew up in working class neighborhoods where we didn't have speech therapists even though I was known as a kid who was talking all the time. ... It didn't really come up until I left South Dakota and I had a wonderful speech coach in Omaha who kind of got me started in the right direction. And I've worked on it over the years but when I get tired is when it shows up most of all.

On what it means to be an anchor

Internally, you're the captain of the team — you're the one the others look to and you help set the pace for what kind of a news division you have, what's important that you should have on the air and how you do it. I always had the reputation, however, of being not just the anchor but someone who listened as well to my colleagues and was not afraid during the 2:30 editorial rundown meeting to have a vigorous exchange about what was important and what we should be covering that day. And then on the air, Monday through Friday doing the news, it's always kind of undefinable for me. You convey something that the public either trusts or it does not trust and it has to do with the content and how you handle the news, but it also just has something to do with your persona.

"The real test of an anchor is when there's a very big event. Sept. 11 is the quintessential example of that, and that day it took everything that I knew as an anchor, as a citizen, as a father, as a husband, to get through it."

- Tom Brokaw

The real test of an anchor is when there's a very big event. Sept. 11 is the quintessential example of that, and that day it took everything that I knew as an anchor, as a citizen, as a father, as a husband, to get through it.

On covering the Sept. 11 attacks

I went right to the Today Show and sat down with Katie [Couric] and with Matt [Lauer], who were doing a very good job but this was kind of more in my area, if you will, than it was in theirs, though we worked as a team seamlessly. The first thing that we all agreed on was don't speculate — just report what we know because we didn't know a lot. We didn't know where it was coming from, who was responsible, how many people were still left in those towers. And then gradually, the responsibility for leading the coverage evolved to me and after the second tower went down I thought: I really have to prepare this country in a way for what we're in for. So I looked into the camera and said, "This will change us. We're at war here."

On knowing when to retire

I don't think there was one big nirvana moment. What I did know was that I have so many interests in life and the seasons of news ratings and being an anchorman got in the way of some of that. I had been at it more than 20 years at that point. I had gone to all the big stories of the '80s, which was one of the most fertile times in American journalism, around the world and here as well. And I've always thought that life and my professional life should have seasons and I was now in a season in which I thought it was time to go on and do something else besides be there every night at 6:30 in the chair whether there was something important happening or not.

Tom Brokaw

The Women on 20s campaign, which seeks to put a female face on the $20 bill, has announced a winner: Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave whose ingenuity and courage led other captives to freedom.

Tubman narrowly edged Eleanor Roosevelt, finishing with 118,328 votes to Roosevelt's 111,227, according to Women on 20s. More than 600,000 votes were cast over 10 weeks, including more than 350,000 in the final round that began on April 5.

Early on, Roosevelt had led Tubman by nearly 15,000 votes, but the final round brought a reversal.

We'll note that Tubman's appearance on the $20 bill would have a special historical resonance: That's the same amount she eventually received from the U.S. government as her monthly pension for her service as a nurse, scout, cook and spy during the Civil War, as well as for her status as the widow of a veteran.

A petition has now been sent to President Obama asking him "to order the Secretary of the Treasury to change the current portrait portrayed on our American $20 bank note to reflect the remarkable accomplishments of an exemplary American woman who has helped shape our Nation's great history."

In the Women on 20s vote, Rosa Parks came in third, with 64,173 votes and Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to become the Cherokee Nation's chief, was fourth, with 58,703. Others on the ballot included Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Clara Barton and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

While the images of George Washington, Andrew Jackson and other historical figures on U.S. currency are bound by tradition, they appear at the discretion of the secretary of the Treasury Department. The department's own records "do not reveal the reason that portraits of these particular statesmen were chosen in preference to those of other persons of equal importance and prominence," according to one of its official websites.

The Treasury adds, "By law, only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on U.S. currency and securities."

Of course, it takes years for the Treasury to roll out new or redesigned bank notes. The Women on 20s group explains what they'd like to see happen next:

"President Obama already has publicly expressed an interest in featuring more women on our money. With at least 100,000 votes, we can get the President's ear. That's how many names it takes to petition the White House for executive action. We went way beyond that with well over a half a million votes backed by names and email addresses."

The group says that because Tubman, Roosevelt and Parks all attracted more than 100,000 votes at different stages of the voting, they all qualify for their own petitions.

Tubman's victory comes two years after the centennial of her death in 1913. At the time, NPR's Michel Martin spoke to the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture's chief curator, Jacqueline Serwer, about Tubman's varied life and legacy.

After explaining that Tubman had been born on Maryland's Eastern Shore (and named Araminta at birth), Serwer explained what made Tubman special — and earned a $40,000 bounty on her head:

"Well, she was very smart and had a wonderful memory and knew these byways and these secret routes like the back of her hand and so, when she rounded up a group of people whom she was going to lead to freedom, she knew exactly where to go, where to hide, when to wait, how to escape the slave hunters who were looking for her and looking for the folks that she was bringing to freedom. And she was just very clever. She was also very disciplined, so people, you know, who were tired or who wanted to do something different — she was very strong and could be very harsh at the same time that she was a very kind woman."

Serwer also noted the famous threat Tubman made to any fugitive who might lose their nerve on the path to freedom: "She would kill them. She couldn't risk all the others for the sake of — you know, of somebody who was going to fall by the wayside."

Tubman isn't known to have ever carried out that threat, Serwer said.

money

currency

Cesar Vargas has a resume most young Americans would envy. He graduated from a Brooklyn high school that counts Sens. Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders among its alumni. He made honors in both college and law school. But because he was brought to the United States from Mexico illegally when he was 5-years old, he can't fulfill one of his dreams: joining the armed forces.

"I do believe that because this country has given me so much, I do want to be able to give back," Vargas said in an interview.

For Vargas, who has traveled to Washington multiple times to press Congress for legislation to give immigrants like him a path to citizenship, this cause is both personal and political. The co-director of the Dream Action Coalition, a group that advocates for young Latinos, wants to become a military lawyer.

"It's a little frustrating," Vargas said. "This is the reality for us. This is the country we call home...What it really comes down to is the commitment to serve the country you call home, the country you want to wear a uniform for."

Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill want to see a path for immigrants like Vargas, known as Dreamers, to serve in the military. Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., has repeatedly pushed a bill that would give legal status to young undocumented immigrants who serve in the military. And an amendment to a must-pass defense-policy bill would encourage the Pentagon to consider allowing immigrants brought to the country as children to do so.

That amendment has been blasted by conservatives, who say it's a "severe threat" to passage of the $612 billion defense-policy bill, which typically passes with broad bipartisan support.

Led by Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, more than two dozen House Republicans wrote a letter to the chairman of the House Rules Committee threatening to oppose the defense bill if the immigration provision wasn't stripped out. The lawmakers pointed to previous times the House had voted to declare the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as unconstitutional.

"The language contained in Rep. Gallego's amendment contradicts the House's previous position and is a severe threat to the passage of the NDAA — legislation which funds the essential programs that America's military requires," the lawmakers wrote to House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions. "Especially in this time of increased terrorism, our national security should not be threatened by allowing such controversial language on a program we have rejected three times as unconstitutional."

Brooks pointed to Pentagon force reductions and claimed, "Americans are being handed pink slips as they serve in Afghanistan."

He added, "At the same time, you've got Congressman Gallego, who is wanting to promote illegal aliens and put them in a position to compete with American citizens for military service positions, and I find that truly unconscionable."

Rep. Ruben Gallego D-Ariz., who sponsored the amendment, said he was surprised the amendment had provoked such a clash. He said Republicans were using the non-binding amendment to "play immigration politics for something that isn't really controversial."

"This is something that is really important, not because these young men and women have a right to be in the military," he said. "No one has a right to be in the military. It's the opportunity and the privilege to serve in the military that we should extend to anybody that's in this country...they should have the opportunity to serve and repay their country."

Brooks said though the amendment is technically just a sense of Congress resolution, "it is the kind of political cover that would empower the Secretary of Defense in reaction to Congress to declare this vast field of DACA illegal aliens as vital to America's interest, thereby exempting them from the citizenship and or lawful immigrant requirements to serve the United States military."

"That is not the sense of Congress," Brooks said, "and it's certainly not the sense of the American people to put already struggling American families in the position of not only having to compete in the private sector with illegal aliens, but also trying to compete for military service positions."

Gallego's amendment passed with the support of House Armed Services Committee Democrats and six Republicans: Reps. Mike Coffman R-Colo., Chris Gibson R-N.Y., Frank LoBiondo R-N.J., Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., Martha McSally R-Ariz. and Ryan Zinke R-Mont.

Coffman, who served in both Iraq wars, says he agrees with his Republican colleagues that President Obama has overreached with executive actions on immigration. But he also insisted that the country needs immigration reform. Explaining his support for an amendment that many of his Republican colleagues oppose, Coffman drew from his own careers — both in the military and in Congress.

"I'm disappointed in my colleagues for fighting this," Coffman said. "I'm not sure why they're so opposed to this. I've been in the Congress side by side with people who are opposed to this, but yet they themselves didn't want to serve. These young people ought to have the opportunity to serve."

The bill is expected to be taken up by the full House this week and then must go to the Senate where Arizona Sen. John McCain leads the Armed Services Committee. McCain has said that there will not be a similar provision included in his committee's version of the bill.

Congress

Department of Defense

Republicans

Like the "armored muscle" of a snake, Mann's book squeezes us in an ever-tightening grip as it glides from Josh's funeral to wrap itself around many of his mourners' memories, beginning with friends and slithering on to increasingly close relatives.

The book rightly builds to its most devastating portrait, of a father (with whom Mann is obviously close) who, years after Josh's death, was still trying to make sense of his eldest son's "cracked" life. Mann captures the delicate dance Josh's divorced parents did around him, trying to buttress him while hiding their alarm and pity.

Part of the difficulty of Lord Fear is that the object of Mann's obsession, while at times charismatic, is also deeply unpleasant — a warped person who sadistically tortured cats, bullied his brother Dave and cousins, and nastily abused his worried, ever-solicitous mother. And while Mann manages to convey why his friends and family were so poleaxed by Josh's death, we ultimately care more about the people who cared about him — beginning with his sensitive younger half-brother — than about Josh.

Book Reviews

Farm Team Saga 'Class A' Hits It Out Of The Park

Mann's book exemplifies several trends in memoirs. Most notably, it takes liberties with linear chronology. ("I think that's how memory works," Mann writes.) All names, except Josh's and Mann's, have been changed, along with some biographical details. Begun when Mann was in college ten years ago, Lord Fear features scenes constructed from often spotty memories.

None of this is troubling, because Mann is upfront about it. But in a book about trying to nail down the ineffable, we can't help wishing for more concrete facts to anchor us. An investigation of Josh's arrest record, for example, could have provided a clearer picture of how he supported his heroin habit.

But clarity may be beside the point. Josh, Mann writes, "is in the thick air of the messy moments of all the years that have passed without him." Fortunately, Mann clearly has been endowed with the empathy his brother so sorely lacked. It enables him to move us with lyrical descriptions of Manhattan seen from a distance ("rising out of the water, stacks of gold light outlined by dusk. Everything else is disappointment"), and simple assertions like "I wanted him to feel better than he felt." Let's hope Lord Fear frees Mann to move on to happier projects.

Read an excerpt of Lord Fear

My Organic Life

How a Pioneering Chef Helped Shape the Way We Eat Today

by Nora Pouillon and Laura Fraser

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When restaurateur Nora Pouillon moved to the United States from Austria in the 1960s, she was surprised by how hard it was to get really fresh food. Everything was packaged and processed. Pouillon set out to find the find the best ingredients possible to cook for her family and friends. She brought that same sensibility to her Restaurant Nora, which eventually became the first certified organic restaurant in the country.

Pouillon writes about her lifelong devotion to food in a new memoir, My Organic Life: How A Pioneering Chef Helped Shape The Way We Eat Today.

Restaurant Nora is tucked into an old brick building on a busy corner in the nation's capital. An herb garden takes up part of the sidewalk outside the restaurant.

Pouillon traces her interest in food back to her earliest years when she lived on a farm in the Alps during World War II.

"This time showed me how food is like a treasure and how difficult it is to grow and raise food enough to feed you and your family all year round," she says. "And it gave me a big respect for food."

Today Pouillon channels her passion for food into her restaurant, which has been a fixture in the Washington, D.C., food scene since 1979. When Pouillon was getting ready to open the restaurant, she was introduced to then reigning power couple of that era, Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and his wife, journalist Sally Quinn. They agreed to invest in the restaurant, but Pouillon says Quinn offered a word of warning:

"I told them ... that I really wanted to do natural food and she said, 'Just don't tell them that it's health food because people hate health food; they think it's bad.' So anyway, I just called it 'additive-free food," Pouillon says.

Natural food, Pouillon says, was the norm when she was living in Europe. But when she moved to this country as a young wife, she had to search for fresh ingredients wherever she could find them, mostly in small ethnic markets. And when she got started in the restaurant business, she tracked down local farmers who could supply the ingredients she needed.

"It was hard, I mean I had to drive out to Virginia to scout around to find farmers and you know then there was no Google," she recalls. "So you couldn't just Google organic farm or natural farm. So I had to go through the Yellow Pages, and through the Yellow Pages, I found farmers."

Pouillon's approach attracted legions of fans including politicians, journalists, even presidents.

Pouillon is still at the restaurant every day, which begins when she meets with her chefs to discuss what is needed for that day's service.

Restaurant Nora was certified as an organic restaurant in 1999, meaning 95 percent of all ingredients including seasonings and condiments have to be organic. Sometimes, says Pouillon, that can be challenging.

"It's a big problem that I run often out of things because the farmer didn't deliver what he said he would because the beetles ate [it] or the frost came or it was too wet ... and because of my upbringing I understand that. But it drives my chefs nuts," she says.

As the kitchen staff is prepping food for the day, Chef James Martin and Pouillon go over food orders.

"Pretty much the farm rules this kitchen, especially when you are getting organic stuff ... it takes patience, it takes time, it takes love, it takes a lot of care, it takes a lot of work," says Martin.

The food scene in this country has changed radically since Pouillon first moved here: Farmers markets have sprung up all over, supermarkets now carry fresh vegetables and organic meats and the farm-to-table movement is increasingly popular. In fact, Pouillon says sometimes differing approaches to natural foods seem to compete with each other.

"People always ask me: What is better, organic or local? And I say, well there's nothing wrong with being local and organic," she says.

Now in her early 70s, Pouillon says she feels her life has come full-circle since those early childhood days when she first learned to respect food, and the work it takes to raise it, cook it and serve it.

Correction May 12, 2015

In a previous Web version of this story, the headline called Restaurant Nora "America's first organic restaurant." The headline should have specified the first certified as organic. The earlier story misspelled Nora Pouillon's last name.

Nora Pouillon

organic food

"My dad was going to play banjo and he never got into it, so he advertised in the Palo Alto newspaper: 'Banjo for sale,' " Kreutzmann says. "One night there's a knock on the door. I open the door and Jerry Garcia was standing there."

A number of years later, Kreutzmann saw Garcia again, playing with Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, and was "completely taken away." That night, he swore to follow Garcia everywhere. Two weeks later, Kreutzmann got a phone call from Garcia asking if he'd like to be in a band.

"I thought that was a very good idea," Kreutzmann says. "Turned out to be a pretty great idea, don't you think?"

'It Can Be Like Fractals'

In the band's beginnings, altered states of consciousness fueled the Grateful Dead's creativity.

"Well, acid was the most beneficial drug," Kreutzmann says. "I jokingly refer to it as my college education, my graduate school, whatever. If I hadn't taken acid, I just would not be here talking to you today. It opens you up; it lets you see that what you're taught in school or what your parents have taught you, or society lays on you, isn't necessarily all there is to see. Your art can flourish and flourish and flourish. It can be like fractals, your art; it can just keep growing. That's what LSD did for me."

But drugs ate away at the band, even as the Grateful Dead grew into the biggest touring attraction in America.

"When cocaine came into the Grateful Dead, it really hurt us," Kreutzmann says.

Kreutzmann says that 1995, when Jerry Garcia died, "was a terrible year for me. I moved to Hawaii to get healing. I was in a really bad way —"

After a moment, Kreutzmann composed himself.

'He Was My Best Music Teacher'

The drummer and the bandleader had once made a pact: If the Grateful Dead ever came to an end, Bill Kreutzmann and Jerry Garcia would move to the Hawaiian island of Kauai, clean up and go diving. In the end, Kreutzmann moved there alone.

"I thank him. He was my best music teacher," Kreutzmann says of Garcia. "He taught me more about music than anybody else. And not necessarily just in words, but how he played. The way he played, you can learn so much from it. Doesn't matter what instrument you play.

"I [was] a senior in high school when he asked me to join the band, when that phone call came in. I knew how to play the drums just a little bit. I had the desire. The thing he said was, 'Bill, play full value. Make four beats be a really full four beats. Don't rush to the end of the bar.' "

Even though it's crept up in the past couple of months, the price of a gallon of gasoline is still about $1 less than it was a year ago. That's saving drivers $15 to $20 every time they fill up.

Economists were quite convinced late last year that would boost growth because consumers would go out and spend that extra money. But things have not unfolded exactly as forecast.

There's no doubt the plunge in oil prices and the lower costs for gasoline, heating oil and natural gas gave consumers a big windfall.

"They saved about $116 billion," says John Canally, chief economist at LPL Financial. He figures that means a savings of about $83 per month per household on average — or about $1,000 a year. Lots of economists predicted Americans would go out a spend most of that, but Canally says they didn't.

"Consumers, since oil prices peaked back in June, have done what they've been doing this entire recovery, which is essentially they've spent a little, they've saved a little and they've paid down some debt," he says.

i

Seasonally adjusted annual rates Avie Schneider/NPR/Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis hide caption

itoggle caption Avie Schneider/NPR/Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

Seasonally adjusted annual rates

Avie Schneider/NPR/Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

Canally says he thinks many Americans learned a lesson during the financial crisis and are now being more prudent with their money. But in the short run, that's meant less consumption and less economic growth. So the growth dividend from lower energy prices has been elusive.

"I don't think it's completely materialized," says Laura Rosner, U.S. economist at BNP Paribas. For one thing, she says, the negative effects of the energy bust came faster than expected, with quick cutbacks in exploration and drilling and big job losses. That was a drag on the economy. And wicked winter weather from Virginia to Maine kept the energy windfall cash in people's pockets.

"Actually, 20 percent of all U.S. households live in either the Mid-Atlantic or the Northeast," Rosner says.

That meant tens of millions of shoppers stayed at home and contributed to a near stall-out of growth in the first quarter — far underperforming hopes that the oil price windfall would fuel faster growth.

Rosner says she thinks there's another reason the benefits of the windfall have been muted: Americans have been skeptical that the low energy prices will be lasting.

The Two-Way

Will Slower U.S. Economy Make Fed Wait To Raise Rates?

Economy

Higher Wages, Lower Prices Give Consumers A Break

Economy

More Jobs, Less Inflation Drive Down 'Misery' — So Where's The Joy?

Economy

Higher Wages, Lower Prices Give Consumers A Break

"We're seeing evidence that consumers actually expect gasoline prices to rebound ... almost back to their prior levels within a year or two," she says. "So that's an important reason why they may not be spending more of the windfall, today."

While Rosner believes consumers have reacted cautiously up to now, she's seeing signs that they are ready to start spending more of the windfall.

"You know, really the consumer sentiment data show that consumers are feeling better about the outlook," she says "They're feeling more secure in their jobs and they're relatively optimistic."

Their added spending will help lift the U.S. growth rate this year, she says. Canally agrees, and he believes with more prudent U.S. consumers the current expansion will be longer-lasting.

gasoline

consumer spending

This is National Infrastructure Week in Washington, D.C. That's when serious policy wonks, along with the construction, labor groups and other related industries, hold conferences, raise awareness and maybe most important, lobby Congress on behalf of road, bridge and other brick and mortar and concrete improvements.

There is added urgency to their efforts this year, as federal highway building money is set to run out, probably sometime this summer, and so is the government's authority to spend what little money it has left.

At a kickoff speech, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the challenge the government faces "is actually worse than last summer," when Congress provided a temporary boost to highways using money from general revenues.

That's because the authorization bill that actually gives the government the green light to spend those funds is set to expire on May 31 after which, Foxx warned, "we will not have the ability to spend the dollars we do have to support this nation's infrastructure. It is that serious."

Foxx noted there have been 32 short-term extensions of the highway bill over the past six years. This, he said, has led to "so much uncertainty at the federal level that it is crippling our system."

Lawmakers from both parties generally agree on the need to do something, but as usual these days in Washington, are unable to agree on the details. The federal gas tax is no longer keeping up with the demand for highway dollars. As The Hill newspaper points out:

"The gas tax, which is currently 18.4 cents-per-gallon, typically brings in about $34 billion. But the federal government typically spends about $50 billion on transportation projects.

"The gas tax has not been increased since 1993, and improvements in the fuel efficien[cy] of U.S. autos has sapped much of its purchasing power."

The Obama administration's preferred approach for transportation funding would tax U.S. companies' overseas profits. But it hasn't gained much traction either. How about Build America Bonds? That's a proposal in a new paper from The Hamilton Project, which suggests the bonds could be a short-term solution to the nation's infrastructure funding needs. More likely, Congress will come up with another short-term fix, kicking the proverbial can down the road.

Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Foxx is taking Infrastructure Week out for a spin, with stops planned over the next several days in Tennessee, Iowa and California to push for highway and bridge funding.

Even though it's crept up in the past couple of months, the price of a gallon of gasoline is still about $1 less than it was a year ago. That's saving drivers $15 to $20 every time they fill up.

Economists were quite convinced late last year that would boost growth because consumers would go out and spend that extra money. But things have not unfolded exactly as forecast.

There's no doubt the plunge in oil prices and the lower costs for gasoline, heating oil and natural gas gave consumers a big windfall.

"They saved about $116 billion," says John Canally, chief economist at LPL Financial. He figures that means a savings of about $83 per month per household on average — or about $1,000 a year. Lots of economists predicted Americans would go out a spend most of that, but Canally says they didn't.

"Consumers, since oil prices peaked back in June, have done what they've been doing this entire recovery, which is essentially they've spent a little, they've saved a little and they've paid down some debt," he says.

i

Seasonally adjusted annual rates Avie Schneider/NPR/Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis hide caption

itoggle caption Avie Schneider/NPR/Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

Seasonally adjusted annual rates

Avie Schneider/NPR/Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

Canally says he thinks many Americans learned a lesson during the financial crisis and are now being more prudent with their money. But in the short run, that's meant less consumption and less economic growth. So the growth dividend from lower energy prices has been elusive.

"I don't think it's completely materialized," says Laura Rosner, U.S. economist at BNP Paribas. For one thing, she says, the negative effects of the energy bust came faster than expected, with quick cutbacks in exploration and drilling and big job losses. That was a drag on the economy. And wicked winter weather from Virginia to Maine kept the energy windfall cash in people's pockets.

"Actually, 20 percent of all U.S. households live in either the Mid-Atlantic or the Northeast," Rosner says.

That meant tens of millions of shoppers stayed at home and contributed to a near stall-out of growth in the first quarter — far underperforming hopes that the oil price windfall would fuel faster growth.

Rosner says she thinks there's another reason the benefits of the windfall have been muted: Americans have been skeptical that the low energy prices will be lasting.

The Two-Way

Will Slower U.S. Economy Make Fed Wait To Raise Rates?

Economy

Higher Wages, Lower Prices Give Consumers A Break

Economy

More Jobs, Less Inflation Drive Down 'Misery' — So Where's The Joy?

Economy

Higher Wages, Lower Prices Give Consumers A Break

"We're seeing evidence that consumers actually expect gasoline prices to rebound ... almost back to their prior levels within a year or two," she says. "So that's an important reason why they may not be spending more of the windfall, today."

While Rosner believes consumers have reacted cautiously up to now, she's seeing signs that they are ready to start spending more of the windfall.

"You know, really the consumer sentiment data show that consumers are feeling better about the outlook," she says "They're feeling more secure in their jobs and they're relatively optimistic."

Their added spending will help lift the U.S. growth rate this year, she says. Canally agrees, and he believes with more prudent U.S. consumers the current expansion will be longer-lasting.

gasoline

consumer spending

[Note: Listen to the audio above to hear a conversation I had with Pop Culture Happy Hour team member Stephen Thompson about the end of the show.]

Ahead of its fall programming presentation to advertisers in the afternoon, Fox announced Monday that the 15th season of American Idol, which will begin in January 2016, will be the last.

Ratings for Idol have slid precipitously over the last few seasons, but in the words of Joe Adalian at Vulture, "Idol was, for much of its run, the most dominant show on television — by a mile." It's hard to remember now, but there was a time when putting up a show against Idol was close to announcement that it was unimportant to whatever network was airing it. It was the broadcast television version of a stomping monster that took out small cities.

The original dream of propelling star after star into the heavens didn't pan out as producers might have hoped, but the show has its list of famous alums: winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood went on to be straight-up superstars, Phillip Phillips grabbed on to the popularity of Mumford-and-Sons-y Americana as it flew by and did well for himself, other finalists like Fantasia Barrino and Constantine Maroulis went to Broadway, and a lot of others have had perfectly good careers putting out records even if they haven't been as widely recognized as the grandest of champions. Clay Aiken even ran for Congress. (And Jennifer Hudson! Who won an Oscar! And whom I originally forgot because that's how much I no longer associate her with this show.)

It seemed at one time like Idol was a show that would ebb and flow but never die, like Saturday Night Live. But Fox has other plans and other priorities, there's competition from other performance shows and other competition shows, and, as it turns out, very few things are Saturday Night Live.

So now, Ryan Seacrest will be the man who only seems to have 99 jobs. We'll have much, much more about fall schedules as this week of TV news progresses.

Saving enough money to retire can be tough. But it's next to impossible if a financial adviser is steering the client into bad investments — and getting big commissions in return. And according to the Obama administration, that's exactly what too many advisers have been doing.

Millions of Americans trying to save for retirement have ended up with investments where high fees cripple their returns over time. U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez says much of that is due to bad advice.

"I hear story after story of people who trusted their adviser," Perez says. Clients thought the adviser was looking out for their best interests, but "they weren't," he says.

The 'Corrosive Power' Of Hidden Fees

Perez says many financial advisers do right by their clients, but some give conflicted advice that hurts American workers. For example, an adviser might get a much bigger commission if he or she gets the client to invest in a mutual fund with fees that are very high, as opposed to a lower-fee fund that would be a better investment. Over time, those fees are very damaging.

Business

White House Move To Protect Nest Eggs Sparks Hopes And Fears

Obama Wants Rules That Force Brokers To Put Clients' Interests First

Your Money

How Do Companies Boost 401(k) Enrollment? Make It Automatic

Rethinking Retirement: The Changing Work Landscape

One More Speed Bump For Your Retirement Fund: Basic Human Impulse

Perez says "the corrosive power" of fine print, hidden fees and "backdoor fees" means that "quite literally billions of dollars is being lost" in Americans' retirement accounts. So the Department of Labor has released proposed new rules requiring financial advisers to put the clients' interests above their own.

Experts Worry About Potential Loopholes

This is the first week that the public can submit comments on the new rules. In industry terms, the goal is to hold people who offer financial advice for retirement accounts to a legally binding "fiduciary standard." The current standard for many professionals in the industry is weaker than that.

"This is one of the most important pieces of consumer protection regulation that we can put in place for the American people," Perez says. "They should have a right when they go to get this financial advice that the person giving them this advice is looking out for their interests first."

It sounds like a laudable goal. But the proposed rule is more than 100 pages long. Many experts are concerned that loopholes could wind up in the midst of all that rule-making language.

David Swensen, Yale University's chief investment officer, says he's hopeful the final rule will make a big difference for millions of Americans. But he says, "I think the biggest threat to this rule is Wall Street's reaction." He adds, "[It] will clearly cost Wall Street in terms of the bottom line, and they're going to fight it tooth and nail."

That's because if advisers had to act as true fiduciaries they wouldn't be steering clients into mutual funds or other investment vehicles with very high fees.

So how effective will the new regulations be? At least some experts think the financial industry's lobbying has already weakened them.

"It's obvious that industry basically got to them," says Kent Smetters, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He says the new rules have a very big loophole written into them already.

'A Big Grenade' In The Room

Smetters zeroed in on a part of the new rule called the "Best Interest Contract Exemption," which he says will allow financial advisers to opt out of much of the rule and still get commissions for getting clients to invest in overpriced mutual funds.

"It essentially throws a big grenade into the room," he says. "It's not just a small little hole. The industry can drive a Mack truck through it and it really allows them to essentially continue business as usual."

Perez says he looks forward to talking with Smetters, but says, "I think we have put in place appropriate guardrails."

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association declined requests for an interview. The group has warned that an overly burdensome rule could raise costs for average Americans. It says it's reviewing the details of the proposal.

Department of Labor

financial advisers

retirement

Theater

Athol Fugard Breaks Fences Around 'The Painted Rocks At Revolver Creek'

Two South African artists have come together on an off-Broadway stage in New York City: One is the world-famous playwright Athol Fugard, known for his dramas critical of the cruelties of apartheid. The other is the little-known artist Nukain Mabuza, who carved out an outlet for his creative vision despite the restrictions of apartheid — and now serves as the inspiration for Fugard's latest play, The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, opening May 11.

Fugard emphasizes in a program note that the play is not intended to be a biographical representation. But there are core similarities. In real life as in the play, Mabuza was an unschooled black migrant farmworker who worked obsessively on an elaborately painted stone garden in the 1960s and 1970s. Though deteriorated by the elements, it can still be seen today by anyone passing through the rural South African community of Revolver Creek, located between the town of Barberton and the southern border of the Kruger National Park.

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The artist brought vivid colors to the dun-colored landscape. Rene Lion-Cachet/Courtesy of JFC Clarke hide caption

itoggle caption Rene Lion-Cachet/Courtesy of JFC Clarke

The artist brought vivid colors to the dun-colored landscape.

Rene Lion-Cachet/Courtesy of JFC Clarke

In life as in the play, too, Mabuza had no legal rights or claims to ownership of his hillside artistry; the land belonged to the Afrikaner farmers for whom he worked and who allowed him to live there.

The stage set's yellow-and-black painted rocks can only hint at the expanse and scale of Mabuza's actual garden. Photographs of it in its heyday show a vast array of stone outcroppings and embedded boulders decorated with bold zebra-like stripes, geometric patterns in bright hues across the color spectrum, and pictograms of birds and animals. Though inanimate and set against the scrub brush of a rocky hillside, it seems mysteriously alive, evoking an otherworldly wonderland amid the scrappy grass and trees.

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The painted rocks seem mysteriously alive. JFC Clarke/Courtesy of JFC Clarke hide caption

itoggle caption JFC Clarke/Courtesy of JFC Clarke

The painted rocks seem mysteriously alive.

JFC Clarke/Courtesy of JFC Clarke

Mabuza is often described as an outsider artist, but that term should not be taken as a slight, says JFC Clarke, an artist and photographer based in Pretoria, South Africa. Clarke first discovered Mabuza's work in the 1980s and is the author of The Painted Stone Garden of Nukain Mabuza.

Outsider art refers to the work of untrained, self-taught artists whose creative vision goes outside (hence the name) the mainstream conventions of art. Outsider artists are also often called visionary artists. In Mabuza's case that meant envisioning a dry and rocky hillside as a flowering garden overflowing with color. And that, says Clarke, showed "genius, to take a bush-covered hillside that had no obvious potential whatsoever and devise a way to create an environmental artwork."

Like other outsider artists, Mabuza was also an outsider to the society in which he lived. He was born in Mozambique and crossed the border into South Africa, probably illegally, in the early 1960s, says Clarke. He found work as a farm laborer in the one-time mining community of Revolver Creek and built a hut for himself on a stretch of unarable boulder-filled hillside that the owners had set aside for their workers. He lived alone and never married — because, he allegedly said, a wife would eat all his money for paint.

And maybe so: By the mid-1960s, Mabuza was spending as much of his minimal wages as he could on paint, says Clarke. "He would work and paint and paint and work and starve, basically. But his "garden" also grew, both larger in scope and more sophisticated in decorative design. And he became "extremely skilled" and masterful, says Clarke. "It would appear at first glance that these geometric patterns are simple to paint." But look more closely and you'll see the care and precision with which "he layered paint until it took on a tactile quality" until those layers "built up a patina of color and textures" that he describes as "seductive."

In 1975, a South African admirer named Rene Lion-Cachet arranged for a paint supplier to donate a large surplus of paint. By then, Mabuza's painted garden had become something of a tourist attraction, with buses stopping by. Visitors gazed in awe and took photographs. "He never charged; he was always welcoming, even to people who did not donate," says Clarke.

Between the tourists and the donated paint, Mabuza was able to quit his day-laborer job and devote himself to his art. Even though he did not own the land, the white farmers who did gave him permission to pursue his passion. Though they regarded him as eccentric, they "let him be," says Clarke.

About five years after that, Mabuza abandoned his garden, and in 1981 he took his own life. Clarke explains that he had evidently declared that "he wanted to be buried in his stone garden, but this was not acceptable in traditional practice and there was a confrontation." Mabuza was buried in a pauper's grave. Despite intermittent attempts to reconstruct his masterwork it has not been maintained.

Still, Mubaza's recognition is on the upswing. In addition to Fugard's play, a newly opened Barbeton Gateway garden near the site of Mabuza's original stone garden pays tribute with a decorative stone garden inspired by his work. "His name will never be forgotten because his work has taken off in a way that is remarkable by any standard," says Clarke, who was a consultant for the new garden. "He was a masterly painter. He had mastered his craft."

Athol Fugard

visionary art

outsider art

South Africa