DAYBREAK DAILY: ‘We just Washingtonized Richmond’

ABC7 WEATHER: Mostly sunny with highs near 90. http://wj.la/72e8x6

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‘GOOD MORNING WASHINGTON’: Among the reports – Preliminary court appearance for P.G. teacher accused of sex abuse; much more, beginning at 4:30 a.m. M-F.

‘WASHINGTONIZED RICHMOND’: Of GOP deliberations, per the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “If House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s primary defeat on Tuesday night was a political earthquake, Thursday night was an aftershock. Fresh off the remarkable upset in the 7th Congressional District, conservative activists pushed Republicans in the statehouse for action on the state budget, with Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s top legislative priority hanging in the balance.

“In eleventh-hour backroom wrangling, Senate Republicans persuaded three GOP senators who supported a private-option plan for extending health insurance to back a budget that includes language adding a barrier to expansion by McAuliffe. “It was a classic example of politics trumping policy,” said Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, principal author of the Marketplace Virginia plan for expanding coverage. “We just Washingtonized Richmond.” ’’ http://bit.ly/1pyFNjw

MEANWHILE: Speaking of Cantor, per Bloomberg News, “U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, ousted in last week’s Republican primary, defended his views Sunday on revising immigration laws while saying his position “can make a lot of people mad” in both political parties. Cantor, who is from Henrico County and represents Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, said on Sunday talk shows that he has always supported giving legal status to certain undocumented children while opposing a broader rewrite of immigration laws that the Democratic-led U.S. Senate passed last year.

“ “Did that infuriate folks on both sides? Sure,” Cantor said on ABC’s “This Week” program. “But it is the principled position. I think an incremental-reform approach to immigration is what we need.” The second-ranking House Republican said earlier on CNN’s “State of the Union” program that he has been consistent in his views on immigration laws.” http://bit.ly/1q35qXf

MARYLAND MONEY: Of a snag, per the Baltimore Sun, “Maryland’s economy has grown almost without fail in the last quarter-century, ticking up year after year. But not in 2013. That’s according to early estimates from the U.S. Department of Commerce, which showed Maryland’s gross domestic product stagnating last year — putting the state near the bottom of the national pack. Only the District of Columbia and Alaska fared worse.

“It’s another indication that 2013 wasn’t great for Maryland, where federal budget cuts had an outsized effect because of the state’s big cluster of federal contractors and agencies. The state’s personal income growth was among the nation’s smallest last year, the Commerce Department reported earlier. And while job growth didn’t rank quite so badly, Maryland’s rate of expansion was outpaced by three-quarters of the country.” http://bsun.md/1n2Wihw

MARION BARRY: Thinking out loud, per the Washington Post, “At times during the 1980s, Marion Barry writes in his new memoir, he would stand amid one of the many parties he’d frequent as mayor, sip on a Hennessy and Coke, and take it all in. “I would think, Damn! I did all of this [stuff]? How did I do it?” Barry writes about his days as both unapologetic “night owl” and power broker. “But I didn’t have time to be too proud or introspective. I had to keep doing what I was doing, and what had gotten me there.”

“With the Tuesday release of the 336-page autobiography “Mayor for Life: The Incredible Story of Marion Barry, Jr.,” the time for pride and introspection has come for the former four-term mayor, current Ward 8 D.C. Council member and defining figure of modern-day District politics. Written with Charlotte-based novelist Omar Tyree, “Mayor for Life” is heavier on the former than the latter, seeking to recast Barry’s legacy as a civil rights icon and crusader for black empowerment while denying, eliding or explaining away the controversies that pocked his four decades in politics.” http://wapo.st/1iADPYb

IRAQ: Violence escalates, per the New York Times, “Wielding the threat of sectarian slaughter, Sunni Islamist militants claimed on Sunday that they had massacred hundreds of captive Shiite members of Iraq’s security forces, posting grisly pictures of a mass execution in Tikrit as evidence and warning of more killing to come.

“Even as anecdotal reports of extrajudicial killings around the country seemed to bear out the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s intent to kill Shiites wherever it could, Iraqi officials and some human rights groups cautioned that the militants’ claim to have killed 1,700 soldiers in Tikrit could not be immediately verified.” http://nyti.ms/SLlAZ3

MEANWHILE: Shoring up the embassy, per The Hill, “As anti-government insurgents attack U.S.-trained troops in Iraq, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad will remain open with heightened security, according to the State Department. The embassy “remains open and will continue to engage daily with Iraqis and their elected leaders — supporting them as they strengthen Iraq’s constitutional processes and defend themselves from imminent threats,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday.

“According to Psaki, the embassy will review its staffing requirements “as a result of ongoing instability and violence in certain areas of Iraq.” The staff in Baghdad will get additional security personnel, and some staff will be relocated to department sites in other parts of Iraq and Jordan, she said.” http://bit.ly/1uxcUlC

POLITICO PLAY: “Six years in, Barack Obama is still battling a Bush hangover. The rising chaos in Iraq — and the blame game over who’s responsible — are the latest reminders that halfway through his own second term, he’s still often more consumed by dealing with the legacy of President George W. Bush than building his own.

“Obama supporters see a president who found himself so deep in so many holes from his very first day in office that cleaning up the aftermath of the previous eight years was going to take at least eight of his own: getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan, stabilizing the housing market and repairing the larger economic collapse, all while chopping a $1.2 trillion deficit in half.” http://politi.co/1p7yQnI

CUTTING TIES: At U.Va., per the Charlottesville Daily Progress, “The University of Virginia will officially cut its ties with the Semester at Sea study abroad program by 2016, ending an academic sponsorship overshadowed by a U.Va. student’s death. A reason for the impending breakup, to occur 10 years after the relationship began, was not provided by university or Semester at Sea representatives when asked Saturday.

“. . . In December 2012, fourth-year U.Va. student and Semester at Sea participant Casey Schulman, 22, died when she was struck by a small dive boat’s propeller as she swam off Mero Beach, near Roseau, Dominica. At the time, U.Va. said that the swimming excursion with friends had been organized independently of Semester at Sea. Schulman’s family is suing the Institute for Shipboard Education, which manages Semester at Sea, in federal court in Miami over the death. The case is ongoing.” http://bit.ly/1lpIMZR

TOO DAMN HIGH: Rather, darn, per City Paper, “The District of Columbia Board of Elections is too damn prudish! Or so says Rent Is Too Damn High Party founder Jimmy McMillan, who filed a lawsuit in federal court against the board on the grounds that it wouldn’t put his party’s name on the ballot.

“McMillan’s New York-based party gained some Internet prominence years ago on the back of its colorful name, McMillan’s frequent political runs, and his unique facial hair. In April, a group of reform-minded types running for seats on the District’s Democratic State Committee named their slate after McMillan’s party in a bid to get attention for their down-ballot races. But when the elections board refused to put “damn” on the ballot, the group replaced “damn” with “darn.” ’’ http://bit.ly/1kXuAWO

BLOODY REMARKABLE: Or something like that, per Gazette.Net, “A Rockville biotechnology company will use a $1 million investment from the state to further its research involving blood platelets. The money will let the company continue its research into further applications for its patented method of freeze-drying blood platelets to drastically increase the length of time they can be used, Cellphire CEO Stephen H. Willard said.” http://bit.ly/1lyb7LO

SEXY FREDERICK: ’Cause it says so, per the Frederick News-Post, “Walking downtown beneath the shadows of the clustered spires, your heart starts racing. Your palms start sweating. You start slurring your words. You think to yourself, maybe it’s the humidity. No, that’s not it. Frederick is just that sexy.

“The city of Frederick was named the sixth sexiest suburb in the nation this week, when compared with 138 other large suburbs, according to movoto.com, a real estate website. Frederick ranked 11th best overall for nightlife per capita, 17th for hotels per capita, 19th for lingerie store per capita and 21st for massage parlors per capita, according to the website.” http://bit.ly/1kXvfaM

TRENDING ON ABC7 FACEBOOK: “The Father’s Day roses, carefully placed at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, are in stark contrast to the polished black granite of ‘The Wall.’ Volunteers placed roses here early in the day. Red for those killed in action, and yellow for the missing.” http://wj.la/1neV2Jj

NEWSTALK: Among today’s guests (10 a.m., NewsChannel 8) is Washington Post reporter Mike DeBonis, who will discuss Marion Barry’s new book, “Mayor for Life.”

–Skip Wood

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Why I’m Embracing My Body, Flaws And All, Now That I’m Single Again

By Sophie Rosen for DivorcedMoms.com

It’s that date. Whichever date that may be — third, seventh, or three years into a friendship now on the verge of becoming more. It’s the first time you and a new partner decide sex is on the menu, and the first time you will see each other fully unclothed. Naked. Your entire body and all of its middle-aged imperfections exposed, your every insecurity brought to the surface as you hesitantly discard your clothing, the faithful shroud that conceals your body and the image you carefully portray to the world outside from scrutiny. And that moment can be daunting.

Feeling nervous is natural, but invariably unnecessary. Because, most likely, our new sexual partner does not see the same defective image we carry of ourselves. The criticism we fear from others pales in comparison to the scrutiny we impose on our own bodies. No amount of makeup, slimming clothes, beautiful lingerie, and beauty treatments can save us from the damaging voice in our heads, the one that chastises us for our failure to live up to mass media’s unattainable standards.

Yes, we know the problem. We debate it till we are blue in the face. We applaud Dove for hiring middle-aged female models, Jade Beall for shooting nude photos of post-pregnancy moms, and Lisa Rogers for investigating why women undergo labiaplasty in her documentary, “The Perfect Vagina.” Undeniably, these efforts are each, in their own right, noble attempts at dispelling the unrealistic image of beauty portrayed in society. Yet when that pivotal moment arrives, and we undress in front of someone else for the first time, fully embracing the beauty that is uniquely ours and the beauty that has drawn our new partner to us in the first place can remain a challenge.

Always a modest person, forever that kid at summer camp who changed for swim with my towel wrapped tightly around my chest, I continue to struggle with my body image to this day. Though I exercise regularly, eat well (most of the time, that is), and generally maintain a healthy lifestyle, the years do not lie, and I am painfully aware my days of living in a twenty-something’s body have long since passed me by. At 41, I have endured three full-term pregnancies and their accompanying weight gain and loss, as well as those other fellow pregnancy stressors that have unapologetically taken their toll.

Yet, I have never been more self-possessed than I am today, and with good reason. Feeling beautiful is a function of the mind and body working in unison. When we believe we are physically beautiful, we behave as though we are physically beautiful. And when we behave as though we are physically beautiful, we simply become beautiful.

Our bodies, much like new cars that depreciate from the moment they are driven off the lot, deteriorate beginning on the day of our birth. From the moment we gasp for our first breath, the passage of time steadily brings us one step closer to our death, each passing minute marking the further decay of a vessel we only borrow during our time here on Earth.

Though my middle-aged body shows the wear and tear of a life half spent, I display my flaws well. Those dings in my hood are the legacy of a road well traveled, and the scratches in my paint−those subtle lines that form my laugh lines from decades of smiling and my frown lines from periods of sadness−are the features not of a flashy new sports car, but of a timeless classic, one that grows more valuable with age.

Conventional wisdom reminds us a new car needs to be driven conservatively before it can be properly broken in. But when it is, and we take that car out on the open road, it is then we realize we are about to experience life as we never have before. In middle age, I am finally taking that drive but, today, I am planted firmly in the driver’s seat.

And for the first time I am enjoying the ride.

More from DivorcedMoms.com
Taking The High Road After My Trip From Hell
Who Is Happier? Married Or Singles? I Think It’s The Transformed
Solving The Mystery Of Attraction
Marriage Hell: My (Very) Sad Wedding Day
What If Plan B Was Always Meant To Be Your Plan A?

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