The Environmental Protection Agency might be a favorite punchingbag of conservatives (Climate change? What climate change?). But itjust so happens that the agency's leader, EPA Administrator LisaJackson, seems to relish a good fight. The EPA's first AfricanAmerican chief has turned in feisty performances at Capitol Hillhearings and defended greenhouse-gas rules.
She chats with the Loop about her secret addiction, her Cabinet-level movie buddies and her un-glamorous first job as a maintenance(wo)man.
Which Cabinet secretary would you most like to hang out with, andwhat would you do?
[Homeland Security Secretary] Janet Napolitano and [Health andHuman Services Secretary] Kathleen Sebelius and I are movie buffs.We recently caught 'Moonrise Kingdom'at the AFI Theater in downtownSilver Spring. I love that theater.
What's your favorite non-work-related Web site/app/magazine?
Hands down, the New York Times crossword puzzle app. I am anaddict and do the puzzles almost every day.
Fill in the blank: People would be surprised to know that I_________.
Don't camp. In fact, I really don't sleep outside. People thinkthe head of the Environmental Protection Agency must be anaturalist, but I am just a city girl who believes that fightingpollution and protecting our health is important - no matter whereyou live.
What's your dream job?
I'd be the chef/owner of a perpetually hip restaurant.
What motivated you to go into public service?
It's probably my dad. He was a mailman and delivered the mail inNew Orleans when I was girl. He sometimes took me around to meetsome of his customers. I loved the admiration they had for him andthe pride he had in his work. Dad died when I was in high school. Myoffice at EPA was originally the Office of the Postmaster General.When I walk past the postal seal to get to my office, I think aboutmy dad.
Favorite TV show?
'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.'
Which character from that show do you most identify with?
Samantha Bee, of course!
What subject, other than your work, do you know the most about?
I was a math geek in school.
What's the best job you ever had?
Other than my current job, which really is the best, gas-plantmaintenance man. It was my first real job, and it was between myfreshman and sophomore years in college. Nothing beats the firstreal job. I was a total rookie, worked hard doing manual labor insome of the hottest weather I can remember. But I could point towhat I had accomplished at the end of the day, I had money in mypocket, and the other maintenance guys (and they were all guys!)took great care of me and taught me the ropes.
What's one word you wish people would use to describe you?
Influential.
You can draft one person in the private sector to come work forthe federal government. Who would it be, and what would you havethem do?
Selena Gomez, to be our EPA youth ambassador and expand theconversation on the environment to a whole new generation of youngpeople who need to know why environment matters and how to takeaction to protect it.
Background Check is a Loop feature in which we grill variousgovernment types about their lives on and off the clock. Please sendsuggestions for future subjects to intheloop@washpost.com.
Remember thatexcellent judicial conference scheduled for Maui inAugust? The one with sport fishing, golf, yoga, surfing lessons,tennis and Zumba?
Better sign up now. It could be the last great one in paradise.
Bowing to demands from the ranking Republicans on the SenateJudiciary and Budget committees, Sens. Charles Grassley (Iowa) andJeff Sessions (Ala.), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuitannounced Friday that it would postpone its 2013 conference inCalifornia to 2014. (Maui's still on, however.)
The move 'responds to the current budget constraints facing thefederal judiciary and the federal government in general,' accordingto the announcement.
The most obvious concern about Maui, aside from the idea ofhaving a million-dollar conference in an island paradise, would besending some 150 of the circuit's district and appellate judges fromeight Western states - plus an equal number of employees andgovernment lawyers - to Hawaii rather than have Hawaii's five judgesfly to the mainland. (More than half of the circuit's judges are inCalifornia.)
'An encouraging sign,' Grassley said Monday of the judges' move,but not good enough. There's no indication that this year'sconference is going to be scaled back or that future conferenceexpenses will be kept down. The senators still want Maui canceled orscaled back. (Uh-oh - there goes the Zumba.)
Well, if you can't go to Maui, the 2014 conference is at theHyatt Regency in Monterey - not quite Maui, but hardly the ToledoMotel 6.
Ire on the prize
If tourists are finding post-Bastille Day Paris a little dull,they might want to drop by Tuesday's meeting of the United NationsEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The internationalbody is expected to thoroughly embarrass itself and finally award acontroversial prize funded by dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema ofEquatorial Guinea, whose resume includes judicial corruption,detaining of citizens and pilfering millions from his country'scoffers.
Loop Fans might recall the long-standing saga over the Obiangprize: Earlier this year, UNESCO voted to remove his name from theprize, making it more likely it would be awarded - despite theobjections of the United States and other Western nations, whichargue that a 'life sciences' prize funded by such an unsavory fellowwould be an embarrassment.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who has long questioned where the $3million Obiang is providing to fund the prize is coming from, saysthe name's irrelevant. 'Whatever name this prize is given, it onlyserves to tarnish UNESCO's image,' he said in a statement Monday.
Obiang is slated to attend the award ceremony Tuesday in Paris,although the New York Times reports that he might not be able to bethere, as he's dealing with his son's mounting legal troubles.Teodorin Nguema Obiang, Equatorial Guinea's 'vice president,' wasthe subject of a French court's arrest warrant on Friday 'after herefused to be interviewed by magistrates about allegations of moneylaundering and embezzlement, claiming diplomatic immunity,' theTimes reports.
Next: The Bashar al-Assad Human Rights Award?
With Emily Heil
kamena@washpost.com
The blog: washingtonpost.com/intheloop. Twitter: @InTheLoopWP.
