FXBG Advance Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Because Art Doesn't Wait for Humans to Begin. The Heart of the Asado. Memo on the Resolute Desk. Spiking Health Insurance Premiums for Virginians.
The Heart of the Asado: My Adventures in Argentinian Grilling
By Kirk Evans, Advance Food Columnis
Asado.
The word literally means “roasted,” but in Argentina it also refers to the social event defined by an abundance of guests, roasted meat, cheeses, and wine. For Argentines, hosting an asado is a national tradition.
I was introduced to them while working for a small wine import company in Virginia during a weeklong trip to Argentina’s wine country surrounding the city of Mendoza where we spent our days reconnecting with established suppliers and scouting for new wines to bring back to the U.S. Each of our hosts wanted to impress us with their hospitality and largesse, so we ended up being invited to five asados in as many days.
The heart of the asado is the asado cross, which is a device used to grill meat at a specific distance above a wood fire. It evolved from a technique used by gauchos, Argentina’s legendary skilled horsemen. When out in the desert for days at a time chasing cattle, gauchos would grill a jackrabbit over a campfire by tying it to crossed branches. They would plant one end of the branch into the ground at the edge of the fire and suspend the meat over the heat at an angle, adjusting and turning the crossed branches to keep the meat cooking evenly.
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Because Art Doesn’t Wait for Humans to Begin
By Ranjit Singh, Advance Environmental Columnist
Red-eyed vireos are regular summer residents of Potomac Creek. “Obligate“ migrants, they arrive here each spring having traveled all the way from Amazonia. The long journey is incredibly stressful; many don’t make it.
Yet this ordeal alone doesn’t separate red-eyed vireos from the other migratory birds who come here. Warblers, flycatchers, osprey, and avians of many kinds, including the brilliant scarlet tanager, also undertake arduous spring and fall migrations, sometimes in the company of vireos. Nature doesn’t hand out sturdy wings for nothing (well, mostly, anyway).
Rather, what makes the species extraordinary, even in the company of its migratory peers, is its musicianship. Red-eyed vireos are not just exceptionally powerful singers. They’re songwriters, too. In some ways, the male vireo rivals the most prolific human stars—our Lennons & McCartneys and Taylor Swifts.
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The Memo on the Resolute Desk
By Phil Huber, Advance Columnist
Imagine the document that should be sitting on the Resolute Desk right now.
For months, President Trump has talked about Iran in the language of annihilation. In April he posted that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” alongside threats to bomb the country “back to the Stone Age” and to “decimate” every bridge and power plant. As the ceasefire frays again this summer, he vows to “finish the job.” But “finishing the job” — actually toppling the regime and holding the country — is not an airstrike. It is a ground war and an occupation. And before any president orders that, his National Security Advisor owes him the unvarnished arithmetic, in writing, with a line at the bottom to sign.
So here is the memo the President should have to read — and initial — before he turns a slogan into a war. The facts in it are not partisan. They come from RAND, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, from the Pentagon’s own counterinsurgency doctrine, and from the cost of the war we are already fighting. Read it as he would have to. Then ask yourself which box he checks.
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Virginians Are Feeling the Effects of Spiking Health Insurance Premiums
VaNews/Virginia Public Access Project
By DEAN MIRSHAHI, VPM News
From Monday: As a healthcare navigator, Diana Marrero guides people in the Richmond area as they look for health insurance. She said the expiration of federal assistance that lowered people’s healthcare costs from 2021 to the end of 2025 has led to skyrocketing premium payments this year—which have left many with “impossible choices.” “Families that I work with were forced to choose either between basic necessities such as rent, groceries, utilities, over health insurance,” Marrero said in an interview. The numbers back it up.
Articles from newspapers throughout the Commonwealth and Washington D.C. Firewalls will block you from reading some, but you’ll at least have some idea about what’s going on from the headlines, which, let’s be honest, are all many of us have time to read anyway.
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