Elizabeth White grew up middle-class and well traveled. The daughter of a career Army officer, she attended public schools and went on to Oberlin College, after which she got a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She found a job at the World Bank and bought her first home.

It was a time, she writes, when “we boomers were still the youngest people in the room.” Back then, she and others in her situation assumed they’d one day enjoy a comfortable retirement: the stereotypical sun-drenched relaxation years after decades of hard work.

But for White and a significant number of her generation, things have not panned out that way. After years in her profession, White took a foray into entrepreneurism. That kept her out of the job market for a few years and re-entry proved difficult; then came the recession in 2008. Suddenly, the top-shelf education, job experience and network she had accrued in early adulthood no longer translated into job offers.

In 2015, she wrote an essay published on a PBS website called “You Know Her.” The story cataloged the losses, sacrifices and often-hidden indignities of a woman sliding out of what was once middle-class security. “Homeless women used to be invisible to her,” the essay ends, “but she appraises them now with curious eyes, wondering if their stories started like hers.”

White’s essay provoked a storm of responses, among them emails from others “feeling shell-shocked, alone, and scared about the future.” And so she began corresponding with some of them and researching the plight of fellow younger baby boomers.

The result is “55, Underemployed, and Faking Normal,” a book that is somehow simultaneously a terrifying wake-up call and a heartening, idea-filled guide to navigating the new realities so many of us face or will face.

At a time when President Trump touts a booming economy with record low unemployment figures, the truth is that many workers are underemployed — struggling to piece together a series of gig jobs and contract work, no benefits in sight — while others aren’t reflected in the numbers because they have simply stopped looking, aged out of a job market that values youth over experience.

The reality is staggering. As the population ages — about 10,000 people a day turn 65, White reports — we increasingly see this group in precarious financial situations. More than a third of Americans have no retirement savings at all.

According to one Federal Reserve study cited in the book, of Americans ages 56 to 61 who do have savings, the median value is just $25,000. White calls them pre-retirees.

The average monthly Social Security benefit is $1,404. You do the math, and it’ll put you right around the poverty line every single time. White is not concerned with blame or shame — “you’re not here because you’re a deadbeat,” she writes. “The truth is, if you’re a boomer-age American, you’ve spent your last three or more decades dealing with flat or falling wages, disappearing pensions, and steeply rising costs in housing, health care, and education.” Despite her focus on baby boomers, the author points out, those of us in Generation X are facing the same sorry situation — 2020 is the year the oldest Gen-Xers start turning 55.

Despite White’s policy savvy, this is not a book that attempts to provide wonkish solutions to the problem she diagnoses. Instead, she focuses on how individuals can work to adjust themselves to an unsettling new reality.

First, she stresses, it’s important to understand that “we’re not talking about some abstract group. We’re talking about ourselves and about people we know: our sisters, our mothers, and our friends.” The numbers are real, dire and coming our way. But, White writes, “I see a silver lining in the new normal.” It might not be easy to change the way we live, she says. “But there are alternative paths. Some of our contemporaries in our same boat are making a go of it, and there’s a lot that we can learn from their experience.”

Some of White’s recommendations might be difficult to swallow: taking in roommates in middle age or going on food stamps. She mentions relocating to Mexico, with its lower housing costs and expat-friendly healthcare system. Whatever changes one makes, White advises readers to find each other, form what she dubs “Resilience Circles,” gatherings where people can talk freely about the challenges they face and gain strength in fellowship.

Here, along with the ample stories she gathers from real people, lies the book’s greatest strength. Whether we’re looking at the problem on a global, national or household scale, she writes, “we’ve got to start talking about it if we want to find solutions.”

“The truth is, if you’re a boomer-age American, you’ve spent YOUR last three or more decades dealing with flat or falling wages, disappearing pensions, and steeply rising costs in housing, health care, and education.” [36]

55, Underemployed, and Faking Normal

Elizabeth White

Simon & Schuster: 272 pages; $26

Tuttle is a book critic whose work has appeared in the Boston Globe, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Portland’s Chinatown is not the bustling Chinatown of San Francisco. But between 1870 and 1900, it was the second-largest in the country. Today the neighborhood, in Portland’s Old Town district, is an eclectic mix of Asian and Western influences. You can zen out in Lan Su Chinese Garden, a haven — including pavilions, a koi-filled lake and tea house — built by artisans from Suzhou, China. Or sip espresso at tiny sneaker-decorated Deadstock Coffee before shopping for high-end street wear. During a recent stay in Chinatown, my daughter and I enjoyed these activities and visited the new Portland Chinatown Museum. We also browsed the neighborhood’s many indie businesses, such as Orox Leather Co. The pungent scent of fresh leather hit us the moment we entered the family-owned workshop, which also sells purses, belts and shoes hand-crafted on-site. We had a hard time prying ourselves away from the contemporary and collectible comic books, art and locally designed toys at Floating World Comics. The tab: $196 per night, including taxes and fees, for a hotel room; about $150 for food; and $33 for museum and garden entrance for two.

THE BED

We stayed at the Hoxton, a hip new boutique hotel next to the colorful Chinese Gateway, the official entrance to Chinatown. Walnut paneling, midcentury furniture and retro touches such as a rotary phone and a Roberts Radio, gave our room a pleasing “Mad Men” vibe. The rate included a bagged continental breakfast delivered to our door. In a city that caters to caffeine connoisseurs, the Hoxton’s small lobby coffee shop holds its own. You’ll also find a rooftop taqueria and a basement speakeasy.

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THE MEAL

We noshed on pork and vegetable dumplings at Red Robe Tea House & Cafe in the heart of Chinatown. The family-run spot is known for its array of fine teas. We tried a pot of Jasmine Pearls, an aromatic green tea with a hint of fruity sweetness, and Lavender Rose Buds, a light floral brew. When I asked a couple of Portland friends for downtown brunch recommendations within walking distance of our hotel, both suggested the Bijou Cafe. It was solid advice. I tucked into a fluffy frittata stuffed with sausage, roasted red peppers, zucchini, basil and Gouda cheese. My daughter was just as happy with her tofu scramble with fresh heirloom tomatoes.

THE FIND

Checking out the Portland Chinatown Museum was a high point of our trip. Docent Dennis Tong, a third-generation Chinatown native, guided us through “Beyond the Gate,” the excellent permanent exhibit. Tong shared facts about his community’s history and stories about the local Chinese American families featured in displays (he grew up with some of them). Engaging replicas of prominent businesses such as Bow Yuen Dry Goods, a store that sold Chinese merchandise from 1904 until 1929, also help bring Chinatown’s past to life. Another replica depicts the Chinese language school run since 1901 by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Assn. Like many of his peers, Tong attended classes there as a child. “I wasn’t a very good student,” he said, smiling. Besides its permanent collection, the museum has rotating exhibitions by contemporary Asian American artists as well as lectures and films.

THE LESSON LEARNED

Portland’s Chinatown is a neighborhood in transition. Many longtime Chinese-owned restaurants and other businesses have shuttered in recent years, their faded storefronts and signs the only reminders of their existence. Although you must dig deeper to experience the area’s rich Chinese heritage, it’s still here — and well worth discovering.

The Hoxton, 15 N.W. 4th Ave., Portland; (503) 770-0500. 119 rooms from around $90 off-season. Wheelchair accessible.

Red Robe Tea House, 310 N.W. Davis St., Portland; (503) 227-8855. Open Mondays-Saturdays; check website for hours. Wheelchair accessible.

Bijou Cafe, 132 S.W. 3rd Ave., Portland; (503) 222-3187. Open daily from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wheelchair accessible.

Lan Su Chinese Garden, 239 N.W. Everett St., Portland; (503) 228-8131. Open daily; check website for hours and admission fees. Wheelchair accessible.

Portland Chinatown Museum, 127 N.W. 3rd Ave., Portland; (503) 224-0008. See website for hours and admission fees. Wheelchair accessible.

If you didn’t know hair pat-downs were a thing with TSA screenings, you should now. Native American activist Tara Houska underwent a hair search at the airport Monday during which the agent pulled her braids behind her shoulders and said “giddyup.” The TSA has since apologized to Houska, who shared what happened to her at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on social media.

Cliff Van Leuven, Minnesota director of the TSA, said in a letter to employees that he personally apologized to Houska, who “is hoping we’ll take the chance to continue to educate our staff about the many Native American Tribes/Bands in our state and region to better understand their culture.” He ended by saying: “We all make mistakes. Treating the public we are sworn to serve and protect with dignity and respect is our calling — every passenger, every day. We’ll learn from this …”

Hair pat-downs are all part of the screening process, according to a TSA video made in 2018 to familiarize travelers what they can expect. The video shows fictional passengers, almost all women of color, undergoing a pat-down. TSA spokeswoman Jenny Burke says she “doesn’t think it was deliberate” that the video featured mostly women of color. “That video is really intended to show that if you have a lot of hair, in any particular design on your head, it’s possible that it could trigger [the sensors],” she said Thursday. “If you’re Caucasian and have a big bun, it would also more than likely trigger.”

Turns out the machines are partly to blame, specifically the full-body scanners that use advanced image technology. Those scanners set off alarms when they sense something “anomalous to a standardized human form,” including the human head, Burke said. Buns, ponytails, extensions, wigs, hairpins, bows and other accessories can signal a false threat.

ProPublica in an April 2019 story looked into the issue after black women complained about undergoing “intrusive, degrading searches of their hair at airport security checkpoints.” The story also concluded that “futuristic full-body scanners that have become standard at airports across the United States are prone to false alarms for hairstyles popular among women of color.”

To this, Burke said, the agency is looking for new types of technology to improve scanning processes. Have any contraband items been found in hair searches? Burke wouldn’t disclose, saying such data is considered sensitive security information.

I asked members of a closed Facebook group for people with curly hair whether they have had their hair inspected by the TSA.

“ALL THE TIME,” wrote Nita Vazquez Blanning. “I was told its cause my hair was wet and it shows up a certain way on the screen”

“Just recently for the first time,” wrote Jennifer Liles. “Had my hair in a pineapple [high ponytail] and they made me take it out so they can inspect it. Felt it was pretty normal, but still weird.”

“Nearly every time I fly!” wrote Allison Buchanan.

What to do if you’re the subject of a hair pat-down

The TSA says fliers underoing hair pat-downs may:

• Ask to talk to a manager about the process.
• Ask the agent conducting the pat-down to change their gloves.
• Ask for a screening in a private area, accompanied by a friend or family member.

Also, any hair products that are spread, smeared, pumped or poured must comply with the rule about no more than 3 ounces if you put them in your carry-on bag.

And what about women who wear head scarves or anyone wearing religious items that cover their heads? The TSA’s website says:

“Persons wearing head coverings, loose fitting or bulky garments may undergo additional security screening, which may include a pat-down. A pat-down will be conducted by a TSA officer of the same gender. If an alarm cannot be resolved through a pat-down, you may ask to remove the head covering in a private screening area.

“Religious knives, swords and other objects are not permitted through the security checkpoint and must be packed in checked baggage. Inform the TSA officer if you have religious, cultural or ceremonial items that require special handling.”

Staff writer Marilyn Ruiz contributed to this story.

Joshua Tree National Park, already gaining popularity faster than any other California national park, set an attendance record in 2019, an early tally shows.

Preliminary park statistics shows Joshua Tree logged almost 3 million recreational visitors for the year — and that was a year that included vandalism, trash and toilet troubles during a partial federal government shutdown that began before Christmas 2018 and ended 35 days later.

But those great numbers may not be such great news.

“More people are coming,” said park spokeswoman Hannah Schwalbe. “They’re telling more people and sharing more stories on social media. And sharing more photos.

“We’re trying to allocate staff specifically to manage crowds and help traffic flow.”

A rich wildflower bloom in spring and a late December storm that blanketed the park’s otherworldly flora and granite boulders with snow boosted the numbers.

The 2019 figure is up more than 46,000 from 2018 and is more than twice the park’s visitor total in 2013. Since 2013, Joshua Tree’s attendance has grown faster than any of the state’s eight other national parks, a pace that has complicated life for visitors and rangers alike.

Many of these numbers may change slightly as park officials update and double-check details in the coming weeks, Schwalbe said. But the broader results show it was a busy year in the desert.

More than 300,000 of the 2019 visitors came in the last month of the year, the busiest December since Joshua Tree was designated a national park in 1994.

“The snow this year definitely brought out a huge number of people, which was exciting,” Schwalbe said.

Among the factors in the attendance boom: the increasing popularity of rock climbing; the growth of the Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals (founded in 1999 and 2007, respectively); the growth of the town of Joshua Tree as an art community; and the increasingly popularity of park-adjacent vacation homes.

For those who’d prefer to see the park with less company, the statistics may serve as a guide.

The 800,000-acre park’s southern entrance at Cottonwood gets far less traffic than its western entrance at the town of Joshua Tree (which is the busiest) or the northern entrance at the city of 29 Palms.

The park’s busiest month is March, a trend that has held for several years.

(If you can avoid school spring breaks, the spokeswoman said, you’ll find the park substantially calmer. The Los Angeles Unified School District 2020 spring break is April 6-10.)

The slowest months, not surprisingly, are July and August, when temperatures often surpass 100 and rangers note that the heat can be fatal.

On Dec. 20, rangers found human skeletal remains in the park’s 49 Palms Oasis area that were later identified as those of a 51-year-old hiker from Canada who was last seen on a nearby trail in July 2018.

The following preliminary numbers show recreational visitors to California’s eight other national parks in 2019.

Channel Islands: 409,630 visitors, its busiest year since 2005

Death Valley: 1.74 million visitors, up 3.8% from 2018

Kings Canyon: 632,110 visitors, down from 699,023 in 2018

Lassen Volcanic: 517,040 visitors, up from 499,435 in 2018

Pinnacles: 177,224 visitors, down from 222,153 in 2018

Sequoia: 1.24 million visitors, up from 1.22 million in 2018

Redwood: 504,722 visitors, up from 482,536 in 2018

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Yosemite: 4.27 million visitors through November, up from about 3.7 million for the same period in 2018. Figures for December 2019 have not yet been released.

If you sometimes feel as though the world is conspiring against you and your flight plans, wonder no more. It is — but for different reasons, although all fall under the banner of the “state of the world.”

First is the cost of a ticket. Second is the cost to the environment.

Here are the questions you must ask before you decide whether your trip is a no or a go in 2020.

Cost of a ticket, Part 1

Let’s say I want to fly to Melbourne, Fla., which is a smaller airport that’s much more convenient than Orlando for many resort areas on the eastern coast. I would leave Feb. 3, a Monday, and return Feb. 10, also a Monday.

I held my breath and found a fare of $202.

I would have purchased it but for two things: It had flight times of almost 15 hours there and almost 21 hours back, and it was a basic economy ticket.

Only you can decide whether your money is worth the extra time, but a15-hour trip that lands you in Melbourne, Fla., doesn’t promise the same rewards as a lengthy trip that lands you in Melbourne, Australia.

Let’s say you don’t want to spend more time in an airport. The next best fare I found that would not consume my trip with layovers was $94 more, but it was still basic economy.

Basic economy has been the legacy airlines’ (such as United, Delta and American) answer to ultra-low-cost carriers, including Frontier, Allegiant and Spirit. As tempting as it is to believe that these low-cost carriers nickel and dime you to death, they also give you better fares in many cases if you understand the rules.

The legacy carriers don’t play as much hardball as the ultra-lows (they don’t charge you to print a boarding pass, for instance), but even with a legacy basic fare, you don’t get as many opportunities to ensure your well-being. You don’t get to choose your seats in advance, and you’ll lose your entire fare if you can’t make the trip.

On the other hand, said Seth Kaplan, a longtime transportation analyst, you get the same seatback entertainment, you get a carry-on bag for free (on American and Delta, not on United) and maybe even a snack. That’s why he and his family took a basic economy flight from the Washington, D.C., area to Montana, saving them about $200. The fact that you can’t choose your seat in advance? “As a family, we almost always get seated together,” he said.

Would I pay $366 to fly to Melbourne, Fla., or I would I choose the $296 with a better schedule but still a basic fare?

The question you need to ask yourself: What’s my pain point? Identify it and choose accordingly.

Cost of a ticket, Part 2

As the year began, fuel prices were relatively stable and had been for some time. Then trouble erupted in the Middle East and fuel prices shot up overnight. Then they settled back down.

It’s important to keep a watch on those prices. As Tom Spagnola, senior vice president of supplier relations for fare website CheapOair, has told me more than once, about 25% of the cost of a ticket is the cost of jet fuel.

The International Air Transport Assn., an airline industry group, makes it easy for you to keep track. Check out its Jet Fuel Price Monitor at bit.ly/jetfuelmonitor.

If you begin to see a steady, consistent increase, it’s best to buy now because it takes four to six months for those prices to cycle into the cost of a ticket, Kaplan and Spagnola said. “It’s not as though you can just introduce a price change the next day,” Kaplan said.

The question you need to ask yourself: How is my risk tolerance? Do I dare buy a ticket this far out? Should I buy travel insurance?

Cost to the environment

Here’s great news for the airlines, courtesy of Spagnola: Nearly 4.75 billion people are expected to fly this year. That would be a record, and an increase of 137% since 2004. It also “means that 60% of the entire population will be flying on an airplane in 2020,” he said in an email.

That’s not necessarily great news for the environment. Although the airline industry isn’t the leading offender, it’s the growth in emissions from air travel that are at issue, William Wilkes wrote in a March Bloomberg article.

“All of these forecasts are terrifying climate scientists and activists who say increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases are leading to rising temperatures, more extreme weather and higher death tolls from natural disasters caused at least in part by human activity,” Wilkes wrote. He then quoted Paul Fennel, a professor of clean energy at Imperial College in London, as saying, “We are all going to have to reduce the extent to which we fly.”

Enter flight shaming, which means you are wringing your hands over your carbon footprint and deciding perhaps you won’t take that trip.

The idea has been gaining momentum since about 2017 and may be having an effect, according to the BBC. Domestic travel dropped 4% in Sweden in 2019, which the BBC cites as the country of origin for flygskam, or flight shaming.

In July, KLM asked people to reduce their air travel, suggesting train travel in its place.

That’s a concept that works in the Netherlands and most of Europe a little better than the United States. You can get to Paris from London (about 300 miles) by EuroStar in a little more than two hours. If you took Amtrak’s Coast Starlight from L.A. to San Francisco (about 380 miles), you could leave L.A. at 10:10 a.m. and get to San Francisco about 10:30 p.m., with the last of the trip by bus.

It’s not just that we don’t have high-speed trains; it’s the distances you must cover in this country if you’re headed for points east.

If you fly, several airlines let you buy carbon offsets, including Delta, United and JetBlue.

Or you could plant trees. In a study, 1st Move International calculated how many trees you would need to plant to mitigate a trip from the United Kingdom to various places, then recalculated for LAX: to New York City (seven), to Tokyo (15), to London (16) and to Bangkok, Thailand (23).

Should you fly? Not fly? Kaplan notes that even if you’re not on that flight, it will take off anyway — at least for now.

Until we have clean-air jets, this is going to be an increasingly large issue.

The question you need to ask yourself: Can I live with myself if I go? As a traveler, can I live with myself if I don’t?

Have a travel dilemma, question or concern? Write to [email protected]. We regret we cannot answer every inquiry.

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The opening of Disneyland’s Star Wars land seven months ago represented the park’s biggest expansion and a $1-billion investment that Walt Disney Co. executives hoped would pay off with booming attendance and a surge in the sales of space-themed food, glowing light sabers and plush Yoda dolls.

It didn’t quite work out that way. After a crush of initial enthusiasm, crowds were noticeably thin last summer.

With the public debut Friday of the final piece of the 14-acre expansion — a high-tech, immersive ride dubbed Rise of the Resistance — Disneyland can begin to gauge the success of that investment and determine if the park can handle fans expected to flock to the much-anticipated attraction. The land opened May 31 with only one ride, several retail shops and a handful of eateries.

During a media preview Thursday, Disney engineers and executives expressed confidence in the overall success of Star Wars land and in a crowd management plan called “Project Stardust,” which was launched two years earlier and included widening footpaths, removing benches and trees and banning extra-wide strollers and wagons. The effort was designed to keep foot traffic moving.

“We’ve had time to prepare and we’ve taken advantage of that time with all of our park enhancements to make our park easier to use,” Scott Trowbridge, the park’s creative executive, said in an interview.

He noted that an identical Rise of the Resistance ride opened Dec. 5 at Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios in Florida, giving Disney engineers time to work out any glitches before the same attraction opened in Anaheim.

But Disneyland is about 99 acres in size, less than a tenth of the size of the combined theme parks in Walt Disney World, making crowding a potentially bigger headache.

“Our operating team here is the best in the business,” Trowbridge said. “I feel like we are prepared to welcome our new resistance recruits.”

Disneyland eliminated all smoking areas in the resort to make more space for footpaths and sidewalks.

Rise of the Resistance has been billed by Walt Disney Co. representatives as the entertainment giant’s most technologically advanced attraction so far.

It relies on several pre-existing technologies, such as animatronics for some of the characters, and a drop-tower effect for a sequence when the space pods carrying the riders plunge and shift to simulate a ride in space.

The attraction combines those with more advanced technologies such as holograms of popular Star Wars film characters and vehicles that run without metal tracks. High-definition projection screens and pyrotechnics are also used to help depict battles scenes that take place in distance space or within feet of the riders.

Unlike the Disney employees on other rides who greet visitors with a smile, the attraction employs dour-faced staff to play the part of evil First Order minions.

At Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida, the Rise of the Resistance ride has suffered several breakdowns since opening, disappointing riders who waited hours for the ride. Some guests who were denied access to the new attraction were offered free park passes instead.

Trowbridge couldn’t promise a glitch-free debut in Anaheim but said his engineers have tried to learn from the Florida problems.

“It’s a complex and ambitious attraction and we occasionally have those glitches but every day we are finding those things, making those improvements,” he said.

The cash registers are sure to stay online. About a dozen new souvenirs began selling even before the ride opened. Rise of the Resistance T-shirts go for $35. Hats are $30 and a commuter mug is on sale for $25.

So far, the public response to the new land at the Anaheim park has been mixed, so it’s unclear how Disney and Star Wars fans will react to the new ride.

Immediately after the opening, the land was jam packed, with lines for its original attraction, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, stretching beyond 90 minutes at times.

The park was forced to add new crowd control measures to visit Oga’s Catina, a space-themed bar where visitors can order alcoholic drinks, snacks and coffee, and to enter Savi’s Workshop, a store where Star Wars fans can build a custom light saber for $200.

Disney executives described the opening as a success, but in August, during the first earnings report after debuting the new land, the Walt Disney Co. revealed a 3% dip in attendance for its domestic theme parks. Earnings in the parks and consumer products segment, however, were up on increased visitor spending and ticket prices.

But on Dec. 27, Disneyland reached capacity, forcing park workers to temporarily stop selling tickets and direct visitors to the adjacent California Adventure Park.

To handle crowds at the new ride, Disneyland will institute a virtual queuing system that requires visitors to use the Disneyland smartphone app to join a “boarding group.”

Park goers without a smartphone can join a group by getting an old-fashioned paper ticket from one of two kiosks in the park. The paper ticket will show the number for the boarding group. Display screens in the park will notify guests when it’s time to board.

The smartphone app gives reservations for a boarding group only during park hours, not before.

Because the new ride will rely heavily on visitors’ cell phones, Disneyland representatives say the park has been working for years to improve cell tower service and Wi-Fi access throughout the resort.

The demand for Rise of the Resistance at the Florida park has been so high that reservations for boarding groups were filled for the entire day within minutes after the park opened, visitors have reported on social media.

In Anaheim, guests won’t be able to make reservations for the new ride until the park opens at 8 a.m., but for fans who want to arrive earlier, the Toy Story parking garage will open at midnight.

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A government committee asked to review U.S. approval of new passenger planes after two deadly crashes involving the Boeing 737 Max has found that the system is safe and effective but could be improved.

The committee differed sharply with legislators who are investigating Boeing Co. and the Federal Aviation Administration, which approved the Max. Key lawmakers have said they may try to stop the FAA from letting Boeing do some inspections and safety analysis on its own planes.

Thursday’s report came from a committee appointed by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in April, after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed everyone aboard each plane — a total of 346 people — and led regulators to ground Max jets worldwide.

The committee said the FAA’s system of delegating some safety work to aircraft manufacturers is effective and helps the U.S. aerospace industry thrive.

Lee Moak, a former airline pilot and union leader who co-chaired the committee, said members did not look at internal communications in which Boeing employees raised safety alarms about the Max while it was being developed and admitted to misleading regulators.

“It was not the purview of, or charter of, the committee to look at or investigate email traffic,” he told reporters.

In some of the Boeing employee messages, test pilots and other unnamed workers questioned the safety of the Max, called the plane a “joke” and talked about concealing problems from regulators.

Last week, leaders of the House Transportation Committee cited those messages and accused Boeing of deceiving regulators. Chairman Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) said they will introduce legislation to strip the company of all or part of its authority to help approve its own aircraft as safe to fly.

Yet the special committee to review the FAA’s certification process wrote that the agency’s system of delegating work to aircraft manufacturers is “rigorous, robust and overseen by engineers, inspectors, test pilots and managers committed to the primacy of safety.”

The committee wrote that it didn’t do an investigation, but took a collaborative approach. Its mission was “to collect and analyze information, not find fault.”

Asked about possible mistakes in approving the Max, Moak said that was for other groups to investigate.

The committee recommended that the system of delegating inspections to manufacturers should continue, and that the FAA and industry should work together to address concerns about “potential undue pressure” on company employees designated to do inspections as planes go through the approval process.

However, Moak said the committee found no evidence of pressure on Boeing employees. It also found no reason to dramatically change delegation of inspections.

“We believe that delegated authority in itself enhances aviation safety as long as it is coupled with proper oversight and with safety management systems,” he said, referring to systems in which aviation employees voluntarily report safety concerns without fear of reprisal.

Initially the FAA determined that 35 of 93 elements of the Max could be delegated to Boeing employees, with 58 supervised by the FAA, the report said. But the ratio of delegated tasks changed through the years “as the FAA’s confidence in the aircraft design and related risk analyses evolved, including Boeing’s ability to manage such elements.”

The committee wrote that U.S. commercial aviation is a model of safety and innovation. The U.S. air carrier fatality rate has dropped to 0.6 per 100 million in fiscal year 2019 from 80.9 per 100 million passengers in 1996, the report said.

The report said aviation experts interviewed by the committee agreed that the FAA’s decision to certify the Max as an update to previous generations of 737s, rather than as a new type of aircraft, didn’t affect the Max’s safety. Treating the Max as a new aircraft “would not have produced a safer airplane,” the committee wrote.

Investigators have implicated new automated flight control software called MCAS as a factor in the crashes. In each crash, a single faulty sensor caused the system to activate and push down the nose of the plane. Boeing did not tell pilots about MCAS until after the Indonesian Lion Air crash, and regulators at the FAA didn’t know much about it.

In October, a panel of international aviation regulators found that Boeing changed the design of MCAS, making it more powerful, without telling the FAA. The panel said that if FAA experts knew more about how the system worked, they probably would have seen that it could overpower pilots’ efforts to stop the nose-down pitch.

President Trump plans to nominate Judy Shelton and Christopher Waller to join the Federal Reserve, the White House said.

The president, who has publicly criticized Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and his colleagues for not cutting interest rates as aggressively as he would like, tapped the pair in July for the two remaining vacancies on the central bank’s seven-seat board in Washington. But the formal announcement of his intention to nominate them didn’t come until Thursday and will now move to the Senate for consideration.

If confirmed by the Senate, they will join an institution that’s been under constant attack from the president who has sought to make Powell a potential scapegoat if the economy falters as he seeks reelection this year. Trump returned to this theme at the White House on Wednesday, appearing to lament that he had passed over Kevin Warsh in picking Powell as Fed chief.

Fed officials cut interest rates three times in 2019 but signaled they expect to keep rates on hold through 2020, based on their forecast of moderate economic growth with unemployment staying near a 50-year low.

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The two economists have widely different backgrounds, but their policy comments suggest they’d be inclined to be open to Trump’s calls for easier monetary policy.

Shelton, who has been an informal advisor to Trump, has publicly said the central bank should reduce rates. She’s spent decades outside mainstream economics and recently appears to have completed a metamorphosis from proponent of returning to the gold standard — a concept broadly espoused by those who feel monetary policy is too lax — to an advocate of the need for more stimulus.

She has a doctorate in business administration from the University of Utah with an emphasis on finance and international economics.

Waller is largely a conventional choice because he’s drawn from within the Fed’s own ranks.

He is a PhD economist who previously served as a professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame before joining, in 2009, the St. Louis Fed, where he is director of research. Waller has been consistent in his calls for a more dovish approach over the years. His key research focus has been on monetary and macroeconomic theory and the political economy.

The lengthy Senate confirmation process means neither candidate is likely to join the board for months. Current Vice Chairman Richard Clarida’s nomination was announced April 18, 2018, and he wasn’t sworn in until Sept. 17. Gov. Michelle Bowman, nominated the same day as Clarida, didn’t take office until Nov. 26.

As a high-ranking Fed staffer, Waller may have a better chance of passing muster with lawmakers than some of Trump’s previous contenders. As for Shelton, the Senate has already confirmed her in her current role as the U.S. executive director for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Her unorthodox views, though, could attract opposition.

In an interview with Bloomberg in May, she said she was “highly skeptical” that the goals for the Fed set by Congress — the pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates — were relevant.

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Katrien Van Der Schueren in her Voila Creative Studio. 

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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Van Der Schueren with a commissioned work. 

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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“I hate boring art that doesn’t say anything,” Van Der Schueren said. 

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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One of her current projects is a private residence in Cabo San Lucas designed by Martyn Lawrence Bullard. 

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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“Art needs to create a reaction, have contrast, humor, surprise and a sense of irony that makes you smile, but at the same time is aesthetically appealing and light,” Van Der Schueren said. 

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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A commissioned work for Martyn Lawrence Bullard is wrapped and ready to be shipped. 

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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Inside her La Brea Avenue studio. 

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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Katrien Van Der Schueren at work. 

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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Van Der Schueren with some of her projects. 

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

A modest, monochromatic storefront on La Brea Avenue camouflages a vast warehouse, where an artisan meticulously shaves foam into a sculpture of a cowboy, a jungle-themed lair features vintage German educational prints, and a grand chandelier made entirely of hands hangs above.

This is the Voila Creative Studio, a “visual laboratory” founded by Belgian artist Katrien Van Der Schueren.

The studio conceptualizes, designs and fabricates bespoke furniture, lighting, event and stage sets, accessories and fine art for clients such as famed fashion designer Carolina Herrera, the Cayton Children’s Museum in Santa Monica and the historic Hotel Jerome in Aspen. It also doubles as an event space and frame shop.

“I hate boring art that doesn’t say anything,” Van Der Schueren said. “Art needs to create a reaction, have contrast, humor, surprise and a sense of irony that makes you smile, but at the same time is aesthetically appealing and light.”

One of Voila’s current projects — a private residence at Maravilla in Cabo San Lucas, designed by Martyn Lawrence Bullard — showcases that breadth of wit and creativity, with a collection of roughly 30 Mexican-inspired pieces of custom art.

“Because it has a [big] budget, there are a lot of big pieces including photography and collages which we make, print and frame here,” she said. “There’s rope art, sand art and sculptures. There are two big wall reliefs, concrete sculptures for outside and an indoor foam sculpture.”

A collage of a luchador is layered with images from Mexican culture — including the national flag, cacti and sugar skulls — while subtle geometric sand art takes its inspiration from the nearby beach.

“Martyn contrasts everything; that’s why I love working with him,” Van Der Schueren said. “You show him something new, and he immediately goes for it and trusts that we can do it, even if we never had before. He evolves with us, so that’s cool.”

What got you into custom fabrication?

I had a whole container full of these glove molds and had to do something with them, so we sold part at the Paris flea market and shipped a container to the U.S. Then you’re there with all these hands, so we turned some into a chandelier of hanging hands. That was interesting to me because I was working with and exploring different materials. Then people started ordering custom furniture and art.

How did framing start?

Framing actually started from the beginning in 2008 because I needed to frame my own art and I couldn’t find a solution. It was either somebody who didn’t know what they were doing or I didn’t like the style, and then people just asked me to frame for them. It’s always been an integral part of my business. Now, for projects like Martyn’s, we make or print the art or collage and then frame. It’s all combined.

How hands-on are you with the art?

Very hands-on. I try to split it up because it’s two brains and once you’re hands-on I can’t stop, so I’ll either respond right away to an email or you won’t hear from me for days. Normally I will explore the materials and figure how we are going to proceed, so I’ll do a lot of different tests and part of the sculpting. Then I try to make it into something that can be done by others and I’ll help that process along the way, depending on where I need to be.

This space is sometimes used for events at night.

We rented out the space for U2 and Camila Cabello’s album releases. What interests me with that is that they ask us to do art fabrication for the mood and decor for the party. It’s fantastic that we get to create it and have it here. They pay to rent the space and for the art fabrication and bring a lot of people here, so we get new clients out of that. That’s the best type of marketing there is.

What are some of your favorite projects that you’ve worked on?

The Hotel Californian in Santa Barbara. All the pieces were super fun and different, so it was very creative. It was also a collaboration with Martyn with a nice budget. It was a lot of collages and some paintings that were all Santa Barbara-inspired. There was an enormous quantity of different pieces — abstract, photography, vintage and some with humor. It was an opportunity to create a huge portfolio because we keep the copyright afterward.

If you’ve ever felt that seductive mix of fear and fascination for the burly bumblebee, you must visit artist Jessica Rath’s exhibit, “fruiting bodies,” at Descanso Gardens’ Sturt Haaga Gallery through April 5.

Yes, our rational mind knows that bumblebees are gentle giants, more clowns than menace, but their foreboding buzz in the garden triggers some instinctive RUN! impulse that usually overrides all rational thought.

In “resonant nest” (all Rath’s titles are lowercase), Rath and composer Robert Hoehn have created a way for you to confront your terror head-on, in a room filled with giant translucent bumblebee nests, mesmerizing choral music and the random ominous BUZZ of big, unseen bees. Hoehn’s music is calming and trance-inducing, like monastery meditation chants, making it possible for buzz-a-phobes to fight their flight instinct every time the buzzing begins.

The goal, says Rath, is that we get past our human awareness to experience the many “moods” of bumblebees that are based on weather. “We wanted to do a musical portrait of their diurnal — daily — activities. They’re slow in the beginning of the day, when the air is colder, and as it warms they become more active, but if there’s too much wind or rain they return to their nests, and if it’s too cold, they actually rub their bodies against each other to generate heat,” Rath said.

The exhibit includes glowing human-size tumblers (i.e. bumblebee nests) equipped with speakers that periodically buzz in a way that feels both ominous and soothing. Against all this is Hoehn’s encompassing music, which is linked to weather feeds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“We wanted the score to be abstract enough to be meditative, without normal human narratives or arcs in the music, not even melodies,” Rath said. “The score layers and loops in six parts, and we brought in NOAA weather feeds so the music changes during the day based on weather cues.”

The buzzing sounds are interpretations of bumblebee sounds scored by Rath and performed by members of the Bob Cole Conservatory Chamber Choir of Cal State Long Beach (who also perform Hoehn’s music).

Rath also scored a “vibration” that bumblebees make to warn off intruding mammals, “but humans were too afraid of that score,” she said. “Robert [Hoehn] is a very kind soul who cares deeply that you have a more meditative experience and not be interrupted by any kind of fear, so we negotiated and didn’t use it.”

But “fruiting bodies” is about more than just bees. Rath, a Los Angeles-based artist who teaches sculpture and design at the ArtCenter of Pasadena, has created an exhibit that looks at how human activity has affected “nonhuman” species — specifically bees, apples and tomatoes, with the help of composer Hoehn, her longtime collaborator, plus U.C. Davis biologist Anne Leonard and Cornell University horticulturist and apple geneticist Susan K. Brown.

The exhibit includes oversize, shockingly red tomatoes in a room that examines how humans have genetically modified the shape, color and size of the fruit to match our human-made ideas of “deep red.” In the apple exhibit, visitors can watch a short but fascinating film of her trip to the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan to visit the world’s last forest of wild apple trees. The exhibit includes sculptures of the apples she found there and couldn’t bring back into the United States because of U.S. Customs restrictions.

In the Boddy House next door, Rath has created a 7-foot-tall manzanita anther that resembles a pair of giant lungs. The sculpture “staminal evolution” demonstrates the phenomenon of buzz pollination with a breathing/buzzing sound meant to represent the plant’s pollen release when solitary bees like bumblebees grab the anthers and cause them to vibrate.

If you’re coming to see the gardens, make a point of touring the gallery exhibit (there’s no additional fee). Or visit during several special activities planned in January, February and March, when Rath and others will show off the specially designed bee hotels and nests she and Hoehn created and placed around the gardens. For more information about tickets and registration, closer to the time of the events, visit the “fruiting bodies” website.

“fruiting bodies,” an exhibit at Descanso Gardens’ Sturt Haaga Gallery
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily through April 5
1418 Descanso Dr.
La Cañada Flintridge
Free with $9 admission to the gardens ($6 seniors/students, $4 ages 4-12)
descansogardens.org

Jan. 26
Rath and composer Hoehn lead a garden walk-through of the solitary bee hotels and and other outdoor works, along with a tour of the gallery, from 1 to 3 p.m.

Feb. 29-March 1
Forage with horticulturist and ecological systems engineer Nance Klehm throughout the gardens at noon and at 2 p.m. on Feb. 29 and 10 a.m. on March 1. Advance registration required.

March 7
CSU Long Beach’s Master Chorale performs a special 15-minute arrangement of “Bee Song” by composer Hoehn written for the “resonant nest” bumblebee nest exhibit at 5:45, 6:30 and 7:15 p.m. Advance tickets required.

March 15
Rath and “Radical Botany” authors Natania Meeker and Antónia Szabari screen early 20th century botanical films and then discuss them from noon to 3 p.m.