December 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

            From our family to you and yours, we wish you a happy holiday season, whatever your faith, whatever your traditions, whatever your politics. But it cannot be denied that this is not a happy time for many of us here in Washington and not a happy time for our great country or for millions of people in many other troubled countries around the world.

            In brief, the adult Jost-White children are both happily married, and they and their spouses are all advancing in their careers. Ken continues to write Supreme Court Yearbook (CQ Press), now in his 26th term, and to write weekly columns for his blog, Jost on Justice, about to start its tenth year. James marked his 20th year in the world of IT consulting at Total Resource Management.

            Nicole and her wife Lily Rea are in the third year of Nicole's three-year master's program in playwriting at San Francisco State. Nicole's play The Terror Fantastic, in development for several years now, was produced in a two-week run at Minneapolis's 20% Theater: Ken was there for opening night; Katie and the rest of the White family attended the next night. In San Francisco, Lily continues to gather experience as a theater techie, helping produce audio and video for the Jewish Community Center. They live in Hayes Valley, with their cat Molly.

            Andrew (AJ) and Robbie Rogart Jost celebrated their first anniversary in September, five months after taking on a mortgage for a three-level home in the close-in DC suburb of Arlington, Va. AJ continues as an investment analyst with Clark Enterprises, with increased responsibilities in his second year in that position. Robbie was just promoted to counsel in her sixth year with the Washington office of Crowell & Moring. And they have a new puppy: a golden retriever they named Henry and dressed in Washington Nationals gear as the baseball season came to a disappointing end.

           

            Ken wrapped up Supreme Court Yearbook for the mostly boring 2016 term with Justice Gorsuch's confirmation and the end-of-term challenge to President Trump's Muslim travel ban. The 2017 term opened with a goodly number of high-profile cases. On Jost for Justice, Ken has criticized several Trump administration policies, such as his judicial appointments, and laid out the case for impeachment in a pair of columns in November. He also contributed a review of two recent impeachment books for the online Washington Independent Review of Books.

            Ken and James traveled to San Francisco in September for a sad occasion: services for Ken's former reporter, Philip Carrizosa, who died from complications following a long-awaited liver transplant.. Ken traveled to Italy and Sweden on his own in August; James went to Taiwan on his own in November to spend time with his aging parents. His father, now housebound, is weaker but in good spirits; both parents were glad to have James there for two weeks. James also uses various modern technologies to talk or "visit" on a weekly basis. On tap for us, an African safari in February.

            We closed a year ago with wishes for greater tolerance and compassion; those hopes have not been realized. Americans are more divided than perhaps at any time in our history. But to you and yours best wishes at this season and for health, success, and happiness throughout 2018.

Ken & James, Nicole & Lily, AJ and Robbie (and Henry!)