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Value Added: Building a business built on intelligence

I am sitting in a basement office in Rosslyn, staring at Google Earth satellite images on a giant flat-screen monitor as computer geeks show me how a SEAL team would take out a drug factory — which in this exercise happens to be my home in suburban Maryland. So we pretend. Several “Special Ops” teams surround the block, some gathering at staging areas around the corner to determine the best way to storm my center-hall Colonial and annihilate the no-goodniks inside. “Don’t hurt my trees,” I tell the T-shirted geek next to me. What’s going on here is a visit to Thermopylae Sciences and Technology, a 105-employee company that is the creation of A.J. Clark, 32, a burly, ponytailed motorcyclist who hardly fits my image of a guy who helped track bad guys for the Air Force. A.J. Clark is a former Air Force intelligence analyst who has parlayed his expertise at using software to analyze interrogation transcripts to launch Thermopylea Sciences, a 105-person Virginia company that works in defense intelligence and with Google. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post) The culture at Thermopylae’s Rosslyn offices, where 60 employees work, is as informal as its founder, who schedules his day in 10-to-30-minute increments so he doesn’t waste time in long meetings. It’s a world of T-shirts, long hair, feet up on the desk. The halls are decorated with plaques featuring people and their inspirational sayings, such as the one with Jody Williams, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning anti-land-mine crusader, that reads: “Success breeds success. People want to be involved with things that are successful.” Thermopylae offers three big products to clients, which range from the federal government to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The first helps clients such as the State Department track overseas employees on Google Earth, whether they’re at a cafe in Kabul or on a highway in Egypt. The second is a mobile app that, for example, allows a spectator at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway to find directions to the nearest restroom. The third product is a kind of search engine for the intelligence community. Clark used his military experience and contacts to build a start-up that has $23.5 million in revenue. About $18 million comes from services for the government. Those operations have a relatively low profit margin, 7 percent. The rest of the revenue comes from software sales, which have a much higher profit margin. The annual payroll

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For some black women, economy and willingness to aid family strains finances

Her injury settlement enabled her to buy a home in the 1990s. But instead of paying off her mortgage, she participated in the boom in cheap loans in the years before the recession. In the black community in particular, fast and loose credit became widely available for purchases such as cars and homes, seemingly offering a pathway to the good life. Besides, there were better things to do with the money, she thought at the time, such as investing in the overheated stock market and cruising to the Bahamas. There were also her friends and family to think about. Her three-story home in the leafy subdivision of Mount Airy Estates became not only the gathering place for holidays and get-togethers, but also a refuge. The preteen nephew she took in is grown now, but he still drops by to help her put up decorations during the holidays. A framed photo of him wearing a cap and gown at his high school graduation sits prominently in her living room. Three years ago, Ladson learned that Pat Body, her partner of 25 years, needed a safe place for her great-granddaughter to stay. The girl was just an infant, and Ladson was nearing retirement. But how could she say no? Now, 3-year-old Kaila Kirksey refers to Ladson as Auntie Jane, and the dream house is filled with stuffed animals and plastic teacups, the television tuned to the Disney Channel. According to the Post-Kaiser poll, 36 percent of black women said they regularly help friends or family with child care, compared with 24 percent of white women. And 49 percent said they regularly assist elderly relatives, while 39 percent of white women did. That dynamic persists even though the economic boom has given way to a harsher financial reality. Nearly three-quarters of black women worry about not having enough money to pay their bills, more than white men or women. Black women are more than twice as likely as white women to report problems meeting their rent or mortgage payments. Twenty-nine percent had burdensome medical bills, compared with 22 percent of white women. Nearly a quarter of black women had trouble getting a loan, while just 16 percent of white women did. The findings dovetail with previous research by economists and sociologists that consistently show that black middle-class families tend to provide financial help to family members — especially parents and siblings — at

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Moon draws growing interest as a potential source of rare minerals

Moon Express, one of the companies vying for the prize. A former executive at Microsoft, Jain is so enthusiastic and confident about moon mining that talking to him makes you wonder why we haven’t been doing it for years. “We already have much of the technology. We know how to get into Earth orbit, how to land on the moon, and how to return to Earth. There are only a few key problems to solve,” he says. First, there has to be a way to power the operation. That’s where the water comes in. Lunar water could be split into hydrogen and oxygen for fuel cells, similar to the hydrogen fuel cells that car manufacturers are trying to develop. “The moon could represent a gas station in the sky,” Zarnecki says. That gas could fuel other space missions in addition to lunar mining. Another major problem is economics. Jain thinks he can land his hovering rover on the moon for less than $100 million. Part of that is coming from private investors and part from a contract with NASA. But he also has some ideas about how to earn some money before the mining operation is up and running. “Once you’re on the moon, all sorts of opportunities arise,” he says. “What if you could pay $30 or $40 to drive a remote-controlled lunar rover around for a few minutes using a Web-based platform? What if I could write messages — like a wedding proposal — onto the lunar surface and send you a digital picture for $50? These things add up quickly. Mining isn’t the only potential revenue source on the moon.” Another challenge is the legality. No country, corporation or individual owns the moon. That hasn’t been an issue, because only a minimal amount of material has ever been removed from it. But that’s going to change when the mining starts. Jain draws an anal “No one owns international waters, but those who invest their money and effort to find fish are entitled to profit,” he says. It’s an intriguing analogy but untested in any court. The lawyers better start working on their arguments: Jain says he plans to start mining in earnest by 2016, although that timelime is incredibly ambitious, to say the least. And China has announced plans to bring back small amounts of lunar rock by 2020 in advance of a manned mission and lunar

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Super Bowl 2012 commercials: Clint Eastwood Chrysler commercial gets mixed reviews

Super Bowl XLVI is behind us, yet discussion of the second Eli Manning win over Brady and the Patriots has taken a back seat for some to the commercials that aired during the game, even though many aired a full week before the game. As Hank Stuever reported: Media revolutionaries picked an excellent year to actively discourage Americans from watching the year’s highest-rated telecast on stupid, old, outdated televisions. Had you not occupied yourself with at least two other devices, you might have drifted off during Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday night on NBC. Live or not, the night felt somehow like a rerun. The commercials Part of that is everybody’s mutual fault: We opened all the presents early. All but a few of the mythically expensive Super Bowl ads had been available to view days ago, online. They were socially shared last week, judged to pieces and thus old news. Chrsyler’s Super Bowl ad reprised a similar theme as their ad in 2011, but turned to Clint Eastwood instead of Eminem. As Sarah Anne Hughes explained: “It’s halftime. Both teams are in their locker rooms discussing what they can do to win this game in the second half,” Eastwood begins. “It’s halftime in America, too. People are out of work and they’re hurting. And they’re all wondering what they’re gonna do to make a comeback. “We find a way through tough times, and if we can’t find a way then we’ll make one. All that matters now is what’s ahead, how do we come from behind, how do we come together, and how do we win. Detroit’s showing us it can be done.” One new face which appeared in Pepsi’s commercial opposite Elton John, Melanie Amaro, gave a modern take on Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’. As Jen Chaney reported: More from The Washington Post Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, Cee Lo, M.I.A: Who was the best Super Bowl performer? The five most culturally significant post-Super Bowl TV shows Gisele Bundchen blames Tom Brady’s wide receivers for Patriots’ loss

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Butterflies help out scientists and the military

Butterflies are teaching scientists important lessons that could be used in designing flying robots. The military wants to be able to use bug-size robots to fly into areas without risking human lives. They call their robots MAVs, short for micro air vehicles. The problem is that the robots don’t do as good a job of flying in tight spaces with changing wind conditions as do butterflies. “Flying insects are capable of performing a dazzling variety of flight maneuvers,” said Tiras Lin, a Johns Hopkins University student who is doing some of the research. “In designing MAVs, we can learn a lot from flying insects.” Because butterflies move their wings far too quickly for the human eye to detect all the movements, Lin and other researchers have come up with a special camera that takes 3,000 images per second. (Your family’s video camera takes no more than 60 images a second!) Other universities are at work developing their own tiny fliers. Butterfly research is being used in the development of micro air vehicles such as this one. (Robert J. Wood and Pratheev Sreethara/Harvard University)

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Junk food widely available at U.S. elementary schools despite anti-obesity push

to a study published Monday in a pediatric journal. The study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, comes as federal regulators are crafting a proposal that would set new nutrition standards for foods and beverages sold in vending machines, snack bars and elsewhere in schools. Consumer advocates are hoping for an equally dramatic change in so-called “competitive foods” that are sold outside the school meal program. They say these foods, including potato chips and cookies, are widely available but barely regulated in schools. Federal law bans only a small subset of competitive foods, such as sodas and certain types of candy, from being sold in cafeterias during mealtime. But those products are available to kids in other venues at school, even during lunch, according to the study, which was published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Such foods also include sandwiches, pizza and other a la carte items that are not federally reimbursed. “Really, it’s a very weak regulation at this point,” said Lindsey Turner, lead author of the study and a health psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “We’re at a time of transition and opportunity for these competitive foods.” The study, based on mail-back surveys from about 3,900 public and private elementary schools nationwide, found that about half of the students could buy foods in one or more competitive venues during the 2009-10 school year. Access to these foods did not change significantly during the 2006-07 through 2009-10 school years. The study highlighted “striking” regional differences. About 60 percent of public elementary school kids had access to sugary snacks in the South, where childhood obesity rates are the highest. This compares with 24 percent in the West and 30 percent in the Midwest. But fruits and vegetables also were more available in the South. The study assessed only access to snacks, not consumption or the link to obesity. It cited a separate 2009 study, however, in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association showing that 29 percent of elementary school students consumed competitive foods, usually unhealthy ones. A separate study strongly linked the availability of unhealthy foods and drinks in competitive venues with greater calorie intake. In early 2010, the American Beverage Association said that its members had voluntarily reduced the calories in drinks shipped to schools by 88 percent. Its members also stopped offering full-calorie soft drinks in elementary school vending machines.

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Going Out Guide: Nightlife Agenda

Home Brewers Match Up Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. Meridian Pint, 3400 11th St. NW. 202-588-1075. www.meridianpint.com. Free. Assemble Here’s a concertgoing experience that promises to be different. Assemble is an aptly named event that brings together a handful of musicians for an improvised exercise that, we hope, will end with something cool. Saturday’s edition features Bob Boilen of NPR’s “All Songs Considered” (and former D.C. new wave star), Fugazi/French Toast percussionist Jerry Busher and Patrick Noecker of These Are Powers. They’ll sit in a circle and play their own micro-jams for a few minutes before passing the invisible baton to the next person. Eventually they’ll team up for a 10-minute jam. Video projections by Robin Hill will run continuously. After the experiment, get ready for loud music by Expensive [Expletive], a band that is percussive and funky enough to use a name inspired by Fela Kuti’s classic album. Saturday at 10 p.m. Comet Ping Pong, 5037 Connecticut Ave. NW. 202-364-0404. $10. Mad Fox Barleywine Fest Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight. Mad Fox Brewing Co., 444 West Broad St., Falls Church. 703-942-6840. www.madfoxbrewing.com. Free admission. This Will Destroy You, Mountains, Amen Dunes Sunday at 7 p.m. Red Palace, 1212 H St. NE. 202-399-3201. www.redpalace.com. $12. — Fritz Hahn and David Malitz

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Constantine D.Kryzanowsky, Army officer, Russian linguist, dies at 90

Constantine D. Kryzanowsky, 90, a Russian linguist who retired in 1970 from the Army at the rank of lieutenant colonel, died Jan. 18 at the Ingleside at King Farm retirement community in Rockville. He had acute kidney disease. The death was confirmed by his wife, Dr. Janet R. Hoveland, a retired psychiatrist. Lt. Col. Kryzanowsky served 28 years in the Army. He was stationed in Panama during World War II and was a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars. During the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, he translated Russian-language communications sent to President Lyndon B. Johnson by Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin. From 1973 to 1982, Lt. Col. Kryzanowsky was a Russian linguist for the CIA. His military decorations included two awards of the Bronze Star Medal and the Joint Service Commendation Medal. Constantine David Kryzanowsky was born in Seattle and raised in Puerto Rico. He was a 1941 mathematics graduate of Monmouth College in Illinois and received a master’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 1970. He did volunteer work with Meals on Wheels and gave tours in Russian for the Washington visitors bureau. He was a member of the Potomac Pedalers bicycling club. His first wife, Carmen Madera, whom he married in 1944, died in 1982 from injuries sustained in a car accident. Their son Alexander Kryzanowsky died in 1972. Survivors include his wife of 26 years, Janet R. Hoveland of Rockville; two children from his first marriage, Julian Kryzanowsky of Haymarket, Va., and Sandra Heinzman of Midlothian, Va.; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. — Adam Bernstein

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A vegan queen’s cupcakes take the crown

wanted to open a bakery. “There was nothing that was vegan on purpose that was delicious, or that you couldn’t resist,” she says. She began renting kitchen time at a bakery in Dupont Circle in 2000. When that business closed in 2002, she took over the space. By then she had taken on a partner, and the two of them sketched out a business plan on a sheet of loose-leaf paper. “We had no idea what it was going to take,” she remembers. “We were so naive, and thank God we were, or else we never would’ve opened. We just had gusto.” They didn’t put the word ­“vegan” on their sign and didn’t mention it to customers who didn’t ask. “That’s the true test, right?” she says. “Do you have a line of people out the door or do you have a line of just vegans out the door?” Both carnivores and vegetarians scooped up their sticky buns and brownies, and in 2006 the business moved to a bigger space in Columbia Heights. A retro oven and refrigerator were brought in to hold condiments and the cabinets were painted mint green to give the feel of a 1950s kitchen. By then, Petersan’s partner had moved on to tour with a rock band. The bakery’s menu expanded to include breakfast and lunch dishes, and the shop garnered interest from bakers in Korea who came to train with Petersan for several weeks before ­returning home to open an outpost of the Sticky Fingers franchise in Seoul. Sticky Fingers also launched a wholesale business, packaging its products for resale at Whole Foods and other local stores. Last year Petersan got a call from Food Network, offering her a spot on the baking competition “Cupcake Wars.” She was ­pitted against another vegan baker and two others who used dairy products. Petersan won. “I thought it was going to be a long shot. But also that we absolutely have to win this because we’re the underdog,” she says. “So we went in it with full guns blazing.” The secret, she says, is in using high-quality ingredients and knowing how to work with them. Instead of butter, she uses non-hydrogenated margarines and shortenings. Soy milk, coconut milk, fresh fruits and nuts “are imperative,” as is really good chocolate and the restraint to not overmix a cake batter. In her second time on the show, she was

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Barley wine’s not just for winter nights

made between 1968 and 2008. This strong ale (it could measure more than 12 percent alcohol by volume) was dosed with fresh yeast in the bottle, and as it continued to ferment, it developed enormous complexity over time. It was eventually deemed too expensive to make, but vintage-dated bottles continue to change hands on eBay. Some guidebooks refer to Thomas Hardy’s Ale as an “old ale,” and other terms such as “stock ale,” “stingo” and “malt wine” have been slapped on English strong ales as well. Beer taxonomists have drawn up guidelines to distinguish barley wine from similar styles, but they afford brewers a very long leash. Barley wines on the market range in color from honey-gold to deep mahogany. Alcohol can be as little as 8 percent, and as much as 15 percent in the case of Dogfish Head’s Olde School Barleywine, which incorporates dates and figs to add extra sugar for fermentation. Muddying the waters further is the fact that English and American brewers don’t always agree on what constitutes the ideal barley wine. English versions are malt forward, with sugary and toffeeish flavors dominating. American barley wines tend to be much hoppier. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine, with its immense resiny and fruity flavors, is a classic; six-packs and kegs of the 2012 vintage should hit the Washington market in mid-February. Hog Heaven Barleywine-Style Ale is dry-hopped with such an abundance of piney Columbus hops that it probably ought to be labeled an imperial IPA, except that the latter style didn’t exist in 1998 when Avery Brewing in Boulder, Colo., first released the brand. Dominion Millennium Ale, which survived the brewery’s move from Ashburn to Dover, Del., is getting a makeover this year, reports Casey Hollingsworth, vice president for sales and marketing. Specifically, the brewery has replaced East Kent Golding hops, a subtle, earthy English variety, with more aggressive strains Chinook and Apollo. “We’ve truly Americanized it,” says Hollingsworth. The brewery continues to add some Virginia honey to the brew kettle for “a nice, delicate, flowery aroma,” he adds. Hugh Sisson, founder and general partner of Clipper City Brewing in Baltimore, has been brewing his Below Decks Barleywine Style Ale for eight years, and is making no concessions to hop heads. “It’s very malt-driven,” he says of the 10 percent alcohol brew. “The West Coast barley wines are interesting, but to me, that’s not what barley wine is

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Washington Post food calendar for Feb. 11-Feb. 21

SATURDAY SPARKLING WINE TASTING: WASHINGTON D.C. INTERNATIONAL WINE FOOD FESTIVAL: SUNDAY COCKTAIL CLASS: FOOD AND DRINK IN MEDIEVAL CYPRUS: MONDAY CHOCOLATE, CHEESE AND BUBBLY: WINE DINNER: TUESDAY TUESDAY TEA: RESERVE NOW FEB. 17 CHOPIN VODKA DINNER: FEB. 19 CELEBRITY SURF ’N’ TURF DINNER: FEB. 21 ST. JUDE GOURMET GALA: WINE DINNER: — Becky Krystal

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Roger Boisjoly, engineer who warned of Challenger shuttle danger, dies at 73

The 1986 explosion that destroyed the space shuttle Challenger and killed seven astronauts shocked the nation, but for one rocket engineer, the tragedy became a personal burden and created a lifelong quest to challenge the bureaucratic ethics that had caused the tragedy. Roger Boisjoly was an engineer at solid-rocket booster manufacturer Morton Thiokol and had begun warning as early as 1985 that the joints in the boosters could fail in cold weather, leading to a catastrophic failure of the casing. Then on the eve of the Jan. 28, 1986, launch, Mr. Boisjoly and four other space shuttle engineers argued late into the night against the launch. In cold temperatures, O-rings in the joints might not seal, they said, and could allow flames to reach the rocket’s metal casing. Their pleas and technical theories were rejected by senior managers at the company and NASA who said they had failed to prove their case and that the shuttle would be launched in freezing temperatures the next morning. It was among the biggest engineering miscalculations in history. A little more than a minute after launch, flames shot out of the booster joint, melted through the nearby hydrogen fuel tank and ignited a fireball that was watched by the astronauts’ families and much of the nation on television. Engineer Roger Boisjoly examines a model of the O-Rings, used to bring the Space Shuttle into orbit, at a meeting of senior executives and academic representatives in New York in 1991. Boisjoly died in January in Utah. (AP) Mr. Boisjoly could not watch the launch, so certain was he that the shuttle would blow up. In the months and years that followed, the disaster changed his career and permanently poisoned his view that NASA could be trusted to make the right decisions when matters came to life and death. Mr. Boisjoly, 73, died of cancer Jan. 6 in Nephi, Utah, his family said. The Challenger disaster and the resulting investigation pulled back the curtain on NASA’s internal culture, revealing a bureaucracy that had made safety secondary to its launch objectives and to the political support it needed to continue the shuttle program. “It was the end of the dream,” said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org and a longtime analyst of U.S. aerospace. “Before the Challenger, you could think about the idea of going boldly where no one had gone before. The accident ended it.” Mr. Boisjoly

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Architect of Egypt’s NGO crackdown is Mubarak holdover

developed a reputation as a tireless, efficient worker with extraordinary political savvy. She served in Egypt’s delegation to the United Nations in the 1990s and was later appointed as the country’s envoy to the U.N. mission in Geneva. “Her political strength comes from the fact that she is the one who receives foreign aid and rechannels foreign aid,” said a former colleague who is supportive of her and the NGO probe. He agreed to be interviewed only on the condition of anonymity in order to speak bluntly. “She knows how to satisfy those in power.” Pushing back After years of giving the Egyptian government substantial control over the way its share of U.S. aid was spent, Congress in 2004 demanded that some money earmarked for democracy-building activities be dispersed without moving through Abou el-Naga’s ministry. Part of that money went to groups such as NDI and IRI, which trained and advised opposition figures. Abou el-Naga and the country’s intelligence agencies worried that the groups would empower government critics and pushed back against the change, said Egyptian activists and the U.S. official, who worked with her. Abou el-Naga was charming, articulate and strikingly elegant, but when the issue of NGO funding came up in meetings, she was uncompromising, the official said. When the Obama administration ramped up efforts to support civil society groups and political parties after last year’s revolution, publicizing grants and holding workshops to help applicants apply for money, Abou el-Naga was furious. Abou el-Naga did not respond to repeated requests for an interview in recent days. Swaying the generals Hossam Bahgat, a prominent human rights activist who is critical of Abou el-Naga and the restrictions she has enforced on NGOs, said the minister appears to have convinced the generals that the organizations have fueled protests and violence in recent months. “The generals are predisposed to believe these warnings about an international conspiracy to destabilize Egypt,” Bahgat said. “They think they are facing the same fate as Mubarak.” U.S. officials fear that the narrative demonizing the United States and blaming foreigners for unrest is getting traction on the Egyptian street. Abou el-Naga’s crackdown on pro-democracy groups has promoted that view. “She’s characterizing their work as violating Egyptian sovereignty and using that as a rallying cry,” said the senior U.S. official. “That’s turned into a weapon that appeals to the new leadership.” Special correspondent Ingy Hassieb contributed to this report.

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D.C., Maryland and Virginia health code violations

These food establishments were closed because of health code violations. The list, compiled from health department reports, reflects actions taken by the departments. THE DISTRICT El Pollo Sabroso 1434 Park Rd. NW Closed Friday for failure to minimize vermin. Healthy Bites 5329 Georgia Ave. NW Closed Jan. 31 for operating without a certified food manager and failure to minimize vermin and insects. Reopened Friday. Jolt ‘N Bolt Coffee and Tea House 1918 18th St. NW Closed last Thursday for failure to minimize vermin and insects, operating without hot water and incorrect food holding temperatures. Reopened Friday. Mixtec Restaurant 1792 Columbia Rd. NW Closed last Thursday for failure to minimize vermin and insects and operating without a license. Reopened Friday. MARYLAND El Pollo Riki Riki 2533 Ennalls Ave., Wheaton Closed Jan. 30 for a fire. Reopened Jan. 31. Moon Gate 4609 Willow Lane, Bethesda Closed Jan. 30 for a mice infestation. Reopened Jan. 31. VIRGINIA Barnes and Noble 7851-L Tysons Corner Center, McLean Closed Feb. 1 for operating without hot water. Reopened last Thursday. Pizza Hut 1821 Wiehle Ave., Reston Closed last Thursday for operating without hot water. Reopened that day. Tippy’s Taco House 11210 Lee Hwy., Fairfax Closed Jan. 31 for operating without a certified food manager. Reopened that day. Tippy’s Taco House 11210 Lee Hwy., Fairfax Closed last Thursday for operating without a certified food manager. Reopened that day. — Compiled by Terence McArdle

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D.C. rat summit: Another day in the sun for city’s rodents

The infamous D.C. rat population appears to have gained some newfound political clout. Not only did rats prompt, in part, the weekend raid on the Occupy D.C. camps, but the rodents now will be getting their own summit. At the summit — the date and place have not yet been set — Cuccinelli also plans to discuss his criticism of D.C.’s animal control law. Called the Wildlife Protection Act, the measure was approved in 2010 but has not yet been fully implemented. Cuccinelli claims that the law would force D.C. pest-control workers to cross the border and dump their rats and other wild animals into the unsuspecting Maryland and Virginia suburbs, potentially exposing suburbanites to Lyme disease, rabies and other animal-borne ailments. “Like others, I want to ensure the humane treatment of animals, but when it comes to rodents and other animals that often carry diseases, human health must come first,” Cuccinelli wrote in an e-mail to The Washington Post. “That just doesn’t happen,” he said. “Pest-control personnel usually end up handling dead rats, not live ones.” In the meantime, the Wildlife Protection Act awaits full implementation by the city. While restrictions on the handling of animals are in effect, the city has not identified funding to enforce a pest-control licensing regime included in the law. The environment department is in the process of drafting regulations setting prices and procedures for securing those licenses. Few concrete details of the upcoming rat summit have been set, according to Cuccinelli spokesman Brian J. Gottstein. “It’s not just about the critter,” Colvin said. “It’s also about factors that would attract the critter in the first place.” Staff writer Mike DeBonis contributed to this report. What a nuisance: Your pest photos

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Robert Citron, pioneering engineer who envisioned space travel, dies at 79

NASA was opposed to carrying people in the module for safety reasons but eventually agreed to another use: Since 1993, Spacehab, which was patented by Mr. Citron and co-designer Thomas C. Taylor, was deployed to hold scientific experiments on more than 20 space shuttle missions, including the 1998 flight of Discovery, when John Glenn returned to space. Mr. Citron sold the Spacehab company in 1986. One of Mr. Citron’s most important contributions was demonstrating that the private sector could build space hardware far more cheaply than the government. He built two Spacehab modules for $150 million, substantially less than NASA’s estimate of $1.2 billion, said James A.M. Muncy, a space policy consultant in Washington. “The power of Bob’s ideas, technical designs and business concepts made space business, including businesses involving humans in space, more real,” Muncy said. Mr. Citron was born Sept. 14, 1932, in Brooklyn and moved to Los Angeles when he was 12. He served in the Air Force during the Korean War and earned degrees in liberal arts from the University of the Philippines and in aeronautical engineering from Northrop University in Inglewood, Calif. In 1957, while still at Northrop, he became technical director of the Pacific Rocket Society’s satellite tracking station in Canoga Park, Calif., and received a congratulatory call from President Dwight D. Eisenhower when he managed to track Sputnik 1, the Soviet Union’s satellite. He later built and managed satellite tracking stations for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Asia, Africa and Europe. In 1968, Mr. Citron launched the Smithsonian’s Center for Short-Lived Phenomena in Cambridge, Mass., where he was its director. He told Popular Mechanics magazine in 1970 that using Teletype machines and a network of more than 2,000 correspondents around the globe he could contact almost any inhabited place in minutes and quickly alert scientists about unusual natural events — earthquakes, fireballs, fish kills and rare animal migrations. In 1969, when a friend suggested that they could finance a free trip to view a solar eclipse if they organized a group excursion, he formed Educational Expeditions International, which took scientists and others on such adventurous experiences as climbing into an active volcano. He later sold the company, which is now part of the Boston-based Earthwatch Institute. Mr. Citron was married three times. Survivors include his partner, Audrey Woodin; seven children; a brother; two sisters; 23 grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. — Los Angeles Times

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Anne Arundel County and Howard County crime report

Anne Arundel County These were among incidents reported by the Anne Arundel County Police Department. For information, call 410-222-8050. Rewards for information Metro Crime Stoppers will pay up to $2,000 for information leading to arrests and indictments in connection with felonies. Visit metrocrimestoppers.net, call the hotline at 866-756-2587 or text 274637. For text messages, type the letters “mcs” without the quote marks in the text field, then hit the space key before writing the crime tip. If the text is received, you will receive an acknowledgment. EDGEWATER AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Solomons Island Rd., GAMBRILLS AREA ROBBERIES Annapolis Rd., GLEN BURNIE AREA ROBBERIES Nolcrest Rd., Furnace Branch and Rippling Ridge roads, THEFTS/BREAK-INS Solley Rd., MILLERSVILLE AREA ROBBERIES Chalet Dr., Old Mill area, Annapolis These were among incidents reported by the Annapolis Police Department. For information, call 410-268-9000. To anonymously report non-emergency crime or suspicious activity, call 410-280-2583. ASSAULTS Bens Dr. near Marcs Ct., Copeland St., THEFTS/BREAK-INS Frederick Douglass St., Parole St., Rosedale St., MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Hearthstone Ct., Melrose St. near Genessee St., Howard County These were among incidents reported by the Howard County Police Department. For information, call 410-313-2236. To anonymously provide information about these and other felonies, call the Stop Crime tip line: 410-313-7867. COLUMBIA AREA INDECENT EXPOSURE INCIDENTS Robert Oliver Pl., ROBBERIES Cradlerock Way, THEFTS/BREAK-INS Davidge Dr., Reader Lane, Stevens Forest Rd., Wood Stove Lane, MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS McGaw Ct., Owen Brown Rd., ELKRIDGE AREA ROBBERIES Washington Blvd., Washington Blvd., THEFTS/BREAK-INS Washington Blvd., ELLICOTT CITY AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Baltimore National Pike, Dairy Valley Trail, Frederick Rd., Triadelphia Rd., JESSUP AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Aspenwood Way, Waterloo Rd., LAUREL AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Gorman Rd., Whiskey Bottom Rd., SAVAGE AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Foundry St., SYKESVILLE AREA ROBBERIES River Rd., — Compiled by Carrie Donovan

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For owners of ’60s-era Carderock Springs house, renovation ordeal was worth it

then the atrium house went on the market. While almost all of Carderock’s houses have pitched roofs, developer Bennett took a chance in the mid-1960s and built seven flat-roofed homes, each clad in western red heartwood cedar siding and featuring a glassed-in atrium at its center. Distinctly more contemporary than anything else in the neighborhood, the houses were featured in House and Garden and Architectural Record magazines. But they weren’t particularly popular with buyers, according to Shannon, and Bennett stopped building them. These days, the homes are in demand among Carderock residents and fans. Barbara Beers had long her eye on them, but she and David figured it would be forever before one opened up. Still, a couple of years ago David added their name to a waiting list to be notified when an atrium home was about to go on the market. As luck would have it, one of the houses soon became available. The home, which had been owned by an elderly blind man, was in pretty bad condition, and the sellers had no interest in fixing it up before putting it on the market. So the agent in charge, Theres Kellermann, took advantage of real estate laws that give a seller 48 hours to find a buyer before publicly listing a property. She turned to the waiting list. The Beerses were second in the queue, and the family that was first passed on the home. “We had 24 hours to decide,” remembered David. The pair drove over and met with the home’s owner. “We didn’t have time to do an inspection; we just did a 20- or 30-minute walk-through. We had to believe that no one was hiding information about the place.” It seemed like a good investment. The four-bedroom, three-bathroom house was selling for $900,000 and needed serious repairs. But the same model up the street had recently sold for over $1 million. So they decided to jump. “Barbara really loved it,” said David. “I was less eager. I saw how much work there was.” Highlighting strengths, fixing weaknesses David was right: The house wasn’t in great shape. Forget burnishing its mid-century modern flair; the place had water damage and termite and mice problems, and the kitchen and bathrooms were still in their 1960s condition. But the couple, who had learned more than a little about home repairs while fixing up their first Carderock Springs house,

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Chinese official on leave amid defection rumors

Deputy Mayor of Chongqing Wang Lijun reads documents as he attends a session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) of the Chongqing Municipal Committee, in Chongqing municipality, January 7, 2012. (STRINGER/CHINA/REUTERS) The deputy mayor of Chongqing, a major city in southwestern China, has taken a leave from his job amid rumors that he tried to seek asylum at a U.S. consulate. Chongqing officials posted a short, cryptic message on a microblog — the Chinese equivalent of Twitter — on Wednesday, saying that Wang Lijun was “receiving a vacation-style treatment” for overwork and mental stress. Several other Chinese microblogs speculated that Wang, a former city police chief, had sought to defect and posted pictures purportedly showing police surrounding the U.S. consulate in nearby Chengdu on Tuesday night. The episode drew unusual attention because Wang has close ties to Bo Xilai, Chongqing’s charismatic Communist Party chief and a rising star within the party who has been campaigning for a seat on the Politburo Standing Committee. A key part of Bo’s appeal involves his high-profile crackdown on crime and corruption in recent years. Wang played an integral role in that effort, in which police arrested several alleged criminal leaders while confiscating drugs and guns. The U.S. State Department confirmed Wednesday that Wang had requested and attended a meeting Monday at the Chengdu consulate, but U.S. officials would not comment on whether he sought asylum. “He did visit the consulate, and he later left the consulate of his own volition,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. Responding to online reports that Wang was forced to leave the consulate or dragged out, she said, “He walked out. It was his choice.” At a news briefing in Beijing on Thursday morning, Cui Tiankai, the vice foreign minister in charge of U.S. affairs, declined to offer specifics about Wang’s visit to the U.S. consulate, but, he said, the upcoming visit to Washington by Vice President Xi Jinping would not be affected by the incident. Asked later to elaborate, Cui said, “This issue has been resolved, and resolved quite smoothly.” It was unclear whether Wang’s departure resulted from a falling out between him and Bo. It was also unclear how the episode involving Wang could affect Bo’s political aspirations. Bo has pursued the Politburo seat with the zeal of a Western-style populist, most notably through “red culture,” a revival of socialist songs and culture from Mao

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President’s next budget to cut Mars, solar system exploration

Mars in 2016 and 2018. Agreed upon in 2009, NASA was to pay $1.4 billion, and the Europeans $1.2 billion, for the two missions. In an e-mail, NASA spokesman David Weaver wrote, “Consistent with the tough choices being made across the Federal government . . . NASA is reassessing its current Mars exploration initiatives to maximize what can be achieved scientifically, technologically and in support of our future human missions.” A congressional champion of space exploration said that the budget slashing “absolutely will not fly” with the House committee that oversees NASA. “You don’t cut spending for critical scientific research endeavors that have immeasurable benefit to the nation and inspire the human spirit of exploration we all have,” Rep. John Abney Culberson (R-Tex.) said. Last fall, NASA handed out $46 million to contractors to begin building instruments for the 2016 mission. But earlier this week, Alvaro Gimenez, top scientist at the European agency, told the BBC that NASA’s continued participation in the partnership was “highly unlikely.” The 2016 mission, called the Trace Gas Orbiter, was to sniff the Martian atmosphere for methane, which could signal the existence of microbes on the surface. The 2018 mission was to land a rover to gather rocks and soil for eventual return to Earth. An official familiar with deliberations at NASA said the agency is still hoping to launch a robotic Mars mission in 2018, although the goals and hardware would probably differ from those of the joint European project. The executive branch’s budget request, unveiled every February, is used by federal agencies to set spending priorities. Details are often decided by officials in the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. On Wednesday, planetary scientists accused the OMB of ignoring advice given to NASA by its scientific advisers. In May, planetary scientists told the agency they favored two big projects: the Mars missions, or, if those proved too expensive, a probe to explore Europa, an intriguing moon of Jupiter with an ice-covered ocean and, within it, conditions possibly favorable for life. “They don’t seem to be interested in finding life in the universe or letting the experts manage their own program,” Hubbard said of the OMB. “Low-level workers have substituted their judgment for 1,700 scientists and the National Academy of Sciences.” Culberson said the House committee would continue to push for the Europa mission, which Congress directed the agency to study this year.

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Trans-fat blood levels plummet after FDA food-labeling regulation

Alexes Garcia makes cinnamon rolls for lunch in the kitchen at Kepner Middle School in Denver. The rolls are made using apple sauce instead of trans fats. A bill pending in the state legislature would make margarine, vegetable shortening and other traditional trans fats off-limits. (Ed Andrieski/AP) Blood levels of trans fat declined 58 percent from 2000 to 2008. FDA began requiring trans-fat labeling in 2003. During the same period several parts of the country — New York most famously — passed laws limiting trans fats in restaurant food and cooking. The makers of processed food also voluntarily replaced trans fats with less harmful oils. The decline, unusually big and abrupt, strongly suggests government regulation was effective in altering a risk factor for heart disease for a broad swath of the population. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered the decline by analyzing blood drawn as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which interviews and examines a sample of Americans at least once a decade. The trend was seen in white adults; researchers are looking to see if it occurred in other ethnic and racial groups, too. Trans fats, which are used for deep-frying and as an ingredient in baked goods and spreads, increase the risk of heart disease. One study found that if a person increases total calorie intake 2 percent all in the form of trans fat, risk of a heart attack rises by about 20 percent. “Our findings provide information about the effectiveness of these interventions,” said Hubert W. Vesper, a CDC chemist who headed the analysis. “This reduction is substantial progress that should lower the risk of cardiovascular disease in people.” The study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, also found a decrease in LDL (the “bad cholesterol”) and an increase in HDL (“good cholesterol”) between 2000 and 2009. That healthful trend could be a result of the trans-fats decline, other dietary changes, increase in exercise, or use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. New York City’s trans-fat ban took effect in December 2006. It covered only “artificial” trans fats created in the manufacturing of cooking oil and other products. It didn’t restrict trans fat that naturally occurs in some foods. California banned trans fat in restaurant food by 2010 and in retail baked goods by 2011. Other localities, including Montgomery County, also have enacted bans.

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Iran increasingly controls its Internet

TEHRAN — Many fear that the disabling of the software used to bypass the state-run firewall heralds the coming of what authorities have labeled the National Internet. The government’s technology officials have announced the construction of a domestic Internet network comparable to an office intranet, which would block many popular sites. They have hinted the National Internet can be launched at any time, and have said it will gradually start working over the coming three years. The move is borne out of necessity, authorities say, in order to prevent Iran’s Western enemies from spying on Iranian citizens. The crackdown on Internet freedom comes amid tension in Iran over a series of mysterious assassinations and explosions that have been blamed on U.S. or Israeli spies. The West has put increasing pressure on Iran in recent months to abandon its uranium enrichment program, which Iran insists is peaceful but which the U.S. and others claim is geared toward the development of a nuclear weapon. Iranian officials have accused U.S.-based technology companies such as Google, Twitter and Microsoft of working in tandem with U.S. authorities to spy on Iranian online trends, search behavior, social networks and e-mail. The companies have denied those allegations. “They are stealing people’s information and following their own ... goals,” said Reza Taghipour, the communication and information technology minister, when speaking about foreign governments and online companies in January. “We need [the National Internet] to protect the privacy of families.” Officials stress that there will still be access to the Web — just not to the “damaging” sites. But Iranian Internet users and activists fear that the activation of the National Internet will cut them off from the rest of the world, and put them under increased surveillance by authorities. “Basically they are already shutting off access to all interesting Web sites,” Maysam said. “We will resemble an isolated island in a changing world if this happens.” An Iranian hacker who calls himself Sunich in his e-mails — after a popular drink that is given away during state-organized rallies in Iran — claimed that he stole the certificates and handed them over to Iranian authorities. “Like in other countries, those who cooperate with Western intelligence services must be punished,” he wrote in an e-mail, saying Iranian authorities had the right to determine who in the country was working for foreign spy agencies. Mostafa, 27, who works as an assistant

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China confirms its official stayed one day at U.S. Consulate

reported late Thursday, citing the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman’s office, that “Wang entered the U.S. general consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6 and left after staying there for one day.” The report, on Xinhua’s Chinese- and English-language Web sites, was the Chinese government’s first acknowledgment that Wang — a former police chief renowned for tackling organized crime in Chongqing — had been at the consulate. On Wednesday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington that Wang had gone to the Chengdu consulate to meet with U.S. officials and had left “of his own volition.” Reports throughout the day Thursday in China’s official news media said Wang was suffering from “depression” and had been placed on medical leave. But the Internet was rife with unconfirmed speculation that Wang had gone to the U.S. mission to request political asylum, perhaps fearing he was about to be targeted for corruption. The case of the vice mayor has taken on broader significance because of his close ties to Chongqing’s Communist Party chief, Bo Xilai, a colorful figure in the party hierarchy who has been widely tipped for elevation to a spot on the powerful nine-member Politburo Standing Committee. Bo made his mark in Chong­qing in a controversial “hard strike” campaign against organized crime, with Wang as his top police enforcer. While the crackdown was popular with the public, human rights lawyers and others were critical, saying that the police ignored individual rights and targeted some innocent people. Some analysts saw Bo’s efforts as a means of self-promotion in advance of this year’s leadership transition. The mystery surrounding Wang — whether he actually tried to seek political asylum and if so, why — gave rise to speculation about a power struggle in the Communist Party’s top ranks. China’s Communist Party often uses corruption allegations to remove unwanted officials from prominent positions. According to the power struggle theory, if someone were determined to stop Bo’s rise, he or she may have gone after Wang to discredit Bo. “It’s an earthquake event in Chinese elite politics, with the potential to change the balance of power among competing factions,” said Cheng Li, an expert on China’s political leadership with the Brookings Institution in Washington. The paper said Wang visited the campus of Chongqing Normal University on Sunday, the day before he is now said to have gone to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu. More world news coverage:

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Pentagon to ease restrictions on women in some combat roles

in Congress, particularly among female lawmakers. In March, a congressional commission recommended that the ban on women serving in ground combat units be overturned as part of a broader effort to increase diversity in the armed forces, particularly in the officer ranks. Congress separately ordered the Defense Department to review the ban and submit recommendations. That review was due last April, but the Pentagon took an extra 10 months to complete it. Women in the Army and Marine Corps face the most job restrictions, with each prohibiting them from serving in about a third of its positions. Military officials have said that they keep many positions off-limits because most women don’t have the same strength as men. But some female veterans questioned why the Pentagon has been slow to adopt gender-neutral physical requirements for such jobs. Maybe only a few women would qualify, they said, but they should be allowed to try. “It takes training. Every athlete knows that,” said Anu Bhagwati, a retired Marine captain who served as a martial-arts instructor and held a black belt in close-combat techniques. “We want to do everything that the guys are doing, within limits. Not all of us want to be in the infantry, but not all the guys do, either.” She said some of the resistance to change was cultural. The Marine Corps, she said, still segregates male and female recruits for basic training — the only service to do so. After they join the Marines Corps, most male recruits “barely see another woman other than their wives or girlfriends,” said Bhagwati, who left the Marine Corps in 2004 and is now executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network. “They’re taught to believe that women are fat and lazy and will just get you in trouble.” The Pentagon said it found no evidence that the existing job exclusions limited career advancement for women, contrary to assertions from some advocacy groups and members of Congress. Women make up about 14 percent of the active-duty military but only about 7 percent of the roster of generals and admirals. Some military leaders have said it is only a matter of time before the remaining barriers for women are repealed. “There is this mistaken belief that somehow through prohibiting women in combat jobs we can protect them,” he said. “I would rather have standards that we apply across the board.” More national security coverage:

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Nikolai Tschursin, former translator at the Library of Congress, dies at 86

Nikolai Tschursin, 86, a Russian native who did translation work for the Library of Congress until retiring in 1989, died Jan. 31 at his home in Bradenton, Fla. He had congestive heart failure. The death was confirmed by his daughter Anna Tschursin. Mr. Tschursin translated military documents from Russian into English at the Library of Congress, which he joined in the mid-1970s. Earlier, he was an engineer at the Army Department’s Harry Diamond Laboratories. Nikolai Tschursin was born in Rostov, Russia. He settled in the United States after World War II and became a U.S. citizen in 1952. He was a Marine Corps veteran of the Korean War and a 1966 engineering graduate of George Washington University. He moved to Florida from Vienna in 1998. He was a past member of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in the District. His first marriage, to Diana Taylor, ended in divorce. Their daughter, Elizabeth Tschursin, died in 1994. Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Galina Losinski-Kovanko of Bradenton; a son from his first marriage, Alexander Tschursin of Santa Fe, N.M.; two daughters from his second marriage, Anna Tschursin of Stafford, Va., and Ludmila Tschursin of Folsom, Calif.; and five grandchildren. — Adam Bernstein

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John H.S. Chen, Agriculture Department virologist, dies at 91

John H.S. Chen, 91, a senior research virologist with the Department of Agriculture and then the Environmental Protection Agency, died Feb. 2 at his home in Beltsville. He had cancer. The death was confirmed by his daughter Terra Chen. Mr. Chen was a microbiologist at a dairy company in Spokane, Wash., before joining the National Agricultural Research Center’s virology laboratory in Beltsville in 1966. He spent much of his Agriculture Department career as a supervisory virologist before leaving in 1985 to work on the scientific staff of the EPA’s toxicology branch. He helped organize the EPA’s program in genotoxicology, a branch of toxicology that concerns the genetic effects of toxic substances. He studied DNA damages and chromosomal aberrations in mammalian cells by viral agents as well as by toxic chemicals from the environment. He retired from the EPA in 1992. Hou Shi Chen was born in Nanking, China; he later took the first name John. He was a 1944 graduate of National Central University in Chungking and in 1946 received a master’s degree in veterinary science from a provincial veterinary college in China. He settled in the United States in the early 1950s and in 1957 received a bachelor’s degree from Washington State University. He did post-graduate studies in genotoxicology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and in tumor biology at Harvard Medical School. He became a U.S. citizen in the early 1960s. Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Ming Yee Wang Chen of Beltsville; two daughters, Teresa Chen of Zurich and Terra Chen of Seattle; and four grandchildren. — Adam Bernstein

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A rule that protects women and respects faith

Rosa L. DeLauro, a Democrat, represents Connecticut’s Third District in the U.S. House. As both a committed Catholic and a strong advocate of women’s health, I want to applaud the recently released guidelines for preventive health coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. These guidelines, which increase access to contraceptive services for women while upholding the religious liberty of churches, mosques and synagogues, strike the proper balance between respecting the religious beliefs of all Americans and protecting the health of American women and families. They will reduce health costs, end long-standing gender discrimination in prescription drug coverage and further enable women to lead healthier lives. Meanwhile, the average cost of contraception comes to $50 per month, or $600 a year, which adds up to $18,000 over the 30 years that the average woman uses contraception. That is a considerable cost, especially when you consider that women’s husbands, fathers and brothers have long enjoyed access to prescription drugs, among them Viagra, with no co-pays whatsoever. A 2010 survey by Hart Research Associates found that more than a third of female voters have struggled to afford birth control at some point and, as a result, had used birth control inconsistently. We know that improved access to birth control is directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality and helps to reduce unintended pregnancies. That is why 28 states already mandate coverage of contraception and why many private employers already cover these services. These guidelines will ensure that almost all women can enjoy the same access to contraception that more than half of American women — and all members of Congress — now possess. The administration exempts churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship. The rule applies only to institutions and businesses that serve the larger community and employ people of different faiths on a non-religious basis. This preserves individual conscience protections while enabling employees of all faiths to have access to the health care they need. With this well-crafted balance, the religious liberty of our churches and other houses of worship is respected. They are exempted from the rule, as they should be. There is no mandate that individuals use contraception or that anyone dispense contraception, and there are no changes to existing conscience protections. At the same time, the nearly 800,000 employees and dependents of employees at Catholic hospitals can still benefit from access to these services

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Saudi writer Hamza Kashgari faces charge of blasphemy after tweets about Muhammad

David Keyes is executive director of the New York-based organization Advancing Human Rights and co-founder of CyberDissidents.org. His e-mail address is david.keyes@advancinghumanrights.org “On your birthday I find you in front of me wherever I go,” he wrote in one tweet. “I love many things about you and hate others, and there are many things about you I don’t understand.” Another reads: “No Saudi women will go to hell, because it’s impossible to go there twice.” The tweets came to light last week around a celebration of Muhammad’s birthday, and Kashgari’s ordeal began. Hours before he was detained, Kashgari spoke to me by phone from the house in which he was hiding. “I was with sitting with my friends and one of them checked Twitter on his mobile phone,” he said. “Suddenly there were thousands of tweets of people calling to kill me because they said I’m against religion.” Kashgari posted an apology tweet: “I deleted my previous tweets because after I consulted with a few brothers, I realized that they may have been offensive to the Prophet (pbuh) and I don’t want anyone to misunderstand,” he wrote. But the damage was done. As an electronic lynch mob formed, with users posting to a Twitter hashtag that translates as “Hamza Kashgari the dog,” the regime called for his arrest and trial. Friends advised him to leave Saudi Arabia immediately. “I never expected this. It was a huge surprise. My friends are writers and bloggers and now their lives are in danger too,” he told me. “They fear what will happen to them. The government is trying to scare them and show that what is happening to me can happen to them sooner or later.” Kashgari noted with sadness that many young Saudis are leaving their country in hopes of escaping the government's repressive policies. “It’s not logical that, if someone disagrees with the Saudi government, that he should be forced to leave the country. Many of those who have been arrested are fighting for simple rights that everyone should have — freedom of thought, expression, speech and religion.” When we spoke Wednesday, Kashgari asked that I not reveal where he was hiding or his plan of escape. Now that he has been detained, his friends hope publicity will build pressure on the Malaysian government not to extradite Kashgari to Saudi Arabia. Karpal Singh, a well-known Malaysian lawyer and member of parliament,

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official said. “As you would expect, some ideas are on the table” for Syria, “but nothing has been requested. It’s an academic exercise at this stage.” For the moment, the continuation and expansion of the Arab League monitoring mission on the ground in Syria offers the only possibility to directly affect the violence, administration officials said. The mission was suspended last month amid fears for the safety of the monitors, and the Arabs have shown little inclination to send the monitors back without some kind of protection. The Arab League is meeting in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the situation. On Friday, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, posted on the Facebook page of the U.S. Embassy in Damascus satellite images showing what he said were Syrian troops firing mortar and artillery shells at residential neighborhoods in several cities. Ford was recalled to Washington this week and the embassy was closed following a series of mysterious explosions in the capital in late December and early January in which at least 70 people died. The government blamed the attacks on al-Qaeda. Following similar explosions in Aleppo on Friday, the state news agency SANA said that two suicide bombers driving white minibuses struck within minutes of one another in separate neighborhoods shortly after 9 a.m. The first attack targeted a law enforcement department and killed 11 people, and the second struck a military security branch and killed 17, some of them children playing in a nearby park, the agency said. The residents of Aleppo, a mostly middle-class mercantile city, have largely refrained from taking part in the mass anti-government demonstrations that have swept much of the rest of the country. But in recent weeks there have been signs that the unrest is reaching into the city, with protests erupting in several neighborhoods and suburbs as unhappiness grows with the levels of violence being used by the government to suppress its opponents elsewhere. Free Syrian Army spokesman Col. Malik al-Kurdi denied that rebels had carried out the bombings, but he said they had staged attacks against Syrian security forces immediately beforehand. “While our soldiers were withdrawing, the explosions took place,” he said. “We don’t know what really happened. It could be that their bombs and ammunition blew up or that they staged the explosions to imply that the Free Syrian Army has sophisticated explosives.” Sly reported from Beirut. More world news coverage:

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The National Zoo in winter offers special treats

Lelie, an 18-month-old cub, wants to play, but her brother John doesn’t seem so sure. These two won’t be playing much longer because the zoo’s three male cubs will soon be separated from the rest of the family. (Ann Cameron Siegal/For The Washington Post) Welcome to the winter zoo. If you’ve ever gone there with your school on a spring field trip or tried to be patient as your parents hunted for a parking space there in the summer, you know how crowded the zoo can get. It’s sometimes hard to get close enough to really see the animals. Winter is different; it’s a time for quiet observation. Fifth-grader Simon Rosenthal of Chevy Chase was doing research for a school project on lemurs, primates that live on Madagascar, an island off the southeast coast of Africa. A red panda climbs a tree at the zoo. The adult red pandas are usually outside during the winter. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) With room to spread out his notebook in the small-mammal house, Simon took notes as he and his dad observed how red-ruffed lemurs use their long tails for balance. “You really get to study animals up close,” he said. Some animals are more active Ivan Mallon, 9, visiting from North Carolina, saw two lion cubs squabbling. “First there was a low rumble,” he said. Then he heard a loud, ferocious roar from one of the cubs. Later, the 18-month-old cubs wrestled playfully in a dusting of snow as only six people watched. Another good reason for a trip to the zoo this month is that the male cubs are getting old enough that zoo officials expect to separate them from the rest of the family within the next few weeks. So this is a great chance to see the family together one last time. The lions are most likely to be outside when the temperatures are in the 50s. On colder days their outside time varies according to what zookeepers think is best. Ivan also visited the Great Ape House, where he watched orangutans use purple sheets to play peek-a-boo with one another and visitors. Without leaves to block your view, you can see how red pandas use their “false thumbs” to grasp bamboo. (Panda thumbs don’t have joints the way ours do. A panda thumb is a single bone coming from the animal’s wrist.) Twin cubs born in June are

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The National Zoo in winter offers special treats

are more active Ivan Mallon, 9, visiting from North Carolina, saw two lion cubs squabbling. “First there was a low rumble,” he said. Then he heard a loud, ferocious roar from one of the cubs. Later, the 18-month-old cubs wrestled playfully in a dusting of snow as only six people watched. Another good reason for a trip to the zoo this month is that the male cubs are getting old enough that zoo officials expect to separate them from the rest of the family within the next few weeks. So this is a great chance to see the family together one last time. The lions are most likely to be outside when the temperatures are in the 50s. On colder days their outside time varies according to what zookeepers think is best. Ivan also visited the Great Ape House, where he watched orangutans use purple sheets to play peek-a-boo with one another and visitors. Without leaves to block your view, you can see how red pandas use their “false thumbs” to grasp bamboo. (Panda thumbs don’t have joints the way ours do. A panda thumb is a single bone coming from the animal’s wrist.) Twin cubs born in June are temporarily in the indoor viewing area while their parents, Shama and Tate, are outdoors during their mating season. You might see red pandas running along tree limbs and bouncing from tree to tree as they playfully chase each other. As for the zoo’s giant pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, they stay outside even in cold, drizzly weather because it’s a lot like their native habitat in the mountains of central China. Piranhas, like the ones in the Amazonia exhibit, deserve a better reputation. (Lindsay Renick Mayer/National Zoo) See a surprising sight The National Zoo’s flamingos are from the Caribbean, where it’s usually warm and sunny. But here, you might even see them in the snow! How can that be? As long as their water isn’t frozen, flamingos can adapt to many different conditions. Get roasty toasty One way to warm up at the zoo in the winter — besides sipping on some hot chocolate — is to visit the Amazonia exhibit, where the temperature is 80 degrees year-round. Get a close look at river stingrays, or see some amphibians with scary-sounding names such as poison dart frogs. (Some South American tribes use the skin secretions of these tiny, colorful

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Don’t throw us an Iraq victory parade

Participants in a parade to honor Iraq war veterans make their way through St. Louis on Jan. 28. Thousands turned out to watch the first big welcome-home parade in the U.S. since the last troops left Iraq in December. (Jeff Roberson/AP) The event made many wonder whether a similar celebration should be held in honor of our soldiers who served in Iraq. Some veterans groups started asking, hey, wait a minute, where’s our confetti? But the top brass smacked the idea down: “We simply don’t think a national-level parade is appropriate while we continue to have America’s sons and daughters in harm’s way,” said a spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I’m not all that concerned with parades, not in a big city or a small town, at halftime or any other time. What concerns me is the day after the parade, the day after the Sept. 11 anniversary events, the day when the flags are put away and America stops cheering and it’s back to business as usual. That’s what scares me. Less than 2 percent of Americans serve in the military, and for them, a parade would be just another superficial acknowledgment of a sacrifice that has not been shared and certainly not celebrated. Some people argue that it’s a way to show support for the troops, some argue that it’s premature since there’s still a war in Afghanistan, and others argue that Iraq and Afghanistan are different fights. But maybe a parade would be a nice, quick way to thank our troops for doing what so many chose not to do and for volunteering so that there wouldn’t be a draft. We’ve had a decade of war in which almost everyone received a deferment. The victory parades after World War II were iconic, and they were celebrations for a whole nation touched by the war. It made perfect sense to have them. If you think about it, in a twisted way, not throwing them for the Iraq war makes perfect sense as well. It reflects the attitude Americans have had toward this conflict. A parade honoring Iraq veterans would be nothing more than lip service to the very small minority of people who fought to keep the majority entirely unaffected by the war. Like many who served in Iraq, I’ve had my parade; the Iraqi people kindly threw it for me back on

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Robert W. Roche, Africa specialist

Robert W. Roche, 61, a former Africa specialist with Catholic Relief Services, died Jan. 12 at Sanctuary Holy Cross Nursing Home in Burtonsville. He had been in a comatose state since 1997, when he was struck by an automobile while crossing a street in Columbia, said his son, Robert L. Roche. Since the accident, Mr. Roche had been cared for by his family at their home in Columbia until recently, when he was hospitalized for pneumonia. The family is awaiting results of a private autopsy to determine the exact cause of death. Robert Winslow Roche was born in Monroeville, Pa., and was an Eagle Scout while growing up. He graduated in 1972 from the University of Notre Dame and became a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching English in Zaire. After the Peace Corps, he joined Catholic Relief Services and had assignments in Mauritania, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Burkino Faso, Benin and Ghana. In 1994, he settled in Columbia. At the time of the accident, he was working in Baltimore as an Africa specialist with Catholic Relief Services. Survivors include his wife of 31 years, Louise Kilombo Roche of Columbia; three children, Robert Lumengu Roche of Washington and Melissa Mupondo Roche and Annette Kubatuka Roche, both of Baltimore; his mother, Wanda Elizabeth Roche of Fort Myers, Fla.; three brothers; two sisters; and a grandson. — Bart Barnes

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Economic weakness and policy gridlock

Karen Dynan and Ted Gayer are co-directors of the Brookings Institution’s economic studies program. Darrell West directs Brookings’s governance studies program. In the fourth quarter, real gross domestic product expanded at its fastest rate since mid-2010, and employment conditions strengthened. Consumer spending increased at a solid clip, and the housing sector showed some faint signs of life, with a decrease in the glut of houses that is keeping prices down. Builder confidence rose and climbed further in more recent weeks to its highest level since June 2007, well before the recession began. Notwithstanding these improvements, the unemployment rate has stayed above 8 percent for three years. Long-term unemployment has decreased but remains at a near-historic high. There are dangers beyond the hardships this imposes on those individuals directly affected. Skills erode as workers spend time unemployed, making it harder for them to find new jobs. The Federal Reserve could take steps to further boost demand. Fed leaders indicated in January that they expect to keep the federal funds rate — its traditional policy tool — close to zero percent until late 2014. Given the Fed’s stated expectation that the unemployment rate will decline only gradually, combined with its expectation that inflation will remain at or below the desired target, the Fed could soon attempt to stimulate the economy through unconventional measures such as more purchases of mortgage-backed securities or Treasury bonds. This policy is designed to ease financial conditions in ways that stimulate investment, exports and consumer spending. But these complicated issues barely register in the dynamic of the 2012 election. In the Republican primaries, a surprising debate has emerged about the merits of capitalism — a narrative that temporarily eclipsed the discussion of whether President Obama’s economic policies have made the economy better or worse. Given the volatility of the Republican nominating process so far, several political surprises are likely along the road to Election Day.

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In China, will transition bring real change?

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, pictured here in December 2011, will take over from President Hu Jintao as leader of China's ruling Communist party at the 18th congress to be held in October, and as head of state in March 2013. (PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) BEIJING — Equally ubiquitous has been vice premier Li Keqiang, widely tipped to become the next prime minister. Huge color photos of him have appeared a half dozen times in recent weeks, shaking hands with Central Bank staffers, sitting with ethnic minority villagers in Ningxia and greeting female factory workers in Tianjin. The higher media profiles of Xi and Li — now virtually eclipsing President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao — are considered part of a carefully orchestrated rollout to present the new leadership tandem to the public. “It’s a collective decision to help consolidate the power of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang,” said Cheng Li of the Brookings Institution, “and to make the transition more orderly and prepared.” A vist to Washington by Xi next week will add to the choreographed effort. But beneath the top two jobs, little else seems settled, or at least is known publicly, about a shadowy selection process that takes place largely behind closed doors and involving the most senior of China’s Communist Party leaders and ex-officials. The continued jockeying is for positions on the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee, considered the most powerful body in the country’s ruling structure. Seven of the current nine members are due to change — only Xi and Li will retain their positions. Who will occupy the remaining spots, or even whether the Standing Committee might be expanded to 11 seats, is subject to an ongoing guessing game. Wang, with a reputation as an anti-crime fighter, was allied to Chongqing’s Party Chief Bo Xilai, considered a top contender for a Standing Committee seat, possibly inheriting the portfolio that would place him in charge of China’s security apparatus. But the loss of one of Bo’s top deputies — and unconfirmed rumors that Wang may have tried to seek political asylum — have thrown off all predictions about Bo’s future. Beyond the intrigue of who’s in and who’s out, there are larger questions over whether the new leadership team led by Xi will mean a change of course in China’s policy direction. Will the economy continue to open up, particularly to foreign competition? Will there

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NASA’s science missions bring the universe into sharper focus even as agency struggles with manned flight

understand the phenomenon of “space weather.” It has found, for example, that solar flares are longer-lasting than anyone previously knew, and has managed to detect them when they’re in an embryonic phase deep beneath the sun’s surface. “What we are learning from this is pretty amazing. It’s staggering,” said Madhulika “Lika” Guhathakurta, who works on the solar observatory as the lead scientist with NASA’s “Living With a Star” project. She added: “Doing science with robotic experiments compared with doing human space flight is a piece of cake.” Competing for funding Grunsfeld said the science missions benefit from a competitive environment. There are many great ideas for scientific missions in space. The scientists compete fiercely for limited funds. The science missions sometimes suffer from the same problem that bedevils human spaceflight — flat budgets that extend the timeline of a program, push many of the expenses into the future, and require standing armies of employees. That boosts a project’s ultimate cost. “The payoff from science missions is pretty clear — new knowledge — accompanied in some cases by pretty pictures that make it publicly accessible. The payoff from human spaceflight is not nearly as clear and still controversial,” said John Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute. Senate support Under pressure from powerful senators, NASA will pour billions of dollars into the SLS, the “Space Launch System,” which would create a heavy-lift rocket capable of flying to the moon or a distant asteroid. Critics have dubbed it the Senate Launch System. The current schedule indicates that the rocket wouldn’t be ready for its first flight — unmanned — until 2017, and then in 2021 it would have a second flight, this time with astronauts aboard. “To say with a straight face we’re going to spend $20 billion between now and 2021 for two launches, you know, is hard for a disinterested observer to accept,” Logsdon said. Whether that rocket will ever fly is unclear, Logsdon said. He said the program is “in multiple dimensions fragile.” Mission uncertainty is a serious problem in the ambitious and difficult enterprise of space travel. Grunsfeld, whose career has straddled the human exploration and science sides of NASA, offered a comparison to the pharaohs and their pyramids. When they made a decision to build a pyramid, he said, they didn’t revisit the decision every year. Staff writer Brian Vastag contributed to this report.

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Music Review: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

One of the advantages of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s residency at the University of Maryland School of Music is that local audiences get to hear the celebrated conductor-less ensemble in action. On Friday night, the musicians stepped out of the classroom and into the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center for a concert with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The performance is just one component of Orpheus’s residency. School of Music director Robert Gibson noted that Orpheus players coach students in chamber music, a crucial step to becoming a well-rounded orchestral player. “There are elements in large ensemble performance that can’t come from a conductor,” Gibson said. “Listening closely, knowing when to lead and follow and adopting the collaborative spirit of chamber music brings qualitative results.” Friday’s concert epitomized those results. Orpheus, with 23 players and a smart program, showed how to blend chamber music transparency with a full symphonic sound. Michael Tippett’s underappreciated Divertimento on “Sellinger’s Round” was an inspired choice for an opener. An ingenious, Renaissance-styled stew intricately spiced with 20th-century dissonances, Tippett’s suite provided five viewpoints on an old English dance tune, including elegant solos for violinist Eric Wyrick, syncopated viola strumming and quirky excursions for winds, which quickly evaporated in Dekelboum Hall’s troublesome acoustics. Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (Decca/Kasskara) Sonically, Honegger’s impressionistic “Pastorale d’ete” fared better. Softly undulating strings supported a twittering of winds, references to Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony and Julie Landsman’s soaring horn. The tranquilizing swelter of a summer day was palpable. There was also heat in Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, but perhaps too much. The tremendously energetic performance felt, at times, strangely overdriven. This is not heart-on-sleeve Tchaikovsky; it’s the composer’s homage to Mozart. Yet the aggressively attacked phrases in the opening movement and the famous waltz (far from lilting) would have sounded more at home in the heady melodrama of the fourth symphony. But there was also subtlety and beauty: a delicate scrim of tone opened the Elegie; and in the Finale, low strings produced waves of lustrous, chocolate-dark sound while violins plucked like balalaikas. More musical impersonations materialized in Shostakovich’s whip-smart Piano Concerto No. 1. Composed as a vehicle for himself in 1933, the concerto prominently features a single trumpet, backed by strings. The music’s carefree personality marked high times for the lauded composer. But those days were numbered. It wouldn’t be long before Shostakovich’s brilliant but acerbic opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” would land him

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In Md., fear for the turtles

The discoveries have alarmed state wildlife officials and biologists, who worry about how far ranavirus has spread, how widely it has affected the ecosystem, and how it apparently jumped between turtles — which are reptiles — and amphibians. If the virus spreads or goes unchecked for long, wildlife experts say, it could devastate some local populations of box turtles, frogs and salamanders. That loss, biologists say, would ripple along the food chain to other animals. In all, 31 adult turtles were found dead near the ICC construction site between 2008 and 2011. Three had been hit by cars or construction equipment. The rest, apparently dead from illness, amounted to about one-quarter of the turtles monitored by Towson University researchers via radio transponders glued atop the tiny shells. Twenty-six of the deaths resulted from suspected or confirmed cases of ranavirus, which left some turtles gasping for breath as they gradually suffocated in their own mucus, researchers said. Box turtles can live 50 years or more in the wild. The ability of their hard shells to withstand predators usually affords them a 98 percent survival rate from one year to the next before they die of old age, usually alone and undetected beneath brush, Seigel said. “This is a major concern to see these emerging pathogens,” he said. Ecological implications Experts on animal diseases say ranavirus, whose origin is unknown, has never been detected in humans, livestock or common household pets because it cannot survive in mammals’ relatively warm bodies. Its long-term effects on local turtles, frogs and salamanders are not yet known and will depend on how long the virus lingers, how far it spreads and how quickly surviving animals build up immunity, biologists said. But several wildlife experts said the disease’s short-term effects are probably affecting the food chain in the ICC study area between Muncaster Mill Road and Emory Lane, just west of Georgia Avenue in northern Silver Spring. The birds, snakes and raccoons that dine on salamanders and tadpoles have less food at their disposal, experts say. Wildlife experts say they’re also concerned that the sudden appearance of ranavirus, a disease that some believe has been lurking in the United States for a century, might signal that local ponds and wetlands are becoming more susceptible to disease under the stresses of climate change, pollution and development. Green, the veterinary pathologist, said ranavirus causes measles-like or severe herpes-like symptoms.

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In Md., fear for the turtles

beneath brush, Seigel said. “This is a major concern to see these emerging pathogens,” he said. Ecological implications Experts on animal diseases say ranavirus, whose origin is unknown, has never been detected in humans, livestock or common household pets because it cannot survive in mammals’ relatively warm bodies. Its long-term effects on local turtles, frogs and salamanders are not yet known and will depend on how long the virus lingers, how far it spreads and how quickly surviving animals build up immunity, biologists said. But several wildlife experts said the disease’s short-term effects are probably affecting the food chain in the ICC study area between Muncaster Mill Road and Emory Lane, just west of Georgia Avenue in northern Silver Spring. The birds, snakes and raccoons that dine on salamanders and tadpoles have less food at their disposal, experts say. Wildlife experts say they’re also concerned that the sudden appearance of ranavirus, a disease that some believe has been lurking in the United States for a century, might signal that local ponds and wetlands are becoming more susceptible to disease under the stresses of climate change, pollution and development. Green, the veterinary pathologist, said ranavirus causes measles-like or severe herpes-like symptoms. Often, turtles discharge mucus from their eyes and noses. He said the virus damages their skin, palate, esophagus, stomach, liver, spleen and blood vessels. ICC researchers said they found some turtles dead within four days of their first symptoms. The ICC tadpoles and young salamanders became sluggish and were seen swimming off-kilter before bleeding into the skin of their bellies, thighs and feet. “It’s a really, really, really horrible disease,” Seigel said. Confirmed cases Ranavirus, first identified in the United States in 1968, has been suspected or confirmed in turtle and amphibian deaths in 29 states 71 times since 1997, according to the USGS, which tracks animal diseases at its National Wildlife Health Center. Virginia’s only confirmed outbreak hit in 2003, when ranavirus killed 20 Southern leopard frogs in the Virginia Beach area, according to the USGS. No cases have been reported in the District. Ken Ferebee, a National Park Service wildlife specialist in the city’s Rock Creek Park, said he’s seen no signs of the disease in the box turtles and pond life that he monitors about 12 miles south of the Montgomery outbreak area. He said he hopes box turtles’ slow pace and propensity to stick close to

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In Md., fear for the turtles

Often, turtles discharge mucus from their eyes and noses. He said the virus damages their skin, palate, esophagus, stomach, liver, spleen and blood vessels. ICC researchers said they found some turtles dead within four days of their first symptoms. The ICC tadpoles and young salamanders became sluggish and were seen swimming off-kilter before bleeding into the skin of their bellies, thighs and feet. “It’s a really, really, really horrible disease,” Seigel said. Confirmed cases Ranavirus, first identified in the United States in 1968, has been suspected or confirmed in turtle and amphibian deaths in 29 states 71 times since 1997, according to the USGS, which tracks animal diseases at its National Wildlife Health Center. Virginia’s only confirmed outbreak hit in 2003, when ranavirus killed 20 Southern leopard frogs in the Virginia Beach area, according to the USGS. No cases have been reported in the District. Ken Ferebee, a National Park Service wildlife specialist in the city’s Rock Creek Park, said he’s seen no signs of the disease in the box turtles and pond life that he monitors about 12 miles south of the Montgomery outbreak area. He said he hopes box turtles’ slow pace and propensity to stick close to home will keep the disease contained near the ICC. “I don’t think it’s something we can stop,” Ferebee said. “If we find it in the park, it will probably be way too late.” ‘Devastating impacts’ The Towson University findings, which are just beginning to circulate among biologists in the Northeast, stemmed from a $300,000 state-funded study of how to best save the turtles that, unlike deer and foxes, needed help to escape 18 miles of woods and wetlands ahead of the bulldozers. A team of Towson students attached radio transmitters to 123 of the more than 900 turtles rescued, allowing them to track the animals’ every move. The idea was to study whether the turtles fared better by being relocated about six miles away or to an adjacent area separated from the construction site by a fence. The study was considered potentially important to highway agencies and developers across the country, who are under pressure to reduce the environmental effects of road and building construction. Rob Shreeve, the Maryland State Highway Administration’s ICC environmental manager, said the study was helpful in concluding that the turtles’ survival rates — even with ranavirus — were about the same even when they were

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China’s president-in-waiting heads to Washington for a visit crucial to both nations

authority, said Robert Kuhn, an author, adviser and confidant to China’s senior leadership. A trip to Iowa, for example, where Xi will reconnect with former hosts from his 1985 trip, is intended to show “he knows how to reach out to the American people and that he is a man of the people,” said Kuhn, who has discussed the trip with Xi’s aides. A later stop in Los Angeles is meant to highlight Xi’s business acumen, while a rumored appearance at a Lakers basketball game is designed to show he has personality. Much of the visit intentionally mirrors the one made in 2002 by Hu, just before he assumed China’s presidency from Jiang Zemin. Xi’s rise to the top, however, was not preordained. When he was a teenager, he and his family suffered under some of China’s harshest policies. In an interview with The Washington Post in 1992, while Xi was a party secretary in Fuzhou, he described being locked up at age 15 for the alleged crimes of his father, Xi Zhongxun, who was purged and accused of disloyalty by Mao in 1962. Xi endured daily “struggle sessions” during which he was forced to denounce his father. He spent seven years laboring in the countryside. Although he was later restored to power, the elder Xi fell from favor again for expressing sympathy with students protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989, a little-mentioned fact in his son’s official biographies. Vice President Biden, who will act as Xi’s official host this week, said Xi has been similarly candid with him about China’s present and future. “He genuinely is open about the nature and extent of their problems,” Biden told reporters after a visit to China in August, “what they’re going to have to deal with, short-term and long-term.” Such problems, however, are likely to be put on the back burner for this week’s trip, during which the main focus for the Chinese will be burnishing Xi’s image. Highlighting just how crucial the U.S. trip is to Xi’s slow-moving coronation over the next year, American organizers at each stop say their Chinese counterparts have been negotiating each detail with an insistence and thoroughness that borders on paranoia. “The key thing is to not make any mistakes,” said Green, who helped the White House plan Hu’s trip to Washington a decade ago. “He just has to go through the ritual and survive it.”

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Rail and trucking industries call a truce

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted 33 to 22 on Feb. 2 to delay any expansion in use of trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds for three years, so the Transportation Department can study the potential effect on highway safety, roads and bridges. The measure, as originally written by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.), would have allowed states to permit more 97,000-pound trucks on U.S. interstate highways and would have expanded use of double- and triple-trailers in states that allow them. The language on longer, heavier trucks prompted a lobbying and public-relations blitz before last week’s vote that included a YouTube video, posted by a railroad equipment trade group, that showed triple-trailer trucks weaving on rainy highways. Burnley accused railroad interests at the time of running a “multimillion- dollar propaganda campaign.” Trucking companies such as Con-way and shippers including Home Depot and International Paper were pushing for the language to improve efficiency as freight volumes are expected to surge. The rail industry opposed the language, citing a study that showed it would reduce railroad traffic by 19 percent. In addition to the railroads and their suppliers, big-truck opponents included highway safety advocates, truck accident victims, independent truck drivers, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and state highway patrols. Before the deal was announced Thursday, the Railway Supply Institute, which represents makers of railroad equipment and technology such as Wabtec Corp. and Alstom SA, asked its member companies “to help us keep the pressure on your members of Congress by urging your employees to call and ask them to vote ‘no’ on bigger trucks,” according to a report in Railway Age, an industry newsletter. The Washington-based institute told members their employees could call the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks’s toll-free hotline to be connected to their representative’s office. The coalition, based in Alexandria, is a railroad-industry-funded group that works with law enforcement, local government, engineers, independent truckers and highway safety advocates to oppose increasing truck size and weights. “We are obviously disappointed that the weight provisions didn’t survive in the committee vote, but there are significant productivity gains in the bill,” McNally said. Holly Arthur, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based railroad association, declined to comment. The Highway Trust Fund, which finances U.S. road, bridge and mass-transit projects, may become insolvent as soon as October unless lawmakers lock in additional funding sources, the Congressional Budget Office said on Jan. 31.

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Five myths about cheating

1. Cheating and affairs are more common among the rich and less common in conservative cultures. 2. If you really love your partner, you’ll remain faithful. Perhaps one of the most tragic misconceptions about cheating is that people stray because they have fallen out of love with their partners. We are taught to value fidelity as the litmus test of a relationship and conditioned to feel victimized if someone cheats on us. But my research shows that young men don’t cheat because they have fallen out of love with their partners. Rather, they cheat simply because they desire sex with someone else, even if they want to preserve their relationship. 3. We generally agree on what counts as cheating. I’ve found little agreement on what counts as cheating among today’s youth. “If you’re just in some chat room [masturbating], and you are watching other people you’re chatting with, that’s not really cheating, is it?” one of my participants said. “You’re not actually doing anything with them. It’s just fantasy.” Others disagreed. One said, “It doesn’t matter whether it’s just chat or camming, you’re cheating.” Unsure about what form of cybersex might upset a partner, the strategy of almost all of the men I interviewed, gay or straight, was don’t ask, don’t tell. 4. Your partner won’t stray as long as you keep your sex life exciting. If you’re in a relationship, spicing up the physical intimacy won’t prevent cheating. Worse, buying into this myth makes the wronged individuals blame themselves for their partner’s infidelity. For most people, monogamy does not necessarily provide a lifetime of sexual contentment. This is perhaps particularly true for youth who have grown up in a pornified culture; men in my study found themselves increasingly less interested in sex with their partners as months passed. Within two years, almost all of my subjects had cheated. “At the start I wasn’t cheating on her,” one explained. “But it felt like I was getting the same old thing. I just needed some other sex.” 5. Most married people don’t cheat. outlook@washpost.com Eric Anderson Five myths about J. Edgar Hoover Five myths about social media Five myths about Mormonism Valentine’s Day excitement is upon us, a time when people’s thoughts turn to romance, flowers, candle-lit dinners — and cheating? Though this may risk spoiling the holiday, I’ve got to say it: A lot of people in relationships cheat. My

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A king’s hypocrisy

Though he later apologized, Mr. Kashgari faces trial and a possible death sentence. His persecution has been facilitated by another champion of double-talk, the government of Malaysia, which claims to respect the rule of law but bundled Mr. Kashgari onto a private Saudi jet Sunday in spite of a court order prohibiting his deportation. Saudi Arabia is doing its best to bring about the end of Mr. Assad, whose Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, is a minority in a country with a plurality of Sunni Muslims. It argues that the Security Council must act not because of Mr. Assad’s sect but because of his brutality. Yet at home, this Sunni regime doesn’t hesitate to open fire on protesters from its own minority Shiite population — or to threaten a liberal columnist with execution. More from PostOpinions: Keyes: Hamza Kashgari faces charges of blasphemy Post’s View: Harassment in Egypt Ignatius: Saudi Arabia expands its power as U.S. influence diminishes Ignatius: Change and balance in the Saudi kingdom

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CFPB outlines plans for mortgage servicers

mortgages. It also is drafting new rules to prevent servicers from improperly charging consumers for homeowner’s insurance. The massive financial reform legislation passed in 2010 that established the CFPB also required it to take steps to retool the mortgage servicing industry. The plans outlined Monday will apply not only to servicers operated by banks but also to those run by other financial institutions that were previously not subject to federal supervision. The Mortgage Bankers Association, which represents servicers, said it supports the CFPB’s efforts to create more transparent disclosures and create a single set of standards across the industry. “There’s so much uncertainty about the rules of engagement for the housing system going forward that credit has become more constrained,” said Dave Stevens, the group’s chief executive. “There’s an opportunity to help put balanced yet meaningful practices in place on a national scale to allow the markets to move forward.” Meanwhile, President Obama recently created a new investigative unit to focus on subprime mortgage lending, and nearly a dozen financial institutions have received federal subpoenas so far this year. The agency also highlighted plans to address the practice of pushing consumers into high-cost insurance known as “forced-place insurance.” If homeowners fall behind on insurance payments, servicers can place them in a new, often more expensive program. That increases the monthly payments, and homeowners often end up in an even deeper hole. The CFPB said it will prohibit servicers from charging for new insurance unless there is a reasonable belief that homeowners have fallen behind on their payments. It also plans to allow consumers to find their own replacement insurance, rather than rely on the more expensive option from the servicer. Alys Cohen, staff attorney for the National Consumer Law Center, an advocacy group, said the moves were a strong first step. Eventually, she said, she hopes the CFPB will require nonbank servicers to determine whether homeowners are eligible for a loan modification before moving to foreclosure. The settlement with bank servicers prohibits the firms moving forward on a loan modification and a foreclosure at the same time. “This is a crucial moment and we hope they can step in more fully,” Cohen said. In an op-ed published Monday in Politico, CFPB Director Richard Cordray said that a lack of government oversight contributed to the collapse of the mortgage market and that creating new standards will take “careful thought and time.”

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Not up for a marathon? Try a relay race.

A Ragnar Relay D.C. team gets psyched up before the September 2011 race. (Bruce Buckley/Swim Bike Run Photography) Maybe you researched some training programs and realized you just can’t devote the time. Or you saw that as many as 90 percent of folks training for marathons get injured. Or your background is in team sports and the idea of going for a goal solo now seems lonely. Whatever the reason for your resolution dissolution, I have a backup plan: Run a relay. The marathon’s four-person option has been popular, but Kursch realized that even 6.55 miles was a hurdle to entry for some would-be runners. Offering to cut down the distance to a little over a 5K “is a great way to bump up the numbers,” says Kursch, who hopes to lure 3,000 participants. When that happens, you can expect to see 33-year-old Justin Petitt of Columbia on a plane with 11 friends. Like many Ragnar runners, he was fairly inexperienced when he did his first relay in 2010. His only race since high school was a 5K that took nearly 40 minutes. But between the bonding in the van with his teammates, the sense of accomplishment from playing a part in logging 200 miles and the chance to wear costumes, he was hooked. “I’m nuts about this race,” says Petitt, who has now done four and serves as a Ragnar ambassador. On the other hand, Petitt, the Ragnar fanatic, may just be beginning. “A marathon was something I never thought I’d be able to do,” he says. As his relay experiences have given him confidence, Petitt’s views have changed. “I haven’t signed up for a marathon yet,” he says. “But I’ve thought about it.” Running around here George Washington Birthday Marathon: Freedom 50 Relay: Delaware Marathon: Marine Corps Historic Half: American Odyssey Relay: Tom’s Run Relay: Ragnar Relay: For more, check out our tips for preparing for a race.

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Plan to close USDA day-care center upsets parents

close the USDA Child Development Center at 14th Street NW in May, but GSA has since pushed the closing date to September after complaints from concerned parents. The day-care center, in the basement of the department’s Yates Building, lacks a ground-level entrance and is near sewer lines that need repair, according to union officials. “There is no imminent threat” to the children, USDA spokesman Justin DeJong said last week, adding that the department is working with the parents to find alternative locations. Some parents with children in the facility said they understand the safety risks, but are more upset with the short notice about the closing. “To close a day-care center in three to four months is ridiculous, because it takes a year or longer to get into any day-care center in the District — on a good day,” said one mother who works as a USDA contractor. “I’m on waiting lists right now that are two to three years. To give parents three to four months is absurd.” Parents who contacted The Washington Post about the impending closure — all of whom are employees or contractors with the USDA or the nearby Education Department — asked that their names be withheld because it against agency or company policy to speak to the media. “My husband and I are pulling our hair trying to find another center in the downtown D.C. area,” said another mother who has two children at the center. “Most places have at least a two-year wait list. We live in Woodbridge, so putting our daughters in day care in that area isn’t possible.” The agency discovered concerns with the entrance and the need to renovate other portions of the basement after taking control of the center in 2009, according to GSA spokesman Adam Elkington. “I know a lot of people in my agency came here because they knew there was day care,” Thompson said. “You can stop by at lunchtime, you can get there right away if the kid is sick, you can take time off in the middle of the day to see them if you want.” Federal employees, many of whom commute to downtown Washington with kids in tow, have long cherished the convenience of the day-care centers. Although openings at the centers are offered first to eligible federal employees and contractors, parents not working for the federal government also are eligible to apply.

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400 lipsticks found to contain lead, FDA says

lipstick. But the average lead contamination in the 400 lipsticks it tested last year was 1.11 parts per million, very close to the average from the agency’s 2008 analysis. The FDA, which hired a private laboratory to do the testing, selected lipsticks based on the parent company’s market share, although it also included a few brands from niche markets. “We do not consider the lead levels we found in the lipsticks to be a safety concern,” the FDA said in its online comments. “The lead levels we found are within the limits recommended by other public health authorities for lead in cosmetics.” The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has a different take on the results. The lead content in Maybelline’s Pink Petal is more than twice as high as levels found in the previous FDA report and more than 275 times the level found in the least-contaminated product in the recent report, the group wrote in a letter to the agency this month. The least-contaminated product — Wet ’n’ Wild Mega Mixers Lip Balm — was also the least expensive, the group said in a separate statement, “demonstrating that price is not an indicator of good manufacturing practices.” “Lead builds in the body over time, and lead-containing lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to significant exposure levels,” Mark Mitchell, co-chairman of the Environmental Health Task Force for the National Medical Association, said in the group’s statement. California, a trailblazer when it comes to lead regulation, has grappled with this issue. In 2008, after reports on lead in lipsticks resurfaced, the state attorney general’s office examined whether cosmetics firms had run afoul of a California law that requires businesses to provide a reasonable warning if they knowingly expose consumers to chemicals that can cause cancer or reproductive harm. The state concluded, based on public data, that the concentration of lead in lipsticks was too low to trigger the law. The duty to warn consumers would not arise until the lead concentration reached five parts per million, the state said. In the FDA’s study, the overwhelming majority of the lipsticks fell below that threshold. But two exceeded it — Maybelline’s Pink Petal and L’Oreal’s Colour Riche Volcanic. The California attorney general’s office has taken no further action. FDA budget stays about the same Study: Junk food still easy to buy at school FDA: Orange juice recall isn’t warranted

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Report: Yahoo calls off talks on Asia deal

In this Oct. 14, 2010 photo, the exterior of Yahoo Inc. offices are seen in in Santa Clara, Calif. Yahoo Inc. reports third-quarter financial results Tuesday, Oct. 19, after the close of the market. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) (Paul Sakuma/AP) Yahoo has reportedly broken off talks with its partners in Asia to work out a deal to drop its holdings in China and Japan and save Yahoo over $4 billion in U.S. taxes. All Things Digital’s The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company has been undergoing some major changes in the past year, naming former PayPal executive Scott Thompson to be its chief executive. Last month, Yahoo co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang left Yahoo’s board; a few weeks later chairman Roy Bostock announced he and three other board members will step down. With those developments, all of Yahoo’s directors will have joined the board after 2010. Yahoo stock fell following the report, down over 5 percent in mid-afternoon trading. Around 1:45 p.m., Yahoo stock was trading at $15.15 per share, down from an opening price of $16.07. Related stories: Yahoo shakes up its board Yahoo’s 4Q earnings fall 5 percent as revenue slumps again; new CEO vows to shake things up Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and others companies team up to combat e-mail ‘phishing’

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Eating meat, with a side order of conflicting emotions

frequenting fast-food joints. Even as millions of Americans continue to gobble down gourmet burgers, dry-aged steaks, chef-driven charcuterie and bacon-wrapped everything, they’re regularly forced to consider the potential consequences of their actions. Environmentalists want us to think about the greenhouse gases that meat production creates. Humane advocates want us to consider the suffering of animals. Doctors want us to ponder the health implications. And the medical community would like us to understand the potential fallout — otherwise known as antibiotic resistance — of pumping farm animals full of drugs. (Dan Page for The Washington Post) It’s as if America has become schizophrenic about meat: As the reasons to reduce or eliminate meat consumption increase, so do the sources of particularly tasty morsels of animal flesh. It’s perhaps not surprising that we’ve reached this point at which meat eating has become almost as polarizing as religion. Groups such as PETA, Compassion Over Killing and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine have been promoting vegetarian or vegan diets for years, if not decades. An entire generation of eaters, many of them Twitter-savvy, has grown up with the idea that not eating meat is better for them and the world they live in. What’s more, some of those groups have been targeting kids almost from the moment they started to make decisions about their diets. People such as Neal Barnard, a physician and president of the PCRM, make no apologies for it. He compares current anti-meat campaigns to those that discourage underage smoking: It’s important to hit ’em while they’re young. “If a kid, like me, found a pack of cigarettes when he was 11,” Barnard says, “that kid is more likely to grow up as a smoker as opposed to a kid who never encountered them at all.” Hitting the youth market “Being realistic, we realized we had to go to a lower common denominator” to hit the youth market, says Mathews. “They want to look good. They don’t care about something that will take decades to affect them,” like heart disease. But the anti-meat and reduced-meat messages are not coming just from animal-rights organizations with an agenda. Cookbook authors, activists and even the federal government have embraced an idea that might have seemed radical a generation or two ago: We don’t need to eat as much meat as we used to. It’s not easy to quantify how those messages have influenced meat

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Eric Waldbaum, entrepreneur in financial services and information technology businesses, dies at 73

Eric Waldbaum, 73, an executive with retail, financial services and information technology businesses who also was a plaintiff in a noted libel lawsuit, died Jan. 28 at a friend’s home in Bedford, Va. He had pancreatic cancer. The death was confirmed by his wife, Yvonne Behrens-Waldbaum. Mr. Waldbaum drew public attention from 1971 to 1976 as chief executive of Greenbelt Consumer Services, one of the largest co-ops in the nation. The cooperative operated supermarkets, service stations, a furniture store and drugstores in the Washington-Baltimore corridor. Mr. Waldbaum was publicly outspoken on energy legislation and other topics of the day. Under his leadership, Greenbelt Consumer Services paid for advertisements that strongly criticized pricing and food-dating policies at competing markets such as Giant Food and Safeway. Mr. Waldbaum was dismissed by the board for reasons that were never publicly stated. He brought an unsuccessful libel suit against Fairchild Publications, whose Supermarket News wrote that the cooperative was losing money and retrenching under Mr. Waldbaum. A federal trial judge ruled in 1979 that Mr. Waldbaum was prominent enough in his profession to be considered a public figure and did not prove Supermarket News deliberately published false information — the standard for public figures. The judge dismissed the suit. The following year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the trial judge’s ruling and announced a test for determining whether a person qualifies as a public figure that has since been widely cited in defamation cases. While with Greenbelt Consumer Services, Mr. Waldbaum served on the Ad Hoc Committee of the Uniform Grocery Code Council, which was initially formed to facilitate automatic scanning at supermarkets. The council recommended the adoption of the UPC symbol that is now commonplace in scanning systems on products in virtually every business. After leaving Greenbelt Consumer Services, Mr. Waldbaum worked for several businesses and started others, including a computer retail store. He was president of Baskin Financial Corp. from 1985 to 1990 and then spent much of the next decade as a senior partner with Pacific Basin Partners, a U.S.-Japan consulting firm that provided strategy planning and advisory services for financial institutions, governments and aid agencies. He subsequently was chief financial officer of eGlobal Business, a microlender, and created a technology consulting business that included Middle Eastern and former Eastern bloc countries. He was on the board of Solargenix Energy, a North Carolina-based solar-energy business, and

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Efforts lag to improve care for National Guard

that reservists experience a brief honeymoon after returning from war, but that “the ticker-tape parades, the pats on the back, the free beers at the bar” often give way to loneliness, stress and depression. Reservists suffer from high rates of PTSD, alcoholism, unemployment, divorce and drug abuse, but military psychologists and research studies indicate that many cases go unreported. Lack of emotional support is challenging for reservists, whose patched-together units often scatter between deployments. Eric Kettenring, who served in Iraq and is a Veterans Affairs counselor in Montana, said the onus is on reserve unit commanders to watch for signs of trouble. But unlike active-duty units, their commanders only see them during drills, which can be 60 days apart, as opposed to the frequent contact during recruitment and enlistment. “When they come back and they’re no longer serving and they have problems, who’s finding them?” he said. In 2005, the National Defense Authorization Act established a health plan to give reservists access to the Tricare military health-care network for a monthly fee. But many wounded reservists instead choose to drive often long distances to Veterans Affairs facilities that provide free care from specialists. The Pentagon has scrambled to close gaps in care by creating more than 200 programs, but that has invited waste, duplication and a lack of oversight, according to a recent Rand Corp. report. Capt. Brian Pilgrim, a behavioral health officer with the New Mexico National Guard, praised the service network for reservists, saying it provides more options than the regimented system for the active-duty military. But that range of options, many of them private-sector, often means reserve members are “thrown into a sea of Web sites with no idea of where to go to find appropriate care,” said Stephanie Nissen, North Carolina’s behavioral health programs director. The issue is further complicated in the National Guard because each state is responsible for developing its own programs, and states are not required to adopt another’s successful strategies. More changes to the post-deployment system were made last April. In response to Wyden’s investigation, the Army National Guard increased the time allotted for demobilization and required leaders to sign off on the disposition of each soldier. In recent congressional testimony, McKinley praised the guard’s reform efforts. But he added: “We will have decades to go to make sure we do not leave any guardsman or woman behind.” More national security coverage:

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Guantanamo detainee with Baltimore ties is charged with war crimes

Khan, a graduate of a suburban Baltimore high school near where his parents ran a gas station, is also accused of donning a suicide vest and planning to assassinate former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf. According to the military, Khan traveled to Pakistan in January 2002 and returned to Baltimore a few months later to acquire a laptop for al-Qaeda and get information about the U.S. military. After he went back to Pakistan in August 2002, Khan worked directly for Mohammed, according to the military, and his tasks included carrying $50,000 to an al-Qaeda affiliate group in Bangkok. The military alleges that Jemaah Islamiah, a regional terrorist organization in Southeast Asia, used the money to fund the bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, in August 2003. Eleven people were killed in the attack, and more than 80 others were wounded. Khan was detained at a relative’s house in Pakistan in March 2003 and turned over to the United States. He vanished into the CIA’s system of overseas prisons until President George W. Bush announced that he was one of 14 “high-value” detainees who had been transferred to Cuba in September 2006. At Guantanamo Bay, he is held at the top-security Camp 7, whose exact location at the U.S. naval base remains classified. If convicted, Khan faces up to life in prison. A senior Pentagon official must still refer the charges to a military commission for trial. More national security coverage:

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NATO resumes transfer of Taliban detainees to Afghan government

KABUL — The Afghan government has replaced the directors of several of the facilities in recent months as part of an effort to prevent the abuses, Maj. Carl Dick, a U.S. military officer involved in inspections and recertifications, told reporters. “We see no gross violations of human rights,” he said of the 12 facilities that have been listed as “certified.” The coalition is monitoring those detentions, along with the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to make sure abuses do not occur again, he said. If they do recur, the coalition will be forced to again halt the transfer of detainees, he said. The four facilities where transfers have yet to resume include a prison called 124 that is run by the Afghan National Directorate of Security and has gained a particularly notorious reputation. The U.N. report said the detainees there were subjected to torture by Afghan interrogators seeking intelligence regarding the war against the Taliban. The detainees are suspected insurgents arrested during operations by international forces. The U.N. report Many released detainees formerly held by the Afghan government or international forces have complained of being mistreated or tortured. More world news coverage:

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Overnight relay preparation

Hold a race rehearsal. Practice alone. Pick teammates wisely. Related news: Not up for a marathon? Try a relay race.

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Fairfax County community calendar, Feb. 16 to 23, 2012

Thursday, Feb. 16 “Three Bears” musical, Greater Reston Newcomers and Neighbors Club, Fairfax bingo, GMU photography exhibit reception, County Park Authority listening forum, Springfield bingo, “Plants and Pollinators: A Perfect Partnership,” Vienna Theatre Company auditions, Vietnam veterans meeting, Friday, Feb. 17 “Can’t Scare Me: The Story of Mother Jones,” Family skate night, Mount Vernon Community Children’s Theatre, “Almost, Maine,” “Art” play, Jazz concert, Saturday, Feb. 18 Pressed-leaf butterfly workshop, “Miss Electricity,” “Avoiding Divorce Court,” Conifers stroll, Northern Virginia Model Railroaders Club, Pruning crape myrtles, Winter nature walk, Civil War lecture, Colonial tea program, Wetland bird walk, Vienna open microphone night, Fairfax Chamber Ensemble, “Once Upon a Mattress,” “The All New Original Tribute to the Blues Brothers,” Virginia Grand Military Band, Sunday, Feb. 19 Vienna breakfast buffet, Maple syrup boil-down, Model train show, Growing tomatoes lecture, Herndon park game day, “Raise the Rafters” music series, ArtSpace reception, Virginia Chamber Orchestra, Monday, Feb. 20 Centreville Garden Club, Tuesday, Feb. 21 Local birds, Safe Assured ID kits for children, Genealogy and neighborhood maps, Irish social dance class, Thursday, Feb. 23 “Before Reston: History of the Railroad, 1853-1968,” “Lunch ’n’ Life,” “Avoiding Divorce Court,” - — Compiled by Jean Mack TO SUBMIT AN EVENT E-mail: Fax: Mail: Details:

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Wrestling: Dylan and Olivia Devine find a home on the mat

stay in shape. With an uncanny knack for balance helped by a background in martial arts, Dylan proved a natural on the mat. Dylan — a heavyweight during his first two seasons — gave up football after his sophomore year to focus full-time on wrestling and has only continued improving, finishing third at the National Prep tournament last season. Thanks to a daily workout regimen and an improved diet, he now competes at 195 pounds. For the past two years, he’s had a constant training partner in his little sister. Olivia Devine also grew up practicing martial arts and earned a second-degree black belt. Right away, wrestling’s similarities appealed to her. “I think it’s the work ethic involved,” Dylan said. “What you put in is what you get out. We both love it.” To prepare for her first high school season, Olivia attended open mat practices at North County several times a week during the summer and a wrestling camp at Bloomsburg (Pa.) University, where she was the lone girl that session. She also worked out almost daily in the basement of the family’s Severn home alongside Dylan. Olivia competed mostly on junior varsity this season, compiling a 6-5 record wrestling at 132, 138 and even 145. She finished her season at the county’s junior varsity invitational on Tuesday. In 24 seasons as a wrestling coach in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, Liddick had never used a girl on varsity before, but he didn’t hesitate turning to Olivia when his lineup thinned due to injury and illness. She made her varsity debut with a pair of losses at the Arundel Holiday Tournament, where Dylan won his weight class. At first, Olivia leaned on Dylan heavily for help. Dylan taught her moves that utilize her leg strength and continues to provide feedback when the family gathers to watch tape of matches. “It’s easier when he critiques her,” their mother Theresa said. “She’d rather hear it from him than us.” “He breaks me down and builds me up.” Olivia added with a smile. “She knows a lot more now,” Dylan said. “We’ll talk about what a guy should’ve done [on the mat], and sometimes now she’ll argue with me because she’ll know something better than I do.” Related links: New team, individual wrestling rankings Westfield back on top in Northern Region Photo gallery from Northern Region Urbana wins first Md. duals title

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U.S. will lead new effort to cut global warming from methane, soot

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a security conference in Munich. Clinton is set to announce the five-year climate initiative Thursday. (THOMAS KIENZLE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) With global efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions stalled, the United States and five other countries are starting a new program to cut other pollutants — including methane, soot and hydrofluorocarbons — that contribute to global warming. Carbon dioxide — from burning fossil fuels — plays the largest role in pushing up global temperatures, climate scientists say. But methane, soot and hydrofluorocarbons also contribute to global warming. Combined, those three pollutants are believed to account for 30 to 40 percent of the nearly one degree Celsius rise in global temperatures since the beginning of the 20th century. They can have a quick effect on global warming because these gases do not last in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide does. The new program, called the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants, will not set targets for reductions in pollutants. Rather, it will fund education projects and joint public-private efforts to reduce emissions, said three people briefed on the announcement. They said the new program is likely to encourage nations to reduce diesel exhaust, stem the burning of agricultural waste, and capture methane from landfills, coal mines and natural gas wells, among other policies. While most of these policies are expected to pay for themselves in the long run, each requires some upfront investment, said Johan Kuylenstierna, scientific coordinator of two U.N. reports on the benefits of reducing methane and soot. Getting governments and industry to pay those costs is “the big challenge,” he said. A growing body of scientific work shows that reducing emissions of soot comes with a big side benefit: Millions of lives can be saved by reducing the incidence of lung disease. Lena Ek, Sweden’s minister of the environment, said she has “very high hopes” that the program will reduce global warming and improve global health, especially for women and children in developing nations who rely on wood-burning stoves for cooking. Ek said several additional countries are poised to join the coalition, which will hold its first meeting April 23 in Stockholm. While describing the program as modest, advocates of slowing greenhouse gas emissions hailed the partnership as an important step. “It shows there are multiple strategies for addressing different pieces of climate change,” said

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Anne Arundel County and Howard County crime report

Anne Arundel County These were among incidents reported by the Anne Arundel County Police Department. For information, call 410-222-8050. Rewards for information Metro Crime Stoppers will pay up to $2,000 for information leading to arrests and indictments in connection with felonies. Visit metrocrimestoppers.net, call the hotline at 866-756-2587 or text 274637. For text messages, type the letters “mcs” without the quote marks in the text field, then hit the space key before writing the crime tip. If the text is received, you will receive an acknowledgment. CROWNSVILLE AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Buttonwood Trail, GLEN BURNIE AREA ROBBERIES Griffith Rd. and Sixth Ave. SE, Juneberry Way, Ritchie Hwy., THEFTS/BREAK-INS Nolpark Ct., Ritchie Hwy., JESSUP AREA ROBBERIES Annapolis Rd., LINTHICUM AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Cleveland Rd., PASADENA AREA ROBBERIES Liberty Cir. and Whitaker Rd., SEVERN AREA SEXUAL ASSAULTS Annapolis Rd., Annapolis These were among incidents reported by the Annapolis Police Department. For information, call 410-268-9000. To anonymously report non-emergency crime or suspicious activity, call 410-280-2583. ROBBERIES Villa Ave. S., THEFTS/BREAK-INS Crisfield Way, Glenwood St., Madison St., Main St., Moreland Pkwy., President St., Primrose Ct., Primrose Ct., Primrose Rd., Tallwood Rd., West St., Winslow Ct., Howard County These were among incidents reported by the Howard County Police Department. For information, call 410-313-2236. To anonymously provide information about these and other felonies, call the Stop Crime tip line: 410-313-7867. COLUMBIA AREA ROBBERIES Cedar Lane, Foreland Garth, THEFTS/BREAK-INS Babylon Crest, Blade Green Lane, Dobbin Rd., Freetown Rd., Green Mountain Cir., Hickory Ridge Rd., MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Beaverkill Rd., Hickory Ridge Rd., Phelps Luck Dr., Snowden River Pkwy., ELKRIDGE AREA ASSAULTS Beverly Dr., MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Hanover Rd. S., Old Waterloo Rd., Washington Blvd., ELLICOTT CITY AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Chatham Rd. N., JESSUP AREA MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Patuxent Range Rd., LAUREL AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Washington Blvd., — Compiled by Carrie Donovan

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Norovirus sickens about 85 at GWU

George Washington University officials alerted the campus Wednesday that about 85 students have been infected by noroviruses this week. After testing by the university’s Student Health Service and the D.C. Department of Health, officials confirmed that the norovirus was the cause of dozens of cases of gastrointestinal illness since Monday, university officials said in a statement. They said they could find no common link for the infections, as students were affected who live at the Foggy Bottom campus, the Mount Vernon campus and off campus. The ill students also attended classes, studied and dined at many locations, the statement said. Students were advised to wash their hands frequently and disinfect surfaces they use, and the school said it would increase the cleaning of commonly used areas. The virus is usually not considered serious, and most people recover in one or two days. Symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach cramps. Other symptoms are a low-grade fever, chills and muscle aches.

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Montgomery County Animal Watch

Sneaky squirrel slips into home: Unwelcome visitor snakes its way inside Dog flees yard, follows pedestrian Pets available for adoption Gaithersburg Lucky Dog Animal Rescue Kensington Shelter has adoptable felines Germantown — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton

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Emerging technologies: A solution to the unemployment puzzle

or protecting the body against infectious diseases. The biotech industry, already a worldwide job-creator, will greatly benefit from advances in synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and modelling of complex biological systems. Organizing information in a structured, useful way through advances in computation, data visualization and intuitive communication has the potential to extract knowledge from what was once considered noise in order to create solutions to emerging challenges. Companies will become more efficient, using added-valued information, and information processing and visualization software and hardware will lead to job creation. Emerging technologies play an important role in addressing our major mega-challenges such as energy, water, food and health for the world’s growing population. Integrating these emerging technologies within existing industries presents not only a major challenge but an opportunity. The energy industry, for example, stands to benefit from emerging technologies. Bio-engineering microorganisms is allowing for the enzymatic degradation of cellulose, making possible the transformation of agricultural waste — instead of food — into biofuels. Nanomaterials embedded in polymers are being used in a new generation of flexible, lighter and more efficient solar cells free of costly silicon. These are just a few examples of how a large and fairly traditional industry is already benefiting from disruptive innovations, although some major challenges such as cost, scalability, and reliability remain greatly unsolved. The development of great technologies is not enough. Commercialization is key to creating new jobs. Once a discovery has been made, the first challenge is harnessing the entrepreneurial drive of the discoverer. In too many cases, groundbreaking discoveries with great commercial potential end in a scientific publication or a patent without a product prototype. This happens because entrepreneurship is not top of mind for most world-class scientists. The second challenge, once the technology has been validated and a business plan has been created, is to transition an invention from the lab to the marketplace. The lack of private funding to grow small companies into successful and sustainable ones is a major challenge. This is especially true in the fields of energy and health where massive and sustained funding is needed. Before we can adequately address either of these challenges, however, the appropriate talent needs to be there. Education systems will need to be revised to equip future generations to be able to refine and develop the technologies and make themselves employable in the employment opportunities created. There are no shortcuts on the path

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Emerging technologies: A solution to the unemployment puzzle

Integrating these emerging technologies within existing industries presents not only a major challenge but an opportunity. The energy industry, for example, stands to benefit from emerging technologies. Bio-engineering microorganisms is allowing for the enzymatic degradation of cellulose, making possible the transformation of agricultural waste — instead of food — into biofuels. Nanomaterials embedded in polymers are being used in a new generation of flexible, lighter and more efficient solar cells free of costly silicon. These are just a few examples of how a large and fairly traditional industry is already benefiting from disruptive innovations, although some major challenges such as cost, scalability, and reliability remain greatly unsolved. The development of great technologies is not enough. Commercialization is key to creating new jobs. Once a discovery has been made, the first challenge is harnessing the entrepreneurial drive of the discoverer. In too many cases, groundbreaking discoveries with great commercial potential end in a scientific publication or a patent without a product prototype. This happens because entrepreneurship is not top of mind for most world-class scientists. The second challenge, once the technology has been validated and a business plan has been created, is to transition an invention from the lab to the marketplace. The lack of private funding to grow small companies into successful and sustainable ones is a major challenge. This is especially true in the fields of energy and health where massive and sustained funding is needed. Before we can adequately address either of these challenges, however, the appropriate talent needs to be there. Education systems will need to be revised to equip future generations to be able to refine and develop the technologies and make themselves employable in the employment opportunities created. There are no shortcuts on the path from emerging technologies to new industries. In most cases, the best recipe is to promote innovation and entrepreneurship to accelerate the time to failure and favor a Darwinian selection of the “fittest” ideas. Today, the United States is the best ecosystem to start successful companies that commercialize new technologies. However, the world’s emerging economies are becoming well-aware of technology’s job-creating potential, and, as a result, they are investing heavily in education, world-class research and supporting their new high-tech companies. With large populations of highly-motivated young people, it is likely that many of these new industries will begin to flourish in emerging economies that invest in R&D, higher education and entrepreneurship.

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Consumer agency wants oversight of debt collectors, credit bureaus

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday sought to bring debt collectors and credit bureaus under its purview, marking the first time the often controversial industries would be subject to federal supervision. “This oversight would help restore confidence that the federal government is standing beside the American consumer,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement. Cordray said a reason why they are targeting these firms is because they have expanded their reach into consumers’ lives during the recession. More people are now being pursued by debt collectors and have watched their credit scores slip. Those scores have become crucial in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Some employers are even looking at credit scores as criteria for jobs. A car, a home, a college education are all financed by lenders that rely on the score to determine who gets credit and how much they pay for it. For most consumers, those scores are based on records of loans they have taken out in the past and how well they have paid them off. This information is housed in the Big Three national credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Lenders use formulas developed by companies such as FICO and VantageScore to analyze the data and determine how likely each person is to repay. Government regulators, financial firms and consumer advocates have launched extensive education campaigns in recent years to make sure that consumers understand what goes into their Big Three credit reports and how that affects the cost of a loan. But little attention has been paid to the so-called “Fourth Bureau” firms that target the 30 million consumers outside the mainstream financial system. Often they are students, immigrants or low-income consumers who do not qualify for traditional loans or choose not to use them. Instead, they rely on a makeshift system of payday lenders, check cashers and prepaid cards — none of which show up in the Big Three. Without a paper trail of credit, these consumers are virtually shut out of the traditional banking system. As a result, fourth bureau firms are increasingly using non-traditional and, at times, unreliable data, including auto warranties, cellphone bills and magazine subscriptions to come up with credit scores. Yet federal regulations do not always require these companies to disclose when they share your financial history or with whom, and there is no way to opt out when they do. No one

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In Russia, Putin allies sharpen anti-American attacks ahead of elections

young people identifying themselves as television reporters demanding to know the purpose of the visit. More recent Russian television broadcasts have included attacks describing McFaul as a promoter of revolution. The barrage reached a new level of offensiveness a few days ago when a video posted on the Internet drew comparisons between photos of the ambassador and those of a notorious pedophile. “Putin is choosing worse relations with the West to keep himself in power,” says Dmitri Oreshkin, a political analyst and writer who says that Putin is thinking short-term tactics rather than long-term strategy. “Of course it’s a KGB mentality.” Putin unleashed the assault Nov. 27 in a nationally televised address as he accepted the presidential nomination, suggesting that the independent election monitor Golos, which gets financing from the United States and Europe, was a U.S. vehicle for influencing the elections here. Since then, Golos has been turned out of its Moscow office and its Samara branch has come under tax investigation. Duma deputies are considering banning all foreign grants to Russian organizations. On Thursday, TV Dozhd — an Internet channel that has become a popular source of news — received a letter from a Moscow prosecutor asking how the organization had paid for coverage of the big December protests. The investigation was requested by a Duma deputy wondering whether U.S. money was involved. Responding to attacks Another day he suggested that officials treated him well in private. “Productive meetings this week with Russian govt officials, even as we disagree on Syria. Sharp contrast with public anti-US statements,” he tweeted Feb. 8. The attacks against American efforts to promote democracy bear some similarities to those underway in Egypt, where democracy-building organizations financed by the United States are being prosecuted. But the Russian version comes with greater ambivalence; in Moscow, the lines at McDonald’s are always long and an iPhone is a dearly sought prize. Paul Hollander, a sociologist and expert on anti-Americanism, described the tactics as old-style Soviet propaganda that still resonates because as the remaining superpower America is easy to resent. “Putin probably doesn’t believe it himself,” he said, “but probably many Russians do.” The anti-American onslaught has made it difficult to keep up any momentum in the relationship between the two countries, said Fiona Hill, director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. “In a way it seems like a low-cost

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Maryland hospitals to share patient data

Maryland’s 46 acute-care hospitals will soon be able to share basic patient information among themselves and with credentialed doctors, a key step that health officials and clinicians say will improve patient care and cut costs. Maryland officials have been among the most aggressive in pushing for the sharing of health information, an important piece of the federal health-care overhaul. Patients have long been frustrated by the inability of doctors at one facility to access records about a visit to another hospital. But changing the process has been slow for a variety of reasons, including reluctance by hospitals and others to exchange information with competitors. The goal is to “help ensure that providers have the right information about the right patient at the right time so we can reduce costs and improve care for all Marylanders,” Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D) said in a statement. The level of data available for sharing is rolling out in stages. Four of the five hospitals in Montgomery County already provide the most detailed clinical data to the exchange. But only two — Suburban and Holy Cross — have received the extensive training to allow their users to access patient data from other hospitals, he said. At Suburban, emergency room doctors say the additional information has allowed doctors to improve care. In an interview posted on the CRISP Web site, Barton Leonard, who heads Suburban’s emergency department, said doctors can even access the operation notes from a surgery that took place two hours earlier. “No more waiting on faxes or sitting on the phone waiting to talk to someone in medical records,” Leonard said. In one case in December, Leonard said he was treating a patient with a severe infection and was able to look up his previous blood and urine cultures at another hospital and quickly get him on the right antibiotic. Efforts in the District and Northern Virginia have lagged farther behind that of Maryland. In the District, an effort to create a health information exchange by the D.C. Primary Care Association, a private group, was suspended because of a lack of funding. The District government is working to create another exchange. In Northern Virginia, a coordinating organization exists, but an exchange has not been set up.

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A world away from China, Geng He seeks justice for her dissident husband

for improvement on human rights in China, but her plans are different from the vice president’s. * * * They met in the military in 1986. In Kashgar, in northwestern China, she was one of 30 female soldiers, who weren’t allowed to leave the base. A fellow soldier named Gao Zhisheng routinely sneaked out to buy sundry items for the women. This is a kind man, she remembers thinking. Their son was born in 2003. Geng didn’t know trouble was brewing until 2005, when the government shut down Gao’s law firm and police moved into adjoining apartments to monitor the family. Police officers followed their daughter to school, according to Geng, where she was made to feel like an outcast because of her father’s work. That October, Geng related the family’s hopeless situation to a sympathetic fruit vendor near their home. The next day, the vendor passed along a note while giving Geng change. It included detailed instructions for initiating a two-week-long escape for Geng and her children, who would be guided by a succession of anonymous agents. She and her husband agreed that it would be impossible for Gao to go. He was watched too closely. In January 2009, she and her children were escorted to a train station, where they received tickets, fake IDs, a cellphone and several SIM cards from an unidentified man. They boarded a train for two days and nights. Upon arriving in a southern province of China, they received a phone call and further instructions, which set in motion a series of rides across the porous, mountainous border. Throughout the journey, Geng trusted her helpers to lead her in the right direction. Gao was arrested again in February 2009, reappeared in March 2010 and spoke to his wife on the phone for the last time that April. He was relieved that his family members had sought asylum in the United States and settled in northern California, where they relied on savings, food stamps and loans from friends while Geng began learning English. Gao disappeared again that month and has not been heard from since. In December, China announced that Gao had violated his parole — even though he had disappeared and was presumed to be in custody — and would spend the next three years in prison. * * * Geng He (pronounced “Gung Huh”) tells this story Sunday, through an interpreter, over a

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Correspondent Anthony Shadid, 43, dies in Syria

“He changed the way we saw Iraq, Egypt, Syria over the last, crucial decade,” said Phil Bennett, the former managing editor of The Post who worked closely with Shadid. “There is no one to replace him.” The Times said Shadid had been reporting in Syria for a week on rebels battling the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Tyler Hicks, a Times photographer who was accompanying Shadid, said the reporter had asthma and carried medication with him. Shadid began to exhibit symptoms early Thursday, and they escalated into what became a fatal attack, according to Hicks’s account, as quoted by the Times. The two men had entered the country last week in defiance of a Syrian ban on Western reporters, sneaking in at night under barbed wire, according to the Times. They were met by guides on horseback, and Shadid apparently had an adverse reaction to the horses. A week later, as they made their way out, he reacted to the horses again. “I stood next to him and asked if he was okay, and then he collapsed,” Hicks said. Hicks attempted to revive his colleague and then carried him across the border into Turkey, the newspaper said. The news of Shadid’s death sent shock waves through newsrooms in New York, Boston and Washington, where journalists who had worked with Shadid at those cities’ three leading newspapers recalled a colleague of deep intellect, enormous generosity and a well-tuned, ironic sense of humor. During the U.S. “shock and awe” bombing campaign in the early days of the Iraq conflict, for example, Shadid quoted an American-educated Iraqi this way: “To tell you the truth, I’ve been neither shocked nor awed.” Marty Baron, editor of the Boston Globe, for which Shadid worked before joining The Post in 2003, recalled rushing to Israel in 2002 after Shadid, then a Globe reporter, was shot while covering demonstrations on the West Bank. “It was amazing, seeing him in the hospital. Here was a person that, despite what happened to him, was still remarkably positive about things, demonstrated a real eagerness to get out of the hospital, get back in the field,” said Baron. “It was clear his wounds were not going to stop him, even though it looked like he was going to have severely limited mobility in at least one of his shoulders. He was amazingly resilient. He had such a love for the story of the

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Colleagues recall Shadid as extraordinary reporter, kind friend

work, but never could. He was a brilliant writer and reporter who shattered the stereotypes of the Middle East. He proved that there was a different way to tell stories from the Arab World, stories that unfolded outside the stale offices of politicians and diplomats. He risked his life to give the most vulnerable a voice. There was nothing in his work that painted a picture of otherness in a foreign land. He showed humanity, reporting on the tough decisions in the midst of war made by mothers, fathers and families. He told the truth in the most beautiful way, with history, humanity and unrivaled intellectual heft. Even when he was shot in the head by birdshot in Tahrir Square last year, he didn’t go to the hospital because he was too busy writing what he’d seen. His stories were an inspiration but his kindness was even more impressive than his talent. I was one of many younger journalists who turned to him for advice. Those phone calls led to an 11-year friendship that I cherish. He set a standard of great journalism and unlike so many in this business of big egos, he had so much compassion that shined through in his stories and his relationships with relatives and friends. He spent so much time showing pictures of Malik and Laila, his kids, and speaking of his love and gratitude toward his wife, Nada. Laila had decided she wanted to be a writer like her dad and was learning Arabic. In Baghdad, I complimented him on a beautiful piece he told of the loss of life in Iraq. He followed a mother and her family on the search for her missing son. The story took us from that first glimpse when she recognized her son among the pictures of unidentified corpses flashing on a screen at the Baghdad morgue to the burial in Najaf in southern Iraq. He wrote back “that piece really took it out of me. I broke down at the cemetery. I felt like I knew him in the end, and I just sat staring, wondering why so many people had to die, and for what.” That was Anthony. Kevin Sullivan, former Post foreign correspondent, now Sunday and Features editor In late July 2003, as I was preparing to leave The Post’s Baghdad bureau after a summer assignment there, a brief notice in a local Iraqi

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Colleagues recall Shadid as extraordinary reporter, kind friend

through in his stories and his relationships with relatives and friends. He spent so much time showing pictures of Malik and Laila, his kids, and speaking of his love and gratitude toward his wife, Nada. Laila had decided she wanted to be a writer like her dad and was learning Arabic. In Baghdad, I complimented him on a beautiful piece he told of the loss of life in Iraq. He followed a mother and her family on the search for her missing son. The story took us from that first glimpse when she recognized her son among the pictures of unidentified corpses flashing on a screen at the Baghdad morgue to the burial in Najaf in southern Iraq. He wrote back “that piece really took it out of me. I broke down at the cemetery. I felt like I knew him in the end, and I just sat staring, wondering why so many people had to die, and for what.” That was Anthony. Kevin Sullivan, former Post foreign correspondent, now Sunday and Features editor In late July 2003, as I was preparing to leave The Post’s Baghdad bureau after a summer assignment there, a brief notice in a local Iraqi paper caught my eye. It was about a man who had been forced by his fellow villagers to kill his own son because he was suspected of being an informant for the U.S. military. It was an extraordinary story, if true, but I doubted that I would be able to do it justice. In a village where they were killing people for talking to Americans, I didn’t imagine I would stand a chance of getting to the truth. But I knew who would. I handed the paper to my colleague Anthony Shadid. With his flawless Arabic, his easy familiarity with the ways of Iraq and his titanium nerves, Anthony was the perfect person to determine just what had happened. And a few days later, on Aug. 1, his story appeared on the front page of The Washington Post. It was lyrical and powerful as we had all come to routinely expect from Anthony. Not only did he find Salem, the father, but the man who had just shot his eldest son to death opened up and explained himself to Anthony. Here’s what he wrote: “ ‘I have the heart of a father, and he’s my son,’ Salem said. ‘Even the

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Conductor Herbert Blomstedt lets the music speak for itself

Herbert Blomstedt manages to be, at once, one of the best conductors in the world and one of the music world’s best-kept secrets. Sure, he’s headed some of the world’s leading orchestras (the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig), but he has none of the mystique, or even name recognition, of a Riccardo Muti or Claudio Abbado. He’s unflashy, and rather unromantic. He just makes music. And, as Blomstedt showed at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with the National Symphony Orchestra on Thursday night, he makes it with such integrity and straightforwardness and love that for those in the know, it’s a joy to watch him. Yet it’s hard to get people to be in-the-know if your offering is a rather unspectacular midwinter concert without even a big-name soloist to lure the public. Blom­stedt’s program bracketed the 19th century: At the beginning was Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, which is not traditionally considered one of the highlights of the composer’s “mighty nine”; and at the end was Strauss’s “Ein Heldenleben,” which is flashy in its way but not particularly unusual orchestral fare. No concerto, no special attraction, no crowd-pleaser: just a slender, 85-year-old, American-born Swede with thick, gray hair, moving with the back-locked stiffness that some musicians acquire with age, taking the podium and opening the Beethoven so slowly and unremarkably that it — like him — was deceptively colorless. It wasn’t, of course, colorless, because Beethoven isn’t colorless, and this performance offered Beethoven’s vivid essence. Blomstedt’s failing as a conductor — and I say “failing” with tongue planted firmly in cheek — is that he’s not an entertainer in the sense that, although he can be very entertaining, he has no interest in showcasing himself. He doesn’t signal from the start that something special is going to happen, and he doesn’t telegraph his feelings to the audience. What happens, instead, is an honest act of devotion: a performance in which every drop of the music is manifested. Details emerge that you are seldom aware of — phrases bursting out like popcorn kernels in the buildup to the recapitulation of the first movement or the tangy, crunchy contrasts between the sounds of different instruments as they pass around a single tune at the end of the second movement — all in the course of a narrative told so clearly, there’s never a doubt where in the piece you are. There’s a widespread

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Post office closings may increase rural isolation, economic disparity

divided on how to address the Postal Service’s woes. “When you deal with billions, there’s nothing that you should ignore, even if it’s only a couple percentage points of your total operating costs,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said. But for many in the communities where post offices are slated to close, doing business online is not an easy option. Trinchera, Colo., a rural town near the New Mexico state line, lacks wired broadband. Rancher Carlos Sandoval said he relies on the post office for everything except groceries. He said he uses a computer only when he visits his daughter “in town” — Trinidad, Colo., about 15 miles from his home. Like Sandoval, about a third of the 110 people served by the Trinchera post office have no Internet access, according to Gene Caldwell. The 82-year-old began mustering statistics last fall to share with postal officials at a community meeting. Many residents live as many as 50 miles from the nearest town, and to get there, they travel mostly on unpaved roads, Caldwell said. They rely on the Postal Service for livestock vaccinations and medicines, notices of livestock sales, trade newspapers and other items. Nationwide, about 1.7 million people live near post offices slated for closure in areas with limited or no broadband Internet service. “We’re targeting the wrong people,” said Mark Strong, president of the National League of Postmasters. “We probably should have taken a look to see if first of all they have Internet accessibility in their communities.” Digital divide Internet access has spread the way most businesses expand: to areas more densely populated with people willing to pay for the service. Today, rural areas remain less connected to the Internet than urban populations across every technology type, according to Commerce Department data. Nearly 90 percent of the 24 million Americans without wired broadband access live in rural areas. “There’s still a real digital divide between rural and urban America,” said Ed Luttrell, head of the National Grange, which represents rural areas. “You look at rural folks, they tend to rely much more heavily on the Postal Service for delivery of a wide variety of necessities.” Reuters gauged communities’ Internet connectivity by comparing their locations with a national map of wired broadband availability that’s compiled by the Commerce Department. Areas were identified that met the most basic government threshold of 768 kilobyte per-second-download speed, which corresponds roughly to the

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Cirque de la Symphonie brings high-flying classics to the Kennedy Center

for the Houston, Atlanta and Jacksonville symphonies, says the show provides a more serious than usual pops repertoire that often blows away its new audiences with its sound – never mind the spinning going on in the rafters. “I’ve always had musicians come off the stage saying this is the greatest pops concert we ever played because we got to play the real music and people were transfixed by the music as well as the performance that they were seeing,” Krajewski says. But “I was worried the first time we did it,” Krajewski says. “Would the audience just be so transfixed with what they were doing and forget what the orchestra was doing? “And as it turns out,” he says, “it was one plus one equals three because the combination of a live, full symphony orchestra performing this great, dynamic music with these unbelievable physical feats that are going on at the same time make for this new kind of performance that really works very well.” It was Cincinnati Pops director Erich Kunzel who first encouraged Streltsov to do aerial performing during a concert in 1998. “I said, ‘Let’s give it a shot’ and it was a pretty good success,” Streltsov says. “So he started to invite me to a lot of different pops concerts that he’d been conducting.” Kunzel, who died in 2009, persuaded Streltsov it would be easier to sell to orchestras if he had a full company, and a full program was created for the Houston Symphony Pops in 2006. “We had like three or four shows back to back that were all sold out and had a great success, and we quickly realized that we find something very interesting and unique,” Streltsov says. Nearly 300 performances later, the group will make its debut at the Kennedy Center (it has played 11 shows with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and Strathmore Music Center in Rockville — seven of them sellouts). Krajewski, who has conducted Cirque de la Symphonie throughout its six-year history, says he has often heard comments on the music from people leaving the shows. “They’re awed by hearing a live orchestra, which probably many people have never experienced before,” he says. “We hear comments like, ‘Can you get recordings of this music?’ ” It may help that the music tends to be familiar. “When we started this program, we realized that the

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Why higher gas taxes are the right medicine for Maryland

region’s worsening congestion and poor road conditions cost each of us right now: Almost $2,300 a year in wasted gas and extra wear and tear, according to the Road Information Project. Such congestion costs disproportionately fall on the backs of working families and the poor. Nothing is more regressive than severe congestion, lost opportunity and job losses. From a job-creation perspective, we are not just on life support, we are about to flat-line. Already, Maryland faces an uphill battle to lure companies’ headquarters, and Montgomery County has suffered a net loss of jobs in the face of stiff competition from Northern Virginia. Our job losses will continue to mount if employers can’t count on easy access to workers, customers and markets. It doesn’t have to be this way. We have studied our transportation needs for decades and know exactly what will ease our traffic woes. We simply need to make those investments. Each year, local jurisdictions submit a list of their top transportation priorities to the state for construction funding. This year, two key transit projects top the list for Montgomery County: The Corridor Cities Transitway and the Purple Line, followed by a number of road and intersection improvements that would make a real difference in relieving traffic. However, none of these projects will move forward — not now, not ever — without a major increase in transportation funding. Of course, we also must protect transportation funds from being “raided,” and the governor is supporting legislation to this effect. Finally, several major economic development projects — including new science and technology centers in the Interstate 270 corridor and community revitalization projects in the East County — cannot move forward without the specific transportation improvements the governor’s proposal would help fund. The opportunity costs in terms of our future employment and tax base would be almost too huge to measure, putting at risk our ability to support good schools and other priorities. A good transportation system is just as important to our economy as a healthy circulatory system is to our bodies. Right now we have a bad case of clogged arteries. Maryland legislators need to step up and support this proven life-saving tre The writer, Montgomery County executive from 1994 to 2006, is chairman of the Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance. More Local Opinions: Gary Newton: Goose-proofing the reflecting pool Douglas Weil: One-gun-a-month’s success Ruth Hammond: Scenes from an after-midnight commute

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hero. He served for a time (and served well) as president of Columbia University and wrote a wartime memoir, “Crusade in Europe,” that Smith deservedly praises for its lucid prose and “complete record of the war in Europe.” He really didn’t much like or understand academia, though, and was receptive when “I Like Ike” fever got underway. His progress to the 1952 Republican nomination was not exactly a victory march, but he got there, won the general election in a landslide and settled in at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Smith’s account of Eisenhower’s stewardship is astute, with only a couple of exceptions — Ike was no leader on civil rights and, contrary to legend, was not “personally responsible for the interstate highway system” — and, again, Smith’s judgment is deserved: “As president, Eisenhower restored stability to the nation. His levelheaded leadership ensured that the United States would move forward in measured steps under the rule of law at home and collective security abroad. His sensible admonition upon leaving office to be wary of the military-industrial complex was the heartfelt sentiment of a president who recognized the perils of world leadership. . . . As with FDR, politics came naturally to Eisenhower. Bismarck once observed that political judgment was the ability to hear the distant hoofbeats of the horse of history. Ike possessed that talent in abundance. As historian Garry Wills put it, Ike was a political genius. ‘It is no mere accident that he remained, year after year, the most respected man in America.’ ” Ike did have a private life, and it was more interesting than those of many presidents. Smith does not scant it. He paints a full portrait of the long marriage to Mamie Doud, with its frequent ups and downs, and as best he can he portrays the relationship between Ike and Kay Summersby, the attractive and much younger British woman who was, throughout the war, his driver and much more, though precisely what “much more” means is in dispute. “Whether he and Kay were intimate remains a matter of conjecture,” Smith writes. “But there is no question they were in love.” It was with Mamie, though, that Ike lived out his last years at the farmhouse in Gettysburg, Pa. They seem to have been happy years, which both of them manifestly deserved. EISENHOWER IN WAR AND PEACE By Jean Edward Smith Random House. 950 pp. $40

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Smithsonian acquires documents from inventor of ‘EMAIL’ program

at MIT. The latter gives students who would otherwise not engage in the arts an opportunity to illustrate a complex concept. The course went from 6 to 32 and now 50 students, becoming one of the most popular classes on campus. Based on his experience with the class, Ayyadurai recommends teaching the systems first and then bringing in the more complex, detailed math and science. "The problems of today's world are not just learning how to build a computer better or writing a software program. A lot of that stuff is being outsourced," said Ayyadurai. "The big problems are large-scale systems." Think education, transportation and even relationships, he said. "If we can teach students that the world is very complex and to understand that complexity you need to have a systems approach,” he continued, "I think that systems approach is what students want to learn." The intellectual property debate "I fundamentally do not believe in the patenting of software," said Ayyadurai. "It would be like Shakespeare patenting the tragic love story." He admits that in his work as a venture capitalist he has had to go against his own belief. But, rather than patents, Ayyadurai prefers copyright, which allows others to innovate using the technology. America, freedom and innovation "We fail to recognize how much freedom we actually have here relative to these other countries," said Ayyadurai when asked what the United States gets wrong when it comes to moving its innovation economy forward. "That awareness,” he continued, “is what needs to be developed for people." India and China, two countries making significant strides in technology and innovation still lag behind the U.S., according to Ayyadurai, who says it's due to a lack of fundamental freedoms in those nations. "We should not really have any types of jobs issues here," continued Ayyadurai, saying that the "basis of American democracy" is innovation. "Innovation actually demands freedom, and freedom demands innovation," said Ayyadurai. "I don't think there's more money we need to throw at it." Ayyadurai also has some recommendations for the presidential candidates when it comes to policy proposals that will accelerate rather than slow innovation growth. "Small businesses, I believe, are the place where innovation really takes place," said Ayyadurai. With venture capital moving away from mid- and small-tier businesses, those companies are in need of government assistance. "There's this whole strata of small businesses that needs tax credits, I

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Returning military members allege job discrimination — by federal government

Chris Matthia with his wife, Lindsay and 11-month-old son Christopher, pose for a photograph Jan. 18 in Mt. Airy, Md. Matthai was fired from his job with the Social Security Administration when he notified them that he was being deployed to Afghanistan. His son was born while he was deployed. (Katherine Frey/THE WASHINGTON POST) The biggest offender: the federal government. It is against federal law for employers to penalize service members because of their military service. And yet, in some cases, the U.S. government has withdrawn job offers to service members unable to get released from active duty fast enough; in others, service members have been fired after absences. In fiscal 2011, more than 18 percent of the 1,548 complaints of violations of that law involved federal agencies, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. “On the one hand, the government asked me to serve in Iraq,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Michael Silva, a reservist who commanded a brigade in Iraq and was fired from his job as a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol contractor on his return. “On the other hand, another branch of government was not willing to protect my rights after serving.” The federal government is the largest employer of citizen-soldiers. About 123,000 of the 855,000 men and women currently serving as Guard members and reservists, or about 14 percent, have civilian jobs with the federal government. Over a fourth of federal employees are veterans. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), enacted in 1994 to ensure that members of the military do not face a disadvantage in their civilian careers because of their service, calls on the federal government be “a model employer” for service members. But critics contend that the federal government has been far from perfect, and they fear that with troops back home from Iraq and more on the way from ­Afghanistan, violations of the law could increase. Obama “priority” Advocates for veterans say the system set up for service members to challenge alleged USERRA violations is onerous, with no single agency having oversight. And they note that the federal government doesn’t have much incentive to improve. The federal government can be ordered to pay back wages for being in willful violation of the law, but it incurs no other penalties. A private company, by contrast, could be liable for double an employee’s lost wages. “There seems

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Local banker wants more government money

Ronald D. Paul is on a mission. The chief executive of Bethesda-based EagleBank is leading an effort to persuade local municipalities to hand over more of their deposits to community banks. First stop: D.C. Council. Participating banks must make loans to District-based small businesses totaling at least 200 percent of the deposited funds. Loans must be made within a year of the city’s commitment, and cannot exceed $5 million for commercial real estate or $3 million for commercial loans. “Community banks are active in giving loans to small businesses, but there seems to be a disconnect with local governments taking real estate and income taxes that people pay and putting them in national banks that aren’t putting money back into the community,” Paul said in an interview. Ronald Paul, chief executive of EagleBank. (Jeffrey MacMillan/Capital Business) A higher amount of core deposits would give community banks more cash to increase loan origination. Paul stressed that the campaign is geared at helping the entire community of small banks, not just his. “Whatever amount EagleBank gets from this is immaterial to our earnings per share,” he said. “I know all the cynics are saying, ‘What’s in it for you?’ We calculated that if Eagle gets $30 million in deposits, it would be less than one penny per share.” As it stands, EagleBank, with $2.3 billion in total deposits, holds $20 million of the District’s deposits and investments, according to data from the office of the D.C. chief financial officer. District treasurer Lasana Mack testified at the hearing that the city’s portfolio of deposits and investments totaled $2.3 billion with nearly 40 financial institutions. Wells Fargo holds the largest amount of deposits of any bank with $397.7 million, followed by M&T Bank with $266.8 million. Wells Fargo spokesperson Michael McCoy contended that, nationally, the bank has “loaned more money to America’s small businesses than any other bank for nine consecutive years.” “In 2011, we extended $13.9 billion in new loan commitments to small businesses, up 8 percent from 2010,” he said. Mack, the D.C. treasurer, testified that the city has existing statutes on placing District funds in banks with less than $550 million in total assets located in the District. The initiative, he said, has resulted in the placement of roughly $100 million of city money with area banks, including Bank of Georgetown and Congressional Bank. While Mack supports the goals of the

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Molina targets homeless, uninsured in its giving

Who: Company: Charitable giving highlights: Tell me about your philanthropy. The thought behind it is to give smaller grants but make it more grassroots. We really spend time getting to know the organization that the grants are going to, making sure the majority of money is going to serve the populations that we serve — the underserved, indigent and people that have limited resources. Also our employees get 16 hours every year to do community service. What are some activities you do? A year or so ago, we bought new patio furniture for the Baileys Crossroads Homeless Shelter because the furniture they had was old. We also bought a grill for them and did a big cook out. A lot of those patients are ones that come to our clinics. Tell me about another grant. One was with the Northern Virginia Specialty Access Organization. That’s a regional institution to help underserved and uninsured people get specialty care. That’s really big issue in our community. We have primary care sites but we have trouble getting patients to cardiologists or a neurologist. The benefit to the specialist is that everybody gets one patient before they get two. How has the philanthropy evolved over the years? We’re really becoming more of a partner and established more of a presence in the Northern Virginia area. What’s the process to find a partner? We’re really well suited to find the organizations that could most benefit from the grant because they’re right in the clinic. We don’t call around and see what they need because we see the patients. Everyone that we’ve partnered with we see and hear about their needs every day. Where does the grant money come from? Molina Healthcare sets aside a budget to do charitable giving for all the states we operate in. What’s the structure for giving? We come together at our staff meetings to talk about what grants we want to give each quarter. There’s a leadership team but we try to get the input from people that see the patients everyday like the medical assistants and pharmacists in the lab. Are there areas in your philanthropy that you want to improve? We did a project with one of the shelters and I think we were remiss in not doing it with all of the shelters. It was such a successful project that I think we could repeat some of

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Value Added: Coffee executive learned how to raise money before roasting beans

needed a financial guy to manage it. After talks and a review of the company’s finances, Paladino assembled local investors, put in $250,000 of his own and bought a majority stake in the company. To differentiate itself, Chesapeake Bay set out to appeal to the growing demand for sustainable products: It would use less energy, recycle all its materials and buy coffee grown by people who are paid fair wages. “First,” he says, “I want the customer who wants a great cup of coffee. Second, I want the consumer who wants to buy from local sources. And finally, I want the consumer who wants to buy sustainably.” Bean counting The coffee — much of which comes from Central America, Africa and Southeast Asia — is in 120 grocery and specialty retailers, from Mom’s Organic Market to Whole Foods to Giant and Safeway. Paladino owns 17 percent of the company, and around 30 investors and employees own a big chunk. Sachs Capital of Potomac, which has invested nearly $1 million, is the largest shareholder. Chesapeake Bay, in a corner of an anonymous industrial park in Crofton, has 20 employees and roasts around 10,000 pounds of coffee a week. Last year, the company sold $2 million worth of coffee. About a third of that was coffee it roasts for other brands, and the rest was Chesapeake Bay’s own brands. The company grossed an additional $1 million through sales of coffee and espresso makers, replacement parts and service on those machines. It expects to break even this year on nearly $5 million in revenue. The company’s three big retail brands are medium-to-dark-roast River’s Edge, dark-roast Cattail and medium-roast Eco-Reef. The coffee beans arrive hard and green, and they take anywhere from 17 to 22 minutes to roast. A 72-pound bag, which ranges from $3.20 to $4.50 a pound, will make around 60 pounds of ready-to-grind coffee beans after the roast. The less time in the roaster, the lighter the roast. The darker the roast, the bolder the flavor. The fourth quarter saw an uptick in growth, and Paladino is raising another $750,000 to boost expansion. The veteran fundraiser values the company at $5.35 million. If it keeps growing, there could be a fat financial return in the next five years — and maybe a caffeinelike kick for the owners. Follow me on Twitter at addedvalueth. For previous Value Added columns, go to washingtonpost.com/local-business.

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In D.C., a push for better restaurants east of the Anacostia River

say they’re aware of just six restaurants that provide waiter service, including a Denny’s and an IHOP. The dearth of choices fuels the sense among residents that theirs is a forgotten part of Washington. “People are a lot more open to hearing the story about east of the river,” said Keith Sellars, president of the Washington D.C. Economic Partnership, a nonprofit group that promotes development and helped lead the tours. On the cusp of change Cornacchia said he needs to raise $1 million and has his eye on a vacant property at MLK Avenue and Good Hope Road, across from a recently built office building. “You have to come with the right concept, the right prices,” said Cornacchia, who also owns a restaurant in McLean, one of the region’s wealthiest suburbs. “We’ve seen all the changes in D.C. over the past 10 years. I don’t see why it won’t happen here.” Andy Shallal “There are a lot of people who go to eat and need community,” he said. “There’s no place to hear poetry and music, nothing that’s going to bring in a couple of hundred people under one roof. I’d love to do it.” Fatma Nayir and her husband, Musa Ulusan, Turkish immigrants who have owned restaurants in New Orleans and Bethesda, said they chose Anacostia because it was a place they could afford to open a pizzeria. When they hung a “Help Wanted” sign, more than 100 people applied. Some customers urged Nayir not to take down the security bars, telling her that she was asking for trouble in a part of the city known for crime. But she said she wanted to connect with her customers, many of whom can now be seen walking around the neighborhood carrying pizza boxes. Nayir is already thinking about adding pasta to her menu. Maybe even cappuccino. Earl Rodriguez, 49, an Army reservist, has volunteered to landscape the grass outside the shop and to design and paint a sign to replace the handmade one Nayir put above the entrance. “It’s all inspired by what Mama’s stands for,” he said. When she removed the metal grating, he said, “it was ‘Wow!’ She wants to be here.” An inevitable frontier A litany of new residential and office projects will make the area more affluent, District officials say. The relocation of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard to St. Elizabeths will bring more than

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tank Center for American Progress (CAP) in 2008 and 2009 through his nonprofit groups, to support its National Clean Energy Project events. At the time, Pickens was pressing lawmakers to adopt a bill to subsidize construction of natural gas filling stations. The legislation would have directly helped a company Pickens co-founded called Clean Energy Fuels, which describes itself as “the leading provider of natural gas for transportation.” Several companies with natural gas interests, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron and the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, have donated to the D.C.-based Center for Clean Air Policy as part of its efforts to sponsor an ongoing dialogue about domestic climate policy. Exxon and Chevron have given $35,000 each for an annual membership in the dialogue, while smaller industry associations have donated less. Chesapeake Energy spokesman Jim Gipson said that “over the years, Chesapeake has been proud to support a number of organizations that share our interest in clean air and agree[s] that America’s abundant supplies of clean natural gas represent the most affordable, available and scalable fuel to power a more prosperous and environmentally responsible future for our country.” He would not comment on the recent rift. Pickens spokesman Jay Rosser said that Pickens’s activities aren’t limited to one party or political wing. “He’s lent his voice to a number of organizations interested in broad public policies on OPEC oil dependence, national security and clean-air concerns,” Rosser said. “These include business, political and environmental entities on both sides of the political spectrum.” At least one group that seriously considered McClendon’s offer, the NRDC, decided in the end that his support would constitute a conflict of interest. Half a dozen senior NRDC leaders and energy staffers — including John Adams, its founding director — traveled to Chesapeake’s Oklahoma headquarters in early 2008 to have what NRDC spokeswoman Jenny Powers described as “a serious and frank conversation about fracking” and to discuss a contribution to its “Move America Beyond Coal” campaign. In a letter to the NRDC’s board of trustees earlier this month, President Frances Beinecke wrote that the group does not accept corporate donations and “decided that it would be unwise to accept his personal contribution.” Groups such as the Center for Clean Air Policy have specifically invited oil and gas companies to contribute to their efforts to devise a compromise on climate change. The group’s president, Ned Helme, said the firms are

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A massacre at Mexican prison, then an escape

Relatives of inmates at Apodaca prison pull the security fence following a riot inside the prison, on Sunday near Monterrey where 44 inmates were killed. (Julio Cesar Aguilar/AFP/Getty Images) MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials said Monday that it appears all of the 44 inmates stabbed and beaten to death at a state prison in northern Mexico on Sunday were members of the same crime syndicate, known as the Gulf Cartel. They were murdered by their arch enemies, members of Los Zetas, a sensationally violent group that appears to have staged the massacre, in part, as a diversion. About 30 members of the Zeta cartel escaped from the overcrowded Apodaca prison near Monterrey in the hours after the killings. Officials called the escapees “especially dangerous.” What was initially characterized as a melee among rival gangs appears to have been a well-planned and -executed attack, followed by a successful getaway, accomplished with the help of the jailers. The governor of Nuevo Leon, Rodrigo Medina, told reporters Monday that the prison's director, three top officials and 18 guards are under investigation and may have aided in the escape. The governor called the prison officials “a group of traitors” and said that it appeared they were corrupted by the powerful Zeta syndicate. “The most important thing is to make sure that the people working on the inside are on the side of the law, and that they not be corrupted and collaborate with the criminals,” Medina said. The governor also used his press conference to complain that his state prisons are overcrowded with inmates facing federal charges for drug and weapons trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. He said that in Nuevo Leon state, 60 percent of all inmates are incarcerated for federal crimes. Mexico is engaged in a prison building boom, and new guards are being trained by the U.S. government. But the handful of new maximum security federal prisons cannot keep up with the flow of criminals. The Mexican government has been overwhelmed by huge numbers of arrests in its five-year, military-led, U.S.-backed war against organized crime. Prisons are now jammed with inmates, including many who await convictions in poorly run, antiquated, dangerous state prisons, where many criminals continue to run their operations via courier and cellphone. More world news coverage:

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Nuclear power entrepreneurs push thorium as a fuel

One year ago, a massive earthquake spawned a tsunami that nearly destroyed Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, further frightening people who had been wary of nuclear power since accidents at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986. The proposed fuel is thorium, an abundant silver-gray element named for the Norse god of thunder. It is less radioactive than the uranium that has always powered U.S. plants, and advocates say that not only does it produce less waste, it also is more difficult to turn into nuclear weapons. “A molten-salt reactor is not a pressurized reactor,” said John Kutsch, director of the Thorium Energy Alliance, a trade group based in Harvard, Ill. “It doesn’t use water for cooling, so you don’t have the possibility of a hydrogen explosion, as you did in Fukushima.” Kutsch and others say that a thorium-fueled reactor burns hotter than uranium reactors, consuming more of the fuel. “Ninety-nine percent of the thorium is burned up,” he said. “Instead of 10,000 pounds of waste, you would have 300 pounds of waste.” ‘Small boatloads of fanatics’ Although the idea of thorium power has been around for decades — and some countries are planning to build thorium-powered plants — it has not caught on with the companies that design and build nuclear plants in the United States or with the national research labs charged with investigating future energy sources. “There are small boatloads of fanatics on thorium that don’t see the downsides,” said Dan Ingersoll, senior project manager for nuclear technology at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. For one thing, he said, it would be too expensive to replace or convert the nuclear power plants already running in this country: “A thorium-based fuel cycle has some advantages, but it’s not compelling for infrastructure and investments.” Overall, he says the benefits don’t outweigh the huge costs of switching technologies. “I’m looking for something compelling enough to trash billions of dollars of infrastructure that we have already and I don’t see that.” Thorium advocates such as Kirk Sorensen, a former NASA engineer who is now chief executive of Huntsville, Ala.-based Flibe Energy, are not deterred. “We recognize this is a new and different technology, and developing it is significantly different from the existing nuclear industry,” Sorensen said. “Part of the problem is that nuclear only means one thing in the public and [U.S.] government’s mind.” With an extremely

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The man who retrieves the Taliban’s dead

us,” the letter reads. It is signed by Jabar Agha, identified as the Taliban’s representative for Zhari district in Kandahar. It refers to Hakim as a taxi driver. When the fighters are finally placed in shallow graves marked by jagged stones, some of the families rail about their deceased kin’s unnecessary death and poor choices. Others gather to celebrate the devotion of those they consider martyrs. Hakim, a 65-year-old with deep creases in his forehead, a long white beard and a scar under his right eye, tries to leave before the funeral processions begin. The war has brought him personal tragedy, and he wants to keep the old anguish from resurfacing. But the families often grab him before he drives off, he said, to thank him through tears. “When we saw my brother’s body, the bullet holes in his chest, it was terrible. But we saw his face. It was the same as always. We got to say goodbye,” said Ahmad, whose brother joined the Taliban several years ago and was killed in a firefight with Afghan police. It was Hakim who returned the body. Sorting carnage of war Hakim receives the second round of phone calls — this time, from the ICRC — days or weeks after fits of violence. The organization draws on its vast network of Afghan elders to identify unclaimed bodies in the Mirwais morgue: men killed in such remote locations or uncertain conditions that Taliban commanders and family members don’t come looking for them. Hakim transports all of them: 107 government employees in the past three years and 28 civilians, in addition to the 127 insurgents. He gets a signed letter from local officials giving him permission to pick up each body; he stores copies in a black suitcase at home, so he can keep a precise count of the bodies he has transported. Last year, he picked up the remains of 14 suicide bombers on a single day, trucking them to families across Kandahar province. Once he carried five Afghan intelligence agents from a district largely controlled by the Taliban to their agency’s headquarters. He has hauled the bodies of children and the elderly, he said, sometimes on the same day. Across the country, men like Hakim assist civilians and Taliban commanders, even slipping into Pakistan to return the bodies of insurgents. Their efforts have had a pronounced effect in recent times: The number

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“Goose-proofing the Reflecting Pool”? I’d rather we “Runner-Proof the Reflecting Pool” of all its sweaty (and more-than-casually clad) runners who sometimes rudely whiz past (and thus “haze”) tourists and locals as if they own the place. I say let the runners “self-deport,” and leave us with the geese. Susie Bachtel, Arlington

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Renato Dulbecco, who won a Nobel for virus research, dies at 97

Renato Dulbecco, an Italian-born virologist who shared the 1975 Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology for providing crucial early discoveries into the genetic nature of cancer, died Feb. 19 at his home in La Jolla, Calif. He was four days shy of his 98th birthday. The death from undisclosed causes was announced by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the La Jolla-based research center where Dr. Dulbecco had been a founding fellow in 1963 and later president. In a career spanning seven decades, Dr. Dulbecco was a medical officer in the Italian army during World War II and then served with anti-German partisan forces. Focusing on scientific research after the war, he contributed to seminal advances in virology that culminated in his Nobel Prize. One of Dr. Dulbecco’s most celebrated post-Nobel contributions was a paper he wrote for the journal Science in 1986 that advocated the complete sequencing of the human genome. It was a bold idea at a time when many scientists were content to look at the specific genes related to their subfields. But Dr. Dulbecco foresaw the need to unravel the human genome as a prerequisite to understanding the nature of cancer. Renato Dulbecco’s work advanced the understanding of how viruses work within cells. (Courtesy of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies) His paper was credited with helping spark the federally funded Human Genome Project, which began in 1990 under his former colleague, James Watson, and was completed in 2003. As a young scientist at the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Dulbecco set the groundwork for his later research by developing the innovative “plaque technique” to see viruses in action at the cellular level. The technique allowed researchers to look at a culture sample and count the plaques, or clear spots, showing where the viruses had killed the host cells. This work — done in collaboration with biologist Marguerite Vogt — was widely credited with helping transform animal virology from a descriptive to a quantitative science. In trying to understand the forces by which viruses infect cells and then propagate, Dr. Dulbecco built on seminal work in the early 20th century by Peyton Rous and other top scientists. Starting at Caltech and later at the Salk Institute, Dr. Dulbecco worked with mouse cells to investigate the methods by which tumor viruses invade normal cells and seize control of their genetic structure. His studies on mice explored two

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Renato Dulbecco, who won a Nobel for virus research, dies at 97

Baltimore, then of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and cancer researcher Howard M. Temin of the University of Wisconsin for what the Nobel committee termed “their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumor viruses and the genetic material of the cell.” Temin, who died in 1994, had studied under Dr. Dulbecco at Caltech. He and Baltimore conducted breakthrough research on how some viruses carry their genetic information in ribonucleic acid, or RNA. Dr. Dulbecco’s work had a profound impact on cancer and genetic research, fields in which he continued working for years to come. From 1972 to 1977, he worked at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund laboratories in London. Dr. Dulbecco was president of the Salk Institute from 1988 to 1992, after which he helped organize a short-lived genome project in Italy. Renato Dulbecco was born Feb. 22, 1914, in Catanzaro, a town in southern Italy. His father, a civil engineer, resettled the family in the northwestern community of Imperia. At 16, he entered the University of Turin and befriended two other precocious students and future Nobel laureates: Salvador Luria, a microbiologist, and Rita Levi-Montalcini, a neurologist who is now 102. Dr. Dulbecco received his doctorate of medicine in 1936 and joined the Italian army. He was seriously wounded in the Soviet Union in 1942 and came home. He subsequently became a physician for local partisan fighters during the German occupation after Italy left the Axis camp. In 1947, Dr. Dulbecco joined Luria at Indiana University and shared lab space with Watson, who went on to win a Nobel for co-discovering the structure of DNA. Dr. Dulbecco was recruited to Caltech in 1949 and developed a research specialty in animal virology after a wealthy donor gave the school funding in that area. He became a U.S. citizen in 1953. In addition to the Nobel, Dr. Dulbecco received the prestigious Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 1964 for his work on cancer cells. Dr. Dulbecco was a classically trained pianist. When he retired from the Salk Institute at 92, he said he would spend his days performing opera. Dr. Dulbecco’s first marriage, to Giuseppina Salvo, ended in divorce. In 1963, he married Maureen Muir. Besides his wife, of La Jolla, survivors include a daughter from his first marriage, Maria; a daughter from his second marriage, Fiona; a brother; and four grandchildren. A son from his first marriage, Peter, died in 1984.

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Reporting day, baseball’s most relaxed day

up, stifled, for four months. John Lannan told how, on his honeymoon in Tahiti, he ran into Nats free agent target Prince Fielder, who was there to renew his marriage vows. Renew vows. In Tahiti. At 26? The Married Guys Union will file a protest. Ryan Zimmerman said that ardent hunter Adam LaRoche had killed a buffalo. With a bow and arrow. LaRoche, with a large biceps tat of a buck with huge antlers, did not confirm this info, but did say animals are smarter than you think, communicate well and “so I hide [the tattoo] when I hunt.” This is the eternal baseball tone, better than a Florida fountain of youth, addictive for life, where absolutely anything might be true or a setup line. When a player such as LaRoche or rookie Steve Lombardozzi had a big league dad, then the stone-faced playfulness, the put-on, the mimicry, is ingrained. After a winter of golf, what is your handicap down to, Davey? “Are we bettin’ or braggin’?” said Manager Davey Johnson. Who cares about scores when Johnson can quickly turn the tale to his lifetime total of deadly snakes killed on his build-on-a-swamp home golf course in Winter Haven. “Three rattlesnakes and a water moccasin,” he said. “I use a 2-iron. You take it up high above your head and hit down.” Like a bunker shot? “Sort of.” Why a 2-iron? “To keep ’em far away from you. Then, when they strike, you hit them when they’re in mid-air.” Aren’t witnesses required for “Dead Rattlers,” like holes-in-one? “Oh, that sounds like Davey. Only three?” said Danny Espinosa slyly. Baseball lives in details as small as a handshake. This spring, Espinosa’s grip will bring tears. Off-handedly, Johnson mentions that last year Espinosa hit well right-handed but poorly left-handed. “That’s going to change dramatically this year,” said Johnson. Why? Because of that handshake. All last year, Espinosa was recovering from offseason hamate-bone surgery to his right wrist that sapped his grip strength from 160 to 125 on the grip meter. His left hand measured 150 both years. “I’ve always hit better left-handed than right-handed, except after that injury (and surgery). It’s the strength in your right hand that lets you deliver the barrel of the bat to the ball accurately when you hit left-handed,” says Espinosa, whose OPS was .707 hitting lefty in ’11, but .857 righty. So, if Espinosa breaks out

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Afghans protest burning of Korans at U.S. base

The incident also could complicate relations between NATO forces and those Afghans who perform a variety of nonmilitary functions on bases. The hundreds of Bagram employees who were among the protesters will have to decide whether to leave their jobs or continue working while disguising their antipathy. “The people who do this are our enemies,” said a 27-year-old who has worked at a warehouse on the base for two years. “How could I ever work for them again?” Another Bagram employee who joined the protest said, “Whoever goes back to work will be killed. They’ll think of us as traitors.” The workers declined to give their names for fear of reprisals. More than 3,000 people were involved in the protests Tuesday. Afghan and Western security forces blocked roads leading to the base and instructed local employees to stay home. But when they heard about the incident, the workers arrived at the base’s front gate in droves. Rumors about the incident — and American motives — circulated through the crowd. In Kabul, 35 miles to the south, even top Afghan officials struggled to understand what had happened. Gen. Ahmad Amin Naseeb, director of the Afghan army’s religious and cultural affairs department, said he had been told “that the international troops have burned and thrown copies of the Koran into the dustbins.” In his second statement of the day, Allen announced that all NATO forces in Afghanistan would complete training in the proper handling of religious materials by March 3. NATO said religious materials, including Korans “identified for disposal,” were collected at the Parwan Detention Facility, a prison next to the base, and “were inadvertently taken to an incineration facility at Bagram airfield” Monday night. A senior U.S. military official said the Korans were removed from the prison library because they had radical or inflammatory messages scrawled in them. A Western official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that the texts were charred but that none were destroyed. In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney echoed Allen’s apology, saying: “We apologize to the Afghan people and disapprove of such conduct in the strongest possible terms. This deeply unfortunate incident does not reflect the great respect our military has for the Afghan people. It’s regrettable.” Staff writer Greg Jaffe in Washington and special correspondents Sayed Salahuddin and Walid Fazly in Kabul contributed to this report. More world news coverage:

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Asian American soldier’s suicide called a ‘wake-up call’ for the military

else didn’t speak up?” asked Kim, who now lives in Queens. The Asian American presence is small in the military, as it is in the U.S. population. The most recent data showed 43,579 Asian Americans were on active duty in 2010, making up 3.7 percent of enlisted men and women. Most were in the Army or Navy. In the officer corps, a little more than 8,400 were Asian American in 2010, or 3.9 percent. They’re people like Anu Bhagwati, 36. The Indian American woman spent five years in the Marines, and said that she left in 2004 largely because of the discrimination and harassment she faced, even as an officer. In her case, gender was the big issue, but she said she saw racial discrimination against others, including the few other Asian Americans she saw in the service. “The great American myth about the U.S. military is that racism doesn’t exist,” she said. “It’s alive and well.” In Chen’s case, while his parents are immigrants, he was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He enlisted in the military after high school. Chen told his family and friends, and wrote in his journal, that he was teased about his name and repeatedly asked if he was Chinese. He said the bullying and abuse worsened in Afghanistan and racial slurs were used. At one point, when the soldiers were putting up a tent, Chen was forced to wear a construction hat and give instructions in Chinese, even though none of the other soldiers spoke the language, investigators told his parents. On Oct. 3, Chen was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a guardhouse, the Army said. Eight soldiers in Chen’s unit were charged in his death. In January, the military said that one should be court-martialed on charges including assault, negligent homicide and reckless endangerment — but not for involuntary manslaughter. On Wednesday, the Army said two other soldiers should face courts-martial. One is charged with dereliction of duty; the other is charged with violations including assault and maltreatment. Asian Americans played a role in the major American conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries, and there’s some anecdotal evidence that Chinese Americans fought on both sides in the Civil War, said K. Scott Wong, a professor of history and public affairs at Williams College. In World War II, Japanese Americans instantly fell under suspicion and their loyalties

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Smoked beer in the barbecue sauce? Yes, please.

Beer-Braised Beef Shanks get an infusion of smoke flavor from the beer. (Deb Lindsey/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) A flight of glasses is lined up in front of me, for what might be called a liquid smoke tasting. Schlenkerla’s method is a long-standing tradition. For regular beer, barley is dried through an industrialized process. At Schlenkerla, run by the Trum family for six generations, the germinated barley is spread over wire netting and dried over smoldering beechwood logs. The process gives the beer its characteristic aroma. “People are really experimenting with smoke in their beers,” Engert says. “It’s something that’s almost kind of comically mundane to the history of beer brewing because open flame was the way you created heat, and we know that beer was being produced at least 6,000 years ago. Smoke would have been in the beer for fermenting the grains to get the sugars.” Before going further, let me say that I have only a vague idea what Engert is talking about. I’m the barbecue guy, not the beer guy. My interest isn’t in the brew so much as it is in the smoke. After my tasting, I was certain of just one thing: I wasn’t going to be drinking a smoked beer with smoked food. I like my smoked foods complemented, not suffocated. Wondering if I could cook with it for some semblance of barbecue until the weather turned nicer, I came across a smoked beer barbecue sauce recipe by cookbook author and overall barbecue guru Steven Raichlen. He calls for it to be used with sauerkraut-braised ribs, which sounds delicious. But I liked using the sauce to create a faux barbecue sandwich for a bit more of that summertime vibe. I slow-roasted a pork butt until it fell apart and I roasted a whole chicken till it withered. To each I added some of the sauce, put the sauced meat on a hamburger bun and served them as I would a regular pulled pork or pulled chicken barbecue sandwich. The beer’s smokiness was no match for the real deal, but it was good and it brought some of summer’s flavor to my wintertime table. Wanting to branch out, I threw a smoked-beer tasting with friends. I started with a mini-version of the ChurchKey tasting, which had included beers other than Schlenkerla’s. But Schlenkerla is the most commonly available — and even it isn’t common —

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The unheralded elements of English food

History of English Food1950s,UK,English Electric,Magazine Advert (The Advertising Archives/THE ADVERTISING ARCHIVES) Editor’s note: Has England managed to overcome its reputation as a nation of historically underwhelming food? Considering the attention paid to the tables of “Downton Abbey,” the country’s record-breaking number of Michelin-starred restaurants, its beloved celebrity chefs and some of the most engaging food TV and magazines on the planet, we’d say so. As Clarissa Dickson Wright’ argues in “A History of English Food” (Random House, 2011), Turkey: indigenous to North America and the quintessential feature of Thanksgiving. And yet, by a strange quirk of history, it’s more than likely that the Founding Fathers actually carved their first turkey in England. It is generally agreed that turkeys arrived in Europe, probably via Spain, in the early 16th century, and by the reign of King Henry VIII (1491-1547) they were to be found on many English tables. They even featured on a 1542 list, drawn up by the Archbishop of Canterbury, of what could and could not be eaten on particular days. His intention, incidentally, was to stop his fellow clergy from overindulging themselves — an endeavor in which he utterly failed. The word “turkey” came about because early diners mistakenly assumed the bird came from the East (as did the French, who called it the “coq d’Inde,” later shortened to “dinde” or “dindon”). And the word “turkey” stuck, even though the early settlers in North America, encountering the bird running wild in their new homeland, must have spotted that someone had gotten their geography seriously wrong. Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson starred in the British cooking show “Two Fat Ladies.” (Acorn Media) The convoluted history of the turkey nicely points up the close, sometimes complicated relationship between food in the Old World and food in the New. In the early years, inevitably, the influences tended to flow from Europe to America. I have a strong suspicion, for example, that North American clam chowder is ultimately descended from the fish and oyster stews so widely eaten in England in the 17th century, particularly in the use of crushed biscuits (now generally sprinkled on top; once used to thicken the stew) and the occasional use of pork. Similarly, cobblers, the sweet or savory dishes adorned with what are basically lumps of scone dough cut into circles and placed around the edge, were eaten in England in the Stuart era (though

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Craft brewer with a cult following

(Courtesy of The Farmers' Cabinet) “I’m a bug collector,” Terry Hawbaker says, referring to the wild yeasts and bacteria swarming in the two oak barrels in his Alexandria storefront. At 39, with a divot in his forehead from a recent bike accident and a love of punk-inflected rock-and-roll, he has been maturing his sour beer since September, tasting it as it slowly grows tarter, funkier and more complex. It’s the brewing equivalent of a baker’s sourdough starter. Colonizing barrels of unfermented beer, the bugs will work their slow alchemy over months and years, enabling Hawbaker’s Cabinet Artisanal Brewhouse to make creative “wild ales” that connoisseurs will sniff and savor. His own rise to fame, however, is likely to be quicker: Cabinet Artisanal Brewhouse, he says, just signed a major distribution deal. It could transform the startup into a shrine for beer geeks practically overnight. The brewery, which also will specialize in Hawbaker’s avant-garde riffs on saisons and other European farmhouse styles, wasn’t created with such grand ambitions. Last summer, when it took over the former strip-mall home of Shenandoah Brewing, near the Van Dorn Street Metro station, it was intended to be primarily a place where the partners behind the Philadelphia restaurant the Farmers’ Cabinet would brew house beers to accompany dishes such as roasted marrow bones and duck confit sandwiches. But three weeks ago, according to Hawbaker, the brewery agreed to a distribution contract that will place its beer in 35 states and Europe in the coming months. Production will be tiny by industry standards: only about 50 barrels per month at first, or roughly 1,500 gallons. Still, for a brewery that hardly exists — Hawbaker has brewed only a handful of test batches, on equipment left behind by Shenandoah — such a deal is unusual. Hawbaker calls Cabinet Artisanal Brewhouse an “urban farmhouse brewery,” a label that captures both the rustic realities of his brewing setup and the juxtaposition of modern flavors and farmyard funk that characterizes his beers. Fermentation temperatures will be determined by the seasons, not regulated by industrial coolants, and open fermentation vessels and oak barrels will echo the conditions found in Europe decades and centuries ago. But Hawbaker’s recipes possess an American edginess, featuring trendy, full-flavored hop varieties such as Citra and Galaxy and infusions of ingredients including pink Himalayan salt and lemon grass. “I think I brew pretty aggressive beers, but still sort

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The test of talking to Iran

In fact, it appears likely that Tehran perceives talks as an opportunity to undermine sanctions. Mr. Jalili’s letter referred to negotiations “based on step-by-step principles and reciprocity,” language that could describe a proposal originally put forward by Russia last year. Moscow outlined a sequence of steps in which Iran would receive relief from sanctions in exchange for incremental actions to satisfy the IAEA. Iran rejected the idea, but now the P5+1, urged on by the Obama administration, is discussing a modified version. Reportedly, it could grant some sanctions relief if Iran suspended only its higher-level enrichment of uranium, and surrendered material enriched to that 20 percent level.

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Consumer watchdog launches overdraft inquiry

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to launch an inquiry Wednesday into banks’ overdraft practices, which have been in regulatory crosshairs in recent years. The CFPB’s inquiry also will focus on bank overdraft policies, how they market the plans, and their impact on low-income and young consumers. The agency will solicit feedback from the public. “Overdraft practices have the capacity to inflict serious economic harm on the people who can least afford it,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement. “We want to learn how consumers are affected, and how well they are able to anticipate and avoid paying penalty fees.” Overdraft fees have long irked consumers, who have complained that withdrawals of as little as $3 from their bank accounts have resulted in penalties as high as $37. As the recession squeezed Americans’ budgets and anger at the financial industry reached fever pitch, regulators and lawmakers began moving to curtail banks’ fees. Meanwhile, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued guidelines calling for the smaller banks it oversees to set limits on the number of times customers can be charged overdraft fees in one day and offer alternatives to those who overdraw their accounts more than six times in a year. Its guidelines encompass checks and recurring payments. One thing regulators left unaddressed, however, was the order that banks processed charges. That issue has been winding its way through the nation’s court system instead. In 2010, a California judge ordered Wells Fargo to return $203 million in overdraft fees to customers whose transactions were reordered. Chase, Bank of America and several other banks have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to settle a separate class-action lawsuit over the practice. The CFPB said it is seeking information on how prevalent the practice remains and how it affects consumers. It is also concerned about a 2008 FDIC report that found that 9 percent of checking account customers made up about 84 percent of overdraft charges, suggesting that the fees were concentrated among low-income customers. The bureau said it also hopes to educate consumers about the overdraft rules. It is launching a campaign called “What’s your overdraft status?” and has developed a “penalty fee box” that would appear on checking account statements to help consumers understand any overdraft charges.

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George Huguely trial highlights alcohol abuse among college students

18-year-old who died during a 2004 hazing incident at the University of Colorado in Boulder, after merging with the Gordie Foundation recently. But it began in 1987 as the Institute for Substance Abuse Studies. At one point, the university was outpacing the national average numbers when it came to drinking, Bruce said, but that's changed in the past 10 years, with fewer drinking-and-driving incidents and negative consequences being reported. "Most students are drinking in a moderate way," Bruce said. And even those who drink to excess are generally taken care of, U.Va. students say. "They're going out with friends who take care of them," said Chris Leslie, a 20-year-old from Vienna, Va., who was having a pizza dinner with friends last week. "There are obviously aberrations, which is why there's this story (about Love and Huguely)," he added. Getting parents involved Emily Sears, who coordinates Towson University's substance abuse counseling center, said many young people don't know how to drink responsibly. "There's a complete lack of understanding and knowledge about how to measure a drink ... how to measure a shot out instead of just pouring alcohol out of a bottle into a red Solo cup," she said. Towson students call their plastic cup concoctions "jungle juice," Sears said. And when she was in college at Loyola in the early 1990s, her peers called it "the trash can." Towson students are required to take an online alcohol education course as freshmen, like many other students at campuses around the country, including U.Va. But Gimbel thinks there should be more done, "especially with freshmen and getting parents involved." There should be "more education, mandatory education," he said, "not just something on a computer." The college drinking of today feels different to him, more dangerous. "It's the worst I've seen it in my 30 years in this business," he said. Gimbel is urging parents to keep their young adult children close to home and to make surprise visits at their dorms and apartments. And after Love's death, he also started suggesting that parents ask their kids to sign waivers, so the school can notify them if trouble occurs. "Somebody has got to step in and do something. It's Russian roulette; otherwise, another Yeardley Love can happen," Gimbel said. "We've got to learn from this. ... It would just be a bigger tragedy if we didn't do something that would make a difference."

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For a free and easy mulch, use twigs

No matter how tidy you were about fall cleanup, the yard somehow manages to seem messy by spring. During the winter, stray leaves are blown into corners, and tree branches break, fall, and litter lawns and terraces. On a sunny day, as you get ready to tackle their removal, it’s a good time to think about tree debris in general, a greatly undervalued resource for the garden. It may seem obvious, but a plant has its own program for feeding and mulching itself. What it casts off — dead leaves, stems, flowers — breaks down to replenish the soil at its feet. Hence the logic of mulching lawn mowers, which chew up clippings so they can feed the grass. Or the practice of raking autumn leaves into shrub and tree borders as a mulch. But until recently, nobody paid much attention to twigs and brush. Branches too small to use for lumber or firewood are considered a nuisance to be burned, hauled away or chipped. And yet they’re the most fertile parts of the tree. The closer you get to the end of the branch, the more nutrients it contains. It matters what kind of branches you use. Evergreen branches produce compounds called polyphenolic inhibitors that keep competing plants from growing, and therefore should be used to mulch only the trees that produced them. Trees that lose their leaves in winter are much kinder to plant diversity. The best are ones such as alders and shrubby willows that are mostly small branches anyway and are frequently being cleared out to make room for other species. Michael Phillips, author of “The Holistic Orchard,” says scraps of wood like these make a first-rate mulch for trees. (Michael Phillips/CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING) The only thing I don’t like about wood chips is the chipper, a noisy, loud, smelly dragon of a tool. Those who share this dislike develop an eye for piles of chopped brush assembled by someone else. Most chip-makers are delighted to have you haul this byproduct away. Get the word out in the neighborhood that you’d like some. Meanwhile, try breaking up twiggy material while you’re collecting it, remembering that the small stuff that snaps easily is the best. You’ll want to prune your fruit trees, too, before the buds open, so you might do some hand-chipping with the pruners and loppers since you’ve got them in your hands anyway. Then

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Montgomery County community calendar, Feb. 23-March 1

Thursday, Feb. 23 Bingo, Librarian’s Choice book discussion, Youth essay contest, Clean Water Summit registration, Fresh produce distribution, Election judges needed, Friday, Feb. 24 Family bingo Night, Opera: “Die Fledermaus,” Saturday, Feb. 25 Student-run sale of used cars and computers, Gaithersburg indoor flea market, Saturday Night Swing Dance, Year-round farmers market, Computer repair, Cajun concert: Cypress Trio, Storytelling: Baba Jamal Koram, “Penguin Playground” puppet show, Antiques book show, Orchestra: NIH Philharmonia, Sunday, Feb. 26 Books and fellowship, National Capital Trolley Museum history event, Hot Society afternoon dance, Fundraiser concert: Rockville Chorus, Monday, Feb. 27 “Bullying in School” brown-bag lunch, Poolesville evening book discussion, Tuesday, Feb. 28 “reCareering at 50+” registration, Storyteller program, NARFE luncheon meeting, Weight-loss course, Concert: Folk/Americana, Wednesday, Feb. 29 Silent film series registration, Square-dance lessons and dancing, Business card exchange luncheon, “Penguin’s Playground” puppet show, Meet the author event, Political discussion, Thursday, March 1 Early-voting centers schedule, “Shrimp and Oyster Feast” benefit, Friday Morning Music Club, — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton To submit an event E-mail:

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Anne Arundel County and Howard County crime report

Anne Arundel County These were among incidents reported by the Anne Arundel County Police Department. For information, call 410- 222-8050. Rewards for information Metro Crime Stoppers will pay up to $2,000 for information leading to arrests and indictments in connection with felonies. Visit metrocrimestoppers.net, call the hotline at 866-756-2587 or text 274637. For text messages, type the letters “mcs” without the quote marks in the text field, then hit the space key before writing the crime tip. If the text is received, you will receive an acknowledgment. ANNAPOLIS AREA ROBBERIES Bay Dale Drive and Route 50, THEFTS/BREAK-INS Harker Place, BROOKLYN PARK AREA WEAPONS OFFENSES Townsend Ave. and Alley 7, GLEN BURNIE AREA SEXUAL ASSAULTS Ritchie Hwy., ASSAULTS Silent Shadow Ct., THEFTS/BREAK-INS Baltimore and Annapolis Blvd., MILLERSVILLE AREA ROBBERIES Cloverleaf Dr., Annapolis These were among incidents reported by the Annapolis Police Department. For information, call 410-268-9000. To anonymously report non-emergency crime or suspicious activity, call 410- 280-2583. ASSAULTS Madison St., THEFTS/BREAK-INS Burnside St., Center St., Clay St., Gorman St., Spa View Cir., West St., West St., West St., Westgate Cir., Fifth St. and Chesapeake Ave., MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Smithville St., Howard County These were among incidents reported by the Howard County Police Department. For information, call 410-313-2236. To anonymously provide information about these and other felonies, call the Stop Crime tip line: 410-313-7867. ANNAPOLIS JUNCTION AREA MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Guilford Rd., COLUMBIA AREA ROBBERIES Harpers Farm Rd., THEFTS/BREAK-INS Overheart Lane, Peace Chimes Ct., Trotting Ridge Way, MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Cordage Walk, Little Patuxent Pkwy., Peartree Way, Sunny Spring, ELKRIDGE AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Macaw Ct., Old Waterloo Rd., MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Business Pkwy., ELLICOTT CITY AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Old Frederick Rd., MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Court House Dr., Washington Blvd., JESSUP AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Assateague Dr., MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Montevideo Rd., LAUREL AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Helmart Dr., Scaggsville Rd., Washington Blvd., MOUNT AIRY AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Ridge Rd., SAVAGE AREA MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Foxborough Dr., WOODBINE AREA THEFTS/BREAK-INS Susan Marie Way, — Compiled by Carrie Donovan