An enemy in our midst: Maryland tries to fight invasive plant species

or economic harm. They eliminate native plants in a variety of ways: blocking sunshine, sucking up all the water or climbing to the tops of trees until their hosts become top heavy and topple. In the process, the invaders disrupt delicate ecosystems. Local deer and birds, for example, generally will not eat the invasive plants and instead compete for a shrinking supply of native plants, leaving the spread of invasives unchecked. Many invasive plants were imported to the United States as ornamentals for private gardens or as low-maintenance options for government projects, said Carole Bergmann, a forest ecologist with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Parks and governments used invasives for erosion control and as windbreaks and cover for highway medians until the mid-1990s, when scientists noticed the damage the plants were causing. The same characteristics that make such plants attractive — minimal upkeep, hardiness and the ability to spread quickly— are what make them difficult to remove from natural environments. Even when theoretically contained to a private garden, invasives spread when uprooted plants are tossed over the back fence and into a park, Bergmann said, or when a bird eats the seed of a plant before dropping it in a forest miles away. In the process, whole landscapes have been transformed. In the 10 years that she has led educational nature walks, Kirsten Johnson, co-president of the Maryland Native Plant Society, has seen fields and forests that once hosted native wildflowers mutate into “acre after acre, mile after mile” of fig buttercup. “There are areas that, frankly, we wouldn’t bother to do a field trip in anymore because it’s all invasive species,” she said. The shining cranesbill, or shining geranium (Geranium lucidum). (Bruce Newhouse/Bugwood.org) The U.S. Forest Service estimates The U.S. Agriculture Department bans the importation and interstate transportation of more than 100 plants species that are invasive. But most regulations are left to the states, because the species and ecosystems differ. Although Maryland’s rules began to take effect only this year, other states implemented sales bans years ago, and their lists have expanded. Texas prohibits the sale of 3 2 invasive plant species, New York bans 68 and Massachusetts bans 137. As a preventative measure, Virginia banned the importation and growth of eight invasive plants before they became a widespread problem. A few garden retailers in Maryland stopped selling invasive species out of concern for their negative


in a forest miles away. In the process, whole landscapes have been transformed. In the 10 years that she has led educational nature walks, Kirsten Johnson, co-president of the Maryland Native Plant Society, has seen fields and forests that once hosted native wildflowers mutate into “acre after acre, mile after mile” of fig buttercup. “There are areas that, frankly, we wouldn’t bother to do a field trip in anymore because it’s all invasive species,” she said. The shining cranesbill, or shining geranium (Geranium lucidum). (Bruce Newhouse/Bugwood.org) The U.S. Forest Service estimates The U.S. Agriculture Department bans the importation and interstate transportation of more than 100 plants species that are invasive. But most regulations are left to the states, because the species and ecosystems differ. Although Maryland’s rules began to take effect only this year, other states implemented sales bans years ago, and their lists have expanded. Texas prohibits the sale of 3 2 invasive plant species, New York bans 68 and Massachusetts bans 137. As a preventative measure, Virginia banned the importation and growth of eight invasive plants before they became a widespread problem. A few garden retailers in Maryland stopped selling invasive species out of concern for their negative impact on the environment, even before the state regulations were created. Behnke Nurseries in Beltsville has gradually eliminated dangerous invasive species from its stock over the past decade, said Miri Talabac, a plant buyer for the nursery. The change has caused little trouble for the business, she said, and any customer hoping to buy a species that is invasive can usually be redirected to a native alternative. “We all have a financial responsibility to our business, but we know the species have a negative impact,” Talabac said. “I always want to be a moral leader in this.” Lilypons, a store in Adamstown, Md., that specializes in aquatic plants, stopped selling yellow flag irises in the fall in anticipation of the new regulation. Operations manager Jon Sander estimated the change will cost the store about $1,000 a year — a small percentage of the company’s revenue. But he said he fears further losses as the Agriculture Department adds more species to its list. “Now that the door’s kicked open it’s going to be a lot less work for them to get the next species, the next dozen species, the next 200 species on the list,” he said. But some environmental advocates


Doctors: Influenza, car accidents are greater threat to Olympic travelers than Zika

Rio for the Olympics will be at low risk of contracting the Zika virus, but the officials still advised pregnant women or women who could get pregnant not to attend the Games. Dr. Marty Cetron, citing information from the Brazilian health ministry, said the country has seen significant reduction of Zika since the occurrences peaked in February and March. Cooler, dryer weather has been a major factor, he said. Car accidents and influenza pose a greater threat to travelers in Rio than Zika, Cetron said. “Because of the challenges or real-time surveillance and accuracy of diagnoses, we’re still giving our same, cautious message,” Cetron said. “Which is, our greatest concern is the infection of a developing child, and the best way to prevent that is to caution pregnant women not to travel, even though we think the risk is diminishing significantly.” Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, still called Zika “an ongoing epidemic” and advised travelers to take precautions such as wearing long sleeves, pants and insect repellant and preventing water from pooling in areas as small as a bottle cap. The Zika virus, which is transmitted through mosquito bites and sexually, causes fever and rash for those who are symptomatic and, most alarming, causes microcephaly in newborns, which results in severe birth defects. In May, more than 200 doctors, professors, scientists and other health experts signed their names to a letter urging the World Health Organization to apply pressure to either postpone, cancel or move the Olympics because of the threat posed by transmitting Zika over the globe. Cetron cast those concerns as an overreaction, saying less than 0.25 percent of travel to Zika-affected areas could be attributed to people traveling to Rio for the Olympic Games. Updating the spread of Zika in the United States, Murthy said HHS has tracked more than 6,400 cases, including 1,657 travel-associated instances in the continental United States. There have been 4,729 cases of locally acquired Zika in the U.S. territories, most of them in Puerto Rico, Murthy said. Most of these Olympic hopefuls have turned into Olympians since they were photographed at the media summit in March; some teams have not yet been named. In South Florida, local officials halted blood donations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties after discovering four Zika infections that may have been spread by mosquitoes. Murthy did not advise a travel ban to Florida for pregnant women.


Khizr Khan’s loss: A grieving father of a soldier struggles to understand

On June 9, four months after his arrival in Iraq, Humayun was killed by a car bomber. Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan, 27, of Bristow, Va. (Family Photo) The honor guard prepares to fold the flag that draped the casket of Khan. (Gerald Martineau/The Washington Post) Over time, his colonel and his fellow soldiers told Khan how his son died, and that, too, had some sort of horrible logic to it. Humayun's job at the base in Baqubah was to inspect the soldiers at the gates, where crowds of Iraqis would sometimes gather. Humayun went early that morning, which was just like him. He saw a taxi speeding toward the gates, too fast, he thought. He yelled for everyone to hit the dirt. Then, as was his nature, he went running toward it, they said. "Ten or 15 steps with his hand outstretched," his father said, stretching his own arm out in front of him almost a year later, telling some ghost taxi to stop in a downtown conference room. The explosives detonated before the car could ram the gates or the mess hall nearby, where several hundred soldiers were eating breakfast. Since his death, Khizr Khan said, he has learned so much more about his son -- how he mentored a young man while he was at U-Va.; how he was an unofficial counselor for mentally troubled soldiers; how he started a program to hire local Iraqis for jobs on the base as a way of trying to improve relations between the soldiers and the town. "They did not call him Captain Khan," his father said. "They called him 'our captain.' " All of it has in a way made his son more mysterious to him, not less. Humayun was so much more like his mother, so generous and kind, the father said. He's not sure what his son got from him. "We wonder how we got so lucky," Khizr Khan said. Khazir Khan and his wife, Ghazala, show the Gold Star Banner given to them by the Army. (Lucian Perkins/The Washington Post) The Khans moved to Charlottesville on the advice of a therapist, who thought being closer to their other two sons at U-Va. would help them. They have started a foundation in Humayun's name to continue the work he wanted to do counseling soldiers. When they can, they go to funerals of other soldiers at Arlington National


Colorado gives D.C. a reason to tread carefully on recreational marijuana

Edibles on display inside a medical cannabis center in Lakewood, Colo., in 2013. (Matthew Staver/For The Washington Post) WHEN CHILDREN steal cookies from the cookie jar, they usually suffer little more than a scolding. When those cookies contain cannabis, it’s a different story: According to a study published Monday, exposure to marijuana among children in Colorado has increased in the two years since the state began selling the drug legally — and so have the emergency-room visits that follow. Colorado gave the green light to medical marijuana in 2000. In 2012, the state sanctioned recreational use, and by January 2014, dispensary store shelves were stocked with potent products of all shapes and sizes. Since then, marijuana-related trips to children’s care centers have almost doubled, though incidence overall remains low. Edibles in particular seem to entice unsuspecting children who think they are sneaking everyday snacks, though secondhand smoke is also a culprit. After accidental marijuana consumption, most children simply become sleepy. In the worst of cases, they can end up intubated. It’s possible that reports have risen in Colorado in part because doctors are more aware of the problem and parents less reluctant to admit to having marijuana in their homes. But the trend, which holds true in states with similar laws, deserves attention — not least because it could teach legislators considering decriminalization in other localities to exercise caution. The District is one of those places. In 2014, voters approved an initiative to let residents and visitors 21 and older keep and carry a limited amount of the drug, as well as grow it at home. But Congress — in a display of blatant disregard for self-determination — has quashed the city’s attempts to move toward a tax-and-regulate regime that would allow for the drug’s legal purchase and sale. In response, some D.C. Council members have displayed a desire to loosen restrictions on marijuana even without the ability to control its use. A task force is scheduled to release recommendations on allowing smoking in private clubs at the end of the summer. Colorado’s case gives the District one more reason to tread carefully until it can regulate marijuana in a responsible way. Coloradan stores, for example, adopted child-resistant packaging in 2015. This month, a law went into effect barring marijuana-laced look-alikes to common children’s treats such as gummy bears and other sweets in human, animal or fruit shapes. The state


Beer of the Week: Hardywood Park Virginia Blackberry

Hardywood Virginia Blackberry, a white ale made with local blackberries. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) There are still a few weeks of blackberry season left, and if you’ve visited a farmers market recently, you know that this year’s crop has been excellent. There’s another way to enjoy the bounty, beyond cobblers, crumbles and fresh from the basket: Hardywood Virginia Blackberry Belgian white ale from Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. The Richmond brewery boasts that it uses 1,000 pounds of local blackberries per 40-barrel batch of beer, which works out to about 2.5 ounces of berries per 750-milliliter bottle. The fresh fruit is evident in both the ruby color and the juicy, almost winelike flavor. Lurking under the blackberries is a nice witbier, with notes of honey and spices, that the brewers skillfully balanced with the fruit’s natural sweetness. The overall impression is dry rather than cloying, making this a delicious summer sipper on its own or with dessert. — Fritz Hahn Hardywood Virginia Blackberry. hardywood.com. About $10 per 750-ml bottle. More from Food: Beer Column archive


Skywatch: August features planetary pairings and plenty of Perseid meteors

Earth runs around the sun annually, it passes through this comet debris and the tiny grains strike our atmosphere — and burn up. And we get a cosmic show. Comet Swift-Tuttle was discovered independently by astronomers Lewis Swift and Horace P. Tuttle in mid-July 1862. Tuttle later joined the U.S. Naval Observatory and died in 1923. He has an unmarked grave at Oakwood Cemetery in Falls Church, Va., near Seven Corners. Prominent in the evening heavens, Mars (zero magnitude, bright) and Saturn (zero magnitude, bright) loiter high in the south like greasers waiting for a Thunderbird ride. (The waxing moon joins this clique Aug. 11.) Check out the mechanical motion of the sky, as our neighboring red planet appears to glide between the star Antares and the ringed Saturn. They form a line from about Aug. 22-25. Venus, Mercury Down to Earth events ●Aug. 1: ● Aug. 5: “Gamma-Ray Bursts: Nature’s Most Remarkable Explosions,” a talk by NASA astrophysicist Brad Cenko at the University of Maryland’s Observatory, College Park. 9 p.m. Telescope viewing afterward, weather permitting. astro.umd.edu/openhouse ● Aug. 6: Enjoy the mid-summer’s planets and perhaps a stray, early Perseid meteor. “Exploring the Sky,” hosted by the National Park Service and the National Capital Astronomers. At Rock Creek Park, near the Nature Center in the field south of Military and Glover roads NW. 8:30 p.m. capitalastronomers.org ● Aug. 10-13: For the first time in a half-century, the Astronomical League will hold its convention in the Washington area. Registration remains open. Mingle with astronomers and enjoy a wide range of lecture topics that include meteors, missions, museums and mysterious atmospheres. The Northern Virginia Astronomy Club hosts it. The convention will be held at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association headquarters, 4301 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. Registration, $40-$60. Student registration, $20. novac.com ● Aug. 14: “The Study of Pulsars to Detect Gravitational Waves,” a talk by Pete Gentile of West Virginia University, at the regular meeting of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club, 163 Research Hall, George Mason University. 7 p.m. novac.com ● Aug. 20: “The Turbulent Life of Galaxy Clusters,” a talk by astronomer Brian Morsony, who will explain results from Hitomi, the Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite lost in March. The program will be at the University of Maryland’s Observatory, College Park. 9 p.m. Gaze toward the heavens through telescopes afterward, weather permitting. astro.umd.edu/openhouse Blaine Friedlander can be reached at PostSkyWatch@yahoo.com. Twitter: @BPFriedlander


Olympic executives cash in on a ‘Movement’ that keeps athletes poor

thrower Cyrus Hostetler competed in London and is headed to Rio, but says, ‘If I could do it all over again, I probably wouldn’t do this.’ (Matt Slocum/AP) Cyrus Hostetler made Team USA as a javelin thrower for the 2012 London Games, and placed 32nd. As a returning Olympian, he expected the USOC or USA Track and Field would make more resources available to help him improve for Rio. He experienced something different. In late 2015, USA Track and Field Director of Sport Performance Peter “Duffy” Mahoney told Hostetler in an email that, after consulting with USOC staff, he had decided “you do not exhibit sufficient finalist or medalist potential.” Hostetler, 29, was living in a dormitory-style room at the USOC training center in California at the time, training every day with other javelin throwers. (There is no Team USA or USA Track and Field javelin coach; the throwers basically train themselves.) Mahoney — who makes $152,000 — informed Hostetler that USA Track and Field was cancelling funding for his bed, food and treatment at the center. If Hostetler wanted to stay, he’d have to pay: $200 a month to train, $10 per meal, $43 per hour for massage therapy, and $100 per hour for medical treatment. “He basically was telling me, ‘I don’t believe in you, I don’t think you’re worth my money, so I want you to pay me instead.’ It felt like he was milking me for all I was worth,” Hostetler said in a phone interview. Angry but undeterred, Hostetler moved into cheap housing nearby provided by a former Norwegian competitor and kept showing up at the center every day to train. He stopped eating there, or getting medical or therapeutic treatment. A few months later, Hostetler got a call from a training center employee, who told him he owed several hundred dollars for training fees. Hostetler ignored it. “I said I’m just going to wait until someone forces me to pay . . . I would have loved to have seen USA Track and Field send me to collections,” Hostetler said. At this month’s Olympic trials, Hostetler rebounded from a slow start to hurl a javelin 273 feet 1 inch, winning the national title and a spot on Team USA. The experience with USA Track and Field has left Hostetler bitter about how his Olympic career will end. He’s a long shot to medal, but


Tokyo elects first female governor to tackle Olympic-size tasks

Yuriko Koike has won the race to lead Tokyo's capital - the first woman to lead the city. She hopes to breathe life into the city's deflated economy. The lead-up to the Games had been marred by charges of plagiarism concerning the logo, allegations of corruption and the cancellation of a stadium designed by the late Zaha Hadid. Masuzoe’s predecessor had also had to quit over money-related misdeeds. The LDP wanted to make sure Tokyo elected a governor who could see it through the Olympics, analysts said. With that in mind, the ruling party officially backed Hiroya Masuda, a former minister of internal affairs and governor of the rural Iwate prefecture, out of the 21 candidates vying for the governor’s position. But Koike, an LDP stalwart, defied the party by running anyway, adopting green as her campaign color to try to present herself as a fresh start for the city of almost 14 million people. Although turnout was low at about 27 percent, voters overwhelmingly backed Koike, a onetime television news anchor who speaks English as well as Arabic, which she learned as a student in Egypt. Koike turned her journalistic fame into political clout more than a decade ago, when she became one of the female “assassins” campaigning for then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, and against former members of his party whom he wanted to dump. Voicing admiration for both Hillary Clinton and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Koike then ran — unsuccessfully — for leader of the LDP in 2008. In addition to pledging to oversee the Olympics, which Tokyo is viewing as a way to kick-start its moribund economy, Koike pledged to deal with the shortage of day-care facilities for children and nursing care for the elderly. Japan, and especially Tokyo, is facing a demographic time bomb that will see its working population shrink sharply over the next few decades, and freeing up women to work more is a key part of the government’s strategy to counteract this squeeze. But Koike’s most pressing challenge will be reining in costs for the Olympics, which have been forecast to run two or three times the initial $7 billion budget. Koike will have to get to work quickly. She’s due in Rio de Janeiro for the opening of this year’s summer games , which open Friday. She is set to serve a four-year term running up to the 2020 games.


Local obituaries

Obituaries of residents of the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia. Arnold G. Gulko, patent lawyer, astrophysicist Arnold G. Gulko, 90, a patent lawyer for 36 years who upon his 1988 retirement became an independent astrophysicist, died June 26 at a medical facility in Boynton Beach, Fla. The cause was multiple myeloma, said a daughter, Jane Gulko. Mr. Gulko, a resident of Wheaton, Md., and Boynton Beach, was born in New York City. In retirement, he self-published 13 texts on astrophysics and wrote magazine and journal articles on the subject. He was also a tennis player. Sharmus Outlaw, transgender and HIV patient advocate Sharmus Outlaw, 50, who was active in organizations supporting the health and human rights of transgender people, HIV patients and people at-risk sexually, died July 7 at a hospice in Arlington. The cause was lymphoma, said Darby Hickey, a friend and professional colleague. Ms. Outlaw, who lived in Washington, was born in Kinston, N.C. She had lived in the Washington area since 1984 and held leadership and advisory jobs in the Best Practices Policy Project, the Red Umbrella Fund, Desiree Alliance, Different Avenues and HIPS (Host-based Intrusion Prevention System). Mary Kay Labbe, teacher Mary Kay Labbe, 84, who taught home economics at what now is Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring, from 1955 to 1983, died July 3 at a hospital in Silver Spring. The cause was a heart attack, said Catherine Kormann, her legal representative. Miss Labbe, a resident of College Park, was born in Tulsa, Okla., and had lived in the Washington area since the late 1940s. She was a volunteer in the Brookside Gardens children’s programs in Montgomery County and a Sunday school teacher at Riverdale Presbyterian Church in Prince George’s County. Colvin M. Gordon, meter reader Colvin M. Gordon, 73, a meter reader for Dominion Power who retired in 2006 after about 38 years with the company, died July 10 at his home in Manassas. The cause was a heart attack, said a granddaughter, Ashley Gordon. Mr. Gordon was born in Loudoun County. With Dominion Power, he worked mostly in Fairfax County. Bonnie J.W. Harrison, employee relations officer Bonnie J.W. Harrison, 86, who retired in 1984 as an employee relations officer with the Treasury Department after about a decade with the federal agency, died July 11 at a hospice center in Washington. The cause was Alzheimer’s disease, said a son, Alan Harrison. Mrs. Harrison


A snappier way to use food stamps

A driver for Peapod, an online grocery delivery service, in 2001. (Michael Robinson-Chavez/The Washington Post) ON JULY 1, the Agriculture Department was supposed to announce the results of a pilot program that could help the poorest Americans eat healthier, The Post’s Rachel Premack reported. The only problem? The program had not even begun. Instead, the long-overdue initiative to accept food stamps in some online grocery services will launch in the fall. If all goes well, the department should implement it nationwide. Online grocery delivery services are becoming more popular among Americans who want to skip the hassle of trekking to a brick-and-mortar supermarket. But they’re not an option for the 1 in 7 Americans who pays for food through the department’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Those are the people who need online grocery delivery services most. Low-income shoppers struggle to find affordable, high-quality food: About 11.5 million poor Americans — many without a car — live at least one mile from the nearest supermarket in food deserts home to some of the highest levels of obesity in the country. That can prevent some shoppers from getting out of the house to grocery stores. The closest stores often stock their shelves with a limited — and often unhealthy — slate of items. Low-income people are already at an above-average risk for chronic health problems. The challenge to eat well and affordably at the same time does not help. Online shopping would give food-stamp recipients access to a better selection of better food at better prices. But companies cannot make the option widely available until SNAP beneficiaries can use their electronic benefits cards online. That technology, the USDA says, is the reason the pilot program has been delayed: Until recently, no card provider could allow users to enter their PINs online without risks to security. Now one provider has found a solution, opening the door for the pilot program. There is more to figure out along the way: Many low-income Americans do not have at-home Internet, which could prevent them from accessing delivery websites from computers. Poorer shoppers also search for different products based on how long food will keep in the fridge or what can feed all members of their family. As companies apply to participate in the USDA’s program — and they should — they might consider developing smartphone-based ordering platforms that provide advice to customers on how to get


Could financial reform worsen the next crisis?

loss of private credit. Without these infusions, who knows what would have happened. Now, the bad news. In Dodd-Frank, Congress makes it much harder for the Fed to act as lender of last resort, says Hal Scott, a professor at Harvard Law School and a respected expert on financial regulation, in his book “Connectedness and Contagion: Protecting the Financial System from Panics.” The consequences, Scott says, could be catastrophic. A U.S. depression would “pose challenges to our political system,”and could spread abroad and undermine the United States’ global role. During the financial crisis, the Fed relied on section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act. This provision gave the Fed wide discretion in making loans when “unusual and exigent” circumstances prevailed. Now, Dodd-Frank has imposed restrictions on 13(3). As Scott shows, these include: The treasury secretary must approve all nonbank loans, there can be no nonbank programs for a single borrower, collateral requirements are toughened and loans must be disclosed within a year. Some of these may be sensible alone; together, they create an obstacle course for crisis lending. Scott estimates that $7 trillion is potentially vulnerable to panicky investor runs. Breaking up the big banks is no solution if, say, the investor run strikes money-market mutual funds. There is a real issue here. The Fed has enormous powers; democratically elected officials think they should exercise some control over those powers. But a financial crisis — a panic — is by its very nature a rapidly moving and usually unpredicted event. (If anticipated, it could likely be defused.) Unless the crisis is dealt with decisively, it could become a monster that cannot be contained. The verdict on Dodd-Frank is mixed. One goal was to improve short-term financial stability. That has been achieved. The other goal was political: to handcuff those who engineered the financial “bailout,” which — though necessary — was immensely unpopular. That explains why Congress restricted the Fed. Ironically, legislation designed to protect us from financial panic may make some future panic more likely. Read more from Robert Samuelson’s archive. Read more on this issue: The Post’s View: A flawed Dodd-Frank fix Barney Frank: Sanders’s ‘too big to fail’ mantra ignores a huge problem Katrina vanden Heuvel: A new campaign to hold Wall Street accountable emerges The Post’s View: Talk about breaking up banks ignores reforms made since the recession The Post’s View: Keep the line bright in Dodd-Frank


What banned drugs do cheating athletes take?

Hundreds of substances are named on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned drugs, and thousands more are prohibited through phrases such as “and related substances.” That way, the rules cover drugs that may not have been detected or even invented yet. Most, but not all, fall into these broad categories: ● Muscle-building steroids Athletes in nearly every sport have been caught using anabolic steroids more than any other type of drug. Weightlifters, swimmers and sprinters have used them to build muscle size and strength and to cut fat. But athletes in sports we don’t think of as power sports, such as soccer and cycling, also take them to speed muscle recovery so they can train harder. Long-term use comes with serious health effects. ● Pick-me-up stimulants Amphetamines and similar stimulants can increase alertness, improve reaction time, boost blood flow to muscles and cause euphoria or aggressiveness. They also may improve endurance and muscle strength. However, they also raise heart rate and interfere with heat regulation; several cyclists have died using stimulants during races. These drugs are banned only during competition, and athletes most often caught come from track, cycling, swimming, soccer and rugby ● Hormones and drugs that modulate hormones Some doping involves giving the body more of what it has already. The most notable is the hormone erythropoietin (EPO), which prompts the body to make more oxygen-carrying, endurance-increasing red blood cells. Another is human growth hormone, which athletes may take as a tougher-to-detect alternative to steroids — although scientific studies have questioned how well it works. Insulin, breast cancer drugs and fertility drugs are on the list as well; some may build muscle and others counteract some side effects of steroids. ● Drugs that hide other drugs Diuretics, or water pills, can help wrestlers and other weight-limited athletes drop pounds fast. They can also dilute the concentration of other drugs in the urine, possibly enough to throw off a drug test. Drugs called plasma expanders attempt to do the same thing in the blood. ● Calming beta blockers These drugs lower blood pressure and heart rate and generally make people less jittery. They are banned in Olympic sports that require steady hands: archery, shooting (including modern pentathlon) and golf. ● Asthma drugs Asthma drugs open breathing passages, but some may also build muscle and increase fat-burning. A 2015 Canadian study found that up to a quarter of Olympic-caliber


In an era of doping and blade running, what is a ‘natural’ athlete, anyway?

of infrared cameras. They measured the downward force exerted on the track with force plates. They calculated metabolic rates. The results of the study were ambiguous. On one hand, prosthetics limit a long-jumper’s top speed, which is a disadvantage. On the other hand, the prosthetic limb appears to facilitate slightly the transfer of vertical force into vertical and horizontal force at takeoff, which is advantageous. Although Grabowski is convinced Rehm has no advantage, the IAAF ruled against him in June, saying he had failed to prove the blade didn’t grant an unfair competitive advantage. As a result, Rehm withdrew his Rio Olympics bid. Human flippers But natural advantages — however unfair they might be — are completely legitimate. American swimmer Michael Phelps, for example, has very large feet and double-jointed ankles that together create a flipper effect in the water. The less genetically fortunate are not allowed to level the playing field through “unnatural” means such as prosthetic flippers. But there are ways to boost your natural talents that are harder to see — and to regulate. Take hematocrit levels, which measure the concentration of red blood cells that provide oxygen to muscles. Raising these levels increases stamina and performance, which is why such athletes as cyclist Lance Armstrong have engaged in illegal blood doping. Options include autologous blood transfusions (using your own blood), homologous blood transfusions (using someone else’s blood) and dosing with EPO, a peptide hormone that stimulates production of red blood cells. All three are potentially harmful. “Blood viscosity goes up, which increases the strain on your cardiovascular system, raising the risk of heart disease and blood clots in your brain and lung tissue,” explains Nikolai Nordsborg of the University of Copenhagen, an expert in sports-related hematology. “If you use someone else’s blood, there is also the possibility of anaphylactic shock and infection.” People’s natural hematocrit levels depend on a host of factors, including genetics, geography and training strategies. If you are in the low-normal range, it’s illegal to dope yourself even just into the high-normal range. But there’s no rule against being naturally gifted, the most famous example of which is the Finnish cross-country skier Eero Antero Mantryranta, who won seven Olympic medals in 1960s with a hematocrit level 50 percent higher than an average person’s, thanks to a genetic mutation called primary polycythemia. In 1997, the International Cycling Union, or UCI, responded to concerns about


Legos move from the playroom to the garden in ‘Nature Connects’

Bradley Williams, 9, of Bowie, checks out Sean Kenney’s Lego bison and calf sculptures at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia. (Ann Cameron Siegal) Imagine a 60-pound bumblebee, a seven-foot-tall rose or a butterfly with a five-foot wingspan. You can actually see these and 24 more incredible Lego sculptures at the “Nature Connects” exhibit at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia. Yes, artist Sean Kenney uses the same Lego pieces you use in your much smaller creations — but he uses a lot more of them. For example, it took 31,565 Lego bricks to create a humdinger of a hummingbird feeding from a trumpet flower. Kenney, who is 39 and lives in New York, was a major fan of the popular building bricks as a child. On his website, he notes that through his teenage years and into adulthood, “my models became more elaborate and involved as I got older. Now it’s my full-time career.” Imagine turning a childhood passion into a profession. How cool is that? Artist Sean Kenney builds a giant butterfly out of Lego bricks for his “Nature Connects” exhibition, which is at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Va. (Sean Kenney Design ) That big bison at the “Nature Connects” exhibition? Be sure to note the little bird perched on its back. (Ann Cameron Siegal) He builds his sculptures around steel frames, glues each piece in place, then covers the finished figure with a protective coating. The huge butterfly took nine weeks to design and build. There is a lot of trial and error, meaning he doesn’t always get it right on the first try. “I often have to step back and examine the model from all sides as it’s coming together . . . often taking sections apart and rebuilding them.” Just as you connect Lego bricks to each other to make something special, “Nature Connects” illustrates how “everything in nature is interconnected in a delicate balance. Insects and plants have important relationships; different species of animals have special relationships with each other; animals have connections with their families just like we do.” At Lewis Ginter, helpful signs explain those connections as you explore about a mile of winding paved paths, past beautiful plants, ponds and fountains. Learn about the balance of nature as a Lego fox seems to be sneaking up on a Lego rabbit in the grass. Learn about


FBI employee pleads guilty to acting as agent of China

The exterior of the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the headquarters of the FBI, is seen on Thursday August 20, 2015, in Washington, D.C. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) A longtime FBI employee with top-secret clearances pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of China and providing officials in that country with sensitive information, prosecutors announced Monday. Kun Shan Chun was secretly arrested in March and held on charges of lying repeatedly about his contacts in China, who lavished him with prostitutes, cash and expensive hotel rooms, according to the criminal complaint. Chun, 46, who was born in China and is also known as Joey, faces up to 10 years in prison. His lawyer, Jonathan Marvinny, said in an email: “Today Joey Chun accepted responsibility for some mistakes in judgment that he deeply regrets. The truth is that Mr. Chun loves the United States and never intended to cause it any harm. He hopes to put this matter behind him and move forward with his life.” Prosecutors accused Chun, who joined the FBI in 1997, of failing to disclose that he had contact with a Chinese national during an overseas trip, among other violations. “Kun Shan Chun violated our nation’s trust by exploiting his official . . . position to provide restricted and sensitive FBI information to the Chinese Government,” Assistant Attorney General John Carlin, who heads the Justice Department’s national security division, said in a statement. Authorities said Chun also did not tell the FBI about a business venture with a Chinese technology company called Kolion, according to the complaint. Since at least 2006, the FBI said, Chun performed research and consulted on behalf of the company in exchange for benefits that included foreign travel. According to Kolion’s website, the company makes toner cartridges for copiers and printers. During that period, the FBI said, Chun was also in contact with an individual affiliated with the Chinese government. It’s not clear why the FBI started to investigate Chun, who was required to answer questions in 2012 as part of a routine review to determine if he should maintain his security clearances. He had access to sensitive and classified material in his job as an electronic technician in the FBI’s Manhattan field office. As part of a deal with prosecutors, Marvinny said, they agreed to drop the charges of lying on his FBI questionnaire if Chun pleaded guilty to acting as an agent


Matthew Centrowitz follows his father’s footsteps to a second Olympic team

best shape that he’s ever been [in]. The best part about him is, he’s just a tenacious competitor. You put him on the line healthy, it’s going to be exciting.” Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi, second from left, pushes past Matthew Centrowitz on the last lap of the 1,500 meters in London four years ago. Centrowitz finished fourth. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post) Centrowitz said he has not allowed his near-miss in London to shape his mentality. “Quite honestly, I kind of didn’t think about it the last four years,” he said. “I let it fuel the fire, but I didn’t let it get to me.” For the elder Centrowitz, recent news brought new frustration. In late June, Spanish authorities raided the hotel room of coach Jama Aden, found EPO and other performance-enhancing drugs, and arrested him. Aden has coached a stable of high-profile athletes, including Algeria’s Taoufik Makhloufi, the 1,500-meter gold medalist in London. Centrowitz’s father was not shy about connecting the dots between Aden and Makhloufi and the fact that Centrowitz may already be an Olympic medalist if Makhloufi hadn’t run. “It was devastating to us, the realization that, almost 100 percent sure, someone cheated ahead of him,” Matt Centrowitz said. “His coach just got busted. Just the realization kind of made him grow up, that there are legitimate cheaters here.” Matthew, it seems, moved past the news with little consternation, focusing instead on the task ahead. “When that story busted a couple weeks ago, by that point, we’re almost four years removed,” he said. “It’s something that I think if you spend too much time thinking about it and wondering, it wears on you a little bit. I let things fall in place, and I worry about myself. At the end of the day, that’s all I can control. I worry about, ‘How can I find myself on that podium?’ Whatever happened with him and his coach, there’s going to be many more things like that people will experience in the future.” Centrowitz will experience everything with his father alongside him. He relies on Salazar to map out his training, but Matt is involved, always there for advice. In Eugene, Centrowitz found his father in the crowd and exclaimed, “We got the record!” It was an inside joke about how they share everything — the U.S. Olympic trials mark belonged to a Matthew Centrowitz, so it belonged to both


Pineapple and Pearls review: The country’s premier example of fine dining

Don’t count on any of these dishes to be around should you splurge on the $250-per-person (drinks, tax and tip included) extravaganza. The chefs, who double as servers, are forever tweaking their performance, which right now happens to be the premier example of fine dining in the country. 4 stars Pineapple and Pearls: Prices: Sound check: The Top 10: No. 10 Komi No. 9 Rasika No. 8 Little Serow No. 7 Inn at Little Washington No. 6 Minibar No. 5 Convivial No. 4 Kinship No. 3 Bad Saint No. 2 Pineapple and Pearls No. 1 All-Purpose Waiting in line for a great meal has become common in D.C. where diners can wait hours before being seated at Bad Saint, Rose's Luxury or Little Serow. Washington's dining scene has gained national attention because of these restaurants and places like Pineapple & Pearls. -- The following review was originally published Aug. 1, 2016. Pineapple and Pearls review: Dining so fine, we’re seeing 4 stars from the start It’s a safe bet you’ve never seen a bread service anything like what you’ll find at Pineapple and Pearls. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) Five courses into The bread, spiked with cracked black pepper, goes down warm, flaky and wonderful. The fruit broadcasts summer. The mousse reveals the richness of liver and the texture of a cloud. Imagine, then, the trio in unison. Heaven? Close. I’m at Pineapple and Pearls, the alluring new neighbor of no-reservations Rose’s Luxury, sibling restaurants brought to life on Barracks Row by native son Aaron Silverman. Two years ago, Bon Appetit hailed the older retreat as the Best New Restaurant in America. Since April, the spinoff has been redefining what it means to be a fine-dining restaurant. You remember fine dining. Not so long ago, luxury venues placed their bets on shaved truffles, high thread counts, wine lists that could double as doorstops and petits fours with the bill. At Pineapple and Pearls, Silverman erases that depiction almost completely. Caviar is deployed only once, in a riff on chips and dip. Tables are absent of linens. Cocktails are grander than any wine, dear as its producer might be, and the tab is settled before you even arrive. (The bill — $250 per person in the intimate 20-seat dining room — covers tax, tip, drinks and more than a dozen courses. Think of your time here as lofty dinner theater,


Sarah Attar, who made history in London, plans to go long in Rio

clocked a personal-best 3:11:27 at the Chicago Marathon of October 2015. At 23, far shy of peak age for a typical marathoner, she aspires to run all major marathons, and lo and behold, that will include the Olympic Marathon in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 14, as the Saudi Olympic Committee announced officially last week in Riyadh. As the largest of the last three countries to send female athletes to the Olympics — as happened in 2012 — Saudi Arabia has doubled its female roster to four. Attar’s coach, Andrew Kastor, wrote in an email that her “training volume” had rocketed from 60 miles per week to “near 90,” as she has gained “aerobic/physical and mental strength” in the “rarefied air of Mammoth Lakes,” Calif. He credited her with “the right amount of spirit and courage I see in most seasoned and mature marathon racers,” and with eagerness as “a student of the sport, learning all she can from her mentors on the team.” Sarah Attar prepares to compete in a women's 800-meter heat during the 2012 Games in London. (Martin Meissner/AP) Those include his wife, Deena Kastor, the American-record holder and 2004 Olympic bronze medalist. It’s another stage in an implausible whoosh. Maybe it began at Escondido High School, not far from San Diego, where a soccer and volleyball teammate asked whether Attar would join her at cross country as well. Or maybe it began in the winter of 2012 in Saudi Arabia, where Arwa Mutabagani, herself an equestrian expert and the first female member of the Saudi Olympic Committee, long had hoped for female Saudi participants. By Amer Attar’s recollection, one of Mutabagani’s relatives happened to mention this possibility to one of Amer Attar’s brothers, who said, “You know, I have a niece that runs track in college.” By February 2012, Mutabagani had contacted the Attars and bewildered their middle child of three. “The Olympics was always what these amazing, elite athletes do, that I just watch on TV, and I observe,” Sarah Attar said, “and then to be part of it, where I never would have anticipated that in my life was just, like, so wild.” They requested her running times. “And I remember thinking, okay, well, they’ll see my times and I’m not an Olympic-qualified athlete,” she said. “So I just kind of brushed it off. And I remember when it first even was something, I


A year ago, Ahmed Mohamed became ‘Clock Boy.’ Now, he can’t escape that moment.

house Ahmed grew up in. (Cooper Neill/For The Washington Post) Ahmed plays with his cousin Dooly on a trampoline he built in his backyard. He had to leave his toys and tinkering tools behind when he moved to Qatar. (Cooper Neill/For The Washington Post) Ahmed walks in the house “We want to watch you on the Dallas Morning News,” his dad says. Ahmed had a Facebook Live interview with the newspaper after talking to Fox 4, and they’re trying to find it on YouTube. “It’s on Facebook,” Ahmed says, raising his voice over the clang of dishes being washed by his aunts in the kitchen. His mom and four of his siblings haven’t yet come from Qatar, so Ahmed, his brother and his father are staying with the cousins who now live in their old house. They push the remote into Ahmed’s hand. Searching for his name is a daily ritual. The family is its own public relations firm, founded Sept. 14, 2015, as they brought Ahmed home from the police station. Mohamed was ranting about how only God will judge his son. Ahmed was still hearing the “Ooooooh” sound the other students made as he was led out of class. The police were going to charge him with possession of a hoax bomb. His parents had a choice: deal with this quietly, or tell someone. Their son had been placed in handcuffs and interrogated, in a town known for its resentment of Muslims. So they called the media, and soon Ahmed was trending on Twitter, and everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to President Obama was sharing messages of support. Two days after he was arrested, the charges were dropped. “This is what happens when we (IPD) screw something up,” one Irving Police Department detective wrote in an email later uncovered as part of a public records request from Vice. “That thing didn’t even look like a bomb.” And so came the next choice: Let this all die down, or seize the platform they’d been given and use it. So they put Ahmed on “Good Morning America,” MSNBC and “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore.” He told reporters how kids in school called him ISIS Boy. Sympathetic crowdfunders raised $18,000 for his education. He visited the White House, the Google Science Fair and the president of his home country of Sudan (a wanted war criminal, but Mohamed said it would be


are killing all mankind.” When Ahmed was 9, Mohamed decided to run for president of Sudan. The current president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir — whom they would later visit after Ahmed became famous — had just been indicted by the International Criminal Court for directing genocide in Darfur. Without him in power, Mohamed argued, the United States might lift its sanctions on Sudan, and the country could prosper. He never made the ballot. But the next year, in 2011, he made international headlines. Inflammatory Florida pastor Terry Jones held a “trial of the Koran.” Mohamed, who saw the trial as a chance to spread his message — and take his kids to Disney World — showed up to defend the Koran. International outrage over the event, which ended in the burning of the holy book, led to rioting in Afghanistan. At least 20 people were reportedly killed, including seven U.N. employees. “I did what I think is right,” Mohamed says. While he was trying to make a name for himself, his American home town was rapidly changing. Irving was once a white-flight suburb best known for housing the Dallas Cowboys’ Texas Stadium. By the time Ahmed entered middle school, the Cowboys had moved to Arlington and the Mohameds’ Zip code was deemed the most diverse area in the country. Only 9 percent of the students in Ahmed’s school district are white. (However, there’s only one nonwhite person on the Irving City Council.) Ahmed and Mohamed pray at the Islamic Center of Irving in Irving. As Irving has become more diverse, the Center’s membership has grown to around 10,000 people. (Cooper Neill/For The Washington Post) Ahmed takes a photo of his crab legs at dinner with his father and younger brother at Red Lobster. (Cooper Neill/For The Washington Post) The neighborhood surrounding the Islamic Center of Irving, which serves about 10,000 area Muslims, began to flourish with condos and mansions built by those who wanted to live close to the mosque. Rumors spread that the neighborhood was a “no-go zone,” an area only Muslims could enter, and that the mosque was imposing sharia law in the city. The rumors were false. Meanwhile, Ahmed was preparing to start high school. He kept the same Adidas backpack he’d had since sixth grade. He planned out his outfits, one for each day of the week. He would wear his NASA T-shirt every Monday. On Friday


Washington: The corpse flower is ready for its (smelly) close-up

Prior to last week’s flowering in the Bronx, New Yorkers hadn’t seen a home grown one since 1939. Another two titan arums are in one place, the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Fla. At the Selby Gardens, the rare double blooming took place over a span of more than a week. The first was named Seymour, the second Audrey after characters in the 1980s musical and film about a man-eating plant, “Little Shop of Horrors.” In July 2013, the last titan arum to bloom at the U.S. Botanic Garden, nicknamed George, drew thousands of visitors. Similar crowds are enduring the heat for current bloom of Charlotte. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) Horticulturists at the three botanical institutions hope to share pollen for breeding purposes. Audrey opened fully on Monday evening and by Tuesday its central spike was beginning to crumble, but that may be a sign of a successful pollination effort, said Selby Gardens spokeswoman Mischa Kirby. These botanical gardens have many rare and marvelous plants and it’s difficult to say why the appearance of the corpse flower arouses such interest, other than folks love a freak show. These institutions love it, for the ticket sales for the ones that charge, but also because it gets people more connected to the plant kingdom. “It’s getting people who may not be necessarily interested in plants to get an inside look at how important and interesting they are,” said Kirby. At the USBG, Norman and plant curator Bill McLaughlin are simply thrilled to get visitors during the oppressive heat and humidity of high summer in Washington. Visitors are itching to take a selfie for their social media sites, they say. “It’s a bucket list for people to experience,” McLaughlin said. “A large, smelly bucket,” added Norman. The twin titans at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Audrey and Seymour. Audrey lasted until Tuesday after receiving pollen from Seymour, which collapsed last week. (Marie Selby Botanical Gardens) If you’re comparing, Charlotte’s 7-foot-4, compared to Audrey’s 6-foot-2. The New York corpse flower topped out at 6 feet 4. Take that, Noo Yawk. Charlotte “took us by surprise, and its performance has been amazing; it’s far larger than expected,” McLaughlin said. More from Lifestyle: When cucumbers are copious, your options for eating them are, too Humans love fireflies, but we haven’t made life easy for them Bee enthusiasts of all stripes flock to Washington amid pollinator concerns


Olympic Blame Games: IOC pins Russian doping scandal mess on WADA

International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive member and current WADA President Craig Reedie listens duringTuesday’s IOC session. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images) RIO DE JANEIRO — Bach, presiding over the first day of the three-day IOC general assembly, reiterated his belief that WADA acted too late in investigating Russia’s state-sponsored doping program, creating an atmosphere of chaos that threatens to overshadow the Rio de Janeiro Games, which begin Friday. With the fates of many Russian athletes still up in the air and other anti-doping agencies and athletes’ advocacy groups calling for a total ban, Bach again rejected such extreme measures, which he said would unfairly punish clean athletes. “Leaving aside that such a comparison is completely out of any proportion when it comes to the rules of sport, let us just for a moment consider the consequences of a ‘nuclear option,’ ” Bach said. “The result is death and devastation . . . The cynical ‘collateral damage’ approach is not what the Olympic movement stands for. Natural justice does not allow us to deprive a human being of the right to prove their innocence.” Responding to the widespread criticism of the IOC as being “soft” on the Russians, Bach called “not acceptable” the “insinuation by some proponents of this ‘nuclear option’ that anyone who does not share their opinion is not fighting against doping.” The international competition is being held in Brazil’s largest city after years of preparation. The WADA investigative report, released last month, found evidence of a widespread and state-run doping program that included athletes in more than two dozen sports. Rather than ban Russia’s entire Olympic delegation, as many critics demanded, the IOC has left the decisions about Russian participation up to individual international sports federations. Russia has criticized the movement to ban its athletes as being politically motivated. On Tuesday, Bach sought to shift blame for the Russian doping scandal back to WADA, saying, “It is not the IOC that is responsible for the accreditation and supervision of anti-doping laboratories.” He further called for an informal vote of IOC members to back the executive board’s handling of the Russian scandal. In a show of hands, only one of the 85 members — Great Britain’s Adam Pengilly, a former Olympic skeleton racer — voted against Bach’s stance. Gerardo Werthein, an IOC member from Argentina, also criticized WADA, according to media reports, saying WADA’s “failure to investigate serious and credible allegations


Olympic torch has arduous day as transit issues mount in Rio

a protest that police met with tear gas and rubber bullets. The torch is due to sail across the Guanabara Bay to Rio on Wednesday morning before spending two days circulating the city. It will dock at a Naval School in Rio’s renovated port area and be met by Mayor Eduardo Paes. He has been dealing with a different crisis — the traffic backups on major arteries since exclusive Olympic lanes were opened for “Olympic Family” vehicles on Sunday. Traffic has been worsening since Monday morning with up to three-hour delays reported on some roads. At a news conference Tuesday, Paes admitted the problems and declared a public holiday Thursday in an attempt to ease congestion. It will be the fourth holiday he has so far declared during the Olympic period. Rio’s new tram service, a light rail network called the VLT that opened in June, also hit problems Tuesday morning. The VLT station at Rio’s Santos Dumont regional airport was closed and sealed off for two hours when a rucksack was left unattended. TV Globo reported that it was a false alarm. Rio 2016 athletes ran into more trouble on Rio’s roads. The G1 news site reported a Korean cyclist had been hit by a car on a road near the Vista Chinesa, or Chinese View, a popular beauty spot with views of the city and sea. Kim Ok-Cheol suffered light injuries, the site said. The steep road he was training on leads into the Tijuca Forest where Rio’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue is located. The area is popular with weekend cyclists because it is relatively quiet. Road markings indicate that the road is a cycle path, but also that it is shared with cars — an arrangement some transportation experts have criticized because while it allows city hall to claim it has built more cycle paths, it does not offer sufficient protection to cyclists. Top road racer cleared British cyclist Lizzie Armitstead won an appeal against an anti-doping violation, clearing the world road race champion to compete in Rio. Armitstead missed three doping tests in a 12-month period, triggering a charge by U.K. Anti-Doping, a provisional suspension and the possibility of a two-year ban. . . . Fourth-ranked Stan Wawrinka withdrew from the Olympics because of injury, leaving the Rio Games without half of the ATP’s top 10. Another Swiss tennis player, Belinda Bencic, also pulled out.


Fatal stabbing in Mount Pleasant

A man was fatally stabbed early Tuesday in the Mount Pleasant area of Northwest Washington, D.C. police said. They said Pedro Sixto Esparragoza,32, of Northwest Washington, was found about 4:35 a.m. in a house in the 1800 block of Newton Street NW. He had an apparent stab wound and died at a hospital, the police said. In a statement, police said Edy Dinora Portillo Martinez,28, of Northwest, was arrested and charged with second degree murder. Police described the incident as “domestic related.”


The Rio Olympics are ‘troubled.’ But aren’t they always?

books on the Games. “They’re all about foreigners — Italians and Liechtensteiners and all that.” That makes it easier, he suggests, for the American-centric media to bash them. Few American media outlets have regular Olympic beat writers. Thus, there’s less expertise about the Games, and less commitment, resulting in fewer positive stories to balance off the negative ones, Mallon says. “The U.S. media doesn’t really know [Olympic] athletes and sports, so there’s no balance around it.” Example: doping. Mallon points out that other sports have drug cheats, but the scandals are more extensively covered around the Olympics (see the ban on Russian athletes). But few stories point out that this may be because the IOC, through the World Anti-Doping Agency, pursues a far more rigorous and extensive testing regime than American sports leagues, whose anti-doping efforts are subject to collective bargaining agreements with players’ unions. Which is not to say that bad things aren’t happening around the Games. There are, and have been since the Olympics were revived in 1896; an early scandal involved American marathon runner Frederick Lorz, who “won” the race in the 1904 Summer Games but later admitted he hitched a ride in a car for almost half the 26-mile distance. Media accounts remarking on the civic disruption caused by the Olympics were widespread before the 1908 Summer Games in London, the biggest up to that time, said David Wallechinsky, the president of the International Society of Olympic Historians and the author of “The Complete Book of the Olympics.” It wasn’t long after the rebirth of the games that nationalism, excessive commercialization and political disputes had become background noise. The “modern” age of Olympic troubles may have come into sharp focus with the 1960 Summer Games, says David Maraniss, a Washington Post editor and the author of “Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World.” Maraniss describes a series of controversies, both local and geopolitical, surrounding those Games. Among others, there was a debate about the inclusion of South Africa (apartheid was an issue that flared into an Olympic boycott by African countries in the 1970s), and about whether the IOC would recognize one team from China or two (it chose one; the Republic of China, or Taiwan, marched in the Opening Ceremonies as Formosa under a banner reading “Under Protest”). Despite the postwar division of Germany into East and West, the IOC recognized only one German


a car for almost half the 26-mile distance. Media accounts remarking on the civic disruption caused by the Olympics were widespread before the 1908 Summer Games in London, the biggest up to that time, said David Wallechinsky, the president of the International Society of Olympic Historians and the author of “The Complete Book of the Olympics.” It wasn’t long after the rebirth of the games that nationalism, excessive commercialization and political disputes had become background noise. The “modern” age of Olympic troubles may have come into sharp focus with the 1960 Summer Games, says David Maraniss, a Washington Post editor and the author of “Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World.” Maraniss describes a series of controversies, both local and geopolitical, surrounding those Games. Among others, there was a debate about the inclusion of South Africa (apartheid was an issue that flared into an Olympic boycott by African countries in the 1970s), and about whether the IOC would recognize one team from China or two (it chose one; the Republic of China, or Taiwan, marched in the Opening Ceremonies as Formosa under a banner reading “Under Protest”). Despite the postwar division of Germany into East and West, the IOC recognized only one German team “even though they hated one another and the [Berlin Wall] was soon to go up, ” Maraniss says. By their very nature, the Olympics create “self-fulfilling” media narratives of controversy and potential chaos, said Christine Brennan, a USA Today sports columnist and TV commentator who has covered the past 17 Olympiads. The games are an enormous undertaking, and they start fresh in a new city every two years, she notes, which invariably raises issues about financing, construction, traffic and security. “It’s the nature of the beast,” she said. “It will always be something.” If it’s a little messy, well, then so be it, Brennan says. That’s the news.“If people are aware of crime or infrastructure [issues] in Rio, that means we’ve been doing our job.” Many of the worst fears in the run-up to recent Olympics — traffic armageddon in Los Angeles in 1984, terrorism in Athens in 2004, pollution-related deaths in Beijing in 2008 — never materialized. So maybe all the bad news about Rio will look overwrought, too, once the Games conclude Aug. 21. “Are we overemphasizing Rio’s problems now?” Brennan asks. “We don’t know. I’ll give you the answer on Aug. 21.”


Ahmed Zewail, Nobel laureate who sparked a ‘revolution in chemistry,’ dies at 70

area known by the exotic sounding name of femtochemistry, where femto is a prefix used to suggest quantities and time intervals on the order of a millionth of a billionth of those encountered in the everyday world. Egypt-born chemist Ahmed Zewail receives the gold Nile Necklace, the country's most prestigious award, from Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, in Cairo in 1999 for winning the Nobel Prize. (Reuters) Pulses produced on such a scale by laser made it possible for Dr. Zewail to speak of chemical reactions and transformations occurring over areas of atomic dimensions and within almost infinitesimally small moments of time. Just as slow-motion photography revealed aspects of common events hidden from the scrutiny of the unaided human senses, “femto” techniques, embodying laser capabilities, gave science new insights into how chemical reactions proceed. “Professor Zewail’s contributions have brought about a revolution in chemistry and adjacent sciences, since this type of investigation allows us to understand and predict important reactions,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced at the time of the Nobel awards ceremony. With such advances, it became possible to watch as chemical bonds formed, broke and formed again. It offered the opportunity to witness each step of the process by which atoms and molecules absorbed energy and expelled it, or exchanged it, or used it to rotate and vibrate. Permitting unprecedented understanding of chemical behavior at its most detailed, Dr. Zewail’s advances in femtochemistry pointed the way to greater control over the actions of atoms and molecules. It enhanced scientists’ ability to create new compounds and to manipulate old ones. Ahmed Hassan Zewail was born in Damanhur, a city about 100 miles northwest of Cairo, on Feb. 26, 1946. He grew up in Desouk, another northern city, in a family of four children, and steps away from a landmark mosque whose imam encouraged broad-based learning. “Education was in the fabric of our culture and religion,” he later wrote. His father was a government employee who also ran a private business. His mother, a homemaker, doted on her four children and on the science-minded Ahmed — her only son — in particular. “As a boy it was clear that my inclinations were toward the physical sciences,” he wrote in a Nobel autobiographical statement. “Mathematics, mechanics, and chemistry were among the fields that gave me a special satisfaction. Social sciences were not as attractive because in those days much emphasis


A neighborhood bar so beloved, he moved it to his basement

Tim Gillis, center, recreated his favorite pub in his basement with help from Stephanie Dickens and Neil Shaut of Case Design/Remodeling. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) Tim Gillis, a homeowner in McLean, Va., sometimes receives a phone call from someone asking: “Is the bar open?” He knows it’s not a wrong number. The caller is likely to be one of the former regulars at McKeever’s Pub, a neighborhood bar beloved by many McLean residents for four decades. Gillis didn’t buy the bar when it closed, but he did bring it home. “Building my basement bar to look like McKeever’s is probably the stupidest thing I have ever done and also the best thing I’ve ever done,” says Gillis. “It gets way more use than I expected by me and my family and all our friends.” Gillis says friends call more often to stop by, including a Little League coach he knows from the days when Gillis’s kids, now in their 20s and 30s, were young. Gillis entertains work colleagues in his bar and his adult kids invite their friends to hang out, too. When one of Gillis’s sons got engaged recently, everyone knew immediately to head to the Gillis home to celebrate. “McKeever’s Pub was like the TV show ‘Cheers’ — a great little place on Old Dominion Drive that everyone could walk to,” says Gillis. “It was a family place where we’d celebrate Little League games, watch football or baseball games or just have a beer and a burger and catch up with our neighbors.” Jeffrey and Lori Judge bought McKeever’s Pub from the original owner, George Karydes, in 1984. The couple sold the business in 2015. “A group of us regulars wanted to buy McKeever’s Pub and keep it open, but that didn’t work out, and the place is still empty,” says Gillis. Tim Gillis recreates McKeever’s Pub from remnants of the shuttered establishment Since he couldn’t buy the business, Gillis purchased as many items from the bar as possible and brought them to his basement to recreate the pub. While Gillis already had a partially finished basement, he took a section of unfinished storage space and transformed it with the help of Stephanie Dickens, a designer and interior specialist with Case Design/Remodeling in Falls Church, Va., and Neil Shaut, director of project development for Case in Bethesda, Md. “When Tim brought me over to McKeever’s just before it


Montgomery Animal Watch

These cases were received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Puppy probe: Being a real swine: Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


For Olympic athletes in Rio, a lack of buzz over Zika concerns

women remain out of Brazil, owing to the threat the virus poses to developing infants. It also recommended abstinence for couples wanting to get pregnant because the virus can be sexually transmitted. U.S. diver David Boudia, a gold medalist in London, said he and his wife altered plans to have a second child before the Olympics. Rio de Janeiro is hosting the summer Olympics. Here’s why there’s reason to celebrate – and worry in Brazil. Boudia traveled to Brazil for an international competition in February, in the South American summer and at the height of the Zika crisis. He saw mosquitoes everywhere and applied bug spray constantly. He is still taking precautions — “DEET-ing it up,” he said — but like Johnston, he said he has barely seen a mosquito. Even in February, Boudia said he did not expect the Games to be badly affected, and he still doesn’t think they will be. “Every Games has a hot-topic issue, and this one’s no different,” Boudia said. “But I said it back at the Olympic trials: We expect to go in there and [for] it [to] be absolutely amazing, and it hasn’t been steering us wrong so far. They seem like they’re on top of their game. For the athletes, it’s great.” Some athletes stayed away altogether. Most notably, golf’s four best players — Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy — cited Zika as a reason they would not participate. For some in Rio, that justification for skipping does not pass muster. “Honestly, I can’t feel that the Zika virus would be their reason not to go,” South African golfer Jaco Van Zyl said. “The Zika virus is in Florida. I think they have got other reasons for not wanting to participate, and the Zika virus is a very convenient way for them to get out of it.” The lack of concern could be fleeting. The windy conditions, cool temperatures and consistent spraying have made mosquitoes hard to find. But rain could lead to pooling water, a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, and hotter temperatures likely will mean a return, especially during the morning. For now, at least, athletes have been cautious, not consumed by Zika, as many feared. Johnston, despite having yet to spot a mosquito, said she still applies bug spray daily. “That’s just ’cause I’m a medical student,” Johnston said, laughing. “I know too much.”


IOC votes to add five sports — including baseball and softball — to 2020 Games

IOC President Thomas Bach and his organization decided it was time to bring baseball and softball back in the Olympic fold. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) RIO DE JANEIRO — Calling it “the most comprehensive evolution of the Olympic program in modern history,” the IOC pointed to broadening the Games’ appeal to younger fans as the driving force behind the decision. “We want to take sport to the youth,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “With the many options that young people have, we cannot expect anymore that they will come automatically to us. We have to go to them. Taken together, the five sports are an innovative combination of established and emerging, youth-focused events that are popular in Japan and will add to the legacy of the Tokyo Games.” The new sports were added in conjunction with Olympic Agenda 2020, a broad series of reforms aimed at austerity and allowing the host nation more flexibility in shaping the Games. Under Olympic Agenda 2020, the host nation’s organizing committees can add five additional events to be held in its Games only. The sports in Tokyo will add 18 medal events and 474 additional athletes. The additions will not affect the inclusion of other sports in the Tokyo 2020 program, the IOC said. Baseball and softball were last played in 2008 and will return after being excluded from only two Olympics. Baseball has a convoluted history as an Olympic sport. It was a frequent exhibition for decades before officially being included as a medal event in 1992, only to be kicked out of the program in 2012 owing to a lack of competitive nations. Softball needed a majority of 53 votes to remain an Olympic sport after 2008; it received 52. “We are excited about the IOC’s announcement restoring baseball and softball to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo,” Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “Baseball and softball are global sports that belong in the Olympics.” “This means so much to not only our USA Softball Women’s National Team program, but to millions of girls across the world,” USA Softball player Janie Takeda said. “Even if I’m not there, knowing that softball athletes will get to compete on the highest stage against the best competition in the world is amazing.” The Winter Olympics has long embraced events once regarded as niche or “extreme,” introducing a variety of snowboarding events starting


A secret group bought the ingredients for a dirty bomb — here in the U.S.

firing two managers and organizing new training efforts. NRC Commissioner Jeff Baran, a lawyer and former House staff member, wrote a swift letter to the two other current NRC commissioners (two positions are vacant) stating that even if Texas changed its procedures, “GAO’s covert testing identified a regulatory gap.” He urged his colleagues to consider creating a system for tracking licenses and sales of low-level radioactive materials — an idea that its members rejected seven years ago under heavy state and industry pressure. The GAO’s July 15 report on the episode, which described the bare bones of its scam without naming any of the states involved or identifying the precise materials that were improperly ordered, similarly said that the NRC and state regulators aren’t doing enough to keep such materials out of terrorists’ hands. It criticized the state regulator for granting the licenses, but also said the commission needs to act to block license alterations and track sales and shipments of lower-level radiological materials, using measures like those already in place for the sale of more hazardous fissile materials. Cargo containers sit at the Port of Los Angeles in 2015. (Bob Riha Jr ./Reuters) Billions of dollars in potential economic harm Unlike a nuclear detonation, which could destroy a large city, the explosion of a dirty bomb would provoke more chaos than immediate fatalities, according to a 2007 study commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security. “A terrorist attack using a dirty bomb in the United States is possible, perhaps even moderately likely, but would not kill many people,” two professors at the University of Southern California wrote in the study, which was conducted with advice from government scientific and counterintelligence experts. “Instead, such an attack primarily would result in economic and psychological consequences.” The explosion could be lethal to someone nearby or to the first emergency personnel to arrive. But cleaning up the contaminated area would cost billions of dollars and take about a year in the scenario examined by the study’s authors — a dirty bomb targeting the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which together constitute the third-busiest in the world. At its worst, the resulting economic harm could exceed $250 billion. One key to keeping the ingredients out of terrorists’ hands, the authors concluded, is “being more proactive in controlling and protecting the original sources of radioactive material.” But they also warned that “an attack


As Olympics prepare to begin, athletes wonder: Is my opponent doping?

The international competition is being held in Brazil’s largest city after years of preparation. RIO DE JANEIRO — Despite a withering report of widespread, state-sponsored doping that has left the legitimacy of results for the 2014 Winter Olympics in doubt, Russian athletes are here. These Games already won’t be able to escape the legacy of those from two years ago in Sochi, Russia, because the International Olympic Committee declined to bar the entire Russian team from competition. Though the bodies that govern individual sports have banished some Russian athletes — notably, the entire track and field team — others will contend for and undoubtedly win medals. That the Rio Olympics will be staged in a country in political and financial disarray has been expected for much of the year. Now, too, the competition will be held in uncertain circumstances. With two days to go before the Games officially begin, athletes are grappling with an array of dynamics: relief that banned cheaters won’t sully the results, concern that the fields in some of the Russians’ strongest sports will be thinned and frustration that dopers continue to appear around every corner, some backed by elaborate schemes to dodge the rules. “You want to be able to compete on an even playing field,” American swimmer Michael Phelps, who has won more medals than any Olympian in history, said Wednesday. “We’ve had this problem for, God, how many Olympics now? It seems almost every time there’s something that comes up. And it’s sad. That’s really what it is. It’s really sad that we can’t control it, that somebody who is in charge cannot control this.” Even in the final days of preparation, there is confusion as to whether some of the more than 110 banned Russian athletes will actually be allowed to compete. FINA, the international governing body that oversees swimming, issued a statement disputing reports that Russian swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev — initially barred from competing here — would be reinstated. Rather, with the swimming competition set to begin Saturday, the pair will have their case heard before a three-member IOC commission. So with two days to go, the fields are not even set. Should the federations that oversee individual sports decide to ban more Russian athletes, others would be called to replace them. The Australian women’s gymnastics team, for instance, finished fifth in an Olympic test event in which the


Going Out Guide for Maryland, Aug. 4-10, 2016

Watkins Regional Park’s free outdoor concert series closes Thursday with roots rock and blues by Moonshine Society. (Gary Young/ ) THU 04 Wind Down Thursdays “Spirit of Hispania: Hispanic Tales” Moonshine Society Peterson Brothers FRI 05 Got My Own Sound Electric Brigade Kids Playwriting Festival Baseball and fireworks The Winstons “A Few Good Men” SAT 06 “H2oooh! American Water Use Revealed” “Mail Call” SUN 07 “1776” “Cars” The Big Band Theory of Baltimore MON 08 Glow Roll Bounce Skate Party TUE 09 “Heating Up” WED 10 Tropik Sol CalvART Gallery exhibit — Compiled by Jillian S. Jarrett from staff reports


Rio Olympics offers a break from typical summer sports

America’s Simone Biles is expected to be a star in this year’s Olympic gymnastics competition. Women athletes are a force in the Summer Games: In 2012, women won 58 of the USA’s 103 medals. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) For the next 17 days (August 5 to 21), the sports news will be completely different. That’s because the Summer Olympics will be taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Kids love the Olympics. I think that’s because Olympics news is so different from the usual summer baseball scores and reports from pro football training camp. How are the Olympics different? Let’s take a look. Opening Ceremonies: American Katie Ledecky, seen here at the 2012 Olympics in London, England, is favored to win several swim events in Rio. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post) This year there will be a Refugee Olympic Team. That’s a group of athletes who have been forced to leave their native countries because of war and other problems. Women’s sports: In the Olympics, women athletes are front and center. In 2012, the U.S. women won 58 of America’s 103 medals. This year should see more of the same. Gymnast Simone Biles and swimmers Katie Ledecky (of Bethesda) and Missy Franklin should be stars. U.S. women’s soccer, basketball and rowing teams are favored to win gold medals. NBC, the network broadcasting the Games, will follow those teams. So in the Olympics, it will be easy to see that girls rock! Different sports: The Olympics involves about 40 different sports. And I mean different. There’s archery, kayaking, fencing and badminton. But this isn’t backyard badminton. In Olympic badminton, the shuttlecock is buzzing around so fast you can barely see it. There’s rowing, table tennis, team handball, volleyball and water polo. NBC will televise 260 hours of Olympic programs. The NBC cable partners will show more than 6,700(!) hours of Olympic sports. So kids should have plenty of chances to see lots of sports. Foreign athletes: So check out the Olympics during the next two weeks. It’s different. And that’s great. Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost. He is the author of 21 sports books for kids.


Beach Drive rehabilitation begins next month, will close busy commuter route

routes because of the declining condition of the trail, said Katie Harris, trail coordinator with the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. The trail is one of the busiest in the area, but its users complain about how rough, root-laden and uneven it has become. Many say the trail, which was built to be eight feet wide in some sections but is narrower in other areas, is not wide enough to handle daily traffic. “A ride on the trail is a bumpy one due to tree roots cracking the asphalt,” Harris said. “The edges of the trail have deteriorated due to years of unattended grass and weed overgrowth. This has also reduced the usable width of the trail, which was insufficient to begin with.” In addition, the trail was built with challenging 90-degree turns approaching bridges and a narrow sidewalk near the tunnel close to the National Zoo. When the National Zoo closes its gates, trail users are forced to use a three-foot sidewalk in the tunnel. That sidewalk will be widened to five feet as part of the project. Two years ago, the cyclists’ group collected 2,400 signatures for a petition that called for the Park Service to fix the trail. Now trail users welcome the repairs. Cyclists and pedestrians will be able to use the road during the construction, though the road will close at night. When work is being done on the roadway, people can run on the trail, and when the trail is being constructed they can run on the roadway, officials said. The second phase will close the stretch between Tilden Street and Broad Branch Road, and that work could begin as early as next spring. After repairs are completed on that section of road, crews will work in the area between Broad Branch Road and Joyce Road. After that, they will move to the final section, between Joyce Road and the Maryland border. Officials say those who can telework should take that option to avoid what would be likely more painful congestion on Connecticut Avenue and other adjacent corridors, including Wisconsin Avenue and 16th Street NW. “For us, the importance is the safety of everybody who is traveling through the park, whether they drive, bike, jog or walk. That is what a lot of these improvement are geared towards — making it a safer trip for everybody who is going through Rock Creek Park,” Perkioniemi said.


Rio may be the glummest city ever to host the Summer Olympics

Fernando Henrique Cardoso said in an interview. “As if Brazil had already solved its problems, already belonged in the First World. “Now we are in doubt: Are we really capable or not?” Brazil’s once-booming economy, fired up by commodity sales to China, spending by a rising working class and dreams of offshore oil wealth, has plummeted into recession and the country’s political class — including Lula — has become embroiled in corruption scandals. His successor, Dilma Rousseff, has been suspended from the presidency and is awaiting an impeachment trial. Her successor, Michel Temer, is deeply unpopular; he has said he expects to be loudly booed when he shows up for the Games. Rio also has not been able to keep many of its promises for the Olympics. Polluted bays and lagoons have not been cleaned; construction is over budget and sometimes slipshod. Throw in wild cards — say, the 166,000 cases of the Zika virus in Brazil and fears of terrorism, and it is obvious that South America’s first Olympics is coming at a very complicated moment. Brazil promised a cleanup, but progress has lagged because of financial and bureaucratic issues. Rio de Janeiro knows how to party on a monumental scale while throwing an international sporting event. The city hosted soccer’s World Cup two years ago and the Pan American Games before that. Yet the mood is apprehensive, almost queasy. A recent poll found that nearly 2 out of 3 Brazilians expect the Olympics to bring more losses than benefits. Soldiers wearing camouflage are posted at bridges, subway platforms and beaches. The green and yellow shirts of Olympic volunteers are branded with “361°” — for the manufacturer — which is supposed to mean “one degree beyond” but also conjures an image of someone spinning in place, off balance and just out of control. Instability beneath the shine Some of this city’s new makeup has been beautifully applied. The streets around the port along Guanabara Bay used to be dingy, with homeless people sleeping amid decrepit, graffiti-tagged warehouses. The Olympics have transformed that area into the “Porto Maravilha,” its centerpiece a stunning plaza anchored by the Museum of Tomorrow with its soaring mechanical wings. An elevated highway was torn down to make room for a broad pedestrian boulevard that is lined with colorful murals and warehouses converted to house exhibits on Brazilian culture. “It’s really changed; it’s beautiful,” said Mayara


Two shootings in Northwest D.C. leave one dead, two injured

At least two people were shot — one fatally — in separate incidents Wednesday night in Northwest D.C. Both incidents happened around 10 p.m. One occurred at Sixth and N streets NW in the Shaw neighborhood — not far from the convention center. D.C. police said two men were shot. One was shot in the head, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital. Police identified him as Derryk Johnson, 19, of Northwest. He also has an address in Prince George’s County. The other shooting happened in a home near Ninth and Crittenden streets NW, where at least one person was injured, police said. Police said no arrests have been made in either incident.


The problem with generals backing candidates at conventions

it? The issue is normative and professional. Such rights are often more powerfully used when not exercised, when self-restraint and self-abnegation for the good of the profession prevails. Alternatively, when retired Gen. Wesley Clark became a full-fledged candidate for president in 2003, it removed him from the military profession in the eyes of the public, thus removing the issue of whether the military can be trusted. But Allen and Flynn did not do that, and they were portrayed as generals rather than candidates. There is an even more important issue of trust involved here — trust within the ranks of our military professions. When Allen and Flynn assert, “I have the right,” and Dempsey replies, “You should not have done that,” how do junior professionals react? Unfortunately, this is a fragile time for our military professions. Fifteen years of war without a clear victory is taking its toll. And now these junior professionals have seen one of their esteemed leaders — Allen — used as a pawn in a political campaign. He was characterized by Republican nominee Donald Trump as a “failed general,” which in turn allowed, predictably, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to scold Trump for being unpresidential. This all left Allen to plead in an off-key tone for his reputation: “He has no credibility to criticize me or my record or anything I have done,” the retired four-star general said. “If he’d spent a minute in the deserts of Afghanistan or in the deserts of Iraq, I might listen to what he has to say.” As this campaign proceeds and these events fade, the junior professionals will come to see clearly that, for the presidential candidates, winning the weekend news cycle, not the partisan advocacy of the generals, was the real prize. They were a means to an end, and not one that engendered trust in our military professions or their senior leaders. The junior professionals will conclude that the generals entered an arena in which they did not belong, based on their profession’s ethic, and for which they were woefully unprepared. That was a very high price, indeed, for our military professions to pay in the currency of their vital trust relationships. Read more on this topic: John R. Allen: We can build a durable peace in Afghanistan David Ignatius: Allen’s heavy rucksack in fight against Islamic State Martin E. Dempsey: Military needs to reach out to civilians


Refugee Olympians: Ten athletes representing 60 million people

symbolize dignity. They are reminders that refugees are humans, not statistics. Their presence in the Games promotes empathy but not pity. At one point during a Wednesday news conference, all 10 members sat at a long dais. A reporter asked Mardini and Rami Anis, another swimmer from Syria, whether they had lost family members during the Syrian civil war. Both said they had multiple friends who had been killed. Anis added a polite addendum. “I prefer that your questions would be toward the future,” Anis said. “These championships are about hope and the future and not the dark past.” Anis came to the Olympics with an unusual goal. He wants to get his picture taken with Michael Phelps, the American 18-time gold-medal winner. At the 2009 world championships, Anis met Phelps and asked for a photograph, he said, but at the time Phelps turned down any and all requests for photographs to maintain his focus on the event. “He is a role model,” Anis said. “This time around, I hope he is willing to take a picture.” The Refugee Olympic Team will provide a unique form of empowerment to the athletes and to the millions they represent. “We need to be looking at refugees as people,” Sherinian said. “It broadens the conversation from just humanitarian crisis to human potential.” Yonas Kinde, a marathoner from Ethiopia who now lives in Luxembourg, expressed excitement at the chance to represent refugees. He did not view it as an additional burden; his only difficulty will come during his event. “There is no enjoyment in marathon,” he said. Yolande Bukasa Mabika, a female judoka from Congo, dyed her hair gold for the Olympics. The new hairstyle, she said, represented her new life and her new challenge. She embraced her opportunity, which reaches far beyond the mat. “When I’m here, I’m representing all the Congolese people all over the world,” Bukasa Mabika said. “I’m here to show the world that we are capable to do everything. I wanted to show everyone in the world what we are trying to do. They’re looking at us as people that could perform nothing in life. I am at the Olympics now, and my dream is back. “We refugees are capable, and I will show everything I learned in my country. The suffering that we had is in the past, now the IOC is building a refugee family of athletes.”


How many Russians will compete in Rio? No one knows for sure.

his [Russian] friends’ reputations than discovering the truth.” Reedie “wanted to avoid an investigation and try to resolve this quietly with the Russians to save them further embarrassment,” Robertson said. Reedie and WADA have defended the timetable of their investigative report, which wasn’t released publicly until July 18, less than three weeks before the start of the Rio Olympics, by saying the organization moved as quickly as possible once presented with “concrete” evidence of systematic doping. The IOC, meanwhile, has defended its refusal to ban the entire Russian delegation by arguing it would have inevitably punished unfairly some clean athletes. The IOC provides WADA with a large chunk of its funding. For athletes, a permanent expression of their passion for the Games. “This is not a [matter] of helping [Russia]. This is a decision of justice, which we could take only on the facts,” IOC President Thomas Bach said at a news conference Thursday. “And this we have done. . . . This is why we have taken measures here against the people being implicated.” Even though the Russian track and field federation at the center of the doping scandal was officially banned by the sport’s worldwide governing body in June — and the International Weightlifting Federation last week banned Russian lifters under its own rules for multiple doping violations — other sports were still making their final decisions about Russian competitors Thursday afternoon, following reviews of their doping records. Throughout the day, the updates kept coming: 11 boxers, 11 judo athletes, golfer Maria Verchenova, 30 volleyball and beach volleyball players, five equestrian riders — all cleared by their sports’ governing bodies. In some cases, alternate teams or athletes from other countries were standing by in case of an opposite decision that could have opened up a spot in the competition. The 271 clearances made official by late Thursday represented about 70 percent of the 389 Russian athletes originally selected by the country to participate in the Olympics, with the bulk of the absentees being track and field athletes. The bulk of the Russian team arrived Thursday and checked into the Athletes’ Village, and many of them are already undergoing additional drug testing, according to reporters who attended a news conference with Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov. Given the volume of testing to which it has been subjected, Zhukov said, the Russian team “is probably the cleanest in Rio.”


He’s the son of Osama bin Laden’s bombmaker. Then ISIS wanted him as one of its own.

and the Syrian government, saying it is a matter of “life and death.” Masri, who knew Zawahiri in Afghanistan, is at the center of the al-Qaeda leader’s intended audience. After failing to help avert the emergence of the Islamic State, Masri aligned himself with the ultra-violent group in 2013, bringing other followers and accepting many of the self-declared caliphate’s perks, including an apartment in Raqqa, regular paychecks and a new Saudi bride. But the group gradually became aware of the limits of Masri’s allegiance, he said, including his reluctance to take part in attacks against al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria and his refusal to appear in propaganda videos denouncing his father’s organization. By mid-2014, Masri was accused of being a traitor and was being moved in and out of guarded Raqqa dwellings in the Islamic State’s version of house arrest. Masri’s lineage has led to long stretches of incarceration in his life — including eight years in Egypt. But it was someone loyal to his father’s cause, a merchant in Raqqa secretly working against the Islamic State, who helped engineer Masri’s escape from the caliphate. “My father had a big name and meaning among the mujahideen,” Masri said, referring to the thousands of fighters who migrated to Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s. The Islamic State “is trying to take on the [mantle] of al-Qaeda,” Masri said. “They wanted to use me as a trophy.” Abu Khabab al-Masri, Mohammed al-Masri’s father, was in charge of al-Qaeda’s effort to develop mass-casualty weapons. He was killed in a CIA drone strike in 2008. (U.S. State Department via European Pressphoto Agency) Dinners with the bin Ladens Masri spoke on the condition that his location in the region and current affiliations not be disclosed. He also refused to be photographed, because he said he fears he could be targeted by the Islamic State and is also at risk of arrest by various security services. Former associates of his father and Osama bin Laden confirmed Masri’s identity, and he produced his passport with his family name. In interviews, he wore a plaid flannel shirt and black hat, his legs often bouncing with nervous energy. Masri agreed to speak to The Post, he said, in part to voice his disapproval with the Islamic State’s despotic rule over its subjects in Iraq and Syria, although he stopped short of condemning the group’s brutality against the West. “It was