Investors shy away from Ethiopia in the wake of violent protests

Employees of AfricaJuice, a Dutch-owned juice company in Ethiopia, toss fruit damaged by protesters two weeks earlier on Oct. 4. The attack was one of many during several days of unrest following a deadly stampede at a religious festival in the town of Bishoftu, triggered when police fired tear gas into crowds chanting anti-government slogans at the packed venue. Ethiopia is facing its most significant unrest in a decade from the majority Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups, which feel marginalized by the minority-led government. (Zacharias Abubeker/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS VIA GETTY IMAGES) ALAGA DORE, Ethiopia — As employees swept out the empty rooms, Abraham Negusay, AfricaJuice’s production manager, worked on his laptop in the former lab. “We are evaluating the damage and destruction, cleaning up the factory and doing a cost analysis,” he said, noting that the Dutch company had yet to decide whether to keep its multimillion-dollar investment in Ethiopia. The assailants, estimated by AfricaJuice farm managers to number in the thousands, descended on the factory in the Upper Awash Valley, about 90 miles southeast of Addis Ababa, on Oct. 4. Wielding axes, spears and some firearms, they overwhelmed the armed guards while workers fled into the nearby forest. The attack was part of a week-long spasm of violence that followed a deadly stampede on Oct. 2 during Irreecha, a thanksgiving festival held annually by the Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group. That day in the town of Bishoftu, police fired tear gas into crowds chanting anti-government slogans, and in the ensuing panic, dozens died. The opposition put the death toll in the hundreds. In response, mobs attacked industrial farms and factories across the country, focusing on those with state ties or owned by foreigners. Several tourist lodges were also targeted, and at least two were destroyed. People pass a cargo truck that protesters destroyed in the town of Sebeta last month. The town was one of many where anti-government groups targeted foreign- or state-owned enterprises. (Zacharias Abubeker/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS VIA GETTY IMAGES) Once held up as the hot, new investment destination in Africa because of its cheap labor, plentiful water and stability, Ethiopia’s industrialization program is at risk of faltering — along with its impressive economic trajectory — as current investors reconsider their options and new ones shy away. The unrest has shown the limits of the authoritarian nation’s Chinese-style development plan, which favors growth over public accountability. A largely agricultural economy,


Senator questions exemptions to automatic-braking technology requirement

Sen. Richard Blumenthal has asked federal regulators to reexamine a policy of granting exemptions to requirements for automatic braking technology, following a deadly crash at the New Jersey Transit railway station that had received such an exemption. Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote to Sarah Feinberg, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration this week, asking why New Jersey Transit was not required to install the system — known as positive train control (PTC) — in the Hoboken terminal where a train crashed Sept. 29, killing a woman on the platform and injuring more than 100 passengers. Blumenthal asked “whether FRA should continue to allow an exemption from the PTC mandate for passenger terminals.” The financially troubled transit agency has yet to comply with a 2008 congressional mandate to install PTC throughout its system. According to the latest FRA accounting, New Jersey Transit has not installed the system in any of its 440 engines or put in place 124 trackside towers that would communicate with trains. But New Jersey Transit did apply for and receive an exemption from the PTC requirement for the tenth of a mile inside the Hoboken terminal. That exemption was in keeping with the law Congress passed eight year ago, which specified that PTC be installed on the “main line[s]” on commuter railroads, using the definition of main line stipulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The FRA determined that railroad yards and stations were not part of a main line. They also said the complexity of the automatic braking system made its installation in station areas difficult. But the agency required that even where terminal exceptions were granted, railroads still must limit train speeds and enforce them. “The Hoboken crash has indicated that this reasoning warrants re-examination,” Blumenthal said in the letter to Feinberg. New Jersey Transit established a maximum authorized speed of 15 mph for operations within the Hoboken terminal. In interviews with investigators, the engineer of the train in the crash, Thomas Gallagher, 48, recalled pulling into the station about 10 mph. National Transportation Safety Board investigators examined the data recorder on the wrecked train and determined that it had been traveling at 21 mph. “In 2008, Congress required railroads to implement positive train control on certain mainlines,” said FRA spokesman Matthew Lehner, responding to Blumenthal’s letter. “If Congress wishes, it can expand that requirement to more areas. Many commuter railroads continue to struggle to meet


Auto-centric suburb considers making developers pay more for transit, walking

and still have an 800-space parking garage. “You can’t leave out the traffic impacts,” said Barney Rush, a council member for the town of Chevy Chase, where single-family homes in long-established neighborhoods abut downtown Bethesda. Some people coming to new high-rises will still drive, he said, even if they live atop a Metro station. “They might take Metro to and from work, but they could still be soccer moms or dads driving their kids,” Rush said. “We don’t expect roads to be empty, but we do expect our infrastructure to support the level of development coming.” Montgomery planners say traffic-impact studies done in such urban areas rarely predict problems at nearby intersections. When they do, they typically point to solutions — such as adding turn lanes — that would only make them less pedestrian-friendly. Some residents say the kind of traffic study the county requires, which is no longer considered the industry standard, isn’t sophisticated enough to capture the lengthy backups that occur when saturated intersections close together create near-gridlock. They question whether county officials are considering scrapping traffic tests near Metro stations because more accurate results might make it more difficult or expensive to build the kind of high-rise, transit-oriented development that their long-term growth plans rely on. Discussions of how to best measure and reduce the burdens that growing communities face as they attempt to move beyond their auto-centric roots are happening across the region. Across the Potomac River, Fairfax County officials expect that by 2050, traffic-clogged Tysons will get 100,000 new jobs and a fivefold increase in its current residential population of 19,000. Amid the vast parking lots and strip malls that line Routes 123 and 7, new high-rises are quickly sprouting around the area’s two-year-old Metro Silver Line stations. Traffic-mitigation measures required of Tysons developers include reducing the number of single-occupant cars entering or leaving their new buildings, such as by funding vanpools and shuttle services to Metro stations and building mostly smaller roads to create a more urban and walkable street grid. Even so, some longtime Tysons residents say the new high-rises have already brought significantly more traffic as many of the new residents and workers continue to drive. Many details of the Montgomery proposal remain up for debate, and the council has until Nov. 15 to approve the growth policy. But several county council members said they appreciate the need for a less car-centric


D.C. crime report

Kenilworth Ave., Minnesota Ave., Mount Olivet Rd., Varnum St., West Virginia Ave., Fourth St., 53rd St., Northwest HOMICIDE Buchanan St., ASSAULTS Clifton St., Columbia Rd., Connecticut Ave., Q St., Shepherd St., Sursum Corda Ct., U St., W St., W St., Wisconsin Ave., Wisconsin Ave., 14th St., 14th St., 19th St., ROBBERIES Cathedral Ave., Euclid St., F St., Fairmont St., Florida Ave., Florida Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Harvard St., I St., Indiana Ave., Irving St., Kennedy St., Massachusetts Ave., P St., Q St., Rhode Island Ave., Swann St., U St., W St., Fourth St., Sixth St., Eighth St., 11th St., 13th St., 13th St., BREAK-INS Clark Pl., Columbia Rd., Delafield Pl., Delafield Pl., Fairmont St., Fairmont St., Girard St., Girard St., Lanier Pl., Lanier Pl., M St., Nebraska Ave., Nevada Ave., Oakdale Pl., Shepherd St., Sheridan St., Wisconsin Ave., Third St., Fifth St., 13th St., 15th St., 15th St., 17th St., THEFTS Bates St., Bates St., Brown St., Bryant St., Bryant St., Buchanan St., Butternut St., Calvert St., Carroll St., Carroll St., Cedar St., Cedar St., Cedar St., College St., Columbia Rd., Columbia Rd., Columbia Rd., Columbia Rd., Columbia Rd., Columbia Rd., Columbia Rd., Columbia Rd., Columbia Rd., Columbia Rd., Columbia Rd., Columbia Rd., Connecticut Ave., Connecticut Ave., Connecticut Ave., Connecticut Ave., Connecticut Ave., Connecticut Ave., Connecticut Ave., Connecticut Ave., Connecticut Ave., Connecticut Ave., Connecticut Ave., Corcoran St., D St., F St., F St., F St., F St., Fairmont St., Fairmont St., Fairmont St., Fairmont St., Fern Pl., Fernway Rd., Floral St., Florida Ave., Florida Ave., Fort Stevens Dr., G St., G St., G St., G St., G St., G St., Gallatin St., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave., Georgia Ave. and Hobart Pl., Gresham Pl., Gresham Pl., H St., Hamilton St., Harvard St., Highland Ave., Hobart Pl., Hobart Pl., Hobart St., Holmead Pl., I St., I St., I St., I St., Ingraham St., Irving St., Irving St., Johnson Ave., K St., K St., K St., K St., Kennedy St., Kenyon St., Kilbourne Pl., L St., L St., L St., L St., L St., L St., Lamont St.,


Montgomery County Animal Watch

montgomery County 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. Possible abandonment Bite/Attack Humane Society adoptions The Montgomery County Humane Society’s private rescue shelter has dogs, puppies, cats and kittens available for adoption. Call 240-252-2555 or visit mchumane.org.MCHS Adoptions and Education Center, 601 S. Stonestreet Ave., Rockville. Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except holidays. Reduced FEES FOR CATS Cats and kittens will be available for adoption at the next open house of Friends of Montgomery County Animals at the following location. Call 301-977-4833 or visit fmca.org or facebook.com/fmcainfo.PetSmart at Milestone Center, 20924 Frederick Rd., Germantown. Hours: 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday. Cats at no-kill shelter Cats and kittens will be available for adoption through the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County’s no-kill shelter at the following location. For information, call 301-740-2511 or visit awlmc.org.Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County no-kill shelter, 12 Park Ave., Gaithersburg. Hours: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday; noon to 3 p.m. Saturday; 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Deadly bacteria closes NICU for second time in months at Md. hospital

Officials from the Prince George's Hospital Center brief reporters during an evacuation of the neonatal intensive care unit earlier this year. The Prince George’s Hospital Center is closing its neonatal intensive care unit for the second time this year following another bacterial outbreak among its patients. Dimensions Health Care Systems, the nonprofit organization that runs the hospital, said in a statement on Wednesday that all five tiny patients will be transferred from the unit after two were found to have tested positive for the Pseudomonas bacterium. “At this time there is no environmental indication or defined cause for the latest bacterium presence,” Dimensions said in the statement. Chief Operating Officer Sherry B. Perkins called the germ a “complex epidemiological case,” but said experts are working closely with the hospital to get rid of it. This outbreak comes one month after the hospital reopened the NICU, after state and hospital officials implemented safeguards to prevent Pseudomonas from recolonizing in the hospital’s water system. The waterborne germ is notoriously difficult to eradicate. Pseudomonas can be deadly for people with compromised immune systems, such as babies in the NICU. It is fairly common in tap water and can spread by health care workers’ hands and insufficiently sterilized medical equipment. The bacteria was first discovered in the Cheverly hospital in early August, when officials said routine nasal swabs from several infants detected its presence. At that time, nine NICU patients were transferred to Children’s National Medical Center in the District. It took nearly two months for the hospital and state epidemiologists to discover the source of the bacteria: the plumbing supplying water to the NICU. They removed sinks that had harbored Pseudomonas, installed filters on faucets and treated the water. State health officials said their agency was informed of the latest outbreak on Sunday. Dimensions did not respond to additional questions regarding how the bacteria was detected or whether any children were sickened by the outbreak. It is unclear where the patients were being transferred.


One for the money, two for the show: Chasing down a long-ago love story

This 1956 Elvis Presley album was purchased at an estate sale in Falls Church, Va., in 2015 by Paul Kopsick. The curious letter inside reveals an office romance. (Paul Kopsick) Paul Kopsick The first mention of Elvis Presley in The Washington Post was on Dec. 23, 1955. Syndicated entertainment columnist Dorothy Kilgallen had a brief blurb about “a 19-year-old country and Western warbler from Nashville, Tenn. (so help us), named Elvis Presley.” Kilgallen marveled that RCA Victor had given Presley $40,000 in cash and a brand-new convertible to sign a recording contract. So help us. Over the next year, the singer’s name appeared more frequently. “Like him or not,” wrote Post music columnist Eddie Gallaher in June 1956, Presley “is the major new record fad to come along this year.” Many people didn’t like Presley. “He mangles songs; his voice is flat; and his face is the epitome of pouting imbecility,” wrote a Post reader. A teenager shot back that adults weren’t supposed to like teenage music anyway. “Is it just that you have not found another way to criticize young people?” wrote the teenager. Paul unfolded the letter. Typed on Washington Post and Times Herald letterhead, and dated Jan. 25, 1957, it read: “I, B. Arline Oakley, the undersigned, being of nearly sound mind and very sound body, do hereby agree not to play the record known as ‘Elvis Presley’ in the presence of George E. Minot Jr. without his express approval. If I violate this agreement, the aforementioned Minot has my permission to break said record over my head.” Written in pencil at the bottom were the initials “BAO.” And underneath that, also in pencil: “To Pat & Shirley — What have I done!! —GM.” In 1957, Billie Arline Oakley was working at The Washington Post and Times Herald, as The Post was called then after absorbing a failing paper. She’d lived lots of places as a girl — Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii, New Jersey — and had studied journalism at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Arline wanted to be like Brenda Starr, the reporter in the comics, but she suspected she didn’t have what it took — the “strength,” she called it. She did some cub reporting, but her job was answering phones on the city desk. Sometimes Arline would be sent on what were called “picture runs,” picking up photos from the news agencies around


2 U.S. troops killed fighting Taliban in Afghanistan; civilians hit by airstrike

the opponents” resulted in the deaths of more than 20 civilians from “various families.” Ghulam Rabbani, another provincial council member, said 36 people were killed. Other officials said homes in various locations were destroyed by the strikes. U.S. military officials in Kabul confirmed that two U.S. service members were killed and two others wounded when they came under insurgent fire. “Despite today’s tragic event, we are steadfast in our commitment to help our Afghan partners defend their nation,” said Gen. John W. Nicholson, the senior U.S. military commander here, referring to the deaths of the U.S. troops. Late Thursday afternoon, Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, the chief spokesman for Resolute Support, the U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan, issued a statement that referred to airstrikes by “friendly forces” but did not confirm any civilian casualties. It said all information on that matter should come from Afghan officials. The NATO mission’s mandate is to assist, advise and train Afghan defense forces in their war against insurgents. Almost all foreign combat troops withdrew at the end of 2014, leaving Afghan troops facing an aggressive Taliban militia. “As part of an Afghan operation, friendly forces received direct fire and airstrikes were conducted to defend themselves,” Cleveland’s statement said. “We take all allegations of civilian casualties very seriously. As this was an Afghan operation, we’ll work with our partners to investigate but refer you to them for additional details in the near term. We’ll provide updates as we have them.” The senior Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Dawlat Waziri, said three Afghan special forces members were killed in fighting with the Taliban. He said he had no information on civilian deaths. A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, said three Taliban fighters were targeted by the Afghan and foreign forces and were then killed in a firefight in which Afghan and American troops also died. He said a large number of civilians also were killed. Pajhwok Afghan News quoted a farmer in Kunduz named Taza Gul as saying: “I was working on my farm when the bombardment started. On coming home, I saw seven members of my family, including women and children, killed in the raids.” After the deadly 2015 airstrike in Kunduz, a U.S. military investigation led to the disciplining of 16 military members who were said to have made mistakes leading to the strike. Doctors Without Borders called the attack a war crime.


Washington Post bestsellers: Nov. 6, 2016

IN A DARK, DARK WOOD (Gallery/Scout, $16). By Ruth Ware. A weekend in the English countryside takes a sinister turn. [3] Nonfiction/General 1. MICHELIN GUIDE WASHINGTON, DC 2017 (Michelin Travel Publications, $12.95). By the editors of Michelin Travel Publications. [3] 2. ALEXANDER HAMILTON (Penguin, $20). By Ron Chernow. [50] 3. THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE TRIPOLI PIRATES: THE FORGOTTEN WAR THAT CHANGED AMERICAN HISTORY (Sentinel, $17). By Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger. [2] 4. YOU ARE A BADASS: HOW TO STOP DOUBTING YOUR GREATNESS AND START LIVING AN AWESOME LIFE (Running Press, $16). By Jen Sincero. [33] 5. MILK AND HONEY (Andrews McMeel, $14.99) By Rupi Kaur. A collection of poetry and prose about survival. [20] 6. 100 DEADLY SKILLS: THE SEAL OPERATIVE’S GUIDE TO ELUDING PURSUERS, EVADING CAPTURE, AND SURVIVING ANY DANGEROUS SITUATION (Touchstone, $19.99). By Clint Emerson. [11] 7. YOU CAN’T TOUCH MY HAIR: AND OTHER THINGS I STILL HAVE TO EXPLAIN (Plume, $16). By Phoebe Robinson. [1] 8. THE 5 LOVE LANGUAGES: THE SECRET TO LOVE THAT LASTS (Northfield, $15.99). By Gary D. Chapman. [198] 9. MINDSET: THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS (Ballantine, $16). By Carol S. Dweck. [73] 10. HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE (Pocket, $16). By Dale Carnegie. Tips for professional and personal success. [37] Hardcover Fiction 1. THE WHISTLER (Doubleday, $28.95). By John Grisham. A Florida judge may be taking mafia-linked bribes. [1] 2. TWO BY TWO (Grand Central, $27). By Nicholas Sparks. A man loses everything but tries to keep life normal for his daughter. [4] 3. SMALL GREAT THINGS (Ballantine, $28.99). By Jodi Picoult. A black nurse stands trial when the baby of white supremacists dies in her care. [3] 4. VINCE FLYNN: ORDER TO KILL (Atria, $28.99). By Kyle Mills. Mitch Rapp tries to prevent terrorists from getting nuclear weapons. [3] 5. ESCAPE CLAUSE (Putnam, $29). By John Sandford. Two rare Amur tigers disappear from a medical zoo. [2] 6. COMMONWEALTH (Harper, $27.99). By Ann Patchett. A chance encounter disrupts two marriages and the lives of six children. [7] 7. A BAXTER FAMILY CHRISTMAS (Howard, $19.99). By Karen Kingsbury. Still grieving, John Baxter invites his daughter’s heart transplant recipient for Christmas. [1] 8. SEX, LIES AND SERIOUS MONEY (Putnam, $28). By Stuart Woods. Stone Barrington’s latest investigation takes him to the New Mexico desert. [1] 9. THE MOTHERS (Riverhead, $26). By Brit Bennett. A young woman’s unplanned pregnancy casts a


Students build their careers in high school construction program

design of the house and continue with the permitting process, which our students can participate in, and then we’ll begin the construction phase.” This will be the second full-size house built by ACAD students. The first was built and sold several years ago on 13th Street NW, Moore said. The DC Students Construction Trades Foundation, the accredited sponsor of the academy since 2005, supports skilled trades courses in public schools to generate interest in career and technical education as a conduit to a career or college. Labor shortage is among the obstacles to new residential construction and part of the reason newly built homes cost much more than resales, according to Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders in Washington. The association estimates that there are approximately 184,000 available construction jobs across the country, a jump of 43 percent over the past three years. An estimated 30 percent of construction workers left the industry during the housing crisis, and many never returned. The micro house includes sustainable features such as bamboo flooring, energy-efficient windows and HardiePlank lap siding. (Matt McClain/TWP) Joshua Atkins is a product of the pipeline from the construction high schools into the industry. At 24, Atkins has worked for years in construction in office jobs and in the field with developers Miller & Long and Balfour Beatty. He earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Tuskegee University with the help of scholarships and built on his high school education at ACAD, which then was at Cardozo High School in Northwest before moving to IDEA in Northeast. Atkins is currently working on Capitol Crossing, one of the largest development projects in the District. “From the time I was 2, I loved to build complex things with Legos and to draw,” Atkins said. “When I was in 10th grade at Cardozo, I was lucky enough to join ACAD and start studying construction and engineering and to work on job sites in the summers.” Atkins said he understands both the design side of construction because of his architecture degree and the hands-on labor required to build structures. “Forty years ago, the school system abandoned vocational training in favor of preparing everyone to go to college,” said John McMahon, board president of the DC Students Construction Trades Foundation and chairman of Miller & Long. “That’s unreasonable when you consider that one architect needs about 300 employees to


Utagawa Hiroshige’s vision opened up the world for everyday Japanese

The Mariko teahouse is one of the landmarks depicted in a series of prints by Hiroshige, based on the artist’s journey from Tokyo to Kyoto in the 1830s. (Hiroshige) In 1830s Japan, there was no such thing as a recreational road trip. The shogunate tightly controlled travel, and many people never left their home towns. But the cities were becoming prosperous and the members of a new middle class had the money to indulge their curiosity. The next best thing to traveling was collecting ukiyo-e (“pictures of the floating world”) — prints of the places they would never see in person. Painter and printmaker Utagawa Hiroshige, whose official job was Edo Castle fire warden, wasn’t especially privileged. But in 1832, he was invited to join a lordly procession from Edo (now Tokyo) to Kyoto. He sketched the stops along the way, and two years later published “The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido.” It beautifully depicted the scenery along the route but also everyday life on the road. The entire series is on display at George Washington University’s Luther W. Brady Gallery as “Along the Eastern Road.” (The title uses a partial translation of “Tokaido,” which means “east sea way.”) The selection is made up of 56 prints, including ones from the trip’s two end points, as well as one from a set published in 1855. The original was such a success that Hiroshige (and a protege) did it again, the second time in a vertical format. “The Fifty-Three Stations” displayed places most residents of Japan’s major cities had never visited: Mitsuke, where travelers headed toward Edo would get their first glimpse of Mount Fuji; Okazaki, with its long, curving bridge; and Mariko, a teahouse extolled by the poet Basho. The teahouse is reportedly still in operation, although most of the other landmarks have vanished. The hills were bulldozed for highways and railroads — including the Tokaido shinkansen, or bullet train — and the bays were filled to create developable land. Two decades after the earliest of these prints, Japan was forced to open to the West. That’s when the work of Hiroshige and his great contemporary Katsushika Hokusai began to reach European and American artists. James Whistler, Vincent van Gogh and many others were delighted by the surprising compositions, vertiginous perspectives and woodblock techniques unlike anything they’d seen. Japanese printmakers rendered most objects with black lines but also “painted” with


Quebec’s Mont-Mégantic National Park is one of the best places on the planet to stargaze

the next two nights. Sun setting and air cooling, we head downstairs and through the backyard garden to a cozy shack for a dinner of tomato and watermelon gazpachos, smoked trout quiche and salads, whose greens, like most food served here, come from the property’s gardens — and chicken and turkey pens. Dazed by delicious homemade blueberry pie and maple syrup ice cream desserts, we realize we’re running late and lead-foot the short drive to ASTROLab, at the base of Mont Mégantic. Five minutes into an hour-long TED-Talk-like multimedia presentation about the cosmos, in French, I’m kicking myself for not taking the language more seriously in high school. But as educator Philippe Robert-Staehler explains in perfect English as we head outside for the second part of our program, “When you go outside to see the sky, we can all speak the same universal language of the stars.” The Popular Observatory is in the International Dark-Sky Association’s first International Dark Sky Reserve. (Guillaume Poulin) Through a trio of tripod-mounted telescopes, we take turns peeking at reddish Mars and ringed Saturn along with one of its moons, Titan. Done with the telescopes, we notice that the sky has grown darker. And a ridiculous number of stars and planets appear as if on cue. I glance over at my wife, Gail, and Ewan. They look the same way I feel: awed. Instructor Remi Boucher points out a curiously brassy-hued little object zipping by . A satellite, he says. It would be the first of a handful we’ll see over the next two nights. The sky darker still, the Milky Way reveals itself, a cloudlike band of lights spanning the sky. “This is our galaxy, seen from the inside,” says Philippe, pointing out constellations I had only seen in books or on TV. We lie in the cool grass, watching the cosmic light show. Late that night, while drifting off to sleep, I imagine I can still see it. The next morning brings more absurdly good food, homemade yogurt with fresh raspberries and blackberries, poached eggs over maple syrup-cured ham hash and homemade spelt-bread toast with jelly made from local wild lingonberries. When innkeeper François notices that Ewan likes the edible flowers garnishing his plate, he brings more to share. We agree that they taste like mangoes. Fortified, we spend the day exploring the area by car and hiking up nearby Mont-Saint-Joseph. We encounter


A river of lost souls runs through western Colorado

high school diploma or less. For them, the suicide rate has more than doubled over the past 15 years, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal health data. Most of the victims lived in small towns and rural areas, particularly in the Southeast and in mountain states, where social isolation can be acute. Colorado has the fourth-highest Since 2007, 14 middle-aged white women have killed themselves here. The Post looked at half of those cases and found striking commonalities: Most worked physically demanding jobs. Most suffered from chronic pain. And most struggled with mental-health issues that, surviving friends and relatives say, were addressed through psychiatric medications that were ultimately ineffective. Nationally, many mental-health experts have raised concerns about the growing use of such medications for everything from insomnia to ordinary loneliness. Between 1999 and 2013, psychiatric drug prescriptions shot up by 117 percent. The number of prescriptions written by non-psychiatrists also has risen. As many as 80 percent of all antidepressant prescriptions are written by physicians who are not psychiatrists, multiple studies have found, and doctors often give the drugs to people who have received no psychiatric diagnosis. Studies also show that the drugs work only about half the time and can produce side effects, such as anxiety and sleeplessness, that mimic worsening symptoms. Women are far more likely than men to receive these prescriptions: In the United States today, nearly 1 in 4 white women ages 50 to 64 is taking an antidepressant, according to federal health officials. No expert suggests that these medications are driving the uptick in suicide among this population. Research into that question is difficult, because many women on psychotropic drugs are already prone to depression and suicide. PhRMA, which represents the nation’s biggest drug companies, declined to comment for this story. Christine Moutier, chief medical officer of the nonprofit American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said the presence of multiple medications may suggest that the patient’s mental illness was particularly difficult to treat. “When I hear that someone is on more than three psychotropic medications, that tells me their doctor was going after the condition because the person didn’t respond to the first medication,” Moutier said. “There is a case to be made for rational polypharmacy.” However, Moutier added that multiple prescriptions can also suggest “suboptimal treatment.” And for women who believe the drugs hold the promise of a cure, other medical experts said,


Civilian casualties are starting to rise as Iraqi forces push into Mosul

a tougher fight than they have ever seen, bringing furious battles to the doorsteps of more than a million people. The civilian presence hugely complicates the fight for the advancing Iraqi forces and for airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition, a fact the Islamic State is using for its gain as it desperately tries to hold on to its capital in Iraq. For more than a year, the militants have largely prevented people from leaving the city, but in recent weeks they have rounded up villagers from the outskirts and forced them inside the city to use as human shields. “Head injury!” shouted Maj. Ahmed Hussein, the medical station’s chief medic, as a 16-year-old girl arrived in a family sedan. After laying her on a stretcher, medics bound her head, trying to stanch the flow of blood from a shrapnel wound. “May God take revenge on Daesh,” cried her mother, using a derogatory term for the Islamic State. Before the team had finished treating her, another casualty arrived: a tank driver struggling to breathe after a suspected chlorine attack. He was drained of color, and his chest trembled as he tried to fill his lungs. The militants have regularly used chlorine on the battlefield, often dispatching it in mortar shells. “That’s our sixth or seventh chlorine gas,” said Derek Coleman, 27, from San Diego, who came to Iraq with hopes of fighting the Islamic State but said he later realized he could be of more use as a medic. Iraqi troops advance on eastern Mosul, continuing their assault on Islamic State’s last major stronghold, as the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi releases an audio tape saying he is confident of victory. Coleman, two other Americans and two Slovaks were spending their first day with Iraqi forces after previously assisting Kurdish peshmerga soldiers. The Iraqis do not appear to have much need for them, he said, as the Iraqi special forces have better-organized medical teams. But Hussein said he still appreciates the extra hands and supplies. Hussein said more civilians have been injured in recent days, although he was quick to point out that the Islamic State is responsible. “They use civilians as a shield,” he said. Over the course of the day, Hussein’s station treated 15 civilians, one of whom died from gunshot wounds. Many, though, are probably unable to reach medical assistance, and those fleeing talk of entire families killed


Bacterial outbreak probably contributed to infants’ deaths at Md. hospital, experts say

Officials from Prince George's Hospital Center brief reporters this year after a bacterial infection triggered the closure of their neonatal intensive care unit. ( CBS/WUSA Channel 9 ) The outbreak of a potentially deadly bacteria at a Maryland hospital probably contributed to the deaths of two babies in its neonatal intensive care unit, but experts say there is no way they can be completely sure. The experts made the announcement during a news conference Friday organized by Dimensions Healthcare System, the nonprofit organization that manages Prince George’s Hospital Center. The hospital closed its NICU this week for the second time in a few months due to an outbreak of the pseudomonas bacteria that has sickened at least one infant and led to the transfer of four others to area medical centers. “While there is a likelihood, it remains unclear whether pseudomonas can be conclusively linked” to the infant deaths, said Colleen Hughes Driscoll, a neonatologist with the University of Maryland Medical System. “Is it possible? Yes. Can we say for sure? Unfortunately, no. We may never know conclusively.” The announcement marks the first time since the summer that the hospital has provided a specific update about the extent and impact of the outbreak. After extensive efforts to kill the waterborne germ, it continues to pose a threat. Dimensions requested assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week to help identify the source of the latest outbreak. An employee at Prince George’s Hospital Center tells WUSA 9 that the hospital is dangerously understaffed while dealing with a second evacuation of its neo-natal intensive care unit due to contamination by potentially deadly bacteria. Epidemiology, pediatric and infection control experts began their investigation at the Cheverly, Md., facility Friday after hospital officials announced the bacteria’s recurrence in two infant patients who had tested positive for pseudomonas. “We are puzzled, frustrated and concerned,” said Sherry Perkins, Dimensions’ chief operating officer. The NICU — the only such facility in Prince George’s County — will remain closed until CDC officials finish their investigation and, along with state officials, give the hospital approval to reopen. But Perkins said she does not know when that will happen. Driscoll said that the children exposed to the bacteria were all premature, having been born after 23 to 26 weeks of gestation. Most of them weighed between less than one pound and 2½ pounds, and suffered from different


Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai denounces deadly NATO airstrikes

Former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai speaks at a "Regional Power Play and the Rise of Radicalism in Afghanistan" event in New Delhi on Aug. 20. (Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images) KABUL — “I spoke to the families yesterday. I saw the photos of the victims. There were children from 6 months to toddlers, near-teens and elders. Why?” Karzai demanded angrily. A few moments later, he turned to an aide and asked, “Was there any mention of this mass tragedy on CNN, on BBC? I didn’t see anything.” Karzai, 58, has railed for years against U.S. military bombings and resulting civilian casualties in the war against Taliban insurgents, and the issue virtually destroyed his relationship with the Obama administration. It was the main reason he refused to sign a bilateral security agreement with Washington before leaving office in 2014, and it remains his personal obsession in political retirement. The exact events in Kunduz were still unclear Friday, but Afghan officials confirmed an updated death toll of 30 civilians and at least 25 wounded in airstrikes launched outside the embattled provincial capital after a firefight with Taliban forces. Two U.S. service members were killed in the battle, along with three Afghan commandos and three Taliban fighters. Hamid Karzai, the former Afghan president, denounced a NATO airstrike in Afghanistan Thursday and blamed US military policy for excessive civilian casualties in the war against the Taliban. (Pam Constable/The Washington Post) U.S. military officials have said the strikes were conducted by NATO aircraft but have not said whether the pilots were American or Afghan. The civilian deaths sparked protests by victims’ relatives in Kunduz and denunciations by some rights groups, including Amnesty International. A recent U.N. report found that casualties attributed to pro-government forces here have jumped by 42 percent in the past year. Most NATO combat troops left Afghanistan in 2014, and Afghan forces have been battling the Taliban with help from a few thousand Western troops and advisers. Just over a year ago, during a battle with Taliban forces in Kunduz, an errant U.S. airstrike killed 42 people at a hospital, sparking accusations of a war crime and leading to disciplinary action against 16 U.S. military personnel. As Karzai saw it, the fatal bombings Thursday were further proof of his long-standing contention that the U.S. military role in Afghanistan has been misguided, needlessly deadly and possibly motivated by a cynical agenda that he believes


Maybe you don’t really need to drink so much water every day

with vague guidelines and few details about when, why or how much to drink, writes nutrition epidemiologist Jodi Stookey in a recent review article. Her assessment of 134 randomized trials identified possible conditions that might make water more useful as a weight-loss tool. In particular, she suspects that water is most effective when paired with a low-calorie or low-carbohydrate diet. “You have to eat the right foods to see water’s effects,” says Stookey, at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California. And water might make help some diets deliver bigger results. To maintain or lose weight, she recommends drinking water with meals, avoiding all caloric drinks including juice and drinking enough to ensure that your urine is light yellow. As for exercise, the American College of Sports Medicine has long recommended that athletes drink enough fluids while exercising to avoid losing more than 2 percent of their body weight. Sweating away more than that might impair aerobic performance, speed, strength and endurance. But that number has become a subject of debate. Some people tolerate dehydration better than others. And sometimes, dehydration may offer an advantage. Elite marathon runners regularly lose 5 percent or more of their body weight through sweat during races, Mears says. And some run faster as they become lighter. According to some studies, the fastest endurance runners and triathletes lose more than 3 or 4 percent of their weight during races. Despite common belief, dehydration also does not seem to raise risks of cramping. Retired Ethiopian marathon runner Haile Gebrselassie reportedly lost 10 percent of his body weight (or about 12 pounds) during some races, Mears says. And he still broke world records. But his sweat rate was not typical. In a study published this year, Spanish researchers analyzed sweat samples taken from 157 experienced runners and found a range in the concentration of salt in the runners’ sweat that was unrelated to age, body size, training or even sweat rate. The amount of salt you lose affects how much salt and water you need to replace to stay hydrated, says Dirk de Heer, an exercise physiology researcher at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. As elite athletes continue to follow particular and often quirky rehydration plans, experts increasingly recommend drinking to thirst while exercising or going about daily activities. Extra drinking is not required after massages, either, despite the idea that lactic acid gets released by


In Britain, ‘remainers’ find hope in Brexit court decision

the end of March — it could now involve multiple steps. The majority of lawmakers voted to “remain” in the E.U., but there have been few calls since the referendum to contradict the electorate and block Brexit. One headline in the pro-E.U. Guardian newspaper on Friday said, “Ardent remainers: don’t let high court decision raise your hopes.” But analysts said that Parliament’s involvement could hugely complicate May’s exit strategy. If the government loses its case in the Supreme Court next month, Parliament would probably need to pass legislation before triggering Article 50. It is unclear what that would look like, but any such act could be subject to amendments by both houses of Parliament. It also is an open question as to how long that would take. Some of those who campaigned for Brexit argue that Thursday’s ruling is an establishment setup, a way to ignore the democratic will of the British people who decisively voted to leave the bloc. The Daily Mail newspaper featured pictures Friday of the three High Court judges on its front page under the headline “Enemies of the People.” In an editorial, the Sun newspaper asked whether politicians would honor the “biggest ballot box mandate in British history” or “sniffily decide the little people cannot be trusted.” Nigel Farage, a prominent Brexiteer and the interim leader of the U.K. Independence Party, tweeted: “My fear is we now get half Brexit. Establishment will try and lock us inside single market. Would be a total betrayal!” Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister, told the BBC on Friday that several pro-E.U. lawmakers, including him, would seek legislation that promoted a “soft Brexit” as well as “some means by which the British people can have a say on the final deal” when negotiations with the E.U. are finished. Britain’s House of Commons has 650 members, many of whom have diverging views on Brexit. The House of Lords, the upper chamber, has more than 800 members. Anthony King, a professor of government at the University of Essex, said that the impact of having to consult with Parliament means that “the number of potential veto players or politicians of influence has suddenly increased.” “It may never happen,” King said of Britain’s departure from the E.U. “And if it does happen, it will be as soft as the remainers and the people who want a soft exit can possibly hope for.”


Local Digest: Nov. 4, 2016

THE DISTRICT Murder convictions in killing of 2 teens Two D.C. men were found guilty of murder Thursday for a 2009 shooting that left a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old dead, prosecutors said. In 2009, Sequarn Tibbs, 25, and Earl Jackson, 23, were part of a group, known as “Young Savage” in Southeast, the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia said in a statement. On Oct. 13 of that year, they were part of a group that started a gun battle with people from another neighborhood whom they thought had robbed Jackson’s mother’s home, the statement said. Tibbs’s brother, Daquan Tibbs, 18, of Southeast and Davonta Artis, 15, of Northeast — a bystander — were killed in the shooting in the 300 block of 53rd Street NE, and three others were wounded, according to the statement. Tibbs and Jackson are to be sentenced in January. — Justin Wm. Moyer Guilty plea in theft from lawyers group A former employee of the American Association for Justice has pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge for embezzling nearly $250,000 from the Washington-based nonprofit group, prosecutors said. Tamara Kukla, 47, now of Plano, Tex., served as director of membership for the group formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. In her plea Wednesday, she agreed to repay $248,755 in personal expenses that she admitted claiming were work-related on a corporate credit card from late 2009 through 2011, authorities said. Prosecutors said Kukla faces a likely sentencing range of 12 to 18 months at a hearing set for Feb. 24 before U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington on one count of interstate transportation of stolen property. The charge carries a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison. An attorney for Kukla declined to comment on the plea. — Spencer S. Hsu Capitol Christmas tree on way to Washington This year’s Christmas tree for the U.S. Capitol grounds has been cut and is making a 2,500-mile journey from a park in Idaho to Washington. The tree comes from the Payette National Forest near McCall, Idaho. It is making several stops in communities along its journey to the nation’s capital. It is expected to arrive in Washington on Nov. 28 to be decorated. A lighting ceremony will take place on the Capitol grounds Dec. 6. This year’s tree is an Engelmann spruce. It weighs 16,500 pounds and is 79 years


In ‘Little Moscow,’ Russians helped Donald Trump’s brand survive the recession

on the brink of failure until a new developer stepped in. Trump attended a flashy relaunch party in February 2011. Eight months later, the Trump Hollywood posted a notice on its Facebook page bragging that “since our relaunch in February, Trump Hollywood has seen Russian buyers spend $11.2 million on luxury residences.” Seven months after that, the building’s units were sold out. Trump was so pleased that he recorded a video to praise the building’s development team for turning things around. Trump pocketed $10 million to $20 million from the project, according to one of the developers, Daniel Lebensohn. Both of the Trump Hollywood penthouses appear to have been purchased by Russians. Property records show that one unit was purchased for $6.75 million in 2010 by a company associated with Oleg Miserva, a Russian coal company president who met with Putin in 2010, according to a news release on the website of a Russian government archive. The other oceanfront penthouse unit was purchased for about $6 million by Elena Gorlova, who shared a Florida address with a businessman named Eli Aliyevich Dzhabrailov. According to a listing on the real estate website Zillow, the unit features seven bedrooms and 8½ bathrooms, a private terrace, and floor-to-ceiling windows with panoramic ocean views. It was purchased on the same day that Dzhabrailov bought a second unit in the building for $1.48 million. They could not be reached for comment. One of those penthouse buyers flew high-end interior designer Stephen Gurowitz and a Miami real estate agent, Monica Gorban, to Moscow in 2011 to discuss plans to decorate the unit and other properties. Neither Gurowitz nor Gorban would identify the client, and they said they did not know what he did for a living. They described how they were flown to Moscow, put up at a Ritz-Carlton hotel and driven in an armored Mercedes-Benz to the investor’s compound in the Moscow suburbs. “You never find out what kind of business they’re in,” Gorban said. “All I knew was that the checks came, they closed, and life was good.” Gurowitz and Gorban said that their client had purchased the penthouse and a second unit in the building. “To really sum it up, in all fairness, why do the Russians come here? For the weather, for the lifestyle and because it’s a good place to bury their money,” Gorban said. Alice Crites contributed to this report.


U.S. military acknowledges anti-Taliban airstrikes killed Afghan civilians

Relatives attend the funeral of Afghan children who were killed in airstrikes in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Nov. 4. (Najim Rahim/EPA) KABUL — The U.S. officials did not provide numbers or details of the casualties, but Afghan officials and witnesses have said that 30 civilians, including many women and children, were killed and about 25 others wounded when their homes in Bozi Kandahari village were bombed as the families slept. Two U.S. service members and three Afghan Special Operations forces were also killed in fighting there. The civilian deaths have drawn sharp criticism from rights groups and some Afghan leaders, including former president Hamid Karzai, who has long complained that Western bombings and raids cause needless deaths and undermine the war against Taliban insurgents. Thursday’s incident came just over a year after an errant U.S. airstrike in Kunduz City killed 42 people in an emergency hospital amid heavy fighting. Taliban fighters, who seized the strategic northern city for more than a week in October 2015, attacked it again a month ago and have remained active in the surrounding area ever since, taking cover in residential areas to avoid capture. Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, issued a statement saying: “I deeply regret the loss of innocent lives, regardless of the circumstances. The loss of innocent life is a tragedy and our thoughts are with the families.” He said U.S. military officials will work with Afghan authorities to investigate the incident and provide assistance to the villagers. U.S. and Afghan military officials spoke at a joint news conference here Saturday, although their accounts of the events Thursday differed slightly. The U.S. officials said Afghan forces, with assistance from U.S. advisers, raided the village in search of “Taliban leaders who were planning additional attacks” in Kunduz City. Coming under heavy fire from “multiple locations,” they said, the forces “defended themselves with ground fire and U.S. air-to-ground engagements.” The U.S. officials said several Taliban leaders and members were apparently killed in the clashes, but that the insurgents “continue to pose a threat to Kunduz.” Afghan military officials gave a more detailed description, saying that the raid had been prompted by intelligence reports that a senior Taliban leader in the area, Maulvi Mutaqi, was holding a meeting in a house in Bozi Kandahari. Late Wednesday, they said, Special Forces were lowered into the village from helicopters. “After our commandos descended,


There’s more on the ballot than Trump and Clinton: A look at state ballot measures

the gold standard,” said Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which is supporting legalization. There are more than 150 ballot measures being voted on across the country Nov. 8. Here are some of the most common and controversial. In an interview with Bill Maher on Friday, President Obama said he does not think legalization of marijuana is a panacea, but that if the initiatives are approved, about 20 percent of Americans will live in a state where marijuana is legal — making enforcement difficult for federal authorities. “The Justice department, DEA, FBI — for them to try to straddle and try to figure out how they’re supposed to enforce some laws in some places and not in others, that is not going to be tenable,” Obama said. But some longtime marijuana farmers in Northern California are leery of the measure. They are wary of some of the measure’s big-pocketed donors, including Facebook and Napster co-founder Sean Parker, and worry that it could create factory farming of marijuana in the state. “There’s a ton of fears,” said Chrystal Ortiz, a second-generation marijuana farmer on the Humboldt County Sun Growers Guild. Gun-control advocates are looking for victories in Maine and Nevada, two rural states with robust gun cultures that will vote on whether to close a loophole in federal law and require background checks for almost all gun purchases. Californians will decide if they want to ban the sale of high-capacity magazines and require background checks for ammunition purchases. In Washington state, residents will vote on whether to allow family members to seek a temporary order barring a person from access to firearms if the person is determined to pose a risk to themselves or others. Frustrated by congressional inaction, gun-control proponents are pursuing a strategy reminiscent of the one taken by same-sex marriage activists a decade earlier, attempting to change the law state by state. In Colorado, voters will choose from a number of initiatives, including whether to create a single-payer health-care system. The health measure has split liberals in the state, with supporters saying it will save Colorado residents money and curb health spending, and opponents arguing that the program will be too big and have a larger budget than the state government. Voters will also have the chance to make assisted suicide legal in the state — a controversial measure that has been enacted in six other


Want to avoid holiday stress? Start preparing your kitchen now.

It’s good to stock up on pantry staples such as pasta and rice if you plan to entertain over the holidays. (iStockphoto) Now that Halloween is over, the holiday season is truly right around the corner. Before the mayhem begins, set aside some time to take stock of your pantry, refrigerator and freezer to ensure you have all the essentials on hand, for day-to-day use and for entertaining. Take inventory of what you have, clear out expired and unneeded items, and make a list of what you need to buy. Yes, this requires time and energy, but the stress it will save you later will make it worth it. I promise. Spices First stop: the dreaded spice cabinet, where deciding what to keep and what to toss can be confusing. Take everything out of the cabinet or off your spice rack so you can see all of it at once — and so you can clean those surfaces. Bottles that are almost empty should be recycled, as should any that are well past their expiration date. If there is no expiration date on the bottle and you think you’ve had it for more than a year, go ahead and toss it. Martha Stewart advises that spices remain potent for about a year, if stored properly. Check your supply of salt and pepper, too, and start your shopping list with spices you need to replace. A paper list still works well for many people, but if you’re more technically inclined, you could try one of several popular grocery list apps such as Out of Milk, OurGroceries, Grocery Pal, Grocery IQ (all available for Android or iOS) or AnyList (available for iOS). Some of these apps allow you to collaborate with family members on shopping lists, some search for coupons at nearby stores, and some let you save recipes and integrate the ingredients into your shopping list. Baking supplies Next stop: baking essentials. My list of must-haves includes flour, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract (why do they sell it in such tiny bottles?), chocolate chips, cornstarch and vegetable oil. I store flour and sugar in airtight containers that are easy to scoop from. It’s a good idea to top off those containers now. Then add any missing items or things you’re running low on to your shopping list. If you are planning to do any cookie


A new crop of innovative bean-based foods is coming to your grocery store

Don’t underestimate the nutritional power of pulses, a category of food including chickpeas, lentils, beans and peas. (iStockphoto) There has been a lot of talk about beans this year — well, pulses, really, a category including dried beans, lentils and peas — no doubt propelled by the United Nations’ declaration of 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. But more than just talk, there has been action, too, with a new crop of innovative bean-based foods hitting the marketplace. Bean products were one of the biggest trends I spotted at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Boston last month, where I sampled several exciting new varieties, and I have also been watching the category grow exponentially at the grocery store in the past year. There is good reason to be pro-pulse. They are a powerfully nutritious food, packed with protein, essential minerals, fiber and antioxidants. They are sustainable to grow, requiring considerably less water than other protein sources and little or no fertilizer. They store easily — dried beans will retain their optimal quality in a cool, dry place in an airtight container for at least a year, and canned at least two years. On top of that, they are globally appealing — just about every culture in the world uses beans in its cuisine. One downside is that most dried beans need hours of soaking before they are cooked, which requires forethought with meal planning, but there are many, such as lentils, that don’t need to be soaked at all and can be ready in less than 30 minutes. And, of course, canned beans allow you to have cooked beans effortlessly on demand. I can think of dozens of delicious and easy ways to enjoy pulses in their naked state, simply cooked or right out of the can: Sprinkle — or pile — them onto salads; use them as a base for, or an addition to, soups, stews and chili; toss them into pasta dishes, an act that can be as much of a no-brainer as tumbling a can of cannellini beans into jarred tomato sauce; or whir beans in the food processor with some garlic, herbs, lemon and olive oil for a bean dip or spread. Using whole, unseasoned cooked beans as an ingredient for home cooking offers the biggest value nutritionally, economically and sustainability-wise. The new bean products are typically


Are ferry, gondola, high-speed rail ideas for D.C. region realistic or fantasy?

still faces questions and hurdles. As with other major transportation endeavors, funding remains the key challenge. Operating a ferry route from Alexandria to the District could cost nearly $6 million. According to a market feasibility report last year, with as many as 2,000 trips per day, the route is commercially viable. Although there is no estimate of how much it would cost to build docks and access points, a major hurdle, according to one study, would be addressing stakeholders’ concerns “about adding another mode to the mix of decisions on existing highway and transit infrastructure maintenance needs as well as already planned and underway transportation infrastructure expansions [that] may cause even more ‘fog’ in the funding equation.” Still, some supporters say a ferry system would be cheaper and easier than investing in underground tunnels to expand Metro. The Silver Line extension, the first phase of which opened two years ago, cost $5.8 billion. Adding an infill station in Alexandria’s Potomac Yard community is expected to cost $268 million. By comparison, building a gondola over the Potomac connecting Rosslyn and Georgetown would cost $80 million to $90 million, according to a feasibility study released last week. The annual operating cost would be about $3.25 million. The cable-propelled transit system has potential to allow people to travel more quickly between Washington and Virginia, and serve at least 6,500 passengers a day, the report says. “This is something that could be done,” said D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3). Cheh, who chairs the council’s transportation committee, helped secure $35,000 in the city’s budget to fund a gondola feasibility study. “Given that it has great advantages for easing some transportation snags and revitalizing the Georgetown area, which doesn’t have a subway, I am kind of keen to seeing what the steps are to implement it,” Cheh said. Other ideas appear more out of reach. Building a 40-mile high-speed magnetic-levitation, or maglev, train system that could carry passengers between Washington and Baltimore in 15 minutes would cost at least $10 billion, according to estimates. Still, a critical step was taken last year when the U.S. Transportation Department awarded nearly $28 million to conduct studies on building the high-speed rail line. The funds support private-sector efforts to bring maglev trains to the region as part of a larger vision for building such a system along the Northeast Corridor. In the plan to speed up


Coast Guard orders unsafe ship to stay in Baltimore, stranding its crew

the company facing unexpected costs, but said the firm remains in control of the situation. NewLead is working with a French bank that holds a mortgage on the ship to reach a resolution, she said. “The management of the company took the decision to stop the vessel from continuing trading in order to ensure the safety of the crew on board,” Gerouki said in a statement. “NewLead’s management decision was taken in order to protect life and well-being of the crew on board the vessel which is of primary and utmost importance to the company.” The problems began when the 368-foot asphalt tanker had a serious engine failure near Baltimore. The Coast Guard inspected the ship Sept. 20 and determined the Newlead Granadino had safety violations and ordered it detained, said Petty Officer Barry Bena, a Coast Guard spokesman. The vessel has been anchored in the Patapsco River, west of the Key Bridge. NewLead has faced other problems in recent months. Its chief executive resigned in late October due to a “strictly personal legal matter,” the company announced, and another one of its ships was auctioned off in Savannah, Ga., in August. U.S. marshals had detained that ship in April after some of NewLead’s creditors sued in federal court over unpaid debts. The creditors described NewLead in their lawsuit as “little more than a hollow shell.” NewLead’s lawyers denied the allegations in court, but a judge ordered the ship sold. In that case, too, the ship’s crew was left stranded, the ship at anchor off the Georgia coast, but they were paid and fed by the creditors in the case. Shipley said it’s not uncommon for sailors to get caught in the middle of financial disputes involving shipping companies. “We deal with this quite often,” she said. “More often than we would like.” In the 1990s, a Yugoslavian ship, the Durmitor, was stuck in Baltimore for five years, caught up in the politics surrounding the war in Bosnia. The ship’s owner rotated in crews who spent long, boring stretches aboard. The Newlead Granadino’s crew members, who declined to be interviewed, cannot leave the ship. Some of them don’t have visas, and Enrico Esopa, an official with the International Transportation Workers Federation, said if they were to leave, they would give up any hope of getting back wages they are owed. “If they leave the vessel just to go home, they


How Campaign 2016 could shift the climate debate for the better

Smoke rises from the Colstrip Steam Electric Station, a coal-burning power plant in Colstrip, Mont., in 2013. (Matt Brown/Associated Press) September 2016 was a milestone for the earth’s climate. It was the hottest September on record, nearly a degree Celsius warmer than the average from 1951 to 1980. It also was the first September where the Mauna Loa Observatory — “the gold standard for carbon dioxide monitoring” — measured the monthly average of carbon dioxide at more than 400 parts per million (ppm). Because September is almost always the annual low point for CO2 readings, that means the world has permanently crossed the 400 ppm threshold. That also means what today we call the hottest September ever will soon be a normal, or even cool, September. Scientists have long forecast that if we could cut emissions enough to limit warming to two degrees Celsius, we could avoid the effects of climate change — including sea rise, crop failure, increased extreme weather — spinning out of control. We’ve already crossed the one-degree threshold and are projected to reach around four degrees. That’s about seven degrees Fahrenheit — imagine how different your state’s weather would be if temperatures averaged seven degrees warmer every day. Is there any hope for the future? President Obama has made progress in cutting emissions and moving the country to cleaner energy. Facing a fanatically anti-environment GOP Congress, however, he has had to depend largely on executive branch powers. The next president will need to not only preserve those policies — among them limits on power-plant emissions, raised fuel standards and measures to reduce methane emissions — but also expand them. Only one of the two presidential candidates has a climate policy; luckily, it’s the one holding a commanding lead. Hillary Clinton’s plan isn’t perfect: Her softness on the dangers of fracking and her embrace of the ethanol-boosting Renewable Fuel Standard program — which has done more to help the corn industry than the environment — are troubling. But she would also build on the president’s strengthening of fuel-economy and efficiency standards, include green energy projects in her national infrastructure plan, implement the landmark Paris climate deal and Obama’s Clean Power Plan and spend $60 billion to fund states and cities that want to go beyond White House goals for lower emissions. If climate change is, in Clinton’s words, “a defining challenge of our time,” it’s disappointing to


These five plants don’t just look good — they improve your health, too

Certain plants can improve the air in our homes and offices. (iStockphoto) It should come as no surprise that plants play a vital role in maintaining our atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen through the well-known process of photosynthesis. (Thanks, high school earth science class.) But certain plant varieties go a step further by reducing airborne toxins, including carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and benzene, from the air we breathe in our homes and offices. “With all the synthetic building components and furnishings found within a modern building, there usually exist myriad chemicals in the indoor air,” B.C. “Bill” Wolverton, an environmental engineer and retired senior research scientist at NASA , said in an email. While at NASA, he was the principal investigator of the Clean Air Study, which discovered that certain houseplants had the ability to remove airborne chemicals and help purify the air in space stations. Many household items, such as carpets, draperies and stoves, contain pollutants, and lots of commonly used goods, including glue, detergent, grocery bags, toilet paper and even facial wipes, emit toxic compounds. “These chemicals are often found in low levels but combine to produce a chemical soup,” Wolverton said. That doesn’t sound very appetizing. Prolonged exposure to these pollutants, such as formaldehyde, can lead to health problems such as sore throats, scratchy eyes and nosebleeds, and long-term, serious ailments, including decreased lung function and an increased risk of asthma and cancer, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry. Luckily for us, several common houseplants double as natural air purifiers, efficiently and effectively absorbing and filtering out toxic agents from our indoor air. With winter on the horizon (and the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimation that Americans spend on average a whopping 93 percent of their lives indoors), it’s a great time to consider investing in one of these detoxifying plants. We asked Wolverton, author of “How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants That Purify Your Home or Office” and “Plants: Why You Can’t Live Without Them,” to provide his top recommendations for houseplants that are readily available, easy to maintain and efficient at cleaning the air in your home. Lady palm An adaptable, green plant known for its fan-shaped foliage, the lady palm can thrive in dry or humid environments, requires little sunlight and is resistant to pests. If you have pets, this might be your best bet, as it’s


Third UMd student reports being hit by BB gun projectile.

A third University of Maryland student has reported being struck by a possible BB projectile, the campus police reported. The third student, a woman, told police just before midnight on Sunday that she had been struck about 7:20 p.m., that night “by what she believed to be a BB pellet,” the campus police said. Two other students had already reported being struck Sunday night on the campus in College Park. The woman student said she was hit while walking along Paint Branch Drive, near the Kim Engineering Building. Like the other two students, both male, she reported no injury, the police said. One of the two previous BB-gun incidents was reported about the same time and in the same place as the most recent report. In a report received about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, a student said he was struck by what he took to be a BB projectile on Paint Branch Drve between the Kim Engineering Building and the Biomolecular Science Building. In the other earlier report, a male student said he was hit by what he thought to be a BB projectile while walking on the sidewalk between the Stadium Drive garage and Ellicott Hall. That report was made about 8:30 p.m., and in it the student told of being struck about an hour earlier, police said. BB guns fire a spherical projectile, often made of steel, that is about .175 inch in diameter. In many BB guns the projectiles are propelledby gas from cartridges of compressed carbon dioxide. Depending on the type of gun, BB velocities can range from 275 to 475 feet per second. Bullets propelled by gunpowder often have speeds two to three times higher. .


Supreme Court hears arguments about Miami suing banks over lending

and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy suggested that they saw a need to limit the types of suits that could be filed under the landmark 1968 housing law. — Bloomberg News ENERGY Iran, French firm sign $4.8 billion gas deal Iran on Tuesday signed a preliminary $4.8 billion natural gas agreement with the French company Total. It was the first such deal after a nuclear accord with world powers ended international sanctions that had squeezed the nation’s fossil fuel-based economy. The deal, to be finalized next year, is for new development at the vast South Pars gas field and aims to produce 1.8 billion cubic feet of gas per day for domestic consumption and export. Total would have a 50.1 percent stake; China National Petroleum would have 30 percent, and Petropars, a subsidiary of Iran’s national oil company, would have 19.9 percent ownership. — Associated Press Also in Business ● CVS Health’s third-quarter profit jumped on a boost in prescription volume and higher retail sales. But revenue fell short of Wall Street expectations, and the company trimmed its outlook. The drugstore chain and pharmacy benefits manager reported a 23.5 percent boost in profit to $1.54 billion. Adjusted earnings were $1.64 per share, topping Wall Street forecasts. Revenue jumped 15.5 percent to $44.62 billion in the period, but missed Street forecasts of $45.31 billion. ● U.S. job openings rose in September from the lowest level of the year while hiring slowed, figures from the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed Tuesday. Job openings edged up to 5.49 million, matching median estimates, from a revised 5.45 million in August. Hiring declined to 5.08 million from 5.27 million, while the hiring rate dropped to a four-month low of 3.5 percent. Some 3 million Americans quit their jobs, and layoffs decreased to 1.47 million from 1.69 million. ● Walmart is being sued on behalf of consumers who said the retailer sold products falsely labeled “100 % Egyptian Cotton” from an Indian textile company for years after it first became suspicious of their origin. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, said Walmart questioned the fiber content of Welspun India’s products as early as 2008, but waited until two months ago to halt sales of its mislabeled Egyptian cotton linens, following a similar halt by Target. — From news services Coming Today ● 10 a.m.: Commerce Department releases wholesale trade inventories for September. ● Earnings: Mylan


Woman, 40, found fatally stabbed in Southeast

A woman was found fatally stabbed Tuesday afternoon in Southeast Washington, D.C. police said. Antina Cindette Pratt, 40, of Southeast Washington was found about 3 p.m. in the 2600 block of Pomeroy Road SE, said Officer Sean Hickman, a police spokesman. He said she had been stabbed “multiple times.” The block is near the Barry Farm section of Anacostia, and the place where the body was found is lined with trees and shrubbery. It was not immediately clear how long the woman had been there before being found. No information was available about a suspect or motive.


Montgomery County 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. silver spring Chow bites boy at park aspen hill Repeat offender beagle jumps on pit bull Reduced FEES FOR CATS Cats and kittens will be available for adoption at the next open house of Friends of Montgomery County Animals at the following location. Call 301-977-4833 or visit fmca.org or facebook.com/fmcainfo.PetSmart at Milestone Center, 20924 Frederick Rd., Germantown. Hours: 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday. Cats at no-kill shelter Cats and kittens will be available for adoption through the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County’s no-kill shelter at the following location. For information, call 301-740-2511 or visit awlmc.org.Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County no-kill shelter, 12 Park Ave., Gaithersburg. Hours: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Humane Society adoptions The Montgomery County Humane Society’s private rescue shelter has dogs, puppies, cats and kittens available for adoption. Call 240-252-2555 or visit mchumane.org.MCHS Adoptions and Education Center, 601 S. Stonestreet Ave., Rockville. Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except holidays. — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Legal marijuana poised to grow as states vote to raise minimum wage, too

A worker waters cannabis plants on a California farm in August. Several states voted Tuesday on whether to legalize marijuana. (Rory Carroll/Reuters) Voters in California, Massachusetts, Nevada and possibly Maine approved the recreational use of marijuana Tuesday, and people in four states, including Florida, will soon be able to use the drug for medical reasons. Out of nine states considering ballot initiatives on marijuana, only Arizona seemed poised to reject a proposal allowing its recreational use. Florida became the first state in the Southeast to legalize medical use of the drug, and Arkansas, North Dakota and possibly Montana approved similar measures. Marijuana was one of several big ballot initiatives and proposals facing residents of various states. Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington approved increases in the minimum wage. Voters in California were leaning toward endorsing the death penalty, and Nebraska voted to reinstate it. Oklahoma voted to allow more methods of execution. In Colorado, voters rejected a universal health-care plan by a wide margin. Voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada just approved recreational marijuana use. Here's what they can learn from Washington, Colorado and Oregon, states where marijuana use has already been legalized. Before Tuesday, medical marijuana was legal in more than half of the 50 states, with recreational use permitted in four — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — as well as in the District of Columbia. If all the marijuana initiatives are approved, more than 23 percent of the U.S. population will live in states where recreational marijuana is legal, according to the Associated Press. “We’re fast approaching the day when Americans will look back on the marijuana wars of recent decades the same way we now look back on alcohol prohibition: as a costly, foolish and deadly mistake,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which pushes for national legalization. The votes to expand the use of marijuana come just days after President Obama acknowledged in an interview with comedian and activist Bill Maher his growing concern about the conflict between state and federal laws. “The Justice Department, DEA, FBI — for them to try to straddle and try to figure out how they’re supposed to enforce some laws in some places and not in others, that is not going to be tenable,” Obama said. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has said she supports decriminalizing marijuana. National polls show that a majority


Panic, anger and a scramble to stash cash amid India’s ‘black money’ squeeze

be effective in ridding the system of counterfeit bills — about $20 million was seized last year in his state, he said. But it would probably not have much effect on India’s black market economy overall — as a lot of the illegitimate funds are in real estate or gold. “Will it shut off new black money that’s being created? It won’t,” said Rama Bijapurkar, a market strategist and consumer expert in Mumbai. “But as a one-time shut-off, it’s a masterstroke.” The effect on regular folk was immediate and widespread, especially in villages — whose predominantly cash-based economies ground to a halt as residents scrounged for coins to pay for basic supplies. Wives who secretly squirreled away hundreds in kitchen kitties — away from the control of husbands — suddenly had to admit to their secret stash or ponder opening a bank account. The government has made a major push to provide bank accounts to those who previously did not have them, but 233 million still remain “unbanked,” Bijapurkar said. Dashrat Kumar Pal, 40, a steel company clerk in Delhi, said a lavish wedding party for his niece had been canceled in favor of a small religious ceremony because the family did not have enough cash to pay the vendors. “The big party we had planned is called off,” he said glumly. “The cooks, the music band, the florist — all of them want to be paid in cash. Where do we go? What do we do?” He went on, “Now we are calling everybody and canceling.” The government’s move was a boon to India’s growing online-payment industry, which has long operated on a cash-on-delivery model designed to address low credit-card use. After the government’s announcement, downloads of digital payment apps have soared. Paytm, an online payment system, saw a 200 percent increase in application downloads and 1,000 percent growth in the amount of money flowing to digital wallets since Tuesday evening, according to Madhur Deora, its chief financial officer. “The government’s decision will structurally change the digital-payment behavior of Indians,” said Rajnish Wahi, senior vice president for corporate affairs at Snapdeal, a major online retailer. Suchi Goenka, a restaurateur in Mumbai, said that although she supported the government’s plan, it will take time for the country to reconcile to the change. “In India, we prefer cash,” she said. “We were brought up that way.” Lakshmi reported from New Delhi.


Washington Post bestsellers: Nov. 13, 2016

Paperback Fiction 1. THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (Riverhead, $9.99, $16). By Paula Hawkins. A woman witnesses a shocking crime. [17] 2. A MAN CALLED OVE (Washington Square, $16). By Fredrik Backman. An old crank might just be softened by his new neighbors. [24] 3. THE SELLOUT (Picador, $16). By Paul Beatty. This satire of race and class in America won the 2016 Booker Prize. [2] 4. CHRISTMAS IN ALASKA (Mira, $7.99). By Debbie Macomber. Matchmaking aunts send a jilted lover to find love in Alaska. [2] 5. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (Grand Central, $8.99). By Harper Lee. The Pulitzer Prize-winning tale set in the Depression-era South. [91] 6. THE LITTLE PARIS BOOKSHOP (Broadway, $16). By Nina George. Monsieur Perdu owns a floating bookstore on the Seine, which he takes to the south of France. [5] 7. KILLER CHEF (BookShots, $4.99). By James Patterson and Jeffrey J. Keyes. Someone is poisoning New Orleans diners. [1] 8. TOM CLANCY: COMMANDER IN CHIEF (Berkley, $9.99). By Mark Greaney. President Jack Ryan must avert a Russian plan to push the world in chaos. [1] 9. MISSING (Grand Central, $15.99). By James Patterson and Kathryn Fox. The investigators at Private Sydney search for a stolen baby and a brutal killer. [2] 10. THE CROSSING (Vision, $9.99). By Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch leaves retirement to help his defense-attorney brother protect a client. [3] Nonfiction/General 1. MICHELIN GUIDE WASHINGTON, DC 2017 (Michelin Travel Publications, $12.95). By the editors of Michelin Travel Publications. [4] 2. MILK AND HONEY (Andrews McMeel, $14.99) By Rupi Kaur. A collection of poetry and prose about survival. [21] 3. ALEXANDER HAMILTON (Penguin, $20). By Ron Chernow. [51] 4. YOU ARE A BADASS: HOW TO STOP DOUBTING YOUR GREATNESS AND START LIVING AN AWESOME LIFE (Running Press, $16). By Jen Sincero. [34] 5. THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE TRIPOLI PIRATES: THE FORGOTTEN WAR THAT CHANGED AMERICAN HISTORY (Sentinel, $17). By Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger. [3] 6. THE SWOLY BIBLE: THE BRO SCIENCE WAY OF LIFE (Plume, $15). By Dom Mazzetti. [1] 7. THE 5 LOVE LANGUAGES: THE SECRET TO LOVE THAT LASTS (Northfield, $15.99). By Gary D. Chapman. [199] 8. THE ROAD TO LITTLE DRIBBLING: ADVENTURES OF AN AMERICAN IN BRITAIN (Anchor, $16.95). By Bill Bryson. [1] 9. THE COURT AND THE WORLD: AMERICAN LAW AND THE NEW GLOBAL REALITIES (Vintage, $17). By Stephen Breyer. [1] 10. UNINVITED: LIVING LOVED WHEN YOU FEEL


Onetime Navy seal dies at National Zoo

Selkie arrived at the National Zoo in 1979 after five years of working with the Navy in a secret government program. Selkie, who died Thursday at age 43, is shown in January playing in the snow. (Chelsea Grubb/Smithsonian's National Zoo) The National Zoo lost ones of its elders Thursday. Gray seal Selkie, part of the American Trail exhibit, died at age 43. Selkie was among the oldest zoo residents. But her age wasn’t noteworthy just in Washington. Selkie was the oldest gray seal “living in human care,” according to zoo officials. Female gray seals often live close to 40 years old in zoos but only 25 to 30 years in the wild. She also had an interesting backstory. Selkie was born in Iceland and spent her early years in a secret program at the Naval Ocean Systems Center in San Diego, California. A real-life Navy seal, she was trained to retrieve equipment from the ocean floor. She also learned how to use a screwdriver and turn a large wheel valve. In 1979, the Navy stopped working with animal seals (Human SEALs are part of a special Navy combat unit). Selkie and a male seal named Gunnar were sent to the National Zoo. Selkie was the oldest gray seal “living in human care,” zoo officials said. (Mark Van Bergh/Smithsonian Institution) After arriving in Washington, she and Gunnar had four female pups. Pups Kara and Kjya, along with granddaughter Rona can be seen on American Trail. Gunnar died in 2012. In recent years, Selkie was unable to see because of cataracts. She often used ramps to get out of the pool. For the past several months, zookeepers and veterinarians had been watching growths on her abdomen, according to a zoo statement. She had an exam Tuesday but had seemed to recover well and behave normally. Doctors will look into how and why Selkie died, the zoo said. Gray seals live in the coastal waters of the North Atlantic and eat fish, crustaceans, squid and octopus. They weigh about 35 pounds at birth and grow to more than 500 pounds. The species isn’t considered an endangered. Gray seal populations fell dramatically in the first half of the 20th century because of widespread hunting. But the numbers have bounced back off New England since 1972, when the Marine Mammal Protection Act made killing them a crime.


The slopes, the powder and the prices make Japan a worthy ski trip

around the corner to receive our steaming bowls of noodles and tempura from a more-familiar cafeteria line of humans. The tech-assisted ordering is a rare nod to Japanese efficiency in the country’s ski industry, most of which is stuck in the 1980s, and not intentionally. “When something gets hot in Japan, everyone — and I mean everyone — does it,” says Bill Glude, an affable Alaskan who has been a ski guide in Japan since 2004. “That was skiing in the 1980s,” a decade when the country’s economy was on fire. “They built up all this infrastructure to support the obsession. Then the economy crashed and people just stopped skiing.” Some resorts shut down. Others limped along in bankruptcy protection, which left little cash for on-mountain improvements. As a result there are few high-speed lifts in Japan, and some areas, including Seki, feature what are affectionately known as “pizza box” lifts — single-seat chairs with only the suggestion of a backrest. There are exceptions to this throwback vibe, notably at the bigger resorts on Hokkaido and in the Hakuba area, a two-hour drive south of Myoko. The lack of new investment is most evident in the layout of the resorts. Too many lifts terminate just below the most alluring terrain, and I continually catch myself gazing up at chutes, glades and bowls, willing a chairlift to appear. We find the best pitches at a burly mountain called Madarao, where 15 lifts serve 30 runs on a vertical drop of 1,500 feet, including numerous glades and a few shots of steep trees. I can see how this would be a powder hound’s paradise in a normal year, but we make the best of it by finding scraps of unsullied snow in the woods before turning to soft moguls and long, ripping groomers. The drought, thankfully, has not impacted the food supply. We hit a different restaurant every night, most decorated in an odd mix of traditional art, yellowing ski photos and trail maps. Each is a restorative adventure, including udon noodles in black squid ink, kimchi ramen, traditional Japanese oden and, at Sushi Takasago, buttery cuts of fish and hot sake delivered by an ever-smiling matron. As we are leaving, she and her husband, who is cleaning up the sushi bar beneath a glass-cased display of 29 large, gleaming fishhooks, hands us slices of the sweetest, crispiest apple I have ever


Russia: Stop messing with our elections

(Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images) Regarding the Nov. 3 Campaign 2016 article “Comey advised against denunciation of Russia for hacks”: The Russian interference in our elections is an act of terrorism and presents an existential threat to our political system and our nation. With regard to state sponsors of terrorism, the State Department says, “Countries determined by the Secretary of State to have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism are designated pursuant to three laws: section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act, section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, and section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act. Taken together, the four main categories of sanctions resulting from designation under these authorities include restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance; a ban on defense exports and sales; certain controls over exports of dual use items; and miscellaneous financial and other restrictions.” Russia and perhaps Ecuador, which harbors WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, should be warned that they face severe consequences if they continue to interfere with our electoral system. Joseph Maio, Round Hill


Microbes from a 220-year-old bottle of beer create a new brew

Researchers used yeast recovered from a bottle found in a shipwreck from 1797 to brew a mild-tasting beer they’ve named Preservation Ale. (COURTESY OF DAVID THURROWGOOD) Yeast microbes from the world’s oldest bottle of beer — a 220-year-old container found in one of Australia’s earliest shipwrecks — are being used to create a new, modern beer with the characteristic taste of the 18th-century brew. The yeast was grown from the contents of a bottle of beer recovered from the wreck of the Sydney Cove, a British trading ship that got caught in a storm near the island of Tasmania, off Australia’s south coast, in 1797 while on its way from India to the prison colony at Port Jackson, now the city of Sydney. The crew of the Sydney Cove survived by grounding the sinking ship on a tiny island off northern Tasmania, now called Preservation Island. (That’s part of the inspiration for the name of the re-created beer: Preservation Ale.) The researchers used the yeast to brew a mild-tasting beer using a traditional recipe from the time, and they say it has a distinct flavor. “It’s got quite a sweet taste — some people have described it as almost a cider or fresh taste — which has come from the yeast,” said project leader David Thurrowgood, a conservator and chemist at the Queen Victoria Museum at Launceston in Tasmania. But aficionados will have to wait a while longer to sample the 220-year-old taste: Thurrowgood said several brewing companies are keen to market Preservation Ale, but so far the entire stock consists of a few bottles brewed for his research. The yeast microbes used for the re-created beer were grown from samples taken from one of 26 bottles found in the hold of the Sydney Cove wreck during excavations by marine archaeologists in the 1990s. A single unopened bottle from the wreck now enjoys pride of place at the Queen Victoria Museum as the world’s oldest bottle of beer — the nearest contender being a 133-year-old bottle of lager in the Carlsberg Museum in Denmark, Thurrowgood said. DNA tests show the shipwrecked yeast microbes are related to yeast species used in what are called Trappist ales brewed in monasteries in Europe, and Thurrowgood thinks the bottles contained a premium beer exported from England for military officers at Port Jackson. The scientists from Australia, Belgium, France and Germany have revived five distinct


No foul play suspected in case of missing University of Maryland student

Police received reports from witnesses who spotted missing University of Maryland student Kaitlyn George in Baltimore following her departure from campus on Nov. 10. Authorities said they have "no reason to suspect foul play in this case.” Police said new video surveillance footage shows some of the movements of a 21-year-old University of Maryland college student who went missing last week and they said they do not suspect foul play in the case. Kaitlyn George was reported missing around 6:30 p.m. Thursday. She was supposed to meet a friend around 5 p.m. at the Eppley Recreation center to go on a hiking trip. When she didn’t show up, her friend reported her missing to campus police. Security footage, according to police, showed George leaving a hall at the university just before 5 p.m. Thursday with a camping-style backpack and a pink bag. She was later seen in a cab and reportedly dropped off in front of a marina in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, according to a police review of security camera footage. University of Maryland police and Baltimore City Police said they also reviewed security footage from the Federal Hill area that showed her getting into a waiting SUV “on her own accord and by herself” after she left the cab. Authorities said a witness reported seeing her around 8:40 a.m. Friday on a Charm City Circulator bus in Baltimore. Kaitlyn George (University of Maryland) In a statement, police said, “We have no reason to suspect foul play in this case.” The case remains under investigation and officials said they “will continue to work on this case until we have located Kaitlyn and have verified that she is okay.” Police described George as 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing about 121 pounds. She has hazel eyes and blonde hair. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call police at 301-405-3555.


Celebrities might have a lock on Instagram followers, but National Geographic isn’t far behind

Popular Instagram Photos" exhibit. (Ed Kashi/National Geographic) Here’s a look at the show, through what the Internet loves best, metrics: 4 Number of years that National Geographic has had an Instagram account. 1st Posting on the @natgeo Instagram site was a photograph by Conrad Anker climbing in Kathmandu. It is not part of the new exhibition. 63 million Number of @natgeo followers as of press time. 13 Rank of @natgeo overall in number of followers at press time — still ahead of Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian. 12,209 Number of posts on @natgeo as of press time. 12 million Approximate number of images in the National Geographic archives. Inspiring rangers are hand-raising three baby rhinos at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya; on view at "@NATGEO: The Most Popular Instagram Photos" exhibit. (Ami Vitale/National Geographic) 201 Number of images in the exhibition. 4 Categories in which the images are organized, in the book and the exhibition: wanderlust, curiosity, beauty and marvel. 1.1 million Number of likes for a single picture in the exhibition, a shot of the 2015 supermoon — a full moon on its closest lunar path to Earth. 12,491 Number of comments on the photo of the supermoon, taken by Keith Ladzinski during a lunar eclipse over Glacier National Park in Montana. 1 billion Number of likes the @natgeo site surpassed in May 2015. 1st Rank of panda as most popular animal among National Geographic Instagrams. It has appeared in five of its 14 most popular images. 2 Number of panda images in Ami Vitale’s striking shot of a feeding at a conservation center in China — one real, one in a costume. 44 Number of human skulls in the grim photo by Mark Leong, from the headhunting past of the Naga tribe of northeast India. 90 Number of photographers allowed to post on the National Geographic Instagram account. 70 Number of photographers represented in the exhibition. 1st Highest rank of a photographer in the exhibition: Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, for his bird’s-eye view of fog enveloping Dubai. 17 Number of years from the founding of National Geographic magazine in 1888 to the publishing of its first photo layout in 1905. 2 Number of National Geographic Society board members who resigned in disgust in 1906 over the use of photographs, fearing the magazine was turning into a “picture book.”


In the galleries: Tales that unfold from the folding of paper

Giang Dinh’s “Figure #1,” on view in “Stories in Paper” at the Japan Information and Culture Center. (Japan Information and Culture Center) Giang Dinh’s “Figure #1,” on view in “Stories in Paper” at the Japan Information & Culture Center. (Giang Dinh/Japan Information and Culture Center) Although probably rooted in China, origami as we know it developed in Japan, where it was named for the words for “fold” and “paper.” It yields objects that are sleek and fragile, exemplifying an aesthetic shaped by Shinto and Buddhism’s acceptance of transience. Once antithetical to Western art, this outlook has become increasingly congenial in an era of temporary, performance and conceptual art. One similarity is that folders often work from existing designs, much the way draftsman do wall drawings based on Sol LeWitt’s specifications. Giang Dinh’s “Prayer,” at the Japan Information and Culture Center. (Giang Dinh/Japan Information and Culture Center) “Stories in Paper,” at the Japan Information and Culture Center, doesn’t stress origami’s affinity to experimental art. But the show, one of five current ones demonstrating the potential of paper, does highlight innovative techniques. There are pieces made with thick, textured or metallic paper, and some that use the snapology or wet-fold methods. The former assembles interlocking pieces into complex geometric forms; the latter allows more realistic depictions of animals that traditional origami simplifies to near-abstract outlines. The show features the work of Giang Dinh, a Vietnam-born Virginia architect who’s adept at wet-folding. His creations include two bison in thick paper that resembles fur and a large robed figure made of white paper, set off by a small red cardinal at the person’s feet. Dinh employs similar contrasts of color and scale in a rendering of a kneeling figure with her back to the viewer. This time the tiny bird is pink, and a crane — the archetypal origami creature, dry-folded in the familiar manner. It’s a witty homage to tradition from an artist who has mastered a style that, though knife-less, might be called cutting edge. Stories in Paper Matthew Shlian Although origami purists use folds only, some paper artists cut — “kiri” in Japanese. The kirigami in Matthew Shlian’s “Chirality” is intricate and elegant. And as befits art shown at the National Academy of Sciences, it also has practical applications. Shlian trained in ceramics and print media, but has collaborated with scientists on prototypes of technology such as solar cells that track