robot travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send video, images and data back to the Earth. To NASA’s credit, it realizes the potential of these entrepreneurs. In 2008, it contracted SpaceX to provide 12 Dragon spacecraft cargo missions to the international space station for a fixed, inflation-adjusted, cost of $133 million per flight. NASA also provided Moon Express with technology that helped it to get its start, and recently signed a contract to purchase the data that it gathers. Private industry participation in the space industry isn’t a new thing. Defense contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin have long been subcontracting work from NASA. But they never created the revolution and disruption that these up-and-coming entrepreneurs promise to. For example, massive cost overruns are common in government contracts. But SpaceX proudly proclaims on its Web site that “if there are cost overruns, SpaceX will cover the difference. (This concept may be foreign to some traditional government space contractors that seem to believe that cost overruns should be the responsibility of the taxpayer.)” What is so special about these entrepreneurs (or should I say “spacepreneurs”)? To start with, they are not encumbered by bureaucracy and don’t need to preserve the status quo – in fact, they stand to thrive if the status quo is all but completely done away with. SpaceX was able to rethink the way rockets were designed and thermally protected, the materials used to construct external heat shields, and even the very production process itself. This gave them significant cost and quality advantages. Moon Express is engineering NASA’s Common Spacecraft Bus into a low cost lunar lander configuration and rapidly prototyping software, sensors, engines, and avionics with the latest computer systems and simulation tools. Most importantly, as Richards says, “We’re a bunch of entrepreneurs trying to change the world. We can incentivize our workforce with equity—our workers are the owners. We can make decisions unconnected to congressional or White House politics. We can work in small teams with minimal overhead and high signal-to-noise organizations — noise being management. We can attract capital and expertise from the best entrepreneurs on the planet, and we can work with NASA as a partner to take advantage of the deep expertise and knowledge, while applying commercial entrepreneurial principals to achieve symbiotic goals”. So, congratulations to NASA for raising our hopes then and again now. But the future of space


Andrea Thomas

Senior Vice President, Sustainability, Walmart Stores, Inc. Andrea B. Thomas is Senior Vice President, Sustainability for Walmart Stores, Inc. She is responsible for working across the global organization as well as with external stakeholders to embed sustainability into all aspects of the company. Prior to assuming this role in September 2010, she led the Global Merchandising Center for the Home, Hard lines and Entertainment businesses where she had global brand responsibility for Walmart’s proprietary brands which include Mainstays, Canopy, Better Homes & Gardens, Home Trends and GE. Before assuming this role in February 2010, she was Senior Vice President of Private Brands for the Grocery and Consumable businesses. She led the brand management, product development and co-manufacturing activities for the multi-billion dollar portfolio of private brands in the Grocery, Dry Goods, Health & Beauty, Pharmacy and Pet categories. She was instrumental in the brand re-launch of Great Value, Equate, Ol’ Roy and Parent’s Choice and the launch of the Marketside brand.Prior to joining Walmart in October 2007, Thomas was Vice President, Global Innovation of The Hershey Company. In this role, she was responsible for platform innovation for Hershey’s portfolio of global brands including Hershey’s, Reese’s, Kisses and Ice Breakers. She led the work that identifies new platform opportunities for growth based on consumer and marketplace trendsand insights, translating them into sustainable product and partnership ideas that deliver profitable growth for the company.Previously, Thomas spent 13 years at Pepsico where she worked in Brand Management, Innovation and Retail Marketing and Promotions. As Vice President, Innovation at Frito-Lay, Inc., she was responsible for managing Frito-Lay’ssalty snack innovation pipeline, creating over $1 billion in new product platforms. Prior to this role, Thomas served as Vice President, Retail Marketing and Promotions at Frito-Lay, and led the marketing efforts for the Fritos and Tostitos brands including the launch of Tostitos Scoops and the sponsorships of the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and the Daytona 500. Prior to joining Frito-Lay, she was Director, New Product Marketing, at Pizza Hut, Inc.Thomas holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah and a master’s degree in business administration from Brigham Young University where she was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Societies.Originally from Salt Lake City, Thomas lives in Bentonville, AR., with her husband and three children. She serves on the National Advisory Council for the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University and


Richard Solomon

President, United States Institute of Peace Richard H. Solomon has been president of the United States Institute of Peace since 1993 and has overseen its growth into a center of international conflict management, analysis and applied programs. Prior to this assignment, Solomon served as senior staff member of the National Security Council (1971-76) where he participated in the normalization of relations with China. Solomon was assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs (1989-1992) and he previously served as director of policy planning at the Department of State (1986-1989). He negotiated the Cambodia peace treaty, the first United Nations "Permanent Five" peacemaking agreement; had a leading role in the dialogue on nuclear issues between the United States and South and North Korea; helped establish the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation initiative; and led U.S. negotiations with Japan, Mongolia and Vietnam on important bilateral matters. In 1992-93, Solomon served as U.S. ambassador to the Philippines. He coordinated the closure of the U.S. naval bases and developed a new framework for bilateral and regional security cooperation. In 1995, Solomon was awarded the State Department's Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service, and he has received awards for policy initiatives from the governments of Korea and Thailand. In 2005, he received the American Political Science Association’s Hubert H. Humphrey career award for “notable public service by a political scientist." Solomon began his career as professor of political science at the University of Michigan, and also served as head of the Political Science Department at the RAND Corporation. Solomon holds a Ph.D. in political science, with a specialization in Chinese politics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Solomon is the author of seven books, including American Negotiating Behavior: Wheeler-Dealers, Legal Eagles, Bullies, and Preachers; Chinese Negotiating Behavior: Pursuing Interests Through "Old Friends;" and Exiting Indochina: U.S. Leadership of the Cambodia Settlement and Normalization with Vietnam.


Michael Levi

M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and Environment, Council on Foreign Relations Michael A. Levi is the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and director of the CFR program on energy security and climate change. He is an expert on climate change, energy security, arms control, and nuclear terrorism. Before joining CFR, Dr. Levi was a nonresident science fellow and a science and technology fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution. Prior to that, he was director of the Federation of American Scientists' Strategic Security Project. Dr. Levi is author of the book On Nuclear Terrorism (Harvard University Press, 2007) and coauthor with Michael O'Hanlon of The Future of Arms Control (Brookings Institution Press, 2005). He was project director for the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on climate change, co-chaired by former governors Tom Vilsack and George Pataki. His 2005 monograph with Michael D'Arcy, Untapped Potential: U.S. Science and Technology Cooperation with the Islamic World, was the first comprehensive study of science and technology in the Muslim world. His recent writings include a major study on the global politics and economics of energy innovation, Energy Innovation: Driving Technology Competition and Cooperation Among the U.S., China, India, and Brazil. Dr. Levi has testified before Congress and presented expert scientific evidence to the National Academy of Sciences on climate change and on nuclear security. His essays have been published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Nature, and Scientific American, among others. His op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times. Dr. Levi previously wrote a monthly online column on science and security for the New Republic, and served as a technical consultant to the critically acclaimed television drama 24. He currently writes a blog on energy, climate, and nuclear issues. He is a member of the external advisory council for Princeton University's Carbon Mitigation Initiative and a member of the strategic advisory council for NewWorld Capital Group, a private equity firm focused on the environmental opportunities sector. Dr. Levi holds a BSc (Hons.) in mathematical physics from Queen's University (Kingston) and an MA in physics from Princeton University, where he studied string theory and cosmology. He holds a PhD in war studies from the University of London (King's College), where he was the SSHRC William E. Taylor fellow. He lives in New York.


Facebook stock decline shows Wall Street is wary of give-it-away-for-free approach

The dizzying stock decline of Facebook, a wealthy company with nearly a seventh of the world’s population as users, has revived a key debate of the Internet age: Can anyone get rich while giving their product away? Investors have cut Facebook’s value nearly in half since the May public offering. One of its first outside investors, Peter Thiel, sold 20 million shares last week, deepening questions about how such a highflying technology icon could falter so quickly. Part of the answer, say analysts and academics, lies in Wall Street’s skepticism of a founding principle of Silicon Valley’s business culture — that the best way to build a company is to ignore profits in favor of building a huge audience. Few companies have a larger or more loyal audience than Facebook, with more than 900 million users and reams of the personal information that marketers covet. Many analysts expect that Facebook will continue to find ways to make money from that vast global reach; it already brings in $3.7 billion a year. Yet Wall Street’s evident frustration with the stock price reflects growing concerns about the long-term prospects for companies that are popular but do not charge users for services. Another social-media company, meanwhile, the business-oriented LinkedIn, has seen its stock climb 65 percent this year as it relies on a mix of advertising dollars and fees for premium services. “Free serves purposes, but you have to go beyond free to make some money,” said professor Rita McGrath, who teaches corporate strategy at Columbia Business School. Facebook’s troubles bear some resemblance to those experienced by traditional media companies that depend mainly on advertising for profits. They once built empires by helping department stores, automakers and beer companies reach customers but have struggled to make similar profits while moving their businesses online, where ad rates are lower and content is often free. The most striking success story for free content is Google, which brought in $38 billion in revenue last year, mostly from advertising. Because consumers use search engines when they are looking to buy products, Google provides an ideal opportunity for advertisers, much as the Yellow Pages have for generations. Yet for most other online businesses, display ads are an intrusion on the user experience. People wanting to connect with old friends, or get the latest news on the presidential race, may tolerate commercial messages, but they are not seeking them.


In D.C.’s Little Ethiopia, a search for answers about Meles’s death

200,000 — the largest outside Ethiopia — in the decades after Mengistu’s military seized power in 1974. Many who fled were educated elites who were fearful of Mengistu’s communist policies and hoped that Meles would bring democracy and wide-ranging economic reforms to the impoverished Horn of Africa nation. On Tuesday, many Ethiopian Americans shared conflicting emotions about Meles’s legacy — pride that their native country had become one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa under the leader, but anger and disappointment at the Meles government’s repressive policies and jailing of opposition leaders. And many of the questions that lingered after Zenawi’s death reflected anxiety about Ethiopia’s future and the fate of relatives and friends there. “There’s just a lot of worries, questions about what’s next,” said a crying Messeret Araya, 40, as she watched the television at Habesha Market and Carry-Out on Ninth and U streets NW. “He was our leader and we were proud of him because the country was at zero when he took over,” Araya said. “Will we turn into a Somalia now?” The Ethiopian government has offered little information about what has become known in the Ethiopian American community in Washington as the “Meles Mystery” — Meles Zenawai’s disappearance from public life in June. In mid-July, officials said only that Meles’s “health condition is very good and stable” and that he was “taking some rest.” In the end, Ethiopian officials said only that Meles had died in a hospital “abroad.” A European Commission spokesman disclosed that Meles was being treated in the Belgian capital for an unspecified illness when he succumbed to a secondary infection just before midnight Monday. Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon offered little more, saying that Meles had been ailing for a year and died after being rushed to intensive care. Hailemariam Desalegn, the minister of foreign affairs and deputy prime minister, will become the new premier, the government said. Unlike many in Meles’s party who are from the north, he is from the South and an ethnic group known as the Wolayta, which has not traditionally dominated national politics. Opposition leaders in exile in the United States said the intrigue surrounding Meles’s death showed just how autocratic his government had become. The dearth of information “shows just how fragile our political institutions are,” said Birtukan Mideksa, a female judge and former opposition leader who was jailed by Meles twice for three years.


In U.S., food is wasted from farm to fork

statement. “That’s money and precious resources down the drain.” A look at food waste. (The Washington Post/Source: National Resource Defense Council, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Food and Agriculture Organization) The analysis cites weak spots along every step of the food production chain. On the farm, growers sometimes do not harvest foods because of poor market prices that make it difficult for them to recoup their labor and transportation costs, the report said. The market also forces growers to cull the crops they do harvest, removing foods (produce in particular) with blemishes or other cosmetic defects. The report cites a farmer who estimates that 75 percent of the cucumbers he culls are edible and a tomato-packing house that says it can fill a dump truck with 22,000 pounds of discarded tomatoes every 40 minutes in mid-season. Once perishable goods are shipped, they are too often rejected by distributors responsible for getting them to the stores and even by food banks, which sometimes receive more food than they can use at once, the NRDC report said. But many studies suggest that most of the waste takes place in stores and homes. The government estimates that supermarkets lose $15 billion each year in unsold fruits and vegetables alone. The NRDC attributes some of these losses to overstocking products to impress customers. In restaurants and other food service outlets, which also suffer steep food waste-related losses, large portion sizes that far exceed the serving sizes recommended by the government play a significant role, the NRDC study said. Last year, industry groups — including the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the National Restaurant Association — launched an initiative designed to help them donate more food and cut back on the estimated 36 million tons of food sent to landfills every year. The groups aim to assess by year’s end how they can best meet those goals. But Europe has a head start. The European Parliament has adopted a resolution that would slash food waste in half by 2020, and nearly five dozen leading retailers and brands there have committed to reducing food waste, the NRDC said. In the United Kingdom, which launched a “Love Food Hate Waste” campaign five years ago, some retailers already are using promotions aimed at discouraging consumers from buying more than they need — as in “get half off” instead of the “buy one get one free” tactics often used in this


Is Ethiopia’s new leader in place for long?

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s communications minister, Bereket Simon, said government policy will remain consistent under Hailemariam Desalegn, Meles’s foreign minister and deputy, who will be acting prime minister until his swearing-in before an emergency session of Parliament. The ruling party controls 546 of the 547 seats in the legislature, all but ensuring Hailemariam’s ascension. The country’s armed forces pledged allegiance to the constitution and vowed to defend it in the post-Meles era. Meles, who died Monday of an unknown illness at age 57, had ruled Ethiopia since the 1990s. Hailemariam was appointed to his ministerial posts in September 2010, immediately after the fourth successive election victory by the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). A few weeks later, he became a deputy chairman of the party. Although Hailemariam appears likely to soon take the oath as prime minister, the ruling party congress is scheduled to meet in late September and decide whether he will remain in the post until the 2015 elections. Political observers predict fierce competition for the job, and one said he doubted that Hailemariam could win over subordinates, including military and intelligence leaders. “First, as he never exercised real power at a national level, there is little established fear and respect about him,” said Jawar Mohammed, an Ethiopian political analyst studying at Columbia University in New York. “Second, most of his subordinates are going to be individuals with longer experience and personal stature than him, which means they will overshadow him.” Negasso Gidada, a former Ethiopian president, said he does not know Hailemariam well. “But they must know him well and have a confidence in him that they appoint him a deputy prime minister. I have no reason to doubt that,” said Negasso, now an opposition leader. The ruling EPRDF, a coalition of four parties, has always appointed important members of Meles’s Tigrayan Peoples’ Liberation Front to key posts, including foreign affairs. Charles Stith, director of Boston University’s African Presidential Archives and Research Center and a former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania, said Meles’s death could end a relatively stable period for Ethiopia. “His death is a reminder that leaders who long to stay in office often stay too long to allow the growth of the necessary institutional infrastructure that allows states to sustain themselves,” Stith said. Hailemariam, who comes from Ethiopia’s south, did not take part in the ruling party’s 17-year armed struggle that unseated


At Sandy Spring retirement community garden, dedication in bloom

residents work alongside about a dozen master gardeners who volunteer at the retirement community every Tuesday to help troubleshoot with residents and assist them in some physical tasks. Morrison said the operating budget for the garden is about $800 per year. “We’ve been gardening here since 1982, and we had a full-scale kitchen garden until about four years ago,” said Morrison, an avid gardener. The Friends Gardening Committee posts fliers to a bulletin board in the house to notify other residents of what is ripe. Those beds then are marked in the garden with poles with orange tops so residents know what is ready for picking, Morrison said. Residents also are invited on informal tours of the garden, where they are shown how to harvest fruits, vegetables and herbs. Sometimes, Morrison said, she and other resident gardeners will pick ripe produce and place it on a bench for the other residents. The bench serves as a collection site for residents who might not be able to walk through the garden. “We take what we get as long as it’s not in bad shape or too much of it,” she said. “There’s almost always something new.” The garden began as a kitchen garden in 1974 when the first greenhouse was built and has grown to a 67 -by-62-foot site, with 12 private plots, fruit trees, cutting and butterfly gardens and two beehives full of bees that pollinate the flowers and plants within the garden. A new greenhouse was built in 2004, and a large pergola was built by residents and their families last year. The edible crops this year include rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, chard, lettuce, string beans, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, beets and potatoes, with a variety of herbs and honey from the beehives kept on-site. Master gardener Kathy Eighmey of Potomac said everything is reused and recycled in the garden, including the bamboo taken from a nearby area that is used for garden stakes and the water from the nearby pond that feeds into the watering hoses. The residents also make their own compost with leaves from the grounds and some leftover scraps from the kitchen. The walkways of the garden are lined with cardboard as a way to discourage weeds, which Eighmey called a “constant battle.” Joe Schechter of Silver Spring was one of the first few master gardeners who volunteered with Friends about


‘Superbug’ stalked NIH hospital last year, killing six

defeats even the most powerful antibiotics. That’s what happened at NIH. The six patients who died of bloodstream Klebsiella infections had immune systems weakened by cancer, anti-rejection drugs given after organ transplants, and genetic disorders. The CDC detected this type of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 2000. “Since then, we’ve seen it spread across the country,” Kallen said, to 41 states. Later this year, the CDC is launching a program in 10 cities, including Baltimore, to watch for hospital-borne outbreaks of Klebsiella and related superbugs. CDC staff will review hospital records, Kallen said, and hospital labs will be asked to report any antibiotic-resistant bacteria to the CDC. At NIH, the superbug arrived in June 2011. Hours before a 43-year-old female lung transplant patient arrived from New York City, NIH nurses noted something startling in her chart: She was carrying an antibiotic-resistant infection. Desperately wanting to contain the superbug, the NIH staff isolated the woman in the ICU. Staff members donned gowns and gloves before entering her room. Her nurses cared for no other patients. After the patient was discharged the next month, Palmore and her staff thought these measures had worked. There were no signs that the bacteria had spread. But a few weeks later, Palmore was “horrified,” she said, when a second patient tested positive for the bacteria. A third and fourth soon followed. Those three patients died as the bacteria grew impervious to every known antibiotic — even experimental new drugs. The pattern baffled Palmore. If the superbug had jumped from the New York patient, it should have showed up sooner in three new patients. But by reading the bacteria’s DNA, scientists at the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute saw that the organisms from patients No. 2 and 3 were so closely related — differing at just one or two genetic letters out of 6 million — they had to have come from the New York patient. That meant two unsettling things, said Julie Segre, the scientist at NHGRI who led the DNA analysis. The bacteria had lingered for weeks unnoticed, either in the hospital or in the new patients; and the hospital’s infection control measures for the New York patient had failed. Details of the genetic analysis and the outbreak were published Thursday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. “It still got out, after only two 24-hour periods in the ICU,” Palmore said. “During that time, the bacteria


The unfulfilled promise of Meles Zenawi

THE PARADOX OF Meles Zenawi, the prime minister of Ethiopia who died Monday at 57, was that he might have been so much more. A friend who knew him for two decades recalled that he was sharp, articulate, well-read and a patient listener. When President Bill Clinton visited Africa in 1998, he singled out Mr. Meles as an example of the African renaissance, a new generation of leaders. Beyond a doubt, Mr. Meles, who ruled Ethiopia for 21 years, managed to elevate the nation of 75 million people into a regional economic and political power. Although most of the population is still desperately poor, Ethiopia has attracted foreign investment and built a middle class with an authoritarian, state-driven capitalism based loosely on China’s model. Mr. Meles, who quit medical school to join the guerrilla force that toppled the dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991, put Ethiopia on the front lines of the war on terrorism, dispatching troops to Somalia against the radical Islamic Courts movement linked to al-Qaeda. He also played a key role in attempting to bridge the gap between warring Sudan and South Sudan, and under his leadership, Ethiopia has been an important U.S. ally, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in aid. But Mr. Meles’s promise as a leader was marred by contempt for the rights of his people. When internal discontent boiled up during the 2005 general election, international observers witnessed extensive vote-rigging. Demonstrations turned violent. The government cracked down on the protests, and at least 193 people were killed, thousands arrested and dozens of opposition activists and journalists arrested and charged with treason. When a friend asked Mr. Meles after these events how he could oversee the shooting of innocent people in the streets, the prime minister shook his head and replied, “There was a serious threat. The system needed to be protected.” Mr. Meles’s desire to protect his political “system” grew more and more repressive. Under the guise of national security, the parliament passed legislation between 2007 and 2009 to stifile dissent. According to Amnesty International, an anti-terrorism law “effectively criminalizes freedom of expression.” The State Department’s 2011 human rights report notes that the government arrested more than 100 people between March and September, including opposition political figures, activists, journalists, and bloggers. For decades, the United States has struggled with valuable allies who were intolerant dictators at home. The Cold War often provided a


Oscar Arias Sanchez reflects on 25 years since Central American peace accords

of American States, he tightly interlocks the fingers of both hands, forming a ball beneath his chin, as though he were holding onto something that threatened to get away from him. His eyes fix on the ball of fingers before him, rather than the questioners. A Nobel, then new dreams Others, most notably then-Guatemalan President Vinicio Cerezo, also played major roles in shaping the peace deal in the late 1980s, but it was Arias who captured imaginations worldwide. In the library of his office in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, Arias hangs mementos of a lifetime spent being applauded. He holds 70 honorary degrees, but the largest honor of all was accorded to him in 1987 when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He used the prize money to start a foundation, an institution that has hosted a parade of upcoming interns and idealists over the years, many of whom were culled from elite U.S. universities, such as Harvard. The idealist and the realist in Arias converge as the former Costa Rican president meanders into conversation about his latest dream, a peace museum he hopes to build in San Jose. The idea would be to commemorate conflicts resolved through negotiation. “There are too many war museums,” he observes. But realizing ideas such as that one take money, and Arias is hoping to collect donations in the United States to make his become reality. The outline of the Arias saga has been clearly rendered over the years, a narrative he has been as adept at shaping as the historians. Peace vs. war. The weak vs. the powerful. In Washington, the memories flood back, for it is here, in this city of global might, that Arias — the leader of a country of just 2.6 million souls — defied an American president and cemented his place in history . Ronald Reagan was backing the contras in Nicaragua, eager to smash the threat of communism presented by Daniel Ortega’s Sandinistas, who were in league with the Soviets and the Cubans. Arias was complicating the Reagan administration’s support of a military solution by arguing for a peace deal and banking that the Sandinistas wouldn’t prove to be a sturdy threat to democracy in the region. Looking back, Arias recalls the tense White House meetings and the showdowns with American diplomats and high-ranking officials. He liked President Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush,


Number of West Nile cases has soared, CDC says

A mosquito is bloated with blood as it inserts its stinger into human flesh in this undated file photo. (HO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) HOUSTON — The latest CDC figures, released Wednesday, show that the national total for West Nile infections is three times as many as usually seen at this point in the year, officials said. Seventy-five percent of those cases were reported in five states — Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, South Dakota and Texas — with about half in Texas. “We are in the midst of one of the worst West Nile virus outbreaks ever seen in the U.S.,” Lyle R. Petersen, director of the CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, said at a briefing. West Nile cases can be reported in various ways, as mild fevers or more serious diseases. Of the reported infections, at least 629 were of the more serious neuroinvasive diseases, Petersen said. Currently, he said, one of every 150 people infected with the virus develops the more serious illnesses, such as West Nile encephalitis, meningitis or poliomyelitis. More than half of those infected in Dallas County this year developed the more severe illnesses, an outbreak that drew the attention of President Obama, who was briefed by CDC officials Tuesday. Petersen said it was not clear whether the number of serious illnesses had increased or if reporting had improved. Those with serious forms of West Nile-related illnesses are usually admitted to hospitals, where officials test and report results. Those with the milder West Nile fever might not see a doctor or be tested. Only about 2 percent to 3 percent of such infections are reported, Petersen said. Those who become infected develop lifelong immunity, said Petersen, who added that he was infected in 2003 when he was bitten by a mosquito while jogging. So far, 41 West Nile deaths have been reported nationwide, and West Nile infections appeared to be “trending upwards,” Petersen said. Petersen said it was unclear why West Nile infections increased in so many areas this year or why Dallas County has had such a large outbreak, with 270 cases and 11 deaths. In the past eight years, there have been 10 West Nile deaths in the county. West Nile originated in the eastern United States and spread west, but during the past 12 years, the South has usually been affected earlier than the North because of its warm weather, Petersen said. The “unusually mild


Tracking a superbug at the NIH

A DEADLY OUTBREAK of antibiotic-resistant bacteria last year at the Clinical Research Center of the National Institutes of Health offers a fascinating and frightening window on the future of medicine. Fascinating because scientists used whole-genome sequencing to obtain a fine-grained blueprint of the genetic material in the bacteria and to track how it spread. Frightening because the bacteria, resistant to multiple antibiotics, defied efforts to control it in the 234-bed hospital in Bethesda. On June 13, 2011, a 43-year-old patient was transferred into the intensive-care unit. She was known to be carrying a resistant strain of the bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae, probably from an earlier hospital stay. Such infections can be dangerous, with mortality rates upward of 50 percent. She was lucky — she recovered and was discharged July 15. Then, on Aug. 5, another case involving the bug was discovered from a different patient, who had never been in the same ward as the first. In the following weeks, an average of one new case was found each week in the hospital. By Jan. 1, there had been 17. Eleven patients died; six deaths were directly attributable to the bacteria. To find out what happened, researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute used sophisticated procedures to sequence, or blueprint, the whole genome of the superbug, starting with a sample taken from the first patient. The sequence provided data down to the level of nucleotides, the basic chemical building block of nucleic acids. DNA and RNA are made up of long chains of nucleotides. The genome of the bacteria was then compared with other samples from other patients, allowing researchers to map how the bug had skittered around the hospital. It was discovered that Patient No. 1 may have transmitted the superbug three different times. The sleuthing, described in a report in the journal Science Translational Medicine, is an example of how remarkable advances in genomics are changing our understanding of the biology of disease and medical conditions. With fast results and lower costs, genomics are being applied to real-world problems; in this case, how to control a dangerous infection outbreak in a hospital. The promise of genomics has been slow in realization, but it is becoming a reality. The outbreak also calls attention to the deepening problem known as antimicrobial resistance, particularly in hospitals. As bacteria evolve, they develop resistance to antibiotics. In this case, the germ was highly


NIH should have notified it of superbug outbreak, Montgomery County official says

discuss with their patients how it might affect their decision whether to get care.” Patient advocate Lisa McGiffert said the hospital did not go far enough in informing the public. “If you ask any person going into a hospital if they want to know they’re having an outbreak with a deadly superbug, every person would want to know that,” said McGiffert, manager of the Safe Patient Project at Consumers Union, which advocates for more disclosure of hospital-based infections. “These outbreaks should be made public like notices of health problems with a restaurant.” But Ezekial Emanuel, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who worked at NIH for 15 years and helped shape the 2010 federal health-care law, said it can be difficult to weigh the costs and benefits of public disclosure — especially during a fast-moving outbreak. “The issue is, you want to be honest about the situation, but you don’t want to alarm people when you don’t have all the facts,” he said. “In the midst of an event, you might provide false information, you might scare away people who need treatment.” NIH’s Masur said that few patients were at risk. “For many patients going into the hospital, this organism was irrelevant,” he said. “If you come in for mental health, if you come in for an outpatient provider, if you’re not terribly sick, this organism posed no risk to you.” As a federal facility, the NIH hospital is not licensed by Maryland and is not required to report hospital-borne infections to the state. State epidemiologist David Blythe said NIH officials contacted the health department in December — four months after the outbreak began — to ask for advice on stopping the superbug. The NIH’s Clinical Center is unique. Every patient is enrolled in a government study, there is no emergency room, and no one goes there to have a baby or get an appendix removed. The patients tend to be the sickest of the sick — those with no other options. Those were the patients — those with weakened immune systems — who were at highest risk for contracting the superbug. Since 2003, 26 states, including Maryland, have passed laws requiring that hospitals report hospital-borne infections. The federal health-care law requires such reporting nationwide, although that provision is still being put into effect. Facilities that show rates of hospital-acquired infection higher than the national average stand to lose


Gen. John Allen: We can build a durable peace in Afghanistan

and Afghan forces — those serving today and those who have gone before. Their tremendous sacrifices are creating security conditions that, finally, are bringing a real sense of confidence to the Afghan people. We will not allow our efforts to be derailed by the so-called “green-on-blue” attacks — Afghans shooting coalition troops — that have received so much attention recently. Each instance is a tragedy, and we mourn every loss. I have stood on the ramps of airfields here as we’ve sent home our fallen heroes. I take personally the loss of every member of the International Security Assistance Force. Afghan and international leaders at all levels are devoting unprecedented time and effort to reduce this threat. We have implemented measures to better protect our troops; we have helped build an Afghan force of close to 350,000; and Afghans are leading security operations in three-quarters of the country. This momentum is irreversible. But the real story here is green andblue. Every day, hundreds of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police across this nation work and fight side by side with coalition troops to defeat our common enemies and protect the civilian population. We interact closely on numerous operations, extending security for the Afghan people. The focus on “green-on-blue” attacks obscures the callous slaughter of Afghan civilians by insurgents led by Mohammad Omar. He has the blood of innocents on his hands even though he hypocritically tells his subordinates not to attack civilians. Either he is out of touch, or his forces are out of control. Perhaps that should be no surprise. Omar lives in Pakistan, as do many of his “commanders.” From that safe vantage point, they’ve sent hundreds of young, impressionable, largely spiritual and helpless youths to their deaths and detention in Afghanistan. For this, they must forfeit their honor and any claim to Islamic virtue. And they are losing. “Green” and “blue” have been taking the fight to the red enemy, the Taliban, and the enemy is fighting back from a position of weakness. His forces have largely been ejected from most of the relevant population areas, and from among the most relevant terrain in Afghanistan, the Afghan people. Omar is losing financial support from donors, who are sending their money elsewhere, and from reduced drug profits, thanks to Afghan and coalition efforts to stamp out the poppy harvest. Finally, Afghan security forces are increasing in number and


For some teens in Ellicott City, area near train tracks has served as a hidden refuge

such as along the Patapsco where it flows through Ellicott City. It’s not easy for a trespasser to reach the bridge, which carries a single set of tracks for one of the oldest railroad lines in America. It requires a climb up the Maryland Avenue hill from Main Street. After skirting the fenced exhibits of the B&O Railroad Museum that once was the town’s railroad station, it’s possible to step onto the tracks. From there, it’s about a five-minute stroll down the tracks to the bridge. There’s also a less public way to get up there, out of the glare of the city’s lights. Under the bridge, a set of steps leads up to an apartment building beside the tracks. There’s a fence at the top, but it’s not insurmountable. “You just step over, and then you would be on the tracks,” said John Cardinale, 46, who lives in nearby Oella and said he walked the tracks two weeks ago. “I was just walking around. It wasn’t a big deal.” About nine trains pass over the bridge on an average day. The first hint that a train is coming is a vibration in the rail bed. Next comes the sound, and there’s plenty of time to step aside before a train appears, Cardinale said. On Monday, at 4:38 p.m., Train U813 rumbled into the big switch yard in Cumberland, Md. A new crew came aboard: an engineer, a conductor and a engineer in training. They rolled out at 5:11 p.m., moving at a steady 25 miles per hour, which would put them in Ellicott City just before midnight. The old passenger platform in Ellicott City extends across the bridge on the north side of the tracks, made safe from Main Street 20 feet below by an ornate 19th-century iron fence. At 11:43 p.m., Mayr tweeted a photo from that platform of a deserted Main Street, its tiny shops and restaurants closed and its bars near empty. “Looking down on old ec,” she tweeted to her friends. They crossed the tracks, took off their shoes and dangled their bare feet from the ledge above the Ellicott City sign. At 11:51 p.m., Mayr tweeted a photo of their feet; they were wearing jeans, and one had painted her toenails blue. The photo was accompanied with a one-word message: “Levitating.” Three minutes after tweeting the last photo, the sound of the oncoming freight


NIH should have told public of superbug

The scariest thing about the superbug that killed six people at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda last year is that such dangerous germs have become so common in U.S. hospitals that doctors viewed the outbreak as routine and saw no need to inform the public. The decision to keep the episode secret until last week has triggered a mild uproar, and deservedly so. A top Maryland health official conceded that the state, which was told of the problem in December, erred by neglecting to notify Montgomery County authorities. “That was just a mistake on our part,” said State Epidemiologist David Blythe. “We do try to keep county health departments informed.” People who live or work near the sprawling NIH campus had a right to know that their neighbors at one of the world’s most prestigious hospitals struggled desperately for months with an infection immune to antibiotics. “Even if it might have caused a little panic, I think the public should have been notified,” said James Lafley, 62, a construction project manager who works in Bethesda. “Knowing NIH had a hard time containing the bug, it could have gotten outside the hospital population.” All but one of a dozen people interviewed Friday in downtown Bethesda said NIH should have been more forthcoming. Separately, some institute workers who are regularly exposed to the affected wards in the Hatfield Building at the NIH Clinical Center grumbled that they should have been told. “A lot of people were saying, ‘Hey, this went on under our noses and we didn’t know,’ ” said an NIH service employee with more than five years experience, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear that supervisors might retaliate. “People who have to do a job, do they know what they’re walking into?” Admittedly, all past experience suggests that the drug-resistant strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae would not have sickened anybody outside the NIH clinic. The only people previously killed by the bacteria have been those already very sick, such as with cancer, and plugged into intravenous tubes or other invasive equipment that provides entry routes for infection. However, the whole point about these frightening organisms is that they’ve mutated into a more threatening form — which means they might do so again. The drug-resistant bacterium known as MRSA used to be confined to hospitals but is now showing up outside health-care settings. “There is not a


Henry von Eichel dies; hops company chief executive was 64

Henry F. von Eichel, 64, the chief executive of the Washington-based company John I. Haas Inc., a leading international producer and vendor of hops used in beer brewing, died Aug. 13 at his home in Zell am Moos, Austria. He had complications from leukemia, said his cousin Alex Barth. Mr. von Eichel had a home in Georgetown for more than 30 years. Mr. von Eichel joined John I. Haas shortly after it became part of the Barth-Haas Group, a major provider of hops-related products and services, in 1977. John I. Haas specializes in research and development and the growing, processing and marketing of hops products. Mr. von Eichel was president from the mid-1980s until 2008, when he took medical leave and was succeeded by Barth. Mr. von Eichel became chief executive in 1992. Hops, the dried blossoms of female hops plants, provide the bitter taste of many beers. “For craft brewers,” said Bob Pease, chief operating officer of the Brewers Association in Boulder, Colo., “John I. Haas is an important part of the hop supply chain. . . . You can’t have a great beer without great hops.” Henry von Eichel, 64, the chief executive of the Washington-based company John I. Haas Inc., a leading international producer and vendor of hops used in beer brewing, died Aug. 13 at his home in Zell am Moos, Austria. (Family Photo) Henry Friedrich von Eichel gen. Streiber was born July 8, 1948, in Munich. After graduating from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland in 1974, he was a banker in Canada and later became a U.S. citizen. Mr. von Eichel was on the board of the Rahr Malting Co. in Shakopee, Minn., and the Castleton Festival in Rappahannock County, where he had a farm. He had been a board member of the Beer Institute in Washington. His first marriage, to Linden Armour von Eichel, ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of eight years, Monika Apponyi von Eichel of Zell am Moos; three children from his first marriage, Kira von Eichel, Julia von Eichel and Jakob von Eichel, all of Brooklyn; two stepchildren, Geraldine Apponyi and Alexander Apponyi, both of London; a sister; and eight grandchildren.


Taliban beheads 17 Afghan partygoers; 2 NATO troops killed

were all civilians or included some Taliban fighters, AP reported. The killings of the two NATO troops occurred in a remote area of eastern Laghman province where the joint forces were on patrol, said Sarhadi Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor. There were conflicting accounts of the shooting, and it was not immediately clear whether it was part of a spate of “insider” or “green-on-blue” attacks on foreign troops by their supposed Afghan allies. “According to reports, the Afghan soldier killed two NATO forces during a verbal disagreement, and the assassin was later gunned down, too,” Zwak said in a telephone interview. He said he had no details about the cause of the dispute. However, Noman Hatefi, a spokesman for the Afghan army corps in eastern Afghanistan, said the two NATO soldiers, whom he identified as Americans, were killed by accident, AP reported. Hatefi said the two were killed when an Afghan soldier fell and accidentally fired his weapon during an insurgent attack, AP said. He said the soldier tried to run away but was killed by a U.S. aircraft that had been called in to provide close air support, AP said. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry confirmed the killings but did not elaborate. They did not identify the nationality of the foreign troops, but most of those stationed in the east are Americans. The deaths bring to 12 the number of foreign troops killed this month, mostly on joint bases, by Afghan military men. Most of the slain foreign troops have been Americans. The rise of insider attacks this year, unprecedented during the nearly 11-year U.S.-led war, forced NATO recently to order soldiers to carry loaded weapons at all times. An ISAF spokesman estimated Monday that a quarter of the attacks stemmed from the infiltration of Taliban insurgents into the Afghan forces but that the majority of them had other roots. The attacks come as NATO and U.S. forces continue to transfer security responsibilities to Afghan forces ahead of their planned withdrawal of all combat troops by the end of 2014. Although insider attacks have largely targeted foreign troops, Afghan forces in recent months have suffered losses from similar strikes. The killings of the civilians and foreign soldiers were part of a wave of violence in recent days. Insurgents stormed an Afghan army post Sunday night in the Washir district of Helmand


Guinea worm is poised to become the second human disease to be eradicated

Health worker John Lotiki carefully pulls an emerging Guinea worm from the leg of 7-year-old patient Ajak Kuol Nyamchiek at a health center established by The Carter Center together with the national program and community. Locals come to health centers to receive free treatment and health education. (Emily Staub/The Carter Center) Guinea worm disease is reaching the end of its days. The parasitic infection, which has sickened millions, mostly in Asia and Africa, is on the verge of being done in not by sophisticated medicine but by aggressive public health efforts in some of the poorest and most remote parts of the world. To eliminate the parasite, which is found in drinking water, hundreds of thousands of volunteers have handed out straws with cloth filters, treating water sources with larvicide, teaching villagers how to avoid infection and scouring the countryside for new cases. As a result, the ailment, also known as dracunculiasis, is poised to become the second human disease (the first was smallpox) to be eradicated — and the first to be eliminated without the aid of a vaccine. Guinea worm expert Donald Hopkins, who has been involved in the campaign for nearly three decades, calls the eradication effort “uniquely grass-roots.” When former President Jimmy Carter, in conjunction with the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spearheaded the effort to eradicate the parasite in 1986, there were 3.5 million new cases of Guinea worm disease a year across 21 countries. So far this year there have been 391 new cases worldwide — down from 807 this time in 2011, according to the CDC. All but four of these cases were found in South Sudan. A South Sudan goat herder takes a drink using a filtered straw to screen out larvae. (Louise Gubb/THE CARTER CENTER) Guinea worm has persisted for centuries. Its remains have been found in Egyptian mummies, and the plight of its victims is recounted in biblical texts. The disease is transmitted through drinking water containing Guinea worm larvae. Once ingested, these larvae can grow for more than a year, reaching two to three feet in length. The worm exits its host through an excruciating, burning blister, often in the leg or foot. When the victim bathes the blister in water to relieve the pain, the worm releases a new batch of eggs, restarting the cycle. The only way to get rid of


U.S. troops tried to burn 500 Korans in blunder, investigative report says

U.S. troops tried to burn about 500 copies of the Koran as part of a badly bungled security sweep at an Afghan prison in February, despite repeated warnings from Afghan soldiers that they were making a colossal mistake, according to a U.S. military investigative report released Monday. The number of copies of the Muslim holy book that were taken to the incinerator at Bagram air base was far greater than U.S. military officials earlier acknowledged in their accounts of an act of desecration that triggered riots across Afghanistan. The incident is also thought to have played at least a partial role in an ensuing increase in attacks against NATO troops by Afghan soldiers and police. Despite demands from Afghan officials that the American troops be placed on trial over the Koran burnings, U.S. military officials decided against filing criminal charges. Instead, the Army announced that it had taken less-serious disciplinary action against six soldiers for what they described as unintentional — if costly — mistakes. The investigation, however, cited evidence of a jarring lack of religious awareness and cultural training among the U.S. troops. The report said that before their deployment to Afghanistan, the troops were exposed only to about an hour-long PowerPoint presentation about Islam. Although they were generally aware that the Koran was a holy text, the report said, they were ignorant of the extreme cultural offense their mishandling of it could cause. The Army did not release the names of the six soldiers because they received only unspecified administrative punishments and did not face criminal charges. A Navy sailor also was investigated, but officials said disciplinary measures were dropped in that case. Meanwhile, in another case of offensive behavior in the war zone, the Marine Corps said Monday that it disciplined — but stopped short of filing criminal charges against — three noncommissioned officers for their involvement in an incident last year in which Marines videotaped themselves urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters. The video became international news after it was posted anonymously to a Web site in January, becoming the latest strain on relations between Afghan civilians and the NATO-led military coalition that has occupied the country for the past decade. The short clip depicts four Marines in combat gear laughing as they relieved themselves over three prostrate bodies. After a lengthy investigation, the Marine Corps said it determined that the video was recorded in


Stopping convicted officials from sticking around

THE SCANDAL of former Prince George’s County Council member Leslie Johnson — she of the brassiere stuffed with $79,600 in shakedown cash collected by her husband, former county executive Jack B. Johnson — may have one unintended benefit. If Maryland voters approve a constitutional amendment on the November ballot, a measure inspired by the Johnson travesty, they will bar convicted criminals from continuing to serve in public office after their conviction but before they are sentenced to prison. It was the Leslie Johnson spectacle that moved state lawmakers to propose the constitutional change. Although Ms. Johnson was caught red-handed by the FBI in October 2010 and pleaded guilty in June 2011 to evidence and witness-tampering, she continued to sit on the council in Prince George’s, Maryland’s second-largest locality. She might have stuck around for months more, until her sentencing last December, had she not at last succumbed to public pressure and resigned in July 2011. She is now serving a year’s term in a federal prison. It was a disgrace that a convicted felon continued to collect her salary and pose as a legitimate office-holder. But a loophole in state law holds that convictions are not final until a judge passes sentence, so nothing could be done to force her removal from public office. That led lawmakers to propose closing the loophole. Under their rewrite, elected officials would be suspended from office when they are found guilty and removed from office upon sentencing. Those who plead guilty would be removed from office immediately. The logic of this change should be apparent. It is ludicrous to suppose that officials convicted for corruption can effectively represent their constituencies, which in Leslie Johnson’s case numbered almost 100,000 residents. By sticking around, whether to collect a salary or defy detractors, they reduce public deliberations to spectacles. By the end, Ms. Johnson, stripped of committee assignments by her colleagues, was an embarrassment to the county. Maryland’s ballot this fall includes a number of higher-profile measures to be decided by voters — on whether to allow same-sex marriage; expand the state’s gambling program; extend in-state college tuition rates to undocumented immigrants; and approve the state’s congressional redistricting plan. Those are all critical questions, and we’ll have more to say about each of them. But it would be a pity if the question of removing convicted officials from office were lost in the shuffle, particularly given how


Doing business with despots?

in dealing with pervasive corruption and law enforcement and judicial abuse.” It also referred to “arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life; military hazing that led to deaths; detainee and prisoner torture” and a long list of other abuses. The Turkmenistan record in the State Department report was similar. Their token size allows the two dictators, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, above, and Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow, to claim to their people that they have the Obama administration’s endorsement. However, in June, Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev talked of stepping up the $1 billion in trade and economic cooperation with Tehran after he met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi. (Vyache Slavoseledko/AFP/Getty Images) “The three most important human rights problems were arbitrary arrest, torture, and disregard for civil liberties including restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, religion, and movement,” the report said of Turkmenistan. It added that other problems included “citizens’ inability to change their government; denial of due process and fair trial; arbitrary interference with privacy, home, and correspondence; discrimination and violence against women; and restrictions on the free association of workers,” plus, “officials in the security services and elsewhere in the government acted with impunity.” Back in the Cold War days such leaders labeled their opposition groups communists. These days they call them terrorists or al Qaeda-linked jihadists. As with other countries facing such threats, the United States is providing both countries with military and other assistance. For fiscal 2013, the Obama administration is seeking for Kazakhstan some $1.5 million for anti-terrorism and nonproliferation programs, $1.8 million to finance military purchases and $707,000 worth of training for its military in the United States. For Turkmenistan in the same fiscal period, the White House is seeking $685,000 for military purchases and $350,000 for that country’s military to be trained in the United States. In 2011 it received $1.7 million for anti-terrorism programs. The sums do not appear significant compared with other countries, but even their token size allows the two dictators, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow, to claim to their people that they have the Obama administration’s endorsement. Two reports released this month on Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan by the Congressional Research Service described in detail how both manipulated elections to remain in power. If nothing else, Washington’s apparent support clouds the democratic values message that the United States is trying to send around the world. In addition, as


Wild ponies and Canada geese are victims in Eastern Shore federal court cases

as the duck docket — as a welcome respite from the violent crimes he typically handles. Earlier this year, the courtroom on the shore was targeted for possible closure as a cost-saving measure. But Maryland’s Chief District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow adamantly opposed the recommendation, calling it a major inconvenience for the state’s far-flung rural residents. The court appears to have been spared, and Chasanow said in a recent interview that it is no longer on the closure list being considered by the Judicial Conference, the policymaking body for the U.S. court system. A recently retired magistrate judge, Victor H. Laws III, spent more than two decades presiding over his share of memorable cases inside the post office decorated with 1930s murals. There was the accidental poisoning of bald eagles by a farmer trying to rid a chicken coop of predatory foxes, a case involving the autopsy of a goose to determine whether it was killed with illegal lead shot and the initial coverup of an accidental shooting of a wild horse by a father and son during a deer hunt on Assateague last year. All the cases, heard the second Friday of each month, are misdemeanors and decided without juries. Some, like the horse shooting, carry hefty fines and hunting bans. Others are more mundane offenses that don’t involve wildlife, such as speeding or underage drinking by college students partying on the beach. Many cases are worked out informally by the park rangers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officers, the prosecutor and Baltimore-based federal public defender Franklin Draper, who huddle in the courtroom before the monthly session begins. It was one of those measly $25 fines that led to what is probably the most well-known opinion of Laws’s 24-year tenure. Laws, who grew up in Salisbury and studied philosophy at Brown University, blushed a bit when he brought up his precedent-setting case on public nudity. In 1989, Laws found a young woman guilty of violating indecency regulations for removing her bikini top to get some “extra sun,” she testified, while walking the beach in Chincoteague with a male companion. The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, rejecting the woman’s assertion that the decision violated her constitutional rights to equal protection and privacy. Although one appellate judge expressed hope in his concurring opinion that such an act might one day be considered “too trifling” to police, Laws’s decision has since


50 cents off chips, in the name of healthful eating

might shake their heads at some of the “healthful” foods that Linkwell promotes. There are coupons for packaged Hormel Natural Choice deli meats and Smart Balance Buttery Spread, the latter of which author Michael Pollan, a leader in the food-reform movement, might classify as a “foodlike substance.” Linkwell does have criteria about what foods it promotes. For example, a food cannot have more than 480 milligrams of sodium per serving and must have two grams or less of saturated fat per serving. “We realize that Lean Cuisine is not a home-cooked, organic meal,” Gardner says. “We are a pragmatic solution that is not letting perfection get in the way of progress.” Nutritionists agree. “It’s small, gradual changes that work best,” says Constance Brown-Riggs, a registered dietitian and a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “You do have some individuals that can turn everything around and empty their cupboard and load up on fresh fruit and vegetables and never eat anything from a can again. But there are many individuals who are unable to make those kinds of drastic lifestyle changes. The research shows that small changes do make a difference.” Health insurers like the program because it is a simple way to nudge consumers toward better health. But it also encourages customers to open and read their health-care plan information. Humana, for example, says it saw its “open rate” jump from 60 percent to 90 percent over the years it has worked with Linkwell. The coupons are sent out quarterly and also can be downloaded online. A service for mobile devices is in development. For the brands, Linkwell offers ultra-targeted marketing that the grocery circular can’t. Dreamfields Pasta, a specialty item designed for diabetics, says it gets double the redemption on coupons issued through Linkwell because it puts them in the hands of patients who need to manage their blood sugar. Other, more mainstream, brands such as Quaker Oats and Sargento get a kind of halo effect because coupons for their product are packaged with information from a health-insurance company. The goal, says Gardner, is to help consumers take control of their health. “Health care is a mystery to almost everyone. But coupons are a currency that everybody understands.” Black, a former Food section staffer based in Brooklyn, writes Smarter Food monthly. Follow her on Twitter: @jane_black. She will join today’s Free Range chat at noon at live.washingtonpost.com.


Pandas, whales and owls, oh my!

Rescued young tawny owls perch on a branch at a wildlife center in England. (MATT CARDY/GETTY IMAGES) There’s a lot going on in the world: hurricanes, presidential conventions and, for most of you, returning to school. But we’ve decided to take a break from all that to get you caught up on some animal news. We know that kids (and adults) love animals, and we love adorable animal photos. ●Panda watch: In this Monday, Aug. 27, 2012 photo, Mauyak, a beluga whale at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, swims with her newly born calf at the aquarium's Abbott Oceanarium. Shedd’s animal care team estimates that the calf is 4½ feet long and weighs about 150 pounds. (Brenna Hernandez/AP) ●Baby beluga: ●Rescued owls:


Nationals vs. Marlins: Stephen Strasburg is knocked around as Washington’s losing streak hits five

left, extending the inning and forcing an already struggling Strasburg to work more. Nationals coaches have reminded Strasburg to keep an eye on runners on base and to vary his times to the plate, but he didn’t, and Petersen and a slow Carlos Lee nabbed bases on him. “That just shook him up a little bit,” Johnson said. “But he’s a young pitcher, that’s what you gotta go through. You gotta deal with that and he’ll be fine.” Marlins hitters pounced on Strasburg’s fastballs inside early, pushing them the other way for hits. And Strasburg struggled to adjust, instead, continuing with that plan. Even his 97-mph fastball looked vulnerable. “I just didn’t throw too many first-pitch strikes and obviously they had a little bit different approach this time and I didn’t make the adjustment,” he said. “I just kept on trying to do the same thing and they were cheating, cheating and they got me. Learn from it and just got to remember to trust my stuff and next time out I’ve got to go out there and really just read what I see and pitch to it.” Strasburg had produced four brilliant starts this month despite the early end to his season looming a few weeks away because of his surgically repaired elbow. On Tuesday, he looked tired, but Johnson said it would not alter the Nationals’ plan with Strasburg. The Nationals had hammered Nolasco this season, beating him twice entering Tuesday and battering him for 10 runs over 11 1/3 innings. He carried a 5.07 ERA into the game and the Nationals’ lineup, with the return of Ian Desmond and Michael Morse from injuries, was likely frothing at the mouth. But it was as if the pitchers’ roles were reversed. Nolasco carried a no-hitter late into the fifth inning. The only base runners until then were Jayson Werth, who reached on an error in the first, and Espinosa, who darted to first safely following a wild pitch on a strikeout in the fifth. Catcher Kurt Suzuki, hitting .192, flared a single to right field for the Nationals’ first hit. Chad Tracy, pinch-hitting in the ninth, notched the only extra-base hit with a double. The Nationals managed consecutive singles by Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman with one out in the sixth. But the farthest any Nationals base runner got was Werth, who reached third with two outs in the


National Zoo unveils new trail for sea lions, wolves and other wildlife

to the welfare of the animals. The sea lions enjoy better filtered water, which is kept clean using ozone instead of chlorine. The new pool doesn’t leak, like the old one did, and it conserves water by recycling it. The sea lions’ new digs also have a wave machine that sends water crashing against huge rocks. The oceanside feel is by design. “We tried to create a little piece of the West Coast,” said Chuck Fillah, associate director of planning and strategic initiatives. “You might think you’re in Oregon.” There are three viewing areas: one below water, one partially below water and one above water. Zoo officials hope these vantage points will better accommodate visitors, who sometimes find the newer, bigger, more naturalistic exhibits frustrating because animals can stray out of view. “We have to balance conservation- science needs against visitor-experience needs against animal-welfare needs,” said Donald Moore, associate director of animal care sciences who is also a North American wildlife specialist and self-identified “bear man.” The new habitat for the two gray wolves, for example, is up on a hill, offering visitors a clear view. However, in order to make the place more interesting for the inhabitants — or, in zoo lingo, to provide more “enrichment” — zoo officials installed cave-like huts based on wolf dens, a potential source of irritation for snapshot-happy tourists and crestfallen tots. The humans who come to the zoo will be getting more enrichment, too. Another major highlight of the American Trail, the Seal Rock Cafe, is purely for them. It will offer sustainable, locally sourced seafood dishes and is part of a larger overhaul by a new contractor, Sodexo, of the zoo’s previously hamburger-and-french-fry-heavy offering. The change was inspired in part by the success of the Mitsitam Cafe at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, which zoo officials said has raised expectations for visitors to all parts of the institution. With federal funds shrinking, zoo officials need to find other ways to bring in revenue, said spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson, and improving amenities for visitors is potentially one of them. None of the animals along the American Trail is as exotic as Kandula, one of the zoo’s Asian elephants, which strolled by the gray wolves along a fenced-in elephant walk. “I never get tired of that,” Fillah said, pointing to Kandula. But the animals are relevant to many of the zoo’s visitors,


Five Australian troops killed in Afghanistan as insider attacks continue

Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard speaks to the media regarding the Australian soldiers killed in Afganistan, during the Pacific Islands Forum in the Cook Islands on Aug. 29, 2012. (Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images) KABUL – Three troops were relaxing at their base in southern Uruzgan province when they were shot at close range by an Afghan man wearing a military uniform, the vice chief of Australia’s Air Defense Force told reporters in Sydney. The shooter managed to escape by scaling a fence after the incident late Wednesday, Air Marshal Mark Binskin was quoted as saying. Two Australian soldiers were wounded. Binskin said two other Australian troops died Thursday when their helicopter rolled over in Helmand province, a militant stronghold also in the south. The NATO-led coalition said there was no enemy activity in the vicinity at the time of the crash; the incident is under investigation. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard called the loss of the five military personnel the single worst day for her country in a war since the Vietnam conflict. The deaths from Wednesday’s shooting attack, also known as an “insider” or “green on blue” attack, bring the total number of foreign troops killed by rogue Afghan security forces in August to 14. Except for the Australians killed Wednesday, almost all of the victims were Americans. As concern and suspicion build between foreign forces and Afghan troops, NATO has ordered soldiers to carry loaded weapons at all times. NATO said this week that a quarter of the recent insider attacks were conducted by Taliban-led insurgents who had infiltrated the ranks of Afghan forces. The Afghan government, while blaming the attacks on “spies” from neighboring countries, has also adopted some measures to stop the trend. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the latest attack in a statement from Tehran, where he is attending a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. Karzai attributed the recent attacks to groups seeking to create mistrust between the foreign troops and the Afghan forces they are training and equipping. Attacks on Afghans are also continuing. On Wednesday evening, the chief of the provincial council of Ghazni province was gunned down by militants, a spokesman for the Taliban and a provincial official reported.


Maryland sees first West Nile virus death

One person in Maryland has died from West Nile virus, health officials said Thursday, the first fatality from the mosquito-borne disease this year. No other fatalities have been reported in the D.C. region, although Virginia has four cases and the District has one, health officials said. Nationwide, the number of West Nile virus cases this year has set a record. The disease is spreading faster than it has in years past, partly because of a mild winter and several spring rains that allowed the mosquito population to build early. A total of 1,590 cases, including 66 deaths, were reported through Tuesday, the highest number of cases by that time since West Nile was first detected in the country in 1999, federal health officials said this week. More than 70 percent of the cases were in six states, which, in descending order, are Texas, South Dakota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Michigan, officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. West Nile virus is spreading faster than it has in years past, partly because of a mild winter and several spring rains that allowed the mosquito population to build early. (Ho/AFP/Getty Images) Nearly half the cases are from Texas Maryland officials declined to divulge the victim’s age, sex or place of residence, as well as whether the victim had underlying medical conditions. A spokeswoman for the health department said the victim was an adult. There have been 13 human cases of West Nile in Maryland since July 1, two of which were in the capital area. All were adults. Most people infected with the virus will not have symptoms. People who do develop illness usually have any combination of fever, headache, body aches, skin rash and swollen lymph glands. The symptoms generally appear three to 15 days after the bite of an infected mosquito. In rare instances, West Nile virus can be fatal. The number of human cases in Maryland has varied during the past several years. Last year, there were 19. In 2010, there were 23 cases. In the peak year of 2003, there were 73 human cases. Health officials say that residents should use insect repellent when outdoors, especially at dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are most active. Residents should also eliminate mosquito breeding areas where rainwater collects by turning over or emptying birdbaths, flowerpots, buckets and barrels.


Neil Armstrong’s lasting legacy

United States apart, destroying our self-image as the bastion against communism. In the midst of this darkness, on the evening of July 20, 1969, Armstrong announced: “Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” The world stood still, and we all watched on live television as Neil walked on the moon with Buzz Aldrin. Almost immediately, a new confidence and pride blossomed in our country. Neil didn’t do it all himself, but he was the embodiment of the extraordinary effort put forth by thousands of talented, dedicated people around this country and the world. America was transformed that evening. Looking across our nation and our technical leadership today, it is easy to see how Apollo affected the future. Right after Sputnik, two great men recognized the growing peril to the United States’ technical and industrial capacity to be prepared for the modern era. First, President Dwight Eisenhower formed NASA and began building the leadership team, industrial capacity and momentum of America’s drive to enter space. Eisenhower’s efforts enabled his successor, John F. Kennedy, to lay out a vision. Kennedy told Congress on May 25, 1961: “First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.” It was crazy. Impossible. Audacious. But the seeds had been planted, and Americans knew they had to make it happen: Beat the Russians to the moon, and build a new technical and educational infrastructure to turn the vision into reality. Invigorated by the moon walk, Americans began to search deeper into our known universe to understand its limits, size, origin and evolution. Perhaps the clearest link with Apollo are the shuttle and the space station programs, which taught us how humans can live and work safely and ever more efficiently in space. Observatories were launched that revolutionized our understanding of space, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. While looking outward, NASA has used satellites to help humanity understand the interaction of Earth’s land, seas, atmosphere and ice. And orbiting, landing, roving and fly-by missions within our solar system continue to capture imaginations,


Philadelphia zoo blazes new trails

Something old, something new The zoo is the oldest in the United States, and just last month opened the Great Ape Trail. It’s part of a trail network throughout the zoo that, when finished, will allow many animals to travel, explore their environment and interact more with visitors. It’s the first of its kind in the world. The ape trail extends over a visitor path and through the tops of trees, from 11 to 16 feet off the ground. It is next to a lake and allows Batu and her mother, Tua, to explore the world outside their habitat. Think of it as giving them a chance to see more of their neighborhood while giving visitors a chance to see them where they most like to be: up high, as if in trees. The zoo is home to three Sumatran orangutans, which zoo president Vikram Dewan describes as “the great ape closest to extinction.” Only about 6,000 of the orangutans live in the wild, all in Indonesia. Orangutans are primates, which are mammals. Like humans, they have fingers, fingernails, eyes that face front, opposable thumbs to grab things and large brains. They usually have reddish-brown shaggy hair and can live more than 50 years. Mongoose lemurs run on a protected path above a walkway at Philadelphia Zoo. (Matt Rourke/AP) Batu and Tua enter the trail from their yard. They go through a metal door that must be opened by a zookeeper. Next, they climb stairs up a tower to the trail, which looks like large rooms that link to each other. The rooms. including most of the floors, are enclosed in flexible steel mesh (like a screen door). More trails to come The new trail system will cover about 1½ miles over all 42 acres of the zoo in 10 years, Dewan says. Many of the 1,300 animals — including rhinos, bears and giraffes — will be allowed to roam. While visitors watch and learn about Batu and Tua, primate expert Meredith Bastian and the zookeepers watch and learn more about orangutans. They want to see how the orangutans will be affected by their larger environment and what they learn. “Great apes are smart,” says Bastian, who grew up in Falls Church and spent a lot of time as a child looking at apes at the National Zoo and the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History. — Sue Kovach Shuman kidspost@washpost.com


Obama focuses on veterans, military at Fort Bliss, on anniversary of Iraq combat end

EL PASO — Obama appeared in Texas on the second anniversary of the end of combat in Iraq, which is not a coincidence, White House advisers said. The president has traveled the country speaking to military audiences about his decision to end that war as well as combat operations in Afghanistan. Along the way, he has promised to continue his commitment to service members, veterans and their families after they return home. Obama spoke in a large hangar at Fort Bliss, an Army installation close to the Mexican border used for missile and artillery training and testing and home of the 1st Armored Division as well as the 32nd Army Air & Missile Defense Command. The president jogged down the steps of Air Force One, stepping onto a sprawling tarmac where the temperature was 92 degrees. His motorcade passed huge fleets of neatly parked Blackhawk, Chinook and Apache helicopters on the way to the hangar, where 5,000 soldiers and an Army brass band were assembled to listen to him. “Coming home can be its own struggle, especially for wounded warriors, so we’ve poured tremendous resources into this effort,” Obama said, the soldiers listening to him shouting “Hooah” after almost every line. “Everyone has a responsibility to help a comrade who’s hurting.” “Part of ending these wars responsibly is caring for those who fought in them,” Obama said. “We may be turning a page on a decade of war, but America’s responsibilities to you have only just begun.” Obama said he would send troops into harm’s way only when “absolutely necessary,” and only with the best equipment to keep them safe. The president also drew what sounded like a contrast with his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, who has accused the president of drawing down too quickly in Afghanistan. “We’re not just ending these wars,” Obama said. “We’re doing it in a way that keeps America safe and makes America stronger. And that includes our military. Think about it. Just four years ago there were some 180,000 troops in Iraq and afghan. By next month we will have cut that number by nearly two thirds. So most of our troops have come home.” Soldiers in heavy fatigues fanned themselves to stay cool against a backdrop of desert, mountains and an Apache helicopter visible through the wide-open hangar doors. Obama also told the story of meeting a young wounded soldier when he visited


Police report new lead in killing of H Street deli owner

Reports by D.C. police of a promising lead in the shooting death of a popular Northeast Washington deli owner in June has renewed the family’s hope that the killer will soon be found, but it also has evoked a flood of painful memories. The victim’s son, Peter D. Lim, said relatives have been concentrating on trying to sell the shuttered shop on H Street. He said detectives told him two weeks ago that they linked a man to the crime scene through DNA. “We haven’t had a chance to deal with this whole thing emotionally,” he said of his mother’s death. “Now that it’s back in the news, it’s painful. It’s reopened the wounds and made it fresh again. But I think any progress is good. We’re hopeful.” Hae Soon Lim, 64, was found fatally shot inside Grace Deli, at Seventh and H streets NE, on the morning of June 14. Neighbors and customers knew her as June. Newly filed court documents say she was shot once in the back of the neck while standing behind her counter. A police affidavit seeking a search warrant, filed in D.C. Superior Court last week, says that the deli’s cash drawer had been rifled and that an empty gun holster was found inches from Lim’s body. A forensics technician with the D.C. police crime lab swabbed the holster for DNA, the affidavit says, and the results were submitted to a national database. The existence of the affidavit was first reported by Washington’s Fox 5 (WTTG-TV). Police said that on Aug. 7, the DNA database matched the evidence from the discarded holster to a 46-year-old man, a convicted criminal in Virginia who was wanted on an alleged parole violation. Details of that case could not be ascertained. D.C. police and members of the U.S. Marshals Service arrested the man Aug. 23 in an apartment in the 1200 block of M Street NW, where the affidavit says he had been living since May. The Washington Post is not naming the man because he has not been charged in Lim’s death. Police said in court documents that the man is being held in the D.C. jail. Police declined to comment on the latest developments. Police used the DNA match to obtain a search warrant for the M Street apartment, telling a judge that “there is probable cause to believe that inside the residence . . .


Leading the public health response to global outbreaks

Dr. Ali Khan is a disease tracker for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who has gone on the trail more than 40 outbreaks of mysterious infectious diseases and public health disasters over the past two decades, both here and abroad, seeking to identify causes, the extent of the infected populations and how to halt the spread of the disease. He has investigated hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, monkey pox, Rift Valley fever and avian influenza, to name a few. After the anthrax mail attacks in 2001, Khan’s responsibility was to figure out who was infected, or potentially infected, and make sure they got antibiotics. In 2003, Khan flew to Singapore to advise the government on its response to a spate of SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome) cases. And, after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, he and two Georgia national guardsmen commandeered a hospital and set up a post to re-establish public health services. “I go on every high-profile outbreak for CDC,” Khan said, CDC’s director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. “I like the immediacy of doing something.” Khan also assists the CDC in maintaining a strategic stockpile of medicines and vaccines and helps states with preparedness. His efforts have won his high praise from colleagues throughout the public health field. “He’s a tireless road warrior for public health,” said Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Medical Center’s (UPMC) Center for Biosecurity. “He has a strong understanding of what it takes for public health organizations to respond to disasters and the ability to manage a large, complicated organization.” Dr. Ali Khan of the CDC. (Jim Gathany/CDC) Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said Khan has been “good at helping states use the tools for every day public health challenges, rather than just build them in case of catastrophic emergency.” One of Khan’s roles is to help the CDC reach out to people and encourage them to put together an emergency kit, come up with an evacuation plan in advance and stay informed and help their neighbors during an actual emergency. With such preparation, he said, individuals and families will be able to take care of themselves for the first couple of hours and days after an emergency situation. A recent publicity campaign tried to drive the point home to a wide


Saison’s growing on us

A few days before last month’s DC Beer Week, Barrett Lauer, head brewer at District Chophouse & Brewery, poured seven beers into one metal tank. He had brewed only one of them, which, he says, was tart and fruity. An ale from 3 Stars Brewing was perfumed with lime and basil, and Chocolate City Beer’s contribution had a peppery bite. The other four beers, also from local breweries, filled in the spectrum with varying degrees of sweetness, yeastiness, fruitiness and spice. All seven beers were saisons, a once-obscure variety of Belgian farmhouse ale. Served as a single blend, they were drinkable evidence of the style’s unfettered diversity and the farmhouse frenzy that has spread throughout America, turning the land of the free into the home of the saison. “Saison is an up-and-coming, very hot style that is very refreshing,” Lauer says, adding that it is accessible for craft-beer neophytes yet elegant enough to please aficionados. “It isn’t extremely aggressive and it has a lot of soft nuances that are appealing at this time of year.” Remarkably, the style once teetered on the brink of extinction, almost dying out in its native Wallonia, Belgium’s southern, Francophone half. According to brewer and author Phil Markowski, farmers probably made saisons for centuries with whatever was available: barley, wheat, rye and spelt, as well as hops, herbs and spices. They were allegedly intended as a drink for the “saisonniers,” migrants who helped with the harvest. By the 1980s, though, saisons were perpetuated by only a few small breweries. One of them, Brasserie Dupont, was about to discontinue its example of the style, which made up only 2 percent of its total production. Saison Rue by The Bruery (Deb Lindsey/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) Fate was kind to the saison. Don Feinberg and Wendy Littlefield, owners of Vanberg & Dewulf, the first U.S. importer to specialize in Belgian beers, were contacted in the mid 1980s by their friend Michael Jackson, the great beer writer who died in 2007. “Michael said, ‘Don, there’s a great little brewery called Dupont,’ ” Littlefield recalls. “ ‘They make a saison, an endangered style. You should go try it.’ ” Saison Dupont wasn’t an immediate hit in the United States, where drinkers were more familiar with sweeter Belgian abbey ales. Praise from brewing icons such as Garrett Oliver and Sam Calagione, however, as well as good media coverage, helped turn it


Saison’s growing on us

into a sensation. The beer would directly or indirectly inspire breweries large and small, including giants such as Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewing and the husband-and-wife “gypsy brewing” venture Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project of Massachusetts. Saison Dupont’s intrinsic attributes might have been its most important advantage: a dry, drinkable, balanced mixture of fruit and spice with a floral hop aroma. Littlefield points out that the style is great on its own or with food, particularly spicy or fatty dishes. Plus, as Markowski notes in an entry in the Oxford Companion to Beer, “Many American craft brewers embody the creative ‘no-rules’ approach that has long defined saison.” The saison, like a jazz standard riffed on by thousands of beboppers, has been an experimental form since the earliest Belgian farmers first concocted it from whatever they grew. “That’s one of the nicest things about saison as a style. It’s so open to diversity and change and interpretation,” says Dave Coleman, president of the District’s 3 Stars Brewing, which has dabbled in four saisons and intends to brew one of them, the peppercorn-laced Urban Farmhouse, year-round. Or as Brandon Skall, president of DC Brau, puts it, “A saison has so many different characteristics. You can choose the ones you want to highlight.” DC Brau’s new Middle Name: Danger saison, for example — a collaboration with Baltimore’s Stillwater Artisanal Ales — is more about American hops than yeast or spice, showcasing nontraditional tropical fruit aromas. One way to taste contrasting approaches: Compare Saison Dupont with beers from Stillwater. (Consistently in stock in the Washington area, Stillwater is like Rene Magritte to Dupont’s Michelangelo — a playful reinterpreter, not an old master.) Saison Dupont smells earthy, with notes of clove, apple and hay, and the bone-dry beer is restrained and yeasty. Stillwater’s Cellar Door is lemony and scented with sage, an ideal beer to pair with food. Its Existent, a chestnut-colored “dark saison,” tastes like coffee, cola and roasted barley. Three Stars Brewing and DC Brau intend to put out more saisons, as does Bluejacket, the forthcoming D.C. brewery from Neighborhood Restaurant Group whose recently released Sidewalk Saison was brewed with a foraged herb called violet wood sorrel. And Saison Dupont is always available: The king of saisons is now distributed in some 40 states and U.S. territories, plus a dozen other countries. This March, Littlefield visited Brasserie Dupont’s head brewer, Olivier DeDeycker, and


Contrary to Michael Bloomberg and George Mitchell’s rosy assertions, fracking is not a global-warming fix. Here’s what science says will happen if we switch rapidly to so-called clean natural gas via the technique known as hydraulic fracturing: The Earth warms about 6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, and human civilization as we know it will be in great jeopardy. This forecast comes from the prestigious International Energy Agency, which concluded in a report last spring that the coming “golden age of gas” would still guarantee catastrophic warming. It’s true that natural gas emits less carbon dioxide than coal upon combustion. But natural gas contributes mightily to climate change before combustion. Natural gas is mostly methane, a shorter-lived but more potent greenhouse gas that seeps from wellheads and aging pipelines. Scientists warn that reducing methane over the next couple of decades is crucial for getting global warming under control. Bottom line: Natural gas is a fossil fuel. It can’t solve our climate crisis, and focusing on it only crowds out wind power, solar and other renewable solutions. Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Mitchell’s “sensible” fracking plan is, despite the authors’ best intentions, a recipe for baking the planet. Mike Tidwell, Takoma Park The writer is director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.


Taisia Osipova, victimized by Russian injustice

as much attention as the jailing of punk rock band Pussy Riot. But the Osipova case is just as outrageous, another vivid example of arbitrary power being used against the powerless, a consequence of Russia’s failure to build a modern, post-Soviet rule of law. The mother of a 6-year-old, Ms. Osipova is the wife of Sergei Fomchenkov, a leader of an unregistered, nationalist opposition party, Other Russia. He said that Ms. Osipova was framed to put pressure on his political activities. She was arrested after a police sting operation on the street in Smolensk. The police also said they found drugs during a search of her apartment. She was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison. An outcry at the punishment drew the attention of Dmitry Medvedev, then Russia’s president, who said it was “too severe” and called for a reexamination of the case. Mr. Medvedev’s comments came as protests swelled in Moscow and elsewhere after he announced plans to swap jobs with Vladimir Putin, then prime minister, and reports of widespread falsification in December’s parliamentary elections. Mr. Putin returned to the Kremlin in May. Ms. Osipova, who has diabetes, got a new trial. A witness to the apartment search, Anton Mandrik, testified that he saw police plant the drugs. Mr. Mandrik took a lie detector test to back up his claim and passed. Ms. Osipova maintained since the start of the case that the drugs were planted, a common practice in Russia when the authorities are attempting to ensnare someone on trumped-up charges. After the second trial, the judge threw out the charges based on the apartment search, but the others stuck. The Post’s Will Englund reported this year from Smolensk that the witnesses to the police sting were members of a pro-Kremlin youth group. One of them said she was misled by the police into thinking it was a routine criminal case, only to find out later that it was a trap for Ms. Osipova’s husband. It is rare for a Russian judge to impose a longer jail term than that recommended by prosecutors, and the judge did not offer an explanation for deciding on an eight-year term. Most likely, there is a back story of a power struggle that is known only to a few. In a state without rule of law, individuals exercise power at a whim, and people such as Ms. Osipova are trod underneath.


White House releases its beer recipes, brewing video

President Obama continued to foment interest in his beer-drinking ways Saturday by releasing the recipes for two White House home brews along with a video on how the beer is made. The video shows White House assistant chef Sam Kass and sous chef Tafari Campbell making the beer, dumping hops and honey into a pot of boiling brown liquid, checking on five-gallon bottles in a tiny basement storage room, transferring it to bottles and finally, tasting it (and approving). “Brewing beer is becoming a thing that Americans are doing in their homes and garages across the country,” Kass said in the video. “The president certainly thought it would be a good idea to see if we could join in that time-honored tradition and brew some of our own beer.” Obama has been mentioning his love of beer regularly on the campaign trail in recent weeks, talking about how much he enjoys drinking a cold one at the end of a long day and even sharing a White House-made beer from his campaign bus with a man he met in Iowa last month. Although there’s no evidence that Obama is faking his love of beer, his regular willingness to pose with it is serving a political purpose: helping him appear to be an everyman who drinks a beverage favored by millions of Americans. And you can even serve the White House beer in a Vice President Biden can holder. Perhaps coincidentally, Obama was back in Iowa on Saturday, one of the most competitive battlegrounds in his race against Republican Mitt Romney, when he released the recipes and video. It was during a three-day bus tour across Iowa in early August when he mentioned beer at almost every stop. Obama’s attention to beer prompted an online petition urging the president to release the recipes. He also was asked to do so during an online Reddit chat Wednesday. He promised to do so, and the White House released the recipes Saturday — along with a four-and-a-half minute video that looked like it had been weeks in the making. The White House released instructions for two beers: “White House Honey Ale” and “White House Honey Porter.” The recipes were developed with help from Matt Slattery, a brew master with the White House Mess, and White House beekeeper Charlie Brandt. Both beers use honey from the property’s beehives. Kass was also careful to point out