Running is supposed to make you feel good. So why did I just feel more stressed?

(COURTESY OF RUN WILD RETREAT & WELLNESS) I’ve had a rough few months. I lost my beloved dad in January, which left me grief-stricken. Running, my passion and head-clearing outlet, usually helps me deal with life’s stresses, but an Achilles’ injury sidelined me in December during my dad’s final decline. Then came a bout of flu in February, laying me up for a good 10 days. At that point, I pulled out of the Boston Marathon because I knew that attempting it would have been asking too much of my body. All of which led me to the red rocks of Moab, Utah, at the end of March to attend Run Wild Retreat & Wellness, a four-day mindful running retreat involving workshops and a variety of guided runs. I needed to restore my equilibrium, and I hoped that by learning to approach my hobby of choice with more intent, I could accomplish that. I wanted to flip the switch from stressing over training missed to embracing the runs I made. I did all that and more in a beautiful, restorative setting. Led by 42-year-old Elinor Fish of Carbondale, Colo., the event promised challenging, scenic trail running. More important, the retreats are designed to help busy women change their narrative. Rather than allowing running to become one more “to do” on already long lists, Fish aims to help women ensure the runs serve as self-care, as something to enhance a busy life rather than drain energy reserves already shrinking from so many demands. It sounded like just what my tired, burned-out self needed. I was joined at the retreat by 13 other women from all walks of life. We each carried with us stories of lives in some way out of balance, seeking help to bring us back to center. Setting intentions Fish, an accomplished runner, kicked things off by explaining that before we can run strong, uninjured and energized, we must establish a foundation of health. Using a pyramid to illustrate her point, she layered the elements of healthy running one on top of the other. At the bottom, supporting everything else, was rest. We runners want to achieve our running goals but often ignore the fact that like everyone, we live in perpetual, stressful spin cycles. We’re after career goals, we care for our families and we want to be active and contributing members of our communities. When we


Watchdog group reports seven deaths from ‘preventable’ infections at state facility

A January 2012 aerial view of the Central Virginia Training Center in Madison Heights near Lynchburg, Va. (Sam O’Keefe/Lynchburg News & Daily Advance via Associated Press) More than a half-dozen people died at a state-run residential facility in Virginia from infections that typically are easy to treat with antibiotics. The state has acknowledged the deaths, which first were identified by a nonprofit watchdog organization that advocates for people with disabilities. Several of the residents who died, state officials also noted, had other medical issues. Six deaths connected to urinary tract infections occurred within a 14-month period, part of a pattern documented by the Richmond-based DisAbility Law Center of Virginia, which monitors state institutions. A seventh infection-related death occurred after the law center alerted the facility and state officials in September 2016 to the “alarming conditions” at the institution, “leading to prolonged and painful death.” “We are saddened by this unnecessary loss of life,” said Colleen Miller, the law center’s executive director. “People should not be dying from urinary tract infections.” The deaths are particularly disturbing, she said, because such infections are usually easy to prevent and treat. The findings are the latest in a series of problems identified at the Central Virginia Training Center near Lynchburg, which is slated to close in 2020 as the state moves away from institutionalizing people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The living conditions at the campus were initially investigated by the Justice Department nearly a decade ago. In response to the report last week, state officials said the center had already been “taking steps to mitigate the effects of infections, specifically urinary tract infections,” by training staff on the importance of hydration and spotting symptoms. In a statement, Jack Barber, interim commissioner of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, thanked the law center for “tracking this vital issue and highlighting DBHDS’s efforts to address this challenge.” Virginia was one of the last states to begin shuttering its large institutions. In 2012, the state announced that it would close all but one of the facilities, known as training centers, and move people into smaller group homes or family houses. The shift came as part of a $2.1 billion settlement with the federal government that is still under review in federal court. The Justice Department declined to comment on the new report. Two state institutions, including a facility in Northern Virginia, have closed.


Southeast D.C. man charged in five armed robberies

aboard the bus when it caught fire — a driver, an assistant and four children. D.C. school buses, which are mostly used to transport special-education students, are operated by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education for D.C. traditional public and public charter schools. Maggiolo said the driver reported seeing smoke, then flames from the bus engine, and pulled over and evacuated everyone. The driver was taken to a hospital to be checked out. — Dana Hedgpeth National Zoo’s panda artificially inseminated The female giant panda at the National Zoo in Washington has been artificially inseminated, authorities said. Now they’re crossing their fingers that she becomes pregnant. Mei Xiang, the 18-year-old giant panda, received two artificial inseminations Thursday, one starting around 2 p.m. and the other around 11:30 p.m. Reproductive scientists and veterinarians have been closely watching her hormone levels in her urine and her behaviors to see if she’s ready to breed. Giant female pandas have a very short window each year when they can breed so timing it is hard. In fact, they are only in heat for 24 to 72 hours each year. She was inseminated with semen from the zoo’s 19-year-old male panda Tian Tian. Giant female pandas are typically pregnant for three to six months. But they can also have pseudopregnancies and show signs of being with cub when they are not. Ultrasounds will be eventually performed to determine if she is pregnant. — Dana Hedgpeth MARYLAND Baltimore police lieutenant charged A Baltimore police lieutenant overseeing the Horseshoe Casino district has been charged with theft of overtime after an internal investigation was sparked by an anonymous letter that said he was “never at work.” Authorities say Lt. Steven Bagshaw, a 21-year veteran, was earning fraudulent overtime, even in the wake of the federal indictments announced in March of seven officers accused of stealing overtime. From April 1 through May 12, investigators determined he was paid $8,628.77 for time he was not working, which included regular and overtime shifts, police wrote in charging documents. City records show Bagshaw, 44, made $170,000 in fiscal year 2016, on a base salary of $106,000. Bagshaw was charged Thursday with two counts of theft scheme and unauthorized removal of property, for improperly using agency vehicles, court records show. Bagshaw could not immediately be reached for comment and did not have a lawyer listed in court records. — Baltimore Sun


Feds: Man falsified citizenship papers to hide role in 1982 Guatemalan war crimes

Relatives of victims of the slaughter in the village of Dos Erres hold roses in August 2011 in Guatemala City during the trial of military men involved. (JOHAN ORDONEZ/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES) During his three decades in the United States, Jose Ortiz Morales’s alarming past in Guatemala never caught up to him. For 11 of those years, he toiled as a mail clerk at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies — just off Dupont Circle in the middle of Washington. What few, if any, knew was that Morales had served in a special forces unit known as the “Kaibiles” that in 1982 descended on the small village of Dos Erres. They raped women and children, bashed their heads with a hammer, shot others, threw bodies down a 40-foot well and then threw a grenade into the well. By the time the soldiers left, they had killed more than 200 villagers. That past was laid bare this week in U.S. District Court in Maryland, where Morales, 55, pleaded guilty to fraudulently trying to gain U.S. citizenship. He also is wanted by Guatemalan officials on criminal charges of murder, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the Dos Erres massacre, according to federal officials. “Those who would evade charges for atrocities committed abroad will not find safe haven in the United States,” Andre R. Watson, a special agent at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said earlier after Morales’s arrest. Morales was born in 1962, served in the Guatemalan army for eight years and migrated north in 1988, court records show. After unlawfully crossing into the United States, the records show, he made his way to Maryland. In 1990, he applied for and was granted lawful permanent residency status in the United States. He was hired by Hopkins in 1995 and worked as a mail clerk at the Advanced International Studies school, leaving in 2006, said Dennis O’Shea, a Hopkins spokesman. O’Shea declined to comment further. According to online Maryland court records, Morales has never been arrested in the state and appears to have kept a low profile. Nor was there any reason to know his connection to the Kaibiles. “Hopkins didn’t do anything wrong,” Stephen Schenning, the acting U.S. attorney in Maryland, said Friday. His office said that Morales had “legally worked for many years,” including at Hopkins. Morales’s troubles here appear rooted in actions he took


Skywatch: Big planets Jupiter and Saturn will dazzle night skies in June

— appearing to float through the constellation Virgo now — rises in the midafternoon throughout June and hits due south soon after nightfall early in the month. Saturn reaches opposition June 15, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, when the ringed planet is opposite the sun from Earth’s perspective. Think of it as a “full” Saturn. For the month, the ringed planet will be zero magnitude, bright enough to see from city locations. Early in the month, it rises around 9 p.m., but rises near 8:20 p.m. (before the sun sets) in mid-June. Find it in the later evening, low in the southeastern sky. It then cruises south and you can catch it before sunrise in the southwest. The full moon (June 9) loiters near Saturn on June 9-10. It’s the smallest full moon of the year. Bon voyage to our neighboring Mars for the summer. From our earthly perspective, the Red Planet will be too close to the sun to see until September — when it returns to the morning sky. Venus ascends the eastern, morning heavens early in June, brilliantly capturing our cosmic hearts at -4.5 magnitude, quite bright. By mid-month, the planet is slightly less luminous at -4.3 magnitude — which ain’t too shabby. Look to the east before dawn as you’re walking the dog or taking a jog. It’s hard to miss Venus. The waning crescent moon meets the planet on the mornings of June 20-21. It’s lunacy: June features two first-quarter moons for the United States. For the East Coast this month, the first-quarter moon officially occurs at 8:42 a.m. Eastern Daylight time on June 1, according to the Naval Observatory. The second first-quarter moon occurs June 30 at 8:51 p.m. EDT. Summer officially starts with the solstice June 21 at just after midnight, 12:24 a.m., the point where the sun appears to touch the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere. Washington gets 14 hours and 54 minutes of daylight on June 18-23, according to the observatory. During the June 10-17 period, we see the year’s earliest sunrise at 5:42 a.m. for Washington. Our latest sunset is 8:38 p.m. for June 27-28. Down-to-Earth events: ● June 2 — ● June 5 — ● June 5 — ● June 10 — ● June 11 — ● June 17 — ● June 20 — ● June 22 — Blaine Friedlander can be reached at PostSkyWatch@yahoo.com .


Bin Laden’s son steps into father’s shoes as al-Qaeda attempts a comeback

boyhood, when he was portrayed multiple times as an adoring son posing with his famous father. He is believed to be married, with at least two children, and he lived for a time in the tribal region of northwestern Pakistan, although his whereabouts are unknown. His refusal to allow his image to be published may reflect a well-founded concern about his personal safety, but it complicates the militants’ task of making him a terrorist icon, said Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that monitors Islamist militancy on social media. “People loyal to al-Qaeda and against the Islamic State are looking for inspiration, and they realize that he can provide it,” Stalinsky said. “But for today’s youth, you need more than audio and an old photograph.” What is known about Hamza bin Laden comes from his numerous recordings as well as intelligence reports and scores of documents seized during the 2011 raid by U.S. Navy SEALS on Osama bin Laden’s safe house in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Included in the document trove were personal letters from Hamza to his father, as well as written instructions from the elder bin Laden to his aides on how Hamza was to be educated and provided for. The documents reveal a special bond between Hamza bin Laden and his father that persisted despite long periods of separation. The 15th of Osama bin Laden’s estimated 20 children, Hamza was the only son born to the terrorist’s third wife, and by some accounts his favorite, Khairiah Sabar, a Saudi woman whose family traces its lineage to the prophet Muhammad. He spent his early childhood years with his parents, first in Saudi Arabia and later in Sudan and Afghanistan, where his father began to assemble the pieces of his worldwide terrorism network. A family friend who knew Hamza bin Laden as a child said he showed both promise and early flashes of ambition. “He was a very intelligent and smart boy, very fond of horseback riding, like his father,” said the friend, a longtime associate of the al-Qaeda network, contacted through a social-media chat service. “While his parents wanted him to stay away from battlefields, he had arguments with them about it.” Then came the 9/11 attacks, which brought the bin Ladens international notoriety and made Hamza’s father the world’s most wanted man. As U.S.-backed Afghan militias closed in on al-Qaeda’s


This Va. roadside zoo is unaccredited. Its owner says that’s what makes it humane.

was cut off,” he says. Animal welfare advocates say only luck has saved Kilby from an attack. (Karine Aigner/For The Washington Post) In addition to reptiles, Kilby likes birds (he’s a falconer) and has about 30 at his zoo. There’s also Yukon, a Canada lynx that was owned by a man who wanted to use the animal for community education and outreach but could no longer care for it. Bella, a macaque that lived with a woman in her home until she got cancer, lives next door to Mr. Blueberries, a vervet monkey who was surrendered by a woman after her husband died. Outside Mr. Blueberries’s enclosure, a young man with a wispy mustache looks from side to side before making a mock charge at the monkey. The creature leaps back, tail raised. A girl standing next to him laughs. I ask Kilby whether ill-behaved guests are a problem. “Yes,” he says, with no hesitation. “How often?” I ask. “Yearly? Monthly? Daily?” He turns and looks at me. “Yes,” he says. Rules of conduct are posted on the zoo’s website, along with a warning that a guest may be removed at any time. Kilby rattles off a few such instances, including one time when he saw a guy outside the tiger’s enclosure survey his surroundings and say, “Hey, man, I’m going to jump over this barricade and pet that tiger.” Kilby replied, “Hey, man, tell you what, you do that, and I’ll break your [expletive] face.” Shortly after sharing this story, Kilby jumps the enclosure and pets the tiger, saying it’s okay for him to do it because “she knows me. And I know her.” Later, I learn that in 2008, the same tiger, known as Star, bit the hand of a 16-year-old volunteer at the zoo, severing her pinkie finger. For this, the zoo was fined $1,500 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and $250 by the USDA. OSHA also advised prohibiting employees from coming into contact with the tiger. USDA, asked recently about that interaction, says Kilby and his employees may come into contact with the tiger, provided they’ve been properly trained and follow the Animal Welfare Act. But it’s still risky. Lisa Wathne, a captive-animal specialist for the Humane Society of the United States, says, “It’s sheer luck, not expertise, that’s kept him from being attacked.” The Bukowskis — from left, Hannah; Quinn, 4; Matt; and


A new breed of falcons soars back from brink of extinction in Virginia

Bryan Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at William & Mary and VCU, tags one of three peregrine falcon fledglings in Dumfries, Va. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) For nine years, a pair of peregrine falcons have made their home in an unlikely place: the smokestacks of a Virginia power plant. But animal researchers say the unique resting place might have spurred the rise of a new kind of Virginia falcons, bred with peregrines from other areas, after the birds disappeared more than a half-century ago. It’s also helping researchers amid a biological renaissance uncommon in nature. One falcon, the female, came from the Betsy Ross Bridge in New Jersey. Her partner was born at a power plant in Maryland. Home is now near the top of a red and white smokestack at Dominion Energy’s Possum Point Power Station. Together in Virginia for nearly a decade, they’ve had 25 young ones in a nest box placed by researchers. It’s a wooden box with a roof, two open sides and a bottom full of pea gravel, which is ideal for laying eggs. It is meant to mimic the type of home falcons would make on a cliff. They love to overlook water, and they love to be up high. Researchers went up a 350-foot smoke stack at Dominion Energy’s Possum Point Power Station in Prince William County, Va., to examine a nest where three chicks were born. Researchers from the College of William & Mary and Virginia Commonwealth University band the legs of each of the pair’s baby falcons, known as eyases, at the plant in Prince William County, as part of a partnership that began 12 years ago. During the banding process, metal tags are placed on their legs as the offspring are weighed and examined. Feather and blood samples are taken before the young are returned to their nest. The exam is performed while the chicks still have a dusting of down feathers covering their flight feathers. Several days ago, Bryan Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at William & Mary and VCU, journeyed about 350 feet up the smokestack to look at the three youngest additions to the nest, two females and a male. The elevator’s vibration as it ascended prompted one falcon to alert the others. The call was a loud alarm — a squawking warning that something was approaching. Watts quickly collected two


to the area. The first time the new breed of peregrine falcons laid eggs in Virginia was 1982, and now the state has more than 30 peregrine pairs. Elsewhere, Maryland has 28 confirmed nesting pairs as of 2016, the District has one and Delaware has five. Environmentalists expect the numbers to keep climbing. “It’s taken 40 years to get back where we were, but it’s a great success story in terms of conservation here in the East,” Watts said as he tagged the second female chick, one of two that had remained in the nest as the young male fled. “Our population in the Mid-Atlantic region, including Virginia, is self-sustaining now, in terms of the productivity.” Watts said the birds got their name from what they do best: wandering. Peregrine means traveling, and once the Virginia chicks fly away they’re sometimes spotted in cities such as Boston or New York. Some go west. Others migrate for the winter as far as Panama or Colombia. Bryan Watts and wife, Marian, weigh one of three peregrine falcon fledglings in Dumfries, Va. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) The bands “allow us to get all kinds of information that we weren’t allowed to get otherwise,” he said. In addition to where they fly off to, the bands help researchers examine the birds’ survival rate as well as their relation to other falcons. One pair of peregrine falcons lived on the James River for 18 years. The falcons were banded as chicks in Baltimore and were siblings, just one year apart. Together they produced more than 50 young and were the most productive pair ever recorded, “and they were full siblings,” he said. Watts said one factor that has helped the peregrine resurgence is the birds’ adaptability to man-made structures. He said about 30 percent of the population lives on towers that were built for them in an effort to restore the population. The rest live on other man-made structures, such as bridges, buildings and smokestacks — like the family that lives at Possum Point in Virginia. Bryan Watts holds one of the peregrine falcon fledglings he tagged. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) Dominion’s Jeff Marcell, left, watches as Bryan Watts removes the peregrine falcon fledglings from their nest. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) After a little clawing, a few tiny pecks and a lot of noise, the bands were placed on both young falcons. But where in


Covering the world’s biggest hunger crises, I saw people with nothing give everything to save a life

splitting tiny portions of corn or fish or fruit. It meant lending bed mats to the elderly, and sharing space in cramped huts. It’s not just that I found their generosity moving but that it truly saved lives. People ate who might otherwise have gone hungry. People found shelter from the 100-degree heat who might otherwise have shriveled in the sun. “We live thanks to the people of Ganyiel who share their food,” Veronica Nyariel, 43, told me. She wore a pink shirt and a black shawl that had taken on the color of the dirt that she slept on. In Baidoa, Somalia, I saw another displacement camp that had emerged out of nothing, as thousands of people fled a hunger crisis caused by both drought and violence inflicted by al-Shabab militants. Again, international organizations had arrived, but they hadn’t brought enough food or shelter for everyone. After Mohamed Iman arrived in Baidoa in early March, he went wandering through the poor, embattled city, which was once controlled by al-Shabab. Months earlier, he had been a farmer. Now he was a beggar. The people of Baidoa gave and gave: food, clothes, shelter. Women and children stand in the hallway ofElijah Karama’s home. (Jane Hahn/for The Washington Post) “Some of them know me, and some of them don’t, but they all help,” said Iman, 56. It’s true that in each of the three countries threatened by famine, the provider and the recipient of charity are often members of the same tribe or the same ethnic group or, at the very least, victims of the same oppressor. These days, we hear mostly about how tribalism divides so many African countries, and it’s often true. South Sudan has been decimated by a war that has increasingly fallen along ethnic lines, mostly between the Dinka and Nuer groups. The north-south divide in Nigeria severs the country socially and economically. Somalia is riven not just by the government’s war against radical Islamists but by the countless fractures between clans and sub-clans. In each country, those divisions have contributed to the severe hunger crises. But the other side of that factionalism is the cohesion within smaller communities and groups, and the charity it begets. “Whenever there’s a disaster or a crisis, especially in places hard to reach, these communities help themselves before international organizations arrive to help,” said Patricia Danzi, the head of Africa operations for


Another deadly consequence of climate change: The spread of dangerous diseases

the scientific linkages are unmistakable. If we fail to integrate planning for the impact of climate change with planning for the prevention and management of pandemic disease, the consequences will be deadly. The link between climate and disease is most often identified through the spread of disease vectors such as mosquitoes. As areas warm, habitats for insects — mosquitoes and deer ticks, for example — expand, exposing new populations to new disease threats. As Maryn McKenna recently explained in the New York Times Magazine, the approximately one degree Celsius increase in average temperatures the planet has experienced is “changing the numbers and distribution of the insect intermediaries that carry diseases to people.” Most immediately, we could see a larger number of people at risk in the United States from Zika this summer as the Aedes aegypti mosquito moves farther north, complicating the already challenging efforts to constrain the disease. But a second, and less appreciated, interaction between climate change and epidemics occurs when humans and animals are forced to compete for dwindling habitat and resources. The scenario behind Ebola’s rise and global threat in 2014 illustrates this point. Climate change destroys habitats and stresses animal populations such as the bats of West Africa, forcing them to hunt for food nearer to humans. Humans, likewise pressed by climate impacts, encroach more closely on animal habitats. While we cannot know that climate change was the cause of the specific interaction between bats and humans that is believed to have launched the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, we will see more of these interactions in the future, and more epidemics as a result. Ebola demonstrates that even localized dislocation of people and animals can create global risk. Climate change is a threat multiplier for much broader dislocation — accelerating the complex factors that drive people from their homes. While in some cases climate-affected dislocation will be “planned” — as with the climate refugees in Louisiana or on remote Pacific islands such as Kiribati — more often it will occur in large, unplanned migrations that amplify regional instability and crisis. This dynamic can also drive migrations from rural into urban areas, as occurred in Syria, where the 2006-2010 drought killed off 80 percent of the country’s livestock and helped drive more than 1.5 million people into stressed urban centers. The U.S. intelligence community’s bottom-line assessment of the risk is plain: “Over 20 years, the net


Loudoun County Animal Watch

Loudoun County These were among recent cases reported by the Loudoun County Department of Animal Services. For animal shelter hours and location, and information on adoption, licensing, rabies clinics and low-cost neutering, call 703-777-0406. Injured opossum: Fawn lying near a roadway: Cascades Pkwy., Sterling, May 20. Callers reported seeing a fawn lying near a roadway and were concerned it might be sick or injured. An animal control officer found that the fawn appeared bright, alert and uninjured, and had probably been placed there by its mother. The officer moved the fawn off the roadway to a safe location where the mother could locate it. Turtle’s predicament: Hit-and-run incident: Dog hit by car: — Compiled by Sandy Mauck


Montgomery County Animal Watch

Montgomery county This case was received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Tethering violation Reduced FEES FOR CATS Cats and kittens will be available for adoption at the next open house of Friends of Montgomery County Animals at the following location. Call 301-977-4833, or visit fmca.org or facebook.com/fmcainfo.PetSmart at Milestone Center, 20924 Frederick Rd., Germantown. Hours: 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday. Cats at no-kill shelter Cats and kittens will be available for adoption through the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County’s no-kill shelter at the following location. For information, call 301-740-2511 or visit awlmc.org.Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County no-kill shelter, 12 Park Ave., Gaithersburg. Hours: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Humane Society adoptions The Montgomery County Humane Society’s private rescue shelter has dogs, puppies, cats and kittens available for adoption. Call 240-252-2555 or visit mchumane.org.MCHS Adoptions and Education Center, 601 S. Stonestreet Ave., Rockville. Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except holidays. — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


One man killed. Dozens of bullets fired. A D.C. community fearful the violence will continue.

avenues. When the entourage reached Doretha Pinkett’s house on Bates Street, they had one more statistic to tally. Her family found a chip head-high in a brick near her front door, apparently damage from a bullet from the Q Street shooting one block away. “I’m not moving,” Pinkett sternly told the officers and their white-shirted bosses who came over to take a look and file a destruction-of-property report. Eva Jones, 16, and her mother, Tawanna Jones, found a bullet hole near the porch of Doretha Pinkett’s home on Bates Street NW. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) Eva Jones points to damage caused by one of the dozens of bullets fired in the Truxton Circle area over the Memorial Day weekend. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) Truxton Circle is one of those District neighborhoods struggling to gentrify while still confronting entrenched violence that stretches back generations. There is a mix of new residents, attracted to still-affordable homes, and longtime neighbors. Each year, the tiny neighborhood wedged in among Shaw, Bloomingdale and Eckington seems to erupt in violent spasms. Last summer, four men were shot in front of the neighborhood’s signature entrance — the four-story turret of Big Ben Liquor Store that looms over New York Avenue and North Capitol Street. The shooting by a masked man came at the height of the evening rush hour on one of the traffic-clogged arteries in and out of the District. When police made arrests, they learned the suspected gunman was taking revenge for the fatal stabbing of a friend. At a community meeting, the 5th District police commander, William Fitzgerald, proclaimed the Big Ben corner “a long-term, open-air drug market.” A year later, that corner remains volatile, but overall violent crime in Truxton Circle — including assaults, shootings and robberies — has dropped from 72 incidents at this time in 2016 to 33 this year. Robberies have dropped from 45 to 21. The only category that has gone up is homicide, with two this year. There were none recorded through the first five months of 2016. Still, the overall statistics do not matter much to a 47-year-old husband and father who moved to Hanover Place 10 years ago and works as a manager for a beverage company. He has a wife and a 3-year old daughter and was outside holding a pink sippy cup adorned with a dancer when Newsham led his tour. “A


Trump administration moves to return Russian compounds in Maryland and New York

Former President Barack Obama shut down two diplomatic Russian compounds in late December 2016 as punishment for interference in the presidential election. The Trump administration is now moving toward returning these compounds back to the Russians. The Trump administration is moving toward handing back to Russia two diplomatic compounds, near New York City and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, that its officials were ejected from in late December as punishment for Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. President Barack Obama said Dec. 29 that the compounds were being “used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes” and gave Russia 24 hours to vacate them. Separately, Obama expelled from the United States what he said were 35 Russian “intelligence operatives.” In early May, the Trump administration told the Russians that it would consider turning the properties back over to them if Moscow would lift its freeze, imposed in 2014 in retaliation for U.S. sanctions related to Ukraine, on construction of a new U.S. consulate on a certain parcel of land in St. Petersburg. Two days later, the U.S. position changed. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a meeting in Washington that the United States had dropped any linkage between the compounds and the consulate, according to several people with knowledge of the exchanges. Two luxury retreats, in Centreville, Md., and Oyster Bay, N.Y., where Russian diplomats have gone for decades to play tennis, sail and swim, were shut down by the Obama administration in retaliation for Moscow’s alleged hacking in the presidential election. In Moscow on Wednesday, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Russia was “taking into account the difficult internal political situation for the current administration” but retained the option to reciprocate for what he called the “expropriation” of Russian property “if these steps are not somehow adjusted by the U.S. side,” the news outlet Sputnik reported. Senior Tillerson adviser R.C. Hammond said that “the U.S. and Russia have reached no agreements.” He said the next senior- level meeting between the two governments, below the secretary of state level, will be in June in St. Petersburg. Before making a final decision on allowing the Russians to reoccupy the compounds, the administration is examining possible restrictions on Russian activities there, including removing the diplomatic immunity the properties previously enjoyed. Without immunity, the facilities would be treated as any other buildings in the


As U.S. backs away from climate pledges, India and China step up

doesn’t matter if the U.S. withdraws from the Paris agreement. But it is built not only on cutting emissions, but finance and technology, and the U.S. contribution is about 20 percent of that.” Japan’s environment minister, Koichi Yamamoto, said at a news conference Thursday that “I can’t help but feel concerned whether the Paris treaty without U.S. participation would be effective.” Yet Yasushi Kimura, head of a major Japanese conglomerate of metals and petroleum companies called JXTG Holdings, told the Nikkei business newspaper when asked about climate change, “It’s hard to imagine not working on it just because the U.S. pulled out.” The United States is the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and had pledged in Paris to reduce its emissions 26 percent to 28 percent below their 2005 levels by 2025. The country’s withdrawal will have a major impact on the agreement’s goal of keeping the warming of the planet to below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of what it was in preindustrial times, experts say. Trump, who has said climate change is a “hoax” and that restrictions are bad for the U.S. economy, has already moved to roll back many Obama-era policies such as clean power, vehicle emission standards and curbs on power plants. China and India had been slow to address the issue of global warming — fearing it would hold back the pace of development. In India for example, 240 million people remain without electricity. But experts now predict that China’s carbon emissions will peak, and then begin to decline, significantly earlier than the country’s 2030 target, and the country is investing more in renewable energy than any other nation, pledging a further $360 billion by 2020. “China will continue to carry out innovation, green, open and shared development regardless of how the other countries’ positions are changing, based on the inherent needs of its own sustainable development,” Hua Chunying, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a news conference this week in Beijing. And now new energy policies in both nations are beginning to have a discernible effect, scholars say. Slowing consumption in China and delay of construction of new coal plants in India is likely to reduce projected global emissions by 2 billion to 3 billion tons by 2030, compared with forecasts from last year, according to a study released in May by Climate Action Tracker, an independent monitoring


D.C.’s grocery gap reflects city’s income divide

tax subsidies to lure supermarkets. In recent weeks, D.C. Council member Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7) has proposed legislation that would sweeten the incentives, requiring the District government to pay for the construction of supermarkets if companies agreed to locate in certain areas of Ward 7 and 8. But the inducements will not work unless the businesses believe they can generate revenue. Warren Williams, a developer who chairs Gray’s Ward 7 economic advisory council, said Wards 7 and 8 struggle to attract supermarkets, as well as retail and restaurants, because the areas lack sufficient population density. Neither ward has large concentrations of office buildings that draw daytime traffic, and many residents commute to other parts of the city to work. “The decisions are driven by the numbers,” he said. “Groceries will go where they think they can make a profit.” Ward 5, which includes neighborhoods such as Fort Lincoln and Brookland, was the one majority-African-American area in the District where the number of grocery stores increased, from three to seven between 2010 and 2016. The new options include an Aldi and a Costco. Yet Wheeler said the ward did not experience any significant increase in income or education levels. “We’re not talking about high-end Harris Teeters. We’re talking about reasonable groceries,” she said. “Can we get those stores east of the river?” In May, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and a contingent of D.C. Council members attended the annual International Council of Shopping Centers conference in Las Vegas, where they pitched supermarket companies on the prospect of opening in new developments in Wards 7 and 8. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8), whose district includes Anacostia and Congress Heights, said his ward’s lone supermarket, a Giant, is overrun with shoppers. “The food runs out fast. It’s ridiculous,” he said. “We’re at the point where we can’t just talk about the problem. We have to create a solution.” White procured $300,000 in next year’s budget to help small businesses in the ward establish alternative sources of food, such as organic gardens. At the conference in Las Vegas, he said, he had productive discussions with representatives of Lidl, a grocery chain, about opening a market in the ward. William Harwood, a company spokesman, said in an email that Lidl has “begun looking at sites in the District” but that it is “too early for me to comment further at this stage.”


Explanations for Kushner’s meeting with head of Kremlin-linked bank don’t match up

campaign. Page has said he assisted the FBI with its investigation into the spy ring and provided the Russians no sensitive information. The court documents show that the FBI recorded a conversation in which one of Buryakov’s handlers described hearing an intelligence officer tell Buryakov’s VEB boss that Buryakov worked for a Russian intelligence service. VEB paid for Buryakov’s legal fees after his arrest, the court documents show. The Russian Foreign Ministry at the time blasted the charges and accused the U.S. government of “building up spy hysteria.” Buryakov was sentenced to 30 months in prison but was released in April for good behavior. He was immediately deported to Moscow. Efforts by The Post to reach Buryakov through family members were unsuccessful. VEB, along with other Russian state-owned institutions, has suffered financially since 2014, when the United States imposed economic sanctions following Russia’s incursion into Crimea. Gorkov’s meeting with Kushner took place at a time of major changes within the bank. On Dec. 21, VEB announced that its proposed 2021 development strategy — which Gorkov dubbed “VEB 2.0” — had been approved by its supervisory board, which is chaired by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. As a result of the sanctions, U.S. companies are prohibited from lending the bank money or buying equity in the institution, an attempt to drain resources from the Russian economy. The sanctions would not prohibit Kushner from conducting a business negotiation with VEB or even prevent the Russian bank from investing in a U.S. firm. Experts on Russia’s security services said that it would have been unlikely for Gorkov to meet with Kushner and not discuss sanctions. Gennady Gudkov, a reserve colonel in the FSB who is now a leader of a small opposition party, said that Russian business leaders are looking for ways to lobby for the softening of sanctions. “This activity is constant,” Gudkov said in an interview. “They are trying however they can, even informally, to lower the sanctions.” In late December, Gorkov told Russian state television that he hoped “the situation with sanctions will change for the better.” In February, Gorkov met with Putin to update him on the bank’s status. “We are confident of its future,” he told the Russian leader, according to a transcript released by Putin’s “Good,” Putin said. Brittain, Helderman and Hamburger reported from Washington. Natalya Abbakumova in Moscow and Alice Crites in Washington contributed to this report.


U.N. council to vote on blacklisting more N. Koreans, diplomats say

would support the draft resolution after the United States on Thursday imposed its own sanctions on two Russian firms for their support of North Korea’s weapons programs. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow was puzzled and alarmed by the U.S. decision and that Russia was preparing retaliatory measures, Russian media reported. The Security Council first imposed sanctions on Pyongyang in 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear tests and two long-range missile launches. North Korea is threatening a sixth nuclear test. The Trump administration has been pressing Beijing aggressively to rein in North Korea, warning that all options are on the table if Pyongyang persists with its nuclear and missile development. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the U.N. Security Council on April 28 that it needed to act before North Korea does. Just hours after the meeting, chaired by Tillerson, Pyongyang launched yet another ballistic missile. Within days the United States proposed to China that the Security Council strengthen sanctions on North Korea over its repeated missile launches. Traditionally, the United States and China have negotiated new sanctions before involving the other council members. Since then Pyongyang has launched several more ballistic missiles, including a short-range one on Monday that landed in the sea off its east coast. Also Thursday, the United States blacklisted nine companies and government institutions, including two Russian firms and three people, for their support of North Korea’s weapons programs. The United States has struggled to slow North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, which has become a security priority given Pyongyang’s vow to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. Washington has worked to step up both unilateral and international sanctions in an effort to cut off funds and supplies to the reclusive state. The measures announced by the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Ardis-Bearings, which it said is based in Moscow, and its director, Igor Aleksandrovich Michurin, for acting as a supplier to a North Korean trading company involved in the country’s missile and weapons of mass destruction programs. Another Russian firm, Independent Petroleum, and a subsidiary were blacklisted for signing a contract to provide oil to North Korea and shipping over $1 million worth of petroleum products to North Korea, Treasury said. The Treasury also sanctioned a major North Korean zinc company, the Korea Zinc Industrial Group, and


An election in the heartland of Mexico’s ruling party shows where country may be headed

customer at his shop, Gabriela Hernández, said PRI members had come to her mother-in-law’s home the week before and offered her discounts at a local business, almost like a club membership. In exchange, she said, they wanted her voter ID card — to assure that she wouldn’t be able to vote Sunday. “They want to stop the other side from voting,” said Jorge Castañeda, a fierce PRI critic who served as foreign minister under former president Vicente Fox of PAN. “This will be one of the most fraudulent elections in Mexico [in decades], but, thanks to that, Del Mazo will probably win.” The accusations cut both ways. Mexico’s headlines this week were splashed with the sensational claims of a former Morena lawmaker caught on video allegedly receiving illegal campaign cash for López Obrador. López Obrador insisted that the only money he receives is a $3,000 monthly salary as the director of the Morena party. Still, the lawmaker’s accusations may undercut the anti-corruption message of the Gómez campaign, and it will face an opponent with an unrivaled, battle-tested electoral operation. A large rally this week for Del Mazo in the industrial Mexico City suburb of Naucalpan had the feel of a rock concert and was at least as loud as one. The candidate, a tall, fair-skinned man with perfect teeth who bears little physical resemblance to the vast majority of the state’s voters, ascended to the stage to deafening cheers and pounding drums. Del Mazo spoke with the same well-rehearsed, familiar cadence of Peña Nieto. “I will be the governor who fights for women!” he said. “I’ve been a PRI supporter all my life,” said Lucia Villa, 55, wearing a hot-pink Del Mazo shirt and hat. Like many Mexicans, she seemed resigned to the corruption in Mexican politics and was willing to tolerate it as long as it brought modest benefits like a Pink Salary. “The PRI has had good moments and bad, but the good outweigh the bad,” Villa said. “They’re the ones who can get things done.” Valeria Moy, an economist at Mexico’s Autonomous Institute of Technology, said the governor’s race has brought out the country’s worst political habits: empty slogans, unrealistic populist promises and a campaign devoid of substance — all in a state whose fortunes are critical to Mexico’s success. “This is why we’re not making progress as a nation,” Moy said. “It’s been a sad campaign.”


A small effort to extract CO2 from the atmosphere aims to create big change

Efforts to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere may one day help reduce global warming. (LUKE SHARRETT/BLOOMBERG NEWS) The world’s first commercial facility that can extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and resell it has opened in Switzerland. This technology could help cut 1 percent of global fossil fuel emissions by 2025, according to the company that developed the new system. Climeworks — a spinoff company from the Swiss science, technology, engineering and mathematics university ETH Zurich — built the plant at a site between a waste incineration plant and a large greenhouse. Agricultural firm Gebrüder Meier Primanatura, which runs the greenhouse, will use the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to enhance the growth of lettuce, the company said. The waste incineration plant will provide the heat and renewable electricity needed to run the facility, the company added. [Top 10 Craziest Environmental Ideas] “The plant will capture 900 tons of CO2 per year,” said Valentin Gutknecht, a business development manager at Climeworks. “The plant consists of several CO2 collectors, which are large boxes with filters inside. We blow air through these boxes for several hours, and after the filter is saturated, we heat the box up to 100 degrees [Celsius, or 212 degrees Fahrenheit] to extract the pure CO2 and regenerate the filters.” Carbon dioxide emissions are a main driver of climate change, and current levels of atmospheric CO2 are unprecedented in human history. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization created by the United Nations to evaluate and report on the entire body of climate change science, 10 gigatons of CO2 need to be removed from Earth’s atmosphere every year to halt the pace of global warming. Gebrüder Meier Primanatura estimates that the CO2 from the plant will enhance the growth of its lettuce by 20 to 30 percent. Climeworks previously partnered with Audi to research whether the technology could be used to manufacture synthetic fuels from air-captured CO2. [The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted] Climeworks envisions that it could launch 250,000 plants by 2025, which the company says would enable the technology to eliminate 1 percent of global fossil fuel emissions. In addition to the captured CO2, innovative new approaches to store, or sequester, carbon dioxide could remove the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere permanently, Gutknecht said. — Live Science 8 Ways Global Warming Is Already Changing the World 6 Unexpected Effects of Climate


Stocking up on rosés for summer? Start here.

sea breeze. ABV: 13.2 percent. Distributed by Bacchus in the District and Maryland, Select in Virginia: Widely available. GREAT VALUE Listel Grain de Gris 2016 Sable de Camargue, France, $11 Listel is a popular rosé in France, and it’s easy to see why: It’s cheap and delicious. It goes down easy, so have another bottle on hand. ABV: 13 percent. Distributed by M. Touton: Available in the District at Burka’s Wine & Liquor, Capital City Wine & Spirits, Chinatown Liquor, Eye Street Cellars, Open Door Market, Rodman’s, Tenley Wine & Liquor, Wine Specialist. Available in Maryland at 108 Deli & Liquor in Clarksville; Big Mouth Liquor in Waldorf; the Bottle Shop in Potomac; Bradley Food & Beverage in Bethesda; Cherryvale Liquors in Reisterstown; Cork ’n Bottle Liquor and Old Line Fine Wine, Spirits and Bistro in Laurel; Downtown Crown Wine and Beer in Gaithersburg; Gateway Market & Liquors in Thurmont; Grosvenor Market in Rockville; Landover Liquor in Cheverly; Old Farm Liquors and Village Mart Beer & Wine in Frederick; Rosewick Wine & Spirits in La Plata, Wine Harvest (Gaithersburg, Potomac); on the list at Citron and Mussel Bar & Grille in Baltimore, La Ferme in Chevy Chase. Listel Cuvée Pink Grapefruit Rosé France, $12 My inner wine purist screams “No!” at the thought of adulterating a nice rosé with fruit juice. Aren’t wine coolers a thing of the past? But this is delicious and refreshing, with a strong finish of ruby red grapefruit and just enough sweetness without being cloying. Chill it really cold and maybe even add a bit of sparkling water to give it an extra edge. ABV: 9 percent. Distributed by M. Touton Selection: Available in the District at Oasis Gourmet Deli, Open Door Market, Rodman’s. Available in Maryland at Angelo’s Beer Wine Liquor, the Liquor Store, Plaza Liquors and the Wine Shoppe in Waldorf; Bay Ridge Wine & Spirits in Annapolis; Fishpaws Marketplace in Arnold; Grosvenor Market in Rockville; Meridian Market Beer and Wine in North Bethesda; Old Farm Liquors and Westview Liquors in Frederick; Rosewick Wine & Spirits in La Plata, Town Center Wine & Spirits in Hyattsville. Availability information is based on distributor records. Wines might not be in stock at every listed store and might be sold at additional stores. Prices are approximate. Check Winesearcher.com to verify availability, or ask a favorite wine store to order through a distributor. More from Food: Wine


Is China offering Ivanka Trump unseemly favors?

Li Zhao, one of the labor activists who went missing over the weekend, is seen here in Nanzhang county, Xianyang city, in central China's Hubei province in March 2016. (Deng Guilian via Associated Press) IVANKA TRUMP’S conflicts of interest as a White House adviser already included the dependence of her clothing brand on Chinese manufacturers even as she and her husband participate in White House meetings with senior Chinese officials. Now a new and more troubling connection has come up: Authorities have moved to silence labor activists who were documenting poor working conditions at the factories that make Ivanka Trump shoes. According to China Labor Watch, a U.S.-based advocacy organization, one of its investigators has been arrested and two others have disappeared after they probed working conditions at two factories of Huajian International, a shoe manufacturer that produces about 100,000 pairs a year for the Ivanka Trump brand. An interim report issued by the nongovernmental organization last month said it had documented working shifts as long as 18 hours and pay that in some cases was less than the equivalent of $1 an hour. One of the investigators, Hua Haifeng, was prevented from traveling to Hong Kong last week to meet with China Labor Watch representatives and journalists. His wife said she received a phone call on Monday saying he had been detained on a charge of “illegal monitoring.” The other two activists, Li Zhao and Su Heng, also disappeared over the weekend. No doubt Ms. Trump, who has turned over management over her clothing line to others, had nothing to do with this crackdown. But the founder of China Labor Watch told The Post’s Simon Denyer that he thinks authorities acted because of the factories’ connection to Ms. Trump. In 17 years of monitoring factories — including firms producing goods for Apple and Samsung — his investigators had never before been arrested. Ms. Trump may suppose that her recusal from her company — she retains her ownership interest — means she is immune from favors from foreign governments seeking advantage inside the White House. But the regime of Xi Jinping doesn’t seem to see it that way. On the same day that Ms. Trump helped to host Mr. Xi at the Mar-a-Lago estate, China’s patent office granted her company a number of trademarks. Now the regime is trying to stifle embarrassing reports about how her company, far from heeding


Theresa May won’t get a landslide. Beyond that, the British election is hard to predict.

the language of the Labour Party, whose quasi-Marxist rhetoric describes a wrecked country in need of revolutionary change: “Nurses going hungry, schools in decline. I don’t recognize this broken country of mine.” Instead of helping May, the nihilistic “we don’t believe in anything, we don’t trust anybody” mood that helped the “leave” campaign win the Brexit vote is now working in the Labour Party’s favor. The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is an old-fashioned leftist who doesn’t do slick campaigning — and that seems to appeal to people right now. He hasn’t changed his views about anything since the 1970s — he would nationalize industry if he could, he has never been too keen on NATO, nuclear defense or the British army — and somehow that makes him seem sincere. Labour’s slogan, “For the many, not the few,” sounds like a Labour Party slogan, not something chosen by a public relations team. In the end, it may also be that the European referendum last June destabilized the British political scene even more than we thought possible. Suddenly a huge host of questions has been opened up, from the future of Northern Ireland to the future of London’s financial services industry. For nearly a year, nobody in public life has really attempted to answer any of them. May campaigned to stay in Europe, then announced a tough-sounding plan to leave Europe; at no time has she offered any details, or even a sense of what the choices might be. The economic impact of Brexit hasn’t yet registered — Britain hasn’t left the E.U. and won’t do so for nearly two years — but there is plenty of nervous activity, as companies and people argue about whether to stay or leave. Sooner or later the British were bound to ask who created all of this uncertainty, and sooner or later the blame was bound to fall on the Conservative Party, whose leaders launched the referendum and who have run the country since it happened. Perhaps that moment has simply arrived earlier than anticipated. applebaumletters@washpost.com Read more on this issue: Anne Applebaum: Britain’s election will look the same as ever. But everything will be completely different. The Post’s View: There’s a lot riding on Britain’s snap elections Sebastian Mallaby: We’re about to find out exactly how populist Britain really is Charles Krauthammer: Populism on pause George F. Will: Brexit: Britain’s welcome revival of nationhood


Two students get a final lesson at their graduation. And it’s not one they wanted.

A miscommunication at Oxon Hill High School’s commencement Wednesday left two student leaders feeling jilted when they were barred from giving planned speeches. (Daniel J. Gross) It was supposed to be their big day and their last chance to address the 2017 graduating class of Oxon Hill High School. But when the presidents of the senior class and student government of the suburban Maryland high school stepped to the lectern to wish their classmates farewell, the microphone went dead. Monet Key-Passmore and Destiny Richardson stared out across the sea of students that filled the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro on Wednesday morning and tried again. The teenagers assumed there had been a technical glitch. Again, no sound. The school choir broke into song, and the girls sat down. Then, after being summoned by a Board of Education member to the lectern, they tried a third time to address their classmates. That is when Key-Passmore, 17, and Richardson, 18, say a Prince George’s County school system administrator ordered them to sit back down, mouthing the words “Don’t you dare.” They were stunned and hurt, and they couldn’t believe it was happening onstage in front of their families and friends. “I just wanted to congratulate my class,” Key-Passmore said. “It was our big day, and it was a lot for us to take in.” To the teenagers, it appeared that a miscommunication among school officials left them holding, instead of delivering speeches they had looked forward to giving. A few days before commencement, they found out their names had been left off the program, but they thought they would still be allowed to speak. School board member Edward Burroughs III, who was a featured speaker, told them he would cede some of his time so they could each deliver 30 seconds of remarks. Minutes before the ceremony, however, the young women said they received what they characterized as a confusing message from their principal that they could not go forward with their speeches. They said it was not clear to them the principal was referring to the time slot Burroughs had given them. But Burroughs said that the message was never relayed to him, so he called both women to the lectern to speak. Key-Passmore said that she tried to ignore the dismissal but that it was hard to focus on the rest of the ceremony. Richardson couldn’t ignore it, and


48 percent of Britain voted to stay in the E.U. last June. Where have they gone?

going to leave the European Union, surely it should be the softest of all Brexits,” Tim Farron, the party’s leader, said in an interview. “We should stay in the single market. That means we’d have the best opportunity to be a place where Americans could invest, people around the world can invest.” In some areas where people voted overwhelmingly to stay in the bloc, including university towns such as Cambridge, the Liberal Democrats may emerge victorious. But nationwide, it’s tough going, as polls show that referendum voting doesn’t necessarily predict election voting. “The Remainers will probably bleed back to people’s party loyalties” in the previous general election, said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. The Liberal Democrats were all but wiped out in the 2015 election as voters punished the party for joining in a coalition with the Conservatives and reversing its pledge not to increase university tuition fees. The latest polls — a recent YouGov survey showed Conservatives with 42 percent support, Labour with 39 percent and the Liberal Democrats with 7 percent — suggest the party is still in the recovery ward. But in some places, including Vauxhall, the Liberal Democrats hope they can deliver upsets by rallying the pro-E. U. spirit. “Brexit is the issue on the doorstep,” said George Turner, 34, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate in Vauxhall. “Brexit is not a yes/no question. We need to have a big conversation about who we want to be as a country, and many are not comfortable with the vision put forward by the far right.” Turner conceded that he has a “massive mountain to climb” if he is to overturn Hoey’s substantial majority but insists that “this is the year when anything can happen.” While campaigning door-to-door recently, Turner quickly amassed names of voters who pledged their support, sometimes very quickly. When he knocked on the door of Brian Hogan, Turner explained that his main rival was “hard-line pro-Brexit.” “That’s all I need to know. What’s your name? You have my vote,” said Hogan, 30, a project manager who lives on a street of closed shopfronts. Hogan said that as an Irish citizen living in London, leaving the European Union “is not theoretical for me” but a real cause for concern. “It’s entirely possible that under a hard Brexit, I might not be able to live here in two years’ time.”


They served in the U.S. military and hoped for citizenship. Then they got deported.

had problems before they obtained full citizenship, finding themselves ejected from the United States after running afoul of the law. Hector Barajas, who is leading an effort to get his peers back into the United States, made his case in front of the delegation and reporters. Barajas was deported after a crime — he fired a gun. He was honorably discharged from the Army, and after serving a prison sentence he was sent back to Mexico. He mistakenly thought he’d be given citizenship automatically after his service. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) recently pardoned Barajas. Barajas shared a pledge Saturday that the members of Congress signed, which read in part: “We believe that anyone who is willing to join the U.S. military, fight and give their life for the U.S., should be a citizen and not subject to deportation from the country they serve.” Edwin Salgado came to the United States when his parents brought him over the border when he was 3. He later served in Kuwait, joining the Marines at 18 because he “felt it was something I had to do for my country.” He was sent back to Mexico after a conviction on drug and weapons charges. He spent a year in prison. Salgado said he didn’t realize veterans could be deported and he hopes the laws will change. “I’m allowed to go back when I die,” he said in an interview prior to the event. “One way or another, I’ll find my way back there.” Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said that is something that struck him, too: Deported veterans get military burials but are kept out of the country while they’re alive. HR 1470, which he introduced in March, aims to prevent the deportation of veterans who commit non-serious crimes. It has 51 co-sponsors, all Democrats. Grijalva said the national discussion about immigration might work out in the bill’s favor. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) said he thinks the issue has broad support. “The terrain is tough in Congress right now,” Castro said. “Most people, regardless of their political affiliation, are very surprised and concerned to hear that veterans have been deported, even though they put their lives on the line for the United States.” Among the other bills that have been introduced or reintroduced since March, one would let deported veterans temporarily return to the United States for health care and another would ensure that


Putin calls U.S. election-meddling charge a ‘load of nonsense’ in Megyn Kelly interview

to me,” Putin said, speaking via a Russian interpreter. Putin said such a request would have been reported to him. “For me, this is just amazing. You created a sensation out of nothing, and . . . you turned it into a weapon of war against the current president.” Putin also rejected the idea that he had any relationship with Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. In 2015, Flynn visited Moscow for a banquet honoring Russian TV outlet RT, and photos show him seated next to Putin. Putin said that he had not sat in the seat for much of the dinner, and that he barely spoke to Flynn. “I didn’t even really talk to him. That’s the extent of my acquaintance with Mr. Flynn,” he said. Kelly asked Putin if he was holding any kind of damaging information about Trump, either involving Trump’s finances or a visit Trump made to Russia as a businessman. Putin, slouched over in his seat, scoffed at the idea. “We have a lot of Americans who visit us,” Putin said. “Do you think we’re gathering compromising information on all of them right now or something? Are you all — have you all lost your senses over there?” Intelligence experts have said Russian intelligence officials have a habit of trying to gather compromising information on influential foreigners when they visit. Among the denials, however, were signs of Putin’s resentment toward the United States and its conduct as the world’s lone post-cold war superpower. Putin, for instance, dismissed Kelly’s questions about repression and the killing of journalists in Russia by saying it was another example of American moralizing. “Why do you feel you have the right to ask us these kinds of questions?” he said. At another point, Putin answered Kelly’s questions about Russia’s role in the election by saying that the United States had sought to influence other nations’ elections in the past. “Put your finger anywhere on a map of the world,” he said, “and everywhere you will hear complaints that American officials are interfering in internal election processes.” Among Putin’s denials that the Russians had interfered in the U.S. election, he had just offered up a moral logic for Russia — interfering in U.S. elections. “That sounds like a justification,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t sound like a justification,” Putin said. “It sounds like a statement of fact. Every action has an equal


NSO announces new executive director

The National Symphony Orchestra named its next executive director, Gary Ginstling, currently the chief executive of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, on Monday morning. His official start date has not been determined, but he will begin working with the orchestra July 1, as he plans the timing of a move to Washington with his wife and two school-age children. His predecessor, Rita Shapiro, stepped down in January. Ginstling, 51, offers a combination of relative youth, a wide range of experience in top-tier orchestras (including stints as director of communications for the San Francisco Symphony and as general manager of the Cleveland Orchestra), and more than 12 years of experience as an orchestral clarinetist. “The mix he had of different positions in well-known orchestras was very impressive to us,” said Jeanne Ruesch, the chairman of the NSO board and leader of the search committee that selected Ginstling. She also cited “his musical experience as a performer. I think the [orchestra players] will have confidence in him to understand their perspective.” Deborah Rutter, the Kennedy Center’s president, was not on the search committee but said that she had “an interviewing role.” Gary Ginstling. (Tod Martens) “We’re just thrilled to be landing with Gary. He’s an exceptional guy,” Rutter said. Some of the field’s top executives speak of Ginstling in glowing terms. “He’s a true institutional leader,” says Gary Hanson, the former executive director of the Cleveland Orchestra. “There was no question that Gary was at some point going to run a major orchestra.” He added, “He has both managerial expertise and he has artistic knowledge and judgment.” “He’s a problem solver,” says Brent Assink, recently retired as executive director of the San Francisco Symphony. “He gets at the crux of the problem and identifies exactly what’s behind it, and identifies really creative solutions to those problems.” In addition, he says, “you sense a deep intelligence at work. . . . He has great integrity. He’s always looking out for the best things for the organization. . . . He brings along with that a great love of music, and a great understanding of what goes into making an orchestra first-rate.” Ginstling arrives at a time of significant transition for the NSO. He will start his tenure at the same time as Gianandrea Noseda, who will officially be welcomed as the NSO’s music director at a free concert on the Mall on July 29.


Everyone’s a soloist in Eclipse Chamber concert

Eclipse Chamber Orchestra. (H. Paul Moon ) A non-principal orchestral musician recently reminded me, in response to a review focusing on first-chair players, that elite musicians are sitting in every seat in most orchestras. The Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, composed of musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra, regularly offers the chance to hear some of them. The final concert of its 25th anniversary season, heard on Sunday afternoon at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building Auditorium, was the latest. The idea of combining Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” with Astor Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” was nothing new. In this 75-minute concert with no intermission, though, it was unusual to feature each of the ensemble’s eight violinists as soloist in one of the works. Eclipse played both pieces in updated versions: the Vivaldi on modern instruments and with no harpsichord or continuo instrument and the Piazzolla in Leonid Desyatnikov’s arrangement for solo violin and string orchestra. While all of the soloists were capable, a few merit special attention. Jennifer Kim showed grit and a willingness to growl in Piazzolla’s “Spring,” of the four pieces the one that translates the best in the string arrangement. Wanzhen Li dazzled in the flying fingerwork of a rather fast Vivaldi “Summer,” hitting all of the cuckoo calls in the slow movement amid the orchestra’s cloud of buzzing insects. Stepping in for a missing colleague, Joel Fuller burned through the stinging winds of the Vivaldi “Winter” concerto, with an ear for painterly effects across the ensemble. The ensemble, six lower strings supporting the eight rotating solo violins, turned on a dime, with only a few minor bobbles in Vivaldi’s “Autumn” concerto. Abel Pereira, the NSO’s outstanding principal horn player and Eclipse’s new music director, handled the conducting duties admirably, allowing the solo episodes to unfold on their own like chamber music. His tendency to insert a long silence before the final chord, at the end of a mannered rallentando, was the only interpretive tic that wearied. style@washpost.com


Tackling race in opera — at center stage

in public parks during the Kennedy administration). In this particular case, the music was a mitigating factor: It provided a reassuring propulsive force through situations that were challenging and sometimes hard to watch — such as a young black man’s realization that his well-meaning white friend simply doesn’t get some basic things about racism, when he suggests that maybe he needs to see a shrink to get over his upset at being strip-searched in his apartment lobby. Too, structuring the piece as an opera, with a musical shape, offers the hopeful illusion of a neat ending, imposing order on a fraught and messy topic. There’s a lot packed into this small, punchy piece, which takes its singers backward in age — in the last scene, they play 10-year-old boys — even as it moves us all forward in time (the last scene is set in 2063, in a future when the white kid is implied to be the disadvantaged minority). Daniel Neer, the librettist, can be commended for writing text that mostly manages not to be fatuous about subjects that are tricky to condense meaningfully, even when flirting with cliched situations (the 1963 faceoff between the affable porter and the edgy policeman smacks of familiar story lines). And Sidney Marquez Boquiren’s score is similarly distinctive without being overly maudlin, with strong, clear musical lines for its five-piece chamber orchestra, moving from jagged emotional tension to (more predictably) lyrical narrative in the porter’s reminiscence of childhood. UrbanArias gave an important piece the production values and cast it deserved, with an evocative square of park around a bench at the center of the black-box theater, and two singers who did a good job becoming three very different characters before our eyes. Jorell Williams, a plummy baritone, was particularly notable both for his liquid singing and his convincing incorporation of all three roles he played; the tenor Brandon D. Snook was slightly more keyed-up and self-consciously operatic, that is to say heightened in his emotion, playing three admittedly more keyed-up characters. Opera doesn’t need to be obviously relevant to be important. But when one does take on a particularly topical subject, it’s nice to see it doing it justice. “Independence Eve” has some flaws, but it deserves to have a performance life. The opera has three more performances on June 9, 10 and 11 at Signature Theater’s ARK theater. See urbanarias.org for details.


Beer of the Week: A local brewery steps up for Capital Pride

DC Brau’s Pils cans get a colorful makeover for Capital Pride. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Over the past two years, DC Brau’s Pils — a clean, easy-drinking German-style lager with biscuity malt and grassy noble hops — has become one of the D.C. brewery’s most popular offerings, behind only its flagship Public Ale and Corruption IPA. But if you order one during the week beginning June 7, you might notice it looks, well, a little different. The purple-and-yellow can features the words “Pride Pils” in an array of colors, just above a cartoon unicorn waving a rainbow flag. The back panel features the logos of DC Brau and the Washington Blade, next to four fluttering rainbow flags. (The Capital Pride festival runs June 8 to 11.) DC Brau has been involved in Capital Pride in previous years, says co-founder Brandon Skall, including sponsoring a float in the annual parade. Stephen Rutgers, the director of advertising and sales for the Washington Blade newspaper, has asked DC Brau several times about producing a special beer for the festival, but Skall says the brewery just doesn’t have the production capacity. This year, through, DC Brau’s owners came up with a compromise: Pils would be rebranded as Pride Pils for Capital Pride, and the brewery would donate the proceeds to charity. ”We thought that Pils would be perfect for the parade — it’s light and easy to drink,” DC Brau co-founder Brandon Skall said. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Why Pils? “Having been in the parade two times before, it’s always really, really hot,” Skall says. “Last year, we had kegs of water on our float, and that was really popular. We thought that Pils would be perfect for the parade — it’s light and easy to drink.” DC Brau put a full batch of Pils into the special unicorn cans, which were created by local graphic designer Josette Matoto and selected in a popular vote on the Blade’s website. Just under 700 cases of beer will be sold at bars and stores in the Washington area. (Skall says that the cans won’t be sold at the Northeast D.C. brewery.) All proceeds from the cans will benefit LGBT youth organization Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders and the Washington Blade foundation. “We really wanted to put our money where our mouth is,” Skall says. “We didn’t want to just focus


rainbow flags. (The Capital Pride festival runs June 8 to 11.) DC Brau has been involved in Capital Pride in previous years, says co-founder Brandon Skall, including sponsoring a float in the annual parade. Stephen Rutgers, the director of advertising and sales for the Washington Blade newspaper, has asked DC Brau several times about producing a special beer for the festival, but Skall says the brewery just doesn’t have the production capacity. This year, through, DC Brau’s owners came up with a compromise: Pils would be rebranded as Pride Pils for Capital Pride, and the brewery would donate the proceeds to charity. ”We thought that Pils would be perfect for the parade — it’s light and easy to drink,” DC Brau co-founder Brandon Skall said. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Why Pils? “Having been in the parade two times before, it’s always really, really hot,” Skall says. “Last year, we had kegs of water on our float, and that was really popular. We thought that Pils would be perfect for the parade — it’s light and easy to drink.” DC Brau put a full batch of Pils into the special unicorn cans, which were created by local graphic designer Josette Matoto and selected in a popular vote on the Blade’s website. Just under 700 cases of beer will be sold at bars and stores in the Washington area. (Skall says that the cans won’t be sold at the Northeast D.C. brewery.) All proceeds from the cans will benefit LGBT youth organization Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders and the Washington Blade foundation. “We really wanted to put our money where our mouth is,” Skall says. “We didn’t want to just focus on Pride and use it as a vehicle for sales. We wanted to make this about giving back to the community.” That’s a sentiment to which we can all raise a glass. DC Brau Pride Pils. dcbrau.com. About $11 per six-pack of 12-ounce cans. Like helping others while enjoying a cold one? Try one of these beers: Dog Tag Legacy Lager Flying Dog Dead Rise Ale North Coast Brother Thelonious More from Food: This beer will make you think twice about Pilseners The secret to building the perfect draft beer list Meet the three people who determine the beers you drink in D.C. These exemplary craft beer bars keep their menus short and sweet Beer Column archive


Peter Sallis, British actor on ‘Wallace and Gromit’ and ‘Last of the Summer Wine,’ dies at 96

He was 96. His talent agency confirmed the death but did not provide a cause. Born near London on Feb. 1, 1921, Mr. Sallis followed his father into a banking career. In the Royal Air Force service during World War II, he discovered an interest in performing when he was cast in an amateur production of a Noel Coward play. After the war, he gained admittance to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and built up a diverse career onstage and in British film and television. He became well-known in Britain as a star of “Last of the Summer Wine” and appeared in every episode during the show’s 37-year run before it signed off in 2010. He portrayed the mild-mannered widower Norman “Cleggy” Clegg, one of the three older men the series followed during their escapades in a small Yorkshire town. Millions around the world know Mr. Sallis’s voice from animator Nick Park’s “Wallace and Gromit,” which charted the adventures of a cheese-loving Yorkshireman with a passion for inventing wild contraptions and his levelheaded, silent dog, Gromit. With their old-fashioned stop-motion animation and lightly anarchic British humor, Park’s short films, feature and BBC series gained worldwide fans. Two of the films, “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave” won Academy Awards. The bald, green-vested character Mr. Sallis voiced between 1989 and 2010 was instantly recognizable from his down-to-earth Yorkshire accent and frequent exclamation of “Cheese, Gromit!” Park said Mr. Sallis “brought his unique gift and humor to all that he did, and encapsulated the very British art of the droll and understated.” His marriage to actress Elaine Usher ended in divorce after she repeatedly and publicly denounced his dalliances with other women. In 2004, Mr. Sallis told the Sunday Express he was “not ideal as a husband” and “not good father material.” “I don’t know what it was but I never saw myself as a father figure,” he said. “I didn’t understand children. I don’t actually like children. There was a distance between me and my father and now there was a distance between me and my son. Not that he bears any resentment today — but the job had to come first.” Survivors include a son, Crispian Sallis, a film set designer who was Oscar-nominated for “Aliens” (1986), “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989) and “Gladiator” (2000). Peter Sallis wrote a memoir, “Fading Into the Limelight.” Read more Washington Post obituaries


Forget the Paris accord. Here’s what can really fight climate change.

timeline. And this will take massive, urgent, strategic, public and private investment in energy research and development. Why didn’t Trump propose this rather obvious, market-oriented alternative to the Paris agreement? A normal president — Republican or Democrat — might have said: “The difficulty with this particular agreement — support it or oppose it — is that it is caught in 20th-century thinking, seeking answers to technical challenges through bureaucracy. The problem is too big for that approach, and our ambitions are too small. We incur an enormous risk in using current energy technologies, yet we can’t expect hundreds of millions of people in the developing world who want middle-class lives to forgo the most cost-effective sources of energy. So today I’m announcing an unprecedented project of research into advanced energy sources, matched by investment pledges from the private sector. This is the way America will lead — through the development of climate-saving technologies that can eventually be employed by the entire world.” But we do not have a normal president, as Trump’s Paris agreement unsigning statement made clear. Trump is applying the worst kind of populism to foreign affairs. The problem he seeks to solve is a global conspiracy against American workers. A conspiracy utilizing climate science as a type of subversion or sabotage. A conspiracy including our closest allies, friends and trading partners, who “went wild, they were so happy” at the prospect of greater American poverty and suffering. This is far, far away from the post-World War II American foreign policy tradition — which located American success in an expanding order of economic, political and social freedom. Trump is critiquing not “globalism” but the Atlantic Alliance that prevailed in the Cold War and a Pacific strategy that has deterred aggression and increased mutual prosperity through trade for more than half a century. “No people can live to itself alone,” said that pernicious globalist Dwight Eisenhower in his second inaugural address. “The economic need of all nations — in mutual dependence — makes isolation an impossibility; not even America’s prosperity could long survive if other nations did not also prosper. No nation can longer be a fortress, lone and strong and safe. And any people, seeking such shelter for themselves, can now build only their own prison.” That prison is Trump’s most ambitious building project. Read more from Michael Gerson’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his


The president of the Humane Society doesn’t worry about insects

could prevent thousands of young kids from going down that path. It would prevent so much more cruelty. You want people who did the wrong thing to do the right thing. If we don’t embrace change, then what’s the purpose of our work? It was a textbook example of how you run a campaign. It seems counterintuitive. We celebrate progress, not perfection. Everyone is participating in the use of animals on some level. Even if you’re a vegan, you’re flying on a plane and you’re driving in a car. Planes hit birds. There are hundreds of millions of animals killed by cars every year. Everything we do has an impact. It’s really about doing our best to minimize it. Focusing just on preaching to the choir is not what it’s about. There’s a theory that people named Wayne are overrepresented among murderers. Were you the only Wayne at Yale? I can’t think of another Wayne. I think that my parents were going to name me Joshua. My siblings apparently rebelled for whatever reason, and the consensus alternative was Wayne. Among your siblings? You could have done worse. I think John Wayne was pretty big at the time. It was well before Lil Wayne. Are there humane concerns about insects and fish, if they’re raised for food? I think fish, definitely. They have a central nervous system. Insects is a bridge too far for me. That’s for the next generation to figure out. This is a homocentric cause: We are valuing the characteristics of animals that are similar to humans. But I certainly trap and free spiders in my home. A lot of your work involves convincing the CEOs of, say, SeaWorld or McDonald’s to change how their companies do business. You have a pet-friendly office; Lily the beagle mix here has been observing this whole interview. Please tell me what to say to Jeff Bezos [Amazon founder, owner of The Washington Post] so he’ll let us have office dogs. It makes employees happier. They save money on doggy day care, they work longer hours because they don’t have to go home to walk the dog. As an extraordinary businessperson, Bezos should recognize the value of this benefit for the company. More Just Asking For stories, features such as Date Lab, Gene Weingarten and more, visit WP Magazine. Follow the Magazine on Twitter. Like us on Facebook. Email us at wpmagazine@washpost.com.


Adnan Khashoggi, Saudi arms merchant and world-class playboy, dies

a share of the kingdom’s oil-fueled spending spree. Lockheed, Northrop, McDonnell Douglas and others joined his client list, bringing Mr. Khashoggi millions of dollars in fees. According to various accounts, his Rolodex by the late 1960s contained CIA operatives, Swiss bankers, gun runners and Washington insiders such as Nixon confidant Charles “Bebe” Rebozo. By 1980, Mr. Khashoggi was the intermediary for up to 80 percent of the military purchases by Riyadh. He had other high-level connections in the wings, too. From 1954 to 1956, his sister Samira was married to Mohamed al-Fayed, an Egyptian-born business magnate whose later holdings included Harrods department store in London and the Hotel Ritz in Paris. (Their son Dodi died in 1997 in Paris, along with Diana and driver Henri Paul in a tunnel crash.) It was widely assumed that best-selling author Harold Robbins used Mr. Khashoggi as inspiration for his 1974 novel “The Pirate,” about a Middle Eastern mogul with a ruthless streak. As Mr. Khashoggi grew in stature and riches, he also came under scrutiny. In 1975, he was drawn into a Senate investigation of alleged bribes and other favors by U.S. companies to foreign governments. Meanwhile, his home life was coming unmoored after having five children with his British-born wife, Sandra Jarvis-Daly, who converted to Islam and took the name Soraya after their marriage in 1962. They divorced in 1979, after having split years earlier amid rumors of Mr. Khashoggi’s numerous affairs. Soraya Khashoggi had her own flings, including with actor Warren Beatty, former British lawmaker Jonathan Aitken, and the namesake grandson of former British prime minister Winston Churchill. Even before their divorce was final, Mr. Khashoggi had remarried — this time to an Italian teenager, Laura Biancolini, who also converted to Islam and took the name Lamia. They had a son. In the early 1980s, Mr. Khashoggi was so awash with commissions and moneymaking projects that he was often called the world’s richest man. He wasn’t — his net worth was about $4 billion at its peak in the mid-1980s, according to estimates. But he lived as if he were. His yacht, the Nabila, named for his only daughter, was a floating pleasure palace and used in the 1983 James Bond film “Never Say Never Again” starring Sean Connery — an occasional guest at Mr. Khashoggi’s soirees. As the Iran-contra affair unfolded, however, Mr. Khashoggi’s star began to dim. Suddenly, no


Can smart kitchen devices actually make you a better cook?

said. “The vision is not to someday replace everything with automation.” Adam Blank, vice president of merchandising in the electrics division of Williams-Sonoma, agrees. “For this generation that is growing up on screens and on devices, this might be the version of sitting in the kitchen with your mother or grandma learning how to cook.” At the same time, cooking in a smart kitchen made me feel a bit like a fraud. For example: I brewed beer. I, a person who knows very little about how home brewing works, brewed a serviceable batch of beer using the PicoBrew and the generous help of two colleagues. Can I honestly say that I brewed beer? A computer brewed my beer for me. Did I make that perfect rack of lamb, or did June? Shouldn’t the programmers behind the Cinder get credit for this tuna steak instead? A 2013 study by Kraft Foods Group found that consumers don’t really want to cook from scratch, but they want the sense of accomplishment that comes with it, which explains the popularity of meal kit services such as Blue Apron. The devices hit that sweet spot, with just enough hands-on time to give the cook a sense of ownership, but with technology that does the heavy lifting. The machines are constantly improving, too. Maybe you don’t learn how to cook pork chops from a device, but every time you make them, your appliance records data that helps it make better pork chops. We may not be getting smarter, but our appliances sure are. Nomiku frozen prepared foods with embedded RFID chips. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Automation is coming into the home kitchen, too. Food tagged with radio frequency identification — a chip that communicates information to your device — can tell it exactly how the item should be prepared as well as its nutritional value (which could, eventually, be transmitted to your wearable fitness tracker — or your doctor). Teforia, a beautifully designed loose-leaf tea device I tested, uses it to communicate the brew time and temperature, which varies from green tea to black. Last month, Nomiku introduced convenience meals embedded with RFID to work with its sous-vide device. And eventually our smart kitchen devices will connect to smart systems such as Innit, a platform launching this year, to help us buy groceries, suggest meals based on what we already have in our kitchen


The District’s most coveted middle school is losing its principal

doesn’t help educators understand how much students are learning. He bolstered the world language program at the school, which now employs more than a dozen foreign language teachers, more than are found at many high schools. Albright credits his teachers and those changes for the school’s success. But he believes the school is still not where it needs to be. Last year, 63 percent of Deal students met reading standards on the city’s PARCC tests. Fifty percent met math standards. Alice Deal Middle in Tenleytown is often considered the gold standard of middle schools in the District. (Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post) “I know there are some schools where zero percent passed, and that’s a different issue, but we can’t look back and celebrate, because we still failed half our kids,” Albright said of the math results. This year, Albright sought to put a stronger emphasis on math and reading instruction. In the coming school year, it’ll be up to Diedre Neal to continue that work. Neal, now an assistant principal, will become interim principal once Albright steps down. Albright said he will spend at least several months focusing on his health. At 15, he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening disease that can lead to loss of lung function and chronic infections. When Albright proposed to his wife almost 30 years ago, he didn’t expect to live long. Many who have the disease don’t live past their 30s. “I always thought I would have five good years,” he said. Working in a school — where there were often sick students and teachers — could have further jeopardized his health. But Albright ignored that risk because he wanted to change students’ lives. “I never wanted to limit my life,” Albright said. “There are a million ways to go through things, and I found my way to do it.” But now, walking around the school building has become increasingly exhausting. Some days, getting up one flight of stairs takes a toll on Albright. He said his lung function has dropped 50 percent since he started working at the school, and he may soon need a lung transplant. Despite the seriousness of his illness, Albright doesn’t want pity. He is quick to point out that his “brain still functions.” “You don’t make long-term plans,” he said. “You just make plans that are useful and powerful for your life right now.”


Night owls, rejoice: A late workout shouldn’t hinder your sleep. It could even help.

It is not so much when you exercise that affects sleep but perhaps how consistent you are with your wake time and your sleep time as well as with what you eat and when, an expert says. (Getty Images/iStockphoto) Although elite athletes and experienced runners compete in the Marine Corps Marathon, it’s widely recognized that the race is beginner- and family-friendly. That means there’ll be first-timers at the start on Oct. 22, and second-timers. Like me. As I consider a typical beginner 20-week marathon training plan, it’s hard not to notice how much my weekly mileage will increase throughout the summer months, which in Washington can be brutal. On top of that, the schedule includes three runs during the week, up to seven miles each. If you’re a back-of-the-pack runner, that means you’d need to allow up to 80 minutes of running and between 30 minutes to an hour of warming up and stretching before and after to prevent injury. I’m not a math whiz, but adding the extra mileage before work can seem impractical. Even if you don’t have a 9-to-5 job, running outside in the middle of a summer day in Washington could be dangerous, according to Adam Friedman, associate professor of dermatology at George Washington University. In addition to the acute risks of sunburn and heat rash and the long-term cancer risks of sun exposure, Friedman said, exercising in a sunny, hot environment can cause fluid shifts in your skin as you sweat, stretching and damaging your skin and increasing the likelihood of wrinkles and fine lines. I was thinking — okay, obsessing — about this, as I was walking to the Metro about 11 on a recent weeknight when I noticed a handful of runners who looked like they were coming from the Mall. Running at night? Could I do that? Wouldn’t exercising at night keep me awake? I know there are plenty of people of all ages who work out in the early evenings after work or school, because I see them running in my neighborhood or at the gym. And I’ve done this myself on occasion. In fact, according to Amanda Kim, a spokeswoman for Under Armour, the majority of runs logged in the United States in 2016 on one of the Under Armour apps were at 5 p.m. in the winter and 6 p.m. in the summer months. Yet as my marathon training


Meteor flashes across Washington region’s skies

What appeared to be a meteor streaked through the D.C. region on the night of June 6. It was movie night in one Washington neighborhood on Tuesday, but for a few moments the show was both on the screen and in the heavens as a bright light flashed across the skies. What appeared to be a meteor streaked through the Washington firmament 10 p.m. on Tuesday, and based on the reports of witnesses, it was seen over an expanse that stretched at least as far west as Loudoun County in Virginia and as far east as the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. From accounts of witnesses including at least one who was in Walter Pierce Park in the District, where Adams Morgan movie night was held, the brilliant light that sped across the blackness of the night rewarded those who momentarily or habitually, are the ones who manage to look up. “A flash caught my eye,” said Emily Bouck who was in Arlington. When she turned, she said, it was “to see a large, neon green slow moving meteor.” It lit the night sky, she said. It was unexpected, but it was a “neat sight to see.” Meteors, or shooting stars, as they are sometimes called, are pieces of debris from somewhere in the cosmos that find their way into the atmosphere. After traveling unimpeded through the cold and and empty interplanetary reaches, they encounter the increasing density of the earth’s atmosphere, and the friction of their passage makes them glow and burn. Those fortunate enough to see the heavenly fire are witnesses to the final moments of what has been a long a voyage across the darkness of space. Kristen Page-Kirby saw it from Deale, Md., on the shores of the Chesapeake. Ian Janetta saw not only the charracteristic streak of light, but also eventual destruction of the chunk of matter that came from afar. It looked, he said, like “a very bright meteor, which broke apart into many pieces before disintegrating and disappearing “It was bright orange in color, with streaks of gold and green when it broke apart.” In the Ashburn area of Loudoun County, John Carbonara was leaving a function at Lost Rhino’s Retreat. Something caught his eye, he said, something reminiscent perhaps of the light on an airplane. Then, he said, he saw “something large and flaming. “It looked like it was breaking