A short timeline of deteriorating U.S.-Russia relations

Clashes over Syria's civil war: In February 2012, Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have condemned "gross violations" of human rights by Assad's regime. Susan Rice, then the American ambassador to the United Nations, said at the time: "The United States is disgusted that a couple of members of this Council continue to prevent us from ... addressing an ever-deepening crisis in Syria." -- Spies and arrests: A month later, the 10 prisoners in U.S. custody were flown to Vienna and exchanged for four Russian citizens whom Moscow had alleged were Western spies. That swap appeared to put the spy issue to rest for the time being... A Russian gay rights activist holds a sign reading “Love is stronger than homophobia” inside a Russian riot police van during a gay rights rally in central Moscow. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images) -- Putin's re-election and the crackdown on human rights: In the months that followed, the Russian legislature passed a number of new laws seen as rolling back the modest democratic gains of the Medvedev era — including restrictions on gubenatorial elections in the provinces, increased fines against protesters who "violate the public order," a blacklist of Internet sites in the name of "protecting children," and a law requiring NGOs to register as "foreign agents." (You can see a full list on p. 11 of the CRS report.) -- Sparring over trade: Still, trade policy between the two has been tied up in human rights' issues. In December 2012, the White House signed a bill that authorized permanent normal trade relations with Russia, but also included sanctions on those responsible for the detention and death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and for other human-rights abuses in Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry had earlier called the bill “belligerently unfriendly and provocative.” (Wally Santana/Associated Press) -- USAID expelled from Russia: USAID, for its part, says it has given Russia about $2.7 billion in assistance since 1992, including programs to combat AIDS, tuberculosis, and trafficking. While USAID had funded voter-education programs, some of that money had gone to Putin's United Russia party, too. The agency said it hopes to continue working with NGOs in the country, although the Russian Foreign Ministry has warned against these attempts. -- Cooperation over North Korea: In December 2012, Russia joined the United States in condemning North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile. And in March 2013, Russia supported


Get excited, Washington: There are two new tiger cubs at the zoo!

Yes, Lunch Break has been a little bit animal-heavy as of late. But we couldn't pass up a live penguin cam, nor could we skip this video of the two new-born tiger cubs at the National Zoo. The twins were born Monday evening and, per the Washington Post's Michael Ruane, will begin to open their eyes sometime in the "next few weeks." The cubs won't go on display until later this fall but, in the mean time, you can sneak a peak via the Zoo's tiger cub cam. Two rare Sumatran tiger cubs snuggle and nurse with their mother at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C.


When Bill Clinton considered Ben Bradlee for the Medal of Freedom

As David Nakamura reports, The Post's Ben Bradlee is set to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest civilian award in the United States. But it's actually not the first time Bradlee has been considered for the award. Ben Bradlee (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) As John Harris explained in his 2005 book "The Survivor" — and as Mark Leibovich re-reported in the just-released book "This Town" — Bill Clinton once considered Bradlee for the honor as well. Punctuating Clinton's deliberations was a very — ahem — colorful quote from the then-president, whose administration had been on the receiving end of some very tough words from Bradlee's wife, The Post's Sally Quinn. "Anyone who sleeps with that b**** deserves a medal!” Clinton said, according to Harris and Leibovich. Nakamura asked Quinn about the episode in an interview today. Quinn said she was quite amused by it all. "John [Harris] got the manuscript and came to me ashen-faced and said, ‘I have to talk to you,’ " Quinn said. "He was nervous and said, ‘I have a thing in the book I have to tell you, and I have no idea how you will react.’ He told it to me. I just started screaming with laughter.” Update 3:34 p.m.: Harris, now Politico's editor in chief, recalls his chat with Quinn: "I was vastly reassured, because when I told Ben he grimaced and asked nervously, 'Have you told Sally?'" "I'm very pleased for Ben for this honor."


Highway to the Heavens

A long-exposure photo of the 2010 shower. Jot down some wishes, because you’re about to get all the falling stars you need. The annual Perseid meteor shower — which, according to NASA, has been shooting “fireballs” our way since late July — should peak between Saturday and Tuesday. Hundreds of meteors will streak across the sky, each capable of fulfilling your wildest dreams. However, you can’t see them in the city. So, educate yourself on this incredible natural phenomenon and get in the car. How to Prepare What to Bring Don’t Bring What to Expect What to Wish For Want to know more? Sky Meadows State Park, 11012 Edmonds Lane, Delaplane, Va.; Sat., 7:30-10:30 p.m., free (reservations required for camping); 202-633-2214, airandspace.si.edu.


Still waiting for affordable housing

A construction crane looms over the site of the second phase of the SeVerna housing complex, near where the Temple Courts apartments once stood. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) Five years ago, the Temple Courts apartments were demolished at the northwest corner of North Capitol and K streets, with the city pledging to allow residents of the 211-unit building to move back to the neighborhood. But as The Post’s Robert Samuels has chronicled, redevelopment at the site has not gone as planned, and few Temple Courts residents have been able to stay in the neighborhood. This week, the D.C. Housing Authority announced it is seeking to redevelop its aging headquarters, a few blocks north of the Temple Courts site, as a mixed-use complex with affordable housing that might seem perfect for those who were displaced. But, Samuels reports, the affordable housing requirements in the initial procurement are lax: Only a minimum of 70 units are required to be affordable to those making 80 percent or less of area median income. In other news: Adrian Fenty is dating Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the Apple titan (Reliable Source) Drop in DYRS recidivism coincided with a drop in DYRS population (WaTimes) Behold the Capitol Power Plant, “a concrete example of the government’s inability to green its own turf” (NYT) Latest D.C. jail suicide “should spur a deeper review of what the jail is doing and how it can better equip its staff” (Post editorial) A theater-less Chuck Brown Park is “an embarrassing and permanent reminder of our city’s inability to properly support its own indigenous music” (Post) Is the District’s employment stagnancy a harbinger of sequestration’s effects? (Post) Congressional politicking is good news for the District’s health insurance exchange (Wonkblog, WaTimes, WBJ) Toughest test for the exchange? “[C]onvincing residents that its city government can implement and manage the program” (The Root DC) A changing health-care landscape may make United Medical Center more appealing to private hospital chains (WBJ) Just about everyone in the city will be able to get a free visitor parking pass. Is that a good idea? (GGW) Does the Tommy Wells poll prove this is an “underwhelming” mayoral field? (WRC-TV) “Ex-gay” gospel singer featured at city-organized Saturday night concert at MLK Memorial (Blade) An emerging critique of soccer-stadium deal: Why not auction the Reeves Center rather than swap it? (DCFPI) Jonetta Rose Barras fears the deal could leave city agencies


Olympic Committee pressuring Russia over anti-gay law, but don’t expect a boycott

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, left, inspects a model of the planned Sochi Olympic facilities with other Russian officials. (Dmitry Astakhov/AFP/Getty Images) The International Olympic Committee is asking Russia for greater assurances over the country's recent law banning "gay propaganda," a sign of growing international pressure on both Russia and the IOC over the winter Olympics to be held there in February. Although IOC President Jacques Rogge said in a Moscow news conference today that he'd been given "oral reassurances" by a Russian deputy foreign minister, he added that those were insufficient and that they'd asked for written "reassurances," which in turn were also apparently not enough. "There are still uncertainties, and we have decided to ask for more clarification as of today," Rogge said. "So we are waiting for this clarification before having a final judgment on these reassurances." It's not clear precisely what reassurances the IOC is looking for. But, despite calls from activists and others for a boycott, the IOC has given no indication that it's considering canceling; an IOC spokeswoman said that boycotts "do not solve anything but simply punish Olympic athletes." The IOC also does not appear to be challenging the overall law so much as the possibility that it might be applied in Sochi when the games are held there. "The Olympic Charter is very clear. It says that sport is a human right and it should be available to all regardless of race, sex or sexual orientation," Rogge said in Moscow. "And the games themselves should be open to all, free of discrimination, so our position is very clear." In other words, the dispute appears to be over whether or not Russia will promise not to enforce its anti-gay law on Olympic athletes or most attendees. That may be a disappointment to those hoping the IOC would use the games as leverage to force Moscow to roll back the law itself (I'm not sure this would work anyway), but it is something. The head of the International Association of Athletics Federations said Thursday, in comments that appeared to suggest the IAAF was putting the onus on athletes not to run afoul of the "gay propaganda" ban, that "I don’t have the feeling there is a problem whatsoever. ... There is a law that exists. The law has to be respected. Some things have to be respected." Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko had earlier


Mad Fox Brewing Company expanding to Glover Park

the bar's official name will be the Mad Fox Brewing Company Tap Room, all brewing will take place west of the Potomac at the original Virginia brew pub, which opened in July 2010. "We brew about 1,600 barrels [50,000 gallons] a year in Falls Church," says brewmaster and CEO Bill Madden, a number that includes sales at the pub as well as kegs sold to a dozen Washington bars. "I figure our capacity is about 3,200 barrels on this system. That size was built in ... I built this place big in anticipation of opening a tap room in D.C. at some point." The arrangement is a familiar one for Madden. He spent a decade with the Capitol City Brewing Company, which brews its beer in Shirlington and ships it downtown. Mad Fox will serve as both the manufacturer and distributor of its beer, thanks to D.C.'s famously permissive alcohol laws. Madden says the Tap Room will evoke "a European pub," with 12 to 14 beers on tap. There will also be a rotating selection of cask-conditioned real ales, which have become firm favorites at the brew pub and make frequent guest appearances at ChurchKey and Meridian Pint. "I was surprised how well received real ale was in Falls Church," Madden says, "I hear we have a lot of people from the British Embassy coming to Mad Fox, and we'll be even closer to them [in Glover Park]." The food menu hasn't been finalized, but should resemble Falls Church's pizzas and pub grub. Mad Fox spent almost 20 months looking for a D.C. location, and Madden says he's pleased with the space. "Glover Park is a bit like Falls Church," he explains, "very similar in demographics and well built up." (We should note we're a little skeptical that Falls Church has as many group houses of recent college grads as Glover Park does, but hey, everyone loves freshly brewed beer.) If all goes well, "we're looking [at] four to five months of renovations, and opening in the first quarter of next year," Madden says. If you'd like to try more of Mad Fox's brews without heading out to Falls Church, 13 of them will be available at Smoke and Barrel on Tuesday as part of DC Beer Week. It's the official launch party for the Ambassador, a new low-alcohol IPA created with Smoke and Barrel bartender and homebrewer Erich Streckfuss.


Elon Musk is too busy to build the Hyperloop. But the plans are open source.

Elon Musk is too busy with electric cars and space travel to build the Hyperloop. (Paul Sakuma/AP) For a month, Paypal and Tesla co-founder Elon Musk has been hyping a futuristic transportation tech called the "Hyperloop." The exact nature of the system (Magnets? Pneumatic tubes?) will be unveiled later Monday, but Musk previously claimed it would cut a commute from Los Angeles to New York down to 45 minutes at a fraction of the cost of high speed rail. That sounds great, right? Too bad he's not planning on building it: During a Tesla earnings call Thursday, Musk said he would reveal plans for the Hyperloop on Monday. But he said he is too focused on other projects to consider actually building it. “I think I kind of shot myself by ever mentioning the Hyperloop,” he said. “I don’t have any plans to execute, because I must remain focused on SpaceX and Tesla.” But just because Musk is too busy to cut through all the red tape required to make the Hyperloop a reality doesn't mean it will never happen. The plans he's unveiling Monday are open source, so anyone can use or modify them.


Campaigning in the shadows

at Howard University, amid growing anxieties about crime and finances (Post) Judge rules Metro must disclose Red Line crash settlements amounts (Post) By not sharing files with ethics board, “the inspector general risks creating the appearance of being more interested in guarding his own territory than promoting accountability” (Post editorial) Children’s Hospital blames social worker for Thursday waiting-room abduction (Post) The latest Vincent Gray funeral pronouncement: James Bunn will get a street renaming (Loose Lips) The new DDOT visitor parking pass policy is “idiotic” (G’town Metropolitan) Mary Cheh is certainly not a fan (Post, WRC-TV) Vincent Orange is not ruling out a mayoral run (Loose Lips) Don Graham: “My personal philanthropic activities and those of the corporation won’t change” (Capital Business) Steve Case, David Rubenstein, Mort Zuckerman and others react to Post sale (Capital Business) Huge anime convention is moving to D.C. from Baltimore in 2017 (Sun) One in five D.C. residents has used a car-sharing service (Post) New outdoor smoking restrictions are “encouraging sign” of city’s renewed focus on secondhand smoke (Post) Charter schools’ private fundraising varies considerably (Post) So what exactly does Metro owe its customers? (Post) Summer jobs program comes to an uneventful close (WRC-TV) Schools’ roster-sharing aims to cut down on early-year “wait-list shuffle” (Post) Cab drivers don’t appear to have filed promised petition asking for credit-card deadline extension (DCist) Gray radio address: “Justice has been delayed and denied to the District of Columbia for decades” (WNEW-FM) Twenty-five-year-old man shot dead Thursday night in Washington Highlands (Post) Body found early Saturday in Anacostia River near Sousa Bridge (WTOP) Prosecutors expect to call 15 witnesses in Michael Davis trial (WTOP) The “Real Housewives of Benning Road” and the “culture of messy” (Post) Georgetown Law School has a pretty clever/outrageous scheme to get the feds to pay for its students’ tuition (Wonkblog) “Philanthropub” isn’t exactly proving to be a philanthropic powerhouse (Young & Hungry) Laura Rinaldi, legal-aid attorney who died in pedestrian accident, sued the city on behalf of special-ed students (Post) Can you encourage Bikeshare riders to “rebalance” bikes themselves? (Post letter) Camera is deployed to catch oversize trucks on Van Ness Street (WJLA-TV) The Westin City Center, formerly the Vista Hotel, is getting a $16 million renovation (WBJ) More on the DCHA headquarters redevelopment (WBJ) Uber launches cheaper “UberX” option (WBJ) Columbia Heights is getting a TGI Friday’s across from the Ruby Tuesday’s (Young & Hungry)


Tarver King leaves Ashby Inn for Patowmack Farm

Tarver King is departing the Ashby Inn. (Scott Suchman/The Washington Post) Citing quality-of-life issues, Tarver King, the innovative chef at the Ashby Inn in Paris, Va., is leaving one country kitchen for another bucolic property: The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm in Lovettsville. “It’s sad to see a good friend and a huge talent go,” says Neal Wavra, the co-owner of the Ashby Inn, where King had worked for nearly five years. “But he’s staying in the region and still cooking in the region.” The executive chef position at Patowmack Farm opened in July, when Christopher Edwards was lured away by Equinox owner Todd Gray to help launch the forthcoming Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg. King, 35, says he’s leaving his job to spend more time with his family and focus on culinary experimentation. Unlike the Ashby Inn, which is open throughout the week and involves overnight guests, Patowmack Farm features dinner just three nights a week and brunch on Saturday and Sunday. The chef’s future employer also counts a “nearly self-sustaining garden,” says King of the pantry he’s poised to take over. His last shift at the Ashby Inn will be Sept 6. Wavra, who learned of King’s decision over the weekend, says he’s looking for a replacement with “a thoughtful and progressive slant” who can continue the inn’s practice of using mostly ingredients that are grown or made within a 30-mile radius of the restaurant. “We’ll find a way to to retain the beauty and bounty of the place,” says the innkeeper. @tomsietsema


DC Beer Week: Where to drink on Monday

Every morning during DC Beer Week, we'll run down the day's essential beer events. Make sure you read the full preview of DC Beer Week, or see our full schedule of events. Follow @fritzhahn and @goingoutguide on Twitter for tasting notes and reports from the field. While DC Beer Week officially kicked off yesterday, Sunday events were a little thin on the ground. There's far more happening tonight. The big ticket event is at the Heurich House, where DC Brau is unveiling Heurich's Lager, a recreation of the popular lager that brewing magnate Christian Heurich made in Washington before Prohibition. (The City Paper had a great read about how the recipe came together.) Admission is $80, which includes food and beer, or $150 if you also want a one year membership to the Heurich House museum. (Courtesy of Hardywood Park Craft Brewery) When I was down in Richmond doing research for our guide to Redskins training camp, it was hard to ignore the beers of Hardywood Park. The brewery, which opened in the city in September 2011, is known for using local ingredients in its ales, from hops and seasonal berries to hot peppers and spices. Even better, the brewers are devotees of barrel aging, letting their Belgian-style ales, stouts and IPAs sit in A. Smith Bowman barrels, where they absorb the bourbon's vanilla notes. A special Hardywood showcase at Smoke and Barrel features eight drafts from the brewery, including three barrel-aged beers (the Abbey-style Quadruple is the one to go for). Also of note: Rustica, an easy-drinking saison with star anise and Richmond-grown lemongrass. I know it's DC Beer Week, but traditional hard cider is increasingly finding its way into local beer bars. Meridian Pint is putting 18 ciders and meads on draft for its Ciderbration! party, including Maryland's Distillery Lane and Millstone cideries, and Virginia's Bold Rock. Beer director Sam Fitz is especially stoked about securing a handful of kegs from Maine's Urban Farm Fermentory. In a departure from the America-only Meridian Pint, a handful of European ciders will be included, such as Etienne Dupont. The full menu is on Meridian Pint's Web site. The drafts may be the draw, but all bottles in Meridian Pint's extensive cider selection will be 25 percent off all night.


How salad dressing explains the economy

This morning's Wall Street Journal contains a telling indicator of the state of inequality in America: The salad dressing market. Low-income consumers are switching to private-label brands to save money. But at the same time, fresh and organic premium dressings are also growing at two to three times the rate of regular dressings. Middle class brands, like those marketed by Kraft Foods and the giant Unilever, are feeling the squeeze. The differing growth "shows the bifurcation of the consumer that we are seeing overall in the food space," said Thilo Wrede, an analyst at Jefferies. "The middle guys are getting squeezed. If they can't compete with the [store brands] on price, they need to do something else," like being more innovative with flavors. Hidden Valley, for example, is marketing a thicker, creamier version of its classic Ranch dressing as an all-purpose dip, like ketchup, and Wish-Bone has come out with unique flavors like a buffalo ranch. The overall market for sauces, dressings, and condiments grew through the recession as people tried to save money by cooking decent meals at home, according to Euromonitor. It's started to flatten out as unemployment sinks, though. Meanwhile, immigrants are making their presence felt: Tabasco and Sriracha are wildly popular, while hummus is dominating the dips category. UPDATE: Data source: Euromonitor


A Petworth homeowner’s green roof one year later

into it, got excited, started blogging, and then became frustrated over the expense. My roof would be one-third more expensive than a regular roof, partly because it had to be restructured to withstand the new weight. Also, my roof would be one of the smallest that my installer, DC Greenworks, had constructed; larger would have been cheaper on a square foot basis. However, the District’s Department of the Environment (DDOE) rebate via the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS) would help with about 10 percent of my total cost. Because the environmental benefits still appealed to me, along with a much better view, I went for it. A Petworth homeowner puts in a vegetated roof on her rowhouse. View Photo Gallery —A Petworth homeowner puts in a vegetated roof on her rowhouse. Now, one year later, the porch roof has been solid. The plants (a mix of sedums) have mostly filled in the space, and they bloomed beautifully in the spring. A variety of bees and butterflies have been hanging out, along with midges, a ladybug, and two trapdoor spiders. Last fall, a giant praying mantis took up residence. Amazingly, no squirrels have disturbed the roof (I’m just floored by that), but birds occasionally will hunt for insects on it. My cat loves sitting in the window, and the garden is the first thing I look at in the morning. My neighbors also seem to appreciate the greenery. My next door neighbor Mel asks how the “marijuana/weed” is growing up there. Ha, ha, he’s just kidding. Now that the sedums are visible from the street, a few neighbors ask me how the roof is doing or even tell me it looks great. No neighbors have complained. Instead, when I’ve given tours, I have even gotten some oohs and aahs. (Photo by Annette L. Olson) The green roof is barely visible on Annette L. Olson’s Petworth home. Admittedly, no one on my block is rushing to build a green roof, but two others were built within walking distance of my house last year. And, according to an industry survey, the greater D.C. metro region again led the nation in green roof planning in 2012; with an estimated 1.2 million square feet of public and private green roofs constructed or scheduled for construction, an increase of 50 percent from 2011. However, some of that square footage is for projects that are scheduled but not


birds occasionally will hunt for insects on it. My cat loves sitting in the window, and the garden is the first thing I look at in the morning. My neighbors also seem to appreciate the greenery. My next door neighbor Mel asks how the “marijuana/weed” is growing up there. Ha, ha, he’s just kidding. Now that the sedums are visible from the street, a few neighbors ask me how the roof is doing or even tell me it looks great. No neighbors have complained. Instead, when I’ve given tours, I have even gotten some oohs and aahs. (Photo by Annette L. Olson) The green roof is barely visible on Annette L. Olson’s Petworth home. Admittedly, no one on my block is rushing to build a green roof, but two others were built within walking distance of my house last year. And, according to an industry survey, the greater D.C. metro region again led the nation in green roof planning in 2012; with an estimated 1.2 million square feet of public and private green roofs constructed or scheduled for construction, an increase of 50 percent from 2011. However, some of that square footage is for projects that are scheduled but not yet installed, according to Peter Ensign, the executive director of DC Greenworks. Some common green roof benefits, such as insulation, do not apply since my roof is over a porch and because my roof is small. Still, it is clear that the construction helps the environment. My green roof supports living things, something an asphalt roof certainly cannot do, and its 150-square-foot span retains water when it rains (AWS calculated 2,400 gallons of stormwater annually). Combined with my rain barrel and rain garden, it helps absorb the water that normally would run off my property and thus does its part to help the District control stormwater issues, such as flooding and sewer overflow into the Potomac that result from all the hard surfaces in the city. With more roofs, barrels and gardens being installed throughout the District, flooding in certain neighborhoods may someday be less. On a related note, I just received an e-mail from DDOE that, in cooperation with DC Water, it is starting to discount water bills for green roofs, rain barrels and other water control measures. Last year, I was told that green roofs did not qualify for a discount, but DDOE’s new RiverSmart Rewards Program is


DC Beer Week: Where to drink on Wednesday

Every morning during DC Beer Week, we’ll run down the day’s essential beer events. Make sure you read the full preview of DC Beer Week, or see our full schedule of events. Follow @fritzhahn and @goingoutguide on Twitter for tasting notes and reports from the field. Maryland beers and brewers will be featured at the Black Squirrel on Wednesday night. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Tonight's theme is "Blue Crabs." DC Brau is taking over Arlington's Quarterdeck crab house, where $50 gets you all-you-can-eat crabs and dirt cheap beers: $1 pints and $3 pitchers. The Black Squirrel is hosting a Maryland Crab and Beer Fest, with beers from 10 Free State Breweries, including Stillwater, Brewer's Art and Evolution. The brewers from Burley Oak, Monocacy, Oliver Ales and Union Brewing will be on hand to talk about their beers. The kitchen will serve up a traditional crab boil and crab cakes. Maine's breweries have been earning increasing acclaim in recent years. Find out why at Meridian Pint, where beers from Allagash, Oxbow, Rising Tide, Maine Beer Co. and Bunker will fill the 24 taps. You probably don't think about beer when you think about Quebec. ChurchKey will try to change that with An Evening of Quebecois Craft: 23 beers from Dieu du Ciel, Le Trou du Diable, Les Trois Mousquetaires and Dunham. Many beer events feature beers from one state or geographic region. R.F.D. is bucking that at their Coast to Coast Tap Takeover, which features 45 drafts from all over America. Here's the clincher: Beers are $5 all night, and the $5 cover charge goes directly to St. Jude Children's Hospital. Beer dinners? Who needs multiple courses when you can just pair beer and dried meat? D.C.'s own Jerkface Artisinal Beef Jerky will pair spicy jerky – including kimchi and mumbo flavors – with rare 3 Stars beers at the Big Hunt. On H Street, Flying Dog will offer an unbeatable deal at the Argonaut: $25 for all-you-can-eat tacos and all-you-can-drink beer from 7 to 10 p.m.


DC Beer Week: Where to drink on Thursday

the agenda for this night of DC Beer Week. The "flagship" event of the night is a trip to see the Nationals take on the San Francisco Giants. The $55 package includes a Scoreboard Pavilion seat (conveniently close to the District Drafts local beer stand) and a post-game party with more than 20 draft beers to sample, live music and a Shake Shack burger and fries. Want to actually play yourself? Port City is opening its tap room for a game night from 5 to 8 p.m. with corn hole boards in the brewery and board games at tables in the tasting room. (Feel free to bring your own.) Over at Penn Social, Dogfish Head is sponsoring an indoor bocce tournament. Entry fee is $8 per team of two to four people, and the top teams win gift certificates and brewery swag. If you're not playing, there's still plenty of Dogfish beer to be drunk. The first session of New Belgium's "learn to blend your own sour beer" class is sold out, but there are still a few spot in session number two, which starts at 9 p.m. Sample five of New Belgium's barrel-aged beers with Lauren Salazar, the brewery's wild ale specialist, and then experiment with blending techniques to create a beer of your very own. It should be worth every cent of the $55 ticket, and advance purchase is required. Bell's Brewery is Michigan's most popular export to D.C., going by the number of Oberon and Two Hearted Ale taps around town. ChurchKey will tap 20 Bell's products tonight, including such rarities as the bourbon barrel-aged Black Note stout, Bourbon Barrel Aged Batch 9000, and three different takes on the French biere de garde style. Maryland beers are featured on the patio of Meridian Pint, with a dozen casks from Evolution, Oliver, Union and DuClaw selling for $5 all night long. The same four brewers will offer a total of 16 drafts inside. Finally, one of the oddest events of the week combines Neil Young, poutine and American and craft beer. At Smoke and Barrel, Only Beer Can Break Your Heart will feature 24 Allagash and Boulevard draft beers, Neil Young music on the stereo all night and gourmet poutines. Look out for rare beers such as Allagash's Golden Brett, which is only available at the Maine brewery, and Boulevard's Zon witbier, which isn't usually sold in D.C.


Here’s what ‘Breaking Bad’ gets right, and wrong, about the meth business

readers to look out for, "workaholics or low-income adults who use it to stay awake and perform in multiple jobs. Working low-income individuals find meth attractive because they must work several jobs or long hours to support themselves or their families. They find that higher energy and alertness (ability to stay awake for prolonged periods) helps them cope with the demands of multiple jobs." This holds up if you look at places where meth use is highest. Hawaii's heavy rate of meth use has been attributed to its high cost of living and service-based economy. "If you're doing mind-numbing, repetitive work, this enables you to overcome both the painful tedium of the boredom as well as increase concentration and safety," Dr. William Haning, a psychiatry professor at the University of Hawaii, once told the Maui News. Weishert notes that Cambodia and other countries in Southeast Asia are the biggest consumers of meth (above even the United States), and it's often used as a work aide. "Women who have to have a job and then do traditional homemaking, they're just exhausted and meth is a pick-me-up, a powerful one," he says. Laundering happens A1A, a fine Albuquerque car wash. (AMC) In the fourth season, Walt and Skyler buy the car wash — A1A, based on the real-life Octopus car wash in Albuquerque — where Walt used to work in order to launder Walt's copious earnings from the drug trade. Is that level of ceremony, just to clean the money, realistic? For the highest echelon of cartels, sure. "You see that with the upper level people in an organization," Weisheit says. "The lower level people don't make enough to make it worth doing that. You want to get into a legitimate business, ideally one that deals in cash like a restaurant or bar." Longmire says the higher-ups may be moving on from restaurants and bars, though. "They're using wire transfer companies like Western Union, Moneygram, Coinstar — that's increasingly popular," she says. "They're increasingly using trade-based laundering, where they'll bring in cheap fabrics from Asia and sell those into the U.S., or bring them south to Mexico, and sell them for a much higher dollar value. They're doing it through mining, construction equipment, quarter horses and gambling, casinos and a variety of different businesses." So yeah, Walt is probably doing the smart thing here. But Badger and Skinny Pete shouldn't sweat it.


Leading the end of one space era, and the beginning of another

the experience we had. We’ve done all we can do. We just want to thank you for having had the opportunity.” And I, right there on the beach, I kind of just collapsed. They are just incredible people. And not many people in government, except maybe military, have an opportunity to be around people like that—who are that dedicated, that motivated and that flexible to go with programs that we evolve because the Congress or the White House or somebody else says let’s go do that. So I’m a blessed person to have an opportunity to be around them and work with them. What about some of the talent issues you’ve faced as a result—morale within the organization, retention, attracting the new talent you need especially given the budding commercial space industry? The one thing about NASA is that there is no retention issue and there is no recruiting issue. We cannot hire the people who want to come work for us and who represent an incredible wealth of potential for the future workforce, and so that's a leadership challenge for us. Under this constrained budget environment, we’ve had to impose a type of hiring freeze. The way we’ve chosen to do it since I’ve been administrator is we have a two-for-one policy, where we have to have two people leave the workforce in order to bring one on board. What we’re looking for are what we call “fresh outs”—we want people fresh out of college, we want people from other professions, we want new ideas to help us as we try to mature NASA into an organization that’s dedicated to exploration. We have an aging workforce, and that’s because people love what they do, and we don’t have a lot of talent that’s leaving. So our problems are trying to right size the workforce while making sure we’re getting in fresh blood, fresh ideas. So you don’t see the commercial space industry as a competitor for talent? Quite the contrary. The commercial space industry is an absolute necessity for our success. We’ve tried to explain that to Congress, and I think very slowly they’re understanding. If we aren’t able to facilitate the success of a commercial space industry, we’re going to be reliant on the Russians in perpetuity to get our astronauts to and from space. We don’t want to be there. We don’t want to be where we


Weather control conspiracy theories: scientifically unjustifiable

Commentary Major disasters attract major attention. Whenever a plane crashes or a hurricane makes landfall, the event draws international news coverage and countless internet postings. Most of the time, people take experts at face value when they try to explain the science behind why a certain event happened, but for a small and vocal segment of society, the “truth” is hardly that at all. Enter the conspiracy theorists. No matter how silly or factually incorrect they seem, conspiracy theories represent a very real strain of thought. Most of these theories involve politics – President John F. Kennedy’s assassination is perhaps the most famous example – or other seemingly curious events, such as the “Roswell UFO incident” back in 1947. But some of these theories challenge very basic science. The two main weather control conspiracy theories revolve around the thought that the United States government controls the weather through a technology called HAARP, as well as airplane-produced “chemtrails.” The HAARP facility in Gakona, AK. (U.S. Naval Research Lab) HAARP, an acronym for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is a large array of high frequency radio antennas located in Gakona, Alaska. The program and all associated antenna equipment, which was forced to shut down and go on hiatus this past May due to sequestration, was funded by the Air Force, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the University of Alaska. The purpose of HAARP was to determine how the ionosphere, or the upper layers of the atmosphere, affects radio signals, with the ultimate goal of helping to develop more advanced radio communication technology. The project accomplished this by transmitting “a 3.6 MW signal, in the 2.8–10 MHz region of the HF (high-frequency) band, into the ionosphere,” which was then studied by various instruments on the ground to see how the ionosphere affected these radio communications. Conspiracy theorists beg to differ. A quick Google search (which returns over 7,000,000 hits) shows that HAARP has been blamed for pretty much everything bad that’s happened since the mid-1990s – terrorist attack, car accidents, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, nightmares, toothaches, bad dates, you name it – but the project is most popularly associated with its alleged “weather control” capabilities. Related: Several popular for-profit websites claim that they have hardware that can detect HAARP-generated energy across the contiguous United States and that severe weather will occur where these “hot spots” show up on their


The Jetsons vs. Futurama: Which one will be our innovation future?

Elon Musk announced new details about the much-hyped “Hyperloop” in the same week we got the Jetpack – a potentially revolutionary device that enables people to travel up to 20 feet above the Earth like in those old sci-fi movies (with some other restrictions). The New Zealand aviation authorities have granted an “experimental flight permit” for the Martin Jetpack, a move that could open the door for the first-ever consumer jet pack by 2015. Welcome to the Jetsons future! Right? A handout photo released on August 13, 2013 by Martin Aircraft Company Limited of their personalised jetpack. (AFP PHOTO / MARTIN AIRCRAFT COMPANY LIMITED) (AFP PHOTO / MARTIN AIRCRAFT COMPANY LIMITED) Well, hold on. While the Hyperloop appears to be something so fantastical, so high-tech (Solar-powered! Tubes! Pods going hundreds of miles per hour!) that even Musk seemed unable to entirely wrap his head around the concept, the Jetpack is going to be a reality as early as 2014. That’s when New Zealand emergency first-responders will have access to this little piece of Jetsons innovation. By 2015, the plan is to have a working prototype available for sale to the consumer market. It won’t be cheap — with initial estimates that it could cost anywhere from $150,000-$200,000. (And, if the Martin Jetpack proves too uneconomical, innovators in Hawaii also have their own version of an Iron Man-like jet pack in the works.) The Jetsons future, though, is about more than producing a lot of really cool tech toys at outrageous price points, it’s also about resolving one of the central innovation dilemmas of our current era – are we, as a society, becoming more or less innovative? Depending on whom you talk to, we could be facing the death of innovation and the end of growth or the beginning of one of the greatest periods in human innovation ever. At this year’s TED event in California, one of the most talked-about events was a face-off between Erik Brynjolfsson and Robert Gordon over the future of innovation. On one hand, Brynjolffson argued that we’re approaching another pinnacle of human innovation made possible by our embrace of computers and machines. On the other hand, the macroeconomist Gordon argued that we’re at the tail end of a remarkable period of innovation, and there simply isn’t anything left to extend this innovation miracle. The days of massive life-changing innovations are over. In other words,


New artwork to grace the New York Avenue Bridge

This should make that drive into the District (or out) a little more scenic. The D.C. Department of Transportation tweeted a photo of a sculpture being installed Friday on the New York Avenue Bridge Gateway. It is designed by Kent Bloomer Studio, a firm based in New Haven, Conn., and is part of an effort to liven up what can sometimes be a less than scenic drive into the city. We’d love to hear what folks think of this piece. (HT to BeyondDC for highlighting) Update: Folks in the Twitterverse seem to like the artwork being installed on the New York Avenue bridge. Here’s a quick sampling of what people are tweeting: Pretty"@washingtonpost: D.C. is getting some new public art http://t.co/O6rdfE6iVn http://t.co/rSRQ4paicR via @LoriAra" Very nice to see but isn't paving crummy #DC roads a priority ? @washingtonpost @loriara @DDOTDC


We’ve covered the world in pesticides. Is that a problem?

species," they write, "we still largely do not understand the full impact of unintended side effects on wildlife." 6) Pesticides are getting safer in wealthy countries like the United States. But that's not as true in the developing world. "Developed countries have phased out the more dangerous compounds, such as parathion and other organophosphates," write Malakoff and Stokstad. "After the U.S. Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, several more have been banned altogether, limited to farm use, or further restricted to protect workers or the environment." But many of these toxic chemicals are still widely used in poorer countries — in part because the more dangerous pesticides tend to be cheaper. "Surveys of farm worker health are scarce," they write, "but it's clear that pesticides cause more harm in the developing word. More toxic chemicals are still used, and basic safety equipment is often lacking." 7) Scientists are developing all sorts of intricate methods to reduce the world's dependence on pesticides, though sometimes simpler solutions work pretty well. The chart above shows how overall pesticide use in the United States has declined 0.6 percent each year between 1980 and 2007. And it's dropped even faster in corn fields — in part because of the widespread use of Bt corn, a genetically modified breed of corn that's engineered to be toxic to pests. One hitch? There's now some evidence that certain insects are becoming resistant to the Bt corn, especially in areas where it's used heavily. That could lead to a resurgence in pesticide use. But perhaps researchers will come up with new strategies. The Science issue outlines on some of the other clever ideas in the works: "New synthetic chemicals to protect crops hold the promise of stronger and more specific protection with less collateral damage. And some crops won’t need pesticides at all: Scientists are developing plants whose immune systems can ward off fungal, bacterial, or viral diseases, and they are using RNA interference to help plants fight insects—a new technology that could hit the market before the decade ends." Then again, sometimes low-tech ideas work pretty well too. One piece points out that a soap-opera-centered campaign in Vietnam helped convince local rice farmers to stop overusing pesticides. And in Australia, farmers are now using non-chemical control techniques, such as burning seeds, to control a massive weed problem that was brought on, in part, by heavy herbicide use. Related:


States are competing to be the Silicon Valley of drones

said. He said that it is growing rapidly, raising important issues for public policy and a variety of business interests. While many states are recovering from the recession, North Dakota has enjoyed the fastest growing economy in the country -- largely thanks to an oil and gas boom. "It's not because we need another group of jobs, but it does add to the diversification of our economy," Wrigley said. But Wrigley believes North Dakota is "uniquely situated" to host one of the sites due to its weather extremes, sparse population, an international border, and its established drone policy infrastructure. Part of that established infrastructure is already having a system to examine the privacy implications of drone technology. Wrigley leads a privacy compliance committee that vets all drone testing in the state for legal, moral, ethical and constitutional issues. That committee even includes input from clergy. "We have a pretty strong libertarian streak up here" Wrigley said, and just because something is constitutional "doesn't mean it's something you want to have going on in your state all the time." Stephen McKeever, secretary for Science and Technology for the state of Oklahoma, also stressed the importance of taking into account the privacy implications of drone technology testing, but emphasizes the need for nuance in the debate: "We are supportive of an informed discussion about this whole business, not simply a little paranoid on the privacy issue nor getting carried on the societal benefits of the applications, but to have the middle ground -- that's where this discussion should be taking place." Many states argue their higher education systems are poised to make a UAS test site a success. The University of North Dakota is home to a Center for UAS Research, Education & Training and claims to have established the first four-year UAS degree, while McKeever cites Oklahoma as the home of the only UAS engineering graduate program in the country. In most cases, the selection of an FAA test site could mean dramatic changes for local economies and a way for more rural areas to gain a technological edge. For example, Kris Cahoon Noble, a county planner/economic developer from Hyde County, N.C. sees it as an opportunity to promote an underutilized airport and bring new precision agriculture techniques to the attention of local farmers. Representatives at the Wyoming booth thought drone tech could help with animal counting and searching for people


The 60 million Americans who don’t use the Internet, in six charts

Nearly 20 percent of U.S. adults don't use the Internet. That means that roughly 60 million people, many of them elderly, poor and minorities, have no access to technology the rest of us increasingly consider mission-critical to modern life. The New York Times’ has an interesting story today on that phenomenon, which lays out some of the programs policymakers have tried to use to get people online. But that got us wondering about who these 60 million people are and whether they’re offline by choice or circumstance -- a question that is not, in fact, as obvious as you might think. Internet adoption has more or less flatlined in recent years, according to data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. As of the center’s last survey in May, somewhere between 81 and 85 percent of U.S. adults were online. The number with home Internet access is significantly lower -- roughly 72 percent, according to the Census Bureau. (Pew Internet & American Life Project) The people on the offline side of the digital divide are, demographically speaking, probably who you’d expect. Wealthier people have more Internet than poor people; penetration is lowest among adults older than 65. (Pew Internet & American Life Project) (Pew Internet & American Life Project) But there are also some disturbing racial differences that concern academics and policymakers. While Internet use more than doubled in Hispanic and black households since 2000, they still lag significantly behind white and Asian households -- who, at 82.7 percent, have the highest Internet use of any surveyed groups. (Census Bureau) There’s also a stubborn rural versus urban gap in Internet connectivity and frequency of access. Per the Commerce Department, 74 percent of urban households use the Internet, versus 62 percent of rural households. That gap gets even worse when it comes to broadband adoption -- 72 (urban) versus 58 (rural) percent. Non-users tend to live in the southeast. (Census Bureau) So why don’t people go online? The Department of Commerce tried to answer that very question in a June report on America’s “Emerging Online Experience” -- which, as the department notes, hasn’t quite emerged in some corners of the country. Intriguingly, the agency found that half of offline households simply don’t want Internet -- they either feel they don’t need it, they can use it elsewhere, or it infringes on their privacy. For the remaining non-users, the big factor


The best sentences we read today

- "Children are going to be born to Americans who are not wealthy. This is a fact." - "Beer is for children. Vodka is for real men." - "Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that thirty thousand Americans were diagnosed with Lyme disease, the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the United States. Today, it bumped the number a bit—to “around” three hundred thousand." - "I want to quit viewing the vast expanse of human motivation and experience through the narrow lens of partisan advantage." - "The prospect of a Latino conservative Republican president is exciting; a Canadian one, less so."


Ranking the states: Credit card debt

Residents of Alaska shoulder one of the lower tax burdens in the country, but that doesn’t mean they’re shepherding their wealth. Credit card holders in the Last Frontier carry more debt than any other state, according to data compiled by TransUnion, the credit rating agency. Alaska residents owed an average of $6,910 in credit card debt, nearly $2,000 higher than the average American’s red ink. Cardholders in Colorado, Connecticut, North Carolina, the District of Columbia and New Jersey all carry at least $500 more in debt than the national average of $4,965. Add in South Carolina, Maryland, Georgia and Virginia and states south of the Mason-Dixon line account for six of the top 10 slots. Meanwhile, residents of the Great Plains tend to carry lower amounts of credit card debt, the data show. Six of the 10 states with the lowest average amounts of credit card debt are in the Midwest, including the bottom four states — Iowa, the only state where the average debtor owes less than $4,000, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. TransUnion reported last week that credit card delinquencies edged down slightly in the second quarter of the year, to the second-lowest levels since 1994. Data the company released Tuesday shows the price of the average auto loan rose 4 percent over the last year, a sign, the company said, that borrowers are taking out new loans. And the number of mortgage delinquencies is coming down rapidly, though six states — Nevada, New York, Florida, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey — still have delinquency rates over 5 percent. North Dakota maintains the lowest home mortgage delinquency rate in the nation; just 1.15 percent of borrowers are more than 60 days behind on their payments, according to TransUnion. Credit Card Debt By State 1. Alaska $6,910 2. Colorado $5,625 3. Connecticut $5,617 4. North Carolina $5,548 5. District of Columbia $5,499 6. New Jersey $5,484 7. South Carolina $5,389 8. Maryland $5,345 9. Georgia $5,343 10. Virginia $5,329 11. New Hampshire $5,327 12. Washington $5,269 13. Delaware $5,234 14. Texas $5,173 15. Illinois $5,166 16. Massachusetts $5,142 17. Hawaii $5,141 18. Rhode Island $5,102 19. Arizona $5,011 -- U.S. Average $4,965 20. New York $4,952 21. California $4,937 22. New Mexico $4,920 23. Florida $4,861 24. Oklahoma $4,854 25. Nevada $4,851 26. Kansas $4,830 27. Ohio $4,817 28. Alabama $4,817 29. Maine $4,797 30. Missouri $4,796 31.


New report points to a sure disaster

By the end of the century, this scene may look different. (Wayne Parry/Associated Press) If you are at the beach this week, you probably don’t want to hear about the latest climate report, as opposed to weather report. Spoiler alert! Here’s the scientists’ assessment: Unless we reduce carbon emissions dramatically, we are looking at a sea-level rise of 21 inches to 36 inches by the end of this century. In other words, the toddlers you see playing in the tide pools or screaming in glee as they race the edge of the surf will know a world where many of our current beaches are eroded or gone and many of the world’s largest cities are in danger. This scientific report, produced by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and leaked to the press, is the most definitive report yet that human activity is responsible for climate change and that our children and grandchildren will face a dramatically different physical world without action by us. Such action currently seems beyond political possibility. Our response to global warming fits the paradigm in Barbara Tuchman’s book The March of Folly. Tuchman examined several historical fiascos, among them the Vietnam War, and concluded that most historical tragedies have this in common: the action (or inaction) in question was perceived as wrong during its own time and not just in hindsight and there were clear, contemporaneous alternatives to it. Ditto for climate change. We know it is happening, we understand its consequences better than ever, and we know what to do to about it: raise the price of carbon (so it reflects the real price its dispersal places upon us) and thus hasten the conversion to other energy sources. Despite this knowledge, on we march to a sea coming closer.


Study: Budweiser, Colt 45 most popular beers among ER patients

(bigstock) If you have ever wondered what type of beer is most strongly associated with an emergency room admission, well, wonder no more. For a full year, researchers spent their Friday and Saturday nights at the Johns Hopkins hospital emergency department in East Baltimore (separate research has found that about one-third of visits there are alcohol-related). At the start of the study, the researchers would turn up for their shifts at 10 p.m. "However," researchers recount in a newly published study (noticed by the New York Times Well blog), "due to the time needed for most drinking patients to become sufficiently sober to give informed consent," they ultimately pushed their start time to 4 a.m. The study, which involved interviews with 105 emergency room patients, found that five alcohol brands were most frequently consumed by the patients: Budweiser, Steel Reserve, Colt 45, Bud Ice and Bud Light. Four of those brands were significantly overrepresented in the emergency room population, compared with their share of the national beer market. For example, about 46 percent of the emergency room patients said they had consumed Malt liquor, which comprises only a 2.4 percent share of general beer drinking. Only Bud Light had a larger share of the national market than it did in the emergency room sample. "Our pilot study demonstrated that collecting alcohol type and brand data in hospital emergency room is feasible, if labor-intensive," they conclude. "Physicians were welcoming [and] securing patient agreement to participate in the study improved substantially when the research team wore white lab coats."


PRISM works because a ton of data moves through U.S. servers. That’s also why it could fail.

servers based in the United States. Instead, the data would have to be stored domestically, under Brazilian jurisdiction. Then there are independent communications services that vow to have nothing to do with the United States or its allies. Kim Dotcom, the creator of the filesharing website MegaUpload, said earlier this month that he intends to build a new encrypted e-mail service, possibly in Iceland. "I expect that more and more Internet businesses will find the hostile U.S. environment unbearable and will move their business elsewhere," he told TorrentFreak. "Who wants to store any sensitive data on U.S. based servers anymore?" Of course, many of the Internet's largest companies — Google, Facebook — are still probably going to do much of their work in the United States. And the NSA has other tools at its disposal for going after unencrypted foreign communications, such as XKeyscore. But thanks to the NSA leaks and the government's reluctance to fully disclose its activities, criminals are about to have more ways to evade online detection than ever. Investigators' jobs will get far more difficult if their suspects' communications suddenly vanish from U.S. servers and reappear in an encrypted format in a country that won't cooperate with American demands. The task for Washington, then, is to keep data from fleeing the country. One way it can do that is by clearing up the rules associated with information requests, says Christian Dawson, co-founder of the Internet Infrastructure Coalition. Being more specific about what is being seized — and lifting the gag order that prevents companies from telling their customers about it — may help restore international confidence in the system. It's not a weakness to be transparent, in other words. To the contrary, it gives companies greater assurance that the system is not being secretly abused or subverted. "The Electronic Communications Privacy Act was written in 1986, before the rise of the commercial Internet," says Dawson. "It forces law enforcement to use terminology that doesn't make a lot of sense to this industry. A lot of well-informed officers will come to us and ask for things like subscriber information. I'll say, 'Well, we're a Web hosting company. We don't have subscriber information. What is it you really want?' "The more comfortable companies are hosting in the United States, the more the economy grows," Dawson adds. "Without that, you push law enforcement's problem cases out to the fringe."


The Blue Moon rises during “blue hour” in Washington, D.C. (PHOTOS)

sky goes black.” Twilight begins to fade and the sky turns a darker shade of blue. The moon appears very bright in the exposure compared to the sky. This photo was taken at 8:19 pm. (Kevin Ambrose) The blue hour was really about 30 minutes on Tuesday and it was only the first 15 minutes that was truly optimal for photography. I suppose the “blue hour” sounds better than the “blue 30 minutes.” There is no absolute time for the blue hour. It varies by season and latitude. For example, when I was shooting Big Ben in London several weeks ago, the blue hour was almost a full hour. Also, the sky needs to be fairly clear to observe blue conditions during twilight. I found that cloud cover during twilight can produce various shades of color that include red, pink, gray, and magenta. Twilight is ending and the sky has lost the richness of its blue color that was visible in the previous two photos. In addition, the light from the moon and from the monuments appear much brighter in the photo compared to the sky and surrounding landscape. This photo was taken at 8:38 pm. (Kevin Ambrose) In Washington, the moonrise tonight is at 8:03 pm. This means the blue moon will appear on the horizon during the optimal time for photography, about the time the sky has a light shade of blue. As the moon rises above the horizon over Washington the sky will quickly transition to black. Of course, this is provided we don’t have cloud cover this evening which is a possibility. Included in this post are photos from our readers showing shots of the blue moon from various locations in the Washington area. Does anyone plan to shoot the blue moon tonight? By 8:47 pm, twilight is over and the sky has lost its blue color. This photo was taken inside the Lincoln Memorial. (Kevin Ambrose) Here are some more Blue Moon photos… From Capital Weather Gang’s Ian Livingston: The Blue Moon over Ft. Reno in the District (Ian Livingston via Flickr) From CWG readers, via Flickr and Twitter: The “blue” moon rises through the clouds earlier tonight behind the trees of Bull Run Marina Regional Park in Fairfax County. (Jim Knapp via Flickr) Moon in detail (Kevin Wolf via Flickr) Full moon | Blue moon over #Herndon tonight. @capitalweather http://t.co/pT1sUVbxOa http://t.co/6zx3SbmEIe


Finalists for the 2013 Dayton Literary Peace Prize

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize — inspired by the 1995 accords that ended the war in Bosnia — “celebrates the power of literature to promote peace, social justice, and global understanding.” To be eligible for this year’s awards, books must be published or translated into English in 2012. The winners in fiction and nonfiction will be announced on Sept. 24, and receive $10,000 at a ceremony in Dayton on Nov. 3. Runners-up will receive $1,000. Wendell Berry will receive the foundation’s annual Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. Here’s a list of the finalists with links to our reviews (where available): Fiction “The Round House,” by Louise Erdrich (Random House). “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” by Ben Fountain (HarperCollins). “The Orphan Master’s Son,” by Adam Johnson (Random House). “The Life of Objects,” by Susanna Moore (Random House). “The Coldest Night,” by Robert Olmstead (Algonquin). “The Yellow Birds,” by Kevin Powers (Little, Brown). Nonfiction “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” by Katherine Boo (Random House). “Pax Ethnica,” by Karl Meyer and Shareen Brysac (Public Affairs). “Burying the Typewriter,” by Carmen Bugan (Graywolf). “Escape from Camp 14,” by Blaine Harden (Viking). “Devil in the Grove,” by Gilbert King (HarperCollins). “Far From the Tree,” by Andrew Solomon (Scribner). @RonCharles


Al Gore explains why he’s optimistic about stopping global warming

of right and wrong. EK: What do you think of the Obama administration’s intentions to push regulatory approaches to limiting carbon emissions? AG: I’m very encouraged. I thought the president’s speech on climate was terrific and it followed the inspiring comments in his inaugural address and his post-election State of the Union. And remember the impact of policy direction on business calculations is forward-looking. When business begins to understand the direction of policy, they have to start adjusting to where the policy is going. When you look at the EPA process, it’s undeniably clear that there will be a price on carbon one way or the other. Then when you look at the movement in other countries and the states and local measures being enacted, the direction is now quite clear and businesses are making plans to adjust to it. EK: You’ve moved from the world of politics to the world of technology. How has that changed your view of how much technology can do to solve this problem, and in particular, has it changed your view on various geoengineering schemes? AG: Let me deal with the geoengineering part of your question first. That’s complex because there are some benign geoengineering proposals like white roofs or efforts to figure out a way to extract CO2 from the atmosphere , though no one has figured out how to do that yet. But the geoengineering options most often discussed, like putting sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere or orbiting tinfoil strips — these are simply nuts. We shouldn’t waste a lot of time talking about them. Some people will anyway, but they’re just crazy. To the broader part of your question, innovation is already playing a major role in bringing about new potential solutions to the climate crisis. The tech world had a bitter experience after the burst of enthusiasm in 2005 and 2006 because of a perfect storm made up of four elements: First, the great recession, which had a huge, destructive impact on business generally. Number two, the Chinese juggernaut, which subsidized the production of several prominent renewable energy technologies to the point where their sales price fell below the price of production in the West. Third, the shale gas boom dropped the retail price of electricity to levels below what many renewable energy plans needed to be viable. And fourth there was the policy failure I mentioned earlier in the


Researcher defends work linking Arctic warming and extreme weather

presents time series of wave amplitudes (or extents) measured using two methods: one similar to ours and an alternative based on seasonal latitude differences. In all cases the trends are positive, suggesting an increase in amplitude during fall and summer, albeit only some of the trends are statistically significant. Because AA has emerged from the noise of natural variability only in the last 15 year or so, it is not surprising that its influence would not drive 30-year trends in a statistically significant way. Note that her new method does exhibit significant trends. This supports FV12. My interpretation of the results in her Figure 3 is that in the ranges of 500 hPa heights that typically occur in mid-latitudes during summer (5.6 to 5.8 km) and autumn (5.5 to 5.7 km), the wave amplitudes are increasing from the early to the later part of the record. This, once again, supports FV12. She claims that because warming is shifting a particular height contour northward, it is incorrect to conclude that wave amplitudes are increasing. In fact, it is this northward shift – in particular the larger shift in high latitudes where warming is greatest – that we hypothesized would be a factor causing the waves to elongate. Figure 4 presents measures of wave phase speed. While FV12 did not present wave speeds, we speculated that larger amplitude waves should have slower wave speeds. Her measure of phase speed for waves at 500 hPa slows with time, supporting our speculation. She then measures speeds at the 250 hPa level and finds no change in speed. This much higher level is near the tropopause, often above the jet stream, and can be affected by dynamics of the stratosphere. The stratosphere is cooling with increasing greenhouse gases, leading to very different dynamical changes. Why did she choose to analyze this level? My only guess is to deliberately cast doubt on FV12. The mechanisms linking Arctic amplification with large-scale circulation patterns are clearly not simple and we still have much to learn. These new results provide additional insight into those linkages, but it appears that the interpretation of these results in Barnes (2013) was conducted with a particular intent. I welcome and appreciate Dr. Barnes’ contribution to the community’s efforts to understand the effects of AA on large-scale circulation changes, but perhaps a more balanced approach to interpreting the results could be applied going forward.


PM Update: Muggy with some rain risk through Thursday; Wildfire smoke forecasting

Radar lightning: Temperatures in the upper 80s to around 90 cooked up a toasty Wednesday, especially when mixed with dew points in the 60s to near 70. Out ahead of a front that should push through tomorrow night into Friday, we’ve got more muggy and warm conditions, plus the chance for some rain at times. Through Tonight: Tomorrow (Thursday): See Dan Stillman’s forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter Sunset over D.C. on Aug 20, 2013. (Erin via Flickr) Smoke screening: NOAA Model Shows Wildfire Smoke Spread Across the U.S. Pollen update:


White House: Obama doesn’t favor medical marijuana ‘at this point’

White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that President Obama doesn't favor changing medical marijuana laws "at this point." Several states have moved toward legalizing marijuana — mostly medical but also recreational — and Dr. Sanjay Gupta recently came out in favor of medical marijuana after initially opposing it. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, creating a conflict in states that have moved to legalize it. Earnest said the Obama administration is not targeting individual users in those states. "The priority in terms of the dedication of law enforcement resources should be targeted toward our drug kingpins, drug traffickers and others who perpetrate violence in the conduct of the drug trade," Earnest said. "But at the same time, the president does not, you know, at this point advocate a change in the law." States that have legalized marijuana say they believe the administration has given them tacit approval to more forward, even as it remains illegal according to federal law.


Leading the government’s charge on infectious disease

new ideas have needed to be implemented in settings where there was inertia or significant opposition. For example, I recognized very early in the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the early 1980s that we needed to make a major effort on research, even before it had ballooned into a pandemic. Some of my own colleagues pushed back rather strongly. I saw this disease as an exploding problem. But others felt this initiative took resources away from other important areas of research because they did not fully realize the potential impact of what was going on. I really had to exert leadership to convince my colleagues. Have there been other situations Another example is when I was asked by President George W. Bush in 2002 to go to Africa to design what became the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). It was a real test of leadership--many people believed PEPFAR could never be achieved in Africa because of the enormity of the resources that were required. I felt strongly that it was a moral imperative. In this and other cases, I carefully considered the validity of the issue, researched it thoroughly, sought outside advice and then led by example. I respected the people who objected. I tried in good faith to convince them of the importance of the initiatives. Some came on board and those who did not, I gently asked to get out of my way because we were going to do it anyway. What are some of your goals? One of my goals is to hopefully begin to see major turnaround of the trajectory of AIDS. I would also like to work with industry and other partners to develop a safe, effective and durable malaria vaccine, and to contribute technologies and advances regarding vaccines and other therapeutics in the arena of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. We also need to develop a universal influenza vaccine that is effective against all seasonal flu as well as pandemic flu threats. How are you managing in the current budgetary environment? I remind others that we are privileged to be working in an arena aimed at the good of our nation. It is important to inspire employees and to strive for excellence despite the constraints. It is also important to analyze, scrutinize and to prioritize, and not whine about what you cannot do. Everybody wants more resources, and cutting biomedical research is terribly ill


Don't Quit Your Wining

New legislation means D.C. restaurants are free to hike their corkage fees above $25. So we found five eateries that will continue to serve wine you provide free of charge. We tapped Michael Warner, co-owner of Barracks Row’s newest wine shop, DCanter (545 Eighth St. SE; 202-817-3803), for these BYOB pairing suggestions. Dino Founding Farmers Thai Xing Mandu Etete


Eight things to do in the D.C. area on the weekend of Aug. 23-25

The weekend’s best in nightlife, music and art. For even more, check out Nightlife Agenda. Saturday-Sunday: (Photo by Matt McClain for The Washington Post) Saturday: Saturday: Saturday: Saturday: Saturday: Saturday: Sunday:


Study finds ‘incomplete’ employer understanding of USERRA

the legislation. The study finds that one-quarter of employers of citizen-soldiers admit to not knowing all they need to in order to comply with the law, including their obligations to the employee or where to go for assistance. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) is meant ensure that Guard and Reserve troops returning to their civilian jobs are not penalized for their military service, and that active-duty troops not be denied jobs because of their service. The Washington Post reported last year that the federal government, the largest employer of citizen soldiers, is also the biggest offender of the law. In fiscal 2011, more than 18 percent of the 1,548 complaints of violations of that law involved federal agencies, The RAND analysis found no evidence that federal agencies are “less supportive” of members of the Guard and Reserve than employers in the private sector. But two of the eight senior Reserve component chiefs interviewed for the study pointed to problems with federal agencies in their support for Guard and Reserve. “The federal government is in the bottom tier of employers that understand that the folks they have are also members of the military,” one of the Reserve component chiefs told the study authors. Veterans Job Fair (George Frey/Getty Images) Another Reserve component chief told the authors that the “biggest challenge we have is the [federal] government.” The chief said the “the problems seem to stem from a failure on the part of central offices to communicate USERRA-related policies to lower levels of the organization,” according to the report. USERRA, which was enacted in 1994 to ensure that members of the military do not face a disadvantage in their civilian careers because of their service, calls on the federal government be “a model employer” for service members. Following the Post’s story, President Obama issued a memorandum in July 2012 directing the leaders of federal agencies to ensure “robust compliance” with USERRA across the federal government, and the Office of Personnel Management instructed senior federal executives to show “zero tolerance” for violations of the law in the federal workforce. Members of the Guard and Reserve working for the federal government were the most likely to rate their employers as supportive, according to the RAND study. The study recommends continued efforts by the Department of Defense to promote awareness of the protections afforded to current former members of the military.


Group Seeks to Doctor Sick Leave Law

Members of the coalition call attention to issues around paid sick leave for restaurant workers Tuesday in Dupont Circle. The last thing that diners want to see when enjoying a $35.13 prix-fixe dinner during Restaurant Week — or any other meal — is a waiter sneezing in their food. And that is exactly what the Paid Sick Days for All Coalition is counting on with its latest campaign: restaurant employees dressed up as ghoulishly sick chefs. “Achoo!!! That could have been your food,” their signs read. The coalition — organized by Jews United for Justice, Restaurant Opportunities Center-DC and the DC Employment Justice Center — has been canvassing around the city this week and will be at Eastern Market on Sunday, aiming to inform consumers that a 2008 D.C. law that mandates paid sick leave excludes tipped restaurant workers and anyone working their first year on a job. They are trying to build public support ahead of a D.C. Council legislative meeting Sept. 17, when council member Marion Barry will introduce legislation to address the tipped-worker exemption. The coalition is also lobbying for the new bill to shorten the period of time before employees can accrue sick leave and to step up enforcement of the law (just 68 percent of all businesses are compliant, according to a city audit released in June). Some say the campaign — which has included workers dressed up as chefs — misrepresents the law. It is “misleading because food preparers, including chefs and all those working in the kitchen, are all covered by the [2008] paid sick leave act,” said Andrew Kline, a legislative adviser to the industry group Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington. He says the group hears that tipped workers “would prefer to call in sick and not get paid for the day and pick up a shift later.” Kline’s argument is based on the low hourly wages that tipped workers earn (the minimum wage for tipped workers in D.C. is $2.77). But the Paid Sick Days for All coalition is proposing that wages earned on a sick day would be based on the average earnings for waitstaff and bartenders in the region according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or about $10 per hour, according to Monica Kamen, a community organizer with Jews United for Justice. “We’ve heard stories of workers coming in with swine flu, pink eye and any number of


Six pieces of good news from the Middle East this week (really!)

Kurdish people primarily live in four different countries -- Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran -- and are thus represented by separate groups that have separate priorities and sometimes very different politics. That's one of several reasons why, even though there are a lot of Kurds, they tend to have little political power and are not always treated well. So it was a good sign for Kurds when 40 different Kurdish groups announced Tuesday that they would all meet for a major summit in September. A Syrian Kurdish leader told Radio Free Europe that the conference, to be held in the Iraqi city of Irbil, was a "dream of all Kurds everywhere and is going to bring us closer as parties across the region." 5. The United Arab Emirates experiments with sustainability Energy-rich nations in the Middle East have some of the worst environmental sustainability records on the planet. That's mostly because they consume huge amounts of oil and natural gas, which are heavily subsidized by their governments, which is bad for the environment, bad for the global energy market and bad for the region's long-term stability, since those resources will eventually drain. But the United Arab Emirates appears to be taking some small steps toward improving sustainability in the region, according to a Thursday story in the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper, the National. Those steps actually have to do with agriculture, not energy -- a U.A.E.-based center has spent about $6 million training 750 farmers across the Middle East to improve their yields and to minimize long-term environmental impacts. It's not a lot, but it may help nudge the region toward a much-needed cultural shift on sustainability. 6. Winks toward Internet freedom in Iran Iran has some of the tightest Internet censorship in the world, in some significant part a response to the 2009 protests and an effort to clamp down on political speech. That censorship has many facets, but one of the most famous is the country's ban on Facebook, among other social networks. It's a bit hypocritical because many Iranians still use Facebook anyway, through special tools called VPNs; there's even a page that claims to represent Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. It was not for nothing, then, when new Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif acknowledged publicly that he and his family maintain a public Facebook page. According to Radio Free Europe reporter Golnaz Esfandiari, this has given some Iranians


Paula Deen will not appear at MetroCooking DC show in November

to a Nov. 2 Deen event at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, organizers announced that the embattled cookbook author won't be sticking with MetroCooking DC this year. "Unfortunately, Paula Deen has a schedule conflict that prevents her from being with us at MetroCooking DC on Nov. 2 & 3 so we have rescheduled her visit," the e-mail states. MetroCooking announced in the same e-mail that it will host an Afternoon with Paula Deen on March 8, 2014, at a site to be determined in the Washington area. Ticket-holders to Deen's "Celebrity Theater" presentation on Nov. 2 were being asked whether they would like to attend both MetroCooking DC and next year's Deen event (at no additional charge) or just the MetroCooking DC show. They also had the option to select a refund. As of early Friday, no one had asked for a refund, a spokeswoman for MetroCooking DC noted. MetroCooking DC had been touting Deen's appearance for months now. When asked why organizers had been promoting the appearance if they didn't have an official contract signed, a spokeswoman wrote via e-mail that all previous arrangements with the celebrity were put into flux when Deen fired her longtime agent after the racial discrimination lawsuit (which a federal judge dismissed earlier this month). "MetroCooking started the promotions before she fired her agent," the spokeswoman e-mailed. "They had to start from scratch with her new representatives." MetroCooking was clearly confident at one point that Deen would attend the event. Shortly after the scandal broke, organizers posted the following message on its Web site: Paula Deen has been a friend of The Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show for many years. She has apologized and we are taking her apology at her word and moving forward accordingly. The Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show does not condone or believe in the use of derogatory slurs by anyone. This is a nation of forgiveness and second chances. In that spirit we intend to go forward with the MetroCooking Shows in Houston, Dallas and Washington, DC as planned with Paula as a presenter. At this time we have no plans to do otherwise. As of Friday morning, the Web site still listed various ticket options for Paula Deen's event on Nov. 2, notably a $500 VIP package that includes a photo op with the TV chef. Deen, however, was not listed among the personalities scheduled to appear.


How Goya brought ethnic food to white America

bodega and medium-size independent grocery store like Bestworld. And while Goya seems exotic, the company is based in New Jersey. It was founded 77 years ago by Spaniards who had come to New York through Puerto Rico. It’s hired enough natives of Spanish-speaking countries to develop a flavor profile that’s decently close to the real thing, and has marketed itself as an Hispanic-owned company. Now, it’s the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States, with $1.3 billion in sales last year (still a long way behind market giants like General Mills, which brought in $16.7 billion in 2012). But the burgeoning Hispanic population isn’t enough for Goya. It has started moving into other foreign cuisines, like Indian and Chinese, in a bid to become the food company for all people new to America. It’s also developing products for second and third generations of immigrants, who might want something pre-cooked but still homey-tasting, or who might have intermarried with other nationalities and want to mix everything together (“Latin Fusion” is featured prominently in the Web site’s recipe section). “It’s a United Nations kind of label,” says Bob Gorland, a supermarket consultant at Matthew P. Casey & Associates. He regards Goya, more than any other brand, as a section unto itself, much like the kosher aisle or natural foods area. Now, as the “general market” becomes more interested in ethnic cuisines, Goya has positioned itself as the “authentic” option that you don’t have to rummage through ethnic markets to find. In other words, Goya is becoming mainstream. Which, commercially, is a pretty unbeatable approach. ---- Goya — so named after the Spanish painter because founder Prudencio Unanue Ortiz liked the simplicity and vague familiarity of the name — started out packing and selling olives and olive oil in Lower Manhattan. It’s now a sprawling network of 16 worldwide processing and distribution centers, mostly U.S.-based in the United States. In Spain, Goya now supplies the reverse immigrant population from Latin American countries. Although the bulk of Goya’s beans are grown in the United States, many of its specialty products come from around the world: coconut water from Thailand, yucca from Costa Rica, quinoa from Peru. The company headquarters is across the street from the Secaucus, N.J., train station, but visitors are advised to take a cab door to door, so as not to get lost in the nest of highways in between.


Up next: Name that panda

Let the rest of the world obsess over the royal baby. In Washington, we have a baby panda infatuation. The National Zoo’s female Giant Panda gave birth to a cub on Friday afternoon, the zoo announced. (The zoo had gone into round-the-clock panda pregnancy watch on Aug. 7.) Now the big question becomes: What are they doing to name the cub? A few people on Twitter were quick to offer suggestions: I'm hoping that they name the National Zoo's new baby panda North West. Because it was actually born there. More panda progeny in DC. I recommend the name be- Xià Yu (summer rain) Please name it North! #cubwatch #panda Sarah Emerson Should this panda cub make it, it won’t receive a (China-sanctioned) name for another 100 days. So what do you think the panda should be named? Offer your best suggestions in the comments below.


The best sentences we read today

-- "The National Zoo’s female Giant Panda has given birth to a cub, the zoo said Friday." -- "This is probably controversial to say, but what the heck. I am in my second term, so I can say it. I believe that law schools would probably be wise to think about being two years instead of three years." -- "The get-passive goes back at least 300 years, but it has been on a rapid rise during the past 50 years." -- "Closing, and in an indulgence only the owner should risk, I want to set down the mental image of Charlie I've had since I began thinking about my letter to you." -- "But in the past decade the number whom China executes has fallen by three-quarters, to 3,000 a year. For a medical system that could count on a flow of organs, this poses a problem." -- "When told that a cranial rodent was illogical and incompatible with physics, he agreed, but then went on to note that logic and physics cannot account for everything in the universe.”


The Middle East, explained in one (sort of terrifying) chart

What could be simpler than the Middle East? A well-known Egyptian blogger who writes under the pseudonym The Big Pharaoh put together this chart laying out the region's rivalries and alliances. He's kindly granted me permission to post it, so that Americans might better understand the region. The joke is that it's not a joke; this is actually pretty accurate. Spend a few minutes staring at this and you will either have a seizure or actually comprehend the Middle East. Egypt is represented by the "MB" (Muslim Brotherhood) and "Sisi" for military leader Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. (Courtesy The Big Pharaoh) There are rivals who share mutual enemies, allies who back opposite sides of the same conflict, conflicting interests and very strange bedfellows. There are two categories of countries: the ones that meddle (the United States, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel) and the ones that are meddled with (Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories). Each of the former is pushing for a different outcome in each of the latter, falling in and out of cooperation and competition. And that long-running interference is an important part of why conflict persists. It's all kind of a scramble. The Big Pharaoh writes: "I keep on updating this chart because every time I look at it I discover that I've missed an arrow. That's how complicated it is." The chart is a spin-off of the most amazing letter to the editor ever written, which appeared in Thursday's Financial Times. It also explained the entire Middle East, in a few short sentences. Here they are: Sir, Iran is backing Assad. Gulf states are against Assad! Assad is against Muslim Brotherhood. Muslim Brotherhood and Obama are against General Sisi. But Gulf states are pro-Sisi! Which means they are against Muslim Brotherhood! Iran is pro-Hamas, but Hamas is backing Muslim Brotherhood! Obama is backing Muslim Brotherhood, yet Hamas is against the U.S.! Gulf states are pro-U.S. But Turkey is with Gulf states against Assad; yet Turkey is pro-Muslim Brotherhood against General Sisi. And General Sisi is being backed by the Gulf states! Welcome to the Middle East and have a nice day. KN Al-Sabah, London EC4, U.K. More from WorldViews on understanding the Middle East: • 9 questions about Egypt you were too embarrassed to ask • The one video from Syria’s alleged chemical weapons attack that everyone should watch • Would things be


The District Fishwife to open in Union Market in November

both of her grandfathers. Her parents, after Lewis had left the nest, started their own fish farm raising golden perch. "My father was very involved in wanting to repopulate" Murray cod, Lewis says during a phone conversation. "That’s certainly where I got my passion for sustainability.” Union Market "I’m very passionate about sardines and smaller fish — fish that are lower on the food chain," Lewis says. Following the lead of almost every vendor at Union Market, the District Fishwife will offer prepared meals, a practice so common at the venue that one former pop-up operator dubbed the place an upscale food court. But Richard Brandenburg, director of culinary strategy for Edens, which develops Union Market, says that sales of seafood glass-noodle salads, fried calamari and fish and chips (with house-made tartar) will keep the District Fishwife as viable in the years to come as the seafood it will sell. "If we’re doing both at the same time," Brandenburg says about prepared food and fresh fish, "it will be more sustainable.” Lewis is a relative newcomer to the District. She moved here four years ago when her husband, Benjamin Friedman, took a job in Washington. Lewis is a newcomer to the fishmonger business, too, though she's quick to note that she has plenty of experience, both front and back of the house, in restaurants, including a fine-dining seafood establishment in Melbourne. At the urging of a friend, who was contracting for the U.S. Agency for International Development, Lewis even helped open and manage a restaurant in Afghanistan, where she might have landed the biggest catch of her life: her husband, who was working in the country as well. Ron Lewis displays one of the rare Murray cod fish that he has helped to repopulate back in Australia. (Photo courtesy of Fiona Lewis) Now she wants to bring all of her experiences together to help give Washington a taste of something she feels is in short supply here: a full-service fish market that helps customers select, cook and store their seafood at home, much like those fishmongers at the Queen Victoria Market that Lewis frequented back in Melbourne. "I noticed when I came to D.C. a lack of seafood markets, especially a lack a seafood markets in Northeast, where my husband and I live," says Lewis, now a U.S. citizen. "This is fresh food, more like the markets I’m used to."


Everything you need to know about baby pandas, in one chart

The National Zoo has a new baby panda! And Wonkblog has a chart! A baby panda was born at the National Zoo at 5:32 p.m. on Friday afternoon. It has since undergone its first doctor's check-up and been deemed "a very healthy, active, vibrant cub." Here's what to expect next, via the Washington Post's graphics department: And here's a picture of what the National Zoo's panda cub looked like on Saturday, during its exam: Photo by Courtney Janney, NZP We don't know yet the gender of the cub, or its father (Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated by two male pandas and, during the exam, zookeepers collected a DNA sample to determine paternity). Welcome to the world, little guy (or girl!)


Knack for Snacks

Each Kate Bakes bar has 220 calories, 7.5 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber. Katelyn Sornik wanted something she could stuff in her purse to eat on the go. The problem? The 29-year-old Georgetown resident can’t eat most somethings. “I had food poisoning and it messed up my whole system,” says Sornik, whose 2007 illness forced her to eliminate dairy, eggs, meat and gluten from her diet. “I couldn’t digest like I used to. A lot of my go-to foods were off the table.” The sudden shift inspired her to learn to cook and start a blog — newkidontheveganblock.com — about her culinary adventures. That’s when she started experimenting to develop a snack bar she could actually stomach. In search of protein, fiber and a chewy texture, Sornik blended almond butter, coconut, rolled oats, chia seeds and flax meal with fruits and spices. She added in rice cereal because, she says, “It breaks it apart, so it’s not such a brick of a bar.” Sornik’s mostly organic creations were raw originally, but those weren’t any good when she couldn’t be near her fridge. Once she figured out a way to cook the bars at just the right time and temperature so they wouldn’t be “hard as a rock,” Sornik’s friends got a taste — and they persuaded her to start selling. That’s how she started Kate Bakes (katebakesbars.com), which currently sells four flavors of the 220-calorie, 2-ounce bars for $3 each: Banana Cinnamon Oatmeal, Chocolate Coffee, Sunflower Raisin Butter and Cardamom Date. Her successful Kickstarter campaign that ended July 31 netted her more than $5,000 to expand the line to include more flavors and add granola. Kate Bakes products have also just arrived at her first retailer, the Muse Cafe in the Corcoran Gallery (500 17th St. NW, toddgraysmuse.com). The success is a sign to Sornik that she’s not the only one looking for easily portable vegan and gluten-free options. “It’s a convenient food that’s made in a much more evolved way,” she says. Expect more evolution ahead.


The Switchboard: Five tech policy posts you need to read today

(Robert Galbraith / Reuters) Feds back away from forced decryption — for now. Facebook to pay $20 million to settle class-action privacy suit. Microsoft’s best hope after Ballmer? A breakup. DRM for 3D printing. Security researchers discover Dropbox flaw that circumvents two-factor authentication.


Arlington garage where ‘Deep Throat’ spilled secrets is marked for demolition

Just two years after a historical marker went up commemorating the spot where FBI official Mark Felt secretly met with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward during the Watergate investigation, the spot itself is set to come down. The historical marker outside the parking garage in Rosslyn where “Deep Throat” helped guide Washington Post reporters to the heart of the Watergate investigation. (Saul Loeb/Getty Images) The spot was in a parking garage at 1401 Wilson Blvd. in the Rosslyn area of Arlington, which Felt apparently selected as both an inconspicuous site and a halfway point between his own home near Prosperity Avenue in the Fairfax area and Woodward’s apartment in the District. Woodward and his colleague on the Post Metro desk, Carl Bernstein, used information provided by Felt, then the associate director of the FBI, to expose the Nixon administration’s role in obstructing the Watergate investigation. Nixon wound up resigning, you may have heard. Scott Brodbeck of ARLNow.com reports that the Wilson Boulevard building and one other nearby are targeted for demolition so that new office buildings can go up. The approval process for all that is expected to take from one to four years. The chief development officer of Monday Properties, which owns the building, told Brodbeck that he hoped to preserve the plaque and incorporate it into the new design. Arlington has been pretty good about this in the past, as the Bob Peck Chevrolet homage on Glebe Road suggests. Felt was dubbed “Deep Throat” by a Washington Post editor as a different sort of homage, to the renowned pornographic film of the same name. His identity was known only to Woodward, Bernstein and then-Post executive editor Ben Bradlee, until Felt revealed himself in 2005. Felt died in 2008. RELATED: A look back at Watergate View Photo Gallery —On Aug. 9, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned after addressing the nation on television the night before. Relive the Watergate scandal in pictures, from the break-in to the congressional investigation to Nixon’s resignation.


(Photo by Jason Kuffer) In ACLU lawsuit, scientist demolishes NSA’s “It’s just metadata” excuse. Inside the Bitcoin advocates’ closed-door meeting with federal regulators. The New York Times Web site was taken down by DNS hijacking. Here’s what that means. 'Baby Monitor Hack' Could Happen To 40,000 Other Foscam Users. Hacker Jacob Appelbaum to Testify at Pirate Bay Founder Appeal.


Seriously, Fox News?

Via Josh Barro. The great thing about this is that the formulation works for anything. "50 years after March on Washington, the bees are dying." "50 years after March on Washington, some worry about Miley Cyrus's 'twerking'." ""50 years after March on Washington, my sink is leaking." "50 years after the March on Washington, we still don't have jetpacks."


The Reef is closed for good

The Reef has closed its doors for good. The Adams Morgan bar, which reopened last Thursday following an extended suspension of its liquor license, has decided to cease operation immediately. "Due to recent events, we're unable to operate," owner Brian Harrison said in a phone interview. "There's 10 different reasons why this is happening." The Reef's rooftop, shown here in 2003, was a popular Adams Morgan gathering spot. (Robert A. Reeder/The Washington Post) Main among them is an alleged stabbing that occurred during a fight in the Reef's stairwell in the early hours of August 10. One of the bar's security guards was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. The Reef agreed to increase its security as a condition of reopening, but remained in danger of losing its liquor license after several other recent incidents. The Reef was fined for serving alcohol after hours in May and fined for serving alcohol to a minor in August 2012. (It's worth noting that from its April 2002 opening until August 2012, the Reef had no violations on its liquor license.) In the early days of D.C.'s craft beer movement, the Reef was one of the scene's pioneers: It was the first place in the city to have Chimay on draft, and the first bar in D.C. to serve Allagash White on tap, among other accolades. The huge rooftop deck made the Reef an Adams Morgan destination, and families gathered in the restaurant for an all-ages happy hour every Friday night. Harrison says that the Reef's liquor license will be transferred to the next occupant of the three-level building, though there's no word on who that will be or when the transition will happen.