Ask Amy: He lies, cheats, and steals ... her heart

introduced me to his mother, which makes me think that he might actually be sincere this time, but I don’t know how to handle this other relationship. I would love for us to coexist happily, with her as a friend, but she feels threatened by me and does not wish to have any relationship with me, other than to communicate his messages to me about how to help in resolving his legal issues. How would you advise me to deal with this issue? Once and Future Girlfriend Once and Future Girlfriend: My advice is for you to lace up your fastest track shoes and run as fast and as far away from this mess as you can. If you are feeling extra-generous, you might grab your guy’s other girlfriend and pull a Thelma and Louise. But please — at the very least, save yourself. Before you go, take a long look in the mirror, and tell yourself that you deserve much, much better. And then behave as if this is true. The man you are so concerned about is (by your account) a liar, a cheater, a manipulator and a convicted criminal. He is successfully playing you from his jail cell. A man I once knew declared, very confidently, that, “Any man can get any woman.” I argued passionately that this was not true. Please, don’t prove him right. Dear Amy: I am a 62-year-old grandpa in good physical health with Type II diabetes. Here is my dilemma: My son is 40, with a 2-year-old son. He was in good health and maintained a normal weight until he got married last year. His wife is obese and doesn’t seem to care. My son’s eating habits seem to be out of control. He has gained a lot of weight, and has grown a big belly and a double chin. The baby is in the 98th percentile in weight. I want to have a conversation with my son, but I do not know how to broach the subject. I feel very strongly about this and think the conversation is urgent. Please help! Dad Grandpa Dad Grandpa: Dear Amy: Responding to the letter from “Want to Stay Peaceful,” who didn’t want to attend a same-sex wedding, I respectfully ask you to please respect people who hold a biblical view of marriage. Traditional Traditional: © 2017 by Amy Dickinson distributed by Tribune Content Agency


Afghan war faces flurry of setbacks as new U.S. military policy nears

guerrilla enemy and that United States needs to focus on cutting its “lines of supply and support and training” in Pakistan. Sending more U.S. troops, he added, will “give more ammunition” for insurgents to attract recruits among young and jobless Afghans. Mattis said the Pentagon plans to take a “regional approach” to the war and address “where this enemy is fighting from,” which is “not just Afghanistan.” Afghan officials have been more blunt, accusing Pakistan of harboring a violent Taliban branch called the Haqqani Network. At a conference this month, President Ashraf Ghani charged that Pakistan is waging an “undeclared war of aggression” on Afghanistan. Pakistan’s military commanders bristled at the “unwarranted accusations” and said Afghans should “look inward” to solve their insurgent problems. Some members of Congress and U.S. think tanks have urged the Trump administration to crack down heavily on Pakistan, a former Cold War ally and a major recipient of U.S. aid. Clearly worried, Pakistani officials have denounced recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and have strongly denied backing the Haqqani Network. But other voices have argued against putting excess pressure on Pakistan, saying it could risk political instability and religious unrest. Pakistan has suffered from years of militant attacks, most recently a spate of suicide bombings at Sufi shrines and other civilian targets in February. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told a congressional hearing last week that the United States has “very complex relations” with Pakistan, but Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) insisted that “if we don’t succeed in Afghanistan,” it is because of Pakistan’s military-run intelligence service. On the problem of insider attacks, Amarkhel said it is easy for anti-government sympathizers to “penetrate the ranks” of the security forces, because poor security and vetting make it difficult to assess recruits. “It is hard to find the enemy within yourself,” he said, adding that the Afghan military leadership is weak and politicized. “The recent insider attacks are not the first ones and will not be the last.” U.S. watchdog agencies have noted that corruption and nepotism within the Afghan military leadership have undermined the capacity of its forces, but changes in top officials appear to have made little difference. After the April 21 attack on the base in Balkh, Ghani dismissed both the defense and interior ministers. Salahuddin reported from Kabul. Sharif Walid in Kabul and Haq Nawaz Khan and Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this report.


A BSO crowd-pleaser

A TV theme song, a star soloist and a heaven-storming symphony. With the last concert of their season at Strathmore on Saturday, music director Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra put together a crowd-pleasing program that sent the audience into the summer riding a musical high. The highest of those highs came from Gil Shaham and his rapturously beautiful account of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. The ever-popular American violinist displayed his prodigious technique: an astonishing sweetness and purity of tone, immaculate intonation, and the ability to dispatch the formidable cadenzas by Fritz Kreisler (with added embellishments) with ease. Yet virtuosity was always a means to expressive ends, as Shaham brought out the exquisite lyricism and tense drama of this most beautiful of concertos. Especially breathtaking were Shaham’s seemingly infinite gradations of soft playing. Refreshingly, he maintained a classical poise, using, for example, crisp articulation to keep the slow movement from sounding cloying. Alsop and the orchestra offered sensitive and alert accompaniment. The concert opened with the premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’s “The Game,” the last of 10 commissions for the BSO’s centennial season. The unveiling of a new work is often like a spoonful of medicine. But on Saturday, even this new piece boasted a pop culture connection: “The Game” is an orchestral take on Tom Waits’s “Way Down in the Hole,” a different version of which was used as the theme song for each season of the HBO series “The Wire.” The brassy three-minute work, while raucous, lacked the funkiness and distinctive voice of its predecessors. As the ambitious drug dealer Stringer Bell from “The Wire” would have said, this new package is weak. Music director Marin Alsop. (Adriane White ) The same would never be said about Saint-Saëns’s extravagant Organ Symphony, which closed the program. At times Alsop favored understatement and sought profundity where there was none to be found. (For organ purists scoring at home, the BSO used a rented digital instrument.) But the performance hit its stride in the propulsive passages, and in the finale, Alsop and the orchestra embraced the work’s garish eccentricity to make a triumphantly glorious noise.


Safety lapses undermine nuclear warhead work at Los Alamos

involving a fissionable material such as plutonium that releases energy and generates a deadly burst of radiation. Its prevention has been an important challenge for the nuclear weapons program since the 1940s. Criticality accidents have occurred 60 times at various nuclear sites in the last half-century, causing a total of 21 agonizing deaths. Three workers at Los Alamos died in preventable criticality accidents in the 1940s and 1950s. The most recent criticality-related deaths elsewhere occurred in 1999 at a factory north of Tokyo, where Japanese technicians accidentally mixed too much highly enriched uranium into some wide-mouth buckets. A burst of radiation — and its resulting characteristic blue glow — provoked school and road closures and the evacuation of those living nearby, plus a Japanese government order for 310,000 others to shelter in place. The building in Japan where a 1999 criticality accident caused deaths and an evacuation. (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) The problems at Los Alamos were revealed by a year-long investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, which also found several unpublicized accidents at other privately run U.S. nuclear facilities. The investigation, which can be read in full at the Center for Public Integrity’s website, also showed that the penalties imposed by the government for these errors were typically small, relative to the tens of millions of dollars the NNSA gives to each of the contractors annually in pure profit. Some contractors involved in repeated workplace safety incidents were also awarded contract extensions and renewals by officials in Washington. Asked about the Los Alamos facility’s record, NNSA spokesman Gregory Wolf responded that “we expect our contractors to perform work in a safe and secure manner that protects our employees, our facilities, and the public. When accidents do occur, our focus is to determine causes, identify corrective actions and prevent recurrences.” Kevin Roark, the spokesman for the consortium of firms hired by the government to run the lab, said in an email that he would defer to the NNSA’s response. Charles McMillan, the Los Alamos lab’s director since 2011, who receives government-funded compensation exceeding $1 million a year, declined to be interviewed about its safety records or the national security consequences of the shutdown. But he said in a 2015 promotional video that “the only way” the lab can accomplish its vital national security mission “is by doing it safely.” A near-calamity Los Alamos’s handling of plutonium was the target of


The exodus provokes the shutdown The lab’s inability to fend off a deadly accident eventually became apparent to Washington. Four NNSA staff members briefed Neile Miller, the agency’s acting administrator in 2013, in an anteroom of her office overlooking the Mall that year, Miller recalled. The precise risks did not need an explanation, she said. She said that criticality is “one of those trigger words” that should immediately get the attention of anyone responsible for preventing a nuclear weapons disaster. With two of the four experts remaining in her office, Miller picked up the phone that day and called McMillan at the Los Alamos complex, which is financed by a federal payment exceeding $2 billion a year. She recommended that the key plutonium lab inside PF-4 be shut down, immediately, while the safety deficiencies were fixed. McMillan responded that he had believed the problems could be solved while that lab kept operating, Miller said. He was “reluctant” to shut it down, she recalled. But as the telephone conversation proceeded, he became open to her view that the risks were too high, she added. So on McMillan’s order, the lab was shut within a day, with little public notice. The exact cost to taxpayers of idling the facility is unclear, but an internal Los Alamos report estimated in 2013 that shutting down the facility where such work is conducted costs the government as much as $1.36 million a day in lost productivity. Initially, McMillan promised the staff that a “pause” lasting less than a year wouldn’t cause “any significant impact to mission deliverables.” But at the end of 2013, a new group of safety experts commissioned by the lab declared in an internal report that “management has not yet fully embraced its commitment to criticality safety.” It listed nine weaknesses in the lab’s safety culture that were rooted in a “production focus” to meet deadlines. Workers say these deadlines are typically linked to managers’ financial bonuses. Los Alamos’s leaders, the report said, had made the right promises, but failed to alter the underlying safety culture. “The focus appears to remain short-term and compliance-oriented rather than based on a strategic plan,” it said. Shortfalls persisted in 2015, and new ones were discovered while the facility, still mostly shut down, was used for test runs. On May 6, 2015, for example, the NNSA sent Los Alamos’s managing contractors a letter again criticizing the


At height of Russia tensions, Trump campaign chairman Manafort met with business associate from Ukraine

in the Russian army, said Phil Griffin, a political consultant who hired him at the IRI. “He was completely upfront about his past work with Russian military intelligence,” Griffin said. “It was no big deal.” Julia Sibley, a spokeswoman for the IRI, confirmed that Kilimnik worked for the organization a decade ago but declined to provide additional information. In 2005, Griffin, who had left Moscow to work for Manafort in Ukraine, invited Kilimnik to join him there, according to both men. Kilimnik said he has worked largely in Ukraine ever since, although he declined to say whether he has become a Ukrainian citizen. Kilimnik’s role for Manafort grew over time. Beyond his work as a translator, Kilimnik would “help Manafort understand the political context and why people were doing what they were doing,” Patten said. People familiar with Kilimnik’s work in Ukraine for Manafort say his assignments included meeting with powerful Ukrainian politicians and serving as a liaison to Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, who is close to Putin and did business with Manafort. A spokeswoman for Deripaska did not respond to a request for comment. In August, Volodymyr Ariev, a member of the Ukrainian parliament who represents a party that opposed Manafort’s clients, requested that Ukraine’s top prosecutor investigate whether Kilimnik had worked with Russian intelligence services. A spokeswoman for the prosecutor did not respond to questions from The Post. The prosecutor’s office told Politico in March that Kilimnik was “not being processed now as a witness, suspect or accused.” Others viewed Kilimnik as more aligned with Washington than Moscow. Oleg Voloshin, who served as a spokesman for the foreign minister of Ukraine under Yanukovych, said Manafort and Kilimnik were pushing Yanukovych to ally with Europe rather than Russia, which angered some in Yanukovych’s party. “Kilimnik was always trying to promote this message — if you want to be successful here, you want to look westward,” Voloshin said. Kilimnik was also well known at the U.S. Embassy, and officials there and at other western embassies appeared to trust him, meeting with him frequently to discuss Ukrainian politics, said people familiar with his work. “He’s not working for the Russians,” said a foreign policy expert close to Republicans who was working in Ukraine at the time. “If anything, he’s working for us.” Alice Crites, Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky in Washington and Andrew Roth in Moscow contributed to this report.


These stunning plants all have one thing in common: A taste for blood

and flytraps. It took 12 wheelbarrow loads of soil. If you have an existing pond, you could fashion a bog at its margins, though it would have to be free of any fertilizer runoff from surrounding areas as well as the buildup of fallen leaves or other organic matter. I have my pitcher plants growing in pots on a planter ledge in my fish pond, about four inches below the water line. As long as the water doesn’t get too high — and certainly not above the soil line — the plants are happy. These are the blooms of the purple pitcher plant. Pitcher plants are carnivorous bog plants found from the Gulf Coast to Hudson Bay. (Bert GF Shankman/For The Washington Post) Care and feeding How do you kill a carnivorous plant? By treating it like just another garden perennial or houseplant. ●Plants will die in conventional garden or potting soil, which is too rich. Use a mix of one part sphagnum peat moss to one part sand. Living sphagnum moss — the generative material of a peat bog — can work as a mulch, much as it would in a natural bog. ●You can’t use municipal water, which has too many minerals. The choices are collected rainwater, distilled (not bottled) water or well water. ●Feeding with fertilizers, including organic fertilizers, will also imperil the plants. Plants do need an insect meal, but only occasionally, and when outdoors in the garden they probably can feed themselves. Growers of indoor plants can use freeze-dried insects from a pet shop or wingless fruit flies. ●Don’t use raw meat or cheese, says Szesze, which will rot, kill leaves and compromise the whole plant. Flytraps need to feel a struggling insect to fuse their leaves for the meal, he says. ●Closing a trap takes an enormous amount of energy, and if all that work is not rewarded with an insect, the plant is weakened. “The worst enemy of the Venus’ flytrap,” he says, “is a kid finger-poker.” @adrian_higgins on Twitter More from The Washington Post: An architect couple designs a dream house The underrated beauty of moths For some Washington-area gardeners, paradise lost Humans love fireflies, but we haven’t made life easy for them Email us at wpmagazine@washpost.com. For more articles, as well as features such as Date Lab, Gene Weingarten and more, visit The Washington Post Magazine. Follow the Magazine on Twitter.


Grab your stretchy pants for the Michelin Star-Spangled Road Trip across America

Clarification: Verve Search, a content-marketing company in London, mapped out the Michelin Star-Spangled Road Trip, the shortest possible route to all 159 Michelin-starred restaurants in the United States. (James Barnes) If your flavor of road-trip food leans more toward grilled foie gras wontons than Panda Express chow mein, then start packing your suit jacket and stretchy pants. Verve Search, a content marketing company in London, has mapped out a celestial culinary adventure: the shortest possible route to all 159 Michelin-starred restaurants in the United States. The 3,426-mile journey includes both lengthy stretches (the 2,111-mile drive between Bouchon in Yountville, Calif., and EL Ideas in Chicago) and frog hops (Per Se and Masa, both in Manhattan’s Time Warner Center). James Barnes, an outreach specialist working on behalf of Orbitz, explained the math and madness behind the Michelin Star-Spangled Road Trip. What inspired your team to map this route? Why Michelin restaurants, and why the United States? We were intrigued by the prospect of plotting the ultimate road trip for fine diners and figured that Michelin-starred restaurants would serve as the perfect proxy, given that Michelin stars are widely regarded as the top accolade for a restaurateur or chef. The fact that there are fewer than 200 Michelin-starred eateries in the U.S. and that they’re primarily clustered in four locations (California, Illinois, Washington and New York) renders this a more realistic endeavor than first meets the eye. How did you come up with the route? To calculate the shortest route between the full set of restaurants, we would need to discover the distances between each pair of restaurants and find the ordering that results in the minimum distance covered. Even if there only 20 restaurants, the number of potential orderings would be 2.43 times ten to the eighteenth power. It would take an unfathomable amount of time to compute all the variations. This is where the work of Randy Olson comes into play. The data scientist [at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Biomedical Informatics] first employed his mathematical wizardry to create a search path that could find the titular character in “Where’s Waldo.” He then applied the same logic to map out the ultimate American road trip, which involved visiting 50 historical landmarks spanning the Lower 48 states. The algorithm that underpins Olson’s work belongs to a class of “genetic algorithms” whose purpose is to find a solution that, while potentially


Senior House Democrats press Michael Flynn for information on trips to Middle East

Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn (Carlos Barria/Reuters) House Democratic leaders are pressing former national security adviser Michael Flynn for documents and details related to two trips he made to the Middle East in 2015 that they argue he failed to disclose — in part or in whole — on security clearance forms. According to the ranking Democrats on the House Oversight and House Foreign Affairs committees — Elijah E. Cummings (Md.) and Eliot L. Engel (N.Y.), respectively — Flynn’s security forms and interviews revealed a previously unreported, six-day trip he made to Saudi Arabia in October 2015, in which he claimed to have stayed at a hotel that does not appear to exist, have traveled with a friend who was never named, and have spoken at a conference that none of his handling bureaus were aware of. According to congressional testimony Flynn gave in June 2015, Flynn also made an earlier trip that involved talks about developing nuclear power in the region. But Flynn never documented the trip on his security clearance forms at all, according to Cummings and Engel. Cummings and Engel sent their letter requesting documents on Monday to Flynn’s lawyers and the heads of consulting companies X-Co Dynamics Inc./IronBridge Group and ACU Strategic Partners. Flynn is under scrutiny by several investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 president election and any possible collusion between President Trump’s campaign and that effort. Newsweek recently reported that Flynn had traveled to the Middle East to promote a potential U.S.-Russian venture involving those companies to develop nuclear power facilities. But Flynn’s financial disclosure forms indicate that his business affiliation with X-Co/IronBridge began only in August 2015 — two months after his initial trip — according to Cummings’s and Engel’s letter. Shortly after Flynn’s summer trip, Cummings and Engel pointed out, Saudi Arabia announced an agreement with Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear energy company, that would prove to be worth about $100 billion. “If this press report is accurate, General Flynn’s failure to report this trip and any contacts with foreign government officials about this Saudi-Russian nuclear proposal appears to be a potential violation” of the law, Cummings and Engel wrote, stressing that they have “no record of General Flynn identifying on this security clearance renewal application . . . even a single foreign government official he had contact with in the seven years prior” to submitting the form. Their


This is the one climate solution that’s best for the environment — and for business

Obama on June 1 said President Trump’s administration “joins a small handful of nations that reject the future” by withdrawing from the Paris climate deal. Such a climate plan is not only feasible but is now gaining traction. On Tuesday, the Climate Leadership Council announced its founding members, a group of companies, opinion leaders and nongovernmental organizations who have joined forces to promote a consensus climate solution based on carbon dividends. We are proud to be part of this distinguished group. The companies involved represent a cross section of industries: BP, ExxonMobil, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Santander, Schneider Electric, Unilever, Total and Shell. Two top environmental organizations are also involved, as are other opinion leaders from across the political spectrum. We are convinced that the carbon dividends approach first put forward by one of us (Shultz) along with former secretary of state James A. Baker III a few months ago can strengthen the U.S. economy in ways highly valued by both the left and right and simultaneously spur global efforts to address climate change. Adopting a carbon dividend approach would pay huge dividends for the global climate, the U.S. economy and U.S. leadership in the world. Our carbon dividend strategy has four interrelated elements that account for its strength: a gradually rising and revenue-neutral carbon tax; carbon dividend payments made equally to all Americans, to be funded using all the carbon-tax revenue; rollback of costly command-and-control regulations that were implemented because the environmental costs of carbon fuels have not been incorporated into their price; and border adjustment to ensure a level playing field and U.S. competitiveness. A carbon tax set at $40 per ton would achieve substantially greater reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions than all of the regulation now on the table. The application of a border carbon adjustment that levied a tax on the carbon content of imported products would incent other countries to adopt carbon pricing, increasing its impact and preventing free-riders. So the carbon dividend approach is best for the environment. It would also be best for economic growth, which explains why prominent companies are backing it. The alternative to a carbon tax is not the application of the free market. It is the current extensive regulatory apparatus in which government judges the products and production techniques that businesses employ and mandates particular business practices. The enactment of a significant carbon tax justifies


Hints From Heloise: Master the mosquito season

windows closed and running a fan or an air conditioner is good for keeping mosquitoes out of your home. ● Cover up completely when outside. Long-sleeved shirts and long pants are best. ● Treat with DEET. The CDC recommends using a mosquito repellent with DEET because it lasts a long time and is safe when used as directed. ● Apply sunscreen first, then mosquito repellent. Read up on mosquito control, and talk to your doctor and pediatrician for more information. Dear Readers: Diva is almost 10 years old. She limps on her left front leg a little, so they take her to physical therapy once a month. And Diva loves to go shopping with her mommy! To see Diva and our other Pet Pals, visit Heloise.com and click on “Pet of the Week.” Dear Heloise: I would like to suggest that restaurants allow senior citizens (65 and older) to order from the kids menu. I realize that the kids menu does not often offer the healthiest food, but we are seasoned enough to know how to eat healthy. Many older folks cannot eat the amount of food some of these restaurants serve, don’t like to eat leftovers and don’t want to waste food. Thank you. Millie in Colorado Springs Millie in Colorado Springs: P.S. Tip a little extra if the server accommodates your wishes. Dear Heloise: For holding skeins of yarn, use large, empty plastic canisters of disinfecting wipes. The lid comes off easily, and the end of the yarn can be threaded through the hole in the lid. A Reader, via email Reader: Dear Heloise: Every time I change the sheets on our queen-size bed, trying to determine which way the sheet goes takes me so long. So I put a small safety pin in the top left corner of all my fitted sheets. Problem solved, and time saved. Millie F., Elida, Ohio Dear Heloise: Toss the packs of moisture-wicking desiccants found in many shipping packages and medicines into your boxes of silver jewelry or flatware, and be amazed at their tarnish protection. Also, make online purchases? Don’t toss those air-filled plastic “pillows.” Place them in stored handbags to keep your bags’ shapes like new. J.T., via email Heloise’s column appears six days a week at washingtonpost.com/advice. Send a hint to Heloise , P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Tex. 78279-5000, or email it to Heloise@Heloise.com. , King Features Syndicate


Mike Isabella’s newest restaurant, Arroz, shines the brightest

Arroz offers a number of bombas, a dish like Spanish paella. This is the suckling pig version, with pressed slabs of pork belly and chorizo scattered on top of what tastes like fried rice. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) (Excellent) Chefs with more than one restaurant are generally reluctant to declare a favorite. But it’s pretty clear that Mike Isabella, whose portfolio leans Greek and Italian, has a super-soft spot for the latest of his 10 dining rooms. Not only is Arroz his most upscale creation to date, the “Top Chef” alumnus says, “I love the space, I love the food, I like the energy.” Jinx! Chef, you took the words right out of my mouth. In a market where Moroccan cuisine is rare and Portuguese food dearer still, Arroz offers tastes of both, along with a sprinkling of Spain. (“Arroz” is Spanish for rice.) Give or take a dish, the result reinforces Washington’s status as a dining powerhouse and the role Isabella has played in making that true. A convention hotel restaurant might not strike a food enthusiast as something to check off the list. But kudos to the Marriott Marquis for luring Isabella and offering an amenity as prized as this one. Without resorting to cliches, the space relies on carpet that suggests tile, displays of Moroccan urns and plates and splashes of turquoise to help diners forget they’re in Washington. Some of the best booths in town are Arroz’s two-seaters, semi-enclosed within keyhole frames. Even the coffered ceiling shows flair. The Daisy cocktail mixes fig brandy and sherry, and is cooled by a piece of ice that resembles a miniature disco ball. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) There are two entrances, one on the street that introduces arrivals to the sleek bar, the second, inside the Marriott, that calls to mind the alleys Isabella and his team encountered on their research trips abroad. The restaurant’s charm offensive extends to the staff, starting with a sunny hostess and a bartender who might grace your drink with the ice equivalent of a miniature disco ball. Do as your server says and spring for the Daisy, a sherry cocktail made with fig brandy, or, as a waiter calls it, “Moroccan moonshine.” Really, though, all the cocktails have something to recommend them. Consider yourself warned: White sangria, flavored with pears, cardamom and rosemary, goes down all too easily on


A growing economy: Balancing the books of your backyard investment

Open-pollinated kale seed, saved from the author’s garden, means one fewer seed packet to buy next year. (Barbara Damrosch) I once had a friend whose garden stole his wallet and took over his life. Inspired by the great gardens he’d seen in England, he built a reflecting pool surrounded by brick-walled garden rooms. Soon the pool was dotted with waterlilies, the walls clothed with flowering vines and the rooms redecorated each year with high-maintenance flower beds, bursting with color. To my eye, it was money well spent. Garden economics are tricky. They require an accounting system that measures not just the cost but also the gardener’s expectations, and whether they are met. A neighbor who got into vegetable gardening to save money was dismayed that initially the money he and his wife spent was more than they saved on food, even though they were very competent gardeners. But she told a revealing story. Yes, she admitted, they’d made hasty purchases as temporary solutions. Work and family commitments kept them from finishing their deer fence, so they’d used cheap plastic fencing until they had more time. But that came in handy later during a porcupine emergency. The ravenous creatures were destroying the raspberries and a precious pear tree. Surrounding both with the plastic fence saved the day. Similarly, a wastefully large roll of floating row cover, bought for insect protection, proved essential for creating a warmer space for all their young seedlings in chilly spring weather. After a while, a gardener accumulates enough gear that new purchases become rare. But it takes judgment to get to that point quickly. Starting with basic tools such as a shovel, spade, rake, trowel and hoe is the first step, but only if they’re well made and just right for your own use — sturdy, but not so heavy that you come to hate to use them. Strong, well-attached handles are a must. You can probably put together the whole collection from yard sales. In the years to come, you’ll be tempted by cheap plastic versions of basic garden stuff. Beware of flimsy plant supports and rickety little wheelbarrows. Easy-to-assemble compost bins, raised beds and cold frames may be even easier for the forces of nature to take apart, whether they be wind, the expansion of icy soil or hungry bears. Ticky-tacky greenhouses too small to hold much more than you and a few potted


Amazon’s bid for Whole Foods sparks speculation on what it might gobble up next

Plans by Amazon.com to purchase Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion have given birth to conjectures on what the company’s next buys might be — including other grocery firms, discounters and clothing retailers. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters) Amazon.com’s surprise announcement last week that it would buy Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion sent rival grocery stocks plummeting. It also unleashed a flurry of speculation about the retail behemoth’s next move. “Could GrubHub be Amazon’s next big purchase?” asked the website Consumerist. “Amazon’s next acquisition target could be Nordstrom,” declared Inc. Magazine. “Amazon might go after Lululemon or Warby Parker next,” said cable business channel CNBC. Shares of CVS, Walgreens and RiteAid also fell Friday as drugstore chains feared that the online giant could be heading their way next, making inroads into the highly regulated prescription-retail and pharmaceutical businesses. In other corners of the Internet, analysts and investors speculated that Seattle-based Amazon could be setting its sights on organic grocer Sprouts, discounters DollarTree and Dollar General, and used-goods purveyors such as Plato’s Closet and Once Upon a Child. The Whole Foods deal, analysts said, signaled that Amazon — which until now had focused mostly on scooping up niche businesses and technology start-ups — is serious about buying established bricks-and-mortar businesses. “Amazon has opened Pandora’s box by showing a willingness to spend billions of dollars,” said Tom Forte, managing director of Maxim Group, an investment banking firm in Manhattan. “Now analysts like myself can have fun making speculations on what types of acquisitions are next.” Forte, for his part, has outlined 18 immediate opportunities for Amazon, including expansion into hardware stores, gas stations and pharmacies. But the most obvious targets, he said, are BJ’s Wholesale Club (which would come with a network of gas stations), Warby Parker (which could help Amazon get into the prescription-eyeglasses business) and Everlane (which has made a business being transparent about the pricing of its American-made apparel). “For Amazon to move the needle, it’s got to be a very big idea,” Forte said, adding that he was wearing an $18 Everlane T-shirt. “They’re much more likely to acquire Everlane than, say, the Gap.” Amazon, founded in 1994 as an online bookseller, has since grown into a $136-billion-a-year company with a hand in nearly every aspect of e-commerce: groceries, apparel, streaming video, baby goods, electronics and more. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)


Saudi king names son as new crown prince, upending the royal succession

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman elevated his son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to become crown prince and ousted his nephew, Mohammed bin Nayef, from the royal succession line. Here's what you need to know. CAIRO — Since Prince Mohammed bin Salman emerged from obscurity two years ago, his impact has been widely felt in Saudi Arabia and across the region. He is seen as a modernizer of his hidebound kingdom and a champion of its frustrated youth. But he is also a forceful, and some say hotheaded, advocate for Saudi Arabia’s regional dominance who has thrust the country into bitter feuds with neighbors, as well as involvement in a destructive civil war in Yemen. Because of his youth — and his father’s age (81) — the new crown prince is poised to play a pivotal role in forging the policy and identity of this key U.S. ally and the Arab world’s largest economy. But he also faces numerous obstacles in implementing his vision for a new Saudi Arabia, analysts said. On Wednesday, after a flurry of royal decrees, Salman replaced Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was also relieved of his influential position as interior minister, in which he oversaw security and counterterrorism operations. The new crown prince will become the kingdom’s first deputy prime minister while retaining his control of the Defense Ministry and other portfolios. The surprise announcement marks the first time since Saudi Arabia’s first ruler, King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, that a Saudi monarch has designated his son rather than a brother as his heir apparent. And it is only the second time since the kingdom was founded in 1932 that a grandson of ibn Saud has been named crown prince — and its potential future king. The move also consolidates power within King Salman’s family, while weakening the influence of the families of his brothers and their sons. “The reshuffle marks the first real test of the ruling Al Saud family’s ability to manage the inevitable generational shift from the sons of Ibn Saud, to his grandsons,” Torbjorn Soltvedt, a Middle East analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk consulting firm, said in a statement. The change arrives at a critical time for the Sunni-ruled Muslim kingdom as it grapples with the economic fallout from declining oil prices and a costly military campaign it leads against Shiite rebels in neighboring Yemen. The kingdom also is heading


Man who disappeared from Northwest D.C. months ago found dead in Western Maryland

A District man who managed a hardware store in Petworth and who disappeared after leaving work eight months ago has been found dead in a rural area of Western Maryland, and police say they believe he was killed. Campers found the decomposed body on April 21 off Hoop Pole Road, in Little Orleans, in Allegany County. It took until Tuesday to identify the remains as Ariel Arnaldo Espinal, 27, of Northwest, according to Maryland State Police. A cause of death has not been determined, but authorities said they found trauma on the remains. “It is being investigated as a homicide,” said Elena Russo, a state police spokeswoman. Espinal’s sister and fiancee said they are devastated by the discovery and said they have no idea how their loved one disappeared from New Hampshire Avenue in Northwest Washington in October, only to have his body found in a campground 110 miles away. Espinal’s remains were found clothed about eight feet down an embankment and 20 feet off a dirt road. The wooded area is where Maryland narrows to just a few miles wide, between West Virginia to the south and Pennsylvania to the north. Ariel Arnaldo Espinal (D.C. Police) “It’s like a bad dream, a nightmare,” said Espinal’s sister, Marla Espinal, 23, on Tuesday. “I still can’t believe this is real, after all we went through not knowing anything about him. All these months, we had hoped he would come home.” Espinal, his two sisters and a brother were born and raised in Washington to parents who had come to the United States from El Salvador 30 years ago. Espinal was studying business at the University of the District of Columbia while managing Annie’s Ace Hardware store in Northwest. His fiancee, Irma Flores, 25, graduated from the school this spring with a degree in health sciences and plans to be a nurse. The couple met in middle school. Marla Espinal said her brother had a kind heart and hired many of his friends to work at the store. “He wanted to see other people do better for themselves,” she said. Flores called Espinal a loving father to their 9-year-old son, Julius, and a “humble, hard worker” who enjoyed jokes, barbecuing and watching cooking shows on television. “He was a foodie,” Flores said. “He loved food. He would like to eat at the best restaurants with the best food.” Espinal’s sister said they


Montgomery County adopt a pet

Baylee, an unaltered female brown-and-white short-haired rabbit is available for adoption. (Montgomery County Animal Services) Baylee If you have lost a pet or are interested in adoption, animals can be seen at the adoption center noon to 7 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. To learn about lost and adoptable animals, such as Baylee, and other programs and services, call 240-773-5900, visit montgomerycountymd.gov/asd, email adoptmcasac@montgomerycountymd.gov or visit facebook.com/mcasac.


The Trump administration has expanded sanctions on Russia. Here’s what it should target next.

writing for the Radio Liberty website Crimea Realities, is on trial on charges of inciting separatism and faces five years in prison. Even the slightest hint of opposition to Russia’s rule is crushed. A farmer named Vladimir Balukh who flew a Ukrainian flag over his house is being tried on trumped-up weapons charges and could receive four years in prison. But the worst persecution is reserved for members of Crimea’s Tatar ethnic minority. Its principle organization, the Mejlis, has been banned as a terrorist group and its leaders exiled, jailed or, in one case, forcibly confined to a psychiatric institution. Crimeans are prohibited even from mentioning the Mejlis on social media. In May 2016, a rising new Tatar leader, Ervin Ibragimov, disappeared; he was last seen being bundled into a car by Russian secret police. Nineteen other men, including human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku, are being prosecuted on charges of membership in the banned terrorist group Hizb ut-Tahrir — charges Amnesty International said were, in at least the case of Mr. Kuku, groundless. Ms. Pechonchyk and Olga Skrypnyk, the exiled board chairman of the Crimean Human Rights Group, arrived in Washington this week with lists of dozens of Russian and Crimean officials implicated in these abuses. One cites more than 70 judges who have ordered unlawful detentions, while another identifies those complicit in repression of the media. The activists would like to see these officials added to those subject to sanctions by the United States and the European Union, including through the use of the Magnitsky Act, which provides for action against officials involved in persecuting human rights activists. The point of sanctions is not only to punish. Pressure needs to be raised on Moscow until it agrees to international negotiations on its Crimea occupation, like those it has with Ukraine, France and Britain on its military incursion in eastern Ukraine. “Russia is not listening to resolutions,” said Ms. Pechonchyk. “The only language Russia understands is sanctions.” Read more on this topic: The Post’s View: Crimea’s ‘new normal’ of repression Steny Hoyer and Ben Cardin: If Trump is going to engage Russia, he should do so on this topic The Post’s View: As Chechnya tortures and kills gay men, Putin shrugs Anne Applebaum: Don’t forget those smiling images of Trump and the Russians The Post’s View: An activist is mysteriously ill in Russia, and the U.S. needs to speak up


Let America plunge toward our fast-unfolding future

The front end of the Whole Foods supermarket in New York’s Union Square. (Richard Levine/Corbis via Getty Images) In 1859, when Manhattan still had many farms, near the Battery on the island’s southern tip the Great American Tea Company was launched. It grew, and outgrew its name, becoming in 1870 the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, which in 1912 begat the first A&P Economy Store, a semi-modern grocery store. By 1920, there were 4,500 such stores; by 1930, 15,000. In 1936, in Braddock, Pa., A&P opened a “supermarket.” By the 1950s, A&P was, briefly, what Walmart now is, the nation’s largest retailer, with a 75 percent share of America’s grocery business. A&P was, however, about to learn that Karl Marx was right. In “The Communist Manifesto,” Marx testified to capitalism’s transformative power: “All that is solid melts into air.” Sixty-eight years after he wrote that, in 1916, in Memphis, just as Henry Ford’s Model T was making personal mobility a universal aspiration, and that aspiration was making suburbs practical and alluring, the first Piggly Wiggly opened. This was the beginning of self-service grocery chains. Hitherto, shoppers handed their grocery lists to clerks, who plucked the goods from shelves. Soon shoppers were pushing carts along aisles lined with goods enticingly packaged to prompt impulse purchases. A&P flourished when people went downtown to shop. As new suburbs spread, A&P’s stores were old and distant. A&P filed for bankruptcy in 2015. By Nov. 25, 2016, its last stores had closed. Amazon has acquired Whole Foods in a record-setting $13.7 billion deal. In its review of the deal, the FTC is looking into allegations against Amazon of tampering with comparison prices. (Amazon founder and CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post). Last week, grocery chain Kroger’s lowered earnings forecast caused a 19 percent drop in share prices, which had already declined 12 percent in 2017. This was before Amazon announced that it is buying the Whole Foods grocery chain — more than 460 stores in 42 states, Canada and Britain — for $13.7 billion, which is approximately how much Amazon’s market capitalization increased after the Whole Foods announcement. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Post.) Whole Foods, like Kroger, had been experiencing difficulties from competitors and expanding consumer options. The Wall Street Journal reports: “Consumers are buying more of their groceries outside of traditional supermarkets. Online merchants, discounters


Man arrested in deadly shooting inside Northeast Washington apartment

THE DISTRICT Man arrested in deadly Deanwood shooting A man was arrested after a woman was fatally shot early Wednesday inside an apartment in the Deanwood neighborhood of Northeast Washington, according to D.C. police. About 12:10 a.m., officers responded to the 700 block of 51st Street NE, just off Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, for a report of a shooting, D.C. police said in a statement. They found 41-year-old Robin Fitzgerald of Northeast suffering from gunshot wounds, and she was taken to a hospital where she died, the statement said. A police report said that two men and two women were inside the apartment at the time and that one man was in the bathroom when he heard two gunshots. He emerged and found the victim lying on the floor and shot twice, according to the report. Police said they arrested Aaron Jacobs, 29, who has no fixed address, and he was charged with second-degree murder while armed. Police did not discuss a possible motive. The shooting is the third in the vicinity since Sunday, although the others were the result of street violence and police have not said whether they are related. — Peter Hermann and Dana Hedgpeth Veterans charity head embezzled $150,000 The former head of a D.C. charity intended to benefit Vietnam veterans pleaded guilty to wire fraud after embezzling about $150,000, federal prosecutors said. John Thomas Burch, 75, of Alexandria was the president of the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation until last year, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia said in a statement. He misappropriated about $150,000 of donations marked for veterans’ family members with small children in poverty, the statement said, giving the money to women he was involved with and claiming reimbursements for visits to clubs, meals and hotel stays that were not related to the charity. Burch faces up to 18 months in prison, prosecutors said, and a fine of up to $55,000, among other penalties. He is scheduled to be sentenced in October. — Justin Wm. Moyer VIRGINIA Park for blacks now on landmarks register A city park established for African Americans during the Jim Crow era is one of 21 new additions to the Virginia Landmarks Register. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources says Montgomery Hall Park in Staunton was founded in 1946 as a regional facility for African Americans during segregation. It included a swimming pool and a park that


5 great places to drink rosé in Washington

Rosé by the glass, flights and blush cocktails (like the Brigitte Bardot, mixed with Lillet Rose, peach liqueur, grapefruit juice, grapefruit bitters and sparkling rosé) might tickle your fancy. Snacks including grilled oysters with a cucumber granita and grilled watermelon also celebrate the season. 1190 22nd St. NW. 202-974-4900. Whaley’s rosé garden: Be warned that you might sip amid bright Floridian decor faster if you had jetted off to the Sunshine State. (Holley Simmons/for The Washington Post) Whaley’s Rosé Garden We hope you like lines as much as you like rosé: Wait times to laze in this retro Palm Beach-inspired pop-up bar in front of Whaley’s can be long. Once you make it past the lush plant-lined threshold, choose from a list of more than 10 glasses of rosé as well as highballs, frozen drinks and beer. The pink offerings are a fruity complement to such light bites as oysters, poached shrimp and toast loaded with Maryland crab. Outside the restaurant at 301 Water St. SE, Suite 115. 202-484-8800. Proof With a wine list that stretches nearly 50 pages, bet on Proof to help quench your rosé cravings. Organized by country of origin, the offerings include sparkling rosés that range in price from holy cow ($175) to holy — well, you know ($850). The still rosé options are reasonable (starting at $45 for a bottle) and leave you with enough cash to burn on the restaurant’s impressive selection of cheese and charcuterie. 775 G St. NW. 202-737-7663. No longer a rhyme, but we don’t mind: Vinoteca extended its “rosé all May” promotion of its 16 rosés through September. (Vinoteca) Vinoteca Due to popular demand, Vinoteca’s clever “rosé all May” promotion has morphed into a summer-long affair. Through September, the U Street neighborhood haunt is serving 16-plus rosés available by the glass or bottle, as well as mixed drinks, sangria and boozy ice cream floats laced with the pink stuff. It’s best enjoyed outside on the festive patio, fittingly outfitted with rose bushes, climbing ivy and fresh flowers. 1940 11th St. NW. 202-332-9463. Correction: A previous version of this article said rosé is made from a combination of red and white grapes. Rosé is often made with only red grapes. This version has been updated. Read more: Dinner for two for less than $100 in Washington? Good luck. These insane milkshakes are made for Instagram. But they taste really good, too.


Why it’s so hard to figure out when bottled and canned beer is fresh

hops in a beer begin to degrade almost immediately after it’s made, and that this problem is especially acute with beers that are dry-hopped specifically for their aromatics — like most of the juicy IPAs that are trendy . They’ll also tell you that the biggest threats to off-flavors in beer are oxygen and light. Limit those, and you’ll have a longer shelf life. Stone's Enjoy By IPA is only sold in stores for 37 days to guarantee its freshness. The "expiration date" is printed in large numbers right on the can. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) Smaller brewers who make beer with heavy doses of tropical-scented hops generally recommend drinking within a month of packaging. Richard Thompson, the head brewer at Herndon’s Aslin Beer, which has become a favorite with beer traders, says that his hazy, dry-hopped IPAs hit their sweet spot two to four weeks after canning, before beginning to decline. Dan Bronson, the general manager of New York City’s highly regarded SingleCut Beersmiths, suggests a one-to-three-week window for its hoppy IPAs and double IPAs. “Though these beers are still really enjoyable six weeks on, you’re starting to stray away from what our brewers intended,” he said. “After a month or so, the aroma and vibrance of the hops starts to fade, and the all-important balance the brewers lost sleep over is gone.” At the larger end of the industry, there’s more latitude. Firestone Walker is “best enjoyed” within 120 days, while Bell’s said “the vast majority of our beers” are good for six months, with the exceptions of lagers (three months) and the cult double IPA Hopslam (drink as soon as possible). As craft beer’s national and global reach expands, and beers are shipped longer distances, breweries are trying different ways to get beer into new markets without sacrificing freshness. A few years ago, Flying Dog spent a significant amount of money — $75,000 to $100,000 — according to Chief Operating Officer Matt Brophy to add what it calls “a very sensitive analytical system” to measure the amount of dissolved oxygen in its bottles and cans. The results have been impressive, Brophy says, enough that Flying Dog extended its “enjoy by” date from 140 days to 170 days from packaging without complaints from consumers. Chief Operating Officer Matt Brophy and Flying Dog have spent big bucks trying to extend the freshness of their beer. (Courtesy of Flying Dog


This interactive museum outside Williamsburg, Va., brings the American Revolution to life

Seventy-six years earlier, Heyer crossed the Delaware with Gen. George Washington. For me, these images best illustrate what this museum is all about. We had never heard of these ordinary individuals, but each one played a part in the creation of a country. Lee is a writer based in Virginia Beach. Find him on Twitter: @writer1218. More from Travel: Geek out over New York’s impressive array of specialty bookstores I love the Brooklyn Bridge. Walk across it and you will, too. Canoe through the Bronx If you go Where to stay Duke of York Hotel 508 Water St. 757-898-3232 dukeofyorkhotelwaterfrontyorktownva.com A family-run hotel, located in the heart of Yorktown. Every room has a river view. Free parking. Reservations strongly suggested. The Island Grille restaurant offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. Its outdoor swimming pool is open from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Rooms from $129. The Hornsby House Inn 702 Main St. 757-369-0200 hornsbyhouseinn.com Six lovely rooms are available in a 1933 Georgian-colonial-style house. Innkeeper Dave Bowditch grew up in the house. The rooms are furnished with antiques collected by Bowditch’s grandmother. Gourmet breakfast and complimentary wine and cheese every day. Free on-site parking. Rooms from $159. Where to eat Water Street Grille 323 Water St. 757-369-5644 waterstreetgrille.net A lively seafood, burger and tapas restaurant. It has an extensive list of beers on tap, including lots from Virginia. Outdoor seating is available. Burgers from $13; sandwiches from $12. Yorktown Pub 540 Water St. 757-886-9964 yorktownpub.com The popular pub, featuring local seafood and burgers, has been a Yorktown feature since 1987. Oysters are its specialty, and it has a large selection of bottled beers. Burgers from $9.50; seafood entrees market price. Riverwalk Restaurant 323 Water St., Suite A-1 757-875-1522 riverwalkrestaurant.net The fine-dining establishment, next door to the Water Street Grille, offers fresh seafood, steaks and chops. Patio dining is available. Lunch from $12; dinner entrees from $24. What to do American Revolution Museum at Yorktown 200 Water St., Route 1020 888-593-4682 historyisfun.org/yorktown-victory-center Five galleries tell the story of the American Revolution and the creation of a new country. Plan on at least two hours. Outside attractions include a Continental Army Encampment and revolution-era farmhouse. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (until 6 p.m. June 15 through Aug. 15). Admission $12; ages 6-12, $7; younger free. Combined ticket with Jamestown Settlement: adults $23; ages 6-12 $12; younger free. Information yorkcounty.gov/tourism/Home.aspx — J.L.


District residents’ perceptions of Metro have fallen dramatically; many support a sales tax to turn it around

closer in suburban Maryland, where residents stand 50 to 47 in favor of the tax in a March Washington Post-University of Maryland poll , within the survey’s margin of error . A sales tax faces steep political hurdles in Virginia, however, with some Republicans decrying the proposal as a non-starter in a state with a GOP-controlled legislature. Some Marylanders, particularly in Prince George’s County, also have reservations about the idea, arguing that the regressive nature of the sales tax more acutely affects lower-income residents. Fare increases are deeply unpopular as a means to ease financial woes — opposed by margins of 30 percentage points in the District and 40 points in Maryland. Northern Virginians are more receptive to the idea but still reject it by a 10-point margin. Reducing train and bus frequency, meanwhile, is the least popular proposal in the District, with 78 percent of residents opposing it, joining 71 percent of suburban Marylanders and 69 percent of suburban Virginians. The polls also illustrate dramatic deterioration in Metro’s image across the Washington area. In 2013, about 7 in 10 residents in the District, suburban Maryland and Virginia rated the Metro system as “good” or “excellent.” This year, fewer than half of residents in each give Metro positive marks, with negative ratings of the system more than doubling. On the sales tax issue, support varies by ward — 70 percent support it in Northwest Wards 1 and 3, as do 59 percent in Wards 2 and 6 from Georgetown to Capitol Hill, and half of residents of Ward 4, positioned at the District’s northern corner. But support falls to 37 percent in Ward 5 in Northeast, and in Wards 7 and 8, 41 percent support a dedicated sales tax while 56 percent oppose it. Divisions in support for the Metro sales tax across wards track closely with racial and income differences across the city, but the poll finds that race, geography and financial standing each factor in support for the measure. “We’ve got enough taxes in the District that we don’t have any representation about,” said Shirley Holliday Estes, 69, a resident of Ward 7. “And you’re going to ask me to pay for a sales tax that’s going to benefit everybody else, but we don’t have representation in Congress? So no, I don’t want no sales tax.” Pollock, however, said the region that has been so mindful of the


I worked on the EPA’s climate change website. Its removal is a declaration of war.

President Trump’s EPA director, Scott Pruitt, ordered the removal of what used to be the best site about climate change research on the Internet. (Andrew Harnik/AP) This spring, political officials at the Environmental Protection Agency removed the agency’s climate change website, one of the world’s top resources for information on the science and effects of climate change. To me, a scientist who managed this website for more than five years, its removal signifies a declaration of war on climate science by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. There can be no other interpretation. I draw this conclusion as a meteorologist with a specialization in climate science and as an independent voter who strives to keep my political and scientific views separate. I concede that this specific issue is personal for me, given the countless hours I spent working on the site. But it should be obvious to anyone how this senseless action runs counter to principles of good governance and scientific integrity. Some 20 years in the making, the breadth and quality of the website’s content was remarkable. It lasted through Democratic and Republican administrations, partly because its information mirrored the findings of the mainstream scientific community, including the National Academy of Sciences, other federal agencies and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It “presented the current understanding of the science and possible solutions in a fair and balanced way,” says Kerry Emanuel, a world-renowned atmospheric scientist at MIT and a political conservative. The site’s overarching conclusion, informed by these scientific organizations and reports, was that recent warming is largely a result of human activities, specifically the burning of fossil fuels, which releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Yet Pruitt, a lawyer who has spent much of his career fighting climate change mitigation efforts, decided that he knows more than the thousands of scientists whose decades of work support this conclusion. These are his words about the impact of human activity: “I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.” Pruitt has championed the administration’s decision to exit the Paris climate agreement and called for a debate on the fundamentals of the issue, even though there’s virtually no disagreement about it among scientists. He then effectively cleansed the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors, a steering committee for the agency’s research. The EPA’s official line is that it is “updating” the


Obama’s secret struggle to punish Russia for Putin’s election assault

the ground by a uniformed FSB guard. In a video aired on Russian television, the U.S. operative can be seen struggling to drag himself across the embassy threshold and onto U.S. sovereign territory. He sustained a broken shoulder in the attack. Though conceived as retaliation for those incidents, the expulsions were adapted and included in the election-related package. The roster of expelled spies included several operatives who were suspected of playing a role in Russia’s election interference from within the United States, officials said. They declined to elaborate. More broadly, the list of 35 names focused heavily on Russians known to have technical skills. Their names and bios were laid out on a dossier delivered to senior White House officials and Cabinet secretaries, although the list was modified at the last minute to reduce the number of expulsions from Russia’s U.N. mission in New York and add more names from its facilities in Washington and San Francisco. A compound near Centreville, Md., that was being used by Russian diplomats is seen in a 2015 satellite photo. The compound was closed in December as part of a U.S. sanctions package. (Photo obtained by The Washington Post; photo illustration by Nick Kirkpatrick/The Washington Post) The compounds were even higher on the FBI’s wish list. At one point in the White House deliberations, intelligence analysts used aerial images of the facilities to show how they had been modified to enhance their espionage capabilities. Slides displayed in the Situation Room showed new chimneys and other features, all presumed to allow for the installation of more-sophisticated eavesdropping equipment aimed at U.S. naval facilities and the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade in Maryland. Rice The administration gave Russia 24 hours to evacuate the sites, and FBI agents watched as fleets of trucks loaded with cargo passed through the compounds’ gates. When FBI agents entered the sites, they found them stripped of antennas, electronics, computers, file cabinets and other gear, officials said, their hasty removal leaving visible markings on floors, tables and walls. Economic sanctions are widely seen as the United States’ most potent lever, short of military force. Russia’s economy is dwarfed by that of the United States, and nearly every major Russian institution and oligarch depends to some degree on access to U.S. and Western financial institutions, networks and credit. Sanctions that the United States and Europe imposed on Russia in 2014 for its actions


Scientific experimentation, debate and selflessness on the way to today’s vaccines

Children line up to be immunized in New York in the 1940s. In the postwar years, scientists competed to meet the urgent need for new vaccines. (Library of Congress) Susan Okie is a physician, a former Washington Post science reporter and editor, and a clinical assistant professor of family medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, I suffered through chicken pox and measles, like millions of other American kids, and I belonged to the first generation to receive the brand-new polio vaccines in national campaigns. My parents had friends permanently paralyzed by polio; the mother of a schoolmate gave birth to a baby who was deaf, nearly blind and suffering a severe intellectual disability from rubella (“German measles”) contracted during pregnancy. Within a half-century, vaccines have made these and other once-common viral diseases so rare in the United States that doctors being trained today may never see cases of them, and some parents worry more about the small or hypothetical risks of vaccinating children than about the risks of leaving them unprotected. It takes events such as the 2015 measles outbreak among visitors to Disneyland in California or the recent emergence of the Zika virus — so dangerous to the brain of a developing fetus — to remind us not to take our freedom from infectious diseases for granted. In this meticulously researched history of the high-stakes race to develop effective vaccines against polio, rubella, rabies and other viruses, science writer and physician Meredith Wadman tells the story of these near-miraculous medical achievements of the post-World War II era. “The Vaccine Race” also details the risks posed by some of the early products — risks that arose, in part, because to make the vaccines, researchers first had to invent techniques for growing viruses such as polio or rubella in living cells, without knowing what other viruses those host cells might harbor. Even when a courageous government scientist, Bernice Eddy, and colleagues showed that monkey cells used to produce the Salk polio vaccine and other vaccines contained a virus, SV40, that could cause malignant changes in human cells, government officials at first discounted the evidence and allowed such vaccines to remain on the market. By 1963, when the federal Division of Biologics Standards began to require that polio vaccines be free of SV40, 98 million Americans had received the Salk vaccine, indisputably preventing tens


Phoenix heat, Tropical Storm Cindy show how climate change is a threat to our infrastructure

of the Bay Bridge in Oakland, across which more than 270,000 vehicles travel each day, was designed and built without consideration of sea-level rise. Parts of it would be permanently underwater with 3 feet of sea-level rise, a likely scenario by end of this century. So would most of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, which served almost 30 million passengers last year. ●The Gulf Coast has many oil and gas operations on low-lying land extremely vulnerable to flooding from sea-level rise and storm surges. In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita shut down 23 percent of U.S. refining capacity, causing a significant drop in gasoline production and resulting in a spike in the weekly average spot price of conventional gasoline. ●Research from the Union of Concerned Scientists finds that many U.S. military sites are at risk from sea-level rise. Naval Air Station Key West in Florida; Joint Base Langley-Eustis and NAS Oceana Dam Neck in Virginia; and Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina each could lose between 75 and 95 percent of their land area by the end of the century. ●Wildfires can threaten watersheds and damage infrastructure. In the summer of 2011, the Las Conchas wildfire in New Mexico threatened two high-voltage transmission lines that deliver electricity to some 400,000 customers and also forced the cities of Santa Fe and Albuquerque to shut down water-supply intake systems polluted by ash. With temperatures likely to reach triple digits in Phoenix, American Airlines on June 20 cancelled dozens of inbound and outbound flights. These current and likely future threats are a wake-up call. New long-lived infrastructure investments must be planned and built — and existing infrastructure upgraded — given the scientific projections for climate change. California’s recently passed legislation provides a good example of how to get started. It establishes a working group of climate scientists, engineers and architects to develop recommendations for how to incorporate future climate impacts when designing and constructing infrastructure. Implementing federal flood risk management standards, which set protective design standards for federally funded infrastructure, is another opportunity. Limiting carbon emissions by reducing fossil fuel use is, of course, essential to contain the pace and magnitude of climate impacts. It’s common sense to prioritize “two-fer” infrastructure investments that help cut emissions and make our country more resilient, such as investing in clean-energy technologies, energy storage and a modernized electrical grid. President Trump and Congress have expressed


Even moderate drinking causes atrophy in brain area related to memory, learning

(ISTOCKPHOTO) The question Popular belief, backed up by various studies, holds that a moderate amount of alcohol can be good for your heart. Might it have a similar effect on your brain? This study The study tracked 550 adults for 30 years, starting when they were, on average, 43 years old, periodically assessing their alcohol consumption and cognitive performance. None of the participants had an alcohol dependency. Standardized testing showed that people who drank the most during the three decades had a faster and greater decline in cognitive functioning than those who consumed less alcohol. Brain MRIs at the end of the study revealed greater hippocampal atrophy, a loss of cells in the region of the brain that is key to memory and learning, among heavier drinkers compared with lighter drinkers. But even moderate drinkers were three times as likely to have brain atrophy as non-drinkers. The researchers found no brain-related benefits for alcohol consumption at any level, including very light drinking, compared with abstinence. Who may be affected? Adults who consume alcohol. Current U.S. guidelines describe moderate drinking as one drink a day for women, and two for men. Examples of standard alcoholic drinks include a 12-ounce beer, a five-ounce glass of wine and a 1.5-ounce drink of 80-proof liquor. The study authors wrote that their findings “call into question the current U.S. guidelines.” Caveats Most study participants were men. Data on alcohol consumption came from the participants’ responses on questionnaires. Factors other than alcohol may have contributed to brain changes in the participants. Find this study Online June 6 in The BMJ (bmj.com; search for “alcohol consumption”). Planning to celebrate the new year with a champagne toast? Here's the science of getting drunk. Learn more Information on how alcohol can affect health is available at pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications (click on “Beyond Hangovers . . . ”) and mayoclinic.org (search for “moderate alcohol use”). The research described in Quick Study comes from credible, peer-reviewed journals. Here's what we know about hangovers and their cures.


Trump administration abruptly shutters diplomatic office on Pakistan and Afghanistan policy

even a temporary replacement. The statement noted that Tillerson wants to review the utility of all special envoys, and eventual closure appeared by far the most likely outcome. The confusion over the previously high-profile Afghanistan-Pakistan office is compounded by the lack of permanent, experienced diplomats in the top jobs overseeing policy for both countries. That leaves the department without top-level expertise for a region where the United States has been at war for 16 years, former employees said. Uncertainty over the office comes as the administration is conducting a lengthy review of policy toward both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and as the Pentagon prepares to send thousands of additional U.S. forces to the war in Afghanistan. “Whether by design or mismanagement, it leaves the department with no institutional memory on Afghanistan-Pakistan at the very moment when we are on the cusp of surging militarily,” said Dan Feldman, a former director of the office under President Barack Obama. “It’s a recipe for deeper military involvement with no political strategy.” But the SRAP office, as it is known, had shrunk to about a dozen employees — from nearly 100 at its height — before the end of the Obama administration. Its mission had narrowed, too, from the main diplomatic player overseeing strategy associated with Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan and troubleshooting the difficult U.S. relationship with Pakistan to a group of specialists managing ongoing U.S. programs. Some Obama administration officials and State Department rank and file had considered the office redundant and advocated closing it years ago. Vikram Singh, who was a deputy of the office under Holbrooke, said it makes sense to fold the position into the South and Central Asia Affairs bureau now. But the timing, he said, betrays a lack of strategy and is symptomatic of a vacuum in critical positions throughout the State Department. “I don’t think there’s only one way to run a war,” he said. “But you should have a game plan and staff it accordingly.” Singh and others pointed to vacancies in the top positions at the South and Central Asia Bureau, among other open diplomatic jobs. Meanwhile, an expanded military plan for Afghanistan appears to be going forward separately. “We’re adding troops, but we’re doing nothing to advance the diplomatic or political steps necessary to find a solution,” Singh said. “This is not just baffling. It’s the height of irresponsibility.” The office was created during


A disturbing broken link in the nuclear weapons chain

Energy Secretary Rick Perry, second from left, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Plutonium Facility. (Los Alamos National Laboratory via Associated Press) THE UNITED STATES will need a secure and reliable force of nuclear weapons for a long time to come. But to maintain them in good form requires a sizable commitment of resources and brainpower: The nuclear weapons enterprise is a vast complex of laboratories and design and manufacturing facilities, relying on thousands of people who build and operate the planes, submarines and missiles, as well as care for the warheads. Nothing can be allowed to go wrong, but zero defects can hardly be taken for granted. The story of a small but important laboratory at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is a case in point. Known as Plutonium Facility 4, the laboratory produces and tests the grapefruit-size nuclear “pits” that are at the cores of warheads. An investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative media organization, the results of which were published in The Post on June 19, described years of safety concerns about the facility, which was ordered temporarily shut down in 2013 because of fears it was ill-equipped to prevent an accident. On the afternoon of Aug. 11, 2011, the media organization reported, a nuclear technician positioned eight rods of plutonium inside what is called a glove box, a sealed container allowing technicians to handle the plutonium without contamination. The technician wanted to take a photograph for senior managers. Upon returning from a lunch break, a supervisor saw the rods were dangerously close together, raising the prospect of a criticality accident, an uncontrolled chain reaction in which fissionable material such as plutonium releases energy and generates a deadly burst of radiation. On seeing the error, the supervisor ordered the technician to reach into the box and move the rods apart. This was also an error that may have increased, rather than decreased, the chances of a criticality accident. In the end, the material did not go critical, but the consequences were dire: Almost all the criticality specialists at the lab responsible for keeping workers safe decided to quit. The Center for Public Integrity reported that the lab, now slowly resuming operations, continues to suffer an acute shortage of engineers specializing in keeping the plutonium from fissioning out of control, as well as other safety issues. This is a problem


Baltimore businesses destroyed during riots sue city officials for failing to prevent violence

property that the executive order was passed to protect was already being destroyed,” they write. They say the citywide curfew imposed the next day and the arrival of the Maryland National Guard and other state resources came too late. “This lawsuit is the result of the City and the other Defendants failing to do right by these property and business owners,” Peter K. Hwang, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “The City and other Defendants failed them when they adopted a policy of restraint and issued stand-down orders, caring more about the public perception that they feared would result with increased police presence than preventing what were clearly preventable riots.” A lawyer listed for the city in court records, Batts and a spokesman for Pugh did not respond to requests for comment. Rawlings-Blake declined to comment. The lawsuit includes a detailed timeline leading up to the riots, beginning with Gray’s arrest on April 12, 2015, and including public statements, memos and emails in which officials describe their concerns about the potential for violence. Gray, 25, died after suffering a severe spinal cord injury in police custody. State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby filed criminal charges against six police officers. All pleaded not guilty. None were convicted. The plaintiffs describe protests that began outside the Western District police station after Gray’s arrest. The complaint includes public comments from Batts and Gov. Larry Hogan acknowledging, days before the riots in Baltimore, other protests that became violent elsewhere in the nation, including in Ferguson, Mo. The plaintiffs note that leave for police officers was canceled the weekend before Gray’s funeral. The riots erupted on the day of the funeral. The plaintiffs say officers were instructed to stand down during the rioting. They quote from a Baltimore police union “after-action report” in which the union said officers were told “looting is expected. Let it happen.” On the day the union released the report, a spokesman for Rawlings-Blake called it a “trumped-up political document full of baseless accusations, finger-pointing and personal attacks.” Batts said no one in his command gave an order to stand down. The plaintiffs quote Rawlings-Blake saying at a news conference that “we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.” She was speaking about property damage near Camden Yards during a protest on April 25, two days before the more widespread riots. The quote drew


Young orchestra makes case for the future of music

Members of the National Orchestral Institute rehearse Tuesday. (Geoff Sheil) Classical music’s problems are with its institutions, not with lack of interest in the field. For proof, look no further than the next generation that institutions spend so much time wringing their hands about. At a time when classical music is supposedly dying, there are as many students as ever devoting their lives to learning to make it. The annual National Orchestral Institute (NOI) at the University of Maryland brings together some of the best young players in the country for an intensive few weeks of learning and playing. The result — as I got to hear on Saturday night in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 under Asher Fisch — is stunning orchestral playing, with an urgency and vividness that some professional institutions, alas, cannot hope to replicate. Fisch is a Wagner expert who has been a regular conductor at NOI, and he signaled both right out of the gate with the overture to “Rienzi,” Wagner’s early opera. Though “Rienzi” isn’t part of the official Wagner canon, the musicians demonstrated Saturday that it has lots of recognizable Wagner music in it: foretastes of the melodic beauty of “Lohengrin” interspersed with some chunks of generic 19th-century operatic music. Young Wagner: It was a perfect showcase for Fisch’s sensitivities combined with the blasting energy of the young players, who made every line crackle. But the whole program was beautifully chosen to spotlight the strengths of an orchestra filled with young talent. Bartok’s “Miraculous Mandarin” suite mingles edginess and sensuality, dabbling in taboo themes (it’s about a woman who seduces men so her male cohorts can kill and rob them, and a Chinese man who somehow can’t be killed until her seduction is consummated) with music that overtly throbs and caresses. The solo clarinet eagerly seized some great opportunities. And Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, opening with sleigh bells and ending with an artless vision of heaven through a child’s eyes — an actual song, performed by the soprano Madison Leonard, a guest from the Wolf Trap Opera (which is doing a great job this summer reaching out to play with other local institutions, including Halcyon Stage and NOI). Leonard had a lovely natural approach and sound, if a slight lack of control on a few individual notes. But the real impression was the tenderness and shifting intensity of the orchestra, which left the small


Greater opioid use and mental health disorders are linked in a new study

A new study suggests that people with anxiety and depression are consuming a disproportionate share of prescription painkillers, a finding that could add a new wrinkle to the epidemic of opioid use in the United States. Researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the University of Michigan found that nearly 19 percent of the estimated 38.6 million people with those two most common mental health disorders received at least two prescriptions for opioids during a year. And more than half the prescriptions for the powerful, highly addictive painkillers went to individuals in that group, the researchers asserted. Those patients may have some form of physical pain, said Brian Sites, a professor of anesthesiology and orthopedics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, who led the study team. But their mental condition may cause them to feel that pain more acutely or be less able to cope with it, leading to increased requests for something to dull it. Pain that “you may report as a two out of 10, someone with mental health disorders — depression, anxiety — may report as a 10 out of 10,” Sites said in an interview. In addition, opioids may improve the symptoms of depression for a short while, he said, with patients who experience that then asking for continued refills. As a result, doctors trying to be empathetic to their patients’ complaints may tend to overprescribe opioid painkillers, he said. About half of all opioids are prescribed by primary-care physicians, who also manage most routine anxiety and depression. The study will be published online July 5 in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. Opioid abuse has caused the worst drug crisis in U.S. history. In 2015, 91 people died each day of overdoses of prescription painkillers, heroin, fentanyl and other opioids. Typically, authorities have said, addiction to prescription opioids begins with some physical ailment — a back or knee injury, for example — for which a narcotic painkiller is given. Some people are highly susceptible to the euphoria that such medications generally provide and quickly can become dependent on them, experts say. That narrative rarely considers the possible impact of mental health factors, so Sites’s team examined the prevalence of the drugs’ use among people with anxiety and depression. Using a government survey for 2011 and 2013 in which patients describe their health conditions and medication use, the researchers estimated that 7.2 million of


Hundreds have gone missing in eastern Ukraine’s dirty war

are stacked against prisoners such as Kozlovsky; the process of swapping POWs is haphazard and poorly coordinated. The warring parties have failed to exchange data regarding detainees’ DNA, which would help establish the whereabouts of many missing people and relieve “the uncertainty and despair borne by their relatives,” the United Nations said. Beyond these black sites, front-line communities face the threat of pillage. Troops have looted and commandeered homes of displaced residents, so some civilians endure the risk of shelling to protect their properties. Troops on both sides of the line impose such harsh restrictions that those remaining in front-line areas are “isolated and fully dependent” on soldiers for water, food and fuel, the investigators say. Brutal and vile treatment of prisoners, indefinite detention and the use of solitary confinement are common to both sides. But abuses occur on a greater scale in breakaway territory, where even the young are vulnerable. (Last August, five teenagers were detained by DNR security agents and have been held since.) Investigators accuse Ukrainian law enforcement officers of systematically using torture and ill treatment to extract confessions from suspected separatists. These methods include extreme beatings, waterboarding, suffocation and electric shocks. Detainees are typically forced to sign a “testimony” that they have neither read nor written. As one torture victim later explained, “Thinking about my finger being cut off was too much for me, so I told them what they wanted to hear.” Investigations into complaints of torture are often corrupt and ineffectual, fueling a culture of impunity as perpetrators walk free. “You need to be a kamikaze if you register your injuries,” one detainee, who had been tortured, told investigators. “If they learn about it, they will make you disabled and will deal with your family.” For now, the fate of Aseev, the undercover journalist, is unknown. His last story — titled “Between Heaven and Hell” — was published from the eastern war zone on the same day as his disappearance. The young reporter knew the dangers but did the job regardless. “Many will say it’s an unjustified risk. But, above all, I do this for myself,” Aseev said in an earlier interview with the Ukrainian newsweekly and website Zerkalo Nedeli. “This is my education, which cannot be purchased with any amount of money. . . . The old, timeworn notion that in war there are no winners is becoming a kind of mantra here.”


We’re closer than ever to eradicating Polio — and yet there’s Syria

A Syrian child gets a polio vaccination at a clinic in Damascus on November 20, 2013. The U.N. health agency launched a large-scale campaign on October 24 to immunise 1.6 million children in Syria against polio, measles, mumps and rubella. (LOUAI BESHARA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE via Getty Images) WONDERFUL AS it is to recall the glories of the manned space program — the exhilaration and sense of infinite possibilities for humanity — there were also setbacks, disasters and disappointments. Something similar is happening now with polio and the world’s longest and most ambitious quest to eradicate the poliovirus, which is highly contagious, largely strikes children under 5 years old and can cause permanent paralysis. Thanks to vaccination, the eradication effort is closer to success today than at any time in 30 years. Yet all of a sudden, a new outbreak has appeared in Syria. Is the goal about to be lost? Not exactly, but the mixture of optimism and worry is warranted. As recently as the mid-1980s, polio paralyzed more than 350,000 children a year in 125 countries where it was endemic. As Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates pointed out recently, that’s 40 cases an hour. By contrast, so far this year, the last three endemic countries have reported a total of only six cases of wild poliovirus, fewer than at any moment ever: four in Afghanistan and two in Pakistan, and none so far this year in Nigeria. This is an extraordinary accomplishment by people, biomedicine and philanthropy. Just a few years ago, Pakistan, for example, appeared to be spinning out of control, with vaccination workers murdered while on the job, and whole sectors beyond reach of immunization. Globally, some 16 million people are walking today who might otherwise have been afflicted with paralysis from polio, Mr. Gates noted. The numbers are so low today that eradication may indeed be within reach, if there is not another setback in the remaining endemic countries. For this, immunization and surveillance must be sustained. On June 12, philanthropists and governments once again backed the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a public-private partnership aimed at the second-ever eradication of a disease, after smallpox. At the Rotary International convention in Atlanta, $1.2 billion was pledged. Up to $150 million raised in the next three years by Rotary International, which has been at the forefront of the battle since 1985, will be matched two-to-one by the Gates


For Katie Ledecky, Olympic 1,500 another chance to distance herself from competition

consider between now and Tokyo. While the sprints might have been considered more TV-friendly than the longer distances, Ledecky brings star power to the race and could allow networks to break for a commercial midrace and keep viewers glued to their seats for the race’s conclusion. “I think it’s good that the sport isn’t static,” she said Monday. “The world isn’t static. If you look at the history of swimming, events have been added over time. Women had a lot fewer races back in the day.” No one likely will benefit from the addition as much as Ledecky. She owns the six fastest 1,500-meter times ever. She first set the world record as a 16-year-old at the 2013 world championships. Two years later, at the 2015 world championships, she set a record in a qualifying heat, finishing nearly 30 seconds ahead of any other swimmer. One day later, she lowered that mark by more than two seconds to 15:25.48, nearly 15 seconds ahead of anyone else in the pool. While the 1,500 will make its Olympic debut in 2020, it has been on the world championships program since 2001. But because it wasn’t in Rio, Ledecky took a nearly-two-year break from the event, until the Arena Pro Swim Series earlier this month at Santa Clara, Calif. There were no signs of rust, as Ledecky posted a time of 15:35.65. Though slightly off the world-record pace, she was still more than 37 seconds ahead of anyone else and managed to post the world’s best time of the year. She will have a busy few days in Indianapolis, and her performance this week will help determine the full slate of races she will attempt at the world championships next month in Budapest. The top two finishers in each race qualify for the U.S. squad that competes at worlds. Repeating the Ledecky Slam is certainly not a given. Her nationals week kicks off with a 100-800 double Tuesday. And in Budapest, the grueling 1,500-meter race takes place on the same day as qualifying heats for the 200. Ledecky, ever careful not to think past her next lap, would not speculate too much on how the Olympic additions might change her Tokyo program. “Something I’ll have to talk to Greg about,” she said, referring to her Stanford coach Greg Meehan. “. . . Obviously, the 1,500 will have to be in the conversation now.”


Man found guilty of woman’s murder in Southeast D.C.

THE DISTRICT Man convicted in 2015 killing A D.C. man has been found guilty for the 2015 murder of a woman in Southeast Washington, prosecutors said. At about 6:30 p.m. on May 13, 2015, Delonte Wynn, 36, stabbed 46-year-old Darlene Bryant inside a building in the 4300 block of Wheeler Road SE while wearing a mask and then fled, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement. Bryant died at the scene, according to the statement, and Wynn was arrested in July 2015. Wynn was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder while armed and is scheduled to be sentenced in September, prosecutors said. — Justin Wm. Moyer Four wounded in Sunday shooting Twenty-nine shots were fired and four people were wounded late Sunday t in Southeast Washington. No one was killed. The incident happened just before midnight Sunday in the 5900 block of Southern Avenue SE near East Capitol Street SE. One person was shot in the chest and another was shot in the arm, according to a police report. A third person was shot in the hand and wrist. Another victim, police said, drove himself to a hospital after being shot in the leg. All were treated at hospitals for their injuries. A Shot Spotter device picked up the sound of 29 shots that were fired along Southern Avenue. Witnesses were not able to give descriptions of the suspects, according to D.C. police. Several buildings and cars in the area also were damaged. — Peter Hermann and Dana Hedgpeth MARYLAND Man charged in March slaying A 30-year-old man has been arrested and charged in the death of a man found shot inside a car in Laurel. Prince George’s County police said Patrick Andre Stran, of no fixed address, was involved in the slaying of 33-year-old Marvin Bryan. Stran was charged with first- and second- degree murder. The killing happened March 25 about 5:20 a.m. when officers were called to the 13000 block of Edinburgh Lane for the report of a shooting. The victim, who was later identified as Bryan, was found inside a car suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Stran was arrested in California on May 22. He was extradited to Prince George’s County. Police said the two men had “known each other for several years and were involved in an ongoing dispute.” They did


Jerry Nelson, astronomer whose telescopes revealed distant reaches, dies at 73

Jerry Nelson, far left, with other telescope leaders at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Dr. Nelson designed advanced telescopes that help scientists glimpse far reaches of the universe. (Ben Margot/AP) Jerry Nelson, an astronomer who designed advanced telescopes that help scientists glimpse distant reaches of the universe, died June 10 at his home in Santa Cruz, Calif. He was 73. His death was announced by the University of California at Santa Cruz, where Dr. Nelson was a professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics. No cause was given. Dr. Nelson’s revolutionary telescope design began taking shape in 1977 and centered on a simple idea: using dozens of segmented mirrors rather than a single large one. His innovation was the basis for the W.M. Keck Observatory’s twin 10-meter telescopes on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii. Those telescopes, among the largest in use, have allowed scientists to measure the black hole at the center of the Milky Way and to spot planetary bodies outside our solar system. Dr. Nelson’s concept has since been used for other large ground-based telescopes around the world. The space-based James Webb telescope, which is under construction, also has a segmented primary mirror design. Dr. Nelson also played an important role in the development of adaptive optics technology, which sharpens the images from ground-based telescopes by correcting for the blurring effect of Earth’s atmosphere. Dr. Nelson was a professor emeritus at the University of California at Santa Cruz. (Don Harris/University of California at Santa Cruz via AP) Even after a stroke in 2011 that left him partly disabled, Dr. Nelson continued work for the Thirty Meter Telescope, a project to build the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere. “His endless curiosity always pushed the scientists around him to think more deeply, and his persistence and continued excellence after his stroke were inspirational to everyone,” said Michael Bolte, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Santa Cruz. Jerry Earl Nelson was born in Glendale, Calif., on Jan. 15, 1944. His father was a machinist for Lockheed, and his mother managed a children’s center at a local park. Dr. Nelson received a bachelor’s degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1965 and a doctorate in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1972. Dr. Nelson worked for more than a decade at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and taught at the Berkeley campus


Russia-Iran sanctions measure hits new snag in Congress

As congressional negotiators attempt to clear a key technical hurdle preventing a popular Russia and Iran sanctions bill from final passage, some lawmakers are expressing new concerns over the breadth of energy sanctions in the legislation. Oil industry executives and some foreign diplomats are prodding them to water down the measure, approved in the Senate earlier this month on a 97 to 2 vote. The bill would codify and step up existing sanctions on Russia’s energy, banking and defense sectors, while adding new restrictions on intelligence, metals, mining and railways industries as punishment for Moscow’s aggressive actions in Ukraine and Syria and alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections. Aides in both parties describe behind-the-scenes worries over a change to a 2014 prohibition against U.S. companies participating in oil development ventures on Russian territory. The bill broadens that to restrict participation in any potential oil production project, anywhere, in which a Russian energy company is involved. The change has the oil industry raising an alarm — and energy state representatives voicing 11th hour concerns. Oil companies are “deeply troubled by the effects that this would have on their own portfolio,” said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former Treasury official and director of the energy, economics and security program at the Center for a New American Security. Even if there are currently a limited number of multinational partnerships involving both U.S. and Russian firms, she said, the blanket prohibition is broad enough to “have a chilling effect on non-U.S. companies” that have a presence on American soil, and the definition of oil project is loose enough that it potentially “includes everything.” But Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Monday that he believes lawmakers’ fears could be allayed without major changes to the legislation. “Energy folks have got some concerns about the sanctions, all of which I think we can alleviate,” Corker said Monday. “We’ve shared how those concerns can be addressed without any legislation — I think as we walk them through they very much understand that those things can be easily addressed.” Banning cooperation with Russian companies on potential oil ventures to any company that operates in the United States — including foreign companies with an American presence — has the potential long-term benefit of preventing Russia from profiting from ventures outside its territory. But it carries a potential short-term cost for any companies engaged in multinational partnerships that