Forget the damp and the beetles; hope grows on the vines for 2015

and evacuation centers in Calistoga. Though we can’t help wondering whether the wines will taste of smoke. Here in the East, the vintners are worried about dew, if they’re worried about anything at all. The 2015 vintage in the Mid-Atlantic began wet, with a rainy spring. But the weather turned favorable in July and August, with weeks of warm, sunny days and cool nights and, best of all, no rain. When I asked Luke Kilyk, co-owner and winemaker at Granite Heights Winery outside Warrenton, Va., whether those cool nights were helping preserve the acidity as the grapes ripen, he squinted and nodded. “There’s a lot of dew, though,” he said. Virginia’s classic humidity, in whatever form, is always on a vintner’s mind. Too much moisture, and mold and mildew can flourish. Vintners are notoriously pessimistic about a vintage until the last grapes are off the vine and in the winery. On a warm, sunny mid-September Friday, I visited Big Cork Vineyards in Rohrersville, Md., to meet with winemaker Dave Collins and taste his delicious 2013 reds, which will be released this fall. The powerfully concentrated petit verdot recently won Best of Show honors in the Maryland Governor’s Cup wine competition. I was even more impressed with Collins’s savory, complex cabernet franc and lively barbera. As we sipped and chatted on the veranda of Big Cork’s beautiful new winery and tasting room (a must-visit for wine-loving leaf peepers this fall), I asked Collins how 2015 was shaping up. “Well,” he said with a grimace, “we had an awful lot of Japanese beetles this year.” The beetles are a common pest in Mid-Atlantic vineyards during early summer. They don’t attack the grapes, but they can demolish the vine’s leaves, making photosynthesis and subsequent ripening difficult. The beetles are a double threat: The most effective insecticide against them also kills beneficial insects that prey on mites. “Spray the beetles, you get mites,” Collins said with a rueful shrug. He led me to a nearby block of petit verdot, where the leaves on the first several vines had been shredded by beetles. The grape clusters hanging from those vines looked healthy, but smaller and less numerous than on vines farther down the rows, where the damage was not as severe. Collins plucked a grape from a cluster and squeezed its pulp into his mouth. He then rubbed the grape’s skin on the tips of


Running for their lives, Ethiopians seek a safer track in Washington

Fleeing persecution in their native country, Ethiopians put promising track careers on hold to take refuge in Washington. Genet Lire locked herself in a bathroom stall at Dulles International Airport and hid. The clock was ticking. If she was found, she would have to get on the plane and eventually return home. She feared she surely would be locked up again, probably beaten, and her family terrorized. The time passed slowly: five minutes, 10, 15, 20. Feet tapped on the tile floor. Doors opened and closed. Every noise and shuffle made Lire’s chest tighten. This was supposed to be a quick layover. Lire was a 17-year-old sprinter from Ethiopia, here to compete in the junior world championships in Eugene, Ore. But she had no intention of ever reaching the starting line. She and her teammates flew in from Addis Ababa. They rushed to their gate, watched their bags board the big jet, and that’s when Lire saw her chance, slipping away to the bathroom as the flight began to board. She didn’t know it at the time, but not far from Dulles, in and around the Washington area, there was an entire community of Ethiopian runners in similar situations. They were beaten and persecuted back home, almost all of them for political reasons. They feared for their lives and sought asylum in the United States, most putting their promising running careers on hold for the chance at stable and safe lives. About three dozen Ethiopian runners have congregated in the Washington area, many in just the past three years, and 12 agreed to share their stories with The Post. Some requested their full names not be used, fearful that their families in Ethiopia would face retribution. The details vary, but some threads are consistent: They all had been imprisoned but never charged with crimes; most used visas they’d received through their track careers to flee; they were all beaten to some degree; and many have struggled to acclimate to a new life, far from family and lacking the time and resources to continue running competitively. “They get here and they are physically and emotionally traumatized,” said Kate Sugarman, a Washington physician who has treated many of the runners. “Some of them can’t even run because of the injuries they suffered during their beatings. I think they’ve lost their confidence and arrive here without a lot of hope.” The runners have


at all. Many of the Ethiopian runners belong to the Oromo ethnic group, which accounts for more than one-third of the country’s population, according to the most recent census, making it by far the most populous ethnic group. “Oromo is no good to them,” explained one runner, who was detained three times but never faced charges. Oromos hold few positions of power in Ethiopia, and the EPRDF has governed the nation for more than two decades. In May, Ethiopia held its most recent national election, and the EPRDF and its allies swept every one of the 547 parliamentary seats. “Most of the stories you hear now out of Ethiopia are about this sort of economic growth and development happening,” said Felix Horne, a researcher with the Human Rights Watch, the international watchdog and advocacy group. “But there are real stories about people who aren’t part of that success, who question the government and suffer pain and torture because of it.” A new, and different, home Lire left the airport with a sympathetic man, who happened to be from Botswana, and began trying to navigate her new life. She was quickly connected with some fellow Ethiopians, nonprofit organizations and a church that offered help. For Lire, Washington was nothing like her home, a rural farming community outside a city called Hosaena where her father grew rice and beans. He was part of an opposition party called the Southern Ethiopia Peoples’ Democratic Coalition and faced overt pressure and persecution for years. Lire remembers one of the first times authorities came for her father. She was just 8, and the entire family was fleeing their home on foot. She sprinted, trying to keep up with her father, and remembers a sudden burst of pain shooting through her body. A spear barely missed her father but struck Lire in the right arm, where a decade later she still bears a scar the size of a tennis ball. She tumbled and became entangled in barbed wire, the metal spikes tearing into her scalp. Her father was carrying Lire’s 3-month-old brother when he tripped and fell. The baby was crushed and died. Lire’s father was taken into custody. He was released after one week but detained many more times in the ensuing years. That was around the time Lire started running. Always barefoot, she sprinted everywhere — to school, for chores, around the fields near her


How many people will ride the Purple Line?

that it would provide a missing east-west link in suburban Maryland’s rail network and would connect neighborhoods, major job centers and U-Md.’s flagship College Park campus with Metro, Amtrak and MARC commuter rail lines. Even so, the Washington area has had its share of large transportation projects promising more than they delivered. Ridership on the year-old Silver Line fell 30 percent below its opening year projections, according to Metro officials. An internal Metro report attributed that to a lack of sidewalks, crosswalks and bike lanes that would help more people reach stations, according to WAMU (88.5 FM). Traffic projections for new roads haven’t fared much better. Toll revenue on the four-year-old Intercounty Connector in suburban Maryland aligns with forecasts, but only because the state significantly downgraded projections as construction neared. Early usage of the 495 Express Lanes in Northern Virginia was “well below” initial projections, which hadn’t anticipated the recession, according to Transurban, the lanes’ operator. Transurban revised those estimates shortly after the lanes opened in late 2012, in part to reflect the recession’s lasting economic impact. Traffic now meets the revised projections, Transurban said. Maryland transit officials say they stand behind their Purple Line predictions and that the numbers passed muster with the Federal Transit Administration before it recommended the project last year for $900 million in federal grants. Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete K. Rahn said he, too, recently reviewed the estimates as part of a financial analysis that Hogan (R) requested amid skepticism about the project’s cost. Rahn said he didn’t take “a super-deep dive” on the calculations but that he was “comfortable” with the explanation he received about why the daily ridership projection jumped by 21,000 trips — or 45 percent — in 2008. The higher numbers emerged after transportation officials for then-Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) said estimates made under his predecessor, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), were “flawed” and “clearly too low.” Ehrlich had prioritized building the Intercounty Connector, while O’Malley championed the Purple Line. Rahn said he was told that the increase stemmed from changes made to the regional computer model and state planners’ discovery that people will ride a Purple Line for more non-work trips, such as midday errands, than the model had accounted for. He also said it’s not unusual for forecasts to change as project planning becomes more detailed. “Nothing I saw made me uncomfortable with the changes in projections,” Rahn


Clouds cloud chances of seeing total lunar eclipse in Washington

As of late Saturday, things looked cloudy, which is to say bleak, for Washington’s hopes of seeing the total eclipse of the moon Sunday night. Although total lunar eclipses are not especially rare, this one is to coincide with a supermoon. That term describes conditions when the moon is both full and on its closest approach to Earth in a given year. In the Eastern time zone, the total eclipse begins at 10:11 p.m. and ends at 11:23 p.m. The partial phase begins before that and ends after it, as the moon glides into the Earth’s shadow and then out again. But forecasters expected clouds to cover at least 80 percent of the sky. That gives a chance of seeing the eclipse, but a small one. If clouds obscure the view in the Washington region, TV coverage from an area with clearer skies may still show the eclipse. But it is not the same thing. And as for waiting for the next one, it will be a long wait. The next supermoon eclipse will come in 2033.


Are you staying up for the lunar eclipse?

The moon is shown during a brief total eclipse as it skims the Earth's shadow on April 4, 2015. The next full lunar eclipse will occur Sunday. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Get ready for a rare double feature, starring our very own moon. A total lunar eclipse will share the stage with a so-called supermoon Sunday night or early Monday, depending where you are. That combination hasn’t been seen since 1982 and won’t happen again until 2033. When a full or new moon makes its closest approach to Earth, that’s a supermoon. Although still about 220,000 miles away, this full moon will look bigger and brighter than usual. In fact, it will be the closest full moon of the year, about 30,000 miles closer than the average distance. (The moon’s orbit is far from a perfect circle.) NASA planetary scientist Noah Petro is hoping the celestial event will ignite more interest in the moon. He is deputy project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, which has been studying the moon from lunar orbit since 2009. “The moon’s a dynamic place,” Petro said last week. “We’re seeing changes on the surface of the moon from LRO. We’re seeing that it’s not this static dead body in the sky . . . it’s this great astronomical object that we have in our back yard, essentially. So people should get out and start looking at it.” Many stargazers, professional and amateur alike, don’t like the term “supermoon,” noting that the visible difference between a moon and supermoon is slight to all but the most faithful observers. “It’s not like the difference between an ordinary man and Superman,” said Alan MacRobert, a senior editor at Sky & Telescope magazine. “It really ought to be called a tiny, slightly little bit bigger moon, rather than the supermoon.” The full eclipse of the moon will last more than an hour and be visible, weather permitting, from North and South America, Europe, Africa and western Asia. Showtime on the U.S. East Coast is 10:11 p.m. EDT; that’s when the moon, Earth and sun will be lined up, with Earth’s shadow totally obscuring the moon. In Europe, the action will unfold before dawn Monday. No matter where, the preshow will begin two hours earlier. There won’t be another total lunar eclipse until 2018. Observatories are marking the celestial event with public telescope viewing, although magnifying devices won’t


Television: Not as easy as it looks

he arrived at The Post sporting a linen jacket the color of a persimmon, a four-person crew in tow. Portillo is a pro. He’s been freed from the drudgery of politics and is paid to see the world and be clever. I can’t think of an American equivalent, unless PBS hired Newt Gingrich to host a show about traveling Lake Tanganyika by steamboat. Physicists posit that the mere act of observing something changes it. And so it is with television. I tried to be natural, but that’s hard when a mike cable is threaded behind your tie and a camera is pointed at you. And when you know you’re being recorded, you can’t help but listen to yourself talk. Have you ever listened to yourself talk, broken it down, analyzed it? It isn’t just that your speech is studded with “ums” and “uhs.” It’s that your sentences are long and meandering. They take forever to get where they’re going, and when they arrive they often don’t have a point. You cannot do this in television. You must be concise, but not “stagey” or over-rehearsed. That’s hard when you have to say the same thing over and over and over again. The BBC crew was using just one camera. That meant that to have an adequate supply of material — the raw footage that an editor back in London would sort through and stitch together — we had to shoot each question and answer multiple times: once with the camera framing both of us, once focused on just Portillo, and once with a long shot that encompassed the newsroom. You would think that repeating something over and over would make it sound better each time. I fear I sounded worse: dumber, more inarticulate. Well, at least worrying about how I sounded took my mind off worrying about how I looked. That’s something they never had to worry about on Newspaper Row. Tomorrow: Elvis isn’t everywhere The King is dead. Long live the Precious Treasure. You’ll have heard by now that the National Zoo capitalized on last week’s visit by Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan to name the panda cub Bei Bei. Pronounced “bay bay,” it means the same thing as “Bao Bao”: precious treasure. My campaign to name the cub in honor of Elvis Presley was always a long shot, but what are opposable thumbs for, if not to grasp? Welcome,


BSO at Strathmore: A confident, open-hearted guest conductor

Spanish guest conductor Juanjo Mena projected quiet authority with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore. (Sussie Ahlburg/Sussie Ahlburg) The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s second concert of its season at Strathmore on Saturday evening was a little musty, programming-wise, but it was redeemed by the confident, open-hearted work of Spanish guest conductor Juanjo Mena. Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony is a lovely work, but this was at least the third time since the Music Center at Strathmore opened in 2005 that I have heard it performed by the BSO, the last time just a year ago. The canon is fine, but it is the job of a major orchestra to expand and develop the repertoire, not just toggle between world premieres and chestnuts. The opener, Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony, was similarly too familiar. The Alexander Glazunov Violin Concerto is a rarity, but its conservative, musically inert rhetoric hardly enlivened the evening. Repertoire choices aside, it was a pretty good concert. Mena, principal conductor of the BBC Philharmonic and a regular guest conductor of all the top U.S. orchestras, projects quiet authority, with little posturing and clear anticipatory gestures for the musicians. He balanced the orchestra well, with the strings always audible, and he helped the BSO achieve some wonderful soft playing that still maintained intensity and flow. In the first two movements of the Beethoven, he elicited clear detail from the woodwinds at the same time he emphasized the longest musical lines. My one cavil would be that his tempi tend to be conservative; the Allegro con Brio of the Prokofiev and the Beethoven Scherzo both felt a little earthbound. But overall, this was world-class conducting. I hope to hear it in other repertoire someday soon. Jonathan Carney, the BSO’s indefatigable concertmaster, is unique among his peers. Whenever he does a concerto, he comes back and plays the rest of the program from his normal chair; I know of no other concertmaster who does that as standard practice. It is a testament to his stamina and his loyalty to the orchestra. In the Glazunov, while his lyrical playing was eloquent, in virtuoso passages it was not always in tune or well-articulated. But it was a fully professional outing, and he is an undeniable asset. Battey is a freelance writer.


Saudi Arabia’s crushing rule

about, as well as eyewitness accounts, suggest that panic ensued amid pushing and shoving, leading to the worst hajj disaster in 25 years. Granted, it was extremely hot, about 114 degrees Fahrenheit, and the pilgrims may have been easily thrown into uncertainty. But the responsibility for this catastrophe lies with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and a closed political system that cannot learn the lessons of previous failures. Sadly, the pain of a hajj stampede is not a new story. In 2006, 364 pilgrims died in a crush; in 1997, 340 died in a fire-related incident; another 270 perished in 1994; and in 1990, 1,426 pilgrims died in a stampede in an overcrowded tunnel leading to holy sites. After these disasters, Saudi Arabia has each time spent millions to improve the facilities, vowing that it would not happen again. And it happens again. It is not unreasonable to ask why one of the wealthiest nations on the planet cannot seem to get right the basic infrastructure to handle the safety of so many people, a journey known well in advance in a place for which the Saudi regime holds the title of “custodian.” This time Both of these narrow responses mask the far deeper problem: a monarchy that rules Saudi Arabia without any airing of criticism of the regime or tradition of accountability. When failures occur or crises threaten public safety, there is no unbridled media around to identify those responsible and expose errors to the public. Decision-making is obscure and shrouded in secrecy. The consequences of this misrule were amply evident when the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, a severe coronavirus, began to sweep through the kingdom in 2012-2013. For a long time, the authorities assured people everything was all right, but it wasn’t, in part because of a breakdown in infection control at some hospitals. This sounds like a story that a good blogger or activist might expose. But in Saudi Arabia today, bloggers and others who dissent are violently punished for speaking out. The disaster at the hajj is a bell tolling not only for the horrible loss of life, but also for the intolerant, closed system of Saudi rule. Read more on this issue: David Ignatius: The son who would be the Saudis’ king? The Post’s View: Fighting MERS, again Michael Gerson: Republicans stoke the fire of Islamophobia Eugene Robinson: Republicans pander to anti-Muslim bigotry


Sissi’s teeming prisons

Al Jazeera journalists Baher Mohamed, Peter Greste and Mohammed Fahmy stand behind bars in a court in Cairo in this June 1, 2014, file photo. (Asmaa Waguih/Reuters) The United Nations General Assembly tends to inspire grand gestures by dictators. This year’s drama prize must go to Vladimir Putin, who dispatched troops and planes to Syria to set up his Monday address to the assembly. Others, however, are seeking attention. So let’s save some oxygen for Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, the former general who now rules Egypt. Sissi attempted to lay the groundwork for his U.N. speech on Friday — and Egypt’s ascension to a seat on the Security Council — by pardoning 100 political prisoners, including two Al Jazeera journalists convicted on spectacularly trumped-up charges. His hope was to be seen as a strong-but-fair statesman, willing to correct mistakes even as he ruthlessly battles the growing Islamic jihadist movement in his country. In fact, attention is way overdue on the subject of Egypt’s political prisoners. But the story is not Sissi’s “token gesture,” as Amnesty International called it. It is the extraordinary fact that a regime for which the Obama administration has proposed $1.5 billion in fresh military aid has become, with the arguable exception of North Korea, the largest jailer of peaceful political opponents in the world. No one knows for sure how many nonviolent detainees are being held in Egypt’s prisons, but the regime itself has conceded that the number is in the tens of thousands. According to the Egyptian Revolutionary Council, an opposition coalition, there are more than 40,000, including more than 1,000 who have been sentenced to death. The democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi, deposed by Sissi in a July 2013 coup, is on the death list, along with scores of his top political aides. At least 18 journalists A couple of those liberals were released last week, including Sanaa Seif, a 21-year-old activist jailed last year for protesting a law banning all protests. But Seif’s older brother, Alaa Abdel Fattah, Egypt’s most famous blogger-activist, is still imprisoned on the same charge. So are Ahmed Maher and Mohammed Adel, leaders of the April 6th youth movement, which led the fight to make Egypt a liberal democracy after 2011. Conditions for those prisoners are “harsh,” as the State Department put it in its latest human rights report on Egypt. Torture is routine; authorities acknowledged that more than 90


Washington gets glimpse of ‘supermoon’ eclipse after clouds part

The so-called supermoon passes behind the peak of the Washington Monument during a lunar eclipse, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015. (J. David Ake/AP) In the end, and just in time, the clouds parted enough Sunday night to reward Washington residents hoping for a glimpse of the much-anticipated supermoon eclipse. Some watchers gathered atop a parking garage at the University of Maryland with Elizabeth Warner, director of the campus observatory. “The students are very happy,” Warner said. “The first couple of times when the moon became visible through breaks and gaps in the clouds” there was applause “and cheering,” she said. Lunar eclipses occur when the moon passes through the shadow cast by the Earth across space. They occur with some frequency, but this one received unusual attention because it came at the time of the moon’s closest approach of the year to Earth. A full moon at closest approach has been dubbed a “supermoon.” Before being dimmed by the Earth’s shadow, the moon was expected to be uncommonly, perhaps spectacularly, big and bright. On Sept. 27, 2015, there will be a very rare event in the night sky – a supermoon lunar eclipse. Watch this animated feature to learn more. It was feared that clouds that covered the area for much of the day would block Washington’s view. To the delight of many, that didn’t happen. “The clouds did in fact part,” said Bob Bissen of Annandale,, Va. “and we were able to see it. It looked great.” He and his wife watched for 10 minutes. But Bissen and Warner seemed a bit dubious about the contribution to the spectacle made by the supermoon. The eclipse “looked awesome,” Bissen said. But the moon “didn’t look any bigger,” he said. The next supermoon/eclipse combination will not occur until 2033, which would have been a long time to wait. Stargazers were treated to a rare astronomical phenomenon on the night of Sept. 27 when a total lunar eclipse combined with a "supermoon," the closest full moon of the year, to create a "blood moon."


Inn at Little Washington review: It’s always an enchanted evening

A golden egg makes a rich vehicle for foie gras mousse at the venerable Inn at Little Washington. (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post) The following review appears in The Washington Post’s 2016 Fall Dining Guide as No. 7 on Tom’s Top 10. A golden egg makes a rich vehicle for foie gras mousse at the venerable Inn at Little Washington. (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post) No. 7. Inn at Little Washington The biggest challenge for fine-dining purveyors these days? Exquisite food and service aren’t enough, says Patrick O’Connell, the country’s wittiest innkeeper. “People want to be astonished!” Thirty-eight years after his dreamy dining destination opened within view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, “the Inn” still manages to coax sighs and smiles from repeat guests. One of three menus celebrates the “here and now” with foie gras mousse and sauternes gelee in (how rich!) a golden egg. Another list, “The Good Earth,” makes a world-class “meatloaf” out of local chanterelles. And no matter how many times I’ve sampled it, herbed lamb carpaccio with Caesar salad ice cream, among several “enduring classics,” tastes like falling in love for the first time. Prepare to eat too much bread, drink too much wine and wish you had the work of the Inn’s pastry chef for all enchanted evenings going forward. A great way to gauge a restaurant is to see how it handles sticky situations, as when a certain food critic’s credit card was declined — no thanks to a fraud alert I never got from MasterCard until after I got home. “The same thing happened to the president of” a U.S. ally, one of the Inn’s suave stage managers assured me. 4 stars Inn at Little Washington: 309 Middle St., Washington, Va. 540-675-3800. theinnatlittlewashington.com Prices: Sound check: The Top 10: No. 10 Komi No. 9 Rasika No. 8 Little Serow No. 7 Inn at Little Washington No. 6 Minibar No. 5 Convivial No. 4 Kinship No. 3 Bad Saint No. 2 Pineapple and Pearls No. 1 All-Purpose -- The following review was originally published Oct. 1, 2015 as part of The Washington Post’s 2015 Fall Dining Guide. Inn at Little Washington was No. 5 on Tom’s top 10 last year. Inn at Little Washington The Inn The flotilla of hors d’oeuvres alone threatens to fill me up even as I dispatch every marvelous crumb. Among the clever snacks is a tiny corn ice


For allergy symptoms, steroid sprays may be your best option

generic) and similar first-generation antihistamines used to treat allergy symptoms, including chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton Allergy and generic), shouldn’t be taken for long periods. About Benadryl Besides having such side effects as drowsiness, confusion and urinary retention, the frequent, long-term use of older antihistamines is associated with an increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, a recent study showed. The study found that was also true for certain drugs, called anticholinergics, which are used to treat depression, asthma, overactive bladder and Parkinson’s disease. These drugs block the substance acetylcholine, which is involved in learning, memory and muscle contractions. The study, published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in January, looked at 10 years’ worth of pharmacy data, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs taken by 3,434 people age 65 or older who didn’t have dementia at the beginning of the study. Researchers at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy then tracked them for about seven years. During that time, 797 participants (23 percent) developed dementia. Researchers found that people who had regularly taken any type of anticholinergic, including the older antihistamines such as chlorpheniramine and diphenhydramine, were more likely to develop the disease than those who had not, and those who had taken the drugs for three years or more had an even higher risk. Warning for older adults While additional research is needed, the study’s findings and several previous studies suggest an association between taking older antihistamines over a period of time and cognitive decline, particularly in older adults. If you need an allergy medicine, consider a newer, “second-generation” antihistamine such as loratadine (Claritin and generic) or cetirizine (Zyrtec and generic) — though you shouldn’t take either for longer than you need to. Those newer antihistamines, Consumer Reports’ analysis shows, are equally effective at reducing allergy symptoms as the older ones and have fewer side effects. They also appear to have a lower risk of causing memory problems. Some people respond better to one of the newer antihistamines than to others, so some trial and error may be necessary. Preventive measures, such as staying indoors when the pollen count is high and washing your hands and face after spending time outdoors, can also help. Copyright 2015. Consumers Union of United States Inc. For further guidance, go to www.ConsumerReports.org/Health, where more detailed information, including CR’s ratings of prescription drugs, treatments, hospitals and healthy-living products, is available to subscribers.


Whole Foods to shed 1.6% of workforce

GROCERS Whole Foods to shed 1.6% of workforce Whole Foods Market announced Monday that it was slashing 1,500 jobs over the next eight weeks, a cut that will affect about 1.6 percent of its workforce. The reduction affects only a small slice of the organic grocery chain’s workforce, and the company expects that a “significant percentage” of the employees will be able to find other positions within the company. But the move is noteworthy in that it helps shed light on where the company is headed as competition in the organics business intensifies. In a statement explaining the job cuts, Whole Foods said that the decision was part of its effort to lower prices for customers and invest in better technology. And that underscores how essential the company believes it is to reposition itself in a fast-changing grocery environment. Whole Foods long ago earned the nickname “Whole Paycheck,” thanks to its reputation for sometimes eye-popping prices on items such as grass-fed beef and local produce. But as consumers have become more interested in healthy eating and are more eager to know where their food comes from, plenty of other retailers are competing for organic grocery shoppers’ dollars. Kroger, Wal-Mart and Target have developed organics lines that have had strong sales growth, while chains such as Trader Joe’s and Sprouts Farmers Market have been quickly expanding their fleets. Whole Foods has tried a host of tactics to stay ahead, including a pilot loyalty-rewards program. The company said in July that the rollout is going more slowly than anticipated because it is adjusting it based on customer feedback. Its biggest bet yet on winning over budget-conscious customers is its new chain, 365 by Whole Foods Market, set to open in Los Angeles and other cities in late 2016. Executives have promised that the stores will be smaller than traditional Whole Foods markets and offer “everyday low prices.” — Sarah Halzack MANUFACTURING Alcoa to split into two companies Alcoa will split into two independent companies, separating its bauxite, aluminum and casting operations from its engineering, transportation and global rolled-products businesses. The century-plus-old metals maker has been dealing with a downturn in its smelting business because of lower aluminum prices. The split will create one company focusing on upstream products, including aluminum. The other company will focus on engineered products, which includes the automotive and aerospace segments. The aluminum and upstream-products company will retain


New Smithsonian secretary defends Cosby exhibit: ‘We have to avoid censorship.’

intimately tied to the humanities and the arts.” The Smithsonian’s staff, Skorton said, is another priority. Like other nonprofits, the Smithsonian weathered the recent recession in part through hiring freezes and attrition. “The art of leading a place like this is to find the optimal balance between the stuff and the people. I think visitors to the Smithsonian think more about the stuff. They come to see the stuff and be amazed by the exhibitions,” he said. “Some of my work in terms of fundraising is the renewal of the workforce.” Skorton also plans to create a youth council of high school students from the District and the region, and he wants to engage the local community more directly. The Smithsonian — which operates on a $1.3 billion annual budget and has 6,500 employees at 19 museums, numerous research centers and a zoo — is actually smaller than Cornell, but the two institutions share many traits. They are decentralized organizations with a broad range of fields, funded with public money and private donations, and have many projects going on at once. “If we don’t have a lot of balls in the air, if there’s not a certain amount of chaos, we’re not doing our job,” Skorton said. “We don’t want to be staid. We want to be dynamic. We want to think about our future relevance.” Among the Smithsonian’s largest projects is the partnership with a London developer to open its first exhibition space outside the United States. “I’m not a betting man, but if I were to predict I would say we will end up doing this,” he said. Skorton said he supports the master plan proposed in November last year for the Castle and surrounding buildings — a 20-year project to renovate and restore the historic structure and improve the visitor experience — but he directed specific questions about the plan to his chief financial officer. He acknowledged that the surprisingly expensive renovation of the National Air and Space Museum, with a price tag of about $575 million, presents both fundraising and logistical challenges. Raising money for deferred maintenance is difficult, as is repairing the mechanical systems and facade without closing the popular facility. The secretary spoke effusively about the forthcoming National Museum of African American History and Culture, which could open as early as September next year, depending on the availability of President Obama, who attended the


U.S. troops have turned to some unsavory partners to help find warlord Joseph Kony

U.S. Special Operations forces have opened a new front in their hunt for the African warlord Joseph Kony, moving closer to his suspected hideout in a lawless enclave straddling Sudan and South Sudan, according to military officials and others familiar with the operation. As their mission stretches into a fifth year, however, U.S. troops have turned to some unsavory partners to help find Kony’s trail. Working from a new bush camp in the Central African Republic, U.S. forces have begun working closely with Muslim rebels — known as Seleka — who toppled the central government two years ago and triggered a still-raging sectarian war with a campaign of mass rapes and executions. The Pentagon had not previously disclosed that it is cooperating with Seleka and obtaining intelligence from the rebels. The arrangement has made some U.S. troops uncomfortable. The Seleka rebels “are playing us,” said one military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk with reporters. The official described Seleka as a “mafia” that is trying to curry favor with the Americans even as the rebels extort local villagers and engage in illicit trade with Kony’s fugitive fighters. About 100 U.S. military advisers are deployed across four countries to guide the international campaign to catch Kony, whose brutal militia, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), has raped, abducted and killed tens of thousands of people over the past three decades. After first sending U.S. forces to central Africa in 2011, President Obama must decide next month whether to reauthorize the deployment and extend it for at least another year. Some senior U.S. military leaders have been lukewarm about the mission, citing its duration and the fact that Kony does not pose a direct threat to American interests. But the operation still draws strong bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, and many expect the White House to stay the course. “For 30 years, this individual has been creating mayhem and some of the worst atrocities on the continent,” said Rep. Edward R. Royce (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Now is the time to double down and see the counter-LRA mission to the end.” A Ugandan guerrilla with a messiah complex and an uncanny survival instinct, Kony has eluded capture despite the best efforts of the Pentagon and the State Department, which is offering a $5 million reward for information on his whereabouts. Although


Drug use now rivals drunk driving as cause of fatal car crashes, study says

said, citing federal crash data. The report draws on federal data again, in this case from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration roadside surveys, as evidence that illegal drug use and the use of prescription medications have increased in the past five years. “We look to the federal government to take a leadership role in this issue similar to that of drunk driving and seat-belt use,” said Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. Marijuana is legal in some form in 23 states and the District of Columbia, while other states are considering legalization. “Every state must take steps to reduce drug-impaired driving, regardless of the legal status of marijuana,” Adkins said. “We encourage NHTSA to issue guidance on best practices to prevent marijuana-impaired driving.” The GHSA report cited three other studies that differed somewhat in linking marijuana law changes to traffic fatalities. One found that was there an increased marijuana presence in fatally injured drivers in only three of 14 states studied. Another focusing on Colorado said that marijuana-positive fatalities increased by about 4 percent. The third, in California, found no change after marijuana was decriminalized there in 2011. Driving under the influence of marijuana is illegal in all states. The governors group report concludes that, “Marijuana is by far the most common drug that is used, found in roadside surveys, and found in fatally-injured drivers. Marijuana use by drivers likely increases after a state permits recreational marijuana use.” The report said the common practice of combining drugs and alcohol results in “dramatically impaired driving performance.” In surveys and focus groups done in two states — Colorado and Washington — regular marijuana users said they felt their habit did not impair their ability to drive and, in some cases, improved it. “They believed that they can compensate for any effects of marijuana, for instance by driving more slowly or by allowing greater headways,” the GHSA report said. “They believed it is safer to drive after using marijuana than after drinking alcohol.” The GHSA report said police officers should be better trained to identify drivers who are high on drugs. Roadside enforcement also would be helped, the report said, by widespread use of saliva devices that test for drug use. The report said the devices identify most commonly used drugs, are available for about $20 per use, “are not intrusive” and produce results in less than five minutes.


Prince George’s County Animal Watch

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY These were among cases received recently by the Prince George’s County Animal Management Division. Call 301-780-7200 for directions to the county animal shelter, hours of operation, and adoption and licensing procedures. The department Web site is www.princegeorgespets4us.com. Dog interrupts yard work: Caged rabbit: Emaciated dog on porch: Snake sighting: Shih Tzu at large: shot clinic moves to saturday The SPCA/Humane Society of Prince George’s County The Prince George’s County Animal Management Division The Prince George’s County Department of the Environment’s Animal Management Division VolunteerS Needed The SPCA/Humane Society of Prince George’s County, Prince George’s County Animal Management Division The Partnership for Animal Welfare — Compiled by Jillian S. Jarrett


Montgomery Animal Watch

These cases were received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Bulldog bites child: Courting trouble: The Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: The Montgomery County Humane Society’s private rescue shelter has dogs, puppies, cats and kittens available for adoption. Call 240-252-2555 or visit www.mchumane.org. Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Congress proposes fixes to troubled Pentagon acquisition system

officials are also concerned that the Pentagon’s acquisition system is so flawed that it threatens national security. Potential enemies have been able to catch up with the United States, which can no longer always count on having a huge advantage in the sophistication of its weaponry, defense officials say. And they are particularly concerned with the pace at which the nation’s cyberdefenses are moving. “If it takes us years to field technology, then the threats will outpace us and we could lose lives as a result,” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in an interview. “Being more agile means we will be more effective in dealing with the huge array of challenges we face.” One of the main features of the effort is to give the heads of the services, such as the Air Force, Army and Marine Corps, more responsibility for their programs, instead of the power residing with the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Now there are too many people involved in the process, with program managers spending “more time running between cubicles [in the Pentagon] than managing their own programs,” said a senior congressional staffer not authorized to speak publicly about the proposed legislation. “There are all these people in the back of the bus who all have their own steering wheels and brakes. And they drive you into the ditch.” In addition to the 3 percent penalty, the proposal would automatically transfer oversight of programs to the Pentagon if they suffer a 15 percent cost overrun, or what’s called a “Nunn-McCurdy breach.” The idea behind those consequences is to force the services to make more realistic cost estimates of their programs. Too often, officials say, the estimates come in too low in an effort to win congressional approval. And then, once the program has already started, the Pentagon asks for more money. The proposal would also temporarily double the pay for some program managers, from roughly $150,000 to $300,000, in an effort to attract top talent and make government work competitive with the private sector. The Pentagon has also been wooing companies, particularly those in Silicon Valley, which traditionally have not wanted anything to do with the Pentagon’s dense bureaucracy. Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter visited the Valley in an attempt to work with companies such as Google and Apple the way it does with


International Monetary Fund head says pace of global growth will slow

space on crowded trains and reduce safety concerns created by items that are too heavy. Customers are allowed to bring, free of charge, two personal items weighing up to 25 pounds and two carry-on bags weighing no more than 50 pounds each. Personal items include backpacks, laptops, purses and other small bags. Passengers accompanied by children younger than 2 may also bring onboard an additional item such as a stroller or a diaper bag. The fee applies to each item above those limits. — Associated Press Also in Business ● The city that hosts next year’s Olympic Games is the first in Brazil to ban the use of ride-hailing applications such as Uber. Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes on Tuesday signed legislation recently passed by Rio’s city council banning Uber and similar technologies from operating in the city. Uber drivers who ignore the ban can be fined nearly $500. Uber said it is studying possible legal actions. ● Target will match its online prices with those of more than two dozen online competitors including Amazon.com and Walmart.com. The new policy goes into effect Thursday and marks a big step for the Minneapolis-based retailer, which until now matched prices only at its stores. Target will extend the time limit for shoppers to request a price adjustment to 14 days from seven. And the retailer is increasing the number of online rivals that it will match to 29 from five. ● Whole Foods will stop selling products made using a prison labor program after a protest at one of its stores in Texas. The company said the products should be out of its stores by April 2016. Whole Foods said it has sold tilapia, trout and goat cheese produced through a Colorado inmate program at some stores since at least 2011. Whole Foods spokesman Michael Silverman said the company had sourced the products because the program was a way to “help people get back on their feet and eventually become contributing members of society.” He said the company decided to end the practice because some customers were uncomfortable with it. — From news services Coming Today ● 8:30 a.m.: Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims. ● 10 a.m.: Freddie Mac releases weekly mortgage rates. ● 10 a.m.: Institute for Supply Management releases its manufacturing index for September. ● 10 a.m.: Commerce Department releases construction spending for August. — From news services


Professor nears end of ‘global’ run to raise money for student scholarships

surgery in 2007, he was running again in three weeks. His running days began in northwestern Idaho, when as a young boy “it was a mile to the school bus stop, and it was cold,” Schreifels said. “I just wanted to get home and get my work done so I could start goofing off. My gloves didn’t work too well, so I ran to stay warm. That was probably the start.” He began running seriously after a stint in the Navy, where he worked as a cook on a submarine during the Vietnam War. He said he sampled too much of the food, and a doctor told him he was getting “soft,” so when he returned to terra firma he began doing runs of up to 10 miles, several times a week. Schreifels moved to Virginia and began teaching at George Mason in 1988. He started running about four miles a day in 1991, trying for five days a week. Though he shifted to a treadmill about 10 years ago, both to ease the stress on his body and to avoid the occasional angry dog on his morning run, he still manages a pretty decent pace: about eight minutes per mile for a recent 10-mile run. He also is chairman of his department. “My goal is to finish the running when I step down as chairman,” Schreifels said. He said that when he first had the idea of establishing an endowment, someone in the fundraising department was “kind of negative.” On his $3,000 teaching award, the official advised him, “just spend it on a single individual.” But he pressed on until he found Eby, who he said was very supportive and agreed with his goal. “I don’t want to help a student,” Schreifels said, “I want to help students indefinitely. But it’s like running, one step at a time.” For Donna M. Fox, associate dean of the university’s College of Science, “John’s decision to raise money for a student scholarship comes as no surprise to anyone who knows him well.” She said the scholarship was “a beautiful blend of this passion [for running] and of his passion for chemistry. . . . I think some of our newer faculty members were surprised to learn that John is a runner. Once they heard why John was running — to benefit his students — however, it all made perfect sense to them.”


Afghan troops puncture Taliban’s grip on Kunduz

fled Kunduz when the Taliban stormed in have been raped and, in some cases, killed, local activists told Amnesty International. The group said the Taliban killed a woman who worked as a midwife in a maternity ward because she had provided reproductive services. With journalists here largely confined to the army base, it is difficult to verify the claims. But interviews with residents suggested that the Taliban’s assault on Kunduz has been ruthless. “The Taliban have burned government offices, broken into the houses of people and robbed the shops,” said Atta Mohammad Rasoli, who fled his home to seek shelter at the base. “Kunduz city has collapsed from inside.” Afghan security forces now confront a big challenge: how to drive the remaining Taliban fighters from the city — and from Afghanistan. Although northeastern Afghanistan was relatively secure for much of the war, the Taliban has steadily gained ground this year. In his news conference, Ghani said Islamist militants from Pakistan, Russia and China are mingling with local Taliban sympathizers, compounding the problem. Afghan officials reported Thursday that more than 160 Taliban fighters were killed Wednesday night during the army counteroffensive, which was backed by U.S. airstrikes. In one neighborhood on the outskirts of Kunduz, the charred corpses of three Taliban fighters lay on a road next to a stolen Humvee, which had apparently been targeted in an airstrike. Afghan military officials have not said how many soldiers have died in the fighting. Khan Zari, who is in his 60s, showed up at the base on Thursday looking for the body of his son, a soldier killed this week. “My son was recently married, and he only passed two nights with his wife when he headed to Kunduz,” said Zari, who lives in the eastern province of Nangahar. With Taliban fighters still holed up in houses in parts of Kunduz, residents said the city alternated between extended periods of calm and intense street battles on Thursday. Shortly after dawn, after Afghan forces pressed into the center of the city, a soldier removed a Taliban flag hanging in the town square. Later in the day, however, Taliban fighters retook the square and again hoisted their flag, according to a witness account published in the Stars and Stripes newspaper. On Wednesday, the U.S.-led coalition in Kabul confirmed that American Special Operations troops and NATO military advisers had arrived in Kunduz to assist in


New Maryland laws affect heroin response, divorces, pot charges

A kit with the opioid overdose-blocking medication naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan. A new Maryland law makes the drug available without an individual prescription and provides first responders immunity. (Mel Evans/AP) Maryland residents face tougher penalties for drunken driving as of Thursday and have new opportunities to clear marijuana-related charges from their records, reverse the effects of opiate overdoses and, in some cases, avoid prolonged divorce battles. Those are the highlights of several hundred laws that took effect Thursday in Maryland, most of which were approved by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) during his first year of office. Here is a look at what the new laws do. Expand availability of overdose antidote Maryland is among the states responding to rising heroin and opioid deaths by expanding overdose-reversing medication. Naloxone is now available without an individual prescription to those licensed to administer it, including volunteers who have been trained. Paramedics, firefighters and other first responders authorized to spray or inject the drug are immune from lawsuits under an expansion of the state’s Good Samaritan law. Relax pot laws People arrested for possessing marijuana and related paraphernalia can get their charges dismissed if they can prove to a court they need the items for medical reasons. Maryland last year removed criminal penalties for possessing less than 10 grams of marijuana. A separate law also allows people to clear possession convictions and other crimes from their records if their actions would no longer be considered illegal. Boost scrutiny ofprison-guard applicants Aspiring state corrections officers must now take lie-detector tests. The law is part of the legislative response to the 2013 scandal at the Baltimore City Detention Center, where 27 corrections officers were accused of aiding a violent prison gang’s drug-trafficking and money-laundering scheme. The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services predicts that the polygraph exams could eliminate more than half of the finalists in future hiring pools. Boost DUI consequences Drunk drivers who kill others in car crashes will have to stay off the road longer. Depending on the level of intoxication, first-time offenders will lose driving privileges for six months to a year, instead of 45 to 90 days. Those who get into a second deadly crash with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.15 or higher, nearly the double the legal limit, will lose their licenses. Acknowledge transgender identities Maryland will make it easier for transgender and intersex


Susan Kelly: Helping military members transition to a new life

The presenters and counselors come from DOD and a variety of federal departments. Representatives from the Department of Labor, for instance, discuss workforce issues, and officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs offer counseling about benefits. The transition program also offers assistance from the Small Business Administration regarding loans for starting a business; information from the Department of Education about educational opportunities; and advice from the Office of Personnel Management regarding federal employment. Some of this information and help was available in the past, but service members often would have to go from agency to agency to find it, navigating multiple websites and 1-800 numbers. “Susan has ensured that those agencies are all on-site. She and her team have brought it together,” said Barna. “Susan is really good at encouraging, supporting, collaborating and getting to see how the different parts fit together, which is why the program has been so successful,” added Mark Breckenridge, deputy director at the Defense Manpower Data Center. “Susan does a wonderful job allowing others to see how their contributions will fit in.” Among the challenges in putting the program together has been working with four different military departments, traditions and populations. “Susan has really had to work to bring each of them into this program in accordance with their culture,” Barna said. In surveys, more than three-quarters of the attendees reported the program has prepared them to be “career-ready” and provided access to resources that would help in civilian life. Kelly said the revamped transition program is more comprehensive and more focused than in the past on getting service members to start aligning their military training with what they may want to do in the long term as a civilian. “That’s the crux of the entire change, having the system acknowledge that everyone, whether you are a four-star general or serving only four years in active duty, will separate from the military service and go into civilian life,” said Kelly. “No matter how old you are, you will not go fishing and hunting the rest of your life.” This article was jointly prepared by the Partnership for Public Service, a group seeking to enhance the performance of the federal government, and washingtonpost.com. Go to the Fed Page of The Washington Post to read about other federal workers who are making a difference. To recommend a Federal Player of the Week, contact us at fedplayers@ourpublicservice.org .


Barrel & Crow review: Good food at a fair price in Bethesda

BETHESDA, MD - Fried Chicken and Waffles (Amish Chicken, Strawberry Rhubarb Compote, Kate and Pecan Syrup) at Barrel + Crow restaurant photographed in Bethesda, MD. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) This review appears in The Washington Post’s 2015 Fall Dining Guide. Fried chicken and waffles with strawberry-rhubarb compote at Barrel & Crow in Bethesda. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) Barrel Crow Finally, a recipe in Bethesda worthy of a shout-out. Veteran restaurateurs Patrick Forest and Laura Houlihan figured good food at a fair price might attract a crowd and enlisted a chef from Old Angler’s Inn in Potomac, Nick Palermo, to turn their business plan into a buzzy dining room. Sauteed shrimp with grit croquettes will make a diner pleased to eat amid salvaged barn wood and old airport windows, as will golden fried chicken and waffles, their crevices sweetened with strawberry-rhubarb compote. The Mid-Atlantic meets the South in a main course of mackerel with charred corn and pickled ramps. Not content to dish up what everyone else is serving, the chef finds a way to make each plate special: Beer-braised short ribs are better for their sauteed cornbread, and chocolate pudding gets competition from delicate shortbread cookies. (Credit for the latter goes to pastry ace Rita Garruba.) Good help is hard to find, evinced by friendly but forgetful servers. Palermo grills a great pork chop, but can someone, anyone, please find me a knife to cut it? 2 stars Barrel & Crow: 4867 Cordell Ave., Bethesda, Md. 240-800-3253. www.barrelandcrow.com. Open: Prices: Sound check: Previous:


Izakaya Seki review: For Japanese delicacies, it’s the real deal

Washington, District of Columbia - September 13, 2012: The Squid Salad with Basil was photographed at Izakaya Seki restaurant in Washington, DC on Thursday September 13, 2012. (Photo by Joseph Victor Stefanchik for The Washington Post) (Joseph Victor Stefanchik/For The Washington Post) This review appears in The Washington Post’s 2015 Fall Dining Guide. Squid salad with basil at Izakaya Seki. (Joseph Victor Stefanchik/For The Washington Post) Izakaya Seki One sign you’re in the right place for sashimi and rice balls is when the diners all around you are speaking Japanese. Tokyo feels close when you’re ensconced at the ground-floor counter of this placid neighborhood restaurant, watching chef Hiroshi Seki glide his knife through fresh fish with the precision of someone who has been doing it for 53 of his 68 years. The raw dishes show his eye for good fish, and the simmered ones — rich pork belly with a snowy block of tofu and a hit of Japanese mustard — are pure comforts. As for the fried items, have I ever had lighter, crisper baby squid tempura? Maybe in my dreams. Good vibrations come courtesy of the Beach Boys, and dinner draws an eclectic crowd, sometimes musicians headed to the nearby 9:30 Club or Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. → 2.5 stars Izakaya Seki: 1117 V St. NW. 202-588-5841. www.sekidc.com. Open: Prices: Sound check: Previous:


Le Diplomate review: Perfect Parisian fare served with American warmth

The following review appears in The Washington Post’s 2016 Fall Dining Guide. The golden frites at Le Diplomate are a sure thing. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) Le Diplomate EXCELLENT I didn’t eat in Paris this year, but I did something almost as pleasurable: dinner at Le Diplomate, the best all-around French restaurant in the city. No matter where I point my finger on the list, my chances of plucking a winner in this bustling brasserie, outfitted in red banquettes and antique mirrors, are as sure as champagne with oysters. Salad Lyonnaise is a model of cool (frisee), rich (lardons) and saucy (egg), and a drop in temperature finds me here, tucking into beef bourguignon with the most winey of reductions. Skate beneath a carpet of capers underscores the beauty of the fish once thought of as trash. Le Diplomate nails almost every detail, be it bread or drinks or dessert. (Splurge on apple tarte Tatin.) The one inauthentic note is the service. It’s warm and gracious, in the best American tradition. Previous: 3 stars Le Diplomate: 1601 14th St. NW. 202-332-3333. lediplomatedc.com . Prices: Sound check: -- The following review appeared in The Washington Post’s 2015 Fall Dining Guide. Le Diplomate Arriving at this nonstop celebration still quickens my pulse and whets my appetite, what with the thunder of laughter and the sight of iced shellfish towers. But the place I once considered my pet after a week in Paris is either sleeping on its laurels or in need of a vacation. How else to explain a salty reduction circling the roast chicken and a tough steak, interesting now only for its glorious fries? Or profiteroles that nail the crisp pastry but not the chocolate sauce, sweetened as if by Hershey’s? Little of that sounds like a fan talking, but the rest of my last meal was a triumph: pristine oysters, sublime dorade and potato coins in parchment, a beautiful and boozy baba au rhum. Did I mention the swell cocktails? The considerate host? Le Diplomate’s slips are outweighed by its splendors.


Marcel’s review: Go ahead, indulge at one of Washington’s finest restaurants

WASHINGTON, DC-December 16: The braised pheasant pot pie at Marcel's Restaurant in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Suchman/For the Washington Post) (Scott Suchman/For The Washington Post) This review appears in The Washington Post’s 2015 Fall Dining Guide. The braised pheasant pot pie at Marcel's in Washington. (Scott Suchman/For The Washington Post) Marcel’s For romance and fancy food, the Washington restaurant that comes closest to the allure of the legendary Inn at Little Washington in Virginia is this dreamboat of a French dining room from longtime restaurateur Robert Wiedmaier. The lighting in the vaulted oasis is golden, its music a grace note that never intrudes. The ceramics are as divine as the food, and the servers may be better dressed than you. Some of them are entertainers. When a waiter hears me pondering whether to get the decadent boudin blanc for the Nth time, he jests, “Just take a pill and then eat it.” Restraint be damned! Oui, I will have that plump white sausage and the tortellini stuffed with pheasant and foie gras and the lamb bundled in phyllo, every dish fussed over as if royalty were about to eat it. Cheese before dessert? Sure, monsieur. The only thing light is my decision to order the four-course menu instead of the longer tastings, and the lime parfait instead of the milk chocolate flan. And my only regret is that Marcel’s doesn’t have closer competition. 3 stars Marcel’s: 2401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. 202-296-1166. www.marcelsdc.com. Open: Prices: Sound check: Previous:


Rasika review: A true Washington all-star now looks better than ever

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 14: Name of Dish and Rasika West End. (Photo by Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) This review appears in The Washington Post’s 2015 Fall Dining Guide. Rasika’s Gujarati lasagna is draped in a curtain of spiced yogurt. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) Rasika Ashok Bajaj runs the two best modern Indian restaurants in the country, so where to go from there? Up, up and away in the case of Rasika in Penn Quarter and the younger Rasika West End. Poised to turn 10 in December, the original went under the knife in July and emerged $500,000 later with a plusher lounge and a better chance to eavesdrop, thanks to subtle soundproofing in its main dining room. In a contest, Rasika in Penn Quarter wins my appetite and my affection, possibly because we’ve known each other for ages, but definitely because the food, by the masterful Vikram Sunderam, never fails to dazzle me. His duck vindaloo with red coconut rice resonates with vinegar and masala. Broccoli with mustard seeds, ginger and shaved coconut makes for a novel way to eat your greens, and who knew that quinoa, tapioca, cumin and pine nuts could add up to such a rousing appetizer? Rasika’s breads are the flakiest; its Indian desserts, the most delightful. Kulfi rolled in candied pistachios and served on a stick is ice cream that brings out the kid in us all. Watch how chefs at Rasika plate a dish of kulfi rolled in pistachios and served on a stick. The restaurant, which takes its name from Sanskrit (“flavors”) and counts a dedicated sommelier, is so trusted by the powers that be that it won the honor of cooking lunch for India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, during a state visit last year. A bridge between two cultures, the tower of chickpea-gold lasagna layered with ratatouille and circled with spiced yogurt was designed with a vegetarian dignitary in mind. Now it can be yours, for $16, at one of Washington’s all-stars. 4 stars Rasika: Open: Prices: Sound check: The Top 10: No. 10: The Grill Room No. 9: Komi No. 8: G by Mike Isabella No. 7: Garrison No. 6: The Riggsby No. 5: The Inn at Little Washington No. 4: Little Serow No. 3: Masseria No. 2 Rasika No. 1 Rose’s Luxury


No longer in a league of its own, Rose’s Luxury is still a standout

a rush of egg yolk; and Little Italy, in the form of a rib-sticking family-style meal composed of eggplant Parmesan, garlic knots and a crisp green salad. “The crunch in the eggplant is from potato chips,” a waiter said. It might be time to retire the pork with litchis; once racy and novel, the signature seems less nuanced than before. But I welcome the sesame brittle that sweetens check-paying time. In all, Rose’s Luxury remains a draw and retains a glow, even if my heart no longer skips a beat when its name is mentioned. Previous: 3 stars 717 Eighth St. SE. 202-580-8889. rosesluxury.com Open: Prices: Sound check: -- The following review appeared in The Washington Post’s 2016 Fall Dining Guide. Rose’s Luxury: Still pretty ‘awesome’ after three years Rose’s Luxury (Excellent/Superlative) Three years after it made a titanic splash on Capitol Hill, this sunny, albeit no-reservations restaurant continues to cast a spell on its customers. Part of the charm flows from servers who act like your BFFs. More seductive is the sly cooking, from chef-owner Aaron Silverman, the guy who made us fall head over heels with litchis, pork sausage and fire in the same bowl. These days, blue catfish hides under a thin roof of fried bread, a light perch for a rousing green tomato relish. Bucatini with a summery tomato sauce and a dusting of Parmesan is the little black dress of pastas, at once simple and elegant. And to forgo the Greek chicken, one of two family-style platters, is to miss a party crowded with house-made pita, tangy pickles and plump sausages. So you can imagine my chagrin when the dream is interrupted; a dip into a crock of chicken liver pâté returns a spread that’s too sweet. The emperor has plenty of clothes, but he also has more competitors than before. And not all of them make us wait in line. (Rant over. I’ll be back. Like the neon sign here glows, Rose’s remains pretty “awesome.”) Part of the charm of Rose’s Luxury flows from servers who act like your BFFs. More seductive is the sly cooking. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post) -- The following review appeared in The Washington Post’s 2015 Fall Dining Guide. Sungold tomato sorbet with candied watermelon radish at Rose's Luxury. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) Rose’s Luxury (Superlative) Stop right here if you hate reading valentines, because Rose’s Luxury is


Exxon Mobil loses appeal against $236 million court judgment

● The nation’s first offshore wind farm has experienced safety and welding problems, and regulators are closely monitoring construction, according to the regulatory agency that issued a permit for the work. Deepwater Wind is building a five-turbine wind farm off Block Island, R.I., and began construction in July. Inspection reports about the initial weeks of construction identified “numerous” health and safety issues. Deepwater Wind said it intends for the project to meet the highest safety and construction standards. ● Royal Dutch Shell and France’s Total will be the first foreign companies to be allowed to operate gasoline stations inside Iran, Iranian state television said. Until now, the only retail service stations belonged to the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Co. The agreement comes after Iran and world powers reached a deal in July that curbs the country’s disputed nuclear program in return for the lifting of international economic sanctions. ● General Mills is recalling 60,000 bags of its Cascadian Farm frozen green beans after one package tested positive for listeria, the second time this year the company has found the bacteria in its green beans. The Minneapolis-based food company said no illnesses have been reported in either case. Listeria can cause fever, muscle aches and even death. The recall announced Friday is for 16-ounce bags of Cascadian Farm green beans with a “Better If Used By” date of June 29, 2017. ● Albertsons, the U.S. supermarket chain with more than 2,000 stores backed by Cerberus Capital Management, said it plans to raise about $1.53 billion in an initial public offering. The sales will consist of 65.3 million shares at $23 to $26 each, according to a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last year, Cerberus acquired grocer Safeway and merged it with Albertsons. That created the second-biggest supermarket chain in America behind Kroger, according to PrivCo. In addition to the Albertsons and Safeway brands, the Boise, Idaho-based company operates Vons, Jewel-Osco, United Supermarkets and Pavilions. ● Chick-fil-A will open an outpost in New York City on Saturday, marking a high-profile milestone in its push to become a bigger national player. The Atlanta-based chain known for its fried chicken sandwiches with pickles has been stepping up its expansion and is opening nearly 100 new locations a year. The chain has more than 1,900 stores in 42 states, although its heaviest presence is in the South. — From news services


The human quest to find our place in the universe

Earth, orbiting the sun in tandem with Earth, to continue investigating our place in the universe. Our wee solar system is an infinitesimally small smudge among uncountable billions of galaxies, each with uncountable billions of stars. Our Milky Way galaxy, where we live, probably has 40 billion planets approximately Earth’s size. Looking at the sky through a drinking straw, the spot you see contains 10,000 galaxies. Yet the cosmos is not crowded: If there were just three bees in America, the air would be more congested with bees than space is with stars. Matter, however, is not all that matters. The United States’ manned moon expeditions ended in 1972, but modern cosmology began with the 1965 discovery that the universe is permeated with background radiation. This, like everything else, is a residue of the Big Bang, which, in a hundredth of a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, set stuff — some of it now congealed into galaxies — flying apart. The recipe for our biophilic (friendly to life) planet was cooked in the universe’s first one-hundredth of a second, at a temperature of a hundred thousand million degrees Celcius Einstein’s theory that space is curved by gravity requires a nonstatic universe, expanding or contracting. With a light-gathering mirror six times larger than Hubble’s, and operating in temperatures of minus-389 degrees Fahrenheit, Webb will gather extraordinarily faint light that has been traveling for billions of years since the Big Bang. With Webb looking back in time to a few hundred million years after the explosion, scientists will analyze light for clues concerning the earliest formation of stars, planets, galaxies and us. Hubble, which is the size of a school bus, supplies data for more than one-fifth of all scholarly astronomy papers. Webb, which will be the size of a tennis court, will advance knowledge about this stupendous improbability: How did material complexity, then single-cell life, then animals and consciousness emerge from chaos? Webb will not shed light on two interesting questions: How many universes are there? Is everything the result of a meaningless cosmic sneeze, or of an intentional First Cause? Webb will, however, express our species’ dignity as curious creatures. Since Copernicus’s great impertinence — displacing Earth and its passengers from the center of the universe — we have learned that “center” is senseless in an expanding universe that has no edge and where space


TV and radio listings: Oct. 3

Richmond » Comcast SportsNet Plus 3:30 p.m. Boston College at Duke » Comcast SportsNet 3:30 p.m. Ohio State at Indiana » WJLA (Ch. 7), WMAR (Ch. 2) 3:30 p.m. North Carolina at Georgia Tech » ESPNU 4 p.m. San Jose State at Auburn » SEC Network 4 p.m. Washington State at California » Pac-12 Network 4 p.m. Kansas State at Oklahoma State » Fox Sports 1 4 p.m. East Carolina at SMU » ESPNews 4 p.m. Nebraska at Illinois » Big Ten Network 7 p.m. Arkansas at Tennessee » ESPN2 7 p.m. Mississippi at Florida » ESPN 7 p.m. Eastern Michigan at LSU » ESPNU 7 p.m. Vanderbilt at Middle Tennessee » CBS Sports Network 7:30 p.m. Arizona State at UCLA » WTTG (Ch. 5), WBFF (Ch. 45) 7:30 p.m. William and Mary at Delaware » NBC Sports Network 7:30 p.m. Mississippi State at Texas A&M » SEC Network 8 p.m. Notre Dame at Clemson » WJLA (Ch. 7), WMAR (Ch. 2), WSPZ (570 AM) 10 p.m. Oregon at Colorado » ESPN 10:15 p.m. Hawaii at Boise State » ESPN2 10:30 p.m. Fresno State at San Diego State » CBS Sports Network 10:30 p.m. Arizona at Stanford » Pac-12 Network GOLF 8 a.m. European Tour: Alfred Dunhill Links, third round » Golf Channel 3 p.m. Web.com Tour Championship, third round »Golf Channel SOCCER 7:30 a.m. Football League Championship: Huddersfield Town at Wolves »beIN Sports 7:45 a.m. English Premier League: West Brom at Crystal Palace »NBCSN 9:30 a.m. Bundesliga: Wolfsburg at Borussia Moenchengladbach »Fox Sports 1 9:30 a.m. Bundesliga: Stuttgart at H’heim »GolTV 10 a.m. EPL: Newcastle at Man. City » NBCSN 10 a.m. EPL: West Ham at Sunderland »USA Network 10 a.m. La Liga: Barcelona at Sevilla »beIN Sports 11:30 a.m. Bundesliga: Hamburg at H. Berlin »GolTV Noon Serie A: Torino at Carpi»beIN Sports 12:30 p.m.EPL: Southampton at Chelsea »WRC (Ch. 4), WBAL (Ch. 11) 2:45 p.m. Serie A: Verona at Chievo »beIN Sports AUTO RACING 12:30 p.m. NASCAR Xfinity Series: Hisense 200, qualifying » NBC Sports Network 3:30 p.m. NASCAR: Hisense 200 »NBC Sports Network HORSE RACING 5 p.m. Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series »WRC (Ch. 4), WBAL (Ch. 11) MIXED MARTIAL ARTS 8 p.m. UFC 192, prelims »Fox Sports 1 VOLLEYBALL 11 a.m. FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour finals, women’s semifinals » Universal Sports Network 2:30 p.m. FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour finals, men’s semifinals » Universal Sports Network


Doctors Without Borders says U.S. airstrike hit hospital in Afghanistan; at least 19 dead

U.S. military has faced criticism over civilian casualties and “friendly fire” incidents. Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai repeatedly accused the U.S. military of being reckless in how it carried out airstrikes. But after Ghani replaced Karzai last year, relations between the Afghan government and coalition officials improved dramatically. Ghani, who is hoping that Obama rethinks his timetable for removing troops from Afghanistan, did not directly criticize the United States for the tragedy. The U.S. military official said Special Forces soldiers were on the ground advising Afghan forces when they detected incoming fire from Taliban fighters. They received authorization to return fire at an area that was apparently close to the hospital, the official said. The AC-130 gunship, commonly known as the Spectre, can stay above a target for long amounts of time and carries a number of weapons, including a 105mm cannon. On Saturday, as the main hospital building was still smoldering, Doctors Without Borders circulated photographs showing the aftermath of the bombing. In one photo, a health-care worker in blood-stained scrubs huddled in a corner with another man. Later in the day, hospital officials began evacuating patients to another facility about two hours’ drive away, a risky undertaking because fierce fighting continues across swaths of northeastern Afghanistan. There are mounting concerns that an already grim humanitarian situation in Kunduz will worsen in the coming days. “The dead bodies are lying on the streets, both the Taliban and also civilians, and no one is allowed to pick up the bodies,” said Laghmani, the local resident. “There is also an electricity shortage, a water shortage plus a bread shortage.” There have been several incidents in the past in which U.S. airstrikes inadvertently caused large numbers of civilian casualties. In 2002, the U.S. military mistakenly bombed a wedding in Afghanistan’s central province of Uruzgan, killing more than 35 people. In 2009, the U.S.-led coalition bombed two tanker trucks in Kunduz, igniting a fireball that killed 74 civilians, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission. Missy Ryan and Thomas Gibbons-Neff in Washington, and Mohammad Sharif in Kabul contributed to this report. Read more: Afghans who once watched war from afar forced to flee as front lines shift U.S. troops dispatched to Kunduz to help Afghan forces In Taliban-held Kunduz, echoes of a 1988 guerrilla assault after the Soviets withdrew Doctors, aid workers fight Ebola in West Africa, then fear of disease in U.S.


Animal Watch: Evening stroll is marred by coyote attack

FAIRFAX CITY Among incidents reported by the animal control section of the Fairfax City Police Department.


Brian Friel, playwright who wrote about his native Ireland, dies at 86

Playwright Brian Friel in 2009. (Niall Carson/AP) Brian Friel, who explored the history, humor and tragedy of Irish life in more than 20 plays, including the widely acclaimed “Dancing at Lughnasa,” which won three Tony Awards in 1992, died Oct. 2 at his home in County Donegal, Ireland. He was 86. His death was announced by the Arts Council of Ireland and widely noted in the Irish and British media. The Belfast Telegraph reported that he had cancer. Mr. Friel, who was considered the leading Irish dramatist of his generation, first won acclaim in the 1960s for “Philadelphia, Here I Come!” an unsentimental treatment of the competing impulses of fleeing Ireland and embracing its people and traditions. Notoriously shy of publicity, Mr. Friel lived most of his life in a rural corner of northwestern Ireland, and most of his plays were set in the fictional County Donegal village of Ballybeg. In its Gaelic spelling, “baile beag” means small town. In spite of his limited landscape, Mr. Friel explored such universal themes as faith, language, political oppression, family struggle, exile and the idea of home. He was sometimes known as the “Irish Chekhov” for his adaptations of works by the Russian writers Anton Chekhov and Ivan Turgenev, and for his ability to blend humor, regret and sorrow in his wistful evocations of the Irish countryside. “Brian Friel,” New York Times drama critic Frank Rich wrote in 1981, “can write some of the most beautiful language to be heard in the contemporary theater.” Among the many renowned actors who appeared in stage productions of Mr. Friel’s plays were Liam Neeson, Jason Robards, Alfred Molina and Ralph Fiennes. Meryl Streep starred in a 1998 film version of “Dancing in Lughnasa.” Drifting through much of Mr. Friel’s work is the sense of alienation that he felt growing up as part of the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland. Although few of his plays were overtly political, he directly addressed the Catholic-Protestant “Troubles” in Northern Ireland in his 1973 play “The Freedom of the City,” which was inspired by the Bloody Sunday massacre of 1972, in which British soldiers killed unarmed Irish demonstrators. Mr. Friel took part in the march in Londonderry — the official name of the Northern Ireland city usually called Derry by Irish nationalists — and dived to the ground to avoid gunfire. “The artist has to acquire his own armor and armory,”


After 125 years, hipsters have deemed this brewery’s beers cool

illustrations were modern, cool, a little edgier.” For Perry, the tipping point happened in summer 2014, when Del’s Shandy hit the city. “You couldn’t get your hands on it. It was very in-demand,” he recalls. “Even though they’d been building steadily and methodically, the breakout success of the shandy really brought them to a whole new level.” Perry made Del’s Shady the featured beer this past summer, “and we did really well with it.” Although Del’s Shandy is disappearing for the season, the brewery’s name is still out there. Narragansett also has a secret weapon that Pabst and Natty Boh can’t touch: It can call itself a craft beer. Last year, the Brewers Association, a national industry organization that runs the Great American Beer Festival, modified its standards to welcome breweries that use adjunct ingredients, such as corn or rice, as long as those breweries are independently owned and don’t produce more than 6 million barrels per year. Narragansett promptly vaulted to number 37 on the Brewers Association’s list of the country’s biggest craft brewers; Hellendrung says they’re on track to produce about 85,000 barrels this year. The “craft” label, along with that compelling back story, helps get Narragansett into bars that might otherwise look askance at an American adjunct lager. Jacob Berg, the beer director at two New York bars — Astoria Bier and Cheese, and Milk & Hops — says Narragansett occupies a niche. “We don’t sell any macro beers, and Narragansett is most comparable to PBR,” he says. The price is a factor — Astoria Bier and Cheese sells Narragansett for $1 less than most of its other beers — but not the only one. “They have a great story, and that authenticity really resonates with craft beer consumers,” Berg says. But what he really likes is that Narragansett acts more like a craft brewery than like a one-trick nostalgia brand. “Not only are they making the same damn beer they’ve always been making, but they’re making other beers, too,” he says, ticking off the seasonal Summer Ale, Porter and the recent Town Beach IPA. “That kind of stuff, to me, is such a craft style.” Maybe not what you’d expect from a 125-year-old brewery, but it’s enough to establish a beachhead. More from Food: Beer Column It’s official: Port City is the best small brewer in America Stop ‘aging’ that hoppy beer. It’s only getting worse


Shaky economy hits not just student-loan holders but all workers

(Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press) Regarding the Oct. 1 news article “Quarter of student loan borrowers behind on payments”: The real problem of 11 million students unable to pay their loans lies not with servicers but in continuing tepid economic growth since the Great Recession. Middle-class wage stagnation, the rise of part-time (not full-time) jobs and the mismatch of college degrees with employers’ needs are the real causes of the problem. Furthermore, a striking rise in storefront auto-title loan and payday loan agencies signals an even broader problem that consumers in general are having trouble making ends meet. L ast month the Federal Reserve stated: “The lending market is quickly becoming more aggressive with borrowers requesting and receiving covenant-lite structures. ” That’s Fed jargon for easy loans lacking protection for the lender. One wonders, is our economy shakier than it is generally perceived to be? Annemarie Brown, Falls Church


American among trio of Nobel winners for work on parasitic diseases

proved incredibly effective at killing off parasites in some animals. A modified form of that compound, known as ivermectin, showed similar results in humans. If taken annually, the drug relieves the agonizing itching that often accompanies river blindness and effectively halts the progression of the debilitating disease. The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura for their work on infections caused by roundworm, and to Youyou Tu for her work on malaria. In 1987, Merck pledged to provide the drug to anyone who needed it, free of charge, for as long as necessary. It established a donation program that works in partnership with the World Health Organization, governmental-health ministries and nongovernment health groups. Hundreds of millions of doses are distributed each year, many of them in remote parts of Africa. Campbell, who spent many years as an associate fellow at Drew University in New Jersey after retiring from Merck, said Monday that the Nobel news came as “a tremendous shock.” He said he felt honored to represent a much larger group of researchers, including Omura, whose work led to the breakthrough. But even as his phone kept ringing and neighbors kept knocking on his door — “I’ve never known a Nobel Prize winner!” one shouted in the background Monday morning — Campbell insisted his biggest reward came decades ago. He recalled a visit to the small West African country of Togo to observe clinical trials for the drug he helped develop. There, he saw young boys whose lives would turn out very different partly because of his work. “To see a blind man surrounded by little kids who are not going to be exposed to that risk, in a village where half the adult males were blind. . . . That’s obviously a very moving experience,” Campbell said. He keeps a snapshot of a handful of those boys, most of them around age 12, in an album at his Massachusetts home. He also includes the image in most of his PowerPoint presentations. “I look at that picture, and I think they must be healthy, productive adults now,” Campbell said. “That’s with me all the time.” Jeff Guo contributed to this report. Read more: Iron deficiency may protect against malaria, TB and cancer A Nobel winner in medicine looks to create life in his lab These blood-loving spiders could help fight malaria


BSO’s ‘Don Giovanni’: A greatest hits that left out key moments

The cast assembled for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s “Don Giovanni” concert at the Strathmore Music Center on Sunday would have been welcome in a full-length performance of the Mozart opera. What was sung (aside from the opera’s complete final scene) was little more than a greatest-hits aria program that sidestepped much of the score’s most vivid and dramatic moments. The cast — baritone Morgan Smith (Giovanni), bass Thomas Richards (Leporello), bass Timothy J. Bruno (Commendatore), soprano Angela Meade (Anna), soprano Jennifer Black (Elvira), soprano Pureum Jo (Zerlina), tenor Yi Li (Ottavio) and baritone Javier Arrey (Masetto), plus 10 students from the Peabody Institute — found ample opportunities to shine. And BSO Principal Guest Conductor Markus Stenz led a spiky, propulsive account of the music, while director Andrea Dorf McGray contributed cleverly economical semi-staging. It’s worth singling out Smith’s dark-hued Giovanni and Li’s handsomely lyrical (if sadly underused) Ottavio, but all sang with robustly attractive voices and acted with welcome naturalism. Meade was the cast’s biggest name, and she produced the biggest sound, though her unvarying brightness and vibrancy of tone lent Anna’s lines a harder edge than might be thought ideal. Earlier in the concert, Stenz brought a feather-light touch and hushed dynamics to Mozart’s youthful First Symphony and glorious Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola (which featured solo work of gorgeous timbre and Olympian poise from BSO Associate Concertmaster Madeline Adkins and principal viola Lisa Steltenpohl). Banno is a freelance writer. Markus Stenz conducted the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in a propulsive but imperfect version of “Don Giovanni” at Strathmore Music Center. (Josep Molina)


With his son terribly ill, a top scientist takes on chronic fatigue syndrome

molecules associated with energy metabolism. He also has three mutations in a gene that codes for an enzyme that helps convert folate and vitamin B12 to their active forms, a process necessary for both metabolic and immune function. Such mutations are present in about 5 to 10 percent of the general population, but Kogelnik has been finding them at much higher rates among his ME/CFS patients. Several definitions for “CFS” and “ME” have been developed over the years, but none has been deemed ideal, in part because they rely on self-reported symptoms rather than objective measures. Davis served on the IOM panel, which was convened in 2014 to conduct a scientific review aimed at redefining the illness. The 282-page report issued in February gave ME/CFS a new definition, which still hinges on reported symptoms but places central importance on “post-exertional malaise,” a crash that patients experience after even the slightest physical or even mental exertion, leaving them exhausted and feeling ill for days or weeks. Small exertions Such exertion can be a short walk, brushing one’s teeth or, in Whitney’s case, simply sensing someone else in the room. Despite numerous previous studies showing biological abnormalities that could potentially be tested for, Davis says that the panel didn’t recommend an objective test as part of the diagnosis because most of those studies have been small and poorly funded and haven’t been replicated. And the patient samples have been defined in various ways, giving rise to inconsistent findings. Those are the problems he wants to overcome with the new project. The National Institutes of Health allocates only about $5 million a year to ME/CFS research, slightly less than the amount it devotes to hay fever. Davis, who has submitted two applications for research funds without success, says he’ll try again for subsequent stages of the project. Asked about the denial, the NIH responded by e-mail: “Unfortunately, in challenging budget times, NIH turns away many potentially meritorious research applications.” Nonetheless, Davis says, “I’m in it for the long term. I’m not going to quit.” ‘Grieving . . . like a death’ As Whitney’s health declined, his sister, Ashley Davis, would stop by his apartment to help him with household tasks. After he moved back home, she’d drive him to doctor’s appointments. But once he could no longer speak, she had to stop going into his room because it became too upsetting for her.


D.C. police cruiser and fire engine in collision; two injured

A D.C. police cruiser and a fire truck were involved in a head-on collision that left two people injured in Northwest on Monday. Authorities are investigating a collision involving a D.C. police cruiser and a fire engine that left two people injured in Northwest Washington. The cruiser and fire engine crashed in the 2900 block of Porter Street NW around 4:08 p.m., said Officer Sean Hickman, a D.C. police spokesman. Tim Wilson, a D.C. fire department spokesman, said an officer and a firefighter were taken to an area hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries. Hickman, who does not know how many people were involved in the crash, said everyone was “conscious and breathing” after the collision. He said it’s not clear what caused the crash or whether the police cruiser and firetruck were responding to the same call. Wilson said the fire engine was responding to a report of a fire in the 500 block of Kennedy Street NW just before the accident. Accident between DC police car and fire truck on Porter Street between Connecticut Ave NW and Williamsburg Lane NW http://t.co/uEssx9o1ZG D.C. police said Porter Street NW is blocked both ways near the accident site between Connecticut Avenue NW and Rock Creek Park. There is no estimate of when the street will reopen, and authorities recommended that motorists seek alternative routes.


Festivals offer tastes from Washington to Greece

The annual Taste of DC takes place Saturday and Sunday and will include the Ben’s Chili Bowl World Chili Eating Championship. (From Taste of DC/ ) The BBQ Bourbon event scheduled for Oct. 17 has been canceled. The change is reflected below. WEDNESDAY BROOKLYN BREWERY MASH: THURSDAY WINE CLASS: FRIDAY GREEK FESTIVAL: SATURDAY COOKING CLASS: FALL DINNER: LES DAMES LUNCHEON: NIGHT NOUVEAU: TASTE OF DC: TASTE OF MASON DIXON: WINE TASTING: SUNDAY BEER HISTORY: CHEESE CLASS: OYSTER DISCUSSION: TUESDAY CIDER DINNER: WINE DISCUSSION: WEDNESDAY BEER TASTING: COOKBOOK DISCUSSION: RESERVE NOW OCT. 15 NOCHE IBEROAMERICANA: WHISKEY WEAPONRY: — Kara Elder Submit event listings at www.washingtonpost.com/gog/talk-to-us.html at least 14 days in advance.


Beer of the Week: Jailbreak Brewing Van Dammit

Van Dammit won a gold medal at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival — the only Maryland beer to be honored at the annual festival. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) The brewers of Jailbreak Brewing like to describe their house beers as “bridging the gap between the food world and the beer world.” According to brewer and brewery founder Justin Bonner, that means focusing on “unique takes on food ingredients in beer.” Among their products are Q.Cumber Saison , inspired by a Hendricks Gin martini, a refreshing farmhouse ale brewed with cucumber, juniper and rose water; Made Wit Basil, a decent Belgian witbier dominated by three kinds of basil; and, instead of a pumpkin beer, the Carrot Cake Conspiracy, made with hundreds of pounds of roasted carrots. (Trust me: It’s less sweet than a pumpkin ale.) In light of all that experimentation, it’s interesting that their most traditional beer, a dark Belgian strong ale called Van Dammit, brought home a gold medal from the Great American Beer Festival in late September. It was the only beer in the state of Maryland so honored at the country’s biggest beer competition. Van Dammit was created by master brewer Ryan Harvey, who came to Jailbreak after serving as the lead brewer at Dogfish Head and working at Alaskan Brewing in Alaska and Keegan Ales in New York. “It’s one of our few beers that’s just a beer,” he says. “I wanted to make that style. It’s one of my favorites in the Belgian world.” The Jailbreak team sent Van Dammit to the 2014 Great American Beer Festival, and though it didn’t win a medal, the feedback they received encouraged the team to keep refining it. By the fourth batch, they felt it was ready. Van Dammit isn’t a groundbreaking take on a Belgian strong ale; it’s just a terrific one. A rich blend of Belgian specialty malts, dark Belgian candied sugar, monastery yeast and brown sugar, it’s in perfect balance, with no sharp alcohol note or overwhelming sweetness. Flavors of figs, plums and dark fruit shine through. The mouth feel has a sticky, almost tacky quality, and there’s a long, lingering finish reminiscent of soft, sugary raisins. The alcohol checks in at 10.1 percent, but the beer’s so smooth, you’ll hardly notice. The beer is now available at Jailbreak’s Laurel taproom, and another batch should be kegged and on its way to local bars


WUSA and Inova hospital chain have a cozy partnership — but is it too close?

Like many TV stations, WUSA (Channel 9) in Washington airs regular feature stories on its newscasts about medical and health topics. And when it does, WUSA tends to turn to one source: the Inova hospital chain of Northern Virginia. Inova’s doctors and patients have been interviewed for dozens of WUSA’s regular “Family Health” news features about such topics as treating sleep apnea, losing weight and preventing sports injuries. The segments typically manage to work Inova’s logo into the background. The station sometimes even offers viewers referral information to the hospital at the end of the reports. Inova has another role in the “Family Health” features: It’s the sole sponsor of them. The segments raise a question that has dogged the relationship between health-care organizations and TV stations across the country for years: Should such feature stories be called news reports or advertising — or an ill-defined hybrid of both? For years, hospitals have been among local stations’ most loyal advertisers, running ads to reach viewers who live around or near their medical facilities. Hospitals and their doctors are also regular news sources, providing expert advice on TV about common health problems or medical crises. As a result of their common interest, stations and hospitals created “partnerships” in which the station spotlighted the hospital in news pieces and hospitals sponsored the reports. The arrangement served journalists because it gave them easy access to expert sources. But it also led to such unsavory practices as hospitals feeding video news releases and other promotional material to some stations, which aired them without indicating their source. The lines between news and marketing became so blurred that in 2005 an organization for TV news professionals, the Radio Television Digital News Association, promulgated guidelines calling for hospital source material to be clearly labeled on the air and on-screen, said Barbara Cochran, a University of Missouri journalism professor who also is a former president of the organization. The group also instructed its members to “determine news content solely through editorial judgment and not as the result of outside influence” and to “refuse to allow the interests of ownership or management to influence news judgment and content inappropriately.” WUSA and Inova signed a multipart agreement last year (renewed earlier this year) that covers the production and airing of commercials promoting the hospital, the creation of longer-form “infomercials” (program-length commercials), and its sponsorship of regular “Family Health” news segments.