Australian jihadist who tweeted gruesome photo has long history of mental illness

Khaled Sharrouf, right, and two boys reported to be his sons, in a photo posted to Sharrouf’s now-closed Twitter account. (Twitter) SYDNEY — “That’s my boy!” a caption on the photo said. The photo of the child, who is likely one of Sharrouf’s sons, was front-page news in Australia and Britain, where it triggered widespread revulsion. It also highlighted a little-noticed aspect of the conflict in Iraq and Syria: The Islamic State seems to be attracting — scattered among its recruits — violent young men from the West, many suffering from mental disorders, psychologists say. A steady stream of young Muslim men have left Britain and Australia to fight for the movement, which has declared a caliphate in territory it has seized straddling the Syria-Iraq border. Australia’s attorney general, George Brandis, estimates that 60 Australians are fighting in the conflict, giving the country one of the largest shares of combatants from outside the Middle East, based on its population. Many, like Sharrouf, lived on the fringes of Muslim society here, a minority population in a predominantly Christian country. Some, like Sharrouf, are deeply disturbed. In his home town of Sydney, Sharrouf drifted into petty teenage crime accelerated by depression. His mental illnesses were tallied in court records stemming from a terrorism charge he pleaded guilty to five years ago. After he was released from jail in 2009, he was given a state pension because of his psychological condition. In Syria and Iraq, where Sharrouf appears to be living with his Australian wife and five children, he openly enjoys the notoriety of being one of Australia’s most prominent terrorists. He poses with executed Iraqi soldiers. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, but authorities acknowledge that there is little chance of apprehending him in rebel-held areas. In one photograph, which appeared on Twitter in early August, he posed for the Islamic State version of a family portrait. Sharrouf and three preteen boys, presumably his sons, stand in front of the black Islamic State flag wearing camouflage and holding weapons. The youngest, who looks to be about 4, grasps a stockless Kalashnikov assault rifle. The Twitter account, which has since been shut down, included another, more shocking photo. The oldest of the three boys is pictured holding a man’s head by its hair — using both hands to support the weight. Posing obediently for the camera, he is dressed like a


Capital Teas begins wholesale business

Ashley Monroe checked the aroma of teas at Capital Teas in the Mosaic District in Fairfax County in November 2013. The Annapolis-based chain is establishing a wholesale division to oversee its business with restaurants and hotels. (Jeffrey MacMillan) Capital Teas, a local chain of specialty tea shops, is moving into the wholesale business. The company announced Thursday that it is establishing a new division within its Annapolis headquarters to oversee sales to restaurants and hotels. The move comes at a time of rapid expansion for the company, which received a $5 million private equity investment in March and is in the process of doubling its warehouse in Annapolis to 8,000 square feet. The company’s sales will probably double to more than $3 million this year, said chief executive Peter Martino, who founded the company with his wife, Manelle, in 2007. Capital Teas began dipping its toes into the wholesale business a couple of years ago, when high-profile District restaurants began asking to carry the company’s teas. A number of eateries, including Le Diplomate, Bombay Club and Rose’s Luxury, now serve its products. “We decided why not extend this concept further?” Martino said. “We’re looking at wholesale sales as an additional [source of] revenue for the company.” Dan Ritter will manage the company’s wholesale business along the East Coast. Ritter formerly oversaw a number of magazines, including TeaTime, and served as general manager of the national chain Teavana, which is now part of Starbucks. The Martinos started Capital Teas with a small outpost in Annapolis that they financed with $75,000 from their savings in 2007. The second store, in National Harbor in Prince George’s County, came three years later. The company will open its eighth location next week on Capitol Hill, and has plans to open at least four more stores by the end of the year, Martino said. “There has always been a big coffee culture in this country,” Martino said. “Now we’re going through something of a revolution — people are starting to drink tea and understand its health benefits.” Capital Business is a Post publication focusing on the region’s business community. For more Washington business news, go to www.capbiz.biz. More from Capital Business: For a daily rundown of Washington-area business news, sign up for the “CapBiz A.M.” e-mail newsletter.


County reports 12 confirmed or suspected cases of whooping cough in schools

Three confirmed cases of whooping cough and nine suspected cases have been reported by Montgomery County at four schools, according to officials and a letter that went home to parents. Whooping cough, or pertussis, is highly contagious and begins with mild, coldlike symptoms, including coughs and runny noses. The initial symptoms usually appear seven to 10 days after exposure. The cough usually gets worse over subsequent weeks and becomes spasmodic. It may be followed by a whooping sound that gives the disease its name. Pertussis is spread through coughs or sneezes and may also be spread through sharing food or eating utensils. In the letter that was sent home, officials said it is important that students who are ill remain at home and stay away from other people, especially infants and young children. The illness is caused by bacteria and treated with antibiotics. Public health officials strongly urge parents to have their children vaccinated as infants, and a booster is recommended at age 11 or 12. - Montgomery County warns about whooping cough in schools Montgomery County health officials warned parents at four public schools that there have been reported cases of whooping cough among students who apparently attended the same summer camp. Read the letter. The schools with confirmed or suspected cases are Robert Frost Middle, Julius West Middle, Cabin John Middle and Cold Spring Elementary. Health officials believe that several children who attended a Pennsylvania summer camp were exposed to pertussis. It was not immediately clear how many students who went to the camp or attend the four schools have been vaccinated. Parents were asked to watch their children for symptoms and notify their children’s primary-care provider quickly if any are seen. In a provisional report for 2013, federal health officials said 24,231 cases of pertussis had been reported in the United States. The report said 196 cases had been reported in Maryland, about 3.3 cases for every 100,000 residents. Nine deaths were listed in the United States, all in infants younger than 3 months old.


Capital Buzz: Investment pro Michael Farr offers a reality check

music stops!” Mixing beer and wine David Keuhner “The short version is, we were contacted by a brewmaster whose father was a retired Marine who wanted to make beer recipes for us. He proposed launching the beer.” At first, Keuhner — a self-professed wine guy — demurred. But the more he studied the proposal, the more he became convinced there was a business there. “Recent studies show that the craft brew industry has been growing at 20 percent a year for the last five years,” said Keuhner, 44, who has a long history in the Washington hospitality sector. The beer should hit in the next two to four weeks in Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia. He already has a contract with a brewer to produce an initial 700 to 1,000 kegs a month to start. Keuhner has been producing wine for the last two years, in addition to consulting and creating wine experiences for select clients around the country. That includes finding wine destinations, creating corporate wine gifts and helping organize wine dinners he is preparing for a pair of elite collectors in Houston. Keuhner is acquiring two acres of grapes in California’s Russian River Valley that will become his 2014 Pinot Noir. The Honor family of wines includes four varietals: pinot noir, cabernet, cabernet Franc and a blend known as GSM. Keuhner said the Honor line, which sells for $49 to $89 per bottle, has sold around 3,000 cases. The wine is now available in 10 states, and is expanding soon. He said his two Napa Valley warehouses were not damaged in last week’s Northern California earthquake, which may have wreaked havoc on barreled wine for the 2013 vintage. “We were considerably lucky,” Keuhner said. The Buzz hears: Timothy R. Schantz District-based Clutch Group, which helps law firms and Fortune 500 companies analyze data, fill temporary legal positions and review documents, is expanding by a third to nearly 10,000 square feet in the National Press Building on 14th Street NW. The company has more than 650 employees, including 120 in its Washington headquarters. The company needs the space, in part, to house a larger data center. Clutch has added clients to its oil and natural resources, financial services and life sciences practices, which also helped necessitate the need to expand. Clutch was founded in 2005 by Abhi Shah, and has offices in New York, Chicago, Bangalore and London.


D.C.’s first kombucha brewery looks to expand

got started, there weren’t very many healthy, no-sugar beverages to choose from,” said Andreas Schneider, 30, one of the company’s co-founders. “We wanted to a good-tasting alternative to soda.” Two years after its founding, the District’s first kombucha brewery is hoping to expand. The company recently turned a small profit, and its co-founders say they are talking to investors about ramping up production capacity. Annual sales grew five-fold last year, and Schneider said he expects revenue to grow about 200 percent this year. He would not disclose the company’s revenue, but said it was on track to exceed six figures this year. “To date, we’ve entirely bootstrapped this company,” Schneider said, adding that start-up costs were “in the low five-figures.” Co-founders Lee, Schneider and Daniel Lieberman met during their first semester of business school at George Washington University in late 2011. Schneider, who brewed kombucha at his apartment, introduced the other two to the drink. “The first time I tried it, I was like ‘Is this what it’s supposed to taste like?’” Lee, 31, recalled. They began experimenting with flavors, adding ginger root and honey to some batches, watermelon and cucumber to others. Today, the company sells 11 varieties, including peach, mango chili and basil lemongrass. The drinks are naturally carbonated and sweetened using honey and agave. “It took us six to eights months to get the flavors right,” Schneider said, adding that some flavors, such as lemon chrysanthemum, got nixed along the way. “After that, it was quick.” The trio began selling their first bottles of kombucha in April 2012, focusing on local markets such as Seasonal Pantry in Shaw and Smucker Farms of Lancaster County on 14th Street NW. For months, they worked alongside Pleasant Pops and other homegrown start-ups in a shared kitchen in Petworth. About two years ago, the company moved to its current space at Union Kitchen, a commercial kitchen space in NoMa. In a typical week, workers make several large drums of iced tea using organic black and green tea blends. Employees check the pH and taste of the mixture several times a day to monitor the yeast and bacteria. Once the kombucha is fermented, the drinks are bottled, four at a time using a small machine, and sent to a refrigerated warehouse in Capitol Heights. The drink has a three-month shelf life. “We like to cater to customers who haven’t tried kombucha before,”


Purple Line transit project opponents sue to protect tiny species they can’t even find

American University professor David Culver spent a week in April hunting through damp spots in the forest floor in Montgomery County in hope of finding rare varieties of tiny, shrimp-like creatures called amphipods. He didn’t find any. Not a one. This might have been a major setback for the folks who hired the environmental scientist. They’re paying Culver thousands of dollars with the goal of blocking plans for the light-rail Purple Line in suburban Maryland on grounds that it threatens the critters with extinction. But they can’t make their case if the miniature crustaceans aren’t there to protect. So, did Culver’s failure stop opponents from suing to thwart the project under the Endangered Species Act? No way! They went right ahead and filed a federal civil complaint on Tuesday. It’s all just a legal gimmick, of course. Having failed to kill or reroute the Purple Line despite years of agitation, a small but resolute band of critics is exploiting a pair of amphipod species in what could be the final, serious bid to disrupt the transit project. It would be a shame if they succeed, and not only because the Purple Line would create a long-overdue transit rail link between Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. The Purple Line also would be a significant plus for our region’s overall environment, which is why leading green organizations — including the Sierra Club, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Natural Resources Defense Council — support it. The Purple Line would help pack more people into the inner suburbs with access to transit. The “smart growth” goal is to encourage the region to grow denser in the middle rather than wider around the edges. That reduces the need to build another ring of outer suburban sprawl, which would eat up green space and add to commuting times. Must we pay a price? Absolutely. As I’ve noted before, building the Purple Line will require bulldozing 17 acres of mature forest. It will spoil the bucolic atmosphere along the Georgetown Branch walking and biking trail, an extension of the better-known Capital Crescent Trail. And yes, it would be a shame to threaten the survival of any of God’s creatures, even a mini-shrimp of no particular value apart from its singularity as a species. “I do not think that, say, in Rock Creek they’re important in the ecosystem,” said Culver, a leading expert on amphipod habitat. But wise stewardship


A city in economic doldrums seeks to reinvent itself

part of the rail yard — proof that the ideas Diaz and others presented to Union Pacific could bear fruit. Construction workers are busy finishing the facility, and the company’s workers are now assured their jobs won’t be sent elsewhere in Thermo Fisher’s global production system. Given the options, company spokesman Ron O’Brien said, it made the most sense to recommit to Fremont. But just by redesigning and optimizing its operations — bringing under one roof employees that are scattered among several sites — the company estimates it can dramatically boost output without much additional hiring. Workers will no longer have to make a 20-minute drive to go to the warehouse; the hours one employee spends ensuring that bottles on test liquids are properly sealed will be saved when a self-testing bottle-capping machine is designed into the new building; the two employees worth of labor devoted to manually folding test kit boxes will be eliminated with another machine. That type of ebb and flow is happening across the country. The static snapshot can look depressing. Unemployment remains high, at 6.2 percent. But the flow underneath can sometimes paint a different picture — one that puts an even more nuanced light on globalization. Those auto jobs that went to Canada and Japan? They have since come back to Mississippi and Texas, where Toyota is expanding its production of Corolla cars and Tacoma trucks. Ask Tony Camillo and the other former NUMMI workers about themselves and there is no doubt the adjustment has been hard. No central statistics have been kept about how many are now working. But anecdotally they say many have landed on their feet, often by switching to jobs in growing sectors of the economy. The folks at NUMMI may not write code for Google. But a number have gotten jobs driving the “Google bus” that transports workers each day, or working at the local bus maker, Gillig, that manufactures them. And Tony Camillo? It took a while. But he has caught the same wave as so many others in this part of country. He is now a quality control inspector at Celestica, a computer drive and electronics manufacturer. The wages are half what he made at NUMMI — about $14 an hour. And he has piled on as many hours as possible. But he is back at work. Schneider is now the Federal Reserve correspondent at Reuters News.


World Digest: Aug. 30, 2014

had ordered the barricade on Aug. 19 after West Point residents stormed an Ebola health center several days earlier. Meanwhile, physician’s assistant Kyndy Kobbah was expected to be released from the hospital Saturday after she survived Ebola, which has been fatal in more than half the cases sweeping West Africa. Kobbah urged the manufacturer of the experimental drug ZMapp to step up production. The company has said that all its supplies are exhausted and it will take months to make more. Doctors have said there is no way to know whether ZMapp made a difference or whether survivors like Kobbah recovered on their own, as about 45 percent of people infected in this outbreak have. However, a study released online Friday by the journal Nature found that ZMapp healed all 18 monkeys infected with the deadly virus. — Associated Press LESOTHO Military accused of attempted coup Lesotho’s military seized two police stations Saturday as gunfire rang out in the capital of the mountainous kingdom. The country’s prime minister said the actions amounted to a coup, although an army spokesman said the soldiers were only securing the country. Political tensions have been high in the kingdom since June when there was a power struggle after Prime Minister Thomas Thabane suspended parliament to avoid a vote of no confidence. At the time, South Africa, which completely surrounds the tiny country, warned against simmering conflict. “We are calling on the commander of the armed forces to return to the barracks and allow the democratically elected government to return to its business,” said Clayson Monyela, spokesman for South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Co-operations. He said actions by Lesotho’s military bore the hallmarks of a coup d’état but added, “The situation in Lesotho is still unfolding. No one has claimed to take over government. . . . Our interest is to see it resolved through peaceful means.” — Associated Press Islamist leader, 7 others given life sentences in Egypt: 20 Nicaraguan miners freed: Philippine peacekeepers rescued on Golan Heights: Thirty-two U.N. peacekeepers were rescued from Islamist militants who fired at their post on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights and trapped them for two days, the United Nations said. Another group of 40 Philippine U.N. peacekeepers remain trapped by militants who reinforced their siege Saturday with fighters who arrived in more than 20 vehicles, U.N. diplomatic officials said. — From news services


Anne Arundel Popeye’s employee found dead; police say they have made an arrest

Anne Arundel County police say they have made an arrest in the killing of a Popeye’s employee whose body was found badly beaten inside the fast-food restaurant’s stockroom Sunday morning. County police identified the victim as Luzviminda Monreal, 47, of Laurel, Md. Her body suffered “significant trauma,” authorities said. Monreal’s body was found inside the Popeye’s at 5317 Ritchie Highway in north Brooklyn Park. The restaurant's manager discovered the body shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday. Detectives said the woman had worked at the restaurant Saturday evening. No motive has been established. Anne Arundel police are expected to release more details of the arrest at a news conference Tuesday morning. Lynh Bui contributed to this report. This story has been updated. Get updates on your area delivered via e-mail


Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers are missing after heavy fighting. Their families want answers.

video ends with a graphic killing spree. When Sabah Kadhim Sayhood, 35, and his family gathered to watch, he spotted his 27-year-old brother cowering in the back of a cattle truck before lying facedown in the dirt and being shot by militants toting Kalashnikov rifles. “All of us — my mother, the four children — all of us were watching,” Sayhood said. “This was our first day of Eid. You can’t imagine the tragedy.” As well as the return of the bodies, family members are demanding the prosecution of army officers at the Speicher base for not better protecting the facility. “We want them to cut the heads of these leaders,” said Sayhood, whose family held a funeral for his brother after the video was released, despite not having the body. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki last week announced a committee to investigate the Speicher deaths. “The Iraqi parliament still has no accurate information about what happened,” Ahmed al-Jubouri, a spokesman for the speaker of parliament, said Tuesday. Nasiriyah is used to paying a heavy price for Iraq’s conflicts. One of its poorest pockets is known as the Martyrs’ District because of the death toll here during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Rubbish is strewn across the sunbaked dirt streets in the country’s fourth-largest city. “In this neighborhood there used to be so many young people,” said 19-year-old Ihab Ismail, whose 27-year-old brother, Mustafa, was presumed killed in a helicopter crash in July. Despite receiving a notice of death from the military, the family refuses to hold a funeral until his remains are returned. Without his body, his wife still holds out hope that he was captured, not killed, when his helicopter went down in the western Anbar province, where the Islamic State controls large tracts of territory. Families from across the country have traveled the grim circuit of hospitals and morgues looking for information on the missing. Many say they are turned away with little assistance. At the central Baghdad morgue, some bodies suspected to be from mass killings have turned up. “These are all from Speicher,” said Ammar Ridha, a worker at the morgue, opening a grimy refrigerator to show some of the 116 bodies that he said arrived after floating downstream. Now they are piled up in black bags. Others rot in the sun outside because there is little space in the refrigerators. Ridha said the bodies will be


Police investigate fatal shooting of Alexandria man in D.C.

D.C. police are investigating the death of a man found shot in Southeast Washington over the weekend, authorities said. Shortly after 7 a.m. Sunday, officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 2500 block of Pomeroy Road, police said. They found Willard Carlos Shelton, 38, of Alexandria, with multiple gunshot wounds. Shelton died at the hospital. Police ask anyone with information about the case to call 202-727-9099. A reward of up to $25,000 is available for information that leads to an arrest and conviction. Get updates on your area delivered via email


Virginia accelerator welcomes new cohort of cybersecurity companies

A business accelerator created specifically for cybersecurity start-ups in Virginia will welcome a new cohort of companies Tuesday, one year after its doors opened with the goal of establishing the commonwealth as a hotbed for the cybersecurity industry. Among the companies is the developer of a database where companies can securely store customer information, such as credit card numbers, and the creator of software that makes messaging on Facebook Chat private and confidential. The start-ups accepted into the three-month MACH37 program, which is funded with state money, receive a $50,000 investment, access to a network of mentors and instruction on how to develop their ideas into viable businesses. “We want to create companies that can be sustainable and that we can get a return on investment from,” said Rick Gordon, the program’s managing partner. The program also wants those companies to stay in Virginia. The commonwealth is competing with a number of areas around the country, including neighboring Maryland, to become a hub for companies that sell cybersecurity software and other technology to both the federal government and commercial industries. Spending on cybersecurity technology has risen dramatically in recent years as government agencies, their contractors and other corporations experience a growing number of cyberattacks that are both increasingly sophisticated and damaging. “It is a Main Street issue now,” Gordon said. “It’s not just folks in the financial services sector that are worried about it or folks that are involved in the electric grid that are worried about it. Everyone is worried about it because the Internet is pervasive and part of the fabric of everyone’s lives.” Entrepreneurs are creating companies in response to that concern and, in turn, economic development officials are courting those companies as a potential source of well-paying jobs and tax revenue. Maryland is home to the U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade and the soon-to-be-built National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Montgomery County. Last month, a state-backed investment outlet, Technology Development Corp., created a $1 million fund that will invest up to $100,000 in promising cybersecurity ventures. Gordon at MACH37 said companies in the program that accept the $50,000 investment must form a “significant presence” in the commonwealth within two years. “We think what that means is at the very minimum a Mid-Atlantic or government-focused sales and delivery mechanism,” Gordon said. “Ideally what we think makes a lot of sense is they’ll headquarter here, but we’re


At 40, High Times branches out into partnerships and even a private equity fund

comes around to where you are.” The magazine was started in the spring of 1974 by Thomas Forçade, who hoped to create a Playboy for drugs and the counterculture. “We’re fundamentally and seriously concerned with breakthroughs in human consciousness and pleasure,” Ed Dwyer, the founding editor, said in a news release celebrating the first issue’s success. And although High Times launched with a focus on all drugs, the magazine has always held pot in special regard. “That was always one of the underpinnings of the magazine, that press for legalization,” Dwyer said. The first issue outlined research showing what a “wonder drug” marijuana was, with benefits for asthmatics and glaucoma patients. Early issues featured stories such as “How to Make a Fortune After Legalization” and highlighted the 10 best planes for the “dope-smuggling pilot.” For most of the magazine’s 40 years, marijuana was completely illegal. But that changed in 1996, when voters in California approved the nation’s first medical-marijuana law. Other states followed, and today 23 states and the District of Columbia allow the use of medical marijuana. Colorado and Washington state initiated their historic experiments in legalization for recreational use this year, and voters in Oregon, Alaska and the District will consider joining them this fall. Last year, for the first time in decades of polling on the question, both Pew and Gallup found a majority of Americans supported marijuana legalization. High Times is looking to take advantage of that shift. Editorial Director Dan Skye, whose name is a pseudonym, said the magazine is in the process of moving to larger offices from its current digs in midtown Manhattan. The company said the anniversary edition has 164 pages — nearly half of them advertisements for pot-growing accessories, vaporizers and other paraphernalia. And Web traffic has grown exponentially this year, with June traffic peaking at more than 5 million visitors, according to Skye. As a business, the magazine sees itself catering to the marijuana connoisseur interested in the latest growth techniques, strains and technologies. This fall, the company will hold its 27th annual Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, a trade show and expo for the industry that includes a judging competition. High Times continues to run big, glossy centerfolds of marijuana plants and to publish price quotes for various cities around the world, a feature included in the very first issue and known as Trans High Market Quotations. Depending on quality


Bison return to National Zoo

“We had lots of volunteers helping to [get the bison used] to being around people.” A happy home The young bison have gotten so accustomed to their handlers at the zoo that they happily nibble snacks such as apples, carrots and special “leaf-eater” biscuits out of their hands. “It’s fun interacting with them and having them come up to us in a very doglike fashion, especially Wilma,” keeper Marty Dearie says. “Everywhere I go, she’s sticking her head out like, ‘What are you doing?’ She wants to interact in a playful way.” So, exactly what makes a happy home for an urban bison? According to Sarro, it’s all about a comfy barn, grass, shade, water and a future wallowing hole for mud baths. Bison love to wallow in mud or dust to stay cool. When they’re ready, Wilma and Zora will pick the spot for a wallowing hole in their enclosure. “Once they pick a spot and start rolling around in it, we’ll add water and dirt to make it a true mud wallow for them,” Sarro says. “Bison love to wallow.” — Kitson Jazynka Learn more about American bison More than 30 million bison once roamed wild in North America. But by the mid-1800s, bison had been hunted nearly to extinction. Zoos and conservation organizations have worked together to bring them back. The American Prairie Reserve has more than 300,000 acres of wild prairie, which serves as home to hundreds of bison and other wild animals such as elk, white-tailed deer, coyotes, mountain lions and such small animals as brown bats, beavers, bobcats, weasels, rattlesnakes and snapping turtles. For more information, you and your parents can check out www.americanprairie.org. Fun facts about American bison: ● American bison are large herbivores (grass eaters) that can plow snow with their wide furry heads to find grass buried underneath. ● They are the largest land animal native to North America and can run faster than horses. ● In the wild, bison help prairie dogs stay safe by keeping the grass short so predators have fewer places to hide. ● Bison (and two types of buffalo — Asian and African) are in the same family of hoofed animals as cattle, sheep, antelopes and goats. But bison are not the same species as buffalo. If you go What: Where: How much: More information: A parent can call 202-633-4888 or go to nationalzoo.si.edu. Don’t miss:


First Air Force instructor convicted in sexual-assault scandal dies in prison

the military Officer imprisoned for sex assaults dies The first Air Force instructor convicted of rape and sexual assault in a massive sex scandal at one of the nation’s busiest military training centers has died while in prison, officials said Tuesday. Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, a former instructor at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, was found unresponsive Friday at the federal military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Denise Haeussler, a spokeswoman for the fort, said Walker was taken to a hospital, where he died Sunday night. Haeussler said the cause of death was being investigated and that no further details would be available until Army criminal investigators have completed their work in the case. It was unclear how long that would take. Walker had been serving a 20-year prison sentence. In July 2012, a military court found Walker, then a married father with two sons, guilty of 28 counts of rape, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated sexual contact. Lackland is where all Air Force recruits go through basic training, and Walker’s was the first case tried after a massive sex scandal in which dozens of instructors were accused of preying on female recruits. — Associated Press CALIFORNIA $1.4 billion fine for utility after blast California regulatory judges issued a $1.4 billion penalty on Tuesday against the state’s largest utility for a lethal 2010 gas pipeline explosion that engulfed a suburban San Francisco neighborhood in flames, killing eight people and prompting national alerts about the oversight of aging pipelines. The California Public Utilities Commission said the figure reached by two administrative law judges against Pacific Gas & Electric in the San Bruno pipeline explosion represented the largest safety-related penalty it had ever imposed. The amount of the penalty is meant to “send a strong message to PG&E, and all other pipeline operators, that they must comply with mandated federal and state pipeline safety requirements, or face severe consequences,” Judge Timothy J. Sullivan wrote in his order. The largest share of the penalty — $950 million — is a fine to be paid directly to the state. The amount drew objections from city officials in San Bruno and from the utility that the money should be spent on improving the security of the pipeline network. PG&E said in a statement it fully accepts that a penalty is appropriate, and a spokesman said the company is reviewing the ruling. The judges’


Top skaters do 26.2 miles in 90 minutes, saying it’s easier on the knees than running

speedskating, and indoor and outdoor inline skating. There are casual skaters, fitness skaters, competitive skaters and the racers. But skating a marathon-length course or longer is a different type of beast. Those who do it tout the thrill of going long distances with less of the pain and anguish that comes with running. Many adult skaters were runners in a previous athletic life who swapped their running shoes for skates to ease the pressure on their knees. “Skating is a lot easier,” said Jon Deason, a professor at the School of Engineering and Applied Science at George Washington University and president of Washington Area Roadskaters (WAR). “The times are almost exactly half. I tried to break four hours [running a marathon] but never did. When I started skating, I broke two hours. My fastest time was 1:49:00. Running is double the intensity and really hard.” But don’t be fooled. Long-distance inline skating is a challenge, and many skaters take up the sport as part of being fit. Skater’s Quest, a club out of Virginia with 60-plus members, focuses on competitive racing. “With Skater’s Quest, they are more focused on competition with the road races,” said coach Nathaniel Mills, a D.C. resident and three-time Olympian in ice speedskating, comparing the group’s style with WAR’s more recreational approach. But the group is still more relaxed than some some of the elite racers on the national circuit. “It’s more personal for them, not about cash prizes or a spot on the national team. It’s a bit like a [running] marathon, a notch in the belt,” Mills said. Like marathoners, skaters travel the United States and the world to compete. Top races this fall include Athens to Atlanta (A2A), the Georgia-based race that traverses 87 miles end-to-end, the NorthShore Inline Marathon in Duluth, Minn., and the 24inlineMontreal, a 24-hour relay race in Canada. Skating’s uncertain future Inline road skating has had a dedicated presence in the region for decades. (Photo courtesy of Greg Scace) The Washington area is a hotbed for skaters, on the roads and on ice. Several national champions in ice speedskating have come from the region, a byproduct of the many Korean coaches who immigrated to the area. The D.C. chapter of Inner City Excellence (DC-ICE), a beneficiary of Skate of the Union, teaches youngsters the finer points of both ice and inline skating. Started by Olympic champion Shani Davis and


Montgomery County Animal Watch

This case was received recently 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. Sniffing out an eviction: Free workshop: Adopt or foster rescue dogs: Rockville Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Improving your garden’s ecology

edge plant between shady and sunny beds or as a freestanding tree in the lawn. You need at least two for fruit production. Varieties have been developed for better fruit quality. Darke: “You could even use them to line walkways almost as an allée. The fall color [golden yellow] is outrageous.” Sources: 3. White wood aster Unlike the late-summer asters of the meadow, the white wood aster (Aster divaricatus) is a low-growing shade plant that makes a beautifully textured ground cover. It blooms white in late spring, although its real value is its dense green foliage. Use it instead of mulch. Darke: “It’s a living, weed-suppressing ground cover that is deer-proof, durable and versatile.” Sources: 4. Christmas fern This is a medium-size native fern that remains green in winter, when its fronds lie flat. This is a useful, highly textural and deer-proof ground cover for areas of dry shade. It’s known botanically as Polystichum acrostichoides. Darke: “Use it to define pathways. It’s a fern with seasonality; in the spring the new fronds are chartreuse. Also, it’s a plant that will outlive you.” Sources: 5. Mountain mint This perennial grows in partial shade or sunny conditions and when massed provides a striking and aromatic block of color and texture. Several species are gaining in popularity, but Darke commends the more assertive mountain mint species Pycnanthemum muticum for new plantings in disturbed soil, to squeeze out weeds and invasives. The foliage is gray and topped in summer with white blooms. Darke: “A fabulous plant for pollen and nectar services: loaded with all kinds of butterflies and hynoptera.” Sources: 6. Pinkroot Firmly in the realm of nerd plants, the pinkroot is a native perennial (Spigelia marilandica) with showy, upright clusters of red tubular flowers that draw hummingbirds in early summer. It is also one of those plants that resents disturbance and doesn’t lend itself to conventional container planting. It is best grown from seed or as a young plant, and, once established, it will spread by highly scattered seed. The gardener, at that point, merely removes plants from unwanted spots. Darke: “It’s promoted as a rarity that needs shade and moisture. We have seen that it is easy to naturalize.” Sources: More from The Washington Post: Gardening lessons learned from the farm Where have all the butterflies gone? The U.S. National Arboretum is breathing new life into an old plant @adrian_higgins on Twitter


Beer: Session IPAs offer the taste of hops without the kick of alcohol

at the Great American Beer Festival or in the Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines employed for home-brew competitions. But the consensus seems to place the upper limit in the range of 4.5 to 5 percent by volume. Lassoing the alcohol means using less malt. And that leaves the brewer balancing on a tightrope, trying to stuff as much hops as possible into a relatively thin-bodied brew without producing an acerbic and undrinkable hop tea. Mitch Steele, brew master for Stone Brewing in Escondido, Calif., uses a technique called “hop bursting” for his Go To IPA. It involves adding the bulk of hops to the brew kettle either toward the end of the boil or afterwards, as the beer-to-be is being strained of particles or undergoing fermentation and conditioning. Hop bursting limits the production of alpha acids — the primary source of bitterness in hops — and maximizes the production of the volatile oils that give hops their distinctive perfume. The best session IPAs contain a blend of Pacific Northwest (and sometimes Australian or New Zealand) hop varieties that lend a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers, resin, grapefruit, orange and tropical fruit. Go To IPA is especially complex, hopped with 12 different strains. It’s a trick that Steele learned when he was brewing Budweiser for Anheuser-Busch: “They used a lot of varieties, because it makes substitutions easier if you can’t get the hops you want.” Steele suggests another reason for the population explosion of session IPAs: Brewers seem to love them. “So many of our employees were taking Go To home as their monthly keg that we nearly ran out. I’ve had it on tap constantly at my home.” Solidarity Session IPA, the collaborative brew for the recent DC Beer Week, incorporates half as many hops but has a pungent aroma with distinct notes of mango and tangerine. A dozen local breweries hashed out the recipe over the Internet and pooled ingredients. The actual brewing was done at DC Brau, which produced a single 30-barrel batch. “It’s not too far from the hop treatment we give Armageddon,” said DC Brau brewer Jeff Hancock, referring to On the Wings of Armageddon, his double IPA. The big difference is that Armageddon clocks in at an apocalyptic 9.2 percent alcohol; Solidarity measures less than half that, at 4.5 percent. Across town at Bluejacket, Lost in Space is what you get when you cross Lost Weekend


The best pizza happy hours in the Washington area

and basil; the margherita classica ($5.50) is the expected mix of fresh mozzarella, basil and parmesan. Wash them down with $3 drafts, $2.50 and $3 bottles of beer, or a choice of Italian wine — three reds, three whites — for $4 per glass or $15 per bottle. Pizzeria Paradiso Three locations: 3282 M St. NW.202-337-1245; 2003 P St. NW.202-223-1245; 124 King St., Alexandria.703-837-1245. www.eatyourpizza.com. The three branches of Pizzeria Paradiso appeal to both craft beer nerds and pizza fans, especially those on a budget. Monday through Thursday, from 5 to 7 p.m., every draft beer is half-price, so you’ll pay $3 to $5 for ales from Mikkeller, Allagash and Birrificio. The Italian-style pies, fresh from the wood-burning oven, cost $12 for personal-size or $18 for a 12-inch version. (At the Georgetown branch, note that happy hour is offered Tuesday through Thursday throughout the basement Birreria but is at the upstairs bar on Monday.) Radius Pizza 3155 Mount Pleasant St. NW.202-234-0202. www.radiuspizza.com. Radius’s bar is tiny, but the values at this Mount Pleasant pizzeria are large. Oversized New York-style slices are $3, plus an extra buck per topping, whether you choose Gorgonzola cheese, sopressetta or sweet Italian sausage. A glass of house red or white from the predominantly Italian list is $4, as is a pint of craft beer or a rail cocktail. On Monday night, a slice with beer or wine costs $7; even better, a beer and two slices is $9 and a beer and three slices is $10. RedRocks 1036 Park Rd. NW. 202-506-1402. www.redrocksdc.com. The happy hour menu at RedRocks varies by location — the restaurant on H Street NE doesn’t include discounted pizza, for example — but we prefer the options at the original Columbia Heights location. From 4 to 7 p.m. on weeknights, take your pick of a basic 11-inch cheese pizza ($7), a pepperoni pizza ($8) or upgrade to a margherita with basil and buffalo mozzarella ($9). Pints of Peroni are $3, rail drinks cost $5 and any wine by the glass is $2 off. Seventh Hill Pizza 327 Seventh St. SE. 202-544-1911. www.montmartredc.com/seventhhill. The cheery little Seventh Hill Pizza offers a great alternative to the usual Capitol Hill happy hours. From 5 to 6:30 p.m. daily, grab an eight-inch cheese pizza with a charred, puffy crust for $5. The drink special is often a $3.50 pint of Yuengling, but the selection rotates.


Backers of high-speed ‘maglev’ train to Washington claim $5 billion in funding

The L0 series magnetic-levitation train, developed by Central Japan Railway Co., moves along a test track near the control center during a trial run in Tsuru City, Japan, on Aug. 29, 2013. (Yuriko Nakao/Bloomberg) An investor group hoping to build a high-speed train capable of cutting the travel time between Baltimore and Washington to 15 minutes says in a filing to state regulators that it has lined up more than $5 billion in financial backing. The commitment is from the Japanese government, which hopes to showcase the technology behind superconducting magnetic levitation or “maglev” trains to an American audience, the company behind the proposal wrote to the Maryland Public Service Commission on Wednesday. Such trains are capable of extreme speeds, thanks to their frictionless, magnetically-controlled motion above their tracks. The technology has been approved in Japan and is to be rolled out next month on an initial stretch of track that planners hope will eventually connect Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. In addition to the $5 billion commitment from the public Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the private Central Japan Railway Co. has agreed to waive any licensing fees for use of its maglev technology, wrote attorneys for the Annapolis-based Baltimore Washington Rapid Rail LLC. The details were included in Rapid Rail’s filing Wednesday asking Maryland regulators for the old state franchise rights of the former Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railroad, a once-busy interurban electric rail car system that linked the three cities in the early 20th century. “In a back-to-the-future type way, you see that there was already a Baltimore-Washington service that previously existed. . . sort of sitting on the shelf waiting for people to pull it off and dust it off, for us to get back to providing what they had in 1935,” said Wayne Rogers, a major shareholder in Rapid Rail and chairman and chief executive of The Northeast Maglev, a separate Washington-based company backing the project. A spokeswoman for the Maryland PSC, which regulates “common carriers” in the state, including passenger rail providers, confirmed receipt of the application. The agency will open a case on the application, accept comments from staff and others, and conduct a hearing on whether granting Rapid Rail’s request “is consistent with the public convenience and necessity,” said Regina L. Davis. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s office welcomed the new details about maglev. “Because Baltimore provides millennials and empty-nesters with affordable city living,


Reporters’ deaths point to dangers Foreign Service officers also face abroad

memorial plaque, sponsored by the American Foreign Service Association. It honors Americans who died while serving the government abroad. The 245 names on the list include individuals who died from accidents or disease. “When you are talking to an FSO (Foreign Service officer), you are probably talking to someone who has lost a colleague ‘in combat,’ ” said Thomas Boyatt, who has been ambassador to Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and Colombia. He can name eight friends and coworkers who died from hostile action on duty during a 15-year period. “Unhappy memories,” he said. Another former ambassador, John Limbert, was among the hostages held in Iran for 444 days. That experience left him focused on security. “I became ferociously security-conscious for everyone,” said Limbert, who now teaches at the U. S. Naval Academy. He was in the Foreign Service for 35 years and recalls “some pretty nasty places.” Nasty or not, it is the job of diplomats to get beyond the blast walls and into places where they meet citizens of the host country. “If you have to be surrounded by a contingent of Blackwater guards everywhere,” Limbert said, “it makes it very hard.” Some government employees do have bodyguards because many people in the world don't like Uncle Sam’s policies. Being one step removed from him, as contractors are, is no protection. Those being held abroad include two Maryland contractors doing work for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Warren Weinstein, 73, passed three years in captivity last month after being kidnapped in Lahore, Pakistan. Al-Qaeda has demanded the United States release al-Qaeda and Taliban members and the halting of airstrikes against their positions. Alan Gross His wife, Judy Gross, speaks with him by phone about three times a week. Alan’s spirits are “terrible, and he feels “hopeless,” Judy said in an interview. She wakes up and goes to sleep wondering if her husband “is going to do anything to hurt himself.” Judy Gross thinks U.S. officials should have warned her husband that Cuba considers U.S. government-funded activities there to be illegal. She recalled him saying: “ ‘If I had known what I was doing was against the law, of course I wouldn’t have gone.’ ” The State Department did not respond to a request for comment on his case. Twitter: @JoeDavidsonWP Staff researcher Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report. Previous columns by Joe Davidson are available at wapo.st/JoeDavidson.


Private sector slows slightly but adds 204,000 net new jobs in August, ADP says

electric car maker at a Capitol news conference attended by Elon Musk, CEO of California-based Tesla. The governor called it a “monumental announcement that will change Nevada forever.” ● Home improvement retailer Home Depot has been in contact with the Secret Service about a possible major breach of customer and credit card data that came to light this week, a law enforcement individual told Reuters. The Secret Service, which declined to comment, usually is the lead agency in federal criminal investigations into complex breaches of credit card and other consumer data. Home Depot spokeswoman Paula Drake said Wednesday that the retailer is working with IT security firms, including Symantec Corp and FishNet Security, to investigate whether there has been a data breach. ● The richest 10 percent of Americans were the only group whose median incomes rose in the past three years, the Federal Reserve said in a report on consumer finances. The Fed’s “Survey of Consumer Finances” said incomes declined for every other group from 2010 to 2013, widening the gap between the richest Americans and everyone else. The report found that median incomes, adjusted for inflation, for the top 10 percent rose 2 percent, to $223,200 from $217,900. Median income fell 4 percent for the bottom 20 percent, to $15,200 from $15,800. For the middle 20 percent, incomes dropped 6 percent, to $48,700 from $51,800.● ● Online review site Yelp can lower or raise the rating of a business depending on whether it advertises with the company, a federal appeals court ruled in a lawsuit filed by small businesses claiming Yelp used the tactic to try to extort ads from them. Yelp has denied doing that, saying it uses an automated system to cull reviews that determine ratings. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that even if Yelp did manipulate reviews to penalize businesses, the practice would not constitute extortion. The court said businesses do not have a right to positive reviews on Yelp, and that the San Francisco-based company can seek payments for its advertising. ● U.S. services firms expanded in August at the fastest pace on record. The Institute for Supply Management said its services index rose to 59.6 last month from 58.7 in July. The August figure is the highest recorded since the measure was introduced in January 2008. — From news services Coming Today ● 8:30 a.m.: August jobs report. Antitrust


Maryland’s painfully long wait for medical marijuana

For 18 months, I have lived with chronic pain — burning mouth syndrome — triggered by oral surgery and nerve damage. On my worst days, it creates the constant sensation of having scalded my tongue and palate. On good days, it feels as though a binder clip was snapped on the tip of my tongue. It has been a miserable experience, and I try my best to manage the pain. Opioids Once on the opioid train, we live with constant scrutiny from its conductors — our own fears of dependence and addiction and the suspicion of physicians, their office staff, pharmacists and families and friends who try but cannot understand our experience. I have tried many pharmaceutical treatments and complementary therapies. Because my pain is centralized — it is really coming from my brain, not my tongue — it seems to be tamped down by exercise or a full night’s sleep. I still rely on painkillers, though, to make it through days when pain makes it hurt to eat or talk or breathe. I almost felt relieved this April when I heard that Maryland, my home for most of my 52 years, had legalized medical marijuana. Medical marijuana could never replace opiates, one pain expert told me, but it could very well reduce opioid doses and frequency. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that states that have legalized medical marijuana experienced an almost 25 percent mean reduction in opioid overdose deaths. The authors acknowledge that they do not know the interaction of policy with use, but some correlation seems likely. I see my pain doctor every month. I dutifully follow all recommendations. I exercise often. I’ve worked on relaxation and meditation and stress reduction — and still, my pain persists, and so, too, my need for medicine. These monthly visits invariably include enduring being chastised by a pharmacist who might or might not fill my prescription. Some pharmacists do not have an adequate supply of my medication, and some refuse to call other pharmacies to ask what they have in stock because all pharmacies, it seems, fear robbery. At one point, staff at my doctor’s office suggested I “drive around” until I found a pharmacy to fill it. I have talked to pain experts about the chance of medical marijuana helping me, and I decided to broach the subject with my pain doctor. I planned


Cease-fire in Ukraine threatened as fighting breaks out in east

however, have differed sharply on what decentralization of power would look like on the ground, with the Ukrainian government in Kiev rebuffing demands for broad autonomy. On Sunday, fears were growing among a segment of Ukrainians that Kiev may be bending to Moscow’s will, potentially creating a frozen conflict zone in the east similar to the breakaway regions in Georgia and Moldova that are sustained by Russian interventions. “This is an absurd plan, and no one will go for it,” said a 20-year-old businessman turned soldier from Donetsk who gave his name only as Oleg in order to talk freely. He has been fighting since May in one of the volunteer militia units set up by the government in Kiev to bolster its armed forces. Since then, he said, he has watched six of his comrades die in combat with pro-Russian rebels. Oleg said he and other pro-Ukrainian residents in the east would feel deeply betrayed if the truce ultimately left rebel “criminals” in charge. “I have watched my friends and relatives die in this conflict. That cannot have been for nothing,” he said. And yet, the cease-fire itself appeared to be less a truce than a scaling down of violence. Poleviy said that rebel forces had launched limited rocket attacks on Ukrainian military positions beginning late Saturday and continuing into Sunday. Officials in the eastern city of Mariupol said one woman was killed and three were wounded in fighting overnight. The Ukrainian-military-held airport in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk also came under fire. “We hope it was the product of miscommunications,” Poleviy said. But there were also signs of limited progress. Ukrainian officials said Sunday that prisoner swaps agreed to as part of the truce had begun Saturday, with two privates from the 9th Battalion of Ukraine’s territorial defenses released at a checkpoint in the eastern Luhansk region. Boris Litvinov, chairman of the Supreme Council of the Donetsk People’s Republic, one of the main rebel groups, said skirmishes had broken out after the cease-fire but would not say which side was instigating the violations. But he charged the Ukrainian military with using the truce to bolster its positions with additional troops and equipment in the east. “The truce is on paper, but the battles are continuing,” he said in a telephone interview. “I don’t want to be a prophet, but I am sure that in the next day the


CoStar: Retail activity is strong in D.C., but even stronger in the suburbs

options. Some of the top retail leases signed so far this year have been in the suburbs, where less expensive land allows the construction of bigger stores — and the parking space needed to support it. The top five retail leases include grocers, such as Whole Foods opening its first location in Prince George’s County, Todos Market leasing space in Woodbridge and Giant planning to open a store in Alexandria, all taking between 69,000 and 132,000 square feet of space. There is more shopping outside of the city than just groceries, however. Two of Montgomery County’s largest retail leases in 2014 were signed by movie theater operators, which plan to open theaters catering to a more upscale crowd following the successful Angelika Film Center and Café in Fairfax County’s new Mosaic district. Westfield Montgomery Mall is in the process of adding an entirely new retail section to accommodate a 66,000-square-foot cinema. Just down Rockville Pike, iPic Theaters will entertain Maryland residents in a slightly smaller 44,500-square-foot space planned for the Pike & Rose redevelopment. As one would expect, given the difference in land size, there is much more retail space in the suburbs than in the District itself. The D.C. suburbs contain 268 million square feet of retail space, more than 12 times the 22 million square feet of shopping space in the District itself. Construction activity is also higher in the suburbs. With approximately 1.44 million square feet of new retail space under construction, or nearly 2 percent of the total suburban retail market, just 372,680 square feet of new retail space is under construction in the District, less than 1 percent of the total. Because of the high demand for large spaces and more new inventory, asking rents outside the city have been on the rise since 2013, while the District has seen rising rental rates for retail space since 2012. Both Washington and its suburbs saw new tenants move into about 1 percent of their existing inventory. This positive absorption resulted in a decline in vacancy rates in the suburbs and inside city lines. The D.C. retail market as a whole boasts a healthy 4.6 percent retail vacancy rate; below the five-year average of 5.4 percent. Kirstie Boatright is a research manager for CoStar in Washington. More from Capital Business: For a daily rundown of Washington area business news, sign up for the “CapBiz A.M.” e-mail newsletter.


Budget cuts are booming business for this Washington contractor

Murphy said. “Even in good economies, people want to better organize themselves. But when budgets get tight, these problems are exacerbated.” Metalogix is not alone in this area. Companies such as Quest Software, which is now a part of Dell; New Jersey-based AvePoint; and others also specialize in the business of making government more productive. All of these companies have experienced steady growth in the past few years as federal agencies try to do more with less. When Metalogix opened its Friendship Heights office in 2010, the company’s annual revenue was about $4 million and its D.C. office employed two people, including Murphy and Rick Rolandi, Metalogix’s chief financial officer. Since then, the business has grown by more than 20 percent, year-over-year. It now counts more than 80 employees in the Washington office, and more than 250 on seven continents, including Antarctica, Murphy said. He also attributed the changing face of Washington as a factor in the company’s growth. At the Metalogix office, located right across from the Metro, a group of mostly millennial workers sit on high stools in an open office environment. Washington “is dynamic and fun and the talent pool is as rich as San Francisco,” said Murphy, who used to work in Silicon Valley. The majority of Metalogix’s business still comes from the commercial sector. Government clients include the Army, Air Force and the Defense Information Systems Agency. Company executives said they wanted to maintain a mix of public and private work, a common theme among contractors. The business is backed by venture capital firms Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Venture Partners. What sets Metalogix apart, according to Murphy, is that its software is “platform-neutral.” The company’s software is compatible with cloud services offered by Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services and other providers. “We consider ourselves the Switzerland of managing content,” Murphy said. Looking ahead, the company sees cybersecurity as its fastest area of growth, said Pat Park, vice president of the company’s public sector division. As government agencies move to the cloud, they’re increasingly concerned about managing security and guarding against insider threats, Park said. Murphy added that former government contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about mass surveillance also prompted more interest in cloud security. “There’s never a dull moment in our business,” he said. More from Capital Business: For a daily rundown of Washington area business news, sign up for the “CapBiz A.M.” e-mail newsletter.


A Chinese activist: Out of prison but not free

Teng Biao is a human rights lawyer. A month ago, the human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng — my friend and colleague — limped out of Shaya Prison in northwestern China. According to relatives, Gao was pale as a ghost. He had spent the past five years — his sentence was for three — in solitary confinement, underfed and with no access to sunlight. For a long time, his wife and children, who fled to the United States to seek asylum, did not know his whereabouts or even whether he was alive or dead. Gao grew up in an impoverished village in northern Shaanxi province, where as an adolescent he struggled for survival. He was not able to attend college, but he taught himself the law and succeeded in passing the bar exam to become a lawyer. He began practicing law in 1996, first in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, then in Beijing, and his work took him across China. With a deep sense of generosity, he made it a rule that a third of his practice would be pro bono service for the poor and downtrodden. In 2001, the Chinese Ministry of Justice named him one of China’s 10 best lawyers. I worked closely with him on some of his earliest rights defense cases. But Gao’s career as a rights lawyer quickly hit the rocks, and failing to win cases for his clients was the least of it. In 2005, he wrote open letters to the National People’s Congress and then-leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao to detail the horrendous torture being inflicted upon practitioners of Falun Gong, a fast-growing meditation group facing brutal suppression. He quickly received his reply: 24-7 surveillance of his home, death threats, harassment of his wife and children, summonses, disbarment, disappearances, torture that included savage beatings, electric shocks and the piercing of his genitals with a toothpick, and, finally, solitary confinement in prison. This took place over the past nine years. We are happy to see Gao come out of jail alive. But he is not yet free. He is now recuperating at the home of his in-laws in Urumqi. In the first days after his release, he could barely speak, but he appears to be regaining his ability to communicate. His wife reported that about half of his teeth either fell out in prison or are very loose, but Urumqi doesn’t have the dental


Man, 22, fatally shot in Northeast Washington

A 22-year-old man was shot and killed in Northeast Washington early Sunday, according to D.C. police. The victim was identified as Anthony Miller Jr., whose address was not provided. The shooting occurred about midnight Sunday in the 3100 block of Newton St. NE., just off Rhode Island Avenue near the Maryland line. Police said they had no description of the shooter but were looking for an older model Chevrolet Caprice or Ford Crown Victoria. Anyone with information is urged to call police at 202-727-9099 or text the department’s tip line at 50411. Get updates on your area delivered via email


In D.C., a 13-year-old piano prodigy is treated as a truant instead of a star student

as an ambassador for an international music foundation, the question of whether her absences violated the District’s truancy rules and law had to be kicked up to the main office. And despite requests, no one from the school system wanted to go on the record explaining its refusal to consider her performance-related absences as excused instead of unexcused. Avery Gagliano works on homework and studies her piano and violin at home in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Washington. (Kate Patterson/For The Washington Post) Avery’s parents say they did everything they could to persuade the school system. They created a portfolio of her musical achievements and academic record and drafted an independent study plan for the days she’d miss while touring the world as one of the star pianists selected by a prestigious Lang Lang Music Foundation, run by Chinese pianist Lang Lang, who handpicked Avery to be an international music ambassador. But the school officials wouldn’t budge, even though the truancy law gives them the option to decide what an unexcused absence is. The law states that an excused absence can be “an emergency or other circumstances approved by an educational institution.” Too bad, so sad. After 10 unexcused absences, it doesn’t matter whether a child was playing hooky to hang at the mall or charming audiences in Hong Kong with her mastery of Mozart. D.C. bureaucrats will label the kid a truant, will mar her transcript with that assessment and will assign a truancy officer to the case. When Avery returned in March from winning the Grand Prix at a big competition in Hartford, Conn., for her performance of a Chopin Waltz, she didn’t get calls of congratulations from her school. That was her 10th absence, so a truancy officer was called. Deciding that a truancy prosecution over piano competitions was ridiculous, Avery’s parents withdrew her from Deal. And this year, instead of touring the world as a first-class representative of D.C. public schools’ finest, she is going as a home-schooler. And no one is happy about it. “We decided to home-school her because of all the issues, because it was like a punch in the gut to have to face the fight again this year,” said Gagliano, who works at Hertz Car Rental. “We didn’t want to do this. We want to be part of the public school system. Avery has been in public school since kindergarten. She’s


World Digest: Sept. 8, 2014

AUSTRIA Former U.S. diplomat in laundering probe A former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations has been caught up in a money-laundering inquiry that led to a freeze on bank deposits he and his wife hold in Austria. Austrian officials said Monday that Zalmay Khalilzad, the founder of a global consulting group, was being investigated on suspicion of money-laundering related to business activities in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. The case became public after a blogger found documents while rummaging through a garbage can used by the state prosecutor’s office in Vienna. State prosecutor Thomas Vecsey confirmed the blogger’s report in the Austrian weekly Profil, which said the inquiry centers on the alleged transfer of $1.5 million to an account belonging to Khalilzad’s wife, Cheryl Benard. The Justice Department in May 2013 asked Austrian authorities for records regarding the Viennese bank accounts of Benard, according to Khalilzad’s American attorney, Robert B. Buehler. Austria then froze the accounts. Buehler said no charges have been filed against the couple. — Associated Press SOMALIA A.U. troops accused of sexual exploitation Some African Union troops in Somalia sexually exploited or raped women and girls who are internal refugees, a report by an international human rights group alleged Monday. Human Rights Watch said it has interviewed 21 women and girls since 2013 who described being sexually abused or sexually exploited by Burundian or Ugandan military personnel in Mogadishu. Ten incidents of sexual abuse, including rape and sexual assault, and 14 cases of sexual exploitation were documented in that period, the group said. Four of the rape cases and one sexual assault involved girls younger than 18. Human Rights Watch urged troop-contributing nations, the A.U. mission in Somalia and donors to address the abuses. A.U. troops are helping Somalia in its bid to emerge from decades of conflict. — Associated Press At least 12 killed in attacks on convoys At least 12 civilians were killed Monday in a suicide attack targeting African Union troops in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region, the first serious assault by suspected Islamist extremists in the wake of a U.S. airstrike last week that killed the leader of the militant group al-Shabab, police and a regional official said. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car next to a convoy of A.U. forces, police official Hassan Ali said. Then, amid the confusion, a second suicide attacker rammed his car into


Bye bye, birdie: Study says warming may force orioles, eagles from D.C. region

A National Audubon Society report predicts that 126 species will experience severe declines. By the turn of the century, global warming will threaten the survival of more than half of all species of birds in the United States and Canada, a new report says. Warming temperatures will dramatically alter the habitat ranges of birds in nearly every state, including Baltimore orioles and eagles in the Washington, D.C., region, forcing them to migrate to unfamiliar areas where they will have to adapt quickly or possibly perish, the study published by the National Audubon Society says. Of the 588 species studied, 126 species will experience severe declines as soon as 2050, as half of their range, the sprawling areas they inhabit in summer and winter, becomes unsuitable because of increased dryness caused by warming. An additional 188 species could greatly decline by 2080 if the pace of greenhouse gas emissions continues unabated. Over 90 per- cent of the world’s climate scientists agree that emissions from human activity are causing the planet to warm at an accelerated pace. The report, released Monday by the society, a nonprofit group that advocates for birds, was commissioned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which provided a portion of its funding. “Since 1600, only about nine bird species have gone extinct in continental North America, but we’re looking at half of North American bird species at risk by the end of this century,” Gary Langham, the report’s lead author and the Audubon Society’s chief scientist, said in a statement. The oriole, Maryland’s state bird and the mascot for Baltimore’s baseball team, might abandon the Mid-Atlantic region by 2050, the report said. The birds would likely follow cooler temperatures across the Northeast, Midwest and portions of Canada. The wood thrush, the District’s official bird, might depart for similar reasons. The range of the bald eagle, the national symbol, could decrease by nearly 75 percent by 2080, and the common loon might not be able to breed in the lower 48 states by then. As part of the same pattern, the study projects that the iconic brown pelican could leave Louisiana, the mountain bluebird might migrate out of Idaho, and the purple finch might move from New Hampshire. Warming stands to harm vegetation that birds rely on for nesting and food, as well as insects and other prey, the study said. “Every plant and animal is finely tuned


Chick-fil-A rules the roost, even 6 days a week

Chick-fil-A earned $3.2 million last year, three times more than the average KFC, QSR said. The chain’s growth has run parallel with a few other quintessential American booms, including the explosive growth of U.S. chicken. Since 1967, when the first Chick-fil-A opened, the average American’s yearly chicken consumption has more than doubled, from 36.6 pounds to 83.5 pounds a year, U.S. Agriculture Department data shows. Over the same time, American beef eating has shrunk. (It’s not just us: The global hunger for chicken is growing faster than for any other meat.) It wasn’t just poultry that made Chick-fil-A a pioneer, but its unprecedented push into nationwide shopping malls. When the first Chick-fil-A opened in a “384-square-foot cubbyhole” in Atlanta’s Greenbriar Mall, food courts in shopping centers were virtually unheard of. Over the decades, as mall culture bloomed, so did the fortunes of Chick-fil-A’s ubiquitous mall food stands. The chain runs nearly 300 mall locations today. A boy during the Great Depression, Cathy first made money selling bottles of Coca-Cola for a nickel, and in 1946 he opened his first restaurant, a squat diner in the Atlanta suburbs called the Dwarf Grill. But it wasn’t until the 1960s, when an airline-meal company began selling him the chicken seen as too big for midair meals, that Cathy devised the sandwich that would become tied to the Chick-fil-A brand. Cathy remained chairman of the company until last year, when his son, Dan, already the president, took over as chairman and chief executive. Even as Chick-fil-A has exploded, it has kept pushing the aura of the softer side of a down-home Southern diner. Its signatures are charmingly simple, like the boneless chicken sandwich, served with only pickle slices and a buttered bun. And it doesn’t hurt that diners love the food: Many told Consumer Reports that the chain is one of the tastiest and cleanest choices in American fast food. Chick-fil-A has tested the limits of that simplicity by adding coffee and chicken and waffles to its short menu of Southern staples, as well as launching a mobile ordering app, in hopes the chain can grab even more of the $680 billion a year Americans spend on dining out. But the chain is holding the line on a few key points, including the big one: It still won’t open on Sundays. True to its roots Exec ensured expanding chain kept a Southern flavor. B6


Dutch report says Flight 17 broke up in air after being hit by ‘high-energy objects’

after which it ended abruptly,” a summary of the report said. It said the communications among crew members “revealed no signs of any technical faults or an emergency situation.” A miniature Malaysia Airlines plane with a text reading “RIP MH17” is displayed Tuesday at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam at a memorial site for the victims of the Flight 17 air disaster. (Peter Dejong/AP) Because of the situation in eastern Ukraine, Dutch investigators were not able to freely access the site, so they used satellite imagery, radar and information from the plane’s “black box” recorders to compile the report. The pattern of damage to the aircraft’s fuselage and cockpit is “consistent with that which may be expected from a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside,” the summary said. “It’s likely that this damage resulted in a loss of structural integrity of the aircraft, leading to an in-flight break-up. This also explains the abrupt end to the data registration on the recorders, the simultaneous loss of contact with air traffic control and the aircraft’s disappearance from radar.” U.S. and Ukrainian officials have said that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile system supplied by Russia and fired from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian security service released intercepted phone conversations among rebel leaders suggesting that their forces were responsible and that they initially thought they had shot down a Ukrainian military plane, but the authenticity of the recordings was impossible to confirm. The Dutch report did not mention a missile, but military analysts said the damage to the plane as described in the report was consistent with the impact from a missile designed to explode near an aircraft and destroy it with shrapnel. The Malaysian government plans to send 20 investigators to the crash site as soon as possible, according to the Ukrainian cabinet’s press office. Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman, who is coordinating Ukraine’s investigation of the catastrophe, told journalists in Kiev that Ukraine is ready to organize a new investigative visit to the site, which has been on the front lines for weeks and largely inaccessible to international teams. But amid reports of fighting Tuesday morning around the Donetsk airport, neither the Dutch nor the Malaysian government appeared willing Tuesday to immediately send investigators back to the crash site. All 298 people aboard Flight 17 died when the jet was blown out


Give birds a fighting chance against global warming

the climate in those places changes. But many birds will simply run out of suitable places to find food and reproduce as they push farther north, move to higher elevations or encounter unfamiliar habitats or new competitors. So what can we do? The situation may be grim, but it is not hopeless. To give birds a fighting chance, two actions are critical: Protecting the places that we know birds will need today and in the future, and reducing the pace and severity of global warming. The impact of climate change on biodiversity should become a key component of conservation planning at every level of government, from local land-use decisions to federal strategies for managing millions of acres of government property and parks. The fate of many of our birds will depend on their ability to colonize new areas as they become suitable because of climate change. Conservation planning must take into account both the projected loss and potential shift in geographic ranges of bird species for the next 10 to 80 years. Our report shows, for example, that three-fourths of the most important habitats for climate-threatened species are not protected or even being considered for protection. We can buy birds time by protecting those places that the report describes as “strongholds,” areas identified as the most climatically stable for birds. They are the bridges to the future. We also must address the root cause of the problem — global warming — by cutting the carbon emissions that threaten birds and people. Why does protecting birds matter? We could give you pages of scientific and conservation reasons. But what sets these dramatic findings apart from other reports on global warming is the personal connection so many Americans feel to the birds we’ve grown up with and the memories their songs evoke, whether it’s the wail of the common loon echoing across a fog-shrouded lake or the melody of a wood thrush on a sultry summer evening. Every one of us has a stake in preserving those connections for our children and grandchildren. Birds can’t vote. They can’t create a backyard sanctuary. They can’t save the Everglades or Long Island Sound or the Prairie Potholes of the Dakotas. But we can. Read more about this topic: Peter Levine: What the Wilderness Act gave Virginia The Post’s View: A climate for change The Post’s View: EPA’s plan on climate change fills a void


On U.S. News glamour lists, public colleges and universities are scarce at the top

Most college students in the United States — more than seven of every 10 — attend public institutions of higher education. The reason is straightforward: These schools have larger capacity and lower tuition. But the glamour lists on U.S. News and World Report — national universities and national liberal arts colleges — are perennially dominated by the privates. The 30th edition of the rankings was published Tuesday. Out of 202 ranked schools on the national university list, 118 are public. But that figure is deceiving, with the publics clustered toward the middle and bottom of the rankings. Among the top 50 national universities, 16 are public. The highest-ranked is the University of California at Berkeley, 20th. The University of Virginia and the University of California at Los Angeles follow at 23rd. In a group of national universities labeled “second tier,” which is hardly a flattering designation, 54 out of 66 are public. Among the 181 ranked national liberal arts colleges, the private-public imbalance is even more pronounced. Ten are public, led by service academies of the Navy (13th), Army (24th) and Air Force (27th). The Virginia Military Institute, also public, is ranked 64th. Students interested in a non-military national liberal arts school must scroll far down the list to find the New College of Florida at 87th and St. Mary’s College of Maryland at 89th. To be sure, there are relatively few true liberal arts institutions in the public sector. Far more people have heard of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a top public national university, than have heard of UNC at Asheville, ranked 159th among national liberal arts schools. For a Washington Post analysis of ranking trends over five years on the two U.S. News lists, see this table. It is worth noting that many colleges and universities are deemed regional schools and ranked separately, drawing less attention. Many are esteemed institutions — think of the public James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., for instance — which do not offer enough doctoral programs to qualify for the national list. U.S. News ranks JMU sixth among Southern regional universities. The public fascination with elite private brands in higher education is hard to shake even if most families send their children to public colleges and universities. U.S. News analysts acknowledge that many people fixate a bit too much on the Ivy League names — all private — at


Noel Hinners, a top NASA official, dies at 78

Noel W. Hinners, a former director of the Goddard Space Flight Center, who briefly led the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. (Courtesy of NASA) Noel W. Hinners, a scientist and leader of other scientists who had been a top official at NASA, including director of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and briefly head of the National Air and Space Museum, died Sept. 5 at a hospice center in Littleton, Colo. He was 78. The cause was complications from basal cell carcinoma, said his wife, Diana Hinners. From his youth as an aspiring chicken farmer in New Jersey, Dr. Hinners went on to play a leading role in America’s exploration of space, having a guiding hand in programs that explored Mars, launched the Hubble Space Telescope and landed men on the moon. After the first manned lunar landing, Dr. Hinners specified the spots where later manned lunar missions would touch down. He chaired the committee that decided which sites could provide the most scientific information. Heading that panel, and reconciling the many competing views on its decisions, exemplified the administrative and leadership abilities that distinguished Dr. Hinners’s career in space science, exploration and education, in government and out. His Princeton Ph.D. was in geochemistry, but it was probably his knack for getting the best out of other scientists, and of winning federal support for science and space exploration, that earned him some of the highest honors bestowed by the space agency. “Even though I couldn’t do the job, I could get others to do it,” was the way he once described his talents in a 2010 NASA oral history. “My whole career has been built on just surrounding myself with the best people I could find [and] letting them do their job.” But, he could be tough. If his people did not do the job, he directed, “Change them out.” An instinct for diplomacy was part of his skill set. When Dr. Hinners headed Goddard from 1982 to 1987, President Ronald Reagan paid a visit. A discussion turned to the possibility of global warming. As Dr. Hinners recalled it, the president turned out to believe that any warming was likely the result — not of man-made carbon dioxide, but rather of organic molecules from trees. “I did not choose to argue with him,” Dr. Hinners said in the oral history. (He also said he found the


president uncommonly personable.) As head of the National Air and Space Museum from 1979 to 1982, Dr. Hinners saw his task as not only changing what needed changing but also to find out what was working “and leave it alone.” A look at those who have died this year. With money being the lifeblood of many institutions, Dr. Hinners showed an adroitness in raising the sums he needed. Sometimes it was through skillful lobbying in Congress and the Executive Branch. But there were other techniques, some of which affected thousands of Washington residents and visitors. Once, he told his NASA interviewer, “When I needed more money I said, ‘Well, let’s see, we’re charging 50 cents a ticket [at the IMAX theater], let’s charge $1 a ticket.’ It’s still a bargain, and another $1 million to play with here.” He also knew there were limits to that technique. “Don’t want to carry that too far,” he said. But the job on the Mall as chief of one of the world’s most popular museums lacked the excitement of working on space exploration. Dr. Hinners, who had been NASA’s associate administrator for space science in the 1970s, soon answered a call to run Goddard. At the Greenbelt facility, he showed his adherence to the doctrine of management by walking around and visiting scientists and others at their jobs. This included working with the maintenance crew on a night when a snowstorm had left Washington roads impassible. Not one to fear getting his feet wet — or cold — Dr. Hinners joined in snow plowing operations on the Goddard grounds, and learned, he said, that “there’s an art to it.” When he retired from NASA in 1989, it was as associate deputy administrator and chief scientist. The administrative post — third in command at NASA -- turned out not to be his cup of tea. Being number two is difficult, he said, “but being number three is a loser. Don’t ever do it.” After leaving government, he found his way to Martin Marietta and, after a merger, to Lockheed Martin Space Systems. He retired in 2002 as the Denver area-based vice president of flight systems, with responsibility for several programs to explore Mars. They included the costly failures of the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander, which were destroyed during their missions in 1999 likely because of navigation and software errors, respectively.


Global warming will mean trouble for birds

An Audubon Society report says climate change may spell trouble for such birds as the Baltimore oriole. (David Brezinski/Associated Press) As the world gets warmer, the Baltimore oriole will no longer be found in Maryland. The Mississippi kite will move north, east and pretty much out of its namesake state. And the California gull will mostly be a summer stranger to the Golden State. That’s basically what the National Audubon Society said in a new report that looks at the potential effects of climate change on birds by the year 2080. “This will spell trouble for most birds,” said Gary Langham, Audubon’s chief scientist and vice president. Over the next six decades or so, the critical ranges of more than half of North America’s 588 bird species will either shrink significantly or move into uncharted territory for the animal, according to Langham. While other studies have made similar conclusions, this report gives the most comprehensive projections of what is likely to happen to America’s birds. The turkey vulture may thrive as the climate grows warmer in North America. (Lee karney/Associated Press) The report says that in a few decades, 126 bird species will end up with a much smaller area to live in; the society says this will make them endangered. An additional 188 species will lose more than half of their natural range but relocate to new areas. Those moves could threaten the birds’ survival because they will be confronted with different food and soil, bird experts said. Other birds, including such backyard regulars as the American robin and the blue jay, will fly in even more places, the report says. And some of the biggest potential winners aren’t exactly birds that people like: Species such as the turkey vulture, the American crow and the mourning dove will expand their ranges tremendously. “If you want to know what the climate change future sounds like, it sounds a lot like a mourning dove,” Langham said. Some people are annoyed by the song of the mourning dove, which will more than double its range. Langham used bird survey data from 2000 to 2009 and looked at related climate conditions to come up with simulations of how bird ranges will change. He then tested the simulations against data from 1980 to 1999, and they worked. Then he used United Nations carbon-pollution scenarios from 2007 to come up with bird ranges in 2020,


Making Mr. Putin feel the heat of sanctions

Russian President Vladimir Putin waves to people in the city of Gorno-Altaisk, Siberia, Russia on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014. (Alexei Nikolsky/AP) IN CARRYING out his stealth invasion and lawless land grab in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried hard to divide the Western alliance and make it look impotent. It’s critical that he not succeed. On Monday, the European Union decided on tough sanctions against Russia to punish it for sponsoring and participating in the latest military aggression against its sovereign neighbor. The sanctions were to be announced in coordination with parallel moves by the United States. But no sooner did the Europeans agree to the sanctions than they balked at their implementation. A handful of E.U. members begged for more time to allow a shaky cease-fire to take hold between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian government. That’s precisely the sort of weak-kneed response that Mr. Putin is hoping for. If a unified Western alliance cannot use the economic and commercial leverage at its disposal to help the government in Kiev dislodge Russian troops and weapons from eastern Ukraine, Moscow will have succeeded in establishing another “frozen conflict” and destabilizing another of its neighbors. The status quo in eastern Ukraine should not be acceptable to the United States or any European nation. In the past few weeks, Russian troops and Russian-backed separatists have succeeded in occupying a new chunk of Ukrainian territory, forcing Kiev’s battered army to retreat. Moscow’s forces have threatened to overrun the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Mariupol , a major step toward establishing a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, which Moscow succeeded in annexing last spring. Mr. Putin has paid an insufficient price internationally for invading an independent country. He has brazenly lied — to his own people as well as to the world — by denying that Russian troops are in action against fellow Slavs in Ukraine. In hopes of asserting a new Russian sphere of influence, he believes himself justified in dismembering Russia’s neighbor. In agreeing to a cease-fire last week with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Mr. Putin signaled that he was willing to pull back troops and de-escalate tensions in return for autonomy for Russian-speaking parts of eastern Ukraine. But without the pressure of muscular Western sanctions, he is unlikely to uphold his end of the deal. The sanctions prepared by Europe and Washington include measures to block key Russian oil


Bullet trains tighten China’s embrace of restive Xinjiang

A conductor stands beside a new high-speed train at Turpan station during a test run in China's western Xinjiang region in June. China sees the train, the first of its kind in Xinjiang, as part of its plan to revitalize the “Silk Road” trading route. (Simon Denyer/The Washington Post) URUMQI, China With growing determination, China is spreading its wings to the west, across its own, vast and resource-rich province of Xinjiang, and toward Central Asia and its huge reserves of oil and natural gas. The $23 billion, high-speed train link, which is still being tested in winds that can sometimes reach up to 135 mph, is just one symbol of that broader determination: to cement China’s control over its Muslim-majority Xinjiang region through investment and economic growth, secure important sources of energy and escape any risk of encirclement by U.S. allies to the east. The train will run from Lanzhou to Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi; for the longer term, China is even talking about trying to extend the high-speed network through Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey to Bulgaria. “The high-speed railway will build the foundation for the Silk Road economic belt,” Erkin Tuniyaz, vice chairman of the regional government, told reporters after a recent news media trip on the train. “Xinjiang will be the biggest beneficiary of the Silk Road. It will help it open up further, increase trade, tourism and other exchanges with neighboring countries. It’s a historical opportunity for Xinjiang.” The first high-speed railway in Xinjiang has started the countdown to commercial operation, scheduled at the end of this year, after a successful system integration test and commissioning, which began June 3. (Chen Boyuan/Chen Boyuan/ImagineChina) Indeed, as the United States enacts a strategic rebalance or “pivot” toward East Asia and withdraws troops from Afghanistan, China is responding with its own “pirouette” in the opposite direction, turning its face toward Central Asia and the West, said James Leibold, a regional specialist from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Long-term stability Touring Xinjiang in April, President Xi Jinping was quoted as saying that the long-term stability of Xinjiang was vital to the entire country’s “unity, harmony and national security, as well as to the great revival of the Chinese nation.” Yet Xi’s western gambit is arguably bound up in a basic contradiction. For all is not well in Xinjiang, traditional home to the Muslim Uighur people, where discontent with


D.C. news in brief

Adams Morgan Day is set for Sunday Adams Morgan Day, which will include live music, dance, children’s activities, international food and artwork, will be from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday on 18th Street NW, between Columbia Road and Florida Avenue. The D.C. Live main stage at the Marie Reed School, 18th and California streets, will feature music throughout the day. The headliners are jazz pianist Marcus Johnson at 5 p.m. and the Chuck Brown Band, in a tribute to the late go-go singer, at 6 p.m. The dance plaza at 18th Street and Florida Avenue will feature dance troupes performing in the D.C. hand dance, line dance and Cuban salsa dance styles; and Zumba and hula hoop demonstrations beginning at noon. Denton “Monsoon” Bedward and the S.T.O.R.M. Reggae Band will perform in the plaza from 6 to 7 p.m. A “green” pavilion will host vendors committed to creating a positive ecological footprint. Artwork displays will open at 10 a.m. on Belmont Road. For information, call 571-281-2116 or go to www.adamsmorgandayfest.com. Art All Night includes free music, other events Art All Night: Nuit Blanche D.C., an evening of free music, activities, and visual and performing arts disseminated throughout the District, will be from 7 p.m. Sept. 27 to 3 a.m. Sept. 28. The District’s first Art All Night was presented in 2011 by event coordinator Ariana Austin and the group Shaw Main Streets. The concept of an all-night art festival featuring museums and private and public art galleries, open and free of charge into the wee hours of the morning, was popularized in Paris in the 1980s. This year, Austin and the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities have expanded the festival to include the Dupont Circle, Shaw, North Capitol, H Street NE and Congress Heights Main Streets programs, with free events in each neighborhood. The commission hopes to capitalize on earlier all-night events that attracted audiences of nearly 15,000 people in one night. For information, go to www.artallnightdc.com or www.dcarts.dc.gov, or call 202-724-5613. Group seeks nominations for preservation honors The D.C. Historic Preservation Office is seeking nominations for its 2015 Excellence in Historic Preservation awards. The six award categories are archaeology; design and construction; education; lifetime achievement (more than 20 years in historic preservation work); stewardship (efforts on behalf of a resource listed in the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites or the National Register of Historic Places); and


Montgomery County Animal Watch

This case was received recently 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. Unneighborly act: Animal Services placed the dog under a standard 10-day home quarantine. The animal was current on its rabies vaccination and the injured woman’s wound was minor. She requested an affidavit, and citations will be issued to the dog owner for “unwanted contact,” which carry to a $500 fine. Board members wanted Adopt or foster rescue dogs: Rockville Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Gaithersburg Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton