White House, NASA want help hunting asteroids

expand the pool of candidate rocks for the ARM mission. The Earth coexists with a swarm of asteroids of varying sizes. Thanks to a number of asteroid searches in the past 15 years, some funded by NASA, about 95 percent of the near-Earth objects (NEOs) larger than 1 kilometer (about three-fifths of a mile) in diameter have already been detected, and their trajectories calculated. None poses a significant threat of striking the Earth in the foreseeable future. The science is clear: Catastrophic impacts, such as the one implicated in the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, are very rare, and no one needs to panic about killer rocks. But as one goes down the size scale, these objects become more numerous and harder to detect. Congress in 2005 charged NASA with finding all the asteroids greater than 140 meters (459 feet) in diameter. Asteroids that size are generally regarded as large enough to take out a city. According to NASA, there are also probably about 25,000 near-Earth asteroids that are 100 meters (328 feet) or larger. Only 25 percent of those have been detected, many through NASA’s Near Earth Object Program. The administration is asking Congress to double the budget for asteroid detection, to $40 million, Garver said. But the Grand Challenge would elicit help from academics, international partners and backyard astronomers. The search for NEOs took on greater urgency on Feb. 15, when, on the very day that a previously detected asteroid was about to make a close pass of the Earth, an unknown 50-foot-diameter rock came out of the glare of the sun and fireballed through the atmosphere above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The asteroid’s disintegration caused a shock wave that shattered windows and caused hundreds of injuries and major property damage. It was the first recorded instance of an asteroid causing human casualties. (In 1908 an asteroid exploded over Siberia and flattened trees in a vast, unpopulated area.) “Even though these smaller asteroids don’t pose a threat to human civilization, they can still cause major damages and casualties on a regional level,” said Tom Kalil, deputy director for technology and innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The administration’s Grand Challenges include efforts to understand the human brain and cure brain disorders, make solar energy cost-competitive by the decade’s end, and make electric cars as affordable as gasoline-powered vehicles.


Trying to build a bomb that won’t blow up

The test range consists of a muddy field, two big dirt berms and two rusty shipping containers that serve as an office. Silver sensors shaped like microphones measure the pressure from the blast wave. High-speed cameras record the action at a rate of about 10,000 frames per second, fast enough on this day to track the movement of individual rain drops falling from the sky. First up on the test range was the plastic bucket of untreated ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which one of Best’s scientists set on a smooth steel plate. The plate — or, rather, any dent in it — would offer up a crude measure of the blast’s power, even if the more sophisticated technology on the range failed. Best and his scientists took shelter in one of the cramped shipping containers. Inside, plywood desks were crammed with knives, screwdrivers, hammers and a bag of stale doughnuts. Computers captured readings from the sensors. “Ready,” said the firing officer. “On the count of 3,2,1. Fire.” The blast rippled through the air, strong enough that Best and his team could feel it vibrate in their sternums. “Imagine if you had just stepped on that,” Best said. “We are 150 feet away and protected by two berms.” Data from the blast were recorded. Debris from the range was cleared. Now it was time to test the Sandia fertilizer mix. One of Best’s scientists set the plastic bucket on the range and retreated to the shipping container. If the Sandia mix worked as promised, it would be a huge breakthrough. Ammonium nitrate fertilizer has been used in bombs in dozens of countries in the past few years. In April, a Texas plant that was manufacturing the fertilizer exploded, killing 15 and wounding 200. “Ready,” said the firing officer. “On the count of 3,2,1. Fire.” Another sternum-shaking boom. Best and his team walked up a small hill to the range and examined the steel plate on which the bomb had been placed. No dent. Instead, there was a softball-sized hole. “Not good,” Best said. He and his team returned to the shipping container to check the sensor’s readings, which would tell them whether the Sandia mix had done any good at all. With the wars drawing to a close and American combat casualties falling, the Defense Department is weighing whether to dismantle the division of the Pentagon where Best works and send its


Washington Post food calendar

THURSDAY FOOD IN THE CITY: TEQUILA AND MEZCAL FESTIVAL: WASHINGTON POST COOKBOOK PANEL: FRIDAY WINE TASTING: SATURDAY BIG BEACH BLANKET WINE BASH: CLIFTON WINE FESTIVAL: COMPOSTING WORKSHOP: GARDEN OPEN HOUSES: PARK HYATT MASTERS OF FOOD WINE: WINE FESTIVAL: TUESDAY DINE-N-DASH: WINE DINNER: Four courses with wines from the Alsace region of France. 6:30 p.m. $85, not including tax and gratuity; $60 without wine. Bastille, 1201 N. Royal St., Alexandria. 703-519-3776. www.bastillerestaurant.com. RESERVE NOW JUNE 26 SLOW FOOD HAPPY HOUR: JUNE 27 CHEESE CLASS: CHILDREN’S COOKING CLASS: WINE DINNER: WINE DINNER: JUNE 28 WINE DINNER: JUNE 30 RECIPE CLASS: — Becky Krystal SEND NOTICES to: To Do, Food, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071, or e-mail food@washpost.com. To find more calendar items, go to www.washingtonpost.com/gog/dc-events.html and click on "Food Events."


Parviz A. Khabir; employee of WHO, mapping company

Parviz A. Khabir, who worked at the World Health Organization, died May 5 at his home in Rockville. He was 85. He had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the death certificate. A daughter, Soraya Blackwood, confirmed the death. Dr. Khabir began working with the World Health Organization in the 1960s in his native Iran, where he worked on the eradication of malaria. He later held various posts in the Iranian government related to public health before leaving the country after the 1979 revolution. He lived in France for two years and settled in the Washington area in 1982. At the time of his death, he worked for Geographic Services, a McLean-based firm dedicated to creating cultural geospatial maps. Parviz Ali Khabir was born in Tehran and came to the United States to attend college. He was a graduate of Central Michigan University and received a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of International Public Administration and a doctorate in parasitology from Syracuse University. Mr. Khabir’s first marriage, to Priscilla Marlett Khabir, ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife, Manijeh Amini Khabir of Rockville, to whom he was married for 49 years; three children from his first marriage, Jalae Ulicki of Phoenix, Jeffrey Khabir of Mount Pleasant, Mich., and Jamal Khabir of La Vista, Neb.; two daughters from his second marriage, Soraya Blackwood of Gaithersburg and Marian Lowe of Frederick; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. — Mohana Ravindranath


Military plans to open more combat jobs to women by 2016

By 2016, women could be permitted to train for most combat roles, including infantry and artillery positions, under detailed plans released by the Pentagon on Tuesday describing how to integrate female troops throughout the armed forces. But military leaders made clear that they will move cautiously as they lift remaining barriers to women in combat and indicated that, after further review, some jobs will probably remain open only to men. All told, the Defense Department is reexamining physical standards and other requirements for about 240,000 military positions — about one-fifth of the regular active-duty force — that have been off-limits to women. “We are taking a very deliberate, very measured and very responsible approach to this,” said Col. Jon Aytes, head of the military policy branch for the Marine Corps. He added that the Corps wanted to ensure that “we don’t set our female Marines up for failure by not adequately preparing them.” In January, after years of debate and legal challenges, then-Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced that the Pentagon would lift its long-standing combat ban on women. The decision was fueled in part by the recognition that women played a critical role in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where commanders stretched rules to allow them to bear arms and support combat units. The biggest changes will come in the Army and Marine Corps, where positions in infantry, artillery and armored units could open to women if they pass “gender-neutral” physical tests and other requirements. Officials in both services said that they are reexamining those tests but that men and women will be held to the same standards. Tank gunners, for example, will need to prove that they can lift and spin a 55-pound shell regardless of gender. “This isn’t to set up anybody for failure,” said Lt. Gen. Howard Bromberg, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for personnel. “But the worst thing we could do is change that standard for that position” just to accommodate women. Military leaders will have to justify any jobs that they want to keep closed by 2016 and receive the approval of the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. One big question mark is to what degree women will be allowed to join elite Special Operations units, such as the Navy SEALs and Army Rangers. On Tuesday, Army Maj. Gen. Bennet Sacolick, the director of force management


Kenneth G. Wilson dies at 77; physicist won Nobel for work on phase transitions

for the school bus figuring out cube roots. His father brought him books on mathematics and physics; he skipped several grades and said he found high school “dull.” At Harvard, he was twice among the top five in the country in the annual Putnam Prize mathematical competition. He was a track star as well, and a champion college miler. He completed his undergraduate studies in 1956, then did graduate work at the California Institute of Technology. Despite his demonstrated mathematical prowess, he chose physics as the subject of his studies. “It was connected to the real world,” he explained. At Caltech, he worked with Nobel laureates including Murray Gell-Mann and began an involvement with the study of elementary particles and with quantum field theory that led to his interest in renormalization and to his Nobel work. He received his doctorate in 1961 and began working at the Swiss-based CERN, the European nuclear research center. Two years later, was recruited to the physics faculty at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y. “I accepted the offer because Cornell was a good university, was out in the country and was reputed to have a good folk dancing group, folk-dancing being a hobby I had taken up as a graduate student,” he wrote in a biographical statement when he received the Nobel. He was an early user of computers, which attracted him by their promise of coping quickly with the vast number of equations generated by many molecules influencing each other during phase transitions. In 1982, Dr. Wilson married Alison Brown, an authority on computers. Survivors include his wife, of Gray; his stepmother, Therese Wilson of Cambridge, Mass.; a brother; a sister; a stepsister; and two stepbrothers. Dr. Wilson was known for his eagerness to avail himself of the power of computers, and he was an advocate for creation of supercomputer centers in the United States. In the 1980s, he also pushed the National Science Foundation to get the supercomputers connected by innovative technologies that became the Internet. In an interview once, he was asked where the inspiration came from for a key research step. “From my utter astonishment at the capabilities of the Hewlett-Packard pocket calculator,” he said. He continued: “I buy this thing and I can’t take my eyes off it, and I have to figure out something that I can actually do that would somehow enable me to have fun with this calculator.”


Home brewing group discusses tips, tricks for making their own beer

Environmental Resources. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the skill set to ever be able to reproduce it again, which is why we are going to keep on trying. We had the Holy Grail, and then we drank it.” Maryland law permits home brewing beer without a permit or license as long as it is not for sale, according to a database of home brewing laws maintained by the American Homebrewers Association. Ortiz said he never knew brewing beer at home was such a trend until he joined the group. The former Edmonston mayor said about a dozen people attended the first meeting of the group last year. Another meeting last summer had about 25 people, said Christian Melendez, a Silver Spring resident who joined the group and works as the Edmonston urban farm coordinator for Eco City Farms, which sells fresh produce to local residents. Ortiz said the group discusses brewing practices and brews they are working on, and members gently critique each other’s beer. Ortiz, who describes his skills as “below intermediate,” said the group has helped him learn better practices and new recipes. Ortiz said he and fellow group member Updike, a former Mount Rainier city council member, brewed a strong batch of pale ale that contained a lot of hops — a flower used to give beer its bitter taste. Making beer with Updike was fun because he is a much more experienced brewer, Ortiz said. Updike, who has been brewing at home for about 15 years, has started to grow hops in his back yard to use with malt, sugar, grain and other ingredients to brew a variety of beers, such as pale ales, lagers, stouts and India pale ales. The ingredients are added to water, boiled, cooled and fermented with yeast and set out for a few weeks before being ready to drink, he said. Updike brews beer because he enjoys being able to share it with friends at his home, he said. Updike said he also feels it is more ecologically sound, citing reports of large brewing companies that have been accused of contaminating nearby bodies of water. Melendez, who said he has been home brewing for five years, said it was great to meet fellow home brewers in the group and that he was surprised to find out how many people were interested in the craft. “There is a lot of camaraderie,” he said.


Climate change threatens trouble in the near future, World Bank says

A World Bank report last year projected that the world is on pace for an increase of perhaps twice that over the next century — potentially devastating water and food supplies in some parts of the world and leading to tens of millions of refugees fleeing a degraded environment. But that dire prediction of a hundred years off still seemed “a long way away,” Kyte said, so the bank commissioned a follow-up report to look at what is likely to happen in the next few years as global temperatures move towards the 2-degree-Celsius increase. The impact is substantial, and falls most heavily on less developed nations in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as parts of Asia most prone to flooding and harsh tropical storms. In Africa, areas relied on for corn and other crops may become too arid to farm, and grazing lands could wither. Bank officials said they are hopeful that advances in crop science and genetics by then will have produced drought-resistant varieties of corn and other plants adaptable to the emerging environment. In Asia, the threat is from too much water as seas rise, mountain glaciers melt, and intense storms overwhelm urban systems. Rising ocean temperatures and saltwater intrusion into rivers could ruin local fisheries — a key source of protein — in countries such as Vietnam. The issue has become a main concern for World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, who sees it as a chief impediment to alleviating global poverty. The progress of the last 20 years, he argues, could be set back substantially if nations must devote resources to recovering from storms and natural disasters instead of investing in health, education and other services that could boost their societies. As a result, Kyte said the bank is now focusing much of its planning in some countries on how to build infrastructure and re-engineer cities to better withstand environmental stress. That might include elaborate dike networks to hold back the rising tide, holding areas that could capture water running downhill after intense rains, or measures to ensure that generators or other critical power equipment are moved out of basements and pumping or other systems are installed to protect major structures. Among the world’s several development banks, funding for projects to help poorer countries battle climate change rose from $10 billion in 2011 to nearly $25 billion in 2012, Kyte said, and is expected to continue rising.


Despite Karzai’s ire, U.S. confident that talks with Taliban will be held

the other side also have taken all the preparations that will be effective for the destruction of America’s nests,” the group said in a statement. In a statement Wednesday morning, Karzai’s government said, “The messages of continuation of war and bloodshed sent simultaneously with the opening of the office was fully contrary to the peace seeking spirit of the government.” It added that the Taliban is working too closely with “foreigners.” American and Afghan officials had been taken aback by the Taliban’s performance at the Qatar news conference, which Afghan leaders viewed as a signal that the peace talks could result in the Taliban returning to power. “Unfortunately, the manner that the office was announced, including the title given to the office and the imagery on display, were all in breach of the written assurances we received from the U.S. government,” a senior Afghan official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to explain the Karzai government’s position. Setting the groundwork The United States believes that thousands of military trainers and support troops are needed for a number of years to ensure the viability of the U.S.-trained and -funded Afghan security forces after 2014, but both countries want a written accord that covers the terms of the personnel’s presence. U.S. officials arriving in Doha, the Qatari capital, for the talks with the Taliban declined to comment on the uproar, referring to Obama’s statement. Officials expect the first session of talks to consist only of an exchange of agendas that are unlikely to overlap. The United States wants an end to violence in Afghanistan, a complete Taliban break with al-Qaeda and Taliban recognition of the Afghan constitution. The Taliban wants all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan immediately. Once those formalities are concluded, U.S. officials expect to get down to discussing an exchange of detainees, including five Taliban members held at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier who has been held since 2009 by the Pakistan-based Haqqani network, which is allied with the Taliban. Agreement on the exchange had been reached in late 2011, before the Taliban walked out of an initial series of informal meetings in January 2012, accusing the United States of bad faith. The two sides have not met since. Although the Americans hope to discuss a Taliban break with al-Qaeda, they intend to turn over all talks about internal Afghan affairs


Nintendo faces questions over ‘conflict mineral’ policy

A boy tries out a Nintendo Co. 3DS handheld game console at the company's showroom in Tokyo on July 28, 2011. (Kiyoshi Ota/BLOOMBERG) Anti-slavery activists are turning their gaze to the gaming world Wednesday, asking Nintendo to release details on its policies regarding “conflict minerals” in its gaming consoles. Walk Free, an anti-slavery group, is asking the Japanese gaming company to provide more information on Nintendo’s use of conflict minerals — a term that generally refers to minerals mined in or around the war-torn region of the Democratic Republic of Congo — and how it works with its suppliers to eliminate the presence of these minerals in its products. The issue of conflict minerals is one that the U.S. government has tried to address with guidelines in the past. In August 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted rules to encourage companies to look at their mineral sources to make sure they don’t originate from the DRC where the profits could be used to fund conflicts in the area. As The Washington Post reported, companies listed on the U.S. stock markets have until May 31, 2014 to make their first disclosures about whether the minerals they use are “conflict-free.” But activists say that even companies not affected by those guidelines, such as Nintendo, should follow similar procedures. Deborah Rosen, an organizer with Walk Free said that the group has already asked Nintendo for more details on its policies, including through a massive letter-writing campaign that’s sent hundreds of thousands of letters to the company asking for details about its policies. Nintendo could not immediately be reached for comment. The company does have its conflict minerals policy posted on its Web site with its Corporate Responsibility Statement, saying that it distributes its policies to all its suppliers and that its lead production partners all have policies “banning the user of conflict minerals.” The company also says on its Web site that it visits facilities to conduct onsite inspections. The company has also said that it provides its partners with specific directions about its procurement practices and requires production partners to “share updates on materials sourcing and the conflict minerals issue.” But, Rosen said, Nintendo must go further to fall in line with the rest of consumer electronics industry when it comes to disclosing this kind of information. “They say they have processes and procedures to evaluate what’s in the supply chain,


Maryland lawmakers to begin deeper look at Baltimore jail scandal next week

A prisoner transport van departs from the Baltimore City Detention Center on Thursday, June 6, 2013, in Baltimore. (Patrick Semansky/Associated Press) Maryland lawmakers plan to start digging deeper next week into the problems that came to light at a Baltimore jail as a new commission begins a series of hearings and site visits to state and local correctional facilities. “We have a responsibility to the public, to the employees, to the people in the system to ensure that we have a system that can be relied on,” said Del. Guy J. Guzzone (D-Howard), co-chairman of a newly appointed special joint commission. The 14-member commission, which plans to meet Thursday, was established in the wake of an initial hearing earlier this month by a panel of legislative leaders on the scandal at the Baltimore City Detention Center. A violent prison gang allegedly colluded with 13 corrections officers to launder money and smuggle drugs and cellphones into the state-run facility, according to a federal indictment. Four guards had children with one incarcerated gang member, according to prosecutors, who are continuing to investigate what they have described as an out-of-control jail. Guzzone and Sen. James E. DeGrange Sr. (D-Anne Arundel), the commission’s other co-chairman, said they hope to come up with a range of recommendations related to staffing, training, use of technology and other issues affecting Maryland’s corrections system in advance of the next legislative session, which starts in January. “It’s an extremely important issue, and we need to gather all the information we can and improve the situation,” DeGrange said. DeGrange said he will be interested in seeing the operations of other detention centers around the state, as well as the one in Baltimore. Counties run the other local jails, while the state assumed control of the detention center in Baltimore in 1991. The commission also plans to examine the state’s prisons, which DeGrange described as “a whole different type of facility” than the local detention centers. Corrections Secretary Gary D. Maynard is expected to appear at Thursday’s commission meeting in Annapolis, which will also include a briefing by legislative staff, the lawmakers said.


Gene makes a plea for religious misunderstanding

Memo to: The Grand Poobah Overlord, International Jewish Conspiracy Inc. Tel Aviv I am writing to Your Covert Mightiness to suggest a strategy for dealing with fallout from the debacle of last month, when Vice President Biden publicly complimented the Jewish people for their remarkable, disproportionate record of success in so many walks of life. While most ethnic groups would appreciate such a generous (and deserved) accolade, Jewish luminaries in the media (there are a lot of them) and elsewhere (ditto) said, and I am paraphrasing here, “Oy.” They expressed deep concern, with that grave, melancholy, inward-peering, soul-tormented, hand-wringing anguish that is so characteristic of our people. Their message to Biden or anyone else who might openly acknowledge Jewish achievement was, basically: Shhhhhhhhhhh. (Eric Shansby) I understand the concern; historically, Jewish success has fed the sullen suspicion that our people have undue influence in areas of finance, science and popular culture, and that we are wielding it to advance some sort of clandestine agenda. This, in turn, has led to prejudice, persecution and, I daresay, worse. The problem with the Shhhhh Strategy is that it only feeds the conspiracy theorists. When a group urges silence, what does that imply but the existence of some secret truth too dangerous to speak? Today, I offer a different approach. We need to change the conversation: We should proudly champion our achievements, but not those likely to cause jealousy or resentment. For example, while it is true that Jewish people are disproportionately represented among winners of the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, it is also true that we are disproportionately represented among history’s most epic hypochondriacs. The photographer Alfred Stieglitz would not travel if it would take him, at any point, more than 50 miles from a doctor. The French novelist Marcel Proust so feared germs that he lived as a recluse; to attend his brother’s wedding, he bundled himself up in overcoats and mufflers and extra layers of clothing to the extent that he could not fold himself into a chair: He had to remain standing. Woody Allen officially denies he is a hypochondriac, preferring to be called an alarmist. Not long ago, he arrived at an emergency room certain he had a melanoma on his neck; the doctor informed him that his hickey was benign. See what I’m getting at? It’s possible to celebrate Jewish achievement without bringing out the haters. Sure, Jews


Oh, rats. There’s one aspect of Baltimore she can’t get used to

whomped by a speed camera, you slow down next time. There’s no learning curve here. These rats went to Yale.” Every once in a while the cityof Baltimore is spurred to action — or rhetoric, anyway — regarding its myriad problems. Like a lumbering water buffalo waking to discover a flock of oxpeckers settled comfortably on its flesh, it gives a shiver to dislodge them, sending the birds up to hover till the creature’s apathy returns and they alight again. I would like to tell you that this cyclical indignation is sparked by a major incident that provokes horror in the public, such as, say, a baby rushed to the emergency room after her face had been bitten by a rat. But usually the uproar arises as bureaucrats try to coax new, out-of-town corporations to relocate in Baltimore City. For example, in the fall of 2008, the City Council held a hearing and put forward a resolution. Rats “are unwelcome and unsightly hosts to visitors and tourists,” it observed. Further: “If we are to continue to grow as a City, attract new residents, and encourage citizens to invest where they live, it is imperative that we maintain our vigilance in controlling the rat population.” As a kind of afterthought, the City Council was also willing to concede that rats weren’t great for our health, either. In addition to “playing hosts to parasites such as lice, fleas, and ticks,” rats are linked to the spread of a number of infectious diseases, including “leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, skin disorders, and more familiar diseases such as rabies, salmonella, and bubonic and pneumonic plagues.” The City Council resolved to address the problem: “Baltimoreans have waged a long, intractable war against rodents. In the interest of winning that war, it is essential that the Council receive regular battlefield status reports from the VC agents on the front lines.” (VC stands for the Soviet-sounding Bureau of Vector Control.) There also would be ad campaigns and “strike teams to engage in neighborhood sweeps.” (At present, we’ve got the Rat Rubout initiative, a program budgeted for $767,189 in 2013 but composed of only six employees and a supervisor. In my own neighborhood of Charles Village, we pay an extra tax; some goes toward additional sanitation crews, and $18,000 of it went toward rat abatement last year.) This was a War on Rats. It is like the War on Poverty. Or


Montgomery County Animal Watch

This was among cases received recently by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5054. That number provides recorded information on topics such as the Montgomery County Animal Shelter hours and location, adoption and licensing procedures, rabies clinics and low-cost neutering. Owner of two loose pit bulls fined: Garuda Aviary open house and fundraiser: Reduced fees for cat adoption: Cats and kittens will be available at the next open house of Friends of Montgomery County Animals at the following location. For information, visit www.fmca.org, call 301-977-4833 or visit facebook.com/fmcainfo. Germantown Shelter has adoptable cats Gaithersburg Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County no-kill shelter 12 Park Ave. 6 to 8 p.m. Friday Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday Kentlands PetSmart 218 Kentlands Blvd. Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


SARS-like virus has high mortality rate in Saudi Arabia, specialists say

A new virus responsible for an outbreak of respiratory illness in the Middle East may be more deadly than SARS, according to a team of infectious disease specialists who recently investigated a set of cases in Saudi Arabia. Of 23 confirmed cases in April, 15 people died — an “extremely high” fatality rate of 65 percent, according to Johns Hopkins senior epidemiologist Trish Perl, a member of the team that analyzed the spread of the virus through four Saudi hospitals. Saudi officials said that as of Wednesday, 49 people have contracted the disease and 32 have died. The infectious disease experts, who published their findings online Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, reported that infection occurred by way of person-to-person contact and poses an especially serious risk because it is easily transmitted in hospital settings. Worldwide, the overall death rate from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus — or MERS-CoV — is at 59 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That rate is expected to bounce around as new clusters of infection develop. The vast majority of MERS-CoV infections have been in Saudi Arabia. No cases have been reported in the United States, but small clusters of infections have appeared in Britain, France, Italy and Tunisia. Since the virus first emerged in April 2012 with two fatal cases in Jordan, 64 people have been infected and 38 have died around the world. The virus comes from the same family as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, which killed nearly 800 people worldwide in 2003. Both viruses have a distincthaloed appearance when viewed under a microscope, and they typically target the respiratory tract. Like SARS, MERS starts with a fever and mild cough that eventually progress to pneumonia. At first, MERS does not look out of the ordinary compared with other, less serious types of respiratory infection. But Perl said doctors should start taking careful note of a patient’s travel history, since all reported cases have been linked to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. The team of specialists mapped the likely trail of infection that spanned four Saudi hospitals in just over a month. Patients stationed in the same hospital room or ward as an infected person, or even taken care of by the same nurse, were likely to be exposed to the virus. Out of the 23 infected, hospital


Biologists worried by migratory birds’ starvation, seen as tied to climate change

the amount of herring and shad that trawlers can take next year in an effort to save the species. The effect on seabirds was not a prominent factor in that decision. Migratory birds “are among the most vulnerable groups of species to climate change,” said Doug Inkley, a senior scientist for the National Wildlife Federation who studies them. “Migratory birds need suitable areas to breed when they’re migrating and on their wintering grounds. Through climate change, if you affect any of these habitats, you’ve broken a link in the chain. That puts the species in peril.” Climate change also threatens a shorebird, the red knot. As temperatures warm, they are leaving the southern tip of Brazil later for a 9,000-mile journey back to their Arctic breeding ground. Timing is key, because red knots might miss the peak of Delaware’s horseshoe crab spawn, where they gorge themselves on eggs and double their weight. “From backyard wildlife watchers to hunters in their duck blinds, unless we take action now, Americans across the country are going to be asking, ‘What happened to all the birds?’ ” Alan Wentz, a retired chief conservation officer of Ducks Unlimited, said in an NWF report, “Shifting Skies: Migratory Birds in a Warming World.” Past events foreshadow the fate of red knots that fail to eat enough horseshoe crab eggs before the long trip north. For years in the 1990s, horseshoe crabs were overfished as bait for shellfish. As the horseshoe crab went, so went the red knot. By 2000, a population of about 100,000 had fallen to about 44,000, a stunning decrease, said Gregory Breese, a supervisory fish and wildlife biologist for the Delaware Bay Estuary Project office. Estimates based on other counts vary but still show a major decline. For the Arctic tern, the future is just as cloudy in an era of climate change. Fish and other sea life that crave colder water have been swimming to the Earth’s poles, abandoning areas like the warming Gulf of Maine. In research published in the journal Nature, University of British Columbia scientists found that 968 species of fish and invertebrates they studied fled from the warming waters of their original habitats. Male and female terns are thought to pair and mate for life. The females generally lay two eggs. When they hatch after 21 days, the parents search for food to feed their chicks 14 hours a


Bank of Tokyo to pay $250 million to N.Y. in money-laundering case

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ agreed to the fine and to boost its compliance procedures and controls to prevent future violations, New York officials said in a statement. (TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) Japan’s Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ agreed to pay $250 million to settle New York state charges that it illegally funneled billions of dollars to countries that are under U.S. sanctions, including Iran, Sudan and Burma. The settlement is part of a larger effort by government regulators to clamp down on funding for countries under sanction, drug traffickers and terrorists. International banks, including HSBC and Standard Chartered, have in recent years faced stiff penalties for flouting U.S. laws. Critics, however, question whether fines are enough to deter this behavior. New York’s Department of Financial Services said Thursday that the bank cleared some 28,000 illicit transactions totaling $100 billion from 2002 and 2007. Employees allegedly removed information from wire transfers that could have revealed the identity of the countries blacklisted by the United States. Prosecutors said the bank went so far as to create written instructions telling employees that “in order to avoid freezing of funds” they should “omit” information alerting authorities to the involvement of an “enemy country.” “We have and will continue to take a hard line in rooting out misconduct at banks that threatens our national security,” said Benjamin M. Lawsky, head of the New York state banking regulator. Bank of Tokyo identified the practices six years ago, ended them quickly and alerted regulators to the nearly 30,000 transactions, a bank spokesman said. Under the agreement, Japan’s largest bank must hire an independent consultant to evaluate its risk controls and report back to the New York financial regulator. The bank must submit a plan to improve its compliance programs, policies and procedures. The matter falls under the jurisdiction of regulators in New York and Washington. The Treasury Department handed down its consent order against the Bank of Tokyo in December, fining the institution $8.5 million for transactions that occurred from April 2006 to March 2007. The agency focused on 97 fund transfers totaling $5.8 million. A Treasury spokesman said the number and value of transactions in its settlement was smaller because the agency zeroed in on violations of federal sanctions. Regulators in New York City took a broader approach by including violations of New York state record-keeping laws. It is unclear whether the Justice Department will take action


Taliban seeks regional credibility from Qatar office

of Advanced International Studies. “We think we’re going to shape the post-2014 era with military support, but there are other games happening here, and the Taliban are positioning themselves.” Iran’s ambition for a greater role in Afghanistan unsettles the United States, which came to see Tehran as a major spoiler in the Iraq war. U.S. officials accused Iran of fueling violence in Iraq by deploying militias to fight American troops and have accused Tehran of aiding the Taliban militarily in a more limited way. The Taliban, whose top leaders are thought to be based in Pakistan, has long aspired to return to power and has attempted to maintain the semblance of a sovereign state in provinces where it holds sway. “Taliban have not visited Iran as an insignificant party or group,” the group said in a statement posted on its Web site, in which it hailed the meeting as groundbreaking. “Rather, they have been invited by the Iranian side as an independent political system and crucial issues have been brought under discussion.” In another statement, the group said it is “pursuing diplomatic relations” with “different countries of the region and the world on the basis of reciprocal reverence, equality and non-interference in others’ internal affairs.” With the U.S. drawdown accelerating and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s time in office likely to end next spring, analysts say the Taliban has little incentive to pursue a grand bargain that could lead to a cease-fire. As a precondition for an end to hostilities, the United States wants the Taliban to publicly renounce ties to al-Qaeda and recognize the Afghan constitution. The two parties, however, are also interested in a narrower deal: the exchange of a kidnapped U.S. soldier for five Taliban leaders imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Even after the Qatar office opened, the Taliban has continued fighting the NATO troops it calls “foreign invaders” and their Afghan allies, which the group disparages as “puppets.” On Wednesday, it asserted responsibility for a rocket attack that killed four U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan. The Tehran relationship The U.S. Embassy did not respond to a request for comment about the Tehran visit. But American officials say they continue to hold out hope for a negotiated end to the Afghanistan conflict. “If peace and stability is to be brought to Afghanistan, I think some form of political reconciliation is critical,” Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the commander


In the Army, sex discrimination begins at West Point

historically low number of female cadets or as a quota on — that is, an allocation for — the number to be admitted. Under Supreme Court case law — the most relevant cases are Regents of University of California v. Bakke, Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger — college admissions quotas, whether designed to operate for or against members of a protected class, are automatically suspect and are almost sure to be struck down as violations of equal protection of the law. Although those cases involved quotas based on race, there is every reason to believe that the court would strike down a backward-looking, rigid sex-based quota like this one as well. Whether the goal is a quota or not, West Point must explain why it has such low expectations for women. Under the military’s policy of excluding women from ground combat, 81 percent of the Army’s officer occupational specialties were open to women; the academy’s much smaller goal for women based on the demographics of the past Army was not a rational way to select the cadets most qualified to become the commissioned officers of the future. Today, as we look forward to an Army in which 100 percent of occupational specialties will soon be open to women, the goal appears utterly irrational and symptomatic of a culture of sexism. There is no excuse for surreptitiously videotaping female cadets. But an institution that limits its number of women to a token fraction suggests that women are fair game for a form of sex discrimination that is different only in degree from the sex discrimination that underlies West Point’s fundamental policies. It sends the message that women are less worthy. And as a distinct, less valuable minority, women are more likely to be abused. Until military leaders begin treating women as first-class soldiers who are as fit as their male counterparts for all occupational specialties, unit assignments and even West Point admissions, then sexual harassment, assault and even rape will continue to be routine. Government surveillance isn’t the only way to violate privacy. Read more at PostOpinions: Ruth Marcus: Military leaders’ wrongheaded victim-blaming The Post’s View: On sexual abuse in the military, an unsatisfying response from uniformed leaders Elizabeth Robbins: Alcohol abuse is fueling military sexual assault Anu Bhagwati: Why the military needs to recruit and promote more women Robert H. Scales: Military culture still refuses to include women


World Digest: June 20, 2013

WEST BANK Premier seeks to quit after 2 weeks in post The new Palestinian prime minister submitted his resignation to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, after two weeks on the job, citing an unspecified “conflict overauthority.” It was unclear whether Rami Hamdallah, a former university dean, would step down or was using the threat of resignation to obtain more powers. Abbas received the resignation, potentially an embarrassment for him, and will consider it, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, one of his advisers. The prime minister heads the Palestinian Authority, the self-rule government for parts of the West Bank that handles day-to-day affairs of Palestinians. Abbas is in charge overall and handles diplomacy, particularly efforts to restart talks with Israel on the terms of a Palestinian state. Those talks broke down in 2008, but Secretary of State John F. Kerry is seeking to revive them. Hamdallah took office June 6 after being unexpectedly plucked by Abbas from a career in academia to replace internationally known Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who resigned in April. — Associated Press IRAQ Elections conducted in 2 Sunni provinces Iraqis in two Sunni-dominated provinces voted Thursday in provincial elections marked by tight security that left streets in former insurgent strongholds largely deserted for much of the day. Iraq is confronting its worst outbreak of violence in years, and relations between Sunni and Shiite Muslims remain fraught. Anbar and Nineveh, where voting took place, have seen some of the largest rallies in a months-long wave of Sunni protests against the Shiite-led government. Iraqis voted in 12 of the country’s 18 provinces two months ago. Officials had delayed voting in Anbar and Nineveh because of what they said were security concerns, though some Iraqis dismissed that as a political ploy related to the unrest. Results were not expected for several days. — Associated Press Singapore, Malaysia hit by record smog: UNESCO adds 6 Syrian sites to danger list: 11 jailed on extremism charges in China’s Xinjiang region: Flood death toll in India may top 1,000: Kyrgyzstan to end lease of U.S. air base: Kenyan president’s trial delayed: Stampede over Beckham injures 7 in China: — From news services


From LeBron James to Phil Mickelson: First place rewards but second place teaches

against those of beginners. Among the things they found in their report, published in the journal The Cerebellum, was that the skaters, who skate counterclockwise and have to turn left constantly and make visual adjustments and decisions while balancing on their right foot, had larger right hemispheres in their cerebellums. In August 2010, another teams of researchers led by Ed Roberts of the Imperial College London did a similar study but used diffusion tensor imaging to examine the neural connections of a dozen karate fighters who achieved black belts with an average of 14 years experience. They found that the white matter of the fighters’ cerebellums — the complex network of neuron connections that carries signals from one cell to another — was structurally different from that of beginners who exercised but had no expertise. This suggests that athletes are always teaching themselves something, even when they suffer repetitive losses. That’s important because it means is that we underappreciate losing, spend far too much time examining victories and not crediting losses. Nyad knows on a gut level that good losers have an interesting and valuable self-control: They manage to maintain their effort, standard and comportment even in the face of cuts to their souls. She has continued to try to swim the Florida Straits year after year despite debilitating stings, shoulder injuries and asthma attacks. When you ask why, she says, “Who dares, wins.” Sports history abounds with examples of great athletes who learned from terrible repetitive losses — and we forget that about them. We forget that Ivan Lendl lost four Grand Slam tennis finals before he won his first. Or that Andre Agassi lost three. My friend Pat Summitt lost seven women’s Final Fours before she won her first championship ring and went on to eight NCAA titles and an all-time record of 1,098 victories. What she learned about losing was “too many people opt out,” she says, “because they fear failure. They’re afraid of keeping score.” The record book shows that Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson finished second in major championships more often than they won them. My father, a Hall of Fame sportswriter who just attended his 60th U.S. Open, told the following story after watching Mickelson lose at Merion. On a visit to Palmer’s home many years ago, he admired a beautiful table that Palmer had inlaid with his gold medals from his


Risky trading comes roaring back

The exotic financial products that nearly crippled the economy in 2008 are roaring back at the nation’s biggest banks, according to data released Friday that reform advocates worry come just as regulations to rein in risky trading are being weakened in Washington. Demand for derivatives — contracts whose value is derived from stocks, bonds, loans and currencies — is growing as investors and corporations try to lock in low interest rates. But critics worry that there are too few rules to protect taxpayers from a market dominated by a handful of banks. On Friday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reported that banks pulled in $7.5 billion in revenue from trading derivatives in the first three months of 2013, a 7 percent increase from the corresponding period a year ago, and a 72 percent jump from the fourth quarter of 2012. The face value of the derivatives held by banks rose 4 percent over the prior year to $231.6 trillion, according to the report. “The improvement in the U.S. economy and low interest rates led to significant capital-raising activity in the bond markets,” said Kurt Wilhelm, director of the OCC’s Financial Markets Group. “That led to strong client demand for risk-management products as investors increased their hedging and positioning against potential changes in monetary policy.” In the run-up to the financial crisis, Wall Street firms used complex forms of derivatives to place risky, and ultimately fatal, bets on the mortgage market. Insurance giant American International Group, for instance, teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in 2008 because of its exposure to complex derivatives known as credit-default swaps. AIG’s near collapse and the fall of Lehman Brothers led to provisions in the Dodd-Frank financial law to reduce risks for derivative trading and improve transparency. But the financial services industry has fought to narrow the scope of the regulations and delay implementation. And some say the effort has been successful. A week ago, the comptroller granted banks two more years to move derivative trades into separate units that are walled off from the rest of the bank. The “swaps push-out” rule bars those affiliates from accessing the Federal Reserve’s emergency-lending facilities or relying on federal deposit insurance. Critics view the delay as another blow to reform. “Regulators have to get serious about implementing this law,” said Marcus Stanley, policy director of Americans for Financial Reform. “The derivatives market is dominated


‘Supermoon’ to grace the skies this weekend

In this Saturday, May 5, 2012 file photo, a "supermoon" rises behind the Temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion, Greece, southeast of Athens. (Dimitri Messinis/AP) It is ancient, alluring, and by both international treaty and the words of a well-known song, it belongs to all of us. The moon this weekend will appear to be at its biggest and brightest of the this year, and it will be on view here. Not just the moon, but the “supermoon,” something special in the celestial realm. This weekend, the moon makes its closest approach of the year to the Earth. This will happen Sunday morning within an hour of full moon. The combination makes for what has been dubbed a supermoon. With a full moon coming to within about 221,000 miles of earth, it will appear about 15 percent brighter than average. However, with no test moon available for comparison, it is not clear whether even a 15 percent upgrade in lunar wattage will be widely noticeable. Yet, it will be worth a at least a glance. Little in the heavens has had more influence over the years on song, story and the human imagination. And as the song asserts: “The moon belongs to everyone.” Possibly the best view will be shortly after midnight Saturday, in the early hours of Sunday morning. The moon will be at its highest point in the southern sky. And there will be less than eight hours before the two key moments: 2013’s instant of closest approach , and the instant when the always changing moon is perfectly full.


Obama to take sweeping action on climate

President Obama will announce his intention to limit greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, increase appliance efficiency standards and promote renewable energy development on public lands in a speech Tuesday outlining his plan to use executive powers to address climate change. While the president has talked about the need to address global warming, using sweeping rhetoric in his second inaugural address to suggest it ranks as one of his highest priorities, he has been largely silent on how he intends to tackle the problem. In the speech at Georgetown University, according to individuals briefed on the matter who asked not to be identified because the plan was not yet public, Obama will detail a government-wide plan to not only reduce the nation’s carbon output but also prepare the United States for the near-term impacts of global warming. They said those measures would include programs to enhance the resilience of coastal communities as well as Agriculture Department “climate adaptation hubs” that could help farmers cope with changes in temperature and precipitation. “Taken together, these actions indicate an entirely new sense of urgency in addressing the threat climate change is posing to our economy and security,” said Paul Bledsoe, a senior fellow on energy and climate at the German Marshall Fund and a former White House climate adviser under President Bill Clinton. Unlike his other signature second-term initiatives, such as immigration legislation, gun-control measures and entitlement reform, Obama can undertake all of these policies without congressional input. Though Congress could theoretically overturn an Environmental Protection Agency rule to regulate existing utilities under the Clean Air Act, Democrats have the votes they need in the Senate to block such an effort. In a video announcement the White House posted Saturday afternoon, Obama highlighted the benefits of addressing global warming, saying it “is a serious challenge, but it’s one uniquely suited to America’s strengths.” “We’ll need scientists to design new fuels and farmers to grow them,” he said. “We’ll need engineers to devise new sources of energy and businesses to make and sell them.” But the move to impose greenhouse gas limits on existing plants — which account for a third of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions and 40 percent of its carbon emissions — will raise consumers’ electricity prices in the short term as utilities are forced to shutter aging coal plants to comply with stricter pollution limits. According to the Edison


Maryland bans wild ginseng harvest on state land, upsetting diggers

once sold 10 pounds and put a gas furnace in his house,” Miller said. “It’s a nice hobby. It’s part of the outdoor experience.” That experience in Maryland is about to change. State officials recently banned ginseng hunting on state land after a study by Smithsonian scientists and an analysis of harvest records showed a dramatic drop in the number of plants across the state. In 2010, the wild harvest of ginseng in Maryland netted 143 pounds, according to state figures. That’s down from 227 pounds just 10 years before and 423 pounds in 1996. In some places, including Montgomery and Baltimore counties, the plant appears to be totally gone. Western Maryland is the only place left to hunt, and even there, ginseng is more difficult to find, state officials say. The story of ginseng’s decline in Maryland — and it is hurting throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast — is primarily one of economics and changing living patterns. China’s hunger for American ginseng has pushed up demand, leading to overpicking in a state where sprawl has overrun land once rich with foliage. And a decline in game hunting has been good news for white-tailed deer, which enjoy snacking on ginseng. “Some of the prices for ginseng look now like the prices for illegal drugs,” said Jonathan A. McKnight, the state’s associate director for habitat conservation and the official who made the recommendation to ban ginseng hunting on state land. “But we have a declining population. I think the stuff is declining so rapidly that there weren’t many years of traditional picking left.” Ginseng hunters are upset at McKnight. They will now have to dig on private lands — if they can get permission. “I know it’s a tradition, and I hate to get in the way of it,” said McKnight, who nevertheless knows he is, in his words, “the Ginseng Grinch.” International trade During the past 30 years, ginseng hunting has evolved from a custom passed down through generations — families have secret honey holes whose locations are closely held secrets — to a global business connecting people deep in the woods to fast-talking brokers in New York who move roots to buyers on the other side of the world. “It may be the most interesting plant in the world,” said James McGraw, a plant biologist and ginseng expert at West Virginia University. “What other plant is desired by people


From a crowd of astronomical events, summer emerges

The biggest and brightest full moon of the year graces the sky as our celestial neighbor swings closer to Earth than usual. The summer solstice was Friday. Saturday and Sunday brought a big, bright “super moon.” And Monday may start a steamy stretch of days instantly recognizable as sweltering summer. Recent days have brought and are bringing to Washington one solar, lunar and meteorological event after the other. Meanwhile, Saturday was pleasant. It conformed to the marks for a true June day. The high temperature, as measured at Reagan National Airport, was 86 — the normal high for June 22. The low was within a degree of normal. A touch of humidity showed up, but it appeared to pose little impediment to enjoying a late-June Saturday. However, temperatures are expected to climb into the 90s by Monday, certainly by Tuesday, and possibly even on Sunday. And they are expected to linger there long enough to be classified as a heat wave. Saturday, however, was free of the humid haze that symbolizes summer discomfort, and the night sky was clear enough for a good view of the “super moon.” That is the name that has been adopted to describe the coincidence of a full moon with the moon’s closest monthly approach to the Earth. Any glimpse of the moon this weekend will reveal a sphere that is close to being the biggest and brightest that it will appear all year. It is about 15 per cent brighter than an average full moon. It looked that way Saturday night, looming above the city, as bright or brighter than the illuminated walls of the White House, or even car headlights.


U-Md.’s summer festival orchestra shines in Mahler’s Sixth Symphony

The University of Maryland’s summer festival orchestra gave the second of its three programs Saturday evening, scaling one of the highest mountains in the literature: Mahler’s grim Sixth Symphony. Conductor Asher Fisch, who had the group playing above itself last year in Mahler’s Third, drew even finer playing in this more concentrated work. The National Orchestral Institute is composed of conservatory students from around the country, admitted by audition, who spend three intensive weeks working together on major works of the repertoire, including coaching from principal players of top U.S. orchestras. The average age is about 22, and most have the goal of entering the profession. So the motivation is high, and Fisch had a very strong group to work with this year. His stick technique is not all that sophisticated — too often the hands just mirror each other, and the beat itself isn’t particularly expressive. But his passion for the music comes through in every bar, and in his many hours of rehearsal, he has clearly bonded with the young musicians. With that, plus the detailed sectional work by the coaches (which of course wouldn’t happen in a professional orchestra), the performance of this draining piece was of fully professional quality. There were some seams when a musical line was passed through various wind instruments, and there wasn’t uniform intensity in the strings. But Fisch pulled everything together with unflagging concentration. Would that the same could be said of the Mozart piano concerto that came first (No. 17 in G). While the orchestra was, of course, reduced, it wasn’t reduced nearly enough — five double basses, for example. Fisch, busy playing the solo part (including a memory slip in the first movement’s exposition), simply put up with the clotted textures. The second violins were virtually inaudible throughout the performance, and sustained lines from the winds buried the piano frequently. The G minor variation in the finale had some magic, but overall, the performance was a miscalculation on several levels. Battey is a freelance writer.


Parents of U.S. soldier held by Taliban hold rally

Bob Bergdahl, left, and wife, Jani, the parents of captive U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, talk at the “Bring Bowe Back” celebration held to honor Sgt. Bergdahl in Hailey, Idaho, Saturday, June 22, 2013. (Jae C. Hong/AP) HAILEY, Idaho U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s mother, Jani Bergdahl, spoke to about 2,000 people gathered in Hailey, his hometown, in a city park where he played as a young boy. About 400 in the crowd arrived on motorcycles, adorned in leather and patches commemorating U.S. soldiers missing in action. Bowe Bergdahl, 27, was taken prisoner in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. Jani Bergdahl and his father, Bob Bergdahl, who accompanied the motorcycle procession on his son’s 1978 dirt bike, spoke for a combined 15 minutes about rejuvenated hopes that their son’s now-four-year ordeal will soon end. “We are feeling very optimistic this week,” his mother said, before addressing her son directly. “Bowe, we love you, we support you and are eagerly awaiting your return home. I love you, my son, as I have from the first moment I heard of you, the never-ending, unconditional love a mother has for her child.” This undated image provided by the U.S. Army shows Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The Taliban proposed a deal in which they would free the U.S. soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their most senior operatives at Guantanamo Bay. (AP) POW-MIA activists traveled on buses to the event from as far as Elko, Nev. Many in the crowd said they were Vietnam veterans; some of them supported the proposed prisoner exchange without reservation. “Give them their guys, and get our guy home,” said David Blunt of Elko, who said he served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam as a medic. “He’s suffered enough.” Bergdahl is believed to be held in Pakistan, but the Taliban said they would free him in exchange for five of their most senior operatives at Guantanamo Bay. The militant group’s exchange proposition came just days ahead of possible talks between a U.S. delegation and Taliban members. Bergdahl’s father, Bob Bergdahl, urged those gathered at Hailey’s Hop Porter Park to remember everyone, regardless of nationality, who had suffered during the 12-year conflict in Afghanistan that began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He described his son as “part of the peace process.” “I wish she was the only mother that was suffering in that way,” Bob


Robert J. Samuelson: Cheap money can’t buy a strong economy

repeatedly written, is the legacy of the financial crisis and Great Recession. Their suddenness and magnitude sobered and frightened people in ways that sapped vitality and optimism. Households, companies, bankers, government regulators — just about everyone — became more cautious and, in economics jargon, “risk averse.” Consumers skimped on spending; companies limited hiring and investment. Debts that seemed bearable quickly became burdensome. Firms and families “deleveraged.” Technological advance, an engine of growth in the 1990s, also seems to have faltered. Economist Robert Gordon of Northwestern University argues that the information technology boom is weakening. A new study from the Federal Reserve provides some corroborating evidence. It finds that from 1995 to 2004, labor productivity — a measure of efficiency — in the nonfarm business sector increased 3.1 percent a year, with about half the gain coming from IT. From 2004 to 2012, average annual gains dropped to 1.6 percent, with IT providing slightly more than a third. Finally, demographics may hurt. As Americans age, they may restrain their spending. (In 2000, the 65-and-over population was 12 percent of the total; by 2025, it is projected to be nearly 19 percent.) Their wants may not have decreased, but they don’t know whether they will outlive their savings. The decline in IRA and 401(k) retirement accounts — in many cases now reversed — could be repeated. Social Security and Medicare benefits could be cut. These uncertainties breed caution. Cheap credit addresses none of these problems directly and, indirectly, does so only weakly. It can’t erase the memories of the financial crisis. It can’t create new technologies. It can’t make older people younger. At best, cheap money aided the housing recovery; at worst, it became a stock-market narcotic that can’t be withdrawn painlessly. Many countries face obstacles to growth that cheap money won’t magically remove. This raises a larger issue. Economists have been taught in graduate school that advances in their discipline make it possible to stabilize and, within broad boundaries, control economic activity. But what if that’s not so? The ferocious debates among economists indicate that the consensus has broken down. Inevitably, there are better and worse policies; but in real time, it’s not always clear which is which. Business cycles endure. Market forces still dominate; the ability to subdue and reshape them remains limited. Time, as much as policy, may promote recovery. Read more on this issue: Robert J. Samuelson: Americans


Mandela’s condition remains critical

substantial presidential trip to Africa. In addition to South Africa, Obama will stop in Senegal and Tanzania. Mandela has been hospitalized four times since December. As of Saturday, the South African government has characterized his condition as “serious but stable.” On Monday, a somber mood pervaded the country. Both the ruling African National Congress party (ANC) and its main rival, the Democratic Alliance party, issued statements asking South Africans to keep Mandela in their thoughts and prayers. In an interview with CNN, Mandela’s daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, asked that the family’s privacy be respected. “This is in a sense quality and sacred time for us, and I would expect the world to really back off and leave us alone,” she said. South Africa’s apartheid regime imprisoned Mandela for 27 years for his crucial role in the struggle against white rule before releasing him in 1990 as national and international pressure against the government’s brutal racial segregation mounted. He contracted tuberculosis in the 1980s while working at the prison quarry on Robben Island, which is believed to be the source of his current lung problems. In 1993, Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk, who was the last president during white rule and began dismantling apartheid. Mandela became the nation’s first black president following South Africa’s first multiracial elections in 1994, won by the ANC. Mandela has not been seen in public since the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament, which was held in South Africa. Monday marked the 18th anniversary of a pivotal moment in Mandela’s efforts to bridge South Africa’s racial divide: At the 1995 Rugby World Cup final in Johannesburg, Mandela united South Africans in support of the Springboks, the national team that was once all-white and hated by blacks as a vehicle of the apartheid regime. Over the weekend, the South African government came under fire after reports that an ambulance transporting Mandela to the hospital on June 8 broke down and that Mandela suffered cardiac arrest during the episode. Another ambulance arrived to take Mandela to Pretoria, a roughly 45-minute drive from Mandela’s home in an upscale Johannesburg neighborhood. On Sunday, Zuma confirmed that the first ambulance had broken down but dismissed media reports of the cardiac arrest as false. “There were seven doctors in the convoy who were in full control of the situation throughout the period. He had expert medical care,” Zuma said.


Marc Thiessen: The Taliban is playing Obama

to get the United States out of the way so they can take over Afghanistan. So why are the Taliban negotiating? Simple. It knows that Barack Obama wants to leave Afghanistan and close Guantanamo Bay — and they want to help him do both. Taliban leaders have three objectives: First, they want Obama to free five senior leaders held at Guantanamo Bay. They include a deputy defense minister who has been accused of war crimes by the United Nations and, according to the U.S. military, has “operational associations with significant al-Qaida and other extremist personnel.” They include a deputy minister of intelligence who, according to the U.S. military, “utilized his office to support al-Qaida” and “arranged for al-Qaida personnel to train Taliban intelligence staff.” They include an interior minister who was “directly associated with Usama bin Laden” as well as Hamas and deceased al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Why does the Taliban want these people back? So that they can rejoin the fight to take over Afghanistan. The Taliban heard Obama complain in his National Defense University speech how “we must spend another $200 million to keep Gitmo open at a time when we’re cutting investments in education and research here at home.” They think he will be more than willing to free them — especially in exchange for a captured U.S. soldier. Second, Taliban leaders want to speed the withdrawal of U.S. troops. They heard Obama declare in his NDU speech that “the Afghan War is coming to an end.” They know Obama is eager for a complete, or near-complete, withdrawal of U.S. forces by 2014. They want to give the president cover to withdraw on time and to leave as few troops behind as possible. Third, they want to use their Qatar office as a base of operations in the Persian Gulf. From the headquarters Obama allowed them to open in Doha, they can raise funds across the Gulf, link up with other radical jihadist groups and legitimize themselves by engaging other countries diplomatically. Already, they have sent a diplomatic delegation to Iran for a meeting that a Taliban spokesman described “as a meeting of two governments.” We’ve allowed them to do all this while getting no concessions whatsoever in return. The Taliban has not cut ties with al-Qaeda (something former secretary of state Hilary Clinton once said was an “unambiguous red line”). It has not


Environmental group voices concern over tick-spraying plan

to deal with it personally: spray your clothing, do a tick check. That’s the number one thing to do,” she said. “Spraying offers a false sense of security, and it’s making other people rise up and say, ‘Let’s spray in our neighborhoods; let’s spray in our back yards.’ ” Hamilton said she hoped for answers to questions included in the organization’s letter: What kind of evaluation would be conducted to determine the effects of the spraying, positive or negative? How were these parks identified as the best places to spray? What evidence is there that spraying would reduce Lyme infection? Goodfriend said there was no easy way to assess the effect of the spraying, in part because the use of the pesticide was so targeted. “It’s only one application, and ticks will come back because we’re not saturating the park with pesticides,” he said. “If we went back again to measure next year, the ticks would be back.” He echoed Hamilton’s assertion that personal protection was by far the most effective step residents can take: “That’s the message that we keep conveying to people — to dress appropriately, to use insect repellant.” The parks sprayed this year were selected in the spring, Goodfriend said, after an environmental company determined the highest risk areas, “based on tick habitat, human use, and areas where humans and ticks may come into contact.” County spokeswoman Anna Nissinen said the spraying was done in “the most efficient, effective and environmentally sensitive manner” possible. An online Lyme awareness survey launched this year will help officials determine where infected residents think they were exposed, whether in parks, along community trails or in their back yards, Goodfriend said. The results of the survey could help shape future plans for spraying. Hamilton, who said her organization was still awaiting a response to its letter, said she wants to avoid an “adversarial dynamic” with the county board. “I just want to find a way to have this discussion [about spraying] and say, ‘Here is what we would recommend,’ ” she said. The Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy asked to be a part of the Loudoun Lyme Disease Commission when the group was first formed, Hamilton said, but the request was declined. “If we can help, we’d like to. It’s just a matter of them wanting to listen to us,” she said. “The environment really is public health. You can’t divorce the two.”


Missing red panda found in Adams Morgan

was no raccoon, they called the zoo. By the time the pinch was made, after a search across streets and rooftops by animal curators with nets and handheld radios, Rusty was a sensation on social and non-social media. “Crated and captured!” The zoo tweeted a picture of a thirsty-looking Rusty safely back behind mesh, taking a drink from a water bottle. He was reported to be in good health in the zoo’s animal hospital Monday evening. The day’s events began at 7:30 a.m. when the keepers discovered that Rusty had disappeared, apparently overnight. He had last been seen at 6 p.m. Sunday. The Code Green was sounded over the keepers’ radios at 8 a.m. (The Washington Post) Rusty is less than a year old and is about the size of a raccoon. An intense, but futile, search of the zoo ensued. The zoo gates were closed temporarily but were reopened at 9:45 a.m. after he did not turn up, spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said. “We have been searching all morning,” she said. “It is most likely that he has not really left the vicinity. He would have to have some very strong motivation to leave the area.” Rusty is relatively new to the zoo. He arrived from Lincoln, Neb., in late April and has been on exhibit about three weeks. The National Zoo also has a female red panda, Shama, and plans to breed the two. “This animal is not dangerous to any human,” Baker-Masson said. “He is vaccinated.” Red pandas Foughty, a singer and actress from Columbus, Ohio, said she, her husband, her mother and mother-in-law, were walking on 20th Street from Mama Ayesha’s restaurant on Calvert street NW. “My husband actually spotted a striped tail and was like ‘Maybe that’s a raccoon,’ ” she said. “Then, the whole animal came out, and we were like ‘That’s definitely not a raccoon.’ ” A regular zoo-goer, she said she remarked: “I think that’s a red panda.” “We took a couple pictures,” which she tweeted about 1:15 p.m., she said. “And my mother-in-law called the zoo.” She said that when she tweeted Rusty’s picture, she did not know he was missing. A friend commented on Facebook moments later that the zoo was looking for him. “I’m so glad that they were able to find him,” she said. Experts from the zoo and the Washington Humane Society soon located Rusty in a tree.


Going Out Guide: Nightlife Agenda

Every Tuesday, the Going Out Gurus highlight the week’s best DJs, bands, dance nights and parties. Find a longer list of events at www.goingoutguide.com. Trillectro lite The Trillectro kids brought huge energy to the D.C. music scene last year, putting together a wildly successful outdoor festival that combined hot and emerging artists from across the spectrum of rap and electronic music. The organizers are gearing up for the sequel on Aug. 17, but you’ll find the crew popping up around town with a few preliminary events to tide everyone over. You can check out Mad Decent’s DJ Sega, a specialist in Baltimore, Philly and Jersey club sounds, along with Trillectro regulars Spicoli, Swizzy Mack and Selecta at U Street Music Hall. Tuesday at 9 p.m. U Street Music Hall. 1115 U St. NW. 202-588-1880. www.ustreetmusichall.com. $10. DC Brau Beer release parties The brewers of DC Brau are known for their canned beers — Public Pale Ale and Corruption IPA are in hundreds of area bars — but they’ve also been busy cranking out boutique beers. Earlier this month, they unveiled beers brewed for DC United fans and the Red Hen restaurant in Bloomingdale. This week, two more beers drop. Everyday Junglist, a citrusy pale ale brewed with Chinook and Mosaic hops, will be officially released on draft Wednesday at American Ice Company. The beer takes its name from the drum’n’ bass scene (DC Brau founders Brandon Skall and Jeff Hancock first met as d’n’b DJs) so it’s appropriate that local heavyweights Slant and Locks will join the Brothers Brau to spin tunes from 10 p.m. on. The following night, the guys head to DGS in Dupont Circle for the release of the Golden Calf, the bar’s new house ale. DC Brau’s sweet Yonder Cities Belgian IPA is combined with house-made Slivovitz plum brandy. The tapping party runs from 8 to 11 p.m., and the beer will be paired with a special menu that includes beef hot dogs with pastrami chili and sour pickles femented in a Catoctin Creek whiskey barrel. Everyday Junglist: Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. American Ice Company, 917 V St. NW. 202-758-3562. www.dcbrau.com. Free admission. The Golden Calf: Thursday from 8 to 11 p.m. DGS Delicatessen, 1317 Connecticut Ave. NW. 202-293-4400. www.dgsdelicatessen.com. Free admission. Eleanor Friedberger Eleanor Friedberger’s charming, lo-fi indie-pop songs are miles from the squealing feedback and sprawling concerts of Fiery Furnaces, the


In Japan, power is held where few people live

election results invalid — decisions that will play out in higher courts this year. But lawmakers have barely budged, and analysts say they are loath to upend a system that would cost some of them jobs. One bill, passed into law Monday with the support of the LDP and a smaller coalition party, calls for cutting lower house seats from five districts, including in Kochi prefecture. Such tweaks are designed to lower the vote disparity to 1.998, but given the urban drift, the legislation could be outdated by the time it takes effect. “Already the latest census shows the voting disparity will be above 2,” said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University. “They’re doing the bare minimum, not even the bare minimum.” Breaking the cycle The power of rural Japan feels egregious only when viewed from outside its confines. In Kochi prefecture, voters scoff at the idea that they have power: They’ve instead watched, powerless, as their population drops by 5,000 every year and as mountainous towns empty out with no realistic plans for revival. They say they feel far removed from decisions made in Tokyo, particularly Abe’s commitment to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive free-trade agreement that includes agriculture giants such as Australia and the United States. Japan is likely to push in negotiations for protection of certain agriculture products — notably rice, wheat, beef and pork — but most of the other goods, such as those made in Kochi, will be open to foreign competition. “If we proceed with this kind of reform, there will not be people in rural areas anymore,” said Shigeyuki Tanouchi, the Kochi regional manager of JA-Zenchu, Japan’s massive agriculture co-op. Some in Kochi fear a cycle in which Tokyo cuts down on political representatives from the countryside and those areas, in turn, decline all the faster. Analysts say that, in theory, there is an alternative solution to Japan’s electoral disparities: The rural areas could gain back population. Hidehisa Takemura, 44, moved back to Kochi 14 years ago, leaving his sales job at a metal manufacturer in Tokyo. He settled back into his family’s dairy farm, tending to a barn of 1,300-pound Holsteins. He also started voting more, compelled by the issues facing his region. “In Tokyo, you can live comfortably and the problems feel distant,” he said. “Whereas here, it’s a different situation.” Yuki Oda contributed to this report.


Rusty the red panda ‘is sleeping well, eating well,’ officials report

The male red panda that escaped from the National Zoo and was apprehended in Adams Morgan is back on display. Fresh off his caper “Rusty is sleeping well, eating well, hydrating well and — this is probably too much information — he’s pooping well,” zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson reported cheerily. “I spoke to the vet this morning and she said Rusty is ‘bright and alert.’ ” Rusty, one of two red pandas at the National Zoo, disappeared from his enclosure sometime between 6 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 a.m. Monday. By 8 a.m., alarms had been sounded and a citywide panda hunt began. Finally, around lunchtime Monday, a woman spotted Rusty on the run in Adams Morgan. She tweeted some photos and called the zoo, which sent animal curators to scour the area. Rusty was captured shortly after 2 p.m. and taken to the zoo’s animal hospital where he could be examined. “One of our concerns was, did he eat anything funky?” Baker-Masson said. A hearty appetite and regular bowel movements indicate that Rusty did not ingest anything toxic. “We care a lot about poop around here, with good reason,” Baker-Masson said with a chuckle. Baker-Masson said workers would closely examine the enclosure as they tried to determine how Rusty escaped. As of Tuesday afternoon, there were still no answers. “We would really like to figure out how he got out,” Baker-Masson said. “There is no obvious escape route.” Rusty was still in the zoo’s clinic and there are no plans to relocate him in the immediate future, Baker-Masson said. Shama, the zoo’s female red panda, has remained in the enclosure throughout the ordeal and has shown no signs of trying to get out. Baker-Masson said that the zoo has not ruled out foul play in Rusty’s brief disappearance, but she notes that “we may never know” if someone did, indeed, reach into the enclosure and pull him out. “The mystery continues.” Trishula Patel contributed to this report. (The Washington Post)


O’Malley’s band scheduled to reemerge in Germantown this weekend

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley fronts the seven-piece O’Malley’s March. (Photo courtesy O’Malley’s March) Whatever Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s political future may hold, his side career as the frontman of his Celtic rock band is rolling on. O’Malley’s March is booked for three concerts in the coming month, including one Saturday. The Black Rock Center for the Arts in Germantown has billed the band’s performance there as “a rare Montgomery County concert appearance.” Another pair of shows is scheduled in Annapolis toward the end of next month at a more familiar venue for the seven-piece band: the Rams Head, which is just around the corner from the governor’s mansion. O’Malley’s March remains a part-time pursuit for the governor, who is weighing a 2016 presidential bid. But his band outings have become far more frequent than early in his tenure, when aides worried that the performances detracted from his gravitas. O’Malley’s detractors have continued to argue that the band — which played at the White House last year — distracts him from more pressing state issues. Proceeds from Saturday’s concert will benefit arts education and other programs at Black Rock, according to the center.


Europe may follow U.S. on Magnitsky sanctions

MOSCOW — The report was prepared by Andreas Gross, a member of the Swiss parliament, for the 47 countries making up the Council of Europe and was given to the council’s human rights and legal affairs committee Tuesday. At a news conference in France, Gross said the report would provide material for the council’s Parliamentary Assembly to consider when it debates possible sanctions against Russia at its winter session. Magnitsky, who died in Moscow in November 2009, accused Russian officials of using documents stolen from the Hermitage Capital investment fund to carry off a $230 million tax fraud. Instead of pursuing the officials, authorities charged Magnitsky with the fraud. Recently, Russia opened a new case against him — in death — and brought charges against Hermitage founder William Browder as well. Gross, who interviewed numerous witnesses in Russia, told the news conference that high-level officials declined to talk to him. He said the evidence he accumulated, however, persuaded him that Magnitsky was innocent and responsibility lay with “a group of criminals, including the persons he had accused before these persons took him into custody, where he died.” The report comes six months after the United States passed the Magnitsky law, which places financial and visa sanctions on certain Russian officials. Russia vehemently denounced the U.S. law, and on Tuesday Ilyas Umakhanov, the deputy speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, criticized the Gross report. He called it full of “flaws, contradictions and myths.” Gross, however, maintained that the death tells a wider story of Russia. “The Magnitsky case is just one emblematic example of how helpless individual citizens are once they are taken into custody,” Gross wrote in his report, adding that many others whose names were never known had suffered similar treatment. “It is for the sake of these nameless victims that the international community must not accept the outcome of the case so far.”


Smarter Food: Programs aim to help diners find healthful, sustainable meals

things and puts pressure on those who aren’t.” SPE Certified has a similar model. The three letters stand for Sanitas Per Escam, Latin for “health through food.” Certified dishes, except for desserts, may use no butter or cream. Ingredients cannot be fried or grilled (because of the carcinogens associated with charring). But founder Emmanuel Verstraeten says SPE is less about what chefs can’t use than about what they can. His culinary team works with restaurants with the goal of offering delicious and satisfying dishes without resorting to the easy tricks that make restaurant food so unhealthful. The program also rates restaurants on their sourcing and environmental impact. SPE principles are on display at Verstraeten’s Rouge Tomate, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. The elegant space is full of blond wood and vases of green apples. It even has a juice bar. But nothing about it feels preachy. On the day I visited, I tasted a bright walu seviche, with avocado, yuzu and snap peas; and “farroto,” a satisfying twist on risotto, made with whole-grain farro, porcini, Parmesan and asparagus. “Taste is always first,” Verstraeten says. “You need to enjoy your food. It is the best way to get people to eat healthy.” When SPE launched in May 2012, Verstraeten says, he believed that independent, fine-dining restaurants would be attracted. Some are. But many chefs are anxious about letting a nutritionist have the final word on their food. Instead, SPE is making headway at larger institutions. Celebrity Cruises offers SPE-certified dishes such as tomato-watermelon salad, roasted pork loin and olive-oil custard in its main dining room and spa. The University of Massachusetts has worked with SPE to improve the nutrition and portion sizes of its most popular dishes, such as shepherd’s pie. The newest entrant to the U.S. market is Britain’s Sustainable Restaurant Association. The SRA has certified 500 restaurants across the pond, from glamorous Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire to the Carluccio’s chain, with 45 locations. The SRA rates restaurants on 14 criteria in three areas: society (healthful food, responsible marketing), environment (water conservation, waste management) and sourcing (serving local and seasonal items, ethically raised meats). Applicants answer a 90-question survey and must provide evidence (menus, invoices, etc.) to back up their claims. In addition to their rating of one, two or three stars, restaurants receive a report outlining where they can improve and are assigned a manager to


work with them to make changes. The SRA has been operating in Britain since 2010. Last month it decided to offer its certification around the world, and it is in the process of certifying its first class of U.S. restaurants. “There are so many brands and certification schemes,” says Mark Linehan, the SRA’s managing director. “With people traveling more, and more aware of what is going on around the world, we felt it would be helpful to have a single certification that is recognizable.” As they say in England: “Quite.” The whole point of certifications was to simplify decisions for consumers. Now that there are so many, diners have to do research to figure out which one to trust. It is still early days for the programs. But if health is your focus, the most reliable certification might be SPE’s. Its criteria are the most rigorous and have been reviewed by experts at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Based on what I ate at Rouge Tomate, SPE’s culinary team knows how to help chefs coax flavor out of healthful ingredients without causing diners to miss a thing. (That might not hold true for Southern and barbecue restaurants, many of which by their nature would run afoul of SPE’s bans on grilling, butter and lard.) But the other certifiers have their merits. In addition to its review program, REAL Certified is looking into helping its restaurants band together to buy local and sustainable products at a discount. The strength of SRA, a veteran in the field at three years old, is its breadth of criteria; restaurants also get credit for responsible marketing to children and engagement in their community. “It’s hard to argue with any sincere attempt to allow an outside group to take a look at worthwhile efforts, evaluating and articulating results,” says Clark Wolf, a restaurant consultant based in New York and Sonoma County, Calif. “That said, it’s a marketing move, like sponsoring the local baseball team used to be. It’s a modern way of saying, ‘We’re good community members, and we have the logo stamp to prove it.’ ” Still, the certifications are a starting point for diners who want to make good decisions without getting a headache, and an incentive for restaurateurs to make responsible choices. “For me, a certification speaks to what I want to


Access to Silver Spring’s Forest Glen during toxic-chemical cleanup worries neighbors

at six more sites throughout the Forest Glen annex, which the Army acquired during World War II to expand Walter Reed. One dioxin in the stream, a probable carcinogen called 2,3,7,8-TCDD, was measured at a level nine times higher than the EPA’s freshwater screening benchmark. That prompted a Forest Glen manager to put up signs warning those who use the park not to allow their pets to drink from the stream. The annex is currently home to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and a handful of other biomedical research centers. The Maryland Department of the Environment will evaluate the health risks and decide which sites the Army needs to clean up and how. State and Army officials suspect that the woods near what’s known as the Ireland Drive trail will require extensive cleanup. Officially called “Site 2” among the other six contaminated areas of the annex, the old medical landfill is buried under two baseball fields within the annex security fence and the woods beyond the fence that border Rock Creek Park. Schubert and many of her neighbors who want to keep the wooded area open have succeeded in the past, creating a group called Save Our Trail in 2004 when the Army temporarily closed its entrance near Linden Lane during nearby construction. Schubert’s husband, Steven Rosen, has joined the Forest Glen Restoration Advisory Board, which was formed in 2012 with members of the community, the Army and the state environment department. Rosen, 70, said he often finds glass and pottery from the old hospital in the woods behind their house. “Yes, there is waste that washes up, but we’re okay with that,” he said. Gortva is less forgiving. “The other day, there was an amber chemical jar here. Someone picked it up and took it,” he explained during a recent walk down the Ireland Drive trail.“People are still coming in and picking up the waste.” The Army has since posted signs warning people to keep away from the polluted stream, which feeds into Rock Creek. The dioxin that was found in the stream at more than nine times the EPA limit is a byproduct of the burning of fuel and industrial waste. It causes an acne-like skin condition in people and likely causes cancer, according to the EPA. Benzo[a]pyrene, a chemical created when organic waste is burned, surpassed EPA levels in 10 water samples along the stream.


Backstage: Two D.C. troupes take their shows on the road

It’s that time of year again: Everybody wants to get out of town. Urban dwellers are ready to swap the sweltering city for the seashore. Rusty the Red Panda broke out of his cage; Edward Snowden busted out of the country. Just about everyone on “Mad Men” wants to move to California. There’s no place like home, except in the summer, when there’s no place like anywhere else. Get-out-of-town fever has hit Washington theater, too: Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s Roadside Revue and Dog & Pony DC are taking their shows on tour. “A Killing Game,” Dog & Pony DC’s interactive, absurdistparty-game/performance, went to the Cincinnati Fringe Festival (known as Cincy Fringe) this month. “The Brontes,” Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s rock-and-roll take on literary sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne and their brother Branwell, is headed to the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF, pronounced like “nymph”) at the beginning of next month. Dog Pony DC’s show “When you have a process that’s that long, you kind of want to live with it a little longer,” said Bills. “You want to present it as many times as you can.” Bills, along with Dog & Pony DC co-founder Rachel Grossman, has been working on a touring model for the company so its shows can go “to fringe festivals, smaller theater festivals, larger theaters’ second spaces . . . and the Cincy Fringe was really our first foray into that.” Cincy Fringe is a juried festival, unlike the come-one, come-all model of Capital Fringe here in the District, “so it has a little more cachet,” Bills said. And there are prizes! Dog & Pony DC was awarded the Dr. Robert J. Thierauf Producers’ Pick of the Fringe. With only 30 shows and a track record of sending shows from relative obscurity to Broadway — “Next to Normal” and the one-act musical called “[title of show]” both got their start at the festival — NYMF is the most visible platform Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s has enjoyed to date. The cost of bringing “The Brontes” to New York is about $25,000 for production fees, renting the space (the play will be performed at the Signature Theatre on 42nd Street), travel, hiring a publicist for the run, paying the actors and crew, and lodging, said Steve McWilliams, the play’s co-author. Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s raised just over $7,000 on Kickstarter and is funding the rest “through the generosity of our friends,


And the best doughnut in D.C. is ...

would emulate creme brulee,” he says. “The tough part was getting the right proportion of cream to doughnut. If there was too much custard, it would overwhelm the pastry.” The shop near Metro Center sells 120 of these winners per day, and 3,700 to 4,000 doughnuts each week overall. Astro and GBD remained two of the strongest competitors in our Dozen Weeks of Doughnuts (which turned into a baker’s dozen when we added a few reader recommendations). That’s no doubt because Gehring and GBD’s Tiffany MacIsaac have honed their recipes for years. Gehring featured doughnuts in some form or another at every restaurant where he has worked, including Fiola, Poste and the Charleston in Baltimore. Are doughnuts the new cupcakes of DC? The Food section at The Washington Post is ready to name the sweetest treat in the capital. MacIsaac, the executive pastry chef for the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, has served them at brunches for the past three years at GBD’s sister operation, Birch & Barley in Logan Circle. She opened GBD (which stands for the kitchen term “golden brown delicious”) in Dupont Circle with doughnuts built from a brioche dough, which the tasting panel of judges tried the first time we visited. But that didn’t last. “People hated it,” she says, “so I changed the recipe after two weeks. I’m not cooking for myself; I want the customers to be happy.” The brioche was “super buttery and egg-heavy,” MacIsaac says. Three days of nonstop testing resulted in a new dough: “lighter, sweeter and with a little vanilla in it.” The judges noticed the upgrade. The original earned a score of 6.9; the new version’s 8.9 landed GBD on the winners’ podium next to Astro. Both Astro and GBD were partly inspired by Philadelphia’s Federal Donuts, a fried-chicken-and-doughnut shop that opened in late 2011. And when the two D.C. shops opened within a couple weeks of each other this spring, everyone expected them to be bitter rivals. Not so, say both chefs, who have tried and liked the other’s work. MacIsaac is particularly fond of Astro’s banana nut cake doughnut, while Gehring especially likes MacIsaac’s toffee-bacon, which she serves at Birch & Barley brunches. Astro and GBD both charge a pretty penny for their doughnuts: $2.85 and $2.75, respectively, for the winning varieties. But before you conclude that our judges’ panel liked only expensive doughnuts from fancy newcomers, those doughnuts