Protecting bees in Maryland

losses are unsustainable. Our beekeeping industry is seeing large attrition. The decline of bees does not just hurt the beekeepers; it also hurts all of us. Managed bees are critical to our food supply, pollinating many of our favorite foods: strawberries, blueberries, grapes, watermelons, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, pumpkins and almonds. Known as the “angels of agriculture,” bees pollinate 71 of the 100 crops that make up the majority of the world’s food supply and many of the fruits and vegetables grown in Maryland. Honeybees and other pollinators are responsible for 1 of every 3 bites of food we eat. Bees have thrived for millions of years, so why the sudden decline? Numerous studies confirm that neonicotinoid pesticides (a.k.a. neonics) contribute to bee mortality and declines in native pollinators, including wild bees, birds and butterflies. In 2014, the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides, a group of 30 global, independent scientists studying the impact of pesticides, reviewed more than 1,120 studies and concluded that neonics are a key factor in bee declines and also harm other essential organisms. A 2016 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study, reviewing the first in the neonics class, recognized the significant risks from the common neonic imidacloprid, which “potentially poses risk to hives when the pesticide comes in contact with certain crops that attract pollinators.” In addition to killing bees outright, research shows that even low levels of these powerful pesticides cause serious harm. Neonics impair bees’ ability to find their way back to the hive, collect food, reproduce and rear healthy queens. It weakens their immunity. Previously benign viruses and parasites causing minor damage become killers to bees affected by neonics. And it’s not just bees we need to worry about. According to the American Bird Conservancy, one seed contaminated with this chemical can kill a songbird. Studies also show harm to aquatic life, molting blue crabs and macro-invertebrates. The European Food Safety Authority says neonics may affect the developing human nervous system, affecting functions such as learning and memory. What’s most concerning is that not only are these toxic chemicals harmful, but also their use is widespread and they are pervasive in our environment. Neonics have become the fastest-growing and most heavily used class of insecticides. A U.S. Geological Survey study found that 53 percent of streams sampled nationwide, including those feeding the Chesapeake Bay, showed detectable levels of neonic contamination. The good news: There is


Protecting bees in Maryland

of food we eat. Bees have thrived for millions of years, so why the sudden decline? Numerous studies confirm that neonicotinoid pesticides (a.k.a. neonics) contribute to bee mortality and declines in native pollinators, including wild bees, birds and butterflies. In 2014, the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides, a group of 30 global, independent scientists studying the impact of pesticides, reviewed more than 1,120 studies and concluded that neonics are a key factor in bee declines and also harm other essential organisms. A 2016 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study, reviewing the first in the neonics class, recognized the significant risks from the common neonic imidacloprid, which “potentially poses risk to hives when the pesticide comes in contact with certain crops that attract pollinators.” In addition to killing bees outright, research shows that even low levels of these powerful pesticides cause serious harm. Neonics impair bees’ ability to find their way back to the hive, collect food, reproduce and rear healthy queens. It weakens their immunity. Previously benign viruses and parasites causing minor damage become killers to bees affected by neonics. And it’s not just bees we need to worry about. According to the American Bird Conservancy, one seed contaminated with this chemical can kill a songbird. Studies also show harm to aquatic life, molting blue crabs and macro-invertebrates. The European Food Safety Authority says neonics may affect the developing human nervous system, affecting functions such as learning and memory. What’s most concerning is that not only are these toxic chemicals harmful, but also their use is widespread and they are pervasive in our environment. Neonics have become the fastest-growing and most heavily used class of insecticides. A U.S. Geological Survey study found that 53 percent of streams sampled nationwide, including those feeding the Chesapeake Bay, showed detectable levels of neonic contamination. The good news: There is hope. Maryland’s Pollinator Protection Act, which is being debated in Annapolis, would restrict consumer use of neonics. It would take neonics off retail store shelves and prohibit anyone who is not a veterinarian, farmer or certified pesticide applicator, or their employees, from using them. Maryland should be a leader in protecting our pollinators, saving beekeepers and our food supply from extinction. The time to act is now. Let’s give bees a fighting chance. Read more about this issue: The Post’s View: The government’s plan bee The Post’s View: Maryland farmers should report their pesticide use


Denis Matsuev in a fierce performance with Baltimore Symphony

Pianist Denis Matsuev. (Pavel Antonov/Pavel Antonov) A trifecta of Russian piano virtuosos hit the Washington area this week. Daniil Trifonov played a wild Prokofiev concerto with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal on Monday night. On the same Thursday night that Nikolai Lugansky performed as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, Denis Matsuev appeared with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in the Music Center at Strathmore. That program also featured the BSO’s former music director, Russian conductor Yuri Temirkanov, and two Russian orchestral warhorses. The last time Matsuev was soloist with the BSO, in 2004, he played Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto; this time he branched out by playing the composer’s Third Piano Concerto. A hulking presence, Matsuev lashed out at the keyboard with ursine ferocity, hurling all his considerable strength at the gigantic chords of the first movement’s cadenza. At other times, the orchestra tried to cover him with its own massive sound but ultimately could not. The slow parts oozed and surged with unpredictable rubato, although Matsuev’s tendency to rush in many passages often left Temirkanov and the orchestra in the dust. The impressive facility of Matsuev’s fingers will hopefully be matched by a stronger ensemble unity in subsequent performances. Conductor Yuri Temirkanov. (Sasha Gusov/Sasha Gusov) If one is going to sit through another performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, let it be in the hands of a conductor like Temirkanov. The slowness of the piece’s opening heraldic motto, four horns and two bassoons blaring away on A-flat, seemed a bad sign for the length of this performance, but Temirkanov’s timing still brought it in at the expected duration, slightly longer than more compact performances but with plenty of Russian soul. The brass were imperious, the winds slinky, and the strings resonant and unified in the charming pizzicato scherzo. Best of all, the BSO sounded well-drilled in the fiery finale, which Temirkanov ensured was neither dragged out nor overdone. The concert repeats Friday and Saturday at Meyerhoff Hall in Baltimore.


IMF head sees positives in negative interest rates

that negative interest rates “appear to have both modest benefits and manageable costs” and that market anxiety over below-zero borrowing costs “seems to me to be overdone.” While chances of the Fed going negative are low for the foreseeable future, it should probably analyze the option, he wrote. — Bloomberg FOOD INDUSTRY General Mills to label products with GMOs General Mills said Friday it will start labeling products across the country that contain genetically modified ingredients to comply with a law set to go into effect in Vermont. The maker of Cheerios cereal, Progresso soups, Yoplait yogurt and other foods said it is impractical to label its products for just one state, so the disclosures required by Vermont starting in July will be on its products throughout the nation. A spokesman for General Mills, Mike Siemienas, said the labeling will appear on products over the next several weeks. General Mills products that use genetically engineered ingredients include varieties of Cheerios, Cocoa Puffs, Franken Berry and Kix cereals, Hamburger Helper, Nature Valley bars and Pillsbury pancake batter. The move by General Mills comes as U.S. legislation on the labeling of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, has stalled in Congress.The food industry has called for voluntary labeling of GMOs and sought to prohibit states from enacting a patchwork of laws around the country. — Associated Press Also in Business ● J. Crew Group posted a narrower fourth-quarter loss after the preppy retailer streamlined operations and trimmed expenses, helping make up for sluggish sales. Its net loss was $7 million in the period, which ended Jan. 30, the company said Thursday. That compared with a deficit of $30.6 million a year earlier. Same-store sales, a closely watched benchmark, fell 4 percent in the fourth quarter. The decrease by that measure was 11 percent in the previous three months. ● TransCanada is making its biggest-ever deal with the purchase of Columbia Pipeline Group for $10.2 billion, expanding its reach in the U.S. natural gas market. TransCanada will pay $25.50 a share for Columbia stock — an 11 percent premium on its closing price on Wednesday — and will assume about $2.8 billion of debt, TransCanada said Thursday. The acquisition enables the Calgary-based company to invest in the Marcellus and Utica shale gas regions. The company has had its eye on getting a pipeline into the Marcellus, which stretches across parts of New York, Pennsylvania,


Swatting the Zika carriers

vulnerable, too. There is no quick fix. The virus is primarily transmitted by the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito, the species that also spreads the dengue and chikungunya viruses. The most direct response is vector control, or fighting the disease-carrying mosquito population. But spraying pesticide can be labor-intensive and difficult. As Post reporters Nick Miroff and Brady Dennis pointed out, a much-heralded international effort in the 1940s and 1950s eliminated Aedes aegypti from 18 countries in Central and South America, but that success was reversed by years of fading political will and rapid urbanization. The crowded, poverty-stricken sections of cities in Latin America are a perfect setting for Zika’s spread. The mosquitoes breed in small amounts of water and hide in the shadows of homes. Many of the most vulnerable people to Zika infections are the poor, who have less protection in screens or air conditioning. In the United States, mosquito control is the responsibility of a crazy-quilt of local districts, which may not be up to the task of battling a major outbreak. Aside from spraying, there are other approaches, such as irradiating male mosquitoes to sterilize them, leading a population of insects eventually to die off. And the age of genetic engineering has brought new possibilities: The tiny building blocks of life can be manipulated to impede the disease. So far, laboratory trials have shown that genetic material can be altered to suppress mosquito populations or make them less likely to ferry disease. More recent science has suggested that a mosquito gene “drive” could be created that would pass down to generations of mosquitoes the characteristic of resisting a disease such as malaria. This technique has enormous implications for entire ecosystems, and research ought to be carried out with the utmost care. It may not be the answer to this epidemic, but it is important to explore. Would the world be worse off if Aedes aegypti were genetically altered, now and forever? A lot of human babies might have a better chance to be born healthy. Read more: The Post’s View: The Zika threat Tina Nunez: Venezuela should join the fight against the Zika virus Aaron Schulman: Could bats help reduce the threat of the Zika virus? David Ropeik: Odds are you won’t get Zika. But it’s only human to worry that you might. Steven Mintz: How Flint’s water and Brazil’s Zika stoke anxiety about kids


Crimea’s ‘new normal’ of repression

anti-government demonstrations that brought down the Ukrainian government in Kiev in 2014, on the basis of testimony from pro-Russian security force personnel who later took refuge on the peninsula. In gross violation of international law, a number of political suspects, including well-known filmmaker Oleg Sentsov , have been transported across the border to Russia for trial and imprisonment. The most severe repression is reserved for Crimea’s Tatar minority, some 300,000 people, most of them Muslims, who were deported from the region by Joseph Stalin and allowed to return only in the 1980s. Three present or former top leaders of the community’s self-government organization, the Majlis, have been charged with crimes; two are in exile and the third is imprisoned. Last month, a Russian prosecutor asked a court to ban the Majlis as an extremist organization, an act that would criminalize 2,300 members of the Tatar elite. In classic KGB style, Russian authorities are establishing a new Tatar organization under their control and have launched a new Tatar television station to replace the independent one that was shut down. Other measures are aimed at forcing Crimeans to live as Russian citizens. Young men are being drafted into the armed forces and threatened with arrest if they do not report for service. Russian passports are now needed to obtain medical care and other social services. Meanwhile, thousands of officials, security force members and other settlers have been brought into the province from Russia. The anniversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proclaimed annexation of Crimea last week prompted a few speeches at the United Nations, including by U.S. ambassador Samantha Power. “Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea,” she said, “is not a one-time violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, but rather represents an ongoing, continuous violation, one that persists for every day that Russia continues to occupy the peninsula.” Ms. Power warned against getting “used to a new normal” in which that aggression is tacitly accepted. Unfortunately, much of Europe already appears headed in that direction, with pressure mounting for the lifting of European Union sanctions. Crimeans surely will continue to suffer from Mr. Putin’s invasion; ensuring that his regime also does so will require U.S. steadfastness, and some vigorous diplomacy in the coming months. Read more about this topic: The Post’s View: Russia’s truncheon David Ignatius: Putin’s actions in Crimea alter how the world will deal with him Charles Krauthammer: Obama’s pathetic response to Putin


More high-ranking officers being charged with sex crimes against subordinates

Col. Marcus Caughey was the key speaker at Schriever Air Force Base's 911 ceremony. (Christopher DeWitt /U.S. Air Force photo) The U.S. military has stepped up investigations of high-ranking officers for sexual assault, records show, curtailing its traditional deference toward senior leaders as it cracks down on sex crimes. Since September, the armed forces have court-martialed or filed sexual-assault charges against four colonels from the Air Force, Army and Marines. In addition, a Navy captain was found guilty of abusive sexual contact during an administrative hearing. Historically, it has been extremely rare for senior military officers to face courts-martial. Leaders suspected of wrongdoing are usually dealt with behind the scenes, with offenders receiving private reprimands or removal from command with a minimum of public explanation. “There’s not a lot of transparency when it comes to senior-officer misconduct,” said Don Christensen, a former chief prosecutor for the Air Force who now is president of Protect Our Defenders, a group that advocates for victims of sex crimes in the military. “They don’t like the American public knowing what’s going on, so they drag their heels in getting information out.” That has gradually changed as the Defense Department — under pressure from Congress and the White House — has revamped its policies to prevent sexual assault and to hold perpetrators accountable. During the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 116 officers of all stripes were court-martialed, discharged or received some sort of punishment after they were criminally investigated for sexual assault. That was more than double the number from three years earlier, according to Defense Department figures. Of last year’s cases, eight were against senior officers holding a rank equivalent to colonel or Navy captain or higher. While that figure may seem small, it represented a fourfold increase from 2012. Overall, the vast majority of troops investigated for sexual assault are enlisted personnel, who accounted for 94 percent of all cases last year. In the active-duty military, enlisted troops outnumber officers by a ratio of 4.6 to 1. But high-ranking leaders are finding they no are longer off-limits as allegations of cringe-worthy behavior increasingly come to light in military courtrooms and public records. This month, during a court-martial at Fort McNair in Washington, an Army colonel who worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl and taking photos of her nude. He was sentenced to eight


Rats may be causing depressive symptoms in some Baltimore residents, study finds

problem. German said the findings could change the way public health and other officials frame the conversation about rats, usually considered a nuisance and a vector for disease more than a depressive force. “That misses what it feels like to be a resident of a neighborhood where you see rats every day,” she said. Since the study was conducted, German said, the city has taken some steps that might help. Chief among them is a $10 million plan to distribute sturdy trash cans with lids to every resident, which began in recent weeks. In Baltimore’s Belair-Edison neighborhood, where cans were passed out more than a year ago under a pilot program, the impact was swift, Sadie Gooch said. The 70-year-old resident said she used to see rats every day. Now she can’t remember the last time one scurried through her yard. Gooch said neighbors embraced the cans, which have cleared many blocks of trash. The lids fit tight, she said, so the rats don’t go looking for food or shelter. “I didn’t like going out my back door at night because of the rats, and now I’m not scared to sit out there,” she said. “I don’t know about rats making people sad and anxious, but they scared me.” Now, she said, bulk trash and dog feces are neighborhood problems, but the rats aren’t as interested in that refuse. It was such feedback — and a 25 percent drop in calls about rats — from Belair-Edison and Greater Mondawmin, another neighborhood with a pilot program, that led Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to roll out the trash-can program citywide, spokesman Howard Libit said. The city has stepped up other rat-control efforts, such as treating rat habitats proactively, rather than waiting for calls. More workers have been added to the rat-control ranks, too. The city’s rat budget for fiscal 2016 was just under $1.1 million and included 16 workers, up from nearly $619,000 and eight workers the year before, according to the Department of Public Works. Libit said the measures were born largely of concern about public health — and the fact that most people absolutely hate rats. “Reducing rats is something we want to do for the people who live in neighborhoods where they are prevalent,” he said. “They are disgusting.” If there were also psychological benefits, he said, that “would be great.” Cohn is a staff writer for the Baltimore Sun.


Local Digest: Motorcyclist killed in accident in Alexandria

Maryland House passes bill to protect honeybees The House of Delegates passed legislation Saturday intended to protect the state’s honeybees from a class of pesticides that has been linked to a dramatic decline in their numbers. The House measure would restrict the sale and use of a type of insecticide known as neonicotinoids. It allows exceptions for individuals certified to apply the insecticide and for farmers. Delegates voted 96 to 39 to approve the bill, which has been sought by Maryland beekeepers. A version of the bill has passed the Senate, but the measures would have to be reconciled before they could become law. A 2015 survey showed that Maryland has had one of the largest declines of honeybees in the nation, with a 61 percent loss of colonies during the preceding year. Some studies have implicated neonicotinoids, but manufacturers contend that they do not harm bees when properly used. — Baltimore Sun VIRGINIA Motorcyclist killed in accident in Alexandria An Arlington man was killed early Saturday when the motorcycle he was driving skidded into a curb on a ramp leading to I-395 in Alexandria, Virginia State Police said. Altankhuyag Saintur, 26, was driving a 2014 Yamaha XB-1600 east on Route 236 about 12:10 a.m., State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said in a news release. As he entered the ramp leading to I-395 north near Landmark Mall, the motorcycle skidded, ran off the right side of the road and struck a curb, throwing Saintur from the bike. Saintur was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital where he died later Saturday, police said. No one else was injured in the accident. — Tom Jackman 1 dead, 1 wounded in Pr. William shooting One man was shot to death and another man was wounded Friday night in the Manassas area of Prince William County, county police said Saturday. The names of the men were not released and no information on their assailant was available. Police said both men were shot near Blue Gray Circle, near Barron Park in the Bull Run neighborhood just west of Route 234, about 10 p.m. Friday. The surviving victim was found first, a short distance away in the 11200 block of Golden Leaf Circle. When police investigated further, they found the slain man near Blue Gray Circle. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. Sgt. Jonathan Perok, a Prince William police spokesman, said investigators do not believe


Obituaries of residents from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia. Ann F. Kolker, cancer nonprofit founder Ann F. Kolker, 75, a legislative and policy analyst who founded and directed the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance from 1998 to 2006, died Feb. 3 at her home in Washington. The cause was leukemia and ovarian cancer, said her husband, Peter Kolker. Mrs. Kolker was born Ann Friedberg in Chicago. From 1978 to 1982, she was a legislative analyst with the National Women’s Political Caucus, and from 1984 to 1998 she was a policy analyst with the National Women’s Law Center. Later she did consulting with the National Cancer Institute and the American College of Radiology Imaging Network. Thomas W. Carr, Washington Campus executive Thomas W. Carr, 86, a former vice president of the Washington Campus, a 17-university consortium that exposes executives and students to the workings of the federal government, died Feb. 12 at a medical facility in Charleston, S.C. Mr. Carr was born in New York City and was an Army officer for eight years before settling in the Washington area in the 1950s. He held government jobs, including director of the White House Fellows program, director of defense education in the office of the Secretary of Defense, and director of the National Advisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children. From 1983 to 1992, he was vice president of the Washington Campus. He moved from Washington in the late 1980s but continued working at his Washington Campus job from South Carolina. Ellen D. Nesheim, compliance officer Ellen D. Nesheim, 80, a compliance officer with the Food and Drug Administration’s office of seafood safety for about a decade before retiring in 2003, died Feb. 8 at her home in Washington. The cause was end-stage dementia, said a son, Eric Nesheim. Mrs. Nesheim, who was born Ellen Dick, was a sixth-generation Washingtonian and a member of the Association of Oldest Inhabitants of D.C. She was an assistant registrar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in the 1970s and a legal secretary in the 1980s. Stephen P. Gibert, Georgetown U. professor Stephen P. Gibert, 91, a Georgetown University professor of government who was on the faculty for 48 years before retiring in 2003, died Feb. 1 at his home in McLean, Va. The cause was complications from lymphoma, said his wife, Cynthia Gibert. Dr. Gibert was born in North Augusta, S.C.


The master as leader and player: Joshua Bell dazzles at Strathmore

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (Bill Page/Bill Page) Say the name Joshua Bell and most will think of the violin virtuoso with the boyish, brown locks — not the music director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. On Friday evening, Bell, the star violinist-turned-conductor, donned both hats at the Music Center at Strathmore, in North Bethesda, performing in lockstep with his chamber orchestra colleagues of five years in an unforgettable program that showcased the versatility of the ensemble and the soloist. Renowned for its punctilious and conductor-less performances, the group could have breezed through Felix Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides Overture” on its own. But with Bell’s leading from the concertmaster’s seat, the group embodied the music director’s glowing interpretation in a symbiotic give-and-take. Joshua Bell smiles after he gave a performance at Union Station in Washington on Sept. 30. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) That nurturing relationship continued in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in D, K. 218, during which Bell stood in the conductor’s position to direct and perform. As the orchestra’s sounds waxed and waned around his violin’s sweet, plaintive phrases, Bell captivated with his charismatic playing, turning even a few solo bars into cadenzas, much to the delight of his fans but perhaps to the chagrin of Mozart purists. If Bell’s bow served as baton slightly too often in Mendelssohn’s overture, it directed the chamber group well in the composer’s Symphony No. 4 in A, Op. 90, mostly because the violinist could not resist playing along. Together, director and orchestra displayed innate synchronicity, including in the jovial Allegro’s meticulous articulations, the Andante’s mystical ease, the third movement’s elegant, lilting melodies and the finale’s impish romp.


Could military judge accused of lying during sexual-misconduct case face investigation?

Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals — told them that day has since come under intense scrutiny, which could lead to an internal investigation and potentially serious consequences. Maj. Mark Thompson, who was convicted of sexual misconduct in a case involving two female students, at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was a history teacher. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post) He testified that government authorities had interviewed family members of Sarah Stadler, one of the two accusers, about a key night in the case — a claim Stadler’s mother and brother vehemently denied to The Washington Post. The Office of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy wouldn’t allow Rugh to be interviewed, and a spokeswoman has repeatedly declined to discuss the case because it is under appeal. But she strongly defended the judge Thursday. “Commander Rugh strenuously denies the allegation that he was untruthful during the board of inquiry,” Jennifer Zeldis said. “He has a strong reputation for integrity and fair dealing as a prosecutor, defense counsel and military judge.” In January, when The Post first informed the military that Rugh had been accused of lying under oath, Zeldis said Rugh’s testimony before the board “was accurate to the best of his recollection at the time.” But he also made at least two other statements at the hearing that are now being challenged — one related to the location of witnesses at the court-martial, and another that referred to the nature of the text messages between Stadler and Thompson. Rugh acknowledged to the board that he had not reviewed the case file before testifying. “It’s troubling that Cmdr. Rugh was, in the kindest light, seemingly negligent when he made apparently false statements under oath at Thompson’s administrative board,” Rachel VanLandingham, a former U.S. Air Force judge advocate, said in an email. “If true, such recklessness brings into question his fitness as a judge on the military court of criminal appeals on which he is sitting, and I’m confident the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, who has a stellar record of integrity, will investigate appropriately.” After a flawed sexual assault investigation, a Naval Academy instructor tries to prove he has done nothing wrong. But did he? Why Rugh testified in the first place has also raised questions. Four military law experts told The Post that prosecutors almost never do that. “In my own experience, I can’t think of a time


Reports: Russian court poised to convict Ukraine’s ‘Joan of Arc’ in deaths of journalists

Savchenko has become a national symbol of resistance in Ukraine and a favorite target for Russians. She was elected a member of the Ukrainian parliament in absentia. Western leaders have widely condemned the Russian court proceedings, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced last week that he would try to get the European Union to issue sanctions against a roster of officials involved in Savchenko’s detention. U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry has condemned the trial, and Savchenko may be on the agenda when he visits Moscow this week to discuss the cease-fire in Syria. The front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, also has expressed concern about Savchenko’s well-being. Western officials and members of Savchenko’s legal team have said that the expected guilty verdict may set the stage for a prisoner exchange. Two alleged Russian service members are on trial in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, on suspicion of fighting alongside Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. When asked about a possible trade for Savchenko at a news conference this month, Poroshenko said: “As the president of Ukraine, using my constitutional rights, yes, it is possible. I am ready to swap so Nadiya Savchenko can come home.” The Kremlin has denied that a prisoner exchange has been discussed with Kiev. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman has said that any such discussions cannot take place before a verdict is delivered in Savchenko’s case. Such swaps are an established tradition in Russia’s relations with the West. In September, Russia exchanged an Estonian security official, Eston Kohver, a little more than one month after he was sentenced to 15 years in prison on espionage charges. But it is unclear that a similar agreement could be reached in Savchenko’s case, given the severity of the charges against her and the tense relations between Moscow and Kiev. Ukraine has also demanded that Russia hand over several other Ukrainian nationals recently convicted on terrorism charges, including Oleg Sentsov, a filmmaker sentenced to 20 years in prison. Amnesty International said the case was “redolent of Stalinist-era show trials.” Sentsov is still in prison in Russia. Savchenko’s attorneys said Monday that their client plans to resume a hunger strike and refuse liquids as a form of protest. Read more: Defiant Nadiya Savchenko, a captured Ukrainian navigator, inspires her country Ukrainian military hero plans starvation instead of sitting in Russian prison Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world


In historic ruling, international court cites rape in war crimes conviction of ex-Congo official

Former Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo enters the International Criminal Court on Monday. (Pool photo by Jerry Lampen/Via EPA) NAIROBI — It was the first time the Netherlands-based court has convicted anyone of sexual violence since it was launched in 2002, raising the possibility of future prosecutions that include accusations of rape and related abuses as elements of war. “The judgment sends a clear message that impunity for sexual violence as a tool of war will not be tolerated,” said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for West and Central Africa. The former vice president, Jean-Pierre Bemba, was convicted of crimes carried out in the Central African Republic from 2002 to 2003 by the Movement for Liberation of Congo, a rebel faction that provided cross-border aid to its neighbor’s leader. According to the ruling, Bemba knowingly permitted his troops to commit horrific acts including sexual abuse — against both women and men — after dispatching them to help the Central African Republic’s president, Ange-Félix Patassé, quash a coup. “[Movement for Liberation of Congo] soldiers directed a widespread attack against the civilian population in the Central African Republic throughout the period of the charges. MLC soldiers committed many acts of pillaging, rape, and murder against civilians,” the court wrote. Through the years-long ICC trial at The Hague, Bemba tried to distance himself from the allegations, maintaining his innocence. But in Monday’s landmark ruling, the court placed the blame squarely on the former official, saying he was “criminally responsible.” The formal conviction was for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” He was ordered to remain in detention until sentencing at a later date. Bemba showed no emotion. The ICC has been criticized for its slowness and missteps in early trials, but the latest ruling looks to embolden the court at a critical time, with several other key cases still to be heard. The conviction of Bemba also showed the court’s willingness to hold commanders responsible for the crimes of their subordinates – a link some questioned the court would make. The ruling “shines a spotlight on the use of rape as a weapon of war,” said Geraldine Mattioli-Zeltner, international justice advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “There is still a profound need for justice for these crimes and other atrocities in both the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Bemba spent much of his life in Belgium,


‘Seems inexcusable that those doctors seemed ignorant of this disease’

Story about facial pain was no mystery to me I, too, suffer from trigeminal neuralgia, or TN, and I read “He couldn’t eat, drink or work. And doctors couldn’t explain his searing pain.” [March 15] with much sympathy. Thank you so much for chronicling Kim Pace’s story. I wished that you had included information about the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association: The Facial Pain Association, which provides information about the disease and treatments. So far, acupuncture and cranial-sacral therapy have helped me manage my symptoms sufficiently. I was fortunate to have an initial consultation with a doctor who said, “We’ll run some tests and a scan, but you probably have trigeminal neuralgia.” Given the description of Pace’s symptoms, it’s inexcusable that his medical professionals seemed ignorant of this disease. And I, too, played football in high school. I wonder how many of us players suffer from TN. Joe Riener, Washington My dad also had TN My father suffered from TN for 40 years. I don’t have any recollection of how long it took for a correct diagnosis, but I knew the condition as TD. He tried numerous pain medications before spending at least 20 years on an experimental drug. We later learned of the suicidal thoughts that accompanied his ongoing pain. He was able to lead a regular life again after starting the drug. Unlike Kim Pace, my father had no other physical ailments. He died at age 75 of a rare form of leukemia. Jared Cornfeld, Washington


Kinship review: A chef’s passions and finesse shine through

The following review appears in The Washington Post’s 2016 Fall Dining Guide as No. 4 on Tom’s Top 10. Whipped chocolate nougat with espresso caramel and chocolate sorbet lives up to its promise of “Indulgence.” (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post) 4. Kinship Just a year ago, Marcel’s in the West End was where I sent discerning diners looking for style and serenity with their foie gras. With the debut of Kinship near the convention center, I’m rerouting food lovers to the superior handiwork of former CityZen chef Eric Ziebold and his wife and partner, the gracious Celia Laurent. Dishes are arranged in categories that reflect the chef’s passions. “History” supplies the prettiest salad Nicoise in town; “Ingredients” puts halibut, coated in fried mochi, on a tropical support of papaya and red chilies; and whipped chocolate nougat with espresso caramel and chocolate sorbet lives up to its promise of “Indulgence.” Eating the elements together creates a cool candy bar. Still, “For the Table,” entrees designed for two or more, triggers the most joy; roast chicken stuffed with lemony brioche is the definition of first-class. As beguiling as the food are the wine service and the space, most of all the trim booths whose walls allow for the twin luxuries of privacy and peace. 3 stars Kinship: 1015 Seventh St. NW. 202-737-7700. kinshipdc.com . Prices: Sound check: The Top 10: No. 10 Komi No. 9 Rasika No. 8 Little Serow No. 7 Inn at Little Washington No. 6 Minibar No. 5 Convivial No. 4 Kinship No. 3 Bad Saint No. 2 Pineapple and Pearls No. 1 All-Purpose -- The following review appeared in The Washington Post’s 2016 Spring Dining Guide as No. 2 on a list of the year’s 10 best new restaurants. The music is played at a level that allows for easy conversation, the space comes courtesy of one of the city’s top decorators, and the food ... suffice it to say it’s great to see Eric Ziebold cooking again. (Also: His whole roast chicken is worth the hour-long wait.) The former CityZen chef and his wife, Celia Laurent, aimed to replicate a dinner party in their alluring new home near the convention center; thank you, sir and ma’am, for hitting your (high) marks. Kinship’s menu, divided into categories including “craft” and “history,” requires some concentration, but the payoff includes custardy veal sweetbreads served with designer ham and truffles, and


International Space Station is getting an important delivery

An Atlas V rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Tuesday, carrying supplies and science experiments to the International Space Station. (Ben Smegelsky/NASA/Reuters) Fresh supplies are rocketing toward the International Space Station, where the shelves are less than full after a string of failed deliveries. Launched Tuesday on an unmanned rocket, the cargo includes nearly 8,000 pounds of food, equipment and scientific gear, including a 3-D printer and robotic grippers modeled after the sticky hairs that grow on the feet of geckos. There are also materials for an experiment that will help show how fires spread in weightlessness. After the cargo ship heads back toward Earth, NASA will remotely ignite a blaze inside a box that will be equipped to send data about the fire to researchers. In the past year and a half, several resupply trips to the station have ended in disaster, with unmanned rockets blowing up during launch. As usual, some surprises were tucked away for the six space station astronauts, who should receive the delivery Saturday. “Maybe they’ll find a few Easter eggs on board; who knows?” Frank Culbertson, an executive at Orbital ATK, the company handling the mission for NASA, said with a smile. — Associated Press


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These cases were received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. A bad mix : Unit block, Vineyard Haven Ct., Montgomery Village, March 9. A golden retriever mix broke through a fence and attacked a leashed 9-year-old spaniel mix being walk by its owner. The spaniel mix’s owner and a neighbor separated the dogs. A petsitter put the retriever in the house. The spaniel mix received treatment for multiple bites at a veterinary clinic. The retriever’s owner was cited for at large ($100 fine) and unwanted contact ($500 fine). Outdoor Lab experiment: Tickets for “Wines & Equines” Dinner & Auction Fundraiser: Advance ticket sales only are available for the April 2 fundraiser, which benefits the Days End Farm Horse Rescue facility in Woodbine, Md. The event will have live and silent auctions, wine sampling and paired dinner, live music, and a raffle. The proceeds will help pay for critical care needs of abused and neglected horses. The deadline to buy tickets is Wednesday. Bolger Center, 9600 Newbridge Dr., Potomac. $80. Tickets will not be available at the door. 301-854-5037. defhr.org. “How to Have an Incredible Pet” Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Why balance can make or break a runner

to 50 miles per week, while long-distance runners do 60 to 80 miles per week. Both sprinters and distance runners do interval training on the track two to four times per week. In addition to coaching his athletes through such running warm-ups as A-skips and carioca, or grapevine — drills that teach the body how to run in the correct way — Hankins incorporates Olympic lifts to strengthen core muscles. “Most distance runners don’t think about the importance of weight training to strengthen the core and upper body for the purpose of running more efficiently,” Hankins said. “You need to have strong upper-body muscles to balance and hold the body in the proper position over a long period of time and during high intensity.” Running efficiently and using less energy are essential to running longer and running faster, two big goals of Hankins’s Division III athletes. Runners who have an impaired sense of balance are at an increased risk of injury by tripping and falling, said physical therapist Kevin McGuinness, who practices at Washington Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine. Imbalances also cause overuse injuries when certain muscles are forced to overcompensate for others. Since 47 percent of the 541,000 finishers who competed in 1,100 marathons in the United States in 2013 were 40 or older, according to Running USA’s 2014 Annual Marathon Report, even if you’re not competing as a collegiate athlete, you need to incorporate balance into your training, McGuinness said. He noted that we derive our sense of balance from information collected by the muscular skeletal system, the visual system and the vestibular system inside the inner ear. All these tell the body where it is in space and how fast our limbs are moving. Oftentimes, motor control coordination gets lost in the mix, McGuinness said. Runners have been known to focus on nutrition, mileage and strength, which are all important, but at the expense of balance training. So how do we know if we’re off balance when we run? Elite runner Tina Muir, who holds a half-marathon personal record of 1:13 and a marathon personal record of 2:41, found herself dealing with one injury after another, including hamstring strain, plantar fasciitis and calf strain, before she and her coach took a hard look at her running form. “One of the biggest parts of being an elite is trying to figure out all the little things you can control


Sgt. Bergdahl deserves mercy

the facts, as a newly disclosed report from the Army general assigned to investigate Mr. Bergdahl’s conduct shows. Mr. Bergdahl left his unit with the bizarre goal of sparking a high-level military investigation of his grunt-level grievances. That irrational decision, in turn, seemed reflective of long-standing mental-health issues that had caused Mr. Bergdahl to fail as a Coast Guard recruit and might well have caused the Army to turn him down, too, but for a manpower shortage at the time he volunteered. Once in Taliban hands, Mr. Bergdahl was regularly and savagely beaten, starved and mistreated; far from collaborating, he repeatedly tried to escape, earning more torture. Meanwhile, the general’s report confirmed that no U.S. personnel lost their lives as a direct result of Mr. Bergdahl’s abandonment of his post, contrary to claims of many critics. The general, Kenneth Dahl, recommended Mr. Bergdahl receive no prison time, as did a military hearing officer. But a higher-ranking officer referred the case to a general court-martial, where the erstwhile prisoner stands accused of not only desertion, which carries a maximum penalty of five years, but also the even more serious charge of misbehavior before the enemy — based on the dangers to which his actions exposed his fellow troops, for which a conviction could earn him life in prison. What began as a test of Mr. Obama’s ability to deliver an American from captivity has thus mutated into a test of American military justice’s ability to remain impartial amid pressure from political overlords and a deeply polarized political debate. We agree with those who say that Mr. Bergdahl’s conduct in leaving his unit was wrong, that it put lives at risk and that, despite his psychological issues, he should be accountable. At the same time, the Army may have contributed to this debacle by enlisting a soldier it shouldn’t have. And even without formal accountability, he has already suffered horribly for his actions. In our view, the military justice system will pass this test to the extent it tempers judgment with due consideration of everything the case reveals about human frailty — and with mercy. Read more: Charles Lane: Glorifying and demonizing Bowe Bergdahl Charles Krauthammer: Free Bowe Bergdahl, then try him Kathleen Parker: Bowe Bergdahl and Obama’s hard choices George F. Will: When a president goes rogue David Bernstein: Revisiting the illegal Bowe Bergdahl swap: Undermining Congress’s power of the purse


Police arrest suspect in 2013 killing in Northeast Washington

D.C. police on Wednesday arrested a suspect in the fatal 2013 shooting of a 21-year-old man in the Northeast Washington neighborhood of Eckington. Ronald Bruce Thomas, 29, of Oxon Hill, Md., was charged with first-degree murder while armed. He was arrested by the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force. Police said the shooting occurred about 3:20 a.m. on May 18, 2013, in the first block of S Street Northeast, next to McKinley Technology High School. The victim, Donald Price, of Northeast, was pronounced dead at an area hospital. Authorities released no other information. The suspect could make his initial appearance on Thursday in D.C. Superior Court, at which time an arrest affidavit would be unsealed.


Police arrest suspect in fatal shooting in Anacostia

D.C. police on Thursday arrested a suspect in a fatal shooting that occurred on a February afternoon near a public library in Southeast Washington’s Anacostia neighborhood. Alphonso Roberts, 32, of Southeast, was charged with second-degree murder. He could make an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Thursday or Friday. He is charged with killing Maurico Walker, 23, of Northeast, who died at a hospital several hours after he was shot about 4 p.m. on Feb. 10 in the 1900 block of 18th Street SE. It is near the Anacostia Neighborhood Library. Police did not release information about a possible motive.


Bamberg, Germany: A city of just 70,000 people but nine breweries

A beer garden in Bamberg, Germany. (Werner Kunz) Maik, a fire-safety expert from Stuttgart, is giving me a bit of advice. “What is this beer? You’ve ordered the wrong one!” he barks, gesturing at my squat glass mug of foam-topped, pale-golden Ungespundet. I’m a bit taken aback, to be honest. We’ve just met, at Bamberg’s Spezial inn, where customers squeeze next to each other around rustic wooden tables. He’s not finished. Maik points to his glass, which contains Spezial’s famous Rauchbier Märzen, a dark amber lager with a gentle smoked character. “This is the beer you should have had!” he adds, with a satisfied flourish. The worst thing about it? He’s right. Spezial’s Rauchbier (“smoked beer”) Märzen is a classic, while this Ungespundet (“unbunged,” meaning much of the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation was allowed to escape) is merely quite good. I do, however, have an excuse: I’ve had the Märzen before, and I wanted to try the Ungespundet. And that’s fine, because, whatever Maik says, trying beers is what you do in Bamberg. This is a city of just 70,000 people but nine breweries, at the heart of a region — Franconia — where beer comes second only to God, and then only sometimes. There was even a beer war in Bamberg once. (In 1907. The brewers wanted to raise prices; the customers weren’t keen. The customers won.) I’m here to find out why Bamberg has such a rich beer culture. It’s a good time to do it: This year, Germany is celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot, a law that dictates which ingredients can be used to make beer (malt, hops, water and yeast, essentially, although the current law, updated in 1993, has a number of loopholes). Advocates say it ensures quality; a growing minority of drinkers reject that claim, insisting it’s just marketing for mediocre beer. And there’s a lot of mediocre beer in Germany these days. Not in Bamberg, though. I arrive just before Wednesday lunchtime, and, having checked in at Spezial (a brewery, hotel and tavern rolled into one), I set out across town. It’s the start of March, and the temperature is a little above freezing — so I’m in search of warmth by the time I step inside Kachelofen, one of the Old Town’s classic taverns. With its checkered tablecloths, ceramic mustard pots and numerous native trinkets on the walls and windowsills,


‘Queen of Spies’: the unusual, mysterious life of British agent Daphne Park

Daphne Park, around 1943 (Courtesy of Somerville College) Robert Mitchell is an editor with the Washington Post-Bloomberg News service. Daphne Park’s career in British intelligence reads like a Cold War travelogue. Over four decades, Park served in one hot spot after another: In Vienna after World War II, she helped locate Nazi rocket scientists. In Moscow, she helped map a surface-to-air missile defense system as it was being installed around the Soviet capital. In Congo, she became immersed in the postcolonial power struggle that led to the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. During the Vietnam War, she became consul general in Hanoi. Paddy Hayes’s fascinating and long-overdue biography of Park is aptly titled “Queen of Spies.” Others have referred to Park as 007, though they have also noted that she looked more like Miss Marple. At the pinnacle of her career, Parks directed British intelligence operations in the Western Hemisphere and advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as Britain negotiated an end to the civil war in Rhodesia. Honored later in life with the title of baroness, Park served in the House of Lords — a fitting honor for a woman who defied gender stereotypes and discrimination to rise to the top of the chauvinistic world of British intelligence. "Queen of Spies: Daphne Park, Britain's Cold War Spy Master" by Paddy Hayes (Overlook/Overlook) It was an extraordinary career for a woman who spent most of her childhood impoverished in Africa. Park had no formal education until she left home, alone, at age 11 to attend school in Britain. She earned a degree from Oxford in 1943 and then helped prepare special-operations troops dropped behind German lines in France. Her stint in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), Congo, may have been Park’s most challenging assignment. There, American, Soviet and European interests maneuvered for advantage as the mineral-rich Belgian Congo prepared for independence and the West intensified its efforts to keep the new nation from aligning with the Soviet Union. Although Hayes stops short of accusing Park or her CIA counterpart, Lawrence Devlin, of ordering Lumumba’s assassination, he argues that they set in motion the chain of events that made his death inevitable. Park could not entirely escape the poisonous atmosphere that permeated the transatlantic intelligence community after the spy scandals that shook Britain in the 1950s and ’60s. In some quarters, she was briefly suspected of disloyalty. “Whether Park was ever confronted with these accusations


People being treated for alcohol or drug abuse face serious privacy issues

an abbreviation for “42 CFR Part 2,” a section of the Code of Federal Regulations — last got a meaningful update in 1987. Since then, electronic medical records have proliferated, and integrated, patient-centered care has become the organizing principle for doctors, hospitals and health systems. The old rules are too cumbersome for today’s integrated world, say proponents who favor loosening the rules. At present, providers can disclose treatment information only when a patient consents to have it shared with a specific health-care provider. Part 2 “is well intentioned, but it’s just not working,” said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. “These special [treatment] silos are actually hurting people.” The federal/state Medicaid program for lower-income people is responsible for a significant and growing share of the money spent on substance-abuse treatment, Salo said. In family medicine, it’s not unusual for patients to have five to 10 different diagnoses, one of them being substance abuse, said Wanda Filer, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Not having access to all the relevant medical information can be difficult or even dangerous. If someone is taking methadone to treat a heroin addiction, for example, she may need to adjust his antidepressant or anti-anxiety medications. “Finding the right balance between getting access to information and protecting their privacy” is challenging, said Filer, who practices at a health center that treats low-income patients in York, Pa. The AAFP is reviewing the proposed changes. The proposal from the Department of Health and Human Services would allow patients to give their consent to disclose their records not to a specific provider alone but to the health-care system with which the provider is affiliated, for example. While the HHS proposal is an improvement over existing rules, it doesn’t go far enough, Salo said. His organization, along with others, would prefer that HHS align substance-abuse-treatment disclosure rules with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which governs the privacy of other types of health-care records. Under HIPAA, health plans, providers and health-care information clearinghouses don’t always have to get patients’ consent before disclosing their records to similar groups and “business associates,” such as claims-processing operations, if the disclosure is related to a patient’s health-care treatment, payment or health-care operations. Strong protections must remain in place to prevent information from being used to bring criminal charges or to conduct criminal investigations, said


This groundbreaking technology will soon let us see exactly what’s in our food

Weisses of the world are rejoicing. As am I. Because the implications of this technology are enormous. I checked in with three companies now working on bringing optical scanning technology to the food supply. Two of them, TellSpec and SCiO, are working on handheld scanners designed for consumer use. The third, Target, is already starting to implement optical scanning in its supply chain. SCiO says its scanner will tell you the percentage of fat, carbohydrate, protein and water found in cheese, yogurt, milk, meat, fruits and vegetables. (SCiO) Target, one of the nation’s largest retailers, is collaborating with MIT and business design firm Ideo in a venture called Food + Future coLab, based in Cambridge, Mass., which has the broad mission of helping consumers better understand their food. Greg Shewmaker, a Target entrepreneur in residence (yes, that’s a title!), leads the lab and took me on a tour. Exhibit A was Brent Overcash, whose job is to investigate interesting technologies that might have a food-related application. The interesting technology he’s focused on is optical scanning, and he showed me how they’re doing it. Scanning something is the easy part, as easy as taking a fingerprint. What’s tough is figuring out what that something is. The library the researchers need is huge. It’s not like they can take an apple, scan it and just file it under A. They have to scan Fujis and Honeycrisps and Jonagolds, and know what their scans look like when the apples are just-picked and when they’ve been sitting in a warehouse for a year. (Some of the nutrients deteriorate.) They have to know that the side of the apple that didn’t get sun will have less vitamin c than the side that did. They have to know that Grower A’s Fuji will look a little different from Grower B’s Fuji, but they’re both Fujis. And the only way to learn to read the scans, to determine things like sugar and vitamin and calorie content, is to physically test the apple for those things. In a lab. Using expensive equipment and scientists with PhDs. It’s not an undertaking for the faint of heart, but Target is stepping up. The company is putting industrial-strength scanners in its distribution centers to start building that database. And it’s doing it because it hopes to gain a competitive advantage. According to Casey Carl, Target’s chief strategy and innovation officer, “We’ll


what that something is. The library the researchers need is huge. It’s not like they can take an apple, scan it and just file it under A. They have to scan Fujis and Honeycrisps and Jonagolds, and know what their scans look like when the apples are just-picked and when they’ve been sitting in a warehouse for a year. (Some of the nutrients deteriorate.) They have to know that the side of the apple that didn’t get sun will have less vitamin c than the side that did. They have to know that Grower A’s Fuji will look a little different from Grower B’s Fuji, but they’re both Fujis. And the only way to learn to read the scans, to determine things like sugar and vitamin and calorie content, is to physically test the apple for those things. In a lab. Using expensive equipment and scientists with PhDs. It’s not an undertaking for the faint of heart, but Target is stepping up. The company is putting industrial-strength scanners in its distribution centers to start building that database. And it’s doing it because it hopes to gain a competitive advantage. According to Casey Carl, Target’s chief strategy and innovation officer, “We’ll deliver better freshness, quality and shelf life,” because produce that’s old or inferior — or not what the label promises — will never make it to the floor. That’s the motivation for Target, and its effort is beginning with the fresh fruits and vegetables that come in to its centers. But the possibilities are almost literally endless. TellSpec and SCiO, both of which have had hiccups in their crowdfunded efforts to bring these scanners to market, probably will be successful with problems that don't require extensive (and expensive) physical testing: TellSpec is working on detecting gluten; one of the developers working with SCiO is focused on identifying adulterated spices. What else? How about answering such questions as: ■Are there pesticide residues on this strawberry? ■ ■Is the calorie/fat/protein/vitamin information on the label accurate? ■ ■Is there dairy in this salad dressing? ■ ■Has my beer been watered down? ■ ■Is this really a 2004 Caymus Cabernet? ■ ■Is that beef, or horsemeat? ■ ■Is that scallop, or shark? ■ ■Does the organic spinach have more vitamin A than conventional spinach? ■ ■Is there E. coli on this cantaloupe? ■ ■Is this honey, or gold-colored corn syrup? A researcher uses a


others — the ones about horsemeat and honey. But all will be answerable. (This technology may even be able to detect whether some foods are genetically modified; it depends on whether the modification changes the optical fingerprint.) Today, out of the box, the $249 SCiO scanner will tell you the percentage of fat, carbohydrate, protein and water found in cheese, yogurt, milk, meat, fruits and vegetables, according to SCiO chief executive Dror Sharon. The technology has come far enough to give credence to the idea that it will go much further. Imagine what happens when it does. When consumers can see what’s in their food, we no longer have to lobby Congress to make suppliers disclose it. When consumers (or consumer protection groups) can test for pesticide residues, we no longer need governments to do it for us. Just as caller ID virtually ended prank calling, optical identification will go a long way toward stopping fraud, adulteration and contamination. “This is the ultimate lie detector,” says Overcash. “Strip away the branding, labeling and messaging: What is this thing?” Information means accountability. We won’t have to worry about legislation to make sure fish is labeled properly, because every fish market in America will have a scanner and the FishID app; the problem solves itself. There will no longer be cellulose in the Parmesan. The amount of legislative action and taxpayer money needed to ensure transparency will drop dramatically. I believe this technology will change our relationship to food, and to the people and companies that grow it for us and sell it to us. It won’t happen tomorrow, and it won’t happen all at once, but the companies involved in bringing optical technology to food will gradually build up the fingerprint library and the algorithms to use it. Before it comes to consumers, it will probably be implemented higher in the food chain, weeding out mislabled, fraudulent and over-the-hill products. Then, as prices come down, it’ll be a more realistic choice for consumers. We’re likely to see some of the more straightforward uses this year, as TellSpec and SCiO ship their devices (both due out toward the end of summer), and some of the more complicated tasks are a couple years out. But this is imminent, and it has the power to change much of what ails our food supply. This story has been updated. More from Food: Unearthed column archive


Orbital’s Cygnus arrives at space station with Easter delivery

of a bunny, Saturday’s delivery came via a swan — Orbital ATK’s Cygnus capsule, named after the swan constellation. The cargo carrier rocketed away from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday night. NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra used the station’s big robot arm to grab the capsule, as the two craft soared 250 miles above the Indian Ocean. “Excellent work, gentlemen,” Mission Control radioed. Four hours later, the capsule was bolted firmly to the complex. It’s the first of three shipments coming up in quick succession. A Russian cargo ship will lift off Thursday, followed by a SpaceX supply run April 8. NASA has turned to private industry to keep the space station stocked. The newly arrived Cygnus holds nearly 8,000 pounds of groceries, equipment and research. Among the newfangled science: robotic grippers modeled after geckos’ feet and the ingredients for a large-scale, controlled fire. A commercial-quality 3-D printer is packed inside as well; anyone will be able to order prints, for a price, from the Made In Space company. Virginia-based Orbital ATK hints that Easter eggs may also be on board. The Cygnus cargo ship nears the robotic arm at the International Space Station. The Cygnus capsule is loaded with nearly 7,500 pounds of food, science experiments and equipment. (Nasa/Reuters) The blaze — confined to a box inside the Cygnus — won’t be set until the capsule departs in May with a load of trash. NASA researchers want to see how fast the cotton-fiberglass fabric burns, in the hope of improving future spacecraft safety. After the experiment, the capsule will burn up, for real, during reentry. As it turns out, the Cygnus had an out-of-the-ordinary ride to orbit. The first-stage booster of the normally reliable unmanned Atlas V rocket stopped firing six seconds early, and the upper stage had to compensate by burning a minute longer to get the capsule in the right orbit. Rocket maker United Launch Alliance has delayed its next launch, a military satellite mission, to figure out what went wrong. The commander of the doomed space shuttle Columbia, meanwhile, is being honored with this latest delivery. Orbital ATK named this Cygnus after Rick Husband, who piloted the first shuttle to dock at the space station in 1999. He died aboard Columbia during reentry in 2003, along with six other astronauts. Kopra called him a “personal hero” and said he was honored to welcome the “SS Rick Husband” aboard.


Maryland universities ramp up efforts to help students, faculty create companies

Maryland universities have ramped up efforts in recent years to help students and faculty turn their discoveries into growing businesses but lag far behind many colleges around the country in spinning off companies and pulling in millions of dollars in licensing revenue. Helping faculty and students create businesses to market medical devices, computer programs or other creations can boost a university’s bottom line and shore up the local economy if the start-up companies stay in the area. “We have such great potential here, and it’s lain fallow for so long,” said Benjamin H. Wu, a deputy secretary at the state Department of Commerce who sits on a committee examining the issue. “Our economic climate has paid the price.” The committee will issue recommendations in the coming weeks for improving the state’s track record in technology commercialization, also known as tech transfer, Wu said. “The issue was that we haven’t fully embraced our culture of tech transfer in ways that would allow opportunities to flourish,” he said. Between 2009 and 2014, the University System of Maryland (USM), which includes the research institutions in Baltimore, College Park and Baltimore County, brought in a combined $1.3 million to $2.4 million a year in revenue from licensing technologies created by its faculty or students, according to a database kept by the Association of University Technology Managers. The Johns Hopkins University, which has led the nation in research spending for 36 years, and its Applied Physics Laboratory generated between $13.6 million and $18.4 million in the same period. Those numbers are dwarfed by some of their university peers. In 2014, MIT brought in $68 million in licensing revenue, and Northwestern University collected $361 million. The University of Massachusetts, which USM Chancellor Robert L. Caret oversaw until his appointment last year, made $70.5 million in licensing revenue in 2009 and $30 million in 2014. In the past few years, USM colleges and Johns Hopkins have put significantly more effort into helping faculty and students become entrepreneurs. Revenue has increased slightly, but no one can say how long it will take for the institutions to catch up to their peers. Caret acknowledged that the system, which includes 12 of the state’s public institutions, has not kept pace with the fast-growing trend for tech transfer, but he and a host of administrators and members of the system’s Board of Regents are working to change that. “I would say


Death toll in Pakistan bombing climbs past 70

beds, where occupants were labeled “blast victim.” Among them were two small children, their beds marked with signs saying “unknown.” Their family died in the blast, and they had yet to be linked with other relatives. Some were clearly still in shock. Zeeshan Taaj, 23, had been walking through the park on his way back from a pickup cricket match when the bomb detonated. He injured his leg in the aftermath and is trying to come to terms with what he saw: “Fire and smoke,” he said. “I have seen chopped legs blown off, heads and dead bodies scattered all around me.” A friend tried to comfort him by tucking a sheet around his still-bloodied leg wound. In another bed, Tasleem Sultan, 40, described how she and four other adult family members took eight children to the kiddie amusement park Sunday night and found it bustling on the warm evening. Her niece, Zainab, 8, had donned her best red dress and put flower-shaped barrettes in her hair for the occasion. She rode an elephant on the merry-go-round. She was holding her aunt’s hand when the force of the explosion separated them. Later, her father found Zainab, bleeding and lifeless. “I was weeping. I am still in shock,” Jamshaid Iqbal, 35, said in an interview at his family home after her funeral. “Why isn’t the government protecting us?” In Islamabad on Monday, thousands of Muslim demonstrators protesting the execution of Islamist assassin Mumtaz Qadri staged a sit-in inside the capital city’s “Red Zone,” which is home to a number of vital government institutions, including Parliament and the prime minister’s house. Qadri assassinated Punjab’s governor, Salman Taseer, in 2011 over the latter’s opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Most blasphemy cases are lodged against non-Muslims for violations such as desecrating the Koran, Islam’s holy book, according to rights monitors. The army was deployed Sunday night to protect government buildings after the protesters rampaged across the city, damaging property and setting buildings on fire. Erin Cunningham in Kabul, Babar Dogar in Lahore, and Haq Nawaz Khan and Aamir Iqbal in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report. Read more: In deadly attack on Pakistani college, extremists take new aim at students Pakistan’s prime minister is defying the clerics — very carefully By way of computers and headsets, Islamic teaching flows out of Pakistan Pakistan is still trying to get a grip on its madrassa problem


An outdoor exerciser? Here’s what your lungs probably look like.

Bad air has been blamed for as many as 10 percent of deaths in Los Angeles. The city topped a 2014 list for worst ozone pollution. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) When a pathologist at Georgetown University’s medical school cut into the lungs of a cadaver during an autopsy and revealed blackened tissue, one of my medical students assumed that smoking must have contributed to the person’s death. No, the pathologist said; he’d seen such carbon-pocked lungs hundreds of times. “That’s what all our lungs look like.” The truth is that air pollution damages our lungs not only in places such as Beijing and New Delhi, where smoggy air and white masks have become a way of life for many. U.S. air may not look as gritty, but Americans living in high-density areas, even suburban ones, also face plenty of negative health consequences from pollution, including heart attacks and asthma. A recent study found that 5.5 million people worldwide die prematurely every year because of dirty air, much of it from power plants and,especially in the United States, automobiles. Particulate and gaseous pollutants in the air have been blamed for as many as 10 percent of deaths in Los Angeles. So what are we breathing that’s causing such damage? Our air has two forms of pollution; one of them includes gases such as ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Of these, ground-level ozone is a major respiratory culprit, created when sunlight interacts with exhausts from vehicles and other machinery. Ozone is a potent lung irritant and is partly responsible for the rise in rhinitis and asthma worldwide. The warmer the air, the greater the reaction. Recent studies have determined ozone to be the pollutant most closely associated with increased mortality. The other form of pollution is tiny particulate matter — from automobile fumes, power plants and smoke from chimneys and forest fires — that lodges in the lungs and pretty much stays there. Particulates are what blacken our lungs over time, but both ozone and particulates cause breathing problems and shorten life spans by making lungs sensitive to allergic substances, causing inflammation and reducing lung function. These changes trigger asthma attacks, worsen illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and are even linked to the development of lung cancer. The smaller particulates are, the more dangerous their effect. One common particulate goes by the scientific name PM 2.5.


Sherman’s war: More than a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan ends at N.J. storage shed

to hold elections, arm security forces and withdraw U.S. troops had inadvertently helped create death squads intent on seeking revenge on minority Sunnis and sparking a civil war. He was “flailing around,” he said, his mind still focused on Iraq. So he accepted a job offer from a U.S. general to work as a civilian political adviser to the Army division assigned to Baghdad during President Bush’s surge. The second tour was war as he imagined. He saw a friend shot by an Iraqi sniper and attended dozens of battlefield memorial services for fallen soldiers and Marines. There were so many services that Sherman began tracking them in a file on his computer — a tally that would grow to 187 services over his years of war. Sherman’s parents threw a party for him to celebrate his homecoming from Iraq in 2008. “My mom and dad said some nice things, and they asked me to talk, and I couldn’t speak,” Sherman said. “I was just bawling. I tried for a bit, and I just couldn’t.” He never emptied the storage shed, because he assumed he would go back overseas. In early 2009, Sherman shifted to Afghanistan, where he served alongside U.S. forces in the provinces just south of Kabul. A big focus for him during that tour was the Taliban-dominated village of Baraki Barak. Sherman was part of a brigade that overwhelmed the village with soldiers, who pushed out the insurgents; civilian aid workers, who built schools and wells; and money. Baraki Barak soon became a regular stop for the Pentagon brass, European diplomats and congressional delegations eager to see a counterinsurgency success story from the war. “It was the perfect jelling of civilian and military,” said Sherman, who oversaw the State Department aid workers in the region. “We really saw it as a model that we were all proud of.” Last month, Sherman and Gen. John Campbell, the sixth American commanding general to lead U.S. troops in the country since Sherman’s 2009 arrival in Afghanistan, flew from Kabul to Sherman’s old base near the village. U.S. troops began pulling out of Baraki Barak several years ago, allowing the local Taliban commanders who had deep roots in the area to return. The American aid money dried up, and an important Afghan elder who worked with the Americans was killed. U.S. troops advising Afghan forces in the area now described Baraki


As a mom, I couldn’t afford to fall apart after my divorce. Then running saved me.

Alone. The next summer, I completed my first full marathon on my daughter’s fifth birthday, crossing the finish line to drive myself home. This past July, I attempted my second marathon. My secret hope was to beat my time from the previous year: I’d finished in 4:08. After training hard all spring, I found a spot near the starting line within sight of the 4:00 pacing group on a perfectly cool morning. The first time I ran this race, I needed to prove to myself that I could go the distance. This time I hoped to do it with skill and strength, to find a new best. I passed my pacing group easily in the first mile. I took care not to spend my energy too soon, but my training made me confident I hold the brisk pace. I no longer felt broken or stuck. I felt strong, prepared, better than ever. Until Mile 5. That familiar tightening seized my right knee — a pain I’d spent three years eradicating. For an entire mile I processed a single, circular thought: Is that my knee? No. It’s just a glitch. I’m just settling in. But wait. That is my knee. Is that my hip? And my knee? My left hip started hurting as well. I knew enough about biomechanics to understand my pelvis was out of line, causing this ping-pong kind of pain in opposing joints. I fell back in with the 4:00 pacing group, hoping that slowing down would give me a chance to recover. After all, I still had 20 miles to go. I have a pretty high pain tolerance, as much as anyone can be sure of such a thing. I birthed two children naturally, and I reach for ibuprofen rarely enough that my ex-husband used to jokingly ask on such occasions whether I might need a ride to the emergency room. As I neared Mile 10, I thought about my first birth (the longer, more painful one), my knee and hip now barking fiercely with each step: Stop, stop, stop. By Mile 15, I took a walking break and gazed up at the sky to keep tears from spilling over. My pacing group vanished over a hill. I’d worked closely with my doctors, so I knew running on the angry joints would not cause permanent damage. I’d have to take a couple of weeks off to calm


Help save the bees, Mr. Hogan, and set a good example

Worker bees tend to honeycomb cells in a bee colony in Frederick. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) The March 26 Metro article “To save honeybees, Md. may take a swipe at some pesticides” offered hope that Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) would sign the legislation to save our pollinators. It would be wonderful to see Maryland at the forefront of this noble effort. It would also be wonderful to have a Republican leader shift the GOP narrative toward a positive discussion of “the birds and the bees.” Diane Lee, Cabin John


Pending home sales rebound in February; JetBlue, Alaska bid for Virgin America

doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation. JetBlue spokesman Doug McGraw said the carrier had the same policy. Virgin America didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. — Bloomberg News Also in Business ● Shares in boutique investment bank PJT Partners fell by as much as 24 percent Monday. A former partner was arrested Saturday on charges that he orchestrated a $95 million scheme to defraud investors, U.S. prosecutors said. Andrew Caspersen, who had worked at PJT’s Park Hill Group since 2013, was named in a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, charging him with securities fraud and wire fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a parallel civil lawsuit, accusing Caspersen of engaging in the fraud using a shell company he controlled whose name was deceptively similar to that of an Irving Place Capital private-equity fund. PJT dismissed Caspersen on Monday, according to a source. Caspersen, 39, appeared in federal court on Monday. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ● Valeant Pharmaceuticals International’s outgoing chief executive, Michael Pearson, was subpoenaed to testify at a hearing next month by a Senate committee investigating drug price hikes. The April 27 hearing will be the third that the Senate Special Committee on Aging has held on pharmaceutical companies that the committee says operate more like hedge funds and have increased the price of decades-old drugs, according to a statement Monday. The subpoena adds to recent troubles at Valeant, which is facing numerous challenges including probes of its accounting and business practices, a ballooning debt and a slumping stock. Last week, the drugmaker said it would search for a new CEO to replace Pearson. The Senate’s aging committee did not respond to requests for comment on why it was necessary to subpoena Pearson. Valeant didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether he would appear. ● The first Oculus Rift virtual-reality headsets began shipping Monday, 3 1/ 2 years after it was first launched as a Kickstarter project and two years after Facebook bought the company for $2 billion. The launch ushers in the official beginning of a new era of virtual reality, though even the most enthusiastic acolytes recognize it won’t change the world overnight. Professional technology reviews have been mostly positive, with the most effusive proclaiming it the best new device since the iPhone. ● Dell may announce the sale of its technology services


● Valeant Pharmaceuticals International’s outgoing chief executive, Michael Pearson, was subpoenaed to testify at a hearing next month by a Senate committee investigating drug price hikes. The April 27 hearing will be the third that the Senate Special Committee on Aging has held on pharmaceutical companies that the committee says operate more like hedge funds and have increased the price of decades-old drugs, according to a statement Monday. The subpoena adds to recent troubles at Valeant, which is facing numerous challenges including probes of its accounting and business practices, a ballooning debt and a slumping stock. Last week, the drugmaker said it would search for a new CEO to replace Pearson. The Senate’s aging committee did not respond to requests for comment on why it was necessary to subpoena Pearson. Valeant didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether he would appear. ● The first Oculus Rift virtual-reality headsets began shipping Monday, 3 1/ 2 years after it was first launched as a Kickstarter project and two years after Facebook bought the company for $2 billion. The launch ushers in the official beginning of a new era of virtual reality, though even the most enthusiastic acolytes recognize it won’t change the world overnight. Professional technology reviews have been mostly positive, with the most effusive proclaiming it the best new device since the iPhone. ● Dell may announce the sale of its technology services unit to Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephone for $3.5 billion as early as Monday, Re/code reported, citing sources briefed on the process. Dell plans to sell the division as part of a wider effort to raise as much as $10 billion from the disposal of assets that aren’t core to its business, the report said. The acquisition by Japan’s NTT Data would be the company’s largest, helping increase its sales outside Japan, where a shrinking and aging population has stymied economic growth. Dell, which paid $3.9 billion for what was formerly known as Perot Services in 2009, is selling some assets before completing a record deal — the $67 billion takeover of software and storage systems provider EMC. — From news services Coming Today ● 9 a.m.: Standard & Poor’s releases S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices for January. ● 10 a.m.: Conference Board releases the Consumer Confidence Index for March. ● 12:20 p.m.: Fed Chair Janet L. Yellen speaks at the Economic Club of New York.


A legendary jazz club is the latest icon to close on U Street

achieved that.” The club’s closure follows the way of Patty Boom Boom and the Islander — two music-focused establishments on U Street that attracted largely African American customers. There are still prominent places to hear live music along the U Street corridor, such as the Lincoln Theatre and U Street Music Hall. But these days there seem to be more pricey condos named after famous jazz musicians — such as the Ellington, Ella and Louis apartment buildings — than outposts to hear music. “It’s sad. It’s another icon on U Street. It seems like all of our favorite hip-hop and R&B lounges are closed,” said Andria Harrington, a D.C. native who met friends Sunday evening at Tap & Parlour. “We wanted to enjoy one last time in the building. We’ve had many birthdays and nights out here.” On Bohemian Caverns’ last night in business Easter Sunday, old-timers and first-timers gathered to bid farewell. An hours-long jam session brought in musicians who had played at the venue over the past decade, as well as past and current members of the resident Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra. “I want my kids to see the emotional side of music. How musicians come together for good times and sad times like this,” said Bernadine Dorsey, who brought her two children from Baltimore. The children are trained saxophonists and joined the jam session. At Liv Nightclub upstairs, “Big Tony” was preparing for his regular dance party, featuring music from the ’80s and ’90s. Big Tony, also known as Tony Sizemore, hosted the first dance party when Bohemian Caverns reopened in 2006 and was closing it down Sunday evening. “People come to this party because they want to dance and get sweaty,” Sizemore said. “It’s hurt because this has been home base.” And on the ground level at Tap & Parlour, those who couldn’t snag tickets to the Bohemian Caverns show grabbed drinks and reminisced while still dressed in their posh Easter clothes. Earlier in the day, the restaurant hosted a brunch for current and former staffers. “A lot of the places that have popped up over the last few years on U Street Northwest, you can find them in any other city,” said Quincy Atkinson, a former general manager of the club who flew in from Atlanta. “That was not the case with Bohemian. There’s no other place that looks like it or feels like it.”


Can you maintain a vegan diet while traveling? Yes, but it will take some strategizing.

magazines, and vegan movements, such as Veganuary (which urges people each January to try going vegan) and VB6, author and columnist Mark Bittman’s cleverly named plan for folks to eat vegan before 6 p.m. every day. A German vegan grocery store chain, Veganz, has expanded to Austria and the Czech Republic and is expected to open a location in Portland, Ore., this year. Although veganism has moved into the mainstream in recent years, if you stray far from major cities — even in the United States — you may find your options limited to a bowl of iceberg lettuce with a side of fries. Jeanette’s frustration is not uncommon. Michelle McMacken, an internal medicine physician in New York whose practice focuses on plant-based nutrition, said that although it’s helpful that veganism isn’t met with the same confusion it once was, it’s still important to consider your meals when preparing for a trip. With a few exceptions, my kitchen has been vegan for a year. The transition was a cinch once I discovered dairy-free ice cream and Miyoko’s cultured nut cheeses, which satisfy my cravings at home. When I’m on the road reporting, I relax my rules a bit. But after going on countless long drives and packing food of my own, I’ve learned how to take a vegan road trip and what travels well. This winter, I stocked up at Trader Joe’s for a car trip, with single-serving bags of trail mix, popcorn and chocolate-covered almonds, and I packed jars of nuts, seeds and dried fruit. Spreading peanut butter over an apple, pita bread or a rice cake is a no-brainer for a vegan snack. (Justin’s individual nut-butter packets are ideal if you want to skip the jar.) I also make a mixture of oatmeal, dried fruit, nuts, pumpkin seeds and cinnamon and can usually find hot-water dispensers at hotels. Some folks travel with a small electric kettle or hot plate, or they bring a NutriBullet compact blender for smoothies. “Sometimes people will plan for the destination but forget to plan for the travel time,” McMacken said. “Airports and Amtrak are getting more friendly, but I always have nuts and dried fruit or seeds in my bag.” McMacken packs a variety of seeds and nuts so she doesn’t tire of any one, often sprinkling hemp hearts on restaurant salads for an extra nutritional punch. For additional sources of nutrients, she


A grim warning against America’s overuse of sanctions

of the nuclear deal with Iran want to keep the U.S. financial system off-limits. This case against “Dollarizing the Ayatollahs” was made by Mark Dubowitz and Jonathan Schanzer in a piece with that headline in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. Lew counters such arguments in his speech: “By following through on our commitment to provide sanctions relief, we sustain the powerful incentive for other malign actors to change their behavior.” Lew is also wary of casual escalation — and the assumption that if existing sanctions don’t work, just add more. Russia hasn’t yet been forced by Western sanctions to give back Crimea or keep its commitments to the Minsk process, so some critics want to squeeze harder. Lew counsels patience: If Moscow doesn’t comply, “sanctions will continue, as will the pressure they impose over time.” As for the Islamic State, today’s leading menace, Lew notes that sanctions have limited effect on a terrorist group that “derives most of its revenues from within.” U.S. power flows from our unmatched military might, yes. But in a deeper way, it’s a product of the dominance of the U.S. economy. Anything that expands the reach of U.S. markets — such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership in trade, for example — adds to the arsenal of U.S. power. Conversely, U.S. power is limited by measures that drive business away from America, or allow other nations to build a rival financial architecture that’s less encumbered by a smorgasbord of sanctions. Politicians often call for sanctions as a way of sounding tough, when they don’t want to take riskier measures. But they should recognize, Lew stresses, that sanctions aren’t cost-free. They should be imposed when they can get results, not to make U.S. politicians sound good. Doctors know that even the most effective drugs can be overused — in ways that ultimately render them ineffective. That’s certainly true with the antibiotics used against infectious diseases. Broad-spectrum antibiotics, which kill good bacteria and bad alike, carry risks. The larger danger is that overuse of targeted antibiotics will create drug-resistant strains that survive the medical “sanctions.” These hardy, mutant strains can be nearly untreatable. Doctors are learning not to overprescribe. So, too, should foreign-policy practitioners. Read more from David Ignatius’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. Read more here: Jennifer Rubin: Iran sanctions lifted: Now what? The Post’s View: Russia’s latest show trial


Fairfax County community calendar, March 31-April 7, 2016

Thursday, March 31 Parkinson aquatic exercise classes NEXUS 2016 conference Annandale TOPS (Take Pounds off Sensibly) Kundalini yoga “The 39 Steps” ESL classes Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Association meeting Lunafest Fairfax 2016 “Middletown” Friday, April 1 Children’s consignment sale “Painting the Head in Color” workshop Claude Moore Colonial Farm opening day Fairfax Genealogical Society annual conference Family movie night Historic Vienna book sale Saturday, April 2 Tour of local Civil War sites Recycling Extravaganza Kundalini yoga Spring Forward Family Fun Day Children’s book sale First-time home buyer seminar Touch-a-Truck event Country-Western dance Sunday, April 3 Richmond legislative wrap-up Mr. Vaudeville and Friends Community concert series Herndon Social Dancers dance Monday, April 4 NoVa Lights Chorale rehearsals Fairfax Station Railroad Museum meeting Falls Church Garden Club meeting “Adventures in Learning” sessions Tuesday, April 5 Veterans American History forum Burke Historical Society research seminar Great Falls studio presentation Herndon regional wind ensemble practice Registration for adult ESL classes Levitated Mass Wednesday, April 6 Rotary Club of Herndon Annandale NARFE meeting MOMS Club of Alexandria South meeting Interfaith families and Judaism discussion “Living Free” support group Fairfax Jubil-Aires men’s chorus rehearsal Bereavement support group Thursday, April 7 Reston Friends book sale Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo — Compiled by Bonnie Smith TO SUBMIT AN EVENT E-mail:


Montgomery County Animal Watch

This case was received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Pit bull declared dangerous: Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Cats and kittens will be available for adoption through the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County no-kill shelter at the following location. For information, call 301-740-2511 or visit awlmc.org. Gaithersburg Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Maryland aprueba legislación más fuerte contra conductores ebrios

Rich Leotta sostiene una fotografía de su hijo, Noah Leotta, un oficial de la Policía de Montgomery, MD, quien murió al ser atropellado por un conductor ebrio. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) Legisladores de Maryland dieron luz verde a una legislación que obligaría a más conductores ebrios a instalar un bloqueador de arranque en sus vehículos, conocido en inglés como “igniton interlock”. El Senado aprobó el lunes 28 de marzo en forma unánime (45-0) la Ley Noah. Una versión similar, más suave, fue aprobada también en forma unánime por la Cámara de Representantes en Annapolis. Ambas cámaras evaluarán las versiones para concluir en una ley, que el gobernador republicano Larry Hogan ha dicho que firmaría. Los bloqueadores de arranque son unos dispositivos que se instalan en los autos. Para encender el vehículo, el conductor debe soplar. Si los niveles de alcohol en la sangre superan los establecidos por la ley, el auto no enciende. La ley actual obliga instalar estos bloqueadores a ciertos conductores, generalmente a aquéllos que hayan sido convictos de manejo en estado de ebriedad más de una vez (DUI, en inglés) y que hayan registrado una medida de alcohol de 0.15 en la sangre. El jefe de la Policía de Montgomery, Thomas Manger, fue una de las voces más fuertes que impulsó la medida. (SUSAN BIDDLE/For The Washington Post) La ley Noah busca que se obligue la instalación de este dispositivo a todos los conductores que hayan sido detenidos por DUI con un registro de 0.08 de alcohol en la sangre. “Ésta es una ley que salva vidas”, expresó a El Tiempo Latino, el jefe de la Policía de Montgomery, Thomas Manger, quien por años ha impulsado la medida. La legislación lleva el nombre del oficial Noah Leotta, un policía de 24 años de edad, del condado de Montgomery, que murió en diciembre, tras ser atropellado por un conductor ebrio, cuando precisamente realizaba un chequeo de rutina de alcohol durante las fiestas de fin de año. “El conductor que atropelló al oficial Leotta tenía una medida de 0.22 de alcohol en la sangre y había enfrentado dos cargos de DUI anteriormente”, manifestó Manger, quien después de la muerte del policía lanzó una campaña para aprobar la medida. El delegado Ben Kramer la presentó en la Cámara de Representantes y el senador Jamie Raskin en el Senado. “Hablamos con los padres del oficial Leotta para personalizar la legislación con


Why Olympic medalist Meb Keflezighi loves to race alongside amateurs

race this year. “The sport is much bigger than it was in the 1970s,” Stewart said. “In many ways, Meb has transcended from someone revered in running circles to even broader. The American public and most of the people know him as Meb; they may not even know his last name.” Ben Beach remembers running next to Rodgers one year nearly a decade ago. Beach, a 66-year-old Bethesda resident who is the only person to have run all 43 editions of the 10-mile run, recalls the former Olympian sneaking by him over the Memorial Bridge. It was a fleeting moment, but one that Beach still recalls fondly. Beach, who has also run 48 consecutive Boston Marathons, understands just how special running with a professional runner can be. “It’s exciting to run with somebody who’s an Olympian and who’s outstanding,” he said. “I think it’s great that he’s doing that.” Heading into the home stretch at this year’s U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials on the winding roads of downtown Los Angeles, Keflezighi clutched onto a small American flag with one hand and repeatedly pumped his fist in the air with the other. He pointed at spectators along the course and implored them to cheer even louder. They obliged. This is the Keflezighi that fans have come to adore — the one with unbridled enthusiasm even when the stakes are highest. In addition to his silver medal in the marathon from the 2004 Athens Olympics, Keflezighi became the first American man to win the Boston Marathon since 1983 when he crossed the finish line in 2014, one year after the bombings — further cementing his status as an emotional and fan favorite. At the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in 2014, Keflezighi paced a group that included a woman who handed him her phone. Her husband was stationed in Afghanistan, and she wanted Keflezighi to leave him a voicemail. The woman began to cry as Keflezighi thanked her husband for his service. It is moments like these that “Whether it’s hearing those stories or trying to give them feedback on their form or mechanics and things like that . . . I love it, personally,” he said. “I enjoy winning. I enjoy going very fast, and I try to run to the podium or finish top 10 and things like that. But there’s also another natural high just running with people.”