D.C.’s once and future brewers

The brothers are seeking an additional $150,000 in funding via Indiegogo to use for a customized, self-serve dispensing system. The opening is planned for spring 2013. Procuring brew gear can be a bane for startups on a budget. As Virga notes, “the market for good, used equipment just doesn’t exist anymore,” due to the proliferation of new breweries. Bill Stewart has held on to his old, well-traveled 25-barrel Bardo brewing equipment. It sits, awaiting reassembly, in three 40-foot shipping containers in Baltimore. Bill had hoped to revive the brewery in Australia but gave up after fighting red tape for three years. After that he spent two years in India working with the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. On a trip back to the States to visit his family, he reunited with Andrew, who was on the verge of getting back into the bar business. The two decided to revive Bardo (“Rodeo” is being dropped from the name) instead. “It seemed like the right time, now that brewing is cool again,” Andrew said. But Arlington was out as a location. “When we were running Bardo, we were paying $15,000 a month in rent,” Bill says. “That was a ton of money back then. Now it’s double or triple that.” He doubts he’ll see a lot of the old regulars in his new location, but “the people who live here go out and party, too.” The brothers will dust off a recipe book of 20 to 25 beer styles from the Bardo days, some of which were ahead of their time. They include Dremo Tibetan Sasquatch Ale, an American strong ale similar to Stone Brewing’s Arrogant Bastard, and James Brown Ale, a beer that was roasty and full of hops years before the term “Cascadian dark ale” was coined for such heady brews. Several Bardo beers, including Dremo, White Lightnin’ (a barley wine) and Bundaberg Ginger Beer, brought home medals from the annual Great American Beer Festival in Denver in the mid-1990s. If finances and the law permit, they would also like to outfit the brewpub with a small distillery. But they have no desire to keg or bottle for off-premise sales. The margins are higher selling it by the glassful. “You’ve got to brew it where you drink it,” Andrew says. Kitsock is the editor of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. More from Food: The Immigrant’s Table Smoke Signals Spirits Column Beer Column


As developed world struggles, talk of a U.S.-E.U. trade deal intensifies

to work on some of the same issues. And they have proved politically difficult to implement. Unlike free-trade agreements with less developed nations, a pact with Europe is not expected to cause major changes in existing investment, trade and manufacturing patterns — unlike the realignment of the auto industry, for example, that took place after the North American Free Trade Agreement gave U.S. companies access to less-expensive Mexican labor. That may make it more palatable to some of the traditional free-trade skeptics in the labor and environmental movements. However, it will involve an intense clash of values between officials and bureaucrats on two sides of the developed world with traditions of holding to their own way of doing things. Some European nations, for example, put strict limits on genetically modified food and are unlikely to agree to increased market access for major U.S. food processors or agribusinesses. Automobile tariffs, at about 8 percent, are higher in Europe than in the United States, but American officials have long held to a 25 percent fee on imported trucks that, ironically, dates to a 1960s-era trade fight with Germany. The ideal proposed by some business groups is of a region where the results of government drug testing, auto standards or other sensitive regulatory matters on each side of the Atlantic are accepted by the other. The politics of trusting another country’s science or regulatory bureaucracy is another matter — even if it could save billions of dollars in duplicative testing, or lower prices for consumers. “This is not a new idea,” said Jeffrey Schott, a trade policy analyst at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Both sides say, ‘This is very simple. We can get huge gains from coordinating. You should do what we do.’ And the other says, ‘No, it is better if you follow our model.’ . . . And you end up with nothing.” A preliminary report last summer by the U.S-E.U. committee acknowledged the limits, saying that a comprehensive agreement between the two sides would provide substantial benefits “if achievable.” “We’re looking closely and taking our time to see if we can resolve key issues,” a White House official said. In recent briefings with business leaders and analysts, Obama administration officials made clear they “don’t want to get involved in something they know is going to bog down,” said a local analyst who attended one of the briefing sessions.


Today in D.C.: Four things to watch for

Coming up today in the D.C. region: 12/12/12: Cheesesteak: Capitals: Bundle up:


Fairfax County development projects

Projects Proposed 1. Winchester Homes, Bethesda. Subdivision plan for 12 single-family detached dwellings on 20.41 acres zoned R-E (Residential Estate), on Little Difficult Drive, south of Stuart Mill Road. (SD-009878-001-1) 2. Insite Real Estate Investment Properties, Oak Brook, Ill. Site plan for a 15,969-square-foot child-care facility on 1.72 acres zoned C-5 (Neighborhood Retail) and R-1 (Residential — one unit per acre), in the northwest quadrant of Centreville Road and West Ox Road. (SP-002107-002-3) 3. Scannell Properties #135, Indianapolis. Site plan for a 59,476-square-foot office building on 2.73 acres zoned C-2 (Limited Office), on the east side of Loisdale Road, south of Lois Drive. (SP-002107-002-3) 4. Timber Ridge at EDS, Ashburn. Site plan for 354 multifamily residential units on 37.43 acres zoned PRM (Planned Residential Mixed-Use), at 3112 and 3106 Centreville Rd. (SP-005810-019-1) 5. Inova Health Care Services, Falls Church. Site plan for roadway infrastructure improvements for a hospital on 21.65 acres zoned C-3 (Office), at 3440 and 3300 Woodburn Rd. (SP-006157-023-1) 6. Costco Wholesale, Sterling. Site plan for 137,117 square feet of floor area for a service station, on 16.06 acres zoned C-8 (Highway Commercial), on West Ox Road and Price Club Plaza. (SP-006552-008-2) 7. Capital One Bank, McLean. Site plan for 524,185 square feet of new floor area for office use on 26.21 acres zoned PTC (Planned Tysons Corner), at 1680 Capital One Dr. (SP-006835-005-1) 8. Franconia Two, New York. Site plan for 1,382,088 square feet of shopping center on 78.52 acres zoned PDC (Planned Development Commercial), at Springfield Mall. (SP-007463-006-2) 9. Archstone, Arlington County. Site plan for 461 multifamily units on 19.23 acres zoned R-20 (Residential — 20 units per acre), at 2821 Church Walk. (SP-008258-001-1) 10. Association for Manufacturing Technology, McLean. Site plan for a 176,530-square-foot office building on 1.84 acres zoned PTC (Planned Tysons Corner), at 7901 Westpark Dr. (SP-025530-001-1) 11. Marx Realty and Improvement-AGI, New York. Site plan for 11,880 square feet of retail sales use on 2.04 acres zoned C-8 (Highway Commercial), at Richmond Highway and Fordson Road. (SP-025561-001-2) 12. Timber Ridge at EDS, Ashburn. Site plan for improvements to Centreville Road on 3.8 acres zoned PRM (Planned Residential Mixed-Use), at 3112 and 3106 Centreville Rd. (SP-005810-012-3) 13. Lincoln Property, Herndon. Site plan for an outdoor recreational park facility on 17.32 acres zoned PRM (Planned Residential Mixed-Use), on Centreville Road. (SP-005810-014-2) 14. Lincoln Property, Herndon. Site plan for a north-south road on 18 acres


Study: Agencies rely heavily on credit card histories when calculating credit scores

or her debts. “Credit cards are given great weight in credit profiles — a lesson that consumers could end up learning the hard way,” said Richard Cordray, director of the CFPB, during a call with reporters. During the holiday season, he said, consumers may be enticed to open a new retail credit card with the promise of an extra discount on their purchase. If they are not responsible with that card, “it could end up costing them a lot more down the line when they go take out a mortgage and that credit card is a black mark on their credit report.” Indeed, but there is a body of research that suggests consumers are relying on plastic for everyday needs, not occasional wants, making the prospect of maintaining a healthy credit profile challenging. Staying current on payments or reducing the use of credit cards has been difficult for many Americans contending with stagnant wages, unemployment or underemployment, as the Center for Responsible Lending noted in its latest study Wednesday. The consumer advocacy group, using research from Demos, said about 40 percent of low- and middle-income households rely on credit cards to pay for basic living expenses, such as rent, groceries and utilities. Medical bills have also become a leading contributor to credit card debt in the aftermath of the recession. Americans, nevertheless, have managed to pay down high credit card balances coming out of the recession, a trend the consumer lending group partly attributes to credit card reforms. Industry practices, such as high penalty rates and unclear fee structures, were banned or curbed by the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. Price transparency, according to the report, is allowing consumers to better manage their debt. In recent years, predatory lending practices saddled many Americans, especially minorities, with credit cards or mortgages with exorbitant rates and fees that increased the chances of default. When those consumers defaulted, their credit scores tumbled as the reporting agencies perceived them as credit risks. The CFPB raised the concern that credit scores have the potential to reinforce the effects of discrimination, but stopped short of offering solutions. The consumer agency has the authority to supervise a wide array of financial actors who impact consumer credit, including credit card companies and credit reporting agencies. The latest report is a follow up to a study released in October on widespread discrepancies in credit reports.


Wrestling, anyone? Pakistan welcomes back a flamboyant Japanese hero of the ring.

At a reception honoring Mohammad Hussain (formerly Antonio) Inoki in Islamabad, the retired Japanese wrestler slaps his eager fans — a ritual based on a belief that Inoki’s hands possess a special “magnetic” power and release “energy” to those lucky people he smacks. Some say the sound is worse than the pain. PESHAWAR, Pakistan — It was all to honor Muhammad Hussain Inoki, the Japanese professional wrestling great, who returned last week like a lost king to greet his Pakistani subjects by the tens of thousands. “The loving people are with you!” a hype man shouted over the intercom at Peshawar’s sports complex on Dec. 5. “And Inoki is with us!” The acclaim for the sharp-chinned retired grappler, still known in Japan as Antonio Inoki, takes some explaining. To start with, he is famous in the pro-wrestling world for having fought — or rather, kicked — heavyweight boxing champ Muhammad Ali to what was judged a draw, in a 1976 match in Tokyo. Later, Inoki would accept challenges to battle fierce Pakistani foes in nation-riveting matches broadcast on state television. In 1984, his last time in the ring here, he also raised money for Afghan refugees. The professional wrestling great from Japan, who battled fierce Pakistani foes in nation-riveting matches, is welcomed like a king in Peshawar. Now he has returned to help establish a government-backed wrestling academy, celebrate 60 years of Pakistani-Japanese relations and promote peace through sportsmanship. “Very nice people and country,” he said in an interview. He also described himself as both a Muslim convert and a Buddhist, a spiritual feat in itself, but no matter: Heroes are hard to come by in Pakistan, where terrorist bombings exact a near-daily toll and the economy is in ruinous decline. Since a deadly militant attack on a Sri Lankan cricket team’s bus in Lahore in 2009, Pakistan has been visited by few international sporting figures, although the public craves soccer, cricket and hockey contests. Inoki brought a 10-man team of flamboyant young Japanese wrestlers — one sporting cornrows, another with a dull orange ’fro-hawk — to stage free exhibition matches that packed stadiums in the northwestern city of Peshawar and, earlier, in Lahore in the east. Organizers said American wrestlers had been lined up to participate but had pulled out because of security concerns. Pakistani officials are eager to offset their country’s typically grim image abroad — and give


Glen Burnie student dies from meningitis-like symptoms

A junior at Glen Burnie High School in Anne Arundel County died Tuesday after becoming ill the day before with symptoms associated with bacterial meningitis, school officials said Wednesday. A letter was sent home to students’ parents Wednesday, outlining the girl’s death and providing facts about bacterial meningitis, which is less contagious than viral meningitis but still deadly, said Bob Mosier, a school system spokesman. The girl’s illness has not been confirmed by doctors or a medical examiner to have been from meningitis, but the school system — in consultation with the county health department — decided to move proactively to alert the school community in case meningitis is confirmed, Mosier said. Meningitis is an infection that inflames the meninges, membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. The student’s identity wasn’t released, and Mosier said he did not know how old she was. “Our primary concern at the school is to be able to provide as much support as we can for this student’s family. It’s a tragic, tragic time for them,” Mosier said. “We also want to be able to provide resources from a health standpoint, but also from the emotional standpoint, for the students and the staff.” Principal Vickie Plitt, in the letter sent to parents, said “an abrupt onset of chills, fever, vomiting, headache, stiff neck and rash” are symptoms parents should watch for. “If your child should develop any of these symptoms, contact your family physician immediately and inform the physician that your child may have had contact with an individual with meningococcal infection,” Plitt wrote. Plitt said the illness is not highly contagious and students with routine contact are not at risk. Mosier said the school will maintain regular cleaning schedules, based on recommendations from the health department. Counselors are available for students, he said. Mosier said he was not sure whether the student’s body will be autopsied or whether a more definitive answer as to her illness will be forthcoming. He said the letter to parents — automated phone calls and e-mails were also sent — was not an uncommon communication after a student death, but he understands if parents are concerned. “Whenever you say the word ‘meningitis,’ parents’ alarms go way up,” he said. The school system is continuing to work closely with the health department to identify anyone from the school community who may have had close contact with the deceased student


Suicide attack at site of Panetta visit kills one American, 2 Afghan civilians

KABUL — The attack outside Kandahar Airfield, a heavily-guarded base in Kandahar province, underscored the tenuous security in the country’s south, the Taliban’s heartland, as the U.S. military footprint continues to thin out. Two Afghan civilians were killed and several were wounded by the blast, local officials said. The bombing happened about 5 p.m., just a few hours after Panetta had been at the base thanking troops for their service during a wind-chilled outdoor ceremony. It was the second major security incident this year to cast a pall on a Panetta visit to Afghanistan. When the secretary was last here, in May, a suspected insurgent rammed a stolen vehicle into an airfield shortly after Panetta landed and tried to attack the visiting delegation. After returning to Kabul on Thursday, Panetta met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss the size and type of U.S. military force that might remain in place after the end of the American combat mission in Afghanistan in December 2014. “We now have an opportunity to make these gains lasting,” the secretary said during a joint news conference at the presidential palace. “We must be bold enough to seize the opportunity.” Photos of everyday life in Afghanistan as coalition forces attempt to transfer responsibilities to Afghan troops. Panetta and U.S. commanders have struck an upbeat tone about the progress of the war, saying that American forces are increasingly stepping into support roles and leaving the front lines to Afghan troops. But Panetta said the conflict remains tough. “These are long-term challenges,” he said. “This is a war we’re engaged in.” Panetta said the Obama administration will host Karzai in Washington the week of Jan. 7 to discuss final details of a security agreement that could spell out the terms of continued U.S. military presence here beyond 2014. The two leaders declined to discuss the troop levels under consideration. Kevin Sieff in Kabul contributed to this report.


Does China own the future — or does the U.S.?

A boy who is waiting to greet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the National Museum makes a face while holding the U.S. and Chinese flags in Beijing May 4, 2012. (SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS) Policy makers worry about the implications of a rising China, leading some to wonder whether China will own the future. China may well defy gravity and continue on its growth trajectory for a couple more years, but I predict the growth will not last. Technology will accelerate forces that are already at play. This means the more likely scenario—the one that we should worry about—is a falling China. Such a decline will likely create greater nightmares for China’s neighbors and for the United States. Three factors are at play that will likely shake the Chinese government. First, there are indications that China has peaked as a manufacturing hub and that manufacturing is returning to the United States. I have written about the advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, and 3D printing that will erode and ultimately eliminate China’s labor-cost advantage. Even before these advances change the manufacturing industry, American companies are realizing that they may have overestimated the cost savings of doing business with China and are increasingly concerned by the intellectual property theft. Now, companies are looking for ways to bring manufacturing back to the United States. General Electric, for example, has again started manufacturing some appliances at Appliance Park, in Louisville, Ky. and is looking to expand its workforce there. Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook is talking about bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States. Even Taiwan’s Foxconn says it is looking to expand into the U.S. Expect this trickle to become a flood over the next 5-to-7 years as key parts of the supply chain move West, automation technologies advance, and as American workers develop the skills needed for running advanced manufacturing plants. This is also likely to wreak havoc on the growing, albeit struggling Chinese economy. Second, China has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure and commercial construction projects. Real-estate bubbles, an ocean of bad debt, inflation, and soaring wages have resulted. The government has also made big bets on last-generation technologies in solar, transportation, and batteries. Imagine a hundred Solyandras in nearly every industry — bad investments that are coming home to roost. Finally, Chinese society is rapidly changing. Internet connectivity and social media are informing the populace of


abuses of power, corruption, a growing wealth gap and the harm being done to the environment. Unrest is building and mass-protests are becoming more common. It used to be that only the elite had access to Web-connected computers with video capability while the government’s propaganda machine controlled information and told the public what to believe. Over the last few years, the prices of tablet computers in China have dropped significantly, making them affordable for the majority of the population, leading to a dramatic increase in Internet usage. Now, a technologically savvy populace is working around the government’s firewalls and becoming aware of world events. They are also learning what their fellow countrymen really think. Put all these factors together, and the risks that China faces become apparent: increasing unemployment, a slowing economy, and growing unrest. If past is prologue, China will resort to protectionist measures. It will try to manipulate its currency perhaps, generating a backlash from the international community. Then, it will likely try to erect greater trade barriers, with the potential weapon in such a trade war being its patents. Encouraged by misguided U.S. policy makers, who have long touted the patent system as an enabler of innovation, China started amassing a large portfolio of patents roughly a decade ago. It provided academics, companies, and individuals significant incentives to patent ideas, including those copied from the West. With higher numbers of patent filings, professors in universities gain tenure, workers and students are granted residence permits to live in desirable cities, corporate income tax is reduced, and companies are offered lucrative government contracts. In 2011, 526,000 patent applications were filed in China—one quarter of all the filings in the world and more than the 503,582 filed in the U.S. that year. Many of these patents in China, when awarded, provide little more utility than extorting licensing fees from foreign companies that do business there. Then there’s the problem of escalating nationalism. Just as China escalated its nationalist rhetoric against Japan over the Senkaku Islands (called the Diaoyu by the Chinese), it may try to divert attention from economic problems by fermenting a nationalist fervor against the West. There is a big unknown in what this escalation of propaganda might do should it occur. There is also the question of China’s young people and the effects of the one-child policy. Nearly all children and young adults in China — an


‘Burden of Disease’ study shows a world living longer and with more disability

to millions of people through unclean needles used in public health campaigns against the tropical infection schistosomiasis. Ethiopian men gained 13 years of “healthy life expectancy” between 1990 and 2010, the most of any group in the world. There’s a “homicide belt” in Latin America and a “suicide belt” in Asia. The package of seven papers totaling 196 pages is being published in the Lancet. It is the first time an entire issue of the journal has been given over to one research study. ‘Very, very big payoffs’ Although population aging, declining poverty and smaller family size have been the major forces changing the world’s health profile over the two decades, improvements in medicine and public health have also made a huge difference. Measles tells the story. In 1990, 631,000 people died from that childhood infection, which was the world’s 19th-leading cause of death. In 2010, only 125,000 people died from measles, which had fallen to the No. 62 cause. “There have been very, very big payoffs in all the investments made to improve child survival,” said Alan D. Lopez, the dean of the school of population health at the University of Queensland in Australia, who with Murray led the project. Those investments include vaccines, vitamin A and zinc supplements, antibiotics for children with pneumonia, insecticide-treated mosquito nets for children to sleep under in malaria zones, and better obstetrical care. The risk of dying prematurely from many “adult” diseases (such as heart attacks and cancer) has also fallen because of better treatment and prevention. As a result, the average age of the world’s population is getting older. Soon after 2015, for the first time in history, there will be more people older than 65 than younger than 5. That has had two consequences. More people are surviving to die of diseases that occur only in old age. These include Alzheimer’s disease, deaths from which tripled from 1990 to 2010, and Parkinson’s disease, whose deaths doubled. At the same time, people are living with conditions that don’t kill them but that affect their health. “These are things like mental disorders, substance abuse, musculoskeletal pain, vision loss, hearing loss . . . that cause a huge amount of disability but not a whole lot of death,” said Murray, who heads the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. ‘Discounted’ time People are living longer lives, but the time


New Year’s Eve 2012: Finding a good party without the hassle

advertise, they don’t have a cover charge and the crowd doesn’t have to mess with cabs or Ubers.” That’s why Gifford says DC Reynolds — and a good number of its neighbors — will be keeping things low key on New Year’s Eve. “We’ll just open and do a toast at midnight,” he says. “The jukebox will be cranking. It’s catering to the people in the neighborhood. The people we see on a daily basis just want us to be open.” Besides, he adds, “The economy isn’t that great, so I don’t think people want to go out and spend $150 on a cover band and [bad] beer.” It’s not just the little guys, either. The ESL Management Group counts the extremely popular Chez Billy, Marvin, the Gibson, American Ice Company and the Satellite Room among its properties. Of those bars, only the Gibson is going for the big spenders — $130 for an open bar and burlesque performances — while the majority are charging nothing at all. Another ESL property, Patty Boom Boom, is charging only $5 in advance. “We find that keeping it simple keeps it simple,” says Sheldon Scott, ESL’s chief marketing officer. “We enjoy bringing a theme to life, but at the same time, we like to be approachable and accessible.” To help you figure out your night, we found no-cover, no-hassle, no-tickets-required celebrations in some of the region’s most hopping areas and grouped them by neighborhood. So if you don’t like one spot, we give you a few others nearby to check out. In other words, my kind of New Year’s Eve. You can find more ideas — including concerts, open-bar parties and black-tie hotel galas — at goingoutguide.com. Petworth area Red Derby 3718 14th St. NW. 202-291-5000. www.redderby.com . Red Derby’s annual New Year’s Eve party has an “Old Hollywood” theme this year, according to co-owner Sasha Carter, suggesting an unofficial dress code of “feather boas and top hats” for walking the red carpet. A professional photographer will be taking black-and-white glamour shots. In addition to a free midnight champagne toast, the neighborhood bar will be selling $4 champagne cocktails all night, and every table gets a free bottle of champagne. Dance to swing music until midnight, with the usual eclectic mix of modern tunes afterward. (And yes, if you just want a $5 beer-and-a-shot combo on the rooftop deck, you’ll be able to


Smithsonian American Art Museum channels Nam June Paik

emotionally powerful in three works from the early 1980s, all of them dependent on the narcissistic loop of watching and being watched that is essential to media culture. “TV Rodin,” from 1982, is a small bronze version of Rodin’s “The Thinker,” carefully placed on a TV Watchman, a hand-sized portable monitor introduced by Sony that year as the latest and best hope that we might never be disconnected from the media teat. Like “TV Buddha,” from the same year, “TV Rodin” is lost in eternal contemplation of the screen; but “TV Buddha” takes the drama a step further, with a video camera filming the Buddha as he watches his own image on the screen in real time. This isn’t a mirror, but something else, a phantasmagorical double of the image, with a strange and uncanny power. You have the sense that if the Buddha’s spectral TV image ever went off, the statue itself might disappear. Certainly it would lose the appearance of consciousness which Paik’s clever arrangement has imputed to it. “Stone Buddha/Burnt TV,” also from 1982, confronts that dark possibility. In this case, the TV has been all but destroyed, melted and distorted, while the small stone Buddha statue stares impassively at the broken object. The ghost in the machine has fled, leaving behind simply things, impassive and isolated from each other. It’s easy to see why Paik may have thought he couldn’t possibly repeat this kind of work, why it was necessary to go in “corrupt” directions — celebrating the marvels and possibilities of technology rather than its metaphysical and psychological reality. And it’s also clear why, perhaps, he had no other place to go. Technology is a stern mistress, and Paik was faithful to a fault. He had committed to it early, and that commitment meant racing along with it. And in many ways, the technology he was surveying was disappearing, becoming so much a part of the landscape that one took it for granted, becoming so complex in its inner workings that simple “hacks”—like the brilliant 1965 “Magnet TV,” in which a Georgia O’Keefe like distortion is created simply by placing a large magnet on top of an old black-and-white TV — were no longer possible. “TV Garden” from 1974/2000 shows Paik grappling with this ubiquity, with the way media changes the landscape and our relationship to nature. Placing multiple monitors in a “garden” of potted


If we want to protect deer, we need to shoot a few

vegetation on which they browse. Rock Creek Park has about 80 deer per square mile, the Vassar preserve more than 40. Both areas are near vast tracts of suburban and exurban sprawl. William McShea, a wildlife biologist at the National Zoo, calls this sprawl “deer nirvana.” Whitetails are an “edge species,” flourishing in transition zones where one type of vegetation ends and another begins. Sprawl creates a mosaic of places for them to feed, hide, water and bed. And the people living there have largely removed from the landscape the only major predator of whitetails left: themselves. Humans, along with wolves and mountain lions, have been the deer’s main predators since the end of the last Ice Age. Some evidence suggests that people have killed more deer than all other predators combined. In the past few decades, however, sprawl dwellers have largely gotten out of the predation business. They have plastered their property with “No Hunting” signs. Towns, townships and even entire counties have outlawed the discharging of firearms in the name of safety. (Hunters kill 100 people or so a year, mainly each other, in cases of mistaken identity. Deer kill more than twice that number in deer-vehicle collisions, euphemistically known as DVCs). The result: For the first time in 11,000 years, huge swaths of landscape in the heart of the white-tailed deer’s range are off-limits to its biggest predator. Though vehicles and coyotes kill deer, it’s not enough to keep whitetail populations down in many of these areas. The Rock Creek and Vassar culls together aim to kill about 200 whitetails. By comparison, hunters kill about 6 million deer annually. Say another 6 million die of other predation and disease. Virtually all the deer involved in DVCs die, so there’s another 1.5 million killed (at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion). Let’s be generous and say 14 million whitetails die annually of all these causes. That’s still not enough to keep their numbers in check. Deer biologists say two-thirds of does need to die annually in any area to stabilize the herd. The Vassar cull would use sharpshooters, just like the one it conducted in 2010, in which 65 deer were killed. Rock Creek Park’s cull would use sharpshooters and bow hunters to initially kill 157 deer. People who oppose culling deer put forth all sorts of arguments as to why it wouldn’t work. Two relate to the


Why Japanese life is good

slows in America, companies can discharge workers and break links with suppliers relatively easily, but Japanese companies cannot. Japan and other rapid later-developers rationally chose not to reinvent the wheel but, rather, to borrow and buy technology. Schools and universities were designed to teach lessons from advanced countries, rather than to foster independent analysis and creativity. Once Japan caught up with the West’s technology, it was not easy to transform educational goals from learning to creativity and analysis. Even when Japan became one of the world leaders in technology, it lagged others in creativity. After World War II, Japanese industrial firms made special efforts to gain a reputation for high quality and to compete globally. In contrast, the country’s financial system promoted savings at home, kept foreign banks out and did not seek to expand abroad. When growth at home slowed in the 1990s, Japanese financial firms were unprepared and found it difficult to compete in international markets. Perhaps the most difficult transition in Japan in recent decades is in the political sphere. The close cooperation between the bureaucracy and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 1955 to 1990 rested on the fear that socialists and communists might seize power. When Soviet and Eastern European communism collapsed after 1989, the glue that had united the LDP melted away. Since then, leaders change almost annually, there is no structure to provide policy coherence and no one cultivates future leaders. If the LDP returns to power, as expected, this will not easily change. Media coverage of the Japanese economy dwells on financial news and the gross national product. The international media call the ’90s Japan’s “lost decade.” But in fact Japanese companies were working to adapt to difficult conditions. Unlike Western companies, which are dominated by shareholder capitalism, Japanese companies have struggled to provide benefits to other stakeholders — to employees, former employees, suppliers and surrounding communities. That has meant slower growth but a stronger society. Japanese vitality is far greater than most foreigners realize. Despite having very high labor costs, Japan still exports about as much as it imports. Exports have remained strong even though the yen has greatly increased in value since the late 1980s. And financial statistics don’t tell the whole story. An American friend, returning to the United States after two decades in Japan, said that he is surprised by how many things do not work in the


Palm-scanners ended in Md. school’s lunch line

The Baltimore Sun Carroll County school officials have discontinued use of a cafeteria checkout system with palm-scan technology after protests from parents who said the system violated their children’s privacy. School Superintendent Stephen Guthrie announced his decision Wednesday to halt use of the system, called PalmSecure, and to ask officials to look at other options. His announcement came after a meeting with County Commissioner Doug Howard, who cited concerns among parents who worried about possible security breaches. “It was not my intent to defy the community,” Guthrie said. “As superintendent, it’s been my mission to develop good quality education for the students. Anything that detracts from that mission should be under review.” PalmSecure identifies distinctive palm and vein patterns in the hand and converts that image into an encrypted algorithm, which links to a student’s account. The system has been put in place at 10 Carroll schools since early October. In announcing his decision, Guthrie said he wanted to avoid alienating what he called a “core group” of a few community members who raised the concerns. He said he believes the system is secure. When the system was first implemented, school officials sent opt-out forms and letters detailing PalmSecure home with children, but scanned the child’s biometric information before receiving the forms back. Ten percent of parents chose to opt out of the program, Guthrie said. In a letter dated Tuesday, the Rutherford Institute, an organization that provides free legal services to people who feel their constitutional rights have been threatened, called on Guthrie to review the palm-scan system. John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute and a constitutional lawyer, said that biometric scans are often found in schools and hospitals, but that problems likely arose in Carroll because the school system initiated the program without consulting parents. “Most of the cases we deal with in school systems are parents who were not allowed to consent,” he said. “It boils down to a parent that didn’t know about it and, all of a sudden, here it is.” Howard said he also asked Guthrie to review using an opt-in process. “When you’re dealing with anything with private information and kids, I much prefer an opt-in,” he said. Guthrie said parents must opt out of most school system practices. “The only things we typically opt in to are things like field trips,” he said. “We felt the scans fell under normal school


In Congress, sunset clauses are commonly passed but rarely followed through

told her colleagues back in 2001. She voted yes. Feinstein did not respond to requests for an interview on the issue last week. When 2010 came, Congress pushed back the sunset for the tax cuts to 2012. Now, it seems certain that the vast majority of the cuts will be extended again. The fight between President Obama and House Republicans is over whether to allow some to expire for the highest earners, or about 2 percent of all federal taxpayers. Obama, in essence, wants a tiny sunset. Republicans want none at all. “You can’t do it right” if you use sunset clauses this way, said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The clauses have served to hold Congress’s feet to the fire, he said, but the deadline is too tight. “The problem is, it doesn’t get [Congress] to do anything logically,” he said. “We’re sitting there screaming with hot feet. We’re not doing anything with the brain.” The problem with sunsets goes far beyond the current crisis. Indeed, a look back at the past two years of this congressional session shows that Capitol Hill has become like Alaska in summertime, a land where a sunset rarely arrives. Last year, for instance, the House considered moving the expiration date on the U.S. Parole Commission. This body has now been on borrowed time for 20 years. When Congress banned parole for new federal prison inmates in the 1980s, it decreed that the commission would not be needed after 1992. But a problem arose: Who would handle parole for the subset of long-serving inmates who were still eligible to get it? Congress didn’t answer that question; it moved the sunset. First to 1997. Then, to 2002. Then to 2005. Then to 2008, then to Nov. 1, 2011. By a vote of 415 to 0, the House approved. The date moved back two years. In other recent cases, a sunset clause did perform part of its intended function — dragging an old law back out of the code books, and forcing Congress to debate it anew. Last year, as sunset dates approached for three provisions of the USA Patriot Act, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) used the moment to rail against the law for its invasions of privacy. “We will be having a real debate about how we can stop terrorism but also preserve freedom at the same time,” Paul


William J. Harris Jr., science administrator

William J. Harris Jr., 94, a science administrator and transportation authority who worked in academia and nonprofit organizations, died Dec. 5 at his home in East Falmouth, Mass. He had complications from myelodysplastic anemia, a bone-marrow disorder. A son, William J. Harris III, confirmed the death. Before receiving a doctorate, Dr. Harris served in the Navy during World War II as head of armor design for naval aircraft. After the war, he headed the ferrous alloys branch of the Naval Research Laboratory’s metallurgy division. Starting in the early 1950s, he worked in the Washington area for the National Academy of Sciences and Battelle Memorial Institute, one of the world’s largest nonprofit research and development organizations. At Battelle, he helped establish the Korean Institute of Science and Technology, which played a key role in economic development of that country from an agrarian to an industrialized society. From 1970 to 1985, Dr. Harris was vice president for research of the Association of American Railroads in Washington. He was credited with making major improvements to railroad safety and efficiency and, in 1976, was named Railroad Man of the Year by Modern Railroads magazine. From 1985 to 1995, Dr. Harris was a distinguished professor of transportation engineering at Texas A&M University and associate director of the Texas Transportation Institute. As a leading transportation expert, he was recruited in the late 1990s to the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection. He then spent several years as a consultant, helping to implement the findings, which warned of the vulnerability of the nation’s communications and electrical networks to terrorist attack. William James Harris Jr. was a native of South Bend, Ind. In 1940, he received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a master’s degree in metallurgy from Purdue University in Indiana. He received a doctorate in metallurgy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1948. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineers and held leadership roles in metallurgical and engineering societies. He was a past executive committee member of the Transportation Research Board. His other memberships included the Cosmos Club. In 2007, he moved to East Falmouth from Arlington County’s Rosslyn neighborhood. His first wife, Ruth Laubinger, died in 1977 after 33 years of marriage. His second wife, Elizabeth Dotten Shafer, died in 2011 after 33 years of marriage. Survivors include two children from his first marriage, June Sherren of St. Paul, Minn., and


Robert Samuelson: The Fed rolls the dice

3.35 percent. They could be lower.” From gun control to the New Year. What might doom the Fed’s ambitions? One threat is irrelevancy. Credit is arguably so easy that the Fed can’t do much more. Psychology counts. “What I see among small- and medium-sized businesses is rampant pessimism,” says economist Allan Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon University. “With $1.5 trillion of excess bank reserves, it’s hard to argue that there’s a shortage of loanable funds.” Fears about the “fiscal cliff” — all the tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for early 2013 — amplify this point. Premature inflation is another danger. The conventional wisdom is that inflation will remain tame, suppressed by the large pool of unemployed (who keep wages down) and surpluses in most industries (which keep prices down). Competition works. Top Fed officials forecast 2013 inflation between 1.3 percent and 2 percent. But what if they’re too optimistic? The Great Recession devastated many industries. Companies failed. Factories were shuttered. Investment continues to lag. Beginning in 2009, industrial capacity dropped for three consecutive years, according to Fed figures. Nothing like this has happened for decades. If the recovery accelerates, surplus capacity could shrink quickly. Companies’ pricing power might strengthen unexpectedly. Prices for cars, air travel and other goods and services might rise. For the Fed, the dilemma would be clear. Should it keep its pledge of low interest rates until unemployment hits 6.5 percent? Or should it combat inflation before it gets out of hand? A final worry involves a future financial crisis. The most obvious candidate is the bond market, where a “bubble” is often said to have formed. Bond prices have soared, reflecting the Fed’s huge purchases and heavy demand from private investors seeking a “safe haven” from erratic stocks. But the more prices rise, the greater the danger that they’ve reached artificial levels and are vulnerable to a steep sell-off. Households and financial institutions (pensions, insurance companies) would suffer large losses. Any panic might spread to other markets. It’s seductive to think the Fed can engineer the desired mix of unemployment and inflation. And the motivation is powerful. About 5 million Americans have been jobless for six months or more. The present job market represents, as Bernanke said, “an enormous waste of human and economic potential.” But the Fed is bumping against the limits of its powers. Are potential short-term benefits worth the long-term risks? It’s a


Nine Afghan girls killed by blast

Photos of everyday life in Afghanistan as coalition forces attempt to transfer responsibilities to Afghan troops. KABUL — The blast, outside a village in the Chaparhar district of Nangarhar Province, left three other girls wounded. All the victims were schoolchildren, between 9 and 11 years old, according to information provided by government officials. The provincial governor’s office initially said 10 girls were killed by the land mine, and two injured. But officials later revised the number of fatalities to nine, with three injured. The governor’s office did not say whether the land mine was an old one left over from the Afghans’ war against Soviet invaders, or a new one planted in the current conflict between Taliban-led insurgents and foreign troops led by the United States. Roadside bombs and land mines kill or maim scores of Afghan civilians monthly in Afghanistan. The devices are the main cause of casualties among foreign troops. Take a look at some of the week’s best photographs from around the globe. In a separate incident in Kabul, a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle laden with explosives outside the offices of Contrack, a McLean, Va.-based firm located near military bases used by foreign forces in Afghanistan’s capital. At least 15 people were wounded, most of them Afghan workers at the firm, Kabul’s deputy police chief Daoud Amini said. The powerful blast was heard across the city, sending a plume of smoke up in the air and causing damage to the company’s compound, witnesses said. A Taliban spokesman said the group was behind the attack that targeted Contrack. Also Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a warning to American citizens in the country reminding them to be cautious about their movements. The embassy did not say if the warning was linked to the attack on the firm or if it came as a result of another possible threat.


Irish Prime Minister Kenny to repeat debt relief calls

since been taken over by permanent, Brussels-based figures. But the presidency still plays an outsize role in striking the backroom legislative deals that make the E.U. work, and how national leaders play on that international stage can shape their image indelibly. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark’s charismatic prime minister, has seen her name mentioned as a future European Commission president after this year’s Danish presidency untangled some of the E.U.’s most intractable problems, including a decades-long dispute over a single E.U. patent and complex capital rules for European banks. Conversely, Demetris Christofias, Cyprus’s mercurial president, found himself the focus of unwanted international criticism when negotiations over his country’s bailout faltered amid Nicosia’s turn at the presidency, which ends next week. The stakes for Kenny are higher than most. According to the terms of Ireland’s bailout, Dublin is to be gradually weaned off its bailout financing over the year and must raise 6.6 billion euros in the markets before going cold turkey in November, when the three-year bailout concludes. And while Ireland’s economy is performing better than any other bailout country, its fiscal situation is still dire: next year debt levels will reach a high of 121 percent of economic output and its budget deficit will be 7.5 percent, both among the worst in the euro zone. There are also signs of mounting political unrest at home. The chair of Kenny’s main coalition partner resigned last week over social welfare cuts in the government’s latest austerity budget, and more defections are possible. The death of a pregnant woman who was refused an abortion at an Irish hospital has become politically divisive and could also overshadow the E.U. presidency. Kenny is hardly blind to the problems he faces domestically. Indeed, he appears insistent on highlighting them — once again in an effort to convince Europe that Ireland’s fate is touch-and-go without help from Brussels. “While the outside world may look at Ireland and say, ‘You are doing very well, you are moving in the right direction,’ I have to tell them at all times that our economy is very fragile and this is a very challenging time for our people,” he said. “A break on the bank debt for Ireland makes it so much easier for the country to emerge from the program,” he said. “It is a win-win situation for Europe and for Ireland — that is what it is.” — Financial Times


Tom Sietsema: Give yourself the gift of a break this holiday

to warm up cold hands. A special of risotto ringed in emerald oil trumpets wild mushrooms as much as grains of rice, and the waitress is so nurturing, you want to hug her when she brings the check. Even if you’re alone, you’ll feel as if you’re in good company, thanks to the hundreds of photographs of Washington power brokers and celebrities staring down from two floors of walls. Brunch with a different point of view The red and black walls are better suited to evening, and the light of day reveals a floor scratched as if by a stampede of stiletto heels. Even so, brunch at P.O.V. (get it?) Roof Terrace & Lounge atop the W Hotel (515 15th St. NW; 202-661-2400) is a meal made memorable by bird’s-eye views that are generally found only on postcards. Who else can deliver smoked salmon pizza with a side of the Washington Monument? The drill: $45 buys you a three-course brunch, starting with a pastry basket and a pitcher of eye-openers. Take your choice of mimosa, bellini, sangria or a zesty bloody mary. The cooking isn’t going to make you give up your doughnut routine at the Tabard Inn, but like a hot dog roasted on a campfire, even a merely pleasant short rib hash topped with a fried egg tastes better in view of the view. Last-minute gifts The District’s youthful Union Market gets tastier by the week. One of the freshest attractions at the “urban village” is Salt & Sundry (1309 Fifth St. NE; 202-556-1866), a boutique source for tableware, linens and home accessories collected by local food scribe Amanda McClements. Warning: A casual look-see can turn into a triple-digit splurge. But I really did need something to jazz up my next batch of mulled cider (to the rescue: Spiced Apple syrup from Morris Kitchen in Brooklyn), and I was running low on matches (Good Dog Match Co.’s yellow box makes an adorable kitchen companion). Open Wednesday through Sunday, Salt & Sundry is host-gift heaven. The next six people who invite me over are going to get a handsome oval plate with a pig drawing in the center — unless, of course, I decide to serve six people myself. Spend $75, and you get a snazzy burlap bag inked with the store’s logo. That wisp of a taste maker behind the counter is McClements, happy to ring you up.


Voyager spacecraft are still making discoveries 35 years after their launch

have been at a steady intensity since then. We may now, in fact, be seeing for the first time the intensity of the cosmic rays from outside, even though we’re not outside yet. What does this discovery mean? It really is a new area. It’s a surprise, like so many things with Voyager. When we manage to get there, we find out our ideas were somewhat right but almost always incomplete. This is one of those incompletes. Now what’s ahead, of course, is finding how long is this highway and how far do we have to go to actually get to interstellar space. Based on past experience, I think it would be two or three more years before we actually cross the highway. We are just learning what it’s like in the very outer reaches of our solar bubble, on our way to interstellar space. In the 35 years you’ve been working this mission, the two spacecraft have traveled more than 100 times the distance from the Earth to the sun. Which of the many memorable milestones really stick with you? The Jupiter flyby in 1979. That was the first for Voyager 1 and 2 both. First of all, we saw the great red spot was this huge storm system. Then we suddenly realized it was just the largest of dozens of huge storms. Another big discovery at Jupiter was the volcanic activity on Io. Before Voyager, the only known active volcanoes in the solar system were here on Earth. And here was a moon with 10 times the volcanic activity of the entire Earth. How do you explain the durability of the two spacecraft? Three things. The first is the power supply, which uses radioactive decay with an 88-year half-life. The other key was Jupiter, which has strong radiation. We had to [shield] the electronics. Radiation is a form of rapid aging. So having made the system survive that rapid aging, it can survive the much slower aging going on normally. The third thing is, we had redundant systems for most of the spacecrafts’ systems. We had two transmitters, two computers, so as things wore out, we could switch to the second system. What are you most proud of with Voyager? So many things. People often tell me the missions inspired them in their own technical work. And there is no other mission making fundamental discoveries after 35 years.


Medical Mysteries: Cerebral palsy proves not to be the cause of boy’s decline

neurologist if she wanted to talk further. When DeWitt got home, she began researching the causes of ataxia, typing Jack’s symptoms into a search engine. What she found was heart-stopping. “We read down that list and it kind of clicked,” she recalled. The truth Jack’s symptoms were consistent with a rare, degenerative genetic disorder most often seen in those of European descent called Friedreich’s ataxia, or FA. It was, Green said later, the diagnosis uppermost in her mind. First described by a German physician in the mid-19th century, the disease often begins in childhood and causes neurological problems, chiefly difficulty walking, as the nerves of the spinal cord degenerate along with the part of the brain that controls balance and movement. FA occurs when a person inherits two defective FXN genes, one from each parent, who usually shows no symptoms. Some FA patients develop heart disease or diabetes; cognitive functions are not affected. In 1996, an international research team identified the defective gene and scientists developed a genetic test for it. Many of those affected show symptoms between the ages of 5 and 15, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, although some people do not develop the disease until well into adulthood and others are diagnosed as toddlers. It is estimated that one in 50,000 Americans has FA; the average life expectancy is about 38 years. Although there is no effective treatment, supportive therapies can help patients delay the loss of motor functions. “We tried to balance between the worry and fear and knowing that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” DeWitt recalled. Two weeks after seeing Green, a pediatric neurologist ordered the genetic test for FA. And because Jack was troubled by a new symptom — a racing heartbeat — he saw a pediatric cardiologist who diagnosed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle that can result in sudden death. The genetic test confirmed the family’s worst fears: Jack had a severe form of FA, an illness that his mother said “has no treatment or cure and that robs him of his abilities and his future.” Two years after his diagnosis, his parents remain hopeful that a treatment will emerge in Jack’s lifetime. DeWitt said she knows of no other cases in her family or her husband’s. Jack’s younger brother has been tested; he, like his parents, is a carrier, as is one in every


Adam Lanza’s rampage leaves burning questions: Why?

Families and friends grieve for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., amid a renewed debate about gun control laws. Why did he do it? That’s what we need to know. Because it’s got to be out there, the key, the one piece that explains how on earth Adam Lanza could kill his own mother, then unleash one of the bloodiest attacks in recent memory on a school full of little kids. We learned from a law enforcement official last week that Lanza had been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a condition associated with a mild form of autism. “Ah-ha!” too many people said. The autism community (and it’s a big one — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated this year that one in 88 kids in America has been diagnosed with autism or an autism-related disorder) recoiled. “I was dismayed because, of course, I don’t want people to be afraid of my child and his diagnosis,” said Lynne Lotenberg, who lives in Arlington and has a 13-year-old son on the autism spectrum. She saw all the headlines and commentary about how autistic kids lack empathy and emotion. It sounded harsh — and wrong. “They are capable of caring deeply, [but] they don’t express it in a typical way,” Lotenberg explained. And although it’s difficult to generalize about all the traits of someone with autism, violence is rarely one of the defining characteristics, Lotenberg and a lot of medical experts agree. “The bottom line is [our organization] has been around for more than 30 years — that’s about 11,000 days — and we have never seen anything like this,” said Ian Paregol, executive director of Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children in Montgomery County. “There’s no link between planned violence and that kind of diagnosis.” Autistic children, in the midst of incidents, typically turn inward and retreat from people, or harm themselves, Paregol said. But a Maryland woman who wrote to me about her child offered her own version of “why.” “As soon as we heard the news of [the] shooting, my husband and I looked at each other and said: ‘How much do you want to bet that kid had autism?’ “Like the Lanzas, we are parents of two grown sons; the older one being independent and successful, while the younger one is on the autism spectrum,” she wrote. “Like the shooter,


Federal Faces: Benton D. McGee

Benton D. McGee Supervisory Hydrologist, Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey Best known for: Thanks to a new application developed by Benton McGee, officials at the U.S. Geological Survey can record the precise time a storm tide arrives, how ocean and inland water levels change during a storm, the depth of the storm tide throughout the storm and how long it takes for water to recede. Ben McGee developed a new application that tracks storm surges and flooding from hurricanes. (Courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey) This real-time picture is beneficial to federal, state and local emergency preparedness officials, emergency responders, scientists and researchers. The sensors capture critical data that are used to assess storm damage, including knowing about which buildings are flooded and to what depths. The data also help officials better coordinate flood-response activities in affected areas and evaluate and improve structures such as buildings, bridges and levees. The information is also used to improve computer models that forecast future coastal inundation and prepare storm tide warnings. Before the use of this sensor, there were limited data available to study the effects of storm surge. Since 2005, the Geological Survey has deployed the sensors during 10 hurricanes occurring along the Gulf Coast and the East Coast. For Hurricane Sandy, which registered a record storm surge, the agency deployed more than 150 sensors from the Chesapeake Bay to Massachusetts. Government work: Motivation for service: “ Biggest challenge: Quote: “ — From the Partnership for Public Service for Public Service For a full profile, go to The Fed Page at washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-government.


Guangdong party secretary replaced

HONG KONG— The changes in China’s provincial leadership follow the unveiling in November of the Politburo’s Standing Committee, China’s highest decision-making body. Wang, 57, was overlooked for promotion to the standing committee, but he is still expected to be appointed to a senior post in the central government. Wang oversaw a tumultuous period of economic change and labor activism in the populous southern Chinese province, adjacent to Hong Kong, where he took over as party secretary in 2007. He responded to a wave of wildcat strikes in Guangdong in the summer of 2010 by pushing for negotiations with the young workers rather than a crackdown, as had been the pattern in the past. Hu, 49, a former construction worker, is part of the so-called sixth generation of leaders and is expected to join the standing committee in 2017. Many analysts have identified him as a front-runner to replace Xi Jinping as the country’s president in 2022. His appointment underlines the importance of Guangdong, a laboratory for economic reform since the country began the journey to a market economy three decades ago. This was reinforced earlier this month with a visit by Xi, China’s new party chief, to the province, where he endorsed the reforms started by the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping three decades ago. Unlike many of China’s leaders who are the children of former leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, Hu’s family had a harder childhood. He walked 8 miles to school in his native Hubei. Before he was party chief in the fast-growing province of Inner Mongolia, Hu was the most powerful official in Tibet between 1988 and 1992. Just over a year ago, Wang’s diplomatic skills were tested when the rebellious villagers of Wukan withstood an 11-day siege by local police after protesting against land grabs by corrupt local officials. He dispatched a trusted lieutenant to defuse the crisis and paved the way for village elections in March. Both episodes highlighted what Wang referred to as steering the more questioning younger generation of his province rather than directing them. Shen Yachuan, editor of Southern Weekly, a respected local magazine, said in a blog post Tuesday: “His capability to deal with crisis can be hardly matched among officials above the provincial level.” However, Shen went on to criticize the crackdown on the traditionally feisty local media during Wang’s tenure as party secretary. His post was subsequently deleted.


U.S. and China talk trade in a time of political flux

talks this week, the latest annual session of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, comes with both nations undergoing political transition. President Obama approaches a second term focused on domestic fiscal issues and with his administration’s top economic posts in flux: Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk are set to leave, and Rebecca Blank is serving as Commerce Secretary on an acting basis since the resignation in June of former secretary John Bryson. On the Chinese side, Vice Premier Wang Qishan will be making his last trip as China’s chief contact with the United States on financial and trade policy, after nearly five years in that role. He has been promoted in the Communist Party’s Politburo, put in charge of anti-corruption efforts. His successor won’t be announced until March. Because of the turnover in both countries, the latest round of talks was almost postponed. Further lowering expectations is an increasingly complicated global and regional landscape. China’s economic growth has slowed, showing the downside of its dependence on exports to the United States and, more significantly, to Europe, where many countries have fallen back into recession. That has emboldened some in China to push for a faster economic opening, but there are strongcounterarguments in an unresolved debate about how much economic control the Communist Party should surrender. The Obama administration’s “pivot” toward Asia is regarded with suspicion, as a ploy to contain China’s influence; Beijing also has complained about Washington’s aggressive use of the WTO and other methods to prosecute trade complaints. Although Chinese direct investment in the United States is expected to set a record in 2012, a tense U.S. election season saw China criticized frequently as an economic rival. The actions of Chinese companies such as telecommunications giant Huawei and alternative energy firms have come under close scrutiny, and some investments have been rejected on national security grounds. Although Wang has been considered a constructive figure, in close touch with Geithner and others, it may be several months before the new Chinese government’s direction becomes clear, said John Frisbie, president of the U.S.-China Business Council. “They are in an interim period where their political leadership has been announced . . . but they have not done the government transition,” Frisbie said. “They are actively discussing economic reform. It is unclear if they will address the types of issues our members are encountering.”


John A. Hager, Air Force colonel

John A. Hager, 76, a retired Air Force colonel and Vietnam War veteran who as a young officer developed a safety-enhancing fuel additive for military aircraft, died Dec. 12 at a hospital in Houston. His death, from acute leukemia, was confirmed by his wife, Sara Hager. He was a resident of Oak Hill in Fairfax County. Col. Hager served in the Air Force for 22 years. At 25, he developed an anti-icing substance for jet fuel that was used to help prevent malfunctions at high altitudes, his wife said. In 1961, a group of engineering societies recognized that innovation as an outstanding achievement in the field. In addition to his service in Vietnam, from 1967 to 1968, Col. Hager worked on military programs involving supersonic reconnaissance. He was stationed at the Pentagon in the office of the defense secretary in the 1970s and was assigned to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board at the time of his retirement in 1981. Col. Hager later worked in the private sector for firms including the AAI Corp., Honeywell and Alliant Techsystems. An expert on international trade and offsets, he served on advisory panels to NATO and other defense organizations. At the time of his death, he was a consultant for the Munitions Industrial Base Task Force, a trade association. John Allen Hager was born in Peytona, W.Va. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from West Virginia University in Morgantown in 1957, a master’s degree in operations research from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., in 1967 and a doctorate in economics and finance from the University of Southern California in 1975. His military decorations included the Bronze Star Medal and the Air Force Commendation Medal. Survivors include his wife of 50 years, Sara Murro Hager of Oak Hill; a son, Robert Hager of McLean; a sister, Phyllis King of Ripley, W.Va.; a brother, Bradley Hager of Purcellville; and three granddaughters. — Emily Langer


Many insider attacks in Afghanistan stem from personal motives, data suggest

The Taliban has billed a rash of insider attacks targeting international troops in Afghanistan as an effective battlefield strategy, but detailed data disclosed recently by the U.S. military suggest that the largest percentage of such incidents probably stemmed from personal motives rather than enemy infiltration. Of the 79 insider attacks from May 2007 to September 2012, military investigators found that 38 percent were likely to have been triggered by personal motives; 6 percent were suspected cases of enemy infiltration; and 14 percent were attributed to co-option, in which insurgents persuaded a member of the security forces to help carry out an attack. The cause of 38 percent of the cases was unknown or still under investigation. The data on attacks by Afghan security personnel or military interpreters were included in a Pentagon report to Congress on operations in Afghanistan that was released last week. After a sharp uptick in the number of “green on blue” attacks in the summer, the U.S. military temporarily suspended joint patrols. At least 116 NATO troops have been killed in insider attacks since 2007, including 51 this year. U.S. officials say they remain focused on enhancing training and security procedures to mitigate what they see as an enduring threat. As of Oct. 13, insider attacks accounted for 21 percent of NATO combat deaths in Afghanistan this year, an all-time high since the military started tracking such incidents in 2007. Photos of everyday life in Afghanistan as coalition forces attempt to transfer responsibilities to Afghan troops. “I would be very loath to say that it’s a problem that’s been solved,” a senior defense official said last week, briefing journalists on the Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan, which is issued twice a year. “It’s a problem we will continue to address.” The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity per department protocol, said that regardless of the motive behind insider attacks, “they were all used by the Taliban as part of their narrative.” The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan has developed several initiatives to combat the threat, increased its emphasis on cultural sensitivity and established a “guardian angel” system in which designated American troops watch over their comrades during meetings and patrols with Afghans. An Oct. 12 Army draft handbook on the insider threat in Afghanistan summarized a handful of cases in which Afghans opened fire on their foreign allies, providing a rare


Civilian analysts gained Petraeus’s ear while he was commander in Afghanistan

year. The private event, held at the Newseum in Washington, also drew executives from defense contractors who fund the institute. “What the Kagans do is they grade my work on a daily basis,” Petraeus said, prompting chortles from the audience. “There’s some suspicion that there’s a hand up my back, and it makes my lips talk, and it’s operated by one of the Doctors Kagan.” Stumping for troop surges Before the Iraq war hit rock bottom, the Kagans were little-known academics with doctorates in military history from Yale University who taught at West Point. He specialized in the Soviets, she in the ancient Greeks and Romans. In 2005, Fred Kagan jumped to the American Enterprise Institute and joined the fractious debate over the Iraq war, arguing against the Bush administration’s planned troop withdrawals. The following year, as sectarian violence engulfed the country, he convened a strategy session at the institute aimed at developing a way to win the war. His follow-on research, conducted with his wife and retired Gen. Jack Keane, the former vice chief of staff of the Army, provided the strategic underpinning for the troop surge Bush approved in January 2007. After Obama was elected, he made clear that his strategic priority was Afghanistan. The Kagans soon shifted focus. In March 2009, they co-wrote an op-ed in the New York Times that called for sending more forces to Afghanistan. When Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal assumed command of the war that summer, he invited several national security experts to help draft an assessment of the conflict for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. The 14-member group included experts from several Washington think tanks. Among them were the Kagans. The members, who were not paid by the military, stayed in Kabul for six weeks in an advisory role modeled after a similar team Petraeus convened in 2007 to evaluate the war in Iraq. The Afghan assessment struck an alarming tone The Kagans should have been thrilled, but they soon grew concerned. They thought McChrystal’s headquarters was not providing enough information to them about the state of the war. The military began to slow-roll their requests to visit Afghanistan. In early 2010, they wrote an e-mail to McChrystal, copying Petraeus, that said they “were coming to the conclusion that the campaign was off track and that it was not going to be successful,” Fred Kagan said. To some senior staff members in


Tuberculosis case reported at UMBC

Officials at the University of Maryland Baltimore County have a sent a letter to students and faculty confirming that someone on campus has been diagnosed with tuberculosis. The letter did not say if it was a student or faculty member who was infected, or whether the person contracted the disease on campus or somewhere else. UMBC and Baltimore County health officials, who are also working on the case, declined to give further details about the victim, citing privacy concerns. Tuberculosis is an airborne disease in the lungs. It can cause a cough, chest pain, bloody mucus, weakness, weight loss, chills, fever and night sweats. The health services office at UMBC worked with the Baltimore County Department of Health to isolate and treat the infected person. The health department is conducting an investigation to determine how many people may have been exposed. They are also notifying anyone who may have been in contact with the person so they can also be tested. The letter said that tuberculosis is “difficult to contract through typical campus life” and that infection usually requires “prolonged, sustained, close contact with an infected individual.” Students and faculty should not be concerned about contracting the disease, said Monique Lyle, a spokeswoman with the Baltimore County Department of Health. “There is a very low potential for risk to the general campus community,” she said. Lyle said it is not known if the person contracted the disease on campus. “We are not aware of where the person contracted TB,” she said. andrea.walker@baltsun.com twitter.com/ankwalker


The next secretary of defense: What a woman would add

than “assigned” to combat units), but their lack of official combat experience has the potential to hold back their careers. From the D.C. police department to the Supreme Court and the International Monetary Fund, more and more institutions in the nation’s capital are seeing women take the lead. The ACLU suit adds to other complaints about this issue. In May, two reservists filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court, saying the exclusions on women had restricted their earnings, promotions and retirement benefits. The same month, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D- N.Y.) introduced legislation that would encourage the “repeal of the Ground Combat Exclusion policy” for women in the armed forces. Around the same time, the Army began a gradual expansion of women into combat jobs, opening up as many as 14,000 that were previously off limits to women. Finally, putting a woman into the top job could be a breakthrough for recruiting women into the armed forces. Even if the military is planning significant cuts, it should still want the largest talent pool possible for the ranks it does fill. In any field where there are real or perceived career limitations for half the population’s advancement, it is that much more difficult to attract the best and brightest. That’s in part why the Military Leadership Diversity Commission has recommended that the military rescind its policy against assigning women to ground combat units. Of course, these reasons alone are not enough for the president to name Flournoy to lead the Defense Department. He must choose the person he believes is best for the job and would provide him the soundest counsel amid complex global situations in Iran, Syria and Afghanistan. Maybe that’s Hagel, maybe it’s Flournoy, or maybe it’s someone else. Choosing a woman must be a decision based on qualifications, not on tokenism. But if she does have all the right experience, Flournoy’s contributions as a female leader would go far further than just adding a diverse voice to cabinet meetings. Jena McGregor is a columnist for the Washington Post’s On Leadership section. More from On Leadership: The best and worst places to work in government What’s in Susan Rice’s future? Successful women talk about how they got there: from collecting bumble bees to meandering with purpose. Does it pay to know your Myers-Briggs type? Like On Leadership? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter: @post_lead


At Library of Congress’s Stradivari concert, Miro Quartet takes advantage of instruments

The Library of Congress’s annual Stradivari concert provides a rare opportunity to hear these iconic instruments played together by a professional quartet. These instruments infuse even the quietest playing with a lambent glow that allows the player to relax and focus on pure music-making. The sonority is uniquely beautiful, and became even more so when blending with a clarinet in the Brahms Quintet. Tuesday evening’s concert would have been more interesting still if the guest artists had also availed themselves of the Tourte bows in the library’s collection, but they had only two days in which to acclimate to the instruments, and learning to handle different bows, even ones much finer than their own, was asking too much. Regardless, the playing itself was mostly very good. The Miró Quartet, founded 18 years ago, has a solid, mid-level career, and its members are all thoughtful and skillful. In Schubert’s grand G major quartet, the group was particularly impressive in the scherzo and finale; virtuoso movements that require the highest degree of bowing precision. First violinist Daniel Ching nailed his frightful licks in the finale effortlessly. The first two movements were less successful. Although there was clear structural understanding, Schubert’s wide variety of accents were treated generically (and sometimes ignored), and there were stray lapses of intonation. The “storm scene” in the slow movement felt careful and plodding, and the cellist broke up the phrasing of his big solo melody (when no one else did). He also played a wrong note, twice, in the Trio. In the Brahms, the low strings brought forth a plummy, dark quality sound that the violinists couldn’t always match, though the overall blend with the clarinet was wondrous. Ricardo Morales, principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra, was a pleasure to listen to; the silky quality of his high notes, the perfect intonation, the smoothness of register breaks and the control of dynamics at the extremes of his range all bespoke a true artist. On what was most likely a single rehearsal, there was less freedom in interpretation than there might have been. But the mysterious Adagio brought the most rapt concentration from all concerned, and heartbreaking ending of the work was deeply affecting. Battey is a freelance writer.


Pentagon begins worldwide probe of day-care abuse

the condition of anonymity to discuss details of an ongoing inquiry. “This is a severe lapse in the background checks system.” Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters Wednesday that Panetta was “deeply disappointed and angry” about the hiring lapses at the base. “He issued a directive immediately to all services to review their hiring practices and will settle for nothing less than the absolute best standards for our military children,” Little said. Senior officials were scrambling Wednesday to learn details of the hiring lapses at Fort Myer and expressed disappointment that the Army didn’t alert them sooner about the severity of the abuse allegations. “It’s a bit of a mystery why this didn’t bubble up the chain of command sooner,” a defense official said Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the tension the case has generated. Army spokesman George Wright said officials initially viewed the probe as a “local law enforcement matter” that didn’t warrant notification of senior officials. He credited Army leaders for taking “decisive action” after the first hints of problems. Wright said the Army launched a preliminary personnel review the week of Nov. 7, after the criminal charges were filed, and later decided to examine the personnel records of everyone on staff. He declined to elaborate on the evidence that led to the 31 suspensions. “Every matter will be looked at on a case-by-case basis,” he said. The employees were suspended Dec. 13. The center where the staffers under investigation worked has been closed, and the children assigned there are now being looked after at another facility on the post, Wright said. Parents of children who attended the center were told about the criminal investigation at town hall meetings in October, Wright said. Fort Myer spokeswoman Mary Ann Hodges said she could not provide further details because of “privacy concerns” and a desire to “maintain the integrity of the procedural processes afforded to employees affected by review of hiring actions.” A Pentagon official whose 2-year-old son attends the center said she was disturbed by the allegations.“This is shocking to hear as a parent,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she didn’t feel comfortable being identified due to her official role. “I was surprised to hear that there was any question at all about background investigations being conducted properly.”The parent, however, said she has been reassured by the Army’s response


Sally Jenkins might not be angry at Lance Armstrong, but in her column she failed to say why so many people are. Ms. Jenkins focused on Mr. Armstrong’s efforts to defeat cancer, as well as the pervasive misconduct of competitive cyclists and the supposedly overzealous actions of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Not discussed were the brazen lies that Mr. Armstrong repeatedly told about his drug use and the threats he made to those he feared would reveal the truth. Is honesty no longer valued in this nation? Integrity is not a variable to be adjusted based on a person’s accomplishments and other characteristics. Without it, all one is and does is suspect. Ms. Jenkins’s assessment was incomplete. Kurt Sanger, Washington


As Mexico claws toward prosperity, some in middle class slide back

informal sector. Paid in cash and off the books, they and their employers skirt taxes and fail to enroll in government social security programs. Ortiz has no health insurance, and she can’t afford to take time away from her DVDs. “I can’t get ahead if I don’t work,” she said, biting her lip and worrying for her daughters. “I’m the one who keeps my family together.” No help for the little guy A few blocks from where Ortiz hawks the latest James Bond movie, Miguel Nieves sells his elaborate cakes, decorated to celebrate birthdays and weddings. “When I was a kid, we didn’t have enough to eat sometimes. We didn’t have our own house or a car,” Nieves said. “We never took a vacation.” But Nieves, 38, earned an engineering degree and an MBA, then applied his business management training to his mother’s recipes. Twenty years later, he has three bakeries and 16 employees. “Now I have a visa to go to the U.S. whenever I want,” he said. “No problems.” Nieves said it is especially hard for small-business owners in Mexico to get ahead. He wants to open a fourth pastry shop and hire more workers, but affordable credit is impossible to come by. His bank offered him a commercial loan at steep rates, starting at 25 percent. Credit card interest rates, plus fees, can top 50 percent. “There’s no financing here,” Nieves said. “I have to save everything myself, and if you can’t save, you can’t grow.” Mexican banks have more than quadrupled the amount of money available for credit since 1994, according to Bank of Mexico, and the number of credit cards in circulation has soared from 6 million to 25 million in the past decade. But economists say access to affordable credit remains one of the biggest impediments to growth. In response, the banks — mostly foreign-owned — say Mexican courts are dysfunctional and don’t protect loan guarantees, so lenders have to charge high rates to cover defaults. Nieves said he still has “a lot of confidence” in Mexico’s future. But he sees a business climate stacked against entrepreneurs like himself who play by the rules. He has seen his home town transformed. But he said it is not yet a middle-class place. “You have to be ambitious,” he said. “You can’t be satisfied with what you have. We still lack a culture that says, ‘I


Russia’s Vladimir Putin strikes harsh tone during marathon annual news conference

accused of being condescending toward his government. He criticized American officials for what he said was their lax attitude toward the abuse of adopted children and for denying Russian officials the right to monitor those cases. “I consider it unacceptable,” he said of U.S. officials’ alleged attitudes toward their Russian counterparts. “Do you think it’s normal? Is it normal when someone humiliates you?” Putin raised questions about U.S. human rights abuses, bringing up Abu Ghraib and the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “Not only are those prisoners detained without charge, they walk around shackled, like in the Middle Ages,” he said. “Can you imagine if we had anything like this here? They would have eaten us alive a long time ago.” Russia has been provoked by the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which President Obama signed into law last week and imposes travel and financial sanctions on Russian officials tied to the 2009 death in Moscow of Magnitsky, a lawyer and tax adviser. Putin “sincerely felt himself betrayed by the Obama administration. He feels that Obama didn’t do whatever he could to resist the Magnitsky legislation,” said Georgy Bovt, a columnist and political analyst. On Syria, Putin offered little new but said he felt that Western countries were being overly sanguine about the consequences of the dissolution of the government of President Bashar al-Assad. He pointed to Libya’s deteriorating security situation since the death of longtime leader Moammar Gaddafi and said that Syria would be far worse. Russia has in recent days mobilized its navy to move toward Syria in case it needs to evacuate Russian citizens there. Putin has been Assad’s strongest international backer. But if Putin expects chaos to follow Assad’s downfall, he appears to have different expectations for his own legacy. Every journalist at the news conference received a heavy goody bag emblazoned with Putin’s name — and laden with trinkets relating to the Romanov czars. Separately Thursday, a judge shortened the jail sentence of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, who will now be freed in 2014. Khodorkovsky was convicted of tax evasion and fraud, although many activists say he was actually thrown in prison for his anti-Putin political activities. Asked about the development at the news conference, Putin wished Khodorkovsky “good health” upon his release and said he had nothing to do with the workings of Russia’s court system.


Abe’s election in Japan will affect America’s Asian pivot

Yoshimasa Hayashi, Shigeru Ishiba, Nobuteru Ishihara and Nobutaka Machimura) are the sons of LDP politicians, despite widespread criticism of the LDP’s perpetuation of inbred political dynasties. What Japanese voters want most from their prime minister is leadership to revive the economy. The postwar economic miracle slowed in the early 1990s and has stagnated since the middle of that decade. The desire for economic growth is clearly widespread. The three major issues defining the platforms of virtually all the political parties running on Sunday impinged on the economy: the future of nuclear power, the proposed increase in the consumption tax and whether Japan should join the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Abe’s tenure as prime minister is likely to be judged more on whether he can revive Japan’s economy than on advancing the national security and patriotic agenda he holds dear. For the Obama administration, the good news is that Abe is staunchly pro-American and wants to strengthen the U.S.-Japan security relationship. The bad news is that his revisionist views of history and controversial views of Asia could lead him to speak and act in ways that exacerbate tensions with neighboring countries, especially China and South Korea. On the other hand, Abe considers himself a pragmatic realist, and some Japanese political observers even see in him a parallel with Richard Nixon, who, precisely because of his conservative credentials, could open the way to improving ties with China. It is not yet clear which side of Abe we are likely to see. Can the United States influence the outcome? The Obama administration declared its intention to shift the United States’ focus to Asia, which is concurrently the center of the world’s economic growth and a potential source of long-term strategic challenges. Japan is the world’s third-largest economy, a technology leader, a stable democracy and “cornerstone ally” of the United States; the country is key to the success of the Obama policy. It is imperative that the administration devote the time, attention and resources necessary to forge an effective partnership with the new government of Japan to convert the “rebalance” from vision to reality and to ensure that the United States can benefit fully from our renewed engagement with Asia. Read more from Opinions: The Post’s View: Shinzo Abe gets a second chance to lead Japan Robert Kagan: United States can’t pivot away from Middle East Ezra F. Vogel: Japanese life is good


Michael Gerson: In Pakistan, Taliban makes healers the targets

The murder of nine polio vaccination workers during 48 hours in Pakistan has all the hallmarks of a Taliban operation: coordinated, ruthless and monstrous. The attacks have succeeded in shutting down an anti-polio campaign in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, and other areas. This could hardly come at a worse time in the global effort against the disease. Polio was one of the most feared diagnoses of the 20th century. The virus attacks the brain and spinal cord, swiftly destroying the cells that control muscles. As late as the 1950s, 20,000 Americans were paralyzed each year. But since the development and distribution of the polio vaccine, America saw its last naturally occurring case in 1979. Over the past few decades, this outcome has been nearly duplicated on a global scale. More than 99 percent of infections have been eliminated. The United Nations and U.S. health authorities, with support from private groups such as the Gates Foundation and Rotary International, are pursuing the remaining 1 percent of polio infections into remote areas of three countries: Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. A final, successful push could render the virus extinct in the wild, like smallpox before it. A failure could result in a quickly spreading outbreak. (The suspension of anti-polio efforts in northern Nigeria in 2002 and 2003 resulted in new cases in 16 countries.) In Pakistan, more than 80,000 field workers are attempting to vaccinate 33 million children in a geographically rolling campaign. Teams of three to eight vaccinators go door to door in a focused area, providing drops to every child younger than 5. Others are posted at bus and train stations to cover children in transit. It is impossible to provide security to an effort of this size — which the Taliban has noticed. The targeting of health workers is another reminder of Taliban tactics and ideology. It is a movement, in its various forms, recently responsible for shooting 15-year-old education activist Malala Yousafzai in the head and neck and beheading 17 men and women in the Musa Qala district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Vaccination has been a long-standing obsession. In June, a Taliban warlord declared, “Polio drops will be banned in North Waziristan” until U.S. drone strikes cease. It is a strategy both cruel and typical: the intentional infliction of paralysis on Pakistani children as a negotiating ploy. A collection of Tom Toles cartoons about international news. Yet some blandly


Reporter Austin Tice’s parents appeal to his captors

An open letter to those holding our son, Austin Tice: Our family is longing for the safe return of our cherished son and beloved brother Austin, who was taken captive while working as a journalist in Syria. So many things have happened in the more than 18 weeks he has been missing. We missed him terribly at the family gathering for the feast of Thanksgiving. We are a close-knit family, sharing so many memories and traditions. Now, as we prepare for the joyful celebration of Christmas, we desperately want our family to be whole. Our hearts are heavy to think his chair may once again be empty at our family table; we dread missing his great storytelling and contagious laugh. Austin is the oldest of our seven children. The Tice kids are very close, and Austin’s absence is agonizing. Like children everywhere, they grew up loving, fussing, challenging and, most importantly, supporting one another. Austin is so proud to be the thoughtful mentor and protector of his sisters and brothers, encouraging them to dream big and work hard to make those dreams come true. He has set an example by never settling for less than excellence in himself. He is an Eagle Scout — Boy Scouting’s highest rank — a diligent student and a frequent volunteer, willingly sharing his time and talent to help others. As a Marine, he earned the loyalty and respect of his men by wholly embracing the call to lead by example. Now, as a journalist, he is determined to get the story and tell it with a deep commitment to honesty and thoughtful analysis. This undated photo obtained from the family of Austin Tice, shows American freelance journalist Austin Tice, 31, who has been missing in Syria since mid-August, 2012. home. (Anonymous/AP) As parents, we encourage our children to learn about and understand other cultures; to discover and explore the things we have in common as people sharing a world that grows ever more connected. Austin has traveled widely, always eager to meet and engage the local people. He has a special affinity for the people of the Middle East; he is especially attracted to your tradition of hospitality. He deeply connects with your intense loyalty to family, faith and ideals. A passionate and serious man, Austin has no patience for shallow and materialistic pursuits. He went to Syria to see the truth and to


D.C. house inspires 168 bids in red-hot real estate market

It didn’t look like a house anyone would pay $400,000 extra for. Several walls inside the gray townhouse with blue trim were streaked with water stains. The first floor was noticeably uneven. And termites had dined in front. The big pluses: It was 2,850 square feet, had off-street parking, and was in walking distance of Union Station and the bars and restaurants along H Street NE. Then there was the list price: $337,000. Similar houses in the neighborhood were going for closer to $500,000. Two weeks and 168 bids later, the house — in the 800 block of Fourth Street NE — was sold this month for $760,951 to an unidentified buyer. The sale floored many real estate agents, including James Lisowski, whose clients put in a losing bid. “I don’t think it was worth that finished,” he said, alluding to the house’s distressed condition. This home in the 800 block of Fourth Street NE was sold this month for $760,951 to an unidentified buyer. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) While much of the nation is still struggling to emerge from a historic housing-market meltdown, the District is reliving its boom days. High rents, low interest rates, low inventory, and a flood of new residents in their 20s and 30s are making parts of the city feel like it’s 2005 again. The median home sale price in the District is up 14 percent from last year, according to RealEstate Business Intelligence (RBI). And the average number of days houses spend on the market has fallen by nearly 30 percent, to 53 days. Bidding wars have become commonplace along H Street NE, in Trinidad and in Eckington, among other areas. So have multiple cash offers and sales that soar past the asking price. In certain neighborhoods, buyers once again are snapping up unbuilt units based on floor plans. And more are forgoing inspections or appraisals. Seattle, Boston and Palo Alto, Calif., are experiencing the same kind of scramble as Washington, with offers being made before open houses are held. (One house hunter in the Boston area told the Boston Globe this year that the desperate buyers reminded him of “people trying to get on the last lifeboat on the Titanic.”) Nationally, home prices have been edging up. According to the closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller index, average home prices for the third quarter increased 3.6 percent from the same period last year. Homes


Four Maryland hepatitis C cases linked to infected worker

Four more Maryland patients have been diagnosed with a strain of hepatitis C closely related to the one that a former traveling hospital worker is accused of spreading through infected needles, Maryland health officials announced Friday. The four were patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital from July 10, 2009 to Jan. 9, 2010, when David Kwiatkowski was working there. One patient of the Baltimore VA Medical Center has been previously identified as having been infected with a closely related virus. The five are among approximately 1,700 patients of four Maryland hospitals who faced potential exposure because they had procedures in which Kwiatkowski was involved. The four hospitals are the Baltimore VA Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Maryland General Hospital and MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center. Kwiatkowski is accused He was arrested in July and has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of tampering with a consumer product and illegally obtaining drugs. He remains jailed in New Hampshire.