In our new, more humane economy, karma can be good business

principle: Humane treatment of animals and good business practices are not mutually exclusive. To better explain this, Pacelle has written a book, due out April 19, called “The Humane Economy.” I’ve read it to prepare for a public conversation Monday night with Pacelle and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), also a vegan. It’s an easy, fascinating read about big thinkers, investors and others who are seeking new ways of doing business with less animal suffering. In one chapter, Pacelle documents the rise of plant-based meat alternatives being spearheaded by groundbreaking companies such as California-based Hampton Creek — one of the fastest-growing food start-ups ever — and Beyond Meat, whose products some may recognize at their local Whole Foods. These offerings, among other new energy and protein sources that seek to remove animals from the production process, may signal the beginning of a new, more sustainable food future. Consider: Already we raise 70 billion animals a year globally for food. If the human population inflates to 9.6 billion by 2050, as expected, and demand for meat continues to grow, we’ll need to commensurately increase the number of animals. That’s an awful lot of slaughter, not to mention methane. Thus, protein alternatives may not be merely an option for the health-conscious but a necessity for the hungry. Other futuristic foodies suggest that people may prefer a twice-daily shake or wafer (yes, this comes to you from a company named Soylent) to spending so much time procuring, cooking and consuming food, otherwise known as breaking bread with friends and family. Is there something better we should be doing? In the meantime, what Pacelle makes appetizingly clear is that humane business practices make economic as well as karmic sense. And consumers as well as companies seem to be catching on. SeaWorld’s stock bounced more than 15 percent immediately after its policy announcement. And Google reportedly tried to buy plant-based burger company Impossible Foods in 2015 for more than $200 million. Human virtue, it seems, can be profitable — and delicious, too. Read more from Kathleen Parker’s archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook. Read more on this topic: The Post’s View: SeaWorld’s whales still deserve better Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, Ricardo Salvador and Olivier De Schutter: How a national food policy could save millions of American lives Charles Krauthammer: Free Willy! The Post’s View: Bacteria are now resistant to a last-resort antibiotic


When it comes to squirrels, is it better to join them than fight them?

to attics . . . but some squirrels don’t seem to be bothered.” A squirrel relaxes on a patio table in an Ashburn, Va., back yard in this finalist in John Kelly’s 2016 Squirrel Week Photo Contest. (Photo by Kristy Casto) One way might be to keep the squirrels well-fed with nuts and seeds in the hope that they will be too stuffed to turn to the tomatoes, a squirrel tax, if you will. But even paying this protection money might not work. I’ve heard that some squirrels like to take a single bite from each tomato. In that case, I think a cage around the tomatoes must be the only option. Tomatoes aren’t the only things that squirrels eat. They will eat pretty much anything. “Squirrels like a bit of fast protein, i.e., eggs and baby birds,” wrote Jane Huff, an environmental educator from Kensington, Md. “They are major predators of our backyard birds, especially since they can go far out on small branches where no cat would dare to tread. . . . Squirrels may be fun to watch, and they can be cute, but they do have a dark side,” she wrote. I also heard from readers whose concern isn’t that they’re seeing too many squirrels, but too few. Margaret Snyder lives on a wooded lot in Falls Church, Va. “The squirrels have all departed,” she wrote. “Since last spring I have seen a total of three. . . . What happened? Climate change? Has anyone else noticed?” I get this question a lot. It’s hard to pin down an answer, because reports are typically anecdotal. Do local squirrel populations go through periodic extinctions? “Real changes in numbers can occur, but generally massive changes do not occur unless there is a disease outbreak, like mange, that leaves animals hairless and is thus pretty obvious,” Koprowski wrote. It may be that people are noticing seasonal changes. “In fall, juvenile animals disperse, and so local areas of high-quality habitat can appear to lose animals,” he wrote. “During summer, the heat of the day is avoided by squirrels, with early morning and late afternoon peaks in activity occurring. In winter, the pattern of daily activity leads to a mid-afternoon peak, with avoidance of cold morning and evening temperatures.” Then there’s what may be the most important factor when it comes to tree squirrels: trees. “Most seed-producing trees only produce a


whose concern isn’t that they’re seeing too many squirrels, but too few. Margaret Snyder lives on a wooded lot in Falls Church, Va. “The squirrels have all departed,” she wrote. “Since last spring I have seen a total of three. . . . What happened? Climate change? Has anyone else noticed?” I get this question a lot. It’s hard to pin down an answer, because reports are typically anecdotal. Do local squirrel populations go through periodic extinctions? “Real changes in numbers can occur, but generally massive changes do not occur unless there is a disease outbreak, like mange, that leaves animals hairless and is thus pretty obvious,” Koprowski wrote. It may be that people are noticing seasonal changes. “In fall, juvenile animals disperse, and so local areas of high-quality habitat can appear to lose animals,” he wrote. “During summer, the heat of the day is avoided by squirrels, with early morning and late afternoon peaks in activity occurring. In winter, the pattern of daily activity leads to a mid-afternoon peak, with avoidance of cold morning and evening temperatures.” Then there’s what may be the most important factor when it comes to tree squirrels: trees. “Most seed-producing trees only produce a substantial crop of seeds — acorns, walnuts, etc. — once every two to four years, and so numbers may decline,” John wrote. “Once many seed trees start to reach 100 or more years of age, often they stop producing seeds, and so in older neighborhoods this could start to be an issue as the neighborhood still looks the same to humans; however, squirrels perceive the habitat very differently.” Love them or hate them, squirrels are the canaries in the coal mine that is our nation’s forests. Smile and say ‘Squirrel’ If you’re in the pro-squirrel camp, I hope you’ll head over to washingtonpost.com/johnkelly and look at the squirrel photographs I selected from among the hundreds submitted by readers. The winning entry in the 2016 Squirrel Week Photo Contest came from Pam Lettie, who lives in Clarke County, Va., just outside Berryville. I received a lot of photos of squirrels at bird feeders, but Pam’s was my favorite. I like the way the squirrel is reaching for the feeder. And with the feeder shaped like a top hat, he looks like he’s doing a tap dance. Pam said that for the first 15 years her family lived in Clarke County, they


How to make vegan mac and cheese a comforting crowd-pleaser

almond milk to create a slightly sweet sauce reminiscent of the commercial boxed products often found on the plates of both toddlers and college students. It’s the addition of crispy, salted shiitake bacon that takes the dish to the next level, in Coscarelli’s estimation, along with the almond “parmesan,” made from ground, toasted almonds. “Like many dishes,” she says, “the key to extraordinary mac and cheese is all about the layering of flavor and texture.” At Annie’s Homegrown, co-founders Annie Withey and Andrew Martin began the company in 1989 specifically to create healthful, dairy-based boxed macaroni-and-cheese products but received requests for many years for a vegan version, which was introduced in 2015. As with Coscarelli’s recipe, Annie’s Organic Vegan Shells & Creamy Sauce incorporates sweet potato, combining it with pumpkin to get the flavor and color they wanted. “When it came to our vegan product development process, we decided to take a new veggie-forward approach,” says Christina McCalla, brand manager for Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese. “That’s why we chose pumpkin and sweet potato powders as the first ingredients after organic pasta.” Seeing a creamy sauce as the key to success, Annie’s looked for combinations that would provide the buttery mouth feel that could help a vegan version to compete — or at least peacefully coexist — with traditional dairy-based options. Flying Pig Lab’s Vegan Mac ’n’ Cheese (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post) While it’s true that flavor is a major element when it comes to creating a plant-based macaroni and cheese, texture is often the make-or-break factor for anyone with a strong food memory about cheese, like District resident Erin Longbottom, who switched from a vegetarian diet to a vegan one two years ago. Her Vegan Chili Mac recipe, which took second place at the Baltimore smackdown event, definitely highlights texture. Longbottom adapted some vegan cheese recipes that she found online into a concoction akin to nacho cheese sauce. “I had two things in mind when I went with this recipe,” she says. “One, I wanted it to be from scratch. Two, all my favorite mac-and-cheese dishes involve gooey, stretchy cheese, so I wanted my entry to be like that.” The result, once a spicy homemade chili is added to the mix, is like late-night, dorm-room drunk food, with a little less fat-laden guilt. The success of the Baltimore Vegan Mac ’n’ Cheese Smackdown has galvanized the organizers to start


BSO continues centennial celebration with two new pieces

Kevin Puts (J. Henry Fair) The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra marked the 100th anniversary of its first public concert in February. The celebration continued this week, as music director Marin Alsop led the orchestra in two new pieces commissioned for the centennial season. The program, heard on Friday night at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, was repeated at Carnegie Hall on Saturday. Christopher Rouse’s “Processional” was the more successful of the two premieres, one of 10 five-minute anniversary works commissioned by the BSO. The Baltimore-born composer’s theme, chosen from options submitted by audience members, was a funeral march for Edgar Allan Poe. A solemn cortege in the triple meter of a lament — making for an apt combination with Mahler’s funeral march — the piece is a passacaglia, with a repeating bass line constructed from the letters of Poe’s name, Alsop said. Gong whooshes punctuate the piece at irregular intervals, and juicy dissonances abound. The second premiere was effective primarily because of a video by James Bartolomeo, with many feel-good images of the city of Baltimore. The music that accompanied it, “The City” by Kevin Puts, was pleasant enough but had little to say on its own. Fast, active and busy, the large orchestra traded a full, undifferentiated sound with periodic “drum circle” sections. The work did not gloss over the civic unrest from a year ago, violence that was “required,” Alsop said, to end social injustice. Regrettably, Alsop’s thinking on Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 has not changed much since she conducted it in 2007. Her interpretation was again long on the frenetic and unpredictable, with the weepy funeral march contrasted with a lot of chaotic hubbub. Unrestrained playing across the orchestra forced the woodwinds and strings into problems of intonation and ensemble unity, but it made for an exciting finale. The Scherzo was a little discombobulated, lacking the rarefied sound of the soft passages heard from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra earlier in the week. Worst of all, by trying to wring so much out of the Adagietto, Alsop smothered the movement’s organic development, with the orchestra never playing all that softly.


Many of Brazil’s top marathoners get their start running as trash collectors

of garbage a month, generally at a run. Individual routes generally run between 20 and 25 miles, though collectors don’t cover the entire distance on foot. “This isn’t for anyone. The job is very tough,” Manzale said. Starting salaries for trash collectors run 1,260 reals — about $350 at the current exchange rate. Before becoming a trash collector, Beserra was an aspiring but undisciplined runner who struggled to train consistently. He noticed city trash collectors running every day and thought the job would force him into a routine. He since has gone on to record personal bests of 31 minutes 25 seconds in the 10k and 2:33:13 for the marathon — not world-class times but ones that would make nearly every other serious runner on the planet proud. Beserra is also an accomplished trail runner and ultra marathoner with an impressive string of top finishes throughout Brazil. Beserra echoed da Silva’s comments about how the demands of high-speed trash collecting help develop the mental fortitude required of any successful distance runner. The end is always the hardest, Beserra said. That goes for his daily shifts as well as the home stretch of a marathon. He has run about 30 marathons and has never dropped out. You don’t quit picking up trash because you’re tired, nor do you stop racing. In their own ways, Beserra and da Silva are chasing success in the dogged, lonely manner so familiar to distance runners. Both are proud to have built successful running careers in such an unusual, arduous foundation — the oft-maligned task of making sure whatever the rest of us drop carelessly in the garbage can doesn’t remain underfoot. “It’s a job that’s very important in any country,” da Silva said. “In Brazil, unfortunately, we don’t really place much value, in terms of money or importance, on those workers who do such an important job.” Beserra said he feels valued by the people whose garbage he comes running by to collect. Sometimes they bump into each other at races. Sometimes they see him on the news. They smile or wave or say hello before Beserra goes running off again, and it’s a big part, he said, of the deep satisfaction he now finds with the state of his dual running careers — be it scampering after a garbage truck or bearing down on the finish line. “I’m proud and then some,” he said.


Why should the U.S. spend more on defense?

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) at a news conference on Capitol Hill on April 14. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press) The April 15 news article “Ryan outlines a foreign policy doctrine that’s out of step with his party’s presidential standard-bearers” reported that House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) wants to “build up the military so ‘that it is less likely to be used.’ ” Building up the military by allotting more financial resources to it has been espoused by virtually all of the Republican presidential candidates. In 2014, the United States spent $610 billion on defense, while the next seven countries spent a total of $601 billion, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. China, second in military spending, allocated $200 billion , the foundation said. Why does the United States need to increase military spending? Those who push for ever-increasing military spending should have to explain why it is needed. Raymond V. Rush, Stanardsville, Va.


Space companies feud over what to do with rockets in ICBM stockpile

the International Space Station since its rocket exploded last year, Elon Musk’s SpaceX landed its unmanned rocket on a floating 'drone barge' in the Atlantic Ocean. The landing, the first ever of a rocket’s first stage at sea, is seen as a breakthrough for commercial spaceflight. Fueled by billionaires and outside investors, commercial space has entered something of a renaissance, launching cargo and eventually astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA, developing space tourism businesses and competing for commercial satellite launches. The industry is also reigniting interest in space, pulling off one feat after another. Elon Musk’s SpaceX landed a rocket on a ship at sea, Jeffrey P. Bezos’s Blue Origin flew and landed the same rocket three times in a row, and Bigelow Aerospace delivered its expandable habitat to the space station. And that was all just in the past few weeks. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Now some fear that the government-subsidized ICBMs could upend the market. “We are gravely concerned that any change to this policy could have a dramatic impact on the innovation and investment in the commercial space industry,” said Eric Stallmer, the president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “We don’t want to stop that progress with unfair government competition.” A sale of the motors would change long-standing policy and effectively allow the taxpayer-subsidized government to compete with private industry. “There are a range of commercial firms that are spending literally billions of dollars of private capital to try to innovate our way forward,” said Richard DalBello, the vice president of business development and government affairs for Virgin Galactic. “This private capital entered the market understanding what the regulatory and policy environment was.” If Congress eased the long-standing restriction, it would “essentially pull the rug out from under their feet, and it would cause a ripple effect that would make people think twice about investing in the future.” Orbital ATK, though, said it is perplexed by the backlash. The Dulles, Va.-based company said it has no plans to compete with U.S. firms such as Virgin Galactic, which plans to launch small satellites on its LauncherOne rocket. If granted the use of the Air Force’s ICBMs, Orbital ATK would use them to propel much bigger rockets. “It’s like I have a tractor-trailer, and I’m going to move your box of donuts,” said Ed Fortunato, Orbital ATK’s senior vice president of government relations. “It’s just a


Ethiopia vows to pursue South Sudan gunmen who killed 200 in cross-border raid

Ethiopian leader Hailemariam Desalegn in 2012. He expressed his “deepest grief” over the attack in a televised address late Sunday. (Jenny Vaughan/AFP/Getty Images) ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Gunmen from the Murle tribe descended on a dozen villages in Ethiopia’s remote Gambella province early Friday, snatching children, shooting adults and carrying off more than 2,000 head of cattle. “What we know is that they are heavily armed and well organized, and they knew what they were doing,” government spokesman Getachew Reda told The Washington Post. “Security forces have killed dozens of them, and some of them clearly were wearing military camouflage, but in that part of Africa, it is not entirely surprising.” He added that Ethiopian forces are in discussions with South Sudan’s government and that a cross-border operation is a “distinct possibility.” Although cattle rustling and violence between rival tribal groups is common in the remote region, the scale and ferocity of the attack was unprecedented. In a televised address late Sunday, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn expressed his “deepest grief” over the raid and said defense forces were pursuing the attackers and would free the children. “The atrocities committed by armed militants from South Sudan’s Murle tribe claimed the lives of 208 mothers and children. They also abducted 102 children,” he said. Ethiopians took to social media to express sorrow over the attack as well as outrage that official statements were not issued until days afterward. Several top government officials, including the prime minister, were attending a high-profile African security conference in the city of Bahir Dar over the weekend. Gambella province is more than 300 miles southwest of the capital and is lightly populated, but it is also home to nearly 280,000 refugees from the fighting in South Sudan, where a civil war raged until late last year. The international community brokered a tense peace deal between the warring factions in South Sudan last year. On Monday, dissident Vice President Riek Machar, who has been in Ethiopia, had been expected to fly from Gambella back to Juba, South Sudan’s capital, but his return was delayed at the last minute. Huge swaths of South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, are out of the control of the central government. In the past two years, forces linked to the rival Dinka and Nuer tribes have carried out atrocities against each other. Ethiopia has long feared that the violence would


Post series on police shootings wins Pulitzer Prize for national reporting

as the Islamic State began to claim territory in Syria and Iraq. He saw Zarqawi’s story as a vehicle to explain the unfolding chaos and the region’s recent history. The book received glowing praise upon its publication in September, and it is being considered for a film adaptation, Warrick said. The Post’s Eli Saslow was a finalist in this year’s Pulitzer competition in the feature-writing category for three stories: a profile of a young woman wounded in a mass shooting in Oregon, an article about a teenage single father and a piece about a family living in rural Nebraska a decade after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Saslow, whose story on Oregon shooting victim Cheyeanne Fitzgerald won the Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma earlier this month, won a Pulitzer for explanatory reporting in 2014 for a series on the federal food-stamp program. Among other winners: ●The Associated Press won the gold medal for public service for its investigation of abuses of workers who supply seafood to American supermarkets and restaurants, including the use of slaves. ●The Los Angeles Times, in the breaking-news category, won for its coverage of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. ●The Tampa Bay Times won two awards, one for local reporting that exposed a school board’s “culpability in turning some county schools into failure factories” and the other for investigative reporting in a joint project on mental hospitals with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. ●Alissa J. Rubin of the New York Times was awarded the international reporting prize for “thoroughly reported and movingly written accounts giving voice to Afghan women who were forced to endure unspeakable cruelties.” New York Times photographers also shared a Pulitzer with the staff of Thomson Reuters for photos of migrant refugees. ●The Boston Globe won two awards: Jessica Rinaldi in the feature photography category for a “raw and revealing photographic story of a boy who strives to find his footing after abuse by those he trusted,” and Farah Stockman for commentary. ●Two nonprofit digital news organizations, ProPublica and the Marshall Project, teamed up to win in the explanatory-reporting category with exposés about “law enforcement’s enduring failures to investigate reports of rape properly and to comprehend the traumatic effects on its victims.” ●The New Yorker magazine was also a double winner, under new rules that allow magazines to enter. Emily Nussbaum won for criticism and Kathryn Schulz for feature writing.


At zoos, not every resident is a spring chicken

Selkie the gray seal lives on the American Trail exhibit at the National Zoo in Washington. She’s 43 years old and can’t see. (Mark Van Bergh/Smithsonian Institution) Selkie the gray seal rips a silvery hunk of butterfish in half, gulps it down and looks to her keeper for more. Allie Killam, who cares for Selkie and other animals on the American Trail exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, drops a slippery squid into the seal’s open mouth. Her teeth are worn with age. Cataracts cloud her eyes. She can’t see, but Selkie, 43, slurps the slimy stuff with ease. When she hears Killam tap the empty metal bucket against the edge of the pool, the seal knows chow time is over. She slips back into her pool with hardly a splash. Maintaining Selkie’s ample weight and communicating through sound and touch are two ways that keepers care for the zoo’s eldest seal. She also gets dietary supplements and regular medical care. To make life easy, her exhibit includes ramps and steps so she can “haul out” of her pool without overexerting herself. Zoos all over the world provide special care for elderly residents, such as an elderly gorilla at a zoo in Illinois whose keepers provide human medicine to ease aching joints. Like Selkie, these animals are cherished ambassadors who educate the public about their species. Rob Vernon, a spokesman for the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) in Silver Spring, Maryland, says that through years of work, zoos have found ways to change habitats and nutrition and veterinary health programs to benefit older animals. “Professional caretakers, like zookeepers and veterinarians, at AZA-accredited zoos are passionate and compassionate about the animals they care for,” he said in an email. Dorothy, a 58-year-old Cuban crocodile at the National Zoo’s Reptile Discovery Center. There may be fewer than 3,000 Cuban crocs in the wild today, so every egg she lays counts. (Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press) In the wild, life for an animal such as Selkie would be much different. And, on average, much shorter. A gray seal in the wild might live to be 20 or 25 years old. It would have to hunt for food and dodge predators such as sharks and killer whales. In captivity, some elderly animals are helping to save their species, such as a 58-year-old Cuban crocodile named Dorothy, who lives in the National Zoo’s Reptile Discovery Center.


Alcoholic root beer keeps taking off. I find that hard to swallow.

to “kill the aftertaste with fire.” Not Your Father’s murky origin story reminds me of those bourbon outfits that spun tales of their family’s bootlegging adventures and pre-Prohibition distilling recipes while they were actually buying aged whiskey from a factory in Indiana. Reporters have dug into Small Town Brewery, based in Wauconda, Ill., and heard stories about a father and son home-brewing, and 17th-century recipes passed down from a great-great-grandfather who brewed beer on his ships while ferrying “some of the earliest settlers to America.” (Alarm bells going off yet?) They’ve also heard plenty of skepticism about the brewery’s methods. Whatever its history, the company’s current corporate ties are undeniable. Listed on its label application to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau in September 2014 is Drink Four Brewing, the company that owns Four Loko — remember the alcoholic energy drink? — and Mosketto. And the address listed is that of City Brewing, one of the largest contract breweries in the country, with a capacity of 7 million barrels a year and a client history that includes Smirnoff Ice, Mike’s Hard Lemonade and other “malternatives,” including Four Loko. Pabst Brewing Co., which signed up as the distributor of Not Your Father’s Root Beer in early 2015, acquired a stake in the company last summer and now owns the production rights. For that reason, the Brewers Association doesn’t consider Not Your Father’s to be craft beer and lumps Small Town under the Pabst umbrella with legacy brands such as National Bohemian, Schlitz and PBR. (Full disclosure: I’ve consumed my share of those beers.) Some bar professionals I’ve spoken to about hard root beer say the trend is at, or close to, its peak. I wish I shared their optimism. In March, Not Your Father’s Root Beer got government approval for mass-producing a draft version that is 10.7-percent alcohol by volume — almost twice as strong as the current stuff. And the competition keeps coming: Already this year, Seagram’s released a hard root beer, as did Wisconsin’s smaller Rhineland Brewing Co. That one’s called Over the Barrel. Jake Kovac, left, and father Tim Kovac created Not Your Father's Root Beer and beer recipe, it has emerged into a national force. The brewery is also getting ready to open their first taproom by the end of August. (John Konstantaras/For the Chicago Tribune) FOR USE WITH 4/16 FOOD ONLY, NO SALES, NO


Pulitzer-winner Viet Thanh Nguyen thanks minority writers who ‘blazed the path’

(Grove) I’ve been raving about Viet Thanh Nguyen’s extraordinary debut novel, “The Sympathizer,” since it appeared last March, so I was thrilled to see it win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction on Monday. Nguyen’s book is a cerebral thriller about a Viet Cong spy who flees Vietnam during the fall of Saigon and comes to California, where he continues to report back to his masters for years. It’s chilling and moving — and sometimes very funny. The Pulitzer judges praised the novel as “a layered immigrant tale told in the wry, confessional voice of a ‘man of two minds’ — and two countries, Vietnam and the United States.” Nguyen was 4 when his family made a harrowing escape from Vietnam. In 1975, as the communist army overran his small village, his mother took him and his older bother and walked 120 miles so that she could reach her husband, who was away on business. They escaped on a refugee boat and eventually reached Guam and then, later, the United States. I had the pleasure of interviewing Nguyen via Skype (watch here), and I met him in person when he came to last year’s National Book Festival in Washington (watch here). Debut novelists are rarely invited to speak at the festival, but now that invitation looks particularly prescient. In addition to writing a brilliant novel, Nguyen, who teaches English and American studies at the University of Southern California, is also an incredibly gracious person. On Monday night, when we corresponded by email, and he was typically modest about what he has accomplished: “I’m thrilled, honored, surprised to win this award, but I can never think of such an award as something that I merited on my own. My novel is made possible by the heroic struggles of many thousands of people before me who fought for equality, social justice and equal representation for all, in society as a whole and in the literary world in particular. The novel is also made possible by the many writers, remembered and forgotten, who have blazed the path for today’s minority writers, writers of color, Asian American writers, Vietnamese American writers. It would take a book to acknowledge the sacrifices of everyone who has worked to make this moment and my existence as a writer possible.” For Peter Blackstock, Nguyen’s editor at Grove/Atlantic, the Pulitzer Prize confirms what he felt when he took a chance


Voting prosecutors out of office doesn’t guarantee police accountability

A mural depicts Freddie Gray and the uprisings following his death in the custody of Baltimore police, in Baltimore in November. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) Colin Taylor Ross opined in his April 18 op-ed, “Special prosecutors are not the answer,” that electoral accountability is the answer to a lack of confidence in the criminal justice system’s ability to deal fairly with police-involved shootings. As a retired career prosecutor, I disagree with Mr. Ross: Electoral accountability is not the answer, for at least three reasons. Voting a prosecutor out of office is not possible for an aggrieved community that is a voting minority, and the failed attempt could leave the aggrieved community feeling more alienated. Voting a prosecutor out of office after the fact does not accord justice to the victim of a possibly improper police shooting. And the possibility of being voted out of office can incentivize a rush to judgment by a prosecutor, which is as corrosive to public confidence as a failure to prosecute an appropriate case. Consider the case a year ago in Baltimore in which a prosecutor stated that Freddie Gray’s knife was not illegal under Maryland law, only to find that it may have been illegal in Baltimore, where the Gray tragedy occurred. A special prosecutor operating with an independent grand jury is the best option to ensure a review untainted by the natural identification of prosecutors with their law enforcement colleagues. David Farnham, Parkville, Md.


Teen accused in Metro killing is linked to a second death

occurred late last year, according to court documents. The new allegations against Maurice Bellamy are laid out in charging documents for a man who was arrested Tuesday in the slaying of Arthur Baldwin Jr., a Secret Service officer who was shot waiting for a friend. Bellamy is not charged in Baldwin’s killing, but the documents state that he and the other man shot Baldwin during a Dec. 15 robbery in Southwest Washington. Bellamy has been held in the D.C. jail since his arrest in the March 25 fatal shooting of 15-year-old Davonte Washington. Authorities said Washington, who was on his way to get a haircut for Easter, was targeted simply because he or a sibling looked at the shooter the wrong way. Bellamy, who was charged as an adult with second-degree murder in Washington’s death, is scheduled to appear Friday in D.C. Superior Court. Calls to Bellamy’s D.C. public defender were not returned Tuesday. Court documents filed in connection with the Metro shooting say that Bellamy lived in a group home in Northwest Washington and grew up in Prince George’s County. Police said they traced him to a Facebook page with pictures of him labeled, “SHOOTA MOE, AKA MOE CITY.” Washington’s killing sparked outrage in the city, with authorities saying there was no motive, apart from a glance. The victim and alleged shooter did not know each other, police said. Just months before Washington was killed, officers found Baldwin lying in the 4700 block of First Street SW, according to court papers. He had been shot five times. One witness told police that the victim was in a car when three men approached and opened the doors and trunk, according to court papers. Shots were fired, and the man in the car ran and collapsed. Other witnesses identified the shooters as Bellamy and Charles Sims, 29, who has been charged with murder. According to the court papers, a witness told police that Bellamy shot first, as Baldwin tried to wrestle his gun away. Sims then fired. Baldwin’s iPad and wallet were taken, but there was no cash in the wallet. At the time of his death, Baldwin, 30, had been suspended from the Secret Service after a domestic incident with his former girlfriend. Ming Cardwell, one of Baldwin’s sisters, said the arrest is “like a weight lifted because we didn’t want these people to walk free to hurt someone else.”


Montgomery County Animal Watch

No case reports were available from the Montgomery County Animal Services Division this week. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. “Paws in the Park” Dog Walk and Fest Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Cost of solar energy falls every time the sun rises

your home’s breaker panel, which supplies electricity to power your appliances and devices. (Katherine Frey/THE WASHINGTON POST) Power generated from the sun is meant to offset your electric bill. How much offset you get depends on how many panels are installed and how much electricity your family uses. Whatever the amount is, your household remains connected to the grid and you receive an electric bill from the utility. The goal is to reduce your utility expenses as much as possible. Eventually, the savings on the electric bill will add up to what you paid for the system, which means from then on you’re basically getting free electricity. The average return on investment is 5 1 / 2 years in the District, said JD Elkurd, executive director at Solar Solution. The process starts with a site evaluation. “We go up on the roof. We look at the direction of sunlight, take measurements of the space, see obstacles like air conditioners, vents, ducts, compressors and skylights. Then we know where everything is, how many panels can fit, and we can set them to maximize sun exposure,” Elkurd said. Tax breaks and other incentives reduce the cost of electricity and cover a large portion of a system’s cost. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) “People assume solar panels have to be on your roof, but they can be on an adjacent structure,” said Chris Pierce, who lives on Capitol Hill. “Our roof is slate, which can’t accommodate panels. But the garage is shingled, and Solar Solution said we could put up 18. They made a computerized drawing on the spot to show us what it would look like.” Installers told Northwest resident Greg Crist that based on the sun’s position, a porch would be ideal for panels. So as part of a house renovation, he added a front porch and 13 panels were installed on it. The navy blue, 250-watt, 3-by-5-foot glass panels are manufactured in the United States, China and Mexico. The aluminum racking system Solar Solution uses is made in North Carolina and California. California-made micro-inverters attached to the back of each panel convert the solar energy from a DC current to AC so that the electricity can be used in your home. Panels and micro-inverters have 25-year warranties. Incentives to purchase Tax breaks and other incentives reduce the cost of electricity and cover a large portion of a system’s cost. “That’s why


The benefits of solar energy can vary depending on where you live

There are plenty of incentives for homeowners in suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia who want to delve into solar. (istockphoto) While the landscape for residential solar is slightly different in the Washington region outside the District, there are plenty of incentives for homeowners in suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia who want to delve into the technology, experts say. There is a large gap between the number of solar installations in Maryland and Virginia, according to Ben Delman, communications manager of Community Power Network, a national group which advocates for locally owned renewable energy. That’s largely because Virginia has some roadblocks for consumers, he said. “Maryland has made investments into its solar industry through its residential and commercial grants and renewable portfolio standard. In contrast, Virginia makes it difficult for homeowners to go solar,” Delman said. Virginia “has not made similar investments and has deferred to monopoly utility interests by imposing punitive charges for large residential systems, set an arbitrary limit of 1 percent on solar generation in the state, and limits to solar market access to solar by prohibiting solar leasing and shared or ‘community solar’ installations,” he added. “As a response, we are working with solar advocates in Virginia to help homeowners go solar and push for policies that will help level the playing field for solar.” “Maryland has made investments into its solar industry through its residential and commercial grants and renewable portfolio standard,” said Ben Delman, communications manager of Community Power Network, a national group which advocates for locally owned renewable energy. (George Frey/Bloomberg) Still, Virginia homeowners who have tried solar power say they are encountering positive results. Monique Hanis, a media director for Advanced Energy Economy, first installed solar on her Arlington home in 2006 and added more panels in 2010. “It’s actually a better deal today and a lot easier than for us early adopters,” said Hanis. “Since 2006, prices have gone down, there are more contractors and better payment options, and Congress renewed the federal 30 percent solar investment tax credit,” she added. “Today, it’s easy to find online information, and contractors have improved their installation processes. Since investing in solar energy is more commonly done, you can find customers for references.” Hanis said she has saved 30 to 35 percent on her energy bills every year. The federal 30 percent tax credit has no cap per system limit, but it will decrease over


Montgomery County crime report

St., Shilling Lane, Shorefield Ct., Sligo, Town Center Dr., Town Center Dr., University Blvd. W., University Blvd. E., University Blvd. W., Valencia St., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., Weeping Willow Dr., Western Ave., Whispering Pines Dr., BREAK-INS Grand Pre Rd., Justin Way, VEHICLE THEFTS Jaystone Dr., Littleton St., Napier St., New Hampshire Ave., Shilling Lane, Turkey Branch Pkwy., VANDALISM Buehler Rd., Veirs Mill Rd., District 5 Germantown Station Telephone: 240-773-6200 SEXUAL ASSAULTS Churchill Ridge Cir., Whelan Lane, ASSAULTS Briarcliff Terr., Clopper and Mateny roads, Clopper and Mateny roads, Crosstie Dr., Damascus Park Terr., Damascus Park Terr., Germantown Rd., Germantown Rd. and Goldenrod Lane, Grey Eagle Ct., Hilton Ct., Santa Anita Terr., Waring Station Rd., Wisteria Dr., ROBBERY Appledowre Cir., INDECENT EXPOSURE Old Hundred and Peach Tree roads, THEFTS/BREAK-INS Brink Meadow Lane, Carlow Point Cir., Century Blvd., Century Blvd., Century Blvd., Century Blvd., Circle Gate Dr., Clopper Rd., Coral Grove Pl., Crystal Rock Dr., Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Germantown Rd., Germantown Rd., Goldenrod Lane, Gunners Branch Rd., Henderson Corner Rd., Highstream Pl., Hopkins Rd., Maple Knoll Dr., Middlebrook Rd., Neelsville Church Rd., Seneca Meadows Pkwy., Sligo, Tribute Pkwy., University Blvd. E., Wanegarden Dr., Western Ave., Winding Creek Pl., Wisteria Dr., BREAK-IN Meadow Mist Rd., VEHICLE THEFT Great Park Cir., VANDALISM Seneca Crossing Dr., District 6 Gaithersburg Station Telephone: 240-773-5700 SEXUAL ASSAULTS Downing St., Grand Corner Ave., Willow Creek Dr., ASSAULTS Apple Ridge Rd., Beechcraft Ave., Broschart Rd., Centerway Rd., Cottonwood Terr., Curry Ford Lane, Frederick Ave. N., Frostburg Way, Main St., McCausland Pl., Russell Ave., Summit Hall Rd., Water St., Watkins Mill Rd., ROBBERIES Medical Center Dr., Towne Crest Dr., THEFTS/BREAK-INS Airpark Rd., Allied Pl., Barnstable Pl., Booth St., Cessna Ave., Cessna Ave., Cessna Ave., Cessna Ave., Contour Rd., Deer Park Rd. W., Deer Park and Muddy Branch roads W., Diamond Ave. W., Firstfield Rd., Flower Hill Way, Frederick Ave. N., Frederick Ave. N., Frederick Ave. N., Frederick Ave. N., Frederick Ave. S., Goshen Rd., Industrial Dr., Lost Knife Cir., Lost Knife Cir., Lost Knife Rd., Medical Center Dr., Montgomery Village Ave., Montgomery Village Ave., Montgomery Village Ave., Mountain Laurel Ct., Muddy Branch Rd., Muddy Branch Rd., Muddy Branch Rd.,


Organic thinking: Honest Tea’s Seth Goldman on big ideas and healthy diets

— I’m not going to get it exactly right –that genius requires an idea and not quite enough time. It’s great to have that pressure. I hear you on the writing front. Without deadlines, I’d tinker forever trying to make it perfect. Right! We did not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Especially in the beginning, because the product we made 18 years ago was, well, drinkable. [Laughs.] But nowhere near the quality it is now. We’d have an inch and a half of tea-leaf sediment at the bottom; people would say, “Am I supposed to eat that?” Oh no! Did you ever question your decision to do this? I never wavered in my belief that this was worth doing. But I certainly had moments of great angst. I remember having a piece of pizza at a family picnic and finding something crunchy in my mouth: My tooth had cracked. So I went to the dentist and she said, “You’re grinding your teeth. Are you under any stress?” [Laughs.] So yeah, there was no shortage of stress. I felt very alive; I still feel that way. There were days I felt like I sold every bottle – not just every case, but every bottle. And probably knew who bought it, too! I’d daydream: Maybe someday we’ll be able to sell in mainstream restaurants. And that’s what’s happening now. Obviously, getting to work with Coca-Cola has helped us scale up dramatically. We’ve launched Honest Tea and Honest Kids at Wendy’s. Honest Kids is at Chick-fil-A. I don’t know anybody who goes to those restaurants thinking: I want something organic. These are just people looking for hydration or energy or nutrition, and they’re being exposed to these organic products. And then all of a sudden it becomes a part of their diet, and when you think about the ramifications for the rest of their diet, it is really profound. I really am an activist in an entrepreneur’s body. So what’s the Holy Grail for you? Oh, we’re pretty ambitious. The goal never was to just sell healthy food to healthy people. There’s a handful of billion-dollar beverage brands out there, and we want to be one of them. But I wouldn’t define it just as dollar signs. Everyone’s on their own path toward health, and the real issue is, Can we be a partner in helping people get there?


What does Afghanistan need? Some major rebranding, says its 32-year-old ambassador.

tempered by a lifetime of dashed hopes and unexpected luck, is the result of his improbable journey to Washington. He was born in 1983, the youngest of 11 children, in a small mountain village north of Jalalabad. His father was a court clerk in Kabul. The Russians had already invaded, and people had started disappearing, including a cousin. Mohib’s father packed up the family and crossed the border into Pakistan, firmly believing that living in a refugee camp would be temporary — a month, two, tops. The months turned into years, but the family remained convinced that they would return to the home they didn’t realize was gone. “People were proud of the fact we were refugees, because we’re fighting an invader,” says Mohib. When the Russians left, they finally went home, optimistic because the mujahideen freedom fighters were in control: “This was a moment of complete hope.” But then civil war broke out, and the family again fled to Pakistan; this time it was not a proud migration, and the refugees were derided and scorned. So it was a relief when the Taliban — strict, religious, respected — brought order to the chaos. Mohib’s father brought the family back home. Once again, hope turned to fear. The Taliban turned out to be violent extremists, so dangerous that the family decided that their youngest son, now 16, would be safer elsewhere. Boys had started disappearing — recruited by the Taliban or taken to the front lines by force. Mohib was “just the wrong age at the wrong time.” His parents scraped together enough money to pay an agent for papers and put their son on a flight to London. Mohib ended up at a guest house with other refugees. He knew some English; the biggest adjustment was realizing that he was alone and had no idea what to do next. “Trying to understand that you’re on your own was very difficult,” he says. “Afghans are a family people.” He requested a move to another guest house with more young Afghans and started to rebuild. His life changed forever when a volunteer took him to a local community college and paid for his registration. “I still remember the first thing the teacher said: ‘People from refugee backgrounds go off and do wonderful things. They go to universities, and they graduate.’ It looked so far-fetched at the time,” he says. “I thought,


Alleged bomber of Jerusalem bus came from a well-to-do Palestinian family

and well-known clan of eight prosperous brothers, who own and operate a string of furniture outlets and are rich enough to take their young sons for holidays in Jordan and to set them up with their own shops selling clothes. “We are financially comfortable, you could say very comfortable,” said his uncle Mahmoud Abu Srour, who was gathered with relatives in a courtyard at a family house in Bethlehem awaiting the return of his nephew’s body so they could bury him. Abu Scour’s teenage cousins listened to their uncles speak but kept silent. They wore pricey watches, skinny jeans and fancy sneakers. Abu Srour’s father declined to speak on the record. He was exhausted, he said. His family said his DNA was used to identify his son. He said the body was unrecognizable to him. Earlier in the day, the father denied in an interview with Reuters that his son had any connection to Hamas, which had announced Wednesday that Abu Srour was the bomber and that he was an affiliate of the group. “I never thought my son would do such an act,” the father said. “My son did not make me feel, even for 1 percent, that he has feelings or thoughts like that. Never.” An uncle said that Abu Srour didn’t know chemistry, had never done construction or worked in mining — suggesting that he could not have built a bomb and that someone gave him the explosive device. “He had some chickens and goats in the back yard,” his uncle said. “He told us he wanted to be a veterinarian.” His connection to Hamas is mystery, the uncle said. After the explosion, “all the political factions claimed him as their own.” But on his Facebook page, there is a photo Abu Srour with a Hamas flag. Israeli news media also reported that before he died, Abu Srour had given his mother a photograph of himself wearing a Hamas scarf. The Jerusalem Post reported that Abu Srour’s relatives gave out sweets on the street to celebrate his martyrdom in the bomb blast. Relatives suggested a possible motive for the suicide attack. Abu Srour’s cousin was killed by Israeli soldiers during a clash in January when troops raided a neighborhood in Beit Jala, a town that abuts Bethlehem. According to Palestinian news media, Ahmad Abu Srour, 21, was shot in the chest while confronting Israeli soldiers. As Palestinians


Saudi Arabia: The devil we know

President Obama speaks at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press) Should the United States cut its ties to Saudi Arabia? The question emerges amid fresh controversies and President Obama’s recent visit to the kingdom. I’ve been a critic of Saudi Arabia for decades, but despite all the problems, I think the United States is better off with the alliance than without. Congress might soon pass a bill that would allow individual Americans — relatives of those who died on 9/11 — to sue the Saudi government. Some of these relatives have also demanded that the Obama administration release 28 pages redacted from a congressional report that examined Saudi involvement in the attacks. But were the United States to strip the Saudis of the immunity that foreign governments traditionally have, it would make Washington vulnerable to reciprocal actions around the globe. Imagine if the U.S. government faced lawsuits for every one of its drone strikes, bombing raids, special operations — not to mention wars. As for the report, the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow, argues that the 28 pages contain “unvetted, raw material” from FBI files that appears “to implicate people in serious crimes without the benefit of follow-up investigation to determine if such charges are valid.” I believe that Saudi Arabia bears significant responsibility for the spread of a cruel, intolerant and extremist interpretation of Islam — one that can feed directly into jihadi thinking. But as Gregory Gause points out in a forthcoming essay in Foreign Affairs, the story is more complicated. “Saudi Arabia lost control over the global [extremist] movement in the 1980s, and . . . the Saudi regime itself has been targeted by that movement since the 1990s.” After all, if the United States was target No. 1 for al-Qaeda, Saudi Arabia was target No. 2. In the 1950s, Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi version of Islam, a product of nomadic desert culture, was practiced by a tiny minority of Muslims — perhaps 1 to 2 percent. Then came the oil boom, and Saudi Arabia — flush with cash — spread these ideas throughout the Muslim world. Renewed calls for the release of 28 pages of top secret documents related to the 9/11 attacks have turned attention to allegations that Saudi officials in some way supported the terrorists involved. This globalized Wahhabism has destroyed much of the diversity within Islam, snuffing


Why Obama is right to urge Britain to stay in the E.U.

leadership in the world is very much at stake. And because it really is a matter of profound, bipartisan, long-term U.S. interest that Britain remain a European power and thus a world power, Obama is right to take the risk and say so. This is not merely because of the economic turmoil that could follow a rapid “Brexit,” a possibility recently flagged by eight former U.S. treasury secretaries in the Times of London. Nor is it just because pro-European Scotland might once again try again to divorce itself from the United Kingdom in the event of a “leave” vote, or that the Northern Irish settlement might also be disturbed. It is because Britain, outside the E.U., will lose any ability to shape the way Europe is run and regulated. It will lose its voice in the European economic, political and foreign policy councils where it has so often played a central — and a pro-American — role. Britain, remember, was crucial to creating European sanctions regimes in Iran and Russia. Britain backed the integration of the eastern half of the continent. Britain has successfully pushed for European antitrust laws that have made the whole continent a friendlier place to do business. Britain has helped knock down entry barriers to trade and make the European single market real. When they push hard, which they don’t always, the British usually win their arguments — which is good for them, good for Europe and good for U.S. companies, too. If Britain leaves, there is a risk that the rest of Europe could drift off in a not exactly Western direction. As the crow flies, Moscow is closer to Berlin than Washington. Worse, there is a risk that, outside the E.U., Britain itself would drift into the role of an offshore Switzerland, becoming a kind of amoral trading power, one of those countries with no friends, only interests. Many in London already think it’s more important to court China than to invest in NATO or worry about the retreat of democracy. The City, London’s financial district, is already home to a large number of lawyers, accountants and real estate agents who make fortunes helping autocrats hide their money offshore, creating shell companies and using them to purchase, anonymously, very large Mayfair houses. Once outside the E.U., unattached from the central political arguments taking place in Europe, this powerful class of people might well start


Earth Day: Are we at the beginning of a new geological era?

all around us: biodiversity loss, soil erosion, ocean acidification, overfishing, aquifer depletion, rapid carbon loading of the atmosphere and oceans, deforestation, altered global geochemistry (the carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorous cycles, among others), and a thousand other markers of change. The latest studies of climate change and sea-level rise suggest that neither is slowing down. While the future is known to no one, a grasp of current trends in historical perspective helps us assess the possibilities for the Anthropocene. Many changes that the Great Acceleration have brought are here to stay. The extinctions of species, now happening unusually fast thanks to human actions, change the planet’s biology forever. Some radionuclides from atomic testing will be around for 100,000 years. Some of the roughly 500 billion tons of concrete poured since 1950 will remain visible in the geological record for eons. Hence the notion of a world enduringly changed by human beings. Some other environmental changes of the Great Acceleration, however, will prove fleeting. Compelling science and prudent international action checked the loss of stratospheric ozone over the past 25 years, and in the decades ahead the ozone layer should rebuild itself. Political will and technical fixes have also reduced acid rain in North America and Europe, and parallel efforts in China lately have begun to bear fruit. Most important, many changes accompanying the Great Acceleration remain open-ended. That is another way of saying that the Anthropocene, while here for a very long time still to come, is not yet fully shaped. Far from it. Earth Day reminds us to think hard about the future we want for our planet, ourselves and all those who will come after us. The Great Acceleration already has nudged the Earth into a new state. It is up to us to determine its contours. Can we slow the pace of environmental change, perhaps by shifting away from reliance on fossil fuels, enough to make the Anthropocene a comfortable epoch for ourselves? We’ve done a lot since the first Earth Day to curtail the ecological disruptions we cause. While the Anthropocene remains young, and our options remain open, we must do much more. Read more on this topic: The Post’s View: 2015: A year of progress and buffoonery on climate change Jason Samenow: Global warming in 2015 made weather more extreme and it’s likely to get worse Michael Gerson: We need a miracle on climate change


Man charged in fatal stabbing of woman in Glover Park apartment

Police at the scene of a fatal stabbing in the 4000 block of Tunlaw Rd. NW in Glover Park. (Bronwen Latimer/The Washington Post) A 59-year-old man was charged Friday with fatally stabbing a female visitor during what D.C. police described as a domestic-related attack in the Glover Park apartment where he lived. Charles E. Sykes faces a second-degree murder charge and is expected to make an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Saturday. He is a 17-year resident of the apartment, which is owned by a nonprofit that helps homeless people secure permanent housing. Police did not disclose a motive and did not release the name of the victim, saying relatives had not yet been notified. The stabbing occurred shortly after 6 a.m. Friday in a fifth-floor apartment in the 11-story building in the 4000 block of Tunlaw Road NW, adjacent to Glover-Archbold Park. Police said the suspect called 911 to report the incident and then called in a bomb threat that forced the evacuation of 291 apartments. No bomb was found. A police spokesman described Sykes as cooperative during an interview with detectives. The apartment is owned by Anne Frank House Inc., an all-volunteer nonprofit group that helps homeless residents find housing. The group owns 12 residences in the District’s Northwest Wards 3 and 4 and typically offers clients permanent places to live. Some pay up to $250 in monthly rent, or 25 percent of their income. Others pay nothing. “Clients move from living on the edge in danger and degradation to living on their own in comfortable and fully furnished single-occupancy apartments,” the organization’s website says. Sheila Meyer, a co-vice president of the Anne Frank House, said Sykes did not work. She described the victim as his long-time companion. “I know she had been with him for many years,” Meyer said. “This comes as a total shock.” The Anne Frank House contracts with another group, Friendship Place, to provide medical, psychological and other support to its clients. An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the Anne Frank House owned the apartment building in which Sykes lived. The nonprofit owned the unit where Sykes lived


Fundraising ban loophole allows some Maryland lawmakers to take lobbyist cash

Maryland state lawmakers running for Congress and local office are exempt from the state’s ban on fundraising during the annual legislative session — enabling them to take money from lobbyists and others with business before them. State lawmakers competing in those races took at least $33,000 from lobbyists and executives of groups trying to sway government officials during the legislative session, according to an analysis of campaign finance and lobbying records. The donations are legal and just a sliver of a multimillion-dollar haul, but they raise concerns from good-government advocates who say they violate the spirit of the fundraising ban, which aims to insulate legislators from undue influence. “This is a serious loophole in the law,” said Jennifer Bevan-Dangel, executive director of Common Cause Maryland. “The ban exists for a reason. The purpose is to make sure, when our legislators are down there for 90 days, that they are hearing the constituents’ voices above anyone else.” State Sen. Catherine E. Pugh (D), the front-runner in the mayoral race in Baltimore, has accepted at least $18,000 from lobbyists and groups with interests before the legislature during the 90-day session. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) Senate Majority Leader Catherine E. Pugh (D-Baltimore) clocked in as the biggest recipient of lobbyist dollars during the session, with at least $14,600 poured into her bid to be Baltimore’s mayor. She also took at least $3,800 from representatives of organizations affected by legislation. A spokesman for Pugh says she does not personally solicit these donations, although lobbyists are invited to fundraising events. “Many lobbyists make contributions because they want to see an effective mayor serve in the city of Baltimore,” said spokesman Anthony McCarthy. In March, rival Baltimore mayoral candidate Elizabeth Embry attacked Pugh for these donations. Embry’s campaign released an analysis noting that a number of the lobbyists who donated to Pugh testified before the finance committee on which Pugh serves, including super-lobbyist Gerard Evans, who gave her $2,000 days after testifying on a Baltimore Orioles ticket policy. Evans says it’s “ridiculous” to think there is anything unseemly about lobbyists donating during the legislative session, or that it amounts to a quid pro quo. “I’ve watched some of these people literally grow up, and I’ve known them for a long time, and they become your friends,” said Evans, one of the top-paid state lobbyists, who also donated to two lawmakers running for Congress. “Fortunately, Annapolis is


Mitsubishi mileage scandal widens; U.S. pursues data

Japan’s Takata, which have been linked to 11 deaths and more than 100 injuries, mainly in the United States. But scandals are not isolated to Japan. Volkswagen announced a sweeping U.S. deal Thursday to buy back or potentially fix about a half-million cars and set up environmental and consumer compensation funds after it used software to conceal the level of toxic emissions. Volkswagen said Friday that it would take a 16.2 billion euro ($18.2 billion) hit to its 2015 results and slash its dividend to help pay for its emissions-test cheating scandal. This week alone, PSA Peugeot Citroen was raided by France’s anti-fraud investigators as part of ongoing probes on pollutants in the industry. Peugeot says its vehicles are compliant. Daimler also said it opened an internal emissions probe at the request of the U.S. Justice Department. Ishii, the Transport Minister, said he wanted Mitsubishi to look at the possibility of buying back the cars in question, while another minister was quoted by media as saying the government could ask it to pay for any electric car subsidies granted to consumers. Japanese media reported that Mitsubishi had submitted misleading mileage data on its i-MiEV electric car, which is also sold overseas. Previously disclosed models are marketed specifically for the Japanese market, and Mitsubishi has admitted to manipulating their fuel economy readings. The Sankei newspaper said the automaker is also suspected of using non-Japanese test methodology on its RVR, Outlander, Pajero and Minicab MiEV models. Mitsubishi has said there may be models other than those disclosed that violate Japanese regulations. A spokesman said Friday that the company was still looking into those models. “A lot of the potential impact on Mitsubishi is pending whether they find out that something was wrong in cars sold in the U.S.,” said Christopher Richter, an analyst at CLSA. An official at the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Reuters the regulator had asked Mitsubishi for information on vehicles sold in the United States. He declined to comment on which models it had requested information on or whether it had requested data from other automakers. Japan’s Transport Ministry has ordered Mitsubishi to submit a full report on its test data within a week, and for other domestic automakers to submit fuel economy test data by May 18. The misconduct has revived memories of a scandal more than 15 years ago in which Mitsubishi admitted to


Scientific silencers on the left are trying to shut down climate skepticism

The epithet “climate change deniers,” obviously coined to stigmatize skeptics as akin to Holocaust deniers, is designed to obscure something obvious: Of course the climate is changing; it never is not changing — neither before nor after the Medieval Warm Period (end of the 9th century to the 13th century) and the Little Ice Age (1640s to 1690s), neither of which was caused by fossil fuels. Today, debatable questions include: To what extent is human activity contributing to climate change? Are climate change models, many of which have generated projections refuted by events, suddenly reliable enough to predict the trajectory of change? Is change necessarily ominous because today’s climate is necessarily optimum? Are the costs, in money expended and freedom curtailed, of combating climate change less than the cost of adapting to it? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry praises the Paris climate change agreement ahead of its signing at the United Nations. But these questions may not forever be debatable. The initial target of Democratic “scientific” silencers is ExxonMobil, which they hope to demonstrate misled investors and the public about climate change. There is, however, no limiting principle to restrain unprincipled people from punishing research entities, advocacy groups and individuals. But it is difficult to establish what constitutes culpable “misleading” about climate science, of which a 2001 National Academy of Sciences report says: “Because there is considerable uncertainty in current understanding of how the climate system varies naturally and reacts to emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols, current estimates of the magnitude of future warming should be regarded as tentative and subject to future adjustments (either upward or downward).” Did Al Gore “mislead” when he said seven years ago that computer modeling projected the Arctic to be ice-free during the summer in as few as five years? The attorney general of the Virgin Islands accuses ExxonMobil of criminal misrepresentation regarding climate change. This, even though before the U.S. government in 2009 first issued an endangerment finding regarding greenhouse gases, ExxonMobil favored a carbon tax to mitigate climate consequences of those gases. This grandstanding attorney general’s contribution to today’s gangster government is the use of law enforcement tools to pursue political goals — wielding prosecutorial weapons to chill debate, including subpoenaing private donor information from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. The party of science, busy protecting science from scrutiny, has forgotten Karl Popper (1902-1994), the philosopher whose


Bongs, yoga and camaraderie at National Cannabis Festival

good [expletive] marijuana,” said Barber, a U-Md. senior as he took a hit and coughed uncontrollably. Then, people shoved their hands in his face with wadded-up $20 bills, asking “You selling?” and “How much for the donation?” “You can go on Kickstarter,” Barber replied, referring to the money-raising website. He rummaged through his backpack and fetched more baggies. Stephen Barber of College Park Md. rolls a joint of what he called “White House OG” at the festival. (Kate Patterson/for The Washington Post) There was much more than pot to be found at the festival. More than 3,000 people came to educate themselves about the disparate marijuana laws in the District and various states. Pot entrepreneurs tried to find new consumers, and wellness educators preached about marijuana’s health effects. Bill English, 36, a wellness coach, began the festival’s yoga class inside the Educational Pavilion by talking up marijuana’s health effects: “Beyond just being additive medically . . . it can have us be more creative and it can help us with our mind body connection. There’s a variety of things this plant can do beyond just getting people high.” “Whoo!” someone yelled. “That’s right,” English said. And just in case attendees wanted to obtain an actual medical marijuana card — which confers a prescription and legal avenue to buy the drug in the District — then there was the MetroXMD booth. Its huge poster was meant to entice: “Who can get their medical marijuana card? ANY one, with ANY medical condition, from ANY state in the United States. We can legally get you prescribed for Medical Cannabis today!” Over by one of the political booths was Riley Rae, a co-founder of the group DC NORML, a local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Rae was talking with a man from Delaware who belongs to his local NORML chapter. “You hear about the Pennsylvania medical marijuana law? You can’t smoke it,” said the Delaware man, who would only be identified by his first name, Brian. NORML provided a cannabis leaf mascot at the National Cannabis Festival held on the grounds near RFK Stadium. (Kate Patterson/for The Washington Post) “That’s silly,” Rae said. “It’s just another Catch-22,” Brian said. “We can possess it in D.C., but we can’t sell it?” One of the festival’s most popular booths was the one hawking cases of Raw rolling papers. When it


Beer of the Week: Flying Dog’s Double Dead Rise

Flying Dog’s Double Dead Rise Summer Ale in a “crowler,” at left; at right, Old Bay Summer Ale. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) A sure sign of summer for Maryland beer lovers: the return of Flying Dog’s Dead Rise Old Bay Summer Ale, a dry, peppery beer that gets its notes of celery salt, allspice and garlic salt from Old Bay Seasoning. It’s great with a pile of steamed blue crabs yet refreshing enough to drink outdoors on a hot day. Dead Rise is one of Flying Dog’s best-selling beers, and last year, the company introduced a cranked-up version called Double Dead Rise , brewed using the fiery Old Bay variation called Old Bay Hot. Only 15 barrels were produced, and the Frederick, Md., brewery sold out in a weekend. For 2016, however, Flying Dog produced a larger batch, which went on tap at its tasting room April 22. The regular Old Bay Dead Rise is praised for its salinity — almost a “Maryland gose,” if you will. But Double Dead Rise is a much richer, more well-rounded beer. There are flavors of cayenne pepper, black pepper and a tangy Tabasco-like heat that tingles in your mouth after you swallow. Some lemon and herb notes are there, recognizable to Old Bay connoisseurs, but Double Dead Rise is more bold and spicy than the original. Regular Dead Rise is heading to stores, bars and ballparks throughout the region, and the brewery is the only place the two beers can be tasted side by side. Both will be sold in growlers, or in limited-edition 32-ounce cans known as “crowlers,” while supplies last. Flying Dog representatives say Double Dead Rise will be available in here at a special event in the week leading up to the Savor Craft Beer Festival (June 3-4), but details have not been finalized. — Fritz Hahn Flying Dog Double Dead Rise. flyingdogbrewery.com. Available at the brewery beginning April 22. $8.50 per 32-ounce crowler. More from Food: Beer Column


Federal officials investigating Saturday’s Metro track fire

Line, not only on the outbound track (where the incident occurred), but also on the inbound track. Once a cause is known, we will be in a position to discuss mitigation.” He declined to answer questions related to what was found during those inspections, citing the ongoing investigation. D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), the chairman of the Metro Board, said worn equipment probably was to blame. Whether the fire might be related to water intrusion, long the culprit behind electrical issues on the Red Line or perhaps faulty cables, the cause of a one-day emergency systemwide shutdown last month, remained to be seen. The incident, first reported at 7:18 p.m. Saturday, appeared to involve an insulator, and Metro said it was “possibly the result of electrical arcing.” “My overriding observation is this: Whatever it is, the system is old and these fires are caused, not always but in large part, by things that are wearing out,” Evans said. “It goes back to the whole observation that the system needs a huge overhaul from top to bottom, and until that happens, I think these incidents are going to occur.” The FTA assumed safety oversight of Metro’s rail operations in October, making it the first U.S. subway system to fall under such scrutiny. The agency said Sunday that it sent two of its Metro safety oversight inspectors to investigate Saturday’s fire. “Results are still preliminary and information is still being gathered and analyzed in coordination” with Metro, an FTA spokesman said. Saturday’s incident came amid an FTA “safety blitz” that began last month and is ongoing. Federal investigators’ initial findings showed the transit agency, among other things, is failing to provide basic safeguards, such as working fire extinguishers and clear escape routes, to help riders in the event of an emergency evacuation. Saturday’s incident also came on the heels of an unprecedented 24-hour shutdown of the system to inspect 600 “jumper cables” — which are meant to carry electrical current between gaps in the third rail — amid concerns about their safety and reliability. Two days before the shutdown, a fire erupted near McPherson Square ahead of the morning commute, leading to nightmarish waits for thousands of riders. Evans said he saw tweets and news reports Saturday from distraught passengers, some of whom complained about the agency’s poor communication with riders during the latest incident. “My question on this incident


Loudoun Symphony Orchestra keeps ‘looking for the next Beethoven’

He had composed the piece as a “philosophical daydream” while his father was still living, he said. “Now it means something completely different,” he said. “The fact that my own interpretation of it has changed means that it is successful for me.” McCoy said he likes the concept of the composition, and that Snethkamp had done “a marvelous job of creating flow through the piece. “It impressed me that someone so young had such a great handle on the orchestration part of it,” he said. “Even though it’s a big orchestra and a big score, he’s written it in such a way it’s not cluttered.” McCoy said that it was fitting to open the concert with the Beethoven overture, because the competition is the group’s way of “looking for the next Beethoven.” He chose the demanding “Pictures at an Exhibition” as the final piece to showcase the orchestra’s range. The musical suite, composed for piano by Mussorgsky and arranged for orchestra by Ravel, culminates with the majestic “Great Gate of Kiev.” McCoy, who has conducted the Loudoun Symphony Orchestra since 1997, said he made a deliberate effort to bring the orchestra out into the community during its 25th season. The group has also performed concerts this year at the National Conference Center, Franklin Park Arts Center and the Middleburg Community Center. Clarinetist David Hughes, a retired lawyer who helped found the Loudoun Symphony a quarter-century ago, said the orchestra performs at a high level despite consisting mostly of volunteers. Although some of the musicians are conservatory-trained professionals, most members perform without pay, he said. Hughes described the orchestra in the early days as a “ragtag” group that did not have regular practice space. The quality has improved significantly over the years, he said, crediting McCoy’s leadership. “Nothing succeeds like success,” he said. “Once you find that the orchestra is playing well, then a lot of people want to join it. And the people who are [already] there want to play well, so they don’t spoil the performance.” McCoy said the orchestra members are looking forward to performing Snethkamp’s composition. “This piece has so much for everybody to do,” he said. “It’s quite a complicated piece, but everybody’s so engaged with it that . . . they really like performing it.” The Loudoun Symphony Orchestra’s “Orchestral Palettes” concert will be Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.


Investigators of Mexican disappearances hit government roadblocks

the students were seen. Requests for documents languished for months, and an apparent smear campaign began against the group in parts of the Mexican news media. Such delay tactics and obfuscation have reminded many observers of the classic moves of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, sometimes called the “perfect dictatorship.” “This felt like the old-style PRI manipulation of trying to go through the motions of doing another study — which was really needed — and using it just to muddy the waters,” said Daniel Wilkinson, managing director for the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, who also attended. “I think the report’s absolutely devastating.” Among the most serious allegations to arise from the study is the claim of widespread torture by police. A study of 17 of the roughly 110 suspects arrested in the case showed cuts, bruises and other injuries consistent with torture. One suspect reported a plastic bag had been held over his head until he nearly asphyxiated. “They began beating me again and gave me electric shocks, they put a rag over my nose and poured water on it,” one suspect, Patricio Reyes Landa, said in testimony cited in the report, the Associated Press reported. “They gave me shocks on the inside of my mouth and my testicles. They put a bag over my face so I couldn’t breathe. It went on for hours.” In their two reports, exceeding 1,000 pages in total, the independent investigators littered the government’s case with holes. The government’s conclusion, what the former attorney general called the “historic truth,” that the students were burned in the trash dump in the hills above the town of Cocula, has been refuted by the group of experts and an Argentine forensic team that has studied the case, using fire experts to examine the dump site. They did not find evidence that a fire large enough to consume 43 bodies occurred there. Authorities have said that bone fragments from the one student confirmed by a lab in Innsbruck, Austria, were found in a plastic bag along the Rio San Juan in Cocula, well below the trash dump. But the experts have photos apparently showing that police and prosecutors were at that same site the day before the bag was supposedly found and carried similar bags, raising the prospect that evidence was planted there. The report found that police, apparently in cahoots with a local drug


A publisher’s daughter grapples with her father’s abduction by China

Protesters hold up missing person notices for five people affiliated with the Mighty Current publishing house in early January. (Anthony Wallace/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) Angela Gui, 22, a university student in England, and her father, a publisher who lives on the other side of the world, don’t get to see each other as often as they would like. But they spent a happy Christmas together in 2014, and last fall Angela was looking forward to seeing her father again in November. A month before they were to meet, he went missing. Angela knows that her father, Gui Minhai, did some shopping on the morning of Oct. 17. A video camera in his Thai condo showed him returning home with his groceries, carrying them upstairs and then driving away again with a man who had been lurking in his garage. Angela has not spoken with her father since, although she has received messages from him — or someone who claims to be him. This is a mystery, then, and a missing-person story, but not of a conventional kind. Gui is missing from public view, but we can be fairly certain that he is in a prison somewhere inside China. He was born in China, in 1964, and traveled to study at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg in 1988. The following year, China’s Communist Party crushed peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Gui spent the next decade in Sweden, becoming a citizen, earning his PhD and having a daughter, Angela, his only child, who also is a Swedish citizen. As the political climate in China relaxed, Gui returned, and eventually helped establish a company in Hong Kong that published gossipy volumes about China’s leaders. Last fall it had a potential blockbuster in the works: a biography of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The book has never been published. All Angela knew, at first, was that her father uncharacteristically had stopped communicating. Eventually her father’s friend and colleague in Hong Kong, Lee Bo, sent her an email: “ ‘Your dad has gone missing. We’re afraid he was taken by Chinese agents for political reasons.’ . . . That was an incredible shock,” she said. Gui’s car has never been found. Thailand claims to have no record of his leaving the country. But in November, Angela received a brief text message purportedly from him. “I hope you will be fine,” it said. Angela, whose soft-spoken


Walter Kohn, onetime refugee who became Nobel laureate in chemistry, dies at 93

in nuclear physics at Harvard. At various times in his youth and early adulthood, he also worked on a farm, cut timber and prospected for gold. He also served a year in the Canadian army at the end of World War II. With a good-natured demeanor that belied his many harsh experiences, he worked among the world’s top scientists at leading research institutions including the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and Bell Laboratories, where he was an assistant to William Shockley, a co-inventor of the transistor. Dr. Kohn, whose honors also included the 1988 National Medal of Science, was regarded as an expert in mathematical physics, the physics of solids, and what is known as condensed matter physics. Although he was known principally as a physicist, his 1998 Nobel was awarded in chemistry for work that embraced ideas and techniques from both disciplines. Scientists call the field quantum chemistry. It involved the applications of the discoveries and approaches of quantum mechanics to the interactions between chemical elements. In the early 20th century, the novel and revolutionary ideas of quantum mechanics made it possible for the first time to explain the behavior of the hydrogen atom, the simplest in existence. It has a single electron orbiting its nucleus. But the complexity of larger atoms and molecules, envisioned as possessing clouds of whirling electrons, remained for years a daunting challenge. Dr. Kohn was one of the foremost among those who applied advanced mathematical and quantum techniques to the problem of understanding the essence of complex chemical reactions. Much of the scientific progress of the past 50 years entails the manipulation of elements and compounds on the atomic and molecular scale. The work — much of it credited to the theoretical advances made by Dr. Kohn — helped scientists develop and create new molecules and new materials tailor-made for many purposes, including electronics and medicine. In quantum chemistry, the area in which much of his work was done, an electron is both wave and particle, with the properties of each. Explaining the behavior of just one requires great mathematical sophistication. Describing the behavior of swarms of electrons by the same techniques as used for one was virtually beyond the reach of science. Dr. Kohn was credited with finding a new technique for finding a way around the seeming intractability of the problem. Sidestepping many mathematical pitfalls, his theory emphasized the total density of


Three new reasons to stop buying energy bars

Chewy Cranberry, Millet and Pistachio Bars. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) Energy bars, power bars, protein bars, granola bars. Whatever you call them, they’ve taken over entire aisles in supermarkets. When it comes to nutrition, some of them are little better for you than a store-bought cookie, with an ingredient list that would make a Keebler elf blanch. That’s changing, as more brands realize that plenty of consumers interested in grab-and-go snacking also want something more stripped-down; one manufacturer, That’s It, is selling bars made from just two dried fruits, nothing more. Their ubiquity might make you forget one salient fact: It’s so easy to make these things at home, where you can control the ingredients, mix and match to your liking, and store them for a week, ready for whenever you have a hankering. Just about every whole-foods-oriented cookbook I’ve seen in the last year or so has included a bar, so I’ve been trying recipes and returning to the best ones. In the process, I’ve settled on three standbys, each of which occupies a niche and satisfies a particular craving or need. Peanut Snack Bars. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) My favorite bars are variations on a common theme: grains, nuts and/or fruit bound together with something sticky, with minimal (if any) added sweetener. The most stripped-down of the ones I’ve loved are Susanna Booth’s Peanut Snack Bars in her “Sensationally Sugar Free” (Hamlyn, 2016), which live up to the promise of the book’s title. They’re barely more than figs, nuts and seeds, with a little peanut butter and a little flour, and they come together as easily as a food-processor pie dough, albeit one that you cut into bars — and don’t bake. If this is what the raw-food movement is all about, I need to leave my oven off more often. The Chewy Cranberry, Millet and Pistachio Bars in Emma Galloway’s delightful “My Darling Lemon Thyme” (Roost Books, 2015) don’t see the heat of an oven, either. But you do quickly boil the liquid ingredients — brown rice syrup or honey, coconut oil and tahini — before pouring the combination over a bowl full of puffed millet, dried cranberries and pistachios. Puffed millet was a revelation: a health-food-store staple that turns a whole grain from something hearty into something light and crispy. Between the millet and the tahini, that Middle Eastern paste made from


Marijuana companies join forces to expand beyond state lines

than one state because every state with a legal marijuana industry has its own laws on matters as varied as packaging, dosages in edibles (if they allow edibles) and dispensary security. California is the largest legal medical marijuana market in the country, with more than $1 billion in sales last year, but some companies have stayed away because the state is a patchwork of local rules and enforcement priorities. For example, the Bay Area cities of Berkeley, San Francisco and San Jose each has its own packaging requirements for medical marijuana. The Colorado company Dixie Brands has focused on Western states where recreational use is legal or could be soon. To Dixie, a large potential medical-marijuana market such as New York is less attractive because it can be difficult even for patients with severe conditions to access the drug. The five manufacturers in New York are “fighting over 200 patients,” Dixie chief executive Tripp Keber said. New York is more attractive to Vireo Health, a company that calls its products “pharmaceutical-grade cannabis-derived medicine.” CEO Kyle Kingsley, also a physician, would ultimately like to see Vireo products incorporated into mainstream medical practice and regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Vireo operates in New York and Minnesota, two states with medical-marijuana laws tightly focused on patients with a legitimate medical need. Neither state, for example, allows dispensaries to sell products designed for smoking. (Vireo’s manufactured products are vaporized or swallowed.) More than 80 percent of Americans support medical marijuana in some form. Kingsley said that as more conservative states adopt medical marijuana laws, they’ll find Vireo, which has raised $20 million in funding, a more palatable company than those that also have recreational businesses. Pennsylvania, which became the 24th state to legalize medical marijuana this month, will not allow smokeable products. “Most states start pretty modestly and then about 18 months in you get an upward increase in patient participation,” Kingsley said. “In Colorado, California and Washington, it really has been a free-for-all.” (Vireo owns both its New York and Minnesota businesses but is seeking partners to expand into new states.) Not all of the multi-state partnerships are as complex as Strainz’s three-state strategy. More typically, a company might franchise its brand and intellectual property to a partner in another state that follows the same protocols, much like a McDonald’s restaurant that’s owned by a franchise company is indistinguishable to one


He once tried to fix failing D.C. schools. Now he’s trying to fix Somalia.

attended Boston College. While he was in graduate school, guerrilla groups began fighting Somalia’s dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, who was toppled in 1991. Omer felt he couldn’t go back. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, left, greets Somalia’s Bank Governor Abdusalam Omer, right, during a meeting with members of MENA, Middle East and North Africa in Washington, D.C. (Stephen Jaffe/EPA) By then, he was a U.S. citizen. He studied public administration, earning a PhD from the University of Tennessee. During the 1990s, he held a series of jobs managing finances in the D.C. government, eventually becoming deputy chief financial officer. In 1999, he was appointed Williams’s chief of staff. But he never forgot Somalia. From his home in Northwest Washington, he watched reports on Somalia flash across the evening news. After Siad Barre fell, the country was consumed by fighting between rebel factions. A flood of Somali refugees escaped to Kenya. The U.S. military lost 18 soldiers in a 1993 mission documented in the book “Black Hawk Down.” Numerous attempts to create a functional federal government in Somalia have failed. “I did feel like a part of him wanted to be there,” Williams said in an interview. “He would talk about it all the time. I’m like an expert on Somalia after all these years with Dr. O.” In 2001, Omer was fired from the chief of staff job. Williams had found himself under pressure, in part for an unpopular plan Omer had pushed to privatize D.C. General Hospital. Omer was 47 then. He decided it was time to return to Mogadishu and became a contractor with the U.N. Development Program. When he saw the destruction of the capital, 100-year-old buildings reduced to rubble, he was racked with guilt. “The problem was us — Somalis who left and didn’t come to the rescue of the country,” he said. Another capital He returned to Washington for one more job with the city government in 2007, becoming the chief business operations officer of the D.C. public schools. But that same year, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was launched with U.N. support. It was a peacekeeping mission that promised to bring security to Somalia. Omer wasn’t the only member of the huge Somali diaspora to return and try to help it build a functioning government. The former prime minister, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, was once the commissioner for the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority.


Top business leaders, 27 governors, urge Congress to boost computer science education

industry in every state is impacted by advances in computer technology, our schools should give all students the opportunity to understand how this technology works, to learn how to be creators, coders, and makers — not just consumers. Instead, what is increasingly a basic skill is only available to the lucky few, leaving most students behind, particularly students of color and girls. How is this acceptable? America leads the world in technology. We invented the personal computer, the Internet, e-commerce, social networking, and the smartphone. This is our chance to position the next generation to participate in the new American Dream. Not only does computer science provide every student foundational knowledge, it also leads to the highest-paying, fastest-growing jobs in the U.S. economy. There are currently over 500,000 open computing jobs, in every sector, from manufacturing to banking, from agriculture to healthcare, but only 50,000 computer science graduates a year. Whether a student aspires to be a software engineer, or if she just wants a well-rounded education in today’s changing world, access to computer science in school is an economic imperative for our nation to remain competitive. And with the growing threat of cyber warfare, this is even a critical matter of national security. Despite this growing need, targeted federal funding to carry out these efforts in classrooms is virtually non-existent. This bipartisan issue can be addressed without growing the federal budget. We urge you to amplify and accelerate the local efforts in classrooms, unlock opportunity in every state, and give an answer to all the parents and teachers who believe that every student, in every school, should have a chance to learn computer science. Business Leaders Arne Sorenson, CEO, Marriott Barry Diller, Chairman, IAC and Expedia Bill and Melinda Gates Bobby Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard Brad Smith, President, Microsoft Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb Brian Cornell, Chairman and CEO, Target Doug McMillon, CEO, Walmart Daniel Schulman, CEO, Paypal. Chairman, Symantec Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Expedia Devin Wenig, CEO, eBay Doug Parker, Chairman and CEO, American Airlines Edward Breen, Chairman and CEO, DuPont Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Alphabet, Inc. Ginni Rometty, Chairman and CEO, IBM Grant Verstandig, CEO, Rally Health Herb Allen, President, Allen & Company Jack Dorsey, CEO, Twitter and Square James Murdoch, CEO, 21st Century Fox James P. Gorman, Chairman and CEO, Morgan Stanley Jeff Bezos, Chairman and CEO, Amazon Jessica Alba, CEO, The Honest Company Joe Lonsdale, Partner, 8VC.


One way to get Big Agriculture to clean up its act

incentives for environmentally beneficial practices but says that “we need to stay away from a bureaucrat making decisions for individual farmers.” (Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press) So what do we do about that? The environmental benefits of these conservation practices accrue to all of us. Is it fair to ask farmers to foot the bill alone? The fact that taxpayers subsidize farmers to the tune of something north of $10 billion a year (depending on how you count, and crop yields, and prices) has been a contentious issue. Farming constituencies maintain that subsidies are appropriate for the people who feed us, while other groups, such as those with environmental or public health agendas, question why we’re paying so much money to grow crops that (mostly) become biofuel, animal feed and the processed foods we’re supposed to eat less of. With environmental protection, perhaps we have a way to bridge that gap, because — and this is big — everyone agrees! Everyone agrees that conservation is important, that is. It won’t be so easy to find agreement on how to rejigger subsidies to provide incentives for environmentally sustainable farming. But at least we’re starting from a little patch of common ground. When I asked (via Twitter) Scott Faber, vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, what the next important topic was (after GMOs), he said, “How do we get more enviro benefits in return for farm subsidies?” Then I asked Mary Kay Thatcher, senior director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation, about conservation incentives, she was cautious but not dismissive. Naturally, farmers will be happier if the government adds funding specifically for conservation programs than if it ties existing subsidies to conservation (which already happens, but only on a small portion of acreage the USDA considers most vulnerable). Gaesser, likewise, warns that every farm is different and that legislating specific practices is tough. “We need to stay away from a bureaucrat making decisions for individual farmers,” he says. “It’s very acceptable to have in the farm bill incentives for those who implement practices that are good for the soil, good for the water, good for the environment.” Farmers don’t want to be hamstrung or coerced, but they’re interested — and motivated — to work toward the same environmental improvements that taxpayers are entitled to ask for. Surely that’s a starting point. More from Food: Unearthed column archive


Man fatally stabbed in Northwest Washington

A man was stabbed to death in Northwest Washington on Tuesday. D.C. police responded to a report of a stabbing in the 1200 block of North Capitol St. NW about 1:15 a.m., the department said in a statement. There, officers found 27-year-old Kenneth E. Jackson of Northwest suffering from an apparent stab wound. He was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead. No information about a suspect or motive was immediately available.