Why we need volunteers for the first human Ebola trials

A supporter of Ivory Coast’s national football team holds a placard reading “Stop Ebola” at the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifying football match between Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny stadium in Abidjan. Issouf Sanogoissour Sanogo/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) The current Ebola epidemic in West Africa has emerged rapidly and evolved with alarming ease. An unprecedented number of lives have been lost and World Health Organization predictions are that the virus will infect more than 20,000 people before it can be brought under control. This is an extraordinarily challenging time for the nations affected, many of which have fragile, inadequate health infrastructures and have been unable to contain the outbreak. International efforts are now required to strengthen and implement comprehensive emergency response strategies across the areas affected. An important part of the measures to be implemented involves fast-tracking access to treatment and vaccine options to reduce morbidity and mortality rates and help stop transmission. The epidemic is so grave that for the first time in history, an international consortium has been assembled to accelerate the development and deployment of potential Ebola vaccines. At the Jenner Institute in Oxford, we will run the first phase I trial of a vaccine targeted at the Zaire strain of Ebola virus that is causing the epidemic. The main purpose of this first-in-humans trial in the United Kingdom is to establish a detailed safety profile of the vaccine and assess the type of immune responses it induces before it could be considered for widespread use. A further goal is to identify the most suitable dose of the vaccine. The vaccine is being co-developed with GlaxoSmithKline and the National Institutes of Health, which are running parallel human phase I trials in the United States. Our trial is being funded with a £2.8 million grant from the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the U.K. Department for International Development. Chimpanzee adenovirus The candidate vaccine in question uses a chimpanzee adenovirus (a type of respiratory virus) as a means to expose or prime the immune systems of volunteers to a specific protein that exists on the surface of the Ebola virus. The vaccine contains some genetic material but not the entire Ebola virus genome, so it cannot cause an Ebola infection. As with the U.S. trial, the adenovirus will not replicate but instead prompts the person vaccinated to express an Ebola vaccine


A Miami patient has tested negative for Ebola

This photo provided by the CDC shows an Ebola virus. (CDC/Associated Press) A patient in Miami who was suspected of contracting Ebola has tested negative for the virus, a Florida hospital system said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will conduct additional testing to confirm the result, a spokesman said on a conference call Monday, but the patient is considered to be a "low risk." "Last week, a Jackson Health System patient tested negative for the Ebola virus," Matthew Pinzur, a spokesman for the health system said in a statement. "The patient had shown some symptoms associated with the disease and was tested in an abundance of caution. All of our community's precautionary measures were taken, multiple agencies worked effectively in partnership, and we demonstrated that we are ready in the unlikely event that this disease is detected in Miami-Dade County." It was just the latest in a series of false alarms in the United States since the Ebola epidemic began to ravage several countries in West Africa. Possible Ebola patients who were tested in New York, California and New Mexico all tested negative for the deadly virus. And the CDC has received requests for assistance with potential Ebola cases from at least 27 states over the summer, according to ABC News. So far, there have been no Ebola cases confirmed in the United States, though two American doctors and a North Carolina missionary worker who were infected in Liberia have all returned home for treatment. The first two infected Americans, missionary worker Nancy Writebol and Texas doctor Kent Brantly, were released from Emory University Hospital last month. The third, Richard Sacra, a missionary doctor, arrived at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha last week and is receiving treatment in the hospital's Biocontainment Patient Care Unit.


Iowa becomes third state with confirmed cases of severe respiratory illness, joining Missouri and Illinois

Iowa has confirmed that it has cases of enterovirus 68, the severe respiratory illness afflicting dozens of children in Illinois and Missouri. It becomes the third state with confirmed cases of this virus. Nine other states have also contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate other outbreaks of severe respiratory illnesses, authorities said Monday, but no other cases have been confirmed outside of these states. [UPDATE: Ann Garvey of the Iowa Department of Public Health said that the state sent specimens from people suffering from respiratory illnesses to the CDC for testing. On Monday, they received word that these specimens tested positive. However, she said that health-care providers have said they are not seeing particularly huge numbers of people suffering from severe respiratory illnesses. “We’re not seeing an overwhelming number of cases here in Iowa,” Garvey, the deputy state epidemiologist, told The Post on Monday afternoon. This virus, which spreads like the common cold, has been found in more than two dozen children hospitalized in Kansas City, Mo., and Chicago. Of the 36 specimens sent to the CDC from these two cities for testing, 30 of them were found to have this enterovirus strain, according to the CDC. Only children have been confirmed to be suffering from this illness. But it is still unclear how many cases of this virus there are in the country. Enteroviruses are incredibly common, with more than 100 different strains affecting 10 to 15 million people each year, the CDC says. Many infected people have no symptoms or minor symptoms. “We’re in a stage where it’s difficult to say just how big this is, how long it will go on for and how widespread it will be,” Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a news conference Monday.


Just because the elevator doors are closed doesn’t mean you’re alone

The Baltimore Ravens have cut running back Ray Rice, and the NFL has suspended him indefinitely. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File) This has been a big year for elevator camera videos. First there was the leaked altercation between Jay-Z and his sister-in-law Solange Knowles. Last week the CEO of a sports and entertainment catering company was forced to step down after a video appeared to show him kicking a puppy in an elevator went viral. And Monday, a video showing Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his then-fiance inside the elevator of an Atlantic City Hotel surfaced courtesy of TMZ Sports. An earlier video appeared to show Rice dragging Janay Palmer's unconscious body out of the elevator, but that was from a camera on the outside. Rice had been given a two-game suspension after the first video was released, but it wasn't until the video that shows him actually beating his now-wife surfaced that he was cut from the team. All of these cases go to show that despite the veil of privacy that seems to descend once their doors close, elevators are still very much public places -- where activities may be monitored. Although it's unclear just how many elevators in the United States come equipped with cameras, there seems to always be a digital eye watching when someone prominent does something embarrassing or potentially criminal inside a lift. Basically, the rules governing elevator cameras are no different from those that cover security cameras placed elsewhere on private property says Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, although he argues that elevator riders should receive some sort of notice -- perhaps a sign -- to indicate that they are under surveillance. Private business owners are generally allowed to install cameras on their properties as long as they serve some legitimate business purpose -- such as deterring vandalism or theft -- and don't invade an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy. "The key is that courts would not understand people to have a reasonable expectation of privacy in public spaces like elevators," says Danielle Citron, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law. "Public bathrooms would be different, for instance." Cameras are usually only able to record video, because audio recording may run afoul of local wiretapping laws. As recording technology advances, it is bringing new scrutiny to activities that occur in areas once


Renters fear they lack the credit, not just the cash, to buy a home

Many renters who want to buy a home might not even try to because they fear that they won’t qualify for a mortgage, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York concluded Monday after analyzing the results of a consumer sentiment poll. The renters on average said they had a 63 percent chance of moving during the next three years, but only 44 percent would buy a home if they moved. Those who were reluctant to buy cited traditional reasons, including not enough savings or income. But a sizeable portion (41 percent) also said they were worried that their credit scores would not pass muster. (Note that the 344 renters surveyed could check more than one reason for not buying.) As we wrote Sunday, lenders have shied away from extending mortgages to less-than-stellar borrowers in a bid to shield themselves from financial penalties and lawsuits. They’re demanding higher standards from borrowers seeking government-backed loans than even the government requires. And policy makers fear that the lack of access to credit is hurting the housing market’s recovery. But even if the lenders were to ease their credit standards, it’s unclear whether many renters would bother to apply for a mortgage, according to researchers Andreas Fuster, Basit Zafar and Matthew Cocci. In their analysis, they concluded that many potential buyers with relatively low credit scores (meaning below 680 in this analysis) feel “discouraged,” convinced that they would not qualify for a loan. Of course, if lenders eased up, perhaps consumer perceptions would change. But for now, about two-thirds of the renters surveyed said it would be somewhat or very difficult for them to get a mortgage. The chances of buying a home for those who think it would be tough to get a mortgage are about half what they would be for those 5 percent who think securing a loan would be easy, the analysis shows. The results of a separate Fannie Mae survey released Monday also found that people are generally reluctant to buy. Of the 1,000 renters and homeonwners polled in August, 64 percent said it is not a good time to buy -- tying the low seen in November 2013. (The poll has been conducted monthly for about four years.) Fannie Mae's chief economist, Doug Duncan, said consumers are too worried about wages and the job market to commit to a home purchase. But access to credit frequently


PM Update: A few showers possible through tomorrow; Supermoon, part three

Radar lightning: Clouds owned the day, and with some light showers or sprinkles mixed in as well we managed daytime temperatures that are rather cool for the date. Instead of the 80 or above we might expect, highs made the low-to-mid 70s most spots. A little San Francisco’esque? Hope you enjoyed it, as we’ve got more of the same through tomorrow. Through Tonight: Tomorrow (Tuesday): See Jason Samenow’s forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter Pollen update: Gray skies over Annapolis. (Donna Cole) Supermoon, take three: HRRR simulated cloud cover forecast shows the potential for thinning of the clouds at 8 p.m. this evening. (Weatherbell.com) Related: The moon rises at 7:06 p.m. tonight here in D.C. Clouds are likely to heavily — if not fully — obscure the celestial sight this evening. There is at least some chance we’ll see enough thinning or breaks for a peek or two though. Fingers crossed.


The surprising ways Chick-fil-A’s founder made the chain an American empire

the U.S. last year, mostly in the South, compared to 4,491 KFCs. The average Chick-fil-A earned $3.2 million last year, three times more than the average KFC, QSR said. Source: Chick-fil-A The chain’s growth has run parallel with a few other quintessential American booms, including the explosive growth of U.S. chicken. Since 1967, when the first Chick-fil-A opened, the average American’s yearly chicken consumption has more than doubled, from 36.6 pounds to 83.5 pounds a year, USDA data show. Over the same time, American beef eating has shrunk. (It’s not just us: The global hunger for chicken is growing faster than any other meat.) It wasn’t just poultry that made Chick-fil-A a pioneer, but its unprecedented push into nationwide shopping malls. When the first Chick-fil-A opened in a “384-square-foot cubbyhole” in Atlanta’s Greenbriar Mall, food courts in shopping centers were virtually unheard of. Over the decades, as mall culture bloomed, so did the fortunes of Chick-fil-A’s ubiquitous mall food stands. The chain runs nearly 300 mall locations today. A boy during the Great Depression, Cathy first made money selling bottles of Coca-Cola for a nickel, and in 1946 he opened his first restaurant, a squat diner in the Atlanta suburbs called the Dwarf Grill. But it wasn’t until the ’60s, when an airline-meal company began selling him the chicken seen as too big for mid-air meals, that Cathy devised of the sandwich that would become tied to the Chick-fil-A brand. Cathy remained chairman of the company until last year, when his son, Dan, already the president, took over as chairman and chief executive. Even as Chick-fil-A has exploded, it has kept pushing the aura of the softer side of a down-home Southern diner. Its signatures are charmingly simple, like the boneless chicken sandwich, served with only pickle slices and a buttered bun. And it doesn’t hurt that diners love the food: Many told Consumer Reports the chain is one of the tastiest and cleanest choices in American fast food. Chick-fil-A has tested the limits of that simplicity by adding coffee and chicken and waffles to its short menu of Southern staples, as well as launching a mobile ordering app, in hopes the chain can grab up even more of the $680 billion a year Americans spend on dining out. But the chain is holding the line on a few key points, including the big one: They still won’t open on


Ben Carson: Ray Rice needs help, not ‘demonizing’

Ben Carson (Photo by Scott Morgan for The Washington Post) Ben Carson, the famous neurosurgeon and potential 2016 presidential contender, weighed in on the news Monday that Ray Rice, the former running back for the Baltimore Ravens, lost his job and whatever benefit of the doubt he’d been given earlier this year when news first broke about a domestic violence incident. Rice was initially suspended for two games when reports first surfaced that he’d assaulted then-fiancee Janay Palmer in an elevator at the now-shuttered Revel Casino in Atlantic City. But the Ravens canceled his contract and the NFL suspended him indefinitely when a full video of the incident, posted by TMZ, showed him knocking out Palmer, who is now his wife, then dragging her limp body from the elevator car and dumping her in the hallway. Carson, who spoke by phone with Steve Malzberg on Newsmax TV Monday, was asked if the team’s and the league’s actions were the “right move?” Carson, a former professor and director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, said that he hoped the league would get some help for Rice. Then he added: “Let’s not all jump on the bandwagon of demonizing this guy. He obviously has some real problems. And his wife obviously knows that because she subsequently married him. So they both need some help.” Perhaps Carson was speaking as a doctor, offering his medical opinion, but some, including Mediaite, have suggested that he was defending Rice. (And perhaps judging Janay Rice?) After talking about the Rice case — and before moving on to President Obama’s response to the ISIS threat — Malzberg asked Carson about the tempest in the NBA around Atlanta Hawks majority owner Bruce Levenson. Recently e-mails have surfaced in which he laments that too many black fans might be scaring off white hoops lovers and sinking his franchise. Levenson has announced they he would sell his stake in the team. Carson responded: “I say that we have a tendency to try everybody in the media on the basis of sound bites and video clips. And it really is pretty stupid. And it goes back to my whole war on political correctness.” Late Monday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest issued this statement in response to the video of Rice’s actions: “The President is the father of two daughters. And like any American, he believes that domestic violence


Severe respiratory virus afflicting children confirmed in at least six states, as others investigate possible cases

Will Cornejo, 13, recovers at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver from what doctors suspect is enterovirus 68. (Cyrus McCrimmon/Denver Post) Scores of children in at least a dozen states are afflicted by a severe respiratory illness, with at least six states confirming the presence of a rare virus strain in children as young as six weeks old, public health officials say. Hospital officials in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., reached out to the CDC last month after the number of people needing care for severe respiratory illnesses was “higher than expected for this time of year,” Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Monday. Testing confirmed that patients in several of these states had a rare enterovirus strain that primarily leads to difficulty breathing, rather than rashes or neurological issues. Enteroviruses are incredibly common, with more than 100 strains leading to between 10 and 15 million infections each year, the CDC said. This rare strain, known as enterovirus 68, has been identified before in the U.S. and other countries, but it is fairly uncommon, Schuchat said during a conference call with reporters. Other states are also investigating clusters of severe respiratory illness reports to see if this same strain is cropping up, the CDC said. About a dozen states in total had contacted the CDC by Monday, Schuchat said. The virus was confirmed to be in at least six states, according to the CDC and state health officials: Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Colorado and Kansas. There are also suspected cases in Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Ohio and Utah, the CDC said Monday. “We’re in a stage where it’s difficult to say just how big this is, how long it will go on for and how widespread it will be,” Schuchat said during a conference-call with reporters. Centers for Disease Control officials say a potentially deadly respiratory virus that has sent hundreds of kids to the hospital in the Midwest is likely to spread across the country. One hospital in Kansas City, Mo., reported treating nearly 500 children — ranging from six weeks old to 16 years old — for respiratory illnesses. Mary Anne Jackson, director of the infections diseases division at Children’s Mercy Hospital, said the “unusually severe outbreak” saw a surge that included dozens of children requiring care each day and required the hospital to


The only confirmed cases of this rare strain have been found in children, she said. More than half of the children confirmed to have this enterovirus strain in Kansas City and Chicago have a history of asthma or wheezing, which is why public health officials are urging extra care with children who have asthma. On Monday, other states confirmed cases of the rare strain. Ann Garvey of the Iowa Department of Public Health said that the CDC confirmed samples sent from the state showed the strain. “It’s leading us to believe that we likely have some transmission statewide,” Garvey said, though she noted that so far health-care providers have not reported an overwhelming number of cases. Health care officials in Colorado and Kentucky also told The Post on Monday that CDC testing had revealed that the virus was appearing in those states. In Illinois, nearly a dozen specimens from a Chicago hospital tested positive for this strain. There have been increased reports of respiratory illnesses elsewhere in the state, but they have not been tested for the enterovirus strain, according to Melaney Arnold of the Illinois Department of Public Health. Last month, 141 children from Kansas were treated at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Missouri and tested positive for either a rhinovirus or enterovirus; some of these children also tested positive for the rare strain of enterovirus, Aimee Rosenow, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told The Post. States without any confirmed cases also remain on the lookout. While Ohio had no confirmed cases as of Monday, it did have potential cases across the state that required hospitalizing children, said Melanie Amato, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health. The department is working with children’s hospitals in Cleveland and Cincinnati to send samples to the CDC and expects that some could come back positive. “So far, we have not had any confirmed cases,” said Zack Moore, medical epidemiologist with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. “But we don’t know what the future will hold, so we’re monitoring it very closely.” Moore said that the reason this strain is worrisome is because it has been linked to clusters of illnesses, popping up in groups of infections. The enterovirus 68 strain was first isolated in 1962 in California. While it has been rarely seen since then, it has cropped up in clusters and has been


Wonkbook: The state of the American consumer

prescription drugs to pharmacies. Catherine Saint Louis in The New York Times. VA chief says hiring spree needed to meet patient demand. Richard A. Oppel Jr. in The New York Times. MULLIGAN: The not-so-affordable Affordable Care Act. KLEIN: GOP governors' cave-in on Medicaid expansion is short-sighted. World record interlude: 3. The Fed signals it may push big banks banks to shrink, and other financial regulatory news Fed signals intent to force banks to slim down. CFTC said to alert DOJ of criminal rate rigging. Clearinghouses will get tougher CFTC oversight to ensure the solution doesn't become the problem. Leveraged-loan standards are deteriorating after regulators' warning. Countrywide penalty could spell doom for S, which feds have sued over bond ratings. Other financial reads: U.S. prosecutors try for rebound at insider trading trial. Nate Raymond in Reuters. Bankers join loan guarantors in pushing FHFA pushing to ease insurer capital plan. Zachary Tracer in Bloomberg. Have markets become more dovish than the Fed? Pedro Nicolaci da Costa in The Wall Street Journal. Hedge funds reap gains on FHA loans sidelining nonprofits. John Gittelsohn, Heather Perlberg and Clea Benson in Bloomberg. Marching band interlude: 4. Dissturbing new data on violence against women ICYMI: 1 in 5 women have been raped, CDC says. But it's tough to track sexual assaults. Amid Ray Rice controversy, CDC report also says 1 in 3 women have faced domestic abuse. Meanwhile, states move where Congress won't on pregnant-worker protections. Science interlude: 5. The next steps on tax inversions Treasury to limit profitability of tax inversions. Schumer's draft tax-inversion plan would target 'earnings stripping.' What conditions would be needed for legislation to occur? Animal acrobatics interlude: Wonkblog roundup World leaders call for decriminalizing drug use, government regulation of the drug trade. Niraj Chokshi and Christopher Ingraham. 20,000 cases or 100,000? How researchers predict Ebola’s spread. Sarah Larimer. Civil asset forfeitures more than double under Obama. Christopher Ingraham. Renters fear they lack the credit, not just the cash, to buy a home. Dina ElBoghdady. Obamacare lets young adults stay on their parents’ insurance longer. Has that made them better off? Jason Millman. Children with married parents are better off — but marriage isn’t the reason why. Emily Badger. Nearly one third of the American labor force works on the weekend. Christopher Ingraham. Should Treasury act to deter corporate inversions? GE’s tax chief says no. Lori Montgomery. Airlines have never been better


Would Britons be British without Scotland?

So how might the symbolism of the United Kingdom change if Scotland leaves? You can start with the very basics. The name The naming of the country is already complicated. Generally, when we talk about the state run from Westminster, we refer to it one of two ways: Either Great Britain, which takes its name from geography, or the United Kingdom, which takes its name from the 1707 Act of Union which merged the Kingdom of Scotland with the Kingdom of England. If Scotland becomes independent, both these factors change. If all of Britain is no longer part of the country, then how can it be Great Britain? And while an independent Scotland plans to keep the Royal family, how can it be a "United Kingdom" if the country is not actually united? Wales and Northern Ireland have no "kingdoms" of their own to be united with. Would the name have to change? Perhaps. But suggested names have proven problematic: "Little Britain" is already used, and "South Britain" ignores Northern Ireland. Last year, Charles Moore of the Spectator pondered whether it could be called "Former United Kingdom" (the abbreviation of which is problematic, however). Simply calling the nation "England, Wales and Northern Ireland" seems obtuse. Its an identity crisis. If Scotland leaves the United Kingdom and London actually goes with a name change, can someone from London describe themselves as "British"? The flag The Scottish flag, left, and Union Jack fly outside the Scottish Office, in London. (Toby Melville/Reuters) The identity crisis goes further. The flag for Britain is the Union Jack, which incorporates, among other things, the English flag (the red cross of Saint George) with the Scottish flag (the white saltire of Saint Andrew). If Scotland leaves, logic would dictate that the Scottish portion of the flag should be removed, and many seem to support that idea: Earlier this year, the U.K.'s Flag Institute conducted a survey that found 72 percent in favor of changing the flag if Scotland leaves. This has sparked an even broader debate. The Union Jack is already a bit of a weird flag: It doesn't include any references to the Welsh, and it still includes the red saltire of Saint Patrick, which used to represent Ireland. The Flag Institute's members have already come up with some pretty spectacular designs that would attempt to sum up a post-Scotland's British identity. Names and flags may


Grand finale: 2014’s third supermoon – the Harvest Moon – shines (PHOTOS)

Visitors to The London Eye ferris wheel view the near full moon in Whitehall on September 8, 2014 in London, England. A supermoon or harvest moon involves a full moon coinciding with it’s closest approach to the Earth on it’s elliptical orbit. This is the third sighting of a supermoon this year with it occuring in full tonight. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) Monday night boasted the third and final supermoon of 2014. Recall a moon is a supermoon when it’s full and makes its closest approach to Earth in its orbit. This month’s moon is also known as the Harvest Moon since it falls closest to the autumn equinox. In some areas like Washington, D.C., clouds only allowed a partial view. The supermoon – veiled by cloud cover – in Washington, D.C. (Ian Livingston) But some other locations around the world enjoyed the Harvest supermoon in all its glory. Here are some of the best photos: SUPERMOON over #Pittsburgh! Great photo of the #supermoon over the PPG building in downtown by @DaveDicello. http://t.co/7twibqfFDt Amazing photo of the last supermoon of the summer from @iandthecamera! http://t.co/3ClqYb0Lqq Love this supermoon shot. Change is in the air! #hippietweet MT @barrybutler9 #Chicago, Sailing & Supermoon http://t.co/ZJsflFhPlN We can't get enough of the last super big, super fabulous 'supermoon' of 2014. http://t.co/WzZVCn2KpO http://t.co/v8hOU9tC92 SUPER- MOON 2014 photo: sebastien lebrigand (France) http://t.co/Yj6f05Jnbh Awesome photo of the Supermoon last night from my facebook friend Sue Metzger in Frederick, MD. http://t.co/hYsu60EmWN Setting sun illuminates cumulus clouds as full moon rises in Apfeltrang, southern Germany, on September 8, 2014. (KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND/AFP/Getty Images) The moon rises with an orange glow as people watch from a rock cliff at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014. The supermoon, known to scientists as a pedigree moon, occurs when Earth’s neighbor appears at its largest and brightest compared to other full moons when it orbits closer to our planet. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft) A Hadeda Ibis bird flies over as the full moon rises in the distance Monday, Sept. 8, 2014, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Monday night’s full moon, also known as a Harvest Moon, will be the third and final “supermoon” of 2014. The phenomenon, which scientists call a “perigee moon,” occurs when the moon is near the horizon and appears larger and brighter than other full moons. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) A full moon, also a harvest moon, rises over a


Bill Gates wants your kids to learn history this way — and he’s paying to get it into schools

years after the origins of the universe, because we actually know quite a lot about the universe at this stage. We know above all that it was extremely simple. It consisted of huge clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms, and they have no structure. They’re really a sort of cosmic mush. But that’s not completely true. Recent studies by satellites such as the WMAP satellite have shown that, in fact, there are just tiny differences in that background. What you see here, the blue areas are about a thousandth of a degree cooler than the red areas. These are tiny differences, but it was enough for the universe to move on to the next stage of building complexity. 6:04 And this is how it works. Gravity is more powerful where there’s more stuff. So where you get slightly denser areas, gravity starts compacting clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms. So we can imagine the early universe breaking up into a billion clouds. And each cloud is compacted, gravity gets more powerful as density increases, the temperature begins to rise at the center of each cloud, and then, at the center of each cloud, the temperature crosses the threshold temperature of 10 million degrees, protons start to fuse, there’s a huge release of energy, and, bam! We have our first stars. From about 200 million years after the Big Bang, stars begin to appear all through the universe, billions of them. And the universe is now significantly more interesting and more complex. 6:59 Stars will create the Goldilocks conditions for crossing two new thresholds. When very large stars die, they create temperatures so high that protons begin to fuse in all sorts of exotic combinations, to form all the elements of the periodic table. If, like me, you’re wearing a gold ring, it was forged in a supernova explosion. So now the universe is chemically more complex. And in a chemically more complex universe, it’s possible to make more things. And what starts happening is that, around young suns, young stars, all these elements combine, they swirl around, the energy of the star stirs them around, they form particles, they form snowflakes, they form little dust motes, they form rocks, they form asteroids, and eventually, they form planets and moons. And that is how our solar system was formed, four and a half billion years ago. Rocky planets like our Earth


The Ray Rice ruling is today’s cover story

Ray Rice, running back for the Baltimore Ravens, has been dropped from the team and suspended indefinitely by the NFL. A camera in a casino elevator caught Rice knocking out his now-wife with a single punch. Previously, the NFL had suspended Rice from two games for his actions. And while the league got it right this time, the action was long overdue and seems more about publicity than punishment. Read the full story here. More cover story previews from Express: Bob McDonnell says he was blindsided by his wife on today’s cover The battle between D.C. cyclists and motorists is today’s cover story America’s growing issue with the mentally ill flooding jails is today’s cover story


Oxford study predicts 15 more countries are at risk of Ebola exposure

Street artist Stephen Doe paints an educational mural to inform people about the symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. (Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images) Until this year's epidemic, Ebola did not exist in West Africa. Now with nearly 2,300 people dead from the virus, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, scientists still don't fully understand how Ebola arrived from Central Africa, where outbreaks of this strain of the virus had occurred in the past. A new model by Oxford University, published in the journal eLife, takes a look at the most likely explanation -- that Ebola's animal reservoir, fruit bats, could spread the disease in the animal kingdom and to humans through the dense forest that spans 22 countries. Several species of fruit bats are suspected -- though not confirmed -- to carry Ebola without showing symptoms. Unlike humans and other animals who are likely to die from an Ebola infection, bats can carry the disease and infect other bats and animals, such as monkeys and rodents through migratory activities. Bats along with other animals, such as monkeys, are also one form of "bush meat" consumed in some African countries where there have been reports of Ebola outbreaks. And though consuming cooked bush meat is unlikely to spread the virus, hunting or preparing raw meat for consumption increases the likelihood that an infection might occur. RELATED READING: 20,000 cases or 100,000? How researchers predict Ebola's spread. According to the Oxford model, in addition to the seven countries who have reported Ebola outbreaks in this epidemic and in past outbreaks since the disease was identified 1976, 15 other countries are at risk. There are five known strains of Ebola, and the one currently causing the West African outbreak, Zaire, is the most virulent. The other strains, Sudan, Taï Forest and Bundibugyo, have caused contained outbreaks in Ivory Coast, Sudan, and Uganda in the past. And the Reston species has not caused any known outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization. According to the Oxford prediction, these countries are at risk of animal-to-human transmission of Ebola by virtue of their geography: Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Togo, United Republic of Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar and Malawi. "Our map shows the likely ‘reservoir’ of Ebola virus in animal populations, and this is larger than has been previously appreciated," said the study's


In which former Bush and Perry adviser Joe Allbaugh gets a piece of the pot business

Former FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, who took the reins of Gov. Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign just as it was going into a nosedive, has jumped into a potentially more stable and long-term endeavor: legal marijuana. Allbaugh is an investor in and board director of Colorado-based CannLabs, which calls itself “a leader in cannabis innovation” and specializes in the testing of pot potency and quality. The company already has a major presence in Colorado, recently expanded into Connecticut and is positioning itself to take advantage of what could be exponential growth in the legal weed business across the country. Allbaugh is a conservative Republican who served as chief of staff to then-Gov. George W. Bush and then managed his 2000 presidential campaign. He heads up Allbaugh International Group, a consulting firm with offices in Washington, D.C., and Austin. In a telephone interview, Allbaugh made it clear that he hasn’t suddenly shed his conservative values and become a pot-loving hippie. “I don’t want anyone to get the idea that I’m endorsing recreational marijuana use at all,” he said. But through his wife’s fight with cancer, he said, he has come to appreciate the therapeutic use and pain-relieving potential of medical marijuana. He said he believes CannLabs can play a vital role in ensuring the safety and quality of it as more and more states make it legal. “I want to make sure what the public is getting is safe,” Allbaugh said. “I’m all about the public having confidence in the product they’re receiving." According to June regulatory filings, Allbaugh owned 250,000 shares of the company's stock, which was trading in the range of $1.20 per share on the over-the-counter markets Monday. Company CEO Mark Mirken called Allbaugh “a guiding light to us in understanding the legislative process and the nuances of it, and how to really navigate those rapids.” Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In addition, Colorado and Washington allow adults to consume marijuana recreationally. CannLabs Inc. is already a major player in Colorado with its deep ties to the first licensed laboratory there. Only residents of the state can hold a license to operate a pot business, but CannLabs Inc. has a business partnership and shared management with CannLabs Colorado, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. CannLabs Inc. provides testing technology, expertise and administrative services to


Proof that Americans love pumpkin-flavored anything

Not long ago, Pumpkin-flavored beer was a niche novelty; now it's a full-blown fall season staple. Sales of pumpkin-flavored beers have grown by more than 1,500 percent in the past 10 years, according to estimates by market research Nielsen. Last year, Americans spent more than $15 million on pumpkin-flavored beers. While fall flavorings in general, including apple, Oktoberfest and other spiced offerings, have seen consistent upticks in demand each year, no variety is growing quite like pumpkin. Pumpkin beers now account for nearly two-thirds of all fall beer sales, according to Nielsen. "In the alcoholic beverage space, flavors are a huge trend right now," said Andrea Riberi, senior vice president of measurement and information at Nielsen. "But pumpkin has really taken off." America's favorite pumpkin beer is still America's first pumpkin beer: Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale, which launched in 1995 and still accounts for roughly 65 percent of all pumpkin beer retail sales. Much of the industry's initial growth was tied to the large-scale launch of Blue Moon's offering. "Due mostly to Blue Moon’s introduction into the pumpkin flavored segment, pumpkin flavored beer sales grew 389% from 1995 to 1996," Riberi said. But part of the reason pumpkin-flavored beers are making their way into more and more shopping carts (and refrigerators and ice buckets) around the country today is that there are simply more and more of them being offered each year. The number of branded pumpkin beers has grown from just two in 2000 to an 65 last year, per estimates by Nielsen. A shift away from Blue Moon's branded offering, and toward smaller-scale, craft-like pumpkin brews slowed sales last year, but also helped diversify the market. This year Americans are likely to experience a similar trend. "When you go into the store this fall, you're going to see a lot more pumpkin beers than you did even last year," Riberi said. In some ways, the popularity of pumpkin-flavored beers is part of an industry push to attract more women to the beer segment. "These flavors have helped the industry bring more woman into the category," Riberi said. Bud Light's new malt beverage brands, including its Mang-O-Ritas, have helped the brand accomplish a similar feat. As have apple ciders and other sweeter flavor combinations. But the rise of pumpkin-flavored beers is more likely tied to a more general and overarching trend across the entire American food industry, which is


introduction into the pumpkin flavored segment, pumpkin flavored beer sales grew 389% from 1995 to 1996," Riberi said. But part of the reason pumpkin-flavored beers are making their way into more and more shopping carts (and refrigerators and ice buckets) around the country today is that there are simply more and more of them being offered each year. The number of branded pumpkin beers has grown from just two in 2000 to an 65 last year, per estimates by Nielsen. A shift away from Blue Moon's branded offering, and toward smaller-scale, craft-like pumpkin brews slowed sales last year, but also helped diversify the market. This year Americans are likely to experience a similar trend. "When you go into the store this fall, you're going to see a lot more pumpkin beers than you did even last year," Riberi said. In some ways, the popularity of pumpkin-flavored beers is part of an industry push to attract more women to the beer segment. "These flavors have helped the industry bring more woman into the category," Riberi said. Bud Light's new malt beverage brands, including its Mang-O-Ritas, have helped the brand accomplish a similar feat. As have apple ciders and other sweeter flavor combinations. But the rise of pumpkin-flavored beers is more likely tied to a more general and overarching trend across the entire American food industry, which is capitalizing on the country's appetite for pumpkin, well, anything. Starbucks is well aware — the coffee and confection chain rolled out their Pumpkin Spice Latte early this year in order to do just that. As are Nabisco, which just launched Pumpkin Spice Oreos, Mars, which launched Pumpkin M&Ms last year, along with a horde of other food and beverage-makers around the nation. The trend was so out of hand in 2012 that New York Magazine proclaimed pumpkin the new bacon, because "suddenly, pumpkin is everywhere." Whether Americans like pumpkin the vegetable, or merely pumpkin the flavoring, is actually a bit unclear. Despite the meteoric rise in pumpkin-flavored cookies, candies, coffees and beers, per capita pumpkin consumption has barely budged over the past 20 years, according to data from the USDA. In fact, it's considerably lower than it was in the late 1990s. In 2012, Americans ate just over five pounds of pumpkin per person, or more than a full pound less than they did in 1998, when they ate nearly 6½ pounds per person.


Cheating site Ashley Madison’s new drama might focus on Washington players

Then-President Bill Clinton greets Monica Lewinsky at a Washington fundraising event in October 1996. (REUTERS/File) If the success of mega hits like “Scandal,” “The Good Wife,” and “House of Cards” are any indication, cheaters do prosper — at least on the small screen. With that in mind, Ashley Madison, the online hook-up destination for folks already hitched, announced on Tuesday that the site is developing a scripted TV show about adultery in the digital age. The hour-long drama plans to take a peel-back-the-curtain peek at real life scandalous headlines. “It used to be that if it bleeds, it leads, but I think now if it cheats, it leads,” said Noel Biderman, CEO of Avid Life Media, the company that owns Ashley Madison. But don’t expect a “Law & Order” and “Scandal” mash-up. According to the Web site, Biderman, is “America’s foremost expert in the field of infidelity.” He said he wanted the show to do more than simply fictionalize high profile political affairs like those of former President Bill Clinton and retired Gen. David Petraeus. “We don’t just want to recreate the story,” said Biderman, “we want to talk about the kind of people who move to a place like Washington. You have to be engineered for some level of risk.” And according to Biderman, if you’re a risk-taker in your professional career, you’re more likely to take risks in your personal life. “We can explore infidelity in Washington without it having to be the president of the United States,” he explained. Don’t believe him? Paul C. Keable, Avid Life’s vice president of communications, said the site currently has 52,169 members in Washington compared with 38,000 in 2012, about a 38 percent increase in membership. More than 8 percent of those members hail from Capitol Hill, and most of these would-be cheaters log onto the site with government e-mail addresses, according to Keable. The drama is currently in search of a head writer, but the production team already has ideas about the main character. He or she will be “slightly dark and, of course, conflicted,” said Matt Hornburg, co-CEO of marblemedia, the Toronto-based company partnering with Ashley Madison. “It’s about lies, hidden truth and inner conflict,” said Hornburg. The company hopes to go into production within the next two years, and, in that time, we’re sure there will be tons more material to crib from. Read more Reliable Source: Benedict


After 21 years on the case, astronomers track down a thieving star

This is an artist’s impression of supernova 1993J, which exploded in the galaxy M81. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have identified the blue helium-burning companion star, seen at the center of the expanding nebula of debris from the supernova. (NASA/Maria-Jose Viñas) Over two decades ago, scientists discovered a supernova, or exploding star, named SN 1993J. Located 11 million light-years away in the Messier 81 galaxy, the supernova was of an unusual type -- it had less hydrogen than your usual stellar explosion. Because of this, astronomers always thought it must have a companion star. The companion star would have stolen hydrogen from the first before it went supernova, leaving behind a mostly-hydrogen shell. In a recent study published in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers report that they've finally fingered the culprit. “A binary system is likely required to lose the majority of the primary star’s hydrogen envelope prior to the explosion," said lead researcher Ori Fox of UC Berkeley in a statement. "The problem is that, to date, direct observations of the predicted binary companion star have been difficult to obtain since it is so faint relative to the supernova itself." To identify the companion star, Fox and his colleagues used images from the Hubble telescope. They looked for a spectrum of ultraviolet light that matched the predicted glow of the companion star, so it could be distinguished from the other stars in its crowded neighborhood. NASA reports


Home Depot breach reveals how challenging it is to ward off data theft

detecting and stopping operations to steal customer data are inadequate and we call on the Commission to investigate whether Home Depot’s security procedures meet a reasonable standard,” the senators wrote. Home Depot has not said how many customers may have been affected by the breach. But given that it may have lasted several months, experts say it could be more wide-reaching than the one last year at Target. One key way retailers and card issuers have been working to fight the problem is to update payment card technology. In the U.S., most cards have magnetic strips, which are thought to be less secure than a type of card often used overseas, known as "chip and PIN." With magnetic strip cards, there is a brief moment when card information is left unencrypted on a retailer's network as the transaction is carried out, giving a hacker an opening to scoop up the data. Experts say that the shift to chip and PIN technology has not been especially swift because it is time-consuming and expensive: Retailers must overhaul their point-of-sale and back-end software systems, while card companies must issue new cards that are more costly to produce. "On the issuing side, we’ve got the largest and most diverse payments marketplace in the world," said Randy Vanderhoof, director of the EMV Migration Forum, a group that works to promote the switch to chip and PIN. "We’ve got over 1.2 billion payment cards in the marketplace, so getting all of those cards converted to chip is not a simple task." Home Depot was in the process of adding chip and PIN technology in its stores and has said it still plans to complete its migration to that technology by the end of next year. While chip and PIN technology might help safeguard customer data, experts say it is hardly a silver bullet in fighting data theft. "What we know from other markets is that when markets start to lock down with chip technology, often times the fraud migrates” to ATM transaction or online purchases, said Carolyn Balfany, MasterCard's group head for U.S. product delivery. Experts say there are other barriers that may leave major retailers and other targets at risk. Art Gilliland, senior vice president and general manager of Enterprise Security Products at Hewlett Packard, says cybercriminals only need to break in once to be successful. Because of that, he says that there needs to


States await word on whether they have cases of rare respiratory virus that has cropped up around the country

children are affected,” Anne Schuchat, head of the CDC’s National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases, said Monday. The suspected cases are scattered in clusters around the country, and authorities have said they are ultimately not sure how many infections this strain could cause or how widely it could spread. Only children have been confirmed to have been infected so far, as adults are unlikely to get diagnosed with this type of virus, Schuchat said during a conference call with reporters. (Children lack the immunity that comes from being exposed to a disease.) “We’re in a stage where it’s difficult to say just how big this is, how long it will go on for and how widespread it will be,” she said. No vaccination is available for this strain. The CDC said Monday that a dozen states had suspected cases of the strain. Half of those states had confirmed cases of the rare enterovirus, according to the CDC and state health officials: Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Colorado and Kansas. In addition, there are suspected cases in Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Ohio and Utah, the CDC said Monday. For states with suspected clusters but no confirmation, and for public health officials wondering about the breadth of the situation, they must now wait for the CDC’s test results. (While hospitals are able to test for enteroviruses, most are not able to check which particular strain they are facing, so states are sending samples from children to the CDC.) Utah has no confirmed cases yet, but authorities suspect that the virus is likely there, said Tom Hudachko, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Health. Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City said it has seen an increase in children admitted with symptoms of serious respiratory diseases. Samples from this hospital will be sent to the CDC for testing, Hudachko said. There are also no confirmed cases in Ohio, but health officials are working with children’s hospitals in Cleveland and Cincinnati to send samples to the CDC. Similarly, authorities expect that some of the test could come back positive, said Melanie Amato, a Health Department spokeswoman. The Michigan Department of Community Health reported an increase in children with respiratory illnesses across the state and is sending samples for testing. In Alabama, the state Department of Public Health has received multiple reports of suspected cases of this strain, but nobody has tested positive for


Wonkbook: Congress just may avoid a government shutdown

LEE AND PARKER: America's water-infrastructure crisis. Animal buddies interlude: 2. The U.S. is putting up infectious-disease fights on multiple fronts U.S. military’s response to Ebola is hampered by lack of Ebola expertise. Mark your calendars: Chart: More U.S. aid on its way to West Africa to combat Ebola. Here's a fast about-face: House GOP cuts funding for Ebola, then restores it hours later. A rare enterovirus with no vaccine is vexing several Midwestern states. Explainer: As for diseases for which there is a vaccine: Measles cases near 600 in U.S. U.S. grapples with growing chikungunya problem. Other health care reads: Politically, Obamacare isn't about health care. Sam Baker in National Journal. Obamacare has not cut uninsured rate for children. Brianna Ehley in The Fiscal Times. Religious employers to go ahead with contraception lawsuits. Louise Radnofsky in The Wall Street Journal. TILL: A way to stop Ebola in its tracks? Dancing interlude: 3. Some positive data on the job market amid global economic worries Hiring reaches highest level since December 2007. Job openings, quits register on Yellen's labor dashboard. But consumers still aren't spending, feel squeeze of health care and housing. Global jobs crisis with no easy solution awaits us, World Bank says. Citizens' economic malaise appears to echo those countries' performances in job creation. Explainer: Other economic/financial reads: More employers demanding college degrees, study says. Tiffany Hsu in the Los Angeles Times. The recovery hasn't been very kind to Baby Boomers. Allison Schrager in Bloomberg Businessweek. The economic recovery hasn't reached minorities. Sophie Quinton and Stephanie Stamm in National Journal. Are subprime mortgages coming back? Binyamin Appelbaum in The New York Times. Punishments for insider training are growing stronger. Peter J. Henning in The New York Times. Slow-motion interlude: 4. What's at stake in the next round of climate negotiations CO2 levels in atmosphere rising at dramatically faster rate. As oceans suck up some of that CO2, ecosystems and fisheries may suffer. PwC report says world losing ground on decarbonizing energy supply. World Bank to expand plan to rescue emission projects. Map: ICYMI: Other environmental/energy reads: Oil exports would boost economy, lower gas prices: study. Zack Colman in the Washington Examiner. Feds move to prevent runaway oil trains. Keith Laing in The Hill. House approves bill to block EPA water rules amid veto threat. Matthew Daly in the Associated Press. Science interlude: 5. How will Congress treat police militarization? Police


Daniel Boulud’s DBGB D.C. menu nods to France, SpongeBob

Even though the DBGB Kitchen and Bar in Washington borrows its name and basic structure from the punk rock-inspired parent restaurant in New York, the D.C. edition is no mere copy of the original, says the man behind this homage to the casual eating of France and America. The dining room at DBGB in D.C. features dishes painted for Boulud by chefs from around the world. (Photo by Greg Powers) "DBGB is maybe the most relaxed restaurant I have, but the one we also take a lot of pride in the craft of the work," says chef/owner Daniel Boulud, who tapped Ed Scarpone, former executive sous-chef at DB Bistro, to run the first DBGB outside of New York. "It’s a chef-driven restaurant. It’s not a concept restaurant," Boulud continues, releasing a belly laugh. "The recipes were established and guidelines were established, but if Ed feels more comfortable changing something, that’s up to Ed to make sure he feels good with it." To prove his point, Boulud spent an August afternoon on the outdoor patio at CityCenterDC, where DBGB will celebrate its grand opening on Friday, and dissected the new menu with Scarpone, highlighting the differences between the D.C. and New York operations. Yes, the menus share the same general outline (and, in many cases, the same appetizers, sausages and entrees), but Boulud and Scarpone have created dishes just for Washington and tweaked others to add more local flavor. The Maryland crab persillade, Boulud's version of a crab cake for the DBGB in Washington. (Photo by Greg Powers) Among the newbies are two crab dishes, nods to Maryland's official state crustacean. One is Boulud's take on a crab cake, an appetizer the chef is giving a French twist with his Maryland crab persillade. Jumbo lump blue crab will be served in a gratin dish, the chef says, binded with a sweet garlic custard and accented with mushrooms, tomato and crispy farro. "The custard is just binding and enriching a little bit the crab," Boulud says. "We don’t want the custard to be the most prevalent thing. We want the custard to enrich the crab." Boulud has also added an option to the D.C. burger menu that, he says, may have finally solved the secret recipe behind the Krabby Patty, SpongeBob's favorite sandwich at the Krusty Krab. When Boulud was first experimenting with the preparation for what would become "the Crabbie," the


The mysterious explosion that could change the Syrian war

more extremist groups. There were signs that the group was softening its religious stance, however, partly due to a weakening funding. There were stories that the group had even met with a top U.S. State Department official, for example, and the group had recently agreed to join the Revolutionary Command Council, a broad opposition coalition that enjoyed U.S. support. Crucially, the group was also a key enemy of Islamic State, the extremist group that had captured much of Syria and Iraq in the past six months. The two groups had fought fiercely for much of the year, and on February, Ahrar al-Sham accused Islamic State of assassinating Abu Khalid al-Suri, one of its top leaders and an alleged link to al-Qaeda, in a suicide attack. The explosion The death of Aboud and the rest of Ahrar al-Sham's leadership has been labeled as some kind of suicide bombing, but no one has claimed responsibility for it and a number of rival theories exist. While an Islamic State suicide bomber might be the most obvious choice, others suggest that Syrian regime forces could have bombed the building where the meeting was being held with an airstrike, and the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has described it as a car bombing. "There is a possibility that the meeting was infiltrated and an explosion happened first in the bunker," Abu al-Mustafa al-Ambsi, a member of the political wing of Ahrar al-Sham, told Al Jazeera. "Maybe someone planted a device inside because the bunker is at a secret location." Other reports call into question more fundamental aspects of the explosion. Reuters spoke to one rebel leader who claimed that doctors at the scene were "frothing at the mouth and fluid coming from the eyes and noses," reminiscent of scenes from alleged chemical weapons attacks in the country or smoke inhalation. Another account shared on social media and cited by McClatchy suggests that the explosion may not have been an attack at all, but an accident. What happens now? Analysts seem unanimous: Whatever caused this blast, it was a big deal. "The gutting of Ahrar al-Sham’s leadership will have major ripple effects in the opposition," writes Aron Lund at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "Unless Ahrar al-Sham somehow manages to recover and sustain its relevance as a major Islamist faction, the Islamic Front may now be beyond repair." Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at


Delays after accident on Washington Circle in Northwest DC

A vehicle accident in Washington Circle in Northwest D.C. could cause delays Thursday morning. D.C. police Sgt. Grisel Reid said the traffic circle reopened after the 2:30 a.m. crash, which caused minor injuries. Reid said westbound lanes of New Hampshire Avenue NW were closed because of the collision. Those lanes were still closed as of 6:40 a.m. For more transportation-related news, go to Dr. Gridlock.


Opinion: On Sept. 11, recognizing the future of the military depends on re-energizing support for it

said they would recommend military service to a young person. The non-profit organization supports military families from all ranks and services, and has chapters all over the country. Veterans surveyed indicated the military-civilian divide, a perception that there is a disconnection between military and civilian communities, was one of their top five concerns. Veterans’ healthcare also was noted as a top national issue by more than half of the survey respondents (51 percent), notable in light of more recent events that have undermined confidence in the very system in place to support veterans and meet their unique needs. That confidence must be restored. In order to do that, veterans’ needs also must be met. We also must look at what happens to service members and families after military service ends. Blue Star Families’ survey found that both active-duty service members and spouses reported feeling isolated from friends and family, and 30 percent of those persons who reported having trauma symptoms or post-traumatic stress disorder said they did not seek treatment because they did not think it would help. Contrary to some media stereotypes, most who experienced the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have fared well. They’ve recovered, they’ve transitioned, and they’ve been resilient. Their ultimate transition to veteran status is for the most part smooth — the majority does not suffer from PTSD, they are not violent, and they resume relatively normal lives after their time in service. Here’s the problem: after nearly 13 years of relentless operations, the military is downsizing. Twenty-seven percent of all military separations are now involuntary. Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have sustained life-changing injuries or lost friends on the battlefield. These same veterans have observed hard-fought battlefield gains erode, as security conditions degrade in areas of Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet the needs of the military community remain. Now more than ever, because of downsizing and diminishing resources, it is civilians and civilian communities, not the federal government, who will be called upon to support the needs of military and veteran communities. Why does this matter? The pace of military operations has declined but threats around the world have not diminished. The United States will continue to rely on an all-volunteer force. The concept of an all-volunteer military assumes there are willing, competent volunteers, but for that assumption to be met, military service must be perceived as worthwhile. Otherwise, who will volunteer in


READ IN: Broad Coalition Edition

give this president -- or any other president -- a blank check to begin another land war in Iraq." Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) said he would oppose arming Syrian rebels "without greater assurance that we aren't arming extremists who will eventually use the weapons against us." Obama called House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) to ask for the authority to train foreign fighters. (Washington Post, Los Angeles Times) -- European leaders agreed early Thursday to impose a new package of sanctions against Russia by the end of the week, British Prime Minister David Cameron said. Those sanctions will further restrict Russian access to European Union capital markets and limit exports of high-technology products. The sanctions take effect when they are published in the E.U.'s official journal. (Associated Press) -- Front Pages: The Post's 5-col. lead: "Obama outlines Islamic State fight." NYT full-page banner: "OBAMA CALLS FOR SUSTAINED DRIVE TO ROUT MILITANTS." WSJ: "Obama Vows to 'Destroy' Militants." Chicago Tribune: "U.S. will hunt militants 'wherever they exist.'" USA Today: "Obama ready to strike ISIL in Syria, won't send ground troops." Susan Page front-page analysis: "A chance to fix his presidency." National Roundup: -- WH'16: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is dispatching chief of staff Chip Roy to his political office, the latest sign he's contemplating a 2016 presidential bid. Cruz elevated Paul Teller, the former top staffer at the Republican Study Committee, to serve as chief of staff. (Politico) -- Michigan: In the race to replace retiring Sen. Carl Levin (D), Rep. Gary Peters (D) leads former Michigan secretary of state Terri Lynn Land (R) by a 47 percent to 37 percent margin, a new Glengariff Group poll conducted for the Detroit News and WDIV-TV shows. Peters's lead has increased dramatically among independent voters. The same poll shows Gov. Rick Snyder (R) leads former congressman Mark Schauer (D) 44 percent to 42 percent. (Detroit News) -- Connecticut: Add Gov. Dan Malloy (D) to the list of endangered incumbents (he should have been on it already). Former ambassador Tom Foley (R) leads Malloy 46 percent to 40 percent, with an independent garnering 7 percent, a new Quinnipiac poll finds. Malloy's ratings are a dismal 40 percent favorable, 53 percent unfavorable. Voters think Foley would handle every issue except gun policy and education better than Malloy. (Quinnipiac) -- Missouri: Republican lawmakers on Wednesday ended a Democratic filibuster to pass a measure requiring women


10 things to do in the D.C. area on the weekend of Sept. 12-14

The weekend's best in nightlife, music and art. For even more, check out Nightlife Agenda. Snallygaster brings beer to Yards Park, and your mouths, Saturday. (Photo by Astrid Riecken/The Washington Post) Through Sept. 21: Through Thursday: Friday: Saturday: Saturday: Saturday: Saturday: Saturday-Sunday: Sunday: Adams Morgan Day Sunday:


Drink up: A guide to local fall beer festivals

(Web site) Saturday, Sept. 20 Maryland Brewers' Harvest (Web site) Heurich House Oktoberfest (Web site) DC International Beer Festival (Web site) Beer, Bourbon and BBQ (Web site) The Mad Fox Brewing Company's annual Hoppy Oktoberfest brings dozens of brewers -- and IPAs -- to Falls Church. (Mad Fox Brewing Company) Saturday, Sept. 27 Hoppy Oktoberfest (Web site) Das Best Oktoberfest (Web site) Feel free to dress in your German finest for the Mid-Atlantic Oktoberfest in Shirlington. (Capitol City Brewing Company) Saturday, Oct. 4 Mid-Atlantic Oktoberfest (Web site) Saturday, Oct. 18 Chesapeake Real Ale Festival (Web site) Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 18-19 Northern Virginia Fall Brewfest (Web site) The first Snallygaster beer festival, held at Yards Park in October 2012, featured more than 100 beers from around the globe. (Neighborhood Restaurant Group) Pro tips: How to master the beer festival Do your homework. Washington-based beer lovers going to Annapolis on Saturday, for example, should look for beers from RAR Brewing (Cambridge, Md.) and Burley Oak (Berlin, Md.), which are hard to find on this side of the Chesapeake Bay. Lagunitas fans might want to skip its table, since the Petaluma brewery is bringing its IPA and Pils, which are common in local bars, and explore other beers instead - perhaps Victory's Prima Pils or Finch's Hardcore Chimera Imperial IPA? With 275 choices over seven pages, Snallygaster's beer list is overwhelming. But take time to study it beforehand instead of just scanning it when you arrive at Yards Park on Saturday. You don't want to realize at 4 p.m. that your favorite rare Oktoberfest, Avery's The Kaiser, has already kicked, and you didn't even know it was available because it was buried down at No. 258. Stretch your legs. Geography matters: Tables near festival entrances are frequently crowded, as people try to score beer as soon as they arrive. Head for the fringes or the middle and beat the rush. Planning is good, but be flexible. "Part of the fun at a festival is finding new things," says ChurchKey supremo Greg Engert, who picked the beers for Snallygaster. "Leave yourself open to new things: If you walk by a table and it's not busy, and something looks good, go try it." At a festival with unlimited sampling, Prendergast recommends trying as much as you can: "Just get a half-pour, try it and if you don't like it, move on," he says. "You're doing yourself


U.S. enacts additional sanctions against Russia

The White House Thursday announced that it is enacting additional sanctions against Russia a week after the Kremlin approved a cease fire between Ukraine and rebel groups. Building on sanctions that the United States and European Union have put in place over recent months, the additional measures will continue to target Russia's financial, energy and defense sectors. The White House said it will offer specifics on the sanctions Friday, but it is clear they are aimed at sending a message loud enough for Russian President Vladimir Putin to hear. "These measures will increase Russia’s political isolation as well as the economic costs to Russia, especially in areas of importance to President Putin and those close to him," the White House said in a statement. The White House news came as European Union also announced additional sanctions against Russia Thursday. The sanctions will make it more difficult for Russia to access European capital markets, ban Russian services for deepwater and Arctic oil drilling and add additional banks, defense and energy companies to a list of companies that will no longer receive European financing. The EU and Obama have both said that sanctions can ultimately be rolled back if Putin demonstrates a willingness to hold to the tenets of the ceasefire and continues to roll back advances Russia has made on Ukraine. Photographer: Rowan Griffiths/Pool via Bloomberg Last week, President Obama was extremely skeptical of the deal, saying the U.S. was hopeful that a diplomatic solution could be reached but also skeptical "based on past experience." The sanctions were launched as a response to the aggressive incursions Russia made in the weeks before the ceasefire was announced, including the movement of troops and humanitarian convoys into Ukraine. "We are implementing these new measures in light of Russia’s actions to further destabilize Ukraine over the last month, including through the presence of heavily armed Russian forces in eastern Ukraine," the White House said. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday said the sanctions show the determination of the international community to "impose significant economic costs" on Russia for decisions Putin has made relating to Ukraine. "They also demonstrate that Russia will face additional costs and further isolation if they continue to take the types of destabilizing, counterproductive actions," that Putin has in Ukraine, Earnest said.


Colorado marijuana tax revenues surge as recreational sales surpass medical

Photo/Brennan Linsley,) New revenue figures out of Colorado show that legal recreational marijuana sales have surpassed medical marijuana sales. The milestone is largely symbolic, but the overall trend shows a strong increase in recreational sales since the spring. One of the challenges facing Colorado's legal marijuana market has been the slower-than-expected shift from medical to recreational sales. As the Brookings Institution's John Hudak noted recently, "For years it has been an open secret in Colorado that some people were using medical marijuana without a legitimate medical condition. One goal of creating the retail market was to draw those gray-market users away from medical and toward recreational." But recreational marijuana is taxed at a much higher rate than medical weed, making it considerably more expensive. Many users opted to stick with the medical market, and still more have continued to buy marijuana through black market channels where its even less expensive. Many legalization proponents welcomed the latest sales figures. But they don't necessarily mean the imminent demise of Colorado's black market. "I don’t think the increase in sales necessarily reflects a decrease in the black market, although it may," Brookings' Hudak said in an interview. The sales increase could be due to "increases in marijuana tourism - an industry growing pretty rapidly in the state." A cultural shift is also likely under way, as more residents dip their feet in the recreational market. "It might reflect a relaxation of state residents where people are coming around and saying 'Ok, this is real, this is legit and I'm not going to get arrested for it.'" A recent NBC/Marist poll, for instance, found that the majority of Colorado adults - 55 percent - say they favor the legal status of marijuana there. And while the tax revenues from marijuana sales have been slower to materialize than expected, they are picking up steam. Total revenue from marijuana taxes, licenses and fees topped 7 million dollars in June, and is likely to keep rising as more retail outlets enter the market. If the latest sales figures do portend a shift from the black market and legal market, it will likely be due to a combination of higher quality and decreasing prices, Hudak said. One last finding: July marked the first time that Denver County represented less than half of the total marijuana sales. This suggests that the marijuana market in Colorado is truly becoming statewide.


Clash of the titans: Wal-Mart rejects Apple Pay to pursue a competing mobile payment system

purchase with a fingerprint scan. The merchant would get two codes: One would identify the credit card; the other would be a one-time authorization code. Even if a hacker somehow stole both, they couldn’t be used for any other transaction. Apple has said that it has no interest in tracking the purchases shoppers make through Apple Pay. Company executives said this week the details of any transaction would only be known by the shopper and their financial firm. CurrentC’s organizers have not yet said whether retailers will track purchases made with their system, but many analysts expect them to do so. Many chains already track their customers’ shopping behavior through loyalty cards or even by monitoring how they move through the aisles of a store. James Wester, research director of global payments at IDC Financial Insights, said the entrance of Apple into mobile payments will expand the market to the benefit of all of those involved. Until now, iPhones did not come with the NFC chip, which makes the upgrade valuable to the broader industry. But he added that CurrentC has an edge because the money they are saving by cutting banks and credit cards out of the equation will give them room to offer discounts, rewards or loyalty programs that could drive sales, he said. “Just because Apple is now responsible for us getting to this tipping point doesn’t mean Apple is necessarily going to win,” Wester said. “They’ve got a very cool solution that is very similar to the solution that other people have come out with, but Apple is really good at user experience and has loyal customers. … That’s something you can’t discount.” On the other hand, it’s an open question whether consumers will trust either system with their most personal financial information. It’s possible that neither will draw enough consumers toward a digital payment alternative that has had many fits and starts. Google and other companies have mobile wallet systems that have simply failed to gain traction, and there is no telling whether Apple Pay and CurrentC will meet the same fate. “While these two platforms are big enablers that does not automatically guarantee success. We still need to see whether consumers will find the value proposition enough to start using the system,” said Rajesh Kandaswamy, a research director at Gartner. “This pits powerful players against each other, but they are not the only ones.”


Going to Snallygaster? There’s an app for that.

When I spoke to Snallygaster founder Greg Engert for my story on fall beer festivals, he told me his three-year-old event was developing an app to help attendees navigate the 275 beers available at the festival grounds this weekend. Collaborating with the same Ashburn-based tech company that created a guide to May's Savor Craft Beer Festival, Pombe is a free download, and a godsend for anyone planning to hunt for rare beers near the Navy Yard on Saturday. • Drink up: A guide to local fall beer festivals Going to Snallygaster? There's an app for that. (Pombe) Pombe contains a map of the Snallygaster layout, with a list of beers and brewers available in each section. (These all have names like "Mothra" and "Nessie.") The key benefit here is the list of all beers at the festival, which you can browse by style, whether you're looking for a Berliner weisse or an imperial stout. You can scroll through pre-sorted topical lists, such as ciders, cask ales or pumpkin beers, and see how much a sample costs and how highly the beer is rated by RateBeer. Tap a beer to add it to your wishlist; after picking a few favorites, it's easy to check the map to see which other breweries are pouring at nearby tables. I found Pombe's guide to Savor invaluable when I was trying to remember all the beers I wanted to try, and seeing if any were close to where I was standing, especially when I didn't feel like waiting in a long line. Once you've downloaded Pombe – it's available for both Android and iPhone – go into the "Event List" and pick Snallygaster. From there, it's pretty intuitive. One last piece of advice from Engert: Snallygaster ticket holders who want to avoid lines on Saturday can check in and pick up their wristbands and beer mugs at Bluejacket on Friday night from 4 to 8 p.m., and on Saturday beginning at 9:30 a.m. If it's not inconvenient, I'd recommend it: The crowds and lines at Snallygaster at Yards Park two years ago were fairly long, and there will be more than twice as many beers this time around.


Marijuana, Federal Power & the States

States appear increasingly unhappy with federal marijuana policy. Two dozen states allow medical marijuana under state law, over a dozen states have largely decriminalized marijuana possession, and two states — Colorado and Washington — have legalized marijuana possession, use and sale under state law. This fall, two more states — Oregon and Alaska — may opt to legalize marijuana and additional states are considering authorizing medical marijuana, including Florida. This week, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Ohio, Ed Fitzgerald, also came out in support of medical marijuana (perhaps in an effort to aid his flagging campaign). Nonetheless, marijuana remains a controlled substance under federal law. Tomorrow the Center for Business Law & Regulation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law will be hosting a conference on Marijuana, Federal Power and the States that will explore the legal and policy issues arising from the decision of some states to legalize marijuana. Topics will include everything from preemption and the commerce clause to youth access and the problems faced by banks that deal with marijuana-related businesses. Presenters include Ernest Young (Duke), Angela Hawken (Pepperdine), Robert Mikos (Vanderbilt), Julie Hill (Alabama) Doug Berman (OSU), Mark Kleiman (UCLA), Alex Kreit (TJSL), Brannon Denning (Cumberland), John Hudak (Brookings) and the VC’s own Will Baude (Chicago). Here’s more on the conference. The webcast will be available here.


What was fake on the Internet this week: Obama’s peace prize, pumpkin-spice condoms and insane winter snow

President Obama receives his medal and diploma from Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 2009. Contrary to Internet rumor, Jagland doesn’t regret awarding it. (John McConnico/AP) There is so much fake stuff on the Internet in any given week that we’ve grown tired of debunking it all. Fake Twitter fights. Fake DHL ads. Amazing viral video? Nope — a Jimmy Kimmel stunt! So, rather than take down each and every undeservedly viral story that crosses our monitors each week, we’re rounding them all up in a quick, once-a-week Friday debunk of fake photos, misleading headlines and bad studies that you probably shouldn’t share over the weekend. Ready? Here’s what was fake on the Internet this week: 1. The Nobel Committee doesn’t “regret” giving President Obama the Peace Prize. Dear Internet: The Nobel committee "regrets" giving Obama the 2009 peace prize story is bogus. I just spoke with the head of the institute 2. There is no-such thing as a “pumpkin-spice-flavored condom.” We've officially reached Pumpkin Spice saturation point. http://t.co/Tve77ov5JZ 3. No one expects “record-shattering snowfall” this year. #InOtherNews I just read a report that a meteorologist said we will be having "record shattering snowfall" this winter. Lord Jesus. 4. “Male birth control” will probably not be here by 2017. 5. There was not a shooting at a California Marine Corps base. Possible shooter in Camp Pendleton!? Anybody hear anything?? 6. Shakira is not dead. 7. British Muslims are not trying to outlaw a beloved children’s TV show. Muslim Wants To Ban Peppa Pig?? 8. Obama will not “resign amid new Benghazi revelations.” If Obama resigns from office NOW, thereby doing a great service to the country—I will give him free lifetime golf at any one of my courses! (Just kidding, that tweet is related to another matter entirely.) 9. Cocaine has not been found in Coors Light beer. 10. The ruins of an ancient city were not discovered in the Australian desert. Did we miss any other notable fake stuff this week? E-mail caitlin.dewey@washpost.com — or stay tuned until next week, because surely some more shenanigans will go down in the meantime.


Street Smart: What to do in Woodley Park

Nestled between Cleveland Park and Adams Morgan, Woodley Park is a happy medium: a friendly and peaceful but lively community, perpetually bustling with tourists, conference-goers and longtime residents. Via Gypset. Photo by Megan McDonough Via Gypset This boutique offers a mix of vintage and high-end consignment items alongside more modern and affordable fashions. "We tell people the stories behind everything," says owner Isabella Polles. Brides-to-be will swoon over the store's antique wedding collection upstairs. After you shop, grab a scoop of homemade gelato at Cafe Sorriso, a Polles family-owned eatery, downstairs. Washington Marriott Wardman Park. Photo by Megan McDonough Washington Marriott Wardman Park The old Wardman Park was where the first televised broadcast of "Meet the Press" took place in 1947 (inaugural co-host Lawrence E. Spivak was a Wardman Park resident). Find the plaque that commemorates the hotel as the site where Langston Hughes, then a busboy, slipped famed poet Vachel Lindsay three of his published poems under a dinner plate. Impressed, Lindsay shared Hughes's poems during a reading with a hotel audience later that night. By morning, reporters were lined up to meet the "busboy poet." New Heights Restaurant's The Gin Joint/Babinga Bar Humphrey Bogart would have been right at home in this gin joint. This chic New Heights bar offers more than 60 varieties of gin, seasonal gin flights, gin-of-the-month specials and seven house-made tonics made using fresh ingredients from the restaurant's patio garden. Don't forget to pick up a $1 gin lollipop on your way out. Open City. Photo by Megan McDonough Open City It's no surprise why Open City's general manager Christina Richardson calls the popular brunch spot "Woodley Park's living room." Filled with a mix of regulars, tourists and conference-goers, the sun-filled restaurant is warm and inviting, offering classic American comfort dishes with familiar touches. Breakfast is available all day, and coffee is served in a giant mug with several animal crackers. National Zoo. Photo by Megan McDonough National Zoo Some 2,000 creatures call this 163-acre park home, including 100-plus flamingos, seven elephants and Washington's unofficial mascot, the giant panda cub Bao Bao. In honor of its 125th anniversary, the zoo recently brought back its first-ever exhibit, the American bison. The names of the two new female bison, Zora and Wilma, were chosen by students from Howard and Gallaudet universities, who share the bison as their mascots. For stories, features such as Date Lab, Gene


U.S. enacts new sanctions against Russia

The Obama administration announced new, punitive sanctions against Russia, taking aim at the nation's largest bank and prohibiting some U.S. exports to deep-water and shale oil projects in Russia's Arctic. The sanctions from both the Treasury Department and Department of Commerce were taken in concert with the European Union, which announced parallel controls against Russia on Friday. The measures turn up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to abide by the terms of a Sept. 5 cease-fire signed between rebels and the Ukrainian government with the backing of the Kremlin. “Given Russia’s direct military intervention and blatant efforts to destabilize Ukraine, we have deepened our sanctions against Russia today, in concert with our European allies. These steps underscore the continued resolve of the international community against Russia’s aggression," Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said in a statement. The new measures from both the U.S. and E.U. are aimed directly at Russia's banks and its emerging offshore oil sector, which has seen significant Western investment in recent years as supplies of its onshore oil are decreasing. Despite the tenuous cease-fire, the additional sanctions are "being imposed in direct response to the actions Russia took in Ukraine over the last month," a senior administration official said Friday. They include sending heavily armed Russian forces and lethal equipment into Ukraine, supporting pro-Russian rebels and firing over the Ukrainian border. U.S. officials said the new sanctions are designed to be rolled back should Russia abide by all 12 points of the cease-fire agreement, including withdrawing its troops and releasing Ukrainian hostages. “Russia’s economic and diplomatic isolation will continue to grow as long as its actions do not live up to its words. Russia’s economy is already paying a heavy price for its unlawful behavior," Lew said, noting that inflation has grown and growth has plummeted in recent months thanks to previously announced sanctions. The Department of Treasury expanded the sanctions to include Russia's largest financial institution, Sberbank of Russia. The U.S. and European sanctions prohibit Western companies from taking on any debt agreements with six Russian banks that last more than 30 days, cutting off Russia's largest banks from long-term financing with the West. People are seen through a broken window as they wait in line to cross the border to Russia on Sept. 12 in Izvaryne, a border post near Krasnodon, eastern Ukraine. (Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images The new actions shut the banks


A Taliban fighter survived the attack on Afghanistan’s Camp Bastion. Will he get the death penalty?

logistics squadron on base, and known by friends and family as a frequent jokester. The uncertainty about Nazeer’s punishment is the latest frustration for the families. Early last year, the families expressed anger that no leaders on base had been held accountable for lapses in security that allowed the attack. The top U.S. commander for the Middle East, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, eventually launched an investigation to determine whether Marine Corps leadership on base was partly to blame at the request of Gen. James F. Amos, the Marine Corps commandant. Two major generals, Charles “Mark” Gurganus and Gregg Sturdevant, were forced into retirement following the release of the results of an investigation last fall. Gurganus, the top U.S. commander in Helmand province, and Sturdevant, the senior Marine aviation officer in the region, “failed to exercise the level of judgement expected of commanders of their rank,” Amos said upon announcing the findings. The security plan for the Bastion-Leatherneck-Shorabak complex was “sub-optimal,” the investigation found. Both generals said they were keenly aware of threats to Marines on smaller bases in Helmand, and also concerned about threats that contractors and Afghan troops on Leatherneck and Bastion would pose if they attacked coalition forces inside the base. A unit of insurgents attacking the base on foot from outside was lower on the list of perceived problems, however. Sturdevant also told investigators that the drawdown in U.S. troops across Afghanistan at the time had cut away a military police unit that controlled access to the Bastion airfield by manning a vehicle checkpoint. Kim Raible, the fallen squadron commander’s mother, said she was disgusted to hear that Nazeer was turned over to Afghan authorities. She has asked many questions about the attack, but did not know about the appeals process until this week, she said. “There’s never any answers,” she said. “To me, it’s just a total lack of regard for us and the Atwells and the loss that we have here.” Caldwell, the Marine Corps spokesman, said in an e-mail that casualty assistance officers called the families Thursday with the latest news about Nazeer. “As we approach the second anniversary of the attack on Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, we honor the memory of Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell, as well as the service of those Marines who fought alongside them,” Caldwell said. UPDATE, 8:50 p.m.: This post was updated to reflect additional reporting.


Taking the fight against the deadly prescription drug epidemic online

Online prescribing could help deter abuse of powerful drugs like the painkiller hydrocodone. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot) In its effort to tackle the growing epidemic of prescription drug abuse, the federal government has taken a couple of major steps in the past few weeks. First, it put tighter restrictions on medications containing hydrocodone, a widely prescribed and highly addictive painkiller. Just earlier this week, the Obama administration issued new measures allowing people to return unused prescription drugs to hospitals, pharmacies and other places where they actually get drugs in the first place. And new data suggest that another federal measure that could combat this epidemic through online tracking of powerful and potentially addictive drugs, like Percocet and OxyContin, is starting to gain some steam after launching four years ago. The initiative is Electronic Prescribing for Controlled Substances (EPCS), a March 2010 DEA rule allowing pharmacies and care providers to handle prescriptions for Schedule II-V controlled substances entirely online. About 6.5 million Americans above the age of 12 used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes last year, according to a government survey released last week. As of 2011, prescription drugs accounted for more than half of about 41,300 deaths from unintentional drug overdoses. Making prescriptions for these drugs electronic has some advantages that experts think could help deter prescription drug abuse and fraud. For starters, it reduces reliance on paper, which cuts down on the opportunity for forged prescriptions. It also creates a new wealth of information allowing prescribers and pharmacies to identify potential cases of misuse. When New York's new online system launched last summer, it reportedly helped identify 200 incidents of patients shopping around for doctors in search of these drugs in just the first three days. As with any new IT initiative in health care, take-up of EPCS has been initially slow for a number of reasons. The prescribing networks need to be secure, states had to change their laws in response to the DEA rule, and several digital initiatives are competing for the industry's attention, like the meaningful use of electronic health records and the transition to a new medical coding system. New data from DrFirst, a leading vendor of EPCS technology, shows that electronic prescriptions for controlled substances has taken off in the past year. The number of the company's EPCS transactions jumped from about 11,000 per month in January 2013 to 60,000 this past July. A good


NASA releases new tips for finding alien life

ozone and methane. As lone wolves, these molecules were thought to be signs of life all by themselves, but it turns out they can be produced inorganically -- that is, in the absence of anything living as we know it. Your best bet is to look for them together. "Our research strengthens the argument that methane and oxygen together, or methane and ozone together, are still strong signatures of life," said Shawn Domagal-Goldman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and the study's lead author. "We tried really, really hard to make false-positive signals for life, and we did find some, but only for oxygen, ozone, or methane by themselves." Use the dorm-room pizza test Think of the relationship between methane and oxygen as you would the relationship between pizza and college kids. Methane won't last long in a room full of oxygen just like you wouldn't expect pizza to last long in a room full of cheap, hungry students. Oxygen consumes methane in certain reactions -- so if they are both present, it is probably because some form of life keeps putting more methane there, Domagal-Goldman said. "If you see pizza in a room, and there are also college students in that room, chances are the pizza was freshly delivered, because the students will quickly eat the pizza," he said. "The same goes for methane and oxygen. If both are seen together in an atmosphere, the methane was freshly delivered because the oxygen will be part of a network of reactions that will consume the methane. He continued: "You know the methane is being replenished. The best way to replenish methane in the presence of oxygen is with life. The opposite is true, as well. In order to keep the oxygen around in an atmosphere that has a lot of methane, you have to replenish the oxygen, and the best way to do that is with life." Consider your star Stars are probably a bit underrated. And based on NASA's newest findings, it's even more critical to take them seriously. The chemical reactions that might produce or destroy oxygen, ozone and methane without the presence of life are driven by the light coming from stars: For example, massive, hot stars or stars with frequent explosive activity produce more ultraviolet light. "If there is more ultraviolet light hitting the atmosphere, it will drive these photochemical reactions more efficiently,"


Chef Daniel Boulud’s glittery restaurant opening in Washington

If there were a perfect metaphor for the decadent, outsize role that chef Daniel Boulud is certain to play in the D.C. food scene, it would be the choice of dessert for his restaurant DBGB’s splashy grand opening at the potentially glitzy CityCenterDC on Friday. Boulud and assistants wheeled out a show-stopping more than six-foot-long baked Alaska, one of the French chef ‘s signature dishes, which he flambéed with a blowtorch and passed around the room to his assembled guests. The event marked both the inaugural restaurant opening, a well as a homecoming for the celebrity chef, who worked in Washington restaurants in the 1980s, before departing for New York. “I think DBGB is very much the restaurant I would have done 30 years ago when I arrived in D.C., if I had the money to do it,” said the chef, in a break between posing for photos with admirers. Those included notables in food and entertainment: “The Chew’s” Carla Hall, chef Patrick O’Connell of the Inn at Little Washington, Washington Kastles owner Mark Ein, and environmentalist Philippe Cousteau and E! host Ashlan Gorse. Guests sipped rosé and cocktails like the Lumiere (vodka, rosemary, lemon juice) as they milled between stations showing off DBGB’s French-American fare, from enormous wheels of cheese to a spread of terrines, like headcheese and country pate. Upstairs, cooks shucked oysters beneath an ice sculpture of the Washington Monument, and downstairs, guests posed before a photo booth in red, white and blue hats. The restaurant – smaller than expected, some guests remarked – was decorated in black, red and white, from the photographs of roosters to a series of plates decorated by Boulud’s chef friends, with everything from drawings of oysters to self-portraits. He pointed out a few favorites: “[Bryan] Voltaggio’s is amazing … Martha Stewart is up there in the corner, Jacques Pepin’s is beautiful, very artistic.” Boulud seemed impressed by the way D.C. partied. “Because I lived here three years, when I was 25 years old to 27, I have such fond memories of having great fun in D.C.,” he said. “The city was lively enough to me, [but] it’s not what it is today. I wish I was coming here today at 25.” Read more Reliable Source: Rep. Mark Sanford makes relationship status clear on Facebook Liev Schreiber doing film research in The Washington Post newsroom? Is ‘Rival Survival’ the end of Congress’s


Just another day in Rocket City

is largely due to operations the ANA themselves have done. They are out there very significantly in the battle space.” We were interrupted by the shrill “incoming, incoming” alarm, and we both moved to duck behind the nearest concrete barrier. Capt. Mina knew which side of the barrier to be, whereas I had no clue which direction the rocket might be coming from. Someone quickly put me straight. There was a good solid boom when it landed; it had come down outside the wire. “Not good for the Taliban’s public relations,” said Capt. Mina. “It hit a village, but I don’t know if it is inhabited or not.” Many of the villages close to the base are abandoned. It is not difficult to understand why. After the all-clear we sat back down again. Our conversation drifted comfortably off the mission, to his wounding by a piece of shrapnel during a firefight, to his life back in the world, to him being married to a Canadian. He then even proved his Canadian indoctrination was complete by admitting to being a Tragically Hip fan. We were swapping memorized lyrics like true hipsters do when … … the “incoming, incoming” alarm went off, and we were back behind the concrete barrier. This time though, rather than a concussive impact, the noise was like someone tearing a hole in reality, and the sky directly overhead filled with hundreds of puffs of smoke, followed by a sound like a car crash. Then we could see what had to be pieces of rocket raining down. This one had been quite close and had therefore been taken out by one of Shank’s six Land-based Phalanx Weapon System machine guns. What always amazes me about FOB life in Afghanistan is how everyone is so relaxed about the periodic rocketings. Spc. Marburger was back scratching his head again over his screwdrivers as if nothing had happened. “That came from the same place,” said Capt. Mina. “That is where you’ll be going tomorrow.” I wanted to know more about the anti-rocket system, so I stopped by to have a look at the LPWS, this miracle weapon that can swat an incoming rocket — traveling head-on at over a 1,000 mph — out of the sky. Originally designed to shoot down anti-ship missiles at sea, the LPWS is a partially-autonomous, rapid-fire, computer-controlled, radar-guided Gatling gun that has been retooled to form