In Japan, Md. governor is wowed by super-fast trains — with big price tags

Line and questioned whether it is a wise investment for the state. But as for the maglev, the state government is “very interested in studying it further and taking it to the next level,” he said, and the Japanese government is “very interested in being involved in financing the project.” The two leaders agreed on a “memorandum of cooperation” that addresses liquefied natural gas exports to Japan, scientific and cultural exchanges — and maglev rail. Certainly, Japan is also desperate to sell the high-tech trains. Abe has been busy touting its rail technology as part of his plan to get the world’s third-largest economy back on track. In addition to promoting maglev for the Northeast corridor, when he visited the United States in April, Abe tried to persuade California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) to choose Japanese companies to build a $68 billion high-speed non-maglev railway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A separate project is underway to sell Japanese trains to Texas, linking Dallas and Houston. But, as with so many things in Japan, this is also about China. China is fast catching up with Japan when it comes to train technology, and its companies are also looking for export opportunities. In a time of increasing concerns about China, Abe has suggested that the maglev could stand as a testament to the strong alliance between the United States and Japan. “I have just proposed to President Obama that this technology be introduced to the Northeast part of the United States as a symbol of Japan-U.S. cooperation,” he said last year on the 50th anniversary of the shinkansen, a train he said was “symbolic of safety and peace of mind.” In the wake of the Amtrak accident near Philadelphia that killed eight people last month, Japan’s safety record could be its strongest selling point. Asked about the crash, Hogan said that “one of the beautiful things about this technology is that an accident like that couldn’t happen.” “You can’t have driver error because there is no driver,” Hogan said. For his part, Hogan seemed sold. As he left the maglev site on Thursday evening, he joked to his Japanese counterparts: “You had me at 314 miles per hour.” World’s fastest passenger train breaks its own speed record This train could take you from D.C. to New York in less than an hour VIDEO: The future of train travel in the U.S.


Police looking for evidence linking assistant to Savopoulos killings

Left: Savvas Savopoulos and Amy Savopoulos at the Starlight Children’s Foundation MidAtlantic’s Wine Dinner in 2008. Right: Veralicia Figueroa ((LEFT) Tony Powell/Washington Life Magazine, (RIGHT) Courtesy of Veralicia Figueroa's family) D.C. police searched the BMW owned by Savvas Savopoulos’s assistant, looking for evidence that could link him to last month’s quadruple killing inside a Northwest Washington home, according to a search warrant application made public Thursday. Jordan Wallace’s vehicle was found parked one block from the Savopoulos home on Woodland Drive on May 14, after the house had been set on fire with the bodies of Savopoulos, 46; his wife, Amy, 47; their son, Philip, 10; and their housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57, inside. Wallace had told police that he drove to the house after learning of the fire. The warrant shows police have been looking into the activities of the 28-year-old chauffeur and assistant as they investigate the case. Police have said the three members of the Savopoulos family and their housekeeper were held captive for 19 hours and then killed after Wallace delivered a $40,000 ransom to the home. Wallace brought the money at the behest of Savvas Savopoulos, according to police. Efforts by The Washington Post to reach Wallace over the past week have been unsuccessful. Lt. Sean Conboy, a D.C. police spokesman, said the department had no comment on the information contained in the newly unsealed search warrant. Wallace has not been charged with a crime, and court documents do not name him as a suspect. Daron Dylon Wint (Reuters) Authorities said in the warrant application that they were searching the BMW for “forensic and physical evidence linking Jordan Wallace to this offense.” Items they seized included two backpacks, a laptop computer and fast-food receipts. Police also took swabs of the interior of the car and pieces of the vehicle, including the armrest handles. Police have charged Daron Dylon Wint, 34, with murder in the case but have said in court documents that they think others helped in the scheme and killings. Four people who were with Wint when he was arrested in Northeast Washington last month were released without being charged. No explanation has been given by authorities. Police have said that Wint at one time worked for Savopoulos’s American Iron Works company in Hyattsville. Additional search warrant applications made public Wednesday show that detectives searched vehicles Wint was linked to, looking for clothing or shoes


Cholera’s fresh attack in Haiti

Anderson Didier, 5, hugs his balloon while receiving treatment for cholera symptoms at the Samaritan's Purse cholera treatment facility in Cabaret. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post) THE FIGHT against the cholera epidemic in Haiti, by far the world’s worst in recent years, has been a hard slog. Still, the number of new cases had fallen precipitously, to just 1,000 per month for much of 2014 from an average in 2011 of nearly 30,000 per month. But a recent spike — to about 1,000 new cases per week — is a grim reminder of how much is left to do to eradicate an illness that was virtually unknown in Haiti until U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal introduced it in 2010. The surge in new cases It’s impossible to know whether flagging contributions reflect donor fatigue or the fact that relatively few cholera victims end up dying (less than 1 percent), thanks to quicker recognition and treatment in many parts of the country. Still, tighter money means longer odds for tackling the disease over the long term. A plan to eliminate cholera in Haiti by 2022, devised in coordination with the Port-au-Prince government, was pegged to cost $2.2 billion. But of the $1.7 billion sought to execute the first five years of the plan, from 2013 to 2018, only 17 percent — about $286 million — has been raised and spent so far. That means that blueprints to improve and replace portions of Haiti’s glaringly inadequate water and sanitation infrastructure are not being implemented. In the absence of those upgrades, more Haitians will continue to succumb to cholera, a diarrheal illness caused by consuming contaminated food and water. Vaccinations have been a major focus of international health organizations combating cholera in Haiti. Yet in a country of more than 10 million people, fewer than 400,000 Haitians have received the cholera vaccine despite the efforts of organizations such as Partners in Health, which has vaccinated thousands of people in rural areas, and a Haitian group called GHESKIO, which has done similar work in the slums of Port-au-Prince. Supplies of the vaccine, which was not in wide demand before the Haitian outbreak, remain limited. The United Nations has done extensive and admirable work in Haiti, including on public health, but it maintains it is immune from legal liability for the cholera epidemic. This is despite the consensus of health experts that U.N. peacekeepers introduced the disease


Classical music: A season of fine festivals

culminates with a public performance in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and this year’s guest conductors include David Alan Miller, Rossen Milanov and Asher Fisch. The program also features chamber concerts, family concerts (“Peter and the Wolf”) and open rehearsals. National Orchestral Institute May 28-June 27 with weekly performances at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University Boulevard and Stadium Drive, College Park. 301-405-2787. www.theclarice.umd.edu/series/2015-national-orchestral-institute-festival. Another educational program linked to a concert series, the Washington International Piano Festival brings in recognized pianists — this year, Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, among others — to teach, hold master classes and perform. This year, Catholic University, which hosts the event, also is teaming it with its inaugural Catholic University of America Piano Competition; first prize includes a couple of solo appearances in the Washington area during the 2015-16 season. Washington International Piano Festival Wolf Trap remains the granddaddy of the area’s summer classical festivals. The National Symphony Orchestra’s summer series offers a few highlights — Emanuel Ax in the Brahms Concerto No. 2 — among the various video-game and John Williams concerts. And the Wolf Trap Opera, one of the best young-artist programs in the country, is offering four pieces: “Aida,” “Madama Butterfly,” “The Marriage of Figaro” and, my pick, John Corigliano’s “The Ghosts of Versailles” at the Barns. NSO@Wolf Trap/Wolf Trap Opera THERE The question of whether Lorin Maazel’s Castleton festival could survive without him is being put to the test far earlier than anyone anticipated. The famous conductor died last summer, and this year the festival is being run by his widow and festival co-founder, the actress Dietlinde Maazel. Maazel has put together a program that includes Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette,” Beethoven’s Ninth and a performance of the play “Our Town,” in the name of teaching more about acting to the artists in the festival’s training program. Immediately after the festival: the inaugural season of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s summer academy for high school students at Castleton, headed by, and featuring performances with, Wynton Marsalis. Castleton Festival/Castleton Summer Jazz Academy From full orchestral concerts to pop-up concerts in 20-minute dollops to seminars for audience members on conducting, listening and Schubert, the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival in the Blue Ridge Mountains, now in its 20th year, offers a wide range of top-flight music. The long roster of artists well worth checking out includes conductor Josep Caballé-Domenech, composer Daron Hagen, cellist


Federal regulators admit they bungled investigation of deadly auto ignition

(Scott Olson/Getty Images) In a scathing self-examination, federal regulators acknowledged Friday that for years they failed to adequately address a 57-cent defect in an ignition switch that killed 109 people and injured more than 200 others. The ignition-switch problem, which could prevent air bags from deploying, endured for a dozen years before General Motors recalled 2.6 million cars last year. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator Mark Rosekind, joined in a conference call by U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, said the agency he took over less than six months ago deserved much of the blame for the deadly problem. “If there is a single explanation for why GM’s ignition defect went undetected for too long, it is that this agency believed that it understood how GM’s ignition and air-bag systems worked and we believed information from GM confirmed our beliefs,” Rosekind said. Rosekind issued two reports Friday, one examining the GM debacle and the other using it to plot a path forward for his agency. Underlying both is the realization that the introduction of the computer chip into the automotive industry 30 years ago has radically changed the landscape. That contributed in part to a record recall of more than 60 million vehicles in the United States last year, a record that seems likely to be broken this year after the recent recall of almost 35 million cars for one defect alone: air bags that can spray drivers with deadly shards of metal. GM began installing the ignition switch in some models 12 years ago, apparently unaware that if it were inadvertently jarred out of the “run” position, the air-bag system would be disabled. As the automaker became aware of the problem, one of the reports says, it failed to take action, and “key facts were withheld by, or unrecognized within, GM.” The report says GM “withheld critical information about engineering changes” that would have helped NHTSA investigators identify the defect. But the brunt of the critique falls on the shoulders of the NHTSA. The safety agency did not understand air-bag technology, accepted what GM told it without demanding sufficient accountability, didn’t dig into the problem deeply enough and failed to follow up on what it found, the report says. “Effective agencies, like effective people, need the capacity for self-reflection and to make room for self-improvement,” Foxx said in a conference call with reporters. “And that is what NHTSA is


Stopping the next pandemic today

test of the world’s epidemic response system. Ebola is hard to transmit and easy to detect. The epidemic broke out in three relatively small countries that contained no mega-city and sent only a limited number of travelers out of the region. The next time, the world might face a far more dangerous threat. A pandemic flu could be spread easily and quickly, carried by individuals with no obvious symptoms. It could explode like a wildfire in a massive city and be carried overnight by thousands of travelers to the world’s major commerce centers. To the extent there is discussion of improving the international response to epidemics, the focus has been on the need to reform the World Health Organization. Such reforms are badly needed, but even a fully effective WHO will not close the most gaping holes in the world’s epidemic response system. Even if the WHO did a better job of recognizing outbreaks that pose a risk of epidemic and alerting the world that action is needed, it does not have the substantial response function needed to combat such an epidemic. Recent discussions about creating a WHO response function — assuming that the agency could be trusted to manage it — rely largely on overburdened and underfunded nongovernmental organizations to staff a response. Thus, any new WHO response capacity will lack military-style mobile hospitals ready to be deployed; battalions of medical personnel with accompanying security support to isolate and treat the infectious and the ill; or a medical airlift capacity to move patients to places where they can get help. Here is what should be on the G-7 agenda: First, the G-7 nations — especially the United States, Britain, Germany and France — should agree to retain the capacities their militaries developed during the Ebola epidemic for infectious disease response and patient airlift. These capacities could easily dissipate now that the most acute phase of epidemic is over. In a future pandemic, the world may not have the four to six months it took to assemble these specialized units and capabilities, such as the tools to airlift infectious patients to treatment. Second, the G-7 should combine these national military resources into a single international entity — what German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called a “white helmet battalion” — that could respond to an outbreak before it becomes a full-scale epidemic. This body should have the capacity to deploy


How mankind blew the fight against climate change

Rex Tillerson in Paris this week. (Christophe Morin /Gt/Bloomberg) Correction: Bill McKibben is a distinguished scholar at Middlebury College and a founder of the group 350.org. If historians someday need to explain how mankind managed to blow the fight against climate change, they need only point to last month’s shareholder meeting at Exxon Mobil headquarters in Dallas. The meeting came two days after Texas smashed old rainfall records — almost doubled them, in some cases — and as authorities were still searching for families swept away after rivers crested many feet beyond their previous records. As Exxon Mobil’s Rex Tillerson — the highest-paid chief executive of the richest fossil fuel firm on the planet — gave his talk, the death toll from India’s heat wave mounted and pictures circulated on the Internet of Delhi’s pavement literally melting. Meanwhile, satellite images showed Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf on the edge of disintegration. And how did Tillerson react? By downplaying climate change and mocking renewable energy. To be specific, he said that “inclement weather” and sea level rise “may or may not be induced by climate change,” but in any event technology could be developed to cope with any trouble. “Mankind has this enormous capacity to deal with adversity and those solutions will present themselves as those challenges become clear,” he said. But apparently those solutions don’t include, say, the wind and sun. Exxon Mobil wouldn’t invest in renewable energy, Tillerson said, because clean technologies don’t make enough money and rely on government mandates that were (remarkable choice of words) “not sustainable.” He neglected to mention the report a week earlier from the not-very-radical International Monetary Fund detailing $5.3 trillion a year in subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. All in all, a sneering and sad performance by a man paid nearly $100,000 a day, whose company spends $100 million a day looking for new oil and gas even though scientists say we simply can’t burn most of the fossil fuel we’ve already located without devastating consequences. If any good can come from Tillerson’s performance, it’s that it forever breaks the idea that “shareholder engagement” with companies such as Exxon Mobil accomplishes anything. In the past few years, as the fossil fuel divestment movement has gathered steam, some colleges, governments and religious organizations have bucked the trend toward selling off their investments in these companies and announced that they would persuade them


D.C.-area news briefs

in the area of the 1,350-bed shelter, which is in the 400 block of Second Street NW. — Julie Zauzmer Knives were found in murder suspect’s car Police who searched a white Chevrolet Cruze in connection with the arrest of the man charged last month in the quadruple homicide at the Savopoulos family home found cash, money orders, bank receipts and two knives, according to a search warrant made public Friday. The items are part of a broad investigation into the May 14 killings of Savvas Savopoulos, 46, his wife, Amy, 47, their son, Philip, 10, and the family housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57. Police think that the victims were held captive for 19 hours and then killed after a $40,000 ransom was paid. Police have charged Daron Dylon Wint, 34, who was in the car when arrested, with murder in the case. Authorities have said in court documents that they think others were involved in the scheme and killings. — Peter Hermann MARYLAND Arrest made in fatal shooting of teenager A Bowie man has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of an 18-year-old in the city, Prince George’s County police said Friday. Robert Anthony Myers, 22, was arrested Thursday, hours after Davonte M. King died of wounds suffered in the shooting, in the Old Town Bowie area, police said. King had been shot multiple times about 1:15 a.m. Thursday and was found in the back yard of a house in the 13000 block of Sixth Street, police said. King died at a hospital about five hours later. Before Myers was arrested, Bowie Police Chief John Nesky said investigators were searching for three people in connection with King’s shooting. It was unclear whether authorities were still searching for others in the case. — Lynh Bui Pr. George’s targets speeders near schools Prince George’s County is making use of new speed-camera technology to identify vehicles and ticket drivers traveling too fast in designated school zones. On Friday, county police unveiled a system that combines a hand-held laser gun with a camera monitor. Officers will use the devices in places where it doesn’t make sense to install speed-camera boxes, said Maj. Robert Liberati, head of the police force’s automated-enforcement unit. The county will start with two of the devices as part of a pilot program and will expand the initiative if it is successful, Liberati said. — Lynh Bui


Even where it’s legal for parents to smoke pot: What about the kids?

Candace Junkin is the founder and head of the International Women's Cannabis Conference, which works to share the voices of women and mothers for the legalization of marijuana. She is photographed at her St. Mary's County, Md., home. (Reza A. Marvashti / For the Washington Post) Like the parent of any toddler and kindergartner, Jared wants to keep certain things out of reach. Liquor is stored out of sight in a cupboard. The household cleaners are safely kept behind childproof locks. And the marijuana is stashed high on a shelf in a fireproof lockbox. Evenings fall into a familiar routine. Family dinner. Baths. Then, after their daughters are snuggled in for the night, Jared slips out onto the back deck of their District apartment and smokes a now-legal bowl of marijuana. “It relaxes me. And it helps me get perspective to see the big picture. I find that enjoyable,” said Jared, a rare parent in the District who was willing to talk openly about his marijuana use. He asked that his full name not be used because he is concerned about the impact on his children. Jared said he and other pot-smoking parents he knows have one ironclad rule: They don’t smoke in front of their kids. Yet what will happen once the kids figure out Dad’s on the balcony getting high? Marijuana sold by a local dealer in Washington. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) More than half the country supports legalizing marijuana, according to polls. But it’s this question — What about the kids? — that provokes unease, even outrage, and keeps many pot- using parents uncertain about how to navigate the “new normal” of legalized marijuana. The stakes are high for both parents and kids. Even where the drug is legal, parental pot-smoking can be considered as a factor in child-neglect cases, just like alcohol. As a result, some parents have been accused of endangering their children and had them taken away by child protective service agencies. There are fears that if parents reveal their use, teens will be more likely to give it a try, a phenomenon supported by research. And although the science is fairly new, some studies have found heavy marijuana use in adolescence can permanently disrupt key networks in the developing brain associated with memory and processing information. “For parents, this is a confusing time. If they’re users, how are they going to talk


Do women start a brewery to make a ‘woman’s beer’? Not by a long shot.

Denizens Brewing’s four founders: Jeff Ramirez, from left, Emily Bruno, Taylor Barnes and Julie Verratti. (David Barnes/Denizens Brewing) For a startup that’s less than a year old, Denizens Brewing in Silver Spring is most unusual. It’s big. This 11,100-square-foot property, a 10-minute walk from the Silver Spring Metro station on the Red Line, has an upstairs and downstairs bar as well as a beer garden — not an overhyped patio, but a spacious outdoor deck that can accommodate 200. The 15-barrel brewhouse is on pace to spit out 1,700 barrels this year. (The average brewpub, according to Brewers Association figures, turned out 829 barrels in 2014.) The beer selection is diverse. Southside Rye IPA, full of pine, citrus and pumpernickel flavors, is the flagship beer, the obligatory hopheads’ offering. Born Bohemian, a Czech-style Pilsener, is a soft, bready golden lager made from European ingredients and executed flawlessly. Alcohol-wise, the 10 selections vary from the 4.5 percent Mildly Soba (a crisp, dark British-style session beer) to Ill Padrino, a Belgian-style quadruple, at 11.2 percent. A sour beer program, ambitious for a neophyte brewery, had yielded two beers at the time of my recent visit. The Wee Bit Funkay wee heavy has a gentle sweet-tart flavor, the product of a joint fermentation with a normal Saccharomyces ale yeast and a Brettanomyces strain. The immensely dry Brett Leroy IPA, fermented with 100 percent Brett, combines a piercing acidity with fruity American and Australian hops. “I’ve had people describe it as ‘like drinking a warhead,’ ” says Julie Verratti, the company’s director of business development. But what really separates Denizens from other area breweries is that it’s primarily women-owned. Brewmaster Jeff Ramirez is the lone male among the founders. The other partners include Verratti and her spouse, Emily Bruno, and Director of Marketing Taylor Barnes. The three women met on the job: Bruno and Barnes worked for the National Women’s Business Council, while Verratti toiled in a neighboring office for the U.S. Small Business Administration. The name “Denizens” reflects their goal of opening a neighborhood watering hole in a suburb once noted for its lack of nightlife. (The brewery originally was to have been called Citizens Brewing, but the partners agreed to a name switch after DC Brau complained about possible confusion with its pale ale, the Citizen.) For the brewery’s soft opening in July 2014, the partners invited the residents of several neighboring


Got mosquitoes? Prince William mixes old and new ways to hunt bugs

Tim McGonegal, branch chief of Prince William County’s mosquito and forest pest management program, shows the characteristics of an Asian tiger mosquito under a microscope. (Victoria St. Martin/The Washington Post) She’s dressed as though she’s ready for a safari: khaki pants, long laced-up boots, a mask. But when Valerie Huelsman scoops up a bit of water and presses her brown eyeglasses on the edge of the dipping cup, she’s looking for tiny swimmers — mosquito pupae and larvae are like her gold. When she finds them, Huelsman, a program specialist with Prince William County’s mosquito and forest pest management program, pulls out a bottle of what looks like ordinary corn. She begins sprinkling the niblets, which are coated with two kinds of bacteria deadly to mosquitoes, over the swampy water. And just like that, she has stopped those pesky mosquitoes in their tracks. Huelsman is like the fairy godmother for county residents who don’t like getting bitten by mosquitoes. She’s armed with special corn and an iPad, on which she and other county technicians use an app to input the location, type of larva and treatment they used. The height of mosquito season — which runs from April to October — is here. And Prince William pest experts said they are ready. “We’re focusing on the larval habitats; that way we can kind of just go in and target the mosquitoes specifically,” said Huelsman, now in her seventh summer of treating the area for the insects. Tim McGonegal, branch chief of the county’s mosquito and forest pest management program, has been mixing a little technology with traditional methods since he started working for the program five years ago. Along with apps and bacteria-laced corn, his technicians use three kinds of mosquito traps and occasionally spray insecticides to control adult mosquitoes, although that hasn’t happened this season. “It’s definitely picking up — the heat of the mosquito season,” McGonegal said. “One female, 300 to 350 eggs, and if she doesn’t die naturally or we don’t kill her, she can do that three times in her life. You’re going to get a lot of mosquitoes; it gets out of hand quickly.” There are about 40 species of mosquitoes in Northern Virginia. But McGonegal and his team are setting their sights on the Asian tiger mosquito, which has been around the area for 12 years. That’s the one that likes back yards the


Before opening, Whole Foods emerges as a symbol of progress in Pr. George’s

that it succeeds, because it’s a done deal,” she said. “We are not happy with it, but we are stuck with it.” Whole Foods, which has 16 stores in the Washington region and is developing seven others, said it is excited to open its first store in the county. “There is no way that we could sit on the sidelines and not do something in Prince George’s County,” said Mark Hughes, construction coordinator for Whole Foods Market’s Mid-Atlantic region. “It is becoming more and more of a place that we need to be.” Whole Foods officials would not predict when the store will open, saying it is dependent on the overall project’s progress. Calvin Cafritz Enterprises received permits last month to begin construction of an additional 120,000 square feet of retail space at the site, and work on those buildings is expected to begin later this year. For now, the focus is on the interior of the Whole Foods, and sewer, water and utilities for the entire development. The developer is expected to widen Route 1, add bike lanes and install a traffic signal at Van Buren Street to provide access to the site. When completed, Riverdale Park Station will offer “a true hub for the region,” where people can meet friends, shop, work and play, developer Jane Cafritz said. County officials, who have worked closely with the Cafritzes to develop the site north of East-West Highway, say the project will deliver 463 full-time jobs and generate nearly $5 million a year in tax revenue for the county. And, they say, it will drive economic development in the Route 1 corridor, an area where the county is focusing revitalization efforts, and where it hopes to attract more upscale retail and dining options. “Four years ago, the cry from the county leaders was ‘the county doesn’t get respect, no one is coming here, we can’t bring high-level development and amenities here,’ ” said state Sen. Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince George’s). “We are making a major, major push, and this is just symptomatic and emblematic of that dynamic that’s changing Prince George’s County.” Pirovic said homes are selling for more than the asking price, and in the past couple of years more people from places such as Capitol Hill, Arlington and Alexandria have moved into the area, which has a diverse housing stock, from Colonials to ramblers and Cape Cods, with prices


Mr. Hogan’s fantasy ride

The quote “There’s a sucker born every minute” came to mind when I read the June 5 front-page article “Maglev gets Hogan’s mind racing,” about Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) fascination with Japanese “maglev” trains. Then I realized that this was just another red herring used to delay dealing with Maryland’s real transportation needs: Pretend that you will follow this pie-in-the-sky idea and get people’s minds off the fact that no decision has been reached on the Purple Line or Baltimore’s Red Line. Never mind that Mr. Hogan was riding on a 26-mile test track and even Japan can’t build this white elephant. John Fay, Wheaton ● Like St. Paul on the road to Damascus, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan seems to have undergone a conversion in Japan: to believing in the blessings of public transportation. Dare we hope that upon returning to this country he will put on the purple, so to speak, and confer those blessings on the residents of Prince George’s and Montgomery counties? Robert S. Hagen, Springfield


Healthy Back Store’s owner ready for his second chance

screeching halt. “On an average day, we would do between $80,000 to $100,000 over all the stores,” Mazlish said. Fridays were especially good. “That Friday, we did $10,000. The spigot turned off. We have been shrinking and reinventing ourselves since then.” A bankruptcy filing became an inevitability. Mazlish said there were several causes that led to the reorganization, including competition from Sleepy’s, which cut hugely into its mattress sales, reducing it from 55 percent of revenue to around 40. Customers also started going online for the little stuff like pillows and lumbar supports, which are high-margin items that often would lead to bigger sales. But the biggest reason was that his stores were spread out across a continent, including locations in Richmond and in North Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Colorado and California. “We were in too many markets with too few stores,” Mazlish said. “We thought we could plunk stores down in individual markets at good locations and do well. But the logistics to make sure we had inventory became very expensive.” A Florida store that opened last August bombed, losing $200,000 in six months and leaving the company on the hook for a five-year lease costing $1 million. Healthy Back lost $800,000 last year, and Mazlish knew by February 2015 that he might have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to help get out of the unfavorable leases. With the bankruptcy, shareholders in the company typically lose their money. Mazlish said he is out about $1 million in all. Several other investors lost their shares, too. Some have stuck with him. A bankruptcy judge recently approved the sale of the Healthy Back Store assets to Healthy Back Brand Holdings. The new business kept alive the 10 most profitable stores, six of which are in the Washington area. There is one in Kentucky and three in California, all in San Diego. The company still has more than $1 million in debt, which it has assumed. The business plan going forward is to shift and make bedding even more of a speciality and focus on office seating and home furnishings. The company also has launched its own Svago brand of recliner chairs, which can be sold through the stores and directly to the consumer online. “The best future for us is to be a back store. Not in the bedding business. But in the back business.” Did I hear “back in business?”


South Koreans blame government in spiraling MERS outbreak

SEOUL — A sixth person died of the virus, and it was confirmed in 23 more people — including a 16-year-old boy — on Monday, marking the biggest single-day jump in infections. With 87 cases, South Korea has overtaken the United Arab Emirates to become the second-worst-affected country after Saudi Arabia, where the virus emerged three years ago. The spiraling health crisis — and the widespread perception that her administration has been slow and blundering in its response — has led to calls for Park to delay a trip to the United States, set to start Sunday. Her visit is scheduled to include talks at the White House with President Obama on June 16. But Park’s spokesman said Monday that there was “nothing to announce” regarding her planned trip. Park’s government — already struggling with public trust in the wake of the Sewol ferry disaster last year that killed more than 300 people — has been widely criticized for trying to keep key details from the public, especially by declining to name the hospitals where infected patients were treated. Foreign tourists wear masks as a precaution against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) on the Myeongdong, one of the main shopping districts, in Seoul. (Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press) “I think the spread could have been ended much earlier if we reacted more thoroughly in the initial stage. I feel very sorry about that,” Moon Hyung-pyo, the nation’s health minister, said at a news conference Monday. As a World Health Organization team arrived in Seoul, he predicted that the outbreak had reached its peak. “It may hopefully go into a stable condition tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” he said, according to a Yonhap News Agency report. The respiratory virus, which appears to have jumped from camels to humans, arrived in South Korea last month in a 68-year-old man who had traveled to four Middle Eastern countries, and went to four hospitals upon his return to try to find out what was wrong with him. Almost all the transmissions have occurred in hospitals where infected people were treated. A member of the South Korean air force who is stationed at an American military base in Osan, near one of the hospitals visited by “Patient Zero,” was infected after visiting the hospital for an Achilles tendon injury. The sixth person to die from the virus was an 80-year-old man at a hospital in the


Md. panel on policing begins its work by focusing on diversity, training

have been arrested in Gray’s death. Pugh said she has concerns about psychological testing for officers. Officials with the Maryland Police Training Commission said entry-level officers are given a psychological exam. It varies by department who administers the exam, and state regulations do not require additional mental-health testing. Vince Canales, president of the Maryland Fraternal Order of Police, said the state’s attention to recruitment and diversity are welcome and “overdue.” But he said the state must consider the consequences of additional psychological testing of officers. He rattled off a list of concerns. “What do you do with the officer if he is deemed not to be fit to be on the street?” Canales asked. “Do they maintain employment? Do they find new jobs? How does that affect smaller jurisdictions that have a six-member force? Do you now create a disability claim for that officer who when they came on the job was in good health?” Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles), who served in the military, raised questions about the firearms training that officers receive. “My biggest issue is the physical and technical proficiency of the officers,” said Wilson, noting cases in which officers have used deadly force when a person is wielding a knife 20 feet away. “The way you train is the way you fight.” Anderson said the mission of the work group, which will submit recommendations to the General Assembly on Nov. 24 for next year’s legislative session, is to improve policing and police standards across the state, not just for Baltimore and Prince George’s County, the state’s predominately black communities. “The citizens need the police and the police need citizens,” Anderson said. “It’s our role to restore the trust that existed in the past and still exists in many communities.” The hearing room Monday was filled with officers and sheriffs deputies from across the state, including Charles, Montgomery and Harford counties, and criminal justice advocates pushing for transparency and police accountability. The panel will hold five monthly meetings. In two weeks, it will delve further into recruitment and hiring practices. The panel will hold an evening town hall meeting to hear from residents about their issues involving law enforcement. In August, the committee will discuss the Law Enforcement Bill of Rights, which among other things gives officers 10 days to secure representation before cooperating with an investigation. The remaining discussions will focus on “best practices” and community policing.


Better focus at TSA

Regarding the June 7 editorial “Flying blind ”: Because a new report finds that the Transportation Security Administration’s searches detect deadly dangers to travelers only 5 percent of the time, it’s imperative that the agency concentrate its scarce and expensive resources on passengers most likely to pose a serious threat. Both common sense and a detailed mathematical study suggest that selecting young Muslim males for secondary screening more often than toddlers or elderly Asian females would substantially increase the TSA’s ability to protect Americans. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Justice Department have found that using such factors as age, gender and ethnicity to help select targets for enhanced screening is constitutional. John F. Banzhaf III, Arlington ● We need to overcome our fear and start using common sense. I am one of probably thousands of people who go through the Transportation Security Administration lines and think, is this really working? Well, obviously it’s not. I went through a line with scissors in my purse that TSA agents missed as they were flirting with one another, ignoring the people in line and obviously their screens as well. These security measures are more for our peace of mind than for thwarting terrorist attacks. Yes, we need security, but let’s use common sense — and the money — to do some good rather than just give us a false sense of security. Mary Ann Lacouture, Port Republic, Md.


What is at stake in Ukraine if Russia continues its onslaught

economic deregulation to cut away the jungle of red tape that stifles enterprise and enables corruption. We are removing the distorting influence of business tycoons in economic and public life. We have delegated financial authority to local communities, which are closer to our citizens. Our tough decision to impose large domestic gas tariffs will simultaneously remove a main avenue of corruption, increase efficiency, boost domestic production and reduce the need for Russian imports. We have initiated a wave of corruption investigations and arrests, including against senior state officials. We significantly reduced the civil service workforce. The tax system is being simplified to encourage investment and reduce fraud. And these are just the headlines of a much bigger program. Responsibility for seeing these reforms through lies with Ukraine alone. But we need the support of our partners to help us stabilize our economy and deter further Russian aggression while we carry them out. We are grateful for the help we have already received. We would not have been able to stabilize our financial position without the International Monetary Fund program agreed to in February. We will need more support in the form of U.S. bilateral aid, technical assistance, private investment and leadership within international financial institutions. We also need international sanctions on Russia to remain in place until the Minsk Agreement has been fully implemented. No one should have any doubt what is at stake. The great achievement of a “Europe whole and free” that marked the end of the Cold War is under direct attack from resurgent Russian authoritarianism and imperialism. Ukraine is bearing the brunt of that attack, but the consequences of allowing our independence to be crushed would not be contained within Ukraine. It would give rise to new threats and crises that would be even more difficult and costly to resolve. The democratic idea itself would be undermined. Together, we can prevent that. With our firm commitment to reform and the support of our partners, we can fulfill the dreams of our nation for freedom and prosperity. Democracy is the most powerful idea ever conceived and never more so than when democratic nations stand shoulder to shoulder. That has been the lesson of U.S. leadership over the past century. It remains our inspiration today. Read more about this topic: The Post’s View: A mysterious illness hits a Russian activist The Post’s View: No time for passivity in


Why this chef is turning mushrooms into ‘bacon’ and tofu into ‘blue cheese’

like cream in my coffee, and I love oysters” — Kassoff became interested in plant-based cuisine after spending several years working as a sales rep for Sysco. She sold foie gras, ducks and geese to Washington-area restaurants, meeting the chef who would become her husband while on a sales call. However, one day, she says, “I had an eye-opener into the world of meat production, and the way things were raised really got to me. And I just said, ‘That’s it.’ ” Kassoff’s move toward part-time veganism was not a turnoff for Gray, trained in classical French and Italian cooking, where proteins are often considered more of a condiment than a centerpiece. And he was already well versed in seasonal cooking after working in his early career with chefs Roberto Donna and Jean-Louis Palladin. While Gray began seriously playing with vegan dishes as early as 2002, he and Kassoff had a sense that a plant-based diet was, as she puts it, “something for smelly hippies . . . and we did go to a lot of Grateful Dead concerts.” “If anyone had told me 10 years ago that I’d be flirting with making dashi with local mushrooms,” says Gray, “I would’ve said, ‘You’re out of your freaking mind.’ But that’s the evolution, and it’s exciting for me.” (T.J. Kirkpatrick/For The Washington Post) When in 2011 they opened Todd Gray’s Muse at the Corcoran, Kassoff saw a chance to experiment: “I always wanted to have my own little hippy-dippy vegan cafe, so Todd agreed we could try it — once a month.” They decided to offer a completely vegan brunch, advertising only by word of mouth, and it filled up completely the first time. By the third month, there was a waiting list to get in, and demand was so high that they decided to have it every Sunday rather than once a month. “We had no proper kitchen,” remembers Gray, “just a panini press and two induction burners. It was like someone had opened the floodgates.” For Kassoff, it was a chance to connect with other people who were “vegan-curious.” “The stories of who these diners were was fascinating,” she says. “We spent a lot of time just talking to people and finding out why they were there. Some people were actually vegetarian or vegan, but others were their non-vegan spouses or people who were health- or environmentally conscious and


CDC, state officials track down people possibly exposed to rare form of TB

used to treat the disease, health experts said. The woman was transferred Friday to NIH in special air and ground ambulances. She was treated in a respiratory isolation unit at a suburban Chicago hospital before she came to NIH. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with health officials in at least three states, are working to track down people who may have come in contact with a woman being treated for a rare form of drug-resistant tuberculosis. As of Tuesday afternoon, she was in stable condition in an isolation unit at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md. State and federal health officials said they are working to get the passenger manifest for her flight and are trying to identify people who may have had contact with her elsewhere to check for possible signs of TB. In a statement, CDC officials said the risk of getting a contagious disease on an airplane is low. State health departments in Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee are tracking down people who may have had contact with the patient. Officials are encouraging people to touch base with health-care providers if they think they have come in contact with someone with TB symptoms, including bad coughs, fatigue, chest pain and fever. TB germs are spread through the air when a person with the disease coughs, sneezes, speaks or sings. The bacteria can remain dormant in the body before becoming active and infectious. Tests of skin and blood can be done to determine exposure to TB. Medication can be given to people to prevent the bacteria from becoming active, with treatment lasting up to nine months. In a statement, NIH said it is taking precautions for the safety of its patients and staff and that the situation is of minimal risk. The resistant form of TB is rare, with 63 cases reported in the United States between 1993 and 2011. That compares with more than a total of 312,000 cases of TB during the same period, according to CDC data. Health experts said resistant TB appears in infected people who do not take their medicine regularly, or in people who come from areas of the world where the disease is common. TB has been especially common in developing countries, with most cases appearing in Africa and Asia. The World Health Organization reported a total of 9 million new cases in 2013, resulting in 1.5 million deaths.


Roger Vergé, French chef who championed nouvelle cuisine, dies at 85

John Travolta in 1987 has a whiff before tasting a meal prepared by French chef Roger Vergé at the Moulin de Mougins restaurant near Cannes, France. (Gilberte Tourte/AP) Roger Vergé, a French chef who was a leading figure in the nouvelle cuisine movement of light, fresh and elegant preparations and who influenced generations of chefs, died June 5 at his home in Mougins. He was 85. The cause was complications from diabetes, his daughter Cordélia Vergé told the New York Times. At the French Riviera restaurant he long led, Le Moulin de Mougins, he impressed critics with such preparations as zucchini flower and black truffle roll (a signature dish) as well as scallops with oranges and artichokes. In his cookbook “Cuisine of the Sun,” he extolled “marrying natural products with one another, of finding simple harmonies and enhancing the flavor of each ingredient by contact with another with a complementary flavor.” His reputation regularly drew celebrities to Le Moulin during the annual film festival in nearby Cannes. He and fellow chefs Paul Bocuse and Gaston Lenôtre also opened Les Chefs de France restaurant at the French Pavilion at Disney’s Epcot Center near Orlando in the early 1980s. A blacksmith’s son, Roger Vergé was born on April 7, 1930, in Commentry, a town in central France. He labored at restaurants in France, Morocco, Switzerland and Jamaica. He started Le Moulin de Mougins in 1969 and quickly won his first star in the prestigious Michelin Guide; in 1974, he earned three stars, cementing his renown in the culinary world. The restaurant became a training ground for future titans of refined cooking such as Alain Ducasse and David Bouley. His later ventures included a cooking school, a line of china and glassware, and a range of food products, and even a stove that was marketed with his name. An early marriage ended in divorce. Survivors include his second wife, Denise, with whom he opened Le Moulin de Mougins; two daughters from his first marriage, Chantal and Brigitte; a daughter from his second marriage, Cordélia; and three grandchildren, the Times reported. Correction: An earlier version of this obituary incorrectly reported that Mr. Vergé was born on April 30, 1930. A look at those who have died. — From staff reports and wire services


2 deadly train derailments in 18 months prompt new safety advisory

When Amtrak Train 188, going from D.C. to New York, derailed in Philadelphia it not only claimed lives and injured hundreds, it shook a city. Commuter railroads carrying hundreds of millions of passengers a year should learn the early lessons of last month’s deadly Amtrak derailment and immediately make stopgap automatic-braking fixes, according to a federal safety advisory released Tuesday. If they can’t do that, they should add a second person to their locomotive cabs or increase onboard communications to prevent engineers from speeding, it said. The advisory issued by the Federal Railroad Administration comes at a time when most railroads say they will miss Congress’s year-end deadline for employing a more sophisticated and far-reaching automatic-braking technology, known as positive train control. A survey by the American Public Transportation Association found that just 29 percent of commuter rail agencies say they will make the December deadline. Freight railroad companies say they will complete installation along just 18 percent of the required 62,364 miles by the deadline, complicating matters for commuter lines because passenger trains often ride on freight-owned tracks. Washington-area lines carrying commuters into the nation’s capital from Maryland and Virginia — MARC and Virginia Railway Express — are among the railroads that won’t have the congressionally mandated safety systems operational by the deadline, officials with those companies said. Both said they will have onboard electronics put in but will still need to complete the complex task of linking up with technology that is the responsibility of other rail lines, including Amtrak and CSX. As for Tuesday’s safety advisory, “Amtrak and CSX operate independently so details on the actual implementation of the new recommendations may vary,” the Maryland Transit Administration said in a statement. VRE spokesman Bryan L. Jungwirth said VRE has older automatic-breaking features in place that would stop a speeding train and prevented an Amtrak-like derailment on its system. Tuesday’s safety advisory for passenger railroads follows last month’s emergency order instructing Amtrak to make a series of immediate safety improvements. The basic idea is similar for both: that railroads should identify places where the speed limit approaching a curve is more than 20 mph faster than the speed limit on the curve itself. Railroads would then be expected to rejigger existing safety systems — which may have been designed to help keep trains from plowing through signals — so they can instead stop trains from heading too fast


SpaceX founder files with government to provide Internet service from space

avoid. Musk has his own rocket, and he has said his swarm of satellites will be more efficient and inexpensive than relying on a handful of big devices that are difficult to replace. Dish Network and DirecTV, for instance, have for years relied on a few older satellites that are cast much farther into space and can serve only specific regions such as the United States. SpaceX’s web of satellites would wrap around Earth in low orbit, handing off Internet signals to one another to make connections more reliable and to reach more areas. Elon Musk unveils SpaceX's new seven-seat Dragon V2 spacecraft, in Hawthorne, Calif., last year. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images) The filing, made with the Federal Communications Commission late last month, is the first public glimpse into how Musk will move ahead with the project. Musk isn’t the only billionaire entrepreneur who is pursuing such an idea. Virgin’s Richard Branson has partnered with a company with similar ambitions. Both ventures would have to succeed where many have failed. Facebook recently abandoned its plan to build a $500 million satellite that would provide Internet service across the globe, according to the Information, a tech site. And a previous effort by a firm called LightSquared to use satellites to provide wireless service fell apart three years ago, despite initial backing from the FCC. Military officials complained at the time that the technology interfered with the radar used by planes — a problem that shouldn’t hinder Musk’s effort, industry officials said. Musk’s FCC filing proposes tests starting next year. If all goes well, the service could be up and running in about five years. The satellites would be deployed from one of SpaceX’s rockets, the Falcon 9. Once in orbit, the satellites would connect to ground stations at three West Coast facilities. The purpose of the tests is to see whether the antenna technology used on the satellites will be able to deliver high-speed Internet to the ground without hiccups. Despite a history of failed satellite ventures, wealthy individuals and companies are pouring fresh funds into exploring satellite-based communications. Google and Fidelity recently invested $1 billion into SpaceX, in part to support the satellite broadband Internet project. A new book on Elon Musk offers an unforgettable look at the leader of Tesla and SpaceX. Here are some anecdotes and quotes that stood out. A company called OneWeb, backed by Virgin’s Branson and


South Korea’s Park is criticized for postponing U.S. visit

South Korea announced two more deaths from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, bringing the total to nine. TOKYO — But Park decided she had to stay home as new cases of the disease, Middle East respiratory syndrome, continue to emerge despite government predictions that the worst is over. The move is “designed to take care of public safety, including putting a quick end to MERS,” Kim Sung-woo, Park’s spokesman, told reporters, according to the Yonhap News Agency. Park has delayed the trip as “the people’s safety is the top priority,” and she will try to ease public concern at home, Kim said. Park was due to leave Sunday for the United States, where she was to hold meetings with President Obama on Tuesday and visit Houston. In Washington, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said that “President Obama looks forward to welcoming President Park to the White House at a mutually convenient time.” The country has taken emergency measures to stop the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Two more people have died from the virus in South Korea, making a total of nine dead, health officials reported. They said 14 more cases were confirmed Thursday, pushing the number of infections to 122. Medical experts are cautioning that this outbreak is far from a pandemic, but South Koreans are alarmed. Park’s decision comes amid vociferous criticism of her government’s handling of the outbreak. The government also faced fire for its response to the Sewol ferry disaster. Park was further chastised for embarking on a trip to South America on the first anniversary of the disaster. But some critics questioned the message she was sending by staying home. She had previously told people not to “overreact” and said that everyone should “cooperate to ensure that economic activities will not be weakened.” A Realmeter poll published shortly before the announcement found that 53 percent thought Park should delay the trip, while 39 percent said she should continue with it. Fearful of contagion, South Koreans have been avoiding enclosed public places such as subway cars, shopping centers and movie theaters in droves, sparking concerns about the impact on the country's economy, which is already struggling. “If this atmosphere continues for more than a month, the domestic economy is expected to enter a slump as it did after the ferry disaster last year,” the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper, said in an editorial. Almost 2,500


Now’s your chance to sample local home brews

On June 14, DC Reynolds hosts the fifth annual Hops-N-Crops competition, featuring locally home-brewed beer, mead and kombucha. (Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg) THURSDAY OLD WORLD AND NEW WORLD WHITES: FATHER’S DAY PORT CLASS: FRIDAY TASTE OF BAHIA, BRAZIL: WINE DINNER: WINE DINNER: SATURDAY BALSAMIC VINEGAR TASTING: BEER WINE FESTIVAL: CHESAPEAKE CRAB BEER FESTIVAL: CHILI IN THE GARDEN: FARMERS MARKET COOKOUT: SUNDAY COFFEE TALK: COFFEE TALK WITH MICHAELE WEISSMAN: HOMEBREW COMPETITION: WINE CLASS: MONDAY MASON DIXON MASTER CHEF TOURNAMENT: TUESDAY BOOK SIGNINGS: RESERVE NOW JUNE 17 FRENCH COOKING CLASS: — Kara Elder Submit event listings at www.washingtonpost.com/gog/talk-to-us.html at least 14 days in advance.


The super-long-distance runner keeps his eye on the mental mileposts, too

go Track your progress In my Comrades research, one name kept coming up. Bruce Fordyce may not be well known to Americans, but he is a national hero to South Africans. Fordyce won Comrades nine times between 1981 and 1990 and became the face of the race. When I reached him by phone, Fordyce shared how he made the leap from competitor to champion. The first time he ran Comrades, as a college student in 1977, he finished 43rd. The second year, he finished 14th. He was in the top 10 at certain points in the race, but he just couldn’t hold on. “I was looking down the road. I saw the fourth and fifth guy and I realized they were just like me,” Fordyce, 59, said. “They’re tired and hurting. They aren’t superheroes. So that fired me up. I thought, ‘Now what can I do?’ ” The next year, Fordyce finished third and went on to begin his streak of top finishes. Fordyce was meticulous with his training, keeping detailed diaries of each run. “If I did all the work, all the long runs, I knew I would be ready. It doesn’t mean I’m going to win, but I know I’m not going to let myself down. That would give me quite a bit of confidence.” Easy races are easily forgotten A week before leaving for South Africa, I went on a rainy lunchtime run with Michael Wardian. Wardian is one of the world’s best endurance runners, having recently set the world record for running a 50K (31 miles) on a treadmill, which he did in just under three hours. He travels all over the world to compete and has run Comrades four times, coming in 11th in 2011. As we sloshed through mud on the trails in and around Rock Creek Park, we discussed what keeps him going after all his successes. At age 41, Wardian said he still has the fire to challenge himself and compete. His mind-set hinges on remembering his motivation. “There’s always a point where it’s going to be a struggle. You’ll feel bad, you’ll think, ‘I can’t believe there’s another hill. This isn’t fun anymore,’ ” Wardian said. “You have to remind yourself that this is what you signed up for and this is what you want. You’re not going to remember the races that were easy. The struggles are part of the


How one small Loudoun nonprofit hopes to help save the honeybee

a vital role in the food chain, and honeybee-pollinated crops have an impact of about $24 billion a year on the U.S. economy, according to the White House. On a national level, the new strategy will use a variety of methods to combat the problem, including placing restrictions on pesticides and restoring millions of acres of pollinator habitat. Locally, Loudoun’s Sustainable Honeybee Program — a volunteer-based organization with more than 50 bustling bee colonies in Neersville, Va. — is focused on the bees themselves. “Our goal is to build a more sustainable bee,” said Alex McLellan, chief operations officer for the Sustainable Honeybee Program. “It’s what we call a ‘hygienic’ bee, which is essentially a more naturally capable bee.” The program launched about 16 years ago as a for-profit business focused on raising queen bees, McLellan said. But over time, as the dangers to honeybees nationwide became more apparent, the mission of the group changed. About six years ago, the group became a nonprofit organization with the goals of creating a bee that is better positioned for survival and teaching beekeepers how to strengthen their own colonies. The organization operates under the guidance of Billy Davis, an Eastern Apicultural Society master beekeeper, who also leads classes at the Northern Virginia Teaching Consortium and gives presentations to many beekeeper clubs and groups across the region and the nation, McLellan said. So how exactly do beekeepers create a “hygienic” line of bees? The answer, McLellan said, is in the basic principle of evolution — survival of the fittest. The program accelerates that process, he said, by selectively breeding bees that demonstrate traits that are critical to survival. In other words, the bees have to pass a few tests. “We look for certain characteristics — the principal one is hygienic behavior,” McLellan said, meaning the ability of the bees to “detect and remove diseased bees from the colony.” The beekeepers test this behavior by using liquid nitrogen to deliberately destroy a certain number of bees, usually about 100, in the honeycomb, McLellan said. “Then we come back 24 hours later and see how many have been removed,” he said. “If they have removed 100 dead bees, then we consider the hive to be 100 percent hygienic.” The group tests for other characteristics as well, McLellan said, “but this is the most important — their ability to take care of themselves, to detect when


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These cases were received from the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. A matted matter: Basement blockade: Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Adopt or foster rescue dogs: Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


After the riots, Baltimore’s best shot at redemption may be its arts community

of living here has brought prospective students to the school. And that, says Duff, turned Station North into the first act of “La Boheme,” a community of impecunious artists starving in their garrets. He determined to create the next Act here — a place where artists stay and might even raise families. Like Caitlin Byrnes, a burlesque performer and holistic health coach who says she “fell in love” with living here. Or Qwishuna Smith, a leather and graphics artist who put herself on a waiting list to secure one of the artists’ apartments. “We wouldn’t change it for anything,” says Lena Leone, despite having witnessed a street fight among carloads of young men right outside her door. Leone has found a community of longtime residents who offer neighborly support she’s never experienced elsewhere. Still, this is a city in which 100 people had been slain this year by late May. And Freddie Gray’s death put a focus on those problems. Smith was coming home from a wedding one night after the riots when an eerie voice from a helicopter overhead told her to get inside, before the 10 p.m. curfew. Could the riots frighten away the very “community involvement, tourism and revitalization” Baltimore is finally attracting? They certainly made many people retreat from the big-picture questions Hopkins echoed at the symposium — of whether Station North can help make Baltimore into a Brooklyn. In the weeks that followed the unrest, business owners and supporters of the arts seemed more focused on their short-term future. What it would take to recover. In fact, Jed Dietz, director of the Maryland Film Festival, which opened at the beginning of May, says 2015 ticket sales seemed as strong as ever. Joe Edwardsen, owner of Joe Squared, the coal-fired pizza parlor, says business has been good on North Avenue since the curfew lifted. His second restaurant, close to the Inner Harbor, is a different matter. The clientele there includes tourists and people from Baltimore County who have tended to shy away from the city. And the American Visionary Art Museum near the Inner Harbor recorded a 30 percent decrease in admission revenue in May. “It hurt every business,” says Frenkil. “But my guess is that people who are accustomed to patronizing these places, they will return.” Then she describes a T-shirt she’s seen that captures glass-half-full resolve that animates the arts district. “Visit Baltimore,” the


House Republicans seeks to repeal meat-label law

$653 million worth of punitive measures. Some of the biggest U.S. food and beverage companies, including Pepsico, Tyson Foods, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch and Kraft Foods, wrote to lawmakers this week urging them to support the repeal. Under the regulations, U.S. meat carries labels such as “Born, Raised and Slaughtered in the United States,” compared with labels such as, “Born in Mexico, Raised and Slaughtered in the United States.” Meat labels became mandatory in the United States in March 2009 after years of debate. U.S. consumer groups and some farm groups supported the requirement, saying shoppers should have information to be able to distinguish between U.S. and foreign products. — Reuters Also in Business ● Amgen’s Repatha won the backing of a panel of U.S. regulatory advisers for some patients, making it the second in a new class of powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs to move closer to U.S. approval this week. Repatha’s benefits outweigh its risks for some patients with difficult-to-treat high cholesterol, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted 11 to 4 on Wednesday. ●The vote followed panel approval Tuesday of a similar drug by Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceutical. ● The cost of cleaning up the oil spill that fouled beaches last month on the California coast has reached $69 million, a pipeline company official said. Costs are running at $3 million a day, and there is no timetable for when the cleanup will be complete, according to Patrick Hodgins, Plains All American Pipeline’s on-scene coordinator. ● Fitness-tracker maker Jawbone has filed its second lawsuit in two weeks against competitor Fitbit. The complaint says that essentially all of Fitbit’s wearable products violate patents belonging to Jawbone. Fitbit did not immediately comment. Last month, Jawbone sued Fitbit and a group of employees who quit Jawbone to work for Fitbit, saying they stole trade secrets, business plans, market research and other information. Fitbit said it would defend itself in court. ● Target reiterated a 7.7 percent increase in its dividend to 56 cents in an official statement, a day after a similar announcement was posted on its Web site by mistake, then promptly removed, befuddling investors who sent the stock up on the news. The retailer also affirmed a $5 billion boost to its stock buyback plan. — From news services Coming Today ● 8:30 a.m.: Retail sales for May and weekly jobless claims. ● 10 a.m.: Weekly mortgage rates. ● Earnings: Bojangles’


Aung San Suu Kyi should stand up for Liu Xiaobo

to free her. Now, however, that support obliges Aung San Suu Kyi to speak out on behalf of another famous prisoner of conscience: her fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Liu is serving an 11-year prison term for nothing more than co-authoring a call for democratic freedoms in China. When he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 , the Chinese government would not allow him, or even his wife, to travel to Oslo to accept the award. He remains the world’s only Nobel Peace Prize winner who is languishing in a dictator’s dungeon. Aung San Suu Kyi can make a powerful statement by urging Chinese President Xi Jinping to release Liu. By doing so, she can add her voice to those of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the late Czech leader Václav Havel, the Dalai Lama and countless other champions of freedom. More important, she can plausibly persuade Xi that such a gesture would strengthen, and not weaken, his legitimacy in the eyes of the Chinese people. As Aung San Suu Kyi herself has said, “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. . . . Yet even under the most crushing state machinery, courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.” While Xi claims to champion the rule of law, the Chinese people have seen how his fear of losing power has corrupted the rule of law. That has badly undermined his government’s legitimacy. Release of the Chinese government’s most prominent prisoner of conscience would be an important step toward strengthening its legitimacy, both for the Chinese people and in the eyes of the world. Aung San Suu Kyi can hold herself out as an example of someone unjustly imprisoned because of a ruler’s fear but whose release paved the way for reconciliation within her nation and for its improved standing in the international community. She might not be fully successful, but she has a moral obligation to try. It would make her China trip complete. Read more about this topic: The Post’s View: A failing engagement with Burma The Post’s View: Viewing Burma without rose-colored glasses The Post’s View: China’s pathetic crackdown on civil society The Post’s View: China’s human rights abuses demand a tougher U.S. approach


Contemporary documentary films humanize news stories from around the world at AFI DOCS Festival

times and panel discussion details can be found below. Cartel Land Filmmaker Matthew Heineman (ESCAPE FIRE: THE FIGHT TO RESCUE AMERICAN HEALTHCARE) returns to AFI DOCS with a probing look inside the Wild West atmosphere of the drug war in Mexico. With astounding ground-level access, Heineman immerses himself in danger to follow a citizen uprising against the encroaching drug cartels. When government, police and sometimes even neighbors can’t be trusted, for some the only answer is to fight fire with fire. Showings: Thursday, June 18 3:15 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre and Friday, June 19 at Landmark Theatre. Following the screening on Friday, June 19, Manuel Roig-Franzia, Political Features Writer and former Mexico Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, will sit down with Matthew Heineman, director of ‘Cartel Land,’ to discuss the idea behind the project and the complexity of Mexico’s war on drugs. Frame By Frame When the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 1996, they banned and criminalized photography. Since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, Afghan photojournalists have been working to establish a free press and reframe their country’s identity following decades of war and oppression. FRAME BY FRAME follows four of these photojournalists, including Pulitzer Prize winner Massoud Hossaini, who are leading the new media revolution during a tumultuous time in which dangers are still very present. Showings: Thursday, June 18 1 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre and Friday, June 19 6 p.m. at the Naval Heritage Center. Nikki Kahn is a 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for The Post. Immediately following the screening on Friday, June 19, Kahn will speak with the directors of ‘Frame By Frame,’ Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli, on the challenges photojournalists face in the dangerous media landscape of Afghanistan. The Three Hikers In 2009, when American hikers Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal mistakenly wandered off the beaten path near Iraq’s poorly marked border with Iran, they quickly experienced the draconian consequences of their error. This gripping chronicle of the ensuing two-year prison ordeal for them and their families is an intimate, inspiring look at loving perseverance that sheds new light on the delicate diplomacy behind the trio’s release. Showings: Thursday, June 18 8:30 p.m. at the Naval Heritage Center and Saturday, June 20 11:45 a.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre. In a rare panel discussion following the world premiere of ‘Three Hikers’ on Thursday, June 18, Ishaan Tharoor, Foreign


Is she pregnant? National Zoo officials take first ultrasound of giant panda

Giant panda cub Bao Bao outside with her mom Mei Xiang, Jan. 7, 2014. (Charles Dharapak/AP) For humans, either you’re pregnant or you’re not. There’s no waffling. But not so for giant pandas. National Zoo officials are hoping giant panda Mei Xiang births another cub, but it’s not easy to tell if she’s pregnant, because of the complicated reproduction cycles of giant pandas. Mei Xiang, the mother of the zoo’s hugely popular panda cub — Bao Bao — was artificially inseminated in the spring with semen from China. Last week, Mei Xiang had her first ultrasound, as zoo keepers try to figure out if she’s with child. Unlike in humans, where the egg is fertilized, and the fetus starts to grow and can be measured, it isn’t so obvious with a panda, zoo officials said. A female panda has what’s known as “delayed implantation.” She can have a fertilized egg, which can float in her uterus for weeks before it attaches to the wall of her uterus, according to zoo officials. And there’s another complicating factor — a mama panda’s hormones and behavior are the same whether she’s pregnant or not. That is known as a “pseudo pregnancy.” Mei Xiang’s first ultrasound didn’t show much and that’s what zoo keepers expected. It is still too early to determine if there is a fetus, zoo officials said. But she did show she was healthy in the examination. Zoo officials said Mei Xiang did well during the ultrasound, willingly lying down for the exam as she was fed honey water — a favorite of giant pandas. She also “had some fun scent-anointing herself with the ultrasound jelly after the vets finished.” In late May, zoo veterinarians tried to do an ultrasound on Mei Xiang, but she “did not want to participate,” officials said. The zoo has been tracking its panda sex story, as its public relations team has dubbed the panda’s pregnancy, using the hashtag #PandaStory on social media. Zoo officials said one reason they do the ultrasounds is to check on the panda’s health and to get her comfortable with having them done as they will become more frequent in her possible pregnancy. Ultrasounds are the only way to confirm — definitively — if she is in fact pregnant. If she’s pregnant, the fetus only starts to develop a few weeks before birth. The gestation period for a female giant panda


Budget bill outlaws pot sales in D.C. for 2 years

A local marijuana dealer in Washington, D.C. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) House Republicans advanced a budget plan Thursday that would prevent legal sales of marijuana in the District until at least 2017. Advocates for legalization, however, called it a victory. What the Republican budget does not do yet is roll back Initiative 71, the voter-approved measure from November that legalized pot for recreational use in the nation’s capital. Since early this year, D.C. residents have been allowed to possess, grow and, in the privacy of their own homes, smoke marijuana. Many opportunities remain during the federal budget process for conservatives to target the law. But advocates for legal pot said the fact that an outright ban did not appear to be an early budget priority added to other signs that the GOP-controlled Congress may be softening its opposition to marijuana. Last week, the House approved a bipartisan measure to protect state medical-marijuana programs. For only the second time, it instructed the federal Drug Enforcement Administration not to target state dispensaries or medical-marijuana manufacturing or distribution facilities. The House also told the DEA to leave alone states that allow sales of cannabinoids or CBD oils derived from cannabis plants. House lawmakers also moved to protect production of hemp for industrial purposes. On the Senate side, a handful of Republicans joined Democrats late last month in a committee vote to allow Veterans Affairs doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients in states where it is legal. And on Thursday, a Senate committee adopted the House language protecting state medical-marijuana programs, meaning it will probably become law. “We feel pretty good that the momentum is on our side,” said Bill Piper, a spokesman for the pro-legalization Drug Policy Alliance. Even Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who initiated the congressional effort to quash D.C. legalization last year, said in a statement that he has no plans to seek amendments to the federal budget that target marijuana laws. Harris said he thinks that the District erred in legalizing possession — but that it will be up to the next presidential administration and attorney general to clamp down on the city. Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said that in the drug-policy arena, he is more concerned about restoring administration-proposed cuts to funding for the fight against drug trafficking in areas such as the Mexican border. He said in an interview that


‘Eventually we will face a situation that will be beyond our control.’

South Korean President Park Geun-hye presides over a government meeting in Sejong, central South Korea. (Yonhap/EPA) Lally Weymouth is a senior associate editor for The Washington Post. SEOUL South Korea’s president, Park Geun-hye, was supposed to visit President Obama in Washington this coming week to discuss the growing threat from Kim Jong Un’s nuclear-armed North Korea and her country’s vexed relationship with Japan. But with the spread of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and her falling poll numbers, Park cancelled the trip. She talked with The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth. Edited excerpts follow. Why did you cancel your trip? What can you do here to contain MERS? My visit to the U.S. was very important. The spread of MERS is being brought under control, but we still have a significant number of confirmed cases, so I resolved to put the safety of the Korean people first. Seoul and Tokyo have historically had a very tense relationship over the interpretation of World War II history — even though you have many common interests. How can you improve the relationship? Will you meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? We have history issues that need to be dealt with. At the same time, Korea’s relationship with Japan and coordination on the security front should not be adversely impacted by those issues. As for Prime Minister Abe, I have had a chance to engage with him on a number of occasions. There has been considerable progress on the issue of the comfort women, and we are in the final stage of our negotiations. So I think we can expect to look forward to a very meaningful 50th anniversary of the normalization of our diplomatic ties. You have always said that the issue of comfort women — that is, Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese during the war — has to be dealt with. Can you describe the progress? Obviously, because these are behind-the-scenes discussions, I would be remiss to disclose the elements of the discussions. Are you hoping that Prime Minister Abe might make some kind of apology? Historians in Japan as well as historians across the world have been calling on the Japanese leadership to come clean about what they have done in the past so we can move forward. But denial and efforts to gloss over what happened have stymied our ability to make progress. As for the


Israel rules out charges in deaths of 4 children in Gaza missile strike

people, most of them soldiers, were killed. The deaths in Israel included one child. A family still living in a bombed home in the village of Khuzaa pleads for international help on June 11, 2015, near Gaza City. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have alleged that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during the conflict. A group of active and retired Israeli soldiers called “Breaking the Silence” issued a report in May alleging that permissive rules of engagement for Israeli forces were partly responsible for the high civilian death toll. Israel generally blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, saying the group employed “human shields” and hid weapons in hospitals, schools and mosques. Israelis say their army is among the most moral in the world and adheres to international norms, even in urban warfare against terrorist groups that operate in civilian areas. Israeli military officials say their troops took precautions to avoid civilian casualties and collateral damage during the war — such as by telephoning civilians in houses about to be hit, dropping leaflets warning noncombatants to flee an area and firing small-charge, less-lethal missiles at structures, the so-called “ knock on the roof,” to urge occupants to flee before the structures were hit with more lethal rounds. U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, commended Israel for going to “extraordinary lengths” to avoid civilian deaths. In its investigation of the incident on the beach, the Israeli Military Advocate General Corps said the target was “a compound used to store military supplies,” which was “used exclusively by militants.” Israel said the compound was fenced off from the beach. After the attack, journalists visiting the breakwater jetty described it as not a fenced compound but a shipping container and shed containing a few tools and fishing equipment. The area was — and still is — used by the Gaza fishing fleet. The Israeli report said the children had entered a shed that had been hit by an Israeli missile the day before. “They were believed to be militants from Hamas Naval Forces, who had arrived at the compound in order to prepare to execute the aforementioned military activity against the IDF,” the report said. After the first strike, “the rest of the figures began to run in the direction of the compound’s exit,” the report said. “Shortly before their exit


AFI Docs throws open 81 windows on stories both little and large

who, in 2012, fired 10 bullets into a car of four unarmed black teenagers, killing 17-year-old Jordan Davis. And while Dunn’s two trials and subsequent murder conviction made national headlines, Marc Silver’s intense re-examination of these details — and the testimony by Dunn’s girlfriend that helped convict him — amounts to a searing indictment of the so-called stand-your-ground laws. June 18 at 8:30 p.m. at Landmark’s E Street Cinema; June 19 at 3:30 p.m. at AFI Silver. The documentary “Cartel Land” zeroes in on the border war in Arizona and the Mexican drug cartels. (The Orchard/AFI Docs) CARTEL LAND Filmmaker Matthew Heineman (“Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare”) focuses on two individuals: charismatic Mexican physician José Mireles, who rose to become the leader of a civilian-based vigilante group fighting back against drug cartels, and Tim “Nailer” Foley, the American founder of the paramilitary group Arizona Border Recon, whose aim is to stop the Mexican drug war from trickling into the United States. By examining parties who are seemingly on the same side of an issue — albeit separated by a border — Heineman’s film exposes broad truths about the intractability of the problem both men are fighting, like Davids against a Goliath they may have both underestimated. June 18 at 3:15 p.m. at AFI Silver; June 19 at 8:30 p.m. at Landmark’s E Street Cinema. William “Dub” Lawrence investigates his son-in-law’s killing in “Peace Officer.” (AFI DOCS) PEACE OFFICER Former Utah sheriff William “Dub” Lawrence is our tour guide, walking the audience through an examination of the 2008 killing of his son-in-law by officers from the very same SWAT team that he founded in the 1970s. While Lawrence makes for a genial and dogged investigator on this case (and others shown in the film), Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber’s documentary isn’t just about him. It also asks tough questions about the growing national trend of police militarization. June 19 at 6:30 p.m. at AFI Silver; June 20 at 11 a.m. at Landmark’s E Street Cinema. THE THREE HIKERS Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd aren’t household names, even if the story of arrest by Iranian soldiers, while hiking along the border between Iraq and Iran, and subsequent two-year imprisonment made international news. And it hardly matters that their 2011 release is widely known. Natalie Avital’s film tells a parallel story about the game of global politics, and


McAuliffe bags German grocer Lidl, bringing hundreds of jobs to Virginia

freshman year as governor. Although he is energetic and exceedingly well connected, the former Democratic National Committee chairman has been up against the “head winds” of federal spending cuts, as he often puts it. Even though McAuliffe has reeled in capital investment at twice the rate of the past two governors, the state had economic growth of 0.0 percent in 2014, according to data released this week by the U.S. Commerce Department. In job creation, the governor has found a cause with bipartisan appeal, although the Republican-controlled General Assembly has grumbled at times about his willingness to dole out incentive funds. In a smack at McAuliffe, the legislature this year renamed the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, making it the Commonwealth Opportunity Fund come July 1. McAuliffe approved a total of $5 million in grants from that fund to assist Arlington and Spotsylvania counties with the Lidl project. He also approved $2 million from the Virginia Economic Development Incentive Grant, a self-funded program that awards money to projects with large numbers of employees and with wages that are far above the average for the area. Additional funds and services to support Lidl’s employee training programs will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program. McAuliffe and his staff worked on the deal along with county officials and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. The Lidl deal is the second coup of the trip. Earlier in the week, McAuliffe finalized a deal with a Welsh company, Elephant Auto Insurance, to bring a $2 million expansion and 1,173 jobs to suburban Richmond. Lidl will invest $77 million to create a U.S. corporate headquarters that will employ 500 in Arlington. And it will plow $125 million into the Spotsylvania regional headquarters and distribution center, where 200 people will work. Lidl operates nearly 10,000 stores in 26 countries throughout Europe. It is part of the Schwarz Group, the largest retailer in Europe. “We are excited to take this important step to launch Lidl’s expansion into the United States and look forward to introducing American consumers to a different type of shopping experience,” said Brendan Proctor, president of Lidl U.S. The company plans to open its first U.S. stores no later than 2018, said John Froman, public relations and marketing manager for MGP Retail Consulting. He said that the company is not ready to announce the locations of those stores and that store sizes are still under development.


The families of hostages are told to keep quiet. They shouldn’t.

in Yemen after Houthi militiamen seized him in Sanaa, the nation’s capital. While reporting, I contacted his sister, who declined to comment. The FBI, she said, had advised relatives to be quiet. A family representative also called and said my paper would never publish this information if one of our own reporters had been kidnapped. And news organizations do sometimes ask competing reporters not to disclose information about their captive employees. That was the case with David Rohde, a New York Times correspondent captured by a militant group in Afghanistan; his ordeal remained a secret until his escape in 2009 after months of captivity. The Washington Post took a different approach. Almost immediately after its Iran correspondent, Jason Rezaian, was arrested in July 2014, the newspaper went public about his detention. This was a government detention, not a hostage-taking; it would have been much harder to keep the secret. Nevertheless, the paper has aggressively covered Rezaian’s case instead of treading gently. “Each of these cases is different, and there’s probably no one right course,” says Martin Baron, The Post’s executive editor. “Families, news organizations and governments can only try to make a reasoned judgment based on what they know, which is often very little. Neither silence nor speaking out guarantees that a prisoner or hostage will be freed. Speaking out, however, lets the world know of these outrageous acts.” The Post covered Coombs and the three other Americans in Houthi custody. It did not name them, but the report would have made clear to the captors that Coombs was one of the story subjects. Days later, he was freed. Personally, I regret not naming Kayla Mueller, 26, who died in February in Syria after the Islamic State imprisoned her for more than a year, demanded a ransom of millions of dollars and threatened to kill her if any of this leaked to the media. Some news outlets had reported that the Islamic State was holding a female American aid worker, but until her death the public never knew her name. What, then, would have been the harm in telling her story? The Islamic State said she died after Jordan dropped a bomb on the building where she was being held. It’s not certain that worldwide attention would have saved her. But we know that silence didn’t work. adam.goldman@washpost.com Read more from Outlook and follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter.


Fighting MERS, again

Hospital workers wearing protective gear push a stretcher carrying a patient suspected of having Middle East respiratory syndrome. (Hong Hae-In/Associated Press) THE WORLD is relearning a painful lesson in combating infectious disease: an outbreak caused by a virus or by bacteria is not only a challenge for medicine but also demands a rapid response based on real information, good detective work and a certain alacrity. Ebola showed how a small outbreak can mushroom into a global concern. Now the same dynamics are playing out in South Korea, struggling with the sudden appearance of the Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, a coronavirus for which there is no known vaccine or effective treatment. The outbreak, which has killed at least 13 people, sickened more than 100 and led to more than 2,000 schools being closed, is the largest outside of Saudi Arabia, where the virus was first spotted in 2012. The MERS virus is believed to have emerged from bats a long time ago and then moved to camels; humans may have become ill from drinking camel milk or other exposure to the animals. Up until the South Korea outbreak, more than 85 percent of the MERS cases were in Saudi Arabia. About 36 percent of those infected later died. It appears that transmission of the virus from human to human is limited to those in close contact with each other. The Saudi experience with MERS threw into sharp relief the limitations of a closed society in battling disease. The authorities were less than open about what was happening. In health-care facilities, infection control broke down and illness spread. The Saudis lagged in seeking help from abroad and in carrying out essential research. Now South Korea is coping with some of the same challenges. In recent weeks, the flow of basic information from South Korea has seemed more open than in Saudi Arabia, but nonetheless there have been stumbles. The first patient in South Korea, known as the index case, a 68-year-old man, arrived at a clinic with symptoms in mid-May. His doctors did not know he had visited Saudi Arabia earlier in the month. They dispatched him to a larger hospital, and then the patient, not improving, went to Seoul to seek better treatment. He coughed his way through four hospitals in nine days before being diagnosed and isolated on May 20, according to the New York Times. South Korea’s


U.S. trade deal’s setback causes mixed reaction in Asia

Members of the Japanese labor unions and protesters holding placards and banners shouts slogans at a rally against Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration in Tokyo. (Yuya Shino/Reuters) TOKYO — Abe has made reviving Japan’s stubbornly anemic economy one of his top priorities, and forging a wide-ranging trade pact with the United States, through the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP), was a key part of that goal. For both countries, the TPP has been viewed as a way to counter a rising China. For the United States, it was a way to project influence in Asia; for Japan, it was a way to regain some of the economic might it has lost as China has gained. For China, that means Friday’s actions in the House counted as something of a victory. “The outcome won’t affect China that much, but China would be happy to see it and chuckle underneath,” said Shi Yinhong, director of the U.S. Study Center at Renmin University in Beijing. The House voted down a package of trade-related bills as Democrats rebuffed Obama’s personal pleas for their support for his free-trade initiative. Japanese farmers holding placards against Trans-Pacific Partnership participate in a rally in Tokyo against Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration. (Yuya Shino/Reuters) The package included a measure to give the administration “fast-track” negotiating authority considered crucial to conclude the Pacific Rim trade deal. This would allow the administration to agree to a deal that Congress would approve or reject, without the ability to make amendments. Japan, the second-biggest party to the deal after the United States, has been counting on it to boost trade and to help the government usher in much-needed restructuring — particularly in agriculture and automobiles — that would be difficult to institute without the excuse of outside impetus. Akira Amari, Japan’s trade minister and lead negotiator in the TPP talks, said that the result in the House made the situation “extremely delicate.” “It’s now very tough [to hold minister-level consultations] at the earliest possible time,” he told reporters Saturday, according to the Nikkei business newspaper. But he said there was also no need to be downcast yet. “We don’t need to be pessimistic. We will closely monitor the efforts at the House of Representatives,” he said. But Mainichi Shimbun, a left-leaning newspaper that has been skeptical of the deal, said that Friday’s failure showed Obama’s weakness. “Obama couldn’t convince the Democrats,” the


In White House’s Iraq debate, military brass pushed for doing less

U.S. advisers closer to the front lines and into combat, senior U.S. officials said. If conditions worsened, the president indicated, he would be open to using ground spotters or attack helicopters. The president also said that he would revisit the riskier courses if they were needed to help Iraqi forces achieve a major breakthrough, such as a victory in the fight to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State, U.S. officials said. One big challenge with embedding combat advisers is finding front-line Iraqi units that U.S. military commanders trust enough to keep the Americans relatively safe, a senior military official in Iraq said. The military’s unwillingness to press for more resources could undercut calls from some Republican presidential candidates, such as former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Ted Cruz (Tex.), who have pressed for sending more U.S. troops to fight Islamic State militants. The military’s reluctance also represents a shift in mind-set for a force that, while not monolithic in opinion, has in recent years pressed for a more aggressive military response in the wake of battlefield setbacks. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, for instance, in 2009 said he needed as many as 40,000 new troops to push back the Taliban and train Afghan forces. After weeks of contentious debate, Obama agreed to send 30,000 troops, but in a sign of his unease with the military’s ambitious plans, the president put a firm time limit on how long they could stay. “In the Afghan surge, the military believed the mission could be accomplished and wanted more forces to buy down risk,” said Michele Flournoy, a former top official in the Pentagon and chief executive officer at the Center for a New American Security. Today in Iraq, expectations are far lower and political support for the mission among lawmakers, the White House and the American people is far more tenuous. The goal in Iraq, Flournoy said, “is to retake lost territory.” The military’s 12 years of experience in Iraq, meanwhile, have imbued it with an abiding wariness of being drawn too deeply into the country’s internal ethnic and sectarian wars. That instinct is shared by the team of senior military advisers Obama has assembled. “Every single one of these guys has signed too many letters to too many parents,” said Maren Leed, a former senior adviser to the Army chief of