In war on pet poop, community associations turn to DNA testing

How to handle pet poop is becoming a growing problem for community associations. Owners are always required to pick up after their dog, and many associations actually provide free “poop bags” to assist in this cleanup. But not everyone complies with the rules. There are reports of owners who pretend to use the waste bags, especially when others are watching. I know of one Maryland association where an owner slipped on some waste and broke his leg. A New Jersey association has adopted a novel approach: As of Nov. 1, all dog owners in the Grande at Riverdale condominium must have their pet’s DNA registered, or face a $100 fine. The dog’s mouth will be swabbed for DNA, and waste found on common grounds will be tested to determine the owner. The fine for not picking up the waste will be $250 for the first offense and can go as high as $1,000 for subsequent violations. If an association’s legal documents permit pets, the board of directors has the authority to enact reasonable enforcement rules. Typically, those rules would require that all dogs be leashed while on common grounds, be registered with the association management and be vaccinated annually, pursuant to applicable local law. The Riverdale condominium — composed of eight four-story buildings — has taken science to a new level. And other associations have adopted similar rules. In the Devon Wood condominium in Braintree, Mass., the board adopted a DNA rule. According to its general property manager, the common grounds have been much cleaner since the rule went into effect; apparently, no one wants to be fined. DNA testing for dogs is not new. The American Kennel Club (AKC) said that it collected more than 600,000 DNA profiles in its database through Dec. 1, 2012. The top breeds are Labrador retriever, Yorkshire terrier, dachshund and poodles. Why collect DNA? “DNA offers the AKC the possibility of ensuring the accuracy of the registry in a way never before possible,” according to its Web site. However, it cautions that “DNA profiling is for parentage verification and genetic identity purposes only. It does not provide information regarding genetic health, conformation, performance ability, coat color, etc.” You can now buy DNA testing kits online and at many pet supply retail stores. Most of the tests require only cheek swabbing, although one company requires a blood test at a veterinarian’s office. Initially, DNA testing


Down payments may rise to 30 percent

to have pristine, nearly fault-free credit histories. Critics say imposing anything even close to these standards would force the vast majority of home buyers to pay higher rates and fees, or simply be turned down. The Mortgage Bankers Association of America, which strongly opposes the 30 percent plan, estimates that only 18 percent of people who purchased homes during 2012 would have been qualified for their mortgages under the alternative proposed by the regulators. The 30 percent down concept would also have dramatically different impacts on different racial groups. Nearly three-quarters of African American buyers put down 10 percent or less for their mortgage, compared with 50 percent of all buyers, according to data from the 2009 American Housing Survey cited by the mortgage bankers group. Forty-four percent of Hispanic buyers put down less than 5 percent. The plan also would strongly favor wealthier buyers over those with lower and moderate incomes, and it would create new hurdles for first-time purchasers, who often strain to put together even small down payments. In a floor speech last week, Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who is active on housing issues and was one of the legislators who crafted the risk-retention provisions in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that authorizes QRMs, called on regulators to reject the 30 percent alternative “because [it] would be even worse” than their original 20 percent plan. “It would,” he warned, “prevent even more Americans from being homeowners.” Requiring such large upfront investments would also create severe affordability problems for buyers in higher-cost areas such as California, the Northeast and portions of the Mid-Atlantic states, including the Washington market. To finance a $500,000 house under the alternative plan floated by the regulators, you’d need to bring $150,000 cash to the table, a hefty chunk of money even in affluent communities. David H. Stevens, president and chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association and a member of the coalition opposing the plan, says, “We plan to be very clear and very vocal” in fighting its final adoption. What are the chances you’ll be forced to pay 30 percent down to get a good mortgage rate thanks to the federal regulators? The politics weigh heavily against it, but then again, the same regulators who got trashed by critics when they proposed a 20 percent minimum are back with a 30 percent plan. So you can’t totally rule it out. Ken Harney


Furlough’s over. The next challenge for feds? Managing the post-shutdown inbox.

Monica Bates at the Department of Education's Information Resource Center reviews some of the 112 e-mails that the department received during the shutdown. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) There were a few times in recent weeks when Sophia Casey found herself mindlessly walking toward her laptop, ready to scan for new work messages as she’s always done at nights and on weekends. Then she would see the computer — powered down, closed and unplugged. And she’d remember: furlough. The Pavlovian twitch to constantly check e-mail had begun to ease just when Congress voted Wednesday to send Casey and her colleagues in the federal government back to work. Back to the office — and whatever mountain of messages lie waiting in the inbox after 16 days away. Casey’s total: 1,563 e-mails. Just looking at them started to give her “a little headache over my right eyeball,” so she got up and walked away. This doesn’t happen anymore. Even on vacation, we instinctively reach for our phones to scroll through messages, making sure the world continues to function in spite of our absence. And to lessen the blow upon our return. If you’ve been checking all along, you know what you’re in for once you’re back at your desk. Federal agencies, parks, museums, monuments and now the National Zoo reopen after a chastened Congress ends a bitter funding standoff that triggered a 16-day government closure and drove the nation toward the brink of default. Furloughed federal workers had no such luxury — or burden, depending on your point of view. “It took a minute for it to sink in,” said Casey, a federal analyst for an agency that she requested not be named. “But then once I got a message that said, ‘Hey, it’s really illegal if you work when you’re not supposed to’ — well, that’s all I needed to read.” For what it’s worth, Andrew Martin, chief librarian at the National Labor Relations Board, did some digging and couldn’t find any precedent for prosecuting furloughed workers who surreptitiously sneak in a little work, but he was happy enough to change the settings on his phone to block work e-mails. “It was absolutely wonderful,” said Martin, a father of two young girls whose wife was also furloughed. He grew his facial hair into mutton chops, smoked brisket and discovered that he “would be really good at being retired.” But he’s only 39;


Why did national parks close? Ask the Republicans.

an agreement to end the shutdown and avoid default, House Republicans were hammering on National Park Services Director Jonathan B. Jarvis for doing his job. Mr. Jarvis, who started his park service as a seasonal interpreter in 1976, likely had better things to do, given that nearly 87 percent of his agency was on furlough. Instead he was subjected to a five-hour hearing in which he had to explain the obvious: No money equals no people equals no services. Most disturbing were the insinuations by lawmakers that Mr. Jarvis’s decisions in closing the nation’s 401 parks, monuments and other sites were unnecessary and politically motivated to inflict the most pain. “Drastic and unprecedented,” said oversight committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), while natural resources chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said sites were not closed by the Clinton administration during the last shutdown. Wrong. Denis P. Galvin, deputy director of the park service during the Reagan, Clinton and Bush administrations, said that shutdown plans — “done hastily, because you’re always hoping the closure won’t happen” — were in keeping with past practices. In 1995 and 1996, he said, the Lincoln Memorial was closed, as were the Statue of Liberty, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and other monuments around the country. Indeed, Post accounts of those shutdowns detailed the frustration of tourists who found monuments and museums closed, campers evicted from national parks, the governor of Arizona ordering National Guard troops to the Grand Canyon in an attempt to keep it open and two teams of 7-year-old soccer players evicted from a national park in Anacostia. “The children pleaded. The parents pleaded. The coach pleaded. The answer? Closed,” read a Nov. 20, 1995, article. No doubt there are differences in some restrictions, most notably the use this time of barriers, but there are new security sensibilities in a world after 9/11. The park service, largely due to Republican-imposed budget constraints, had lost staff and maintenance funds even before the shutdown. Republicans who suddenly developed such tender concern for the parks would do better to ensure that the government doesn’t close again — and that the agency charged with protecting America’s treasures has the resources it needs to serve the public. Read more about this topic: Dana Milbank: Ted Cruz, one sore loser E.J. Dionne Jr.: Moderates, take note The Post’s View: They have a deal The Post’s View: Not a moment too soon


Feds happy, mostly, to be back to work; Obama gives them big thanks

Federal agencies, parks, museums, monuments and now the National Zoo reopen after a chastened Congress ends a bitter funding standoff that triggered a 16-day government closure and drove the nation toward the brink of default. Brenda Beaty is glad to have money in the cash drawer to count. She was in her small office in the back of the Urban Cafe, a snack shop on the third floor of the Department of Health and Human Services’ head office, ready to make an afternoon tally. The store was open Thursday for the first time this month, and the receipts were more than welcome. Half of October had passed without the sale of even one bag of chips. When much of the government shut down Oct. 1, so did the Urban Cafe. So Beaty was happy to be open again, even if business was only half as good as normal the first day back. Although her sales were off, “the lights are on, the offices are full and people are glad to be here,” said Mark Weber, an HHS spokesman. Like other top officials — including Vice President Biden, who greeted returning employees at agencies — HHS Deputy Secretary Bill Corr and Chief of Staff Andrea Palm were at the department’s front door to welcome workers. Words on television screens in the cafeteria reinforced the message: “You’ve been missed.” The Urban Cafe lost about $18,000 in sales during the shutdown, Beaty said. Unlike the federal employees who buy her products, Beaty will not get back pay. Her employees could get unemployment compensation, but as the shop’s owner, Beaty isn’t eligible. Being visually impaired, her options were limited. “When something like this happens, we lose out,” she said. “We get nothing. The bills never stop coming.” She’s not the only one who lost out. The nation lost confidence in a government that could not keep itself in operation because of the governing philosophy of many House Republicans: My way or no way. If employees behave that way, they should be fired. No danger of anything like that Thursday, it seemed. Many employees couldn’t wait to get back on the job, said J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees. He talked about his wife, Lynn, a Department of Veterans Affairs employee, who woke up early telling him “how excited she was to go back” to help veterans. Some, such


World Digest: Oct. 17, 2013

EGYPT Amnesty condemns treatment of Syrians Saying that Egypt is “failing abysmally” to meet international obligations, Amnesty International called Thursday for the country’s military-backed government to stop detaining and deporting Syrian war refugees. Egypt denied doing so. The international human rights group said in a new report that a recent spate of deaths involving refugees and asylum-seekers trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa “throws a spotlight on the tragic consequences” of Egypt’s increasingly harsh stance toward those seeking haven from Syria’s devastating conflict. About 300,000 Syrians have fled to Egypt, where they were once welcomed. But as their numbers have swelled, public sentiment has shifted sharply. Official media outlets routinely revile the refugees as partisans of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that propelled now-deposed president Mohamed Morsi to power, and they are accused by authorities of representing a threat to public order. Amnesty said in its report that Egypt’s behavior violates global human rights standards. — Associated Press UKRAINE Leader backs release of jailed ex-premier Ukraine’s president signaled Thursday that his main rival, the jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, could be freed from prison and sent to Germany for treatment of a back problem. The comments by Viktor Yanukovych were the strongest indication yet of his willingness to release Tymoshenko within weeks, but they appeared to fall short of what Tymoshenko and the European Union are pushing for. The West condemns Tymoshenko’s jailing on abuse-of-power charges as politically motivated and has pressed Yanukovych to free her. The E.U. has refused to sign a landmark integration accord with Kiev if Tymoshenko remains in jail. — Associated Press ISRAEL Hezbollah detains endangered eagle Israeli eagles significantly endangered by pesticides, electrical wires and poachers now apparently face a new threat: Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. Hezbollah said on its al-Manar Web site this week that it had captured an eagle with Israeli labeling that carried a transmission device on its back. It claimed the bird was an Israeli spy. But Israeli ornithologist Yossi Leshem said Thursday that he had been tracking the bird for research and was “incredibly frustrated” it was harmed. Leshem has specialized in Bonelli’s eagles for decades and says they are in great peril, with just nine pairs of mating age remaining in Israel. He said Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Turkey have made similar unfounded accusations against migrating birds. Egyptian officials recently arrested a stork they


During zoo closure, panda cub got chubby, a tortoise died and some animals acted freaky

“We are so excited to be back here,” director Dennis Kelly said. “It’s been a hard 17 days. The animals have missed the people. The staff has missed the folks.” Sophie, the gregarious California sea lion, seemed to miss visitors. The flamingos got used to the solitude. And Siete, the maned wolf — he of the repellent odor — took to howling at unusual times. Officials at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo said Friday that there were subtle and not-so-subtle changes for the animals during the 17 days it was closed because of the government shutdown. Some believe that the absence of human beings had an impact. But did the animals miss us? The National Zoo's giant panda cub has grown and passed several developmental milestones since the panda cams went dark because of the government shutdown, according to zoo officials. Do we need to think they missed us? Perhaps they didn’t care. While we were gone, there were two deaths and one departure, and a pair of lions mated. Three elephants took an important walk. And the 8-week-old giant panda cub grew from three pounds to five. The zoo reopened at 10 a.m. Friday to a mob of eager visitors who had started gathering an hour beforehand to participate in the return of one of the most visible signs of the government shutdown. A person wearing a panda costume, along with members of the Friends of the National Zoo with faces painted to look like pandas, greeted the waiting crowd. With television cameras rolling and dozens of sign-carrying zoo staffers poised to greet the throng, zoo director Dennis Kelly stood with a red-and-white bullhorn and looked at his watch as the moment approached. The zoo’s giant panda cub, Bao Bao, turns 1 year old. “Okay, everybody: Let’s do a countdown!” he called out at the main entrance. And as the crowd chanted “Three! Two! One!,” he slid open the black metal gate that is flanked by two giant statues of lions. Bystanders cheered, and scores of people pushing baby strollers and clutching their morning coffee surged in. Soon, the zoo again echoed with the sounds of crying children and the lectures of zookeepers. And the aroma of popcorn drifted through the air. “We are so excited to be back here,” Kelly said. “It’s been a hard 17 days. The animals have missed the people. The staff has missed the folks.


We can’t do our mission of saving species without our visitors coming. ” The zoo, part of the federally funded Smithsonian Institution, had been closed since the shutdown began Oct. 1. Officials said the hiatus seemed to have affected animals in different ways. Don Moore, associate director of animal-care sciences, said it was hard to say if some animals missed people. “We missed people,” he said of the staff. Sophie, the sea lion? “I think you could probably, safely say [she] missed people,” he said. “She’s very, very human-oriented, and she’s been looking for people.. “I would go walking down there, and she would just follow me around the entire exhibit. And I’m not even one of her keepers. “The maned wolf was howling during the day, instead of the evening,” he said. “I guess you could interpret that as, ‘Well, there’s nobody else around, so it’s safe to do this.’ I don’t know what the maned wolf is thinking.” The maned wolf, native to South America, is famous at the zoo for its heavy skunklike odor. The flamingos seemed to get used to the quiet of the shutdown and then would become agitated when staff members walked by. “They have pretty small brains in those big birds,” Moore said. “There are about 65 or 70 . . . flamingos here. So your flock is only as stable as the least-stable member.” The zoo’s two African vultures, Natalie and Tuck, “have been kind of a little freaky,” Moore said. They seemed to be “on high alert” as more keepers showed up for work. “My own opinion is vultures might be a little smarter than flamingos,” he said. “They’re more predatory birds. A little bit larger brain there.” Neither the maned wolf nor the vultures came out during the reopening. During the shutdown, there were some deaths at the zoo. Sable, a large Aldabra tortoise about 100 years old, had been suffering from renal failure and an upper respiratory infection. She had been at the zoo since 1956 and died Oct. 7 in the zoo’s veterinary hospital. Friday morning, zookeepers found one of its two new wrinkled hornbills, a female, dead in the Bird House. The birds are endangered, and the zoo had just taken in a pair. A significant departure also occurred. Kigali, a female lowland gorilla, was moved from the zoo Wednesday to the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita


Five myths about national parks

A scenic view in Yosemite National Park. The national parks reopened at the conclusion of the government shutdown. (Tammy Webber/AP) Robert Earle Howells, a Southern California-based writer, contributed to “Secrets of the National Parks” and “The 10 Best of Everything: National Parks.” The closing of America’s national parks was among the most emotionally charged aspects of the 16-day federal government shutdown. As party leaders raced to make a deal to reopen the government and avert a default, House Republicans were accusing the head of the Park Service of trying to make the shutdown “as painful and as visible as possible.” It’s a shame that the parks, usually a source of national pride, became rhetorical pawns amid a national embarrassment. But while the parks still have the country’s attention, it’s worth clearing up some myths about them. 1. The parks’ financial problems are over now that the government shutdown has ended and tourism has resumed. The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees estimated that while all the national parks were closed, lost tourism dollars amounted to $76 million a day — $450,000 of which would have gone directly to the parks in the form of entry fees and other charges. But entry fees, which are kept low to ensure access for everyone, cover less than 6 percent of park upkeep costs. The federal government makes up most of the rest, and year after year, Congress votes to give less and less. The National Park Service budget is 15 percent lower than it was a decade ago in today’s dollars, 13 percent lower than three years ago. Sequestration cuts have made the situation even worse. The consequences are real. A $180 million slash in funding for 2013 meant that the parks fielded 1,900 fewer staff members. That translated into fewer ranger hikes and campfire programs, roads left unrepaired, restrooms cleaned less often, visitor centers closed, openings delayed and staff positions left vacant. For example, Everglades National Park has 17 job openings it can’t fill, including deputy superintendent, chief law enforcement ranger, wildlife biologist and water scientist. You don’t have to know much about water-quality issues in the Everglades, situated just downstream from massive-scale agriculture, to appreciate the value of a water-quality specialist there. Parks are forced into anguished trade-offs: hire that water expert or keep rangers in the field to protect and guide visitors? 2. States should take a bigger role in


Five myths about national parks

to improve San Francisco’s water supply, further tamed the land. The national park mission has also expanded over time, moving beyond wilderness preservation. Today, the system’s 401 units comprise a remarkable inventory that includes national monuments, battlefields and urban recreation areas, such as Maryland’s Greenbelt Park. 4. Wildlife within the national parks is managed for the enjoyment of visitors. Every park that harbors animals delivers warnings: Watch from a distance. Yet every year, more than a few visitors approach those animals with an assumption of safety because they seem to confuse national park with theme park. In one video posted on YouTube last year, a man is heard encouraging kids toward a bison in Yellowstone, assuring them: “He’s friendly.” The bison proceeds to charge a terrified child. Wildlife management But when human health and safety become issues, priorities have to shift. When people get hurt, animals may be killed or relocated. That’s sad, because most dangerous encounters could be avoided if tourists were content with a pair of good binoculars or a telephoto lens. 5. The national parks are timeless preserves. The notion that the parks must be “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations” is etched in the act of Congress that established the Park Service in 1916. The agency does a remarkable job, but it has an impossible mission. Visitor impact can been seen in places such as Yellowstone’s Morning Glory Pool. Once a striking blue color, it has been dulled and discolored over the years by coins and trash. Recently, native rock art in Joshua Tree was spray-painted by vandals, as were majestic cacti in Saguaro National Park. More dramatic changes could be ahead. Glacier could lose its glaciers and Joshua Tree its Joshua trees within this century because of climate change. Air pollution, which already obscures iconic views across the Grand Canyon, threatens animal and plant health. Development in the areas surrounding parks — for residential neighborhoods, mining, forestry and other purposes — is fragmenting the habitat of threatened species that don’t pay heed to park boundaries. Now, a giddy rush to frack natural gas wherever it may lurk poses new risks. Members of Congress offered passionate rhetoric about our national parks these past two weeks. Let’s see if they can muster the will to help achieve some semblance of the parks’ mission. Read more from Outlook, friend us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.


How Shiller helped Fama win the Nobel

can see the quandary this created for the Nobel committee. On the one hand, Fama is the father of modern indexing; his influence — from the development of exchange-traded funds to retirement planning — cannot be overstated. Fama the Younger’s work was insightful and created an immense benefit for investors. But Fama the Elder’s work was almost as bad as the earlier work was good. The premise was deeply flawed. People were not rational, profit-maximizing machines — they were emotional, error-prone actors who often operated against their own best interests. Information efficiency was a nice concept, but it simply did not work in the real world. The Nobel committee resolved this problem quite elegantly. Unbeknownst to Fama the Elder, he had an adversary 1,000 miles away. On the ivy-covered campus of Yale, a young man decided that the efficient-market hypothesis made no sense. Professor Robert Shiller’s data overwhelmingly showed that markets were at times as irrational as the humans who traded them. His 1989 book on market volatility found that price fluctuations in speculative markets were not rational and did not reflect all known information. Price action moved so much more than future dividends changed that something else had to be at work. That factor was human behavior. Bubbles formed, prices detached from reality, then just as soon came back to Earth. This was hardly informational efficiency. After the 1987 crash, Shiller remarked, “The efficient-markets hypothesis is the most remarkable error in the history of economic theory.” Indeed, much of Shiller’s work over the next 20-plus years was railing against the hypothesis’s obvious failings. Warning of the tech bubble late in 1999 and then of the housing bubble in 2006 served to cement Shiller’s reputation, as well as his views that markets were irrational. Sometimes prices had nothing whatsoever to do with the available information — except the insight that people occasionally went crazy. So the Nobel committee could recognize Fama the Younger, awarding him the prize for his work on unpredictability. But it could distance itself from the silliness of Fama the Elder, by having the Younger share the award with Shiller. And that is how the most astute critic of the efficient-market hypothesis helped its creator win a Nobel Prize in economics. Ritholtz is chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management. He is the author of “Bailout Nation” and runs a finance blog, the Big Picture. Twitter: @Ritholtz.


The future of counterterrorism: Fewer drones, more partnerships

support of partner forces. There are many challenges to partnering. Skeptics doubt the capacity of countries such as Somalia, Kenya and Afghanistan to defend themselves, and they rightly criticize the rights abuses that can occur while local forces are not fully professionalized. It takes a long time for U.S. Special Operations troops to impart ethics and competence to their partners. Sometimes the United States has taken an expedient approach, with dismal results. This was the case in the Cold War, when the United States armed the Afghan mujahideen through Pakistan’s intelligence service — the same mujahideen who fueled an internecine war and fed the ranks of al-Qaeda a decade later. But in the most recent chapter of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, the results of Special Operations partnering have been vastly underplayed. In a major commitment, more than four dozen Special Ops teams spread out over the country’s insurgent belt from 2009 to 2012 to raise volunteers for a civil defense force to guard villages — a force that is now more than 25,000 strong. Special Operations troops have also trained Afghan commandos, special forces and rangers in their own image. This effort may not continue if the two countries cannot reach an agreement on U.S. troop presence in the coming months, but it does show what a concerted partnering effort can produce. The Afghan special operations forces are the best units in the Afghan military, and key parts of the insurgent belt, such as Konar province and Paktika province, are now secure largely thanks to the civilian defense initiative. Most significant, after years of focusing on unilateral drone strikes and raids, U.S. Special Operations forces have regained a critical skill set of working with local populations, as they did in Vietnam, where they raised thousands of civil defenders in the central highlands. This is a highly transferable tool; many troubled countries have vast rural areas where terrorists find ready sanctuary, and lending a helping hand to those who find the courage to fend off attackers is one of the most productive uses of our Special Operations forces. It relieves the United States of the burden of doing so or intervening abruptly in a crisis. The partnering approach may not be easy, and it does take years to produce results, but it is the most sustainable security solution around. The United States still needs to develop credible means of measuring the


Government shutdown leaves area hotels with millions in lost revenue

Area hotels have grown accustomed to mounting cancellations and dwindling group bookings. But, they say, the 16-day government shutdown that began Oct. 1 may have delivered the worst blow yet. “This has been the quickest, most dramatic hit,” said Katie Doherty, general manager of the National Conference Center in Leesburg. “Sequestration was detrimental, but the government shutdown was very fast and furious.” In the District alone, hotels reported 13,000 fewer bookings and a $2 million loss in revenue, Mayor Vincent Gray said. Occupancy rates at area hotels fell 12.1 percent during the first week of the shutdown, according to data from Smith Travel Research. “Long-term effects of the shutdown remain to be seen, but in the early going, it clearly had an impact on the overall hotel industry,” Brad Garner, the firm’s senior vice president, said in a statement. Nationally, the hospitality industry lost more than $8 million during each day of the shutdown, as thousands of trips and hotel reservations were cancelled, the American Hotel & Lodging Association said in a letter to the president. “We’ve been hearing about huge impacts from pretty much day one of the shutdown,” said Vanessa Sinders, senior vice president and department head of governmental affairs at the American Hotel & Lodging Association. “The hotel rooms and meetings that are being cancelled — that’s revenue that’s very hard for hotels to make up.” At the National Conference Center, there were multiple cancellations by the military, federal agencies and government contractors, Doherty said. Even unrelated bookings such as church retreats were impacted because furloughed government employees were wary of spending money during the shutdown. “That happened to several of our groups,” she said. “We lost a significant amount of business.” Government bookings have long been a vital source of revenue for Washington area hotels and convention centers. In fiscal year 2012, the most recent year for which data is available, the District received $38.8 million from government conferences that cost more than $100,000, according to federal filings. An additional $13.8 million flowed into National Harbor, while Leesburg received a $8.8 million boost. “Government business is extremely important for hotels in the area,” said Elliott Ferguson, president and chief executive of Destination D.C., the District’s marketing office. “Not having that business during the government shutdown has unfortunately hurt a lot of hotels.”


A new method against genetically modified salmon: Get retailers to refuse to sell it

Consumer and environmental activists, facing likely defeat in their bid to block government approval of the first genetically engineered salmon, are urging retailers not to sell it.A fishmonger tosses fresh salmon to a colleague behind the counter at the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle. (Elaine Thompson/AP) Consumer and environmental activists, facing likely defeat in their bid to block government approval of the first genetically engineered salmon, are trying a different tack to keep the fish off America’s dinner plates: Getting retailers not to sell it. And they’re making headway. Some of the nation’s most recognizable chains — including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Target — have agreed in recent months to steer clear of the fish. A spokeswoman for Safeway, the nation’s second-largest grocery chain, said the chain doesn’t have “any plans to carry GE salmon.” Activists are pressing Kroger, the country’s largest grocer, to make a similar commitment. “The goal is to make sure there is not an available market for genetically engineered seafood,” said Dana Perls, food and technology campaigner at Friends of the Earth, an international network of environmental organizations helping to lead the effort to make the fish unwelcome. “People don’t want it, and markets are going to follow what people want.” The Food and Drug Administration, which has been reviewing the genetically modified salmon for years, has strongly signaled it intends to approve the fish, making it the first genetically modified animal cleared for human consumption. The decision, which could come this fall, would be a milestone not only for the decades-long fish controversy but also for the heated debate over the development and marketing of other genetically modified foods. From blueberries to bubble gum, cheese to cigars — here are some of the products that have recently come under the scrutiny of the Food and Drug Administration. AquaBounty Technologies, based in Massachusetts, first applied for permission to sell its genetically altered salmon in 1995. Its AquAdvantage salmon consists of an Atlantic salmon containing a growth hormone from a Chinook salmon and a gene from the ocean pout, an eel-like fish. The result: A fish that grows to market size in about half the time as regular salmon. For years, opponents have argued there’s not enough data to prove the salmon is safe to eat. They have also warned there could be devastating environmental consequences if the fish were to escape confinement and breed


The blarney of Terry McAuliffe

A few excerpts from the Oct. 11 Metro article “When McAuliffe speaks, facts may take back seat”: “A pattern of exaggerations and embellishments that have peppered McAuliffe’s public pronouncements over the years.” “McAuliffe’s tendency to stretch the truth stands out even by the standards of politicians.” “He claimed to have started five businesses in Virginia; all turned out to be investment partnerships with no employees.” But it’s all okay, you see, because his ancestors from County Cork, Ireland, loved blarney. (Isn’t that an ethnic slur? Irishism, if you will?) I’m happy that Virginia Community College System spokesman Jeffrey Kraus cleared up one of McAuliffe’s stories when he said that “in narrative form, this idea holds” — the “idea” being McAuliffe’s whopper about how Virginia’s fictional procurement laws supposedly affect nursing program admissions at a community college. I’m just a simple woman from the suburbs; the proud daughter of immigrants. I’m neither a candidate for office nor the editor of a national newspaper. Still, I’d never hide behind my culture’s equivalent of blarney to excuse my own lies. Growing up, I was taught to call things by their proper names, in both languages spoken in our home. For example, a good story with scrambled facts is a lie. A pattern of exaggerations and embellishments is a pattern of lies. A man who claims to have started five businesses in Virginia that all turned out to have no employees is a liar. And before I’m accused of partisanship, I hasten to add that I haven’t yet decided whom I’m supporting for governor. Madeleine French, Fairfax


OMB head warns more employee furloughs possible and worker morale is a problem

OMB Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell says federal employees will be busy prioritizing their work since the end of the shutdown. “When you’re gone, when the government is shut for 16 days, certain things pile up,” she says. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) Whatever glow Sylvia Mathews Burwell took from her 96 to 0 Senate confirmation vote in April must have quickly disappeared as she stepped into the deep muck of government budgeting. Employee furloughs, resulting from sequestration budget cuts, were just beginning when she took over as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Not long after many federal employees finished taking their unpaid leave days, discussions about a temporary budget measure to keep the government open were getting hot. Those discussions, of course, went nowhere and the nation was dragged through 16 days of a partial, yet painful, pointless and partisan government shutdown that ended Thursday. On Friday, Burwell, who was deputy OMB director among other positions during the Clinton administration, discussed the “lapse in appropriations,” as the OMB prefers to call it, and the future. One thing the future might hold, she said, is more furloughs. She also discussed the public’s trust in government, federal workplace morale and the impact of the shutdown on employee recruitment. This is an edited transcript of that conversation. Is the government fully operational? Yes, for the most part. As of yesterday, there didn’t seem to be any major issues in bringing the government back up. We haven’t seen any real problems so far. I think the issue we’re going to see over time is the prioritization of work. When you’re gone, when the government is shut for 16 days, certain things pile up. It was the end of the fiscal year [when the shutdown began] and so we need to close the books. In addition, a number of hearings were delayed. In the short term, things seem to be up and running. Can you place a dollar figure on closing and reopening the government? That is, as I’m sure you can imagine, a difficult and challenging task. We will work on that. We are prioritizing getting the government back up and running and things on their way. We will look at that question. How did the shutdown affect the level of trust and confidence the American people have in their government, and how might that affect federal employees? I think one probably


New twist on GMO debate: Are they ‘natural’?

so labeled on store shelves? Former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman breaks down the debate, including the value of the "organic" designation that's becoming more and more popular. Safety questions Since the first genetically modified food — a delayed ripening tomato — hit U.S. supermarket shelves in 1994, the number of genetically modified products has increased dramatically, with little fanfare. There are only nine genetically modified crops on the market: corn, soybeans, canola, cotton, sugar beets, alfalfa, Hawaiian papaya, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. But there are thousands of processed foods, an estimated 40 to 70 percent of them, that contain GMO ingredients. Questions about the safety of GM foods for human health — the main concern for consumers — and the environment have persisted for years, and recent studies have done little to resolve the debate. Worries about such crops spiked in September 2012 with the publication of a study by Gilles-Eric Séralini, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Caen in France. He claimed that rats who were fed corn that had been genetically modified to be resistant to the weedkiller Roundup developed tumors, multiple organ damage and suffered from premature death. Although the study has been widely criticized for both its design and conclusions, it energized opponents and brought GMOs into the spotlight again. The World Health Organization, the Food and Drug Administration, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and other medical and scientific bodies have said there is no evidence to support the idea that genetically modified foods are dangerous. Billions of people have eaten the foods for years without obvious evidence of a problem. But in a dissenting opinion published last November, scientists involved in the AAAS statement argued that the absence of evidence of ill effects doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Problems would only show up in independent testing, and the FDA’s testing program for genetically modified foods is voluntary, they said. The AAAS board’s stance on labeling “tramples the rights of consumers to make informed choices,” they wrote. Scientific research groups say they are not convinced that generically modified crops in general are bad for the environment, but they have expressed concerns about the emergence of “superweeds” on the farms that have become herbicide-resistant. Gray area on labeling Although Chipotle’s short film doesn’t explicitly single out any company or technology, the scarecrow, on the train back to the countryside,


Shooting star, subtle eclipse grace the skies over the Washington region

A shooting star flashed across the skies on Monday, and on Friday, a bit of Earth’s shadow tinged the face of the full moon in what is known as a penumbral eclipse, as both events added some celestial drama to Washington’s week. In a penumbral eclipse, only the partial shadow of the Earth covers the moon. The sun’s light is not completely blocked. It turned out that any dimming of the lunar face was hard to see. “It was a beautiful moon,” said Steven Crowley. But he said neither he nor his sons saw the “subtle shading” that had been predicted. The shooting star was probably more spectacular. The American Meteor Society said it received 141 reports of the fireball from eight states. Among those who saw it in Washington was Katelyn Burgett, who recalled its two-second passage as being “very bright” and having a color similar to a campfire spark.


Black-owned businesses took a disproportionate hit amid shutdown

The partial government shutdown did not impact all businesses equally. As chief economist for the U. S. Black Chamber of Commerce, my research indicates black-owned businesses were hit harder than most. Many are located in states that receive substantial federal aid, such as Maryland and Virginia, and they tend to be in industries such as health care, administration, transportation, professional services and retail that are sensitive to any decline in federal spending. As a result, these companies can experience a double hit. I estimate there are roughly 1.9 million black-owned businesses in the United States, and they generated $131 billion in 2012. That suggests the monetary impact of the shutdown on their businesses to be $10 million per day. We saw the effects. National parks and federally owned museums closed. Tourism, a major industry in the D.C. area, was, as a result, negatively affected. This impact will be felt for some time, since overseas offices that give visas to foreigners seeking to visit the United States are just now reopening. At least 800,000 federal civilian workers were furloughed. Many chose to save their money instead of spending it at restaurants and other retail outlets in the District during the shutdown, driving down retail sales and further damaging local businesses, including those not directly affected by the shutdown. This is just the beginning. Perhaps the most damaging impact is the message the shutdown sent to citizens, businesses and investors. It shows that, when partisan political issues are at stake, certain factions will not hesitate to damage the public interest. Now we see that even if you “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” and manage to create a successful business, the policies of some politicians who claim to be supporters of small businesses can still damage you. William Michael Cunningham is a University of Chicago-trained economist, a graduate of Howard University and a native Washingtonian. His opinions are not an official statement of the U.S Black Chamber of Commerce.


Cassidy lobby shop goes digital

particles in both products were roughly the same, there was no nutritional difference. It didn’t seem fair to us that one should be labeled 100 percent juice and the other should be labeled 30 percent juice. “That made perfect sense when you could see a visual image of it,” he said. The regulation was shelved. Today, Cassidy is still Ocean Spray’s hired hand in Washington. But his firm is selling the company’s message in a very different way. This month, Donna Denisen, a vice president at Cassidy & Associates and an Ocean Spray lobbyist, did an on-camera interview with a cranberry grower wading through a makeshift pool of cranberries at Union Station, to talk about the farm bill. The event drew several lawmakers, and the four-minute video was posted on YouTube, inviting viewers to visit Cassidy’s Web site, which firm leaders have spent the last year overhauling to attract more lawmakers and potential clients through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. The two lobbying strategies, deployed 32 years apart, are snapshots of the old way and the new way of doing business on K Street. What was once a behind-the-scenes business is evolving to appeal to public opinion in the Internet age. And with the lobbying business at a standstill, even superstars such as Cassidy — one of the most successful lobbyists of his generation — are having to embrace new ways of reaching policymakers and clients to protect their bottom line. “We used to do those kinds of things,” Cassidy said of the 1981 frozen cranberry juice demonstration. “Today, you need a lot more public information to carry your position. If you look at food labeling today, there’s so much going on you couldn’t expect to get a meeting like that anymore. So the way to affect it is to go out there and get public attention and hope you reach some of the decision-makers through this attention.” The strategy In 2012, Cassidy & Associates earned barely half of what it did a decade earlier in lobbying fees — $15.5 million compared with $28.7 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. To offset the losses, the firm has begun branching out into non-lobbying work, including consulting for foreign businesses and governments. Still, it took some convincing to get Cassidy to see how a digital strategy could help his business. “At first I didn’t fully understand it,” he said. “I


Despite government shutdown, federal job seekers bombard agencies with applications

in Afghanistan winds down, fewer private employers are recruiting at the fair, said retired Vice Adm. Norbert R. Ryan Jr. of the Military Officers Association of America, which organized the event. “It’s stark, the changes between 2007 and now,” he said, “because of the challenges of the economy.” The shutdown kept some agencies away, too: No one was in the office earlier in the week to send over recruiting materials. But they were still hiring. The lines of job seekers to talk to big-name contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton were 20 and 30 people deep. But so was the one for the National Security Agency, which receives more than 85,000 applications a year, said spokeswoman Vanee Vines. Working for taxpayers holds its own allure, said Sharon Gibson, who recruits veterans for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which hired 721 out of 28,000 applicants last year. “It’s about service and giving back.” “People who want to work for the federal government want to make a difference, and there is no better place,” agreed Elaine Kaplan, acting director of OPM. Colondra Etheredge, 40, a military spouse, and Kim Williams, 39, an Air Force officer about to retire next month, said given their backgrounds, government work seemed like more of a natural fit than working at a for-profit enterprise. “It’s what I know,” Williams said. The unflagging interest in federal jobs is even more remarkable given how arcane and difficult the process of landing one can be. Despite efforts to slash essay writing requirements, it remains daunting. Corliss Jackson spent 18 years in federal government human resources, including at the Office of Personnel Management. After she left to spend more time raising her three children, friends began asking her for help getting federal jobs. She has been working as a job coach nonstop ever since. During the shutdown, she had a full week of seminars for job seekers. She learned that lawmakers had finally cut a deal to reopen the government just as she was setting up for her second talk of the day at a Fairfax County employment office. The news barely registered with the two women who came to see her. Both had worked as government contractors, and both wanted to be full-fledged federal government workers or, as Jackson put it, “achieve permanency.” For the past four years, Dawn McClure, 46, has gotten up each morning,


Making a show of shutting down Washington’s monuments

Regarding the Oct. 18 editorial “Why the national parks were closed”: There is absolutely no justification for the National Park Service to have put barriers around the monuments in Washington and other locations during the government shutdown. This was grandstanding. What was the cost of someone walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial? Walking through or around a very peaceful and reverent location, such as the Vietnam, Martin Luther King Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt or Jefferson memorials requires nothing but my own ability to walk and enjoy. I was recently at Denali National Park in Alaska, and I can understand closing a park like that for lack of funds. But it cost more in time, money and effort to make a show of shutting the monuments than it would have to just let people enjoy them. There are many issues about the shutdown on which The Post could write editorials; defending the National Park Service on this one was not one of them. Larry Woldt, Alexandria ● “Why the national parks were closed” dutifully tells us why — “The Republicans took their money away” — and recounts House Republicans’ unwarranted attack on National Park Services Director Jonathan B. Jarvis, claiming that the closings were unnecessary and politically motivated. I watched with dismay the news videos of a House hearing at which Republicans pilloried Mr. Jarvis, with Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) repeatedly demanding that Mr. Jarvis cite the statute requiring that barricades be erected around facilities during the government shutdown. Mr. Jarvis repeatedly responded that the Anti-Deficiency Act compelled this action. The editorial should have explained that the act, in force since 1884, prohibits the expenditure of funds in the absence of a federal budget. The statute implements provisions of Article 1 of the Constitution: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” Government employees, including myself, abide by the act, knowing that violation of it has ramifications not only for agencies but also for employees, who can be demoted or lose their jobs. Mr. Jarvis acted entirely responsibly. A pity that the same can’t be said for many of our legislators. Anneka W. Bane, Lovettsville


Beijing Symphony plays Strathmore amid boom time for classical music in China

Beijing Symphony Orchestra in Turkey. (Courtesy of Beijing Symphony Orchestra) What explains the flourishing of classical music in recent years in China at the same time that classical music organizations are struggling in the United States? The answer might be government support, which is driving a boom of orchestras in China, as well as paying for international tours, such as China National Symphony Orchestra’s visit to Strathmore in February. The current tour of the Beijing Symphony Orchestra ended with a concert at Strathmore on Sunday night. This ensemble was founded in 1977, in the wake of China’s Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao Zedong, and its tour of the Americas this month has included renting out Carnegie Hall and Strathmore. The playing was at a professional but not extraordinary level, with the conducting of Tan Lihua more foursquare than inspired in the concluding work, the first two suites from Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The slow dances were the most successful, with some lovely flute solos in particular. The heavier pieces were mostly just loud, with some intonation issues in the woodwinds and a lack of unity in the faster string passages. Government support also pays for many commissions of new orchestral works by Chinese composers, including two pieces heard here by Guo Wenjing. The “Lotus Overture” was mostly slow and meditative, with bland orchestration and little to be remembered, in spite of many repetitions. “Desolate Mountain,” a concerto for bamboo flutes, was more promising in terms of the variety of instrumental colors, even though Guo repeated himself by having some of the musicians sing and hum in both pieces. Soloist Tang Jun Qiao, playing beautifully on three instruments of different sizes, brought out the distinctive buzzing quality of these flutes, which typically have a thin membrane of reed over the blowhole. Downey is a freelance writer. Tan Lihua (Beijing Symphony Orchestra) Tang Jun Qiao (Courtesy of Beijing Symphony Orchestra)


Sales of marijuana in D.C. for medical use are off to a slow start

FILE: Barrett Nnoka, a partner with Medicinal Marijuana Company of America, holds a hat with the company logo on it. (Michael S. Williamson/THE WASHINGTON POST) In the three months that medical marijuana has been legal to purchase in the District of Columbia, sales have yet to advance beyond a trickle. The city’s pioneering dispensaries say they are losing money; doctors remain fearful to write prescriptions; and patients with HIV or cancer who may legally obtain the drug say they have been stymied by lengthy applications and warnings that the purchases remain illegal under federal law. Those were among the many warnings that advocates for a robust medical marijuana program ticked off Monday at a hearing, as they urged D.C. council members to relax the city’s strict medical marijuana standards. Since the first legal purchase of medical marijuana in the District in late July, 59 patients, or fewer than one per day, have had their names added to the list of those legally registered to buy it, said Feseha Woldu, senior deputy director of the Health Regulation and Licensing Administration. Just over half of those have HIV/AIDS. And the patients come from all corners of the city, with Ward 6 having the largest share, at 20 percent, and Ward 5 having the smallest, with 5 percent. Three quarters of the patients are male, Woldu said. The figures, released Monday in a hearing before the council’s health committee, formed the basis for repeated pleas by advocates and residents to relax the rules. For starters, advocates said the city needs to do a better job training and clearing up misconceptions for doctors about prescribing marijuana. The city should also expand the list of chronic or terminal illnesses that qualify for legal cannabis use, they said. A father of a severely epileptic 4-year-old said his family would move to California next year if a refined version of cannabis that could limit his son’s 10-15 daily seizures is not authorized for therapy in the District. Others said that post-traumatic stress disorders, digestive ailments, and migraine headaches should be added to the list. Some even argued that the list should be done away with entirely, and symptoms left up to doctors to manage with marijuana as they see fit. Woldu stressed that the city had been prudent and its first priority remains to make sure that the public safely uses medical marijuana. Council member Yvette M.


A new memoir stars a Bridget Jones-like journalist who will inspire the runner in you

FITNESS Bridget Jones gets in shape ’Running Like a Girl’ by Alexandra Heminsley If the idea of running a marathon sounds like 26.2 miles of agony (and folly), Alexandra Heminsley can relate. “Running is awful. It can hijack you with breathlessness, cripple you with panic, and overwhelm you with self-consciousness,” she writes in her memoir, “Running Like a Girl.” Or so she thought in her 20s, when her lifestyle was much like that of early Bridget Jones. A “curvy girl with no competitive spirit,” the British journalist gladly chose a glass of wine over a bottle of Gatorade. Like her literary doppelganger, all that changed when she hit her 30s and found herself in need of a little self-improvement. She put aside her scorn for “the radiant smiles of the determinedly Sporty Types” and decided to get herself in shape. And, spoiler alert: She does. Heminsley is now an avid runner, with a handful of marathons under her belt. She has become the healthy, in-shape girl she used to hate. But don’t hate her for it. Heminsley may have shed pounds, but she hasn’t lost her sarcasm. Far from a sunny self-help book, hers is a realistic look at what it takes to transition from couch potato to amateur endurance athlete, flecked with self-deprecating anecdotes. It also includes tips for the would-be runner: how to buy a good sports bra and shoes (“Don’t go shopping for running shoes in a short skirt with no tights”), how to develop a safe running style (“Look after your head. . . . Heads are heavy — don’t leave yours lolling around . . . try to keep looking up and forward so that your spine is straight”), how to face and treat minor injuries and how to look good on marathon day (“Nail polish is the perfect boost for running.”) “I have been that woman typing ‘What happens when you run with big boobs?’ into the search bar at the end of the night,” Heminsley writes. Readers of her book, she hopes, can avoid that experience. Don’t hate the sporty types, says a Bridget Jones-like writer. Instead, become one.


Who died in your house? Here’s how to find out

Caroline Levington poses for a portrait in her 1912 row house in the Petworth neighborhood. Caroline and her husband recently participated in a workshop on how to research the history of homes through maps, photos and other archives. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) At least five people have died in my house. Three of them were children. One of them was a Union soldier who had lost the hearing in his right ear to a musket ball he took in the head during the Battle of Sailor’s Creek, years after a career as a Capitol Hill police officer and Navy Yard clerk. Was his Irish wake in our living room? Or in the dining room? Did he die in the master bedroom? Or the room that’s now our home office? These are the joys and sorrows of an old house. And in the nation’s capital, where various degrees of stupid and scandalous always bookend the inspiring and historic, lots of people wish their old walls could talk. Real estate history is a hot pursuit here, whether it means trawling Google for the names of the people everyone in your condo complained about two years ago or whirring through the microfiche archives to see your 1920 building permit. Caroline Levington poses for a portrait in her 1912 row house in the Petworth neighborhood. Caroline and her husband recently participated in a workshop on how to research the history of homes through maps, photos and other archives. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) The epicenter of this hobby? The D.C. Humanities Council’s annual house history workshop. The sessions filled up right away with people clamoring for guidance in prowling the photo archives or the building permit database at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library downtown, in its Washingtonia collection. There were D.C. residents young and old, including Jeff Leon, 26, an accountant who recently moved here and rents a home in Bloomingdale. He is one of those guys who appreciates the city’s history at every corner, marveling at the brickwork and facades everywhere. “I’m from south Florida,” he explained. “Nothing is more than 50 years old. So here? I’m surrounded by history.” The unsentimental field guide in this pursuit is Brian Kraft, a fast-talking database guy who can help you find the permits on any building in the District. “It’s the birth certificate of the building,” he said. To demonstrate, he punched in a


Netflix shares soar as profit quadruples

up $100 million for Kior The Silicon Valley venture capital firm run by Vinod Khosla has pledged to inject an additional $85 million into the cash-starved biofuel maker Kior, and a Bill Gates fund is going to chip in $15 million, too. Kior, which has fallen far short of its production forecasts this year, said Monday that Khosla and Gates will help finance a second refinery, which will convert wood chips into gasoline and diesel. Kior chief executive Fred Cannon said the company could be cash-flow positive in 2015. Khosla said in an interview that he will increase his total investment in the company to $125 million and that Gates will invest $15 million. Kior says it can convert wood chips and agricultural waste into oil products identical to those based on crude oil. Other companies are trying to use similar technology to produce cellulosic ethanol. A year ago, Kior said it expected to produce 13 million gallons of motor fuel this year, but Cannon said in an interview Sunday that he expects production to total just 1 million to 2 million gallons. A group of investors has filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of misrepresentation. — Steven Mufson Also in Business ● A European Parliament committee on Monday approved sweeping new data-protection rules that would strengthen online privacy and outlaw the kind of data transfers that the United States used for its secret spying program. The draft regulation was beefed up after Edward Snowden’s leaks about allegedly widespread U.S. online snooping to include even more stringent privacy protection and stiff fines for violations. After 18 months of wrangling and fierce industry lobbying, the legislation easily passed late Monday with a 49 to 3 committee vote, with one abstention. ● McDonald’s, the world’s largest restaurant chain, posted third-quarter sales that trailed analysts’ estimates as gains slowed in the United States, and said global sales this month may be little changed. Revenue rose 2.4 percent, to $7.32 billion, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based company said Monday. The average of analysts’ estimates was $7.33 billion. ● Hyundai decided to recall about 27,500 Genesis luxury cars Monday, hours after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into problems with their brakes. The automaker said the recall covers cars from the 2009 through 2012 model years. Owners will be notified of the recall by mail starting in November, and dealers will


Whole Foods to open store near Nationals Park

A pedestrian walks past a Whole Foods Market. (JB REED/BLOOMBERG NEWS) It was on, it was off, but it appears to be a certainty now: Whole Foods plans to open a store a few blocks from Nationals Park in Southeast D.C. Developer William C. Smith and Co. says it has signed a lease for the store to open at 800 New Jersey Ave. SE, as part of an apartment project they plan to begin building next year. Carol Chatham, a spokeswoman for the developer, declined to comment on the lease but confirmed a report from UrbanTurf, which quoted Brad Fennell, senior vice president of development for the firm, at a neighborhood meeting Monday night saying, “We do have a signed lease, and we are going to be moving forward.” A Whole Foods spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment. The deal has been a long time coming. Chris Smith, chief executive of William C. Smith, has been in discussions with Whole Foods for more than a decade and thought he had a deal in 2011 but the agreement fell apart in part because of a request for an $800,000 annual tax break. His company has been one of the biggest believers in the area, even moving its offices to 1100 New Jersey Ave. SE. Chathan said the store would be 35,000 square feet and would not require any government assistance. The building where Whole Foods would open is the second building of a complex that is eventually expected to include 1,200 residential units in four buildings built on the site of a former Washington Post plant three blocks from the Navy Yard Metro station. The site is on the northern edge of the ballpark redevelopment area, next to the Southeast Freeway, and is expected to lure shoppers from nearby Capitol Hill. Whole Foods Market has been called the “Lewis and Clark of Gentrification” because of its capacity to increase property values around its stores, in part due to the effect its store on P Street Northwest (which opened as a Fresh Fields) has had on the Logan Circle neighborhood and its surroundings. It will be the chain’s fifth store in the District. Whether the “Whole Foods effect” follows the grocer’s opening the neighborhood, branded Capitol Riverfront, it will not be the area’s only grocer. Another developer, Forest City Washington, is at work building a Harris Teeter as part


9 millennials influencing the D.C. food scene

first kombucha brewery before they’d even gotten their diplomas. The three partners the fermented, probiotic iced tea at Union Kitchen alongside other local food entrepreneurs and sell their concoctions at markets and yoga studios around the region. They find ingredients through D.C. Central Kitchen, even though they admit that sometimes it would be easier to buy a massive vat of honey at Costco than to track down the output of small-batch local purveyors. “You can sometimes get much better prices buying things from far away rather than locally, but we think that business should be a force for positive social renewal in the area where the businesses operate,” Schneider says. “We look at it as an investment. If that means investing a little more to get something locally, or through D.C. Central kitchen to get a product not grown locally, we’re willing to do that.” Given how active millennials are on social media, how important is it for Capital Kombucha to have a social media presence? “We’re aware of the fact that food and drink is something that brings people together . . . and you can’t really enjoy it over social media. The best tool for us, really, is setting up a table in a store or at a farmers market, doing demos and talking to people all day. Even if we have fewer interactions than we can over social media, each of them is more impactful.” Stephanie Merry Meredith Sheperd (Meredith Sheperd) Meredith Sheperd (Meredith Sheperd) Meredith Sheperd Love & Carrots works with homeowners, businesses and organizations to create organic gardens, transforming what Sheperd calls “biological deserts” (you might call them “lawns”) into an “edible native landscape” that provides food for the client and a beneficial ecosystem for insects. A graduate of Notre Dame in environmental science and entomology, Sheperd was a wetlands scientist for three years but realized she wasn’t cut out for office work. She launched Love & Carrots in May 2011 with 11 gardens, which she handled by herself. Now, the company tends nearly 130 gardens with crews ranging in size from five to nine. She calls her job the “perfect marriage of environmentalism, activism and local food.” The District obviously agrees. Sheperd won a Mayor’s Sustainability Award this year. Is Sheperd’s business a reflection of her generation? Tim Carman The New Washington: See the full collection March of the Millennials What matters to Millennials


Taper madness: Running withdrawal puts many marathoners on edge

Beth Graham, 30, of Fairfax is preparing to run the Marine Corps Marathon, her sixth marathon or ultramarathon. Like most of the 35,000 other competitors, she is cutting back on her training miles to rest her body for the race, a process known as "tapering" that takes a toll on the nerves of runners who have grown accustomed to the psychological benefits of high mileage. (Courtesy of Beth Graham/Courtesy of Beth Graham) As if it wasn’t stressful enough to check the weather, over and over, every single waking hour of every single day. And worry about whether someone at work has a cold or, my God, something more contagious. And keep an eye on all those acorns that have begun to litter the ground — a person could slip on one of those, twist an ankle, and all that hard work would go right down the drain. On top of all that, Beth Graham had to live with the threat that Sunday’s Marine Corps Marathon would be canceled altogether because of the government shutdown. Didn’t Congress know that Graham was tapering? How much is one woman expected to take? “You work so long for one day, and it’s hard to think something like illness or weather or the government can ruin what you’re working for,” she said. If you’ve noticed more than the usual population of cranky, antsy, obsessive people in the Washington area this week, there is an explanation: Thousands of runners are winding down their training for the 38th running of Washington’s most famous marathon. In running vernacular it’s called “tapering.” It’s that period two to three weeks before the big race when runners begin to sharply cut back on their mileage, resting their legs for the big day. Their bodies heal, but their nerves take a beating. Runners preparing to cover 26.2 miles spend several months getting used to rising before dawn four or five times a week, putting in 50-mile weeks, enjoying the freedom to eat what they want and savoring the endorphin rush that accompanies all that exercise. Then they have to cut back, quickly. It’s as if someone stole your morning coffee, every day for two or three weeks. You might not kill him over it, but you’d consider it. Robbed of their favorite pastime, runners brood about losing fitness, gaining weight, injuring themselves and race day weather, to name just a few of


For millennials, food isn’t just food. It’s community.

The scene at DoiMoi restaurant on 14th Street in Washington, D.C. (Evy Mages/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) Four years ago, as restaurants were watching their sales drop by double digits during the great recession, the owners of Silver Diner were grappling with their own response to the crisis: Would they follow the pack and cut costs to survive the downturn, or would they attempt to reimagine the diner experience for the emerging millennial generation? ¶ The latter option held the potential of great reward. Millennials — or generation Y or echo boomers — are those born, depending on who’s doing the polling, anywhere from 1978 to 2000. Their population is reported to rival that of the baby boomers. By some estimates, approximately 80 million Americans call themselves millennials, about a million more than those graying rebels known as boomers. That’s 80 million mouths to feed, from coast to coast. ¶ Robert Giaimo, co-founder of Silver Diner, made the decision to revamp his small chain for a generation that was looking for more than an all-day pancake breakfast and a bottomless cup of coffee. Giaimo and fellow founder chef Ype Von Hengst had been down a similar path — in 2007, they expelled trans-fats from their kitchens — but this time they planned a major menu overhaul. They brought the farm-to-table movement to the oversize booths and gleaming counters of the suburban diner. The pair introduced eggs, beef, bison meat, goat cheese, turkey and even beer and wine from local sources. They later went further: They started actively catering to those on vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free diets. Scene at DoiMoi restauranton 14th Street in Washington, D,C. (Evy Mages/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) “Millennials have less money, but they want to use the money that they have to make a difference,” Giaimo says. “We’ve been serving yuppies. Now we had to serve their kids with an experience they could relate to.” The shift proved so successful, Giaimo says, that the 24-year-old chain is moving into the next phase. The founders are working with Washington-based Core Architecture + Design to craft a 21st-century diner for millennials. Called just Silver, the restaurant will have only an echo of the chrome-and-neon ambiance that has defined diners for decades. Silver will feature outdoor communal tables, a full-service bar (with“spirited” shakes), LED lighting and finishes of marble, zinc and wood. Just as important, Silver will be located where the


Global start-up financing, in 3 charts

have less than a fourth of the total number of capital-seeking businesses as East Asia and the Pacific. Globally, approximately half of small businesses do not get the capital they need to either get off the ground or expand, Gamser said. “There is still a gigantic gap between the demand for finance and the supply of finance, and while it’s true everywhere, but the magnitude is much greater in emerging markets compared to developed economies,” he said — which brings us to a second chart from the day, also from Gamser. (Challenges faced by formal SMEs in emerging economies/Data and chart courtesy of IFC) This one shows the most common challenges facing small and mid-sized businesses in developing economies, where political instability and fragile infrasturcture are often considered the major barriers to economic growth. It would appear, however, a shortage of capital is actually the greatest challenge for entrepreneurs in emerging economies, with 16 percent reporting scant access to finance, double the number bemoaning political hindrances. “We estimate that, in emerging markets, there is north of $2 trillion worth of good business that is being left on the table by the global financial sector,” Gamser said. Often, it is not for a lack of capital, he added, but rather a lack of communication between entrepreneurs and potential investors. “In emerging markets, the high-net worth individuals, those that would be qualified investors in the United States, for example, they have so many more barriers when trying to connect with the firms in need of finance,” Gamser said. Meanwhile, some entrepreneurs simply do not understand the type of assets that can be valuable in today’s economy, according to Kenan Jarboe, president of Athena Alliance, a think tank in Washington. Often, business owners (and sometimes bankers) think only in terms of tangible assets like real estate, inventory and cash savings when searching for collateral for a commercial loan. It is time to start thinking outside the box, Jarboe explained, pointing to the following data. (Rising U.S. non-farm business investment in intangible assets/Chart courtest Athena Alliance / Data from American Economic Review) The chart compares the amount of tangible and intangible assets used as collateral for investments in non-farm businesses over the past half-century. Roughly 20 years ago, as you can see, intangible assets surpassed the tangible as the most common form of leverage for a business loan. So, what are intangible assets? It’s


Arlington-Alexandria news in brief

Segment of street renamed for marathon To celebrate the annual Marine Corps Marathon, part of Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn has been temporarily renamed Marine Corps Marathon Drive. Signs honoring the race have been posted on Wilson Boulevard from N. Lynn Street to N. Moore Street and will stay in place through race day, which is Sunday. Thousands of Arlingtonians are among the nearly 30,000 runners who take part in the Marine Corps Marathon. “It is fitting that we rename part of Wilson Boulevard ‘Marine Corps Marathon Drive,’ ” Rosslyn Business Improvement District President Mary-Claire Burick said in a statement. “The renaming anticipates a day that inspires and energizes us all, while also paying tribute to our heroic U.S. Marines.” Neighborhoods to get $1.5 million in upgrades The Arlington County Board this week approved $1.5 million to fund three neighborhood improvement projects. The projects focus on pedestrian safety, street lane reduction, bike lanes, beautification and LED streetlights. The projects, which were suggested by residents through the auspices of the Neighborhood Conservation Advisory Committee, are in Leeway, Columbia Forest and Williamsburg. “Arlington’s Neighborhood Conservation program is a great example of planning from the ground up,” County Board Chairman J. Walter Tejada said in a statement. “No one knows what it takes to make a neighborhood safer and more beautiful than the people who live there.” Nominations sought for human rights award Nominations are now being accepted for the 15th annual James B. Hunter Human Rights Award. Applications are due by Nov. 13. The award nominations are open to all Arlington County residents, community groups, nonprofit organizations and businesses that focus on human rights activism. Recipients will be honored at a reception at 7 p.m. Dec. 12 in the County Board Room, 2100 Clarendon Blvd. Visit arlingtonva.us for information on award criteria and guidelines and to download the nomination form. Nov. public hearing will cover waterfront plans The Alexandria City Council will hold a special council meeting and public hearing Nov. 19 to discuss the city’s options for implementing the Waterfront Small Area Plan. The hearing will examine the city’s long-standing dispute with the Old Dominion Boat Club concerning the club’s parking lot and adjacent areas, which are in one of the plan’s key areas. The Waterfront Small Area Plan was approved last year and involves improvements to the city waterfront property, including flood mitigation and development plans for a park and public


Newly identified galaxy is the most distant ever confirmed

outlying galaxy — with the official catalogue name z8_GND_5296 — left the galaxy 13.1 billion years ago. This gives us a glimpse of the universe as it was when it was only 700 million years old. In other words, we’re looking 95 percent of the way back to the Big Bang. To put that into human terms, that would be like an 80-year-old watching a video of himself on his fourth birthday. “From observing these distant galaxies, we can understand how the universe was when it was very young,” Tilvi said. “There’s no other way to look into the past.” Here’s a look back at some of the space telescope’s discoveries. Setting out to find the most distant galaxy isn’t a single eureka moment, but rather a careful process of confirmation and remeasurement. Further-away galaxies than z8_GND_5296 have been identified but failed a double-check process along the way. The team first perused a month’s worth of images from the Hubble telescope for possible candidate galaxies. Hubble avoids the snags that Earth-bound telescopes can run into, such as clouds and bad weather, to more easily spot the red blobs that signal a distant object. The same effect that causes a passing ambulance siren to change pitch as it zooms by, called the Doppler shift, makes the most distant galaxies appear red. Because the universe is expanding, the galaxy’s light moves away from us and gets stretched into a redder wavelength. “These galaxies from within the first billion years of the universe are so far away that they have shifted into the infrared, or redder than our eyes can see,” Finkelstein said. How red the light of the object is gives some sense of how far away it is, but a technique called spectroscopy is the true litmus test that accurately confirms the distance. The researchers spent two days at the Keck Observatory, near the summit of the Mauna Kea volcano, looking for a characteristic piece of data called the Lyman-alpha emission line. The Lyman-alpha line tends to be a bright signature of old-universe galaxies that are forming stars at a high rate. Once found for a particular galaxy, an exact distance from Earth can be calculated. Although disappointing at first, finding only one Lyman-alpha line is an intriguing discovery, the scientists say. One theory says that, after cooling down from the Big Bang, a cosmic fog of neutral hydrogen gas cloaked


Kelle Hampton uses blog to change perceptions of people with Down Syndrome

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month, and there is much to celebrate this year. Wet Seal has a clothing model with Down Syndrome. A television commercial featured a child with Down Syndrome. And, locally, a Prince William County high school recently chose a 20-year-old junior who has Down Syndrome for its homecoming court. All of these things are small steps toward breaking down stereotypes about people with Down Syndrome, said Kelle Hampton, mom of three and author of “Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected.” Hampton’s middle child Nella, 3, has Down Syndrome. Hampton has made it her mission to try to erase the stigma that still accompanies Down Syndrome for some people. “I don’t want people to look at my child and think she’s stupid or feel sorry for her,” Hampton said, noting that it wasn’t that long ago that children with Down Syndrome were relegated to institutional settings. Now, therapies and more inclusive education practices are giving people with Down Syndrome the chance to lead more fulfilling lives. Even with the progress, though, advocating for a child with Down Syndrome or other special needs can be thankless and exhausting work. Warrior moms are tired, but it’s not because their children are a burden. They’re constantly fighting public perceptions and social stigmas. They log countless hours battling insurance companies about coverage for therapies. They often have to lobby for services from the local school system, and then keep a close eye to make sure their children’s Individual Education Plans are implemented and working. And, like Hampton, they’re worrying, even when their children are toddlers, about what awaits them in adulthood. Yet for all the fatigue, for the most part, their lives are the same as any other mother’s, because, you know, these are their kids. Fighting for them is part of the job description. Hampton tries to reflect the normalcy of her life by deliberately not mentioning Down Syndrome much on her blog Enjoying the Small Things. “My advocacy is about reading between the lines,” said Hampton, who lives in Naples, Fla. “I don’t talk about it a lot, because I want people to realize that we’re just a normal family, so when they see families with a child with Down Syndrome they don’t feel sorry for them.” Hampton would rather people talk about all of the things Nella can do. Nella loves music and dancing — particularly to Hannah


Residents concerned about impact of proposed light-rail Purple Line

a chance to read and analyze them.” State officials have said they hope to begin construction of the line in mid-2015 and open it in mid-2020. The state is seeking $900 million in federal funding and private investors to help build the $2.2 billion project. The line would connect communities between Bethesda and New Carrollton — including Silver Spring, Langley Park, College Park and Riverdale Park — and link them to Metrorail, Amtrak and MARC commuter rail stations. State transit planners say two-car trains running along local streets, mostly in their own lanes, would be faster and more reliable than buses stuck in traffic and would reinvigorate older suburbs with new development around stations. Leaders for the Town of Chevy Chase said state planners should redo the analysis and look again at other options, such as a less expensive busway, because the estimated construction costs of a light-rail line have “skyrocketed” from about $1 billion in 2007 to $2.2 billion. The final analysis also did not include all of the project’s design details, leaving the public unable to assess their potential impacts, town officials wrote. John Fitzgerald, an environmental lawyer who lives in Chevy Chase near the proposed light-rail alignment, said the study left out an endangered species, the Hay’s Spring amphipod, which would be affected by a Purple Line’s construction and operations. The small, colorless crustacean is found in Rock Creek Park, downstream of the proposed alignment. Fitzgerald said the amphipod turns leaves into nutrients for other species. He said Rock Creek is the only known habitat for the Hay’s Spring amphipod. Fitzgerald, who previously worked for environmental groups, said the state must consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assess the potential impacts to the crustacean, as well as ways those impacts could be reduced. The state’s study found “no long-term impacts on known rare, threatened or endangered species,” according to the executive summary. Fitzgerald said he and other environmental activists are considering a lawsuit to prevent any rail line construction until the endangered species issue is addressed. Advocates for the Georgetown Branch extension of the Capital Crescent Trail said a light-rail line would “irrevocably destroy” the rare parkland in an otherwise densely developed area. The state also has not fully informed the public about other “reasonable alternatives” that could avoid or minimize such impacts, including a busway, said the Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail.


Months after assault on Custis Trail jogger, physical and psychological effects continue

Jeff Gordon was attacked while running on the Custis Trail, but he still gets out and runs on the trail on a regular basis. (Dayna Smith/The Washington Post) Jeff Gordon, who was training for his next triathlon, headed out to Arlington County’s Custis Trail one January afternoon. He was running through a secluded area when someone reached out and grabbed his right arm. As he turned, he saw two young men. One hit him in the head with a gun. Gordon fell to the ground. When he tried to look up, he was kicked in the head. The attackers stole the only valuables he carried — the sunglasses on his head and the Garmin GPS watch on his wrist. “Does he have anything else?” one of the men asked. Gordon heard them move away. Slowly, he rose and staggered over the embankment onto the Route 66 exit to Glebe Road, where cars were stopped at a red light. A woman rolled down her window and asked whether he needed help. He asked her to call 911. A noise made Gordon turn his head. The woman in the car gasped. “Oh, my God,” she said. He touched his ear, and his white running glove came back covered in blood. * * * The random attack took only a few moments, bringing together a 55-year-old personal trainer and two brothers, one who said he was looking for money to buy drugs. But it changed Gordon’s life, he said, leaving him with nightmares, headaches and fear. The criminal case ended last week when Robert Thomas, 23, of the District was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the robbery. Andre Thomas, 17, who also was convicted, will serve a sentence that will be determined by the juvenile-justice department. Guidelines suggest 18 to 36 months in prison. During a hearing Friday in Arlington Circuit Court, Robert Thomas told the judge that he was high on PCP the day of the robbery. As a child, he said, he’d run away from a foster home after being abused. He said he was not taking the medication he had used in the past for bipolar disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression, and he wanted cash for a drug buy. “I am truly, deeply sorry,” Robert Thomas said in court as his uncle and father looked on. “I will not go back out there and cause any more


Many Americans accumulating debt faster than they’re saving for retirement

A majority of Americans with 401(k)-type savings accounts are accumulating debt faster than they are setting aside money for retirement, further undermining the nation’s troubled system for old-age saving, a new report has found. Three in five workers with defined contribution accounts are “debt savers,” according to the report released Thursday, meaning their increasing mortgages, credit card balances and installment loans are outpacing the amount of money they are able to save for retirement. The imbalance is expanding even as policymakers are encouraging people to set aside more by offering generous tax breaks and automatically enrolling workers in retirement accounts that in some cases automatically escalate the amount of money over time. Currently, workers with retirement savings accounts put aside more than 11 percent of their pay for retirement — 5 percent in their own accounts, and 6.2 percent in Social Security. Despite that — and despite the $2.5 trillion the report says employers have poured into defined contribution accounts from 1992 to 2012 — the retirement readiness of most Americans has been slipping, according to the report by HelloWallet, a D.C. firm that offers technology-based financial advice to workers and conducts research of economic behavior. “Policy has tunnel vision. It tends to tackle problems on a piecemeal basis. The impact of policy on consumer finances is a bit like playing a game of Whac-A-Mole,” said Matt Fellowes, founder and chief executive of HelloWallet and a former Brookings Institution scholar. “We raised the victory flag as people increased retirement contributions, but in reality the ability of people to retire is a function of lots of different variables, most important of which is what they are doing on the other side of the ledger.” The HelloWallet report is the latest in an expanding line of research suggesting that the United States is facing a looming retirement security crisis. A growing number of researchers are concerned that the nation is on the cusp of a shift in which more Americans are on a track that will lead to a decline in their living standards when they retire. The report says that debt is among the biggest culprits. The amount of money that households nearing retirement are dedicating to pay down debts has increased 69 percent over the past two decades, the report said. Households headed by people ages 55 to 64 now spend 22 cents of each dollar to pay off old


Former defense secretary Gates warns against lure of drone warfare

the White House and Congress to view war as a “bloodless, painless and odorless” affair. “Remarkable advances in precision munitions, sensors, information and satellite technology and more can make us overly enamored with the ability of technology to transform the traditional laws and limits of war,” Gates said in a speech to a group of current and former soldiers, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. “A button is pushed in Nevada and seconds later a pickup truck explodes in Kandahar.” Too often, Gates said, U.S. defense experts have come to view war as a “kind of video game or action movie. . . . In reality, war is inevitably tragic, inefficient and uncertain.” The former defense secretary, speaking at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington, suggested that the infatuation with technology had led some politicians and defense experts to believe that the military’s budget can be cut deeply with little harm. He called on Republicans and Democrats to put aside partisan fighting to solve the budget crisis and reverse plans to reduce defense spending by almost $1 trillion over the next decade. Gates was especially harsh in his critique of the political climate, saying that “the biggest threat to U.S. national security is the political dysfunction within two square miles of Washington, D.C.” “My hope — and it is a faint hope — is that the remaining adults in the two political parties will make the compromises necessary to put this country’s finances back in order, end the sequestration of military dollars, and protect military capabilities that are as necessary today as they have been through the last century,” he said. Gates’s remarks were certain to be warmly received in the Army, which faces the deepest cuts of all the military services. Leaders in both Congress and the White House have spoken of the need to reduce ground troops and shift the focus to Asia, where air and sea power are thought to be more important. The former defense secretary also called on the military to hold on to the hard lessons it had learned during the long stretch of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially lessons involving how to fight low-tech, guerrilla wars. “It is too easy to forget that there are still tens of thousands of soldiers serving in Afghanistan; too easy to forget the tremendous sacrifices that led to the security


Lawrence R. Klein dies at 93; won Nobel for economic forecasting models

Lawrence R. Klein, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who was credited with establishing economic forecasting models for the modern age, died Oct. 20 at his home in Gladwyne, Pa. He was 93. The family confirmed the death but did not disclose the cause. Dr. Klein was best known for his development of large-scale econometric models — a method that uses mathematics, statistics and economics to test economic hypotheses — and applying them to the analysis of future economic fluctuations and trends. Building on the work that future Nobel laureate Jan Tinbergen had begun in the 1930s, Dr. Klein combined economic theory and statistics to estimate the effect of changes in government policies on future economic conditions. Antonio M. Merlo, a professor in Penn’s economics department, said Dr. Klein’s work established a new paradigm of economics. Before his work, models captured only a few specific aspects of the economy. Lawrence R. Klein, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who was credited with establishing economic forecasting models for the modern age pictured here in 1981, died Oct. 20. He was 93. (B. Thumma/Associated Press) Merlo said Dr. Klein devoted his life to developing and improving models to capture the statistical relationships of these various and intricate variables of the economy into one large-scale picture. Those models allowed government policymakers as well as businesses and the general public to have a more mature view of what would happen next and how it would affect their livelihoods. Dr. Klein’s work provided discipline to the field of economics, Merlo said, and was “sophisticated at the theoretical and technical level” but also “extremely applicable.” Despite formidable challenges, including a lack of reliable data and underdeveloped computing and information technology, Dr. Klein was able to show how economic elements interact through a series of mathematical equations. Early on, Dr. Klein correctly forecast, unlike many economists in the mid-1940s, that the United States would experience an economic upturn rather than a depression following the end of World War II because of pent-up demand for consumer goods and housing, as well as the purchasing power of returning soldiers. His correct prediction increased the credibility of the field of econometrics. He also accurately predicted only a mild recession at the end of the Korean War. The Nobel committee stated in its citation that “few, if any, research workers in the empirical field of economic science have had so many successors and such a


Why are there more runners in D.C.? It’s not where we are, it’s who we are

media and bragging” as fueling marathons’ increased popularity. “The way to one-up each other — ‘I’m thinner than you, I’m better than you in various ways, I also checked this box’ — has really perpetuated the growth of the sport.” The flip side, however, is that those recreational runners make up such a substantial portion of marathon and half-marathon participants that races couldn’t exist without them. Ban, the editor of Run Washington, considers himself “a competitive runner” and said that if it weren’t for the recreational runners, “races wouldn’t be feasible financially, given the cost that goes into putting on a race: closing down roads, supplying all the necessary water, nutrition, things like that. . . . That mass is necessary.” The mass is already responsible for changing next year’s Marine Corps Marathon. According to Ban, race organizers will be using a lottery for the first time. “The egalitarian nature of the race pretty much demands a level playing field for registration,” he said, and demand this year caused the registration system to crash. Why is a marathon the go-to bucket list accomplishment? For one thing, it exists in a strange middle space of athletic achievement. It is physically possible for almost any able-bodied person who properly trains to complete one, and yet many people never do. Jim Hage, a former Washington Post reporter, won the Marine Corps Marathon two years in a row, running 2:21:59 in 1988 and shaving more than a minute off his time in 1989. The marathon is “a distance that is sort of romanticized in a lot of ways,” he said. No matter how many people run one, “it’s not going to lose its allure,” said Hage. “It’s the ultimate in running, to do a marathon. And for people who have done even one Marine Corps Marathon, they probably know where their medal is.” “I think if you’re going to be a bear, you’ve got to be a grizzly. And if you’re going for a running goal, go for the running goal, which is a marathon,” said Ban. “The achievement that a lot of people feel finishing a marathon, it’s unmatchable.” “I think some of the excitement about it is that on race day, you really are taking a leap of faith,” said Culley, the Olympics runner, pointing out that “there are very few people who ever go out and run a 26-mile training run.”