ATK-Orbital merger is a wait-and-watch game

This image provided by NASA shows the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, as it suffers a catastrophic anomaly moments after launch. (Joel Kowsky/AP) It was not a good week for Dulles satellite company Orbital Sciences. The company’s latest NASA mission went up in flames last week, and though the cause of the explosion is still not clear, the failed mission sparked debate about the future of commercial space flight and America’s continued reliance on Soviet-era rocket engines. What this could mean for the proposed $5 billion merger between Orbital and Alliance Techsystems is unclear. Orbital executives held a conference call with investors Wednesday after the company’s stock plunged more than 14 percent. The immediate effect of the explosion is that Orbital’s future missions are likely to be pushed back, chief executive David Thompson said. The next supply run to the international space station, scheduled for early April, will be delayed by at least three months, and in the worst case, up to a year, he said. Orbital’s failed mission was the third in an eight-part contract with NASA worth $1.9 billion. The company is insured against the failed mission and damage to the launchpad, Thompson said. Industry watchers say it’s too early to tell if this setback would derail the merger. “Anytime you have a spectacular failure like that, it’s going to be a black eye [to a company],” said Roman Schweizer, a defense policy analyst with Guggenheim Partners. “But one would think you wouldn’t scuttle a major transaction with long-term goals,” he said. ATK said it would conduct a “thorough evaluation of any potential implications resulting from the incident, including current operating plans, long-term strategies, and the proposed transaction.” In an earnings call with investors, ATK executives re-iterated the company’s statement and said they would also look at the implications for ATK’s own Castor 30XL motor, which powers the second stage of Orbital’s Antares rocket. (Tuesday’s explosion occurred before the rocket reached the second stage.) The outcome of the investigation will ultimately determine both Wall Street and ATK’s decisions about Orbital Sciences, Schweizer said. “Both companies, particularly ATK, will want to get a better understanding of what this means for Orbital’s outlook and their potential customers,” he said. More from Capital Business: For a daily rundown of Washington area business news, sign up for the “CapBiz A.M.” e-mail newsletter.


Investigating a deadly crash

Regarding the Nov. 2 news article “NTSB investigates spaceship explosion in Calif.”: I greatly admire Richard Branson for all of his accomplishments and his attitude toward serving his customers, and the crash of a private space ship and the death of a pilot is tragic. But why should the government bear the costs of an investigation of what caused the crash? No one asked Mr. Branson to pursue this, and he can afford to reimburse the government for all costs incurred during the investigation, which will directly benefit his commercial venture. Bruce Kirschenbaum, Reston


D.C. attorney slain in the Dominican Republic

to local news reports. “When the police agents arrived at the location, the apartment door was open and the lock hadn’t been forced open, so the person who entered didn’t encounter any type of resistance,” police spokesman Jacobo Mateo Moquete said. It was a sudden and violent end for a man friends said was a gentle yet vivacious member of the Washington community. Teasley, who went to high school in Norfolk and attended Howard University, was widely known locally. He dressed with elan, once discussed hate crimes before the D.C. City Council, owned several local properties and advocated for gay rights. By Sunday night, his Facebook profile was filled with messages posted by mourners. That contrast between his full life and violent death has been difficult to reconcile, friends said. “He had just bought that [Santo Domingo] apartment not too long ago, and now some are saying he had his throat slit, though that hasn’t been verified yet,” friend Dana Fonville said. “He was just a flashy dresser,” Fonville said. “A lot of people loved him, and he was well traveled, and a very sophisticated individual.” The circumstances surrounding Teasley’s death, Fonville said, are difficult to understand. If it’s true his door was open — with no sign of forced entry — the killer may have known Teasley, who police said was strangled with a plastic clamp. “It’s very unlikely this was some random act by an intruder,” Fonville said. “There had to be more than one assailant. This was just a heinous crime, and he must have been ambushed or let his guard down with a friend he met awhile back who may have made a plan against him.” Friend Berniece Petersen said Teasley fell in love with the Dominican Republic and bought a vacation home, which he visited more than 10 times every year. “He was the most humble and kind and generous spirit you could ever meet,” she said. “This has impacted all of us. A lot of people are really feeling it right now and we’re just shocked.” Betty Ballester, head of the D.C. Superior Court’s Trial Lawyers Association, said Teasley had one of the longest tenures as a court-appointed attorney in the city. Ballester said judges are meeting with her to find new attorneys for Teasley’s clients. “He was a good attorney who cared for his clients,” Ballester said. “He was such a good guy.”


Shooting in Shaw area of NorthwestVictim said to be conscious and breathing

A man was shot and wounded Tuesday night in the Shaw area of Northwest Washington, D.C. police said. Officer Paul Metcalf, a police spokesman said the victim was conscious and breathing after the gunfire, which occurred about 9:30 p..m. at 8th and R streets NW. The site is about a block and a half southwest of the Shaw metro station. According to police, they are looking for a black man in his 20s, with a slim build, who wore a gray hoodie and blue jeans.


Hepatitis C patients may not qualify for pricey drugs unless illness is advanced

fibrous scar tissue that can cripple the liver, eventually resulting in cirrhosis or liver cancer. Walker’s doctor prescribed Sovaldi, a pill that can cure the chronic infection in 12 weeks, significantly faster than the nearly year-long course of treatment often required under older drug regimens. Sovaldi must be taken with a drug such as interferon, which can cause flulike symptoms, nausea and depression. Instead of interferon, Walker’s physician prescribed Olysio, another recently approved hepatitis C drug that has milder side effects. But the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved its use in combination with Sovaldi for cases like Walker’s. Walker’s insurer denied his doctor’s request for the drug. Walker appealed and was turned down again. The insurer cited the off-label use of Olysio in its denial, but Walker says he doesn’t think switching the prescription to interferon would have changed the decision. The insurer generally doesn’t approve Sovaldi for patients such as Walker, whose liver fibrosis is stage F1 on a scale of F0 to F4, he said, adding that only patients at stages F3 or F4 are typically approved for Sovaldi. “We are committed to providing our members access to quality, cost-effective medications,” Dan McCoy, chief medical officer for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, said in a statement. “Our coverage criteria is based on clinical trial data, published literature and recommendations from a wide variety of medical specialty societies. We constantly review and update our coverage criteria as new information becomes available or new specialty drugs or treatments come to market.” The insurer didn’t respond to a request for specific coverage criteria. In October, the FDA approved another hepatitis C drug, Harvoni, a daily pill that doesn’t have to be taken with another drug. A typical 12-week course of treatment will generally cost about the same as for Sovaldi used with another drug (unless it’s Olysio, which can push the total treatment cost to $150,000 or more). But patients like Walker might be cured in as little as eight weeks using Harvoni, slashing the cost by a third. Walker says he hopes he’ll be approved for Harvoni. “The fact that I’m only F1, that’s good,” he says. “But until I actually get the medication and am cured, there’s going to be a lot of anxiety.” Many baby boomers with hepatitis C contracted it years ago from blood transfusions at a time when blood was not screened for the


Suspected Russian insurgent appears in U.S. court in Virginia on terror charges

United States. Irek Ilgiz Hamidullin This is the first time a foreign combatant captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan and held by the U.S. military at the Parwan detention facility has been transferred to the United States to face trial. The charges carry a potential maximum penalty of life imprisonment. According to the indictment, unsealed Tuesday, the Russian was an insurgent leader, and participated in an November 2009 attack on coalition and Afghan forces in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan. U.S. officials said Hamidullin worked with Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of a major insurgent group tied to the Taliban, before launching the attack on an Afghan border post known as Camp Leyza. The Haqqani Network is a designated foreign terrorist organization, operating out of northwest Pakistan. U.S. officials said Hamidullin did reconnaissance of the camp before launching the assault, directing three groups of heavily armed insurgents. The indictment says he planned to shoot down U.S. helicopters if they responded to the attack. After the initial attack ended with a number of insurgents killed, Hamidullin fired on Afghan and U.S. forces who were doing a battle damage assessment, according to the indictment. He was captured and found to be carrying two grenades and an AK-47. The indictment says Hamidullin served as a Soviet officer in the 1980s. While in the Soviet military, the indictment says, he received specialized training in the use of a large-caliber, anti-aircraft machine gun and a portable rocket launcher. Much of his biography remains unknown, including what he did after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in the late 1980s and before the U.S. assault on the Taliban and al-Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He is believed to have fought with the Taliban or allied groups since at least 2001. The indictment did not contain Hamidullin’s real name or specify where in Russia he is from. The United States had struggled with what to do with him as combat operations in Afghanistan neared an end, weighing whether he and the remaining 10 non-Afghan detainees at Parwan should be tried in a civilian or military court, or sent home. In a news release, the Justice Department said Hamidullin was indicted Oct. 8, turned over to the FBI on Monday and then flown to the United States. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Richmond. Hamidullin’s lawyer did not immediately return a message left at his office.


Post-marathon: For the endurance racer, recovery is mental, too

anxiety, even depression. The feeling of the “post-marathon blues” affects runners in different ways and may come as a surprise, said Julie Sapper, also with Run Faster and Farther. “The normal post-marathon letdown applies to any goal and race,” she said. “You see the goal and achieve the goal. Now what?” Reichmann and Sapper emphasized that runners need to use recovery time to reconnect with their life. Priorities get shifted to accommodate training, so getting in touch with friends and family is important, both to regain support and reestablish ties. I talked with Mark Cucuzzella, the running coach who taught me the “1,2,3 step,” after Toronto. Cucuzzella, who ran his 23rd Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 26, urges runners to take the time to relax and let “good things” happen during recovery. “I think the real important thing is to give yourself time to allow for the joy of accomplishment,” Cucuzzella said. That joy allows for what Cucuzzella called “deep recovery” to occur. “Sleep, good nutrition, healthy fats and proteins” are important, Cucuzzella said. “Do some things you’ve neglected, go for a hike, longer bike rides, join friends to do an alternative activity. Call it active recovery and stay active as a person. “If you finish happy, you’re already about 80 percent recovered.” No pain, no strain So, what if you don’t finish happy? That’s what Kenny Yum faced at the Toronto marathon two years ago. Pain in his left calf, along with training struggles, led to a personal worst 4:00 time for the run. Yum, a 40-year-old managing editor of Huffington Post Canada, has run 28 marathons, including the Marine Corps Marathon six times and Boston twice, and he usually averages 3:30 or faster. After the 2012 race in Toronto, he used the recovery time to regroup. “I tend not to get overemotional about bad races or races that don’t go my way,” he wrote by e-mail. “I try to keep a level head about bad experiences and use the time between training cycles to think about what went wrong. “A marathon is a long-term project — you can build over months and in many cases, years. Recovery helps you reset yourself, so you can run slower, but also think about getting the things you need — sleep, strength work, time with friends. Not only does your body need to recover from a marathon, but so too must your


Nuruddin Farah’s ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’ wrestles with grand political, social themes

Nuruddin Farah didn’t win the Nobel Prize in literature last month as was predicted — or at least hoped — in some quarters, but he remains a perennial contender. The celebrated Somali writer, who now teaches at Bard College in New York, has published a dozen novels, many of them dealing with questions of African identity that seem increasingly relevant to a world finally waking up to the continent’s true potential for disruption or success. In a year striking for its bounty of Africa-related novels, his new book, “Hiding in Plain Sight,” promises a rich exploration of political and social crises that American readers could be expected to savor. The opening scene practically blows off the front cover of the novel. A Somali man, a single father named Aar who works for the United Nations in Mogadishu, receives a piece of paper that contains only one word: “DETH!” Aar is tempted to pretend that some poor speller wants relief from “debt,” but he knows how toxic the political climate is for people like him. He’s “struck with a sudden nausea; in fact, he is so panic-stricken that he thinks his knees may give way, forcing him to collapse to the floor.” By the time he composes himself and makes plans to flee, it’s too late: A jihadist group destroys the U.N. building, killing him and more than 30 others. As a hook, this sweaty-palmed scene is terrifically exciting. As an indication of the tale that follows, it’s entirely misleading. The novel proper is not actually a thriller at all. It’s a sensitive story about living in the shadow of grief, learning to forgive and trying to answer the question, “What does it mean to be Somali in this day and age?” The central character of “Hiding in Plain Sight” is Aar’s younger sister, Bella, a world-renowned fashion photographer. Summoned home by her brother’s murder, Bella must tearfully piece together the shards of his compartmentalized existence. (In a brutal example of life imitating art, Farah’s own sister was killed in a terrorist attack in Afghanistan this year, after he had finished a draft of this novel.) Bella’s grieving is subsumed by the immediate needs of Aar’s children — her young niece and nephew living in Nairobi. What role will she now play in their lives? Is she willing to abandon her jet-setting career to care for these adolescents by herself? Those


Rocket explosion isn’t the end of kids’ science project

A rocket exploded shortly after launch at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility last week. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via Associated Press) California students whose science project was onboard the supply rocket that exploded last week will have another shot at getting their work into space. The project, developed by students at Urban Promise Academy middle school in Oakland, would have sent live worms to the International Space Station to study space’s effects on composting, Oakland schools spokesman Troy Flint said last week. No one was injured when the rocket exploded after lifting off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. The rocket was carrying more than 5,000 pounds of equipment, food and other supplies for the station. Flint said school officials were told they would have a second chance to send the project into space. “The kids will be able to realize their dream, if everything goes well, of having their experiments in space, and see the results,” Flint said. The project was among 18 student experiments onboard the rocket when it exploded, NASA said. — Reuters


Strategy game goes back tens of centuries

Frederick Bao, left, plays go last month with Sarah Crites. Because they were in a tournament, they used clocks to time their moves. (Jennifer Huget) Frederick Bao studies the yellow board that sits on the table between him and Sarah Crites. Clasping a white “stone” between the pad of his middle finger and the nail of his index finger, he makes his move, tapping the stone onto the board. Then he quickly slaps the palm of his hand on one end of a clock that also sits on the table. Now it’s Sarah’s turn. Holding a black stone between two fingers, she places it on the board, then smacks her side of the clock. Frederick, age 7, and Sarah, 10, are playing go. Go is one of the oldest games in the world. It originated in China thousands of years ago, but now it’s played all over the world, including here in the United States. Frederick, a second-grader who lives in Rockville, Maryland, and Sarah, a sixth-grader from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, are at a go tournament in Arlington, Virginia. Frederick is a stronger, more experienced player than Sarah, even though she’s a bit older. But one of the many cool things about go is that any two players, whether they’re beginners or professionals, can play each other — and each has about an equal chance of winning. This is because the less-experienced player is given extra stones or points. (Bigstock) Go has only a few rules, and they can be learned in minutes. But not even the best players feel they have mastered the game. In go, two players take turns placing their stones (the black ones traditionally are made of slate, and the white ones traditionally are made of clamshell) on the intersections of lines on the board. There are 19 lines from one side of the board to the other, and 19 lines from the top to the bottom. The idea is to fence off more space than your opponent, outlining your “territory” with your stones. When stones are surrounded by stones of the opposite color, they are “dead” and can be “captured.” At the end of the game, the players figure out the amount of space they’ve claimed, and the one who has the most wins. (The clock is used only in competitions where time limits are set for games.) Sounds simple, right? But go requires a lot


Environmentalists threaten to sue Montgomery County over Purple Line

Opponents of building a light-rail Purple Line through the Maryland suburbs say they will sue Montgomery County unless the county helps develop a plan to reduce or prevent potential harm to three endangered shrimplike creatures. The formal “notice of intent to sue” was filed Monday by the Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail advocacy group and three Chevy Chase residents — the same people who filed a federal lawsuit in August against four federal agencies over the project’s environmental impacts. They say the county must help protect the creatures’ habitats because all three are listed as endangered species under Maryland law, according to the letter addressed to Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D). A spokesman for Leggett said the county had no comment. The county is responsible for the environmental impacts that result from clearing and rebuilding the wooded Georgetown Branch trail as part of a Purple Line’s construction between Bethesda and Silver Spring, the letter says. The entire 16-mile line, which is still seeking full funding, would extend east to New Carrollton in Prince George’s County. However, it runs along the trail only in Montgomery County. At issue are tiny, shrimplike creatures known as freshwater amphipods that have been found in Rock Creek Park in the District and, in one case, near Coquelin Run in the Chevy Chase area of Montgomery County near the planned Purple Line alignment. The Hay’s Spring amphipod has been listed as a federally protected endangered species since 1982, and the Kenk’s amphipod is a candidate for federal listing. Both are considered endangered under Maryland law, as is a third crustacean known as the sextarius amphipod. Federal officials have said Those involved in the possible legal action — the trail advocacy group and Chevy Chase residents John M. Fitzgerald, Christine Real de Azua and Dedun Ingram — also recently notified the Maryland Transit Administration of their intent to sue if the state does not more thoroughly analyze the Purple Line’s potential effects on the amphipods. “We’re still hoping they’ll change their minds or at least do a much better analysis to show how they’re going to meet the law,” Fitzgerald said in an interview Tuesday.


Washington-area obituaries of note

Mrs. Wallace, an Alexandria resident, was born Doris Brougher at an Army base in the Panama Canal Zone, where her father was serving. Mrs. Wallace, who was widowed three times, accompanied her husbands, two of whom died in military aircraft accidents, on Army assignments throughout the United States and Europe before settling in Alexandria in 1958. Charles S. Springate, pathologist Charles S. Springate, 82, who retired in 1994 as a staff pathologist at the former Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, died Oct. 16 at a nursing care center in Gaithersburg, Md. The cause was pneumonia, said a daughter, Grace Leonard. Dr. Springate was born in Manchester, Iowa. He was the chief deputy medical examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia and an assistant pathology professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., before he moved to Silver Spring and joined AFIP’s aerospace division in 1981. There, he conducted about 130 investigations of fatal aircraft accidents around the world. His cases included the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. Robert T. Watson, Commerce Dept. physicist Robert T. Watson, 92, a physicist at the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration from 1971 until his retirement in 1987, died Oct. 19 at a medical center in Annapolis, Md. The cause of death was pneumonia, said a son, Todd Watson. Dr. Watson, a resident of Crofton, Md., was born in Columbus, Ohio, and moved to the Washington area in 1971 to join the Commerce Department. From the early 1960s to 1971, he was division president of ITT Industrial Laboratories in Fort Wayne, Ind. At ITT, he helped oversee the development of the corporation’s Videx satellite system, which transmitted still images of the Gemini 5 satellite recovery to television, and an early space-based, high-resolution, night-vision camera. Susan S. Ellis, State Dept. information officer Susan S. Ellis, 82, a U.S. Information Agency and State Department information officer from 1978 until her retirement in 2002, died Oct. 21 at a daughter’s home in Allentown, Pa. The cause was a glioblastoma, a brain tumor, said a daughter, Suzy Ellis Wild. Mrs. Ellis, a Washington resident, was born Susan Stimus in Camden, N.J. Earlier in her career, she was a reporter at the former Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. She was the press secretary of the American Federation of Government Employees in Washington from 1974 to 1977 and worked in the press office at Peace Corps


At the Inn at Little Washington, a bittersweet reunion dinner, minus one

responsibilities — TV, frozen foods, restaurants and transforming his debt to publicly traded stock — had left him exhausted and depressed. Then he heard a rumbling that his third Michelin star was to be snatched away. Such humiliation would be accompanied by enormous loss of income, respect, prestige, maybe even his television shows. The way out that Bernard found was to die by his own hand, in 2003, at age 52. Thus 11 years ago ended the talent, the friendships, the happy family in the castle. The clientele of Loiseau’s restaurant dropped 40 percent the first year. Yet it survived. Eventually thrived. And it has never lost its third star. Dominique Loiseau, a former journalist and teacher and the author of a technical book still used in restaurants, stepped up to the plate. First, she promoted the sous-chef, Patrick Bertron, and kept the restaurant’s team intact. “A team is like mayonnaise,” she explained. “All the products have to be at the same temperature for it to work.” She and Bertron complemented each other. Bertron was shy and preferred to stay in the kitchen. Dominique liked greeting the clientele. (“Each table has a history. It can be very moving.”) She was comfortable appearing on television. Her observations of other chefs’ widows warned her to welcome changes. She cited one who “kept the house like a museum. A museum has no future.” Dominique has added two restaurants, each with a Michelin star, to Loiseau’s namesake. How did she survive the tragedy? Dominique personifies the iron fist in a velvet glove. “Nobody ever saw me weep,” she told me. “Not even my children.” When I commented that she looks the same as she did 20 years ago, she responded, “For Relais & Chateaux, we have to be perfect.” It was a poignant return with Bertron as chef of the restaurant now called Relais Bernard Loiseau. Yet his dishes remain familiar: to start, the little cheese puffs known as gougeres; the pike perch, again with sauce of burgundy kept barely simmering — never boiling — until it is reduced by 90 percent. This time, the carrot thickener was a mere token, upstaged by butter. Then a man walked past each table with an open box of hay, which left the diners puzzled. At breakfast the next morning, I asked Bertron about his style, his direction, and who had influenced him. Nobody, he answered. He


The last push of the pot campaign in D.C. starts with a wake-and-bake

seven months later, he is wearing a “Legalize” T-shirt on top of his camouflage pants. For the past few days Butler’s job with the DC Cannabis Campaign has been to make sure everything will run smoothly Tuesday. Volunteers in place at polling stations. Signs all around. T-shirts passed out to all. Lingo taught: Initiative 71 only makes it legal to possess and grow small amounts of pot. No sales. All this frenzied final push to Election Day meant that when his boss, political activist Adam Eidinger, told Butler to come party at the campaign headquarters Saturday night, Butler sat it out. He might not have wanted to celebrate early, but others were ready: Recent polls have shown that D.C. voters are expected to support Initiative 71 by a margin of nearly 2 to 1. The party, thrown in the room where volunteers had sorted through 57,000 signatures to get legalization onto the ballot, was “a rager,” one campaign worker said. Three hundred people showed up, the cops were called, the cops were called again and eventually Eidinger was yelling at the DJ to take all the bass out of the music. At 12:30 p.m. Sunday, the house was trashed, one guy was still passed out on a beanbag chair upstairs and Butler was spending all afternoon working on “Legalize” posters for Tuesday. “I don’t know if they were trying to trip up Stoner Nation or what,” he said Sunday. “But they put us on the back of the ballot.” He attached a paper that said “Vote On The Back of The Ballot” with packing tape on the signs the campaign has had up all fall. The design is deliberate: not green, a modestly sized pot leaf, “cannabis” instead of “marijuana.” Tuesday morning those signs are piled in the trunk of Butler’s red Buick LaCrosse (goes by “Ruby”). Butler and his girlfriend, Carrie Hughley, and his friend Kendrick Anderson (goes by “40”) leave for the polls seven minutes before they open at 7 a.m. First stop: Lafayette Elementary School in Northwest, where Hughley will spend the day. “You can’t park there!” a crossing guard yells when they pull up in front of the school. “Not parking here, brother,” Butler says as he gets out of the car to grab “Legalize” T-shirts and stickers for Hughley to pass out. He pops the trunk, and the crossing guard howls. “Ooooh, I see what


D.C. community calendar, Nov. 6 to Nov. 13, 2014

Thursday, NOV. 6 American Diplomatic Leaders 1914-1934 A National Park Service Ranger discusses the legacies left by Woodrow Wilson and Charles Evans Hughes in the course of American Foreign Relations. 10 a.m., Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Ohio Drive NW. Joseph Mohr, 202-426-6841. Free. Coyote Mischief Tales For ages 5-10, Philip Blue Owl Hooser’s play about Trickster Coyote, a crafty, funny and fearless fellow who is a little too smart for his own good, but learns about making choices, sharing and giving gifts from the heart with the help of his spirit guide, Hashtahi. 10:15 and 11:30 a.m. Thursday, 10:15 and 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. Dates through Nov. 20. Visit Web site for additional dates and times. Discovery Theater at S. Dillon Ripley Center, 1100 Jefferson Dr. SW. 202-633-8700 or www.discoverytheater.org. $8; ages 2-16 $6; 1 and younger $3. Larry Yazzie and the Native Price Dancers National Cathedral behind the scenes John Philip Sousa’s birthday celebration Kingdom of rarities: nature’s best-kept secret Eric Dinerstein leads a tour that explains why biologists embrace a theory that most species on Earth are rare and which ones have always been rare. Noon, U.S. Botanic Garden, Conservatory Garden Court, 100 Maryland Ave. SW. 202-225-8333 or www.usbg.gov . Free; registration required. American art: after and before Art lecture Memorials on the Mall Close-up tour: needlepoint Beading for teens Learn to bead as you hang out with and meet new friends, create key chains, animals, jewelry; all materials provided; ongoing projects may be stored at the library; snacks served. 3:30 p.m. Thursdays, Georgetown Library, 3260 R St. NW. 202-727-0232. Free. Manga madness Teen comic book club For ages 13-19, for fans of manga, super hero comics and more. 5 p.m. Thursday and the first Thursday of every month, Northeast Library, Mezzanine level conference room, 330 Seventh St. NE. Register: northeastlibrary@dc.gov or 202-698-0183. Free. Wii dance-off For ages 13-19, a weekly competition using Wii. 5:30 p.m. Thursdays, William O. Lockridge/Bellevue Library, 115 Atlantic St. SW. 202-243-1184. Free. Sanna Valvanne in concert “Washington and Baltimore Art Deco: A Design History of Neighboring Cities” Curator gallery talk: “The Singing and the Silence” Anacostia Library chess club For ages 10-16. 6 p.m. Thursdays, Anacostia Library, 1800 Good Hope Rd. SE. 202-715-7707 or 202-715-7708. Free. “Craft in America” Dimensions of healing: cancer National Portrait Gallery pop quiz: presidential portraits National Portrait Gallery pop quiz: presidential portraits Chef Dominique Ansel: sweet secrets from a


Florida’s medical-marijuana amendment, one of the most active ballot battles, fails

the measure, raised just under $1 million. The more than $18 million spent by an industry-backed group to defeat a similar measure in Oregon easily surpassed the previously reported state record of $12 million. That was set in 2007, when the cigarette industry succeeded in defeating a tax increase on its product. Vermont earlier this year became the first state to adopt a GMO label requirement with a set start date and was promptly sued by the grocery industry. Connecticut and Maine passed similar requirements, but those will not go into effect until enough neighboring states also pass such requirements. Reproductive rights advocates notched two victories, as voters in Colorado and North Dakota rejected “personhood” measures, which would have expanded rights to the unborn. Reproductive rights advocates feared the measures would lay the foundation for restricting abortions. But those same advocates also suffered one loss, with 53 percent of Tennessee voters approving a constitutional amendment that could provide the framework for future abortion restrictions by making clear that nothing in the state constitution “secures or protects the right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.” The proposed amendment was a response to a 2000 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling in Planned Parenthood of Middle Tennessee v. Sundquist, which struck down several abortion restrictions on the grounds that a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy was protected by her right to privacy. Proponents of the amendment hoped it would clear the path for future abortion restrictions and regulations. In Florida, a measure to approve medical marijuana garnered majority support but failed to muster the 60 percent needed for passage. That intense fight was defined largely by two wealthy men, casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson and local personal-injury lawyer John Morgan. Adelson contributed $5.5 million of the $6.3 million raised by Drug Free Florida, the group working to defeat the measure. Morgan and his law firm contributed about half of the $8 million raised by People United for Medical Marijuana, which sought to pass it. Drug Free Florida received fewer than 100 contributions, while People United for Medical Marijuana received thousands, virtually all from within the state. Georgians approved a measure to cap the top income tax rate, currently at 6 percent, while those in Tennessee voted to abolish it altogether. The Georgia vote won by more than a 3-to-1 margin, while the measure in Tennessee was passed by 2 to 1.


An analysis shows sex offense reports in public flagships, Ivy League and elsewhere

These totals of forcible sex offense reports are drawn from a federal campus crime database for flagship public universities and a selection of other well-known schools in the Washington area and nationwide. The comparison is for reported events on campus from 2012 and from 2013. Forcible sex offenses include rape, sodomy, fondling and sexual assault with an object. Flagships University of Alabama No 2013 data yet, 7 in 2012 University of Alaska Fairbanks No data for 2013 yet, 4 in 2012 University of Arizona 9 in 2013, down from 13 University of Arkansas 5, up from 4 University of California at Berkeley 13, unchanged University of Colorado at Boulder 10, up from 7 University of Connecticut 23, up from 13 University of Delaware 3, unchanged University of the District of Columbia 1, unchanged University of Florida 14, up from 13 University of Georgia 13, up from 9 University of Hawaii at Manoa 8, down from 11 University of Idaho 3, unchanged University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 12, up from 10 Indiana University at Bloomington 15, down from 27 University of Iowa 9, down from 15 University of Kansas 18, up from 8 University of Kentucky No 2013 data yet, 1 in 2012 Louisiana State University No 2013 data yet, 3 in 2012 University of Maine 19, up from 5 University of Maryland at College Park 19, up from 9 University of Massachusetts Amherst No 2013 data yet, 15 in 2012 University of Michigan at Ann Arbor 21, down from 34 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 10, down from 13 University of Mississippi 5, up from 1 University of Missouri-Columbia 7, up from 6 University of Montana 9, up from 8 University of Nebraska-Lincoln No 2013 data yet, 3 in 2012 University of Nevada-Reno 1, up from zero University of New Hampshire 15, down from 20 Rutgers (New Jersey) New Brunswick 21, up from 16 University of New Mexico 11, up from 4 University at Buffalo (New York) 8, down from 12 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 14, down from 21 University of North Dakota 5, down from 7 Ohio State University 25, up from 21 University of Oklahoma 17, up from 6 University of Oregon 12, down from 17 Pennsylvania State University 17, down from 56 University of Rhode Island No 2013 data yet, 11 in 2012 University of South Carolina-Columbia No 2013 data yet, 2 in 2012 University


Ocopa rises to the top on H Street NE, while DC Harvest shows spark

Bar in Dupont Circle, serves as chef. The latter worked as a manager for the Homemade Pizza Company in Northern Virginia and reprises that role here. Assorted family members have pitched in to dress up the brick interior, two floors and 59 seats big. A cozy bar off the entrance leads to a spare dining room that feels like an afterthought. Ask for a table upstairs, and near a window, for more of a view. If you were to start with a bowl of sweet potato soup and segue to a pasta, chances are you’d put the September baby on your restaurant rotation. The soup is of broad interest, thanks to apple cider, crisp pork belly and micro-celery in the bowl, and the pastas include house-made linguine made with spelt (from the wheat family). Mixed with crumbled lamb and Swiss chard, the pasta whispers of fresh mint. Whole-wheat pappardelle topped with woodsy mushroom ragu is best ordered by the half-portion. A few bites in, and the cold-weather comfort becomes repetitious. The same is true of the sliced steak, which comes with a forest of Brussels sprouts, carrots and potatoes. The plate sounds better on paper. Blink and you’ll miss the wine list, a handful of average selections. DC Harvest comes up short in other ways, too. One night, its sweet potato chips are light and crisp; another visit finds us pushing away a soggy snack. The sorriest beet salad in recent memory mingles watery marbles with chewy fried chickpeas. A thin cut of grilled swordfish proves dry. A dab of smoky romesco on the dish does the best it can to right the wrong. S'more pot de creme, with caramel, fig marshmallow and graham cracker. (Joseph Victor Stefanchik/For The Washington Post) Desserts play the heavies here. Far from virtuous, the s’mores pot de creme — chocolate custard and caramel sauce paved with bruleed marshmallow — is one of several sweet surprises. Alongside the confection are fine, house-baked graham crackers. A request for the Concord grape semifreddo comes with a translation: “That’s half-frozen,” says a server with smoke on his breath. The dessert trumps its delivery. DC Harvest has its heart in the right place. The newcomer just needs to be more consistent about pleasing the palate. 1.5 stars DC Harvest: 517 H St. NE. 202-629-3296. www.dc-harvest.com. Open: Dinner 5 to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.


Montgomery County Animal Watch

This case was received recently by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Problems at farm: Volunteers wanted: Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Adopt or foster rescue dogs: Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


D.C. news in brief

H St. NW, Suite 200 West Tower, Washington, D.C. 20005, by Nov. 17. For information, go to www.dspsc.org. Heart association to hold fundraising walk Saturday The American Heart Association is having its 2014 Greater Washington Heart Walk on Saturday on the Mall, between 12th and 14th streets NW. The event helps raise money for the prevention of heart disease and stroke. Activities begin at 8:30 a.m. with a health exposition and entertainment. The walk begins at 10 a.m. at 12th Street and Madison Drive. Participants can choose a three-mile or one-mile route. The course is open to strollers, wheelchairs and leashed pets. Other activities include a Zumba demonstration. There are no registration fees for the walk. Money is raised through donations and sponsorship of walkers. Walkers who raise $250 or more are eligible for a Heart Walk T-shirt. For information, go to www.greaterwashingtonheartwalk.org, e-mail meg.kremer@heart.org or call 703-248-1715. District planting more than 8,000 trees for spring The District tree-planting season has begun. The D.C. Urban Forestry Administration plans to start more than 8,000 trees in public spaces through late spring. The office has planted 50,330 trees since 2004. Planting locations were chosen in part by reviewing requests from residents. Requests for the 2015 fall/winter season — for individual tree boxes and grass strips — may be made by calling 311 before June 15.Staff arborists will determine the appropriateness of the requests. UFA installs slow-release watering devices alongside each tree and refills the devices at least twice a month. However, the office encourages residents to do even more watering. Residents who enroll in its Canopy Keepers program will receive a free watering ring for each adopted tree. Current planting locations and tree species are plotted online. For information, go to www.ddot.dc.gov/trees or call 202-671-1533. Open house on Ward 7 transportation projects The D.C. Department of Transportation is having an open house on projects in Ward 7 from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 17 at Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church, 3000 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. At 6:30, project engineers will provide updates on Minnesota Avenue NE Phase I, six bridges over Watts Branch, the 11th Street Bridge, Barney Circle and Southeast Boulevard, Parkside Pedestrian Bridge, the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens segment of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, D.C. Streetcar, traffic improvements, asset management, tree projects and low-impact development projects. A question-and-answer session will follow the updates. For information, go to ddot.dc.gov. — Compiled by Terence McArdle


Since 1945, Sam Torrey’s Shoe Service has specialized in keeping Arlington well-heeled

“Business is good,” said Kevork Tchalekian, center, owner of Sam Torrey Shoe Service. “I’m very blessed and fortunate.” With Tchalekian are staff members, from left, Jose Contreras, Clarence Taylor, Daniel Garcia and Sam Bosley. (Liz Vance) Longtime customers of Sam Torrey Shoe Service on Lee Highway in Arlington know that when they stop in for shoe and sundry leather repairs, more often than not the owner they know simply as Sam will be there, ready to take downtrodden heels, dislocated soles or leather purses that need new zippers. What many customers, even those who’ve come in for more than 20 years, don’t know: “My real name isn’t Sam,” owner Kevork Tchalekian said. “Everybody calls me Sam, because it’s the name of the store.” Tchalekian took over the business in 1986 from the first Sam Torrey, who started the store in 1945 at the site of the original Cherrydale Fire House (and who in turn shortened the store’s name from his own name, Sam Torragrosa). For nearly 30 years, Tchalekian and a small staff of four to six — most of whom have been with him for the past two decades — have run a brisk business with a loyal clientele. At a time when small businesses relying on specialized labor are in decline in the region and across the United States, Sam Torrey is doing well. “Business is good; I’m very blessed and fortunate,” said Tchalekian, whose parents emigrated from Lebanon when he was a child. They settled in Annandale and he has lived there ever since. Part of the store’s success is because it fits a special niche. “There’s not too many shops around here that do what we do,” Tchalekian said. “You can take it to the mall, they’ll do the basic stuff: shoes, heels, soles, but we do odd stuff like repair jackets, purses, belts, relace baseball gloves. We do lots of different stuff. Fireplace bellows, instrument cases. We do leather chairs. . . . Those are the kinds of projects I tackle.” The leather workers at Sam Torrey serve as apprentices for about three to five years before mastering their craft. Clarence Taylor, who resoles heels and does leather finishing, has worked at the store for about 17 years. He lives in Southeast Washington and works as a security guard for Capital City Protection Services on the weekends. Through his work as a skilled laborer at


Orbital Sciences outlines contingency plans after failed Antares mission

A rocket that was to resupply the International Space Station blew up Tuesday night a few seconds after lift-off from Wallops Island, Va. Orbital Sciences announced contingency plans Wednesday to fulfill its $1.9 billion cargo-resupply contract with NASA after a launch failure last week. Those plans include the pairing of Orbital’s Cygnus spacecraft with another company’s launch vehicle, as well as speeding up the selection of an upgraded rocket engine for the company’s Antares rocket, which exploded seconds after taking off from Virginia’s Wallops Island facility Oct. 28. In a conference call with investors Wednesday morning, chief executive David Thompson said Orbital intends to complete four missions to resupply the International Space Station through 2016. The company technically has five missions left in its eight-part contract, but it is cutting back on one by increasing the payload the Cygnus spacecraft will carry on each supply run, he said. Thompson did not specify which company’s rocket would be selected to pair with Cygnus, saying only that Orbital was “in discussions” with three potential launch providers, two based in the United States and one in Europe. “We expect to work with NASA to determine the most favorable gap-filler missions and make a final decision over the course of the coming month,” Thompson said. Meanwhile, the Dulles, Va.-based company has set up an investigation board to determine the cause of Antares’s failure. Preliminary evidence suggests “a probable turbopump-related failure in one of the two Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26” engines that powered the rocket, the company said in a statement. Aerojet Rocketdyne is a California company that produces the Soviet-era AJ26 engine. The failure of the engine has thrust the issue of America’s reliance on Cold War technology into the spotlight and increased calls by lawmakers for the development of a homegrown solution. Thompson said Orbital would introduce a new propulsion system for Antares in 2016, a year earlier than originally planned. He also reiterated that the failed mission and contingency plans are not expected to hit Orbital’s finances in a material way. “Some costs will go up, others will go down, but we do not expect any significant adverse financial impact in 2016 or future years,” Thompson said. The company is set to merge with Virginia contractor Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, early next year. But the failure of Orbital’s mission has given some investors pause about whether the deal will go through. ATK has


After two crashes, how can commercial space flights be regulated?

Space Station blew up Tuesday night a few seconds after lift-off from Wallops Island, Va. The Antares rocket that exploded on takeoff from Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Oct. 28 was built by Orbital Sciences and bound for the space station carrying the unmanned Cygnus spacecraft loaded with food, water and equipment. The Virgin Galactic spacecraft that crashed on a test flight in the Mojave Desert three days later was designed to carry passengers into flight. The fact that the spacecraft flew under two different FAA guidelines underscores the nascent nature of space flight regulation. It also reflects the challenge federal regulators face in governing emerging technologies: Step in too soon with a heavy hand and it may stifle creative thinking. A current example: The people developing the new breed of autonomous cars have begged state and federal regulators not to impose rigid guidelines until they can refine how best to make things work. “Congress has taken the viewpoint that they understand that [commercial space flight] is an evolving industry,” said the official, who asked not to be named in order to speak freely, “and if you put a regulatory framework in place that was as constrictive or as comprehensive as it is in commercial aviation, it would basically kill the industry before it got off the ground.” That doesn’t mean that commercial space vehicles are unregulated, just that there are fewer specific rules than for commercial and private aviation. For example, launch sites and launches must be licensed by the FAA, meeting safety, environmental and liability standards, including insurance coverage for injury or property damage. The Virginia facility and the Oct. 28 launch both had been sanctioned by the FAA. Less restrictive permits are issued by the FAA for experimental flights, like the Virgin Galactic flight that was conducted by a contractor, Scaled Composites, from the FAA-licensed facility in the Mojave Desert. Photos appear to show the dramatic midair explosion of the Virgin Galactic passenger spaceship before its deadly crash. “The activity in the Mojave Desert was an experimental test activity, which we permit but we don’t license,” the official said. “So that was the equivalent of Boeing going out and doing testing [of an airplane].” The FAA has licensed eight launch facilities and more than 200 launches. FAA inspectors monitor licensed activities. The agency can fine companies that violate its requirements, and can suspend or revoke a license to


Prince George’s and Southern Maryland Going Out Guide, Nov. 6-12, 2014

Karin Rosnizek and Joe Feldman tar in "Virus Attacks Heart" at Venus Theater. (Adam S. Lowe/Adam S. Lowe) THU 06 JD & Friends The local singer-songwriter performs the best of Will Downing, Earth, Wind & Fire and other R&B, jazz, funk and pop hits. 6 p.m. Blue Dolphin, 1166 Route 3, Gambrills. 410-721-9081. www.theashleighgroup.com. $20. “Seized and Possessed “The Drowsy Chaperone” “Virus Attacks Heart” FRI 07 “Death by Design” World Cup Finals Philadanco Annapolis by Candlelight Some Assembly 70s Soul Sounds A soul and R&B concert with performances by Blue Magic, HeatWave, Emotions and New Birth. 7:30 p.m. Show Place Arena, 14900 Pennsylvania Ave., Upper Marlboro. 301-952-7900. www.showplacearena.com. $50-$75. Collidescope: Adventures in Pre- and Post-Racial America Doug Anderson “Death Takes a Holiday” “NunCrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical” “The Murder Room” SAT 08 NaNoWriMo writing marathon Celebrate National Novel Writing Month and join others at this marathon to start or continue writing a 50,000-word novel. Bring laptops and snacks. For teens and adults. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Old Parish House, 4711 Knox Rd., College Park. 301-927-3013. www.cpae.org. Free. Trash to Treasure: Green Craft Fair Nappy-Oke: A Natural Hair and Karaoke Show “Prince George’s Sampler: The 2014 Prince George’s County Juried Exhibition” College Park Blues Festival Kyle Abraham/Abraham.in.Motion SUN 09 Cantor Yehoshua Redfern: “Jewish Music and More” Jazz Talk: “Jazz Giants of Washington, D.C.” St. Martin’s Day Lantern Festival MON 10 “Our Very Own III” TUE 11 Museum Madness Day: The Nano World Veterans Day parade WED 12 “The World as I See It” Artists from the Arundel Lodge display their works. Proceeds will benefit the artists and Hospice of the Chesapeake. Through Jan. 26. Gallery 90, Hospice of the Chesapeake, 90 Ritchie Hwy., Pasadena 443-837-1501, Ext. 1328. www.hospicechesapeake.org. Free. — Compiled by Jillian S. Jarrett from staff reports ‘Virus Attacks Heart’ 3A spilled drink draws two strangers into a web of sex, confessions, heartache and tragedy in Shannon Murdoch’s play starring Joe Feldman and Karin Rosnizek, above. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. Through Nov. 30. Venus Theatre, Visitor Center, 21 C St., Laurel. 202-236-4078. www.venustheatre.org. $20.


Russia to skip Nuclear Security Summit scheduled for 2016 in Washington

He spoke in a rare session with American journalists over lunch at his residence, three blocks from the White House. While Russia is willing to improve relations and continue cooperation on international issues such as terrorism and nuclear negotiations with Iran, he said, “we are not going to beg for dialogue if our American partners do not want it.” Tensions between Russia and the United States, along with its European partners, flared this year following Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine and its support for separatists fighting against the Western-backed government in Kiev. Relations were further strained over Russia’s decision to grant temporary asylum to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. In May, NATO suspended the NATO-Russian Council, its principal vehicle for defense cooperation with Moscow. President Obama led the imposition of economic sanctions against Russia and has suspended a web of bilateral contacts that were set up as part of what his administration in 2009 called a “reset” of a relationship that had often been strained in the past. Nearly two dozen bilateral commissions, directed at issues including economics and arms control, have been suspended, Kislyak said, all of them “by the United States, not by us.” Russia blames the administration for aiding what it considers the overthrow of Ukraine’s legitimate government by opposition demonstrators. Although it has accepted the subsequently elected Ukrainian government of President Petro Poroshenko, Moscow charges that Poroshenko has violated a cease-fire and political agreement reached this summer to allow more autonomy for eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have seized territory. The Obama administration charges that the separatists, with Russian arms and support, have violated the agreement by refusing to lay down their weapons and holding their own election this past weekend. Obama initiated the nuclear security summits following a 2009 speech in Prague in which he described nuclear terrorism as “the most immediate and extreme threat to global security” and called for “a new international effort to secure vulnerable nuclear material around the world.” The first summit was held in Washington in 2010, with subsequent sessions in 2012 in Seoul and this past March in The Hague. The 2016 summit is to be held again in Washington. Questions about Russia’s attendance arose after Moscow failed to send a delegation to a preparatory meeting last week. Although the State Department and the White House said Tuesday that they had no information about


U.S. regulators order Honda to provide air-bag documents

part of an investigation to determine whether the automaker failed to fully report accident-related deaths and injuries as required by U.S. law. The deadline for information pertaining to that order is Nov. 24. — Reuters AUTOMOTIVE Tesla’s third quarter shows ups and downs Electric carmaker Tesla Motors set a record for deliveries of its Model S sedan in the third quarter, delighting investors even as its losses doubled from a year ago. Tesla said Wednesday that it delivered 7,785 cars during the July-to-September period. That was slightly below its guidance of 7,800 but up 41.5 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Tesla’s net loss widened to $74.7 million for the quarter, which was almost double its loss from a year ago. The company blamed increased research-and-development costs for both the Model X SUV, which is due to go on sale next year, as well as its new all-wheel-drive system. It also cited the expense of adding stores in Asia and building more charging stations. Tesla managed record quarterly deliveries even with the temporary shutdown of its Fremont, Calif., factory in July to install more production capacity. Tesla said the longer-than-expected shutdown cost it 2,000 vehicles, but the plant changes will allow production to increase 50 percent both this year and next. Tesla said it expects to deliver 33,000 Model S sedans for the full year. That is 5 to 7 percent below its previous estimates. — Associated Press Also in Business ● U.S. companies added 230,000 jobs in October, a private survey said, the most in four months and a sign that businesses are still willing to hire despite signs of slowing growth overseas. Payroll processor ADP said the job gains were slightly ahead of the 225,000 added in September, which was revised up from an initial estimate of 213,000. Gains above 200,000 are usually enough to lower the jobless rate. ● Anheuser-Busch has agreed to buy 10 Barrel Brewing of Oregon. The companies did not disclose terms of the sale, which they expect to complete before the end of this year. Bend, Ore.-based 10 Barrel’s beers are sold in Oregon, Idaho and Washington. It expects to sell about 40,000 barrels of beer in 2014, with its Apocalypse IPA brand accounting for almost half the total. ● CBS, owner of the most-watched U.S. TV network, reported a 2 percent rise in quarterly revenue, driven by higher distribution revenue


Crash of Virgin Galactic craft highlights dangerous lives of private test pilots

The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket separates from a carrier aircraft before its midair explosion during a test flight on Oct. 31. The explosion killed a pilot aboard and seriously injured another. (Kenneth Brown/AP) For test pilots on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo flying to the edge of space aboard an experimental plane, the first seconds after firing the rocket engine could be cripplingly disorienting. Gravitational forces hammered them back and down into their seats. The cockpit convulsed. Freezing air blasted over the wings with a deafening shriek. Amid this chaos, they were expected to perform “housekeeping”: following their flight test cards, checking speed and altitude, mastering a shaking console of several dozen onboard gauges, switches and displays. Death at this height, flying faster than sound, was always only one split-second mistake away. The midair disintegration Friday of Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spacecraft has underscored the enormous dangers still facing the fledgling business of commercial space. But it has also cast new light on the industry’s elite cadre of test pilots, heavily trained aviators for whom death-defying flight is a part of life. Unlike the computer-guided flight and systematic training regimen of sophisticated military aircraft, civilian test-pilot training often depends on a homemade mix of precision exercises, quick reflexes and self-confidence, former test pilots said. But it is no less rigorous, demanding years of experience and hundreds of hours of flight to qualify for Federal Aviation Administration ratings on wide varieties of craft. “How much [education] they’ve had or whether they’re an engineer doesn’t really matter,” said Chuck Coleman, one of the world’s top aerobatic pilots, who worked as a Scaled Composites test pilot until 2010. “You have to stay alert and focused and think clearly in a time of crisis, and some people do that really well, and some people don’t.” An undated photo released by Scaled Composites shows Michael Alsbury, who was killed while co-piloting the test flight of Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo on Oct. 31. (AP) Investigators could not say what caused the SpaceShipTwo, a showcase of Virgin Galactic’s $500 million space tourism campaign, to shatter shortly after launching more than eight miles above the Mojave Desert. But early reports have focused on the premature unlocking of the craft’s rotating tail “feather,” which could have led the craft to rip apart. The body of co-pilot Mike Alsbury, 39, was found strapped to his seat in the rocket plane’s wreckage, which was scattered


World Digest: Nov. 5, 2014

incidence of polio in Pakistan hit a 15-year high Wednesday, as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to rid the country of the disease in six months despite a Taliban campaign to kill workers distributing vaccines for it. Elias Durry, head of the World Health Organization’s polio eradication efforts in Pakistan, said authorities have registered 235 cases since January. The last time numbers were higher was in 1999, when 558 cases were logged. Pakistan is one of three countries where polio, which can cause paralysis and death, remains endemic. Militants regularly target vaccination teams, calling them spies for Washington. “We refuse to see our children getting disabled for life,” Sharif said in making his vow. — Associated Press SUDAN U.N. investigating reports of mass rape The U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission said it is investigating reports of the mass rape of 200 women in Sudan’s western region of Darfur. UNAMID said Wednesday that it is “deeply concerned” about media reports of the alleged sexual assaults in Tabit, about 30 miles southwest of the capital of North Darfur state. It said Sudan’s military denied the mission access to the town to investigate the reports. But it said another U.N. mission visited a nearby camp for the displaced and found no one from Tabit. Darfur has been gripped by violence since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum, accusing it of discrimination and neglect. — Associated Press SYRIA Mortar fire on school kills 13 children Mortar rounds slammed into a school Wednesday in a rebel-held suburb east of Damascus, killing at least 13 children, activists said. Syrian children often have been the victims of their country’s civil war, but they rarely are specifically targeted. Still, Wednesday’s attack in the town of Qaboun marked the most serious violence against Syrian minors since a twin suicide bombing killed 25 children in the central city of Homs in October. It was not clear who fired the rounds in the Qaboun attack. Also Wednesday, Kurdish forces distributed leaflets in the mainly Kurdish far-northern and northeastern regions, ordering residents to report for compulsory military service, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights said. Syrian Kurds are on the front line in the fight against Islamic State militants. — Associated Press Ukraine to halt subsidies to rebel areas: Woman accused of witchcraft is burned alive in Paraguay: Britain sending more troops to Iraq: — From news services


Beer: Hellbender, D.C.’s newest microbrewery, plans its lineup

tank. A third regular offering, a light, golden, German-style ale called Bare Bones Kolsch, is set for release the week of Nov. 17. Evans and Mullane are happy to show off their 17-barrel brew house, pausing over the piece de resistance: a state-of-the-art Belgian-made mash filter. The device, they explain, allows them to mill their barley to the consistency of fine flour. The increased surface area of the grain permits a more efficient conversion of starches into sugars, enabling the brewery to save money on raw materials and water. Such finely ground barley would gum up the works in a conventional system. But as the slurry passes through the device en route from mash tun to brew kettle, filter pads deftly separate the sugar-rich liquid, soon to be fermented into beer, from the soggy barley. The spent grain, resembling clumps of soggy sand, drops into a bin below. Mullane and Evans are searching for a local farmer to cart away the grain as animal feed, converting their byproduct into steaks and pork chops. Being readied for a Nov. 15 opening was a 38-seat brewery tasting room with a hand-fashioned curly maple bar top and eight tap handles. The tasting room stands to become a more focal part of the business since a change in D.C. law earlier this year that allows breweries (the non-brewpub kind) to sell pints for on-premises consumption. Previously, the city’s breweries were limited to offering free samples during tours or filling growlers to go. Evans and Mullane say they hope to fill out the taproom selection with a few small-batch brews not available elsewhere. They’ll include a brown ale made with apple and cherry wood-smoked malt obtained from the Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville, Va. Mullane cuts open a 50-pound sack of the malt and offers a sample. The kernels have a unique flavor, combining breakfast cereal and barbecue sauce. “I just snack on this stuff,” he laughs. Evans, meanwhile, is looking forward to brewing an ale with an heirloom hop variety he found growing wild near his family’s farm in Upstate New York. Evans and Mullane say they are grateful for the D.C. pint law, but less so for the local bureaucracy. “We had to obtain five separate licenses from the city, not including the health inspection,” reports Mullane. Twice, applications got lost and he had to call on his council member to prod the


New porcupines and skunks debut at National Zoo

Clementine, the skunk (Clyde Nishimura/Smithsonian's National Zoo) The latest arrivals to Washington’s National Zoo may not seem as cute and cuddly, at first blush, as its popular pandas are to some visitors. Two striped skunk sisters, named Trixie and Clementine, have made their debuts at the zoo’s Small Mammal House. They were born in May and came to the National Zoo from a breeding facility in Pennsylvania. It is the first time in at least 10 years that the National Zoo has had this type of skunk, according to Kenton Kerns, a biologist at the small mammal house. Since going on display to the public in late October, the two are doing well, officials said. “They found some logs they’re sleeping in, and they’ve dug around a lot,” said Kara Loyd, a keeper at the zoo's small mammal house. “They seem pretty happy.” The two sisters have slight differences in their coloration patterns -- Trixie has a black dot in the white strip on her nose and a black-and-white tail. Clementine has a black tail and a completely white stripe on her nose, according to zoo officials. One of the new porcupines (Tracey Barnes/Smithsonian National Zoo) While docile, skunks are well-known for their defense mechanism — a foul, smelling spray from two glands located near the base of their tails. The oily musk is expelled through the anus and can travel as far as 10 feet. But Trixie and Clementine aren’t as smelly as those in the wild. Zoo officials said the two have been “descented,” a process where their scent glands have been removed. “They still do have a skunky smell, but not a potent overwhelming scent,” Loyd said. The zoo also added some porcupines to their facility. Quillby and Maude, two North American porcupines, recently came to the zoo from a breeding facility in Pennsylvania and made their debut to the public. Another porcupine, named Bess, recently came to the zoo from the Miami zoo. She is a prehensile-tailed porcupine, an animal native to South America that is able to spend long periods in trees holding on with their tails. Zoo officials said they plan to breed Bess in the next few weeks with Clark, a 5-year-old prehensile-tailed porcupine. They hope there will be prehensile-tailed porcupine babies in six to seven months.


Maryland has no authority to execute its death-row inmates, attorney general says

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler said Thursday that the state does not have the legal authority to execute the four men who remain on death row following the legislature’s decision last year to abolish capital punishment. The legislation, championed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), did not apply to people sentenced to death before its passage. That has left the legal standing of the four men in limbo. Gansler (D) said he has concluded that it is a “legal and factual impossibility” to execute the prisoners because Maryland no longer has regulations in place on how to administer lethal injections. With the death penalty no longer on the books, the state cannot develop new regulations on carrying out executions, Gansler said. Keeping the men on death row, he argued, therefore violates their due-process rights. The state’s position is included in a brief filed Thursday in response to an appeal by death-row inmate Jody Lee Miles, who is seeking a new sentence. The state is asking an appellate court to resentence Miles — who was convicted in the 1997 robbery and murder of a musical-theater director in Wicomico County — to life in prison without the possibility of parole. “Mr. Miles should no longer be a death-row inmate,” Gansler said at a news conference in his Baltimore office. Technically, the stance announced Thursday by Gansler applies only to Miles. But Gansler said it opens the door to similar legal motions by the other death-row inmates. To date, one other inmate has petitioned O’Malley to commute his sentence, but O’Malley has not announced a decision. O’Malley’s office declined to comment Thursday on the governor’s deliberations. Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg (D-Baltimore), a longtime opponent of the death penalty who joined Gansler at the news conference, said he is hopeful that “the governor would take action.” Gansler’s announcement comes two days after Maryland elected a Republican governor who has voiced support for the death penalty in heinous cases. Gov.-elect Larry Hogan has said, however, that he does not intend to ask the heavily Democratic legislature to reinstate capital punishment. A spokesman for Hogan did not return a call for comment Thursday. Matthew A. Maciarello, the state’s attorney for Wicomico County, issued a statement urging Gansler to reconsider his position, adding that “one must wonder how much politics, rather than the law, had to


‘Big Hero 6’ movie review: Baymax to the rescue

vision of the City by the Bay, overlaid with a rich lacquer of Japanese style, “Big Hero 6” is part of the recent boom in great-looking animation that includes “The Boxtrolls” and “The Book of Life.” You don’t have to be an obsessive to want to see this film more than once. The story is equally engaging. When 14-year-old orphan — and high-tech prodigy — Hiro (voice of Ryan Potter) loses his older brother, Tadashi (Daniel Henney), in a suspicious fire, the teenager falls into a deep depression. It is only Baymax (Scott Adsit), a robotic nurse that Tadashi had been working on for a college project, who is able to pull Hiro out of his funk. First, it’s by offering his services as an ad hoc therapist. Only later is Baymax recruited as an accomplice in Hiro’s investigation of the blaze, which seems to have been started by a cynical industrialist (Alan Tudyk) interested in some micro-robotic technology that Hiro has developed. It’s a rusty plot straight out of “Scooby-Doo.” Here, however, it chugs along like a well-oiled machine, thanks mainly to the charm and character — yes, character — of Baymax. Initially, he isn’t much of a sleuth. The sluggish mechanical manikin — a skeleton of metal hydraulics surrounded by an inflatable skin — suggests a miniature Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloon, one that moves with all the grace of “The Jungle Book’s” Baloo, but with a full diaper. Baymax isn’t just slow on his feet — he’s slow-witted, too. If it doesn’t have something to do with medical diagnostics, he just isn’t very good at it. Still, he’s an adorable klutz. Only later will his medical expertise be put to good use, along with a couple of martial-arts upgrades that Hiro adds to the bot’s programming. As Hiro and Baymax get sucked deeper into the story’s intrigue, four of Tadashi’s former classmates at what Hiro calls “nerd school” (Genesis Rodriguez, Damon Wayans Jr., T.J. Miller and Jamie Chung) also throw in with them. Like the robot, they aren’t born crime-fighters, yet each soon develops a real-world application for his or her pet research project: plasma blades, magnetic-levitation discs and other high-tech toys that turn out to be surprisingly effective against bad guys. Baymax even acquires a suit of armor that makes him look like an overweight Iron Man, one of many effective sight gags. It’s a movie


Gewandhaus Orchestra does German canon justice at Kennedy Center

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. (Jens Gerber) The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra was founded in Bach’s home city, and its charter members were musicians often in his employ. The orchestra premiered Beethoven’s “Emperor Concerto” and presented the first cycle of all nine symphonies, during his lifetime. Mendelssohn led the ensemble for a dozen years, where most of his orchestral works were first heard. With this pedigree, the orchestra’s renditions of the core 19th-century German canon have carried enormous cachet down to the present day, and its concert Wednesday at the Kennedy Center was one of the season’s signal events. The Gewandhaus does not have the powerhouse virtuosos that the orchestras of Berlin, Vienna or even Dresden have, but it is an extraordinarily well-balanced group; every player is keenly in the moment and there are no weaknesses. The woodwinds have a particularly lovely blend; everyone tempering their vibrato to achieve a choir-like unanimity. The only visual flaw would be the orchestra’s concertmaster, an extremely fidgety individual who seemed to think that the conductor needed help leading the group. Music director Riccardo Chailly has led the Gewandhaus since 2005, coming from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, which has many similarities. He has presided over and nurtured the Gewandhaus’s legacy with care, and his genial, fraternal leadership style worked well on Wednesday. The performance gave great pleasure. Indeed, I was disappointed that we couldn’t have heard the orchestra in an overture to go along with the concerto and the symphony, as a typical program would do. There was certainly time for one, given violinist Nikolaj Znaider’s manic tempos in Mendelssohn’s evergreen Violin Concerto. Znaider is a pugnacious, virile player whose sound is more aggressive than expressive. The accompaniment, though, was breathtaking, Chailly and the orchestra exploring levels of piano and pianissimo playing that one seldom hears, like a halo around the soloist. Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony is one of his most popular; the Gewandhaus premiered the work in 1884 and has been playing it ever since. This unbroken line of tradition meant the musicians were familiar with every nook and cranny; they simply concentrated on whatever Chailly wished to do in the moment, and responded as one. This sort of Bruckner playing does not exist in the United States, none of our orchestras having this depth of familiarity with the canon. Bruckner’s peculiar blend of organic interconnectedness of parts with often ungainly instrumental writing (he was an


Marijuana is no longer illegal in D.C. — but it’s still lame everywhere

films, literature and — pun intended — schwag inspired by sess deteriorated. Once everyone wanted to get high, it wasn’t cool anymore. Of course, you may or may not find the dated artifacts sloughed off by marijuana culture absurd: the meandering Dennis Hopper film “Easy Rider,” the unfunniness of Cheech and Chong, the later records of Cypress Hill. But an argument against marijuana as pop culture is about more than taste. When anything that whiffs of revolution gets coopted and commodified, that’s a tragedy. Consider Bob Marley. For Marley, a Rastafarian from Jamaica, ganja was part of a religious practice, used in meditation and discussion sessions called “reasonings.” Asked whether the government would legalize marijuana, Marley offered perhaps the greatest zinger in hemp history: “I don’t know if this government will,” he said, “but I know Christ’s government will.” After he died in 1981, Marley’s greatest-hits collection “Legend” sold more than 20 million copies. But many young people blasting “No Woman No Cry” in dorm rooms and hanging posters of Marley smoking spliffs were interested not in Rasta reasoning but in faux rebellion. Weed became a generic symbol of teen unrest. This was misguided and bizarre. Then marijuana became a big business. There are now companies chasing billions selling weed and related products over the counter in Washington and Colorado. But not long ago, there were entrepreneurs chasing millions hawking marijuana hats, High Times magazine and one-hitters in head shops. There was “Half Baked,” “Pineapple Express” and the cable comedy “Weeds.” Even as THC levels in marijuana skyrocketed, the drug showcased in pop culture seemed less potent than the one Armstrong enjoyed. As marijuana went Top 40, it became less dangerous. When candidate Bill Clinton denied inhaling, he seemed sly; when candidate Barack Obama admitted that he’d smoked choom, no one really cared. If the drug is, as legalization proponents claim and more and more Americans agree, little more than an herbal remedy, it’s certainly not worth the vast attention paid to it in the past four decades. Imagine a band, book or movie devoted to chamomile. Even drug-dealing, once the realm of the Mafia, became staid. In the mid-1990s, my college roommate sold weed in Ziploc bags from our dorm room while listening exclusively — I wish this were an exaggeration — to Phish and the Dave Matthews Band. This shouldn’t have been illegal. But it definitely wasn’t cool.


The travel industry is taking precaution, but is it calming anxiety about disease?

and other communicable diseases,” he says. Travel companies are taking “adequate precautions,” says Robert Wheeler, the chief medical officer for On Call International, a Salem, N.H., company that offers medical evacuation protection services to travelers. But he cautions that as the situation changes, companies may need to adapt. Choi’s question exposes an ongoing conflict that may come to a head if Ebola spreads. Whether you’re staying at a hotel, cruising, flying or taking a train, you have few options when you wake up the morning of your trip with symptoms of an infectious disease. Chances are, you’ll lose some or all of the cost of your vacation or business trip. Travel companies imposed these restrictions for two reasons: first, they protect their profits; and second, they ensure all customers are treated evenhandedly, a policy otherwise referred to as “no waivers, no favors.” Many customers know about these strict no-refund rules, and that has them concerned. They fear someone with Ebola symptoms would fly or cruise rather than lose the value of their ticket. But what about passengers who aren’t sick but are just worried that they could get the virus from another passenger, crew member or infected site? They are left in a difficult spot. Len Peg, a retired teacher from Calgary, has already paid for his Caribbean cruise in February. To get a full refund, he’ll have to cancel by next month. Otherwise, he’ll slowly lose his vacation over time, first with his deposit, then a quarter of the value, then half, and finally everything. “I plan to watch the news to see how contained the outbreak is,” he says. “If it looks like the numbers are climbing, we’ll cancel the cruise. If it looks like the numbers have stabilized, we’ll go.” Peg’s reaction is typical: In the Unicomm survey, 7 in 10 travelers said they wouldn’t change their itineraries in the near term. Others aren’t taking any chances. The Institute for Shipboard Education, which runs the study-abroad program Semester at Sea, decided to skip several ports of call in Senegal and Ghana during 2015, thanks to the Ebola outbreak. “We’ve decided to reroute and replace those port visits with alternative ports,” says spokeswoman Lauren Judge. Blake Fleetwood, a manager at CookTravel.net, a travel agency in New York, just saw the cancellation of a $197,000 booking — a family of 30 planning an upscale safari to South Africa. There


Japan’s Fukuoka and South Korea’s Busan: Sister cities a hydrofoil ride apart

The Beetle, a hydrofoil, waits to depart from Hakata Port in Fukuoka, Japan, across the Tsushima Strait to Busan in South Korea. ( Mark Jenkins) Almost 70 years after World War II ended, and with it Japan’s occupation of Korea, the two countries still eye each other suspiciously. In Tokyo, ultra-nationalists protest the very existence of Shin-Okubo, the city’s Koreatown. In Seoul, demonstrators assail Japan for 20th-century war crimes and its more recent claim of a few Korean-controlled oceanic rocks that both sides optimistically call “islands.” For all the ideological barriers, the two countries are culturally and geographically intimate. This is exemplified by the relationship between the sister cities of Fukuoka (in Japan) and Busan (in South Korea), which face each other across the Tsushima Strait. Visiting both on the same trip is easy — they’re linked by the Beetle, a two-decked hydrofoil — as well as enlightening. The abundant connections between Japan and Korea are particularly clear at ground, and sea, level. Fukuoka (“lucky hill”) is the largest city on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands; Busan (“kettle mountain”) is South Korea’s second-biggest city, nearer to Japan than to Seoul. Since 1990, the jet-engined ships have linked the two cities, making the trip in two hours 55 minutes. Although Busan has approximately three times the population of Fukuoka, the two have much in common. Both are port cities with bustling industrial harbors, and both have long been involved in the exchange of goods and ideas among Japan, Korea and China. Neither is considered a top tourist attraction, but each is dynamic and easily negotiated. Coincidentally, both cities have dual downtowns. Central Busan includes office towers and fancy shops but is mostly rough-edged and working-class. The city’s more glamorous precinct is Haeundae, which stretches along the coast to the east of downtown. It’s home to the upscale Centum City complex, with the Guinness-certified world’s largest department store, and the annual Busan International Film Festival, one of Asia’s most prestigious, which is held every October. Fukuoka’s upscale office and shopping area is Tenjin, but the city also incorporates Hakata, separate until 1876 and a continuing source of confusion. Hakata station was for decades the southern terminus of Japan’s high-speed Shinkansen trains, which now continue southeast to Kagoshima. Anyone who travels by train to Fukuoka needs to know that its station is called Hakata. (So is the port where the


Silk Road 2.0 Web site leads to arrest, charges

alias “Defcon” and secretly owned and operated a site called “Silk Road 2.0.” Federal officials have aggressively targeted illicit online marketplaces in recent years and loudly complained that sophisticated encryption technology, such as the anonymous Tor network, helps enable criminal activity. Silk Road 2.0, the FBI said in its news release, generated $8 million in profit each month and had about 150,000 active users. “Following a very close business model to the first, as alleged, Blake Benthall ran a website on the Tor network facilitating supposedly anonymous deals of drugs and illegal services generating millions of dollars in monthly sales,” said George Venizelos, the FBI’s assistant director-in-charge of its New York office, according to the news release. “Benthall should have known that those who hide behind the keyboard will ultimately be found.” The original Silk Road, part of what’s known as the Dark Web because it’s not easily accessible to all Internet users, was notorious for offering drugs, weapons and other illicit goods for anonymous sales, with transactions made in bitcoins, an online currency that’s more difficult for authorities to trace than traditional currencies issued by governments. The FBI arrested the founder of the original Silk Road, Ross William Ulbricht, in October 2013 and seized the site’s assets, including bitcoins valued at $33.6 million. He allegedly went by the alias “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Federal officials said on Thursday that Silk Road 2.0 began operation in November 2013, the month after the original one was closed. The site had more than 13,000 listings for illegal drugs, including Ecstasy, cannabis and psychedelics. Also available were fraudulent documents and tools for computer hacking, according to the news release, though it made no mention of weaponry, which was available on the original Silk Road. The Tor network, though sometimes used by criminals, is also used by people seeking to evade government monitoring of their Internet traffic. It was developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and still receives substantial federal government funding. The Tor Project, a nonprofit group, now operates Tor. The arrest and charging of Benthall was a joint operation involving the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Homeland Security Investigations and several other law enforcement agencies in the United States and around the world. The arrest took place in San Francisco, and Benthall was expected to make an initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge there on Thursday.


NSO review: Despite the stellar guest soloist Bohórquez, consistency is lacking

NSO music director Christoph Eschenbach is more about feelings — his own, in particular — than about re-creating the score so that it can be most clearly grasped and appreciated by the listeners. In the iconic Fourth Symphony of Brahms — a work that every orchestra musician knows, loves and plays his/her heart out for — long notes from the winds (particularly the horns) often rendered this incredible tapestry opaque and colorless. Calibrating balances and bringing out different articulations formed no part of Eschenbach’s performance. The NSO’s second violin section — to the conductor’s right — is composed of the loneliest people in the world. Every time Eschenbach seeks to convey an emotional gear-shift, he turns his back to them and communes with the first violins, gradually creating a sense of detachment within the ensemble. And while his musical instincts are often lofty and creative, his ability to bring out complex and subtle effects often falls short. And never once did he ask for a true pianissimo. The evening’s greatest pleasure was the playing of guest soloist Claudio Bohórquez. When this South American virtuoso was here last, I dubbed him a “top-tier cellist,” and he resoundingly reaffirmed that Thursday, conquering the longest and most difficult concerto in the standard repertoire: the Prokofiev “Sinfonia Concertante.” Bohórquez understands that a soloist’s first and foremost obligation is to be heard, and he dug into his Rogeri with implacable force. Not even Prokofiev’s clumsy orchestration and Eschenbach’s indifference to balances could contain him. That he produced sounds of such quality and quantity while running a gantlet of the most brutal technical challenges was a gold-medal triumph. The opening work was a rarely heard Haydn symphony, No. 49, “La Passione.” Eschenbach’s didactic conducting again made me think of what’s generally missing in this repertoire. Without the kind of historical core values and practices such as the Gewandhaus has, orchestras such as the NSO simply have to be flexible, from one conductor to the next. It is a moving target, rather than an ideal, that is nourished. In an unfamiliar symphony, everyone is on their toes, but there’s never any relaxation, and little problems stick out (like violin intonation in the opening slow movement). I have no solutions to those issues, and there were certainly many moments of enjoyable music-making sprinkled through the evening. If only we could get to consistency! Battey is a freelance writer.


An interview with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

than 60 miles — do you think it is very difficult ? The Senkaku Islands are an integral part of Japanese territory based on international law as well as in the context of our history. We presently have control over those islands, and we will continue to do so in the future. Japan benefits a great deal by making lots of exports to China as well as making investments in China. At the same time, China is importing goods from Japan which could only be made in Japan, and they are processing them and making them into final products to be distributed throughout the world. Also, Japanese businesses are creating 10 million jobs in China as well. But Japanese businesses invested 41 percent less in China last year, correct? That is correct. That is all the more why the Japan-China relationship needs to be improved. We have to see the leaders of the two countries shake hands and have a meeting. That would benefit mutually the interests of both countries. President Obama reaffirmed in April that the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security extended to the Senkaku Islands. Do you feel that is enough reassurance? Do you feel you can count on the United States? Of course the Japan-U.S. alliance is the cornerstone of Japanese diplomacy and foreign relations. As the security situation in the Asia-Pacific is getting severe, the U.S. presence has a decisive importance. President Obama came to visit Japan in April. I think he was the first U.S. president to say clearly that Article 5 of the mutual security treaty covers the Senkakus. His statement is very significant in my thinking. I trust very much the president who is the leader [of] the most important ally of Japan. When President Obama visited Japan, we were able to confirm that our alliance is playing a leading role in ensuring a peaceful and prosperous Asia-Pacific. You have called for a reinterpretation of Article 9 of Japan’s constitution to build up Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. What is your vision? Do you feel Japan has to be more able to defend itself and also able to go to the defense of its allies? We are willing to contribute more to the stability and prosperity of the world. We have an obligation to defend the lives of the people of Japan. On July 1, the cabinet decision was made to change the


Russian accused of fighting with insurgents pleads not guilty to terrorism in U.S. court

the judge also ordered Irek Ilgiz Hamidullan to remain in U.S. custody as he awaits trial. Hamidullan, who was indicted last month, was captured after the assault and secretly held at a detention facility near Bagram air base in Afghanistan, where FBI agents began interviewing him to try to build a criminal case. He was flown back to face trial in the Eastern District of Virginia this week, marking the first time a foreign combatant captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan has been brought to the United States to be prosecuted. Among the charges are conspiring to murder a U.S. national and use of a weapon of mass destruction. The weapon charge carries a possible death sentence, but prosecutors said they won’t seek execution. If convicted, Hamidullan, who is believed to be about 55, could spend the rest of his life behind bars. Hamidullan, who spoke a little English to Judge Henry Hudson, said he understood the charges against him. At times, though, he used an Arabic-speaking interpreter. He made one request: that the court spell his last name differently. The judge obliged, saying he would add it as an alias to the indictment. Hamidullan appeared relaxed and smiled a few times. He was shackled, but security was relatively light. There were several U.S. marshals in the courtroom but no heavily armed guards or other obvious security precautions. According to the indictment, Hamidullan served in the Soviet military in the 1980s as an officer and tank commander and later joined the Taliban. He was trained in the use of heavy weapons such as antiaircraft weapons and portable rockets. The indictment said that during the attack, Hamidullan “directed the positioning of the three groups and the weapons they carried, which included AK-47 machine guns, hand grenades, a DsHK antiaircraft machine gun, an 82 millimeter recoilless rifle, a BM 1 portable rocket, rocket-propelled grenades, and additional weapons.” The Obama administration had struggled with what to do with Hamidullan, debating whether to prosecute him in a civilian or military court as combat operations come to an end in Afghanistan. U.S officials have said the Russian government has shown little interest in Hamidullan. A representative of the Russian government attended the hearing but declined to comment, referring questions to the Russian Embassy in Washington. The judge set the trial for April. The prosecution said the trial was expected to take three to five days.


Five myths about military suicides

the statistics don’t support that explanation. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in the summer of 2013 found that longer deployments, multiple deployments and combat experience didn’t elevate suicide risk. In fact, more than half the troops who had taken their lives had never deployed. A separate, massive Army study found that, while suicide rates for soldiers who had deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan more than doubled between 2004 and 2009, the rate for those who had never spent time in the war zones nearly tripled. 2. Suicides should decline with the end of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Fact or fiction? A collection from Outlook’s popular Five Myths series. Since military suicides began increasing dramatically around the onset of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, there had been some hope that the numbers would come down once those wars were over. But the last American combat forces left Iraq at the end of 2011, and the drawdown in Afghanistan is well underway. (The White House has stressed that the 1,700 sent to Iraq to help coordinate the fight against the Islamic State won’t be anywhere near the front lines.) And yet the suicide rate within the military is holding steady. The number of active-duty suicides in 2013 dropped by roughly 19 percent compared with 2012, but 2014 has seen them inch back up. This year, the military had lost 161 active-duty troops to suicide as of July, the most recent data available, compared with 154 during the same six-month time period in 2013. The numbers for the citizen-soldiers of the reserves and the National Guard have been even more dire, climbing 8 percent from 2012 to 2013, from 203 to 220. Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, told me in an interview, “I don’t think we’ve hit the top yet on suicides.” That’s in part because post-traumatic stress disorder, which can fuel the alcohol abuse or depression that are most closely linked to military suicide, can manifest gradually, so veterans who seem okay could see their mental health deteriorate years after their service. Veterans also face multiple stressors as they try to adjust to a civilian world that many barely recognize or understand. They may struggle financially, with relationships, and with drug or alcohol addiction. Meanwhile, the military medical system is so short-staffed that, too often, doctors give troops prescriptions for powerful medications


Five myths about military suicides

and simply send them on their way. Under stress, without sufficient support — it can be a lethal combination. 3. Suicides have increased because the military lowered its recruitment standards and forced soldiers to remain on active duty. At the height of the Iraq war, the military was so desperate to fill its ranks that it enlisted more troops with low levels of education or physical fitness, and tried to prevent troops from leaving through a deeply unpopular program called “stop-loss.” But the Army study found that neither policy pushed up the suicide rate. Instead, it found that roughly a third of soldiers who attempted suicide between 2004 and 2009 had mental health disorders before they joined the Army. That means the Pentagon may face the difficult task of scrutinizing a recruit’s psyche as closely as his or her body. 4. The weakest troops are most at risk. This whiteboard animation from the Veterans Health Administration explains trauma and post praumatic stress disorder symptoms and urges those who experience it to get help from a professional. Military culture has often derided soldiers suffering from PTSD or depression as cowards or worse. One unit at Colorado’s Fort Carson left mock forms titled “Hurt Feelings Report ” near a sheet where troops sign out to see doctors. The document began, “Reasons for filing this report” and offered choices including “I am thin skinned,” “I am a cry baby” and “I want my mommy.” The anonymous author might be surprised to know that Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and other elite troops from the military’s secretive Special Operations community are also killing themselves at record rates. Adm. William McRaven, who oversees those forces, said in April that he was worried about the well-being of his men — troops specially selected for their mental and physical toughness. “My soldiers have been fighting now for 12, 13 years in hard combat. Hard combat. And anybody that has spent any time in this war has been changed by it. It’s that simple,” McRaven told a conference in Tampa. That must include high-ranking officers. Yet while top commanders routinely talk about the importance of reducing the stigma that keeps soldiers from seeking help, few have been willing to share stories of their own struggles with combat stress, PTSD or depression. Only one, retired Army Major Gen. Dave Blackledge, was willing to speak to me on the record and