Problems add up to house renumbering

of course. Silvia Rodriguez has been a real estate agent for 27 years. About 15 years ago, she was trying to sell a Silver Spring townhouse that was the scene of an unsolved murder. She asked the seller if he wanted to disclose that fact to potential buyers. He said no. Said Silvia: “As soon as the first open house, when people went out to see the deck, a neighbor came out and said, ‘Do you know that the lady of the house was murdered?’ ” As Silvia put it: “Neighbors will talk.” The seller finally agreed to disclose the unfortunate events and the house sold. Silvia said he didn’t even have to reduce the price. It might not just be an attempt to put a building’s history behind it that can lead people to obtain a new address. Folks at the county’s planning department told me some owners come from cultures that find certain numbers inauspicious or unlucky. A building’s number can be changed free of charge as long as it won’t interfere with the existing numbering system. The Columbia Boulevard house was okay because it’s the last residence before Georgia Avenue. There’s no charge to change an address in Montgomery County. Once the planning commission staff signs off, they notify the proper agencies, including the fire and police departments and the U.S. Postal Service. Should the fact that someone died in a house give buyers pause? I know one guy who for years has been trying to buy a house in Baltimore that was the scene of a suicide. That fact doesn’t bother him at all. He’s just hoping to get a better price. Perhaps, Silvia said, some buyers may think the Columbia Boulevard house was unlucky because of the old number and a new number will bring it better fortune. After Brian Betts was murdered in 2010, his sister told The Post that he’d had no idea about the earlier murders when he bought the house. At first it bothered him, she said, but eventually he settled in and came to love the house. Maybe that’s all the house needs: Someone to love it again, no matter its address. Reuniting? Is your local school reuniting? Send me the details ASAP — school, year, date of reunion, contact information — and I will try to list them in my column: kellyj@washpost.com. To read previous columns, go to washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.


Cheating report thin and corrupted

Now we know who did it. D.C. Inspector General Charles J. Willoughby wrapped up a 16-month probe of cheating on standardized tests in city schools, and he concluded that kids, not adults, made the astonishing number of wrong-to-right changes found on answer sheets. Never mind that testing companies, academic experts and veteran teachers say students almost never make more than one or two wrong-to-right erasures per test. Ignore the fact that in Atlanta, where there were similar volumes of erasures on 2009 tests, state investigators with subpoena power found 178 teachers and principals had changed the answers. After his investigators visited only one school, Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus, Willoughby endorsed their conclusion that because the adults at that school seemed innocent of changing answers, none of the adults at dozens of other schools with massive erasures could be guilty either. I had hoped Willoughby’s report would be thorough and independent. This thin, biased 14-page document fails egregiously on both counts. Deputy Inspector General Blanche L. Bruce told me, “Your assumptions and conclusions are incorrect.” She said her office’s conclusions relied “on the totality of all the evidence.” At Noyes, the only school investigated, 75 percent of the classrooms were flagged by the testing company, CTB/McGraw-Hill, for unusual numbers of wrong-to-right erasures on the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System tests in 2008. The percentage flagged was 81 percent in 2009 and 80 percent in 2010. At least five Noyes classrooms during that period had wrong-to-right erasure rates of more than 10 per child, while the D.C. average was less than two. (Disclosure: my wife, Linda Mathews, conceived and supervised a USA Today investigation that revealed that 103 D.C. schools had abnormally high erasure rates at least once from 2008 to 2010.) Gregory Cizek, a testing expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a consultant to the Atlanta investigation, told me that “nothing we know of” has ever caused such large groups of students to change so many wrong answers to right. Massive erasing only occurs when “others do it for them,” he said. Yet the inspector general’s report, quoting no experts on test erasures, concludes that the D.C. data, without “specific evidence of impropriety . . . was not a sufficient basis to conclude the erasures resulted from cheating.” His investigators interviewed 32 current and former staffers at Noyes, and they found just one former teacher willing


Despite fears of Alzheimer’s, many would like to know their risk for the disease

Alzheimer’s disease can’t be prevented or cured, and it ranks second only to cancer among diseases that people fear. Still, in an international study last year from the Harvard School of Public Health, about two-thirds of respondents from the United States said they would want to know if they were destined to get the disease. Although there are no definitive tests that predict whether most people will get the disease, people sometimes want such information for legal and financial planning purposes or to help weigh the need for long-term-care insurance. Current tests to identify the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease when no symptoms are present provide only limited information, and health insurance generally doesn’t cover them. But that’s not stopping some people from trying to learn more. Most of the 5 million people who have Alzheimer’s developed it after age 60. In these cases, the disease is likely caused by a combination of genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors. About 5 percent of Alzheimer’s patients have inherited an early-onset form that is generally linked to a mutation on one of three chromosomes. Research suggests that the brain may show signs of Alzheimer’s decades before obvious symptoms appear. Scans can identify the presence of beta-amyloid, a protein that is often deposited in the brains of people with the disease, for example. Changes in proteins in the blood or cerebrospinal fluid may also be associated with Alzheimer’s disease. But tests to measure these changes are available only in a research setting, and insurance typically doesn’t cover them. James Cross, head of national medical policy and operations for Aetna, says his company “does not consider blood tests or brain scans medically necessary for diagnosing or assessing Alzheimer’s disease in symptomatic or asymptomatic people because the clinical value of these remains unproven.” Genetic testing is somewhat easier to arrange, but insurers generally won’t pay for it, either. In addition, genetic counselors caution that long-term-care insurers may use genetic testing results when evaluating whether to issue a policy. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibits health insurers and employers from discriminating against people based on their genetic information. However, life and long-term-care insurers are not covered by the law. “Before anyone has genetic testing, they should get life insurance and long-term-care insurance,” says Jill Goldman, a certified genetic counselor at the Taub Institute at Columbia University Medical Center. Genetic testing About half of those who develop late-onset


NBC awards itself Olympic gold for viewership

from its schedule and has no current plans of airing it,” the network said Monday on its Web site. According to the arrest report, the couple began to argue Saturday evening over a receipt for a box of condoms, and things escalated. The confluence of reality TV and “reality” comes for VH1 almost three years after the Viacom-owned network had to throw in the towel on two reality series — “Megan Wants a Millionaire” and “I Love Money 3” — when a competitor on both shows, Ryan Jenkins, was found dead of an apparent suicide after being accused of killing his ex-wife. ‘Stripes’ under fire A group of Nobel Peace Prize winners has spoken out against NBC’s new reality series, “Stars Earn Stripes,” because, the laureates say, “war isn’t entertainment.” “This program pays homage to no one anywhere and continues and expands on an inglorious tradition of glorifying war and armed violence,” the laureates wrote to NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt, producer Mark Burnett and Gen. Wesley Clark, who’s hosting the competition series. The show is “a massive disservice to those who live and die in armed conflict and suffer its consequences long after the guns of war fall silent,” the Nobel laureates, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said in a letter, which was sent to reporters Monday by the Nobel Women’s Initiative, a group created in 2006 by six female Nobel Peace Prize winners. A rep for the Nobel Women’s Initiative told the Post that the organization is in regular contact with the male Nobel Prize winners, such as the ones listed on the letter. “Trying to somehow sanitize war by likening it to an athletic competition further calls into question the morality and ethics of linking the military anywhere with the entertainment industry in barely veiled efforts to make war and its multitudinous costs more palatable to the public,” the letter continued. “Stars Earn Stripes,” which is set to debut Monday and which NBC plugged relentlessly during the London Olympics, “pairs minor celebrities with U.S. military personnel and puts them through simulated military training, including some live fire drills and helicopter drops,” the letter noted. An NBC spokesman responded Monday: “ ‘Stars Earn Stripes’ is about thanking the young Americans who are in harm’s way every day. This show is not a glorification of war, but a glorification of service.” To read previous columns by Lisa de Moraes, go


Marine killed in Afghanistan was Herndon High graduate

Ryan Jeschke, 31, who grew up in Northern Virginia, was the grandson and great grandson of Marines. After he graduated from Herndon High School in 1999, he joined the Marines, too. Relatives said Jeschke, a gunnery sergeant, had been sent six times to Iraq and Afghanistan. “He was a hero,” an uncle said. The Pentagon reported Monday that Jeschke was one of three Marines killed Aug. 10 in Helmand province, Afghanistan. The Pentagon said they were part of a Special Operations battalion based at Camp Pendleton in California and were conducting combat operations. The North County Times, a California newspaper, quoted military officials in Afghanistan as saying the Marines were shot by an Afghan police officer who had just shared a meal with them. The newspaper, which serves the Camp Pendleton area, said the three were in a secretive unit that carries out some of the war’s most dangerous missions. Jeschke was “an amazing guy,” said a second uncle, Tripp Bradd. “He was there for his team” and served to “protect his country and to help the Afghan people.” Preparing Afghans to govern themselves and to overcome the damage of war “was a passion he had,” Bradd said. In a book about Iraq, Sgt. Jeschke was quoted in a way that indicated how he had retained his humanity amid the carnage. Jeschke told the author about seeing a father cradling a small girl who had been killed. He wondered aloud about the father’s feelings, and another Marine remarked that Arabs grieve less than Americans. But Jeschke said: “I don’t really believe him. I can’t see how it would be any different for them.” As a boy, Jeschke was fond of martial arts, relatives said. On graduating from high school, they said, he enlisted. A grandfather, retired Marine Col. Richard Hall Jeschke Jr., who died 12 years ago, had taken part in the Iwo Jima campaign during World War II and also served in Korea during the war there. In addition, Jeschke’s great-grandfather had retired from the Marine Corps as a brigadier general and had also served in World War II. Another relative, James P.S. Devereux, was also a Marine brigadier general, and he had commanded the defense of Wake Island in the early days of World War II. To Jeschke, these forebears were “an inspiration,” Bradd said Jeschke and his wife, Sheila, had a home in California.


Sanctions aimed at Syria and Iran are hindering opposition, activists say

sometimes we’re not successful,” he added. “So people take risks, and they are filming and uploading pictures without protection, so the regime can easily arrest them or even kill them.” The Obama administration has granted exemptions from trade restrictions with Syria and Iran to allow U.S. tech firms to make their goods and services available to customers in those countries. But the sheer complexity of the sanctions — and the steep fines for violating them — have in many cases kept U.S. firms from seeking clarification or attempting to obtain export licenses. Even when sanctions are relaxed, problems can persist. In 2011, for instance, the Treasury Department granted an exemption allowing Google and others to offer free Web-browsing software in Iran, but the same exemption was made for Syria only this summer. “The thing about the sanction effort is that . . . they’ve actually done more harm than good,” said Jillian C. York of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a rights group that was among the signatories to an open letter this summer that called on large Internet companies to apply for export licenses. Concerns about the unintended consequences of the sanctions have prompted the administration to review current policy in Syria, officials said Tuesday. Among the possible changes: a presidential order clarifying what software and services could be provided to the country. A long, complex process U.S. officials said they have already issued general licenses to allow the export of “free, mass-market personal communications software and services” to Syria and Iran. They have also issued specific guidance on what is permitted and what is not. Companies, officials note, have been given the opportunity to apply for licences that would exempt them from sanctions. “We’ve done a lot to encourage companies to apply for these licenses,” said a Treasury Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk on the record. “If they aren’t doing so, that may be more of a business decision on their part.” But those familiar with the process required to obtain special export licenses say it is complex and can take several months in some cases. A spokeswoman for Google, which restricts access to some of its services in Syria and Iran, said the company is doing what it can within the current laws. “As a U.S. company, we remain committed to full compliance with U.S. export controls and


Corn varieties engineered to withstand drought offer planters hope

there’s genetic engineering. Seed companies such as Monsanto have taken crop science to a new level by manipulating a plant’s genes directly or transplanting genes from unrelated organisms. DroughtGard, for instance, contains a bacterial gene that enables it to retain water. It’s the only genetically engineered crop bred for drought tolerance that has been approved by the Agriculture Department. Scientists caution that there are huge challenges in breeding — or engineering — these crops. For one, there’s no such thing as a single drought. “A genetic trait that expresses itself well for early drought tolerance may not be a solution for a drought later on in the season,” said Tony Vyn, an agronomist at Purdue University. “And something that expresses itself well as being drought tolerant under normal temperatures may not help when temperatures are extremely high.” Also, climate change could lead to more extreme variation in weather — say, a drought one year and a flood the next. “The big challenge with climate change is that I can’t just work on drought,” said Mitch Tuinstra, a corn breeder at Purdue. “It’s the variability of all these different stresses that makes this so difficult.” Companies such as Monsanto have genetically modified crops that are resistant to pesticides or pests, such as Bt corn. But that often involves manipulating a few genes. Drought can prove more complicated. “The reality is that drought impacts every process in the plant,” Sinclair said. “There’s not one magic gene out there that’s going to make the plant perform better under drier conditions.” In June, a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists noted that developing and testing such crops can take 15 years. The seeds are often more expensive, and the benefits appear modest so far — the report estimated that DroughtGard would boost U.S. corn productivity by just 1 percent. “There’s little to suggest that genetic engineering will make a major contribution to drought tolerance and water-efficiency use in the next five to 10 years,” report author Doug Gurian-Sherman said. “But 20 years down the line? I don’t know.” Other options The slow pace of biotechnology is one reason experts say it’s crucial not to overlook less-flashy techniques. “I sometimes worry we put too much emphasis on the genetics,” said Larry Wagner, an agronomist at South Dakota State University. “Certainly the genetics are getting better. But farming practices are getting better every year, as


Hypersonic jet: just one project to get you there faster

In this July 17, 2009 photo provided by the U.S. Air Force, an X-51A WaveRider hypersonic flight test vehicle is uploaded to an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52 for fit testing at Edwards Air Force Base. Four scramjet-powered Waveriders were built for the Air Force. The Los Angeles Times says the unmanned X-51 WaveRider is expected to reach Mach 6 _ or about 3,600 mph _ Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012, when it's dropped by a B-52 bomber and takes flight off the Southern California coast near Point Mugu. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, Chad Bellay) (Chad Bellay/AP) The world is getting smaller and moving faster, leaving many unsatisfied with the time it still takes to get anywhere these days. That’s why there’s been so much buzz around the X-51A Waverider — a hypersonic jet being tested Tuesday that is theoretically capable of going six times the speed of sound. The jet is just one avenue of high-tech, high-speed transit floated over the years; here’s a look at it and other projects hatched in the name of speed and where they stand today. X-51A Waverider: Concorde: As The Associated Press reported at the time, many were sad to see the flights end. “Many Britons expressed pride in the technological achievement the Concorde embodied but sadness that its days in the skies were ending without a supersonic successor to take its place,” read an article on the plane’s last flight. Maglev trains: As Ho reported, the project is still “in its infancy.” High-speed rail: California recently approved a high-speed rail project — one that the San Jose Mercury News reports is the most expensive project in the state’s history. The California Senate passed the first $8 billion of the project on July 6, by one vote. Related stories: Hypersonic craft X-51A put to the test Washington to New York City in 60 minutes by train VentureBeat: SFO to JFK in less than an hour? It could happen.


The Olympics are over. Now what?

YOU’D THINK A 17-day Olympiad couldn’t stretch long enough to be habit-forming, but this week, the evenings seem awfully empty. Yes, the Paralympic Games begin Aug. 29 in London. Here in Washington we find ourselves in the unaccustomed midst of a pennant race and with a genuine quarterback possibly having taken the place of quarterback controversy. But can any of that fill the void? No more of Usain Bolt’s shattering speed and outrageous preening. No more of Gabby Douglas’s improbable leaps and entrancing smiles. No more puzzling over the rules of handball. No more arguing over NBC’s tape delays, which became a kind of Olympic sport all its own. Every two years, we find plenty to complain about in the Olympic Games — doping, commercialization, hype. This year brought Olympic chief Jacques Rogge’s bullheaded refusal to fittingly mark the 40th anniversary of the murder of Israeli athletes in Munich’s 1972 Games; a silly congressional temper tantrum over U.S. uniforms having been manufactured in China; an Iranian judo contestant who pleaded illness rather than face an Israeli athlete; badminton players who deliberately lost matches in an effort to face easier opponents in the next round. Yet this year, as usual, the triumphs and heartbreaks of the athletes ended up overshadowing all controversy. There was inspiration in watching an NBA All-Star uncomplainingly play second string, for the good of the team. There was even more inspiration in seeing kayakers, weightlifters and other athletes most of us had never heard of, and will never hear of again, take their moment in the sun after years of unrelenting preparation. We cheered for the Americans topping the medal count and for Grenada (population 109,011) winning its first Olympic medal. We cheered for hometown girl Katie Ledecky and for an athlete from another hemisphere, Oscar Pistorius, who became the first double amputee to run an Olympic race. This year, for Olympics sandwiched between Beijing and Sochi, we also could cheer for the success of a democracy in hosting the Games. In 2008, China earned the world’s admiration for its massive stadiums constructed on time, its thousands of dancers performing in precision, its state-nurtured athletes winning medal after medal. Vladimir Putin’s Russia may score a similar propaganda coup in 2014. But Britain demonstrated that it doesn’t take an authoritarian regime to keep to a schedule and maintain security. National pride can generate truly voluntary volunteers. Olympic Games


Obama plays up love of beer to ferment coalition of the swilling

made three varieties so far: White House Honey Ale, White House Honey Blonde Ale and White House Honey Porter. All are made with honey from Michelle Obama’s kitchen garden. White House officials were quick to point out that to call the beer-making operation a “brewery” would be an exaggeration. That hasn’t stopped Obama from talking about the beer-making enterprise — or sharing it. At a campaign stop Tuesday at a coffee shop in Knoxville, Iowa, he explained the light and dark varieties the White House produces. And when a patron requested a bottle, the president sent a member of his staff out to the campaign bus to get one. So he takes the beer on the road, too. It seems reasonable, in fact, to dub this swing the Iowa Beer Tour. “It was pretty good being back here,” Obama told a revved up crowd in Waterloo late Tuesday, at an outdoor rally along the twilit banks of the Cedar River. “Yesterday I went to the State Fair, and I had a pork chop and a beer. And it was good. Today I just had a beer. I didn’t get the pork chop. But the beer was good, too.” White House press secretary Jay Carney said the White House home brew is “superb.” But he did not divulge more about the brewery, such as who the brewmaster is or exactly when the brewery was set up. “I have exhausted my knowledge of this subject,” Carney told reporters peppering him with questions after Obama had mentioned it. “Usually, when somebody hands me a beer, I don’t ask how it was made. I just drink it.” Political strategists have long applied a “Who would you rather have a beer with?” test to contests as a shorthand for which candidate is more approachable. But it has been awhile since a real beer drinker occupied the Oval Office. George W. Bush had quit drinking by the time he became president, and Bill Clinton was a light drinker at most. Discerning Obama’s true level of passion for beer is difficult, given that all his recent comments and purchases occurred at orchestrated campaign events. Advisers won’t comment on what the president drinks in the privacy of his own home. But they do note that the public references are not new. As far back as 2006, when Obama took one of his first exploratory trips to Iowa, he


Syrian military, militia committed war crimes against civilians, U.N. panel concludes

BEIRUT— The Syrian government had blamed the killings on “terrorists,” their label for the armed opposition in the country. “Such violations were committed pursuant to State policy pointing to the involvement at the highest levels of the armed and security forces and the Government,” the council said in a statement accompanying the report. The report could lay the groundwork for the prosecution of senior members of the Syrian government, including President Bashar al-Assad, in international court. The inquiry commission also accused the opposition of war crimes, including murder, extrajudicial killings and torture. But it concluded that “these violations and abuses were not of the same gravity, frequency and scale as those committed by Government forces and the Shabbiha.” More world news coverage: - This Ramadan, breaking rules by breaking fast - Bomb blast in Damascus injures 3 - Iraqi man who hid Saddam Hussein speaks up - Read more headlines from around the world


presented with a field of broccoli and crushed potatoes and a champagne buerre blanc that wouldn’t look out of place at the chef’s alma mater, Cafe Boulud in New York City. A seat at the long concrete counter puts me in touch with the most happy bartender of my trip. He can’t wait for the Democrats to come to town. You’d be excited, too, if your monthly rent were $800 and you were getting $1,000 to sleep somewhere else for the week. // 127 N. Tryon St. (entrance at the corner of Fifth and Church streets). 704-919-1322. www.5church.com. Dinner entrees $16 to $40. * * * When chefs Bruce and Kerry Moffett were mulling a second restaurant in Charlotte, a nearby coffee shop worker gave the brothers her two cents about the intended location, a then-forlorn stretch of Montford Drive. “There’s no good food” here, Bruce remembers her saying. The cynic’s words lingered in his mind and became a challenge. When Good Food on Montford, the sequel to the brothers’ Barrington’s Restaurant, open three years ago, it soon emerged as a choice direction for dinner. While big brother Bruce helms Barrington’s, Kerry, his former sous-chef there, commands Good Food. Small plates and global flavors are the draw at the latter, which sounds like a chef trying too hard until his vibrant handiwork starts crowding the butcher paper-covered table. A trio of crisp falafel dabbed with minty yogurt brings the Middle East to Tar Heel country, and shrimp-topped arepas (corn-flour cakes) are chewy-true to their South American source. Loose risotto speckled with sweet corn, meanwhile, hoists an Italian flag. A fan of all things Asian, Kerry, who hails from Maryland’s Garrett Park, makes superlative steamed buns, which he stuffs with sweetly spiced pork belly and vinegary vegetables. Fried quail is tucked into cool lettuce wraps and best eaten with a swab of Korean chili oil. Food is not all that’s good beneath the restaurant’s low-slung roof. Mirrors set at eye level give everyone a view (Claire Danes is a regular when “Homeland” is filming here), and silverware collected from flea markets has been handsomely repurposed as lights over the bar and an art panel on the wall. From the bar comes a mint julep injected with smoke. It’s haunting. A grazer can work off any overindulgence at the sprawling ’60s-era attraction on the other side of the street, which is also


U.S. helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, killing 7 Americans

Wali Kot district in the northern part of Kandahar province, a bastion of Taliban insurgents. It was the deadliest single incident in weeks for foreign troops in Afghanistan, where the radical Islamist Taliban movement has been waging a guerrilla war against the Afghan government and tens of thousands of NATO and U.S. troops. ISAF said the cause of the crash was under investigation and gave no further details. A local official said the crash occurred around midday. An ISAF statement said that four of the dead Americans were under ISAF command and the other three were part of a separate command known as U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, which often includes Special Operations forces. The statement also said that three members of the Afghan National Security Forces and an Afghan civilian translator died in the crash. The United States has about 90,000 troops in Afghanistan, about half attached to ISAF and the rest under the distinct U.S. command. A spokesman for the Taliban, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, said the militants shot down the helicopter, which he said had arrived in Shah Wali Kot as part of an operation against the insurgents. “We have weapons that can hit aircraft,” he said by phone when asked to specify the type of weapon. Maj. Martyn Crighton, an ISAF spokesman, said there were no reports of enemy activity on the ground at the time of the crash. He said it was too early to say what caused the crash. Helicopters are a vital means of ferrying foreign troops and supplies in Afghanistan’s 11-year-old U.S.-led war. Some of them go down because of bad weather or because of the rugged terrain, and some have been shot down by insurgents during combat. The deadliest attack on foreign troops in Afghanistan occurred in August 2011, when insurgents shot down a U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopter about 30 miles southwest of the capital, killing 30 American troops and eight Afghans. The last crash of a Black Hawk in Afghanistan was on April 19, when four Americans were killed. Thursday’s death toll of seven Americans was the highest for a Black Hawk incident since the Afghan war began in 2001. Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report. More world news coverage: - This Ramadan, breaking rules by breaking fast - Bomb blast in Damascus injures 3 - Iraqi man who hid Saddam Hussein speaks up - Read more headlines from around the world


seo headline’s “test”

some “test” content. More ‘data’


Virginia wineries revisited: What’s new and what you must see

from the West Virginia border and Harpers Ferry, the area around Purcellville has exploded into one of the state’s most concentrated wine regions in just a handful of years. There are new vineyards and restaurants to experience, as well as a brewery on the grounds of a winery, a Napa-style cycling tour and an organic market that flips “yoga burgers” for hungry urbanites. The secret is to visit on a Sunday, when the whole town moves at a languid pace and the locals seem to enjoy Purcellville’s newfound popularity with city-dwellers. Corcoran Brewing Co. Tasting notes: This fun, informal brewery provides an inspired palate cleanser near wine-soaked Purcellville. Until recently, Jim Corcoran’s wife, Lori, was the one with the offbeat hobby, aging cabernet franc, viognier and limoncello- infused Petit Manseng on their sunny estate just outside Purcellville. But in 2010, Jim planted hops next to Lori’s grapevines to indulge a passion of his own: beer. Corcoran Brewing Co. opened last year in a rust-colored barn around the bend from the Corcoran Vineyards tasting room, and for now, it is one of Virginia wine country’s best-kept secrets. A Saturday visit means you might meet Corcoran’s friendly, mustachioed brewer, Kevin Bills. On Sundays, you might find assistant brewer Brian Spak behind the bar chatting up guests about the offerings, including the LoCo, an English-style I.P.A., or the somewhat-sweet Round Hill Root Beer, brewed with wintergreen, vanilla, honey and sarsaparilla. (A favorite, the Padawan Pumpkin, will be available in October. ) The brewery isn’t yet using the more than a dozen hop varieties grown on-site, and production isn’t high enough for wide distribution, so you must visit to taste Corcoran’s beers (though restaurants including Fire Works Pizza and Magnolias at the Mill will soon carry them). In July, the tasting room began serving pints, providing all the more reason to camp out on the patio and sup on superlative brisket sandwiches or pastrami on rye ($8-$10) served by the on-site barbecue stand, Monk’s BBQ. Owner Brian “Monk” Jenkins works the wines and beers into his bevy of rich barbecue sauces (the blackberry whiskey is to die for) and supplements the smoky meats with a handful of tempting sides, including smoked Gouda macaroni and cheese, hush puppy-style fried pickles and slaw. 14635 Corky’s Farm Lane, Waterford. 540-882-9073. www.corcoranbrewing.com. Saturday-Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Tasting, $7; pints, $5-$6. Monk’s BBQ is open Saturdays and Sundays


retailing Wal-Mart raisesoutlook for the year Wal-Mart reported a 5.7 percent increase in second-quarter net income and raised its outlook for the year as the world’s largest retailer continues to woo back frugal shoppers by reemphasizing that it has the lowest prices on everything from clothes to electronics. But Wal-Mart said Thursday that its total revenue came in short of Wall Street estimates, and the discounter announced that it would delay store expansion plans in Mexico, its largest international division, as it deals with bribery charges there. Investors, who had sent the stock up 25 percent since mid-May, pushed shares down more than 3 percent on the news. Wal-Mart is considered an economic bellwether because it accounts for nearly 10 percent of non-automotive retail spending in the United States. The company said its customers are still being squeezed by economic problems in the United States and abroad. Still, Wal-Mart’s results offer optimism that the company’s U.S. business has turned a corner. Wal-Mart, which thrived during the U.S. recession as more well-off people started shopping at its stores, had begun to struggle as its lower-income customers were hit hard by joblessness and other challenges in a slow economic recovery. Adding to that, Wal-Mart’s U.S. stores, which account for 60 percent of the company’s revenue, had turned off shoppers by veering away from an “everyday low prices” strategy and focusing more on temporarily slashing prices on select items. It also got rid of popular merchandise in an effort to de-clutter the stores. (The Washington Post/Census Bureau) Wal-Mart last year began adding back 10,000 products and refocusing on keeping prices low throughout its stores. It has done that by cutting expenses and passing some of the savings on to customers. As a result, revenue at Wal-Mart’s U.S. division rose 3.8 percent to $67.4 billion in the latest quarter. — Associated Press Also in Business l l l l l — From news services Coming Today l l l


Afghan police officer kills two U.S. troops

An Afghan police officer killed two Americans in Farah province during a training exercise on an Afghan base. (AP) KABUL — An officer in the Afghan Local Police shot and killed two Americans in the western province of Farah during a training exercise on an Afghan base, according to Abdul Rahman, a spokesman for the provincial governor. U.S. military officials confirmed the two deaths. The assassin was shot and killed, according to a statement. The attack occurred hours after Taliban leader Mohammad Omar issued a statement boasting of insurgents’ ability to infiltrate the Afghan security forces — a tactic that he said limits the number of civilian casualties. “Mujaheddin have cleverly infiltrated in the ranks of the enemy according to the plan given to them last year,” he said in the message to the Afghan people marking this weekend’s Eid al-Fitr festival. “They are able to [safely] enter bases, offices and intelligence centers of the enemy. Then, they easily carry out decisive and coordinated attacks.” Later Friday, an Afghan soldier turned his weapon against foreign troops in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, according to military officials. That attack left three NATO troops wounded. The so-called “insider attacks” have occurred sporadically in Afghanistan for years, but they have risen sharply in the past six months — and particularly in the past 10 days. Eight U.S. service members have been killed by employees of the Afghan security forces since last Thursday. A total of 39 have been killed in such attacks since the beginning of the year. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan released a statement Friday deriding Omar’s claims. “On the eve of the most blessed celebration of Eid ul-Fitr, when the pious people of Afghanistan celebrate their faith and the Holy words of the Koran, once again Mullah Omar has issued an unmistakable message of death, hate and hopelessness for the Afghan people,” Gen. John R. Allen said. Special correspondent Sayed Salahuddin contributed to this report. More world news coverage: - Pakistani Hindus flee to India - Militants storm Pakistani air base - Geithners of Zeulenroda, Germany - Read more headlines from around the world


This week’s travel bargains around the globe

Pandas in China. (CHINA DAILY/REUTERS) What’s the Deal? This week’s best travel bargains around the globe. Land ● Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in northwest Florida has a free-night offer for Labor Day and beyond. With the Picture Perfect Labor Day Getaway, pay for two nights and get the third free. A three-day stay in a Luau studio for two people over Labor Day weekend comes to $173 per night (normally $259), including fees and taxes. Book using promo code FREE3; travel by Feb. 28. Info: 800-622-1038, www.sandestin.com. ● Book by Aug. 24 and save $175 on an Earthwatch Expedition. The deal applies to standard-duration volunteer projects (not valid on one-day or weekend projects), such as researching elephant behavior in Thailand, monitoring pandas in China and digging for Roman ruins in England. For example, the seven-day Mammals of Nova Scotia trip, with two departures in September and more in 2013, starts at $1,720 with the discount. Price includes lodging, meals and research materials. Use code WP2013MARMOT when booking. Info: 800-776-0188, www.earthwatch.org/expedition. Sea ● Cunard has a sale on the Nov. 20 t rans-Atlantic crossing of the Queen Mary 2 from Southampton, England, to New York. Inside staterooms start at $695 per person double, down from $795. Add $84 in fees and taxes. Book by Aug. 20. Info: 800-728-6273, www.cunard.com. Air ● With Air Tahiti Nui, pay the same fare to fly from Washington to Tahiti as you would to fly from Los Angeles, a savings of more than $650. The 18 Cities, One Price promotion, which celebrates the airline’s new code-share agreement with American, covers 18 U.S. airports, including Washington Dulles and Reagan National. Destinations include Papeete, Bora Bora, Moorea and Rangiroa. For example, the flight from Washington to Papeete starts at $1,489 round trip and includes taxes and a free stopover in Los Angeles. Book Aug. 28 to Sept. 12 for travel Nov. 1 to Dec. 4. Info: 877-824-4846, www.airtahitinui-usa.com. ● Turkish Airlines is offering sale fares from Washington Dulles to several cities in the Middle East and Africa. Sample round-trip fares, with taxes: to Dubai, from $899 (other airlines charge from $1,100); to Alexandria, Egypt, from $899 (vs. from $1,030); to Casablanca, from $899 (vs. $999); to Amman, Jordan, from $799; and to Doha, Qatar, from $800. Book Aug. 20 through Sept. 20; travel Sept. 20 through Dec. 10 or Jan. 10 through March 10, 2013. Info: 800-874-8875,


In Yemen, revolution continues in Change Square six months after Saleh’s fall

laborer. “The government has stopped my pension,” said Abdullah al-Shwaibi, 44, a retired soldier. “We have no rights.” “The Houthis and the Hirak are excluded from the government,” said Walid al-Qudami, 22, referring to a northern rebel movement and southern secessionists, respectively. “We want this to change.” Still, the activists at Change Square expressed a shared core goal: to oust Saleh’s relatives and loyalists of his regime, who continue to wield clout in the government and military. In particular, they say, Saleh’s son Ahmed Ali, who commands the nation’s elite Republican Guard soldiers, must be reined in. This week, some of his forces clashed with government troops at the Defense Ministry after President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi ordered the transfer of some units that had been under Ahmed Ali’s command. The former president has remained in Sanaa, casting his shadow across a large swath of society. He has no shortage of supporters. His party, now a part of a coalition government, has its own television station, which helps Saleh remain visible and burnish his legacy. He continues to meet with influential Yemenis and Arabs. “Until now, Abed Rabbo Mansour has not even been able to enter the presidential palace,” said Ibrahim al-Dhamari, 24 and unemployed. “As long as Ali Abdullah Saleh and his family remain in Yemen, there will be no stability.” The demonstrations in the square began to take shape in February 2011, a few weeks after a small group of youth activists led by Tawakkol Karman, winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, took to the streets, inspired by the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. By that summer, tens of thousands of Yemenis were camped out in the streets. Today, those who remain have created a sense of permanence. Many of the tents have been replaced by small brick structures that have carpets, pillows and mattresses. In the evenings, activists watch television programs beamed in through satellite dishes. A thriving market buzzes day and night in the square, offering everything from hot samosas and cold juices to shoes and clothes. Like other activists in the square, Dhamari said the United States should use its diplomatic and economic muscle to stop Saleh and his relatives from meddling in the new Yemen. “We, the youth of the revolution, request Obama to take strong actions against those trying to sabotage the transition,” Dhamari said. In other nooks of the square, divisions


Deadly insider attack that left 3 U.S. Marines dead was work of an Afghan teenager

trust. “The Afghan police and the Marines had a good relationship,” said one Marine on the team, who arrived at the grisly scene shortly after the attack. “A few of the Afghan police even broke into tears afterwards when they realized what had happened.” Still, there had been rifts. Several Marines said they made it clear to Jan that it was not acceptable to bring underage boys onto the base. But they watched as the police chief disobeyed that rule, they said. For years, Marines and other U.S. officials said, they had heard local residents complain about Jan’s poorly kept secret — that he invited boys to bases often shared with U.S. troops and engaged in sexual misconduct. Officials say it was the primary reason he was dismissed from a previous posting in Now Zad, another district in Helmand. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because publicly accusing the police chief could make it difficult to work in southern Afghanistan. Jan denies that he has done anything improper. “I’m not fond of young boys,” he said after being released from Afghan custody this week. He was later detained again by Afghan intelligence agents. In southern Afghanistan, it is not uncommon for men to sexually exploit boys. The practice, called bacha bazi, has been on the rise since the Taliban regime collapsed. Since the Garmsir incident, top U.S. commanders in Afghanistan and defense officials in Washington have held several meetings to discuss what might be done to prevent insider attacks from occurring, according to senior defense officials. Commanders have agreed to add a counterintelligence specialist at the battalion level to help detect Taliban infiltrators. They are also considering ways to improve the Afghan vetting process. But in the meantime, the problem continues. In addition to the two killings in western Afghanistan on Friday, an Afghan soldier wounded three NATO troops in a separate incident in southern Afghanistan. Those attacks came a day after Omar, the Taliban leader, issued a statement lauding insurgents who “have cleverly infiltrated in the ranks of the enemy.” The infiltrators, Omar said, “are able to enter bases, offices and intelligence centers of the enemy. Then, they easily carry out decisive and coordinated attacks.” Javed Hamdard in Kabul and Greg Jaffe in Washington contributed to this report. More world news coverage: - Niger struggles against Islamist militants - Afghan police officer kills two U.S. troops -


Twin spacecraft to probe radiation surrounding Earth

The spacecrafts will orbit the Van Allen radiation belts, two donut-shaped rings of radioactive particles encircling the earth, for two years. (NASA) Correction: A pair of armored NASA spacecraft will soon head into one of the most treacherous regions of outer space on a mission to understand how radioactive particles that surround the Earth affect our satellites and astronauts. The two will journey into the Van Allen radiation belts, doughnut-shaped rings of high-energy particles that encircle Earth. The particles, which are expelled from the sun, are pulled into these belts by Earth’s magnetic field — the same force that swings a compass needle toward the North Pole. “We are trying to go to a place that everyone else tries to avoid,” said Rick Fitzgerald, the project manager of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. The spacecraft are scheduled to launch together at 4:08 a.m. Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and fly for two years, during which time they will traverse the belts in their entirety. The Van Allen radiation belts are America’s earliest Space Age discoveries, found in 1958 by the nation’s first satellite, Explorer 1. Yet the belts largely remain a mystery, their environment too harsh to accommodate satellites for long. The new $686 million twin storm probes are different. “This is the most rugged and best-instrumented mission ever flown to measure radiation,” Fitzgerald said. The octagonal spacecraft — about six feet across, three feet tall and 1,475 pounds each — are shielded in aluminum as thick as a slice of bread. Each storm probe holds five instruments to measure radioactive particles — mostly protons and electrons — as the spacecraft plow through the belts and endure harsh storms of radiation from the sun, which scientists call “space weather.” Project scientist Barry Mauk compared flight in the radiation belts to navigation in the deep sea. “You don’t want to be in a submarine in the most dangerous depths of the ocean and have your safety systems malfunction,” he said. “In the same way, if a satellite’s shielding fails in one of these belts, it will be in big trouble.” The particles that these spacecraft will capture are expelled from the sun and hurtle 93 million miles toward Earth in million-mile-per-hour waves called solar storms. The data from these probes will help scientists build models that explain how different


GW student heads home to help his native Sudan

donations and grants. Faber said GW waived requirements for TOEFL — an English proficiency test — and SAT scores for Banaa scholars. The scholarship is contingent on the recipient pursuing a career that promotes peace and public service — and returning to his or her home country. Two more scholars have been added to the program: Samir Ummad from the Nuba Mountains and Mohamed Ahmed from Darfur. Both attend the University of Rochester, which began accepting scholars in fall 2010. The program is expecting another scholar this fall. * * * South Sudan is the world’s newest country. Its citizens voted for independence last year, but what followed has been a difficult period marked by constant tensions with the northern neighbor from which it seceded, Sudan. Religion, oil and global alliances have been points of contention. Fighting is constant, Deng said. Last July, a day before South Sudan officially became independent, Deng started a blog offering philosophical and political commentary on Sudan. He said it draws 500 to 600 visitors a day and has had a total of 200,000 since he started it. In his room, Deng pulled a hangar out of his closet and tugged on a belt that was still looped through brown slacks. He grabbed a copy of Foreign Affairs magazine. “My subscription is for the U.S.,” he said to Faber. “Do you think it will work in Africa?” Deng acknowledges that he is unfamiliar with what daily life is like in South Sudan. In 1992, Deng’s family fled their village in Kongor, Sudan, escaping to a refugee camp in Kenya where Deng stayed for the next 16 years. Banaa has tried to help Deng find a job in South Sudan, putting him in touch with NGOs and activists, but the country’s financial and political turmoil has made it difficult. “You really need to be on the ground there, particularly with what’s going on right now with how new the country is,” Faber said. “I am almost like a foreigner to that country,” Deng said. “The first thing would be to get myself to become one of them. I know it won’t be easy.” As Deng finished packing, deciding what to take, he joked that some of the odds and ends might one day be valuable, like things from the childhood in Kenya some imagine President Obama had. “You never know who I might be,” he said.


Ammonium nitrate fertilizer is being smuggled into Afghanistan for IEDs

seized about 480 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer this year, enough explosive material to manufacture 30,000 to 50,000 IEDs. During the same period, U.S. and Afghan troops have either triggered or discovered 16,600 of the makeshift bombs, a slight increase over 2011. In June, U.S. and Afghan forces encountered 1,900 IEDs, a record number in a single month for the 11-year war. “Unless we do something about the ammonium nitrate from Pakistan, we are going to continue to face these numbers and threats,” the senior U.S. official said. Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has conducted several hearings and investigations into the smuggling of ammonium nitrate from Pakistan into Afghanistan. He has pushed for a tougher stance against Pakistan for failing to curtail the trade and is troubled by the lack of progress. “One year ago this month, I met in Islamabad with senior officials who committed to comprehensively regulate the component materials of IEDs, including calcium ammonium nitrate,” Casey said in an interview. “Since then, there has been minimal progress. The administration will soon need to certify that Pakistan is addressing the IED threat in order to release millions in security assistance and, as of now, I cannot see how Pakistan will reach this threshold.” The large number of IEDs uncovered this spring and summer, the traditional fighting season in Afghanistan, demonstrates that the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan has remained resilient even as U.S. forces have increased in recent years and the territory controlled by insurgent forces has been reduced. U.S. troop levels are set to shrink to about 68,000 by the end of September, from a peak of about 100,000 in 2011. But once U.S. forces have left, the massive increase in explosive material flowing in to Afghanistan could make it difficult for Afghan troops to hold territory seized from the Taliban in recent years. Unlike their U.S. counterparts, Afghan forces lack sophisticated technology to find and clear buried bombs. As they have taken a more prominent role this year, Afghan troops have seen a 76 percent increase in IED attacks compared with the same period in 2011, U.S. officials said. Although U.S. casualties from the bomb blasts are down — a sign that U.S. and Afghan troops are getting better at finding them — U.S. fatalities in Afghanistan have held steady in 2012. Almost all of the ammonium nitrate


Swine flu cases don’t deter visitors to Montgomery’s fair

one occasion,” said David Blythe, a medical epidemiologist with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. During the fair, Montgomery veterinarians were doing regular checkups of the pigs. Sick pigs sneeze, cough and “bark,” and health officials said people at higher risk of complications from influenza — such as those with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, children younger than 5 and the elderly — should take extra precautions. “We would recommend those people avoid having contact with sick pigs if they can,” Blythe said. The virus rarely transmits from human to human. “The basic message is to try to take precautions when around sick pigs. The precautions are similar to when you’re around sick people.” And so a pig-loving vegetarian from Annandale named Abby Page, 12, happily watched as a piglet named Hammy Hamlin (named after Virginia-raised NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin) raced to victory around a small track lined with screaming children. At age 5, she wrote “I love piggies” in her diary, and has not looked back. She reads books on pigs, owns a T-shirt that reads “Eat your greens, not your pork and beans,” and calls pigs caring not filthy. “It’s just another normal disease,” Page said of the H3N2v flu strain. “Most of the time, diseases like that won’t hurt you.” Maryland officials said that since July eight people have been hospitalized nationwide, but none has died. Brian Zikmund-Fisher, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, studies how people communicate about risk and how they make decisions about their health. “One of the things we know from the research is, our fear of risk is related to how much we think we can control that risk,” Zikmund-Fisher said. The vast majority of Maryland’s 5.8 million residents have not been spending time with pigs at a fair or farm, so “it’s not something they have to personally worry about,” he said. For those who have been hanging with pigs, “if you’re not feeling sick, don’t worry,” Zikmund-Fisher said. If you are, tell your doctor so they can better manage your illness. A more complex calculus goes into balancing preparation for and fear of another annual virus: West Nile. Officials in Virginia said the first two West Nile cases were confirmed this week. Maryland has had five cases, and the District one, health officials said. Deaths from an outbreak of the mosquito-borne illness


Washington area attracts new retail developments

District in Merrifield is set to deliver 350,000 square feet of retail space by September. The project will include Mom’s Organic Market. Other projects are moving forward as well: JBG Cos. and Bozzuto plan to break ground on Downtown Crown, a mixed-use town center in Montgomery County. The project is to include 540 apartments and 260,000 square feet of retail, anchored by a Harris Teeter grocery. Bozzuto and Southside Investment Partners are redeveloping a Giant Food store along Wisconsin Avenue near the National Cathedral in the District. The project, Cathedral Commons, is to include 128,000 square feet of retail, a 56,000-square-foot Giant Food store, 137 apartments and eight town homes. Ground work has started on a multifamily project along St. Asaph Street in Old Town Alexandria for a 175-unit apartment building with a Harris Teeter located on the ground floor. The Rosenthal Chrysler Jeep dealership at 3400 Columbia Pike in Arlington County has shuttered, and the site is to be transformed into a multifamily complex with ground floor retail. McCaffrey Interests is planning a 166-unit multifamily project along Lee Highway in Arlington County, which is to include a My Organic Market on the first floor. Outlook We expect the vacancy rate for shopping centers to decline during the balance of 2012, as new retailers enter the market and existing retailers look to expand. In particular, national tenants are focused on close-in, higher-end centers. Shopping centers with notable vacancies may have a hard time attracting new tenants, unless the property is located in a top-performing neighborhood or the center undergoes renovations. Given demand for Class A space, we believe property owners will continue to invest, where the cash is available, in repositioning existing, underperforming assets — either upgrading or transforming those shopping centers. Currently, tenants seeking space are most interested in newer, Class A space with significant foot traffic. Of note, centers that focus on everyday needs, such as groceries and other necessities, remain successful during economic downturns or slow-growth periods. The current economic expansion cycle in Washington is likely to be a muted one, given concern over federal budget cuts. Given the long-term demand for retail goods in this area, we believe developers will look to continue to develop new retail space at least until 2013-14. Sandy Paul is the national research director at Delta Associates. Staff at Delta Associates contributed to this article. For more information, please visit www.deltaassociates.com.


Finding a job biggest challenge for veterans, survey finds

for Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans fell to 8.9 percent, more than a half-percentage point lower than the previous month. The rate, which was 12.4 percent in July 2011, has dropped for six consecutive months and is not much higher than the national unemployment rate, which was 8.3 percent in July. But Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer for IAVA, cautioned against concluding that unemployment is no longer a problem for the post-9/11 generation of veterans. “We are noting a positive trend, but the underlying problems haven’t yet been fixed,” he said in an interview Friday. The online survey of 2,453 veterans and separating service members was conducted in in December and January, before the recent drop in veteran unemployment figures. But Tarantino said the problems identified by survey respondents remain valid concerns. “We don’t train people very well in how to be civilians again,” he said. Next to the overall economic problem, veterans participating in the survey said the biggest challenge they face in finding a job is explaining how their military experience translates into civilian employment. The Veterans Opportunity to Work to Hire Heroes Act, signed into law late last year, requires the Labor Department to commission a study on how to translate military skills to civilian equivalents, and to streamline the process by which veterans obtain civilian licenses and certification for their military skills. Nonetheless, 58 percent of the respondents said they were worried about translating their skills to a business environment, and nearly half were concerned that civilian supervisors who are not veterans do not understand military culture. “Among the challenges this research confirms for employers and veterans is the need to bridge the perception gap between the skills veterans offer and what employers are looking for,” said Raymond Weeks, vice president for veterans initiatives at Prudential Financial. In July, President Obama formally announced Transition GPS, a long-awaited overhaul of the military’s Transition Assistance Program (TAP), to help troops leaving the service. Based on the survey results, IAVA is recommending that the new program be tailored for soldiers based on their disability status, education level and military skills. Survey respondents gave “lukewarm” ratings to the existing program, with slightly fewer than half of those who participated in TAP seminars saying it helped them reintegrate to civilian life or provided useful employment assistance. “This is not an easy thing to fix,” Tarantino said. “It’s going to take a while.”


On the big screen, Pentagon wants accuracy

to nudge an industry devoted to fantasy and fiction toward an odd sort of cinema verite. He and others in his department pore over scripts of television shows such as “Hawaii Five-0,” even on weeks when the show is not featuring anything military in nature. That way, they can be familiar enough with the characters that when they make suggestions in the future, they will be able to fit them into the way a show works. Most of Strub’s work is with feature films. His push for a change in the way military dead were handled came in the filming of “Transformers” — or maybe the sequel, he doesn’t quite remember. This summer, audiences can spot similar bits of military-approved detail in films about war with space aliens (“Battleship”) and about superheroes fighting otherworldly gods (“The Avengers”). Film historian Lawrence Suid said that before the 1960s, virtually every American film about the U.S. military had official support, from advice on a script to the use of military hardware and installations. In his book “Guts and Glory,” Suid noted that the Pentagon benefits from movies when recruiting and by informing the public and Congress about its activities. The effectiveness of movies as a recruiting tool has never been quantified, but Suid notes that films helped each branch of service rehabilitate its tattered image after Vietnam. And it is no accident that many of the movies the Defense Department supports are blockbusters, which attract teenagers, many of them approaching or at the age at which they can volunteer for service. Strub emphasized that he pushes for an accurate portrayal of the military, not a sugarcoated one. He noted the Pentagon’s willingness to support a movie — as yet unmade — about the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, in which U.S. troops killed hundreds of civilians, and the trial that followed. The first example of cooperation between the film industry and the military came in 1911, when director William Humphrey persuaded Lt. Henry Arnold to fly his biplane in front of a camera for “The Military Air-Scout.” By 1927, the relationship had helped create the movie “Wings,” the winner of the first Academy Award for best picture. The importance of supporting films has increased with the advent of the all-volunteer military, Strub said. “In World War II, virtually every American had a friend or relative in the service,” he said. “That’s not the


Frederick hosts high-wheel bike race

have to plan ahead and you have to slow down,” says Keith Carter, 59, one of Saturday’s racers and a government contractor from Hagerstown. Twenty men and five women competed in Saturday’s race. There were three married couples, one orthopedic surgeon and one Guinness record holder. Steve Carter, 68 and no relation to Keith, crossed the country on his high wheel in 33 days, setting a world record. The youngest rider was Blaise Faber, 27, who came all the way from Phoenix. He had a camera attached to his helmet and a tattoo of a high wheel on his right forearm. That degree of dedication was hardly rare among the racers. Marie Autry drove 648 miles from Atlanta to make the race while Christopher Rhoten built his own 60-inch high wheel to compete. Steve Carter and his wife, Carolyn, restructured their family room in Plainfield, Ind., to store their 20 high wheels (down from a high of 60), a stunning number considering the average price of a high wheel. An original can cost $29,000, a well-made replica $4,000 to $5,000; cheaper, newer examples can be had for less than $1,000. But to these riders, it’s worth it. It’s a great workout. Rhodes guesses that an hour on a high wheel is equivalent to two hours on a road bike. “You’re pedaling on the wheel that you’re steering,” explained racer Haig Colter, a 42-year-old information security worker. With high wheels, he said, “you have to carry your own body weight plus the weight of the bicycle,” 48 pounds on average. Racing bikes, by contrast, clock in at about 15 pounds, according to International Cycling Union rules. And it’s fun. People ask questions. They laugh. Riders get a great view of the neighborhood. It can also be dangerous. Contestant Alison Torpey, 54, fell off her bike toward the end of the race and was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. As of Sunday evening she was said to be in stable condition. After the race was over — Rick Stumpf of Missouri won the men’s race with 42 laps, and Carol Kennedy of Hagerstown the women’s with 37 — the racers pedaled around the course one more time. Wobbling on a high wheel was someone accustomed to going a bit faster: three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, in town for Tour de Frederick, a weekend-long charity bike event.


Researchers write book using DNA

Researchers have encoded a full book in DNA, the largest amount of information stored on the biological medium yet. The data encoded is the digital version of the book, made up of more than 50,000 words, 11 images and one computer program. The overall size of the data is around 0.7 megabytes, report the scientists, led by George Church of Harvard Medical School. For their work, the researchers have used only off-the-shelf technology. In their article, published on-line by Science magazine, the scientists argue that DNA has unique advantages for data storage. They calculate that their method has by far the highest data density of any medium until now, beating flash media or even quantum holography by orders of magnitude. This is partly because DNA is three dimensional while other storage techniques are restricted to two dimensions. Yet the main advantage of DNA storage may be durability. DNA can survive millennia unharmed, as demonstrated by the sequencing of genetic information from ancient fossils. At the same time, the tools and techniques necessary for reading out the information will be present in future generations, because they are ubiquitous in nature, the scientists write. The main disadvantage at this time is expense. The authors admit that the cost and time needed to encode the information make it largely impractical at the moment, except for highly specific applications, like century-scale archiving. But they point out that the cost of DNA synthesis and sequencing has been dropping by a factor larger than five each year, much higher than the rate for electronic media, albeit from a much higher starting point. The scientists conclude that DNA is becoming an increasingly practical storage medium, at a time when digital information is accumulating at an exponential rate. For their work, the researchers split into pieces the information of the book “Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves,” co-written by Church. They then synthesized short DNA fragments of around 160 nucleotides — the bits in DNA. Each fragment carries part of the book, information about its position, as well as parts necessary for reading and replicating the piece. In the process, the scientists have created 70 billion copies of the book. When reading out the information, the data was recovered with but 10 errors overall. The first demonstration of encoding information into DNA dates back to 1988. Until now, the largest amount of data encoded in


Washington area businesses look to Belly for quirky rewards

After 50 visits to FoBoGro, a grocery store in Foggy Bottom, regulars can pick from one of two prizes: A spin in the chief operating officer’s Porsche or a date with the shop’s 29-year-old chief executive. “It’s just so more much interesting than ‘Here’s a punch card. Buy 10 sandwiches, get one free,’ ” said Devlin Keating, the store’s co-founder and chief operating officer. “And it’s a good way to get people excited about your brand right off the bat.” Earlier this year, the store teamed with Belly, a Chicago-based start-up, to offer customized perks to its customers. In the seven months since, more than 1,500 FoBoGro shoppers have signed up for a free Belly card, Keating said. About 250 companies in the Washington area are now using Belly, and the rewards they offer are as varied as the businesses themselves: A free rack of St. Louis-style ribs (for 100 points at Pork Barrel BBQ in Alexandria); the opportunity to DJ a spinning class (for 175 points at Mint, a gym and spa in the District); an ice cream date with Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s (for 1,000 points). “People are really into it,” Karen Morse, who owns eight Ben & Jerry’s franchises in the Washington area. “We hear customers talking to their friends like, ‘I’m going to get Jerry first.’” For a flat rate of $50 a month, Belly gives businesses an iPad equipped with the company’s app and a stack of membership cards. Customers take a card, scan it and sign up with their e-mail address. Each visit earns them 5 points. “It’s a heck of a lot easier than the program we used to have, and a heck of a lot more creative, too,” Keating said, adding that he’s scrapped the magnetic-card discount program the company used to offer. The financial benefits of a program such as Belly are difficult to quantify, Keating said. Sales have gone up in the past few months, but he’s not sure how much of that increase to attribute to Belly. “Our customers will say, ‘I stopped by to get a drink here because I really want to get that date with Kris,’ or whatever,” Keating said. “But it’s really too soon to tell how much [Belly] is helping.” So far, one FoBoGro customer has racked up the 500 points necessary for the store’s top prize, a 30-second sweep of


National parks face severe funding crunch

support for the system, he said. Without it, he said, conditions at the parks will continue deteriorating and visits could drop sharply. “It’s clear that inadequate federal funding is the number one threat to the future of the national parks and the national park idea,” Kiernan said. “We’re at a crossroads of historic importance here.” Of the 397 park units, 158 have “friends groups” that help raise private funds. The congressionally chartered National Park Foundation has raised up to $150 million annually for parks in concert with those organizations in recent years, and it hopes to help increase their number to 200 by 2016. But those efforts provide only a fraction of the system’s $2.6 billion annual budget. There was a push at the end of the George W. Bush administration to ease the Park Service’s fiscal crunch and mobilize private support at the same time, which added more than $300 million to the service’s operations budget between 2007 and 2008. But that momentum stalled in the face of the recession. National parks continue to enjoy significant bipartisan support, both from the presidential candidates and on Capitol Hill. Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney has spoken during the campaign of how he “fell in love with the land in America” during family trips through national parks in a Rambler station wagon, and in a statement to The Washington Post, he described himself as “a passionate advocate of our national parks.” Rep. Ron Kind Since fixed costs represent such a high portion of park budgets — 92 percent for Fredericksburg and 88 percent for the Blue Ridge Parkway, for example — an 8 percent cut as part of sequestration could prompt closures in as many as 150 parks, according to estimates by the conservation association. Rep. Rob Bishop “Why don’t we prioritize and realize the federal government cannot print money fast enough to do everything that needs to get done?” Bishop said. In many ways, the parks’ predicament is the result of federal decisions over the past 11 years to shift money to the operations budget at the expense of everything else. In 2001, operations constituted 64 percent of total park appropriations; in the 2013 budget, they account for 87 percent. This has left the system with an $11.4 billion backlog. “Congress has emphasized the operations budget because it’s what keeps the doors open,” said Denis Galvin, who served as the National


In Mexico’s Murder City, the war appears over

detentions, planting evidence and torturing suspects. “Yes, the military arrested many people, but they could not make legal cases against them. Most of those arrested were released,” said Arturo Valenzuela, a physician and leader of the We Are Juarez project, a partnership between civic groups and the government. “The army was not very helpful,” he said. During the peak violence, the weapon of choice was the AK-47. Attacks occurred in public places. The killings appeared timed to make the evening news broadcasts. “I remember crime scenes where we would count 300, 400 bullet casings, from different weapons, fired by multiple shooters, with multiple victims,” said David Garcia, director of the Chihuahua State Medical and Forensic Examiner’s Office in Ciudad Juarez. Crime scene technicians would finish their 18-hour shifts in a daze, like soldiers after combat, having seen too much. Many assassinations — especially of police officers or prosecutors — appeared to be the work of professionals, who arrived in convoys wearing masks and body armor to scout a scene, trap the victims and assure a getaway. This year, more homicides have been committed with smaller-caliber weapons, such as 9mm handguns. Fewer shots have been fired, and murder scenes have been less spectacular. Decapitations are no longer common. Many of the dead appear to have been killed earlier, their bodies dumped. It is rare to see a professional ambush. Julian Leyzaola, chief of the Juarez municipal police, said the criminal groups are performing a kind of social “cleansing” by eliminating rival drug dealers, extortionists and carjackers. In Juarez, it appears someone is mopping up. The victims, the case backlog Mexican law enforcement officials say that many of Juarez’s 10,500 victims appear to have been hunted down and shot. “In other parts of Mexico, there are true clashes between the opposing groups. There are firefights, and sometimes innocent citizens are caught in the crossfire. But here in Juarez, the hit men did not confront each other directly. What the assassins did was kill each other’s low-level employees,” said Jorge Gonzalez, the Chihuahua state prosecutor in charge of the Juarez office. El Diario reported that most of the victims appeared to be unarmed. In Ciudad Juarez, the newspapers were filled with stories of taco vendors shot tending their stalls, of window washers executed on the street. About one in 10 of the victims was female. Gustavo de la Rosa, a human rights advocate


Gose with crabs: Spread the word

Gose is a German beer style that was on the wrong side of the barbed wire during the Cold War. This pale, unfiltered, wheat-based ale, seasoned with coriander and salt, is a stylistic cousin of Berliner Weisse. Both undergo a lactic fermentation that imparts a refreshing tartness. Until World War II, gose was a popular regional specialty in the German state of Saxony. The city of Leipzig once had scores of taprooms dispensing gose, many serving the university crowd. Goethe, Leibniz, Nietzsche and Wagner all studied there and might have acquainted themselves with the local tipple. When the Iron Curtain descended on Germany’s eastern sector, the Communist regime saw little point in catering to local tastes, and gose disappeared from the mid-1960s until the mid-1980s. The operator of a Leipzig pub called Ohne Bedenken resuscitated the style, quizzing old-timers on whether his re-creation matched their memories. Gose dates back centuries before the Reinheitsgebot (“purity law”) became the law of the land in a united Germany, limiting brewing ingredients to barley malt, hops, yeast and water. Like the lambics of Belgium, it might originally have been spontaneously fermented with airborne microorganisms. Gose is pronounced “GOH-zuh.” It sounds a little bit like “gueuze,” a Belgian term for a blend of young and aged lambics, and there is a temptation to seek a linguistic connection. But the style’s name probably comes from the river Gose or the town of Goslar, once a brewing center for this beer. Gose has a citric character akin to a sour lemonade, a bready sweetness and a dry, mineral-like finish that awakens the thirst and keeps one reaching for another sip. Low in alcohol (generally less than 5 percent by volume), gose is the Gatorade of beers, rehydrating the body and replenishing the electrolytes. In fact, a gose was offered to thirsty runners crossing the finish line at the 2012 Boston Marathon. Boston 26.2 Brew, a special draft-only release from Boston Beer (official beer sponsor of the marathon), was served at bars and restaurants along the route. A stronger version (6 percent alcohol by volume) was packaged in 22-ounce bottles as part of the Samuel Adams Small Batch series and named Verloren, the German word for “lost.” Brewer Ian Pyle once interned at the Bayerischer Bahnhof Brewery in Leipzig, which exports its Leipziger Gose to the United States. He describes Verloren as “true to the style” but “unique”


Panda pregnancy watch enters final phase

Mei Xiang, the National Zoo’s female giant panda, has entered the final phase of her reproductive cycle — one that could mark the end of her stay in Washington, the zoo announced Monday. Panda watchers now have 40 to 50 days to see if she produces a cub. This could be Mei’s last chance to do so here. The zoo badly wants panda cubs and China, which owns and leases all giant pandas in U.S. zoos, has said it would consider replacing Washington’s pandas if Mei fails to become pregnant this year. It is notoriously hard to determine if a giant panda is pregnant, the zoo says, because the animal can exhibit many false signs of pregnancy. Mei has had five consecutive false pregnancies since 2007. “Mei Xiang returned to a more normal estrous cycle this year,” the zoo said in a statement. “She went into heat in April after three consecutive years of going into heat in January.” She was artificially inseminated on April 29 and 30 after she and the zoo’s male giant panda, Tian Tian, failed to mate on their own. The two have produced only one cub, Tai Shan, in the more than 10 years they have been at the zoo. Tai Shan, who was born in 2005, was sent to a breeding program in China in 2010. In its quest for cubs, the zoo has focused intense research on panda reproduction. And last December local philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group, a global asset-management firm, pledged $4.5 million to fund such research. The zoo has said that the chances of Mei, 14, becoming pregnant after years of failed attempts may be less than 10 percent. For his part, Tian Tian, who turns 15 next Monday, has proved to be a clueless breeder with flawed technique. In addition, his genes are not that valuable because his father has sired dozens of offspring in the captive population. Ideally, the zoo would like both pandas replaced. But if only one can be swapped, the zoo has said it should be the female, whose chances of reproducing are probably nearing zero. Last year, Chinese and U.S. officials agreed to extend the pandas’ stay The zoo has said in order to open replacement discussions with China, it would have to demonstrate all the work that has been done to try to produce cubs in


Obama voices concern about ‘insider attacks’ in Afghanistan

resulting in the deaths of 39 coalition troops, including 23 Americans. The killings, also known as “green-on-blue” attacks, continued Friday, when an Afghan Local Police officer fatally shot two U.S. troops during a training exercise in western Afghanistan’s Farah province. Addressing the issue for the first time, Obama told a White House news conference Monday: “On Afghanistan, obviously we’ve been watching with deep concern these so-called green-on-blue attacks, where you have Afghan individuals, some of whom are actually enrolled in the Afghan military ... in some cases dressing up as Afghan military or police, attacking coalition forces, including our own troops.” He said he spoke Monday to Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is “having intensive consultations” in Afghanistan now with the top U.S. commander there and with Afghan counterparts. “And I’ll be reaching out to President [Hamid] Karzai as well, because we’ve got to make sure that we’re on top of this,” Obama said. He said U.S. forces already are “seeing some success when it comes to better counterintelligence, making sure that the vetting process for Afghan troops is stronger.” He cited a “Guardian Angel program” designed to ensure that U.S. troops do not find themselves “in isolated situations that might make them more vulnerable.” But he said that “obviously we’re going to have to do more because there has been an uptick over the last 12 months on this.” Obama noted that in pursuing a plan to transfer more security responsibilities to Afghan forces, “our troops are in much closer contact with Afghan troops on an ongoing basis” in order to train them effectively. He said the military faces a challenge to “make sure that this model works” without further endangering U.S. troops. “In the long term, we will see fewer U.S. casualties and coalition casualties by sticking to our transition plan and making sure that we’ve got the most effective Afghan security force possible,” Obama predicted. “But we’ve got to do it in a way that doesn’t leave our guys vulnerable.” He added: “So we are deeply concerned about this from top to bottom. And hopefully over the next several weeks we’ll start seeing better progress on this front.” More world news coverage: - Jihadist group gaining prominence in Syria - In Juarez, the war appears over - Gu Kailai given suspended death sentence - Read more headlines from around the world


The dangers of ignoring the environment

George F. Will’s Aug. 19 column, “Apocalypse not so fast,” will no doubt comfort some into believing that free enterprise and human innovation will avert a climate-change apocalypse. Mr. Will ably illustrated that, time and again, human ingenuity has triumphed over dire predictions of scarcity and ensuing calamity. He implied that it will triumph again over predictions of climate catastrophe. However, he chose to ignore an essential difference. With scarcity of a resource come rising prices and a strong motivation to find cheaper, and highly profitable, alternatives. Profit provides a powerful motivation for innovative solutions to averting scarcity. Without direct government action or incentives such as a stiff carbon tax, there is no motivation for businesses or individuals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yes, the power of human ingenuity can solve seemingly intractable problems. The solution to averting climate change is providing powerful incentives to unleash it toward this end. Harrison Crecraft, Sterling The writer is a senior project manager for Bowman Geothermal. ● ●


It’s hands-on learning at Goddard Space Flight Center

their careers and topics such as the lunar reconnaissance orbiter or the ability of other planets to support life. “You’re meeting people who actually are doing the stuff,” said 13-year-old Cameron Moye, a would-be astrophysicist. Cameron traveled an hour to Goddard with parents George and Debra from their home in Graysonville, Maryland. They rarely miss a program. “We want to foster the love and excitement for science,” said Catherine Kruchten, who organizes the events. The team working on NASA’s next great telescope — the James Webb Space Telescope — offered to lead Family Night last month. Joe Howard, who is James Webb’s lead optical designer, talked about how the telescope is different from NASA’s current space telescope, the Hubble. (James Webb is bigger, has one additional mirror to collect light, will orbit farther from Earth and will observe infrared light instead of ultraviolet light.) The ability to see infrared light allows James Webb to look further into the past and possibly answer questions about how galaxies were assembled and how black holes were created, Howard said. Hands-on fun After a few questions from the crowd of about 50 people, it was time for hands-on learning about telescopes that use lenses instead of mirrors. Anjelique Barnes, a 13-year-old from Glenn Dale, joked with parents Minette and Gerald Barnes as they each assembled a refracting telescope out of cardboard tubes, foam and glass lenses. Some of the directions were confusing to kids and parents alike. “I felt like I was learning alongside my parents,” Anjelique said later. “It was so much fun.” But it was the last part of the evening that Anjelique liked most. The group headed outside, and participants were able to peer at the moon and Saturn through several telescopes set up by members of two local astronomy clubs. “I’d never seen Saturn before,” Anjelique said. “It actually did have rings. So that was amazing.” The next Family Night, on August 29, will focus on the Mars Science Laboratory and the newly landed rover Curiosity. Kruchten said that by then, Goddard should have data from Mars that could lead to an interesting discussion. Rebecca said she plans to attend and hopes to get an answer to something she has been wondering. “I’m just really interested to see if there was life on Mars.” — Christina Barron If you go What: Where: When: How much: To sign up: Other opportunities:


Afghans to spy on own troops to stop ‘insider’ attacks

they are under the full surveillance of their leadership at all levels,” the Afghan army chief of staff, Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, said in an interview after meeting with Dempsey and other U.S. commanders. “Initially, it will have a negative impact on morale, but we have to do something. We have to look seriously at every individual.” Coalition policy changes NATO has taken steps in recent days to try to limit the attacks, which Taliban leader Mohammad Omar has described as an integral part of his group’s strategy. Across Afghanistan, service members have been asked to keep their weapons loaded at all times, according to coalition officials. NATO has also activated an existing program, dubbed “Guardian Angels,” in which coalition troops whose only job is to watch their fellow troops attend meetings with Afghan officials prepared to quell an insider attack if one should occur. Obama said U.S. forces are “seeing some success when it comes to better counterintelligence, making sure that the vetting process for Afghan troops is stronger.” But, he added, “obviously, we’re going to have to do more, because there has been an uptick over the last 12 months on this.” Insider attacks are a relatively new aspect of the war, having emerged as a major problem for the United States and its allies only in the past several years. There have been more deaths from insider attacks in 2012 than in any other year of the war, and they have accounted for 13 percent of all NATO fatalities this year. Tight choreography As U.S. troops begin to withdraw, the attacks threaten to upend plans for a transition from foreign to Afghan control of security that will require tight choreography between the two forces. But the new Afghan measures carry their own peril, with the potential to further alienate rank-and-file troops and would-be recruits at a time when the government is struggling to build loyalty. Afghan officials say that 176 intelligence officers were assigned to army battalions last week and that most will remain undercover. They join hundreds of others who are tasked with spotting wayward troops before they carry out “green-on-blue” attacks. Karimi said Afghanistan would also reinforce a vetting procedure that had never been properly employed, allowing cursory or no background checks for new recruits. A number of the attacks this year were carried out by individuals who faced little scrutiny in getting access to


aspect of the war, having emerged as a major problem for the United States and its allies only in the past several years. There have been more deaths from insider attacks in 2012 than in any other year of the war, and they have accounted for 13 percent of all NATO fatalities this year. Tight choreography As U.S. troops begin to withdraw, the attacks threaten to upend plans for a transition from foreign to Afghan control of security that will require tight choreography between the two forces. But the new Afghan measures carry their own peril, with the potential to further alienate rank-and-file troops and would-be recruits at a time when the government is struggling to build loyalty. Afghan officials say that 176 intelligence officers were assigned to army battalions last week and that most will remain undercover. They join hundreds of others who are tasked with spotting wayward troops before they carry out “green-on-blue” attacks. Karimi said Afghanistan would also reinforce a vetting procedure that had never been properly employed, allowing cursory or no background checks for new recruits. A number of the attacks this year were carried out by individuals who faced little scrutiny in getting access to joint U.S. and Afghan bases. This month, an unvetted 15-year-old “tea boy” who had been living on a police base in Helmand province killed three U.S. Marines while they exercised. “We had a policy for recruiting from Day One, but it hasn’t been implemented. We needed too many people,” Karimi said. “When you need 12,000 people each month — it’s a number so high that we couldn’t implement the policy,” Now that the security forces are approaching their targeted recruitment levels, officials said, they can concentrate on ensuring that the right soldiers and police have entered the ranks. That means paying close attention to what recruits do after enlisting. “Whenever a new recruit goes on leave, we have reconnaissance following that person to make sure he doesn’t pose a threat,” said Maj. Gen. Abdul Hamid, the top Afghan army official in Kandahar. The Afghan efforts represent an expansion of earlier attempts to curb insider killings. Earlier this year, for instance, soldiers were forced to move their families back from Pakistan or quit their jobs. Many infiltrators are thought to have received training from insurgent groups in Pakistan. Karimi on Monday briefed Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of


Top U.S. general’s plane damaged in Afghanistan attack

KABUL — Militants fired rockets at the Bagram Airfield outside Kabul, and shrapnel hit Army Gen. Martin Dempsey’s C-17 military plane, according to NATO officials. Dempsey was not in the plane at the time, but several members of the maintenance crew suffered minor injuries. A helicopter also was damaged. “The chairman was in his room at the time of the incident and was unharmed,” said Maj. Lori Hodge, a spokeswoman for NATO forces in the country. “Due to some exterior damage to General Dempsey’s aircraft, he left Afghanistan on a different military plane.” Officials said that “indirect fire” on the airfield, such as rockets and mortar shells that are not aimed by line of sight, is not uncommon. They said they did not think the plane was targeted because it belonged to Dempsey. The Taliban asserted responsibility for the attack. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the radical Islamist movement, denied a NATO officer’s assessment that the insurgents fired a “lucky shot,” saying instead that the plane was targeted “using exact information,” news agencies reported. The incident serves as a reminder that even in relatively secure parts of the country, insurgents have managed to maintain both a physical presence and significant weapons caches. Last month, the Taliban publicly executed a woman accused of adultery in Parwan province, where Bagram Airfield is located. During Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta’s trip to Afghanistan in March, an Afghan civilian stole a military pickup truck and rammed it through a fence near the airfield in an apparent attempt to attack Panetta’s plane. Dempsey devoted much of his visit Monday to a discussion of “insider attacks” — in which Afghan soldiers and police officers target their NATO counterparts. Nine U.S. troops have been killed in such attacks in two weeks. Later Tuesday, Dempsey arrived in Baghdad, where he was expected to discuss military cooperation between the United States and Iraq, the Associated Press reported. His brief visit to the country is the first by the top U.S. general since American troops withdrew from Iraq in December. More world news coverage: - Jihadist group gaining prominence in Syria - In Juarez, the war appears over - Gu Kailai given suspended death sentence - Read more headlines from around the world


Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi dies at 57

Meles represented Africa at Group of Eight, G-20 and climate change meetings. But his reputation quickly soured among human rights groups that documented killings of political opponents and the jailing of reporters. Mr. Meles also repeatedly broke promises to let others have a chance at governing. “I would love to be the African leader that steps down, that overthrows this idea of a Big Man ruler. I don’t want to stay in office forever,” he told The Washington Post in the aftermath of Ethiopia’s May 2005 election, when 193 political protesters and seven police officers were killed during street demonstrations. That week, top leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, the opposition party that had made significant gains during the election, were imprisoned along with an estimated 30,000 people in a vast crackdown. Mr. Meles defended the arrests in the interview. “It was insurrection, and in my view that’s treason,” he said. “Democracy is about having the rule of law.” In 2010, Mr. Meles and his party won reelection in a landslide, capturing all but two of 547 parliamentary seats. The European Union and the United States contended that the poll was flawed. Mr. Meles described an E.U. monitoring report as “trash that deserves to be thrown in the garbage.” Meles Zenawi was born Legesse Zenawi on May 8, 1955,in the northern town of Adwa. As a young rebel later, he took the nom de guerre Meles to honor Meles Tekle, a Tigrayan nationalist student killed by Mengistu’s ethnic Amhara-dominated government. Mr. Meles married Azeb Mesfin, a former rebel fighter in the liberation struggle. In addition to his wife, survivors include three children. Even his critics acknowledged that Mr. Meles oversaw some of the fastest growth in sub-Saharan Africa, including the construction of roads and bridges, built in part with extensive foreign investment and the long-term leasing of large tracts of farmland to China and India, said John Harbeson, an African studies lecturer at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. At the same time, “there has been significant displacement of rural populations,” Harbeson said. Mr. Meles once hinted at the personal stress of ruling when an Ethiopian journalist asked whether he thoughts his eldest daughter should go into politics. “If you have the fire, go for it,” he said. “If you do not, stay as far away from it as you possibly can, for your own health.”


Damascus business owners predict little change if alcohol referendum is approved

Supporters of a voter referendum in Damascus to allow beer and wine sales in restaurants say it will bring new restaurants to town and spur further growth in the area. “It will absolutely help to revitalize [the] town,” said Jay Traverso, one of the people leading the effort to get the referendum passed. “It will keep people in town — my wife and I will stop driving to Frederick to go to a restaurant.” Earlier this spring, the General Assembly passed a bill calling for a vote in Damascus on whether or not local restaurants should be able to sell beer and light wine. The referendum will be on the ballot in Damascus this November. A similar bill to allow the sale of alcohol in Damascus — the last dry town in the state — passed the General Assembly and was signed by the governor in 1996, but was defeated in a referendum vote. In November, the town’s 8,590 registered voters again will be asked to vote on the issue. Todd Houser, manager at Crabby John's in Damascus, said a new law to allow restaurants to serve beer and wine while patrons are seated would not affect his small take-out seafood restaurant. (Brian Lewis/The Gazette) Traverso said restaurant owners are hesitant to locate in an area that doesn’t allow beer and wine sales, and passing the referendum will encourage more small restaurants to open up in town. “We don’t want to see bars, we don’t want to see liquor stores,” he said. “We want to see a couple — that’s all it will take — a couple of small restaurants.” Even if the referendum passes, however, some restaurant owners say it won’t change much about how they do business. Tina Kiima, owner of New York J&P Pizza in Damascus, said she doesn’t think changing the law would help her business, in part, because of the cost of adding beer and wine to the menu. “We can’t really afford much right now,” she said. Todd Houser manages Crabby John’s, a small takeout seafood restaurant downtown. The new law only would allow restaurants to serve beer and wine while patrons are seated, so takeout restaurants such as Crabby John’s still would be unable to sell alcohol. “Now, if you could buy it and take it with you to go, I’d be set up good, then,” Houser said, laughing. Regardless of whether or


Is NASA’s InSight is too little too late?

open to entrepreneurs. Witness the success of the Dragon spacecraft in May — when it successfully docked with the international space station and returned with cargo. This vessel was built by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a company that entrepreneur Elon Musk founded in 2002. According to SpaceX, the capsule was built from scratch in just 4 and a half years at a cost of around $300 million. SpaceX has constructed launch sites at Vandenberg, Cape Canaveral and Kwajalein, and a manufacturing facility in Hawthorne, California. The total cost of everything, including the Dragon launch, was $800 million. Compare this to the estimated $200 billion that NASA’s Space Shuttle program cost. That’s an average of $1.5 billion for every shuttle flight. SpaceX isn’t the only private company shooting for the stars. In 2004, Scaled Composites, a startup founded by entrepreneur Burt Rutan, launched a spacecraft called SpaceShipOne to the edge of space. This was the result of ten years of effort and an investment of more than $20 million by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. It won a $10 million prize from the X Prize Foundation (which was founded by my friend Peter Diamandis, who also founded Singularity University—where I head innovation and strategy). Billionaire Sir Richard Branson acquired this technology and founded a company called Virgin Galactic. Branson’s company will offer suborbital flights to private individuals on a craft called SpaceShipTwo starting in 2013. Tickets will cost $200,000 and reservations are currently available (there is only one class of service, however). Entrepreneurs are also looking at mining other planets and asteroids for minerals that are rare on Earth. One company whose progress I’ve been watching is Moon Express. It is on track to land a spacecraft on the Moon in 2014. Its first lander will carry scientific and commercial payloads to the Moon. Subsequent missions aim to have robots extract resources from the lunar soil and bring them back to Earth. The company’s founder Bob Richards (a founding trustee of Singularity University) said this past weekend during an alumni event at Singularity University that these planetary resources “are essential to humanity’s future on Earth and in space.” Richards hopes to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE competition. But he is in for some stiff competition. There are 24 other privately-funded teams competing to be the first to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, have that