U.S. imposes new sanctions on Russia

The Obama administration on Monday ratcheted up its punishment of Russia for what it called continuing provocations in Ukraine, even as it acknowledged that a new round of economic sanctions is unlikely to bring an immediate change in Russian behavior. The new measures froze the assets of seven Russian individuals and 17 companies associated with them, and prohibited any U.S. dealings with them. All were identified as closely linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The administration also announced new restrictions on Russia’s import of U.S. goods deemed to contribute to its “military capabilities.” The European Union said it would expand its sanctions list to include 15 more individuals. Some U.S. lawmakers and Ukrainian politicians decried the actions as too weak and called for immediate, full-scale sanctions against the Russian banking and energy sectors. Officials in Moscow condemned the announcement but insisted that their economy could weather the restrictions. The Ukrainian army launched its first major assault on a rebel stronghold in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk on Friday, provoking the heaviest fighting since a pro-Russian uprising began a month ago. Two military helicopters were shot down, and at least three people were reported killed. American officials asserted that Russia is already showing signs of significant economic pain, with capital fleeing, investment falling and its debt downgraded to the brink of junk bonds. The goal is to gradually increase pressure until “Russia sees the dead end that it’s going down in Ukraine,” a senior administration official said. “We don’t expect there would be an immediate change in Russian policy,” and there will be “daily fluctuations here and there” in the financial markets, said the official, one of several who briefed reporters in a conference call on the new measures Monday on the condition of anonymity. “What we need to do is to steadily show the Russians that there are going to be much more severe economic pain, much more severe political isolation and, frankly, that Russia stands far more to lose, continuing these actions over time,” than if it stands down in Ukraine. President Obama made the same case in a news conference in the Philippines, calling the sanctions a “calibrated” response to Russian actions and saying, “We don’t yet know whether it is going to work.” He emphasized that “the next phase — if, in fact, we saw further Russian aggression,” including troop incursions into eastern Ukraine — could


Reflexology, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy: A guide to some alternative therapies

along the body’s “meridians.” According to the theory behind acupressure, meridians are channels that carry life energy (qi, or chi) throughout the body. This reasoning holds that illness can occur when a meridian is blocked or out of balance; acupressure is thought to relieve blockages so energy can flow freely again, restoring wellness. More research is needed, but some pilot studies have found positive results: Acupressure might decrease nausea for chemotherapy patients and reduce anxiety in people scheduled to have surgery. At the “Thrive” conference, Arianna Huffington and Mika Brzezinski preach that our lives should be more than our jobs. ● Acupuncture. Though “acupuncture” may immediately bring needles to mind, the term actually describes an array of procedures that stimulate specific points on the body. The best-known technique consists of penetrating the skin with thin needles, and it’s used by millions of Americans each year. Despite its popularity, controversy over acupuncture’s efficacy abounds. Some studies have found it helpful for chronic pain and depression, but evidence for many claims, including its benefits for low back pain, is mixed. ● Aromatherapy. Aromatherapy uses essential oils (concentrated extracts from the roots, leaves, seeds or blossoms of plants) to promote healing. The oils can be inhaled, massaged into the skin or (in rare cases) taken by mouth, and each has a specific purpose: Some are used to treat inflammation or infections; others are used to promote relaxation. Some studies ● Ayurvedic medicine. Also known as ayurveda, ayurvedic medicine originated in India centuries ago. Practitioners use a variety of techniques, including herbs, massage and specialized diets, with the intent of balancing the body, mind and spirit to promote overall wellness. Studies of ayurveda are few and far between (perhaps because the practice includes such a wide variety of treatments), so it’s difficult to determine how effective it is. ● Balneotherapy. Also known as hydrotherapy, balneotherapy involves the use of water for therapeutic purposes, and it dates as far back as 1700 B.C. It’s based on the idea that water benefits the skin and might treat a range of conditions, including acne, pain, swelling and anxiety; practitioners use mudpacks, douches and wraps in attempts to reap water’s rewards. Proponents of the therapy cite findings that water might boost people’s immune systems, though research on balneotherapy’s effectiveness remains inconclusive. ● Biofeedback. Biofeedback techniques are intended to help people to control bodily processes that normally happen involuntarily


Obama’s half-measures give Vladimir Putin little to fear

VLADIMIR PUTIN’S assault on Ukraine has been relentless and increasingly reckless: Forces working with Russian personnel in eastern Ukraine are torturing and murdering opponents and holding international observers hostage. In contrast, President Obama’s response has been slow and excruciatingly measured. New U.S. sanctions announced Monday fall well short of the steps that senior officials threatened when the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine began three weeks ago. No wonder that, even as he announced them, Mr. Obama expressed skepticism that they would work. “We don’t expect there to be an immediate change in Russia’s policy,” a top aide told reporters. This official acknowledged that the United States could take steps that would impose “severe damage on the Russian economy” but was holding them back. The obvious question is: Why would the United States not aim to bring about an immediate change in Russian behavior that includes sponsorship of murder, torture and hostage-taking? Mr. Obama said the sanctions, aimed at business cronies of Mr. Putin and their firms, are “calibrated” to “change his calculus.” As in the failed attempt to change the calculations of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the White House is assuming that a ruler engaged in wanton aggression can be gently steered to an off-ramp with half measures. The strategy was worth trying after the Ukraine crisis began in late February, but the Russian president, like Mr. Assad, has made a mockery of the administration’s diplomacy, blatantly ignoring the agreement accepted by his foreign minister in Geneva 11 days ago. U.S. officials say that “sectoral” sanctions against Russian banks and the energy and mining industries are being held in reserve as a deterrent against a Russian invasion of Ukraine. But that seems to imply a writing-off of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its systematic and increasingly brutal effort to create chaos in eastern provinces. And hasn’t Russia already invaded Ukraine? Kiev’s intelligence service says at least 30 officers of the Russian military intelligence service have been directing the assaults on local governments; a White House statement Monday said, “Russia’s involvement in the recent violence in eastern Ukraine is indisputable.” A better explanation was hinted at by a senior official who said the administration did not want to act without the European Union, which announced its own minimalist sanctions expansion Monday. The official also said that the administration needed to consider “the effect on the global economy.” That suggests the U.S.


Mystery surrounds move of Afghan ‘torturer in chief’ to U.S. amid allegations of agency abuse

and chains and suspension from the ceiling,” the memo stated. The harshest treatment was reserved for Gulalai’s “personal prisoners,” those suspected of being involved in attacks against his family or clan. “They were held in underground cells, including in the cellars of the Investigation Directorate main offices,” the memo said. Overall, Gulalai operated in a “culture of impunity” enabled by his close ties to high-ranking Afghan officials and status as “a key partner for international agencies working on counter terrorism and insurgency” — an apparent reference to the CIA and U.S. Special Operations forces. A family forced to flee Ultimately, the growing danger to Gulalai and his family prompted him to plan the exit that diplomats and rights groups had been unable to engineer. In March 2007, Gulalai narrowly survived an attack by a suicide bomber near the entrance of a prominent Kabul mosque. An incident report contained in the WikiLeaks collection of leaked diplomatic files said that “General Gulalai” was among 12 injured in the attack, which also killed at least two civilians. Gulalai’s son Raqib Achakzai said in a brief telephone interview last month that the family was forced to flee. “They killed my cousins, four or five uncles, that’s why we came out here,” said Achakzai, who indicated that he works as a contractor for the U.S. military in North Carolina. He declined to discuss details of the family’s departure from Afghanistan, however, saying, “These are questions I’m not about to answer.” CIA officials denied any involvement. “The CIA had no role whatsoever in facilitating the relocation of Haji Gulalai from Afghanistan to the United States,” agency spokesman Dean Boyd said. Instead, Gulalai and his family apparently secured permission to travel to the United States, possibly under a “parole” designation used by the Department of Homeland Security to help foreigners facing medical emergencies or other extreme circumstances. Once in the country, Gulalai was granted asylum, said an official familiar with the case. Asylum is designed to grant safe haven to foreigners who are likely to be arrested, tortured or killed if they return home. But U.S. law bars the granting of asylum to those who have persecuted others. The required legal forms ask applicants whether they have “ever ordered, incited, arrested or otherwise participated in causing harm or suffering to any person” because of race, religion, nationality or other affiliation. But there is limited ability to check


his immigration status intact. Lea Greenberger, the attorney who, Wasifi said, represented Gulalai at the hearing, declined to discuss details of the case. “I will not represent people who violated human rights,” she said, but noted that lawyers don’t always have complete information about their clients. Clear answers on eligibility for asylum can be elusive, she said, especially when applicants come out of countries as ravaged by conflict as Afghanistan. “If there were a clear black-and-white line, it would make things easier, but there isn’t,” Greenberger said. “In wars there are heroes who massacred others.” To some, she said, “a violation of human rights against the Taliban is perhaps an act of courage.” A contradictory mission As Gulalai settled into life in Southern California, the United Nations and other groups embarked on more comprehensive efforts to investigate alleged prisoner abuse by the NDS as well as the Afghan army and police. In 2011 and 2013, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan issued reports based on interviews with hundreds of prisoners that found evidence of torture at NDS facilities nationwide. The problem was particularly acute at five sites, including Kandahar, where two-thirds of the prisoners interviewed said they were “systemically tortured.” Many were beaten with cables, forced to endure electric shock to the testicles, or handcuffed in excruciating positions for days at a time. One detainee “reported that an NDS official removed his toenail with a knife.” The reports, released a decade into the war, triggered significant if belated reforms. In 2011, Allen suspended detainee transfers and imposed new requirements, including regular inspection and certification of NDS prisons by U.S. and coalition military teams before transfers could resume. Allen said he does not think the CIA encouraged or tolerated abuse. Instead, he said, the problem was deeply ingrained, with causes including the coarsening effect of decades of conflict as well as the influence of a justice system that relies on coerced confessions to function. “To its credit, the NDS seems committed to ending torture,” he said, “but eliminating this practice will be a heavy lift.” The CIA was not obligated to abide by Allen’s suspension or new restrictions, officials said. Boyd, the CIA spokesman, said that although the agency “can’t publicly discuss the significant steps we’ve taken to help NDS address these issues, we take seriously any allegations of abuse.” Others, however, said the United States disregarded the problem for the


Carla Hall serves up an international peace plan with her newest cookbook

a phone conversation earlier this year, she shared an example of how she deals with the haters. “Somebody the other day, they sent me a tweet and it said, ‘Carla Hall ruins ‘The Chew’ for me,’ ” Hall says. “So I say, ‘Sorry, I’m not taking a day off anytime soon.’ She responds and says, ‘My apologies for my harsh words. TV dehumanizes people.’. . . I said, ‘No worries. It’s actually social media that dehumanizes people. Just a reminder that I’m a human being.’ “That’s how I handle it.” To help readers understand the small differences that sometimes separate cultures, Hall includes an international spice chart in her new cookbook, so home cooks can transform a favorite dish by substituting a few ingredients: like re-engineering Thai chicken skewers into an Indian dish by first marinating the meat in yogurt and subcontinental spices. “I use ingredients that you can get from the grocery store to make it approachable, so you can get used to these different flavors,” she says. “It eases you into that culture so it’s not so scary.” Back in her own kitchen, Hall looks perfectly at ease as she balances cooking with fielding interview questions. She’s wearing a beige-and-white polka-dotted shift, with pinpoint bursts of color around the neckline. It looks like some retro-hip apron, but Hall says it’s an organic cotton dress from Swedish designer Gudrun Sjoden, for whom “The Chew” co-host is now a kind of brand ambassador. Hall has accessorized with a pair of dangly earrings and a Chan Luu leather bracelet wrapped several times around her left wrist. She may cook with love, but the former model does so with style. She also cooks with no music in the kitchen. She wants all of her senses attuned to the task at hand. She wants to hear the sizzle of the oil, so she knows when it’s ready. She wants to watch the chicken thighs brown, so she knows when to pull them from the pan. “Unless you’re really involved in your food in cooking it, it’s not going to be that great,” Hall says, “especially when you’re trying to re-create the recipes from your grandmother.” And there’s the connection to Granny again. Hall frequently refers to her grandmother, whether in person or in print. She has published a number of Granny’s recipes, too, including her smothered pork chops (which appeared in Hall’s first


E.U. issues new round of sanctions on Russia

its first major assault on a rebel stronghold in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk on Friday, provoking the heaviest fighting since a pro-Russian uprising began a month ago. Two military helicopters were shot down, and at least three people were reported killed. The European measures brought new uncertainty to a tense hostage situation in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, where pro-Russian separatists are holding seven observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and negotiations for their release are proceeding fitfully. “We will return to dialogue on the status of ‘prisoners of war’ only after the European Union lifts these sanctions,” Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-appointed “people’s mayor” of Slovyansk, told the Interfax news agency Tuesday. He added that if the sanctions hold, his separatists would not allow E.U. officials access to the region at all. In London, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and British Home Secretary Theresa May met to discuss ways to help Ukraine assets believed to have been stolen by the governmenment of ousted president Viktor Yanukovych. Holder said the process, which might take years, would be led by a newly established “klepltocracy squad” within the FBI. “We pledge this morning that we will never stop fighting alongside Ukraine and its partners to make the progress we need,” Holder said. The new U.S. measures froze the assets of seven Russian individuals and 17 companies associated with them, and prohibited any U.S. dealings with them. All were identified as closely linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Obama administration also announced new restrictions on Russia’s import of U.S. goods deemed to contribute to its “military capabilities.” Some U.S. lawmakers and Ukrainian politicians decried the actions as too weak and called for immediate, full-scale sanctions against the Russian banking and energy sectors. Officials in Moscow condemned the announcement but insisted that their economy could weather the restrictions. American officials asserted that Russia is already showing signs of significant economic pain, with capital fleeing, investment falling and its debt downgraded to the brink of junk bonds. The goal is to gradually increase pressure until “Russia sees the dead end that it’s going down in Ukraine,” a senior administration official said. “We don’t expect there would be an immediate change in Russian policy,” and there will be “daily fluctuations here and there” in the financial markets, said the official, one of several who briefed reporters in


Wealth gap leaves black and Hispanic households far behind

Virtually no progress has been made since the recession ended in closing the large wealth gap along racial and ethnic lines, according to a new analysis of census data. The average African American household owns just 6 cents for every $1 of wealth held by the typical white household. For Latinos, the average figure is 7 cents. That represents an increase of 1 cent for each group in the years between 2009 and 2011. The analysis, based on 2011 data collected by the Census Bureau, was done by the Center for Global Policy Solutions, which describes itself as a social change nonprofit based in the District. The report, called “Beyond Broke: Why Closing the Racial Wealth Gap is a Priority for National Economic Security,” said the discrepancy was particularly striking in the amount of cash people have on hand. Two in three African Americans and seven in 10 Latinos do not have enough money to cover three months of living expenses. Only one in three whites are similarly “liquid asset poor,” the report said. African Americans and Latinos are much more likely than whites to have no assets whatsoever and zero to negative net worth, according to the report. A majority of those who said they had assets listed only a checking account as an asset they could quickly convert into cash if necessary. Half or more of white and Asian households own four or more tangible assets, compared with only one in five African American and Hispanic households. Minorities are also more likely to have their house as their main asset, and the steep declines in housing prices and equity during the recession hit minorities particularly hard. Hispanic households experienced the largest fall in their net worth, the report said.


U.S., E.U. sanctions on Russians amid Ukraine crisis have little impact on the ground

U.S. officials hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin, shown with members of his cabinet, will avoid a full-blown invasion of eastern Ukraine because of the threat of wide-ranging freezes targeting the banking and energy sectors. (Sergei Karpukhin/AP) MOSCOW — Some targets of the sanctions are sitting down for softball interviews on Kremlin-controlled TV channels. Moscow’s stock market rebounded Tuesday for the second day in a row after the latest round of sanctions turned out to be weaker than expected. Chaos is spiraling in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists stormed a regional government building in the roiling city of Luhansk on Tuesday. And tens of thousands of Russian troops remain arrayed on Ukraine’s border. Russian officials have acknowledged that the sanctions will affect the economy, particularly the technology and defense sectors. But some of the targets have rolled their eyes, saying the United States and Europe are only inflicting wounds on themselves. “After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest the U.S. delivers its astronauts to the ISS with a trampoline,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, the recipient of a U.S. asset freeze and travel ban, said Tuesday, referring to the international space station. The United States relies on Russian space shuttle flights to launch astronauts into orbit. Obama administration officials say the impact of the sanctions cannot be measured through stock market gyrations or the defiance of Russian officials. They also say that Putin may be hesitant about a full-blown invasion of eastern Ukraine because of the threat of wide-ranging freezes targeting the banking and energy sectors, which would wreak havoc on Russia’s economy. The Ukrainian army launched its first major assault on a rebel stronghold in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk on Friday, provoking the heaviest fighting since a pro-Russian uprising began a month ago. Two military helicopters were shot down, and at least three people were reported killed. “We believe that [sanctions] can affect Russia’s calculus over time,” a senior administration official told reporters in a background conference call this week. The Moscow stock market is down 13.2 percent for the year, and the ruble is down 7.6 percent against the dollar — but those declines started before any sanctions were announced. The latest U.S. move targeted companies owned by Russian officials and businesspeople already hit by a first round of sanctions, and it expanded the list of Putin confidants whose U.S.-based assets are


Afghan officials accuse U.S., British military of maintaining secret prisons on their bases

appeared surprised that Afghan leaders had chosen to make an issue out of the matter. From Kabul, the U.S.-led military coalition said that “every facility that is used by coalition forces for detention is well known” by the Afghan government and is routinely monitored by the Red Cross. “We are waiting to receive the commission’s official report to better understand the basis of the allegations and findings,” the statement said. In Washington, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said Dadras appears to be referring to detention facilities that NATO troops use to hold detainees for up to 96 hours after they are picked up on the battlefield by foreign troops. “These are sites the Afghans know about,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by name. Dadras said the commission discovered one prisoner who had been detained for 31 months. “It’s a clear violation of Afghan laws and Afghan sovereignty,” said Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi. “We have been in direct contact on this issue with American and British officials.” The committee’s findings were first reported Saturday by the New York Times. On Tuesday, there was still some confusion about how many Afghan prisoners were found by the fact-finding team. Dadras said detainees were found at all sites except the joint-coalition-operated facility at Kandahar Airfield. But the Associated Press, quoting commission leader Gen. Ghalum Farooq Barakzai, reported six Afghan detainees were discovered at the British-run facility at Kandahar Airfield while 17 were at the British jail at Camp Bastion. Barakzai told the wire service that the panel found no prisoners in any American-run jails. The allegations come at a sensitive time in the relationship been Washington and Karzai, who is in the final months of his presidency. For months, Karzai has refused to sign a security agreement that would allow a residual force of American troops to remain in Afghanistan after the end of this year, when most NATO troops are scheduled to withdraw. He has also repeatedly lashed out at the U.S. military over allegations of civilian casualties. In February, Karzai ordered the release of 65 Taliban prisoners from Bagram prison outside Kabul, ignoring repeated pleas from U.S. military commanders and diplomats to hold off since the prisoners were likely to return to the battlefield. Tim Craig in Kabul and Ernesto Londoño in Washington contributed to this report.


D.C. man charged with 2013 killing on Georgia Avenue in Northwest Washington

D.C. police on Tuesday arrested a man and charged him with a fatal shooting that occurred in January, 2013 on Georgia Avenue, just outside the campus of Howard University in Northwest Washington. Antonio Hester, 30, of Northwest, was charged with first-degree murder while armed. He could make his first appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday. More details of the case are typically made public from court documents filed after the hearings. Police charged Hester with shooting Tracy McFadden, 44, of Northeast, on a sidewalk in the 2700 block of Georgia Avenue NW. The shooting occurred about 2:30 a.m. He was pronounced dead at an area hospital. McFadden’s was the District’s third homicide of January 2013; the month ended with five slayings, a lower number, and thus a better start to the year, after coming off a year in which 88 people in the District were slain, the lowest in 51 years. But last year ended with 104 homicides, which included the 12 victims of the Navy yard shooting. There have been 37 killings so far in 2014, up from 21 at this time last year. Police offered few details of the killing and the arrest. They said Hester was apprehended about 11:40 a.m. Tuesday by members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force. Such warrants are typically unsealed at the defendant’s first court appearance. Authorities would not discuss a motive; relatives of victim were not reached last year. In 2000, when Hester was 16, he was charged as an adult with first-degree murder , among other charges, in a Prince George’s County case. Hester pleaded guilty to manslaughter and using a handgun in a crime of violence, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Get updates on your area delivered via e-mail


Despite trying to present a united front, U.S. and Europe still diverge on Russia policies

United States. At the moment, asset freezes have been imposed against Russian individuals and, in the U.S. case, also against certain businesses. If a decision is made to move toward what the Europeans call “Tier 3” measures against entire sectors of the Russian economy, a senior administration official said, it would be on the basis of a “shared commitment” in which “one nation isn’t bearing a significantly greater share of the burden as against other nations with different interests in different sectors.” The Ukrainian army launched its first major assault on a rebel stronghold in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk on Friday, provoking the heaviest fighting since a pro-Russian uprising began a month ago. Two military helicopters were shot down, and at least three people were reported killed. Sanctions against Russia’s massive energy sector, for example, would probably be most effective in getting Putin’s attention but would also disproportionately harm Germany, which relies on Russia for more than a third of its natural gas and oil supplies. Britain is anxious about banking-sector sanctions. France, whose defense industry is in the midst of completing a $1.6 billion ship contract with Russia, worries about defense sanctions. The Mediterranean countries are concerned about luxury goods and the Nordic countries about timber. “That’s the challenge,” said one European diplomat. “How can they devise it so that the pain is distributed evenly?” Major companies in each capital are lobbying to ensure that their interests are not affected by the dispute over Ukraine. Obama made numerous calls to allied leaders before and during the week-long Asia trip he completed Tuesday. But despite assurances from administration officials and public statements by European leaders that they are now on the same page, “things are not quite as clear-cut as ‘are we ready or are we not’ ” for sector sanctions, said the diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive negotiations. “There has been a degree of disconnect between what you hear from some leaders and what is being said by their foreign ministers and officials in Brussels,” where European Union members have been in almost continual session on Ukraine. Germany, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and others advocated holding back when foreign ministers met Monday to approve a new round of individual sanctions, diplomats from E.U. member countries said. Although Britain and others advocated matching the United States with new measures against Russian companies, those urging


Meet Hamdeen Sabbahi, Egypt's underdog presidential candidate

parliamentarian, Sabbahi is best known for his opposition to former Egyptian rulers Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak; his admiration for the socialist policies of another former president, Gamal Abdel Nasser; and his aversion to peace with Israel. Sabbahi came in third in the 2012 race, which ended in a runoff between Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi and a military man. Sabbahi’s supporters argue that with fewer candidates in that election, he might easily have won. But this election is different, as even Sabbahi concedes. In the 2012 contest, Egypt’s first democratic presidential election, participants included a dozen Egyptian candidates ranging from liberals to socialists. That there are only two candidates this time underscores how far Egypt's democracy has backtracked since the coup, analysts say. “Clearly a lot of people are staying away from this race, believing that the political circumstances do not merit entering,” said Issandr El Amrani, an Egypt expert who oversees the International Crisis Group’s North Africa project. Both candidates in this year's race are 59-year-old nationalists who supported the coup that toppled Morsi, want to see the nation’s democratically elected Islamist leaders remain in jail and are known to praise a military that rights groups and democracy advocates have blamed for human rights abuses and corruption. Neither man has A offered specific plan for Egypt’s future, but both have promoted their similarity to Nasser in their public campaigns. “They’re the same — Sissi and Sabbahi,” said Reda Saad, a businessman in the city of Fayoum who voted for Islamists in past elections and plans to boycott the May vote because there is no such option this time. Both men are “egoists who are obsessed with Nasser’s image,” he said. “The people are frustrated.” Sabbahi insists that’s not true. Sabbahi was born in Egypt's rural Nile Delta and grew up under Nasser. He became active in politics as a university student, and his opposition to Sadat’s peace treaty with Israel earned him his first stint in jail. He was jailed again under Mubarak. In recent years, his reputation as a critic of capitalist corruption and what some here call Western imperialism has earned him a following among Egypt's secular intellectual class and among youth activists nostalgic for the perceived greatness of the Nasser era. “I’m a new-era Nasserist,” he said from a couch beside a framed portrait of the late military ruler last week. Like Nasser, Sabbahi said,


D.C. news in brief

Jersey Ave. NW. The theme is “Safe Today. Healthy Tomorrow,” with a focus on the District as a city that supports aging in place. Seniors, family members, caregivers, providers, advocates and community stakeholders will discuss issues such as health care, recreation and socialization, housing and long-term-care planning. For information, go to www.dcoa.dc.gov or call 202-724-5626. DDOT seeks bids for Parkside pedestrian bridge construction DDOT has opened bidding on construction contracts for the Parkside pedestrian bridge. The bridge will connect the Mayfair neighborhood and proposed Parkside development on the west with the Minnesota Avenue Metro stations, downtown Ward 7 and the Deanwood Community on the east. Work is expected to begin this summer and take 18 to 20 months. Plans call for a three-span, 400-foot structure with a weathering steel truss and arches, at a cost of $16 million. The department has been working with Pepco on relocating overhead power lines and with CSX and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority on locating the bridge over their train tracks. The deadline to bid on contracts is May 12. Bidding documents are at dashboard.ddot.dc.gov/ddotdashboard/#Solicitations. For information, go to www.anacostiawaterfront.org/parksidepedestrianbridge. To join the project update list, e-mail ddot.awi@dc.gov or call 202-741-8528. Letter carriers will collect donations for food drive D.C. residents can contribute to Stamp Out Hunger, a nationwide food drive, by leaving a bag of nonperishable food next to their mailboxes before mail delivery May 10. Canned foods are suggested. Food should not be in glass containers or require refrigeration. For information, go to www.harvesthope.org/calendar/stamp-out-hunger-on-may-10. Smithsonian Folklife Festival is seeking volunteers The Smithsonian Folklife Festival needs volunteers to assist stage managers and perform administrative tasks and other duties before, during and after the festival, June 25 to 29 and July 2 to 6 on the Mall. This year’s festival programs are “China: Tradition and the Art of Living” and “Kenya: Mambo Poa!” Mandarin, Kiswahili and Cantonese speakers are especially needed this year. Applicants must be 16 or older. For information, go to www.festival.si.edu, e-mail cfch-volunteer@si.edu or call 202-633-7477. Historic preservation awards ceremony set The 2014 D.C. Awards for Excellence in Historic Preservation will be at 7 p.m. May 15 at DAR Constitution Hall, 311 18th St. NW. A reception will follow the ceremony. The presentation will include awards for archaeology, design and construction, education, and lifetime achievement in preservation. For information or to register, go to planning.dc.gov. — Compiled by Terence McArdle


For Obama, trip shows his comfort and personal connections to Asia

our community.” The president has talked not only about living abroad, but also about learning to “make a mean curry” after living with South Asian roommates, she said. But there are also limits to this connection, Yeung added. “You know how people used to say Bill Clinton was the first black president? I don’t actually hear a lot of Asian Americans saying he’s the first Asian American president.” Although Obama garnered 73 percent of the Asian American vote in 2012, his personal ties to the region are not the sort of thing that will boost his domestic approval rating now. But as he eyes what foreign policy legacy he will leave behind, the connection could help him accomplish some objectives there, such as forging closer ties with Malaysia, according to aides and some experts. Jonathan D. Pollack, a senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, said the most significant part of the administration’s Asia “rebalance” is “a re-involvement in Southeast Asia that had been missing for quite some time.” Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, wrote in an e-mail that Obama “is clearly comfortable in this part of the world and has a familiarity with its culture and national traditions that resonates with publics who aren’t used to seeing that from an American President. That has foreign policy benefits, earning America goodwill that makes it easier for countries that have viewed the US with suspicion to cooperate more closely with us.” Joshua Kurlantzick Kurlantzick wrote in an e-mail that it “doesn’t mean his comfort and attractiveness in [Southeast] Asia doesn’t help with policy. It is just hard to draw a link.” Obama’s connection with Northeast Asia is not quite as strong. While he said the sushi he ate at a three-star Michelin restaurant in Tokyo was “terrific,” the chef at the yakitori restaurant across the hall complained the next day that the president had eaten only half of the delicacies served to him. In the end, though, Obama can always count on getting a nostalgic dessert while in Japan. He was asked by reporters on Friday whether he enjoyed the ice cream served at the Japanese state dinner, which was in the form of Mount Fuji. He responded, “You know, they had the green tea at the bottom, that I’ve spoken about having when I was 6? I was very pleased.”


Congress, Obama administration are acting on Ukraine and Russia

The State Department identified with the op-ed authored by Sens. John McCain, John Barrasso, John Hoeven and Ron Johnson [“A new strategy for the real Russia,” Sunday Opinion, April 27] because the Obama administration is already pursuing their recommended policies. From ratcheting up sanctions; urging NATO to step up; redeploying troops to the Baltic states and Poland; working with Ukraine and its western neighbors, the European Union and the private sector to provide gas to Ukraine to offset Russian imports; and creating the Ukraine Communications Task Force to counter Russian propaganda, we’re marching forward. With bipartisan cooperation from Congress, we secured a $1 billion loan guarantee for Ukraine. Direct budgetary support from the European Union, the World Bank and other international partners will help get the Ukrainian economy back on its feet. Vice President Biden just announced an additional $50 million to help Ukraine pursue political and economic reform. Georgia has received the most U.S. assistance of any country in Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia. And U.S. support for Moldova is the strongest it has been since the end of the Cold War. There’s a partisan divide on too many issues. There’s no need to create one where it doesn’t exist. Doug Frantz, Washington The writer is an assistant secretary of state for public affairs.


Pentagon sees surge in reports of sexual assault among service members

member of the military who claimed to have been attacked by someone else in uniform. The remainder involved a mix of civilian and military perpetrators and victims. ●Ten percent of those filing reports said they had been victimized before joining the military but waited to come forward, more than a year in some cases. The Defense Department defines sexual assault as “intentional sexual contact characterized by the use of force, threats, intimidation or abuse of authority” involving a victim who does not consent. It can cover a variety of crimes. Slightly more than half the cases investigated last year involved alleged offenses classified as rape, sexual assault or non-consensual sodomy, according to the report. After the Wars: The choice Service members who say they were sexually assaulted face agonizing decisions about whether to speak up or stay silent. Read more. Read the report The final statistics released Thursday gave a detailed breakdown of the figures. Explore the data. Advocacy groups credited the Pentagon with taking steps to support victims and encourage them to come forward. But some said they still had reservations about whether the military is properly investigating and prosecuting sex offenses that are reported. “There is definitely a seriousness about it,” Nancy Duff Campbell, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, said about the military’s overall responsiveness to sexual assault in the ranks. “I’m still quite concerned about the whole justice system. There’s still a lot of problems with how the cases are handled.” Pentagon figures show that 2,149 service members were investigated last year on suspicion of committing sexual assault. Of those, about 73 percent received some form of punishment. The number of suspected offenders actually convicted at court-martial, however, remained relatively small: about 11 percent of all criminal investigations into sexual assault. Even fewer — about 6 percent — were convicted of a crime serious enough to require that the defendant be added to a sex-offender registry. Defense officials and outside experts said those figures reflect the inherent difficulty of bringing sexual-assault cases to trial and winning convictions. Physical evidence is often lacking, and it can be hard to establish whether consent was not given. “Each one of these crimes is very unique and is tried on the merits of the case,” said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Snow, director of the Pentagon’s sexual-assault prevention office. “What I would say is the victims are getting


Canning class: We teach you to preserve it now, enjoy it later. The first lesson: Artichokes.

twee, adorable, Brooklyn-wannabe reason, but because it is a way to have tomatoes in December that came from your farmers market in August. To taste June’s apricots in February’s tart. Dapple September’s hot pepper sauce on March’s chicken thighs. Canning with purpose, to build the convenience of a grocery store in your own pantry, is a whole different ballgame. These are foods that are better when homemade than any grocery store version; they are foods to use. Over the course of the growing season, we’ll convert what’s fresh into delicious jars of preserved foods. We’re talking about jars that start suppers, bedazzle brunch and complement as a condiment. These are looking-ahead recipes that make small quantities of exceptional foods, each jar to be treasured, given to (deserving) friends and relatives. Ultimately, canning will ease the way to weeknight dinner preparation. Next winter will not be as traumatizing as this one, even if the weather is a repeat. Snow days will be pantry days, with jars of fabulous flavors waiting to be enjoyed. Zombie apocalypse? Bring it. The first project This week, as our own farmers markets begin to wake up, the first of the greens and asparagus are on display, a few onions and last year’s potatoes. The harvest is still too sparse to even think about preserving it. And while I’m all about local eating, I am not without some weaknesses. Which leads us to artichokes. Right now is the season of the perennial artichoke, the globe, rounded type that is harvested between early May and late June. (A conical version appears later in the season). There were rumblings on social media about a robust harvest, which was all the incentive I needed to think about preserving. Because artichokes are still precious, this is a very small-yield recipe, just three jars to be treasured. Shop for baby artichokes or buy the large mature chokes, but in either case look for tightly formed buds, firm and weighty. To keep costs under control, look for artichokes at ethnic markets, Costco or Trader Joe’s. To trim the artichokes, break the leaves away from the heart until the tender, yellow-bottomed center leaves are revealed. On a baby artichoke, that will be only a few of the outer leaves, but larger artichokes have many more fully formed leaves. If all of the leaves have thorns, remove them all and scrape away the furry inner


Canada’s Romeo Dallaire is honored for his attempts to halt Rwandan genocide in 1994

chair in a reception room off the main Washington Marriott Wardman Park ballroom, where the dinner was held — “is there’s no political will” to head off atrocities. “So we’re still stuck with politicians willing to manage these problems, instead of statesmen” who could prevent them. At 67, the Dutch-born Dallaire says he’s trying to “make therapy ‘in.’ ” The author of the books “Shake Hands With the Devil” and “They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children,” he’s now working on a book about his PTSD. He says people continue to struggle with understanding it because “the developed world is very visual, very Cartesian. If you’re shot . . . you can see that, and it’s an honorable injury. But the guy in the corner who’s moody and getting drunk every night has an injury that’s perceived as not as honorable.” Dallaire, who is in his 14th year of therapy, no longer drinks, and he takes nine pills every day, including antidepressants and “something that stops me from dreaming.’’ Isn’t that a loss, too? “Your greatest enemy is the night, so you pray for first light,’’ he said, but yes, there’s a trade-off involved in suppressing nightmares because “the psychologists need those dreams to help you move on.” At the dinner, U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Rwandan genocide, said she was grateful for the “chance to give one of my heroes an award named for another of my heroes,” Wiesel, an activist and author who survived the Auschwitz, Buna and Buchenwald concentration camps. Honoring Dallaire, Power said, was one way to remind the world of a time in which a congresswoman noted that she was getting a bunch of calls about the threats to Rwanda’s famed gorillas, “but no calls about the people.” Though, today, too, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “is deliberately targeting his own people, denying civilians food and practicing systematic torture, we must not give up” on efforts to feed the starving and end the bloodshed, she said. “You, General,’’ Power said before slipping the medal around his neck, “have stood between killers and their prey” and “were doing your job when no one else was willing to do theirs.” Escorted to the lectern by Holocaust survivor Nesse Godin, Dallaire accepted the award “in the name of the 454 African soldiers and 11 Canadians who stayed when everyone else left.”


Michael Gerson: The enduring benefits of vaccination

Recently I wrote about a type of scientific denialism — often practiced by religious people — that cheats children out of the wonders of modern cosmology and encourages unnecessary religious doubt. But there is another sort of scientific skepticism — often displayed by affluent and educated parents — that withholds routine childhood vaccinations and encourages unnecessary disease. These should be kept in proportion. The belief that human beings walked with dinosaurs is wrong. The belief that vaccinations cause autism or brain damage is wrong and dangerous. In the latter case (as in the former), the scientific argument is not merely lopsided but single-sided. Like any medicine, vaccines have a very small risk of serious side effects, which doctors are trained to identify. But the association of the measles vaccination with autism has been entirely discredited. Childhood vaccinations do not involve dangerous levels of toxins and do not compromise the immune system. And vaccinations prevent a range of diseases — chickenpox, diphtheria, measles, mumps, pertussis, polio, rotavirus, rubella, tetanus — that used to routinely hospitalize, disable or kill children. In most health matters, defying medical authority mainly has individual consequences. Those who believe that cancer can be treated with coffee enemas are only killing themselves. But communicable diseases are different. Some people can’t be immunized for medical reasons, or their protective response to a vaccine is weak. They depend on the immunity of others to avoid infection. Immunization rates north of 90 percent are usually required to protect the whole herd. This means that if even a small portion of the herd refuses vaccination, the risks rise for everyone. Epidemiology grants marginal groups the power to do great harm. The United States generally has rates of immunization in the high 80s or low 90s. In some places, however, the rate dips lower, making it easier for an infected traveler (for example) to cause an outbreak. Recent examples can be found in Orange County, Calif., and New York City. The problem is even worse in Britain (where the immunization rate for measles is only about 80 percent) and in other parts of Europe. A collection of cartoons from around the country. Those who resist vaccination are a varied group. The parents of autistic children seek and deserve an explanation. Unfortunately, vaccination is not the answer. Other “non-conformists” are a subset of home-schoolers, distrustful of government mandates and intent on the right to


Anne Applebaum: Finding the energy to deter Russia

LONDON Seven Russians were added this week to the U.S. sanctions list , along with 17 Russian companies. In Brussels, the European Union also lengthened its sanctions list from 33 to 48. Once again, analysts are looking at the names, the assets, the influence of the people targeted. Once again, some ask whether any sanctions can ever work, at least well enough to change anyone’s behavior. And once again, it’s all rather beside the point. Yes, it’s true that sanctions feel quite satisfying — think of all of those fat-fingered men who can no longer use their Visa cards at the Rolex shop — and that some very unpleasant people are on the lists. It’s also true that sanctions have genuinely made international markets jittery about doing business with Russia, not least because they have shown that Russia is now run by people who don’t care anymore about international markets, or at least not as much as they care about territorial expansion. But no, even if we put 500 people on the lists, or 5,000, sanctions aren’t the solution to the existential challenge that Russia has thrown at Europe and the international legal system. More to the point, these sanctions lists are a symptom of a deeper problem. For years now, this is how the United States and the European Union have made their foreign policies: reactively, tardily, when it is already far too late. The time to worry about corrupt Russian companies doing business in the West was 15 years ago, before they became part of the international financial system. The time to start talking about Vladimir Putin’s hidden money was in the 1990s, when he was first accused of defrauding the city of St. Petersburg. Knowing this doesn’t help us now, of course. The postmodern invasion of Ukraine is underway; the two eastern provinces are headed toward separatism or union with Russia; the destabilization of Kiev itself may be next. But if nothing else, maybe these events will belatedly wake up the slumbering foreign ministries of the West to the news that they have a long-term problem, and that it requires long-term solutions. A collection of Tom Toles cartoons about international news. As I’ve written, the West needs to rethink its military strategies in order to counter new tactics, paramilitary and psychological, that Russia has begun to deploy. But we could also begin to think even more strategically


Galleries: ‘ambi-mimetics,’ ‘Yantras,’ ‘A Slight Suggestion,’ ‘un.furl,’ ‘Memories of Moscow’

twist” or “lavender bloom.” A few are suites, such as the five-piece set of “yellow curls,” which saltily suggest potato chips. Some are brightly colored, occasionally with acrylic paint as well as dye. The intense “red twist” is a wooden cousin of Jae Ko’s bright red paper curlicues (some of which are currently at Marsha Mateyka). Other sculptures emphasize their wood grain and tones, sometimes by turning their more colorful side toward the wall. The pieces look so lithe that twisting them back in the other direction seems possible, although it isn’t. Reynolds’s art only appears lighter than air. Nancy Sansom Reynolds: un.furl Oleg Kudryashov Jimmy Miracle Exiled in London during the two decades before the Soviet Union disintegrated, Russian artist Oleg Kudryashov memorialized his homeland in prints and mixed-media constructions. These works are not road maps or travel guides, as can be seen in “Memories of Moscow: Reliefs, constructions, and compositions, 1976-1995,” at Robert Brown Gallery. Kudryashov’s style is abstracted and shows the strong influence of Soviet constructivism. Yet it’s also personal, with depictions of places and things from his life. The artist’s “Icon,” for example, is based on one owned by his family, and the central color image is flanked by black-and-white sketches of his childhood. Kudryashov’s prints, rarely made in multiples, combine hard-edged forms with gestural drawings and are often finished with watercolor. The hues are mostly pastel, yet vivid. Such prints as “The Saw,” with its orange-highlighted blade, have a child-like quality. The relief work, which cuts and recombines several prints into a single piece, is intricate and literally multi-layered. “Memories of Moscow” offers a subjective view, but it shows the city from many angles. Jimmy Miracle, a few of whose “Yantras” are on display in the space Neptune Fine Art shares with Robert Brown Gallery, arranges filaments inside containers; these webs conjure shimmering interior spaces whose depths are hard to gauge. The D.C. artist’s work includes some new elements, notably multicolored thread that yields even more complex optical effects. Miracle hasn’t forgotten about the outside, however. “Octagon” is framed by eight slats of charred wood, and “Silver Box” is covered in metallic leaf. In Hinduism, a yantra is an abstract symbol used for meditation and worship. Miracle’s “Yantras” still aren’t as colorful as Hindu ones, but they’re getting more sumptuous. Oleg Kudryashov: Memories of Moscow: Reliefs, constructions, and compositions, 1976-1995; and Jimmy Miracle: Yantras Mark


NSO “New Moves” and UMD “Appalachian Spring” join dance with orchestras

it’s a challenge to separate dance from music. “Innovation requires time,” Lerman says. “I don’t know that the [players] would love memorizing.” (For the record, the Maryland students committed the 23-minute piece to heart eagerly, and have been coming up with all kinds of suggestions on their own; one cellist even developed a harness for her instrument that allows the cello section to move around more freely than they are usually able.) Integrating movement into classical performance is at once an uphill battle and a step toward opening a dormant and powerful channel of communication. Classical concerts are notorious for having become places of artificial silence and stillness, on and off the stage: Silent audience members glare at those who rustle their candy wrappers or clap in the wrong places. “Maybe we went too far with the whole don’t applaud between movements, don’t participate, don’t be a human being,” says Thomas Wilkins, who will conduct the three NSO programs. “To the point that it gave some people outside of classical music the wrong impression of what classical music was.” And people inside of classical music, as well. Some purists find it distracting that the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic energetically move while they play, or write me to complain about the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster, Jonathan Carney, who is certainly one of the most physical violinists on the stage. What we’re left with is an assortment of what one might call “junk movement,” a faux-physicality, on the part of many performers, that could become so much more effective if it were addressed, and harnessed. In an early rehearsal for “Faun,” Lerman said, “I tried to get people to notice what they did naturally and see that that’s a thing; it can even be a design thing, particularly if they were willing to share it with each other. ‘How about if we all move like Josh when he plays?’ It’s a very subtle kind of learning.” “As much as this is about movement,” she continues, “because they move so much anyway, it’s also about not moving.” If this line of artistic inquiry were to be more widely pursued — and Lerman is eager to see whether any of these young instrumentalists she’s working with continue to develop it — “one of the skills musicians would need to learn,” she says, “is to be still.” Appalachian Spring The NSO’s “New Moves” festival


Obama, Merkel: Russia faces tougher sanctions if Ukraine’s elections are disrupted

threat of further U.S. and European economic sanctions. The Ukrainian government launched its most aggressive push to date against pro-Russian groups occupying government buildings in several eastern towns. Two government helicopters were shot down, and Putin warned that the U.S.-brokered agreement reached last month in Geneva to reduce tensions had collapsed. Putin has already seized and annexed Crimea, a move the Obama administration does not recognize but acknowledges it can do little about. Obama has sought to prevent Putin, who has about 40,000 Russian troops on the Ukraine border, from pushing into the former Soviet republic through the threat of sanctions against whole sectors of the Russian economy. White House officials say such sanctions would have an adverse effect on the U.S. economy, although Germany and other European nations would feel the impact far more severely. How effective the threat of so-called sector sanctions is depends primarily on Europe’s willingness to impose them, a focus of Obama’s meeting with Merkel on Friday. Obama said planning for sector sanctions has been “stepped up.” He also condemned as “disgraceful and inexcusable” the detention of monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, including a German citizen, by a pro-Russian group in eastern Ukraine. In recent weeks, Obama and Vice President Biden have traveled to Europe to reassure NATO allies that the United States would honor the pact’s collective defense commitment, known as Article 5, should Russia enter a member country. But Obama has also warned NATO member nations that, given Russia’s ambitions, each must also contribute fairly to the group’s defense, including more spending and new commitments of military resources. Echoing that message, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that NATO members will be “judged harshly” if they do not increase defense spending in response to the new Russian threat. “For decades — from the early days of the Cold War — American defense secretaries have called on European allies to ramp up their defense investment,” Hagel said in a speech at the Wilson Center. One of the biggest obstacles, he said, has been a sense that the age of aggression in Europe was over. “Russia’s actions in Ukraine shatter that myth and usher in bracing new realities,” Hagel said. Only a handful of NATO’s 28 members meet the agreed budget target of 2 percent of their gross domestic product. “We must see renewed financial commitments from all NATO members,”


Five myths about sanctions

Daniel W. Drezner, a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, will begin blogging for The Post later this month. He is the author of “The Sanctions Paradox” and the forthcoming “The System Worked: How the World Stopped Another Great Depression.” Sanctions are so hot right now. Assistant Treasury Secretary Danny Glaser recently bragged to Newsweek that Treasury is “at the center of our national security.” Financial sanctions were the West’s first response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and continued bellicosity toward the rest of Ukraine, and the Obama administration is debating how widely to cast the sanctions net. So are sanctions an outdated foreign policy instrument, a safe option between diplomatic demarches and military action, or a new hope for American global leadership? The answer, of course, is none of the above. To understand why, we need to debunk a few myths. 1. Sanctions never work. Fifteen years ago, prominent foreign policy veterans such as Dick Cheney and Richard Haass were decrying “sanctioning madness.” But attitudes have changed. Honed during the global war on terror, sanctions now enjoy plenty of bipartisan support. For instance, Juan C. Zarate, a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration, argued in his book “Treasury’s War” that the United States can use sanctions “to confront its most critical national security threats.” Fact or fiction? A collection from Outlook’s popular Five Myths series. Sanctions work in the sense that they can cause severe economic pain to the targeted country. But “work” should also mean that the sanctioned government acquiesces or compromises on specific policy goals. Economic pain alone doesn’t always lead to such compromises — particularly if territorial concessions or regime change is being demanded. Still, recent outcomes have been promising. Last fall, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani publicly acknowledged that the effects of international sanctions on the country’s economy were so severe that quick negotiations were needed to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. Indeed, some critics of the Obama administration’s policy argue that current sanctions should stay in place, because they would be powerful enough to bring regime change to Iran. Of course, no one should believe that sanctions alone will bring Jeffersonian democracy to Iran or compel Russia to relinquish Crimea. But the most complete academic studies on the matter show that sanctions lead to concessions from the targeted government in one out of


Business news: AstraZeneca rejects Pfizer’s takeover bid

Asia Pacific. About 40 percent of Harlequin’s revenue comes from books published in languages other than English. Ninety-nine percent of HarperCollins books are published in English. For 2013, Harlequin’s revenue totaled $372 million. About 95 percent of its revenue comes from outside Canada. — Associated Press Also in Business ● Chevron reported a steep decline in first-quarter profit because of lower global oil prices and bad weather that slowed oil production. Chevron said it earned $4.52 billion in the first three months of the year on revenue of $50.98 billion. Last year during the same period, Chevron earned $6.18 billion on revenue of $54.3 billion. On a per share basis, Chevron earned $2.36, down from $3.18 last year. Analysts had expected Chevron to earn $2.54, on average. ● Orders to U.S. factories advanced strongly in March for a second month. Orders increased 1.1 percent in March after increasing 1.5 percent in February, the Commerce Department reported. Orders for core capital goods, a category that signals business investment plans, jumped 3.5 percent in March, rebounding from a 0.9 percent drop in February. It was the biggest increase since January 2013. ● CVS Caremark reported a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit on a sharp drop in sales of general merchandise, which the drugstore chain blamed on a harsh winter, milder flu season and aggressive competition. Sales of merchandise sold at the front of its stores open at least a year, such as toothpaste and snacks, fell 3.8 percent in the first quarter. CVS, which operates the No. 2 U.S. drugstore chain and a major pharmacy benefits management business, earned $1.13 billion, or 95 cents per share, in the quarter, up from $954 million, or 77 cents per share, a year earlier. Total revenue rose 6.3 percent to $32.69 billion. ● The federal government offered New Yorkers smarting from Hurricane Sandy some hope that they won’t see a repeat of chronic gasoline shortages, announcing plans to create gas reserves to ease future weather-related disruptions. The two reserves — one for the New York City area and one in New England — will total 42 million gallons of gasoline and will be stored in leased commercial terminals around New York Harbor and Boston, the Energy Department said. Officials said they hope to have the new gasoline reserves in place by the end of summer, before the start of the 2014 hurricane season. — From news services


Montgomery County high school student diagnosed with meningitis

Health and school officials alerted families at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac on Friday that a student had been diagnosed with a form of meningitis, saying there was little risk to students but that parents should be aware of the presence of the contagious disease. In a letter sent home with students, officials said the student was recently found to have meningococcal disease, caused by a bacteria, and was improving. Those who had close contact with the student — sharing soda bottles or kissing, as examples — are being treated with prophylactic antibiotics, said county health spokeswoman Mary Anderson. “It’s not usually spread by casual contact,” she said. In the letter, officials emphasized that routine classroom and school contact does not usually pose a risk and that meningitis infection is mostly spread through saliva, mucous or droplets from the nose and throat. Parents were being warned “in an abundance of caution,” the letter said. Symptoms of infection include chills, high fever, vomiting, headache, stiff neck and rash. If students develop such conditions before May 13, the letter said, parents should immediately consult a doctor. If left untreated, the disease can be serious and sometimes fatal, according to a state health fact sheet. “There’s a very low risk of transmittal,” said schools spokesman Dana Tofig. “But if students exhibit any other symptoms, they should call their doctor or the Department of Health as quickly as possible.”


Africa is on the rise, and we need to help make sure it continues

for human rights, address discrimination against women and minorities, and remove restrictions on freedom of expression. The United States and African nations have deep historic and economic ties. The U.S. government has invested billions of dollars in health care, leading to real progress in combating AIDS and malaria. Our security forces work with their African counterparts to fight extremism. U.S. companies are investing in Africa through trade preferences under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. As a friend, the United States has a role to play in helping Africans build a better future. Many of the choices are crystal clear. African leaders need to set aside sectarian and religious differences in favor of inclusiveness, acknowledge and advocate for the rights of women and minorities, and they must accept that sexual orientation is a private matter. They must also build on their economic progress by eliminating graft and opening markets to free trade. The conflict and crises that have held Africa back for too long were evident Friday when I flew into Juba, the capital of South Sudan. I remember arriving in Juba in January 2011 when the people of South Sudan voted overwhelmingly for independence. Even in that moment of jubilation, the threat of ethnic violence loomed just over the horizon. The violence turned tragically real in December when fighting broke out between forces loyal to the government and militias aligned with a rebel leader. Today we see the echoes of too many earlier conflicts: thousands of innocent people killed, both sides recruiting child soldiers and a country on the cusp of famine. Led by the U.S. special envoy to South Sudan, Donald Booth, the United States and our partners in Africa have been trying to mediate the conflict. On Friday, when I met with President Salva Kiir, I reminded him of our conversations about his nation’s promise. I urged him to set aside old grudges and reach a settlement with the opposition before that promise is soaked in more blood. Resolutions of age-old grievances are difficult, but they are possible. For two decades, Africa’s Great Lakes region has endured a crisis as militants and gangs have fought over mineral wealth and ethnic differences. In recent weeks, Angola has demonstrated remarkable leadership in working with other African countries and the State Department’s special envoy to the Great Lakes region, Russ Feingold, to promote a framework for peace. There is a


George Heilmeier dies; a principal developer of liquid-crystal display technology

devices that translate invisible electrical signals into visible light. Others had studied the electro-optical properties of liquid crystals and had speculated on how the crystals could be used in a display, said Benjamin Gross, a historian of science whose doctoral thesis dealt with the development of LCD technology. But, Gross said, “George Heilmeier was the first person to transform that idea into a practical technology.” Dr. Heilmeier organized a research group at RCA to develop clocks and similar devices using the technology. The crystal property on which his work was based was known as dynamic scattering, and the first LCD watches and calculators made use of that property. Later, a new form of liquid-crystal display, known as the twisted nematic display, largely replaced the dynamic scattering equipment. But in a very real sense, Gross said, Dr. Heilmeier’s displays marked the beginning of the modern LCD industry. Today’s slim, flat screens are in many ways suggestive of the video walls that appeared decades ago in memorable visions of the future created by Ray Bradbury, the celebrated author of science fiction and fantasy works. They also formed part of the early wishes of David Sarnoff, the communications pioneer who built RCA, where much of Dr. Heilmeier’s work was done. It was Sarnoff who in the early 1950s, when TV sets were hulking items that housed massive cathode-ray tubes, proposed that sets that could hang on a wall, like a painting. Although he brought dreams to life, Dr. Heilmeier was also a hard-headed realist. His list of questions to be put to anyone proposing a new product was widely circulated in the engineering world as an example of no-nonsense decision-making. The questions were on the order of, “Who cares?...what difference will it make?” and “How much will it cost? How long will it take? In 1975, Dr. Heilmeier joined the Defense Department as head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA has acquired a reputation for developing weapons and military devices that turn up on battlefields and in news reports decades after they were conceived, such as radar-eluding stealth technology and smart bombs. After two years at DARPA, Dr. Heilmeier returned to private industry, first with Dallas-based Texas Instruments and later at Bellcore, a research company in Morristown, N.J. George Harry Heilmeier was born May 22, 1936, in Philadelphia. He attended the University of Pennsylvania on scholarship, receiving a bachelor’s degree in


Saudi Arabia reports 25 new cases of MERS; deaths stand at 109

Scientists believe camels in Saudi Arabia are the main animal reservoir of MERS, a new disease that kills about a third of sufferers and has infected 339 people in the kingdom. (Stringer/Reuters) RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — On Friday, seven people were confirmed as having MERS, followed by 18 more on Saturday, the biggest daily increase in new infections so far. The total number of cases in the kingdom is 396, of which 109 have proved fatal. The new cases include nine in the capital, Riyadh; 10 in Jiddah; four in Mecca; and two in Medina. In July, many foreign pilgrims are expected to visit Mecca and Medina during Islam’s fasting month of Ramadan. Millions more are expected in early October for the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. On Friday, the United States said it had discovered its first confirmed case of the disease in a man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia. Egypt said it discovered its first case, also in a man who had been in Saudi Arabia, on Thursday. MERS infections in Saudi Arabia, where the disease was discovered two years ago, have more than doubled since the beginning of April, but the total number of deaths has increased at a slower rate. A higher number of people without symptoms are also being found with the disease, suggesting that the rapid escalation in recent weeks is partly due to wider testing of people who have been in close contact with MERS patients. MERS, a form of coronavirus like the more deadly SARS, can cause fever, coughing, shortness of breath and pneumonia. However, it is not easily transmitted between people and the World Health Organization has not advised any travel restrictions for Saudi Arabia. Scientists say the most likely animal reservoir, from which new cases are becoming infected, is Saudi Arabia’s population of camels.


Alsop, BSO give committed performances to curious pairing of works at Strathmore

Yefim Bronfman (Frank Stewart) The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra offered a curious pairing of large-scale works at Strathmore on Saturday: Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with Yefim Bronfman, and the virtually unknown Twelfth Symphony of Shostakovich. The contrast was between one of the great geniuses of Western art operating at his zenith and an effortful attempt by a lesser master to write patriotic music without sounding like a hack. Marin Alsop led committed performances of both works. Bronfman is one of the finest pianists before the public today. He walks softly and carries an enormous technical stick, dispatching the most difficult passages with such ease as to render them nearly invisible. The opening cadenza was mild, almost cut-and-dried; it made the related ones later in the movement seem boldly dramatic. The staccato octave scales in the development section continually changed weight and articulation as they marched up and down, and his left hand imparted extra bumptiousness to the Rondo theme. From beginning to end, it was the work of a master. The BSO responded to his top-level artistry with sensitivity (and nice, firm horn-playing). Shostakovich’s music is at its most impenetrable and elusive when dealing, ostensibly, with patriotic themes. The Soviet regime’s unending pressure on artists to glorify its leaders and history created distorted (and often worthless) works in all media, as each creator made peace, or not, with his place in the culture. Shostakovich’s Twelfth Symphony (“The Year 1917”) was completed in 1961, shortly after he stunned friends and colleagues by finally joining the Communist Party. But though he may have had a velleity toward ingratiating himself with the Soviets at some level, his musical soul figuratively held its nose. In this work and its predecessor (“The Year 1905”), Shostakovich did little more than go through the motions; expertly and with his trademark dramatic flair, but artistically inert. The deeper explorations of recrimination and pessimism revealed in the following two symphonies, as well as the brilliant musical canvases of the Eighth and Tenth symphonies, literally dwarf these two “historical” symphonies. The bombast that closes the Twelfth barely tries to hide its retread of the vastly superior Fifth symphony (in the same key). Alsop led the proceedings with confidence, although long stretches of the piece simply required everyone to ride along with the percussion battery. There were particularly fine solos from the clarinet and bassoon in the second movement. Battey is a freelance


Raising a glass to the booming alcohol industry

America — which later became the Brewers Association. He began writing legal articles about franchise law and its impacts on small brewers, and called up Samuel Adams founder Jim Koch to get his thoughts on the matter. Koch introduced Sorini to Koch’s lawyer at the time, Raymond Williams, a leading alcohol industry attorney at McDermott. Williams, who has since retired, recruited Sorini to McDermott, and the two worked together for several years. Sorini considers him a mentor. Sorini declined to share specific financials about the firm’s alcohol regulatory group, but said that since 2005, the group’s billings have multiplied four-fold. “It’s a small practice area, though it seems like now there are more people getting into it,” he said. “Part of it is because there are so many small suppliers that the proliferation of lawyers who specialize in this area seems to have increased greatly.” When Sorini first started attending the annual Craft Brewers Conference in 1998, attendance barely reached 2,000 people — and he was one of only two lawyers there. The conference now attracts about 9,000 people, and is teeming with lawyers, he said. Today, Sorini is plenty busy. He has been advocating for an exemption in beer franchise law that would give small brewers more leeway in starting and ending relationships with distributors. McDermott has also lobbied on legislation that would reduce the rate of excise tax for smaller brewers who make less than 6 million barrels of beer a year. Brewers are also mobilizing around the Food Safety Modernization Act, a law passed in 2011 that put into place stricter rules for food producers and manufacturers. Previously, brewers — which often sell or give spent grain to farmers to use as animal feed — were exempt from safety rules that apply to animal feed manufacturers. But a proposed Food and Drug Administration rule could remove that exemption. Brewers are now trying to persuade the FDA that is not a good idea. Just don’t ask Sorini to name his favorite beer — he has too many. Dogfish Head’s “60 Minute IPA rocks, it’s always in the rotation in my fridge,” he said. “I love [Dogfish Head] Midas Touch. My favorite [Port City] is the Imperial Stout. And those are just the locals. There are dozens I’ve fallen in love with. I’ve always had a soft spot for Brooklyn [Black Chocolate] Stout, it tastes like liquid Tootsie Roll.”


Bryant Terry marries vegan cooking and African food traditions, with delicious results

an urban farm. He had hogs, chickens, he was growing grapes, he had a pecan tree. In the city. Do you think the difference between the stereotypes and the healthful traditions reflects an urban-rural divide? People don’t look at the real root of this public health crisis among African Americans in urban centers. A lot of it has to do with access to healthful foods, of course, but the other part is the industrialized food system over the past 50, 60 years that has made it easier for people to eat cheap meat, to over-consume fast food and processed food and sugary beverages. There are people who have lots of disposable income and who grew up with these traditions, who know what farm-fresh food is, but think that if you have money and are modern, you shop in the supermarket. Growing food? They’ll say, “That’s what country folk do.” How does veganism fit into the picture? When I think about the way animal products were used in traditional Southern and African American cooking — as a seasoning, with a piece of fatback thrown in the greens, for instance — it can be a challenge to find other ways to tease out the flavors of vegetables, with herbs, seasonings and spices, or by caramelizing them. I want to teach people those tips to help fight the stereotype that vegan food is boring and bland. How do reactions to your work differ between vegans who are less familiar with African foods and people who find veganism exotic? People who are vegetarian or vegan are looking for more interesting, flavorful alternatives, for different flavor profiles. As for people of African descent, the litmus test for me has been: Will this be something that my uncle and auntie and people in Mississippi and Arkansas will like? There are a lot more people of African descent who are into this than there were 10 years ago. Some will let me know very quickly, “I’m not a vegan, I have no interest in being a vegan, but I want interesting side dishes,” or “I’m okay doing Meatless Mondays or ‘Vegan Before 6.’ ” When it comes to health reasons, I don’t necessarily think a vegan diet is perfect for everyone. I just think we all can stand to eat more plant-strong foods. How has the increased interest in growing food affected how your message is being


Gary S. Becker, Nobel-winning economist, dies at 83

Gary S. Becker, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who expanded the “dismal science” to embrace such pressing matters of daily life as crime, discrimination and family formation and became a leading public intellectual, died May 3 in Chicago. He was 83. His death, which occurred after complications from surgery, was announced by the University of Chicago, where he served on the faculty. A man concerned from boyhood with issues of politics, society and justice, and a scholar at home in arcane areas of mathematics, Dr. Becker found his life’s work in applying the tools of rigorous economic analysis to issues of social and political life. At one time, the study of so fundamental a human institution as the family was thought to be the exclusive domain of such disciplines as sociology or anthropology. Dr. Becker brought to this study the methods of economics and showed new ways of looking at such family-related topics as altruism, self-sacrifice and childbearing. The extent to which he blended the scholarly and the colloquial is suggested by the name given to one of his insights: the “rotten kid theorem.” University of Chicago Economics Professor Gary S. Becker, left, receives the 1992 Nobel Economics Prize from Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf. Dr. Becker died May 3 at age 83, (Jan Collsioo/European Pressphoto Agency) As he described his overall approach in his 1992 Nobel lecture, he refused to assume that only a selfish-seeming desire for gain formed the basis for human motivation, and he ascribed to human beings or groups an ability or desire to make rational choices. As he saw it, a rich variety of factors underlies the continuum of choices made by individuals and societies. Such factors include income and opportunity as well as the memory of previous choices and the ability to calculate the outcome of present and future choices. Also to be considered were the actions of other people and groups and, to a particularly significant extent, the limited availability of time. His 1957 book, “The Economics of Discrimination,” based on his University of Chicago doctoral dissertation, contained what he described as the first systematic effort to use economic theory to analyze the effects of prejudice on the earnings, employment and occupations of minorities. He once said “the key to prejudice” was the question, “How much are people willing to give up to avoid interaction?” The book posited that discrimination based on race —


Choreographer Liz Lerman brings U-Md. orchestra to its feet in ‘Appalachian Spring’

The University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra performing "Appalachian Spring." (Kirsten Poulsen-House/Kirsten Poulsen-House) We often say music is moving, without really thinking about what the word means. Our actual experience of classical music tends to be still. The musicians may sway a bit when they play, and we in the audience may tap our toes, but there’s a sense that such movements are involuntary outbursts in a climate in which they are meant to be suppressed. On Sunday afternoon at the Clarice Smith Center, the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra offered a literally moving performance. Playing Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” from memory, the musicians stood, and walked, and swayed, and danced, and even lifted each other and their instruments. From the very first notes, when the players offered quiet arpeggiated awakening phrases from one side of the stage, gently bathed in quiet blue light, the performance felt powerfully, viscerally emotional. Freeing all the latent creative forces in those usually still players brought a powerful sense of release. I finally realized, in a kind of epiphany, that this is what “moving” really meant. The University of Maryland orchestra program, under James Ross, has given a special focus to exploring new avenues of performance. This collaboration was the orchestra’s second in this direction with the MacArthur Award-winning choreographer Liz Lerman, two years after a memorable “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.” Lerman specializes in working with non-dancers, and in both “Faun” and “Spring,” she collaborated with the orchestra, tapping into their energies rather than imposing her vision on them. The Copland project was more ambitious than the Debussy: a longer piece, with more players and tauter rhythms that are even harder to execute when musicians are moving around the stage without a conductor. There was, in fact, a conductor on the stage: a graduate student named Enrico Lopez-Yanez. But he functioned as a dancer opposite the venerable Martha Wittman, a longtime Lerman collaborator with many decades of dance experience, who in this piece took on the role of the iconic creative instigator, inciting the musicians to movement and channeling the ballet’s commissioner, Martha Graham. As her counterpart, and the spirit of her dance, Lopez-Yanez jumped, and rolled, and moved with a dancer’s fluidity; but he didn’t conduct. As a result, the performance was a little rougher than the Debussy — you might not mistake it, with your eyes closed, for a professional


Antibiotic resistance is a huge threat to human health

treatment of last resort has been a class of antibiotics known as carbapenems. The WHO says that, in some countries, carbapenems no longer work for more than half the people treated. For gonorrhea and tuberculosis, treatment failure because of resistance to available drugs “is a reality,” the WHO reports. Why is this happening? Antibiotics have been overused for decades out of naivete or wishful thinking that the supply was endless and they would always work. From the 1950s until about the 1980s, drugs were developed at such a pace that it seemed resistance could be overcome by the discovery of new therapies. Now the pipeline of new antibiotics is running dry. Overuse has bred resistance. The bacteria are doing what they have done for millennia: evolve and adapt, gaining mechanisms to fight antibiotics. Some of those mechanisms include mobile genetic material that the bacteria can exchange with others, in effect transferring the ability to resist modern antibiotics. And it happens fast and everywhere, from India to Indiana. Some have described the fate of antibiotics as a tragedy of the commons — a tendency by individuals to use up a valuable resource in the short term out of self-interest, without thinking about the long-term consequences and interests of all. The WHO report leaves the impression that, when it comes to antibiotics, the tragedy of the commons is global. To deal with resistance, it must be better understood. But the WHO warns that surveillance systems and data collection — the early-warning systems — are, in many cases, woefully inadequate. “Major gaps exist in national data from many countries,” the WHO concluded. Given the rapid movement of goods and people, a problem for one nation is a problem for everyone. Both Mumbai and Muncie are vulnerable. For years, alarms have been ringing about antibiotic resistance. In many cases, the alarms were followed by silence and inaction. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is nearing conclusion of its own study, and we hope it will outline a serious effort to address the problem. The WHO has reminded us that it is not a distant threat. It is next door, today. Read more about this issue: The Post’s View: Saudi Arabia’s MERS outbreak demands transparency Paul Farmer: The global AIDS response can help in fighting hepatitis C The Post’s View: New killer virus should be fought with the help of Saudi honesty


Gang activity behind shooting near zoo, D.C. police say

People leave the Smithsonian National Zoo on Easter Monday after it was closed because of a shooting nearby. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post) The shooting outside the National Zoo during the annual Easter Monday celebration was the result of a 14-year-old gang member targeting rivals from Prince George’s County, D.C. police officials said Monday. During an initial hearing in D.C. Superior Court, investigator Jeramiah Mendez said that the teen, who was arrested Saturday, came upon members of the rival gang standing outside the zoo, pulled out a silver handgun and fired twice into the crowd. A 16-year-old was shot in the elbow and an 18-year-old was shot in the hand. Police said both were members of the Kentland Crew of Prince George’s. The 14-year-old, who police said is a member of the Southwest Crew of Southwest Washington, was charged as a juvenile with 13 criminal counts, including two counts of first-degree attempted murder and assault with intent to kill. He pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. The Washington Post was permitted to attend the hearing on the condition that it would not identify the youth. Mendez said two witnesses, including the teen’s brother, identified him as the shooter. Mendez also said that the youth, after being questioned by police, admitted to the shootings. The teen’s brother told police that the youth used a gun he found about three weeks before the shooting, Mendez said. The gun has not been found. The teen was led into the courtroom with shackles at his ankles, waist and wrists, accompanied by officers from the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. At 5-foot-3, he barely reached the shoulder height of his public defender. The middle school student has previous arrests in the District. In 2011, he was charged with robbery while armed during an incident involving a knife. Prosecutors later dismissed that case. Last year, the teen was charged with felony threats. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor threats and was placed on a 30-day probation, which a court social service worker said was completed successfully. The teen’s mother pleaded with Judge Lori E. Parker to allow her son to return home. “That’s my baby. If you send him home to me, I can take care of him,” she said. “His father is incarcerated, so I am the mother and the father. I pleaded with the system for help and they failed him. He needs


A graceful port city in southern Ukraine is riven by fresh violence

air was fresh from rain. And two blond women chatted below a statue of Catherine the Great, the empress who founded this city in 1794. But Khodorkovsky wondered whether the women might one day fill bottles with gasoline and throw them at neighbors whohold different opinions. Khodorkovsky’s wife worries about their baby’s safety. His colleagues are talking about leaving town. And rumors are spreading through this city of 1 million. Someone has poisoned the drinking water, people said Monday. More clashes are coming within days, others said. City authorities, fearing violence, have banned a parade Friday on Victory Day, a holiday of preeminent importance in Russia. Khodorkovsky said that was a terrible idea, one that might stoke tensions among Russians who feel they are being disrespected. “Nobody in Ukraine has a right to humiliate Soviet history,” he said. “You would be an idiot not to understand the reasons for the conflict.” A few blocks away, on Kulikovo Square, where the burned-out shell of the House of Trade Unions stands, a man in camouflage was scraping a message to victims on a second-story wall of the building. “Forgive us, we are all guilty,” Eduard, a 48-year-old engineer, wrote in the soot. He refused to give his last name and said he was wearing camouflage because it was “wartime.” Whether or not authorities sanction a Victory Day parade, he said, he plans to march. “We might all die this time, but we will get our revenge on the Banderovtsy for this fire,” he said, using a dismissive term for followers of the Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera. He said he was “dreading” bloodshed in Odessa. On the square, a few women complained about “anti-Russian guys” raising Ukrainian flags the previous night without waiting for the pro-Russian victims to be buried. “In fear of arrests, victims’ relatives bury their loved ones secretly, as if we live in some fascist state,” said Oleg Driamin, a Cossack volunteer who was guarding the memorials on the square. But pro-Ukrainians in Odessa say their nerves are frayed, too. Victor Dementyev, an ethnic Russian who says he is on Kiev’s side, described seeing anti-government activists attack a crowd of young ultranationalist Ukrainian football hooligans Friday. “I know that it doesn’t take much to provoke their fury,’’ Dementyev said of the ultranationalists. “By killing one of their friends, separatists made them crazy.’’ Michael Birnbaum in Moscow contributed to this report.


Fort Washington residents await information about homes threatened by landslide

composition are pervasive in southern Prince George’s County, according to the Maryland Geological Survey. By Sunday evening, Prince George’s officials had closed part of Piscataway Drive. Kutzleb and her neighbors parked their vehicles outside the closed zone, then walked to them Monday morning so they could get wherever they needed to go. Kutzleb took a trip to the post office to forward her mail, as Postal Service trucks wouldn’t have access to the neighborhood. When she returned, she found the road lined with county and emergency vehicles and an evacuation notice affixed to her door. “I took a picture of the notice and sent it to my husband,” who is working in Australia, Kutzleb said. “I grabbed my cat, Alley, made arrangements for her, got a clothes basket full of clothes and my vitamins.” Residents say they know that living deep in a wooded wetland can complicate some ordinary domestic tasks. But they say that’s the price they pay for living among wildlife and near water. They are used to helping one another. When trees fall, neighbors work together to cut them up. When snow maroons those at the bottom of the hill, neighbors check on one another. And when homeowners are stranded, others step up to provide hospitality. A neighbor offered to drive Sue Howland down the hill to her home beyond the barricade to retrieve her cats and her husband, Ken Archer, an amputee. Howland grabbed the licenses for all of her 20 pets and took about half of the cats with her to the Red Roof Inn in Alexandria. Howland said she moved from Northern Virginia to her brick-faced house about a decade ago. The house stands on stilts and has a large patio that overlooks the creek. “It’s wonderful. I love living here,” she said. Officials said heavy rains last week may have triggered the slide. “I think these things are so fluid, it will take a long time for this situation to stabilize,” Kutzleb said. “The [county officials] had to do what they had to do.” County agencies said Tuesday that they were trying to contact every affected family. “We want to make sure we can get in touch with every single resident and make sure they have the full range of resources available to them,” said Scott Peterson, a spokesman for County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D). Dana Hedgpeth contributed to this report.


U.S. climate report says global warming impact already severe

Correction: The government’s newest national assessment of climate change declares that increased global warming is affecting every part of the United States. The report released Tuesday cites wide and severe impacts: more sea-level rise, flooding, storm surges, precipitation and heat waves in the Northeast; frequent water shortages and hurricanes in the Southeast and the Caribbean; and more drought and wildfires in the Southwest. “For a long time, we have perceived climate change as an issue that’s distant, affecting just polar bears or something that matters to our kids,” said Katharine Hayhoe, a Texas Tech University professor and a co-author of the report. “This shows it’s not just in the future; it matters today. Many people are feeling the effects.” The federal climate assessment — the third since 2000 — brought together hundreds of experts in academia and government to guide U.S. policy based on the best available climate science. The authors of the more-than-800-page report said it aims to present “actionable science” and a road map for local leaders and average citizens to mitigate carbon and other gas emissions that warm the planet. - Climate Change in 15 charts Read it. - U.S. Climate Report Read it. But the report ran immediately afoul of conservative critics who called it a political document, aimed at giving President Obama a leg up on regulating major polluters such as power plants. In their opinion, regulation costs jobs. Obama, who is increasingly focusing on climate change, spent part of the day talking about the report with television meteorologists from across the country. Echoing the findings of a recent global report by climate scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, U.S. scientists said that the climate is changing in the United States and that the warming of the past 50 years was primarily caused by emissions of heat-trapping gases released by humans. Burning coal for electricity, using gasoline to fuel vehicles, clear-cutting forests and engaging in certain agricultural practices that remove carbon-trapping vegetation contribute to the problem, the assessment said. Climate gauges Temperatures at sea, on land and on ice all point to a warming trend over the past century, according to several indicators in the government's National Climate Assessment. PLOTTED FROM MULTIPLE DATA SETS Next Sources: NOAA's "State of the Climate in 2012," National Snow and Ice Data Center. Graphic: Bonnie Berkowitz and Patterson Clark - The Washington Post. By the end of