PM Update: Intense storms blast through area, more storms possible Wednesday

* Power outage tracker – real-time * UPDATE, 9:45 p.m.: UPDATE, 9:00 p.m.: UPDATE, 8:00 p.m.: Rain has ended N of i66 and NW of Beltway, but may continue for another hour or so to S and E http://t.co/ASQxDWq0WR UPDATE, 7:45 p.m.: Damage photos/tweets: Wires down on Tuckerman Ln in North Bethesda. @capitalweather http://t.co/BQyglpcOvS Downed tree with wires down on Wake Dr in Kensington, #MoCo emergency response on scene #WTOP #dctraffic @dsotisWTOP http://t.co/pJdsGeA9f9 @capitalweather witnessed tree fall down on car next to Grovesnor metro. Luckily no one inside. http://t.co/tk0iuvnl2I @capitalweather Winds blew over the fence around the new Silver Spring library #WindGusts #StormIsComing http://t.co/lvWaUCabfA @capitalweather Storm damage in Sterling. About half of a large mature maple. Glad it fell away from the house. http://t.co/iFZBJeuDbx Tree on house 10621 Lorain Av, Forest Glen structural damage no injuries need bldg inspector UPDATE, 7:35 p.m.: Intense storms lined up i95 from Alexandria to DC to Balt. Will take 30 to 45 mins or so to clear Beltway http://t.co/gOzc0ZFL0F UPDATE, 7:18 p.m.: Strong storms from near Dale City to NW DC to Laurel pushing to Mt Vernon to Greenbelt around 745p http://t.co/0tNxvExkVu UPDATE, 7:08 p.m.: UPDATE, 7:04 p.m.: Radar view of squall line sweeping thru heart of DC area http://t.co/4YYqzraCjM UPDATE, 6:54 p.m.: @capitalweather view of storm front from Rosslyn... http://t.co/tzW577gVlv UPDATE, 6:40 p.m.: UPDATE, 6:25 p.m.: UPDATE, 6:10 p.m.: Severe thunderstorm warnings (yellow) as the storms approach DC. (Credit: Weather Underground’s WunderMap) UPDATE, 5:10 p.m.: Area shaded in blue under a severe thunderstorm watch through 11 p.m. (NWS SPC) UPDATE, 4:54 p.m.: (NWS SPC) Radar lightning: Original post, from 4:40 p.m.: Through Tonight: Once these storms move out, there’s a 30 percent chance of isolated to scattered storms for the remainder of the night, with lows from the upper 60s in our cooler suburbs to the mid-70s downtown. Winds are from the southwest at 10-15 mph, but potentially higher in thunderstorms. For more details on this evening’s storm threat, see: Round of severe thunderstorms possible this evening Tomorrow (Wednesday): See Matt Rogers’ forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter Pollen:


Need an eight-car garage? Here’s what some homes with one costs.

Dramatic staircases, nine fireplaces and a 20-car driveway are among the features. View Photo Gallery —It may not be Miami, New York or Beverly Hills, but the region has its share of eye-popping properties. An eight-car garage, bricks imported from England, 20,000 square feet of interior space, 50 acres of exterior space, seven bedrooms, seven fireplaces and an art gallery are among the features in some of the properties on the market in the Washington area. With the help of Rockville-based multiple-listing service MRIS, we compiled a list of some of the most expensive houses for sale in this area. The properties range from a 10,000-square-foot, 20-year-old house in McLean going for $5.6 million to a European-style villa in Potomac selling for $14 million: • 9300 River Rd., Potomac $14 million The property features a gated entry into a European villa constructed of limestone and natural stucco with a two-story domed and hand-painted entry foyer, a wood-paneled library, a luxurious first-floor master suite, a professional-quality home theater and an office suite. The landscaped grounds include a swimming pool. The estate was designed by Haleh Design and custom-built for builder David Niroo, said Marc Fleisher of Long & Foster Real Estate in Bethesda. • 3425 Prospect St. NW, Washington $11 million Built in 1797 by John Mason, a nephew of George Mason, this Georgetown mansion was constructed of brick imported from England. Named “Quality Hill” by the subsequent owner, this house has more than 10,000 square feet on four levels with nine bedrooms and 11 baths. The home has been extensively renovated and over the centuries has been visited by presidents, senators and other Washington dignitaries, including President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, President Bill Clinton, the prince and princess of Liechtenstein and a former king of Greece. The home is listed by Russell Firestone with TTR Sotheby’s International Realty. • 11100 Cripplegate Rd., Potomac $9.8 million Built in 1986, this renovated Georgian Colonial of handmade brick has approximately 20,000 square feet of living space with seven bedrooms, seven full baths and four half baths. Interior features include inlaid hardwood floors, plaster moldings and imported fireplaces, while the four-acre grounds include a large swimming pool, a pool house, a tennis court, and a guest house with two bedrooms and two baths. “It’s reminiscent of a handsome Georgian estate from a bygone era,” said


The man the Israeli-Palestinian crisis needs most? Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi.

As negotiations began in November 2012, no one was surprised that Morsi came down on the side of the Palestinians. What was surprising, however, was that he seemed to be able to do so without alienating the Israelis. The Egyptian president pledged to adhere to the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty, for example, and kept lines of communication to Israel and the United States open as tensions grew. The communication and good faith proved fruitful: Just minutes before the brokered truce went into effect, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly said that he wanted to express his "appreciation for the efforts of Egypt to obtain a cease-fire.” Times have changed, and Morsi isn't around to help mediate today's Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Egypt's first democratically elected leader was forced out of office a year ago; he is facing a number of criminal charges related to his time in office. Morsi was eventually replaced by Egyptian military leader Abdel Fatah al-Sissi in an election this year that left many international observers underwhelmed. Exactly what Sissi makes of the Palestinian situation is unclear. On the one hand, since his election, he has significantly tightened the borders with the Gaza Strip. However, before he was elected, he said he would not receive an Israeli prime minister without concessions to Palestinians. Egypt’s ambassador to the Palestinian territories, Wael Nasr El-Din, attended the funeral of the Palestinian teenager allegedly killed by Israeli extremists this weekend and there is talk of some kind of Egypt-brokered deal happening. Hamas is certainly not a natural ally for Egypt's new government, but, as Palestinian political scientist Ali Jarbawi noted in an op-ed for the New York Times, Sissi does appear to be trying to move his foreign policy away from U.S. interests into a more independent direction. More support for Palestinian causes may be a way for him to show Egypt's geopolitical clout in the face of other regional giants such as Turkey and Iran. Would Morsi have been able to defuse the current tensions between the Israelis and the Palestinians? Perhaps not – this situation is different from the one in 2012 and arguably far more complicated. But it's hard to deny that with the military coup that ousted Morsi, one of the glimmers of hope in Middle East diplomacy appears to have been extinguished just before we needed it most. And we're still not entirely sure what has replaced it.


Wonkbook: Washington’s legal marijuana policy experiment

Welcome to Wonkbook, Wonkblog’s morning policy news primer by Puneet Kollipara (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Wonkbook’s Number of the Day: Wonkbook’s Chart of the Day: Wonkbook's Top 5 Stories: 1. Top story: Washington state's experiment with legal recreational marijuana begins Sales of recreational marijuana begin in Washington state. Explainer: Chart: Slight problem: There's a shortage of legal pot. Interview: Lessons from Colorado: A pot learning curve. Explainer: It takes a lot to protect a pot shop. What's the pot-shop experience like? Quotable: Whose pot is better: Washington's or Colorado's? It's hard to say. Explainer: Cuomo signs bill legalizing medical pot in N.Y. state. Other legal reads: Odd couple — Cory Booker, Rand Paul — team up on sentencing reform bill. Ed O'Keefe in The Washington Post. Mob-busting tool used against online crime. Andrew Grossman in The Wall Street Journal. Top opinion PORTER: Blueprints for taming the climate crisis. McARDLE: Who's the real Hobby Lobby bully? CHAIT: GOP after the apocalypse. KRUGMAN: Conservative delusions about inflation. EDSALL: How much do our genes influence our political beliefs? WEISER: Sharing the leverage. Animals interlude: 2. Obama's requests emergency-funding to deal with the migrant crisis Obama's border migrant-crisis funding request faces tough path on Capitol Hill. Chart: Border help for HHS, amid a potential new public-health crisis. U.N. urges U.S. to treat migrant children as refugees. Obama will visit Perry, but not the border. What will they discuss? Other immigration reads: Mark Zuckerberg’s immigration push hits brick wall. Jessica Meyers in Politico. ALDEBOT-GREEN: America's young refugees. Wonky caffeine interlude: 3. Improving your experience with your doctor What are drug companies paying your doctor? You can find out soon. Long wait times have become the norm. Doctors may soon be paid for not making you wait. Preventive services differ between primary care docs and OB/GYNs. Explainer: Other health care reads: Smallpox vials found in storage room of NIH facility. Lena H. Sun and Brady Dennis in The Washington Post. Without federal action, states move on long-term care. Michael Ollove in Pew Stateline. U.S. Democrats aim to turn contraception into campaign drive. David Morgan in Reuters. Food science interlude: 4. Signs of promise on highway funding, Ex-Im Bank reauthorization First, highway stopgap funding. Primary source: Need to get up to speed? There's one problem, though: Can negotiations get done in time? And Ex-Im Bank renewal could be part of government funding bill. S issues warns on


Are America’s biggest alcohol brands targeting the country’s underage youth?

Lend us your ears, and we'll sell you ours beers. (Ken James/Bloomberg News) It might be time for a bit of alcohol industry intervention. Underage drinkers — those between the ages of 18 and 20, most specifically — are more heavily exposed to printed alcohol advertisements than any other age group, according to a new study. And it's America's biggest booze companies that could be to blame. The makers of Bud Light, Smirnoff Vodka, Coors Light, Absolut Vodka and a number of other popular drinks were among those whose advertisements were most heavily exposed to the underage drinkers. The study, undertaken at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, scanned national magazine readership data to determine which age groups were being exposed to which alcohol brands. The authors believe it's the first of its kind — no study has previously examined the exposure of youth to magazine advertisements for popular alcohol brands. They also believe its results should be alarming. While the study stopped short of establishing any intent by major alcohol companies, it affirms a strong association between the beers and spirits underage drinkers like best and the ones they see most often in their favorite magazines, such as Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, US Weekly and Vogue. Males between the age of 18 and 20 were about nine times more likely to find ads by the top 25 brands than the remaining 300-plus alcohol labels, according to the study. Females in the same age group were five times more likely. "It is striking that the popular brands are so much more likely to have most heavily exposed 18-20 years than the less popular brands among young people," David Jernigan, one of the study's authors, said in an interview. "Spending all this money to advertise your product to a group that can't yet purchase your product seems odd." That is, unless those brands are subtly working to ensure their alcoholic hegemony. "Indoctrination? To use a word like that I would have to be able to prove intent, which I can't right now," Jernigan said. "But the association is definitely supportive of our hypothesis that the advertising is playing a role." Alcohol advertising is largely self-regulated in the U.S., meaning that the alcohol industry sets its own voluntary barriers. Those include minimizing their exposure to underage drinkers. Alcohol advertisements, for instance, should be used only in magazines where less


A rude Obamacare awakening

This fall insurance carriers will have to announce next year’s premiums for the Obamacare exchanges. So far it’s looking like big rate increases are ahead. Doctors confer at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. (Joe Skipper/Reuters) In New York, for example, the hikes will be huge. The New York Times recently reported: Some New Yorkers are in sticker shock after receiving notices from their insurance companies saying that they have asked for significant rate increases through the state’s health exchange next year. The exchange, which has prided itself on being affordable, is now facing requests for increases as high as 28 percent for some customers of MetroPlus, a new entry to the individual insurance market and one of the least costly — and most popular — plans on the exchange this year. . . . Over all, including plans inside or outside the exchange, insurance companies asked for average rate increases of 13 percent in 2015, the state’s Financial Services Department said Wednesday. Given that we don’t have accurate information about who signed up for the exchanges — yet another problem — it’s hard to see exactly how carriers will assess their costs. But contrary to Obama’s promises, the rates for individual plans offered through the exchanges are going up, not down. James Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and frequent critic of Obamacare explains, “The insurers are finding elevated claims costs for their initial enrollments. Not surprisingly, the most eager to sign up for coverage were folks who felt they could use the insurance right away for health services.” He estimates that “the rates for the big plans are in the 10 to 15 percent range in many places, but there are smaller players who are bidding low in a lot of places to try to gain market share. They are counting on the risk corridor funding to bail them out when they inevitably lose money.” (Another promise sure to go the way of “if you like your plan you can keep it” will be estimated costs to taxpayers.) The notion that Obamacare has reduced the rate of growth for these plans doesn’t mesh with reality. Capretta notes, “Most individual market plans were probably going up about 6 to 8 percent per year.” Now would be a fine time for the House to come up with its alternative to Obamacare. It’s not even necessary to put it


Chasing double rainbows over the Washington Monument (PHOTOS and TIMELAPSE VIDEO)

A rainbow panorama with the Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool, July 8, 2014. (Kevin Ambrose) With a big line of storms barreling out of the mountains, we decided to meet at the Lincoln Memorial for a storm chase. As the line entered the immediate area, it began to lose intensity, but still appeared menacing upon arrival. Ultimately, it turned into a rainbow chase — a very successful one at that! First, here’s a timelapse of the rainbow’s emergence: A time-lapse of the double rainbow's emergence Tuesday over the Lincoln Memorial. Related: Now, here are some still photos of the rainbow storm in its various stages. First came the scary-looking clouds: A shelf cloud approaches D.C. during the mid-evening. (Ian Livingston) Front edge of severe storms passing over the National Mall. (Ian Livingston) While the storms turned out to be quite uneventful in the city, the rainbow that followed stole the show. It lasted from 8:14 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. By rainbow standards, that’s a long time! Every tourist at the Lincoln Memorial grabbed their phones and began taking photos as we aimed our cameras at the full rainbow. Best yet, it was a double. Here are a few photos of the rainbow over the Washington Monument and the striking sunset that followed. A double rainbow over the Washington Monument reflects on the Reflecting Pool, July 8, 2014. (Kevin Ambrose) A double rainbow cherishes its 15 minutes of fame over D.C. (Ian Livingston Double rainbow landscape view of the Reflecting Pool. (Kevin Ambrose) A double rainbow over the Washington Monument, July 8, 2014. (Ian Livingston) Finally, a brilliant sunset capped off the evening. Sunset after the storm. (Kevin Ambrose) Post-storm sunset reflections at the Lincoln Memorial. Image created combining several exposures for tonal range. (Ian Livingston) Here’s a timelapse of the storm, from start to finish – from the scary-looking clouds to the rainbow to the start of sunset: July 8, 2014 Storm Video with double rainbow Here are a few more impressive sky and rainbow views submitted to us from readers: @jfdulac @islivingston @jeffreygoldberg http://t.co/BI6sYbpw80 Double rainbow over Van Ness (Albert Ting via Facebook) Hey Columbia Heights. What does it all mean? @capitalweather #DC http://t.co/wgOqbrTEn3 @capitalweather pic from last night over Lansdowne #nofilterneeded http://t.co/1fw2bcx7Az Stunning post #storm #sunset too yesterday! @capitalweather #washingtondc http://t.co/zARLgBe1eu


5 reasons the new Afghan civilian casualty report is awful

Smoke and flames rise from fuel trucks after an overnight attack by the Taliban on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 5. Civilian casualties in Afghanistan are on the rise this year as troops with the U.S.-led coalition withdraw. Photo by REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail The U.S. military has less than five months before its formal combat role in Afghanistan comes to a close. That means many things, including the Taliban testing Afghan troops in a series of bloody battles across the countryside. But it also means this: Civilian casualties are up exponentially, and there is no signs of it letting up. That’s according to a new report released today by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. The report has received some media attention this morning, but considering the focus of this blog, it seemed prudent to drill down into what is occurring. Here are five key findings in the report, which covered the first six months of 2014: This chart is in the United Nations’ new civilian casualty report for Afghanistan. 1. Civilians are dying in firefights at an unprecedented level. 2. Women and children are getting hit more frequently. 3. Civilian casualties caused by IEDs have risen their highest number since the U.S. surge. This chart in the new United Nations civilian casualty report for Afghanistan shows the number of deaths and injuries due to ground combat is on the rise in numerous parts of the country in 2014. 4. The number of civilian casualties in ground engagements is especially up in areas where the U.S. surged military forces. 5. Afghan troops are killing more civilians while in firefights. In the first half of 2014, there were 274 civilian casualties (74 deaths and 200 injuries) caused by Afghan troops while in firefights, a 99 percent increase over the same period in 2013. Of those, the Afghan National Army was responsible for 33 deaths and 81 injuries, the Afghan National Police was responsible for one death and 15 injuries, the Afghan Local Police was responsible for 10 deaths and four injuries, and a variety of operations involving multiple kinds of troops accounted for the rest. International troops, including the U.S., were found to be responsible for three civilian deaths and no injuries in the same time frame, the U.N. report says.


Jeremy Stein: The exclusive exit interview

But macroeconomically, it doesn’t really matter. However, with the tighter band, because you’ve set the reverse repo rate higher relative to the interest on reserves, you’re gonna do more business with that. The money funds are going to find it more attractive. Instead of having $300 billion of repo outstanding, you might have, say, a trillion. Q: Is that problematic for the industry? A. Here’s one simple virtue: You’re saving the taxpayer a little bit of money. You might say one job you give to the Fed is to fund its balance sheet as cheaply as possible. So if you’re using less of the 25 basis points financing and more of the 5 or 10 basis points financing, you’ve saving taxpayers 15 or 20 bp on over $3 trillion. That’s not nothing. Also, the reverse repo is very similar to the Fed producing a form of T-bills: It’s a safe investment that’s broadly accessible. If you think of financial stability policy, and some of the problems that we had leading up to the crisis, it was the search for safe assets. There weren’t enough T-bills so money funds went around searching for things that look like T-bills. If the government won’t make safe assets, then the private sector will make things that resemble safe assets, such as broker dealer repo, hedge fund repo, asset-backed commercial paper. But we think that when the private sector tries to make too many safe assets – they’re doing this by basically funding overnight – that creates a financial stability problem. We’ve tried very hard with regulation to lean against this, which is basically designed to tell the private sector not to do so much short term funding. But if you think about why they do it, they do it because it’s cheap. It’s cheaper to borrow on a very, very short term basis. And part of the reason it’s cheap is because there’s a shortage of that kind of paper. If the Treasury doesn’t create enough of it, the private sector is going to fill in the gap. When the yield curve starts to steepen at the short end, there’s going to be the question of whether there’s enough short-term paper. I think then that if we provide more, it satiates the money market funds and then there’s not going to be quite as much incentive for private actors to fund short term. It’s


Senators blast Obama’s Russia sanction policy as public opinion of Russia plunges

with members of the Public Chamber in Moscow’s Kremlin on July 9, 2014. (Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti Kremlin-Presidential Press Service via AP) Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, of “F— the E.U.” fame, received an earful from the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee over the Obama administration’s lack of action against Russia. With the European Union pondering sanctions next week, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) asked Nuland at a hearing Wednesday what will happen if the E.U. doesn’t come to a conclusion? “Then will we have the summer lapse and Putin will know that there’s no consequences and the United States will stay on the sidelines, waiting for the Europeans? Is that something that we could actually expect?” he asked. He twice asked, “What are we waiting for?” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the ranking Republican on the committee, was even harsher in his assessment. “I have to say sometimes I’m embarrassed for you as you constantly talk about sanctions and yet, candidly, we never see them put in place,” Corker said. Corker also called the White House’s policy “feckless,” and suggested that foreign service officers must “feel like resigning, when you’re put out there to continue to sort of sound tough but know that nothing’s really going to happen.” Nuland said the administration prefers to move forward on a next round of sanctions in coordination with the Europeans. The U.S. imposed some sanctions earlier this year on several wealthy Russian businessmen, and Nuland said it is prepared to do more “very soon if Russia does not decisively change course … ” It should come as very little surprise that being tough on Vladimir Putin would find bipartisan support. Hating on Russia is something most Americans, if not most of the world, can get behind. This year, with tensions mounted, global disdain for Russia increased exponentially as shown here: A global public poll conducted from March 17 through early June by Pew Research Center also found that opinions about Putin have also declined dramatically, with most Americans and Europeans having no confidence in him. Only Greece is anywhere close to be being split in their views. But at least one American isn’t too sour on Russia. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has asked for another year of asylum there … though it’s not as if he has a a lot of other attractive options.


PM Update: Afternoon storms depart to the east, a few more possible Thursday

Radar lightning: Morning sunshine gave way to increased afternoon clouds and another round of storms across the area. This is all courtesy of a cold front moving through. The cold front won’t have a lot of interest in moving far though, so we may see stormy skies return to parts of the area for a third day in a row on Thursday. Through Tonight: Tomorrow (Thursday): See Dan Stillman’s forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter Storm clouds move over D.C. on Tuesday. (Joseph Gruber via Flickr) Storm pictures from today: At least I have my foul weather gear today. Here's the Potomac right now, @capitalweather : http://t.co/8BTPYYqfI6 Fredericksburg Thunderstorm as seen from NE Spotsylvania County @chrisvawx @Toppersweather @capitalweather #nofilter http://t.co/834AGUZZOt @capitalweather Just off Bell Haven Marina: http://t.co/WHqQb2OSGe


Want a federal job? Hiring decline creating big challenge

the gradually shrinking workforce, and agencies are rethinking how they operate to minimize cuts to public services. “Many agencies looked at furloughing employees last year,” said Tim McManus, vice president for education and outreach at the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, which compiled employment data from the Office of Personnel Management for a second consecutive year. “It’s hard to hire new people in that situation.” McManus is hosting a Twitter chat on the new numbers at 2 p.m. Thursday. The hiring decline comes as a wave of baby-boomers and others leave the government, many after long careers and with deep expertise in their fields. McManus said most of the newcomers are replacing departing employees, rather than filling newly created jobs. Roughly 110,000 people left federal jobs in fiscal 2013, leaving about 33,000 more employees who left than were replaced. (Graphic Courtesy of Partnership for Public Service) Fully one-third of the new hires are filling jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is hiring doctors, nurses, mental health experts, data-entry workers and others to support a surge in returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, even though the agency is caught up in a scandal over long wait times for veterans seeking medical care. Another 36.2 percent of new hires are filling jobs at Department of Defense agencies, which continue to fill vacancies, particularly in the area of cybersecurity. Veterans, who jump the line in the hiring process under an Obama administration initiative, made up 45 percent of new employees last year, a larger percentage than they make up in the total federal workforce (31.7 percent). Also, about two-thirds of new hires are coming in at entry levels, between GS-1 and GS-9. This may explain why about a quarter of the newcomers are under 30, roughly mirroring the percent of young workers’ in the broader American workforce. (Graphic courtesy of Partnership for Public Service) Almost 77,000 new hires is a lot of new employees, but it’s still relatively small in a workforce of 2 million people, especially compared to the high-water mark of recent years: 143,168 new hires in 2009. Almost 90,000 people were hired to full-time, non-seasonal executive branch jobs in fiscal 2012. The downward trend in recent years is bad news for job seekers hoping to land work with the federal government, but it’s good news for fiscal conservatives who believe government needs to shrink and become more efficient.


A reason millions of bees are dying

In the past several weeks, a spate of studies have appeared in scientific journals suggesting the culprit behind mass deaths of honeybees is widely used pesticides called neonicotinoids. On June 23, President Obama signed a memorandum establishing the first-ever federal pollinator strategy and the Agriculture Department announced $8 million in incentives to farmers and ranchers in five states who establish new habitats for honeybees. View Photo Gallery — On June 23, President Obama signed a memorandum establishing the first-ever federal pollinator strategy and the Agriculture Department announced $8 million in incentives to farmers and ranchers in five states who establish new habitats for honeybees. It was one of those mysteries no one cracked for years but gripped many: What’s killing all the bees? In Brevard County, Fla., nearly 12 million bees expired in 2011 in a great dying of almost biblical proportions. Then came news last year that 37 million bees — 37 million — had died that month at a Canadian beekeeping operation. That same month, Oregonians arrived at a Target to find 25,000 bumblebee corpses in the parking lot. In the past several weeks, a spate of studies have appeared in scientific journals suggesting the culprit behind such deaths are widely-used pesticides called neonicotinoids. And it’s not just bees that have been impacted, researchers say. A study published in Nature on Wednesday found bird populations in the Netherlands dropped more sharply in areas where neonicotinoid use was highest. “Our results suggest that the impact of neonicotinoids on the natural environment is even more substantial than has recently been reported and is reminiscent of the effects of persistent insecticides in the past,” the study said. Dead bees are displayed during a demonstration of Bulgarian beekeepers in front of a government building in Sofia, Bulgaria, on April 22, 2013. (Stoyan Nenov/Reuters) Around 95 percent of the insecticide — first introduced in the 1990s and produced by firms such as Bayer and Syngenta — winds up in the wider environment, the Guardian reported. The scientists say it kills insects birds need to survive and makes it difficult to provide for chicks. “All the other studies [on harm caused by neonicotinoids] build up from toxicology studies,” Hans de Kroon, an ecologist at the Netherlands’ Radboud University who led the study, told the Guardian. “But we approached this completely from the other end. We started with the bird population data and tried to


Corporations and the “free exercise” of religion – response to David Post

Co-blogger David Post argues that the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case was not only wrong but “a pretty ghastly bit of legal reasoning.” He argues that for-profit corporations are not protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because they cannot “exercise religion.” Even if they could do so, he does not understand “how (in heaven’s name, if I may) does the mandate burden the corporation’s “exercise of religion”…[i]n any way whatsoever, let alone ‘substantially’ (as required by RFRA).” Both arguments are flawed, and both would have set a dangerous precedent had the Supreme Court accepted them. How People Exercise Religion through For-Profit Corporations On the first point, David writes that “I have a great deal of trouble understanding how a for-profit corporation “exercises religion” at all, given that it lacks so many of the attributes of individual human beings – such as a ‘conscience,’ a ‘belief structure,’ a ‘sense of mortality,’ a ‘sense of the divine or the sacred,’ a ‘moral code,’and so on – that I have always thought were indispensable components of the exercise of religion.” It is true that for-profit corporations lack all these attributes. The same, of course, is true of religious non-profit corporations, as well. Yet everyone (including the Hobby Lobby dissenters), recognizes that the latter can nevertheless “exercise religion” because, although the corporations themselves lack a “conscience” and other attributes listed by David, the people who own and manage them do. As Justice Samuel Alito pointed out in his majority opinion in Hobby Lobby, “[a] corporation is simply a form of organization used by human beings to achieve desired ends. An established body of law specifies the rights and obligations of the people… who are associated with a corporation in one way or another. When rights, whether constitutional or statutory, are extended to corporations, the purpose is to protect the rights of these people.” Some jurists, including the Hobby Lobby dissenters, argue that for-profit corporations differ in this respect from nonprofits because the only goal of the former is to make money. I addressed this objection in my previous post on Hobby Lobby, where I pointed out that the law allows for-profit firms to pursue a wide range of objectives, including moral and religious ones; in addition, even firms whose only goal is profit can and often do abide by moral constraints on the pursuit of that goal. Had the Court


ABC News screws up coverage of Israel-Hamas violence

Diane Sawyer Misrepresents Footage of Palestinian Bombing Victims as Israelis Tuesday night* on ABC News’s “World News,” anchor Diane Sawyer introduced her network’s coverage of the latest in the violence in Gaza between Israel and Gaza: “We take you overseas now to the rockets raining down on Israel today, as Israel tried to shoot them out of the sky. All part of the tinderbox, Israelis and Palestinians.” It’s an important news story: Israel has been ratcheting up its strikes on Gaza, while Hamas has fired rockets “striking across the length of Israel and disrupting life across the country,” as the Associated Press puts it. Given the history of this particular conflict, a premium falls on absolute precision in identifying victims. And it’s on that front that ABC News erred. Continuing with her broadcast, Sawyer showed a shot of some people amid ruins and said, “And here an Israeli family trying to salvage what they can, one woman standing speechless among the ruins. ABC’s Alex Marquardt is in the middle of it all.” Good thing someone at ABC News is immersed in the fine points of the conflict, because whoever decided to pair Sawyer’s reference to “an Israeli family” with the photo below messed things up. That’s a Palestinian family. ABC News has done the right thing: On Tuesday night “World News” aired a report on the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis, including attacks from both sides. In the introduction to the story, we mistakenly identified a family depicted in a still photo. They are Palestinian, not Israeli. We regret the error and will correct it. *Correction: Originally indicated Wednesday night. (h/t Rania Khalek)


Ireland’s Garth Brooks crisis

over another.” This may be a little disingenuous — Brooks was originally scheduled to play two shows and added the others only as it became clear that there was enormous demand. The actual reasons very likely have more to do with money than sentiment — in the words of his concert promoter, Brooks stood to lose “millions” from the cancellation of the two dates. Brooks is threatening to cancel the remaining three dates in the hope that Irish authorities will back down and reinstate all the dates — a ship is carrying the concert equipment to Ireland, and he has said that “if the ‘powers that be’ in Ireland can fix this,” he will play all five concerts. So what happens now? In the language of deterrence theory (and of 1960s movies about reckless teenagers with automobiles), Brooks has challenged Irish authorities to a game of “chicken.” He wants the planning authorities to back down — and is threatening mutual catastrophe if they don’t. Neither Brooks nor Irish politicians want to see 400,000 unhappy fans losing their tickets, but the singer is signaling that he’s prepared to take the loss if need be. Irish politicians aren’t nearly as resolute in public as Brooks is and are signaling that they are desperate for some compromise. The problem is that it isn’t entirely clear how a compromise could work. There isn’t any legal means to appeal the original decision to grant permission for only three concerts. The government has apparently ruled out emergency legislation to change the planning laws to introduce an appeal process. There may be some room in principle for a deal that would buy off the residents (perhaps with a bigger pot of money and a binding promise to limit the number of shows at the stadium in future), but the legal mechanics of the deal are very, very tricky. Put differently, Brooks is signaling his resolve much better than Irish authorities. But the Irish authorities may not be able to change the decision, given existing laws. They may be playing chicken in a car without brakes or a working steering wheel. Perhaps they can figure out some way to jimmy the steering wheel and get it working again in the next several days (they certainly want to). Even so, there’s a real risk that they won’t be able to, leading to a crash in which everyone gets hurt.


Supermoons are on the rise again: First of three in 2014 Saturday

June 23, 2013 supermoon over the Jefferson. (Brian Allen via Flickr) Supermoons are making headlines, as the first of three visible in 2014 is scheduled to rise on July 12. There are technically five supermoons by definition in 2014, but only the full moons of July, August, and September will be visible. The other two happen during the new moon phase, when it is invisible on Earth. The moon is a “supermoon” when it makes its closest approach to Earth, defined as perigee, in its elliptical orbit. Saturday’s full moon, also known as the Buck Moon or Thunder Moon, reaches perigee (meaning “near earth”) at 222,611 miles away. This is about 30,000 miles closer than the moon at its farthest distance in 2014. However, Saturday’s supermoon won’t be the largest of the year. For that, you will have take a look on August 10, when the moon will be another 863 miles closer than Saturday. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the recent number of “supermoons” in the sky (and in your social media feeds), you’re not alone. Although they’ve always been around, these events have only been popularized within the past few years, likely enhanced by social media. As Bruce McClure writes at EarthSky.org: To the best of our knowledge, astrologer Richard Nolle coined the term supermoon over 30 years ago. The term has only recently come into popular usage. Nolle has defined a supermoon as “a new or full moon which occurs with the moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit.” Sky watchers might also be able to catch Mars and Saturn in their supermoon photos on Saturday: Glare of upcoming supermoon shouldn't wash out planets Mars and Saturn from evening sky. By Richard Joanne Escober. http://t.co/naQ7JB2H84 Of course, the best time to snap a photo is while the moon is rising or setting. The moon always appears larger at these times due to the Ponzo Illusion, in which the human mind judges the size of objects based on their surroundings or backgrounds. This optical illusion will far outweigh any additional size that might be gained with the closer proximity that the moon will hold on Saturday. The largest supermoons happen approximately every 412 days, or every 14th full moon. Here is the 2014 supermoon Schedule: Full moon of July 12 at 7:25 a.m. ET (11:25 UTC) Full moon of


The Mississippi doctor who tried — and ultimately failed — to cure a child with HIV

later — and to everyone’s surprise — the virus was still undetectable, and soon the case was declared a “functional cure.” The international reaction to that announcement was immediate and profound. The effect the flood of interview requests had on Gay, who until that moment had led a quiet life of faith, medicine and needlepoint, was overwhelming. Soon Time Magazine named her in its 2013 list of the world’s 100 most influential people. For a woman “more comfortable talking to children than adults,” as her husband described her to Reuters, it was difficult to absorb what had happened. “She is the most unlikely person in the world to be getting this kind of international attention, really,” her former pastor Jay Richardson explained to Reuters. “You don’t ever hear her talking about herself or trying to promote herself in any way. She’s a quiet, humble person. Extremely intelligent. … Very committed to teaching children the bible.” That commitment long pre-dated her commitment to medicine. She grew up in Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation, attending a Southern Baptist church. She recalled the hot summers when she had her first experiences with vaccines. “Even as a baby, there was polio every summer,” she told the Free Press. Her mother told her: “‘They just don’t remember when, every summer in the hot South, when polio started going around. We were all so relieved, climbing over people to get vaccines for our child.'” She knew early on she wanted to do the same for kids. As a teen, she worked for Girls in Action and Young Women’s Auxiliary, she told the Baptist Press in a lengthy sit-down, and eventually completed her pediatric residency at the University of Mississippi. But it was the mid-1980s. She was young. And the world was big. So in 1987, she hopped a plane to Ethiopia to teach medical school as civil war continued to roil the country. She would stay for six years, though she never taught a day. “When we arrived in the country, there was an ongoing civil war and before we finished language school they had closed the pediatric wards of the teaching hospital due to the civil war,” Gay told the Baptist Press. “They closed the medical school due to the civil war … But I had an informal clinic for mission employees and their families, basically on my front porch.” When she got


House of the Week | Queen Anne Victorian in NW DC for $4.25M

(Photo by Marlon Crutchfield) Glen Hurst in the Palisades neighborhood of Northwest Washington Back in the 1890s during a real estate boom in Washington, a group of investors led by Stilson Hutchins, founder of The Washington Post, bought land adjacent to the C&O Canal with hopes of transforming the farmland into an elegant enclave for prominent city residents. According to an Oct. 20, 1890, article in The Post about the neighborhood that would become known as the Palisades, “there can be no doubt that this will soon be one of the most desirable sections in suburban Washington.” This Queen Anne Victorian, built about 1892 by John C. Hurst, a real estate broker who was part of the group, is one of the original houses constructed by the Palisades of the Potomac Land Improvement Co. Called Glen Hurst, it was designed by architect Richard Ough, who also built his home nearby. The Washington Post’s picks of local distinguished homes on the market. View Photo Gallery —The Washington Post’s picks of distinguished homes on the D.C. area market. In 2005, Glen Hurst was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a property of local significance and designated a historic landmark by the D.C. Historic Preservation Office. In its report, the Historic Preservation Review Board wrote that “this handful of early homes, including Glen Hurst, represents the founding of the Palisades neighborhood, the transition of the community from rural to suburban, and the character of the Palisades subdivisions before the streetcar.” The home’s 2 1/2-story sandstone exterior is a rare example of full-height stone masonry in the Queen Anne style. Some of the stone used on the house may have been quarried in the immediate vicinity. Many period details survive, including the plaster moldings and pine floors. In the living room, a Jefferson door leads to one of the porches. A gas fireplace with an ornately carved walnut mantel warms the room. Modern touches, such as the David Iastesta chandelier in the dining room, add to the home’s charm. Marble countertops and a custom marble sink bring elegance to the roomy kitchen. The oversized island has a built-in television. The spacious master suite includes a sitting area with a gas fireplace and a bathroom with heated floors. An expansive lawn unspools from the oversized deck and leads to a heated saltwater pool. A pavilion with a wet bar is ideal for


Climate change has created a new literary genre

The Jet Star roller coaster is seen in the ocean at dawn as it was left by Hurricane Sandy, in Seaside Heights, New Jersey (Michael Reynolds/EPA) Is climate change due for an “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” moment? The 1852 bestseller helped transform abolitionism into a mainstream cause. Now, “cli-fi” is trying to do the same for environmentalism. The emerging genre is a cousin of sci-fi. But its books are set, NPR writes, “in worlds, not unlike our own, where the Earth’s systems are noticeably off-kilter.” And it’s gaining both fans and writers. The climate-change canon dates back to the 1962 novel ”The Drowned World” by British writer J. G. Ballard. In it, polar ice-caps have melted and global temperatures have soared. Presciently, some coastal American and European cities are under water. But Ballard’s work didn’t pinpoint humans as the cause of Earth’s precipitous decline. It wasn’t until the mid-2000’s that authors started grappling seriously with our role in impending environmental catastrophe. In 2004, Michael Crichton released “State of Fear,” a novel about eco-terrorists. Ian McEwan followed up in 2010 with “Solar,” a story about a jaded physicist who tries to solve global warming. And in 2012, Barbara Kingsolver’s “Flight Behavior” gracefully explored how one town is reshaped by a changing ecosystem. As ‘The New York Times wrote in its review of the book: How do we live, Kingsolver asks, and with what consequences, as we hurtle toward the abyss in these times of epic planetary transformation? Perhaps the best-known “cli-fi” work is Nathaniel Rich’s “Odds Against Tomorrow,” released in 2013. That book sold more than 100,000 copies and drew major media attention. In it, a near-future New York is submerged when a Category 3 hurricane hits. As Rich was editing the final proofs, Sandy submerged much of the East Coast, a strange moment of life imitating art. *** Rich and others say that fiction can stir emotion “You know, scientists and other people are trying to get their message across about various aspects of the climate change issue,” Georgia Institute of Technology professor Judith Curry told NPR. She went on: “And it seems like fiction is an untapped way of doing this — a way of smuggling some serious topics into the consciousness” of readers who may not be following the science. That means finding characters or stories that resonate. And it also means getting rid of jargon and cliches. In


Can this glass actually make beer taste better?

a frothy boost. Earlier this year, they followed that up with a similar version that’s ideally suited for stouts. Matt Rutkowski, vice president of Spiegelau USA, is charged with the tall task of demonstrating to the masses that variations in a glass’s dimensions, no matter how slight, can indeed have a real, discernible effect on how beer is experienced via the senses. In this capacity, he heads the company’s research and development efforts, hosts tasting events throughout the country and often delves into the complex interplay between glass and brew. At this point, he admits, the job has turned into somewhat of a personal crusade. “I like to think of the concept of flavor-enhancing beer glasses as similar to making sure you have a good racket whenever you’re playing tennis,” he explains. “We’re not trying to be snobby, but it’s for people like myself who are passionate about craft beer.” He isn’t the only one, though, who believes that a sweeping change of some sort is long overdue. Others, like Brewmaster Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery, have also expressed similar sentiments concerning the pervasively lax attitude toward beer consumption that, by and large, has kept enthusiasts from formalizing practices that can optimize the enjoyment of what some consider an underappreciated beverage. Paired with the right technology, cultivating such ingrained drinking habits may someday lead to such deeper appreciation for a brewing process that, compared to wine, produces a much wider range of flavors. “While there’s kind of a tradition of associating a glass with a certain beer brand, people generally just haven’t yet been very attuned to how different glass shapes affects aroma and taste,” Rutkowski says. “It’s kind of baffling because this relationship comes into play even more so with beer than it does with wine, since beer is carbonated.” If anything, the science behind improving the beer drinking experience through container modification looks to be quite sound. In an interview with Gizmodo, Henry Lau and Rik Sargent of Physics.org’s Cheers Physics break down how the idea works: The type of glass your beer is served in really does affect the enjoyment of your beer! Some glasses — like a thinner pilsner-style glass-are great for naturally fizzier beers. They will have less liquid in contact with the bottom of the glass, causing a smaller head. Bubbles are also important for releasing the beers’ aromas. When bubbles in the head


Meet Jeremiah Langhorne: Will he be the Mid-Atlantic’s answer to Rene Redzepi?

what an idiot!’ So then I started buying up all of these guides." But even the field guides took Langhorne only so far. He had to develop daily protocols and design charts to help identify where and when to find plants. And then he had to religiously maintain his foraging habits, no matter the weather conditions. "My first success in using wild ingredients was when I decided to go on this mission where, no matter what, rain or shine, I went out every single day to all my spots for 60 days straight," Langhorne says. "Once I did that, the world completely changed me, because basically there’s so many plants and so many things that pop out for such brief periods of time and are only around for 10 days or a week out of the year." If you skip a week or two because you're too busy, Langhorne adds, "you could have missed an entire season for a plant." His foraging work at McCrady's was a tough sell — at first. "Originally, I think a lot of the staff wasn’t that interested in it and didn’t really care. It wasn’t until I spent a good year going through the seasons and scoping everything out and finding out what I really could bring in . . .when people really started saying, ‘Oh, wow, this dude just walked in with 20 pounds of chanterelles, a bouquet of these amazing red bay leaves, wild sea beans, wild clams and mussels,'" Langhorne says. "That’s when people actually started to get excited and see that it’s not just about a couple little herbs from here or there." Langhorne plans to do much the same for the Mid-Atlantic when he opens his still unnamed restaurant, likely in Shaw (although no lease has been signed yet). He wants to search the region for the ingredients that define it, and not just the ones (blue crabs, rockfish) already obvious to chefs and diners alike. He wants to find the herbs, the flowers, the fish that might only make it to the table in the smallest coastal towns or the tiniest mountain burgs. Ingredients such as black walnut leaves, sweet cicely and wild perilla. "The first thing I started doing was going up to Maryland with Spike [Gjerde from Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore] because Spike has those connections here now," Langhorne says. "That’s the first person that I’ve


interested in it and didn’t really care. It wasn’t until I spent a good year going through the seasons and scoping everything out and finding out what I really could bring in . . .when people really started saying, ‘Oh, wow, this dude just walked in with 20 pounds of chanterelles, a bouquet of these amazing red bay leaves, wild sea beans, wild clams and mussels,'" Langhorne says. "That’s when people actually started to get excited and see that it’s not just about a couple little herbs from here or there." Langhorne plans to do much the same for the Mid-Atlantic when he opens his still unnamed restaurant, likely in Shaw (although no lease has been signed yet). He wants to search the region for the ingredients that define it, and not just the ones (blue crabs, rockfish) already obvious to chefs and diners alike. He wants to find the herbs, the flowers, the fish that might only make it to the table in the smallest coastal towns or the tiniest mountain burgs. Ingredients such as black walnut leaves, sweet cicely and wild perilla. "The first thing I started doing was going up to Maryland with Spike [Gjerde from Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore] because Spike has those connections here now," Langhorne says. "That’s the first person that I’ve met that’s like, ‘Okay, yeah, let’s go out! Let’s go out to this land!' . . So for the past few weeks, I’ve been going up there with him. I just need to start building the network and finding people here in Virginia and start doing more. I go down to Charlottesville pretty frequently and hit a lot of my other spots down there. It’s a whole new challenge and a whole new world. I’m going to have to build it all up the way I did down in Charleston. It’s going to take time." Langhorne, in short, wants to develop a menu that will help pinpoint something that's been just beyond our grasp for years: a culinary identity for Washington and the Mid-Atlantic. You can even get an early taste of Langhorne's evolving ideas about the cuisine next week: Langhorne and Gjerde will take over Artifact Coffee in Baltimore for a series of a la carte dinners July 17-19 from 6 to 10 p.m. Langhorne plans to forage many of the ingredients for the dinner. Next up in the Langhorne series


Marijuana demand in Colorado may be nearly a third higher than previously estimated

found was that there are 485,000 regular adult users of marijuana, a group that accounts for roughly 9 percent of the state’s forecast 2014 population. Toss in adult residents who have used the drug in the past year and estimates of those under 21 years old who have used in the past year and that share rises to more than 15 percent of the population. The study is unique in that, according to the authors, it’s the first to look at both demand and supply. Measuring supply is convenient because sales data is recorded, but it leaves out the significant role of black market, home-grown and imported marijuana. Measuring demand gives a better sense of how much of the drug is in use. “While the amount of underground and illegal production is expected to decline significantly, some level is believed to exist to date,” the authors write. “Therefore, in order to determine the total market for licensed and unlicensed marijuana, a demand approach is more practical.” To measure demand, the researchers first estimated the number of users and then the amount consumed by each over a given period of time. But that just gives an estimate of how often people are using, not how much. To measure demand, they relied on surveys. And because there are myriad ways to consume pot, each with varying potency, they measured by dried flower weight. Here’s a tour of some of the report’s conclusions about marijuana use in Colorado, seven months after legal sales began there: About 9 percent of adults are projected to use marijuana at least once a month The state predicts that 485,000 adults consume the drug at least once a month, translating to about 9 percent of the forecast population for the year. Another 201,000 reported using it in the past year, roughly 3.8 percent of the population. And while the report focuses on adult use, the report did mention an estimated 184,000 residents under 21 years old who have used the drug within the past year. Frequency of pot use is concentrated at the extremes More than half of all adult resident users consume the drug in some form fewer than six times a month. (More than 1 in 4 consume less than once a month.) At the same time, about 1 in 5 users are near or at daily consumption. Frequent users consume the vast majority of marijuana


World Cup Final: Where to watch Germany vs. Argentina

After a month of competition, the World Cup comes to an end on Sunday. Germany, looking for its fourth title, takes on Argentina, which is seeking its third. The two teams met in consecutive World Cup finals a few decades ago: Diego Maradona's Argentina defeated West Germany in 1986, while Jurgen Klinsmann and company were victorious over a nine-man Argentina in 1990. Germany's Thomas Muller, left, and Argentina's Lionel Messi, right, will square off in the 2014 World Cup final. (Washington Post) Honestly, I hate to see the festival of soccer end. I've watched games at more than a dozen bars and embassies over the last month, and whether the crowd was cheering for United States, the Netherlands, Colombia or the Ivory Coast, there have been packed houses and plenty of atmosphere. Be warned: Some popular World Cup viewing spots are going to be closed for private parties on Sunday, including Redline, Penn Social and Del Campo. The Goethe-Institut, which has hosted gatherings for German speakers throughout the Cup, has a conflict with the Capital Fringe Festival. (An alternative is a German language meetup at the Crystal City Sports Pub.) As we've stressed over the last month, popular bars will be at capacity well before kickoff, especially because the Final takes place on a Sunday. If you don't want to be left out, show up early, especially at German and Argentinian viewing spots, such as Biergarten Haus and El Patio, or popular soccer bars, such as Lucky Bar, Fado and Ireland's Four Courts. Here are some viewing options for Sunday. The official party The embassies of Germany and Argentina are co-hosting a party in the Kogod Courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum. The match will be shown on a 21-foot screen, and the Courtyard Cafe will serve snacks, beer and wine. Family-friendly, free, covered and air conditioned: What more could you want? Outdoors If you've watched the World Cup, you've seen footage of the fan fests around the globe: huge public viewing parties with giant screens. The City of Fairfax is hosting its own version Sunday, closing North Street in Old Town Fairfax from noon until 9 p.m. to make room for live music, a beer garden, food vendors, carnival games for kids and, of course, the World Cup. More than 3,000 people came to a similar party in 2010, says Jo Ormesher, the Cultural Arts


Dispatch: I’ve been to Gaza before, but it has never been like this

We visited a house in the refugee camp of Maghazi that had been hit by an Israeli air strike a few hours earlier. While I was interviewing the Nawasrah family members who survived, one of the cousins opened up a plastic bag and handed me a little finger. I didn’t flip out, only because it was the second time that day someone had shown me something like this. After the airstrikes, the Palestinians collect the dead from the debris, and sometimes the dead are no longer whole, so they gather what they can for burial. Like a finger tip. Are the Nawasrah family members terrorists? I honestly don’t know. We always ask, “Are you resistance? Are you Hamas?” They usually say no. But sometimes a neighbor, or someone in the crowd, will tell us that the fellow who lived in the house was maybe a Hamas operative. It is a very aural military operation, too. There are many whooshes, kabooms, window rattlings and thuds you can feel in your teeth. But mostly there is a constant whine, like mosquitos in a small room. These are the Israeli drones. Another hour another house. Israelis have hit 55+ homes. In this one Salah & Aysha Nawasrah & two kids, killed http://t.co/o9ZyI5kvzW Little kids are expert at recognizing the sounds. I didn’t believe this at first, but it is true. In Beit Hanoun, we were gathered with a crowd of gawkers, all of us staring at a house down the lane that had been hit by a small, non-lethal missile, what Israeli military calls “the knock on the door” that signals to the occupants to get out. We all had our mobile phones out, ready to snap a picture once the house was destroyed by a serious missile. Suddenly, behind us, maybe a kilometer away, we heard a rushing galloping sound: Vvippps! My shoulders shot up to my ears. Rocket. Outgoing. Close. A child told me: “Grad.” I wrote it down in my notebook. He was probably about eight. One afternoon, we were talking to a gathering of middle-aged men who were sitting out the battle and the heat, fasting during the day because it is Ramadan (and so nobody is smoking, eating or drinking during daylight). I asked them if they thought the war, or whatever one calls this, would go on long. “Who cares?” answered Abu Ahmed, 46, an out-of-work construction


How one island powered itself with a volcano

Montserrat - Plymouth city destroyed by volcano Geothermal energy, the productive use of the vast quantity of thermal energy within Earth’s crust, is one of the few renewable, low-carbon emission energy sources that can consistently generate power 24-hours a day, irrespective of the season. Its primary limitation is not weather but location, as it can only be exploited in places with specific geology, where some of the planet’s intense inner heat reaches close enough to the surface to be of use. Montserrat’s geology is ideal for geothermal use: hot molten magma rises to shallow depths, driven by the forces of regional plate tectonics. The heat from this magma warms the surrounding rocks, providing a heat source that can be tapped if it can be brought back to the surface. Rainwater and seawater are natural aids to this process as they penetrate through cracks and pores in the rocks to several kilometers beneath the island, absorbing heat from the magma heated rocks. Once heated, the hot fluid rises buoyantly to shallower levels where it can be tapped by drilling geothermal wells. As the ascending fluid boils it produces pressurized steam which rotates turbines to generate electricity. The high cost of drilling wells (a single well can cost several million U.S. dollars) coupled with the potential risk of drilling an unproductive well, are the principle reasons that geothermal potential has not been fully exploited. To increase the likelihood of drilling a productive well, the project to exploit geothermal power on Montserrat used an array of technologies, such as magnetotellurics and seismic tomography to more clearly understand the rocks beneath the surface. Conceptual model based on survey data to home in on best site for drilling a well. Ryan, Peacock, Shalev, Rugis (2013), Montserrat geothermal system: a 3D conceptual model, Geophys. Res. Lett. doi: 10.1002/grl.50489. Magnetotellurics uses naturally occurring signals from lightning storms and charged particles ejected from the sun to penetrate below ground. Seismic tomography uses the responses of pressure waves created by carefully generated explosions to generate images of the rocks. Aided by researchers at the University of Auckland, scientists used these techniques to create the subsurface maps that have successfully guided Montserrat’s geothermal drilling program. Between March and September of 2013, the Iceland Drilling Company drilled Montserrat’s first two geothermal wells, to depths of 2,300 and 2,900 yards, striking temperatures of more than 260°C. While testing is still ongoing, the


Lorin Maazel, 1930-2014

since he didn’t suffer fools lightly; he was not always beloved of the orchestras he led as music director, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra among them. I remember the first time I heard him conduct, a “Don Carlo” at the Salzburg Festival: Excited at the prospect of hearing him, I was somewhat taken aback at what I might call the ruthlessness of the execution, which I described at the time as akin to a BMW on the German autobahn, a model of technical engineering with the ability to race over everything in its path. That technical engineering, however, made possible some brilliant performances; it was refreshing to hear him lead the NSO, an orchestra that hasn’t always had the advantage of technically accomplished leadership, in 2009. He seemed to mellow in his later years. His 2001 appointment as music director of the New York Philharmonic, controversial when it was made, proved not the unmitigated disaster some critics prognosticated; he rightly saw it as a cap to an illustrious career, and if he didn’t succeed in creating an actual renaissance for the ensemble, he enjoyed a longer and generally more tranquil tenure than many had expected. Among the oft-cited highlights was the performance in North Korea during the orchestra’s tour to Asia in 2008: another event that divided public opinion. And the Castleton Festival, which began by presenting Britten operas in his home theater, showed him at his most generous and avuncular. Founded with quite a lot of his own money, the festival is dedicated to training young artists under Maazel’s tutelage. It also gave local audiences a chance to hear him conduct a full-size orchestra in some major repertory, since the organization quickly moved past chamber opera in the home theater to a full-size tent and the operas of Puccini, some of which Maazel had never conducted in a staged performance. A particular highlight was the “Trittico” of 2010, the festival’s second full season, which featured some thrilling vocal performances and world-class conducting from the maestro, drawn from an orchestra of young instrumentalists from around the globe. In the obituaries and tributes that will flood the media in the coming hours and days and weeks, Castleton will not play as large as the major international ensembles Maazel shaped and led, including the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera, and the Munich Philharmonic, where he took on a


There’s so much that science will never be able to explain

first comes from the tools we build to investigate the world. We use all sorts of instruments to amplify our vision of nature, to define what we call reality. And tools do serve us well, revealing invisible and unsuspected parts of nature. They bring us galaxies that are billions of light years away, microbes that can kill us, atoms that make up matter. But tools only work within a certain range and precision. We are always going to be partially myopic to the full action. For example, the Large Hadron Collider, the machine at the European Center for Particle Physics that discovered the Higgs boson, can probe energies about 10,000 times that stored in a proton mass. This is an incredible achievement! But our current theories of the universe run all the way to energies 1,000 trillion times that value. Even if we could cover this enormous range, we couldn’t catch everything on the way. Much remains outside our grasp. The second source of limits is even more problematic. Nature itself offers insurmountable barriers to how much we can know. The speed of light, the fastest possible speed we’ve observed, is still not instantaneous. That means that all information that we collect about the world is in the past. You are seeing this article about one billionth of a second ago, the time it takes for light to travel from the screen to your eyes. You see the sun as it was about eight minutes ago. To look at the sky is to look at the past. Given that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, light traveled a finite distance since the beginning of time. Like fish in a bowl, we live inside a cosmic bubble of information with a radius of about 46 billion light years. (Not 13.8, because the expansion of space stretches the reach of light.) The universe may well continue beyond, just as the ocean continues beyond the horizon we see from the beach. But we can’t see what’s out there. We can’t ever be sure if the universe is infinitely big or infinitely old. We can’t measure “infinite.” We can only answer questions within the range of what we can measure. There is no “absolutely sure” in science, although we can reach compelling conclusions. We can obtain data with a certain amount of precision and then extrapolate from it using statistics. The age of


Exclusive: Marine Corps transfers whistleblower who questioned top general

A Marine Corps officer who accused the service’s top general and other members of his staff of wrongdoing last year in an inspector general complaint has been transferred to a new base in southeastern Virginia, nine months after he was removed from his job as a lawyer in Quantico, Va. Maj. James Weirick began a new assignment in Suffolk, Va., with the Pentagon’s Joint Staff early in July, said his lawyer and military officials. He will serve there in Joint Force Development, said Richard Osial, a Joint Staff spokesman. The organization oversees training to get the services and their allies to work together better and develops policy for military education. It also amounts to a fresh start professionally for the major. Maj. James Weirick filed an inspector general complaint against Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos and members of his staff last year. (handout) The transfer comes nine months after Weirick, of Alexandria, Va., was relieved of his position as a staff judge advocate at Quantico with Marine Corps Combat Development Command, an organization that plans for the service’s future and sets requirements for acquisition projects. A spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters, Maj. John Caldwell, confirmed the move to Suffolk, and said Weirick left his unit at Quantico in June. Weirick served there when he filed the inspector general complaint in March 2013, alleging that Marine Commandant Gen. James F. Amos and some of his top officers illegally inserted themselves into the prosecution of Marines who were implicated in an infamous video depicting U.S. service members urinating on dead insurgents in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The complaint alleged that some of the Marine Corps’ top leaders sought to manipulate the military justice system to ensure tough punishments against the snipers shown in the video. Notably, Weirick’s complaint accused the commandant of removing the three-star general assigned to oversee the cases, Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, after learning that he intended to impose administrative nonjudicial punishment on some of the Marines, rather than a more serious court-martial. Doing so, Weirick argued, amounted to unlawful command influence, in which a senior officer seeks to pressure a junior commander for a certain outcome in a case. Waldhauser said Amos and his staff have countered by saying that the commandant acknowledged he was wrong to have pressured Waldhauser, and felt compelled to remove him afterward in an effort to make sure the legal system wasn’t tainted.


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Arabs do care about Gaza

Twitter proxy service Topsy for all tweets in Arabic about Syria, Iraq and Gaza over the last month. The results are pretty striking: Syria (in blue), which in 2012 and early 2013 consistently generated millions of tweets per month in Arabic, shows a relatively low level flat line. The shocking developments in Iraq (in green) galvanized attention in mid-June, and Iraq continues to attract more attention now than does Syria. But Gaza, after being virtually ignored for a long time, surges to dominate everything else once the conflict begins. Score one for the “latent relevance” hypothesis. That doesn’t mean that nothing has changed, of course. Arab publics remain intensely divided and frustrated, while Arab regimes remain intensely repressive and more fearful than ever of popular mobilization. Sectarianism remains rampantly virulent, and the regional campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood can’t help but affect public sentiment toward Hamas (especially in Egypt). The Gulf states and their media seem to be replaying 2006, when they tried to buy Israel time to finish off Hezbollah. But one of the lessons of 2006 was the limitations of such efforts: Hezbollah garnered widespread, intense Arab support for its struggle against Israel despite the Arab media’s coverage and the sectarianism generated by Iraq’s civil war. The solidarity generated by the killing of innocent fellow Arabs by Israel tends to overwhelm political divisions, even among those who blamed Hezbollah then or blame Hamas today for the war. The Gaza war also offers a chance to test the significance of the absence of a common unifying media like Al Jazeera. The fragmentation of the Arab media and the decline of Al Jazeera, along with the rise of social media, have generally encouraged polarization. Supporters of Syrian rebels and of President Bashar al-Assad see, experience and feel entirely different wars. But the Palestinian narrative may be so entrenched, and the emotional resonance of Israeli attacks on Palestinians so intense, that it overwhelms this tendency toward fragmentation. Unlike in Egypt, where opinion divided into two hostile and largely irreconcilable camps, most Arabs are on the same side with regard to the Palestinian issue. This will likely reward outbidding in the same direction rather than the retreat into competing isolated trenches – and make it much harder for Arab regimes to divide and distract their publics. One other point is clear from following the debates in Arabic on social media. The images


Severe thunderstorm watch until 8 p.m. this evening; heavy storms possible again Tuesday

Radar lightning: Overview: - Severe thunderstorm watch until 8 p.m. for the entire region - Most likely storm timing: 3-6:30 p.m. for D.C. region (within two county radius of the District), 3:45-5:30 p.m. for immediate metro area (within one county radius of the District) - Hazards: Likely – Heavy rain and lightning; possible – damaging winds, small hail; remote chance – tornado, large hail 6:00 p.m. update: Looking ahead, the threat for storms might not be totally over for the evening. Jeff Halverson writes: The good news: The pocket of strong shear and shortwave currently over central Pennsylvania and extending to the Mason-Dixon Line continues to move northeast, and should exit by early evening, reducing the likelihood of severe storms across our region. The bad news: The surface analysis shows a weak area of low pressure (a meso-low) forming across the D.C. metro, central Virginia and northern Virginia. This circulation, while weak, should continue to promote enhanced convergence and uplift of air for several hours. Combined with the unstable and very humid airmass (although CAPE has been reduced by this first round of storms), additional bands or clusters of thunderstorms are likely through the evening, a few of which could be strong and pose a local flash flood threat. Great catch: lightning hitting the dome of the Library of Congress in DC - via @Faisal_Alkadiri @ABC cam http://t.co/GayjKCKqk1 5:45 p.m. update: Boom! Lightning near the Washington Monument. https://t.co/xRfcfPP8CZ @capitalweather @EileenABC7 http://t.co/EOmwh0kCnz 5:05 p.m. update: @capitalweather towards dc and looking south from suitland http://t.co/6Ux0f09vdi 4:50 p.m. update: Storm rolling in over Dupont. @capitalweather http://t.co/iIMBDYWxjc 4:40 p.m. update: @capitalweather Sheets of rain in Tysons. On ramp onto 495 from 123 basically at a stand still. Also , radar shows some storms in northern Montgomery County and Howard counties headed towards the north side of Baltimore. 4:30 p.m. update: @capitalweather Wow. We're getting slammed by @wegmansfairfax. Whole family jumped w/ thunder clap. 4:20 p.m. update: 4:05 p.m. update: 3:50 p.m. update: 3:40 p.m. update: 3:00 p.m. update: 2:45 p.m. update: At 2:30 p.m., mesoanalysis (fine-scale analysis) of our region indicates (1) the most unstable air mass is over northern Virginia, the least unstable (but still potent) across north-central MD. This is consistent with a nearly 10 deg spread in temps between these two regions; (2) a pocket of strong wind shear (40-50 knots) is moving into the region north and west of D.C.,


The Chinese are coming, and they’d like to buy your house

recently began selling his assets in China for greener pastures in North America. Even the Chinese government hopes to profit from the exodus. State-owned Greenland Group Co. in Shanghai recently became the owner of the largest remaining development site in downtown Los Angeles and the developer of a $400 million condo project in downtown Toronto. Soon it will back two major sites in Sydney; it plans to invest up to $3 billion in Australia. Another competitor, China Vanke, just announced a $620-million deal in San Francisco. Generous investor immigration programs, student visas and family sponsorships have created large diasporas in cities that attract newcomers. By 2013, there were 3.79 million Chinese Americans in the United States (not including Chinese from Taiwan or other countries); nearly 30 percent arrived since 2000. Another reason behind the migration is that Chinese prosperity has created millions of millionaires who want a better life, but it has also generated riches based on corruption. The increase in real estate buying has increased, perhaps coincidentally, following the arrest in 2012 of Bo Xilai, one of China’s most powerful politicians. This fall, he was convicted of bribery and corruption and his wife was given a suspended death sentence for murdering a British businessman. Their playboy son, Bo Guagua, now lives in Manhattan, where he enrolled in Columbia Law School, and was photographed partying around the time of his parents’ convictions. The South China Morning News carried the photograph and suggested Bo’s ill-gotten gains may also be stashed in New York somewhere. Undoubtedly, he’s not the only offspring who may have been stashed out of the country along with the family cash . The outflow continues apace even though China’s currency controls cap annual exchanges of Yuan to foreign currencies at $50,000 a year. According to a Web site that quantifies illegal capital flows, Global Financial Integrity, the Chinese top the list. Between 2002 and 2011, Chinese smuggled $1.08 trillion out of the country, the Russians $881 billion and Mexicans $462 billion. Controls can be easily circumvented because Chinese companies can buy extra U.S. dollars to pay invoices abroad. So invoices are faked — created by accomplices to allow money to be wired abroad, then cashed in. The desire to get money out of China for whatever reason, added to Zillow’s foray into China’s living rooms, will only enhance enthusiasm. China’s biggest exports to the United States may end


Obama’s claim that the GOP has ‘blocked every serious idea’

office of House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) released this photo under the happy headline of “What Working Together Looks Like.” It showed Boehner, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other lawmakers signing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which streamlines job training programs, so it could be sent to Obama for his signature. “This morning, leaders of both parties in the House came together to get something done for the millions of Americans who continue to struggle to find work in today’s economy,” the news release said. Obama had earlier said he looked forward to signing the bill. “This bipartisan compromise will help workers, including workers with disabilities, access employment, education, job-driven training, and support services that give them the chance to advance their careers and secure the good jobs of the future,” he said in a statement on July 9. “Today’s vote helps ensure that our workers can earn the skills employers are looking for right now and that American businesses have the talent pool it takes to compete and win in our global economy.” What’s going on here? The Facts Obviously, one person’s “serious idea” may not match other person’s—especially in the opposite party. In the weekly address, Obama specifically mentioned “lifting the minimum wage, fair pay, student loan reform.” But that does mean that the few bills that have passed Congress this year are not serious? Here’s a sampling of other bills that passed this year that aided the middle class. (We don’t vouch for the claims made about these bills, but simply note them to indicate that proponents thought they were important.) The Water Resources Reform and Development Act The Farm Bill There were also bills like Home Heating Emergency Assistance Through Transportation Act and the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, which took steps to help speed up delivery of propane and home heating fuel and delay flood insurance premium increases, respectively. Small beer? Perhaps. And certainly both the Farm Bill and the water resources bill were only passed after lengthy negotiations and delays, which Democrats blame on the Republicans and vice versa. But, let’s face it, the Republicans have their own list of bills passed in the House but which have failed to progress in the Senate, which they also claim are serious and enjoy popular support. For instance, one pending bill would approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which a recent


New law allows D.C. breweries to sell pints, but it won’t turn them into bars

This post has been updated. Monday was an important day for Washington D.C.'s beer scene. Thanks to the Manufacturer Tasting Permit Emergency Amendment Act of 2014, breweries in Washington can now apply for a permit that allows them to sell pints of beer during regular operating hours. Previously, breweries in the city were only allowed to offer a maximum of 12 ounces of beer per customer, per day, which most breweries distributed in four three-ounce tasters. 3 Stars Brewing Company co-founders Mike McGarvey (right) and Dave Coleman give a tour of their brewery. The company plans to expand its opening hours to sell more pints and growlers. (Photo by Lexey Swall For the Washington Post) "It's something breweries across the country can do," said Dave Coleman, the president and co-founder of 3 Stars Brewing Company. Compared to Virginia and Maryland, states which allow breweries to sell full pints in tasting rooms, "it's been a disadvantage, frankly," he added. Coleman believes only being able to serve small tasters has made D.C. breweries less of a draw for people outside the city, cutting down on revenue during their popular growler hours. The new rules have the potential to be a big draw for the brewery, Coleman said, and 3 Stars is moving forward quickly: A full bar will replace the tiny bar currently used for samples; the number of taps will increase from six to 10; tasting flights will allow for comparison of the brewery's different IPAs or saisons; opening hours will be extended; and 3 Stars will hire more staff to keep up with expected demand. Despite the changes, Coleman doesn't think 3 Stars will begin acting like a bar. "I see people stopping by on their way home, having a beer and picking up a growler," he explained. "I don't see people drinking like it's a bar, with 70 heads in here on a Tuesday night. It's more like a neighborhood thing, for folks who want to come in and check out the beers." Atlas Brew Works Durgin sees the biggest boost coming from brewery tourism. "That 12 ounces per-person, per-visit, goes down pretty quickly," he said. The old rules were especially confusing to out-of-towners. "The look on their faces when I tell them they can't get a pint, they're crestfallen," Durgin explained. "In the craft beer community, it's assumed that you can get a pint of beer at a


for the brewery, Coleman said, and 3 Stars is moving forward quickly: A full bar will replace the tiny bar currently used for samples; the number of taps will increase from six to 10; tasting flights will allow for comparison of the brewery's different IPAs or saisons; opening hours will be extended; and 3 Stars will hire more staff to keep up with expected demand. Despite the changes, Coleman doesn't think 3 Stars will begin acting like a bar. "I see people stopping by on their way home, having a beer and picking up a growler," he explained. "I don't see people drinking like it's a bar, with 70 heads in here on a Tuesday night. It's more like a neighborhood thing, for folks who want to come in and check out the beers." Atlas Brew Works Durgin sees the biggest boost coming from brewery tourism. "That 12 ounces per-person, per-visit, goes down pretty quickly," he said. The old rules were especially confusing to out-of-towners. "The look on their faces when I tell them they can't get a pint, they're crestfallen," Durgin explained. "In the craft beer community, it's assumed that you can get a pint of beer at a brewery. I think this is going to be big for beer tourism, and of course it's good for us to be able to sell more beer." While the biggest immediate impact will be at growler hours, "down the road, I'd like to do happy hour, at least later in the week, so that people can get a pint or two on their way home or before going down to H Street," Durgin said. "I think our location is going to help us ... I think [the bar] will be a destination in its own right." (Courtesy of DC Brau) DC Brau "If a guest is enthusiastic about a beer, then they can hang out and drink that beer and chill out," Skall said. "That part's really exciting." Then there's the financial benefit, which should help people like Patrick Mullane, one of the founders of the forthcoming Hellbender Brewing Company. The brewery hopes to open in September in Riggs Park, and the ability to sell pints should offer a modest cash injection to a new business. "You're not making a lot of money when you're doing tasting and growler fills," Mullane explained. "You have to have four to six people working,


What Hamas hopes to gain from the crisis in Gaza

and 2012 led to tremendous loss of life, but did little long term damage to the militants. Hardline politicians in Israel are now calling for a ground offensive into Gaza, a move that could lead to a calamitous escalation of the conflict. Hamas also tragically gains from the rising death toll of Palestinian civilians. A cease-fire on Israel's terms, writes Mya Guarnieri of the +972 blog, "would also mean an end to the immediate damage to Israel’s image caused by the horrific photos and footage coming out of Gaza, and global protests against what Israel calls 'Operation Protective Edge.'" Smoke from rockets fired from near Gaza City is seen after being launched toward Israel, on July 15, 2014. (THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images) Hamas has fewer options and less leverage than in the past Away from the battle, Hamas in Gaza faces crippling financial headaches and mounting anger over its record of governance in the territory. Some 40,000 public employees employed by the Hamas-run government in Gaza have gone without salaries for months, eking by on small stipends. The group is demanding the payment of these salaries as a condition for a cease-fire. The shortfall in funds is in part a consequence of the upheavals of the Arab Spring. The civil war in Syria caused it to lose a key backer in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who's now the target of Sunni jihadists -- Hamas's ideological brethren -- across the region. Iran, the Middle East's chief Shiite power, has also reduced its assistance to Hamas in recent years. The closure of many smuggling tunnels into Gaza from Egypt has taken a toll, as well. Sissi in Egypt, as my colleague Adam Taylor writes here, seems to have returned his country's foreign policy to the earlier era of Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak, where a U.S.-authored pact with Israel guaranteed a degree of stability in the region and military aid to Egypt, but did little to improve the lot of ordinary Palestinians. Sissi accuses Hamas of abetting an insurgency in Egypt's restive Sinai peninsula. Without Egypt on its side, it's unclear where Hamas can turn abroad for greater leverage. It retains varying levels of support from governments in Qatar and Turkey, but not enough that it can place much stock in a positive diplomatic solution. And so it clings to its bellicose rhetoric and rocket fire, no matter the bodies piling up around it.


Apple buries the hatchet with IBM, teams up to target corporate market

Apple introduced the Macintosh computer in 1984 with a Super Bowl ad that portrayed its rival International Business Machines as “Big Brother.” In the ad, a talking head on a giant computer screen spouts platitudes about “information purification” to an audience of corporate zombies — until a woman dressed like a Hooters waitress destroys it with a sledgehammer. The tagline: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984.’” 1984 Apple's First Macintosh Commercial But now, IBM will be a partner in Apple’s first major foray into corporate sales. The former rivals are teaming up to tackle what they see as the next wave in workplace computing: mobile devices. It’s a sensible match. Apple dominates the tablet market while IBM has a solid reputation with businesses for its software and services. “If you were building a puzzle, they would fit nicely together with no overlap,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook, who worked for IBM for more than a decade, told Re/Code. Cook talked to reporters with IBM’s chief executive Virginia M. Rometty to discuss the new partnership on Tuesday. IBM & Apple. (Photos by AP) The companies announced they will work together to develop more than 100 mobile applications tailored to work with IBM’s data analytics and cloud services. The applications will be available this fall. What will these programs do? Few specifics were given. The New York Times IBM will sell these new business-savvy iPhones and iPads to its corporate customers — and offer on-site support for Apple products. “Apple and IBM are putting a full-court press on the mobile business market,” PC World noted. “Apple won’t run off and do a similar deal next week with Hewlett-Packard. More significantly, IBM, at least for now, is throwing all its chips in with Apple — apparently at the expense of Google’s Android OS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone.” Popular with consumers, Apple hasn’t made much of an effort to sell to businesses before now. “Apple hasn’t come out and said, ‘We don’t give a [damn] about enterprises,’ but that’s basically how they felt,” analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies told PC World. “It’s now partnering with a company that bends over backwards to understand the needs of its corporate clients.” The deal lets each company do what its good at. “We’re good at building a simple experience and in building devices,” Cook said.


Can running help autistic children?

a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing physical development opportunities for people with disabilities, created a training program that helps children with autism train for three months for a mainstream five-mile race. The program has allowed Achilles to gather extensive anecdotal evidence that shows that running helps people with autism improve their emotional and physical health. Children with autism often have difficulty interacting with others, focusing on tasks that come naturally to developing children or even feeling at ease in their bodies. But while running, they often find an escape from their stresses and challenges. We’ve found that running can stimulate these kids in a different way and helps to anchor them in the moment, improving their connections with their families as well as peers of all abilities. Exercise also is important because half of all children with autism are overweight and at risk for diabetes, heart disease, bone and joint problems, anxiety and depression. Running is natural for children and can be transformative for them and their caregivers. We have seen improved focus, decreased disruptiveness and aggression, less repetitive behavior and improved peer-to-peer interaction. To help confirm the anecdotal evidence Achilles has been observing, the Cigna Foundation, a longtime partner of the nonprofit, awarded Achilles a grant to support research efforts that explore the impact of running on the mental and physical development of children with autism. Our hope is that the research will help prove that running can be an important addition to the range of therapies and medications that can help improve the health, behavior and quality of life for children with autism. When our research efforts begin this fall, we will work with children at different points on the autism spectrum and measure how running benefits them. The culmination of the program will be participation in the Achilles Hope & Possibility 5 Miler in New York City. The race will prove that these kids can run among their peers in a mainstream race. Another goal is to increase the children's aspirations for the future. Having completed a race, they wonder, “What else can I accomplish?” Parents and families affected by autism face significant obstacles in caring for their children, and we hope that together we can make a difference in their lives. Karen Cierzan is vice president for Cigna Behavioral Health. Megan Wynne Lombardo is director of the Achilles Kids Running Program. Cigna Foundation and Achilles International


Mosaic District is this month’s featured neighborhood

downtown D.C. Driver bonus: Its public parking garages are free. The Eats For Virginia residents who balk at the thought of fighting D.C. traffic for a meal, Mosaic has plenty of District favorites transplanted to Virginia. There’s a Matchbox pizzeria (2911 District Ave.; 571-395-4869) steps from the movie theater. Local gelato shop Dolcezza (2905 District Ave.; 703-992-8701), and Red Apron butcher (8298 Glass Alley; 703-676-3550) have outposts, too. If you’re in a rush, Mosaic also has the requisite versions of D.C.’s favorite faster-food joints, including Taylor Gourmet (2905 District Ave., Suite 160; 703-462-9970), Sweetgreen (2905 District Ave.; 703-992-7892) and Cava Mezze Grill (2905 District Ave.; 703-988-4313). And there are loads more restaurants to come, including brunch-favorite Ted’s Bulletin, which is expected to open this year. The D.C. area’s first True Food Kitchen, a chain from out West that bills its offerings as healthful, “anti-inflammatory” dishes, is slated to open this summer. Rocksalt, a newcomer on the oyster scene, is expected in 2015. Or get your seafood fix right now with freshly shucked oysters at fishmonger MediterraFish (8298 Glass Alley, Suite 100; 703-462-9644). Shopping Gourmet food and drink shops abound in the Mosaic District. Try Swirl & Sip (2905 District Ave., Suite 112; 703-992-8157), a wine and beer store with an art gallery feel, knowledgeable staff and free tastings. Find loose-leaf blends at Capital Teas (2910 District Ave. Suite 168; 703-942-8327). Or spend far too long sampling artisanal oils and vinegars at Ah Love Oil & Vinegar (2910 District Ave. Suite 165; 703-992-7000). Pro tip: Try a shot of the rosemary olive oil and 20-year aged balsamic. The Markets Ensuring that you really don’t need to leave this District to get your basic shopping done, there’s a MOM’s Organic Market (8298 Glass Alley; 703-663-8810) and a sizeable Target (2905 District Ave., Suite 400; 571-533-3751) with a grocery and pharmacy. There’s also a farmers market on Sundays from May through November. Community Feel The Mosaic District’s small, central park is a hub for friendly gatherings. And there are lots of gatherings: Weekly free movies are shown on a huge TV screen on the side of the Angelika, and the park also hosts free yoga sessions in the summer. For more Hot Hoods: Shirlington, an urban oasis in suburban Virginia Once rundown, Logan Circle/Shaw neighborhood thrives as a D.C. destination Dogs and babies abound in Virginia’s Del Ray, but there’s something for everyone


Wonkbook: Yellen’s message for the economy

Welcome to Wonkbook, Wonkblog’s morning policy news primer by Puneet Kollipara Social media stocks fell after Yellen's warning. REUTERS/Thomas White Wonkbook’s Number of the Day: Wonkbook’s Chart of the Day: Wonkbook's Top 5 Stories: 1. Top story: Yellen says the economy isn't quite there yet Yellen: Labor market healing but economy still needs Fed support. Primary source: What that means: We're keeping rates down for a while. The hidden inflation risk in ending the bond-buying program. Will the long-term and shadow unemployed ever come back? Explainer: Yellen mildly concerned on asset bubbles. Social media and biotech stocks fell after Yellen's warning. She remains wary of the housing market. Yellen shoots down Republicans' planned Fed overhaul legislation. Retail sales, manufacturing data point at firming economy. The CBO's 'what if' exercise on the future federal debt. The CBO lowered its federal health-spending estimate, thanks in part to Obamacare. Other economic/financial reads: Banks would lose deposit-insurance windfall under FDIC proposal. Jesse Hamilton in Bloomberg. Global financial watchdog calls for FX fix reforms, urges banks to clean up. Patrick Graham and Jamie McGeever in Reuters. S&P weighs restarting talks in U.S. suit. Timothy W. Martin in The Wall Street Journal. TAYLOR: How to spark another great moderation with rules-based monetary reform. THOMA: Can long-term jobless benefits raise joblessness? Top opinion KLEIN: Conservatives won on Obamacare. They just don't know it. FRUM: An immigration crisis we brought on ourselves. JENKINS: Who's the real cigarette monopolist? GARVER: It's not your imagination — government really is getting worse. McDOWELL: Why the government shouldn't control the Internet. GALSTON: The hard numbers on Social Security. Animals interlude: 2. The very temporary highway-funding solution Yep, Congress is definitely punting. For a refresher on the whole Highway Trust Fund issue... The GOP establishment prevails. Explainer: Obama still wants a long-term solution in the form of his $302B, 4-year plan. Boehner defers to the Senate. By the way, what would it take for cities to totally eliminate the need to own a car? The president wants cars that talk to each other. Yep, you read that right. Other transportation reads: Senate Dems to hit GM with ignition-switch legislation. Tim Devaney in The Hill. VINIK: Congress at its worst. Food interlude: 3. The public is really upset about the FCC's net-neutrality proposal They're deluging the FCC with enough comments to challenge the Janet Jackson debacle. Oops: FCC has to extend comment period after