Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Michael Barrett takes heavy flak for Capitol Hill testimony

we have enjoyed over the past decade, we won’t have sufficient dollars for what we need — investment in our warfighting capabilities and our wonderful Marine and family care programs.” Barrett was reflecting what senior Marine officers also have been saying. In a panel preceding Barrett’s, Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Milstead Jr., deputy commandant for manpower and Reserve affairs, said personnel costs and benefits amount to “64 percent of the Marine Corps budget,” a figure proportionally higher than the 40 to 50 percent of the other services. Marine Corps Commandant James F. Amos told the Senate committee in November that the disparity is “not because Marines are more expensive; it’s just my portion of the budget is smaller. That’s going to go well over 70 percent by the end of [the next five years] if something is not done.” Despite talk of reduced future benefits, the services are meeting their recruitment goals, and the Marines have a waiting list. As Milstead put it at the hearing, “We’ve been at war for 13 years, and if a young man walks into a recruiting office today and signs up he’s going to have to wait six to eight months before he ships.” Perhaps the new enlistees, as Army Sgt. Maj. Raymond Chandler III told the senators, are like he was as a young man. “My own experience when I was 19 years old and joined the Army, and I wasn’t thinking about compensation. I was actually thinking about going to Germany and be a tanker [in the tank corps] for a couple of years and then leaving the Army and coming back to Massachusetts, where I grew up.” Prospects for the changes in personnel benefits are slim. As Gillibrand put it at the hearing, “It will be difficult for many of us to support these proposals.” The Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) budget that passed the House on Thursday does not include any proposed saving from military personnel accounts, which include health care. Most members of Congress seem to prefer doing nothing until they see the recommendations of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission, which is scheduled to issue a report in February. Hagel’s hoped-for savings of up to $2.1 billion to put toward readiness will have to come from somewhere else. Barrett, meanwhile, should get a medal for bravery on the home front. For previous Fine Print columns, go to washingtonpost.com/fedpage.


U.S. considers more sanctions against Russia

President Obama’s top national security advisers Tuesday were considering the possibility of new sanctions against Russia amid reports of armed skirmishes in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists. “We are actively looking at our options,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said. Officials said any additional U.S. action was unlikely before a diplomatic gathering Thursday in Geneva, where Secretary of State John F. Kerry is scheduled to meet with his counterparts from Russia, Ukraine and the European Union. The Geneva meeting, said State Department spokesman Jen Psaki, “is likely the next step here, because it’s an opportunity for everybody to sit down at the table and have a discussion. At the same time, we can make preparations for any additional sanction steps we want to take.” Obama signed an executive order last month that would permit restrictions on financial dealings and licensing agreements with Russia’s principal economic sectors, including energy and mining. Officials said the additional sanctions now under consideration probably would not go that far and that broader measures are being held in reserve to respond to any move by Russian troops to cross Ukraine’s eastern border. Although the United States and its allies have called repeatedly on Russia to negotiate directly with Ukraine’s interim government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has held only one brief meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Deshchytsia, since the crisis began in late February. Psaki made clear Tuesday that the administration sees the main goal of the Geneva meeting as putting Lavrov and Deshchytsia in the same room for a substantive discussion. “This is really the first opportunity to engage with them at the same table, with the E.U., with the United States, to talk about priorities, including de-escalation, demobilization, support for efforts moving forward, including constitutional reform, protecting minorities,” Psaki said. “These are priorities that even the Russians have said they support.” Kerry spent Tuesday morning in telephone consultations on Ukraine with his French, German and British counterparts. At the White House, Carney again ruled out any U.S. military intervention, as well as any lethal military assistance to Ukraine. He said the administration was still considering Ukrainian requests for non-lethal aid, which includes night-vision equipment and uniforms. “We are obviously evaluating requests and looking at ways that we can support the Ukrainian government,” Carney said. “But our focus is on continuing to put pressure on Russia so that it understands


Beer Madness Round 5: And then there were 2

Coasters for Devils Backbone Brewing Company and Victory Brewing Company. It was time to put away the beer flavor wheels and Beer 101 crib notes. They were no help at this stage of Beer Madness, our quest to find the region’s best brew. The herd had been culled to four beers, quite diverse for four beverages crafted from the same basic building blocks of barley, hops, yeast and water. Based on a few dainty sips, we had to figure out which one we’d spring for if we were buying a pitcher or a six-pack. And once again, our inner voices were pulling us in different directions. In a battle of Malt vs. Crisp, Devils Backbone Vienna Lager narrowly bested Bluejacket’s Forbidden Planet, 5-4. “I love the color and sparkle of this beer. And the taste doesn’t disappoint,” wrote reader panelist Echo Rummel of the malty amber lager. “By a hair!” exclaimed fellow reader panelist Bryan Berghoef in choosing Devils Backbone. He couldn’t have phrased it better: This was the third consecutive round that the Vienna Lager eked out a one-vote victory. “Problematic choice,” agreed Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.). “Good beer, not typical malt,” he wrote of the Vienna Lager, “but I have to go with hops.” And thus he chose the Bluejacket kolsch, a German-style golden ale jazzed up with fruity Australian hops. “Oouwah!” wrote reader panelist Bruce Johnson, unapologetically choosing the kolsch. In another nail-biter, Victory Swing Session Saison nipped Monocacy Riot Rye, 5-4. Berghoef picked Swing Session but griped, “I can’t believe this one made it! Mild Belgian, some late flavor. Where’s my saison?” Actually, this was the same beer that Berghoef picked last round, praising its “pale golden goodness.” DeFazio opted for the Monocacy Riot Rye while complaining that it was “not hopped enough.” And yet it was the same beer he chose over Tröegs Perpetual IPA in Round 3, claiming it was the only truly hoppy sample of the two. Palate fatigue? Rummel was a little kinder, calling the Riot Rye “balanced and not boring, though not as complex and full-bodied as my favorites.” Two observations: Over four rounds we’ve had a total of 30 matchups, and 13 of them have been settled by 5-4 scores. Our panel turned in only two unanimous decisions, way back in Round 1. Despite the presence of several professed hop heads on the panel and the burgeoning popularity of


Google faces new pressure from states to crack down on illegal online drug sales

Several state attorneys general are pressing Google to make it harder for its users to find counterfeit prescription medicine and illegal drugs online, marking the second time in the past three years that the firm has drawn government scrutiny for its policies on rogue Internet pharmacies. Their complaints, conveyed in a letter signed by 24 top state prosecutors, led to private meetings with Google executives earlier this year in Denver and Washington, producing contentious exchanges about the company’s practices. Now, while some of the attorneys general are pleased with Google’s response to their concerns, others want the tech giant to go further. At the same time, the company’s past practices have raised the ire of shareholders, who have alleged in two little-noticed lawsuits that a lax stance by the company toward prescription drug ads until 2010 put it in legal and financial jeopardy. Google, which failed to persuade a California judge to dismiss the suits, entered settlement talks last month after attorneys for the shareholders obtained e-mails showing that top executives warned then-chief executive Eric Schmidt and co-founder Larry Page more than a decade ago about the risks of accepting such ads. Google declined to comment on the shareholder suits. But the company said it has poured resources into trying to stamp out rogue Internet pharmacies, disabling 4.6 million pharmaceutical or health supplement ads that did not meet its standards last year. And since 2010, when it toughened its advertising policy, the number of Web ads placed by unlicensed pharmacies dropped by 99.9 percent, according to Google. Google's Eric Schmidt is no stranger to D.C. He's spents lots of time at the White House and on the Hill lobbying on behalf of his tech titan company. But his relationship with the city and the Obama administration hasn't always been a comfortable one. The renewed pressure that Google is facing over illegal pharmaceuticals revives what has long been a thorny issue for the Internet giant. In 2011, Google forfeited $500 million — in addition to changing its advertising practices — to avoid federal criminal charges for its role in helping unlicensed Internet pharmacies market drugs to U.S. consumers. The episode has also drawn attention to Google’s ties with the White House. In a move considered unusual by legal and ethical experts, the Obama administration allowed Google to participate in a White House event on the topic while under federal investigation. White


A bird’s-eye view of a changing Loudoun County

necessarily good news, she said, “What we think is that with all this development, the birds are forced into the few areas of habitat, which makes them easier to spot.” Of the nearly 260 species documented, 103 species were actively breeding in Loudoun, Ligi said. Breeding birds nest in the county and stay during the summer, she said, whereas migrating species, such as yellow-headed blackbirds and long-eared owls, are just passing through. There are species that come for the winter, Ligi said. This year, birders in Loudoun and throughout the Washington region were thrilled by sightings of snowy owls that appeared as part of a historic mass migration known as an irruption. “That was so exciting,” Ligi said. But the snowy owl irruption also demonstrates why the bird atlas takes place over five years, she said. “Some species of birds have irruption years, like the snowy owl did, where you won’t see any of them, but then in one year, the population will surge, and you’ll see a ton of them,” she said. “But that would skew the results if the study was just one year, so you have to give it five years to account for those population variations.” There are success stories. Populations of bald eagles are thriving, Coleman said, and birds that have adapted to suburban and urban settings, including northern cardinals and mockingbirds, are also doing well. “With some birds, like Carolina wrens, when you have a really rough winter like we just had, they survive in suburban communities where people put out bird feeders,” he said, “and they don’t survive in rural areas where they survive by foraging for their own food.” Some species that depend on a rural environment have not fared as well. The bird atlas shows dwindling numbers of the northern bobwhite and the cerulean warbler, which has been considered for listing as a threatened or endangered species, he said. Warblers depend on healthy riparian buffers — thick areas of vegetation bordering streams — to survive, Coleman said. Those buffers are often compromised by development, a fact he hopes the bird atlas might change. “What we’re hoping is that the information we’re pulling together will help convince people that some of these protective steps are worth taking,” he said. In the coming months, the data collected by volunteers will be analyzed by the Breeding Bird Atlas Explorer, an online system hosted by


D.C. news in brief

Free bus pass added to DC One card for students The D.C. Department of Transportation and WMATA recently added an electronic pass on the DC One card for District students who ride free on Metrobus and the DC Circulator before and after school on weekdays. DDOT has sent information to D.C. schools on how to activate the pass. By next month, WMATA will require students to tap the card on the bus fare box for free rides. Students can ride for free weekdays from 5:30 to 9 a.m. and from 2 to 8 p.m. At other times, they can buy student tokens from the Metro Sales Office with their DC One Card eligibility letter or buy a discounted student transit pass through an online SmarTrip account, linked to the DC One Card. For information, call 202-673-1740 or go to ddot.dc.gov/page/school-transit-subsidy-program. City is ‘daylighting’ a piped stream in NW The D.C. government is “daylighting” a piped stream in Northwest, which originates from a spring on National Park Service land off Connecticut Avenue and flows to a bridge near 36th Street and Nevada Avenue NW. The process will return the waterway to an above-ground channel in an effort to restore its natural habitat. The stream currently enters a pipe that flows beneath Broad Branch Road until the water comes to the surface again at Broad Branch, a tributary of Rock Creek. The stream was piped over in the 1940s. Surface streams are environmentally preferable to piped streams because exposure to sunlight, air, soil and vegetation helps remove pollutants from the water. A final restoration will create meanders, or winding stream paths, and a floodplain wetland. Storm water flow from adjacent streets, alleys and rooftops will be directed into bioretention cells — landscaped areas that also filter the water. For information, go to green.dc.gov/node/11002 or call 202-535-2961. Registration for D.C. Senior Games is open through April 25 Registration continues through April 25 for the 31st annual D.C. Senior Games, set for May 5 to 16. Participants must be at least 50 years old. Registration is $45. Events include swimming, basketball, bowling, tennis, track and field, horseshoe toss, archery and softball. This year, the games also include pickleball, a game with racquets that is similar to badminton. Participants may qualify for the biannual National Senior Games next year. The opening ceremony will be at 10 a.m. May 5 at the Howard Theatre, 620 T


D.C. news in brief

recently added an electronic pass on the DC One card for District students who ride free on Metrobus and the DC Circulator before and after school on weekdays. DDOT has sent information to D.C. schools on how to activate the pass. By next month, WMATA will require students to tap the card on the bus fare box for free rides. Students can ride for free weekdays from 5:30 to 9 a.m. and from 2 to 8 p.m. At other times, they can buy student tokens from the Metro Sales Office with their DC One Card eligibility letter or buy a discounted student transit pass through an online SmarTrip account, linked to the DC One Card. For information, call 202-673-1740 or go to ddot.dc.gov/page/school-transit-subsidy-program. City is ‘daylighting’ a piped stream in NW The D.C. government is “daylighting” a piped stream in Northwest, which originates from a spring on National Park Service land off Connecticut Avenue and flows to a bridge near 36th Street and Nevada Avenue NW. The process will return the waterway to an above-ground channel in an effort to restore its natural habitat. The stream currently enters a pipe that flows beneath Broad Branch Road until the water comes to the surface again at Broad Branch, a tributary of Rock Creek. The stream was piped over in the 1940s. Surface streams are environmentally preferable to piped streams because exposure to sunlight, air, soil and vegetation helps remove pollutants from the water. A final restoration will create meanders, or winding stream paths, and a floodplain wetland. Storm water flow from adjacent streets, alleys and rooftops will be directed into bioretention cells — landscaped areas that also filter the water. For information, go to green.dc.gov/node/11002 or call 202-535-2961. Registration for D.C. Senior Games is open through April 25 Registration continues through April 25 for the 31st annual D.C. Senior Games, set for May 5 to 16. Participants must be at least 50 years old. Registration is $45. Events include swimming, basketball, bowling, tennis, track and field, horseshoe toss, archery and softball. This year, the games also include pickleball, a game with racquets that is similar to badminton. Participants may qualify for the biannual National Senior Games next year. The opening ceremony will be at 10 a.m. May 5 at the Howard Theatre, 620 T St. NW. To register or volunteer, call 202-664-7153 or go to dpr.dc.gov. — Compiled by Terence McArdle


U.S. sanctions on Russia over Ukraine would buy negotiating power

to negotiate but to dictate terms. “Ukraine,” said Mr. Lavrov on Wednesday, “must be forced to start genuine rather than cosmetic constitutional reform.” By that he means Ukraine should be forced to dismember itself into autonomous regions that the Kremlin could manipulate and ultimately control. What chips do the United States and European Union have to counter Moscow’s bald aggression? Little more than vague threats. “We are actively looking at our options,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday. Officials privately say they are working with the Europeans on a modest expansion of last month’s sanctions against Mr. Putin’s inner circle — while holding off on the far-more-potent “sectoral sanctions” that Mr. Kerry said were “on the table” last week. The Obama administration is not wrong to pursue a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis. But diplomacy can’t succeed when the underlying balance of forces is lopsidedly in favor of a U.S. adversary — and the administration declines to take actions that might create incentives for compromise. That’s as true of Mr. Putin’s Russia as it is of Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, which dismissed the last U.S. effort to broker an accord in Geneva after Mr. Obama elected not to provide significant support for Syrian rebels. Administration advocates of inaction argue that Washington should move only in concert with European governments, which have much larger economic interests in Russia and consequently are more reluctant. But as it demonstrated with Iran, the United States has the power to take potent action on its own, especially in the financial sector — and such steps can induce other countries to join in. By waiting for Europe, the Obama administration essentially hands a veto over its response to what it describes as unacceptable transgressions to states such as Cyprus and Malta. The Obama administration’s attempt to smooth the way for a diplomatic solution has virtually ensured that the Geneva meeting will fail. Once it does, the president should take action that will give Mr. Putin tangible cause to pull back. Read more about this issue: The Post’s View: It’s probably too late to prevent war in Ukraine The Post’s View: Russia will respond only to increased sanctions over Ukraine The Post’s View: The U.S. should not shut out Ukraine David Ignatius: The cost of Putin’s adventurism in Ukraine James Jeffrey: U.S. should send troops to quell Ukraine crisis George F. Will: Russia’s brutality with


New book details the history of Woodward & Lothrop, a vanished D.C. department store

“Woodward & Lothrop never strived to be the best but certainly never found itself at the bottom,” Michael J. Lisicky writes in his new book. (James M. Thresher/The Washington Post) There’s no index in Michael J. Lisicky’s book “Woodward & Lothrop: A Store Worthy of the Nation’s Capital” (The History Press; $19.99), so I had to read the whole thing to see if I was mentioned. I wasn’t, but that’s okay. The 160-page paperback is a nice history of the late, lamented homegrown department store, which counted many of us as customers. Some of us even worked there. (I was a dishwasher in the Brass Pony, the restaurant in the Wheaton Plaza Woodies, where my nemesis was the cheese that wound up cemented to the earthenware ramekins in which French onion soup was served.) There was a time when every major U.S. city had its own, unique set of department stores, each catering to a different clientele. In the book’s preface, Lisicky likens Woodward & Lothrop to a Buick, or what Buick once represented: more upmarket than a Chevy (Hecht’s), less exclusive than a Cadillac (Garfinckel’s). Like the U.S. automobile industry, stores such as these faced great challenges. Unlike General Motors, they and others didn’t survive. “Woodward & Lothrop never strived to be the best but certainly never found itself at the bottom,” Lisicky writes. “The store was famous for being better and became a store where you wanted to shop, not a store where you had to shop.” The store was in many ways a pioneer. Founded in 1880 by two transplanted New Englanders — Samuel Walter Woodward and Alvin Mason Lothrop — it was the first retailer of its kind in Washington to do away with haggling. The first store was called the Boston Dry Goods House and featured a big sign that read “One Price.” Its fabrics could be examined, an advertisement promised, with “no one importuned to purchase.” D.C.’s homegrown department store is detailed in the 160-page paperback. By 1886, the name had changed to Woodward & Lothrop, and the founders were busy expanding into Richmond and Baltimore. More expansion was to come. Lisicky doesn’t shy away from the racism practiced at Woodward & Lothrop. Most of the District’s white-owned department stores were explicitly or casually racist — not allowing African Americans to shop or dine; maintaining separate restrooms when blacks finally were allowed; hiring few


U.S. officials have low expectations ahead of meetings with Russia and Ukraine

has been extremely destabilizing in the east,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly ahead of the meeting. Secretary of State John Kerry is surrounded by security as he arrives in Geneva, Wednesday, where he is scheduled to participate in talks on the ongoing situation in Ukraine with representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the European Union. (Jim Bourg/AP) At the White House, senior Obama aides tempered expectations about a potential breakthrough and reiterated that they have agreed with European allies about enacting additional economic sanctions if Russia does not help to de-escalate the situation. White House press secretary Jay Carney, talking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Pennsylvania, where Obama spoke about the economy, emphasized that although the discussions in Geneva were important, the president believes that “talk is one thing, but action is another.” The severity of the likely sanctions will be determined, U.S. officials said, by the outcome of the meeting between Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, Andrii Deshchytsia, as well as by the situation in Ukraine. White House officials said their European partners are on board with the range of options that the administration is ready to act on if Moscow refuses to make concessions. The administration is reluctant to impose threatened sanctions against entire Russian economic sectors absent an invasion of Ukraine and assurances that the Europeans are on board. But it is prepared to impose asset freezes and visa bans on additional Russian individuals and would like Europe to match those measures. In Geneva, Kerry and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, will seek to create the conditions to allow Deshchytsia and Lavrov to “look first and foremost for ways to de-escalate the security situation, which has gotten significantly more perilous over the past 10 days,” thanks to activities that “we believe have been aided and abetted by Russian organization, Russian supplies, Russian money,” the State Department official said. Before the four diplomats meet at lunchtime, Lavrov is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Deshchytsia, U.S. officials said. Kerry will also hold separate sessions with each of the other participants, including his fourth meeting on Ukraine in recent weeks with Lavrov. Neither the previous Kerry-Lavrov meetings, nor U.S. and European asset freezes and visa bans imposed against a group of Russian financiers and officials close to Putin,


Under zoning code, few restrictions on what can be built on NE property

Rod Davis, left, and Mark Manivong discuss an upcoming neighborhood meeting to organize opposition to a five-story “pop-up” on A Street. (J. Lawler Duggan/For The Washington Post) The two sides of the 1500 block of A Street NE look very similar. Both are lined with idyllic two-story, single-family homes. Most of the houses have stoops and small front yards. The north side is likely to stay that way; it’s off-limits to developers and businesses. But on the south side, there may soon be a five-story condominium looming over the neighbors. That’s because under the District’s zoning code, the property at 1511 A St. has few restrictions on what can be built there, beyond limiting the height to 50 feet. And the new owner, developer Taiwo Demuren, wants to “bring to the neighborhood condominiums that will not be pricing out those who want to live in Capitol Hill,” he said. Residents opposed to Demuren’s plans say the development would not fit in with the neighborhood. “We’ve had these 100-year-old homes here forever, and nobody ever thought this was zoned commercial,” said neighbor Brian Weeks. The house at 1511 A St. was left abandoned when its occupants died in 2004. The garage units behind it fell into disrepair and became home to drug dealers and high school students looking for a place to hang out, according to neighbors, who have erected flood lights and cameras to deter vandals. Eight years later, Demuren bought the 90-year-old house for $1.5 million. He wants to replace it with an 18-unit condominium development. And despite growing opposition from neighbors, it is very possible he will be able to do so. Residential neighborhoods that stretch from Union Station to the D.C. Armory include pockets that have been zoned for commercial use. Neighbors think their block’s zoning dates to the 1890s, when the nearby Car Barn condominium complex was used to store and repair streetcars. D.C. Office of Zoning Director Sara Bardin said the zoning hasn’t changed since at least 1958. “It’s just something that’s been overlooked over the years,” said Mark Manivong, who lives across the street from the proposed condominium. Manivong and his husband, Sam, moved into their home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood 11 years ago. The daily commute to the Library of Congress and the affordability of the house made it an easy choice. Since then, they said they have come to love the


Charles Lane: Heed Massachusetts’s cry for help in opioid regulation

Correction: Massachusetts has lost its bid to ban a new prescription opioid pain medication known as Zohydro. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that only the Food and Drug Administration can decide what medications are safe and effective enough for sale in the United States. As a matter of law, the judge, Rya Zobel, was almost certainly correct; Congress has had supremacy in this particular field ever since the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. As a matter of policy and morality, however, Massachusetts and its Democratic governor, Deval Patrick, were in the right: The Bay State’s attempt to block Zohydro was a cry for help that Congress and the Obama administration would be well-advised to heed. Patrick was responding to a surge in opiate overdoses, many of them fatal. The trend is more than a decade old in the Bay State but has reached alarming heights in recent months, as prescription drug addicts turn to cheaper heroin. Massachusetts is not unique. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 16,500 people died from overdoses of prescription narcotics in 2010; that’s quadruple the number in 1999. A collection of cartoons from around the country. Among the most heavily abused pain medications is Vicodin, a blend of opioid hydrocodone and non-opioid acetaminophen. Zohydro, which the FDA approved in October, is pure hydrocodone. And Zohydro comes in a form addicts can pulverize, then snort or inject for an immediate rush. All Patrick wanted was to prevent sales of pure hydrocodone until “adequate measures are in place to safeguard against the potential for diversion, overdose and misuse,” according to a statement. Citing the same addiction risks, an FDA panel of expert advisers voted 11 to 2 in late 2012 against approval for Zohydro; more than two dozen state attorneys general also urged the FDA not to green-light the drug. But the agency plowed ahead, citing the need for an opioid that patients with long-term pain can take without fear of liver damage, a potential side effect of acetaminophen. It was an astonishing decision, not only because of the countervailing public health considerations but also the fact that another company was, and still is, close to producing a tamper-resistant equivalent drug. Why the hurry? To be sure, more and more of the overdoses that alarm Patrick and others are due to heroin, not prescription drugs. Critics of drug-control efforts say that government


Teenager arrested in Heartbleed hacking; Bank of America reports losses over legal fees

34 percent in the first quarter, more than expected, as bond-market woes hurt earnings at its investment banking business. Profit dropped to $975 million from $1.5 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Group core revenues fell 8 percent to $7.3 billion. The bank said it saw lower revenues and earnings at its investment banking division, which faced “a challenging market environment.” ● The Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange in Tokyo is headed for liquidation after the Tokyo District Court rejected its bankruptcy protection application. After Mt. Gox went offline in February, its chief executive Mark Karpeles said 850,000 bitcoins worth several hundred million dollars were unaccounted for. Later, Mt. Gox found 200,000 of the bitcoins, changing the estimate for the lost virtual currency to 650,000 bitcoins, although the exact amount is still under investigation. ● IBM’s first-quarter earnings fell and revenue came in below Wall Street’s expectations amid an ongoing decline in its hardware business. IBM said it earned $2.38 billion in the January-March period. That’s down 21 percent from $3.03 billion a year earlier. Revenue fell 4 percent to $22.5 billion, below the $22.9 billion that analysts expected. The biggest drop was in its systems and technology unit, or hardware, where revenue tumbled 23 percent to $2.39 billion from $3.11 billion. ● A Federal Reserve survey shows economic growth picking up across most of the United States over the past two months as bitter winter weather subsided. Ten of the Fed’s 12 regions reported an increase in economic activity, according to the Beige Book survey. In most places, the Fed described the improvement as “modest or moderate.” Only Cleveland and St. Louis reported slower growth. The Beige Book is based on anecdotal reports from businesses and will be considered along with other data when Fed policymakers meet April 29-30. ● McLean-based Capital One reported first-quarter net income of $1.14 billion. That compares with net income of $1.04 billion in the same period of 2013. Revenue dipped 3 percent to $5.37 billion from $5.55 billion. The lender said loans fell in its U.S. credit card division and home loans dropped, too. Loans for cars and commercial real estate increased, nudging total loans up compared with the first quarter of 2013. — From news services Coming Today ● 8:30 a.m.: Weekly jobless claims. ● 10 a.m.: Weekly mortgage rates. ● Earnings: General Electric, Goldman Sachs Group, Mattel, Morgan Stanley, PepsiCo.


Local digest: A roundup of D.C. area news briefs

THE DISTRICT NE man charged in double slaying A 22-year-old District man has been charged with fatally shooting two people in July 2013, according to D.C. police. Carlton Maurice Johnson of Northeast Washington was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder while armed in the deaths of Anthony Chase, 19, and Eric Leeper, 27, both of Southeast, police said. Police said the shootings occurred the night of July 17 on Ridge Road SE. A third person was shot but survived, police said. — Rohan A. Nadkarni New lawsuit filed in Navy Yard massacre Attorneys for the family of a victim of last year’s Washington Navy Yard mass shooting filed a wrongful death suit in Florida alleging negligence on the part of the federal government and two contracting companies. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Hillsborough County Circuit Court on behalf of the family of Mary Frances DeLorenzo Knight, and it makes claims similar to those in a federal suit that was dismissed last year for procedural reasons. It also includes new claims based on the government’s investigations, said Sidney L. Matthew, one of the family’s attorneys. The new suit takes particular aim at the contractors who employed Aaron Alexis, 34, identified as the lone gunman who killed 12 people — including Knight, a computer scientist from Reston — before he was fatally shot. The contractors are accused, for instance, of failing to report concerns about Alexis’s mental stability. Matthew said another key point of the suit is the government’s failure to secure the Navy Yard and to respond appropriately to signs of mental health problems exhibited by Alexis in the months and years before the massacre. — Matt Zapotosky VIRGINIA Charges filed after apartment standoff A 62-year-old McLean man has been charged with several felonies related to a standoff with Fairfax County authorities at a Tysons Corner apartment complex. The incident began about 2 a.m. Tuesday when police went to the apartment complex, in the 8300 block of Greensboro Drive, to investigate a noise complaint. Authorities said that Michael Gordon was in an apartment he refused to leave and would not allow police to enter and that he told officers he had a gun and threatened to shoot them. Officers also smelled what was described as a “hazardous material” and evacuated three floors of the complex. An unidentified liquid was found, and officials said it was being tested


Scientists breed a better seed, trait by trait

with the extremes of climate change. But critics of Big Agriculture worry about the needs of small-scale farmers and breeders. Low-tech conventional breeding — judging plants by how they look and perform, not by their DNA — has been the lifeblood of small seed companies and local growers, often in conjunction with breeding programs at land-grant universities. But those programs have shrunk by a third in recent years, and the remaining ones are increasingly gravitating to the trendy sphere of molecular breeding. Organic farmers, who need crop varieties designed for specific regions and less-intensive growing methods, are not being served by the new applied science, said John Navazio, a senior scientist with the Organic Seed Alliance. “There used to be a significant winter spinach production area in southern Virginia and Delmarva, and that’s completely gone,” he said. The spinach-growing industry has moved to megagrowers in California and Arizona. Progress comes sooner Few observers, though, expect plant scientists to abandon a technology that has already yielded significant results. One of the earliest validations of marker-assisted breeding came in 2009 with the introduction of a rice variety in India that could survive complete submersion after monsoons, which earned it the nickname “scuba rice.” Once the genetic marker was identified, the variety was developed in just three years by scientists at the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, the Philippines. The key was to create rice that looked and performed like the existing one favored by Indian farmers — so that it would be accepted — but with the flood-tolerant gene, said Glenn Gregorio, a senior rice breeder with the institute. The organization has since released more than 10 additional monsoon-resistant varieties to flood-prone areas of India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines. The varieties would have been extremely difficult to create with conventional breeding, he said, and taken decades to achieve. The big multinational companies, including Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont Pioneer, Bayer CropScience and Dow AgroSciences, have invested heavily in the new plant-breeding programs, which will increasingly require colossal data-processing abilities. “In many ways, the company has gone beyond” genetic engineering, said Robert T. Fraley, Monsanto’s chief scientist. “The breeding technology has changed dramatically in the last few years.” Marker-assisted breeding won’t bring an end to GMOs, scientists say, because genetically engineered crops can achieve highly specific tasks now unobtainable through even marker-assisted breeding. But given the obstacles to GMO development — $100


million to create one variety, at least 10 years for regulatory approval and widespread public opposition — marker-assisted breeding has become alluring to such companies as Monsanto. It is attractive because it is a powerful tool to assemble an array of desirable traits in a plant. A GMO plant, by contrast, has been engineered for a specific task — such as containing a bacterium that would kill a certain pest. “GM really hasn’t delivered on its promises,” said Janet Cotter, a scientist with Greenpeace’s international science unit in Exeter, England. “For more-complex traits, I think people are seeing marker-assisted selection as a lot more valuable.” The rice institute’s Gregorio said that about 5 percent of its breeding programs involve genetically engineered varieties, while marker-assisted varieties account for as much as 15 percent. In a decade, probably two-thirds of its introductions will be developed through next-generation advanced molecular breeding, he said. A matter of taste For developing nations, the technology promises to avert certain crop disasters; for the supermarket shopper in the West, it might bring a whole new experience: flavor. Seed companies acknowledge that in their quest to improve yield and shelf life, the taste has suffered, but they say that advanced breeding is bringing heirloom flavors back to industrialized varieties. “This is one area where [marker-assisted] breeding begins to make an impact,” said Alexander Tokarz, head of vegetables for Syngenta, the Swiss biotech giant. “Early on, we brought shelf life into tomatoes and lost the flavor.” The technology has been around for about 20 years but has become much easier and less expensive to use in the past few years, and consumers are only now seeing the results. Precision-bred cucumbers, peppers and other vegetables are showing up in supermarkets, but the unlabeled and brandless nature of loose produce makes it difficult to distinguish them, said Carly Scaduto, a spokeswoman for Monsanto. Some varieties of Monsanto’s improved-nutrition broccoli — branded as Beneforté — became widely available in 2012. Last year, the company introduced Debut, an advanced hybrid tomato for growers and home gardeners. A group of blight-resistant peppers are in the final stage of testing before their commercial introduction, she said. Felix Serquen, who heads Syngenta’s tomato-breeding research in Woodland, this year is introducing a beefsteak for California growers that resists the nematode, a root pest. He is launching another variety — SevenTY III — that resists a strain of


Wal-Mart introduces money-transfer service

Wal-Mart is launching a new domestic money transfer service called "Walmart-2-Walmart" to compete directly with Western Union. (John Gress/Reuters) Wal-Mart introduced its own money-transfer service Thursday, moving one step closer to becoming one of the biggest financial services providers in the nation. The service, called Walmart-2-Walmart, allows customers to transfer funds between any of its 4,000 U.S. locations, enabling the big-box retailer to claim a cut of the market now served by Western Union and MoneyGram. The recipient can access the money with a personal identification number. Wal-Mart will charge $4.50 for any transaction under $50 and $9.50 for larger transfers up to $900. That’s substantially cheaper than MoneyGram, which has branches inside Wal-Mart stores across the country. “We are leveraging our size and our scale to make a difference for our customers,” Daniel Eckert, vice president of financial services for Wal-Mart U.S., said in a call with reporters. Officials at Wal-Mart say the new service will have broad appeal among the “unbanked” and “underbanked,” the 28 percent of Americans with limited or no access to the traditional banking system. That population tends to use alternative financial firms such as check cashers that also offer bill pay and money order services. Over the years, Wal-Mart has tried to siphon off those customers by providing the same products at lower rates. “Walmart-2-Walmart is really an extension of our broad assortment of everyday financial services that we offer to our customers,” Eckert said. “This is about providing those everyday financial services for less and making sure that they can save a little here and there.” The company broadened its reach two years ago with the introduction of Bluebird, a prepaid American Express card that functions like a bank account. Wal-Mart aimed the card squarely at customers of the banking industry, which has fought vigorously to keep the retailer from obtaining a bank charter. Company executives have said Wal-Mart is no longer interested in delving into banking, especially when its current strategy affords many of the same benefits without the regulatory headaches. Indeed, the retailer capped the transfer amount at $900 to avoid triggering regulations that require companies to file activity reports. “By capping the amount at $900, we could reduce some of the additional complexities that come with sending and receiving money in the U.S.,” Eckert said. “If you could structure your service in a way to operate for less at a


Prince George’s and Southern Maryland Going Out Guide, April 17-23, 2014

The U.S. Marine Corps band “The President’s Own” performs during the presidential Inauguration last year. The band is coming to Bowie for a free concert Thursday. (Ricky Carioti/THE WASHINGTON POST) THU 17 Bowie puppet show Break Into Spring Fun “A Spring Serenade: An Evening of Song” Wake Campbell “Freedom Bound” “Time Capsule: 1944” FRI 18 WES Group: Het Heru Productions “An Evening With Sonia Sanchez” “Hero: The Rock Opera” SAT 19 BAY-CSS Walk, Run Roll “Eagles, Earth Day and Sotterley” Greenbelt’s annual egg hunt Aqua egg hunt Kids Capital Spring Fling “The Man Who Planted Trees” “Die Fledermaus” Korean Percussion Ensemble Mezmerize Band featuring Paul Wills and Alicia Williams SUN 20 “Insta-Artist: Snap It. Send It. Show It.” MON 21 Hippity Hop Bunny Bash TUE 22 New Music at Maryland Framewerk Band WED 23 CSM Latin Music Festival “In the Hall of the Mountain King” — Compiled by Jillian S. Jarrett from staff reports ‘Time Capsule: 1944’ 3Mark the 70th anniversary of World War II’s D-Day as the U.S. Marine band “The President’s Own” performs a tribute to popular music of 1944. Thursday at 7:30-8:30 p.m. Bowie Center for the Performing Arts, 15200 Annapolis Rd., Bowie. 202-433-4011. 301-805-9566. www.marineband.marines.mil. Free.


Earth-size, ‘Goldilocks-zone’ planet found in distant solar system

at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who was not involved in the study. Also, the transit method provides information about a planet’s size — but not about its mass. “Because you don’t get the mass, you don’t know if it’s a big rock, or a small rock with a big, gaseous atmosphere,” Hansen said. While a smaller radius does mean Kepler-186f has a higher probability of having a rocky rather than gaseous surface, scientists at this point can only speculate about its physical composition. Tidal locking — when a planet orbits with the same side always facing its star — has not been ruled out for Kepler-186f. The absence of a day-night cycle wouldn’t rule out life entirely, but it would make for a world very different from ours. “It would have one sunny side and the other would be permanently dark, meaning it wouldn’t have an Earth-like climate,” said atmospheric scientist James Kasting of Penn State University, also not a part of the Kepler team. Quintana says that the planet is “more of an Earth cousin” than a twin — but experts seem to agree that further composition analysis of bodies like Kepler-186f is a necessary next step to find out what these Earth-like exoplanets are really like. “Earth-like planets are very common — they’re actually all over the place,” said Kipping. “Now we just need to find the closest one.” In 2017, NASA will launch the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which will use an array of wide-field cameras to identify nearby exoplanets for further mass, composition and atmospheric analysis. The James Webb Space Telescope. scheduled to be launched in 2018, will serve as the fine-toothed comb that measures the physical and chemical properties of those planets to assess the potential for life. But some scientists argue that the transit method, which TESS will also use, has drawbacks. In some ways, it requires a happy accident to work — the planet has to be aligned edge-wise along the observer’s line of sight, passing between the observer and the star. A tighter orbit around the star or a larger planet-to-star size ratio can increase the probability of seeing the characteristic dip in light values. But this leaves many exoplanets and star systems largely undetected. For instance, even Earth itself — given its distance from the Sun and comparatively small size — would likely not be easy to spot using


U.S., E.U., Russia strike a balance on Ukraine

that deadline. “De-escalation” does not mean that Vladimir Putin has given up his goal of bringing as much of Ukraine as possible under Moscow’s suzerainty — and making the rest ungovernable. His performance in a televised appearance Thursday, in which he reiterated that the Russian parliament had given him authority to invade eastern Ukraine and referred to the region as “new Russia,” made clear that his ambition to upend the post-Cold War order in Europe remains unchecked. Moscow is still demanding constitutional changes that would make the eastern regions virtually independent and give them a veto over national policies. Mr. Kerry said that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated that the Russian troops still massed on Ukraine’s borders would be drawn down only “as the constitutional process unfolds.” In other words, Moscow reserves the right to use force if it does not get the chopped-up Ukraine it wants. Ukraine’s government has promised decentralizing reforms. But any new political order that satisfies the imperative of an independent nation capable of making its own decisions about economic relationships and alliances will not be acceptable to Mr. Putin. If he slows his creeping invasion of Ukraine, it must be seen as a tactical maneuver. The Russian ruler is avoiding Western sanctions that might have targeted more members of his inner circle while giving Ukraine’s government the chance to give in to his demands. He appears to hope that the Obama administration and European Union will lean on Kiev to comply. “The U.S. authorities have assured us,” said Mr. Lavrov, “that the constitutional reform will take place.” All those concerns notwithstanding, Mr. Kerry was justified in calling the Geneva accord “a good day’s work.” If it is implemented, Ukraine could be diverted from a downward spiral that could have led to civil war. The United States and its allies must now ensure that Russia genuinely puts an end to its intervention — and that Ukraine is not forced into unacceptable concessions in order to prevent another one. Read more about this issue: The Post’s View: It’s probably too late to prevent war in Ukraine The Post’s View: Russia will respond only to increased sanctions over Ukraine The Post’s View: The U.S. should not shut out Ukraine David Ignatius: The cost of Putin’s adventurism in Ukraine George F. Will: Russia’s brutality with Ukraine is nothing new Madeleine Albright and Jim O’Brien: The West’s obligation to Ukraine


Where We Live: Whiskey Bottom, brimming with history in Md.

between her job at the Social Security Administration in Greenbelt and the Baltimore office of that same agency where her husband, Tom, works. They chose a four-bedroom model home in the Kingswood subdivision of Whiskey Bottom. The $192,000 property came with bay windows, a hot tub and, from the back yard, a serene, woodsy view of wetlands that remain undisturbed by development. “She found the house and came back and told me,” Tom said. “I liked it. It is convenient for anywhere you want to go, Baltimore or Washington.” “We would all get together and do things with our neighbors,” said Linda. “At Halloween and Christmas, everyone had dueling decorations.” From spirits to ice cream: Today, the community, five minutes north of Main Street, offers a diverse list of enterprises. They include Laurel Park Race Course; the Newseum Support Center, where most of the displays for the Newseum in downtown Washington are crafted; and a behemoth Nestle ice cream plant, one of the largest in the United States, churning out brands such as Edy’s and Haagen-Dazs. Ghosts and the Redskins: In 1993, Whiskey Bottom Road came close to hosting Washington’s top-rated sports team, when Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke bought land on which to build a stadium. After months of emotional debate, a zoning examiner rejected the application on the grounds the property was too small to support such a massive project. Living there: In the past 14 months, 136 homes sold in Whiskey Bottom, at prices ranging from $110,000 for a townhouse condo to $600,000 for a four-bedroom, 31 / 2-bathroom Colonial, said Boyd McGinn, an agent with Re/Max in Columbia. Of those homes, 80 were detached single-family units, 51 were townhouses and the remaining five homes were one-to-four-floor garden condos. Twenty-five properties are currently listed for sale, and 37 others are under contract. “Over the past 10 years, Whiskey Bottom has experienced extensive growth in both housing and neighborhood amenities,” McGinn said. “New exits from Route 216 have made entering and leaving the area more driver friendly than ever. This vibrant neighborhood is an ideal commute location and one of the favorites for homeowners commuting into D.C. or to Fort Meade.” Chop suey and skateboarding: The North Laurel Community Center offers residents a tennis court, skateboard park, gymnasium and workout room. You can join a walking club or take classes in watercolor painting. Schools: Transit: Crime: Tony Glaros


Gian Gentile: The U.S. Army must remain prepared for battle

North Korean army of 1950 — from Kuwait. In 1991, the U.S. Army was not only better trained and had better resources; it was also working as part of a joint force. Virtually no Americans anticipated either the North Korean attack in 1950 or Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait 40 years later. That seems to be the pattern: U.S. presidents send the Army to resolve unexpected crises, ready or not. The world today presents a wide array of potential threats to U.S. interests, including a failed North Korean state losing control of its weapons of mass destruction, the morass of civil war in Syria, an aggressive and expansionist Russia or China, or still-unforeseen humanitarian crises in Africa and other areas. If called upon, the U.S. Army would deploy and engage in peacekeeping operations or major combat between state and non-state actors. In any event, it needs to be ready. Some have argued that after the frustrating wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is little American appetite to send the Army into foreign lands, whether to fight, build nations or distribute humanitarian supplies. This line of thinking holds that the U.S. Air Force, Navy or Marine Corps can handle most of the security problems the world throws our way. Defense expert Kori Schake and retired Navy admiral Gary Roughead, for example, argued last year that the Army should be reduced to about 290,000 soldiers and have a large part of its capacity for ground combat moved to the National Guard and Reserve, in effect turning it into a constabulary force capable of humanitarian missions — in other words, an army that can’t fight. A more recent recommendation is for the Army to be reduced to 125,000 soldiers who are highly trained and backed up by the National Guard and Reserve. These arguments resemble those made in the years leading up to North Korea’s invasion of South Korea. Then, too, it seemed that the world did not need an army that could fight; it was assumed that American ownership of atomic bombs would somehow do the trick. The result was a near disaster on the Korean Peninsula. Even though Ridgway’s forces held, American casualties were higher than if the Army had been prepared to fight. Will the U.S. Army be reduced in size in the coming years? Budget reductions and a changing strategic environment demand a smaller, reorganized army. However, converting it into


Ecologists track D.C. osprey’s long journey home — from South America to the Anacostia

osprey named Ron were captured on the river last spring and fitted with small transmitters that enabled scientists to follow their travels via satellite when they migrated south last fall and returned this spring. The project was headed by the Earth Conservation Corps, an urban ecology organization founded by residents of southeast Washington and dedicated to the preservation of the city’s environment. The corps has been crucial to the return of the Anacostia to health, by advocating for its wildlife and cleaning debris and refuse from the river. There are now about 40 osprey living on the river, the corps estimates. And by arranging for the osprey tracking, the corps has provided an important batch of information about the details of their migration, and the remote locales where they spend the winter. The organization has a base on the river, not far from a local osprey colony, and is supported by, among others, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier. “They’re amazing birds,” said Lanier, who was on hand last year when the birds were fitted with the transmitters. She said she climbed to where the nests were on the bridge abutments and helped remove the osprey. “Raptors are big birds,” she said. “I don’t think most people realize just how big they are . . . [but] they’re amazingly light considering their size.” Both birds, which have yellow eyes and special talons to grab slippery fish, flew to South America. Ron, who wintered between two tributaries of the Amazon River in northwestern Brazil, returned April 10. Rodney got back less than 48 hours later. Bob Nixon, a local falconer who helped start the corps, said that 20 years ago there were no ospreys on the Anacostia. It was so polluted there were few fish to be had. And before that, the pesticide DDT got into the fish that were in the area. When raptors ate those fish, it resulted in weakening the birds’ eggshells, he said. “Ospreys got wiped out,” he said. After the pesticide was banned in the 1970s and the river was cleaned up, ospreys were spotted again by the mid-1990s. “We were the ones that were actually here when they came back,” said Rodney Stotts, a falconer, a founding member of the corps, and the man for whom one of the birds is named. “Slowly we started seeing more species of fish come back and more birds


For 2013 Boston Marathon non-finishers, a second chance in 2014

was multiplied by the fact few runners had cellphones, and even those who did soon discovered cell service was spotty at best. “There was no cell service. Going on Facebook was the only way to get information or contact people,” said Rosenthal, the 64-year-old Bethesda resident. “It was the first day in my life I saw the value in social networks.” Smith, the 44-year-old Annapolis resident, borrowed a phone from a stranger to text his wife that he was okay. A combat-hardened military man, Smith had only started running after surviving a helicopter crash and being encouraged to take it up as part of his physical therapy. Boston was going to be his one and only marathon. But that day, shaken by what had just happened, he started walking, on legs that had just run 25 1 / 4 miles, toward his hotel three miles away. Encountering some race volunteers, visible by their yellow jackets, he told them how close he had been to finishing, and one of them pulled out an extra medal from a bag she was carrying and presented it to him. “If I was a crier,” Smith said, “that would have done it.” ‘I feel an obligation’ In May 2013, after finishing up her finals at Shenandoah University, Hoffsis, the 25-year-old Rockville native, joined some friends in Boston and wound up making an impromptu dash down Boylston Street — traffic and all — covering that last half-mile and thus completing, if only symbolically, her Boston Marathon. “It was awesome to be able to finish, even if I was surrounded by cars,” Hoffsis said. But around the same time, the Boston Athletic Association made an announcement: All 2013 entrants who were forced to abort the race but who were past the halfway point would be considered, at least for official purposes, finishers. Thus did Ben Beach learn his consecutive-finishes streak was still alive, at 46 years and counting. “That was a relief,” he said. “I appreciate them giving us the benefit of the doubt because all of us with the long streaks — we would have gotten across the finish line, one way or another, if the tragedy hadn’t happened.” And soon thereafter, Jackie Ebert, a 49-year-old from Chevy Chase, opened a piece of e-mail from the Boston Athletic Association and found inside her extrapolated finish time: 4 hours 35 minutes. It wasn’t a time she was


After longest labor dispute in U.S. orchestral history, Osmo Vänskä considers his options

“Obviously, if he doesn’t come back, we will go find a new music director. I don’t think that’s a quick process, or an easy process. Him coming back would just make life easier and better all around.” If he does return, it will hardly be to the same orchestra that he left. A number of key players have departed during the lockout, and part of the agreement that was finally reached involves a decrease in the size of the orchestra. A long period of rebuilding lies ahead: reestablishing trust between players, administration and audiences. “I have to perform with those players who are there,” Vänskä says of the departures, “not with those who are not there. . . . I try to take that challenge and work harder.” “I think we can all learn something,” he said, “[from] these obvious hard times which are around us. I think that classical music is always going to be here, as long as there are human beings. But I think that everyone has to think about what is the right way to take care of classical music. It is not the first time when there are problems. I don’t know if there has ever been something which is not called difficult time, in history. I think it’s always time to try to adjust.” Plenty of attention has been focused, in recent years, on the ongoing struggles of this particular “difficult time” in the history of classical music organizations and to questions of whether any given case study is representative of the problems of the field in general, or an anomaly resulting from a particular constellation of leadership and challenges. Less attention is paid to an attendant phenomenon: the idea that struggle can help vitalize artistic achievement. That idea is a 20th-century trope, a popular myth grown up around, for instance, many Soviet artists who managed to get their work out regardless of official sanctions. But there are certainly examples to be found today: the Detroit Symphony, enjoying a notably energetic period after a long and potentially damaging strike, or the Milwaukee Symphony, which recently staved off imminent closure with a successful fund-raising campaign. Certainly the Minnesota Orchestra Musicians, playing under their own name during the lockout, gave what were, by all accounts, some memorable concerts. It remains to be seen whether Vänskä and “his” ensemble will be able to forge a new and


Boston Marathon 2014: Emily Cox, race’s youngest female, runs for ‘something bigger’

As the youngest female runner in the field, Emily Cox has been training hard for the Boston Marathon, waking up at 3:45 a.m. during the week to run before school. No one would fault Emily Cox if she decided to slack off a bit as second-semester seniors sometimes tend to do. She has taken and excelled in her courses at W.T. Woodson (including 12 Advanced Placement classes). She has found her passion in art history. The college acceptance letters are in — Virginia, William and Mary and Brown, with wait-list spots at Harvard and Columbia. But the 18-year-old Fairfax native is still getting up at 3:45 a.m. to run 10 miles before school. On Monday, Cox will compete in the 118th Boston Marathon as the youngest female runner in a field of 36,000. She runs long distances for the same reason as many runners — for her, it is a daily affirmation. It’s something she does for herself. It’s about the moment and about having some time, even if it’s just 90 minutes, when she is in control. It relieves stress from her academics and the pressures of daily life. She runs races to be a part of something bigger than herself. Her passion for running started three years ago when she joined a family tradition of running the Marine Corps Marathon. W.T. Woodson senior Emily Cox trains for her first Boston Marathon by running before or after school in her Fairfax neighborhood. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post) Cox set a goal to qualify for Boston because of her competitiveness and desire to be a part of one of the biggest marathons in the world. She earned her spot after months of training — most of it before the rest of her classmates had woken up — and a focus that rivals athletes twice her age. Cox doesn’t have Facebook, Twitter, any type of social media or a smart phone. She doesn’t like to listen to music during races or training. Running in the first Boston Marathon since the 2013 attack just means Cox will be more focused on her surroundings than usual, to take in the emotion of the race and remember why she and her fellow competitors are running . “I’ll have something to run for this year, more than me just trying to finish a marathon,” she said. “Ultimately I know I’ve trained well. I have to trust


Banks turn to video tellers to cut costs

But now, about two years since NCR began offering interactive tellers, larger banking giants such as Bank of America and U.S. Bank have begun rolling out the technology. “Retail banks today are under quite a bit of pressure,” Bailey said. “This allows them to continue to provide services without adding the expenses of a traditional branch.” The number of bank branches in the Washington area has been falling in recent years as banks face higher regulatory costs. There were 1,750 branches in the metro area as of June 2013, 28 fewer than the year before, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. (Nationally, 727 bank branches closed between mid-2012 and mid-2013.) Video tellers typically cost between $50,000 and $60,000, about the same as an ATM, Bailey said. At the State Employees Credit Union branch in College Park, members have been using interactive tellers for the past year. The credit union, which is headquartered in Linthicum, is using the new machines in a handful of branches, including one that opened last week in downtown Baltimore. “Customer reaction has been quite good,” said Peggy Tucker, senior vice president for member relations and branch operations at the credit union. “Members are easily adapting to the new technology.” The credit union’s four teller machines are manned by three employees who work in a central office at SECU’s headquarters. The arrangement is cheaper and more efficient than hiring additional employees at each location, Tucker said. “One of the biggest benefits of having the video teller is that we are able to offer expanded teller hours,” she said, adding that members can access the machines after-hours in the branch lobby. There are other upsides too, says Bailey: Say you want to withdraw more cash than the ATM allows, or want to cash a check down to the penny. (The teller machines come stocked with a range of coins and bills for this purpose, he said.) “Or if you have to do a number of complex transactions together — deposit a check, pay a bill and maybe get some cash back, that’s a set of transactions that’s much easier to do face-to-face,” he said. Still, he added, certain needs, such as opening a bank account or applying for a loan, must still be done in person. The machine “does 95 percent of what a teller can do inside the branch,” Bailey said. “But not everything.”


U.S. and Japan wrangle over details in Trans-Pacific Partnership deal

pants. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan dismissed shareholder claims against the Vancouver, B.C.-based company, founder and director Dennis Wilson and former chief executive Christine McCormick Day. Forrest said the investors failed to show that statements made by company officials were false and misleading. ● Canadian Pacific Railway told a U.S. federal oversight board that moving fertilizer for spring planting does not present a “significant challenge” for the railroad. Recent service problems in the U.S. rail network spurred the Surface Transportation Board to hold a hearing last week, during which farmers and representatives for agriculture producers said rail delays could disrupt planting. The board ordered Canadian Pacific and BNSF Railway to report their plans by Friday to ensure timely delivery of fertilizer, which helps boost production of wheat, corn and other crops. ● U.S. newspaper industry revenue continued to fall last year, as increases in circulation revenue failed to offset shrinking demand for print advertising. The Newspaper Association of America said the industry’s revenue fell 2.6 percent to $37.59 billion in 2013. ● Plaintiffs’ lawyers are seeking to draw Continental Automotive Systems U.S., the maker of airbag systems in recalled General Motors vehicles, into litigation over an ignition-switch defect that has been linked to 13 deaths. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in California is the first to name Continental, a subsidiary of German automotive supplier Continental, in a growing wave of litigation over GM’s recall, which has so far encompassed 2.6 million vehicles. Continental made airbag systems for the recalled cars, including sensors that determine if and when the airbags go off in an accident, according to the suit. ● Rengan Rajaratnam, the brother of imprisoned hedge-fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, lost a bid in federal court in Manhattan to dismiss insider-trading charges and to exclude evidence gathered from government wiretaps. The trial of Rengan Rajaratnam, who is charged with six counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy, is scheduled to begin June 17. ● Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi cut taxes for 10 million low earners to try to boost household spending after a two-year recession, making good on a promise he made after taking office two months ago. The $9.5 billion in tax cuts will be funded by a mix of spending reductions, one-off windfalls and a “review” of spending on Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet, Renzi told reporters. — From news services


New killer virus should be fought with Saudi honesty

ONE OF the most worrisome threats from a novel coronavirus first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012 has been the possibility of rapid and sustained human-to-human transmission. The virus, named Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, is still somewhat mysterious, and much remains unknown about how it spreads. There is no effective vaccine or antiviral treatment. Recent research suggests that camels have been a reservoir for the virus, but many people infected had no contact with camels. So far, there have been limited examples of transmission from one person to another in close contact, but at the outset, the virus did not appear to be leaping ahead in a way that would threaten an epidemic, as did another coronavirus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome, a decade ago. However, recent disclosures have been disquieting. In the last week or so, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have reported clusters of cases in hospitals and among health-care workers. These clusters could signal a shift in how the virus behaves. On April 13 and 14, the UAE reported a cluster of 10 laboratory-confirmed cases among health-care workers who were screened after one worker died. Saudi Arabia has been struggling against an outbreak in a hospital in Jiddah, where several clusters, including in health-care workers, have been revealed in recent weeks. The total in Jiddah is now more than 40 cases. Also, new cases were reported in recent days in Malaysia, where a man died after returning from a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, and in the Philippines, where a paramedic who was infected in the UAE tested positive after he returned home. It seems logical to conclude that when health-care workers are becoming infected, either they are not following infection-control procedures or the virus is on the move among people. After all, camels are not sitting in hospital waiting rooms. The World Health Organization says there have been 243 laboratory-confirmed infections from the first case in September 2012 until now, including 93 deaths. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health reports 224 cases and 74 deaths in the kingdom. Unfortunately, there is far too little information about the virus coming from Saudi Arabia. The Jiddah hospital closed its emergency room temporarily, but the Wall Street Journal quoted a doctor there saying she wished the whole hospital would be closed down until the virus is dealt with. What happened? We don’t know. There have been reports


The Gate: Newseum exhibit captures year in photos

Islam Bibi, 15, clutches her severely malnourished 8-month-old son, Samiullah, as they receive treatment at a hospital in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. Malnutrition in Afghan children has skyrocketed since 2012, as more families are displaced by war. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images/The New York Times) The otherworldly sight of African migrants, lit only by the moon and the light of their cellphones, held aloft, trying to grab signals from nearby Somalia to call their relatives. The terror of a mall turned battleground after a brazen attack in Kenya. A severely malnourished child crying out from her mother’s burqa at an Afghan hospital. The best photojournalists have a way of capturing a whole of a complex story in a single frame and, with their artistry, make it live in our memory long after news has marched on. News pictures too good to forget from last year have been honored and are being displayed in the Pictures of the Year 2013 exhibition that has become an anticipated tradition at the Newseum. The show opens Friday for a five-month run through Sept. 1. 4 Years the Newseum has partnered with Pictures of the Year International to display the best of their annual contest, which is the oldest photojournalism contest in the world. The partnership began in 2011 when the Newseum displayed winners from the 2010 Pictures of the Year. 82 Number of award-winning photos in this year’s exhibit, chosen from 1,446 award-winning photos from the Pictures of the Year International competition that were sent to the Newseum for consideration. Of those on display, 16 are black-and-white and 66 color. 58,000 Number of entries originally sent to Pictures of the Year International, a nonprofit academic program of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism dedicated to journalism development. The annual competition began in 1944, when 60 photographers entered 233 prints. 49 Number of photographers featured in this year’s exhibit, 15 of whom are represented with multiple images. None have more in the show than New Zealand-born freelance photographer Robin Hammond, who has six. Hammond won the contest’s World Understanding Award for his series “Condemned — Mental Health in African Countries in Crisis” and got an award of excellence for a portrait series, “I Am Lagos.” 10 Number of female photographers featured. They include Barbara Davidson of the Los Angeles Times, who was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year and who,


Small business guide: How to collect, analyze and protect your company’s data

M Moreover, your employees can access and share that information any time from anywhere, and that can and increase your efficiency. Of course, it increases the number of risks, too. “Small businesses are actually at greater risk than many of the large corporations, because hackers are going to go after the low-hanging fruit, the ones they don’t think are protected,” said Tyler Cohen Wood, a senior officer and cyber branch chief for the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington. Here’s what small business owners need to know about gathering, analyzing and (most importantly) protecting their company’s data: Embracing big data Experts say small companies have much to gain by analyzing readily available information. Often, the most useful data for small businesses is the information concerning their customers, said Brian Sutter, director of marketing for Wasp Barcode Technologies in Plano, Tex. Software that helps companies see who is buying their products (and who they are missing) has come down in price, he said, and it often mines data from marketing or accounting software companies are already using. Software products such as Salesforce and SugarCRM can capture and analyze large amounts of data about your customers, sales patterns and marketing campaigns, and both can sync up with popular accounting software such as Quickbooks and Xero. Other services, like Kaggle, allow you to contract data scientists from around the world to make sense of information you have collected. “How much should you carry, when should you liquidate, when should you stock up — they are all questions small business owners are finding it easier to answer with the right data analytics,” Sutter said. Beware of BYOD However, the more data you collect and store electronically, the more you have to lose. Another trend, the “bring your own device” movement (commonly referred to as BYOD, in which workers can use their own gadgets to access company information), can place small businesses at an even greater risk for data loss. “It’s a great idea, to let your employees use their own personal devices for work,” said Page Moon, chief information officer for Focus Data Solutions, an information technology and Web hosting firm in Alexandria. “But you have to understand that, depending on what kind of information your employees can access remotely, your intellectual property is walking right out the door with them every day.” All data has value To mitigate some of the risks, Wood says


Boston reflects, revs up for first marathon since last year’s bombing

a remembrance ceremony marking the first anniversary of the deadly Boston Marathon bombing. Twin blasts at the famous race killed three people and injured an estimated 264 others in 2013. This annual blessing of the runners was one of dozens of marathon-related events that have been packed to capacity in recent days. Some had questioned whether fear of another attack would keep people away. But Boston has been bustling. Tens of thousands will run in the 118th marathon, and race organizers estimate that more than a million people will line the course, twice as many last year. Every hotel room in the city is booked. “Whatever the intended effects . . . whatever the Tsarnaevs [the brothers accused of carrying out the bombing] thought was supposed to happen by bringing that terror to Boston, it had the complete opposite effect,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said as he was driven between marathon-related events on Saturday. “I mean, look around,” said Walsh (D). He rolled down his window and pointed to the packed sidewalks and stores on Newbury Street, Boston’s main outdoor shopping strip, just a block from Boylston Street, where the bombing occurred. “This place is booming. It has been all day today, all weekend.” Crowds gathered at the finish line, beginning early in the week, to take pictures and lay flowers at the storefronts blown out when the bombs went off last year. Makeshift tributes, including notes of love to those killed — restaurant manager Krystle Campbell, Boston University graduate student Lu Lingzi and 8-year-old Martin Richard — as well as those injured, dotted the sidewalks on the blocks near the finish line. On the door handle of Marathon Sports, the sporting-goods store just feet from the finish line, hung a small peace sign crafted from blue and yellow pipe cleaners. The week preceding the marathon was one of eager anticipation of the race and solemn reflection on the horrific events of a year earlier. On Wednesday, hundreds of elementary and middle school students gathered at Roxbury Community College for a rally hosted by several of the marathon’s elite runners. “Everyone has a common feeling of strength. We’re excited to finish the race,” said Serena Burla, a cancer survivor and a reigning national titleholder after her win at the USA Half Marathon Championships this year in Houston. Burla, from Falls Church, Va., will also run on Monday. “I think there’s


Patriots’ Day remains a unique celebration, even after Boston Marathon bombings

Boston Marathon is both an elite race and an open competition for any amateur who can qualify, which is a large part of its appeal. You can’t play Augusta National while the Masters is going on or drive Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Indy 500, but you can run Boston at the same time as the world’s best marathoners. It is both a civic treasure and an international icon. It is, in a way, Boston’s Patriots’ Day Parade, with children and whole families and beer-swilling college kids lining the streets to cheer — not for floats and marching bands and clowns but for tens of thousands of sweaty, steady runners. “I think Patriots’ Day is one of the most beautiful days around here,” Red Sox slugger David Ortiz said this week. “And I think we should keep it the same way — especially now.” Especially now. The 118th edition of the Boston Marathon, which starts Monday at 8:50 a.m., will be unlike any of others that went before, owing to the events of a year ago, when a pair of bombs exploded near the finish line, killing three, injuring hundreds and ultimately deepening the bond between this city and its signature sporting event. “I think [Monday] is going to be very emotional,” Ortiz said. “But it’s going to be happiness more than sadness because of the way this city bounced back.” Around this time of year, Bostonians find themselves explaining to non-Bostonians what Patriots’ Day is all about. Though it is mostly celebrated now as an excuse to drink beer and/or play baseball before noon, Patriots’ Day actually commemorates the first battles of the Revolutionary War and Paul Revere’s famous ride. “Patriots’ Day symbolizes everything we know as ‘Boston Strong,’ ” said Tom Grilk, executive director of the Boston Athletic Association, which organizes the marathon, “because the conviction that people here will live their lives as they choose, no matter what anyone does to try to stop them, goes back to colonial Boston.” Scott Kerman, a resident of Brookline, Mass., and a longtime Red Sox season ticket holder, has a more succinct way of explaining it: “I always tell people, ‘Look, we started this country — and we have this day,’ ” he said Sunday while joining the thousands strolling around the marathon’s finish-line area on the eve of the race. On Monday, Kerman and his sons will be part


RateBeer’s D.C. star will soon taste his 10,000th

new to RateBeer might be going for the most beers, or looking for the strongest or rarest beer they can find,” he says, “but at some point hopefully it dawns on them that it’s the search for those things that is the interesting part, and that people are more important than numbers.” It should come as no surprise, then, how Bonventre plans to celebrate reaching his milestone. Technically, he tasted his 10,000th beer in January, but he’s keeping a backlog of ratings until three other RateBeer users — in Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark — who are poised to reach the 10,000 mark this spring can catch up. Each rater is working with a hometown brewery on a commemorative beer to be tapped simultaneously at a trans-Atlantic party sometime in late June. Bonventre’s local celebration will be a public event at Bluejacket, where his beer, tentatively dubbed “Gene Turns 10K,” was brewed in early February. He invited Terry Hawbaker, head brewer of Pizza Boy Brewing in Enola, Pa. — whose beers impressed him when Hawbaker worked at the now-defunct Farmers’ Cabinet in Alexandria — to brew with Bluejacket’s Bobby Bump, Josh Chapman and Greg Engert. “Gene’s a fantastic example of what real craft beer connoisseurship and enjoyment is all about,” says Engert, adding that he hopes to set up a video link to the parties in Europe and procure the other raters’ brews for the event. The beer they created reflects Bonventre’s appreciation for low-alcohol, farmhouse-style saisons and sour ales. Just 4.9 percent alcohol by volume, it was brewed with two souring agents: lactobacillus bacteria and brettanomyces yeast. Flaked oats and rye were added to a base of Pilsener and pale malts to provide body and complexity to an otherwise simple beer. Three types of hops — French Aramis, Chinook and Citra — impart fruit, earth and spice characters. The resulting dry, acidic beer should be the perfect summer thirst-quencher. Some is now in wine barrels that once held chardonnay from Grgich Hills Estate and cabernet franc from Larkin Wines. Both of those barrel-aged versions, and the original beer, will continue to condition for two more months. Now Bonventre’s only challenge is choosing which of the three to drink for his official 10,000th rating. But the other two will be in good company. Within a few days of that event, when he catches up on the backlog of his tastings


Pro-Russian separatists block monitors from buildings in east Ukraine, diplomats say

information,” including the photos, most of which are publicly available on social media. The photographs include a bearded man whose uniform bears a Russian special forces insignia. He was pictured among armed separatists in Kramatorsk and Slovyansk last week. Another photo shows the same person in Georgia during a 2008 incursion by Russian troops. The Ukraine Security Service put out a wanted poster for a man it identified as Ihor Ivanovych Strielkov, a Russian intelligence officer. The poster accused him of a series of charges, included premeditated murder and organizing mass riots. The Ukrainians allege that Russian agents have been traveling among cities and towns in the eastern part of the country this month, organizing and arming separatists, similar to Russian activities prior to last month’s annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea. In a report issued Monday evening, the OSCE described being approached by many eastern Ukrainians who expressed a desire to be part of Russia and discounted the Geneva agreement. Under the accord, the United States and Russia each committed to appointing representatives to the monitoring team. It was unclear how many Russians are on the teams that traveled through the eastern part of the country over the weekend and on Monday. In his talk with Lavrov, Psaki said, Kerry “called on Russia to assign a senior diplomat to work with the OSCE mission . . . to make absolutely clear to the separatists that Russia supports the agreement and wants de-escalation.” Although some of Obama’s senior national security advisers, particularly at the State Department and the Pentagon, have urged a move to sanctions against Russian economic sectors, including energy, mining and defense, the administration plans to hold them in reserve. Instead, barring a major Russian military move, it is likely to add to its list of Russian officials and what it calls “cronies” of President Vladimir Putin who are already subject to asset freezes and visa bans. “You always have these debates,” said Howard Mendelsohn, who served as the administration’s deputy assistant secretary for the Treasury Department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis. But even as the White House wants to be “very, very targeted and very, very nuanced in terms of rolling out these measures,” even limited sanctions on prominent individuals can trigger broader impacts on a national economy, Mendelsohn said. “The reality of financial institutions is that they’re [already] very much in pause mode in terms


Action, not words, needed for Ukraine

February ouster of Yanukovych as Ukraine’s president. This heightened Putin’s insecurity and paranoia that the same could happen in Russia. After the annexation of Crimea proved remarkably easy, Putin turned to other parts of eastern Ukraine, with the dual goals of destabilizing his neighbor so that the aspirations of those in the Maidan are never realized — nor stand as a possible model for Russians — and so that the West loses interest in deepening ties with an increasingly chaotic Ukraine. Putin’s gamble has so far incurred only a small price: two rounds of limited U.S.-E.U. sanctions that don’t go anywhere near far enough. Even if he’s acting out of a sense of paranoia and weakness, Putin thinks he’s winning. Putin views the West as even weaker than he is and suspects that it won’t adopt hard-hitting sanctions because such measures would cause financial and economic discomfort in Europe — never mind that they could also seriously damage Russia’s already declining economy. Before Thursday’s negotiations in Geneva, the United States should have implemented a third round of sanctions hitting Russian banks such as Gazprombank and Sberbank. Similarly, more of Putin’s cronies — such as Igor Sechin, head of the largest oil company, Rosneft; Aleksei Miller, head of Gazprom; and Sergei Chemezov, chair of defense exporter Rosoboronexport — and the firms they run should have been targeted already and should be sanctioned now. Had the West, or at least the United States, unveiled another round of serious sanctions before Geneva, Putin would have been on the defensive instead of negotiating from a position of relative strength. Implementing such measures before Biden arrived in Kiev would have sent a powerful message of support to Ukraine and a rebuke to Moscow. Biden’s trip affords the United States an opportunity to demonstrate solidarity with the people of Ukraine. A visit to Maidan would be especially poignant and underscore the fact that the current crisis stems from Ukrainians’ aspirations to be free — and Putin’s efforts to deny them that possibility. Read more on this topic: Anne Applebaum: A need to contain Russia James Jeffrey: U.S. should send troops to quell Ukraine crisis David Ignatius: Putin steals the CIA’s playbook on anti-Soviet covert ops George F. Will: Russia’s brutality with Ukraine is nothing new Madeleine Albright and Jim O’Brien: The West’s obligation to Ukraine The Post’s View: The West should not be shutting out Ukraine


Pain relievers are valuable, but even over-the-counter versions can be hazardous

safe if taken as directed. But that goes out the window when alcohol comes into the picture. Look at the label of any OTC acetaminophen product and you’ll see a warning that “severe liver damage may occur” if you drink three or more alcoholic beverages a day while taking it. ● Don’t take opioid painkillers for longer than necessary. As a rule, you should consider opioids such as hydrocodone and oxycodone only for situations of acute pain— after an injury or tooth extraction, for example — or if you have severe ongoing pain and other options haven’t worked. Even then, aim for the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible time, since all opioids can cause sedation, nausea, vomiting and constipation, and can ultimately be addicting. ● Be careful even with nonaddictive prescription pills. Prescription-strength NSAIDs are first-line agents for what’s called nociceptive pain — when an injury such as a deep cut or a burn sends pain through nerve endings. Even in relatively high doses, those drugs don’t pose a risk of dependency. And drugs prescribed for widespread nerve-related pain due to diabetes or fibromyalgia — such as the older antidepressants amitriptyline and nortriptyline, the newer antidepressant duloxetine (Cymbalta and generics) and the anti-seizure drug gabapentin (Neurontin and generics) — generally aren’t habit-forming. But duloxetine can increase the risk of bleeding if used with NSAIDs or aspirin, and stopping it may cause dizziness, headaches, insomnia or anxiety. Gabapentin can cause weight gain, back or joint pain, depression or extreme fatigue. Suicidal thoughts can be a side effect of both drugs. ● Don’t combine the same type of pain relievers. But mixing certain types might be okay, experts say. For example, say you have a splitting headache and took Tylenol, but it’s not helping. Try taking a dose of naproxen. The two drugs work differently and have different side effects, so you won’t double the possible risks by combining them. But avoid mixing two of the same kinds of medication, such as taking ibuprofen when you’ve already taken the similar drug naproxen. ● Read the label, always. It might not be obvious from the name on the package which drugs are in a product. For example, you might not realize that hundreds of OTC cold-and-sinus medications contain a pain-relieving and fever-reducing ingredient, usually acetaminophen, in addition to a decongestant. So if you take, say, a cold-and-sinus product and then take


Why do allergies wax and wane as we age?

of allergies and viral infections rise and fall in lock step as people age. Kids get lots of colds and suffer from allergies. Parents get lots of colds and allergic episodes, too, mostly because they’re surrounded by disease-ridden children. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. (Among the many unanswered questions about allergies is whether parents are more likely than other adults to have allergies.) A third explanation for the age-related changes in allergies is psychological. Grayson and many other immunologists put the most stock in this theory. “People in their teens and 20s are interested in chasing other people. That’s my politically correct way of putting it,” Grayson says. “When you’re at that invincible age and out having a good time, you’re just not bothered by allergies.” People don’t like being told that their symptoms are influenced by psychology in any way. But that doesn’t mean they’re crazy or faking it. Allergies are real, but how a person experiences the symptoms depends on state of mind. The placebo effect is strong in allergy studies. Almost one-third of allergy sufferers report a remission in symptoms when given a sugar pill. For a young adult, there are far more effective placebos than sugar pills — sports, video games and romance, to name three. Any one of these ideas — environmental, infectious or psychological — could explain the undulating experience of allergies through life. It could also be a combination of these theories, or something else entirely. This is a hot area of research. Only one thing seems relatively certain: The diminution of allergy symptoms as people head into their golden years has to do with the slowing down of the body. The immune system is less active in older people, so their IgE response to allergens becomes less pronounced. Other people with weakened immune symptoms, such as women late in pregnancy and people on medications that suppress immunity, also may experience a reprieve from allergy symptoms. If you’re in your 30s and have a history of allergies, you’re probably hoping for advice. Unfortunately, there’s not much to go on. Eating dirt won’t help you. Several years ago, German immunologist Erika von Mutius noticed that allergies were rare among Bavarian farmers. People who live in proximity to dirt and manure are exposed to a greater number and diversity of microbes, and so a theory emerged that some combination of bacteria in the gut may protect


Two wounded in shooting near National Zoo

nothing suggesting that Monday’s gunfire was related to anything that had occurred at the zoo. About 16,000 visitors had been counted by late afternoon, but it was not known whether any of those involved in the violence had been among them, Murphy said. She said the Easter Monday events had ended about 4 p.m. Bri’Ana Jenkins and her friend, Par’Ris Thompson, both 19, said they were at the zoo entrance and preparing to head inside late in the day. The women said they were lingering near the entrance, hoping they could get inside, when they heard two shots. Dozens of people, some with strollers, poured back into the zoo to search for cover, the women said. They saw some people hiding behind trees. When shots rang out, people who had left the zoo “bombarded back inside,” Thompson said. “Back in the zoo. That was the safest place to be,” Jenkins said. The women said it appeared that the shooting occurred across the street from the zoo entrance, near a Starbucks and a hot-dog vendor. One Starbucks employee said she heard one or two gunshots right outside the building. A man standing next to the hot-dog stand in front of Starbucks said the shooting occurred there. Murphy, the zoo spokeswoman, said that after the gunfire, zoo gates were closed to new arrivals but that those already inside were permitted to stay. It was determined by 6 p.m. that zoo visitors were safe to leave. The zoo normally closes at 6 in April. At one point Monday afternoon, police said they were looking for two male teens who may have been involved in the incident. Later they said they had no description of a suspect. Effects of Monday’s incident rippled up and down the avenue. The Cleveland Park branch of the D.C. Public Library remained closed hours after the shooting. “The library is under lockdown until further notice,” signs read. Groups of yoga students hoping to use the library’s community room and parents with children waited outside wondering whether the library, three blocks north of the zoo, would reopen before its regularly scheduled 9 p.m. close. Restaurants near the library were teeming with people seated outdoors to enjoy the mild evening. Shortly after 7 p.m., friendly librarians reopened the building “to anyone who doesn’t look dangerous,” one staffer joked. Everyone waiting got in. Marc Fisher and Ian Shapira contributed to this report.


A year after tragedy, Boston Marathon displays humankind at its best

Square area. “I was glad for the security. It didn’t feel overwhelming — it felt safe,” said Christine Nikles of Nazareth, Pa., who was attending her second Boston Marathon and who passed through a wand-check and a bag-check to get to her VIP grandstand seats near the finish line. “It was like getting on a plane.” The first entrants to cross the finish line came on wheels, with Tatyana McFadden, a Sochi 2014 Paralympics silver medalist and a Clarksville, Md., resident who attended Atholton High in Columbia, winning the women’s wheelchair division — on her 25th birthday — for her second straight Boston title. McFadden competed with a race bib that said “MARTIN RICHARD” on the back to honor the 8-year-old Boston boy who was the youngest of the bombing victims. Next came the elite runners, at something close to a sprint. Keflezighi was ahead by nearly a minute near the midway point, but his lead was cut to six seconds by the final mile, until a strong finishing kick took him through the finish line 11 seconds ahead of his nearest pursuer. Eventually came the mid-pack hordes of solid runners and the back-of-the-pack hordes of the injured, the aged or the perennially slow. Though Boston has strict time-qualification standards, it also lets in runners who raise money for charity, and this year’s field was swollen beyond its usual cutoff of 26,000 when organizers invited bombing survivors, first responders and some 5,600 runners who failed to finish in 2013 because of the attacks. Some bombing survivors were escorted onto the course near the end to cross the finish line with the runners competing on their behalf. Perhaps never before had the simple act of running, of putting one foot in front of the other, for two, three, four or five hours, seemed so important for a city. And as the sun set on Boston, these tens of thousands of runners and their families and friends packed the restaurants and bars to do something they never got the chance to do a year ago — celebrate. Wesley Lowery contributed to this report. More marathon-related content: Potomac’s Larry Chloupek is a marathoner like no other Runner can’t make it to the finish line, so others carry him to the end Photos: Scenes from the Boston Marathon Graphic: How Meb won the Boston Marathon Video: Instagramming the marathon Boston Marathon, by the numbers