Despite economic gains, Obama’s work in Africa is unfinished

The trip marks the first time a sitting president has visited Ethiopia. Obama last traveled to Kenya when he was a U.S. senator in 2006. ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — In a region that is home to some of the world’s newest tech start-ups and oldest wars, Obama tried to reconcile his abundant hope for Africa’s future with a determination to tell the truth about its challenges, past and present. In a major speech to Kenyan students and in more intimate gatherings with members of civil society, he sometimes seemed torn between heaping praise on the economic progress that has lifted living standards for millions and acknowledging the corruption, violence and security issues that continue to afflict the continent. He celebrated the ingenuity of African business leaders and then promptly confronted South Sudan’s deepening civil war. His plane took off for Ethiopia, one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, just as a prominent hotel was attacked in neighboring Somalia. [Obama: ‘Africa is on the move’] President Obama told the African Union on Tuesday that proper training and employment of young people are key to Africa avoiding further instability. What some had expected to be a sentimental journey for Obama was punctuated with reminders of a region wrestling with crisis. But that didn’t dim the enthusiasm of the Kenyans and Ethiopians who greeted him, the first sitting U.S. president to visit either country. In a speech at the African Union headquarters here Tuesday, he warned that Africa’s “democratic progress is . . . at risk” when leaders refuse to give up power, holding up the U.S. Constitution’s term limits as an example. But he added that if he were able to run again, he could win. “I love my work. But under our Constitution, I cannot run again. I can’t run again. I actually think I’m a pretty good president. I think if I ran I could win. But I can’t,” he said. In Nairobi For his part, Obama embraced Kenya, his father’s homeland, as a place with a special connection for him. But much of the policy he articulated referred to the country’s battle against al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, a war that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta last week called “an existential fight.” On Monday The trip underscored that Obama’s work in Africa remains unfinished. The president is on his fourth trip to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office. Here, a look back at his visits as


How to get the pollinator garden of your dreams

Butterflies are attracted to flowers with nectar and bright colors. (Hans_madsen /AP) On “Ask This Old House,” landscape designer Jenn Nawada constructed an instant pollinator garden for D.C. homeowner Amy Enchelmeyer. The Michigan Park home’s landscape now hosts classic long-flowering native perennials for butterflies and bees, including coneflowers, Stokes aster, false indigo, hyssop and penstemon. We asked the Boston-based designer to share some ideas for achieving a butterfly-attracting space: ● Pollinators such as butterflies are attracted to flowers with nectar and bright colors. Plant a variety of native flowers that have a succession of showy, colorful blooms throughout the season and are rich with pollen and nectar. This will accommodate different pollinators during different life cycle stages. Similarly, using trees, shrubs or perennials that have spring, summer and fall blooms will provide multiple food sources and habitats for the pollinators to thrive. ●Depending on your space, plant clusters of one type of plant for better foraging efficiency. Designing these groupings of plants will create more of a visual impact and larger cafeteria for the pollinators. ●Select a sunny area to start your garden and be patient as it develops. Plants take time to grow and become established. ● Plant a variety of flower shapes and sizes to attract a wide range of pollinators. Different kind of pollinators all interact with different shapes and sizes of flowers. Bees usually like small clusters or open-faced flowers, while hummingbirds typically like tubular blossoms loaded with nectar. ●Urban gardens with little space can grow herbs, annuals and perennials in containers. ● Avoid using pesticides and herbicides that can be harmful to the pollinators. If necessary, use the least-toxic solution possible and spray at sundown when the pollinators are not active. ● Have fun observing all of the activity and movement in your new garden. Take time to notice which pollinator travels where and how they interact with the flowers.


Saudi-led coalition plans ground attacks in Yemen after taking key city

get a foothold back in Yemen again before Iran starts to mobilize and get more committed to this war,” said Christopher Davidson, an expert on Persian Gulf countries at Durham University in Britain. Rumors of the coalition’s training program have circulated for several months, although few details have been disclosed. Coalition countries have refrained from sending their own armies to fight in Yemen, fearing high casualties in a protracted conflict. A former Saudi diplomat who is familiar with the program confirmed that several thousand Yemeni nationals are undergoing boot-camp-like training in at least two military facilities in southern Saudi Arabia. The training began as the air war started, he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue. Asseri, the coalition spokesman, also confirmed the existence of the training program but declined to give details. Mustafa Alani, an expert on Middle East security issues who is close to Saudi officials, said the coalition plans to train as many 10,000 Yemeni troops at the Saudi sites. Recruits include tribal fighters, former military officers and Yemenis living in Saudi Arabia, he said. The first batch of graduates participated in the assault on Aden, which the coalition chose to attack first because of strong local opposition to the Houthis, he said. “The idea is to replicate what happened in Aden northward, until these forces reach Sanaa,” Alani said. Or, he noted, the force could apply enough pressure on the Houthis to force them to enter peace negotiations. In mid-July, hundreds of the newly trained fighters entered Aden from coalition warships and linked up with militiamen who had been fighting the Houthis in the city for months, according to fighters and residents. They said the force brought with them armored personnel carriers, which proved decisive in gaining control of the airport, port and most city neighborhoods. “There are about 600 of these new fighters who joined us,” said Wadhah al-Dubaish, 40, an anti-Houthi fighter in Aden. He described the Saudi-trained force as “organized and well-armed.” Dozens of military advisers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a coalition member, are also in Aden to assist the force, according to Dubaish and the former Saudi diplomat. Despite the coalition’s disavowals, its strategy also appears to be drawing support from radical Islamists. Militants with suspected ties to AQAP are taking part in the anti-Houthi fight in Aden, residents


Lights, camera, asters: ‘Ask This Old House’ delivers an instant pollinator garden

scene took about a dozen takes in the space of an hour. There were delays as a firetruck went by, as a bus turned around at the top of the street, as a truck and trailer rattled over rough asphalt. At one point, a man in a Bobcat arrived to scoop up construction material a few feet down the road. Racela took it all in stride. Everyone was wilting under the heat and humidity, and suddenly the biting flies showed up. “Amy, you were great,” he said during a break. “Do you need more DEET?” To create the Enchelmeyers' pollinator garden, landscape company Wheat's started with this conceptual plan. (Wheat’s Landscape) As the scene unfolded, Enchelmeyer and Nawada were moving toward another landscape designer, Joshua Dean, who was standing in the shade of an old willow oak. Dean designed the pollinator garden as a ribbon of perennials, shrubs and grasses that flowed through half of the front yard. He also had the plants delivered, laid them out and had a crew ready to put them in. (Dean works for Wheat’s landscape company in Vienna.) The palette included classic long-flowering native perennials for butterflies and bees, including coneflowers, Stokes aster, false indigo, hyssop and penstemon. With all the pots in place but before planting, Racela set up another scene where the women were struck by the flowers and Dean introduced the idea of plant layers. This message also took many takes. Before each one, Racela got his subject primed. “Nice deep breath, everyone. Have fun with it. Make me want these plants.” Amy Enchelmeyer helps position flowering perennials for her pollinator garden — the subject of a segment in next season’s “Ask This Old House.” Enchelmeyer and her husband Collin Warren live in the Michigan Park area of upper Northeast Washington (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) Gardenmaking is much harder TV fare than, say, cooking, with its built-in narrative: a beginning (the recipe); a middle (the actual cooking process) and an end (the finished meal). Gardens are planted and then take years to mature. Except Dean arrived with plants in two- and three-gallon pots; they were 80 percent there. This wasn’t a gimmick for the cameras, he said, but the way he likes to plant. He found a grower who raises big stock with large root systems, and his clients have come to expect a little instant punch. This serendipity no doubt


Why the fear over ubiquitous data encryption is overblown

been addressed is the competing priorities that support the companies’ resistance to building in a back door or duplicated key for decryption. We believe that the greater public good is a secure communications infrastructure protected by ubiquitous encryption at the device, server and enterprise level without building in means for government monitoring. First, such an encryption system would protect individual privacy and business information from exploitation at a much higher level than exists today. As a recent MIT paper explains, requiring duplicate keys introduces vulnerabilities in encryption that raise the risk of compromise and theft by bad actors. If third-party key holders have less than perfect security, they may be hacked and the duplicate key exposed. This is no theoretical possibility, as evidenced by major cyberintrusions into supposedly secure government databases and the successful compromise of security tokens held by a major information security firm. Furthermore, requiring a duplicate key rules out security techniques, such as one-time-only private keys. Second, a requirement that U.S. technology providers create a duplicate key will not prevent malicious actors from finding other technology providers who will furnish ubiquitous encryption. The smart bad guys will find ways and technologies to avoid access, and we can be sure that the “dark Web” marketplace will offer myriad such capabilities. This could lead to a perverse outcome in which law-abiding organizations and individuals lack protected communications but malicious actors have them. Finally, and most significantly, if the United States can demand that companies make available a duplicate key, other nations such as China will insist on the same. There will be no principled basis to resist that legal demand. The result will be to expose business, political and personal communications to a wide spectrum of governmental access regimes with varying degrees of due process. Strategically, the interests of U.S. businesses are essential to protecting U.S. national security interests. After all, political power and military power are derived from economic strength. If the United States is to maintain its global role and influence, protecting business interests from massive economic espionage is essential. And that imperative may outweigh the tactical benefit of making encrypted communications more easily accessible to Western authorities. History teaches that the fear that ubiquitous encryption will cause our security to go dark is overblown. There was a great debate about encryption in the early ’90s. When the mathematics of “public key” encryption were discovered as a


Russia’s crackdown on civil society shows the regime’s weakness

at $40 billion. In addition to economic crisis and elite corruption, Russia’s war in Ukraine is a third factor undermining the regime’s political legitimacy. Even without meaningful assistance from the United States and Europe, the Ukrainians have fought the Russians to a standstill in eastern Ukraine, and this is a far cry from the decisive victory that Putin predicted when he annexed Crimea last year. Putin has tried to hide the casualties Russia has suffered in the conflict, knowing that the war does not enjoy widespread popular support. He also knows from Russia’s experience in Afghanistan and other conflicts in Russian history that failure in war could threaten the regime’s survival. The regime’s fear over its own lack of political legitimacy is apparent in the lengths to which it is going to prevent any electoral competition. Not only has Russia moved up the date of 2016 national parliamentary elections , making it more difficult for the opposition to challenge incumbent officeholders, but also it is cracking down on three regional parliamentary campaigns in which a coalition of democratic opposition parties are trying to win seats in elections to be held in September. In Novosibirsk, three opposition activists are on a hunger strike protesting authorities’ decision to exclude them from the ballot. In Kostroma, the opposition campaign manager is in jail and faces politically-motivated criminal charges. These efforts to deny the opposition a chance to win a handful of seats in Russia’s equivalent of a state legislature demonstrate that the regime sees any alternative to its own politics as a serious threat that must be eliminated. This is the context in which Russia has passed the law prohibiting Russian democrats from getting any international assistance to promote freedom of expression, the rule of law and a democratic political system. Significantly, democrats have not backed down. They have not been deterred by the criminal penalties contained in the “foreign agents” law and other repressive laws. They know that these laws contradict international law, which allows for such aid, and that the laws are meant to block a better future for Russia. They are not even frightened by the threat of being killed, which has already been the fate of Nemtsov and other Russian democrats. The least the United States and other Western democracies can do is to continue to provide moral and political solidarity to such brave people. It serves not just


Police say dying man in Southwest D.C. identified his cousin as the shooter

A man who was fatally shot Monday afternoon in his Southwest Washington apartment had refused to allow the gunman to sell drugs out of the victim’s home, according to a D.C. police arrest affidavit filed in court Wednesday. The victim and the killer were cousins and childhood friends and lived in apartments across from each other, according to police. As Jerome Diggs, 47, lay dying from several bullet wounds in his apartment, police said he identified to a friend the man who had shot him. “Yes, Little Gary shot me,” Diggs said, according to the affidavit. “I didn’t call the police. I don’t think I’m going to make it. I just want to let somebody know who shot me.” D.C. police said that same day they arrested Gary Nathaniel Proctor, 37, of Southwest Washington and charged him with second-degree murder while armed. The shooting occurred about 4:50 p.m. in the 1300 block of First Street SW, in the Greenleaf complex near the Waterfront Metro station. Diggs was pronounced dead at a hospital. Police said Diggs and Proctor had been arguing for days and that Diggs refused to let Proctor sell drugs from his apartment in the public housing complex. The court affidavit says Diggs had hit Proctor during an argument days earlier at a community cookout. On Monday, police said that Proctor went to Diggs’s apartment and shot him four or five times. A friend found Diggs barely talking and breathing, police said, and it was then that Diggs named his attacker. Relatives of Diggs could not be reached Wednesday. Diggs was one of two people killed in afternoon violence in the District on Monday. About 3:15 p.m., police said that a man was fatally stabbed near the D.C. police headquarters building at Judiciary Square. His name has not been made public pending notification of relatives. Police said the stabbing occurred in the 400 block ofE Street NW. It is near several prominent buildings, including the Washington field office for the FBI, the U.S. attorney’s office and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. D.C. police said a bystander flagged down a passing police officer, who found the wounded man lying alongside a building. He died later at a hospital.


D.C. news in brief

19, 1823, and his obituary suggests that he was buried at the Dent Place address. In June, archaeologist Ruth Trocolli and the D.C. Historic Preservation Office received permission from the property owner to conduct a thorough investigation of the site. Initial excavation efforts had begun in 2012, after modern structures on the site were demolished. Neighborhood residents advocated for a dig focused on Yarrow. For information, go to www.yarrowmamoutarchaeology.weebly.com. The Office of Planning will hold fence talks at 10:15 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. on days when archaeologists are on site (weather permitting). For the schedule, go to www.facebook.com/YarrowMamoutArchaeology. District has added 86 wheelchair-accessible cabs The D.C. Taxicab Commission announced that 86 wheelchair-accessible vehicles have been added to the District’s taxicab fleet after legislation passed last year to improve vehicle services for the disabled. Under the Taxicab Service Improvement Act, 6 percent of a cab company’s fleet must have been wheelchair accessible by Dec. 31, 2014. Several companies exceeded their minimum requirements. However, of the 91 cab companies authorized in the District, 20 have not met the requirement. Their renewals were denied July 15, with a two-week period to appeal the decision. For information, go to dctaxi.dc.gov. Bowser makes appointments in labor, behavioral health Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) recently appointed Lionel Sims as the director of the Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining. Sims will serve as the principal management advocate in labor negotiations for the Bowser administration. He began his duties July 20. Previously, Sims served as general counsel to the Child and Family Services Agency and as an assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General, where he advised on employment matters for various District agencies. From 2009 to 2010, he chaired the Traffic Adjudication Appeals Board. Sims has a J.D. from the University of Detroit Mercy Law School and a bachelor in business administration from Wayne State University in Detroit. Bowser also appointed Tanya Royster as the acting director of the Department of Behavioral Health. She will begin her duties Aug. 2. Previously, Royster served as director of behavioral health for the Franciscan St. James Health System and was a tenured teacher at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Royster graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and completed general and child/adolescent psychiatry residencies at New York University Bellevue Hospital Medical Center. For information, go to mayor.dc.gov. — Compiled by Terence McArdle


Montgomery County crime report

roads, Century Blvd., Century Blvd., Century Blvd., Century Blvd., Century Blvd., Century Blvd., Clopper Rd., Clopper Rd., Clopper Rd., Crystal Hill Cir., Crystal Hill Cir., Crystal Rock Dr., Deer Path Lane, Dovedale Way, Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Frederick Rd., Great Park Cir., Gunners Branch Rd., Huntmaster Rd., Kingsview Rd., Lake Park Dr., Middlebrook Rd., Middlebrook Rd., Middlebrook Rd., Nutmeg Pl., Rayfield Dr., Red Buckeye Ct., Scarlet Mist Way, Seneca Forest Ct., Seneca Meadows Pkwy., Seneca Meadows Pkwy., Seneca Meadows Pkwy., Shadyside Lane, Sweet Shrub Dr., Treva Ct., Valley Bend Dr., Waters Rd., Wild Cherry Lane, Winged Elm Dr., Winged Elm Dr., Wisteria Dr., Wisteria Dr., Wisteria Dr., MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Sweetgum Cir., Winding Creek Pl., District 6GAITHERSBURG STATION240-773-5700 SEXUAL ASSAULT Montgomery Village Ave., ASSAULTS Apple Ridge Rd. and Hob Hill Way, Bureau Dr., Carrington Hill Dr., Cedar and Frederick avenues, Clopper Rd., Filbert Ct. and Filbert Terr., Goshen Rd., Goshen Rd., Grange Hall Dr. and Saybrooke Oaks Blvd., Hutton St., Lost Knife Cir., Maryland and Russell avenues, Rio Blvd., Woodfield Rd., ARSON Cobbler Pl., ROBBERIES Diamond Ave. E., Flower Hill Way, THEFTS/BREAK-INS Barkley Lane, Bralan Lane, Bureau Dr., Clopper Rd., Contour Rd., Contour Rd., Contour Rd., Crabbs Branch Way, Dalamar St., Dearden Pl., Deer Park Rd. W., Deer Park Rd. W., Diamond Ave. E., Diamond Dr., Diamond Dr., Digging Rd., Fern Hollow Way, Flower Hill Way, Frederick Ave. S., Girard St., Goshen Rd., Heartwood Dr., Holmard St., Keystone Dr., Lakelands Dr., Linslade St., Little Quarry Rd., Mallory Pl., Market St. W., Market St., Medical Center Dr., Montgomery Village Ave., Mooney Dr., Mountain Laurel Ct., Mountain Laurel Terr., Muddy Branch Rd., Muddy Branch Rd., Nathans Pl., Nirvana St., Plum Creek Dr., Pullman Pl., Quince Orchard Rd., Rickenbacker Dr., Ridgeline Dr., Russell Ave., Russell Ave., Russell Ave., Stonemason Dr., Suffield Dr., Summit Ave. N., Summit Dr. N., Trento Ct., Walkers Choice Rd., Washingtonian Blvd., Washingtonian Blvd., Windbrooke Cir., MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Ridgeline Dr., Ridgeline Dr., VANDALISM Travis Lane, Takoma Park and other areas SEXUAL ASSAULT Maple Ave., ASSAULT University Blvd. E., THEFTS/BREAK-INS Elm Ave., Elson Pl., Ethan Allen Ave., Hancock Ave., Holly Ave., Lee Ave., Lee Ave., New Hampshire Ave., New Hampshire Ave., New Hampshire Ave., New Hampshire Ave., New York Ave., New York Ave., Philadelphia Ave., Spruce Ave., Sycamore Ave., MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Cockerille Ave., Maple Ave.,


Montgomery County Animal Watch

This case was received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Locked vehicle, distressed dog: Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Alexandria-Arlington news in brief

Chief picked for city’s Human Resources agency Steven Mason has been appointed Alexandria’s acting director of human resources, succeeding William Mitchell, who resigned recently. Mason joined the Human Resources Department in 2009 after serving four years as special assistant to the city manager. His first 22 years in city government were in the police department. Mason holds a degree in criminal justice and certifications in human resource management and human capital strategy. For information, go to www.alexandriava.gov/86239. Stretch of Wilson Blvd. to become Marathon Drive In a resolution, the Arlington County Board has designated a portion of Wilson Boulevard, from North Lynn Street to North Moore Street, as Marine Corps Marathon Drive. Every October, runners will cross Marine Corps Marathon Drive in Mile 1 of the course and then return to the street as part of the MCM Finish Festival. For information, go to www.marinemarathon.com. New hours for Arlington Historical Museum The Arlington Historical Museum, run by the Arlington Historical Society since 1956 and housed in the former 1891 Hume School building at 1805 S. Arlington Ridge Rd., is open to the public from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. on first Wednesdays. The museum continues to be open from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free. For information, go to www.arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org. New programming sought for community center Arlington County is accepting proposals from organizations interested in using the over 7,000 square feet of program space available at the Arlington Mill Community Center. The facility is at 909 S. Dinwiddie St. For information on submitting proposals, go to http://parks.arlingtonva.us. An open house for interested organizations will be from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday and 6 to 8 p.m. next Thursday. For information, call Peter Lusk at 703-228-1872 or e-mail plusk@arlingtonva.us. Proposals are due by 5 p.m. Sept. 30. — Compiled by Ria Manglapus


Montgomery County looks at bowhunting to cull deer

A fawn in Blandair Regional Park in Columbia, Md. Deer have become a common sight in Montgomery County neighborhoods, prompting a pilot archery hunting program aimed at culling herds in Germantown and Potomac. (2006 photo by MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POST) As white-tailed deer have become an increasingly common presence in densely populated Montgomery County neighborhoods, some residents have raised concerns about the potential consequences: car accidents, ravaged gardens, exposure to tick-borne diseases. The county’s deer management program has expanded to keep pace, and officials recently proposed a pilot archery hunting program aimed at culling deer herds in Germantown and Potomac. The expansion of the county’s deer-culling efforts has followed the animals as they have moved from more rural areas into busier neighborhoods, said Bill Hamilton, principal natural resources specialist with the Montgomery County Parks Department. “Our [deer management] efforts began in western or central Montgomery County,” Hamilton said. “As parkland has expanded and the deer population has expanded, we’re seeing that deer impacts are starting to become more prominent in population-dense areas like Wheaton, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring.” If approved by the parks director, the bowhunt would be from September through November and in January at Great Seneca Stream Valley Park in Germantown and Watts Branch Stream Valley Park in Potomac, officials said. Most deer-culling efforts in Montgomery have involved hunting with guns, Hamilton said. The county’s deer management program began in 1996 with lottery-based shotgun hunting, and later added Park Police sharpshooters to the mix. But hunting with firearms is not feasible in certain parks, Hamilton said. “In some cases, we don’t have the infrastructure such as roads or trails to get our staff in,” he said. “Other parks are such high use that they can’t be closed.” Hunting with guns is also expensive. “As we expand and try to meet the ever-increasing request from citizens, the financial expense will also increase exponentially,” Hamilton said. “Our county council has made it clear that they want us to explore less costly programs as we move forward.” The proposed bowhunting program would allow no more than six hunters in a park at a time, and all hunters will be chosen based on their experience, a background check, safety and ethics training, and their expertise with a bow and arrow. “We want to be assured that they can proficiently place an arrow into the vital organs of a deer at the distance


Drug crime is No. 1 reason offenders in Maryland are sentenced to prison

Possession of drugs with the intent to distribute remains the No. 1 reason people in Maryland are sentenced to state prison, according to figures presented on Wednesday to a panel charged with finding ways to reduce incarceration and recidivism. The Justice Reinvestment Coordinating Council, which consists of a bipartisan group of lawmakers, senior-level government officials, attorneys and law enforcement representatives, received data about who is sentenced to prison, how long they stay and what impact the trends have on the state’s overall prison population. Felicity Rose, a senior associate for the Crime and Justice Institute, said prison admissions have dropped by 19 percent over the past decade, from 11,078 in 2005 to 8,928 last year. The institute was hired by Pew Charitable Trust, which is partnering with the state to look at the data. In 2014, 58 percent of the prison admissions in Maryland were for nonviolent offenses. And although there was a 52 percent decline in people going to state prison for possession with intent to distribute over the past decade, the offense was still at the top of the list of reasons newly sentenced prisoners were sent to prison. Drug offenders make up 19 percent of the state’s prison population. The Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup, Md. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Christopher B. Shank, chairman of the council and head of the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention, said the data provide the panel with some of the information it will need to make its recommendations to the governor and General Assembly. “We have to look at what is driving the systems,” Shank said as he opened the meeting. “That’s the question that we will look at at future meetings.” The panel plans to look more closely at what has caused the number of prisoners from Baltimore City to drop while the overall number from other parts of the state has increased. Panel members also expressed interest in examining sentencing decisions and digging deeper on the 14 percent increase in burglary offenders sentenced to prison in the past 10 years. The panel plans to release its recommendations in December. It is one of three panels exploring reforms of the criminal justice system. The other panels are looking at best practices for police cameras and police training, and improving community relations.


Want to host the Olympics? Most western cities would rather not.

In this Feb. 5, 2015, file photo, people hold up placards against the Olympic Games coming to Boston, during the first public forum regarding the city's 2024 Olympic bid, in Boston. (Charles Krupa/AP) As the Boston 2024 Olympic bid crumbled this week, International Olympic Committee members headed to Kuala Lumpur, where the governing body will choose the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics on Friday. The IOC will decide between Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, the remaining contenders after four European cities backed out, three of which — Oslo, Stockholm and Krakow, Poland — failed to summon popular support. The only cities left standing are in authoritarian countries where public dissent could not crush the bid. Kelly Gossett, one of three founders of the group No Boston Olympics that helped organize public backlash that ultimately prevailed over that city’s bid, returned from a victory celebration Monday to an e-mail inbox containing messages from Toronto and Los Angeles seeking advice. The e-mailers from two cities primed to replace Boston in the running for the 2024 Games wanted to know how No Boston Olympics had done it. Even as the party in Boston still raged, they were asking, “Can you help us?” “The Olympics,” Gossett said, “is having a moment.” The widespread local opposition to Boston’s bid — and its failure — is emblematic of shifting perception about the Olympic Games. For years, cities viewed hosting the Olympics as a badge of prestige and patriotism to be fought over. More recently, both in America and foreign democracies, the Games have been viewed as a problematic financial drain, met with hostility by citizens wary of corruption and misused public funds. Boston 2024 released this video as part of its campaign to help bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to Boston, Mass. “The more they learn about the International Olympic Committee process, the less they like it for the host candidates,” Gossett said. “It works out better for the IOC, not the public. Democracies are shying away from that financial burden.” The outrage in Boston prompted a question that would have seemed foreign back in the early 1990s, when Atlanta celebrated getting the 1996 Olympics: Should any city even want to host the Olympics? “As things currently work, I would say it’s a fool’s errand,” said University of Michigan economist Stefan Szymanski, who independently audited the London 2012 Olympics. “But I would say if you could


Congressional committee probes possible meth making at federal lab

The FBI is leading a criminal investigation. Separately, the U.S. Congressional Committee on Science, Space and Technology received a briefing Wednesday about the incident from NIST Director Willie E. May. He indicated that whatever happened hadn’t been going on long, said Zachary Kurz, a spokesman for the committee. May declined to say whether NIST had determined whether the former lieutenant was making meth, saying that matter is under investigation by law enforcement agencies outside of NIST, according to Kurz. In a statement Wednesday, the committee chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), said he was troubled by what he knew so far — particularly that the subject of the investigation served as a high-ranking NIST police officer. “Even Hollywood couldn’t have imagined this plot twist,” Smith said. “As the science committee expands its investigation, it is becoming clear we must better monitor those with access to our nation’s high-tech research facilities.” NIST, a branch of the Commerce Department, usually makes news for its high-level research. Among their other pursuits, scientists there have earned several Nobel Prizes for their study of atomic physics. According to a committee aide, two members of NIST’s police force were on duty the night of July 18 when an explosion erupted inside a room in Building 236, which is reserved for special projects and sits on the southern edge of the 578-acre campus. The room was not being used for active NIST research, a spokeswoman for the institute said, and was designed as a place to conduct “combustion research.” The explosion didn’t damage the structure, she said. The windows, which were designed not to shatter, were blown out whole and fell to the ground. The explosion set off a heat alarm. NIST firefighters and at least one other NIST police officer responded. They found the lieutenant, who initially said he was trying to fill a butane lighter, according to the committee aide and a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case. The lieutenant, who had worked for NIST for about 13 years, was treated and released from a local trauma center. Smith, the committee chairman, wants to get data on the former lieutenant’s movements at NIST, perhaps via electronic lock records, so that his committee’s staff can determine how much time the officer had spent in Building 236 in recent months. Smith also wants to know what kind of background checks NIST conducts before hiring police officers.


D.C. slaying is second in a week in SE neighborhood

THE DISTRICT Slaying is second in a week in complex A 31-year-old man was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon in Southeast Washington, D.C. police said. Melvin Williams of Southeast was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The shooting occurred at about 5:15 p.m. in the 2300 block of Ainger Place, in the Woodland Terrace housing complex off Alabama Avenue. The shooting was the second homicide in Woodland Terrace in the past week. Police said Antonio McCallister, 23, was fatally shot Friday in the 2700 block of Langston Place SE, about a block from Tuesday’s slaying. Police have not said whether any of the recent violence is related. — Peter Hermann MARYLAND Two inmates killed in state prisons Two inmates have been killed, apparently by other inmates, in Maryland state prisons in the past two weeks. A 59-year-old inmate was suffocated at North Branch Correctional Institution on July 16. State police said another man was killed Wednesday morning at Western Correctional Institution. The two prisons, both maximum-security facilities in Cumberland in the western part of the state, are next to each other. State police spokesman Greg Shipley said that there is no known connection between the two killings. — Julie Zauzmer VIRGINIA Alexandria to get $1.2 million windfall Alexandria found another $1.255 million for its affordable housing fund by refinancing taxable bonds at a lower interest rate. The refinancing dropped the rate on the $10 million in taxable bonds to 2.511 percent, providing the city with the windfall, which will be spread over the next 13 years. — Patricia Sullivan Man at outlet hits worker with hammer Police in Leesburg are looking for a man who hit an employee at a designer outlet store as he was being escorted to a fitting room. The incident happened Tuesday at the Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets. An employee at the Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store was leading a man to a fitting room when the customer hit him in the neck with the claw end of a hammer. The employee was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. Police described the man as white, in his early 20s, between 5 foot 9 and 5 foot 11, and weighing about 160 pounds. He was wearing a green and orange plaid shirt, tan shorts, and a green and white hat. — Dana Hedgpeth and Julie Zauzmer


Obama’s power with words returns, and it serves him well in Africa

solve its own problems rather than just giving aid. In Kenya and Ethiopia, he made a concerted pitch for how Africans could chart a new destiny by changing their ways. The trip marks the first time a sitting president has visited Ethiopia. Obama last traveled to Kenya when he was a U.S. senator in 2006. It was the latest example of how the president, bolstered by a series of recent domestic and foreign policy wins, seems to believe again in the power of his own voice. Speaking at the African Union in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, Obama drew the most enthusiastic reaction when he went off-script, declaring that African leaders need to leave the political stage once their terms expired. His comments came just days after Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza won reelection in balloting that U.N. observers described as “not conducive for an inclusive free and credible electoral process.” Rwandan lawmakers are also studying whether they should revise the nation’s constitution so that President Paul Kagame can seek a third term. “Now, let me be honest with you — I do not understand this,” Obama said as the audience laughed. “I love my work. But under our Constitution, I cannot run again.” As the crowd laughed and clapped in approval, he repeated himself for emphasis. “I can’t run again. I actually think I’m a pretty good president — I think if I ran I could win. But I can’t. . . . And no one person is above the law. Not even the president.” Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on African affairs and was one of 20 lawmakers to accompany the president on the trip, said the audience’s response was “a reminder that President Obama is a unique voice in that as the only African American president, he is able to connect with and motivate and engage the broad run of the African populace on the issues that are both aspirational and very current and pressing.” Todd Moss (Kevin Schaul/The Washington Post) The $5 million Ibrahim Prize, which aims to annually reward African leaders for good governance within three years of their leaving office, was supposed to serve as a powerful incentive for the continent’s leaders. But it has been awarded only five times since 2007, including an honorary award to Nelson Mandela. None of the strongmen Obama was talking about were


Three D.C. area restaurants that could use a little more seasoning

there are better jerk chickens in our area. (Cue up Just Jerk in Lanham.) Truth be told, Andrene’s chicken measures up on practically all fronts. It sports an architecturally balanced seasoning: dark, salty and fragrant. Its pepper heat is aggressive but not destructive; it won’t exterminate taste buds on contact. Its only failing is the cooking method. The chicken lacks a smoking hot personality, so to speak. Andrene’s doesn’t grill its birds, but bakes them, a demerit on an otherwise quality jerk chicken. The joint’s rice and beans, however, are beyond reproach. One of my favorite Greek restaurants, Yamas Mediterranean Grill, has held down a modest storefront in Bethesda for five years now. Last year, owner Tony Alexis quietly opened a second location on the U Street corridor: It was not just an expansion of his scratch-cooking concept, but a chance to reward Yamas chef Mediha Keler, who had for years painstakingly built gyro towers by hand. Keler now serves a dual role as chef and general manager at the second shop (1946 New Hampshire Ave. NW; 202-332-1946), a fast-casual take on the first. Keler runs the District outlet with a kind hand, quick to provide Greek wine samples before you ask or to slip you a free square of baklava as she prepares to close for the night. But earlier this year, when a friend and I stopped for dinner, Yamas felt like a sketch of the original — not just limited in menu, but struggling to re-create a system that, on its best days, could produce tantalizing fare in Bethesda. Too many of our dishes lacked focus. The baked chicken souvlaki featured clammy pieces of meat and tooth-shattering rice, some of the grains barely cooked. The tiropita stuffed with cheese was a cold and crackly affair. A watery side salad derived most of its flavor from the olives and red onions. Only the gyro, its juicy lengths of beef and lamb shaved from a house-made meat tower, recalled the humble beauty of the suburban location. Some of the problems could be blamed on the season (out-of-season tomatoes will forever be tasteless) or the equipment (the kitchen limps along without a grill or deep fryer until an expected upgrade this winter). But I also thought Keler was probably grappling with the ego-crushing lessons of running her own place — lessons that one day, I presume, will be fully absorbed.


Hogan closing scandal-plagued men’s facility at Baltimore jail immediately

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, second from right, arrives at the Baltimore City Detention Center on July 30 in Baltimore before speaking at a news conference to announce his plan to immediately shut down the jail. (Patrick Semansky/AP) Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced plans Thursday to immediately shut a Civil War-era facility at the scandal-plagued Baltimore City Detention Center, rebuking former Gov. Martin O’Malley for allowing inhumane conditions to fester there. Hogan called the fortress-like Men’s Detention Center, which houses 750 male pretrial inmates, a “black eye” and an “embarrassment” for the state of Maryland. Inmates now at the facility will be assigned to other detention centers in the Baltimore complex or nearby, officials said. The central booking facility at the complex, the women’s jail and other pretrial buildings will remain in use. Officials would not provide any specifics about where or how soon prisoners will be transferred, citing security concerns. Hogan said he instructed Stephen T. Moyer, secretary of public safety and correctional services, to begin the closure “as expeditiously as possible.” A corrections officer stands near a gate at Baltimore City Detention Center in Baltimore in November 2013. (Steve Ruark/AP) Closing the jail will save the state between $10 million and $15 million annually, Moyer said, and will take place “without compromising detainees’ access to legal protections.” His agency is setting up a telephone hotline to help family members find out where inmates have been moved. Employees of the jail will be transferred to other facilities. “The Baltimore City Detention Center is a disgrace, and its conditions are horrendous,” Hogan said. “It makes no sense to keep this deplorable facility open. . . . The practice of continuously dumping hard-earned taxpayer money into this disastrous facility will not continue under my watch.” Baltimore City Council member Carl Stokes, who represents the area where the jail is located, said he was pleased that the governor was taking what he considered to be much-needed action. Baltimore’s jail system came under state control in 1991 and is the only local jail system in the nation run by a state corrections department. “I think it’s a good decision,” Stokes said. “Some might say wait. But we shouldn’t be operating [this jail]. . . . This facility is very, very substandard.” A spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) said she has “long had concerns about the condition” of the facility and looked forward to


Debris washed up on island could be clue to missing Malaysia Flight 370

tired of hearing from officials with “99 percent confidence.” “We want 100 percent confidence,” they wrote. Authorities from several countries cautioned against drawing quick conclusions. But Malaysia’s deputy transport minister, Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, told Reuters that the large, battered and barnacled item was “almost certain” to have been a wing component known as a flaperon from a Boeing 777. Others agreed with him. Once investigators in Toulouse take the item apart, it is likely that they will be able to confirm what it is and say almost immediately whether it came from Flight 370. “There are serial numbers on so many of the internal components of a plane — numbers that you can use to trace not just to the factory where it was made but to the lot number and when it was made,” said Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators will also be scrutinizing the part for signs of how it was torn away from the wing. “You examine the fractures and tears under a microscope and see if it’s torn off a certain way,” Goelz said. “From that, you may be able to tell if the plane crashed nose first or flat” like a belly-flop. And while time and currents will have washed away any blast residue, a pattern of little pits or gashes in the metal could indicate an explosion, he said. Experts say that if the plane went down where they think it did — off the Australian coast — it is plausible that a fragment could have drifted as far as Reunion. “It’s in the right direction for the current,” said David Gallo, an oceanographer who helped lead the underwater search for Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic during a 2009 flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Its black boxes were recovered nearly two years later. Gallo is now director of special projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. “The ocean down there circulates like a big tub, swirling in a counterclockwise direction,” he said. “Less than half a mile an hour, over 500 days, it would have made that journey easily.” But, he added, “We will have to wait and see.” The man who found the debris, identified by the Associated Press as Johnny Begue, also found a piece of a suitcase nearby. The lack of certainty, for now, only


Lawyers offered to pay this street band to stop playing. It said ‘no.’

they’re playing music in the building,” said one Treasury Department employee, who, true to Washington form, would speak only on the condition of anonymity and be identified only as an “employee.” “There are people here who have headphones, and everyone’s got the air conditioners cranked up to get the white noise. And there’s people who have their children’s white-noise makers, too. Everyone’s going crazy.” The complaints at the Treasury Department have reached as high as the office of the assistant secretary for management, Brodi Fontenot, according to agency spokesman Rob Runyan. “However, we recognize that the music from performers and other street noise can be part of working in downtown D.C.,” Runyan said in a statement. Over at Skadden Arps, Mitchell S. Ettinger, who leads the Washington office, wrote an e-mail in late May to the staff apologizing for the “inconvenience” of the band, which was “making it difficult for people . . . to work.” The firm reached out to the Secret Service and D.C. police, he wrote, but the agencies said the musicians’ performances were legal and that “there was nothing that could be done to have them removed.” Ettinger added that Skadden Arps tried negotiating with Spread Love to relocate but failed. Skadden Arps’ negotiating skills could use some polish, reported Mark McCollough, 33, a.k.a. Stixxx, the band’s drummer, and Lonnie Shepard, 35, a.k.a. Love Soul, a trombonist. The two friends laughed as they recounted the law firm’s attempt to persuade them to move. “Yeah, they sent over a security guard one day,” McCollough said, as tourists took photos of him perched besides his drums. Lonnie Shepard, standing at right, and Steve Belk, seated at right, are among the five members of the Spread Love Band. They rake in tips from tourists when they set up at 15th Street and New York Ave. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) “And the guard said, ‘I don’t have a problem with you, but a couple people in the building do. Could we pay you to get off this spot, like $200 a week?’ ” Shepard said. “We can make that in an hour.” “So,” McCollough said, “we got back to them the next day and said, ‘We’re not interested.’ ” Not that the band couldn’t be bought. “If the price is right, sure,” assured Steve Belk, 45, the band’s director, a.k.a. Country. The clash between the musicians and the suits went


Police identify victim in deadly shooting on Georgia Avenue NW

D.C. Police said Friday that they are investigating two shootings — one that left a man dead — and a robbery. One of the shootings happened around 10 p.m.Thursday in the 3300 block of Georgia Avenue NW near Lamont Street. An adult male was later pronounced dead after he was taken to an area hospital for gunshot wounds. On Friday morning, some streets in the area were closed as police were on the scene. Police identified the victim as Derrick Black, 24, of Northwest Washington. A reward of up to $25,000 is being offered in the case. The deadly shooting occurred near the Petworth neighborhood and comes after three people were shot in the area of Georgia and Missouri avenues in NW late Wednesday night. There was another shooting around 12:30 a.m. Friday in the 1200 block of Delaware Avenue SW. A man suffered gunshot wounds and was taken to an area hospital. He suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said. And just before 1 a.m., police said there was a robbery with a gun in the 3700 block of D Street SE. Shots were fired, police said, but no one was reported to be injured.


Beijing quietly celebrates Olympic win

scared away in part by the more than $40 billion price tag of the Winter Olympics held last year in Sochi, Russia. Earlier this week, Boston abandoned its bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics amid worries that taxpayers could be on the hook for cost overruns — a move that suggests the Games could increasingly become the domain of governments that don’t have to answer to cost-conscious voters. The Games will be a huge boon to China’s relatively undeveloped winter sports market, a tempting venue for sponsors and others seeking to find another way to tap into the Chinese market of 1.4 billion people. Questions and challenges But among the difficulties is the pollution. Recent winters have been brutal, with thick, suffocating air blanketing much of the Beijing area for days — sometimes weeks — at a time. When Chinese people have talked about the bid — if they mentioned it at all — it has usually been to crack jokes about the odds of a blue sky or skiable snow. As if to wish away the concerns, the slogan of the Chinese bid was “joyful rendezvous upon pure ice and snow.” It sounds only moderately better in Chinese. The awarding of the 2022 Games to Beijing raises questions about additional forced relocations, as well as the environmental impact of manufacturing hillocks of snow in such an arid, water-short region. Local residents question how nearby Zhangjiakou, the proposed ski village 90 miles from Beijing, will manage to cover its normally brown winter hills. Kazakhstan always faced long odds in its bid. The former Soviet republic covers a patch of land the size of Western Europe and holds fewer residents than Florida. But the city of Almaty sits in the shadow of the towering Tian Shan mountains, and athletes could have zipped up to the slopes from the city within half an hour. Disappointed officials in Kazakhstan tried to make the best of their second failed Olympics attempt. “By bidding for the Winter Games we showed the world the amazing progress that Kazakhstan has made since its independence,” said Andrei Kryukov, the deputy head of the bid. “This alone is a major victory for our country.” Birnbaum reported from Moscow. Rick Maese in Washington contributed to this report. Read more: Olympics still have aura. Paying for them is another story Why Boston was right to bail Breaking down Beijing vs. Almaty


A turnaround specialist reshapes Computer Sciences Corp.

with a special $10.50 dividend paid for with $1.5 billion in new debt. Both firms will be headquartered in Falls Church. The announcement of the split has triggered yet another round of buyout interest as private-equity firms and rival contractors consider making an offer for the public sector division, according to individuals in the industry. In opting to split itself in two, CSC is following a path trod by Washington-area firms Booz Allen Hamilton and SAIC. Although each situation is somewhat different, the common thread is the instinct to separate the “boring” old low-margin, low-growth business from a sexier new high-growth, high-margin business. So far, the results have been mixed. At Booz Allen, the government contracting has thrived while the management consulting firm floundered badly before it was acquired by PricewaterhouseCoopers. SAIC’s government IT business seems to have stabilized, but its intelligence and health-care division, now called Leidos, had been floundering until last week, when it won part of a $4.3 billion contract to create an electronic health-records system for the Pentagon. CSC’s rationale for the split is that government and commercial contracting have different cultures and financial profiles, with each requiring a focused management team. The commercial division is scrambling to adapt to a market in which its big corporate customers are no longer interested in paying a premium to have one firm, using custom-designed software and dedicated hardware, provide all of its IT needs. In the newer model, the work is broken into smaller chunks, with some of the programming brought back in-house and greater use made of shared hardware and standardized software that is bought on a cheaper, pay-as-you-go basis. This rapid commoditization of the IT service business has dramatically reduced revenue and profits. Late in responding to the transition, and lacking the financial resources to invest in new technologies, CSC has teamed up with cloud providers such as Amazon, software companies like Microsoft, and network operators such as AT&T to upgrade its offerings, while making targeted investments in hot new areas such as cybersecurity and cloud computing. A new joint venture with Britain’s HCL, announced in late July, promises to boost CSC’s historically strong position in banking software. But so far, the old business continues to shrink faster than the new business has grown, with new contract awards last year down from the year before. In a recent conference call with investors, Lawrie acknowledged that it


Energetic, expressive BSO performance at Strathmore

With a guest conductor at its helm, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presented an energetic and elegantly expressive concert of two perennial favorites Thursday evening at the Music Center at Strathmore. Under the baton of Tito Muñoz, music director of the Phoenix Symphony, the BSO dove into Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, the “New World” symphony, Op. 95, with vitality and nuances. Conducting without a score, Muñoz made full use of his podium space, swooping his arms to encourage bright, galloping passages and floating his left hand and rippling his fingers in the air to massage phrases into tidy conclusions. Conveying passion through his demeanor, Muñoz inspired the musicians to create colorful contrasts in the first movement, emotionally wrought melodies in the Largo, sprightly technique in the Scherzo and resounding joy in the regal finale. In Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64, the BSO featured Juilliard student Ariel Horowitz as soloist. Horowitz gave the concerto a sweetly lyrical, if somewhat methodical, performance. She took care to enunciate technical passages and excelled in the Andante’s plaintive melody. But nerves caused some rushing in the virtuosic sections and a timid tone in others. Still, with time and experience, the young violinist will find confidence to put her own stamp on a work and play with spontaneity. Samuel Barber’s Overture to “The School for Scandal” — an eight-minute piece filled with alternating mercurial and tender statements — opened the concert and spotlighted the BSO’s meticulous playing. Jean is a freelance writer. Tito Munoz. (Dario Acosta)


For downtrodden Detroit, hopes of revitalization ride streetcar rails

The M-1 rail line is under construction on Woodward Avenue in Detroit. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) DETROIT — This is one of the last remnants of a streetcar system that was the envy of cities throughout the country. Childs can still remember riding the trams as a boy, dreaming of the soda fountain at the end of the line that served as a treat after his doctor’s appointments. It was six decades until he could salvage this section of track from the miles of rail that still lie below the ground, hastily buried underneath new roads. Now Childs has identified an unlikely savior for the Motor City — a return to rail. He is at the helm of a $180 million project to run streetcars along a 3.3-mile stretch of Woodward Avenue, one of the city’s main arteries, which is already illuminated by the flashing amber lights of contractors’ vans. His chunk of rail was unearthed during the first week of construction, decades after the trams stopped running in 1956. Childs views this activity as progress, albeit modest, for a city that filed for bankruptcy protection just two years ago, epitomizing the nadir of the Great Recession, and is still losing hundreds of residents each month to more thriving cities. Construction work on along Woodward Avenue affects most establishments along the route including the famed Garden Bowl, the oldest bowling center in the United States where Erin Mitchell is a manager. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) “I don’t want to say it’s back to the future, but when you see all this excitement, you can imagine what this place was like in the ’50s,” Childs, chief operating officer of the nonprofit organization behind the streetcar, M-1 Rail, said in an interview. “This by itself isn’t going to turn the city around, but it is one big part of the puzzle.” The last line to run was on Woodward. More than half a century later, the avenue is the epicenter of attempts to revive downtown Detroit. Venture a few blocks east or west and abandoned houses and offices with broken windows are a more common sight. A pawnbroker at the foot of nearby Gratiot Avenue was shuttered during a recent lunch hour. “Ca$h City,” its sign hollered. If only. More than half of the rail project is funded by private or philanthropic backers, including the billionaires Dan Gilbert, who founded


Once in a blue moon: Jimmy Walker vaults into top five

Jimmy Walker reacts to a birdie on the 15th green during the second round of the Quicken Loans National at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images) Thunderstorms delayed Jimmy Walker’s opening round Thursday in the Quicken Loans National, but with clear skies over Robert Trent Jones Golf Club on Friday, Walker hoped a stellar day on the course would be followed by an interstellar evening. At even par after the soggy opening round, Walker made seven birdies and an eagle with only one bogey for the best round of the day, an 8-under-par 63. That left him in a tie for fifth place entering the weekend. Afterward, the 14th-ranked golfer in the world expressed hope the skies would remain clear after the sun went down. Walker is an astrophotographer who has had photos published on NASA’s Web site, and he planned to view Friday’s so-called “blue moon” by using his laptop to portal into his telescope via the Internet. At his Tuesday news conference, Walker corrected a reporter’s question about the Cygnus Wall he has photographed—“It’s a nebula, not a galaxy,” he said — and gushed about the recent pictures of Pluto. “It was very high-res,” he said. “Very cool.” Even if Walker’s sights are often set light years away, he said he is still looking forward to seeing the relatively nearby moon in rare form. “It’s easy” to photograph, he said. “It just takes a couple clicks.” Walker made his day job look pretty easy at times Friday. His 304-yard drive on No. 2 found the fairway bunker, but that was nothing new for Walker, who ranks 177th on tour in driving accuracy and last in this week’s field through Friday. “I’m used to playing out of the rough,” Walker said. “It’s just part of my life that I deal with every week.” Out of the bunker 112 yards away, Walker landed his approach on the green, where it spun back into the cup as he raised his arms in triumph. “I took advantage of the good drives I hit and hit good iron shots,” he said. “Hit it in a couple fairway bunkers. The bunkers out here are nice.” After his opening round, Walker got a text from swing coach Butch Harmon with a few suggested swing tweaks. “I tried to take it to heart last night and put it into play today,” Walker said.


How a massive threat to our Army may be coming from Washington

they love to go into the field and train; Defense Secretary Ashton Carter recently said that the Army will not have enough money for most soldiers to train above the squad level this year. Soldiers need to fight with new weapons; in the past four years, the Army has canceled 20 major programs, postponed 125 and restructured 124. The Army will not replace its Reagan-era tanks, infantry carriers, artillery and aircraft for at least a generation. Soldiers stay in the ranks because they serve in a unit ready for combat; fewer than a third of the Army’s combat brigades are combat ready. And this initial 40,000 soldier reduction is just a start. Most estimates from Congress anticipate that without lifting the budget sequestration that is driving this across-the-board decline, another 40,000 troops will be gone in about two years. But it’s soldiers who tell the story. After 13 years of war, young leaders are voting with their feet again. As sergeants and young officers depart, the institution is breaking for a third time in my lifetime. The personal tragedies that attended the collapse of a soldier’s spirit in past wars are with us again. Suicide, family abuse, alcohol and drug abuse are becoming increasingly more common. To be sure, the nation always reduces its military as wars wind down. Other services suffer reductions and shortages. But only the Army breaks. Someone please tell those of us who served why the service that does virtually all the dying and killing in war is the one least rewarded. My grandson is a great kid. He’s about the same age I was when I was recovering at Tokyo General. Both of his parents served as Army officers, so it’s no wonder that in school he draws pictures of tanks and planes while his second-grade classmates draw pictures of flowers and animals. The other day he drew a tank just for me and labeled it proudly: “Abrams Tank!” Well, sadly, if he follows in our footsteps, one day he may be fighting in an Abrams tank. His tank will be 60 years old by then. At the moment I’d rather he go to law school. Read more about this issue here: Lindsey Neas: Undercutting our armed forces Gian P. Gentile: The U.S. Army must remain prepared for battle Jennifer Rubin: How we know Dems are unserious about defense Robert J. Samuelson: America’s neglected defense


Beer of the Week: Stone RuinTen Triple IPA

easy to drink despite its hefty 10.8 percent alcohol by volume. (Stone Brewing) The 2015 edition of the national Beer Judge Certification Program Style Guidelines, which proscribe judging criteria for competitions, doesn’t include a definition of a “triple IPA,” even though breweries have released an increasing number of heavily hopped, high-alcohol IPAs marketed as triple IPAs in recent years. Good luck trying to pin down devoted hop heads on the exact difference between a double, or imperial, IPA and a triple IPA, other than “it’s stronger and has more hops.” When Stone Brewing released an enormously hopped IPA in 2012 to celebrate the anniversary of its Ruination IPA, it was billed as “Stone Ruination Tenth Anniversary IPA.” No double, no triple. In 2013, the limited-release beer’s name was slimmed down to Stone RuinTen IPA. This year, it has become the scary-sounding Stone RuinTen Triple IPA; though the name changed, the beer did not. Beyond its hall-of-fame-quality IPA, Stone is already known for ales packed with tongue-punishing amounts of hops: Arrogant Bastard Ale, Double Bastard, Ruination Double IPA and the Extra Hoppy version of its Old Guardian barley wine. To call RuinTen a triple is to put it above some pretty exalted company. It lives up to the family reputation. From the moment you catch a whiff of the heady amounts of pine and tropical citrus in the nose, you know this beer is special. Big flavors of spicy pine, grapefruit and mango wash across your taste buds: After a few sips, I told a friend that I felt as if there was a slick of resin and bitter hops across my tongue. The clean and bitter finish belies the 10.8 percent ABV: RuinTen is more easy-drinking than a number of lower-alcohol double IPAs I’ve had. RuinTen arrived in stores and local beer bars in mid- to late July, and it’s not guaranteed to stick around for long. It’s also far better fresh. Stone RuinTen Triple IPA. Price varies by store; I’ve seen it for anywhere from $7.99 to $9.49 per 22-ounce bottle. In bars, it generally sells for $7 to $8 per nine-ounce pour. For locations, see www.stonebrewing.com. — Fritz Hahn More from Food: Beer of the Week: Port City Derecho Common Beer of the Week: Clown Shoes Clementine Beer of the Week: Flying Dog Juniper White Ale Beer of the Week: Alpine Nelson Golden Rye IPA Beer Column archive


When the scene is so lively all year, why do we need DC Beer Week?

DC Brau’s annual all-you-can-eat crab feast at the Quarterdeck Restaurant in Arlington is one of the highlights of DC Beer Week. (2014 photo courtesy of DC Beer Week) (DC Beer Week) A party at one of the District’s most popular breweries featuring live music, food trucks and local artists. A happy hour with 14 highly rated West Coast beers, including some rarely found in this area. A beer bar hosting a tasting of limited-release, barrel-aged sour ales. A local brewery marking the release of its latest IPA with cold beers and live music at a boutique hotel’s rooftop bar. When the seventh annual DC Beer Week begins on Aug. 9, fans of the local craft beer scene will be looking for events like those: a chance to geek out with brewers and fellow beer lovers while sipping something entirely new. Except those four events aren’t part of DC Beer Week: They happened over the course of a few days at the end of July. As the Washington market becomes larger and more sophisticated, new beers are arriving weekly from across the country and around the world. Tap takeovers, beer dinners and brewery-centric events have become more common. We’ve reached a point where almost every week could be DC Beer Week, so why do we need DC Beer Week itself? “The culture is in a place where we can spend the whole week celebrating what’s great about the D.C. area,” says Chris Van Orden, a new co-chairman of the event and the co-editor of DCBeer.com, which runs the event calendar. DC Beer Week is when that culture, with breweries popping up in Lorton and Laurel and a growing number of bars where it’s easier to find a craft beer than a Miller Lite, puts itself on a pedestal. Festivities begin on Sunday with Brewers on the Block, where at least 20 breweries from the District, Maryland and Virginia will serve beers outside Union Market while DJs spin and local restaurants offer snacks. Other “marquee” events include Port City bringing beer to “The Beach” during an after-hours party at the National Building Museum; DC Brau’s annual all-you-can-eat crab feast at the Quarterdeck in Arlington; a beer-centric scavenger hunt through Dupont Circle bars; and ChurchKey in Logan Circle putting 55 local beers on tap and cask. (A guide to the week’s best events is at www.goingoutguide.com.) But once you drill down past the


Man charged with murder in July 22 attack in Northwest Washington

D.C. police have made an arrest in connection with the July 22 fatal stabbing of a man in Northwest Washington. Tyree Donnell Morgan, 25, of Northwest was arrested Saturday and charged with second-degree murder while armed in the death of Antoine Jackson, 22, of Hyattsville, D.C. police said. Jackson died Thursday of his injuries, police said. On July 22, D.C. police responded to reports of a stabbing in the 1300 block of Seventh Street NW and upon arrival found Jackson suffering from multiple stab wounds.


The military operation in Gaza that still haunts Israel one year later

the soldier, Amnesty says, 2,000 bombs, missiles and artillery shells were fired into densely populated areas. Israel denied it used excessive force and said its soldiers were not only seeking the return of a kidnapped soldier but also fighting Hamas militants who attacked them from behind “human shields.” The Amnesty investigation comes on the heels of a June report by the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict for the United Nations, which concluded that the Black Friday events might amount to war crimes. The report also found that Hamas may have committed similar violations of international law by indiscriminately firing rockets at Israeli civilians and basing combatants in schools, mosques and hospitals. Human rights groups say 135 to 200 Palestinian civilians were killed over four days in early August; most died on Black Friday, Amnesty said. Israel called both the United Nations and Amnesty investigations biased. It had denied access to the Gaza Strip to both groups. The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a rebuttal to the Amnesty report, calling it “fundamentally flawed in its methodologies, in its facts, in its legal analysis and in its conclusions.” The Israeli government also charged that Amnesty had a “compulsive obsessiveness towards Israel.” Amnesty researchers, however, say their report will probably guide prosecutor Fatou B. Bensouda at the International Criminal Court in her decision on whether to advance from the current “preliminary examination” of Israeli behavior in Gaza to a full “investigation.” That would be a much more serious matter, which could lead to indictments against top military and political leaders on both sides. Hannibal Directive Black Friday began in the flat fields east of the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah, where Israeli troops were searching for a tunnel to destroy when they encountered the Hamas fighters. Lt. Hadar Goldin was pulled into a hole in the ground. Radio communications, alongside video from a camera mounted on a soldier’s helmet, portray the chaotic events, with Israeli commanders initially not sure who was dead or alive. Within minutes, senior Israeli commanders shouted the order to declare a “Hannibal Directive,” a classified protocol understood by many Israeli troops to mean “better a dead soldier than a captured soldier.” Israeli soldiers dropped grenades into the tunnel and then went searching for their comrade in the darkness, firing bursts into the gloom. Lt. Eitan Fund, 24, rushed forward to try to thwart the capture of his


‘The Summer of Freddie Gray’ has left Baltimore reeling, with 45 killed in July

and people are beginning to freak out. The body count has also gone up in New York, New Orleans, San Antonio, St. Louis, Chicago, Dallas and Milwaukee. The police chiefs from big cities across the country met in Washington on Monday to discuss what’s clearly a nationwide trend. For 20 years, we saw crime plummet. The country’s homicide rate is now half of what it was in the 1990s. Experts have tried to figure out why homicides and other crimes dropped, attributing the decrease to zero-tolerance laws, the war on drugs, three strikes laws, job growth, prison growth, the economy and better emergency room medicine. But whatever juju we had is fading. And for the first time in two decades, we’re seeing a collective rise in bloodshed. Chicago homicides? Up 17 percent over last year. Atlanta? A 32 percent increase. New York? Murder is up by 13 percent. “We have come too far to lose traction now,” declared D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, as she discussed the trend last week. Baltimore’s struggles are particularly acute. The city is still reeling from the fallout of Gray’s death. The 25-year-old died after he suffered a spinal injury in police custody in April. Six police officers have been charged in his death. The unrest that rocked the city and the spike in violence just cost Police Commissioner Anthony Batts his job. He’s been replaced by interim chief Kevin Davis, who pointed out that other cities are grappling with more murders, while acknowledging that Baltimore’s problem is worse. “Certainly, it’s pronounced here in Baltimore,” he said in a news conference Sunday. “But I believe the circumstances contributing to our uptick are probably not unlike the circumstances contributing to the uptick in homicides in other jurisdictions across our country,” Davis said. Is Baltimore simply the leader in a nationwide backslide? Some blame the increase in violence on the “Ferguson Effect” — officers pulling back on tough enforcement because of the intense focus on police-involved shootings like the one that killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last August. In neighborhoods where police have long been viewed with suspicion, people use their cellphones like all-seeing periscopes every time police officers get out of their cars. Officers and the unions that represent them describe a combination of surveillance and skepticism, with body cameras, ACLU recording apps and jeering wherever they go. Harris, the stoop sitter who has lived


Summer Book Club: ‘Shooting Kabul’

(Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) “Shooting Kabul” By N.H. Senzai. Ages 8 to 12. When bad guys take over the government in Fadi’s country, they pressure his father to work for them. Fadi’s father, Habib, decides that the family must flee the country. Their story sounds a bit like the movie “The Sound of Music.” But instead of Austria and the Nazis, Habib’s family lives in Afghanistan and the bad guys are the Taliban. At the heart of both stories is a love of family and country. Fadi’s family left Afghanistan for several years so his father could get an advanced college degree in the United States. When he graduated, Habib was determined to return home to help his fellow Afghans, who had endured years of war. At first it seemed like a good decision. “When we returned to Afghanistan, the Taliban asked me to help get rid of the country’s vast poppy fields that were used to make drugs,” his father said. (Wayne Brezinka/For The Washington Post) But Habib explained to 12-year-old Fadi and his two sisters that within a few years the Taliban “were suppressing the people they’d helped free.” That meant no schools for girls, no books and no photography, something Fadi loved. When the Taliban urge Habib to become their ambassador, he realizes his family is in danger. It’s time to go. They sell most of their possessions to pay for a secret trip back to the United States. As they scramble to jump onto a truck in the dead of night, something unthinkable happens. Mariam, Fadi’s 6-year-old sister, slips from his grasp and is left behind. The family can’t go back for her. Fadi blames himself. As he struggles to adapt to life in the United States, he doesn’t stop thinking about rescuing Miriam. But how? A photo contest with a grand-prize trip to India could get him close to Afghanistan. If he can get that far, Fadi is sure he will find a way to bring his family back together. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE . . . N.H. Senzai wrote a second book about Afghan immigrants in California. Two cousins who don’t get along must help save the family grocery store in “Saving Kabul Corner” (ages 8 to 12). In Michael Morpurgo’s “Shadow,” Aman and his mother are told they have to go back to Afghanistan after living in England for six years. Can the


Civilian casualties in Afghanistan hit highest number since 2009, U.N. says

Afghan militia forces take position on Saturday as they battle Taliban militants in a district of Kunduz province. (Nasir Waqif/AFP/Getty Images) KABUL — The figures were slightly higher than in the first half of last year and higher than in any similar period since 2009, the report said. About 70 percent of the deaths and injuries were caused by anti-government forces, mainly the Taliban, but the report noted “with concern” that there was a 60 percent increase in casualties caused by pro-government forces. The report comes after a string of deadly attacks by Taliban fighters, both in their traditional southern strongholds, such as Helmand province, and along new fronts, such as northern Kunduz province. Kunduz, where the Taliban launched two offensives, registered the highest number of civilian casualties from ground combat of any province. “Afghan civilians have suffered far too long from this destructive conflict. The devastating consequences of this violence against civilians as documented in this report should serve to strengthen the broad conviction that peace is urgently needed,” said Nicholas Haysom, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. “Until peace is achieved, all parties to the conflict must fulfill their obligations under international humanitarian law to minimize the impact of the conflict on civilians and match their public statements on the protection of civilians with concrete actions,” said Haysom, who is also the U.N. secretary general’s special representative for Afghanistan. The report noted that both Taliban and government officials had pledged to protect civilian lives in the conflict, but it said that the high casualty figures demonstrated “the continued failure of parties to the conflict to protect civilians from harm.” With virtually all international combat troops withdrawn by the end of last year, the report said, Afghan police and army forces were at the forefront of the conflict. Most of the injuries and deaths inflicted by them were the result of indirect fire, especially the use of mortars, during combat in populated areas. The report said such weapons “continued to take a heavy toll on the civilian population.” On June 5, for example, Afghan National Army forces fired about 10 mortar rounds near Ghazni city. At least one struck a house where a wedding party was underway. Eight boys were killed and 10 people were injured. According to the U.N. report, army officials denied causing the casualties and blamed the incident on an explosive device. Overall, the


D.C. news in brief

Decatur St. NW, 2015 Massachusetts Ave. NW, 520 Eighth St. SE and 1017 New Jersey Ave. For information, go to www.muralsdcproject.com. District begins work on Hine School site development The District government and builders Eastbanc and Stanton Development recently broke ground on the Hine School redevelopment, a $224 million mixed-used project at the corner of 700 Pennsylvania Ave. SE that will include retail, affordable housing and a new public plaza. The development will include nearly 60,000 square feet of retail space; 20 percent of it is reserved for local tenants. Of the 162 residential units, 46 will be affordable housing, with 17 units designated for seniors. The project designs are LEED-certified. During construction, the Eastern Market Flea Market will operate Saturdays and Sundays on Seventh Street SE. It will move to the new C Street SE public plaza after completion, expected in 2017. For information, go to www.hineschool.com. D.C. wildlife plan will be discussed tonight The D.C. Department of the Environment is having a public meeting on updates to the District’s Wildlife Action Plan from 6:30 to 8 p.m. tonight at the Aquatic Resources Education Center, 1900 Anacostia Dr. SE. The plan, a requirement for wildlife grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, provides guidelines to ensure the health of rare and common species. Over the past two years, DDOE’s Fisheries and Wildlife Division has worked with natural resource managers and stakeholders to develop the 2015 plan. DDOE staff members will take questions on the plan and give updates on species in need of conservation, critical habitats and actions taken by the department and its partners. For information, go to ddoe.dc.gov. Library offers two house history workshops The Humanities Council of Washington, D.C., and the D.C. Library are having two house history workshops, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Aug. 15, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G. St. NW. The classes explain how to research the history of District homes using maps; the D.C. historic building permit database; microfilm records; photo archives and other resources. To register, go to www.wdchumanities.org/househistory. Workshop on tenant rights in landlord foreclosure Housing Counseling Services, a nonprofit advocacy group, is having a workshop on renters’ rights and options when the landlord has lost the property to foreclosure, at 6 p.m. Aug. 18 in its office, 2410 17th St. NW, Suite 100. For information, call 202-667-7006. — Compiled by Terence McArdle


Spread of snakehead fish in Potomac River concerns area officials

for fishermen who kill snakeheads in any of the ways the state suggests: rod and reel, bow and arrow, spear and more. State officials emphasized in a news release that snakehead fish can be legally caught in any season and at any size, unlike some other fish. To qualify for the contest, anglers must agree to not catch and release the fish; they must kill the snakehead. “We’d like it to be harvested if anyone catches it. We’d like it if they took it home and possibly ate it,” Love said. “Anglers and archers enjoy fishing for them, which is great. And they enjoy eating them, which is great.” Scientists believe snakeheads are a threat to local waterways, even if they are uncertain how, Love said. They are studying the consequences of the population boom and are fearful of what they might learn. “Part of the reason we should be worried about it is we don’t really know what the impacts are going to be,” Love said. “We do know that in some cases, invasive species cost millions of dollars in damage to the ecosystem.” In particular, he said, the snakehead and the largemouth bass eat many of the same foods, including crayfish and mice and other small mammals that end up in the water. So a spreading snakehead presence might starve the bass. Scientists believe the fish were most likely introduced in Washington about 2002 because of live fish markets, which imported them from Asia. Federal laws now prohibit possession of live northern snakehead fish in the United States, but then some people bought them — and let them go. “You never know what you’re going to get when you release one of these live animals into the waterway,” Love said. “I’m hoping that people are also becoming more aware of the dangers of just releasing a pet or a live animal they bought at a fish market.” Love said that, in recent years, fishermen seem to have effectively culled the fish. But their expansion is causing concern. Each spring, the snakeheads that remain swim farther when they are looking for a place to spawn, Love said. They quickly acquire more nesting spots, even if their overall numbers stop increasing. Snakeheads have been reported around Baltimore and Maryland’s Eastern Shore, in addition to the Potomac. “I don’t think we’re ever going to get rid of the snakehead,” Love said.


Wing fragment is from Flight 370, Malaysia says

ended up there. Flight 370 made several sharp turns, suggesting that someone was at the controls, rather than an autopilot. But even if the body of the plane is found, the so-called black box is unlikely to reveal what happened in the cockpit after it went dramatically off course northeast of the Malaysian coast line. The cockpit voice recorder, which might have revealed that, is on two-hour loop and the plane is estimated to have flown for about eight hours before crashing. Anything said as the plane diverted from its course would have been recorded over by the time it went down. The other half of the black box, the flight data recorder, could provide important details to help authorities determine what went wrong and what ultimately caused the plane to go down. One theory holds that the plane suffered a loss of cabin and cockpit pressurization, which rendered all on board unconscious in the final hours of flight. The data recorder would indicate that, as well as whether the plane finally went down when it ran out of fuel. Experts who theorize the plane was diverted by cockpit crew or hijackers point to several purposeful actions that occurred before the plane disappeared from radar. Notably, the plane took turns off its intended flight path, ultimately putting it on a heading for the Indian Ocean, and it appeared the electronics that allowed the plane to be tracked were deliberately turned off. One speculative concept gained enough traction to earn a label: “the rogue pilot theory.” It suggests that pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, was distraught, perhaps over marital problems. He locked the co-pilot out of the cockpit, turned off the key tracking electronics, piloted the aircraft on a course for the Indian Ocean and then shut off cabin pressurization, suffocating himself and everyone on board hours before the plane ran out of fuel and crashed. Although Malaysian officials have said the plane’s disappearance appeared to be a “deliberate act,” investigators produced a 584-page interim report in March that said there no evidence to suggest that either pilot or co-pilot were responsible. Investigators found nothing in his background to suggest he was depressed, had financial problems or was contemplating suicide. “The Captain’s ability to handle stress at work and home was good,” the report said. “There was no known history of apathy, anxiety, or irritability. There were no significant changes in


Montgomery Animal Watch

This case was received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Dog bites soccer player: Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Montgomery County news in brief

site.→ →The dog exercise area at Green Park will be available only to city residents with licensed animals. →Sledding, tobogganing, snowboarding and skiing will be permitted in city parks, unless otherwise designated. →Fires are permitted only in fireplaces provided by the city for that purpose. →Cooking on charcoal grills (or stoves using gas or other liquid fuels) is allowed in designated picnic areas. →Rocket launching and landings are not permitted without approval. →Parks can be closed and evacuated in emergency situations. The complete city code is available at www.gaithersburgmd.gov. For information, contact the Department of Parks, Recreation and Culture at 301-258-6350 or e-mail parksrec@gaithersburgmd.gov. Free Q-and-A sessions about SHIP at two libraries Counselors from the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) will provide information for seniors this month. They will answer questions about Medicare updates, how and when to sign up, receiving Medicare while working and the “Medicare Alphabet,” parts A, B, C and D. Here are the two workshops: →Wednesday, from 7 to 9 p.m., at Quince Orchard Library, 15831 Quince Orchard Rd., Gaithersburg. →Aug. 18, from 7 to 9 p.m., at Wheaton Library, 11701 Georgia Ave., Wheaton. For information, contact SHIP at 301-590-2819 or www.medicareabcd.org. Applicants sought for tax assessment appeal board Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) seeks to fill one regular and one alternate position on the Property Tax Assessment Appeal Board. Each appointment is made by the Maryland governor from a list of applicants nominated by the county executive and approved by the County Council. The board hears appeals of real property assessments and of tax credits and tax exemptions. Board members should have knowledge of economics and real estate values, but may not be actively involved in real estate sales or appraisals. A board member’s responsibilities include reading arguments and appraisals, listening to oral arguments, participating in decisions, and writing and explaining board decisions. Applicants should have a careful attention to detail, the ability to analyze and communicate the meaning of diverse issues in writing, and knowledge of residential and commercial real estate in the county. Members serve five-year terms and meet about three to four hours, four days a week. Compensation is $25 an hour up to six hours per day while the board is in session. Members must complete an annual state financial disclosure statement. The application deadline is Aug. 21. For information, go to www.montgomerycountymd.gov/boards . — Compiled by Lisa Bolton


Good riddance to the Baltimore City Detention Center

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan speaks at Baltimore City Detention Center on July 30 to announce his plan to immediately shut down the jail. (Patrick Semansky/Associated Press) Regarding the July 31 Metro article “Hogan shutting Baltimore jail facility”: Despite some horrendous problems — such as poor medical attention, smuggling, violence, poor access to representation and corruption — I predict that much of the same will go on, perhaps with some fixes, at any new facility. The old jail had a free hominess to it that made doing time there relatively easy (compared with outlying prisons far from family). Many correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center come from the same neighborhoods as their wards. Any new facility will likely be a cosmetic change, leaving the same old criminal “injustice” system intact. Certainly the castle on Eager Street is worth preserving, although I am at a loss to suggest a use. David Eberhardt, Baltimore The writer was director of Offender Aid and Restoration at the Baltimore City jail from 1977 to 2010.


All branches of the military deserve adequate funding

A U.S. Army soldier rests in Forward Operating Base Connolly near Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 4. (Massoud Hossaini/Associated Press) In his Aug. 2 Sunday Opinion essay, “Our Army is breaking,” retired Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales addressed the U.S. Army’s postwar resizing crisis, providing insight and examples of how Army noncommissioned officers departed the service after Korea and Vietnam and how a similar exodus is threatening to “break” our nation’s largest service again. He added, “Someone please tell those of us who served why the service that does virtually all the dying and killing in war is the one least rewarded.” While the need to target that exodus is correct, his claim of the Army’s portion of the suffering is not. For example, the current U.S. military death figures for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom stand at 6,762. Of those, 4,896 were indeed soldiers (72 percent ). As a comparison, U.S. Marine Corps wartime fatalities were 1,481 (22 percent of the total), but the Marine Corps is a much smaller service, widely known as “the few and the proud.” (Army active/reserve strength, not including the National Guard: 689,805; Marine Corps active/reserve: 223,291.) Through this lens, these two services have suffered comparably. Tomorrow’s military will need to be funded based on current and projected requirements, not past sacrifices; if it were the latter, no “reward” ever could be adequate. Michael Crockett, Norfolk The writer, a retired Navy commander, also served as an enlisted Marine.


Libyan force was lesson in limits of U.S. power

about the best approach. Africom was ambivalent about the GPF concept. The State Department supported the proposal, but some feared that a major military program would crowd out the diplomatic agenda. Security officials would allow very few U.S. personnel on the ground. Most of what was discussed was never implemented. Meanwhile, Libyan officials were struggling to find recruits who were ready to go overseas for training. American officials wanted Libya to send a battalion-size cohort, at least 500 men, to each training venue. But few Libyans were accustomed to the rigors of military life, and the militias afforded better pay and more freedom than life in the barracks, so attracting candidates was hard. “It was like, ‘Why should I go to the army when I can have an easier life in a militia?’ ” one Libyan official said. When recruits were sent to Turkey for training in 2013 and 2014, almost half dropped out, in part because they found it too hard. Many of them had never left Libya before and seemed to struggle in a more permissive foreign environment. Zeidan said recruits procured alcohol and drugs in Turkey. “We thought they picked the wrong people,” one former senior U.S. official said. For months, American officials also struggled to identify which Libyan officials were empowered to make decisions, sign documents and execute tasks required for the training program. “To get the same two interlocutors at a meeting two weeks in a row was nearly impossible,” an Africom official said. Virtually no Libyan official, no matter how senior, seemed to use a government e-mail address. To track down key officials, foreign diplomats had to show up at Libyan ministries, which one American official described as resembling “mausoleums” — empty, echoing buildings with few government workers in sight. In an untested bureaucracy, establishing legal powers and administrative authorities for various ministries and officials often resulted in conflict and delay. “We can’t sign the paper for them. We can’t deposit the money in the bank account,” Chollet said. “They have to do this themselves.” When Zeidan took over in late 2012, officials in Washington were hopeful that he would increase public trust in the central government by providing services, increasing oil production and taking steps to rein in militias. Zeidan had spent decades living in Europe and elsewhere as an opposition activist. He hoped to ensure that Islamists, who had gained influence after


A gifted writer chronicles the ‘vocabulary of mutilation’ of Mexican drug cartels

to create its charisma of cruelty — Internet videos of beheadings, dismemberments, crucifixions, flayings, immolations, etc. “The Cartel” is dedicated to 131 journalists, all named, who, because of their reporting on drug violence, are known to have died or vanished. “There were others,” he says. And there probably will be more. Many of Winslow’s lurid passages — all, he says, “inspired by actual events” — are essentially confirmed in Roberto Saviano’s “ZeroZeroZero,” a nonfiction book on the world cocaine trade, written by the Italian journalist who has had police protection since he first published in 2006 “Gomorrah,” a report on a Neapolitan branch of the Sicilian Mafia. Saviano, a somewhat overwrought writer, understands the power of economics: One thousand euros invested in Apple stock in January 2012 would have been worth 1,670 euros 12 months later. But 1,000 euros invested in cocaine in Colombia could have returned 182,000 euros in Europe, assuming — a reasonable bet — you could get the cocaine past law enforcement. Mexico is a casualty of a U.S. drug enforcement success. In the 1980s, the South Florida Task Force produced the “balloon effect” — squeeze a balloon in one spot, it bulges in another. The task force deflected sea-borne cocaine imports to Mexico. Hence today’s northward flow of drugs, southward flow of money and drenching flow of Mexican blood as the cartels war with one another and with Mexico’s federal, state and local governments. Some U.S. emergency room physicians are, Winslow says, glad that Mexicans, using precursor drugs from China, have taken over most manufacturing of methamphetamines because this has “standardized the product,” making it easier for physicians to standardize treatment protocols. In both novels, Winslow relentlessly but not unreasonably compares the war on drugs to the war in Vietnam — American “advisers,” “the dull bass whop-whop-whop of helicopter rotors,” defoliants, assassinations, intelligence failures and futility. A man of the left, Winslow has scant sympathy for U.S. foreign policy problems in Central America during the Cold War, when, he says, arming anti-communists became entangled with the drug trade. He favors drug legalization because interdiction “is a broom sweeping back the ocean” and because legalization would financially cripple the cartels. But less bloodshed in Mexico would mean more social regression in the United States: Today’s levels of addiction are nowhere near the levels that probably would be reached under legalization, even without assuming the marketing measures that