Medical Mysteries: Toxic chemotherapy

hospitalist treating Albright told her that the elusive oncologist was no longer affiliated with the HMO. “Now I had no doctor,” said Albright, who insisted that a gastroenterologist see her. The GI specialist told her that there was no sign of an infection and that her problem was most likely a bad reaction to chemo. A week after her discharge, Albright, feeling “weak, woozy and scared,” and her husband met with a new oncologist. The specialist mentioned that some patients have a sensitivity to certain chemotherapy drugs. “She said something about D-something deficiency,” Albright recalled. “She said the side effects [in such a patient ] would be 10 times worse” than normal. Galvanized by her ordeal, Albright began researching sensitivity to chemotherapy. She stumbled across a description of DPD deficiency, short for dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase deficiency, which described many of the problems she had suffered. “The more I read, the more alarmed I got,” she said. DPD deficiency Mutations that result in complete deficiency are rare and are apparent in infancy; they are characterized by repeated seizures, small head size, delayed motor skills and intellectual disability. Cases of partial deficiency, believed to affect 2 to 8 percent of the population, show no symptoms — unless such a person is given certain chemotherapy drugs, including 5-FU, one of the drugs Albright received. In these cases, 5-FU is not metabolized normally but instead accumulates to toxic levels, causing ulceration of the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, severe diarrhea, mouth sores called mucositis, low white blood cell counts and peeling skin on the palms and soles of the feet — all of which Albright experienced. If left untreated, death can result. “It’s a horribly toxic event, and when you see it, it’s just unbelievably striking,” said Gary K. Schwartz, chief of hematology/oncology at Columbia University Medical Center and a spokesman for the American Society of Clinical Oncologists. An estimated 3 to 5 percent of cancer patients are believed to have some degree of DPD deficiency, which was first identified about 20 years ago. “We don’t routinely screen for it because it’s so rare,” Schwartz said, and because people who don’t have a DPD deficiency can have toxic reactions to cancer drugs. But “most medical oncologists are aware of this genetic variant and they would think about it — or should” in a patient with severe side effects. Albright, whose trust in her HMO was


A better way to deliver innovation to the world

(Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press) L. Rafael Reif is president of MIT. In 2012, MIT researchers introduced a liquid-impregnated surface that made the inside of a bottle so slippery that ketchup would flow out freely to the last drop. Today, LiquiGlide, the company spun out from this advance, has 30 industrial customers and has received thousands of inquiries from businesses that see new ways to use the technology, from IV blood bags to oil pipelines. The company, in which MIT has an equity stake, secured significant first-round venture funding this spring. This is one way the United States’ innovation system works: Together, the public and private sectors make investments in higher education and scientific research. (LiquiGlide emerged from research funded by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Department.) These investments spawn graduates and ideas that, through venture-capital-funded start-ups, pay off in innovations that serve society: the ultimate return on investment. That system works beautifully for digital technologies and those tangible innovations, such as LiquiGlide, with market-ready applications. Generally, these are new ideas based on existing technologies. With a good shot of producing returns within five years, they are magnets for talent and venture capital — and eventually for big companies that often buy the start-ups whole. But this system leaves a category of innovation stranded: new ideas based on new science. Self-fertilizing plants. Bacteria that can synthesize biofuels. Safe nuclear energy technology. Affordable desalination at scale. It takes time for new-science technologies to make the journey from lab to market, often including time to invent new manufacturing processes. It may take 10 years, which is longer than most venture capitalists can wait. The result? As a nation, we leave a lot of innovation ketchup in the bottle. This is a relatively new situation. From the 1960s through the early 1990s, society’s investments in education and research produced smart people and brilliant ideas, and then big companies with big internal R&D operations would hire those people, develop those ideas and deliver them to the marketplace. When I joined MIT’s electrical engineering faculty in 1980, that model was working extremely well, translating discoveries from university labs across the country into innovations such as silicon-on-insulator technology (IBM) and strained silicon (Intel) — two advances indispensable to delivering on the promise of Moore’s Law , which since the ’60s has enabled the rapid advance of computing power. In the past two decades, and especially the


often buy the start-ups whole. But this system leaves a category of innovation stranded: new ideas based on new science. Self-fertilizing plants. Bacteria that can synthesize biofuels. Safe nuclear energy technology. Affordable desalination at scale. It takes time for new-science technologies to make the journey from lab to market, often including time to invent new manufacturing processes. It may take 10 years, which is longer than most venture capitalists can wait. The result? As a nation, we leave a lot of innovation ketchup in the bottle. This is a relatively new situation. From the 1960s through the early 1990s, society’s investments in education and research produced smart people and brilliant ideas, and then big companies with big internal R&D operations would hire those people, develop those ideas and deliver them to the marketplace. When I joined MIT’s electrical engineering faculty in 1980, that model was working extremely well, translating discoveries from university labs across the country into innovations such as silicon-on-insulator technology (IBM) and strained silicon (Intel) — two advances indispensable to delivering on the promise of Moore’s Law , which since the ’60s has enabled the rapid advance of computing power. In the past two decades, and especially the past five years, the United States has undergone a profound shift in how it develops, adopts and capitalizes on innovation. Today, our highly optimized, venture-capital-driven innovation system is simply not structured to support complex, slower-growing concepts that could end up being hugely significant — the kind that might lead to disruptive solutions to existential challenges in sustainable energy, water and food security, and health. This is no criticism of U.S. venture capital, which does its job extremely well. Nor is it a plea for government-funded innovation. Federal support is crucial for fundamental and applied science, which leads to new technologies and innovation. But government cannot effectively supply large-scale, long-term funding for new companies and products. And it may be unrealistic to expect big corporations to patiently invest in technologies designed to impatiently disrupt them. But the United States needs a more systematic way to help its bottled-up new-science innovators deliver their ideas to the world. That calls for accelerating a two-stage process: from idea to investment, and from investment to impact. To create a new way of supporting the first stage — from idea to investment — a coalition of funders from the public, for-profit and not-for-profit sectors could work


Military tributes at baseball games: True honors or hollow gestures?

the Department of Defense was revealed to have used taxpayer money to pay teams to stage them. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) brought the practice to light when he outlined how the New York Jets accepted $115,000 from the National Guard to host ceremonies, including one that recognized a “Hometown Hero” on the field. Flake requested detailed information on the practice from the Department of Defense. While the results have not returned, Flake’s office found that teams from every league, including the NCAA, have contracts with the Department of Defense. (A person with knowledge of Flake’s request said the Nationals are not one of them.) “Most of the teams do these salutes without compensation, without a contract,” Flake said. “Some may have a local sponsor for it, which they note, or they just do it as a goodwill gesture from the team. It’s always a popular item. It’s probably almost as popular as the Kiss Cam. There’s not a lack of patriotism at these games. People stand up during the Star-Spangled Banner, and that’s a great thing. When you have this sponsored by the taxpayer or by the military, it just kind of, I think, diminishes the efforts of the teams and other who do it on their own.” Corporate sponsorship has in some instances blurred the significance of tributes. Before Game 1 of last year’s World Series, Major League Baseball sent a press release extolling seven different ceremonies involving the military. The list included the “Budweiser Our Hero Seats” and the “Bank of America Salute.” It allows for the callous interpretation that the ceremonies are merely advertising draped in the flag, that the soldiers and veterans on the field are being used as much as they are being honored. In some cases the military has explicitly turned the ceremonies into a recruiting tool, making the prospect of being honored at a benefit to volunteering. In a commercial for the Marines released this year, the camera takes the perspective of a Marine sitting on a subway train. A man asks, “So, why the Marines?” A montage flashes: Playing sports in childhood. Meeting a Marine recruiter. Pulling a rope at training. Blasting open a door in battle. Rescuing children from a war. Finally, his hands are holding and flapping a giant flag in the center of a massive football stadium, fireworks bursting in the sky. More coverage: Strasburg hammered again as Hamels,


Suspicious item is blown up near Capitol as many gather at concert

A pressure cooker was blown up Sunday night on the Mall during an investigation of a parked vehicle that appeared to be suspicious, authorities said. The controlled explosion of the cooker was heard by a crowd assembled on the Capitol’s west lawn for the annual Memorial Day concert. The vehicle was parked on Third Street NW between Jefferson and Madison drives, and nearby streets were closed for several hours after the vehicle was observed around 5 p.m. A Capitol Police spokeswoman said officers spotted the pressure cooker in the vehicle and also detected the odor of gasoline. It is possible for pressure cookers to be used to build makeshift bombs. Police “safely disrupted” some items in the vehicle, which included the cooker, Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said. Disruption often involves setting off a small explosion. In this case, Schneider said, it produced a loud bang. One person who attended the concert said an announcement was made before the concert began — a warning that a loud noise might be heard. The Capitol Police investigation concluded at about 8:20 p.m., Schneider said. She said nothing hazardous was found. However, Schneider said, the vehicle’s owner, identified as Israel Shimeles of Alexandria, was arrested and charged with operating a vehicle after revocation.


Senate committee backs measure to allow VA to recommend medical pot

Veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other chronic pain issues may be able to ask their VA doctors for a new treatment soon: medical marijuana. Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to back the Veterans Equal Access Amendment. Under the measure, Veterans Affairs (VA) would be allowed to recommend medical marijuana to patients for medicinal purposes for everything from back pain to depression to flashbacks. Veterans who support the proposal say that it is safer and helps more than the addictive and debilitating painkillers that are often prescribed. They say using medical cannabis can help combat PTSD’s insomnia and panic attacks. The legislation would overturn VA’s policy that forbids doctors from talking to patients about medical pot use. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who introduced the legislation, argued that forbidding VA doctors from talking about the option of medical marijuana is unconstitutional. He said that First Amendment rights include the right of patients to discuss whatever they want with their doctors. “They can’t discuss all the options available to them that they could discuss if they literally walked next door to a non-VA facility,” he said. “I don’t believe we should discriminate against veterans just because they are in the care of the VA.” While medical marijuana is legal in the District and 23 states, the federal government classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, like heroin and LSD. That means it has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. VA physicians and chronic-pain specialists say they often want to suggest the drug but haven’t been able to. Several studies have shown that states that allow medical marijuana for health purposes also found a decrease in the number of painkiller-related overdoses. “Veterans in medical marijuana states should be treated the same as any other resident, and should be able to discuss marijuana with their doctor and use it if it’s medically necessary,” Michael Collins, policy manager for the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a statement. “They have served this country valiantly, so the least we can do is allow them to have full and open discussions with their doctors.”


Why entrepreneurs are suddenly finding the beauty in ugly produce

imperfect produce into several flavors of cold-pressed juice. (Bill O'Leary/Washington Post) Rebranding produce Ben Simon said PR campaigns to boost the status of less-than-perfect produce have aided the cause of “food waste entrepreneurs,” an emerging group of which he is a serial member. The 25-year-old — who founded the Food Recovery Network and then co-founded Hungry Harvest with Lutz and John Zamora — believes in ugly produce distribution so strongly that he moved from the District to California this month to launch a national brand. “Fruits and vegetables come in every shape and size, just like people,” begins the video for Imperfect’s campaign on crowdfunding site Indiegogo, which earlier this month raised more than $36,000 to get the company off the ground. Together with two business partners, Simon aims to create America’s first major brand for ugly fruits and vegetables in grocery stores — though Imperfect will kick off with half-price CSA shares in California in July — doing for underappreciated produce in the States what Intermarché’s Inglorious brand did for flawed produce in France last year. “As entrepreneurs, we talk about filling a gap. This huge paradox of waste and hunger creates a creative tension for us to go in and find solutions,” Simon said. Nationally, some of food’s biggest players are stepping into the food waste breach as well. Doug Rauch, former president of the Trader Joe’s company, wants to open retail stores around the country that transform past-their-due-date foods into inexpensive prepared meals with his Daily Table concept. Members of Food Recovery Network’s leadership team celebrate after recovering several hundred pounds of concessions and catered food after the University of Maryland’s homecoming football game in the fall of 2012. (From Food Recovery Network) And, after testing a program last year to turn more ugly produce into meals, a large food-service company is expanding it to locations in Pennsylvania and the District this year. Bon Appétit Management and its parent company, Compass Group USA, which serves 8 million meals a day, launched Imperfectly Delicious Produce to improve its supply chain for still flavorful, if flawed, produce from farmers, diverting more than 46 tons of waste in California and Washington state so far. The company had meetings this month with farmers, distributors and chefs in the Washington region to build supply chains here that would value a hail-dented eggplant as much as its spot-free equivalent, spokeswoman Bonnie Powell wrote


Amtrak will install inward-facing cameras on trains

Investigators examine the scene of a deadly train wreck in Philadelphia earlier this month. (David Swanson/AP) Amtrak will install inward-facing video cameras on a majority of its Northeast Corridor trains by the end of this year, officials said Tuesday, another in a series of safety measures the rail company has taken since a deadly May 12 derailment that killed eight people and injured more than 200. In a conference call with reporters, Amtrak president and chief executive Joseph Boardman said the cameras will allow railroad officials to monitor the actions of engineers while they are on the job. The footage will not be available in real time; it will have to be downloaded from the locomotive’s “black box” after the fact. The announcement drew immediate praise from some lawmakers on Capitol Hill who said the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) should make the cameras mandatory on railroads nationwide. “It has become crystal clear that inward-facing cameras — with the right privacy protections for employees — are a critical way to make our railroads safer,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a statement. “Cameras improve accident investigations, deter unsafe behavior and detect compliance with safety laws, which is why I have urged their installation as soon as possible.” Boardman acknowledged that employee unions may not be eager to embrace the idea. “I don’t think they’re jumping up with joy to have them in there,” he said. But he added, “The technology is there, and I’m using the technology to ensure better safety.” Members of the union that represents Amtrak engineers said they were doubtful the cameras would make trains safer. “Engineers who are out there working don’t see why that makes the railroad safer,” said Fritz Edler, chair of the local committee of adjustment for Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division 482. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the May 12 derailment, has long recommended the cameras be installed, Boardman noted. Boardman said Amtrak had been working with the FRA’s Rail Safety Advisory Committee on a plan to install the cameras but concluded that there was no reason to delay. He estimated it will cost roughly $1.4 million to install the cameras by the end of the year in the system’s newest ACS-64 locomotives, which travel the Northeast Corridor. Cameras will then be installed on the remainder of Amtrak’s fleet. In total, it will cost roughly $6 million to


7 milkweed varieties and where to find them

“weed” label is for the most part a throwback to an age when native flora was undervalued and naturalistic gardens were generally unknown. Some milkweeds will probably never be valued garden plants, but it is interesting that a dozen species are known to grow in the Mid-Atlantic. Asclepias verticillata. (James Gagliardi/Smithsonian Gardens) Here are ones of particular value to gardeners who want to support monarchs and other pollinators: 1. Butterfly milkweed 2. Swamp milkweed 3. Whorled milkweed 4. Common milkweed 5. Purple milkweed 6. Balloon plant 7. Tropical milkweed Where to find milkweed Obtaining milkweed for the garden can be challenging. Even if you have a friend with milkweed to spare (don’t collect from the wild), established plants are deep-rooted and won’t move well. Seed may be stubborn to germinate and may need a period of cold treatment. Another consideration: Plants at garden centers may have been treated with pesticides that could harm feeding caterpillars. Plants that have been sprayed with contact insecticides will produce fresh, untreated growth, but plants raised with systemic pesticides such as neonicotinoids will remain toxic to monarch larvae. Ask what pesticides have been used in growing the plants. These specialty nurseries and native plant groups sell milkweed plants, typically the swamp milkweed, common milkweed and butterfly milkweed. Check hours and plant availability before setting out. →Nature by Design 300 Calvert St., Alexandria. 703-683-4769. www.nature-by-design.com. →Hill House Farm and Nursery 631 Scrabble Rd., Castleton, Va. 540-937-1798. www.hillhousenativeplants.com. →Earth Sangha Franconia Park, entrance at the end of Cloud Drive, Springfield. 703-764-4830. www.earthsangha.org. →Watermark Woods Native Plants 16764 Hamilton Station Rd., Hamilton, Va. 540-441-7443. www.watermarkwoods.com. →Abernethy and Spencer 18035 Lincoln Rd., Lincoln, Va. 540-338-9118. www.abernethyspencer.com. →Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy The conservancy is holding a milkweed plant sale Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at Morvern Park, 17263 Southern Planter Lane, Leesburg. 703-777-2575. www.loudounwildlife.org. →Chesapeake Natives The nonprofit nursery will hold a sale (nectar plants and some common and butterfly milkweeds) Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Rosaryville State Park, 9640 Rosaryville Rd., Upper Marlboro. 202-262-9773. www.chesapeakenatives.org. →Monarch Watch The organization sells 32-plug flats of milkweed, maybe too many for one garden but enough to share with others. 888-824-4464. www.monarchwatch.org/milkweed/market. →Herring Run Nursery Plant sales are staged in the maintenance area of the Mount Pleasant Golf Course in north Baltimore, 6131 Hillen Rd., Baltimore. This weekend and next, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Four species available. 410-254-1577. www.bluewaterbaltimore.org/herring-run-nursery. — Adrian Higgins


A gardener’s guide to saving the monarch

high-profile family of gardeners in the District: Last week, President Obama’s Pollinator Health Task Force released its strategy laying out efforts by the federal government to aid beleaguered bees and butterflies. One of its key goals is to increase the monarch’s overwintering area more than fivefold and to restore or enhance 7 million acres of pollinator habitat over the next five years. For Michelle Obama, the measures are more personal and closer to home: This spring marks the second year for her pollinator garden on the South Lawn of the White House, near the existing vegetable garden and beehives that have become themselves symbols of her campaign for better nutrition and health. But can home gardeners make up for the loss of milkweed on millions of acres of farmland where the use of genetically modified crops has led to the milkweed’s demise? (The crops can withstand the herbicide glyphosate; the milkweed cannot.) “The monarch doesn’t care where the milkweed grows, and putting it in residential neighborhoods makes perfect sense,” said Doug Tallamy, an entomologist at the University of Delaware, author and expert on wildlife habitat gardens. “It will demonstrate that a united effort by a lot of people can make a difference.” One of the reasons that the monarch has become the butterfly poster child is the clear link between this particular butterfly and the host plant for its larvae. The monarch butterfly can sup nectar on hundreds of different blooms, but its caterpillars have to eat at one table: a milkweed plant. The plant contains toxins that are taken up by the monarch, making the species unpalatable to predators. The caterpillars, like the adults, are conspicuous, with their yellow, black and white stripes. That evident milkweed-caterpillar connection makes the monarch such an obvious science project in the school garden. Several species of milkweed are available for gardeners. The two most common perennial milkweeds are the butterfly milkweed, with showy orange flower clusters in June, and the swamp milkweed, with pink blooms a little later. These are the two included in Michelle Obama’s garden. These milkweeds are shorter than other species, and don’t spread as much, so plant enough of them to make a statement. A massing will also support a larger number of monarchs. From a design standpoint, milkweeds should be placed in a sunny garden with other herbaceous plants that will provide interest before and after the milkweed


Cutting down on meat? Be careful what you replace it with.

To add protein to a meatless diet, sprinkle chickpeas onto a salad. (Gil Guelfucci/GETTY IMAGES/FLICKR) If you are trying to eat less meat, you have plenty of company. Our cultural tide is flowing steadily in that direction. Just look around — there are multiple best-selling books touting the benefits of plant-based eating; the Meatless Monday campaign has gone mainstream, with awareness and participation climbing rapidly over the past decade; and the word “flexitarian” is now in the Merriam-Webster dictionary (meaning “one whose normally meatless diet occasionally includes meat or fish”). Americans still eat about triple the global average of meat, but consumption trends show we are starting to back off. And people no longer consider beef-, pork- and poultry-free meals a fringe idea: 47 percent of those polled by the Vegetarian Resource Group said they eat at least one vegetarian meal each week, and the group reports one in four people says he or she is a “meat reducer,” actively trying to eat less of it. It’s a trend supported by our country’s top nutrition advisory committee which, in its recent report for the Dietary Guidelines update, recommended we cut back on meat for the sake of our health and the environment. But simply eating less meat is not a solid plan in and of itself. What you decide to pile on your plate instead of that steak, chop or cutlet is equally, if not more, important. If less meat translates to more stuffed-crust pizza or boxed mac and cheese for dinner, you could be doing yourself more harm than good. Even those committed to healthful vegetarian options often don’t strike the right balance. Many turn to dairy, particularly cheese, as their default protein, which can certainly make for nutrient-packed and delicious meals. But if you are eating meatlessly a lot, and dairy is your only go-to, you could be missing out on some important nutrients and getting more unhealthful fat than you realize. Meat is more than just protein — it is incredibly rich in several essential minerals and vitamins, particularly B vitamins, zinc, iron and selenium. While dairy packs many B vitamins, selenium, and other nutrients in spades, it doesn’t have zinc, iron, or much B6. And while options such as low-fat yogurt and milk are lean, a piece of cheddar cheese the size of your thumb has about double the saturated fat of three ounces of lean


This concludes your daily naked mole-rat fix

to enjoy. In a statement, the zoo said, “We’re sorry to announce that the software running some of our older cameras will no longer be supported and must be taken offline.” Zoo officials went on, “Please note [yes, they put that part in bold]: Panda cam, lion cam and elephant cam are not affected and will stream without interruption.” The National Zoo has about 1,800 animals that represent about 300 different species. It’s best known for the giant pandas, which have cameras on them and have quite a following. Managing its cam program is a challenge for the zoo. It has to decide which animals are interesting enough to warrant a 24/7 public cam and find the funds to keep up with ever-changing — and costly — technology. Currently, the zoo has 10 cams on 10 species, and the equipment is from seven to 12 years old, according to zoo officials. The first animal cams, of rhinos, went up in 1996. There are no longer rhinos at the zoo. Over the years, as the technology behind some cams has become obsolete, the zoo hasn’t replaced it. The zoo also has decided to put cams on some new baby animals, such as the lion cubs, and move them from others. Some cams are closed to the public but become helpful for zookeepers to watch and monitor the care of animals, especially when one is giving birth and needs privacy. The most recent decision to go dark on the cams for the naked mole-rats, fishing cats, clouded leopards, otters and orangutan came about because the software that uses a 2003 legacy operating system will soon no longer be supported by Microsoft, zoo officials said. The zoo’s cam program is undergoing a major review, which will include such things as figuring out how active an animal is, how rare the species is, which technology upgrades a camera should have and the costs of instituting new technologies. “You wouldn’t put a live cam on a sloth,” said Pamela Baker-Mason, a spokeswoman for the zoo. “But a naked mole-rat is actually quite busy and moves around a lot. And flamingos are fun to watch, too.” It will probably take several months for the zoo to review its animal cams program, she said. At a minimum, zoo officials said, it would cost about $100,000, plus other operating expenses, to bring back — and keep up —


Hints From Heloise: Mastering the morning meal

Always have nonperishable food in your carry bag. -- Heloise SEND A GREAT HINT TO: Heloise P.O. Box 795000 San Antonio, TX 78279-5000 Fax: 1-210-HELOISE E-mail: Heloise@Heloise.com TRAVEL HINT Dear Heloise: Another travel tip for safety and convenience: I have started packing a battery-powered candle for those dark hotel/ship bathrooms. It has saved a few stubbed toes, and we can always locate the facilities in the middle of the night. A lot of baths have the “on” switch on the outside of the room — I always hate waking my roommate. -- T.J., via e-mail GROWING A GARDEN Dear Readers: Springtime means it’s time to get outside for some fresh air, sunlight (not too much!) and being around green and growing plants. A vegetable garden is one way to get your exercise and help cut down your grocery bill if you plant the right veggies. Here are a few hints to think about: * What type of garden you would like? Vegetable, herb, flower, etc.? * Where and how big will it be? My suggestion is if this is a first or second attempt, start small. Next time you can grow more. Too many gardeners don’t plan on how much produce they might end up with! Your friends and neighbors can take only so many tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, etc. Trust me on this one! I love cukes, but can’t eat a bagful in a few days. * Check the garden center or your county extension agent about what is best for the climate and soil conditions where you live. Don’t try to grow pineapple in Philadelphia or potatoes in San Antonio. It’s not going to work! * Do mark your plants! You can see what did and didn’t work. -- Heloise COUNTING COUPONS Dear Heloise: I love using coupons at the grocery store because I save money. There have been a few times I wondered whether I got credit for all of them. Now, I total up the coupons before I check out. Before I go to the store, I total the ones I hope to use, then do a quick total before checkout. If the totals are different, I ask the cashier to double-check. -- Lynn, via e-mail Heloise’s column appears six days a week at www.washingtonpost.com/advice. Send a hint to Heloise , P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Tex. 78279-5000, or e-mail it to Heloise@Heloise.com. 2015, King Features Syndicate


Tuberculosis case reported at Rockville High School

(Gerald Martineau/The Washington Post) Rockville High School alerted students and staff this week that someone at the school has come down with tuberculosis. People who have been in close contact with the sick person will be offered a tuberculosis blood test at the school, a Montgomery County health department spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman, Mary Anderson, would not say how the person contracted the lung disease or whether the patient is a student or employee at the school. “We think it is a small risk to the general school population,” Anderson said, noting that it usually takes at least eight hours of contact with a sick person to contract tuberculosis — a longer time than most people spend together during a school day. The health department is looking at students’ and staff members’ schedules to see who had the most contact with the patient. Those people will receive a letter offering them the tuberculosis test, Anderson said. Tuberculosis cases have also been reported this school year at a Prince George’s County high school and at Salisbury University, where three students contracted the disease.


Memo to federal workers: Using marijuana could cost you your job

or Executive Branch policies regarding marijuana,” OPM Director Katherine Archuleta wrote in a memo posted on the agency’s Web site. The District and 23 states have authorized adult use of medical marijuana. Of those, four states and D.C. also allow recreational use. Marijuana became legal in the District in February, allowing anyone 21 and older to possess up to two ounces of pot, although the drug is still prohibited on federally administered properties. Archuleta said these changes, a mix of ballot measures and laws passed by legislatures, have “raised questions” about whether federal employees in these areas are safe to smoke. The law makes “knowing or intentional” marijuana possession illegal for federal employees, even if they do not intend to manufacture, distribute or dispense it. Marijuana use also can be a basis for firing in some situations, Archuleta wrote. A 1986 executive order from President Ronald Reagan requiring the federal workplace and workforce to be drug-free remains in place and applies to medicinal as well as recreational use of marijuana. It includes especially strict rules for personnel who either hold security clearances or apply for them. Reagan’s directive says: “The use of illegal drugs, on or off duty, by Federal employees in certain positions evidences less than the complete reliability, stability, and good judgment that is consistent with access to sensitive information and creates the possibility of coercion, influence, and irresponsible action under pressure that may pose a serious risk to national security, the public safety, and the effective enforcement of the law.” Most random and routine drug testing within the federal workforce occurs with jobs related to national security and law enforcement, while other employees are generally tested only when supervisors have reasonable suspicion that they are using drugs at work. Practically, the government might have a hard time enforcing its rules for other employees, since many agencies do not give them regular drug tests. Even outside the federal workforce, the U.S. government has refused to relax its marijuana regulations. For instance, medical pot has been legal in the District and several states for years, but the Department of Veterans Affairs will not prescribe the drug or complete paperwork for patients to enroll in state marijuana programs, despite heavy lobbying from veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress and physical pain. Archuleta’s memo does note that the federal government offers prevention, treatment and rehabilitation programs for civilian employees with drug problems.


The forces driving the United States apart

Labor union members and supporters listen during a rally as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announces a plan to get a minimum $15 an hour wage hike for fast-food workers. (Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press) Like the universe itself, which, the Hubble Space Telescope informs us, is flying apart at an accelerating rate, the United States is — actually, the United States are — made up of distinct entities zooming away from each other. We are two nations, divisible, with liberty and justice a matter of where you happen to reside. The polarization so evident in Congress is but a pale reflection of the growing chasm separating red states from blue, particularly on issues of workers’ incomes and rights. While states under Republican rule are weakening workers’ ability to bargain with employers and reducing the pay of construction workers, states and cities where Democrats dominate are hiking the minimum wage, requiring employers to grant paid sick days and even considering penalizing large employers who don’t pay their workers enough. With congressional Republicans dead-set against raising the federal minimum wage, states with Democratic governors and legislatures, and increasingly numerous Democratic mayors and city councils, are taking it upon themselves to raise wages. In California, wages will rise to $15 an hour in Los Angeles and San Francisco, with increases also in San Diego, Oakland and San Jose. They’re going to $13 in Chicago, and the state of Washington is considering following Seattle in raising its standard to $15 as well. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has created a commission to raise fast-food workers’ pay. In an upset, Philadelphia Democrats just made underdog Jim Kenney, who ran on raising the city’s minimum wage to $15, their nominee for mayor. The Connecticut legislature is considering a bill that would penalize large employers who pay workers less than $15 an hour. And in California, state labor commissioner Julie Su has found that port trucking companies have violated wage laws by classifying their drivers as independent contractors, even though the drivers must work exclusively for their employers. Su has required those companies to give drivers the back pay they owe them — though if they acknowledge that their drivers are actually employees and are thus entitled to a vote on unionizing, she will forgive the penalty portion of their fines. Republican-led states are moving in the opposite direction. Laws denying unions the right to collect


Afghanistan’s justice system is moving faster — maybe too fast

that it’s a crime and you have to be careful about the rights of women, and we have to stop violence against women and children.” On May 19, two months after Farkhunda was killed, an Afghan court completed its sentencing of the defendants. Four of them face the death penalty, while eight were sentenced to 16 years each in prison. Eleven police officers, including Zahid’s client, were sentenced to one year in prison for dereliction of duty in not stopping the attack. Twenty-six suspects were freed for lack of evidence. Several analysts say the trial was neither fair nor consistent. The defendants were called for trial two days after the police report was sent to prosecutors, according to defense attorneys and international legal experts who followed the proceedings. Only three of the 49 suspects were represented by a lawyer. Since the U.S.-backed rewrite of the Afghan constitution in 2004, Afghan law has required that all suspects who face five or more years in prison be represented by an attorney. If a defendant cannot afford one, the government is supposed to appoint one. The attorneys for the three suspects were given just a few hours to review the cases before being allowed to submit written responses — on the night before the last day of the trial, according to the defense attorneys and international legal observers. “Every day I was going to the court to get access to my client’s file, but I was not allowed access,” said a lawyer, Mohammad Aziz Sufi Zada, who represented a police officer. “The judge kept telling me, ‘Come the next day.’ . . . To this day, I don’t know the charges against my client.” Now, even those groups that had pushed for convictions in the case question whether justice was served. “The way the court meetings were held and decisions are made have raised a lot of questions on the transparency and independence of the court,” the Afghan Women’s Network, a Kabul-based civil rights organization, said in a statement. Safiullah Majaddidi, the judge who presided over the trial, said in an interview that he would have allowed the defense attorneys to speak for as long as they wanted had they requested the time. Asked why most of the defendants had no legal representation, Majaddidi said most Afghans are scared of lawyers. “Unfortunately, in Afghanistan, due to a lack of education, if you give


Saluting the red, white and brew: ‘The Field Guide to Drinking in America’

the breezy “Field Guide to Drinking in America,” which untangles alcohol codes state by state in a cultural context. (Brenton Salo) Where did you get the idea for the book? My publisher came up with it. He was on a plane and had come back from a place where it was tricky to find something to drink, and he came to me. We talked about it at a bar, naturally. What do you mean by “tricky to find something to drink”? I often travel for beer or food festivals. For example, there’s the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. It’s the largest beer festival in the country — more than 2,000 beers are poured. But if you go into a supermarket you can’t buy more than 3.2% alcohol beer. These are tricky things when you’re traveling. In the book, you talk about control states. What is that? Well, I’m from Pennsylvania, my publisher is from Indiana and we live in Oregon, and all three of those states are control states. They all have an alcoholic Big Brother, so to speak: The states control the sale of alcohol. And they all deal with alcohol very differently. How is the book organized? For each state, there’s one page which is all brass tacks: the law and how the laws affect the consumer. The source material was the code, or the law from each state. That’s set by the OLCC [Oregon Liquor Control Commission] in Oregon, for example, or the ABC [Alcoholic Beverage Control] elsewhere. What about the essays and factoids for each state? I did a ton of reading and research for the essay portion, and, you know, things just don’t fit. A lot of those boozy facts were extraneous things I couldn’t include in the essays. How would you characterize the booze culture in D.C.? You never know what gem you’re going to find on the shelves and menus of D.C. In most states, there’s a three-tier system that requires bars and stores to buy their product from wholesalers. But D.C. has a unique alcohol import permit system that allows licensees to procure and sell beer and wine that is not otherwise distributed in the District. As a result, niche retailers have made it their business to find rare and vintage wines. And bars and restaurants are seeking out niche breweries and bringing their beer to the city. In your book,


Jay Evans: Searching for answers to the decline in honeybees

trend for commercial beekeepers, and have enormous implications for farmers who count on the bees to pollinate a wide range of fruit and vegetable crops. The issue has attracted the attention of President Obama, who on May 19 announced a national strategy to promote the health of honeybees. In his work at the Agricultural Research Service Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, Evans routinely places bees in incubators to create mini-colonies, and exposes them to bacteria, fungi, viruses, mites and pesticides to test their responses. He also introduces different nutrients, since poor nutrition has been linked to the collapse of bee colonies. The experiments vary, with the bees exposed to one or sometimes two harmful agents at the same time. Evans and his USDA colleagues are seeking to pinpoint the causes of the large-scale bee deaths through their experiments, and they are studying the genetic makeup of the bees that survive. By identifying the DNA markers of the bees that remain healthy, Evans said the hope is to breed bees that are resistant to the forces that are now causing so many of them to die. “There are so many new horizons that have been opened up by genetics,” said Evans. “And there are always new ways of looking at the beehives and bee health.” Evans was an early proponent of mapping and studying the genome of honeybees, and also has been working on sequencing the genome of the Varroa mite in order to develop novel control methods for this pest, which is harmful to honeybees. Evans and his USDA colleagues also have found that two pathogens that cause honeybee ailments are more common than previously thought and infect honeybees in places as diverse as Brazil and Maryland, prompting the need for further research. Evans said bees are not in danger of extinction because after a colony dies, beekeepers split their surviving colonies and start new ones, and the numbers rise again. But he said commercial beekeepers are struggling, and he emphasized that it is important to bring stability to the industry and ensure an adequate supply of bees for pollination and honey production. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a research scientist at the University of Maryland and the former chief apiarist for Pennsylvania, said Evans’ work is “authoritative and respected.” “He is certainly among the top molecular bee biologists in the world, and has broken new ground on the bee genome and


Steve Case: Get ready, the Internet is about to change again. Here’s how.

An employee walks by a large banner displaying the AOL logo at AOL headquarters in Dulles, Va., in 2010. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) I don’t recall exactly what was going through my mind that morning, 30 years ago this summer, when a group of us in Tysons Corner, Va., launched a start-up called Quantum Computer Services, later renamed America Online. I do recall what was going through my parents’ minds, though: bewilderment. Their 26-year-old son, who had recently left jobs at two Fortune 500 companies inside of three years, was now co-founding a start-up with the audacious aim of making an obscure platform called “online services” — the word “Internet” wasn’t common then — part of everyday life. In fairness to my mom and dad, we had picked a steep and improbable mountain to climb. Most people didn’t see the need to be connected; only 3 percent of U.S. households were online back then, averaging less than one hour of usage per week. It was not clear why people would want to communicate, buy things or gather information through a computer. Online services were pricey, slow, confusing and of limited usefulness. And it was actually illegal for commercial entities to connect to the Internet until 1991 (until then, doing so was limited to government and university use). Nonetheless, on May 24, 1985 — armed with little more than a vision and a zealous belief in the possible — we went to work. It was a slow and steady ascension with many near-death experiences. We went through several layoffs and pivots, trying to identify a viable path forward. When we went public in 1992 — after seven years of hard work — we still had less than 200,000 subscribers. But we stayed with it, and eventually people decided they did want to get connected. By 2000, when we celebrated our 15th birthday, we had 25 million subscribers and nearly 10,000 employees, and about half of the consumer Internet traffic was flowing through our servers. And our market value went from $70 million at the time of our initial public offering to $150 billion just eight years later. That 11,000 percent appreciation made AOL the best performing stock of the decade. It was a great journey, watching the Internet come of age and AOL soar. But looking back 30 years later, with nostalgia and pride, I am struck by how our journey


Three rosés for summer, plus two reds for what’s on the grill

Available in Maryland at Balducci’s in Bethesda; Bay Ridge Wine & Spirits in Annapolis; Finewine.com in Gaithersburg; Pine Orchard Liquors in Ellicott City; Orion Wine & Spirits in Frederick; Wine Source in Baltimore. Available in Virginia at Balducci’s (McLean; Alexandria); Out of Site Wines in Vienna. Barnard Griffin Rosé of Sangiovese 2014 ★ ★ ★ Columbia Valley, Washington, $15 This is a deep-colored rosé, and very much a New World example. It is ripe with strawberry, cherry and watermelon flavors, with a sappy texture that gives an impression of sweetness while remaining on the edge of dry. Barnard Griffin is a long-standing producer of quality wines at reasonable prices – a fitting ambassador for Washington state wines. ABV: 12.9 percent. Country Vintner: Available in the District at Rodman’s; on the list at Clyde’s (all locations), Ris, Upshur Tavern. Available in Maryland at Rodman’s (Wheaton, White Flint). Available in Virginia at Society Fair in Alexandria. Carrick Unravelled Pinot Noir 2012 ★ ★ ★ Central Otago, New Zealand, $31 Delicate smoke and a silky texture accentuate the bright cherry and blackberry flavors. Central Otago is a mountainous region on New Zealand’s south island, famous as Middle Earth in the “Lord of the Rings” movies and for its pinot noir. ABV: 13.5 percent. Elite: Available in the District at Cork & Fork; on the list at Chaplin’s, Flight, Rasika (both locations). Available in Maryland at Bradley Food & Beverage in Bethesda; on the list at Antrim 1844 Country House Hotel in Taneytown; Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore. Available in Virginia at Arrowine and Cheese in Arlington; Unwined in Belleview; WineStyles in Montclair; on the list at Screwtop Wine Bar in Arlington. Bodegas Fontana Mesta Tempranillo 2013 ★ ★ Uclés, Spain, $10 It’s juicy, simple and cheap, which is enough to recommend this nice little wine. But there’s more: It has typical tempranillo flavors of tobacco leaf and blueberry and a persistent finish. This wine is great for your summer patio cookouts with burgers or sausages. ABV: 13 percent. Washburn: Available in the District at Best One Liquor, Good Ole Reliable Liquors, LeDroit Park Market, Magruder’s, Modern Liquors. Widely available in Maryland, including at Allview Liquors in Ellicott City; Franklin’s Restaurant, Brewery and General Store in Hyattsville; Friendship Wine & Liquor in Abingdon; Potomac Gourmet Market in National Harbor; Spirits of Mount Vernon, Wells Discount Liquors and Wine Source in Baltimore. More from Food: Wine


Residents in a Mexican neighborhood miss the cartel that protected them

The questions about who these men were, and how they died, are at the center of a growing controversy over what happened May 22 behind the chain-link fence of the Rancho del Sol in Michoacan state. In the government version of events, Mexican police, after coming under fire, followed a truck onto the 275-acre property along the four-lane divided highway running between Guadalajara and Morelia. Over the next three hours that morning, backed by helicopters and reinforcements, they battled the gunmen belonging to what the national security commissioner, Monte Alejandro Rubido, described as the country’s “most belligerent cartel,” until 42 of them lay dead. The police lost one man and made three arrests. Musicians accompany a hearse at a funeral for one of the slain men from Rancho del Sol. (Joshua Partlow/The Washington Post) Authorities hailed the operation as a victory. They denied that any of the men were executed and said all tested positive for ballistic residue. But human rights officials have begun to investigate the case after questions emerged about the lopsided death toll and whether the bodies showed signs of torture. The police operation was “at the very least poorly planned, leading to a death toll that raises serious concerns about the proportionality of the use of force,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch. “This outcome is particularly disturbing in a country where security forces have repeatedly been involved in extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture cases, and where impunity for these grave human rights crimes is the norm,” he said. More than half of those who died came from Ocotlan, a city of about 100,000 people set amid strawberry and alfalfa fields roughly an hour’s drive from the ranch. At the municipal cemetery, gravediggers have been working double shifts in recent days to handle the burials. At one funeral for a man from Infonavit 5, as mariachis played sad ballads and relatives poured whiskey into the casket, the crowd chanted curses against the government. “This was a very pretty town once, but not anymore,” said an aunt of the dead man, who refused to give her name.“There is a lot of fear now.” “The government caught them sleeping and murdered them all,” another man said as he left the service. “It was a massacre.” Martin Felipe García Piñeda grew up in Ocotlan and started working at the age of 15, bouncing among low-paying


Skywatch: Venus and Jupiter appear to move closer to one another in June

degrees apart on the azimuth (the degree points along the horizon) and about five degrees apart in their altitude. The young crescent moon visits the planetary pair June 19-20, and then passes them June 21. On June 24, they are within a few degrees of each other and spend the next several days within planetary arm’s length. (Venus will be even brighter at -4.6 magnitude.) On June 30, they will be within a third of a degree of each other. Sadly, Venus and Jupiter spend July sinking and separating. Venus, top, Jupiter, lower left, and the crescent moon appear at dusk on March 25, 2012 near the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va. (Bill O'Leary/Washington Post) Just after sunset, the planet Saturn loiters in the southeast, hanging out Sunday night with the nearly full moon. With its wide-open rings, Saturn (at zero magnitude, bright) is to the moon’s lower left. Monday night, Saturn hangs to the gibbous moon’s upper right. The moon becomes officially full Tuesday. Slather on the sunscreen and light up the grill. Summer officially starts June 21 at 12:38 p.m., according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. That’s the summer solstice, when we get 14 hours and 54 minutes of sunlight. Down-to-Earth events: ● Friday — “Solar Wind,” a talk by astronomer Haihong Che at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park, 9 p.m. Enjoy the heavens through telescopes, weather permitting. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. ● Saturday — “Exploring the Sky,” hosted by the National Park Service and the National Capital Astronomers, at Rock Creek Park, near the Nature Center in the field south of Military and Glover roads NW. 9 p.m. capitalastronomers.org. ● June 11 — “Hubble Telescope: Looking Back in Time at the Distant Universe,” a discussion by Sandra Faber of the Lick Observatory and Robert Williams of Space Telescope Science Institute, at the National Air and Space Museum. 8 p.m. Tickets via stand-by list: airandspace.si.edu. Webcast: tinyurl.com/qapklnp. ● June 13 — See Venus, Jupiter and Messier objects in the dark sky, far from the city light, as guided by Sean O’Brien of the National Air and Space Museum and other astronomers. At Sky Meadows State Park near Paris, Va. Parking $5. 8 to 11 p.m. Park phone: 540-592-3556. tinyurl.com/q92udac. ● June 14 — “The Evolution of Galaxies,” a talk by astronomer D.J. Pisano of West Virginia University at the regular meeting of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club, 163


moon’s upper right. The moon becomes officially full Tuesday. Slather on the sunscreen and light up the grill. Summer officially starts June 21 at 12:38 p.m., according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. That’s the summer solstice, when we get 14 hours and 54 minutes of sunlight. Down-to-Earth events: ● Friday — “Solar Wind,” a talk by astronomer Haihong Che at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park, 9 p.m. Enjoy the heavens through telescopes, weather permitting. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. ● Saturday — “Exploring the Sky,” hosted by the National Park Service and the National Capital Astronomers, at Rock Creek Park, near the Nature Center in the field south of Military and Glover roads NW. 9 p.m. capitalastronomers.org. ● June 11 — “Hubble Telescope: Looking Back in Time at the Distant Universe,” a discussion by Sandra Faber of the Lick Observatory and Robert Williams of Space Telescope Science Institute, at the National Air and Space Museum. 8 p.m. Tickets via stand-by list: airandspace.si.edu. Webcast: tinyurl.com/qapklnp. ● June 13 — See Venus, Jupiter and Messier objects in the dark sky, far from the city light, as guided by Sean O’Brien of the National Air and Space Museum and other astronomers. At Sky Meadows State Park near Paris, Va. Parking $5. 8 to 11 p.m. Park phone: 540-592-3556. tinyurl.com/q92udac. ● June 14 — “The Evolution of Galaxies,” a talk by astronomer D.J. Pisano of West Virginia University at the regular meeting of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club, 163 Research Hall, George Mason University. 7 p.m. novac.com. ● June 19 — The 2015 Astronomy Festival on the Mall. See the young moon, Venus and Jupiter and other objects through telescopes on the corner of the Washington Monument grounds, near 15th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Astronomers from the region help guide you through the heavens. 6 to 11 p.m. Hosted by Hofstra University. www.hofstra.edu/dcstars. ● June 20 — In his talk title, astronomer Alan Peel asks, “Do We Really Only Understand 4 Percent of the Universe?” The lecture will be at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. 9 p.m. See the planets and stars after the lecture through telescopes, weather permitting. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. ● June 30 — “The Hubble Space Telescope: The Agony and the Ecstasy,” a lecture by historian Robert Smith of the University of Alberta, at the National Air and Space Museum. 8 p.m. Tickets: airandspace.si.edu. Webcast: tinyurl.com/qapklnp. Friedlander can be reached at PostSkyWatch@yahoo.com.


Man killed, other person injured in early-morning Pr. George’s collision

MARYLAND 1 killed, 1 injured in Pr. George’s collision One man was killed and another person was injured in a two-car collision early Saturday in Accokeek, Prince George’s County police said. The crash occurred about 1 a.m. at Indian Head Highway and The Mall, near Piscataway Creek. The victims were not immediately identified. Man is killed in Glenarden shooting A man was fatally shot Saturday in the Prince George’s County city of Glenarden. The man was found about 4:45 p.m. in the 2800 block of Hornbeam Court, the city’s police said. Hornbeam is a short street of attached houses. Suspect in slayings returns from Alaska A 31-year-old man who was arrested May 16 in Alaska and charged with killing his Rockville neighbors was brought back to Maryland on Friday night and is to make his first court appearance Monday. Montgomery County police said Scott Tomaszewski, charged with two counts of first-degree murder, left for a planned vacation cruise to Alaska with his parents shortly after the slayings. He was arrested in Juneau during a scheduled stop. Tomaszewski was arrested one day after the funeral for Richard “Dick” Vilardo, 65, a hotel developer, and Julianne “Jody” Vilardo, 67, a retired accountant. They were found dead May 10 at their home on Ridge Drive, between Rockville and Potomac. Police said someone entered through a window, attacked at least one victim in a bedroom and continued the assault in the kitchen and rear patio. Police said in court documents that authorities found blood-soaked cash in Tomaszewski’s wallet. During an interview at the Juneau Police Department headquarters, police said, he admitted to the slayings and said he’d broken into the home to steal items. — Peter Hermann region Endangered tortoise hatches at zoo A spider tortoise, a member of a species listed as critically endangered, hatched this month at the National Zoo. Hailed by the zoo as a conservation milestone, the hatching of the palm-size tortoise occurred May 10, less than two weeks before World Turtle Day on May 23. If the animal continued to thrive, the zoo said, it would go on exhibit this summer. A family group of adult spider tortoises is currently on exhibit. It takes patience and care to breed the animals. The female of the species lays one egg at a time. The zoo’s female laid her first egg last August, but it did not hatch. The new spider


The man who helped spark the cocktail movement — and keeps feeding it

to get, and “the only substitute I know — and it’s not a particularly adequate one — is to mix 8 ounces of John Power & Son or Jameson Irish whiskey with 10 ounces of Plymouth gin and tip in 1/ 2 -ounce of simple syrup,” Wondrich wrote. Scarcity, in other words, would have to mother invention. In the years since the book’s original publication, the cocktail world kept exploding. You know those scary movies where lab-coated scientists stare into the microscope at a mutant virus replicating so fast they can see the petri dish darken before their eyes? Imagine that virus tattooed and armed with artisanal bitters. “When ‘Imbibe!’ came out, I suppose there were maybe two dozen bars in America making up-to-date cocktails, and now there are 2,000 bars in Des Moines making them,” Wondrich jokes in a phone interview. Ingredients for the Original El Presidente cocktail are now easier to get. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) In April, he released a new edition of “Imbibe!,” extensively revised with new recipes, expanded histories of particular cocktails (including the mint julep, the pisco sour and the El Presidente, a drink that can now be made with the intended ingredients). There’s also more detail about Thomas’s life, including a bar he ran in New York that Wondrich says had every amusement a drunk could want. “Everything was in there: shooting gallery, pool tables,” he says dryly. “I mean, like .22 rifles, which I think should probably always be combined with alcohol.” The original book fed a trend that was already on the upswing; you’d be hard-pressed to find a cocktail devotee who doesn’t know it or its follow-up, “Punch.” Less well known is that when Wondrich isn’t researching and writing articles and books to guide bartenders in their work, he’s often helping ensure that they (and, heck, he himself) have better tools for the job. One of the biggest changes since the book’s initial release has been in the availability of ingredients. Check a good liquor store these days, and you’ll find absinthe at prices that don’t make us flush Moulin rouge, plenty of rye whiskey and Bols Genever (the much-missed Holland gin). And — in a development that Wondrich says makes him “happier than anything” — a few distilleries are now making real peach brandy. Those changes are reflected in the new edition, and some spirits have come to


China’s book burning

WHAT IS it like to be an independent writer in China today? “I’m so afraid,” says Hao Qun, succinctly. One of the country’s most popular authors, Mr. Hao, who writes under the name Murong Xuecun, has seen his friends arrested, hounded and beaten by security forces since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 — most recently the writer and activist Wu Gan, who was arrested May 20. “In China, you never know when they are coming to knock on your door, why they are coming and what is going to happen next,” said Mr. Hao. Mr. Hao is one of three writers and publishers who were hosted in the United States this week by the PEN American Center. In New York on Wednesday, they joined a protest outside BookExpo America, a major trade fair that this year allocated an official Chinese delegation more than 20,000 square feet of space for what amounted to a propaganda display featuring such works as “A Study of the Important Speeches Made by Secretary General Xi Jinping.” A trade fair spokesman told the Associated Press that it was important to accord Beijing “a seat at the table” because it “could have a positive impact on the future of publishing both at home and across the globe.” The problem is that China’s real writers don’t have a seat at the table. Instead, they are being persecuted, censored and driven out of the country. Xiaolu Guo A third member of the PEN delegation, Bao Pu, is a Hong Kong publisher who has issued works by banned mainland writers. But he and other independent publishers in the supposedly autonomous city state are under attack, too. The sole distributor of their books is being evicted from its warehouse facility, and editors who venture to the mainland are subject to arrest and prosecution. Mr. Bao says the heightened repression reflects not only the policy of Mr. Xi, but also the increasing capabilities of China’s vast censorship bureaucracy. The regime has long maintained an Internet firewall to exclude sensitive content; it now blocks 16 of the world’s top 30 Web sites. But more recently the censors have managed to disable VPN networks that Chinese have used to get around the firewall, and they have gotten better at identifying and blocking writers who use pseudonyms or distribute their work on microblogs. When Mr. Xi took office, Mr. Hao had 8.5


Britain joins E.U. to criticize Russia for its ‘stop list’ of 89 European officials

Former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind was besieged by the media as he left an International Security Committee meeting in London, in a photo from February. On Sunday he called the blacklist a Russian “tantrum.” (Andy Rain/European Pressphoto Agency) LONDON — The E.U. on Saturday said that, after repeated requests, the Russian authorities had shared a confidential “stop list” with 89 names of Europeans who are banned from traveling to Russia. “If Russia thinks this action will cause the E.U. to change its position on sanctions, it is wrong,” said a spokeswoman from the British Foreign Office. Over the past few months, several European politicians have tried to enter Russia only to be turned away. Karl-Georg Wellmann, a German politician and strong critic of the Kremlin, recently spent the night in the transit area of a Moscow airport before flying back home. The travel bans by Russia appear to be a response to the E.U.’s imposing several rounds of sanctions on Russia for its role in destabilizing Ukraine, including asset freezes and travel bans on 150 officials. An unnamed official from Russia’s Foreign Ministry told the Russian Interfax news agency that “it was done as a response to the campaign of sanctions that has been unleashed against Russia by some of the European Union states, with Germany at the head.” The official also said that there is a similar list of Americans but noted, without elaboration, that the Americans had been handling the issue “more constructively than the Europeans.” The E.U. said that no justification was offered for the bans. “We don't have any other information on legal basis, criteria and process of this decision,” the E.U.’s foreign service said in a statement. It also said, “We consider this measure as totally arbitrary and unjustified, especially in the absence of any further clarification and transparency.” The list reportedly includes politicians, officials and military leaders, many of whom have been staunch critics of Russian policies toward Ukraine. “Basically, what the Russians are doing is having a tantrum,” Malcolm Rifkind, a former British foreign secretary, told the BBC. “It shows we are making an impact because they wouldn’t have reacted unless they felt very sore at what had happened.” Rifkind was reported to be one of nine Britons on the list, which also includes Andrew Parker, the head of the British intelligence agency known as MI5, and Nick Clegg, the former deputy


Person in Baltimore being checked after reporting Ebola-like symptoms

Maryland Patient in Baltimore is checked for Ebola Emergency workers in hazmat gear visited a Baltimore neighborhood Sunday to transport a person showing Ebola-like symptoms to Johns Hopkins Hospital for testing, city officials said. “The testing is being done out of an abundance of caution,” Baltimore Health Commissioner Leana Wen said in a statement. “All protocols have been followed for safe transport of the patient and the system is working as intended. There is no danger to the public at large.” Wen said an initial evaluation suggested that the illness was something other than Ebola, but additional testing was being conducted. The patient, described as severely ill, was said to have recently returned from Sierra Leone, one of the West African countries struck by the now-fading Ebola outbreak. — Ashley Halsey District man is fatally shot in Pr. George’s Prince George’s County police said a man gunned down in Glenarden on Saturday wasn’t the victim of random violence, but they wouldn’t say whether the death of Pierre Rafael Edwards, 22, was the result of a dispute or a domestic conflict. Edwards, who lived on Washington Place in Northeast Washington, was pronounced dead at the scene in the 2800 block of Hornbeam Court at about 5 p.m. Saturday. The shooting remains under investigation. — Ashley Halsey One dead in drive-by shooting at rec center Police said a drive-by shooting at a basketball court in Prince George’s County on Sunday afternoon left a person dead and three injured. Authorities are investigating the 3 p.m. shooting near Ardmore Recreation Center in Springdale, said Lt. Brian Waters, a spokesman for the Maryland-National Capital Park Police. Waters said shots were fired from a car that pulled up to the center’s basketball court. Four people were shot; one died, another was in critical condition and two others had non-life-threatening injuries, he said. Waters said that at the time of the shooting, a family reunion was being held inside the recreation center. He said no one inside was injured. — Victoria St. Martin VIRGINIA Townhouse fire kills Fairfax City woman An 87-year-old Fairfax City woman died late Saturday night in a townhouse fire that was caused by incense burning in her bedroom, fire officials said Sunday. City and county first responders arrived about 11 p.m. at the woman’s Comstock neighborhood townhouse, where they found a bystander trying to resuscitate her. She and her son were evacuated from


Patient with Ebola-like symptoms taken to Johns Hopkins hospital

Emergency workers in hazmat gear visited a Baltimore neighborhood Sunday to transport a person showing Ebola-like symptoms to Johns Hopkins Hospital for testing, city officials said. “The testing is being done out of an abundance of caution,” Baltimore health commissioner Leana Wen said in a statement. “All protocols have been followed for safe transport of the patient and the system is working as intended. There is no danger to the public at large.” The person was collected by emergency personnel wearing hazmat gear near the intersection of West North Avenue and Maryland Avenue around midday Sunday, according to a police report. Described as severely ill, the person was said to have recently returned from Sierra Leone. Hopkins spokeswoman Lisa Broadhead refused to say whether a patient showing Ebola-like symptoms was being treated at the hospital. She also declined to say whether the hospital had reported any such treatment to the federal Centers For Disease Control (CDC) or whether the hospital was taking steps to protect staff and patients from potential Ebola exposure. “Due to patient privacy policies we cannot answer these questions,” Broadhead said. “The safety of our patients, their families, and other visitors to the hospital is our top priority.” Since the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa last year, one of the first questions asked at hospitals and health care facilities is whether a patient has recently visited Sierra Leone, Liberia or Guinea, the three countries most hard hit by the illness, which has killed 7,500 people there and world wide. Broadhead would not say whether Hopkins received a patient Sunday who was said to have recently visited that country, where there were more than 12,000 suspected Ebola cases and about 4,000 deaths from the illness. Wen, however, confirmed that the patient was being treated in an isolation room at the Hopkins hospital. She said an initial evaluation suggested that the illness was something other than Ebola, but that additional testing was being conducted to confirm that. Wen said the “evaluation is standard and follows all protocols.” The Ebola outbreak has proven to be a time for extraordinary caution and restraint by U.S. hospitals reluctant to reveal information on whether they had treated patients showing symptoms. For example, at the height of the concern last year, passengers who arrived from foreign countries with Ebola-like symptoms at Dulles International Airport were taken to a nearby hospital for


Personalized medicine could mean big business for D.C.-area companies

A technician prepares a slide for a genetic sequencing machine. As health-care workers try to manage the growing amount of genetic data created in the study of personalized medicine, IT companies are stepping up to sell their analytics resources. (Mike Segar/Reuters) The American health-care industry’s pivot to personalized medicine has attracted the interest of an unlikely group of companies — government contractors. As health-care providers explore this new model of treatment, which involves the study of the human genome to provide personalized care, they face a problem with which many in government are familiar: analyzing an overwhelming amount of data. “We’re literally drowning in data,” said Norman Sharpless, an oncologist and director of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The amount of information generated from sequencing human genes is growing at a rapid clip, and it has triggered a rush of clinical trials aimed at linking that knowledge to medical treatment. Cataloguing all this new information requires computational power and sophisticated analysis, Sharpless said. For IT contractors, many of which are based in the Washington region, the flood of information presents a simple business opportunity: The same skills used to crunch massive amounts of data for cyberthreats or warfare intelligence can be applied to personalized medicine. Norman Sharpless, director of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, examines DNA sequencing data. The university and more than a dozen other cancer centers are working with IBM to manage DNA data. (Jared Lazarus/ For IBM) The government’s growing interest in this field also is a factor. In his State of the Union speech this year, President Obama outlined an initiative to explore the uses of precision medicine. His budget includes a request for $215 million to fund research in this area. The White House also hired its first chief data scientist, DJ Patil, who has made precision medicine one of his priorities. Many contractors, especially those in information technology, have been eager to pursue opportunities in precision medicine as they look to add lines of business to make up for cuts in other parts of the federal budget as overall spending slows. That is why so many different kinds of businesses — including defense giants Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, and cloud storage providers such as Amazon Web Services and Google — are getting in on the game. Lockheed Martin Northrop Grumman Health-care analytics is a small


The perils of delirium

mentioned in every medical and nursing school in the country. That’s a huge change from a decade ago,” said Inouye, adding that research has increased exponentially as well. In some cases, delirium is the result of carelessness. One woman said she was repeatedly rebuffed several years ago by nurses at a Washington area hospital after her mother started acting “stoned” after hip surgery. “She said things like ‘I’m having a dinner party tonight and I’ve invited a nice young man to meet you,’ ” recalled the daughter. She asked that her name be omitted to protect the privacy of her mother, now 96, who lives independently in Northern Virginia and “still has all her marbles — and then some.” “The nurses kept telling me she was off all medication” and that her confusion was to be expected because of her age. “It was only when I insisted on talking to the doctor and going through her chart” that the doctor discovered that a motion sickness patch to prevent nausea had not been removed. “Within an hour, my mother was acting fine. It was very scary because if she hadn’t had an advocate, she might have been sent to a nursing home with dementia.” Inouye, who developed the Confusion Assessment Method, or CAM scale, now used around the world to assess delirium, said that significant systemic obstacles to preventing delirium remain. “We need to back up in our care of older patients so that we don’t treat every little symptom with a pill,” she said. Sometimes, she said, a hand rub or a conversation or a glass of herbal tea can be as effective as an anti-anxiety drug. Two months ago, Inouye, who is in her 50s, was hospitalized overnight, an experience that underscored the ordeal that older, vulnerable patients face. “I was woken out of the deepest sleep every two hours to check my blood pressure,” she said. In addition, alarms in her room began shrieking because a machine was malfunctioning. “Medical care,” she added, “has evolved to be absolutely inhumane to older people.” HELP In an effort to prevent or reduce delirium, Inouye created a program called HELP, short for Hospital Elder Life Program, currently operating in 200 hospitals around the country. While the core of the program remains the same, each hospital implements the program in different ways. Some enroll ICU patients, while others exclude them. A 2011


Moscow blasts E.U. for leaking list of Europeans banned from Russia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appears at a joint news conference with Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni in Moscow on June 1. (Pavel Golovkin/AP) MOSCOW — Russia’s top diplomat blasted European Union officials Monday for what he called “breaches of ethical norms” by allegedly passing on to journalists the names of Europeans, including senior politicians, who are barred from traveling to Russia in retaliation for Western sanctions. “We provided the list at the request of the E.U. on the basis of confidentiality, and it immediately leaked to the press,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference Monday. “And the E.U., which normally doesn’t comment on leaks, gladly commented on it. So I also see some breaches of ethical norms here.” The E.U. complained earlier that Russia’s decision to expand its blacklist was “totally arbitrary and unjustified, especially in the absence of any further clarification and transparency.” The E.U. also complained that it took multiple requests before Russia agreed to share the list even confidentially. But in Russia, the fact that any of the names became public has revived a familiar complaint: that the West demands certain behaviors of Russia but doesn’t reciprocate. Lavrov complained Monday that Europe’s approach to sanctions has been “an attempt to replace international law with their own political predilections.” The Western sanctions against Russia are “absolutely illegitimate,” Lavrov said, repeating a common talking point among Russian leaders. But if there must be sanctions, then at least the West might appreciate that Russia “could not violate the fundamental law of international relations — the principle of reciprocity,” he continued. “We responded with mutuality to a unilateral, unfriendly and unprovoked step. And we did that after we contained ourselves for a very long time,” Lavrov said. Western leaders say the latest rounds of sanctions against Russia are in direct response to Moscow’s annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and to Russia’s involvement in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. Western leaders also have indicated that they could begin to roll back sanctions once all the terms of a cease-fire agreement in Ukraine are carried out. Russia’s latest retaliatory move also has ties to the Ukrainian conflict. As Lavrov said Monday, those on the blacklist are leaders “who most actively supported the coup” in Ukraine — a reference to the protests in Kiev’s Independence Square that led to the February 2014 ouster of Ukraine’s then-president,


TV highlights: ABC Family’s ‘Pretty Little Liars’ returns for a sixth season

PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: The future looks bleak as the Liars are remain stuck in Charles’s twisted web. (Eric McCandless/ABC Family) (All times Eastern) RETURNING SHOW RETURNING SHOW SERIES PREMIERE A vegetarian challenge sends the chefs scrambling, and the final four are surprised with visits from friends and family members on “Hell’s Kitchen” (Fox at 9). “Extreme Weight Loss” RETURNING SHOW RETURNING SHOW SERIES PREMIERE Actors Jude Law and Bryce Dallas Howard stop by “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC at 11:35), with musical guest Florence and the Machine. National Spelling Bee champs Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam visit “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC at 11:35), with music from Hiatus Kaiyote. — Rachel Lubitz


How Saudi Arabia’s 79-year-old King Salman is shaking up the Middle East

55-year-old interior minister, Mohammed bin Nayef, as crown prince, pushing aside 71-year-old Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz. The move set up Mohammed to be the first grandson of King Abdul Aziz to take the throne, after decades in which the founder’s sons ruled. Salman has also promoted his 30-year-old son, Mohammed bin Salman, to defense minister and deputy crown prince. The appointments put the king’s son in charge of the Yemen campaign and, perhaps more important, made him second in line to become king. He attended President Obama’s summit of gulf leaders in Washington in May instead of his father — a move widely perceived as a sign of irritation with more conciliatory U.S. policies toward Iran. Saudi officials publicly denied they were sending such a message. “In some ways, a large part of King Salman’s legacy has already been forged,” Nazer said. There had been widespread speculation that a succession battle could occur as the older generation of Saudi leaders died. But, Nazer said, “he seamlessly ushered in the long-awaited shift to the third generation of Saudi leaders.” Saudi experts note that the rise of younger leaders doesn’t necessarily mean more liberal policies. King Salman has cemented his ties to religious conservatives, replacing the reformist head of the kingdom’s morality police with an official known for his strict views on Western dress. Saudi authorities have already executed 90 people this year for murder and drug convictions, surpassing the total for all of 2014. In contrast to King Abdullah, who started a counseling program for jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria, the new leaders are expected to take a harder line against militants, analysts say. Crown Prince Mohammed gained fame for his crackdown on al-Qaeda militants and is known for having survived four assassination attempts. The younger generation came of age as the kingdom’s relations with Washington were evolving. For the older generation, the U.S.-led liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi troops in 1991 was a defining moment, a sign of the United States’ staunch commitment to its Arab allies. But the Saudis were dismayed when the Obama administration cut ties with Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak during the pro-democracy revolt in 2011 and the longtime ally fell from power. Unlike many members of the royal family’s older generation, King Salman’s son, the deputy crown prince, did not study in either the United States or Europe. Bold, but not too bold While


In Chelsea Heights, townhomes in the shadow of a historical country estate

The new townhouse community is part of an estate that once was owned by the co-founder of Riggs National Bank. The new townhouse community is part of an estate that once was owned by the co-founder of Riggs National Bank. In 1858, George Washington Riggs, a co-founder of Riggs National Bank, built a summer home on his country estate in Silver Spring. Six years later, Confederate and Union troops torched and plundered the area, and Riggs decided to sell the property. His estate, however, remained unscathed by the skirmish, except for the loss of some hay, “eatables” and a valuable ox. The property was purchased by prominent businessman William Thompson, who expanded the house. Eventually, the spacious Second Empire and Italianate-style mansion became a convent and a school. Today, the Riggs-Thompson house is on the market again, part of the 5.25 acres purchased by Bethesda developer EYA to create a community called Chelsea Heights. EYA is building 63 townhouses to the north of the historical landmark and has sold 25. “The architecture [of the homes] is designed to create a transition from the high-density surroundings of downtown Silver Spring to the predominantly single-family neighborhood adjacent to the site,” says Preston Innerst, EYA vice president of sales and marketing. Inspired by the Craftsman-style bungalows in the area, the three-story townhouses are clad in fiber-cement siding or brick, with bay and dormer windows. Three designs are available, ranging from three bedrooms and three baths at 1,661 square feet to four bedrooms and four baths at 2,627 square feet. Base prices range from $715,000 to $920,000. The first residents moved in during March and EYA anticipates the community will be completed by summer 2016. EYA is building the townhouses to meet LEED for Homes standards. (Benjamin C Tankersley/For The Washington Post) Green, open design Inside the units, the main level has an open-plan layout so the living, dining and kitchen spaces flow together. Most of the houses have a rear, two-car garage on the basement level and a recreation room, which could be turned into another bedroom. On the top floor, a terrace set into the gabled roof provides a secluded outdoor space for relaxing and entertaining. Two townhouses, both the three-bedroom Andrews design, are available for immediate move in. They are located within the row of homes nearest the Riggs-Thompson house and are being sold for $749,995 and $759,995. The units feature


Learning to live with ants and the rest

as I learn how useful ants can be — aerating the soil with their tunnels, pollinating flowers, eating insect predators, and removing and composting debris — I’ve stopped pouring boiling water on their homes to drive them away. Currently, the one nest I have, a spectacular mound, is covered with the sedum variety Weihenstephaner Gold. Normally the plant creeps along the ground, but now it’s a little mountain, as healthy as can be, where ants come and go, carrying stuff. Not all such encounters are pleasant. Ants once dug up a section of my mother’s lawn the size of a parking space. My husband and I sprinkled it with bone meal (which we had a hunch might repel them — and be good for the grass as well) and they fled — to a new spot a few yards away. That’s the trouble with ant control. The real control is in the hands of a powerful queen, ruling her empire from a bunker deep in the earth, far from your boiling water, citrus oil, dried molasses or organic spinosad-containing pesticide. She will immediately replace any ants you destroy, and the best you can hope for is that she’ll move the operation to a less bothersome place, leaving the earthworms to do all your soil-aerating for you. Often they move on of their own accord anyway, and besides, most ants are only a minor annoyance. Obviously, no one likes ants that sting, as many native ant species do. Non-native ones can do even more harm, because like so many imported insects they have not brought along the natural predators that kept their numbers in balance at home. Fire ants are the most notorious example, both the South American ones that have caused havoc in our southern tier of states, and the northern ones recently arrived from Europe, that injured the eyes of a friend of mine when she mowed an infested lawn. Sooner or later we will adapt to the existence of fire ants, just as we have to deal with bedbugs, rattlesnakes and black widow spiders. Maybe we’ll even find a use for fire ants — perhaps a crop that just loves the way they rototill the soil. You don’t believe me? Recently I read about a creature whose deadly venom can be used to treat brain cancer. You’ll never guess which one. It was the scorpion. Damrosch is author


South Korea quarantines more than 1,300 in race against MERS

Arabia, where MERS began in 2012, the World Health Organization said, warning that “further cases can be expected.” Suspected cases in South Korea total 398, and at least 1,364 people have been quarantined, the vast majority of them at home. Education authorities have left it to principals to decide whether to shut their schools, and 200 kindergartens and schools closed their doors on Wednesday while more than 500 planned to shut on Thursday. Almost all of them are in Gyeonggi province, the area around Seoul, where the first patient with the viral illness sought treatment, although six elementary schools and a middle school in Seoul will also close until Friday at parents’ request. Drugstores reported a run on surgical masks and hand sanitizer as fear about a wider outbreak spread. MERS arrived in South Korea in a 68-year-old “index patient” who had traveled to four countries in the Middle East and showed no symptoms when he returned home on May 4. But a week later, he sought treatment at two outpatient clinics and then two hospitals, potentially exposing a large number of health-care workers and other patients to the virus. South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare is scrambling to contain the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which has killed two people. “Given the number of clinics and hospitals that cared for the index case, further cases can be expected,” the World Health Organization said in a statement. The two patients who died, a 58-year-old woman and a 71-year-old man, had both been in contact with the index patient in the hospital, and both had other health problems that could have weakened their ability to fight the infection. The exposure times could have been as short as five minutes to a few hours, the WHO said. The South Korean government has been criticized for refusing to disclose the names of the clinics and hospitals where the index patient sought treatment. But three doctors at the emergency meeting Wednesday rejected demands for greater openness, Yonhap News Agency reported. Twenty-five out of the 30 people confirmed to have contracted the disease were infected at a single hospital, which has since closed to new patients. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities quarantined 88 people, including 14 South Koreans, after a 44-year-old South Korean man, the son of one of the people who has contracted the viral illness, defied medical advice and flew to Hong


Irwin Rose, who shared 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry, dies at 88

protein molecule that is fated for destruction, ubiquitin journeys with it through the cell to the proteasomes. A process of shape recognition prompts proteasome ingestion of the unwanted molecule. Before this occurs, according to scientists’ understanding, the ubiquitin detaches, taking its leave of the soon-to-be consumed protein, to return to the job for which it was created. In itself, the mere elucidation of so subtle and sophisticated a molecular process might seem a milestone of research. To the Nobel Prize winners’ colleagues, it was even more, offering new approaches to the understanding of such basic processes of life as DNA repair, cell division and the operation of the body’s immune system. Specialists in the field have said that a cell’s inability to eliminate unwanted proteins may lead to illness, including types of cancer. Specialists in the field have said that understanding the process by which cells destroy proteins may aid in developing treatments for cystic fibrosis, forms of cancer and other ailments. At the time the Nobel Prize was awarded, Harvard cell biologist Alfred L. Goldberg lauded it as a “particularly insightful” choice. Dr. Rose and the two Israelis, he wrote, were scientists “whose seminal work has altered modern biology.” Since the inception of the Nobel Prize, Americans have won almost half . Many American winners have immigrated from other countries, but Dr. Rose’s first school was P.S. 134 in Brooklyn and all his succeeding work was done in this country. Irwin Allan Rose, who was often called Ernie, was born July 16, 1926, and lived in Brooklyn until the age of 13, when it was decided that dry climate might benefit a younger brother with rheumatic fever. His mother took her two sons to Spokane, Wash., where they had relatives. Dr. Rose’s father stayed in New York to look after his flooring business — an arrangement, the future Nobel laureate later wrote, “that I never understood and felt conflicted about. Father’s visits were few and far between.” His mother did secretarial work in the Navy Supply Depot in Spokane during World War II. In summers, Dr. Rose worked at a local hospital, which ignited his interest in “solving medical problems.” After Navy service as a radio technician during the war, he went to the University of Chicago on the GI Bill and received a bachelor’s degree in 1948 and a doctorate in biochemistry in 1952. Within a few years,


Prince George’s community calendar, June 4-10, 2015

Thursday, June 4 Counseling service PG corn maze Lego creative club Berwyn Heights bird walk Wine tasting and silent auction Genealogical Society meeting Zumba Do More 24 Friday, June 5 Bariatric lecture Anthony Clark The All Stars Blues Band “Pride and Prejudice ” Sweet taste of summer Water balloon challenge Family campfire Saturday, June 6 Community yard sale Art show and sale National Trails Day Pollinating butterflies Yoga in the park Computer basics Seniors’ computer class Herb gardening 101 Trails master plan open house Intro to InDesign Crochet and knitting class Crocheting Laurel chess club “Lore ” Magic show Trees for the home garden Civil War lecture Doctor’s Hospital fundraiser Ultimate Frisbee National Harbor farmers market Sunday, June 7 Bowie farmers market Roosevelt Ride Treasures in the attic appraisal event Whooping crane observatory tour Pollinators nature program Monday, June 8 Senior safety workshop Women writers group Connect the Dots Dance Company Chinese-English story time Garage Band workshop Laurel mental health support group Yoga at the Manor Tuesday, June 9 Nature puppet show “The Sleeping Beauty ” A ballet performance by Connect the Dots Dance Company. 4 p.m. Beltsville Library, 4319 Sellman Rd., Beltsville. 301-937-0294. www.pgcmls.info/beltsville . Free. Photoshop 101 Teen gaming night Clinton support group Pins and needles Yoga in the parks Wednesday, June 10 Bird walk Senior improv class Better Days work group STEM-tastic STEM for families Lego fun time — Compiled by Jillian S. Jarrett TO SUBMIT AN EVENT E-mail:


U.S. faces challenges in building up Syrian training program

to discuss a program whose details are veiled in secrecy, said that the U.S. military had begun working with a second class of about 50 Syrian fighters in Turkey in mid-May. Training is expected to eventually expand to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The program deepens U.S. military involvement in Syria, where four years of grinding conflict have given rise to the powerful Islamic State, whose extremist realm now straddles Syria and Iraq. While the United States has been conducting airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in both countries since last year, it has steered clear of direct confrontation with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But the relatively small scale of the training, and the difficulty U.S. military officials are facing in getting the right fighters, has raised questions about the effect the program can have in a conflict characterized by a kaleidoscope of armed groups fighting the Assad regime and one another. In April, military officials said the training program’s start had been postponed several weeks when an initial cadre of fighters stayed back at the last minute so they could defend their homes from militants. Opposition fighters undergo elaborate vetting procedures to minimize risks to U.S. trainers and to ensure that the rebels use U.S.-provided weapons responsibly. So far, a large share of Syrians recruited for the program have been disqualified in the vetting process, officials said, for health or age reasons, or because of suspected links to extremist groups. But Dempsey, who is preparing to step down this fall after four years as the top U.S. military official, said the program had shown some early successes. He said trainers were now selecting leaders from among the recruits, most of whom came to the program with experience battling government forces or Islamist fighters. “The feedback is that the recruits are very good,” he said. “There’s nothing like being battle-tested to make you take training seriously. So we do think that they are absorbing the training.” But military officials said it was too early to say how long it would take to reach the goal of fielding 3,000 to 5,000 Syrians a year, suggesting it will not happen soon. Officials likewise have modest expectations for the near-term impact of the program. Dempsey said he expected that the new force would restrict the Islamic State’s ability to maneuver in areas in the “periphery” of Syria. “The larger strategic issue is