Banning speech close to home

About 20 percent of Americans live in communities regulated by a homeowners association (HOA), run by boards that, under state and federal law, have nearly unchecked latitude. They can declare speech prohibited and erode privacy. And without a change in law, there’s not much that can be done about it. I have learned about the overreach of such boards as a member of a cooperative housing association in Southwest Washington. Like many neighborhoods in the District, Southwest is diverse and changing. This change has been reflected in a new mix of residents, including families, who want our co-op to adopt more transparent, proactive and professional management techniques. A group of owners, led by newer residents, organized informally to discuss these desired changes and elect board members who support them. These owners made clear they want to improve the community and its property values. They used fliers, e-mail and open community meetings to share their proposals for change. Everyone in the co-op was invited to join the discussion. The owners pushing for change didn’t do well in the last board elections. Dissent and constructive criticism were successfully portrayed as a divisive “agenda.” To try to prevent further dissent, the board enacted what it calls a “solicitation” rule. This rule, which took more than a year and hundreds of dollars in attorney’s fees to finalize, forbids certain types of communication among residents. The board also installed a camera that enables it to film residents who, in the words of the co-op president, engage in “odd behavior.” Adding even more to the climate of control, the board revealed that it uses the co-op’s security cameras and electronic door entry system to track “suspect” residents’ movements. All this might sound like violations of speech, privacy and other rights. But here’s the rub: The Constitution and its protections on speech, privacy and property do not apply in communities run by homeowners associations. These are private corporations. And as with all private corporations, it can be difficult for “activist investors” to bring about fundamental change through the normal board election process. So what can co-op and condo owners do to prevent and correct such board behavior? First, they can bring public attention to especially egregious HOA actions. In Missouri, an association forbade a family from building a backyard playhouse for their daughter who had cancer. The association relented after a storm of negative media attention. Next,


All lanes reopened on westbound Route 66 after multi-car pileup

An eight-car pileup caused traffic delays Saturday morning on westbound Route 66 in Virginia near the Dulles Toll Road, though all lanes have now been reopened, authorities said. Corinne Geller, a state police spokeswoman, said those involved in the pileup suffered only minor injuries, but traffic was backed up as authorities worked to clean up the mess. Geller said that two vehicles were initially involved in a collision in which no one was injured and that “traffic attempting to avoid that crash sparked an 8-vehicle chain reaction crash.” This post has been updated.


The Mexican military invaded Acapulco. But the party never stopped.

ACAPULCO, Mexico — But closer up, you can’t miss the guns. There are state police with black masks in trucks with gun mounts. Roving pods of armed federal gendarmerie on souped-up three-wheelers. Assault-rifle-toting Mexican marines on foot patrols with armbands that read “Tourist Protection.” Once the most famous and glamorous beach spot in Mexico, Acapulco has long struggled with drug violence and gang warfare that have sullied the sun-and-sand image. Over the past several months, teachers strikes and street protests have clogged the city. Military and federal forces took control from the ousted municipal police. Mexico’s worst tragedy of the past year, the disappearance and likely murder of 43 students at a teachers college, took place up the road in the same state, Guerrero. “In the city of Acapulco, we definitely have security problems,” said Luis Walton, the former mayor and current gubernatorial candidate. “We hardly have any international tourism now.” But despite the image problems, domestic tourism has been inching up. Droves of tourists are arriving — most are Mexicans leaving the capital during the Easter holiday. The city’s tourism department estimates that 350,000 people will visit Acapulco over the next two weeks — and occupancy rates in the city’s 18,500 hotel rooms will surpass 80 percent. Boosters say there have been no violent incidents targeting tourists in more than two years — since a group of six Spanish vacationers were raped by gunmen. Mexican Marines patrolling the beach run to avoid a wave in Acapulco. The Mexican beach destination has long struggled with drug violence and gang warfare. To attract tourists, there are cheap flights and discount hotel rooms. This spring, Acapulco has been the site of an international banking conference, a professional tennis event and a big tourism conference. Expedia, the online travel company, said that demand for trips to Acapulco grew by 50 percent last year. But billy-club wielding marines and patrolling police trucks can be seen everywhere. “The tourist area is ‘bulletproof,’ ” said Netzah Peralta Radilla, the city’s tourism secretary, in a new government center to help tourists. And it needs to be. “We don’t have anything else. We live off of tourism. That’s why it’s so important.” Grecia Falcon, a 22-year-old veterinary student from Leon, in central Mexico, was worried about spending her holiday in this “gangsters’ paradise,” but agreed to come with her friend who grew up in Acapulco. “I’m kind of


A D.C. doctor makes medical marijuana a specialty

status. Neighbors were wary. One early participant came in with his hat pulled low over dark glasses, suspecting a sting. When a documentary film crew came by in early 2014, the staff could not find a single participant willing to go on camera. But the Kahns hired former police officers to reassure neighbors and coached them to make clients feel welcome. (“At first, when they would answer the phone, we’d have to tell them, ‘Not your cop voice,’ ” Stephanie said.) And slowly, as more than 1,000 D.C. residents have registered with the city’s Department of Health to buy cannabis at Takoma Wellness — out of about 2,600 registered citywide — retail pot has begun to feel more routine to those on both sides of the transaction. For clients, a ‘blessing’ During a visit to Takoma Wellness in March, customers came and went — and more than a dozen were willing to give their names and talk openly about their marijuana use. “Just being on the legal side of things makes for huge peace of mind,” said Spencer Thompson, 26, a salesman at an H&M store in Friendship Heights. He had been smoking marijuana for years and found that it greatly eased his nearly crippling social anxiety. When he got his first job with medical coverage, he asked his doctor about the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. She recommended medical cannabis instead. “She said if the pot was working, it was probably better.” The customers filing in and out of the dispensary represented a cross-section of the District. Some were young and fit and practiced pot smokers. Others said they had never tried the drug, or had not done so for years, before a health concern led them to sign up. Their complaints ranged from phantom pain from an amputation to cluster migraines to muscle spasms from a years-ago motorcycle accident. Breast cancer survivor Anna Hall, 39, said a few drops of sativa oil under her tongue is the only thing that has eased the nerve pain she feels from Tamoxifin, a cancer drug she will be taking for another nine years. Jeremy Douglas, 39, a former deep-sea diver for the Navy, said the herb helped him kick the opioid painkillers he had been popping since he was blown out of a Humvee in an explosion in Bahrain in 2004. Sydney Buffalow said two small hits of marijuana a day — sometimes


Animal Watch: Masked prowler grabs a snack

HYATTSVILLE, Among cases received by the Prince George’s County Animal Management Division.


Security enhanced for traditional family event at National Zoo

Last Easter Monday, gunshots wounded two teens and marred a century-old African American tradition at the National Zoo. This year, zoo officials, police and a group of community volunteers say they have a plan they hope will quell any tensions that may ignite another violent episode. During the past week, zoo officials have erected temporary fencing to funnel visitors to security checkpoints, where screeners will check bags, purses and briefcases and can scan people with metal detectors. The changes have been met with little notice and no resistance by patrons, zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said Friday. “Everyone has been great, everyone has been compliant,” she said. “I think what they’re experiencing here, although it’s new for us, it’s what they experience all over Washington, D.C., and around the country.” Zoo officials declined to reveal all their security enhancements but said they have been coordinating with D.C. police, U.S. Park Police and other agencies since January. Patrons should expect to see a police presence on patrol, such as mounted officers from U.S. Park Police. Officials will evaluate the security changes and their impact on visitation in coming weeks, Baker-Masson said. Last April, two male teenagers were shot — one in the left elbow and one in the left hand — about an hour after the family day event ended and visitors streamed from the zoo and onto Connecticut Avenue. Police said at the time that the shooting was the result of a 14-year-old gang member targeting rivals from Prince George’s County. On Monday, D.C. activist Tony Lewis Jr. plans to stand on post at the National Zoo as one of a small cadre of volunteers looking to prevent a repeat as they participate in a plan called “Operation Safe Zoo.” As many as 50 volunteers, many of whom work with youths across the city, will deploy inside and outside the zoo in order to zero in on tensions that may arise during the day. “We’re not there to police, we’re there just to be positive role models. MPD [Metropolitan Police Department] will be there to do their job,” Lewis said in an interview. Zoo officials are aware of the volunteers, Baker-Masson said, and that “they know they are not acting as police or security on our site.” Volunteers are expected to call police to report trouble, both zoo and volunteer leaders said. The effort is borne from a heated community debate


Cherry-picking the best of spring’s seasonal brews

spicy finish. As of press time it was pouring at both Capitol City locations, in downtown Washington and Arlington. A different style of wheat beer inspired Supertramp Tart Cherry Ale, the spring seasonal from Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, Md. Brew master Matt Brophy was inspired by Berliner weisse, a pale, sour, low-alcohol German wheat beer that’s traditionally dosed with what the Germans call a “Schuss” — a shot of a raspberry or herbal syrup — and sipped from large goblets in the biergartens. Brophy takes several liberties with the style. Instead of fermenting with a lactobacillus, he uses acidulated malt — a variety already impregnated with a small amount of lactic acid — to dial in the right amount of pucker power. The pureed cherries, an even mix of sweet and tart varieties, are added to the fermenter at 14 pounds per barrel. Measuring just 4.7 percent alcohol, this spritzy, light, magenta-tinged ale has a sour candy flavor that dredges up memories of SweeTarts, Pixy Stix and other sugary treats of childhood. Brophy finds the beer well-balanced. “We’re not really describing it as a sour beer,” he says, but “it’s amazing to see the differences in people’s palates” when they sample it and offer their comments. Although it’s overshadowed by its neighbor to the south, Baltimore boasts its fair share of cherry trees. (One specimen, in front of Union Memorial Hospital, was a gift of bootlegger Al Capone, who sought treatment there in 1939 after his release from prison.) The Brewer’s Art, a Belgian-themed brewpub on North Charles Street, is celebrating the pink blossoms with Charm City Sour Cherry. More dessert beer than refresher, it’s what owner Volker Stewart describes as “a straightforward brown ale” with sour morello cherry juice added during the tail end of fermentation. A caramely sweetness balances the tart fruit, and the house yeast adds saison-like peppery notes. GBD Beer geeks seeking a cherry beer with a little more gravitas, who aren’t put off by a haze in their beer or sediment ringing their glass, might want to seek out Bluejacket’s Cherry Trouble. The brew is based on Trouble, a Belgian-style sour brown ale called an oud bruin. Bluejacket’s beer director, Greg Engert, originally co-brewed Trouble back in 2013 with Urbain Cotteau of De Struise Brouwers in Belgium; it graced his first beer menu. For this batch, Engert added more than 450 pounds of mostly


New rules make it easier to dispose of potentially dangerous painkillers

regulations also allow you to mail opioids and other medications to authorized collection centers. But you must use approved packaging, which you can get from pharmacies and other designated locations. Most other medications, including prescription drugs and familiar over-the-counter drugs such as expired acetaminophen (Tylenol and generics) and ibuprofen (Advil and generics), can also be disposed of at the drop-off spots. (Most drugs collected at those sites are ultimately incinerated.) Items that won’t be accepted include asthma inhalers, syringes, medication that contains iodine, marijuana and thermometers that have mercury in them. Other disposal options With potentially deadly opioid painkillers, it’s important to get them safely out of your house as soon as you no longer need them. If there is no drop-off spot in your area and you don’t want to use the mail-back option, the Food and Drug Administration recommends flushing them down the toilet. That’s usually a bad idea because of the possibility of contaminating the water supply and possibly harming aquatic life. But the danger that someone might improperly get his hands on opioids is very high, making flushing an acceptable option if you have no other choice. To flush an opioid patch, fold it in half first so that the sticky sides meet. Most other medications can safely be put in the trash, provided you take a few precautions. First, remove the drug from its original container and mix it with a substance that makes it less appealing and recognizable, such as used coffee grounds, cat litter or sawdust. Then place the mixture in a sealable plastic bag or other container that won’t leak, and toss it into the trash. Before you discard the prescription bottle, remove labels containing names and other personal information. Discarding inhalers and syringes In some parts of the country, you can put asthma inhalers in the trash or recycling. But in others, they are considered hazardous waste and can’t be tossed into the regular trash, according to the FDA. Contact your local trash or recycling facility to find out how to discard them. For syringes or medications that are not accepted under the new regulations, talk with your pharmacist or check Dispose My Meds (www.disposemymeds.org) or Sharps (www.sharpsinc.com/locations) to find pharmacies that will accept them. Copyright 2015. Consumers Union of United States Inc. For further guidance, go to www.ConsumerReports.org/Health, where more detailed information, including CR’s ratings of prescription drugs, treatments, hospitals


Private sector lenders aren’t helping those underserved by banks

Charles Lane asked the right question in his April 2 op-ed, “Can the post office be a bank?” He just got the answer wrong. Mr. Lane asked “what’s the practical alternative?” to payday lending, an industry with a business model that often traps users into vicious cycles of debt. Mr. Lane wrote that lenders are a better alternative than loan sharks. He failed to report that payday lenders charge annual interest rates of 300 percent to 400 percent! They are “legal” loan sharks. Nearly 100 million Americans are underserved by traditional banks. Many are seniors who cannot travel very far. Postal banking is a practical, public alternative to the great need for financial services. It offers a business model to protect consumers from abusive practices with control over their financial lives. The arguments in favor are many: location and accessibility of post offices, experience with financial services, a popular and trusted public institution, and proven success around the world. Mr. Lane’s major concern is that postal banking “would short-circuit potentially beneficial innovation by the private sector.” Given the track record of the existing private-sector options — from banks “too big to fail” to payday lending — the time is now to institute a proven solution: postal banking. Richard Fiesta, Washington The writer is executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans.


NTSB looking at second Metro incident as part of tunnel-smoke probe

Metro riders board trains at the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station in this March file photo. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) Federal investigators are reviewing an occurrence of smoke and an electrical malfunction inside a second Metro tunnel as they continue to investigate what caused a January incident near the L’Enfant Plaza station that left one dead and injured more than 80. The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday that it will examine an incident that occurred in February near the Court House station. The board is looking into whether there are similarities to an incident a month earlier in which electrical “arcing” — a phenomenon in which electricity escapes its prescribed path — caused severe damage to the rail and cables inside a tunnel near L’Enfant. No one was injured in the Feb. 11 incident in which a train traveling on the Orange Line from the Court House station to the Rosslyn station encountered smoke in a tunnel, the NTSB said. The operator of the Rosslyn train was able to reverse and return to the Court House station. The smoke was cleared from the tunnel in about an hour, and normal service resumed. During the January incident, a train became stranded in the tunnel near the L’Enfant station, and smoke quickly filled the train. NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said investigators are looking at portions of “traction power cables” from the Feb. 11 incident. Metro officials have said previously the power cable that federal investigators identified in the L’Enfant electrical malfunction was a type the transit agency had planned to replace over the next decade with cable that is designed to emit fewer noxious gases if it starts to burn. Officials with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority turned over the equipment from the Court House episode on Feb. 19, the NTSB said in a statement. The NTSB is waiting for Metro to send additional electrical equipment, the safety board added. Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said he could not say when Metro planned to turn over the remaining items to the NTSB. “We appreciate the thoroughness of the NTSB’s investigative process and continue to work side by side with the Safety Board to learn the root cause of the January incident and prevent any recurrence,” Stessel said in a statement. “Metro remains an active participant in the investigation and is providing its full cooperation, including timely responses to requests for information


Zoo tradition continues on Easter Monday, with a bit more security

conversation among activists throughout the city about how they could continue the tradition and prevent the violence. The result was the group of volunteers, including Evan-Ricochet, who were posted inside the zoo and at the Woodley Park Metro station. By the end of the day, no serious incidents had occurred, but D.C. police broke up some minor scuffles outside the zoo, said Cmdr. Melvin Gresham of the 2nd Police District. Zoo officials said the day was a success. “Our guests appeared to take our new security measures in stride and were very cooperative,” said Dennis Kelly, director of the National Zoo. Activist Ron Moten, a central organizer of Project Safe Zoo, said its volunteers helped defuse three arguments Monday, including one inside the zoo in which police took a young man into custody. “It worked because the police and the community worked together,” Moten said. “That’s what it is all about, making sure nobody gets hurt.” Catherine May, an advisory neighborhood commissioner, praised the combined efforts of the Park Police, D.C. police and Prince George’s County officials. “The law enforcement agencies did a wonderful job coordinating with the jurisdictions and educating the public beforehand about what they were doing,” she said as the day festivities wound down. “It is wonderful that the zoo chose to keep its doors open.” For most patrons, it was back to Easter Monday as usual. Zoo officials reported about 32,000 visitors, and the added security seemed to fade into the background. Dads pushed strollers, parents pleaded with kids to behave, and people lined up for doughnuts, chili dogs and ice cream. An oldies cover band demanded “R-E-S-P-E-C-T,” and something that looked like a panda Easter Bunny danced to the music. And when the crowds and security became too much, some patrons patiently waited. The crowds didn’t keep Naomi Vasquez and her son and daughter from their day at the zoo. The New Yorkers are visiting family in the area. They arrived at the zoo in the morning but the lines were long, and they returned about 2 p.m. “There were just too many people,” Vasquez said. Despite the late start, her son Brandon and daughter Isabella got to see their favorite exhibit: the pandas, which several other families cited as favorites as well. But not everyone experienced long lines. One man could be overheard boasting, “I only had to wait in one line today!” mark.lieberman@washpost.com


How one company is trying to make ‘pasture-raised’ the new egg standard

say, what the hens are fed or how drought affects the color of the yolks. Hens that lay eggs for Vital Farms, like these birds at RedHill Farms in California, spend most of their day outdoors and are allotted an average 108 square feet of outdoor space. (Dan Brooks/From Vital Farms) The pitch is working. Errol Schweizer, Whole Foods’ global executive grocery coordinator and one of Vital Farms’ early champions, said pasture-raised options have boosted egg sales overall without cannibalizing organic sales. At Kroger, where Vital Farms eggs are available in five of the chain’s 17 regions, a spokesman said they have been a “bigger hit than expected.” Kroger plans to offer Vital Farms eggs in nearly all of its stores by the end of the year. Eggs are on a roll. In 2014, Americans ate an average of 263 eggs per capita, a 30-year high, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Specialty eggs, which include cage-free, free-range, organic and pasture-raised, have seen the sharpest growth, said Kevin Burkum, senior vice president of marketing at the American Egg Board. “It’s still a relatively small segment of the market, but that doesn’t make it any less important,” he said. “I think it’s terrific that whatever egg consumers might want is available.” The Vital Farms brand inspires loyalty normally reserved for companies like Apple or Nike. Maurice Sinnett, a retired newspaper pressman who lives on Whidbey Island, Wash., is a case in point. He and his wife used to buy Vital Farms eggs at a nearby Safeway. When it closed after a merger with rival chain Albertsons, Sinnett went looking there for Vital Farms. But Albertsons hadn’t picked up the brand. So Sinnett started shopping at a local chain, Haggen. “It may seem crazy to change stores just for the eggs, but we think they are just that good,” he said. Sinnett likes the richer yolk. But mostly, he is motivated by the company’s respect for animal welfare. “There’s a humane way to do things and the ‘I-don’t-give-a-damn-I’m-at-the-top-of-the-food-chain way,” he said, adding: “A woman recently asked me how could I pay $6 a dozen for eggs. My answer was, ‘How much do you pay for a cup of coffee at Starbucks?’” Black is a former Food section staffer based in Brooklyn. On Twitter: @jane_black. More from Food: Can this company do better than the egg? The hard-cooked egg: a simple way


In China’s Inner Mongolia, mining spells misery for traditional herders

hundreds of lakes to shrink or disappear, said Fang Jingyun, also a Peking University professor and director of the Institute of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Fluoride poisoning In Inner Mongolia’s Holingol, the Huomei Hongjun factory is one of the largest aluminum smelters in the world. Its coal-fired power plant was fined by the Environmental Protection Ministry in 2011 for excessive sulfur dioxide emissions and for falsifying emissions data. But it is the smelter itself that has attracted the herders’ ire. A government document obtained by Ceng Jing Cao Yuan, a local advocacy group, showed that more than 12,000 sheep died and 23,000 fell sick in seven villages and two farms near the factory between 2008 and 2009, with the probable cause being high levels of fluoride in their bones and in the grasslands, though tests on herders showed no ill effects in humans. The authenticity of the document, which carried no official stamp, could not be independently verified, but the symptoms described by the herders were consistent with fluoride poisoning, a classic side effect of untreated emissions from aluminum refining. China Power Investment Corp., which owns the smelter, did not respond to a faxed list of questions. A local environment official, who declined to give her name, confirmed that an investigation had been conducted into the death of livestock but said that she was not aware of its findings. Outside Holingol, Du’s son Bao Chaganbala said that the family had lost 1,000 sheep, roughly half their flock, and had been forced to sell the remainder at half-price. Compensation in the form of cash, an apartment and a teaching job for his daughter, he said, had failed to approach the losses that the family suffered from being deprived of livestock and land. For his mother, the psychological costs were more significant. She used to live with her extended family. Now she lives alone and worries that her sons will not be able to cope in their new lives. She used to have a view across the grasslands; now she looks out on a characterless back street. “I am old, and I don’t ask for anything,” she said. “But how will my sons survive without the grasslands?” Xu Jing contributed to this report. Read more: Chinese police crush grasslands protest China wants cleaner air — without an environmental movement China’s growing panda population is fragmenting, and that’s a problem


Financial coaches offer a hand up out of a fiscal hole

Here’s a quote to live by: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. But is it really this easy when it comes to your finances? What if that hole represents rising rent you can’t afford? Or that increases in your salary — if you’ve even gotten any — haven’t kept pace with inflation? Or a mortgage that is underwater and you can’t refinance to reduce your monthly payments? What if you are about to dig that hole deeper because you and your child have decided the only way for him or her to go to college is to take out student loans? With so much of this proverbial dirt to shovel, you may not see a way out. And then comes April — a month of reckoning. It’s designated as “Financial Literacy Month,” or “National Financial Capability Month.” It’s when programs and proclamations tell you what you should already know, which is that you have to save, invest, use credit wisely — and sparingly — and spend well. “Critical decisions — from financing higher education to saving for retirement — can have lasting consequences for individuals and for our country’s economy,” President Obama said in helping launch this year’s effort. “Financial literacy enables people of all ages to make smart choices and set goals to protect their hard-earned income.” The president noted that financial literacy will aim to help “open doors into the middle class” and that it’s “an essential component of middle-class economics.” After all, that is the American Dream: to at least climb your way up to the middle class. There are surveys that might not make you feel particularly good about your money management. Take a look at some of the findings from NeighborWorks America in its second annual financial capability survey: ●Thirty-four percent of adults in America don’t have any emergency savings. That’s an increase from 29 percent a year ago. ●The percentage of adults who said saving for emergencies is an important financial goal dropped to a disturbing 1 percent, from 5 percent a year ago. Even if you don’t have the money to put aside for an emergency, you ought to have that as a major goal. ●There was an increase in the percentage of people — 47 percent, up from 41 percent — who had enough saved in an emergency fund to carry them for at least three months. But, as


Revised defense rules would give Japan new powers to aid U.S. military

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, left, talks with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the start of their meeting at Abe's official residence in Tokyo, Wednesday, April 8, 2015. The first revision of the U.S.-Japan Defense Guidelines in 17 years will "transform" the bilateral alliance, Carter said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Franck Robichon, Pool) (Franck Robichon/AP) TOKYO — Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, speaking during a visit to Tokyo, said the revision of the “defense guidelines” would transform U.S. military ties with Japan, which is grappling with a missile threat from North Korea and China’s moves to assert control of areas off its coast. Under a previous bilateral arrangement, Japanese forces could protect the U.S. military only if it was operating in Japan’s direct defense in areas close to the country. U.S. officials say the new rules, once given final approval, would broaden the geographic scope and, significantly, allow Japan to respond to an attack on the U.S. military even if the American forces are not acting in defense of Japan at the time. A senior defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations, called the new rules “a big, big deal.” He said they were also intended to empower Japan to use its missile defense systems to protect U.S. military assets under a greater range of circumstances. “With missile defense, the more radars you have and the more shots you have, the higher the probability of a kill is,” he said, referring to the likelihood that a missile could be intercepted. The revised rules, which are expected to be unveiled later this month ahead of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Washington, mark an evolution in Tokyo’s military ties with the United States. Under a 1960 treaty, the United States is committed to protecting Japan from external aggression. About 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan. The changes take place as the conservative Abe continues his effort to overhaul how Japan uses its military power, which has been tightly restricted since World War II. Abe is now seeking passage of legislation that would provide greater power to the military, known as the Self-Defense Forces, to protect Japan and its allies, and to take part in limited military cooperation overseas. Ely Ratner, a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security, a Washington think tank, said the changes will create “a more equal alliance of mutual defense, rather


U.S. soldier killed, 2 wounded in suspected Afghan ‘insider attack’

an Afghan soldier were killed after a shootout between Afghan and NATO forces erupted at a military compound in Kabul. This was shortly after a senior U.S. diplomat left the compound by helicopter. U.S. Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for NATO’s American-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, said one coalition service member died in the incident. Belcher did not reveal the nationality, in accordance with military guidelines. A senior Afghan military official in Jalalabad, where the attack occurred, said one U.S. soldier was killed and two were wounded. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. It was the second death of a coalition service member this year. Marine Maj. Brad Avots, a Pentagon spokesman, said in Washington that he could confirm that a handful of Americans were wounded, but he did not provide details. Whether the assailant was an Afghan soldier or an insurgent disguised as one was not clear. Afghan police officials in Jalalabad said the attacker was a soldier, although Afghan military officials said that they were not certain and that an investigation was underway. If it was an “insider attack” perpetrated by an Afghan soldier, it would mark the second instance this year of such an assault. In late January, an Afghan soldier killed three American contractors at a military base attached to Kabul’s international airport, triggering a shootout in which the attacker was killed. A fourth American contractor was wounded. Insider attacks have long plagued the relationship between Afghan forces and their international allies, breaking down trust and reducing interaction. The assaults by rogue Afghan soldiers or police personnel increased in the last years of the NATO combat mission, which formally ended in December. They reached record levels in 2012, when there were 37 such attacks, according to the Pentagon. Fifty-one people, including 32 U.S. troops, were killed. Wednesday’s shooting unfolded shortly after a senior U.S. official held a meeting in Jalalabad with the governor of Nangahar province, said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Monica Cummings. Also present at what Afghan officials described as a meeting about security and reconstruction needs were senior NATO officials, American soldiers protecting the entourage and governors from two neighboring provinces. “We are aware that there was an exchange of gunfire involving Resolute Support service members near the provincial governor’s compound in Jalalabad,” Cummings said in a statement. “All chief of mission personnel


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These cases were received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Roaming free: Shed escape: Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Adopt or foster rescue dogs: Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville — Compiled by Terence McArdle


Discount card helps D.C. police link man to fatal shooting in Northwest

Ten minutes before a man fatally shot the person he was robbing on a Northwest Washington street last month, the suspect made a purchase at a nearby pharmacy using a discount card belonging to his dead grandmother, according to a D.C. police arrest affidavit. That helped detectives corroborate an account from witnesses who police said saw the suspect in the CVS store on Georgia Avenue and later saw him robbing the victim, 34-year-old Antonio Ayala, on March 30 at 13th and Van Buren streets in Brightwood. It also helped police put a name to the face videotaped by the security camera. Police said the attack appeared random. On Tuesday, authorities arrested Herman Odom, 23, who lives five blocks from where the robbery occurred. He was charged with first-degree murder while armed and conspiracy to commit armed robbery. A D.C. Superior Court judge on Wednesday ordered Odom detained until a preliminary hearing April 20. His attorney, Dana D. Page, was unavailable for comment. Ayala was shot shortly before 2:40 a.m. one block south of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The incident was the latest in a string of violence that has concerned residents of Brightwood and nearby Petworth, and will be the subject of a community meeting scheduled later this month. One of those other shootings, in Brightwood Park in mid-March, was the result of a drug-related robbery, police said. In the latest case, police said Ayala was targeted by the suspect while both were in the CVS store. The affidavit says Ayala was shopping with three friends when the suspect and one other person entered the store. One was wearing a black mask lowered to his chin, exposing part of his face. One of Ayala’s friends told police he noticed Odom watching Ayala, who at one point had his wallet in his hand, and telling the other man, “Fool, this is the one I was telling you about. This is the one with all the money in his pocket, but he be drunk.” The friend said the other man answered, “We can get him tonight,” according to the affidavit. Police said video surveillance shows Odom making a purchase using self-checkout and touching the screen with his left hand. The affidavit says Odom made his purchase at 2:16 a.m. using a CVS ExtraCare card registered to the late Shirley Odom, who police said was his grandmother. The men then


How Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s immigrant path explains his guilty verdict

has its roots. Her reporting for the book took her from the Boston suburbs to locations throughout Russia. More recently, she covered Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s trial for The Washington Post. Hers is a valuable contribution for its insights into the complicated psychological history of the Tsarnaev brothers. If we are to draw a lesson from their calamitous outcome, we need to understand the emotional path the boys took from wide-eyed immigrant children to murderers. ‘The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy’ by Masha Gessen (Riverhead) Gessen describes the Tsarnaevs’ early immigrant days in a section aptly called “Dislocation,” with chapters titled “Love,” “Wandering” and “Dreaming of America.” These titles could easily decribe the early experiences of many immigrant families. The Tsarnaevs hoped for a better life here; they sought to escape the long, troubled history of the Chechen region, which has been riven by separatistism, Russian aggression and periods of war. In America, the Tsarnaev family — mother, father, two sons, two daughters — struggled after arriving in 2001. Gessen takes us through this dark reality in a section titled “Becoming the Bombers,” in which she chronicles “a decade of broken dreams.” Here we see the financial and psychological pressures that force some immigrants to rely on the kindness of strangers, the charity of the state and the kinship of fellow immigrants. The family found a “miracle,” Gessen writes, in a Cambridge, Mass., former Peace Corps volunteer, Joanna Herlihy, who provided the family with an apartment, introductions and a lot of patience, as the Tsarnaevs broke promises and missed rental payments. At this time, younger brother Dzhokhar was “the sweet kid, the kid everyone loves,” the author writes. Despite the assistance, the Tsarnaev family “witness[ed] the slow and catastrophic demise of a whole set of immigrant dreams,” Gessen writes. Things began to crumble as the brothers’ drug use picked up. “Pot was the scourge,” she explains. “Each member of the Tsarnaev family was descending into a separate personal hell,” Gessen writes. Media accounts have chronicled run-ins with police over alleged shoplifting, counterfeit money, marijuana possession and intent to distribute. The family was experiencing a common trauma of the immigrant arc: grief over losing a former life. Years after leaving their homeland, Gessen writes, “it was as though the Tsarnaevs had never come to America.” Peering into their American home, one would see “the look every Chechen living room had.” Drawing


After suffering under the Taliban, an Afghan minority faces new threats

the efforts to free the victims, beyond vowing to use all means necessary to find them. “The government is working hard on this matter,” said Ajmal Obaid Abidy, spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. ‘We can’t do anything’ In the meantime, the families of the 31 men and boys have embarked on a frustrating daily quest to learn the fate of their loved ones. Some have traveled to Kabul from other cities — even from Pakistan. Each morning, they visit the offices of Hazara leaders and government officials. Each evening, they return home disappointed. “No one is giving us any answers,” said Hussein Ali, 67, whose son is among the abducted. “We can’t do anything.” “We are poor, working-class people,” Noori said. “We don’t know the influential people. We don’t have power.” Esmail Kayhan’s family is struggling as much from the lack of knowledge as finances. For the past year, his father had been working construction in Iran, sending money home every month. Now, he’s among the kidnapped. Kayhan’s older brother, who works in a bakery in Saudi Arabia, was forced to take a loan to help the family. Kayhan said he is most worried about his mother, who has heart problems, and his grandmother, who is frail. He fears the shock of learning the truth could harm them. So he keeps telling them that his father is still in Iran, dealing with some last-minute business. The other day, he said, his mother asked him: “Why does your father keep calling you? Why doesn’t he call me?” He shrugged and said he didn’t know. As each day passes, the Hazara community is growing angrier — and more organized. Small protests have been launched in Kabul and other parts of the country. There have also been demonstrations in Australia and Europe. On Twitter, activists have created the hashtag #Free31Hazaras, as well as a Web site: www.bringback31hazaras.com.au. This week, they set up tents near the presidential palace in protest. Ali, who has been in the capital for five weeks, said he has no plans to return to his home in Quetta, Pakistan. “I will remain in Kabul until I learn whether my son is alive or dead,” he said. Read more: Fear of the Islamic State spawns a renegade Afghan militia More than 10,000 Afghan civilians died or were injured in 2014 Afghans have an unlikely new hero: A Bruce Lee look-alike


Her family in peril, Virginia woman takes on the role of lead advocate

Aug. 14, 2013, when the family’s fortunes took another turn for the worse. Omar Soltan burst into his older sister’s bedroom in Falls Church and told her and her husband that Egyptian police had launched a violent raid on a Cairo protest camp. Egypt’s military had forced the country’s Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, from office several weeks before, setting off protests across the country. Hanaa and Omar knew their father and brother were at the camp. The siblings raced downstairs and switched on their laptops in the family’s darkened living room. Unable to reach their relatives abroad, Hanaa Soltan said she began scrolling through pictures and videos on social media. “I would recognize their clothing in a second,” she remembers thinking, as she saw one bloody image after another. “I can even recognize the wash of jeans that Mohamed likes.” She eventually managed to confirm that her father and brother were alive. But in the chaotic aftermath of the raid, the family would scatter: Her mother and teenage sister, who had been visiting her parents, boarded a flight to the United States and moved in with Soltan and her husband. Her father went into hiding, only to be apprehended, along with other Brotherhood leaders, a month later. And her brother, who was shot amid the mayhem, was arrested when police raided the family’s Cairo home. Mohamed Soltan, who had assumed the role of citizen journalist and unofficial spokesman at the protest camp, faces several terrorism- and conspiracy-related charges — all of which his family says are bogus. In January 2014, he launched a hunger strike to protest his detention. In recent weeks, Hanaa Soltan has urged him — in messages delivered through attorneys — to give it up. He has lost consciousness several times and is so weak that he has to be wheeled into the courtroom on a stretcher for hearings. On a recent afternoon, she admitted that the stress was getting to her. “There are a lot of decisions to make in the next week or so,” she said. Her brother’s sentencing is set for Saturday . “I have to decide whether we want to appeal or what,” she said, weighing an appeal vs. a push for presidential clemency. A promised blog post for Amnesty International hovered in the back of her mind, and her laptop sat open on the couch in front of her, a consulting project


Wait-list numbers are up for District schools

for up to 12 traditional and charter schools through a common lottery. My School DC — which the office of the deputy mayor for education operates — runs the lottery. The District offers full-day preschool to children starting at age 3, but families must apply for a spot through the lottery. Starting at kindergarten, families do not have to use the lottery if they want to enroll in their neighborhood school. There were 4,925 applications for PK3 this year, up from 4,250 last year. The vast majority of applicants were matched with a school but can still remain on wait lists for schools ranked higher on their list. The charter board reported more than 9,000 names on wait lists for preschool through kindergarten, including names appearing on multiple lists. Two Rivers Public Charter School, an “Expeditionary Learning” model school in Northeast, had the longest wait list of any charter, with 1,381 children waiting for a spot in preschool through eighth grade. Latin American Montessori Bilingual (LAMB) public charter school in Northwest had the longest list for PK3, with 536 names. LAMB is one of 16 charter schools out of 112 that did not participate in the common enrollment lottery but offered its own online application instead. Among traditional schools, Brent Elementary in Ward 6 had the longest schoolwide wait list, with 880 names, and Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan had the longest wait list for PK3, with 367 names, followed by Ross Elementary School in Ward 2 with 348. D.C. Public Schools released more detailed information about each school’s wait list, including how many accepted and wait-listed students have preferences by virtue of living in-boundary or having a sibling enrolled, as well as living in close proximity to the school. Such information can give parents a better sense of how quickly or slowly the wait list will move, said Christopher Rinkus, deputy chief of enrollment and school funding at D.C. Public Schools. Families with a clear connection to the school are more likely to accept a seat, if offered, he said. This is the first year that wait lists will be managed centrally through My School DC. Families can log in on their personal Web site account to see their results and how the numbers change over time. In past years, parents needed to call each school if they wanted to know how they were faring. The deadline to enroll,


Rememberence and reflection on the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination

was renting the tavern from Surratt at the time, testified that Surratt told him to have the “shooting irons” ready for pickup on the night of April 14. Despite this, some historians still question how deeply Surratt was involved in the conspiracy for which she was executed — a sentiment you’ll hear at the Surratt House Museum, where docents in hoop skirts lead visitors through a reconstruction of the Surratt home, which served as a tavern, post office and lodging house. To coincide with the anniversary, the museum created a one-room exhibition called “Maryland, the Surratts and the Crime of the Century,” which looks at attitudes toward slavery in Maryland, its status as a border state and the role these feelings played in the assassination. (John Wilkes Booth was born in Maryland, as were convicted conspirators Surratt and David Herold. Conspirator Lewis Powell lived in Baltimore after deserting the Confederate army, and conspirator George Atzerodt was born in Germany but lived in Port Tobacco as an adult.) Congressional Cemetery will offer two different tours of the historic burial ground on April 11: One covers graves related to the Lincoln assassination, while other looks at Civil War graves, such as the resting place of photographer Mathew Brady. (Photo by Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post) Remembering the Lincoln Assassination: Tours at Congressional Cemetery Saturday, 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Congressional Cemetery, 1801 E St. SE (Entrance on Potomac Avenue SE). 202-543-0539. www.congressionalcemetery.org. Free. After the Lincoln conspirators were executed on July 7, 1865, they were buried in shallow graves near the gallows at the Washington Arsenal (now called Fort McNair). In 1869, the remains of the conspirators, including John Wilkes Booth and David Herold, were released to their families. Herold, who had accompanied Booth on his escape from Washington but surrendered at the Virginia farm where Booth was killed, was taken to Congressional Cemetery, where he was buried next to his father in an unmarked grave. His sister, Elizabeth, was buried in the same plot in 1903. Congressional Cemetery is the resting place of a number of characters related to the assassination, including Peter Taltavull, who owned the saloon next to Ford’s Theatre where Booth had a drink that night, and two of the doctors who tried to save Lincoln’s life. On Saturday, the historic cemetery will hold two assassination-related tours, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and a general tour of


Pentagon rolls out new strategy to help keep America’s technological edge

as “Better Buying Power 3.0,” emphasizes the role of research and development to spur innovation and outlines steps for the Pentagon to better harness commercial technology in order to cut costs. It is part of a multi-year effort to help the nation maintain its technological advantage at a time when defense budgets are shrinking. Pentagon officials including former defense secretary Chuck Hagel and acquisition chief Frank Kendall have stressed the need for the department to tap into emerging technology trends and encourage innovation by the commercial sector, citing the renewed investments being made by its foreign rivals. “The technological superiority of the United States is now being challenged by potential adversaries in ways not seen since the Cold War,” Kendall wrote Thursday in a memo about the new program. Companies that do business with the Pentagon can expect more incentives to innovate but also increased scrutiny of their internal research and development projects. For example, the Pentagon plans to release guidelines next month that increase the role the government will play in reviewing companies’ internal research decisions. The program also includes a new section dedicated to cybersecurity, an area of concern for government agencies and contractors that have been the target of increased cyberattacks. “All our efforts to improve technological superiority will be in vain if we do not provide effective cybersecurity throughout the product lifecycle,” the Pentagon said in its release. As part of its cyber strategy, the department plans to review its current security design processes, identify areas for improvement and work with law enforcement, intelligence agencies and other parts of government to protect classified and unclassified information. The results of the initial review and recommendations are expected in the fall. Better Buying Power 3.0 also reiterates the Pentagon’s goal to promote competition and use a carrot-and-stick approach to reward high-performing contractors. The program expands the Pentagon’s “superior supplier incentive program,” which recognizes companies that perform well on cost and on schedule. Industry members had mixed reactions to the program. The guidelines place too many hurdles on the use of commercial technology, said Stan Soloway, president and chief executive of the Professional Services Council, an Arlington, Va.-based contracting trade group, whose members include technology companies. Defense company Boeing welcomed the initiative. “A more open and deliberate dialogue . . . is critical for industry to understand the military’s requirements and future modernization priorities,” Boeing said in a statement.


Alcohol taxes don’t deter problem drinkers

Regarding the April 6 Wonkblog excerpt “A sobering fact: Cheap booze is lethal. Raising excise taxes would save lives.”: There is no information proving that increasing taxes on beer will directly reduce consumption among those who misuse alcohol. Studies, including research from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, have found that increasing taxes does not deter the heaviest drinkers. Further, drunken-driving traffic fatalities in Illinois were already on a downward trend before the tax increase in 2009. Our nation has seen rates of drunken driving and underage drinking decline steadily in the past three decades, with no major role played by beer excise taxes. Beer brewers, importers and distributors are committed to responsible consumption and support hundreds of programs to reduce alcohol misuse. Solution-focused programs and policies have contributed to a 52 percent decline in drunken-driving deaths over the past three decades, not taxes. Alcohol taxes fail to deter problem drinkers. Instead, they hit the wallets of people who either work for the beer industry or look forward to the affordable luxury of a beer at the end of a workday. James A. McGreevy III, Washington The writer is president and chief executive of the Beer Institute. Bob Pease, Boulder, Colo. The writer is chief executive of the Brewers Association.


French cassoulet: An obsession boils over

Bigar, who is on Twitter as @frenchiefoodie, is a food and travel writer based in New York. More from Travel: Paris with Patricia Wells: Eating up the city with the ‘Food Lover's Guide’ author The best jazz clubs in Paris A ‘Midnight in Paris’ tour takes you back to the Paris of the ’20s If you go Where to stay Hotel de la Cité Place Auguste Pierre Pont, Carcassonne 011-33-468-71-98-71 www.hoteldelacite.com Rooms from $247. Hotel du Pont Levis 40 Chemin des Anglais, Carcassonne 011-33-977-55-04-38 www.pontlevishotel.com Rooms from $166. Auberge du Poids Public Faubourg Saint Roch, Route de Toulouse, Saint Felix Le Lauragais 011-33-562-18-85-00 www.auberge-du-poids-public.fr Rooms from $70. Hotel des Arts 1 Bis Rue Cantegril, Toulouse 011-33-561-23-36-21 en.hoteldesartstoulouse.fr Rooms from $82. Where to eat Chateau St. Martin Hameau de Montredon, Carcassonne 011-33-468-71-09-53 www.chateausaintmartin.net/restaurant-in-carcassonne.php A masterful cassoulet, but also a selection of traditional French dishes from the founder of the Universal Academy of Cassoulet. Entrees from $37. Auberge des Lices 3 Rue Raymond Roger, Carcassonne 011-33-468-72-34-07 www.blasco.fr Historical decor for an ingredient-driven cuisine. Specialties include fish, seafood and the cassoulet at $23. Le Senechal Rue Viollet le Duc 4, Carcassonne 011-33-468-72-33-42 www.lesenechal.fr Cafe/bar, but the cassoulet (for four people minimum) needs to be ordered at least three days in advance. $18 per person. Le Puits du Tresor 21 Route des 4 Chateaux, Lastours 011-33-468-77-50-24 www.lepuitsdutresor.com In the same building as the one-star Michelin restaurant, the casual bistro offers simple French cuisine. Cassoulet $22. Hostellerie Etienne 1 Chemin Saint-Jammes, Labastide d’Anjou 011-33-468-60-10-08 www.hostellerieetienne.com A fabulously garlicky green salad, the cassoulet of a lifetime and chocolate mousse! Need I say more? Cassoulet $20. Chez Emile 13 Place Saint-Georges, Toulouse 011-33-561-21-05-56 www.restaurant-emile.com Their cassoulet recipe is 50 years old (there’s never been a reason to tweak it!). Cassoulet $23. What to do Poterie Not Frères 1851 Route de Labastide, Mas-Saintes-Puelles 011-33-468-23-17-01 www.poterienot.fr Watch the potters at work and buy fabulous earthenware cassoles and bowls. No shipping. The Canal du Midi Cruise — Le Boat 011-33-468-94-42-80 bit.ly/1INlLrU Take the slow waterways of the past and meander through an impressionist landscape. Cost for one-week cruise $770. Carcassonne Croisière 011-33-468-71-61-26 www.carcassonne-croisiere.com Tours from $9; $7 for children. Cassoulet Cooking Classes Auberge des Lices (ask for chef Blasco) 011-33-468-72-34-07 Jean-Pierre Blasco, chef and owner at Auberge des Lices, offers cooking classes on Tuesdays at his restaurant in Carcassonne. $70 per person (four-person minimum), includes lunch. Information us.rendezvousenfrance.com — S.B.


Transgender in the military: A Pentagon in transition weighs its policy

officials argue that transgender soldiers could not serve in hardship posts, because they rely on hormone treatments. Transgender advocates point out that troops with other medication requirements, such as diabetics, are not automatically disqualified from service. Rather than calling for a policy reversal, the White House — which declined to comment for this article — has turned to the services. In August, the Pentagon asked each service to reassess its rules regarding transgender service members. All still have regulations labeling transgender troops unfit for service, even though some have signaled an openness to reviewing the policy. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said last year that she supports the idea of allowing Americans to serve regardless of their gender identity. The Army recently placed decision-making authority over the future of transgender soldiers in the hands of a senior civilian appointee, Debra S. Wada, the assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and Reserve affairs. That move was made after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a petition in September on behalf of Ortega and other transgender soldiers who faced separation proceedings. “Although the Army appears to have temporarily halted the process of kicking trans people out, the policy still declares that they are unfit,” said Joshua Block, the ACLU staff attorney representing Ortega. “That puts service members and their commanders in an untenable situation. It’s the policy itself that’s interfering with the military’s ability to do the job, not service members like Shane.” Senior civilian Pentagon officials have begun speaking publicly — if cautiously — about resolving the questions surrounding transgender service members. But promoting another such change after the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the advent of women in combat roles presents a number of political and public relations challenges for the administration. During a February question-and-answer session with troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter suggested that being transgender alone should not disqualify someone from the military. “I don’t think anything but their suitability for service should preclude them,” he said. That same month, the Pentagon began what its spokesman Nate Christensen called “a routine, periodic review” of the Defense Department’s medical requirements, including the provision that being transgender makes one medically unfit for duty. Miles away from the political debate, Ortega has spent months doing administrative tasks for his unit since his flight certification was suspended last summer. But having been cleared by his


Can a cartoon beaver protect cherry blossoms from spring crowd carnage?

cherry tree devotees there’s always a gnawing sense that surreptitious strikes are in the offing. Kirkpatrick, who lives in Frederick and joined the Park Service in 2004, acknowledges that, in some ways, making a beaver the face of cherry-tree protection was counterintuitive. And not everyone was on board with the idea at first. “There are some people who don’t get it and say, ‘You can’t have a beaver protect trees!’ Well, yeah, maybe in real life you can’t, but this is a cartoon. He’s not going to tear anything down,” Kirkpatrick says. He initially imagined Paddles as a well-behaved beaver who would go back and tell his harmful pals to halt their Tidal Basin carpentry. But that narrative, he decided, placed unfair blame on nature’s eager engineers. As Kirkpatrick points out, the damage the beavers have done to the trees is far less than visitors do each year. During the two-week festival, 1 million or more people will admire the beauty of the cherry blossoms — while leaning and climbing on the trees, packing down the dirt around their roots, and leaving four tons of trash to be hauled away. When it comes to environmental destruction, beavers have nothing on humans. Animal mascots have a storied history in public awareness and safety campaigns. Smokey Bear has delivered the “Only you can prevent forest fires” message since the 1940s. The slogan changed from “forest fires” to “wildfires” in 2001. Woodsy Owl, a 1971 U.S. Forest Service creation, taught Generation Xers to “Give a hoot — don’t pollute.” Less successful is Leon the Lightning Lion, a 21st-century mascot created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to warn kids about the danger of lightning. “When thunder roars, go indoors” is a fine message, but Leon’s place in the public service mascot pantheon is borderline. “There have been animal cartoon characters just about from the beginning of advertising,” says Claudia Caplan, a senior vice president at MDC Partners, a New York-based marketing agency. “Part of the reason that you have animals or anthropomorphic characters like the Aflac duck is that it delivers the message in a more memorable, fun and gentle way.” And, she adds, “The cute and fun factor never wears out.” The success of Paddles can be attributed to a number of factors, Caplan surmises. “A sign that says ‘Keep your hands off the trees’ is sort of mean and pejorative


Suicide bomber in Afghanistan attacks U.S. convoy

A suicide bomber in a car targeted a NATO convoy in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least three Afghan civilians and wounding a dozen more, provincial officials said. KABUL — No U.S. troops were killed or wounded, said Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal, a police spokesman for Nangahar province. The attack occurred about 10 a.m. as the convoy was headed back to base in the provincial capital, Jalalabad, not far from the airport, he said. The Taliban immediately asserted responsibility for the attack. In a second attack Friday, a roadside bomb in eastern Ghazni province killed 12 passengers in a minivan. All the victims — six women and six men — were from a single family, said Mohammad Ali, the deputy provincial governor. “It is the work of the Taliban,” he added. “They are always behind the roadside mines.” Friday’s attack was the second assault this week against U.S. forces in Jalalabad. On Wednesday, an Afghan in military uniform, in a suspected “insider attack,” opened fire on a group of American troops protecting a U.S. Embassy diplomatic mission, killing one service member and wounding several others. U.S. troops returned fire, killing the assailant. One Afghan soldier and two others were wounded in the gun battle. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though suspicion is focused on the Taliban or a fringe group aligned with the insurgency. An Afghan security officer stands at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on April 10. (Omar Sobhani/Reuters) That attack, which happened outside the provincial governor’s compound, occurred about eight miles from the U.S. military base near where Friday’s attack took place. The incidents highlight the threats faced by the roughly 10,000 U.S. troops who have remained in Afghanistan since the departure of most international forces at the end of last year. The Taliban is increasing its assaults on Afghan government personnel and institutions as well as targeting those assisting the government. On Thursday, gunmen dressed in Afghan police uniforms attacked the attorney general’s office in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, killing 10 and wounding scores. The Taliban also claimed responsibility for that assault, which unfolded in the country’s most stable and peaceful city and took six hours to quell. In the past three weeks, there have been several other incidents, including a suicide bombing in the southeastern city of Khost that killed 18 people and wounded scores in


Virginia student earns admission to all eight Ivy League schools, and others

Pooja Chandrashekar, 17, at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County on April 6, 2015. (J. Lawler Duggan/For The Washington Post) Even at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school, senior Pooja Chandrashekar stands out among her brainiac peers. She’s got a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams. She also founded a national nonprofit organization that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs. She’s also developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns and predicts with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease. Oh, and she’s 17. College admissions offices took notice. She can now add another bullet to her résumé: Pooja earned admission to all eight Ivy League schools. She was also accepted at Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, going 14 for 14. Pooja Chandrashekar, 17, at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County on Monday April 6, 2015. (J. Lawler Duggan/For The Washington Post) Earning an acceptance letter from one Ivy League school is a rare achievement for most high school students. It is extremely rare for a student to gain admission to all eight, although a few each year manage to do so. This year, Long Island student Harold Ekeh announced that he, too, had been accepted to all the Ivies. Pooja’s guidance counselor, Kerry Hamblin, said that the senior is dedicated to pushing herself in the classroom, which helped her to stand out. “She’s taking the hardest courses, the most challenging that we offer, and has exceeded anyone’s expectations in all of them,” Hamblin said. Hamblin added that it is “very atypical to get into all eight Ivies,” although some of the elite magnet school’s students try each year. “It’s not typically what we advise,” because each school has its own personality, strengths and weaknesses, Hamblin said. “They share a football league in common, and that’s about it.” Born in Potomac Falls, Pooja is the only child of two engineers who immigrated to the United States from Bangalore, India. Pooja spent her summers attending programs in robotics. She tinkered in Web design and game programming. In middle school, she built a windmill to explore the prospects of renewable energy. She


Popular high school athlete died of infection related to meningitis bacteria

High School student and softball player, died from an infection related to meningitis bacteria. It is the school system’s first confirmed case in two years. David Goodfriend, director of the Loudoun County Health Department, said there is only one confirmed case of bacterial meningitis in the Virginia suburb. Goodfriend said there are vaccinations that prevent meningitis but they are generally required only for students headed to college, where cases can spread in a communal setting. The bacteria is spread through direct contact with body fluids, including saliva and mucus from coughs or sneezes, kissing or sharing eating utensils, drinks, or lip balm and lipstick. Branam said the disease is relatively uncommon in the United States, with only 550 cases reported in 2013. “Meningococcal disease is not as contagious as viruses that cause the common cold or the flu,” Branam said. “The best way to protect yourself against meningococcal disease is to get vaccinated.” Goodfriend said the Health Department had identified a limited number of people who had close contact with Small in recent days and will be observed for signs of meningitis. He said there is no danger to the larger community. Loudoun schools spokesman Wayde Byard said students are not required to be vaccinated for meningitis to enroll, and he noted that it is not common for school-age children to receive the inoculation. Byard said the last case in Loudoun was in January 2013. As a precaution, locker rooms at Broad Run have been cleaned twice since Small fell ill, Byard said. “At this point, there’s no indication of any kind of outbreak,” Byard said. “It’s a very tragic case . . . but there’s no reason to panic.” A makeshift memorial surrounds second base during a Tuesday night memorial for Broad Run senior Madison Small, who died Tuesday morning of unknown causes (Joey LoMonaco/For The Washington Post) Byard said Small’s softball team last practiced March 27, before the county school system’s spring break, which started March 30. Byard said Small did not attend softball practice Monday, April 6, making it unlikely that Small had contact with students on school grounds during the meningitis incubation period, which can span 10 days. Small was bound for Virginia Tech in the fall, and several speakers at a hastily planned memorial Tuesday night noted the enthusiasm with which she looked ahead to her college days. In less than 24 hours, promise and


Documentation and renovation, as seen from a scaffold

to the stonework, and the windows. Photographer Winterbottom followed the moon over the National Mall an hour after moonrise and shot it in alignment with the scaffolding of the Washington Monument. (Colin Winterbottom) Moon at the Washington Monument, Sept. 19, 2013. Earlier this night, a lot of photographers had come out to the Reflecting Pool because this would be a full moon that would be rising almost in line with the monument and the Reflecting Pool in the foreground. I think a lot of photographers are in the habit of watching sunrise and moonrise patterns. So many had come out to make that photograph of the moon just peeking over the horizon in line with the Capitol and the monument. But as the moon moved over the hour after moonrise, I continued to follow it along the Mall, following the alignment of the moon with the scaffolded monument. So by this time, I was between the Reflecting Pool and the Constitution Gardens pond and made this photograph just as clouds were starting to fall into the area. I spent another 10 minutes or so, then walked back out and the whole pool of photographers were still there at the Reflecting Pool. It was good that I had moved and adjusted to follow this alignment. It was shot digitally, so it is a color photograph, but I thought it was one that had the kind of heightened drama I like to bring in a black-and-white. And then I decided to bring a little bit of blue tone, to imply a cyanotype feel, because I thought that enriched that sense of eerie, haunting evening. Panoramic view at the Washington Monument, Sept. 19, 2013. Architectural photography generally works to minimize distortions, but as a fine-art photographer, I’ll embrace distortions if they help. Put it this way: I’ll trade off accuracy in exchange for expressiveness, if allowing, or incorporating, or indeed eliciting some kind of distortion helps me communicate the sense of the building and a sense of the impact on me, then I will accept that distortion. The best example of that is one from the Washington Monument platform that shows the full 360 degrees. And, of course, when you photograph a scene as wide as that, projecting it on two dimensions on the flat wall, there may be an element further distorted. In that photograph, you see some of the scaffold bars


5 wines to try this week

Wine Cellars of Annapolis; on the list at Black’s Kitchen in Bethesda, Taste Gastropub in Olney. Available in Virginia at Arrowine and Cheese in Arlington, Balducci’s (Alexandria, McLean), Whole Foods Market (Richmond, Vienna); on the list at Europa Restaurant in Herndon, La Côte d’Or in Arlington, Tempo Restaurant in Alexandria. Domaine Berthet-Rayne Côtes du Rhône 2013 ★ ★ Rhone Valley, France, $15 Here’s a textbook Côtes du Rhône, offering the traditional “garrigue” flavors of thyme and lavender over dark fruit and a nice stony quality over a medium finish. The wine is popular with area restaurants, but is also easy to find on retail shelves. ABV: 14 percent. Elite: Available in the District at Bloomingdale Liquor, Eye Street Cellars, Kogod Liquor, Rodman’s, Tenley Market, Yes! Organic Market (Eighth Street SE). Available in Maryland at Beer Wine & Co., Bethesda Market, Capital Beer & Wine and Cork 57 Beer and Wine in Bethesda; Chartley Liquors in Reisterstown; Decanter Fine Wines in Columbia; Snider’s Super Foods in Silver Spring. Available in Virginia at Arrowine and Spirits and Euro Market & Cafe in Arlington, Balducci’s (Alexandria), Classic Wines in Great Falls, Grapevine in Warrenton, Once Upon a Vine (South) in Richmond, Out of Site Wines in Vienna, Planet Wine & Gourmet in Alexandria, Whole Foods Market (Reston, Tysons Corner, Vienna). Pierrick Harang Le Petit Balthazar Cinsault Rosé 2014 ★ 1/ 2 Languedoc, France, $9 This pretty, pale pink rosé is crisp and refreshing, with sour plum and melon flavors. It’s a bit underripe, but the fruit flavors emerge as the wine shakes off the refrigerator’s chill. And at this price, it’s hard to beat. ABV: 11 percent. Dionysus: Available in the District at A. Litteri, Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits, Rodman’s, Wagshal’s Deli, Whole Foods Market (Foggy Bottom, P Street, Tenleytown). Available in Maryland at Balducci’s, Bethesda Chevy Chase Beer & Wine, Bradley Food & Beverage, Capital Beer & Wine and Cork 57 in Bethesda; Finewine.com in Gaithersburg; Iron Bridge Wine Co. in Columbia; Rodman’s in Wheaton; Snider’s Super Foods in Silver Spring; Sugarloaf Wine Cellar in Germantown; Wine Cellars of Annapolis. Available in Virginia at Balducci’s (Alexandria, McLean); Grapevine in Warrenton; J. Emerson Fine Wines & Cheese and Union Market in Richmond; Market Street Wineshop in Charlottesville; Unwined (Alexandria, Belleview); Whole Foods Market (Alexandria, Arlington, Fair Lakes, Reston, Tysons Corner, Vienna). More from Food: Wine High-quality Virginia wine? Not a news flash.


Olympic athletes’ health plan fails to meet Affordable Care Act rules

an exemption. Jason Young, 33, a discus thrower who was on the 2012 Olympic team and insured through the program for part of last year, has already received his exemption, he said. For the 2014 tax year, the penalty is 1 percent of yearly household income or $95 per adult, whichever is greater. “We are providing a limited exemption to enrollees for the months they were covered by this plan in 2014,” said Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in a statement Friday, referring to the athletes. He noted that the athletes were not to blame and that the USOC is working to meet the federal law’s requirements for 2015. Under the law, health plans in the individual and group markets must meet certain minimum requirements, including limits on out-of-pocket costs. The plans are required to provide a specific set of benefits, including prescription drug coverage and preventive services, and are barred from having lifetime and annual caps on benefits. But the USOC plan has a $25,000 deductible for sports injuries and a $7,500 lifetime cap on hospice care. Its out-of-pocket maximum does not include prescription drugs and outpatient professional physical medicine, according to a copy of the program benefits provided by the USOC. (A sport’s national governing body pays the first $25,000 for sports injuries; the insurance policy is a taxable benefit.) Athletes see doctors and trainers at a greater rate than the average consumer because even a minor health problem can affect performance, sports medicine experts have said. The health plan, known as the Elite Athlete Health Insurance Program, is a medical insurance plan offered only to TeamUSA’s top athletes and their dependents. Athletes have to qualify annually for the coverage based on their performance. The plan is similar to coverage offered through employers. Policies are divided among the national governing bodies for individual sports. About 900 athletes and 200 dependents are currently enrolled. A spokesman for the USOC said the organization learned early this year that it needed to make changes to the health plan. According to a person involved in the federal exemption process, some athletes initially had their applications denied. That prompted USOC executives to complain to administration officials, and about a month ago, CMS officials directed that “high priority” be given to the athletes, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t


Metro to debut first of its 7000-series cars on Blue Line on April 14

months ago. “This is what the factory’s focused on. They’ve just finished an order for New York, but for the next few months, the focus will be on the 7000 series.” New York’s subway system has more than 900 Kawasaki-built cars in its fleet of 6,300 — the oldest dating to 1984. Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the New York system, cautioned against drawing any conclusions based on that city’s experience. “I’d be very leery about comparing our cars to those down in D.C. It’s a different system that runs under different conditions.” Still, he said: “We’re happy with these cars.” Each 75-foot railcar takes roughly three months to build and costs $2.8 million. Frames are shipped from Japan, but the remaining parts are manufactured in the United States. Here in Lincoln, workers will put together most of the parts that go into the car, including the dimpled stainless steel siding. The factory’s vast campus includes the manufacturing floor as well as a 1,900-foot test track. The factory floor is a quarter-mile long. On one end, five partially completed 7000-series railcars sit on air pallets waiting to be shuttled to the next workstation. Signs with various codes and abbreviations show where they are in the production process. “PASSED LEAK CHECK, O.K. TO C-LINE,” reads one. “NEEDS WATER TIGHTNESS TEST” reads another. The stainless steel siding on the railcars gleams under the factory lights. The cars begin their lives at the far end of the factory where the end-underframes are assembled. The underframes serve multiple purposes — they are designed to absorb energy and prevent railcars from overriding each other in a crash, as happened in the 2009 Red Line accident. The cars move through the building and fabrication process on elevated platforms, which enables workers to work simultaneously on the car’s bottoms, interiors and roofs. At each station, more elements are added: sound- dampening panels, thermal insulation, metal siding, roofs, wheels, seats, doors. There are 37 workstations spread between four lines. A separate building houses testing stations. At one station, a worker wearing a heavy gray welding mask attaches brackets to the roof of a car. His welding gun pops and fizzes as orange and yellow sparks fly through the air. For a brief moment, he lifts the faceplate of his mask to check his work, then pulls it down and continues welding. The smell of smoke fills the air.


Briefs on information technology

Hardware Semiconductor sales increase in February Global sales of semiconductors increased by nearly 7 percent in February compared with a year ago, according to data released last week by the Washington-based Semiconductor Industry Association. The increase marked the 22nd straight month of year-to-year growth. In the United States, February sales jumped by 17 percent compared with the same period last year. The latest report follows one that showed sales of semiconductors had hit a historic high in 2014, surpassing $335.8 billion. Semiconductors are the building blocks of microchips, transistors and microprocessors in electronic devices. — Amrita Jayakumar Cloud computing Army picks IBM to host logistics data The Army is using IBM’s Bluemix cloud platform to store its logistics data, the company said last week. The Army’s Logistics Support Activity division, known as LOGSA, contains data to run the service’s day-to-day operations and support personnel worldwide. The deal is a significant win for IBM’s federal cloud business, an area of growth for the technology company. IBM built two data centers dedicated to the federal government last year — one in Ashburn, Va., and the other in Dallas. The LOGSA data will be stored at the company’s Huntsville, Ala., data center, company officials said. — Amrita Jayakumar


Prince William County news in brief

Animal Control offers tips for keeping coyotes away Prince William County’s Animal Control Bureau is warning residents to be vigilant and take the following steps to keep coyotes from taking up residence in county neighborhoods: →Do not feed wildlife directly. Direct contact decreases fear of humans. →Keep trash inside until pickup day or in animal-proof containers. →Do not leave pet food outside. →Do not leave bird feeders out if coyotes have been sighted. →Clear fallen fruit from around trees. →Cover up all openings under and into buildings to prevent burrowing. →Keep brush trimmed to prevent animal cover. →Keep small pets inside, and leash them when outside; coyotes might see them as prey. Install coyote-proof fencing for unsupervised pets. If these steps fail to deter coyotes, the county suggests hiring a licensed animal trapper. From January to June, their mating season, coyotes might view larger dogs as a threat. If a coyote or other animal exhibits signs of rabies, such as stumbling, foaming at the mouth or aggression, call Animal Control at 703-792-6500. For non-emergency coyote problems, call the Virginia wildlife hotline at 855-571-9003. For information, go to www.pwcgov.org/government. Job fair scheduled for Saturday in Woodbridge A free job fair will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Dr. A.J. Ferlazzo Building, 15941 Donald Curtis Dr., Woodbridge. The event is open to county job seekers of all ages and skills, including high school and college students. More than 40 employers will attend, including health-care providers, food service employers, day-care services, retailers such as CVS and IKEA, Northern Virginia Community College, and several Prince William County agencies. Coaching on verbal skills and résumé preparation will be offered from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday in the Locust Shade conference room at the Ferlazzo Building. The job fair is sponsored by the Prince William Chamber of Commerce. To register or for information, go to www.pwcgov.org/jobfair. Prince William Forest Park seeks young helpers Prince William Forest Park is seeking teens ages 15 to 19 to work on its Youth Conservation Corps team from June 22 to Aug. 14. Staff members will work full time and be paid $7.75 per hour, with a minimum of 260 hours during the two-month program. For more than 25 years, local youths have worked on trails, historic buildings and landscapes in the park by rehabilitating cabins and performing seasonal maintenance. The nearly 15,000-acre woodland is a National


As gentrification transforms D.C., one storefront sign captures the tension

250 or more employees increased 50 percent, a rate that far outpaced the 20 percent increase nationwide. Jackson-Martin took over her father’s shop when he died five years ago and has been on a month-to-month lease with the property’s longtime owner, 104 Rhode Island Avenue Associates LLC. She wouldn’t say what she pays in monthly rent but noted that it’s about half of what newer establishments around her are charged. Now, Jackson-Martin said the property owners want to charge a market rate, an amount she can’t afford. She doesn’t want to raise prices for her customers, who pay about $35 for a haircut. Records at the D.C. Landlord and Tenant Branch indicate that an eviction receipt was processed in March. Jackson-Martin plans to leave by the end of this month, and she is selling and donating the salon’s equipment and working with its hairdressers — many of whom have been there for decades — to help them find new jobs. “At one point, we were the only business here, and now that the street is full, we get the eviction letter. It really hurts,” she said. “I’m trying to look at it as, it’s just business at the end of the day, and it is just business.” The property owner and the company that manages the property, Demers Real Estate, declined to comment. Small stores with fewer than 20 employees compose about 85 percent of retail in the District, and many establishments have been able to adapt in these changing communities. When Windows Cafe & Market — a corner store in the heart of Bloomingdale — opened in 2001, it mostly sold beer and chips behind a window. Now the glass is long gone, and the shelves are stocked with such items as organic frozen pizzas, hummus and an extensive craft beer selection. Sara Fatell, owner of Grassroots Gourmet — a small 2 1/ 2 -year-old independent bakery on the same block as Jak & Co. — said the salon’s longtime employees and customers often visit her shop for coffee or baked goods while they are getting their hair done. “It’s sad to see some of the older businesses go,” Fatell said. “We know them, it’s a community. . . . It’s good to have someone there before you to tell you how it’s been.” Jackson-Martin says she and her family have no plans to relocate the salon. She briefly


BSO breathes new fire into familiar classics in Sunday matinee

Good weather, like bad, can suppress turnout for a symphony concert, and Sunday’s flowering warmth may have been a factor in the number of empty seats at Strathmore for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra matinee. That was a pity because the concert was a fine one. I have not always cared for Marin Alsop, BSO’s music director, who sometimes seems to skate along on top of the music rather than dig out its pith and protein. But her interpretation of the overly familiar Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony was taut, detailed and energetic. She feels it as one unbroken idea, with various episodes and byways. Climaxes were carefully prepared (full power held in check until almost too late), and orchestral balances in this brass-heavy work were remarkably clear. The clarinets were perfectly in tune for the symphony’s opening (a rarity), though they needed a bit more articulation. The finale lacked the last ounce of fury, perhaps, but the march-like coda was free of bombast. The highlight was the Andante, a miniature symphony in itself, which Alsop handled with great imagination and narrative direction. The BSO also gave the local premiere of Kevin Puts’s Flute Concerto. This Peabody faculty member is well-known to BSO audiences; his neo-romantic style is a balm next to some of the acidic, cerebral works that still turn up on symphony programs. The concerto is an appealing work, with a clever ending — the string players put down their instruments and clap polyphonic rhythms while the flute engages in increasingly urgent dialogue with the orchestral winds. The slow movement — a homage to Mozart — is clever, too, but perhaps longer than need be. The young flute soloist, British artist Adam Walker, was superb. Though his tone did not, perhaps, have the personality of a James Galway, his technical control, at all volumes and in all registers, was breathtaking. Of the Shostakovich “Festive Overture” that opened the concert, the less said, the better. Blaring, plodding and probably run through only once beforehand. British flautist Adam Walker was superb in the BSO concert at Strathmore this weekend. (Kaupo Kikkas) Battey is a freelance writer.


The future isn’t here: Two 21st-century chamber ensembles in D.C.

The members of A Far Cry, one of two conductorless chamber ensembles that performed in Washington this weekend - and failed to quite live up to its energetic promise. (Yoon S. Byun/Yoon S. Byun) Entrepreneurship is the 21st-century buzzword for young classical musicians. Facing an uncertain future — orchestra jobs are ever harder to come by, recording contracts are no longer a guaranteed source of revenue and many players are looking for a broader musical diet — artists are being increasingly proactive about finding new ways to build lives in music. One result is a proliferation of self-governed, flexible, conductor-less ensembles, which provide young pro musicians with anything from a full-time gig (eighth blackbird) to a significant piece of a varied freelance career (the International Contemporary Ensemble, a.k.a. ICE; the Knights; and the list goes on). This weekend, two of these ensembles came to Washington: The Salomé Chamber Orchestra closed the season of Dumbarton Concerts on Saturday, and A Far Cry did the same for Dumbarton Oaks on Sunday night. (A Far Cry was also set to perform Monday night.) I attended both expecting to trumpet the virtues of a more collaborative and flexible model. But I was disappointed. Different though they were, the two performances had a few things in common: Both offered a lot of energy and emoting, but both fell short on the details, with too many moments of sloppiness and too much defaulting to the same general tempo, dynamics and emotional flavor. With some 21st-century ensembles, you’re never sure how many musicians you’re going to get. The Salomé Chamber Orchestra, founded in 2009 by the violist David Aaron Carpenter and his violinist siblings, Sean Avram and Lauren Sarah, lists 21 members on its Web site. Only six musicians performed Saturday night, and three of them, including Carpenter, are not on that roster. Flexibility is good; it offers more variety to musicians and audiences, as well as further proof that this isn’t your grandfather’s chamber orchestra. The concert, however, wasn’t really a chamber orchestra concert: It was the David Aaron Carpenter show. Carpenter wason his way to a big-league solo career when Salomé was founded; on Saturday, the other players functioned almost as a backup band. The program started with an emotive performance of Brahms’s clarinet quintet, with Carpenter’s viola on the clarinet part, an arrangement he has recorded with members of the Berlin Philharmonic. It was


No one knows squirrels better than the people who trap and remove them

other groups say every animal is sacred. I’m in the middle. There are places where you need to manage populations and control their damage, but we need to protect the species from being exterminated. To me it’s a species level, not an individual animal level.” Before entering academia, Vantassel ran a trapping service in Springfield, Mass. “I love squirrels,” he said. “That was half my business. I slow down for them.” Vantassel said it’s relatively simple to prevent squirrel damage. “But Americans don’t believe in prevention,” he groused. “We don’t do anything until there’s a crisis.” The first order of business is to make sure that if you have a birdfeeder it’s modified to prevent squirrel access. Feeding squirrels causes populations to rise, Vantassel said, producing larger litters. “Those squirrels have to go somewhere,” he said. “A warm house beats a tree any day of the week.” And homeowners should make sure their dwellings are squirrel-tight, with no holes or cavities. Screen vents and install high-quality chimney caps. He also recommends cutting trees back from the house. Vantassel has often pondered the uncomfortable place the wildlife trapper occupies in the American psyche. He thinks that as animals have been “Disneyfied,” the people who catch — and, yes, sometimes kill — them have been vilified. “This is the Pied Piper problem,” Vantassel said. “The Pied Piper was popular until the rats were gone. Once the rats were gone the Pied Piper was history. And this is one reason why the wildlife control industry does not get respect, because once the problem is over we’re a memory. People don’t want to think about us anymore. When we deal with wildlife damage we remind people of their own mortality. “Everyone knows that we’re needed, but no one loves us. They’re not gonna invite us to the party, not going to make us heroes. We do what they don’t want to deal with.” Sobering stuff. It reminded me of Jack Nicholson’s speech in “A Few Good Men,” or a version of it: “Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have holes. And through those holes come small mammals. Those walls need to be guarded by men with traps. Who’s gonna do it? You? . . . You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. “Squirrels? You can’t handle the squirrels!” Twitter: @johnkelly For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.


When children should get vaccinated

The April 11 Metro article “Rare infection cited in death” lacked accurate information about the prevention of meningococcal infections. A safe and effective vaccine protects against the most common types of meningococcal disease in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls for administering the meningococcal vaccine to all children at age 11 or 12 and again at age 16. (The immunization is required for public school students in the District entering sixth through 12th grades who are age 11 or older. In Maryland it is required for students entering seventh grade.) Others with conditions that put them at high risk for bacterial infections can also receive the vaccine at different ages. Concerned parents of teenagers and preteens should ask their health-care provider for all vaccines recommended for their age group, including protection against meningococcus, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria and human papillomavirus, as well as their annual flu shot. We can’t prevent all tragic deaths from lethal infections, but we should do all we can to protect our kids from vaccine-preventable diseases. Janet Gingold, Upper Marlboro The writer is a pediatrician.


Homaro Cantu, Chicago chef who blended food and science, dies at 38

Homaro Cantu in 2013. (Chandler West/AP) Homaro Cantu, a chef who artfully blended science and fine dining at his Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant, was found dead April 14 in a building on the Northwest side where he had planned to open a brewery by summer. He was 38. The Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed the death but did not release a cause. The Chicago Tribune reported that the death was being investigated as a suicide. Mr. Cantu, one of the Windy City’s most renowned chefs, turned cooking into alchemy through his playful and surprising brand of molecular gastronomy at Moto, the restaurant he led in the city’s West Loop. Customers dined on edible menus, carbonated fruit and a fish preparation that cooked in a tabletop polymer box, among other foods. His kitchen featured a centrifuge and a hand-held ion particle gun. His menus offered up items with intriguing titles such as “surf and turf with mc escher” (M.C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist) and “after christmas sale on christmas trees.” And he dreamed up fantastical propositions for everything from alleviating hunger with air-dropped edible leaflets to delivering food to astronauts on Mars. Describing himself as a scientist at heart, Mr. Cantu was untroubled by questions about whether his creations were more science project or true fine cuisine. “This is fun. I don’t care what it winds up being, as long as it’s fun,” he told the Associated Press in 2006. The restaurant, long thought by several critics to emphasize cleverness over deliciousness, earned its first star from the esteemed Michelin Guide in 2012. But Mr. Cantu had recently been facing legal trouble. Last month, an investor in Moto and another now-shuttered Cantu restaurant sued Mr. Cantu in Cook County Circuit Court for using the business account for extensive personal use, including promotion of a book. Homaro Cantu Jr. was born on Sept. 23, 1976, in Tacoma, Wash., and grew up in Portland, Ore., where his father was a fabricating engineer. The younger Cantu also developed an early interest in science and engineering. “From a very young age, I liked to take apart things,” he told the New York Times in 2005. “All of my Christmas gifts would wind up in a million pieces. I actually recall taking apart my dad’s lawnmower three times to understand how combustible engines work.” He began working in a fast-food restaurant at 12, in


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These cases were received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Chronic trespasser: Prison problem: Adopt or foster rescue dogs: Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton