The quest for negative carbon emissions

now — faces a similar hurdle. No doubt, more trees would mean less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But once again, vast areas could be required, and in the future, humanity will need more land, not less, to grow food. Issues of cost, scale Some researchers advocate yet another approach, “enhanced weathering.” Scientists have long known that over vast periods, carbon is removed from the atmosphere by becoming embedded in rock. Here’s how it works: Rainwater containing atmospheric carbon in the form of carbonic acid falls on certain types of rock. The rock breaks down, or “weathers,” and the interaction leads eventually to the formation of a carbonate — such as limestone — with the carbon locked inside. However, the process is very slow. “You can wait about 100,000 years, and then nature mops up all of our CO2,” Lackner said. The idea is to speed up this process by crushing silicate rock, such as olivine, and spreading it over the ground to be rained on. Sounds simple, but it takes a lot of money and energy to mine and crush rock, and the process would produce fine dust that could prove a major health hazard if inhaled. It also would be expensive. A recent study estimated that it would cost $60 trillion to $600 trillion to remove 50 parts per million of carbon dioxide from the planet’s atmosphere in this manner. Lackner and his colleagues are grappling with similar issues. Their box works well as a demonstration model, but how do you pull carbon dioxide from the air affordably at a much larger scale? And what do you do with all that gas to keep it from getting back into the atmosphere? A key property of Lackner’s device is that the plastic sorbent gives back CO2 readily if you simply get it wet. If you lower the plastic strips into the box and spray them with water, computer readings show carbon dioxide levels in the container spiking. “That’s more than a cup of coffee of pure CO2 in there,” Lackner said, after the process had been underway for more than an hour. In Lackner’s laboratory, the sorbent has been formed into objects of many shapes —including a rough doormat, with lots of bristles. When the carbon-gobbling doormat is relatively full of CO2, the researchers place it in a research chamber that contains a large indoor plant called devil’s ivy,


New findings point to Zika as the culprit behind babies’ brain damage

virus and its suspected complications in newborns as a public health emergency last month, scientists and officials have been racing to control Zika and halt its explosive spread. But their efforts have been hobbled by a fundamental lack of understanding of the once-obscure virus. Everything you ever wanted to know about the Zika virus and its spread across North and South America. While Zika causes only minor illness in most people — roughly 80 percent of those infected never show symptoms — Friday’s research findings reinforce an increasing consensus that the virus can have tragic consequences for pregnant women and their fetuses. “This is truly the virus from hell,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. In the U.S. study, researchers from Johns Hopkins University, Florida State University and Emory University exposed lab-grown human stem cells to a strain of Zika. It selectively infected cells critical to development of the brain’s outer layer, the cortex. Its assault made those cells more likely to die and less likely to make new brain cells. Studies of fetuses and babies with the characteristic marks of microcephaly often have found cortical abnormalities. The findings, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, fill in another crucial gap in what scientists know about Zika and fetal development. “It strengthens the case that Zika is a culprit behind microcephaly,” said Joseph Gleeson, an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who was not involved in the study. “It’s a very important piece in the puzzle.” Researchers already have seen traces of the virus in brains of newborns who died, as well as in fluid from the placentas of infected women. But one key missing piece has been information about how it can slow or halt brain development in utero. While the results don’t definitively prove Zika causes microcephaly, it strengthens the link, said Guo-li Ming, a Johns Hopkins University neurologist and a lead author of the study. The mosquito-borne disease suspected of causing serious birth defects is expected to spread to all countries in the Americas except Canada and Chile and remains a global health emergency, according to the World Health Organization. It did not address whether the virus can actually reach brain cells. But the findings show how much destruction the virus could cause. “This virus can do a lot of damage,” Florida State virologist Hengli Tang,


Local roundup: 2 men rape, rob woman at gunpoint in Northeast, police say

one with a gun, police said. — Moriah Balingit Virginia Raccoon found rabid after biting a man A raccoon that bit a man Thursday in his home in Clifton was determined to be rabid, the Fairfax County police said. The man killed the animal, and the county health department said it tested positive for rabies, the police said Friday. They said the man was receiving treatment.Police are asking anyone with information about the crime to call (202) 727-9099. — Martin Weil MARYLAND Woman assaulted in College Park home A man broke into a College Park apartment Saturday morning and raped a woman, authorities said. University of Maryland police alerted students because it was near campus, on Fordham Lane. They said the woman reported that she had been sleeping when she realized that someone was on top of her. When she made a noise, he fled, they said. — Faiz Siddiqui Man faces trafﬁcking, prostitution charges A 28-year-old man wanted by Maryland authorities was arrested Friday and charged with human trafficking and prostitution, police said. Nathaniel Lee Thompson was arrested in Howard County, nearly three weeks after he allegedly fled from police, police said. Howard detectives said they had been looking into an ad placed on the website Backpage., often of girls who are victims of trafficking An undercover detective made an appointment to meet with a girl at a hotel, police said. Police said the girl was dropped off by two people who waited nearby. The girl, 17, agreed to exchange sex for money with the detective, police said. Detectives learned that the girl had been brought from Delawarefor the purpose of prostitution, police said. When officers approached a parked car, they said, they arrested a woman inside. But they said a man fled to a restaurant and left through a back door, according to employees. The 17-year-old was placed with Child Protective Services. — Sam Tabachnik THE Region In February, a respite from heavy snowfall Now that we are wending our chilly way into spring, a National Weather Service glance back at February shows that in the snow department, it was no January. The weather service said Saturday that 3.1 inches of snow fell last month at Reagan National Airport. That is little more than half February’s 5.7 inch average, but informal surveys indicated that the shortfall led to no widespread weeping or gnashing of teeth. — Martin Weil


Chorus on high in Brahms work at Strathmore

Markus Stenz (Josep Molina/Josep Molina) As music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop’s greatest strength is not necessarily a certain swath of music from the classical and romantic core. The ensemble’s new principal guest conductor, Markus Stenz, has built a reputation in those areas. After a concert devoted to Mozart in October, Stenz led a vivid and moving account of the “German Requiem” of Johannes Brahms in the Music Center at Strathmore on Saturday evening. This piece is driven by the chorus, which sings in all seven movements, and Stenz took advantage of the fine University of Maryland Concert Choir that he had seated above the stage. Stenz shaped each movement with consummate skill, holding back the orchestra so that the choir was front and center in the balance. This approach immediately set the tone in the first movement, with its dark-hued, violin-free orchestration. Rarely has the weight of each word in this piece come across so distinctly. The limpid, almost vibrato-free sound of this soprano section, as opposed to the warbling sometimes heard from an older volunteer chorus, was balanced by an occasionally rushed and imprecise greenness in the male parts. Bass-baritone Eric Owens had prophetic force but did not bellow in his solos, while soprano Lisette Oropesa was clean in tone in the fifth movement but not laser-focused in a way that could pierce through. As an introduction, Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 was a misfire. Stenz’s interpretation was somewhere between historically informed and conventional. A violin-heavy instrumentation covered the more-interesting contributions, such as the continuo fill of the harpsichord, placed at the back of the ensemble like an afterthought. The musicians seemed more uncertain about Stenz’s beat here, leading to some misalignment. The effect was best calibrated in the Air movement, with the Bourrée and Gigue movements sounding more like big-boned symphonic pieces. Downey is a freelance writer.


These are the 11,000 soldiers who might save Afghanistan

Elite Afghan soldiers stand in formation at the School of Excellence, where Afghan commandos and special-operations soldiers receive training on Feb. 27 at Camp Morehead in Afghanistan. (Tim Craig/The Washington Post) CAMP MOREHEAD, Afghanistan — “Now, we do my job,” Hazara said as he fumbled with his radio and sped off the base. “By the grace of God, I will do a good job.” Indeed, if large swaths of Afghanistan are to be saved this year, that responsibility is likely to rest on how Hazara and 11,500 other Afghan commandos perform as their country staggers into the 15th year of the Taliban insurgency. Despite more than $35 billion in U.S. support since the Taliban was driven from power here in 2001, the regular Afghan army is still broadly criticized as ineffective because of defections, timidity and an inconsistent command-and-control network. But U.S. and Afghan officials believe that the army’s commando and special-forces units can fill the void and should be sufficient to reassure nervous Afghans that the Taliban won’t be able to fight its way back into power. “All of the things you read about in the news — the units keeping things from going very wrong” — are the commandos and special forces, said U.S. Army Col. Joe Duncan, commander of the Special Operations Advisory Group, which supports the Afghan National Army’s Special Operations Command (ANASOC). “You won’t find commandos laying down their arms and refusing to fight.” Afghan commandos eat lunch near the headquarters for the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command (ANASOC) at Camp Morehead in Afghanistan. (Tim Craig/The Washington Post) But the Afghan army’s heavy reliance on its commandos is controversial, amid sharp disagreements over the effective deployment of elite forces. And especially this year, the stakes could not be higher for the commandos, as well as Afghanistan’s broader security forces, which comprise about 320,000 soldiers and police officers. Afghan intelligence assessments suggest that the Taliban has 45,000 to 65,000 fighters. And the Taliban is not the only problem. Security forces will be tested by Islamic State efforts to gain a foothold even as older militant groups — most notably al-Qaeda — show signs of reestablishing bases here. Afghan security forces are at the same time being thrust into bloody battles over the country’s billion-dollar opium trade. Last spring, after President Obama withdrew most U.S. forces from Afghanistan, the Taliban repeatedly overran or outsmarted Afghan army


Integrity in bee research

Honeybees at TechFarms in Panama City Beach, Fla. (Andrew Wardlow/Associated Press) Regarding the March 6 Washington Post Magazine article “Was this USDA scientist muzzled because of his bee research?”: The Agriculture Department is a leading promoter of science and research for agriculture, nutrition and natural resources. For this reason, the department co-chairs the president’s Pollinator Health Task Force and was instrumental in developing a national strategy to protect these important creatures. Over the past six years, the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service alone has invested more than $82 million in cutting-edge pollinator research and over the past decade has published nearly 200 journal articles about pollinators. The Post, instead of educating about various issues contributing to pollinator losses, focused on someone whose conduct has been questioned by his colleagues and who has made unsubstantiated claims. As an employer, the USDA can comment only to confirm the misconduct Jonathan Lundgren chose to publicize. We cannot discuss details of people in the workplace who felt uncomfortable or threatened by his actions. But we must address the actions. The integrity of our scientists and their research is paramount. We have a strong scientific integrity policy to promote a culture of excellence and transparency, including procedures for staff to report any perceived interference with their work, seek resolution and receive protection from recourse for doing so. We do not tolerate activity that puts our science in jeopardy. Likewise, we do not tolerate discrimination or wrongful behavior in our workplace. Chavonda Jacobs-Young, Washington The writer is administrator of the Agriculture Department’s Agricultural Research Service.


U.S. Olympic Committee to athletes on Zika: Decide for yourself

about the virus remains unknown, scientists have identified cases in which it has been transmitted sexually. The Team USA delegation for Rio is expected to include about 500 athletes, half of whom will be women, as well as thousands of coaches, staff and family members. Despite the assurances, some athletes Monday indicated their families and friends still haven’t decided whether to go. “Having started my family and wanting to expand sometime in the future, it is of great concern,” said middle-distance runner Alysia Montano, who famously competed in the 2014 U.S. outdoor championships while eight months pregnant. She added she and her husband are “having all the conversations [about whether to go to Rio]. We’re being hopeful. August is still a little ways away. I hope . . . we don’t have to worry about it and have to choose between competing in the Olympic Games or starting a family or growing a family.” Last week, the USOC announced the formation of a medical advisory board to keep athletes informed about Zika, which is believed to be linked to the birth defect known as microcephaly, characterized by undersized brains and heads in newborns. Health officials hope the threat of Zika will be lessened by August, the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere. While Blackmun said Monday he was not aware of any athlete who has decided to stay back because of Zika, Hope Solo, goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s soccer team, said last month she would not attend the Rio Games if they were being held then, as she was planning to start a family. Other national federations have gone further than the USOC in warning its athletes about Zika. The New Zealand Olympic Committee, for example, has advised both “expectant mothers” and “those planning pregnancy” not to travel to Brazil. “We would support any athlete or support staff member in their decision not to attend the Games if this were the case,” the NZOC said in a statement on its website. Precise records aren’t kept on the number of Olympians who have competed while pregnant, but it happens regularly. At the 2012 London Games, for example, at least five did, including Malaysia’s Nur Suryani Mohd Taibi, who competed in women’s air rifle at 34 weeks pregnant. Two of the women who competed in London while pregnant were Americans, though neither was aware of it at the time: beach


Convivial review: A restaurant as joyous as it sounds

The following review appears in The Washington Post’s 2016 Fall Dining Guide as No. 5 on Tom’s Top 10. A filling of goat cheese and roasted tomato, plus a cover of tiny croutons and micro-basil, make for a memorable zucchini roulade at Convivial. (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post) 5. Convivial No chef can replace the memory of the late, great Michel Richard or the late, great Citronelle in Georgetown. But if anyone comes close, it’s his protege and fellow Frenchman, Cedric Maupillier. In dish after dish at Convivial, a restaurant as joyous as it sounds, Maupillier either turns the routine into something wonderful, or makes us laugh, or both. One of the most tempting roulades in memory wraps sheer, sumac-seasoned zucchini around whipped goat cheese and roasted tomato; atop the cylinder is a stripe of baba ghanouj sprinkled with tiny croutons and micro-basil. And one of the most fetching fish is rainbow trout perched on bright green julienned snow peas, an entree shimmering with orange roe on its surface. Meanwhile, a swirl of hummus serves as a base for spicy lamb sausage topped with a glistening garden of pickled vegetables. Maupillier wants diners to understand what they’re eating, hence the food lexicon — two dozen definitions long — that accompanies his menu. Really, all you need to know is that this is some of the most beguiling cooking in town. 3 stars Convivial: 801 O St. NW. 202-525-2870. convivialdc.com. Prices: Sound check: The Top 10: No. 10 Komi No. 9 Rasika No. 8 Little Serow No. 7 Inn at Little Washington No. 6 Minibar No. 5 Convivial No. 4 Kinship No. 3 Bad Saint No. 2 Pineapple and Pearls No. 1 All-Purpose -- The following review appeared in The Washington Post’s 2016 Spring Dining Guide as No. 3 on a list of the year’s 10 best new restaurants. No chef in the city plays better jokes on diners than Cedric Maupillier, whose French-American (or is it American-French?) menu finds escargots “in a blanket” and coq au vin that’s both braised and fried. No matter how much you think you know about food, you’re apt to learn something at Convivial, which promotes plates that are neither small nor large and turns classics on their head. Leeks Dijonnaise, for instance, materialize as a cake of sliced steamed leeks, sharpened with mustard and carpeted with chopped egg, fried capers, micro greens and tiny


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. Comcast worker bitten: 2900 block, Radius Rd., Wheaton, Feb. 24. A cable technician was bitten by a dog while working at a customer’s residence. The homeowner’s two Jack Russell terrier mixes were not contained, and one of the dogs jumped up and bit the technician on his hand. An animal services officer placed the dog under a standard 10-day home quarantine. The dog was current on its rabies vaccination. Parrot abuse? Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: The Montgomery County Humane Society’s private rescue shelter has dogs, puppies, cats and kittens available for adoption. Call 240-252-2555 or visit mchumane.org. Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Jeff Bezos pulls back the curtain on his plans for space

day “when millions of people are living and working in space.” Over the course of more than four free-wheeling hours, he spoke on the future of space tourism and why increased energy consumption is driving space exploration. He talked about how space will be a viable business and why Mars is for only the “very adventurous,” making Antarctica look like “a garden paradise.” And then he discussed what he called “the big inversion”— how he predicts that all heavy industry will move off Earth into space, where there are limitless resources, so that Earth could be preserved. He made it clear that he is as serious about the future of space as he is about online retailing, if not more so. (Bezos also owns The Washington Post.) “It’ll just be an incredibly fun, inspiring part of humanity’s future to go exploring the solar system,” he said. “Who wouldn’t want to do that? Sign me up.” A secretive founding Compared with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which was founded a couple of years later, the older Blue Origin is still in its infancy. SpaceX has charged ahead, passing milestone after milestone with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, which became the first private one to visit the International Space Station. In addition to flying cargo to the station, SpaceX also has a contract to fly astronauts there by 2017, along with Boeing. It also has won the right to bid on lucrative national security launches and is competing in the commercial satellite launch business as well. SpaceX’s success has helped touch off a renaissance in the commercial space industry — including Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, which, like Blue Origin, promises to take tourists to space — said Greg Autry, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. “SpaceX has had to do the heavy lifting in getting the public and getting Congress and others to accept commercial space,” he said. Blue Origin has moved much slower, and it has been much more secretive. In the first few years after Bezos founded the company in 2000, it was just him and a handful of employees trying to see if there was a better way to launch humans into space. But it was dedicated and exclusive — even a touch arrogant. “You must have a genuine passion for space,” the company’s jobs page said. “Without passion, you will find what


National Zoo cheetah ‘Granger’ euthanized amid failing health

Granger, in happier times. (Joe Elbert/For The Washington Post) Granger, a more than decade-old cheetah at the National Zoo, has died. Officials at the zoo said Thursday in a statement that they euthanized the cheetah on Tuesday. It had renal and pancreatic disease. A preliminary necropsy showed that the “pancreatic disease” was in his abdomen, according to zoo officials. Granger’s caretakers had observed recently that he was “not eating his entire diet,” the zoo said. And they were “closely monitoring him for his loss of appetite.” Granger and two of his brothers came to the National Zoo in April 2007 from a conservation center in Florida. In February, veterinarians did a full exam on Granger in February that he had “worsening symptoms of renal disease.” The staff monitored him and gave him “the best care possible.” Zoo officials said they decided to euthanize Granger “after it became clear his quality of life was quickly declining.” The 10 1/2-year-old Granger did not sire offspring, the zoo said in its statement. “He served as an educational ambassador for his species, illustrating the social nature and behavior of cheetahs to scientists, keepers and zoo visitors,” officials with the zoo said. In the wild, male cheetahs typically live to be between 6- and 8-years-old. Cheetahs live in isolated populations mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, the zoo said. There are an estimated 7,500 to 10,000 cheetahs left in the wild, and remain “vulnerable to extinction,” according to zoo officials and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are two other adult male cheetahs, Justin and Bakari, at the zoo.


Russia’s latest show trial

Donetsk to face charges that she served as a spotter for a mortar attack that killed two Russian journalists and a number of fighters. The case is concocted: Not only was the artillery barrage a lawful combat operation, but also Ms. Savchenko’s lawyers say they have video and cellphone evidence showing that she was captured before the incident took place. Ms. Savchenko herself is defiant. Though weakened by a hunger strike, she delivered a lecture to the court predicting a Ukrainian-style democratic uprising in Russia before directing a raised middle finger at the judge. Ms. Savchenko’s prosecution has inflamed public opinion in Ukraine, where she was elected to parliament and where protests demanding her release attract large crowds. That likely pleases Mr. Putin. The court case, like the continuing attacks by Russian-led forces in violation of the cease-fire, is calculated to destabilize the democratically elected, pro-Western government of Petro Poroshenko. The officer’s detention flies in the face of Minsk 2’s requirement that both sides release imprisoned combatants. Given Russia’s blatant violations, Mr. Poroshenko, who publicly assured Ukrainians that the peace deal would free Ms. Savchenko, finds it politically impossible to move forward with Ukraine’s obligations, including constitutional reforms. Moscow, in turn, trumpets Kiev’s noncompliance as a reason for Western governments to abandon their support for Mr. Poroshenko and to lift sanctions on Russia. Fortunately, at least some European leaders see through these crude tactics. Five European Union governments have called for sanctions against Russian officials involved in what they describe as a “fabricated case.” So have 57 members of the European Parliament, who say Mr. Putin should be one of 29 people sanctioned. The United States so far has confined its response to statements by Vice President Biden and Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who both called for Ms. Savchenko’s release this week. Those words will have no impact on Mr. Putin unless they are linked to actions. The Obama administration should expand its own sanctions on Russia to include all those involved in the detention and prosecution of Ms. Savchenko, as well as other violations of the Minsk 2 agreement. There will be no chance of a settlement in Ukraine unless the costs to Russia of its policy of sabotage and subversion are substantially raised. Read more on this topic: Mark Feygin: Russia’s illegal prisoners of war Olexander Motsyk: Russia should free Ukrainian hero Nadiya Savchenko at once


Federal officials focus on ‘human causes’ in death of 13 bald eagles in Maryland

said he was out looking for antlers that deer might have shed. He came across four dead eagles. When wildlife authorities arrived, they found nine more nearby. The eagles should no obvious signs of trauma, officials said. The National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, is trying to figure out what killed 13 bald eagles from Maryland's Eastern Shore. They have ruled out diseases and are now focused on “human causes.” (Courtesy of National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory) In a statement released Thursday, the federal wildlife agency said necropsy results showed the 13 eagles “did not die of natural causes, including disease.” “Our investigation is now focused on human causes and bringing to justice the person (s) responsible for the death of these eagles,” the statement said. Experts on bald eagles said they still believe the birds’ death involved some sort of pesticide or poison that may have been used to get rid of predators of livestock or rodents. If the animals died outdoors and the eagles ate their carcasses, the birds also could have gotten sick. Ed Clark, president and founder of the Wildlife Center of Virginia, said the latest finding from the federal wildlife officials is a “declaration of the obvious.” “If there was any type of natural occurrence you would not find that number of dead bodies in one spot,” he said. “Which means whatever killed them, killed them quickly and they didn’t get very far.” Clark said a case two years ago in Wisconsin was considered high profile and “hopefully sent a message” on using pesticides on prey. Farmers in Wisconsin used an illegal pesticide to try to get rid of coyotes and wolves. More than 70 wild animals, including at least two bald eagles, vultures, coyotes, owls and a bobcat were killed and the landowners were ordered to pay over $100,000 in restitution and fines, according to Clark who testified in the case. In the latest Maryland case, wildlife officials said it is an important move that they have ruled out disease, including avian influenza, because of the high concentration of migratory birds and the large number of poultry farms in that area. Federal and state officials said they will not put out more details because they believe it could compromise the investigation. The Maryland Natural Resources Police is also helping on the case. Anyone with information is asked to call 410-228-2476.


An end to the raid on Maryland’s park money

Whooping cranes being raised in captivity before being transferred to Louisiana is seen at the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) Welsh writer and filmmaker Iain Sinclair once said, “The landscape is a refracted autobiography. As it disappears, you lose your sense of self.” Maryland has an opportunity to draft the right memoir. The Maryland legislature is debating a bill that protects open-space funding for all residents of the state. House Bill 1464, the Program Open Space Trust Fund of 2016, would restore full funding for Maryland’s premier green infrastructure program. We need to get behind it. You might think that urban districts such as mine in Prince George’s County, bordering the nation’s capital, would be less concerned about open space than other pressing social and economic issues. But open space matters. Urban parks, fertile farmlands, expansive forests and beautiful bayside beaches are important to every resident. I cannot imagine my district without Greenbelt Park, Lanham Forest or Patuxent Research Refuge, all green spaces within easy reach. We are blessed with a long-running state program that provides money for the purchase of conservation land throughout the state. Program Open Space provides public access to recreation and environmental protection. Funded through a one-half of 1 percent fee on real estate transactions, this program generates millions of dollars annually for the state’s greatest land acquisitions: public parks, playgrounds, forests and farmland. Funding for Program Open Space is often diverted. Since the program began in 1969, more than $1 billion has been used for other purposes and never paid back. Last year alone, less than two-thirds of the funds collected leveraged open-space acquisition, with the remainder shifted to balance Maryland’s budget — even though demand for program participation exceeds available funding. Roughly $176 million worth of high-quality ecological, recreational, public access and community projects are waiting to be funded. The state has identified roughly $1.8 billion in needs-based priorities for acquisition, development and rehabilitation of park and recreational facilities. The Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, the organization that preserves working farmland and forests, has more than $42 million in demand for farm easements on roughly 160 family farms that cannot be funded. House Bill 1464 would prevent the bleeding by creating a lockbox. Any money borrowed would be repaid from general funds in equal increments over the next three years. Before the borrowing could


Family horrors and personal hardship of an Iranian activist and Nobel laureate

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi (Jacques Brinon/Associated Press) Nazila Fathi, a former New York Times reporter in Tehran for more than a decade, is the author of “The Lonely War: One Woman’s Account of the Struggle for Modern Iran.” In January 2009, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi was in her Tehran office when she heard her name. “Death to the traitor Ebadi,” angry men were shouting outside. Immediately, she locked the doors of the building and fled upstairs to her apartment, where her husband, Javad Tavassolian, was standing by the window, watching a mob carrying sticks and banners on the street. With trembling hands, she dialed the local police. “I think they’re here to kill me,” she heard herself say — finally uttering the words she had avoided since she began her activism in the 1990s. She knew why many in Iran reviled her. For more than two decades, she had criticized the country’s discriminatory laws and defended the most controversial political prisoners pro bono. In “Until We Are Free,” Ebadi recounts the cycle of sinister assaults she faced after she won the Nobel Prize in 2003. Her new memoir, written as a novel-like narrative, captures the precariousness of her situation and her determination to “stand firm.” The 1979 Islamic revolution stripped Ebadi of her judgeship when the new authorities banned women from holding the position, forcing her to stay home and raise her two daughters. A decade later, she opened a law firm and became vocal against the country’s statutes that discriminate against women and others. One blatant example is a law that puts the value of a woman’s life or a non-Muslim’s life at half that of a Muslim man’s life. When an 11-year-old girl named Leila was raped and murdered by three men, a court ruled that her parents had to pay a substantial amount to have the men executed or they would be released, because their lives were worth more than Leila’s. Ebadi took the case and threw a national spotlight on the state of criminal law in Iran. The 2003 Nobel Prize elevated her status but didn’t stop the regime from going after her even more ruthlessly after the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005. Government spies followed her, harassed her colleagues and even nailed death threats to her door. To intimidate her, two intelligence officers disguised as tax agents


ISIS is accused of chemical attack in Iraq that wounds hundreds, kills child

Mourners carry coffin of Fatma Samir during her funeral procession in Taza in Iraq. The Islamic State group launched chemical attacks this week near Kirkuk, killing the girl and wounding some 600 people, Iraqi officials said. (Uncredited/AP) BAGHDAD — Security and hospital officials say the latest attack took place early Saturday in the small town of Taza, which was also struck by a barrage of rockets carrying chemicals three days earlier. Sameer Wais, whose 3-year-old daughter Fatima was killed in the attack, is a member of a Shiite militia fighting ISIS in the province of Kirkuk. He said he was on duty at the frontline when the attack occurred early in the morning, quickly ran home and said he could still smell the chemicals in the rocket. “We took her to the clinic and they said that she needed to go to a hospital in Kirkuk. And that’s what we did, we brought her here to the hospital in Kirkuk,” he said. Wais said his daughter appeared to be doing better the next day so they took her home. “But by midnight she started to get worse. Her face puffed up and her eyes bulged. Then she turned black and pieces of her skin started to come off,” he said. By the next morning, Fatima had died, Wais said. The hundreds of wounded are suffering from infected burns, suffocation and dehydration, said Helmi Hamdi, a nurse at the Taza hospital. He said eight people were transferred to Baghdad for treatment. “There is fear and panic among the women and children,” said Adel Hussein, a local official in Taza. “They’re calling for the central government to save them.” Hussein said German and American forensics teams arrived in the area to test for the presence of chemical agents. The extremist group is believed to have set up a special unit for chemical weapons research made up of Iraqi scientists who worked on weapons programs under Saddam Hussein as well as foreign experts. The group is believed to have created limited amounts of mustard gas. Tests confirmed mustard gas was used in a town in Syria when ISIS attacked there in August 2015. There have been other unverified reports of ISIS using chemical agents on battlefields in Syria and Iraq. — Associated Press


Beer of the Week: Bluejacket’s the Chimmer

The Chimmer, an IPA from the Bluejacket brewery in Southeast Washington. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) As the NHL heads into its home stretch, Washington Capitals fans are enjoying one of the most successful regular seasons in history. That makes this the right time to raise a glass honoring the team’s oldest and most resurgent player. The Chimmer, from Bluejacket Brewery in Navy Yard, is an IPA named after 36-year-old left winger and craft-beer fan Jason Chimera. According to Bluejacket head brewer Josh Chapman, Chimera and some Caps teammates tried an unfinished, unnamed IPA back in December while touring the brewery with a group of fans who had won the experience at the team’s annual Capitals Casino Night. “The whole crew from the Caps loved it, and we took it from there,” Chapman said. An IPA packed with melon and fruit flavors, the Chimmer finishes dry but not bitter, and it proved a hit with both hockey and beer lovers. The initial batch debuted a few days before Christmas and was sold out by the first week of February. Last week Bluejacket released a second batch, some of which will be sold in 750-milliliter bottles in the brewery’s tasting room. And if Chimmer flies out of the tanks again, Chapman plans to brew even more. After all, he says, it “kind of makes sense to have it be fresh and flowing throughout what I and most Caps fans would hope to be a long playoff run.” — Fritz Hahn Bluejacket The Chimmer. Available at Bluejacket, 300 Tingey St. SE. bluejacketdc.com. $7 per pint at the brewery tasting room; $12 for a 750-ml bottle to go. More from Food: Beer Column


Friday homicide victim identified by D.C. Police; 22-year-old man

The man fatally shot Friday in Northeast Washington was identified Saturday by the D.C. police. They said James Stewart, 22, was shot around 6:50 a.m. in the 1000 block of 44th Street NE. He died at the scene, police said. No information was available about a suspect or motive. The site is in the Deanwood area, near Minnesota Avenue and Sheriff Road.


Guest conductor Markus Stenz pulls the BSO into an unknown but elite realm

Pianist Lars Vogt’s chamber music experience showed in his intimate interactions with the musicians in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. (Felix Broede/Felix Broede) Markus Stenz, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s new principal guest conductor, worked several kinds of magic Saturday at Strathmore. It was an all-Beethoven program, so I can’t say much about his range, but I can say that he elicited playing at a level I’ve never heard from this middling-to-good group. Everything sounded different; this German maestro uses unconventional gestures and no baton. He reseated the strings, with divided violins, cellos spread out horizontally onstage and the four basses placed antiphonally, two and two. And he forbade vibrato. In Beethoven! The result was both a cleaner and warmer blend, which somewhat ameliorated the sad fact of the shrinking numbers overall. He shapes every phrase, has an innate feel for drama and made the orchestra play more softly than I thought possible. And Stenz achieved all of this without the BSO’s heavy hitters. In the past, I’ve observed that the group doesn’t have a deep bench in its winds or that, when assistants or other fill-ins take principal parts, the results can be unfortunate. But none of the principal winds played in the first half of the concert, yet the blend and tuning were exemplary. The program had two welcome and fascinating rarities surrounding the familiar Piano Concerto No. 1. The “Leonore” Overture No. 2 contains all of the themes of its famous successor but is a little more discursive. The overture and incidental music to “Egmont” is not completely satisfying as standalone music (the numbers don’t add up to a satisfying whole, given the length), but it includes Beethoven’s only attempt at melodrama (narration on top of the music). Soprano Lauren Snouffer was superb in her two brief numbers; they need to get her back for something substantial. In both works, Stenz kept a tight grip, with nary a routine bar anywhere. Pianist Lars Vogt plays a good deal of chamber music, and it showed in his intimate interactions with the musicians in the concerto, most especially in the Largo, where he seemed to be almost improvising off of the phrases from the orchestra. Elsewhere, his playing was fluent and strong, if not strikingly individual. And he selected the longest of cadenzas, which interrupts the flow of the piece too much. Still, paired with the richly detailed accompaniment, this


Montgomery County police investigating suspicious death of D.C. man as homicide

Montgomery County Police are investigating the death of man whose body was found on a trail Friday night as a homicide, authorities said Sunday. The body of Sheldon Williams, 20, of the 2000 block of Naylor Road in Southeast Washington, was found with trauma to the upper portion of his body late Friday night in the area of 13800 Castle Boulevard, in the Briggs Chaney area. If initial suspicions are true, Williams’ death would mark the first homicide of the year in Montgomery County, police said. Police Capt. Paul Starks declined to specify what prompted detectives to investigate the death as a homicide, adding it doesn’t mean the death was definitely a homicide. “They said, ‘Look, we’re just investigating it as a homicide,’” he said. “We can always go back and say it wasn’t, but we just want to make sure we’re not assuming anything.”


The special charms of a good Italian deli

and face health regulations that value refrigeration over tradition. But even though the staging of the shop might not transport you immediately back to that lovely weekend in Tuscany, Vace’s refrigerators offer an impressive selection of imported cured meats alongside salami, speck and bresaola, plus sausages and fresh mozzarella that are made in the store. Plain and stuffed fresh pastas and house-made sauces pack the shelves as well, next to trays of lasagna, eggplant Parmesan and individual cups of tiramisu. Imported pantry goods such as vinegars, cans of Italian coffee beans and wines do double duty as scene-setters and sellable goods. Such items are so embedded in American cuisine that you can now find them in many chain supermarkets. But that wasn’t always the case. When Diane’s parents, Valerio and Blanca Calcagno, opened Vace in Cleveland Park in 1977, house-made pastas were a rare sight in any Washington area market. After Valerio’s death in 2000, his wife took over the business. Now, daughters Diane and Lisa Calcagno run it with her. Blanca still shuttles from one store to the other, supervising pasta production and making the tiramisu herself. Although the Italian community in the Washington area has never been sizable, a kind of Italian market renaissance has taken place. The Italian Store in Arlington opened a second location, also in Arlington; Via Umbria opened in Georgetown with a nice selection of Umbrian products; London-based restaurant and market Carluccio’s opened in Alexandria, offering its own lines of olive oils and sauces and a variety of pastries; and osteria Centrolina in CityCenter DC includes a market that offers freshly made pasta, antipasti, cheese, salumi, prepared meals and more. So why shop at an Italian specialty store when your local supermarket stocks similar goods? One reason to stop in is for the potential surprise each visit promises. In the next few weeks, for example, you’ll find Vace’s shelves filled with Italian milk chocolate Easter eggs and other special sweets for the holiday. But there’s more than that: specifically, the quality and selection of imported goods. Try the Italian markets for veal or prosciutto tortelloni or lobster ravioli with traditional amatriciana sauce or salsa di noci (walnut sauce), not to mention the many varieties of salumi, prosciutto and cured fat cuts such as guanciale, lardo and pancetta. Each of the Washington area’s Italian markets has its specialties. Cornucopia in Bethesda carries an array of


Reshaping the Chesapeake Bay, one living shoreline at a time

sand on the beach, and the marsh has expanded seaward, providing critical habitat for the young fish, crabs and terrapins that help filter the nutrient- and sediment-laden water washing off the land. The project represents a small but growing countercurrent to a century-long buildup of shoreline defenses that relied on concrete and wooden bulkheads or piles of rock called revetments. Such structures, which have armored more than 1,000 miles of coastline in Maryland, can halt erosion temporarily by bouncing incoming waves back out to sea. But this protection carries a steep cost: Reflected wave energy destroys marshes and shallow-water vegetation, which are critical components of the wetlands that once supported huge quantities of crabs and fish and made the bay one of the world’s most biologically productive estuaries. Government agencies looking for ways to increase resilience to storms and rising sea levels have begun to experiment with “living shorelines” such as the one at the center. In 2008, Maryland passed one of the nation’s first laws forbidding coastal property owners from installing a hard structure at water’s edge unless they can prove that a softer approach won’t work. Last fall, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published its first document providing guidance on living shoreline construction techniques. It also suggests how to choose sites where such projects are likely to be effective, giving the practice a shot of credibility and national reach. Deflecting waves Subramanian, chief of the Shoreline Conservation Service, is among those leading the charge. His team of engineers and biologists designs experimental shorelines with as little rock and as many Spartina grasses and other wetland plants as possible, and sculpts them to deflect waves so they deposit sand rather than carry it away. Early results are encouraging: Five experimental sites are gaining sediment. And the before-and-after surveys at two of the sites show that species including clams, shrimps and terrapins have increased since the living shorelines were put in. But such innovative designs so far protect only a tiny fraction of Maryland’s more than 7,000 miles of coastline. Subramanian says that to reverse decades of ecological decline, scientists must come up with reliable design principles that can be replicated on a much larger scale while still being tailored to the varying conditions of individual sites. “We have not figured it all out,” he said. By most accounts, the living-shoreline concept was born in the mid-1970s when Edgar


more stable in storms. And they say they can apply the site’s lessons to future projects. To better understand which practices reduce erosion and increase marsh habitat, Subramanian says he and his staff will survey several dozen other DNR sites and compare them against 2006 data on erosion, integrity of structures and marsh grass coverage. Scientists are also starting to assess whether living shorelines promote life. Terrapin nesting sites have doubled at the Chesapeake Bay center since the living shoreline went in, and oysters on the artificial reef have increased, according to studies done by DNR scientists and colleagues. Scientists have also found that at one living-shoreline site on the Chester River, populations of invertebrates such as worms, clams and shrimp are approaching those found in a natural marsh. “That was very encouraging,” said Thomas Jordan, a Smithsonian Environmental Research Center ecologist who is leading that study. Rochelle Seitz, a Virginia Institute of Marine Science ecologist who is involved in the Smithsonian study, sampled invertebrates in the sand before and after Subramanian worked on a site along the Corsica River in Queen Anne’s County. Within three years of the project’s completion, the combined weight of invertebrates Seitz collected had doubled. Seeing may be believing Despite the promise of the living shoreline and the 2008 law, Maryland approves more than twice as many structural projects as living shorelines each year. Because he cannot force people to build living shorelines, Subramanian takes skeptical property owners to see his projects in hopes of persuading them. “It’s a very slow process,” he said, but it can pay off. One property owner was resistant until Subramanian took him to Spaniard Point in Queen Anne’s County, where the DNR team had designed a pair of curving protective jetties that Subramanian calls the “crab claw.” “We’d been working on him since 2007, and finally after he saw the Spaniard Point project in 2011, he said, ‘Yeah, I want that,’ ” Subramanian said. “We’re trying to change people’s perceptions of what they can do with their shorelines,” Subramanian added. “What’s good for the bay doesn’t have to be exclusive of what people’s goals are [for] their properties.” Correction: A previous version of the article incorrectly stated that Edward Garbisch’s wife was an heir to part of the Chrysler fortune. Garbisch’s mother was a member of the Chrysler family thereby making Garbisch an heir. This article has been updated.


Metro delays caused by cable problem similar to last year’s fatal smoke incident

In that sense, the incident seemed to echo the deadly calamity on Jan. 12, 2015, near Metro’s L’Enfant Plaza station. An electrical malfunction on tracks near the station that day filled a tunnel with smoke, engulfing a stalled Yellow Line train in fumes. Scores of passengers were sickened and one died of respiratory failure. In many places in the subway, for various reasons, there are gaps in the electrified third rails. Jumper cables bridge the gaps almost like extension cords, allowing current to continue flowing along the third rails, from which trains draw power. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the L’Enfant incident and plans to issue its final report next month. Preliminary documents and photos made public by the NTSB show that the electrical malfunction in the L”Enfant tunnel was centered near a 20-foot gap in a third rail that was bridged by jumper cables, which were destroyed. Metro said shortly after the L’Enfant incident that it was accelerating a long-term plan to replace many older jumper cables with newer ones. Monday’s fire also occurred in a third-rail gap that was bridged by jumper cables, Wiedefeld said. “Basically, the older cables, where they connect to the third rail, something happened — a short circuit; I don’t know what the official term is — and it caused the condition of the flare-up, which caused the fire in the actual cables.” The “short circuit,” as he called it, could trigger electrical “arcing,” which was the cause of the L’Enfant fire, the NTSB has said. A preliminary safety board report cited “severe electrical arcing damage” to the jumper cables at the L’Enfant site. Arcing suggests that the fire there resulted from electricity escaping from one or more of the cables. This could occur if the cable insulation was damaged, exposing the current to moisture or other contaminants, which could provide a path for the electricity to flow out of its containment. That could generate tremendous heat, causing smoke-producing fire or melting. “We don’t want to speculate on what the actual cause was at this point,” Stessel said of Monday’s fire. He also said he had no information on whether the jumper cables near McPherson had recently been replaced. Many subway power cables, including jumper cables, are attached to other power lines by connector assemblies called “boots.” In June, the NTSB said “a number” of boots throughout the rail system lacked the


Getting painkillers seems easy. Getting help to fight painkiller addiction is hard.

was developed with the idea that family doctors could assess patients with an opioid addiction to make sure the daily oral medication was appropriate and prescribe a monthly supply to be picked up at a drugstore. Like methadone, buprenorphine is a long-acting opioid that relieves drug cravings and physical withdrawal symptoms with fewer of the side effects of other opioids. It presents a very low risk of overdose unless taken in combination with benzodiazepines such as Valium and Xanax. The National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded buprenorphine’s development, has urged doctors everywhere to start prescribing it to their patients with opioid addiction. That way, people who respond well would no longer have to travel to a methadone clinic every morning. They could get help the same way people with other diseases do — at their local doctor’s office. So far, that hasn’t happened. In anticipation of buprenorphine’s approval by the FDA, a 2000 federal law required doctors to seek a special license from the Drug Enforcement Administration to prescribe it. Without that law, a 1914 federal narcotics law would have precluded doctors from prescribing the drug, and it would have been subject to the same kind of regulation as methadone. Because buprenorphine is much safer than methadone, Congress wanted to make sure patients didn’t have to disrupt their lives by traveling to one of only 1,200 methadone clinics scattered across the country to take the daily medication under strict supervision. In addition to requiring training, the buprenorphine law limited licensed doctors to 30 patients in the first year and 100 patients in subsequent years. The restriction was meant to discourage what are called pill mills, in which doctors prescribe addiction medications for a cash fee without ensuring that patients are actually using it to recover and not selling it on the street. Addiction prejudice? Since then, the law has been criticized for contributing to a shortage of prescribers and unfairly singling out addicts and the doctors who treat them. No other medication requires a special license, and no other disease is subject to a patient limit, argued Kelly J. Clark, president-elect of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. She said the rules are symptomatic of the nation’s long-standing prejudice against the disease of addiction. But others argue that the rules are warranted to keep buprenorphine off the streets and to ensure quality treatment. “Treating opioid addiction with medications has


Millennials have embraced running as a lifestyle. Now race organizers must adapt.

option to do a double run, beginning with the 5K, then coming back to the starting line to run the 10K. Results show 613 finished the double, 350 of whom were millennials. That age group makes up 43 percent of the participants in the large, challenging Rock ’n’ Roll marathon events, said Keith Kendrick, chief marketing officer of the Competitor Group, which owns and operates the series. While millennials are often pegged as being unsure of what they want, Kendrick said that kind of participation supports the survey’s findings that millennials put a high value on being authentic. “It’s a different generation that values authenticity and the quality of the event,” Kendrick said. “They don’t want all the extraneous bells and whistles.” Kendrick said that because of millennials who run the Rock ’n’ Roll races — which include last weekend’s Rock ’n’ Roll D.C. race — the company had to “get focused again on the core of the race,” Kendrick said. He said organizers emphasize the nuance of each course, touting the different challenges that racers will face. Kendrick noted the very hilly course in Raleigh, N.C., and the challenges of a night marathon in Las Vegas. “We don’t hide the fact; we promote it,” he said. “You want a challenging course; here it is.” Like Pacers, Competitor has invested heavily in its social media efforts to communicate to millennials. In January, the company rolled out a new digital “Finisher Zone” that offers real-time results, comparative data of times to other races and ways to customize the finisher’s certificate to different media platforms. “Clearly, we have to do business the way millennials want to do business because they’ve been served so well through the iPhone and Xbox and the way they consume electronic media,” said Andy Coccari, executive vice president and chief product officer for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which raises money from racers through its Team in Training program. TNT has started providing mobile-compatible fundraising tools and adapting to the innovative ways millennials host fundraising events. In short, as millennials embrace change, they are forcing the running industry to do so as well. “We’ve really had to open up the aperture in terms of what they can achieve,” Coccari said. @mjmplunkett on Twitter More from The Washington Post: Woman who lost her leg in the Boston Marathon bombings will run it this year How to actually get a


Zika is the latest battle in a long war between humans and mosquitoes

were incredibly simple, but they were absolutely bulletproof,” Cope said. The outcome proved Reed — and Finlay — correct. Poor sanitation was irrelevant; mosquitoes were the vector for the disease. As Reed later wrote his wife, the test helped lift “the impenetrable veil that has surrounded the causation of this most dreadful pest of humanity and to put it on a rational & scientific basis.” Soon, the Army was coating canals and waterways with a sheen of oil — a rudimentary larvicide — and attacking pools of stagnant water as part of public health and sanitation campaigns in countries where troops were stationed. In 1912, New Jersey Gov. Woodrow Wilson (D) set up the United States’ first mosquito-control district after opponents accused him of being “weak on mosquitoes,” according to Gordon Patterson, a historian at the Florida Institute of Technology who has authored two books on the origins of U.S. mosquito control. Fighting the bloodsuckers soon became a primary government responsibility. Mosquito control grew even more essential during the Great Depression, as the Tennessee Valley Authority and other agencies built dams, canals and reservoirs. Engineers learned to manipulate water levels to eliminate mosquito larvae, Patterson said. But by the late 1940s, manual mosquito-eradication methods were losing out to crop dusters and fumigation trucks loaded with the insecticide DDT. And by the time Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking 1962 environmental-science book “Silent Spring” alerted the public to the pesticide’s dangers to birds and other wildlife, many mosquitoes had developed a resistance. For the past half-century, public-health officials have emphasized “integrated pest management” that involves more sparing use of insecticides and focuses on other solutions, such as window screens, mosquito repellent and the elimination of breeding pools. Today, Patterson worries, increased travel, global commerce and possibly a warming planet all seem to be helping the mosquito to flourish again. A uniquely adapted mosquito Latin America has been hit especially hard by Zika, not to mention other viral pathogens such as dengue fever and chikungunya, in part because the Aedes aegypti mosquito is almost uniquely adapted to human co-habitation. It breeds in minute amounts of water, hides in the shadows and dark corners of homes, and is a famously promiscuous biter, landing on as many people as possible for quick snacks. A much-heralded international effort in the 1940s and 1950s eliminated Aedes aegypti from 18 countries in the region, until that success reversed because of


Brilliant pianist leads orchestra’s return

under Kent Nagano, lumbered along behind him. Trifonov seared his way onto the scene a few years ago and has retained every bit of the spark that brought him to the “it” spot in the hot-young-soloist pantheon. His Prokofiev was as arresting and idiosyncratic as his other work in Washington has been, with distinctive choices about tempos and phrasing, although slightly muted — less by familiarity than by the presence of the orchestra, which picked up on some but not all of his leads and sounded generally a blunt instrument next to the precision tools of Trifonov’s hands, playing so fast they finally blurred into what seemed a giant mass moving over the keys. Familiarity didn’t dull the encore, the Rachmaninoff arrangement of the Bach Gavotte that is something of a touchstone encore for him (he played it at his last Washington Performing Arts appearance on the Hayes piano series in 2013, as well). If he plays it as brilliantly as that, he could play it every day and no one would complain. It has been 30 years since Washington Performing Arts presented the Montreal Symphony, and it was nice to see the musicians back: a nod to a time when North American orchestras traveled more often and guest appearances weren’t limited to the biggest names on the international circuit. Molded by Charles Dutoit over a couple of decades, the orchestra has been led by Nagano since 2006, with — to judge by this performance — mixed results. There was some stridency, particularly in the winds, and some diffuseness of ensemble playing, and Nagano has a tendency to be a little flat emotionally when not involved in complexity — particularly in his slightly airless reading of Debussy’s “Jeux,” which opened the program. But “Rite of Spring,” the final piece, compensated for moments of emotional flatness with some vivid playing. Nagano has always seemed to me at his best with music that moves a lot, and if this wasn’t the most elegant “Rite” I’ve heard, it had moments of freedom and vitality that got the audience roaring by the end of the night and earned two encores, Ravel’s “Pavane” and the Farandole from Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne” — a nice French counterweight to the Debussy at the end of a balanced program. Next on the orchestra series of Washington Performing Arts is the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with Mariss Jansons on April 12.


Beer Madness 2016: It’s city vs. city in a craft-brewed battle of rivalries

Beer Festival judge trying to choose between nearly identical Belgian-style pale ales. Besides, beer drinkers’ tastes and habits are changing, beer directors at local bars tell me: Where hopheads once came in and methodically worked through a series of IPAs, beer fans might now start with a Berliner Weisse or gose before sampling a saison or Belgian ale, and finish with a coffee stout or imperial IPA. In other words, they’re hopscotching between styles. And that, I tell panelists, is the essence of Beer Madness: There are two glasses of unmarked beer sitting in front of you. Which do you like better, and why? With more than 4,200 breweries producing beer in America, picking the field has never been more challenging, and we were grateful for the help of Meridian Pint beer director Jace Gonnerman, whose Columbia Heights bar hosted the tastings. Last year’s champion, Boulevard Brewing’s sublime Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale, is the only beer from 2015 returning to the fray. As always, the competitors are a mix of new releases, such as Dogfish Head’s Romantic Chemistry IPA and Abita Brewing’s Big Easy IPA, and old favorites, such as Bell’s Expedition Stout and Epic Brewing’s Big Bad Baptist. Stone and New Belgium are among the big names sitting out this year, as smaller brewers, including Florida’s Saint Somewhere and Texas’s Jester King, make their Beer Madness debuts. Not every contender in the bracket meets the Brewers Association’s widely used definition of a craft brewery, which includes the stipulation that any ownership share by a non-craft brewer has to be kept below 25 percent. Lagunitas sold 50 percent of its brewery to Heineken in September; Anheuser-Bush InBev acquired Elysian in January 2015; and 30 percent of Founders is owned by Spanish giant Grupo Mahou-San Miguel. But in this tournament, the most important thing is how the beer tastes, not who signs the brewers’ checks. Four experts and four Washington Post readers made up the judging panel. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) Though we shook up the way the beers were arranged on the bracket, the heart of Beer Madness remains the same. The tasting, which takes place over two nights, is completely blind. The eight judges did not know about the format change and weren’t told which breweries were included. Four of our panelists were readers, selected from among hundreds of applicants. The other four were professional palates from the


Ravens nest in D.C. for the first time in 100 years

of Ornithology. They also have a distinct diamond-shaped tail, vs. the rounded ones of a common crow. They have been spotted a handful of times in the past over the District, but they likely were chased off by development or hawks or bald eagles. This marks the first time in at least a century that the birds have bred here, Rauch said. Typically, ravens make their nests in mountains or cliffs. And ravens had pretty much disappeared from a number of mid-Atlantic areas for years. The closest they have been known to live to the D.C. area is parts of West Virginia and Sugarloaf Mountain near Frederick, Md. “This is rare but becoming more common,” Rauch said of the ravens in the District. “This is not their natural habitat.” Ravens have been slowly making a comeback and are “starting to repopulate and move back” into the Potomac River area. The last time ravens were sighted as a pair with a nest in the Washington area was in Montgomery County in 2006 near the Cabin John area, according to Rauch. Ravens are very adaptive, and that’s likely what attracted the birds to the area under a bridge, experts said. A raven soars over the District. (Dan Rauch/D.C. Department of Energy and Environment) “They think they’re up on the side of a mountain face, nesting in a cavity,” Rauch said. “They don’t know it’s a bridge.” He said the area where the ravens have put their nest is secluded and doesn’t have as much traffic as downtown. Plus, they have a food source with the Potomac River nearby. “It resembles the usual habitat that they prefer,” Rauch said. The incubation period for ravens is about 24 days, and then young ravens typically wait 40 to 45 days before leaving the nest. Rauch said he plans to monitor the birds from afar using a long-range scope to document the nesting. Then he will try to figure out how many birds hatched. Birds uncommon to the area have been known to make D.C. their home, making plenty of news with crowds watching and social media following their movements. Remember the snowy owl? In 2014, a snowy owl captivated Washington as it was spotted around downtown. It survived being hit by a D.C. bus and evaded D.C. police at one point. It died in Minnesota, apparently after being hit by a vehicle on a highway.


A guide to the styles and terms encountered in Beer Madness 2016

Judges Shelley Cazares, Tammy Tuck and Andrew Yu assess the competitors during Beer Madness tasting at Meridian Pint. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) The beer universe is constantly expanding. The 2015 Great American Beer Festival’s guide for brewers lists 92 styles for its competition, as well as assorted sub-categories and catchall niches for whatever doesn’t fit in elsewhere. Only a small slice of those was represented in Beer Madness. But we still sampled an extremely diverse lot, from high-octane hop bombs to yeast-forward Belgian styles to a tart modern take on a Berliner weisse. This updated guide, listed in alphabetical order, will give you an idea of the workout our palates received. Ale: Brown ale: Double IPA or imperial IPA: Dry-hopping: India pale ale (IPA): International bitterness units (IBUs): Lager: Pale ale: Pilsener or Pilsner: Porter: Red ale: Saison: Scotch ales: Session IPA: Sour beers: Stout: Witbier: More from Food: Have questions about cooking? Join our live chat Wednesdays at 12.


‘The Association of Small Bombs’: A novel of terror based on the author’s life

The author Karan Mahajan (Molly Winters ) Karan Mahajan’s ambitious and all too painful novel about terrorism arose from events in his own life. In 1996, when Mahajan was 12, Kashmiri separatists set off a bomb near his home in New Delhi, in an outdoor market where he and his family sometimes shopped. That attack, which killed 13 and injured 30, was burned into his memory. In his new novel “The Association of Small Bombs,” Mahajan has returned to the place where his younger self might have died. The author, who now lives in Austin, explained in an interview: “It would take years of struggling with the meaning of this blast, of researching terror and radical Islam, of creating characters, before an actual story emerged, but the seed was there.” The novel that emerged carries us deep into the human side of a tragedy. Mahajan, also the author of the novel “Family Planning” (2008) shows us both the victims of terrorism and its perpetrators and considers the political dimension of this worldwide war no one can win. As the story opens, in New Delhi in 1996, two brothers, ages 11 and 13, run an errand to a neighborhood market and take along their friend Monsoor, who’s 12. A bomb explodes and the brothers die instantly. Monsoor is injured but survives. The rest of the novel examines the impact of this calamity on the two sets of grieving parents and on young Monsoor. It also introduces several terrorists, who are portrayed as angry, frustrated, obsessed, perhaps deluded — as killers but not as monsters. The parents of the dead brothers are, of course, devastated. The two boys who “had stored, between them, all the world’s possibilities” are suddenly gone. Their father, a failed documentary filmmaker, can barely function. He and his wife conceive another child, a daughter, but she cannot save their troubled marriage. The mother has dark thoughts of “joining her boys wherever they were.” (Viking) Monsoor’s parents grieve over his continuing physical and emotional problems. The boy suffers nightmares and panic attacks, and he often sees his two dead friends “as they lay next to the twisted car door, just dropped and broken” in the aftermath of the fatal blast. He goes off to college in California in the fall of 2001 (as the author did) but after the 9/11 attacks, other students shun him as a Muslim and


Two men sought in attempted abduction at Air and Space Museum

THE DISTRICT Two men sought in attempted abduction Authorities are trying to find two persons of interest in an attempted abduction at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum early this month. It occurred March 3 as a group was leaving the north entrance of the museum, according to the U.S. Park Police. A man allegedly grabbed the hand of a child in the group and walked “a few steps with the child” until a chaperon yelled to “leave the child alone.” Police said the man got on a shuttle bus near the museum. MARYLAND Ignition-lock bill moves forward The state House of Delegates on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill to require the use of interlock ignitions by individuals convicted of drunken driving. The legislation stalled at the committee level in previous years, but it gained momentum this year in part because of lobbying by the family of a Montgomery County police officer who was killed by a suspected drunk driver while on DUI patrol. Police bolster patrols after abduction scare Police in Montgomery County said they are increasing patrols in the Chevy Chase area after two children said they encountered a man driving a blue or green car who asked Friday morning about taking them to school. The incident occurred in the 2600 block of Colston Drive. Police said a 7-year-old boy and his 4 1/ 2 -year-old brother were in their yard when a sedan stopped and a man asked them if he could drive them to school and motioned for them to come. He was described as between 50 and 60 with short, gray hair and a beard. Police asked for information at 301-279-8000. THE Region Prediction shifts for cherry-blossom peak Peak bloom of the famed cherry blossoms is now expected to start March 23 and 24, the National Park Service said. The dates are earlier than first forecast and later than a second prediction, a result of successive temperature changes.


With no idea how to get to work, Metro riders bemoan late notice of shutdown

to justify shutting down the entire system. And when you shut down Metro, as my colleagues here are going to learn tomorrow, you essentially shut down the federal government.” Lawmakers from outside the Washington region took notice, as well. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), a noted transit advocate, said he was “deeply concerned” by the shutdown of a system that serves members of Congress, their staff members and the federal government at large. “It’s a very serious signal,” Blumenauer said. “We’ve known that there have been problems for a whole host of reasons. . . . But I am hopeful that everybody in Congress pays attention to that, because we all live here a third of the time. This transit system is the transit system for our employees, for the federal workforce, and it’s in desperate need of everybody’s attention.” Were his hometown of Portland to shut down its light-rail system on a weekday, he said, “it would have extraordinarily serious consequences.” Jim Dinegar, president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, said he is concerned that the shutdown will have a chilling effect on tourism in the short and the long term. Metro’s inspections on Wednesday could turn up new problems that further shake public confidence in the troubled rail system, he said. “They won’t find good things,” he said. “They’ll find risks.” Many Metro advocates and passengers said the shutdown is a sign of the need for greater public investment in the system. “We will see on Wednesday just how important Metro is to our region,” said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “We hope that the ongoing challenges facing Metro will prompt our elected leaders to work together to provide the funding necessary to fix long-standing maintenance and rehabilitation problems.” During Tuesday’s evening commute, passengers were just beginning to grapple with how important Metro is to them on a daily basis — and in particular how important it would have been to them Wednesday. Janice Williams, a house cleaner from Hyattsville, Md., said she will have to take three buses to get to work Wednesday. She was frustrated but said she is glad officials erred on the side of safety. “It sucks that it has to happen, but you don’t want to worry about people getting hurt,” Williams said, sitting on a concrete bench in the Metro Center station. “There could be worse things.”


At heart of Metro shutdown, worries about uncontained electricity

the NTSB issued a safety bulletin that described “severe electrical arcing damage” to the jumper cables in the Yellow Line tunnel. That raised the possibility that the insulating material encasing the cable had been compromised and that the cable’s copper strands, juiced with current, were exposed. When electricity gets loose, following that low-resistance path, it can generate enormous heat as it makes its way to ground. Current flowing into the conductive steel walls of a tunnel, for example, can turn the walls into giant hot plates. And it can set fire to debris in the tunnel. Depending on the severity of the incident, the thermal damage to surrounding infrastructure can create a huge volume of smoke. That appears to be what happened near L’Enfant station. And Carol Glover, 61, a grandmother from Alexandria who was aboard the stalled train, lost her life. Wiedefeld offered few details about the McPherson Square tunnel fire, which is being investigated. But he said the trouble there “was very similar to what we had in the L’Enfant Plaza situation.” The tunnel wall near the McPherson station is lined with metal, as is the tunnel wall near L’Enfant Plaza. “There’s insulation covering the cables,” Wiedefeld noted. And if the insulation is damaged, “it can get open, and you have direct contact” between the current and nearby conductive materials, including the metal wall. “That’s why we’re doing the assessment of all 600” jumper cables in the subway, Wiedefeld said. “Because I want to know what I’ve got with all 600 of them. This was inspected last year, and basically found to be okay.” Yet the problem recurred Monday. “So I have to find out what’s driving this situation.” Jumper cables and other power lines are attached to one another, and attached to third rails, by large, elbow-shaped connector assemblies called “boots.” In its investigation of the L’Enfant incident, the NTSB also warned that throughout the subway, “a number” of boots lacked the proper type of “sealing sleeves,” which are designed to keep contaminants away from the electrical current. Metro acknowledged that about 80 percent of its 6,400 power-cable connector assemblies lacked adequate sealing sleeves. Wiedefeld said Tuesday that about half of the faulty boots have been upgraded, but months of work on that project still remains. For now, though, the attention is on the jumper cables. Shutting down the Washington area’s busiest form of public transportation for


Montgomery Animal Watch

No cases were available from the Montgomery County Animal Services Division for today’s Montgomery Local Living. 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. Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: The Montgomery County Humane Society’s private rescue shelter has dogs, puppies, cats and kittens available for adoption. Call 240-252-2555 or visit mchumane.org. Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Your yard may be a haven for Zika-carrying mosquitoes. Here’s what to do.

is a home for the Asian tiger mosquito. (Mark Gail/The Washington Post) Folks who are aware of the problem are keen to minimize potential breeding sites before the mosquito begins to appear in May, but they have questions about how to deal with some common garden elements that could cause problems. Best to deal with three landscape elements in particular: Fish ponds Mosquitoes prefer to lay eggs in stagnant and shallow water, so ponds that are deeper and with a robust filtration and circulation system are better placed against the pest. But the best way to rid your pond of mosquitos is to stock it with fish; they spend their whole day looking for food, and that wriggling mosquito larva presents the perfect snack. I have had a fish pond for more than 20 years and never had a problem with mosquito larvae. I first stocked the pond with hardy goldfish and about six years ago added mosquito fish. The latter are smaller , growing to just three inches or so, are dark, almost black, and reach every nook and cranny in the pond. Both have proven winter hardy for me — all they need is a hole in the ice, which can be achieved with a floating heating element. I threw in five mosquito fish, which increased naturally to several dozen. If your local aquatic pond store or garden center doesn’t have them, common goldfish work just as well. Even mosquito fish may not be able to pierce a mat of algae, so it’s important to keep on top of algae growth, which is a problem in early spring as the water warms. You clean up string algae by scooping it out and adding a fish-safe algaecide to the water (available at pet/pond stores). You prevent it by growing aquatic plants that will cover much of the surface of the pond and rob the algae of the light and nutrients it needs. Rain barrels The popularity of rain gardens, in which storm water is captured before it enters the municipal storm sewer, has led to the parallel interest in rain barrels to capture water coming off roofs (we called them water butts where I come from). These barrels can become prime breeding sites for mosquitoes if you’re not careful. The slightest opening between downspout and barrel should be well screened. “I’ve seen some with not-good screening and [mosquitoes] breed


The violin thief

play it. He wanted to create a new recording. One more thing. This time, Johnson would play the Stradivarius. On a Wednesday night in July 2011, a group of local musicians packed First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica. They were joined by an outsider from Johnson’s past. Mercurio flew out from the East Coast. Ben Maas, a local engineer, cut his usual daily session fee from $1,000 to $650. “He was not in particularly good shape,” says Maas. “His fingers weren’t working the way they had in the past. He was getting frustrated. The goodwill from the orchestra, it didn’t disappear, but people were getting kind of annoyed they had to do take after take for somebody who was obviously not going to have the perfect product.” Recording wrapped and the musicians went home. Johnson, exhausted, eventually returned to talk with Maas about how to mix the session. He and the engineer bickered about the recording fee. Eventually, the violinist lost his temper. “He said, ‘Look, I’m dying, come after me,’ ” Maas says. Four years later, Maas is asked about the last recording. He doesn’t have it. When Johnson berated him and refused to pay, Maas got frustrated. He decided the files were taking up too much space on his hard drives. He deleted them. “Had I known the story behind the violin,” he says today, “I absolutely would have kept it. The guy was cranky and not a nice person to deal with, but never, in a million years, would I have thought he had a Stradivarius.” To sing again On that August afternoon in 2015, cameras flashed as the Totenberg daughters smiled and posed with their father’s Stradivarius. They were in their 30s when they last saw it. Now Nina, the oldest, was 71. This was no regular news conference. Jason Masimore, an assistant district attorney and amateur musician, opened by playing Bach on his own violin. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara declared the moment “a joyful ending to an amazing story.” Nina, sitting on the side, offered a different take. She remained angry. Totenberg talked of how her father eventually cashed out a $101,850 insurance policy and used it toward the $300,000 purchase of a Guarneri built in 1736. Totenberg wished Johnson would have spoken up. While the thief was dying, her father was still very much alive. He died in May of 2012 at 101.


National Zoo looking into chlorine ‘boom’ near beavers and otters

happened at 10:55 a.m. inside a small building that houses machinery that supports the beaver and otter exhibits. Chlorine is used in the water filtration system for the exhibits, she said. A contract employee was inside the building. He smelled chlorine, and left. Then there was the boom. The fire department was summoned. Baker-Masson said she did not know what work the contractor the contractor was doing in the building. There was no gas, she said. The worker was examined by medics. “He is fine,” she said. The affected area was closed to zoo staff until about 2 p.m. Keepers reported that all animals were accounted for and appeared to be in good health. American Trail winds among wolves, otters, beavers and other North American animals. Fire department spokesman Timothy J. Wilson said officials suspect the accident might have stemmed from the improper mixing of chemicals. Meanwhile, life elsewhere at zoo went on. Zoo-goers strolled past the fire trucks. Some asked what had happened, others wondered about a fire hose, and a few posed for selfies with firefighters. “I just don’t know how something like that happens,” said Lauren Merritt, 29, of Bellingham, Wash., who was visiting the zoo with her family, including three small children. “I’m just glad everything seems to be okay and it wasn’t any worse than it was.” “Honestly, my kids are just as excited to see all the police and fire trucks as they are to see the animals,” she added. “It’s kind of making our visit extra interesting.” A North American River Otter is seen in this file photo. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) After driving from New Jersey, Melanie Delgado and her boyfriend, Mateo Cuecha, said their first stop on their spring break trip in the District was the zoo. “We had no idea what was going on,” said Delgado, 19, an economics major at New York University. “We were diverted and saw all the fire department trucks. We thought an accident happened or something.” Delgado, who said they’re staying only for a few days, looked over at the trail. “It sucks that it is closed today,” she said. One 14-year-old visiting from a Texas school said he heard a little noise Thursday morning. Soon after, fire trucks were rushing in. “They say it’s safe,” said Anna Galvan, a school counselor from Corpus Christi. “So I believe them.” Peter Hermann contributed to this report.


Paul Beatty, Margo Jefferson win National Book Critics Awards

New York. Beatty’s crackling satire involves modern-day segregation, slavery and a host of racial stereotypes upended. Jefferson’s memoir, meanwhile, offers candid and often ironic commentary of her upbringing in an affluent African American family in Chicago during the 1950s and ’60s. Just as timely is the winner of this year’s nonfiction prize: “Dreamland: The True Story of America’s Opiate Epidemic,” by Sam Quinones. In his sweeping study of addiction, Quinones, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, moves from Mexico to small-town America and beyond to explore the conspiracy of poverty, crime and pharmaceutical misdirection that has resulted in a deadly explosion of painkiller abuse in America. Ta-Nehisi Coates’s widely praised book about black life, “Between the World and Me,” was a finalist for the criticism prize, but it was beaten out by “The Argonauts,” an equally personal work of social criticism by Maggie Nelson. Nelson’s reflections on gender, family and art offer startling insights and an iconoclastic rethinking of what criticism can look like. The biography prize was awarded to “Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley,” by Charlotte Gordon. Gordon’s study emphasizes the radical work of these groundbreaking feminist thinkers and writers. (Picador) The poetry prize went to Ross Gay for “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude.” In her review of the collection last year, The Post’s poetry critic Elizabeth Lund said Gay’s “charming poems give readers permission to feel joyful.” That’s a sentiment clearly conveyed in such lines as these: I can’t stop my gratitude, which includes, dear reader, you for staying here with me, for moving your lips just so as I speak. Here is a cup of tea. I have spooned honey into it. As was previously announced, Wendell Berry received the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his many decades as an environmental activist and writer. (Graywolf) Kirstin Valdez Quade received the John Leonard First Book Prize for “Night at the Fiestas.” Carlos Lozada, the nonfiction book critic at The Washington Post, received this year’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing. Unlike the NBCC’s other awards and honors, this award includes a $1,000 cash prize. Founded in 1974, the nonprofit NBCC has almost 700 members. The board chooses the finalists and winners of the annual prizes, except for the recipient of the John Leonard First Book Prize, which is selected by the membership at large. Ron Charles


He fled to the U.S. for political asylum. Two years later, he won a full-ride to GWU

to a classmate as Knapp presented the scholarship award. “He deserves it. He is so selfless. I’m not surprised.” Since the establishment of the scholarship more than 25 years ago, GWU has awarded it to more than 160 students. Ninety percent of participants graduate with a college degree, according to the university. This year, the 10 recipients included immigrants from Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Guatemala, and they came from eight city schools, including Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, Bell Multicultural High School and Capital City Public Charter School. Gebremeskel says he applied to more than a dozen colleges and plans to enroll at GWU. In his college application essay, he said his father’s biggest dream was deferred when he was arrested before graduating from high school and that this changes everything. “He was devastated, because his long-term plan of seeing me graduate from college and lead a decent life was in jeopardy,” wrote Gebremeskel, who strives to be a dentist. “To this day, I remember the last two things he said to me before coming to America. He told me not to give up on my dreams no matter the obstacles I have to overcome and to start a new life without looking back.” Nkenge Cunningham — Gebremeskel’s English teacher— said he was a standout student as soon as he arrived at Roosevelt High. During his junior year, Gebremeskel was the first student in the school’s history to score a 2 out of 5 on the Advanced Placement calculus exam. “He has such an openness to learning. He asks questions. He’s not afraid to be criticized,” Cunningham said. “Whenever we have to connect texts to themes, he connects it so well to human experiences.” Gebremeskel said he is unsure whether he will live on campus next year. He lives in a basement apartment with his younger sister, who also attends Roosevelt and has three jobs to pay the bills. He doesn’t want to leave his sister and says he probably will stay in his apartment. His sister, Hannah, and two cousins — who are both attending college — were all there when Knapp surprised him with the scholarship. His parents still live in Ethiopia and didn’t know about the event. Gebremeskel said he planned to call his parents as soon as the frenzy quieted down at school. “I can’t wait to tell them,” he said.


Automatic braking to be standard by 2022, NHTSA says

Also in Business ● The Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit to block Tribune Publishing’s purchase of the Orange County Register and Press-Enterprise newspapers in Southern California. The department says the sale would give Tribune a monopoly over newspaper sales in two California counties and allow it to increase subscription prices and advertising rates. The Press-Enterprise is based in Riverside County. Earlier in the day, Tribune had announced that it had placed the winning $56 million bid for the bankrupt Freedom Communications’ newspapers. Tribune operates the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune. ● Royal Dutch Shell and the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. will split the assets of their joint U.S. venture, with the kingdom’s state-owned producer taking full ownership of the biggest U.S. oil refinery, the companies announced. The Port Arthur, Tex., refinery produces about 603,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It had been part of a 50-50 joint venture between the two companies called Motiva Enterprises. Under the deal, a Saudi Aramco affiliate will retain the Motiva name and full control of the Port Arthur refinery. It also will keep 26 distribution terminals. Shell will get sole ownership of refineries in Norco and Convent, La., as well as nine distribution terminals. ● A unit of the Japanese electronics company Omron has agreed to plead guilty and pay $4.6 million for conspiring to rig bids on power-window switches in Honda Civics sold in the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said. Omron Automotive Electronics Co. is the 39th company to plead guilty as a result of the department’s crackdown on bid-rigging in the auto parts industry. Omron Automotive conspired with another manufacturer to rig bids between 2003 and 2013, affecting sales to U.S. subsidiaries and affiliates of Honda, the Justice Department said. ● Uber will offer rides from the United States to Mexico, the most-traveled international land crossing, starting Friday. Passengers will be able to go only from San Diego to Tijuana for now, and they will have to find another way to get back. The reason is that commercial activity — the service that is taxed and regulated — occurs at the point of pickup, not drop-off, according to regulations that govern Uber, Lyft and other transit companies. The new service will require passengers to have a passport and any other required documentation, Uber said. — From news services


Like meat too much to give it up? Semi-vegetarian is good for your health

(iStock) When you consider Bill Clinton’s svelte physique after heart surgery and Paul McCartney’s onstage energy, it may seem that vegetarianism is a fountain of youth. And a strong body of research supports the idea that a plantcentric diet can boost your health, decreasing the risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers, and helping you stay at a healthful weight. It can even lengthen your life, according to a recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine that tracked more than 70,000 people. But for many, life without steak, barbecued chicken or pork tacos doesn’t sound so appealing. Fortunately, you don’t have to make an either/or choice. “Just making a shift to a more plant-based diet can offer significant health benefits,” says Reed Mangels, an adjunct associate professor of nutrition at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Research shows that flexitarians — those who make plant foods the star of their diet, with meat, fish, dairy and eggs playing a supporting role — are healthier than frequent meat eaters in categories such as colon cancer and heart-disease risk and overall mortality. The power of plants The main advantages of a vegetarian-leaning diet seem to be more related to the foods you’re eating lots of (vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts) rather than those you’re eating less of (meat). “When you base your meals on plant foods, you’re packing your diet with the fiber, vitamins, minerals and healthy fats that most Americans don’t get enough of,” says Sharon Palmer, editor of Environmental Nutrition. Plant-based diets are also full of phytochemicals, compounds that help keep many of your body’s systems running smoothly. For instance, the anthocyanins in berries help protect vision; carotenoids in carrots and cantaloupe, and the isothiocyanates in Brussels sprouts neutralize the free radicals that cause cell damage; and flavonoids in apples help control inflammation. Semi-vegetarian perks How much meat can you eat and still get the benefits of a veggie diet? There’s not enough research to give a precise amount. “Diet is a continuum,” says Robert Ostfeld, director of preventive cardiology and founder and director of the Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. “But patients who more fully embrace a whole-foods, plant-based diet have the best outcomes.” Still, research shows that eschewing meat all of the time isn’t necessary. In one recent preliminary study of more than 450,000 adults, those who followed a diet


The Pentagon’s procurement system is so broken they are calling on Watson

made those reforms a top priority and is once again pushing legislation designed to speed up the procurement process and make it more efficient. Critics have long focused on the schedule delays and cost overruns that have routinely plagued major weapons programs. But Thornberry, who said the military has had acquisitions trouble since “the Continental Army of George Washington,” said the problems have become so bad that they now create a national security threat. “The technology cycle is faster than it’s ever been, and speeding up,” he said at a Brookings Institution forum earlier this month. “If it takes us another 20 years to field the next airplane or the next ship, it’s going to be out date by the time it gets there, and we will not be able to defend the country.” Watson is perhaps best known for consuming enough data and understanding language so that it could win at Jeopardy in 2011. That version of Watson ran on a set of servers that could fill a large bedroom. Since then, IBM says it has invested $1 billion to create a business unit specifically for Watson, which runs on the cloud. It is designed not only to ingest vast amount of data, but to learn over time. And in the last few years it has been used to help doctors diagnose cancer, athletes train and even come up with new recipes, such as Scandinavian salmon quiche and Austrian grilled asparagus. The Pentagon’s procurement system is the “perfect application for Watson,” Gorguinpour said. “While our acquisition system is very complex, it is document based. . .It’s unreasonable to expect that a single individual or even a group of individuals to be able to fully understand all of the relevant documents to answer a specific question.” The system will not only help government procurement officials do their jobs—by being able to query the system to find out, for example, whether a contract can be awarded on a sole-source basis. But it also would be designed to help businesses interact with the government to find programs they might be eligible to bid on. While major defense contractors have well-trained teams who can expertly navigate the system, small companies often struggle with the process. “We think cognitive computing can really help with transparency in government,” said Juliane Gallina, the director of government solutions for IBM Watson. But first Watson must be trained.