Serving the nation should be its own reward

In his Jan. 6 letter, “Pay worthy of the hardships,” retired Army Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan wrote, “If military pay and benefits are the same as those of civilians, there is little incentive to join an organization with the inherent risks of military life.” Perhaps he forgot that Gen. Douglas MacArthur cited as incentives “duty, honor, country” — not compensation. It’s just a guess, but I bet that in 1959, then-2nd Lt. Gordon R. Sullivan would have said he joined the Army to serve his country. While well-intentioned, the over-the-top rhetoric of many veterans’ lobbyists does a disservice to the Defense Department and the nation. Somewhere along the line of a military career, we forget that the “promises” were made by us to the country, not the other way around. It also contributes to the best-kept secret in Washington: how well we are paid. As an active-duty Marine captain with six years of service, I will receive slightly more than $101,000 in direct compensation this year, not including any special pay or incentives. The government paid for my undergraduate degree and will pay for my son’s degree through a GI Bill transfer, and I don’t have to pay a dollar for my family’s health care. After four deployments, I am humbled by both the opportunities and the compensation afforded to me. The men I fought beside did so out of a sense of duty, not entitlement. I assure you that Americans will continue to serve no matter their compensation. If they don’t, we’ve got bigger problems than the budget. David Kinzler, Springfield More Letters to the Editor: Fallujah’s fate is tied to U.S. resolve Categorizing Snowden Reports of the demise of human rights were exaggerated Bipartisanship doesn’t exist in Richmond A proper priority expressed through popularity


In Puerto Rico, ditching sun and sand for a day in the caves

chowing down on a cave cricket, its preferred prey. She also told me about other animals she’d seen in the park, such as snails, spiders and snakes. Waiting for the tram to take us back uphill, I chatted with tourists Kevin McAuliffe of Rhode Island and Dan Seaton of Memphis, who both thought that the cave is worth seeing, especially for families looking to escape the beach and educate their kids. “It gives you a different perspective” on Puerto Rico, said Seaton, who has been to the island a few times and is drawn back by its enjoyable food and people. “It’s always kind of nice to get off the beaten path a little bit.” Making its way back uphill, our train made one last stop: at an observation platform overlooking the Tres Pueblos — or Three Towns — sinkhole, which, at about 400 feet deep and 650 feet wide, is big enough for one of San Juan’s historic forts to fit into. Most of the giant crater’s gray limestone walls were covered with thick vegetation. Scoping out the skies We weren’t done with sinkholes just yet. Bidding farewell to Camuy, we got back in the car and headed for the nearby Arecibo Observatory, a remote mountain facility that houses the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, a device that detects radio waves from space objects such as stars and galaxies. Scientists built the site here in the 1960s in part because of northern Puerto Rico’s karst geography: A sinkhole is the perfect natural cradle for the radio telescope’s main dish. Arecibo is apparently also a natural location for movies: The telescope has appeared in the films “Contact” and “GoldenEye.” “World’s largest” sounds impressive on paper, of course, but it’s not until you’re standing before the telescope for the first time that you realize, “Wow, that’s big.” From the outdoor observation deck, the telescope’s 1,000-foot-wide dish, or reflector, looked like an enormous contact lens that a near-sighted giant had dropped on the forest floor. Made up of a whopping 39,000 aluminum panels, the reflector focuses radio emissions from space onto nearby antennas. A platform about 450 feet above the reflector contains more sub-reflectors that are supported by a network of steel cables. The whole shebang is offset by the most gorgeously green undulating mountains, which during our tour were tinted with the light of the late-afternoon sun. Brian and I watched


Nanoport: Connect and charge your devices with magnets

LAS VEGAS — One of the most intriguing places to hang out on the International CES show floor is Eureka Park, where startups are given the space to pitch their ideas in tiny booths that bear no resemblance to the mega-structures that the tech titans built. That’s where Nano Magnetics has set up shop to show off its Nanoport. The company -- better known for making super-powerful magnetic toys -- is working on a new way to charge devices and make your smartphone the control panel for everything in your life. And, while it’s still in the prototype phase, the company’s idea has the potential to really change how we use our mobile devices. It works with magnets. When two devices with Nanoport connectors built into them link, they can transfer information, charge each other or even share their screens. So if you and some friends are sitting at an airport gate together and want to watch a movie, in a Nanoport future you could link all your phones together and treat the three screens as one. Or, if you want to share screen space from your phone to your computer, you could link them up using the magnetic ports. In fact, according to the company’s brochure, you can link up to 127 physical devices together any way that they’ll click with these ports. If the thought of megascreens doesn’t appeal to you, there are other intriguing applications. The connectors are hinged, so you could link a small solar cell to your phone and fold it under to reduce the bulk. A company representative said you could also put the connectors on appliances, such as the “smart” stoves, ovens and refrigerators that are plentiful at the show, and use your smartphone display as the control panel instead of having to build one into the appliance itself. With no wires and fast data transfer -- the connector has the same basic layout as a USB plug -- sending information between phones, tablets and other devices could be super quick. The company is already looking for partners and developers who can make the idea into a consumer product. The consumer technology trade show first launched in New York in 1967. Since then, it has been the place where many technologies, such as the VCR and Xbox, got their big break. Here’s a look at some of the gadgets that have debuted at


New mortgage rules aim to protect home buyers, owners

that do not conform to the new standard. David Stevens, chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association, is concerned that lower-income borrowers, who would fall outside the debt-to-income ratio requirements, will not fare as well as wealthier consumers. “We’re seeing institutions building business models to take advantage of that side of the market, charging 8 percent to 9 percent interest rates,” he said. “We need clear consumer protections . . . but nobody wants to push middle-class families on the margins into a shadow industry of high-priced mortgages.” In the year since the CFPB finalized the mortgage rules, the bureau has made tweaks for a smoother implementation. Stevens said he wants the bureau to relax the debt-to-income ratio, which he said may be unnecessary because regulators have eliminated risky loan features. Lenders are under no obligation to issue only qualified mortgages; they just have to verify that borrowers have the ability to make their loan payments. However, banks, which have doled out billions in recent years to settle lawsuits related to mortgage abuses, are likely to gravitate toward the protections afforded under the new loan category, analysts said. The qualified mortgage rule is part of a broader collection of reforms that include changes to the way borrowers interact with mortgage servicers. These firms that collect mortgage payments were criticized for mishandling borrowers’ requests for lower principle or interest payments during the meltdown. Now, mortgage servicers will have to maintain accurate records, offer ongoing access to staff members and provide options for delinquent homeowners to avoid foreclosure or face enforcement from regulators. “It may seem silly that we need rules to tell servicers to answer the phone; not to lose people’s paperwork; to tell borrowers how much they owe,” Cordray said. “But we have lived through the financial crisis. We have seen with our own eyes the grave dysfunctions in the mortgage market.” It is possible that the average borrower will not feel a major impact from the new rules, because lenders have become more conservative since the crisis, said Ghazale Johnston, managing director of Accenture Credit Services. “In the last few years, a lot of these lenders have spent time strengthening their underwriting requirements and putting in place tighter internal controls,” she said. “The impact of that has been higher-quality loans being originated. The steps banks have taken to eliminate the risks have inadvertently helped them prepare for the rules.”


10 D.C. area real estate stories to watch in 2014

in a number of high-rise buildings under construction along its path. For all Tysons has — two dominant shopping malls, Fortune 500 companies — it has little in the way of housing catering to millennials. Will they call Tysons home once the Silver Line comes through? 3. Redevelopment of shopping malls. No one is building enclosed shopping malls anymore because, aside from a few dominant locations, shoppers are moving elsewhere. The shift has caused malls across the country to close, leaving some of them vacant and boarded up. The Washington area’s wealthy demographics mean that when malls here fall out of favor, their owners plot massive overhauls, sometimes converting them into town square projects. Upcoming examples are in White Flint, Springfield, Ballston, Alexandria and Landover. 4. Transportation as economic development. Local jurisdictions are pushing a bevy of transportation projects sometimes aimed not as much at alleviating traffic as trying to create buzz and development. Montgomery and Prince George’s counties are betting on the Purple Line light rail to revive areas between Bethesda and New Carrollton. D.C. and Arlington are trying to launch streetcar lines. Alexandria may add a Metro station at Potomac Yard. If the projects are as popular as their backers suggest, more will likely follow. 5. Grocery store and movie theater wars. It wasn’t so long ago that you had to go to a mall or shopping center to see a movie or do your grocery shopping. Now theater operators and grocers are signing up for spots in mixed-use developments in the District, Bethesda, White Flint and Alexandria as fast as spaces become available. Once there were too few in many locations; soon there may be too many. 6. FBI relocation. It will take years to build a new headquarters for the FBI and redevelop the site where the J. Edgar Hoover Building is today, but the General Services Administration plans to set much of the trajectory in motion. The GSA already has received site proposals. It expects to make a short list of locations in March, and simultaneously begin the process for selecting a development partner. Expect much political jockeying in the interim. 7. The Alexandria Waterfront Old Town Alexandria isn’t known for making dynamic changes. But with a new waterfront plan, a reelected mayor in William D. Euille and the sale of two industrial warehouses along the Potomac River there, means new hotels, housing, shopping and


Five myths about Michelle Obama

its clothes. Yet other first ladies have had more personal relationships with designers — and opened the White House doors to them in a way Obama has not. Jacqueline Kennedy designated Oleg Cassini her official dressmaker, and the style they created inspired generations of women and designers. Lady Bird Johnson in 1968 hosted a formal fashion show that involved models parading through the State Dining Room as the wives of visiting governors looked on. Nancy Reagan had let’s-meet-for-lunch friendships with several designers, and she received the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s lifetime achievement award — which she accepted in person. In 2005, Laura Bush’s presence at New York’s Fashion Week rippled through the industry like the Second Coming. Obama has celebrated creativity through the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Design Awards, but she has maintained distance from the industry. Jason Wu , designer of her two inaugural gowns, didn’t meet her until the first was installed in the Smithsonian a year after she wore it. She doesn’t attend fashion industry events. When Seventh Avenue honored her in 2009, she sent her thanks via video message. 2. She is a food tyrant of Bloombergian intolerance. The first lady is renowned for her Let’s Move campaign to fight childhood obesity through healthy eating and exercise. One of her first projects upon settling into the East Wing was sowing the White House Kitchen Garden. She even gave out dried fruit on Halloween — President Obama joked that it would get the White House egged. Her focus on the nation’s eating habits has led to complaints that she wants to deprive Americans of dessert. But Obama repeatedly expresses her belief in moderation, talks about her affection for French fries and unapologetically went in for a 1,700-calorie splurge at Shake Shack in 2011. As for sweets, the first family’s Thanksgiving last year featured nine types of pie, as righteous a display of dessert democracy as one can get. 3. Her legacy will be Let’s Move or Joining Forces. Fighting childhood obesity and supporting military families have been the first lady’s most formal and most publicized campaigns. But the guiding principle of her tenure has been a belief in youth mentoring and “paying it forward.” She introduced mentoring The same ethos has guided how Obama has positioned herself abroad. At a London school, she described seeing herself in the faces of the students, who were overwhelmingly from disadvantaged


Caring for feathered friends

day By the time below-freezing temperatures descend on the D.C. area on Tuesday, Dora, Diego, Nora and Angora are feeding themselves. Angora is ready for release, but Shoemaker opts to have him wait out the severe cold in the warm comfort of her basement. At dusk on Thursday, Shoemaker drives the owl to Manchester, Maryland, to a wooded spot not far from where he was found. It’s not quite as cold as it has been. Instead of restraining him, this time her gloved hands lift him into the air and let go. He flutters into the darkness and disappears, home again. — Kitson Jazynka More about: Owl Moon Raptor Center Suzanne Shoemaker is an expert in animal behavior, ecology and the adaptations of animals to their natural environment. Twelve years ago, she started Owl Moon Raptor Center at her home in Boyds, Maryland. She rescues and rehabilitates birds of prey, with the goal of returning them to the wild and helping to educate the public along the way. For more information about Owl Moon or to make a donation, visit www.owlmoon.org. (Always ask a parent before going online.) More about: Eastern screech owls These adorable and important raptors: ●have large yellow eyes that take up more space in their skulls than their brains. ●stand about eight inches tall (a bit taller than an unsharpened pencil would stand). ●don’t build their own nests. Instead they live in tree cavities, such as old woodpecker holes. ●get their name from the screechy sound they make. They also whinny like a horse, bark, hoot and make chuckling noises; juveniles beg for food with a rasping noise. More about: Owls in your neighborhood We share our neighborhoods with small predators such as screech owls. At dusk, they hunt insects, small birds and rodents. You might find one by: ●learning their variety of calls by visiting such Web sites as www.allaboutbirds.org and birds.audubon.org. ●searching, with a parent, in late winter or early spring. Go out at night with a flashlight, and look up in parks or other areas with tall trees. Listen! You’re more likely to hear a screech owl than to see one. If you find an injured owl or other wild animal, contact a wildlife rehabilitator. Help can be found at City Wildlife in Washington (202-882-1000 or www.citywildlife.org), Northern Virginia’s Wildlife Rescue League (703-440-0800 or www.wildliferescueleague.org/hotline_info) and the Maryland Wildlife Rehabilitators Association’s directory (www.mwra.org/pages/referral-directory.php).


If you’re white, that joint probably won’t lead to jail time

end of a racially divided war on drugs. But while Colorado and Washington certainly aren’t the whitest states in the nation — Colorado is 14th and Washington 26th — history has shown that decriminalization, like the war on drugs itself, remains colored by racism. In 2009, Massachusetts decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana. While this resulted in a decline in overall arrests, racial disparities continued. And although New York passed a decriminalization bill in 1977 — making possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana punishable by a $100 fine for the first offense — the NYPD still arrested about 440,000 people from 2002 to 2012, with 85 percent being black and Latino even though young whites use marijuana at higher rates. So forgive us if we are not ready to celebrate the most recent moves to decriminalize marijuana. Decriminalization may lead to fewer arrests of African Americans and Latinos. But the consequences of past unjust arrests give us pause. And as state budgets are slashed and taxes are cut in Colorado and Washington and throughout the country, decriminalization is tied to states’ desire to cash in on the marijuana market. It’s not about ending the war on drugs. After 40 years, the war on drugs has locked up millions of African Americans and Latinos; it has destroyed families and communities. The decriminalization movement, and the acceptance of medical marijuana, do little to stop such damage. If you listened to politicians, commentators and activists, you would think America has undergone a dramatic change in drug-control policy in a few weeks’ time that will usher in a new day for race, crime and punishment. We are unconvinced. People with black and brown skin get very little leeway to experiment or self-medicate with drugs. When they do use marijuana, they’re much more likely to be viewed as criminal. For white America, being young and stupid, and having the ability to experiment with drugs and laugh about it later — as David Brooks, Bill Clinton, stop-and-frisk defender Michael Bloomberg and plenty of others have done — is the embodiment of privilege. Breaking the law is often easily erased with a breath mint, a high-priced lawyer, or just a nod and wink from the criminal justice system. The war on drugs has left white America relatively unscathed. stacey.patton@chronicle.com djl@wsu.edu Read more from Outlook, friend us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.


A. Dexter Hinckley, EPA ecologist, dies at 82

A. Dexter Hinckley, an Environmental Protection Agency ecologist for more than 20 years before retiring in 1994, died Dec. 23 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He was 82. The cause was cardiac arrest, said his daughter Frances Hinckley. Alden Dexter Hinckley was a New York City native and a 1953 graduate of Harvard University. He received a master’s degree in 1956 and a doctorate in 1960, both in entomology from the University of Hawaii. Early in his career, he worked on tropical pest control in the South Pacific and studied the effects of radiation on insects while working at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. He taught ecology at the University of Virginia in the early 1970s. He was a volunteer at the Washington National Zoo and the butterfly exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution. He was a member of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Alexandria. He was an Alexandria resident. Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Nora Matsumura Hinckley of Alexandria; five children, Monica Lynch of Springfield, Va., Damien Hinckley of Alexandria, Cathy Clark of Aldie, Va., Teresa Leinweber of Ottawa Hills, Ohio, and Frances Hinckley of Hoboken, N.J.; and 11 grandchildren. — Adam Bernstein


Goldbely helps foodies find iconic regional dishes, shipped to their doors

WASHINGTON, DC. JAN.9, 2014: Ben’s Chili Bowl’s shipping manager Mike Kipp fills an order with assistant manager, Virgil Monroe , ordered from Goldbely. Goldbely customers usually place orders of chili con carne or half-smokes which are packed in styrofoam boxes, in Washington, DC on Jan., 2014. (Jeffrey MacMillan/Jeffrey MacMillan) Each afternoon, Ben’s Chili Bowl Shipping Manager Mike Kipp spends a few hours preparing large orders of the U Street restaurant’s signature smoked sausage and chili con carne. These orders aren’t for Washington residents. Instead, they’re packed into plastic foam boxes lined with dry ice packs to be shipped across the country to people who crave dishes only found in the District. Many of these orders are made through Goldbely, a San Francisco-based Internet start-up helping foodies discover famous dishes from across the United States. Goldbely’s 12-person staff selects restaurants to feature on the site, and, for a small fee, takes orders for them online. Restaurants do their own shipping and receive payment from Goldbely after orders are fulfilled. Featured items include deep dish pizzas from Lou Malnati’s in Chicago, black-and-white cookies from William Greenberg Desserts in New York, crab cakes from Angelina’s of Maryland in Brooklandville, and cooked crabs from Harbour House of Crabs in Eastern Shore, among others. Goldbely has partnered with 115 restaurants. Reddit.com co-founder and start-up investor Alexis Ohanian, who grew up in Columbia, said he uses the site about once a month to order food for himself or to send gifts to friends and family, he said in an interview. He shares Redskins season tickets with his father, and often orders from Ben’s Chili Bowl for tailgate parties. Though Ohanian said he enjoys ordering from his favorite restaurants far from his New York residence — Ben’s Chili Bowl, or a Memphis barbecue restaurant Charles Vergo’s Rendezvous, for instance — he often orders food he’s never tried before. A graduate of Mountain View, Calif. start-up accelerator YCombinator, Goldbely is backed by $3 million in an early-stage financing round led by Intel Capital. Though Goldbely declined to share specific revenue figures, founder Joe Ariel estimated the start-up has taken in about $1 million in orders since it launched a few months ago. Goldbely is a valuable way to reach customers outside the Washington area who might never walk past the store, said Ben’s Chili Bowl owner Nizam Ali, and the site attracts people interested in trying new dishes.


Keeping cats inside for their — and other animals’ — safety

Courtland Milloy’s Jan. 1 Metro column, “This tabby could teach dogs a thing or two,” started well with the adoption of a stray cat but then delivered the wrong message about cat ownership. Milloy noted that the cat captured the family’s love but added that they “let the cat come indoors, then go back out as she pleased.” He said that, “Outdoors, she behaves like a tiger. . . . She is, quite frankly, awesome — except for the times when she brings her kill home to show off and play with.” This perpetuates the notion that it is natural and normal to allow cats to hunt outdoors. Yes, the Milloy cat behaves like a tiger: Cats, both domestic and strays, are particularly devastating to native birds and mammals, killing an average of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals a year. In fact, cats are one of the single greatest human-linked threats to wildlife in the nation. Granted, many cats are feral, and there are mixed arguments about how to address that population. But pet owners should not add to the problem by allowing their cats to prowl around neighborhoods to prey on wildlife. Cats also face dangers: cars, dogs, coyotes and even licking antifreeze and sewer sludge. Fortunately, Milloy’s cat can learn to enjoy life as an indoor-only pet. I love cats and have converted outdoor felines to be happy inside dwellers. And the birds and other wildlife are luckier for it. Kasha Helget, Alexandria The writer is a member of the Arlington Regional Master Naturalists. ● In his Jan. 1 Metro column, Courtland Milloy mentioned that his son gave a stray cat a bowl of milk. Other than kittens, cats cannot properly digest milk. It makes them sick. Peter Miller, Martinsburg, W.Va.


Tax reform is the best way to tackle income inequality

paean to inclusion it is not. A policy shift in favor of mass prosperity — dynamism and inclusion — is best conducted via fundamental tax reform. The discussion and policies to be considered, however, should look different from those in the present debate. The Obama administration has supported raising taxes on high-income earners and corporations to pay for expanded benefits to low-income Americans. Such an approach is unlikely to raise labor demand or labor-market earnings for those or other workers. The opposing view, by contrast, centers on classic tax reform of “broaden the base, lower the rates.” Unlike the Obama administration proposals, this tax reform will increase capital accumulation, economic growth and employment. But it is insufficient for increasing the inclusion of low-wage workers, whose incomes may not benefit fully from economic growth. Two elements of tax reform stand out in an agenda for dynamism and inclusion. For employees, the tax code does little to encourage human capital formation, education or skills development. For many Americans, a simplification and expansion of education-related deductions would be a positive step. With an eye toward raising inclusion in the labor force, one could consider a voucher for low-income individuals for education, training, tuition or their children’s education. A second employee-based approach builds on the earned-income tax credit, which promotes work as it reduces poverty. While successful, the credit could be improved if inclusion were the goal. As currently constructed, the credit mixes support for families with a tax credit on earnings. Increasing the credit for childless workers to an amount closer to that for families with children would augment the direct work incentive and help counter poverty among the working poor. Greater support for inclusion through training and worker or employment subsidies must be financed, of course. Options include a consumption-based tax reform to substitute for payroll taxes, high marginal tax rates on wages and/or progressive reductions in the growth of Social Security and Medicare benefits. Making progress on dynamism and inclusion requires a shift in policy priorities toward enabling work and success over simple economic security. Progress also requires boldness. In this regard, the president’s parry on inequality and the minimum wage is small beer. E.J. Dionne Jr. The social justice majority Katrina vanden Heuvel: 2014 promises positive change Dana Milbank: Where is the left’s voice? Kathleen Parker: Inequality of language muddies debate Glenn Hubbard: A new mandate for the Federal Reserve


George Mitchell: Confronting cheaters is sports’ never-ending challenge

years, citing concerns for players’ privacy rights, the Major League Baseball Players Association (the union that represents the players) opposed mandatory, random drug testing of its members. But in 2002, under pressure from the public and Congress, baseball and the Players Association adopted such a program. While that program reduced the use of steroids, the use of human growth hormone expanded because it was not detectable through urine testing. While much of the media coverage of the report focused on the players it identified, my recommendations for reform were the heart of the report. They included improvements to baseball’s drug prevention and treatment program, such as requiring periodic reports of aggregate drug testing activity, making the program more independent, increasing the frequency of testing and improving the collection process to ensure effective testing. I also recommended that the baseball commissioner more aggressively investigate evidence of use or possession of prohibited substances by players, including by establishing a department of investigations. The Post editorial cartoonist picks his favorites from the past year. The commissioner adopted all of my recommendations that were not subject to the collective bargaining process. Later, he and the Players Association agreed to changes that incorporated most of the remaining recommendations. Looking back, my most important recommendation was the establishment of a department of investigations to gather evidence of use of performance-enhancing steroids from sources other than drug tests. An important lesson learned is that drug testing is not a foolproof detection method: It’s an ongoing cat-and-mouse game between the cheaters, their enablers and those who use science to prevent cheating. With its investigative capacity, baseball has another weapon in enforcement. Some social problems persist despite laws to prevent them. Every society has laws against crime, but no one expects an end to crime; it’s a continuing problem that must be aggressively deterred and punished. So it is with the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports. There will always be people who want so badly to gain a competitive edge that they are willing to cheat, even at great personal risk to their health. There also will be those who see profit in meeting that demand. As the money offered to premier athletes continues to rise rapidly, the risk-reward ratio skews increasingly to greater risk-taking. All sports, not just baseball and not just professional sports, face a continuing challenge. Major League Baseball has moved in recent years to


Politicians, Muslim scholars join vaccination effort as violence hinders Pakistan polio drive

World Health Organization in Islamabad who heads the national polio vaccine campaign. “In places where the vaccinators can go, there is very little resistance. The major problem is that most cases are coming from areas where the vaccinators are not able to go.” Health workers and officials have tried for years to persuade conservative Muslims to accept the vaccines. Violence against polio workers flared after revelations in 2011 that the CIA used a separate immunization campaign as a ruse to gain information about Osama bin Laden before he was killed in Pakistan. The attacks have continued sporadically ever since. Spokesmen for the Pakistani Taliban deny carrying out the recent attacks, none of which has been solved. But the extremist group opposes the vaccines as a Western conspiracy against Islam. In districts that are too dangerous for health workers to enter, officials said, several hundred thousand children have not been immunized. As a consequence, the number of new cases in the country has risen sharply, from 51 in 2012. Sami ul-Haq “I felt it was important for the facts to be clear so people will not be confused,” ul-Haq, who was recently named as a government peace emissary to the Pakistani Taliban, said in an interview at his seminary. His vaccinated grandson Mohammed, 2, sat on his lap. “Islam says that treating all diseases is a must.” One reason prominent Pakistanis are speaking up about polio is because of the growing threat of foreign quarantines and travel restrictions, especially for Pakistani workers abroad whose wages help prop up the nation’s teetering economy. On Jan. 3, the government of India issued a mid-February deadline for all Pakistani visitors to obtain proof of polio immunization. In a one-room vaccine clinic at a hospital near ul-Haq’s seminary, several women with covered faces waited on a recent afternoon for their babies to be immunized against polio and other diseases. The women said they did not know what the word “polio” meant, but they used a local term for “cripple” and said they wanted their children to be protected. “We believe this is something good to serve humanity,” said Momin Khan, 53, a turbaned cattle farmer who had brought his wife with their infant grandson to be immunized. The clinic technician, Jamal Shah, recounted that when the government began immunizing children against polio in the 1980s, many people believed the vaccines were a Western plot to


Some relatives of homicide victims want morgue photos as keepsakes

They are unsettling and sought-after mementos of death. Morgue photos of District homicide victims are showing up in the hands of grieving relatives, who, after identifying loved ones lost to violence, can obtain a print to take home. The D.C. government sells glossy pictures for $10 each. It’s unusual, but not unheard of, for medical examiners to provide families with photos of departed kin, although most often it’s done only after the autopsy, the police investigation and court proceedings are complete. Practices differ across the country: As a rule, Maryland does not release photos to relatives or to anyone else; Virginia does, free, under tightly controlled circumstances. Families of D.C. homicide victims aren’t criticizing the District for providing photos of the faces of the deceased. Some embrace the chance to have what they consider an important keepsake, even one that might make others cringe. It might be the only way to come to terms with the death. Or it might help fill an agonizing void for parents unable to witness their child’s last breath or even see the body at the funeral home. “I want to see my baby,” said JoAnn Lee, who pulled out a morgue photo as she talked with a reporter about her daughter, Candance Reed, who was stabbed to death in November outside a bar in Northwest Washington. Lee, a 66-year-old Ohio resident, carries the photo with her in an envelope. Tinamarie Spencer rushed to a hospital after her son Robert was shot in the chest in September, but staff workers denied her access to the 21-year-old’s body. She identified him from a photo at the D.C. medical examiner’s office that shows just his face, his lips taut. His mother says it shows that her son died smiling. “Myself, and my son’s godmother needed that for reassurance that my son was at peace,” Spencer said after buying two photos. Beverly Fields, a spokeswoman for the D.C. medical examiner’s office, said that photos are available to families and that the fee covers administrative and processing costs. The money goes into the city’s general treasury. The District morgue relies on photos to make identifications. Relatives, she said, are “not able to see the body in person, so many do want a photo. That’s the closest thing they have.” Officials were unable to say how many photos have been requested and sold. The medical examiner lists the prices —


N.Y. governor takes careful step on medical marijuana

NEW YORK — While nearly two dozen states have approved marijuana for medical purposes and Colorado and Washington have legalized its use for pleasure, Cuomo (D) is tapping a 1980 state law to allow as many as 20 hospitals to dispense the drug to people with certain severe illnesses as an experimental research project. “I’m absolutely thrilled that he’s actually verbalized the words ‘medical marijuana,’ but he’s just got to go further,” said Susan Rusinko, a 52-year-old central New York resident who said a hit of pot is a “wonder drug” that relaxes immobilizing leg spasms from her multiple sclerosis. It’s unclear whether she would even qualify for Cuomo’s initiative or whether there would be a participating hospital near her. While advocates are frustrated, Cuomo’s limited embrace of medical marijuana may be a politically astute and scientifically sensitive move on an issue on which popular enthusiasm has outpaced a weak body of medical research, experts say. Some doctors avidly back using cannabis to treat problems ranging from chemotherapy-related nausea to chronic pain, but other medical experts say there are good reasons for caution. While the marijuana plant holds tantalizing possibilities, they say, it’s still a question mark as medicines go. Cuomo’s initiative is styled as a test of whether pot can be effectively used as medicine without being abused. “This does not start with a premise: ‘Oh, this is a slam dunk. . . . We can do it without any ancillary problems,’ ” he told reporters Monday. “It’s the exact opposite.” Under his plan, people with cancer, glaucoma and possibly some other “life-threatening or sense-threatening” conditions could seek to get marijuana through studies based at hospitals yet to be named, with “stringent research protocols and eligibility requirements.” Cuomo’s initiative bypasses a state legislature that has weighed but failed to pass more ambitious medical marijuana laws. He’s relying instead on his administrative powers to carry out a 1980 law allowing medical-marijuana research. Critics think medical marijuana is an entree to more recreational use of a drug that was widely outlawed in the United States in the 1930s. “I think it sends the wrong signal to our young people,” said Michael Long, chairman of the New York Conservative Party. Supporters say the marijuana plant is effective against various ailments, including backaches, anxiety and seizures. If the medical science is unsettled, allowing pharmaceutical pot is popular with New Yorkers. A Quinnipiac University


Dale T. Mortensen, Nobel-winning economist, dies at 74

Dale T. Mortensen, a Northwestern University professor who shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in economics for developing innovative methods to analyze unemployment and labor markets, died Jan. 9 at his home in Wilmette, Ill. He was 74. His death was announced by Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where he had taught since 1965. He had lung cancer. Early in his career, Dr. Mortensen became interested in two phenomena in the labor market that seemed to defy both common sense and the prevailing ideas of economics. He wanted to know why some people remained unemployed when businesses had jobs they could not fill, and he wondered why similar jobs could have significantly different salaries. Dr. Mortensen shared the Nobel, and its $1.5 million in prize money, with two other economists, Peter Diamond of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Christopher Pissarides of the London School of Economics. In the 1980s, they devised a method to study the dynamics of unemployment and the effects of government policies on the labor market. Their method became known as the DMP Model, for Diamond, Mortensen and Pissarides, and is widely used by scholars and government economists. Dale Mortensen, Nobel Prize-winning economist from Northwestern University. (Lars Kruse) In simple terms, Dr. Mortensen said when he won the Nobel Prize, his ideas revolved around this basic truth: “It takes time for workers to find jobs and for employers to find workers.” In classic supply-and-demand economics, in which the market is allowed to operate with maximum efficiency and minimum governmental interference, the number of jobs and job seekers would be equal — a theoretical condition called a “perfect market.” Similarly, according to a 19th-century concept called the “law of one price,” a commodity — whether a product or a salary — should have the same price wherever it was available. Dr. Mortensen recognized that we do not live in a perfect world. “Any sort of deviations from so-called ‘perfect markets’ — which is just an ideal, right? — is called a friction,” he explained to an interviewer from the Nobel committee in 2010. His goal was to account for these “frictions,” or inefficiencies in the marketplace. Some economists and politicians have explained the differential by suggesting that generous unemployment benefits made people less likely to look for work. Dr. Mortensen found that even in a robust economy, some people are always unemployed, and some businesses have openings they


Survey: America has changed. Have government and business?

the changing reality of American families as compared with those who say government should do what it can to promote traditional marriage and two-parent households. The survey looked at attitudes of all Americans and particularly “women on the brink,” which the authors say account for one in three women in America, probing issues of financial well-being, government policy, and personal decisions that have affected individuals’ lives. The polling was done by the Democratic firm of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and the Republican firm TargetPoint Consulting. One section of the survey prefaced questions by noting the statistics on births to women under age 30 and asked people about the best role for government in these times. Far more Americans say government should address society as it now is rather than seeking to return to what it was. For example, the survey found that 64 percent of all respondents and 77 percent of women on the brink agreed with this statement: “Government should set a goal of helping society adapt to the reality of single-parent families and use its resources to help children and mothers succeed regardless of their family status.” In contrast, only a bare majority of Americans and of women on the brink agreed with this statement: “Government should set a goal of reducing the number of children born to single parents and use its resources to encourage marriage and two-parent-families.” More Americans agreed that women raising children on their own face major challenges and that government, business and communities should help them financially than those who agreed with the statement that unmarried women who have children should take complete financial responsibility for those children. The contrasting choices framed what remains a broad political divide over the impact of cultural and demographic changes that have transformed the country in a matter of decades. Research has shown that children have a greater opportunity for success if they are raised in intact, two-parent households. But the answers to the survey indicate that many people, particularly financially stressed women who head single-parent households, say government should worry less about what has happened and do more to find ways to help their families succeed. Women and men expressed general optimism about their financial futures, though younger women were far more positive than older women. Almost nine in 10 women under age 30 said they believe their financial situation will get better during the next


Robert Gates: A man still at war

of a bookcase is what looks like a large stone tile ripped from a terrace, except its middle is blown through. The brass plaque underneath says: “Because of this MRAP, four soldiers walked away from an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] attack in Cheshmeh-e-Shir, Afghanistan, on Oct. 3, 2010. Your commitment to equip our troopers saved their lives.” It helps, when you’re an ex-secretary of defense, to be reminded of the good, because it’s so easy to think of the countless cemeteries down countless winding roads where families have buried their sons and daughters in the name of national security or foreign policy or democracy or freedom, or whatever these wars have been for, or against. In Kunar province, Afghanistan in late 2010, Gates pins combat -infantry badges on soldiers at Forward Operating Base Connolly. Reflecting on the troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially those who died, Gates says: “I think about ’em every day.” (Win McNamee/Getty Images) Iraq is teetering again on chaos. Afghanistan, where service members are still dying, has not signed its security agreement with the U.S. military, which is due to exit by year’s end. A man who occupied an “unimaginably powerful position,” as he describes the secretary of defense, can move as far away from Washington as he wants, and Washington will still find him, especially if he writes a book. A journalist will track muddy shoeprints into his study and ask questions. Is America capable of processing these long-term conflicts without using the word “victory”? When do we know if it was wholly worth it? Gates clears his throat. “I’ve thought about it,” he says. “And I think that — I mean what I would say is that — is that we — I think we accomplished the main objective in Iraq, in the sense that we stabilized the country and we handed the Iraqis a golden opportunity. . . . I think in terms of why [troops] were sent to Afghanistan — that that not become a place from which we can be attacked again — is a worthwhile objective. And if there is a sacrifice in achieving that, that’s a worthwhile sacrifice.” When you start a war, he writes in the book, you lose control. You commit to uncertainty. “It’s like those who fought in [the Soviet war in] Afghanistan on the mujahideen side,” says Gates, who was a high-ranking CIA


Maryland should slow down on pot legalization

MARYLAND GOV. Martin O’Malley (D) has said he’s “not much in favor” of following Colorado and Washington state down the path of legalizing marijuana sales. His opposition probably seals the fate of the major pro-pot bills introduced in the state legislature this year. Still, momentum for legalization is building, and the term-limited Mr. O’Malley will be gone in a year. So here’s a question for cannabis-loving lawmakers in Annapolis, led by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert): What’s the rush? The arguments for and against legalizing, regulating and taxing retail marijuana have been around for years, but a few things have changed. One is public opinion, which has tilted clearly toward more lenient treatment of people who possess small amounts of pot and, more gradually, outright legalization. That, and the supposed lure of tens of millions of dollars in sales-tax revenue for state treasuries, led to new laws in Colorado, where legal retail sales of marijuana began Jan. 1, and Washington, where they will begin later this year. Over time, those two states should provide answers, or at least significant new data, that shed light on the real costs and benefits of allowing adults to buy pot openly and legally. Right now, the cost-benefit equation is mainly a matter of conjecture. Studies to date, in the 20 or so states where legal medical marijuana is available, are of limited use. Will the new laws in Colorado and Washington lead to increased use? More marijuana in schools? Spiking rates of addiction and treatment? Widespread “smurfing” by people who go from store to store buying 1-ounce bags (the per purchase limit) and selling them on the black market? Perhaps most important, will the wide availability of marijuana in those two states prompt people to drink more alcohol, especially when they drive, or less? And will there be more stoned driving, which itself is dangerous? The answers to those questions, critical for public health and safety, are unknown. Given the stakes — the already-staggering carnage on the nation’s roadways caused by drunk (and stoned) drivers, and the risk of more of the same — that’s a powerful argument in favor of gathering more information before rushing headlong toward legalization. A couple of generations of Americans have come of age amid relatively widespread use of pot; many are inured to its effects. It is true that THC, marijuana’s active ingredient, is generally less


Two U-Md. workers injured in flash fire at dorm

Authorities said two workers at the University of Maryland College Park suffered injuries Monday from a flash fire after they had worked on a malfunctioning heating and air conditioning unit on the roof of a dorm. One of the workers suffered injuries that were serious but not life-threatening and was taken to a trauma center, according to Prince George’s County spokesman Mark Brady. The worker’s injuries involved “serious trauma to the upper body,” according to Brady. The second person sustained “less serious injuries,” Brady said, and was taken to an area hospital. The incident was reported at 9 a.m. on social media outlets of the university police and Prince George’s County fire officials. Police evacuated the area and warned people to stay away. Oakland Hall, the nine-story dorm where the incident occurred, is home to about 700 students, according to the university’s Web site. Police at the University of Maryland said in a Twitter message just after 9 a.m. that “preliminary indications are a HVAC unit caught fire on top of Oakland Hall. Fire is out.” Get updates on your area delivered via e-mail.


Sochi 2014: Noelle Pikus-Pace turns Olympic journey into a family trip

Even though stars like Lindsey Vonn will not be competing in this year's Olympics, here are seven other U.S. athletes who may step into the Sochi spotlight. In the Olympics, everything is measurable, and by now, Noelle Pikus-Pace doesn’t need any help running the numbers. The difference between medal and disappointment: exactly one-tenth of a second. The difference between retirement and being one of the world’s top-ranked skeleton racers: one harrowing tragedy. And the difference between the upcoming Sochi Games and her previous two Olympic tries: an unusual and unrelenting support system. Pikus-Pace, 31, competes in a head-first sport — 80-plus mph, sliding down a sheet of ice — and as she was deciding whether to even take aim at another Olympics, she knew there was only one way to do it: She wanted her family traveling with her, a rarity on the globe-trotting World Cup circuit. “Having them there, they’re my support system; they’re my everything,” said Pikus-Pace, a medal favorite next month in Sochi. So much has changed for Pikus-Pace since the Vancouver Games four years ago. Then, she was just happy to make the Olympic team. She missed the 2006 Games after a runaway bobsled — nearly 1,400 pounds and traveling more than 60 mph — hit her during training. She went flying, about 30 feet, and when she looked down, she saw bone protruding from her right leg — an Olympic dream deferred. Given the substantial recovery, just reaching Vancouver felt like an accomplishment. After four strong runs there, she was less than a second removed from the gold medal and all of 0.1 seconds away from bronze. “I was happy,” she says now. “Not satisfied but happy with my fourth-place finish.” She retired from the sport and set about growing her family, which already included a precocious young girl, Lacee, and boy, Traycen, who was born in 2011. She became pregnant again in 2012 and was 18 weeks in — she had just learned they’d be having another girl — when she suffered a miscarriage. The family was at a crossroads: try again, or was there something else calling? Was Pikus-Pace really content to simply make an Olympic team? “There was always that little twinge of, ‘Oh man, there’s still a little bit more to give,’” she said. Pikus-Pace and her husband, Janson, processed their loss, prayed a lot — the two are devout Mormons


The best way to open the pomegranate, a super fruit

dark days of winter. But how do you get to the seeds? It can be a messy, inefficient affair. There’s a lot of good help online — and it comes from pomegranate-loving cultures around the world. Most can be found with a quick YouTube search. Peshwaz Faizulla But to get the most fun along with your Vitamin C, tune into http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXG1X_Z293M">Crazy Russian Hacker, a self-described “natural zombie killer” whose video is aggressively entitled “You’ve been eating pomegranate wrong all your life.” Standing in what looks like a vacant lot, wearing a dirty T-shirt and wielding a vicious-looking knife more suited to a zombie movie than a kitchen, he speaks in a heavy Russian accent, beginning with “this is a — ‘pomagan’? How you pronounce this?” and ends by eating seeds exuberantly by the handful. But his method works. Running Get ready for your 26.2 Runner’s World 2014 Marathon Guide The January issue of Runner’s World is all about planning for a year of successful marathons. It features a list of the best races launched in the past five years, based on how fast the times were, how good the scenery is and how lively the socializing is. The list also covers a broad geographic range. In June’s Utah Valley Marathon, for example, runners spend the first third of the race more than a mile above sea level before a gentle descent to Provo. The Tobacco Road Marathon in March is mostly on a crushed-granite rail trail through the North Carolina pine woods. The Illinois Marathon in Champaign-Urbana in April ends dramatically on the 50-yard line of the University of Illinois’s football stadium. (Runners can check their stats on the 36-foot-high scoreboard.) The Rockfest Marathon in October winds along a large chunk of New Hampshire’s coastline. The Santa Barbara Marathon in November offers glimpses of the Pacific and keeps California’s Santa Ynez Mountains almost continually in view; this seems to be the splashiest of races, starting with a flyover of World War II fighter planes and featuring kettle drums, orchestras and bagpipers performing along the route. Elsewhere in the magazine, the editors offer advice on goals and training, plus a wish list for 2014. Beginning with hopes for a good Boston Marathon, where bombers killed three people and injured hundreds in 2013, it ends with the wish “that a lack of incidents will allow an easing of race security.” Ditto that.


Local digest: Police ID shooting victim; terror case sentencing; pedestrian killed; U-Md. fire

store A man in his 40s was killed Monday after he was struck by a minivan while walking on a sidewalk along Route 1 in Hyattsville. The incident occurred about 7:30 a.m. in the 4800 block of Rhode Island Avenue, said Mark Brady, a spokesman for the Prince George’s Fire Department. The driver of the minivan apparently lost control of the vehicle and hit the man, then went through the plate-glass window of a store along Route 1. Monday evening, WSSC, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties’ water utility, said in a news release that it knew of two pipe leaks in the 4800 block. “At this time, we have not heard anything official” from the Prince George’s Police Department, it said. “We will cooperate fully in their investigation.” The woman who was driving the minivan suffered minor injuries, according to Brady, and was “trapped for a short period of time” in the vehicle. Both she and the injured pedestrian were transported to hospitals. The man, whose name and exact age was not released, later died, according to Officer Nicole Hubbard, a spokeswoman with the Prince George’s County police. The car appeared to have struck a neighboring bail bonds business as well. Inside the adjacent space, a white wall was split at least once from nearly the floor to ceiling. Route 1, also known as Rhode Island Avenue, was closed for roughly an hour as investigators were on the scene of the accident. — Dana Hedgpeth and Patrick Svitek U-Md. workers hurt in fire on roof of dorm Authorities said two workers at the University of Maryland at College Park were hurt Monday by a flash fire after they had worked on a malfunctioning heating and air conditioning unit on the roof of a dorm. One of the workers suffered injuries that were serious but not life-threatening and was taken to a trauma center, according to Prince George’s County spokesman Mark Brady. The worker’s injuries involved “serious trauma to the upper body,” Brady said. The second person suffered “less serious injuries,” Brady said, and was taken to a hospital. The incident was reported at 9 a.m. on social media outlets of the university police and Prince George’s County fire officials. Police evacuated the area and warned people to stay away. Oakland Hall, where the incident occurred, is home to about 700 students, according to the university’s Web site. — Dana Hedgpeth


U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions rising

storage facilities that are preventing a glut of gas on the market. As a result, some electric utilities found it economical to shift back to coal, increasing emissions. — Brad Plumer BANKING U.S. charges 3 with Yen Libor rigging Three former traders at Dutch lender Rabobank were charged by the United States with engaging in a five-year scheme to manipulate Yen Libor in a conspiracy beginning in 2006, prosecutors alleged in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court. Paul Robson of the United Kingdom, Paul Thompson of Australia and Tetsuya Motomura of Japan were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, as well as two counts of wire fraud. None of the men are in U.S. custody, a court official said. From about May 2006 to January 2011, the three men and unidentified “others” at the bank “agreed to make false and fraudulent Yen Libor submissions for the benefit of their trading positions,” according to the government. The U.S. alleged that they traded in derivative products that referenced Yen Libor. Rabobank on Oct. 29 entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department as part of its investigation in benchmarks including Libor, the London Interbank Offered Rate, and agreed to pay a $325 million penalty. In the New York case, each defendant faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of each charge. “These three traders — working from Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom — deliberately submitted what they called ‘obscenely high’ or ‘silly low’ Libor rates in order to benefit their own trading positions,” Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Mythili Raman said in a statement. — Bloomberg News Also in Business ● Sales at Lululemon Athletica’s established stores will probably fall in its latest quarter because traffic and sales in January slowed “meaningfully,” the first year-on-year drop since 2009, the once high-flying yogawear retailer warned. The stock dropped nearly 17 percent. Lululemon, which was forced to recall some of its signature black stretchy yoga pants last March because they were too sheer, had warned of a slowdown last month. ● Federal investigators have determined that 400,000 gallons of oil was lost last month when a train derailed and sparked massive explosions in North Dakota, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report released Monday. The NTSB is studying what role a broken axle might have played in the derailment. How much


Charles Lane: High-speed rail in California runs into a low-speed process

Who is more powerful, the president of the United States or Michael P. Kenny of Sacramento? Before you answer, consider this sequence of events: In April 2009, President Obama announced his “Vision for High Speed Rail” in America, backed by $8 billion in stimulus funds. The president pitched the plan in subsequent State of the Union addresses, signaling his commitment and that of his administration. Fifty-five months later, on Nov. 25, 2013, Kenny, who happens to be a state judge, ruled that California could not sell billions of dollars worth of bonds earmarked for the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles portion of Obama’s plan. The state had no valid financial plan, and state law requires one, Kenny decided. Now the entire project, backed not only by Obama but also by California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), is in limbo. Construction might begin someday. But whenever that is, it will be long after the Great Recession, which high-speed rail was supposed to help relieve. It’s another reality check for Obama’s high-speed-rail “vision” — and for the popular idea that government-infrastructure projects can create jobs in the short run and enhance the economy’s capacity for growth in the long run. More than a few economists — Obama’s former adviser Lawrence Summers prominent among them — argue plausibly that today’s low-interest-rate environment is an ideal time for government to borrow huge sums “to renew and build out our infrastructure,” as Summers put in a recent Post op-ed. But what if it takes forever just to get construction started? As evidenced by the fact that a single state judge can thwart a multibillion-dollar project backed by the leader of the free world, what often slows government infrastructure plans is government itself — or, more precisely, the peculiar structure of American government. The United States, with its semi-sovereign states, separation of powers and multiple “veto points,” especially litigation, was not designed for the swift approval and execution of big, national construction projects. Federally funded “internal improvements,” in fact, were the stuff of bitter legal and political conflict in the early republic. Like the Republican governors of Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida who rejected Obama’s funding for high-speed rail in their states, antebellum foes of public works feared that they would waste taxpayer money and aggrandize the federal government. Overcoming opposition has often required war or other national emergency. In 1862, the Civil War helped President Abraham Lincoln make the


Henry A. Kissinger: Ariel Sharon’s journey from soldier to statesman

of warfare. And it viewed the peace process both with reluctance to give up territory in an environment so rife with denunciation and with a definition of peace so sweeping as to be very difficult to achieve in a single negotiation. When he was struck down by a stroke in 2006 , Sharon as prime minister was in the process of putting before his people a vision of coexistence with the Palestinians. Many visionaries of peace in Israel were military men: Yitzhak Rabin won the 1967 war. Shimon Peres, though not a military man, went the same route: a hawk in his early career, a passionate advocate of the peace process in recent decades. Sharon had to undertake the longest journey to reach this insight. A daring commander, he conducted the battle that reversed the tide of the 1973 war; he was the principal advocate of the operations in Lebanon. For many years, he deplored America’s decision in 1973 to bring about a negotiated end of the war. I was secretary of state at the time, and he missed few opportunities to chide me. A collection of Tom Toles cartoons about international news. The United States acted as it did then because we were convinced that, however vast the margin of victory, it would leave Israel with its historic challenge: how to translate victories over threats to its security into political coexistence with the societies it lived among. The Egyptian leader, Anwar Sadat, seemed to offer such a prospect. In our many discussions, I always respected, then grew to admire and eventually develop affection for, this dedicated man living on a farm at the edge of the Negev desert, a kind of symbolic outpost. I looked forward to his visits while he was out of office; he would arrive at our meetings with maps under his arm that he used to explain the minimum requirements of Israel’s survival. As prime minister, Sharon unexpectedly broadened his definition of security. He sought to bridge the gap between physical and political security with the same courage and decisiveness that had brought him victory in battle. He volunteered the largest withdrawal in Israel’s history. He ended the Israeli occupation of Gaza and returned it to Arab self-rule as a unilateral act without reciprocity, abandoning even the Jewish settlements that had been established there. These gestures were conceived as a test case for a negotiation


National Symphony, Washington Performing Arts reach out with residency, new initiative

own role in maintaining cultural practice.” The model Bilfield is suggesting — bringing in a curator to unearth the variety of things that are going on in Washington under the audience’s radar — is new. The idea of using the arts for social interaction is not. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Citizen Musician Initiative is, in the words of the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, “open to and inviting of people of all colors and stripes, not just professional musicians but members of the civic orchestras and administrators,” to engineer social change. In Baltimore, the orchestra programmed a whole season a few years back with an eye to the different ethnic communities in that region, including Hungarian emigres and transplanted Southerners. Individual artists are doing their own forms of outreach: The composer Tod Machover solicited contributions from the entire population of Toronto for “A Toronto Symphony,” while the composer-pianist Vijay Iyer worked with veterans of color of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for “Holding It Down: the Veterans’ Dream Project.” “Everybody is looking at what it means to be part of the community,” says Margaret M. Lioi, the chief executive of the service organization Chamber Music America. Chamber music ensembles, more flexible and portable than a 100-piece orchestra, have led the way in reaching out beyond the walls of the concert hall. “These are not any longer what used to be called outreach activities,” Lioi says. “These are actual performances taking place in community locations such as bookstores or yoga studios or coffee shops. . . . It’s very much a part now of the fabric of the chamber music field.” Ensembles are no longer simply performing to an audience “sitting in the dark, behaving.” Even with the large-scale orchestral residencies, some of the impetus may be that the musicians find the work fulfilling. No one supposes that a few concerts in Union Station are going to lead to a bunch of new subscribers in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. But they might be able to expand awareness of the orchestra in the District — and expand the orchestra’s awareness of itself. “I don’t think [such residencies are] primarily a marketing and audience-development strategy in the near term,” says Jesse Rosen, the president and chief executive of the League of American Orchestras. “I think it’s more around creating public value, creating greater accessibility and creating more varied ways for musicians to express themselves.”


Gates plays down suggestions that Obama’s opposition to Iraq surge was political

suggestions in his new tell-all memoir that President Obama may have opposed the U.S. troop increase in Iraq in 2007 for political reasons. “What I say in the book was that the president conceded a lot of opposition to the surge had been political,” Gates said on NBC’s “Today” show during a promotional tour for his book, “Duty,” which will go on sale Tuesday. “He never said that his opposition had been political. And, in fact, his opposition was consistent with his opposition to the war all along.” President George W. Bush sent more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq in 2007 as part of a controversial strategy to reduce violence in the country, which the United States had invaded four years earlier. Obama, who had always opposed the war, criticized the surge as a presidential candidate, as did Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination. Many analysts credit the surge with helping to stabilize Iraq. In his book, Gates writes that Clinton, who as a senator had voted to authorize the war in 2003, acknowledged that her opposition to the surge had been because of her primary campaign against Obama. He added, “The president conceded vaguely that opposition to the Iraq surge had been political.” Gates then wrote that he considered Clinton’s and Obama’s concessions disappointing, saying, “To hear the two of them making these admissions, and in front of me, was as surprising as it was dismaying.” The book offers wide-ranging criticism of how the White House carried out foreign policy in the first two years of the Obama administration and raised questions about whether Obama fully embraced his strategy of sending more troops to Afghanistan. The president refrained from criticizing Gates during his first public remarks on the book Monday, defending his administration’s Afghanistan policy and saying that “war is never easy.” “What’s important is that we got the policy right, but that this is hard, and it always has been,” the president said during remarks at the White House. “Whenever you’ve got men and women that you’re sending into harm’s way, after having already made enormous investments of blood and treasure in another country, then part of your job as commander in chief is to sweat the details on it.” Obama said that Gates “was an outstanding secretary of defense, a good friend of mine, and I’ll always be grateful for his service.”


Site where Wal-Mart plans store on New York Avenue in D.C. goes up for sale

The site where Wal-Mart would like to open on New York Avenue in Northeast. (Courtesy of Transwestern.) A family that owns 15 acres of land in Northeast Washington, where Wal-Mart has planned to open a store for more than three years, has put the property up for sale. The Schaeffers, owners of a large local taxi company, recently hired real estate services firm Transwestern to begin marketing the property. The property at 1801 New York Ave. NE comprises most of the triangular area between New York Avenue, Bladensburg Road and Montana Avenue. An advertisement issued by Transwestern says the site is 14.73 acres, much of which has been razed and prepared for development. It is about two miles northeast of Union Station. Developers have coveted the land for its visibility and access to the high-volume traffic going by, and more than once a developer has signed a contract with the Schaeffers and tried to put a project together there with no success. Washington's new Wal-Mart on H Street caused a stir on opening day, as D.C. residents flocked to take a look at the store's new digs. The Post's Clinton Yates takes us there. The family had contracted with D.C. developer Jim Abdo on a plan to build a massive housing and retail complex on the site, but the deal fell through after the real estate and credit markets collapsed. More recently, developer Rick Walker signed a contract to build a retail complex anchored by Wal-Mart there, but Andrew Schaeffer said last fall that the deal had expired. Andrew Schaeffer and his brothers Dave and Jerry are major players in the city’s taxicab industry. Whatever the Schaeffers earned on those contracts has not been disclosed, but they retained the land when the developments failed to commence. Wal-Mart has opened two stores in the District, and a third is under construction. Company officials have said they would still like to open a store off New York Avenue should a project materialize. Capital Business is The Post’s weekly publication focusing on the region’s business community.


Washington food events: Restaurant week, wine tastings and more

JAN. 15 D.C. RESTAURANT WEEK: JAN. 17 BORDEAUX WINE TASTING: COOKING CLASS: WINE DINNER: JAN. 18 WINE TASTING: JAN. 19 BOOK SIGNING AND WINE TASTING: TEA PROGRAM: WINE TASTING: JAN. 20 COLLEGE PARK RESTAURANT WEEK: JAN. 21 BEER DINNER: FOOD GARDENING AND CLIMATE CHANGE: JAN. 22 COOKING CLASS: JAN. 23 COOKBOOK DINNER: — Becky Krystal


GMO labeling: Is the fight worth it?

simple question will tell you: Do you eat processed foods? If you do, you’re eating GMOs. If you don’t, you’re not. That simple test isn’t 100 percent accurate, but it’s pretty close. If you want to get closer, a few facts will take you there. First, the whole foods. Most Hawaiian papayas are (they’re resistant to the ringspot virus, which was a serious threat to the industry). Some sweet corn and squash also are, but those three are the only current exceptions to the whole-foods rule. For those few exceptions, organic is a sure-fire non-GMO alternative. The processed foods are a little trickier to navigate. The four crops responsible for almost all of the GMO foods in this country are corn, soy, canola and sugar beets. Avoiding the first three is straightforward; sugar is harder. Because virtually all of those crops (90 percent, give or take) are genetically modified, it’s safe to assume that any ingredient derived from corn, soy, or canola is from a GM variety. Some of the ingredients are easy to identify; others aren’t. Although soy can crop up in unexpected places (lecithin, an emulsifier, is usually made from it), the main source of GMOs in our food supply is corn. The list of corn products is long and, sometimes, mysterious. Dextrose, maltodextrin, and xanthan gum can all be corn-based. The sugar that appears on product ingredient lists is harder to pin down because, although almost all sugar beets are GMO, beet sugar represents a little less than half of the sugar we use in the United States. Unless the label says “cane sugar,” it’s a crapshoot. With an ingredient list and Google, you can find out in a matter of minutes whether that granola bar, or those cookies, or that frozen lasagna contains GM ingredients. But the first rule stands: If it’s processed food, it probably does. However, the fact that it’s easy to figure out (with a reasonable degree of certainty) whether your food is genetically modified is of limited significance, because . . . . 2. Most people don’t care. When you ask someone a variation of the question “Do you think genetically engineered foods should have labels?” they are very likely to say yes, and so polls often find large majorities — sometimes north of 90 percent — who say they want genetically modified food labeled. These cozy recipes from our Recipe Finder


Coffee at home: Experiments in brewing

to make you feel like it’s a Wild West out there, with no set standards for baristas and home-brewers to follow. “There’s a lot of opinionated baristas who don’t have a lot of science behind them,” says Alex McCracken of the Wydown. Yet there are standards. The Specialty Coffee Association of America has set them down in its “Coffee Brewing Handbook,” which is based on the scientific research conducted by the Coffee Brewing Institute (later the Coffee Brewing Center) in the mid-20th century. Of course, to make sense of the science, a barista has to become familiar with a refractometer and how to measure things such as the “extraction percentage.” At this point, my own personal obsession stops just short of refractometers. I’m not sure I’ll ever reach the level of Mandel, whose OCD-like labors have led her to employ screens (to sift grounds for precisely uniform particles) and a rubber restrictor in her kettle (to slow the flow of water). But she’s striving for Brewers Cup championships. I’m merely looking for a great cup of home-brewed coffee. This is where the bad news comes in: There is no ideal brewing system, perfect for every bean and every taste bud. I’ve been absorbing that hard lesson through a lot of trial and error, testing and retesting, and yet some part of me still wants to pronounce that one of these devices outperforms the others. Some days I think it’s the siphon (which generally produces a balanced, full-bodied cup). Other days I think it’s the Bee House dripper (which always seems to extract a bean’s best flavors). But one morning the Clever might surprise me with an exquisite cup, and I want to hold it forever close. Then the Moccamaster KBG-741 AO arrives via delivery. It’s a handmade automatic drip machine, the top model produced by Technivorm in the Netherlands, engineered to heat water to the proper temperatures and steep grounds the proper length of time. It’s one of only four home brewers certified by the SCAA. I don’t want to believe this contraption can brew something as complex as my (increasingly sophisticated) efforts, but it does. Or it can, I should say. The Moccamaster’s performance reminds me of something Ryan Jensen, owner of Peregrine Espresso, told me recently: Large-batch brewers may one day reclaim specialty coffee shops. Think of it as the rise of the machines, again. “The next wave


Zoo extends weekend hours for panda cub Bao Bao’s long-awaited public debut

The zoo’s giant panda cub, Bao Bao, turns 1 year old. The Smithsonian National Zoo said Wednesday that it will have extended hours this weekend for the public to see the formal debut of its giant panda cub, Bao Bao. The cub will go on public view starting Saturday at 8 a.m. The giant-panda house, which has been closed to the general public for six months, will be open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday through Monday, the zoo said. Visitors will be admitted to the house in small groups on a first-come, first-served basis, for periods of 10 to 15 minutes, to avoid overcrowding. The zoo said it is preparing for large crowds. The 4-month-old panda cub at the National Zoo is warm despite the cold weather in the District. Starting Tuesday, the panda house will be open during the zoo’s normal winter hours of 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The female cub, the first to survive birth at the zoo since 2005, was born Aug. 23. Members of the Friends of the National Zoo have been getting exclusive peeks at Bao Bao all this week.


In major shift, D.C. residents strongly support legalizing marijuana

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Winter’s deep freeze kills garden pests

that in the laboratory, at least, the eggs of the tiger mosquito perish below 10 degrees Fahrenheit — they simply dry out at that temperature. “In principle, if all the eggs were exposed to the air temperatures we had, they would die,” she said. But eggs protected by snow, soil or leaf litter might not die, she said. If we get a particularly wet spring, and if people are not diligent about removing sources of standing water — too few are — a decimated population of the tiger mosquito could quickly rebound. “It would be great if this kind of weather could kill off this mosquito,” she said, “but my fear is that once they become established, it would take an extreme event for them to disappear.” Like what, I wonder — an asteroid destroying the Earth? A new Ice Age? The Redskins winning the Super Bowl? I’ve stocked up on DEET and less effective botanical concoctions. The second member of my despised threesome is the Mexican bean beetle, which in spite of its name seems perfectly okay with a Washington winter, hibernating and dreaming of a steamy August. Once you have a nice display of beans — green beans, lima beans, asparagus beans, it doesn’t seem to matter — the pest can just show up and quickly explode in population. The soft-bodied larvae do the most damage, reducing leaves to skeletons. Even diligent handpicking of beetles and egg-mass squashing don’t seem to hold back the tide. I doubt the recent frigid spell will bother them too much. The pest is found all the way to the Canadian border and beyond. The adult beetles have a measure of antifreeze in their veins, and they are good at finding winter shelter. We might have more luck with a Southern dandy, the harlequin bug. It is defiantly beautiful in its calico markings of black, yellow and orange, because it wants predators to know that it is distasteful. How does it become distasteful? By feeding on cole crops and absorbing the plants’ chemicals. This is another creature whose numbers can build up quickly to defy the most dutiful efforts of the organic gardener. The bugs are drawn to kale and broccoli plants more than cabbages, in my experience, but they will bother whatever brassica they can find, including collards, arugula and rutabaga. This cold winter, one hopes, will set them back. But as


D.C. news in brief

for walking, bicycling and recreation between Porter Street and Cortland Place NW. DDOT staff members will present design plans based on a final environmental assessment, which found no significant impact. For information, go to ddotfiles.com/klinglevalleytrail. DDOT plans workshops on transportation grants The District Department of Transportation is having two workshops for applicants to the Transportation for Elderly and Persons with Disabilities Program, Thursday and Jan. 30 from 2 to 3 p.m., at 55 M St. SE. The program provides grants to nonprofit agencies, including neighborhood groups and religious or charitable organizations, to purchase vehicles and wheelchair equipment for elderly people and people in need of transportation. Department staff members will explain the grant process and criteria. The program provides 80 percent of the cost of the vehicles and equipment purchased. To attend, call 202-673-1736 or e-mail spring.worth@dc.gov. To apply for the program, go to www.ddot.dc.gov/5310. Applications are due Feb. 14. Community action summit scheduled for Jan. 25 D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At Large) is having a community action summit with Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D), D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, Advisory Neighborhood Commission members and other civic and community leaders from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Reeves Center, second-floor Community Room, 2000 14th St. NW. The event was previously scheduled for Jan. 11. Policy experts will hold panel discussions and take questions and comments from residents on education, stabilized housing and rent control, workforce and neighborhood development, and public safety. Light refreshments will be served. To view a video of a previous summit, go to www.youtube.com/user/OCTDC. For information or to attend, call 202-724-8064 or e-mail lakins@dccouncil.us. School transit passes are available through WMATA Web site D.C. school students can purchase student transit passes through the WMATA Web site, www.wmata.com, using a debit or credit card. The site offers a monthly rail and bus pass, 10-trip rail pass and 10-trip bus pass. Students must first register their DC One Card on the site, verify their eligibility for the program and create a SmarTrip account through the Web site. D.C. Student Rail transit passes are available within two business days after an online purchase, and the discounted 10-trip bus passes are available within three business days after a purchase. Transit passes are also sold at Metro sales offices in the District and other approved retail outlets. For information, go to ddot.dc.gov/node/537462. — Compiled by Terence McArdle


Going Out Guide for the District of Columbia, Jan. 16-22, 2014

Jay Z comes to town Thursday. (BENOIT TESSIER/REUTERS) THU 16 Jay Z “The Importance of Being Earnest” Todd Glass The stand-up comic is a regular on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “Conan.” For age 18 and older. Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 and 10:30 p.m., Sunday at 8 p.m. DC Improv, 1140 Connecticut Ave. NW. 202-296-7008. www.dcimprov.com. $17-$20. Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires The Big Broadway Singalong: Love Betrayal Encyclopedia Show DC Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits “The Powerful Strokes of Robert Freeman” FRI 17 “Everything That Rises” An Officer and an Auction: Stars and Studs A Great Big World “La Vie en Rose” Rhett Miller of the Old 97’s “Bojagi and Beyond” SAT 18 Bao Bao’s public debut Jennifer Chiaverini Georgetown basketball SUN 19 Town Mountain D.C. Restaurant Week MON 20 “Palaces for the People: Guastavino and America’s Great Public Spaces” This exhibition, featuring large-scale color photography by Michael Freeman, original drawings, patents and advertisements, 3-D-printed scale models and more, highlights the work of Rafael Guastavino Sr. (1842-1908). Closes Monday. National Building Museum, 401 F St. NW. 202-272-2448. www.nbm.org. $8; seniors, students and youth $5. TUE 21 Capitals Shen Yun Performing Arts WED 22 Wizards — Compiled by Carrie Donovan from staff reports


Minnesota Orchestra lockout ends after 15 months as musicians approve 3-year contract

led by the orchestra’s president and chief executive, Michael Henson, said labor costs had to be cut by about $5 million a year. On Oct. 1, 2012, after the musicians and administration failed to reach an agreement, the orchestra locked out its players. Subsequent efforts at negotiation proved fruitless. At one point, former U.S. senator George J. Mitchell stepped in to guide discussions. He had been able to broker peace in Northern Ireland, but the Minnesota Orchestra situation proved tougher. The lockout divided Minnesota’s leaders and its public. Some found the musicians’ salaries exorbitant (under the new contract, the minimum base salary will fall to $96,824 in the first year but rise to $102,284 by the third year). Others found it outrageous that management could treat its players as expendable. As “The Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra,” the players raised more than $600,000 during the lockout and began putting on concerts themselves — most recently, two under Hugh Wolff this past weekend, as well as two under Vanska last October, just after his resignation was announced. Vanska will remain one of the greatest losses as the orchestra tries to rebuild. In his 10 years as music director, he kept the 111-year-old orchestra squarely on the radar of the classical music world with vital, engaging performances and a string of recordings (his CD of Sibelius’s First and Fourth Symphonies has been nominated for a Grammy). He resigned in October after the orchestra’s inability to reach a contract settlement meant the cancellation of its long-planned trip to Carnegie Hall. Having seen that the orchestra management was willing to let him go rather than budge on its position, he is unlikely to want to come back. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is likely to be cited in the coming days and weeks as a hopeful model. After a six-month strike in the 2010-11 season, that orchestra has managed to steer a positive course. Minnesota has a higher profile and has been through a far more bitter battle; one can only hope that relief that this long tragedy has ended will buoy musicians and audiences as they try to rebuild. The orchestra will announce details of its 2014 season on its Web site soon. There is no word on whether its concerts will include the performances with Joshua Bell and Itzhak Perlman that the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra had scheduled for April and May.


Smoking out the meaning in Colorado’s marijuana law

to opioid painkillers. In reality, the best studies show that marijuana is effective only for a specific type of pain (neuropathic), which opioids do not treat well. Further, non-addictive medications that are superior to marijuana in treating neuropathic pain are available. Perhaps most misleading, Mr. Fox implied that marijuana protects brain function and should therefore be freely available to pro football players who sustain head trauma. A recent 38-year study documented a decrease in chronic cannabis users’ IQ. If the NFL lifts its ban on marijuana, it should not do so because of its purportedly non-addicting, pain-controlling and neuroprotective effects. Samuel T. Wilkinson, New Haven, Conn. ● When will policymakers realize that the prohibition environment, which produces dangerous drug dealers who “push” harder drugs on their marijuana customers, is the so-called gateway, not the plant itself? Regulation and control remove marijuana buyers from the dangerous environment of the illicit street-corner drug trade, placing them in safe retail stores, and provide the safest-quality marijuana. If you want fewer marijuana users using other drugs, collapse the profitable marijuana-prohibition environment. There is only one way to do that: Legalize it. Neill Franklin, Silver Spring The writer, a retired Maryland State Police narcotics commander, is executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. ● In the Jan. 12 Outlook commentary “If you’re white, feel free to smoke up,” Stacey Patton and David J. Leonard say they are “not ready to celebrate the most recent moves to decriminalize marijuana” in Colorado because some states have decriminalized (but not legalized) marijuana but still have disparate rates of incarcerated black men. Users caught with marijuana are often issued civil fines or ordered to undergo treatment. In some jurisdictions that have decriminalized marijuana, police will arrest users on technicalities, such as the presence of paraphernalia, and those arrests often disproportionately affect people of color. Colorado’s law is the first legalization law in the nation. Before it passed, there were 10,000 marijuana possession arrests in Colorado each year. Now anyone age 21 or older can purchase, possess and privately use marijuana free of interference by the police. This also means police cannot claim the smell or view of marijuana in order to racially profile. Instead of criticizing the voters of Colorado, Ms. Patton and Mr. Leonard should commend them for taking a step in the right direction. Shaleen Title, Revere, Mass. The writer is a board member of Marijuana Majority.


D.C. police arrest suspect in 1999 killing; case linked to spate of slayings in SE 15 years ago

District police arrested a suspect Tuesday in a fatal shooting nearly 15 years ago — a case dating to a period of extreme violence in Southeast Washington linked to warring street crews. The case is one of several involving murder charges pending in D.C. Superior Court in what officials say are related killings that occurred more than a decade ago. The two defendants are in their mid-30s, and authorities described motives as diverse as drug dealing, personal slights, arguments over women and turf battles. The trials could bring closure to families of at least four people slain 14 or more years ago. Prosecutors seeking to consolidate the trials have filed documents saying that the defendants grew up in the same neighborhood and that they “aligned themselves as one unit in defense of one another against prosecution by law enforcement and against others considered to be rival crew members.” That included, prosecutors said, a conspiracy “to assault and kill rivals whose interests were contrary to their own.” The document states: “To this end, shootings and murders regularly were committed for and on behalf of fellow crew members.” The area was around the territory known as “Simple City” — primarily encompassing Benning Heights, a sprawling public housing complex that The Washington Post described in 1997 as “an inner-city war zone.” Three gangs operated there — Simple City Crew, Circle Crew and the Avenue Crew. In the arrest Tuesday, Anthony Gray, 35, of Southeast Washington was charged with first-degree murder while armed in the Feb. 22, 1999, shooting of 18-year-old Kelvin Howard. According to court documents, the suspect went by “Fat Tony” and was one of the alleged henchmen of the Avenue Crew. The documents state that Gray and another man shot Howard as he sat in a car with family members and that the killing was part of a feud between two families. At the time of his arrest, Gray was in jail facing first-degree murder and kidnapping charges in the July 5, 2000, shooting death of Robert McManus. Authorities allege that McManus was targeted because he saw a killing and was to be a prosecution witness. Gray’s attorney, Richard S. Holliday, declined to comment on either case involving his client. Also charged in Howard’s killing is Cedrick Shuler, 36, of Southeast Washington. In addition, Shuler faces charges in two more deaths, including a murder charge in the March 1999 killing of


Regions Bank to end ‘deposit advance’ loans

Regions Financial Corp The decision arrives amid regulatory scrutiny of “deposit advance loans,” which are tied to consumers’ paychecks, government benefits or other income directly deposited into their bank accounts. Banking regulators have pressed lenders to consider a borrowers’ ability to repay the loans before signing them up. Advocacy groups say deposit advance loans carry the same triple-digit interest rates and balloon payments as the payday loans offered by storefront and online operators. But industry groups have argued that placing strict constraints on banks will push people with limited access to credit into the arms of less-regulated companies. On Wednesday, Regions said it will stop offering its Ready Advance product to new customers on Jan. 22 and phase out the line of credit by the end of the year. Existing customers with active lines of credit will be able to access future advances until the Birmingham, Ala.-based bank completes a transition plan. Regions spokeswoman Evelyn Mitchell said the company’s decision was “based on a number of industry developments that have emerged since the product was introduced in 2011.” She declined to say whether regulatory pressure played a role. In April, the Federal Reserve, which regulates Regions, warned banks of the consumer risks posed by deposit advance loans. But the agency stopped short of joining the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in issuing guidance to limit those risks. That guidance, released in November, called on lenders to institute a “cooling-off period” that would prevent borrowers from taking more than one deposit advance loan during a monthly pay cycle. It also recommended that banks review at least six months of customers’ banking activities to determine whether they could repay the loan. Consumer groups chided the Fed for not joining the FDIC and OCC, because the decision limited the impact of the guidance to four of the six banks that offer deposit advance loans: Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, Guaranty Bank and Bank of Oklahoma. While advocates continue to press the Fed to issue guidance, some are encouraged that Regions took it upon itself to discontinue its deposit advance product. Officials at Fifth Third, the other bank regulated by the Fed, said the Cincinnati-based firm has no plans to follow in Regions’ footsteps. “We applaud Regions for making this move. We need banks to help families build wealth, not strip it away,” said George Goehl, executive


From brewpubs to corner taverns, new bars in Shaw are ripe for exploration

The one-room Southern Efficiency, which is stocked with more than 40 different bourbons and American whiskeys, was inspired by Southern lunch counters. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) Correction: Last November, the Weekend section presented its guide to Shaw: the restaurants, shops, bars and other venues that make the Northwest neighborhood an increasingly popular place in which to live and spend time. Of course, it was more like a Shaw snapshot, because buzzy neighborhoods are always in flux. In the intervening two months, four new bars have opened, making Shaw a destination that should be on everyone’s radar this winter. Whether you’re looking for freshly made beer, Southern peanut soup or a comfortable corner tavern, you’ll find it on this bar crawl. Right Proper Brewing Company 624 T St. NW. 202-607-2337. www.rightproperbrewery.com. Open Tuesday-Sunday at 5 p.m. A mural of the late Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson adorns the wall at Ivy & Coney, a Chicago-and-Detroit-themed bar in Shaw. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) The story Why it stands out What to order Top tip All Souls Bar 725 T St. NW. 202-733-5929. www.allsoulsbar.com. Open Monday-Saturday at 5 p.m., Sunday at 1 p.m. The story Why it stands out What to order Top tip Southern efficiency 1841 Seventh St. NW. 202-316-9396. www.facebook.com/SouthernEfficiency. Open Tuesday-Sunday at 5 p.m. The story Why it stands out What to order Top tip Ivy coney 1537 Seventh St. NW. 202-670-9489. www.ivyandconey.com. Open daily at 5 p.m. The story Why it stands out Baseball will be a big draw come spring: The Cubs, Tigers and Nationals will get priority on the flatscreen televisions, in that order. (Despite the Chicago theme, White Sox fans are left in the cold. Sorry, South Siders.) What to order Try beers from Michigan (Bell’s, Stroh’s) and Illinois (Goose Island, Old Style) for $3 to $5. Chicagoans will be happy to find bottles of Jeppson’s Malort, the cult liqueur that tastes like Fernet Branca with extra wormwood; shots seem obligatory. Top tip