Rock Creek Park deer meat helps feed the homeless and hungry

this month, 55 deer in Rock Creek Park were reduced — or. in the parlance of ordinary people, killed — as part of the Rock Creek Park White-tailed Deer Management Plan. And the mission had a payoff: On Tuesday, the National Park Service donated the deer meat — all 1,700 pounds of it — to the DC Central Kitchen, which gives out 5,000 free meals per day to 80 nearby homeless shelters, transitional homes and nonprofit organizations. Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles, a National Park Service spokeswoman, said culling Rock Creek’s deer population is essential to protect the long-term health of the park. Deer eat tree seedlings and other vegetation, depriving other wildlife of food and shelter and imperiling the viability of the forest. “If the forest can’t continue to regenerate, then Rock Creek Park as we know it will cease to exist,” Anzelmo-Sarles said. “While it sounds very euphemistic to call it a reduction or an operation, this isn’t hunting. This is truly a scientific-based management plan and management action.” She said the shooters are biologists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture who go out at night with park rangers to cull the deer. “These guys are the experts at doing this. They have an incredibly high success and safety rate,” Anzelmo-Sarles said. Such deer harvests The National Park Service says the deer population in Rock Creek Park has gotten smaller but it’s still double the size it should be. In the early 1990s and 2000s, the population reached a high of up to 98 deer per square mile of Rock Creek Park, Anzelmo-Sarles said. By the fall of 2014, the number had dropped to 40 per square mile, but it should be about 15 to 20 deer per square mile. This year has been brutal for Rock Creek Park deer. Anzelmo-Sarles said 161 deer were killed as part of two hunts — or, in her words, “windows of action.” (In 2013, just 20 were “removed.”) The meat was prepared by a butcher on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, put on a truck and sent right over. “Because protein is one of the hardest donations to come by, DC Central Kitchen is grateful to receive this nutritious lean protein to use in our meals,” said Amy Bachman, DC Central Kitchen’s procurement and sustainability manager. “We will use the venison in a variety of meals, including venison chili and venison bolognese.” No reduction sauce necessary.


Hoping to create a new society, the Islamic State recruits entire families

United Nations has documented extreme brutality toward women by Islamic State radicals, including reports of women, particularly from minority groups, being stoned to death or sold into prostitution or sex slavery for its fighters. But the Islamic State uses family imagery in its aggressive and highly polished online recruiting on social media, including videos showing fighters pushing children on swings and passing out toys, and children playing on bouncy castles and bumper cars, riding ponies, and eating pink cotton candy. Those images are designed to reassure mothers that their children will be safe in a place racked by fighting and regular bombing by the United States and its allies. However, recent reports from Syria and Iraq suggest that the Islamic State’s propaganda about its public services does not match reality on the ground and that people are enduring painful shortages of electricity, food, medicine and clean water. Smith said she has recently noted increasing complaints from women in the Islamic State territories with whom she communicates on social media. “To these families, it makes a lot of sense to go there,” Smith said. “They think, ‘This is the path for me; this is my reward.’ But when you think about what it’s really like to live there, it’s unfathomable.” A death and a conversion Sid Dhar was 16 when his father died unexpectedly, and his sister said the loss set him adrift. His parents were Hindus who had immigrated to London from India when they were children, then created a working-class life in Palmers Green on the city’s northern fringe. They lived in a tiny rowhouse on a busy highway alongside other immigrants from India, Pakistan, Greece and Cyprus. Konika Dhar, a law student, said her family embraced both Hindu and British culture, celebrating Diwali as well as toasting Christmas with Baileys Irish Cream around a decorated tree in their small living room. “We were just a normal family,” she said, sitting in a coffee shop in their London neighborhood. “Then my dad died.” When their father died at 46, Konika Dhar said, her mother dealt with her grief privately, while she and her sister turned to each other for comfort. Sid Dhar, the middle child and only male in the house, had no man in the family to lean on, his sister said. “He felt like he needed to be the man of the house, and make decisions then


At the NIH, white-tailed deer get sterilized in luxurious surgery rooms

Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg. There, a Humane Society program has cut the deer count in half since the late 1990s with dart-delivered birth-control vaccines that require a yearly booster, leaving a population of almost 200. Surgical sterilization, while more expensive, is permanent. At the NIH, agency officials said that deer have been around for years but that the herd’s slow growth became a concern about three years ago as commuters found themselves sharing the roadways with more bucks, does and fawns. A few staffers expressed fear of the animals, especially when the yearly rutting season produced more aggressive bucks. White-tailed populations have exploded A spokeswoman for the General Services Administration said it does not keep spending figures for deer control at federal agencies. But it is an expense at many government facilities, including military bases, experimental farms and office compounds. In 2012, the National Park Service approved a controversial plan, including regular hunts, to whittle the deer population in Rock Creek down from more than 70 per square mile to 15 or 20 per square mile. NIH officials consulted with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, which recently approved surgical sterilization as a deer-management technique. The NIH alerted staff that female deer would be darted and spayed. With fewer baby Bambis next spring and with a natural mortality rate of about 10 percent, the NIH herd should begin to shrink. “We had overwhelming support, with many employees applauding what they saw was a humane approach to our problem,” NIH spokesman Bradley Moss said. And so, over two nights earlier this month, DeNicola found himself stalking the dark Bethesda campus with a dart rifle, worried about being taken for an armed intruder. He avoided passing any window where he might be seen and wore no camouflage. “You just want to look like a working suburbanite,” he said. “You don’t want to be ominous in any way.” DeNicola, who has darted close to 4,000 deer during his career, methodically hit one female after another, knocking them out for about 90 minutes. The darting was timed so that the last deer to go down would be on her feet before morning commuters began pouring through the gates. “We didn’t want a bunch of calls that deer were stumbling all over the place,” DeNicola said. After each darting, the females were taken by pickup truck to the NIH’s veterinary operating suite. There, DeNicola’s


Celeb panda cub Bao Bao climbs down from tree in time for Christmas Day

Washington National Zoo's giant panda cub Bao Bao in her enclosure on December 15, 2014. (Kate Patterson/For The Washington Post) Much to the relief of worried fans around the world, panda cub Bao Bao came down from a tree she’d climbed the day before after touching a live wire, a Smithsonian National Zoo spokeswoman said Thursday. The 16-month-old cub went up the tree Tuesday afternoon after touching an electrified wire that was designed to keep her in her containment area, zoo officials explained in a Facebook post Wednesday that was “liked” by more than 1,100 people. The zoo officials said that the cub’s reaction was “predictable” and that she was fine, but they decided to let her mother, Mei Xiang, stay with her in the yard overnight and kept a zookeeper in the nearby panda house as well. Sometime Christmas Eve, the cub came down, spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said Thursday, noting that the panda was outside during a rainy period in Washington. The panda is in fine shape and is used to being wet because it comes from the chilly and rainy forests of China, the spokeswoman said. The news was sure to relieve Bao Bao’s fans, who had taken to the zoo’s Facebook page to analyze the cub and its mother as the saga unfolded. “Sounds like life with teenagers, who test the limits, stay out all night, and cause their parents no end of worry!” one person wrote. “What amazed me is the deep concern of MeiXiang,” another said. Multiple people on Wednesday reported having stayed up all night watching the “Panda live cam” — which was down Thursday as the cub had descended. “Thank you for the update. I sat up most of the night babysitting her & Mei,” another fan wrote. Michael E. Ruane contributed to this report.


Lessons from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa

THE OUTBREAK of the Ebola virus in West Africa this year came as a surprise. Perhaps no one could have predicted that such a terrible scenario would unfold. But over the past decade, there have been four major outbreaks of infectious disease caused by a virus: severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS; swine flu; Middle East respiratory syndrome; and now Ebola. Each has taken populations by surprise. Next time, the world should not be gobsmacked. It is possible to be better prepared, be more aware of the potential threats and not start from zero every time the alarm goes off. Speed is of the essence. The global response to Ebola was tardy, in part because 24 previous outbreaks of the virus since 1976, mostly in remote locations, were contained, so it was assumed that this one would also be extinguished quickly. But when Doctors Without Borders began to warn in April that something different was unfolding — that Ebola was getting out of control in West Africa, where it had not previously struck — the call was not heeded. The World Health Organization response lagged. The U.N. agency has suffered budget cuts and is poorly structured, with regional offices not easily accountable to its headquarters in Geneva. In this case, the Africa office of the WHO was slow to react, and that put the whole organization behind the curve. Margaret Chan, the WHO director general, first learned of the urgency of the situation in June, according to a WHO timeline disclosed by the Associated Press. No doubt the slow response was also a product of public health agencies that were ill-prepared and overwhelmed in the three hardest-hit countries: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. It would be smart to begin thinking of a more agile and effective organization or system for responding to such dire threats, one that could bring together a capability for surveillance, early warning and rapid response; and that would be wired into the pharmaceutical industry. Another important lesson is that fighting a disease outbreak is not only a medical challenge but also must take into account economics, politics, culture and traditions. The Ebola response was hampered by deep suspicion among those affected, a failure of responders to build confidence in communities and methods that backfired, such as the containment of a whole section of Monrovia, Liberia, which led to panic and frequent violations of the cordon. The


National Children’s Museum to close Jan. 4

will be closed after Jan. 4. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) The financially troubled National Children’s Museum will close its storefront location at National Harbor on Jan. 4, leaving it without a permanent home while it searches for a new location in the District. The decision was “mutually agreed upon,” said Angela Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the Peterson Cos., which developed the sprawling mixed-use complex in Prince George’s County and was the museum’s landlord for the past two years. Museum officials would not say how many staffers will lose their jobs. As the museum searches for a permanent home, officials said, it will engage with its potential city audience by shifting to “museum on the move” mode. Select exhibits will be sent to “multiple” D.C. Public Library branches, starting about the end of March, which is when the National Harbor premises will be vacated, museum spokesman Rob Volmer said. During its last period of extended homelessness, the Children’s Museum operated as a “museum without walls,” with an online presence and occasional participation in community events such as the White House Easter Egg Roll. In November, the museum announced its intention to leave National Harbor and return to the District, citing a lack of public transportation and affordable space for expansion at the Prince George’s location. It has not secured a location in the city. Since opening in a storefront at National Harbor two years ago, the museum — designed for children 8 and younger — has received 250,000 visitors, officials say. Ambitious plans to build an 140,000-square-foot, $183 million museum elsewhere in National Harbor collapsed for lack of funds. The museum downsized its vision to 17,000 square feet of exhibit and activity space in its current corner storefront. The Peterson Cos. reported donating “in excess of $2 million” in forgiven rent to the museum, as well as construction, design and other costs, “because we believed in their vision to create a world class Children’s Museum at National Harbor.” The museum also received financial aid from Prince George’s County and the state of Maryland. In 2004, after nearly 30 years at Third and H streets NE, the museum sold its decaying property for $24 million. It spent three years exploring 30 possible sites in the District but was not able to make a deal to locate in any of them. The facility announced in 2007 its plans to move to National Harbor.


U.S. sees continued economic decline in Russia, but Moscow strikes an upbeat note

to invite President Putin to make a different set of choices” on Ukraine. Although President Obama last week signed a bill in which lawmakers authorized more extensive sanctions against Russia and supplies of lethal equipment to the Ukrainian military, administration officials said they had no specific additional measures against Russia planned. European leaders, who met Friday in Brussels, warned Moscow that they are ready to “stay the course” if Putin does not make progress on a promised cease-fire in eastern Ukraine. Although the European Union has managed to hang together on sanctions, its members remain conflicted over additional measures they see as more damaging to them than to Russia or the United States. What often seems like a strategy whose gains come so slowly that they are difficult to ascertain is designed to preserve unity with the Europeans at all costs, U.S. officials said. Putin, in his remarks to lawmakers, acknowledged that trade with Europe — normally 10 times that of Russia’s trade with the United States — has been affected. “Our trade with the European Union has fallen by 4.3 percent, and imports from these countries have also dropped somewhere in the region of seven, eight, 10 percentage points approximately with various countries,” he said. But Andrey Bondarev, deputy head of the economic office at the Russian Embassy in Washington, said that Putin’s assessment of growing trade with the United States was correct. “It is all about the difference between the U.S. and Russian statistics,” he said in an e-mail. U.S. figures include goods that pass through third countries, but “our agencies calculate just direct export-import from/to Russia.” Although U.S. officials say change is more likely to come through pressure from Putin’s inner circle rather than from the Russian public, they still hope for a broader reaction. “Now, it’s coming right to the Russian kitchen tables with the devaluation of the ruble, with inflation gone wild, with the cost of borrowing,” Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for Europe, said last week. “So, the question is, will this start a conversation inside Russia about the course that they’re on,” Nuland said, “about the fact that the Kremlin has prioritized their foreign adventures over the well-being of the Russian people now, not to mention all the Russian mothers and girlfriends and sisters and parents who lost children in the adventure in the [Ukrainian] east when so many Russians were killed?”


Man in trenchcoat stabs 5 at McFadden’s restaurant in Northwest D.C.

Five people were stabbed early Saturday inside a popular Northwest Washington restaurant and bar near George Washington University, and a man wearing a tan trench coat was being sought, police said. At least two of the victims were seriously injured, but all are expected to survive the attack, which took place about 12:30 a.m. inside McFadden’s Restaurant and Saloon at 2401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, said Officer Hugh Carew, a D.C. police spokesman. Police issued a lookout for a black man of medium height, wearing a trench coat, plaid shirt and black or blue jeans. The assailant eluded a police search and was last seen heading east on Pennsylvania Avenue, GWU police said in a campus safety alert issued about 2:30 a.m. McFadden’s, a popular nightspot whose Web site calls it “DC’s Best Party Bar,” was closed during its regular lunch and dinner hours Saturday. As night fell, the only commotion came from a local television news crew. McFadden’s owner, John Sullivan, did not immediately respond to a message left through an attorney who represented him in a D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration matter last year. Patrick Kennedy, chairman 0f the Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) for the Foggy Bottom/West End area that includes McFadden’s, said he hoped that the stabbings were an isolated incident because the bar caters to college students. Asher Corson, a 2009 GWU graduate who lives near the restaurant, said it “can be a rowdy place, but it was not a violent place.” Corson is a member of the area’s ANC. Other violent acts were reported in the city Friday night and Saturday. They included a shooting about 11:40 p.m. Friday and another Saturday afternoon in the 1500 block of Kenilworth Avenue NE. It appeared that neither caused life-threatening wounds. “We try to cultivate a safe environment, and generally, it is a safe neighborhood,” said Kennedy, who graduated from GWU in May. “I have never felt threatened walking down the street. We have a lot of seniors in this community.” Martin Weil contributed to this report.


Skywatch: Mercury and Venus become cosmic companions in January

Lace up those New Year’s resolution running shoes to keep pace with January’s sky: Mercury and Venus become cosmic companions, Jupiter’s moons cast shadows and a chubby moon washes out meteors. Just after sunset now, see the fleet Mercury and the bright Venus loitering in the southwestern sky, low on the horizon. On each evening into next week, the two planets get closer together, and they will be within a degree of each other Jan. 8 to 12. These planets will be low on the horizon, and you can distinguish them by their brightness: Venus enjoys -3.9 magnitude (very bright) and Mercury handles a zero magnitude (dim by comparison to Venus) stature. A very young, skinny crescent moon passes Venus on the evening of Jan. 21 after sunset. On the next night, a slightly larger moon is near Mars. Following on Venus’s heels and Mercury’s fleet feet, our reddish neighbor Mars trails them by more than an hour into the western horizon. The first magnitude (dim) planet, now in the constellation Capricornus, sets around 8:15 p.m. Our solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter, ascends the eastern heavens around 8 p.m. now, and it remains a -2.5 magnitude (bright) object through the month. This gaseous giant sits near the front paws of the lion in the Leo constellation. For those with access to telescopes, three of the Jupiter moons present a rare triple shadow transit on the night of Jan. 23-24. Callisto, Io and Europa will cast concurrent shadows on the large planet’s surface on Jan. 24, from 1:26 a.m. (Eastern time) through 1:52 a.m., according to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. A morning object, the ringed Saturn rises around 4 a.m. now, and this zero-magnitude (bright) object is easily seen in the southwestern sky before sunrise. By late January, Saturn rises earlier at about 2:30 a.m. and may be seen placed high in the south-southeast. Thanks to a fat, almost full moon, many of the streaking shooting stars from the Quadrantid meteor shower will likely get washed out from all that lunar light. (The full moon officially occurs Jan. 5.) The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada says the shooting stars peak Jan. 3, late in the evening, with a prediction of about 100 to 120 per hour then. With perseverance, a warm coat and gloves, and an ever-present hot beverage, you may be lucky to see a fraction of them.


Desperate for soldiers, Assad’s government imposes harsh recruitment measures

Policy. In October, the regime stepped up activations of reserve forces. Tens of thousands of reservists have been called up, and soldiers and militiamen have erected scores of checkpoints and increased raids on cafes and homes to apprehend those reservists who refuse to comply. Similar measures increasingly target those who avoid regular military service, a compulsory 18-month period for all men who are 18 and older. In recent weeks, the regime also began upping threats to dismiss and fine state employees who fail to fulfill military obligations, according to Syrian news Web sites and activists. In addition, they say, new restrictions imposed this fall have made it all but impossible for men in their 20s to leave the country. Since the start of the uprising in 2011, Syrian authorities have used arrests and intimidation to halt desertions, defections and evasion of military service — but not to the extent seen recently, Syrians and analysts say. Men who are dragooned into the army appear to be deserting in larger numbers, they say, and the government’s crackdown is driving many of these men as well as more of the large number of draft-evaders to go into hiding or flee abroad. “I can’t go back. All these things would make it certain that I’d be forced into the military,” said Mustafa, 25, a Syrian from Damascus who fled to Lebanon in September because of the new measures. Citing safety concerns, he asked that only his first name be used. Joseph, a 34-year-old Christian from Damascus, learned two weeks ago that his name was on a list of thousands of people who would soon be activated for reserve duty. Having completed his compulsory military service in 2009, he wants to flee Syria. “Of course I don’t want to return to the military,” Joseph said by telephone from the capital. He also requested that only his first name be used. A report issued this month by the Institute for the Study of War says the number of soldiers in the Syrian military has fallen by more than half since the start of the conflict, from roughly 325,000 to 150,000, because of casualties, defections and desertions. Combat fatalities alone have surpassed 44,000, according to the report, which used data from Syrian activists, monitoring groups and media reports. Christopher Kozak, a Syria analyst at the institute who wrote the report, said in an e-mail that reservist mobilizations


Police issue warrant in death of slain woman

A 35-year-old Northwest Washington man has been charged in a warrant in the death of one of the four people slain in the District on Christmas Eve, D.C. police said. They said Marvin W. Lopez of Emerson Street NW, also known as Marvin Lopez Cabrera, has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Yamalith Arroyo. She was shot about 5:30 p.m. in the 3900 block of 14th Street NW, police said. The police described the suspect as Hispanic, 6 feet tall and 190 pounds. He was last seen in a red, white and blue jacket and brown pants. They said they are looking for him. One of the four people killed on Wednesday was shot to death in a confrontation with D.C. police near Naylor Road and Erie Street SE.


The death of Homicide Watch D.C.: Bloggers take their last case

were never able to reach an agreement with a local news organization, including The Washington Post, about partnering with or acquiring the blog, Laura Amico said. She estimated the site’s annual operating costs were about $60,000. Amico was a 29-year-old newcomer to the District when she came up with the idea for Homicide Watch, which launched in late 2010. She had covered police and courts in her native Santa Rosa, Calif., north of San Francisco. When she wasn’t able to find a comparable job in Washington, she decided to create one. She was used to delving deeply into the handful of murders that took place in Santa Rosa each year and wanted to do the same with killings in the nation’s capital, which ended 2009 with 144 murders. Homicide Watch is one of several blogs across the country, in cities such as St. Louis and Los Angeles, that have sought to circumvent the space limitations and conventions of mainstream crime reporting. Amico said she also was influenced by a local blog about the still unsolved 2006 murder of Radio Free Asia attorney Robert Wone in Dupont Circle. There are now sister Homicide Watch sites in Chicago, Boston and Trenton, N.J., run in conjunction with local newspapers and a university that pay the Amicos to license the platform they built for the original blog. The demise of the franchise in Washington, which has survived on a combination of Kickstarter funds, ad revenue and free labor, won’t affect the sister sites. Having a local partner is key, Amico said, because even in the age of Google and online dockets, gathering information about cases requires a lot of shoe leather. At D.C. Superior Court, that work is done by interns Amelia Rufer, 24, and Imari Williams, 23, a recent Hampton University graduate. On a recent weekday morning, Williams took a seat in the second row of Judge Rhonda Reid Winston’s courtroom. Sporting an oversize pin that read “This is what a feminist looks like” on the lapel of her pink blazer, Williams cradled two notebooks in her lap as she waited for opening arguments in U.S. v. Claire Rice — the case of a 67-year-old Silver Spring woman who is accused of killing her cousin for insurance money. At the end of the row was a sight to which Williams was not accustomed: a sketch artist. Most of the cases she covers are


Ebola’s lessons, painfully learned at great cost in dollars and human lives

the director of the Predict project, a disease-surveillance program funded largely by USAID and operating in 20 countries. The project Mazet oversees has set up dozens of labs in the developing world. It has tested thousands of animals — bats, rats and monkeys among them — and identified about 800 previously unknown viruses. “If we don’t start getting ahead of the curve on pandemics, we’re sitting here like victims waiting for the next one,” said Peter Daszak, a well-known disease ecologist who works on the same project. In an office 17 floors above West 34th Street in Manhattan, analysts working for Daszak pour data into complex mathematical models, trying to decipher the most likely places an epidemic might surface next. The data behind those “heat maps” come from intense detective work around the globe, from Thailand and Tanzania to Bolivia and Bangladesh. In Vietnam, for example, researchers affiliated with Oxford University head out almost daily to slaughterhouses and animal farms. They visit open-air markets teeming with ducks, porcupines, bamboo rats and other animals to understand what viruses and bacteria the animals harbor and to watch closely for the moment any of them might infect humans. This kind of work is more crucial than ever, said Mark Woolhouse, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. “The early 21st century is about as good as it gets for emerging viruses and pathogens,” he said. “Changes in trade, travel and population — it’s a perfect storm for viral emergence.” U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon greets a member of a medical unit in Monrovia. (Evan Schneider/AFP/Getty Images) LESSON: Keep fear in check When Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, visited Liberia in August, he went to a crematorium that operated day and night as the bodies of Ebola victims were immolated. Soon afterward, he developed a nosebleed. “To have blood spurting out of your nose in the middle of an Ebola outbreak is a little bit anxiety producing,” he recalled. Rationally, he knew he didn’t have Ebola. He figured the nosebleed was caused by the dryness from his recent flight. His main concern was that people would think he had Ebola. But even the CDC director wrestled with nagging doubts about his health. “You worry about every symptom, like a sore throat,” he said, “even if you had no chance of being infected.” One


Ensemble Galilei at National Gallery closes out holiday offerings

Ensemble Galilei. (Burgess Blevins) The National Gallery of Art’s holiday music offerings, which began with a klezmer group on Dec. 21, closed Sunday with the Ensemble Galilei, a Maryland group that specializes in folk music mainly from the British Isles. The concert was a mostly low-wattage affair, but the music-making was pleasant, spanning repertoire from the 13th century to pieces by the group’s members. There was a printed program, but the musicians departed from it frequently. Flutist Shannon Heaton appeared to be a guest member (she is not on the group’s Web site), and there was an improvisatory feel to everything — with questioning looks back and forth among the musicians. Any modern realization of music from four or five centuries ago has to involve a range of subjective artistic choices, compromises and guesswork. But some of Ensemble Galilei’s choices were off-putting. The violin and the viola da gamba are cousins, not siblings (the latter is fretted, like a guitar), and don’t work well together. Intonation and bowing are both continually at odds, subtly but pervasively. It’s a little like hearing a piano and harpsichord playing together. Also, the arrangements often had as many as four instruments playing the melody at once, in various octaves, creating an anachronistic feel. The traditional Catalan “Song of the Birds” is a joyous, whimsical Christmas carol, but the solo gamba version here sounded like a dirge. The concert came truly alive only once — when violinist Ryan McKasson and drummer Jackie Moran stood and let loose in a foot-stomping Scottish medley. The group could use more uptempo numbers and perhaps rethink some of its basic musical premises. Battey is a freelance writer.


A primer on seed saving

and let them flower and seed. This is how you obtained seed for the next season, and by perpetuating the tallest sunflower or the most flavorful tomato or that lone lettuce that didn’t bolt in the heat of June, you could select for progressive traits. Our gardening ancestors were also functioning as breeders. Until seed companies emerged in the mid-19th century, “no distinction was made between gardener and breeder,” says the Austrian agronomist Andrea Heistinger. She is writing in “The Manual of Seed Saving,” recently published by Timber Press. Its long but descriptive subtitle reads: “Harvesting, Storing and Sowing Techniques for Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits.” The cache includes the collected seeds of amaranth and hyacinth bean. (ADRIAN HIGGINS/THE WASHINGTON POST) The book reinforces the reality that seed-saving has never gone away. Many farmers around the world save their own seed for the next crop, and many worry that the business and scientific practices of biotech seed companies will harm the farmers’ traditional seed autonomy. In the United States, groups such as Seed Savers Exchange have worked for decades to preserve and protect the thousands of heirloom varieties long nurtured regionally and often brought by immigrant communities since the early days of the Republic. But hobby gardeners should — and do — save their own seed, not for the lofty goals of retaining biodiversity or for cultural heritage, but because it can be immensely satisfying. As the cost of seeds continues to rise, it is also a real money saver. I’m still trying to figure out how I recently spent more than $50 on poppy seeds. Not every seed is a keeper. Modern F1 (first-generation) hybrids are genetically unstable, and you can’t rely on them to come back true the next season. More to the point, you don’t want to spend months coddling one if the end product winds up inferior in some fashion. Which seeds should you keep? Varieties that are naturally pollinated and genetically predictable — open pollinated in the breeder’s parlance — and they take the form of heirloom varieties, old commercial varieties and even new varieties that have been bred the old-fashioned way, writes Heistinger. But open pollination doesn’t mean free-for-all pollination. If you are doing this seed production stuff seriously, you need to make sure that a given plant is not fertilized by something that will degrade the next generation, the way a Queen Anne’s lace


D.C. police chief orders popular bar near GWU closed after five patrons are stabbed

underage. “The club’s security protocols allowed a knife-wielding subject to enter the club, stab five patrons, and escape without capture,” Lanier wrote. “The club’s security staff also proved inadequate to manage the aftermath of this crime.” Stephen O’Brien, the club’s attorney, did not return repeated calls to his office seeking comment. The manager who was on duty Saturday also declined to comment and referred calls to a corporate office in New York, East Coast Saloons. No one answered the phone there Monday. The ABC Board will conduct its own investigation and will decide whether to continue the closure beyond Wednesday. If so, the restaurant owner will be allowed to appeal at a public hearing. McFadden’s is close to the campus of George Washington University, and is popular among students. The university issued a campus alert shortly after D.C. police announced that multiple people had been stabbed at the bar. A university spokeswoman said none of the victims are students. Most victims remained in area hospitals Monday and could not be reached for comment. The mother of a 25-year-old who was stabbed three times said the group was celebrating a birthday. She said her son, who lives in Northwest Washington, had not told her additional details. McFadden’s — whose Web site calls it “DC’s Best Party Bar” — has been cited numerous times by the ABC Board after police complaints of assaults, disorderly patrons and violating liquor rules. The board fined McFadden’s $4,000 and suspended its license for 12 days in 2011 for serving alcohol to minors. Reports from police and the ABC Board made public Monday do not say how the fight began. One bartender jumped over the bar in an attempt to break it up. Police said a 23-year-old was stabbed in the back; a 27-year-old was stabbed in the upper back; a 20-year-old was stabbed three times in the lower body; a 25-year-old was stabbed three times; and a 23-year-old was stabbed in the chest and back. Police said the knife wound punctured his kidney, and that he also had cuts on his left arm. The only description of the suspect was a black man of medium height, wearing a trench coat, plaid shirt and black or blue jeans. In her letter ordering McFadden’s to be closed for 96 hours, Lanier said the unruly crowd forced officers from the 2nd District to abandon their patrols and rush to


Delaware-size gas plume over West illustrates the cost of leaking methane

up to 80 times as much heat-trapping potency per pound as carbon dioxide over the short term — the leaks must be controlled if the United States is to have any chance of meeting its goals for cutting the emissions responsible for climate change, said David Doniger, who heads the climate policy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. “This is the most significant, most cost-effective thing the administration can do to tackle climate change pollution that it hasn’t already committed to do,” Doniger said. Methane’s hot spot The epicenter of New Mexico’s methane hot spot is a stretch of desert southeast of Farmington, N.M., in a hydrocarbon-soaked region known as the San Juan Basin. The land was once home to a flourishing civilization of ancient Pueblo Indians, who left behind ruins of temples and trading centers built more than 1,000 years ago. In modern times, people have been drawn to the area by vast deposits of uranium, oil, coal and natural gas. Energy companies have been racing to snatch up new oil leases here since the start of the shale-oil boom in recent years. But long before that, the basin was known as one of the country’s most productive regions for natural gas. The methane-rich gas is trapped in underground formations that often also contain deposits of oil or coal. Energy companies extract it by drilling wells through rock and coal and collecting the gas in tanks at the surface. The gas is transported by pipeline or truck to other facilities for processing. But much of this gas never makes it to the market. Companies that are seeking only oil will sometimes burn off or “flare” methane gas rather than collect it. In some cases, methane is allowed to escape or “vent” into the atmosphere, or it simply seeps inadvertently from leaky pipes and scores of small processing stations linked by a spider’s web of narrow dirt roads crisscrossing the desert. Service roads crisscross the high desert near the Chaco Culture National Park as oil and gas companies race to install new wells. The energy boom in the Southwest is raising concerns about greenhouse gas pollution as well as the possible defacing of ancient ruins of cities built by Pueblo Indian tribes centuries ago. (Joby Warrick/The Washington Post) For local environmental groups, gas-flaring is a tangible reminder of the downsides of an industry that provides tens


of millions of dollars to local economies as well as to federal tax coffers. Bruce Gordon, a private pilot and president of EcoFlight, an environmental group that monitors energy development on federally owned land, recently banked his single-engine Cessna over a large oil well near Lybrook, N.M. He pointed out two towers of orange flame where methane was being burned off, a practice that prevents a dangerous buildup of pressure on drilling equipment but that also wastes vast quantities of methane. “For these companies, the gas is worthless — the oil is what they want,” Gordon said. The burning converts methane into carbon dioxide — another greenhouse gas — while contributing to the brown haze that sometimes blankets the region on sunny days, he said. Other environmental groups have documented leaks of normally invisible methane using infrared cameras that can detect plumes of gas billowing from wells, storage tanks and compressors. All of it contributes to the giant plume “seen” by satellites over northwestern New Mexico, a gas cloud that NASA scientists say represents nearly 600,000 metric tons of wasted methane annually, or roughly enough to supply the residential energy needs of a city the size of San Francisco. The NASA analysis estimated the average extent of the gas plume over the past decade at 2,500 square miles — and that was before the recent energy boom from shale oil and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, said Frankenberg, the NASA scientist. Possible remedies But spotting the leaks is far easier than fixing them. The Obama administration is reviewing a host of possible remedies that range from voluntary inducements to more costly regulations requiring oil and gas companies to install monitoring equipment and take steps to control the loss of methane at each point in the production process. The announcement of the administration’s new policies has been repeatedly delayed amid what officials describe as internal debate over the cost of competing proposals and, indeed, over whether methane should be regulated separately from the mix of other gases given off as byproducts of oil and gas drilling. The American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade association for the oil and gas industry, contends that companies are already making progress in slashing methane waste, installing updated equipment that reduces leaks. New regulations are unnecessary and would ultimately make it harder for U.S. companies to compete, said Erik Milito, API’s director of upstream and industry operations.


Jordan pilot purportedly interviewed by Islamic State

from its normal flight path,” according to the magazine. The Islamic State has coerced captives to participate in its propaganda activities, and it was unclear whether the group forced Kaseasbeh to issue the remarks or whether he made them at all. The group has beheaded three U.S. nationals and two Britons, and it has released videos showing the slaughter of scores of Iraqi and Syrian soldiers. The Kaseasbeh piece also has photographs of the pilot, including one of him in an orange jumpsuit and another showing him with a group of apparent airmen being greeted by King Abdullah II, Jordan’s ruler. In a statement issued last week, the lower house of Jordan’s parliament warned the Islamic State of “grave consequences” if Kaseasbeh is harmed. In a television interview last week, his father pleaded for mercy, asking the group to treat his son as a “guest.” “He is a guest among brothers of ours in Syria Islamic State,” the father, Safi al-Kasaesbeh, said in the interview. Mohammad al-Momani, the Jordanian government spokesman, could not be reached for comment. An image distributed by the Jordanian News Agency shows Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh . (Jordan News Agency / Handout/EPA) In the Islamic State interview, which is in question-and-answer form, the group appears to taunt Kaseasbeh over his father’s plea. It also asks him what he thinks it will do to him. He responds, “They will kill me.” In the interview, Kaseasbeh purportedly discusses the role played in the international coalition by Arab states and the United States. The coalition, which also includes European countries, began launching airstrikes against the Islamic State in September. Kaseasbeh’s plane came down while he was on a mission to “sweep” the area of antiaircraft weaponry, he is quoted as saying. He said warplanes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates participated as well, according to the magazine. He also purportedly noted the involvement of F-16s from Morocco in coalition operations. Morocco is reported to have sent aircraft to aid the coalition, although the country’s role in carrying out airstrikes is unclear. Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the known Arab members of the coalition involved in conducting airstrikes. They target the Islamic State only in Syria, not in Iraq. Qatar plays a logistical role in the coalition. The Islamic State magazine also carried pictures of an American oil worker whom militants in Egypt claimed


Putin foe Alexei Navalny avoids jail but decries Kremlin for punishing his brother

MOSCOW — A judge had sentenced the brother of Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption activist and a scourge of Putin’s since 2011, to 3 1/ 2 years in prison while ordering Navalny himself to remain under house arrest. Denouncing the move as a hostage-taking, Navalny defied the order and strode to the edges of a demonstration in central Moscow on Tuesday evening. Police quickly whisked him away, but he had shown that he would not buckle under an implied threat to his family. He and his brother, Oleg, had been on trial on what they and their allies deemed trumped-up fraud charges. Supporters had expected that Alexei Navalny would be sentenced to the maximum of 10 years, but authorities appeared reluctant to make a martyr out of him, and he got off easily. His less political brother was not as fortunate. Navalny’s supporters decried the legal system for incarcerating the relative of a political foe. A small but angry crowd that gathered in Manezh Square called for Oleg Navalny’s release, and chanted, “I am Navalny’s brother.” Timeline: Alexei Navalny, a life in opposition Alexei Navalny made no secret of his presence at the demonstration, tweeting selfies from the subway train he took to get there. His intention in showing up was to reinvigorate the opposition movement at a time when Putin’s image has suffered over international crises and a slumping economy. But if Navalny was trying to seize a political moment by daring authorities to accommodate or arrest him, the state wasn’t willing to take that bait. Police detained Navalny as he approached the square outside the Kremlin where his supporters had gathered in frigid temperatures, but instead of throwing him in jail for breaking his house arrest, they simply returned him home. It was not the first time Navalny had been detained at a protest. But given the terms of his house arrest, authorities could have taken a harder line — and they still might. For now, authorities are keeping to a strategy of tying Navalny up with legal proceedings without cracking down so hard as to provoke street protests of the size he led in 2011 and 2012. Tuesday began with a jarring surprise when Navalny was given a 3 1/ 2- year suspended sentence with no jail time, while his brother was imprisoned immediately following the verdict. “Shame on you!” Navalny cried to the judge. “Why are you


Dana Milbank: How can America inspire the Slacktivist Generation to action?

Similarly, Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that volunteering in 2012 (the most recent data available) was at the lowest percentage (25.4 percent) since the government started counting in 2001. The cause of this is fairly clear: Americans are not being asked to serve their country. With the passing of the World War II generation, veterans are just 7 percent of the population, roughly half of what they were in 1970. Fewer than 20 percent of incoming members of Congress served in the military; in the ’70s, more than 70 percent had served. John Bridgeland, who worked on national-service initiatives in the Bush White House, sees the decline of military service as the cause of Washington’s problems. “The World War II generation that served together had higher levels of charitable contributions, volunteering, voting, social trust, trust in one another,” he told me. “Even the gap between rich and poor was at its lowest levels. This greatest generation had an ethic of service that transcended politics and partisanship and belief.” Bridgeland’s solution, joined by retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is to expand national service — military and other forms — to 1 million 18- to 29-year-olds each year, up from the current 100,000. While far from mandatory national service, this would be enough to create a social expectation that each 18-year-old would either join the military or spend a “service year” after high school earning a stipend serving in AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps and the like. They figure it would cost about $10 billion in taxpayer money and another $10 billion in private funds. “In the World War II generation, people felt like happiness wasn’t some individual right but something we helped one another achieve,” Bridgeland says. “We’re trying to rescue that notion for a generation that’s lost its way.” McChrystal and Bridgeland, who work on the Aspen Institute’s Franklin Project, have a difficult sales job ahead of them. Bush expanded the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps after 9/11, but most service programs have been frozen or cut in recent years, as Congress refuses President Obama’s requests for them. But there’s hope in the form of the would-be presidential and vice presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio and Rob Portman have all expressed interest in the issue. That raises the hopeful possibility that national service could return to the agenda — and that a generation of Americans


Shopping Cart: Sweet Farm Sauerkraut, Broccoleaf

Sweet Farm Classic Kraut. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) Broccoleaf. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) SWEET AND SAUER: A NEW LEAF: More from Food: Weeknight Vegetarian The Immigrant’s Table Smoke Signals Spirits Column Beer Column


Stark disparities in wealth are key in discussions on race in the United States

— even when comparing those with graduate and professional degrees, suggesting that higher education alone will not narrow large gaps in wealth. Nor will only having a good job; families need savings and wealth as well. Without wealth, there’s no cushion when a job is lost, a health emergency arises or a car breaks down. Without wealth, there are fewer banking choices beyond payday lenders and check-cashers. Without wealth, there are fewer opportunities to start a business, buy a first home or pursue college without debt. Without wealth, people must rely on Social Security and their families to live with dignity in old age. And without wealth, there’s nothing to pass on to future generations. What can be done? Research suggests that policies and programs that build savings and wealth at “milestone moments” have promise. Indeed, studies by Thomas Shapiro of Brandeis and others show that even small amounts of wealth at the right moments in life can have a transformative effect on the course of a life. One of the best of those moments is when a child is born or enters school. Examples abound: Every child enrolling in kindergarten in the Normandy School District of St. Louis County — Michael Brown’s alma mater — automatically receives a $500 deposit in Missouri’s 529 college savings program, thanks to the nonprofit Beyond Housing. San Francisco (using public funds) and Nevada (using non-public resources) automatically open college savings accounts for every child entering a public school kindergarten. Other states start even earlier: Maine and Rhode Island, both using non-public funds, automatically establish a 529 account for every child at birth. In addition to serving as a platform for teaching financial basics, many such programs nationwide offer matching deposits for lower-income kids, disproportionately benefiting African American and other minority populations. Another great moment is tax time, when earned-income tax credit refunds averaging more than $2,400 can be converted to savings, such as in the “Refund to Savings” and “SaveUSA” projects. Similarly, there is the opportunity to leverage the employment moment by expanding retirement savings options to the millions of workers lacking 401(k)s; in this regard, the Treasury Department’s new “myRA” product holds promise. Finally, homeownership, carefully pursued as part of a broader financial wealth strategy, remains an alternative. With some vision among leaders and policymakers, in addition to well-designed economic interventions, more financially fragile Americans could have a reasonable shot at the


Russia’s treatment of a leading dissident makes plain its worry

to jail us all,” the protesters shouted. That slogan may well come to haunt Mr. Putin in 2015. Russia’s central bank is predicting a sharp contraction of the economy in the coming months due to the plunging price of oil and Western sanctions. Holding on to Crimea, the isolated Ukrainian peninsula he seized, and preventing puppet “rebel” movements elsewhere in Ukraine from being overrun will cost the Russian ruler dearly, both in rubles and, likely, in Russian lives. Mr. Putin’s strategy for overcoming these challenges will likely be the same as it has been since 2012, when Mr. Navalny helped to lead mass demonstrations against him: escalate domestic repression as well as military adventures in Ukraine and elsewhere, while bombarding the country with nationalistic propaganda. The cost of foreign adventures is escalating, however, and Russia’s oligarchs will be pressing the Kremlin to back off enough from Ukraine to obtain a weakening of sanctions. Thanks in part to his media monopoly, Mr. Putin does register well in opinion polling. But Russian dissidents say they believe the support is thin and unlikely to weather either a plummeting economy or substantial military casualties. Until now, protests in Moscow have been easily contained by the regime’s riot police. Yet if Mr. Putin were unworried about that opposition, Mr. Navalny’s case would not have been handled with such panicked improvisation. Whether resistance to the Putin regime grows will depend to a large extent on U.S. and European Union policy. European sanctions start to come up for review in March; maintaining them in the likely absence of a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine will require determined leadership from President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Support for Russian dissent also matters. As so often in human rights cases, the Obama administration’s reaction to Mr. Navalny’s sentencing was mild: The State Department said it was “troubled.” On Monday, however, the administration sanctioned four Russian officials under the Magnitsky human rights law, including two senior officials in Chechnya involved in the arrest and torture of a leading critic. Such actions can hearten those fighting for human rights in Russia. The judge and prosecutors involved in the prosecution of Mr. Navalny would be good candidates for the next round of sanctions. Read more on this topic: The Post’s View: Prove to Mr. Putin that he is not ‘invincible’ The Post’s View: Fault for the ruble’s collapse lies with Mr. Putin


D.C. community calendar, Jan. 8-15, 2015

Robinson and James Carroll Tuesday, JAN. 13 Photographers: “Seeing Deeper” Capture rare glimpses of the National Cathedral’s main floor after its chairs have been removed, and recently cleaned west rose window and nave ceiling, an unparalleled look at the grandeur and splendor of the world’s sixth-largest cathedral in the early morning before the public is admitted. Some scaffolding and safety netting remain. 8:45 a.m. Washington National Cathedral, Front Nave, Wisconsin and Massachusetts avenues NW. 202-537-6200. www.nationalcathedral.org . $25. Job seekers drop-in and legal clinic Microsoft PowerPoint Class “Maisy Goes to the City ” Chair yoga Tour in the garden of “good and evil” Yoga at noon Led by traditional yoga teacher and therapist Heather Ferris. Bring a mat. Noon. Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Library, 1630 Seventh St. NW. 202-727-1288. Free. Classical concert Saxophonist Noah Getz and percussionist Manny Arcinega perform music by Steve Reich, Louis Andriessen and Motown. 12:10 p.m., Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G St. NW. 202-347-2635, Ext. 20. $10. Yoga at Georgetown Library Smart growth: Reimagining industrial areas in Washington, D.C. Health literacy workshop Computer basics class Afternoon in the garden Sketching workshop Bring pencils and a small sketchbook, work with objects on display in the center. Tuesdays 2:30-4:30 p.m. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, Eighth and F streets NW. 202-633-1000. Free. Winnie the Pooh afternoon Tutoring by KIPP Tech Tuesday For ages 13-19, learn hands-on how you can use technology to make digital art, online games, stop-motion animation, music production and more. 4 p.m. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, Teen Space, 901 G St. NW. 202-727-0321. Free. Teen Cafe American Sign Language for beginners “The Lady Vanishes ” Bird sighting: gallery talk Kahulanui, Catch Kings of Hawaiian Swing Yoga in the evening One-hour lesson, all skill levels welcome, mats provided. Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. Northwest One Library, 155 L St. NW. 202-939-5946. Free. “The White Caravan” Yoga For adults and teens Heartbeat of God: sacred drumming Friendship bracelet party Library-provided colorful strings and snacks, you provide the knots, all ages welcome. 7 p.m. Mount Pleasant Library, 3160 16th St. NW. 202-671-3121. Free. Yoga for adults and teens Wednesday, JAN. 14 “Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March ” Susan Buckley and Elspeth Leacock discuss their book, written with young marcher Lynda Blackmon Lowery, about the 1965 voting rights march. 10:30 a.m. Library of Congress, Jefferson Building,


Fans love underdogs, but few face greater odds than the Palestinian soccer team

Palestinians in Gaza City cheer as they watch a television feed of a soccer match between the Patestinian territories’ team and the Philippines during the AFC Cup Final on May 30. (Mohammed Salem /REUTERS) RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian team is having the best season in its history: In 2014, it reached a plateau as the 85th best team in the world, according to rankings by FIFA, soccer’s world governing body. The team has since fallen to 113th place — still not bad — meaning it is better than Kuwait but not quite as good as Saudi Arabia. (Israel is ranked 32nd.) This has created big buzz among Palestinian fans of football, as soccer is known here and in most of the world. Even bigger is that the team has for the first time fought its way into the Asian Football Confederation’s Asian Cup, the most important competition for Asian teams after the World Cup. To be staged in Australia starting next week, the 16-team tournament is expected to be dominated by Japan, South Korea and Iran. “Palestine qualifying is a very big deal,” said Bassil Mikdadi, a founder of the fan Web site Football Palestine. “Football is the number one sport, and short of qualifying for the World Cup, this is as big as it gets. It will be the first time we participate in the finals of a major tournament.” On a recent chilly evening, the Palestinian team was having a final at-home practice at the stadium in Ramallah before hitting the road for friendly matches and then the Asian Cup. The players were jazzed. A few hundred fans cheered from the seats, and after the practice, they came down to hand the team members roses and wish them luck. The coach, Ahmed al-Hassan, said that running a Palestinian team was not easy, in part because it represents a population that has no sovereign state and is divided between the besieged Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Over the years, Palestinian soccer players have frequently been denied permits by Israeli authorities to travel between the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians in the diaspora, playing for teams in Poland, China, Canada and Saudi Arabia, also have had trouble getting home. “I can’t gather my players in one place,” Hassan said. “Gaza players can’t come to West Bank. West Bank can’t go to Gaza. I have players in


Meet the National Zoo’s new chief vet, who cares for Bao Bao and other animals

Don Neiffer’s first patient of the day is acting like a typical toddler at a checkup. First, she won’t go into the examining area. Eventually, the patient climbs onto a scale to be weighed. Neiffer holds out a small red biscuit as a reward, and she sticks her pointed black muzzle through the mesh of her enclosure to eat it from his hand. Neiffer (pronounced “nife-fur”) isn’t just any doctor — he’s the new chief veterinarian at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, responsible for the health of more than 1,800 animals. Among them is Bao Bao, the 16-month-old panda now nuzzling Neiffer’s hand, looking for more treats. “You’re her new BFF,” jokes Laurie Thompson, the biologist in charge of the zoo’s giant panda exhibit. “I think the person with the food bag is probably always the BFF,” Neiffer replies. But if bribes will get Bao Bao to cooperate, Neiffer is happy to offer them. He raises one hand, and the panda cub, recognizing the sign to stand, lifts herself onto her hind legs. “Good job!” Neiffer takes the opportunity to look over Bao Bao’s stomach, scanning for signs of illness or injury, then gives her another biscuit. Next, Thompson and one of Bao Bao’s keepers, Nicole MacCorkle, use the treats to lure the 69-pound panda into another part of the enclosure so Neiffer can listen to her heart rate and examine the rest of her body. He massages her head and back, feeling for lumps, bumps and cuts that might indicate a health problem. Thankfully, all signs point to good health. (For those of you concerned about Bao Bao’s recent night up in a tree, where she hid after getting an electrical shock from a wire used to help keep her in her enclosure, the panda keepers report that she is fine.) This checkup is just like the ones you have when you go to the doctor: It allows Neiffer to make sure Bao Bao is growing strong and staying healthy. It also helps train Bao Bao for future interactions with the veterinarian, ones where she might need to get a shot or be treated for an illness. Besides, Neiffer enjoys getting to know the animals. In the two months since he started his job, the chief veterinarian has spent most of his time attending meetings, learning how the National Zoo works and finding his way along its winding pathways. Mornings


Fareed Zakaria: American innovation is in trouble

so many engineers in California in the 1950s and 1960s was because large defense companies had attracted them there. Most of the legendary start-ups that fueled the computer revolution — Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel — got off the ground largely because the military, and later NASA, would buy their products until they became cheap and accessible enough for the broader commercial market. GPS, the technology that now powers the information revolution, was developed for the military. And then there was government funding for research, which is sometimes thought of simply as large grants to universities for basic science but often was far more ingenious. My favorite example comes from Walter Isaacson’s fascinating new book, “The Innovators.” In the 1950s, the U.S. government funded a massive project at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, employing equal numbers of psychologists and engineers who worked together to find ways “that humans could interact more intuitively with computers and information could be presented with a friendlier interface.” Isaacson traces how this project led directly to the user-friendly computer screens of today as well as ARPANET, the precursor of the Internet. Federal funding for basic research and technology should be utterly uncontroversial. It has been one of the greatest investments in human history. And yet it has fallen to its lowest level as a percentage of GDP in four decades. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is catching up in entrepreneurship and research. A real start-up culture is emerging in Sweden, Israel, Beijing and Bangalore. China is on track to surpass the United States in spending on research and development. But there is hope. Ajay Piramal, a thoughtful Indian businessman, said to me, “I think one of the reasons that the United States is so successful is that it constantly criticizes itself. All that criticism makes sure that you never get complacent.” So while foreigners praise U.S. innovation today, Americans should set about making sure that there is innovation tomorrow as well. Read more from Fareed Zakaria’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. Read more on this issue: Charles Kenny: America is No. 2! And that’s great news. Robert J. Samuelson: Where have all the entrepreneurs gone? Robert J. Samuelson: Where have all the entrepreneurs gone (continued)? Robert J. Samuelson: Is America in decline? Steve Case: Give entrepreneurs room and they will grow the economy The Post’s View: How to encourage American innovation


Cuomo’s 1984 speech stirred Democrats, then and for decades

secure in our old age and, before that, to reach heights that our own parents would not have dared dream of.” The acclaim from Democrats, inside and outside of the convention hall, was instant and thunderous, and eventually led Cuomo to be touted as one of the party’s leading intellectual lights and potential presidential contenders until he decided against a White House bid in 1992 after much deliberation. In his book “How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere,” longtime television journalist Larry King recalled standing next to the Oklahoma delegation as they watched Cuomo. “I heard one of the delegates say, ‘I don’t know that man, but he reminded me of why I am a Democrat,’ ” King wrote. Tim Russert, the late former Cuomo aide who would go on to host NBC’s “Meet the Press,” wrote in his memoir that he watched Cuomo from afar as his then-boss spoke, “reacting to the energy in the crowd, leaning back on his heels and gesturing. It was as if he was having an animated conversation with the whole country.” In part due to the progressive winds swirling currently within the Democratic Party, Cuomo’s speech was remembered Thursday as a stirring ode to liberalism that was powerful then, and in the spirit of where the party is today. Democratic activists, whose heroes are now figures such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who has also made the rising gap between the rich and the poor the thrust of her politics, embraced Cuomo. So did party operatives inspired by his fiery presentation. On Thursday night, Democrats young and old outpoured on social-media platforms, using them as a gathering place to reminisce on how the speech affected their political thinking and their careers. “It’s odd, but I think Cuomo’s ‘two cities’ speech would work a lot better today [politically] than it did in 1984,” Michael Cohen, a former Democratic speechwriter, wrote on Twitter. Wrote Mo Elleithee, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee: “Mario Cuomo’s 1984 speech helped teach me what it means to be a Democrat. His 1994 loss helped motivate me to go into politics. A true giant.” Some conservatives, too, offered praise Thursday for Cuomo’s performance, if not his message, and acknowledged the strength of his delivery and his uncontested place as a major political figure of the late 20th century. “For fans of oratory, Mario Cuomo’s 1984 convention speech about a


‘Mozart in the Jungle’ and entertainment’s classical-music problem

field might look like that has almost nothing to do with reality. Here’s the thing, though: Research was done. Quite a lot of research, in fact. I’ve heard from several people since my review appeared who were approached by the show’s creators about serving in some advisory capacity. And there’s evidence that the writers — Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, Paul Weitz and Alex Timbers — had facts at their disposal. Example: When the series protagonist, a young oboist named Hailey (Lola Kirke), auditions for the “New York Symphony,” the conductor Rodrigo (Bernal) decides to hire her on the spot. But we can’t hire her, he’s told; we already have four oboes. “Well, then,” he says (I paraphrase), “I’ll change the first performance of the season to the Mahler 8th, because it has a fifth oboe. My contract specifies that I can change up to three performances a season.” I imagine the writers’ glee at having tracked down a piece that calls for five oboes. But they utterly missed the bigger picture, which is that the Mahler 8th — called the “Symphony of a Thousand” because of the size of the forces required, including a full chorus and eight vocal soloists — is a major undertaking for any orchestra. The thought of doing it because you need to accommodate an oboist is, for anyone in the field, extremely funny. If you’re not in the field, though, it probably sounds like pedantic nitpicking. The red carpet premiere screening of Amazon's Original Series “Mozart in the Jungle” at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. (Brian Ach/Getty Images For Amazon Studios) When I sat down to write about the show, I had a whole catalogue of this kind of error. A member of the most prestigious orchestra in New York would never run out after a performance to play a Broadway show, even if the timing allowed it (concerts and Broadway shows start about the same time, last I looked), or play weddings and receptions for extra money; they pull in six-figure salaries and already work full time. A new music director would never be announced as a surprise in the middle of a concert. The head of the symphony board does not run the orchestra. A conductor would not bus the whole orchestra to rehearse in a vacant lot to help them loosen up. But it’s TV, you say, and this kind of


For BP and chief executive Bob Dudley, a bumpy ride in Russia becomes worse

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (right) speaks with BP chief executive Bob Dudley (left), in this 2011 photo. Bob Dudley has seen a $16 billion investment imperiled by sliding oil prices and Western trade restrictions. (ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images) BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley has endured many scrapes in Russia during the past decade. In 2008, when he was chief executive of TNK-BP, a joint venture between the British oil major and a group of Russian billionaires, Dudley faced a stream of lawsuits and tax probes: administrative bullying, Russian style. He couldn’t even get his work visa renewed. In July of that year, he fled Moscow, saying in a bitter statement that he’d suffered “sustained harassment” by Russian authorities and his partners. He told the U.S. ambassador at the time that he thought that then-Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin was behind the attacks, according to a U.S. Embassy cable released by WikiLeaks. Now, Dudley’s fate hinges on Sechin once again as he watches BP’s $16 billion Russia bet get mauled by plunging oil prices and Ukraine-related sanctions. BP is the biggest foreign investor in Russia through its 20 percent stake in OAO Rosneft, the state-controlled oil giant led by Sechin. The United States and the European Union have locked Rosneft out of capital markets in response to Russian intervention in Ukraine. Washington has gone a step further and blacklisted Sechin, banning him, for example, from traveling to the United States. Dudley now sits on the board of Rosneft with a man the U.S. government treats as a pariah. Dudley, a soft-spoken oilman who lived on and off in Moscow for almost a decade during the 1990s and 2000s, shrugs it all off with black humor. “Igor Sanction — his new nickname,” Dudley joked to analysts on a conference call in July, when they asked about the effect of sanctions on BP. He explained that the sanctions were against Sechin “as an individual” and do not affect BP’s dealings with him as a CEO. Dudley’s jest was the kind of banter that you might imagine from a guy making light of an old school rival — not from a corporate oil chief talking about one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest confederates. But then Dudley, who grew up in Mississippi, and Sechin are an incongruous pair. “Dudley is the good old boy from the South, very nice, kind, approachable,” says Fadel Gheit,


U.S. imposes sanctions on N. Korea following attack on Sony

threats head-on.” The targets of the new sanctions include the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s main intelligence agency, which is believed to have orchestrated major cyber-operations. The other targets are the Korea Mining Development Trading Corp., which is North Korea’s main arms dealer, and the Korean Tangun Trading Corp., which is responsible for North Korea’s defense research and development. Addressing North Korea's hack of Sony at his end-of-year news conference, President Obama said the movie studio erred in canceling the film. “We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States,” he said. None of the individuals sanctioned — operating out of Russia, Iran, Syria, China and Namibia — is believed to have been directly involved in the hack into Sony, officials said. They earned their place on the new list as employees of the Pyongyang government or representatives of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. North Korea is already one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world, and the agencies and entities targeted Friday have all been sanctioned previously. Still, analysts said the measures could inflict some new financial pain on North Korea’s already isolated military establishment. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the new sanctions aim to hold North Korea responsible for “destructive and destabilizing conduct.” “Even as the FBI continues its investigation into the cyber- attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, these steps underscore that we will employ a broad set of tools to defend U.S. businesses and citizens, and to respond to attempts to undermine our values or threaten the national security of the United States,” he said. Obama had pledged to respond “proportionally” to the intrusion into Sony’s network — an attack that not only exposed embarrassing corporate e-mails but also wiped out computer data. The new measures fall short of the response sought by some lawmakers, including a move to redesignate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. Regardless of their impact, however, the sanctions serve as a sign of the administration’s confidence that North Korea was behind the attack against Sony. Since the earliest news reports about possible North Korean responsibility in November, there has been skepticism among independent security researchers who say that it is notoriously difficult to determine the origins of cyberattacks and that sophisticated hackers can hide their footsteps or otherwise fool investigators. Sony Pictures’ “The Interview”


Monarch butterflies may gain government protection, but you can help, too

Millions of monarch butterflies flock to El Rosario sanctuary in Mexico for the winter. (Nicole Hamilton) A year ago, things were not looking good for monarch butterflies. A final analysis of data from their 2013 North American migration showed that the number of these famous black-and-orange butterflies was at its lowest since 1993, when people began counting. But the past 12 months have held some positive news for the species. Tentative reports on their annual fall migration from Canada and the northern United States to Mexico show that the population is growing once more. And last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — the agency responsible for managing wild animals and their habitats — announced that it will conduct a year-long review of the species to see whether the government should step in to help conserve it. Depending on the outcome of the review, the monarch could become protected by the Endangered Species Act, which means that the butterflies and their habitats will be safeguarded by law. “It’s a really great thing for awareness,” said Nicole Hamilton, executive director of the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy in Virginia. Her organization was among those that signed the petition to the Fish and Wildlife Service asking for this review. But gaining the government protection is a very long process, said biologist Chip Taylor. He’s the director of Monarch Watch, an organization based at the University of Kansas that works to protect the butterflies by tagging them during migration and restoring their habitats. A monarch caterpillar crawls on a milkweed plant, the species’ primary food source. Kids can help monarchs survive by planting milkweed. (Nicole Hamilton) Rather than wait, both Taylor and Hamilton said, the best way to help the monarchs is to get regular people involved in restoring something that’s crucial to their survival: milkweed. It’s a flowering plant on which monarchs feed and lay their eggs. Farmers, gardeners and kids all have a role to play in this effort. Farmers can use fewer chemicals called herbicides, which kill milkweed, and gardeners can plant milkweed in their gardens. Monarch Watch runs a program called Milkweed Market, which distributes free milkweed plants to schools with information on creating a butterfly habitat. Are you interested in protecting monarch butterflies? With a parent or teacher, visit loudounwildlife.org or www.monarchwatch.org to get more information on ways to help. — Sarah Kaplan


Afghans have an unlikely new hero: A Bruce Lee look-alike

“This is an example of nationalism from Hazaras,” wrote a poster named Lkmvoeir Mosidfj on Alizada’s Facebook page on Dec. 14.“We have tons of champions in sports from Afghanistan. They never mention Tajik or Pashtoon etc. But when a Hazara has no achievement except for his face looking like some Chinese star he proudly mentions he's a Hazara in his social media profile. This should change.” In recent days, Alizada has decided he wants to be called Afghan Bruce Lee, to demonstrate his desire to represent all Afghans. He even changed his Twitter handle to @afghanbrucelee. But that hasn’t prevented the dark side of Afghanistan from entering his world. In recent days, Alizada said, he has received death threats on his Facebook pages and in phone calls. The police in his neighborhood — also mostly Hazaras — were concerned enough to provide round-the-clock security, including the officer who frisks visitors outside his house for guns and knives. “Since I became famous, people feel jealous of me,” said Alizada, speaking in his family’s living room, where both of his medals hang on the wall. “Secondly, some of the ethnic groups do not see Hazaras in good eyes. They always show their enmity to us. They should know that Hazaras are human beings and they have the right to live in this country.” He now travels in different cars, sometimes with police escorts. The recent assassinations of two sports figures in Kabul has made him more concerned. But it has not stopped him from meeting his fans. Last week, he slipped on a pale blue suit and met scores of Hazara youth at a gathering hosted by a local civil society group. “He comes from a poor family, and yet he is like a king who’s just been crowned,” gushed Zuhra Naderi. “He inspires us. We feel pride not only as Hazaras but as Afghans.” Alizada said he hopes his fame will provide an escape from his violent homeland. His story has run on Chinese and Japanese television networks. His Twitter followers, he said, include Americans and Europeans. He dreams that one day someone will contact him and whisk him away to California, to follow in the footsteps of the man whose identity he has adopted. “I want to become a very famous actor in Hollywood movies so that I can represent Afghanistan,” said Alizada. “I want to become like Bruce Lee.”


Republicans in state governments plan juggernaut of conservative legislation

industry, and Uber is negotiating a similar agreement with Nevada regulators. Some legislatures will debate “right to try” legislation, which would allow people with terminal illnesses access to experimental drugs before those drugs win final approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana and Missouri already have versions of such laws on the books. And as marijuana legalization takes effect in two more states, in addition to the two where the drug was already legal, legislators in most states are expected to debate a rash of drug law revisions. Pure legalization bills will be introduced in 18 states, while decriminalization bills will be introduced in 15, according to a tally maintained by the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project. Seeking help from Congress States will lobby the new Republican-led Congress on a handful of issues that impact budgets. A bipartisan group of legislators has urged Congress to pass the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would allow taxation of online sales, though GOP control in Washington makes passage unlikely. Thirty-nine governors — Democrats and Republicans alike — have encouraged Congress to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides states about $13 billion for medical coverage for about 8 million children from low-income families. And states want Congress to pass a long-term extension of the Highway Trust Fund, which top Republicans in Washington have said is a priority. “State legislatures need a long-term funding solution for their transportation infrastructure. If Congress does not act, states will have to look at other funding solutions,” said Mick Bullock, a spokesman for the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures. Mounting budgetary challenges from earlier years will dominate legislative attention in a handful of states. About half of all states are operating at or above their maximum prison capacity, according to corrections experts, putting pressure on legislatures to alleviate crowding. Some states will have to deal with increasingly underfunded pension plans, which could threaten to swamp state budgets over the long term. In Illinois, where the state pension is funded at less than 40 percent, Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner (R) made pension reform a cornerstone of his campaign this year. The American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative organization that helps Republican legislators coordinate measures among states, supports moving public pensions from a defined benefit system to a defined contribution system. ALEC considers Oklahoma, which passed a pension reform bill in 2014, to be the model.


Book review: “Why We Lost,” a general’s account of two wars, by Daniel Bolger

to Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who left his base in Afghanistan on his own in the middle of the night and murdered 15 innocent men, women and children — as natural side effects of fighting an insurgency. Bolger rarely speaks of responsibility. Those who tried to protect innocents are criticized. Afghan objections to civilian casualties, night raids, entry into mosques and Koran burnings are portrayed as questionable. In the context of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s controversial tactical directive restraining the use of airstrikes, Bolger writes: “McChrystal mistook Karzai’s daily bleatings for the views of Afghan villagers. Many of the average Pashtuns . . . accepted that in a war, innocent people sometimes get killed. Afghans would never love ISAF [the International Security Assistance Force, the U.S.-led military command in Afghanistan], but they might well fear and respect the occupiers.” Here Bolger is on thin ice. I spent nearly two years in the Afghan countryside, seeing Afghan villagers daily. Civilian casualties, entry into homes and Koran burnings upset average Afghans. The most hardened Afghan commanders, who hate the Taliban remorselessly, have lectured me on how civilian casualties and entering homes at night cause innocent Afghans to turn to the Taliban. I have seen scores of villages empty out to riot over Koran desecration. And Afghans are tough. If anything, what is questionable is the idea that Americans would want to kill on the scale necessary to garner Afghan “fear and respect.” I wish Bolger had spent less time dismissing these sad events and more time extolling the discipline of the units that avoided them. Most soldiers and Marines, in my experience, tried very hard to treat Afghans and Iraqis with respect and dignity. Rather than write off atrocities as inevitable, Americans should remember and emulate the moral discipline of these soldiers and Marines who upheld our highest standards. As the book goes on, the “Vinegar Joe” tone wears on the reader. Red Cross workers are “international do-gooders.” Any journalist who agreed with Gen. David Petraeus is a “docile carrier pigeon.” On President Obama, Bolger is unfair: “The thoughtful, deliberate U.S. president thoughtfully and deliberately condemned Americans in uniform to years of deadly, pointless counterinsurgency patrols.” On former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, he is simply offensive: “Karzai’s writ ran to the outskirts of Kabul. . . . At least his obnoxious half brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was no more, having been assassinated.” The


Local digest: Million-dollar lottery ticket bought in D.C.

The DISTRICT Winning $1 million lottery ticket in NW A Powerball lottery ticket worth $1 million was sold at a Northwest liquor store, the D.C. Lottery said. The $2 ticket was sold at Sheffield Wine and Liquor on Connecticut Avenue on Wednesday with five correct numbers. The buyer missed only the Powerball number, which was 35, the lottery said in a news release. — Julie Zauzmer MARYLAND Va. man injured in Dec. 30 crash dies A Virginia man died Wednesday after a traffic collision Tuesday, Prince George’s County police said. A pickup truck collided with a car driven by Shane Beale, 32, about 6:30 a.m. near Aquasco and Horsehead roads, authorities said. Police believe the crash occurred as the truck was turning right onto Aquasco Road. The crash remains under investigation. — Lynh Bui Frederick toddler’s death ruled homicide The death of a Maryland toddler who was taken to Ohio by his mother during a trip to see a high school friend has been ruled a homicide, a coroner said Friday. Preliminary results of an autopsy on 1-year-old Cameron Beckford indicate he died of blunt-force trauma to his chest and abdomen, said Anahi Ortiz, coroner in Franklin County, Ohio. Columbus police found Cameron’s body in a bag in Big Walnut Creek on Wednesday. It was unclear when the boy died. His mother, Dainesha Stevens, 24, has been charged with endangering children and tampering with evidence. Her attorney says she made up a story about leaving the boy on a doorstep because she could not care for him. Stevens took a bus to Columbus on Dec. 15, the day after police were called to her home in Frederick because of an argument with the father of her children, Cameron and a 6-year-old girl, according to police. — Associated Press VIRGINIA Three teens stabbed during hotel party Three teenage males were stabbed at a party at an Alexandria hotel early Friday. An 18-year-old is in serious condition, Alexandria police said. The others, 17 and 18, suffered injuries that were not thought to be life-threatening. Witnesses said the stabbings occurred during an argument over liquor about 1:30 a.m. at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center on Seminary Road, police said. There were two attackers, police said. No arrests were made in the stabbings, but at least two people under 21 were charged with alcohol possession, police said. — Julie Zauzmer Helicopter plucks hiker from


Heroin use is a public health emergency that calls for legislative solutions

In this Nov. 20, 2014 photo, Naloxone Hydrochloride, known as Narcan, sits on a counter at EMS Services in Stamford, Conn. Schedules are being drawn up for training the city's 264 career firefighters in the use of the drug, that reverses the effects of opioids like heroin and oxycodone. (Lindsay Perry/AP) MORE PEOPLE are killed now by drug overdoses than by homicides in many states, prompting alarmed state lawmakers and attorneys general to search for legislative fixes. The sense of urgency, impelled especially by a spike in lethal heroin overdoses, is justified. Some of the measures proposed to address the problem may not be. The new focus on heroin use coincides with very sharp increases nationally in overdose deaths in middle-class and predominantly white communities. It’s a shame that that’s what it took to rally the authorities to action; still, better late than never. About 20 states, including Maryland, and the District have enacted bills to ensure that first-responders carry naloxone, a prescription drug also known by the brand name Narcan, which can save the lives of opiate users who have overdosed. Unfortunately, the spike in demand for the antidote has driven up its cost, which is proving a burden for some states and localities. Nonetheless, more states need to step up and recognize heroin use as a public health emergency. Virginia is a case in point. Heroin-related deaths more than doubled in the commonwealth from 2011 to 2013 and increased at an even faster rate in Northern Virginia. Yet no law requires emergency medical personnel to carry Narcan; some do and some don’t. Worse, some lawmakers apparently believe that making the antidote more accessible will encourage heroin addiction, as if the availability of treatment somehow enables disease. There are other sensible steps that states can take. They include enacting so-called good Samaritan laws (in place in Maryland and the District but not yet in Virginia) that shield witnesses from prosecution — even if they abuse or sell drugs themselves — if they promptly report and help overdose victims. States should also consider measures that crack down on unscrupulous doctors and pharmacists who illegally or inappropriately prescribe and dispense opiate pills like OxyContin, which can be a gateway to heroin . And it’s also worth tracking the results of legislation adopted in New York that allows addicts to remain in treatment programs while they appeal decisions by insurance companies that


A notorious piece of Washington real estate struggles to find buyers

A developer purchased a two-story rowhouse at 1013 V Street NW and added three stories, eliciting outrage from neighbors. But only one of the three units in the building has sold. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) The pop-up of all pop-ups is trapped in pop-up purgatory. One of Washington’s most notorious pieces of real estate — a rowhouse-turned-sky-high condo on V Street NW that soars three stories over its immediate neighbors — is struggling to sell its most premium units. The three-unit condo building, dubbed The Ava, has gone nearly 12 months without selling its middle unit and penthouse. Dropping the prices to just under $700,000 and $800,000, respectively, has yet to yield buyers. (The less-expensive bottom unit sold in August for $375,000.) The average number of days on the market for a condo in the building’s immediate vicinity, along the coveted U Street corridor, is about 19 days, according to a report generated by Adam Turek, a Coldwell Banker Realtor who had clients tour the building in the spring and pass on it. The Ava’s troubles come at a time when pop-ups are spreading throughout the city. Developers, capitalizing on Washington’s hot real estate market, are converting the city’s older rowhouses into taller buildings with multiple, high-priced condo units. But the phenomenon has sparked a public outcry in many communities. The penthouse unit in the building was initially priced at $850,900, but the asking price has fallen below $800,000. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) On Jan. 15, the D.C. Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing to consider whether to reduce the maximum height of pop-ups in some neighborhoods to 35 feet, down from 40 feet. The Ava, however, is located in a zone where homes can be built as high as 65 feet. Why no love for The Ava? The online photo galleries show kitchens with shiny hardwood floors and quartz countertops. The penthouse boasts a private balcony underneath a giant eye-shaped window. The Web site for the real estate firm, Washington Fine Properties, says the pop-up is having an open house Sunday. But online commenters have not been kind, labeling the building “The Middle Finger,” “The Monster” or, to avoid confusing it with so many other pop-ups blanketing Washington, “The V Street Monster.” “It looks like a straight block that was dropped into a single row in Tetris,” wrote one reader on the PoPville blog. (The “PoP”


Bad news on sea levels calls for forward-thinking solutions

“THIS IS really happening,” NASA’s Thomas P. Wagner told the New York Times in May, describing the collapse of ice formations in western Antarctica. Since then, the news has only gotten worse. According to a new paper in Geophysical Research Letters, the ice loss in a particularly vulnerable Antarctic region has accelerated over the past two decades — to 18 billion tons a year, three times the 20-year average. A Mount Everest’s worth of ice has slipped away every couple of years, researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California at Irvine found, comparing data from four different sources. A second paper elaborated on the culprit: Warm water from deep below the surface is lapping up higher than before, undermining a massive frozen shelf that traps ice on land. This effect could mean trouble elsewhere around Antarctica, undermining the huge glaciers covering the continent. All of these findings are bad news for sea levels, which could rise on the high end of scientists’ estimates over the coming decades if Antarctica continues down the path it seems to be on. That would inundate coastal communities in the United States and elsewhere. As with so many alarming natural hazards, directly attributing some or all of western Antarctica’s ice loss to climate change is still a difficult business. But that is not a reason for comfort. Even in the surprising circumstance that there is no connection in this particular case, humans have no interest in policies that risk raising sea levels further. That sort of prudence should animate public policy on carbon dioxide emissions, the chief agents of man-made climate change. Instead of using various uncertainties as excuses to do little or nothing — including questions about how all sorts of natural systems will react to a warmer world — leaders should hedge against major risks, just like big corporations do all the time. There is nothing conservative about betting the climate on self-serving hopes that things will turn out fine, forcing future generations to live with whatever consequences result. There is nothing conservative about the subsidy the federal government gives carbon-intensive industries when it allows them to release greenhouse gases for free into the common air. Yet Republicans are gearing up to protect that federal giveaway tooth-and-nail. The Senate’s incoming majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), has promised major fights with the White House on Environmental Protection Agency climate rules.


4 wallet-friendly wines to try

(Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) Recommendations ★ ★ ★Exceptional ★ ★Excellent ★Very Good Availability information is based on distributor records. Wines might not be in stock at every listed store and might be sold at additional stores. Prices are approximate. Check Winesearcher.com to verify availability, or ask a favorite wine store to order through a distributor. Here are four hearty, wallet-friendly wines to get 2015 off to a good start. — D.M. Finca La Mata 2013 ★ ★1/2 Ribera del Duero, Spain, $19 Here’s tempranillo at its finest, with a hint of tobacco leaf and dark-berry flavors. This is an excellent pairing for any red-meat or roast poultry dish. Alcohol by volume: 14 percent. Elite: Available in the District at Burka’s Wine & Liquor, Calvert Woodley, Connecticut Avenue Wine & Liquor; on the list at La Tasca, Maple, Mi Cuba Cafe, MXDC, Slate Wine Bar + Bistro. Available in Maryland at Balducci’s; Beer Wine & Co., Cork & Fork, Montgomery Gourmet Beer & Wine, Open Til Midnight Beer & Wine and Vino Volo in Bethesda; the Bottle Shop in Potomac; Choice Wine & Beer in Wheaton; Finewine.com in Gaithersburg; Friendship Wine & Liquor in Abingdon; Market on the Boulevard in Cabin John; Pinehurst Wine Shoppe, Wells Discount Liquors and Wine Source in Baltimore; Snider’s Super Foods in Silver Spring; Village Beer & Fine Wine in Rockville; Ye Old Spirit Shop in Frederick. On the list at Crush Wine House in Annapolis, La Tasca in Baltimore. Available in Virginia at Arrowine and Cheese in Arlington, Bottle Stop in Occoquan, Whole Foods Market (Alexandria, Arlington, Springfield, Tysons Corner), Wine House in Fairfax, Unwined (Belleview); on the list at Dolce Veloce Cicchetti Wine Bar in Fairfax, El Primero Bar & Grill in Alexandria, La Tasca (Arlington), Patowmack Farm in Lovettsville. Bulgariana Cabernet Sauvignon & Syrah 2011 ★1/2 Thracian Valley, Bulgaria, $16 This is the second vintage of this excellent-value wine to come to the Washington area market, another sign that Eastern Europe will provide some delicious inexpensive wines in coming years. ABV: 14.8 percent. G&B Importers: Available in the District at Morris Miller Wine & Liquor; on the list at Ambar, Bistro Bohem. Available in Maryland at Eastport Liquors and Mills Fine Wine and Spirits in Annapolis, Finewine.com in Gaithersburg, Montgomery County Liquor Stores (various), Total Wine & More (Laurel, Towson), Wine Harvest (Gaithersburg, Potomac). Available in Virginia at Total Wine & More


McGegan, BSO offer slender, uneven, but compelling Beethoven Ninth

I went to hear the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s first program of 2015 at Strathmore for one reason: I so much enjoyed hearing Nicholas McGegan conduct “Messiah” with the National Symphony Orchestra in December that I was eager to hear Saturday night whether, and how, he might similarly reanimate Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The Beethoven was a much harder challenge. McGegan is an early-music specialist; “Messiah,” to him, is mother’s milk. Beethoven’s Ninth is on a different scale, and it’s usually presented as a towering and massive orchestral work with the concept of “masterpiece” erected forbiddingly around it. Seldom is it slimmed down — certainly not to the degree that McGegan attempted: staccato brass kisses in place of usually stentorian notes, and long, limpid phrases in lieu of bombast. It was a more ambitious venture, and it didn’t always work, particularly in the early movements, but the payoff in the fourth and final movement was so spectacular that in the end, my hopes were rewarded. The evening’s programming was an example of the kind of thoughtful, detail-oriented and unusual vision that McGegan exemplifies. The Ninth is such a monumental piece that it’s hard to know what to pair it with. The BSO had the bright idea of offering some less-known Beethoven, plus a Haydn piece, that both showed unfamiliar sides of the composers and gave the chorus a little more to do. There’s a delightful audacity in prefacing the weighty Ninth with one of Beethoven’s slenderer works, the overture to “King Stephen,” which is built around an ingratiating little tune that sounds like a classical music box. All that worked better on paper, though, than in the realization, because the works weren’t all that great — and neither, in one case, was the performance. The overture was followed by “The Storm,” which Haydn wrote in tacit response to a London critic who said he hadn’t yet shown his prowess as a composer for voices. Composers often love writing storm scenes, and Haydn had fun with this one, but it dragged a bit in McGegan’s muted reading. Conductor Nicholas McGegan. (Steve J. Sherman/Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) And something simply didn’t work in the performance of Beethoven’s “Opferlied,” for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra. Mary Phillips, though a fine singer, was hard to hear; the brass and winds plodded as though someone were literally counting out the beats; and despite the committed singing of the Baltimore