Free and Easy: Day of the Dog Festival, Blue Moon Harvest Celebration, D.C. Teen Design Fair

Ave. NW. 202-364-1919. www.politics-prose.com. TUESDAY Tired of eating at the same, old fusion pop-up restaurant/food truck? Need something exciting? Register for Chaos Cooking so you can be invited to a secret location where you and a few strangers meet up with recipes and ingredients in hand, and then cook dinner for the entire group. This is the stuff good stories are made of. 8 p.m. Location revealed upon registration. www.chaoscooking.com. Registration required. WEDNESDAY Presented in conjunction with the Corcoran Gallery of Art's "War/Photography" exhibition, this free performance features spoken word and poetry by local activists, writers and journalists as well as Corcoran students, faculty and alumni. 6 p.m. Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th St. NW. 202-639-1700. www.corcoran.org. THURSDAY Ready for fall? On the night of the harvest moon, swing by Carriage House bar and restaurant in Adams Morgan between 7 and 9 p.m. to pick up a free sample of Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale. 7 p.m. Carriage House, 2333 18th St. NW. 202-817-3255. www.carriagehouseam.com. FRIDAY D.C. area teens interested in pursuing fashion careers should register for the D.C. Teen Design Fair at the International Gallery. Presented by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the event will allow teens to snag giveaways and speak with designers working in fashion, graphic design, architecture, product design and more. Plus, "Project Runway's" Tim Gunn will be there for the Design Careers Challenge. 8:30 a.m. International Gallery 1100 Jefferson Dr. SW. www.cooperhewitt.org. Registration and parent consent form required. SATURDAY Dog lovers can bring their pooches to the Congressional Cemetery for a day of games, shopping and live music. Known not only for historic grave sites, but also as one of the best spots to walk dogs in the city, there will also be on-site pet adoptions, demonstrations and a costume contest. Typically, only members of the K9 Corps group are permitted to walk dogs here – this is the chance for you and your pooch to try it out. 10 a.m. Congressional Cemetery, 1801 E St. SE. 202-543-0539. www.congressionalcemetery.org. SUNDAY Kick back and take in a screening of Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme's 1963 documentary "Le Joli Mai." Filmed near the end of the Algerian War, the film consists of on-the-street interviews on "the meaning of happiness." Part of the National Gallery of Art's "From Vault to Screen" film series. 4:30 p.m. National Gallery of Art, East Building, 4th Constitution Ave. NW. 202-737-4215. www.nga.gov.


Annual FreshFarm Market feast takes a spirited turn

had a hard time pulling together the District's best sous chefs, let alone executive chefs. Shortly after McBride accepted the Farmland Feast gig, D.C. Central Kitchen announced that its annual Capital Food Fight, which attracts dozens of local chefs and restaurants, will be held the same night: Monday, Nov. 11. "As soon as they asked me to do it, a couple of months ago, I got everybody on the phone and got everyone to commit," McBride says. "That was smart," I tell McBride. "It was lucky," he responds. Brian McBride takes over for Cathal Armstrong at this year's Farmland Feast dinner. (Photo by Stacy Z Goldberg) For the three-course dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the West End, McBride has put together an outstanding collection of chefs. Sebastien Archambault from Blue Duck Tavern, Harper McClure from Brabo and Frank Ruta from Palena are all tasked with preparing a family-style first course. Archambault will prepare something with seafood (likely a chilled skate terrine), while McClure will make a fall salad and Ruta will put together a poultry dish. For the main course, Jeff Tunks from DC Coast and Cedric Maupillier from Mintwood Place will prepare Big Daddy IPA-braised short ribs with a fall vegetable napoleon (no doubt similar to the napoleon that caused Joe Yonan and Tom Sietsema to hyperventilate). For dessert, McBride has asked Duane Copeland from The Source and Susan Wallace from BlackSalt to sweeten the pot. A handful of sommeliers will even be on hand to direct the evening's wine drinking. They include Moez Ben Achour from Marcel's, Nadine Elizabeth Brown from Charlie Palmer Steak, Jennifer Foucher from Proof, Josh Genderson from Schneider's of Capitol Hill, David Hale from Central, Omar Hishmeh from Woodward Table, Ed Jenks from Vidalia, Brent Kroll from the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, Max Kuller from Doi Moi, Julian Mayor from Bourbon Steak, Paul Ruttimann from Le Diplomate, Michael Scaffidi from Plume at the Jefferson and Sebastian Zutant from the Red Hen. The cocktail party will be led by three of Washington's most recognized bartenders: Derek Brown from Mockingbird Hill; Adam Bernbach from 2 Birds, 1 Stone; and Gina Chersevani from Buffalo & Bergen. Mike Berry from the RW Restaurant Group will curate a selection of local craft beers, while Great Wicomico Oyster Company will provide the bivalves for the party. Anthony Acinapura from Brasserie Beck, Devin Bozkaya from Westend Bistro, Aaron McCloud from Cedar,


Cosmic voyages and the search for life’s origins

An artist’s rendering provided by NASA shows the Voyager spacecraft. (NASA image via AP) As Voyager I exits the solar system and becomes the first man-made object to travel through interstellar space, it could open a new chapter in mankind’s ongoing quest to determine its place in the universe. In the 36 years since Voyager I was launched, scientists have made impressive breakthroughs in fields ranging from theoretical physics to astronomy. Combined with Voyager I’s new findings from interstellar space, we may be ever closer to answering some of mankind’s eternal questions: Why do we exist? Where do we come from? Is Earth the only planet in the universe that supports intelligent life? Our answers to these questions could change faster than we think. Take the issue of whether or not there is other intelligent life in the universe. Thanks to the ever-growing power of observational tools in astronomers’ hands, we are now able to peer into the deepest regions of the universe and determine the shape and structure of planets. Much of the universe, according to Voyager I, appears to be a steady hiss and whistling in the dark, signifying nothing. However, NASA’s Kepler SpaceTelescope has discovered the presence of a surprising number of “Super-Earth” planets in the universe that appear to be capable of sustaining the same type of life as here on Earth. Maybe we are not alone after all. And, theoretical physicists are now making breakthroughs as to the size and scope of the universe. One of the still-to-be-determined questions – as brilliantly outlined by Stephen Hawking in “A Brief History of Time” 12 years after the Voyager I launch – is whether the universe is infinitely expanding after the Big Bang, or whether, at some point in time, it will collapse back in on itself. (Think of a balloon expanding to a certain size, and then the air slowly being let out of it). To answer this question, physicists and astronomers are now attempting to determine the role of all the so-called “dark energy” in the universe. Thanks to the construction of a new state-of-the-art Dark Energy Camera, essentially a giant digital camera that snaps pictures of the nighttime sky in the search for clues, we may soon have answers. At the same time we probe the furthest reaches of the universe, we are also peering into the subatomic realm to understand the fundamental building


Weather data: A national security priority

and any delays in launching or operating the new Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1). The report says, “…a satellite data gap would result in less accurate and timely weather forecasts and warnings of extreme events, such as hurricanes, storm surges, and floods.” Satellites provide over 90 percent of the data that go into our weather forecast models. Water vapor satellite loop from Sept. 12, 2013 showing the plume of moisture directed at Colorado from the GOES 13 and GOES 15 satellites (Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies). We will never be able to prepare and protect ourselves from all of nature’s events, but I could not imagine trying to manage or monitor Colorado’s current crisis without accurate and timely weather forecasts. For most of us, trying to navigate traffic, thinking about how to send our kids off to school, or how to better manage our homes and businesses given the changing climate is enough to fear a gap in satellite weather data. To make matters worse, a recent report to NOAA recommends using Chinese satellite data in U.S. weather models. The United States—the most technologically advanced nation in the world and a leader in weather related technologies—may have to rely on Chinese data for our weather forecasts. Interestingly, the report describes this potential solution as “a silver bullet.” Some might say otherwise. Managing nature’s events and not having accurate and timely satellite weather data is as much a threat to our society as any other national security threat. As Hurricane Sandy and the Boulder floods have shown, people die, homes are destroyed, infrastructure is damaged, commerce is disrupted, and our spirit is tested. The only thing that can help the nation better manage these risks is our environmental intelligence infrastructure with our national weather satellites at its core. For the sake of our fellow citizens in Boulder and those across the nation that each and every day are impacted by weather and the changing climate, its time to treat the decline of our satellite weather capabilities and the need to better respond to climate change as a threat to our national security. Data gathering for national security purposes is certainly on the minds of Americans these days. It’s time to recognize the critical need for data gathering of a different sort: weather and long-term forecasting for climate change. Environmental intelligence should be approached in the same context and made


Everything you need to know about why the government might shut down

For one thing, they actually cost money. You need someone to change all the government Web sites to say "closed," and to e-mail employees about when they're working. You need someone to handle federal employees transitioning off government benefits. You need security guards to make sure that unmanned offices full of sensitive data aren't broken into. That adds up. The OMB estimates that the two government shutdowns in the 1990s cost more than $2 billion in current dollars. They also hurt government workers. The 1995-96 shutdowns also led to a temporary loss of income for federal workers and a permanent one for government contractors. "For more than 20 days, about 260,000 federal employees in the D.C. area stayed home, or reported for duty only to be sent packing hours later," the Post's Ed O'Keefe explains. "Agencies retroactively paid workers once the doors reopened, but many government contractors -- paid separately by private employers -- earned nothing during the shutdown." Gail Russell Chaddock at the Christian Science Monitor puts the national employee furlough number from the 1995-96 shutdowns at 800,000, and notes that the shutdowns "delayed processing of visas, passports, and other government applications; suspended cleanup at 600 toxic waste sites; and closed national museums and monuments as well as 368 national park sites -- a loss to some 9 million visitors and the airline and tourist industries that service them." And, of course, they hurt the people who rely on the government. Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) has a good list of other likely effects of a government shutdown. Federal funds to help states pay unemployment benefits could be affected, veterans' benefits could be delayed or cut (as happened last time), IRS tax-refund processing for certain returns would be suspended, new FHA home loan guarantees could cease, farm loans and payments would stop, and Small Business Administration approval of business loan guarantees and direct loans would probably cease. Self-funding agencies like the U.S. Mint and the Postal Service would stay open during a shutdown, and the president, Congress and employees "deemed to perform emergency work involving saving lives or protecting property, including military service, law enforcement, or direct provision of medical care" are exempted from furloughs. The FAA's air traffic control operations would continue unabated and while new applications wouldn't be accepted, Social Security checks would go out per usual. So what do the two parties want out of a continuing


Antares rocket launch from Wallops, Va. – WATCH

Update: 1:13 p.m. Orbital Sciences Corp. launches its Cygnus spacecraft atop an Antares rocket on a supply mission to the international space station. From 10:30 a.m.: The launch will be viewable from Washington, D.C. and large parts of the Mid-Atlantic. Here’s a viewing map: (NASA) And here are maps which provide a guide as to where to look, from the standpoint of several D.C. area landmarks: Where to look from the Capitol east steps in the District (Orbital Sciences) Where to look from the Lincoln Memorial in the District (Orbital Sciences) Where to look from Annapolis (Orbital Sciences) Where to look from the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum in northern Virginia (Orbital Sciences) Generally, if you’re in the D.C. area, you’ll want to look to the southeast during the launch window. Note: there is some uncertainty about the exact geographical viewing area and what you’ll see, as Orbital Sciences explains: Please keep in mind that none of us really know how far away the rocket will be visible. The first stage of Antares is a liquid rocket, fueled by Kerosene and Liquid Oxygen. The resulting exhaust is a combination of Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor. As with a jet engine, under most circumstances the exhaust will not be visible, although if the atmospheric conditions are just right a contrail might be left behind. Most likely, if the vehicle can be seen at all during the first stage, it will look like a small bright dot with a small puff of smoke behind it. The second stage is a solid rocket which does leave a significant column of exhaust behind it. For most observers the vehicle will be quite far away at that point (500+ miles), however it is possible that if the day is very clear the smoke left behind will be visible. The rocket will carry a spacecraft, known as Cygnus, designed to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The Post’s Joel Achenbach offers in glimpse inside: It’s not that big of a rocket, really, and the cargo in the spacecraft is relatively mundane — about 1,500 pounds of clothes, food, water, chocolate for the chocolate-craving astronauts, and so on. But the rocket scheduled to blast off at 10:50 a.m. Wednesday from a small island on the Virginia coast is carrying a heavy burden of expectations. Phil Plait from Slate’s Bad Astronomy explains the mission, once the


Hackers accidentally defaced NASA sites. Here’s how to tell NASA and the NSA apart.

It's no secret that hackers haven't taken too kindly to the revelations about NSA snooping on telephone and Internet data. And according to reports, last week, a group of Brazilian hackers posted messages on U.S. government Web sites asking them to "stop spying us." But the sites didn't belong to the NSA — they belonged to NASA. On the bright side, NASA spokesman Allard Beutel says, "At no point were any of the agency's primary Web sites, missions or classified systems compromised." To clear up the confusion, we've created this short illustrated guide to help hackers tell the two agencies apart in the future. What are they? NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The NSA is the National Security Agency. What do they, you know, do? The NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis undocks from the International Space Station in 2006. In space! (NASA via Reuters) NASA describes its vision as "to reach for new heights and reveal the unknown so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind." Long version: They're responsible for aeronautics research, supporting human and robot exploration missions into space, doing research about our solar system and the universe beyond, and developing space technology. Short version: They send things to space! The NSA headquarters building in Fort Meade, Md. (NSA via Reuters) The NSA says it "leads the U.S. Government in cryptology that encompasses both Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Information Assurance (IA) products and services, and enables Computer Network Operations (CNO) in order to gain a decisive advantage for the Nation and our allies under all circumstances." That sounds like the long version. The short version is they are charged with doing foreign surveillance and data collection for national security purposes. And as we know from the Snowden leaks, they end up having their hands on a fair amount of domestic data as well. Who leads them? NASA administrator Charles Bolden (Matthew Staver/Bloomberg) NASA's Chief Administrator is Charles Bolden, a retired United States Marine Corps major general and former astronaut, who has led the agency since 2009. National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) The NSA's director is Gen. Keith B. Alexander. He's a four-star general and also serves as chief of the Central Security Service and commander of the United States Cyber Command. He's been in charge of the NSA since 2005 after a stint as deputy chief of staff


Public divided on raising debt limit, but sees serious fallout for economy

be raised and 61 percent of Republican saying it should not. Independents are divided--48 percent supporting and 46 percent opposing. Those partisan divisions exist despite a consensus across party lines that failure to raise the limit would cause severe harm to the economy. On that question, 78 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of independents and 66 percent of Republicans agree that not raising the limit poses a serious threat to the economy. Those who advocate raising the limit are far more likely to say failing to do so would hurt the economy. But even among those say they oppose a hike in the limit, almost six in 10 percent say the economy would be damaged if the government defaulted on its bills. Similarly, there is an almost even split in the country over which party enjoys more trust to handle budget issues, with 43 percent saying the president and 40 percent citing congressional Republicans. But distrust of the opposite party is a prime factor in shaping overall opinion. Roughly eight in 10 Republicans trust their leadership while about seven in 10 Democrats trust the president. Independents split their trust 37 for percent Obama, 41 percent for congressional Republicans. The same partisan lines exist on the question of who is less willing to strike a deal. Over eight in 10 Republicans say Obama is doing too little to compromise while more than seven in 10 Democrats say the Republicans are too inflexible. However, rank-and-file Republicans are harder on their own leaders than are Democrats. Only 38 percent said the GOP leaders are doing "about the right amount" to compromise with Obama, while 58 percent of Democrats say they're satisfied with the president's stance. One of the outcomes of the debt ceiling debacle of two years ago was the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts. Known as sequestration, the cuts took effect earlier this year after Congress and the president failed to reach agreement on a broader budget package. At the time they went into effect, just 35 percent of Americans said they approved. In the new Post-ABC poll, approval has risen to 43 percent, with 50 percent saying they are opposed. A majority of Republicans support the automatic cuts while a majority of Democrats oppose them. Independents, again, are evenly divided. The Post-ABC poll was conducted by telephone Thursday through Sunday among a random national sample of 1,004 adults, including interviews on landlines


Michelle Obama plays referee in the food tug-of-war

the politically opposed factions in the food wars. Her meeting, which the White House touted as the first of its kind, comes on the heels of fresh conversation sparked by reporting in the book “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us,” which lays out the ways the processed food industry has effectively marketed junk food to children. Obama spoke of being a busy working mother reliant upon processed foods to feed her children. She recalled looking for juice boxes her daughters could drink in the back seat, cereal they could pour themselves and food she could pop into the microwave. Rather than beating down corporate food companies, Obama made the business case for healthier food options, saying that just as she had become a more nutrition-savvy mother so had many other Americans. “Moms like me are relying on you to help our kids get excited about eating” healthy food, she said, adding that 86 percent of the products marketed to children are loaded with sugar, fat and salt. “Through the magic of marketing and advertising you all have the power to shape our kids tastes.” Last year she was on hand for an announcement by Walt Disney Co. that it would ban advertising for junk food from its television channels and theme parks, and Obama said she would be happy to cheer other companies that made similar commitments. She has lauded lauded Birds Eye, a frozen food company for using characters from the show iCarly to market vegetables to kids. But public health advocates remain suspicious, said Aviva Must, who chairs the department of public health and community medicine at Tufts School of Medicine. “I think the food companies know a lot about marketing and if they are truly, sincerely marketing healthful foods, they can help shift child consumer demands to a more healthful product,” Must said. “The uneasiness is the extent to which they are sincere partners in changing eating habits.” Two years ago the Obama administration tried to get the food industry to agree to marketing guidelines that asked companies to only market healthy food to children, Must said. The food industry bucked the attempt at government regulation and instead several large food companies came up with their own set of less stringent guidelines. Obama, at Wednesday’s meeting, asked public health advocates worried about the intentions of the food industry to ensure that their criticism was


The best sentences we read today

-- "Physicists have discovered a jewel-like geometric object that dramatically simplifies calculations of particle interactions and challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental components of reality." -- "Italians' relatively low Internet usage—37% of Italians have never used Internet, compared with an EU average of 22%—present a unique challenge..." -- "I think we’d have a better justice system if all witnesses were made to wear a veil." -- "In today’s world where an average American interacts with 3,000 ads a day ... " -- "Charles Wee of GDS Architects explained in a statement that the company wanted to 'provide the World’s first invisible tower, showcasing innovative Korean technology.'"


What ‘The Big Lebowski’ tells us about the debt ceiling

If that came to pass, congressional Republicans would take a potentially catastrophic hit to their brand among virtually every corner of the electorate. The GOP base would be furious that the party rolled over under pressure, while Democrats would fume about Republicans playing politics, and independents would wonder if the party had the country's best interests at heart. Another plausible explanation for the perplexing numbers is that concern over federal spending rivals the vague and abstract fear of breaching the debt ceiling. The issue is by no means Civics 101: More than half the public said the debt limit issue was hard to understand in a 2011 Pew Research Center poll. And during that year’s debt-limit debate, a Post-Pew Research poll found upwards of seven in 10 people concerned that raising the debt limit would lead to higher government spending and a bigger national debt -- just as many as were concerned about hurting the economy. The fact that a not insubstantial number of Americans support doing something they believe will cause major problems for the country's economy is a telling reminder of how complicated the politics of fiscal issues have become. Distrust of government runs deep, and the desire to erase it all and start again is a very real sentiment at large in the country. Fixbits: House Republicans are planning on voting Friday on a continuing resolution that would defund Obamacare. The House has canceled an upcoming recess because of the looming budget deadline. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) is headed to New Hampshire in November. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul's wife isn't convinced he should run for president. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) condemned an anti-Semitic joke a Republican activist told this week. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) won't rule out running for president. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) won't run for the Senate. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) "has just been entered into the Guinness World Records book as luckiest politician." Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) on Tuesday met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Emily's List backs Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) for governor. Must-reads: "Obama comment on immigration draws anger, frustration" "Business Roundtable’s issues warning on debt limit but says it won’t pick sides" Scott Clement contributed to this post. Clement is a pollster with Capital Insight, the independent polling group of Washington Post Media.


The Harvest Moon sets over the Lincoln and the sun rises over the Capitol

The Harvest Moon sets over the Lincoln Memorial and the sun rises over the Capitol. These photos were taken 38 minutes apart at opposite ends of the Reflecting Pool. (Kevin Ambrose) I am convinced that Washington, D.C. is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Early on this September morning the weather was perfect, the Harvest Moon was setting in the western sky, and the sun was rising over the monuments on the National Mall. It doesn’t get much better in D.C. for a photo shoot or a scenic walk on the Mall. It was worth getting up early today. If you missed the Harvest Moon this morning, it rises again this evening in the eastern sky. It should be a nice scene as the moon rises above the Washington skyline at 7:08 p.m. – within one minute of sunset, 7:09 p.m. Photo opportunities abound, east and west! The Harvest Moon descends toward the Lincoln Memorial, September 19, 2013. This photo was taken at 6:24 am. (Kevin Ambrose) The sun rises over the Capitol, September 19, 2013. This photo was taken at 7:02 a.m. (Kevin Ambrose) The sunrise on September 19, 2013. This photo was taken at 6:59 a.m. (Kevin Ambrose) The Harvest Moon sets over the Lincoln Memorial, September 19, 2013. This photo was taken at 6:31 a.m. (Kevin Ambrose)


A patchwork of gun laws leads to tragedy, again

The District’s first responders gather Monday morning near the Navy Yard. (Matt McClain / The Washington Post) As soon as the body count was confirmed at the Navy Yard shooting on Monday, popular attention shifted to the usual questions about the suspect’s mental health and criminal past, and how an individual with such warning signs could slip through the cracks and cause such carnage. The NRA predictably attempted to outflank any criticism by posting a pointed headline from ABC News on its Web site: “D.C. Gun Laws Some of the Strictest in the U.S.”, which noted that beyond a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, both carrying a gun openly and concealing it is illegal in D.C. Still, none of this stopped Aaron Alexis from allegedly entering a gun shop in Lorton, Va., and buying a gun that he brought onto the military grounds and used in the murder of 12 people. The state of Virginia, which on its state police Web site boasts “one of the most complete records repositories in the nation” for conducting criminal background checks, requires no waiting period for gun purchases. As of this writing, it seems that Alexis, despite being arrested repeatedly for violent and gun-related offenses, did everything short of being convicted of a felony — one sure thing that would have pinged the state-of-the-art Virginia background check system. This laissez-faire approach certainly isn’t unique to Virginia — it’s part of our nation’s crazy quilt of disparate gun laws, and the gun-rights lobby is clear about wanting to keep it that way. States that require waiting periods for gun sales are vastly in the minority — only 10 states and D.C. have waiting periods for some or all firearms. A similar patchwork approach exists in gun-permitting. Take the examples of Virginia, Arkansas and California — three states with very different gun cultures. Virginia requires a gun store background check for sales, but if you’d like permission to conceal and carry that new gun, you only have to complete an online course. You can complete the course whether or not you are a resident of Virginia, and if you happen to live in one of 25 other states that has a nonresident deal with Virginia, your brand-new concealed carry permit will be honored in your home state, no questions asked. What better to pair with Virginia’s computerized point-of-sale criminal background checks than an online


Maryland open houses this weekend

7701 Killebrew Dr BURKE 10520 Reeds Landing Cir 6740 Sunset Woods Ct 5708 Wooden Hawk Lane 5951 Burnside Landing Dr 10169 Marshall Pond Rd CENTREVILLE 6254 Paddington Lane 14623 Store House Dr 13676 Barren Springs Ct 14642 Olde Kent Rd 6320 Gun Mount Ct CHANTILLY 43006 Center St 42765 Shaler St 4795 Walbern Ct 25460 Atrium Village Ct 43630 Obrien Sq CLIFTON 12403 Clifton Hunt Dr 6800 Glencove Dr 12101 Beaver Creek Rd 12950 Clifton Creek Dr 8201 Thomas Ashleigh Lane 5631 Gosling Dr FAIRFAX 11916 Parkside Dr 10118 Daniels Run Way 12786 Dogwood Hills Lane 3447 Preservation Dr 10509 Center St 5592 Quiet Brook Rd 2665 Prosperity Ave #223 4468 Black Ironwood Dr 4078 Fountainside Lane 4095 Oak Village 4226 Fox Lake Dr 5421 Long Boat Ct 5542 Paxford Ct 4501 Rachael Manor Dr 12102 Greenwood Court #202 10328 Sager Ave #308 10128 Mosby Woods Dr #n/A 4316 Alta Vista Dr 5263 Lewisham Rd FAIRFAX STATION 6675 Rutledge Dr 9692 Holly Oak Ct 11533 Lakewood Lane 6606 Okeefe Knoll Ct 8605 Larkhaven Ter 10744 Beechnut Ct 10604 Donovans Hill Dr 10109 Homar Pond Dr FALLS CHURCH 115 Lounsbury Pl 104 Dulany Pl 3722 Munson Rd 403 Hillwood Ave 7023m Haycock Rd #713 809 Villa Ridge Rd 6216 Squires Hill Dr 2833 Kalmia Lee Ct #a-201 7749 Inversham Dr #216 444 Broad St #624 3430 Executive Ave 2933 Lawrence Dr 3052 Westfall Pl 7021n Haycock Rd #n 602 Hillwood Ave 3156 Holmes Run Rd GREAT FALLS 747 Ellsworth Ave 1156 Riva Ridge Dr 10828 Monticello Dr 312 Walker Rd 11408 Valley Stream Ct 10900 Lake Windermere Dr 1098 Mccue Ct 11115 Bowen Ave 10912 Thimbleberry Lane 1224 Colvin Meadows Lane 511 Seneca Rd 715 Walker Rd 501 Seneca Knoll Ct HERNDON 12941 Centre Park Cir #120 13302 Horsepen Woods Lane 13164 Fox Hunt Lane 402 Madison Forest Dr 12662 Magna Carta Rd 12925 Centre Park Cir #305 13206 Fox Ripple Lane LORTON 8950 Waldren Way 9727 Athey Rd 5813 River Dr 9053 Galvin Lane 9331 Elkhorne Run Ct 7755 Wolford Way 10524 Amity St OAK HILL 2808 Whirlaway Cir OAKTON 2539 Donns Way 10801 Mantilla Ct 3434 Valewood Dr 2810 Marshall Lake Dr 2982 Borge St 11300 Hunt Farm Lane 3109 Whimbrell Ct 3003 Oakton Meadows Ct 12031 Hamden Ct RESTON 2132 Glencourse Lane 1747 Dressage Dr 12722 Hitchcock Ct 2073 Wethersfield Ct 12395 Copenhagen Ct 11283 Silentwood Lane 11200


Banks are essential to the commodities market, say banks

geographies, allowing them to efficiently allocate commodities. "For example, one bank has electricity transmission capabilities between the Midwest and Georgia, which it can use to 'wheel' or move power from an oversupplied and lower-priced area in the Midwest to an undersupplied, higher-priced location in Georgia," the report reads. - Being immersed in a physical market allows banks to bring buyers and sellers with different time horizons and incentives together with customized trades, rather than standard futures. - Banks are uniquely positioned to help finance infrastructure projects, like wind farms, when they're able to take "non-standard" collateral for loans. - Since banks are heavily regulated, their integration in these markets offers stability, accountability, and transparency. And it's better to have them serving in this role than some shady foreign entity. Still, is bank participation in commodities markets necessary to achieve all these good things? The market did function before they got into the game, after all. Saule Omarova "In the commodities market, it is probably true that you need something like that to do some things more efficiently," she said, noting that very large banks can provide cheaper credit to their best clients. "The thing about banks is that they are the only animals in the free market economy whose debts are explicitly guaranteed by the government. What they're telling us is, they decide to take that risk, and that means we decide to take that risk." Who else would play the beneficial roles that banks say they do, without the downsides? The other option is giant commodities houses like Cargill and Glencore getting into the finance business, which they've been doing with about as much zeal. As the New America Foundation's Lina Khan has outlined, that's problematic too, because they're perhaps even less transparent than Goldman Sachs and the rest. (At the same time, when banks tried to disparage commodities houses, the report they commissioned to do so found they actually pose less systemic risk). What should the Fed do? Are there options in between letting the status quo stand and making the banks go back to their pre-2003 existence? Simply regulating banks' physical businesses like their mortgage or consumer credit divisions wouldn't be easy. "When we step outside the traditional banking area, even within finance, regulators struggle," Omarova says. "I don't think it's possible to regulate banks as commodities traders using the same regulatory structure that we have today."


PM Update: Burst of rain late Saturday, otherwise a nice weekend

- Temperature Map - Temperatures: Latest D.C. area temperature map. See interactive map on our Weather Wall. What a beautiful close to a beautiful week – with warm sunshine and not enough humidity to worry about! Most of us maxed out within a couple degrees of 80. The balance of the weekend is nice too, but a cold front brings a period of much-needed rain – possibly heavy – late afternoon Saturday into Saturday night. Sunshine returns Sunday. Through Tonight: Saturday and Saturday night: Rain is most likely (70 percent chance) between about 6 p.m. and 1 a.m. A thunderstorm (perhaps with a strong wind gust or two) is also possible with locally heavy rain. Rainfall totals should generally be around half an inch, but some local 1″+ totals are possible. Saturday night’s low temperatures are in the upper 50s to low 60s. Sunday: See Camden Walker’s forecast through early next week. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter Construction cranes and the Washington Monument’s lit scaffolding greet the Harvest Moon this year – taken Thursday evening. (Phil Yabut via Flickr) Pollen: NWS Spotter training at the Washington Post:


New regulations could usher in a golden era of street vending

more MRVs. • Because of the MRVs, food truck operators will no longer be forced to rise before dawn, prep their food and rush down to Farragut Square to take over a parking spot previously held for them by a placeholder vehicle. This should be good for consumer choice. For too long, the same trucks — those better at gaming the system, not better at producing a quality lunch — have controlled the lunch options at Farragut. The mobile roadway vending zones will bring more variety to some of these popular public feeding troughs. • The food available from sidewalk vendors (remember those?) will venture beyond the half-smokes, hot dogs, chips and candy currently hawked on public walkways. The regs allow the District to start permitting new sidewalk locations, meaning you should begin to see lunch (and merchandise) carts with more ambition. Expect more international foods to start appearing on our sidewalks. • Along the same lines, mobile vending will expand beyond the rolling kitchens that now roam the streets. Look for trucks that offer other services. Need a haircut? You might be able to amble to the curb and get a trim. A shoe shine? Same thing. How about a new blouse for that surprise dinner invitation? Go to the streets! • The new regs will allow food trucks to continue to flourish and grow. Che Ruddell-Tabisola, political director for the freshly renamed District Maryland Virginia Food Truck Association, says that 14 trucks have already evolved into permanent or pop-up businesses. The rules will make it possible for others to do the same. How so? Because the D.C. Council eased restrictions placed on trucks in earlier draft regulations, the vendors will be mostly free to roam, even if they don't win a lottery space at an MRV location. "Because it preserves that central tenet" — mobility — "the industry will continue to thrive," Ruddell-Tabisola says. • At the same time, the MRVs will likely force trucks with mid-grade fare to either improve their food or find a new line of work. These vendors will no longer be able to monopolize popular public spaces just by being the first to park on, say, Farragut Square; such tactics, no doubt, artificially inflated their sales. They will need to attract customers who aren't willing to purchase mediocre food just because it's close by. And just as important: Quality trucks that had lost


Panda cub video? Panda cub video

The National Zoo released a video of its panda cub today. If you like footage of tiny panda cubs looking like tiny panda cubs as they kick their tiny panda cub paws in the air, you came to the right place: Mei Xiang and Cub, Sept. 17 Shortly after her birth, the cub didn’t really look like a panda in the traditional sense. But the panda cub now has eye markings (which, according to the zoo, resemble those of her mother Mei Xiang) and darker fur, which makes her fit our preconceived notions of panda appearance. The cub was born in August following a round-the-clock pregnancy watch. Zoo officials said this month that it would take about four months before the cub would make her public debut.


Transcript: Obama’s tough speech at Congressional Black Caucus gala

of you fought to pass this law — thanks to your efforts, 6 in 10 uninsured Americans will finally be able to get covered for less than $100 a month. Everybody is going to be able to get coverage; 6 in 10 will be able to get coverage for less than 100 bucks a month. (Applause.) And by the way, the only reason it’s 6 in 10 is because we’ve got some governors who — (laughter) — haven’t seen the light yet. If every governor chose to join this project rather than to fight it just to score some political points, that number would be nearly eight in 10. (Applause.) So just think about that. Knowing you can offer your family the security of health care –- that’s priceless. And now you can do it for less than your cell phone bill. That’s what change looks like. (Applause.) We won’t rest until every American has access to a good education. And we’ve got to make sure every child gets the best start in life. We want to give every four year old in America access to quality preschool. There’s no better investment. We should be making it right now. We can afford it. It’s the right vision. It’s the right time. (Applause.) We should make college more affordable for every family. There’s no better ticket to the middle class in this country. (Applause.) And we’ve already made college –- including HBCUs -– more affordable for millions of students and their families through tax credits and grants and student loans that are going further than ever before. But we’ve got more to do. And so I’ve been talking to colleges, telling them they need to do their part by bringing costs down. Because in a 21st century economy, a higher education is not a luxury, it is an economic imperative, and everybody should be able to afford it, not just a few. (Applause.) We can’t rest until we offer new ladders of opportunity for anyone willing to climb them. When you think about America, when you think about the ideal of this country, a big part of it is the idea of upward mobility, the idea that if you work hard you can get ahead. Well, over the last 30 years, upward mobility in this country has slipped out of reach for too many people. And that’s especially true in communities


Antarctic sea ice hit 35-year record high Saturday

together to cause ridging,” the study’s press release explains. “Stronger winds also drive ice faster, which leads to still more deformation and ridging. This creates thicker, longer-lasting ice, while exposing surrounding water and thin ice to the blistering cold winds that cause more ice growth.” But no one seems to have a conclusive answer as to why winds are behaving this way. “I haven’t seen a clear explanation yet of why the winds have gotten stronger,” Zhang told Michael Lemonick of Climate Central. Some point to stratospheric ozone depletion, but a new study published in the Journal of Climate notes that computer models simulate declining – not increasing – Antarctic sea ice in recent decades due to this phenomenon (aka the ozone “hole”). “This modeled Antarctic sea ice decrease in the last three decades is at odds with observations, which show a small yet statistically significant increase in sea ice extent,” says the study, led by Colorado State University atmospheric scientist Elizabeth Barnes. A recent study by Lorenzo Polvani and Karen Smith of Columbia University says the model-defying sea ice increase may just reflect natural variability. If the increase in ice is due to natural variability, Zhang says, warming from manmade greenhouse gases should eventually overcome it and cause the ice to begin retreating. “If the warming continues, at some point the trend will reverse,” Zhang said. However, a conclusion of the Barnes study is that the recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer – now underway – may slow/delay Antarctic warming and ice melt. Ultimately, it’s apparent the relationship between ozone depletion, climate warming from greenhouse gases, natural variability, and how Antarctic ice responds is all very complicated. In sharp contrast, in the Arctic, there seems to be a relatively straight forward relationship between temperature and ice extent. Related: Thus, in the Antarctic, we shouldn’t necessarily expect to witness the kind of steep decline in ice that has occurred in the Arctic. “…the seeming paradox of Antarctic ice increasing while Arctic ice is decreasing is really no paradox at all,” explains Climate Central’s Lemonick. “The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land, while the Antarctic is land surrounded by ocean. In the Arctic, moreover, you’ve got sea ice decreasing in the summer; at the opposite pole, you’ve got sea ice increasing in the winter. It’s not just an apples-and-oranges comparison: it’s more like comparing apple pie with orange juice.” Related


Town Square | Contemporary and classic blend in $2.4M Chevy Chase house

art exhibit at the McLean Project for the Arts Emerson Gallery at the McLean Community Center. Tickets are $100 for one person and $175 for two. For information and tickets, go to http://hcsnv.org or call (703) 372-5440. Food delivery service opens to D.C. apartment residents If you’ve ever left the office and wished your groceries would magically be waiting for you at home, you’ll appreciate the service offered to local residents by Relay Foods, a grocery delivery service operating in Charlottesville and Richmond and now serving the D.C. area. Residents of 17 apartments in the city and several in Crystal City and Alexandria have the luxury of free grocery deliveries to drop spots in their buildings. “We’re a combination of a farmer’s market, a natural food market and a regular grocery store,” says Caesar Layton, Relay Foods’ senior vice president of business development. The online market offers products from 250 local farms along with local providers of organic foods. The delivery service is free to customers and free to apartment buildings; Layton says their prices are similar to those at a farmer’s market and slightly more costly than they would be in a regular grocery store. “In Charlottesville and Richmond, we created drop spots in convenient locations such as churches, schools, corporate parks and hospitals where people could pull over in their cars and pick up their groceries,” says Mark Henderson, manager of the drop spots program for Relay Foods. “In D.C., more people use public transportation so we decided that we could find the population density that makes our service work by contacting apartment building managers. We expect to triple the number of apartments we serve in 2014.” In order to accommodate the deliveries, drop-off locations need space for temperature-controlled storage containers provided by Relay Foods where residents can pick up their food. Henderson says the company has worked with property managers to organize happy hours and cooking demonstrations with local products to encourage participation in the program. If you’re interested in getting Relay Foods to set up a drop spot in your apartment building or for other information, e-mail apartments@relayfoods.com. Lerner is a freelance writer. To pass on a tip or news item, contact us at realestate@washpost.com and put “Town Square” in the subject line CORRECTIONS: The price of the house on De Russey Parkway in Chevy Chase, Md., in the first item has been reduced to $2.39


The Switchboard: Five tech policy posts you need to read today

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). (Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post) Goodlatte releases second patent draft. How a Crypto ‘Backdoor’ Pitted the Tech World Against the NSA. U.S. trade panel judge says HTC violates Nokia patents. China to lift ban on Facebook – but only within Shanghai free-trade zone. Senators call for investigation of surveillance programs.


At the State Department, diversity can count against you

service officers native to a country might have too close ties to their families there and this could expose them to great pressure to give visas to family and friends," Kennedy wrote in an e-mail. "To me it did not seem fair to put officers into a difficult situation even if they might speak the language." The department has since pushed to shed its white-guy reputation, recruiting minorities through programs like the Pickering Fellowship, as well as changing its admissions exam to be less culturally biased against newcomers. President Obama's 2011 Executive Order on Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce further solidified the initiative, and Secretary John Kerry talks on State's Web site about the need to present the diverse composition of America to the world. At the same time, however, the post-Sept. 11 environment heightened the level of scrutiny given to security clearances (there are 13 "guidelines," including "foreign influence"). The State Department found itself with increasing numbers of personnel with international ties to review, especially spouses from other countries, according to a a 2011 Inspector General report. "HR sees itself grappling with serious assignment issues emanating from the growingly diverse service and the demands for language competent entrants," the report read. "[They] are grappling with DS about how to manage the likely inclusion of entrants with ties to a critical threat country. In addition, there are occasional, and at times emotional, pleas from regional bureaus and/or the officers involved, regarding Diplomatic Security objections to individual assignments to key embassies." Actual restrictions are fairly rare: The report found that the department had reviewed 700 assignments in 2010 and only held three officers back. In 2011, 1,272 personnel and contractors in total were precluded from serving in a total of 20 countries. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell defended the policy, saying it's a better option than barring a candidate from the service entirely. "An assignment restriction mitigates risk while allowing an individual to obtain a security clearance and work for the department; we believe this approach is preferred to denying clearance and employment," Ventrell said. Some countries, he explained, will even try to conscript officers who are dual citizens into military service. Precluded officers usually sympathize with the need to prioritize security. Eveline Tseng, who is from Taiwan and has a Chinese stepmother, was denied her first assigned post in Beijing and sent to Mexico instead (she knew ahead


Read: Full text of Obama’s speech to the United Nations on Syria, Iran and war

and prejudice; let's support Israeli and Palestinian leaders who are prepared to walk the difficult road to peace. Now, real breakthroughs on these two issues -- Iran's nuclear program and Israeli-Palestinian peace -- would have a profound and positive impact on the entire Middle East and North Africa. But the current convulsions arising out of the Arab Spring remind us that a just and lasting peace cannot be measured only agreements between nations; it must also be measured by our ability to resolve conflict and promote justice within nations. And by that measure, it's clear that all of us have a lot more work to do. When peaceful transitions began in Tunisia and Egypt, the entire world was filled with hope. And although the United States, like others, was struck by the speed of transition, and although we did not, and, in fact, could not dictate events, we chose to support those who called for change. And we did so based on the belief that while these transitions will be hard and take time, societies based upon democracy and openness and the dignity of the individual will ultimately be more stable, more prosperous and more peaceful. Over the last few years, particularly in Egypt, we've seen just how hard this transition will be. Mohammed Morsi was democratically elected but proved unwilling or unable to govern in a way that was fully inclusive. The interim government that replaced him responded to the desires of millions of Egyptians who believed the revolution had taken a wrong term. But it, too, has made decisions inconsistent with inclusive democracy through an emergency law, and restrictions on the press and civil society, and opposition (inaudible). Of course, America has been attacked by all sides of this internal conflict, simultaneously accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and engineering the removal of power. In fact, the United States has purposely avoided choosing sides. Our overriding interest throughout these past few years has been to encourage a government that legitimately reflects the will of the Egyptian people and recognizes true democracy as requiring a respect for minority rights and the rule of law, freedom of speech and assembly, and a strong civil society. That remains our interest today. And so going forward the United States will maintain a constructive relationship with the interim government that promotes core interests like the Camp David Accords in (ph) counterterrorism, will continue


Traders may have gotten last week’s Fed news 7 milliseconds early

just before a major announcement that would make that bet highly profitable. 2) There was a leak, either by a media organization with early access to the data or even someone at the Fed. Or 3) The laws of physics have been violated as the information traveled from Washington to Chicago faster than the speed of light. You can see why Option 2 looks the most plausible. Presumably there will be a hard look into what exactly happened, and in particular whether some technical glitch allowed some high frequency trading firm to get the data a few milliseconds early, or some unethical behavior. But in the meantime, there's another useful lesson out of the whole episode. It is the reality of how much trading activity, particularly of the ultra-high-frequency variety is really a dead weight loss for society. Capital markets exist to serve the real economy: Stock and bond markets exist to allow companies to raise the funds they need and savers to invest for the future. Futures and options markets exist to let companies and individuals hedge against potential losses, smoothing out the risks of fluctuations in currencies, commodity prices, or whatever. There is a role in these markets for traders whose work is more speculative. Having opportunistic traders in the markets always watching for mispricings can be beneficial to the real companies and individuals looking to save or invest because it means they are more likely to be able to get a fair price and carry out the transaction whenever they want. (The traders ensure, to use the formal terms, liquidity and efficient price discovery). But when taken to its logical extremes, such as computers exploiting five millisecond advantages in the transfer of market-moving information, it's much less clear that society gains anything. Five milliseconds, Wikipedia tells me, is about the time it takes a honeybee to flap its wings. Once. In the high-frequency trading business, billions of dollars are spent on high-speed lines, programming talent, and advanced computers by funds looking to capitalize on the smallest and most fleeting of mispricings. Those are computing resources and insanely intelligent people who could instead be put to work making the Internet run faster for everyone, or figuring out how to distribute electricity more efficiently, or really anything other than trying to figure out how to trade gold futures on the latest Fed announcement faster than the speed of light.


How would a shutdown affect national security?

Many Americans are probably wondering how a potential government shutdown would affect national security if Congress and the White House fail to reach an agreement on federal spending by the end of the month. Military personnel would remain at work in the event of a shutdown, although they would not be paid until lawmakers make funds available for them. Only civilian defense employees would be subject to furloughs. (U.S. Department of Homeland Security) That takes care of the Defense Department. But what about the agencies that fall under the Department of Homeland Security, such as Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration — which handles airport screenings — or the Secret Service? If past is precedent, the answers may lie in the contingency plans that federal agencies submitted in 2011, when the government last reached the brink of a shutdown — Congress ultimately reached a deal to avert that fate. The DHS plan TSA would have retained about 87 percent of its workforce under a 2011 shutdown, while about 84 percent of Coast Guard and CBP employees would have remained on the job. Topping the list would have been U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, at 98 percent, followed by the Secret Service, with 89 percent. For what it’s worth, USCIS is a fee-funded agency, and nearly 95-percent of its annual budget is comprised of the fees individuals pay to request immigration services and benefits, according to agency spokesman Christopher Bentley. The most short-staffed DHS agencies would have been those that are lesser-known to the public. For example, the Science and Technology Directorate, which serves as the department’s research and development arm, would have kept only 3 percent of its 490-member workforce on duty, while just 6 percent of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office’s 100 employees would have been exempt from furloughs. To connect with Josh Hicks, follow his Twitter feed or e-mail josh.hicks@washpost.com. For more federal news, visit The Federal Eye, The Fed Page and Post Politics.


8 ways a government shutdown will make D.C. residents’ lives worse

Government shutdowns are bad for lots of reasons. Visas don't get processed. Federal workers don't get paid. Though nowhere near the pain of potentially defaulting on the national debt, shutting down the government could even cost more money than it saves when all's said and done. If you live or work in the District of Columbia, however, the downside is much more pronounced (unless, as Matt Yglesias points out, you're a bar owner or a rodent). Since the non-state is the only jurisdiction prohibited from spending its local funds in the event of Congress not coming to an agreement, the city government becomes a lot less functional. Here's what you should expect to wake up to on October 1, if there's no deal. Rusty the Red Panda: Off limits. (Smithsonian National Zoo - Getty Images) 1. Parks, museums, and the Zoo closed: Lights off at those shiny new libraries. (Astrid Riecken - Washington Post) 2. Libraries and recreation centers dark: These guys: Not on the job. (Sarah Voisin / The Washington Post) 3. Department of Public Works off duty: Park it, DDOT. (Robert A. Reeder/The Washington Post) 4. Circulator offline: DMV apocalypse. (Tom Allen - The Washington Post) 5. Permit offices and the DMV shut: Marion Barry can go ahead and park his Jag wherever, though police still have the authority to issue tickets. (Matt McClain/THE WASHINGTON POST) 6. No parking enforcement: You can study, but you can't go to class. (Matt McCain - The Washington Post) 7. University of the District of Columbia shuttered: Some of these the District doesn't quite own. (Robert Thomson - The Washington Post) 8. Potential loss of city equipment and buildings: The city plans to submit its detailed shutdown plan to the federal Office of Management and Budget today. Now, the city may decide to avoid some of this by simply defying the federal government and providing services as usual. It's unlikely that federal leaders will punish the city for doing so, but you never know. The silliest thing is that D.C. is facing this problem at all. Norton has been trying since the last time around to pass legislation that would exempt the city from prohibitions against spending its own money. Again and again, it's failed, for reasons that have to do with the House Republicans' enduring unwillingness to allow D.C. any measure of autonomy at all. Correction


Stunning: The sun’s swift southward shift at sunrise in Washington, D.C. (PICTURES)

view of the sun and similar sky conditions. Luckily, our weather cooperated with my plans. The sunrise on September 17, 2013. The sun position is well left of the Capitol. (Kevin Ambrose) I have provided photos from three different sunrises that I photographed from September 17 to September 24. It’s easy to see how quickly the sun is shifting south. I also provided a view of ducks on the Reflecting Pool from each sunrise shoot. The Reflecting Pool is quite active with wildlife in the morning. My only complaint was that there were swarms of bugs that seemed to hatch and swarm over the water. The bugs seemed particularly bad on September 17. I was covered with bugs during my shoot but they didn’t bite. The sun will continue on its trek southward until the winter solstice on December 21 and the days will continue to get shorter. In a few weeks, the Reflecting Pool will not be the optimal location for shooting a sunrise due to the angle of the sun. I often shift my sunrise photography to the Tidal Basin as winter approaches. The sunrise on September 19, 2013. The sun position is just to the left of the Capitol. (Kevin Ambrose) During the equinox, the sunrise rises due east which is in line with our National Mall and the Capitol, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial. It’s a great time to photograph the sunrise and sunset. The light of the sunrise also shines into the Lincoln Memorial and casts a glow on the statue of Lincoln. I have included a photo below that shows Lincoln glowing like a copper penny. In addition, during the time period around the autumnal equinox, we have a harvest moon. I photographed the harvest moon setting over the Lincoln Memorial during dawn on September 19. Here is a link to the post. The sunrise on September 24, 2013. The sun position is right of the Washington Monument. (Kevin Ambrose) Before each sunrise shoot, I was quite intrigued with how the lights on the Washington Monument’s scaffolding went off at different times, in large blocks. There are 488 lamps on sensors that control when the monument’s lights turn on and off. Finally, on my last sunrise trip, I decided I had to video record the lights turning off. I shot the Washington Monument from fully lit to no lights and I have included the


Shutdown could mean no parking tickets in D.C.

A Circulator bus is seen at a red light in Washington on March 2, 2013. AFP PHOTO/Nicholas KAMM/Getty Images) Should D.C. leaders defy Congress and keep operating in the event of a federal shutdown? Mike DeBonis’ excellent piece in today’s Post touches on the pros and cons of what would be an unprecedented act of defiance by District leaders. The Council seems game, but Mayor Vincent Gray less so, though Gray seemed to warm to the idea as Monday wore on. A shutdown would mean no library services. Recreation centers would shut down and there would be no trash pick-up (though trash service would resume one week after the beginning of the shutdown). Public and public charter schools would remain in operation as would the police department and 911 service. But we’re a transportation blog — so here’s the bottom line: on the transportation front, there’s good and bad news in a potential federal government shutdown. The bad? No Circulator service. [Update: Circulator service will operate in the event of a shutdown] The good? No parking enforcement. This post has been updated.


States fear big losses if government shuts down

If the federal government shuts down, the impact will be felt much farther afield than the Lincoln Memorial. (Maddie Meyer/ The Washington Post) A federal government shutdown would cost state and local governments millions of dollars a day, further straining already-stretched budgets and threatening an already-weak economic recovery. If the House and Senate can’t agree on a continuing resolution to fund the federal government before the Oct. 1 end of the fiscal year, national parks will close, payments to federal contractors will be delayed, and hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — of federal workers will be forced to take unpaid furloughs. State governments are bracing for a shutdown that would impact several layers of economic activity. A government shutdown would delay federal grants that support state-run programs and pay the salaries of tens of thousands of state employees. Federal employees not being paid during a shutdown would mean lost tax revenue. And both a loss of grant funds and lower tax revenue would mean less economic activity trickling down to businesses, large and small, according to state budget officers making plans before the fiscal year ends. “You’ve always got to take [the threat of a shutdown] seriously and make preparations for it,” Ric Brown, Virginia’s secretary of finance, said in an interview. In a memo to state agencies sent Tuesday, Martin Kent, chief of staff to Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), said state agencies should avoid expenses related to federal programs or grants after Oct. 4, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. In Maryland, Department of Budget and Management Secretary T. Eloise Foster said in an e-mail that a shutdown “will directly impact the lives of thousands of Maryland families who work for the federal government.” Every day that the federal government is shut down, Foster said, would cost the state $5 million in lost revenue, including about $1 million in lost sales-tax dollars. Maryland businesses, she said, would lose about $15 million for every day the government’s doors are shuttered. Both Maryland and Virginia, where a disproportionate number of residents work for the federal government, will be able to keep federally funded employees on state payrolls, at least temporarily. Kent wrote to state agencies that Virginia state employees partially paid for by the federal government would remain on the payroll at least until Oct. 4, while Foster said a shutdown of just a few days wouldn’t result in furloughs.


Shutdown could slow VA progress on disability claims

The threatened shutdown of the federal government could hamper efforts by the Department of Veterans Affairs to reduce the big backlog of disability claims faced by veterans, advocates warn. (Ted Richardson/For The Washington Post) – Matthew Goldberg, a retired Army special forces soldier, fought the VA for disability compensation. Medical services offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs would not be affected by a shutdown. The VA’s Veterans Health Administration is exempt from any shutdown consequences, as the organization has already received its Fiscal Year 2014 appropriations. All VA medical facilities would remain open for inpatient and outpatient care. But benefits programs overseen by the VA would likely be affected by a shutdown. While the department referred comment to the Office of Management and Budget, congressional officials on committees overseeing the VA say they expect the impact would be similar to that outlined in contingency plans prepared by the department for the threatened shutdown in 2011. In that scenario, the VA’s 57 regional offices handling present inventory of 736,000 disability claims around the country would likely have limited services, and the Veterans Benefits Administration would be unable to process education and vocational rehabilitation benefits. “Veterans will be able to file claims electronically, but not in person because VA Regional Offices might be closed to all but essential personnel,” said Joe Davis, spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars. “That also means no one will be working to process the claims, which means the backlog will continue to grow.” The Board of Veterans Appeals, which is trying to cope with a quarter-million appeals, would be unable to hold hearings, and the Office of Inspector General would be unable to do its work investigating allegations of wrongdoing. In addition, the number of funerals at national military cemeteries operated by the VA’s National Cemetery Administration would decrease. Deceased veterans currently scheduled for burial would likely be interred as scheduled. VA payments for disability compensation, GI Bill education benefits, survivors benefits, and pensions for current beneficiaries are not subject to the annual discretionary funding battle and would not be affected. In a memo sent to VA employees Monday evening, Jose D. Riojas, the VA’s chief of staff, said the department is updating its contingency plans to prepare for an “orderly shutdown” of some activities. “The good news is that the Veterans Health Administration has advance appropriations for fiscal year 2014,” Riojas wrote in the memo,


What happens with congressional employees if the government shuts down?

Furloughs would not apply to members of Congress if the government shuts down next week, in part because lawmakers would have no chance to restore funding and normal operations if that happened. But what about the rest of the legislative branch — the congressional aides, the tour guides, the dry cleaners and the shoe shiners? Federal law prohibits furloughs for employees who are “essential,” meaning they are necessary to safeguard human life and property or support the constitutional responsibilities of lawmakers. That last exception is a broad category that could apply to virtually any Hill staffer. (Pete Marovich/Bloomberg) Members of Congress and the directors of legislative agencies will decide who qualifies as “essential” and who is furloughed in their branch of government if a shutdown occurs, according to guidance from the House Administration Committee. Examples of eligible employees include those who help with drafting legislation, researching, tallying votes, giving legal advice, handling communications or providing technological support, according to the committee. The barber- and gift-shop employees aren’t so lucky. They fall into a category of service providers whose facilities would be closed. Same goes for the staff fitness centers, the stationary stores, the dry cleaners and the ID offices. Child-care centers, payroll processors and post offices would operate as normal, but graphics staff would work only for floor debates, and technology specialists would offer reduced levels of support. Some dining areas would remain open with restricted hours, but others would close. If you’re a member of the public who wants to see how Congress looks during a shutdown, don’t expect a guide. Tours would be cancelled, although the Capitol and and its surrounding congressional office buildings would remain open with limited access to parking and entrances. As for health benefits, they would continue without interruption, even for employees who don’t work or receive pay during a shutdown. The government would retroactively deduct their missed premium contributions when pay resumes. To connect with Josh Hicks, follow his Twitter feed or e-mail josh.hicks@washpost.com. For more federal news, visit The Federal Eye, The Fed Page and Post Politics.


The Switchboard: Five tech policy stories you need to read today

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPT. 25: U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) speaks while flanked by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) during a news conference on Capitol Hill Sept. 25, 2013 in Washington, D.C. The bipartisan group of senators announced new legislation for comprehensive surveillance reform. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) NSA reform bill to trim back U.S. surveillance unveiled in Congress. Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung plead for a patent-troll-free Europe. A password even a hacker supervillain can't crack. The 15 percent of Americans who are offline, in charts. Patent troll firm Lodsys demands $5,000 from Martha Stewart.


Congress braces for shutdown: No shoe shine, no cafeteria

(J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press) A government shutdown doesn’t just mean that federal workers won’t get paychecks or that services could be pared back. No, this bad boy could have a real impact on the very folks who could avert it. Brace yourselves! Members of Congress’ shoes, it turns out, will go unshined. And they will have to walk at least a block or two for lunch — or maybe they can send one of their “essential” employees to fetch it, since their dining options will be curtailed. Under a plan for what services and facilities in the House will be affected by a potential shutdown (set to happen next week if Congress doesn’t pass a funding bill) the in-house shoe shine is closed, as is the Members’ Dining Room — and gym. Ditto the dry cleaner and the post office. See the full plan here. Forget what political fallout could come from a shutdown — this is where the rubber (or dusty, dull loafers) hits the road.


China’s plan to clean up air pollution could be a climate disaster

the 1970s, when the Department of Energy was subsidizing various technologies to achieve energy independence. Only one large plant ever got built in North Dakota, but now China is grabbing the torch. The Chinese government has already approved nine massive synthetic natural gas plants that will, if finished, produce some 37.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year. In their essay for Nature Climate Change, Chi-Jen Yang and Robert B. Jackson of Duke University point out that even if only some of these plants came online, the environmental consequences could be large. Because the plants themselves are so energy-intensive, using synthetic natural gas to create electricity actually leads to 36 percent to 82 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than simply burning coal. If all nine synthetic gas plants come online, Yang and Jackson estimate, they would produce 21 billion tons of carbon-dioxide over 40 years just by themselves. (To put that in perspective, the entire nation of China produced 7.7 billion tons of carbon-dioxide in 2011.) And, while it's possible that these plants could eventually try to capture and sequester the carbon they produce, that technology is still in its infancy. And China ultimately has plans for 40 synthetic gas plants in all. "Under such a scenario," the authors write, "China will inevitably struggle to reduce its future GHG emissions." Now, the synthetic gas plants themselves would largely be located in inner Mongolia or Xinjiang, far out west and away from the major population centers. So the power plants near China's cities really could curtail local air pollution like sulfur dioxide and soot — natural gas does burn far more cleanly than coal in this regard. But it would come at the cost of vastly more emissions out west and accelerated global warming. A fracking alternative? So is there another option here? Well, there's always low-carbon energy. But China also has massive reserves of natural gas locked away in shale rock across the country. And natural gas companies have been trying to figure out how to harness fracking techniques and unlock that gas. As Yang and Jackson show, fracking for shale gas in China would be much less drastic from a climate-change perspective than building those big new synthetic-natural gas (SNG) plants: Fewer carbon emissions, fewer toxins, less water needed: But, so far, China has been struggling to tap that shale gas. As my colleague Steven Mufson reported earlier this


Here’s why our system for authenticating consumers is busted

(POLAND - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY POLITICS) When you apply for a loan or try to recover your lost e-mail password, you'll often be asked to give information about a long-ago address, employer, or bank account. You might also be asked for your Social Security number or driver's license. The idea is that only the real you would know such obscure details about your past. This system provides a convenient way to authenticate consumers, but it also has an important vulnerability: anyone who has access to a comprehensive database that contains this kind of information can impersonate you. And this is no longer just a theoretical risk. On Wednesday, journalist Brian Krebs published an investigative report that hackers appear to have compromised the networks of major data aggregators, and seem to be selling that information online. The site is called ssndob.ms (SSNDOB), and it has marketed itself to cybercriminals as a broker of Social Security numbers, birth records, credit card and background reports on millions of Americans for the past few years. It's essentially an identity theft service that sells personal information that can be used to commit fraud for a few bucks in anonymous virtual currencies like Bitcoin. Earlier this year some teenage hacktivists demonstrated how deep the service ran by using it to expose the personal information of about a dozen people ranging from celebrities like Beyonce and Kanye West to public figures like first lady Michelle Obama and CIA Director John Brennan. Those postings resulted executives at Equifax, Trans Union and Experian acknowledging that their systems had been breached by individuals using data to trick their knowledge based authentication processes. Until Krebs' reporting Wednesday it wasn't really clear how SSNDOB got the information that it sold to identity thieves. But Krebs got his hands on a copy of the SSNDOB database and after doing an analysis of the networks, activities and credentials used by administrators he determined they were also running a "small but very potent botnet." That collection of hacked computers seemed to show that the SSNDOB operators controlled at least five infected systems at U.S. consumer and business aggregators. Based on the information Krebs discovered, it appears that among those affected by the breaches were LexisNexis, which operates the world's largest electronic database of legal and public record information, New Jersey-based data aggregator Dun & Bradstreet, and a background check company that is now part


Zoo releases new photos of panda cub

The National Zoo released new photos of its panda cub Thursday, just in case anyone on the Internet was interested in seeing a tiny panda described by the zoo as “wiggly and squirmy.” The cub weighs 3.07lbs, is 14in long & 11.4in wide. She's gained more than a pound since last Monday! #cubwatch http://t.co/yocMf1Wv5A The zoo also released an update on the panda’s growth and health following a veterinary examination earlier Thursday. The cub now weighs in at just over 3 pounds, having gained more than a pound since her last exam 10 days earlier (this has been your Panda Cub Weight Update). The cub’s heart and lungs seem healthy, according to the zoo. Zoo officials have said that it would take about four months before the cub makes her public debut, so the official photos (and the video released last week) are the best, clearest glimpses of the panda’s development. The zoo also released multiple new photos of the cub’s examination on its Flickr page.


Good news! Congress just averted a global helium crisis.

top of that, the bill would also end, slowly, the Helium Reserve's practice of giving away the gas for below-market rates, a practice that has led to excessive waste and has prevented the private sector from developing its own sources of the scarce resource. The helium crisis The U.S. government first set up a national helium program in the 1920s, when blimps and other airships seemed like a useful military technology. That included a sprawling underground Federal Helium Reserve stretching from Kansas to Texas. But by the 1990s, the program looked frivolous. So, Congress passed a bill requiring the Helium Reserve to sell off its helium in relatively short order and then shutter its doors once it recouped its costs (a milestone that will come in October). That law turned out to have large unintended consequences. For years, the reserve has been selling off its helium for below-market rates — something it has been required to do (see graphic). And, since the Federal Helium Reserve provides about one-third of the world’s helium each year, this has distorted the entire market. No one has incentive to conserve, recycle or find new sources of helium. Instead, we’ve been frittering it away. And that's a bad idea, since helium is ultimately a non-renewable resource. Fixing the market for helium The House and Senate-passed bill will try to correct these errors. For starters, the reserve will no longer close on Oct. 7. Instead, for the next year, the Helium Reserve will continue giving away its helium for cheap. After that, the reserve will slowly begin auctioning off a portion of its helium each year to the highest bidder. (After 6 years, the reserve will auction off all the helium.) The hope is that those auctions will ultimately end the distortions in the helium market. Countries like Qatar and Russia will be able to ramp up their production of helium from natural-gas fields. Medical companies will have incentives to do things like install gas-capture technology in MRIs to limit waste and promote recycling. We'll have a normal market for helium. The House and Senate bills also try to ensure that scientists will continue to have access to helium for research purposes. Once the Helium Reserve dwindles down to about 3 billion cubic feet of gas (in about six or seven years), the remaining amount will be set aside for federal users, especially those receiving research


How Popeyes went upscale

remodeled are doing markedly higher sales. The franchise is now growing faster than any other chicken brand, expanding its footprint from urban centers in the Southeast to suburbs all over the country. The repositioning is a gift for the franchisees who've stuck with the brand for decades -- and a textbook case for taking a brand that meant one thing and turning it into another. The "re-imaged" Louisiana Kitchen. (AFC Enterprises) --- Two decades ago, the story wasn't so rosy. Al Copeland The remains turned into an Atlanta-based company called America's Favorite Chicken, or AFC Enterprises. They continued to expand aggressively through the 1990s, buying Cinnabon and Seattle's Best Coffee, and went public in 2001. The growth wasn't well supported. In 2003, the company had to revise its earnings downward, and was briefly de-listed from the NASDAQ. It sued its accountants -- a little firm called Arthur Andersen -- for the flub. "They were literally fudging the numbers so the stock wouldn't collapse," explains restaurant analyst John Gordon. "It kind of went into conglomerate hell." As it endured seven straight years of declining transactions, AFC spun off everything except for Popeyes. In 2007, it scored Cheryl Bachelder, who'd risen through the ranks at Domino's Pizza in the 1990s and been president of Popeyes's biggest competitor -- KFC -- in the early 2000s. She put in place the strategy that executives now speak of in reverential tones. Five years later, restaurant operating profits have increased by 40 percent, and 74 percent of franchisees are happy with their cash flow, up from 44 percent in 2009. More and more stores open every year. And Wall Street loves it: AFC's stock is up more than 50 percent in 2013. The number of new store openings per year. (AFC Enterprises) Here's how you turn around a fast-food brand, according to the Popeyes playbook. 1. Figure out how people think of you. Before Bachelder arrived, Popeyes franchisees had perception issues. "There was no data. There were no metrics," says Mark Rinna, chairman of the Popeyes International Franchisee Association. "We were pretty much in a vacuum, a time capsule, as far as where we stood." Surveys, though, showed two major things: Customers thought of Popeyes as a spicier KFC, and one with bad service. "It enlightened us," Rinna says. "Maybe that enlightenment wasn't all that welcome." 2. Decide how you want them to think of you.


MacArthur fellow Margaret Stock: The public ‘doesn’t understand’ illegal immigration

keeping people out of America to make us safer. We didn’t realize we were undercutting our security, our civil liberties, and our ability to attract the best and brightest to America. I tried to explain that we need to bring in people who have skills that grow our economy and strengthen our families. The MAVNI program came out of an idea that you presented in a PowerPoint at a brainstorming conference for the army. What was that idea? The army was having a huge recruiting crisis. I was invited to a conference to brainstorm ways to improve military recruitment. I pitched the idea to give legal immigrants without green cards a chance at naturalization through military service. In prior wars, we had always enlisted immigrants regardless of their citizenship status. I thought it was a great idea but was told that the Pentagon crushes great ideas, and it might take five years to get the idea approved. I was a little discouraged but I charged ahead. It became clear to everyone that it was just a policy decision; the legal authority already existed. People always came to a dead end because no one understood immigration law. By May 2008, I got the Secretary of the Army to sign off, which took five months, and by November 2008, it was approved by the Secretary of Defense. So it took less than a year to get the project through the Pentagon. Did the end result match your expectations? There was a lot of opposition but not reasoned opposition. A lot of “We have never done it this way before.” When Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the program and said that we could do a one-year pilot program, his office limited it to compromise with the bureaucracy. We had no budget to market it or advertise it, and there was a cap at 1,000 people. The army could get 890 recruits; the navy, 100, and the air force, 10. What was the turnout like? There was one guy that called me and… he said “I get you 40,000 Koreans and we all go to Afghanistan to fight for America.” I told him it wasn’t the French Foreign Legion. The program was for immigrants who were health-care professionals or language experts. It was taking ten or fifteen years for them to get green cards. Many were already working for the military, but on


Alice Rivlin was in charge of the last government shutdown. This is what she saw.

President Bill Clinton with his budget director, Alice Rivlin, in December 1995. (AP/Wilfredo Lee) The U.S. government will need to close for business on Tuesday if Congress cannot pass legislation to fund its operations for the fiscal year that begins that day. So, what would that mean in practice? For some perspective, we talked to Alice Rivlin, who was director of the Office of Management and Budget the last time the government shut down, in 1995. Rivlin, who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, described some of the strange challenges she and her deputies faced. What counts as an essential government function, anyway? The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Neil Irwin: You were OMB director in 1995, in charge of both the budget itself and a lot of management issues for the federal government. So tell me what your job looked like in the fall of 1995 as the last government shutdown loomed. Alice Rivlin: He was the management deputy at OMB at the time, and he sort of took over as Mr. Shutdown. The main question that OMB has to solve is who is essential and who isn’t. That’s not obvious. I think there are words in the statute about “life-threatening.” But It’s really not obvious who’s essential and who isn’t. In ’95, the situation was different than it is now. Between the two shutdowns, as I remember it, Congress actually passed some of the appropriations, including the Pentagon, or at least something, so we didn’t have the prospect of soldiers not getting paid. So ‘95 was long, but it was a partial shutdown. NI: So that makes a big difference in a shutdown, whether Congress passes appropriations to fund a few areas of government like paying military. AR: NI: So, what are some of the calls you are getting from agency heads? AR: My two favorite stories of that period are these. One was [the National Institutes of Health]. The clinical facilities where they had patients, that was clearly essential. But most of NIH is research and research management. We decided that was not essential. And so we sent the researchers home. But then you have laboratory animals. You can’t leave the laboratory animals to starve. So the technicians that take care of the laboratory animals are essential and the researchers are not. My other favorite story has to do with


The world’s climate scientists explain how to avoid drastic global warming. It’s not easy.

these higher projections, but it can't assess their reliability. 4) Using geoengineering to cool the planet is fraught with risks. Risky business. (Arlan N.Aeg/AFP/Getty Images) In recent years, some scientists have despaired of the idea that humans will ever cut their greenhouse-gas emissions and have looked to "geoengineering" schemes that could artificially cool the planet. One such idea is to sprinkle sulfate particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight. (Volcanic eruptions can lower global temperatures by a similar process.) The IPCC, however, thinks that this idea does carry some risks, like mucking with global patterns of rainfall. If, for some reason, the geoengineering process was ever halted, temperatures would rise very rapidly: Methods that aim to deliberately alter the climate system to counter climate change, termed geoengineering, have been proposed. Limited evidence precludes a comprehensive quantitative assessment of both Solar Radiation Management (SRM) and Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) and their impact on the climate system. CDR methods have biogeochemical and technological limitations to their potential on a global scale. There is insufficient knowledge to quantify how much CO2 emissions could be partially offset by CDR on a century timescale. Modelling indicates that SRM methods, if realizable, have the potential to substantially offset a global temperature rise, but they would also modify the global water cycle, and would not reduce ocean acidification. If SRM were terminated for any reason, there is high confidence that global surface temperatures would rise very rapidly to values consistent with the greenhouse gas forcing. CDR and SRM methods carry side effects and long-term consequences on a global scale. So even a last-resort fix to climate change might have unintended consequences. * Here's a good primer on what the IPCC is and what it's releasing. Note that only the "summary for policymakers" is coming out today (here), with the full 2,000-page scientific report on climate science released Monday. In the months to follow, the IPCC will also release separate reports on the human impacts of climate change and a look at the world's energy system. Further reading: --The science of global warming has changed a lot in 25 years. The basic conclusions haven’t. -- My colleague Jason Samenow takes a look at the IPCC's gamble on its computer models, which have been out of sync with temperature observations in recent years as warming rates have slowed. I wrote about a similar topic here (see point #3, especially).


No comment: Federal workers afraid to speak about shutdown

The 2 million federal employees who work for the world’s oldest democracy may have a lot to say about how Washington’s potential government shutdown could affect their lives and livelihoods. They just aren’t allowed to say it. Federal workers have been told not to discuss the possible shutdown with the media. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP-Getty) During meetings with supervisors this week, employees across government agencies said they were told which category they would fall into in the event of a shutdown: “excepted,” as in allowed to work, or “non-excepted,” as in told to go home. Then they were told not to discuss the issue with the media. “Please take out what I said if it’s going to be in The Washington Post,” wrote a federal worker, who had been interviewed on Wednesday. The worker had spoken at length about rising frustration among younger federal employees who were once honored to work for their country but now find the current climate causing them to polish up their resumes and question their career choice. “Today guidance was issued about communications related to this issue, “ the employee wrote. “And I could be in a lot of trouble.” What did that guidance say? “I can’t talk to you,” the employee said. “And I can’t tell you that I can’t talk to you.” There was no government-wide gag order, which would likely require a White House memo to agency heads and raise whistle-blower protections and First Amendment issues. But individual agencies have been telling employees that any inquiries from members of the media should be directed to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure that official, consistent information is being provided. OMB did not return calls for comment on the issue of no commenting. If the federal government shuts down next week, it could affect more than 800,000 federal workers who could be told to stay home and may lose pay. A shutdown would also hit ordinary Americans by shutting down everyday services from garbage pick-up to museums and the National Zoo. Is that directive upsetting federal government workers who just want to express how a shutdown could affect their lives? “You would have to refer that question to the OMB,” an agency’s media relations spokesperson sighed in response. “I know, it’s Kafkaesque. It’s not like we are giving away national security secrets. I mean, we are just speaking out about the chance of furloughs.”


House vote means many federal services could shut down

experience indicates, in a wide range of ways if employees are furloughed. Museums and national parks will close. Disease surveillance could stop. Grants and loans to students could be delayed. Food safety oversight will suffer. The National Institutes of Health won’t admit new patients. Calls to IRS service centers would go unanswered. Veterans’ education and rehabilitation benefits would not be processed. “What are we doing this for?” asked an exasperated Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.). “It doesn’t make sense.” Congress, he added, “is dis-serving the American public.” From a table compiled by my colleagues on the impact of a shutdown, based on agency projections and plans from 2011, here are some examples of the number of workers who could be forced not to serve: Commerce: two-thirds of 46,000 employees would be furloughed Education: 4,013 of 4,225 employees would not continue working Energy: 1,113 workers, out of 13,814 would out of work Environmental Protection Agency: “only a core group” of workers would remain at work Health and Human Services: 40,512 staff would not work, while 37,686 would Homeland Security: 16 percent of the agency’s 230,000 employees would not work Housing and Urban Development: about 8,330 of 8,709 employees would not work Interior: 58,000 of 72,562 employees face furloughs Justice: 17,742 employees, out of 114,486 employees would not work Treasury: 88 percent of the 101,000 employees would be furloughed, including nearly 90 percent of the IRS workforce. Veterans Affairs: about 5 percent of 332,000 staffers would not keep working. While the vote to delay the Affordable Care Act was almost strictly along party lines, the House voted unanimously to provide military pay during a shutdown. “I believe that all federal employees should be paid,” said Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) ” Federal employees and their families should not be punished because the administration and Congress cannot agree.” Another Virginia Republican, Rob Wittman,agreed, saying “these hardworking patriots serve our nation on a daily basis…they deserve the best.” Then both Republicans joined the others in voting for the legislation that would effectively put many of those hardworking patriots out of work. “Make no mistake: House Republicans voted this evening to shutdown the government, and they did it intentionally…” said Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) “For the federal workers and civilian contractors in my district, many who work alongside our military personnel, this is an insult to their hard work and commitment to our country.” federaldiary@washpost.com Twitter: @JoeDavidsonWP


How government shutdown will affect public schools (update)

(The Washington Post) (Update: New details on effects of shutdown on public education) Public schools will be affected by the first U.S. government shutdown in 17 years, and the longer the political impasse over President Obama’s health care law goes unresolved, the worse the consequences will be. Public schools opened Tuesday even as federal departments and agencies went into shutdown mode; most federal funds that public schools expect to get for this academic year have already been approved by Congress and are in the pipeline. But sending nearly all of the department’s employees on a forced vacation for longer than a week will mean trouble for schools. The U.S. Education Department is stopping most of its operations under a plan (see text below) which calls for 94 percent of its employees to be furloughed during a government shutdown. The contingency plan says: A protracted delay in Department obligations and payments beyond one week would severely curtail the cash flow to school districts, colleges and universities, and vocational rehabilitation agencies that depend on the Department’s funds to support their services. For example, many school districts receive more than 20 percent of their funds from Department-funded programs. Over 14 million students receive student aid, in the form of grants and loans, at over 6,600 schools through Pell Grants and Direct Student Loans, and if a shutdown is prolonged, the payment of this money could be delayed because there won’t be enough people to process the payments. Information on federal student aid during a shutdown can be found here. Other programs, such as Race to the Top and Promise Neighborhoods, are funded by Congress only through Dec. 31. Some Head Start programs are expected to be impacted because of a lack of funds, according to the National Head Start Association. School districts working with the department on implementing federal waivers from No Child Left Behind requirements will find no one to answer questions. In Washington, D.C., students who depend on public libraries for computers, books, DVDs and other resources could be out of luck; the libraries will close unless D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray goes ahead with a plan to keep the city institutions open. The Education Department website has a message on it Tuesday that says in part: Thank you for visiting ED.gov. Due to a lack of appropriations, ED activities have been curtailed and most employees are on furlough. ED.gov will not