Longtime chef Tony Conte parts ways with the Oval Room

After a nine-year run at the Oval Room, chef Tony Conte has left the contemporary American restaurant near the White House. The chef, whose clever cooking earned three stars for his former employer, is close to signing a lease for an unspecified space in North Potomac, where he plans to open Pizzeria Inferno, a small Neapolitan establishment with a locally constructed wood-burning oven. “I could eat pizza every day,” says Conte, who started making pies in high school and is working toward Vera Pizza Napoletana (or VPN) certification, a seal of approval from the Naples-based nonprofit organization that promotes true Neapolitan pizza. But the chef knows not everybody shares his passion, so he’ll be rounding out the script with some crust-free dishes. Admirers of Conte's upscale cooking will be relieved to hear he’s not retreating entirely from his haute ways, either. Plans for the pizzeria, expected to open no later than March, include an intimate area for the kind of food Conte whipped up at the Oval Room. (This diner is eager to revisit his smoked sweetbreads on a nest of green mango and shaved fennel, and honey-glazed duck presented on kimchi.) Tony Conte's marinated duck, served on a bed of kimchi at the Oval Room. (Joseph Victor Stefanchik/For The Washington Post) John Melfi Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema hosts a live chat every Wednesday at 11 a.m.


Union Kitchen’s partners plan to open a Capitol Hill cafe, plus new details about their Ivy City expansion

By spring, D.C. will be seeing many more locally made goods, thanks to a planned expansion of Union Kitchen. New details have emerged about the food incubator -- which counts among its members brands like Broodjes and Bier, Capital Kombucha, and Dirty South Deli -- and its new facility planned for Ivy City. And with founders Jonas Singer and Cullen Gilchrist also planning to open a Capitol Hill cafe, the spring of 2015 looks to be a busy one for the two entrepreneurs. A rendering of Union Kitchen's new Ivy City facility (Courtesy of Streetsense). Union Kitchen As we reported last year, the duo will be expanding Union Kitchen's footprint with a new 24,000-square-foot space at 1369 New York Ave. NE. Union Kitchen's presence in the neighborhood will cement Ivy City as D.C.'s neighborhood for local food processing and production. Among their neighbors are ProFish, a seafood distributor for many area restaurants, as well as New Columbia Distillery and the new One Eight Distilling. Singer and Gilchrist began looking to expand in 2013, when Union Kitchen's 50-member facility near Union Station reached capacity. The new kitchen will triple Union Kitchen's space; Singer and Gilchrist hope to double its membership, with a mix of small- and medium-sized culinary businesses that will employ, on average, six people each. "It allows businesses to grow more before they leave us," Singer said of the expansion. "One of the things that we’ve learned is that there is a place for small business, and there’s a place for big businesses, but there’s this huge gap in between. Our goal is to try to close that gap as much as possible." A rendering of Union Kitchen's new Ivy City facility (Courtesy of Streetsense). Determining the layout for a space like Union Kitchen was tricky, because it's not used the way a traditional kitchen would be. Members, who could be making anything from hot sauce to candy, share equipment and time in the space at all hours, so it gets a lot more wear than a typical restaurant kitchen. "It’s a different kind of operation. It’s not one entity on high saying, 'This is how you use the resources,'" Singer said. "It’s 50 people operating in concert who have to be trained to use the resources together in the way that’s most efficient. It’s very different, the footsteps that people take and the way that people have to


The meat industry’s worst nightmare could soon become a reality

battles have largely been waged on the nutritional health front, and the evidence is mixed on whether meat is actually harmful to your health. As a result, the government now recommends that people opt for leaner meat, instead of less meat. Defending meat on environmental grounds, however, could be much tougher for the industry. Several international and government agencies, including the United Nations, have spelled out the meat industry's massive footprint. And now the USDA could be next with new, government-backed dietary guidelines. For that reason, several industry players have responded critically to the consideration, both attacking the notion that meat production is environmentally unfriendly and discrediting the idea that environmental concerns should influence the dietary guidelines issued by the government. The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) and National Cattlemen's Beef Association have each issued statements insisting that lean meat should be part of healthy diets and denouncing any suggestion that environmental impact should dictate the recommendations. "The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s focus on sustainability is objectionable because it is not within the committee’s expertise," NAMI said in a statement. A draft of the government panel's advice, which was released last month, calls for the consumption of more plant-based foods and less animal-based ones, because it's "associated with lesser environmental impact than is the current average U.S. diet." Specifically, the draft advises less "red meats" and "processed meats." Just because the USDA's advisory committee is discussing such recommendations doesn't mean it will ultimately include them in its official findings, which are expected to be delivered to the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments later this month. Nor does a recommendation by the panel mean the departments will ultimately heed the advice in determining the final guidelines, which are expected to be released later this year. But the they might. And if they do, the impact would be significant. "Americans don't necessarily heed dietary recommendations," said Janet Riley, the senior vice president of public affairs for the North American Meat Institute. "But where this could have a huge impact is on purchasing programs. The federal feeding programs are significantly impacted by the federal dietary guidelines." Indeed, the immediate impacts would be substantial. Reducing the recommended amount of meat consumption would reduce, among other things, the amount of meat the industry provides as part of the school lunch program. And overnight, the diets of millions of Americans would have less meat.


Watchdog: Afghan commando camp plagued with electricity and refueling problems

Members of the Afghan National Army special forces prepare to breach a doorway at a training compound near Kabul in May. (Photo by Spec. Connor Mendez/U.S. Army) The Defense Department has awarded $57.1 million in contracts to build and renovate a military base in Afghanistan for the country’s Special Operations troops, but the facility is still plagued with generators that do not work well, fueling points that are unused and a dining facility that is drastically overcrowded. Those are the findings of a new report by a watchdog on U.S. work in Afghanistan. John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, found that a variety of projects funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Camp Commando have not gone according to plan, citing inspections conducted between February and November 2014. The report is only the latest by SIGAR to accuse the U.S. government of squandering vast sums of money while prosecuting its war in Afghanistan. The report released Thursday examines a base, on the outskirts of Kabul, that is home to the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command Division Headquarters and a school for its commandos. Among its problems, an electrical power plant and refueling point were not completed to specifications, inspectors founds. The power plant was built at a cost of $7 million to provide electricity to the commando school, a Special Operations battalion and a support unit with five 1088-kilowatt generators. But they were not calibrated so that more than one of them could be operated at the same time, SIGAR said. The Army Corps of Engineers concurred with SIGAR’s findings, and said that someone with the Afghan army improperly connected to a transformer in July 2012, damaging two transformers and several sections of cables more than two years ago. A contractor subsequently was able to repair the transformers and cables, but the main distribution panel was not fixed. On the refueling point, SIGAR inspectors found that contractors installed tanks and pumps that could hold 38,000 liters of diesel fuel in two above-ground tanks, and an additional 1,000 liters of motor fuel a smaller third one. Inspectors noted the new facility was not operational in 2012 and said it still had not been fixed when they viewed it last year. The Army Corps of Engineers stated that the refueling point was tested and commissioned, but the reality is a bit more murky, SIGAR said. “Our


Move over Jimmys! (And Jon. And Stephen. And Larry.) Neil deGrasse Tyson is getting his own late-night show.

Neil deGrasse Tyson at a National Geographic event on Jan. 7 in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP) America’s favorite astrophysicist is coming to late night. Neil deGrasse Tyson will host the National Geographic Channel’s first ever late-night talk show featuring pop culture personalities and science commentary from people like Tyson’s buddy, Bill Nye. There’s no word yet on what the intro will look like, but you can bet if it involves a model of the Earth spinning on its axis, the thing will be turning in the right direction. So, take that, Jon Stewart! “Star Talk,” based on Tyson’s podcast of the same name, will premiere in April. Tyson made the announcement at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif., on Wednesday. The show will tape at the Hayden Planetarium, where Tyson serves as director. “Cosmos allowed us to share the awesome power of the universe with a global audience in ways that we never thought possible,” Tyson said in a statement. “To be able to continue to spread wonder and excitement through Star Talk, which is a true passion project for me, is beyond exciting. And National Geographic Channel is the perfect home as we continue to explore the universe.” Tyson had a massive hit when he revived Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” last year. Even the president weighed in with an endorsement. The first episode of “Star Talk” will be accompanied by a one-hour special commemorating the Hubble telescope’s 25th year orbiting Earth. Tyson will host “Hubble’s Cosmic Journey,” too. This should be great news for science purists with cable — especially those disappointed in Discovery’s march away from the subject and toward, well, men getting “eaten alive” by giant snakes. Want an idea of what the show may be like? You can listen to a recent episode of “Star Talk” below, in which Tyson and and Nye sharpen their wit and fling it at creationists who use iPhones and social media and LED lighting. “They have the most modern technology and they also handle snakes,” Tyson said.


D.C. area forecast: In the deep freeze today, with a reinforcing blast of cold Saturday

TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 2/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL This is the kind of cold that gets your attention! The saving grace is the worst of the winds have departed. However, this is a one-two punch with the next blast Friday night into Saturday. Lip cracking dry air dominates the weekend but moisture threatens an early return Monday that could throw a wintry mix into the area. The clear weekend is well-timed for viewing Comet Lovejoy and a rare conjunction of Venus and Mercury in the west after sunset. Today (Thursday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Friday): Tomorrow night: January 6, 2014. (Jim Havard via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Saturday Sunday On Monday, mixed precipitation is a strong possibility. The best chance of prolonged frozen precipitation is in colder locales northwest of D.C. Highs range from the 30s to near 40. Confidence: Low-Medium SNOW POTENTIAL INDEX 1/10 (↓):


National Symphony Orchestra charms Central Union Mission with low brass

From left, David Murray, Peter Ellefson, Matthew Guilford and Stephen Dumaine of the NSO play on stage at the Central Union Mission in Northwest Washington on Tuesday. (Clinton Yates/The Washington Post) Before the show began, Peter Ellefson was changing out of his snow boots and into some more comfortable shoes by the side of the stage. Like the crowd he was getting ready to play for, he was coming in from the cold and first needed to settle in. Except, for much of his audience, this is what they do every time they come to Central Union Mission, because this is where they live. As part of the National Symphony Orchestra’s “In Your Neighborhood: From Brookland to NoMa” series, three trombone players and one tuba player formed a quartet to play in front of the mainly homeless crowd before lunch Tuesday. The informal setting provided a humbling look at how the power of music can make even the most marginalized members of the community feel like they belong and are a part of something larger, even if their everyday lives don’t indicate such. Before the program began, Stephen Dumaine, the tuba player, took questions. The crowd seemed as curious about the lives of the musicians, as people, as much as anything. How good is the pay? Do you travel to other countries as well? Have you ever met any famous musicians? Dumaine mentions Nas as one of his favorites to have had the chance to work with. The show itself was personal, intimate and to some extent revealing. Before each piece, a different musician would tell a short story about not only the song but their connection to it. Before his solo tune, “Elegy for Mippy II,” Ellefson said: “It’s good to be here. It’s nice and warm in here. I look outside and see that it’s not so warm out there.” The crowd nodded in agreement. The rest of the event played out in similar fashion, switching back and forth between loud “right on!” comments and people enjoying the serenity of the moment with their heads bowed. There was enthusiastic applause after each song. The selections ranged from traditional orchestral music to other more “funked up” jams that got heads bobbing. “Trombone Institute of Technology” — a song titled after a joke by students at the Eastman School of Music, in the same New York town as the Rochester


‘Outside the Spacecraft’ looks back on 50 years of perilous, exhilarating spacewalks at the National Air and Space Museum

Gene Cernan as he performed history’s third spacewalk, on June 5, 1966. Cernan spent a half hour floating helplessly at the end of his tether, unable to control his orientation or rotation. Then, when the sun was eclipsed by the earth, he was engulfed in darkness. After two hours and eight minutes, ground control made him give up the mission. “He had so much trouble just staying near the spacecraft,” Levasseur says. “He sweated like crazy, his heart rate went up to almost 200 beats per minute, which is really unheard of when you have no gravity forcing itself on your heart.” That experience taught NASA the importance of handholds, which astronauts can use to pull themselves around a spacecraft. The agency also opened an underwater training facility, since SCUBA diving turns out to be great preparation for spacewalking, Levasseur says. The moon, at least, has a little gravity, and one of the coolest parts of the new exhibit is a pale blue boot worn by Cernan on NASA’s last lunar mission. He wore it while exploring the moon’s surface over a three-day period in December 1972. The carefully preserved boot is still covered in lunar dirt and dust. “You can actually see the boot that made the last footprint on the moon,” Levasseur says. Since then, astronauts floating in open space have upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope, assembled a space station and made numerous repairs. No one has ever died on one of these extra-vehicular excursions, but there are still close calls. In 2013, International Space Station astronaut Luca Parmitano nearly drowned in his own helmet, which filled with water when his spacesuit’s cooling system malfunctioned. “Space is a harsh, inhospitable frontier and we are explorers, not colonizers,” Parmitano wrote on the European Space Agency’s blog. “The skills of our engineers and the technology surrounding us make things appear simple when they are not, and perhaps we forget this sometimes. Better not to forget.” National Air and Space Museum, Independence Avenue and Sixth Street SW; Thu. through June 8, free. Read more stories about exhibits from Express: Hirshhorn’s ‘At the Hub of Things’ challenges viewers to find the links between distinct works of art and kicks off the museum’s 40 anniversary celebration Time it was a-changin’: A look at ‘Time Covers the 1960s’ at the National Portrait Gallery ‘Nasta’liq’ at Sackler showcases the most popular form of Persian calligraphy


This rare butterfly is half male, half female

glitzier left wings show off male colors. (Isa Betancourt/ANSP) Volunteers at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University were shocked when the above butterfly emerged from its chrysalis. “It slowly opened up, and the wings were so dramatically different, it was immediately apparent what it was,” Chris Johnson, a retired chemical engineer and museum volunteer, said in a statement. This Lexias pardalis butterfly is perfectly split down its middle -- with male coloring on the left side of its body and wings and female coloring on the right. It's a condition called gynandromorphism. It usually happens early in development, when cells are just beginning to split to form an embryo. One of the early cells fails to split its sex chromosomes properly (for example, an XXYY might split into an X and an XYY instead of two XY cells). These cells continue to divide and proliferate, and they're signaling for the organism to grow into two different sexes. Sometimes the gynandromorphism is "mosaic," meaning that the cells are spread throughout the body and not noticeable outwardly. And in some species, even being split down the middle ("bilateral" gynandromorphism) isn't all that noticeable, because males and females look alike. That's why it's most commonly noticed in the insect world -- and especially in butterflies -- who have often evolved striking differences in color and shape based on sex. “In most cases, such specimens are ‘discovered’ in museum collections by a researcher who is carefully examining reproductive organs of insects under the microscope and stumbles across a specimen with both male and female characteristics,” Entomology Collection Manager Jason Weintraub said in a statement. The subject has since been preserved and pinned, and is on display. (J.D. Weintraub/ANSP Entomology) The Lexias pardalis, native to the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia, is a particularly good example of the condition. Its males are smaller than its females, leading to a slight difference in the shape of the specimen's two wings. And while females have demure brown wings with white and yellow spots, the males have evolved iridescent black and blue wings to attract them. Instead of letting the unusual butterfly move from the pupa hatching room into the main butterfly exhibit (where it only would have lived a week or two) the museum staff whisked it away for confirmation of its condition and preservation of the specimen. It's now on display at the museum.


Mueller Report: Five takeaways from the Ray Rice investigation

whitewash to many, but Mueller and his investigators “found no evidence that anyone at the NFL had or saw the in-elevator video before it was publicly shown. We also found no evidence that a woman at the NFL acknowledged receipt of that video in a voicemail message on April 9, 2014. ” Investigators spoke with 200 people and combed through a mountain of forensic evidence that included nearly 2 million phone calls and Mueller addressed his independence in an appendix to the report: The League asked me to conduct an independent investigation concerning the Rice matter. The NFL did not direct, oversee, or otherwise manage or influence our independent investigation in any manner, and we did not report to the NFL during our investigation or on the results of our investigation. Instead, as explained in the report, the NFL authorized John Mara, owner of the New York Giants, and Art Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, to act as our points of contact to assist with our access to the League, its personnel and information, and other League resources necessary to complete the investigation. As requested by the League, and as they specifically agreed, Rooney and Mara did not conduct, direct, influence, or otherwise manage our investigation in any manner. We had sole discretion to employ investigative resources, techniques, and processes that we deemed appropriate in order to complete our investigation and to issue our report 2) A number of people wondered when the second video was released why the NFL needed to see it to determine adequate punishment for Rice in the summer. The report concludes “there was substantial information about the incident — even without the in-elevator video — indicating the need for a more thorough investigation. The NFL should have done more with the information it had, and should have taken additional steps to obtain all available information about the February 15 incident.” 3) The report is unlikely to be well received by advocacy groups that clamored for the firing of Goodell as the league’s domestic violence problem spiraled into a crisis in early September. Ultraviolet, which describes itself as “an online community of over 550,000 women and men who want to take collective action to expose and fight sexism in the public sector, private sector and the media,” reacted swiftly to the report’s contents. “Mueller’s report doesn’t change the facts,” UltraViolet co-founder Nita Chaudhary wrote in


Are black or white offenders more likely to kill police?

in the population, the percentage of black offenders who killed police officers appears to be disproportionately high. But blacks tend to be concentrated in the South and in cities; some large urban areas, such as Detroit, have majority African American populations. About 51 percent of police killings were in cities and counties with a population of less than 250,000. The FBI distinguishes the types of felonious incidents, so we looked further into ambushes, which include entrapment, premeditated attacks and unprovoked attacks. Many of the ambushes are the types of attacks Bratton originally referred to — ones incited by anger and hatred toward police. They include former Los Angeles Police Department officer Christopher Dorner’s rampage in 2013 to kill LAPD officers and their families, sniper attacks on officers standing outside their homes or barracks, point-blank assassination-style shootings of officers in a restaurant, coffee shop or patrol car, and attacks by “sovereign citizens” or members of militia groups. There were 304 officers killed in ambush attacks from 1980 to 2013, with 371 offenders involved in those deaths. The percentage of black and white offenders in ambushes were about the same: 44 percent were white, and 43 percent were black. Law enforcement fatalities have been declining since the 1970s. Felonious deaths also have declined since that time: Nearly 140 officers died in felonious incidents in 1973; in 2013, 27 officers were killed in felonious incidents. Ambushes accounted for 21.7 percent of felonious deaths from 2004 to 2013. The Fact Checker’s analysis has limitations. There is no ethnic breakdown in the FBI data, and it is unclear whether Hispanic or Latino offenders were included in the white category, the unknown category, or elsewhere. There is not enough information on each officer’s death and circumstance to understand what motivated the killings — who killed whom why, and whether there are identifiable trends. Those details would provide useful context — for example, how “sovereign citizen” attacks compare to members of gangs targeting police. But that is not readily available, other than manually cross-checking the 2,000-plus officer deaths through news clips, booking documents and other sources. The FBI provided the database without personally-identifiable information. The Bottom Line More white offenders than black offenders killed police between 1980 and 2013. Police officers were killed in ambush attacks by just as many black offenders as white offenders in the past three decades. There are no simple conclusions or trends


D.C. area forecast: Possible morning snowflakes usher in a second round of wind and deepening chill

6:05 a.m. update: TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 3/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL From 5:00 a.m.: Radar & lightning: Latest regional radar shows movement of precipitation and lightning strikes over past two hours. Refresh page to update. Today (Friday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Saturday): Tomorrow night: Sunday: Meridian Hill Park in the snow. (John Jack Photography via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Sunday night: On Monday clouds look likely and precipitation (60% chance) may move in. Rain may mix with sleet and freezing rain—and maybe, maybe some snow. Precipitation seems more likely in the afternoon and evening than in the morning. High temperatures should range through the 30s to near 40. However, we have to monitor just how stubborn a wedge of cold air may plant itself over our region—if at all. The best chance of prolonged frozen precipitation is in colder locales northwest of D.C. And perhaps during the overnight hours when temperatures could dip below freezing. In other words, this forecast is subject to change and please check back. Confidence: Low-Medium Winter and wintry precipitation may still plague us a bit on Tuesday. Especially in the morning (30% chance). By afternoon, we could just have mostly cloudy skies with temperatures rising above freezing, perhaps into the mid-30s to near 40. Confidence: Low SNOW POTENTIAL INDEX 1/10 (→):


The Boston Globe’s editorial board is not enthused about its city’s Olympic bid

Grass grows in the abandoned beach volleyball Olympic venue in southern Athens. (AP/Thanassis Stavrakis) The Olympic Games in 2024 will not be hosted in the nation's capital, a disappointment for Mayor Muriel Bowser but a major victory for the city's residents, who will not be saddled with the exorbitant costs of hosting the two-week event. That misfortune could instead fall to Boston, which was the U.S. city chosen by the national Olympic committee to bid for it. The Boston Globe's editorial board is skeptical of the idea: The independent scholarship on the return to hosting the Olympics suggests that it does not pay off economically. Beijing 2008 spent over $40 billion; London 2012 spent close to $20 billion; Rio de Janeiro 2016 is projected to spend over $20 billion; and, Tokyo 2020, just having won the bid a year ago, is already facing political protests and reformulating its plan to reduce costs. The Summer Games bring in around $5 billion to $6 billion from television, sponsorships, ticket sales, licensing, and merchandise. Less than half of this sum goes to the host city. Beijing and London actually experienced a decrease in international tourism during their host month and year. Wonkblog recently examined some of the research the Globe cited. Hosting the Olympics has not been associated with economic growth, and while it can spur a municipal government to invest in infrastructure, that new construction often turns out to be wasted. "My basic takeaway for any city considering a bid for the Olympics is to run away like crazy," one economist said. There is a good chance the International Olympic Committee will pass over Boston and choose a city outside the United States, but sporting officials and politicians are hoping for the best. "We know Boston is the place to inspire a new generation of athletes to discover the greatness within," said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who helped organize the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The committee is scheduled to make its decision in 2017. Update: Welcome to Wonkbook. To subscribe by e-mail, click What's in Wonkbook: Chart of the day: Most of America's wealthier citizens think the poor have it easy, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Roberto Ferdman in The Washington Post. 1 . Top story: Obama proposes free community college The president wants to offer two years of free tuition to hard-working


Main Street Morning: Opening fire on Obamacare

• A Utah company refuses to make signs for a Portland medical marijuana dispensary. • Cannabis industry professionals can now join this new LinkedIn open group. Finance • If you’re looking to raise money on Kickstarter you may want to try a Wednesday in August. Online • Google’s share of the online search market has fallen to its lowest level since 2008. • This startup wants to make shopping online even easier. • A shakeout is under way in the online advertising industry. Marketing • 10 ways location-based marketing will evolve in 2015. Entrepreneurs • A 7 year old girl makes and sells tutus for dogs to help local animal shelters. • Two soup lovers get serious with their own food truck. Retail • Gap’s sales are up. • Macy’s is closing 14 locations and says it will change the way it stocks and markets its stores, while also strengthening its e-commerce and off-price operations. Social Media • Facebook acquires a video technology startup. • Experts make the case for hiring a Chief Social Media Officer. • Soon, you’ll be checking your LinkedIn account on your bathroom mirror. People • Here’s what really happens when you leave your staff alone for a few minutes. • Older workers waste less time, according to this infographic. • A stay-at-home dad admits that he was “very, very mistaken” to quit his job. Around the Country • New York City has banned the use of plastic foam containers and polystyrene loose packaging, or “packing peanuts,” by foodservice establishments, retailers and manufacturers, effective July 1, 2015. • A foie gras ban in California is struck down by a judge (and chefs across the state are thrilled). • A California dog park is to be renovated by local business owner. • The owner of a suburban St. Louis payroll services company has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution for taking money from clients. • Once again, a Michigan ferry owner and the state are butting heads. Around the World • Uber tests a cargo delivery service in Hong Kong. • These are the global consequences of Russia’s isolation. Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. Follow Gene Marks and On Small Business on Twitter. News we should know about? Email us here.


Health-conscious Halsa opening Monday in Brookland

gives you your choice of protein (fish, chicken, pork or vegetarian), grain, seasonal side and greens. They're sourcing their superfoods from local farms and -- also keeping with health trends -- will feature several pickled or fermented choices, as well as a "detox" vegetable like broccoli or cabbage. Guests can also get dashi broth soups with either plant or grain-based noodles. Most pastries will be gluten-free, and the coffee will be roasted by Madcap. Founder Emily Gaines was inspired to create Hälsa after spending time in Southeast Asia researching healthy foods, and working with a holistic health coach. At first, she wanted to start a coconut-milk ice cream shop -- serving an item that may appear on the menu eventually -- but the concept evolved to become an overall lifestyle brand. She joined forces with Laura Poladsky, Hälsa's creative director, who had a similar epiphany about healthy eating while living in Australia and Italy. Sweets at Halsa. (Andy Fundeneanu) "I want to create a lifestyle that is high quality," said Gaines, 26. "Food is the gateway to that." She chose Brookland for the foot traffic that comes from its Arts Walk and nearby Catholic University (they're on CUA's meal plan), as well as the neighborhood's sensibilities. "People who move out here, their values are different than people downtown," said Gaines. "They want trees, they want grass." The ideas of streamlined living and clean eating are reinforced in Hälsa's design -- the bright, white restaurant, designed by Streetsense, exemplifies the Swedish minimalism suggested by the restaurant's name. A shelf-lined wall will display products from local artisans, and cookbooks that match the restaurant's sensibilities. Gaines said she chose Hälsa because it means "health" in Swedish, inspired by the seasonal ethos of Nordic cuisine. (Hälsa is also the name of a thermos at Ikea, if you're looking for a way to keep that bone broth warm.) If the concept takes off, future Hälsas may be even more hyperlocal, accompanied by gardens and chicken coops, if Gaines gets her way, she says. Gaines acknowledges that D.C. is in midst of a mix-and-match protein+starch+veg craze, but she said the formula is the best way to help diners learn how to listen to their bodies. "It's really all about giving [guests] a lot of variety," she said, "so people can get what their body needs." Hälsa, 655 Michigan Ave. NE. (Metro: Brookland). Opens Monday, Jan. 12.


Churches step in with alternative to high-interest, small-dollar lending industry

small-dollar loan industry in Virginia have helped it grow in unexpected ways. When restrictions were tightened in 2008 on payday loans issued in Virginia, some lenders left altogether. Others, such as Check Into Cash, simply stopped offering payday loans and focused instead on unregulated products, such as the open-end loan that McCarthy took out. While the commercial lending industry frames its products as a solution for hard-working American families in a tough spot, critics say these loans prey on the poor and the vulnerable. A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report found that more than 80 percent of payday loans are rolled over or followed by a subsequent loan within two weeks, and that 15 percent of new loans lead to a sequence of at least 10 loans. ‘A place of desperation’ People who turn to small-dollar lenders tend to have one thing in common: desperation. They find themselves in situations such as the one that led McCarthy to Check Into Cash. On a cold morning in late fall 2010, McCarthy was on the highway in Richmond driving home from an overnight shift. The exclamation point on the dashboard lit up, her engine cut off, and her steering wheel went stiff. At a shop, the mechanic gave her the damage: It would cost more than $600 to fix the engine. McCarthy couldn’t afford the bill, but she couldn’t afford not to get her car fixed either. She needed it to get to her job at a group home for girls, where she earned $14.42 an hour for 40 hours a week – with 10 to 20 hours of overtime if she was lucky. And her family was relying on her, too. Her teenage daughter needed rides to volleyball and basketball practices and games, and her 22-year-old son was looking for work and had no car of his own. McCarthy had few options. She was already burdened with credit card debt, and had no active credit cards. She never even considered going to a bank. That left her with the only source of cash she could think of: Check Into Cash’s $800 line of credit. “I couldn’t see any other way to do it,” McCarthy said. “And I think that’s what happens when a person gets into a place of desperation. We really don’t think logically.” Jabo Covert, senior vice president for government affairs at Check Into Cash, had some advice for


NSO hits the club, and scores

a classical music purist and saying, “No mikes!” This is me observing that certain sections of the music were almost inaudible and others were way too loud, and further observing that neither this sound system nor its operators were, understandably, attuned to the particular needs of this kind of group.) Therefore, it was savvy of the orchestra’s artistic administrator, Justin Ellis, to recruit the beatboxer and rapper Christylez Bacon, the electric cellist Wytold Lebing, and the DJ: incorporating some other virtuosic local talent with genuine connections to classical music to create a dialogue that made more sense, in this space, than a straight-ahead classical program. Lebing studied classical cello when he was growing up in northern Virginia, and he offered a remix of Bach’s first cello suite, while Bacon, a brilliant and charismatic performer, presented his take on Pachelbel’s Canon. (Both these works involved the other soloists and the orchestra.) For one piece, they were joined on stage by Glenn Donnellan, a second violinist who has become one of the NSO’s most notable ambassadors in outreach programs, playing, very well, his trademark violin he made out of a baseball bat. From left to right: Glenn Donnellan, on baseball bat; Wytold; and Christylez Bacon perform with Steven Reineke and the NSO at Echostage. Photo: Yassine El Mansouri. The problem, invariably, is that once you bring on soloists, the orchestra recedes slightly into the background. The “Montagues and Capulets” episode from “Romeo and Juliet” was the only number that fell a little flat, since it filled in the gap between two soloist-led excursions (one of them an original piece by Lebing, “My Regards”). However: the NSO didn’t coast. The musicians played with involvement, from the “Candide” overture through the Allegro from Shostakovich’s Tenth symphony to the Bernstein “Mambo” that closed the program. And most of the principals were in their seats, signalling that this was a genuine effort from the whole orchestra. The orchestra also did a great job getting the word out to a new and markedly younger audience (including a few children, dancing around the club floor with abandon). The point of this kind of exercise is not only to woo in new ticket-buyers. The point, ever more, is simply to show the orchestra participating as equals — not as missionaries — in dialogue with other artists and other communities. NSO in your Neighborhood continues on Sunday and Monday and


Watchdog: Afghanistan unable to properly track, pay police

An Afghan police officer shouts to his colleagues to try control the crowds during a campaign rally for Afghanistan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah, in Ghazni, Afghanistan, on June 3. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini) Afghanistan is unable to adequately track personnel and pay within its police force despite more than 13 years and billions of dollars of outside assistance, a U.S. watchdog said Monday, highlighting concerns about security forces as the United States and other Western nations withdraw. In a new audit report, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), an independent U.S. government body, said the United States, United Nations and NATO also bear responsibility for failing to resolve persistent weaknesses in the Afghan Interior Ministry’s management of police units across the country. Now, as the Western presence in Afghanistan grows smaller, the ability of donor countries to exercise proper oversight will only diminish, SIGAR warned in its report. “There is a significant risk that a large portion of the more than $300 million in annual U.S. government funding for [Afghan police] salaries will be wasted or abused” if the problems are not addressed, SIGAR said. More than 13 years after the international mission in Afghanistan began, a reduced U.S. and NATO force is now focused on supporting Afghan police and soldiers in their fight against the Taliban. By 2017, the United States will have only a small contingent of troops, attached to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. The shortcomings of Afghanistan’s police take on new urgency in light of Iraqi security forces’ failure this summer to halt a major advance by the Islamic State militant group. The collapse of much of Iraq’s military, which was trained by the United States from 2003 to 2011, exposed the deterioration of Iraqi forces following the U.S. withdrawal. SIGAR said that problems with management of Afghanistan’s police, which numbers about 153,000 people, included Afghan officials’ failure to properly use electronic and other systems for ensuring that salaries go to the right troops. In one example, SIGAR said that Afghanistan’s police do not properly use identification cards issued to each recruit in part to track attendance. Potentially even more worrying, the report said officials do not confiscate the cards of troops who leave police service, meaning there are almost 150,000 invalid cards in circulation. Inadequate tracking could heighten the police’s vulnerability to the kind of widespread corruption that has eroded many


Main Street Morning: Crowdfunding in Gaza

• 90 percent of Americans are more likely to trust brands that back social causes. People • A heroic supermarket employee hid customers during the Paris attacks. • More and more manufacturers are tailoring their training to attract millennial employees. • An Ohio company gives ownership to its 600 employees. Finance • Three IPOs are lined up for this week and one more is on tap for next week. Franchise • These are six wacky franchises you won’t believe actually exist. Start-up • The founder of Diapers.com has raised $80 million for a new company that hasn’t launched yet. • As demand for premium food increases some start-ups are going where Whole Foods won’t. Management • These are nine numbers to know if you own a business. • These are the two most powerful words a manager can use. • Small business buy/sell transactions reached record levels in 2014 according to a report. • How to get a passport fast. Opportunities • Grooms and their wedding parties have created a niche business for many barbershops. Social Media • How a brothel near Las Vegas uses social media to expand its business. Technology • The Air Force Research Laboratory and a small business partner are developing technologies that they expect will enable successful use of high-power processors that operate on satellites. • Why ransomware may be threatening your computer. • Printers and copiers are data gold mines for identity thieves. Around the Country • A California bakery may have been the cause of forty people suffering symptoms ranging from nausea to hallucinations. • A highway on the west coast is now serving thousands of electric car drivers. • Grocery store owners in Kansas are renewing their efforts with lawmakers to sell “strong beer,” wine and liquor. • These stories prove that children of immigrants are just as likely to go into food service as they are medicine or law. • The editors at the Oregonian are urging state and local government officials to “strive to remove obstacles to success from the path of small businesses.” • Chinese investors in Pittsburgh are helping to save jobs and revitalize communities that have lost older manufacturing bases. • New York is cracking down on unsanitary salons. • A Canadian company that grows and sells produce will start construction later this year on a greenhouse in Ohio that eventually will cover 175 acres and create


Donald Rumsfeld’s Kalorama home has found a buyer — again

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) . It looks like former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s Kalorama home has finally found a buyer. After being publicly listed in July, finding a potential buyer just two weeks later and then put back on the market in the fall, the 5,000 square foot brick federal was sold for $3.9 million this week, according to Curbed DC. That’s a $600,000 price drop from the home’s original asking price of $4.5 million. In July, Virginia Chew, the real estate agent handing the sale, told the Reliable Source that Rummy’s former multi-million dollar digs weren’t in the highest range for the neighborhood “by a long shot.” Homes in that toniest of neighborhoods sell for between $2 million to $10 million. Read more Reliable Source: Emmylou Harris and A-list pals party at the Hamilton The Scene: Vodka and gowns flowed at the Russian Ball 5 minutes with Molly Sims Even more surreal estate, Party Diary and Love, etc: Sign up for The Reliable Source newsletter. And follow us on Facebook and Twitter.


SpaceX resupply ship reaches space station

The SpaceX Dragon delivered food, clothing, equipment and science experiments to the International Space Station on Jan. 12. About 5,000 pounds of much-needed supplies, from groceries to scientific experiments, reached the International Space Station early Monday, after months of delays, including a failed launch in October that exploded shortly after taking off. SpaceX’s Dragon capsule docked at the space station, where it will remain for about a month before returning to Earth, two days after blasting off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Astronauts aboard the space station were eager for the haul, since they had been getting low on supplies. Apparently, their cupboard had run out of mustard. “We’re excited to have it on board,” station commander Butch Wilmore said according to reports. “We’ll be digging in soon.” The station was supposed to be resupplied in the fall. But an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket that was to ferry a load exploded in October. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s start-up space company, was scheduled to run a resupply mission in December, but that was postponed because of technical issues until Saturday’s successful launch. SpaceX was also assessing data from an audacious attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. The rocket hit the barge, Musk said, but landed hard and broke into pieces. While the attempt was unsuccessful, it was a major coup to be able to hit the barge from such a great distance, industry officials said. And Musk said the company would try again. Creating reusable rockets -- which are typically discarded after each launch -- would be a major breakthrough in space flight by helping to make it far more affordable. The company has flown five of the 12 resupply missions under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. The unmanned Falcon 9 rocket launched by SpaceX on a cargo resupply service mission to the International Space Station (ISS) lifted off in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Saturday. (Reuters/Mike Brown)


A place where pro-marijuana advocates and anti-drug Sens. Grassley, Feinstein agree

drug. (David Zalubowski/AP) Republican Chuck Grassley and Democrat Dianne Feinstein are united in their opposition to ceding the war on drugs. Last week, they sent a joint letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and one to Attorney General Eric Holder expressing their concerns that the legalization of marijuana in some states is in direct conflict with international conventions. Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority, completely agrees. But how to remedy that contention? That’s where their agreement ends. Senators Grassley of Iowa and Feinstein of California, in their letters to Kerry and Holder, argue that the Obama administration’s decision not to interfere with states legalizing recreational marijuana makes it difficult for the U.S. to then defend “compliance” with the United Nations Conventions on Narcotics treaty, which says marijuana should be limited to scientific and medical use. In the fall, Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield said there should be a flexible interpretation of the treaty. That, the senators wrote to Kerry, “could create a harmful precedent that would allow state parties to implement policies that legalize other, even more harmful drugs, without recourse.” Angell agreed there is an inconsistency. “When the U.S. has legal marijuana, it makes it difficult for U.S. officials to go around the world and say they should continue to prohibit marijuana,” he told the Loop. But unlike the senators, advocates for legalizing the drug would prefer the U.S. support amending the U.N. treaties to be more lenient. “We both see the same effect, we see what is coming down the line,” Angell said, referring to changing marijuana laws. “We like it, they don’t like it. We’re winning, they’re not.” There is one more area in which Angell and drug reformers side with the senators. In the Grassley and Feinstein letter to Holder, they ask that Justice compile data on the “overall effect” of allowing states to legalize marijuana – such as whether it’s easier for minors to get pot. “Yeah, we’d like to see that data all compiled in a nice neat package,” Angell said, predicting that it would show that legalizing pot generates tax revenue, reduces the size of the drug black market and would generally support the case for legalization. Or, maybe it would show Feinstein’s right that weed is a gateway drug. And yes, it is not lost on us that a senator with the last name “Grassley” is spearheading an anti-marijuana effort.


Three D.C. eateries where you’re almost guaranteed a celebrity sighting

Say goodbye to those dusty, smokey D.C. steakhouses of yesteryear, and hello to a new class of hip eateries that are attracting the city’s elite and visiting celebrities. Meet Georgetown’s Fiola Mare, Downtown’s Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab, and Dupont Circle’s STK. Think of them as the cooler kid sisters to established power spots like The Palm and Cafe Milano. You’re likely to catch a glimpse of bold-faced names like President Obama, Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, the Wizards’ John Wall and 007 himself, Pierce Brosnan — if you can beat the crowds to a table. Managers at all three restaurants agree the secret to success is treating these VIPs like they’re one of us (no selfies please!). But having a famous face does come with at least a few perks when dining out. Here’s what is on the menu for the city’s top diners: Fiola Mare: Where Hollywood stars meet D.C. elite Georgetown's Fiola Mare is tucked away along the Georgetown waterfront but that hasn't stopped Hollywood celebrities from finding their way there. The Mediterranean-inspired eatery will almost guarantee you a celebrity sighting. But no selfies please! Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab: Where politicians find their flavor Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab may just be the best place in D.C. for a bipartisan meal. Politicians from both sides of the aisle have given the steakhouse a stamp of approval, making it the place to go for political sightings. STK: Where athletes score big Say goodbye to those dusty, smokey D.C. steakhouses of yesteryear, and hello to STK in Dupont Circle. This steakhouse has become an instant favorite among D.C.'s professional athletes and the place to find a DJ five nights per week. This is the second story in a Reliable Source series called “Lifestyles of the Rich and Fabulous” that explores the lives of D.C.’s VIP residents and visitors. Stay tuned to find out much more about how the elite live. Read more Reliable Source: Emmylou Harris and A-list pals party at the Hamilton The Scene: Vodka and gowns flowed at the Russian Ball 5 minutes with Molly Sims Even more surreal estate, Party Diary and Love, etc: Sign up for The Reliable Source newsletter. And follow us on Facebook and Twitter.


Main Street Morning: A fresh-squeezed $120 million

How a food photographer used her Instagram skills to help launch a start-up. • A growing community of start-up founders is using a workplace collaboration service to exchange tips. • A secret start-up is raising $120 million to make the freshest juice you’ve ever tasted. • These are 7 legal issues your start-up should have covered. Franchise • This is the most comprehensive article on buying a franchise ever written. Online • There’s a plot to kill the “leap second” that’s about to rattle the Internet. Marketing • These are 15 must-have marketing tools for 2015. • 8 other valuable lessons from selling knishes at Yankee Stadium. • 75 percent of small and medium-sized businesses say Internet marketing is effective, according to a new survey. Ideas • Scientists have developed a nearly invisible coating that supercharges a fabric’s ability to hold in heat, which could save hundreds of dollars on heating bills. • Even though a number of developers have stepped away from building new programs for Google Glass because of low consumer demand but other developers have continued to attract venture-capital dollars. Technology • IBM is once again the largest recipient of patents. • Uber offers cities an immensely valuable olive branch. • Microsoft will end mainstream support for its Windows 7 Service Pack 1 today. • An artificial intelligence bot promises to scan your email and automatically schedule meetings. Around the country • Entrepreneurs are making Detroit a hot spot for craft retail. • The Jazz’s Trevor Booker makes the coolest shot so far this year. • Newark, New Jersey’s Mayor and Prudential Financial will host a small business summit tomorrow. • This is a map of literally every goat in the United States. • Massachusetts is set to officially approve ride-sharing regulations this week and ride service Uber has ramped up an ad blitz around the Boston area to recruit new drivers. Around the world • A hotel in Bolivia is completely made of salt. • Britain is in crisis as Cadbury changes its Creme Egg recipe. • A famed Danish restauranteur is taking his staff of 60 to Japan for a six-week residency, and 60,000 people have applied for reservations. Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. Follow Gene Marks and On Small Business on Twitter. News we should know about? Email us here.


After #FoxNewsFacts, maybe it’s time cable news abandoned facts altogether

Murdoch’s logic she would have to take responsibility for the Spanish Inquisition. Ansari asked for a “step-by-step guide” wondering “how can my 60 year old parents in NC help destroy terrorist groups?” The hashtag #RupertsFault drove the misplacement of responsibility home. Look, it is possible to separate the extremists who commit acts of terror from the majority of Muslims, and if you keep conflating the two, that’s on you, not on them to have to sort out your confusion. Leaving aside the uncomfortable thought that if this is what Murdoch thinks, maybe Emerson’s rampant delirious fit of misinformation wasn’t as much of a fluke as one might hope, maybe something good can come out of this. All these troubles and apologies and rants stemmed from the fact that we still insist that cable networks like FOX supply us with facts. Why? It’s 2015. We have the Internet for those. And if the Twitter #foxnewsfacts hashtag that instantly sprung up after Emerson’s remarks is to be believed, we could have a lovely time if Fox just called an end to its long and turbulent relationship with facts. Heck, MSNBC too. Look, so far 2015’s actual true pieces of news are downright depressing. So cable, give us fiction. Tell us: how are we doing at keeping the Kaiju from emerging from the rift? What should we do about Jaeger program funding? Is Starfleet going to survive Ted Cruz’s cuts? (No, wait, that’s veering dangerously close to reality again.) A shift to elaborate serialized fictions would be as engaging as constantly searching for sewage-filled boats or vanished planes, and would still offer lots of room for experts to draw on whiteboards and gesture angrily. This would keep them all content. We’re so nearly at the point of fiction already (have you watched trial coverage, lately?) that this shift would require almost no adjustments, in many cases. And people would not have to worry that what they were saying was wrong and harmful and might negatively impact people’s lives. We would not have to go through this ridiculous ballet another time. Commentators could just tell us whatever dream-stories sprang to mind. David Cameron could marvel at the intricacy of the American pundits’ imagination instead of calling us “complete idiots” on television. We could dodge so much embarrassment and get back so much of our wasted time. Perhaps, all things considered, that would be best.


At least 72 in Mozambique are dead after drinking ‘poisoned’ beer. Is crocodile bile to blame?

beer but is not known to be toxic to the extent this outbreak shows,” Christian Lindmeier, a World Health Organization spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement on Monday. The WHO was trying to get more details on the mass poisoning from local partners in Mozambique. On Tuesday, the AP added the skeptical voice of South African crocodile farmer Johan Marais to its reporting on the tragedy. Marais, the AP wrote, “has tested many parts of the animal for consuming. He said that the animal’s bile, a greenish-brown liquid produced in the liver and stored in the gall bladder, was found not to be toxic.” Research on the subject isn’t easy to find in scientific literature. The most thorough examination of crocodile bile as a poison appears to be a 30-year-old paper by N.Z. Nyazema, who noted that bile from the gall bladders of crocodiles (also known as “nduru”) has long been rumored to be a potent toxin, often associated with poisonings at special occasions, like a funeral, or It is reported that the poisoning occurs at special occasions like beer drinking: The nduru is said to be introduced into the beer by dipping the finger or nail where a small amount is placed: This will suffice for the purpose. The unfortunate victim is supposed to die within 24 hours. The poison is supposed to manifest itself when the patient develops pains mainly in the abdomen. David Kroll, a science writer for Forbes, was also suspicious of the claim that crocodile bile is to blame for the deaths in Mozambique. Noting that Nyazema’s rudimentary testing of the bile’s potentially toxic effects in a small grouping of samples produced no evidence that the substance on its own lived up to the legend, Kroll writes: “I can’t imagine just how much bile would’ve had to be added to 210 liters of brew for so many deaths to occur.” Kroll, again citing Nyazema’s work, notes that the region contains at least a dozen plants from which cardiac glycosides can be derived. In toxic doses, cardiac glycosides can “slow the heartbeat to zero” and cause symptoms like “nausea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, and diarrhea,” consistent with what little information is available on the Mozambique deaths. On Tuesday, the WHO’s Lindmeier emailed The Post to add that “a very common cause of mass poisoning associated with home brewed drinks is methanol, added to make the drink stronger.”


Do you live in beer country or wine country? These maps will tell you.

maps reflect the tremendous rise of regional winemaking over the past decade. Beermaking has seen impressive growth too, driven primarily by the craft beer segment of the market, but only in the most recent few years. This chart below, from the Census, tells that tale. The number of American wineries has increased by about 260 percent since 1998. Breweries are up 175 percent, with almost all of that increase happening since 2010. The Census data suggest that the number of wineries is starting to plateau. And indeed, observers had started asking how many wineries is too many starting in at least 2011. Beermakers, on the other hand, particularly craft brewers, appear to be poised for some more growth. The success of craft brewing has even inspired soda makers to try their hand at the same. Notes on the data Getting a comprehensive winery list is relatively uncomplicated. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a division of the Treasury Department, maintains a list of permitted wine producers. Not every one of these outfits is what we might think of as a traditional winery, with vineyards and tasting and bands playing bluegrass music on the weekends -- some are wine blenders, who buy different wines from elsewhere and bottle unique blends, or who fortify wine by adding a spirit like brandy. The beer list is a little more complicated. The TTB doesn't make a list of brewers publicly available due to a quirk of the tax code. So I obtained a crowdsourced geocoded list of U.S. commercial breweries from poi-factory.com, a site for GPS enthusiasts. Different entities classify breweries and wineries differently. For instance, according to the U.S. Census Bureau there are 880 breweries in the U.S. The U.S. Brewers' Association says there are north of 3,000. The dataset I used shows more than 4,000. These differences all hinge on how a brewery is defined -- whether the definition includes brewpubs, or chains of breweries, or places closed part of the year, or what-have-you. I chose both datasets -- wine and beer -- to err on the side of a broad definition, in order to get a sense of where people in the U.S. are making beer and wine. This broad brushstroke is more important for the purposes of this piece than individual tallies of wineries and breweries. Many thanks to the Post's Ted Mellnik for geocoding the winery data.


Why Martin Luther King Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize is sitting in a safe deposit box

(Toby Massey/AP) The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He also had a traveling Bible, the one that President Obama used when he was sworn in for a second term. Neither of these items is currently in the possession of any of King’s children. Neither of them is on display at the King Center, a memorial and nonprofit in Atlanta, or at any other museum. Instead, they are where they have been for nearly a year: Sitting in a safe deposit box in a bank, hidden from the public, as King’s children continue their latest legal fight. The argument is spilling into a courtroom this week, which could shed some light on who decides what happens to the two items. It comes as the holiday bearing King’s name looms, and also as King’s legacy and works are the subject of “Selma,” an Oscar contender that has been the subject of arguments regarding its depiction of King’s relationship with Lyndon B. Johnson. Dexter Scott King, center, sits with attorneys during the hearing Tuesday. (Kent D. Johnson/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) A hearing Tuesday could decide who should be in possession of the prize and the Bible. Last year, Dexter King and Martin Luther King III, two of his sons, voted that the estate should sell these two items. Bernice, their sister, disagreed. In a statement issued last February, after her brothers filed a court complaint, Bernice said she was “absolutely opposed to the selling of these extremely sacred items.” She went on to say: While I love my brothers dearly, this latest decision by them is extremely troubling. Not only am I appalled and utterly ashamed, I am frankly disappointed that they would even entertain the thought of selling these precious items. It reveals a desperation beyond comprehension. These items are worth quite a bit of money. Appraisers told the Associated Press that the Nobel Prize could go for anywhere from $5 million to $20 million. This would not be the first time some of King’s artifacts have been sold, either. Morehouse College in Atlanta hosts a collection of 10,000 notes, unpublished sermons and other items. The price for this collection was $32 million, according to Morehouse. A judge in Atlanta is hearing a legal battle between the children of the late Martin Luther King Jr. over ownership of his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize medal and


Good news for Romney: The 47 percent are now down to 40 percent

a short paper with his estimate that 47 percent of households do not pay federal income tax. "It's an interesting number. It's not that useful," said Williams, who recalled being introduced as "Mr. 47 Percent" on a cable news show. First, most of those who don't pay income taxes still work and draw a paycheck, so they do pay federal payroll taxes. Between payroll and income taxes, only 23 percent of households paid nothing to the federal government or received a refund. There are several reasons why this group might not be paying federal taxes. They could be students, or they could be retirees, whose Social Security payments are usually not taxed. They could be disabled, or they could be out of work. Or, they could be working, but making almost nothing. The personal exemption and the standard deduction -- two basic provisions of the tax code -- protect the first $26,400 earned by a family of four from taxation so that people without means aren't giving what they have to Uncle Sam. Those who are making more than that might still not pay income tax because of the earned income tax credit, which offers a monetary bonus to workers at tax time as a way of encouraging people to get jobs, and the child tax credit, which helps kids who might otherwise be living in poverty. Many conservatives have championed these provisions in the tax code. The number of people paying no income tax reached such high levels after the financial crisis because many people lost their jobs and because of temporary tax cuts Congress and President Obama enacted to stimulate the economy. Williams predicts the number will continue to decline over time as the economy improves. Not only is this aggregate number falling, but individuals' financial positions are also changing every day. As a result, paying no income tax is probably a temporary condition for most people. They don't pay when they're young and in school, after they've retired, or when they've just been laid off. Some 61 percent of those who claim the earned income tax credit only do so for less than two years. Meanwhile, while many people who are less well-off do not pay federal income and payroll tax, they are still giving up a disproportionate share of their income to federal excise taxes (such as the gas tax) and to state and local taxes.


Mango Tree ‘destined’ to bring upscale Thai to CityCenterDC on Jan. 15

floor-to-ceiling windows. There's another bar on the second floor, which caters to a local custom that the restaurateurs discovered when they came to the area: "In Asia and London, people don't eat at the bar," said MacKenzie. The restaurant will seat 140, and Richard Sandoval, the chef-restaurateur behind Masa 14 and Toro Toro, among other restaurants, is a partner. Chef Paul Kennedy, who comes to D.C. from Mango Tree's restaurants in the Middle East, noted that D.C. has many quality Thai restaurants, but that they didn't have the same ambiance that Mango Tree will offer. "It's all mom and pop," said Kennedy. "We do it high quality, and in good style." (What, is Little Serow not chic enough?) >> Related The restaurant will join a recent resurgence of authentic Asian restaurants in D.C., from Soi 38 to Thip Khao, as opposed to the Americanized fare that used to be prevalent downtown, leaving the good stuff to the suburbs. Kennedy attributes this to ingredient availability, as well as the general public becoming less scared of spice. Mango Tree's spice levels are all over the map, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the menu: Conspicuously absent are the standard little red pepper icons that restaurants often utilize. MacKenzie says he has trained servers to guide guests towards dishes with a spice level that is comfortable for them, and Kennedy says that he's happy to turn down the heat on any dish, "Though I wouldn't recommend it." The Spicy Siam cocktail, with mango juice and rum (Maura Judkis/for The Post) He also hopes to introduce D.C. diners to some dishes that are scarce in the area, like a crispy catfish salad with sour green mango. He re-emphasized his commitment to authentic ingredients: If a dish calls for a rare ingredient, such as green peppercorns, and he's not able to source them, he won't put that dish on the menu. All four of the culinary regions of Thailand are represented equally, and in his ideal world, guests would try a dish from each one. Most of all, he wants go give diners a chance to taste something new. "If four people come into the restaurant and they all order the same dish, it quite annoys me," said Kennedy. "There's no trying different flavors." Take a look at the menu below: Mango Tree D.C Beverage Menu Mango Tree D.C. Dinner Menu Mango Tree


This powerful Reddit thread reveals how the poor get by in America

A customer enters a check-cashing business in Cincinnati, Ohio. (AP/Al Behrman) The poor pay more for everything, from rolls of toilet paper to furniture. It's not because they're spendthrifts, either. If you're denied a checking account, there's no way for you to avoid paying a fee to cash a paycheck. If you need to buy a car to get to work, you'll have to accept whatever higher interest rate you're offered. If you don't have a car, the bus fare might eat up the change you'd save shopping at a larger grocery store as opposed to the local corner store. It's easy to feel that "when you are poor, the 'system' is set up to keep you that way," in the words of one Reddit user, "rugtoad." That comment is at the top of an extraordinary thread full of devastating stories about what it's like to get by with nothing in the United States of 2015. "Growing up really poor means realizing in your twenties that Mommy was lying when she said she already ate," wrote "deviant_devices," another commenter. You can buy only a single pack of paper towels at a time, rather than saving on a bundle of 10, as "Meepshesaid" noted: Comment What do insanely poor people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? You can't pay for health insurance, and instead buy medicine from pet stores, as "colorcoma" writes: I buy "fish" antibiotics online because I can't afford health care. … Amoxicillin and such. Mostly for husband who has Lyme's disease. We can't afford our monthly health care rates. We are 30somethings in the US. Really feel like a "bottom feeder". You can't also buy shoes that will last for more than a few months, according to "DrStephenFalken": I'm making $150- $200 a week and I need new shoes. So I can buy $60 shoes that will last or $15 walmart shoes. So I buy the walmart shoes and some groceries instead of just the $60 shoes and no groceries. Three months later I'll need new shoes again. But I'll also have to pay rent and my light bill is due. So I'll pay the light bill and buy some "shoe glue" for $4 to fix my shoes for another few weeks until I can buy the $15 ones again. Economists have documented the "ghetto tax," as the additional costs of living paid by the poor are


Whole Foods offers ‘John Wall Burger’ and ‘Backstrom Sandwich’

For as long as the Whole Foods in Foggy Bottom continues to offer delicious-looking sandwich specials named after D.C. pro athletes, I will at least consider frequenting the store for a post-work meal. The $3 pints are a nice draw, too. In September, the chain’s Foggy Bottom location offered the Buffalo Ramos Burger, a buffalo meat homage to Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos, whose nickname is “The Buffalo.” Last week, Whole Foods announced the introduction of the John Wall Burger, a beef, turkey or veggie patty topped with candied bacon, fried pickles, cheddar cheese, lettuce, grilled onions and Kentucky Bourbon BBQ sauce. There is a lot to love about the John Wall Burger. First, Wall probably wouldn’t eat it. In November, the Wizards point guard revealed that he hasn’t had a burger in three years. Back when he was still eating burgers, Wall ate them without any toppings. “I get the meat, the bun, that’s it,” Wall told ESPN in 2010. Second, candied bacon. Third, see the second thing. (Scott Allen/The Washington Post) I didn’t eat much on Friday in anticipation of trying the Wall burger and it did not disappoint. My one complaint: the burger could’ve used more of the toppings, especially the candied bacon. Even accounting for my terrible food photography skills, my burger didn’t look much like the burger in the photo above. (Scott Allen/The Washington Post) Wall isn’t the only D.C. sports star with his own sandwich at Whole Foods. Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom has a turkey hoagie named in his honor and it looks quite good. Having @backstrom19 for lunch is kind of weird but delicious! http://t.co/XmmYM0U3io A Whole Foods spokesperson said the John Wall Burger and Backstrom Sandwich will be available at the Foggy Bottom location through next Tuesday.


Reported ammonia leak on the International Space Station proves to be false alarm

told The Post on Wednesday morning. Humphries explained that “we saw an increase in water loop pressure, on the crew cabin pressure, that could be indicative of an ammonia leak in a worst-case scenario.” Although some reports, citing NASA officials, characterized the issue as an ammonia leak, NASA tweeted Wednesday morning that there is "no ammonia leak confirmed." The #Exp42 crew members are safe inside the Russian segment of the #ISS following an alarm in the U.S. segment at about 4 a.m. EST. #ISS flight controllers are not sure if the alarm was triggered by a pressure spike, a faulty sensor, or a problem in a computer relay box. Following safety procedures, the #ISS crew was directed to isolate themselves in the Russian segment while the teams evaluate the situation. This was repeated during an emergency news conference at 7:55 a.m., when NASA representatives said they wished to emphasize that there was "no hard evidence" of a real ammonia leak on the space station. The U.S. crew did indeed don oxygen masks and move into the Russian segment of ISS, shutting down non-essential equipment and shutting the hatch behind them. But as of that news conference, equipment in the U.S. segment was already being turned back on. Flight control teams on the ground will continue to monitor the data from ISS, which they believe is indicative of a perfect storm of sensor errors — not an actual leak of toxic fluid. In any case, NASA representatives said during the live update, they didn't see an rapid change in oxygen levels that would put the crew in danger. Even if there had been some kind of ammonia leak, it would have taken a full day before the U.S. segment of the space station reached any kind of dangerous condition. According to an update from NASA Wednesday afternoon The astronauts stayed out of the U.S. module until their safety was absolutely certain, so their day (which is usually packed with planned experiments from start to finish) was thrown off schedule. But they were never in any danger. And even in the event of a critical toxic leak, NASA reported, all six astronauts could have lived on provisions in the Russian segment of ISS for more than a week. As the situation unfolded in space, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield — now safely on the ground — tweeted some context on what an ammonia


The mysterious polio-like illness that has afflicted more than 100 children

Last September, Melissa Lewis, of Denver, helps her son, Jayden Broadway, 9, his bed at the Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, Colo. He was treated for the enterovirus 68 and released. (Cyrus McCrimmon/Denver Post via AP) Since last summer, public-health officials have been trying to figure out why more than 100 children in dozens of states have suffered from a polio-like weakness in their limbs. And while authorities have not found a direct link to the severe respiratory illness that affected children across the country last year, they are exploring whether that nationwide outbreak may be tied to this mysterious situation. There have been 103 confirmed reports of children who have developed the illness, which is called “acute flaccid myelitis,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These cases, which span 34 states, have almost all led to the hospitalization of the affected children, with some of them put on breathing machines. Last fall, the CDC began testing cases that occurred after Aug. 1. They had tested 88 cases by mid-November and found some possible trends, but the ultimate cause of the illnesses were still unclear. A handful of cases involved children who had been affected by the enterovirus D68 outbreak, but the CDC cautioned that no causal relationship between the illness could be confirmed by that time. There are also other viruses that can cause illnesses with symptoms like the ones currently being seen, the CDC noted. The possible tie to the enterovirus D68 (or EV-D68) outbreak is particularly worrisome, given how widespread this virus became. More than 1,100 people — again, most of them children — have been affected since last August. This number is likely severely underestimating how many were infected, as the CDC says there were presumably “millions” of mild infections in people who did not get tested. The virus was ultimately confirmed in 49 states and the District of Columbia. In September, as the enterovirus outbreak continued, health officials in Colorado explored a cluster of nine children suffering from weakness and paralysis. Some of these children tested positive for the enterovirus. Still, another concern in this latest illness is how many children have not seen any improvement since developing symptoms. Two out of three have said they had some improvement, compared to one in three who showed none. So far, only one child with the illness had fully recovered, the CDC says. Nearly


Patent reform advocates are launching a ‘super-coalition’ to whack patent trolls

have called these businesses "bottom-feeders" that represent a drain on start-ups and innovation. The Federal Trade Commission has punished some trolls — also known as patent assertion entities — for making deceptive and misleading claims in their demand letters. By some estimates, trolls account for an astounding share of patent infringement lawsuits. And last February, more than three dozen state attorneys general wrote a letter to Congress urging them to act against those companies. In the past two years, brick-and-mortar businesses have reported a major uptick in lawsuits from patent trolls, too. Companies such as Home Depot, whose employees use in-store WiFi to communicate with one another and to monitor store shelves, have been sued by patent trolls asserting a claim to patents covering WiFi routers, according to Susan Davies, an intellectual property lawyer who helped draft Congress' last patent bill, the America Invents Act. Davies is a partner at the firm Kirkland & Ellis and will be chief counsel for United for Patent Reform. Other influential voices in Washington are expected to join the coalition in coming weeks. The group has been reaching out to associations representing start-ups and app developers, among others, in a bid to represent a cross-section of the U.S. private sector. Among the groups that may join? The Internet Association, which represents popular companies such as Netflix, reddit and eBay. "The push for patent reform enjoys the support of a broad swath of the economy," said Noah Theran, a spokesman for the Internet Association. "The Internet industry looks forward to working with those who look to put an end to patent trolls once and for all." Analysts have pointed to patent reform as an area where the White House and the new Republican-held Congress are likely to find easy agreement. It's unclear when significant action may take place. Still, the bipartisan nature of the issue reflects the way patent trolls have come to affect nearly all businesses, said Jon Potter, president of the Application Developers' Alliance. "When patent reform was being fought several years ago, it was tech versus pharma," said Potter. "In the last year, it became quite clear … this is no longer a tech-industry issue. It's become much, much broader." Have more to say on this topic? Join us today for our weekly live chat, Switchback. We'll kick things off at 11 a.m. Eastern. You can submit your questions now, right here.


How some well-intentioned Americans trying to save monarch butterflies may actually be hurting them

the study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society by Satterfield, John C. Maerz and Sonia Altizer, all of the University of Georgia. The type of milkweed on which the monarchs rely naturally is a type that deteriorates starting in the fall months, thus providing an incentive for the butterflies to keep moving along their way south. The type most available commercially — and purchased by the backyard conservationists — is known as a tropical milkweed, which “continues to produce new foliage and flowers during the autumn and winter,” the study says. It encourages the monarchs to settle in the southern U.S. rather than continue their journey. In other words, these monarchs, like people, are getting sedentary. And sedentary butterflies, like sedentary Americans, are vulnerable. The researchers conducted tests on some of these sedentary butterflies and found that “diminished migration increases infection risk” among them, specifically infection with a protozoan parasite called Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE), which does the most horrible things. Adult monarchs infected with OE wind up covered with spores, which they scatter onto eggs or the milkweed, to be ingested by the larvae while feeding. The result, say the researchers, are “wing deformities, smaller body size, reduced flight performance and shorter adult lifespan.” In the natural world of survival of the fittest, these butterflies would be unfit, unable to migrate or reproduce. The weakest would be culled. In the artificial world where they are fed by humans, that doesn’t happen. As Science Magazine explained it: Migrating ‘weeds out some of the sick monarchs every year,’ preventing them from passing the parasite along to their offspring. What’s more, it gives the monarchs a chance to leave behind contaminated milkweed plants, which then die off during the winter. When the butterflies return in the spring “they start over fresh” with new, clean milkweed, Satterfield says. But if the monarchs aren’t migrating, and the tropical milkweed isn’t dying off, OE never goes away. “The widespread decline of migratory monarchs in North America has been widely publicized,” the authors write, “with most attention focused on habitat loss as a major cause. Shifts towards year-round breeding on tropical milkweed, resulting in high rates of OE infection, could pose an additional emerging threat to the long-term viability of migratory monarchs.” “Our results,” they report, “add to a growing number of studies that show migratory species worldwide are shifting the timing and spatial patterns


D.C. area forecast: Mainly sunny skies hold through Saturday, showers likely Sunday

Update at 11:45 a.m.: TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 5/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL Satellite: Latest regional satellite shows movement of clouds over the past two hours. Seasonable weather is not very exciting but that is what we’re stuck with for the next couple of days. An otherwise solid holiday weekend looks like it will be blemished by a rain event on Sunday which could end with a few wet snowflakes at night. For sky-gazers, clouds may arrive soon enough to interfere with a unique sight of Saturn perched atop the crescent moon in the predawn Sunday sky. Monday sees the clouds scurry away but pushed out by winds strong enough to make the indoors attractive. Today (Thursday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Friday): Tomorrow night: The Tidal Basin on Tuesday. (Angela Pan via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Saturday Sunday Martin Luther King Day (Monday) SNOW POTENTIAL INDEX 1/10 (↓):


Bone broth, butter and meat have a place on Halsa’s health-focused menu

Halsa’s bone broth, top, is made with pork or beef bones steeped in water and spices for two days. It’s garnished with jalapenos and seasonal greens. Yes, Halsa has an item on its menu called bone broth. And no, it’s not just stock with a more expensive price tag. According to Halsa founder Emily Gaines, the beverage (which is guzzled like Gatorade by meat-happy paleo dieters) requires more bones to cook for a longer amount of time, making the liquid extra rich in collagen, iron, magnesium and calcium. Good for you and delicious? That’s Halsa’s thing. The new health-focused, fast-casual restaurant now open in Brookland aims to fill what Gaines and Halsa’s creative director, Laura Poladsky, saw as a void in D.C. “You don’t have to eat a salad to be healthy,” Poladsky says. “Our menu is based off of eating locally and organically.” Gaines and Poladsky met — wait for it — at the Dupont Circle farmers market, where they discovered a shared passion for conscious eating. Three years later, Halsa was born. Build your market plate by selecting a protein, grain, side and green. Don’t expect bland granola bars or tepid tofu: The kitchen is run by chef Cody Penton, a former roommate of Poladsky’s who isn’t afraid to use a little (grass-fed) butter, and who believes that combining mindful preparation techniques (steaming, light sauteing) with in-season produce and organically raised meats yields satisfying results. “There’s a lot that goes into it to keep it simple,” says Penton, who makes his chicken sausage from a whole bird and stocks his kitchen with items like kale hearts, quinoa, rainbow chard and kelp noodles. Among things you won’t find in the kitchen: refined sugar, GMO produce, poultry that’s been caged, store-bought extracts and anything with chemicals in it. “We’re challenging customers to get in touch with their body,” Gaines says. “Everyone comes from different places and different activity levels, but we have something for everyone.” Indeed, many of the menu items hit all the major dietary restrictions (gluten-free, vegetarian, paleo, vegan), and even pastry chef Melissa Beazer’s apple pie is raw. And don’t forget to check out the “lifestyle wall” near the register, which is covered with all-natural beauty products, reusable water bottles and health-conscious cookbooks. 655 Michigan Ave. NE; 202-832-1131, eathalsa.com. You may also like: Fruitcycle spins excess produce into healthy snacks National Geographic’s “Food: Our Global Kitchen” urges


READ IN: Glitter Bomb Edition

cut for families making between $21,000 and $75,000 a year, a cut that will cost the state $33.7 million in fiscal 2016 and $102 million in fiscal 2017. (Arkansas News) -- Virginia: Federal officials are investigating the theft of more than $600,000 from Senate Minority Leader Richard Saslaw's (D) campaign account. Saslaw said the FBI told him in September that more than 70 unauthorized checks had been written from the account between 2013 and 2014. The FBI has a suspect, though neither prosecutors nor Saslaw would say who it is. (Washington Post) Jailed Del. Joseph Morrissey (I) was sworn back into office Wednesday morning after winning a special election on Tuesday. House leaders are still considering how to discipline him. (Washington Post) DC Digest: -- President Obama heads to Baltimore today to meet with the Senate Democratic Caucus, which is holding its retreat near Camden Yards. Tonight, British Prime Minister David Cameron is in town, and Obama's hosting him for a working dinner in the Blue Room. -- Vice President Biden visits Norfolk State University with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz for a roundtable discussion on cybersecurity job training. Tonight, he'll have dinner with President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron. And tomorrow he's got a tour of the Anacostia River Tunnel Project in Southeast D.C. on the books. -- The House and Senate are out today as both sides retreat. Republicans are up in Hershey, Pa. -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is likely to return to the Capitol next week as he recuperates from injuries related to an exercise accident. Aides said he'll have permission from his doctors before he returns. (Las Vegas Review Journal) B1: -- Book your hotel rooms: The Republican National Convention will be held in Cleveland the week of July 18, 2016, the party announced Wednesday. That's about a month earlier than the recent trend. (CNN) Why not June? Well, NBA finals are still happening in June, and Cleveland is King James's city now. -- Samsung has offered to buy BlackBerry Ltd. for as much as $7.5 billion, mainly for its patents. BlackBerry has rejected several recent acquisition bids, and the Canadian government has hinted that a sale to China's Lenovo Group would be rejected over security concerns. BlackBerry and Samsung agreed to a security partnership in November. (Reuters) -- Stock futures are mixed this morning, though the Dow and S&P are in positive territory, after


Update: DC Ferguson protest winding down in Northwest Washington

Updated post at 8:41 a.m. D.C. police said protesters are heading in different directions in the 600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and all traffic is now open. Traffic Advisory Update: Demonstrators are dispersing in the 600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, NW at this time. ALL TRAFFIC IS NOW OPEN Updated post at 8:13 a.m. D.C. police said protesters are marching east on F Street NW from 12th Street NW with rolling street closures. Authorities said the protesters are peaceful. G and 12th now #DCFerguson #Ferguson #ShutitDown #ThinkMoor http://t.co/PTN4sbpiWA Blocked cars honk as #DCFerguson protesters stop and shout "Justice for Michael Brown, Racist cops shut 'em down." http://t.co/tRwnomxT5f Small but hearty band of #DCFerguson protestors at 9th and H annoying commuters. http://t.co/To09SifhH1 #BlackLivesMatter knows who owns the streets - the People! We #ReclaimMLK to end institutional #racism! #weactradio http://t.co/dGoTD6hkhS Original post at 7:13 a.m. Commuters: Be prepared for possible traffic delays in downtown Washington on Thursday morning. DC Ferguson protesters scheduled a rally at 7 a.m. against “stop and frisk” practices in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The protest will begin at Mount Vernon Square Park. Protesters could stop traffic throughout Northwest Washington. Tomorrow morning, 7AM, we march! See you in the streets! #DCFerguson #Ferguson #BlackLivesMatter #WashingtonDC http://t.co/SvF5HK6QlY


What do the academy and the military have in common?

Maj. Wayne Lacy describes himself as a libertarian but said he has seen some of his fellow soldiers gravitate away from the Republican Party line and toward tea party candidates. So, even as active-duty personnel grow increasingly disillusioned with the GOP, they are still far more conservative than the rest of America. Inevitably, this has had an effect on support inside the military for President Obama: [O]ne thing is clear: [President Obama] is a deeper unpopular commander in chief among the troops. According to a Military Times survey of almost 2,300 active-duty service members, Obama’s popularity — never high to begin with — has crumbled, falling from 35 percent in 2009 to just 15 percent this year, while his disapproval ratings have increased to 55 percent from 40 percent over that time. So is this lack of support for the current commander-in-chief a problem? Nah, not really. First of all, there have been no widely reported instances of soldiers disrespecting the president (psst… NYPD members… take note). Second of all, the military has implemented the Obama administration’s edicts on gays in the military, women serving in combat, and more training designed to reduce sexual assaults. And as the Military Times story suggests, the polled service members have grown more accepting (to varying degrees) of each of these concepts during Obama’s time in office. In other words, even if members of the U.S. armed forces do not like Obama, they are accepting and implementing his policies. This is what a profession does Indeed, Pheobe Maltz-Bovy’s profile of Very Lefty Professor Corey Robin in Tablet makes this point plain. The profile details Robin’s political views and adroit use of social media at length, but buried in the profile is this tidbit: One line he keeps strict, however, is between his anti-Zionist activism and his teaching. On his blog, he chastises an unnamed male reporter for finding it hard to believe that the topic would never come up and for “not understanding the difference between what we do inside the classroom and what we do outside the classroom.” …. For Robin, academic activity and world-at-large activism are deeply linked, but he insists that the classroom is not the place for a professor—or, at least, for him—to express him- or herself politically. Robin’s views on the divide between what goes inside and outside the classroom is a common one in the academy. Because academics


How to write an Oscar-nominated movie, 2015 edition

you were talking, I quietly won World War II all by myself using just the power of a man’s genius. The key was crossword puzzles. Close-up on a crossword puzzle where Dick has written out an equation. It has lots of squiggles in it, so it is probably important. DICK’S SEXY LADY COWORKER LORRAINE Yay! INT. DICK’S APARTMENT – NIGHT Dick stares at himself in the bathroom mirror. He wrinkles his forehead. He puts on his Acting Nose and gazes thoughtfully at his picture of Channing Tatum for a long time. DICK (in a whisper) Don’t worry. I will never act on these feelings. DICK’S MOTHER’S GHOST suddenly appears in the mirror. DICK’S MOTHER’S GHOST You’d better not. When men act on feelings like this in a movie, the Academy award goes to “Crash.” INT. DICK’S OFFICE – NEXT DAY Today at Dick’s Office it is no longer World War II. Now it is the Civil Rights movement. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JOHN LEWIS and ANNIE LEE COOPER are there sitting at a table. There is a big blackboard and Martin Luther King is writing on it in chalk. So far he has written “Freedom? But how? When?” and “Does LBJ have any good ideas?” Dick walks in and everyone in the room stands up. MARTIN LUTHER KING Dick! Thank heavens you’ve come! We need to solve Civil Rights. DICK Don’t worry, Martin. That’s why I’m here. DICK walks over to the blackboard, erases what MLK has written, and writes a single equation. Everyone gasps. ANNIE LEE COOPER Wow. It must be so easy to be a genius like you. A single tear rolls down Dick’s cheek. DICK No. Being a genius like me is hard. BRAD PITT enters and smiles. INT. DICK’S APARTMENT – EVENING Dick is in the bathroom putting on his Acting Nose again when he hears a knock at the door. It is LORRAINE, his coworker from earlier. She looks dazed. The camera lingers on her pale, lovely face, which is a little weathered (BUT JUST A LITTLE, DON’T GO CRAZY) and looks tired, but is still so, so beautiful. LORRAINE I just went hiking and now I don’t remember who I am. DICK I will tell you. LORRAINE It is possible that I raised a child on my own. DICK It’s fine. I’m here now. Dick glances longingly at his picture of Channing Tatum but does


D.C.: National hotbed of Belgian, Ethiopian and French food

Chickens are charcoal broiled at Chicken Rico, part of a small Maryland chain of Peruvian pollo restaurants. Its rotisserie chicken recipe can be traced back to Peru, where co-owner Mirian Giordano-Sanchez’s mother ran a pollo a la brasa restaurant for decades. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) When you think Maryland, do you think Peruvian food and cheesesteaks? Does Virginia seem like a more likely place than elsewhere to fill up on Pakistani cuisine? The Huffington Post put together a neat map of the country showing which sort of restaurants pop up with more frequency in each state. The top cuisine in both Maryland and Virginia is Peruvian food — which doesn’t mean that there are more Peruvian restaurants than any other type of restaurant in the states. It just means that, proportionally, there are more Peruvian joints in the area than in the nation as a whole. There are 162 percent more Peruvian places in Virginia than the national average, and 200 percent more than average in Maryland, to be precise. Virginia also has about 67 percent more restaurants categorized by Yelp as Pakistani, Middle Eastern and Latin than the national average. And it has 104 percent more Southern restaurants — put to shame by Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee (in other words, the entire rest of the South), which all have even higher proportions of Southern restaurants. Cheesesteaks are 121 percent more likely to turn up in Maryland than the average state, though of course they’re even more likely (260 percent above average) in Pennsylvania. Maryland is also a leader in Caribbean, Latin and Pakistani food. The mapmakers kindly remembered to include D.C., but it’s not quite fair to compare our city to the 50 states. Yes, we’re insanely ahead in numerous cuisines — we have 1,711 percent more Belgian restaurants, 1,560 percent more Ethiopian restaurants, 555 percent more African restaurants, 332 percent more food stands (not to mention trucks!) and 250 percent more French restaurants. But if D.C. were compared to other major cities, rather than the nation at large, we suspect we wouldn’t post quite such high numbers. Check out the rest of the map for some other facts. Some aren’t surprising, like Cuban food in Florida and Cajun in Louisiana. But who knew that if you want Hawaiian food outside of Hawaii, you ought to head to Utah?