Going Out Guide

THU 14 U.S. Navy Concert Band This is the opening concert of the National Trumpet Competition. With Chuck Lazarus, Vince DiMartino, Joey Tartell and Tromba Mundi. 1:30 p.m. George Mason University, Center for the Arts Concert Hall, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax. 703-993-8888. cfa.gmu.edu. Free. Russkie Musikanti Ensemble Tom Paxton FRI 15 “Emerging Visions: Voices” “Exit Stage Death” Chatham Baroque The Pittsburgh-based musicians, Andrew Fouts, Patricia Halverson and Scott Pauley will perform baroque music by Bach, Dieterich Buxtehude, Heinrich Biber and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. 8 p.m. The Barns at Wolf Trap, 1635 Trap Rd., Vienna. 703-938-2404. www.wolftrap.org. $35. SAT 16 Classical FX Soprano Denise Gulley, mezzo-soprano Terri Erchul Malone, tenor Tim Augustin and bass-baritone Matthew J. Minorperform solo, duo and quartet selections, including Broadway tunes, folk music, spirituals and classical opera. 3 p.m. Kirkwood Presbyterian Church, 8336 Carrleigh Pkwy., Springfield. 703-451-5320. www.kirkwoodpres.com . Free. Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver The band has been performing bluegrass and gospel music since 1979, with more than 35 albums to its credit. In 2012, Doyle Lawson was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame and the band received an Inspirational Country Music award for band of the year. 3 and 7 p.m. Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 1090 Sterling Rd., Herndon. 423-878-6160. www.doylelawson.com. $20, age 12 and younger free. Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers Almost Queen Fairfax Symphony Orchestra Modern Dance Concert Manassas Chorale and the Voices United Choir Vienna Choral Society concert SUN 17 Persian New Year Celebration Danu Bill Emerson Sweet Dixie Natalie MacMaster MON 18 “Penguins March Outhouses Race” KMFDM TUE 19 Mint Condition This R&B funk band, which originated in Minnesota more than 20 years ago, performed at the BET Awards in February. Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. 703-549-7500. www.birchmere.com. $55. WED 20 Anuhea — Compiled by Jean Mack from staff reports Classical FX Mezzo-soprano Terri Erchul Malone, bass-baritone Matthew J. Minor, soprano Denise Gulley and tenor Tim Augustin perform solo, duo and quartet selections, including Broadway tunes, folk music, spirituals and classical opera. Saturday at 3 p.m. Kirkwood Presbyterian Church, 8336 Carrleigh Pkwy., Springfield. 703-451-5320. www.kirkwoodpres.com. Free.


The sequester’s effects, near and far

The March 11 front-page article “At Yellowstone, a geyser of discontent” said that the sequestration budget cuts “inflamed the area’s anti-government sentiment as small, rural communities absorb the reality of the cuts.” Apparently having the National Park Service clear snow and ice from Montana and Wyoming highways outside the park’s boundaries isn’t the kind of government they oppose. Ironically, these same anti-government communities are convening emergency meetings to figure out how to get the federal government, the one they don’t like, to continue to provide federal services. Washington is clearly not understanding the anti-government message: Cut someone else’s services! Patrick Dozier, Washington ● The Post reported that a delay in plowing snow at Yellowstone National Park, owing to sequester cuts, would save $250,000 but deter 50,000 visitors. The article discussed ways to avoid these expenses, including inviting the neighboring states to plow inside the park. Why not charge the 50,000 early-spring visitors a $5 snowplow fee? That would raise the needed $250,000 and allow the 50,000 to visit the park. Considering Yellowstone’s appeal and the other expenses of visiting the park, $5 isn’t too much to ask. Fred Williams, Washington ● In his March 9 Free for All letter, Richard Williams said that a March 1 front-page article on the sequester’s potential negative effects showed that people in the D.C. area need a “dose of reality.” He cited as proof of our unreal worldview one federal employee’s intended cutbacks when the furloughs hit: forgoing a $5,000 home-improvement job and doing without his “doggie day care provider.” Most people would probably agree that neither of these expenditures is as essential as buying food or paying the mortgage. But what about the carpenter who would have been hired for the $5,000 job? Sounds like a couple weeks of unemployment instead. What about the family that owns the pet-care service? Sounds like a big drop in business if federal employees stop bringing in their dogs. Is this the “dose of reality” we need: more unemployment and failed small businesses? Kurt Schroeder, Lovettsville


In a hurry to finish high school, but will parents allow it?

with my life. How can I convince them that these aren’t the best years of my life? Want to Move On You don’t “think” they’ll let you. I see the same trail of bread crumbs you’re seeing, but that’s still not the same thing as knowing how your parents will respond. That’s Point 1. Point 2, you have a guidance counselor who knows at least the outline of your situation. Any chance you can fill in some details and get more guidance on the parent-management side? Point 3, what about a gap year? That walks the line between what you want — the heck outta — and what they want — to make sure you don’t exit your youth prematurely. The guidance counselor might be a resource here, and creativity can minimize the costs. Point 4, one of the most powerful tools of persuasion is to understand and acknowledge your parents’ concerns. If you approach it by dismissing each of their points, then you’re just playing into a perception that you’re too young to know what’s best. If you say, “I understand, you’re afraid I’ll look back someday and wonder why I was in such a rush to stop being a kid. And you might be right about that — I won’t pretend I can see the future. The thing is, though, I’m not enjoying being a kid at this time at this school, and I’m hoping you’ll help me find a way to finish out these years that suits me — even if it’s not what you’ve had in mind.” If you set up a great “business plan,” present it to your parents calmly and humbly, and yet they are unmoved by it, then one option is to request that they let you satisfy the graduation requirements anyway and still remain for your senior year (if it’s possible to do that). That way, you’d have the academic flexibility to take at least some college courses as a senior. I’ll cross my fingers for you. I’m a believer in education by association — as in, what you learn from immersion in campus life — but I also get that it’s not always guaranteed, practical or suited to every life. Write to Carolyn Hax , Style, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071, or tellme@washpost.com. Sign up for Carolyn Hax’s column, delivered to your inbox early each morning, at http://bit.ly/haxpost .


Prince George’s County Animal Watch

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY These were among cases received recently by the Prince George’s County Animal Management Division. Call 301-780-7200 for directions to the county animal shelter, hours of operation and adoption and licensing procedures. The department’s Web site is www.princegeorgespets4us.com. Police report stray Rottweiler: Lab at leasing office: Stray cat reported: Barking dog: Upper Marlboro low-cost animal clinic: Annapolis adoption showcase: The Prince George’s County SPCA/Humane Society is sponsoring cat and dog adoptions from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at Petco, 2319-D Forest Dr., Annapolis. The pets’ foster owners will answer questions and accept adoption applications for the animals. Adoption fees are $75 for cats, $180 for dogs. For information, call 301-262-5625 or visit www.pgspca.org. — Compiled by Jillian S. Sowah


Is Ireland an economic example or exception for the euro zone?

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny delivers a speech at the London School of Economics in London on March 11, 2013. (Andrew Winning/Reuters) In Europe’s grand battle over growth vs. austerity, has Ireland proved that austerity works? The country successfully sold longer-term government bonds Wednesday, a sign that international investors regard its rebound as durable and that it will end its reliance on an international bailout program later this year. It would be the first euro-zone country to achieve that milestone. The economy is growing — slowly — despite a regional recession. Employment and foreign investment are rising. Even as other European nations have considered slowing their drive to balance budgets so governments could borrow and spend more, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has said the country will meet its promised European deficit targets in the next two years. In a telephone interview from Dublin, Kenny said the euro zone had been too often damaged by unmet goals for him to back off now. “You call it austerity in one country, fiscal discipline in another, the consequences are still challenging,” Kenny said. In talks with international investors after taking office in 2011, he said the message was clear: Money would return when conditions in Europe became predictable again. “They said what we need from people is clarity and decisiveness and a horizon against which to plan,” said Kenny, who visits the United States next week for St. Patrick’s Day in New York and talks with President Obama. “We went over the edge because of incompetence. We have tried to rectify that. It is working.” Ireland’s sale Wednesday of roughly $6.5 billion in 10-year bonds is noteworthy for several reasons: The decade-long term means investors are reasonably confident the euro zone will stay intact and Ireland will remain part of it. The interest rate of 4.1 percent means the country is considered a better credit risk than much larger nations such as Italy and Spain. But it is not clear whether Ireland stands as an example for the rest of Europe or stands as an exception, an island nation that fell into and climbed out of crisis through a particular set of circumstances. Unlike the other bailout nations of Greece and Portugal, Ireland’s public debt was at a healthy level before a collapse in its banking system led Kenny’s predecessor to promise a rescue — and bankrupt the country paying for it.


Military rethinking leads to some hard choices

The sequester may turn out to be a good thing, at least when it comes to some Pentagon programs. It is forcing the military services to make hard choices they have avoided even thinking about while the money freely flowed to the Defense Department. The United States was at war and whatever programs the services called necessary got funded, with few questions and little oversight. Pentagon spending on the Afghan and Iraq wars totaled about $1.3 trillion, while an additional $5.2 trillion paid for Defense’s “base budget.” In 2001, the base budget was supposed to support two wars, but the George W. Bush White House set up supplemental appropriations for the fighting, a practice followed when President Obama took office. Still, the base budget rose about $10 billion or more most years from 2002 to 2012. Billions of dollars were wasted on unsuccessful procurement programs and other overruns for ships, aircraft and other weapons systems, and space vehicles. And some good programs were begun, costing tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars that produced marginal results or are now just unaffordable. Military rethinking about some personnel and family-related programs came up Wednesday at a hearing before a House Armed Services sub-committee on military personnel. The topic: fiscal 2013 continuing resolution and sequestration. Take the military services’ program to offer tuition assistance to active service and National Guard personnel for courses during off-duty hours. On March 5, Defense Comptroller Robert Hale asked the services to “consider significant reductions in funding new tuition assistance applicants . . . for the duration of the current fiscal situation.” With more than $500 million a year, the Army, Air Force and Marines, plus the National Guard, pay tuition of up to $250 a semester hour, and up to $4,500 a year for an individual’s off-duty studies. The Navy limit is $4,000. It’s been a popular program Army Lt. Gen. Howard B. Bromberg told the panel his service had stopped new applications, having spent $200 million so far in fiscal 2013. The Army had $383 million budgeted. In the future, Bromberg added, “I think we can probably take at least $115 million in savings in this program and still turn some back on, but probably not to the same extent that we have it today.” Lt. Gen. Darrell D. Jones, Air Force deputy chief of staff for manpower, said the service had about 115,000 participants.


Music review: Trio Con Brio Copenhagen at Nordic Cool festival

Trio con Brio Copenhagen. Cellist Mathias Beyer-Karlhoj (not pictured) is replacing Soo-Kyung Hong (right) on this tour. Hong is in Copenhagen, expecting her and pianist Jens Elvekjaer's (center) first child. (Nikolaj Lund/Nikolaj Lund) Glowing reports hold true. The Trio Con Brio Copenhagen clearly occupies a lofty perch in today’s musical scene. On Tuesday, the ensemble (violinist Soo-Jin Hong, cellist Mathias Beyer-Karlshoj and pianist Jens Elvekjaer) helped skyrocket the Kennedy Center’s Nordic Cool festival toward its Sunday finish line with a concert of exquisitely wrought music at the center’s Terrace Theater. Ravel’s ravishing Piano Trio followed a pair of evocative, fantasy-propelled works by Denmark’s Bent Sorensen and Per Norgard. Mendelssohn’s compelling Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 66, capped the evening. The Nordic works were beautifully done. Sorensen’s “Phantasmagoria,” from 2007, wends an ambiguous way through textures of fleeting melodic motives, each instantly giving way to another in its microsecond of existence. Norgard based his “Three Fragments (After a Dream)” on an “infinity row,” creating a mathematical structure inherited from the 12-tone system. Composed last year, the piece consists of cascading fragments as soft as the tread of cat paws. The Copenhagen musicians ventured through these scores with airily skimmed piano keys matched by fleet, shimmering bows. The trio missed not a shade of Ravel’s multicolored exoticism — based on melodic ideas drawn from his Basque inheritance and touching on Asian scale systems. The musicians were totally in contact with one another, making their passionate fury even more intense and moments of shimmering playfulness all the more ebullient. Whether in its splashes of gentle lyricism or in its fiery energy, Mendelssohn’s Op. 66 is a close relative of his “Songs Without Words” for piano; the Copenhageners captured these contrasting moods with meticulous technique, sweetness of tone and sensitive engagement. Porter is a freelance writer. The Northern Lights and ice instruments are part of the month-long festival celebrating Nordic culture.


Kenneth Pasmanick, bassonist

Kenneth Pasmanick, 88, a former principal bassoonist at the National Symphony Orchestra who played with the orchestra for 50 years, died March 6 at the Washington Home hospice in the District. He had a subdural hematoma suffered in an accidental fall, said his son, Philip Pasmanick. Mr. Pasmanick retired from the NSO after the 1996-97 season. During his career, he also had played in concert series at the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, Washington National Cathedral, the National Gallery of Art and the Washington Opera Society. In many summers, he played bassoon and saxophone in orchestras at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre in the District. As a young man, he performed in New York with jazz musicians such as Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, his family said. Kenneth Pasmanick was born in Rochester, N.Y., where he attended the Eastman School of Music. During World War II, he played in an Army band. He attended the Juilliard music school in New York City, but he left before graduating to join the NSO in 1947. He later received a degree from American University. He taught music at universities and institutes in the Washington-Baltimore area and also gave private music lessons. In summers during the 1960s, he coached the woodwinds sections and played with the national symphonies of El Salvador and Costa Rica. Survivors include his wife, whom he married in 1946, Frances Cohen Pasmanick of Washington; two children, Philip Pasmanick of San Francisco and Anne Pasmanick of Washington; and three granddaughters. — Bart Barnes


Greek businessman cited in scheme to sell Iranian oil, defying sanctions

The Obama administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Greek shipping magnate accused of secretly helping Iran sell its petroleum in defiance of international restrictions on Iranian oil exports. The Treasury Department identified Dimitris Cambis, owner of a Greek shipping company, as a central figure in a scheme that allegedly enabled Iran to disguise its oil to evade international sanctions and an oil embargo. U.S. officials said Cambis and his businesses purchased at least eight oil tankers on Iran’s behalf, filled them with Iranian oil and sold the crude to international customers who were unaware of its origins. Some of the oil was transferred ship to ship in open seas, in tankers that carry up to $200 million worth of crude at a time, the officials said. “Today we are lifting the veil on an intricate Iranian scheme that was designed to evade international oil sanctions,” said David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. Cohen said the administration would “continue to expose deceptive Iranian practices and to sanction those individuals and entities who participate in these schemes.” A phone message requesting comment from Cambis’s Athens office was not returned. In recent interviews, Cambis has acknowledged expanding his oil-shipping business but denied that he was working with Iran. In an interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday, Cambis dismissed the U.S. allegations as “very bad rumors created by our competitors because we are trying to take market share.” A senior Obama administration official familiar with the scheme said Cambis essentially went to work for one of Iran’s largest oil companies. The scheme “was designed to hide the fact that the tankers were property of the Iranian government,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation. “This was a major, not a marginal, step in enforcing our sanctions,” said the official, who added that the punitive measures would not affect the Greek government, which had a “great partnership” with the United States in the international effort to isolate Iran. Iran, which has seen its oil exports cut in half since the imposition of harsh sanctions last summer, is known to have employed a variety of schemes to circumvent the measures. Last year, international regulators reported that Iran was turning off the navigational transponders on some of its oil tankers at sea, making them harder to track as they search for customers in


Saving Yellowstone from the sequester

I appreciated The Post’s March 11 front-page article “At It should shock no one that the decisions park officials must make as a result of diminished funds are difficult and have unpleasant effects. As someone who managed several national parks, I can tell you that cuts halfway through the fiscal year are, in practical terms, more like a 10 percent decrease than one of 5 percent. And they come on top of a $600 million annual shortfall and the erosion of funding in recent years. Any businessperson knows that midyear, across-the-board budget cuts are more difficult to make than are those you can plan for a year out. Instead of complaining about the decisions that park managers have to make because Congress failed to do its job, Wyoming’s congressional delegation and the rest of Congress should provide the predictable funding that park managers need to do theirs. Maureen Finnerty, Haymarket The writer is chair of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.


Marcel J. Aucremanne, telescope specialist

Marcel J. Aucremanne, 89, NASA’s study manager for the Large Space Telescope, died Feb. 16 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital after suffering a heart attack at his home in Rockville. His daughter Jeanne Washburn confirmed his death. Mr. Aucremanne joined NASA in 1959 and retired in 1980. His work included spacecraft telemetry systems, and geophysics and astronomy programs. The Large Space Telescope on which he worked became the Hubble Space Telescope. After his retirement, he was chief of the forecast analysis section of Bendix Field Engineering until 1986. Marcel John Aucremanne was born in Clarksburg, W.Va. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1944, served in the Navy during World War II and received a master’s degree in electrical engineering, also from Notre Dame, in 1948. Mr. Aucremanne worked at Sylvania Electric Products in New York before moving to the Washington area and joining the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in 1951. His memberships included St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Rockville, where he was an usher and member of the Holy Name Society. He also held leadership positions with the Knights of Columbus. His wife of 63 years, Marcelline Coyne Aucremanne, died in 2008. Survivors include three children, Jeanne Washburn of University Park, Marcella Hickey of Gaithersburg and Marie T. Valentine of Dublin, Ohio; two brothers, Albert C. Aucremanne of Rockville and Joseph F. Aucremanne of Clarksburg; seven grandchildren; and 10-great grandchildren. — Bart Barnes


Local digest

MARYLAND Child dies after being hit by truck A 1-year-old boy was fatally injured and his father was seriously hurt Thursday evening when they were struck by a vehicle that ran onto the sidewalk along St. Barnabas Road in the Marlow Heights area, a Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department spokesman said. The child died later at a hospital. The father probably suffered broken legs, department spokesman Mark Brady said. Brady said the boy’s mother also was taken to the hospital because she was in shock after the incident, but she was not struck. The crash occurred about 5 p.m. in the 5100 block of St. Barnabas Road, Brady said. Brady said witnesses told firefighters that a vehicle moving “at a high rate of speed” on St. Barnabas Road swerved to avoid traffic that had stopped in front of it, and in doing so, went onto the sidewalk and struck the boy and his father. Cpl. Maria McKinney, a Prince George’s police spokesman, confirmed that account, saying the driver of a blue pickup truck ran off the road and struck the pair. She added that the child was in a stroller. McKinney said it was “too early to tell” whether speed or alcohol played a role in the crash. She said the driver remained on the scene and was cooperating with authorities. — Matt Zapotosky VIRGINIA Teenage driver injures three girls A teenage driver struck and injured three girls Thursday evening as she took a driving lesson from a parent in Ashburn, Loudoun County Sheriff’s officials said. The girls were hospitalized after the accident on Morven Woods Court about 6:45 p.m., said Liz Mills, a spokeswoman. The teen driver mistakenly accelerated the vehicle, which jumped a curb and struck the girls as they played on the sidewalk, Mills said. A 7-year-old girl was flown to Inova Fairfax Hospital in critical but stable condition, Mills said. An 8-year-old and a 10-year-old were taken to Inova Landsdowne Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. THE DISTRICT UDC announces interim president The University of the District of Columbia, in the midst of leadership turnover, has named a veteran administrator to be the interim replacement for a president it fired in December. James Earl Lyons Sr. will take over at UDC on Wednesday, the Board of Trustees announced. Board Chairwoman Elaine Crider said Lyons has “an impressive academic history” as past president of three universities: Bowie State in


Japan’s possible entry to trade talks sparks opposition in Congress

and businesses for decades,” the letter stated. “These long-standing, economically harmful practices are not susceptible to cursory negotiation at this stage.” The administration hopes to complete the TPP talks this year. Abe has set an ambitious agenda to buoy the nation’s economy, and some top Japanese analysts argue that a free-trade pact with the United States and other nations could be an important element in that. It could also guarantee Japan access to U.S. energy exports to help temper its rising power costs. His decision to join the talks raised protests from farmers who have long enjoyed protected status in Japan. “What we really should fear is doing nothing,” Abe said in his announcement, according to an Associated Press report. “We are standing just at the entrance. I promise you that we will guard our sovereignty as we pursue our national benefit through these negotiations.” The Obama administration has its own ambitions for the TPP to help expand the U.S. economic presence in Asia and serve as a counter to China. In that regard, the addition of the world’s third-largest economy would magnify the economic and political importance of the pact. But as the letter from Congress demonstrates, it will also make the negotiations and the approval of any treaty that much more complicated. Many of the nations involved in the TPP already have free-trade pacts with the United States, including Canada, Mexico, Australia, Singapore and Peru. But the presence of Vietnam and Malaysia at the table has unnerved some labor and civil society groups that think any agreement could mean more U.S. jobs moving overseas to lower-wage countries. Japan will add a whole new dimension as the United States discusses eliminating trade barriers with a nation whose technical and industrial acumen matches its own. U.S. officials argue that a true economic opening between the nations would provide a massive benefit for U.S. manufacturers, agribusiness, financial companies and others. As it stands, Japan’s roughly $70 billion a year trade surplus with the United States is second only to China’s. Trade advocates and skeptics are already squaring off over the initial results from a now year-old trade deal with South Korea, another industrial giant. Exports of many U.S. products, including autos, have risen since the agreement took effect. But the overall U.S. trade deficit with South Korea has grown, and the boost in autos comes on top of a minuscule base.


Dispute over high-risk prisoners threatens to disrupt U.S.-Afghan talks

A dispute over the fate of about three dozen militants held by U.S. forces in Afghanistan has disrupted negotiations over a long-term security agreement to leave U.S. troops in the country after 2014. The United States has refused to turn over the prisoners — deemed especially dangerous compared with more than 3,000 already transferred to Afghan control — unless President Hamid Karzai guarantees they will not be released. He has so far declined. As tensions have risen in recent days, Karzai has accused the United States of breaking an agreement on the transfers. On Tuesday, he warned that his government might move to take over the U.S.-supervised prison at Bagram air base where they are held. During a visit last weekend by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Karzai accused the United States of torturing Afghan civilians and colluding with the Taliban to prolong the war. The U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., ordered American troops to intensify security measures on Wednesday out of concern that Karzai’s statements are creating a greater risk of attack from rogue Afghan security forces and insurgents. The Obama administration considers the detainee problem a short-term disagreement unrelated to the strategic negotiations on Afghanistan’s future security. But Karzai has linked the two issues, drawing a direct line between U.S. acceptance of Afghanistan’s legal sovereignty and the U.S. demand that Afghanistan grant legal immunity to American troops within its borders after the 2014 withdrawal. Photographers document everyday life in Afghanistan as coalition forces prepare for their 2014 departure. Aimal Faizi, a spokesman for Karzai, said the “lack of trust” that the United States has exhibited over the prisoners and other matters “certainly will have a negative impact on the bilateral security agreement.” U.S. officials agree that a stalemate has been reached. “But we’re not sure whether we have a systemic walkback or just a technical issue that we have not moved to resolution quickly enough,” a senior administration official said. A late spring deadline to complete the security deal is “at risk of slipping,” the official said. As Karzai’s rhetoric has become more inflamed, the administration has largely held its tongue. U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid escalating the confrontation, say they understand that Karzai has a domestic political audience so they’re giving him a chance to vent. “His politics are, of course, different from ours,” the senior administration official


Maryland rabies case came from kidney transplant, CDC confirms

A Maryland man who two weeks ago became the state’s first fatal case of rabies in nearly 40 years contracted the infection from a kidney transplant, according to two people familiar with the case. Three other people--in Georgia, North Carolina and Illinois--received organs from the same donor. They have been located and have started rabies-prevention treatment. “They’re doing fine,” Matthew Kuehnert, a physician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday morning, confirming the case reported earlier by The Washington Post. The CDC is assisting county, state, military and other federal agencies investigating the case. It is only the third time on record rabies has been transmitted by transplantation of c“solid” organs such as kidneys and livers. A cluster of cases occurred in Texas in 2004 and in Germany in 2005. The recipient died at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington after being in the hospital for about a month, according to the people with knowledge of the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He had received a kidney from a Florida man in an operation at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in 2011. CDC laboratory scientists earlier this week determined that the rabies virus obtained from the recipient was genetically identical to the virus recovered from the organ’s donor. Untreated rabies is almost always fatal. People vaccinated after becoming infected but before symptoms develop usually survive. Richard Franka, director of the CDC’s rabies lab, said that “maybe dozens” of people who had contact with either the donor or recipient will need to get rabies vaccination--a course of four shots. Some have already started. Transmission of rabies through organ or tissue transplant is extremely rare. Four people in Texas died in 2004 from rabies contracted from a single donor’s tissue. There have been at least eight cases around the world contracted through cornea transplants. Investigation of the case involves county, state, federal and military epidemiologists, physicians and laboratory scientists. Rabies was suspected shortly before the recipient’s death but was not confirmed until his brain was examined in an autopsy. The idea that he could have contracted the infection from the transplanted kidney was initially doubted because of the extremely long time — about 15 months — between the surgery and his death. The incubation of rabies cases is rarely longer than three months. In general, fewer than five cases of rabies are diagnosed


Capitol Heights

406 were for less than $150,000, according to Holston. Capitol Heights (The Washington Post) A majority of the sales took place in the London Woods, Bradbury Heights, Greater Capitol Heights, Chapel Oaks and Carmody Hills areas. London Woods is a townhouse community near Capitol Heights and was built between the early 1980s and early 1990s. “This area is family-friendly, quiet and, some might say, secluded,” Holston says. “Even though these homes were built in the 1980s, this townhome community still has a fresher and newer feel.” During the past few years, Holston said, investors snatched up properties in neighborhoods such as London Woods, getting “great deals” on 1,000- to 1,240-square-foot townhouses for less than $90,000. She said some of the houses came back on the market totally renovated for less than $165,000. Yorkshire Knolls is another townhouse community in the area that was built in the early 1990s. She said within the past year the bulk of the home purchases in that area were foreclosures. Holston said that some of them came back on the market shortly after purchase and were renovated from top to bottom. Most of the sales that were made last year were in Greater Capitol Heights, the oldest neighborhood of Capitol Heights, Holston said, adding that the community is filled with single-family homes built in the early 1900s, with a small mixture of newer homes. “Single-family homes under $95,000 stayed on the market between one to three months and were mostly cash purchases. These homes were then flipped and put on the market within three months,” she said. Capitol Heights, incorporated in 1910, is only a few miles from the U.S. Capitol. The town’s leaders say their goals and initiatives include promoting mixed-use commercial development, especially around the Capitol Heights Metro Station. Plans are in the works for a Wal-Mart to be built on East Capitol Street in the District, directly across the street from the Capitol Heights Metro station. Town leaders say they hope that the 10-acre site, expected to include retail, office and and residential space, will spur more development. While residents wait for more commercial development to pick up steam, they enjoy gathering at annual events, including the annual Capitol Heights Day, with a parade and picnic in June. Other D.C.-area neighborhoods where it’s still possible to get a good deal Cathedral Heights/American University Park Foggy Bottom/West End Silver Spring Great Falls Lovettsville


Whole Foods’s Walter Robb calls for a labeling revolution

Whole Foods Market Inc's Co-chief Executive Walter Robb (left). Robb hopes to spur industry change with his charge of more thorough food labeling. (Rebecca Cook/REUTERS) This month, Whole Foods became the first retailer in the country to announce that it would require its more than 300 stores to label all food containing genetically modified ingredients. The move, to be phased in over five years, marked the latest salvo in a decades-long, global fight over the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) such as corn, cotton and soybeans in food. As the use of GMOs in a wide range of products has proliferated, so has the argument over whether they are safe for humans and the environment, whether they deserve more scrutiny from regulators and how they should be labeled. The biotech industry has argued that GMO technologies are a safe way to reduce plant disease, increase crop yields and create a more efficient global food supply. The Food and Drug Administration has said there is no meaningful difference between foods that use organic ingredients and their genetically modified counterparts. Meanwhile, consumer groups and public health activists have continued to raise questions about the long-term effects of genetic manipulation and to push for mandatory labeling requirements throughout the country. That clash culminated in California last fall with Proposition 37, a measure that would have required labeling of any foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. The measure was narrowly defeated, in part because of opposition funded by Monsanto, DuPont and other companies, which argued that the “flawed” initiative would increase grocery bills, lead to frivolous lawsuits and allow “special interest” exemptions. Despite its defeat, Prop 37 has helped trigger GMO-labeling initiatives in other states and an upcoming protest at the FDA. It also played a role in the decision by Whole Foods, according to Walter Robb, the Texas-based chain’s co-chief executive. Robb spoke with The Washington Post about the thinking behind the recent announcement and the ripple effect he hopes it will have. What follows is an edited transcript of that conversation: I’m curious about the thinking behind this decision and the timing of it. Our company has been in support of mandatory [GMO] labeling for years and years, starting in the ’80s. During the last couple years, we really heard a lot from our customers about their desire for labeling. In 2009, we helped to start the Non-GMO Project, which provides the


this way, I think we’re going to build the marketplace. Right now, you’ve got organic corn at pretty high prices. Same for soy. If you know there’s going to be a market for products made with non-GMO, organic ingredients, more folks are going to get involved in the production of it. It’s going to put an incentive to increase the acreage and increase the production, because there’s going to be a market for the end ingredient. That’s using the power of the marketplace to create change. I would hope that this action will spur other actions. Other grocers saying, “Yeah, the time has come.” Other trade associations saying, “Wow, this really is about what our customers want.” And perhaps some of these efforts legislatively may actually lead [to an agreement] that it’s time for some sort of national standards. Labeling is in 60 countries. It’s not like it hasn’t been done before. So it made sense for Whole Foods, but you’re also trying to use whatever leverage you have in the industry to try to spur change? Absolutely. We think this is the right thing to do, make no mistake about it. Abraham Lincoln said about leadership that you’re representing the collective will of what the people want, but you also are there to provide leadership as best as you can see it. So it’s a combination of both — respect for the people, but also leadership. That’s true for us. Would you sell products that have GMO ingredients that are labeled? Or would you prefer to be a completely GMO-free store? Is that the end goal? It’s our customers who are going to make those choices. To be clear, right now, GMOs are primarily in five or six crops in the United States. So there are many foods in the store where no GMO technology is involved. Everybody that’s selling food in the United States is probably selling some GMOs now because of the prevalence of them and the lack of the labeling laws. We don’t know, so [customers] don’t know. I don’t know how this will come out in terms of the labels. It’s not like we’re going to put a skull and crossbones on it. We’re just going to put a label on it and let people make their decisions. We’re not aiming to be a GMO-free store, but we’re aiming to be a 100 percent transparent


Microsavings programs build wealth, pennies at a time

helped unwind Catholic Relief Services’ microlending operations and helped spread the savings model. The group’s programs now reach about 2 million people in India, Africa and Central America. “We were just tapping into an energy and structure that was pretty uplifting and just bringing it into the hinterlands,” she said. Delayed gratification But saving money can be a slog. The process is slow and laborious. It requires discipline and delayed gratification. And for many poor people, it is risky. Money can be lost or stolen, even eaten by rats. That’s because many poor people rely on informal methods of saving — such as hiding cash in the house. They may also invest in livestock or jewelry or ask trusted friends or relatives to hold it for them. Savings groups are a sort of hybrid of formal and informal financial systems. The money stays within a tight circle of women, but the regularity and transparency of the transactions mimic, to some extent, deposits in formal bank accounts. In addition to Catholic Relief Services, major nonprofit groups such as Care International have helped replicate the system across Africa and Asia. Activists say microsavings can also reach the poorest of the poor, far outside the reaches of the formal banking system. The distance between poor villages and bank branches is one of the biggest obstacles to persuading people put their savings in a bank account. For many, the cost of traveling to the branch is often greater than the amount they have to deposit. Bankable Frontier Associates, a consulting group, found costs as high as $1.29 for a one-way trip to a bank at which 30 percent of the customers lived below the nation’s poverty line. Meanwhile, banks are struggling to make money on accounts whose deposits are infrequent and balances can average as little as $29, according to the group. “Making the business case to even the most socially motivated financial institution . . . was really hard,” said Sharon D’Onofrio, executive director of the SEEP Network, an umbrella group of microfinance organizations. Cellphones offer one way to tackle some of those issues. The Grameen Foundation worked with Indian microfinance giant Cashpor to develop a mobile banking system. It allowed customers to deposit money by text message, saving them the trip to the bank. The digital transaction also reduced the bank’s operating cost, which makes providing accounts more feasible. Still, the technology


Learning how to play technology

brand-new hall designed (by Frank Gehry) to maximize technological effect. Practice and concert rooms are hooked up to Internet 2 connections so musicians can take long-distance coachings from orchestra players and composers around the world (the organization hopes to archive these sesssions for future artists). Videos accompany many performances, and concerts are projected on the building’s curving exterior. “About half of that audience is new to our database,” Herring says. “Of course,” he says, “the next challenge is, once you’ve brought them in for the first time, can you bring them back?” Do-it-yourself orchestras As symphonies try to harness social media, social media has also made forays into the symphonic realm. In 2008, the YouTube Symphony started taking audition videos from around the world to assemble an actual, physical orchestra, first at Carnegie Hall in 2009, then in Sydney in 2011. Even more DIY is the Twitter Symphony (@twtrsymphony), formed last year by the composer Chip Michael, who sent out a Twitter call first for performers, then for scores. The “orchestra” has compiled several tracks (composed by Michael) by having individual players, mainly professional musicians, record the parts at home and submit them for a recording engineer to collate. (You can hear Michael’s four-movement second symphony at twtrsymphony.instantencore.com.) It might seem that Michael is trying to create an alternative to the traditional orchestra — as many composers who don’t have access to one have to do. (In 2007, the composer Kyle Gann told me, “I find myself increasingly dependent on digital realizations of my music,” and added, “many composers don’t give a damn whether the orchestra is going to die as an institution or not, because we never had access to it anyway, and we’re learning to do without it.”) But what Michael is doing is using technology to get the attention of traditional orchestras. He plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a CD of excerpts (140 seconds in length, echoing Twitter’s 140 characters) of the 100-plus scores he received so he can send them to orchestras as an audition. “What we’re trying to do,” Michael says, “is get conductors and orchestras to look at new music.” The point is not the recording, but — he hopes — a future live performance. Kickstarter is a fine example of the way new technology helps people approach old problems. “Over half of our recordings include some kind of


Russian lawmaker assailed for U.S. visit

Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva speaks at a news conference in 2012. (Ivan Sekretarev/AP) MOSCOW — On Friday, the deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament asked the ethics committee to investigate Dmitri Gudkov. He accused the 33-year-old Duma member of calling for American interference in Russia’s domestic affairs — treachery at its worst here and something President Vladimir Putin often warns against. No doubt Gudkov had access to secret material, complained Sergei Zheleznyak, the deputy speaker and a member of the ruling United Russia party, and his cooperation with the United States could damage Russian security. And if that weren’t enough, Gudkov spoke English. Left unsaid: Gudkov was one of eight members who refused to vote for a ban on American adoptions, which was approved in apparent response to the Magnitsky law that the U.S. Congress enacted last year imposing visa and financial sanctions on corrupt Russians. Gudkov took part in a March 4 conference sponsored by three U.S. organizations promoting democracy and human rights — Freedom House, the Foreign Policy Initiative and the Institute of Modern Russia. He was in what Russian authorities would consider dangerous company — Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), an author of the Magnitsky Act, and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the 85-year-old leader of the Moscow Helsinki Group. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) called her the rock star of the Russian human rights movement. And the topic? “New Approach or Business as Usual — U.S.-E.U.-Russia relations after Putin’s crackdown.” Gudkov called the Duma a rubber stamp. He described the fabrication of criminal cases against protesters, meant to intimidate others. He urged a moderate approach to relations with Russia. Ordinary Russians, he said, support the Magnitsky Act. Last fall, Gudkov’s father, Gennady Gudkov, a former KGB officer-turned-democrat, was expelled from the lower house on the grounds that he operated a business in violation of Duma rules. On Wednesday, A Just Russia expelled the two Gudkovs from the party. In a radio interview Friday, the younger Gudkov was unabashed. He had stated nothing in Washington that he had not proclaimed many times in Moscow, he said. His hosts were supportive. “Mr. Gudkov came, paying his own expenses,” Ellen Bork, director of human rights at the Foreign Policy Initiative, said by e-mail, “to speak in a country where freedoms of thought and speech are permitted and respected.”


The benefits of a free-trade deal with Japan

THERE WAS a time, a couple of decades ago, when the trade relationship between the United States and Japan was one of the hottest policy issues in Washington. The rise of China, coupled with Japan’s two decades of economic stagnation, eclipsed concerns — overblown in hindsight — about this country’s chronic trade deficit with Japan. Now, U.S.-Japan trade is once again rising on the policy agenda, and it’s critical for both countries and for the world that Americans avoid the simplistic and emotional arguments that marred past debates. On Friday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Japan will join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade talks, a U.S.-led effort to bind a dozen Pacific Rim nations in a tariff-slashing pact that will boost efficiency and growth across a region that, including Japan, accounts for 40 percent of the world’s economic output. Mr. Abe did so at considerable political risk, because the prospect of liberalized imports frightens Japan’s farmers and other entrenched interest groups. Mr. Abe recognizes that greater international competition could spur much-needed restructuring of Japan’s domestic economy, which, along with monetary expansion and fiscal stimulus, is one of the new prime minister’s three policy “arrows.” A TPP deal that includes Japan could fortify the U.S.-Japan alliance as a peaceful counterweight to an ambitious China. TPP, therefore, serves U.S. strategic, as well as economic, interests. Alas, some of the same voices that often oppose free trade are already raising red flags. On Thursday, eight senators and 35 members of the House, all Democrats, sent President Obama a letter complaining about U.S. carmakers’ historical lack of access to Japan’s auto market, suggesting that, with a year-end deadline for completing the talks, it’s too late to resolve “these long-standing, economically harmful practices.” But the point of free trade is to enable each country to maximize its comparative advantages, not to guarantee equal flows of every good in each direction. Actually, the potential opening of Japan’s agricultural and other markets to U.S. goods under TPP could offset deficits that might persist in the auto market. The twin goals of shoring up Asian allies and reducing our trade deficit would also be served by maximizing U.S. natural gas exports — especially to Japan, which is eager for stable new energy supplies to replace lost nuclear generating capacity. Again, some in Congress object, on the protectionist grounds that exports would raise the price of gas for


Epidemiologists seek answers to rabies mystery after Md. man’s death

The donor of a kidney that transmitted a fatal case of rabies to a Maryland man was a 20-year-old airman in Pensacola, Fla., training to be an aviation mechanic. When he fell ill two summers ago, physicians thought he had food poisoning from eating fish from the Gulf of Mexico. His death in a coma three weeks later was attributed to an intestinal infection, dehydration and seizures. He actually died of rabies. The viral infection wasn’t suspected before he died, and his organs were offered for donation. It apparently also wasn’t suspected when his brain was examined in an autopsy. Tests this week revealed the virus was a type found in raccoons in North Carolina and Virginia. The man was from North Carolina but hadn’t returned home after enlisting in the Air Force 17 weeks before his death. That suggests the virus had been incubating for months before it made him ill. Those are among the facts epidemiologists are stitching together as they reconstruct a tragic sequence of events that ended in late February with Maryland’s first fatal case of rabies in 36 years. “We are questioning the donor’s family and friends. We know that he was an avid hunter and fisherman. He might have come into contact with wildlife somehow. We don’t know more at this time,” Richard Franka, head of the rabies laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday. Whether it’s too risky to use organs from people who die in a coma of unknown causes has been debated by the U.S. transplant community for several years. A 2011 study showed that over a recent three-year period, seven people had developed brain infections, three of them fatal, from donated organs. In June 2012, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) warned transplant teams that “extreme caution is urged” before using organs from people with encephalitis — brain inflammation — that might be caused by untreatable viruses such as rabies and West Nile. It did not issue a blanket prohibition. “The devil is in the details,” said Michael D. Green, an infectious diseases physician at the University of Pittsburgh who heads UNOS’s Disease Transmission Advisory Committee. “But clearly one needs to be exceptionally cautious.” There are differing reports whether the airman’s physicians thought he had encephalitis. The man spent four days at the air station’s hospital in late August 2011 after suffering abdominal pain and


Maryland vs. North Carolina: Terps’ ACC tournament run ends with 79-76 semifinal loss to Tar Heels

his team down 75-72 after a layup by Wells, Len whiffed on a block attempt when North Carolina freshman point guard Marcus Paige — 13 inches shorter than the Terrapins’ center — lofted a teardrop floater. Free throws gave the Tar Heels (24-9) enough distance to hang on. North Carolina now moves onto the ACC title game, where top-seeded Miami awaits. The Hurricanes bulldozed North Carolina State in Saturday’s first act, 81-71, behind Durand Scott’s career-high 32 points, opening up a 12-point lead at halftime and coasting. A win would make the Hurricanes just the third team outside of North Carolina in the past 20 years to win the conference tournament. The Terps, meanwhile, will board their flight home to College Park, faces still stained with tears as their postseason fate appears punched. They likely would have needed the ACC’s automatic bid to reach the NCAA tournament, and an NIT bid now seems certain. But given where Maryland was three weeks ago, in desperation mode after a loss at Georgia Tech, a semifinal appearance here was enough to turn heads. “I couldn’t be more proud of our group,” Turgeon said. “We came up a little short. Sometimes you don’t win on the scoreboard, but you win. And we won today as a program. Our program got better.” With Wells (15 points on 6-of-15 shooting) effectively silenced, inflicted with the same case of missed layups that plagued his teammates, Faust’s five three-pointers and Len’s 20 points helped Maryland keep pace. But North Carolina’s Reggie Bullock had a monster game: 15 points, nine rebounds, four assists and zero turnovers. James Michael McAdoo and Dexter Strickland combined for 28 points. And P.J. Hairston, just hours removed from receiving eight stitches on his non-shooting hand, added 13. In a few months, Wells said, the sting will fade. By then, the Terps can look back on their ACC tournament experience and see a changed team, far from the group that played itself out of NCAA tournament contention with a season-ending collapse at Virginia. They won’t hold any group gathering on Selection Sunday. Before long, they’ll return to practice, with another tournament — NCAA, NIT, whatever — in their sights. “We play for each other,” point guard Pe’Shon Howard said. “We play for the people in this locker room. Whenever we step between the lines, we never want to let anyone down. That’s our main motivation.”


Jacquelin Perry, surgeon who helped polio patients and analyzed the human gait, dies

Dr. Jacquelin Perry was the Los Angeles Times Woman of Year in Medicine in 1959, in her La Mirada home. She died March 11. (Los Angeles Times) The country was in the grip of a polio epidemic in the 1950s when orthopedic surgeon Jacquelin Perry began performing spinal surgeries in Downey, Calif., that helped paralyzed survivors of the disease regain mobility. She became a leading authority on post-polio syndrome. She was also known for her analysis of the human gait, publishing a definitive textbook on the subject in her 70s. Dr. Perry, who had Parkinson’s disease but was still practicing as of last week, died March 11 at her home in Downey. She was 94. The death was announced by Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, with which she had been affiliated since 1955. During World War II, Dr. Perry served as a physical therapist in the Army, treating polio patients in Hot Springs, Ark. After earning a medical degree at the University of California at San Francisco, she joined Rancho Los Amigos and collaborated with Vernon Nickel on polio cases. For spinal surgery patients, the pair developed the halo, a metal ring still in use today that is screwed into the skull, immobilizing the spine and neck. When the Los Angeles Times honored her as the 1959 Woman of the Year in science, Dr. Perry pointed out that “most doctors go into medicine to save lives. I’m more interested in getting handicapped persons functioning again.” After a brain artery blockage forced Dr. Perry to stop operating, she founded Rancho’s Pathokinesiology Laboratory in 1968 to analyze the biomechanics of walking. She served as chief of the department until 1996 and continued to consult in semi-retirement. “Dr. Perry was a visionary pioneer in the field of rehabilitation sciences and gait analysis,” said Judith M. Burnfield, director of the Institute for Rehabilitation Science and Engineering at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Neb. With physical therapist colleagues at Rancho, Dr. Perry established an observational system used by clinicians around the world to determine why patients are having trouble walking and how to manage the problem. Her research on patients with severe deficits arising from neurologic and orthopedic injuries continues to guide present-day therapeutic approaches, said Burnfield, who helped Dr. Perry update her textbook, “Gait Analysis,” first published in 1992. The first cases of post-polio syndrome were not seen until 1980, according to Dr.


Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle

to nearly 180,000, and now three-quarters of purchases at International Meat Market are paid for with Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards. Government money had in effect funded the truckloads of food at Pichardo’s dock . . . and the three part-time employees he had hired to unload it . . . and the walk-in freezer he had installed to store surplus product . . . and the electric bills he paid to run that freezer, at nearly $2,000 each month. Pichardo’s profits from SNAP had also helped pay for International Meat Market itself, a 10-aisle store in a yellow building that he had bought and refurbished in 2010, when the rise in government spending persuaded him to expand out of a smaller market down the block. The son of a grocer in the Dominican Republic, Pichardo had immigrated to the United States in the 1980s because he expected everyone to have money — “a country of customers,” he had thought. He settled in Rhode Island with his brother, and together they opened a series of small supermarkets. He framed his first three $5s, his first three $20s and his first three $100s, the green bills lining a wall behind his register. But now he rarely dealt in cash, and he had built a plexiglass partition in front of the register to discourage his most desperate customers from coming after those framed bills when their EBT cards ran dry. The local unemployment rate was 12 percent. The shuttered textile mills along the river had become Section 8 housing. The median income had dropped by $10,000 in the last decade. Of the few jobs still available in Woonsocket, many were part-time positions at grocery stores like his, with hours clustered around the first of the month. Pichardo catered his store to the unique shopping rhythms of Rhode Island, where so much about the food industry revolved around the 1st. Other states had passed legislation to distribute SNAP benefits more gradually across the month, believing a one-day blitz was taxing for both retailers and customers. Maryland and Washington, D.C., had begun depositing benefits evenly across the first 10 days; Virginia had started doing it over four. But Rhode Island and seven other states had stuck to the old method — a retail flashpoint that sent shoppers scrambling to stores en masse. Pichardo had placed a $10,000 product order to satisfy his diverse customers,


Yogurt chain expands to D.C. with 90 flavors, 40 toppings

Forever Yogurt, a Chicago-based chain, is opening its first Washington location this spring with a 1,000-square-foot shop in Adams Morgan. By June, the company plans to have 31 locations throughout the United States and Panama — up 10-fold from the three shops it had a year ago. The rapid expansion is being fueled by a $6 million investment from a New York-based venture capital firm. “We feel like as long as we can find the right locations, we can make this expansion work,” said Mandy Calara, who co-founded the company in 2010. But therein lies the challenge, he said, particularly in Washington, where homegrown brands such as FroZenYo, Tangysweet and Yogiberry have carved out a specific niche. “D.C. has been the toughest place to find real estate in the right places,” Calara said. “There’s just not a whole lot that’s available.” The Adams Morgan outpost at 1728 Columbia Rd. NW, he said, was a no-brainer. The company has also been looking at locations near 14th and U streets NW and on M Street in Georgetown. “Storefronts in urban areas are ideal for us — places that are close to bars, restaurants, retail, heavy foot traffic,” he said. “It’s more of an after-hours dessert than something people eat during the day.” Forever Yogurt stores that have been open longer than a year typically bring in between $700,00 and $1.1 million in annual sales, Calara said. Unlike chains such as Pinkberry (which has seven area locations) and Red Mango (which has four), Forever Yogurt’s self-serve model allows customers to create their own desserts by combining about 90 flavors and 40 toppings. “People want variety, so that’s what we’re giving them,” Calara said. “The concept itself is very simple, but there are a trillion different combinations.”


Scripture Cathedral sells Shaw church for $10.5 million, plans new location in Maryland

Scripture Cathedral, at 810 O St. NW, is across the street from Roadside Development’s City Market at O, a 1 million-square-foot project with retail, apartments and a hotel, all currently under construction. (Evy Mages/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) The Web site for Scripture Cathedral, one of the city’s most prominent black churches, describes it as “the church in the heart of the city, with the people of the city in our hearts.” But like many D.C. churches, Scripture Cathedral has watched members of its congregation depart for the suburbs in recent years, and now it may be planning to follow. Led by Bishop C.L. Long, Scripture Cathedral has been in the Shaw neighborhood for more than 25 years, long before dirt was ever turned on the convention center down the street. It has hosted peace vigils after bouts of neighborhood violence, Thanksgiving dinners for the poor and aid drives for victims of Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The church has also provided a place of solace for prominent black Americans when other organizations would not. A crowd of more than 1,000 greeted O.J. Simpson there less than a year after he was acquitted of murder charges. Months after being arrested on drug charges by the FBI, then-mayor Marion Barry worshipped at the church while in search of a path away from substance abuse. The neighborhood around the church is rapidly changing, driven by construction of new luxury apartments and chic restaurants. In January — after years of developers knocking on the church’s door — a deal has been reached to sell the building at Eighth and O streets NW to a pair of local developers for $10.5 million. Pending reviews for zoning and other matters, the deal would allow developers Four Points and the Warrenton Group to tear down the church and build a mixed-use project. A copy of the contract, viewed by Capital Business, is dated Jan. 31 and signed by Assistant Pastor Donnell Long, son of C.L. Long. In an interview recently, C.L. Long demurred when asked about the deal, but said the church is so popular with parishioners that Scripture Cathedral needed to expand and will do so in Maryland. The church holds Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday services that he said are all popular. “The plan that is in place now is to have a church here and one in Maryland,” he said. “And that will


Maryland marijuana bill would end jail time and reduce the fine for small amounts

Canales, leader of the police union in Prince George’s County and a member of the state Fraternal Order of Police. “Until it is legalized, we believe the penalties should be adhered to and enforced.” State lawmakers across the country are reviewing marijuana laws, as public opinion polls have shown a growing acceptance for legalizing the use of pot for medical and recreational purposes. Lawmakers in 23 states have drafted bills legalizing medical marijuana, weakening penalties, or imposing taxes on the use of pot, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a District-based advocacy group. “Our broader message is that adults should not be punished for choosing a substance that is safer than alcohol,” said Dan Riffle, a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project. “People who use it don’t act like they do with alcohol. It’s not the kind of thing we have to treat like heroin or cocaine or harder drugs.” Riffle predicted that Maryland lawmakers would legalize pot “in the next three or four years,” taxing and regulating it like alcohol. “The leadership of the legislature is on board with this, more so than in most states,” he said. O’Malley’s attitude toward the issue appears to be evolving. As Baltimore’s mayor, his police department targeted drug dealers in initiatives that reduced the crime rate. He has opposed past efforts to decriminalize marijuana. However, in recent days, the governor’s chief health adviser, Joshua Sharfstein, indicated that the administration would support a proposal to allow academic medical centers to distribute marijuana to patients beginning in 2016. The legislation, written by Del. Dan K. Morhaim (D-Baltimore County) and before the House Judiciary Committee, would require the centers to monitor patients using marijuana and publish their findings, an approach that Sharfstein characterized as cautious enough to allow for an ongoing assessment. Del. Michael J. Hough (R-Frederick), a committee member, said he would vote against the legislation because “it’s just part of a bigger push to legalize all marijuana.” “There’s no legitimate purpose to medical marijuana,” he said. “It’s an illegal drug, the federal government says it is, so either it’s wrong or it’s right.” Del. Joseph F. Vallario Jr. (D-Prince George’s), the committee’s chairman, said he didn’t have a position on Morhaim’s proposal. As for the bill to decriminalize marijuana, he said he was still weighing the issue. But he added: “It doesn’t seem like a very good message to be sending to kids.”


Bay’s intersex fish mystery remains unsolved

submit it to the state. The pesticide-reporting rule would create a treasure trove of data that scientists could draw from for studies on human and animal health, supporters say. Scientists could use it to focus research on chemical “hot spots,” the exact moment high concentrations of pesticides hit waters where vulnerable young fish are growing, said Vicki Blazer, a biologist who studies bass for the U.S. Geological Survey. But opponents say the bills have major drawbacks. They would create a financial burden for farmers, who would be forced to purchase updated equipment such as Global Positioning System devices to log pesticide applications, said Valerie Connelly, director of government relations for the Maryland Farm Bureau. Officials at the Maryland Department of Agriculture weighed in, saying it would need $1.5 million a year to form a new unit of employees to input data provided by farmers and maintain computers to process it. “This is an expensive proposition, which is one of our big concerns with it,” said Carol Holko, assistant secretary for plant industries and pest management in the state’s Agriculture Department. Maryland already requires farmers to record applications of restricted-use pesticides — powerful chemicals not available to the general public. But they don’t have to automatically report it to the state. The proposals by Del. Stephen W. Lafferty (D-Baltimore County) in the House and Sen. Roger Manno (D-Montgomery County) that would require growers to report dozens of restricted pesticides at least once a year came on the heels of an Environmental Protection Agency report in December that said many fish in the bay are in bad health. They struggle with “increased incidence of infectious disease and parasite infestations” that contribute to “increased mortality in several species,” the report said. It found feminization in both largemouth and smallmouth bass — eggs in the testes of males. There were also “tumors in bottom-dwelling fish,” a major concern for Maryland and District officials who caution anglers against eating carp and catfish. The problem goes beyond fish, the report said. Birds of prey in a few locations experience eggshell thinning associated with certain chemicals. The EPA found monitoring gaps where “some pesticides currently in use” couldn’t be accounted for. A better accounting and more research into pesticide mixtures would help scientists understand the impact of chemicals on fish and wildlife. But the farm lobby and officials in agriculture say the Maryland proposals also have gaps.


Five myths about a government shutdown

continue to be credited for benefits and seniority.) But even though furloughed workers are not legally entitled to pay, Congress has traditionally passed legislation after the fact to compensate them. 5. Shutdowns show that there are a lot of nonessential government workers. During the November 1995 shutdown, the federal government furloughed 800,000 “nonessential” employees. Hundreds of thousands of workers were furloughed during the December 1995 shutdown, too. If we can do without those employees during a shutdown, why can’t we get rid of them entirely? It turns out that the government’s narrow definitions of “essential” and “nonessential” don’t always match the common-sense meanings. As Treasury’s assistant secretary of management, George Munoz, testified to Congress in 1995: “These are inappropriate terms that mistakenly convey a sense of relative importance among federal employees. They perpetuate the false impression that some federal workers perform jobs that are trivial or unnecessary.” Now, the federal government tends to use the terms “excepted” and “non-excepted” to get away from the notion that the vast ranks of feds are “nonessential.” Executive branch employees deemed excepted are required to work during a shutdown because, for example, they perform emergency services involving life or property, or they are involved in the orderly suspension of agency operations. Excepted personnel may include a National Zoo worker responsible for feeding animals, while a zoo employee who manages programming may be non-excepted. An Army information manager may be deemed non-excepted, but an agency budget officer may be considered essential because her job involves ensuring that funding lapses don’t result in overspending. These bureaucratic terms — excepted and non-excepted — don’t make much sense to the public if a needed service can’t be delivered because the government has shut down. In those cases, pretty much everyone is considered essential. outlook@washpost.com Read more from Outlook, friend us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. Dan G. Blair is president and chief executive of the National Academy of Public Administration, an independent nonprofit chartered by Congress. He served as deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management from 2002 to 2006. President Obama and Congress have until March 27 to reach a budget agreement to avert a government shutdown. If they don’t meet the deadline, federal agencies will halt many public services and send “non-excepted” workers home without pay. Let’s look at some of the misconceptions about what happens when the U.S. government officially closes shop.


Sen. Portman and the ‘friends and family effect’ on same-sex marriage

and oldest American adults on this issue. But what is less known is what might be called the “friends and family effect”: the nearly 30-point gap that exists in attitudes on same-sex marriage between those who have a close friend or family member who is gay or lesbian, and those who do not. Among the approximately 58 percent of Americans who report having a close friend or family member who is gay or lesbian, six-in-10 (60 percent) support allowing gay or lesbian couples to marry, compared to 35 percent who oppose it. Among Americans who do not have a close friend who is gay or lesbian, opinions are a mirror image: only three-in-10 (31 percent) support same-sex marriage, and 62 percent oppose it. The gap due to this friends and family effect exists in virtually every demographic subgroup; it is 36 points among women, 23 points among men, 28 points among whites, 30 points among those with a college degree, 27 points among those will less than a college education, and 19 points among white evangelical Protestants. One exception to this general pattern—and one reason why we may have seen few Republican leaders speaking out as Portman has—is that is that the friends and family effect is considerably more muted among Republicans. The friends and family gap among Republicans, who are much more opposed to same-sex marriage and significantly less likely than other Americans to report having a close friend or family member who is gay or lesbian, is only 10 points, compared to 23 points among independents and 39 points among Democrats. Even though the friends and family effect is less pronounced among Republicans, Portman is not the first GOP leader to publicly connect a change of mind with a family bond. In a number of interviews Sen. Portman has given in the wake of his announcement, he described getting the counsel of former Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the few other prominent Republicans who publicly bucked his party’s position; Cheney has also cited his relationship with his lesbian daughter Mary Cheney as a motivation for his position. In a quote that puts a human face on the friends and family effect in the numbers, Portman reported that Cheney’s advice was, “Do the right thing. Follow your heart.” If Sen. Portman is in the minority among his fellow Republicans, he is in good company among the many Americans


Southern Maryland biologists head north to track ice changes

Two biologists from a laboratory in Solomons are traveling to the Arctic with international scientists to observe the biological response to melting sea ice. University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Laboratory biologists Jackie Grebmeier and Lee Cooper have gone to Seattle to gather with international scientists to establish a Distributed Biological Observatory in the North American Arctic, the center said in a news release. Researchers from Japan, Korea, China, Canada and Russia will join Grebmeier and Cooper in the effort to systematically track the biological response to retreating, or melting, sea ice and the resulting environmental changes in the Bering and Chukchi seas to the west and north of Alaska. The scientists will travel among five observing stations throughout the year, but mostly during the summer, to track the changes, and they will not always travel together, Cooper said. “The question of climate change is always controversial. But it’s clear that our climate in the Arctic is changing,” Cooper, a Chesapeake Biological Laboratory research professor, said March in a phone interview from Seattle. At five “hot spot” observing stations, researchers will monitor changes in the temperature and salinity of the waters, the amount of zooplankton in the waters, the number of clams clinging to seashores, and how many birds, walruses and polar bears live in the area. Funding for the project comes from a five-year award from the National Science Foundation, Grebmeier said, also speaking from Seattle. “The goal is to observe and document how the Arctic creatures are responding to climate change and track those ecosystem changes under further loss of sea ice,” the news release said. With the ice retreating, Cooper said, more animals are swimming farther out in the water, and thus more animals are occupying open water. He said there also are larger phytoplankton blooms now that the ice is retreating, which are affecting the underwater ecosystem. Grebmeier said warmer temperatures are heading north because the ice no longer helps keep the region cold, so many animals are living farther north. But that poses another problem, she said, because in the winter, some ice starts to reform, and the colder temperatures return. Animals aren’t prepared. This northern living capability has created a new competition among whales, Grebmeier said. Gray whales, which usually are found in the Arctic in the summer months, are moving farther north, she said. They now compete with the bowhead


Where bees get their buzz: caffeinated nectar helps the insect’s memory

A honeybee alights on a coffee flower in a research laboratory that studied the effects of caffeinated nectar on bees’ memories. (NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES) Where bees get their buzz After a long day buzzing between flowers, even the most industrious worker bee could use a little help remembering which ones she wants to return to the next day. Some plants have a trick to ensure they end up at the top of the list: caffeinated nectar. A team of researchers bombarded honeybees with floral smells paired with sugary rewards, some of which contained the same levels of caffeine found in the nectar of coffee and citrus flowers. Three times as many bees remembered the odors associated with caffeine after 24 hours as they did the scents associated with sugar alone, the team reported in the journal Science. When the researchers applied the stimulant directly to honeybee brains, it had a positive effect on the neurons associated with the formation of long-term memories. Now, they want to see if bees go out of their way to feed on caffeinated nectar, perhaps even ignoring predators to do so — behavior that, if observed, might shed light on the neurological processes behind addiction.


For U.S.-E.U. deal, Europe will have internal negotiating to do

Carolina that has to put one type of bumper on cars for the U.S. market and a different one for models it ships back to Europe. While the cars produced on each side of the Atlantic are considered comparable in safety, the safety testing methods and regulations are different, forcing manufacturers to adapt. Other areas of negotiation could be more sensitive. Ireland, with its close cultural ties and large expatriate population in the United States, has a particular interest in more liberal U.S. immigration law. Others in Europe have suggested allowing broader recognition between the United States and Europe of professional licensing rules, and more liberal visa regulations for skilled workers. That may play well in the United Kingdom, where large financial companies would benefit from easier immigration in their hunt for talent. Will the rest of Europe agree if it means U.S. engineers or accountants more easily setting up shop at a time of high regional unemployment? European trade officials argue that despite the sometimes divergent interests among E.U. members, compromise can be found. Some rules that restricted U.S. food sales have already been relaxed as a confidence-building measure ahead of the talks. Despite likely differences in national priorities, European officials say any agreement will balance benefits well enough to win full E.U. support. “It is not something where Europe is going to have to change its legislation and the U.S. is not going to have to do anything. It is two heavyweights. We are in the same boxing category,” a European trade official said. Kenny’s agenda in the United States demonstrates how any agreement might be seen differently across Europe’s different national economies. It included St. Patrick’s Day in New York — a powerful symbol of how a small nation can tap into the culture of the world’s financial center — before his meetings with Obama in Washington. Then he is off to Seattle and Silicon Valley to visit tech companies, entertainment giants and others, many of which have already set up shop in Ireland and could be courted to expand. The trade issues now on the table “could have been addressed many years ago. Now we have an opportunity to drive it on behalf of the two greatest trading blocks in the world,” Kenny said. And if the flow of investment and jobs across the Atlantic begins to grow, “we can demonstrate that we are a bridge.”


Militant held in Daniel Pearl killing

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Qari Abdul Hayee, who is affiliated with the extremist group behind a wave of recent deadly attacks targeting Shiite Muslims, was captured Sunday by a paramilitary unit known as the Sindh Rangers, an investigator with the unit said. The Rangers were conducting a sweep for suspects in a devastating bombing two weeks ago in a Shiite neighborhood in Karachi. Hayee had been hiding in the city for the past few months, said the investigator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not an authorized spokesman. Pearl, 38, was kidnapped while researching an article on Islamic militants. Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the al-Qaeda operative who has said he planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, also took responsibility for beheading Pearl. He remains in U.S. custody at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba but has not been charged in Pearl’s death. An investigation published in 2011 identifies him as Pearl’s likely killer. “We are gratified with this latest arrest and hope that justice will be served in a timely manner on all of those who were involved in the abduction and murder of our son, Danny,” said his parents, Judea and Ruth Pearl, in a statement Monday. Hayee is a former Karachi leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim militant group that mainly carries out attacks on Shiite Muslims. But investigators said the group also has been working in alliance with the Pakistani Taliban, which is waging a bloody insurgency against the Pakistani army and wants to impose sharia law in Pakistan. Nisar Mehdi in Karachi contributed to this report.


Russia rules Magnitsky was not abused

his death, and a private investigation by his Western employer, which found evidence he had been tortured. “He was beaten,” Valery Borshchev, a member of the presidential commission, told the Interfax news agency Tuesday. “There is a death certificate stating that he had sustained a closed head injury.” Borshchev said he would demand a new investigation. “This defiant act threatens basic and fundamental human rights in Russia,” he said. Human rights and other nongovernmental organizations have been uneasily waiting to find out how they will fare in this environment. A law requiring groups that receive funds from abroad to register as foreign agents went into effect in November. Last month, President Vladimir Putin reminded the authorities that it should be enforced, according to news reports. Most nongovernmental organizations refused to register, and in recent days, organizations around Russia have reported that local prosecutors are beginning to scrutinize records to determine compliance. In Moscow, prosecutors are reviewing the Moscow School of Political Studies, set up in 1992 with help from the Council of Europe, the Kommersant newspaper reported. The school says it offers training in leadership and civil action. The Magnitsky case provides a barometer of the official mood. Magnitsky, who died in 2009 at age 37, will go on trial posthumously Friday, accused of a $230 million tax fraud. He had been jailed after he uncovered theft and blew the whistle on corrupt police and tax officers, who arrested him in response. “Sadly but predictably Russian officials are more interested in prosecuting a dead man than in holding accountable those responsible for his arrest, torture, and death,” David Kramer, president of Freedom House, a U.S. organization that promotes democracy, said in an e-mail Tuesday. The case has become inextricably bound up with the issue of American adoptions, which Russia banned in December shortly after Congress passed the Magnitsky Act. Tuesday’s ruling came hours after Texas authorities cleared of fault the adoptive parents of a Russian toddler who died in January. Russian officials have been vociferously demanding punishment of the parents, Alan and Laura Shatto. Konstantin Dolgov, the Foreign Ministry’s commissioner for human rights, said the decision was typical of what he called the leniency with which Americans have been treated when they have been accused of harming Russian children. “Moreover, they are trying to persuade us that it is the child who has inflicted fatal injuries to himself,” he said.


Beer Madness 2013: a style guide and glossary

The universe of beer styles is constantly expanding. The style guide for the biannual World Beer Cup is now up to 95. We can’t cover them all, but we did judge a diverse lot of beers running the full gamut of flavors. This brief guide should give you an idea of the workout our palates experienced. Ale: Dry-hopping: Dubbel: Imperial or double beer: The Washington Post’s annual Beer Madness focused on selections from local craft breweries in the annual tournament pitting 32 beers against each other in a bracket-style tournament. India pale ale or IPA: Kellerbier: Kolsch: Lager: Pale ale: Pilsener: Porter: Saison: Stout: Vienna lager: Witbier: More from Food: Beer Column archive


Beer Madness 2013: Going local

Homebrewing,” had just visited 3 Stars, Coleman said. The verdict? “He thought our beers were awesome.” Kitsock is editor of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. by Greg Kitsock Washington isn’t Milwaukee-on-the-Potomac. Not yet. And even the biggest boosters of the city’s beer scene would consider it hyperbole to rank the District alongside craft brew oases such as San Diego or Portland, Ore. But after decades of sampling the rest of the world’s beers, dating back to the Brickskeller’s founding in 1957, the District has sprouted a homegrown industry. The city’s five indigenous beermakers (two brewpubs and three packaging facilities) are tiny; DC Brau, the largest, expects to pump out about 12,000 barrels in 2013. But they’re discovering enthusiastic local support. And their numbers might very well double by this time next year. Maryland and Virginia boast upwards of 70 breweries between them, and new ones are being announced weekly. Once considered nuisances, sources of noxious emissions and debasers of public morals, breweries now are being actively courted. Last May, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) signed into law a measure that allows breweries to retail beer by the pint or growler in their tasting rooms instead of merely giving away samples. That measure was instrumental in Green Flash Brewing’s recent decision to build an East Coast branch in Virginia Beach. The San Diego brewer expects its Mid-Atlantic site to be capable of turning out 100,000 barrels a year when it opens in 2015. And that brings us to the subject of Beer Madness, our annual blind tasting to crown a worthy beer as top of the taps in our nation’s capital. In previous years we’ve gone mass-market, global (in honor of the Olympics) and all-American. In this, the seventh annual Beer Madness, we decided to celebrate the local renaissance and showcase the best this region has to offer. All 32 entries come from breweries in the Chesapeake Bay area. We included some local brewpubs whose distribution doesn’t stretch outside their front door, and a few small newcomers, such as Wild Wolf Brewing in Nellysford, Va., and Union Craft Brewing in Baltimore, that are just poking their noses into Washington and suburbs. But you can find all of these beers, on tap or in bottles or cans, within the confines of the Beltway. We did expand the definition of “local” to encompass Delaware. It would have been a shame to exclude the hard-to-pigeonhole,


National Cherry Blossom Festival Daily Highlights

In spring 2012, the nation celebrated 100 years since the Japanese gave us the iconic cherry trees that flourish around the Tidal Basin. Wednesday, March 20: Cherry Blossom Events — Pink Tie Party presented by Sucampo Pharmaceuticals and ESCADA Cherry in the Air. Dishes and cocktails from area restaurants during the fundraiser hosted by chef Lorena Garcia. Renaissance Washington, Downtown DC Hotel, 999 Ninth St. NW. 7-11 p.m., $200 per person. Tickets required. Metro: Gallery Place-Chinatown — Petal Pass Spring into savings at local attractions, businesses, restaurants, fitness centers and more. The limited edition Pass provides exclusive offers when presented at participating locations and businesses and is available for free at 225 Capital One Bank branches throughout the region. — Spy Museum Cherry Blossom SCVNGR Download SCVNGR on your smartphone and start completing challenges that combine cherry blossoms and the world of espionage. Win a special SPY offer upon completion. 800 F St. NW. Metro: Gallery Place-Chinatown For more details on all events, visit nationalcherryblossomfestival.org. The Cherry Blossom hotline is (877) 44BLOOM All events are free unless otherwise noted. A look back at blooms at Washington’s Tidal Basin.


After decade of war, troops still struggling to find work

as $5,600 to any business willing to hire an unemployed veteran — $9,600 if the vet is disabled. President Obama has made the moral case. “No one who fights for this country overseas should ever have to fight for a job,” he said as he laid a wreath in Arlington National Cemetery last fall. Here in Oklahoma, Bolton knows better. When hiring managers flip through his binder of résumés, they aren’t thinking about whether the nation has an obligation to its combat veterans. They are weighing whether they can really afford to take on one more employee in this uncertain economy, whether it makes sense to wait just a few more months. Veterans of the second Gulf War still struggle to find jobs. The questions that consume Bolton, meanwhile, are specific to a population of ex-soldiers struggling with a particular set of postwar problems. How can he help a solid Guard captain with a forgettable résuméshine? How does he find a job for a 35-year-old soldier who can’t remember to pay her electricity bill? What can he do to help a soldier hold on to his job when he says he came home from combat “hating humanity”? Each of these questions is, in its own way, a legacy of America’s wars. ‘I am going to give you a gift’ At first, Bolton didn’t think it would be hard to find work for Guard soldiers. He knew that the unemployment rate for post-Sept. 11 veterans was high — 9.4 percent in February, compared with 7.7 percent for the general population, according to the Labor Department. But Oklahoma’s oil and gas sector was booming. Elsewhere Americans were weary of the wars, but in Oklahoma, support for the 45th Brigade seemed strong. The unit suffered 14 deaths in Afghanistan during a tough stretch of fighting in the fall of 2011. Each of the losses was covered on local television news and mourned in moments of silence at high school football games. When the brigade came home in the spring, cheering, hooting, whistling crowds were there. “I just can’t tell you how proud we are of you,” the governor said. Eleven months later, the cheering over, the war back to being an afterthought, Bolton invited Capt. Monte Johnson, 35, to lunch to talk about his job search. Johnson was still wearing his black pinstripe suit from a morning hiring fair. He was a solid


Metrobus riders complain that Web tool for arrival information is still unreliable

mobile application that was recently relaunched under a new name, was started as a pilot program in 2007. Almost immediately there were problems with its accuracy. The transit agency halted the pilot to make technological upgrades and relaunched it in 2009. Metro’s NextBus technology is operated under contract by NextBus Inc. of Emeryville, Calif. The transit agency has invested $3 million to upgrade the system and says it has other improvements on the way in the coming year. In addition, Metro has spent $39 million over the past three years upgrading technology on its 1,500 buses and at its control center to create a unified system that can better track the location of buses and real-time traffic, according to Metrobus officials. “We are overtaxing the system, and we need to get it on an even keel,” said Jack Requa, Metro’s assistant general manager for bus services. The NextBus DC As part of Metro’s bus upgrades, which are expected to be done in the next six months, Metro said NextBus arrival times will be updated every 30 seconds instead of every two minutes — a move that Metro says will give customers more accurate predictions. In the absence of the NextBus DC app, Metro’s NextBus system drew 801,723 page views on its Web site in January, a 48 percent jump compared with the same period in 2012. Still, riders complain that the NextBus area of Metro’s Web site is hard to navigate on a mobile device. Others complain about “ghost” buses — ones that are supposed to come according to the online updates but never show up. Metro said there can be several reasons for such problems. Old equipment on the bus that helps track where it is and matches it with the schedules can be broken. Bus operators sometimes fail to log in to the computerized fare box when they take on a route, making it difficult to track the bus. And there are the unpredictable traffic delays. Metro said it is working to install signs at hundreds of Metrobus shelters throughout the region over the next four years that will give NextBus information and other data. But the improvements Metro is promising are not coming fast enough for those who use the NextBus service daily. Lucy Cunningham of Northwest waited recently at the Friendship Heights station for the E2 bus to take her home to Brightwood. On her device,


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These were among cases received recently by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5054. That number provides recorded information on topics such as the Montgomery County Animal Shelter hours and location, adoption and licensing procedures, rabies clinics and low-cost neutering. Cock-a-doodle dismissed Samaritan worried by ill-looking dog Shelter has adoptable cats Gaithersburg Montgomery County Humane Society Burtonsville Olney Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Big banks engaging in payday lending, report says

service.” Not everyone agrees. One Wells Fargo customer who spoke to researchers for the report said she had not been aware of the full range of fees attached to the payday loan. The 69-year-old widow, who declined to give her full name, took out a $500 payday loan five years ago that has cost her $3,000 in fees. Wells has given the woman 25 loans in the last two years alone. Banks contend that they are offering a vital service to customers at more reasonable price points than storefront lenders, who often charge twice as much as banks. “We assist our clients in better controlling his or her finances through significantly cheaper costs and with more transparency and more regulation than traditional payday lenders,” said Sheila Curley, a spokeswoman for the Bank of Oklahoma. The bank began offering direct deposit advance nearly two years ago, she said, because “there is a genuine need to offer relief during a financial emergency to consumers without access to credit.” Consumer advocates are concerned that federally regulated banks can sidestep stricter state laws that govern payday lenders. At least 15 states have banned the service, while several others have imposed tougher laws to limit the number of loans that can be made and the interest rates. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has supervisory and enforcement authority for storefront and bank payday lenders with more than $10 billion in assets. Officials at the bureau say they are monitoring the market. The bureau issued a request for comment last year to gauge consumer and industry concerns. Earlier this year, a group of senators, including Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), called on federal regulators to bar banks from providing payday loans of any kind. The lawmakers said the products are tantamount to predatory lending. The new report is similarly urging the three banking regulators to issue guidance or a rule that would immediately ban such direct-deposit advances before the practices spreads from a handful of banks to the entire system. Twelve million Americans use payday loans a year, taking out an average eight loans for $375 and spending about $520 on interest, according to a July report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The think tank found that most borrowers use payday loans to cover living expenses such as utilities or rent, not unexpected emergencies. The average borrower is indebted about five months of the year.


Is Kurdistan an Iraqi success story?

future. We have heard their stories, visited their schools, prayed in their churches and met with their Bishops, including Louis Raphael I Sako, the current Archbishop of Kirkuk, who was recently elected as Patriarch of Chaldean Christians in Iraq and around the world. The challenges are daunting for Iraqi Christians and their Muslim neighbors. Though the war is now officially over, and the Kurdistan Region is an island of relative calm in an otherwise-war-torn region, there is much that can and must be done to build a peaceful and pluralistic society that includes Orthodox and Catholic Christians; Sunni and Shia Muslims; Yezidis; and Turkmen. Though scarred by war, Kurds and their children are optimistic about their future. One young girl, a 10th grader in a school for Christian and Muslim children run by Bishop Rabban Al Qas of the Chaldean Diocese of Amadiya in Dohuk, hopes someday to be a NASA scientist, and would love the opportunity to peer, with her classmates, through the lens of the Hubble Space Telescope. Another aspiring music student from Sulaymaniyah, a university and resort town about 50 miles from Halabja, wants nothing more than to attend music school in the United States so that he can write the first opera to be sung in Kurdish. Each of the leaders with whom our delegation met not only expressed appreciation for our visit, but more importantly, deep gratitude to the U.S. government, military and families who paid the ultimate price for their liberation and asked us to convey that sentiment. It is now time to claim that victory and to take on a different role – to help them build a better future for themselves and their children. We celebrate the survival of Christianity in some of its earliest milieus – Iraqi Kurdistan. The faith of the leadership and citizens in Iraqi Kurdistan is strong, but they need partners. Let’s work with them to stabilize their communities. Let’s become their business partners and advisors, train their teachers, doctors, and nurses, and share whatever expertise they would find useful. Let’s show the region that pluralism, democracy, and religious freedom “works.” Robert A. Destro is professor of law and is director and founder of the Interdisciplinary Program in Law Religion, Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. Evangelical communications strategist Larry Ross is president of A. Larry Ross Communications, based in Dallas, Texas.