Transcript: Obama’s remarks on Russia, NSA at the Hague on March 25

understand that there’s a choice to be made here. With respect -- even though this was directed at Mark, I just want to address this issue of sectoral sanctions. So far, what we’ve done is we’ve put in place sanctions that impact individuals -- restricts visas being issued to them, freezes their assets. We have identified one bank in particular in Russia that was well-known to be the bank of choice for many of the persons who support and facilitate Russian officials from carrying out some of these activities. But what we’ve held off on are more broad-based sanctions that would impact entire sectors of the Russian economy. It has not just been my suggestion but it has also been the European Council’s suggestion that should Russia go further, such sectoral sanctions would be appropriate -- and that would include areas potentially like energy or finance or arms sales or trade that exists between Europe and the United States and Russia. And what we’re doing now is at a very technical level examining the impacts of each of these sanctions. Some particular sanctions would hurt some countries more than others. But all of us recognize that we have to stand up for a core principle that lies at the heart of the international order and that facilitated the European Union and the incredible prosperity and peace that Europe has enjoyed now for decades. And so although it could cause some disruptions to each of our economies or certain industries, what I’ve been encouraged by is the firmness and the willingness on the part of all countries to look at ways in which they can participate in -- in this process. Our preference throughout will be to resolve this diplomatically. But I think we’re prepared, as we’ve already shown, to take the next step if the situation gets worse. Finally, on Ukraine, I think it’s very important that we spend as much effort on bolstering the economy inside of Ukraine and making sure that the elections proceed in an orderly fashion. And so my hope is that the IMF is able to complete a package for Ukraine rapidly to stabilize their finances and their economy. The OSCE, other international organizations, are sending in observers, monitors, and we’re providing technical assistance to make sure that the elections are free and fair. The sooner those elections take place, the sooner the economy is


Beer Madness Round 1: From 32 to 16

(The Washington Post) The French philosopher Jean Buridan is said to have posed the dilemma of a donkey standing equidistant from two identical piles of hay. The animal would have no logical reason to choose one over the other and would stand, locked in place, until it starved. A similar dilemma confronted our panel for Round 1 of Beer Madness, our quest to find the region’s best craft brews. Faced with two equally worthy contenders, would we sit frozen in indecision until the Meridian Pint staff tossed us into the street at closing time? Whittling eight beers in each of four categories down to four proved a daunting task, as the preliminary bouts yielded two 9-0 blowouts — but five close (5-4) decisions. That equivocation was reflected in the comments. “These two beers were more similar than different,” pondered reader panelist Echo Rummel of two saison-style ales in the Crisp category, eventually giving the nod to Right Proper Ornette for its greater complexity. (The majority of the panel did not concur, passing Stillwater Classique to the next round by a 6-3 vote.) “These taste like the same beer,” complained Miles Gray III, managing partner of Smith Commons Public House, before choosing Legend Pilsner over Lost Rhino Zlaty Pilsner. The Legend was last year’s Beer Madness runner-up; this year it exited early as Zlaty triumphed, 6-3. Gray, incidentally, deserves a nod for his sometimes baffling but always colorful comments. “This one is a li’l light in the [rear],” he wrote of the Heavy Seas Gold (a 5-4 loser to Dominion Lager). “I would like this beer to do more push-ups.” About Ornette, he commented cryptically, “This has notes I would best describe as ‘art gallery tour curator.’ ” Bluejacket’s Forbidden Planet was love at first sip for reader panelist Lauren Smith, who gushed, “Lemon! Sweet! I want a perfume made out of this!” The kolsch, with an unusually hoppy bouquet for the style, trounced the delicately malty Sly Fox Helles, 9-0. But the outmatched golden lager still drew praise from Frenchie’s baker Erica Skolnik, who detected “beautiful notes of honey, velvety and smooth finish.” Another D.C. beer advanced when Atlas Brew Works’ District Common nudged Union Craft Brewery’s Balt Alt, 5-4, in the Malt category. “Light, airy and romantic,” wrote reader panelist Bruce A. Johnson Jr. of the winner. Said Skolnik: “Pair this with a creamy mac and cheese and prosciutto


Global supercomputer revenue down 29 percent in 2013

A view of the Supercomputer 'Piz Daint' in the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre in Lugano, 21 March 2014. (EPA/KARL MATHIS) Global revenue from high-performance computer servers fell 7.2 percent to $10.3 billion in 2013, down from $11.1 billion in 2013, according to new data from the International Data Corporation. The drop-off is partly driven by declining demand from governments worldwide, who make up a large chunk of high-performance computing customers, said IDC analyst Steve Conway. Many already invested in expensive systems during the recession to help solve economic and development problems, but since high-performance computers can sometimes cost hundreds of millions of dollars — government agencies are unlikely to buy new systems each year. “In the decade of the 2000s, it grew so fast that it was bound to have a year when it couldn’t show more growth,” Conway said. The most expensive and powerful high-performance computing systems, known as supercomputers, saw a 29 percent decline in revenue in 2013 to about $4 billion. Often selling for more than $500,000, supercomputer systems accounted for about 40 percent of high-performance computer server revenue in 2013. One bright spot for supercomputer sales: Conway noted that he sees rapid supercomputer adoption in the oil and gas industries. “[Oil and gas companies] are buying gigantic machines in that sector mainly for oil exploration...The more powerful the supercomputer, the farther they can see,” he said. “They can see things that competitors couldn’t, so there’s an arms race going on there.” Revenue from smaller, less expensive systems grew year over year. Systems selling for $100,000 or less than displayed the strongest growth, expanding 23.9 percent to $1.6 billion in 2013. Those sold for between $100,00 to $250,000 grew almost 13 percent to $3.4 billion, and systems between $250,000 and $500,000 grew 11.4 percent year over year to reach $1.4 billion. Sales for those systems fell during the downturn as private companies held back on discretionary purchases. “The lower the price point, the more it got smacked during the economic recession,” he said. “Those patterns continued in 2013 when you saw in industries resumed buying more in a discretionary way.” Total unit shipments increased by 19 percent. Hewlett-Packard led the market with 32.3 percent of overall high-performance computing server revenue, followed by IBM with 27.7 percent.


Bill of rights for prison guards not to blame for their misbehavior

Regarding the March 20 editorial “The balance of power in prisons”: The indictment of 27 Baltimore City Detention Center officers last year on charges of fraternization and possession of contraband was shocking, but The Post’s suggestion that the correctional officers’ bill of rights (COBR) has helped prevent the punishment of officers who break the law is not true. Since the implementation of COBR, 52 officers have been charged with fraternization or possession of contraband. Fifty-one were suspended, fired or quit. The COBR works. The Post cited FBI affidavits indicating that corrupt Baltimore correctional officers felt enabled by COBR. Prisons are full of guilty people who believed they’d get away with it. So far, 11 officers have pleaded guilty, and three have been sentenced. Each received 32- to 42-month prison terms. Jailbirds who boasted they thought they’d get away with it are not a reason to water down a common-sense law that is clearly working. Patrick Moran, Baltimore The writer is


Local digest: Chickens found dead in park; victims of Arlington fire identified

THE DISTRICT Chickens found with slit throats in park A person walking along an isolated path in Rock Creek Park on Tuesday afternoon discovered the carcasses of eight chickens and roosters with their throats cut in what police say may be part of a ritualistic killing. Sgt. Lelani Woods, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Park Police, said the uniform way each bird was killed is leading investigators to believe the killings were part of a cult practice. The bodies were turned over to animal control officers. The discovery was made about 3 p.m. in an area of the park north of the 3500 block of 17th Street NW, near an area called Piney Branch Park. Woods said police believe the birds were killed elsewhere and dumped along a makeshift path sometime before snow started to fall Tuesday morning. Woods said the path is not in an area typically traveled by visitors. — Peter Hermann Maryland Suspect identified in robbery of elderly pair An 87-year-old man and his 73-year-old girlfriend were the victims last year of a home-invasion robbery in Anne Arundel County, county police said. On Tuesday, the police said that DNA evidence has led them to a suspect and that a warrant for a Baltimore man has been issued. The robbery occurred Oct. 18. They said three intruders forced their way into the home and assaulted the victims. They then ransacked the home and took money, a television set and other items. The victims were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said . — Martin Weil THE REGION Schedule changes for Metrobus to begin Metrobus schedules will change for dozens of routes across the region starting Sunday. Metro is introducing a new route that will provide additional connections between Fort Drum and the Southern Avenue Metro station. Riders also will see changes in the McLean-Crystal City line, the North Capitol Street line and in some routes serving Laurel in Prince George’s County. District riders will have to pay attention when boarding the No. 80 bus at Fort Totten. During most weekday hours, every other trip will end at McPherson Square. The new W1 route, Shipley Terrace-Fort Drum, will provide service between Fort Drum, the Shops at Park Village, The Arc, Southeast Tennis and Learning Center, the Congress Heights Metro station and the Southern Avenue Metro station. Weekday service will be increased on the W4


Baltimore Rock Opera Society’s ‘Grundlehammer’ rocks out medieval style

Danielle Robinette in Baltimore Rock Opera Society's “Gründlehämmer.” (Heather Keating) BALTIMORE — After all, if you don’t release the Grundle, then Benedon — the heroic boy-lead guitarist of the Baltimore Rock Opera Society’s silly, inspired, unruly, overindulgent, profane, puckish and often delightful “Gründlehämmer” — can’t battle-of-the-bands with him to the death with his super-tricked-out guitar. Which is, of course, the weapon of choice in Brotopia, the demented medieval kingdom where the combatants cloak themselves not in armor but in heavy metal. Informed as much by the ambiance of a Kiss or Guns N’ Roses concert as by the more sedate conventions of musical theater, the irreverent “Gründlehämmer” sometimes feels as if it’s been devised strictly for a crowd that has come to par-tay. (Your hand is stamped at the door, and beer is available for purchase throughout the show.) And yet there’s both a seriousness of intent and abundant appreciation for the form apparent in the work of The BROS, as the troupe calls itself. These are qualities that Washington audiences can sample this weekend, when for the first time the group comes to the D.C. area, for three performances at Alexandria’s Torpedo Factory. “Gründlehämmer” was The BROS’ debut show five years ago after the company’s founding by friends who met at Goucher College: Aran Keating, Dylan Koehler, John DeCampos, Jared Margulies and Eli Breitburg-Smith. The production, directed by Keating, with songs by all five men, has been remounted for this abbreviated tour, which will take The BROS to Washington and the following weekend to Philadelphia. On the basis of “Gründlehämmer” — which I saw last week at Baltimore’s 2640 Space, in a church on St. Paul Street — you see why The BROS are seeking to test the broader geographic appeal of their raucous aesthetic. The Baltimore Rock Opera Society presents “Grundlehammer” through March 30th at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Va. Directed by Aran Keating. With Moira Goldie Horowitz and Derek Vaughan Brown. The place was filled with people in their 20s and 30s, a demographic so underrepresented in the nation’s playhouses that theaters have to radically slash ticket prices just to entice a hardy few in the doors. (BROS tickets are $20.) The company fosters an atmosphere that is the antithesis of intimidating: You can wander in and out without too much worry about losing your place in the story. Shouting during a favorite moment is hardly


Behind the data on missing Malaysian jet, plenty of mystery remains

Relatives of the Chinese passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 marched to the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing on Tuesday to demand answers. The case of the missing plane remains an excruciating mystery, and the only thing authorities are saying with confidence is that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went south instead of north, flying almost halfway to Antarctica before crashing somewhere in a remote expanse of the southern Indian Ocean. Even that conclusion, which is problematically vague for searchers, is propped up by delicate satellite data that required two weeks of interpretation. Small changes in initial assumptions about the plane’s speed produce large differences — many hundreds of miles — in the calculated outcomes. Debris in that lightly traveled expanse of ocean has been sighted by satellites and aircraft, but there is no evidence that it has any connection to the missing plane. Military searchers in surveillance aircraft are battling brutal weather; clouds are hampering satellite searches and NASA’s efforts to spot debris with a camera on the international space station. Time is precious. Military vessels are on the way with instruments that could pick up the ping of the aircraft’s “black box” flight data recorder on the sea floor, but the pinger’s batteries typically last only 30 days. “This is really uncharted territory. Usually you have plenty of data to work with — black boxes, voice recorder and lots of satellite telemetry. Everyone is working pretty much in the blind,” said Scott Madry, a satellite expert at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. The jetliner, a red-eye from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, vanished March 8 with no hint of distress or any sign of an explosion or hijacking. Radar picked up signs of the plane turning around and heading west, back across the Malaysian peninsula into the Strait of Malacca. There are many scenarios for what happened in that first hour after takeoff, ranging from a fire to a sudden decompression to a hijacking to a diversion carried out by a member of the crew. There is still no solid evidence supporting any particular narrative. There is, however, a new consensus among investigators that the plane turned again sharply to the south and, for whatever reason, flew steadily across the uninhabited reaches of the open ocean until it ran out of fuel and crashed. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced Monday that the


As First lady lauds free press, questions about her media access

CHENGDU, China — But coverage of the trip has been made more difficult by tight restrictions on reporters and photographers, who have been kept far away from many events and were not allowed to accompany the first lady, her mother and her two daughters on their flight last week from the United States. Obama has had only one written question-and-answer session with a Chinese-based independent news outlet. The constraints, including an absence of interviews by U.S. news reporters, have prompted objections from some journalists and conservative commentators, who see a contrast between Obama’s remarks here in favor of a free press and the restrictive nature of her travels. The criticism comes during a trip that has turned out to be, in some respects, more substantive than expected. Obama extolled the virtues of journalistic freedom at Peking University in Beijing, discussed education policy with teachers at the U.S. Embassy and, on Tuesday, invoked the importance of the struggle for civil rights at a high school here in Chengdu. She is also slated to visit with members of the Tibetan community here on Wednesday. The situation is further complicated by the difficult media environment in China, where the communist government controls much of the media and negotiations between officials from the first lady’s office and the Chinese agency that oversees media access have been visibly contentious. Chinese press officials have shoved U.S. reporters around physically at some venues, prompting objections from Obama’s staff. U.S. first lady Michelle Obama visited the Chengdu Panda Base in Sichuan province on her last day in China, becoming the latest in a long line of American government officials to be wooed by this country’s cute and cuddly panda diplomacy. Chinese reporters and photographers are known for their aggressiveness. On Michelle Obama’s first stop at a Beijing classroom last week, daughters Malia and Sasha were separated from their mother amid shoving by Chinese journalists to get the best spot. The first lady has maintained a remote relationship with the news media in recent years, holding press events but granting few interviews outside entertainment and talk-show outlets. Her staff has focused on building her social-media presence in a bid to reach young people, aides said, and during the China trip has granted interviews to media outlets focused on children. Out of four overseas trips without her husband, the first lady has traveled with a press pool once — in


China woos Michelle Obama with panda diplomacy

of pandas — Hsing Hsing and Ling Ling — to the National Zoo, which Pat Nixon personally accepted. The zoo’s relationship with China relative to pandas has continued, though Chinese officials no longer give away the animals. They are leased for large sums of money. The zoo is nearing the end of a five-year lease agreement with China whereby U.S. officials lease two giant pandas for a total of $500,000. New cubs born at the zoo go to China after four years. The money raised through the leases is supposed to go to panda research and preservation, but there are questions about how the money is spent because of the lack of transparency in China’s system, Nicholls said. Wildlife preservationists are advocating for more information about how the dollars are used. None of the history or money seemed to be on the first family’s minds as they talked among themselves while watching the giant pandas play. Chengdu Panda Base, which was closed to the public during the first family’s visit, is home to pandas of all ages, and the tour Obama took was also scheduled to take her to view panda cubs, generally much beloved. When Bao Bao, the newest cub born at the National Zoo in Washington, was born, the Panda Cam Web site at the zoo crashed because of all the Internet traffic it received. It is unlikely that the Obamas saw any pandas that will eventually end up only miles from the White House at their local zoo. From this part of China, animals have gone to Atlanta and Memphis. China has supplied the National Zoo with giant pandas from a reserve in Wolong, an area in the Qionglai Mountains of Sichuan province. Obama and family ended their trip with a lunch visit to a Tibetan restaurant, where she went to interact with one of the country’s minority communities. About 60,000 Tibetans live in Chengdu. In China, they are routinely discriminated against, and their political leaders are persecuted. Obama administration officials have maintained contact with Tibet’s political leaders over objections from Chinese officials. Obama spoke of none of this, though her presence at the Zangxiang Teahouse seemed to indicate tacit support. Instead, she and her family ate Tibetan cuisine, a relatively adventurous way to connect with the community. The sampling menu they were served included yak butter tea, yak soup made with highland barley, a yak meat


five-year lease agreement with China whereby U.S. officials lease two giant pandas for a total of $500,000. New cubs born at the zoo go to China after four years. The money raised through the leases is supposed to go to panda research and preservation, but there are questions about how the money is spent because of the lack of transparency in China’s system, Nicholls said. Wildlife preservationists are advocating for more information about how the dollars are used. None of the history or money seemed to be on the first family’s minds as they talked among themselves while watching the giant pandas play. Chengdu Panda Base, which was closed to the public during the first family’s visit, is home to pandas of all ages, and the tour Obama took was also scheduled to take her to view panda cubs, generally much beloved. When Bao Bao, the newest cub born at the National Zoo in Washington, was born, the Panda Cam Web site at the zoo crashed because of all the Internet traffic it received. It is unlikely that the Obamas saw any pandas that will eventually end up only miles from the White House at their local zoo. From this part of China, animals have gone to Atlanta and Memphis. China has supplied the National Zoo with giant pandas from a reserve in Wolong, an area in the Qionglai Mountains of Sichuan province. Obama and family ended their trip with a lunch visit to a Tibetan restaurant, where she went to interact with one of the country’s minority communities. About 60,000 Tibetans live in Chengdu. In China, they are routinely discriminated against, and their political leaders are persecuted. Obama administration officials have maintained contact with Tibet’s political leaders over objections from Chinese officials. Obama spoke of none of this, though her presence at the Zangxiang Teahouse seemed to indicate tacit support. Instead, she and her family ate Tibetan cuisine, a relatively adventurous way to connect with the community. The sampling menu they were served included yak butter tea, yak soup made with highland barley, a yak meat pie made with minced onion and celery and boiled yak ribs. Yak is a Tibetan staple. No word on whether Obama liked it. She and her family flew out of China following the lunch and is scheduled to arrive in the United States Wednesday evening. Michael Ruane in Washington contributed to this report.


Aggio: Inside Range, Voltaggio’s team focuses on fun

The new Aggio focuses on fun in a previously little-used corner of chef Bryan Voltaggio’s expansive Friendship Heights restaurant. Who needs professional food scribes to break industry news anymore? For a week or so in February, Bryan Voltaggio, executive chef and co-owner of Range in the Chevy Chase Pavilion, teased his Twitter followers with suggestions of a new place to eat within the same venue. They, in turn, threw out guesses about pop-ups and about-faces at his ambitious 300-seat American concept. When Voltaggio’s secret — a restaurant-within-a-restaurant called Aggio — was revealed on Valentine’s Day, the chef crossed two tasks off his checklist: He finally found a spot to cook Italian food, and he breathed life into a part of Range that always felt like an overflow room. The chef admitted as much when he told me, “The architects stopped when they got to that place.” Finding the extra space really wasn’t a problem. The 14,000-square-foot Range was built to do more than the work of just one restaurant. All it took to launch the 82-seat Aggio, a play on the chef’s name, was about $30,000 in design enhancements and four more staff to attend to the glam. Some food observers will see the addition as novel, but the notion of two dining concepts under one roof, at least in Washington, dates back at least as far as 2000, when Roberto Donna carved an intimate Laboratorio from his expansive Galileo restaurant downtown. Aggio — newly sleek in sepia tones, wood cutouts and calla lilies — refrains from competing with Range by offering a singular experience. Not only is the food different, but so is the drink, with cocktails named for Rat Pack personalities, and a cheeky wine list that revels in Italy. At Aggio, the waiters dress a little better and stand a bit taller than their counterparts a host stand away, and dishes are delivered with the kind of precision you get at the Inn at Little Washington and the Michelin all-stars. The death of fine dining, it appears, has been greatly exaggerated. Judging by the already-busy Aggio, diners still crave attention to detail: fine stemware, thick linens, a master sommelier with whom to mull wine selections. Yet the prices don’t scream “take out a loan.” Excellent pastas go for as little as $14. Was I tagged as a critic? Alas, yes. Your mileage may vary, but judging from


Transcript: Obama addresses NATO strength at March 26 news conference in Brussels

and sanctions that the United States and others around the world are imposing on Russia. And taken together, they’re the most significant sanctions Russia’s faced since the end of the Cold War. Moreover, Russia stands alone. Russia stood alone when trying to defend its actions at the U.N. Security Council. The 28 members of the European Union are united. The 28 members of NATO are united. Every member of the G-7 has imposed sanctions on Russia, as we announced on Monday. And the G-7 will meet here in Brussels in June without Russia. So if anyone in the Russian leadership thought the world wouldn’t care about their actions in Ukraine or that they could drive a wedge between the European Union and the United States, they clearly miscalculated. As I’ve said repeatedly and was mentioned by both Presidents Van Rompuy and Barroso, there is still a way for Russia to work with Ukraine and the international community to de-escalate the situation through diplomacy. That’s the only way that the issue will be resolved. If Russia continues on its current course, however, the isolation will deepen. Sanctions will increase and there will be growing consequences for the Russian economy. And this reflects the enduring commitment to the goal that has brought Europe and the United States together for decades: a Europe that is whole and free and at peace. In closing, I just want to say to Presidents Van Rompuy and Barroso as you prepare to conclude your tenures later this year, thank you for all the outstanding work that you’ve been able to do together. We have gone through some very rocky waters. We’ve persevered through some very difficult economic times. But throughout this process we’ve been able to deepen the ties between the European Union and the United States. We’ve been able to advance the cause of security and human dignity around the world. I’m personally grateful to both of you for your leadership, as well as your friendship, and most importantly for the purposes of our countries that we represent here today, your dedication to the transatlantic relationship. So thank you very much. MR. : Now there is time for two questions. (Laughter.) Thank you for your kind understanding. Please state your name and the media you are representing before addressing your question. Yes, sir. Yes? Q: The first is on Russia and Ukraine. Given that the U.S.


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These were among the cases received recently by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. That number provides recorded information on such topics as the Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center’s hours and location, adoption and licensing procedures, lost and found and field services. Dog quarantined after fox contact Cats dampen building ambience Montgomery County Humane Society Mount Airy* Potomac No-kill shelter has adoptable cats: Gaithersburg Reduced fees for cat adoption: Cats and kittens will be available for adoption at the next open house of Friends of Montgomery County Animals at the following location. For information, call 301-977-4833 or visit www.fmca.org or facebook.com/fmcainfo. Germantown — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Nightclubs Prices listed where available. Pop|Rock|Folk|Jazz|Etc. The District GYPSY SALLY’S THE HAMILTON THE HOWARD THEATRE 9:30 CLUB ROCK ROLL HOTEL TROPICALIA TWINS JAZZ U STREET MUSIC HALL Maryland BETHESDA BLUES AND JAZZ SUPPER CLUB THE FILLMORE RAMS HEAD LIVE RAMS HEAD ON STAGE Virginia BIRCHMERE EMPIRE JAMMIN’ JAVA STATE THEATRE Concerts Prices listed where available. Pop|Rock|Folk| Jazz|Etc. ANTONIO PARKER JAZZ QUINTET NOMADIC WAX: DYNAMIC DUO ELIJAH JAMAL BALBED GLENN WISER BAND KRIS FUNN SOMI TATTLETALE SAINTS 10 STRING SYMPHONY BILL JENKINS AND THE VIRGINIA MOUNTAIN BOYS JUSTIN MCROBERTS WITH TIFFANY THOMPSON LITTLE RED AND THE RENEGADES ADRYELLE, STEFFIE AND TIM KAYE LYLE LINK NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA POPS: NAS WITH THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF ILLMATIC TODD MARCUS PETER ROBINSON JIM COUNTER SHOKANTI MARY SCHOLZ WITH SARAH AULT AUDIE BLAYLOCK AND REDLINE THE MUSICIAN PROTECTION PROGRAM TO HIT AND HALF STICK DUO JOHNNY CLEGG LORI WILLIAMS PENTATONIX THE PIANO GUYS RUE SNIDER AND THE NO STRAND BAND THE JET AGE, EARLY AMERICAN, AND THE CARIBBEAN NOMADIC WAX: LAS KRUDAS/KEUR-GUI EXPERIENCE HENDRIX HEATHER MALONEY BUMBER JACKSONS, CHRISTYLEZ BACON AND STEVE HICKMAN QUEEN AISHA BLUES NOMADIC WAX: BLACK NOISE RHYTHM METHOD BAND DREAM THEATER CREATIVE ECOSYSTEM: I AM: DC YOUTH’S HIP-HOP VISION WOLF’S BLUES JAM THE WOPBOPS JEFF RUBY CORNER STORE JAZZ TRIO JASON BROWN WITH DAVE FARAH THE NOT-SO-MODERN JAZZ QUARTET BLIND OWL BAND KEB’ MO’ LINDA EDER MATT NATHANSON U.S. AIR FORCE BAND AIRMEN OF NOTE FEEDEL BAND Dancing CONTRA DANCE WITH THE FIGMENTS WEST COAST SWING DANCING WITH DANCE JAM PRODUCTIONS NATTY BEAUX ENGLISH TEA AND TEA DANCE WALTZ DANCE WITH THE FIGMENTS SOCIAL BALLROOM DJ DUSTIN SPICUZZA SOCIAL BALLROOM KELLEY/WALTERS TEA DANCE Orchestras LOUDOUN YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ALEXANDRIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ALEXANDRIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN PHILHARMONIC AMERICAN YOUTH PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRAS ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC WASHINGTON BACH CONSORT PRESENTS THE FREE NOONTIME CANTATA SERIES UNIVERSITY BAND AND COMMUNITY BAND Chamber Groups AEOLUS QUARTET CELLIST ADRIAN DAUROV AND PIANIST DI WU BRENTANO QUARTET THE AULOS ENSEMBLE CHESAPEAKE CHAMBER MUSIC COMPETITION ORIGINS CONCERT SERIES THE ECLIPSE QUINTET MADE IN AMERICA: PIANO TRIOS OF IVES AND BRAHMS PARKER QUARTET THE NASH ENSEMBLE OF LONDON BARBARA HOLLINSHEAD, GWENDOLYN TOTH AND DANIEL SWENBERG AIR FORCE STRINGS MINGUET QUARTETT


Going Out Guide for Montgomery County, March 27-April 2, 2014.

Ballet Hispanico performs Saturday at BlackRock. (Paula Lobo) THU 27 Masters of Tradition Nick Moss Band Baltimore Symphony Orchestra The BSO takes on the Bee Gees’ “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack in this tribute concert called “Stayin’ Alive: One Night of the Bee Gees.” 8 p.m. Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. 410-783-8000. www.strathmore.org. $31-$94. FRI 28 Friday Night Eclectic Wine tasting and silent art auction The Ataris “Master Works” “Tribute to Fiber Art” SAT 29 Destination Poolesville Ballet Hispanico National Philharmonic Singers Ralph Stanley the Clinch Mountain Boys “Ideal Form” SUN 30 “I and You” Peter Minkler and Jeremy Gill Judith Levine National Capital Art Glass Guild “New Life” MON 31 Parker Quartet “Love Is in the Air” TUE 01 “Lost Highway” The film series “Overdrive: L.A. Modern, 1960-2000,” exploring Los Angeles’s modern architectural legacy in film, continues with David Lynch’s bizarre story of a man who is jailed for murdering his wife (which he does not recall doing) and who later wakes up as another person altogether. Sunday at 9:20 and Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Series continues through April 17. AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. 301-495-6720. www.afi.com/silver. $12, age 65 and older $10, 12 and younger $7. WED 02 Curtis Woody “Two Trains Running” Group Exhibition — Compiled by Carrie Donovan from staff reports


Going Out Guide for the District of Columbia March 27-April 2, 2014.

A string of 100 pink kites was set aloft to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the gift of the trees at the Cherry Blossom Kite Festival in 2012. This year’s event is Saturday. (Bill O'Leary/WASHINGTON POST) Correction: THU 27 World Stages: International Theater Festival 2014 . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead “Stitched D.C.” FRI 28 Berliner Philharmoniker virtual concert Daley SAT 29 Nationals vs. Tigers “Brief Encounter” Johnny Clegg “The Elixir of Love” SUN 30 Blossom Kite Festival This event showcases the creativity and skill of kitemakers through competitions and demonstrations. Bring a kite or make one at the activity station. 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Washington Monument grounds, 15th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. 877-442-5666. www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org. Free. Fly a Kite! Kids Workshop Build and decorate a kite with materials provided by the gallery. 10 a.m.-noon. Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th St. NW. 202-639-1700. www.corcoran.org. $20. Pups ’n’ Petals Dog Walk “Happily Ever After” “Normal” Bumper Jacksons Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital MON 31 “One Cubic Foot: Portraits of Biodiversity” “The Work of a Modern Magic Realist Painter” TUE 01 Black Noise Dream Theater Los Lonely Boys “Arguendo” WED 02 Minguet Quartett Erica Campbell — Compiled by Carrie Donovan from staff reports


Local digest: News briefs from the Washington region.

THE DISTRICT 4 men convicted in 2 slayings After a four-month trial, a D.C. Superior Court jury found members of a D.C. street gang guilty of two murders, one of which was an afternoon shooting in the U Street corridor. The jury found Robert Givens, 21, Keir Johnson, 24, Lester Williams, 26, and Marcellus Jackson, 25, guilty of murder, conspiracy and other crimes, the U.S. attorney’s office said late Tuesday. The men were connected with the September 2010 fatal shooting of Jamal Coates, 21, after Coates attended a funeral, prosecutors said. The men were also connected with the August 2010 murder of Sean Robinson, 18, prosecutors said. — Keith L. Alexander MARYLAND Man acquitted in Pr. George’s killings A Prince George’s County jury acquitted a 27-year-old Capitol Heights man who was accused of being an accomplice in the May 2011 slaying of two cousins. Kenan A. Myers was found not guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of Sean Ellis, 24, and Anthony McKelvin, 28. Ellis and McKelvin were shot during a robbery, according to police. Prosecutors say Ellis and McKelvin were found shot to death and covered in bleach and gasoline. Authorities had accused Myers of being an accomplice to Brian Mayhew, 22, who was convicted in February of first-degree murder in the two deaths. — Lynh Bui VIRGINIA Springfield man killed in driveway accident A 72-year-old Springfield woman accidentally drove over and killed her husband in the driveway of their home Wednesday, Fairfax County police said. A preliminary investigation determined that 84-year-old Chong Sik Kim walked to the mailbox at the end of driveway shortly after 10 a.m., police said. Around the same time, Kim’s wife backed a vehicle down the driveway. She did not see her husband, who had slipped on ice, and backed over him as he lay on the ground, police said. The man was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. — Justin Jouvenal Charles Severance served with warrant An extradition warrant from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has been served on a man who is a “person of interest” in the high-profile killings of three people in Alexandria. McAuliffe (D) signed the extradition order Friday to return Charles Severance, who is jailed in West Virginia. He faces a weapons charge in Loudoun County that is unrelated to the killings. The serving of the warrant is a procedural step as prosecutors in


Planet-like object nicknamed Biden could help explain solar system’s origins

Three images of the night sky, each taken about two hours apart, have been combined. The first image was artificially colored red, the second green and the third blue. 2012 VP113 moved between each image as seen by the red, green and blue dots. (Scott Sheppard/Carnegie Institution for Science) More than 7 billion miles away from the sun, out on the far reaches of the solar system, astronomers have spotted a planet-like object they’ve never seen before, and they’ve nicknamed it Biden. Not that it has any real similarities to the vice president, other than a reddish tint and, arguably, its inclination toward the far-out. The name is more coincidence than anything and may be changed to something more official and mythological soon. But for now, Smiling Joe has his own celestial body — 2012 VP-113, which its discoverers have shortened to VP, or Biden. Scientists Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington and Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii reported the find in the science journal Nature. “It goes to show that there’s something we don’t know about our solar system, and it’s something important,” Trujillo told Nature. “We’re starting to get a taste of what’s out beyond what we consider the edge.” We don’t know what it’s made of yet — although with a temperature of minus 430 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s likely covered in ice. It’s about 280 miles in diameter, a dot compared with Earth, which is 7,900 miles across. Scientists hope it can provide new clues about how our solar system formed. Sheppard and Trujillo first saw the object, which could be a dwarf planet, using a 520-megapixel camera on a ground telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. To see objects so far away from Earth, they take three pictures of the sky, an hour or two apart, creating a time-lapse movie of the night sky. Anything that changes location over the course of the pictures is something worth investigating. Sheppard says that it takes a year or two after discovery, after observing the object’s orbit, before they’ll know whether their find is significant. In 2003, Trujillo and several other scientists found the first object in this part of the solar system, known as the inner Oort cloud. They named it Sedna after the Inuit goddess of the sea, given their similar living arrangements. The goddess lived underneath


An analysis of Michelle Obama’s trip to China

and criticism from our media and our fellow citizens,” she said. “And it’s not always easy, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.” John Thornton, a former president of Goldman Sachs who is director of Global Leadership at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said that he has not always given the Obama administration positive reviews but found the first lady’s speech “pitch-perfect” for China, where sincerity paves the way for connections. “It was very direct, but it was respectful, and it was said in a manner that allowed the audience to take it in,” Thornton said. “It really wasn’t saying, ‘And by the way, you should be this way, too.’ You could choose to be this way, but it wasn’t as if it were mandatory.” U.S. first lady Michelle Obama visited the Chengdu Panda Base in Sichuan province on her last day in China, becoming the latest in a long line of American government officials to be wooed by this country’s cute and cuddly panda diplomacy. The East Wing strategy was to do what the first lady does domestically: talk about her own experiences, views and values. Rather than pushing healthy eating and exercise, as she does at home, she talked about how she had benefited from the U.S. civil rights movement, come from a working-class family and gone on to elite universities. Her emphasis on overcoming class divides and minority issues is especially salient as the Chinese grapple with their own rural and urban striation and construct an idea of the “China Dream.” During a lively exchange near the end of her trip, giddy students at a high school in Chengdu, China’s fourth-largest city, asked Obama questions about creativity and competitiveness in education. “I hope you understand . . . that your education, first and foremost, is for you,” Obama said. “You have to have it in your mind that everything you’re doing is, first and foremost, for yourself and your own development.” Even that message, soft as it was, had the potential to be provocative in China’s culture of rigid standardized testing that often determines the arc of a student’s career. For Chinese officials, Obama’s visit also broke ground in first lady diplomacy. For the first time, a leader’s wife invited a U.S. first lady for a visit. Peng Liyuan, who has styled herself after Western first ladies by taking on causes and representing China abroad,


D.C. news in brief

camps. Check-in begins at 9 a.m. The Nen Daiko drummers of Ekoji Buddhist Temple in Fairfax Station will perform at 9:30 a.m., and the opening ceremony starts at 10 a.m. This year’s keynote speaker is Jodie Z. Bernstein, chairman of the Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Former transportation secretary Norman Y. Mineta and Japanese Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae are also scheduled. For information, go to www.ncbfreedomwalk.org. DDOT will hold meeting on Florida Avenue NE corridor The D.C. Department of Transportation will have a third and final public meeting on the Florida Avenue Multimodal Transportation Study from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Two Rivers Public Charter School, Middle School Building, 1234 Fourth St. NE. The study is evaluating traffic safety, streetscape and operational enhancements along the Florida Avenue NE corridor from New York Avenue to H Street and Benning Road. DDOT staff will present an update on project findings and take input on alternative concepts for improvements along the corridor. For information, call 202-671-0590 or e-mail gabe.onyeador@dc.gov. Environmental reports on streetcar extension The D.C. Department of Transportation has released two reports on the environmental and cultural effects of extending the D.C Streetcar’s initial Anacostia Line into historic Anacostia. The proposed extension will run from the Anacostia Metro station to the foot of the 11th Street bridge at Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road SE. The reports outline three transportation alternatives proposed as the result of information and public comments gathered throughout the study — a no-build option and two other scenarios for improving multimodal transportation along the proposed extension route. After a public comment period, the reports will be finalized. Plans for an Anacostia extension began in 2011 with a series of public meetings that examined the purpose of the project and potential streetcar alignments. To view the reports, go to www.dcstreetcar.com/projects/future-lines/anacostia-extension. The documents are also available at the DDOT office, 55 M St. SE, fourth floor; Anacostia Neighborhood Library, 1800 Good Hope Rd. SE; and the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, 1800 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE. DDOT staff members will take comments and answer questions from Monday to April 4 at the Anacostia Library during operating hours. To comment, e-mail circe.torruellas@dc.gov, call 202-671-2847 or write to Circe Torruellas, D.C. Department of Transportation, 55 M St. SE, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20003 by April 18. — Compiled by Terence McArdle


Art review: ‘Exposed DC Photography Show’

The Exposed DC Photography Show includes some postcard views. (Erin Kelly) What would an extraterrestrial think of Washington if his spaceship crash-landed in the middle of the Long View Gallery, where 49 photographs of the District and its suburbs are on display? Well, he might feel right at home. Scattered among the more expected images, which run from postcard views of the Tidal Basin to gritty street photography, E.T. would find a handful of shots that make the city look like a strange and wondrous place, where unicorns ride the subway and a giraffe stands guard over a parking lot at night. The most intriguing work in the “Exposed DC Photography Show” makes the capital city look like no place on Earth. The stated mission of the annual group show, which was founded by the DCist blog in 2007 as a way to spotlight emerging area photographers, is to offer a prismatic vision of life in and around Washington, not just as it is all too often caricatured, but as it is actually lived. But the show, which split from DCist this year under the aegis of the Exposed DC photo resource site, is at its best when you can’t tell where the pictures were taken. Chances are you won’t recognize the people who took the photos either. True to its name, “Exposed DC” is a platform for artists who aren’t yet household names. For the first time, the show offered six $100 prizes, courtesy of the Corcoran College of Art and Design. Judges included Lucien Perkins, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former Washington Post photographer. The photos themselves are bargains, with prices in the $100-to-$300 range. So what does the D.C. of “Exposed DC” look like? The show is a somewhat schizoid affair, and not because the images depict a racial, economic, geographic or cultural divide (though they do skew heavily toward the city’s Northwest quadrant and underrepresent the disadvantaged). Rather, the show, in general, can’t seem to decide which it loves more: the picturesque or the plain. Right off the bat, you’ll notice recurring themes. The region’s natural beauty is one, not just as it is reflected in our famous pink blossoms, but as seen in JP Benante’s lurid shot of sunflowers at the McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Poolesville. The Metro system is another favorite. Matt Dunn’s “Unicorn on Blue Line,” which focuses on a subway rider in a


Md. Senate passes measure to ease access to medical marijuana

The Maryland Senate voted Thursday to revise the state’s relatively new medical marijuana law to make it more workable and broaden access to the drug for patients who need it. The measure would allow certifying physicians approved by the state’s medical marijuana commission to give written certification to patients to obtain the drug for medical purposes. The bill – sponsored by Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery) and others — differs in some respects from a medical marijuana bill that passed the House. Among other things, the Senate version lifted the House-imposed cap on growers. The House bill, sponsored by Del. Cheryl D. Glenn (D-Baltimore), set the number of licensed growers at 10. But Raskin said members of the House and Senate were already moving informally toward a version that would likely meet with approval in a conference committee. “SB923 is designed to make medical marijuana truly, actually accessible to the patients who need it,” Raskin told the Senate during Wednesday’s debate. “We know that there are thousands of people in this state who are suffering from AIDs, leukemia, cancer, seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis and other severe, debilitating and chronic conditions for which marijuana is indicated, according to their physicians.” The state effectively decriminalized possession of marijuana for medical purposes in 2011. Last year, the General Assembly passed a medical marijuana bill that restricted the program to academic medical centers. But those institutions declined to participate, Raskin said, because they stated concerns about the loss of funds from the federal government, which continues to ban the drug. The Senate’s vote Thursday was 45 to 1; the House passed its version 126 to 10 March 13. The General Assembly is also considering measures that would legalize marijuana or decriminalize possession of small amounts.


Old and new mix on a Bethesda bar crawl

of citrus from the vodka. Equally summery is the Refresh, with watermelon and lime juices, agave nectar and floral Hendrick’s Gin. Not bad for $10 per drink. This is a bar for the wired: Each stool is next to an outlet (meant for charging your phone) and Roof offers free WiFi. My companion wondered whether everyone would spend the night with their eyes fixed on a tiny screen, but the crowd seemed more interested in chatting than staring at their phones or the TVs showing basketball. freddy’s lobster and clams 4867 Cordell Ave., Bethesda. 240-743-4257. www.freddyslobster.com. Freddy’s Lobster and Clams was a craft beer pioneer in Bethesda, offering a wide variety of Maryland brews as well as California heavyweights and interesting European ales in a funky, beach-shack setting. Almost everything about Freddy’s remains as I remembered it: Flying Dog and Evolution IPAs on tap, bottles from Flying Fish, Dogfish Head and Great Divide prominent in the cooler, and my bowl of savory lobster mac and cheese, loaded with crustacean and crusty with cheese. One thing that stuck in my craw: Service was slow, and it was a chore to flag the bartender down for anything. But for lobster rolls paired with a local ale, I’d be willing to give the place another go. Rock bottom brewery 7900 Norfolk Ave., Bethesda. 301-652-1311. www.rockbottom.com/bethesda. There are newer, buzzier brewpubs in the Washington area, but few can match the consistency or award-studded résumé of Rock Bottom brewer Geoff Lively. The nature of a chain brewpub means you probably won’t find trendy grisette or Berliner Weisse on Rock Bottom’s menu. But there are beers that are worth a look, particularly a cask-conditioned kolsch that was dry-hopped with citra, allowing that hop’s mango and citrus flavors to accent the kolsch’s crisp, balanced body. At the other end of the spectrum is the Highland Courage, a malty, medal-winning Scottish Ale. You have a few more days to sample Fire Chief Ale, a red ale that combines caramel flavors with a biscuity backbone. It’s Rock Bottom’s annual gift to fire-related charities, and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation will receive 25 cents for every $5.50 pint sold through the end of March. The Bethesda brewpub raised $1,025.75 for charity during the same promotion last year. brickside food and drink 4866 Cordell Ave., Bethesda. 301-312-6160. www.bricksidebethesda.com. What a difference a year makes. This restaurant and bar sports a faux-Prohibition


Prince George’s and Southern Maryland Going Out Guide, March 27-April 2, 2014

Shadz of Soul performs a soulful mix of R&B to honor women in music for Women’s History Month (Courtesy of Shadz of Soul/Courtesy of Shadz of Soul) THU 27 National Harbor Restaurant Week “Symphony of the Soil” Shadz of Soul “But I Said No” FRI 28 Juried Student Show “Taste of TNI” Connections Literary Series “The Sunshine Boys” “Hamlet” Todd Marcus UMD Men’s Chorus: Annual Men’s Chorus Invitational SAT 29 Eastern Shore Sea Glass and Coastal Arts Festival Read Across America “The Lion King on Ice” Bull and Shrimp Feast “Seagirl” “Exchanged III” “Not My Life” “Where Gospel Meets Jazz” Chesapeake Choral Arts Society Frank Wiens Golden Gloves Championship Finals SUN 30 Riversdale Chamber Music Society Concert Series “Virtuosity” 45th Laurel Art Guild Juried Exhibition MON 31 Chesapeake Woodturners exhibit A showcase of handmade wood objects made by the Chesapeake Woodturners. Closes March 31. Montpelier Mansion, 9650 Muirkirk Rd., Laurel. 301-377-7817. www.pgparks.com. Free. TUE 01 “Earth Rebirth!” WED 02 “Heroes: Gone but Not Forgotten” — Compiled by Jillian S. Jarrett from staff reports Shadz of Soul 3The local trio of Farnetta Baker, Anissa Moody and Shawn Allen performs soulful R&B honoring women in music for Women’s History Month. Thursday at 7 p.m. Blue Dolphin, 1166 Route 3, Gambrills. 410-721-9081. www.theashleighgroup.com. $20.


With calibrated sanctions on Russia, the U.S. risks leading from behind

The March 21 editorial “Tightening the screws” noted some possible advantages of a “carefully calibrated” sanctions regime against Russia. While a scaled response to aggression may have some benefit, there are two serious shortcomings. This approach cedes the initiative to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose aggressiveness hardly needs encouragement. And it implies another still-to-be-defined “red line.” Given the recent history of U.S. red lines, it is unlikely that the threat of another will be productive. It’s far better to take decisive action upfront than to threaten incremental responses to hypothetical threats, especially given Mr. Putin’s clear contempt for the Obama administration. In today’s world of resurgent nationalism and festering territorial disputes, another public display of American weakness can only add to global instability. Tom Seal, Stafford


Mystery of pet deaths related to jerky treats made in China continues to stump FDA

Andy lost his appetite. Then came the vomiting, the unquenchable thirst, the constant need to urinate. Over several days last year, the spunky 4-year-old West Highland white terrier grew lethargic and lost more than 10 percent of his weight. “It got bad,” said Andy’s owner, Alfredo Gude, a retiree in Cape Coral, Fla. “I knew that he was in trouble.” Gude and his wife rushed Andy to their veterinarian, who referred him to a clinic 15 miles away. Doctors there sent a urine sample to a specialized metabolic lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Days later, test results confirmed the diagnosis: Fanconi syndrome, a rare, often fatal illness that affects the kidneys. The suspected cause: chicken jerky pet treats manufactured in China. The incident is part of a troubling mystery lasting more than seven years, with reports of at least 600 dogs dying and thousands of others sickened. It has outraged unsuspecting pet owners, confounded the Food and Drug Administration and put the pet food industry’s manufacturing practices under a microscope. Since 2007, when the FDA warned of an apparent link between jerky treats and sick and dying dogs, agency officials have spent countless hours trying to nail down what might be behind the illnesses, with little success. The agency continues to seek leads from veterinarians and pet owners, sorting through the 1,500 reports that have come in since a public appeal for information in the fall. Now, companies that voluntarily pulled some treats from the market last year are bringing reformulated versions back to store shelves, even though the government has been unable to figure out why pets continue to get sick. Bernadette Dunham, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, has called it “one of the most elusive and mysterious outbreaks we’ve encountered,” a sentiment echoed by others at the agency. “We are frustrated,” said Martine Hartogensis, who oversees the FDA’s ongoing investigation. “It’s been a long, winding, twisting road . . . [But] we haven’t given up.” The FDA says it has tested more than 1,200 jerky treats in recent years, looking for salmonella, mold, pesticides, toxic metals, outlawed antibiotics, nephrotoxins and other contaminants. Federal officials have inspected factories in China that manufacture chicken jerky products for U.S. companies and sought input from academics, state and university research labs, foreign governments and the pet food industry. The agency even made its own jerky treats to try


In new case, Supreme Court revisits the question of software patents

court took up such a case, it ruled that “one may not patent an idea” or something as abstract as an algorithm. Alice Corp. has argued that because its innovation requires the use of a computer, it amounts to an invention that is patentable. In the 1970s, the high court placed strict rules on software-related patents. Since then, a lower court has effectively overruled its precedents, flooding the marketplace with software patents. While the arguments in this debate have barely changed since the 1970s, the players have changed radically — in point of view, at least. In 1972, IBM was a leading software patent opponent. Today Big Blue is one of the concept’s biggest supporters. In 1991, Bill Gates warned that patents could bring the software industry to a “standstill.” Today, Microsoft is fighting to protect the tens of thousands of software patents in its portfolio. Given the business interests at stake, the high court faces a rich dilemma: Since 1998, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued hundreds of thousands of software patents — collectively worth billions of dollars to companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. If they rule that software cannot be patented, the justices could decimate the patent arsenals of some of America’s wealthiest companies. Mental steps The first high-profile battle over software patents pitted two of America’s most powerful companies, AT&T and IBM, against each other. Gary Benson and Arthur Tabbot were researchers at AT&T’s legendary Bell Laboratories, and in 1963 they sought a patent on a method of converting between two different binary formats. Their invention worked like this: Suppose an AT&T customer dials “202.” In binary, 2 can be represented as “0010” and 0 as “0000.” So as the customer dials “202,” AT&T’s computer system might store this as “0010 0000 0010.” This format is known as “binary coded decimal.” But it’s more efficient for a computer to represent 202 in its “pure binary” form: “11001010.” Benson and Tabbot had developed a sequence of mathematical operations that allowed computers to rapidly convert a binary-coded decimal number such as “0010 0000 0010” into the more compact form “11001010.” The Patent Office rejected their application, arguing that one could not patent “a logical list of mental steps.” Mathematical formulas had long been off-limits for patent protection. Benson and Tabbot’s application was not a patentable invention because its sequence of mathematical operations was simply carried


S&R Foundation provides Washington Ballet with live music, affects city’s music scene

Stern helping support WPAS’s presentation of the Israel Philharmonic this weekend. It’s less common for private, low-profile citizens — and the doctors were quite low-profile before their $33 million purchases landed them in the city’s gossip columns — to start their own organizations and then integrate themselves into the community. This wasn’t part of the doctors’ original plan. The S&R Foundation isn’t even exclusively devoted to musicians; it also gives grants to scientists. However, musicians have so far represented some 70 percent of the awardees, according to Ueno, the more musical member of the couple. “We decided to keep in contact with all the artists,” he said. “Since we have this venue of Evermay just recently, please come back to Evermay to play again.” Thus the concert series was born, and, this coming June, a new chamber music series with a larger ensemble of soloists — including the pianists Ryo Yanagitani and Yu Kosuge, the violinist Tamaki Kawakubo (who serves as the ensemble’s artistic director) and the cellist Claudio Bohorquez — that will, Ueno says, form the base of the chamber orchestra that will accompany the Washington Ballet. “We are thinking of adding local artists to the core members,” he said, “to make, not a full full orchestra, but a modest-sized orchestra to be in the orchestra pit. So it’s a combination of our award winners and local artists here. If the core members are really good — and many of them are from the Berlin Philharmonic, and next year we invite some from the Saito Kinen Orchestra as well . . . hopefully local players are also enjoying playing with world-class.” There is no question that the Washington Ballet would welcome the return of live music, which hitherto has been possible only through special donations, like one in 2011 from Adrienne Arsht. Neither Ueno nor the ballet itself was willing to comment on how far the Washington Ballet will be financially involved in this new partnership. Ueno was clear that he wanted it to be a true partnership; “otherwise, if our money goes away, they cannot continue.” The Washington Ballet’s Septime Weber was evasive. “There has always been a great interdependence between dance and music,” he said in a statement issued through his media representative. “Tchaikovsky’s majestic score for ‘Swan Lake’ is a great way to launch the relationship between The Washington Ballet and Evermay Chamber Orchestra.” Ueno added,


One simple game, 17 years of highlights

This month, after 17 years, I hung up my whistle as coach of the Bethesda Fighting Wildcats, my daughters’ recreational basketball team. It began with our older girl and got passed down, like a pair of gym shorts, to her little sister, nine years her younger. Now the little sister is about to graduate from high school, and I’ve run out the clock. All told, during my tenure the ’Cats have played 136 games and gone through something like 40 girls. I still call them by their nicknames — Chuck Biscuits, Bellarina, the Breezer, Snack-Pack — just as unforgettable as the memories they left behind. Like the fourth-grader who raised her hand during a skull session to say she’d had a bad dream the night before. Moments like that reminded me that basketball might not be the most important thing in life to these girls. That player, though, went on to play college ball on a full scholarship. Coaching, I found, is a bit like parenting. If you’re paying attention, you’ll learn far more from them than they’ll ever learn from you. I taught them all I really know about basketball on our first day of practice. “It’s a simple game,” I said. “All you have to do is control time and space.” I’ve been trying to figure out how to do that ever since. Basketball can be embarrassing. You have to be able to catch, pass, shoot, dribble and defend. Three out of five ain’t bad in horseshoes. In basketball, though, that still leaves two ways for a girl to feel like a crumb on the court. You can help them only so much in an hour of practice each week. I stressed the fundamentals and hoped for the best. On balance, we won about as many games as we lost, which seems about right for rec ball. The highlights reel runs only in my mind, equal parts hustle, laughter and grace. Close games we pulled out in the final seconds. Those shots that seemed to hang in the air for an eternity before somehow finding their way into the basket. The back-seat chatter of teenage girls in the car ride home from the game. Some of my middle-age cohorts like to look back and insist they have no regrets. That’s one thing you’ll never hear from a basketball coach. I’m not talking about the failure to adjust a


Flight MH370, the ultimate ‘one-off,’ spurs calls to modernize tracking technology

The bizarre tale of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 comes at a time when flying is safer than ever. Nervous fliers squeeze the armrests for dear life, but most passengers have no problem nodding off as their jetliner cruises seven miles above the Earth. They have internalized the statistical truth that the most dangerous part of an airplane trip is the drive to the airport. Yet disasters still happen, including this one. Officially declared a plane crash at sea with no survivors, the event remains so deeply mysterious that it seems premature to refer to the people aboard as deceased. Viewed in the broad context of aviation safety, this weird case actually fits snugly within a recent pattern: Airline disasters now tend to be unprecedented in nature — what investigators call “one-offs.” In the old days, planes typically went down because of engine failures, wind shear, collisions or some other familiar problem. But turbine engines almost neverfail these days. Improved radarhelps pilots dodge the lethal downdrafts of thunderstorms.Collision-avoidance technology commands the pilots of converging planes to make diversionary maneuvers. Even if Flight 370 is the ultimate one-off, aviation safety advocates say there are lessons to be learned from this tragedy, starting with the need for tamperproof equipment that would stream data in real time to satellites and reveal a plane’s position. “This could well be the kind of ‘black swan’ event that requires everybody to carry a location device,” said Chris McLaughlin, senior vice president of Inmarsat, the satellite company that helped calculate the likely flight corridor of the missing plane. “As a ticket-payer, wouldn’t you like to know that the authorities know where your plane is at all times?” he said. “This is not expensive. We’re talking maybe a dollar an hour or less to get that information off the plane.” Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which includes the Federal Aviation Administration, would go even further. She’d like to see the full “black box” data — a massive amount of information about the plane’s performance — streamed to ground locations during flight. “There’s lots of reasons to have streaming data — not the least of which is to foil criminals — and to solve the mystery of what happened to your plane. It would have helped in 9/11. It would have been immensely helpful here,” Schiavo said. Star Navigation Systems Group, a Toronto company,


Skywatch: Total lunar eclipse set for morning of April 15

Wake up early or stay up late: If skies are clear, you could see the bright full moon turn a reddish hue during a total lunar eclipse early on the morning of April 15. Lunar eclipses are safe to watch with the naked eye. Fred Espenak, astronomer and noted eclipse expert (MrEclipse.com) says the eclipse could take on “a dramatically colorful appearance, ranging from bright orange to blood red.” During a lunar eclipse, the Earth quite literally sits between the sun and the moon, blocking sunlight from reaching the usually radiant full moon. Look to the southern sky. The first partial eclipse phase starts at 1:58 a.m., when the moon enters Earth’s umbral shadow. In the southwestern sky, the total eclipse phase begins at 3:07 a.m., with the middle of totality at 3:36 a.m., according to Espenak. Totality ends at 4:25 a.m., when the moon perches on the shadowy umbral-penumbral fence. That’s the second partial eclipse phase, and it ends at 5:33 a.m. Totality will last about 77 minutes. Next to the moon, you might spy Spica, a first-magnitude star in the constellation Virgo. The bright reddish Mars hangs to the right of the moon. This eclipse represents the first of four total lunar eclipses in a row. That kind of series is known as a tetrad — with the next three occurring Oct. 8, 2014; April 4, 2015; and Sept. 28, 2015. Tetrads happen occasionally, as we’ll see only eight in this century. Our last tetrad was in 2004 and our next will be in 2032-33. April nights open with Jupiter high in the west-southwest (Gemini constellation) at a bright -2.2 magnitude. Mars (-1.4 magnitude, bright) ascends around 9 p.m. Up all night, it reaches opposition April 8. Saturn (zero magnitude, bright) follows Mars, rising in the east-southeast around 10:40 p.m. now. Venus (-4.3 magnitude, very bright) reigns in the eastern morning sky, an hour or so before sunrise. Down-to-Earth events: ● Wednesday – “Red Bull Stratos: Mission to the Edge of Space” celebrates a new, temporary exhibit with a panel talk by Felix Baumgartner, the parachutist who jumped Oct. 14, 2012, in a supersonic free fall from Earth’s upper stratosphere and landed in Roswell, N.M.; previous altitude record-holder Joe Kittinger (1960); and jump director Art Thompson. Lockheed Martin Imax Theater, National Air and Space Museum, the Mall. (Webcast available.) 7 p.m. airandspace.si.edu. ● Saturday – “The Thirty Meter


Telescope: The Next Generation of Ground-Based Telescope,” a talk by astronomer Warren Skidmore, at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. 8 p.m. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. ● Saturday – “Exploring the Sky.” See planets, stars and nebulae live from the heart of Washington. Hosted by the National Park Service and the National Capital Astronomers. At Rock Creek Park, near the Nature Center in the field south of Military and Glover roads NW. 8:30 p.m. capitalastronomers.org. ● April 7 – “Stars Tonight,” at the David M. Brown Planetarium, 1426 N. Quincy St., Arlington. 7:30 p.m. $3. friendsoftheplanetarium.org. ● April 8 – “Solar Science at Skylab’s Launch,” a talk by Karl Hufbauer, history professor emeritus, University of California at Irvine. At Lockheed Martin Imax Theater. National Air and Space Museum, the Mall. 8 p.m. (Webcast available.) airandspace.si.edu. ● April 11 – “Understanding the Quantum Universe: Mysteries of Massive and (Almost) Massless Particles,” a lecture by Nigel Lockyer, director, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Hosted by the Philosophical Society of Washington at the John Wesley Powell Auditorium, adjacent to the Cosmos Club, 2170 Florida Ave. NW. 8:15 p.m. www.philsoc.org. ● April 12 – Astronomy, a Super Science Saturday event, demonstrations and hands-on activities throughout the Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly. Parking $15. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. airandspace.si.edu. ● April 12 — Henrique Schmitt of the Naval Research Laboratory explains the study of star structure and talks about using geostationary satellites for cosmic observation. At the National Capital Astronomers meeting, University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. 7:30 p.m. capitalastronomers.org. ● April 19 – “Quantum Gravity or How C, G and H Create the Fabric of Reality,” a presentation at the Montgomery College planetarium, Takoma Park, 7 p.m. montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/planet/. ● April 20 — “Asteroid Hazards: Not as Seen on TV,” a talk by visiting professor Tom Statler at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. Telescope viewing after, weather permitting. 8 p.m. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. ● April 22 – “Old Moon, New Moon,” a talk on mapping our lunar neighbor, crust to core, by Maria Zuber, geophysicist and vice president of research at MIT, at the Carnegie Institution for Science, auditorium, 1530 P St. NW (corner of 16th and P streets). 6:45 p.m. carnegiescience.edu. ● April 26 – Tour the night sky far from city lights as astronomers from the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club join Sean O’Brien of the National Air and Space Museum. At Sky Meadows State Park near Paris, Va. Parking


Business recap: Business news from the week of March 23

two-year-old Oculus VR, a maker of virtual-reality glasses for gaming, for $2 billion, buying its way into the fast-growing wearable-devices arena with its first hardware deal. ¶ The acquisition, which comes hot on the heels of its $19 billion deal for messaging service WhatsApp, marks a big bet by Facebook to anticipate the next shift in an evolving tech industry. ¶ “We’re making a long-term bet that immersive, virtual and augmented reality will become a part of people’s daily life,” Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said. ¶ Zuckerberg stressed that Facebook’s plans for Oculus extend well beyond games. ¶ Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey promised its passionate fans that not much would change in the company’s day-to-day operations. Still, many protested the move. Business Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Bank of America Separately, Lehman Brothers Holdings’ Bernard L. Madoff’s five former aides Carlyle Group Bitcoins Tera Group Cisco J.C. Penney’s reinstalled chief executive Mike Ullman Google BP’s Whiting refinery ● Former Goldman Sachs Group director Rajat Gupta’s conviction and two-year prison term for securities fraud and conspiracy were upheld by a federal appeals court. It rejected Gupta’s claim that wiretap evidence should not have been admitted to show that he leaked news about Goldman’s finances by phone to Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam. Google Amazon.com will drop prices Facebook Creditors of bankrupt bitcoin exchange Microsoft Comcast’s Executive Vice President David Cohen Duke Energy Deals Intel Economy The U.S. economy The Federal Reserve hasn’t significantly changed its intentions for raising interest rates despite a faster-than- expected drop in unemployment, a key Fed official said. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage U.S. home prices dipped Washington Federal agents tipped off Transitions Northwestern University football players Paying welfare benefits by debit card instead of cash caused a 10 percent drop in crime, a study found. The Washington Monument is set to reopen May 12 after $15 million in repairs of earthquake damage. The Affordable Care Act — From news services and staff reports $7.09 billion King Digital Entertainment value The maker of the Candy Crush smartphone game raised $500 million in its initial stock offering. It suffered a steep 16 percent first-day decline in share value. King’s core title accounted for a stunning 78 percent of all of its revenue in the final quarter of 2013. And 95 percent of its revenue comes from three titles: Candy Crush Saga, Pet Rescue and Farm Heroes Saga.


U.S., Russia agree to more talks on Ukraine

rounds of sanctions on Russia, including travel bans and asset freezes on senior Russian officials as punishment for the seizure of Crimea. The West has threatened tougher sanctions if Moscow invades eastern Ukraine. On “This Week,” Kislyak said Ukraine needs to change its constitution to better respect regional differences within the nation. “It’s a country that certainly needs a revision of the constitution that would include a mechanism where the regions would be heard and their views would be taken on board,” he said. Kislyak echoed Lavrov, who said in the state television interview that Moscow wants federalism for Ukraine as a way to protect the rights of Russian-speakers and ethnic Russians. “Frankly speaking, we don’t see any other way for the steady development of the Ukrainian state apart from as a federation,” Lavrov said. Putin aired the Russian plan during Friday’s hour-long phone call with Obama. It would allow individual regions of Ukraine to separately control taxes, economic decisions, language, education and other matters. The new leadership in Kiev sees that as a backdoor means of breaking up the country. Russia wants U.S. and European economic sanctions lifted, but it was not clear whether the two diplomats would address that. The penalties were imposed to protest the annexation, and U.S. officials have said they will not be lifted unless Russia withdraws. Lavrov played down the effect of sanctions ahead of his meeting with Kerry. Western leaders are considering broader sanctions targeting the vital energy sector. Oil and gas are Russia’s main export. “I don’t want to say that sanctions are ridiculous and that we couldn’t care less. These are not pleasant things,” Lavrov told Russia’s Channel One. “We find little joy in that, but there are no painful sensations. We have lived through tougher times.” In the ABC interview, Kislyak responded to Obama’s comment last week that Russia is a “regional power” acting out of weakness. “If you consider Russia a regional power, look at the region that we are in — it’s from Europe to Asia,” the ambassador said. “It’s quite a significant region, in the first place. Secondly, I think that those categorizations are very artificial. We are a country with a lot of interests and a lot of things we can contribute throughout the world, but we are certainly not going to overstretch any way.” Josh Hicks and Ernesto Londoño in Washington contributed to this report.


Meet MACH37’s newest class of cybersecurity start-ups

is working out the business model at MACH37. He initially thought he could sell the product directly to consumers, but he has since decided that service providers might represent a more lucrative and accessible market. CardKill: Largo, Fla. CardKill processes analytics about credit card and debit card transactions to thwart major fraud, according to chief executive Mark Hardy — signs that banks and credit card companies might miss. “Your card might be stolen from Target in November, but it’s still working its way through the underground food chain” months later, he said. Some banks might not pick up on the fraud until the card is used in a Zip code that appears to have little connection to the card holder, he argued — but CardKill aims to identify the small fraudulent purchases that thieves might make before they max out a stolen card, he said. The software is being tested in one major bank, though Hardy declined to identify it. Fast Orientation: Menlo Park, Calif. Sam Small, a cybersecurity consultant, found that many of his clients could not answer simple questions about which employees were responsible for which tasks in large organizations. “We might want to know immediately who is running this particular application, or this version of the application,” he said, so administrators can trace issues to a particular employee. So Small is building a product that can help businesses answer these kinds of questions using natural language queries — an administrator can type in a question, and the software would mine data about the company’s work flow to produce an answer. IDentia: Herndon President and chief executive Nick Duan is building technology that businesses could use to control employee access to sensitive information. Initially funded by a Small Business Innovation Research grant issued by the Defense Department, Duan has been developing IDentia for the past couple of years. The software can automatically evaluate a company’s security policy against each user attempting to access information, determining if the user has the necessary clearances or qualifications. Though he is figuring out a pricing model, Duan said the company might use traditional licensing, selling the software to large organizations and charging per user. Duan said he hopes MACH37 can help him pitch IDentia to clients outside of the government. “We want the commercial customer to realize they face the same security challenges that the [Defense Department] and federal government is facing.”


John Sopko, head of oversight for U.S. work in Afghanistan, says major challenges remain

police, and there’s a trust fund set up by the World Bank to support some of the Afghan ministries. What problems have you discovered with those programs? We just uncovered some allegations about the Afghan National Police, that there are certain funds or monies taken out of the police salaries every month that we don’t know where the money went, nor do our allies. And then there’s another fund of about 5 percent that was supposed to go toward retirement, and we don’t know where that money is. And then we heard about generals who apparently are not listed in the police force, but their salaries are being paid. So we picked up a number of allegations that we’re looking into. Is overseeing Afghanistan reconstruction anything like combatting organized crime? Yes and no. What I’m dealing with mostly is mismanagement — less criminality and more mismanagement. Now there’s a lot of fraud, and actually there’s probably more fraud, and it’s more difficult in Afghanistan than even in Iraq, because in Iraq you were mainly dealing with U.S. contractors. In Afghanistan, we have a policy of Afghan first, to try to encourage Afghan companies. So you’re using a lot of Afghan contractors and subcontractors. We have no treaty to extradite. We have a very poorly run and corrupt Ministry of Justice, attorney general’s office and judiciary [in Afghanistan]. So it’s very difficult for us to reach out and grab a contractor or subcontractor. We’re dealing with a very corrupt country. You’re dealing with a country in which you have limited capability to prosecute or sue contractors and subcontractors, so you need to put protections into the contracts. How can the United States oversee reconstruction efforts without U.S. troops protecting the monitors? The answer is setting up some type of third-party monitoring system. This isn’t rocket science. This has been done before. What we’re saying is: U.S. government, get your act together and develop a system. It’s not our job to tell you how to develop it. You’ve done this before in Somalia or Iraq or Pakistan or wherever else. But get it in place. And why haven’t you put it in place three years ago? You knew this is where we were going. Only now are they starting to let contracts for third-party monitoring. But you’ve said third-party monitors have misled the United States in the past. Maybe you have to


Competitive walking was the national pastime until baseball came along

in the days before radio and record players savored the competition. The sport was known as pedestrianism, and its most successful practitioners were this country’s first celebrity athletes. Their images appeared on some of the first trading cards, and they received lucrative endorsement deals. Dan O’Leary, an Irish immigrant from Chicago who won a six-day race by walking 520 miles, was the spokesman for Dittman’s salt. Another pedestrian, John Hughes, was sponsored by the National Police Gazette. During races Hughes wore a shirt with the newspaper’s logo emblazoned across the front, one of the earliest examples of advertising on an athletic uniform (a trend that, to its credit, Major League Baseball has resisted). Champion pedestrians were well paid. After a six-day race at Madison Square Garden (then known as Gilmore’s Garden) in March 1879 — attended by luminaries including James Blaine, who was then a Republican senator from Maine, and future president Chester Arthur — the winner, Charles Rowell, walked away with more than $18,000 (about $425,000 in today’s money). Not bad for six days’ work. But just a decade later, pedestrianism was dead. By then, charges of race fixing and doping had diluted fan interest. During one race in 1876, the famous pedestrian Edward Payson Weston was caught chewing coca leaves — a practice that was considered unsportsmanlike, if not outright cheating. Meanwhile, baseball was on the rise. The National League, founded as a ragtag enterprise in 1876, became a stable, profitable business after team owners imposed a $2,500 salary cap in 1885. Of the eight clubs in the league in 1890, only one, the Cleveland Spiders, no longer exists. The other seven clubs were, and still are, the Braves, Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Phillies, Pirates and Reds. Fans who once had flocked to six-day races instead filled spacious new wooden ballparks. For all its popularity today, baseball would do well to remember the demise of its predecessor as America’s favorite spectator sport. Players’ use of performance-enhancing drugs has sullied baseball’s image. TV ratings are declining. For a brief time, it seemed that pedestrianism would be our national pastime forever. Even if it takes more than a century, history has a way of repeating itself. Read more about this issue: George F. Will: The annual baseball quiz Joe Carr: Welcome baseball fan. Go directly to jail. James P. Marsh Jr.: Why I sit out “God Bless America” at Nationals Park


U.N. climate panel: Governments, businesses need to take action now against growing risks

A U.N. report released Monday in Japan said global warming is affecting food and water shortages, economic livelihoods and raising the risk of wars. The world’s leading environmental scientists told policymakers and business leaders Sunday that they must invest more to cope with climate change’s immediate effects and hedge against its most dire potential, even as they work to slow the emissions fueling global warming. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that climate change is already hurting the poor, wreaking havoc on the infrastructure of coastal cities, lowering crop yields, endangering various plant and animal species, and forcing many marine organisms to flee hundreds of miles to cooler waters. But the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group said that climate change’s effects will grow more severe and that spending and planning are needed to guard against future costs, much as people insure themselves against possible accidents or health problems. The report The summary of the report, ratified at a five-day meeting in Yokohama, Japan, avoided specific forecasts or timetables or cost estimates, but it described a range of likelihoods and outcomes in an attempt to give decision-makers the tools to set priorities to combat those effects. Scientists who helped write the report said that efforts to adapt could include constructing emergency cyclone and flood shelters like those in parts of Bangladesh, moving generators out of New York City basements that flooded during Hurricane Sandy, changing farming techniques to cope with higher temperatures, and conserving water and curbing pollution in areas threatened with more-frequent droughts. “The focus is as much on identifying effective responses as on understanding challenges,” Chris Field, co-chairman of the IPCC working group writing the report, said in a statement last week. On Monday in Yokohama, he said that “we need to think about reducing risks and building more resilient societies” by drawing on “deep pools” of creativity and innovation. Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University and one of the report’s authors, said: “There is a more optimistic tone about our ability to adapt to some of these things. We’ve had some bad heat waves and coastal storms, and we have a better idea of what we need to do. Whether we will ever do it, I don’t know.” But he cautioned that “everyone agrees that if we don’t slow the warming down, our prospects for adaptation are not good.” The risk-based


Leesburg mother leads effort to launch first musical-theater magnet in Loudoun

Skating trainer Wendy Marco, who owns the company ColdRush Hockey. (Dayna Smith/For The Washington Post) Loudoun County has magnet programs for teens who aspire to be mathematicians or chemists or mechanics, but Wendy Marco of Leesburg was frustrated to find there were no advanced programs that could help her 10th-grade daughter, who dreams of a life on stage. So she decided to create one herself. Four months and hundreds of hours of research and organizing later, her vision of a musical-theater magnet is becoming a reality. The Loudoun School Board in late February approved a pilot magnet program that she spearheaded. It’s scheduled to start next fall at Heritage High School. Sharon Ackerman, assistant superintendent for instruction for Loudoun County Public Schools, said she couldn’t remember another time in her more than four decades with the school system that an individual-led effort was so successful. “This was unique, particularly [considering] the speed with which it took off,” she said. As many as 32 juniors and seniors will be selected to attend the Musical Theatre Academy every other day for courses in acting, dance and vocal performance. The magnet is similar in structure to programs at the Academy of Science or C.S. Monroe Technology Center. A former competitive figure skater, Marco is a skating coach for hockey players. Many of her younger students have gone on to play professionally or compete in the Olympics, and she understands how pivotal the teenage years can be in determining how far they will go. “As a coach, you learn first-hand the importance of setting high expectations and training with other people that are as good or better than you,” she said. As a mother, she has sought out opportunities to help her daughters be “as good as they wanted to be” in their chosen fields. For her older daughter, that meant extra voice and dancing lessons and workshops and training clinics in New York and the District. When her daughter was in middle school, Marco found there were few opportunities for students in that age group to be in plays, so she launched a community performance group for them. As they looked ahead to college, Marco talked to admissions officers and came to the conclusion that her daughter would be at a disadvantage when it came time to apply for the highly competitive, college-level performing arts programs without the springboard of a specialized arts


U.S. drug war slowly shifts fire away from low-level users

street corners just outside. “Our prosecutions and policing weren’t making a bit of difference,’’ said Goodhew, deputy chief of staff for the King County prosecuting attorney’s office. So Goodhew teamed up with a police official and defense lawyer to develop a novel pilot program. In part of the city, when police arrest someone with a nonviolent past for buying or selling small amounts of drugs, they now have the option of immediately sending the arrestee into drug treatment — and not pursuing the case. “It’s the vanguard, a sea change in how law enforcement thinks about drug laws,’’ Goodhew said of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, which started in one neighborhood in 2011 and is about to expand to others. “This is treating the issue of low-level drug sales and use as a public health problem.’’ The program, which has also been adopted by Santa Fe, N.M., is considered among the most innovative of a variety of state and local changes to drug laws and policies that de-emphasize enforcement or combine it with more treatment. Among them is a Hawaii program that swiftly punishes drug offenders for probation violations and has been shown to reduce recidivism, along with the rapid growth of drug courts — special courts that emphasize treatment over incarceration. Drug courts started in 1989, and there are now nearly 3,000 nationwide. Much as the focus on treatment would have been difficult to imagine several decades ago, so would the growing success of marijuana legalization. The use of medical marijuana, first approved in California in 1996, has spread to 20 states plus the District. And the historic ballot initiatives that led to recreational use in Colorado and Washington is prompting activists to push for similar initiatives in at least six other states. Alaska has agreed to put legalization on the ballot in August. But the effort is not without obstacles: a number of groups opposing marijuana legalization have sprung up. “The pro-drug movement has the momentum so far because they have the money and have been able to confuse people about the damage that marijuana really causes,’’ said David Evans, special adviser to Save Our Society From Drugs. “This is not ‘Woodstock weed’ anymore. It’s very potent, very addictive and highly toxic,’’ said Evans, who vows that the battle will be joined even more in the months ahead. Alice Crites and Scott Clement contributed to this story.


Five things to watch as the 90-day session’s final week gets underway in Annapolis

“Good Morning America,” which ran a segment Sunday that featured an interview with the author of the amendment, Del. C. William Frick (D-Montgomery). While the state is likely to continue offering a tax credit, the House has yet to tip its hand as to how generous it will be. Will lawmakers seek to undo a court ruling on bail hearings? The escalating debate over how to fix Maryland’s method of setting bail for criminal defendants – and whether the system is even really broken – is expected to occupy lawmakers again this week. With time running out, the legislature has been trying to address concerns raised by the state’s highest court that too many people are unnecessarily locked up before trial, often because they lack adequate legal representation. The Court of Appeals, in DeWolfe v. Richmond, held that all defendants are entitled to an attorney even at the earliest judicial proceedings—and that includes poor defendants who cannot afford legal counsel. Leading lawmakers say the bill for such representation could be staggering, because the state would have to supply attorneys at duplicative bail hearings before District Court commissioners and judges. This week the Senate is scheduled to debate final passage of a proposal by Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery) to streamline the process by creating a new agency to screen arrestees. The approach is intended to eliminate one layer of bail review by replacing District Court commissioners with a new executive-branch department whose computerized analysis would determine which defendants could go and which posed flight risks or a threat of committing new offenses. But others would like to see the General Assembly scrap the Court of Appeals rulings altogether. Among them is Sen. Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), who is urging colleagues to pass a constitutional amendment nullifying the court rulings. His legislation is scheduled to be heard by the Judicial Proceedings Committee on Tuesday. Will efforts to decriminalize marijuana wither on the vine in the House Judiciary Committee? In a session where several marijuana-related bills were introduced, this much seems clear: Outright legalization — as in Colorado — isn’t happening this year, but lawmakers seem determined to reach a compromise in the final week on legislation expanding the state’s unworkable medical marijuana law. The bigger mystery concerns the fate of a bill that would subject those caught will small amounts of the drug only to civil penalties rather than the


What groceries are popular in Washington? Produce and alcohol, apparently.

What are Washingtonians apt to ask for when they can use a smartphone app that fulfills grocery orders? Produce and alcohol. Lots of alcohol. “Alcohol has been a big part of it,” said Aditya Shah, the head of expansion at Instacart, an app that delivers groceries from local stores to your doorstep in as little as an hour. Instacart is now expanding its geographic footprint locally and adding Safeway to the roster of stores from which it will fill orders, Shah said. The app debuted in the Washington region in February. Though Shah declined to specify how many people use the app or how many deliveries have been completed, he said it has proven popular among busy young professionals and college students. Instacart’s new territory includes a broader swath of Maryland and Northern Virginia, including Takoma Park, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, Bethesda, Alexandria, Arlington and McLean. The push into the suburbs is unique as similar applications, such as Washio for dirty laundry or Uber for car sharing, don’t venture far from places where a concentration of car-less people with disposable income live. Still, Shah said Instacart sees an opportunity to serve more suburban customers and intends to keep its commitment of delivering orders in as little as an hour, often for an extra fee. At the time of its launch, orders could only be filled at Harris Teeter stores. The inclusion of Safeway comes after Whole Foods and Costco were added to the app in recent weeks. Costco, in particular, has been a draw for college students and offices looking to buy food in bulk, Shah said. “A lot of the offices do weekly runs with Instacart, so we’ll see large orders consisting of 300 cans of Coca-Cola or 50 bananas,” Shah said. “We know those are offices that are stocking up.” Follow reporter Steven Overly on Twitter: @StevenOverly


She was mildly nauseated and her ears were ringing. No one seemed to know why.

Medicine Was it a concussion? Acoustic neuroma? No one seemed to know. ‘Diagnose This,’ Harper’s magazine, April issue Like most of us, author and editor Heidi Julavits lives in a world full of health information, studies, rumors, drug commercials, anecdotes — a mountain of material that makes getting medical care both easier and lot more complex. In an article in Harper’s magazine, she describes the frustrating odyssey of “a 44-year-old female” (possibly Julavits herself) trying to find out why she is suffering from ringing in one ear and mild nausea. Is it Meniere’s disease, as the first doctor suggests? What about a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) problem, which she finds online; or maybe labyrinthitis, which she learns of from a friend? Will she offend her doctor if she suggests other diagnoses — concussion, acoustic neruoma — gleaned from an Internet symptom-checker? Is she foolish to try to figure this stuff out for herself, or foolish not to? The author’s quest takes her to the creators of the popular TV series “House,” where a supremely unempathetic but brilliant doctor gets the diagnosis right every time, as well as to a Yale gastroenterologist who tries to teach doctors how to listen better and a beloved general practitioner “who was self-doubting and open to new information.” In the end, our 44-year-old female doesn’t even want a diagnosis (her symptoms have subsided). What she really wants is help as she tries to “parse and process the information that it’s her obligation as a ‘connected’ human in 2014 to know and consider.” Don’t we all?