After Navy Yard shooting, vets fear crackdown on security clearances will unfairly hurt them

an Air Force Office of Special Investigation unit that came under fire during counterterrorism operations. “Shooter-veteran-PTSD — it all gets lumped together.” Meg Mitcham, who served as an Army medic in Iraq in 2005 and 2006 and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, said she is concerned the talk of stripping the security clearances of people with mental health disorders will derail military efforts to end the stigma surrounding PTSD. “I worry if we start going down that road, service members won’t seek help for mental health,” said Mitcham, who noted that losing her security clearance would hurt future job prospects. “There’s been a lot of effort put into convincing service members that they won’t lose their security clearance and that it won’t affect their careers.” Veterans make up about a quarter of the federal workforce, and many have been treated for mental health issues. In 2012 alone, the VA provided mental health care treatment to 1.2 million veterans, including 502,546 veterans who were treated for PTSD. Under current procedures, service members who have sought help for post-traumatic stress are not flagged for additional review in background checks. Phillip Carter, a former Army officer who served in Iraq and is now a fellow with the Center for a New American Security, also worries some may avoid needed treatment to protect a security clearance. Carter used Twitter to criticize as “irresponsible” a headline Monday evening on The Washington Post Web Site that read, “Navy Yard gunman said to be troubled veteran.” “The headlines and general narrative are getting ahead of the facts,” Carter said. “I put this in the category of workplace violence. There is still no evidence that anything in his service record caused him to kill these people.” A CNAS report on veteran employment last year said companies consistently cite concerns about PTSD as a negative stereotype that could hurt the chances of a veteran being hired. “It hurts them in the workplace,” Carter said. “It hurts them in a university setting. It hurts them in family situations.” Noted Simmons, “I had a former boss say, ‘You’re not going to shoot everybody up, are you?’ ” He was stunned by the question, he recalls, and had to walk away. Now he is concerned others think the same. “You’re wondering if they’re thinking about the Navy Yard,” Simmons said. “With incidents like this, you’ve got to wonder if they’re wondering.”


Wondering about a government shutdown? First thing to know: It all won’t disappear.

funding to keep the government running could mean that “a number of employees may be temporarily furloughed.” 3. Does the entire government close? Will anyone patrol the borders? Will services disappear and benefits such as Social Security checks stop? What about services to veterans? Can I still see the panda cub at the National Zoo? In any shutdown, the government does not stop functioning completely. By law, certain agencies must be allowed to operate with unsalaried employees. According to the Office of Management and Budget, those are employees who: ●Provide for national security, including the conduct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life and property. ●Provide for benefit payments and the performance of obligations under no-year or multi-year contract or other funds remaining available for those purposes. ●Conduct essential activities to the extent that they protect life and property. Managers would still have to decide how the work is executed, such as who stays on the job and who doesn’t. So while the panda cub and her zoo-mates will get fed, the zoo may not be open to visitors. The borders would still be patrolled. Veterans in hospitals would still receive care. Government operations not directly paid for by the Treasury, the largest of which is the U.S. Postal Service, also would continue. In a similar shutdown threat in 2011, the government said that of the roughly 2.1 million non-postal federal employees, all but about 800,000 would be kept on the job. 4. What happens to Americans who are expecting checks for Social Security and other benefits? These entitlement programs are considered mandatory spending, although payments could slow down if fewer federal employees must handle the work. In the shutdowns in 1995 and 1996, military veterans saw some health and financial services delayed. However, some services for veterans are funded by budgets that cover multiple years, which means the Treasury would have to pay for them. 5. Would federal workers and contractors be paid? According to OMB’s missive this week, employees who stay on the job would not get a paycheck at first. But they would be entitled to retroactive pay once the government is running again. It gets murkier for nonessential employees. They would have to come to the office on the first day of a shutdown for up to half a day to secure files, fill out time and attendance forms and


Giant panda cub turns 1 month old

Time flies, and one of Washington’s most-celebrated new residents has passed a milestone: the giant panda cub at the National Zoo turned 4 weeks old Friday and appears to be thriving. She is “growing exponentially,” the zoo said, and is nearly as round as she is long. The cub has apparently seen nothing of the adoration provoked by her birth on Aug. 23. In fact, it may be a while before her eyes even open, the zoo said. That usually comes between 40 and 60 days after birth. On Sept. 16, her first veterinary exam gave her a clean bill of health. Her mother, Mei Xiang, left her temporarily, and zoo staff members checked her out. She weighed a little less than two pounds and was 101 / 2 inches long.


The Post sells Alexandria warehouses

The two Robinson Terminal warehouses that played a big role in Alexandria’s waterfront controversy two years ago were sold Friday by the Washington Post Co. to separate developers for undisclosed prices. The Post identified the buyer of the northern warehouse as CityInterests/Armada Hoffler and the buyer of the southern warehouse as EYG/JBG. The warehouses are within eight blocks of each other in Old Town Alexandria. The city assessed the two warehouses together at about $30 million. A.J. Jackson of EYG confirmed the sale but would not say what the firm’s plans are for the 3.5-acre property at the foot of Duke Street. In a statement, the company said it was looking forward to “working closely with Alexandria . . . to redevelop this one-of-a-kind property in accordance with Alexandria’s recently adopted waterfront plan.” Peter Farrell, a principal at CityInterests, said Friday evening that his company plans to build a luxury boutique hotel with residential and retail development. Opponents of the waterfront plan had argued that the city was allowing too much development along the Potomac River. Proponents said it was time to address outdated and disjointed land use on the waterfront.


The perils of curiosity for kitten at Ashburn construction site

ASHBURN, Among cases received by the Loudoun County Department of Animal Services


Russia seeks to derail Ukraine’s trade deal with E.U., deploying taunts and insults

Azarov and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych have said they intend to sign with the E.U. in November, but they have a way of hedging every statement. It’s a momentous choice. Ukraine has the chance to opt for a road that in theory would extend European values of transparency and the rule of law far to the east. Or it can join Russia in a financial and cultural zone that is increasingly defining itself as separate from the West and not answerable to Western norms. As a nation of 46 million, Ukraine would be a significant addition to Putin’s Eurasian Union. If Ukraine is to sign what is called an association agreement with the E.U., dismantling most trade barriers, it will have to pursue far-reaching legal reforms and renounce the sort of “selective justice” that has landed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other political opponents of the current government in prison. Yanukovych said Friday that he wants to release her, as Europe demands, but just can’t seem to find the legal means to do so. His opponents charge that he’s also reluctant to tackle the country’s endemic corruption. “Total corruption has eaten the country today,” said Vitali Klitschko, a boxing champion who heads the UDAR opposition party. Signing the association agreement is a vital step toward rooting it out, he said. If Yanukovych fails to meet the E.U.’s terms and the agreement falls through, Klitschko asked the president to his face, “Will you have the guts to resign?” Russia’s abrasive tactics There’s another factor. Ukraine’s trade volumes with Russia and with the E.U. are about the same, even without the chocolate, which means there are powerful interests here in favor of Moscow, in sectors that might be hurt if the country is opened up to European competitors. Joining Russia could mean instant relief on the price of natural gas, much of which is imported from Russia. Siding with the E.U. could have long-term benefits, but, Azarov said, the immediate effect would be negative, as Ukraine struggles to implement reforms and deal with Russian trade sanctions. “It isn’t all roses,” he said. “There are thorns, as well.” But the Russians seem to be even spikier. Sergei Glazyev, who is Putin’s assistant in charge of enlisting Ukraine, showed up here Saturday and threatened Ukraine with even more sanitary-inspection problems if it joins Europe, as well as new trade barriers and no hopes


Chances to intervene in Navy Yard shooter’s problems missed for years by various groups

Health Administration emergency rooms in Providence, R.I., and the District failed to pick up on Alexis’s deteriorating mental stability, despite new protocols designed to screen for it, the records and interviews show. Navy security officials, warned in August by police in Rhode Island that Alexis was hearing voices, a key indicator of a mental break, failed to notify the technology company where he worked, a Navy official said, nor did they appear to pass the information up the chain of command. Alexis’s employer, an IT company called the Experts, was so concerned about Alexis’s increasingly agitated state over the summer that they called his mother and sent him home to rest, but they say they did not share their concerns with the Navy. His outbursts never made it into a national database that would have notified police among different jurisdictions and turned up in background checks for gun purchases, enlisting in the military or obtaining a mid-level secret security clearance. That system is designed to catch Cold War-era spies intent on selling national secrets, not monitor people for mental health problems. In fact, some experts said, his security clearance, rather than acting as an early warning system, actually helped Alexis avoid greater scrutiny. His clearance was an indication for many that Alexis could be trusted. The VA staff, trained to catch and treat such mental instability, often are so overworked and understaffed that they fail to do so, the records and interviews indicate. And military and company officials failed to act on clear warning signals that Alexis was spiraling dangerously out of control. And so on Monday, about 8:15 a.m., Alexis, who was known for his explosive temper and smoldering grudges, who sought refuge from his jangled thoughts at Buddhist temples and in meditation, and who had been estranged from his family for years, quietly slipped onto the Washington Navy Yard base with a sawed-down Remington 870 shotgun hidden in a bag. He emerged from a bathroom and killed 12 people before police shot him dead. Mental health issues have bedeviled the gunmen behind some of America’s deadliest mass shootings. “The fact is, the VA missed the diagnosis. Twice,” said retired general Stephen Xenakis, a military psychiatrist and former adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “And that’s not the only shortfall.” Veterans Affairs On Aug. 23, and again five days later, Alexis sought help for insomnia at the emergency


National Guard is new gay rights battleground as four states refuse to handle federal benefits

to compel the state National Guards to comply by withholding federal funds or by taking the matter to court. Any legal battles that arise could carry implications for states’ rights, much like the fight over Arizona’s strict 2010 immigration law, in which Justice successfully argued that the statute infringed upon the federal government’s constitutional authority to set and enforce immigration rules. “This is a true Rubicon moment for the National Guard,” said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University. “If the federal government can now dictate the benefits and treatment of guardsmen, there remains very little of the original state control. The only remaining residue is that they can still be called out by governors.” Turley said he supports the Pentagon’s position but recognizes the potential for a pivotal legal battle. State-federal tensions The dual nature of the National Guard sometimes leads to conflicts. Governors or adjutants general oversee the forces, but the majority of their funding comes from federal coffers, and the Defense Department writes many of the policies they must follow. The last high-profile example of a state-federal conflict over the National Guard occurred in 2005, when then-Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco refused to cede control of her state’s troops during the disorganized response to Hurricane Katrina. President George W. Bush considered invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act to take command of the forces but ultimately decided against it. Outside of wartime and disaster responses, questions about administrative issues for the National Guard are largely unexplored territory, according to defense officials. Legal experts say that makes the benefits matter ripe for litigation. Suzanna Sherry, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, said individual people may be more likely than the federal government to challenge the National Guard decisions. Either way, the plaintiffs could argue that federal law trumps state law or that states must recognize gay marriages registered in other states, under the DOMA ruling in United States v. Windsor. Opponents of same-sex marriage could also mount legal challenges in states that comply with the Pentagon policy despite their constitutional bans on such unions. “Taxpayer standing arguments,” however, have met with limited success, Turley said. It’s too early to know how the issue will play out and whether the Obama administration will push back on the states, he added. “It’s not clear that they have the political currency to buy into this fight,” he said. “But if


The Download: Next Gen Angels on an investment roll in first year

Next Gen Angels The group’s investments include:→→ Social Radar Spinnakr Speek Apx Labs Dashboard Next Gen Angels was formed with an entrepreneur-friendly ethos, said founder Dan Mindus, the investment director at CIT GAP Funds. “All members sign a code of conduct, which includes a whole host of things they need to do, so if there’s a potential angel who is unwilling to live up to that mission, then they simply don’t join,” Mindus said. The group’s rules dictates that every member must agree to provide a portfolio company with support, such as mentorship or access to their professional network, if 10 or more members invest in the firm. Members are also required to invest in at least one company every 12 months, meaning entrepreneurs aren’t pitching to an audience without money in the bank or a desire to spend it, as is sometimes the case in other venues. Among the group’s roughly 70 members are both entrepreneurs and investors, including Seva Call co-founder Manpreet Singh, CIT GAP Funds senior associate Jen O’Daniel, TDF Ventures Principal Joe Harar and TechCocktail duo Jen Consalvo and Frank Gruber, among others. A CEO for Md. tech council The Tech Council of Maryland installed Philip Schiff as chief executive, the industry association announced last week. He will take the reins Oct. 1. Schiff comes to the council from the Bethesda-based American Association of Blood Banks, where he served most recently as chief strategy officer. A native Marylander (who, it just so happens, moved to the District just weeks ago), Schiff’s experience with the state’s technology sector is limited primarily to interactions with biotechnology firms developing transfusion and cellular therapies. Nevertheless, he said in an interview that he believes the council will delve into policy debates, focus on issues such as taxation and transportation, and expand its reach to parts of the state beyond Montgomery County and Baltimore. The council has struggled at times to effectively serve its two key constituents — biotechnology and information technology companies. Both have a stronghold in the state, yet often face different obstacles to growth. “At the end of the day, I also think I’m here to help them come to consensus, and I think those industries are part of a bigger cycle of serving the community and serving each other,” he said. “Everybody’s got an interest but when you boil it down they’re probably not that far apart.” ID.me


Now in Dupont, Smashburger to open elsewhere

The Classic Smash burger with rosemary and garlic-seasoned Smashfries and hand-spun Häagen-Dazs® shakes. (Smashburger) On his visits to Washington to see his daughter, a student at American University, food entrepreneur Tom Ryan would walk the streets in search of the perfect burger. Despite the abundance of hamburger options — think Burger Joint, Shake Shack, Bourbon Steak, Kraze Burgers, to name just a few — Ryan still saw room for one more. Ryan, 56, co-founder of a 230-store Denver-based hamburger chain called Smashburger, is planning to roll out 30 franchises here in the next five to seven years. The first store inside the District opened this month in Dupont Circle, following one a few months ago in Fairfax. “Washington, D.C, is one of the most emerging, sophisticated food markets in the world right now,” Ryan said. The guy knows food. He created the stuffed crust pizza at Pizza Hut. As worldwide chief concept officer at McDonald’s, he helped create everything from the McGriddle to fruit and yogurt parfaits. Ryan said his Smashburger chain, which he started with a business partner, is a half lunch place, half date place. The stores, which can dim their lights at night to appeal to the more romantic minded, offer wine, beer or a Haagen-Dazs heart-stopper milkshake, and cost less than $500,000 to fit out. “It is this special balance between the three things consumers care more about: time, money and experience.” After mapping out the area for population density, real estate, lunch traffic and other factors, Dupont Circle was near the top of 40 locations. “It’s daytime and nighttime densities are great,” he said of Dupont. “Restaurants work best where people live, work and play.” With that in mind, he already has locations for the next five Smashburgers: Falls Church, Tysons Corner, Germantown, Bethesda and Gaithersburg. Then he is revisiting the city. “We have the whole Adams Morgan mapped, but I cannot tell you when,” he said. Expansion by acquisition, I CertifiKid The Potomac-based daily deals family site founded and run by entrepreneur Jamie Ratner has purchased the assets of FamGrab, a similar site which began three years ago. Ratner is starting CertifiKid’s Atlanta business with deals on a Disney On Ice show and a Wings Over North Georgia air show. The Atlanta offensive follows Certifikid’s purchases of similar sites in Los Angeles and Chicago earlier this year. “After our recent successful expansion to Chicago


Conservationists push to preserve North Dakota prairie, wetlands through farm policy

and wildlife species,” Dekrey said. “The commodity prices have skewed the world so much, we’re kind of flailing around like everybody else, just seeing how we can maintain this.” Johannes said that although farmers are opting out of the federal program, the estimates of crop conversion are exaggerated. “There wouldn’t be a piece of prairie or grassland left if what they had been saying was true,” he said. Buying land to set it aside for conservation is difficult to do in North Dakota because of its unusual real estate laws. In response to a controversy three decades ago concerning the treatment of wetlands by the federal government, any outside group wanting to buy land for conservation purposes must win the governor’s approval. “The citizens of North Dakota are going to have to decide how much prairie they want,” Dekrey said. When it comes to the uptick in development, he added, “The average North Dakotan, the majority so far, have not been calling to slow it down.” To counter this trend, a coalition of environmental and sportsmen groups has been working with the region’s landowners and academics to pursue ranching and farming practices that protect native grasses and wetlands. Lyle Perman raises cattle as well as crops on his Rock Hills Ranch in Lowry, S.D. Decades ago he converted grassland and drained ditches with explosives. “Today, we know better,” he said. Perman, who operates his ranch along with his son and daughter-in-law, moves his cattle 100 times a year to mimic the pattern of the buffalo herds that used to roam the area. Perman also raises bees to make sure his alfalfa gets pollinated and runs a hunting operation on site. Intact grassland is as essential for the wildlife his clients hunt as it is for the cows that graze on his property. “I’ve never seen a mule deer in a plowed field,” he said. Doan said that the similar strategies he has used — moving his cattle frequently, preserving the native grass that draws birds and ungulates — has paid dividends. “We’ve seen tremendous improvements in the land and the landscape,” he said. Standing on the deck of his remodeled Sears and Roebuck kit home shipped by rail to Britton, N.D., in the early 1900s, Doan said he understands why the soil is better off left undisturbed. Tiny creatures such as nematodes can enrich the soil, producing a better pasture


Baltimore Symphony gives John Adams concerto its first U.S. performance

US Navy Band Sea Chanters Chorus. (Courtesy of BSO) The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gave a bang-up start to its subscription concert season at the Meyerhoff Hall on Friday night. Mainly, it offered the excitement of the new: the American premiere of a significant saxophone concerto by John Adams, arguably the orchestra world’s leading living composer. But the concerto was framed by war horses — Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” and Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” — that came pounding out of the gate, bristling with energy. The BSO already had plenty to be happy about. Last week, it ratified a new three-year contract with its musicians, a significant gesture of successful collaborative work at a time when the orchestra world is watching the Minnesota Orchestra’s acrimonious year-long lockout of its musicians drag on. In recent years, the BSO musicians agreed to voluntary salary cuts; by the end of 2016, their base pay will be nearly back to 2009 levels. They’ll also be playing a new Sunday afternoon concert series at Strathmore, a boon to local audience members who prefer not to go out at night. Marin Alsop, meanwhile, was fresh off a burst of publicity after breaking yet another gender barrier that never should have existed when she became the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms, a traditional highlight on the British concert calendar, earlier this month. All of this seemed to be reflected in the oomph of “Scheherazade,” in which the spasmodic repeated theme kept landing with the intensity of blows from a fist — perhaps a little more heavily than the piece actually warrants, but with an unmistakable ardor that was far more engaging than not. And the solo playing from the orchestra members was uniformly fine, led by the singing tone of concertmaster Jonathan Carney, which well represents the orchestra and its performance: a great sound sometimes pulled a bit awry by a tendency to exaggerate. Adams is fond of staking new territory, be it an opera about Richard Nixon or a concerto for electric violin. With this concerto, which was co-commissioned by four orchestras and had its world premiere with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra last month, he has contributed to a slender literature of classical saxophone works with a big, meaty, half-hour-long piece that combines the composer’s characteristic surface brilliance with a welcome authority. Certainly this is a virtuosic piece, designed to test the limits of the


After NSA revelations, a privacy czar is needed

Alan Charles Raul is a lawyer in Washington who previously served as vice chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget. The United States has lots of good privacy laws, robust government enforcement and extensive litigation by private lawyers, but the federal government has no uber-guru in charge of U.S. privacy policy. The lack of centralized leadership on this nonpartisan, hot-button issue explains why our country appears to be floundering around the National Security Agency (NSA) leaks and unready to deal with the ubiquitous deployment of technologies such as unmanned aerial drones and facial recognition. Heightened concerns over government surveillance have complicated efforts to harmonize international privacy rules. The post-Edward Snowden jumbling together of “national security” privacy and “consumer” privacy, along with the siloed nature of U.S. regulation, has made it more difficult for Europeans, and Americans, to understand how the U.S. system works. The absence of a high-level point person also undermines our country’s ability to engage European trading partners who invoke “privacy shortfalls” to deny business opportunities to U.S. Internet companies. The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation reports that European and other international privacy-based protectionists are threatening to freeze U.S. “cloud” service companies out of at least $22 billion in contracts over the next three years because of the NSA PRISMprogram disclosures. Despite this self-serving response — other countries spy without half our transparency and oversight — there is no good reason President Obama should not today commit to respect and protect the privacy of foreigners whose communications are picked up incidentally, applying the same data “minimization” practices that protect innocent U.S. persons not suspected of terrorism. Only a White House appointee could prevent the looming digital trade war and data protection train wreck given the disparate interests and agencies involved on the U.S. side. Currently, responsibility for privacy is scattered throughout the administration. Financial information privacy is governed by the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which is enforced by independent agencies that do not report to the president. The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, other banking agencies, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have no obligation to coordinate regulations with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) or even with each other. While there is no specific federal cybersecurity law, e-mails and Internet data are protected from snooping


Woman killed as car goes into creek in University Park area; others hurt

A woman was killed Sunday night in Prince George’s County when a car went off Route 1 and into a creek, the county police said. The single-car crash occurred about 8 p.m. near Wells Parkway in the University Park area, said Nicole Hubbard, a police spokeswoman. Two other adults and one child were in the car when it left the northbound lanes of the road, Hubbard said. No names were available immediately, and the cause was not known. Route 1 was closed in the area of the crash, which is about one mile south of the University of Maryland campus.


Ask Amy: Affair with trainer taxes relationship fitness

DEAR AMY: Nine months ago I ended an abusive and destructive relationship. For the past six months I have been in a happy relationship. In my previous destructive relationship, I ended up cheating on my boyfriend. This was a horrible mistake but also a way for me to finally find a way out. I make no excuses for my actions. The person I cheated with is my personal trainer, who was (and still is) dating someone else. I have no feelings for this person, but I continue training with him, even though he sometimes makes comments (which I don’t appreciate) that allude to our past mistake. I feel this isn’t fair to my current boyfriend. If he knew my past with my trainer, he would be upset. However, it seems silly to get a new trainer. I have worked with this person for a year and he helped me lose so much weight. Should I get rid of him because of a stupid mistake? I want to do what is best for my relationship. -- Unsure DEAR UNSURE: If you want to honor your current relationship to the extent that you grant yourself — and him — an unfettered fresh start, then yes, you should change trainers. However, the most important reason to change trainers is that this one sounds like he is indiscreet and inappropriate, at least some of the time. Your weight loss and fitness success should not be contingent on you working with this individual; the person responsible for your health and fitness is you. Also, get tested for STDs (the trainer should too). DEAR AMY: My sister and I share a small home. Recently, my sister’s daughter, who has three children by different fathers, moved in with us. I did not want her to move in with us to begin with; however, my sister told her that she could. All of the peace, quiet and privacy in my life has vanished. My sister’s children are, to put it kindly, brats of the worst kind. They yell, scream, constantly fight and make noise. (The community we live in does not permit residents to make noise that violates the rights of others in the community.) I am fed up and angry with my sister’s daughter living in our home; it is cramped, and she does nothing to control her brats. I don’t know how much longer I can


After past shutdowns, Congress gave federal workers back pay. This time? Don’t count on it.

the previous two weeks of work, but the following paycheck would be at risk if the government closure is prolonged. If a shutdown lasts just a few days, it probably would not affect paychecks that are scheduled for mid-October. But even the government’s heavily automated payroll system needs several days’ notice to set its gears in motion, so if a shutdown ended a day or two before paychecks at a given agency are due, those employees deemed “essential” could have their pay delayed, several union and government officials said. Compared with the shutdowns of the 1990s, many more federal workers are in danger of being furloughed this year, because Congress has not passed a single funding bill. In the past, Congress had passed appropriations bills that funded various large agencies, including the Defense Department, meaning they could continue to operate even if other parts of the government could not. Federal agencies have started bracing for a shutdown by digging out their plans from 2011, when the government almost ran out of money amid fiscal battles between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. On Monday, agencies began reviewing which civilians would be told to come to work during a shutdown and which would be ordered to stay home. Defense Department spokesman George Little said overseas operations, including those in Afghanistan, would not be directly affected. “The President and the Secretary know that the uncertainty of the current situation puts our civilian workforce in a difficult situation and, should a lapse occur, it could impose hardships on many employees and disrupt important national security projects,” Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter wrote Monday in a memo to Defense Department employees. Attached was a lengthy series of questions and answers prepared by the Office of Personnel Management in 2011 about how pay, vacation, health insurance and other benefits would be affected during a shutdown. Steven Posner, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement Monday night that there is “enough time for Congress to prevent a lapse in appropriations, and the administration is willing to work with Congress” to enact a short-term spending plan to fund critical government operations while lawmakers work on a budget for fiscal 2014. But if there’s no temporary budget by late this week, federal workers will get an e-mail or phone call from their supervisors by Monday telling them to report for work or


David H. Hubel, Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist, dies at 87

David Hubel, right, pours a glass of customary victory champagne for fellow Harvard Medical School researcher Torsten Wiesel as associates look on Friday October 10, 1981. The celebration was for the announcement that the two were co-winners along with Roger Sperry of the California Institute of Technology of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. (Associated Press) David H. Hubel, a Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist whose astonishing map of the visual cortex pulled back the curtain on one of the brain’s most mysterious functions, the power of sight, died Sept. 22 in Lincoln, Mass. He was 87. The cause was kidney failure, said his son Paul Hubel. Starting in the late 1950s, Dr. Hubel’s research revealed the architecture of the visual cortex, the region of the brain that receives floods of data gathered by the eyes. Together with Swedish neurophysiologist Torsten N. Wiesel, he discovered how nerve cells — neurons — analyze the light rays that hit our retinas, bit by bit, to assemble the detailed, moving and almost infinitely diverse final images that we perceive as our external world. Over 25 years of work together, the men revealed that the cortex is arranged in vertical columns of cells, each module devoted to process a different constituent of the seen world: form, contour, color, movement and three-dimensionality. For their collaboration, begun at Johns Hopkins University and carried out for the next two decades at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Hubel and Wiesel won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. They shared the prize with Roger W. Sperry, then affiliated with the California Institute of Technology. When the men began studying the visual system, little was known about the functional organization of the cerebral cortex, and scientists had only recently begun recording electrical impulses from that highest and most complex area of the brain. The Nobel Prize committee cited the two men’s research as having “disclosed one of the most well guarded secrets of the brain: the way by which its cells decode the message which the brain receives from the eyes.” In their first experiments together in 1958, Dr. Hubel and Wiesel, an inquisitive and often mischievous pair, crammed a projector inside their 15-by-15-foot laboratory at Johns Hopkins and sat their research cats, adorned in electrical headgear, before a screen. They displayed spots of all sizes before the animals — dark spots on bright backgrounds and bright spots on dark — trying


process a different constituent of the seen world: form, contour, color, movement and three-dimensionality. For their collaboration, begun at Johns Hopkins University and carried out for the next two decades at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Hubel and Wiesel won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. They shared the prize with Roger W. Sperry, then affiliated with the California Institute of Technology. When the men began studying the visual system, little was known about the functional organization of the cerebral cortex, and scientists had only recently begun recording electrical impulses from that highest and most complex area of the brain. The Nobel Prize committee cited the two men’s research as having “disclosed one of the most well guarded secrets of the brain: the way by which its cells decode the message which the brain receives from the eyes.” In their first experiments together in 1958, Dr. Hubel and Wiesel, an inquisitive and often mischievous pair, crammed a projector inside their 15-by-15-foot laboratory at Johns Hopkins and sat their research cats, adorned in electrical headgear, before a screen. They displayed spots of all sizes before the animals — dark spots on bright backgrounds and bright spots on dark — trying to find a stimulus that could coax a single neuron, wired to a surgically implanted electrode, to fire. For the first several days, they got no response. Desperate, they danced in front of the cats, waving their arms. At one point, mostly as a joke, they presented the cats with pictures of beautiful women in magazine advertisements. In the scientists’ 2004 co-memoir, “Brain and Visual Perception: The Story of a 25-Year Collaboration,” they said that “our room must have seemed like a circus, complete with a tent and exotic animals.” It was a shadow created when Dr. Hubel and Wiesel were rearranging their equipment — a faint line that swept across the projector screen in one specific orientation — that made a cat neuron fire. It was a serendipitous first step in a career-long journey of understanding the visual system. A look at those who died last year. Dr. Hubel recalled that, upon discovery, they studied this first cat neuron for nine hours straight. Their seminal 1959 publication of these findings, they wrote, “of course gives no hint of our struggle. As usual in science reports we presented the bare results, with little of the sense of excitement or fun.”


Business digest: Toys R Us keeping seasonal hiring steady

RETAILING Toys R Us to keep holiday hiring steady Toys R Us plans to hire 45,000 seasonal workers at its stores and distribution centers, the same number as last year, as it ramps up for the all-important holiday season. Coming off a slower-than-expected back-to-school season, analysts and stores are bracing for a tough holiday shopping period, which accounts for as much as 40 percent of stores’ annual revenue. Analysts study the holiday hiring figures from retailers for clues about overall employment trends and sales expectations for the season. Stores typically begin to hire for the holidays in mid-September and ramp up hiring in mid-October. At Toys R Us, hiring begins this week and runs through December. About 15 percent of the jobs in 2012 led to full-time employment. Overall holiday hiring is expected to be relatively flat because of cautious consumer spending and uncertainty about the economic environment. Employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates that overall seasonal hiring will not change significantly from last year’s total, when hiring rose 14 percent, to 751,800 positions, between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31. Wal-Mart Stores said Monday that it is hiring 55,000 seasonal workers and is elevating 35,000 temporary workers to part-time status and 35,000 part-time workers to full-time jobs. Target said last week that it plans to hire 70,000 workers, a 20 percent drop from a year ago, as it tries to be more efficient in its hiring practices. And department-store operator Kohl’s said last week that it plans to hire about 53,000 seasonal workers for the holiday season, slightly more than last year. — Associated Press Also in Business ●JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Credit Suisse Group and 10 other international lenders are being sued by a U.S. credit union regulator, which says that they illegally manipulated the benchmark Libor interest rates. The National Credit Union Administration, an Alexandria-based regulator, sued the banks Monday in a federal court in Kansas. Libor — the London interbank offered rate — is a key metric to set interest rates for trillions of dollars in financial instruments. The banks’ alleged manipulation “resulted in a loss of income from investments and other assets held by five failed corporate credit unions: U.S. Central, WesCorp, Members United, Southwest and Constitution,” according to an NCUA statement. ●Chipmaking equipment manufacturer Applied Materials is acquiring Tokyo Electron, a rival maker of equipment for the production of semiconductors, flat panel displays and


D.C. news in brief

ReGeneration House of Praise, a ministry in Ward 8. The church envisions the program as part of a workforce development initiative for female ex-offenders and other at-risk members of the Ward 8 community. For information, go to www.thechurchinthefield.com/eden.shtml or call 202-704-3946. Adams Morgan Farmers Market celebrates 40 years The Adams Morgan Farmers Market, 18th Street and Columbia Road NW, will celebrate its 40th anniversary from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. There will be a free heirloom apple tasting at 10 a.m. and an 11 a.m. presentation with speeches by City Council member Jim Graham, ANC1C Chairman Wilson Reynolds and others. The event will include music by folk singer Lucy Murphy and local bands. Michael Tabor of Licking Creek Bend Farm in Takoma Park began bringing produce to 18th and Columbia in the early 1970s. When a bank opened on the adjoining property, residents negotiated a long-term lease for the market, and the D.C. City Council designated parking for farm vehicles on Columbia Road. The market is open Saturdays from May through late November. Vendors accept WIC and SNAP subsidy cards. Mayor to host citywide discussion of mental health Oct. 12 Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) is hosting a citywide discussion on mental health from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW. The event, Creating Community Solutions D.C., will consist of small group discussions with District residents to develop strategies to reduce the stigma associated with mental health care. The program will focus on developing a community-wide action plan with more than two dozen community and organizational representatives from the private and nonprofit sectors and the government. To register, go to www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org and select the red “Washington, D.C.” button on the map. Registrations may also be mailed to 1050 17th Street NW, Suite 250, Washington, D.C. 20036 or faxed to 202-775-0404. The event is part of the National Dialogue on Mental Health, which President Obama called for in January and coincides with Mental Illness Awareness Week, Oct. 6-12. Local history group sponsors guided D.C. walking tours WalkingTown DC, a series of more than 40 neighborhood tours, is Monday through Oct. 6. The tours, sponsored by Cultural Tourism DC, will be led by professional guides, community leaders and historians. Offerings include a Tuesday tour of prohibition-related sites by author and prohibition authority Garrett Peck; a Wednesday cemetery tour that


D.C. news in brief

discussion on mental health from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW. The event, Creating Community Solutions D.C., will consist of small group discussions with District residents to develop strategies to reduce the stigma associated with mental health care. The program will focus on developing a community-wide action plan with more than two dozen community and organizational representatives from the private and nonprofit sectors and the government. To register, go to www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org and select the red “Washington, D.C.” button on the map. Registrations may also be mailed to 1050 17th Street NW, Suite 250, Washington, D.C. 20036 or faxed to 202-775-0404. The event is part of the National Dialogue on Mental Health, which President Obama called for in January and coincides with Mental Illness Awareness Week, Oct. 6-12. Local history group sponsors guided D.C. walking tours WalkingTown DC, a series of more than 40 neighborhood tours, is Monday through Oct. 6. The tours, sponsored by Cultural Tourism DC, will be led by professional guides, community leaders and historians. Offerings include a Tuesday tour of prohibition-related sites by author and prohibition authority Garrett Peck; a Wednesday cemetery tour that includes Rock Creek Parish and Washington’s only Colonial Era church and churchyard, Rock Creek Cemetery; and an Oct. 5 examination of the Lincoln assassination conspiracy investigation, with a costumed reenactor playing Detective James McDevitt, who was on duty when the president was shot at Ford’s Theatre. All tours are free; some require registration in advance. For information, go to www.culturaltourismdc.org. Hamilton Playground reopens with nature design The D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation recently opened the newly renovated Hamilton Playground at the Hamilton Recreation Center, 1340 Hamilton St. NW, in Ward 4. The playground’s nature-design theme features climbing boulders, logs and a megatower play structure. Other new features include a soccer court, all-ages play equipment, outdoor fitness equipment, renovated basketball courts, a shade shelter and a community garden with a storage shed and a compost bin. The playground is the 12th to be renovated under the District’s playground improvement initiative and the fifth playground opening in Ward 4. For information, go to dpr.dc.gov. Concert and awards program to celebrate D.C.’s African community The D.C. Mayor’s Office on African Affairs and the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities are having the annual D.C. African Heritage Celebration from 6 to 9 p.m.


Sale of Robinson Terminal warehouses to bring development to Alexandria waterfront

The sale of the Robinson Terminal warehouses in Alexandria to two different developers is likely to bring a boutique hotel, residences and retail to the Old Town waterfront in the next few years, just as proponents and opponents of the city’s contentious waterfront debate have predicted over the past 30 months. Both industrial warehouses, huge remnants of what was once a working waterfront, were sold Friday by the Washington Post Co. after seven months on the market. The brick structures, which enclose a combined 600,000 square feet, are assessed for a total of $30 million, but the individual sale prices were not disclosed. Mayor William D. Euille (D) said both developers were highly qualified and known players in Alexandria. EYA, which bought the southern terminal, at Union and Duke streets, in a partnership with JBG, has built more than 10 communities in the city over the past 21 years, including the waterfront condominiums at the Oronoco, Fords Landing and Old Town Commons. CityInterests — which bought the northern warehouse, at Oronoco and Union streets, with Armada Hoffler — has built numerous mixed-used developments in the area as well as the District’s Mandarin Oriental hotel. “Hopefully, they are both fully cognizant of the city’s waterfront plan, and they will be supportive and compliant,” Euille said. “We’re looking forward to working with them.” Planning director Faroll Hamer said the city will have an initial meeting with the buyers next week. The northern Robinson Terminal warehouse was bought by the mixed-use developer CityInterests with Armada Hoffler. (Patricia A. Sullivan) The city’s waterfront plan, the subject of pitched civic and legal battles over the past 2 1 / 2 years, aims to revitalize an eight-block stretch of land along the Potomac River. Parks, parking lots and piers, some in disrepair, now line the shore, cutting off walking access at key points. Opponents of the plan fought to restrict commercial development; the City Council reduced the number and size of hotels it would allow to be built, but twice supported the waterfront plan. Bert Ely, leader of the opposition movement, said Monday that the sale of the properties was all the talk during a weekend river cruise with some neighbors. “This all gets back to our concern about traffic and parking,” he said, “and whether [development] would have an impact on the historic nature of Old Town.” Together, the warehouses bookend the heart of Old


Hardy citrus trees take root in local suburbs

John Saia examines the mystery citrus in his Sterling garden. It has survived freezing temperatures since 2007. (Adrian Higgins/The Washington Post) There are clues to John Saia’s passion for pushing the plant envelope in the front yard of his otherwise comfortably congruous suburban home in the Potomac Falls neighborhood of Sterling, but his wonderfully alien world deserves a closer look. In the entrance bed you will find the hardy orange variety named Dragon Lady, a citrus that is the toughest species we have, and grows well north of Washington in spite of its exotic and fearsomely spiny appearance. Its little orange-yellow orbs are ripening as we speak. (Take one fruit and, to sweeten, add eight pounds of sugar). Nearby, you will find the dwarf palmetto, Sabal minor, a common native palm south of Virginia but an oddity in these parts. Next comes a eucalyptus species called the Omeo gum tree, well on its silvery way to establishment if not maturity. A little farther down, a windmill palm named Trachycarpus fortunei grows from a foundation bed where others might raise nandina or azaleas. The palm, the books say, is safe up to the Carolinas, but here, under the flight path of Dulles International Airport, it is almost eight feet across. Walk down by the gate and you find another eucalyptus, the snow gum. “It’s fun coming out here when it snows,” Saia said, for a spectacle that “doesn’t make any sense.” Let’s cut to the chase, because amid all his palms, eucalyptus, bananas and other examples of his “tropicalesque plants,” Saia is growing a mystery citrus tree outdoors that now reaches to his second floor. It is bearing 20 fruits (up from three last year) that will turn orange in November. If last year’s experience is repeated, the fruit will reach the size of a golf ball or bigger, shift to its ripe color and exhibit a sweet flavor in flesh and rind. Surprisingly, quite a few citrus plants will grow in a Washington garden — among them the hardy orange, a hybrid called the hardy grapefruit or citrumelo, and a species named Citrus ichangensis — but Saia’s orange tree has a sweetness lacking in the others. The citrus lover who grows plants in large pots and has a bright, cool place to keep them in winter has a rich choice to hand. Common summer patio-winter conservatory fare includes Meyer lemons,


Shutdown uncertainty generates angst and rumors among federal employees

to currently enrolled Social Security, SSI [Supplemental Security Income] and Black Lung beneficiaries,” the “History” document reports. SSA officials quickly realized they had retained too few. “It was evident to Agency executives after a couple of days that the shutdown was not acceptable, and that it was affecting some of its most vulnerable people, namely its elderly, disabled, and low-income recipients,” according to the text. “It became very clear that it was important that SSA reopen its offices to conduct business, even during the shutdown. There was tremendous concern internally, as well as within the White House that SSA not providing service would cause harm to too many Americans.” On Nov. 20, President Bill Clinton announced that the shutdown was not acceptable and his administration was calling about 49,700 SSA staffers back to work. Recalling them was the right thing to do, but it also gave ammunition to administration critics. Using SSA as an example, Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.) said at the time that “the execution of the shutdown was, in many instances, disorganized and illogical, at best, and oftentimes [a] chaotic experience,” according to a Congressional Research Service report. Sending workers home, only to so quickly call them back, does not conjure visions of good planning. Is SSA better prepared this time? Are any agencies? We can only hope, because so many aren’t saying, at least not yet. Budget expert Stan Collender, author of "The Guide to the Federal Budget," explains why he's certain that the government will shut down next week. When asked about the 1995 furlough and today’s preparations, SSA’s press office said to ask the Office of Management and Budget, which said nothing. The general silence leaves federal employee union leaders frustrated and their members unsettled. “There has been no communications with employees other than a very general notice,” said Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. Those general notices included similar wording from different agencies. Treasury and Defense, for example, each sent their staffs letters that said “prudent management requires that we be prepared for all contingencies.” But what are those preparations? The letters didn’t say. The information vacuum produces its own story. “People start inventing their own realities,” Dougan said, recalling unfounded rumors he’s heard about layoffs and military base closings. The situation is troubling because staffers know some will be furloughed during a shutdown and some won’t. Employees want


AP leak case has many lessons

the former FBI bomb expert was in Quantico, Va., disclosing classified details to an AP reporter, two FBI agents were outside Sachtleben’s Carmel, Ind., home conducting surveillance in the porn case. The next day, a federal search warrant was issued for Sachtleben’s home, and the search took place May 11, 2012. Meanwhile, the AP story had caused a major uproar because of the leak, and the hunt for the leaker had begun. Without knowing about Sachtleben’s role in the leak, FBI and Indiana law enforcement personnel took evidence from his computers and stored media that showed about 30 images and video files containing child porn. Sachtleben was arrested that day on pornography charges. Also seized then was a CD/DVD with a 2006 CIA secret intelligence report. Nothing was made of it then because it did not relate to the porn investigation. It may not have been until July 9, 2013, that the FBI, having linked Sachtleben to the AP and secured a warrant for a more exhaustive search of his computers, cellphones and other material in their possession, put together its leak case. As U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana said Monday that “all the evidence that was ultimately used to confirm [Sachtleben’s] involvement” in the national security case was obtained through the earlier seizure. What do we learn from all this? ●All leakers of serious national security information are not whisleblowers. In this case, it appears that Sachtleben had a three-year, close relationship with an AP reporter with whom he had previously shared information about terrorist plots and FBI analysis of explosives. ●The government needs leeway in leak investigations and the benefit of the doubt with regard to forcing immediate disclosure when a subpoena is issued for things such as media phone toll records. A media company fighting such a subpoena in court could lead not just to an investigation’s delay but possibly the destruction of records. It did not happen in this case because investigators already possessed Sachtleben’s cellphones and computers. ●The media and Congress should again think about defining through legislation a reporters’ privilege rather than continuing to leave it to the courts to determine the boundaries. This is the way that the privileges for attorneys, doctors, religious personnel and even social workers have been developed. ●There doesn’t seem to be a dropoff in leaked classified information. For previous Fine Print columns, go to washingtonpost.com/fedpage.


E.J. Dionne: Obama’s diplomatic outreach — to Americans

have left Iran’s economy in shambles and altered the country’s internal balance of political power opened an opportunity for negotiations over curbing Tehran’s nuclear program and creating a new relationship between longtime adversaries. In a matter of weeks, talk of war has been replaced by the promise of diplomacy. What happened? There was an important clue in Obama’s U.N. speech when he expressed the impatience of the American people at the world’s ambivalence about U.S. power. Americans, he said, were tired of being criticized simultaneously for meddling too much and for engaging too little, especially in the Middle East. “The danger for the world is not an America that is too eager to immerse itself in the affairs of other countries or take on every problem in the region as its own,” he said. “The danger for the world is that the United States, after a decade of war, rightly concerned about issues back home, aware of the hostility that our engagement in the region has engendered throughout the Muslim world, may disengage, creating a vacuum of leadership that no other nation is ready to fill.” Presidents rarely tell the world to put up or shut up. But that’s what his countrymen need to hear now. The core fact of U.S. foreign policy is that the experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan have left most Americans utterly exasperated by war. The Iraq syndrome will prove to be far more traumatic than the Vietnam syndrome. As it was, it took a decade and a half after the fall of Saigon before Americans were ready to see the United States lead a major military effort — George H.W. Bush’s successful campaign to evict Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait. With Syria, Americans were called to an act of war even before U.S. troops are out of Afghanistan and less than two years after our armed forces were withdrawn from Iraq. The public’s reluctance to support Obama’s effort to punish the Assad regime does not mean the American people want the United States to give up on its global role. But it was a cry for more time — and a demand that the case for American global responsibility be made afresh. Toles’s take on the situation in Libya, Egypt and beyond. The problem does not extend to Asia and the Pacific, where many nations welcome the United States as a force for stability and


A contemporary classic on the market in Chevy Chase

the Housing and Community Services of Northern Virginia has helped distressed homeowners with one-on-one housing counseling, emergency aid and community resource referrals. On Oct. 24, the group will hold a fundraiser — “Everyone’s Home Matters” — to support the organization’s homeless prevention and financial literacy programs. The evening includes a reception, silent auction and art exhibit at the McLean Project for the Arts Emerson Gallery at the McLean Community Center. Tickets are $100, or $175 for two. For information and tickets, go to www.hcsnv.org or call (703) 372-5440. Grocery delivery service moves in to region If you’ve ever left the office and wished your groceries would be waiting for you at home, you’ll appreciate the service offered by Relay Foods, a grocery delivery service operating in Charlottesville and Richmond which now serves the D.C. area. Residents of 17 apartments in the city and several in Crystal City and Alexandria can get groceries delivered to drop spots in their buildings. “We’re a combination of a farmers market, a natural food market and a regular grocery store,” said Caesar Layton, senior vice president of business development for Relay Foods. The online market offers products from 250 local farms along with local providers of organic foods. The delivery service is free to customers and free to apartment buildings; Layton says their prices are similar to those at a farmers market and slightly more than those of a grocery store. “In Charlottesville and Richmond, we created drop spots in convenient locations such as churches, schools, corporate parks and hospitals where people could pull over in their cars and pick up their groceries,” says Mark Henderson, a manager for Relay Foods. “In D.C., more people use public transportation, so we decided that we could find the population density that makes our service work by contacting apartment building managers. We expect to triple the number of apartments we serve in 2014.” In order to accommodate the deliveries, drop-off locations need space for temperature-controlled storage containers provided by Relay Foods where residents can pick up their food. Henderson says the company has worked with property managers to organize happy hours and cooking demonstrations with local products to encourage participation in the service. For information on the service, e-mail apartments@relayfoods.com. — Michele Lerner Lerner is a freelance writer. To pass on a tip or news item, contact us at realestate@washpost.com and put “Town Square” in the subject line.


Your money and the looming government shutdown

divided Congress includes many lawmakers who are unsympathetic to the plight of federal workers and could be loath to help them recoup their money.” Essential employees would not receive pay during the shutdown but would receive retroactive pay afterward, reports Brad Plumer of The Post’s Wonkblog. Plumer explains everything you need to know about how a government shutdown works, and The Post’s Eric Yoder reports on the affect of a shutdown on federal workers pay and benefits. Here’s How a Shutdown May Affect You David Simpson and Saeed Ahmed of CNN report on how a shutdown would affect your daily life even if you aren’t a federal worker. -- Social Security. If you receive Social Security, don’t fret. During the shutdown, social security payments will still be processed and mailed. -- Veteran Services. The majority of veteran services will not be affected, according to the New York Times blog At War. Veterans will continue to receive disability checks without interruption, writes blogger James Dao, but Department of Veterans Affairs services such as recruiting and hiring will be suspended. -- Tourism: Want to check out a national park? Or museum? Well, you can’t. The shutdown would force 368 National Park Service sites to be closed, reports CNN. We can look to past government shutdowns to see how they played out. According to Brad Plumer, examples were detailed in a recent Congressional Research Service report. In past shutdowns: -- The federal government stopped work on about 3,500 bankruptcy cases, as well as a number of child-support cases. -- The Border Patrol put a hold on hiring 400 new agents. -- Certain financial regulators shut down, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Although corporations can still file documents such as 10Ks through automated systems, there’s no one around to review the filings. -- During the last shutdown, the Social Security Administration was able to keep enough employees to make sure the checks kept going out. But the agency didn’t have enough staff to do things like answer phone calls or help recipients who needed to change addresses. So some disruptions are possible. -- Although some key benefits continued and the Veterans Affairs hospitals remained open, “multiple services were curtailed, ranging from health and welfare to finance and travel.” Color of Money Question of the Week Even if the federal shutdown is avoided, how do you feel


As government shutdown looms, Americans brace for possible disruption, disappointment

The U.S. is the only big country with a debt ceiling. The Post's Karen Tumulty explains why. Visa and passport applications from almost half a million prospective travelers would sit untouched every week, and late tax filers facing an Oct. 15 deadline would find the phone lines at the Internal Revenue Service dead. The National Zoo and museums on the Mall would close to the public. The WIC program, which provides food to 8.9 million low-income women and children, would be out of money, its supporters say. And in the District, garbage could go uncollected. This is, in part, what a government shutdown would look like. If Congress reaches Tuesday with no approved spending plan to keep the government open, many of the day-to-day services the public sometimes takes for granted would come to a standstill, as federal agencies send home more than 800,000 employees whose jobs are not considered essential. Managers are kicking their preparations into high gear as Congress remains deadlocked, with House Republican leaders signaling that they will reject a short-term spending plan that the Senate seems likely to pass. Agencies are declining to talk about contingency plans, which under law must lay out scenarios for an initial period of one to five days and a second stretch if a shutdown were to continue. But officials say privately that they are dusting off blueprints they drew up during a fiscal battle in 2011 that brought the government to the brink of closing. Federal shutdowns in 1995 and 1996 closed government offices, parks and museums, and caused several hundred thousand workers to be furloughed. At the Smithsonian Institution, staff members were answering questions this week from a lot of school groups that would be shut out of Washington’s free museums. Spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said she plans to put up a banner on the Smithsonian’s Web site if a closure becomes definite, as well as tweet the news to more than 1 million followers — an option she didn’t have during the most recent shutdowns, in 1995 and 1996. “The Smithsonian is a big part of the visit to Washington,” St. Thomas said, “even if it’s not peak tourist season.” EF Explore America, which organizes tours for school groups, was reaching out to 100 middle schools nationwide that have scheduled eighth-grade field trips to Washington starting Monday. Robert Hart, the company’s vice president of operations, has been thinking


Police arrest suspect in man’s stabbing death

D.C. police on Thursday arrested a 36-year-old suspect in the stabbing death of a man who was found Saturday lying behind a strip of rowhouses on Georgia Avenue in Northwest Washington. Officer Araz Alali, a department spokesman, said Marvin Moore of Northwest Washington was charged with second-degree murder while armed. He has not been arraigned. Police said a patrol officer found the victim, Timothy Benjamin, 58, lying on his back about 12:40 a.m. The victim was pronounced dead at an area hospital. Police said he had been stabbed several times. Authorities did not comment on a possible motive.


Surrounding jurisdictions develop shutdown game plans

The U.S. is the only big country with a debt ceiling. The Post's Karen Tumulty explains why. A shutdown of the federal government next week could have a significant impact on the budgets of local governments across the Washington region, where officials are preparing to find alternative funds to pay for local services, officials say. Furloughs of federal workers could cost Maryland $5 million a day in income and sales tax collections and hinder the state’s economic recovery, according to a memo circulating in the office of Gov. Martin O’Malley (D). In Fairfax County, officials recently blamed a decision to deny pay raises for its workers on the federal spending cuts known as sequestration and the uncertainty brought on by the fight in Congress over whether to fund the Affordable Care Act. Though not as directly affected as the District — where all local government activity depends on a federal appropriation — suburban communities nonetheless expect that a prolonged federal shutdown could mean more instability in a region that is recovering from the 2008 recession, officials said. Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties — where tens of thousands of federal workers live — are particularly vulnerable. Those suburban communities are home to an array of federal agencies, including the CIA, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. Fairfax is also home to about 4,100 federal contractors, who, in 2012, took in a combined $26.4 billion in federal contracts, according to the county’s economic development authority. “We’re all trying to read the tea leaves on what’s happening at the federal level,” said Sharon Bulova (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. “Sequestration and the whole federal picture absolutely plays into the pressures that we’re experiencing locally with our budget choices.” The sequestration cuts have meant that contractors have spent less and, subsequently, led to stagnant commercial tax revenue during the past year, Bulova said. That, in turn, has hampered the county’s spending decisions — causing some tension among employees. During a recent county board meeting, Fairfax workers showed up to push for a cost-of-living increase in their salaries after officials revealed that there was a $93 million surplus from the previous fiscal year. But, there is a projected $25 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year, largely because of the effects of sequestration cuts, officials said. With a government shutdown threatening to increase that


At Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site in Pa., pick up some history along with your fruit

spinning wheel, a clawfoot table, porcelain teacups. Other buildings are more rustic. But I wanted apples. Hopewell’s roughly 200-tree, 5-acre orchard offers McIntosh, Rome and other apples that I know, but also Newtown Pippin (from 1759 and supposedly a favorite of George Washington’s) and Rhode Island Greening (started from seed in the 1650s). There’s Summer Rambo, which originated before 1535 in France, and Roxbury Russet, grown before 1649. And Wednesdays through Sundays in September and October, you can pick them all for $1 per pound. There has been an orchard on Hopewell at least as far back as 1788, park ranger Frank Hebblethwaite told me, citing a real estate ad in the Pennsylvania Gazette of that year boasting of “an excellent young bearing orchard of about 250 apple trees of the best fruit.” Most of the present-day trees were planted in 1942 and 1960; the average apple tree lives about 100 years, though some grow older. George Martin, Hopewell’s facilities manager, said that trees are managed the old-fashioned way, with well-timed pruning and little in the way of pesticides; spraying to control insects and disease didn’t become common until after 1889 in Pennsylvania. Bees pollinate the buds. There are dead trees amid fruit-bearing ones, plus fenced saplings being nurtured. Many trees are 25 feet high; commercial orchards favor dwarf trees because they’re easier to manage. And unlike the apples you get from orchards that use pesticides, some of the Hopewell apples have blemishes, splotches, speckles or odd shapes. But if you wash them (soap is recommended), they’re edible. And there are plenty of them — enough last year to bring in more than $10,000, which funds interpretive programs (and 1830s-era costumes for the living-history interpreters). Apple pickers swarm to Hopewell on weekends, so many that the orchard runs out of apples every year, according to Hebblethwaite. I got an orchard map at the visitor center, as well as a handout listing each variety and its uses and offering snippets of history (e.g., Nonesuch, available October, for eating and desserts, discovered in Massachusetts in 1830). Cortland, Gravenstein and Starr were ripe the day of my visit, but I was told that I could pick any kind I wanted. “Watch for bees!” Hebblethwaite cautioned as I set off. I read the “apple gathering courtesies” — seven guidelines including “don’t climb the trees” and “no ladders allowed” — and headed for the orchard,


Politics of federal shutdown spill over into Virginia governor’s race

Cuccinelli treaded carefully around the issue during the Wednesday night debate with McAuliffe, sponsored by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce and NBC4. “None of us want to see a government shutdown,” Cuccinelli said, adding that as a Northern Virginian, he knows how much the region depends on the U.S. government. Debate moderator Chuck Todd pressed him: Did he support Cruz or not? “I said I don’t want the federal government to shut down,” Cuccinelli responded. “I’d like to see Obamacare pulled out of federal law. But, you know, we’ve got to keep moving forward and make compromises to get the budget going.” Cuccinelli then turned the issue back on McAuliffe’s pledge that he would not sign a budget unless it included expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.“This is a Washington tactic,” Cuccinelli said. “And if you like the way Washington works, you will like a Governor McAuliffe.” Behind the complex maneuvering in Congress is Republicans’ attempt to kill Obamacare by withholding its funds. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that Americans dislike Obamacare by 52 percent to 42 percent. But the poll also found that only 27 percent support shutting down the federal government to defund the law. A shutdown would be felt particularly hard in Virginia, owing to its sizable population of government-dependent contractors and federal employees in Northern Virginia and its heavy military presence in Hampton Roads. “The last time we had a shutdown, we saw a great deal of pain inflicted, but not as much as would occur this shutdown,” said Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.). “It’s going to affect every federal agency. It’s going to affect every federal program. It’s potentially going to affect every federal contractor.” Rep. H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) said it’s too soon to tell whether there will be a shutdown and even more premature to talk about its effects. The confrontation so far, he said, could be more positive than negative for Cuccinelli by contrasting his opposition to Obamacare and McAuliffe’s enthusiastic support. Especially when, Griffith claimed, many Americans are learning that Obamacare is unworkable, costly and a significant drag on the economy. “In my district, people despise Obamacare,” Griffith said. “I think the American people know it’s a disaster, and they want out of it.” Quentin Kidd, a professor of government at Christopher Newport University, said the showdown could benefit Cuccinelli’s campaign in some ways but also inflict


Government shutdown would entail costs

A government shutdown The Office of Management and Budget estimated in 1996 that the two closures in that fiscal year, which lasted 26 days total, cost the government $1.4 billion, or roughly $2.1 billion in today’s dollars. “I think of it like moving — it costs you to pack, and it costs you to unpack,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum think tank and former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. “Uninterrupted operations are cheaper than starting and stopping.” Most of the cost was a result of Congress granting back pay to federal employees who did not work during the closure, but some of it came from the financial toll of winding down operations and ramping them up again, according to a 1997 report by University of Maryland Baltimore County political scientist Roy T. Meyers. Meyers’s report has been cited by the Congressional Research Service. Losses for the government could be less steep this time if lawmakers decide not to compensate furloughed employees for the shutdown period, but it would still incur costs from paying workers to develop contingency plans rather than focusing on their usual missions, Holtz-Eakin said. The same goes for the private sector. In 1996, the funding lapses may have affected up to 20 percent of government contracts in the D.C. area, according to a report last month from the Congressional Research Service. No one knows precisely how much that cost businesses in terms of dollars, but the impact would be worse with a shutdown this year. ‘Opportunity costs’ Government contractors are directing their staffs to prepare. Ted Davies, president of Unisys’s Reston-based federal systems business, said his division is already losing “opportunity costs” as planners review contracts for the potential impact. “We could be working on developing business and developing our people,” Davies said. “This isn’t where you want to be.” Company planners are finding it nearly impossible to determine the cost of a shutdown and which employees they will need to furlough. There are too many factors to consider, they say. Some contracts are already covered in full by past appropriations bills, but others would have to be put on hold until further funding is available; some private-sector workers would be exempt from furloughs because they help with essential government functions, but others would not. “It gets very complicated,” said David Langstaff, chief executive of Chantilly-based TASC, who added that decisions


Sam Kass

"This is big," said Sam Kass of the White House, referring to new USDA regulations on snacks and a la carte lunch menu items in schools. "The question is how do we instill and inspire our kids [to choose healthier options]." Nearly one in three American children are overweight or obese. But after decades of rising rates, we may be turning a corner on the health crisis. Experts across fields gathered at Washington Post Live’s 2013 Childhood Obesity Summit to discuss strategies resulting in healthier children. Sam Kass, ‘Let’s Move!’ executive director, White House This isn’t a problem that we can pass a law to fix, or regulate our way out of. This really cuts to the core of who we are as Americans and as people. We have taken decades to get here, and it’s going to take us decades to really fully reverse course. When you look out at the landscape, hundreds and millions of dollars are being spent to market all kinds of products — oftentimes ones that aren’t healthy — and our healthiest options are getting lost. That goes for water, fruits and vegetables, and lots of things. So the first lady said we have to unite and put our marketing power and our promotion behind the healthiest choices so that when Americans think, “Okay, I’m thirsty,” they reach for a healthy product. Only last week, we launched a water campaign called “Drink Up.” We’re going to see a logo on half a billion bottles of water. We asked athletes, mayors, public health professionals and others for one food vice they had as a child — and how they managed to beat it. We’ve seen from studies that show if you put Elmo on something — broccoli — it shoots up consumption by kids by about 30 percent, even when there’s an opportunity to get a brownie right next to it. We have to come together to market the healthier options, and make the produce section as colorful, dynamic and attractive as the cereal aisle or the packaged-goods aisle.


BSO, in second show of Strathmore season, offers mix of the masterful and the blase

Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Strathmore on Thursday. (Courtesy of BSO) The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s second program of its Strathmore season was narrowly-focused Thursday, with lesser works by Gershwin and Bernstein and two well-traveled masterpieces by Ravel. Music Director Marin Alsop’s fervent advocacy of Bernstein’s music is admirable on many levels, but he was at his weakest in large-scale symphonic works. Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 “sets” a W.H. Auden poem, “Age of Anxiety,” with a typically eclectic grab-bag of influences and dramatic touches. However, it’s an uphill battle when instrumental music is based explicitly on a text that a typical concert audience does not know. This symphony is played more than Bernstein’s other two, mainly due to the theatrical interest of its virtuoso solo piano part, rendered Thursday evening by the superb French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. It is a not unpleasant thing to hear once in awhile and would make a fine movie soundtrack, but otherwise offers little nourishment. Thibaudet then came back for Ravel’s Concerto in G, and from the perfectly balanced twittering that opens the work to the tender but understated phrasing of the adagio assai to the sparkling runs in the finale, he gave us world-class playing. It was pure pleasure hearing every musical intention executed cleanly and without fuss. The BSO took inspiration from him, offering a concentrated and colorful backdrop. After the difficult Bernstein and the exhilarating ride of the concerto, the orchestra rendered the closing work, “Daphnis et Chloe” — a lovely chestnut — somewhat on autopilot. The harp and woodwinds were often at odds, intonation-wise, and the “Danse generale” never took wing, each beat sounding the same. Kudos to flutist Emily Skala, though, for poise and virtuosity in equal measure. Battey is a freelance writer.


Orchestras embrace of multimedia concerts

director,” Gilbert said by phone last week. In his four years at the Philharmonic to date, Gilbert has been an active champion of alternative forms of concert performance. In addition to its traditional diet of symphonies and concertos, the orchestra has offered semi-staged opera productions (directed by Fitch), theatrical presentations of contemporary music, and, yes, film-score accompaniment. “After four years,” Gilbert said, “it’s possible to say it’s not just an aberration. . . . This is our identity, not something we’re pasting on.” Gilbert’s motivation is not to reach new audiences or find ways to make music more approachable. “I don’t buy that you need to juice up the concert experience with visuals to continue to be relevant,” he said. “I think sitting in a hall where music is being created live, in front of your face, is one of the most meaningful experiences you can have, still. That said . . . orchestras as institutions have to be more than just concert-producing mechanisms.” He added, “I am very interested in showing connections between what we do and what other cultural institutions and forces do.” And while he says “I would be lying if I said there wasn’t resistance,” the musicians are finding the work increasingly rewarding. Meant to be seen and heard Few multimedia projects involve this kind of active collaboration with orchestra musicians; far more involve the orchestra sitting and playing while something else goes on. In 2004, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Tristan Project,” a much-praised production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” with videos designed by the artist Bill Viola, offered a true collaboration between art forms. The New World Symphony, the training orchestra for young professionals in Florida, is exploring such collaborations more systematically, commissioning filmmakers to create work to be shown as part of concerts in its new, state-of-the-art, Frank Gehry-designed hall. “We did indeed think that new artistic forms would come of the rebalancing of the visual and aural experience,” said Howard Herring, the orchestra’s president and CEO, in a telephone interview last spring. Virtually everyone who’s seriously involved with multimedia stresses that it’s not about pandering or dumbing down. “This idea of making the symphony orchestra accessible to everyone, that can’t be the goal,” Baltimore’s Alsop said by phone last week. “The goal has to be to preserve the integrity of the art form.” The vast majority of these orchestral projects involve works that


Studio Theatre’s ‘Red Speedo’ tests the waters on a current issue: doping

king, was the biggest name among 13 major leaguers suspended this summer as baseball keeps trying to clean up the game. (Rodriguez has appealed, so he’s still on the field.) And earlier this month: was Diana Nyad’s swim from Cuba to Key West “clean”? In Hnath’s terse, four-character play about a troubled swimmer trying to qualify for the Olympics, multi-medalists Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte are the only names that get dropped. For Hnath, it’s easy to keep actual athletic news at arm’s length. “Honestly, if you asked me what sport that person played, I would probably be momentarily stumped,” Hnath said of A-Rod. “I think he plays for a New York team, because New York seems to talk about him a lot.” Although “Red Speedo,” titled for an endorsement deal the heavily tattooed swimmer is after, isn’t specifically torn from the headlines, Hnath and director Lila Neugebauer hope it taps into bigger issues about fairness and heroes. At first, Neugebauer said she thought the problem simply had to do with athletes who thought rules didn’t apply to them. “But doping is just the arena for a conversation about what constitutes fairness, and the myth of equal opportunity,” said Neugebauer, a specialist in new plays. (She directed Annie Baker’s super-slow motion slacker drama “The Aliens” at the Studio last fall.) Hnath’s and Neugebauer’s research has uncovered some intriguing angles about the mindset not only of elite athletes but of the fans who worships them. The director asks a good question for a town currently scratching its head about the subpar performance of its superstar quarterback, Robert Griffin III, whose knee injury last winter and return to the field this month (too soon?) was hyped into the stuff of myth. “Why do we need them to be superhuman?” Neugebauer said. “What is the cost to us when we find they are not the superhumans we wanted them to be?” Hnath interviewed boxers for a play commissioned by a New York theater company. He found that they were quick to rationalize losses and slow to blame themselves. He also saw a study in which the outcome of a sprint was accurately predicted by a single factor: the runners’ testosterone levels. Another story measured people’s abilities to self-deceive and found that athletes can do this better than just about anyone. To Hnath, that makes sense. “You have to sit there and say, ‘I’m


suspect Thursday in the fatal stabbing of a man whose body was found Saturday behind a strip of rowhouses on Georgia Avenue in Northwest Washington. A police spokesman said Marvin Moore, 36, of Northwest Washington was charged with second-degree murder while armed. Police said a patrol officer found the victim, Timothy Benjamin, 58, lying on his back about 12:40 a.m. He had been stabbed several times. Authorities did not comment on a possible motive for the killing. — Peter Hermann MARYLAND Chevy Chase studies Purple Line proposal The Town of Chevy Chase has hired an engineering consultant to review a final state study of how a proposed Purple Line transitway would affect local communities. The town has budgeted up to $25,000 to hire Sam Schwartz Engineering to review the Maryland Transit Administration’s analysis of how a 16-mile light-rail line would affect residents, said Mayor Pat Burda. The western end of the proposed 16-mile route between Bethesda and New Carrollton would travel along the Georgetown Branch Trail, which abuts back yards of Chevy Chase homes. Burda said town officials have followed the state’s Purple Line planning closely but were surprised recently to learn that retaining walls more than 18 feet high could be built near homes. Residents also are concerned about the state’s plans for a rail-related power substation and a pedestrian crossing at Lynn Drive, where Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School students now cross the trail, she said. Schwartz’s analysis, which was first reported by the Montgomery Gazette, will be used to help a lawyer prepare the town’s comments to the final environmental study. — Katherine Shaver 8 ROTC students hit by car in school lot Eight ROTC students at Northwestern High School suffered minor injuries Thursday evening after they were struck by a vehicle in the side parking lot of the school, police said. Hyattsville Police Chief Doug Holland said a 19-year-old driving a Honda Civic hit the students about 6 p.m. as they stood in formation during after-school drills. Max Pugh, a spokesman for the county school system, said the injured students were ages 14 to 18. All were taken to hospitals, according to Mark Brady, a fire department spokesman. Holland said there was no indication that the driver was speeding. He said he did not know whether the driver, who was being interviewed by police, was a student or knew the students who were struck. — Ovetta Wiggins


National Zoo panda cub is active and growing

On Thursday morning, the National Zoo’s female giant panda left her den for a while, and things happened. The zoo’s panda team closed the door behind her and scooped up her cub. The yet-to-be named cub, 5 weeks old on Friday, underwent another veterinary exam, which the zoo said went “very well.” The cub is continuing to bulk up, adding more than 50 percent to her weight since she was examined 10 days ago. She grew from a bit under two pounds on Sept. 16 to 3.07 pounds on Thursday. Her length has increased at a similar rate, going from about 10 ½ inches to more than 14. The zoo said she appeared active, and keepers described her as wiggly and squirmy. She has yet to open her eyes, which is normal, the zoo said. After the exam, the cub was taken back to her den. When her mother, Mei Xiang, returned from eating a bit of bamboo, she picked up her offspring and continued to groom her, possibly none the wiser.


Inspectors from obscure agency ready to destroy Syrian chemical weapons

The Hague-based agency responsible for destroying Syria’s chemical weapons has won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Friday in Oslo. The OPCW was created in 1997as the enforcement arm of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the agreement that prohibits countries around the world from producing and using chemical weapons. THE HAGUE — The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Among the questions that remain are whether the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fully declared its stockpile; whether the inspectors will be secure in dangerous territory where control is fluid; and whether the team can meet ambitious timetables, approved Saturday, under which it must destroy Syria’s capability to produce chemical weapons by Nov. 1 and eliminate all chemical and munitions stockpiles by July 1. Such efforts usually take years. Critics say that the agency’s consensus-driven approach to resolving conflicts about disclosures may move too slowly for a fast-moving situation and that it has little experience doing detective work when weapons are hidden. But officials at the 16-year-old agency, housed in a building in The Hague that looks like a round of Edam cheese missing a wedge, say they are up for the challenge. “People are still getting their heads around being in the global limelight,” said Michael Luhan, the OPCW’s sole spokesman, who juggled three phones for hours on a recent day as hundreds of journalists called to ask for details about Syria’s surprise enumeration of its chemical weaponry. “If this is not an example of building a plane and flying it at the same time, I don’t know what is.” Not a 24-7 organization The OPCW is tasked with implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention, which took effect in 1997 and requires the elimination of all chemical weapons by the 189 states — 190 including Syria — that are party to the agreement. That work has taken inspectors to unstable countries such as Libya and Iraq. Most of the efforts, however, have been devoted to overseeing the slow, methodical destruction of vast stores of American and Russian weaponry, along with inspecting chemical plants around the world to ensure that they are not being used to produce new weapons. Improvising under live fire typically has not been the agency’s task. Most plans are made a year in advance. “It’s kind of a 9-to-5 organization, in a way. It’s not a 24-7 organization, and it’s going to have


Skywatch: October packs planetary punch, rare shadow dance

Gaze toward the crisp, autumnal heavens as October packs plenty of planets. As night falls, the planetary action begins in the western sky. Venus, the glorious and bright negative fourth-magnitude planet, is easily seen at dusk — look carefully to spot the gleaming gem after sundown. Late in October, the sun sets around 6, and Venus sets around 8:30. The young moon — in its waxing, crescent phase — passes Venus on Oct. 8. Also after sunset, Saturn will be hard to see as it races toward the horizon in the south-southwestern sky. While Saturn says so long by month’s end, it will reappear at the end of November. Jovial Jupiter rises after midnight now in the east-northeast, and you’ll be able to find it easily at negative second magnitude (bright). In the early morning of Oct. 12, the East Coast’s finest astronomical photographers get a treat: a rare triple-shadow transit. The shadows of Callisto, Io and Europa — three of Jupiter’s four large moons — appear on the planet’s surface starting at 12:32 through 1:37. It’s low on the horizon, and you’ll need a telescope to see it. Our red neighbor, Mars, loiters in the morning sky as it rises about 3. The planet is found high in the eastern sky about 6, but at 1.6 magnitude, it could be tough to find. The elderly, waning crescent moon passes Mars on Oct. 1. Also on Oct. 1, Comet ISON will be passing Mars at a distance of 0.07 astronomical units, or a mere 6.5 million miles. Astronomers hope that the comet may get within naked-eye visibility range by late November. The night of Oct. 18 features a full moon and a primetime penumbral lunar eclipse. For this eclipse, the moon slides through the outer ring, called the penumbra, of Earth’s shadow. In other words, the sun is behind Earth and the moon rides through the penumbral (outer ring) shading. In a total lunar eclipse, the moon glides through the central or umbral portion of the shadow, and the lunar disk turns a dark red shade. (eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html .) To catch the penumbral eclipse, find the moon as it rises in the east. The event’s best part is between 7:30 and 8:10, according to noted eclipse expert Fred Espenak (www.astropixels.com/blog). The keenest of skygazers may note some slightly darker lunar shading. Down to Earth events: ●Oct. 5: ●Oct. 5: ●Oct. 10:


More people express uncertainty in chance to achieve the American Dream

in the lives of most people, but the definition is shifting for many. One element has remained most constant: having the freedom to live life in the way one chooses. Three-quarters say that is “very much” how they understand the American Dream, only a slight drop from a 1986 survey by the Wall Street Journal asking the same question. Many people also still harbor an enduring faith that hard work is the surest path to success. In the poll, just one-third say it is no guarantee of success, while two-thirds say most people can get ahead financially through effort. In fact, hard work and education are rated far more highly than social connections, growing up wealthy or natural ability as factors leading to financial success. But many Americans are questioning old assumptions and changing how they define success. The luster of homeownership, which had been shorthand for the American Dream, is fading, with more than a quarter of all homeowners owing more on their mortgages than their properties are worth. Slightly more than half of current homeowners say owning a house is a cornerstone of the American Dream, down from 80 percent a quarter-century ago. And while education is still seen as a critical part of getting ahead, the dream of a college degree has lost some of its appeal over three decades. Just over half now say going to college is very much part of the American Dream, down from 68 percent who said this in 1986. More than three-quarters say it has become more difficult to pay for college in the past few years, and over half believe colleges are not doing enough to prepare students to find jobs in today’s economy. “There are some good jobs in America, but if you don’t have the skills for them, you have to go to college, which nobody can afford,” said Phil Barry, 44, an information technician from Spotsylvania, Va. Although he has two years of college education, Barry said he counts himself lucky to have gained most of his job skills during his Army career. An intensifying struggle Many Americans say they have not recovered from the recession of 2007 to 2009, according to the poll of 1,509 adults. The survey was a joint project of The Washington Post and the Miller Center, a nonpartisan institute affiliated with the University of Virginia that specializes in public policy, presidential scholarship


Gas station restaurants are becoming the next big thing in cuisine

delectable, sometimes organic, fare near the pump. There’s Korean bibimbap in Wheaton, authentic Mexican in Jessup, Thai in Leesburg and Latin American in the District. Corned Beef King cooks its meat for 11 hours. David Trachtenberg, the proprietor of Greatest American Hot Dogs, started with a food truck roaming the area offering dozens of different hot dogs. But the roaming got to be too much for him. Now, he's permanently parked at a gas station. And has visions of gas station dining spreading. Gas station cuisine is partly being driven by popular food truck operators — Corned Beef King started as a truck in 2011 — seeking permanent locations for the evolution of their brands and to meet strict regulatory requirements to have a licensed base of operations. Other eateries are looking to gas stations for low start-up costs, guaranteed foot traffic and a little bit of kitsch. The chefs and dreamers have found willing partners in gas station owners. Some have volunteered to cover the cost of building kitchens to tap new sources of revenue — from rent and increased foot traffic — as the margins on gas sales shrink even further and retailers such as Best Buy encroach on their quick-bite turf by stocking soda and snacks at the register. Jeff Lenard, vice president for strategic initiatives at the National Association of Convenience Stores, is planning to highlight the region’s flourishing gas station food scene at his group’s annual trade show next month. He’s seeking to inspire a wave of innovation at the nation’s 149,000 gas stations and convenience stores, which generate 160 million transactions a day — plenty of opportunity to sling chorizo tacos. Lenard quotes Chevy Chase in the 1983 movie “Vacation” as a sign of the changing times. The actor delivered this memorable line: “I’m so hungry I could eat a sandwich from a gas station.” “That was very funny back then,” Lenard said, “but I’m not sure how many people would be in on the joke now. We think food is the future of gas stations. People now know they can get a great meal from a truck, and it has expanded the horizons where people no longer expect a good meal can only be found at a place with a tablecloth.” Goldstein ate her pastrami on rye while the loud, spiky-haired sandwich king — his name is Jon Rossler and he looks like