D.C.’s new Momofuku and Milk Bar attract a cloud of hype, and a really long line

that only occasionally matched the theme. The New York Times called it a “promising underachiever,” but soon, the shop was drawing raves. Now, Chang has a couple of Michelin stars, and many, many James Beard awards. And he has many imitators, who sling Momofuku-style pork buns and ramen at bars in Middle America. No wonder he was suggesting — gasp! — he might not even serve the District the ramen that made him famous in the first place. Gastronomes began to brace themselves for news that the mercurial chef would be opening a pizzeria or something equally egregious. As Milk Bar hummed Friday, no one was saying whether Momofuku would even open the same weekend. At 2 p.m. Saturday, Chang could be seen in the window, appearing oblivious to the sea of humanity that had gathered. And the people outside, many of whom stared blankly at a reporter who asked them what they knew about Momofuku, were clearly oblivious to him. At 5 p.m., staffers quietly appeared out front and announced the restaurant was open. Chang, a Redskins fan so die-hard that he has said he’d like to buy the team from the much-criticized Dan Snyder, dispatched a tweet that was pure Chang — a mix of relatable angst and foul-mouthed swagger. “Against my better judgement @momofuku ccdc opens today at 5 p.m. Good to be back home Washington DC #snydersucks.” A handful of Milk Bar pilgrims judiciously hopped lines and slid through the doors of the restaurant. But most stood frozen, unsure of what to do. Bill Lee, a D.C. police officer, seemed ready to keep the peace, if things got crazy. Or was he? “I saw the line,” he said, but he was not there to oversee it. He was in it. The next time we spied the police, he and a partner were slurping back ramen in some of the best seats in the house. Technically, on Saturday night, they were all the best seats in the house, as long as you had one, and as long as your phone still had juice for one last selfie. Outside, a woman wearing a sensible parka found herself at that moment heading straight for the human traffic jam. This was that trendy restaurant, her husband cooed. “We will not be going there,” she murmured to him as they wheeled past with their stroller. “Because we are not that cool.”


Deadline for train safety technology undercut by industry lobbying

Until a train barreled off the tracks at 9:26 p.m. on May 12, it had been business as usual on Capitol Hill. Among the bills quietly making their way toward a final vote was one that would postpone by several years a multibillion-dollar safety-enhancement deadline facing the railroad industry. A victory for the railroads, which maintain one of the most powerful lobbying efforts in Washington, seemed all but certain and likely to be little noticed outside of the industry. But at that moment, an Amtrak train hurtling toward New York City derailed in Philadelphia, turning into a tangle of crushed metal that killed eight passengers and injured 200 more. Everyone — including the railroad and federal investigators — agreed that the catastrophe could have been prevented by a single innovation called Positive Train Control (PTC). It’s an automatic braking system that federal regulators call “the single-most important rail safety development in more than a century.” Now, after a period of reflection and several inquiries, Congress once more is on the brink of postponing the deadline for use of PTC. The proposed delay — until at least 2018 — comes in a new regulatory era for the railroads. Trains filled with volatile natural gas or oil have derailed seven times so far this year, and there is fear that one could cause catastrophic explosions as it passes through a city. Positive train control or PTC is a safety feature that can override human error by slowing down or stopping a train automatically. It was not in place at the Frankford junction where Amtrak Train 188 derailed. Edward Hamberger, president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, explains how PTC works and why the technology has not been installed broadly across the country. A mighty lobby What has taken place since May provides insight into the influence that effective lobbyists wield in Washington and how ready access to members of Congress has helped one industry fend off a costly safety mandate. Seven years ago, Congress ordered railroads to have PTC installed by the end of 2015. It was an uncomfortable deadline for the industry, one it argued should be postponed. PTC technology was too complex, the railroads said, and the $14.7 billion cost to equip freight and commuter lines was prohibitive. Federal economists put the cost-benefit ratio at about 20 to 1. With their lobbyists in overdrive in 2008, the railroads


Guest conductor Joshua Weilerstein leads BSO in a fine concert

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra hosted two formidable talents Saturday at Strathmore, one on the cusp of what should be an important career, the other already with 62 million clicks on YouTube. Guest conductor Joshua Weilerstein, who’s 27 but looks about 15, recently completed a three-year term as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic and now has a busy, growing career here and in Europe. He is strikingly gifted, with world-class potential. In Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony, Weilerstein kept textures tight and vitality high. Weilerstein is a thinking musician, constantly seeking the most effective means of realizing the music, often changing the metrical units of his beat during the course of a movement. He has a variety of gestures, from standing motionless to practically dancing, but all served a technical purpose (as opposed to just pantomiming), and the orchestra fed gratefully off of his birr and precision. Indeed, the Scherzo was some of the finest playing I’ve ever heard from the BSO. In slow music, he is perhaps still figuring out the best way to channel his energy — long lines were not always apparent — but with this level of talent, I predict nothing but success going forward. The opening work, “Prospero’s Rooms,” by former BSO composer-in-residence Christopher Rouse, was written in 2013. It is a tone poem on macabre literary themes, including Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” and its mise-en-scène encompasses feverish dancing, a chiming clock, specific colors and horror. This all helps the listener navigate music that veers among chaotic noise, ominous movie-score expressions and pan-tonal melodies. It is constructed with obvious skill, ends when it should and leaves behind motes of ideas. I would like to hear it again, although hopefully in a reading where the brass and percussion don’t regularly drown out the rest of the orchestra. Pianist Valentina Lisitsa, who parlayed some self-produced YouTube videos into a major international career, offered Mozart’s D minor Concerto (K. 466) rather than the knuckle-busting romantic repertoire for which she is famous. It was a curious and slightly disappointing performance with moderate, almost sleepy tempos, occasional split notes and overly fussy phrasing in melodic passages. This last point came in tandem with a recently acquired affectation, appearing to mouth words as she plays, a la Glenn Gould (which you don’t see in Lisitsa’s earlier YouTube performance of the work). She passed up interesting cadenzas by


Trevor Lafontaine, Jenny Mendez Suanca win the 40th Marine Corps Marathon

This is the race’s 40th year. It winds through Northern Virginia and parts of downtown Washington. For many of the 23,197 finishers, the Marine Corps Marathon’s 40th anniversary was a reason to come out and celebrate an old friend — the race that gave them their marathoning start, the reliable fall race that everyone turns out for and, for locals, familiar training ground. But when the pageantry and rain cleared, two newcomers took top honors. Trevor Lafontaine, 22, a recent West Point graduate and debut marathoner, ran away from the field in the last seven miles to win the men’s race in 2 hours 24 minutes 24 seconds. Twenty-one minutes later, Jenny Mendez Suanca, 35, a three-time marathon winner in her native Costa Rica, scored a victory in her first international marathon, running 2:45:55. Their strategies played out to their respective levels of experience. Suanca, who was running only her fourth marathon, stormed to a 40-second lead over her pursuers barely three miles in, though she relinquished the lead after the race’s midway point. By the time she reached the 18-mile mark on the Mall, she was ready to take over and pulled away for a 7:34 margin over Christine Taranto, 30, a Marine who was running her fourth Marine Corps Marathon. Suanca started running seven years ago with the support of her husband, himself a runner and a coach, and though she likes the supportive running culture she has at home, the East Coast weather agreed with her. “It was cold at the beginning. I was struggling with it, but I got warm as the race went on,” she said through an interpreter. “It was much less humid than Costa Rica.” Lafontaine, who had never raced beyond 10 kilometers, started conservatively, running with Daniel Schlich, a teammate on both the U.S. Army and West Point teams, until he worked his way up into a chase pack near the halfway point. He shared the lead with Oscar Mateo Santos, 32, a contractor for the Mexican military, before making his move at 19 miles. When Santos tried to follow him, he was hindered by a cramp in his quadriceps and hamstring and spent nearly two minutes trying to massage it out so he could give chase. But the gap was too much to make up, and Lafontaine cruised to a win by 1:43. “I just didn’t know what was going to


This chef wants to make vegetables as accessible as bacon

so well, especially on the East Coast. I love their versatility and sweet flavor. The fact that we can keep them either in the ground in a root cellar for so long makes them really practical. There’s Hakurei turnips, sometimes called Tokyo turnips. Think back 10, 15 years. If you said turnip, the only vision that any American would have is a giant woody plant that was mostly dirty and looked like an old, tattered softball. Tokyo turnips seem almost more fruit than vegetable. They’re sweet, crunchy and really amazing. Cabbage fits into the same category for me. When you treat yourself to the pleasure of eating local foods, you also open your possibilities up to experiencing a complexity of flavors that, quite frankly, can’t survive time and supermarket shelves. Food starts to change from the moment that it’s cut from the ground. What are your favorite techniques for getting the most out of vegetables? I like the simple techniques of canning, infusing in oils, salting and pickling in vinegar. All of those basic natural methods of preservation were inherent to our culture. If you dial back the clock before World War II, it was common knowledge in any American home how to put up vegetables from the garden. Everyone did it. Here’s another simple one. I know that not everyone has super-duper appliances at home, but most everybody has a bar blender or some means of pureeing soups. I think that you can really take things like beans and most vegetables for a ride by offering them in a couple of different forms. Let’s just say I roast a squash half in the oven, and then I’ve got something simple to eat that’s hardy and delicious, lightly seasoning it. But don’t just roast one. Do eight. Then some can get folded into a stew with any number of other ingredients connected to it. The third utilization of it is turning it into a soup. That way, you’re not eating the same thing day after day after day, yet you didn’t waste your time. It’s about planning and prioritizing, right? Nobody has enough time to walk into the kitchen and cook from-scratch original recipes every day, no matter how sharp they are — unless you’re not working; then more power to you. For the average American cook, we lead busy lives. We have such a utilitarian outlook on food that


D.C. police fatally shoot armed robbery suspect in Northwest

casings scattered in a parking lot where the shooting occurred and along Kalmia Road, in front of Northminster Presbyterian Church. Police said the incident underscored a crime threat that has created fear in several neighborhoods across the District — an increase in holdups of people walking on the street and of stores. There have been 991 armed robberies reported this year in the District, up from 877 at this time last year. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier at the scene of a police-involved shooting on Georgia Avenue in Northwest Washington on Monday. (Peter Hermann/The Washington Post) “For a long time, our biggest criminal enterprise has been robberies,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said. “Typically, it’s small groups of individuals who will commit multiple robberies over a period of time.” Robberies have been a problem in several areas of the city. The crimes have surged on Capitol Hill over the past several weeks, and police in recent days have arrested eight people they say are responsible for a series of attacks in that neighborhood near Eastern Market and H Street, and in the Navy Yard area. Those arrests include five holdups that occurred within 40 minutes on Wednesday night and a man who was held up about 7 p.m. Sunday at Seventh and E streets NE. Authorities said a young man put a gun to the back of the victim’s head and pulled the trigger. The victim “heard a click,” a court document said, and three teens ran with $75, credit cards and a cellphone. One person was later arrested. On Friday, police arrested a juvenile and charged him in six robberies along the Rhode Island Avenue corridor in Northeast. That same night, police said, a victim in the Navy Yard neighborhood tackled a juvenile who allegedly robbed him. Lanier said detectives will investigate whether the two people allegedly involved in Monday’s robbery of the Morris Miller liquor store can be linked to other crimes. The shooting by police will also undergo an extensive review; police said they recovered a gun next to the dead suspect’s body and have video from surveillance cameras inside the shop. Representatives from Morris Miller — one of the District’s oldest liquor stores, established in 1934 — could not be reached. The store was the first to get a license to sell alcohol after Prohibition, according to the Washington


Consumer Reports: What you need to know about the side effects of drugs

drugs can initially cause sleepiness, Avitzur usually explains to patients that the effect is likely to be transient. She also starts them on a low dose, discusses adjusting it over time and tells them that increasing the dose slowly often helps reduce or resolve unwanted side effects. Without such advice, patients often simply stop taking a medication that’s causing an unwanted side effect. So if you experience a mild, bothersome effect, ask whether it will abate over time and whether you can try a lower dose in the meantime. Serious side effects Adverse drug events, or ADEs, are side effects that are usually unexpected, cause harm, can lead to hospitalization and in some cases are fatal. Older adults are up to seven times as likely as younger people to experience an ADE, especially if they’re taking multiple medications. Some medications are more likely than others to cause serious harm. Drugs prompting ADEs that lead to hospitalization most often include blood thinners such as aspirin and warfarin; diabetes drugs such as insulin and oral hypoglycemic agents such as glyburide and glimepiride; and drugs used to treat high blood pressure and heart disease, including diuretics, anti-arrhythmic agents and cholesterol-lowering statins. Also on this list are analgesic drugs, opioid painkillers, antidepressants and antipsychotics. Talk with your doctor about the risks and benefits of any treatment, especially the medications mentioned above. Ask whether a newly prescribed drug carries the risk of a serious ADE and, if so, how likely it is for you. And ask about the early signs to look for. What your doctor should know now The ability to tolerate side effects is highly individual. Some people can manage a little nausea or lightheadedness; others can’t. And what’s safe for you might depend on your work and lifestyle. Avitzur says she would be alarmed if, say, a bus driver or heavy-equipment operator was even slightly sedated. Context is also important. You might tolerate nausea from chemotherapy during cancer treatment because the benefit outweighs the discomfort. But if you find an effect intolerable, ask whether an alternative medication might help. And if you’re concerned that a negative effect might be putting your health at risk, tell your doctor right away. Copyright 2015. Consumers Union of United States Inc. For further guidance, go to www.ConsumerReports.org/Health, where more detailed information, including CR’s ratings of prescription drugs, treatments, hospitals and healthy-living products, is available to subscribers.


At first, this man thought he had food poisoning. It turned out to be something far worse.

tissue that can cause recurrent pain. That, too, proved to be a dead end. In March, Sank noticed blood in his urine and consulted a kidney specialist. “He did tons more blood and urine tests,” Sank said, but nothing significant emerged. “By this point I was pretty confident I didn’t have something horrible, or they would have found it,” he added. But the attacks, which were occurring on a weekly basis, were draining and disruptive. “I was concerned about how long I was going to have to deal with this.” His stepmother persuaded him to see Steinberg, her gastroenterologist. Out of the past During Sank’s first appointment, Steinberg said he was struck by the extremely high CRP levels, which invariably returned to normal after an attack. “I’m thinking, ‘What could do that?’ ” Steinberg remembered. Sank had already undergone three CT scans and a plethora of blood tests, which had ruled out the usual suspects: pancreatitis, a perforated ulcer and a rare hereditary disorder called angioedema. Steinberg said he wondered about an illness that did not seem to fit Sank’s case. Twenty years earlier, the gastroenterologist, who has practiced in Ethiopia and Indonesia, traveled to Israel on a medical trip. While there, he had discussed with local doctors a common inherited disorder seen frequently in Israel, Turkey and Greece known as familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). One Tel Aviv clinic Steinberg toured was following 2,500 patients with FMF. The disorder is caused by a mutation in the MEFV gene, which provides instructions for making a protein found in white blood cells; the first episode usually occurs in childhood or young adulthood. It is characterized by a red rash on the lower legs, achy joints and abdominal pain. Sank was 38 and had no history of a rash or achy joints. Nor, as far as he knew, did anyone in his family, including his older brother. He was descended from Eastern European, or Ashkenazi, Jews who settled in Austria. FMF is known to affect Sephardic Jews, whose ancestry is Middle Eastern, as well as non-Jews from the Middle East, Italy and Armenia. In most cases, those who inherit one mutated gene are carriers; those with two copies of the gene, one from each parent, develop the disease. If FMF is not treated, it can cause kidney failure, arthritis and a potentially lethal disorder called amyloidosis. Although there is no cure, treatment involves


While there, he had discussed with local doctors a common inherited disorder seen frequently in Israel, Turkey and Greece known as familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). One Tel Aviv clinic Steinberg toured was following 2,500 patients with FMF. The disorder is caused by a mutation in the MEFV gene, which provides instructions for making a protein found in white blood cells; the first episode usually occurs in childhood or young adulthood. It is characterized by a red rash on the lower legs, achy joints and abdominal pain. Sank was 38 and had no history of a rash or achy joints. Nor, as far as he knew, did anyone in his family, including his older brother. He was descended from Eastern European, or Ashkenazi, Jews who settled in Austria. FMF is known to affect Sephardic Jews, whose ancestry is Middle Eastern, as well as non-Jews from the Middle East, Italy and Armenia. In most cases, those who inherit one mutated gene are carriers; those with two copies of the gene, one from each parent, develop the disease. If FMF is not treated, it can cause kidney failure, arthritis and a potentially lethal disorder called amyloidosis. Although there is no cure, treatment involves medicines that reduce inflammation and prevent attacks. In about half of people with FMF, episodes are preceded by milder symptoms called a prodrome, that feeling of impending illness Sank repeatedly experienced. Although Sank said he knew of no Middle Eastern connection, Steinberg was unconvinced. “You never know what’s floating around in our blood,” he said. It turns out that he was not the first doctor to wonder about the diagnosis. Records show that the infectious-disease specialist considered FMF but did not pursue it after Sank told him he was of European descent. Steinberg thought it might be worth giving Sank a course of colchicine, a well-tolerated drug most commonly used to treat gout. Colchicine is also a mainstay therapy for FMF; it reduces inflammation and prevents attacks. He conferred with another doctor in his practice, NIH-trained rheumatologist Rachel Glaser, who has significant experience treating FMF patients; she agreed it was worth a try. The drug had a dramatic effect. After Sank began taking it, his attacks largely ceased. Several months later, at the suggestion of Glaser, who had become his treating physician, Sank underwent a genetic test that confirmed the diagnosis of FMF and revealed that he had inherited mutated


Ukraine and Russia sever ties in the skies, throwing travelers for a loop

the two countries. When Ukraine’s Boryspil airport, the country’s main air hub, opened during the Soviet era, the only destination available was Russia. As of Sunday, flights were going everywhere except Russia. “It is total nonsense,” a furious Martynov, heavyset and bald, said in Moscow on Saturday. During an interview in the passport line, he described himself as a “Ukrainian patriot” but said that he wanted normalized relations with Russia. “Ask anyone here. We are all hostages of the politicians,” he said. Kiev announced In response, Russia announced it would likely block Ukrainian flights starting on the same day. Alexei Makarkin, a Moscow-based political analyst, said Ukraine was doing all it could to cut itself off from Russia. Passengers board Ukrainian International Airlines flight 578 from Moscow to Kiev at Domodedovo airport on October 24 in Moscow. (Brendan Hoffman/Prime for The Washington Post) “Tension on the front lines is reduced,” he said in a telephone interview, referring to a lull in fighting between Russian-backed separatists and government troops in recent months in Ukraine’s southeast. “But the psychological tension is stronger than ever.” Last-minute negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian governments last week failed to break the stalemate over the airline flights. The ban took effect early Sunday, striking at businessmen, families visiting their relatives, the occasional tourist and transit passengers. For many passengers, the decision in Kiev to ban Russian airlines came as a shock. “Strategically you would have expected it a year ago, not now,” said Oksana Timchenko, a lawyer from Odessa, Ukraine, dressed in a sable coat, diamond earrings and leather boots with stiletto heels on Saturday. She was taking Ukraine International Airlines’ penultimate flight from Moscow after visiting family, she said, but would often fly through Russia en route to Miami and New York. “Turkey’s going to make a lot of money,” she said, explaining that she would probably schedule future flights through Istanbul. She called the flight ban “window dressing” by the Ukrainian government, which she said was more interested in brinkmanship with Russia than in tackling corruption and other domestic problems. Oleg Panteleyev, head of the Russian aviation information agency AviaPort, said that the airline ban would affect an average of 680,000 travelers between Ukraine and Russia each year. Panteleyev said that the ratio of Ukrainian to Russian passengers on the flights was at least 2-to-1, or even 3-to-1. According to Russia’s Federal Aviation Agency,


Suspect arrested in recent shooting death in Northwest Washington

A suspect was arrested Monday in an Oct. 20 shooting death that was at least the fourth high-profile killing since midsummer in or near three major Northwest Washington travel and business corridors. The slayings had provoked fears of a rising level of violence in that part of the city. D.C. police said Monday that Kevin Chase, 28, of Northwest Washington was arrested on a warrant in the death of Marcus Manor, 38, also of Northwest Washington. Chase was charged with first-degree murder while armed, police said. With Monday’s arrest, suspects have been taken into custody in four of the homicides that had occurred since July 30, on or near Georgia Avenue, 16th Street and U Street. Three of the four homicides, including the killing of Manor, occurred in daylight or early evening hours, which added to the level of concern they aroused. All four of the killings occurred within about a mile and a half of each other in a section of Northwest Washington that lies above downtown and east of Rock Creek Park. Aside from their relative proximity, there was no immediate indication of any connection among the four homicides. In the slaying in which Monday’s arrest was made, Manor was shot in the chest in a vehicle in the 2900 block of Sherman Avenue NW; the site is a block west of Georgia Avenue, near Columbia Road and half-a-dozen blocks southeast of the Columbia Heights Metro station. Manor’s killing came around 11 a..m., an hour that made it seem particularly worrisome. Manor had been released from prison in March, according to police and court records. He had been held after violating terms of his release from a six-year sentence in a gun and assault case. After Manor’s death, longtime city activist Terry Lynch wrote an e-mail asserting that Ward 1, the D.C. Council ward in which he lived, was “having as bad a spasm of violence as I can recall.” In addition to Manor’s killing, which occurred in the daytime, Lynch cited two earlier homicides in the ward, which had occurred in the early evening, about an hour or two after sunset. All three occurred within a span of little more than 30 days. Matters “are certainly moving in the wrong direction,” Lynch wrote. The first of the four homicides in question occurred July 30, in the 3300 block of Georgia Avenue NW, when Derrick Black, 24, was


D.C. police seek man in August homicide in NE Washington

Lamar Young (Courtesy of D.C. Police) Authorities in the District said they are looking for a man who they believe was involved in a homicide in August. D.C. Police said there is a warrant for Lamar Young, 43, of Hyattsville, for second degree murder while armed. He is wanted in the death of Bobby Ellis, 33, of Southeast D.C. Lamar Young (Courtesy of D.C. Police) Ellis was stabbed to death on Aug. 23 around 2:45 p.m. in the 4800 block of Meade Street NE. Any information that leads to an arrest and conviction may be eligible for a reward of up to $25,000. Anyone with information is asked to call 202-727-9099.


Monkey named Pepe dies at National Zoo

Pepe, a golden lion tamarin, died at the National Zoo. Here he plays with a sloth. (Courtesy of the Smithsonian's National Zoo) A 7-year-old monkey named Pepe and two maned wolves have died at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. In a statement issued Monday, the zoo said keepers noticed a few weeks ago that Pepe — a golden lion tamarin -- had labored breathing. Diagnostic tests showed he had thoracic disease. Veterinarians removed fluid from Pepe’s lungs and were able to stabilize him. But even with treatment and medication, he was found unresponsive on Monday. Pepe’s twin sister — Izabel — died earlier this year. The siblings were the last set of surviving golden lion tamarin twins that were born at the National Zoo. Pepe’s sister had to have her tail amputated because of a fractured vertebrae. Because tamarins are very dexterous, zoo officials said they believe she picked at the sutures and removed the cast. The day after the cast was put on, Izabel was found unresponsive. She was 6. Pepe shared a home at the zoo with a Saki monkey, an agouti, a three-banded armadillo and a Linne’s two-toed sloth, the zoo said. He enjoyed napping on — and interacting — with the sloth. “Pepe was an ambassador for his species, illustrating the behavior and social nature of golden lion tamarins to visitors and staff alike,” the zoo said in a statement. Zoo officials said a final pathology report will provide more details on Pepe’s death. In the wild, a golden lion tamarin lives for eight years. They are found in the coastal region of Brazil and are considered endangered. The zoo also said in a statement that its two maned wolves, which were a non-breeding pair, were older. The male wolf died of unspecified natural causes and the female died of cancer. The statement did not say when they died. A maned wolf is about three feet tall and looks like a long-legged fox with a coat that is red and brown in color. It lives in central and southeastern Brazil and parts of Paraguay and Bolivia. Zoo officials said they were saddened by the animals’ deaths.


Rail-safety deadline extension hitched to must-pass bill on transit funding

Positive train control or PTC is a safety feature that can override human error by slowing down or stopping a train automatically. It was not in place at the Frankford junction where Amtrak Train 188 derailed. Edward Hamberger, president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, explains how PTC works and why the technology has not been installed broadly across the country. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the system could have prevented 145 rail accidents that killed 288 people and injured 6,574 since 1969. The move to add the PTC extension to the highway funding extension, putting both to a single vote, faces Senate opposition led by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). The railroad industry has mounted an intense public and private lobbying effort to get the deadline Congress set in 2008 extended for another three years. Last week, the railroads said that all freight and commuter rail lines would face a shutdown at the end of the year unless an extension was granted. They warned of a “transportation crisis” unless Congress acted this week, saying they would begin sending out shutdown notices and informing passengers and customers of an impending disaster that would do $30 billion in damage to the economy. “We need to extend the Positive Train Control deadline as soon as possible to prevent significant disruptions of both passenger and freight rail service across the country,” Shuster said in a statement announcing his plan to marry the highway and PTC extensions. “The sooner we extend this deadline, the more certainty we will give our agricultural, manufacturing, and chemical industries to ensure there will be no supply-chain disruptions.” Shuster, who has received campaign contributions of $446,079 from the railroad industry since 2001, has expressed reservations in the past about the need for PTC. The mandate would cost the industry $14.7 billion, and federal economists put the cost-benefit ratio at about 20 to 1. Congress arrived at the Dec. 31 deadline after a head-on train collision in California in 2008 killed 25 people and injured 102 others. The NTSB said PTC could have prevented the accident. Since then, some railroads, notably Burlington Northern Santa Fe, have made significant progress in installing the complex systems. Others, including Union Pacific, have yet to fully install the system in a single locomotive. While the railroads have insisted that they will need until 2018 to get PTC installed and, perhaps, two


How Washington became the nation’s busiest training ground for scandal PR

exactly? And can it substitute for real-world experience? Students at the Defense Information School in Fort Meade, Md., undergo training in managing communications during a simulated crisis that includes an earthquake, a tsunami, a shipwreck and a downed helicopter. (Photo by Charlie Archambault) Dan Webber likes to be ready for anything At his job and as a crisis PR instructor at Georgetown, Webber preaches the importance of preparation. Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm, whose clients have included the tobacco industry, is known for reactionary triage: swooping into Penn State University, for example, after news broke that retired football coach Jerry Sandusky had sexually abused children on campus. But it also creates “crisis plans,” a protocol a company can fall back on when something goes awry. One evening, Webber tries to get the dozen students in his class to understand that anticipating a problem is half the job. You work for a fast-food chain and a photo purporting to show a deep-fried rat, allegedly served at one of your restaurants, is spreading on social media. Do you respond? If it’s a hoax, responding may only validate it. At that point, the best strategy may be “issue monitoring.” Webber instructs his students on search engine optimization so a company’s response to a crisis might appear closer to the top of the results when someone searches Google for, say, “rat chicken nugget.” It means brainstorming key words and doing targeted ad buys, counting page views and monitoring likes and comments on Facebook posts. That sort of nitty-gritty methodology, he says later, can be mastered in a classroom. “There is a science and an art, and both require discipline,” Webber says. “You can teach people the discipline. You can tell them, ‘Here are the components you need to be thinking about. ... Here are the case studies.’ ” It sounds far from the glamorous world of fictional fixer Olivia Pope, whose trademark phrase on ABC’s “Scandal” is: “It’s handled.” And that fact is not lost on the students. “I feel like Olivia Pope is to PR what Indiana Jones is to archaeology,” says Kim Thomson, 28. “Crisis sounds exciting and sexy, but it’s not.” And that’s a good thing. Thomson, a marketing manager for Aimco, a national apartment complex owner, says Webber has taught her that crisis PR is supposed to be dull. “You should know exactly what to do,” she says.


Man charged in burglary that ended in shootout with D.C. police; female accomplice killed

D.C. police on Tuesday identified a person killed during a shootout with officers as a 21-year-old woman and said her male companion has been charged in what authorities think was an interrupted holdup of a liquor store. Police said Marquesha McMillan of Northeast Washington had opened fire on officers Monday morning in the parking lot behind Morris Miller Wines and Liquors, at Alaska and Georgia avenues NW. Ned McAllister, 21, also of Northeast, who police said fled from the scene, has been charged with burglary while armed. Witnesses described a fierce and prolonged gun battle between several officers and a woman taking cover behind a trash bin. One witness said that she heard as many as 30 gunshots. D.C. police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said McMillan reloaded her gun twice before she was killed. McMillan’s aunt, Stephanie Chambers, 36, questioned how a charter school graduate who attended college and worked as a janitor at FedEx Field could have gotten mixed up with a liquor store robbery. Chambers said the family didn’t think McMillan had experience with guns. “She’s not familiar with nothing like that,” said Chambers, who lives in Northeast. “I don’t know if she had a gun. I don’t know why she was shot by police. I don’t know where on the body she was shot. What I do know is that all of this is out of character.” McMillan wrote on her LinkedIn page, and Chambers concurred, that she graduated from a charter school and attended classes at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where she studied exercise science. A university spokesman could not confirm that account Tuesday night. Chambers said that McMillan played basketball in school and “had a bright future.” She said that her niece left college before graduating to live with family in North Carolina, where she worked at Wal-Mart. McMillan returned recently to the District and a new job at the football stadium, her aunt said. McMillan has no criminal record in the District and has one arrest in Maryland for assault and resisting arrest, a case prosecutors did not pursue. Chambers said that relatives had never heard of McAllister. The incident at the liquor store, which is near the Maryland border, occurred just after 9 a.m. Monday. Police said McMillan was wearing a dark jacket, dark hooded sweatshirt, gray pants, white and red shoes, and a dark item covering her face. McAllister was


Michael Dirda’s picks for Halloween chillers: Get ready to be grossed out

Algernon Blackwood should be viewed as Britain’s true “opener of the way” to modern fiction of the supernatural. This pair’s two supreme masterpieces, Machen’s “The White People” and Blackwood’s “The Willows,” are available in “Shadows of Carcosa: Tales of Cosmic Horror,” edited by D. Thin (New York Review Books, $15.95). Machen’s “The Bowmen” is known even to nonreaders, since it represents, as Richard J. Bleiler observes in “The Strange Case of ‘The Angels of Mons’ ” (McFarland , $39.95), a pre-Internet instance of an idea “going viral.” This World War I tale of angelic archers who answer the prayers of desperate British soldiers almost instantly passed from fiction into supposed fact: German infantrymen were even said to have been found dead of arrow wounds. Bleiler reprints the original story, as well as articles in support and refutation of this early example of an urban myth. For more World War I strangeness, one might turn to the distinctly pulpish title story of “The Broken Fang and Other Experiences of a Specialist in Spooks,” by Uel Key (Ramble, $20). Here, occult detective Arnold Rhymer discovers that German adepts are reanimating dead soldiers into unstoppable killing machines. Fans of the supernatural sleuth (Mulder and Scully from “The X-Files” are more recent instances) should also look for “Giving Up the Ghosts” (Coachwhip, $14.95). Editor Tim Prasil introduces several psychic investigators who feature in two or three stories apiece by the likes of Gelett Burgess and A.M. Burrage, among others. Included is Blackwood’s Jim Shorthouse, a precursor to the author’s more famous specialist in the outré, John Silence. Don’t miss Shorthouse’s deliciously kitschy visit to a werewolf, “The Strange Adventures of a Private Secretary in New York.” Last, but hardly least, Ireland’s Swan River Press has brought out “The Anniversary of Never” (hardcover, 30 euros), a posthumous collection by the World Fantasy Award-winner Joel Lane. Here, with sad irony, the overall theme is the afterlife. In “Sight Unseen,” a wrenching father-son story, the narrator speculates about his dad’s apparently psychotic conviction that aliens have been using his eyes to spy on the world. But was he really insane? Humankind, said T.S. Eliot, cannot bear very much reality. Michael Dirda You may also enjoy: Michael Dirda on horror and specialty presses 2014 ‘The Gothic Imagination: Conversations on Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction in the Media,’ by John C. Tibbetts Michael Dirda on unearthing ghostly tales 2008


Outfoxing an autumn pest: The carrot root maggot

smell of contented carrots that lures the fly. But maybe she detects vulnerability instead. Did stress from a dry spell make the plants more susceptible? It was important for my friend to save her remaining good carrots by digging them up. Any left in the ground could get worse, and maggots in root-cellared carrots continue to feed, with more tunnels, more rust-colored maggot waste and more chance of rot. She chose, wisely, to make and freeze a big batch of her delicious carrot soup for wintertime. She also needed a plan for next spring. Even in a small garden like hers, crop rotation will protect a new carrot crop from the fly, and by using a different bed she could at least avoid maggots that were overwintering in the soil of the present bed as pupae, to hatch out as flies in spring. It should be a bed where no carrots have been growing, in addition to any carrot relatives such as dill, celery or fennel. The best thing she could do about those pupae would be to turn a small flock of chickens loose on them. Chickens can be as valuable as insectivores as they are for their meat or their eggs. Brandy doesn’t have chickens, but she could rough the soil up a few times before hard frost to expose the pupae to wild birds. When spring arrives, the best protection against maggots in the new crop is to exclude the carrot rust flies with a physical barrier. The simplest thing to use is a lightweight floating row cover, applied immediately after the carrots are sown, with the edges buried for the most security and pulled up only for weeding. When I left Brandy and went home, I decided to check on my carrot patch. And behold, a few maggots were there — soon to be more, I feared. Here’s my latest theory: What attracts them is hubris, and they can smell it a mile away. Damrosch is author of “The Four Season Farm Gardener’s Cookbook.” Tip of the week Resist the urge to clean up and cut back hydrangea bushes, which need this year’s growth for next season’s flower production and to increase winter hardiness. If the hydrangea is in too hot and dry a site, now would be a good time to transplant it to a location with more shade and richer soil. — Adrian Higgins


Carly Fiorina slips two new words in a rarely told tale: Planned Parenthood

fetus at a Planned Parenthood clinic, apparently does not exist. When asked about the origins of the story about her friend, Fiorina’s campaign first said that the details were recounted in Fiorina’s second book: “Tough Choices.” But neither her first nor her second book has any reference to the abortion anecdote. Later, campaign spokeswoman Anna Epstein said she “could have been wrong” about the story being in Fiorina’s book and pointed to two news stories in which the anecdote had been mentioned. In the end, the campaign declined to comment for this article — or to name the friend. “We have nothing to add,” Epstein said in an e-mail when asked about Fiorina’s decision to add the story to the campaign trail this year. Former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina is running for president as a Republican in 2016. Here's her take on the economy, religious freedom laws, Iran and abortion. Fiorina first recounted the story of her friend’s abortion at the March for Life event in January, and she has since reprised it in two interviews — both conducted before she declared her candidacy for president. In an interview with Breitbart News in May, Fiorina said that her friend was “never really encouraged to even evaluate that choice” and that the decision made her a “tortured woman” later. Similarly, she told Bloomberg Politics in April that her friend never “got over it, honestly.” Planned Parenthood is not mentioned in either interview. That didn’t happen until the North Texas Presidential Forum in Plano on Oct. 18. “I would say that I was raised that way but I wasn’t very thoughtful about it, honestly,” Fiorina said when asked to explain how she came to believe in the “sanctity of life.” “Then when I was in my early 20s, a very good friend of mine asked me to accompany her when she had an abortion.” In the wake of the undercover video controversy, Planned Parenthood announced this month that it would no longer accept payments from research companies to cover the administrative costs associated with fetal tissue donations. Although the payments were legal, they had become fodder for antiabortion activists, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said at the time. In a statement this week, Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s Eric Ferrero said Planned Parenthood leaves decisions on abortion, adoption or raising a child to a woman and her health-care providers. “Planned Parenthood health


D.C. news in brief

SoberRide offers free taxi service on Halloween The Washington Regional Alcohol Program is offering free cab rides to prevent drunken driving on Halloween. SoberRide will operate from 10 p.m. Saturday until 4 a.m. Sunday and is available in the District and in Montgomery, Prince George’s, Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William counties and eastern Loudoun County. Local taxi companies provide the service. Those 21 and older can call 800-200-TAXI (8294) for a free ride home worth up to $30. For information, go to www.soberride.com. Walk for heart disease prevention is Nov. 7 The American Heart Association is having its 2015 Greater Washington Heart Walk on the Mall, between 12th and 14th streets NW, on Nov. 7. The event raises money for the prevention of heart disease and stroke. Activities begin at 8:30 a.m. with a health exposition and entertainment. The walk begins at 10 a.m. at 12th Street and Madison Drive. Participants can choose a three-mile or one-mile route. The course is open to strollers, wheelchairs and leashed pets. There are no registration fees for the walk. Money is raised through donations and sponsorship of walkers. Walkers who raise $250 or more are eligible for a Heart Walk T-shirt. Volunteers are needed to serve at water stations and hospitality tents, and as greeters and course marshals. For information, go to www.greaterwashingtonheartwalk.org, e-mail stephanie.maher@heart.org or call 703-248-1715. D.C. housing department seeks feedback on plan The D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development is having a public hearing to take testimony from District residents on its fiscal 2016-2020 Consolidated Plan at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at the Greater Washington Urban League office, 2901 14th St. NW. Topics in the plan include affordable housing, community economic development and neighborhood allocations of housing funds. To register, e-mail dhcd.events@dc.gov. For information, call 202-442-7275 or go to dhcd.dc.gov. Tourism group unveils Anacostia heritage trail The nonprofit group Cultural Tourism D.C. recently unveiled “An East-of-the-River View: Anacostia Heritage Trail,” a self-guided walking tour of the Anacostia neighborhood. Highlights along the two-mile trail include the Anacostia Historic District, which began as Uniontown in 1854; Cedar Hill, Frederick Douglass’s home; Rose’s Row, an example of what became known as the Uniontown style of architecture; and the Big Chair, the oversized landmark that once advertised Curtis Brothers Furniture. To download or order a guide book, go to www.culturaltourismdc.org. — Compiled by Terence McArdle


D.C. crime report

Avenue NW under Dupont Circle NW, MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS Alton Pl., Georgia Ave., Girard St., Irving St., Irving St., Jefferson St., Jefferson St., Kansas Ave., M St., Massachusetts Ave., North Capitol St., Porter St., Vermont Ave., Sixth St., 31st St., 47th St., Southeast HOMICIDE 15th Pl., SEXUAL ASSAULTS A St., D St., ASSAULTS Alabama Ave., Atlantic St., Atlantic St. and Mississippi Ave., Barnaby Terr., Bass Pl., Bay Lane and Ridge Rd., Brandywine St., Bruce Pl., Buena Vista Terr. and Jasper St., Call Pl., Congress Pl., Elvans Rd., Fairlawn Ave., G St., G St., Gainesville St. and Knox Pl., Hartford St., Minnesota Ave. and Nelson Pl., Orange St., Pomeroy Rd., Sumner and Wade roads, Varney St., Third St., 16th St., 16th St., 18th St., 24th St., ARSON Stanton Rd., ROBBERIES Alabama Ave., Alabama Ave., Alabama Ave. and Wheeler Rd., C St., Congress Pl., Douglass Pl., Gainesville St., Good Hope Rd., Howard Rd., Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., Minnesota Ave., New Jersey Ave., Pomeroy Rd., Potomac Ave., Q St., Savannah St., Fifth St., Sixth St., 12th St. and Independence Ave., 14th St., 21st and Tremont streets, 25th St., BREAK-INS Alabama Ave., A St., A St., Buena Vista Terr., E St., Elvans Rd., Firth Sterling Ave., I St., Mississippi Ave., Ridge Rd., Savannah St., Southern Ave., W St., 28th St., THEFTS A St., Alabama Ave., Alabama Ave., Astor Pl., Barnaby St., Barnaby Terr., Benning Rd., Brothers Pl., C St., C St., C St., C St., C St., D St., D St., E St., E St., E St., E St., East Capitol St., East Capitol St., East Capitol St., Elvans Rd., F St., Fitch St., G St., G St., G St., G St., Good Hope Rd., Good Hope Rd., H St., Hilltop Terr., I St., I St., Independence Ave., Independence Ave., K St., K St., L St., L St., Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., Massachusetts Ave., Mississippi Ave., Nash St., Naylor Rd., Nelson Pl., New Jersey Ave., O St., Orange St., Patterson Ave., Pennsylvania Ave., Pennsylvania Ave., Pennsylvania Ave., Potomac Ave., Potomac Ave., Potomac Ave., Q St., Southern Ave., Southern Ave., Southern Ave., T St., T St., W St., Walker Ct., Wayne Pl., First St., Second St., Fourth St., Fourth St., Fourth St., Fourth St., Seventh St., Eighth St., Eighth St., Eighth St., Eighth St., 10th St., 11th St., 12th St., 12th and D streets, 13th St., 14th St., 14th St., 16th St., 16th


Sanders proposes nixing marijuana from federal list of dangerous drugs

has repeatedly said she wants to see how legalization experiments in Colorado, Washington and other states play out before committing to any changes at the federal level. Different marijuana varieties are displayed at a medical marijuana dispensary, Kaya Shack, in Portland, Ore. Sanders’s plan would allow legal marijuana businesses to use banking services. (Gosia Wozniacka/AP) Sanders’s plan would not automatically make marijuana legal nationwide, but states would be allowed to regulate the drug in the same way that state and local laws now govern sales of alcohol and tobacco. And people who use marijuana in states that legalize it would no longer be at risk of federal prosecution. His plan would also allow marijuana businesses currently operating in states that have legalized it to use banking services and apply for tax deductions that are currently unavailable to them under federal law. In a 2013 memo Marijuana’s current classification is reserved for drugs with no medically accepted use and a “high potential for abuse.” Many researchers who work in drug policy say that this designation is not appropriate. Last week, the Brookings Institution said that marijuana’s current scheduling status is “stifling medical research.” The American Medical Association has called for marijuana’s scheduling status to be “reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research.” Sanders has hinted at his position before, including during a broadcast last week on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC, during which he said: “I am not unfavorably disposed to moving toward the legalization of marijuana.” At Wednesday night’s event, Sanders cast the country’s large number of marijuana arrests as part of a “broken” criminal justice system that disproportionately targets blacks and Latinos. “I will not be a president of a country that has more people in jail than any other country,” Sanders said. He said the current classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug suggests it is as dangerous as heroin, a notion that Sanders said is “absurd.” “In the year 2015, it is time for the federal government to allow states to go forward as they best choose,” Sanders said. In the first debate of Democratic presidential candidates, in Nevada, Clinton said she supports the legalization of medical marijuana and alternatives to imprisoning people for nonviolent drug crimes. But she stopped short of endorsing recreational legalization, saying she wants “to find out a lot more than we know today” about the experiences of


Senate passes transportation funding stopgap bill and rail-safety extension

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a deadly train derailment in Philadelphia in May. (Patrick Semansky/AP) The Senate on Wednesday approved a measure that extends federal transportation funding for three weeks, along with a provision that gives the railroad industry at least three more years to implement life-saving automatic-braking technology. Bowing to the reality that railroads were far from meeting the year-end deadline for the installation of the brake technology, known as Positive Train Control (PTC), the Senate joined the House in granting the extension. The original deadline, set in 2008, will now be extended to 2018, and, under certain circumstances, to 2020. The move follows years of halting progress and aggressive lobbying by the railroads, which argued that the multibillion-dollar mandate was too complex and costly to finish on time. The industry, led by large freight railroads, had presented an economic doomsday scenario if the deadline for implementing the technology was not extended. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said the extension was critical to avoid “devastating” economic consequences. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had sought a one-year extension instead. She held up a large photograph of the crumpled wreckage of Amtrak Train 188, which derailed in Philadelphia in May, leaving eight dead in a crash that investigators said would have been prevented if PTC had been in place. Boxer was sharply critical of the way that the extension came about — as part of the must-pass, stopgap funding bill — and blamed the powerful railroad lobby. “It’s a lobby that covers everybody,” Boxer said of both Republicans and Democrats. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said in a statement that “after so many preventable railway tragedies that have led to the loss of life, it is an insult to the families who have lost loved ones to let the rail lobby slip a multi-year Positive Train Control delay into a three-week extension.” Gillibrand said the rail industry “has purposely dragged its feet in meeting its safety requirements.” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) disputed that characterization, saying the delay “has nothing to do with a lack of commitment by the railroads. It has to do with the fact we cannot get there in the time we had hoped for originally.” A spokesman for the Association of American Railroads said that the industry has spent nearly $6 billion on implementing PTC and that much progress is being made. In a statement, the association said the


‘Burnt’ bares all to show how the sausage is made

Everything you need to know about Adam Jones, the difficult cooking prodigy at the center of “Burnt,” you glean from the movie’s opening scenes. Adam is the kind of guy who punishes himself by taking up a seemingly impossible task: shucking a million oysters. Once he has met his goal, years later, he bails on his boss, without so much as a farewell. Would it kill him to finish his shift? He may be a man who submits to self-flagellation, but he’s even worse to everyone else. Viewers’ enjoyment of the movie will largely depend on their feelings about Bradley Cooper, the Academy Award nominee who plays Adam. Clearly, the character isn’t easy to love. He’s a genius, but no amount of artistry can compensate for how manipulative and mean he can be. (Residual goodwill from Cooper’s charming performance in “Silver Linings Playbook” can only help.) As it turns out, Adam’s shucking challenge was amends for abominable behavior years earlier. Adam was once the chef in a two-Michelin-star-rated restaurant in Paris, but drugs and alcohol turned him into an even bigger monster than he was when sober. His decision to disappear and clean up his act has left some people assuming he had died. But now he’s back, to his former friends’ and enemies’ surprise, descending on London with a plan to open his own restaurant and accomplish a nearly impossible feat: earning his third Michelin star. In a sequence fit for a heist movie, Adam recruits a team to help him do it: fiery single mom Helene (Sienna Miller); a frenemy from his past life, Michel (Omar Sy); violent ex-con Max (Riccardo Scamarcio); and Tony (Daniel Brühl), a maitre d’ who will do anything for Adam, because he’s in love with the guy. Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) returns from restaurant purgatory to open his own kitchen in London in “Burnt,” calling on old friends and enemies while trying to earn another Michelin star. (Alex Bailey/The Weinstein Company) The cast is so star-studded that the first half of the movie feels like a parade of cameos. Uma Thurman drops by momentarily to play an exacting restaurant critic. Emma Thompson shows up as Adam’s wise therapist. Next-big-thing starlets Alicia Vikander and Lily James each make fleeting appearances. (There wasn’t enough time to squeeze everyone in; “Fifty Shades of Grey” star Jamie Dornan also shot scenes that were cut from the film.)


Local Digest: Another killing in D.C.; NIH worker admits wire fraud

THE DISTRICT After day of violence, another person slain A man was fatally shot Thursday morning in Northeast Washington, according to D.C. police. The shooting occurred about 7:20 a.m. in the 5300 block of Dix Street, in Clay Terrace and near H.D. Woodson Senior High School. Police identified the victim as Leon Reid Jr., 35, of Northeast. The shooting came a day after a violent afternoon in the District on Wednesday in which five people, three of them juveniles, were shot in a three-hour span. One victim, a woman identified by police Thursday as Marcquetta Cunningham, 24, of Northeast, died after being shot in the back. MARYLAND Worker pleads guilty to wire fraud at NIH A former National Institutes of Health employee pleaded guilty to wire fraud and misuse of a government-issued credit card after she bought more than $20,000 worth of jewelry and electronics. The U.S. attorney’s office for Maryland in Greenbelt said Francesca Maria Daniele, 49, of La Plata, Md., made a plea agreement Wednesday. Daniele bought the items on a 16-day spending spree in July 2014, officials said. As part of her job buying equipment from vendors and administering contracts at NIH, Daniele had the government-issued credit card, officials said. She could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Her sentencing is scheduled for March. Emily’s List backs Matthews in the 8th Emily’s List, the powerful national money machine that supports Democratic women who favor abortion rights, endorsed 8th Congressional District candidate Kathleen Matthews on Thursday. Matthews becomes one of nine House candidates recommended so far by Emily’s List. In March, it endorsed Rep. Donna F. Edwards in her primary campaign against Rep. Chris Van Hollen for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.). The announcement of Matthews’s endorsement is the latest sign that the race for the House seat being vacated by Van Hollen is on its way to becoming one of the most expensive congressional contests in state history. With six months to go before the April Democratic primary, Matthews and state Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (Montgomery) have both raised about $1 million. Jobless insurance tax rate to drop for some Some businesses in Maryland will pay less in unemployment insurance taxes next year because fewer people are applying for unemployment benefits, state officials said Thursday. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced that the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund has grown


Business digest: Oct. 30, 2015

high prescription drug prices and companies looking to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who is vehemently against tax inversions, in which a U.S. company relocates overseas to take advantage of lower tax rates, said a Pfizer-Allergan deal would result in the loss of the country’s 10th-largest company to Ireland. Analysts speculated that a deal could be entirely or primarily done with stock because, under new U.S. rules aimed at curtailing tax inversions, shareholders of the overseas company must own at least 40 percent of the combined entity. Earlier Thursday, Pfizer chief executive Ian Read reiterated his criticism of U.S. corporate taxes. “Our tax rate highly disadvantages American multinational high-tech businesses,” Read said at a media event. “I am fighting with one hand tied behind my back.” Pfizer’s effective tax rate is 25 percent; Allergan’s is 15 percent. — Reuters Also in Business ● Hormel Foods said Thursday that it was voluntarily recalling a limited number of jars of its Skippy peanut butter in seven states because they might contain small metal shavings. The recall involves 153 cases of Skippy Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter Spread. It is limited to 16.3-ounce jars with a “Best If Used By” date of DEC1416LR1 with a package UPC code of 37600-10500. The jars were sent to distribution centers for Publix, Target and Wal-Mart in Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware and Arkansas. Hormel did not say how the metal might have entered the jars. ● Starbucks says more customers visited its stores worldwide, helping it deliver major sales gains for its fiscal fourth quarter. The Seattle-based coffee giant earned $652.5 million, or 43 cents per share, for the most recent period, meeting analyst forecasts, according to FactSet. Revenue jumped nearly 18 percent, to $4.91 billion, just ahead of market forecasts of $4.9 billion. For the current quarter ending in January, Starbucks expects its per-share earnings to range from 44 cents to 45 cents. It expects full-year earnings in the range of $1.87 to $1.89 per share. ● A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected Texas financier Robert Allen Stanford’s bid to overturn his conviction and 110-year prison sentence for running what federal prosecutors called a $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme. The New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit turned aside several arguments raised by Stanford, including that the trial court showed favoritism to prosecutors and that the


Meet the museum director who hangs with Leo and Kanye and paid $10 million for a rock

and Artist Michael Heizer stand in front of Heizer's "Potato Chip" at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, NY on May 8th, 2015. (Jesse Dittmar/For The Washington Post) “It was a deeply undervalued institution, a mess architecturally, byzantine in its curatorial organization,” says Joe Thompson, the director of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and a friend dating back to their time working under Krens at Williams. “In other words, it was ripe for a major reconceptualization.” The numbers tell part of that story. Over Govan’s tenure, LACMA’s annual attendance has doubled, from roughly 600,000 to 1.2 million visitors, as has its private fundraising, from $41 million a year on average to $80 million. Additions to the collection have been equally dramatic. Earlier this year, at the museum’s 50th-anniversary gala, Govan unveiled art donations valued at $675 million. Gifts ranged from a John Singer Sargent painting by Barbra Streisand to a towering, wooden surfboard once used by the famed Duke Kahanamoku. The acquisitions were a perfect example, Govan says, of the relatively open playing field at LACMA. And his most dramatic acquisitions are a series of monumental works installed on the campus. These include Chris Burden’s “Urban Light,” rows of restored, antique street lamps installed near the entrance on Wilshire Boulevard to serve as both a meeting place and a beacon, and Heizer’s “Levitated Mass,” a 340-ton boulder that rests on a specially designed concrete ramp in the museum’s back yard. Michael Heizer, "Levitated Mass," 2012. (Tom Vinetz/Copyright Michael Heizer; Courtesy LACMA) Buying and moving the rock cost $10 million and created a considerable buzz, with crowds gathering as the boulder slowly crawled across the state. Jarl Mohn, a museum supporter and National Public Radio’s chief executive officer, said he found Govan’s passion for the piece inspiring. That’s why he donated more than $100,000 for “Levitated Mass.” “It’s not l ike going to Christie’s in London and raising your paddle to bring back something that you hang in the museum.” The sun is descending over the desert. Govan’s Sunday afternoon meeting with Turrell went well, as the two reviewed plans to create a new model of “Roden Crater” to help explain the next phase to prospective donors. Now he’s heading back, on his single-engine plane, to Los Angeles for a dinner with artist Cathy Opie. Govan learned to fly in New York, buying a tiny Piper Cherokee 140 in 1997


D.C.’s West End: Small footprint belies neighborhood’s big personality

D upont Circle, Georgetown and Foggy Bottom are well-known areas in Northwest Washington. What’s not is the little triangle neighborhood that connects the three. The West End is bordered on the north by P Street, the east by 22nd Street, the south by K Street and west by Rock Creek Parkway. People often pass through heading to the Kennedy Center or George Washington University Hospital. But there’s enough within these few blocks that can make it worth stopping — to grab a bite, catch a movie or even get your bike fixed. Restaurants such as Rasika West End and Blue Duck Tavern have gotten high marks for their new menus and chefs. Rasika West End, in fact, ranked No. 2 in Tom Sietsema’s Fall Dining Guide. The Ritz-Carlton, with its Westend Bistro , is also in the neighborhood. If you’re looking for an everyday meal, there’s Bayou for live music and the moderately priced Charm Thai . Cafe Deluxe on M Street is surprisingly satisfying for a hotel restaurant; it’s attached to the Hilton Garden Inn. Did we mention bikes? District Hardware Current owners Neil and brother Simon once outfitted Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund with a shiny orange bike, which she paired with a matching scarf. “We’re now selling bikes to the grandchildren of people that bought bikes from us in the ’70s,” Neil Conway says. Two blocks away is a small bar with a hopeful name: 51st State , which bartender Jason Fetzer says is “definitely an ode” to statehood. Sadly, upon arriving, I heard one passerby comment, “51st state? It’ll be Puerto Rico before us.” Still, this pub off Pennsylvania Avenue has such an individualistic streak that you may feel less cynical upon entering. Or at least after the third drink or so. The bar still has a cigarette vending machine, but 51st State is trying to class up things. Compelling charcoal works by local artists cover the walls, and former White House chef Rob Alexander recently put a steak au poivre burger on the menu. The kitchen is open until midnight on weekends. The West End is also filling out with sports boutiques. SoulCycle landed on M Street last year, a boxing gym is on 24th Street, and a squash center named Squash on Fire is coming to M Street soon. If you’d rather see a movie, head to West End Cinema . It


You can take that wine home with you. So why don’t you?

I think it’s a bit easier to just power through that second bottle without the inevitable consequences of the following morning.” The other factor is price: “I really only see it for high-end wines,” says Kroll, thinking that people might not want to make a fuss over a relatively inexpensive bottle. Fausett disagrees, saying that she sees wines of “all price points, all varietals” heading out the door. So why don’t more people take advantage of doggie bags? Zutant believes most people know their limits. “I think that people order what they think they’re going to drink. If they’re not going to drink a lot, they order by the glass.” The law applies only to wine: Beers and ciders cannot leave a restaurant, even if they’re served in fancy wine-size 750-milliliter bottles. Andrew J. Klein, an attorney and longtime adviser to the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, says in an e-mail that this is “simply because that was where the demand was at the time.” In 2008, when the association was pushing for doggie bags, the number of bars serving craft beer and cider wasn’t as large as it is now. But, Klein writes, “I believe the law could be amended, without much resistance, to include other beverages.” If you’re looking for a bottle to bring home to drink later, Myers, a master sommelier, says wines with residual sugars, such as Riesling, hold up better than “light, crisp whites” like sauvignon blanc, while young “fruit bombs” are more resilient than wines at least a decade old. Either way, it’s best to stick the wine in the fridge when you get home, he says. “Ideally, you had a great night and brought some yummy wine home with you that you’re going to drink with leftovers — or breakfast,” he says. “I’m not judging. Don’t get too precious about how perfectly it did or didn’t hold up overnight. Less worrying with your drinking is always a good thing.” Share your leftovers recipe ideas and suggestions with us on Instagram. Snap a photo and tag #smartleftovers. We may feature your Instagrams on washingtonpost.com. More leftovers: The one thing about being a food critic that fills me with shame How to make leftovers feel like a boon, not a burden Should your leftovers go in a glass or plastic container? It depends Which gizmos and gadgets will keep your opened wine fresh till tomorrow?


Animal Watch: Dogs’ fate left to chance

BOWIE, Among cases received by the Prince George’s County Animal Management Division.


November’s cosmic forecast calls for Leonid showers

burn up, and we get to see these burning remains as shooting stars. Down-to-Earth events ● Nov. 2 — Behold November’s night sky in the “Stars Tonight” at the David M. Brown Planetarium, 1426 N. Quincy St., Arlington, Va. 7:30 p.m. $3. www. friendsoftheplanetarium.org. ● Nov. 5 – Astronomer Chris Reynolds examines “Why Do Black Holes Shine?” at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. 8 p.m. Afterward, scan the night sky through telescopes, weather permitting. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. ● Nov. 6 – Hear about ancient cosmic calculators and sprinkle that knowledge with physics fun: “Astrolabe and Fermions: The Same Mathematical Projection,” a special presentation for the Maryland STEM Festival at the Montgomery College planetarium, 7600 Takoma Ave., Takoma Park, Md. 7 p.m. www.marylandstemfestival.org. ● Nov. 7 – Gather to gaze at the crisp autumnal heavens at “Exploring the Sky,” the last one of the season, hosted by the National Park Service and the National Capital Astronomers, at Rock Creek Park near the Nature Center in the field south of Military and Glover roads NW. 7 p.m. www.capitalastronomers.org . ● Nov. 13-15 – Carl Sagan Tribute Weekend at the David M. Brown Planetarium, 1426 N. Quincy St., Arlington, Md., with several events that include showing the “Cosmos” episode “The Edge of Forever” on Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. (free admission) and the film “Contact” on Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m. ($3 kids/seniors; $5, adults.) www. friendsoftheplanetarium.org. ● Nov. 14 – Astronomers from the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club join Sean O’Brien of the National Air and Space Museum to offer guided telescopic tours of the night sky at Sky Meadows State Park near Paris, Va. Parking $5. Arrive before dark. 4:30-7:30 p.m. Park phone: 540-592-3556. tinyurl.com/q92udac . ● Nov. 14 – “Understanding our Closest and Smallest Stellar Neighbors,” a talk by Sergio Dieterich of the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, at the regular meeting of the National Capital Astronomers, which meets at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. 7:30 p.m. www.capitalastronomers.org. ● Nov. 20 – “Searching for Cosmic Dark Matter with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope,” a talk by astronomer Alex Moiseev, at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. 8 p.m. Telescopic sky gazing afterward, weather permitting. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. ● Nov. 21 — “Falling into a Black Hole,” a presentation at the Montgomery College planetarium, Takoma Park, Md., 7 p.m. ow.ly/JEJ6V. Blaine Friedlander can be reached at postskywatch@gmail.com .


Charters grapple with admission policies, question how public they should be

out of public schools each year. Student mobility, particularly during the school year, is associated with lower academic performance and increased risk of dropping out. Charter schools have far more control over how and when they admit new students, choosing which grades will accept new enrollment and whether they will take students midyear. Most of the city’s neighborhood schools must admit students at any time. Some traditional schools also put limits on enrollment, with similar goals of offering a more rigorous program or specialized curriculum. Four of the school district’s six selective high schools stop accepting new applicants after 10th or 11th grade. And the school system’s dual-language schools and programs admit students after first grade only if they can pass a Spanish proficiency test. Enrollment practices vary at charter schools and are not always transparent, but just over 85 percent of charter schools accepted applications for all grades last year, according to the D.C. enrollment lottery Web site My School D.C. and an analysis by the D.C. Public Charter School Board. But some school leaders said that although they accept applications for every grade, they do not necessarily enroll students in all grades. Two Rivers, a Northeast charter school with the longest waiting list in the city, does not typically enroll students in eighth grade, its terminal year. And Capital City, a popular school in Northwest, does not enroll students in 12th grade. Officials at both schools said they are committed to replacing students who leave in earlier grades. “It can be tricky, but for us, it has felt like the right thing to do,” said Karen Dresden, Capital City’s head of school. But by high school, in order for students to meet the school’s rigorous graduation requirements, which include a major research project, students usually need more than a year to prepare, she said. So the school concentrates on enrolling most students in ninth and 10th grades. This year, the school accepted five juniors to backfill some empty seats. Lindsay Kelly, a spokeswoman for KIPP DC, said that KIPP schools backfill when seats become available in all grades as a matter of principle. But they do it “in the least-disruptive way possible,” she said — enrolling them only at the beginning of the school year, a common practice in charter schools. Charter schools lost 5 percent of their students in the 2013-2014 school year, according to District-level data.


A delicious and bite-size program of two piano quartets

Ryo Yanagitani (Courtesy of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) A program of just two piano quartets may be more than a musical appetizer, but it isn’t quite a full meal, either. It provided a satisfying evening Friday, though, prefaced as it was by the hour of wine and hors d’oeuvres that routinely are offered before the S&R Foundation concerts at Georgetown’s elegant Evermay Estate. The foundation supports a concert series and a number of young concert artists. For this program, artistic director and pianist Ryo Yanagitani invited Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Jonathan Carney and first-chair cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra violist Meng Wang, to join him in Mozart’s Quartet in G minor, K. 478, and Schumann’s Quartet in E-flat, Op. 47. Four musicians who are brought together for a single occasion will almost inevitably lack the kind of common personality that can be forged over years of playing together, and that was certainly the case here. Carney was dramatic, almost operatic, and filled the small and acoustically lively room with waves of big statements. Yanagitani’s touch reminded me of why the piano is considered a percussion instrument, and it was only in Schumann’s gently lyrical Andante movement that he backed off and blended in with an appealing legato. In this company, Wang appeared to hold back, particularly in the Mozart, and Skoraczewski, who opened the third movement of the Schumann with a glowing, delicately phrased solo, seemed to find a middle ground. Nevertheless, a lot of good music happened, too. Both last movements were delightfully playful; both Andantes were reflective, if oddly balanced; and the Mozart first movement spoke with authority and moments of repose. The encore, one of many arrangements of Elgar’s bijou “Salut d’Amour,” brought some of the evening’s best ensemble playing. Reinthaler is a freelance writer. Jonathan Carney (Chris Lee/Chris Lee)


Concert pairs middle-schoolers with Old Bridge Chamber Orchestra

in a similar concert with high school musicians and had seen its benefits. “I thought it was such a terrific idea that these students got to play with this orchestra — sitting next to the musicians, getting the opportunity to see what happens at a higher level of playing,” Shuping said. “When I started teaching, I just thought, ‘What a great opportunity for students here to sit with more advanced musicians.’ ” This is the first concert the orchestra has played alongside middle school musicians, although Shuping has previously run programs with high school students. “In the past when I’ve done this with one of the local high schools, the students always come back with a great sense of how much fun it was,” he said. “They’re not concert-ready with the music at this point — it’s a hard piece to do this early in the year. So to do it with other schools and have the more advanced musicians pulling you along and play it beginning to end and hear what it sounds like — they’re always really excited.” At least 60 students will participate in the concert, drawn from orchestras at Godwin, Parkside, Lake Ridge and Woodbridge middle schools. The concert includes several pop tunes, as well as the first movement of Gustav Holst’s “St. Paul Suite,” and Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in G Minor for Two Cellos, featuring Shuping and Ed Stephenson, the arts supervisor for Prince William County public schools. OBCO is a volunteer, nonprofit, musician-run orchestra. “We’re just a bunch of people who love to make music,” Levy said. As the musicians prepare for a fun night of performing, Shuping hopes the event will influence the younger players’ love of music far beyond the evening. “The great thing about being able to do it with OBCO is that this is a community orchestra — it’s not like playing with a professional symphony,” Shuping said. “Most of the people in this group, they’re not musicians as their everyday job. “And so it’s a great opportunity to show them, ‘I can continue playing in high school for fun. I can continue playing in college for fun. I can continue playing as an adult for fun. I don’t have to major in music in order to keep playing as an adult,’” he said. “It definitely helps shape their future, and their thoughts on it.” Lanyi is a freelance writer.


Twenty years later, as Rabin is remembered, little hope for peace

An Israeli woman reacts during a rally to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the assassination of the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv. EPA/ABIR SULTAN (Abir Sultan/EPA) TEL AVIV There was folk music, Scout troops and political speeches — a celebration of an Israeli commando who became a general, helped found a nation, and overcame deep mistrust to forge historic agreements with the Palestinians. Rabin and Shimon Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 alongside their antagonist, Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat. Although the crowds were large, many Israelis confessed fatigue. “Nothing ever changes,” said Ari Yakov, 49, who drove from Jerusalem to attend. Asked whom he blamed, Yakov said: “All of us. But mostly the leaders.” A final peace deal, even a minor advance, has eluded the players for decades. Israelis find themselves again the targets of deadly knife attacks and violent demonstrations by Palestinians, who despair of ever having sovereignty over the land they want for a future state. In Sunday’s newspapers, Israeli columnists mostly described the annual commemoration in gloomy terms, as a respectful gesture of remembrance that has become, if not exactly hollow, then something exhausted. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, right, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, seen Feb. 9, 1995 in the Gaza Strip, won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Shimon Peres, not pictured. (Sven Nackstrand/AP) Israeli editorialists called it a “rally of despair,” a “rally to nowhere” and another “beautiful, sad rally.” They pointed out that Israel’s old left comes out to mourn Rabin and the early promise of the Oslo Accords, while the country’s ascendant right mostly ignores the anniversary. Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor members of his government attended. Rabin’s daughter, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, said that Israel is consumed by “an unbridled incitement, the same incitement that created the impression that it was allowed and possible to shoot a prime minister.” The highlight of the evening, judging by the applause, was an address by former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who told the audience that he loved Rabin. The leaders were negotiating the implementation of the interim peace deal when Rabin was gunned down. It was a political murder that Israelis often compare to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Clinton said that Rabin signed the Oslo Accords because he never wanted to see Israel forced to choose whether it would be a Jewish or democratic


Progress on positive train control

A northbound CSX Corp. mixed freight train with a Union Pacific Railroad locomotive travels down Main Street in La Grange, Ky., last month. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg) Regarding the Oct. 28 news article “Rail-safety extension married to transit funding”: Union Pacific has made substantial progress fulfilling its commitment to developing and safely implementing positive train control. Positive train control is a complex nationwide system comprising multiple independent technologies, many of which did not exist when the deadline was set. They also must be created to operate seamlessly across multiple railroad networks. Despite the uncertainties created by this complexity, Union Pacific will invest $2 billion by the end of the year as 1,000 employees and contractors continue developing and installing our positive train control system. We have installed the hardware on 70 percent of our 6,500 locomotives. We estimate we will complete hardware installation on all our locomotives sometime after 2016. We have installed positive train control hardware and software on 67 percent of approximately 20,000 total miles. In addition, we have installed about 63 percent of 10,000 antennas. Without an extension of the deadline, neither passenger traffic nor chemicals Americans need and use every day, such as chlorine for drinking water, would have moved on the Union Pacific system by the end of 2015. We applaud the extension of the positive train control deadline. Cameron Scott, Omaha The writer is executive vice president of operations for Union Pacific Railroad.


Russian airline spars with government over cause of crash in Egypt

Here's what we know about the deadly Russian plane crash that killed all 224 people on board Saturday, Oct. 31. MOSCOW — Metrojet, a small Russian airline scrambling to protect its reputation after the devastating crash, found itself at odds with government officials who wanted to contain speculation about what led to the deadliest civil aviation disaster in Russia’s history. When a senior Metrojet official declared Monday that the company had ruled out pilot error or a technical malfunction as the reason for the crash, the government responded with a swift rebuke. “That statement is premature and is based on no real facts,” Alexander Neradko, the head of Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, said in a television interview from Egypt. Investigators have not said whether a technical malfunction, pilot error or an act of terrorism caused the Airbus A321-200 to disintegrate over Egypt’s troubled Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, scattering debris over seven square miles of desert. Investigators have retrieved the plane’s black boxes but have not reviewed them yet, Neradko said in the interview. “Yes, we know that components of the plane have been thrown over a wide area. That says that the breakup took place in the air, at a high altitude,” he said. “But it is very premature to talk about the reasons. I would like to call on the aviation community to abstain from premature statements.” While an Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State seized the opportunity to claim responsibility for the plane crash Saturday, Russian officials remained skeptical. The claim led some international carriers to reroute flights away from the Sinai, though defense experts have raised strong doubts about whether the Islamic State could have missile systems capable of hitting an airliner at 31,000 feet. In Washington, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, said that there was no “direct evidence of terrorist involvement yet” but that it cannot be disregarded. “It’s unlikely, but I wouldn’t rule it out,” Clapper told reporters. Prevailing wisdom holds that once an airplane reaches cruising altitude, it’s clear sailing, but there have been at least half a dozen times when a commercial jetliner has fallen to pieces without help from a bomb or a missile. : Russia mourns after airliner crashes in Egypt: None of the 224 people on board a Russian aircraft survived after it went down en route from an Egyptian resort area to St. Petersburg.


Home of Savopoulos slayings in upper Northwest Washington for sale

The home where the high-profile killings took place is seen boarded up on June 16, 2015. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) The home in upper Northwest Washington where three members of the Savopoulos family and their housekeeper were brutally killed in May is for sale. A real estate listing says the five-bedroom, seven-bathroom house has 10,800 square feet and sits in the 3200 block of Woodland Drive NW. The sale price is $3.25 million. Businessman Savvas Savopoulos, 46, his wife Amy, 47, their son, Phillip, 10, and a housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57, were found dead in May inside the home. It had been set on fire. [Sword, duct tape among possible evidence collected in Savopoulos killings] Authorities have charged Daron Wint, 34, with first-degree murder in connection with the deaths. Police have said the victims were held captive overnight and that the attacker or attackers fled with $40,000 delivered to the home as a ransom payment. The home in Northwest Washington where three members of the Savopoulos family and their housekeeper where murdered in May is up for sale. The home's purchase price is listed for $3.25 million. Wint is scheduled to appear in D.C. Superior Court in December. At one of his recent hearings in September, prosecutors told a judge they were looking into whether Wint had an accomplice in the slayings. Keith L. Alexander contributed to this report.


Date Lab: When the moon hits their eyes like a big pizza pie, that’s ... amore?

Taylor Johnson, 26, management consultant, and Alan Brylawski, 25, government employee, at National Air and Space’s “Museum Moonshine” night. (Photo courtesy of daters) Interviews by Michele Langevine Leiby W hat might a special night of moonlight hold? We sent Taylor Johnson and Alan Brylawski to “Museum Moonshine,” an after-hours event at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum with themed refreshments and a viewing of the recent supermoon and lunar eclipse. Did the moon impart any magic to their date? Date Predicto-meter Our highly analytical tool for determining whether our daters will hit it off. Taylor: Alan: Taylor: Alan: Taylor: Alan: Taylor: Alan: Taylor: Alan: I’m naturally a very flirty, outgoing person. [Taylor was] down-to-earth. That’s a big thing for me. Especially in this city, there’s a lot of people who can be maybe too materialistic. Taylor: Alan: Taylor: Alan: Taylor: Alan: Taylor: Alan: Taylor: Rate the date Alan: Taylor: Update Alan and Taylor texted for a few days but did not reconnect. “I haven’t reached out to him ... and I haven’t heard from him either,” Taylor said. Read previous stories and fill out an application. For stories, features such as Gene Weingarten, @Work Advice and more, visit WP Magazine. Follow the Magazine on Twitter. Like us on Facebook. E-mail us at wpmagazine@washpost.com.


Why it is so hard to get an earthquake warning system

system got a real-world test when a 6.0 earthquake rocked the Napa Valley in the middle of the night, injuring more than 100 people. An alert was sent to Bay Area Rapid Transit, which would have slowed trains had they been running at that time. Some sensors have been deployed along the East Coast by the U.S. Geological Survey and several university partners, but they are being used only to collect data about seismic activity. Chile’s early-warning system helped give people time to prepare for the 8.4-magnitude temblor that struck on Sept. 16 and left eight people dead. A similar quake in 2010 killed more than 500 people; experts credit the warning system, along with infrastructure improvements, with the lower fatality count in the September event. Mexico, China, Taiwan, Turkey and Israel are also developing earthquake detectors. In the next five years, U.S. officials hope to be able to send out text messages as much as two minutes before a quake — giving people a chance to duck and cover. Such alerts, combined with more-sophisticated forecasting models and new ways of measuring temblors by using orbiting satellites, are examples of how technology is driving improvements in earthquake science, experts say. Slipping and sliding Earthquakes occur either where tectonic plates are rubbing against or slipping under one another — the sites of such movement are called subduction zones — or along fault lines that lie underneath each plate that allow pressure from movements in the Earth’s crust to be released. These faults include the 800-mile-long San Andreas fault in California and the previously unknown fault that caused a 5.8-magnitude quake to rumble through the Washington area in 2011, causing cracks in the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral towers. They unleash huge amounts of energy. The 9.0 Tohoku quake in Japan — which released what scientists said were several centuries’ worth of tectonic plate pressure — jolted the seafloor 164 feet side to side and upward by 52 feet in 2011, creating a tsunami that killed at least 15,800 people and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The 7.8-magnitude Nepal earthquake in April 2015 moved Mount Everest an inch to the southwest. They are also impossible to predict, according to Yehuda Bock, director of a center at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., that supports earthquake research. “If you go into a lab and


Plenty of theories but not enough evidence yet in crash of Russian plane

that renegade militants may have launched a missile at it, the inquiry into what caused the Airbus A321-200 to crash in a rugged area of the Sinai Peninsula is in its nascent stage. Western investigators would take weeks or months before making a final determination of a cause. Russians investigators, who have had plenty of opportunity to examine commercial crashes on their own soil, cautioned the airline against a rush to judgment. Once they have downloaded data from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, both of which were recovered intact, they should have a reasonably good idea of the cause. Here's what we know about the deadly Russian plane crash that killed all 224 people on board Saturday, Oct. 31. At a news conference in Moscow on Monday, Metrojet’s deputy general director flatly denied there was any problem with the plane that took off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport Saturday, bound for St. Petersburg. “We rule out a technical fault of the plane or a pilot error,” said Alexander Smirnov. “The only possible explanation could be an external impact on the airplane.” If it were downed by an external impact, attention immediately would turn to a missile. But the ISIS militants who control some territory in the Sinai, and claimed responsibility for the crash are believed to have shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles that have a maximum range of about 11,000 feet, and not the more potent truck-mounted Buk surface-to- air missiles believed to have taken down a Malaysia Airlines plane flying at 32,000 feet over Ukraine last year. Smirnov said the Metrojet plane had reached 31,000 feet before its speed dropped by 186 miles per hour and it lost 5,000 feet in altitude before disintegrating into pieces that spread out over more than six square miles on the Sinai. A missile strike was suspected in the third deadliest airplane crash in U.S. history — the 1996 crash of TWA flight 800 off Long Island — and there are still those who argue that a missile brought down the plane and killed 230 people on board. But the most exhaustive investigation in National Transportation Safety Board history concluded a fuel tank explosion as the plane climbed to altitude was responsible. Though Smirnov discounted the possibility that the Metrojet plane could have fatally malfunctioned, history suggests otherwise, and it supports several possibilities. Planes climb to a cruising altitude six to seven


Southeast D.C. man charged with murder in man’s fatal stabbing

D.C. police arrested a 26-year-old man Monday on charges he killed a Temple Hills man last month in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Southeast Washington, officials said. Authorities arrested John D. Allen of Southeast Washington on a charge of second-degree murder while armed in the killing of Cortez L. Clark on Oct. 13. Police found Clark fatally stabbed in the 300 block of Parkland Place SE about 1 p.m.


Vaccines aren’t just for kids

a type of pneumonia. “If you’re unsure if your shots are up-to-date, it’s best to get vaccinated,” Lipman says. “It’s better to get revaccinated than go without protection.” Are vaccines less effective for me now that I’m older? Probably. Vaccines work by tricking the immune system into producing disease-fighting proteins called antibodies. “Older people don’t form antibodies as well as younger people, so the older you are, the less effective that vaccine is going to be,” Lipman explains. But even if a vaccine is only 50 percent effective in preventing disease, he says, “if you do get sick, you will likely have a milder case.” That’s important because as we age, illnesses can hit harder and lead to more complications. Every time I get a flu shot I feel lousy afterward. Is the shot giving me the flu? A flu shot might cause mild side effects such as a sore arm, redness and swelling at the injection site, and even a slight fever, but it’s unlikely that any vaccine will really make you sick. “To put to rest an old myth,” says William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, “you cannot get flu from the flu vaccine.” If you do get sick after being vaccinated, it’s probably a coincidence, Schaffner says. Most flu shots are given from September to December, when respiratory infections are common. Once in a while, though, a vaccine does cause serious side effects. For example, according to the CDC, about one person in a million develops Guillain-Barré syndrome after a flu shot. That can cause temporary muscle weakness and tingling, breathing difficulties and, in rare cases, permanent paralysis. But a large 2013 study found that the flu itself is linked to a higher risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome than the vaccine. My insurance won’t cover the shingles vaccine until I’m 60. Should I get it earlier? Schaffner advises holding off until age 60 on the zoster vaccine, which protects against shingles. The infection occurs when a dormant chickenpox virus “wakes up,” causing a burning, stinging rash and nerve pain (postherpetic neuralgia, or PHN) that can linger long after the rash. The vaccine cuts shingles risk by half and the odds of PHN by almost 70 percent. Although we’re most likely to develop shingles after age 60, some people come down with it earlier. But a vaccine before 60


‘Murder houses’: The haunting final chapter in true-crime stories

The home where three members of the Savopoulos family were killed, along with their housekeeper, is on the market. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) A chain-link fence surrounds the stately brick mansion at 3201 Woodland Dr. NW in Woodley Park. Most of the windows are covered with plywood. Cars sometimes drive past slowly, with passengers leaning out to take photos. Since a moving truck was spotted in June, no one has been seen coming or going. In May, Savvas and Amy Savopoulos; their 10-year-old son, Philip; and their housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, were brutally killed inside. Now, less than six months after the shocking quadruple homicide that horrified Washington, the house is for sale. Asking price? $3.25 million. The mansion is what real estate experts call a “stigmatized property” — jargon for a listing with a grisly back story. There’s an entire industry dedicated to the afterlife of what are indelicately referred to as “murder houses.” They are found in both the poorest neighborhoods and exclusive enclaves and can be modest ramblers or multimillion-dollar showpieces. Some are resold, some are leveled, and some enter into American folklore. They combine two of America’s great obsessions: Real estate and true crime. The home in Northwest Washington where three members of the Savopoulos family and their housekeeper where murdered in May is up for sale. The home's purchase price is listed for $3.25 million. Georgetown real estate agent Nancy Taylor Bubes walked through the townhouse on Q Street NW and ticked off its strengths and weaknesses. Pros: good location but maybe a little too close to Wisconsin Avenue; three spacious bedrooms; 21/2 baths. Cons: outdated kitchen, old-fashioned furnishings and the murder. “It’s going to be really hard to overcome this story,” she said to the sellers. The “story” was the 2011 death of 91-year-old socialite Viola Drath, who was strangled in her upstairs bathroom by her husband, Albrecht Muth. She was 71 when they married in 1991; he was 26. Twenty years later, he killed her in what prosecutors called a drunken rage. Muth was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. The Georgetown townhouse where Viola Drath, 91, was murdered in 2011. The cream exterior was repainted a blue-gray to make the home less recognizable. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) Drath’s daughters, who inherited the home, contacted Bubes. The crime scene had been cleaned up, but the house felt old