Earthquake experts got it right about Nepal. What about Japan, California and Mexico? [Updated]

scientist did manage to figure out, a few years before the earthquake, that a 9 was possible; being correct did not make him feel any better when the horrible news came.) The seismic strength of every earthquake gets calculated based on a now universal magnitude scale. Here's where that scale came from and how it works. Japan, to its credit, has prepared for earthquakes, and retains cultural memory of the 1923 earthquake and fire that devastated Tokyo. But what happened in 2011 defied the received wisdom in Japan about where the next big one would be. Here’s a brief excerpt of my 2006 story in National Geographic on earthquake prediction: In Japan, government scientists say they have settled the question. Earthquakes are not random. They follow a pattern. They have detectable precursors. The government knows where Japan’s big one will most likely strike. This is a country where the trains run on time, and earthquakes are supposed to do the same. “We believe that earthquake prediction is possible,” says Koshun Yamaoka, a scientist at the Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo. Japan has already named its next great earthquake: the Tokai earthquake. The government has identified and delineated by law the precise affected area — a region along the Pacific coast about a hundred miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo. After a series of small quakes in the Tokai area in the 1970s, scientists predicted that a major quake might be imminent there. The Japanese government passed a law in 1978 mandating that preparations begin for the Tokai earthquake. Scientists have estimated a death toll of between 7,900 and 9,200 for a quake striking without warning in the wee hours. Estimated property damage: up to 310 billion dollars. At the Tokai earthquake preparedness center in Shizuoka, a map pinpoints 6,449 landslide locations. Another map shows where 58,402 houses could burn in quake-related fires. It’s all remarkably enumerated. The only thing left is for the earthquake to happen. It hasn’t happened. The Big One turned out to be hundreds of miles to the north. Here’s a prediction: There will be a huge earthquake in California. The San Andreas Fault will rupture and produce something close to a magnitude 8.0. If you had to bet, you’d wager it would be in the southernmost section, which hasn’t ruptured since about 1680. But who knows? The seismic hazard maps are useful in


Obama: China has benefited by U.S. presence in Asia

infringed upon during wars." During the first full day of Abe's visit, the two nations agreed to strengthen a wide variety of links on trade, military cooperation, cybersecurity, nuclear nonproliferation, anti-terrorism efforts, climate change and humanitarian assistance. At the news conference, Obama and Abe also touted progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation free trade and regulatory pact in the Asia Pacific region that the president has called one of his top priorities. Negotiations between the United States and Japan are nearing completion, with just a few outstanding issues, and both sides are hoping to come to agreement in a few weeks — which could give crucial momentum to the deal. However, Obama still must convince Congress to support the deal, and lawmakers are currently weighing "fast-track" legislation that would smooth the way for completion. However, Obama faces stiff opposition from most Democrats, labor unions and environmental groups. "It's never fun passing a trade bill in this town," Obama said, "because people are understandably concerned about the potential impact on specific industries and general concerns people have about globalization and technology displacing workers. But this will end up being the most progressive trade bill history." The Abe visit is full of symbolism and historical echoes — a speech to Congress, a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a walk Monday through the Lincoln Memorial. The United States and Japan share many of the same strategic concerns about a nuclear North Korea, a growing Chinese military and nuclear proliferation. With the approach of the anniversary this summer of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two countries said that they "affirm that it is in the interest of all States that the 70-year record of non-use should be extended forever and remain convinced that all States share the responsibility for achieving this goal." But much of the news conference focused on China. Asked about the Chinese-backed Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, which aims to help smaller countries in the region, Obama rejected the notion that his administration had lobbied allies not to join the project — which is seen by some U.S. officials as a challenge to the United States' leadership in the region. Although Japan has not entered the AIIB, several U.S. allies, including Britain and Germany, have joined. Obama said the project has potential but emphasized that Beijing must be transparent and accountable with the money


Tuna company charged after employee burned to death in oven

Tuna cans on a grocery store shelf in 2006. (Tim Boyle/Getty Images) Jose Melena entered a 35-foot-long oven Oct. 11, 2012, to make a repair at a California tuna plant, and he never came out alive. Co-workers at Bumble Bee Foods, not realizing that the 62-year-old Melena was inside, loaded 12,000 pounds of tuna into the oven in Santa Fe Springs and began a two-hour sterilization process, burning Melena to death, investigators say. Now, 2 1/2 years later, Los Angeles County prosecutors have charged the San Diego-based company with willfully ignoring safety rules that allegedly led to Melena’s death. The company faces three felony counts that carry a maximum $1.5 million penalty. Bumble Bee’s former safety manager, Saul Florez, and current director of plant operations, Angel Rodriguez, have also been charged with violating safety rules, and each faces a maximum of three years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine. “Our goal is to enhance the criminal prosecution of workplace safety violations,” Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement on Monday. “Although the Bumble Bee investigation began in 2012, this case represents our commitment to protecting workers from illegal – and potentially deadly – on-the-job practices.” The company issued a statement saying it was “devastated” by Melena’s death “in the tragic accident.” “We disagree with and are disappointed by the charges,” the Bumble Bee Foods statement reads. “We are currently exploring all options with respect to those charges and will proceed in the manner that best serves the needs of the Melena family, our employees and the Company.” The statement also noted that the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health “found no willful violations related to the incident.” The Santa Fe Springs plant had a clean safety record prior to Melena’s death. In 2013, Cal/OSHA investigators issued six citations to the company, carrying nearly $74,000 in fines. According to those citations, Melena had been assigned a 54-inch-by-36-foot oven that October 2012 morning, and left the pallet jack he used to load tuna outside of the oven before going inside to fix a chain. Another employee noticed the pallet jack wasn’t in use, “assumed” that Melena was in the bathroom and then “proceeded to use the pallet jack,” the findings read. The Whittier Daily News reported An announcement was made over the business’ intercom, and employees began searching the plant for Melena, noticing that his vehicle remained in


Watch an unpiloted Russian spacecraft spin out of control in space

The International Space Station (ISS) is seen from NASA space shuttle Endeavour after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation May 29, 2011 in space. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images) An unpiloted Russian spacecraft encountered problems Tuesday morning on its way to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and started spinning out of control, imperiling the mission. Russian officials were unable to communicate with the Progress 59 cargo spacecraft or receive telemetry data, and it is unclear whether the ship will be able to deliver the more than 6,000 pounds of food, fuel and supplies it is carrying, NASA said. The six-member crew aboard the space station "are safe and continuing regular operations with sufficient supplies, " NASA said in a statement. Earlier this month, a SpaceX Dragon capsule successfully docked with the station, delivering cargo. And SpaceX is scheduled for another resupply mission in June. [Fight between SpaceX and industry heavyweights heads to Capitol Hill] But if the Progress space craft is unable connect with the station, it would be the second failed attempt in recent months. In October, an Anteres rocket operated by Orbital Sciences that was carrying food and supplies exploded shortly after taking off from Wallops Island, Va. The Russian Progress spacecraft launched at 3:09 a.m. Eastern time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, but encountered problems after it reached orbit and separated from the Soyuz rocket booster's third stage. Video showed on NASA television showed it spinning in orbit. Russian officials lost control of an unpiloted spacecraft during a mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. Russian officials tried to communicate with the spacecraft late Tuesday, but there was no official word on whether they were successful. Some feared that if the ship’s orbit was too low, it could eventually be pulled back toward Earth, where it would burn up in the atmosphere. In addition to food and supplies, the Progress's cargo included 1,940 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen and nearly 1,000 pounds of water. Both the Russian and U.S. "segments of the station continue to operate normally and are adequately supplied well beyond the next planned resupply flight," NASA said. With current food levels, the space station would reach what NASA calls "reserve level" on July 24 and run out by Sept. 5, according to SpaceNews, citing a slide from a recent NASA presentation. SpaceX is


Which country has the fastest (recreational) marathoners? It’s not Kenya.

Caroline Rotich of Kenya wins the 119th Boston Marathon on April 20. (Jim Rogash/Getty Images) So the next time you're on a bar stool arguing about marathoning (which almost surely will be the first time you're on a bar stool arguing about marathoning), ask someone this question: Which country has the fastest marathon runners? Kenya? Ethiopia? Morocco? Ha!, you scoff. Any idiot knows it's Spain, where the average time is a respectable 3:55:35 for the entire marathoning population. Next come Portugal and Luxemburg. (This is a totally unfair statistic, by the way, because 94 percent of marathon runners in Spain are male, which reduces the nation's time considerably. But it might win you a beer.) [Marathons and male egos: Just about the results you'd expect] The data come from Jens Jakob Andersen, who looked at marathon participation and finish times for more than 1.3 million people who ran 12 different marathons between 2009 and 2014. (His full database is here.) Andersen, a Dane who now lives in Norway, founded runrepeat.com, which compares various brands of running shoes and is dedicated to helping runners enjoy the sport more by improving their skills. Among the highlights, for running geeks like me, and the rest of you who may be interested: • Most egalitarian nation: The good old US of A, where women make up 45 percent of all marathoners. The world average is 30 percent for women, with most southern European nations at about 10 percent. But more women are running 26.2 miles: their participation rate increased 27 percent over the five-year period, while men's rose just 8 percent. • Speaking of growth, marathon participation is up 300 percent in Russia, 260 percent among the Chinese and 212 percent among Filipinos, who also have the slowest average time, at 5:05:13. In Switzerland, marathoning appears to be so yesterday; the Swiss participation rate dropped by a third. Finland saw a 29 percent decline and in Italy, it decreased by 23 percent. Overall world growth in the sport averaged 13 percent. In the United States, it was 14 percent. [People who bought these Vibram FiveFinger shoes may be entitled to a refund] Andersen said the statistic that most surprised him is the gap between the slowest marathoners and the fastest. "How come there is such a big gap between the fastest and the slowest nations, when you have so much data?" he asked. "An


Main Street Morning: Obamacare shock looming

Storage service Dropbox is making file-sharing more social with comments. - Small businesses worldwide plan to increase their investments in cloud and hybrid business continuity solutions, according to a report. - Online backup service Carbonite is banking on its small business customers after a takeover bid fizzled. - These are five relatively simple steps to dominate local search. Social Media - Roughly 35 percent of small businesses are turning to social media for advertising. - How to do paid promotion on Twitter the right way. Restaurants - Restaurant dine-in traffic is rising according to a new study. - This creepy bar owner thinks a two-way mirror in the women’s restroom is good for business. - A restaurant apologizes for its Bruce Jenner taco-dog. Start-up - 7 World Trade Center opens its doors to start-ups. - Why you shouldn’t open a liquor store if you want to make money. - A start-up scores $16 million for its custom e-gift cards. Technology - A student entrepreneur makes it big in the tech world. - Ever wonder if an Apple Watch will blend? Taxes - The NFL will give up its tax-exempt status, removing the requirement that it disclose executive pay. Travel - Is the hotel mini-bar on its way out? Opportunities - A survey finds that the majority of Americans support the recreational use of marijuana. - Poultry leasing has turned out to be a serious investment as more people want fresh eggs from humanely raised hens, without the responsibilities of ownership. Finance - A crowd-funding campaign for an anti-gay baker is shut down. People - What the most successful employers know. Around the Country - These are the 25 Americans who gave away the most money in 2014. - Google launches a new Chicago program to help small businesses build their online presence. - A California city considers publicly shaming its water wasters. - An artist plans to turn the entire contents of hardware the shop he just bought into art to raise funds for his community projects in rundown Chicago. - An Abilene, Texas business owner from Nepal is raising money for her loved ones. - A West Hartford, Connecticut business owner files a lawsuit against police officers and the town. - A Baltimore mother shows one way to stop the riots. - New York is dimming its lights to save migratory birds from crashing into buildings. Around the World


Baltimore curfew means earlier curtain times; BSO offers free concert today at noon

Baltimore’s state of emergency and 10 p.m. curfew means earlier curtain times for theaters that aren’t cancelling shows (and most aren’t). 7 p.m. is the new starting time this week at Center Stage and Everyman Theatre, but Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, just a few blocks from Inner Harbor, has cancelled shows until Sunday. Monday night as the riots erupted, Center Stage cancelled its planned free public reading of the Amy Herzog play “Belleville,” part of the programming around its current festival of Herzog works. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with their Music Director Marin Alsop. (Photo by Evy Mages for the Washington Post) Meantime, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has announced a free concert outside Meyerhof Hall at noon today. “I am heartbroken for our dear city,” music director Marin Alsop tweeted Tuesday. “With so much need alongside so much possibility, I hope we can use any opportunities we get to set an example and inspire others to join us in trying to change the world.” Some of Baltimore’s current shows and their altered plans: Center Stage Adjustment: Moving curtain time to 7 p.m. From the company’s website: “‘4000 Miles’ runs 1 hour, 42 minutes, with no intermission, ensuring patrons will be out by approximately 8:42 pm – in time for our patrons in Baltimore and beyond for travel and arrive home before 10 p.m.” Stroke of luck: “4000 Miles” is running in repertory with Herzog’s “After the Revolution,” a longer play that doesn’t come up on the schedule again again until May 12. Everyman Theatre Adjustment: Now starting at 7 p.m. (running time 2:15). Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Adjustment: performances cancelled this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, resuming Sunday at 2 p.m. The next scheduled performance after that is not until Thursday, May 7 at 8 p.m. From the company’s website: “We have been in constant communication with the Mayor’s Office and the Downtown Partnership Safety Coalition, and our decision to cancel reflects our goal of assisting the city’s effort to keep streets clear for safety efforts to continue. Many of you have called us and expressed discomfort with coming to the Inner Harbor at this time. Due to the length of our show, we also want to ensure that our audience, cast, and crew members can get home without anxiety of breaking the curfew.” Baltimore Theatre Project Adjustment: Saturday’s 8 p.m. show has been rescheduled for a 7 p.m. start; Thursday’s show was


Automated Planet Finder spots three new super-Earths orbiting a nearby star

automated robotic telescope, scientists have spotted three new super-Earths in our cosmic backyard. The planets orbit a star just 54 light years away from Earth. They are described in a paper recently published by the Astrophysical Journal. The innermost planet was actually discovered using the Keck Observatory back in 2009. But now the researchers have completed the star system, using years of data to put all three planets into place. Like other exoplanets, they were detected by way of their influence on their host star -- their gravity makes the star, called HD 7924, wobble, and scientists can use that to calculate the size and orbits of the planets. [Two new exoplanets are more Earth-like than any we’ve found before] "The three planets are unlike anything in our solar system, with masses 7-8 times the mass of Earth and orbits that take them very close to their host star," University of California at Berkeley graduate student Lauren Weiss said in a statement. The University of California Observatories team, which took on a year-and-a-half-long campaign to supplement the Keck's data and confirm these planets, credited their Automated Planet Finder (APF) for speeding up their work. The APF is a telescope that's been programmed to hunt for planets any night the weather is clear, dramatically upping the amount of data that scientists have to work with. [After a hardware failure, the Kepler spacecraft finds a second life — and an important new exoplanet] "We initially used APF like a regular telescope, staying up all night searching star to star. But the idea of letting a computer take the graveyard shift was more appealing after months of little sleep. So we wrote software to replace ourselves with a robot," said University of Hawaii graduate student BJ Fulton. Unlike the planets found by the Kepler Space Telescope (which now number in the thousands), these "Earth-like" planets are relatively close by. As part of his graduate research, Fulton plans to use APF to continue mapping near-Earth rocky planets. After a two-year survey, he expects to have a census of all the small planets orbiting stars like our own sun within 100 light years of home. Want more space? Give these a click: Jupiter might have wrecked the first version of our solar system Astronomers write a recipe for other Earths Most stars in the galaxy have planets in the habitable zone, according to new research


Youth orchestra from gang-torn neighborhoods of El Salvador tours Washington

The Don Bosco Youth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus from El Salvador performs at the Kennedy Center. (David Montgomery/The Washington Post) It was love at first sight when Jessica Pocasangre, 13, saw a bassoon. “It had a ton of keys!” she said. César Bolaños, also 13, used to watch characters in old cartoons playing the violin. He liked the sound, but the instrument looked hard to play. When an unexpected chance to take lessons arose, he gave it a try. They are two of 130 young people from the poorest and most violent neighborhoods of San Salvador, El Salvador, who are performing in Washington this week with the Don Bosco Youth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The ensemble is an ambitious project to use rigorous musical training to mend rivalries across gang territories in that city and to reveal to children the talents they may not know they have. [Rising gang violence in El Salvador sparks religious awakening] “Life is hard for our boys and girls,” said the Rev. José “Pepe” Morataya, the Catholic priest who co-founded the orchestra and chorus in 2012, before a performance Tuesday at Bell Multicultural High School in Columbia Heights. “We hope by being here today we can transmit our message of unity and harmony with all of you.” The Rev. José “Pepe” Morataya watches the Don Bosco orchestra prepare for a performance at Bell Multicultural High School. (David Montgomery/The Washington Post) The audiences at Bell were enthusiastic, but not more so than the several hundred people at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage Monday evening who were enthralled by the group’s deft handling of a long and diverse program of pieces, starting with the national anthems of the United States and El Salvador. The orchestra and chorus performed works by Handel, Verdi, Schubert, Mozart, Carl Orff, Ben E. King, Celia Cruz and others. The musicians and singers are scheduled to perform again Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Columbia Heights and at noon in the atrium of the World Bank. After arriving Sunday, the young people stayed one night in a hotel, then are being put up by local families for the rest of their visit through Friday morning. The young musicians from poor neigborhoods in the capital of El Salvador prepare to play a piece at the Kennedy Center. (David Montgomery/The Washington Post) The cost of instruments and expenses to establish


Unable to control tumbling spacecraft, Russian officials call off resupply mission

The Canadarm 2 reaches out to capture the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft and pull it into its port on the International Space Station on April 17. This week Russian officials called off a mission to resupply the ISS when they lost control of an unpiloted spacecraft. (AP Photo/NASA) Russian officials have called off a mission to resupply the International Space Station, as the unpiloted Progress 59 spacecraft continues to tumble uncontrollably through space, a NASA official said Wednesday morning. After it launched from Kazakhstan on Tuesday, the spacecraft encountered problems when it reached orbit and separated from the Soyuz rocket booster's third stage. Russian officials scrambled to communicate with the spacecraft, which was carrying 6,000 pounds of food, fuel and supplies to the space station, but were unable to gain control of the spacecraft. They tried again Wednesday but apparently had no luck, and now "Russian flight controllers are continuing to assess the vehicle and what the plan going forward will be," said Stephanie Schierholz, a NASA spokesperson. It appears that the spacecraft will fall toward Earth, eventually burning up in the atmosphere, as Chris Hadfield, a former commander of the space station tweeted. Tumbling to Earth - Mission Control Moscow has had no luck contacting the Progress. It'll now slowly fall & burn up. http://t.co/lbkJZq36bM The failed resupply mission is the second in recent months. In October, an Anteres rocket operated by Orbital Sciences that was carrying food and supplies exploded shortly after taking off from Wallops Island, Va. Even without the new food and supplies, NASA said that the six-member crew aboard the space station "are safe and continuing regular operations with sufficient supplies." The station was resupplied just a couple of weeks ago by a SpaceX Dragon capsule, and the company is scheduled to launch another resupply mission in June. The Air Force's Joint Space Operations Center said it has detected 44 pieces of debris around the Russian spacecraft, which it will track to make sure there aren't any collisions as the debris whizzes around Earth. In space, where debris travels at great speeds, even small pieces can have catastrophic effects. "Human spaceflight safety is our chief concern," said the center's Lt. Gen. Jay Raymond. Meanwhile, the Russian space ship continues to spin wildly, at a rate of 360 degrees every five seconds, the center said. Check it out here: Russian officials lost control of an unpiloted


Union Kitchen Grocery promises more than an everyday corner store

The corner store -- that neighborhood purveyor of Bud Light and Flamin' Hot Cheetos -- is about to turn a corner. On Monday, Union Kitchen founders Jonas Singer and Cullen Gilchrist will open Union Kitchen Grocery at 538 Third St. NE, their effort to reboot the idea of a local mini-mart. Instead of rows of processed junk foods, they'll offer fresh produce, local products and a variety of goods produced by their nearby culinary incubator. If all goes well, you'll be seeing more Union Kitchen Groceries on corners around the city. "We see corner stores all over the city, and we see neighborhoods that want a little more out of their corner stores," said Gilchrist. "I think there’s space for more to exist there. Local doesn’t need to be special, local should be in our corner stores. It should not just be in the specialty stores, not just in Whole Foods." Union Kitchen Grocery, which replaces the corner store Martin's Market, aims to have a little bit of everything. There will be local, seasonal produce from Smucker Farms and Coastal Sunbelt, and neighbors can sign up for CSA boxes to be delivered to the store. They'll also offer non-seasonal staples, like potatoes and onions. They'll also be working with DC Central Kitchen's Healthy Corners program, which provides low-cost produce to corner stores. Naturally, there will be chocolates, pastries and beverages from Union Kitchen members -- at least 150 products from the incubator will be offered in the store, facilitated by Union Kitchen's own distribution system. "Jonas keeps saying [to members], 'Make it, move it, sell it,'" said Gilchrist. But it won't just be twee artisanal caramels and organic dog treats. Union Kitchen Grocery will have kombucha, yes, but it will also carry Coca-Cola products and potato chips and "All the normal things you’d see at a grocery store," said Gilchrist. When they get their liquor license, they'll carry beer and wine. Cob Perkinson, general manager of Union Kitchen Grocery, stands in front of the shop's raised garden beds (Courtesy of Cullen Gilchrist) Union Kitchen Grocery will also serve as a breakfast and lunch counter, with a sandwich menu similar to the pair's Blind Dog Cafe. You can expect bacon-and-goat cheese or pimento-and-egg croissant sandwiches in the mornings, paired with Compass Coffee. Lunch brings an expanded menu of sandwiches and salads. Beginning in June, they'll serve to-go dinners -- roast chicken,


there’s space for more to exist there. Local doesn’t need to be special, local should be in our corner stores. It should not just be in the specialty stores, not just in Whole Foods." Union Kitchen Grocery, which replaces the corner store Martin's Market, aims to have a little bit of everything. There will be local, seasonal produce from Smucker Farms and Coastal Sunbelt, and neighbors can sign up for CSA boxes to be delivered to the store. They'll also offer non-seasonal staples, like potatoes and onions. They'll also be working with DC Central Kitchen's Healthy Corners program, which provides low-cost produce to corner stores. Naturally, there will be chocolates, pastries and beverages from Union Kitchen members -- at least 150 products from the incubator will be offered in the store, facilitated by Union Kitchen's own distribution system. "Jonas keeps saying [to members], 'Make it, move it, sell it,'" said Gilchrist. But it won't just be twee artisanal caramels and organic dog treats. Union Kitchen Grocery will have kombucha, yes, but it will also carry Coca-Cola products and potato chips and "All the normal things you’d see at a grocery store," said Gilchrist. When they get their liquor license, they'll carry beer and wine. Cob Perkinson, general manager of Union Kitchen Grocery, stands in front of the shop's raised garden beds (Courtesy of Cullen Gilchrist) Union Kitchen Grocery will also serve as a breakfast and lunch counter, with a sandwich menu similar to the pair's Blind Dog Cafe. You can expect bacon-and-goat cheese or pimento-and-egg croissant sandwiches in the mornings, paired with Compass Coffee. Lunch brings an expanded menu of sandwiches and salads. Beginning in June, they'll serve to-go dinners -- roast chicken, sides, and other family-friendly fare that may potentially expand to include theme nights. The store has a small amount of indoor and patio seating for guests who stick around. The concept serves as a trial for Union Kitchen's eventual store and cafe in Ivy City, where they're expanding their incubator later this year. They're also open to feedback from neighbors, and have been going door-to-door soliciting suggestions for products. And they're in the midst of getting a working garden up and running, where they'll grow herbs to use in the cafe. "Being a corner grocery, it really is about the neighborhood," said Gilchrist. Union Kitchen Grocery, 538 Third St. NE (Metro: Union Station). Opens Monday, May 4.


Want to fix Baltimore? ‘End the drug war,’ says David Simon

A protestor faces police enforcing a curfew Tuesday, April 28, 2015, in Baltimore. A line of police behind riot shields hurled smoke grenades and fired pepper balls at dozens of protesters to enforce a citywide curfew. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) No, The Wire does not explain what's happening in Baltimore this week, as my colleague Alyssa Rosenberg wrote yesterday. Still, the show's creator and former Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon knows a lot more about the city than most of us. And in a wide-ranging and riveting interview with The Marshall Project today, he offers an unequivocal assessment of how to turn things around in that city today. "So do you see how this ends or how it begins to turn around?" Bill Keller asks him. "We end the drug war," Simon says. "I know I sound like a broken record, but we end the [expletive] drug war. The drug war gives everybody permission to do anything. It gives cops permission to stop anybody, to go in anyone’s pockets, to manufacture any lie when they get to district court... Medicalize the problem, decriminalize [it] — I don't need drugs to be declared legal, but if a Baltimore State’s Attorney told all his assistant state’s attorneys today, from this moment on, we are not signing overtime slips for court pay for possession, for simple loitering in a drug-free zone... then all at once, the standards for what constitutes a worthy arrest in Baltimore would significantly improve." Simon traces the arrest and death of Freddie Gray to a police culture that's long since abandoned any pretense of probable cause when it comes to stopping and arresting young black men in the city. "The drug war — which Baltimore waged as aggressively as any American city — was transforming in terms of police/community relations, in terms of trust, particularly between the black community and the police department," he says. "Probable cause was destroyed by the drug war." In the growing concern over drug use in the 1980s and 1990s, political leaders -- in Baltimore and in cities all over the country -- began throwing people in jail on flimsy suspicions, Simon argues. "Too many officers who came up in a culture that taught them not the hard job of policing, but simply how to roam the city, jack everyone up, and call for the wagon." Simon reservers his harshest words for Martin O'Malley, the


Your zen moment for the day: Stellar photo of Crater Lake

The Department of the Interior shared a humbling, gorgeous photo of Crater Lake National Park on Tuesday, with the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way reflecting in the lake’s placid water. The photo, which was taken by Sankar Salvady, captures a green hue on the horizon, which looks like a faint aurora but is actually a phenomenon called airglow. Airglow is the light that is emitted by the atmosphere itself, even without the effects of starlight or the sun. It’s caused by a few different things, including the cosmic rays interacting with our atmosphere, or the interaction of oxygen and nitrogen with hydroxyl ions. Airglow is one of the reasons that even the most advanced ground-based telescopes have difficulty seeing faint objects in space. Thus the Hubble Telescope, which orbits the Earth in the darkness of space, was launched to see deeper into our universe than the ground-based telescopes ever could. Crater Lake, which is located in southwest Oregon, was formed by the collapse of the Mount Mazama volcano over 7,000 years ago. Wizard Island, which you cans see in the foreground of the photo, is actually the remnant cinder cone of an eruption that took place after the collapsed caldera began to fill with water. The volcano’s collapse created a lake that’s 1,943 feet deep, making it the deepest lake in the U.S., according to the National Park Service. Being located at the top of a mountain, the lake has no rivers or streams flowing into it, and the water levels fluctuate and are maintained solely by rain and snow melt.


Latest images of Pluto may show a polar ice cap

Above, you can see the best-ever images of Pluto, our solar system's most distant (dwarf) planet. The animation is made up of images taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft between April 12 and 18 from a distance of 69 to 64 million miles from Pluto. They capture one complete rotation of Pluto and its moon Charon, which lock eyes and spin around a center point. [NASA’s New Horizons sends back its first color image of Pluto and Charon] The images have already surpassed the Hubble's resolution, but there are plenty of features too subtle for the spacecraft to pick up. In fact, the images don't even show all of Pluto's known moons yet -- let alone any smaller ones we've yet to discover with the Hubble. But NASA representatives say the photos are just teases of what's to come. In fact, NASA is now going to share New Horizon's new images (raw and unenhanced) online with a delay of just a couple of days. In mid-May we'll get a glut of new photos, and on May 28 the probe will start sending back daily photos, approaching an eventual resolution so good that comparable pictures of the Earth would show features as tiny as Central Park. The probe will make its closest pass of the planet on July 14. [New Horizons spots Pluto’s smaller moons for the first time] "This is just an appetite whetter," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern said at a news conference on Wednesday. "We’re over 98 percent of the way through the journey, and we’re very excited to be on Pluto’s doorstep." But even though the images are blurry, Stern said, he and his colleagues are already using them to learn more about Pluto than we've ever known before. They're especially excited by a bright spot that appears all throughout the images, right at Pluto's polar region. While they can't be sure yet, they think it could be an ice cap. We'll have to wait and see. But whether the bright and dark regions are caused by geography, composition, or something else entirely, NASA scientists will be able to tell very, very soon. Want more space? Give these a click: New images of Ceres show more mysterious white spots Automated Planet Finder spots three new super-Earths orbiting a nearby star NASA unveils 25th anniversary image for the Hubble: Celestial fireworks in a bed of new stars


PM Update: Turning cloudier tonight with showers around on Thursday

Two-hour satellite loop. Refresh page to update. When you think of a classic spring day, you picture something like this. Blue skies dotted by an occasional cloud or two went quite nicely with temperatures rising into the low-and-mid 70s. The birds are chirping, the bugs are zooming, and you’re probably still sneezing. Sorry about that last part! A silver lining to tomorrow’s shower risk. Through Tonight: [Vigorous vortex to bring late week rain showers, chilly air to D.C.] Tomorrow (Thursday): See Dan Stillman’s forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter DCA approach on this beautiful Wednesday. (John Sonderman via Flickr) Pollen update: Summer to be warm: While thinking summer, take a look back at some early thoughts from CWG’s Matt Rogers, who is favoring a cool to average summer locally. Our summer outlook comes out in May.


Study finds Times New Roman is bad for résumés. What other fonts should you avoid?

Do not use this font on your resume. (By Evy Mages for the Washington Post) Font experts recently told Bloomberg Business that using Times New Roman on a résumé was the font equivalent of “putting on sweatpants” for a job interview. Strong words. They recommended something serif-less like Helvetica or the forbidding-sounding “Proxima Nova.” What the Helvetica? Times New Roman is a font of blessings. It is fit to print. It is Arial stand-up font that deserves to be respected as the Goudy Old Style it is, not the Bad-y Old Style it is not. It is Lucida. Any Courier, New or old, would be well served by it. It carries Impact. It is a Symbol of all that is good, and we should not clip its Wingdings. Would life be comic, sans Times New Roman? No. It would be tragic. Ahem. This being said, here are a few fonts to embrace or eschew, as the case may be: Papyrus: Avoid this unless your résumé is a fake treasure map that the props department did not spend enough time on. Wingdings: Depending on your point of view, these are modern hieroglyphs, Emoji 1.0, or the bearers of a terrible secret warning about 9/11. Use them accordingly as you do not want to be associated with any of those things. Garamond: Garamond is just a fetching font. I have no jokes here. If you have a very short résumé it is to be avoided, as Garamond is a delicate beautiful font that does not fare well when it gets too large. It is like a butterfly. A butterfly, at scale, is charming. A giant butterfly is a terrifying monster insect that will surely devour your family. Calibri: I would like Calibri (and its companion font, Cambria) better if Word were not so eager to push them on me. They are like those nice guys who keep showing up at dinner with your parents for no apparent reason. If I had been able to come to them on my own, I might be quite attached. As it is, I cannot quite trust them. Their endgame is too apparent. Courier New: You are not writing on a typewriter. Nothing you do can alter this. The same goes for you, Medieval Fonts That Try To Look Like Something A Monk Calligraphed By Hand. Neither of you is fooling anyone. Baskerville: This is always the


Malala Yousafzai’s attackers sentenced to life in prison

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai in 2014. (Hakon Mosvold Larsen/European Pressphoto Agency) This post has been updated. Ten men who plotted an attack on Pakistani activist and future Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai have been sentenced to life in prison. On Oct. 9, 2012, Yousafzai, then 15, and two classmates were shot by a Taliban gunman in Swat, Pakistan. Militants behind the attack were identified last year, as the Express Tribune reported. The Pakistani army said they were members of a group called Shura, part of the nation’s Taliban. [Malala Yousafzai: From a schoolgirl to a Nobel Peace Prize winner] [Malala Yousafzai says she yearns to be ‘normal,’ despite fame — and now Nobel] An anti-terrorism court in Swat sentenced the men Wednesday. Authorities were criticized for the long investigation. “This is a routine problem in Pakistan,” Pakistani political scientist Hasan-Askari Rizvi told the Daily Beast in 2012. “We don’t have proper investigations, our prosecutors are ill-equipped to handle terrorism cases, and there is no system to protect witnesses so no one speaks up.” Some also sympathized with the attackers. “People don’t want to speak out against these people because they agree with their ideology,” Rizvi said. “In those cases, many witnesses prefer to withhold evidence.” The Pakistani 17-year-old survived a Taliban gunshot to the head for her advocacy of female education. Yousafzai, the author of the acclaimed book “I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban,” won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. In the book, she wrote of the power of education in Pakistan — education threatened by extremist groups. “For us girls that doorway was like a magical entrance to our own special world,” she wrote. “As we skipped through, we cast off our headscarves like winds puffing away clouds to make way for the sun than ran helter-skelter up the steps.” “Despite her youth, Malala … has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations,” the Nobel committee wrote. “This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances.” Yousafzai, fearing for her safety in Pakistan, now lives in the United Kingdom, where she received medical treatment after she was shot. “I want to tell the students of U.K. to think that it is very


Why it matters that Japan is going to the moon

beyond remarkable.” And now Japan has a follow-up asteroid explorer mission, known as Hayabusa2. Even if Japan’s lunar exploration ideas are technologically feasible – and that’s certainly open to debate (hard landings on the moon are much easier than soft landings) – there’s still the pesky matter of cost. A lunar mission could cost $80 million or it could cost $8 billion. Nobody really knows. The Japanese space agency confirmed that a cost target of $126 million was one possibility, but has also confirmed that the price tag could balloon as high as $12 billion. That lunar robot base idea was projected to burn through $2 billion in R&D funding alone, and the development cost of a manned Japanese program could be north of $1 billion. To make these astronomical costs pay off, Japanese innovators are going to need a truly breakthrough commercial opportunity. This means not just a “one-and-done” mission to the moon, but a series of repetitive missions that can be performed over and over again. Maybe it’s a big idea — a new mineral resources or a new clean energy system – or maybe it’s a smaller idea that can be executed over and over again. That’s why, in many ways, space tourism makes so much sense as an initial first step — who wouldn’t pay to see a “full Earth-rise” from lunar orbit? Introducing TEAM HAKUTO And there could be a twist on that space tourism concept that involves people back on Earth. The sole Japanese entry in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition — Team HAKUTO — is building a series of lunar rovers for traversing the moon’s surface in coordination with fellow XPRIZE competitor Astrobotic, which suggested a “NASCAR on the Moon” scenario as one way to build excitement about getting back to the moon. Imagine unleashing a whole host of these lunar rovers on the surface of the moon, and enabling a live video stream where fans from different nations could cheer on their favorite bots as they hop, crawl or race over the surface of the moon towards a finish line. A lot has changed in the 40-plus years since the United States last landed a man on the moon. Landing on the moon used to be about superpower prestige, now it’s increasingly about the commercial opportunities. Rapidly growing nations in search of resources and opportunities are teaming up with corporations with the


Jeff Bezos’ spaceship just finished its first flight test

Space company Blue Origin powered the unpiloted New Shepard spacecraft through its first developmental test flight on Wednesday, April 29. (Blue Origin founder Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Jeff Bezos's space company launched a rocket Wednesday, another significant step in the burgeoning private-sector space race. In a statement, Bezos, who founded Amazon.com and owns The Washington Post, said the engine "flawlessly" powered the unpiloted New Shepard spacecraft through its first developmental test flight. The rocket reached Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, and an altitude of 307,000 feet, or 58 miles, very close to what's largely considered the threshold of space. "Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return," Bezos said. "In fact, if New Shepard had been a traditional expendable vehicle, this would have been a flawless first test flight." The launch puts the company a step closer to taking tourists into suborbital space, where they would have the rare chance to experience weightlessness and glimpse the Earth from more than 60 miles away. The New Shepard capsule can carry three or more astronauts and scientific payloads. Bezos is among a new vanguard of ultra-wealthy entrepreneurs who have turned their interest in space into businesses. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Paul Allen's Vulcan Aerospace also are working to advance private space travel. And Elon Musk’s SpaceX has contracts with NASA to fly cargo, and eventually astronauts, to the International Space Station. Like other companies, Blue Origin wants to create reusable vehicles, which would dramatically lower the cost of space flight. While the capsule, guided by parachutes, landed safely back on Earth, the propulsion module was lost, Bezos said, "because we lost pressure in our hydraulic system on descent." "Fortunately, we’ve already been in work for some time on an improved hydraulic system," he said. Blue Origin was also chosen to develop an engine for United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. That engine, the BE-4, would be more powerful than the BE-3 used in Wednesday's launch. Like Musk, who wants to colonize Mars, Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson recently told reporters that the company has a “long-term vision to extend humankind beyond our planet.” “Yesterday’s test flight is truly a testament to the progress the commercial space sector is making towards innovative, cost-effective, and reliable access to space,” said Eric Stallmer,


Baltimore is not Ferguson

a result, Monday afternoon and evening the protester leaders, mayor, and police were cooperating to calm the streets. The protest leaders engaged in several rhetorical strategies to separate themselves from the rioters. Family members repeatedly said that it was not what Freddie Gray would have wanted. A couple OF city council members, most notably Nick Mosby and to a lesser extent Carl Stokes, called the rioting an expression of the frustration of poor youth about their lack of opportunities and lack of a means to express their anger. Pastor Jamal H. Bryant, who leads a very large congregation, has been visible in the Baltimore protests (and was arrested protesting in Ferguson), and who gave the eulogy for Freddie Gray on Monday, called for high school students and other youth to come to his church not only for training in non-violence but also to learn more about the what protests are really about. If anyone has been unheard and silenced, it is the rioters. Moreover, not only are others speaking for the rioters and framing a new narrative about the nature of problems in Baltimore, complaints about the police and police reform have at least temporarily faded. On Tuesday, many of those who were the backbone of the protests were organizing clean-up efforts, packing lunches for kids (since schools are closed, there is a concern about what happens to the large number of kids who receive free or reduced-price lunches at school), and talking to local businesses about how to help them. Furthermore, the protestErs may have lost control of the focus on police reform. The question is what happens now. Baltimore activists and community leaders may be forced back into the true, but bland, “we need to strengthen our communities” and “we need more focus on youth,” which in a way represents the status quo. The deeper issue is that Ferguson created an expectation for clear solutions; an idea that all that is needed is greater minority representation in the police and the city government. In a problem that Baltimore well demonstrates, scholars have long struggled over how attempts at ensuring minority voice may leave important segments of society feeling left out, especially recognizing how even in minority communities there may be disjunctures in networks, and how voice does not necessarily translate into influence, especially when the issues are less about laws and policies and more about norms and behavior.


Nick Miroff wins Overseas Press Club’s Whitman Bassow prize

Announcement from Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl and National Security Editor Peter Finn: We are proud to announce that Nick Miroff, our roaming Latin America correspondent, has been awarded the Overseas Press Club’s Whitman Bassow prize for best reporting in any medium on international environmental issues. Nick is being honored for his five-part series of stories, “Pushing South”, about the latest rush for resources across South America and the complex and often devastating impacts that have accompanied the hunt to riches. The judges have praised Nick for his “elegant and vivid prose” in stories that took him to “one often-forgotten place after another” — from the quest for oil in Ecuador to gold mining camps in Peru to palm oil plantations in Colombia. The judges said that Nick “avoided clichés and offered a contextual depth by framing ethnic rivalries against their political and environmental backgrounds.’’ Nick, who has been based in Cuba since 2009, will be joining some of us at the OPC’s annual dinner in New York tonight to accept this prestigious award. We are also proud that the OPC has also awarded a runner-up citation to The Post’s “Foreign Fighters” series in the Bob Considine Award for best newspaper, news service or online interpretation of international affairs. This coverage from the United States, Europe and the Middle East sounded early alarms and provided deep understanding into the extraordinary wave of jihadists flocking to Syria to join the Islamic State and other extremist groups. This was a cross-departmental effort led by the foreign and national security staffs, with powerful work from graphics, photo, video and design. Those who will be specifically honored tonight are Anthony Faiola, Kevin Sullivan, Greg Miller, Joby Warrick, Adam Goldman, Souad Mekhennet, Griff Witte and Karla Adam. These highly-competitive awards recognize the truly distinctive and original work that is a hallmark of The Post’s international coverage.


Your new credit card may not be as safe as you think

Chip technology is coming to credit cards. (Elise Amendola/AP) There’s a good chance that if you’ve added a new credit card to your wallet this year, you’ve noticed something a little different. Many of them are now equipped with chip technology known as EMV. As the threat of data breaches intensifies, card issuers have been slowly rolling out these chip-enabled cards to customers because they — along with retailers and cybersecurity experts — believe the technology is far more secure than the magnetic stripe cards that Americans have been swiping for decades. This technology has been in place in Europe for years, and so the conventional wisdom has been that American consumers will enjoy the same fraud protection as their overseas counterparts as soon as the shift to EMV is complete. But in many cases, that’s not quite true. In Europe, merchants and banks rely on a system known as “chip and PIN.” The chip provides one measure of security by producing unique codes for each transaction that make it tough for fraudsters to counterfeit your card. Then, shoppers are required to input a PIN number for each transaction, providing an added layer of security. But in the United States, many of the EMV-enabled cards that are showing up in your mailbox are “chip and signature” cards, meaning the second layer of security is simply the purchaser signing on the dotted line. And that’s where some experts say the problem lies. “We all know that nobody verifies signatures,” said Martin Ferenczi, president of Oberthur Technologies, a company that manufactures EMV cards for card issuers. So while everyone agrees that your new chip card is much more secure than what you had before, it still may not be the safest system possible. Stephanie Ericksen, vice president of risk products at Visa, said the majority of card issuers — which include banks and retailers with private label cards — are opting to keep the same verification steps customers are used to. That means debit cards with EMV chips will require PINs, but credit cards will require only signatures. “That’s primarily to keep the consumer experience as consistent as possible,” Ericksen said. Chip cards will require slightly different action at the checkout counter than a magnetic strip card. Instead of swiping your card, you’ll insert it into a slot and leave it in place for a moment, like you do at an ATM.


Black economics medalist on ‘acting white’: ‘I didn’t want to be singled out as anything’

was private. I mean, that’s just incredible. I still think there’s a lot of work to be done, in particular, to do two things: number one, to design experiments like Leonard's that will help us understand the magnitude of the problem, because we still don’t know, and two, and this is far more important, if it is a problem, what type of interventions might actually help overcome this problem? It’s still an open topic. We still need more experiments, and what I’m even more excited about is potential interventions that would help. If those experiments show that’s it’s not a problem, great! It’s not a problem. Let’s move on to the next thing. It’s not religion for me. I’m just trying to understand what some of the impediments are to the production of human capital. I mean, I’m not running for elected office, I mean, I couldn’t even win my local PTA election, I’m sure. I’m just trying to understand the results. What are your feelings this week about the prize? I’m curious -- it’s a major award. The shock is still lingering. I’m just -- I don’t know how to explain how happy I am for the field of race, education, you know, social interactions, identity. There’s a lot of us who are doing work on topics like gender economics and race and education, that, recently, are the purview of economists, but historically have not been. I’m just so thrilled, that an award like this can go to that field. That’s just really awesome. I sent a bunch of emails on Friday to folks who work in the field, saying, "This is ours, and this is a moment for all of us to be happy." And there’s a lot of work to do, but, stuff like this tends to inspire more students to get involved -- fresh approaches and new creative ideas. And if we’ve learned anything about this particular field, we need those. The stuff that’s going on in Baltimore and across the country -- this problem is not over, and just yelling back and forth about our personal opinions, if there can be something less than useful, that’s less than useful. We need to have facts and analysis in a place where, when there’s a vacuum, anecdotes fill the space. Now, [are facts and analysis] going to stop the riots? Of course not, but I’m sure there


Meet the economist who grew up among crack dealers and won a ‘mini-Nobel’ for his research on race

Ronald Fryer. Courtesy of the American Economic Association (Craig Huey) As a child, Roland G. Fryer Jr. often visited his great-aunt and -uncle's house in Daytona Beach, Fla. They had pancakes there on weekends -- fried in the same pan in which the couple made crack out of water, baking soda and cocaine they'd bought in Miami. It was a family-run criminal enterprise, and Fryer's great-uncle would live out his years in prison. As for Fryer, he won an athletic scholarship that turned into a meteoric academic career and a professorship at Harvard University. On Friday, he received the prestigious John Bates Clark medal, which is given to the economist under the age of 40 who has made the most significant contribution to the field. Many of the medalists have gone on to win Nobel awards. As an economist, Fryer knows he is an outlier. Eight of his 10 closest childhood friends went to prison or died young. One of his favorite cousins was murdered after finishing his sentence for taking part in the Daytona Beach gang. To the courts, they were criminals, but Fryer loved and respected them. Those emotions forced him to reckon with society's injustices, he told Wonkblog in an interview Wednesday. (Read the full transcript.) "You start to think, how do we create the right structures -- because birth is an accident; neither me nor my cousins asked to be born into Daytona Beach’s issues -- how do you create structures so that people don’t just beat the odds, but so that you change the damn odds?" he said. "It’s not, like, a 'them' thing, for me. This is my family, dude." "Acting white" Fryer has considered a number of answers to his central question, many of them controversial. His research focuses on race and education, and he's examined whether charter schools can meaningfully improve student achievement, and whether paying students for hard work results in better grades. Some of Fryer's most ingenious, surprising and polarizing work has found that black and Hispanic students with high levels of academic achievement have fewer friends. The research appears to confirm what some parents of high-performing children say: that when their kids get good grades, their classmates tease them for "acting white." Fryer experienced the phenomenon himself. One afternoon in his freshman year of high school, Fryer said, he was in the locker room before basketball practice when his


Vietnamese leader says U.S. committed ‘countless barbarous crimes’ during the war

massacre, in which U.S. Army soldiers killed 350 to 500 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam, helped swing the American public against the war at the time. In My Lai, villagers were killed en masse in retaliation for nearby booby traps and mines, and some were burned alive when their huts were set alight. Yet, even with these acknowledgements, there's still a sense among some that the United States hasn't done enough to address the "countless barbarous crimes" Dung mentioned. While 14 officers were charged by Army prosecutors in the aftermath of the My Lai massacre, only one man was convicted. Lt. William L. Calley Jr. was found guilty of killing 22 villagers, yet in the end served only three years under house arrest and four months in a military stockade after President Richard Nixon intervened. Academics such as Kendrick Oliver have argued that while My Lai caused horror, it mostly prompted outpourings of support for U.S. soldiers rather than for their victims. And while My Lai is acknowledged, some say that the massacre was only notable because of its scale, and that smaller-scale killings of civilians by U.S. troops were alarmingly commonplace. In his book "Kill Anything That Moves," journalist Nick Turse argues that American authorities were aware of similar killings and often allowed them. “The indiscriminate killing of South Vietnamese noncombatants — the endless slaughter that wiped out civilians day after day, month after month, year after year throughout the Vietnam War — was neither accidental nor unforeseeable," Turse wrote. In Ho Chi Minh City, atrocities like these feature prominently in the War Remnants Museum, as do the other controversies such as the use of napalm or Agent Orange. These are the sort of "barbaric crimes" that Dung is alluding to. And, since many were not investigated nor punished, the Vietnamese prime minister's description of "countless" may be accurate. Over the past week, the dark and disputed moments of the 20th century have been dragged up a few times: Turkey was infuriated by the global discussions of the mass killings of Armenians that began 100 years ago, while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is facing more and more calls to clearly reiterate Japan's apology for wartime cruelty from over 70 years ago. On the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, there's surprisingly little discussion of the painful history there, however. Four decades after the conflict, it may


Stuff to do in D.C., Maryland and Virginia from April 30-May 6

St. NW; Sun., 8 p.m., $45-$110. Stephin Merritt Every time The Magnetic Fields come to the District, they seem to play Sixth & I, which is appropriate: Their mournful, baroque pop stylings deserve an ornate setup. The band’s primary songwriter Stephin Merritt will continue that Sixth & I tradition with a solo gig on Sunday, which will likely feature many Magnetic Fields songs along with cuts from his various solo projects. Sixth and I Historic Synagogue, 600 I St. NW; Sun., 7 p.m., $30. Listen to Your Mother DC Being a mother can be a thankless job. It’s also a subject ripe for artistic inspiration. At Listen to Your Mother DC, local storytellers will offer live readings on the humor, frustration and pride that go along with motherhood. Invite your mom and share a laugh on Sunday. National Geographic Live!, 1600 M St. NW; Sun., 2 p.m., $15. SUNDAY The Bloody Mary Festival Sure, you’ve had a Bloody Mary, but have you had the chance to sample a dozen different Bloody Marys in one sitting? In addition to three hours of unlimited drinking, this festival features sliders from Rocklands BBQ, live music and Crunkcakes. At the very least, you’ll leave with a good idea of where you’re brunching next weekend. Blind Whino, 700 Delaware Ave. SW; Sun., 1-4 p.m., $50. Action Bronson can’t contain his excitement for Monday’s Fillmore gig. (Action Bronson) MONDAY Action Bronson Action Bronson is many things: rapper, chef, world traveler, Web series star, Vice Media poster child. These days he’s mostly been focusing on rapping, though, with the recent release of his first major-label LP “Mr. Wonderful.” Head to the Fillmore on Monday to hear cuts from that, but stay after the show to maybe eat some cuts (of meat) cooked up by Bronson himself, which he sometimes does for fans that stick around post-show. Fillmore, 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring; Mon., 8 p.m., $25. TUESDAY Sufjan Stevens Until the release of this year’s album “Carrie and Lowell,” Sufjan Stevens had never really written an album about himself. Sure, there are traces of his past in concept records like “Michigan,” “Illinois” or “Seven Swans,” but “Carrie and Lowell” truly delves deep into his troubled upbringing, accompanied by gorgeous, lush folk melodies. Settle in for a night of singing and storytelling at Constitutional Hall on Tuesday. DAR Constitution Hall, 1776 D St. NW; Tue., 7 p.m., sold


Wendell Pierce: Artists can’t just be outraged about Baltimore. We have to help find solutions.

they see rioting, of the kind that we saw this week in Baltimore, it only reinforces their perceptions. But nothing could be further from the truth. [Read: 15 Baltimore neighborhoods have lower life expectancies than North Korea] The working-class people of Baltimore love their neighborhoods, know how great they once were and how great they could again be. But the reaction to Freddie Gray’s death — mostly peaceful, sometimes violent — takes the form of outrage when their voices aren’t heard and their stories go untold. And I’m outraged that in a moment when young people in Baltimore have reacted to this tragedy, and everything that’s come before it, with their own outrage, that they don’t have better avenues to respond — and that the society around them seemingly can’t, or won’t, understand why they’ve responded as they have, even though we surely know why. Ask economist Nouriel Roubini, who explains that in response to this crisis, the solution “can’t just be to send more police in the streets or the National Guard,” but instead, “We have to deal with this issue of poverty, of unemployment and economic opportunities.” Or you can ask West Baltimore’s Aisha Snead, whose assessment is: “They want to act like the CVS is the Taj Mahal. They have dilapidated buildings everywhere. They have never invested in the people. In fact, it’s divested. They take every red cent they can from poor black people and put it into the Inner Harbor.” She’s right. Somehow we collectively arrive at moments, like the one now in Baltimore, having laid the blame for overlooked and underemployed Americans’ situation at their own feet. We don’t hold the interests who helped get us into the economic mess we’re in accountable, yet we waste valuable, and costly, civic resources needlessly criminalizing young men in the communities that have the least. So what do we do? I believe that I, and other artists, have a role to play to help change the conversation around policy and its impact on the poor and people of color across the nation. I also believe that art, itself, can inspire young people to find more productive ways to express and respond to their frustration. I believe that artists can bring a different lens — literally and figuratively — to the challenges we face as a nation trying to move forward, even as we’re pulled backward by those


NFL Draft 2015: Round 1 analysis – Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota lead intrigue-free first day; Fantasy impact of top prospects

Maske How he fits: 4. Oakland Raiders Amari Cooper | WR | Alabama Just about everyone figured the Raiders would take a wide receiver to go with second-year quarterback Derek Carr. The question was whether it would be Cooper or Kevin White. They go with Cooper, probably the more polished player. – Maske How he fits: 5. Washington Redskins Brandon Scherff | OT/OG | Iowa That’s a mild surprise. Scherff is clearly the draft’s top offensive lineman. And yes, the Redskins certainly needed to upgrade the offensive line. But there are questions about whether he will be a guard or a tackle in the NFL. If he plays guard, that’s not getting full value out of the fifth overall pick in the draft. Leonard Williams was available. That should have given the Redskins a chance to trade down and take Scherff or a pass-rusher a little bit later. – Maske How he fits: 6. New York Jets Leonard Williams | DE | USC The Jets are the beneficiaries of Leonard Williams’s mini-drop to the sixth overall pick. They didn’t have to move up to get the player widely regarded as the top defender in the draft. – Maske How he fits: 7. Chicago Bears Kevin White | WR | West Virginia The Bears make it two wide receivers taken in the first seven picks of the draft by choosing Kevin White, three spots after the Raiders took Amari Cooper. White can be a game-breaker right away as a rookie. The Bears have held on to Jay Cutler (despite reports that they offered him to the Titans in their bid to move up for Marcus Mariota) and now they give him some help. – Maske [Fantasy: Will White form dynamic duo with Jeffery?] How he fits: 8. Atlanta Falcons Vic Beasley | DE | Clemson The Falcons get a potentially productive pass rusher, in Beasley, to bolster the defense of their new coach, Dan Quinn. There had been talk about Atlanta possibly trading up for Fowler. Once the Falcons stayed put at eight, they had to choose between Beasley and Kentucky’s Bud Dupree. Beasley benefits from the drop of Shane Ray after his citation this week for marijuana possession. – Maske How he fits: 9. New York Giants Ereck Flowers | OT | Miami (Fla.) The Giants were practically a lock to take an offensive lineman. Brandon Scherff almost certainly would


Here’s why this beehive from Australia has taken the Internet by storm

straightforward as they seem though. Skeptics suspect that over time natural processes, such as the buildup of propolis, a glue-like resin bees use to patch unwanted cracks, and crystalized honey, can end up gumming up the entire system. Meanwhile, proponents of “natural beekeeping” techniques have roundly taken issue with the use of plastic, which they argue messes with bee hormones and lacks the temperature-regulating properties that would enable the nectar to ripen properly. Advocate Jonathan Powell of beeswing.net writes: In my experience bees hate plastic comb and they use it when there is no other option. You will often see bees build wax comb on top of plastic wax comb if they are given the space opportunity. They will hate capped empty plastic comb even more. When in the 100 million years of bee development have bees experienced uncapping an empty polypropylene honey cell? In response, Stuart Anderson has assured everyone that the current prototype has been thoroughly tested for three years at select sites in Australia, Canada and the United States, without any known problems. “When used properly you shouldn’t see any buildup of propolis since the substance is primarily found in cracks inside the hive. And with regard to crystallized honey, we generally found that the bees would chew out those areas and replace it with honey,” he explains, emphasizing that bees are “very smart creatures.” As for concerns over the use of plastic cells, a hot topic in beekeeping circles, former honey bee researcher and editor of trade publication Bee Culture Kim Flottum says they’re mostly overblown. “We’ve been using plastic materials effectively for a long time and in the commercial industry it’s pretty well-established,” he says. “The bees don’t particularly love it, but they’ll use it if they have to.” What really concerns him, however, is that while the new system may very well represent a solid improvement upon existing extraction methods, the company’s slick marketing approach (honey on tap!) might give less experienced consumers the mistaken impression that beekeeping is much easier than it really is. “You have to have healthy bees to make honey and that means being aware of diseases, parasites, antibiotics, pesticides as well as knowing how to inspect and manage the population so that the bees have enough food,” he says. “There’s still a lot of responsibilities and none of that goes away.” Laura Bee Ferguson, a natural apiarist and founder


READ IN: Mayday! Edition

Senate gains steam over McConnell's objections. The bills would prohibit the bulk collection of data by the NSA, leaving the data in the hands of phone companies. It would also create a panel of experts to advise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on privacy, civil liberties and technology. (New York Times) -- The Clinton Health Access Initiative, one of a web of groups within the Clinton Foundation, never submitted information on foreign donations to State Department lawyers during Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary. The charity took in tens of millions from foreign governments, and acting CEO Maura Daley said the charity didn't believe filings were necessary. Clinton and the Obama administration touted an agreement to disclose those donations back in 2009. (Boston Globe) -- The LIBRE Initiative, a wing of the Koch brothers' organization, is wooing Hispanics by holding driver's licensing classes, tax preparation help, wellness checkups, scholarships and food programs in Texas, Colorado, Florida and elsewhere. The group's top officials say the outreach is the beginning of a platform for civic engagement. The liberal Latino Victory Fund is so worried about LIBRE's outreach that it will meet in D.C. next week to discuss how to counter the effects. Tax records show LIBRE has received at least $10 million since its founding in 2011. (Washington Post) -- Front Pages: WaPo leads with this look at a U.S. drone base in the Horn of Africa, and the chaotic conditions around it. USA Today leads with a leaked document showing Obama's pardon policy. NYT kicks off with a look at Patriot Act revisions. WSJ leads with the Navy's increased presence in the Middle East. LA Times leads with an audit of a local water agency. Facebook Friday -- Every week, our friends at Facebook give us a peek behind the curtain at the political stories that generated the most online buzz. Here are the 10 stories this week that got the most likes, shares and comments: -- 10. Pope Francis calls the gender pay gap "pure scandal." 9. Nigerian army rescues 200 women and girls from Boko Haram. 8. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) orders state troops to monitor Army exercise on fears of a military takeover. 7. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announces run for president. 6. CNN's Brooke Baldwin makes controversial comments connecting military veterans to unrest in Baltimore. -- 5. Hillary Clinton delivers addresses on equal rights and criminal justice


News organizations petition for Freddie Gray documents

People take part in a protest march to Baltimore City Hall in support of Freddie Gray on Thursday. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) A group of news organizations has banded together to demand the immediate release of results of a Baltimore City Police Department investigation into the Freddie Gray case. The outlets — including the Associated Press, the Baltimore Sun, Bloomberg L.P., BuzzFeed, National Public Radio Inc., the New York Times Co., Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, WBAL Radio, WBAL-TV and WJZ-TV — cite the department’s “failure to respond to several requests for documents” and charges that withholding the investigative report would be “contrary to the public interest.” On Thursday, Baltimore police officials turned over the results of the investigation to the office of State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. In recent days, leaks from the investigation have surfaced in the news media, including that the probe found “no evidence that [Gray’s] fatal injuries were caused during his videotaped arrest and interaction with police officers.” Why should the public have to rely on such piecemeal disclosure? The news orgs push for daylight in the letter, which comes from Nathan E. Siegel of the law firm Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, LLP: Members of the news media have already submitted [Maryland Public Information Act] requests to the Department for this report. We believe this report should be released to the public immediately. This is a matter for which no review should be required because there is enormous public interest in and an expectation of transparency with regard to this matter, and release of the document would therefore only serve the public interest. In this particular situation any effort to withhold the report, even temporarily, would itself be manifestly contrary to the public interest. Addressed to Capt. John Eric Kowalczyk, the department’s public information officer, the letter petitions for action on materials for which there’s no statutory basis for withholding: “I write to request that at least with respect to records for which there is no possible PIA exemption that could apply in whole or in part— including but not limited to records of arrests, 911 tapes, call logs, etc.—that the Department provide such information immediately, consistent with the requirements of the MPIA,” writes Siegel. It’s unclear what effect, if any, the appeal will have. Baltimore authorities have provided only paltry bits of information on events


This beetle’s butt is basically a machine gun

a fluttering of the exit duct during the explosions." [This snail fights enemies with shots of weaponized insulin] But to figure out how bombardier blasts really work, the scientists used high-speed x-ray imaging to watch them do it. To aggravate the beetles in the least harmful way possible, they had to perfectly time a robotic forceps that tugged on their legs, then capture the milliseconds-long gas expulsion while firing off x-rays. "For each experiment we had to cool the beetle down, carefully set it up in the observation chamber such that the X-ray beam was aimed precisely at the defensive glands, seal the doors, walk over to mission control, flip the switch to allow the X-ray beam to enter the room, and use robotic manipulators to remotely touch the beetle's leg so it would blast. In some cases, just turning the radiation on caused them to blast," Moore said. [Why are there so many freaking beetles? Science may finally have the answer.] It turns out it's a pretty passive process, and it's all due to the beetle's internal plumbing, specifically the valve between the two portions of the chemical mixing chamber. From National Geographic's Ed Yong: When the valve opens, a droplet of reservoir chemicals enters the reaction chamber. Boom! The pressure created by the explosion forces a pulse out through the exit channel. It also pushes against a membrane that closes the valve, cutting off the supply of fuel. As the pressure in the reaction chamber drops, the membrane relaxes and the valve re-opens, letting another droplet through. Boom! This continues until the reservoir muscles finally relax and the beetle stops spraying. The process could theoretically be copied in man-made combustion engines, the authors say. In any case, it helps explain why the bombardier is so unique. "By having a pulsed delivery, these small beetles produce a relatively large amount of defensive spray, which they can aim precisely and with great force and speed," Moore said. "This is truly one of the most remarkable and elegant defensive mechanisms documented to date." Want more science? Give these a click: This scientist rates and describes insect stings as if they were fine wines This praying mantis is terrifyingly good at pretending to be a flower One way to beat a bug that’s destroying Florida’s citrus? Get them high. Why are there so many freaking beetles? Science may finally have the answer.


Stop saying ‘violence isn’t the answer’ to Baltimore’s problems. Sometimes rioting works.

protesters, gay and trans people at that time were tired of police harassment and of having our grievances dismissed by society. Police had regularly raided gay bars for decades, looking to trap people for sodomy “crimes” or other minor infractions. Even as public views of homosexuality softened in the 1960s and sodomy laws were gradually abolished, police continued to target us. We were criminalized for simply living our own lives in our own neighborhoods. Stonewall was one of my favorite places to go out dancing. The bar served diluted drinks, and there was no running water, but the dance floor stayed packed and the crowd was fun. That fateful night, my partner and I arrived in matching collared shirts and peeked through the peephole to let the bouncer know we were regulars. We had been dancing with the drag queens for a couple of hours when the police showed up and unplugged the jukebox. They demanded that we line up along the wall and show our IDs, threatening to arrest anyone who didn’t comply. The officers went from person to person, a 45-minute process during which we all were forced to stay inside and await our fates. My obedience kept me out of handcuffs, and the officers eventually let some of us go. But once outside, we saw that a crowd had started to congregate, clearly agitated by the latest harassment of the LGBT community. As the police started bringing people out in cuffs, the crowd became enraged. The officers were manhandling the drag queens, hitting their backs with billy clubs to force them into the paddy wagons. One drag queen elbowed an officer in the groin while another threw a shoe. That’s when the crowd started retaliating, too. Bottles, garbage can lids, pennies, stones — anything people could get their hands on — started flying in every direction. I sympathized with the crowd’s anger, but my partner and I left before the riot grew to a reported 400 people. Still, we didn’t escape the police harassment. I drove my partner to a nearby Orange Julius, where we grabbed some hot dogs. While we were sitting in the car, a couple of officers approached us and demanded to see our drivers’ licenses. My partner didn’t have one, so they handcuffed him and forced him to spend the evening in jail. The next morning, a judge threw out his case. But


Cutting NASA’s earth science budget is short-sighted and a threat

activities of the United States shall be conducted so as to contribute materially to one or more of the following objectives: The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space … The establishment of long-range studies of the potential benefits to be gained from, the opportunities for, and the problems involved in the utilization of aeronautical and space activities for peaceful and scientific purposes… .The preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and space science and technology and in the application thereof to the conduct of peaceful activities within and outside the atmosphere… The making available to agencies directly concerned with national defenses of discoveries that have military value or significance, and the furnishing by such agencies, to the civilian agency established to direct and control nonmilitary aeronautical and space activities, of information as to discoveries which have value or significance to that agency…” I am a former scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and worked on missions to improve our understanding and capabilities in weather prediction, monitoring of hurricanes, and assessment of flood potential. As the former deputy project scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, I assure you that the level of cuts proposed for NASA’s earth sciences program would not only harm but end many programs and jeopardize many federal and private sector jobs. The engineering, ground systems, science, and support work of NASA earth science missions is supported by some of the most vibrant private aerospace and science-technology companies in the world. And they are U.S. companies. A few more examples of the value of the NASA earth sciences program are warranted. I served on a National Academy of Science panel that examined national security implications of climate change on U.S. Naval Operations. This study was commissioned by the Navy itself. We found that Naval Operations depend on accurate knowledge of ocean-atmospheric processes (e.g., ocean currents, changes in sea ice or level, salinity, and so on). Since most of Earth is ocean or inaccessible terrain, satellite platforms are essential for military and civilian operations. This is even more critical as the United States takes over leadership of the Arctic Council. Does anyone remember the devastation cause by the hybrid hurricane-mid-latitude storm called “Sandy?” Yep, I thought you would. The European and United States weather modeling centers concluded that the 6-9 day forecast accuracy would have suffered


Did violence in Baltimore lead to cops being prosecuted for Freddie Gray’s death?

make it clear that I’m not arguing in favor of rioting. The destruction that occurred Monday night in Baltimore had real victims, including not only the store owners whose businesses were damaged but also the residents of the affected neighborhoods. But it’s hard to argue that it didn’t have an impact. We have no way of knowing whether Mosby would have pursued these charges had no one outside of Freddie Gray’s friends and family ever heard of him. But it would be foolish to deny that she was under enormous pressure to make a case against the officers involved. You may have seen the video from Tuesday of a woman named Danielle Williams, who said to MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts: “When we were out here protesting all last week for six days straight peacefully, there were no news cameras, there were no helicopters, there was no riot gear, and nobody heard us. So now that we’ve burned down buildings and set businesses on fire and looted buildings, now all of the sudden everybody wants to hear us.” She was absolutely right. The violence led to a huge increase in media attention, and even if much of that coverage was sensationalistic, there was also a lot of attention paid to the substantive issues involved. Those included the Baltimore police’s record in dealing with the public generally, and in particular the use of “rough rides” as a method of abusing suspects, which is a likely explanation for how Freddie Gray came to have his spine broken in the back of a police ban. All that national attention put every public official under pressure to not only bring calm but also to confront the issues that have the people of Baltimore so angry: The police commissioner, the mayor, the governor, and yes, the state’s attorney. While every official would like to believe that he or she would make all the same decisions regardless of whether there are people chanting in the streets and news cameras parked outside their office, they can’t possibly be immune. There are some interesting details that emerged from Mosby’s press conference, including her statement that Gray’s arrest was unlawful in the first place; while it had been reported that Gray was arrested for possessing a switchblade, Mosby said that the knife Gray had in his pocket was not a switchblade and was perfectly legal. We’ll no doubt be learning more.


Main Street Morning: Drinking jobs

- A fundamental change in the oil sector is happening now. - Personal income increased slightly in March. People - A business owner is accused of stealing the pay from his workers. - A pregnant restaurant manager is fired after a robbery. Management - These jobs are the most likely to make you drink. - General Motors plans $5.4 billion in U.S. investments. - These are 4 types of small businesses, and why each one matters. - Keeping a close eye on spending is just one habit you should embrace if you want to be a profitable farmer. Entrepreneurs - A listing of the top franchises of 2015. - Two brothers, ages 8 and 11, win a $500 investing - This entrepreneur boxes up and ships a taste of Albuquerque. Sales and Marketing - Sales workers saw the fastest pay increases last quarter in the U.S. - More than 90 percent of marketers believe that account-based marketing is a B2B must-have. - Twitter’s troubles lie in many marketers’ reluctance to buy a new kind of ad. Restaurants - These are 7 questions to ask before buying a restaurant. - An all-male Hooters is opening in Dallas. - 10 things you didn’t know about the Cheesecake Factory. - A business owner pulls the plug on a Japanese-inspired “maid café.” - Same-store restaurant sales remain strong. Finance - Kickstarter guru Alex Daly shares her ultimate crowdfunding success Start-Up - A start-up gets a new name, and a problem. - How a quirky 28-year-old plowed through $150 million and almost destroyed his start-up. - 10 Israeli start-ups to watch in 2015. - North Carolina’s start-up community is thriving, even as the state’s economy slows. Technology - Phablets are eating phones and tablets. - Microsoft’s new face-recognition app gets everyone’s age wrong, and creates a spate of memes. - A company owned by Jeff Bezos launches a surprise test of a private spaceship. Online - Airbnb’s popularity soars despite many obstacles in its way. - Microsoft’s CEO says he expects the company’s cloud business to be worth $20 billion in 3 years. Ideas - This is how you hand-make a Rolls-Royce. - An Alaskan entrepreneur wants to sell bulk water shipments to drought-stricken California. Around the Country - Baltimore riots have added yet another burden to local small businesses. - An entrepreneurship program in West Virginia attempts to teach you how to become a


Baltimore Sun has 60-plus journalists on Freddie Gray story

Riot police depart after forming a barricade near a burned-out CVS pharmacy in Baltimore on April 28. (Mark Makela/Getty Images) On a regular old Monday, the Web site of the Baltimore Sun might draw a million pageviews. This past Monday? Ten million, according to Baltimore Sun marketing director Renee Mutchnik. That’s what happens when perhaps the biggest domestic issue of the past year — the relationship between police and marginalized communities — comes to town. Baltimore has convulsed following the funeral of Freddie Gray, who was arrested in West Baltimore on April 12 and died a week later of spinal injuries. And while national media have sent camera crews and correspondents and the like, the hometown daily has more than 60 people across the newsroom working the story, says Mutchnik. “People just want to be a part of the story and we’ve been pulling people from each department for various assignments,” said Trif Alatzas, executive editor of the Baltimore Sun, in an interview this week with the Erik Wemple Blog. Because of the massive interest in Baltimore this week, the Sun disabled its pay meter. Traffic on Monday broke the previous record, as Poynter’s Ben Mullin pointed out. The Sun’s newsroom has stayed on the case all week, with updates, reconstructions and a general all-platform push to get out the story. But an enterprising Metro daily has an obligation greater than just hopping on a huge news story down the street. It has to be able to point to an archive foretelling the city’s ongoing trauma. Here, Alatzas notes the September 2014 story by Mark Puente on police brutality in Baltimore. Titled “Undue Force,” the six-month investigation documents that the city paid $5.7 million in lawsuits claiming that cops had battered alleged suspects. Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil rights violations. Victims include a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant accountant who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon rolling a cigarette and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson. What sort of injuries did the alleged suspects suffer? Puente inventoried them: “[B]roken bones — jaws, noses, arms, legs, ankles — head trauma, organ failure, and even death …,” he wrote. Citing court transcripts, Puente outlined the case of Starr Brown, an East


Watergate garage collapses in Northwest D.C.; one person injured

Firefighters rescued at least one person trapped in the garage, which was under construction. Updated 4:36 p.m. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a press conference Friday afternoon that all construction workers and employees of the surrounding buildings have been accounted for, but because it is a public parking garage, it is possible that people could be trapped. One search-and-rescue dog on the scene had a possible “hit” on a cadaver, she said. Bowser said that the operation at the Watergate has shifted from a search-and-rescue mission to a recovery. Updated at 12:40 p.m. All people are now accounted for after a three-story parking garage collapsed at the Watergate complex, according to DC Fire and EMS Department spokesman Oscar Mendez. One person was transported to the an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Originally posted at 12:00 p.m. A three-story parking garage collapsed at the Watergate complex on the 2600 block of Virginia Avenue NW just after 10 a.m. Friday morning. As of 11:30 a.m., one person was still missing, according to DC Fire and EMS Department spokesman Oscar Mendez. The structure has been under construction and suffered what officials are calling a “pancake collapse”—a collapse in which one floor falls on top of another. Fire department personnel and officials from the District’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs are currently at the scene. “We are still working to rescue that one person,” says Mendez. Parked cars are seen near a part of collapsed structure at the Watergate complex in Washington, Friday, May 1, 2015. District of Columbia rescuers were responding to a structural collapse in the garage at the Watergate complex where one person may be trapped. A spokesman said three stories of the garage apparently collapsed. The area was under construction at the time. (Minh Tran via AP) Some Watergate complex buildings have been evacuated, including the iconic Watergate Hotel. The hotel is undergoing a $125 million renovation that promises to restore glamour to the once high-end hotel inside the 10-acre Watergate complex made famous by the 1972 burglary that led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. Between 200 and 250 construction workers are on site each day, according to the developer At least one person is injured following a structural collapse in Washington, D.C.'s Watergate apartment-office complex. Luz Lazo contributed to this report.


Geoffrey Zakarian to open the National at the Old Post Office Pavilion

locally sourced wood smoke. Grillworks is designing a grill for chef Geoffrey Zakarian, similar to the one it built for Ox in Portland, Ore., above. (Photo courtesy of Grillworks) Don Trump Jr. [José Andrés to open flagship restaurant inside Trump International Hotel] The answer was as simple as it was obvious: Carve off a couple hundred acres from Trump Winery and develop a farm-to-table relationship with the two celebrity-chef restaurants at Trump International Hotel, scheduled to open in the summer of 2016. Trump Jr. also expects the winery to produce custom-made blends for Zakarian, who expressed an interest in them. "It seems like a very natural synergy," Trump Jr. says. It's too early to talk about what produce the winery might grow, but Trump Jr. confirms that all fruits and vegetables will be selected by the chefs and their staff, likely in consultation with farmers hired to run the operation. "Those guys are the artists," Trump Jr. says of Andrés and Zakarian. "They know what they are doing." Zakarian says he likes operating inside hotels, where restaurant and hotel staff can learn from each other and benefit each other. He also enjoys, believe it or not, preparing three meals a day. The National inside the Benjamin Hotel in New York serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, mostly refined bistro fare such as grilled branzino, steak frites, roast chicken, steamed mussels and steak tartare. The 160-seat D.C. restaurant, located on the corner of 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, won't be a carbon copy, Zakarian promises. (Nor will it provide room service.) The name and the concept just seemed to fit the nation's capital, where you cater to both tourists and power players, he notes. "It'll never be the same. It can’t be, just because of the different needs of the neighborhood,” says Zakarian, who is working with partner Louis Ceruzzi to open the National in Washington. "We’re going to find out what the people of D.C. want and kind of tailor to that.” As for Zakarian's involvement, the chef says he's all in. "I’m going to be there," Zakarian promises. "I’m going to live there a long time. I’m going to take a big role." And by the way, don't look for any more major restaurant announcements coming from Team Trump for its D.C. hotel. "That’s probably all we want to do with that kind of food service," Trump Jr. says.


Flower full moon to dress up weekend night sky

Full moon April 25, 2013 (Pablo Benavente via Flickr On Sunday night at 11:42 p.m. ET in Washington, D.C., the May moon reaches full phase. This month’s full moon is most commonly referred to as the flower moon, but has also been called mother’s moon, milk moon, and corn planting moon. “[The flower moon] marks a time of increasing fertility with temperatures warm enough for safely bearing young, a near end to late frosts, and plants in bloom,” notes Almanac.com. The moon will be over 90 percent illuminated the next several nights – reaching peak illumination or fullness Sunday night into Monday morning. In the Washington, D.C. area and much of the East Coast, Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights should feature mostly clear skies, allowing for optimal viewing and photography. “Look for the Moon near the bright star Spica on the evening of May 1st,” says Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory. “On the evenings of the 4th and 5th she rises in the southeast in the company of the planet Saturn.” D.C. moonrise times the next several nights and sky forecast Friday night, May 1: 5:48 p.m., mostly cloudy skies Saturday night, May 2: 6:45 p.m., decreasing clouds Sunday night, May 3: 7:43 p.m., mostly clear Monday night, May 4: 8:41 p.m., mostly clear Source: Timeanddate.com