Kennedy Center seeks creativity. Making artists into administrators may not be the answer.

Thievery Corporation performed Monday with members of the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. (John Shore) Artists are leading the way at the Kennedy Center these days. And composer-in-residence Mason Bates is a poster boy for the many ways the center’s president, Deborah Rutter, is moving artists into positions of programming power. Bates’s KC Jukebox is certainly one of the more varied series that the Kennedy Center offers — you never know what you’re going to get. Last month, it was the men’s a cappella vocal ensemble Chanticleer. On Monday, it was Washington’s own Thievery Corporation, the stylistically eclectic DJ-collective-cum-band, performing with members of the National Symphony Orchestra. The orchestral musicians were playing arrangements by young, hip composers (including Anna Clyne, Teddy Abrams, who energetically conducted the group, and Bates himself), but in the soup of amplified sound, it was hard to hear just what they were doing. The show, however, at least managed to be funky and vivid and vital, rather than watered down like many orchestral pops concerts featuring stars from other genres. Bates But the Kennedy Center is eager to let artists develop it. Last week, it announced that the singer Ben Folds would be coming on as an artistic adviser to the NSO for the next three seasons, helping to plan the NSO’s late-night “Declassified” series (which could use some help). Folds joins a group of Kennedy Center artist-advisers and collaborators that includes Jason Moran, Q-Tip, Renée Fleming, Damian Woetzel and Yo-Yo Ma. I understand the instinct. The performing arts have increasingly devolved into a field in which artists become cogs in a machine operated by other people, from managers and programmers through to stage directors and conductors. Often, the performers become effectively infantilized: opera singers treated like recalcitrant children who have to be coddled into following the dictums of a stage director without reference to their own experience. Putting artists in the driver’s seat may seem like an ideal corrective. But bringing artists in as programmers, in capacities they’re not trained in, doesn’t necessarily alter the current model. Indeed, it may reaffirm it. The idea is to make the process more creative, but what you’re actually doing, in many cases, is simply bolstering the system by adding more bosses to it. Who is ensuring that the ideas these new artist-bosses come up with are actually good? Is it any more satisfying for an NSO


Judge deals blow to ex-players’ drugs lawsuit against NFL

involved a 2014 injury and Alphonso Carreker’s claims against the Packers and the Broncos, “which are based on continuous excessive use of medication instead of musculoskeletal injuries sustained in the NFL and also may have accrued after May 2012,” according to the judge’s order. A spokesman for the NFL declined to comment Tuesday. The ex-players could still appeal the judge’s ruling. They also face a June 1 deadline in the case to file for class certification. The plaintiffs’ attorneys, who also declined to comment, have a similar lawsuit that is under review by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. That case, which features Hall of Famer Richard Dent as lead plaintiff, was filed against the entire league, and when Alsup ruled it was preempted by the collective bargaining agreement and dismissed it in 2014, the attorneys filed a second lawsuit the following year against the 32 individual teams. At the hearing last month, Phillip Closius, an attorney for the former players, cited one of the plaintiffs, Chris Goode, who had a seven-pound tumor removed from his kidney in 2005. Alsup noted that “with all these players, you’re going to have some people with a tumor anyway. So I don’t understand how you can just arbitrarily blame the drugs.” “Your honor, these are tumors that are appearing in 30- and 40-year-olds,” Closius said. “These are highly unusual cases. These are not showing up in 60-year-olds.” In his ruling Tuesday, Alsup said the attorneys failed to establish concrete causation and were therefor misleading in their response and “took aim with birdshot at an entire universe of speculative medical effects.” “The foregoing exchange suggests that plaintiffs think they can plead the causation element of their concealment claim simply by pointing to some recent internal organ-related problem — with no allegation whatsoever concerning etiology (even after extensive discovery and consultation with ‘a lot of experts’) — and baldly asserting their belief that it directly resulted from their use of medication in the NFL,” the judge wrote. “Not so.” More on the NFL and painkillers Retired NFL players outline league’s abuse of painkillers The DEA warned NFL doctors about drug laws in 2011 More NFL players turn to medicinal marijuana to fight pain House lawmakers question NFL on drug practices NFL tells Congress doctors were following DEA guidance Post editorial: NFL doctors are on the wrong team Archives: Pain and pain management in the NFL


Trump, Erdogan commit to cooperation despite tensions over Syrian militias

of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Turkish group that Ankara and Washington have labeled a terrorist movement. “Taking YPG and PYD into consideration in the region will never be accepted and it is going to be against a global agreement that we have reached,” Erdogan said. While U.S. military officials have acknowledged Turkey’s concerns, they say they have little choice in backing the YPG, the most effective fighting force they have been able to recruit in their bid to dislodge the Islamic State from Raqqa, the Syrian city that is the militants’ de facto capital. President Trump meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday in the Oval Office. (Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images) Erdogan also made reference to another of the issues creating friction in U.S.-Turkish ties: Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, whom Erdogan has accused of plotting a coup attempt last July. Turkish officials have repeatedly asked the United States to extradite Gulen, who oversees a vast educational and religious network in Turkey, over his suspected involvement in that episode. The Justice Department must decide if Turkey has a case; if it does so, a federal court would then rule on extradition. So far, despite Turkey’s submission of what it says is voluminous evidence, Justice has made no determination. In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post on Tuesday, Gulen denied any involvement in the coup attempt. Turkey has issued threats on the U.S. stance on Gulen and the YPG, saying future ties would hinge on its extradition request, and more recently saying it would take further military action against Kurdish militiamen if the United States provides new support. The official visit was also an opportunity for the Trump administration to demonstrate its backing for Erdogan, who faces growing criticism for his government’s crackdown against an array of perceived opponents, including the arrest of tens of thousands of people from the media, military and judiciary. On Tuesday, dozens of people demonstrating for and against Erdogan’s visit clashed outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington. Nine people were injured and two were arrested, D.C. police said. In the latest sign of his administration’s reluctance to publicly criticize allies on matters of human rights, Trump made no mention of those issues. Erdogan expressed optimism that his visit would mark an improvement in U.S.-Turkey ties. “President Trump’s recent election victory has led to the


Oleg Vidov, popular Soviet actor who defected during Cold War, dies at 73

Oleg Vidov (Juan Bastos/AP) Oleg Vidov, a matinee idol in the Soviet Union who defected to the United States at the height of the Cold War and enjoyed a long film and TV career in Hollywood, died May 15 at his home near Los Angeles. He was 73. His wife, Joan Borsten Vidov, said the cause was complications from cancer. Starting in the 1960s, the blond, blue-eyed film star’s hero roles made Mr. Vidov a top box office draw in the Soviet Union. Russian audiences flocked to see him in fairy tales, romantic films and a 1972 cowboy movie called “The Headless Horseman,” which sold a reported 300 million tickets. His work got attention from international filmmakers, but his efforts to work abroad were blocked by the communist state, which also thwarted a foray into directing. So in 1985, Mr. Vidov orchestrated an escape to the West through Yugoslavia. He was granted political asylum in the United States and landed in Southern California, where he was dubbed the “Soviet Robert Redford.” He kicked off his Hollywood career with a small part in 1988’s “Red Heat” with Arnold Schwarzenegger after director Walter Hill determined Mr. Vidov was too handsome to play the film’s bad guy, a Soviet drug kingpin. “ ‘The camera just doesn’t think you are bad,’ ” Hill told Mr. Vidov, his wife recalled this week. “But he loved working with Arnold.” Mr. Vidov went on to appear in “Wild Orchid” (1989) with Mickey Rourke and “Love Affair” (1994), starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. Days before his death, Mr. Vidov and his family re-watched “Thirteen Days,” the 2000 political thriller starring Kevin Costner in which Mr. Vidov appeared as Valerian Zorin, the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations during the Cuban missile crisis. Mr. Vidov’s TV roles included appearances on “Criminal Minds,” “Alias” and “The West Wing.” His arrival in the United States made headlines in this country and got him blackballed in the Soviet Union. Soviet state-owned TV channels stopped playing his movies but eventually bowed to popular demand and broadcast them without using his name. In late 1985, Mr. Vidov testified on Soviet cultural life at a U.S. congressional hearing, saying that Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev was making sweeping changes that were fervently welcomed by the Soviet people. Mr. Vidov’s star rose again after the fall of communism. He returned several times to his homeland, where


Montgomery County Animal Watch

Montgomery county This case was received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Alleged abuse Rabies vaccination clinic Free with purchase of cat or dog pet license Sunday 8-10:30 a.m. Visit the website for details. Failure to vaccinate against rabies results in a $500 fine. Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center, 7315 Muncaster Mill Rd., Derwood. 240-773-5900. montgomerycountymd.gov/animalservices. Cats at no-kill shelter Cats and kittens will be available for adoption through the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County’s no-kill shelter at the following location. For information, call 301-740-2511 or visit awlmc.org.Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County no-kill shelter, 12 Park Ave., Gaithersburg. Hours: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Humane Society adoptions The Montgomery County Humane Society’s private rescue shelter has dogs, puppies, cats and kittens available for adoption. Call 240-252-2555 or visit mchumane.org.MCHS Adoptions and Education Center, 601 S. Stonestreet Ave., Rockville. Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except holidays. Reduced FEES FOR CATS Cats and kittens will be available for adoption at the next open house of Friends of Montgomery County Animals at the following location. Call 301-977-4833, or visit fmca.org or facebook.com/fmcainfo.PetSmart at Milestone Center, 20924 Frederick Rd., Germantown. Hours: 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday. — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


What is North Korea trying to hit?

could be the new Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD), which the United States recently deployed to defend its Korean bases from incoming missiles. The wider region: Japan and others The sites Kim would be most concerned about in the rest of northeast Asia are pretty straightforward, Lewis said. That includes three U.S. bases in metropolitan Tokyo. A strike there would devastate parts of the city. Other probable strikes would aim to cripple Kadena and Futenma, two air bases on the Japanese island of Okinawa, which houses more than 27,000 U.S. troops at a cluster of installations. Okinawa, because of its central location in the region, is key to U.S. military in East Asia. Last month, the North Koreans fired four missiles that analysts say were practice shots simulating an attack on the Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station near Fukuoka. Lewis thinks Sasebo Naval Base in Nagasaki and Misawa Air Force Base to the north may be targeted as well. Farther away are Guam and even Australia, a seemingly improbable target, but one that North Korea threatened this month during a visit by Vice President Pence. U.S. Marines train with Australian troops on a base in Darwin in the north of the continent. Kim’s Holy Grail: The United States This is the “deter” part of the strategy. Kim wants President Trump and the U.S. military to believe he can strike their homeland so maybe they will think twice about obliterating his. The stars of a military parade last month in Pyongyang were huge green canisters which looked as if they could contain intercontinental ballistic missiles, the type that would be needed to hit the U.S. mainland. In case the point was too subtle, a concert video released around the same event showed missiles blowing up San Francisco. A mystery missile that showed up in the parade looked like a shorter version of an earlier known intermediate-range ballistic missile and is believed to be the missile test-fired May 14. The missile was fired almost straight into the air, but had it been launched at a lower angle, it could’ve flown about 2,800 miles, according to physicist David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists Global Security Program. Three days before the test, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats said in an annual report to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he expects North Korea to conduct its first intercontinental ballistic missile


Easy-sipping beer cocktails for the warm nights ahead

(Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post) Toast the weekend with one of these easy-sipping beer-based drinks from the Recipe Finder. And don’t forget to make something to nibble on, too. Cheers! The Red-Eye Pabstmosa (Michael Temchine/For The Washington Post) (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Oranj-a-Bloom Spaghetti Western Butterbeer (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post) And to snack, whip up a simple batch of Cumin-Cayenne Cashews, Pine Nuts and Pistachios or Smoked Pimento Cheese (pictured above). More from Food: 6 drinks ideal for brunch sipping A hibiscus drink that, by any of its names, is sweet Have questions about cooking? Join our live chat Wednesdays at 12.


U.S. sanctions 8 judges on Venezuela’s supreme court

An opposition supporter throws stones while protesting President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters) The Treasury Department sanctioned eight judges on Venezuela’s supreme court Thursday, shortly after President Trump said the constitutional and economic crisis in the country was “a disgrace to humanity.” The sanctions were imposed for a high court ruling earlier this year that stripped power from Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress. The decision, which the United States called a “serious setback for democracy,” brought international condemnation and led the court to partially reverse it. The judges who are punished include the supreme court’s president, Maikel Moreno, and the seven principal judges on the court’s constitutional chamber: Juan José Mendoza, Arcadio de Jesús Delgado, Gladys Gutiérrez, Carmen Zuleta de Merchán, Luis Fernando Damiani Bustillos, Lourdes Benicia Suárez Anderson and Calixto Ortega. Under the sanctions, any money they have in U.S. banks is frozen, and it is illegal for U.S. citizens to conduct any transactions with them. They also are prohibited from getting visas to travel to the United States. The sanctions aim to change the behavior of the officials in the government of President Nicolás Maduro. The collapse of the economy in the oil-rich country has brought escalating rounds of large protests by Venezuelans who don’t have money to buy food. More than 40 people have died in the past six weeks. Trump, in remarks to reporters after he met with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the White House on Thursday afternoon, mentioned the situation in Venezuela several times. “People don’t have enough to eat. People have no food. There’s great violence,” Trump said, noting Venezuela’s potential wealth because of its vast oil reserves. “But it’s been unbelievably poorly run for a long period of time,” he continued. “And hopefully that will change, and they can use those assets for the good, and to take care of their people, because right now, what’s happening is really a — a disgrace to humanity.” Administration officials, talking anonymously to reporters under White House rules, said Venezuela’s supreme court, a bastion of Maduro support, had been a major player in violating democratic norms and creating human suffering. “Venezuela is a disaster,” one official said. “It’s become an autocracy. People are suffering because of bad leadership, and bad leadership alone.” The officials called for Maduro to respect the Venezuelan constitution, hold national elections and stop using violence against the protesters. The


We think Bach is basic. For an orchestra, it’s a departure.

Conductor Ton Koopman led the National Symphony Orchestra on Thursday during an evening of Bach and Handel. (Marco Borggreve) We think a lot about how orchestras need to change with the times. The National Symphony Orchestra’s Thursday night program of Bach and Handel (which repeats Friday and Saturday) shows one big way that they have. Time was when orchestras would put all the music they played through the same filter, adjusting pieces from the canon so that they all came out with a similar dense, rich, thick sound — think of recordings of Mozart from the 1930s. Today, our tastes are more catholic, and our sense of period style more pronounced, and orchestras, called upon to play a wider range of music than ever, have become vastly more flexible. So it is that the NSO is able to play a whole evening of passable Bach and Handel, under the early-music specialist Ton Koopman, and make a real event of it, sounding leaner and more brassy and quite a bit different than they sound on most of their other subscription concerts. Bach and Handel, born the same year, are both classics, and yet they are not exactly standard orchestral fare — apart from ubiquities like the annual “Messiah.” The expansion of historically informed performance, to a point where it at least registers in the course of most literate orchestral musicians’ education, has underscored the distinction: We have access to this music in a wide range of performances and recordings on original instruments with gut strings and a kind of improvisatory spirit that is largely foreign to a full-time professional American orchestra. It was striking, then, how well the NSO’s horns and oboes and bassoons, in particular, rose to the considerable challenges posed by the program’s four works: Bach’s third orchestral suite and first Brandenburg concerto on the first half, and Handel’s third Concerto a due cori and Music for the Royal Fireworks on the second. There wasn’t a soloist on this program, but the individual players had a lot of heavy lifting. What was displayed here was the extroverted side of Baroque music, the showy energetic virtuosity, emphatically brought out by Koopman’s big gestures and windmilling arms. The opening of the Bach orchestral suite seemed to augur ill for the evening, blaring and a little heavy, but the overall tone settled into something lightly raucous, appropriate to this music, and Koopman


This isn’t a cicada year, so why are they now showing up across the Mid-Atlantic?

many 17-year cicadas and could end up creating new cycles of timekeeping broods. “You could see many more individuals coming out four years early, and eventually those could become so numerous that they’re self-reproducing,” said Chris Simon, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut. Cicada swarms are impossible to miss when they arrive in earnest every 17 years, numbering in the billions or trillions, according to Mike Raupp, an entomologist at the University of Maryland at College Park. A group known as Brood X last covered tree branches — and eventually sidewalks — across Maryland in 2004. A separate class, Brood VI, is now blanketing parts of the Carolinas and Georgia. Cicadas spend nearly all of their lives underground, feeding on tree roots. Scientists suggest they have some sort of biological clock that counts the trees’ annual cycles of growth and hibernation. Once it hits 13 or 17 years, they emerge to reproduce, then die within about a month. It is thought the cycles give the cicadas a biological advantage, rarely lining up with cyclical peaks in the numbers of their predators. But scientists say there are always small subsets of the 17-year cicada broods that don’t wait the full cycle before emerging. These experts think cicadas “count” in fours, and if they are big enough after 13 years, some crawl out sooner. It’s possible that climate change is helping more of them grow faster, Simon said. “If the conditions are really good, then a lot of them will come out,” she said. “The longer the growing season, the higher the chance that a very large number will be ready four years early.” Entomologists began crowdsourcing cicada sightings from across the country about a decade ago at Magicicada.org — a site whose name references periodical cicadas’ biological genus. The reports provide richly detailed data points mapping the density and breadth of 15 distinct cicada broods across the eastern United States. But this is the first chance they have to so closely monitor Brood X. The last time any members of that brood emerged early was in 2000, so data is more anecdotal and localized. It’s still early in the season to get a good gauge of the insects’ numbers. They don’t emerge until soil reaches 64 degrees, so entomologists expect more to come out as temperatures surge into the 80s and 90s. — Baltimore Sun


Federal power creeps its way toward controlling . . . spiders?

Justice Clarence Thomas has said, must be “appropriate,” bearing an “obvious, simple, and direct relation” to an enumerated power. A lower court has sided with the USFWS against Yearwood, dogmatically postulating that all species are “interdependent.” Therefore, even the tiniest bit of the ecosystem is presumptively implicated in potentially substantial effects on interstate commerce. So, Yearwood, who hitherto made his property available cost-free to 4-H, church and military groups for camping, horseback riding and other activities, has stopped this, and even ceased clearing brush to reduce the risk of snakes and fires, lest he be subject to federal prosecution for disturbing, harming or endangering the spiders. Indeed, such is the federal government’s unsleeping solicitude for the spiders, it says they must be protected from other bugs, such as fire ants. Reverence for nature evidently requires preventing natural competitions. Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has written that modern commerce clause decisions make one wonder why it is not called the “Hey, you-can-do-whatever-you-feel-like clause.” So far, the spider story — the application of the Endangered Species Act to an entirely intrastate species that is neither bought nor sold nor traded in interstate commerce — demonstrates that federal power, like kudzu, will expand everywhere and into everything until it is stopped. The Supreme Court can stop it if the spider case gets there. The court can apply its 2005 ruling that congressional regulation of intrastate, noncommercial activity is proper only when the activity is an “essential part of a larger regulation of economic activity, in which the regulatory scheme could be undercut unless the intrastate activity were regulated.” Furthermore, in 2012, while Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was irritating conservatives as he saved the Affordable Care Act by creatively construing some of its provisions, he simultaneously held that even a necessary exercise of power under the commerce clause is not proper if it “would work a substantial expansion of federal authority.” The blind spider might make other courts, and the rest of the government, see the Supreme Court’s 1995 ruling that the government may not “convert congressional Commerce Clause authority to a general police power of the sort held only by the states.” Read more from George F. Will’s archive or follow him on Facebook. Read more here Christine Todd Whitman: Don’t walk back on progress Chelsea Henderson: Trump is mean but not green


Visiting student killed in stabbing attack at University of Maryland

after by Prince George’s County police, Mitchell said. The victim’s friends identified the suspect as the attacker. Police recovered a folding knife, and the suspect had been drinking, Mitchell said. The suspect is white and the victim was black, but the crime did not appear to be racially motivated, he said. The suspect faces first- and second-degree murder charges and the incident was captured on surveillance video, Mitchell said. The Bowie State student’s family was “shattered” and “very distraught,” Mitchell said. The presidents of Bowie State and U-Md. said their campuses will hold moments of silence before their graduation ceremonies this week in honor of the slain student. “Bowie State University and the entire university community is very, very saddened to have lost this very promising young student at such a critical time in his life,” Bowie State University President Mickey L. Burnim said. University of Maryland President Wallace D. Loh called the stabbing a “horrific event” and was visibly shaken at a news conference with Burnim and police Saturday afternoon. “I’m still in a state of shock, of anguish, of sorrow,” Loh said. “A young man’s life has been taken away from all of us. It doesn’t matter if he is from Bowie State or University of Maryland. It makes no difference. He died, and that should not have happened.” Bowie State and U-Md. offered counseling for students in light of the violence. There hasn’t been a homicide on campus in at least 10 years, as far back as the police department has been keeping public safety stats, said Mitchell, who called the fatal stabbing “totally extraordinary for our campus.” Michael Delash, a 24-year-old architecture student, said he received several alerts from police about the stabbing. The news shocked Delash and his roommates, who are used to receiving police alerts for incidents that happen around campus for incidents that aren’t nearly as tragic. “I was surprised that it was so serious,” Delash said. “Generally people on campus are very civilized and accepting.” While police were investigating the stabbing, U-Md. was abuzz with students preparing for finals or celebrating commencement with their families. “This is supposed to be a joyous time in your life,” said Amanda Gaines, 22, a journalism student who was posing for photos in her cap and gown with family that flew in from Florida. “It’s unfortunate that people have to suffer from losses at this time.”


Health officials warn of measles exposure in Maryland and the District

THE REGION Local ofﬁcials warn of measles exposure The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is investigating a potential measles outbreak in portions of the Washington region after a patient admitted to Children’s National Medical Center in the District was diagnosed with the potentially deadly and highly contagious virus. The patient was diagnosed with measles on Friday but had been rendered medical aid in Maryland, including at Prince George’s Hospital Center, in the days before the diagnosis. The Maryland Department of Health, which is working with the health departments in the District and Prince George’s County, said it is informing people who were in certain locations in the District and Maryland about the diagnosis “out of an abundance of caution.” Most people in the United States are vaccinated against measles, so the exposure is considered a low risk. But for those who haven’t been vaccinated, the virus is extremely contagious, and 90 percent of people who are not immune can contract measles from being near a single infected person. The virus can live on a surface or hang in the air for as long as two hours after an infected person has coughed or sneezed. “Individuals who are concerned about possible exposure and vulnerability to measles should contact their primary health care provider or local health department before visiting a provider office or health care facility,” the Maryland Department of Health said in a statement. “Taking these steps reduces the chances of potentially exposing other people to measles.” The infected patient contracted measles outside the United States and developed symptoms upon returning, the department said. About the third to seventh day after being infected, a rash begins to appear on the face that will spread to the rest of the body, according to the Maryland health department. But it could take more than two weeks for someone to develop symptoms. Between May 8 and May 15, the patient was in public spaces in Prince George’s County and the District, including the Department of Social Services and Social Security buildings in Hyattsville. The measles patient was also in the Prince George’s Hospital Center Emergency Department and on May 9 rode the No. 12 public transit bus to and from Prince George’s Hospital Center. The patient has been in isolation since May 13. — Perry Stein The DISTRICT Trash ﬁre causes delay on Yellow, Green lines Metro briefly suspended some service


Gunmen try, and fail, to rob a D.C. medical marijuana dispensary

Takoma Wellness Center is a family run medical marijuana dispensary in Washington, DC. As the center opens on a Sunday in 2015, people line up outside. Their ID cards are checked as they enter. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Gunshots were fired but no one was injured Sunday morning in an attempted robbery of a D.C. medical marijuana dispensary, police said. D.C. police responded to the sound of gunfire in the 6900 block of Blair Road Northwest at about 10:30 a.m. Wil Manlapaz, commander of the police department’s Fourth District, wrote to neighbors early Sunday afternoon, announcing on a community email group that the commotion was an attempted robbery of the Takoma Wellness Center. Two suspects were involved, Manlapaz said. The center is one of only three authorized medical marijuana dispensaries in the nation’s capital. It was started by Jeffrey Kahn, a rabbi, who has become a fixture in lobbying for less restrictive marijuana laws in D.C. Takoma Wellness Center sells marijuana varities such as Merry ’n’ Berry and Blue Kush. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Khan said the incident occurred about an hour before the dispensary was scheduled to open. Two men wearing masks approached the entrance and “said something like, ‘we want weed,’ ” Kahn said. When they were refused entry, one pulled out a gun and fired at the dispensary’s security guard. The guard, a former police officer, was not struck. “We are so thankful, given that he was shot at at such close range,” Kahn said. Kahn’s son and other employees were at the wellness center at the time. An employee triggered a panic button and police arrived quickly, he said. Bullets damaged the entrance, but Kahn and others eventually opened the dispensary later Sunday. It was the first robbery attempt since the center opened almost four years ago, Kahn said. In 2015, a Washington Post reporter who visited the site noted that the center always keeps the front door locked, that a former police officer often works the front desk and that each arriving customer must present an official D.C. Department of Health medical marijuana card and a second photo ID before being let inside. Manlapaz asked anyone with information to contact D.C. police at 202-727-9099, or by text at 50411.


In Mexico, journalism is literally being killed off

A demonstrator shows a picture of murdered Mexican journalist Javier Valdez during a protest by journalists in Mexico City on May 16. (Pedro Pardo/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) WHEN ONE of his colleagues at Mexico City’s daily newspaper was gunned down in March, Javier Valdez issued a passionate statement about the importance of the work of journalists who cover the network of organized crime, drug trafficking and corruption that plagues Mexico.“Let them kill us all, if that is the death sentence for reporting this hell,” he tweeted. “No to silence.” The words proved horribly prophetic when Mr. Valdez last week became the latest casualty of the drug-fueled violence that has claimed tens of thousands of Mexican lives over the past decade. The life and death of this courageous reporter should serve as inspiration and prod to the Mexican government to undertake reforms needed to end the impunity that allows the country’s lawlessness to flourish. Mr. Valdez, 50, was shot and killed at midday May 15 on a busy street in the northwest state of Sinaloa. Authorities said unidentified attackers fired 12 shots at his car. Sinaloa is a drug trafficking destination perhaps best known as the home of Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán; Mr. Valdez, a correspondent for La Jornada, co-founded a regional weekly newspaper there in 2003 because of his belief in the need for honest reporting of the crime and corruption that victimize Mexicans — despite the risks. He is the sixth journalist to be killed in Mexico this year and one of more than 100 journalists who have been murdered since 2000. Eleven days before Mr. Valdez’s death, a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists met with President Enrique Peña Nieto to present its newly released report “No Excuse: Mexico Must Break Cycle of Impunity in Journalists’ Murders.” Among the recommendations were better protections for at-risk journalists, timely investigation of threats and training prosecutors in how to pursue crimes against freedom of expression. It’s good that Mr. Peña Nieto immediately and strongly condemned Mr. Valdez’s murder, but that is clearly not enough. Recommendations of the CPJ report should be embraced, and the chronic failure of the judicial system in investigating and prosecuting crimes must be addressed. A good place to start is making a priority of finding those who shot Mr. Valdez and those who ordered it. Read more: Carl Gershman: Remembering a journalist


In Japan, prime minister pushes ahead with controversial ‘anti-conspiracy’ bill

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks to the media at his official residence in Tokyo on May 14 about reports of the launch of a North Korean missile. (Toru Hanai/Reuters) TOKYO — The bill is part of a broader push by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — who faces only weak political opposition — to advance a broad legislative agenda that includes tougher law enforcement powers. A vote in favor of the bill by lawmakers was expected Tuesday. Abe also wants his Liberal Democratic Party to come up with a concrete plan to amend the pacifist constitution, written by Japan’s American occupiers after its defeat in World War II. “These moves show both Abe’s arrogance and his weakness,” said Koichi Nakano, a professor of political science at Sophia University and an outspoken critic of the Abe government. “He has no rivals and is at the height of his power, so it feels like he can do anything. We’re seeing the personalization of power, and it’s not all that different from what we see in the Trump administration,” Nakano said. But the moves are also an attempt to divert attention from simmering rumors of corruption, he said. The prime minister has been implicated in two shady deals but strongly denies any wrongdoing. Against this background, Abe has been pressing ahead with an ambitious legislative agenda. His government’s “anti-conspiracy” bill, as it is known here, would make 277 offenses subject to conspiracy charges and is designed to stop people who are preparing to commit crimes, including terrorism, the government says. The offenses include catching endangered animals, running an unlicensed motorboat race and stealing plants from a forest reserve. The justice minister was asked in parliament if picking mushrooms could be considered funding terrorism. He said yes. Only organized crime groups need fear it, proponents of the bill say. It is needed so that Japan can sign the U.N. Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and to prevent terrorist attacks at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, they say. But some experts and civil liberties activists say that the provisions of the bill could be used to keep tabs on normal people. “If an investigation into someone’s mind is allowed in order to punish preparations for a crime, it will limit freedom of thought,” Masatoshi Ohara, chairman of the Osaka Bar Association, said at a protest over the weekend, one of several that took place around the


Bobcats are on the rebound thanks to protections and creativity

A bobcat runs after being released last month in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. In the 1980s, few bobcats could be found in New Hampshire. Sightings in the state have become common in the past few years. (Kristopher Radder/Brattleboro Reformer via AP) As someone who has studied bobcats for almost four decades, wildlife ecologist John Litvaitis remembers many times returning from the field without spotting a single one of these solitary and shy creatures that often hunt at dusk. But bobcat numbers are rising, and they have become more comfortable around humans. Joining the likes of foxes, coyotes and even mountain lions in rare cases, bobcats are making a home in small towns and suburbs — and realizing there is plenty to eat in the cities. They have turned up in recent years in such places as Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city; Waverly, Iowa; and outside Los Angeles, California. They have been spotted below backyard bird feeders, waltzing along streets in search of their next meal and, increasingly, dead along highways. A website that Litvaitis set up to understand the bobcat rebound in New Hampshire features hundreds of amateur photographs — of a cat lounging on someone’s lawn, another stalking a chipmunk, a third sitting contentedly after gobbling up a guinea fowl and peacock. “They are back in New England and at least as abundant as they were 100 years ago, if not more,” said Litvaitis, who conducted much of his research while at the University of New Hampshire. “They are adapting to a landscape that has changed. You have roads and people everywhere, and they have figured out how to get along with most of that.” A small bobcat is perched on a power pole in a residential neighborhood of Victorville, California, in 2012. The once-shy bobcats are getting used to being around humans. (James Quigg/Victorville Daily Press via AP) The resurgence of the animal whose scientific name is Lynx rufus comes during a shift over the past several decades from treating bobcats as vermin to be killed to being considered a top predator worthy of protection. In contrast with the 1970s, when 40 states had no bobcat protections and bounties were common, most now put strict limits on hunting and trapping bobcats. Eight states, including New Hampshire, completely outlaw both. The naturally bobtail cats — as big as medium-size dogs and known for brown or rust-colored fur with black and


Judge says Purple Line needs more study of Metro’s ridership and safety issues

and federal transit agencies also hadn’t addressed “serious questions” that the plaintiffs’ experts had raised about the Purple Line’s ridership forecasts. Those included an economist who said the Purple Line estimates were based on unrealistically rosy assumptions about how quickly Metro’s ridership would recover. Leon said he will rule in a few weeks on a couple of dozen other legal arguments that the plaintiffs made criticizing the Purple Line’s environmental impact. The Maryland Transit Administration relied on the Purple Line’s ridership forecasts in the project’s federal environmental review to help justify building light rail instead of a less expensive rapid-bus option, saying light rail would attract and carry more passengers. The Purple Line is designed to better connect suburban Maryland neighborhoods inside the Capital Beltway with Metro stations and Amtrak and MARC commuter rail stations. State officials say the 21 stations will attract redevelopment, particularly in economically struggling older communities in Prince George’s County. The line also is designed to provide faster, more reliable transit service than buses. Metro became an issue in the lawsuit last spring, when Purple Line opponents argued that the project’s environmental approval wasn’t valid because the ridership projections in it presumed a “robust” Metro system. Metro’s ridership has fallen 12 percent since 2010, with 100,000 fewer trips daily, and the aging system continues to suffer from chronic breakdowns and safety lapses. The system’s ongoing SafeTrack maintenance program has caused ridership to further decline. In court filings, the FTA argued that Metro’s safety and reliability problems are being addressed through SafeTrack and that ridership will rebound after the program is completed, particularly as the region continues to grow. Even under the “most extreme” scenario — removing Metro completely from the Purple Line ridership analysis — the Purple Line would still have about 50,000 weekday trips in 2040, making it “one of the most robust light-rail systems funded by the FTA in recent years,” the FTA said. The FTA also said that any change in ridership wouldn’t affect the light-rail line’s environmental impact because it wouldn’t change the project’s construction footprint. The plaintiffs — Fitzgerald, Chevy Chase resident Christine Real de Azua, and the Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail — said the FTA hadn’t considered the number of Metro riders who have lost faith in the system or that Metro’s “ongoing extreme problems with safety, service and reliability are continuing unabated with no end in sight.”


Federal Transit Administration signs off on one project Monday, but more than a dozen others await money

Caltrain passengers make their way to the station in San Francisco. The Transportation Department had agreed to spend more than $700 million on an electrification upgrade to the Northern California system. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao signed off on the project Monday. (Nick Otto/for The Washington Post) The Federal Transit Administration said Monday that it would sign off on a controversial California transit project, one of 21 for which Congress provided funding this month. The proposal to electrify trains on the peninsula into San Francisco caused dissension among the state’s congressional delegation as House Railroad Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Denham objected to the plan while both of the state’s U.S. senators supported it. “I think there is an issue that the California delegation needs to come together and discuss,” Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao said at a Senate hearing last week. “There appears to be split opinions on this project.” Split opinions not withstanding, Congress approved funding for Caltrain’s $1.75 billion electrification project and 20 other transit projects in an omnibus bill signed by President Trump this month. All of the projects were described by Congress as either ready to start immediately or able to break ground later this year. The Transportation Department said the rest of the projects approved by Congress were “advancing toward” approval as state and local authorities submitted final paperwork. The Trump administration has suggested it has no plans to sign off on future transit investments, saying they should be funded by the local governments that benefit from them. The three priciest projects on the list funded in the omnibus bill this month are the Purple Line light-rail project in Maryland, an extension of a light-rail system in Seattle, and the Caltrain plan to put electric trains on a corridor leading into San Francisco that now is served by diesel locomotives. Supporters of building a 16-mile light-rail Purple Line in the Maryland suburbs say it should be first in line for a Trump administration that has called for shovel-ready infrastructure projects, particularly those that include private investment. The project, however, was dealt another setback Monday when a judge ordered federal transit officials to redo part of its environmental impact statement. Also approved by Congress but awaiting final approval at DOT are transit projects in New York, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and New Mexico. The projects have cleared multiple federal hurdles to reach this moment of final


A U.S. troop increase would aim to double the size of Afghanistan’s special operations unit

the capital. One top priority is to quickly expand the size and capacity of the Afghan special forces — highly trained commandos who have often had to replace or rescue regular Afghan troops in battle crises. About 17,000 regular soldiers would be moved into the special forces, doubling their size. They would be trained by hundreds of international Special Operations forces, mostly Americans, who would account for about 25 percent of all new foreign troops. A second priority is to improve the effectiveness of regular army and police forces, which have struggled with a variety of problems from illiteracy to corruption, and whose members often fail to reenlist. As with the special forces, the new foreign advisers would be able to work more closely with military and police officers at the brigade level. Another continuing job would be to provide air support for ground troops, medical evacuation and troop transport, as well as to improve the effectiveness of the Afghan air force, ultimately allowing its fighter pilots to totally replace Americans. Afghan officials have repeatedly said that better air support alone would make a critical difference in the war effort, and Nicholson has called it a key “offensive capability.” A new focus would be to attack corruption, incompetence and poor coordination among Afghan security agencies — shortcomings that Ghani and U.S. officials have identified as major problems. New foreign instructors at army and police academies would focus on these issues, and U.S. advisers would work with Afghan officials to weed out corruption, notably by requiring biometric military enrollment to reduce the large number of “ghost soldiers” being paid with U.S. funds. “The two existential threats to the Afghan state are the Taliban and corruption inside the security forces,” said Donahoe. Efforts to professionalize and motivate the country’s defense forces, he said, “would be for naught if the leaders are corrupt and inept.” Ghani, in a startling speech this month, slammed the Defense and Interior ministries as “the most corrupt” in government, and he recently replaced dozens of senior security officials, including the defense minister. The additional foreign troops would also fill technical and support roles, especially an aviation brigade that repairs and maintains U.S.-made military helicopters and other aircraft. Most would be rejoining their own military units and replacing highly paid private contractors, who are hired mainly to keep the level of U.S. deployed forces at or below approved levels.


Five Baltimore officers from Freddie Gray case face internal discipline

law makes trial boards open to the public, but keeps the outcomes secret. Police spokesman T.J. Smith declined to comment Monday, saying the department is unable to discuss personnel matters. Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby — who brought criminal charges against the officers but failed to win a conviction— issued a statement Monday saying that “justice is always worth the price paid for its pursuit.” “This case has always been about providing justice for an innocent 25-year-old man who was unreasonably taken into police custody, severely injured while in police custody, and died due to a lack of care,” she said. “If today’s news is accurate, I am relieved to know that a majority of those involved will be held administratively accountable for their actions.” The five officers were informed of the charges against them Friday, according to Michael E. Davey, an attorney who handles internal affairs cases for the police union, the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police. Davey represented all five officers during the internal review. The specifics of the charges — and what actions, or failure to act, led to them — is not clear. Davey said the officers are charged with “violations of policy and procedure,” but declined to elaborate. Gene Ryan, the police union president, did not return calls seeking comment. The charges are likely to upset manyofficers who felt their colleagues were vindicated when the criminal charges against them were not sustained. The five officers facing internal discipline could not be reached for comment. Attorney Joseph Murtha, who represented Porter in his criminal case and the administrative investigation, cheered the findings regarding his client and said it showed he was “a truth-teller” in his account of the events surrounding Gray’s death. Murtha said Porter plans to stay with the department. “His goal from the beginning was to continue to be a Baltimore police officer, and is relieved that he continues to have that opportunity available to him,” Murtha said. Tessa Hill-Aston, president of Baltimore’s NAACP chapter, said she thinks that Nero and Miller should face stiffer punishment for putting the series of events into motion. The two arrested Gray after he ran from them near the Gilmor Homes public housing development in West Baltimore. “Everyone got pulled into what they started,” Hill-Aston said. But she said she was glad to see the internal discipline. “They needed to be punished in some form or


FTA releases $647 million for electrifying California commuter rail line

The Federal Transit Administration released $647 million in federal funds Monday for electrifying the commuter rail line Caltrain, after subjecting the project to additional scrutiny because it was approved just days before President Barack Obama left office. California officials, who had signed the Full Funding Grant Agreement with Transportation Department officials in January, argued the project was crucial to upgrade aging train equipment that transports tens of thousands of commuters between San Francisco and Silicon Valley each day. But Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) had objected that part of the state’s matching money for the project stemmed from a fund voters had originally designated for high-speed rail. In a statement, FTA officials noted that Congress had appropriated $100 million in fiscal year 2017 in the continuing resolution bill that passed this month. The fate of the project, which was suspended by Transportation officials in mid-February, was seen as a harbinger of whether the new administration was willing to upend infrastructure projects tied to the previous administration that primarily benefit urban centers. This month, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) threatened to block the confirmation of any Transportation Department nominee until the money was released. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo hailed the move in a statement, saying he was “thrilled to witness the triumph of sound policy over discordant politics.” “There’s not a more shovel-ready project in the United States. Electrifying Caltrain will pave the way to expand rider capacity, reduce emissions and improve service,” Liccardo said. But Denham questioned why the administration had allowed the grant to proceed. “This is yet another bait and switch to deceive state taxpayers and take imaginary dollars from one project to pay for another, putting at risk California’s transportation future,” he said in a statement. “Caltrain is not, nor will it ever be, ‘high speed’ and should not be funded with high speed rail dollars, especially when that project has yet to prove its own financial viability. . . . Providing this grant without first conducting an audit is irresponsible.”


U.N. Security Council weighs new sanctions on North Korea

Nikki Haley had signaled ahead of time that a resolution proposing new penalties was not yet ready. Haley was in Turkey for diplomatic meetings and was represented by a deputy. “We’re doing that now, in terms of getting another resolution together looking at sanctions and how were gonna continue to force it, because this is the same movie that keeps playing,” Haley said in an interview broadcast Monday on NBC’s Today Show. The U.S. message to North Korea is simple, she said: “We don’t want to start a fight, so don’t give us a reason to have one.” The Trump administration has made a public effort to reassure North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that the United States does not intend to try to force him from office. The assurances are meant to lower tension that has risen markedly since Trump was elected, and answer one of China’s concerns as it tries to restrain its recalcitrant ally. Although North Korea has made a show of force for new U.S. leaders in the past, the threat is higher now because of North Korea’s expanding nuclear capabilities. The United States called for new sanctions last month, when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson led a special Security Council discussion of what Washington considers the world’s most volatile and pressing threat. Negotiations for additional penalties typically take several weeks, but two North Korean missile tests conducted since then could prompt the council to move faster. North Korea has developed its nuclear and ballistic missile programs despite heavy international sanctions already in place, and Chinese firms are among those alleged to help North Korea evade import bans and other measures intended to starve those programs. The scope of additional penalties is not clear, but Tillerson and other U.S. officials have warned that countries helping North Korea evade sanctions could themselves be targeted. “In our views, the growing provocations by the North Korean regime must be matched with increased firmness by the Security Council,” French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre said Monday. “That’s why we hope the Security Council will be able to move ahead in terms of better implementing the existing sanctions on one side, but also in terms of tightening the sanctions on the other side. We need to move ahead on both accounts.” Delattre would give no details of the American proposal, but welcomed “a strong resolution that is being negotiated as we speak.”


Local Digest: May 23, 2017

THE DISTRICT Pr. George’s man is fatally stabbed A man who was fatally stabbed during a dispute Monday evening in Southeast Washington has been identified as a 31-year-old from Prince George’s County, Md. Whitney Jones of Riverdale was pronounced dead at a hospital a little more than half an hour after the 5:10 p.m. stabbing in the 1100 block of K Street SE, D.C. police said. Police said they found Jones lying in the street when they arrived after receiving a report about an assault. No arrest has been made. The street is just north of the Southeast Freeway and near the approaches to the 11th Street Bridge. — Peter Hermann VIRGINIA Murder convict loses state court appeal Charles Severance, convicted in 2015 of murder in the killings of three people in Alexandria, Va., has lost an appeal in state court. Lawyers for Severance had argued that there were flaws in his trial and in his sentencing in connection with the slayings of Nancy Dunning in 2003, Ronald Kirby in 2013 and Ruthanne Lodato in 2014. A three-judge panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals disagreed. Dunning was killed a decade before the other two victims, and no eyewitness connected Severance to the scene of her death. Severance’s lawyers say that case should have been tried separately from the other two. However, the three judges ruled that “the crimes were sufficiently similar and idiosyncratic to establish an inference that the same person committed all three murders.” The gun and bullets used were unusual, and all three crimes happened in safe neighborhoods in the middle of the day. All three victims were killed in their homes, and nothing was stolen. Overall, the judges found there was enough evidence to convict Severance in all three slayings. Severance is serving a life sentence in prison. — Rachel Weiner 2 students charged in Xanax incident Two high school students were arrested and charged late last week with distributing Xanax at a Virginia middle school, officials said. Their names were not released because they are 16 years old. The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said the charges stem from an incident April 21 at Potomac Falls High School in Sterling. A school resource officer discovered that at least seven eighth-graders at neighboring Riverbend Middle School drank a liquid that contained the prescription drug Xanax. Authorities said it appeared to be a mix of water and crushed


Can retail therapy soothe a gardener unsettled by the crazy spring?

style. Earlier this month, a partially erupting brood of cicadas was evident as they crawled out of the ground, shed their papery brown shells and turned into arthropodal glamour pusses. The cicadas are genuinely beautiful in their freakish way. You can pick them up — they won’t harm you — and study their orange wing venation and orange legs. Their wide-set and little red eyes are like rubies. Many people regard the cicadas as unsettling, but young children and old gardeners, who still find the world a wondrous place, adore them. The cicadas that survive the birds and mate can do real damage to the garden; the female slits the underside of tree branches to lay eggs. A hatch that is big enough can result in visible branch dieback by late summer, high in the tree canopy. There is very little you can do about this, although I have found that a trip to the garden center can take the mind off the inevitable setbacks of gardening. I generally don’t enjoy shopping, but there are times when getting stuff at the start of the growing season is both a necessity and, occasionally, an unalloyed pleasure. I begin to salivate when I see something I desperately want — a certain plant or an organic feed with kelp and crab shells. I can’t explain it, except the response is no doubt linked to endorphins and bargain prices. In April and May, I found myself with alarming frequency in garden centers, nurseries and mass merchandisers. Some were near, others weren’t, and the farthest was 123 miles from home. The unexpected appearance of periodical cicadas has added to a zany spring in the garden. (Adrian Higgins/The Washington Post) Part of the reason for this spree was that I did no winter seed starting this year because of other labors (and dissatisfaction with my seed-growing setup). Another reason is that I have become obsessed with tender, decorative salvias, which provide flowering from early summer to mid-fall. I have so far amassed approximately 20 Mexican bush sages and half a dozen of the red flowering Salvia microphylla, which are smaller-leafed, hardier and bloom with delicate red flowers all season long. I also picked up five Salvia guaranitica, a variety named Black and Bloom, developed for darker stems, bigger flowers, and more leaf substance than the better known Black and Blue. My salviamania is so potent that


Mayor, D.C. Council schmooze developers and retailers in Vegas

they’re downsizing and not interested, and three years later, it’s completely reversed. We know we’ve got to be here talking to retailers when they are up or down.” By several estimates, the District’s contingent of taxpayer-funded lawmakers and staffers was the largest of any city. The city had a large walk-in display area at the conference, hosted parties and receptions and was represented by 24 lawmakers and government staffers, according to a document circulated among participants. Additional staffers and executives also traveled under the auspices of the public-private Washington DC Economic Partnership, which is partly funded by taxpayer money. The partnership paid for all attendees’ registration, the District’s display area, the welcome reception and other events. Few of the nation’s top 20 cities sent representatives, according to lists of attendees on the ICSC website. The full accounting of how much the trip cost taxpayers was not available Tuesday. An attorney for the D.C. Council said the request for that information would be treated under open-records guidelines, giving the council 15 days to respond. The mayor’s office also did not provide a breakdown and declined to identify where the mayor and her top aides stayed. Evans, who has been attending the conference since the administration of Anthony Williams, said that the District would be foolish not to go and that the travel costs are a sound investment. “Frankly, if we weren’t here, we wouldn’t be doing our jobs,” Evans said. He noted the Saturday announcement that popular grocery chain Wegmans plans to open a store along Wisconsin Avenue in 2022. “We’ve been talking to them here for five years — and now we’ve got them,” Evans said. Evans said this year he and other council members met with German grocer Lidl about sites in the District and discussed with grocers Giant and Safeway how to encourage them to expand in the city’s poorest areas east of the Anacostia River. But an itinerary for the group also showed several meetings with D.C. developers, including the JBG Cos. and Hines, and with others seeking tax incentives for development around Union Market. Along with Evans, eight other council members were on the trip: Brandon T. Todd (D-Ward 4); Kenyan R. McDuffie (D-Ward 5); Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7); Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8); Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large); Anita Bonds (D-At Large); David Grosso (I-At Large); and Chairman Phil Mendelson (D). The nine


Trump budget slashes federal aid for rail, long-distance Amtrak routes

large sum of money,” Brickman said. “If the federal government doesn’t come through, we’ll either need to find the money locally or stop the project.” Brickman said the region has planned for the line for more than 20 years and has focused its economic development around the future light-rail stations. Moreover, she said, local employers say they need more light-rail to attract younger workers. “We know we need it to be economically competitive in the future,” Brickman said. Transit advocates were heartened when the FTA announced Monday that it would sign a multiyear funding agreement committing $647 million to electrify trains and expand capacity on a Caltrain rail line between San Francisco and San Jose. Some transit advocates have taken the Caltrain agreement as a hopeful sign that the Trump administration, despite public statements to the contrary, might sign new agreements for projects that have cleared all other hurdles in the years-long federal funding process, including approvals by Congress. However, the budget plan released Tuesday signals the Caltrain project could be the exception. In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, a senior transportation department official said, “We are continuing to follow the statute and evaluate projects that are brought to FTA, but our president’s budget proposal is to wind down new investments in the future.” Next in line of shovel-ready projects would be Maryland’s Purple Line, a 16-mile light-rail line to connect Washington suburbs inside the Capital Beltway, but the project remains stalled by a federal lawsuit. The state was five days from clinching a signed funding agreement last August when a court order in a lawsuit opposing the project made it ineligible for federal aid. Congress has appropriated $325 million toward the line’s construction, but Maryland officials can’t access that money until a federal judge restores its environmental approval. A court ruling Monday further delayed the project by months, after a judge ordered Maryland officials to redo part of the project’s environmental impact study. Trump’s budget calls long-distance Amtrak trains “a vestige of when train service was the only viable transcontinental transportation option” rather than the aviation, interstate highway and bus network now in place. Moreover, the plan notes, long-distance trains are on schedule only 55 percent of the time and account for 15 percent of Amtrak’s ridership but 38 percent of the system’s operating costs. Long-distance routes have had net operating losses of about $500 million annually over


Manchester bombing probe expands with arrests on two continents

brother suspected of preparing an attack in Tripoli. Ahmed Dagdoug, a spokesman for Libya’s counterterrorism Reda Force, said Hashem Abedi was arrested late Tuesday and is suspected of “planning to stage an attack in Tripoli.” Dagdoug said Hashem Abedi had confessed to helping his brother prepare the Manchester attack. “Hashem has the same ideology as his brother,” Dagdoug said. Abedi’s father, Ramadan, was arrested Wednesday, although it was not clear on what grounds. Ramadan Abedi had earlier asserted that his sons were innocent, telling the Associated Press that “we don’t believe in killing innocents. This is not us.” He said Salman sounded “normal” when they last spoke five days ago. The elder Abedi said his son had planned to visit Saudi Arabia and then spend the Islamic holy month of Ramadan with family in Libya. Dagdoug said Hashem Abedi had been in frequent contact with Salman Abedi and was aware of the plans to attack the concert. Dagdoug described Hashem Abedi as an operative of the Islamic State, which has asserted responsibility for Monday’s blast. It was unclear whether investigators believed that Salman Abedi’s relatives were a key part of the network planning the Manchester attack. But authorities were increasingly exploring the emerging connections between Britain and Libya. Salman Abedi, whose parents had emigrated from Libya to escape the rule of Moammar Gaddafi, was on the radar of British security services before Monday’s attack. But Home Secretary Amber Rudd, the nation’s top domestic security official, suggested that he was not a major focus of any inquiries, telling the BBC that authorities had been aware of him only “to a point.” Rudd said that Abedi had recently returned from Libya and that that was a focus of the investigators’ inquiry. In a highly unusual public rebuke, she also slapped down U.S. authorities for leaking information about the investigation, calling it “irritating.” But even as she did, key details about the investigation were emerging from other allied capitals. Rudd’s French counterpart, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, told broadcaster BFMTV that Abedi may have also gone to Syria and had “proven” links with the Islamic State. Abedi was reported on Wednesday to have been a college dropout who had recently become radicalized. Security experts said it was unlikely that he coordinated the attack, and the BBC reported that he may have been “a mule” tasked with carrying out the bombing but had little role


RFK memorial plan launched for stadium site

In a rendering from architects OMA, an enclosed food market, in the foreground, would accentuate an RFK Stadium campus with more playing fields than parking lots. (Events DC) Washington’s Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), members of the late Robert F. Kennedy’s family, and Events DC announced Wednesday the launch of a memorial project to honor the U.S. senator who was assassinated in 1968. The memorial, on the site of Washington’s Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, will serve “as a place of remembrance and a place of teaching and practicing the civil rights and equality ideals Robert F. Kennedy championed,” Events DC said in a statement. Events DC is the city’s official convention and sports authority. “On behalf of my family, we are delighted … to begin this journey … in tribute to my late grandfather,” Maeve Kennedy McKean, the senator’s granddaughter, said, according to the statement. “My grandfather lived his life every day in the service of others.” Authorities have been planning for the future of the 190-acre site of the aged sports stadium after the DC United soccer club leaves next year. The RFK Memorial project is part of the overall redevelopment plan for the site that officials hope will unfold over the next five to seven years, Events DC said. The project foresees the demolition of the old stadium and the transformation of the site into a $490 million multipart sports, recreation and market complex. “As part of our taking the stadium down and evolving the site, we thought it made sense to honor (Kennedy’s) legacy,” Max Brown, chairman of the board of directors of Events DC, said in an interview. Bowser said: “I am proud … that Robert F. Kennedy’s legacy will continue to live on in Washington. For many (he) reflects the values of this city and our nation.” Built in 1961 and originally named D.C. Stadium, the plans for RFK call for the development of three multipurpose athletic fields, a 47,000-square-foot food market hall and a 350,000-square-foot indoor sports complex that could feature indoor lacrosse, paintball, bowling, go-karting, video-gaming, trampolines and batting cages. The plans also call for three new pedestrian bridges connecting the RFK land across the Anacostia River to Kingman Island and to the River Terrace neighborhood on the far side of the water from Capitol Hill. The RFK land is owned by the federal government and controlled by the National Park Service.


Montgomery County Animal Watch

Montgomery County This case was received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Trespassing and at large Humane Society adoptions The Montgomery County Humane Society’s private rescue shelter has dogs, puppies, cats and kittens available for adoption. Call 240-252-2555 or visit mchumane.org.MCHS Adoptions and Education Center, 601 S. Stonestreet Ave., Rockville. Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except holidays. Reduced FEES FOR CATS Cats and kittens will be available for adoption at the next open house of Friends of Montgomery County Animals at the following location. Call 301-977-4833, or visit fmca.org or facebook.com/fmcainfo.PetSmart at Milestone Center, 20924 Frederick Rd., Germantown. Hours: 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday. Cats at no-kill shelter Cats and kittens will be available for adoption through the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County’s no-kill shelter at the following location. For information, call 301-740-2511 or visit awlmc.org.Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County no-kill shelter, 12 Park Ave., Gaithersburg. Hours: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Former Trump campaign chairman submits Russia-related documents to intelligence panels

Paul Manafort speaks to reporters on the floor of the Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on July 17. Manafort this week turned over hundreds of pages of documents related to Russia to House and Senate intelligence committees. (Matt Rourke/AP) President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, turned over 305 pages of documents related to the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election to the House and Senate intelligence committees this week, according to people familiar with the ongoing inquiries. Manafort’s submission came in response to letters the congressional panels sent in recent weeks to a handful of Trump campaign associates with potential ties to Moscow, a sign that lawmakers were starting to dig deeper for details as newly appointed special counsel Robert S. Mueller III assumes leadership of a separate Justice Department inquiry. Congressional staff have not fully reviewed the new Manafort documents, but people familiar with them said they include calendar entries, speech drafts and campaign strategy memos that mention Russia or individuals from Russia. They also cite some specific meetings, including two large group sessions that involved Russia’s ambassador to the United States — one at the Republican National Convention and the other at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington when Trump gave his first major foreign policy address. A spokesman for Manafort, Jason Maloni, declined to provide any details on what Manafort provided to lawmakers but said the submission illustrated Manafort’s willingness to work with Congress on the matter. “This is just another sign that he is following through on his commitment to cooperate with investigators,” Maloni said. Officials from the two committees declined to comment. As Trump’s campaign chairman during several key months in 2016, Manafort was tasked with managing the chaotic effort as the New York businessman shifted from being a Republican outsider to taking control of the party apparatus as its presidential nominee. He left the campaign in August after a tumultuous period during which documents surfaced suggesting he had received off-the-books payments from a Ukrainian political party. Manafort denied receiving improper payments. Manafort once did business with a well-known Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. Most of Manafort’s financial dealings were with Ukrainian officials and business leaders. As a result, there were few personal business details included in the response, one person familiar with the documents said. The Senate letter to Manafort requested information about contacts with Russian government and business


Signs of the Manchester attacker’s possible radicalization appeared more than a year ago

of terrorists, many of whom may remain at large. “Abedi appears not intelligent enough to have built this bomb himself. That’s why there are concerns that a bombmaker is still out there,” said a European security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. Investigators are also still trying to determine whether Abedi received support from family members. Libyan authorities arrested Hashem Abedi, alleging that he was aware in advance of the Manchester bombing plot and was also planning an attack in Tripoli. His father, who had been working for the Libyan police force in recent years, according to an official, was also detained on Wednesday, although it was not clear on what grounds. “Hashem helped Salman prepare for the attack,” Dagdoug said. “He had the same ideology as his brother.” Dagdoug said he didn’t know precisely how Hashem assisted his brother. But Hashem told interrogators that “we knew what we were doing,” Libyan officials said. Salman Abedi appeared to leave few traces of his life on social media, but there are indications that his younger brother may have been attracted to extremism. In 2014, Hashem joked on Facebook about joining a militant group, commenting on the photo of a young British jihadist who had left for the war in Syria: “Inshallah [God willing] we go together.” The younger brother’s Facebook profile revealed other signs that he had an interest in the Islamic State, which has asserted responsibility for the Manchester attack. Although British authorities asked members of Salman Abedi’s southern Manchester community not to speak to the media, people who knew the family said on Wednesday that Abedi cared for his parents. “He really liked them,” said Mohammad Fadi, 25, standing in front of the mosque where the family had worshiped. Salman Abedi was born in Manchester in 1994. His father sometimes led the call to prayer at the local mosque, the Manchester Islamic Center, and his older brother, Ismail, sometimes volunteered there. Ismail has also been taken into custody since the attack. When the parents moved back to Libya a few years ago, their sons stayed behind in Manchester. Salman Abedi studied briefly at Salford University, in Manchester, but wound up dropping out. “Salman was rarely seen there by other students,” said community member Fadi. At the mosque that the Abedi family attended, no one spoke in favor of the attack. “This act of cowardice


Manchester bombing probe expands to Germany amid raids, arrests in Britain

least two additional members of Abedi’s family, including a younger brother suspected of preparing an attack in Tripoli. Ahmed Dagdoug, a spokesman for Libya’s Reda Force militia, said Hashem Abedi was arrested late Tuesday and is suspected of “planning to stage an attack in Tripoli.” Dagdoug said Hashem Abedi had confessed to helping his brother prepare the Manchester attack. “Hashem has the same ideology as his brother,” Dagdoug said. Abedi’s father, Ramadan, was arrested Wednesday, although it was not clear on what grounds. Ramadan Abedi had earlier asserted that his sons were innocent, telling the Associated Press that “we don’t believe in killing innocents. This is not us.” He said Salman sounded “normal” when they last spoke five days ago. The elder Abedi said his son had planned to visit Saudi Arabia and then spend the Islamic holy month of Ramadan with family in Libya. Dagdoug described Hashem Abedi as an operative of the Islamic State, which has asserted responsibility for Monday’s blast. Hashem Abedi was friends on social media for several years with a brother of known Manchester extremist and Islamic State recruiter Raphael Hostey. Hostey is believed to have died last year while fighting for the militant group. The connection suggests that the Abedi brothers’ social circle included at least one family member of another known radical in Manchester. Internal Islamic State documents, categorized by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, show that Hostey claimed to have lived at the same Manchester address as his brother, only several hundred yards away from where the Abedi family also lived for years. It was unclear whether investigators believed that Abedi’s relatives were a key part of the network planning the Manchester attack. But authorities were increasingly exploring the emerging connections between Britain and Libya. Abedi, whose parents had emigrated from Libya to escape the rule of Moammar Gaddafi, was on the radar of British security services before Monday’s attack. But Home Secretary Amber Rudd, the nation’s top domestic security official, suggested that he was not a major focus of any inquiries, telling the BBC that authorities had been aware of him only “to a point.” Rudd said that Abedi had recently returned from Libya and that that was a focus of the investigators’ inquiry. Abedi was reported on Wednesday to have been a college dropout who had recently become radicalized. Security experts said it


The best veggie burgers in Washington

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 13: Groundswell vegetarian burger – mushroom, cashew + rice patty with smoked chimichurri, avocado & lettuce at Red Apron Burger Bar. (Photo by Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) The Groundswell vegetarian burger at Red Apron Burger Bar. (Dixie D. Vereen/for The Washington Post) Beef not your thing? Here are our favorite vegetarian burgers around Washington. The Groundswell at Red Apron Burger Bar You wouldn’t expect a burger place that puts such emphasis on its locally raised beef to have such a good veggie burger. But the care that chef Nate Anda puts into his meat carries over to his mushroom-cashew-and-rice patty, which is as flavorful as his specialty beef without trying to imitate it. Other veggie burgers are either mushy or bland, but this one holds its shape and is perfectly spiced with a smoked chimichurri sauce. A generous slather of mashed avocado is cool and creamy, a nice contrast in texture. At last: a veggie burger that can hold its own against the meatier parts of the menu. $8.35. 1323 Connecticut Ave. NW. 202-524-5210. — Maura Judkis The veggie burger at Shouk with a side of harissa and pickles. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) The Shouk burger at Shouk When was the last time you felt this good about eating a burger? The patty at this Middle Eastern-inspired vegan fast-casual spot is full of ingredients that don’t send you into a guilt spiral — chickpeas, black beans, lentils, mushrooms and cauliflower help round out your daily dose of vegetables. But healthful doesn’t have to be boring. Shouk’s riffs on standard condiments include roasted tomatoes, pickled turnips and tahini. The burger holds together so well that the extra protection provided by the fluffy pita around it is almost redundant, except for the fact that it’s much better than many of the generic buns out there. $9.75. 655 K St. NW. 202-652-1464. — Becky Krystal The veggie burger at Junction Bakery & Bistro in Del Ray. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) The veggie burger at Junction Bakery Bistro Chefs making fancy riffs on beef burgers is nothing new, and it only makes sense that the meatless version would be ripe for an upgrade, too. At Junction, chef Nathan Hatfield took a thoughtful approach to building a vegetarian burger, full of savory umami flavor. He roasts tofu, beets and cremini mushrooms, cutting down


Iraq investigating elite unit accused of human rights violations in Mosul campaign

the division accuses Arkady of stealing cameras from a public affairs soldier and says he is wanted by Iraqi “authorities.” Arkady’s allegations prompt concerns about whether the United States is doing enough to vet the forces with which it is partnering in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq. Arkady said he witnessed the abuses late last year, around the time the U.S.-led coalition expanded its advise-and-assist mission to work closely with Iraqi Interior Ministry forces — including the emergency response division — on planning operations and in providing air support. However, as they are not directly armed or trained by the United States, the emergency response division forces are unlikely to be covered by the Leahy Law, which prohibits the United States from providing military assistance to units that carry out human rights abuses with impunity. “While the Coalition cannot confirm the veracity of these allegations, any violation of the law of armed conflict would be unacceptable and should be investigated in a transparent manner,” Army Col. Joseph Scrocca, a spokesman for the coalition, said in an email. “Those deemed responsible are held accountable in accordance with due process and Iraqi law.” Arkady said he had initially set out to document the heroic actions of the unit as it fought to wrest control of Mosul from the Islamic State, following two officers — one Sunni and the other Shiite — to counter the narrative of sectarianism in the Iraqi armed forces and show they were “liberators not destroyers.” Mosul is a majority-Sunni city, and the Shiite-dominated Iraqi military has tried to showcase the lengths to which it has gone to avoid any sectarian strife. Arkady said, however, that he found himself documenting what could amount to war crimes. In his account in Der Spiegel, he said he later saw the body of one of the men he had seen being tortured in the headquarters of the unit’s intelligence department. Detainees were accused of having links to the Islamic State or of having pledged allegiance to the group. Arkady, who has received threats, has fled Iraq. In a bid to refute Arkady’s allegations, the emergency response division released a video showing soldiers revisiting a man who they say was featured in one of Arkady’s videos, to prove that he is still alive — although he is not one of the people Arkady alleges were killed. Morris reported from Beirut.


Beer of the Week: Enjoy a tart, refreshing glass of Key lime pie

Westbrook's Key Lime Pie Gose is flavored with real key limes and is a refreshing elixir for a hot summer day. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) South Carolina’s Westbrook Brewing makes one of the best American examples of gose, a briny, tangy wheat beer that has been brewed in Leipzig, Germany, for centuries. Traditionally brewed with coriander and sea salt, the acidic style has seen a resurgence in recent years as beer lovers have grown more accepting of funky and unusual flavors. But Westbrook doesn’t stop at a straight-ahead gose: The brewery also makes a Key Lime Pie Gose. It sounds like a joke, but it’s actually quite delicious. While the original gose is notable for its simple flavor and wheaty, bready body, the Key lime version is bright with aromas of lime peel and citrus fruit. It starts with a sharp blast of tart, puckering lime zest, almost like limeade, with a biscuity note that recalls pie crust. Fruity and complex but also light and thirst-quenching, this is something to reach for on a sunny weekend — and it’s only 4 percent alcohol by volume. Even serious gose and Berliner weisse drinkers should give this flavored gose a shot. Westbrook Key Lime Pie Gose. westbrookbrewing.com. About $10 for a four-pack of 12-ounce cans. If you like flavored goses, try these: Dogfish Head SeaQuench Ale Freigeist Geisterzug Gose To Ol Gose to Hollywood More from Food: Make room, hoppy IPA. Pilsener is the buzzy new craft beer. Meet the three people who determine the beers you drink in D.C. These exemplary craft beer bars keep their menus short and sweet Beer Column archive Happy Hour chat


Move over, Bellagio — Longwood Gardens unveils its $90 million fountain garden

the rear, elevated terrace housing the largest fountain basin had been blocked due to crumbling masonry. The fountains are set within a restored five-acre Classical Revival garden. (Samuel Markey/Longwood Gardens) Under the restoration, 25 masons from Dan Lepore & Sons Co. in Conshohocken, Pa., dismantled 5,312 pieces of structural and carved limestone, which were cleaned and repaired. A total of 855 pieces were created to replace those beyond repair. A whimsical grotto has been added as the central element of the fountain wall. Du Pont chose a tree species — Norway maple — that was popular decades ago but fell from grace for being invasive and oppressively dense in form. The allees have been replanted with 168 native little-leaf linden trees, variety Greenspire, which will be clipped into an aerial hedge. Guests gather for a fete May 18. Old Norway maple trees were replaced with lindens while 3,000 boxwood plants provide ribbons of greenery. (Adrian Higgins/The Washington Post) The old ailing ribbons of English boxwood and later substitutions of Japanese holly have been replaced with an improved variety of Japanese box named Green Beauty — 3,000 in all. Approximately 7,000 cubic yards of the garden’s topsoil was trucked off site, sterilized and then returned as part of a fresh soil mix better designed to deal with compaction from visitors. The new garden is expected to increase the number of visits annually from 1.35 million to 1.5 million. The restoration was led by the architects Beyer Blinder Belle. The landscape architects were West 8, and the general contractor Bancroft Construction. Longwood Gardens is off Route 1 in Kennett Square, Pa., and contains more than 1,000 acres of gardens, woodland, meadow and conservatories. In the Main Fountain Garden, 12-minute fountain shows will be held daily at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, when Longwood is open until 10 p.m., there is a 12-minute show at 7 p.m. and a 30-minute show at 9:15 p.m., the latter with illuminations. Special tickets are required for the Fireworks & Fountains Show, scheduled for July 2, July 22, Aug. 12, Sept. 2 and Sept. 16. The May 28 show is sold out. @adrian_higgins on Twitter More from Lifestyle: Elevate your gardening skills (and save space) with climbing crops Can retail therapy soothe a gardener unsettled by the crazy spring? Can expensive, ultra-green homes sell in a gritty suburban Maryland town?


What happened to Gustavito, the beloved hippo at El Salvador’s National Zoo?

him medicine . His “rosy coloring” returned, the report said. Then, on Feb. 23, a zookeeper alerted superiors that Gustavito had not eaten his prior day’s food. He would not leave the water. Staff saw bruises on his eyebrows and jaw. When they coaxed him out, they noticed cuts and puncture-type wounds on his sides, limbs and inside his mouth. The stress had apparently disrupted his digestive system. His stomach was distended. He was unable to defecate, and he seemed in pain. Inside his pen, zoo staff found a three-inch piece of corrugated iron rod and several small stones, according to the report. Henriquez said they also found a hole in the wire fencing, suggesting that one or more people could have entered. “He had cuts on all sides, which indicates that it was not a fall,” Henriquez said in an interview. “If he had fallen, he would have had wounds on one side.” “The animal had been attacked,” he added. Over the next few days, despite treatment and medication, Gustavito refused to eat. On Feb. 25, zoo staff noticed that he expelled feces from his nose, a sign he was severely obstructed, according to the zoo report. He was given a nasal catheter. He later lost coordination and fell off the lip of the pool. His breathing became labored. The next day, Gustavito’s condition worsened, and he died that night. The cause, according to head veterinarian Virna Ortiz, was cardiorespiratory failure and paralysis of the digestive system due to “stress, the product of an aggression suffered by the animal.” A Brazilian veterinarian, Rodrigo Teixeira, who happened to be in El Salvador when Gustavito got sick, defended the zoo staff. “I saw a team of professionals very involved in the case and very worried about the situation,” said Teixeira, who hosts a reality show on Animal Planet in Brazil. “They have and provide good food and medicine for the animals. During my stay, I did not feel or see a lack of resources in the zoo.” That is small comfort to the zoo’s regular visitors. “It’s a shame,” said Roxana Romero, 20, as she sat on a bench in front of Gustavito’s empty pen. “On the weekends, this place used to be full. Now that the hippopotamus isn’t here, there aren’t big-name animals anymore.” Her sister, Veronica, agreed that Gustavito left a giant hole. “He was my favorite,” she said.


In space, no one can hear you snore: Multimedia ‘Hubble Cantata’ is a dud

The Hubble Cantata at the Kennedy Center on Thursday featured former Alvin Ailey dancer Renee Robinson. The piece ended with the audience watching pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. (Sasha Arutyunova ) Virtual reality! Music! Space! The Hubble Cantata, which came to the Kennedy Center on Thursday night as part of the ongoing celebration of the JFK Centennial, offers all of these things, and therefore sounds like a neat new project. How hip is it? It even comes from Brooklyn — produced by Beth Morrison Projects and National Sawdust, and created by the composer Paola Prestini and the librettist Royce Vavrek, all well-known names on that borough’s new-music circuit. And it requires you to download an app, which you watch on your smartphone through a cardboard viewer. And with that, I have said everything positive that I have to say about the Hubble Cantata. The actual piece proved to be an hour-long slog that felt like four, with snippets of ain’t-the-cosmos-grand narration from an actual scientist, Dr. Mario Livio, interposed with sung text by Vavrek that attempted to interweave some kind of male-female archetypal relationship through some kind of cosmic story involving footprints and babies and love and loss, all helpfully enhanced with artsy black-and-white pictures projected on a scrim over the front of the stage. But not even two strong soloists, Talise Trevigne, a silvery soprano whose work I always enjoy, and Nathan Gunn, an established and increasingly stentorian baritone who has devoted the later years of his career to new work, or the Washington Chorus under Julian Wachner, could animate this cloying and convoluted text, or the great swaths of Prestini’s undifferentiated, new-agey music. A lot of time and effort and money obviously went into creating this thing. And there’s no shame in pouring time and effort into things that don’t work. The mystery to me is why, after the first performance, anyone thought it was a good idea to put it on again. Quite honestly, playing John Adams’s “Harmonium” at the planetarium would have been a more successful juxtaposition of contemporary choral music and space imagery than this airless, posturing attempt, saddled with delusions of grandeur, which offered few entry points, or even tangible emotion. You could hear that grave things were supposed to be happening to Gunn’s dark-voiced character, but the libretto’s way of being moving was evoking newborns or the voices of children. The evening’s


Five myths about beer

broadcast beer’s masculine image to a wide audience. By 2016, 74 percent of American men drank beer each week, whereas only 26 percent of women did. Nevertheless, history shows that beer has always been a woman’s drink, too. In colonial and early republic America, women and enslaved people brewed beer as a domestic task. Martha Ballard, a Maine midwife, wrote in her diary on May 18, 1786: “A Clear day. we Brewd a barll & ½ Beer.” Nineteenth-century women, especially widows, operated boarding houses where they served beer and food to travelers. And, as women entered wage-earning jobs at the turn of the 20th century, they, too, came to patronize urban saloons. Soon, however, advertisers’ nearly exclusive focus on male drinkers reduced its popularity among women. Petite bottles, low-calorie styles and Miller’s declaration that it was the “champagne” of beers sought to bring women back into the fold. Yet their consumption never equaled men’s. Contemporary beer culture offers a slowly changing story. In 1983, the American Homebrewers Association tapped a woman, Nancy Vineyard, as its Homebrewer of the Year (a feat not repeated until 2013). Since 2008, the Pink Boots Society, a charitable organization with 50 chapters in 10 countries, has awarded educational scholarships to women in the industry. An increasing number of women are studying brewing and founding breweries. American women’s relationship to beer has been equally, if not more, long-lasting than men’s ties to the drink. It has just been more likely to occur out of the public eye. Myth No. 3 Craft breweries are small breweries. What is craft beer? The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “a beer made in a traditional or non-mechanized way by a small brewery.” Merriam-Webster says it’s “a specialty beer produced in limited quantities.” Similarly, the Brewers Association (BA), the not-for-profit trade association that promotes craft beer, designates a craft brewery as “small, independent and traditional.” Size seems key. Yet the BA also considers eight of the 15 largest beer companies in America to be “craft.” What’s going on? According to the BA’s definition, a craft brewer produces 6 million or fewer barrels of beer every year. Six million sounds like a lot, especially in contrast to early micro-breweries that typically made a few thousand barrels, at most. Yet despite the success of big craft companies such as Yuengling, Boston Beer and Sierra Nevada, their sales volume counts for a drop,


A Palestinian cancer patient’s best hope as the Israeli occupation turns 50

Maweya Abu Salah, a West Bank woman, gets treatment at Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) [This story has been optimized for offline reading on our apps. For a richer experience, you can find the full version of this story here. An Internet connection is required.] JERUSALEM — Today she felt a pain jabbing its fist into her right side. But Maweya Abu Salah was not done yet. She was a mother who wanted to see her children again. “I just feel a little down,” she told us. “Come, come. Sit down.” She arranged herself under the bedspread. Outside her window at the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem, the spring flowers were in epic bloom. She praised God and her nurses. She was going home, if not today, in a day or two, she said. Salah was quick to tell anyone who passed by about her kids: the accountant, the chemist, the math teacher. And the youngest, just 13 years old, a blessing, a handful. The children wanted to be by her side. One son applied for a permit to accompany his mother to the hospital but was refused, Salah said. Another son was in Jordan and denied entry into Israel. In the days to come, her eldest daughter tried, too, but was turned away. They were Palestinians stuck on the other side of Israel’s borders and barriers. One of her doctors told us, “This happens every day.” Only Salah’s husband of 34 years had a permit to come to the hospital and spend the night. He was alone, too, on his own journey, catnapping by his wife’s bed in a vinyl recliner, or pacing the corridors after midnight, when all was still, except for the beeping of machines. “I need the kids here as much as she,” Jamal Abu Salah said. Jamal Abu Salah quietly weeps as his wife, Maweya Abu Salah, lies in her hospital bed. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) There are many ways to tally the human costs of the Israeli occupation, which began 50 years ago in June. Israel has faced rockets and three wars with the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, whose members deny Israel’s right to exist. Israelis endured two Palestinian uprisings, the second marked by suicide-bomb attacks against civilians. More recently there was a wave of knife and vehicular assaults. Thousands of Israelis have died in Palestinian attacks.