Fareed Zakaria: The emerging America

to a small minority — and Tuesday will stand as one of the most important moments marking the end of that cruelty. Two other states voted to legalize some recreational use of marijuana, which will surely mark the beginning of the end of the war on drugs. This may be the most costly, distorting and futile war the United States has ever waged. Over the past four decades, we have spent $1 trillion to fight this “war” without reducing the price and availability of drugs in cities while also destroying our penal system. The United States has more than three times as many prisoners per capita as we had in 1980 — and about 10 times as many prisoners as other rich countries, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 2010, about 1.6 million Americans were arrested on drug charges, most for using marijuana, a drug that is no more dangerous than alcohol. This week’s votes indicate that Americans have begun rethinking those policies, perhaps moving toward ones that would deprive drug cartels of their huge profits and allow our police to focus on serious crimes. Ethan Nadelmann, an expert and advocate of such policies, notes that “even as the federal government persists with its failed drug war strategy, the United States has now emerged as the global leader in promoting more sensible policies with respect to marijuana.” Perhaps the most stunning shift this week came not in the passage of a ballot measure or law but in an exit-poll finding — one that might move us toward major legislation. When asked what should be done with the millions of illegal immigrants working in the United States, almost two-thirds of respondents wanted to grant them legal status. Four years ago, anti-immigrant voices were so loud that John McCain, the sponsor of a comprehensive and intelligent immigration reform bill, had to run away from his own handiwork when he campaigned for the White House. There was no mandate for big government. On the contrary, voters — by a slim majority — told pollsters that government was doing too much. And they reelected slews of Republican governors, many of whom have been competent and reform-minded in tackling the problems of their states. But in two rock-ribbed Republican states, Indiana and Missouri, voters rejected Senate candidates whose attitudes toward women were demeaning. I hesitate to build a grand


Warmer still: Extreme climate predictions appear most accurate, report says

tighter limit. Climate scientists around the world use supercomputers to simulate the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Sophisticated programs attempt to predict how climate will change as society continues burning coal, oil and gas, the main sources of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide. But these simulations spit out a wide range of warming estimates. All foresee an overheated planet in 2100, but some predict just three degrees of warming while others estimate eight or more degrees of extra heat. “This problem has been around for 30 years,” Fasullo said. “As long as climate models have existed, there’s been this spread in projections of the future.” One source of uncertainty involves the impact of cloud cover, especially clouds that form in the tropical and subtropical regions between about 30 degrees north and south of the equator. “Tropical clouds are so important to climate,” Fasullo said. “Small changes in clouds near the equator have a big effect on where you end up” for temperature predictions. As sunlight pours onto the tropics, clouds bounce some of that heat back into space. Fewer clouds open up the atmosphere “like an iris,” Fasullo said, allowing more heat to beam onto Earth’s surface. No supercomputer is powerful enough to predict cloud cover decades into the future, so Fasullo and colleague Kevin Trenberth struck on another method to test which of the many climate simulations most accurately predicted clouds: They looked at relative humidity. When humidity rises, clouds form; drier air produces fewer clouds. That makes humidity a good proxy for cloud cover. Looking back at 10 years of atmospheric humidity data from NASA satellites, the pair examined two dozen of the world’s most sophisticated climate simulations. They found the simulations that most closely matched humidity measurements were also the ones that predicted the most extreme global warming. In other words, by using real data, the scientists picked simulation winners and losers. “The models at the higher end of temperature predictions uniformly did a better job,” Fasullo said. The simulations that fared worse — the ones predicting smaller temperature rises — “should be outright discounted,” he said. The most accurate climate simulations were run by the United Kingdom’s Met Office, a consortium in Japan and a facility at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “The biggest benefit of this study is really just a reminder to go back” and see how well climate models match reality, said


Why single out Israel for turning back African migrants?

It is unbelievable that Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights can criticize Israel for turning away African migrants seeking refuge [“Israel closing its doors to illegal African migrants,” news, Nov. 3]. What about criticizing Egypt, which these migrants pass through but which won’t allow them to stay? Or better yet, the “oppressive” countries whence they came: Eritrea and Sudan? Instead, Israel, a tiny country beset by terrorism while struggling to maintain its Jewish identity, is criticized for not accepting more African immigrants — having already accepted about 60,000. On second thought, the criticism is not so unbelievable. It just illustrates the “blame Israel” bias so prevalent today. Rodney Brooks, Silver Spring


Turnover on Senate panel will affect feds

of the vote. In recent years, he has spent lot of energy trying to reform the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service and improve the nation’s cybersecurity. A moderate, Carper seems to work well across the partisan divide. Postal legislation that he sponsored and that the Senate approved last spring has received mixed reviews from postal unions. “Although the bill will provide the USPS with limited relief from the requirement to pre-fund health-care benefits for future retirees,” American Postal Workers Union President Cliff Guffey has said, “it does not provide sufficient relief. As a result, the USPS will not have access to the capital it needs to meet the challenges of the future.” Carper wasn’t available for comment Thursday. He was busy with the traditional Return Day parade and festivities in Georgetown, Del. Return Day is the Thursday after Election Day and features community folks and politicians of both parties enjoying an ox roast, a hatchet toss and a cupcake competition. They not only toss a hatchet, but bury it, too, in a symbolic ending of political feuds. The day fosters bipartisanship and cooperation, not a bad idea for the elected officials in Washington to emulate. Perhaps only in such a small state could a quaint notion like cooperation be enshrined with a parade and cupcakes. “Sen. Carper hasn’t made any final decisions regarding the Committee’s specific agenda in the 113th Congress should he be chairman,” said Carper spokeswoman Emily Spain via e-mail, “but he expects to continue the Committee’s proud tradition of working in a bipartisan manner.” Spain’s comments indicate that Carper would be a strong supporter of federal employee issues, which would be particularly important given the decision of Akaka, a good friend of the workforce, not to return. “Senator Carper believes that we need to recognize that nothing a federal agency undertakes can be accomplished without good people,” Spain said. “Unfortunately, many federal workers today feel demeaned, under siege, and unappreciated. Far too often, federal workers have become a political target. In addition, we’re facing a wave of retirements across government in the coming years and it’s important that agencies have the necessary plans in place to replace the skills and experience of the workers who will leave federal government service. He’ll be working to ensure that agencies have the plans, tools, and resources they need to ensure that agencies are staffed appropriately to be as effective as possible.”


Hints of a more virulent, mutating West Nile virus emerge

determine whether the virus is causing more-severe brain damage. Still, Angus, who has treated West Nile patients for a decade, and Leis, who has more experience treating severe West Nile illness than perhaps any doctor in the country, both suspect the virus has changed — a view bolstered by a Texas virologist whose laboratory has found signs of genetic changes in virus collected from the Houston area. “I’ve been struck this year that I’m seeing more patients where the brain dysfunction has been very much worse,” said Angus, of Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital. “It makes you wonder if something’s different, if something’s changed.” And while the virus in the past has typically invaded the brain and spinal cord only of people who have weakened immune systems, such as the elderly and transplant or cancer patients, Angus this summer treated a severely affected woman in her 20s and a man in his 40s. Leis said he is seeing much more severe encephalitis — inflammation of the brain — than he has in the past. “It is clearly much more neuroinvasive, neurovirulent,” he said. Four patients Leis treated this summer had lost their ability to talk or write. Another was paralyzed on one side, as often seen in strokes, not West Nile infections. Others experienced recurring seizures. In all, 11 of the first 12 patients Leis saw this year at the Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson had more severe brain damage than he had seen previously. The outlook for such patients varies, but most will face years or a lifetime of disability. “For the first time, we have radiographic evidence, clinical evidence of the virus attacking the higher cortical areas,” said Leis, who has published 15 scientific papers describing previous West Nile patients. Marc Fischer, a CDC epidemiologist who tracks the West Nile virus, said the agency has not noticed the changes described by Leis and Angus. “There’s just a lot more cases this year than anybody has seen in at least 10 years,” he said. “You’re just going to see more severe cases and probably a broader variety of manifestations.” Last month, Leis asked a Food and Drug Administration scientist who studies the genetics of the virus whether a new, more virulent strain was circulating. “You are absolutely right . . . that new genetic variants of WNV might have appeared this year,” the scientist replied in an Oct. 23 e-mail


obtained by The Washington Post. The scientist continued that “it is not easy to correlate” the new mutations with any specific type of brain damage. Thirty minutes after Leis received the message, another e-mail from the same scientist arrived. It said the previous message had been “recalled.” When contacted by phone, the FDA scientist, who works at the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, declined to discuss the messages, saying that his superiors had instructed him not to talk to reporters. In an e-mail, FDA spokeswoman Heidi Rebello said that the agency is studying the genetics of West Nile viruses collected from 270 blood donors this year but that “it is premature for us to draw any conclusions about new genetic variants . . . or of any possible association of new genetic variants with increased virulence.” West Nile virus, made of error-prone RNA instead of the hardier DNA found in human cells, can evolve rapidly. In 2002, a new strain appeared that quickly churns out copies of itself inside mosquitoes. This fast-replicating version swiftly replaced the earlier dominant variety. In 2003, another genetic variant, now dubbed the Southwestern strain, appeared in New Mexico and Arizona. The West Nile virus, first described in Uganda in 1937, arrived in New York City in 1999, killing eight in the city. Infected birds transmit the virus to mosquitoes, which then infect people, who cannot infect one another. By 2003, the virus had crossed the country. So far this year, health authorities have reported more than 5,000 cases of West Nile illness and 228 deaths in 48 states, with Texas, California, Illinois and Michigan having the most cases. The CDC has classified about half of the illnesses as “neuroinvasive” — meaning the virus has gotten into the spinal cord or brain, causing encephalitis or other brain ailments. That’s the most dangerous type of illness caused by West Nile virus. In the other cases, patients come down with fevers or other flulike symptoms. As of Nov. 6, there had been eight cases reported in the District this year, 45 in Maryland and 25 in Virginia, with new cases expected to plummet with the temperature. In Texas, the state hit hardest by the epidemic, virologist Alan Barrett said samples of the virus taken from mosquitoes and birds in the Houston area show signs of genetic changes. “This year’s virus looks more like the virus from


Neighborhood profile: Clover-College Park

and some homes even face wooded areas. Local parks include Angel Park, with ball fields and a playground, and President Ford Park, which offers green space and benches. The area’s grade school, Douglas MacArthur Elementary, sits directly across Janney’s from the community. Both of Katherine Leon’s children have gone to the school — one has now graduated — and she is the co-chair of its RIF Literacy program. She says school-based events include a pancake breakfast with fathers the first month of school, concerts, an ice cream social in the spring and a poetry slam. Clover-College Park (Gene Thorp/The Washington Post) “Everybody really cares, and they know your kids, and they watch out for them,” she said. Real estate agent Betsy Twigg has been selling houses in Clover-College Park for 17 years. She says the original builder, a man named Rozier Beech, disliked monotony, which is why none of the models in the neighborhood are exactly alike. An amateur botanist, Beech even put orchid rooms in many of the houses. Beech also worked to keep the neighborhood quiet. To prevent cut-through traffic from West Taylor Run Parkway into the Clover neighborhood, he built a house at Dartmouth Road and Crown View Drive, blocking Dartmouth from connecting to Taylor Run Parkway. Near that house is a small opening in a fence called “the rabbit hole,” Twigg said. Locals use it to walk to the parkway for easier access to the King Street Metro station, approximately a mile away. “We’re sandwiched between 395 and the Beltway,” Leon said. “And yet people can walk to their shopping, walk to the Metro, and you have the small-town experience.” Residents also participate in family-friendly traditions such as a Halloween parade, which includes a firetruck leading costumed children on a march through the neighborhood. An online discussion group gives residents a place to give and receive recommendations for various services, including babysitting, and talk about local issues. Recently, locals have debated whether a sign with the neighborhood’s name should be erected across Janney’s Lane from the elementary school, in a green triangle. Residents fall on both sides of the issue, says Helen Lloyd, who has lived there for three years. Some want better recognition for their neighborhood, and others like that Clover-College Park is more of a “hidden gem.” Tom Walczykowski, who has lived there since 1982, says that, as in many areas of the metropolitan


Details, Ethiopia and Tanzania

details GETTING THERE Ethiopian Airlines offers nonstop flights from Washington Dulles to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (return flight connects through Rome), with early January fares currently starting at $1,411. Connecting flights on Ethiopian to Kilimanjaro Airport (close to both Moshi and Arusha in Tanzania) are $285 each way. The bus to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from Arusha is $15. WHERE TO STAY Sheraton Taitu Street, Addis Ababa 011-251-11-15-171-717 www.sheratonaddis.com Five-star hotel on its own walled grounds. Rooms from $275. Taitu Mundy Street, Piazza, Addis Ababa 011-251-11-156-0787 www.taituhotel.com Ethiopia’s oldest hotel, built in 1898. The more expensive rooms ($25 a night) are large and well serviced. Rooms from $10. Bristol Cottages 98 Rindi Lane, Moshi 011-255-27-275-5083 www.bristolcottages.com Basic rooms, and a few cottages, surround a beautiful courtyard with an open-air restaurant and bar. Rooms from $60. Arusha Coffee Lodge On the A104 near the Arusha airstrip 011-255-27-250-0630 www.elewanacollection.com A high-end boutique hotel in the middle of its own coffee plantation. The coffee’s good, the atmosphere is gorgeous, and the food is mediocre. Rooms from $175. White Sun Narung’ombe Street at Msimbazi, Dar es Salaam 011-255-759-222-229 www.tangazo.com/white-sun-hotel Centrally located, with a good Swahili breakfast included. Rooms from $25. WHERE TO EAT Yod Abyssinia Bole Medhaniyalem area next to Brass Hospital, Addis Ababa 011-251-116-612-985 www.yodethiopia.com A tourist spot, but a good one. Fine Ethiopian food served the traditional way, with live music and dance. Entrees from $10 . El Rancho Lema Road, Shanty Town, Moshi 011-255-27-275-5115 A Swahili-influenced Indian restaurant with a good and varied menu. Entrees from $10. Maza Uhuru Road, near Friends Corner, Arusha 011-255-757-519-111 Traditional Tanzanian food, though the cook will make whatever you like with what he has. Entrees from $2. Waterfront Sunset Restaurant and Beach Bar Slipway shopping center, Dar es Salaam 011-255-22-260-0893 www.hotelslipway.com/restaurantsandbars.asp Mostly for tourists, but the view of the Indian Ocean makes up for the higher prices. Entrees from $10. WHAT TO DO Ethiopian National Museum King George VI Street, Addis Ababa 011-251-11-111-91-31, ext. 7150 The home of Lucy, the 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus, as well as Emperor Haile Selassie’s crown and throne and a fine collection of 18th- to 21st-century Ethiopian paintings. Daily 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; 55 cents. Addis Ababa University King George VI Street 011-251-111-239-705 www.aau.edu.et Site of the Ethiopian Ethnographic Museum, housed in Emperor Haile Selassie’s old palace, as well as the Kennedy Library, open only to students. Sitasahau Africa Arusha 011-255-757-708-443 sitasahauafrica.com


In East Africa, bag the safaris and head for the cities

the daytime, we discovered that Dar has a long white-sand urban beach near the ferry terminal. The early-morning Mzizima fish market is supplied by wooden dories that the fishermen had pulled up on the beach and were dozing in, while others sold clothing from boats a few yards offshore. There were seashells everywhere, varied and undamaged, the best I’ve seen on any beach. But if you don’t feel like hunting, there are stands all over the area selling them inexpensively. Later in the afternoon, we went up to Oyster Bay, an upscale residential neighborhood with another beautiful beach that has been attracting mostly expats since at least the 1930s, when Roald Dahl of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” fame lived there. At a beachside cabana, we struck up a conversation over a beer with a young Salaamer who’d just finished his day’s search for electrician work. He didn’t have anything planned, so we decided to walk and talk. We told him about some of the cities we’d been to, and he told us about Dar. After a couple of hours, he hopped a ride back to town with us in a tiny three-wheeled cab called a tuk-tuk, and we went our separate ways. Walking and talking On our last day in Addis, we spent some time in the Mercato, Africa’s largest outdoor market, where the people were far too busy buying and selling and hauling to bother picking our pockets. Later, we were walking around the Piazza district when a man who looked to be in his 70s came up alongside us. In English, he introduced himself as Abraham, and his 50-something daughter as Moona. As we walked on together, he told us that he’d once been a sailor with the Onassis shipping company and that he had a picture of himself with Aristotle at his home just outside the city. He and Moona were selling laminated maps of Ethiopia. I still hadn’t learned the names of the provinces, so I bought one for 200 birr ($10), probably four times what it was worth, but maybe half what I’d pay at home. We shared travel stories — he’d been all over the world — and then Moona cut in and said something to Abraham in Amharic. They led us over to a sidewalk cafe, and we ordered four macchiatos, which I’d learned by then is the preferred caffeine delivery system


Smart Mouth: Searching for bull meat in Pamplona

the bulls to the bullring, staring down supper. Then and now, after a bull is fought and killed in the ring, the butchers set in, parceling and carting away the animal so that all Pamplona can, literally, have a piece of it. I want a piece of it, too. But I don’t want to cook it myself. So I eat my way around Pamplona’s restaurants, looking expectantly at menus. The result? Nada. The reason? Seasonality. The restaurants I visit all have a farm-to-table way about them. This is Europe, after all, where eating fresh and local is a way of life rather than a trend. If the bulls aren’t fighting — and the only bullfighting in Pamplona takes place during the running of the bulls — then most restaurants aren’t serving. (Thankfully, there’s always the farmers market for bull steaks, bull chops and bull liver if you’ve got a hankering that won’t let up.) Since I can’t find any bull to taste, I settle for speaking with bull meat insiders. For starters, I approach Julio Flames, chef and owner of La Nuez Restaurante. The native Venezuelan insists that the local traditional preparation of bull is best. “Chop the tail up in nice pieces, brown it off and cook it in a cast-iron pot with some onions, carrots, garlic, tomatoes, herbs, bay leaves, black pepper, one or two cloves. Most importantly, slow cooking!” he says. The chef admits that it’s not just the flavor of bull that locals love. It’s the legend behind it. “I’m sure there are many stories,” he says, “but the most popular one, it has to do with his huevos [testicles]. People say that is like a natural Viagra.” A few blocks away is Michelin-starred Restaurante Rodero. As one of the best restaurants in Pamplona, it’s a popular place for bull during San Fermin. To prepare it, owner/chef Koldo Rodero says he puts the bull meat in the freezer — not to store it, but to tenderize it. With the low temperature, “the muscle turns into meat,” says Rodero. Then, he, too, turns to talk of testes, telling me that times have changed when it comes to bull consumption. In the past, spectators used to eat the animal at its freshest — in the bullring. “In the horse patio of the Pamplona bullring, the butchers’ guild cooked, during the bullfights, the bulls’ testicles,” says Rodero. “This custom


Legalized marijuana initiatives leave federal government wrestling with policy

the department is “reviewing the ballot initiatives.” The Colorado and Washington laws go beyond provisions for the medical use of marijuana. The District and 18 states have passed laws making it legal to manufacture, distribute and possess marijuana for medicinal purposes. While the Justice Department figures out how to respond, state and local officials in Colorado, Washington — and Mexico — are confused about how to proceed. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) and the state’s attorney general spoke to Holder on Friday. “They emphasized the need for the federal government to articulate what its position will be related to Amendment 64,” said Eric Brown, the governor’s spokesman. “Everyone shared a sense of urgency and agreed to continue talking about the issue.” Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) has not scheduled a call with Holder but said her state is “entering uncharted waters.” The law there goes into effect Dec. 9. Gregoire’s spokesman, Cory Curtis, said the governor has questions about what Washington should do in the next month. Colorado Amendment 64 would take effect 30 days after the secretary of state certifies the initiative, which will be Jan. 5, according to Brown. Marijuana distribution is the largest source of revenue for the Mexican cartels, according to law enforcement officials. Lawrence Payne, DEA spokesman, said that more marijuana is seized at the southwest border than any other illegal drug from Mexico. Last year, 1,962,285 kilos of marijuana were seized compared with 23 ,797 kilos of cocaine and 1,308 kilos of heroin. Supporters of the measures argue that hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on a failed war against marijuana. They contend that decriminalization would bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue, with the funds used for education, health care and other government services. The Office of National Drug Control Policy strongly opposes the legalization of marijuana and the federal Controlled Substances Act prohibits the production, possession and sale of marijuana. “According to scientists at the National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest source of drug abuse research, marijuana use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease and cognitive impairment,” ONDCP director Gil Kerlikowske wrote in a White House document. “Studies also reveal that marijuana potency has almost tripled over the last 20 years, raising serious concerns about what this means for public health,” wrote Kerlikowske, who is often referred to as the country’s “drug czar.” The president’s


The show must go on

We at the American Symphony Orchestra are not in the business of challenging reviews and don’t plan to start now. But given the very negative reaction of The Post’s critic to our performance in Fairfax County [“ASO players needed help at the helm,” Style, Nov. 5], I feel it important that audiences know the remarkable back story to a concert that almost didn’t happen at all — and perhaps I was wrong in not explaining this before the concert itself. In the immediate wake of Hurricane Sandy, many of the musicians had been personally affected in various ways and were stressed. Rehearsal time had to be cut short because travel was impossible, and the situation wasn’t helped by our ordeal getting to the venue by bus — which, given the havoc wreaked by the storm, was a trial of perseverance. We barely got there in time, only to find that there was insufficient food at the venue, no doubt also because of the difficulties of obtaining supplies in the storm. But our players showed their professionalism, and I would even say heroism, by performing the concert with little to eat and while exhausted. Our conductor, Leon Botstein, had his own ordeal getting back to the United States, having been stranded in Europe (his final hurdle was to drive in from Boston only hours before the rehearsal). Perhaps we should have canceled the event — we knew that we could not possibly give our best in these circumstances, and many arts organizations canceled performances in the wake of the storm. But for that very reason, and with the sense that people needed a little music in their lives then more than ever, we decided to perform. Were we right to? The enthusiastic response of the Fairfax audience suggests we were. Lynne Meloccaro, New York The writer is executive director of the American Symphony Orchestra.


A man whose body was found in a burning taxicab in Northeast Washington was killed by a bullet in the head during what is believed to be an attempt to rob him, D.C. police said. Two teens, a male and a female, were arrested and charged with felony murder, police said Friday night. Joshua T. Mebane, 17, of Waldorf was charged as an adult, they said, and the girl was charged as a juvenile. The cab was found Wednesday night in the 1400 block of Brentwood Parkway, near the northwestern edge of Gallaudet University. It had run into a fence. Police said Friday that the vehicle was part of the Midway cab fleet and that they thought the victim was a cabdriver. But they said they had not confirmed the man’s identity or that the vehicle was in service at the time of the incident.


Safeway training program helps veterans transition into management roles

Newly trained Air Force veteran Monica Linzmeyer checks produce at the Safeway store in Gaithersburg where she is now a manager. (Jeffrey MacMillan/JEFFREY MACMILLAN FOR WASHINGTON POST) After nearly five years in the Air Force, Monica Linzmeyer packed up her uniforms and put them in the attic. These days, she wears slacks and dress shirts to her job as a Safeway store manager in Gaithersburg. Linzmeyer, 29, is one of about 150 former military officers who have completed Safeway’s 41-week Junior Military Officers training program for former lieutenants and captains. Veterans receive a crash course in topics such as finance and union relations, as well as on-the-job training. At the end of the program, graduates are placed in store manager or warehouse superintendent positions throughout the country. “We’re looking at these people to become division presidents, marketing vice presidents, executive vice presidents,” said Greg Ten Eyck, a spokesman for the Pleasanton, Calif.-based chain of grocery stores. “It’s a great leadership pool that was previously untapped.” Although companies such as General Electric have had veteran-training programs for years, it’s a new model for the grocery industry, where the vast majority of store managers have worked their way up the ranks over 10, 20 or 30 years. “Most division presidents started out bagging groceries,” Ten Eyck said. “That’s the traditional career path — bagging groceries, then checker, then department manager, et cetera.” Russ Jackson, senior vice president of human resources for Safeway, says he came up with the idea for the program while thumbing through an issue of Fortune magazine in 2010. “There had pictures of military people in fatigues, and then pictures of the same people in civilian clothes,” he said. “All of a sudden, it just crystallized for me that there needs to be a bridge between the two.” He pitched the idea to Safeway executives. Within three months, Jackson had devised a curriculum, sifted through applicants and selected five veterans to begin the first round of the program. Adding more programs “Normally, we put store managers through leadership training,” Jackson said. “This program flipped it — we didn’t care if you had retail experience or not, we just wanted you to have substantial leadership experience.” Employees hired through the program are paid a signing bonus of about $10,000 and a base salary that starts at roughly $75,000 per year. The initiative has been so successful, Jackson says, that Safeway


H&M to add three more stores in the Washington area

International clothing chain H&M is opening three stores in the Washington region, adding to its existing lineup of more than a dozen area locations. The first of the new stores, an 18,000-square-foot outpost in downtown Silver Spring, opened on Thursday. It replaces a Borders bookstore that closed last year. The other two, which are to open by early 2013, will be located in Friendship Heights and Alexandria. “We take our time to find the best locations — that’s the biggest priority for us,” said Nicole Christie, a spokeswoman for the company. “The outdoor shopping center in Silver Spring is a great fit — it gets a lot of strong traffic and is in a thriving city.” In recent years, the retailer — which specializes in trendy, inexpensive clothing — has centered its expansion around new American markets, primarily in the South and West. But now Christie says the focus is gradually shifting to ramping up the company’s presence in areas that already have H&M stores. “The trick now is to find great spaces in locations where we already have stores,” she said. “We want the local customer to call the new H&M their local store instead of having to go a little further.” During fiscal year 2011, which ended in November, the global company opened 26 stores in the United States alone. This year, it is on track to open about 30 more. “We’re finding that the stores are doing really well in close proximity to each other,” Christie said. Since its founding in Sweden in 1947, the company has expanded to include about 2,700 stores in 48 countries. “We have 10 stores in Manhattan alone,” she said, adding there are three more stores planned for the New York City borough.


At Schlesinger Hall, Alexandria Symphony Orchestra pairs variety with focus

Under the baton of music director Kim Allen Kluge, Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73 — featuring pianist Yefim Bronfman — unfolded in an easy blend between soloist and orchestra. (Courtesy of Carol Pratt) In the final moments of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra’s performance Saturday evening, the maestro was jumping in tempo as his musicians and soloist brought the Schlesinger Concert Hall audience to its feet — a fitting conclusion to a collaborative concert that was as dynamic as it was evocative and inspiring. Under the baton of music director Kim Allen Kluge, Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat, Op. 73 — featuring pianist Yefim Bronfman — unfolded in an easy blend between soloist and orchestra. Kluge’s podium was angled toward the violins, all the better to coordinate with Bronfman and to respond to his musical whims. The result was a fluid interplay between piano and orchestra throughout the 40-minute work. Bronfman is an elegant and fastidious pianist who displays none of the flashy showmanship of his Steinway-playing peers. His energy emanates from his fingers and swirls out of the piano with such perfection that every note grabs the ear with an expressive, singing quality. When his hands swept the full length of the keyboard in arpeggios and scales, Bronfman made it all look effortless. But his single-note melodies were just as breathtaking, especially in the adagio, which sounded especially sonorous and tender. In Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” the ASO uncovered an endless palette of sonic hues and textures. It was the ideal showcase for the orchestra’s talented players. The program also included the first movement of Hovhaness’s Symphony No. 2, “Mysterious Mountain,” featuring Arlington Youth Orchestra members playing alongside the ASO, and a selection from Thomas Newman’s score for the 1994 film “Little Women.” Jean is a freelance writer.


Maryland cross-country championships: Runners are fueled by the cheers

High School. By Toni L. Sandys The cheers echo through the hills and woods on the grueling, three-mile course at Hereford High. The screams come in waves as runners in the Maryland cross-country championships pass by the fans lined up along the fences and ropes. “It definitely helps a lot when your teammates are there,” said Whitman junior and cross-country team member Michele Sandler, 16, second from left. “It gives you motivation to do that extra push.” Having just finished her own race, Sandler joined teammate Helen Rosenthal, center, at the fence alongside the course. Their teammates running in the 4A boys’ race would run past them twice on the course, once near the start and then with less than a half-mile to go. “Sometimes you can hear [the fans], sometimes you can’t, but in case they can,” said Rosenthal, who screamed every time a Whitman runner passed. “I know when I’m racing it’s nice to hearing somebody yelling when you’re suffering. You want to try to run faster for them even when you are dying inside.” “I loved it when my teammates were cheering for me,” said Sandler, who had just competed in the girls’ 4A state championship. More than two miles into the race, the backside of the course is a long walk from the start-finish area. It requires walking up and down “the dip” — a steep ravine that runners pass through twice. Rather than making the trek, some fans grow hoarse screaming as loud as they can while the runners pass through the field in the distance. “There’s a really long part when you don’t see many people and you’re in the cornfields,” Sandler said. “They call it the maze.” For one mile, the runners follow a switchback trail that snakes through the woods and a former cornfield. By then, Sandler says, runners are focused on figuring out whom to pass. “We had just come up the hardest part of the course,” Sandler said. Up ahead, she saw her teammates holding signs and waiting for her to pass. “They had actually walked ‘the dip’ to get there and cheer for us. I was, like, ‘Wow. If they did that then I’ve got to work harder because my teammates believe in me.’ “You can always run a little bit faster.” 8for More high school coverage: Go to allmetsports.com. E-mail ideas for More Than a Game to sandyst@washpost.com


Mexico retreating from secret military tribunals

is possible. It has sent three cases to civil courts, including one that dates to 1974, when a community activist was stopped at a military checkpoint in the western state of Guerrero and never seen again. The actions follow a string of embarrassing arrests of military officials. In May, four high-ranking army officers, including a former undersecretary of defense, were arrested for passing law enforcement intelligence to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel. The arrests have come as the U.S. Northern Command seeks closer ties with the Mexican armed forces, including joint training exercises and anti-drug efforts, and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents deliver intelligence packages to the Mexican army and marines about the whereabouts of drug lords. Moreno and the 3rd Infantry were supposed to be the tip of the spear in Joint Operation Chihuahua, President Felipe Calderon’s U.S.-backed strategy to deploy more than 50,000 Mexican troops to the streets to retake territory lost to narcotics cartels. People in Ojinaga say the strategy failed. According to testimony gathered by the Mexican military and submitted to Mexico’s Supreme Court, the general and members of the 3rd Infantry Company executed illegal arrests and unwarranted searches; collaborated with traffickers; drove around town drunk and consorted with prostitutes at the barracks; confiscated drugs and sold them; stole vehicles, cash, televisions and mattresses; smuggled marijuana and cocaine; and assisted cartel assassins. Although the testimony implicates the general and his men in seven murders and disappearances, they have been formally charged with the murders of three men, including one who was wrapped in wet blankets, laid on a metal cot and tortured to death with electric shocks. His body was allegedly doused with diesel fuel and burned at a desert ranch. The soldiers said they told the doctor at the hospital to record his death as an overdose. Official complaints to Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission against the military garrison in Ojinaga soared after Moreno arrived — from zero in 2007 to 58 during his reign. He was removed from command in September 2009. Marat Paredes Montiel, a top official at the rights commission, said the complaints ranged from illegal detention to rape and torture. “The armed forces launched a war without any training in human rights protections,” Paredes said. ‘The people are still afraid’ Moreno and 29 of his men remain in custody, according to a Mexican army spokesman, who denied that military tribunals provided


New social network aims to help military members plan their careers

force and the staff that runs more than 270 ROTC programs. It also has the support of some well respected advisers such as retired general George Casey, the former Army chief of staff, who is a board member. In addition to helping service members navigate career opportunities within the military, RallyPoint also intends to help members find career opportunities outside it, too, an especially important issue given the estimated one million military members who will enter the civilian workforce over the next five years. The company intends to generate revenue by charging private-sector employers fees to connect with transitioning service members—months before their planned departure date—who have the skills the companies are seeking. It is currently talking terms with several Fortune 100 companies, Kletzing says. A study released this past spring found that among those leaving for the military for other career opportunities, the younger set—between the ages of 22 and 24—had particular difficulty connecting with employment opportunities. On average, their unemployment rate was 3 percent higher than for nonveterans in that age group and, in 2009, that put those veterans’ unemployment numbers close to 22 percent. The challenge ahead for RallyPoint, of course, will be to build enough scale so that the social network has real value to members, whether looking for positions inside or outside the military. After a few months of being available by invitation only, the site has roughly 600 members and more than 1,000 people waiting to join. But that number could grow quickly as formal invitations are no longer needed, and as service members informally invite their other professional military contacts from Facebook, LinkedIn or email accounts. Weiss says the company’s goal is to have 300,000 members within a year. In addition, says Kletzing, the military’s frequent rotations of members into new jobs means their professional networks expand quickly. “There’s a multiplier effect,” he says, estimating that by the time military members are in their third assignment, and provided they have maintained contact with the people in their network, RallyPoint could connect them within one degree of separation to more than 75 percent of major military bases around the world. Jena McGregor is a columnist for the Washington Post’s On Leadership section. More from On Leadership: Why the Petraeus affair captivates us all What makes an excellent president For Obama, where has Lincoln gone? Like On Leadership? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter: @post_lead


Wild pigs may become Washington’s next big pest

a wild-type body. These pigs can have a hard time becoming established in the face of predators such as bobcats and coyotes and direct competition from deer for food. In addition, wild pigs have completely disappeared from Virginia during periods of intense hunting. But what if wild hogs were imported into Northern Virginia? Dye and other biologists suspect that this may be what has happened — that rogue hunters who like the idea of having a tough, exotic animal to pursue have trapped wild pigs and transported them into the commonwealth for release. Some have brought the pigs from as far as the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Dye says that some people from other states “have come forward” about stocking these pigs in Virginia, though it has been difficult to track down the culprits because there are only one or two game wardens per county and they can only respond to complaints and are unlikely to witness a release taking place. The only physical evidence is the pigs — and they’re not talking. Askins of the game department says that earlier this year there was “what appeared to be a truckload of hogs that was released in Halifax County. We have it by word of mouth in the community that the hogs have come from Tennessee and North Carolina.” Pigs started to appear at dramatically increased rates as more TV shows such as “American Hoggers” and “Hogs Gone Wild” glorified pig hunting, according to Askins. Dye says there are no laws against possessing or transporting pigs, and once they have been released, it is difficult to prove that the act was deliberate. Wild pigs are having an effect on the environment. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, they cause about $1.5 billion in damage in the United States each year. These pigs, which can weigh as much as 200 pounds, dig and root around in the soil in their search for tubers, insects and other food. A patch of ground visited by a small herd looks like a bulldozer has worked it over. There has been no research on the effects of Northern Virginia’s pigs on native species, but the experience of other states suggests that trouble might be brewing. In Alabama, the animal has caused significant damage to longleaf pine trees, a threatened species that is Alabama’s state tree. Some landowners have reported losing up to


With a friendly face, China tightens security

sites such as Facebook and Twitter also stopped working. Kitchen knives have disappeared from supermarket shelves. A pigeon race for hobbyists scheduled for November was postponed with no explanation, presumably to shut down another avenue for anti-government messages. As authorities in some provinces have freely admitted, informants are being spread out among villages for the greater good of “helping to resolve conflicts.” But the embodiment of the velvet-glove approach is the collection of older women who turned up last week eager to be sworn in as “Capital Public Security Volunteers.” In all, about 1.4 million security volunteers are at work in Beijing during the party congress, according to state-run media. “Our duty is to guard our homes and streets and create a deterrent,” explained Zhang Liling, a 68-year-old woman with deep dimples, as she stood with a handful of other women to watch their street corner on the eastern side of Beijing. After a morning spent with Zhang and others, it is hard not to acknowledge a particular ingenuity to the idea of harnessing the inherent nosiness among some members of this demographic. Retired with time to spare, the women come to the job with an already highly developed penchant for gossip and zero hesitation about posing prying questions. Throw in free windbreakers and red arm bands that indicate their special status, and you’ve got an instant army of eyes and ears. “I feel it’s my duty to take on this mission,” said a proud Bao Mianfeng, 62, a former teacher and party member. “No one forced me or any of us into this. It’s something we are happy to do.” A successful party congress, Bao explained, means “a stronger and more prosperous country.” A stronger country means “one step closer to a well-off society.” There is something fierce in how she says this, so full of conviction. But it is disorienting, too, hearing her warmth and sweetness in discussing the vital mission of blanket security. But it is just another oddity in a week full of awkward juxtapositions — a week in which party leaders talk of democracy while clamping down on freedoms nationwide, in which reform is topic No. 1 while doubts about those same reforms are a close second, in which sweet grandmothers walk down the street with warm smiles on their faces representing a security apparatus that is anything but. Liu Liu contributed to this report.


Pro beer makers stay sharp by crafting with amateurs

Lost Rhino Brewing company’s newest beer, Hop3Star. (Lost Rhino Brewing Co./LOST RHINO BREWING CO.) Repeating the same recipe day in, day out can dampen a beermaker’s enthusiasm. So can scrubbing stainless steel and poring over profit-and-loss statements. What does a professional brewer do to rekindle his passion? One solution: Invite a couple of home-brewers over to help make something new. “It forces you to step outside the box,” says Favio Garcia, co-founder of Lost Rhino Brewing in Ashburn, who has done five pro-am collaborations this year. His latest, a triple IPA dubbed Hop3Star that clocks in at 10.1 percent alcohol and about 150 bitterness units, was released to the distributor on Monday. The Facebook page for Westover Market in Arlington promises a debut party Nov. 15. Hop3Star had its genesis at Westover Market, where Lost Rhino brewer John Peters, in a conversation with store manager Devin Hicks and a couple of the regulars, offered, “We should do a beer with you guys!” Hicks is a big fan of Bell’s Hopslam, a much-in-demand winter release that smooths over its massive hop content with a little honey. He suggested making an IPA with mango, which would provide fermentable sugar and mesh with the fruity Pacific Northwest hops. Steve Marler, who has been home-brewing for 20 years, whipped up a recipe and did a five-gallon pilot batch at his Arlington home. DuClaw Brewing’s newest beer H.E.R.O. (DuClaw Brewing Company/DUCLAW BREWING COMPANY) “It was like brewing in the Third World!” joked Peters, referring to Marler’s homemade gear, which included parts fashioned from a metal iced tea container. Scaling up the recipe for Lost Rhino’s 25-barrel brew house required adjustments. Two hop varieties, Citra and Nelson Sauvin, weren’t available in sufficient quantities and had to be replaced. (Altogether, eight types of hops were used.) Afraid of what the fibrous mango pulp would do to their equipment, the brewers pureed the fruit and made a syrup using Belgian candi sugar. The 12-hour brew day was anything but glamorous for the 10 bar buddies who showed up. “Our big beer clogged up the mash tun,” recalls Marler. The amateur brewers had to attack the gooey grain with rakes to coax out the sugar-rich liquid. Garcia added rice hulls to help strain the mixture. Then the hops (150 pounds in the boil) created another clog en route to the fermenters. Larry Jackson, a novice brewer and professed hop


John Boehner’s discouraging words on climate science

debate on global warming, indicate that blinkered Republican opposition to doing much of anything about the problem may persist. Climate science is complicated, but the basic physical principles on which the scientific consensus is based are not. Gases such as carbon dioxide trap the energy that pours down on the Earth from the sun, making the Earth habitable. Since the middle of the 20th century, scientists have studied the warming effects of adding large amounts of additional heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, and they have made great progress since then in describing how and why the world is warming, and how that trend is likely to play out years and decades from now. Scientists use real-world observations to describe the climate’s past, recent and distant. Then they build complex models that reflect those and other observations and run them on supercomputers. After decades of this, nearly every expert agrees that global warming is a problem and that a chief cause is the oil, gas and coal burned by humans. The biggest question now is not whether human-produced greenhouse emissions have an effect but how significant that effect will be. In Mr. Boehner’s “last 10 years” alone, the models and the quality of the information that feeds into them have gotten progressively better. Just last week, the journal Science published a study from two climate researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research that addresses the behavior of clouds in different climate models, one of the primary sources of continuing uncertainty about how sensitive the climate will be to increased levels of carbon dioxide. Using satellite measurements of relative humidity, they determined that the models that predict relatively modest warming did not reflect the satellite record as well as those predicting much more alarming outcomes. In other words, the more pessimistic models are likely to be more accurate. Predictions about the future climate must be tempered by an appreciation of the uncertainties inherent to describing extremely complicated earth systems. But the risks of global warming that decades of science describe are clearly great enough to warrant action. Mr. Boehner’s office told us that the speaker was talking about the stagnation of the policy debate over the last 10 years, not the state of the science. If that’s the case, then he should be willing to stand up for the climate researchers and push Washington’s policy deliberations into accord with the science.


Obama untouched by Petraeus scandal

second-term administration and in winding down the war in Afghanistan. In the meantime, King and others ask whether anyone inside the White House knew before Obama’s victory last week about the FBI inquiry, conducted over an election-year summer, of Petraeus’s extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, his biographer. That is the ball that King thinks may have been dropped: inside White House knowledge during the campaign. White House officials have said they were not informed of the probe until the day after the election, when Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. notified them. King and others say the White House should have been told weeks earlier — by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III or Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. — that the CIA director was the subject of a federal investigation. Holder, in particular, is in the Republican cross hairs, as he has been frequently. Whether he will serve in Obama’s next term, as the president considers whether to spend his political capital on other Cabinet nominees, remains unclear. Obama valued Petraeus, and although the general emerged during the George W. Bush administration, this president, like his predecessor, turned to him in key moments. When Petraeus agreed at Obama’s request to head to Afghanistan in mid-2010 as commander of U.S. and NATO forces, he was celebrated on both sides of the aisle as the right officer to fix a politically unpopular war. As White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday, “He did not serve a party.” Now, though, Obama may benefit from Petraeus’s abrupt departure in making the case for withdrawing U.S. troops in Afghanistan more quickly. Petraeus advocated a more gradual drawdown, and without his influential voice inside Obama’s war cabinet, the president may have a freer hand in picking up the pace. Asked Tuesday about what implications Petraeus’s exit may have on Afghan policy, a senior administration official said, “It’s too soon to know, but the bottom line is we’re proceeding ahead.” Allen, too, has favored keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan for as long as possible before the overall military mission expires at the end of 2014. He was set to brief Obama this week on his plan to withdraw the remaining 68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan as he visited Washington for confirmation hearings on his nomination to head the European Command. His nomination is now on hold. Allen, and Petraeus before him,


Computers, the new private eyes for cheating

discovery. Frequently, the men and women he chases set up dummy e-mail accounts under phony names, thinking they’ll avoid detection. But few can carry on without raising suspicions, and a suspicious spouse can turn into a resourceful one, he says. It’s common now, he says, for wary spouses to install spyware on their computers to surreptitiously track every keystroke and glimpse each Web site that gets visited. “For every action, they’ve got a counteraction,” says Casteel. What’s the worst-case scenario for those spyware-installing spouses? That would be AshleyMadison.com, a Web site whose motto is “Life is short. Have an affair.” The site, which claims to get 1.8 million visitors per month, is a kind of electronic labyrinth of its own, designed, operated and maintained to keep cheating spouses safely inside and cuckolded spouses safely out. Servers are kept outside the United States for extra protection should, say, an FBI agent or divorce lawyer come knocking. “He could have used our site and called himself ‘Head of the CIA Guy,’ and do whatever he needed to do to focus on being the top spy, and it would never have revealed his true name,” says Noel Biderman, who runs the site. Biderman says the future of infidelity-enabling technology is apps that allow people to sustain two personalities on the same device. “The next evolution is that most people will keep two devices, like two phones,” Biderman says. “One for personal and one for real personal.” If technology is the problem, why not go back to the good old days? When people organized their illicit liaisons without accessing the World Wide Web. “The old days of letter-writing and notes under the plants are bygone. People today are too impulsive. We are accustomed to instant gratification,” Ain said. Indeed, 2012 cheating requires cleverness. And the more sophisticated the cheat, the more elaborate the scheme. Casteel, the Alabama private eye, once chased a man who’d set up a parallel life with his lover in a separate town. They owned a house together and had a child. All the while, his wife was buying a cover story that only a fertile imagination could conceive. The cheating hubby explained his long absences by telling his wife that he was on a secret mission. No tracking his calls — our national security depends on it! Or so she thought. His employer, he said, was the CIA. He lied.


Small banks battle regulators on capital requirements

Community banks say they may be pushed out of the residential mortgage market, leaving it in the hands of a few lending giants, because of an effort by global regulators to make banks hold more in their reserves in the event of a crisis. The move will hit smaller banks harder than big ones, lessening their ability to provide mortgages and other loans to consumers, community bank advocates say. Their complaints, which will be aired during a hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon, follow long-standing concerns that out of the crisis a few behemoths, such as JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, are dominating banking. In the mortgage market, the collapse of several big players have allowed smaller ones to grab greater market share. But these gains could be threatened once a set of international banking rules, known as Basel III, start to take effect next year. Those measures would force banks to hold larger buffers against losses. So far, their arguments are gaining traction with federal banking regulators. Despite a global deadline to implement proposed rules by the first of the year, U.S. regulators have decided to delay. Markets share mortgage lenders in 2004 and 2011. (The Washington Post/Source: Inside Mortgage Finance magazine) In attempting to address industry concerns, policymakers are facing a vexing dilemma: Should the United States force its banks to create reserves that could enhance their safety? Or should officials ease up on stricter rules that could stymie lending and further stall the sputtering economy? Critics of the lobbying effort by community banks say they are helping the industry get around rules meant to protect the financial system from collapse. Community banks and credit unions together held one-quarter of the home loan originations in 2011, up from a combined market share of roughly 16 percent in 2004, according to the most recent data gathered under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Federal Reserve governor Elizabeth Duke presented this data in a speech Friday advocating for smaller banks to have separate rules for mortgages. She noted that the Basel rules take aim at some products, such as balloon mortgages, that are key elements of traditional community bank lending. Balloon mortgages, in which the borrower faces a massive principal payment after a set number of years, helped contribute to the surge in delinquencies and defaults when house prices collapsed. Duke contended that community banks suffered fewer losses on those kinds


New leaders to steer China through time of heightened anxiety within party and society

is in charge of censorship. The final two on the seven-member committee are Wang Qishan, 64, known for his economic management skills, who will be in charge of anti-corruption efforts as head of the party’s discipline commission in the new government; and Zhang Gaoli, 66, the party boss in Tianjin. Left out from the final lineup were two one-time contenders most associated with reform: Wang Yang, the party chief in southern Guangdong province; and Li Yuanchao, the former party head in Jiangsu province and the head of the party’s Organization Department, in charge of staffing. With Wang and Li both out, “a lot of people will be disappointed and see no reform hope for the future,” said Zhang Lifan, a historian with links to some of the leaders. With the way things are going, Zhang noted, “some people who were originally holding off going abroad to immigrate may even start their plans sooner.” The age of the new Standing Committee members, mostly in their late 60s, virtually ensures that there will be another partial transition in five years time. The transition is not likely to dramatically change China’s relations with the United States. Xi was long known as the heir apparent, and the Obama administration has been cultivating ties with him, including sending Vice President Biden on a lengthy trip here last year during which Xi played host in Beijing and in Sichuan province. Xi made a reciprocal trip to the United States this year with Biden as his host, and they attended a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game. But in coming months, as Xi consolidates his power, bilateral military tensions are likely to remain high, as the United States continues its policy of rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific and shoring up its alliances with countries surrounding China. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is on a week-long trip that will take him to Thailand, Cambodia and Australia, where the United States has been expanding military cooperation and establishing a base in the northern coastal city of Darwin. And this month, President Obama will travel to Cambodia, Thailand and Burma, the latter stop having symbolical significance as the United States and China are seen as rivals for influence in that strategically located Southeast Asian country. The leadership transition is China’s first in a decade and only its second without chaos or bloodshed. The first real orderly transition was in 2002, when Jiang


Afghans react coolly to Petraeus-Allen scandal

David Petraeus, then commander of NATO and International Security Assistance Force troops in Afghanistan, eats lunch with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other Afghan officials in Zaranj, Afghanistan on April 13, 2011. (Handout/Getty Images) KABUL — But almost no one believes that the controversy surrounding retired Gen. David H. Petraeus, who resigned last week as CIA director, and Gen. John R. Allen, who replaced him as NATO commander here 16 months ago, will have any meaningful impact on U.S. policy or actions in the country, which U.S. troops are scheduled to leave by 2014. “If this is a crime, it is personal. It may involve some senior NATO officials, but it has nothing to do with the thousands of American troops here,” said Gen. Syed Maluk, a senior Afghan army commander in Helmand province. “If you burn the Koran or insult our prophet, that can affect us. But if there is any betrayal here, it is only to someone’s wife, not to all American forces.” Maluk and other Afghan army leaders said their major concern was making sure that the U.S. military continues to provide them with equipment and logistical support after U.S. combat troops leave. They said they did not think the problems of either Petraeus or Allen, who was already due to be replaced in the next few months, would affect this issue one way or another. “These were not simple men, they were important NATO leaders, so of course it is of concern to us, but we still have a lot of respect for General Allen,” said Capt. Mohammed Aziz, an Afghan base commander in Wardak province. “We don’t know anything about these e-mails they sent. We do know that the Taliban have more advanced weapons than we do, and we know we will still need American military support to fight them after the American troops leave.” A scandal that began with the relationship between retired Gen. David Petraeus, the director of the CIA, and his biographer, Paula Broadwell, had mushroomed. Here’s a look at the people mentioned in the case. Several current and former Afghan lawmakers said that American society was much more prone to sensationalize and judge romantic indiscretions than Afghan society and that the personal behavior of Petraeus and Allen should not be seen as having a bearing on their military judgment or legacy in Afghanistan. “In Afghan culture, private life is private life,”


U.S. House to take up Russian rights bill as another graft case comes to light in Moscow

MOSCOW — Olga Stepanova was the head of a tax office that approved a fraudulent $230 million refund in 2007, a scheme revealed by whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky before he was arrested. He died in jail three years ago Friday. Now, the newspaper Vedomosti reports that criminal investigators have been following a separate tax-refund case — from 2009, worth $130 million — in which Stepanova was a principal actor. The Vedomosti article was sparked by the burgeoning corruption cases that have made news here over the past few weeks. They began with an investigation in late October into Russia’s Defense Ministry that has claimed the job of one of President Vladimir Putin’s most loyal colleagues, Anatoly Serdyukov. Stepanova worked for former defense minister Serdyukov when he was head of the tax agency, and she later transferred to work under him at the Defense Ministry. She no longer works there and has not been directly linked to the Defense Ministry scandal, which involves the sale of millions of dollars worth of property at rock-bottom prices. Andrei Piontkovsky, a political analyst, suggested Wednesday that without Serdyukov’s protection, Stepanova may have been sacrificed in a last-ditch bid to mollify the West and perhaps even derail the House bill, which would put strict banking and visa sanctions on Russian officials associated with the Magnitsky case. Take a look at some of the week’s best photographs from around the globe. The Russian government has been strongly critical of the bill. The White House has resisted it but appears to be resigned to its passage. The Stepanova case is not the only one that has come to light in the wake of the Defense Ministry graft scandal. Last week brought allegations of corruption in the space program and among the organizers of an international summit in Vladivostok. This week, investigators have fingered the Health Ministry, the Education Ministry and the regional government for Moscow’s suburbs. Putin appears to be in damage-dampening mode. The “clans” within the Kremlin are sorting out their differences, Piontkovsky and many others here believe, unmindful of the president’s once-firm control. “It is a critical event in the history of Putinism,” Piontkovsky said. Going public with the Stepanova investigation will not exactly burnish Putin’s image, because Serdyukov was so close to the president, but it might be Putin’s way of making the best of a bad situation. Piontkovsky, like others, believes that the Defense


Baby panda born at San Diego Zoo is named after visitors vote on six choices

Visitors to the San Diego Zoo named this giant panda cub Xiao Liwu. (Tammy Spratt/SAN DIEGO ZOO VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS) San Diego Zoo’s “little gift” won’t stay little for long. The zoo’s giant panda cub was officially named Xiao Liwu (ZHEE-ow LEE-woo), Chinese for “little gift,” on Tuesday. The cub was born July 29 and was named 100 days after his birth, according to Chinese zoo tradition. Officials said he weighs 9.2 pounds and stretches more than 23 inches long from nose to tail. When fully grown, Xiao Liwu will probably weight about 250 pounds and be four to six feet long. Zoo officials got 7,000 suggested names, chose their top six and put them up for a vote. More than 35,000 zoo visitors voted on names that meant Little Gift, Miracle, Raindrop, Big Ocean or Big Sea, Brave Son and Water Dragon. The happy news is a little bittersweet for people in the Washington area. A panda cub born at the National Zoo on September 16 died six days later. So while it’s fun to see adorable photographs of Xiao Liwu, it’s hard not to think about what our panda would be like had she lived.


Fairfax County development projects

building on 6.04 acres zoned C-3 (Commercial Office), on Jones Branch Drive, at Dulles Airport Access Road and Interstate 495. (SP-024989-002-2) Projects Approved 15.Carrhomes, Fairfax. Subdivision plan for nine single-family units on 18.14 acres zoned R-1 (Residential, one unit per acre), at 1142 Shaker Woods Rd. (SD-007416-005-2) 16.Hunter Mill Country Day School, Vienna. Site plan for 9,078 square feet of new floor area on 4.86 acres zoned R-E (Residential Estate), at 2021 Hunter Mill Rd. (SP-007394-001-2) 17.RTC Partnership, Fairfax. Redevelopment of a five-story office building with a 23-story mixed-use office building, on 2.36 acres zoned PRC (Planned Residential Community), 1760 Reston Pkwy. (PRC 77-C-076) 18.Sivnam Partnership, Reston. Special exception request to permit the conversion of a drive-in financial institution to a fast-food restaurant with drive-through on 42,535 square feet zoned C-8 (Highway Commercial), at 12218 Leesburg Pike. (SE 2010-DR-019) 19.TD Bank, Portland, Maine. Special exception application to allow drive-in bank on 29,595 square feet zoned C-5, at 6256 and 6260 Old Dominion Dr. 20.Capital One Bank, Glen Allen, Va. Applications to rezone 26.22 acres from C-3 (Commercial Office) to PTC (Planned Tysons Corner) to permit mixed-use development consisting of 14 buildings with office, residential, hotel, retail and public uses; and approved final development plan for two buildings in first phase of development (on 12.78 acres), east of Interstate 495, north of Route 123. (RZ 2010-PR-012, FDP 2012-PR-012) 21.Vinson Hall, McLean. Site plan for 87 independent living units on 17.18 acres zoned R-2 (Residential, two units per acre), at 1739 Kirby Rd. (SP-006713-001-3) 22. Greystar, McLean. Site plan for 404 multifamily units on 20.9 acres zoned PTC (Planned Tysons Corner), south of Spring Hill Road and east of Route 7. (SP-008158-003-2) 23. Beulah Street II, Alexandria. Site plan for 36,504 square feet of new floor area at Franconia Professional Center on 2.77 acres zoned C-2 (Commercial-Limited Office), at 6420 and 6412 Beulah St. (SP-008758-003-2) Building Permits Issued 24.Peterson Cos., Fairfax. Building permit issued for a new tenant layout for a fitness center, at 12500 Fair Lakes Circle. 25.Spanx, Atlanta. Building permit issued for a new tenant layout, at 8097-A Tysons Corner Center. 26.Reston Association, Reston. Building permit issued for replacement of a pedestrian bridge, at 12617-T Bayard Dr. 27.Paul Gibberman, Alexandria. Building permit issued for a new tenant layout for a dental office, at 6303 Little River Tpk. 28.Panda Restaurant Group, Rosemead, Calif. Building permit issued for a new tenant layout


Pentagon reviewing legal, ethical conduct of senior officers

A scandal that began with the relationship between retired Gen. David Petraeus, the director of the CIA, and his biographer, Paula Broadwell, had mushroomed. Here’s a look at the people mentioned in the case. BANGKOK — Defense officials said the probe was conceived before two of the nation’s most-respected generals were ensnared in a bizarre FBI investigation that exposed the extramarital affair of former CIA chief David H. Petraeus, a retired four-star Army general, and triggered an investigation into the propriety of e-mail exchanges between a Tampa socialite and Marine Gen. John R. Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. Other recent cases have ranged from allegations of administrative improprieties to a lurid rape case that prompted the Pentagon to yank a brigadier general from a key post in southern Afghanistan this spring. The Defense Department’s inspector general says the number of substantiated allegations of wrongdoing by senior officers has risen steadily in recent years, prompting the office to hire several new investigators. The scandals have stunned the military establishment and shocked a public accustomed, after 11 years of war, to venerating those who serve. Panetta was frank in acknowledging that the malfeasance of top brass could be demoralizing for troops and civilians. “As has happened recently, when lapses occur, they have the potential to erode public confidence in our leadership,” Panetta wrote in a directive to Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has been asked to deliver a preliminary report by the end of the month. “Worse, they can be detrimental to the execution of our mission to defend the American people.” The effort could shed light on whether the multiple deployments in a decade of war, which have exacted a well-documented toll on an all-volunteer force, also are afflicting those in command. Some military officers suggest that the problem is systemic, part of a long-established double standard of punishment. “There’s a set of rules for generals and a set of rules for everyone else when it comes to punishment,” said an Army officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak critically about the initiative. “No one in their right mind believes you have to remind general officers to obey the law or not have adulterous affairs.” Testimony in the rape case of Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair, the former deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division,


Conflict in Gaza tests Egypt’s new president

Egyptians hold a banner with inscription reading in Arabic 'save Gaza' during a protest against Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in Cairo on Nov. 15, 2012. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi condemned the Israeli airstrikes. (AHMED KHALED/EPA) CAIRO — President Mohamed Morsi condemned Israel’s continuing air offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza on Thursday and ordered his prime minister to visit the embattled enclave, sounding an angrier and more confrontational tone toward Israel than has been evident from Cairo in decades. But political leaders and analysts said Morsi is toeing a fine line as he tries to balance a sense of accountability to Egyptian voters with a desire to maintain stability along what remains a potentially volatile border. As Egypt’s first elected president, Morsi has grappled with the challenge of distinguishing his government from the regime of Hosni Mubarak, who was widely viewed as a lackey for Israeli and U.S. interests in the region and was ousted last year. Morsi is a product of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has close ties to Hamas, the Islamist organization that rules Gaza. And Egyptian political parties, activists and the local media called on Morsi on Thursday to chart a new course with the Jewish state, with which Egypt has maintained a cold peace since 1979. Take a look at some of the week’s best photographs from around the globe. Some politicians, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, called on Morsi to sever ties with Israel. The conflict in Gaza comes at a critical juncture for Egypt, the Arab world’s largest country, as it pushes to ratify a new constitution and seeks a multibillion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund to revive a deeply battered economy. Severing ties with Israel would put Egypt’s already weakened relationship with Washington on shaky ground and could further threaten the $2 billion that Egypt receives annually in U.S. aid. “While trying to show solidarity with Hamas, the last thing they need or should want is a major conflict in Gaza,” said Dennis Ross, a former senior Middle East adviser to President Obama and President Bill Clinton. “If they don’t act to get Hamas to stand down, they may end up paying a major price in terms of assistance from the outside,’’ said Ross, who is a counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “So is their ideology going to trump their economic needs?” But Morsi also


Dunford sees U.S. forces in Afghanistan post-drawdown

US Army soldiers walk on the side of a hill during a patrol near Baraki Barak base in Logar Province, on Oct. 10, 2012. (MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) President Obama’s pick to be the next commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan said Thursday that he foresees maintaining American forces and equipment in the country after international contingents leave by the end of 2014. But Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford made clear that his job will be to close down an unpopular war that is in its 12th year. Under tough questioning from Republicans at his Senate confirmation hearing, Dunford stuck closely to the plan to wind down the war on Obama’s schedule. “With continued focus and commitment, I believe our goals are achievable,” Dunford said. Republicans have argued that, by setting an iron-clad deadline for leaving, Obama encouraged the Taliban, its backers in Pakistan and the Afghan government to hedge their bets now and jockey for influence later. In his failed presidential bid, Mitt Romney suggested he would revisit the exit plan. Dunford, the second-ranking Marine at the Pentagon, is expected to win quick confirmation this month to succeed Marine Gen. John R. Allen as the top general in Afghanistan. Over the next two years, Dunford would oversee the scaling down of the 68,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan and the handoff to Afghans of primary responsibility for fighting the Taliban and the remnants of al-Qaeda. Photos of everyday life in Afghanistan as coalition forces attempt to transfer responsibilities to Afghan troops. The plan set by Obama, NATO allies and Afghan President Hamid Karzai calls for handing over primary responsibility for combat and security to Afghan forces next year and removing all American and other foreign combat troops by the end of 2014. Both goals are reasonable, Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Dunford ducked questions from Democrats and Republicans about whether he wants to draw down forces gradually, as the White House prefers, or in a sudden exit near the deadline. Allen is due to present drawdown recommendations to the White House before the end of the year. Dunford endorsed the idea that the United States should keep some troops in the country past 2014 in what he called an advisory role. He also said there will be a continuing need for counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan to stop any rejuvenation of al-Qaeda or other groups that might threaten


When the strains of war lead to infidelity

and taught at community colleges in the places where we were stationed. We later had children. Since 2001, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have destabilized our life. We have moved six times in 11 years. On average, our kids change schools every two years. Between five deployments, site surveys and training operations, Jeff has spent more than six of the past 10 years away from his family. None of this is meant to excuse infidelity. I expected more of Jeff, and I think he expected more of himself. But we’re fooling ourselves if we don’t recognize the larger reality. My friends who are married to other combat leaders have been my anchor during this crisis. We understand that our soldiers may come home disfigured or injured in such a way that we will become lifelong caregivers. We also understand that they may not come home at all, and if blessed with a reunion, they may carry emotional baggage few could understand. My friends know that it could have been their heartbreak as much as mine. This is the only time in U.S. history that our nation has fought a decade-long war with a volunteer Army. Doing so has consequences. Nothing good can come of families being chronically separated for a decade or more. Jeff’s case has its own complications. He was involved with a woman who confessed to a superior officer. As a servicewoman, she stood to be charged with criminal conduct under the military code of justice. She alleged sexual assault, and no such allegation should ever go unanswered. We are confident that the charges will be dropped. Hundreds of text messages and journal entries came to light in pretrial hearings last week that establish the affair was consensual. The woman in question admitted under oath that she never intended to have Jeff charged, and Jeff has passed a polygraph test. Ironically, if Jeff had decided to leave his family he would be in the clear. There are many accusations against Jeff, some of which have already fallen apart. Jeff has been charged with possessing alcohol in a combat zone; a visiting dignitary gave him a bottle of Scotch that remained unopened on a bookshelf. His personal computer was used to access pornography; time stamps and Army records show that he was out of the country or city when most of the files were downloaded. We expect those


CVS revives notion of a general store for the 21st century

Last week, CVS Caremark Corp. reported $1 billion in earnings in just the past three months. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) It’s almost midnight at a CVS not far from Capitol Hill, and as I’m stumbling through the aisles looking for baby Tylenol, I spot a congressional aide stocking up on rubber gloves, a cop buying Twizzlers and Red Bull, and a high-heeled prostitute pawing through the L’eggs pantyhose. You can say America is a place of red states and blue states. We may never, ever come together on the issue of Edward vs. Jacob in the seemingly endless “Twilight” saga. But even in a nation divided between the 1 percent and the 47 percent, it may be safe to say that 100 percent of us eventually land at the CVS. Quietly, voraciously, the retail monster once known as Consumer Value Stores has been taking over America. With thousands of stores nationwide and an inventory that ranges from Chia pets to syringes to hummus, the former pharmacy has revived the notion of a general store for the 21st century. And they’ve done it with dizzying financial results. Last week, Rhode Island-based CVS Caremark reported $1 billion in earnings in just the past three months. That’s $1 billion in nail clippers, Hostess cupcakes and punchy, 4 a.m. shopping sprees for cobalt eyeliner! The takeover is nearly complete in the nation’s capital, where a new CVS store in Northwest Washington tiptoed over to city regulators and applied for a license to sate Woodley Park’s thirst for beer and wine. Already, some of the neighborhood’s residents are up in arms about the proposal, but CVS is pushing ahead anyway. “Roughly half of our 7,400 stores sell some combination of beer, wine and spirits,” CVS public relations director Mike DeAngelis explained to me. “Generally speaking, if liquor sales are allowed by law, we will seek a license to sell.” The level of logical efficiency that dictates that the wine/aspirin and beer/condom combo should be sold in the same place already exists in many states, including Virginia and, of course, California. “That’s the one thing I miss most about California,” a fellow West Coast immigrant recently told me. (All the drugstores carry liquor out there, right by the Coppertone, dude!) “You can have the sun, the surf and all that. I just hate not being able to buy gauze bandages and Sam Adams at the same time.”


True that. And how often the two went together at certain times in our lives. What once was a small New England pharmacy founded by a couple of brothers has exploded into a sprawling network of needs-fulfilling stores. (With 8,000 stores, Walgreens also vies for our hearts and minds but posted just half the earnings of CVS in the third quarter of 2012.) Just about every problem related to being a human can be solved at CVS. You go there for pushpins for a last-minute school project and condoms to avoid such trips in your future; for midnight munchies if you’re pretending to be in Washington state or Colorado; or for a remote-control whoopee cushion. Just because. Last spring, CVS stores across the region became even more than general stores. They were treated like banks by robbers who were stealing Tide detergent and various grooming aides to use as cash equivalents in street drug sales. Seriously. I talked to a clerk who watched a knifepoint robbery over a jug of Tide. It used to be the mark of how truly primitive my husband was, that he would survive not on fast food, but rather on CVS food whenever I left town. Chips, soda, Lorna Doones, beef jerky and the occasional can of Vienna sausage. But recently, the smart marketing folks at CVS figured out that most people aren’t like him. Normal folks only buy drugstore items once every five or 10 days, according to trade journals. But groceries? The marketing studies show we buy food every day or two. So move over Fritos and hello salad, sandwich bread and mandarin oranges. With the addition of more groceries and fresh foods, the CVS and their legion of indifferent clerks are sure to get more of your dollars, right? And wine and beer are even more profitable. In the application documents filed with the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, Vernon Goad, CVS’s field marketing manager, said the chain needs to sell consumables to survive because “current government policies are lowering the reimbursement rates for pharmaceutical products.” In other words, the government isn’t ballooning CVS’s profits by paying a bunch for medication, so the answer to keep expanding past $1 billion is to switch to pedaling booze! Some of the folks who live in Woodley Park are protesting the license, and the board will hold a hearing on the matter next month. Of


Polio fighters in Pakistan struggle against myths and realities

and none since. Take a look at some of the week’s best photographs from around the globe. “This is really alarming,” the district’s chief health officer, Muhammad Saeed Akhtar Ghumman, said in his office later when a UNICEF staffer reported the women’s concerns to him. Troubling, too, was the confirmation of the polio virus in 16 of 28 sewage samples taken so far this year in Lahore, a marked increase over 2011. And three successive positive samples — in July, August and September — have raised worries about the virus’s “silent circulation,” as World Health Organization officials call it. “We take it very seriously if there is even one positive sample,” said Ni’ma Abid, a WHO senior medical officer. “It means you have polio in the community.” Still, overall trends in Pakistan, where nearly 30 million children have been vaccinated in recent years, are encouraging. In 1994, when the nation began to fully engage the scourge, polio killed or paralyzed at least 1,500 children, by conservative estimates. Last year’s cases numbered 198 nationwide. This year’s tally is 54. But the intractability of other social ills, including insurgency, poverty, illiteracy and inadequate sanitation, have conspired to ensure that the country remains years away from meeting its goal of polio eradication by the dawn of 2013. Last week, a new setback emerged in Baluchistan, where doctors reported five cases of polio-crippled children in the restive province, which had seen only four cases this year. The new cases are significant because they resulted from the vaccine itself. WHO officials called this extremely rare, but it can happen in places where the level of immunization is exceedingly low and the sanitation poor. Polio drops contain a weakened polio virus that provides immunity. Once excreted, it has a slim potential to mutate into a strain that can cause paralysis. The five cases of “vaccine-derived polio” — the first seen in Pakistan — could give skeptical parents another reason to refuse to vaccinate their children, some officials fear. While refusals have been dropping nationwide, rumors abound that the drops contain religiously proscribed (“non-halal”) ingredients or are part of a Western plot to spread infertility and limit Muslim population growth. A CIA-paid Pakistani doctor’s hepatitis immunization campaign, launched to try to collect Osama bin Laden’s DNA before his killing last year, also gave a boost to conspiracy theorists and religious leaders who advise parents not to vaccinate


Russia chafes as House passes Magnitsky Act

this summer. Jackson-Vanik, under WTO rules, put American exporters at a disadvantage. Take a look at some of the week’s best photographs from around the globe. But the Magnitsky Act was tied to it. It requires the United States to place financial and visa restrictions on a list of officials associated with the torture and death, three years ago Friday, of Sergei Magnitsky, a whistleblower who uncovered a $230 million tax refund fraud. Russian officials have denounced the act as interference in domestic affairs. White House officials told the act’s supporters that the administration would prefer to handle sanctions by way of executive action, not legislation, but support for the bill has been widespread and bipartisan. “We will signal that corrupt thugs who attack whistleblowers and human rights activists will be held to account in America, if not Russia,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). “We must hold Magnitsky’s killers accountable,” said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who also denounced Russia’s prosecution this summer of the female punk band Pussy Riot after it took over a cathedral altar last February and sang a song against Vladimir Putin. Two members of the band have since been sentenced to two years in a penal colony, following a trial that Cohen called “little more than a farce.” He called on the band’s persecutors to be added to the list of sanctioned Russian officials. “These are exactly the sorts of victims contemplated in this legislation,” he said. Russian human rights activists support the bill. Lev Ponomaryov, leader of the For Human Rights group, told Interfax it is “a step in the right direction.” Putin, who was elected president in March, met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, and she also brought up human rights issues in their talks. Most of the debate on the House floor Friday was devoted to the advantages to American business if Jackson-Vanik is repealed. Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) said U.S. exports to Russia, now worth about $11 billion a year, could “double or triple.” Several lawmakers emphasized that Russia’s accession to the WTO gives the United States and other countries an opportunity to try to ensure that Moscow follows international trade rules. “Clearly, part of Russia’s economy is little better than a kleptocracy,” said Rep. James P. Moran (D-Va.). Both parts of the bill — the Jackson-Vanik repeal and the Magnitsky sanctions — would help to nudge Russia in


Croatian generals’ convictions overturned

the former Bosnian Serb president, and Ratko Mladic, the former top general of the Bosnian Serb military. They are on trial at the tribunal charged with numerous crimes against humanity, including genocide, as well as artillery attacks on civilians during the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo. “This is going to be an important case, adding to the jurisprudence on the particular issue of targeting of artillery attacks, what is or is not an unlawful attack,” said Nicholas Koumjian, a lawyer who has served as a prosecutor at the tribunal and at the special tribunal for Sierra Leone. But he added that most cases of unlawful attack, such as the 1995 massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Sarajevo, involve executions or detention rather than solely artillery attacks and are therefore more easily judged. Gotovina was the commander of the Croatian military in the southern Krajina region during “Operation Storm” in 1995, when army units drove Serbian troops, along with hundreds of thousands of Serbian civilians, out of Croatia. Markac was the head of the special police forces in the area. Prosecutors argued that Gotovina and Markac had participated in a meeting with Franjo Tudjman, then president of Croatia, at which he deliberately planned to drive out the state’s Serbian population. They argued that this had been carried out through indiscriminate shelling and that both men bore “command responsibility” for murders, plunder and cruelty committed during the operation. But defense lawyers argued that the meeting had been ambiguous, with no specific planning aimed at deportation of Serbs. They said the trial judges had come up with the 200-meter artillery limit on their own, though it had never been argued by the prosecution team. “The entire prosecution was a mistake, frankly,” said Guenael Mettraux, Gotovina’s defense counsel. “The problem was that they had no evidence and decided to go ahead despite that.” The appeals chamber agreed with Mettraux, rebuking the trial judges for relying on “circumstantial evidence” on which “no reasonable trial chamber” should have based a conviction. Significantly, the appeals chamber reversed the judgment that Gotovina, Markac and other Croatian officials had deliberately plotted with Tudjman to deport the Serbian population. Meron wrote that the evidence was not sufficient to establish the charge of a so-called “joint criminal enterprise” aimed at ethnic cleansing. Gotovina and Markac were released immediately and were expected to return to Zagreb via chartered jet by mid-afternoon Friday.


AmEx encourages owners to promote Small Business Saturday themselves

campaign in the next week. WASHINGTON,DC- SEPT. 19, 2011: Matt Krimm and John Anderson, owners and partners, of the W.Curtis Draper Tobacco store in a new location at the corner of G and 15th streets in Washington, DC.on Sept.19,2011. W. Curtis Draper has participated in Small Business Saturday for the past two years. (Jeffrey MacMillan/JEFFREY MACMILLAN FOR WASHINGTON POST) The campaign’s leaders are hoping social media leverage will bring more awareness to Small Business Saturday. After its launch in 2010, 37 percent of small business owners said they were aware of the initiative, and this year, 46 percent of independent merchants plan to incorporate Small Business Saturday into their holiday sales strategy, according to a study from the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Sixty-seven percent of these businesses plan to offer discounts on the day. American Express plans to continue its own advertising, and will reprise its $25 credit promotion, in which enrolled American Express customers can spend $25 at certain small businesses in exchange for $25 in credit, encouraging American Express credit card transactions. Last year, American Express observed a 23 percent increase in its own credit card transactions over an average Saturday, according to Reilly. Participating small businesses have seen varying sales success on Small Business Saturday. Loree Shirazi, who has owned pet bakery Original Paw Pleasers in San Diego, Calif. for the past 15 years, participated in Small Business Saturday for the first time last year. She said she heavily promoted the day on Facebook and other social media, as well as at her store Shirazi offered 10 percent discounts on much of her merchandise, and said she saw an 800 percent increase in business over the same day the year before. This year, she plans to offer 15 percent discounts. But John Anderson of W. Curtis Draper Tobacconist, a tobacco shop with locations in D.C. and Bethesda, said he hasn’t noticed an appreciable increase in traffic on Small Business Saturday in the past two years, especially at the D.C. location, where Saturdays don’t typically bring a lot of customers. He did notice an increase in American Express card usage — which he said likely comes from the $25 credit promotion. While he said he’ll promote the day on social media and put a couple of signs up in his shop this year, “I wouldn’t spend extra money to promote it.” Follow On Small Business on Twitter.


Best laptops for the holiday season

because of the greater chance that most users will be satisfied with the computer’s Mac OS X operating system, which comes bloat-free and is unshakably stable. And when it’s needed, Apple’s legendary service is there, with retail stores around the country doubling as repair centers. But what about the just-released 13-inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display? It’s a great machine, but the Air is still the better value for most people. A 13-inch Retina Pro with 8GB of memory and a 256GB solid-state drive (the specs we recommended for a new Air) is $400 more expensive and half a pound heavier, and its dual-core CPU and the same Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics found in the Air do not provide a quantum leap in performance. Its battery will also die about a half-hour sooner. If you need more power, look at the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, which adds a quad-core processor and a more powerful graphics chip. Read a full review on thewirecutter.com BEST BUDGET LAPTOP HP G6t-2200 Pro: Con: Best for: Retail price: A budget laptop should cover everyday computer needs for around $500, and in this crowded market, our pick is the HP G6t-2200. A laptop in this class costs about as much as an iPad, and for Web browsing and reading e-mails, a tablet is portable and convenient. But if you need the benefits of a dedicated computer — a real keyboard, bigger screen and the ability to multitask with Windows software — you can buy a lot of computing power today for the price of a tablet. If the laptop is your only computer, we recommend a model with a 15-inch screen, a DVD drive and a fully capable operating system (the G6t-2200 ships with Windows 8) that can run a variety of software. This rules out netbooks (too small, too slow) and Chromebooks, which only run Google’s Web-based software apps. The biggest sacrifice with budget laptops is internal and external build quality. Even the best budget laptop is going to feel flimsy compared with a $1,000 system, and the G6t comes standard with last year’s “Sandy Bridge” Intel Core i3 processor. We recommend the $100 upgrade to a modern “Ivy Bridge” Core i5 for all-around better performance and graphics that are twice as fast, without reducing battery life. The G6t also has appealing extras: faster USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader for


Joseph R. ‘Ray’ Freelin, aeronautical engineer

Joseph R. “Ray” Freelin, 87, a retired aeronautical engineer who worked on satellites, space telescopes and transportation systems, died Nov. 2 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He had a heart attack, his daughter, Judith Freelin Bassett, said. Mr. Freelin came to Washington after World War II. During the war, he served in the Navy as a navigator on transport aircraft in the Pacific theater. He received a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Catholic University in 1950. He then spent almost 20 years as an engineer in California and Pennsylvania before returning to the Washington area in 1970. Mr. Freelin worked for the MITRE Corp. in McLean for more than a decade, designing satellite systems and high-speed train systems. During the final years of his career, he worked on the development of the Hubble space telescope at Swales and Associates in Greenbelt. He retired in the early 1990s. Joseph Raymond Freelin was born in Moberly, Mo., and entered the Navy’s air cadet program at 17. He served in the Navy Reserve until 1967. He was a McLean resident and enjoyed rebuilding historic aircraft, which he piloted across the country. His wife of 49 years, the former Helen “Chris” Christiansen, died in 2000. Survivors include four children, Judith Freelin Bassett of Ellicott City, Gary Freelin of Chester, Va., Christine Freelin of Stevensville, Mont., and Mary K. Moore of Fairfax County; eight grandchildren; and two great-granddaughters. — Matt Schudel