Sergei Magnitsky bill addresses Russia corruption head-on

Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, writes a monthly column for The Post. His latest book is “The World America Made.” David J. Kramer is president of Freedom House and served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor from 2008 to 2009. The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled today to take up the most consequential piece of legislation in years related to Russia: the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012. With strong bipartisan support, led by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), the Magnitsky bill is the most serious U.S. effort to address human rights and the rule of law in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The legislation is named after the 37-year-old lawyer who was jailed unjustly in 2008 after exposing a massive tax fraud by officials of Russia’s Interior Ministry. While in jail for almost a year, Magnitsky became ill but was denied medical treatment. In the end he was brutally beaten and left to die. The proposed legislation is not about one man, however. It is about a Russian system choking on corruption, illegality and abuse. The new law would impose a visa ban and asset freeze against theofficials responsible not only for Magnitsky’s murder but also for other human rights abuses, including against individuals who “expose illegal activity” carried out by Russian officials or who seek to “defend or promote internationally recognized human rights and freedoms.” This includes journalists who have been murdered when they have dug too close to powerful officials or oligarchs. It includes human rights activists who have been beaten and crippled or killed for exposing the mistreatment of their fellow Russians. Senior Russian officials have protested vigorously against the legislation, claiming it is an unwarranted intrusion into their country’s internal affairs. But the legislation denies only Russian officials who engage in human rights abuses the privilege of traveling to, living in or studying in the West, and of doing their banking in Western financial institutions. Russian officials who respect the rule of law in their country, who do not engage in the torture and beating of journalists, lawyers, human rights advocates and opposition figures, have nothing to worry about. Moreover, the legislation will not impede a visa facilitation agreement between the United States and Russia that is nearing completion, one that will strengthen people-to-people


2012 Belmont Stakes: It’s easy to root for I’ll Have Another to win the Triple Crown

cheater like “Drug O’Neill,” with his history of racing violations? I can easily believe that O’Neill was one of the many U.S. trainers who employed the procedure known as “milkshaking” before the racing industry was testing for evidence of it. But I have scrutinized O’Neill’s more recent statistics and the records of his horses, and I see nothing that looks remotely suspicious. O’Neill received a suspension last week for an infraction in 2010, but the horse in question was so consistently mediocre that it is almost unimaginable that any larcenous intent was involved. I believe O’Neill is now an honest trainer, and there is no reason to suspect that any of I’ll Have Another’s achievements are tainted. But the main reason to root for I’ll Have Another is that U.S. horse racing has never needed a shining moment as badly as it does now — a moment that reminds the nation why thoroughbred racing has been a great and compelling sport for centuries. America’s racing industry has been suffering from a variety of ills for years. Its business has been in sharp decline since the economic crisis of 2008. The sport has failed to produce thoroughbred stars — particularly ones who compete in the Triple Crown series — who can stir the interest of the public at large. Though most of racing’s woes are national in scope, no segment of the industry has been so beleaguered as New York’s. The New York Racing Association has been a perennial whipping boy for politicians and editorialists, and the anti-NYRA crusade reached a climax this spring when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) executed a virtual state takeover over the sport — not a happy prospect. Horse racing’s problems are so deep that they are surely not going to be cured in any sense by I’ll Have Another. But perhaps the spectacle of 100,000 people cheering a Triple Crown winner can give the sport a national boost and underscore its importance in New York. That alone is a good reason for racing fans to cheer for I’ll Have Another. Can he succeed? I’ll Have Another is facing three rivals capable of beating him: Paynter, Dullahan and Union Rags. But there are grounds for doubt about all three. Paynter, trained by Bob Baffert, is a rapidly improving colt who won a minor stakes at Pimlico in his last start. He undoubtedly has a bright future,


Congress advances bill to pressure Russia on human rights

Sergei Magnitsky, a tax adviser for the Hermitage Capital investment company, died in pretrial detention in Moscow in 2009. The Obama administration has been deeply critical of Russia’s refusal to hold anyone accountable for his death. (Courtesy of Hermitage Capital) MOSCOW — The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, named in memory of a corruption-fighting Russian who worked for an American law firm and died in police custody, was approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Two more committees must weigh in before a vote of the entire House, and the Senate has yet to act on its version. Magnitsky Since then the affair has become deeply entangled in ever complicated U.S.-Russian relations. Human rights advocates have lobbied hard for the bill, which requires publicly naming those Russians connected to the case, denying them visas and freezing their assets. The State Department would have to deliver yearly reports on enforcement. The Obama administration has been deeply critical of Russia’s refusal to hold anyone accountable for Magnitsky’s ill treatment and death, but it has argued that a secret visa blacklist it drew up last summer is more effective and avoids publicly challenging Moscow. Russian officials, who say the United States is meddling in their internal affairs, have vowed to retaliate if the bill is passed. The dispute has boiled over into Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, which is expected to become complete this summer. (The Russian parliament on Thursday set a ratification vote for July 4.) Membership has been a hard-fought victory for the White House, aimed at making Russia a more integral part of the world community and subject to the rules of international organizations. But in order for U.S. businesses to take full advantage of Russia’s new status, the United States must grant Russia permanent normal trade relations and repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment as it applies to Moscow. The Cold War-era amendment was meant to pressure the Soviet Union to allow the emigration of Jews, and there appears to be near-universal agreement that its time has passed and that it should be lifted. But ardent supporters of the Magnitsky act, such as Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), are intent on replacing Jackson-Vanik with Magnitsky, despite pressure from American businesses. Speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia on Thursday, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk reiterated the importance of removing Russia from Jackson-Vanik without tying it


Elie Wiesel: How to stop the Syria massacre

Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. This piece was originally published in 2012. Syria’s story is now both tragedy and scandal. Day after day, its police and army humiliate, frighten and kill scores of its citizens. Old and young, educated and ignorant, rich and poor: All have become targets. One day alone, two weeks ago, youngsters were massacred individually — with bullets in their heads. And the so-called civilized world isn’t even trying to stop the massacre. Its leaders issue statements, but the bloodshed continues. A situation that has lasted 13-odd months is not about to end. When questioned, our leaders simply shrug their shoulders: “What in the world could be envisaged when a pseudo-democratically elected leader imprisons, torments, tortures and endlessly maims and kills, on a large scale, hundreds of his citizens, what could stop him?” Military intervention? No. Why not? Because the American people are tired of waging distant wars. Because American families have lost too many sons and daughters in far-away conflicts. Should Syrian families suffer because of the help we have given others? Because of the sacrifices we have already made? U.N. resolutions? Russia and China shamefully render them worthless. Economic sanctions? Somehow President Bashar al-Assad is not afraid of them. Diplomatic expulsions? They produce headlines, nothing else. What strategic move is then operationally advisable with possible political results? I am not sure that armed assistance is the only solution. Economic sanctions have proved to be relatively futile elsewhere. But why not imagine yet another option that might produce a dramatic effect? Why not warn Assad that, unless he stops the murderous policy he is engaged in, he will be arrested and brought to the international criminal court in the Hague and charged with committing crimes against humanity? Such a charge would have discouraging aspects. He would lose any support, any sympathy, in the world at large. No honorable person would come to his defense. No nation would offer him shelter. No statute of limitations would apply to his case. If and when he realizes that, like Egypt’s dictator, Hosni Mubarak, he will end up in disgrace, locked in a prison cell, he might put an end to his senseless criminal struggle for survival. Why not try it? Read more about this debate: David Ignatius: Annan’s new road map for peace in Syria The Post’s View: Time for U.S. leadership


Former Coke executive slams ‘share of stomach’ marketing campaign

Todd Putman once led marketing at Coca-Cola. He now regrets his work and says it contributed to the nation's obesity problem. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post) Todd Putman stepped up to a podium Thursday ready to break with his past. Stretched before him was a ballroom full of public health officials and community activists, gathered in Washington for a “National Soda Summit” on how to loosen the soda industry’s grip on the American appetite. The conference marked the latest salvo in a barrage of recent attacks on makers of unhealthy food and beverages, especially sodas. New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) has announced plans to ban super-size sodas from his city’s restaurants, movie theaters, sports arenas and bodegas. Disney will no longer run junk-food ads with its children’s programming. First lady Michelle Obama’s book about the White House vegetable garden, released Tuesday, notes that the only drinks offered during family meals at home are milk and water. The logic behind these moves has been repeated so often it is practically a mantra: The nation is in the throes of an obesity crisis and sodas account for an outsize share of the sugar pouring into American bellies. Putman, 51, shares that view. But he is also driven by another motive: From 1997 to mid-2000, he was a top marketing executive at Coca-Cola. “It took me 10 years to figure out that I have a large karmic debt to pay for the number of Cokes I sold across this country,” he said. On Thursday, he came to settle it. He wanted to give an inside account of what he contends has been a drive by Coca-Cola to replace not just its direct competitors but all beverages in the American diet — a campaign for what the company called “share of stomach.” He wanted to warn about the industry’s particular focus on young people and minorities. But mostly he wanted to level the playing field. “I’m not against soft drinks per se,” he began carefully. “What I am for is balance of power. And I think the power has shifted in the wrong direction. The resources, the scale, the intelligence, the strategy these companies use is intense. “We need to take all that thinking . . . all that strategy and convert it — jujitsu it — to healthy products.” Such a mission would have been inconceivable to the man who joined


In Japan, fax machines find a final place to thrive

“It goes back to the famous theory that there are two Japans,” said Serkan Toto, a Tokyo-based consultant for Japanese Web, mobile and social gaming companies. “One is very efficient and highly productive. The other is where things are very slow and there’s barely any innovation. Information technology is in that second basket.” With their traditional reverence for paper and handwriting, the Japanese still see use for the analog world. Computer use lags behind that in other developed countries. Business meetings revolve around printed documents, distributed in binders of breathtaking heft. And at government ministries, fax machines spin and whir, the centerpieces of a busy bureaucracy. What other device spits out a confirmation notice declaring its success? “It’s reliable,’’ said Toyoko Yoshino, owner of a real estate company that is an hour outside Tokyo. She uses the fax machine almost daily, she said, because she trusts it. Most international trade groups long ago stopped keeping track of fax machine statistics as the technology, in most places, grew obsolete. Experts point out that fax statistics are hard to track even for those who want to, because increasingly, the fax technology is folded into phones, Xerox machines and computers. But several of the world’s most prominent fax machine makers — including Brother, Sharp and Ricoh — are based in Japan. So Japan, in a testament to its fax fascination, still tries. As of March, according to Japan’s Cabinet Office, fax machines could be found in 59 percent of Japanese homes. (That penetration rate, after climbing for years, has peaked in the past five years.) Coming up with a similar number for the United States would require a “polite fiction,” said Jonathan Coopersmith, a Texas A&M University associate professor and an expert on the history of the facsimile. But even in the early 1990s, only about 3 percent of U.S. homes had the machines, he said. In terms of fax reliance, “I don’t think any other nation comes close to Japan,” Coopersmith said. In most places, computers — and by extension, e-mail — quickly made the fax machine unnecessary. But in Japan, that transition has not happened. One reason is that computers, at the outset, never worked well for the Japanese. The country’s language — a mix of three syllabaries, with thousands of complex “kanji” ideograms — bedeviled early-age word-processing software. Until the early 1990s, Japanese was nearly impossible to type. Even today,


The ‘new’ Washington dinner party

shoulder: You see BET founder Robert Johnson; television anchor Barbara Harrison; former secretary of defense William Cohen and his wife, Janet Langhart; NPR host Michel Martin and her husband, litigator Billy Martin. Wayne Reynolds introduces you to Billy Martin, who says an invitation from the Reynoldses is “meaningful because you really do get to meet people you enjoy talking with.” Last month, at another Reynolds party, Martin met basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. “It was a dream of a lifetime to sit down and talk with him about his life and career and basketball,” Martin says. Reynolds is thrilled to hear that story. “The success of a dinner party is when you learn something new and you meet someone new,” he says. You are dying to ask more, to find out what new thing Martin learned from Abdul-Jabbar, but the party crowd shifts. Barbara Harrison kindly points out that the cap is still on your camera lens. The Reynoldses entertain about three times a month. Last month at their corporate D.C. townhouse, they threw a party in honor of Singapore Ambassador Chan Heng Chee. The Reynoldses had the furniture removed from the top floor of the townhouse to make room for a sit-down dinner for 90, during which former secretary of state Henry Kissinger gave a toast to Ambassador Chan. After dinner, the guests moved to the second floor for a three-song performance by opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. In the room were U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt; Italian ambassador Claudio Bisogniero; U.S. trade representative Ron Kirk; former U.S. representative Susan Molinari; Gen. Brent Scowcroft; former U.S. representative Jane Harman; and Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell. The party was packed with power. *** Host: Agenda: It’s a Friday evening. Outside Winston Bao Lord’s house in American University Park sits the Venga Bus, which Lord bought for $1,000 on Craigslist. Lord — whose father is former ambassador to China Winston Lord and mother is Bette Bao Lord, author of the international best-selling novel “Spring Moon” — co-founded Venga, a company that helps to manage customer loyalty for restaurants. On this night, Lord, 44, is throwing a dinner party to promote his friend, painter Lisa Ryan. Inside the red dining room is an abundance of South African red wine. The house, where Lord spent some of his childhood, is newly renovated, designed specifically for the parties he hosts several times a month.


Escapes: Pennsylvania’s perfect spot for stargazing

the North Star, by following the two stars on the right side of the Big Dipper’s cup. He explained how the constellations rotate around the North Star and showed us the separate invisible line, known as the elliptic, on which we would see planets. “Planets don’t move in the same apparent motion as the stars,” he said. Again, this felt like something I should have known, maybe did know. I realized how little time I’ve spent looking into my light-polluted night sky back home. The night wasn’t all stars and planets. Just as the Lumber Museum had shown us something about nature, so Stash’s stargazing tour included a nod to humans. If we stared at an area of the sky without focusing too much on any one spot, he told us, we could see satellites. “There’s one,” Rob said before too long. Sure enough, we saw a tiny white dot purposefully making its way across the sky. “There’s another one,” I said, pointing to another pinprick in the western sky. Suddenly, it flared up. “Whoa!” Stash said. “That’s an Iridium flare!” A few seconds later, it dimmed. Stash explained that the satellite (one of the Iridium Communications company’s many orbiting satellites) had reflected the sun back at us. He told us that we could even see the International Space Station with the naked eye, although we wouldn’t that particular night — it wouldn’t appear until around 4:30 in the morning. NASA’s Web site gives details on when and where it passes. As the sky grew darker, more and more stars came into view. Stash pointed out Gemini and Leo. We looked at Saturn through the telescope: The planet and its rings were so distinct, it looked like a cartoon. We saw Hercules, and the Hercules Globular Cluster — a group of several hundred thousand stars that looks like a white smudge in the sky. After several hours, Rob and I left to head back to our motel. “Be careful,” Stash warned as we departed. “There are animals everywhere.” He was right. We saw two foxes, three deer, four porcupines and even a small mouselike creature scurrying across the road. While we were driving back, Cherry Springs still felt like the middle of nowhere. But after we’d stared up into the universe for the night, so did the entire planet. Escapes: Details, Cherry Springs State Park Smith is a Philadelphia writer.


Gen. John Allen apologizes for civilians killed in airstrike in Afghanistan

families,” Allen told the Afghans, according to the Associated Press. NATO troops often make condolence payments to the families of victims in civilian casualty incidents. Allen told an Associated Press reporter traveling with him that the troops did not know there were civilians inside the house at the time of the airstrike. “They were taken under fire. A hand grenade was thrown. Three of our people were wounded. We called for the people who were shooting to come out, and then the situation became more grave, and innocent people were killed,” he told the AP. “Our weapons killed these people,” Allen said. The house that came under fire reportedly was full of civilians who had attended a wedding the night before. An Afghan doctor who examined the bodies told the AP that a group of Taliban fighters were taking cover among the members of the wedding party and that four women, two elderly men, three teenage boys and nine young children were among the dead. U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings said that the insurgents who were firing refused a call by coalition and Afghan troops to stop and come outside and that “things escalated” until the troops called in air support. He said a NATO investigation was still underway. After reports of civilian deaths emerged, President Hamid Karzai called a relative of the victims and cut short a trip to China, where he was participating in a summit in Shanghai. “NATO operations that inflict human and material losses to civilians can in no way be justifiable, acceptable and tolerable,” Karzai said in a statement Thursday while Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta was visiting Kabul. Karzai has voiced concerns about the war’s collateral damage for years. Also Friday, Afghan officials said inmates in a prison in the northern city of Sar-e-Pul used a remote-controlled bomb to shatter the prison’s mud walls and escape into the night. The outbreak occurred about 8:30 p.m. Thursday and left at least three prisoners dead and more than 25 wounded, according to Gen. Mohammed Yaqub Zabuli, the provincial police chief. Zabuli said that “one or two” prisoners escaped, but other provincial officials put the number as high as 25. “The prison was too old, and the walls were too weak,” Zabuli said, adding that the remaining inmates had been transferred to another prison in northern Afghanistan. Special correspondent Javed Hamdard contributed to this report.


What the National Symphony Orchestra gets out of its tour of South America

The NSO rehearses in an airplane hangar during its 1959 tour of South America. (Washington Post) It costs about a million dollars a week to take a major symphony orchestra on tour. So says Rita Shapiro, the executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra; and she should know, because her orchestra has just announced a second international tour within a span of eight months. The National Symphony Orchestra, which leaves for a 15-day trip through South America this week, is also going to Europe in January. Touring has long been a staple activity of orchestras. It declined in the early years of the 2000s, precisely because of the prohibitive cost. Now a lot of orchestras are on the road again: Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh are among those that have made national or international tours this season. The reasons for touring may have changed, though $1 million a week is a lot of money to throw at a target without knowing exactly what it is you want to hit. The NSO went on its first tour in 1959, also to South America. Touring in those days was a different animal. In 1959, most orchestras in this country, including the NSO, didn’t offer full-time work; musicians routinely held down other, nonmusical jobs in the off-season. The appeal of a three-month tour was obvious: you got to work longer as a musician. Emphasis on “work,” because in those years before modern union contracts, an orchestra tour was even more grueling than it is now. This June, the NSO will be playing eight concerts in 14 days — but at least the musicians are taking charter planes, staying in top-of-the-line hotels and are contractually protected from performing on travel days. In 1959, there were no such protections and perks, and the orchestra played in more than 20 cities around the continent. Ironically, although touring itself was more grueling, it also had more cachet. The NSO’s 1959 tour was sponsored by the State Department, at a time when the State Department was active in the cultural outreach game and sponsoring visiting artists all over the world. And such visits were still rare enough to make an impact. “We cannot emphasize too much the political value of our orchestra’s visit to the Latin-American countries,” Paul Hume, The Washington Post’s music critic, wrote in a tour report in The Washington Post in June, 1959, “where clearly


London 2012: For Robby Andrews, big race is more than an Olympic tuneup

me, any experience I can get with international runners is going to help, even if they’re 10 seconds ahead of me.” The full-day event also will feature the return of sprinter Tyson Gay, the U.S. record holder in the 100, who will be running his first race since hip surgery last July. Also on tap is a women’s 100-meter field that features Americans Carmelita Jeter and Allyson Felix, both trying to top Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the reigning Olympic gold medalist. The men’s 800 race Saturday represents a big stepping-stone for Andrews. He was an elite runner for two seasons at Virginia. He won the NCAA 800 indoor crown as a freshman and the outdoor title as a sophomore. But a coaching change last fall prompted Andrews to consider his collegiate future. Vigilante left Virginia to spend more time with his family and to focus on individual training. Andrews didn’t mesh well with Vigilante’s replacement, Bryan Fetzer, and decided to leave school to focus on Olympic preparations. “He wants to be more than an ACC champion,” Vigilante said. “He wants to be an Olympian.” Andrews continued his studies at Virginia but has built the rest of his schedule around running. He lives with a friend and while he waits for sponsors to come along, his parents and agent have helped fund his dream. “I have a lot of IOUs,” Andrews said with a laugh. The jump to the pro ranks has meant he’s surrounded by a lot more talent when he steps to a starting line. On Saturday, in addition to Rudisha, Andrews will face Kenya’s Alfred Kirwa Yego, the bronze medalist at the 2008 Summer Games; Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki Khamis, the two-time world indoor champion; and fellow American Michael Rutt, who edged Andrews last month at the Duke Twilight. Andrews isn’t unnerved by the field. Both his coach and training partner describe the young runner as a cool customer. “I can be a little high-strung sometimes,” said Alan Webb, the American record-holder in the mile who trains with Andrews in Charlottesville, “so kind of just hanging out with him, you can’t help but mellow out. ‘Everything will work out. Everything will be good.’ He just has a great effect on the people around him.” Andrews likely will run in both the 800 and the 1,500 at the U.S. trials. The 800 is his stronger race, but he shed nearly six


Battle for the Bauhaus brand

design aficionados. “The term ‘Bauhaus’ has become a sort of super brand,” said Philip Oswalt, an architect and director of the Bauhaus Foundation in Dessau. “It is a name for a much wider set of things, modern things. It is something that has culturally developed that we have to accept. That’s okay.” But he still finds it annoying when companies “use the name and subscribe to themselves higher cultural value” than they deserve. Bauhaus vs. Bauhaus AG Heinz G. Baus started with a 1,900-square-foot lumber and home-improvement store in Mannheim, calling it “Bauhaus” in 1960. Sources at the company say he picked up the retailing idea in the United States and brought it back to Germany. A reclusive owner, Baus avoids public attention and declines most interview requests, including one from The Washington Post. His Bauhaus stores are more and more ubiquitous, spreading in Europe the way Home Depot has in North America. The Swiss-registered Bauhaus has 190 stores in 15 countries, stretching north to Scandinavia and south to Spain and Turkey. It’s planning new stores in Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Bauhaus AG has expanded from selling lumber and other building materials into the territory of Wal-Mart with some home goods. It publishes inserts for newspapers in markets near its stores, advertising goods such as plastic swimming pools, buckets of paint and electric bug zappers. Its red logo uses block letters, echoing the graphics of Gropius’ school. Its slogan: “Wenn’s gut werden muss,” or “When it has to be good,” is repeated over loudspeakers in the company’s large, concrete stores. On a recent day at a Bauhaus franchise in Berlin, dozens of shoppers filed through the massive store with 30-foot high ceilings and gigantic, floor-to-ceiling metal shelves holding everything from saws to screws to light bulbs. The name is “confusing,” said Sebastian Stadler, 23, an artist in Berlin, who was shopping for wood and Plexiglass supplies for an art project. “I thought they (the company) stole the name” from the school. Robert Koehler, a spokesman with Bauhaus AG, says Gropius’ Bauhaus school has some things in common with the store franchises. “We offer products that are very helpful for your house and garden,” he says. “The story of Bauhaus in Dessau and Weimar is very similar to that. It’s very functional and for the people.” But Annemarie Jaeggi, director of the Bauhaus Archive Museum in Berlin, disagrees. “If you look


Thumbs up or down for Dulles Rail?

million in construction costs in the project’s $2.8 billion second phase, plus $11 million a year to help finance Metro’s operating costs once the line is complete in 2018 or so. In return, two Metro stations would be built in eastern Loudoun, providing a transit link between the county and Tysons Corner, Arlington, downtown Washington and suburban Maryland. Opinions are divided on how much the Silver Line’s impact would supercharge Loudoun’s own economy. One economist, Stephen S. Fuller, the director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, argues that the benefits would be enormous — $3 billion annually in increased economic activity by 2020, $11 billion annually by 2030, $25 billion annually by 2040. That economic shot in the arm would derive from new businesses and thousands of high-paying jobs that the Silver Line would attract to the county, which in turn would buttress the county’s tax base, alleviating pressure on homeowners paying property taxes. Others challenge Mr. Fuller’s projections as too optimistic. Maybe. But in other parts of the region Metro has juiced the local economy. There is every reason to think it would do so in Loudoun as well. Some residents of Loudoun fear the traffic and urbanization that the Silver Line would bring. They like the county the way it is — suburban and prosperous. But growth is coming Loudoun’s way regardless; the Silver Line would only ensure that Loudoun enhances its prosperity as it grows. The project’s opponents have been encouraged by right-wing groups with scant knowledge of Loudoun and no stake in its future. Their only interest is ideological: they oppose tax increases for any purpose. A group funded by the conservative Koch brothers has sponsored thousands of robocalls in the county, saying the Silver Line would mean a “bailout to rail station developers.” We suppose that the Koch brothers would also have opposed building the transcontinental railroad, the interstate highway system, the Golden Gate Bridge, or, for that matter, the Metro system and Dulles International airport themselves. Maybe things would be simpler that way. But America would be a poorer, less vibrant place — hidebound, parochial and stuck in old ways. More on this debate: The Post’s View: Airports authority should drop preference for PLA on Silver Line Gov. Robert F. McDonnell: Virginia’s commitment to Dulles rail The Post’s View: Dulles rail could go off the tracks Peter Galuszka: Richmond’s Dulles rail roadblocks


Venus to star in evening sky

It seldom happens. It will not be visible from Earth again for more than 100 years. But it will be possible to see it Tuesday. And it’s free. Tuesday evening people in Washington and elsewhere on the East Coast will be able to see the planet Venus cross the face of the sun, starting shortly after 6 p.m., in a celestial phenomenon known as the Transit of Venus. A NASA Web site called it a “a rare and striking phenomenon you won’t want to miss.” Viewing will not be easy. Looking at the sun with unprotected eyes is dangerous, and experts warn against it. Sunglasses are inadequate. Eclipse glasses or extremely dark welders’ glasses are needed. Beyond the special measures necessary to protect the eyes, keen vision will be a plus. The sun is relatively small in the sky, and Venus will be little more than a black dot crossing its face, starting at the sun’s upper left. “The Transit of Venus is best viewed directly when magnified,” NASA said. But it warned that any telescope or binoculars used should be equipped with a filter to protect the viewer’s eyes.


Value Added: Mosquito-control business scratches this entrepreneur’s itch

in the D.C. area and started nosing around for a business to buy so he could earn enough money to allow his pregnant wife to stay home and take care of their family. Sanchez heard about Mosquito Squad from a friend, so he decided to investigate. After looking at census data and studying the mosquito and tick situation in the Washington area, Sanchez concluded that the business could work because of the region’s high household income, its long, hot summers and large, single-family housing market. “I always heard people say you need a niche market,” he said. He bought the franchise for $15,000 and went to work. He bought 100,000 postcards imprinted with an advertisement that Mosquito Squad helped create. He found someone through a friend who would distribute the cards to people’s homes inside the Capital Beltway for seven cents a card. He saved on legal fees by consulting self-help publishing books at Nolo.com and created a limited liability corporation. A friend recommended a bookkeeper to help him get started. He recruited his first 11 clients at a booth he rented at a home and garden show in Chantilly in February 2008. He paid $11,900 for his first Ford pickup. His first profit was in 2009, when he earned $4,000 on revenue of $190,000. The company grossed just under $500,000 in 2010, earning $50,000. The franchise grossed about $1 million last year and turned a profit of $250,000. Sanchez paid himself a base salary of $50,000 and took a $114,000 distribution. The rest was reinvested in the business. Customers pay $400 to $900 a year, depending on property size. The company generally sprays a client’s property every three weeks between April through the end of September. He is licensed to operate in Virginia, Maryland and the District. Richmond-based Mosquito Squad sends containers of pesticide to his Sterling headquarters, where his pickup trucks fill their 110-gallon containers. The technicians don gas-powered backpacks similar to the ones for leaf blowers. The “product” — the franchisees refrain from using the term “pesticide” — paralyzes and kills the insects. Usually when I get up in the morning, the birds are all over my front and back lawns, feeding on bugs and the millions of other things living in my neighborhood. But on Friday, the day after Mosquito Squad sprayed, there wasn’t a bug in sight. For previous Value Added columns, go to postbusiness.com.


BSO’s curious program, Salerno-Sonnenberg’s dazzling Tchaikovsky

One has to question the logic of pairing Kevin Puts’s engaging yet unapologetically retro 2007 work, Symphony No. 4 (“From Mission San Juan Bautista”), with Stravinsky’s evergreen shocker “The Rite of Spring.” But that is what conductor Marin Alsop did at the Baltimore Symphony’s Strathmore Hall concert Saturday. For all of Puts’s individual touches — a string threnody with chapel-like reverberation built into the score, evocative paraphrases of Mutsun Indian melodies — his music speaks the language of Copland, Barber and Bernstein and sounds far more reactionary than the Stravinsky, nearly 100 years older. As it happened, Alsop created more tension and personal engagement in the Puts symphony than in a reading of the “Rite” that alternated pulverizing climactic moments with long stretches of lower-voltage playing, where a sluggish pulse and finicky articulation robbed the music of its power and dazzle. Power and dazzle are violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s calling cards. Fans of this idiosyncratic musician know what to expect from her stage comportment, and at Saturday’s performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, the flying mop of hair, stamping, grimacing, tough-girl posturing and mischievous winks to the concertmaster were all present. Also present was some of the most rhapsodic, emotive and technically fluent playing you can expect to hear. Others may deliver more poised and better-manicured Tchaikovsky, but her earthy trenchancy of attack, achingly tender treatment of melodic material and unspeakably gorgeous voicing of upper-string harmonics were something altogether special. The audience responded with a standing ovation after the first movement — a rarity, but one that, in this case, was deserved. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s gorgeous playing comes with flair. (Christian Steiner) Banno is a freelance writer.


Credit Unions feel stymied by lending limitations

Act of 2011, introduced by Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), has languished in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs for a year as members are unable to come to a consensus. “Every day of delay results in a delay in credit unions ability to get the economy back on an even keel and restore jobs,” said Fred R. Becker Jr., president and chief executive of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions. In March, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) promised the legislation would come to a vote this year, though no specific date has been announced. Were Reid to bring the issue to the floor he could bypass the committee an expedite the process. Meanwhile, community bank advocates say credit unions should be stripped of their tax-exempt status to level the playing field, a measure that has been bandied about by the Obama administration. Two years ago, the administration considered imposing corporate taxes on credit unions as part of a broader review of tax reform measures. Though the suggestion never amounted to any action, credit unions remain concerned, said Peter Duffy, managing director at Sandler O’Neill & Partners, which works with credit unions and banks. Beyond the cap In his dealings with credit unions, Duffy said he has found a majority are more worried about access to capital and removal of certain membership restrictions than a higher lending cap. Indeed, a coalition of some 4,000 credit unions have been pressing Congress to allow them to issue additional forms of capital to supplement their retained earnings, or the net income credit unions hold onto rather than distribute in the form of dividends. As it stands, credit unions must maintain a net worth ratio — retained earnings as a percentage of total assets — of at least 7 percent to be considered “well capitalized.” Accepting new share deposits without simultaneously growing retained earnings could upset that ratio, and trigger a number of restrictions. Legislation, introduced by Reps. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) in February, to amend the regulation is stalled in he House Committee on Financial Services. Kelly from Apple FCU agrees that lack of access to capital is as “bigger constraint” for a broader number of credit unions than business lending. Getting the capital rules changed, he said, “appears almost insurmountable at times ... but we’re gaining traction with the business lending cap. It’s all important.”


Extending FDIC program could help community banks invest more locally

communities from which they receive deposits. State and local governments should increase their levels of deposits with local community banks. What’s the payback? EagleBank, the local community bank of which I am CEO, will commit to turn a dollar of such deposits into two dollars of loans in the same jurisdiction. It’s a win-win. I also urge extension of the FDIC’s Transaction Account Guarantee or “TAG” program, which extends unlimited FDIC protection to noninterest-bearing checking accounts. Without this program, noninterest bearing accounts are only insured up to $250,000, and as a result small and medium-size businesses that have larger deposits may be more inclined to place their money in larger banks under the theory that government regulators view those banks as too big to fail. The TAG program puts deposits in local community banks on an equal playing field. The FDIC insurance premiums are fully funded by banks without taxpayer assistance. But TAG is set to sunset in December. It is critical for Congress to extend TAG. Without deposits, community banks can’t make loans. Last year, EagleBank, for example, increased its loans by 24 percent because we had the increased deposits to deploy. Thus, one local bank empowered hundreds of new local jobs and provided funding and hope to numerous local entrepreneurs and business strivers. Local deposits lead to local loans that will lead to local economic development and vitality. A few years ago, two sisters seeking to grow their start-up bakery came to us. EagleBank, not a megabank, saw the potential and made the loan. Today, Georgetown Cupcake is nationally known. Community bank loans by EagleBank have fostered economic development in underserved Shaw with the United Negro College Fund headquarters and along 14th Street with the funding of Whitman-Walker Clinic, the important community health facility. A community bank is the lender for the restoration of the newly reopened Howard Theatre. Community banks are also the sponsors of innumerable local philanthropies, supporting community health, education and cultural efforts. With local deposits into local banks turning into new businesses, new start-ups and more jobs, Washingtonians should always think “local.” Shop local. Dine local. Bank local. Community banks can help launch businesses; it is local customers who will help them thrive. Local deposits are facilitating local loans. You just don’t get that nexus when you make a deposit into a national bank. Ronald D. Paul is chairman and chief executive of EagleBank.


In Philippines, banana growers feel effect of South China Sea dispute

estimates that as many as 200,000 people in the region will lose their livelihood if China continues to curb imports. Antig had been due to visit China soon to talk to buyers but is going instead to Iran and several Arab countries in search of substitute markets. China, Philippines standoff in South China Sea (The Washington Post/Staff reports) The tourism industry, meanwhile, has been hammered by a rash of abrupt cancellations of vacation bookings from China after a travel advisory issued by Beijing. Aquino, speaking Friday to Washington Post editors and reporters, said: “That advisory, we think, was very unfounded. They were portraying us as being anti-Chinese.’’ China denies mixing politics and business, and it regularly condemns boycotts announced by others. But Beijing has a clear record of quietly using trade to punish countries it quarrels with. When the Oslo-based Nobel Peace Prize committee announced in late 2010 that it would honor jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, Beijing reacted with fury. Norwegian exports of fresh and frozen salmon to China collapsed, falling by 59 percent last year. Imports of the fish from elsewhere soared. There has been no formal Chinese order restricting imports from Norway, only stringent new food-safety regulations that have mysteriously targeted Norwegian fish. A 2010 study Analyzing data between 1991 and 2008 from 159 trading partners of China, the study found that countries whose leaders met with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, suffered a swift decline of 8.1 percent to 16.9 percent in exports to China. It said that the phenomenon began after China’s current leader, Hu Jintao, took charge of the ruling Communist Party in 2002, a period that has coincided with a surge in Chinese economic and military power. Beijing reviles the Buddhist monk, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, as a subversive “splittist” and “terrorist” and demands that foreign governments not receive him. Bangoy, the banana grower in Panabo, has no doubt that his China woes are connected to the Scarborough Shoal fracas. The Philippines, he noted, “has been selling bananas to China for more than 10 years without problems, so why did this suddenly happen now?” Unable to sell his fruit because neither local exporters nor Chinese buyers want to risk having their shipments held up for weeks and then rejected by customs inspectors, he has shut down his packing facilities and is praying that the storm will soon pass. His workers


Insurer’s 30-day prescription limit aims to cut painkiller abuse

received painkiller prescriptions lasting longer than 30 days. Under the new policy, doctors can prescribe one 15-day prescription and one 15-day refill before a review is required. “If you’re going to have more than a 30-day supply, there needs to be dialogue with the patient about the risks of addiction,” Fallon says. The painkillers in question include such well-known opioids as Vicodin, Percocet and OxyContin. (Opioids are natural or synthetic versions of opium, derived from the opium poppy.) In 2008, 14,800 Americans died from prescription painkiller overdoses, more than the total for cocaine and heroin combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2010, an estimated 5.1 million people used prescription pain relievers for nonmedical reasons in the preceding month, according to a survey by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. More than half said they got them for free from friends or family members. While agreeing that it’s important to address prescription painkiller abuse and misuse, some physicians and patient advocates say they’re concerned that the new policy will make it even tougher for patients with chronic pain — about a third of U.S. adults, according to a survey by the American Pain Society. They point out that many of these patients already find it difficult get the full range of services they need. Physicial therapy, for example, is often not adequately covered by insurance, and physicians frequently lack extemsive training in pain management. “Addressing one component of therapy without addressing the whole is not good medicine, nor good policy,” says Perry Fine, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine’s Pain Research Center. Under the new policy at BCBS of Massachusetts, doctors must attest that they’ve taken certain steps before prescriptions beyond 30 days will be authorized. These include the development of a treatment plan, patient education about the drug’s benefits and risks, written agreements — sometimes called “pain contracts” — about proper drug use, and identification of a single prescriber and pharmacy to avoid so-called doctor shopping. Some primary-care physicians who already incorporate pain contracts and patient education say they have a different problem with the policy: They say the bureaucratic process of getting approval when a patient needs more than 30 days of painkillers will cut into their already limited patient time. “It creates a lot more work,” says Laura Knobel, a primary-care physician with a


NASA mission to study black holes, supernovae and the sun is led by a woman

have exploded and left behind small black holes and neutron stars, which are the mass of the sun compressed into the size of Manhattan. We’ll examine the remnants of supernovae, stars that exploded in the past 500 years that are still glowing and radioactive, like supernova 1987A, which exploded in the Large Magellenic Cloud [a relatively nearby galaxy]. The light that’s still decaying, we think, is powered almost entirely by radioactive titanium. That’s what theorists expect to see, and now we can look for it. A supernova that exploded last year caused a lot of excitement among astrophysicsts. Do you wish you could have watched it? That was a real bummer for us. If we had been on orbit, we definitely would have looked at it. We’re hoping for another one. What else will you study? We’ll be looking at strange objects in nearby galaxies called ultra-luminous X-ray sources. These are very, very bright in the X-ray energies. It’s mysterious how they can be so bright. They’re probably black holes, but they challenge our theories about how black holes form. And you’ll look at the sun? Yes. We still don’t understand what heats the outer solar atmosphere, which is much hotter than the surface of the sun. There must be some energy pumping into there, what we call “reconnection events” with the surface of the sun. NuSTAR should be able to see those. In just a day pointing at the sun, we should be able to rule in or rule out that mechanism for heating the solar atmosphere. This mission is relatively inexpensive for NASA. Did that force you to innovate? Absolutely. We needed a telescope 10 meters [about 30 feet] long, but we didn’t have a budget to build it that big. And we had to launch on a small rocket [a Pegasus, which takes off from the underside of an airliner]. To be on a small rocket, we had to fold the whole thing, and then have it telescope out in orbit. It’s kind of a like a jack-in-the-box. The big missions are very important. There are things Hubble can do, you can’t do any other way. But with the budget reality, those missions are going to be few and far between. The smaller missions, then, become even more important. And NuSTAR fits right in. It is a success story, I think. It is on budget, on schedule.


Educators once opposed raising bilingual children. Experts now say it’s beneficial.

whenever bilinguals speak, write or listen to the radio, their brains are busy choosing the right word while blocking the same term from the other language. This is a considerable test of executive control — just the kind of cognitive workout, in fact, that is common in many commercial brain-training programs, which often require you to ignore distracting information while tackling a task. It did not take long for scientists to wonder whether these mental gymnastics might help the brain resist the ravages of aging. To find out, Bialystok and her colleagues collected data from 184 people with diagnoses of dementia, half of whom were bilingual. The results, published in 2007, were startling: Symptoms started to appear in the bilingual people an average of four years later than in their monolingual peers. In 2010, they repeated the study with a further 200 people showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease. In that group, there was a delay of about five years in the onset of symptoms in bilingual patients. The results held true even after factors such as occupation and education were taken into account. “I was as surprised as anyone that we found such large effects,” Bialystok says. An effect on behavior Besides providing a brain boost, speaking a second language may have a profound effect on behavior. Neuroscientists and psychologists are coming to accept that language is deeply entwined with thought and reasoning, leading some to wonder whether bilingual people act differently depending on which language they are speaking. That would certainly tally with my experience. People often tell me that I seem different when I speak English than when I speak French. Susan Ervin-Tripp of the University of California at Berkeley studied the question in the 1960s, when she asked Japanese-English bilinguals to complete a set of unfinished sentences in two separate sessions, first in one language, then the other. She found that her volunteers consistently used very different endings depending on the language. For example, given the sentence “Real friends should . . .,” a person using Japanese replied “ . . . help each other out,” yet in English the same person opted for “ . . . be very frank.” The findings led Ervin-Tripp to suggest that bilinguals use two mental channels, one for each language, like two different minds. More-recent studies have come up with similar findings. One explanation is that each language brings to


Americans saw wealth plummet 40 percent from 2007 to 2010, Federal Reserve says

“We were in free fall.” The recession caused the greatest upheaval among the middle class. Only roughly half of middle-class Americans remained on the same economic rung during the downturn, the Fed found. Their median net worth — the value of assets such as homes, automobiles and stocks minus any debt — suffered the biggest drops. By contrast, the wealthiest families’ median net worth rose slightly. Americans have tried to rebalance the family budget but have found it difficult to reverse the damage. The survey showed that fewer families are carrying credit card balances, and those who do have less debt. The median balance dropped 16 percent, from $3,100 in 2007 to $2,600 in 2010. The Fed also found that the percentage of Americans who have no debt rose to a quarter of families. But that progress was undermined by other factors, leaving the median level of family debt unchanged. The report said more families reported taking out education loans. Nearly 11 percent said they were at least 60 days late paying a bill, up from 7 percent in 2007. And the percentage of families saddled with debts greater than 40 percent of their income stayed the same. Not only were Americans still facing significant debts, but they were making less money. Median income fell nearly 8 percent, to $45,800, in 2010. The median value of stock-market-based retirement accounts declined 7 percent, to $44,000. But it was the implosion of the housing market that inflicted much of the pain. The median value of Americans’ stake in their homes fell by 42 percent between 2007 and 2010, to $55,000, according to the Fed. The poorest families suffered the biggest loss of wealth from the drop in real estate prices. But middle-class Americans rely on housing for a larger part of their net worth. For some, it accounts for just more than half of their assets. That means every step downward is felt more acutely. Rakesh Kochhar, associate director of research at the Pew Hispanic Center, calls this phenomenon the “reverse wealth effect.” As consumers watched the value of their homes rise during the boom, they felt more confident spending money, even if they did not actually cash in on the gains. Now, the moribund housing market has made many Americans wary of spending, even if their losses are just on paper. According to the Fed survey, that paper wealth — or


As the Earth warms, forest floors add greenhouse gases to the air

is well-known. But deeper in the soil, older carbon is locked away as “humus” — the soft, brown material that makes forest floors spongy. Some scientists have asserted that this carbon will stay locked away even as the planet warms. To test this idea, scientists took advantage of experimental forests maintained by the U.S. Energy Department and U.S. Forest Service in Wisconsin and North Carolina. Since the late 1990s, scientists have blown carbon dioxide from large tanks into these forests; the gas carries a specific radioactive carbon signature, which can be easily traced. Francesca Hopkins She found that about one-third of the released carbon dioxide came from soils at least a decade old. As the soil heated up, that ratio stayed about the same, meaning that the older carbon was just as vulnerable to rising temperatures as the younger carbon. “We now know for the top 15 centimeters [about six inches] of topsoil, most of that is going to be vulnerable to warming,” Hopkins said. “It’s going to increase its respiration rate as global temperatures warm.” Hopkins called this accelerated release of carbon dioxide a contributor to a “vicious cycle” in which soil carbon dioxide triggers additional atmospheric warming, which in turn pushes the soil to release even more carbon dioxide. “While that older material is not going to decompose really fast, there’s an awful lot of it,” said Susan Trumbore, the scientist who led the study. The study increases concerns that temperate forests will flip from net absorbers of carbon dioxide to net emitters of the air-warming gas sooner rather than later, said Trumbore of the University of California-Irvine and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Germany. The average surface temperature of the Earth has increased by 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change called for limiting global warming to 3.6 degrees, a goal that looks increasingly difficult to reach as forests, melting permafrost in Arctic regions and the warming oceans absorb less and less of the greenhouse gas. Hopkins said her results should focus attention on reducing carbon-dioxide pollution from burning fossil fuels. “We can control how much gasoline we burn and how much coal we burn, but we don’t have control over how much carbon the soil will release once this gets going,” she said. The study was published online Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


With crisis rooted in Europe, U.S. less vulnerable but has less flexibility to act

Frightened investors are piling their money into U.S. bonds for safety, governments are arranging huge bank bailouts and economies worldwide are slowing down. These are worrisome echoes of the financial crisis that nearly sent the world into a depression four years ago. But this time the perils are different — in ways that make the United States less vulnerable but make the task of calming financial markets and restoring economies to health more difficult. In 2008, the financial crisis was centered in the United States, the result of a crash in housing prices and reckless financial practices that left the banking sector in danger of collapse. This time, the crisis is rooted in Europe, largely the legacy of profligate spending by several euro-zone governments — though banking failures and tumbling real estate prices have played a role. The U.S. economy is mainly feeling the side effects of Europe’s troubles. What’s more, the U.S. financial system is in much stronger shape than before. But should things get worse, U.S. policymakers also have much less flexibility than they did four years ago. Congress is paralyzed by partisan differences. The Federal Reserve has shot many of its bullets. And President Obama cannot force Europeans to get their house in order. The national debt is also much higher, meaning there is less latitude for government spending to boost economic growth. And there is less help available from emerging economies such as China and India, where growth has been slowing. “The U.S. is more of an observer of the ongoing sovereign and banking crisis in Europe,” said longtime Fed economist Vincent Reinhart, now chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley. “This is just one long prize fight — and the U.S. government came out really swinging in 2008, but you lose stamina in Round 14 or 15.” It took about a year for the financial crisis to build to a crescendo in the United States. But when it did, the problem was black-and-white. The U.S. banking system was near collapse, and the U.S. economy was in a tailspin. The George W. Bush administration was largely free of political constraints with only months left in office and pressed a $700 billion plan to bail out banks. The Fed, accountable to virtually no one, dramatically lowered interest rates and poured boatloads of money into the financial system. Then Obama, the new Democratic president, passed a massive stimulus through


Torie & Howard: Organic candy, the hard way

companies appear to be entering the organic market, says Louise Kramer, communications director for the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, the nonprofit organization in Manhattan that produces the Fancy Food Shows. “There has been a 6.5 percent increase in exhibitors this year versus last summer who identify themselves as having natural/organic products,” Kramer writes via e-mail. That figure is a little misleading: The rules for the USDA certified organic label are strictly defined; not so for the term “natural,” which can be widely applied to products without actually imparting much useful information to consumers. The government has no official definition for “natural.” About 16.5 percent of the exhibitors at next week’s Fancy Food Show identify their products as either natural or organic, Kramer says, although NASFT doesn’t have data on which products are actually USDA certified organic. To give you some idea of how difficult the organic certification can be for candymakers, consider one component of their product: food coloring. Most colorings used in food are artificial; food manufacturers typically use one (or more) of seven dyes certified by the Food and Drug Administration, says Bob Dukes, sales representative for the New Jersey-based International Foodcraft Corp., which produces food dyes. Artificial colors are considerably cheaper than their organic counterparts, says Dukes. Five pounds of an artificial dye at IFC runs about $30, he says, compared to more than $50 for five pounds of organic colorings. What’s more, those prices don’t even take into account that artificial dyes are much more concentrated than organic food colorings. “You don’t need as much,” Dukes says. Slatkin and Burke had no intention of using artificial dyes, of course, because of studies that link the coloring agents to learning disabilities in children. But even organic food colorings, derived from vegetables or spices, can pose a dilemma for manufacturers, notes Darryl Williams, technical specialist for Oregon Tilth, which certified Torie & Howard candies for the USDA National Organic Program. For example: An organic coloring agent, when added to acidic foods, will deteriorate and lose its color over time. Or the colorant may be sold only in liquid form and the product manufacturer wants powder. That is why the USDA allows flexibility in the area of food coloring. If a company can provide documentation that it has tried three sources for an organic color but still can’t find a suitable one, it can turn to


The brew I’ll be drinking this summer

and spicy notes that you can get in a witbier . . . you can find those in hops,” says Steven Pauwels, brew master at Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City, who brewed a white IPA last year with Deschutes (and whose beers just became available in the Washington region). “A white IPA makes a lot more sense to me than a black IPA, just from a flavor standpoint.” Mark Burford, brew master and co-founder of Long Island’s Blue Point Brewing, which showed off its white IPA at last weekend’sSavor craft beer festival, also praises the style’s balance of fruit and spice. White IPAs go well with food, he adds, “whether it’s seafood, because the beer is on the milder side, or more complex sauces and foods that play off all the flavors in the beer.” Chainbreaker White IPA from Deschutes Brewing (Image courtesy of Deschutes Brewing/IMAGE COURTESY OF DESCHUTES BREWING) The creativity inherent in layering disparate flavors and traditions is part of what seems to have made the white IPA so popular so quickly. “We told our distributors we were going to do a white IPA, and within three months there were half a dozen more that got announced,” says Jim Koch, chairman of Boston Beer, which released its Samuel Adams Whitewater IPA in January. “Everybody has a different take on the style. One question is, do you use a Belgian yeast or an [American or German] ale yeast? Our decision was to use an ale yeast, because the fruitier Belgian yeast just overwhelms a lot of the hop aroma.” Koch calls white IPAs “the beer equivalent of fusion cuisine,” a logical next step for an industry that has always specialized in New World riffs on Old World styles and other cross-cultural mash-ups. Many breweries, for example, already make “Belgian IPAs,” American-style IPAs fermented with Belgian-style yeasts. White IPAs take that sort of experimentation to the next level, in part because the beers contain so many components that brewers can tinker with: not only barley but wheat, not only hops but also other flavorings. Traditional witbiers contain coriander and bitter orange peel. When Deschutes and Boulevard brewed their collaboration beer, they supplemented those with lemon grass and sage. “The range of flavor possibilities with this type of marriage of styles is exponential,” says Julia Herz, craft beer program director for the Brewers Association, which represents more than 1,000 American craft


Washington girl turns her room into a museum

A friend brought Macie a large deer skull from South Dakota to go in the “bones” section of the museum in her bedroom. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) Sitting on her flowered bedspread at home in Northwest Washington, 8-year-old Macie McGraw cradles a pristine white beaver skull in her hands. She found it while hiking in Great Falls, Maryland, two years ago. After her family had the skull cleaned by a professional, it went on display in the “bones” section of the natural history museum that Macie has created on her bookshelf. “There is one tooth missing,” the second-grader mentions as she examines Macie loves collecting and sorting natural things, and she sees herself as a naturalist and a curator. (That’s someone who is in charge of an exhibit or a museum.) She started the museum when she was in kindergarten, displaying dead bees, cicadas, stink bugs and wasps. “Most people won’t pick up a stink bug,” Macie says. “But I’ve always liked how little bugs are so pretty and delicate. I like looking at different parts.” In addition to insects, bones and teeth, her museum has sections for feathers, nests, shells and rocks. Among her favorite specimens are her nests, such as the deep one made of delicate, leafy vines and another made from twigs and dried grass. Also on display: fragile butterflies, a large deer skull with antlers (a friend brought it from South Dakota), fossils donated by her grandmother, a piece of coral, an abandoned hornet’s nest and a palm-size whale vertebra that a friend found on a beach. Macie even has living “exhibits” outside her window: the cardinals that frequent the bird feeder hanging from a tree. (She observed them for her winning Macie has done some beachcombing: In addition to her collection of shells, the 8-year-old has a piece of coral and a small whale vertebra that can fit in your palm. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) And back in the teeth section, next to the handful of tiny shark teeth and the single, ridged beaver tooth, sit the molars donated by her 11-year-old brother, Simon, and Macie’s own “When I lose a tooth, I put them on display right away,” she says. “The tooth fairy still leaves money, but she knows to leave the teeth. She doesn’t go fishing through my museum or anything.” — Kitson Jazynka


Corcoran Gallery of Art: The price of staying put

What Corcoran executives say it would cost to renovate and remain on 17th Street NW. Total project cost: $130 million Construction: $102,178,268 Design and engineering: Approximately 30% of construction costs Total gross square footage: 176,170 Total usable square footage: 129,010 Cost per usable square foot: $1,008 Three construction phases over four years: First phase: $61,986,807 Sample work: ●New roof and skylights over the Clark wing ($11 million) ●Sprinkler system ($28 million) ●Upgrade heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) ●Upgrade retaining wall on 17th Street NW ●Replace original elevators Second phase: $12,230,811 Sample work: ●Americans with Disabilities Act access upgrades ●Data, fiber optic and telecommunications installation Third phase: $27,960,650 Sample work: ●Demolish and rebuild college space ●Restore public gallery spaces ●Build art storage — Compiled by David Montgomery Sources: Corcoran Gallery of Art; Stuart-Lynn Co.


Bethesda man takes on 50-mile ultramarathon for raise funds for nonprofit

$5,000, which he tripled in less than three months. The total surprised Cohen, who said he is not sure how many children will benefit from donors’ generosity. Staff members are creating a criteria by which families will qualify for full or partial scholarships. And the ultramarathon might be transformed into an annual fundraiser. “My son has done amazing things since he joined their program,” said Horton, whose son, Jackson, 10, plays travel baseball with Koa. “It’s just a good way to give back.” Horton was assisted by his brother, Andy Bell, 31. A novice to ultramarathons, Bell was a bit nervous the day before the race. “I’m not sure why I agreed to run 50 miles, especially now that it’s tomorrow,” Bell said at the time. At 11 hours 55 minutes, Horton fell short of his goal to finish in 10 hours or less. But he said he is in better shape now than a decade ago, when a lack of activity and poor diet caused his weight to balloon. He reached 242 pounds, which, at 5 feet 7 inches, put him into obesity range. A former powerlifter, he said he stopped exercising after injuring a muscle in his chest. His wife’s pregnancy cravings did not help. “She was taking in McDonald’s milkshakes every day, and so was I,” he said. He started running in 2008, shedding 60 pounds in six months. His first marathon was in 2009. His longest run, before the Gore-Tex 50 Mile, occurred just a few months ago, when he ran 31 miles in six hours, 20 minutes. Thinking about his donors got Horton through the 50 miles, he said in an e-mail to his sponsors. “The last ten miles were grueling and I literally kept telling myself there was no quitting because I couldn’t let you down,” he wrote. “Andy and I experienced several dark moments during the race, and even now, two days later. (Andy’s Achilles is making a noise when he flexes it that I’m not sure any human body part should make, and I feel like my body has been invaded by some type of jungle fever and then smacked by a runaway bus.)” His next goal will depend on his wife. She has been extraordinarily patient, he said, but ultramarathons have been hard on his body. “I recently met a neighbor in Cabin John who ran a 100-mile race,” he said.


Montgomery County Animal Watch


Beyond crowdfunding: Why Regulation A reform is the most vital piece of the JOBS Act

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission still must determine how to implement the changes mandated in the JOBS Act. (© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters/REUTERS) Since its enactment, most of the discussion of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) has centered on crowdfunding and the IPO onramp provisions of the Act. However, the legislation’s expansion of Regulation A actually promises to have the greatest impact on small and mid-sized business capital formation. Capital markets access In theory, Wall Street has always been available to American businesses of any size seeking to raise capital. But in practice, for a host of reasons related to expenses and regulatory burdens that have grown exponentially in the past two decades around initial public offerings, only the largest companies have had access to Wall Street. “Main Street” businesses looking for capital have been limited to privately issuing debt or equity securities with individuals and private fund investors, under significant restrictions on the securities’ resale. Making matters more complicated, to buy these securities, investors must be limited in number or meet significant net worth or earnings thresholds to be classified as “accredited investors.” The Dodd-Frank legislation effectively increased the net worth requirements for accredited status, and indications suggest that the private placement market has shrunk by at least 30 percent as a result of that change to the law. Alternatively, there has long existed an exemption from the traditional IPO process, known as Regulation A, which permits a company to issue up to $5 million of securities per year in offerings that are free from the resale and investor restrictions associated with privately placed securities. However, because of the annual dollar amount limitations, a robust market in Regulation A securities has never developed. Old regulation, new opportunity The JOBS Act • Public solicitation: • Freely tradable Main Street Impact What this means to small businesses across the country is that they will be able to access needed capital without having to conduct an IPO or complying with the significant restrictions on resale. In addition, because the accredited investor requirements do not apply to investors in a Regulation A offering, there will be a larger pool of potential investors, many of whom will now be less hesitant to invest in smaller offerings. Regulation A likely could become the dominant avenue for small and medium-size businesses to form capital. Moreover, as those businesses grow, funded by the


Elinor Ostrom, first woman to receive Nobel Prize in economics, dies at 78

Correction: Elinor Ostrom, a globe-trotting professor who in 2009 became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in economics, died June 12 at a hospital in Bloomington, Ind. She was 78 and had cancer. Her death was announced by Indiana University, where Dr. Ostrom had taught and worked for more than four decades in relative obscurity until the Nobel Prize catapulted her to fame. When Dr. Ostrom came forward as the recipient of the world’s most prestigious award in economics, many scholars were caught unawares — and not only because the so-called dismal science had long been dominated by men. Never trained as an economist, Dr. Ostrom was technically a political scientist. But even that label inadequately described the elaborate anthropological fieldwork she pursued. Beginning in the 1960s, Dr. Ostrom traipsed across the Los Angeles water basin and the American Midwest, through Swiss pastures and into the villages of Nepal to gather evidence for a theory that few of her contemporaries believed. In essence, Dr. Ostrom contended that individuals and communities could effectively manage their own collective resources — such as fisheries, forests and water supplies — without the intrusion of government regulation or private industry. “What we have ignored,” she said after her Nobel Prize was announced, “is what citizens can do . . . as opposed to just having someone in Washington or at a far, far distance make a rule.” For much of Dr. Ostrom’s career, many economists were deeply influenced by the principle of the “tragedy of the commons.” Named for the overgrazing of pastures during the 1800s, the parable suggests that individuals acting in self-interest will ultimately deplete a resource — such as a pasture — that is open to everyone. Scholars used the parable to demonstrate the need for government regulation or control by private industry. Dr. Ostrom disputed this, pointing to empirical evidence she had gathered around the world to prove that local knowledge, cooperation and enlightened self-interest could be more effective than regulatory leviathans. “It’s much more fashionable to believe that . . . you can’t trust people to solve their own problems,” said Rick K. Wilson, a professor of political science at Rice University in Texas and a former student of Dr. Ostrom’s. Dr. Ostrom collected her findings in publications including the book “Governing the Commons” (1990). She described the community collaboration in Los Angeles in the 1960s to prevent


The battle for the military’s future

to that fuse and by the time it is deployed another new fuse has turned up. “It’s about a 30-day cycle to try to stay up with that fight,” he said. Cartwright says cyberwarfare will determine leverage on the next tactical battlefield. And that cyberfight, he said, will have a time cycle “somewhere between nine and 14 days.” A second issue for the future in Cartwright’s view is maintaining the all-volunteer force. “Their expectations of service [personnel] are substantially different than a conscript force,” he said, referring to past wars followed by peacetime cutbacks when the military draft provided the basic manpower needs. The more professional, career-minded all-volunteer force expects “to come to work and have equipment that works,” Cartwright said. “They expect to come to work and do training that is relevant to what they think is going to happen next, so that they are ready.” During the years of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, from 2001 to today, the services have expanded in numbers and have had all the funds needed to arm their forces with new types of weaponry. There was so much money that the Defense Department by 2008 was paying cost overruns of $295 billion on 95 weapons systems, according to the Government Accountability Office. Now the Obama administration is proposing cutting 80,000 soldiers from the Army and 20,000 Marines from the Corps over the next five years. “This is the first time that we have gone through a fiscal downturn with an all-volunteer force. What are the dangers of not preparing for the realities of that downturn?” Cartwright asked. “If we hollow that force out, their ability to vote with their feet is pretty significant,” he said, meaning many would resign if their activity slows down, pay stagnates, promotions become limited or their equipment deteriorates in quality. The $487 billion in Pentagon cuts over 10 years agreed upon last year represents about an 11 percent reduction in defense spending. As Cartwright points out, “Historically after a conflict, we come down somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 percent to 25 percent,” which would mean more cuts can be expected. Unofficially, the Pentagon is looking at how to manage spending on personnel not just in the face of further funding reductions but also when the economy revives and civilian jobs tempt highly trained military personnel while, at the same time, quality enlistments drop off. Retirement and


Japan moves closer to restarting first nuclear reactors since tsunami

Tokioka, said he would accept Tokyo’s plan to restart two of the four reactors at the Ohi nuclear power station. For months now, central government officials have said that units 3 and 4 at Ohi should be the first to resume operations, because they have already passed stress tests, computer simulations designed to gauge their response in emergencies. With the mayor’s sign-off, only a series of formalities stand in the way of a restart. The regional governor needs to give his approval, and he has signaled his willingness to do so. Then Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda can give the final authorization, which could happen as early as Saturday, according to Japanese media. Last week, Noda told the nation in a televised address that Japan “will not be able to function if there is a decision to permanently halt nuclear power generation.” As reactors were shuttered following the Fukushima disaster and Japan drew less power from atomic energy sources, the resource-poor country imported record amounts of fossil fuels, resulting in a 2011 trade deficit. Noda, in his speech last Friday, noted that Japan depends on the Middle East for 70 percent of its oil, leaving it vulnerable to shocks. “This is not only about summer electricity supply and demand in the short term,” Noda said in arguing for the restart. “If our dependency on fossil fuels is increased and electricity prices rise sharply, this would affect retail shops and small- and medium-size enterprises that are just managing to stay afloat, as well as households. This would accelerate the hollowing out of industry and lead to a loss of places for employment.” The Ohi reactors are located in western Japan, just north of the industrial cities of Osaka and Kobe. That region, supplied by the Kansai Electric Power Co., was once the most nuclear-dependent in Japan. Without nuclear power, the government said, Kansai will be 16.3 percent short of peak demand this summer. Despite those forecasts, public wariness about nuclear power has continued to grow. According to a recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, 70 percent of Japanese think their country should reduce its reliance on nuclear energy. In the weeks after last year’s meltdowns, 44 percent thought so. More world news coverage: - Venezuelans consider government without Chavez - Ex-embassador was behind memo to Washington - Coroner rules dingo took baby - Read more headlines from around the world


Full transcript of Obama’s speech on the economy in Cleveland, Ohio

$1.3 million a year. Big financial institutions, corporations saw their profits soar. But prosperity never trickled down to the middle class. From 2001 to 2008 we had the slowest job growth in half a century. The typical family saw their incomes halt. The failure to pay for the tax cuts and the wars took us from record surpluses under President Bill Clinton to record deficits. And it left us unprepared to deal with the retirement of an aging population that’s placing a greater strain on programs like Medicare and Social Security. OBAMA: Without strong enough regulations, families were enticed and sometimes tricked into buying homes they couldn’t afford. Banks and investors were allowed to package and sell risky mortgages. Huge reckless bets were made with other people’s money on the line. And too many, from Wall Street to Washington, simply looked the other way. For a while credit cards and home equity loans papered over the reality of this new economy. People borrowed money to keep up. But the growth that took place during this time period turned out to be a house of cards. And in the fall of 2008 it all came tumbling down with a financial crisis that plunged the world into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Here in America families’ wealth declined at a rate nearly seven times faster than when the market crashed in 1929. Millions of homes were foreclosed, our deficit soared, and 9 million of our citizens lost their jobs; 9 million hardworking Americans who had met their responsibilities but were forced to pay for the irresponsibility of others. In other words, this was not your normal recession. Throughout history it has typically taken countries up to 10 years to recover from financial crises of this magnitude. Today the economies of many European countries still aren’t growing and their unemployment rate averages around 11 percent. But here in the United States, Americans showed their grit and showed their determination. OBAMA: We acted fast. Our economy started growing again six months after I took office and it has continued to grow for the last three years. (APPLAUSE) Our businesses have gone back to basics and created over 4 million jobs in the last 27 months; more private sector jobs than were created during the entire seven years before this crisis, in a little over two years. (APPLAUSE) Manufacturers have started investing


Easing up on pot penalties

of strict anti-pot policies, states and localities have proposed plenty of bad ways to loosen up. Mr. Cuomo’s is more sensible than many. Last year, New York City police arrested 50,000 people — half under 25 and 82 percent black or Latino — on public pot possession, many picked up under the city’s controversial “stop-and-frisk” policy. Though prosecutors don’t always charge those brought in, a marijuana arrest, even for possessing a small amount of the drug, can taint a young person’s record, making it more difficult to get a job and turn away from larger-scale crime. That hardly seems fair, or otherwise desirable. Yet many of the ways some state and local officials — or, in some cases, voters — have tried to ease marijuana restrictions haven’t been wise, either. In the 1970s, cities such as Berkeley, Calif., explicitly barred police from enforcing state marijuana ordinances, which undermined basic respect for law. More recently, some states have experimented with “medical marijuana” as a sort of thinly veiled back-door legalization. Colorado and Washington state will consider outright legalization in November, which could drastically increase use of the drug and would directly conflict with federal policy. Maybe the answer, then, is for police departments or individual officers to let more pot crimes slide instead of arresting every young person with a joint? That could lead to arbitrary enforcement and racial disparity in those who are arrested. Mr. Cuomo’s approach recognizes the challenge of maintaining respect for the law without sending large numbers of young people to prison for small-time marijuana violations. The governor would still demand a penalty — that $100 fine — and police would be more likely to apply the law consistently. That could improve enforcement and increase acceptance of New York’s “broken windows” policy, which relies on the notion that police shouldn’t let small-time lawbreakers off the hook. Public opinion seems to be moving in the direction of easing marijuana restrictions, perhaps eventually legalizing the drug. As leaders react, they must also remain sensitive to the legitimate claims on the other side of the debate — about public safety, the harms of drug use, honesty in policymaking and respect for the law. Read more on this topic George Will: Should the U.S. legalize hard drugs? Peter Moskos; Stanford “Neill” Franklin: Time to legalize drugs Jill Harris: Supporting marijuana legalization and winning elections Fred Hiatt: The impact of legalizing drugs


From Philip Glass, an American overture to mark the War of 1812

classical canon. One example is his second violin concerto, “The American Four Seasons,” a response to Vivaldi’s classic piece; Washington-area audiences got to hear it at Strathmore in 2010. Oundjian hears similarities between that work — which both he and Marin Alsop, the BSO’s music director, have conducted — and the current overture, “especially in the closing passages,” he says. “[Glass] adds another layer of complex rhythms, 9 against 6 against 4.” What this means, for non-musicians, is that some instruments have to count nine beats in the same space of time other instruments are counting four beats — try tapping nine beats with your right hand and four beats with your left hand to appreciate the challenge. It’s all the more challenging given how little rehearsal time orchestras have for summertime concerts — even for a world premiere. The Toronto Symphony will have two rehearsals for its whole program; the BSO won’t play the piece together until a run-through the morning of the performance. That’s par for the course in the summer season, and one reason orchestras value Glass’s matter-of-fact professionalism about things like deadlines; although he had to squeeze this composition into an already busy schedule on short notice (the commission was given last fall), he turned in the score six or eight weeks before the performance. “There are certainly plenty of other composers we work with on a regular basis who are not that punctual,” Spivey says. Will the “Overture for 2012” go on to future performances? If it were by a composer less famous than Philip Glass, it would almost certainly be forgotten by July, but Spivey says he has already received five or six calls from other orchestras interested in the piece. Not that anyone is claiming this is Glass’s best work. It’s not trying to be; it was written relatively rapidly for a particular festive occasion. After all, “the 1812 Overture is far from Tchaikovsky’s best piece,” Oundjian points out. “I think if we’d said to [Philip], We’re celebrating the 100th anniversary of [Tchaikovsky’s ] “Pathetique” Symphony; would you write another symphony called “Pathetique?”’ it would have been a different matter.” Overture for 2012 The Baltimore world premiere takes place at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall at 7 p.m. on June 17; tickets are $15. The Toronto world premiere, part of the Luminato festival, takes place at David Pecaut Square in Toronto and is free.


Corcoran’s conundrum: Great location, tricky redevelopment

city,” said John F. Kevill, a commercial real estate broker for Eastdil Secured. “What’s hard to figure out is what you can reuse the property for that can produce income, given the obvious historic nature of both the inside and the outside of the building.” Built to house a grand collection of American art, the Corcoran, with its wide hallways and indirect lighting, provides visitors with a serene experience. But spacious walkways and windowless walls don’t lend themselves to reuse as busy offices or hotel suites. What’s more, the ornate building is designated a National Historic Landmark, governed by strict laws that are likely to prevent major changes, such as adding windows. And because the structure is so close to the White House, redevelopment would fall under scrutiny for security concerns, further lessening the building’s flexibility for other uses. “They say in real estate, it’s location, location, location,” Kevill said. “But if you can’t take advantage of that location to create income, that creates an issue.” Oliver Carr III, whose family’s company developed much of downtown, is building a 120,000-square-foot office building next to the museum on land purchased from the Corcoran for $20.5 million. He said the historic property doesn’t immediately lend itself to a use other than a cultural one. “Our view is that the Corcoran museum will be best suited for another museum or national heritage group to acquire given its proximity to the national mall,” Carr said in an e-mail. Any buyer would be faced with a hefty renovation bill. When Corcoran’s board of trustees voted unanimously last week to authorize the shopping of the building, they said they had to do so to address its chronic operating losses, including $7.2 million for the fiscal year that ended last June. The nonprofit organization’s management says it would cost an estimated $130 million to restore the building to modern standards — a put-off for prospective buyers — and has spent two years and $600,000 in consulting fees studying its options. Corcoran spokeswoman Mimi Carter said organization leaders were not prepared to discuss any interest they had received from prospective buyers, how much the gallery might be worth or who was providing the organization with real estate advice. A map locating the Corcoran Gallery of Art (None) “Unfortunately, the Washington business community has not supported the Corcoran in any significant way,” said former board chairman John “Til” Hazel,


In San Francisco, a bounty of farmers markets

workers eager for such fare as Hapa Ramen’s porky Japanese noodle soups brimming with overstuffed helpings of locally sourced veggies, and Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen’s pastrami, corned beef and mushroom Reuben sandwiches. There are also only-at-the-market food options such as Joel Baecker and Naomi Crawford’s Pizza Politana. The husband-and-wife team shows up at Ferry Plaza and six other markets in the region throughout the week with a custom-built wood-fired oven in tow, dishing out thin, lightly charred Neapolitan pizzas that showcase seasonal ingredients such as cremini mushrooms, leek cream and artichokes, plucked from the markets themselves. For Leo Beckerman and Evan Bloom, the young entrepreneurs who opened Wise Sons to wide acclaim in February, the farmers market stand where they began selling sandwiches last fall has served as both a means to build excitement for their restaurant’s opening as well as a way to stay connected with the farmers who provide many of the ingredients that make up their menu. “It’s a great opportunity for us to reach out to new customers who may not walk into our restaurant on the other side of town, as well as to be around a lot of other great food vendors and the best farms around,” Beckerman told me the day I visited. “Plus, a lot of days we don’t even have to bring any produce with us at all, because we buy everything right here.” Beckerman says that the duo plans to retain its stand at the market, even as its bricks-and-mortar store develops a loyal following that’s keeping the pair busy. That’s not surprising, given the enthusiasm with which San Francisco locals have embraced spending their lunch hours at the markets — and how this new market model helps strengthen the bond between farmer, shopper and chef. “Most of these chefs still want to serve at the market, even after they open bricks-and-mortar restaurants,” said Lulu Meyer, associate director of market operations at the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), which runs the Ferry Plaza farmers market. “Part of what keeps them here is that it’s become a very interesting food community as these relationships grow and expand. Chefs are getting to know the products better, and this helps customers understand the produce and the elements of seasonality better, as they see how chefs are using the produce each week.” Taking this a step further, this year the Ferry


Israeli President Shimon Peres discusses Syria and Iran

an intervention, okay. You want the support of all the nations, okay. Then go and do it. That’s what I suggested to the president and Secretary [Hillary Rodham] Clinton. What did they say? They showed interest. I didn’t expect an answer on the spot. You could ask, why did NATO intervene in Libya? What’s the difference? The difference is that the Libyans killed [Moammar] Gaddafi. It wasn’t a Western force. The uprising was Libyan. And now in Libya they got rid of Gaddafi, but they do not yet have an alternative. How do you see the Middle East in the midst of the Arab Spring? I think the Middle East is in a transitional period. We have to bring into account two policies. One is the transitional policy — I don’t know how long it will take — and the other is a permanent solution. In the transitional period, you have to handle [countries] case by case. There is no common denominator. When you handle [them] case by case, you cannot forget [the interim policies] should lead to a permanent solution. So now let’s take it case by case. Now we are coming to Egypt. The uprising in Egypt was initiated by the young generation. The uprising achieved two things. One is it made the lives of dictators impossible. Today, if you are looking for a safe job, don’t become a dictator. That was done by the young generation. Secondly, they pushed the countries to go to elections. But when it came to elections, they weren’t prepared, so they lost the elections. Neither the winner nor the loser thinks they have reached a permanent solution. The winners because they don’t know [how] to save Egypt from the economic situation. Do you mean the Muslim Brotherhood or presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq? The Muslim Brothers. They don’t have a solution to the economic or security situation in Egypt because the army enjoyed a sort of independence. If you dismantle the army and submit it to the Muslim Brothers, who will give them arms? Egypt has very serious security problems, including the future of the Nile, the distribution of the water of the Nile and the situation in the Sinai. It’s one thing to be a preacher, and it’s another to be a strategist. This was a victory of preachers, not of strategists. Let’s take a simple problem: One of the most important


When mosquitoes are sprayed to death, their neighbors may go with them

I was disappointed to see Thomas Heath’s Value Added column extolling the virtues of the Mosquito Squad [“Mosquito-control business scratches this entrepreneur’s itch,” Washington Business, June 11]. No doubt there is profit to be made; the franchisee featured in the article anticipates clearing a $300,000 profit this year. But at what expense? Heath concluded his column by saying that after a visit by the Mosquito Squad, “there wasn’t a bug in sight.” In other words, not only were there no mosquitoes but presumably no bees, no butterflies, and no other insects or spiders, which are beneficial to the environment. And what of the birds and other wildlife that eat the bugs? What will happen to them? We should cherish beneficial insects, birds and other wildlife. For people tormented by mosquitoes, I suggest a simple remedy: Remove or circulate all standing water. Mosquito larvae thrive in stagnant pools, even the tiny ones created when a flower pot is left out in the rain. If people would be vigilant about getting rid of standing water (or would welcome wildlife that feed on mosquitoes), we could go a long way toward eliminating this nuisance in a natural way. Deborah A. Vollmer, Chevy Chase ● Tired of all those pesky songbirds rattling around in your yard? Relax! There is a solution! For just $89, Value Added columnist Thomas Heath hired a mosquito-control company to get rid of all the bugs those birds like to eat.


Tired of all those pesky songbirds rattling around in your yard? Relax! There is a solution! For just $89, The Post’s Value Added columnist, Thomas Heath, possibly got rid of all his birds by hiring a mosquito-control company, which killed off the mosquitoes that the birds eat. I thought The Post had mistakenly run a 50-year-old article, but not so. Exactly half a century after Rachel Carson published “Silent Spring,” we still have business writers and homeowners who get excited about the miracle of annihilating every inconvenient creature on the planet. Caroline Emmet Heald, Alexandria


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Thomas Heath’s Value Added column on the mosquito-control business speaks volumes about the fact that there are some local residents willing to kill nearly all insects, beneficial or not, in an effort to curb the ever-present population of pesky ticks and mosquitos. I am all for the free enterprise and entrepreneurship reflected in the success story about Damien Sanchez, who owns a Mosquito Squad franchise. But what happens to beloved pollinators such as the tiger swallowtail, the state insect of Virginia, or the transient Monarch butterfly as they pass through neighborhood gardens? What happens to natural predators such as lady bugs and praying mantises? What will bats have to eat? Where will honey bees find the untainted nectar they need to create our prized local honey? I suggest we end indiscriminate killing of most insects and apply a bug repellent to ourselves and our pets? Let’s let the bugs live in all of our yards. Bruce Roberts, Town???