Checking out new hotel bars in Washington

with deep-fried pickles (the Cuban) or filled with crab and lobster (the Eastern Shore). Warm pretzel bites, baskets of sweet potato fries and creamy spinach and artichoke dip are better for sharing with the happy hour crew. Watch chalkboards behind the bar for specials, and keep an eye on the hockey game on the flatscreen televisions: Some specials, such as $5 appetizers, are offered only when the Capitals are winning. 2080 Jamieson Ave., Alexandria. 703-253-8640. www.trademarkdrinkandeat.com. Open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. The Bar at the St. Regis While other bars are trying to get younger and cooler, the St. Regis Hotel is going the opposite direction with its St. Regis Bar. The country house-style Library Lounge was tarted up in 2008 for the opening of adjoining restaurant Adour: Think black walls, purple sectionals and a drink menu focused on “molecular mixology.” For those of us who went there to drink the best Sidecar in the District, it was like watching a longtime friend try to dress 20 years younger after a tough divorce. But the modern edge was mostly removed — sorry, “redesigned” — right before the inauguration. The new look draws its inspiration from the hotel’s origins in 1926: The curve of the marble bartop is echoed in the high-backed bar stools, and a reopened doorway allows views of the lobby’s colorful carved wood ceiling. It’s not all retro — check out the extended gas-burning fireplace or the chandelier decorated with a rough pyramid of Swarovski crystals — but overall effect is timeless. Surprise, surprise: There’s a pre-Prohibition cocktail menu starring a Sidecar, an Old-Fashioned and a French 75. Everything is simple, delicious and made with higher-end spirits. As at many cocktail bars these days, these cocktails are served with giant, crystal-clear blocks of ice. The staff boasts that it’ll take an hour for that rock to melt into my Manhattan. The St. Regis remains one of the priciest cocktail destinations in town: Drinks start at $15, and a flight of three Irish whiskeys, including the 38-year-old Knappogue Castle, costs $32. But sitting at one of the Chesterfield chairs, with sunlight streaming through the domed windows, a $15 Sidecar feels like an affordable luxury. 923 16th St. NW. 202-638-2626. www.stregis.com/WashingtonDC. Open from 11:30 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.


Md. House unanimously approves dog bite legislation

The Maryland House of Delegates on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that would make it easier to hold dog owners—not just pit bull owners—accountable for injuries caused by their pets. The bill The measure would make it easier to hold all dog owners liable for injuries caused by their pets but also gives owners the opportunity to defend their pet in court. In the past, plaintiffs had to prove that the dog was dangerous. Now, dog owners will have to prove that their dog is not dangerous. The bill overturns a Maryland Court of Appeals decision, Tracey v. Solesky, which arose out of a 2007 incident in which a pit bull mauled a 10-year-old Towson boy. The 2012 decision made owners of pit bulls (and “third parties,” like landlords) automatically liable in the event that their dog bit or injured someone. Since then, some landlords have been forcing their tenants to either get rid of their pit bull or move out. Animal rights groups protested the appeals court decision, saying that dogs who had never bitten anyone were being put down. They also argued that the breed-specific language unfairly targeted a group of canines who may not even technically be a “breed.” The House bill does not contain breed-specific language and does not hold landlords accountable for the actions of a tenant’s dog. The assembly took up the cause during the August 2012 special session but failed to reach a decision in time. Thursday, the bill passed with no debate. “A little bit of time cures a lot of problems,” Del. Joseph F. Vallario (D-Prince George’s), chairman of the committee that oversaw the House’s legislation, said after the vote. “Hopefully, the dogs won’t be biting anymore. Now they can’t afford to.” The bill will now advance to the Maryland state senate, where it is also expected to pass easily.


At National Zoo, sequester could threaten exhibits but not animal care

The looming sequester will affect more than just politics in D.C. — it could impact one of the city’s favorite spots: The National Zoo. A lot of federal managers are fretting about the sequester, the deep budget cuts that could take effect next week. But very few of those managers manage man-eaters. Craig Saffoe does, and he knows that even if $85 billion in federal spending gets sliced this year, he has to keep his lions and tigers fed. “We can’t just put these guys in a warehouse,” says Saffoe, standing on the safe side of a steel mesh wall at the National Zoo as Naba, a 300-pound lioness, rumbles like a restless volcano a few inches away. Two other massive females prowl and growl, muscles climbing over one another beneath their tawny coats. Naba and friends are not the kind of federal denizens you want suffering during major cutbacks. “Our collection is a living collection,” says Saffoe, curator of the zoo’s big cats. “They need to be cared for every day, no matter what is happening above our heads.” The National Zoo “People really want to be sure that the animals are going to be cared for,” zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson says. “We hear it all the time when things like this are in the news — phone calls, social media. They really want to be reassured.” If deep federal budget cuts go into effect, curators will stay on the job and animals will be fed. But sequestration could mean fewer exhibits and less time for research. Be reassured, zoo lovers. The cats will get their beef, the pandas their bamboo and the seals their herring, and all from familiar fingers. Most of the zoo’s 110 keepers, biologists and curators are rated as essential personnel in the event of government shutdowns and furloughs. “We will never compromise on human safety, and we’ll never compromise animal welfare,” promises Dennis Kelly, director of the National Zoo, which has a $50 million budget and employs 450 people. “These people are incredibly devoted to these animals.” Officials are scrambling to make sure the care keeps flowing, even as the sequester threatens to put the squeeze on other functions, including education, research and administration. The Smithsonian is bracing for at least a 5 percent budget cut, which would amount to $40 million if the cuts weren’t restored before September, according to Linda St. Thomas,


Military service chiefs warn budget cuts will undermine readiness

percent pay cut if furloughs are implemented starting in April. Although the payroll for uniformed personnel is spared, the threat of extended deployments has confounded troops in Afghanistan. “It’s like I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop,” said one service member there, Maj. Dustin Navarro, 31. “I’d rather have higher taxes and fewer base resources at home than have this kind of uncertainty while deployed.” With cuts set to begin March 1, Odierno said in a speech last Friday that the Army is scrambling to find up to $24 billion in reductions for the last seven months of the fiscal year. The shortfall will affect training, he said, presenting a thankless choice between sending untrained troops to Afghanistan and keeping certain units there months beyond their exit dates. American lives are at stake, he warned. “It is our responsibility to ensure that we never send soldiers into harm’s way that are not trained, equipped, well-led and ready for any contingency, to include war,” Odierno told lawmakers last week. “If we have to reduce the amount of training we give our pilots, they will go in with a hell of a lot less capability. That means mistakes will be made. That means we’ll have accidents. That means we’ll be more likely to be shot down by enemy fire.” Some lawmakers have reacted apologetically to the predictions of a dangerous drop in readiness. But other lawmakers and analysts say the Pentagon’s doomsday predictions have a measure of hyperbole and might be, at least in part, an attempt to protect budgets and programs as the war in Afghanistan draws to an end. “Across-the-board cuts are bad policy,” said Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), one of 22 Congress members from both parties who wrote to President Obama and congressional leaders arguing that defense spending should be part of any debt-reduction deal. “At the end of the day, if cuts are going to be made, the military cannot be spared.” Anthony Shaffer, a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, said he was skeptical of the dire predictions about readiness. “A lot of us who look at this hard say it’s disingenuous to say, ‘We can’t deploy the Truman because the money’s not there,’ ” said Shaffer, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official. “This is all political theater. It’s being prompted by those in the Pentagon who do not want to make


The West should support Japan’s recovery

to produce a cheaper yen, markets have driven the Japanese currency down 20 percent against the dollar since October. But economists widely agree that Japan needs monetary stimulus and the cheaper yen need not threaten the global economy — as long as it happens as a byproduct of domestic monetary expansion and not overt government intervention on foreign exchange markets. That is a line that major industrial democracies have not crossed, for fear of triggering retaliation by others, especially China — which has actually slowed its notorious currency manipulation in recent months, quietly allowing the yuan to appreciate, to the benefit of the United States among others. A statement last week by the Group of 20 industrial countries and leading emerging markets — “we will refrain from competitive devaluation” — amounted to a green light for Mr. Abe’s new economic approach and an implicit warning not to devalue Japan’s currency directly by buying foreign bonds. Of course, Mr. Abe still hasn’t ruled out direct intervention, but, in a hopeful sign, he told Japan’s parliament after the G-20’s statement that the need for foreign bond-buying “has considerably declined” because of the yen’s fall to date. Like monetary expansion in the United States and elsewhere, looser central bank policy in Japan may be necessary but not sufficient to restore robust growth. Structural reform of its maxed-out export-led growth model is what Japan needs above all, and to his credit Mr. Abe has labeled that the “third arrow” in a policy quiver that includes monetary and fiscal expansion. Yet reform is also the hardest policy to carry out, given the many interest groups wedded to the status quo. Among the measures that those groups dislike is one that would do the most to modernize Japan’s protected, inefficient domestic markets: full participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a regional free-trade initiative spearheaded by the United States. Mr. Abe is set to discuss the TPP with President Obama on Friday during a visit to Washington. For the sake of their respective economies, and the global system, Mr. Obama should do everything he can to help this ally help itself. More on this topic: Fred Hiatt: Japan’s pragmatic turn Fred Hiatt: Asian tensions add urgency to Obama’s ‘pivot’ Jennifer Lind: Japan must face the past Robert J. Samuelson: Japan is caught in a stimulus trap The Post’s View: Time for EURAFTA? A European Union-American free-trade agreement


We don’t need a military draft

and the National Guard. Twenty-five thousand others are commissioned as officers, according to Defense Department data. Last year marked the 27th consecutive year in which the Pentagon has exceeded its quality standards for active-duty recruits. Half of all recruits are in the top two of the Armed Forces Qualification Test’s five categories, Defense Department personnel data show, with only 1 percent in the lowest. In the last year of the draft, only one-third of recruits were in the top two categories, with 25 percent in the lowest. Whereas only three-quarters of youths nationwide graduate from high school, all military recruits are required to have graduated. (During the last year of the draft, only half of recruits were high school graduates.) Young people join the military for a variety of reasons: skill training, education benefits, adventure. But the primary reason people volunteer and continue to serve is service to our country. They seek to be part of a respected organization larger than themselves. The all-volunteer service is that organization. Some contend the draft is needed so that military sacrifice and risk may be more equitably shared. Ironically, a fundamental issue the Gates Commission on an All-Volunteer Force cited when the draft was discontinued was that it was inherently unfair. Among the issues the commission also cited was policymakers’ inability to adequately answer the question: Who shall serve when not all serve? Nobel economic laureate Milton Friedman, a member of the commission, summed it up by saying that conscription was inconsistent with the American values of choice, personal liberty and a free society. Unfortunately, the majority of those who would be eligible for the draft today do not meet the standards for military service, for physical fitness and other reasons. People are the military’s most important asset. But if the objective is to maintain at reasonable costs an effective military force, the draft fails this test. If the objective is to require all young people to serve their country, there are numerous possible alternatives beyond making the military the only outlet. Some critics argue that our voluntary military does not represent the society it protects. The facts refute these contentions: Recruits come from all parts of the country, from all income levels. They are all races and ethnicities. The force mirrors our diverse society, with black and Hispanic recruits reflecting their share of the population — about 15 and 17 percent of


Michelle Singletary: Families could use real help with the high cost of college

the cost of college so families wouldn’t have to borrow so heavily. During a recent college tour, we saw one parent become very disheartened because her daughter, a good but not great student, wouldn’t be able to afford college — and she was a state resident visiting a state school. If a degree is a ticket to a middle-class job, then we’ve got to do something about bringing down the price of attending. Even with a lot of merit and need-based scholarship and grant money available, there isn’t nearly enough to go around. My daughter Olivia, who has excellent grades, applied to four colleges: two in-state schools and two out-of-state. She was accepted at North Carolina A&T, Towson University and the Honors College at the University of Maryland at College Park. The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill turned her down. The UNC rejection notice was nice enough, an “it’s not you, it’s us” rebuff. “With many more candidates than spaces, we cannot avoid making thousands of difficult decisions,” the vice provost wrote. My heart sank when Olivia didn’t get into UNC. But the penny pincher in me was jumping for joy. We’ve saved for her education, but not enough to pay the $43,848 annual out-of-state price for UNC. Across the country, families are waiting for letters that lay out how much money their kids might get to finance their educations. And when I say money, I don’t mean loans. We are waiting to see if our kid gets a grant, scholarship or work-study offer from the colleges. If that money isn’t offered, many families will opt for loans. We won’t borrow. We hope if our daughter gets aid, we can use what we’ve saved to help her finance an advanced degree, which is increasingly required for many fields. Roberto Rodriguez, special assistant to the president for education, said the college scorecard is meant to be part of a suite of tools that families can use to help in the college-selection process. You can find the tools by going to the National Center for Education Statistics’ Web site (www.nces.ed.gov) and searching for College Navigator. A useful tool I’m looking forward to is one the administration announced earlier — a financial aid shopping sheet. The administration has gotten more than 600 colleges to agree to provide important financial information to incoming freshmen, starting with the 2013-14 school year. As part


White House opens more federally funded scientific research to the public

A new White House directive will allow the general public more access to federally funded scientific research, the Obama administration announced Friday. The directive instructs federal agencies with more than $100 million in research and development expenditure to allow public access to some journal articles one year after their original publication date. It also directs researchers to publish their data. Some articles and data will be exempt from the directive for national security or other legal reasons. The measure emulates the policies of the National Institutes of Health, which requires all of its grantees to post an copies of journal articles and published results that are funded with public money within a year after publication. Open information advocates have tried for years to get the administration to grant further access to publicly funded research, and have even used the White House’s petition tool to draw more attention to the subject. Over 65,000 people signed the petition. The tactic seems to have worked. In an online response to the petition, Office of Science and Technology Policy director John Holdren thanked We the People signatories for their petition. Renewed interest in open access surfaced following the death of Internet activist Aaron Swartz. Swartz, who faced felony computer crime charges after downloading thousands of articles from the academic database J-STOR, was found dead in his apartment last month of an apparent suicide. The move was hailed by open information advocates, who said this is a “watershed” moment for open access. Heather Joseph, the executive director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, said in a statement that she believes the directive will “accelerate scientific discovery, improve education and empower entrepreneurs” to take advantage of the latest scientific data. Related stories: Anonymous hacks MIT sites to post Aaron Swartz tribute, call to arms Aaron Swartz’s death sparks cries for computer crime law overhaul Sign up today to receive #thecircuit, a daily roundup of the latest tech policy news from Washington and how it is shaping business, entertainment and science.


Japan, China and the U.S.

such a promise, so it bases its legitimacy on two other pillars: economic growth and patriotism, the latter unfortunately fueled by a fair dollop of anti-Japanese sentiment. With the education system teaching that sort of patriotism, he said, the government can gain popularity with actions such as its provocative challenges of Japanese control of disputed islands in the East China Sea. What then are the grounds for hope? Mr. Abe noted that provocative behavior at sea threatens the trust of China’s trading and investing partners, which in turn could endanger its first pillar, economic growth. He said Chinese leaders may come to understand that. In the meantime, he said, it is important to maintain the strength of the U.S.-Japan alliance, which Mr. Obama and Mr. Abe indeed reaffirmed during their Friday meeting. A key way to strengthen the bilateral relationship, and to show that it is not just a military alliance, would be for Japan to join talks on an incipient Pacific trade agreement — and that prospect also received a boost in the Friday summit. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), led by the United States, includes nations from Canada to Brunei but not, so far, Japan, the world’s third-largest economy (after American and China). Joining the TPP would boost not only the alliance but also Mr. Abe’s hopes of modernizing and opening Japan’s economy. But as in all countries, special interests that might be harmed by free trade are more focused in opposition than the broader populace, which would receive a larger but more diffuse benefit, is in support. As a result, it was valuable that Mr. Obama made clear that, while the TPP countries will make no exceptions to entice Japan into the talks, they also will set no disqualifying preconditions, and Japan will be free to negotiate vigorously in its own interest. With a crucial July election looming, Mr. Abe still faces a difficult political choice. But if he wants to join — and he told The Post that “a free trading environment would be in the national interest of Japan” — he comes home with a strengthened case to make. More on this topic: Fred Hiatt: Japan’s pragmatic turn Fred Hiatt: Asian tensions add urgency to Obama’s ‘pivot’ Jennifer Lind: Japan must face the past Robert J. Samuelson: Japan is caught in a stimulus trap The Post’s View: Shinzo Abe gets a second chance to lead Japan


Karzai orders U.S. Special Operations forces out of key Afghan province

conciliatory with the foreign nations that pay the biggest portion of his government’s bills. Photographers document everyday life in Afghanistan as coalition forces prepare for their 2014 departure. “After a thorough discussion, it became clear that armed individuals named as U.S. special force[s] stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people,” the statement said. “A recent example in the province is an incident in which nine people were disappeared in an operation by this suspicious force,” the statement said. In a separate incident, “a student was taken away at night from his home,” it said, and his “tortured body with throat cut was found two days later under a bridge.” The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan said in a statement that it takes abuse allegations seriously, adding: “This is an important issue that we must discuss with our Afghan counterparts.” The controversy over the role of U.S. Special Operations forces in Wardak and other provinces has been brewing for some time. After President Obama announced this year that U.S. forces would pull back from Afghan villages, senior Afghan officials said they were under the impression that the troops pulling out would include the U.S. Special Operations forces units that have built and trained the small village militias that form the Afghan Local Police. U.S. officials pushed back on that interpretation, arguing that it would be unwise to abort the training mission. Karzai has long viewed the Afghan Local Police with suspicion because of fears that they operate largely outside the country’s formal defense command structure. Afghan villagers and human rights activists, meanwhile, have long accused the force of rape and other abuses. The 18,500-strong force provides security in 94 districts. U.S. commanders see the ALP model as an essential pillar of their drawdown strategy. The local groups are expected to keep areas secure in regions where the U.S. military is thinning out and the Afghan government has limited or no presence. At a news conference Sunday, Karzai spokesman Amal Faizi sought to clarify the president’s statement, saying the abuse allegations were connected to Afghans working “within these special forces groups.” “Those Afghans in these armed groups who are working with the U.S. Special Forces, the defense minister asked for an explanation of who they are,” Faizi said. “Those individuals should be handed over to the Afghan side so that we can further investigate.” It was


Afghan President Karzai ends U.S. Special Forces operations in key province

KABUL — A presidential office statement that followed a meeting of Afghanistan’s National Security Council also said Special Forces operations had to stop immediately in Wardak province west of Kabul, a hub counterinsurgency operations. The action comes after Karzai last week banned his forcesfrom calling in NATO airstrikes in populated areas, citing civilian casualties. The announcement also is playing out as the White House and NATO leaders ponder their troop commitments to Afghanistan after the coalition finishes its combat mission here at the end of 2014. A statement from the U.S.-led coalition forces here said abuse allegations were taken seriously, adding, “This is an important issue that we must discuss with our Afghan counterparts.” Karzai’s blunt statement did not provide specific evidence or mention any judicial determinations. (The Washington Post) “After a thorough discussion, it became clear that armed individuals named as U.S. special force[s] stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people,” the statement said. “A recent example in the province is an incident in which nine people were disappeared in an operation by this suspicious force and in a separate incident a student was taken away at night from his home, whose tortured body with throat cut was found two days later under a bridge.” The statement, noted, however, that “Americans reject having conducted any such operation and any involvement of their special force.” At a news conference, Karzai spokesman Amal Faizi sought to clarify the statement, saying the abuse allegations were connected to Afghans working “within these Special Forces groups.” “Those Afghans in these armed groups who are working with the U.S. Special Forces, the defense minister asked for an explanation of who they are,” Faizi said. “Those individuals should be handed over to the Afghan side so that we can further investigate.” Photographers document everyday life in Afghanistan as coalition forces prepare for their 2014 departure. U.S. Special Forces are partnered in some parts of the country with the Afghan Local Police, but it was not immediately clear which Afghan units were involved in the alleged incidents.


Grocery chains ramp up fuel rewards as gas prices hit record-highs

An Exxon station in Foggy Bottom, in late February, charges more than $4 per gallon of gas. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images) As gasoline prices surpass $4 a gallon in the Washington area, there may be one winner: Grocery stores with fuel-rewards programs. Area retailers such as Safeway and Sam’s Club have been promoting sweeping discounts on gasoline in recent weeks. Wal-Mart has started a year-long initiative to give credit card holders 5 cents off each gallon of gas, while Giant has announced a contest that will give shoppers “free gas for a year.” “Higher gas prices are almost like free advertising for these types of programs,” said David J. Livingston, a supermarket analyst for DJL Research. “Loyalty programs have been going on for years, but when gas prices go up, they tend to become more important.” Fuel prices have climbed rapidly since the beginning of this year. As of Friday, gasoline prices had risen for 36 consecutive days, according to John Townsend, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “This is unprecedented. We’ve never seen gas prices rise this high, this early in the year,” Townsend said. “In a time of extremely high gas prices, one of the tips we give people is: Use a rewards program.” The average cost for a gallon of gas has risen 46 cents, or 14 percent, in the past month, because of shuttered refineries and decreased oil production in Saudi Arabia. “Right now, we’re paying the highest on record for this calendar day,” Townsend said on Friday, adding that he expects the trend to continue until at least early April. “It’s the most dramatic increase we’ve seen since 2009.” At Safeway, which introduced a local partnership with Exxon-Mobile in late January, climbing fuel prices have helped drum up interest. “The program has been very popular,” said Greg Ten Eyck, a spokesman for the chain of supermarkets. “With rising gas prices, it’s become even more popular.” Giant, which has a partnership with Shell gas stations, has begun offering “5x gas rewards” on select products. At Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, a new program offers 3-cent discounts per gallon of gas for customers who pay with pre-paid Wal-Mart money cards. “We know gas prices are putting a strain on our customers’ budgets,” said Molly Philhours, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart. “They’re really appreciative of the discounts. As fuel prices increase, it’s much more meaningful to them.” Grocery chains said it was


Washington company continues lobbying for maglev line in Northeast

The Northeast Maglev, the privately owned District company that last year began lobbying to develop a high-speed rail system in the Northeast, is continuing efforts to develop a maglev line that would connect D.C. to New York in 60 minutes. Trains that rely on magnetic levitation, or maglev, technology, typically travel faster than traditional rail, gliding just above the track using magnetic propulsion. The only commercial maglev lines are in Aichi, Japan, and Shanghai. Shanghai’s maglev train runs at an average of 139 miles per hour, compared to Acela Express, which runs at an average of 84 miles per hour. Previous attempts by regional transportation agencies to explore a maglev system in the Northeast were stymied by lack of support from lawmakers and funding shortfalls. In 2001, the Maryland Department of Transportation, the District of Columbia, Baltimore, Baltimore County and the Maryland Transit Administration formed the Baltimore-Washington Maglev Project. The coalition competed for Federal Railroad Administration consideration to develop a 39-mile maglev line linking Baltimore, BWI Airport and Union Station in D.C. But the project, which in 2007 was estimated to cost $5.1 billion, stalled because it was costly and lacked legislative support. Northeast Maglev paid Washington lobbyists more than $500,000 last year to lobby on legislation that could impact high-speed rail, including bills that would identify potential high-speed rail corridors in the United States and provide funding for high-speed rail technology. The bills — HR-7: American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012 and HR-5972: Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations for FY 2013 — did not pass in the 112th Congress and have not been re-introduced in the current Congress. The company also lobbied on the transportation bill that President Obama signed last July, HR-4348: The Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012, which includes magnetic levitation as one of the transportation systems eligible to receive federal aid. The Northeast Maglev paid four outside lobby firms a total of $515,560 in 2012: $330,000 to DLA Piper, $110,000 to American Defense International, $70,560 to Commonwealth Research Associates and $5,000 to TCK International, according to lobbying reports filed with the Senate. The company declined to comment on the efforts or whether executives have met with local transit officials, saying only through a spokeswoman that it is “continuing to make progress toward bringing the Northeast Corridor the benefits of the world’s fastest and most advanced train.”


Contractors readying for a different environment

to ’91,” referencing the period just before many major contractors from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman were formed through consolidation. He said the industry will likely soon see consolidation, but right now, it’s in the fragmentation period. Companies are divesting and spinning off businesses “that will create the supply that generates the next round of consolidation,” Chao said. “I would expect the industry to change quite a bit in the next 24 to 36 months,” he told attendees. Todd Stottlemyer, chief executive of Falls Church-based Acentia. For companies to succeed as budgets falter, Stottlemyer said they should focus on what they do well. “Being very broad but not very deep — I don’t think that’s the way to success,” he said last week. He argued that contractors shouldn’t freeze all activity in the face of declines, but should continue to make purchases and hires where it makes sense. “I like disruption,” Stottlemyer said. “I like tough markets ... because not everyone’s going to succeed.” Peter Schuster, vice president for mergers and acquisitions at McLean-based Science Applications International Corp. Despite shrinking government spending, Schuster said SAIC is spending the same percentage of its dollars on internal research and development. However, he said the company has become more focused, putting money toward fewer projects with more likely near-term success. SAIC is seeking companies that have proven records with the government. “What helps us ... is customer acceptance,” he said. “We think that there’s lower risk, so we are willing to pay a higher price.” In recent months, SAIC has bought several health IT companies, which have commercial applications. Still, Schuster pushed back against the idea that the commercial and government world are converging. “You need a different model to be successful” in commercial work, he said. Fred Funk, vice president of corporate development at Hanover-based KEYW. Funk said cybersecurity company KEYW is focusing on acquiring companies that specialize in three areas: mobile-to-mobile encryption, big data and open-source technology. KEYW has made 16 acquisitions since it was founded in 2008 — but only recently has the company shifted from buying businesses focusing on providing services to buying technology companies, Funk said. Funk, too, was cautious about overlap between commercial and government work. KEYW last year established a separate unit focused on commercial business. “The wheels of progress turn slowly,” he said of the government’s adoption of commercial technology. The “business models are different.”


Couch Slouch: ‘The Olympics without wrestling is like McDonald’s without French fries’

How do you drop wrestling from the Summer Games? Heck, if the International Olympic Committee ran NASA, it might eliminate astronauts from the space program. Wrestling is about as pure and organic of athletic competition as it gets: You try to outmaneuver your opponent with your mind and your body. It’s like a California gubernatorial race, minus the PAC money. Wrestling made its first appearance at the ancient Olympics in 708 B.C., or four years before Bob Costas anchored his first Games. The Olympics without wrestling is like McDonald’s without French fries. If it were up to me, I’d drop the entire Winter Olympics before I’d drop wrestling. This nation — and the Olympic movement — was built on the backs of wrestlers. James Madison and Benjamin Franklin used to wrestle in the rear hallways near the cafeteria at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Who among us didn’t grow up wrestling? Even I — the ultimate Couch Slouch — wrestled in junior high. (After winning my first two intramural matches one year, I lost to a close friend, Howard Yablon, who pinned me late in the first period with a surprise fisherman’s suplex. “Where did you learn that move?” I asked him afterward. “While you were watching TV.” Smart ass.) Wrestlers from the world’s top wrestling nations lied on the mat and observed a moment of silence Thursday at the World Cup in Tehran to protest the IOC’s action; coincidentally, the Kardashians did the same thing Friday after Neiman Marcus got rid of valet parking at its Beverly Hills location. At the moment, wrestling will be excluded starting with the 2020 Summer Games. However, in May the IOC will vote on adding a 26th sport for 2020 — wrestling will be considered, along with baseball/softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. (Those are all great sports — I actually was offered a wushu scholarship at Dartmouth but turned it down to go to Maryland, which had better parking — but none of them resonate Olympics-wise like wrestling.) Frankly, there are several Summer Games sports that should get the heave-ho before wrestling: ●Javelin throw. How is it still part of track and field? How many kids — outside of a handful of Norwegian suburbs — are dragging a javelin to school every day, hoping to fulfill their Olympic dream? ●Golf. Indeed, golf has been added to


After meteor blast in Russia, Laurel lab plans to smack an asteroid

fund and launch “the impactor.” The ESA, which announced this month a call for research ideas on the mission, would launch a second spacecraft to assess the impact and its effect. Defense of the planet against asteroids, a longtime focus of former astronauts, astronomers and amateur hobbyists, became the topic of worldwide discussions recently as the largest meteor to explode near Earth in a century blew out windows and injured 1,200 near the city of Chelyabinsk in central Russia, near the border with Kazakhstan. The meteor blast over the Chelyabinsk region, which has a population of 3.6 million people, was the largest recorded since one flattened more than 800 square miles of Siberian forest in 1908. The object entered the atmosphere at 9:20 a.m. local time Feb. 15, hours before an unrelated asteroid half the length of a football field hurtled past Earth. The twin punch, which scientists said was coincidental, served as a warning that space continues to hold dangers for humankind. A space object, if it is big enough and hits in the right spot, could destroy a city or worse. Scientists blame an asteroid more than six miles in diameter for wiping out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Cheng describes his project as straightforward. Didymos, Greek for “twin,” is actually two asteroids in one: a larger object with a smaller, moonlike rock circling it. And it is predicted to pass 6.5 million miles from Earth in 2022. In 2021, Cheng’s laboratory would launch a spacecraft into the path of the smaller of the two bodies, which is 492 feet in diameter. Cheng expects the collision to knock the smaller asteroid from its established path around the larger one, an impact that he said can be charted from high-powered telescopes on Earth. By targeting the smaller member of the “binary system,” the mission would produce “an orbital deflection which is both larger and easier to measure” than if it hit an asteroid circling the sun, according to the ESA’s preliminary report last year. “It is important to note that the target Didymos is not an Earth-crossing asteroid, and there is no prospect that the deflection experiment would create an impact hazard,” the agency said in its report, which Cheng helped draft. Finding asteroids is not just about danger; it is also about research. Cheng said the second spacecraft would measure the crater caused by the crash and


Wolfgang Sawallisch, celebrated German conductor who directed the Philadelphia Orchestra, dies at 89

capping his career in the United States with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The immediate cause was not reported, but Mr. Sawallisch had been diagnosed with extreme fatigue at the time of his retirement a decade ago. In an era of celebrity conductors, Mr. Sawallisch exemplified a different breed of maestro. Disinclined to hobnob with VIPs, he sometimes became so engrossed in his music that he was said to have taken his meals in silence. At the podium, he tended not to brandish his baton, as some of his showier colleagues liked to do, but rather to coax from the orchestra pit all the nuance of Strauss and the pathos of Beethoven. For nearly his entire career, Mr. Sawallisch was sought by prestigious orchestras around the world. He was reportedly the youngest conductor of the Wagnerian Bayreuth Festival in Germany. He led the Vienna Symphony, the Hamburg Philharmonic and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva for about a decade each, but he was most associated with the Bavarian State Opera. There he served as music director and general director for more than 20 years before moving to Philadelphia in 1993. In Philadelphia, Mr. Sawallisch found himself at the head of one of the most beloved orchestras in the world and one that had been led by a succession of high priests in classical music: Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy and Riccardo Muti. Mr. Sawallisch continued in their tradition. He was, music critic Donal Henahan wrote in the Times, one of the few conductors who could “beat time with one hand and shape fluid phrases with the other.” Mr. Sawallisch was known to shoot “famously dirty looks” at musicians who did not perform up to his standards, the Philadelphia Inquirer once noted. But he so skillfully brought out the best in them that they venerated him just the same. “The relationship between the musicians and myself gives me personally more liberty, more possibility to penetrate more into different music, ja?” he once told the Inquirer. “We can trust each other.” Mr. Sawallisch was most at home with the music of German composers such as Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Richard Strauss. The music critic David Patrick Stearns, writing in the Inquirer in 2000, described Mr. Sawallisch as “the greatest living Strauss conductor in an era loaded with excellent ones.” Of his recordings, the most noted ones included performances by baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and


Iran media criticize Oscar win for ‘Argo’

TEHRAN — Ben Affleck’s “Argo,” which recounts the successful rescue mission of several American diplomats during the 1979 hostage crisis in Tehran, won best picture Sunday night, and Iranian media was quick to react on Monday. The elation that followed Iran’s first Oscar victory for the film “A Separation,” which won best foreign film last year, however, has been pushed aside by what many here see as a politically motivated choice for this year’s best picture winner. That perception was re-enforced by the surprise presenter of the award, Michelle Obama. Fars News, Iran’s main hardline outlet, wasted no time in questioning her role, writing, “In a rare occasion in Oscar history, the First Lady announced the winner for Best Picture for the anti-Iran Film ‘Argo,’ which is produced by the Zionist company Warner Bros.” Others criticized the way Affleck referred to Islamic Republic in his acceptance speech when he said, “I want to thank our friends in Iran who live under terrible circumstances.” Mehr News ran this headline: “After distorting history, Ben Affleck continues to show a bleak picture of Iran: Iranians live in terrible circumstances.” The Asriran news Web site wrote, “Argo is a movie against Iran and it seems that Javad Shamghadri was not able to use his lobby to prevent an anti-Iran movie from winning,” referring to remarks by the deputy for cinema in Iran’s Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance who last week claimed that, at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s request, his organization had lobbied hard for “A Separation” to win in 2012, and that the efforts had paid off. The award comes less than two days before already tense nuclear talks between Iran and global powers resume in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The Post’s Ann Hornaday discusses Ben Affleck’s Oscar-nominated film “Argo.” She weighs in on the film’s chances for best picture and Affleck being passed over for a best director nomination. The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Iran over the hostage incident, and tensions between the two countries continue to be high over concerns about Iran’s ongoing nuclear activities.


Afghan governor details alleged abuse by U.S. special forces

KABUL — But NATO said its past inquiries found no evidence to support allegations of misconduct by U.S. Special Operations forces in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul. A joint commission of inquiry composed of Afghan and NATO coalition officials will explore in coming days the claims raised over the weekend by President Hamid Karzai’s administration — including allegations of the arrest, torture and extrajudicial killing of civilians. Residents in the province have complained to human rights groups and provincial leaders of being terrorized in recent months by an Afghan militia that works with U.S. commandos and calls itself “special forces” or “campaign forces.” Karzai on Sunday stunned the International Security Assistance Force, as the coalition of foreign forces is known, by ordering all U.S. Special Operations forces to leave Wardak in two weeks, based on allegations that they had been involved in the torture and murder of “innocent people.” A map locating Wardak Province, Aghanistan (The Washington Post/The Washington Post) It was one of the the Afghan president’s more strident attacks on his Western allies as U.S. and other foreign troops exit the country they have supported for more than a decade. Karzai has long complained about violations of Afghan sovereignty by international troops, although some U.S. observers say his rhetoric is deliberately overheated to play to a domestic audience. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, asked a news conference Monday in London about Karzai’s demand, said any concerns the Afghan government has will be “appropriately evaluated” by the international coalition. Because Special Operations troops carry out classified missions, it is difficult to independently confirm their activities or links to local groups. “The U.S. has had a long history in Afghanistan of working with some of these irregular militias that are not accountable to anyone,” said Sahr Muhammedally, legal adviser for the Center for Civilians in Conflict, who has studied such groups. “A lot of villagers talk about these campaign forces,” she said. “It is not the first time I have heard the name.... But the U.S. Special Operations forces don’t confirm or deny anything.” Several angry residents in Maidan Shahr, the small provincial capital 30 miles south of Kabul, told a Washington Post reporter in early December about a truck driver they said had just been beaten to death by an Afghan campaign militia working for the Americans. The residents said they feared the forces because of alleged abuses


Athletes and PEDs: The accident excuse is getting hard to swallow

After a stunning 2012 season, the Nationals are back in spring training in Viera, Fla. So Gio Gonzalez has passed drug and urine tests given to him by Major League Baseball after his name turned up on a list of clients who possibly purchased performance-enhancing drugs at the Biogenesis clinic in Miami. Gonzalez appears to be that rarest athlete of the new millennium — the one who didn’t do it — although MLB has yet to officially clear him. An ESPN report cited a document that indicated Gonzalez had purchased $1,000 worth of dietary supplements. Nats fans certainly hope that’s all it is, because a positive PED test can lead to a 50-game suspension. More than that, it would have been a signal that their Nats heroes of 2012 were beginning to show signs of FoCS (Feet of Clay Syndrome). Somewhere, someone is probably marketing a supplement to cure FoCS. Why not, when there seems to be a supplement for everything (some permitted, some not), and someone dopey enough to take them? Why, oh why, do athletes continue to ingest products about which they know almost nothing? If fake drugs can be administered to cancer patients, if labs can be so careless that their medications kill patients, then why on earth would you choose to take a supplement produced by Dr. Whackadoodle’s Mystery Garden Emporium? Yes, these prescription drugs that killed — by omission or commission — were overseen by the feds, but at least someone eventually caught on. Many athletes are like careless teenage girls who accept a drink from complete strangers at a party. We wonder who in the world would do that, in this age of rohipnol smoothies and ketamine cocktails, but it happens. NFL players may have to take the Wonderlic, but some are still not smart enough to realize that smoking pot, or taking Viagra as a performance enhancer, might not be the best ideas. Players these days should know better. They have a wealth of resources at their fingertips, starting with, well, wealth. But there’s more: Baseball provides guidance on these issues; if a player feels the need for a supplement, he can call MLB and ask if it’s accepted. How many players, after they are caught, claim that they didn’t know a PED or steroid was hidden in the supplement they bought? After winning the NL East in 2012, the Washington Nationals are


Ireland’s latest sell-off: Forest harvesting

DUBLIN — But away from the outdoor fun, a dark cloud is looming over Ireland’s forests. Under the terms of its 67.5 billion euro international bailout, the government is being forced to sell off assets and has decided to sell harvesting rights to timber as a way of raising cash. Karl Boyle, chief executive of Mountaineering Ireland, the organization for walkers and climbers, worries that the sell-off could prevent Dubliners from enjoying the area’s natural beauty. “This would restrict access to forests and higher uplands,” he says. Boyle is part of a disparate coalition of sports enthusiasts, trade unionists and timber mill owners opposing Dublin’s decisfion to raise 400 million to 600 million euros by selling harvesting rights to forests for up to 80 years. The sale is likely to be pitched at institutional investors such as pension funds, which seek a stable investment over the longer term. The Save Our Forests campaign is the most vocal opposition to a wider 3 billion euros planned state assets sale, which includes a lottery license, gas and electricity assets, and a 25 percent stake in Aer Lingus. Dublin has agreed to the sales with the troika of international lenders, which insists half of the money raised will be used to pay down debts. But progress is slow and opposition to state sell-offs is growing as Ireland prepares to exit its bailout program later this year. The government has already reneged on a pledge to sell a 15 percent stake in state electricity company ESB following trade union pressure. It now faces a “Don’t Loot The Lottery” campaign to block the sale of a lottery license worth up to 400 million euros, as well as opposition to its forestry strategy. Coillte, Ireland’s state forestry company, owns 445,000 acres of forest, equivalent to 7 percent of Ireland’s land cover. Under the government’s plan the company would be restructured and the rights to harvest forest timber would be sold. Ownership of the land would be retained by the state to ensure public access to the forests. But campaigners warn that forcing investors to provide access to forests would be costly for companies and could be ineffective. Companies have little incentive to maintain rights of way, particularly given Ireland’s stringent property laws, which unlike Britain do not give the public a “right to roam” on private land. A meeting between campaigners and parliamentarians is scheduled for


GOP pushes back on Obama sequester warnings, says he should seek deal

immediate, unpleasant consequences. Miss them, and Congress risked a national default or large tax hikes. This deadline is different. Even if the sequester takes effect as scheduled Friday, it could be weeks before the first employees are furloughed and the first effects are felt by the public. That could leave plenty of time for Congress to reverse or modify the cuts. On Monday, however, the administration continued its efforts to create a sense of urgency by laying out a vision of the sequester’s unpleasant effects. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Napolitano said the reductions also would disrupt her department’s ability to conduct customs inspections at ports, leading to increased wait times for travelers and cargo shipments. She said disaster relief funding would be reduced by $1 billion, meaning aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy and tornadoes in Joplin, Mo., and Tuscaloosa, Ala., could be cut. “I’m not here to scare people. I’m here to inform, and also to let people begin to plan,” Napolitano said. “Because they’re going to see these impacts in their everyday lives.” At national parks, the effects could include shorter visitor hours, furloughs for paid staff members and less money for snow plowing. That could delay spring openings at Yellowstone National Park and other places where snow must be cleared beforehand, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. At the National Institutes of Health, Director Francis S. Collins said the sequester would mean $1.6 billion in cuts and slow research on diseases such as cancer, influenza and Alzheimer’s. Hundreds of research grants would go unfunded, he said, and some 20,000 highly skilled workers would lose their jobs. Collins said he also expects to have to turn away patients from NIH’s clinical center, which allows people who have exhausted their treatment options to participate in clinical trials. At the Food and Drug Administration, officials said the cuts would probably mean delays in translating new science and technology into regulatory policy and decision making. That, they said, could result in longer wait times for the approval of new drugs and medical devices. Senate bills expected The warnings produced little progress on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are expected to introduce separate bills that would — in theory — avert the sequester. But both will be heavily partisan and designed to fail in hopes of embarrassing the other side. For Democrats, the plan would be to


Michael Gerson: The Special Olympics of joy

Down syndrome were often placed in institutions before parents could bond with them,denied surgery for heart problems and intestinal blockages, and targeted for eugenic sterilization. In 1929, most children born with Down syndrome did not live until age 10. Today, average life expectancy is between 50 and 60. Human beings, unsurprisingly, have shorter life spans when you refuse to give them routine treatment for medical problems. Children are “uneducable” when you refuse to educate them. Viewing the intellectually disabled as athletes has aided a civil rights revolution — changing both individual lives and social perceptions. And Special Olympics is carrying that revolution to a global scale. How many of the poor in the developing world are further disadvantaged, stigmatized and isolated by disability? We don’t really know. The world measures what it values — things like stock values and commodity prices. There is little good information on the struggles of the intellectually disabled. But Special Olympics programs in 170 countries are calling attention to the uncounted. The most recent World Games took place in Asia, where it can be hazardous to be a female child, much less a disabled one. In many places, Special Olympics has become a front-line human rights organization. Not that America — where thousands of children with Down syndrome are aborted each year based on prenatal diagnosis — has much standing to judge. Raising a child with a disability — getting adequate services in school, helping the transition to adulthood — remains difficult in ways that are hard for outsiders to imagine. But in dealing with struggles we would not envy, children with disabilities and their parents have created a form of community we should honor: one where worth is not contingent on accomplishment, where people strive without fear of failure, and affection is freely given, and some get a few extra shots, and bravery is common. Everyone, it turns out, is dependent and vulnerable — and sacred and able. And the most remarkable thing about that discovery is the sheer joy of it. Read more from Michael Gerson’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook Read more on this issue: George F. Will: My son with Down syndrome hits the big 4-0 When Bill met Shelley: A story of love overcoming disability Living well with Down syndrome Patricia E. Bauer: If the test says Down syndrome Michael Gerson: Trig’s breakthrough


Mapping out a budget for Hagel

purchases of excessively costly high-tech weapons and their use against less-costly targets. “We are a military superb at effectiveness, but long out of practice at efficiency,” he said. He even suggested that joint assignments had distorted personnel policies, becoming a promotion route and causing overstaffing of joint headquarters. Roughead’s most controversial suggestion came after he described as an indulgence the pursuit of “equal service budget shares,” which “ensures continuity and harmony among the branches.” Saying that current plans “will leave us with an overcapacity for land warfare and an undercapacity for emerging air, maritime and cyber challenges,” the former Navy chief called for the continued rebalancing of forces. For him that meant reducing the Army by another 200,000 people from the 490,000 contemplated in the Pentagon’s fiscal 2013 budget. He noted that the planned current figure was 10,000 over what the Army had in 2000, when strategy contemplated fighting two wars simultaneously. That’s not the Obama strategy. He also called for a 100,000-person increase in the Reserves and National Guard, along with “regular rotation whose principal mission would be arriving in a mature theater for sustained combat” should that be necessary. Roughead recommended a further 10,000-person reduction in the Marine Corps to 172,000, which would put it 3,000 below its level in 2000. That would still allow it to serve as “the forced entry and initial-response capability” of the four services. On another controversial issue, Roughead noted, “It is a matter of public record, many times over, that the military infrastructure [bases, air fields etc.] exceeds need,” but Congress has balked at closing facilities. His and Schake’s paper is toughest on reducing personnel costs, which they say “exceeds civilian compensation at every point along the 20-year career period, with the greatest variance among those with only a high school diploma.” They also note that pay is only 51 percent of overall compensation and that it’s the military “benefits, not salaries, that are crowding out operational and procurement spending.” Pointing to a 2012 survey of 2,600 military personnel, retirees and dependents sponsored by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, they wrote that service personnel in lower and mid-career ranks value their base pay most. The study also found that service members at all stages of their career do not value the Tricare health program commensurate with its $52 billion a year in the base budget. Roughead and Schake propose phasing


In Newport News shipyard, looming budget cuts create anxiety and anger

going to my savings account.” The job market beyond the comfortable confines of the military can be brutal. After grabbing dinner at Hot Dog King, where she has come for 40 years, Lynn Hester talked about her disappointment in Washington while her son-in-law chronicled his year-long struggle to find a permanent job. “I understand a little bit better what the people during the Great Depression went through trying to find work,” said Jeremy Marks, 34, who had left the Navy after a dozen years. “I decided to get out, like an idiot. I didn’t realize how bad the economy was, because in the military you don’t realize it.” He put in 200 applications — pizza jobs, forklift jobs, Taco Bell — and faced rejection after rejection before a temp agency finally sent him to a fuel-injector factory that likes to take former service members. They needed someone immediately. He started a week ago. His wife, Vanessa, will use Marks’s GI Bill education benefit to get a master’s in marriage and family therapy, and she hopes to eventually find a job in one of the region’s Christian counseling services. Vanessa’s mother, who is on disability as she fights cancer, said Marks did a little dance when the job finally came through and Hester could stop supporting — and hounding — him. “They should be too embarrassed to show their face,” Hester said. She saves particular skepticism for Democrats, who she said “in general have never looked out for the military.” Daryl Johnson, a retired Army officer from Newport News who works as a college math tutor, still gets hot thinking about the consequences of an earlier budget fight in the 1970s. He was stationed at Maryland’s Aberdeen Proving Ground and had to reach into his savings when soldiers didn’t get paid for two pay periods. They were eventually made whole, and Pentagon officials today are planning to furlough civilians first to try to protect service members. But Johnson wants Obama to come to Hampton Roads and take it straight to his colleagues at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. “I put it on Congress, I don’t put it on him,” Johnson said. “They’re messing with the military, and I don’t appreciate it. They’re messing with me. He needs to let people know that when he gets down here.” Discuss this topic and other political issues in The Post’s Politics Discussion Forums.


Even as the economy slowly improves, the vast majority of Americans remain deeply worried about their ability to achieve a secure retirement, according to a new survey. The poll, to be released by the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) at a conference on Tuesday, found that 55 percent of Americans are “very concerned” that the current economic conditions are harming their retirement prospects. An additional 30 percent reported being “somewhat concerned” about their ability to retire. The level of anxiety Americans feel about their preparation for retirement has continued to peak in the recession’s aftermath, a finding that the poll’s sponsors said highlights the need for policymakers to bolster the nation’s retirement programs. “People are anxious about retirement. We know that,” said Diane Oakley, president of NIRS, a Washington-based nonprofit organization. “The question is, how do you get people to act on that?” As aging Americans are increasingly burdened by debt, spiraling health-care costs and diminishing pension coverage, an increasing number of researchers argue that a long era of improved living standards for the elderly is now in jeopardy. The Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee says the nation faces a $6.6 trillion retirement-savings deficit. Meanwhile, a retirement security index developed by Boston College’s Center on Retirement Research as well as economists at the New School have found that a majority of Americans are at risk of being financially worse off than their parents in retirement. The Service Employees International Union recently released a fact sheet saying that black and Latino workers are particularly at risk for seeing their standard of living significantly erode in retirement because they tend to have fewer assets, less retirement income and higher medical expenses. NIRS is among a number of groups calling on the federal government to bolster Social Security benefits or to create a new layer of retirement help for future retirees. But those calls have been overshadowed by concern about the nation’s long-term debt, which has prompted many policymakers to focus on ways to reduce Social Security and other retirement benefits rather than increase them. The high anxiety Americans feel about retirement has them clamoring for the protections that used to be common for workers, the survey found. More than four in five Americans, for example, have favorable views of traditional pensions, which pay a guaranteed amount to retirees for life. Americans hold that view even though many experts point


In Ireland, the promise and problems of Europe’s recovery

weakly. This month, Ireland reached a key deal to reduce short-term debt by liquidating the nationalized and broken Anglo Irish Bank. That has added to hopes that Ireland, if the economy holds up, can break free of its rescue program from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union bailout and return to the bond markets by year’s end. But what is really happening, many argue, is more a bottoming out of the crisis than a genuine recovery — with the chances of a fall back into recession an ever-present threat. And even as conditions improve, the country is facing new challenges. Wages, for instance, have fallen by almost 15 percent since the crisis began — something economists say was essential in a nation where an overly high cost structure was making it globally uncompetitive. At the same time, though, the value of the euro — a currency shared by 17 nations — is bouncing back, making everything from Irish pharmaceuticals to Irish whiskey suddenly more expensive on global markets, eroding some of Ireland’s hard-fought gains. “This isn’t going to be an easy recovery, not one big bounce back,” said Constantin Gurdgiev, an economist at Trinity College in Dublin. “This is going to be ugly.” Uncertainties remain There are still many fuses that could reignite the crisis, including in the housing sector. For instance, to save on expenses, Donnelly has moved in with his sister, who owes roughly $80,000 more than her home is worth. She is not alone. Tens of thousands of Irish homeowners are still underwater in a country where home prices have fallen by almost 50 percent and banks have been slow to address arrears. Thus, economists say, a potential new wave of home foreclosures across Ireland remains a substantial risk, just as it does in other hard-hit European nations, including Spain. Donnelly’s new job also speaks to how hard it may be for other countries in Europe to mirror Ireland’s trajectory out of recession. He found work among the multinational companies that are growing in Ireland in part because of its extremely low corporate tax rate, giving this nation a boost that could be replicated only if other countries in Europe begin engaging in a bruising brawl over who charges foreign firms the least to do business there. While foreign firms, including Google and PayPal, are indeed a rare light in the economic landscape here, they


Katrina vanden Heuvel: Sequestering common sense

economy is hindering any recovery, as Yellen noted. Sadly, none of the supposed free-market ideologues in Congress are listening to the markets. With interest rates near zero, investors are sending the United States a flashing green light: Go borrow money to rebuild our decrepit and deteriorating infrastructure, investments that would put people back to work and make the country far more competitive. So why this obsession with deficits and debt? There are many factors, but central to it is a widespread elite consensus that this crisis provides a unique opportunity to “fix” — exact benefit cuts from — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, despite the opposition of broad majorities across the political spectrum. No one has done more to propagate and consolidate this consensus than the Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson, who has been railing about the threat posed by the “paid vacation” provided by Social Security and Medicare for over three decades. As a special feature in this week’s Nation (which I edit) and a valuable report by the Center for Media and Democracy demonstrate, Peterson has devoted nearly half a billion dollars to this quest since 2008. Only last week, Fix the Debt, one of the many groups funded by Peterson, trotted out its co-founders, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, to lay out yet another plan. Echoing Peterson’s views, they called for cuts in Medicare and Social Security, tax reform that would lower top rates but close loopholes (including middle-class tax breaks such as that for employer-based health care), and curbs on all other government spending. This elite consensus ignores how we got into the fix we are in. The deficit was under 2 percent of gross domestic product in 2007 and the debt under 40 percent of GDP when Wall Street’s wilding blew up the housing bubble and drove the economy into the Great Recession. Wall Street got bailed out, but the deficit soared to 11 percent of GDP and Americans lost nearly 40 percent of their wealth. You’d think anyone so fixated on avoiding another Pearl Harbor moment would focus on making certain Wall Street was properly shackled, and the too-big-to-fail banks broken up. But the elite bipartisan consensus is focused on sending the bill for Wall Street’s mess to an already battered middle class, by weakening the basic pillars of a family’s economic security — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And they are a lot


Should Ikea move away from meatballs?

not affected.) Pulling the little morsels from stores was, of course, the obvious thing to do. Ever since Johnson & Johnson removed Tylenol from shelves following a cyanide scare back in 1982, the prompt withdrawal of mislabeled or contaminated products has been the gold standard response for business leaders. So it’s no wonder Idea made the same “extraordinary effort,” as company spokesperson Ylva Magnusson called it. What’s less obvious is what Ikea’s managers should do now. Are the “mysteriously cheap” meatballs so iconic that Ikea wouldn’t be Ikea without them? The meatballs, part of the company’s food-sales division that make up 5 percent of the company’s revenue, are one of its most popular products, inspiring everything from poetry from adoring fans to distressed tweets over their removal from store shelves. At the same time, trotting them back out (forgive me!) after the horsemeat scandal may give some customers pause. For a retailer whose specialty is inexpensive home furnishings, is it worth the risk to also sell packaged foods with even more complex supply chains? We may not know what’s really in particle board, but any “ick” factor associated with flatpack furniture is far smaller than one associated with food. Is it time to stick to furniture? If handled correctly, there may be little long-term impact for Ikea from the scandal. After all, Ikea is not exactly Whole Foods-most consumers probably didn’t have high expectations of its meatball ingredients in the first place-and a brand with as many cult followers as Ikea has is likely to weather the storm. Still, there’s one thing the company definitely needs to do in the short term -- stay ahead of any further potential discoveries of equine in its edibles. It can’t risk appearing as anything other than completely forthcoming. When Ikea reintroduces meatballs in the affected countries, company leaders should clearly communicate what they have done to ensure the right ingredients are in there. Switching suppliers could be a start. And it wouldn’t hurt to offer a refund to customers with meatballs in their freezer-even if they’re horsemeat free. They may not look so appetizing anymore. What do you think Ikea should do now? Share your thoughts in the comments section. Read also: Yahoo’s perplexing ban on working from home When maternity leave doesn’t mean ‘out of office’ The corporate kabuki of performance reviews Like On Leadership? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter: @postlead


Horsemeat scandal dents Europe’s culinary self-image

after a new law banning horse-drawn vehicles on country roads. After being transported with accurate labeling from a Romanian slaughterhouse, the frozen horsemeat was relabeled as beef and sold to the highest bidder, according to the ministry’s investigation. Without changing locale, the meat went through the hands of at least two traders, one in Cyprus and another in the Netherlands, who had previously been fined for fraudulent meat labeling, the ministry said. The traders eventually sold and shipped the meat to Comigel, a large-scale processing firm with a plant in Metz, in eastern France, and administrative offices in Luxembourg, a tiny duchy sandwiched between France and Germany that often serves as an address for tax-dodging businesses, the investigation showed. Without suspecting that the meat came from horses — and without checking — Comigel diced it up and manufactured thousands of frozen dishes such as pizza and pot pies, according to the inquiry. The dishes were produced under a number of brand names on contract to a variety of multinational chains across Europe, it found. After a crisis meeting in Brussels with his E.U. counterparts, Hamon announced plans to focus increased attention on the food industry to prevent a recurrence of the labeling fraud and ensure that meat sold in French stores is marked with its place of origin. European law requires that labels include the type of meat being sold — beef, pork, lamb — but not its origin. An E.U. official in Brussels noted to reporters that if the label is fraudulent, a new mandate to include origin “changes nothing.” Although Spanghero’s management denied acting illegally, the company’s operating license was suspended, putting about 300 employees out of work. But the license was renewed a week later, after the workers protested that they were being scapegoated and Spanghero pledged to halt its involvement in the wholesale trade of unprocessed meat. Subsequent discoveries of horsemeat in prepared dishes, including one in the Czech Republic that led Ikea to withdraw meatballs from its furniture stores in a dozen countries, have raised suspicions that Spanghero might not be the only source of mislabeled meat. E.U. and national authorities have stepped up testing to find out. In the meantime, Perico Legasse, gastronomy critic for France’s Marianne magazine, treated readers this week to a recipe for lasagna — the real thing, from scratch, with fresh meat. Anthony Faiola in London contributed to this report.


Shopping for healthful food on a limited budget

New York City and N Street Village in the District. The tours explore how to buy fruits and vegetables on a budget, how to read food labels and how to identify whole grains and compare unit prices. In 2012, 21,000 low-income adults attended a tour in 46 states; 68 percent of them were receiving some kind of federal food assistance. It has become conventional wisdom that Americans don’t know how cook. But shopping for food, especially on a budget, is for many an equally daunting prospect. In a world where busy schedules mean that reheating a frozen pizza counts as cooking, shopping smart might be even more important. “I read labels, but not all the time,” said Tony Ferreira, 58, who attended the Brooklyn tour. “This puts me on my guard. Now I know.” The curriculum began as one part of Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters program, a six-week course that teaches low-income families how to cook healthfully. In the fall of 2011, the organization began to offer stand-alone store tours as well. Many partners do not have the resources to offer a six-week program, said Janet McLaughlin, Cooking Matters’ senior program director. “The shopping tour is always the true ‘aha’ moment for the families in our courses,” she said. “Smart grocery shopping is the first step to making healthier meals at home.” Indeed, putting healthful food on the table starts long before cooks turn on the stove. Students examined labels on whole-wheat bread (to make sure that whole-wheat flour was the first ingredient listed) and cartons of Welch’s Strawberry Breeze Cocktail (only to discover that a single eight-ounce serving contained 32 grams of sugar). But the big focus of the tour was buying produce strategically. According to a 2012 Share Our Strength survey of low-income families, 81 percent knew that fresh produce was healthful but only 32 percent thought the same of frozen fruits and vegetables, which are often cheaper and don’t run the risk of rotting in the crisper drawer. On the Brooklyn tour, leader Aliya Rowe praised the convenience of frozen vegetables and made a few converts. She also tried, less successfully, to convince the students that canned vegetables were a convenient, economical alternative. “I know you don’t like them as much,” she said holding up a can of green beans. “But sometimes, when you’re in a hurry, these are great. And it’s better than no vegetables.”


A military draft will keep us honest

Melvin R. Laird [“We don’t need a draft,” Washington Forum, Feb. 22] listed reasons why returning to a military draft would be a mistake, but he missed one very good reason why we should do it anyway: It will help keep us honest. During the depths of the Iraq war, recruiting quotas were met by lowering standards and increasing compensation. Waivers were granted (not just for misdemeanor but also for felony convictions), bonuses were hiked and the maximum enlistment age was raised from 35 to 42. This allowed some to maintain the fiction that there were no problems with the “all-volunteer force” and that the nation was behind the war. Standards and compensation should be set at levels required to staff the military with suitable resources. If, however, a time comes when sufficient numbers of volunteers fail to materialize, a draft should be instituted. Giving voters and politicians a reason to believe that they, or their sons and daughters, might have “skin in the game” would help them reflect more acutely on whether to go to war. Michael Lilek, Bethesda ● Melvin R. Laird’s commentary brought to mind some of the notable benefits the draft provided to our country and those who served. As someone who served in the military during both the draft and all-volunteer eras, I have seen the tangible benefits that the draft provided to those who didn’t go directly to college — instilling responsibility, discipline, self-esteem, pride in one’s appearance, respect for authority, a sense of duty and direction. The military provided people with skills equivalent to those required for civilian jobs such as mechanics, policemen, plumbers, medical technicians and air-traffic controllers. The draft gave our country experienced, knowledgeable legislators who were better prepared to make decisions about military defense matters. And the G.I. Bill afforded many veterans the opportunity to earn a college degree, which bettered society. Although most draftees, enlistees and officers couldn’t wait until their service commitment was up, they would later acknowledge the benefit of their service and how proud they were of having served their country. Mr. Laird is correct that the all-volunteer force has been successful, but it does lack some benefits of the draft. John V. Daley, Ellicott City The writer is a retired Air Force chief master sergeant.


New wave of urban barbecue joints sticks with the wood

have gained a foothold. About a fifth of the establishments in Texas Monthly’s latest ranking of the state’s Top 50 barbecue restaurants use gas. (A new list comes out in the magazine’s June issue.) But Austin’s Franklin Barbecue and Dallas’s Pecan Lodge are just two of several new wood-only restaurants aiming to reclaim the Lone Star State’s smoking heritage. The East Coast, however, is where the wood-only trend is most striking. That’s because, for years, they said it couldn’t be done. The laws were too strict. The fumes would bother residents in urban environs. The fire department wouldn’t approve. They were wrong. A good ventilation system takes care of the smoke problem. Top systems are designed with pinholes and scrubbers to catch and remove particulates. Strict safety measures, such as having well-secured pits and vigilantly cleaning them, can address fire concerns. Fletcher’s Brooklyn Barbecue Fisher says he smokes his briskets, St. Louis-cut ribs and pork over a live fire of freshly cut (not seasoned) red oak and sugar maple. It’s more difficult, he acknowledges, but smoking with only wood gives the meats a more distinctive flavor and color — including the pink layer known as the smoke ring — than any other technique. A subway ride away, in Manhattan’s East Village, Mighty Quinn’s Barbeque, which opened in December and is owned by expatriate Texan Hugh Mangum, also uses a J&R, but its version eschews any electric element. “We thought it was an unnecessary expense, since we knew we were just going to be cooking with wood,” says pitman Alex Stanko, adding that the meats are cooked over oak mixed with a little cherry and apple. In Philly, Bubba’s Texas BBQ, which opened in October, uses a custom-made all-wood smoker to coddle its 21-spice rubbed brisket, spare ribs and pork into submission. The trend is a repudiation of the techno-cue helping to propel the astonishing growth of barbecue restaurants around the country. Gas-fired, wood-enhanced ovens, such as those made by Southern Pride and Ole Hickory, are easier and cheaper to use than all-wood smokers. A pitman places a log or two in a fire chamber, sets the temperature and forgets it. The method assures a consistent product at a comparatively low cost. With wood-only cooking, the variables are enormous. The wood’s moisture content can vary, which affects the cooking time. Availability can be iffy, due to tree diseases and other factors,


Supermarket customers are hot for takeout

rumors that Whole Foods conducts some sort of nefarious bait-and-switch campaign at its stores: enticing you with good-quality ingredients in the grocery aisles but serving you hot meals made with inferior ones. It’s just not true, they say. “This is kind of a myth that’s out there: that the prepared foods team is buying from the Syscos of the world and the big food vendors,” says Scott Crawford, Whole Foods’ prepared foods coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic region. “I share the same vendors with my produce counterparts. I share the same vendors with my seafood counterparts. The standard is one across the store. There isn’t a cheaper piece of chicken coming out of prepared foods, as far as the quality standards, as what you’re going to buy at the counter. “There’s one quality for the whole store,” Crawford adds. “So the Bell & Evans chicken that we sell in the meat department, it’s the same chicken I use on my hot bar.” One consumer demand driving the future of hot foods is the desire for more-healthful options. Wegmans and Whole Foods have tackled the issue head on. In 2009, Whole Foods introduced the Health Starts Here program, which, among other things, offers mostly plant-based hot foods with minimal salt and little fat. In 2010, Wegmans went so far as to send a team of chefs to Haus Hiltl in Zurich, Switzerland, considered Europe’s oldest vegetarian restaurant, to learn how to cook veggies better. “They just really, as we do at Wegmans, take vegetable preparation very seriously,” says Jim Schaeffer, the company’s operations director of food preparation. “There was a time in America 20 years ago, if someone preferred vegetables, it would be simple steamed vegetables or maybe sauteed vegetables. People would spend more time on the center of the plate, the protein, than on the vegetable preparation. There are so many things you can do to make vegetables craveable — through spices, through different preparation methods.” At almost any Wegmans, a customer strolling through the hot bar area can find 30 to 40 vegetable-based dishes, Schaeffer says. “That’s an area that’s just exploding for us.” The future of hot foods at your local grocer would appear boundless. Whole Foods, for one, has already greatly expanded the offerings at both its P Street and Silver Spring stores in recent years; around two years ago, the number of hot-bar items at the P


bar.” One consumer demand driving the future of hot foods is the desire for more-healthful options. Wegmans and Whole Foods have tackled the issue head on. In 2009, Whole Foods introduced the Health Starts Here program, which, among other things, offers mostly plant-based hot foods with minimal salt and little fat. In 2010, Wegmans went so far as to send a team of chefs to Haus Hiltl in Zurich, Switzerland, considered Europe’s oldest vegetarian restaurant, to learn how to cook veggies better. “They just really, as we do at Wegmans, take vegetable preparation very seriously,” says Jim Schaeffer, the company’s operations director of food preparation. “There was a time in America 20 years ago, if someone preferred vegetables, it would be simple steamed vegetables or maybe sauteed vegetables. People would spend more time on the center of the plate, the protein, than on the vegetable preparation. There are so many things you can do to make vegetables craveable — through spices, through different preparation methods.” At almost any Wegmans, a customer strolling through the hot bar area can find 30 to 40 vegetable-based dishes, Schaeffer says. “That’s an area that’s just exploding for us.” The future of hot foods at your local grocer would appear boundless. Whole Foods, for one, has already greatly expanded the offerings at both its P Street and Silver Spring stores in recent years; around two years ago, the number of hot-bar items at the P Street store increased by about 70 percent, notes Crawford. If a Whole Foods store doesn’t have a hot bar, it’s “purely because of space,” says Paul White, the chain’s senior global coordinator for prepared foods. “It surely wouldn’t be because we don’t want them there. And it wouldn’t be because our customers don’t want them. It’s something we definitely know that our customers want.” It would seem that supermarkets are inching closer to the Wal-mart Supercenter model, looking to cater to all your dining needs in one stop. You can grab a loaf of fresh bread, a bottle of wine and a to-go container of your favorite hot-bar items, probably for less than you’d spend at a local restaurant. “It’s like going to a Costco. You can get about everything you want,” says consultant Spinelli. “You can probably get your car fixed one day.” More from Food: What happens to hot-bar leftovers? The Immigrant’s Table Rotisserie chickens, here to stay


Ballistic missile strikes on Aleppo signal new escalation in Syria war

none had heard before. “There was a compression of the air, then a flash, then everything went dark,” said Fouad Hajo, 33, who lives nearby and says he pulled dozens of bodies from the rubble. “Everything was black — black smoke and black fire.” “People flew in the air,” Mohammed Haj Saleh, 33, added as he squatted on the rubble of his home. “There was flesh everywhere, and people’s bodies were blown apart.” The Syrian government denied this week that it is using Scuds in its battle to crush the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, in which as many as 70,000 people have been killed. But military experts say all the available evidence, including the scale of the devastation from the explosions and the sightings — captured on video — of missiles being fired from bases outside Damascus shortly before the blasts, points to them being Scuds. The Russian-designed missiles carry about 2,000 pounds of explosives and are manufactured by Syria using parts imported from Russia, North Korea and Iran. The Obama administration also thinks the missiles are most likely Scuds. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, on his first overseas trip in his new job, called the strikes on Aleppo “unacceptable,” saying that the use of Scuds belied an offer of negotiations by the Syrian government. “It’s pretty hard to understand how, when you see these Scuds falling on the innocent people of Aleppo, it’s possible to take their notion that they’re ready to have a dialogue very seriously,” he told reporters Monday. ‘There’s nothing bigger’ Scud missiles are so inaccurate that it is hard to imagine that their use in residential areas is intended to do anything other than kill civilians, said Joe Holliday of the Institute for the Study of War, who estimates their margin of error as up to a mile. Their use may also point to the regime’s limited options in its efforts to repress what has become an increasingly effective rebel force, which has acquired the capabilities first to blunt ground offensives and, more recently, to shoot down planes. Extremist rebel groups also have used suicide bombings to devastating effect in government-controlled Damascus and elsewhere. In a war that has moved rapidly from bullets to shells to helicopter gunships and warplanes, “Scuds are the next escalation,” Holliday said. “There’s nothing bigger that the regime hasn’t used” — barring chemical weapons, which many fear could


Iran nuclear talks end on upbeat note

new uranium enrichment centrifuges and domestically made reactor fuel. Secretary of State John F. Kerry “We’d like to move to a better relationship, and it begins with resolving this nuclear issue,” Kerry told reporters in Paris, where he was in the midstpart of a nine-nation trip. The talks were the first in nearly eight months between Iran and the six-nation bloc known as the P5-plus-1 — the United States, Britain, China, Germany, France and Russia. The negotiators met against a backdrop of Western anxiety over Iran’s recent steps to boost its output of enriched uranium, which can be used to fuel nuclear power plants or, with additional processing, to form the explosive core of a nuclear weapon. The negotiations began Tuesday and were expected to last one day, but a second day was added as diplomats traded proposals for addressing international anxieties over Iran’s nuclear program. U.S. diplomats described the outlines of a new offer to Iran that would ease some of the pain from economic sanctions in exchange for specific cuts and restrictions to its nuclear program. Under the proposal, Iran would freeze production of a more highly enriched form of uranium that can be quickly converted for use in a weapons program. It would also have to agree to more intrusive inspections of its nuclear facilities and to halt uranium enrichment at Fordow, a plant built inside a mountain near the city of Qom. Iran has balked at such demands in the past. In an attempt to overcome Iran’s resistance, the new proposal would provide immediate relief from some specific sanctions. Western diplomats declined to describe the proposed sanctions relief but said Iran would continue to face banking sanctions and an oil embargo, at least in the short run. “The sanctions-easing steps contained in the Almaty proposal are meaningful and would be of substantial benefit to Iran,” the senior U.S. official said. The official added that the Iranian team “indicated that a number of the ideas contained in the proposal merited further consideration.” After the talks ended, Iran’s chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, cautioned that there remains “a long distance to the desirable point,” particularly on the issue of proposed limits to Iran’s uranium-enrichment program. But he said the atmosphere had changed markedly since the last attempt at negotiations failed eight months ago in Moscow. “Despite the behavior that they have shown over the past eight months, it was


Poll: Most don’t believe in being a tax cheat

With tax season in full swing, a newly released poll says an overwhelming majority of adults don’t believe it is ever okay to cheat on their income taxes, with most citing personal integrity as a reason to be truthful. When asked how much, if any, is an acceptable amount to cheat on your income taxes, 87 percent of respondents said “not at all.” Only 11 percent said “a little here and there” or “as much as possible.” Ninety-five percent said personal integrity influences them to honestly report their taxes, while 63 percent said fear of an audit did. Only 41 percent said they are honest because they believe their neighbors are, too. The telephone poll of 1,500 randomly chosen adults was sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board, which released the findings Tuesday. The findings are in line with previous surveys done by the board. Board Chairman Paul Cherecwich Jr. noted the importance of honesty in a tax system that asks people to report their own financial information. There are many backstops in the system, with employers and financial institutions also reporting taxpayer information to the IRS. But the IRS only audits 1 percent of individual returns each year, according to agency statistics. “Personal integrity is at the core of our self-assessment tax system,” Cherecwich said. “The overwhelming majority of American taxpayers play by the rules and expect everyone else to do the same.” Forty-three percent said they think the IRS maintains a proper balance between tax enforcement and taxpayer service; 30 percent said they think the agency devotes too many resources to enforcement. Elizabeth Maresca, a former IRS trial lawyer, said most taxpayers don’t have much of an opportunity to cheat on their taxes. Two-thirds of individual filers don’t itemize their deductions, instead taking the standard deduction. And for those who do itemize, many of their claims are verified by financial institutions that are required to notify the IRS. For example, if you earn interest on a bank account or pay interest on a home mortgage, financial institutions send forms to both you and the IRS. Employers send wage information to the IRS. “The vast majority of people, I think, don’t even have an opportunity to cheat on their taxes,” said Maresca, an associate law professor at Fordham University. “They are so limited in what they can do and take and what breaks they are entitled to. You


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These were among cases received recently by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5054. That number provides recorded information on topics such as the Montgomery County Animal Shelter hours and location, adoption and licensing procedures, rabies clinics and low-cost neutering. Fawn falls into window well Shih Tzu owner was almost scot-free No-kill shelter has adoptable cats: Gaithersburg Montgomery County Humane Society Germantown PetSmart Milestone Center 20924 Frederick Rd. Noon to 3 p.m. Sunday — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Belai Abbai, World Bank economist

Belai Abbai, 85, a senior agricultural economist with the World Bank who retired in the early 1990s, died of lung cancer Feb. 16 at the Washington Home and Community Hospice in the District. His son, Yared Belai, confirmed the death. Mr. Abbai joined the World Bank in Washington in 1976. In retirement, he continued to do consulting for the bank. Belai Abbai, who lived in Washington, was born in Adwa, Ethiopia. He graduated from Southampton University in England and received a master’s degree in developmental economics from Harvard University in the early 1960s. He was an economist with the Ethiopian government and with the United Nations before relocating to Washington in 1976. His marriages to Negist Zewdu and Dr. Fisseha Tekle-Wold ended in divorce. Survivors include a daughter from his first marriage, Axum Belai of Washington; and three sons from his second marriage, Caleb Belai of Bethesda, Abbai Belai of London and Yared Belai of Washington. — Bart Barnes


Sequester spin gets ahead of reality

show the impact on some programs — the checks the federal government sends to unemployed people will be smaller, for instance. But many of the reductions, such as those in education spending, will not be felt for months in most school systems, which gives individual districts some time to make adjustments and allowances for the lost funds. That means the administration’s dire projection that “as many as 40,000 teachers could lose their jobs” is guesswork at best; most school districts will not start sending out layoff notices for the next school year until around May. State and local governments could also shift money around to blunt the impact on some popular programs such as Meals on Wheels, which delivers food to homebound elderly people and is funded with flexible federal grant money. And some of the scariest scenarios — say, concerns that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which stands to lose more than $300 million, will not have the resources it needs to spot and contain the next deadly disease outbreak — are by their nature impossible to quantify. “The threats aren’t decreasing,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden. “I can’t predict when an outbreak is going to happen.” While the country has lived through five temporary government shutdowns since 1981, “we actually haven’t had something quite like this before,” said David Kamin, formerly special assistant to the president for economic policy in the Obama White House and now a New York University law professor. “We’ve never had an across-the-board cut of this magnitude applied.” What is not new, however, is the impulse of officials to resort to melodrama when they are faced with budget cuts. Getting people’s attention has been a challenge in the case of the sequester. In the latest Washington Post-Pew Research Center survey, only one in four said they were closely following news about the automatic spending cuts. The ploy even has a name: the “Washington Monument” syndrome, a reference to the National Park Service’s decision to close that landmark and the Grand Canyon for two days a week after the Nixon administration cut funding in 1969. It worked. Congress restored the Park Service’s money. (At the moment, however, the Washington Monument is already closed, for repairs of earthquake damage.) Another variation of that tactic is known as “Firemen First.” President Obama employed that one on Feb. 19, when he stood in front of dozens


Thursday in D.C.: 4 things to look for

Coming up today in the D.C. region: Washington Nationals: Gun control: Tribute to the pope: WikiLeaks: