Death of shooting victim brings D.C. homicide toll to 134

the 1000 block of Savannah Street SE. Authorities said he died Sunday at a hospital. Three other people have been killed in the District since Friday. — Peter Hermann Two are found dead in Capitol Hill home Two people were found dead inside a Capitol Hill home Monday afternoon, officials said. First District D.C. Police Commander Jeff Brown said police have not yet identified the man and woman who died. There were no signs of forced entry to the home, he said. A family member called police to check on the people inside the two-story rowhouse in the 200 block of Tennessee Avenue NE about 3:20 p.m., police spokesman Hugh Carew said. — Clarence Williams Man is charged in fatal stabbing D.C. police arrested a 26-year-old man Monday on charges that he killed a Temple Hills man last month in the Congress Heights area of Southeast Washington, officials said. Authorities arrested John D. Allen of Southeast Washington on a charge of second-degree murder while armed in the killing of Cortez L. Clark on Oct. 13. Police found Clark fatally stabbed in the 300 block of Parkland Place SE about 1 p.m. that day. — Clarence Williams VIRGINIA Man found dead in Woodbridge identified A man found dead on the front steps of a townhouse in Woodbridge has been identified by police. Gilbert Kinard, 48, had been fatally stabbed, Prince William County police said. Police said they do not know of any connection between Kinard and the townhouse in the 15200 block of Brazil Circle where he was found dead Sunday morning. They said they do not think the killing was random, but they have not named a suspect. — Julie Zauzmer Pedestrian is killed on Franconia Road A man was struck and killed Sunday while crossing a street in Fairfax County. Police said the incident happened about 10:45 p.m. in the 5600 block of Franconia Road in the Alexandria area. Khan Khan, 69, of Alexandria was crossing the road, headed from the south side to the north, police said, when he stopped in the median to wait for traffic to pass. But he was struck by a vehicle that was headed west. Police said the driver of the vehicle did not stop. Khan was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities think a white, full-size van or truck hit Khan. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-866-411-8477. — Dana Hedgpeth


Scraps of inconclusive evidence surface on Russian airliner crash

Here's what we know about the deadly Russian plane crash that killed all 224 people on board Saturday, Oct. 31. MOSCOW — Investigators have not said whether the plane disintegrated in midair because of a technical malfunction, an act of terrorism or some other reason. They have begun reviewing information from the plane’s flight recorders, but a report could take two to four weeks to produce, an Egyptian government spokesman said. A U.S. satellite registered a “heat flash” about the time that the plane crashed, a U.S. official said Tuesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the information publicly. Although that could mean a bomb or a fuel tank aboard the plane exploded, he said it was too soon to jump to conclusions and that the heat flash may have been triggered by the breakup of the plane itself. The governments of Egypt and Russia, the two countries closest to the investigation, have sought to quash speculation about what brought down the plane. In Russia, news agencies that serve as clearinghouses for government statements have released new clues about the crash, but those reports cited anonymous sources in the investigation, making them difficult to verify. Russia’s Interfax news service, citing a source in the investigation, said Tuesday that there were no signs of a malfunction with the plane and that the pilots were chatting normally with air-traffic controllers until four minutes before an “emergency situation occurred on board unexpectedly.” “In the recordings, sounds uncharacteristic of a standard flight precede the moment of the airliner’s disappearance from radar screens,” the news service reported without elaboration. “The pilots had no time to send out a distress signal.” Russia’s transport minister, Maxim Sokolov, said Tuesday that Russian experts already had conducted a preliminary inspection of the two flight recorders, commonly known as “black boxes,” and had seen information from Egypt’s flight-control radars. But he did not discuss further details. Dmitry Peskov, the personal spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told journalists Tuesday that Russia was looking into the reports of the heat flash, but he gave few other details about the investigation. He chided a reporter for asking whether Russia’s intervention in Syria may have served as a motive for an attack on a Russian plane. “These hypothetical theories are completely inappropriate,” he said. But the theories keep coming. A regional news outlet based in the


Police say deaths in Capitol Hill rowhouse are murder-suicide

A gym trainer who had been dating a patron shot and killed her inside her Tennessee Avenue rowhouse on Capitol Hill and then turned the gun on himself, according to D.C. police and the woman’s parents. The couple’s bodies were discovered Monday afternoon after a relative called police to check on the house. Police on Tuesday identified the victims as John Robinson, 37, and Desiree Cooper, 36, and classified the case as a murder-suicide. Few details were made public, including when the shootings occurred or how long the bodies had been inside the house in the 200 block of Tennessee Avenue NE. Cooper’s parents said they do not know of a motive. Robinson’s relatives could not be reached. He lived in a separate house in Northeast and worked at the Results gym on G Street SE. The manager, Dekerry Davis, said Robinson had worked there for six years but declined further comment . Cooper’s mother, Vivian Cooper, said her daughter met Robinson at the gym. She said her daughter, an architect in Arlington, was trying to help Robinson further his education. She said she met Robinson a few times but did not know of serious problems between the couple. “She didn’t tell me anything really bad,” her mother said. Desiree Cooper grew up in Harrisburg, Pa., and moved to the District about a year ago. She bought the rowhouse and was renovating it between running marathons and volunteering. “She loved D.C.,” Vivian Cooper said. “She thought it was a great town. “She lived life to the fullest, and it was cut short.”


D.C. news in brief

not be raked into the street because the leaf piles block catch basins and create a fire hazard for parked vehicles. From Dec. 28 to Jan. 8, the department will also collect Christmas trees and other greenery. Oct. 30 was the last day for residential street sweeping until March. The department suspends sweeping in the winter because the water released by the sweepers can freeze, creating a potential hazard for vehicles and pedestrians. Overnight sweeping along major D.C. roadways, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Constitution and Independence avenues, will continue all winter as weather permits. Motorists should observe the street-sweeping signs posted along those streets. For information and collection schedules, go to dpw.dc.gov. Chevy Chase and Shepherd Park libraries to close for improvements Two libraries in Northwest will close Saturday for lengthy improvement projects. The Chevy Chase Library, 5625 Connecticut Ave. NW, will be closed for two months. Improvements will be made to the first floor, including new flooring, paint and furniture; a new information and checkout desk with an express checkout machine; consolidation of computers and copiers in one location; and the addition of power outlets to reader tables. The project budget is about $650,000. The Juanita E. Thornton/Shepherd Park Library, 7420 Georgia Ave. NW, will be closed for four months for work primarily on the first and second floors. The project will include a new teen area, new conference and study rooms, and exterior repairs to the roof and building drainage system. Like Chevy Chase, Thornton will also get new flooring, paint and furniture, and power outlets on all tables. The project budget is about $1.1 million. During the closings, Shepherd Park holds will be routed to the Takoma Park Library, 416 Cedar St. NW, and Chevy Chase holds will be routed to the Tenley-Friendship Library, 4450 Wisconsin Ave. NW. For information, go to www.dclibrary.org. DDOT to hold meeting on Klingle Creek restoration The D.C. Department of Transportation is having a public meeting on Klingle Creek stream restoration work from 6:30 to 8 p.m. next Thursday at the Cleveland Park Public Library, 3310 Connecticut Ave. NW. DDOT staff members will also give an update on the Klingle Watershed Green Streets project, a program to reduce stormwater runoff into the stream by adding permeable pavement and bioretention features to streets and alleys uphill from Klingle Run. Design work begins this winter. For information, go to dc.ddot.gov. — Compiled by Terence McArdle


U.S. airstrikes in Kunduz destroyed more than a hospital

building, destroyed by a U.S. airstrike during fighting between Taliban fighters and government forces in the city of Kunduz, on Oct. 21. (Andrew Quilty/For The Washington Post) In July, a U.S. airstrike killed eight Afghan soldiers in Logar province, which the provincial governor and Afghan military commanders described as “a mistake” caused by poor communication and coordination. In the Kunduz hospital attack, two U.S. military investigations underway will “look at a series of potential human errors, failures of process and technical malfunctions that may have contributed” to the decision to attack, said Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, the top U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan. Doctors Without Borders has described the attack as a possible war crime and has called for an independent inquiry. Shoffner, in an interview in the Afghan capital, expressed concern generally over the solidity of Afghan intelligence. “Afghan intel is one of their gaps that we’re going to have to continue to work with them on for years to come,” he said. “It’s critically important.” Dawlat Waziri, an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said Afghan forces were trying their best to give their U.S. partners “accurate information” when requesting airstrikes. But he added that the U.S. military also bears responsibility because “all this information is being analyzed by the Americans” before launching an attack. In the case of the hospital attack, he disputed Gen. John F. Campbell, the U.S. military’s top commander, who said the strike was triggered by a request from Afghan forces facing a Taliban attack. Their request, Waziri said, was to strike Taliban fighters who had taken positions around the hospital. “We never told the Americans to hit the hospital,” Waziri said. “An investigation is underway, and it will reveal the truth.” Other Afghan officials, however, contend that insurgents were using the trauma facility as a base. “The Taliban was attacking from the hospital,” said Hamdullah Danishi, the provincial governor, claiming there were 300 insurgents inside. “They were opening fire on our soldiers.” It's been nearly a month since an American gunship destroyed a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in Kunduz, Afghanistan. The attack left the area without a proper medical facility. Here is a look at the destruction. Doctors Without Borders has denied that armed rebels were inside its facility or that fighting was occurring around its compound at the time of the attack. But a senior Afghan official, speaking on the condition of


The Pentagon paid lucrative sports franchises millions to honor troops

Honoring troops with increasingly elaborate displays of patriotism has become as much a part of professional sporting events as the singing of the National Anthem. But a Senate investigation found that some of those events—color guard parades, reenlistment ceremonies, ceremonial first pitches—were bought and paid for by the Pentagon in a form of “paid patriotism” that cost millions of dollars. The report issued Wednesday by Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Arizona Republicans, said that paying sports franchises to honor service members was a “boondoggle” and a “wholly unnecessary and a waste and abuse of taxpayer funds.” If any team was really interested in honoring those serving in the military it “should do so at its own expense.” In a statement, Matthew Allen, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the military services are allowed to pay for marketing and advertising when it is in support of recruiting efforts, and that it often performs community outreach in order to “connect with the American public.” But since September, the Defense Department has taken several steps to ensure the contracts are used appropriately. That includes requiring all sport-events contracts to be reviewed by a senior official to make sure that they are “appropriate and reasonable.” Officials also will not approve contracts that require payment “to honor members of the Armed Forces.” Since 2012, the Pentagon paid $10.4 million on marketing and advertising contracts with most of the professional sports leagues, including the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Soccer, the report said. “By paying for such heartwarming displays like recognition of wounded warriors, surprise homecomings, and on-field enlistment ceremonies, these displays lost their luster,” the report said. “Unsuspecting audience members became the subjects of paid-marketing campaigns rather than simply bearing witness to teams’ authentic, voluntary shows of support for the brave men and women who wear our nation’s uniform.” Some of the more egregious examples included paying the Seattle Seahawks for the “opportunity for up to 10 soldiers to reenlist pre-game on the field” at a 2014 game. The Guard also paid the Indianapolis Colts for use of a luxury suite, autographed items, and visits with cheerleaders. Taxpayers also spent $10,000 for an “on-field swearing in ceremony” with the New York Mets. And when 80 National Guard members were honored at an Atlanta Falcons game that also came at a price: $315,000.


Prince George’s County news in brief

County will collect pumpkins and other decorations The Prince George’s County Department of the Environment will collect and compost rotting pumpkins, dried corn, hay and other Halloween decorations. Pumpkins must not have candles, wax, artificial lighting or loose decorations inside. Items can be left at the curbside for pickupNov. 11. Decorations may also be dropped off at one of the county’s recycling centers: → Brown Station Road Public Container Pad and Recycling Area, 3501 Brown Station Rd., Upper Marlboro, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. → Missouri Avenue Solid Waste Acceptance and Recycling Center, 12701 Missouri Ave., Brandywine, 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. For information, dial 311 or visit environment.mypgc.us. Animal management modifies low-cost clinic services The Prince George’s County Animal Management Division’s Low-Cost Wellness Vaccination Clinic has changed its operations and will provide only vaccinations for dogs and cats. The agency no longer provides pet wellness examinations. Agency representatives said the change is part of an effort to meet the high demand for vaccination services. The clinic will offer vaccinations first Thursdays from noon-2 p.m. at the County’s Animal Services Facility, 3750 Brown Station Rd., Upper Marlboro. The walk-in clinic provides shots at a discounted price for rabies ($15), feline distemper ($20) and canine distemper ($24). All pets must be leashed or crated, and a maximum of two pets is allowed per person. For information, call 301-780-7200 or visit www.princegeorgespets4us.com. Officials offer waiver period for E-ZPass penalties The Maryland Transportation Authority is offering a one-month waiver period for civil penalties associated with unpaid video toll transactions. Commuters have until Nov. 16 to pay outstanding tolls in full without having to pay the associated late fees. After the waiver period, the authority will begin enforcing collection and drivers will be billed for the full amount, including associated civil penalties. Vehicles registered in Maryland will be flagged for non-renewal or suspension, and accounts will be reported to the Maryland Central Collection Unit. Payments can be made online at www.ezpassmd.com or by calling 866-320-9995. — Compiled by Jillian S. Jarrett


Facebook reports third-quarter sales of $4.5 billion

Deutsche Bank will pay $200 million of the penalty to the state agency and the remaining $58 million to the Fed. “The conduct ceased several years ago, and since then we have terminated all business with parties from the countries involved,” a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman said in a statement. At issue are rules that prohibit doing business in countries that the U.S. government has deemed havens for possible terrorist financing. The United States had also identified a number of Deutsche Bank customers as acting on behalf of those sanctioned countries, including Iran, Syria, Libya and Sudan, regulators said. Deutsche Bank employees developed ways to get around the rules for customers whose transactions in dollars were sent to the United States, including at Deutsche Bank New York. The goal was to avoid those payments from being scrutinized in the United States, which could lead to processing delays or the Fed freezing accounts. — Reuters Also in Business ● Kraft Heinz said it will close seven factories in the United States and Canada over the next two years as part of a downsizing that will shed 2,600 jobs. The company announced Wednesday it will close manufacturing facilities in Fullerton and San Leandro, Calif.; St. Marys, Ontario; Federalsburg, Md.; Campbell, N.Y.; Lehigh Valley, Pa.; and Madison, Wis. The closures will occur in the next 12 to 24 months. The company said it would also close its meat processing plant in Davenport, Iowa, and move production to a new plant to be built several miles away. Kraft Heinz formed from the merger of Kraft and Heinz earlier this year. ● Whole Foods Market on Wednesday said same-store sales contracted in the fiscal fourth quarter, as it grapples with competition among its own stores and from mainstream retailers. Shares also fell more than 6 percent. Customer visits were down for the fourth quarter that ended Sept. 27, contributing to a 0.2 percent decline in same-store sales. This quarter’s same-store sales through Sunday were down 2.1 percent. The retailer’s fourth-quarter net income fell by more than half to $56 million, or 16 cents per share. ● Target will close 13 U.S. stores at the end of January, the retailer said. In an e-mail, Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said the decision to close the stores “is not made lightly.” She said the company typically closes locations after seeing several years of decreasing profitability. Snyder said all eligible


National Geographic chief says layoffs done to avert financial derailment

number will receive buyout offers. Only four employees will lose their jobs at National Geographic magazine and its digital newsroom, said Declan Moore, a veteran National Geographic Society executive who will become chief executive of the Fox partnership, known as National Geographic Partners. But dozens more will be laid off in departments and services that Fox will provide to the partnership: legal, accounting, personnel and technology, among others. By Wednesday, after the society’s workers met with personnel managers, discontent and disappointment rippled through the organization’s campuslike headquarters in downtown Washington. Those offered a buyout were given one week to decide, said one employee. “That’s not much time to get ducks in a row,” the employee said. “We’re all poring through [the offer] trying to make sense of it. There’s lots of head-shaking, for sure.” The organization has imposed periodic cutbacks before — most notably the downsizing and eventual sale of its subscription-fulfillment operations in Gaithersburg in the mid-1990s — but an organization-wide layoff is unusual. Instead, the society has been known as a paternalistic employer. Over the years, employees have enjoyed relatively generous salaries, with amenities such as a top-flight cafeteria and a headquarters museum. On Fridays during summer months, employees worked from home to reduce the organization’s carbon footprint. Knell, who joined the National Geographic Society in 2013 after serving as NPR’s chief executive, suggested in an interview that digital “disruption” in the media business has made the old ways of doing business unsustainable. “We’ve said, the truck was on the tracks and the train was approaching. Only now the train is coming faster.” Absent the deal with Fox, he said, “we were looking at millions of dollars in red ink in the future.” After a strong 2013, the society began to hit some financial turbulence last year. Its revenue declined about 5 percent, to $500 million, and its operations swung from a surplus of $25.5 million to a $20 million loss. Net assets declined by $90 million, to $805.5 million, compared with a year earlier. In addition to uncertainty over the media business, the society was facing growing debt payments and pension obligations (it said Tuesday it would freeze its pension plan for eligible employees). It was also facing tax obligations in 2017 with the exhaustion of various tax credits, Moore said. Knell said the National Geographic Society intends to plow the cash derived from the Fox partnership


D.C. community calendar, Nov. 5-12, 2015

Thursday, Nov. 5 Bilingual book fair Household waste disposal, document shredding, E-cycling Washington Cathedral behind the scenes Mindful yoga Seizing the sky: redefining American art Cathedral tour Take Charge of Your Aging 101 Luce unplugged with Den-Mate NSO Youth Fellows Henry Hudson: A Navigator’s Fate Italian Cooking with Jewish soul In Honor of our veterans: Caring for our heroes Laughing ‘Til it Hurts: The Dark Side of Comedy “Winners and Losers” “Oliver!” Absence/Presence: Selected Contemporary Photography Friday, Nov. 6 Outside the Box: Beatboxing with Mr. Max Ages 5-10, Mr. Max takes us with him as he takes the mike to make some crazy- good mouth music and introduces kids to the most powerful musical instrument ever: their own bodies, lots of audience participation and on-the-spot improvisations. 10:15 and 11:30 a.m. Discovery Theater at S. Dillon Ripley Center, 1100 Jefferson Dr. SW. 202-633-8700. www.discoverytheater.org. $8, ages 2-16 $6, 1 and younger $3. “Dark Fields of the Republic” Classical music Kids Euro Festival: Art History Master of Arts alums: doing it in D.C. museums Kinetic: Conversations in contemporary art Yoruba Andabo Saturday, Nov. 7 Children’s theater “Single Carrott” Christmas Market “The Amazing Wipala” Open Studio Saturday: Celebrate Diwali! “Still Standing” Soups for the season “Kandahar Journals” 21st Century Consort: beyond beauty Side Yards Jazz by Butler, Bernstein and the Hot 9 Dance performance Choral concert Sunday, Nov. 8 “Finn” Italian art: Canova and color Cello recital Steinway Series: Claremont Piano Trio Classical cello and piano recital Making of “Appomattox” Monday, Nov. 9 Pivotal Tuesdays: Four elections that shaped the 20th century Writing the Holocaust Tomer Gewirtzman piano recital Gina Chávez, Latina vocalist Saxophone quartet celebration Book arts lecture Tuesday, Nov. 10 Fall frolic Chair yoga “Hunting in Wartime” Classical music at noon Raising wages: Creating good jobs and good workers to fill them U.S. Botanic Garden afternoon garden tour Awareness through movement Classroom in the wild Picturing buildings: line versus atmosphere Classical piano recital Photographer Dan Winters Wednesday, Nov. 11 Yoga in the galleries Gallery talk “Songs of the Soldier: A Salute to Veterans” Ethan Hawke Shanghai Quartet concert Renwick Museum Gala: Crafting the Future Choreolab 2015: Facing forward “Sally Pacholok” Choreolab 2015: Facing forward Thursday, Nov. 12 Avanti Orchestra concert Pablo Saelzer leads a performance by the orchestra and soloist Yifei Deng, Walton’s Viola Concerto and Symphony No. 2 in D major by Brahms. 7 p.m. Kennedy Center, Terrace Theater, 2700


LeDroit Park is valuing the past and the present in Northwest D.C.

Quick home sales, new amenities and a new Heritage Trail illustrate the neighborhood’s growing appeal. Quick home sales, new amenities and a new Heritage Trail illustrate the neighborhood’s growing appeal. It’s one of Washington’s most distinctive neighborhoods. Dotted with quirky freestanding homes in a variety of styles, originally designed as a gated suburb and later the place to be for the District’s African American intelligentsia, LeDroit Park has always been unusual. And now the Northwest neighborhood is finally getting its due — in more ways than one. Most obviously, the community (together with Bloomingdale next door) is the subject of a new Heritage Trail, one of the city’s self-guided walking tours developed by Cultural Tourism DC. History buffs can now wander the area’s streets and learn about its rich past from recently erected signs. But in a broader sense, LeDroit Park is prominent these days in a way that it wasn’t even five years ago. After years of crime and stagnation, homes have been renovated, businesses have sprung up along the neighborhood’s edges and crime seems to have diminished. “I think things have continually gotten better,” said Eric Fidler, president of the LeDroit Park Civic Association and a resident since 2009. “Houses here have become more desirable,” he said. Many sell within a week. Recent turnaround: The fence was finally removed in 1891, and black Washingtonians began moving in a couple of years later. By 1920, the community was predominantly African American, home to professors working at nearby Howard University as well as renowned judges, politicians, artists and others. The cachet gradually faded, and by the 1980s the neighborhood was suffering from the decline and neglect facing much of the city. “It was a really rough period,” said Shakeya Mundey, 38; she was born at Howard University Hospital and still lives in LeDroit Park, in one of the original McGill houses. “We had a huge crack problem, a lot of shootings.” But eventually things started to change; Mundey says she remembers waves of newcomers who came and improved the neighborhood’s houses. And the area’s biggest landlord, Howard University, finally fixed up its properties and sold them, paving the way for LeDroit Park’s current incarnation as one of the city’s hottest communities. Center of everything: Moreover, a new movie theater recently opened a few blocks west, and a Whole Foods store is slated to be built nearby. And after years of


University of Maryland police investigate cellphone-wielding voyeur incident

A University of Maryland student said he was recorded by a cellphone Wednesday while in a men’s bathroom on campus, authorities said. The victim told investigators he yelled and the phone was removed, said Sgt. Roseanne Hoaas, a University of Maryland police spokeswoman. Authorities said the incident occurred in Dorchester Hall, a co-ed residence hall. In addition to this incident, University of Maryland police are also looking into other possible cases of voyeurism that took place on campus last month. They said they do not believe those incidents to be related to Wednesday’s


Russia halts Egypt flights amid widening probes into Sinai crash

Here's what we know about the deadly Russian plane crash that killed all 224 people on board Saturday, Oct. 31. MOSCOW — Alexander Bortnikov, President Vladimir Putin’s intelligence chief, proposed Friday that flights be grounded as Russian investigators announced that they were seeking traces of explosives in samples of soil, luggage and portions of the plane recovered from the crash site. The Airbus A321-200 mysteriously disintegrated high over the Egyptian desert last Saturday, killing all 224 people aboard. It is the worst civil aviation disaster in Russian history, and Putin called it “a great tragedy.” Flights should be halted “until we know the true causes of the incident,” Bortnikov said. Russia has spent the past week dismissing “speculation” from Western officials, including President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, that the plane may have been downed by a bomb. But Friday’s decision to table flights, following similar announcements by a half-dozen European countries, seemed to mark a crucial shift in the Kremlin’s position. “It means that they’re taking information about a possible attack very, very seriously,” said Alexei Makarkin, vice president of the Moscow-based Center for Political Technologies. Initially, the Islamic State’s affiliate in Egypt asserted responsibility for the crash, which it called revenge for Russia’s intervention in the war in Syria. Russian officials dismissed the claims as opportunism. If a plot is involved, it could severely alter the public perception of the military campaign in Syria — which some believe could open Russia to increasing risks of retaliatory attacks from groups including the Islamic State, Makarkin said. “It would be like going from a computer game into a terrifying reality,” he said. The suspicions were strengthened by French officials, cited anonymously by the magazine Le Point and France 2 television, who were quoted as saying that the flight recorders carry the sound of an apparent explosion that is not believed linked to a malfunction or crew error. The investigation includes experts from France, where Airbus is based. Although the United States is not directly involved in the investigation, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Friday issued a statement saying that he and Transportation Security Administrator Peter Neffenger, “out of an abundance of caution,” had identified a series of precautionary security enhancements for passengers on U.S.-bound planes from certain airports in the Middle East. They include expanded screening of items on aircraft, airport assessments and assistance to certain foreign


Man, 19, shot last month in Southwest Washington has died

A man who was shot and critically wounded two weeks ago near Nationals Park in Southwest Washington has died of his injuries, according to D.C. police. The victim has been identified as Daniel Brown, 19, of Southwest. Police said he was shot about 9 a.m. on Oct. 23 in the 1400 block of First Street SW, in the Greenleaf public housing complex. Police said Brown died at an area hospital on Thursday. The shooting occurred two blocks from the First District police station and the offices of the homicide unit. No other details of the shooting have been made public.


CD Reviews: John Adams’s musical jokes

arguably less punchy. Confident playing from pianists Marc-Andre Hamelin and Orli Shaham make the music shimmer right up to the explosive final bars. Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op 28; La muse et le poète, Op 132; Symphony No. 3, Op 78. Noah Geller, violin; Mark Gibbs, cello; Jan Kraybill, organ; Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, cond. (Reference Recordings) — Tom Huizenga Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 ‘Organ’ Kansas City Symphony, Reference Recordings A few weeks ago Michael Stern, music director of the Kansas City Symphony for the past decade, signed on for another five years with the orchestra. What better time to consider this recent release, captured by Reference Recordings, noted among audiophiles, in the orchestra’s home, Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Performing Arts Center? The center opened its doors four years ago and is the site of a splendid new 102-rank Casavant organ. A program of music by one of the master French orchestrators, Camille Saint-Saëns, features the new organ, while casting the Kansas City Symphony in a favorable light in terms of sonority, balance and color. The striking originality of Saint-Saëns’s “Organ” Symphony, as it is popularly known, has been blunted by too many careless performances. The current bar for the work was set very high with a 2010 live recording by François-Xavier Roth and his original instrument orchestra, Les Siècles, at St. Sulpice in Paris. Few orchestras can match that level of flexibility and idiomatic Parisian élan. What Stern and his musicians achieve is a thoroughly American reading, characterized by earnest commitment and high-level ensemble playing. Stern favors a straightforward, clean-cut approach. Any tendencies of the first movement to sound unyieldingly foursquare are obviated by remarkably precise articulation and pure intonation from all the instrumental choirs. The long, singing lines of the adagio attain a tender nobility. Some of the most impressive playing comes in the appropriately driven scherzo, setting the stage for the mighty organ chord that commences the finale, captured here in great detail and fully dimensional sonority. On occasion, relaxed tempos underplay the symphony’s dramatic moments, but overall Saint-Saëns’s deft colors and rhythmic variety are unfurled with the pride of a peacock’s brilliant display. Two hors d’oeuvres prepare the main course. Noah Geller, the orchestra’s concertmaster and soloist in the “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso,” is joined by principal cellist Mark Gibbs in a stunning performance of “The Muse and the Poet.” — Patrick Rucker


Savopoulos mansion sells for $3 million

The Savopoulos mansion sold in less than a week after going on the market. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) Well, that was fast. Less than one week after the Savopoulos house went on the market, it has sold for more than $3 million, according to real estate sources. The mansion in Woodley Park was the scene of the horrific quadruple killing of Savvas and Amy Savopoulos; their 10-year-old son, Philip; and their housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, in May. The house, heavily damaged by a fire that was set after the crime, was listed for $3.25 million. No repairs were made to the interior; the windows were boarded up and a chain-link fence surrounded the property. The question was how fast such a “stigmatized property” might sell, especially less than six months after the slayings. Some potential buyers steer clear of such notorious sites; others view them as a smart investment — and this one is in one of the District’s most sought-after neighborhoods, where the average home is valued at $6 million. Turns out, a good deal overcame superstition: The house went under contract Thursday night. Listing agent Bill Moody of Washington Fine Properties declined to comment on the price or the identity of the buyer, but local real estate experts say there were several interested parties. It is unknown whether the new owner plans to restore the mansion or raze it.


From Indiana to South Sudan: A proud immigrant’s wrenching journey home

came back to build the world’s newest nation, in a land where only a quarter of adults could read. Julia Duany, a South Sudanese American returnee, walks the campus of John Garang Memorial University in Bor on Oct. 15. The university was at the center of the fighting in 2013 and still bears the scars. (Kevin Sieff/The Washington Post) But four years after President Obama hailed the “light of a new dawn” in South Sudan, the country is crumbling. More than 10,000 people have been killed in the civil war that broke out in 2013. The United Nations reported last month that tens of thousands are now on the “brink of famine.” In her unadorned office at the university, Duany, 59, leaned opened a laptop that contained a manuscript she wrote documenting the misdeeds of officials and rebels who had torn the country apart in recent years. “It’s just so frustrating,” she said. “We came here to build our homeland, to make it something, and we’re still fighting amongst each other.” Returning home Duany and her husband fled their homeland in 1984. Sudan was descending into yet another round of civil war, one that would eventually leave more than 2 million dead. Wal Duany, a government minister, had been jailed for speaking out against the Arab-led government in the north, which was widely accused of discriminating against the mostly Christian and animist south. U.S. officials helped secure his release and got the family to Bloomington, Ind. To a couple coming from a region without paved roads, the United States felt wholly alien at first. “They sold food for dogs in the supermarket!” Julia Duany exclaimed, recalling her confusion. Displaced people bathe, wash and drink at Kok Island, where about 900 people have taken shelter from fighting, in Unity state on Oct. 12. (Jason Patinkin/AP) The family’s rapid success as new Americans caught even her off guard. The couple’s three sons and two daughters all received college scholarships to play Division I basketball. Julia Duany’s picture appeared in Sports Illustrated. “Astounding,” an article in ESPN called the family’s achievements. She crisscrossed the country to watch her children’s games, learning how to trash talk from the stands. “You crazy zebra,” she called referees when they made a bad call. Wal earned a PhD in political science; Julia got one in education. They bought a house with a porch and a garden. But


Weapons inspectors say non-state fighters in Syria used mustard gas

using chlorine gas, a choking agent. The OPCW did not specify which group used mustard gas in the attack, which the organization said killed at least one person, an infant, on Aug. 21 in the village of Marea. Doctors and an aid organization in the village north of Aleppo blamed the attack on Islamic State militants who for months have been battling rebel groups in the area. The use of mustard gas by either the Islamic State or rebels, or both, is a significant escalation in a conflict that has killed 250,000 people and displaced millions. “In this case, the team was able to confirm with utmost confidence that at least two people were exposed to sulfur mustard, and that it is very likely that the effects of this chemical weapon resulted in the death of an infant,” the OPCW statement said. A spokeswoman for the National Security Council said U.S. officials are “very concerned” about the OPCW findings. The spokeswoman said the United States is “continuing to investigate these allegations very closely and to be proactive about the threat from chemical weapons, or other similar threats.” Mustard gas, formally known as sulfur mustard, is a banned chemical weapon that can cause severe blistering of the skin and mucous membranes, as well as other symptoms such as wheezing and severe itching. After the Marea attack, doctors in the area reported dozens of residents exhibiting such symptoms. It is unclear how non-state forces in Syria could obtain and weaponize chemical toxins such as mustard gas. The Assad government says its 1,300-ton stockpile of chemical weapons was destroyed as part of an agreement between the United States and Russia. Weapons inspectors and U.S. intelligence officials question that assertion, suspecting that the Syrian government concealed some of the original stock. In its statement, the OPCW said another team of investigators found that chlorine gas had “likely” been involved in an attack in the northwestern province of Idlib. The rebel-held province is regularly targeted by government aircraft that indiscriminately attack with chlorine-gas weapons, opposition groups allege. The OPCW also said its investigators could not find evidence that rebels in August targeted government forces in a Damascus suburb with chemical agents. Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report. Read more: Russia halts Egypt flights amid widening probes into Sinai crash Syrian government accused of profiting from abductions, detentions Diplomats call for cease-fire in Syria


Target stores look different these days — and that’s because Target has become a vastly different company

spiff up its stores and turn them into pickup hubs and distribution centers for online orders. And under a new chief executive, Brian Cornell, Target is looking beyond its core customer base of suburban baby-boomer moms to appeal to millennial moms and dads, urban dwellers, and the growing Hispanic population. The retailer’s sales and traffic have been improving lately, a sign that these steps might be working. Target’s new strategy is no doubt a nod to an important demographic shift: Millennial shoppers today outnumber boomers and are expected to spend about $600 billion this year. Their preferences have been a key factor behind Target’s move to ramp up its selection of organic food and products with “natural” in the label. “It really, I think, occurs when moms have their first child and begin to become almost zealots for ‘All right, what’s in the product that I’m serving my child?’ ” Cornell said in an interview at the company’s Minneapolis headquarters. “We see rapid shifts from conventional to organic baby food, but then it continues across category. ‘Light,’ ‘diet,’ ‘lean,’ ‘fat-free’ have been now viewed as code for ‘There’s a lot of artificial ingredients there.’ ” Target has expanded its Made to Matter line, a collection of organic snacks, cleaning products and beauty items. It is conducting tests on its wellness-oriented grocery assortment, and executives have said shoppers are likely to see changes in this category next year. Reaching millennials has meant not just rethinking product offerings but also venturing into the urban hubs where many of them have opted to live. In October, Target opened four of what it calls flex-format stores, smaller outposts that have a limited merchandise selection compared with a traditional Target. (These used to be called TargetExpress or CityTarget stores, but recently they’ve all been rebranded Target.) The Rosslyn store is one of these smaller stores, which executives expect many shoppers will use for fill-in trips instead of major stock-ups. That’s exactly what Lisette Gallegos, 24, was doing when she stopped by on a recent Friday morning to grab a couple of bottles of white wine for her office’s Halloween-themed potluck. Gallegos said she’s been coming to the store frequently since it opened near her workplace several weeks ago, picking up office supplies or even lunch. The assortment may not be big, Gallegos said, but “it’s basically everything you would need in a Target.” Because the


to Matter line, a collection of organic snacks, cleaning products and beauty items. It is conducting tests on its wellness-oriented grocery assortment, and executives have said shoppers are likely to see changes in this category next year. Reaching millennials has meant not just rethinking product offerings but also venturing into the urban hubs where many of them have opted to live. In October, Target opened four of what it calls flex-format stores, smaller outposts that have a limited merchandise selection compared with a traditional Target. (These used to be called TargetExpress or CityTarget stores, but recently they’ve all been rebranded Target.) The Rosslyn store is one of these smaller stores, which executives expect many shoppers will use for fill-in trips instead of major stock-ups. That’s exactly what Lisette Gallegos, 24, was doing when she stopped by on a recent Friday morning to grab a couple of bottles of white wine for her office’s Halloween-themed potluck. Gallegos said she’s been coming to the store frequently since it opened near her workplace several weeks ago, picking up office supplies or even lunch. The assortment may not be big, Gallegos said, but “it’s basically everything you would need in a Target.” Because the merchandise selection can’t be as broad in a flex-format store, Target executives are trying to tightly curate it. For example, while the Rosslyn store carries an abundance of cycling gear, that’s not the case in the St. Paul, Minn., flex-format store, which devotes lots of shelf space to toys and baby products. This localized approach to assortment is one that Target is piloting for its bigger stores in hope of ginning up more sales. It could be an especially relevant tactic in reaching Hispanic shoppers, who had $1.4 trillion in buying power last year. Target recently has wooed the group by running Spanish-language ads during the hit CW comedy “Jane the Virgin,” signing up former Univision host Rodner Figueroa as a “style ambassador,” and having Hispanic millennial moms serve as “the creative muse” for a major marketing campaign for baby products. Target says part of its struggle in recent years was that the stores weren’t merchandised well, meaning they didn’t have enough desirable items and weren’t showing them off in an enticing way. And so that’s why shoppers may have noticed some changes this year as they wandered through the aisles at their local store: The clothing, once confined to


Entrepreneurial spirit is flourishing in Oregon’s sin industries: Booze and pot

have sprung to life in the past half-decade and endured, in spite of fierce competition from rivals large and small. In the past month, Portland has seen a similar proliferation of start-ups in the cannabis industry, ignited by a new state law that allows legal marijuana sales to the general public. Microbreweries and pot dispensaries aren’t the major drivers of Portland’s economy, but they loom much larger That’s a sharp contrast to the American economy at large. Don’t let Silicon Valley fool you: The nation has long had a start-up problem. The rate at which new businesses are formed has fallen steadily since 1984, a trend that accelerated during and after the Great Recession, according to research by University of Maryland economist John Haltiwanger and several co-authors. Since the recession ended, more businesses have failed every year than have sprung to life. Breweries and dispensaries offer lessons for how policymakers might nurture a small-business comeback in the United States. But they offer very different lessons, one focused on government intervention, the other on reducing hurdles for entrepreneurs to enter a market — and their ultimate lesson could prove to be, the big guys tend to win in the end. In Oregon’s sin industries, “We’ve had a renaissance of start-ups, which is almost the exact opposite of what we’ve seen almost everywhere else in the economy,” said Joshua Lehner, a state economist in Oregon. “It’s going to be challenging to maintain this.” America’s start-up slowdown began in the 1980s and ’90s, when much of the drop-off was concentrated in the retail trade and service sectors. A lot of new mom-and-pop groceries and bookstores were pushed out of business or were kept from starting up in the first place by the emergence of Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble and other large chain retailers. In the 2000s, the trend spread to other industries, most notably high tech, which has seen its start-up rate decline over the past 15 years. Economists can’t say for sure what’s driving that trend, but one theory has to do with market power. As big companies get bigger — in retail or tech or anything else — they find ways to shield themselves from competition, often by lobbying the government. Here’s an Oregon example: Google and Facebook have each received tens of millions of dollars in property tax reductions from cities on the state’s rural eastern side, where those companies


have built huge warehouses filled with servers to store user data. It’s unlikely that a small-time social-media rival could win the same deal, which means that small company would face higher costs than Facebook does to store its data — a powerful advantage for the large incumbent. The beer industry is more dominated by big players than almost any other in the United States. Its four largest companies account for nearly 90 percent of all sales. That’s a function of a wave of brewery consolidation in recent years, culminating in an announcement last month that the world’s two largest beer companies, SAB Miller and Anheuser-Busch InBev, plan to merge. And yet, for all that market power, the beer giants are acting scared of their smallest competitors — perhaps because there are more of them every day, especially in Oregon. The number of breweries and brew pubs in Oregon has roughly quadrupled since 2001, to more than 200 today. Since the end of the recession, the state’s total beer production for consumption by Oregonians has grown from about 30,000 barrels a year to nearly 50,000. All but a few drops of that increase has come from start-up brewers, according to state statistics. There are simple reasons why brewing is so friendly to start-ups, all of them on display at the Stickmen facility in Lake Oswego. It doesn’t cost much to learn to brew — just $100 or so for a starter kit and a handbook, more for hops and grains when you begin to experiment, as Turner did when he returned to his native Oregon in the late 1990s after a stint in the Navy. It also doesn’t cost much to start a brewery, relatively speaking. Turner practiced his art on the side from his software job until he was hosting annual beer bashes with 30 varieties on tap. When he decided to go pro, he tried to get a government small-business loan. When it fell through, he and Schoenheit borrowed close to $200,000 from a company called Brewery Finance, which paid for steel tanks and other brewing supplies they needed. The other reason it’s easier to start a brewery in Oregon is that Oregonians really love beer, and they’re willing to pay a premium for new and interesting varieties or for better beer closer to home. Stickmen chose Lake Oswego because there weren’t many brew pubs in town. He also


These marathoners deserved credit

It’s interesting that The Post doesn’t consider people in wheelchairs to be competitors in the Boston Marathon. The Oct. 22 Local Living article “Catching up (briefly) with marathoner Meb Keflezighi” incorrectly said that the last time an American won the Boston Marathon was 1983. A later correction also was wrong. The last American to win the Boston Marathon was not Lisa Larsen Rainsberger in 1985. American Jim Knaub won the men’s wheelchair division in 1993, his third straight victory. Tatyana McFadden’s victory in the women’s wheelchair division this year was her third straight and the fourth in a row for an American in that division. Andy Schotz, Thurmont


Prospect that bomb destroyed plane raises specter of expanding ISIS threat

A handout picture released by Russia's Emergency Ministry shows the wreckage of a Russian airliner on Nov. 1 in Wadi al-Zolomat, a mountainous area of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. (Maxim Grigoryev/AFP/Russia’s Emergency Ministry via Getty Images) The hardening prospect that a Russian airliner was brought down over the Sinai Peninsula by a terrorist bomb is raising concerns that the threat from the Islamic State has dramatically expanded, and it points to the potentially deadly role of insurgents around the world who have allied themselves with the militant group. Rising fear that a Russian plane packed with tourists was targeted by terrorists deepened Friday with French reports that the flight’s black boxes contained the sound of an explosion. That news followed Russia’s suspension of all flights into Egypt, a clear signal that the Kremlin, which had been reluctant to countenance a terrorist attack, now fears a bomb was behind last weekend’s Metrojet crash, which killed all 224 people aboard. If the Islamic State indeed destroyed the plane, it would shatter whatever expectation there was that the group could be confined and ultimately defeated within Iraq and Syria — the region where it has seized territory and declared a caliphate. And, analysts say, it would show that the Islamic State has learned how to turn its affiliates into operational arms. An excerpt from an Islamic-State propaganda video shows members handing out candy to celebrate the news of the Russian plane crash in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. There have been arrests of Islamic State operatives in Kosovo and Albania in recent months for allegedly planning attacks in Europe, said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. “But this is the first time that ISIL has crossed the threshold and burst onto the international terror scene,” he said. President Obama said Thursday “If it turns out to have been a terrorist attack, even if a group that claims the ISIL mantle was behind this, there will still be a question of whether the group was acting on the behest of ISIL, or autonomously, and how much, if any, operational control ISIL leaders in Syria had over any such attack,” said an administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments. Still, whether autonomous or directed, such an attack — if it was carried out by an Islamic State affiliate — would represent “a qualitative leap in targeting and attack power,” said


Beer of the Week: Schlafly’s the Eleventh Labor

(Schlafly Ibex) St. Louis’s Schlafly Beer solidified its reputation by brewing delicious versions of classic styles: a fantastic kolsch (a runner-up in this year’s Beer Madness competition), a note-perfect English pale ale, and an oatmeal stout that’s perfect for winter. But in a world where new breweries are seeking to make waves, Schlafly’s lineup can come across as a little pedestrian: Where are the crazy concoctions? If Schlafly’s offerings look conservative, the brewery itself is not. Stephen Hale, who was a brewer for Schlafly when it opened in 1991 and is now the head brewer, told me recently that two of Schlafly’s best beers were an Oud Bruin and a Flanders Red. Problem is, those ales never left Schlafly’s Tap Room and made their way to the wider public. That should change with the launch of the Ibex series: limited-edition beers that allow Schlafly brewers to show off their experimental sides. The first to arrive in the District, Maryland and Virginia is Eleventh Labor, released early this month in large bottles and on tap at a small number of bars. This is a sour Berliner weiss brewed with 62 pounds of apricots per barrel, then aged for six months. In the glass, Eleventh Labor is orange-colored, with a big, bold white head. Before the beer touches your lips, all you smell is juicy apricot. It’s identical to something you’d pay too much for at a fancy juice bar. Sweet dried apricots dominate the flavor — until a wave of tartness hits, and your tongue feels as though you’ve been sucking on a Sour Patch Kid. There’s a bright sourness, balanced by effervescent carbonation. It will be easier to find Eleventh Labor in bottles than on draft, says Schlafly East Coast sales manager, Mike Harbin, and that’s not so bad: The bottle itself is a thing of beauty, with hand-dipped black wax on the neck and a hand-stamped gold foil apricot on the label. You wouldn’t mind giving — or receiving — this as a holiday present. Schlafly Beer: www.schlafly.com . $20 per 750-milliliter bottle; on tap, around $13 per glass. More from Food: Beer Column


Why zoos are purging themselves of peacocks

Some zoos have relocated or culled their flocks of peacocks because of such reasons as injuries to visitors and the risks of bird flu. (Jim Collins/ASSOCIATED PRESS) CINCINNATI — Because this was real life and not a “Muppets” movie, the peacocks were safely enclosed in cages and not running around loose in the car. They were being taken to their new home at Pinola Conservancy, a private aviary near Shreveport, La., that is home to 300 species of birds. The two birds, 14 and 21, had long been residents of the Louisville Zoological Garden, where Michael is the curator of birds. But at the zoo, the peacocks had lost their luster — which appears to be something of a national trend. In recent years, a wave of zoos have purged themselves of peafowl while others have substantially reduced their flocks. Still other zoos have considered going peacock-free, only to have the idea shot down by zoo patrons enamored of the brilliant-blue birds with the impressive plumage and piercing yowl. How many peacocks have been cast aside? It’s hard to say. The last time the Association of Zoos and Aquariums conducted a census of the Indian blue peafowl, arguably the most popular peacock, there were 1,103 in 113 facilities accredited by the AZA. But AZA spokesman Rob Vernon said there’s no way to tell whether the number is rising or falling. “Honestly, blue peafowl numbers are not really tracked that well,” Vernon said in an e-mail. Still, anecdotal evidence of peacock eviction is piling up: In 2008, the Oregon Zoo sent its peacocks packing. In 2010, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden reduced its peafowl population from 40 to six. Last year, the Denver Zoo considered banishing about two dozen peacocks from its grounds, then decided to keep them. And this year, zoos in Louisville and St. Louis have transferred their peacocks to private farms. As usual, the National Zoo was something of a trendsetter. A century ago, the National Zoo had “many peacocks” wandering around its grounds in Northwest Washington, according to news reports at the time. Today, the zoo has just three. Spokeswoman Devin Murphy said she wasn’t sure why. Elsewhere, the reasons for the peacock purge are plentiful. In Louisville, it was “predation problems,” Michael said. Specifically, a great-horned owl — one from the wild, not one on exhibit — decided in 2013 that a peacock would make


Feds award $28 million to study ‘maglev’ train system for Maryland

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan sits on board a magnetic-levitation (maglev) train at the Yamanashi Maglev Test Track in Japan in June. (Ko Sasaki/For The Washington Post) The U.S. Transportation Department has awarded nearly $28 million to conduct studies on building a high-speed rail line that would carry passengers between Washington and Baltimore in about 15 minutes, according to Maryland officials. The money will support private-sector efforts to bring magnetic-levitation trains to the region as part of a larger vision for building a maglev system along the Northeast Corridor. Maryland’s Department of Transportation and the state’s Economic Development Corporation applied for the federal funds in April, with an understanding that the Japanese government and Baltimore-Washington Rapid Rail, a private group, would provide significant investments for the project. “The ability to travel between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., in only 15 minutes will be absolutely transformative, not just for these two cities, but for our entire state,” Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said in a statement. Japan is one of the first countries to develop and adopt maglev trains, which use magnetic forces to accelerate trains smoothly at speeds of up to 375 mph. Hogan and Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete K. Rahn rode Japan’s 27-mile Yamanashi maglev line during a trade mission in Asia this past spring, promising afterward that they would work to bring the technology to the state. Building a 40-mile maglev line between Baltimore and Washington is expected to cost at least $10 billion. According to media reports in Japan, the Japanese government has pledged $5 billion in financial backing for a Maryland line, and a Japanese train operator has said it would not charge licensing fees for the technology. The remaining funds would come from public and private sources. Maryland requested $1.7 billion in federal funding for the maglev project in 2010, but the Federal Railroad Administration rejected the bid, declaring it “not ready.” Japan has been promoting its maglev and other high-speed-train technology as part of a plan to bolster the nation’s economy, which is the world’s third-largest. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pressed California to choose Japanese companies to build a $68 billion high-speed, non-maglev train system between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Additionally, the country has tried to sell Japanese trains to Texas for a link between Dallas and Houston. Kenichiro Sasae, the Japanese ambassador to the United States, applauded the funding announcement in a statement Saturday.


If GMOs aren’t the problem with our food system, then what is?

of carbon sequestered in soil. He’s also focused on helping farmers convert acreage to organic crops. “There are farmers who want to do it, but the three-year period [required for the transition] may not be a good business decision.” He floats the possibility of an affordable loan program, or “a futures market for organic,” to help with that. On the consumer side, Colicchio focuses on affordability. “I think people want to eat healthier food, but they can’t afford it.” To make fruits and vegetables more affordable, Colicchio circles back to crop subsidies, which he’d like to see reflect MyPlate, the USDA nutrition guide that divides the plate into approximately four equal parts: fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins. He also wants to see programs like SNAP and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) keep their funding. In schools, Colicchio would like to see a continued focus on more-healthful school lunches and more nutrition education. “Start at pre-K,” he says, “so kids know what healthy eating is.” Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest: “Government and industry need to mount major, ongoing dietary-change campaigns promoting fruits, veggies — including beans — and whole grains.” (Chris Kleponis/Center for Science in the Public Interest) Michael Jacobson, executive director, Center for Science in the Public Interest Jacobson pinpoints three improvements we should make: Drink fewer sugary drinks, eat less meat, and eat more fruits and vegetables. On the sugar front, he suggests soda taxes and FDA limits on the calorie content of drinks (and a warning notice on drinks that exceed the limits). On produce, he says “government and industry need to mount major, ongoing dietary-change campaigns promoting fruits, veggies — including beans — and whole grains.” He also favors giving SNAP recipients discounts on fruits and vegetables, but acknowledges that it’s “unrealistic” politically. “A softer, longer approach,” he adds, “is to teach kids how to cook.” Laura Batcha, chief executive and executive director of the Organic Trade Association: “Crop diversity, habitat diversity, diversity in seed. Most everyone can agree that diverse systems are more resilient.” (Erika Nizborski/Organic Trade Association) Laura Batcha, chief executive and executive director, Organic Trade Association Batcha points to two issues: diversity and choice. “Diversity is the obvious one,” she says. “Crop diversity, habitat diversity, diversity in seed. Most everyone can agree that diverse systems are more resilient.” Our food landscape is driven by both markets


Frozen Turducken for Fido? Here’s the Whole Foods of animal food.

this for the reward, which has come in spades. This is a happy business.” The two stores in the District, which opened in the past two years, are not yet profitable, which explains why Clark is living upstairs from one of them. The company has around $550,000 in debt. Payroll and leases are roughly half the costs. Wylie Wagg employs 34, including 12 full-timers who get health insurance, discounts and competitive pay. The balancing act on costs is difficult. Store rents for the six locations can cost between $11,000 to $14,000 a month. Trying to find good employees is also challenging. She grew up in an upper-middle class family in North Carolina, attended Wake Forest and worked at a variety of marketing jobs, including stops in New York and San Francisco and at companies such as Norwegian petroleum giant Statoil and Washington-based Web site designer Proxicom. About 15 years ago, she and Larry, who has run several businesses, decided to settle in Middleburg, Va., to be near family. The entrepreneur gene is in both of them, so they decided to launch a pet store. “I really wanted to have my own thing, my own business, and I loved animals,” Clark said. “My dad was an entrepreneur. He was fun to watch.” They launched their pet food store just as people were focusing on healthy foods for themselves. Clark figured healthy food for pets was next. “We hit the market at a very key time,” Clark said. “There was an increase in demand in the human food industry for organic and healthy food. So because pets are part of the proverbial family, people began thinking about what they were putting in their pet bowls.” Clark, a lifelong vegetarian, started poring through online data, reading books and visiting at least 25 pet stores as far away as California. (She still does.) She talked to entrepreneurs and store owners. Satisfied there was an unmet demand for healthy pet food, they found an old hardware store in the center of Middleburg and agreed to a handshake deal over coffee to a three-year lease covering 2,000 square feet. It took $110,000 to open the doors, including business licenses, attorney fees and stocking shelves. They picked Wylie after one of their dogs, Riley, and added Wagg as a salute to Middleburg’s yen for quirky business names. In March 2003, they opened for business. With low rent


Washington-area obituaries of note

was congestive heart failure and complications from pneumonia, said a daughter, Beth Ojalvo. Dr. Ojalvo, a Washington resident, was born in Queens. Before joining the science foundation, he taught mechanical engineering at schools including the University of Maryland and George Washington University. Upon retirement, he volunteered as a science tutor and as a tax preparer for seniors. He was a member of the Washington-area synagogue Kehila Chadasha. Estelle James,economist Estelle James, 79, an economics professor emeritus at Stony Brook University in New York and former lead economist at the World Bank, died Oct. 13 at a hospital in Washington. The cause was complications from cancer, said a son, David Lazer. Dr. James was born Estelle Dinerstein in the Bronx. She began teaching at Stony Brook in 1972 and was provost from 1975 to 1979. She moved to the Washington area in 1987, and in the 1990s worked at the World Bank, where she led a study on the economic problems associated with aging populations. Her research on pension reform led to an appointment on the bipartisan President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security in 2001. About five years ago, she began splitting her time between Washington and Sarasota, Fla. William J. Jones Jr.,Marine sergeant William J. Jones Jr., 86, a retired Marine Corps gunnery sergeant who served in Korea during the Korean War and with post-World War II occupation forces in China, died Oct. 22 at his home in Silver Spring, Md. The cause was cancer, said his son-in-law, Bill Glenn. Sgt. Jones was born in Washington and served in the Marine Corps from 1946 until 1966, retiring after having been a training sergeant for officer candidates at the Marine base in Quantico, Va. His awards included a Marine Corps Commendation Medal. In retirement, he was a civilian security guard at the Harry Diamond Laboratories in Washington, the General Services Administration and the Naval Ordnance Laboratory at White Oak, Md. James I. Vette,NASA official James I. Vette, 88, who for 22 years was director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s National Space Science Data Center, died Oct. 26 at an assisted living facility in Mount Airy, Md. The cause was a stroke, said his son, James Vette. Dr. Vette was born in Chicago and worked with the Aerospace Corp. in Southern California before joining NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in 1967. He retired in 1989.


Privacy rights and the Internet

A Twitter app on an iPhone screen. (Richard Drew/Associated Press) Regarding the Nov. 1 Outlook essay “When should the Internet forget?”: Jason Feifer is just the sort of hit-and-run, self-righteous vigilante we would all be better off without. He ostensibly wrote about privacy rights in this electronic age, but the underlying message was about the havoc one can create based on nothing more substantial than a fact-free suspicion. Mr. Feifer posted a tweet after he read an article, ultimately causing distress to the subject of his ire. Poor Mr. Feifer was conflicted because while he states that there is “a public record of his [the subject’s] alleged misdeeds” (yes, alleged), it also is true that the individual was never found liable for the transgression for which Mr. Feifer wanted to condemn him. Mr. Feifer said, “I wish there was a definitively right thing to do.” There is, and it’s called minding your own business. This illustrates perfectly why “the right to be forgotten” should prevail. The Feifers of the world show no compunction about what they do or remorse for the consequences. Dean Schleicher, Owings


Why honey may be the best expression of local flavor you can find, anywhere

there is no shortage of different types to spread on your toast, with flavor differences that can be subtle or startling. At the Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute at the University of California at Davis, director Amina Harris has been on a mission to get people to start really tasting honey, which led to assembling a team of 26 trained tasters from a variety of industries — including wine, olive oil, chocolate and coffee — to develop the Honey Flavor Wheel, a tool for identifying more than 100 honey flavor profiles, from peppermint to cat pee. Yes, cat pee. “Most honeys will fall into just a few categories,” says Harris: “fruity, floral, herbaceous and spicy. Obviously, there are many more. Some get a hint of straw or tea. And, of course, what has become popular since the wheel has come out is that some really do smell like animals: goats, wet dog, horses or leather.” She’s right. Try a spoonful of buckwheat honey, and you’ll get an instant sensation of having just licked a barn floor, a flavor represented on the honey wheel in the “animal” category. The Honey Flavor Wheel identifies more than 100 flavors that can be found in honeys: Yes, “cat pee” is in there. (Scott Suchman/For The Washington Post) Marina Marchese, owner of Red Bee Honey and co-author of “The Honey Connoisseur,” a detailed exploration of more than 30 varietals, says most people think all honey tastes the same. “When you have somebody taste two or three different varietals side by side, they say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know honey had different flavors,’ ” she says. “It’s the ultimate in terroir.” To be clear, Marchese and Harris are talking not about honey that has been directly infused with spices or fruit, but about honey that’s simply the byproduct of whatever plant the bees happen to be pollinating. That means orange blossom honey can have a distinctly citrusy flavor (and can vary depending on whether the orange trees are in Florida or California), while clover honey is often characterized as having a fresh spice quality, directly related to when clover first appears in early spring. Even wildflower honey, the most common variety found in grocery stores, is different from one region to the next: The flowers growing wild in New Hampshire are not the same ones found in Texas. That’s why honey does truly


Top Russian athletes participated in systemic, state-sanctioned doping, report says

no reason to believe that [track and field] is the only sport in Russia to have been affected.” The World Anti-Doping Agency says it has found a "deeply rooted culture of cheating" in Russian athletes. “It may be the residue of the old Soviet Union system,” Richard W. Pound, lead author of the report and former WADA president, said at a news conference in Geneva. The widespread corruption, Pound added, “was worse than we thought.” Among the report’s findings: ●Grigory Rodchenko, the head of Moscow’s anti-doping lab, admitted he ordered the destruction of 1,417 test samples in order to thwart WADA’s investigation. ●Russian authorities operated a second, “shadow” laboratory on the outskirts of Moscow, with identical testing facilities as the WADA-sponsored one, in order to assist in “the cover-up of positive doping results.” According to the report, it is suspected that Russian athletes were pre-screened at the shadow lab to make sure they passed before the samples were sent on to the official one. ●While some athletes participated willingly in the doping, others who resisted “were informed they would not be considered as part of the federation’s national team for competition.” One Russian marathoner told WADA investigators she was forced to pay a percentage of her earnings to representatives of Russia’s track and field federation to help her avoid positive doping tests. ●The Russian testing lab used during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi was infiltrated by agents of the FSB, the successor to the KGB, who posed as lab engineers and who “actively imposed an atmosphere of intimidation” on the staff and “compromised” the lab’s integrity. It was part of a wider pattern of “direct intimidation and interference by the Russian state” in the anti-doping program. However, the report did not make conclusive statements regarding doping by Russian athletes in Sochi. ●The Russian sports ministry, led by sports minister Vitaly Mutko, directly instructed lab personnel to manipulate samples. In his news conference in Geneva, Pound said Mutko “knew what was going on.” A reporter reads the Final Report of the Independent Commission Report of the World Anti Doping Agency, WADA, on allegations of doping in sport, prior to a news conference, in Geneva. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/AP) Mutko, in an interview aired on Russian television, denied wrongdoing and said the WADA commission’s report relies on “unverified sources, on unverified facts.” He added, “These are all conjectures.” Mutko also accused Pound


to play itself out. The outcome may be that there are no track and field athletes at Rio.” Russia won a total of 81 medals at the London Games — third-most among all countries — including 18 in track and field. A year later, it led all nations with seven gold medals at the 2013 World Track and Field Championships — the same year in which WADA reported that Russian athletes accounted for 225 doping violations, the most in the world, including 42 violations in track and field. The report recommended lifetime bans for five Russian coaches and five athletes — including Mariya Savinova and Ekaterina Poistogova, the gold and bronze medalists from the women’s 800 meters at the London Games, respectively. The IAAF could strip the implicated Russian athletes of their medals in the coming months. American Alysia Montaño, who finished fifth in the 800 meters at London — bumped off the medal stand by the two now-tainted Russians — said the prospect of receiving the bronze medal she was denied in London has left her with a mixture of relief, joy, frustration and sadness. “It’s actually incredibly painful just to think about that moment, those moments lost,” Montaño said in a telephone interview. “I can’t get that back. Of course I want what’s mine. At the same time, it’s incredibly saddening.” Russia is in the midst of a period of sustained visibility within international sports, having hosted the aforementioned 2013 World Track and Field championships in Moscow and 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, as well as the 2015 FINA World Aquatic Championships in Kazan. In 2018, Russia will host the coveted FIFA World Cup, winning a closely watched bid process that has come under scrutiny in recent months amid a widespread corruption scandal within FIFA. Mutko, the Russian sports minister accused in Monday’s WADA report of ordering lab personnel to manipulate test samples, is also a member of FIFA’s executive committee and the head of the 2018 World Cup organizing committee. “The credibility of sport has taken some body blows over the last few months,” Pound said Monday. “The public view will move towards believing all sport is corrupt. If you can’t believe results, then there is a serious credibility problem. I hope all sports will look at their governance and their anti-doping systems, because their existence may be at risk.” The IAAF itself was implicated in the


The 15-minute marathon

(Bigstock) Talk about turning your weaknesses into strengths. Gweneviere Mann lost her short-term memory after brain surgery to remove a tumor. As part of her therapy — a way of restructuring her life in a healthy, active way — she started distance running with her boyfriend (now husband), Yasir Salem. In an interview with Women’s Health magazine — an interview she assured the reporter she would forget in a few hours — Mann, 45, says staying motivated through her first marathon was a challenge that she was unusually well equipped to meet. “It was really wonderful to have memory problems!” she said. “Whenever I forgot how long we’d been running, I’d ask Yasir, and every time he said, ‘Oh, only 15 minutes.’ ” She spoke before last week’s New York City Marathon, the sixth the couple has run together. Mann, who finished 47,635th, actually ran for just shy of 6 hours and 29 minutes.


Russia covered up its athletes’ drug use, a new report says

Russia’s Olga Kaniskina wins a race-walking competition in 2011. She was later banned from the sport and eventually retired. (Lee Jin-Man/Associated Press) Russia could be banned from the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after a report from the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA, accused the country’s officials of covering up performance-enhancing drug use by its track-and-field athletes. The independent group WADA asked to investigate doping in Russia said even the country’s intelligence service was involved: The FSB reportedly spied on Moscow’s anti-doping lab, including during last year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The commission recommended that WADA immediately declare the Russian athletics federation “non-compliant” with the global rules against doping and that the International Association of Athletics Federations, or IAAF, suspend the country from competition. The IAAF said it will consider punishing Russia, including possibly suspending the country’s athletics federation. That move would ban Russian track-and-field athletes from competing internationally, such as at the Olympics. Dick Pound, the commission’s chairman, said there may be time for Russia to clean up its act before Rio. But he also said there may still be time for Russia to avoid that, if it starts reforming immediately — work that will take at least “several months.” “I think they can do it. I hope they can,” Pound said. IAAF has given Russia until Friday to respond to the charges. — Associated Press


Russia’s doping game gets exposed

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks with the head of the Sochi 2014 Olympic preparatory commission, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, in January 2014. (ALEXEI NIKOLSKY/AFP/Getty Images) IT IS not news that doping is widespread in sports, including at the highest levels, or even that Russian athletes in particular have been caught using banned drugs to enhance their performance. Nonetheless, a report by an independent panel of the World Anti-Doping Agency offers breathtaking evidence that the prevalence of banned substances in Russian track and field, and probably other sports, is the product of systematic corruption that goes well beyond individual athletes and coaches, implicating not only the most senior officials in Russian athletics but also the Kremlin as well. The report describes pervasive bribery, graft and collusion among Russian sports officials and agencies determined to skirt international anti-doping rules and procedures, in service to the goal of winning at any cost. Athletes not initially willing to use pharmaceuticals were coerced to do so. Agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the KGB’s successor agency, were seen regularly at Moscow’s main anti-doping lab, the better to intimidate any officials who had not gotten the message that full and accurate results were not welcome by higher-ups. Incredibly, the commission reported that Grigory Rodchenkov, director of the Moscow lab, admitted to intentionally destroying 1,417 samples before the World Anti-Doping Agency had a chance to audit them, despite (or because of) having received written notification that the agency wanted to scrutinize them. Little wonder that in 2013, ahead of Russia’s 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the World Anti-Doping Agency noted that Russia was the world’s leader in athletic doping violations, with 225 reported infractions across 30 sports, the largest number of them in track and field. That accounted for nearly 12 percent of world violations, and twice the number of any other country’s infractions except for the runner-up, Turkey. Given the prevalence of Russia’s cheating, the commission said, “it would be naive in the extreme to conclude that activities on the scale discovered could have occurred without the explicit or tacit approval of Russian governmental authorities.” As the commission report describes it, Russia’s mentality, seemingly a throwback to the notorious Soviet and East German sporting past, is that cheating is justified — and patriotically obligatory — on the assumption that every other country must be cheating too. That perverse view — that every country’s institutions


November may be most hazardous for deer crashes in the region

The Washington region is a deer-crash capital, and authorities have warned motorists that this month may be the most hazardous. The number of deer-involved crashes in Virginia last year totaled 5,367, with more than half coming in the last three months of the year. Insurance industry figures indicated that Virginia was one of the top 10 states in terms of probability of hitting a deer. Of the crashes last year between deer and vehicles in Virginia, the largest number (314) occurred in Loudoun County, the state Department of Motor Vehicles said last week. The second-largest number was Fauquier County, which had 226 such collisions, the DMV said. “November is the most dangerous month for deer-related crashes” in the state, the DMV said, urging motorists to buckle up, slow down, and keep their eyes peeled. In addition, authorities in Howard and Montgomery counties in Maryland issued warnings recently about crashes between deer and cars. This is the time of year when deer look for food and begin the mating season, the Howard County police said, noting the rise in collisions in the fall and winter. Howard police said 57 crashes were reported in October, compared with 27 in September and 18 in August. Drivers were advised to slow down and brake to avoid deer. But Howard County authorities cautioned against swerving, which could cause drivers to lose control. Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles also noted that deer tend to travel in groups. Sighting one is a sign that others might be nearby, the DMV said.


Russia rejects sports doping allegations as ‘groundless’

of sporting achievement crowned by holding the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. While Putin has not publicly commented on the doping scandal, he suggested adopting a U.N. resolution last month that would promote the “depoliticization of sport.” When top officials of FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, were arrested in Geneva in May in connection with Swiss and U.S. investigations into corruption and vote-buying, Russian officials accused the United States of overstepping its jurisdiction. Some also suggested that Washington wanted to pressure the organization to rescind its selection of Russia as the host country for the 2018 World Cup. On Tuesday, faced with a new scandal, some officials suggested the report was part of a larger political conflict between Russia and the West that has been punctuated by the conflict in Ukraine and the war in Syria in the last year. "There is an element of a political hit job here because quite a few things were described in a biased way," Vadim Zelichenok, acting head of the Russian Athletics Foundation, said at a news conference in Moscow. Russian officials have generally dismissed the report, but the country’s response is not yet clear. The report recommended lifetime bans for five Russian coaches and five athletes — including Mariya Savinova and Ekaterina Poistogova, the gold and bronze medalists, respectively, from the women’s 800 meters at the London Games. (Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images) After the report was released Monday, the Kremlin announced that Putin would meet this week with the heads of Russia’s national sports federations in Sochi, likely to discuss the doping scandal. On Tuesday, Zelichenok also announced that a Russian testing lab targeted in the report would be temporarily shut. The Russian Sports Ministry said in a statement Monday evening that it would study the report, but Mutko, the sports minister, questioned WADA’s evidence in television interviews and said the organization could not bar Russian athletes from competitions. The WADA report cited some athletes by name, but it also used anonymous sources of information. Peskov, like other Russian officials, stopped short of denying the claims made in the document, instead saying the evidence presented was insufficient to prove Russian wrongdoing. The report could have serious consequences for Russia. In the report, the World Anti-Doping Agency called into question some results from the 2012 London Olympics and recommended that Russia’s track and field team be suspended from competition immediately. Asked about


You can be a high-level athlete whether you’re 20 or 70. These competitors are proof.

George Haywood, a D.C. native, won the 300-meter hurdles at the World Masters Athletic Championships this past summer in Lyon, France. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) News stories about older athletes are often a study of novelty. The implication that “old people” shouldn’t be competing at a high level — or any level — can ring through each paragraph: The fact that they are active at all should amaze us. George Haywood has a problem with this narrative. Haywood, a 63-year-old District native, strongly believes that high-performing athletes in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond are not an oddity. He should know: He won the gold medal in the 300-meter hurdles at the World Masters Athletics Championships this summer in Lyon, France, with a time of 45.31 seconds (for context, 25-year-old Nicholas Kiplagat Bett, the 400-meter hurdle winner at the IAAF Track and Field World Championship in Beijing, won in 47.79). The masters athletic championships fielded more than 8,000 runners from 98 countries in all categories of track and field. Nancy Avitabile doesn’t feel like an oddity, either. At 67, Avitabile, who lives in Bethesda and has competed in triathlons since her 50s, won the women’s Olympic-distance 65-69 category at the World Triathlon Championship in Chicago this September. Gregory Chaconas wasn’t alone in running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington as an older athlete. (This fall’s race was his 27th MCM.) More than 11,000 masters runners, as the category is known — for racers, 40 and older — finished this year. John Corbet, the most senior runner at 82, clocked in at just a few minutes over six hours. Chaconas, 70 and also from the District, finished in 4:32:23, eighth in the men’s 70-74 category. He estimates he’s completed about 110 marathons, 90 of those after turning 40. Masters athletes are showing it’s not a novelty to compete at an older age. Rather, it’s an opportunity to reach their potential. “We baby boomers are very concerned with physical and mental decline,” Haywood said. “What many of us do not realize is how much of that decline is avoidable if one does the right things.” Nancy Avitabile, 67, has competed in triathlons since her 50s, and she won the women’s Olympic-distance 65-69 category at the World Triathlon Championship in Chicago this September. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) Gregory Chaconas, 70, recently completed the Marine Corps Marathon, one of about 110 marathons he has


Thousands of Afghans protest killings of long-persecuted ethnic Hazaras

Afghan women hold a candlelight vigil for several decapitated Shiite Hazaras on Tuesday in Kabul. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images) KABUL — The victims, including three women and two children, had been held hostage. Their throats were slit over the weekend in Zabul province, at a time when heavy clashes were taking place between rival Taliban factions and foreign militants believed to be sympathizers of the Islamic State. Provincial officials have blamed the killings on the Islamic State. The mainly Shiite Hazaras have been persecuted in Afghanistan for decades, and thousands were massacred by the Taliban — which is mainly ethnic Pashtun and Sunni — in the mid-1990s, when the Islamists rose to power. This year, a spate of kidnappings and killings triggered concerns that the Hazaras, viewed by the Taliban as apostates, were again being targeted, particularly by the Islamic State, which in Afghanistan is largely made up of former hard-line Taliban fighters. The recent killings, widely discussed on social media, have resurrected those fears. The bodies were taken to the victims’ home region of Ghazni for burial. But relatives refused to bury them, planning instead to go to Kabul to put the bodies on display outside the presidential palace and the United Nations headquarters, an organizer said. “We are doing so because the government knew for months where the hostages were kept but did not do anything to free them,” Hadi Daryabi, the organizer, said. A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the taking of hostages has become a serious issue across the country. “Government officials who neglected [their responsibility] in the Zabul incident will be held accountable,” said Sayed Zafar Hashemi. Separately, Afghan security forces freed eight Hazaras held hostage since last spring, the country’s intelligence agency announced. But the Taliban also claimed credit for the release. Mohammad Sharif contributed to this report.


British official fingers Sharm el-Sheikh security for plane crash

released no information as to their initial findings. Hammond, speaking with journalists in Washington, said the fact that the Russians decided to evacuate their nationals and suspend flights, along with the fact that “they are in possession of the key forensics . . . reinforces our sense that it is more likely than not to have been a bomb.” “I don’t really think there’s anybody left around who doesn’t recognize that this is more than likely a bomb,” he said. The Islamic State affiliate in the Sinai has at least twice asserted that it brought down the plane, although there has been no confirmation of whether this is true. Speculating as to the involvement of the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, Hammond said that “there are three tiers” of possibility. “There’s ‘ISIL central’ in Raqqa,” the north-central Syrian city considered the militants’ de facto capital, “and this could have been a centrally directed plot, planned and directed from Raqqa,” he said. “It’s not likely, but it’s possible.” “It could have been something that ISIL Sinai, a franchise operation, has put together itself and implemented. Or it could have been a lone-wolf operation” by “self-radicalized” individuals influenced by Islamic State propaganda, he said. Even as Egypt and Russia were saying last week that the crash could have been caused by structural defects in the plane, Hammond recalled, “we had to make a decision because we had aircraft on the ground waiting to take off” and were receiving “information, some of which is open-source, some of which is intelligence-based, which was pointing more and more clearly to the possibility that this could have been an explosive device.” On Wednesday afternoon, Britain decided to suspend its flights. Hammond said the government “sent a bunch of experts out to Sharm el-Sheikh overnight . . . [and] got a report back from them at 7 a.m. Thursday morning and, frankly, on the basis of what they were seeing” on video surveillance of the search area where the plane crashed and security over the previous several days, “decided that we had to stop flying until the Egyptians had sorted it out.” Asked whether Egypt was likely to resist expensive and intrusive new security, Hammond said that “they have a choice. If they don’t want our tourists spending hundreds of millions of dollars, they have that option.” “But it’s clear that we will not allow our


Bei Bei , the baby panda takes first step under watchful eye of mom, camera

Giant panda Mei Xiang and her cub Bei Bei are seen on the PandaCam at the National Zoo on Oct. 7, 2015. (Smithsonian's National Zoo) Even those with little experience in the stages of panda life could recognize the importance of what happened Monday at the National Zoo. Bei Bei, the newborn panda cub, took his first step. The zoo showed video on its Twitter feed. “One small step for panda” read the message on the Facebook page of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. “One adorably wobbly moment for all of us,” the posting added. It reported that under the watchful eye of the cub’s mother, Mei Xiang, Bei Bei took his first steps around 4:50 p.m. The zoo said the cub will probably start wandering about, leaving the den on his own to explore his indoor enclosure. Correction: A previous version of this story said Bei Bei took his first steps Tuesday. The Panda took his first steps Monday. This version has been corrected.


Signs of hope, but also heartbreak in the fight against opioid addiction

A pharmacist dispenses the painkiller OxyContin. (Darren McCollester/Getty Images) REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL candidates have spent much of their time on the campaign trail lately pledging more treatment and less punishment to deal with epidemic drug abuse, most dramatically in a viral video featuring an emotional New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. This is a welcome development — even if the GOPers, like their Democratic counterparts, exaggerate the degree to which arrests for simple possession of drugs, as opposed to trafficking, have swollen the prison population. The more attention leaders focus on the heartbreaking rise in prescription opioid and heroin addiction, and overdose deaths the better. According to the latest Drug Enforcement Administration data, in fact, the candidates are raising their voices at a time when federal and state policy has already begun to shift — and to show results. The United States’ 21st-century drug abuse problems have been rooted in legal drugs rather than illegal ones: specifically, massive diversion and abuse of prescription opioid painkillers, which led to a spinoff rise in abuse of chemically similar heroin. The DEA’s freshly issued National Drug Threat Assessment Summary shows that drug-induced fatalities are the leading type of injury deaths in the United States; indeed, they outnumbered motor-vehicle fatalities by more than 10,000 in 2013, exactly the reverse of the situation 10 years earlier. However, other statistics in the same report are more hopeful. The share of DEA survey respondents around the country reporting “high” illicit availability of opioids shrank to 56.7 percent in 2015 from 75.4 percent last year. The percentage of high school seniors abusing prescription drugs declined from 15 percent to 13.9 percent between 2013 and 2014. Possibly this is related to more cautious prescribing attitudes among physicians, as reflected in the decline of narcotics disbursed by manufacturers, from the all-time high of 17.2 billion doses in 2011, to 16.2 billion in 2013. Data for the first nine months of 2014 suggest a continuation of that trend. The “pill mill” phenomenon is being brought under control, with the help of State Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. The grimmest statistic in the DEA report is the near-doubling in heroin overdose deaths between 2011 and 2013, from 4,397 to 8,257. This is partly an unintended consequence of the reduced illicit availability of prescription opioids, as those addicted to pills switch to cheaper heroin. The jump-starting of previously dormant heroin markets in small-city and rural America


Burmese president congratulates Aung San Suu Kyi on her party’s lead in elections

a historic win in this year’s elections, here is a look back at key moments in her political career. Meanwhile, Suu Kyi’s inched ever closer to the 329 seats needed to have a majority in Parliament, garnering 273 to the USDP’s 81 in counting so far. Suu Kyi, 70, went ahead with plans to meet with Thein Sein to discuss making good on that pledge, and she wrote to him and two other leaders to stress a need to respect the people’s will. The pro-democracy leader was reelected to the parliament in Sunday’s vote, results showed Wednesday. The NLD is expecting enough victories to control the legislature, which has two houses totaling 664 seats, 25 percent of which are reserved for military appointees. Seven seats representing areas where there is conflict with armed ethnic groups are not being contested. The NLD thus needs a combined 329 seats in the two houses to give it a majority and allow it to choose the next president. Burma, which was ruled by a military regime for decades, will move toward a new government in the coming weeks after millions voted Sunday in what observers said was a reasonably fair and peaceful election. The installation of a new government is not expected to take place until early next year. The outcome of the elections probably will be a triumph for Suu Kyi, who spent a total of 15 years under military-imposed house arrest in her fight for democracy and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Analysts say the weeks ahead will be a crucial test to see whether Burma’s generals — who ran the country for more than 50 years before beginning democratic reforms in 2010 — are in favor of anything more than what they call “disciplined democracy.” Burma held a landmark election on Sunday, Nov. 8. Even though Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party is one of the most popular in the country, she won’t become president. Here’s why. “A peaceful implementation of the people’s desire, which they expressed via the November 8 election, is very important for the country’s dignity and people’s peace of mind,” Suu Kyi wrote in letters Wednesday to three men: Thein Sein; Shwe Mann, the speaker of the parliament’s lower house; and Min Aung Hlaing, the powerful Burmese army general who holds the title of commander in chief. Shwe Mann, who said in


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These cases were received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Dog Bite/Attack: Alleged Cruelty/Neglect: Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: The Montgomery County Humane Society’s private rescue shelter has dogs, puppies, cats and kittens available for adoption. Call 240-252-2555 or visit www.mchumane.org. Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton