Are there really antioxidants in that juice? How to protect against food fraud.

waxy substance that is indigestible by humans. It can lead to severe gastrointestinal distress (it’s known as the “Ex-Lax fish” — enough said). In a nationwide study of seafood fraud, researchers found that 84 percent of the white tuna samples were actually escolar. What can you do about it? “No legitimate company’s business strategy is to break the law,” Spink says. “The corporation may not condone the fraud, but someone in the company does.” You can help protect yourself from being a victim of food fraud by starting with this list of five questions, adapted from the Food Fraud Initiative: 1. What is the product? Be on alert when buying oils, dairy foods, spices, fruit juice and fish. 2. Can you distinguish quality? If you’ve had real Parmesan cheese or maple syrup, you can tell when the consistency or flavor is off. If the price is too good to be true ($3.99 for a 750 milliliter or 25 ounce bottle of extra virgin olive oil), then it’s likely fake. 3. Do you have a trusted supplier or retailer relationship? Buying from a reputable grocery store is a good first step and offers more protection than an alternative retailer, like a flea market. Remember: It’s harder to buy fakes when you’re looking at whole and unprocessed products. For example, choose whole instead of ground spices, and brick instead of grated cheese. 4. Are you shopping online? If so, make sure it’s a reputable and recognizable supplier (such as Publix or Walmart), rather than a basement-run shop. 5. Did you do something about it? If you think something is wrong, complain! Tell the retailer and brand owner about the problem, and keep a sample for testing. Federal agencies address food fraud through food safety, defense and quality authorities. The Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Agriculture Department are the principle agencies that work to protect the food supply. But often, cognizant consumer are the whistleblowers. Sophisticated methods of reducing food fraud are on the horizon. One technology with much promise is DNA bar-coding, which allows researchers to identify any species by its genetic makeup — so fish, meat and fresh produce could be assessed. Some restaurants and grocery stores are committed to working only with suppliers that use DNA bar-coding to identify their meat and seafood species. And soon consumers may be able to use smartphone bar-coding apps to test their


Maryland police officer wounded, gunman killed during gun battle

An armed robbery suspect was killed and a police officer and bystander were wounded Wednesday after a gun battle that began aboard a Maryland Transit Authority bus and spilled onto a suburban Maryland street, Baltimore County officials said. Officers were initially called about 3 p.m. to a report of an armed robbery in progress along Dundalk Avenue and Avon Beach Road in Dundalk, according to a police statement. Police said arriving officers received information that a male gunman had robbed two people at gunpoint and fled on an MTA bus. Officers stopped the bus near the Logan Village Shopping Center, about seven blocks away. The gunman then fired several times from the bus as officers approached and police returned fire, authorities said. The suspect ran from the bus and continued to fire at police but later collapsed after being shot at least once, police said. The man, who police did not immediately identify, was pronounced dead at the scene. A video posted to Facebook appears to show the suspect shooting at police from both the front and rear doors of the bus and officers returning fire from behind their cruisers. The video could not be immediately verified by police. A message to the person who posted the video was not immediately returned. The wounded officer, who was only identified as female, was listed in serious condition Wednesday evening, police said. The wounded civilian, also a woman, was said to have suffered injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Police said they have body-camera footage from the officers involved as well as video from the bus surveillance cameras.


Community and cultural events in D.C., June 8-15, 2017

Thursday, June 8 “America and the Great War” Demonstration: Fruits of Summer American roots music “Dunmore’s War: The Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era” Neuroscience discussion Urban salon: Rooftop farming “One Destiny” Learn to play chess Everybody yoga Palaver Strings Polvo Scree jazz performance Poetry reading with Poets on the Fringe Yoga at Northwest One Friday, June 9 Children’s safety seats and belts inspection National Portrait Gallery Conversation Circle Organ concert The 14th Amendment Dan Bárta and Robert Balzar Trio Free Folger Friday: “The Bard The Duke” Palaver Strings Jeff From Accounting Friday ARTnights: U.S. Marines on Parade Saturday, June 10 CHAW’s 45th birthday bash Frank Lloyd Wright Day Used Library book sale Festival: You can grow it! celebration Fitness event: Open rehearsals: Yoga at your library Lego Club Dance Place: Gardening with Carla Perlo New York Latino Film Festival “Moonlight Revelry: A Rakugo Performance” Portrait story days: Rachel Carson National Symphony Orchestra Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra “In Jazz We Trust: Music in Motion” Sunday, June 11 Palisades farmers market Steinway Series: Serendip Piano Trio D.C. Jazz Festival Monday, June 12 Citizenship prep Children’s safety seats and belts inspection Lego challenge Build your best Lego creation, Lego pieces are small. Age 5 and older. Mondays at 4 p.m. Shaw (Watha T. Daniel) Library, 1630 Seventh St. NW. wathashawlibrary@dc.gov. 202-727-1288. Free. Cancer support group D.C. Jazz Festival: Zumba Tuesday, June 13 Tudor Tots: Old Glory Chair yoga classes Music by Rachmaninov Yoga at Shaw Library Sketching: Draw and discover Gentle P.M. Yoga Yoga classes Wednesday, June 14 Yoga in the galleries “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” National Museum of Women in the Arts gallery talk Museum talk “Broken Glass” Museum of Natural History lecture “How to Shake Off a Bride” Lunder Conservation Center tour D.C. Jazz Festival: Yoga for All U.S. Marine Latin Jazz Combo concert Thursday, June 15 Thursdays at Noon: Portrait Insight Take 5! Irene Jalenti Quartet plays Thelonious Monk D.C. Jazz Festival: Alzheimer’s Association workshop JFK 100th Birthday Musical Celebration — Compiled by Gerri Marmer TO SUBMIT AN EVENT Email:


A Muslim woman reporting on violent extremism at great personal risk

the calls she gets are anonymous tips about imminent danger to her own life, and whether jihadists or hostile governments intend to kidnap, torture or rape her. (They don’t. But the memory of Daniel Pearl, the murdered South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, is a constant presence in these pages.) Journalists will admire her. Readers unfamiliar with the painstaking and unglamorous process of newsgathering may also admire her, but they will find their alternative career choices validated by this account. (Henry Holt) The jihadists, when she finds them, are vividly and humanely portrayed. She wheedles her way into interviews with al-Qaeda and Islamic State fighters and sympathizers in Algeria, Jordan and Lebanon, and in Germany she briefly but memorably meets the tattooed rapper Deso Dogg (real name: Denis Cuspert), now famous in Syria as the only Islamic State fighter to have opened for the American rapper DMX. Another jihadist, a pimply 18-year-old female convert, says she divorced her first husband, a fellow convert, to find a “real man” who would take her to live in an Islamic state, out of the “unbearable” country of Germany. At other times the jihadists appear as phantoms, and the best Mekhennet or anyone else can do is describe the vapors they leave behind. She deduced the identity of Mohammed “Jihadi John” Emwazi, the recreational sadist who executed James Foley and several other Islamic State prisoners on camera before being obliterated by an American drone in November 2015. Emwazi’s friends and acquaintances tell her he turned to violence after harassment by British authorities. But most people who allege abuse by the government do not commit mass murder, so the biography she collects explains very little. The most alarming portraits are not of jihadists at all. Khaled el-Masri, a hapless German of Lebanese descent who shares a name with an al-Qaeda operative, contacts her and alleges that the CIA kidnapped and tortured him for several months in 2004. His evidence is strong and the official reaction of the U.S. government evasively incriminating. Mekhennet acknowledges that el-Masri went berserk after returning to Germany — he burned down a store after it refused to let him return an iPod, and he later assaulted others in separate incidents — but she makes plain that these might be mild reactions to the trauma of being abducted and sodomized by the most powerful government on earth. And then


The 40 most essential D.C. restaurant dishes of 2017

that gorgeous lobster (and ’gram it) before it’s dished out individually — a nice touch. 101 MGM National Ave., Oxon Hill. 301-971-6050. mgmnationalharbor.com. $62. WASHINGTON, DC - May 3: The Not So Classic Fried Chicken Biscuit at Stomping Ground in Alexandria. (Photo by Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post) (Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post) Not So Classic-style fried chicken biscuit at Stomping Ground At her Del Ray restaurant, Nicole Jones puts a Middle Eastern twist on a Southern favorite. The best-selling Not So Classic fried chicken biscuit packs za’atar, honey, hot sauce, red onion and benne-seed (the South’s version of sesame) tahini into a single bite. It’s spicy, bitter and sour, plus buttery and rich, thanks to the massive, delicate biscuit. It also doesn’t hurt that the 24-hour marinated, flour-dredged chicken breasts are fried in lard. 2309 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. 703-364-8912. stompdelray.com. $9. WASHINGTON, DC - May 9: Boudin Blanc as prepared by chef, Paul Steadman at Marcel's in D.C. (Photo by Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post) (Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post) Boudin blanc at Marcel’s Chef and owner Robert Wiedmaier estimates that Marcel’s has served close to 160,000 boudin blancs since the restaurant opened almost 19 years ago. On the menu since Day One, the sausage is shockingly fluffy despite the fact that it’s laced with pheasant, chicken and four ounces of foie gras. The secret: a nuanced whipping preparation that breaks down muscle proteins — that Wiedmaier says can take a chef six months to perfect. In case it wasn’t rich enough, the small-but-mighty link is placed atop a black-truffle puree and served with a seasonal touch, perhaps caramelized pearl onions in the summer or cannellini beans in the winter. 2401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. 202-296-1166. marcelsdc.com. Available a la carte for $24. WASHINGTON, DC -- The pao bhaji at Bindaas in Cleveland Park, one of the 40 Eats dishes for 2017. (Becky Krystal/TWP) (Becky Krystal/TWP) Pao bhaji at Bindaas Vikram Sunderam describes this Indian street food as a “vegetarian sloppy Joe” because of its appearance, but that doesn’t do this lively dish justice. The chef cooks a changing mix of vegetables — which might include cauliflower, carrots, peas and potatoes — with onions, tomatoes and a special blend of spices. (Think cumin, black pepper, red chile and black salt.) A potato masher transforms it into a pulpy kind of stew, served with buttered, griddled Parker House rolls that


Opioids, alcohol, other drugs killed more Marylanders in 2016 than ever before

examiners will now screen for one particularly lethal drug, carfentanil. The drug, which is used to tranquilize elephants, can be mixed with other opioids to make them more potent and is contributing to fatal overdoses in Maryland and elsewhere. “We want deaths to cease,” Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene Dennis R. Schrader said. “And we need those who use drugs to seek help before they feel compelled to use again.” Suspected fentanyl is seen on a table after a drug bust in Massachusetts. The drug is blamed for contributing to increases in overdoses. (Jessica Rinaldi/AP) Advocates — many of them relatives of addicts — say acute and long-term treatment remains the greatest need for their communities. The state health department says there are more than 2,200 beds available across Maryland that provide varying levels of treatment for everything from withdrawal management to rehab centers and group homes. The state was granted a waiver by the federal government this year to expand Medicaid reimbursement to clinics that provide residential substance-abuse treatment and make more treatment beds available to individuals who need care. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has raised the profile of the crisis since taking office in 2015, pledging $2 million from his budget to expand drug-court programs and raise public awareness. His administration has launched initiatives to identify those at risk of abusing drugs and is reaching out to overdose survivors to connect them to services. The legislature passed bills this year to address addiction, although a proposal to fund 10 crisis-treatment centers was trimmed to one. The new laws will supply public schools with overdose-reversal drugs; shield people who try to help overdose victims from legal liability; and try to prevent the overprescribing of painkillers by implementing new standards for doctors. According to the newly released data, Baltimore City continues to lead the state in drug- and alcohol-related deaths, followed by Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties. Together, the three jurisdictions account for nearly 60 percent of all such deaths — the vast majority of which are attributed to heroin and fentanyl overdoses. Non-opioid-related deaths accounted for 11 percent of drug and alcohol fatalities in Maryland, and were also on the rise. Nearly 300 more people died because of alcohol in 2016 than in 2015. During that same period, the number of cocaine-related deaths doubled, in part because users are combining the drug with more potent opioids, authorities said.


When terror strikes the family of a terrorism reporter

Souad Mekhennet, author of "I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad," recounts her personal loss to extremism and how it impacted her dedication to journalism. At about 1:00 a.m., half a dozen plainclothes police came into the hall where we had been waiting. They had grim looks on their faces and papers in their hands. They seemed to be bearing news, but they also looked weighted down, as if whatever they carried was heavy. My stomach began to churn. “How many families are you going to talk to?” I overheard one asking another. A blue-eyed officer with dark grayish hair glanced down at the papers and asked one of the volunteers to point out various people. He seemed to be looking for certain families. I walked up to him. Seven hours earlier, shots had been fired near the Olympia shopping center in Munich, and I had raced from Frankfurt to cover the story. Now I was looking for my cousin’s son, 14-year-old Can, who had been at the shopping center with a friend. “We have a family member missing. Please, can you tell us anything?” He folded the paper he was holding and opened a notebook. “Please give me your name, address, and who is the missing family member.” My voice shook as I recited the details. “For full disclosure, you should know I am also a journalist working for the Washington Post,” I told him. “But I’m not asking you these questions as a reporter. I’m asking as a member of the family.” Since 9/11, I had scoured the world writing about terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. I’d interviewed parents who had lost their children in Iraq. I remembered counting the bodies of dead protesters in Alexandria, Egypt. I had covered terrorist attacks on three continents — experiences that I had nearly finished chronicling for my memoir, “I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad.” But this time I wasn’t covering a story, I didn’t have that wall to protect me. In fact, I wondered if I’d ever really been able to build that wall. The police officer said he understood and asked me to wait while he spoke to someone on his cell phone. My aunt had come to stand next to me, and I pressed her hand while watching the policeman’s face


After shocking British vote result, Europe ponders fate of Brexit negotiations

May, who remains, for the moment, Britain’s prime minister, reiterated the need to move quickly on Brexit talks before the March 2019 deadline. “The timeframe set by Article 50 of the Treaty leaves us with no time to lose,” Tusk wrote. Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon, which outlines the E.U.’s constitutional basis, is the provision by which member states can withdraw from the union. Once triggered, member states then have two years to work out an exit deal with Brussels. When May triggered Article 50 in late March, Britain became the first nation ever to utilize the provision in the history of the E.U. Earlier Friday, Tusk also urged Britain not to let its current political landscape impede its ability to make a deal on its way out the door. “Do your best to avoid a ‘no deal’ as a result of ‘no negotiations,’ ” he wrote on Twitter. The sentiment was shared particularly by European officials and leaders from a French background. “First, let’s not confuse these results with a new Brexit referendum — that’s already done,” said Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs and a former French finance minister, in an interview. “It changes the force of the negotiations, to be sure,” Moscovici added. “The push for a ‘hard Brexit’ is weakened. But all is less clear — the political situation in Britain in general, the new minority government and its leadership.” With May’s failure to secure an absolute majority in Parliament — and thus the strong mandate polls had predicted she would win — some in Europe were speculating whether the hard Brexit that May had promised could now be recast into a softer one and, possibly, abandoned altogether. That notion was perhaps most pronounced in Ireland, where the reality of a future Brexit has threatened to reignite strife over the future of Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom but voted last year to stay in the European Union. A further complication is that May will probably try to form a coalition government with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. “The results of the UK election indicate to me that there is no strong mandate to proceed with a hard Brexit, which represents an opportunity for Ireland,” Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s prime minister-designate, said in a statement. A similar line emerged in Germany. “The British citizens have shown


Drug crisis is pushing up death rates for almost all groups of Americans

1980s and early 1990s, when the combination of the crack cocaine and HIV epidemics took a heavy toll on young Americans. Many factors are likely contributing to the current spike, but opioids stand out. The widespread abuse of prescription drugs has become a national crisis, with addicts overdosing on prescription opioids, their illegal cousin heroin, and, increasingly, synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and carfentanil, which are far more powerful and deadly. Alcohol-related deaths also have increased among whites, blacks and Hispanics, the data show. Meanwhile, homicide, the leading cause of death among young blacks, also has risen since the beginning of this decade. The new mortality spike is occurring in almost every state. The breadth of the nation’s deteriorating health has not been widely appreciated. Academic researchers and the news media in recent years have focused on the most intensely affected regions, such as Appalachia and rural New England, and on premature deaths among white Americans, a trend that began around 1999 and continues unabated. For more than a century, Americans lived much longer lives because of improvements in medicine, sanitation, control of contagious diseases, nutrition and individual health care. But American mortality appears to have reached an inflection point around 2010, in the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession. Generally positive mortality trends among blacks and Hispanics flattened out, then gradually worsened. For blacks and Hispanics, the biggest increase in deaths came in 2015, data for which was released earlier this year. The geography of the epidemic also expanded dramatically. From 1999 to 2010, only seven states showed an increase of more than 10 percent in the death rates of people ages 25 to 44: West Virginia, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. All have predominantly white populations and few if any big cities. The data from 2010 to 2015 tell a different story. During that period, 33 states showed death rates rising by at least 10 deaths per 100,000 people in the 25-44 age bracket, including all of New England and the Midwest Rust Belt. The death rate in Indiana rose by 31 per 100,000. Only in Hawaii and the District of Columbia has the death rate continued to decline since 2010. Moreover, a phenomenon most pronounced among whites in small cities and rural areas appears to be spreading to the nation’s suburbs and biggest cities. Before 2010, death rates had been declining for whites,


Theresa May has hobbled her premiership, calling an election in which she failed to perform

through Brexit, despite narrowly winning reelection and her Conservative Party losing the majority in the British Parliament. But May resisted calls to step down, saying that she would form a new government by working with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. The prime minister’s supporters were left wishing she had remained steadfast in her repeated vows that there would be no early election. But in April, May changed her mind, calling a vote three years before the end of her term. At first, the idea seemed sensible enough, as opinion surveys suggested she would sail back to Downing Street with a hefty majority. She adopted a hard line on immigration and globalization, arguing that only she was in a position to secure Britain’s future outside Europe. What was difficult, however, was convincing voters that she stood for anything but staying the course, a future rejected by those hostile to Brexit, hostile to the government’s record of budget cuts or simply hostile to a leader who seemed unwilling to roll up her sleeves and work for her majority. One district near her own, in Reading, offered a window into the damage done to the Conservatives. Its incumbent, Rob Wilson, who was in office since 2005 and had been minister for civil society under May, lost his seat to a local Labour council member. A rail and commercial hub that is home to a major university, Reading revealed that May’s embrace of a severe version of Brexit, designed to win over supporters of the far-right U.K. Independence Party, or UKIP, carried costs. Simon Round, a 44-year-old Labour voter here, said political moods have shifted as people, many of them young and pro-Europe, have moved south from London to Reading. “I’m a ‘remain’ voter; I don’t want a hard Brexit,” said Jo Purdey, 46, who has voted for different parties in the past but saw Labour as the main force of opposition to May’s government. Conservative voters expected the result, having observed Wilson said the inclusion of controversial changes to the country’s pension system in the Conservative manifesto cost him the support of older voters, whose support he needed given the large number of left-leaning students in the district. “I’m sure no one intentionally set out to lose me my seat,” he said, declining to point a finger directly at May, but he said “changes in how her inner circle works” were


Retrofitting Bach for a modern orchestra

Marin Alsop. (Adriane White ) With a late spring in the air, the Baltimore Symphony offered a bouquet of Bach on Thursday night at Strathmore, performing all six Brandenburg Concertos, some of his best-known and most-loved music. The program gave the audience a musical feast of the familiar, plus the chance to hear various members of the orchestra strut their stuff as soloists in these brilliant works. But for any modern symphony orchestra to undertake a program like this, a great deal of retrofitting, adjustment and alteration is required. For one thing, in the early 18th century, there were no permanent ensembles the size of a modern orchestra. In all probability the Brandenburgs would have been performed with one player on each part. Practically speaking, the First Concerto, which calls for the largest instrumental forces, would use 18 instrumentalists, seven of whom are soloists. If I counted correctly, there were 28 musicians onstage Thursday night, including the same seven soloists and not counting Marin Alsop, the conductor. Ten extra string players may not sound like so many. But consider how much harder the soloists must work to be heard over the beefed-up backup strings. Then there are the instruments themselves. Bach had two flutes at his disposal, the recorder and the transverse flute, both made of wood, and with decidedly different sounds. The Second and Fourth Concertos call for recorder soloists, while the Fifth uses a transverse flute. Thursday night, all were played using modern metal flutes. Today, the violin family uses steel strings. In Bach’s time, cat gut was used for strings, producing a quieter but much warmer sound. And 18th-century pitch was almost a full step lower than ours. In other words, Bach’s F would be our E-flat. These are but a few features of the musical landscape Bach took for granted but which are different today. Every season, a number of ensembles who attempt to emulate Bach’s sound ideal play in Washington. By comparison, the Baltimore Symphony’s performances Thursday night, good as they were, seemed an anomaly. style@washpost.com


This film explains why mosquitoes are so dangerous

(PAULO WHITAKER/REUTERS) Be sure to bring both popcorn and bug spray to “Mosquito,” a film about how something tiny can be such a big threat. “Mosquito” is one of several health-oriented features being shown as part of the AFI DOCS Documentary Film Festival June 14-18 in Washington and Silver Spring. And it’s a reminder that although the Zika epidemic has officially just ended in Puerto Rico, that’s probably not the last we’ll hear of infants whose microcephaly was caused by the virus. Director Su Rynard lets viewers experience the heartbreak of that neurological condition through a Puerto Rican family that holds monthly birthday parties for their tiny, afflicted son because doctors say he probably won’t make it through his first year. There’s nothing new about mosquitoes spreading horrific diseases, explain a variety of international experts, including one with a cute model of the insect on his desk. (He uses it to teach a group of African children about a new technique for mosquito-proofing homes.) If you’ve got an exposed patch of skin, there’s a female mosquito out there that would love to make a hole, spit some infected saliva into it and then slurp your blood. In the process, she could pass on Zika, or perhaps dengue, chikungunya, West Nile, malaria or something else scientists have yet to discover. She’s more likely to track you down than ever before. Climate change turns out to be great news for mosquitoes, particularly the fearsome Aedes aegypti variety, now free to move into formerly inhospitable areas. Washington’s claim to fame in the film: It’s home to the northernmost population of A. aegypti that stick around through the winter. Scientists say they rely on the city’s tunnels for protection. Thanks, Metro! So why don’t we just kill the bugs off? If only it were that easy. Chemical spraying leads to resistance and also to serious ecosystem complications, including the death of bees, butterflies and other key pollinators. The documentary highlights the development of a new biotech strategy to create male A. aegypti mosquitoes with a special trait: They mate as usual, but their offspring die. Early results are promising. But if you can manage to sleep after watching this, you’ll still want a net over your bed. The international premiere of “Mosquito” will be Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Newseum.


Michael A’Hearn, astronomer who put spacecraft on collision course with comet for the sake of science, dies at 76

blackboard. (Courtesy of University of Maryland) The machinery consisted of two parts: a “flyby” craft equipped with sophisticated recording equipment, and a detachable “impactor,” an 820-pound, refrigerator-size craft for the comet to strike. The comet, known as Tempel 1, was about 9 miles long and 3.7 miles wide and moved around the Sun in a 5½ -year elliptical orbit between Jupiter and Mars. There was a blinding shower of light and a giant plume of gas and icy debris when the comet and the impactor spacecraft collided with the force of what was said to have been the equivalent of 4½ tons of dynamite. Scientists had long believed that comets contain remnants of matter left over from the formation of the solar system. They wanted to look inside Tempel 1 to see if an interior view might yield more information. From the Tempel 1 collision and later flyby observations of other comets, the scientific community gained “a complete rethinking of our understanding of the formation of comets and of how they work,” Dr. A’Hearn said in a 2013 announcement of the formal end of the Deep Impact mission. “These small, icy remnants of the formation of our solar system are much more varied, both one from another and even from one part to another of a single comet, than we ever had anticipated,” he said. Michael Francis A’Hearn was born in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 17, 1940, and grew up in Boston. He graduated from Boston College and then received a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin in 1966. That year he joined the faculty at the University of Maryland. In 2000, he was named a distinguished university professor. He took emeritus status in 2011 but had continued doing research at the university. Survivors include his wife, Maxine Ramold A’Hearn, whom he married in 1963, of University Park; three sons, Brian J. A’Hearn of Oxford, England, Kevin P. A’Hearn of Vienna, Va., and Patrick N. A’Hearn of Seattle; and five grandchildren. Dr. A'Hearn speaks to the media with an image, behind him, of the collision of the Deep Impact impactor and the Tempel 1 comet. (Brendan McDermid/European Pressphoto AGency) Outside the lab and classroom, Dr. A’Hearn was an avid sailor. He told friends that if he had not become an astronomer, he would most liked to have been a ship’s captain. He once combined his vocation and avocation


Trump’s lawyer in Russia probe has clients with Kremlin ties

clients, he said. A White House spokesman did not respond to requests for comment Friday. Michael J. Bowe, a partner at the law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres, declined to say whether the firm had discussed the possibility of potential conflicts arising from its Russian clients. Bowe added that their representation of the Russian firms and Trump “are totally unrelated.” CNN and BuzzFeed previously reported Kasowitz’s Russian clients. Trump hired Kasowitz in 2001 to restructure debt on his firm’s Atlantic City casinos. More recently, Kasowitz filed a lawsuit against Timothy O’Brien, arguing that the author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald” had libeled Trump by understating the businessman’s wealth. Trump lost the case in 2011. O’Brien told The Post last year that Trump used Kasowitz because he “always favored scrappy lawyers and street fighters.” Kasowitz also wrote a letter during the presidential campaign threatening to sue the New York Times for an article that said two women had accused Trump of touching them inappropriately. Kasowitz said at the time it was “nothing more than a politically motivated effort to defeat Mr. Trump’s candidacy.” No suit has been filed. On Tuesday, Deripaska’s company, Veleron, lost an appeal in federal court in Manhattan in its lawsuit against Morgan Stanley in a complex financial case involving a dispute over a loan on which Veleron defaulted during the height of the Great Recession. Kasowitz was scheduled to deliver oral arguments in the appeal last month. It’s not clear whether Kasowitz will continue to represent Veleron. Records in the case reinforce Deripaska’s close ties to Putin. When Deripaska’s company ran into financial trouble in 2008 and needed to put up more collateral to cover some its liabilities, Deripaska put in a call to Putin, who authorized the state-run Vnesheconombank, or VEB, to offer his firm a bailout, Deripaska acknowledged in court records. In 2008, Forbes magazine listed Deripaska as the ninth-richest man in the world. In 2006, the United States revoked his visa to enter the country, citing possible ties to organized crime. He has denied those links, claiming the allegations are part of an effort to smear him. Kasowitz represents Sberbank in a 2016 lawsuit that is still in its preliminary stages. An owner of a Russian granite-mining business accuses the bank of conspiring with competitors to dismantle his company and seize its assets. The bank has not responded in court filings. Sberbank


Afghan soldier opens fire on U.S. troops, killing three servicemen

An Afghan soldier mans a checkpoint in Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar province. Three U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday in the Aachin district of Nangarhar province. (Ghulamullah Habibi/European Pressphoto Agency) KABUL — The shooting occurred in the Achin district of Afghanistan’s Nangahar province, according to a U.S. defense official, an area where both Islamic State and Taliban insurgents are contesting territory. The wounded soldier has been evacuated for medical treatment, the Pentagon said in a statement. The incident is under investigation and the identities of the fallen soldiers were not released. Their families are still being notified. Early media reports suggested the assailant was an elite Afghan commando, although that is not confirmed. The gunman was killed by American troops, according to a security official in the province. Achin has been the site of heavy fighting in recent months as U.S. Special Operations forces — including elite Army Rangers and Green Berets — have been working alongside Afghan commandos to rout the Islamic State from the area. Three U.S. soldiers had died there this year before Saturday’s shooting. The Taliban are also active in the area, and there have been reports of clashes between the two insurgent groups in recent weeks. A Taliban spokesman sent a text message to journalists Saturday claiming the alleged assailant was an “infiltrator” of the Afghan army. Allied commanders provided limited details. “We are aware of an incident in Eastern Afghanistan. We will release more information when appropriate,” Douglas High, the public affairs officer for Operation Resolute Support, the NATO mission in Afghanistan, said in an email statement to The Washington Post. Also Saturday, at least two Afghan border policemen were killed by U.S. aircraft fire during a joint operation in the southern province of Helmand. The U.S. military in a statement apologized for the deaths and said the incident was under investigation. The three previous U.S. soldiers’ deaths in Achin make up the entirety of U.S. combat fatalities in Afghanistan in 2017. In early April, Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, was killed by small-arms fire, followed by Sgt. Joshua P. Rodgers, 22, and Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas, 23, at the end of the month. Rodgers and Thomas were killed during a joint Afghan-U.S. nighttime raid on an Islamic State headquarters building. The Pentagon is investigating whether they were mortally wounded by friendly fire. The raid resulted in the death of Abdul


British Conservatives complain that May bungled election and is now bungling aftermath

supports the trip, according to a report first published in the Guardian newspaper. People head to the polls to vote for a new government. The White House call was made “in recent weeks,” said a Downing Street adviser who was in the room, the Guardian reported. Asked whether Trump had spoken to May about postponing his trip to London, which remains unscheduled, White House spokesman Raj Shah said Sunday: “The president has tremendous respect for Prime Minister May. That subject never came up on the call.” May’s office said the Trump state visit was still on. “The queen extended an invitation to President Trump to visit the U.K., and there is no change to those plans,” a spokeswoman for the prime minister said. Formal Brexit talks are scheduled to start June 19, the same day as the Queen’s Speech, to be delivered by Queen Elizabeth II from the throne of the House of Lords. The speech, written by May’s ministers, includes a list of the laws the government hopes to get approved by Parliament over the coming year. Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, who pushed for Britain to leave the E.U. but has been absent from the public stage since the election, denied news accounts that he was maneuvering to replace May. In a tweet, Johnson called the idea “tripe.” Johnson said he is backing May. “Let’s get on with the job,” he tweeted. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon disagreed Sunday that May was mortally wounded and said he expected the Tory members of Parliament to support her this week. May’s main opponent, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, appeared on the Sunday talk shows, too, looking either “serene” or “smug” — depending on the commentator’s measure of the man. Labour came out of Thursday’s election with a substantial growth spurt. Corbyn said it is “quite possible” that there will be another election this year or early next year. “We cannot continue like this,” he said, predicting that even a loose alliance between the Conservatives and the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland cannot endure. Another top Labour leader, John McDonnell, said Sunday that May’s partnership with the Irish unionists will be a “coalition of chaos.” On Saturday evening, the prime minister’s office suggested a deal had been struck for a “confidence and supply” agreement with the DUP, a socially conservative and traditionalist movement. Downing Street said the deal would be revealed Monday to


A Brooklyn pianist who can’t speak Spanish brings a Cuban orchestra to the United States

limits allowed for rehearsals. She would deal with neither in Havana. “We are an island,” says Padrón, who founded the orchestra in 2009. “In the good and the bad way, we are so distant of the world. . . . We are so natural, so pure without any influence of no system or any economic situation. We don’t do it thinking about buying a house or a car after a concert. Because we know it’s impossible. We play just for fun and for love of music.” It is not easy. Peña, the principal second violin in the orchestra, says strings are so scarce in Cuba that she learned to play on an instrument using harvested telephone wire. “It was hard because I didn’t know why I had such pain in my fingers, but I didn’t stop,” she says. “I only knew I needed to play.” Everybody in the orchestra works for free. The conductor himself gets by on about $55 a month, his combined salary as deputy director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba and for teaching at the University of the Arts in Havana. At 32, he just moved out of his parents’ house. Not that he’s unfamiliar with the outside world. As a guest conductor, Padrón has worked in Canada, Spain and South America and took part in an exchange program that brought him to Georgetown University in April. He also has watched many of his friends leave Cuba, including the orchestra’s former first oboe player. He notes that she now sells Toyotas in the United States. Mikowsky said the Cuban economic system does create a hardship for players. But it is also a blessing for younger musicians. The educational system, he says, is far less discriminating than that in the United States. “I have been teaching at the Manhattan School of Music since 1969, and I have never had a black student,” he says. “Why? Because they were born to poor families. In Cuba, I remember when I arrived in one of the visits I had and went to go to a concert at a conservatory. And there was this black girl who took a violin in her hand and played so beautiful and I said, if she had been born in the United States, she wouldn’t have had a chance. In Cuba, as soon as they realized she was musical, they gave her an instrument.”


D.C. restaurant is evacuated for structural problems

A crowded restaurant and lounge near the Shaw and U Street areas of Northwest Washington was evacuated Sunday evening after a roof deck began to sag, authorities said. Signs that roof joists were failing at the club in the 600 block of Florida Avenue NW, caused patrons to move away from the affected area, said Vito Maggiolo, spokesman for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services department. Photographs identified the restaurant as Uproar. No injuries were reported, Maggiolo said. The Florida Avenue block outside the restaurant was closed to traffic.


Russia has developed a cyberweapon that can disrupt power grids, according to new research

and influence its outcome. That campaign employed a variety of methods, including hacking hundreds of political and other organizations, and leveraging social media, U.S. officials said. Dragos has named the group that created the new malware Electrum, and it has determined with high confidence that Electrum used the same computer systems as the hackers who attacked the Ukraine electric grid in 2015. That attack, which left 225,000 customers without power, was carried out by Russian government hackers, other U.S. researchers concluded. U.S. government officials have not officially attributed that attack to the Russian government, but some privately say they concur with the private-sector analysis. “The same Russian group that targeted U.S. [industrial control] systems in 2014 turned out the lights in Ukraine in 2015,” said John Hultquist, who analyzed both incidents while at iSight Partners, a cyber-intelligence firm now owned by FireEye, where he is director of intelligence analysis. Hultquist’s team had dubbed the group Sandworm. “We believe that Sandworm is tied in some way to the Russian government — whether they’re contractors or actual government officials, we’re not sure,” he said. “We believe they are linked to the security services.” Sandworm and Electrum may be the same group or two separate groups working within the same organization, but the forensic evidence shows they are related, said Robert M. Lee, chief executive of Dragos. The Department of Homeland Security, which works with the owners of the nation’s critical infrastructure systems, did not respond to a request for comment Sunday. Energy-sector experts said that the new malware is cause for concern, but that the industry is seeking to develop ways to disrupt attackers who breach their systems. “U.S. utilities have been enhancing their cybersecurity, but attacker tools like this one pose a very real risk to reliable operation of power systems,” said Michael J. Assante, who worked at Idaho National Labs and is a former chief security officer of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, where he oversaw the rollout of industry cybersecurity standards. CrashOverride is only the second instance of malware specifically tailored to disrupt or destroy industrial control systems. Stuxnet, the worm created by the United States and Israel to disrupt Iran’s nuclear capability, was an advanced military-grade weapon designed to affect centrifuges that enrich uranium. In 2015, the Russians used malware to gain access to the power supply network in western Ukraine, but it was hackers at the


Britain’s Theresa May comes under pressure to soften her stance on Brexit

late Monday afternoon, May suggested that there may be some flexibility after all, promising in a contrite appearance before her party’s backbenchers to “listen to all voices” in the party on Brexit and build a more consensual approach. The statement – part of an appearance in which May also vowed that “I got us into this mess, and I’m going to get us out of it” – followed days of growing agitation from within her party over a strategy of simply soldiering on. May’s willingness to take blame for the election loss Monday appeared to have won her favor from her party colleagues, who said she had effectively ended talk of an imminent coup. But party members said she would still have to prove she understands that while she may have the will to continue on as normal with her Brexit plans, she no longer has the votes. Just how vulnerable she has become was underscored Monday when Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, emerged from a meeting with the prime minister and emphasized that the government would have to “put our country’s economic future first and foremost in our minds as we go ahead with Brexit.” It was a coded but clear message, one that runs counter to May’s consistent refrain that controlling immigration will be the country’s top priority in talks, and that economic impacts will come well behind. It was also an implicit threat: If Davidson, who passionately favored the “remain” side in the Brexit referendum, withholds the support of Parliament’s 13 Scottish Tories, May no longer has a majority. The same applies for May’s would-be coalition partner – the right-wing Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. The party, which was locked in negotiations with the Tories on Monday, also favors a less rigid break, fearing the consequences of a hard Brexit for an area that depends heavily on trade with an E.U. member – the Republic of Ireland. And top members of May’s cabinet – including Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond – have reportedly taken up the cause of soft Brexit behind the scenes in recent days, emboldened by May’s sudden fragility. “The debate over soft versus hard Brexit is back on the table — and soft Brexit now has more points of influence,” Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst with Eurasia Group, wrote in a briefing note Monday. May’s proposed version of Brexit involves a


Someone — who may have looked like this — killed a Md. store owner 25 years ago

Authorities in Maryland released composite sketches of a suspect in a 1992 murder. The sketches were put together by DNA left at the scene. The suspect’s age is not known: one sketch shows the suspect as a 25-year-old, the other as a 50-year-old. (Parabon NanoLabs via Montgomery County police) On a Sunday evening 25 years ago, someone walked into a country store north of Washington and brutally killed the friendly owner. The attacker left behind a telling clue: drops of blood. Forensic technicians extracted a DNA profile. Detectives submitted the profile to databases containing profiles of offenders nationwide. No matches. Closer to home, they compared the profile with DNA samples taken from about 20 suspects they’d developed. No matches. Now, taking advantage of a new technology that uses DNA details to create a drawing of what the possible killer looked like, detectives remain ever hopeful that they will finally solve the case. James Kweku Essel, the owner of a country store in Montgomery County, was killed in 1992. Police believe the possible killer drove a black Pontiac Fiero similar to the style pictured here. (Montgomery County police) “This will help us narrow things down,” said Montgomery County Detective Mark Janney. On Monday, officials released a composite drawing of the possible killer based on the DNA information. The man almost certainly had black hair, brown eyes and skin that was light brown to brown, according to the analysis, performed by Parabon NanoLabs, based in Reston, Va. There is little to no chance he had freckles. And in appearance, the suspect may have looked Mayan or Native American, based on his facial shape, his pigmentation and that his ancestors probably were indigenous to the middle of the Western Hemisphere — a swath from Mexico to the central area of South America. Detectives note that based on the era and area of the crime, the man’s appearance might have made him stand out. The killing occurred March 22, 1992, at the Sugarloaf Mountain Market in the community of Comus, in northern Montgomery County about three miles west of Interstate 270. Janney said that before hiring the DNA company, he and colleagues had been following what appeared to be solid leads for white male suspects. He still is not ruling that prospect out and said such a person may have been working with a darker-skinned person. He has long thought the suspect or suspects


Food and drink events for the week

Head to the Heurich House Museum on Thursday for this month’s installment of History & Hops. The event includes a beer tasting. (Craig Hudson/For The Washington Post) THURSDAY COOKING CLASS: HISTORY HOPS: WINE DINNER: FRIDAY BEER, BOURBON BBQ FESTIVAL: FARM-TO-TABLE DINNER: TRUCKEROO: SATURDAY AROUND THE WORLD CULTURAL FOOD FESTIVAL: COOKING CLASS: COOKING CLASS: MONDAY FOOD FRIENDS’ CHEF’S BEST DINNER AND AUCTION: MASON DIXON MASTER CHEF TOURNAMENT: TUESDAY COOKING CLASS: FUNDRAISER IN SUPPORT OF REFUGEES: TAMALFEST DC FUNDRAISER: RESERVE NOW JUNE 21 CHESAPEAKE FOODSHED FEAST: WINE TASTING: Submit event listings at events.washpost.com at least 14 days in advance. Events are subject to cancellation.


Tracy K. Smith named new U.S. poet laureate

office in the library, a travel budget and a modest stipend, has few official duties and no political entanglements — no required sonnets on the occasion of Donald Trump’s birthday, etc. Smith, who plans to continue living in New Jersey, will be free to define her role however she’d like. “It’s what every artist is hoping for: time and space and support for the freedom to create,” Smith said. “I get to immerse myself in the conversation that poetry generates. When we’re talking about the feelings that poems alert us to and affirm, we’re speaking as our realest selves. To imagine bringing the tone of that conversation into different parts of the country and having conversations with people I can’t come into contact with every day, that feels like a really wonderful opportunity.” Smith’s interest in reaching a broad audience made her an especially attractive choice. “One of the things I have been stressing thematically across the library is that we want to be accessible and relatable to people all across the country,” Hayden said. “The fact that Tracy wants to go into rural areas and talk about poetry is such a great idea and something that really excited me because I think that’s the kind of thing we should be doing as an institution.” The youngest of five children, Smith was born in Falmouth, Mass., and raised in Fairfield, Calif., in a loving home she describes in her memoir, “Ordinary Light,” which was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in nonfiction. Her parents managed to shield her, for a time, from some of the racial challenges they faced as African Americans growing up in the 1940s. Smith’s mother was a deeply religious woman whose faith defined Smith’s world until she began to read more widely and went to Harvard, where she discovered the works of James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright, writers whose work, she says, “hurt, but buoyed me, too.” Smith’s father served in the Air Force and then worked as an engineer on the Hubble Space Telescope. She alludes to him throughout “Life on Mars” — a title inspired by a David Bowie song. One of the poems in that collection, “My God, It’s Full of Stars” — a phrase drawn from Arthur C. Clarke’s “2001” — ends with these lines that recall the Hubble’s initial malfunction: The first few pictures came back blurred,


Howard Theatre insiders detail a chaotic operation, with bounced checks and unpaid vendors

This 2012 photo shows the Howard Theatre following its $29 million renovation. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post ) The revitalized Howard Theatre marked its fifth anniversary this spring, but according to former employees, there was little reason to celebrate. Since its reopening in 2012 after years of neglect and deterioration, the Howard, the employees claim, has largely operated in an atmosphere of managerial turmoil, financial uncertainty and perpetual corner-cutting that has come to a head in recent months. Several former managers have spoken with The Washington Post, describing a chaotic environment in which staff members as well as musicians and promoters have at times received late compensation, paychecks have bounced and vendors have gone unpaid. On May 30, Maryland-based vendor Belair Produce filed a civil suit in the District against Howard Theatre Entertainment, the venue’s operator, for breach of contract, claiming more than $16,000 in unpaid invoices. Rob Yealu, the theater’s general manager until he resigned at the end of April, was hired late last year to assist in the effort to make the Howard a profitable venue. Yealu said he quickly encountered a litany of problems, beginning with nonpayment of musical acts and a growing stack of unpaid bills, which he said hampered efforts to turn the Howard’s fortunes around. Howard Theatre Entertainment’s majority owner is New York-based Blue Note Entertainment Group, which has resisted an ongoing effort to remove it as the theater’s operator. Steven Bensusan, president of Blue Note, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the lawsuit and the employee allegations outlined in this article. He has previously said that reports of checks bouncing and vendors not being paid were “just not true.” Yealu said that none of the employees hired during his tenure, including friends whom he recruited, remain at the Howard. “It’s because the checks bounced,” he said. “It’s because we didn’t pay vendors. It’s because we didn’t pay talent. It’s because it’s extremely stressful for them to come in.” Yealu described his former staff as “students. They’re single moms. They’re single fathers. They’re just people. And they come to work and their expectation is that they should get paid.” Rahman “Rock” Harper, a onetime reality TV contestant and peripatetic D.C. chef who worked at the Howard for about six months last year before resigning, recalled being asked to inform kitchen workers putting in 40 hours a week — earning only $300 or


How the showdown over Qatar is ripping families apart

rights watchdog Amnesty International described the case of a Saudi man living in Qatar who was unable to visit his hospitalized mother in Saudi Arabia because he feared he would not be able to return to his children and Qatari wife. Jawaher’s family is already divided, at least temporarily. Her father was on a work trip in Bahrain when the crisis erupted, and he has been stuck there ever since. “There’s no way now for him to come back,” she said. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE said they had created hotlines to help families who face separation but gave few details. Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee dismissed the move as “little more than a face-saving” exercise. Amnesty International called the measures “vague and insufficient.” Some affected families worry that the hotlines are ways to gather data on those who complain. Both Bahrain and the UAE last week declared it a crime to criticize their policies toward Qatar or show sympathy with Qatar — offenses that carry multi-year jail sentences. “It’s fake,” said Yazeedi, referring to Bahrain’s hotline. “I cannot trust them. I won’t call them from my number.” In Omar al-Ansari’s family, the crisis has struck in multiple ways. His sister and her family — all Qataris — arrived two days earlier, after being ordered to leave Saudi Arabia, where they had studied and worked for six years. Now, she and her husband need to find new jobs and schools for their five children. Last week, the family’s divisions erupted on their WhatsApp chat forum, with an aunt in Bahrain criticizing Qatar and its policies and the Qatari side of the family denouncing Bahrain and its allies. “Our family in Bahrain thinks Qatar is wrong, and we think they are not,” said Ansari, 23, a university senior whose mother is Qatari and father is Bahraini. “That’s causing friction between our families. It’s not a nice situation to be in.” His Bahraini identification card has expired. So has his Qatari one. But he can’t renew his Qatari ID unless he has a valid one from Bahrain. And if he travels there, he won’t be allowed to return because of his citizenship. So he can’t open up a bank account, get a new phone or a new driver’s license — which also recently expired — or access other government services. “I’m kind of stuck,” Ansari said. Jia Naqvi contributed


The Invisibles: The cruel Catch-22 of being poor with no ID

me via email that her office uses its requirements to prevent residency fraud, a department priority. After REAL ID’s implementation in the District in 2014, Foundry’s rate of checks cashed by the D.C. treasurer dropped from about 75 percent to 30 percent, as clients failed to meet the law’s requirements — though Roberts says the numbers are creeping back up. Within a year, local nonprofit Bread for the City received 1,000 client inquiries about IDs, prompting it to hire a full-time attorney for the issue. “Before REAL ID was implemented, Bread did not experience a large number of inquiries regarding IDs,” says Danielle Moise, Bread’s attorney on its Accessing Identifying Documents Project. Anecdotally, she says, the nonprofit saw a decline from that 1,000 in 2015 (2016 totals are not in yet). “It’s unclear what the reason for this has been. I imagine a number of people have simply given up on this effort as getting an ID seems insurmountable,” she explains. “Our social workers tell me, however, that although the numbers have declined, IDs still seem to be the second-most- requested service, after requests for affordable housing.” For his part, Sensenbrenner argues that there is no undue burden on the poor for ID access. A statement from his office said, “With many states and jurisdictions offering identification cards free of charge, the small number of citizens facing challenges securing these items can be assisted on the local level efficiently and at little or no cost.” Darryl Lawrence frets about the challenges of getting identification in the District of Columbia. His situation is complicated by the fact that he was born in New York City, where he’s been trying for months to get a copy of his birth certificate. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) At 7:30 a.m. on a Friday Inside, Rebecca Kahlenberg prepared to open the church’s Transition Assistance Program, or TAP. Like Foundry’s I.D. Ministry, TAP helps people secure identity documents. It takes 15 walk-in clients a day, three days a week, on a first-come, first-served basis. Lines form between 6 and 7 a.m. for when the doors open at 8 a.m. Clients have recounted to Kahlenberg and me how they’ve walked for hours through the night to arrive by daybreak. With 20 volunteers serving ID clients, capacity isn’t what limits TAP; it’s cost. For clients born outside the District, birth certificates can range from $25 in California to $12


The Inn at Little Washington will soon turn 40 — and it still has big plans for the future

on boats traveling down the Potomac, and the night will end with fireworks. There will be an overnight reunion camp-out at the inn for all the restaurant’s alumni, with former chefs manning food booths. The final event will take place Sept. 30 at Vaux-le-Vicomte, the 17th-century chateau outside Paris that was the inspiration for Versailles Palace; proceeds will benefit a French historical association. A ticket package for both the Mount Vernon and the French dinner is in the works, although the details have not been finalized. In honor of the anniversary, O’Connell is launching an eponymous foundation to fund culinary training for aspiring local chefs — one of which he was back when his parents tried to persuade him to enter a more prestigious profession. The two Michelin stars were a great boost for O’Connell: When officials announced that they were coming to Washington last year, they said that the guide would include only restaurants in the city, but they made an exception for the inn. José Andrés’s Minibar and Aaron Silverman’s Pineapple and Pearls also received two stars. When the inn opened, a Michelin rating wasn’t possible because the guide hadn’t yet expanded to the United States. But O’Connell traveled to Europe every year to visit three-stars and then tried to emulate what he’d learned. “The old story was that it took three generations to get three stars: the first generation bought the property and set up a good, consistent restaurant,” he explains. “Then the son bought the fancy china and glassware and sent his son to work at the greatest places on earth. That son — the third generation — came home, married a beautiful blonde who worked in the dining room, and they got the third star. In America, things have to speed up a little bit, so we tried to do this in one generation.” The Inn at Little Washington, which opened in 1978, was inspired by Europe’s family-owned country inns. (Gordon Beall/©2012 Gordon Beall) It took O’Connell several years to realize his vision: At first, he clashed with 156 town residents who were afraid that the inn would change the culture of the place. He now owns 20 town properties (most turned into the inn’s 24 guest rooms) and is responsible for virtually all the local tax revenue. The entire town is a destination, and its fortunes are inextricably intertwined with the inn. Now O’Connell


Senate overwhelmingly votes to curtail Trump’s power to ease Russia sanctions

June 12 meant to punish Moscow for its alleged meddling in the 2016 election, its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea and its support for the government of Syria. “This administration has been too eager, far too eager in my mind, to put sanctions relief on the table,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday. “We cannot let Russia’s meddling in our elections go unpunished, lest they ever consider something similar again.” Trump’s campaign is currently the focus of congressional and FBI scrutiny, as investigators try to determine if there was any collusion between his supporters and Russia. The president has accused Democrats of pursuing a witch hunt against him. The president’s team pushed back Wednesday against the legislation, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warning lawmakers against passing anything that might tie the administration’s hands. “We would ask for the flexibility to turn the heat up when we need to, but also to ensure that we have the ability to maintain a constructive dialogue,” Tillerson said in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “I certainly agree with the sentiment that has been conveyed by several members from both parties that Russia must be held accountable for its meddling in U.S. elections,” Tillerson said, adding that he agrees Russia did attempt to interfere. But Tillerson also said his mandate is to try to improve U.S. relations with Russia in ways that would benefit the United States, and he suggested that the new penalties may get in the way. Tillerson’s testimony is effectively a warning that the administration may oppose a package of new punishments that could be approved by the Senate this week. But if the Senate’s vote is any guide, congressional support for the measure will probably be veto-proof. The House has yet to vote on the measure, which was added as an amendment to a popular bill stiffening sanctions against Iran for that country’s recent ballistic missile tests. Even the president’s staunchest supporters voted in lockstep with his sharpest critics Wednesday to endorse the Russia sanctions measure. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) referred to it applying “a correct amount of pressure” on Russia that will “ensure Congress exerts proper oversight over the use of these powerful sanctions.” The measure lawmakers voted on Wednesday would give Congress the chance to block any efforts by the Trump administration — or any other president, for that matter —


A Silver Spring woman was recently bitten by a venomous snake — in her bed

thing I’ve experienced,” she said. Christie’s screams woke her family, and her mom and dad ran down to her basement bedroom thinking she was having a nightmare. There was Christie, her hand already starting to swell from the venom. And there was the snake, still in her bed. While Christie’s father, Tom, dispatched the snake (“I found a curtain rod, and it worked,” he said), her mother, Debbie, bundled her in the car and sped on the Beltway to Holy Cross, one exit away. Copperheads are common to the eastern and central United States. Their preferred prey are rodents, insects, birds, amphibians and other reptiles. If it seems like there have been more copperhead sightings in our area recently, that doesn’t necessarily mean there are more copperheads. “I think it’s a combination of things,” said Jonathan McKnight, a biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. “Number one, they’re much more common than people realize. They’re around us.” “Another factor that’s probably in play — though probably not in Silver Spring — is that people are more and more replicating a wonderful snake habitat in their neighborhoods. We like to have a big house with lots of trees and streams in between. That’s great for us, but it’s also great for copperheads.” Ryan Butler Earlier this month, Ryan’s office posted a sign at Chevy Chase Local Park on Shepherd Street headlined “Caution! Snake Habitat.” It had received a phone call from a resident whose friend’s dog was reportedly bitten in the park and had needed extensive veterinary treatment. (The dog recovered.) Park staff searched the area but didn’t find any copperheads. “But because of a direct report of a bite, we thought, ‘Hey, let’s just raise awareness and have people be a little more vigilant,’ ” Ryan said. If you’re hiking through the woods or pawing through brush outside your house, be careful. “The best advice is situational awareness,” said Jonathan. “The first time you turn that canoe over, who knows who’s moved into it over the last six months?” Ryan said copperheads are not aggressive toward people most of the time. “They want to stay out of sight, out of mind,” he said, “but they will strike if threatened or stepped on.” Or rolled on. That’s what seems to have happened in Christie’s case. Her house isn’t far from Northwest Branch, in the sort of wooded suburb that’s common


Alexandria-Arlington community calendar, June 15-22, 2017

THURSDAY, June 15 Bon voyage to 18th-century ship Rosslyn Rocks! concert Getting Metro Back on Track America and the Great War Friday, June 16 Rosslyn Cinema + Pub in the Park Summer concert series Gang Prevention Soccer Tournament Saturday, June 17 Birding Arlington Smarter Living for All Ages Champion trees bike ride Healthy cooking demonstration Pollinator patrol Port of Harlem spring lecture Summer art demos Columbia Pike Blues Festival Alexandria Archaeology Dig Days Native American hunting skills Skulls and bones campfire Marine Band concert Summer concert series Sunday, June 18 Summer concert series Apothecary Father’s Day open house Firehouse Museum Father’s Day open house Tavern museum Father’s Day open house Opera NOVA Summer Serenade ZERO Prostate Cancer run/walk Monday, June 19 Quintango concert Tuesday, June 20 Birding trip to Shenandoah National Park How to Develop an Online Audience “Washington Summer Sings” Women of Vision award ceremony Cathedral organ recital Wednesday, June 21 Senior Services of Alexandria speaker series Figure-drawing workshop “Flights of Fancy” exhibit Summer Solstice Celebration Author talk Summer pruning and plant care Twilight Tattoo: A Military Pageant Thursday, June 22 Rosslyn Rocks! concert VCE finance program — Compiled by Ria Manglapus TO SUBMIT AN EVENT Email: Fax: Mail: Details:


Thousands of Russians prove they’re fed up with Putin’s authoritarianism

in jail. More than 1,000 people were also arrested in Moscow and St. Petersburg. While many came out to support Mr. Navalny’s campaign against corruption, in Moscow they were also protesting the city’s demolition of old apartment blocks, among other things. The crowds are a reminder that, despite Mr. Putin’s authoritarianism, some Russians want a more democratic and open system and are willing to stand up for their beliefs. Mr. Putin has little use for democracy anywhere — either at home or abroad. In his mind, the West has long interfered in Russia’s affairs by preaching the values of freedom and liberty. He appears to have relished a chance at payback in 2016 through interference with the U.S. election. Of course, he is wrong: In Russia, the West sought to support best practices of democracy and institution-building, not put a thumb on the scale. Multiple investigations are already probing Mr. Putin’s meddling, including the attempt to harm Hillary Clinton’s campaign through malicious hacking. This week, Bloomberg News reported that Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system “was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed” and included probes into voter databases and software systems in nearly twice as many states as was previously reported. President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia in December in response to the electoral intrusions, and a bipartisan group of senators are pressing ahead with new legislation that would give Congress a stronger hand in keeping sanctions in place and would expand them. Sanctions are in general a crude instrument, but this legislation , which the Senate voted Wednesday to advance, promises to send a message to Mr. Putin that such interference in the U.S. election is intolerable. It could also deter the Trump administration from lifting sanctions too quickly or in the absence of reciprocal concessions by Moscow. If Mr. Putin is really so sure about his popularity, he should release Mr. Navalny from prison and permit a free and open presidential campaign leading up to the scheduled vote in 2018 in which Mr. Navalny is allowed to run. Russians shouldn’t have to risk arrest and worse in the streets in order to support a political change. Read more on this topic: David Ignatius: What does Russia think about all this? ‘Washington has gone crazy.’ The Post’s View: The Russian regime’s critics are falling dead, but their discontent can’t be killed David Ignatius: Putin’s campaign


Beer of the week: An ale fit for a king of the North

Ommegang's Bend the Knee, the seventh in the brewery's series of officially licensed “Game of Thrones” beers, is a Belgian-style golden ale. The bottles are available with three house crests from the show; House Stark is shown. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) “Game of Thrones” hype is reaching fever-pitch in Washington, weeks ahead of the show’s July 16 return to HBO. On June 21, three bars in Shaw will turn into an expansive pop-up bar with themed cocktails and rooms. The Nationals are hosting “Game of Thrones” night with a T-shirt giveaway and a chance to sit on the Iron Throne. And if you just want to re-watch Season 6 with a cold beverage in hand, bars and beer stores across the area are selling Bend the Knee, the latest in the series of GOT-inspired beers from Ommegang. Bend the Knee is a Belgian-style golden ale, brewed with wildflower honey. The flavors are wonderfully complex, with clove, coriander, white pepper and a bit of banana/bubble gum coming through alongside fruity apricot, citrus and honeysuckle. The body is a little thicker than expected, almost mead-like, with a sticky finish. Just watch out when refilling your chalice: This golden beer with the white, fluffy head is 9 percent alcohol by volume. The packaging is excellent — the caged and corked 750-milliliter bottle features a foil label showing the crest of one of three houses from the show. “Oh, cool,” said the cashier at Whole Foods, admiring the silver direwolf insignia of the Starks on the label while ringing me up. “Did you see if they had any House Lannister bottles back there?” If you like this, try another beer inspired by a TV show Diamondback Omar McMenamins Log Lady Double IPA Shmaltz Klingon Imperial Porter: Ommegang Bend the Knee. ommegang.com. $11 for a 750-milliliter bottle. More from Food: A local brewery steps up for Capital Pride Craft beer bar Canteen has popped up in Shaw Anxo’s new cidery serves Old World ciders and Basque-style snacks Make room, hoppy IPA. Pilsener is the buzzy new craft beer. Beer Column archive


Senate overwhelmingly passes new Russia and Iran sanctions

that the Trump administration was considering giving the compounds back to Russia. On Thursday, the Senate added one more tacit criticism of Trump’s foreign policy to the bill: an amendment reaffirming the commitment of the United States to NATO and its mutual defense obligations to other countries in the alliance. The measure, drafted by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), stands in sharp contrast to the recent posture of Trump, who attended a NATO summit last month as part of his first foreign trip and did not reaffirm the United States’ commitment to NATO’s mutual defense pact in his remarks. The amendment passed the Senate by a vote of 100 to zero. The strong bipartisan vote for sanctions reflects lawmakers’ common frustration with aggressive activities by Iran and Russia. It also is unique because it is the first major piece of foreign policy legislation the Senate has considered this year to command so much support from both sides of the aisle. The underlying bill outlining new sanctions against Iran came about after months of negotiations, much of it playing out between Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), ranking Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin (Md.) and senior member Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). It took the better part of a year for senators to iron out their differences and produce a compromise bill. Similarly, senators tussled over Russia sanctions for several months as lawmakers filed competing measures while others wondered whether Congress should be stepping ahead of a new president with unorthodox ideas about how to engage with Moscow. Corker was one of those senators who wanted to give the administration a chance, but only to a point. Late last month, he said he would give Secretary of State Rex Tillerson one more chance to convince him that the administration was making enough progress in cooperating with Russia over Syria that it was worth holding back on sanctions. Tillerson did not, and thus Corker declared himself ready to move ahead with a sanctions bill, entering final negotiations with Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and ranking Democrat Sherrod Brown (Ohio); as well as Cardin and Menendez; Foreign Relations Committee members Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.); Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and members Graham and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.); and others. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) also were involved in the multiparty negotiations


As Britain softens its Brexit aims, E.U. leaders say their doors are still open

have to leave in the hands of Brussels. Meanwhile, they say that the British election has wasted precious time needed for negotiations, which by treaty are limited to two years before Britain is unceremoniously kicked out without any deal at all. “Of course, the door remains open, always open, until the Brexit negotiations come to an end,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in Paris on Tuesday, speaking alongside May after a meeting focused on counterterrorism. “But let us be clear and organized. And once negotiations have started, we should be well aware that it will be more and more difficult to move backward.” The cautiously friendly French comments came hours after Germany’s influential finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, raised the possibility of an all-is-forgiven reconciliation. “The British government has said, ‘We will stay to the Brexit.’ We take the decision as a matter of fact, as a matter of respect. But if they would want to change their decision, of course, they would find open doors,” he told Bloomberg News, speaking in English. But May, in Paris, quickly shot down the possibility of a British reversal. “We stand at a critical time, with those Brexit negotiations starting only next week,” May said. Diplomats in Brussels say they would be delighted if Britain softens its aims and opts for a status similar to that of Norway, which is not a member of the European Union but takes part in many of its trade and migration agreements. One option might be for Britain to remain in Europe’s customs union, which would mean that London would leave its power to negotiate trade deals to Brussels but would also maintain full access to duty-free trade with the European Union. That would eliminate the need for a significantly stronger border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, a step that many leaders on that island have worried could spark new violence in a dormant conflict. But it would still leave large portions of the British economy outside the E.U. sphere. The finance sector and other services — 78 percent of Britain’s economy — are not covered by the customs union. A different possibility would be for Britain to remain inside Europe’s single market, which would leave the economic relationship with the E.U. largely untouched. That would be a Norway-style step, but many observers argue that it is unlikely because it would force Britain to keep its doors


At the end of his tenure, the NSO’s Eschenbach delivers a performance to remember

The Choral Arts Society performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the National Symphony Orchestra on Thursday night. (Russell Hirshorn/Russell Hirshorn) Sometimes you don’t understand the meaning of a section of your life until it’s over. Here’s one appeal of music: It allows us to experience something in real time, and then relive it each time we hear it. This week at the National Symphony Orchestra, an oft-relived piece is marking the end of a chapter: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which the orchestra played Thursday and will play again Friday and Saturday, officially marks the end of the seven-year tenure of Christoph Eschenbach as music director of the NSO and the Kennedy Center. He didn’t go quietly. Indeed, Eschenbach has certainly brought things to this orchestra. The NSO hired 20 players on his watch, making particular improvements in the winds and brass. It began touring internationally after a long hiatus. And it arguably found some of the emotion that fueled it under its beloved late music director Mstislav Rostropovich, who was not, in technical terms, the conductor Eschenbach is. The program opened with a work dedicated to Eschenbach, Bright Sheng’s “Zodiac Tales,” written in 2010 and fully revised for this week’s performances, an evocative symphonic suite depicting elements of the Chinese zodiac in East-meets-West music: a slithery pentatonic serpent scaly with percussion, in “The Elephant-Eating Serpent,” or the principal cellist David Hardy’s instrument channeling an erhu in an elegiac movement called “The Tomb of the Soulful Dog,” which brought a kind of Mahlerian emotion, tinged nostalgia and folk song, into a stylized Chinese corset. Eschenbach isn’t the only musician departing after these performances; five members of the orchestra, with a total of 210 years of service, were honored after intermission with the ritual annual conferring of photographs and crystal paperweights, including the violinist William Haroutounian, who has been playing in the orchestra for 54 years. They had quite a piece to go out in. The Beethoven Ninth, a favorite gesture of farewell in the orchestra world, is one of the biggest musical statements you can make. Eschenbach kept the intensity without the ponderousness — indeed, his tempos were positively fleet in the second movement, in which he struck the downbeats and trusted the orchestra to fill in the rest. An Eschenbach performance, like it or not, often makes you aware of parts of the piece you’d forgotten about, or never quite heard that


Otto Warmbier is home, but questions abound about his time in North Korea

After being detained for 17 months in North Korea, University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier arrived home in Cincinnati on June 13. He has been in a coma for more than a year. TOKYO — But this week, North Korea showed itself capable of an entirely new type of brutality, and one that strikes much closer to home for Americans. Otto Warmbier — a quintessential American, tall and good-looking, from a close-knit family in a leafy Ohio suburb — had joined a group tour to North Korea at the end of 2015 on his way to study in Hong Kong. Instead of graduating with his classmates at the University of Virginia last month and heading to the job on Wall Street he had lined up, the 22-year-old was brought home on a military medical plane and now lies unconscious in a Cincinnati hospital. He suffered extensive loss of brain tissue, a condition usually caused by a lack of blood flow to the brain. The case raises many questions. How did Warmbier fall into this coma? Once he did, why did North Korea, a country with so few resources, spend 15 months keeping him alive instead of sending him home and getting the problem off its hands? An American university student who was detained for 17 months in North Korea suffered a serious neurological injury that resulted in "extensive loss of brain tissue" but showed no signs of botulism, according to doctors. And why did the North Koreans apparently lie about the cause of the coma — claiming it began with a case of botulism — but tell the truth about the length of it? Some answers will come out; some may never be known. In the meantime, Warmbier’s horrific treatment has created a new, pressing concern for the U.S. government: freeing the three American citizens still held in North Korea. There could be progress on the prisoners soon. Diplomats and former U.S. officials are pushing behind the scenes for the release of Kim Dong-chul, a businessman held for 21 months, as well as Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang-dok (or Tony Kim), both affiliated with the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. A visit by an unlikely envoy, pro basketball bad boy Dennis Rodman, has raised hopes that he could bring the trio out with him when he departs Pyongyang, probably Saturday. Rodman has been on a kind of redemption tour


‘We believe they were targeted.’ New details in double murder of teens in Maryland

widely described them as smart and pleasant — with few, if any, known enemies. For reasons still unclear, Najjar drove to a Montgomery Village neighborhood, miles from his home, and parked along the edge of Gallery Court, a short street of 18 homes. His friend Ziberov was in the passenger seat. One or both teens probably knew members of another party that met them there, police officials said. The scene in Montgomery County, Md., where the two teens were shot in what police suspect was a targeted killing. (Dan Morse/The Washington Post) The attackers unleashed a barrage of gunfire, prompting at least one 911 call. When officers arrived, the other party was long gone, the young men were dead and the Honda’s motor was still running. Police officials have since released limited information — in part because they don’t want to damage their investigation and in part because they have reached a limited number of conclusions. “It’s a challenging case,” Francke said, “because there is a lot of forensic evidence and data we have pulled. We have to sort through that carefully. But we don’t have any eyewitnesses that have come forward yet.” Detectives are piecing together a timeline of what the teenagers did in the hours leading to the killing, and what their plans may have been for the balance of the night. “We have a good deal of information, but I can’t comment on it,” Francke said at a news conference Friday. Asked if drugs or drug purchases may have played a role in the slayings, Francke would say only that detectives are looking into many scenarios. “They would have no normal course of business in that neighborhood, on that street,” he said of the two teens. His detectives are still trying to learn why, then, they went there. Loved ones recall the humor and intelligence of Northwest High School senior, one of two teens slain in a Maryland suburb of Washington. “We’re looking at different social-media platforms to try to determine what the victims were doing, who they were talking to, and what they may have been into,” Francke said. Police found 30 ammunition casings — from bullets of at least two different calibers — at the crime scene. Francke said neither he nor other detectives could recall a recent shooting scene in Montgomery County with that many casings found. He again appealed to the public for


Once a fervent Chinese revolutionary, he spent 16 years in a communist prison

Nonetheless, these now-yearly endeavors underscore what remains a vital goal of China’s government: to shore up the snitch society that has kept the Communist Party in power since its early days. From the founding of the People’s Republic of China, people have been expected to report on their friends, relatives, teachers, classmates and co-workers because it was they who knew the most private thoughts of their loved ones. In China, the stool pigeon is the true hero of the revolution. "No Wall Too High: One Man's Daring Escape from Mao's Darkest Prison," by Xu Hongci (Sarah Crichton/FSG) The results of these campaigns are well-known. In the early 1950s, the Communists dispatched millions to labor camps and executed millions more on the basis of evidence culled from those near and dear to them. During the Anti-Rightist Campaign, which started in 1957, 600,000 people were sent to jail, many because they had been denounced by those around them. Another low point was the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, when the lives of millions more were ruined by snitches who outed friends, relatives and neighbors for reading Western books, praising Western countries or, heaven forbid, watching an old Western movie. One of the best ways to gain an understanding of the type of society the Communists created in China — and its legacy today — is through the memoirs of people who survived these campaigns. Jung Chang’s “Wild Swans” remains a classic. But there are other equally moving books, such as “Prisoner of Mao” by Bao Ruowang, “A Single Tear” by Wu Ningkun and Li Yikai, and “Life and Death in Shanghai” by Nien Cheng, who immigrated to Washington after she was released from the Chinese gulag and lived there until she died in 2009. Now we can add another masterpiece to this list: “No Wall Too High: One Man’s Daring Escape From Mao’s Darkest Prison,” by Xu Hongci. Xu’s memoir, which was translated and edited from the Chinese by the writer Erling Hoh, tells the story of an idealistic Communist Party member who falls afoul of the revolution when his expectations for a democratic China run headlong into Mao’s totalitarian regime. In 1957, Xu was sentenced to China’s gulag after he and a few classmates publicly criticized the Communist Party for its (at the time) slavish devotion to the Soviet Union, for holding “fake elections” with only one party-approved candidate, and


Better sex is just one reason that exercise can be so good for you

there is scientific truth to it. Numerous studies have linked regular exercise to a lower risk of colds. For example, a study that followed about 1,000 adults for three months found that those who did aerobic exercise at least five days a week were about half as likely to develop colds as those who didn’t exercise. And when exercisers did catch colds, they had fewer and less-severe symptoms than their couch-potato peers. These studies, which show associations but not cause and effect, are corroborated by randomized trials on exercise and colds. In one such experiment involving sedentary postmenopausal women, participants were assigned to either moderately intense exercise (such as brisk walking) five days a week or once-a-week stretching. By the final three months of the 12-month study, those doing the regular exercise reported having substantially fewer colds than the stretchers. Research in animals and humans suggests that exercise chases away colds by boosting the immune system. At the same time, very intense activities may suppress immunity by increasing levels of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. That perhaps explains why, in one study, runners who participated in a Los Angeles marathon were nearly six times as likely to get sick in the week after the race as runners who did not participate. Although this is a potential issue for elite athletes or people who do marathons or triathlons, the level of activity among most exercisers — even if it’s vigorous — is far more likely to keep colds at bay than bring them on. Healthier eyes When you hear about a connection between exercise and eyesight, maybe you picture those eye exercise programs that promise to sharpen your vision. But that’s not what we’re talking about. Instead of moving your eyes, the idea is to move your feet. Research shows that people who are physically active have a lower risk of cataracts. For example, a study of nearly 50,000 runners and walkers found that those who exercised most vigorously were 42 percent less likely to develop cataracts than those who exercised least vigorously. Exercisers who fell in the middle in terms of intensity were also at reduced risk, though to a lesser degree. The same researcher found a similar benefit regarding age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss, in a study of nearly 42,000 runners. The more that people ran, the more their risk of AMD appeared


A dog bite sent him to the ER. A cascade of missteps nearly killed him.

(Cameron Cottrill for The Washington Post) Becky Krall hurried through the sliding-glass doors of the hospital emergency room around 8 a.m. on Sept. 25, 2015, expecting to see her feverish husband, David, sitting among the patients waiting to see a doctor. Instead Krall, who had left him for about 15 minutes while parking their car, was met by a nurse with an urgent message: Her 50-year-old husband had suddenly become unresponsive. Krall recalls with frightening clarity the words of a critical care specialist. “She put her hand on my knee and said, ‘Your husband is very, very sick. You need to be prepared for him not to make it through the day.’ ” How, Krall remembers wondering, did her fit and healthy husband of 10 years get so sick so fast? The night before, Krall had driven him to the same ER, sent by an urgent care center for a closer assessment of his fever and malaise. The couple had spent about five hours there but left before seeing a doctor because the ER was so swamped and David’s condition seemed unchanged. They figured they’d have better luck in the morning. That decision, Becky Krall says, was among a cascade of serious missteps that left David, an industrial engineer, battling a catastrophic illness that kills between 60 and 80 percent of its victims. Doctors at the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital in Lexington managed to save David’s life, but he was left with profound, permanent hearing loss. Several of his toes had to be partially amputated. “I felt extremely guilty for a long time,” said Becky, an associate professor of STEM education at the university who continues to struggle with the emotional aftermath of the ordeal. “I have lots of information now. But I didn’t know any of it then.” She hopes her husband’s case, which helped spur changes in the emergency department, will serve as a cautionary tale. David Krall, 52, and his wife Becky share how a series of missteps in treating a dog bite almost left him dead. “I think there were some educational deficiencies on both sides,” said Derek Forster, the infectious-disease specialist who ultimately identified the underlying cause of David’s illness. “He had all the classic signs and symptoms of another disease process.” David Krall declined to be interviewed but gave permission for doctors to discuss his case. A failure to communicate Three


7 U.S. soldiers wounded in latest insider attack at Afghan base

Afghan forces patrol in Afghanistan’s Nangahar province on Friday. (Ghulamullah Habibi/European Pressphoto Agency) An Afghan soldier opened fire Saturday at a base shared with U.S. forces in northern Afghanistan, wounding at least seven U.S. soldiers in the second such insider attack last week. Such incidents remain relatively rare amid the close cooperation between Afghan and foreign forces, but it is likely to draw increased scrutiny from the Pentagon as it plans to boost troop numbers in Afghanistan. A statement by NATO-led forces said seven U.S. soldiers and one Afghan soldier were wounded when an Afghan army soldier opened fire at Camp Shaheen in Mazar-e Sharif. The attacker was shot and killed, the statement added. Robert Purtiman, a spokesman for the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan, said there were no U.S. or NATO fatalities. Camp Shaheen is home to the Afghan army’s 209th Corps and was the site of a complex Taliban attack in April that killed more than 130 Afghan soldiers. On June 10, three U.S. soldiers were killed and another was wounded in the Achin district of Nangahar province when an Afghan commando opened fire on them. The soldiers were assisting operations against the Islamic State in the restive eastern province. Six U.S. troops have been killed by hostile fire in Afghanistan so far in 2017. More than 2,000 U.S. troops have died of both combat and noncombat causes in the country since 2001. Saturday’s incident comes just days after President Trump delegated authority to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to set U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, opening the door for a possible of influx of forces that could number in the thousands. In April, Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the same sprawling Afghan army training base, leaving scores of Afghan soldiers dead and scores more wounded. The attackers, some dressed in Afghan military uniforms, managed to pass through two checkpoints in military vehicles before being stopped, after which they opened fire on the busy compound. The brazen assault, which came as Mattis arrived in Afghanistan, led to the dismissal of Afghanistan’s top defense officials by President Ashraf Ghani. There are about 8,500 U.S. troops and 5,000 NATO forces in Afghanistan. Salahuddin reported from Kabul. Pamela Constable in Islamabad contributed to this report.


Martin Wolfe, doctor specializing in tropical and travel medicine, dies at 82

Dr. Martin Wolfe examining a child in Ghana in the early 1960s. (Family Photo) Martin S. Wolfe, a tropical disease specialist who founded one of the country’s first medical practices devoted to ailments incurred in travel and who, in the 1970s, accompanied Henry Kissinger as his personal physician, died June 15 at his home on Block Island, R.I. He was 82. The cause was a failure of his artificial heart pump, said his son, David Wolfe. Dr. Wolfe developed an interest in tropical diseases as a medical student and, early in his career, spent five years doing field research in Ghana and Pakistan. As a staff medical officer for the State Department, he traveled the world with then-Secretary of State Kissinger. He also served as a tropical medicine expert for the World Bank. In 1980, Dr. Wolfe opened Traveler’s Medical Service, believed to be the first medical office of its kind in Washington. He also had an affiliated parasitology laboratory and a private practice. Martin S. Wolfe. (Family Photo) Dr. Wolfe advised people making overseas trips about potential health risks and administered immunizations. If travelers returned with mysterious ailments, he often had to become a medical detective. He determined a diagnosis by retracing a patient’s journeys to pinpoint where exposure to various maladies might have occurred. Dr. Wolfe often consulted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about infectious diseases found in other parts of the world but rarely seen in the United States, such as malaria, cholera and yellow fever. He wrote more than 100 academic papers and textbook chapters about tropical medicine and travel medicine, which has become a recognized medical specialty. Through his research and his work with diplomats and other international travelers, Dr. Wolfe became an authority on such exotic conditions as giardiasis and schistosomiasis, both of which are caused by parasites. The ailments, often linked to exposure to contaminated water, can lead to severe physical problems if left untreated. Perhaps the most commonplace complaint of travelers returning to the United States was that they had developed diarrhea. Dr. Wolfe recommended that people travel with a supply of Pepto-Bismol or Imodium. “The question we always ask in tropical medicine,” he told The Washington Post in 2008, “is where have you been and what have you been doing?” Martin Samuel Wolfe was born April 9, 1935, in Scranton, Pa. His father was a tavern owner. Dr.