Rabid fox approaches man and his dog in Fairfax County woods

A rabid fox was found last week in Fairfax County during a search that was mounted after an animal ran toward a dog and his owner, authorities said. The incident was one of three reports issued last week in the Washington area describing rabid or possibly rabid animals. In the Fairfax incident, county police said a young fox reportedly ran toward people in a wooded area next to the South Run/Burke Lake Trail on Wednesday in the Springfield area. As the fox raced toward the dog and his owner, the owner fell, losing his hat. But the fallen hat distracted the animal, enabling the man and dog to flee, police said. Animal-control officers searched the area and found a fox, which they said was likely the one involved in the incident. The fox was put to death, and it tested positive for rabies, police said. Authorities said the Wednesday incident occurred in the same area where a woman was bitten in one of two raccoon attacks reported last month in Fairfax. In another of the three new incidents reported last week, a sheriff’s deputy in Charles County killed a raccoon on Thursday that was presumed to be rabid, county authorities said. According to the authorities, the raccoon had been trapped under a box on St. Paul’s Drive in the Waldorf area after reportedly approaching pets and behaving erratically. In still another incident, officials in Maryland’s Anne Arundel County issued a rabies alert Wednesday concerning a raccoon that tested positive for rabies after being found in the Pasadena area. County health officials said the animal had been found June 27 on Meadow Road. As elsewhere, the county health department asked to be called by anyone who had come into contact with a raccoon. In addition, they said anyone whose pet was bitten or scratched by a raccoon should also call. Authorities said the disease is spread by the bite or scratch of infected animals, including foxes, skunks, opossums and bats as well as raccoons. Signs of rabies in animals include unprovoked aggression, disorientation and vocalizations. The disease is fatal, and if the virus is transmitted, it is necessary to begin preventive vaccination as quickly as possible. Charles County health officials said a current vaccination for pets is vital “in light of the current evidence of rabies in the area.” In addition to the attack on the woman last month near the


For Greeks, a culmination after years of pain

Greeks overwhelmingly voted against a strict bailout package proposed by the E.U. Here is how that affects Greece and the United States. ATHENS — But it is a price that 42-year-old Georgia Imsiritou said she is ready to pay. “That’s the only logical thing to do,” said Imsiritou, who was among the 61 percent of Greeks who voted Sunday against accepting the austerity measures that European officials have demanded in return for releasing more aid to the debt-ridden country. “We all have to sacrifice something.” The toll has already been significant. Greek banks have been closed since negotiations over the country’s bailout package collapsed a week ago. Banking executives said Monday that the system will remain shuttered through Wednesday, and it was unclear when — or even if — banks would reopen. Long lines formed at ATMs across Athens as people waited to withdraw the daily maximum of 60 euros, or about $67, a cap imposed to help forestall a run on the banks. The European Central Bank has been providing emergency funding for Greece’s financial institutions, but that money is quickly running out. The ECB’s governing council on Monday said it would not increase its lifeline to the banks. Without a bigger cash infusion, banks are at risk of running out of money this week. Euro zone finance ministers are preparing to meet with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for an emergency summit in Brussels later Tuesday. But for many Greeks, the pain of the past week is just the culmination of a broader economic crisis that has spanned the past five years. A quarter of the workforce is unemployed. Pension payments have been slashed. The gross domestic product has tumbled more than 25 percent since 2010. Neither side in the fight for Greece’s future knows what will come next. With the economy at a virtual standstill Monday, roadways in downtown Athens typically heavy with traffic were sparsely traveled. Workers poured into parks and cafes — talking lots, buying little. And as the ramifications of Sunday’s vote began to unfold, many said they have little left to lose. “I’m not worried, because I don’t have any money,” Imsiritou said as she stood in line at an ATM with her 10-year-old under the blazing sun. At a drugstore in the heart of the city, pharmacist Mary-ann Vamvaka said she will no longer fill large prescriptions, because she is worried about running


Mexican helicopter trades fire with gunmen on ground near border, kills 6

area known as El Cuatro when it approached a group of vehicles of suspected drug traffickers. According to the navy statement, the gunmen fired at the helicopter, striking it seven times, and the Black Hawk crew shot back and killed six people “among the group of aggressors.” The military released a video showing the bullet holes in parts of the helicopter. The shootout took place about 20 miles from the U.S. border. Officials in Nuevo Laredo, the closest major city, as well as in the Tamaulipas state government and prosecutor’s office, said they had no further information about the incident. Such silence is common in border towns where drug gangs are strong. The most prominent newspaper in Nuevo Laredo, El Mañana, did not cover the helicopter shooting. An editor said the paper does not write about such news anymore, given the threats and killings by cartel members that have muzzled many publications in dangerous parts of Mexico. The No. 2 official in the nearby town of Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, Manuel Lopez Garza, said the shootout took place in an unpopulated area. He did not have much to add on the killings, either. “They say we are the most insecure municipality in the state, but it’s not the truth,” he said. He said it was common to see federal police and military patrols in the area. But he did not feel his town needed any reinforcements. “Each month, we have meetings with the people about security, and we don’t have reports of drug trafficking, shootouts, kidnappings, none of that,” he said. Two months ago, suspected cartel members shot down a Mexican military helicopter in the western state of Jalisco with a rocket-propelled grenade. Six members of the military were killed in the May 1 attack. Authorities blamed the New Generation cartel, which has grown into one of the country’s most powerful drug gangs. The Jalisco state prosecutor, Luis Najera Gutierrez, stepped down from his post Monday, amid deteriorating security in the state. During President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration, the Mexican government has purchased at least 25 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, worth about $775 million, through the U.S. government's foreign military sales program. Some critics have expressed concerns that the military buildup — which includes thousands of Humvee trucks — will intensify the drug war, while officials say the sales have replaced old, outdated equipment . Gabriela Martinez contributed to this report.


When bugs want to bite, what do you do?

(iStock) Every spring it starts. The Facebook posts and the conversations overheard at the coffee shop. A solution of equal parts vinegar and water was just the thing to keep mosquitoes from biting. And rose geranium oil is magic against ticks. Concoctions are offered up as natural alternatives to traditional insect repellents, nearly all of which contain the chemical DEET. Some perceive that DEET, shorthand for a synthetic chemical with an unpronounceable name, is a dangerous substance to be avoided. In addition to home brews, there are commercial versions of DEET-free bug sprays, labeled with words like natural, organic and botanical. Side-by-side tests show a range of effectiveness. Some are good, some are short-lasting and others are practically useless. “There are lots of promises out there that don’t deliver and people end up going back to DEET,” says Brooke Bissinger, who specializes in plant-based repellents and is director of entomology at AgBiome, a North Carolina biotech company. “There are some people who refuse to use DEET and some who are reluctant users — especially parents who want to put something safe on their kids.” Here’s the thing — DEET is not what many people perceive. The Environmental Protection Agency considers DEET safe when applied according to package instructions. This includes children of all ages. The American Academy of Pediatrics says no insect repellents should be used on babies under 2 months old. And DEET is very effective. A study from 2002, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found the DEET- containing bug sprays to be superior in protection and duration against mosquitoes when compared with most botanical formulations. The overall winner was Off! Deep Woods insect repellent, made by SC Johnson, which protected study volunteers for five hours. The volunteers put their arms into a cage of mosquitoes intermittently and the time to the first bite was recorded. (In the study, Off! Deep Woods was reported to contain 23.8 percent DEET; today’s product is labeled as containing 25 percent DEET.) What else worked? Three other DEET repellents with concentration ranging from 2.75 percent to 20 percent offered complete protection for more than one hour. One DEET-free product did as well; called Bite Blocker and made by HOMS, the tested spray contained 2 percent soybean oil. Products containing citronella or citronella with a mix of plant oils (peppermint, cedar, lemon grass and geranium) offered less than 30 minutes of


Cats may not be as much of a threat to wildlife as previously thought

feral cats, which don’t have human owners, though kitty cams have revealed outdoor domestic cats are also partaking in the carnage, that study found. To better understand Felis catus, Hess and his colleagues, along with hundreds of citizens in six Eastern states from Maryland to Tennessee, deployed critter cams in yards, urban parks, protected wild spaces and green corridors. After analyzing millions of hours of footage, the team found that cats tended to stick to urban and suburban settings: They were 300 times as likely to pop up in residential yards as in parks. In addition, cats were scarce in areas where coyotes roamed. The more coyotes that prowled an area, the fewer kitties ventured there, according to the study, which was published last week in the Journal of Mammalogy. One exception was that coyotes were occasionally found in urban corridors that were connected to larger green spaces, said study co-author William McShea, a wildlife ecologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia. “Coyotes have such a bad reputation,” McShea said. “There are still bounties in some states for removing coyotes as varmints.” Bigger kid on the block The new findings, however, suggest coyotes play a positive role in keeping cats at bay in wilder spaces, McShea said. Coyotes are the “big kid on the block” and are aggressive toward cats, which may cause cats to stay off coyote turf, he added. But although coyotes may be preying on kitties, or simply leaving their scent behind to keep cats away, it’s also possible that cats and coyotes have different prowling grounds for unrelated reasons, Hess said. Cats may simply stick close to human habitation because people still provide them with food, he said. When coyotes prowl wilder areas, it’s better for birds, Hess said. Though coyotes do catch and eat some feathered creatures, coyotes aren’t stalking and pouncing experts like cats are, McShea said. Coyotes are “just too big and clumsy to get the birds that cats can,” McShea said. Putting cameras on both wild cats and coyotes could provide a better picture of how the two species interact, Hess said. And to really understand cats’ impact on wildlife, researchers should catalogue the bird species that cats capture, Hess said. Killing endangered or threatened birds would be much more damaging to the ecosystem than preying upon urban pests, such as invasive species like cardinals, he said. — Live Science


Your summertime guide to mosquitos: Why they bite and what to do about it.

Zwiebel, professor of biological science and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, said mosquitoes “see” the world through their nose, using complex sensors to pick up a combination of odor-emitting chemicals. “When you smell roses, you detect a collection of chemicals,” he said. “Only when you put them together can you perceive scent as a rose. Mosquitoes have a similar sophisticated sense. They can tell two people apart based on human body odor produced by these chemical blends.” Blood-feasting females are smart, and they’re fast, warns Zwiebel. “She can be flying in one direction, turn on a dime and find you when she smells you. Some of them can find us from hundreds of yards away,” he said. Our individual body chemistry is believed to be key in determining a mosquito’s attraction to us, which studies indicate is tied to genetics. Some scientists also theorize that our diet may affect mosquitoes’ preference, though other research suggests not. Claims that garlic consumption repels mosquitoes do not hold up, but one study tied beer consumption to more bites. You can make it harder for them to single you out as a menu selection. One way is to avoid the outdoors around dawn or dusk when mosquitoes feed. While they use smell to find you, they also notice movement and when the moon is full they are more likely to track you down by taking advantage of the night-time light, according to Joe Conlon, technical adviser at the American Mosquito Control Association. If you would rather not plan your schedule around theirs, be sure to put up a good defense when you step outside. For instance, don’t give them as much exposed skin to come after. “Wear long pants and sleeves. And wear tight-weaved, loose-fitting clothes, as tight weaves and clothes not pressed against skin are hard to bite through,” said Conlon. Manufacturers make garments impregnated with a pesticide called permethrin for people living in heavily infested areas. Factory application of permethrin is approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for certain clothes and does not leach onto skin. A simpler way to deter the bugs is to lather up with antibacterial soap and wash often. If you go camping, to lakes or other mosquito-infested areas, bring a bar of antibacterial soap, suggests Zwiebel. This will remove odor-producing bacteria. In the D.C. area, the most common mosquitoes are Asian tiger and house mosquitoes. These


In Greece, Chanel becomes more valuable than cash

the population. Greek media reported that between 40,000 and 50,000 workers were fired or suspended after the banks shut down. Many are unable to pay their bills and are using their cash for necessities such as food. Wealthier Greeks, meanwhile, are storing their money in more traditional havens. Kostas Theodoropoulos, former head of investment at Eurobank Asset Management, estimated that 40 percent of withdrawals were simply transferred to foreign bank accounts. Another 10 percent or so were invested in mutual funds domiciled in Luxembourg, he said, and the remaining 50 percent of withdrawals were stuffed under the mattress. Several Greeks said they were using that mattress money to pay off debt or other bills ahead of time to avoid a cash crunch later. And though having a secret money stash at home is common in Greece, many said the amount has increased. One family hid theirs in the freezer, next to the steaks. Car sales in Greece, including sales of luxury vehicles, surged this spring even as the nation marched toward defaulting on its loans. Though official data attributes the rise to turnover in rental-car fleets, some commentators suggested that Greeks would rather buy cars than hold money in the banks. Similar spikes in car sales were reported in Cyprus in the months before it instituted banking restrictions, and in Russia as the value of the ruble dropped sharply in December. Before the financial freeze in Greece, customers lined up at Nikias in the wealthy Kolonaki neighborhood of Athens to sell their jewels and Rolex watches. But the shop’s owner said that over the past week he has had 20 to 30 calls from people interested in the opposite exchange. The owner, who declined to give his name, said the callers wanted to buy gold coins and kilobars — the most expensive items his store carries. But he no longer accepts electronic bank transfers, because he is worried about a potential loss on deposits. “Then we would be the ones to have the problem,” he said. So his shop is stuck in a Catch-22: He will take only cash, but none of his customers can access enough to purchase his goods. “Everyone is on hold,” he said. Read more Germany has defaulted on its debts, too A hilarious Monty Python sketch explains why Greece is in a huge crisis Read Greece’s official one-page letter asking for a new bailout program


Set in the Space Race era, ‘The Last Pilot’ is nostalgic and heart-rending

“The Last Pilot,” by Benjamin Johncock. (Courtesy of Picador) THE LAST PILOT By Benjamin Johncock Picador. 304 pp. $26 Last week’s disastrous launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket offered a fiery reminder that space remains a distant, final frontier. Who could have guessed our progress toward the stars would be so slow and problematic? In the 1960s, when my dad worked as an engineer on the Asset program for McDonnell, Mom and I used to sit on Cocoa Beach and watch the missile launches. Life in outer space was imminent, and the Tang was delicious. While Dave Scott and Jim Irwin tore around the lunar surface in the “moon buggy,” I played with my Mattel “Major Matt Mason Space Station.” Its Crawler Deluxe Action was possibly the most thrilling thing I have ever experienced. But decades later, that great leap for mankind feels like our last small step. Kids don’t dream about becoming astronauts anymore, and our best minds are busy perfecting apps to share cat photos. This melancholy nostalgia drew me into orbit around Benjamin Johncock’s debut novel, “The Last Pilot.” Although he’s a young writer in England, Johncock re-creates the early days of the U.S. space program like someone who lived through them. His story opens in 1947 when a hot-shot Air Corps captain named Jim Harrison is on his way to becoming the fastest man in the world — or another bloody smear on the Mojave Desert. He’s flying the X-1: basically a rocket launched from the belly of an airborne B-29 bomber, which is fuel-injected craziness, but Jim and his buddies aren’t fools. They relax each night at a bar decorated with photos of their dead colleagues. “There are no mistakes,” Jim says coolly, “just bad pilots.” During one particularly gory 36-week stretch, they lost 62 men. Flying through these pages, you’ll recall that dynamic era when a mix of physical science and political anxiety propelled the United States to unprecedented speeds. “Someone’s gonna do it eventually,” a pilot’s wife says. “Better that it’s us. Old allies aren’t lookin so friendly anymore.” So, they beat on, pushing against the limits of their rockets and their bodies, wondering what exactly might happen next. In one cameo, Chuck Yeager notes that some engineers worry that “at the speed of sound, g-forces become infinite.” Scientists and test pilots get a taste of infinite pressure when President Kennedy commits


Does NCAA unfairly punish sports programs at historically black schools?

into summer classes. Athletes who wish to or are encouraged to transfer are often enrolled in summer classes, making them more likely to be academically eligible once they leave the team. By doing so, that team is penalized less under the APR formula, for failing to retain that student, than it would be for that transfer also being ineligible. HBCUs typically can’t afford for their athletes to attend summer classes. They have far fewer academic advisers to provide oversight. Unlike power conference schools, HBCUs can’t afford enough NCAA compliance officers to effectively navigate waivers for exemptions, or offer guaranteed scholarships that allow athletes who leave school early to return to get their degrees and boost a slumping score. Though it’s an HBCU, Howard isn’t considered a limited-resource university by the NCAA, so its teams have had to follow the same APR standards as most other Division I programs. The men’s soccer team is facing a second straight postseason ban for a four-year APR score of 917 through the 2013-14 season. Those postseason bans reflect scores accumulated when Michael Lawrence was the team’s coach but coincide with the program’s first two seasons under Philip Gyau, who replaced Lawrence before the 2014 season. Gyau did not respond to several requests to comment. Shelley Davis, Howard’s interim athletics director, said “it’s unfortunate” that a high percentage of HBCUs are penalized for their teams’ APR. “I don’t necessarily think that the APR reports that are released annually necessarily reflect the commitment HBCUs have to educating students,” Davis said. “I do think it may boil down to having access to some of those resources that other schools may have access to.” ‘The haves and have nots’ Howard has two full-time academic advisers for approximately 350 athletes. At Morgan State, the only academic adviser listed on the athletic department’s online staff directory is also an assistant cheerleading coach. But schools in the power five conferences often have an academic counselor devoted to football and men’s basketball and one for every three to four of the institution’s other sports. “You can see the haves and have nots,” said Carray Banks Jr., a faculty athletics representative at Norfolk State. “It’s very clear. When you have more people, you have the ability to provide more oversight and you have the ability to provide more intrusive supervising and monitoring of their attendance to class.” Part of the HBCU mission is


D.C. Boys Choir ready to hit the high notes in Italy’s renowned basilicas

and Milan and during stops in other cities. There was even a request for the choir to participate in the 750th anniversary celebration of the birth of famed Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Dante is best known for his masterpiece “The Divine Comedy.” But there was nothing funny about the choir’s predicament. Eleanor Stewart, the choir’s director, put out a request for help that was reported in this column June 10. Much to the delight of the choir, readers pitched in to save the day. “I was elated, thrilled,” said Stewart, a former music teacher for D.C. Public Schools who started the group in 1993. Although she retired in 2000, Stewart still kept the choir going. Over 22 years, she has taught more than 700 boys how to sing — in several foreign languages, no less — as well as to read music. “Many times, I just didn’t know if we would make it or not,” she said. But somehow, she never fails to help her boys. Not only did donors send enough to close the shortfall, but there was also enough left over to help some of the boys buy better-fitting jackets — and make sure everybody’s jacket was the same shade of red. They also were able to get travel bags to keep their outfits from wrinkling. Rest assured, they will be looking as good as they sound. Joe Coleman, former lead singer with the Platters and a longtime supporter of the choir, had raised thousands of dollars for the cause with a benefit concert. During an earlier interview, he expressed a sentiment about the choir that seemed to resonate with lots of readers. “I just feel they represent the best of what we have to offer and they deserve to be in the spotlight,” said Coleman, of Potomac, Md. “When youngsters are doing all the right things, and you know it’s hard, then we need to let them know that we are proud of them.” And if the boys didn’t know that already, they sure do now. “I was touched that the people of the community wanted to help us get exposed to a whole new country,” said Thomas, a tenor, who has been with the choir since 2008. He recently graduated from Banneker High and will attend Lincoln University in Pennsylvania this fall. Ra Shaun, an alto, has been with the choir for almost three years. “I’m


News from across the Washington region

THE DISTRICT Alexandria man dies after being assaulted An Alexandria man who was assaulted while walking on New York Avenue NW has died of his injuries, D.C. police said Tuesday. Police are investigating the death of Thomas Harris, 52, as a homicide. According to a police report, a woman said she was in the unit block of New York Avenue NW about 5 p.m. Sunday when she saw someone grab Harris, argue with him and throw him to the ground. She ran toward Harris, who had lost consciousness, and the assailant fled. Harris died Monday at a hospital, police said. — Julie Zauzmer Toddler is found wandering downtown A person was arrested on suspicion of abandoning a toddler Tuesday in downtown Washington. Mindy Good, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency said the child, who is 2 or 3 years old, was wandering alone. Police spokesman Paul Metcalf said the toddler was seen in the 300 block of E Street NW about 12:30 p.m. Metcalf said the arrested person was charged with second-degree cruelty to a child. The child was in the custody of Child Protective Services. — Julie Zauzmer MARYLAND Man kills himself in hospital garage A man who had reportedly threatened suicide killed himself Tuesday night in Montgomery County as police tried to make contact with him, authorities said. The incident occurred in the parking garage of MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney, said Capt. Paul Starks, a police spokesman. He said workers with a mental health hotline had asked police to look for the man. Police were told that he was threatening suicide and that he had a handgun. As police approached a car in the garage and spoke with the man inside, Starks said, they heard a gunshot from inside the vehicle. — Martin Weil Taxi driver is shot after asking for fare A Hyattsville man shot a taxi driver on July 4 when the driver asked him to pay for the ride, Prince George’s County police said. The driver’s injury was not life-threatening. Police said Tuesday that Diotraye Lee Diggs, 24, was charged with attempted second-degree murder. In a statement, police said that the driver took Diggs, a woman and a child to an address in District Heights. When the driver asked for the fare, Diggs shot him. Diggs was soon apprehended near the scene of the shooting, in the 5500 block


European Central Bank keeps emergency funding for Greece frozen

also said customers might be allowed to access their safety-deposit boxes and make non-cash transactions at bank branches. Greeks overwhelmingly voted against a strict bailout package proposed by the E.U. Here is how that affects Greece and the United States. Greece officially requested a new three-year bailout from the European Union on Wednesday and must provide a more detailed proposal Thursday. Without a bailout agreement in place soon, the ECB would likely have to pull the plug on Greece’s lifeline. Earlier this week, the central bank tightened the country’s collateral requirements to receive funding. “Our rules oblige us to stop immediately at that point when there is no prospect of a political accord on a program, or at the point when the Greek banking system crumbles — which would happen if it enters generalized default on all its debts,” ECB Governing Council member Christian Noyer said in a French radio interview, according to Reuters. Wednesday marked the third time the ECB has decided not to increase Athens’s lifeline of 89 billion euros ($98.5 billion) despite signs of growing economic pain. Greeks cannot transfer money out of the country. This has led to long lines at ATMs and shortages of some imported foods and medicines. Thodoris Rakintzis, 36, said he never believed the banks would open quickly despite promises from politicians. He waits in lines up to six people deep to take out money from the ATM twice a day, once for each of his bank accounts. He believes the government’s capital controls could last as long as a year. Cyprus instituted similar measures in 2013 and just lifted the last of its banking restrictions this spring. “People get used to it, on one hand,” Rakintzis said. “On the other hand, it's completely killing the economy.” Since the banks shut down, he has spent only about 80 euros ($89). Instead of hitting a bar, he now shares beers with friends in a park square. Though Greeks are technically allowed to use their debit cards, many stores do not want to accept them. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said their analysis of Greece’s financial crisis has not changed as she discussed their program developed for the country during an address to the Brookings Institution on Wednesday. “In a way, you already have a parallel currency: You have cash, and you have the money trapped in your account, which is really not the


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These cases were received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded details about topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Dog left in a hot car: Cat nuisance: “Citizen Pet of the Year” photo contest: Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville


Juli Soler, Spanish restaurateur who brought renown to El Bulli, dies at 66

Ferran Adrià, left, and Juli Soler speak at a news conference in Cala Montjoi, near Roses, Spain, in 2011. (Albert Gea/Reuters) Juli Soler, who co-ran the internationally acclaimed restaurant El Bulli and discovered top chef Ferran Adrià, died July 6 at his home in Rubí, near Barcelona. He was 66. Adrià announced the death on Twitter. Mr. Soler had a degenerative neurological disease, according to Spanish news media. El Bulli — the name means Bulldog — was at Montjoi cove in northeastern Spain and was closed in 2011 to start the Bulli Foundation, a food research center. On arriving in 1981, Mr. Soler became an essential figure in what became one of the world’s most influential restaurants, known for daring experimentation in cuisine. Alongside Adrià, whom he signed up in 1984, Mr. Soler revolutionized diners’ experiences. Dishes featured foams and other innovations. A famous offering was chicken curry in which the chicken was presented in liquid form and the sauce was a solid. El Bulli maintained the almost unattainable Michelin three-star status for more than a decade. It was rated the world’s best restaurant five times by the Restaurant, a British magazine. Juli Soler Lobo was born in Terrassa, in northeastern Spain, on May 31, 1949. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.


Forging a safer path for pedestrians in the District

Kelly Dillon and Joe Riener of All Walks DC, which was started on “the idea that all these crashes are preventable, and no deaths or even injuries are really acceptable.” (Mark Jenkins/For the Washington Post) For Kelly Dillon, pedestrian safety became a critical issue in October 2013. That’s when her leg was crushed between two parked cars, one of which was displaced when it was hit by a speeding vehicle. “I was very badly hurt,” she said recently. “She’s lucky that she’s walking in here,” added Joe Riener, Dillon’s neighbor and one of her collaborators in founding All Walks DC. The nonprofit group was started to advocate for safer streets and for the concept of “Vision Zero,” which Dillon describes as “the idea that all these crashes are preventable, and no deaths or even injuries are really acceptable.” Dillon’s injury happened on Arkansas Avenue NW, in front of her house in 16th Street Heights. She and her neighbors noticed that rush-hour parking restrictions, which temporarily opened another lane to traffic, encouraged faster speeds. So they petitioned the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to take steps to reduce the risk of another such incident. “With a lot of persistence over the course of the year, we ended up removing the rush-hour parking restriction, painted parking boxes along the street, did some high-visibility crosswalks,” Dillon said. “Traffic is a lot slower and calmer now.” After that success, All Walks DC looked to other neighborhoods. On June 18, it organized a march to call attention to Wisconsin Avenue NW, where pedestrians had been hit and killed by cars on two consecutive days the previous week. “We just decided that this was so awful that there were two so close to each other, and that both of them were so clearly preventable,” Riener said. “There was just an outpouring of grief about it. We wanted mainly to give people a way to express that grief in a positive way.” He was expecting perhaps 25 people, but the crowd swelled with staffers from the Tenleytown pediatric clinic, where one of the victims worked. “So we had about 100 people show up and march two miles on a hot day down Wisconsin Avenue,” Riener said. All Walks DC is just getting started, Dillon and Riener acknowledged. The group has a board of directors that makes collaborative decisions, but no formal members. “We are looking to grow,”


Albertsons grocery chain makes plans for initial public offering

STOCKS Albertsons makes plans for an IPO Albertsons, the nation’s second-largest grocery store operator, whose holdings include the Safeway chain, disclosed its plans for a public stock offering. The company, based in Boise, Idaho, is owned by an investor group led by Cerberus Capital Management, which bought Albertsons in 2013 and added the Safeway and Vons chains this year. In a preliminary prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, Albertsons said it planned to raise $100 million, although that amount could grow as the company gets closer to the sale. The filing did not specify the number of shares to be offered or the estimated per-share price. Albertsons owns 2,205 locations in 33 states and the District, including those operating as Pavilions, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Tom Thumb and Randalls, among others. The company has 265,000 employees. The largest U.S. grocery-store operator is Kroger, whose holdings include the Harris Teeter chain. Kroger has 2,626 properties in 34 states. In its prospectus, Albertsons said that on a pro-forma basis — that is, to include the performance of the Safeway properties — Albertsons would have had $57.5 billion in sales for its fiscal year ended Feb. 28. — Los Angeles Times federal reserve Minutes: Ofﬁcials cautious on rates Federal Reserve policymakers last month saw signs that the economy was healing after its winter slump but agreed that there were still too many uncertainties at home and abroad to raise interest rates. Minutes of the discussions released Wednesday showed that while one Fed official was ready to begin raising rates at the meetings on June 16 and 17, “most participants” believed that conditions were not yet ripe for an interest-rate increase. The minutes revealed that many Fed officials expressed concern about the impact that a failure to reach a deal on Greek debt might have on financial markets. They also mentioned concerns about future growth in China and other emerging markets. While private economists had expected the Fed’s first rate hike to happen in September, the recent standoff on Greek debt and the sharp plunge in Chinese stock prices — which emerged after the Fed’s June gathering — have prompted many analysts to expect a delay until the end of the year. “Since the June meeting, much has changed on the world stage, none of it particularly good for the U.S. economy,” said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. Financial


D.C. community calendar, July 9-16, 2015

Hot Tin Roof ” U.S. Marine Band concert “Let Them Eat Chaos” “Bring It On: All or Nothing ” Friday, July 10 Farmers market Outdoor vinyasa yoga class Move, Learn, Create Margot Greenlee program to learn social dance styles and talk with others; dancers of all experience levels welcome. 10:30 a.m. Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, 1632 U St. NW. 202-483-8600. smithcenter.org . $10 per class, $25 per month. U.S. Botanic Garden lunchtime tour Jazz in the Garden Friday ARTnights: Friday Night Fever Disco Dance Workshop Paint and sip art workshop 21st century Bach: Transcriptions for the modern classical guitar Guitarist Piotr Pakhomkin performs works that include the Concerto in D Major, BWV 972 and the D Minor Partita, BWV 1004. 7:30 p.m. Grace Episcopal Church, Georgetown, 1041 Wisconsin Ave. NW. 202-333-7100. www.gracedc.org . $20. “Dear Evan Hansen” “The Unofficial Guide to Audience Watching Performance” Saturday, July 11 Jog on the Mall “Andres Salguero: Uno, Dos, Tres, con Andres!” Guided bike ride Children’s films House and walking tours Congressional Cemetery Sports Family Festival Bike clinic Reinventing sexuality Luce design with Chad Omweg A Journey down the Potomac Cold War on the Mall Sunday, July 12 Palisades farmers market Workshop: Bonsai II, bring your own tree Architecture 101: Lighthouses STEAM team “Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis ” All things French Steinway piano recital Poetry in Rock Creek Park Classical organ recital Monday, July 13 Hatha yoga Free summer meals Outdoor yoga mortis “Blochin: The Living and the Dead” Dumplings: A global wrap and savory culinary history U.S. Navy Band concert Tuesday, July 14 “Junk Music with The Junkman” Nicolo Whimsey, juggler “The Big Friendly Giant ” Panel discussion: Melvin Laird Alexandria’s new front door: Implementing the waterfront plan Heroes of Summer U.S. Navy Band concert Yoga at your library Wednesday, July 15 “Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe ” Historian Michael Neiberg discusses his book that captures the personalities of delegates Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin and their dramatic debates over how to end World War II. Noon, National Archives, Constitution Avenue and Ninth Street NW. 202-357-5000. Free. Gallery talk All things French Teen gaming Board and video games for all, bring a friend or meet a new one. 4 p.m. Cleveland Park Library, 3310 Connecticut Ave. NW. 202-282-3080. Free. Chess club Wacky health claims: Believe them


The mysterious case of the Israeli who slipped into Gaza

Avraham Mengistu, an Israeli citizen of Ethiopian origin, is allegedly being held by the Hamas militant group. (Family Handout/EPA) JERUSALEM — That was 10 months ago. His fate is unknown, though Israel says he is probably being held by armed Palestinian factions. News of the Ethiopian Israeli’s puzzling disappearance had been suppressed in the Israeli media until now under a military gag order. Israel and the Islamist militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, fought a 50-day war last year that ended in August. Mengistu, 28, entered the coastal enclave the following month. Israeli soldiers found a suitcase he had left behind on the beach near the fence. It contained a Hebrew Bible Family members charged that Mengistu’s disappearance and possible capture by Hamas would have been treated far differently if he were not of African descent. In recent months, Ethiopians have staged large demonstrations to protest what they call racist treatment by Israeli police and society. Israeli media reported on the case for the first time on Thursday, revealing that Israeli officials, through intermediaries, have been seeking information about Mengistu’s whereabouts for months. The Israeli military agency that oversees access to Gaza said in a statement that “according to credible intelligence,” Mengistu is being held “against his will” by Hamas. Hamas officials have declined to comment on the case. “Israel has appealed to international and regional interlocutors to demand his immediate release and verify his well-being,” the Israeli government said in a statement. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said Thursday: “This is a humanitarian matter, and I expect those holding him to treat him properly and to return him in full health.” Israeli officials also revealed that a second Israeli citizen, an Arab, was being held in Gaza. The government declined to provide details. In a statement Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “We are working to return the two Israelis who crossed the fence into Gaza. We hold Hamas responsible for their welfare.” He added: “Yesterday I spoke with the parents and siblings of Avraham Mengistu and I told them that from as soon as the incident became known we have spared no effort to return him to Israel. We agreed to meet soon.” In a jab at foreign critics of Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory, Netanyahu concluded pointedly, “I expect the international community, which expresses its concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, to issue a clear


Two dogs were found shot to death on a Md. family farm

Benelli, left, and Bear were found shot and killed on their Waldorf farm over the Fourth of July weekend. (Courtesy of Cindy Thorne) Two dogs — Benelli, who sported a chocolate brown coat, and her son Bear — enjoyed frolicking in the fields and along the water’s edge of the Waldorf farm where they lived with the Thorne family. But over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the mother-and-son dogs, Labrador and Chesapeake Bay retriever mixes, were found shot and killed on Zekiah Farms. The Charles County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident. Benelli, who was 2 1/ 2 years old, is named for the Italian gun manufacturer, and Bear, who recently turned 1, got his name because of his curly black fur. (Bear’s father, Remi, is named for gunmaker Remington Arms.) For 15 years, the family has run a 350-acre farm with cattle, pigs, goats and lambs. They also grow and sell fruit, vegetables and meat to the public from a store and host events like corn mazes and tours for school groups. The incident began Friday about 6 p.m. when Cindy Thorne, the dogs’ owner, said she and her two sons were performing routine tasks on their farm. Her sons drove a water truck to the fields where the cattle graze, and she walked with the two dogs through the fields and along the edge of the Zekiah swamp, she said. She tossed sticks to the two dogs, which are bred as waterfowl hunting dogs, and they ran and caught them and swam in the water, Thorne recalled. While Thorne and her boys gave the cattle water, the two dogs ran back and forth in the field and to the water’s edge. When she and her sons finished the chore, she said, she noticed that the dogs weren’t around. She didn’t worry at first and figured they’d made their way back to the barn. But when the pair hadn’t shown up by Saturday, she drove around the farm and neighboring areas, knocking on doors and sending out social media messages in search of them. She also reached out to local animal groups and authorities for help. On Monday, she said, her 18-year-old son called her, hysterical. He had found Benelli along a hedgerow in a field — dead from a gunshot. She joined him, and they found Bear about 200 yards away in a wooded area. He was


House Republicans say no to allowing federal studies of medical marijuana

how to address shifting public sentiment about marijuana use. Although the GOP has supported steps to allow state medical-marijuana programs to flourish, Republicans generally have not supported efforts to advance national policy on legalization. When a Senate committee this year passed a measure to let doctors discuss marijuana with patients at Veterans Affairs clinics, House Republicans shot it down. When the District legalized weed for personal use, a powerful House committee chairman threatened the city’s mayor with jail time. Minnesota this month began allowing sales of medical marijuana in pill bottles and vials of marijuana-infused oil. (Glen Stubbe/St. Paul Pioneer Press) House Republicans have defended their opposition to pot. There is no evidence, they have said, that loosening marijuana laws would do anything but destroy the brains of the nation’s adolescents, let alone offer benefits to veterans. The lack of evidence, however, can be traced to congressional Republicans who have made it all but impossible for federal agencies to fund objective testing on the effects of marijuana use. The amendment that died Wednesday was seen by some as a potential game-changer. With 23 states allowing medical marijuana — and a handful plus the District of Columbia having outright legalized it — some House Republicans (and Democrats, too) thought that it was finally time to allow more federal testing of marijuana. For Republican opponents, the research could provide either evidence to continue holding the line or solid ground for the party to begin tiptoeing toward the mainstream. Perhaps surprisingly was the House Republicans’ most outspoken critic of legalization over the past two years who co-sponsored the measure. Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, a doctor and author of a measure in Congress that has left legalization in the District in limbo, said more science was the way to go. “We need science to clearly determine whether marijuana has medicinal benefits and, if so, what is the best way to gain those benefits,” he said Wednesday before the House Rules Committee sidelined the amendment in a vote late Wednesday night. Another Republican, Rep. H. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, pleaded with the committee in person to approve it, but for a different reason. Whereas Harris sponsored the measure confident that the research would prove marijuana is bad, Griffith has become convinced that there are limited circumstances in which marijuana has medical benefits for patients. “We let doctors use heroin derivatives, barbiturates and all kinds of


Three pedestrians hit by golf cart at National Zoo in D.C.

Three pedestrians were hit by a golf cart Friday at the National Zoo in Northwest Washington, authorities said. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, which occurred on zoo property, according to D.C. Police and Fire officials. Earlier reports said the crash involved a vehicle in the 3000 block of Connecticut Avenue NW. The incident began around 11:30 a.m. The people suffered non-life-threatening injuries. They were transported to area hospitals, according to D.C. Fire officials. A zoo spokeswoman said the injuries were minor. In a Twitter message, D.C. Police said the zoo’s police are handling the situation.


Local roundup: Two arrested in connection with sex trafficking ring

THE DISTRICT Two charged with sex trafficking of children D.C. police have arrested two people in connection with a sex trafficking ring authorities say involved several underage girls who were forced to work out of an apartment in Southeast Washington. The arrests came after the mother of a 14-year-old girl went to police in May. Police said in a court affidavit that up to seven girls, many of them under the age of 18, were prostituting out of an apartment in the 3800 block of South Capitol Street SE. Police said they enlisted the help of the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force and uncovered several advertisements placed on a Web site called backpage.com. Jarnese Harris, 28, was arrested on a warrant Thursday and charged with sex trafficking of children. Police arrested Daraya Marshall, 35, on June 29 and charged him with first-degree child sex abuse, pandering, sex trafficking of children and distribution of marijuana. — Peter Hermann Too soon to tell if panda is pregnant Don’t break out the cigars quite yet. Zoo officials said it is “still too early to tell” whether the giant panda — Mei Xiang — is pregnant. They did an ultrasound on her Friday morning at the National Zoo. Mei Xiang, the mother of Bao Bao, the zoo’s hugely popular panda cub, was artificially inseminated in the spring with semen from China. Friday’s ultrasound was her second. The zoo’s public relations team has tracked the panda’s pregnancy using the hashtag #PandaStory on social media. But Friday’s ultrasound didn’t show much. Officials said they couldn’t tell if she was pregnant or experiencing a pseudopregnancy. — Dana Hedgpeth MARYLAND Mother of missing children in court Catherine Hoggle — the mentally ill Montgomery County woman linked to the disappearance of her two young children last year — appeared in court Friday before a judge who said she needs more treatment before legal proceedings can go forward. Hoggle, 28, has been deemed legally incompetent to stand trial, meaning she does not think clearly enough to participate in court proceedings. She was placed in a state mental hospital following her arrest last year. Hoggle, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, went missing last September, a short time after her two youngest children — Jacob, 2 at the time, and Sarah, 3 at the time — also went missing. She was found alone five days later, and charged with neglect,


Getting away with murder in the District

murder. So far this year, 48 D.C. homicides have gone unsolved. The killers of 70 homicide victims in 2014 have not been arrested. Fifty-four homicide cases from 2013 remain unsolved. This scourge of unsolved murders has been building over the years. In 2012, The Post’s Cheryl W. Thompson reported that a review of nearly 2,300 slayings between 2000 and 2011 found that “less than a third” had led to a conviction for murder or manslaughter. As of that October, she reported, more than 1,000 homicide cases in our nation’s capital were unsolved. Think about it. All those killers: riding the subway, filling the gas tank, standing at the curb, sitting on the bus, behind the wheel. Free as birds. As families, without justice, grieve. And it’s been going on for a long time. An earlier Post study, in 1993, found that only 25 percent of the 1,286 homicides between 1988 and 1990 led to a conviction. Yes, homicides have been declining in recent years. That, however, doesn’t mean more murderers are paying the price. As with the case of the two young men who killed James Oh, and the person who ended Charnice Milton’s life, and the unknown shooter of Navontae Howard, murderers stand a good chance of escaping arrest and prosecution. This column, I hasten to point out, is not meant as an anti-police screed. Some might contend that police attitudes toward victims affect the time and energy put into solving murder cases, especially “lifestyle” crimes that involve gangs and drugs. But there’s no credible evidence that Lanier and her officers are slacking off on their investigations. And trial work by prosecutors has improved conviction rates, once cases get to court. The problem of unsolved homicides involves more than the expertise of the police and the investigative tools used to handle those cases. Look at the multiyear photos of the victims on the Metropolitan Police Department Web site. The overwhelming majority are young African American males. Most pulling the triggers or wielding the knives are believed to be African American males, too. Unless sensational, like a quadruple murder in an upscale Northwest neighborhood, a prominent reporter’s slaying or a brutal stabbing on a Metro train with eyewitnesses, most murders don’t hit the headlines. Especially those that occur in neighborhoods where everybody knows everybody and the killers aren’t strangers. That may shed light on the slayings of Oh, Milton and


With Greek banks still shuttered, unsold eggs point to deeper woes

normal business in a nonfunctioning financial system. On Friday, Kalyvas chain-smoked and nursed a Coke as his sales assistant worked the phones. “I’m calling this client, because I know he pays in cash,” said the assistant, Anastasia Berdoli, 46. But after a brief exchange, it’s no sale. The client hadn’t sold all the eggs he ordered earlier in the week. Greeks are allowed to make domestic online bank transfers. But many businesses here never set up Internet banking accounts, and others don’t trust them, seeing the money locked up in their accounts now as being of dubious worth. So while cash is at a premium in Greece, it is also king. Doesn’t Kalyvas know it. For months, he and his 46-year-old wife had been paying a doctor for fertility treatments as they tried to have a baby. But the doctor is demanding cash, so they have, for now, suspended the sessions. Kalyvas has enough feed — largely soy and corn imported from the United States — to feed the chickens through the end of the month. But his supplier is demanding cash for next month’s supply. If they can’t reach “an arrangement,” Kalyvas said, he may be forced to slaughter some of the chickens to sell as meat. Yet amid the crazy insecurity of Greece right now, he said, he could understand the desire to be paid in something you can hold in your hand. He’s selling to some old clients on account, hoping they can pay him when the banks reopen. But he has cut off some clients who can’t pay in cash. “There is only so much risk you can take,” he said. An hour after his assistant finished her sales calls, she came to Kalyvas with good news: a Monday order for 3,000 eggs on the Greek island of Crete. It was more eggs than he had on hand, so Kalyvas rang up a supplier in Athens, an hour’s drive south. “I need eggs,” he told the wholesaler. “Can I transfer the money into your account? Any bank you wish.” No, he is told. Cash only. “Okay, okay,” Kalyvas said reluctantly. “Cash.” Read more: Greece asks European partners for new three-year bailout 18 key facts about Greece that will leave you totally up to date about a huge crisis Germans would rather send humanitarian aid than forgive Greece’s debts Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world


Are cats mass bird killers, or not as bad as we thought?

The July 7 Health & Science article “Sure, cats are natural killers, but their impact on wildlife may be overstated ” reported a study that played down the effects of cats on wildlife. Cats are a major threat to native birds and mammal in all habitats. In our area, where coyotes (a cat predator) are few, cats (feral or owned) inflict considerable damage on native wildlife, as shown by science and by local wildlife rehabilitators. Cats kill 1.4 billion to 3.7 billion birds annually in the United States. Also, the study’s author called cardinals an “invasive species.” The northern cardinal is a native and common species in North America and is the state bird of Virginia. The domestic cat is the invasive “pest” that does not belong in our natural environment. Humans, not coyotes, must control the depredations of our house pets and keep them inside. Kurt R. Schwarz, Ellicott City The writer is conservation chair of the Maryland Ornithological Society.


GMO labeling is at the center of a congressional food fight

Most of the corn and soybeans grown in the U.S. is genetically engineered. A new bill would prevent states and local governments from requiring food labels to disclose such ingredients. (Jim Young/Reuters) A fierce food fight has erupted in Congress over the labeling of genetically engineered foods. At the center of the conflict is a bill sponsored by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) that would block state and local laws from requiring food labels to disclose genetically engineered ingredients. Vermont, Connecticut and Maine have passed mandatory labeling laws for genetically modified food. At least 15 other states are considering similar regulations. Pompeo’s “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act” would nix those laws and instead set up a voluntary nationwide labeling system overseen by the federal government. The bipartisan bill has become the latest battleground over the use of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, in the U.S. food supply. GMOs have been around for 20 years. About 90 percent of the corn, soybeans and cotton grown in the United States is genetically engineered, meaning that the crops have been artificially altered to use less water or resist pests. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization have said that all GMOs on the market are safe. So has the federal government. But as consumers grow increasingly concerned about what is in their food — from antibiotics and hormones to additives and trans fats — pressure is mounting on the food industry and producers to be more transparent. Consumer groups warn that Pompeo’s bill would rob Americans of their right to know what they are eating. They launched a nationwide campaign against the legislation, renaming it the Deny Consumers the Right to Know Act, or Dark Act. Pompeo, a conservative lawmaker from Wichita, says the scientific consensus that GMOs are safe makes mandatory state and federal labeling unnecessary. “If we allow states to continue to irrationally produce laws that require a completely safe food to contain labels,” he said in an interview, “we risk raising the cost of food on those who can least afford it.” Pompeo says that food prices would spike if producers had to comply with dozens of different sets of laws that varied from state to state and city to city. For now, there are no government-approved labels to let consumers know which foods are derived from GMOs. Many companies


For one of its developers, the New Horizons probe crosses eras on Earth

classroom at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he works and where the spacecraft was built. “You just have to teach yourself: Wait. Just wait. Be patient. It’s a very long time.” Cheng, of Potomac, is the principal investigator for New Horizons’ celebrated Long Range Reconnaissance Imager, called LORRI, which has been sending back ever clearer and more dramatic photos of Pluto. Cheng led the team that designed it. And as the spacecraft streaks past the dwarf planet Tuesday, he said LORRI is “going to get the best pictures, the highest-resolution pictures.” The imager is part digital camera and part long-range telescope. It does not get blinded by glare, and is built of brittle silicon carbide, a gray crystal designed to withstand the extreme temperature differences of space travel, he said. It’s a superb device — the size of a big metal coffee urn — and was a late addition to the spacecraft, which already had six instruments. It “went beyond the requirements for the mission,” Cheng said. “It’s a better telescope than . . . NASA . . . asked for. We said, ‘We think we can put it in. We think we can do it within the cost and the schedule.’ ” “You just have to teach yourself: Wait. Just wait. Be patient. It’s a very long time,” Cheng said. (Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post) On Jan. 19, 2006, he attended the launch of New Horizons at Cape Canaveral, Fla. “Launches are always nerve-racking,” he said. “It gets very tense. The rocket goes up and you know that’s the most dangerous time. . . . There are so many things that can go wrong, and any one of them can end your mission.” He knows that from experience. He was part of the team that worked on NASA’s CONTOUR mission, which was launched in 2002 to study comets. Two weeks later, as the spacecraft was preparing to leave Earth orbit, it blew up. “Pieces were seen afterwards,” he said. “Terrible disappointment.” New Horizons has already had one scary glitch, on July 4, when it inexplicably went dark for an hour and 16 minutes. The spacecraft’s main computer had become overloaded, and the spacecraft went into safe mode. It took three days for the New Horizons team to restore the spacecraft to normal operations. Cheng said if that happened again, during the flyby, “the whole encounter is gone.”


Mexican microbrewers step out of the shadow of the country’s beer giants

Two companies have long dominated the market. Now, several young microbreweries are trying to elbow their way in. MEXICO CITY — From his immigrant great-great-grandfather on down, his forebears worked for the country’s two mega-breweries, and he started his own career as an intern with the world’s largest beer exporter, Grupo Modelo, maker of the college and beach-party favorite Corona. “It was my dream job,” he said. “The smell. The people. The vibe.” Now Escudero, 31, finds himself happier working with a single colleague in a cramped second-story office surrounded by samplers of oatmeal stouts, citra hops pale ales and barleywines. His tiny company, La Patrona, is in the vanguard of a boozy renaissance that is challenging what it means to be Mexican beer. As the country’s middle class expands and regulators step in to encourage competition, the craft beer scene has taken off. “It’s really growing fast,” said Gilbert Nielsen, the owner of the craft brewery Calavera, on the outskirts of Mexico City. “We’re reaching a critical mass of customers, of people who like craft beer and will look for it.” Don Isma grabs a box of bottles that are ready to be labeled at the Calavera brewery in Tlalnepantla de Baz, Mexico. Every bottle in this factory is hand-labeled. (Meghan Dhaliwal/for The Washington Post) From trendy rooftop beer gardens to grungy punk bars to 100-label tasting rooms, Mexican micro-beers of all kinds are flourishing. And what is happening in the beer market, with its upstart tequila-barrel-aged ales and banana brews, is something that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government hopes to encourage in other industries as the economy develops. It has taken steps to break long-standing monopolies, most prominently the telecom empire of billionaire Carlos Slim, and this month plans to auction off oil blocks to foreign companies for the first time in the better part of a century. For generations, two companies, Grupo Modelo and Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, had a stranglehold on the loyalties of Mexican drinkers. Their duopoly dominated the $20 billion market, and their exclusivity contracts with bars and restaurants meant that customers could buy beers only from one of their lines. They made all the well-known Mexican brands: Modelo brews Corona, Pacifico and Negro Modelo, while Cuauhtemoc makes Dos Equis, Tecate and Sol. Challengers often found themselves strong-armed out of business by the mega-brewers, which could offer restaurants and bars perks such as renovations, televisions,


Police investigate deadly shooting of 36-year-old man in Northeast Washington

D.C. police said Monday they have identified a man who was shot and killed on Sunday in a homicide in Northeast Washington. The incident occurred around 10 p.m. Sunday in the 900 block of 3rd Street NE. Officials said 36-year-old Timothy Bing of Northeast Washington was shot. When police arrived they found Bing suffering from “gunshot wounds, unconscious and unresponsive,” they said in a news release. He was taken to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy. Police said the suspect was a man, who was wearing a black and white shirt and blue jeans. He is believed to have a slim build and is said to be armed with a gun. There is a reward of up to $25,000 for any information in the case. Those with information are asked to call 202-727-9099/


New Horizons is just hours away from Pluto after 9½-year journey

and even a small rock could disable a spacecraft going upward of 31,000 mph. Stern said computer models show that the risk of a collision is 1 in 10,000. Because Pluto is about 3 billion miles from Earth, New Horizons can’t be joysticked from mission operations at APL. The nine-hour round-trip communication time means the spacecraft has to function autonomously. Olkin said the probe must make about 600 maneuvers over a nine-day period that started last Tuesday; that will enable 433 separate observations. The designers of this $720 million mission have built in some redundancy, with multiple observations and slight wiggle room on the timing. New Horizons, launched in 2006, has star-trackers and other guidance capabilities to orient itself correctly and turn toward Earth to transmit data. What it doesn’t have, primarily for cost reasons, according to Fountain, is the kind of robust sensing and computing power to lock onto a target — say, one of Pluto’s moons — if that target is not precisely where it had been anticipated to be. One inevitable feature of exploring the outer solar system is that the technology is relatively ancient by the time the spacecraft gets there. “In some ways, these are technologies from the ’90s,” Fountain told reporters Sunday. Critical to the intense period of observations during the flyby is knowing exactly where Pluto and its moons are at any given moment relative to the spacecraft. To that end, the New Horizons team obtained a number of old-fashioned photographic plates of Pluto from the 1930s at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, where the planet was discovered in 1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. The plates were digitized and added to other data to create a better model of Pluto’s orbit. New Horizons had a trial run of its observation sequence when it passed through the Jupiter system. “We did all this work at Jupiter,” Fountain said. “We had a couple of miscues. We knew exactly what went wrong, so we modified it.” This is a one-shot deal, with time so precious that for nearly 22 hours, from late Monday to late Tuesday, New Horizons won’t communicate with Earth. The team will receive its last bulletin from the spacecraft at 11:17 p.m. EDT Monday. Then everyone will wait and hope the probe is executing its commands properly. If New Horizons doesn’t check in as expected Tuesday night, that wouldn’t necessarily mean something had


Satoru Iwata, who led Nintendo to video gaming prominence, dies at 55

has pioneered game machines since the 1980s, developing one of the first machines and the hit Game Boy handheld device. Its main rivals in the business are Sony with its PlayStation machines and Microsoft with the Xbox One. Both companies have done better in adapting to the era of online and mobile games. Mr. Iwata was born Dec. 6, 1959, and grew up in Sapporo, Japan. He studied computer science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and spent his early career with game developer HAL Laboratory, where he rose to president. He joined Nintendo in 2000 as an executive and succeeded president Hiroshi Yamauchi, who ruled over the Kyoto-based company for a half-century, transforming it from a traditional playing-card company to a technological powerhouse. Yamauchi died in 2013 at 85. A look at those who have died. Mr. Iwata was picked with Yamauchi’s blessing, and Yamauchi remained an adviser for many years. Mr. Iwata had been employed at an innovative software company before he was recruited as Nintendo chief. He was tapped as president at a surprisingly young age, in his early 40s, for a Japanese company. Mr. Iwata was a respected and popular figure in the game industry, partly because he was relatively more approachable than executives at other Japanese companies, who tend to be aloof and rigid in demeanor. As news of Mr. Iwata’s death spread online, condolences and virtual tributes emerged on social media and on Miiverse, Nintendo’s online community where users can post notes and drawings created with a Nintendo 3DS or Wii U stylus. Fans were circulating avatars called Mii in the likeness of Mr. Iwata, which already existed but were suddenly taking on special meaning. Bungie, which developed the Halo and Destiny games, posted a quote from Mr. Iwata’s 2005 talk at the Game Developers Conference on Twitter: “On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.” Mr. Iwata remained a presence in Nintendo promotional materials up until his death. While he had been absent from the Electronic Entertainment Expo for the past two years because of his health, Mr. Iwata appeared in both human and puppet form in a humorous video presentation streamed June 16 during the gaming expo. Mr. Iwata is survived by his wife, Kayoko. The company declined to disclose other details of his family.


Pluto and its moons are ready for their close-up

An artist’s illustration of the spacecraft New Horizons, which set out for Pluto in 2006. It will do a flyby of the dwarf planet on Tuesday to take pictures of its landscape and make measurements. (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) After a journey of 9 1/ 2 years across 3 billion miles of space, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is about to give humans their first detailed look at Pluto and its large moon, Charon. At approximately 6:49 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, the spacecraft will fly within 7,800 miles of Pluto’s surface, making its closest approach to the dwarf planet. It will furiously collect data as it zips past at 36,000 miles per hour. By the end of the day, cameras aboard New Horizons will have resolved features on Pluto’s surface as small as the ponds of Central Park or the runways of Washington Dulles International Airport. If the distant object in the Kuiper Belt has snow-capped mountains, steep crevasses and towering ice cliffs, as some scientists have predicted, New Horizons will see them. At the same time, other instruments aboard the spacecraft will take measurements to determine what the dwarf planet is made of, create temperature maps of its multicolored surface and search for auroras, or arches of light, in its thin atmosphere. This image from Monday shows Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft. Photos from the flyby are expected later this week. (NASA via AP) The first high-resolution images should be available to the public Thursday or Friday, but New Horizons’ principal investigator, Alan Stern, said it would take more than a year for all of the information the spacecraft gathered to make it back to Earth. Early in the mission’s planning stages, Stern and his colleagues decided that on the day of closest approach, all of the spacecraft’s power should go toward gathering information, rather than beaming it across the solar system. “On the day of the flyby, only engineering data comes down,” Stern said. “On the 15th, the science data dump begins again.” But even in the days before the flyby, when New Horizons was still more than 5 million miles from the Pluto system, the spacecraft was already sending back intriguing hints of discoveries to come. Pluto’s spotted surface looks more complex then anyone anticipated, Stern said, and he was surprised to see that the Texas-size moon Charon had dark poles


Military to allow transgender members to serve openly

are certain missions or assignments in war zones where allowing transgender troops to serve might be problematic. “It has to be an honest review,” said a congressional aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “It just can’t be ‘We took a look and there will be no challenges with this.’ ” The decision drew immediate rebukes from groups that said it was evidence of the Obama adminstration’s misplaced priorities. “It’s time that we allow the military to focus on its only job — defending our country against its enemies,” Jerry Boykin, a retired Army lieutenant general and executive vice president of the Family Research Council, said in a statement. But Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, welcomed the change and its stated presumption that allowing transgender troops to serve would not harm the effectiveness of military units. “It is long past time that we definitively and affirmatively make it clear that gender identity should have no bearing on an individual’s ability to serve,” he said. The military banned service members with gender issues as early as the 1960s, said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a gay rights group. By the 1980s, he said, the military was applying its medical regulations more forcefully against people who identified as transgender. Gay rights groups have aggressively pushed back in recent years, pointing to studies and reports that show open transgender service would not be harmful. Among them was a report last year co-authored by former U.S. surgeon general Joycelyn Elders. “There is no compelling medical reason for the ban,” the report concluded. In recent months, there were signs that the military was changing course on the issue, with the Army, Navy and Air Force adjusting their policies to make it more difficult to discharge transgender members. Shortly after Carter was sworn in as defense secretary this year, he suggested at a town hall meeting with troops in Afghanistan that he was “open-minded” about transgender service. In addition, last month, a senior airman attended the White House’s gay pride celebration in the uniform of his preferred gender, which is a departure from current Air Force policy, groups said. The policy change announced Monday, which was first reported by the Associated Press, comes two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Army


As Dempsey departs, he issues sober assessment of Middle East

which is now controlled by Islamic State fighters — “where there’s a major offensive where we think . . . its probability of success [could be increased] by our presence.” Sessions got a somewhat different response from Dunford when he asked how the United States could encourage the Iraqis “to be more effective in fighting back” against the Islamic State. Dunford, who commanded a Marine regiment in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and more recently ran assistance forces in Afghanistan, replied, “Clearly we need to do more to assist the Iraqis in moving forward and I — and I think that’s the plan.” When Sessions asked whether embedding U.S. troops with Iraqi battalions made them “more effective on the battlefield,” Dunford said that his experience was that when U.S. forces accompanied Iraqi or Afghan troops, “those units are more effective.” However, when Sessions pointed out that Dempsey had not recommended embedding a “small number” of American troops, Dunford responded that if he is confirmed, he would visit commanders in Iraq and provide a “recommendation to how we can move the campaign forward in Iraq.” Dunford did not separate himself from Dempsey’s general approach, saying that in Iraq and Syria, the United States had to “build partnership capacity, if you will, of the local forces that would be the real defeat mechanism” for the Islamic State. On Syria, however, Dunford did say something that other officials have obscured when asked why U.S. forces have not been used against Syrian government military targets. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Dunford why Syrian recruits were required to sign a pledge that they would fight only against the Islamic State and not against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Dunford responded, “What I understand right now is that we do not have the authority to take action against Assad’s forces.” He was referring to legal authority, lack of an administration request or an act of Congress on its own to authorize any military action beyond the 2001 law to go after those responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the resolution in 2002 authorizing the invasion of Iraq. Neither could be viewed as permitting the use of military force against the Assad government, and apparently in this case there is a need for some official authorization to go to war with another sovereign state — unless of course it attacks us first.


Brazen shooting caught on camera

D.C. police put out video of persons of interest in a homicide which occurred in the 2600 block of Douglass Pl, SE, on July 4, 2015. D.C. police are looking for four persons of interest, shown in a surveillance video, who police say they believe were involved in a homicide that happened on the Fourth of July in Southeast Washington. The incident happened on the holiday around 11 p.m. in the 2600 block of Douglass Place SE. Police said 23-year-old Dwayne Gene Dillard died after he was shot in that area. In the video, which police released Monday, several men are seen walking down the street. In one instance, one man is seen sitting on the back of a vehicle and later he pulls a gun from his pants and begins to fire and run. There is a reward of up to $25,000 being offered. Anyone with information is asked to call 202-727-9099.


Arab states fear nuclear deal will give Iran a bigger regional role

A protester stands in front of burning U.S., Israeli and Saudi flags with a placard bearing portraits of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, and the late Ayatollah Khomeini, during a protest in Tehran. This caption originally misidentified Khomeini. (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images) BAGHDAD — As leaders across the world heralded the deal, Saudi Arabia, Iran’s chief regional adversary, said it had always been in favor of an agreement to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. However, the statement released by its embassy in Washington hinted at its dissatisfaction, urging strict inspections and warning of “harsh and determined responses” if Iran uses the deal to incite turmoil. In private, Saudis were more candid, with one diplomat describing the deal as “extremely dangerous.” The agreement offers a gradual lifting of international sanctions in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia are concerned that the sanctions relief may produce a flood of cash for Shiite Iran, emboldening it to pursue a more assertive foreign policy at a time when the region is racked by conflict. Just how Saudi Arabia and its allies react to the perceived threat will be crucial to how the deal plays out, analysts said. There are fears that the nuclear agreement could spark a regional arms race. Here, a look at some of the deal’s major players and critics. “If sanctions are lifted, Iran will try even harder to redesign the region,” said the Saudi diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. “Iran is trying to change the Middle East, and this is unacceptable to Sunnis.” Meanwhile, Iranian ally Syria expressed support for the deal, with President Bashar al-Assad describing it as a “great victory.” In comments published by the official Syrian Arab News Agency, Assad said he was assured that Iran would continue “with greater momentum” to support “just issues” in the region. Iran has used the Lebanon-based Shiite militant group Hezbollah to help prop up Assad during the four-year-old civil war in Syria. Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations have positioned themselves on the other side, backing Sunni rebels. In Yemen, Iran supports Shiite Houthi rebels while Saudi Arabia has been conducting a bombing campaign in support of a Sunni coalition. Meanwhile, in Iraq, Iran has extended its influence politically and militarily as the government battles Islamic State extremists. The Saudi


Miss Manners: Charity runner in marathon seeks charity of his own

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I’m curious if you have an official stance on the act of soliciting donations for marathons, triathlons, etc. Can it ever be appropriate? Does throwing a party to fund-raise for the race make it more acceptable? It’s been a lifetime dream of mine to run the Boston Marathon, but the idea of soliciting donations for something I enjoy doing seems ridiculous. Are my only options to either take another year or two (or 10) to run other races and achieve a qualifying time (non-charity runners don’t need to donate), or personally save and donate the $5,000 required donation as a charity runner? GENTLE READER: Ah, the Girl Scout Cookie Problem: love the bonfires and s’mores, not so crazy about working for free, importuning friends and relatives. If it is any consolation, there is a long and honorable tradition of private individuals raising money for worthy causes. But there is an equally long, if less honorable, tradition of annoying one’s friends with constant demands for money. Which your friends would think you are following depends not — as is too often assumed — on the purity of your cause, but on the aggressiveness of your tactics. If you do choose to fund-raise, Miss Manners recommends a dignified and restrained approach. DEAR MISS MANNERS: My daughter is turning 12 and wants us, her parents, to redecorate her room, and she also wants to have a birthday party. I told her she could only get her room redecorated or have a birthday party. She suggested she have a “room decorating party” where she invites her friends, and instead of bringing random gifts, she asks them to bring an item for her room. She would ask them to bring something that relates to their friendship in the color of her room. Is this appropriate? GENTLE READER: Your daughter is to be commended for quick thinking, if not, in this case, good manners. Presents are a voluntary offering not properly dictated by the recipient. Miss Manners suggests that your daughter instead apply herself to finding a redecorating solution that does not require dunning either her parents or her friends. DEAR MISS MANNERS: I’m allowing children at my wedding reception. However, I have one guest whose child I do not want to come. How can I ask this one person not to bring their child, when there are plenty of other children in


‘You’re Doing It Wrong!’ and other ways PBS is catering to fitness-loving millennials

wanted to do a full marathon to achieve that, to cross it off the bucket list,” Hanson said. “But, being me, I had to do this in a very scientific way, to get the most out of it. I wanted to know what was going on throughout this process, how my body was changing, how I was to accomplish this incredible and challenging feat.” Equipped with a GoPro and help from his fellow producers, Hanson documented the race as he ran it and explained his experience before and after. Adding context about the history of marathon running and the muscular process of long-distance races, Hanson created an episode to teach the science of running marathons without it being a traditional lecture. Both Sklar brothers run, but they say they’re not into long distances or in races. Like most runners, they do it mainly to stay in shape and get out of the house. “It clears my mind in a way that many other things don’t. Even though it’s hard at times, it’s a great, peaceful time for me,” Randy Sklar said. One can learn a lot about fitness from the shows. They balance facts and data with entertainment, and the hosts emphasize being informative. The episodes cite academic journals, running Web sites and fitness authorities to underscore the points being made. Even if the hosts aren’t fitness experts, the Sklars and Hanson say they take great care to put the facts first, then comedy second. So, how are you running wrong? The Sklar brothers say that a few things are impeding most runners. Most run too hard, too fast. Heel striking is a big no-no because you can’t push off when the foot is in front of you. And, citing the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (yes, that’s a real journal), the brothers say that short sprint-interval training is the way to go for weight loss, as opposed to slow jogging. Also, watch your posture! “One thing from [creating] the running episode that I learned was the upper-body posture has a lot of to do with how far you can run and how much oxygen you are taking in. It has a ton to do with stamina and fitness and I didn’t realize it,” Jason Sklar said. And the top thing runners are doing wrong? Randy Sklar spoke for the masses: “Whoever wears those Skeletoes looks ridiculous.”


The harried tale of ‘Primates of Park Avenue’

Moser, an investment fund manager, for three years, not six, as the book suggests. While living there, she had only one son, not two (now ages 14 and 7), as the reader is led to believe, before moving to a choice block on the Upper West Side, near Central Park, where she is sitting now. Certain businesses that she describes, including Physique 57 (annual membership fee: $4,000), didn’t exist at the time of her residence on the Upper East Side. (She offers a disquisition on the differences between Physique 57, her exercise temple, and SoulCycle as though it were a Lululemon-clad War of the Roses.) After the clamor, Simon & Schuster, Martin’s publisher, added an author’s note to the e-book and subsequent print editions. “We are delighted — and not in the least surprised — that ‘Primates’ has provoked such a lively conversation about class, motherhood, sex and money,” Simon & Schuster spokesman Cary Goldstein says. “Whether readers are aspirational or rubbernecking, there has been a tremendous fascination with Wednesday and the community she’s profiled.” "Primates of Park Avenue" is perched on the New York Times’ bestseller list. (Scott Roth/Invision/AP) Wednesday Martin at a New York book-signing event. (Matthew Eisman/Getty Images) *** With names altered, years blurred and findings questioned — all while suggesting that she was applying rigorous academic tools — Martin faced an enormous credibility problem. Asked about specific dates, she says, “Okay, I’m very bad with this kind of thing.” Later, she struggles to remember how long she has been married (15 years). “I know what I did and why I did it. At the end of the day, it’s a straightforward and not uncommon strategy, and you do it really to protect people,” she says of her narrative technique. “It’s one of the reasons I changed all the identifying details. And I changed chronologies, and I left timelines unspecified.” She adds, “But I never said I lived there for six years.” Actually, she strongly suggests it. “Our two sons were eventually accepted at schools on the Upper West Side,” she writes, explaining why she moved, “and with my work and my husband’s, going back and forth from the East Side every day during rush hour seemed like too much to contemplate. We moved across town.” Her younger son had not yet been born. In addition to the elasticity of Martin’s life story, the book is clouded


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These cases were received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded details about topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Chipmunk trouble: Pet owner heeds advice: Dog nips passerby: “Citizen Pet of the Year” photo contest: Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville


China’s new crackdown on civil rights

at least 159 human rights lawyers, activists and their relatives in 24 cities and provinces, according to a Hong Kong group that monitors human rights and rule of law in China. Some 10 remain in custody, and the whereabouts of 14 are unknown. The unusually wide crackdown appears to signal that the authorities will no longer tolerate these defenders of human dignity. Typically, the lawyers disappeared suddenly. One prominent human rights lawyer, Wang Yu, returned home July 9 after dropping off her husband and son at the airport. She sent a text message to friends saying that the Internet connection and power at her home had been cut off. She sent another message saying that people were trying to break in. She has not been heard from since. The sweep was accompanied by reports in the Chinese state media that the lawyers were conspiring, somehow, to create illegal protests and that the victims they were representing were secretly fomenting dissent. At first, the crackdown appeared to be focused on Fengrui, a law firm that defended many petitioners who had grievances over things such as land disputes. The firm was described in a report by the People’s Daily on Saturday as a “major criminal organization.” But Fengrui was not the only target and others in the rights defense movement were detained and questioned in recent days. The crackdown appears to be the first since China approved a new national security law giving enhanced powers to the Ministry of State Security. It signifies a fresh assertion of control by President Xi Jinping, who seems to have little inclination to allow any alternative to the Communist Party’s stranglehold on power. China is the only nation in the world that keeps a Nobel laureate, Liu Xiaobo , a courageous exponent of democracy, in prison. This crackdown is sweeping up many people who are less well known, but their struggle is no less vital. The rights defense movement existed in a sort of twilight zone, tolerated but not approved nor prohibited. Certainly, this is no substitute for a state based on rule of law. But it had value for China’s people, and suffocating it will be another loss — imposed from above. Read more on this topic: Teng Biao: China’s growing human rights movement can claim many accomplishments The Post’s View: China’s human rights abuses demand a tougher U.S. approach Fred Hiatt: China’s lawless path


The path to a final Iran nuclear deal: Long days and short tempers

May 31 bicycle accident outside Geneva, where he had held a one-day status meeting with Zarif, and had to use a mechanical lift to be raised up to the door of his official aircraft. They kicked off their talks shortly after noon the next day. The fundamental principles on nuclear issues already had been decided — Iran would give up most of its enriched uranium and limit future production, effectively eliminating the possibility it could rapidly develop a nuclear weapon, and would agree to intrusive international inspections. It was the other side of the deal — the end of international sanctions against Iran — that dominated the talks. On Sunday night, June 28, Zarif flew to Tehran for a day of consultation with Iran’s leadership. Though he was smiling and jocular in public, the Americans considered him a tough negotiator, well-briefed on the often-arcane details of nuclear fuel cycles and U.N. resolutions. But as hard-line public statements came out of Tehran, they were sometimes uncertain whether he had the authority to seal a deal. The next day, the interim deadline was extended a week. By the end of the first week, as foreign ministers came and went from U.S. negotiating partner countries — known collectively as the P5+1 — they had agreed that economic and banking sanctions would not be lifted until the International Atomic Energy Agency had verified that Iran’s declared nuclear sites were being used only for the civilian purposes of producing energy and medical isotopes. Verification, called “Implementation Day,” might not happen for months after a deal was completed. They also agreed on procedures for “managed access” by the IAEA to Iran’s undeclared nuclear sites — places, including military installations, where there was suspected nuclear activity. “We have nothing to hide,” a senior Iranian negotiator told Western reporters. On July 4, the Coburg Palace hotel, where the talks were being held while hundreds of international journalists kept vigil outside, held an Independence Day party for the American delegation and U.S. journalists. Kerry, in shirtsleeves and a tie, hobbled in and ate a cheeseburger. He gave a small speech that seemed to rouse U.S. technical experts and staff, some of whom had not been home for months. The next day, the talks started to bog down. While the United States and its partners insisted on safeguard procedures to snap back lifted sanctions if Iran violated its commitments on


Big rodent breaks out at National Zoo

In this summer of high-profile prison breaks in New York and Mexico, Washington has had an unusual escape of its own: an animal fled this week from its enclosure at the National Zoo. An agouti — a type of rodent about the size of a house cat and native to Central and South America — took unauthorized leave from his pen for about 30 minutes Monday, the zoo said. Zoo officials said they think the agouti, named Macadamia, made his break for freedom. about 7 p.m., when the zoo’s buildings are closed but the grounds are still open. Apparently nobody saw him leave the pen. But the circumstantial evidence was strong. Macadamia was outside his enclosure. The steel mesh that was supposed to keep him inside had a hole in it. Zoo officials reasoned that he must have chewed his way out. The zoo said he is back in custody, and the hole has been patched with sturdier stuff.


The military steps up for transgender service members

it. An estimated 15,500 transgender people serve in the military today, with the constant worry that sharing their identity with one person too many will result in discharge and dishonor. This forced secrecy does material harm to transgender troops hesitant to report health issues or instances of sexual assault for fear of being discovered. Mr. Carter’s decision to lift the ban pending a review of the decision’s impact on national defense capabilities would afford transgender service members the same privileges and care as other members of the military. The review will cover important questions. But one thing is not up for debate: Transgender people have just as much right — and are just as able — to serve as anyone else. The study should focus on logistical concerns about the best way to integrate transgender troops. Some are easy to address: what uniforms transgender service members should wear, for example, or where they should live. Some are harder: what hormone therapy or surgical procedures the military should provide to transgender enlistees, or what fitness standards those in the process of transitioning from one sex to the other should meet. The Defense Department will not have to find answers all on its own. Medical professionals can tell the military on a case-by-case basis what care is necessary for troops. And the NCAA has science-based policies it uses regarding transgender athletes. The United States can also look to allies such as Britain, Australia and Canada, which have grappled with these issues and solved them. There’s another reason to expect success: By all accounts, the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” did not jeopardize national security but instead improved it. The ease with which the armed forces shed the policy suggests that the military’s rigid and regimented nature — which skeptics thought made a repeal impractical and even dangerous — might actually facilitate cultural change once an order is handed down. Lifting the ban on transgender people in the military will bring in more good soldiers and help those already in the armed forces do their jobs even better. It will also grant all Americans the chance to serve their country with dignity. Read more on this topic: Ruth Marcus: Beyond the bathroom wars for transgender rights Joanna Harper: Do transgender athletes have an edge? I sure don’t. Jonathan Capehart: Bruce Jenner’s teachable moment on being transgender Kathleen Parker: Caitlyn Jenner’s coming out


Chattanooga shooter’s real, online lives seem to take divergent paths

Here's what you need to know about Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, the gunman who opened fire at two military facilities in Tenn., killing four Marines. CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — FBI investigators spent much of Friday morning combing through and carting off material from the home where Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez spent much of his life. Abdulazeez, who was killed during the attack on two military sites, described his existence in an online blog as a “prison” of monotony and routine. He praised early followers of Islam’s prophet Muhammad, who “fought Jihad for the sake of Allah,” hailing them as among “the best human beings that ever lived.” His neighbors and friends described a different Abdulazeez. He was a friendly kid, who raced go-carts down his subdivision’s winding streets and attended the neighborhood’s Fourth of July picnics with his mother and sisters. He wrestled at nearby Red Bank High School and went off to a nearby college, but still came back to the school to work and train with younger wrestlers. Family court documents, filed by Abdulazeez’s mother in 2009 as part of preliminary divorce proceedings, describe yet another existence. Rasmia Ibrahim Abdulazeez accused the shooter’s father, Youssuf Saed Abdulazeez, “of repeatedly” beating her in the presence of their five children. Investigators probe for a motive behind Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez’s shooting spree that left four Marines and a Navy sailor dead in Tennessee. The elder Abdulazeez “struck his children without provocation” and sexually abused his wife on at least two occasions, the filing states. The elder Abdulazeez’s brothers rushed to the house from Kuwait and the District in an effort to save the marriage of 28 years, but the father’s abuse only grew worse, according to the court documents. Still, Abdulazeez’s mother decided to drop the divorce proceedings. As investigators combed through Abdulazeez’s life, one of their goals was to piece together the path that seemingly led Abdulazeez from the life of a normal college student to radical jihad and to a shooting rampage. “The FBI made clear yesterday that they are looking at a variety of possible motives, including the possibility of domestic terrorism,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “So that is a part of their ongoing investigation.” Neighbors, friends and co-workers were asking similar questions. Some wondered about his frequent trips to Jordan in recent years, where he said he was visiting his grandmother and an uncle. He made such