Best new science books for kids

how anybody knows what they look like? After all, no one has seen a living dinosaur. This book explains how paleo-scientists and paleo-artists (“paleo” means “ancient”) work together to re-create dinosaurs. For 100 years, they have used fossils to help figure out muscles, skin and even expressions. As scientific discoveries have been made, the models have changed. (Deinonychus replicas once were scaly; now they have feathers.) Scientific tests may one day reveal what a dinosaur’s coloring was, but for now artists have to use their imagination to determine how these Jurassic giants looked. “Beyond the Solar System” This book takes readers back to the beginnings of space exploration — thousands of years ago, when people began stargazing — and forward to today’s search for planets in distant parts of the Milky Way galaxy. Find out about superstars — Isaac Newton, for example — and lesser-known but important scientists such as astronomer Annie Jump Cannon. Along with history lessons, readers get 21 activities, such as making a black hole and creating a model of Albert Einstein’s universe using a T-shirt. The activities are perfect “boredom busters” for cold winter days. “Ultimate Bugopedia” If you’re always on the lookout for beetles and butterflies, this book is for you. Hundreds of color photos of common and unusual insects fill this hefty hardcover. There are fascinating stories related to the photos. For example, did you know that a moth called a Lobocraspis griseifusa feeds on the tears of Asian cattle? Have you heard of the tarantula hawk? It’s not a bird; it’s a wasp that preys on the hairy spiders. There’s a question-and-answer section with an entomologist (that’s an insect scientist) and advice on how to help preserve insects that are endangered. “Journey Into the Invisible” If you have used a magnifying glass, you know that a speck of dust or a leaf looks a lot different when it’s magnified. The author of this book explains what microscopes do and then shows what happens to things around the house when looked at with this amazing scientific tool. A salt crystal magnified 30 times looks like a super-modern apartment building. The bacteria that live in your mouth, when magnified 20,000 times, look a bit like swimming pool noodles. Fascinating photos are paired with suggestions about how you can learn a lot about the world around you, just by looking a little closer. — Christina Barron


Finalists for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

The ghost of Jacob Grimm, an angry Chinese boy and two determined raccoons engage in very different missions in this year’s finalists for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, which will be announced next Wednesday in New York. Gene Luen Yang explores both sides of China’s Boxer Rebellion (circa 1899 to 1901) in the two graphic novels that compose Boxers & Saints (First Second, $34.99, age 12 and up). In “Boxers,” Little Bao and other peasants rise up against the Western “foreign devils” and the Chinese Christians they believe are taking over the country. “Saints” focuses on Four-Girl, a lonely Christian convert emboldened by her visions of Saint Joan of Arc to fight the peasants. Especially fascinating and poignant are the occasional appearances of one character in the other’s story and their different perceptions of the same historical events. Yang also repeats key images in both books to underscore the protagonists’ common humanity in contrast to the violent extremism of their causes. As with his 2006 NBA finalist, “American Born Chinese,” Yang weaves words and pictures, myth and history, into a complex, heartfelt, visually arresting tale. In a small American town “brimming with promise,” the ghost of folklorist Jacob Grimm perceives the shadows that draw a group of young people “deeper into their tale.” With his 19th-century diction and Old World sensibility, Jacob makes for a bemused, stylish narrator in Tom McNeal’s Far Far Away (Knopf, $17.99, age 12 and up). This brilliant novel compels the reader to reexamine the old fairy tales in light of contemporary events, and vice versa. Jacob’s teenage friend, Jeremy Johnson Johnson, is a quiet hero with a big heart, abandoned by a mother in “search of a happy ending.” There is a lost key, a vanished child, bewitching cakes, and evil and good in unexpected people. When Jeremy becomes the victim of a crime, he and the ghost must seek out and confront the horrors that “move hidden among us — carried in the pockets and cuffs of the commonplace and the routine.” Picture Me Gone In The Thing About Luck (Atheneum, $16.99, ages 10-14), Summer’s family feels sadly lacking in good fortune. With her migrant parents in Japan caring for an ailing relative, 12-year-old Summer and her grandparents must take their places during the wheat-harvesting season. To add to that difficulty, the grandmother wrestles with back pain, and Summer struggles with


More healthful baking with white flour alternatives

lost. The starchy (gluten) part of the kernel remains, is finely ground, and then bleached with chemicals. Sometimes the resulting refined flour is enriched with synthetic vitamins and minerals to make it “healthful” again, although the jury is out on whether our bodies absorb and use those synthetic vitamins as effectively. The body immediately turns this processed final product into glucose, which raises insulin levels and can contribute to sugar highs, energy lows, weight gain and cravings. Usage Most whole grains and many nuts and beans can be ground into flour, but they are not all interchangeable. Each has its own character, ranging from silky to gritty, and they yield different outcomes when baked. Wheat is the most versatile and popular because of its gluten content, which allows recipes to bind easily without crumbling. Dietitian Ellie Krieger, Nourish Schools co-founder Casey Seidenberg and certified health education specialist Elaine Gordon offer picks for meals from breakfast to dessert. When experimenting with whole-grain and bean flours, do so in stages. If a recipe calls for a cup of white flour, try a quarter-cup of a whole-grain flour and three-quarters cup white. Next time, increase the amount of whole-grain flour by a bit, ensuring it still suits your palate. There are countless cookbooks chock-full of recipes using all kinds of flours. Pick one up for tested recipes that will keep you from tossing batches of rock-hard muffins, crumbling cookies and bitter-tasting breads. Selection The method of production has an effect on the flour’s performance, flavor and nutrition. Organic flour from a stone-ground mill is ideal. Visit Peirce Mill in Rock Creek Park (www.nps.gov/pimi) to learn about the milling process and buy premium whole-grain flours (sales go on hiatus in the colder months — call before visiting). Bob’s Red Mill and Arrowhead Mills are two high-quality brands that can be found in grocery stores nationwide. Storage Store in an airtight container, ideally in the refrigerator. Processed white flour has a long shelf life, but whole-grain flours go rancid more quickly. Freshly ground, whole-grain flour has a shelf life of one to two months in a pantry and four in the fridge. Store-bought flour will have a use-by date on it. A rancid flour will begin to smell and give an unsavory taste. Rancid flours also have lower nutrient content. Going gluten-free Bob’s Red Mill, a producer of many high-quality whole grains and whole-grain flours,


ensuring it still suits your palate. There are countless cookbooks chock-full of recipes using all kinds of flours. Pick one up for tested recipes that will keep you from tossing batches of rock-hard muffins, crumbling cookies and bitter-tasting breads. Selection The method of production has an effect on the flour’s performance, flavor and nutrition. Organic flour from a stone-ground mill is ideal. Visit Peirce Mill in Rock Creek Park (www.nps.gov/pimi) to learn about the milling process and buy premium whole-grain flours (sales go on hiatus in the colder months — call before visiting). Bob’s Red Mill and Arrowhead Mills are two high-quality brands that can be found in grocery stores nationwide. Storage Store in an airtight container, ideally in the refrigerator. Processed white flour has a long shelf life, but whole-grain flours go rancid more quickly. Freshly ground, whole-grain flour has a shelf life of one to two months in a pantry and four in the fridge. Store-bought flour will have a use-by date on it. A rancid flour will begin to smell and give an unsavory taste. Rancid flours also have lower nutrient content. Going gluten-free Bob’s Red Mill, a producer of many high-quality whole grains and whole-grain flours, suggests using 2½ teaspoons of baking powder per cup of a wheat-free/gluten-free flour. And when baking without wheat or gluten, add xanthan gum or guar gum (both binders that keep batter from separating) to improve the texture of the baked good. Visit www.bobsredmill.com for additional details. My favorite brands of gluten-free flour are Deya’s Gluten Free Flour, which can be bought at www.deyasglutenfree.com , and Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour and Pamela’s Gluten-Free Bread Mix, both of which can be found at grocery stores nationwide. The Flours Almond: ●gluten-free ●not a whole grain but an ideal flour substitute for pancakes, muffins, cookies ●adds sweetness ●creates a cakelike consistency if used in a large quantity Barley: ●contains gluten ●use to thicken and sweeten gravies and sauces ●combine with other flours like whole-wheat or spelt for breads ●adds sweetness ●lightly toast before using for ideal flavor Brown rice: ●gluten-free ●use for pie crust, breads, crackers, pizza crust (to make crispy) ●substitute in small amounts ●in breads, must be combined with a sticky flour like oat or with xanthan gum or guar gum ●grainy texture ●purchase in small quantities as high oil content causes rapid rancidity Buckwheat: ●gluten-free and wheat-free (despite the name)


At Home Depot, building a strong corps of veterans

said Jim Knotts, president and chief executive of Operation Homefront, a group that aids military families. One year ago, Home Depot launched an initiative called “Mission: Transition” to help service members get jobs in the civilian workforce, offering coaching on issues such as resume-writing and interview preparation. The company also established a Web-based skills translator to match service members’ military experience with civilian jobs. With unemployment still high for veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, hiring initiatives by large companies are critical, advocates say. “There’s only so much capacity in small and mid-sized firms,” said Derek Bennett, chief of staff for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “You need to have companies with a national reach like Home Depot participating.” As a whole, veterans do well in the U.S. job force. The unemployment rate for all U.S. veterans was 6.9 percent in September, lower than the 7.2 percent for the population as a whole. But unemployment for the post-9/11 generation of veterans stood at 10 percent in October, up from 7.7 percent in July. The numbers tend to fluctuate each month, and the long-term trend is slightly down, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs Home Depot hired more than 10,000 veterans last year. As part of the Joining Forces campaign led by first lady Michelle Obama, the company committed to increase veteran hiring by 10 percent each year over the next five years, which would mean about 55,000 over that time period. Other major companies have also pledged to hire large numbers of veterans, including Wal-Mart, which committed to employing 100,000 veterans by the end of 2018, and McDonald’s, which pledged to hire 100,000 in the next three years. AT&T announced Wednesday that it is doubling its hiring goal for veterans to 10,000 for the next five years The Obama administration has set up tax credits that encourage companies to hire veterans. But noted Blake, “We don’t hire for tax credits, we hire for the long term.” Other initiatives include the Home Depot Foundation, a separate charitable entity that receives much of its funding from the company and has committed $80 million to support veterans’ housing initiatives. Kelly Caffarelli, president of the foundation, said the organization tries to fill “the gaps where current funding isn’t meeting the need. The government can’t do it all.” Team Depot, a volunteer program made up of Home Depot employees, completed 550 building projects for


For MicroTech, small-business status has meant big business as a federal contractor

He has been a guest at the White House and lauded by Hispanic groups. “I am living the American Dream,” he said in a letter to The Washington Post. “I have done this through hard work, education and commitment to a personal honor code that includes integrity, fairness, charity and patriotism.” Related: MicroTech transformed lifestyle of its chief executive Competitors have complained that MicroTech was too big to be considered a small business and eligible for government preferences. The Post sought to determine how a company could receive so much in government contracts and maintain its small-business status. The story of MicroTech’s extraordinary ascent illuminates the challenges and complexities at the heart of government programs to help small-business entrepreneurs — at a time when such contracts have grown nearly 70 percent, to $90 billion, in the past decade. It is a world in which large can be considered small, the wealthy can still be deemed disadvantaged, and many struggle to understand and apply arcane rules designed to help entrepreneurs while preventing abuses. The Post investigation found that MicroTech’s success was built in part on representations to the government that appear to be inconsistent with company documents and accounts by several individuals who worked for or closely with MicroTech. In 2005, when Jimenez successfully applied for government assistance as a small, disadvantaged contractor, he certified to the Small Business Administration that he and MicroTech were independent of other firms. Under SBA rules, owners of such firms are not allowed to cede control to others through the sharing of personnel, finances or infrastructure. They also must certify that they devote themselves full time to the business seeking entrance into the program. Those who knowingly make false statements about such matters are subject to criminal and civil penalties. MicroTech occupied the same office floor and used the same computer networks and payroll services, as well as some of the same employees, as an established firm called MicroLink, a government contractor owned by two men without disadvantaged status, former employees of the two companies said. “MicroTech has not broken any laws and has conducted itself in an ethical manner,” the company said in a statement. “For nearly a decade MicroTech has employed hundreds of men and women, contributed to our communities, created hundreds of jobs, and built a successful business which provides quality services to the United States Government as well as our commercial


Gap between those who use Internet and those who don’t is widening

Rainie is the director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, which has studied the social impact of digital technologies since 2000. He describes the five factors related to Internet non-use at Washington Post Live's 2013 Bridging the Digital Divide forum. “There is a group of Americans being left behind as technology advances without them,” Lawrence E. Strickling, head of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, told an audience at the Brookings Institution recently. “Americans who don’t have access to the Internet are increasingly cut off from job opportunities, educational resources, health-care information, social networks, even government services.” These people are being left out even as access to broadband — Internet service provided by cable, fiber, DSL and other high-speed networks, as opposed to the older, slower dial-up service — has expanded dramatically in the past 20 years. Because of a national infrastructure upgrade that Strickling compares to the rural electrification effort of the 1930s, well over 90 percent of U.S. households are either wired for high-speed broadband or can get high-speed wireless access. But actual adoption of that service lags behind availability: As of October 2012, the NTIA found that 72.9 percent of homes used broadband Internet service. That’s remarkable growth from 2000, when only 4 percent of homes used broadband, but it still indicates a significant gap. Who’s offline? So who are these Americans who remain disconnected from the online world? “They are disproportionately older,” says Kathryn Zickuhr, who wrote the Pew study. According to the survey, which was done in May, 49 percent of non-Internet users are older than 65. They also are, in general, less educated. Although nearly everyone in the United States with a college degree is online, 41 percent of adults without a high school diploma are offline. The digital divide linked to household income is less extreme but still substantial. Nearly a quarter of adults in households making less than $30,000 per year don’t use the Internet, the survey showed, as opposed to fewer than 1 in 20 adults in households with annual incomes above $75,000. There also are racial disparities — particularly when it comes to Internet use at home. Seventy-nine percent of whites surveyed by Pew used the Internet at home vs. 70 percent of African Americans and 63 percent of Hispanics. Urban and suburban Americans are more likely than rural residents to be online at


Police want to question man about October slaying in Southeast Washington

District police have released a video of a man described as a person of interest in the fatal shooting of a 23-year-old man in Southeast Washington last month. The video shows the man fighting with another man and taking a boxing stance. Police did not say if the person with whom the man is fighting is the 23-year-old man who was shot to death. The homicide victim has been identified as William Dean Howard, of Southeast Washington. Howard was shot several times about 11:15 p.m. on Oct. 26 in the 3000 block of Stanton Road. A woman who was with Howard also was shot, police said, but she survived. Anyone with information about the shooting or the identity of the person of interest is urged to call D.C. police at 202-727-9099 or text the department’s tip line at 50411. Police are offering a reward up to $25,000 to anyone whose information leads to an arrest and conviction.


Arlington-Alexandria news in brief

Marine Corps Marathon clothing to go to homeless The 968 pounds of sweatshirts, hats and gloves shed by Marine Corps Marathon runners during the first mile of the race are being distributed to the area’s homeless population. After volunteers collected the clothing discarded in the Arlington County neighborhood on Oct. 27, the Rosslyn Business Improvement District paid to have it cleaned and donated it to the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network. “As winter approaches, I know our clients will greatly benefit from these warm clothes,” A-SPAN Executive Director Kathleen Sibert said in a statement. “It is wonderful that the runners have helped people in need, and resourceful of Rosslyn to again collect their discarded items for A-SPAN.” A-SPAN and the BID are collecting winter clothing for the homeless during the Rosslyn holiday clothing drive. For information, visit www.rosslynva.org. Alexandria considers adding to Chinquapin Park rec center Alexandria is seeking public input on plans to build a 50-meter indoor pool as part of the Chinquapin Park Recreation Center and Aquatics Facility. The city’s Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities department also announced last week that it will consider renovations to the park’s existing pool. To gather comments and suggestions, the city set up an online survey that residents may fill out through Nov. 29. Visit www.alexandriava.gov/Recreation to take the survey. Zimmerman to step down from Arlington County Board The Arlington County Board announced last week that longtime member Christopher Zimmerman will step down early next year. Zimmerman has served on the board for nearly two decades and is the second-longest-serving board member in the county’s history. He served as chairman in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2011. Zimmerman stepped down to become vice president for economic development of the District-based nonprofit organization Smart Growth America. County offers Web resources for winter preparedness Arlington County offers a number of tools to keep residents informed when inclement weather strikes. For the third year a phased system will allow residents to track street-clearing progress on the county Web site and via its Facebook page and Twitter feed. Residents can also monitor road conditions via traffic-camera Web streams from major intersections and other locations, a county statement said. For information on winter preparedness, visit the county’s “Snow and Ice Central” page at www.arlingtonva.us .


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Low-wage workers continue to feel the sting of the federal shutdown, worry about holidays

this month and into the holidays, he said. “They will have to reduce their spending for a while.” The Washington region, home to the largest concentration of federal workers and contractors in the nation, was hit especially hard by the 16-day shutdown, which followed sequestration cuts this year, another blow to the region’s economy. Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which represents thousands of janitorial workers and security guards in the Washington region, estimates that about 700 members were out of work during the shutdown. UNITE HERE Local 23, another union, said about 500 members — food-service workers — were affected. “If the direct government employees got paid, the contracted-out federal workers shouldn’t be seen as collateral damage. They should also get paid,” said Jaime Contreras, capital area director of Local 32BJ. “All these people have bills to pay. They have mortgages. They have to put food on the table. They have to make ends meet, and they were without a paycheck for two weeks.” Larry Westfall, vice president of R&R Janitorial Painting & Building Services, said that about 100 of his employees who work at the Labor and Justice departments were affected by the shutdown and that the company lost about $80,000. “We were told just to bill for the services we provided,” Westfall said. “The government did not pay us, and we could not pay our workers.” The D.C.-based company, which has about 300 employees, gave its workers the option of using paid leave during the shutdown, but most did not have any left for the year, Westfall said. He said the company couldn’t afford to pay $100,000 out-of-pocket to make up the lost wages for its employees, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck. Westfall said small vendors that supply government contractors also suffered during the shutdown.“It affects a lot of people,” he said. “We are at the government’s mercy. It is not nice.” Brady is the ranking Democrat on the Committee on House Administration, whose responsibilities include oversight of the Library of Congress, the House Library, the U.S. Botanic Garden and the Smithsonian Institution. The shutdown affected many service workers at those institutions, and Brady has been looking at “the depth of the problem,” said Stanley V. White, his chief of staff. These workers “are hourly employees . . . who may or may not have been paid through no fault of their own or their


Report cites quality-control problems with security clearance process

In its detached, bland, yet on-point way, the Government Accountability Office is letting folks know there are real problems with the government’s security clearance process. Time and again in testimony to a House subcommittee Wednesday, Brenda S. Farrell, a GAO director, emphasized the need for better quality control in a government where almost 5 million people, including contractors, have security clearances. Here’s what her report says: ●“Executive branch agencies do not consistently assess quality throughout the security clearance process.” ● ● Agencies “have not fully developed and implemented” measures of “quality in key aspects of the personnel security clearance process.” ● ●Agencies “do not have reasonable assurance that security clearance position designations are correct, which could compromise national security.” ●“A high-quality process is essential in order to minimize the risks of unauthorized disclosures of classified information.” Citing Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, leakers of classified information, and Aaron Alexis, the Washington Navy Yard contractor who gunned down 12 people before being shot dead by police, Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security counterterrorism and intelligence subcommittee, called for “reforms and rigorous oversight of the security clearance process. . . . It is vital that more is done to identify insider threats.” The problem, however, might not just be one of quality, but also one of quantity. The hearing didn’t focus on how much Uncle Sam makes secret and how many people it takes to keep those secrets. But when looking at ways to fix the security clearance process, it’s worth examining why there are so many secrets in the first place. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) did that during a Senate hearing two weeks ago. “Two problems,” he said at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing. “There’s way too much stuff that’s classified that . . . doesn’t need to be classified. And, number two, there’s way too many security clearances approved. So if you markedly increase the amount of material that doesn’t need to be classified, you have to increase the number of people that need to have access to it. So we need to address both problems.” The issue of too many secrets hasn’t received as much attention as the lapses in security, but there was some indication Wednesday that members of Congress are concerned about the growing number of people with security clearances. “These vast numbers grow year by year,” said


a makeshift cardboard bed in an African bus station. He took a 15-day trip through Iran and returned to tell friends that while Americans were regularly denounced by the mullahs, he himself had received warm and friendly welcomes from most ordinary Iranians. He hiked up as far as a base camp on Mount Everest. He was stranded in the Sudanese desert near Khartoum for two days with scant food and water when the train on which he was traveling stopped for reasons that are less than clear. He was riding through a Zambian game preserve once when the small rented car in which he was traveling turned a corner only to find two rhinoceroses and a cub rhino directly ahead and not looking pleased. “Back up,” Dr. Morton shouted to his driver, only to discover that a herd of elephants had suddenly come up behind them. Discreetly, the driver drove off the road and the animals wandered off. Alexander Lyall Morton was born Feb. 6, 1943, in New York and raised in Glen Rock, N.J. He graduated from Amherst College in 1965, then spent two years in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia. He went out on morning horse rides and, according to his sister, on several occasions greeted another rider — Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. Dr. Morton received a PhD in economics from Harvard in 1973 and then taught at Harvard Business School before being named special assistant to the chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board in Washington. He held other jobs and, in 1979, joined the ICC, leading an office working on the deregulation of trucking, railroad and bus industries. Many summers during his traveling years, Dr. Morton found time to relax at Orleans on Cape Cod, where his family had vacationed since his childhood. Survivors include his partner of 31 years, Thomas A. Pursley of Washington; a sister; and a brother. He rarely spoke about himself and never discussed in detail his reasons for retiring in mid-career as an economist to pursue a life of travel. But his sister said he was ready for a change, had the savings to and had done as much as he wished to in the field of transportation deregulation. To continue along the same path, would have been a case of “been there, done that,” she said. CORRECTION: This story has been revised to include Mr. Morton’s surviving partner, Thomas A. Pursley.


Breweries and bars turn Leesburg into the craft beer capital of Northern Virginia

flight of three beers) and find something you want to take home. Endres sells 32-ounce growlers instead of the usual 64-ounce jugs (“You don’t have to drink five beers back to back, especially if you open it by yourself”) for about $8 per fill. Everything is 20 percent off from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays during the growler happy hours. The grand opening was last Saturday, but Crooked Run remains a work in progress. “I’m still trying to get things together,” Endres says. “I just got barstools in a few weeks ago.” Barnhouse Brewing 13840 Barnhouse Pl., Leesburg. 703-675-8480. www.barnhousebrewery.com . Open one weekend a month. Next open days: Nov. 23-24. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Roger Knoell is living every homebrewer’s dream. Until a year ago, he was experimenting with pale ales, porters and pumpkin ales, making 20 gallons at a time at his home in Lucketts. “We were providing kegs to friends who had kegerators or were having parties,” he says. “Then people I didn’t know and had never heard of were calling me and saying, ‘Hey, I had your beer at so-and-so’s house. How could I get more of it?’ Brewing is a passion of mine, but then we realized we might be able to do something with this.” “This” is a new 1.5 barrel brewing system, which makes about 47 gallons of beer per batch. Knoell is taking the recipes he’s tweaked the past 18 years of homebrewing using local products, such as hops grown in his back yard, or honey and corn from Loudoun farms. The Good Gourd Almighty pumpkin ale gets its fresh flavor from pumpkins picked at the nearby Temple Hall farm, so while there’s some spice, there’s less of that sweet pumpkin pie taste that so many commercial brews have. Additionally, some porters and stouts are also aged in whiskey barrels from the Catoctin Creek distillery. Now there’s no way around this: It can be a bit weird to visit Barnhouse, which is essentially in the basement of the Knoells’ home. In the summer, visitors could picnic on the vast lawn behind the house, or play horseshoes and bocce. But in the winter, the taproom can be a little cramped, though there’s a fire pit outside. Loudoun County zoning laws mean that Barnhouse can be open only one weekend a month, using a “special event” permit. Knoell says recent open houses


Full transcript: President Obama’s Nov. 14 news conference on the Affordable Care Act

been less reported on, but it shouldn't be. You know, Americans who are having a difficult time, who are poor, many of them working, may have a disability, they're Americans like everybody else. And the fact that they are now able to get insurance is going to be critically important. Later today I'll be in Ohio, where Governor Kasich, a Republican, has expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and as many as 275,000 Ohioans will ultimately be better off because of it. And if every governor followed suit, another 5.4 million Americans could gain access to health care next year. So bottom line is in just one month, despite all the problems that we've seen with the website, more than 500,000 Americans could know the security of health care by January 1st, many of them for the first time in their lives. And that's life-changing, and it's significant. That still leaves about 1 million Americans who successfully made it through the website and now qualify to buy insurance but haven't picked a plan yet. And there's no question that if the website were working as it's supposed to, that number would be much higher of people who've actually enrolled. So that's problem number one, making sure that the website works the way it's supposed to. It's gotten a lot better over the last few weeks than it was on the first day, but we're working 24/7 to get it working for the vast majority of Americans in a smooth, consistent way. The other problem that has received a lot of attention concerns Americans who've received letters from their insurers that they may be losing the plans they bought in the old individual market, often because they no longer meet the law's requirements to cover basic benefits like prescription drugs or doctor's visits. Now, as I indicated earlier, I completely get how upsetting this can be for a lot of Americans, particularly after assurances they heard from me that if they had a plan that they liked they could keep it. And to those Americans, I hear you loud and clear. I said that I would do everything we can to fix this problem. And today I'm offering an idea that will help do it. Already people who have plans that pre-date the Affordable Care Act can keep those plans if they haven't changed. That was already in the law.


Wal-Mart’s new Price First brand recalls the starkly labeled groceries of ‘Lost,’ ‘Repo Man’

Price First is a private label line that Wal-Mart is testing in 400 stores nationwide. (Courtesy of My Private Brand) A lot of people like to bash Wal-Mart for a lot of reasons. But finally, cool folks have something to love about the behemoth retailer. It’s where the mind-bending Dharma Initiative from “Lost” meets the cult film “Repo Man.” Here’s the deal. Wal-Mart is test marketing an extreme-value basic brand that may stir a sort of empty nostalgia in anyone familiar with the starkly labeled generic products of decades past. Those who have ever made a meal of government cheese or peanut butter (as I have) would find a worthy condiment in Wal-Mart’s new Price First “real mayonnaise” or “pure strawberry preserves.” “It’s just kind of depressing to look at,” says Christopher Durham, a private brands expert whose blog broke the Price First news last week. He disapproves of its “ ’70s flashback design” and points out that the brand makes no claims of quality. “I don’t believe you have to be insulting to consumers to sell a product,” he says. But wait! Into every suffocating, soul-sucking moment in life, a glimmer of post-modern meta-nostalgia must shine. In the Price First brand, some cineastes detect a clear nod to the 1984 dystopian comedy “Repo Man,” set in Los Angeles and directed by Alex Cox. Take a look at the supermarket scene, in which Emilio Estevez is price-stickering cans of “yellow cling sliced peaches.” As the cost of living continues to climb, D.C. Councilman Kenyan McDuffie (D) talks about the importance of retailers paying a living wage in D.C. Except for reversal of the colors, the new white-on-blue Wal-Mart packaging is very close to the movie items’ look. (And these were not props but real comestibles from the L.A. supermarket chain Ralphs, according to Sam McPheeters, who wrote an essay on the film.) In the scene, Estevez’s stance against the indignity of low-wage oppression could be read as a Reagan generation cri de coeur that presages the movement that has been demanding, for example, that Wal-Mart and other big retailers pay a higher minimum wage. Or maybe it’s just a great movie. Durham, chief executive of a retail consultancy based in Omaha, noticed, too, that the Price First neo-generic approach resonates with another cult favorite, “Lost,” the now-defunct TV series. The Dharma Initiative was a hippie collective that wanted to create


suffocating, soul-sucking moment in life, a glimmer of post-modern meta-nostalgia must shine. In the Price First brand, some cineastes detect a clear nod to the 1984 dystopian comedy “Repo Man,” set in Los Angeles and directed by Alex Cox. Take a look at the supermarket scene, in which Emilio Estevez is price-stickering cans of “yellow cling sliced peaches.” As the cost of living continues to climb, D.C. Councilman Kenyan McDuffie (D) talks about the importance of retailers paying a living wage in D.C. Except for reversal of the colors, the new white-on-blue Wal-Mart packaging is very close to the movie items’ look. (And these were not props but real comestibles from the L.A. supermarket chain Ralphs, according to Sam McPheeters, who wrote an essay on the film.) In the scene, Estevez’s stance against the indignity of low-wage oppression could be read as a Reagan generation cri de coeur that presages the movement that has been demanding, for example, that Wal-Mart and other big retailers pay a higher minimum wage. Or maybe it’s just a great movie. Durham, chief executive of a retail consultancy based in Omaha, noticed, too, that the Price First neo-generic approach resonates with another cult favorite, “Lost,” the now-defunct TV series. The Dharma Initiative was a hippie collective that wanted to create a new perfect world, but it ended up not so utopian. (So I am told; never saw it.) The Price First products look eerily like the unapologetically sans-serif-labeled foodstuffs of the Dharma Initiative. Personally, as a veteran Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club shopper, I see no harm in going a step down to neo-generic. But as a marketing strategist, Durham is less convinced. “There is nothing retro-cool about it, nothing hipster about it, nothing fun about it,” he says. “CVS’s brand, Just the Basics, you aren’t embarrassed to put it in your cart. . . . If someone comes to your house, you wouldn’t hide it.” Wal-Mart confirmed the test-marketing. Customers in Alabama and Louisiana, among other states, are the first to try Price First. “I can tell you that it is a private label, and it is in 400 stores,” Danit Marquardt, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said Wednesday. It’s focused on basic items, such as condiments, sugar, spaghetti and paper towels. “I am not sure there is anything else to add,” she said. Sigh. And we were hoping for an exegesis on post-ironic consumer-focused design theory.


Ireland closes a chapter in the euro crisis with plans to end its bailout program next month

Protesters demonstrate outside the Irish Prime Minister’s office in 2010 after Europe and the I.M.F. announced a bailout for debt-ravaged Ireland. (Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images) Irish officials said on Thursday they will exit their international bailout program next month as scheduled, without the need for follow-up financing from the International Monetary Fund or elsewhere — a first step in ending the IMF’s controversial support for the 17-nation euro zone. “This is the right decision for Ireland, and now is the right time,” Irish leader Enda Kenny told the nation’s parliament. With a renewed financial buffer, lower borrowing costs and restored credibility in world markets, “like most other sovereign euro-zone countries, from 2014 we will be in a position to fund ourselves normally,” Kenny said. As of Dec. 15, the IMF will have paid out the last of a $110 billion loan that brought the country back from the brink of financial calamity after a banking collapse saddled the government with bills it could not pay. The announcement marks a moral victory for Ireland, which has struggled to bring its finances into line and rekindle a semblance of the tech-driven economic growth that led to its “Celtic Tiger” boom. It is welcome as well for the IMF as it begins extricating itself from a series of tumultuous euro zone bailouts that forced it to retool some of the most basic thinking about the economics of public rescue programs. Since an initial bailout of Greece in 2010, the IMF has battled against the perception that it was at once both too generous in lending money to a wealthy part of the world, and too strict in setting bailout terms that worsened the very economic problems it was meant to address. The approach changed over time as both the IMF and the leaders of other European nations — Germany in particular — acknowledged that their prescription for fast, deep cuts in public spending hadn’t worked. To have at least this one bailout project closed on time and without complication “bodes well,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in an e-mailed statement. “Ireland is in a strong position.” It’s not, however, in the midst of a new boom — nor is there much hope it will be pulled along by a resurgent euro zone. New data from the Eurostat statistics agency released on Thursday showed the currency bloc grew just 0.1 percent over the past


Washington National Opera gives young writers a chance to emerge

pieces were scored for a small ensemble — string quartet, flute, clarinet, horn, piano, percussion — that was led by one of the WNO program’s three mentors, the conductor Anne Manson, with angular and emphatic gestures. (The other two mentors are the composer Jake Heggie and the librettist Mark Campbell.) Length doesn’t have to be a limitation; plenty of contemporary composers write short operas, and some companies, like the local Urban Arias, specialize in them. The trick is finding a story short enough to be told well in miniature. On Wednesday, “Breaking” was the most successful in capturing a meaningful and dramatic vignette: a newscaster (Deborah Nansteel) trying to break into the business with meaningless local-interest stories is suddenly called on to cover a hostage situation and interview a young woman (Jacqueline Echols) just as she, on camera, learns that her brother has been killed. Gilbertson’s music referenced a range of styles, from the newscast-y intro to lyrical horn work to the genuinely moving transition from chaos to keening sorrow at the moment the deaths are announced. The main weakness was that Nansteel’s big aria came at the end of the piece, when the character was merely rehashing points the narrative had already made more effectively. “Duffy’s Cut” opened with the same kind of driven energy as “Breaking,” although its convoluted story, and overall musical language, were of a different place and time: 19th-century immigrant laborers have died during a cholera epidemic and are being buried without a trace (three of the characters are already dead). Though dramatically diffuse, the piece was luxuriously cast with two of the stars of the current Domingo-Cafritz young artists, Norman Garrett and Soloman Howard; and Bellor showed a flair for full-bodied operatic sound. “Uncle Alex” combined a number of the requisite dramatic situations: Only two members of an immigrant family survive the journey to America, and they almost can’t get off the boat due to a bureaucratic tangle. Nansteel, who had the lead in two of the three operas and carried both off with aplomb, was the immigrant mother. As the title character, a stranger who steps in to help her out, Christian Bowers showed a beautiful baritone voice. The evening certainly made a case for the current crop of WNO young artists, as well as for the flexibility that working on a smaller scale allows an opera company in actively encouraging new work.


‘Scandal’ recap: I thought I knew you

a woman! Fitz didn’t know that Rowan was Olivia’s father. The Operation Remington cover-up goes deeper than we thought. Olivia can’t let the Fitz Phone go to voicemail, which isn’t a surpise at all. Also not a surprise: Mama Pope is alive! I know I wasn’t the only one screaming “I knew it” at the TV (or Twitter). This is unbeknownst to the gladiators, working to find out what happened to Maya Lewis. Sadly, Harrison faded into the background of this episode. But then again, we didn’t really see much of Huck or Abby, whose main contribution to the storyline was the unsolicited hug she gave Olivia. I have a feeling that there’s a blooper reel somewhere of Kerry Washington and Darby Stanchfield bursting into laughter as Abby informs her boss that the embrace is not optional and leans in? The gladiator to watch, was of course, Quinn, whose Huck-y ambitions took a twisted turn. Poor Quinn should know that making out with Creepy Charlie is totally the kiss of death. And let’s not even talk about the glow she had when she strolled into the building to offer the security guard (who might have information about the flight that Fitz shot down) a drug-induced nap. Only she didn’t put him to sleep. She killed him. Quinn may be horrified, but someone is impressed as Charlie informs her that she now belongs to B613. This is bad. Very, very bad. Back at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Fitz licks his Livvie-won’t-forgive-me wounds, whole Mellie does an exhaustive interview and White House tour for a journalist who is not James? Mellie eventually convinces Fitz to get on board. “The least you could do is be my friend, even a little bit. The least you could do is show up. Show up for me.” Tear. Mellie proves once again why Fitz needs her in his corner. She and Cyrus narrow in on Sally, catering to her husband’s wandering eye, which they wrongly assume is cast on the ladies. The truth, which Sally appears to have accepted, was revealed as Daniel drunkenly flirted with James (who had just been fired from the job I never believed he had). Fitz looks into Rowan and realizes that he’s Olivia’s dad. The dad who knows that Olivia’s mother is alive and goes to visit her in a dark cell. Our gladiators will figure it out soon enough. Except


Retailers reinvent themselves in Washington to survive growth of online sales

In the age of Amazon, stores are trying to reinvent themselves, generally using one of two strategies: deliver products more quickly and nearly as cheaply as online sellers, or offer shopping experiences that entice people to visit their establishment and buy something. ¶ As Chris Weilminster, senior vice president of leasing for Federal Realty Investment Trust, puts it: “Those retailers where there is average service and very little experience, I think aren’t going to really be around.” Think Circuit City. Or Blockbuster. Meanwhile both dollar stores (discount) and Apple stores (experience) are faring quite well. ¶ At Federal Realty, one of the country’s biggest shopping center owners, Weilminster’s job requires that he scour the country for the next big thing in retail. Because Federal Realty is based in Rockville, he also has an intimate knowledge of how retail is being reshaped in Washington. He sees some long-term changes taking hold in area storefronts as competition with online sellers heats up. Fast-casual restaurant concepts such as Chipotle are quickly expanding in Washington. (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg) ‘Home meal replacement’ Serving meals with slightly better service and selection than the big fast food chains has turned into the $31 billion fast-casual restaurant category, born out of Americans’ desire to eat out, even in a flat economy, without having to say they are serving their families fast food. Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which opened its first restaurant in Arlington in 1986, has ridden the fast-casual wave, but now multiple brands are sprouting from every city. A Chicago company, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, offers 47 concepts. “You’ve got a group of executives that understands how to take concepts and understands how to execute them on a large scale,” Weilminster said. There are now more than 400 fast-casual concepts in all, with Panera Bread, Chipotle and Panda Express among the dominant players, but newer options such as Roti and Cava Mezze Grill are expanding locally, and with Washingtonians so short on time, Weilminster sees that continuing. “When I came home as a kid, there was always a meal on the table, now I don’t think that’s the case,” Weilminster said. “People are picking up meals on the way home — the home meal replacement.” Pirch, the high-end kitchen and bath store where shoppers can design their own house projects. Will it find its way here? (Courtesy of Pirch) Make-your-own everything It started with paint-your-own pottery


signals have been mothballed; giant space telescopes that could detect the presence of biological activity on distant planets have been canceled; even the recent hero of planet-hunting — the Kepler mission, a space telescope devoted exclusively to finding signals of Earth-like planets — has recently suffered a mechanical failure, causing it to stop its search early without the shining discovery of anything truly Earth-like. But Kepler gleaned the first hints — some of which were revealed this month — that we are on the verge of making those discoveries. ‘Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars’ by Lee Billings (Current. 294 pp. $27.95). (Penguin) On top of all of that, Drake’s equation forces one to contemplate the answer to a downer of a question: How long can a civilization last before it is destroyed? Billings weaves between our eventual destruction and our hope to avoid it in a way that makes the future and the past seem as real as the present. We are taken on a quick journey with Tom Murphy, an astronomer from San Diego, as he breezily contemplates how we might maintain our currently modest 2.3 percent annual increase in energy consumption. By 2287, we will need to have covered all of the Earth’s land with solar panels. If we then switched to nuclear power, we would have a few more centuries before “the waste heat from the vast amount of power being produced evaporated the oceans and turned Earth’s crust to a glowing slag.” On a walk around a lake in Pennsylvania, planetary scientist Jim Kasting contemplates the slowly warming sun and how it will eventually boil away the oceans. He muses that “intelligence has only now appeared at the halfway point in the Sun’s ten-billion-year lifetime, and it won’t be easy to hang around longer than another half-billion years.” As an antidote to this gloom, the physicists and astronomers around whom Billings spins his story remain dedicated to trying to find life among the stars and, perhaps, to joining it. Their fields are intensely competitive, with egos, personalities and rivalries often having a major impact on the scientific enterprise — just as with any other human endeavor — but it is they and their colleagues who have put us on the brink of being able to know just how rare or common in the cosmos planets like ours are. Their


Marine Corps fight escalates over handling of case involving troops urinating on corpses

Nearly two years after a video of U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of suspected Taliban fighters in Afghanistan became an Internet sensation, the case has triggered a rare and escalating fight over the way the military sought to punish the service members who were implicated. Maj. James Weirick, a Marine lawyer assigned to the case, is taking on the chief of the Marine Corps, Gen. James F. Amos, alleging that the criminal investigation was compromised after the commandant demanded harsh punishment for the suspects before they had their day in court. In response, Weirick says, the Marine Corps has retaliated by removing him from his job, seizing his personal weapons and ordering him to get a mental health evaluation — steps he and his supporters call character assassination. This week, Weirick took the fight a step further, charging in a complaint filed with the agency that oversees classification of secrets that senior Marine Corps officials improperly classified material that could have assisted defense attorneys for the Marines under investigation. The case could hardly come at a worse time for the military justice system, which has come under searing criticism from activists and lawmakers who contend that commanders often exert undue influence in criminal investigations, particularly those involving sexual assault. The urination scandal was among the embarrassing episodes for the Marine Corps during the last decade of war, calling into question the military’s ability to adequately investigate war crimes. Its muddled handling comes as Afghan officials are debating whether to support keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014, which would require Kabul to extend immunity from prosecution by the Afghan authorities to U.S. forces that remain behind. The military dropped its case against Capt. James V. Clement, the sole officer charged in the urination case in September, shortly before Weirick was to testify about his concerns. Three enlisted Marines who appear in the video have pleaded guilty to a range of charges that include wrongful possession of unauthorized photos of casualties and failure to report mistreatment of human casualties. Five other Marines received nonjudicial punishments. With the criminal cases over, Weirick says he is now in a struggle for his career and livelihood. “There won’t be a Weirick and an Amos in the Marine Corps at the end of this,” he said in an interview Friday night. “I’m not sure which one will remain, but it’s not clear we can


Wal-Mart resumes pursuit of Oxon Hill site

Wal-Mart has taken another step in its quest to open a Supercenter in Oxon Hill, about a mile from National Harbor. The chain has submitted an application to Prince George’s County for the construction of a 100,310-square-foot store on 15 acres of vacant land owned by the Peterson Cos. adjacent to John Hanson Montessori School, on Oxon Hill Road near Indian Head Highway. Wal-Mart pitched the plan two years ago, with the goal of opening the store this year, but the proposal was delayed in the planning approval process because County Council members had issues with the design. The chain worked to redesign the store to address concerns about traffic and safety from council members and residents who said the proposed store was too close to the school. The council passed legislation last year limiting the size of big-box stores with groceries to 85,000 square feet, so Wal-Mart is seeking an exception. The proposal is one of several Wal-Mart is pursuing as it quickly expands in the Washington region. The chain, which has about 30 stores in the area, is planning six stores in the District, two of which will open this year, company officials said. Wal-Mart operates three stores in Prince George’s and also wants to build one at the Duvall Village Center in Bowie. The site plan for that store is under review. The proposed Oxon Hill site is surrounded by mostly single-family housing, in a growing area of the county close to the National Harbor resort and the Tanger Outlets, set to open Friday. The Wal-Mart would have a full-size grocery and bring 300 jobs to southern Prince George’s, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said. The store would feature a brick-and-stone facade with a glass atrium entrance. As proposed, it would be close to the road to create an “urban” feel, with easy pedestrian access, according to Wal-Mart. “We think our store will be an anchor for the vision for Oxon Hill Road as a retail destination, and we look forward to providing the local community with convenient shopping options that include fresh, affordable food and a wide assortment of general merchandise,” Henneberg said. Andre Gingles, an attorney for the project, said some design changes were made to address concerns raised by parents and county officials. The revised plan moves the store’s access point to Clipper Way instead of Oxon Hill Road. The building also would be constructed


U.S. government shutdown stalls Antarctic research

trucks, cook food, run drills, clean dorms and set up field camps were canceled by the shutdown, and it’s too late to get the 28 project teams back into Antarctica for the brief summer period, when the weather is warm enough to allow field research. Untold sums of money have been wasted, graduate student careers have been upended and now Priscu and others are wondering about the future, with next year’s budget sequestration looming. For climate researchers, the shutdown continues to reverberate, long after most people have moved on. “I couldn’t believe it,” Priscu said in an interview last week. “The waste, and my students who came on and trusted me and trusted the federal funding. I had to tell them: ‘Sorry guys, this is just the way it is.’ ” In an Oct. 28 news release, the National Science Foundation, which gave Priscu a three-year $10.5 million grant to conduct his research, said that 28 of the 77 projects scheduled for this winter at McMurdo Station in Antarctica have been canceled. The shutdown forced the agency to send home everyone not essential to preserving safety and property at McMurdo, the NSF said. “They are scientists themselves,” Priscu said of the NSF. “They had to remove good science from the field. And it must have killed them.” Priscu had received word 10 days earlier in an e-mail from his NSF project manager, Lisa Clough. “Because the [U.S. Antarctic Program] went into caretaker status, there will not be 1) enough time, and 2) sufficient support to prepare for the upcoming field deployment,” Clough wrote. Priscu’s team of 19 scientists and graduate students from 13 institutions was scheduled to fly to Antarctica in December. Drillers and others from the team of 37 — it was 45 before last year’s sequestration cuts — were scheduled to arrive in early October and begin setting up. But lining up personnel to supply McMurdo and work in Antarctica takes many months of planning. When they were sent home or turned around in Christchurch, New Zealand, Los Angeles and elsewhere, it set back operations so much that some projects had to be terminated. “We were probably an easy selection to cut because it was a big, complicated project that takes a lot of resources, and they had to cut somewhere,” said John Sherve, project manager in Montana for WISSARD. Some people are still being paid but not


This Black Friday, new retail areas look to food, music, luxury brands for help

away in the outskirts of town. Luxury retailers, he said, have been eager to open up shop in the area, especially because of proximity to the Gaylord National, a sprawling resort and convention center managed by Marriott International. “The younger crowd especially, they’re very excited for the mall to open,” said Romona Poteat, who lives in Oxon Hill and has been hired to work at the Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store. “I don’t have my schedule yet, but I know I’ll definitely be shopping there that first week.” Tanger Outlets, which oversees 43 outlet malls throughout the country, has managed to weather the economic downturn. Funds from operations, a key measure for real estate investment trusts, have been rising steadily at the Greensboro, N.C.-based company. During the most recent quarter, funds rose 34 percent to $56.19 million. “Our business model has really sustained itself over the years,” Tanger said. “In good times, people love a bargain. And in tough times like these, they need a bargain.” Community hub Instead of focusing on door-buster deals, Merrifield’s Mosaic District is helping customers solve more elusive holiday dilemmas: Wine pairings, tea and cookie selections, and artisanal hostess gifts. Since its ope “We obviously don’t think people are going to go to Neiman Marcus or Anthropologie every day,” said Jess Bruner, vice president of leasing for Edens, which oversees Mosaic. “In addition to boutique shopping, we have a grocery store, butcher shop and fish market. We want this to be a community hub where people can come every day.” The first step, Bruner says, was securing art house theater Angelika Film Center. There are also a variety of fast-casual eateries such as Taylor Gourmet and Cava Grille, as well as specialty shops, an eye doctor and an Eagle Bank branch. “There was a real need for a mix of national and local brands,” Bruner said. “This is the most educated place in the country but the retail and merchandise level has been very mediocre, frankly.” Mosaic will host Christmas tree lighting ceremony Dec. 1 and screen weekly movies in the park. There will also be holiday carriage rides and photos with Santa, as well as discounts for Small Business Saturday. Last year, during its first Christmas, retailers offered discounts and sales, but Bruner said there were fewer stores — and no restaurants. Now, with 10 new eateries, the shopping center has become a place


Capitol Riverfront, Tysons Corner seeing plenty of retail interest

stores in the District. The first one will open in 2017 at 800 New Jersey Ave. SE in the ground floor of an apartment building that breaks ground next year. And most recently the retailer leased approximately 38,000 square feet at 600 H Street NE, a project being developed by Insight Property Group and the Lionstone Group. When the two stores open, Whole Foods will have six in the District and at least 18 in the Washington area. The new Whole Foods in the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood will have plenty of neighbors. Construction has been booming, and Harris Teeter is set to anchor a new 88,000-square-foot development at the Yards. Retailers tend to follow rooftops, and growth is the name of the game in the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District, where more than 700,000 square feet is either under construction or proposed for development. In addition to high-growth zones in the District, retail developers are also looking to capitalize on the extension of the Silver Line and have begun to build in earnest along its path. Tysons Corner already has one of the highest retail concentrations in the region with more than 5.5 million square feet. The two malls, Tysons Corner Center and Tysons Galleria, make up a large portion of existing stock, but retailers are looking for more. Tysons Corner Center is adding another 50,000 square feet, while 250,000 square feet of retail is being built at Tysons West, a new development near the Spring Hill Metro Station. With all this new construction, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that Tysons is in for a spike in retail vacancy, but so far demand has been resilient. Vacancies currently hover around 1 percent, among the lowest in the area, but rents have not grown in the past 12 months. There is a lot retailers like about the D.C. market with its growing population of educated, affluent and employed consumers. Like the apartment market, it is expected to continue to grow. However, unlike the apartment market, retail rents in the Washington area are still well below their pre-recession peaks. So while D.C. residents can look forward to new, health-conscious grocery stores, landlords are also looking forward to healthy rent growth in the not-too-distant future. Connor Bevans and Maeve Gallagher are real estate economists and Jeff Myers is a senior real estate economist with CoStar Group. Please see www.costar.com for more information.


Two tiger cubs make debut at National Zoo

Two tiger cubs make their debut at the National Zoo. Two Sumatran tiger cubs made their public debut Monday at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. The three-month-old cubs, named Sukacita and Bandar, were on exhibit for a little more than an hour and a half, starting about 10 a.m. “They were out and playful in the yard,” said Annalisa Meyer, a zoo spokeswoman. Even as visitors were enjoying the cubs’ antics, zoo staffers were dealing with an unusual emergency in a different part of the zoo. A young gazelle was found dead, apparently having sustained fatal injuries when it was spooked by noises from an adjacent enclosure and ran into a barrier wall. The noises were coming from the zebra habitat, where a male zebra had bitten a veteran zookeeper multiple times. The zoo keeper was taken to a hospital for treatment. Sukacita and Bandar were born to the zoo’s adult female tiger, Dumai, on the evening of August 5. They were her first litter. The cubs will be on public display daily, with the amount of time depending on the weather, zoo officials said. Two 3-month-old Sumatran tiger cubs made their public debut Monday morning at the Smithsonian National Zoo. Sumatran tigers are listed as critically endangered: Only 400 to 500 exist in the wild. And there are only 65 in accredited zoos in North America. Before they were cleared to go outside, Sukacita and Bandar, took a swim test to prove they could keep their heads above water and climb onto dry land. Zoo visitors are still waiting to get their first live glimpse of the new giant panda cub, who was born August 23, less than three weeks after the tigers. The zoo is conducting a naming contest for the panda cub and expects to reveal the winning name Dec. 1, when she will be 100 days old. Two 13-week old Sumatran tiger cubs at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C. meet the media for the first time. Then, Sukacita and Bandar take a swim test, proving they can keep their heads above water and climb onto dry land.


Zebra bites staffer at National Zoo; scared gazelle runs into barrier and dies

A Grevy's zebra walks in his enclosure at the National Zoo in Washington on Monday. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) A young gazelle died at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo on Monday , apparently from injuries sustained when it ran into a barrier. Zoo officials said the animal seemed to have been spooked by noises coming from a nearby enclosure, where a zebra had attacked a zoo keeper. The unlikely series of events began around 8:45 a.m., the zoo said in a statement, when 10-year-old male zebra named Gumu bit a veteran keeper multiple times. The keeper, whose name was not released, was “definitely bleeding,” but conscious and talking as he was taken to a local hospital for treatment, said Annalisa Meyer, a zoo spokeswoman. Officials said the keeper was in an enclosure with Gumu and two other male zebras, Moyo and Domo, when Gumu started to bite him. Officials are trying to determine why the keeper was inside the enclosure with the animals, which is a violation of zoo procedures. The incident occurred out of public view. About 11:15 a.m., a Dama gazelle named Tony was found dead inside his enclosure, next to where the zebras are located. Initial necropsy result indicate that the gazelle had fractured a vertebrae. “The gazelle was likely spooked by the incident between the keeper and the zebra and ran into the barrier,” Meyer said. Gumu, the zebra who bit the keeper, was also upset by the incident, and was being kept out of public view for the day while things returned to normal. Moyo and Domo remain on display, however. The zebras are housed in an area known as the Cheetah Conservation Station, which is a holding facility for juvenile males and young stallions. No breeding or birth takes place in that area. Meyer said zoo officials are “trying to figure out what would have caused” to cause the keeper to be inside the enclosure . The bulk of the animals at the zoo are managed through mesh fencing. When they are fed, they are moved from stalls or holding areas while their food is placed inside. The keeper then leaves the enclosure, and the animals are shifted back into the area with the food, said Pamela Baker-Masson, also a zoo spokeswoman. Baker-Masson said that the zoo has managed its herd of Grévy’s zebras for more than 20 years, and that “we’ve never had any incident.” At


The truth and mysteries of Lyme disease: How to diagnosis it and where it is found

is a compilation of everything I’ve discovered about Lyme disease,” he begins, describing himself as a “medical detective.” And whatever else one might say about this book, it certainly offers enough material to give you an opinion. Beginning at the beginning — with “I remember the first time that I ever heard about Lyme disease. It was a beautiful spring day . . . in 1987” — he fills 532 pages (including 55 pages of references and appendices) with the story of his career, scores of charts and discussions of symptoms and conditions, and lengthy case studies rendered in novelistic detail. (“Dr. H, you must be a psychic,” a patient identified as Mrs. Q says during a 14-page “sample consultation.”) You can decide for yourself what to make of The Horowitz Sixteen-Point Differential Diagnostic Map or The Horowitz Lyme-MSIDS (multiple systemic infectious disease syndrome) Questionnaire — three pages of questions that let you “determine the probability of a Lyme-MSIDS diagnosis for yourself.” With a certain hubris, Horowitz concludes his book by saying, “You are now empowered to take control of your health.” People who believe they suffer from “chronic Lyme” or another mysterious illness that traditional doctors fail to recognize or manage may find comfort and perhaps ideas for treatments. Skeptics, however, are unlikely to be convinced. LYme #2 But does it exist south of the Mason-Dixon line? ‘Southern Gothic,’ Discover magazine, December issue There’s no controversy about this: In the Northeast, Lyme is endemic and is commonly spread by blacklegged ticks. But reporter Wendy Orent describes a more problematic situation in the South, where Lymelike symptoms are widely reported but never identified as Lyme. Many researchers believe the copycat disease — officially called STARI, for Southern tick-associated rash illness — is spread by the aggressive lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum. Orent cites experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as believing that STARI is “relatively benign, presenting only with the rash and flulike symptoms of early Lyme.” But researchers such as Kerry Clark — a medical entomologist who came down with Lymelike symptoms himself in Georgia — say the CDC should change its stance to encourage medical professionals to provide the appropriate care. “Because few doctors recognize their illness, they say, they are treated too late or not at all, and are allowed to slide into chronic illness as debilitating as untreated Lyme disease in the North.”


Soldier: Minneapolis man ordered Nazi-led attack

BERLIN — The June investigation by AP prompted official investigations in Poland and Germany. On Monday, the prosecutor leading Germany’s probe revealed that he will recommend that state prosecutors pursue murder charges against 94-year-old Michael Karkoc. Thomas Will, the deputy head of the special prosecutor’s office that investigates Nazi crimes, said he had made his decision even before seeing the new testimony that Karkoc ordered his unit to attack the Polish village of Chlaniow. AP’s initial investigation found that Karkoc entered the United States in 1949 without disclosing to American authorities his role as a commander in the SS-led Ukrainian Self-Defense Legion, which is accused of torching villages and killing civilians in Poland. A newly unearthed investigative file from the Ukrainian intelligence agency’s archive reveals that a private under Karkoc’s command testified in 1968 that Karkoc ordered the assault on Chlaniow in retaliation for the slaying of an SS major. The major, killed by resistance fighters, led the Ukrainian Self-Defense Legion, in which Karkoc was a company commander. A German roster of the unit confirms that Pvt. Ivan Sharko,a Ukrainian, served under Karkoc’s command at the time. An initial order was given by a separate officer, Sharko testified, before Karkoc told his unit to attack the village. Karkoc’s son and family spokesman, Andriy Karkos, has denied that his father was involved in the Chlaniow incident or any other possible war crime. “There is no record that Karkoc had a hand in any war crimes,” Karkos wrote. “He did nothing wrong. He never lied. He’s not afraid of the truth.” Germany has in recent years taken the position that people suspected of Nazi crimes must be prosecuted, no matter how old or infirm, as it did in the case of retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk, who died last year at age 91 while appealing his conviction as a guard at the Sobibor death camp. — Associated Press


Washington today could use a dose of Reagan’s pragmatism

depicting a fictional nuclear attack on Lawrence, Kan., drew what was then the second-largest audience in history for a single television program. Reagan wrote in his diary that the film left him “greatly depressed.” In this climate of tension, British intelligence received information from a spy in the KGB, Oleg Gordievsky, that Soviet leaders were growing paranoid about a possible attack. The warning was passed to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and then to Reagan. They met in September, and Thatcher found Reagan worried that “the Russians seem paranoid about their own security.” In early November 1983, NATO conducted a nuclear command post exercise in Europe, a simulation of preparations leading to war, known as Able Archer 83, which may have been misinterpreted by the Soviets as real preparation for an attack. Some Soviet military units went on higher alert. Recently, the National Security Archive at George Washington University has published documents that offer insights about those tense days. The Nuclear Information Service, based in the United Kingdom, also has unearthed fresh materials, which suggest high-level concern, expressed by Thatcher and others, about whether the Soviets possibly misinterpreted Able Archer. The full story is not yet known; much of the actual intelligence reporting remains classified, but the archives point toward a conclusion that the war scare was real. It led Reagan to conclude, as he described in his diary and memoirs, that the Soviet leaders may have been more paranoid and fearful of the West than he first realized. Reagan was rigid in his beliefs, but when circumstances presented him with new information, he changed. He never again called Moscow an “evil empire.” A few years later, Reagan negotiated the elimination of an entire class of nuclear-armed missiles with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. There are lessons here for all who lay claim to leadership in our poisonous and bitterly contested political world today: Take a page from Reagan’s pragmatism. His convictions were strong, but he was able to acknowledge change and recognize his own flawed assumptions. We could use some of that common sense. Read more about this issue: Anne Applebaum: Edward Snowden adds to U.S., Russia chill Stephen F. Cohen: How Obama can avert another Cold War Katrina vanden Heuvel: A new Cold War? Kenneth M. Pollack: Iran deal doesn’t have to be perfect, just better than the alternatives Ray Takeyh: The U.S. has the upper hand in nuclear negotiations


Tesla Model S cars under probe for possible defect that can cause fire

The NHTSA said it would open an investigation into whether a safety defect had caused fires in the undercarriages of two Tesla Model S cars after they struck road debris. A Tesla Motors Model S electric vehicle is seen in Tokyo. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg) The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it will investigate whether a safety defect caused Tesla cars to catch on fire after striking road debris. The probe, which was announced Tuesday on the agency’s Web site, involves more than 13,000 Tesla Model S electric vehicles. On Tuesday morning, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk — anxious that fear of fire could dent sales of the cars just as they are starting to gain traction — posted a blog item saying that the company would amend its warranty to cover damage caused by fire “even if due to driver error.” He added that “unless a Model S owner actively tries to destroy the car, they are covered.” Musk also said the company had asked the NHTSA to investigate the car in order to debunk safety fears, though agency Administrator David Strickland told reporters that he was “not aware of Tesla making a request of the agency to open a formal investigation.” The investigation will zero in on two accidents in October and November involving Tesla’s Model S, which aced NHTSA crash tests and is being marketed as “the safest car in America.” Two cars, one in Tennessee and one in Washington state, caught fire after they ran over metal objects that punctured the cars’ lithium-ion battery packs, which are mounted underneath the vehicle. A third fire, in Mexico on Oct. 18, followed a high-speed crash. The drivers were not injured. The fires have stirred concerns among investors, who have driven the lofty price of Tesla stock down considerably. The stock, which started the year selling for less than $34 a share, has been as high as $193.37. At midday Tuesday, the shares had climbed to $127.19 apiece, up about 4.5 percent. If an investigation were to lead to a recall, it would be a setback for Tesla, which sold about 5,500 cars in the third quarter. Fires in lithium-ion batteries have also been the focus of other investigations, including reviews of General Motors’ Chevy Volt and the Boeing Dreamliner aircraft. Deutsche Bank analyst Dan Galves said in a note to investors that he “would have found it unusual for


What’s the perfect baby name? For a panda or a human, ask the Internet.

night after a recent illness. Will picking the baby up develop bad habits? Should they make her cry it out? “wanting hyou at night is a bad habit???” one commenter helpfully responded. “Personally, i could not stand it,” chimed in another. “T hey are little only once.” But most of the advice is more measured, thoughtful and empathetic. And the real benefit of crowdsourcing parenting advice is that you can quickly access someone who’s been in your exact position, which may not be true of the folks within your close social circle. “The nature of the audience is that they don’t have a lot of local family,” says Jeff Steele, who runs the D.C. site with his wife, Maria Sokurashvili. “We’re a perfect example. My family is in Illinois, my wife’s family is in Europe. So the people you’d normally turn to for questions — like your mom — you can’t do that easily. So you turn to online communities.” Steele says that having kids — confounding little creatures that they are — can be the great equalizer. “We have a lot of parents who have very important roles in life, but they have as much trouble getting their 1-year-old to sleep as parents with less-impressive jobs,” he says. “People just have a need to communicate about something. And in our environment, you are able to do it with some security — knowing you can do it anonymously. So you can feel free to say something stupid or ask a stupid question.” Unless that question is, “Should I name my baby Brayden?” In which case the Internet will slap you down before you’ve finished typing “a-y-d-e-n.” “Beyond horrible. Should be illegal. Blech. Eeeyoooore,” one commenter posted on the site Behind the Name. Luckily for Mei Xiang, that name is not on the ballot. The zoo’s newest panda will be Ling Hua, a name that means “delicate flower”; Mulan, the title character of a Disney movie based on the adventures of a fifth-century Chinese warrior; Bao Bao, which translates to “precious”; Zhen Bao, which means “treasure”; or Long Yun, representing a Chinese dragon and meant to symbolize luck for cooperative U.S.-China panda relations. Whatever moniker the adorable cub winds up with will inevitably be deemed horrible and perfect and exactly right and all wrong. Here’s hoping the zoo’s WiFi doesn’t work that day, so Mei Xiang can tune it all out.


New Iran sanctions not likely while nuclear talks still in progress, key senators say

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) talks with reporters Tuesday at the White House after a meeting on Iran. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images) Lawmakers acknowledged Tuesday that they were unlikely to impose new economic sanctions on Iran while sensitive nuclear talks are underway, removing a potential obstacle to a diplomatic settlement that U.S. officials say could come within days. The decision to delay action on new sanctions came as a new Washington Post-ABC News poll showed widespread approval for a deal with Iran, even if that deal means lifting some of the economic restrictions that have helped force Iran to the negotiating table. A bipartisan group of senators emerged from a two-hour White House meeting saying there would likely be no vote this week on proposed new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil industry. Still, some lawmakers continue to push to ratchet up the pressure on Iran, despite warnings that such a move could prompt the country’s representatives to abandon international negotiations scheduled to resume Wednesday in Geneva. “People are concerned that we’re giving up some leverage,” Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters after the White House meeting. The agreement to delay a sanctions vote came as diplomats from the United States, Iran and five other countries arrived in Geneva for the start of potentially decisive negotiations on the future of Iran’s nuclear program. Diplomats — after coming close to a deal two weeks ago — are seeking to finalize what U.S. officials describe as a first step in a comprehensive agreement on permanent limits to Iran’s nuclear capabilities. The planned initial stage would require Iran to freeze key parts of its nuclear program in return for modest, temporary relief from some of the economic sanctions that have decimated the country’s economy over the past two years. But the plan has drawn harsh criticism from Israel as well as many prominent members of Congress who oppose any relief from sanctions without more sweeping concessions from Iran. The Obama administration has defended the proposed phased approach as a necessary confidence-building step leading to a broader deal. White House officials say the bulk of the sanctions against Iran would remain in place until Iran agreed to limits that would essentially prevent it from ever using its nuclear facilities to build atomic bombs. Iranian officials have insisted their nuclear program is solely for peaceful, energy-producing purposes. “The president made


Saudi Arabia must be transparent to fight MERS virus

SLOWLY OVER the past year, a novel respiratory virus has claimed victims in the Middle East, primarily in Saudi Arabia. It comes from a species known as coronavirus, which, through an electronic microscope, looks like a spiky blob. The virus has been named Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), of the 157 laboratory-confirmed cases since September 2012, 66 people have died. It is not uncommon for humans and animals to exchange dangerous pathogens. In the past decade, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, also a coronavirus, rose out of China, perhaps from bats; the swine flu pandemic originated in Mexico; and avian flu has remained an ever-present threat to humans. What’s most important about these diseases is whether they are transmissible from human to human. It turned out that SARS and swine flu spread quickly among people. Transfer from animals is also suspected in MERS; reports have pointed to bats and camels as possible sources. But there is a big puzzle: Many of the people who came down with MERS were not exposed to bats or camels. So far, close contact between humans seems to provide some means of transmission, although it is still not clear how readily. The fear is that if the virus did become easily transmissible, it could spread fast and be fatal to many. A study published this month in the Lancet Infectious Diseases carried some unsettling findings about MERS. The study, by an international team, suggested that many cases are being missed, perhaps because they are not severe. The researchers estimated that 62 percent of the cases with human symptoms may not have been diagnosed as MERS. “We conclude that a slowly growing epidemic is underway,” they said, adding that it is not yet clear whether transmission is self-sustaining from human to human. A second, separate study concluded that it is not. Still, the WHO found that when the virus pops up in communities, clusters of illness develop in families and then it spreads in health-care facilities when a sick person is admitted. The behavior of this virus is a matter of concern to the world. Much is unknown, and much will depend on Saudi Arabia, which has reported a steady stream of cases, including 53 of the deaths so far. There are rumblings of worry among public health experts about the lack of good research coming from


O Street Market: Symbol of violence becomes a marker for D.C.’s resurgence

a notorious mass shooting in 1994, and a luxury development is going up. “There were just bodies falling everywhere,” a man at the deli counter said afterward. For the next two decades, the market in Northwest Washington was a symbol of urban decay and dysfunction. The vendors bailed out. The roof collapsed. The shell of the historic structure, built in 1881, was vandalized. And then, in 2001, three developers who believed that Shaw would find its way back bought the symbol of the drug wars and waited for the right moment, which they believe begins this week. ‘All new, for new people’ You can see the gleaming, restored roof of the O Street Market from the top of the new City Market at O, a 645-unit apartment complex with a 182-room hotel and 86,000 square feet of retail. The development unveils its first phase Thursday with the opening of a new Giant, the city’s biggest supermarket, “the perfect homage to the O Street Market,” as the ad from Roadside Development puts it. A rooftop dog run — “We have daughters,” developer Richard Lake explains, “so we liked the idea that if you don’t want to go out late at night, you could walk the dog on the roof” — is adjacent to a dog wash, which is around the corner from the infinity lap pool and the dance floor and the poker tables and the den where book clubs can meet and the demonstration kitchen where top chefs will stage cooking classes. (You’ll have to go downstairs for the yoga room, cardio room, weight room and massage therapy room.) A 550-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment rents for about $2,700 a month. City Market has already rented 75, sight unseen. “It looks great,” Simmons says, looking across the street from Beauty Town, where he still works. “All new, for new people, people with money. All our customers are gone. Can’t get mad at the people who are gonna live there — they worked hard for it and now they get to spend it.” (The Washington Post) The developers are not alien to this place. Lake’s grandparents owned corner grocery stores a few blocks away, and his uncle worked in the stalls at O Street Market. Roadside’s three partners have heard the complaints from some longtime black residents who say they are being systematically pushed out of Shaw, or at least priced out. The


U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke to step down, rejoin family in Seattle

The former governor of Washington and commerce secretary announces that he will be stepping down from the Beijing post in 2014 to rejoin his family in Seattle. The first U.S. ambassador to China of Chinese descent, Locke’s low-key, unassuming attitude charmed the Chinese populace. BEIJING — Locke, the first Chinese American to hold the Beijing post, might be best remembered in China for a photograph taken even before he arrived in 2011 that shows him with his young daughter at the Seattle airport, wearing a backpack and trying to pay for coffee with a coupon. The image circulated widely on social media, with many Chinese concluding that Locke, who was also seen flying economy class, was much more down-to-earth and less reliant on publicly funded luxuries than their own officials. The biggest tests Locke faced as ambassador came in 2012. In February, a high-profile police chief in the southwestern city of Chongqing sought refuge in a U.S. consulate. Two months later, a blind human rights activist escaped from house arrest and sought sanctuary at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Locke’s greatest achievement may have been cutting waiting times for U.S. visas to three to five days, down from 70 to 100 days when he took over. Locke said the improvement had “significantly increased Chinese business and travel tourism to the U.S.” Douglas Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said Locke should be applauded for the visa progress. At the same time, he said, it was “not evident” that the ambassador had a grand strategic vision for the U.S.-China relationship. Gary Locke, nominated to be next U.S. ambassador to China, talks to Post editor Lillian Cunningham about the leadership imperative for US-Chinese relations. Locke suffered somewhat for his Chinese heritage, something that did not necessarily boost his authority with officials here, Paal said. “That plays well in the United States but doesn’t translate in the host environment. They don’t treat you as an equal in China.” The first major diplomatic standoff during Locke’s tenure involved police chief Wang Lijun, who gave the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, near Chongqing, information about the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, unleashing one of China’s biggest political scandals in decades. The case eventually led to the life imprisonment of Chongqing’s leader, Bo Xilai, on corruption charges. In April, just days before then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton


Going to Mars: Billionaire Dennis Tito plans manned mission with possible 2017 launch

his way into space, buying a seat on a Russian rocket. Now he’s pitching Inspiration Mars as a national priority for the United States. Grab this rare chance to go to Mars quickly or risk seeing China or Russia get there first, he told members of Congress. Tito mentioned a backup plan that would offer Inspiration Mars four more years of development time. Another alignment of planets in 2021 offers a second chance to go to Mars fairly quickly, but the journey would last 80 days longer and require that the astronauts fly much closer to the sun, within the orbit of Venus, in one portion of the trip. That would add to the already considerable radiation hazards. When Tito broached the idea of Inspiration Mars early this year, he thought he could use primarily private rockets and minimize the need for NASA involvement. But the feasibility study led Tito back to NASA. NASA is building a jumbo rocket, the Space Launch System, that is supposed to be ready for its inaugural, uncrewed test flight in 2017. The second launch, carrying a crew in NASA’s new Orion capsule for the first time, isn’t scheduled until 2021. Tito’s plan would essentially borrow the SLS for the Mars mission, if NASA agreed. And NASA would have to pay for a lot of this. Tito described Inspiration Mars as a “philanthropic partnership with government.” He said private donors would probably give about $300 million for the mission, and the government would need to provide about $700 million — in addition to the money NASA is already spending, under current programs, on rocket and spacecraft development. NASA reacted coolly to Tito’s proposal. “Inspiration Mars’s proposed schedule is a significant challenge due to life support systems, space radiation response, habitats and the human psychology of being in a small spacecraft for over 500 days,” spokesman David Weaver said in a statement. “The agency is willing to share technical and programmatic expertise with Inspiration Mars but is unable to commit to sharing expenses with them. However, we remain open to further collaboration as their proposal and plans for a later mission develop.” Tito’s Inspiration Mars Foundation released a feasibility study Wednesday that described the proposed mission architecture, which includes using the new Cygnus spacecraft developed by Dulles, Va.,-based Orbital Sciences. The technological challenges of sending people to Mars, keeping them alive and returning them safely to


D.C. news in brief

Tavern license restrictions lifted in Georgetown For the first time in nearly 20 years, restrictions are temporarily lifted on tavern licenses in the Georgetown Historic District. Late last month, the number of taverns in Georgetown fell to five — one less than a legislative cap of six — after the license for Saloun, previously located at 3239 M St. NW, was canceled. The club had failed to renew it. Georgetown taverns can now apply to transfer alcoholic beverage licenses to new owners and new locations, and restaurants in the area can apply for a tavern or nightclub license. Applications must be filed with the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration for final consideration by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. A 1994 law freezes the transfer or sale of tavern and nightclub licenses in the historic district when there are six or more taverns and nightclubs licensed in the area. There are no nightclubs currently licensed in Georgetown. For information, go to abra.dc.gov. Conference at Howard deals with society’s reaction to HIV The 2013 International Stigma Conference, a symposium on the stigmatization of people with HIV/AIDS, will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday at the Howard University Blackburn Center, 2400 Sixth St. NW. The keynote speakers will be Jeanne White Ginder, mother of Ryan White, and Darius Mans, president and chief executive of Africare. Other speakers include national and international community activists, government representatives and scientists. The Coalition for Elimination of AIDS-related Stigma, a group based at Howard, is organizing the event. Ticket prices range from $10 for students to $40 for physicians and medical researchers. For information or to register, go to www.whocanyoutell.org/2013-conference . Parks department seeks feedback on fee proposals The D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation is having three public meetings for comment on proposed changes to the department’s permit fees and regulations. The department is seeking feedback on changing its permit fees from a flat rate to an hourly rate and proposed fee-based permits for applicants who charge their participants admissions or fees for activities. The office plans to establish clear guidelines, consistent with District law, for commercial uses of its parks and other facilities, such as fundraising activities and food and beverage sales. The meetings are from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Emery Recreation Center, 5801 Georgia Ave. NW; 6:30 to 8 p.m. Monday at Deanwood Recreation Center, 1350 49th St. NE; and 6:30 to


Presidential Medal of Freedom honors diverse group of Americans

to 2001, later “established the Clinton Foundation to improve global health, strengthen economies, promote health and wellness, and protect the environment,” the White House said. Winfrey, 59, renowned as a broadcast journalist and actress, was recognized for her long involvement in philanthropic causes and efforts to expand opportunities for young women. She has won numerous other honors during her career, including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2011 and a Kennedy Center Honor in 2010. Other awardees Wednesday included Daniel Kahneman, a pioneering scholar of psychology; Richard G. Lugar, a former Republican senator from Indiana; Loretta Lynn, a country music star; Mario Molina, a chemist and environmental scientist; Arturo Sandoval, a jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer originally from Cuba; Dean Smith, head coach of the University of North Carolina basketball team from 1961 to 1997; Gloria Steinem, a renowned feminist writer, magazine founder and activist for women’s rights; Cordy Tindell “C.T.” Vivian, a civil rights leader, minister and author; and Patricia Wald, a trailblazing federal judge who later served on the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. In honoring Kahneman, who applied cognitive psychology to economic analysis and won a Nobel Prize in economics in 2002, Obama drew laughter when he said: “Now, all of us have moments when we look back and wonder, what the heck was I thinking? I have that -- quite a bit.” He said Kahneman “basically invented the study of human decision-making,” adding: “He has also been called an expert on irrational behavior, so I’m sure that he could shed some light on Washington.” Obama noted that Bradlee served in the Navy during World War II and fought in more than a dozen Pacific battles. “Since joining The Washington Post 65 years ago, he transformed that newspaper into one of the finest in the world,” Obama said. “And with Ben in charge, The Post published the Pentagon Papers, revealing the true history of America’s involvement in Vietnam, exposed Watergate, unleashed a new era of investigative journalism, holding America’s leaders accountable and reminding us that our freedom as a nation rests on our freedom of the press.” Referring to Bradlee’s trademark banker shirts, Obama remarked: “And I also indicated to Ben, he can pull off those shirts, and I can’t. He always looks so cool in them.” Honoring Winfrey, the president noted that early in her career, “her bosses told her she should change her name