Calvert officials warn of synthetic marijuana

controlled dangerous substance, although not marijuana, Calvert County State’s Attorney Laura Martin said. It also is illegal to sell or distribute the drug if it contains the compounds, she said. Most commonly referred to as “spice” or “K2,” Paton said, synthetic marijuana was previously sold legally at gas stations and convenience stores. Once five chemicals used to make the drug were banned by the Drug and Enforcement Agency, Paton said, many stores took it off their shelves. But the companies that produce the drug have found a way to avoid the DEA’s ban by making it with a slightly different chemical makeup. Some forms that do not contain the banned chemicals still are sold in stores as incense, and its packaging includes a warning that the product is “not for human consumption,” Paton said. He said stores basically are selling the same product with slightly different chemicals. “It’s just this back-and-forth battle right now,” he said. Del. Addie Eckardt (R-Dorchester) introduced House Bill 188 in January and Sen. Edward Reilly (R-Anne Arundel) cross-filed Senate Bill 310 in an attempt to ban synthetic marijuana, but the bills never received a committee vote, which is required for the bills to move forward. Even though synthetic marijuana is not extremely prevalent in Calvert County, judging by arrests made, the main users of the drug appear to be teenagers and young adults, Paton said. The drug is popular among young people and is the second-most-used drug by high school seniors nationwide, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse Web site. The chemicals sprayed on the product are what affect people, and they can affect people differently, Paton said. He has read that people suffer from side effects including nausea, vomiting, dizziness, blackouts and hallucinations. Synthetic marijuana might be more dangerous than marijuana for some people, “simply because it’s a man-made chemical and the side effects are kind of . . . unpredictable at times,” Paton said. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse Web site, users of synthetic marijuana have reported experiences similar to those produced by marijuana, including elevated mood, relaxation and altered perception. In some cases the effects are even stronger, the Web site says, and some users have reported psychotic effects such as extreme anxiety, paranoia and hallucinations. Abusers of synthetic marijuana have reported symptoms of rapid heart rate, vomiting and confusion, and the drug also can raise blood


Going Out Guide for the District of Columbia, July 19-25

Nicki Minaj plays DAR Constitution Hall on Saturday. (Jason Merritt) THU 19 Nationals “How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular” The Archives The D.C.-based reggae band performs rock steady, roots, dance hall and dub. 6 p.m. Kennedy Center, Millennium Stage, 2700 F St. NW. 202-467-4600. www.kennedy-center.org. Free. Guy Torry Supreme Commander “The Da Vinci Code” FRI 20 “40 Under 40: Craft Futures” The Promise Ring Jah Works Washington Kastles SAT 21 Water Flower Festival Summer Picnic Spectacular D.C. Poetry in the Park Stefanie Diahann Belnavis SUN 22 “Beertown” “The Music Man” MON 23 Here’s Looking at You, Bogart TUE 24 Iceage and Dirty Beaches WED 25 “Material Power: Pure Metal” Screen on the Green Flo Rida NoMa Summer Screen Ledisi — Compiled by Carrie Donovan from staff reports


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These were among the cases received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information on shelter hours and location, adoption and licensing procedures, rabies clinics and low-cost neutering, call 240-773-5960. “Aggressive” dogs on the loose: Blocked by a husky: Cats available for adoption: Gaithersburg AWL No-Kill Shelter 12 Park Ave. 6 to 8 p.m. Friday Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday Germantown Milestone PetSmart 20924 Frederick Rd. Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday — Compiled by Terence McArdle


U.S. military sanctions 10 in Colombia prostitution scandal

Investigators say women were brought to the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, during a night of carousing by Secret Service and military personnel. (Reuters) The U.S. military has sanctioned 10 service members for their conduct in a prostitution scandal during President Obama’s trip in April to Cartagena, Colombia. Three of the men will fight the actions through a formal court-martial proceeding, the U.S. Southern Command announced Wednesday. The scandal The roles of the 13 Secret Service employees have been well-documented in media reports, but less is known about the involvement of the military members, who were noncommissioned officers from several branches of the service. SouthCom’s commander, Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, announced the sanctions in a news release. Nine service members were served with nonjudicial punishment, the military’s version of a misdemeanor, and another was issued a letter of reprimand that cleared him of violating the military’s code of justice. The men’s punishment has yet to be determined but could range from restrictions on duties to demotions, SouthCom spokesman Raymond Sarracino said. He added that three of the men have decided to exercise their right to request a court-martial in an attempt to fight the sanctions. Sarracino said that of the six service members who accepted the nonjudicial punishment sanctions, two are Marines and four are soldiers. “For them to accept the punishment that is meted out is definitely serious,” Sarracino said. “Whether it’s a career-ender, we do not know yet.” Two additional military service members remain under investigation for their roles in the scandal, he said. The Secret Service, in a separate investigation, determined that nine of its members had paid prostitutes for sex. Several are contesting their dismissals from the agency.


Syrian rebellion at critical moment

is truly the beginning of the endgame.” In addition, analysts said it would be significant if the brazen attack increases the rate of military defections. The conflict in Syria is “a war about defection,” centered on calculations inside the country of “when do you abandon this regime,” said Daniel Byman, a professor at Georgetown University and a former CIA analyst. U.S. intelligence officials said that analysts have reached no conclusions about who is behind the bombing, even as two groups stepped forward to assert responsibility. The first was an organization calling itself the Sahaba Brigades, described as an elite unit within the Free Syrian Army. In a video posted on YouTube, one of the group’s commanders, 1st Lt. Ahmed Muhammad Taqa, said that the group had conducted two months of surveillance on the “crisis control cell” and that the attack was carried out by one of the “heroes inside the place,” according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant postings on the Internet. In a reflection of the fractured nature of the insurgency, which is made up of Islamists and more secular fighters, a second group, calling itself “Brigade of Islam,” posted a claim on Facebook saying it had carried out the attack, according to SITE. U.S. intelligence analysts played down the possibility that al-Qaeda had a role in the attack. One official said the radical jihadist group appeared to be “disconnected from the rest of the opposition” and “not representative of the wider struggle to remove the Assad regime from power.” Indeed, one of the senior Syrian officials killed in Wednesday’s bombing, Gen. Assef Shawkat, was accused by U.S. officials of playing a central role in the Iraq war by shuttling foreign fighters allied with al-Qaeda into the country to battle U.S. forces. The diverse and disorganized nature of the insurgency in Syria suggests that even if Assad’s military collapsed and the regime fell, the fighting in the country would not necessarily cease. Some officials expressed concern about what would happen to Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons if the country descends into chaos and warned that, absent a negotiated settlement, the bloodshed in Syria could rise. “If the regime begins to unravel, there is a risk of much more uncertainty and violence,” said Vali Nasr, the dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “The fighting in Syria was never just about Assad.”


Bogus college essays graded F

Cheating is so widespread these days. Students take stuff off the Internet, uncredited, with little remorse. What is there to stop them? Maybe we have missed something. Maybe dishonest shortcuts are not as irresistible as they seem. Consider, for instance, a remarkable column by Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. His examination of cheating in college appeared in the Los Angeles Times under the headline “What money can’t buy.” He credits his lab manager, Aline Grunelson, with helping arrange a sting of the term paper industry. The piece’s contrarian conclusion is both troubling and heartening, a neat trick. Ariely He gave them this topic: “When and why do people cheat? Consider the social circumstances involved in dishonesty, and provide a thoughtful response to the topic of cheating. Address various forms of cheating (personal, at work, etc.) and how each of these can be rationalized by a social culture of cheating.” All four companies accepted the assignment. They requested $150 to $216 in advance, which Ariely paid. I wonder how he listed that on his expense account. When the papers arrived, on schedule, two weeks later, he felt both astonishment and relief. “What we got back from the mills can best be described as gibberish,” he wrote. “A few of the papers attempted to mimic APA style, but none achieved it without glaring errors. Citations were sloppy. Reference lists contained outdated and unknown sources, including blog posts.” The writing was awful, Ariely said. It looked as if some of the work had been outsourced to overseas providers not comfortable with the English language. Ariely offered this sample paragraph: “Cheating by healers. Healing is different. There is harmless healing, when healers-cheaters and wizards offer omens, lapels, damage to withdraw the husband-wife back and stuff. We read in the newspaper and just smile. But these days fewer people believe in wizards.” Here is another: “If the large allowance of study undertook on scholar betraying is any suggestion of academia and professors’ powerful yearn to decrease scholar betraying, it appeared expected these mind-set would component into the creation of their school room guidelines.” Ariely is as puzzled as I am that paper mills could be thriving in this weak economy when what they are selling is so bad. I would welcome e-mails to mathewsj@washpost.com or comments on my blog at washingtonpost.com/ class-struggle from students (I


In London, beer makes a comeback

serious brewers: Meantime, which has been bravely waving the craft beer flag since 2000, and Fuller’s, an excellent but largely traditional cask ale producer (even if its most recently refurbished pub, the Union Tavern in Ladbroke Grove, is devoted to London’s new craft brewers). While the rest of Britain has welcomed successive waves of new microbreweries over the past 40 years, London turned its back on beer. Until now. Something about the American approach appears to have chimed with the capital’s younger drinkers: This might be because the emphasis is on big flavors, frequently courtesy of American hops. It might also be because there’s a sense (as in the United States) that everything is up for grabs: Britain’s best new brewers do not confine themselves to two or three styles. It’s a thrilling historical irony that London, the city that created so many of the beer styles that kick-started America’s brewed awakening (think India Pale Ale, porter, stout), has been turned back on to beer by American brewers. Yankee influence The Kernel’s success has meant a struggle to keep up with demand (two years after its founding, the brewery has already had to move to larger premises), and it’s by no means unique. As a beer-lover and a Londoner, I’ve watched with delighted incredulity as this new beer scene emerged. Like flowers sprouting in the ruins of London’s East End after the war, new breweries (there are now 25, and counting) and beer-focused pubs are springing up all the time. One of the best — perhaps the best — of the new breed of pubs bears the particular imprint of America’s craft brewing revolution: It’s even called the Craft Beer Co., and it can be found in Leather Lane, Clerkenwell, on the eastern fringe of the city center. I can remember the shudder of nerdy excitement I felt the first time I saw the bar at Craft, which sags beneath the weight of 37 beers, six of them served in the traditional British way, via a hand pump. This is real ale, an unfiltered and unpasteurized beer that undergoes a secondary fermentation in the cask, and it could not be more John-Bull British. But even here the American influence is obvious. The house ale, Clerkenwell Pale, may be brewed in England’s hop-growing heartland of Kent (a county southeast of London) , but it’s American hops that provide the tangy, satisfying


Details, craft beers, London

GETTING THERE United offers nonstop flightsfrom Dulles International to London Heathrow, with mid-August fares currently starting at $973 round-trip. WHERE TO STAY The Hoxton Hotel 81 Great Eastern St. 011-44-207-550-1000 www.hoxtonhotels.com In the heart of East London, not far from the Olympic site and near many of the best beer-focused pubs. Double rooms from $347. Hilton London Islington 53 Upper St. 011-44-207-354-7700 www.hilton.com In an upmarket neighborhood close to both the East End and central London. Double rooms from $200. WHERE TO EAT Quilon 41 Buckingham Gate 011-44-207-821-1899 www.quilon.co.uk This Michelin-starred Indian restaurant has a short but well-chosen beer list. Entrees from $23. Byron 011-44-203-487-1230 www.byronhamburgers.com This is one of 23 (and counting) Byrons across the city; expect excellent hamburgers and a good craft beer list. Burgers from $10. WHERE TO IMBIBE The Kernel Brewery Arch 11, Dockley RoadIndustrial Estate 011-44-207-231-4516 www.thekernelbrewery.com Expect to pay around $4.30a bottle at the brewery (open Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.), $7 elsewhere. Camden Town Brewery 011-44-207-485-1671 www.camdentownbrewery.com Brewery bar is open Thursday 4 to 8 p.m., Friday 4 to 11 p.m. and Saturday noon to 8 p.m.; all beers are $6.20 a pint. The Craft Beer Co. www.thecraftbeerco.com Prices vary wildly; cask ales startat around $5.40 for a pint. Keg and bottled beers are generally more expensive. The Holborn Whippet 011-44-203-137-9937 www.holbornwhippet.com Cask ales start at $5.10. Tap East 011-44-208-555-4467 Cask ales brewed on site startat $5.10. INFORMATION www.visitlondon.com


If Romney releases his tax returns, what are the worst things we could find?

Mitt Romney’s campaign is taking heat Profits from the financial crash The vast majority of American families lost wealth in the housing bust of 2007-09 and the financial crisis that came in the middle of it, and millions lost jobs or earnings. But it was possible for a canny or lucky investor to profit from the chaos — especially for a wealthy individual with access to unusual financial products. Maybe Romney made a lot of money through bets on skyrocketing foreclosures or well-timed investments in bailed-out banks. There’s nothing wrong with smart financial planning, but making money on the crash could be awkward for a politician. There’s a tension between promising to make things better and profiting off human misfortune. A low tax bill because of the crash There’s also the possibility that Romney’s investments lost some value during the crash years and that he combined this with aggressive exploitation of loopholes to pay a strikingly low tax bill. One rumor was that he managed to pay nothing in taxes, something his campaign has denied. But would paying $2.75 really look all that different from paying $0? A super-low tax bill would turn Romney into the poster child for President Obama’s very popular “Buffett rule” proposal, which aims for a minimum tax level on high-income individuals. Swiss bank amnesty We know from the tax documents Romney has released that he once had a Swiss bank account, a fact that the Obama campaign has played up in ads. But his 2010 tax return did not include a Report on Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts form (“FBAR” to accountants) detailing his offshore investments. In 2009, the Swiss government began to relent on its traditional banking secrecy rules, and banks turned over information about tens of thousands of American tax scofflaws to the U.S. government. To help deal with the crush, the IRS staged a limited-time amnesty in 2009 for American citizens with previously non-disclosed foreign accounts to pay their back taxes without penalty. It’s possible that earlier tax documents or the 2010 FBAR would show that Romney took advantage of the amnesty. While legal, this would amount to a problematic confession of past wrongdoing. None of the above The possibilities are endless. Romney’s vast wealth has already provided plenty of campaign fodder — from his car elevator to his proposed $10,000 bet with Texas Gov. Rick Perry during a debate — so


‘American Ninja Warrior’: A tribute to strength and, most of all, failure

remaining men attempts to finish stages 2, 3 and 4 of the infamous Mount Midoriyama obstacle course on Monday night’s finale (airing on NBC), there remains the distinct possibility that none of them will make it all the way. “Almost” can be everything and nothing here, which means the $500,000 prize could go unclaimed. Which also means, as the show has reminded viewers all along, repeatedly, cruelly: “No American has ever conquered Mount Midoriyama . . .” No American. Since the Japanese began running “Sasuke,” their “ninja warrior” obstacle course competition, in 1997, several Americans have auditioned and competed. One came close to finishing Stage 3, but none have made it to the end. (And, out of thousands of contestants over the years from all over the world, only three competitors — all Japanese — have ever finished all four stages.) Americans are not accustomed to a total shutout, yet here it is, in the form of a mammoth series of girders, ramps, platforms, cargo nets, ropes and water pits surrounding a steel tower named Mount Midoriyama. Four years ago, the growing popularity of “Sasuke” sparked the interest of G4, an NBC-owned cable network obsessed with all things geeky and guy. Early versions of the American show ran U.S. contestants through a preliminary course and then flew the best of them to Japan, where they each got a chance to conquer Mount Midoriyama. Through a series of obstacles, some with sushi-menu-sounding names (“jumping spider” and the “salmon ladder”), as well as those with gym-rat monikers (the “warped wall,” the “spinning bridge,” the “jump hang” and the “devil steps”), the Americans met defeat year after year, but they also grew more resolute. Ninja warrior fitness communities began to emerge across cities and suburbs, obsessed with the event’s ideals of strength and discipline. A lot of would-be ninja warriors are parkour and free-running enthusiasts — human jumping beans whose fitness routines include flipping and leaping off (and between) buildings, outdoor stairwells and trees. Many are former gymnasts and acrobats. Some work as stuntmen in movies and TV. Some are retired military. Some are just the most agile and strongest members of their local CrossFit gang. ‘American Ninja Warrior’ (G4/BRANDON HICKMAN/G4) After last year’s show, it was clear that the sport had crossed a certain threshold. The time came, says Laura Civiello, G4’s vice president for development, to stage the entire competition in


As the editorial on climate change pointed out, science clearly tells us we are just seeing the tip of the climate-impact iceberg. If the multibillion-dollar price tag of recent extreme weather events (too many to list here) tells us anything, it’s that failing to address carbon pollution is a cost we can’t bear. The good news: Addressing the causes and impacts of climate change will boost our economy and build a stronger nation for generations to come. Ramping up renewables and investing in climate-preparedness will put Americans to work while helping protect our farms, businesses and homes. On the other hand, the consequences of inaction will be titanic for our country’s economy and security. J.P. Leous, Washington The writer is director of outreach for the U.S. Climate Action Network and serves on the board of DC Greenworks.


Even in the heat, a complex brew has fans

start with a grain bill that’s mostly pale malt, with small percentages of specialty malts and flaked oats. The ebony-colored Dark Hollow has chocolate and roasted malts added to the base as it travels to the brew kettle. Smack adds enough hops to balance the sweetness (though not for aroma), then ferments with a yeast from McEwan’s brewery in Scotland. After a stay of 45 to 60 days in a bourbon barrel, Dark Hollow emerges as a potent but smooth imperial stout at 10 percent alcohol with notes of chocolate, raisins, vanilla and whiskey. Local Species, a Belgian-inspired amber ale, lacks the highly roasted malt but gets a more complex hopping that adds citrus and spice. Smack ferments with a yeast from the Quebecois brewery Unibroue that contributes a light fruitiness with hints of apple and pear. Rather than freshly emptied whiskey barrels, Local Species ages in bourbon casks that were used to condition Dark Hollow. That “tones down the oak,” which might overwhelm a paler, less potent (6.6 percent alcohol) brew, notes Smack. Local Species finishes very dry and slightly tannic. Smack extends his product line with additional tweaks. He has a Dark Hollow Reserve in the works that spent a year on wood, as well as a variant aged over coffee beans and cacao nibs. Look for those in mid-October. Later that month he’ll introduce the Washington area to Long Winter’s Nap, a “blond triple bock” measuring 12 percent alcohol. He plans to start selling in Washington and New York in September and to fill in the gaps between as quickly as he can ramp up production. An agreement with Nelson County, Va., allows him to start building a third brewery by 2015 on the 15 acres he purchased in Arrington to construct the Barrel House. Smack plans to move production of his year-around beers there. The Barrel House will continue to make the corked bottles. The brewpub in Afton will become his “Palo Alto research station,” testing new draft recipes on his customers. “I love the idea of having three specialized breweries,” he says. But he has no plans to become a national powerhouse. He sets a limit of about 50,000 barrels a year, well below those of the largest craft brewers. Estimating his 2012 output at 6,500 barrels, he says, “we’ve got a lot of room to grow.” Kitsock is editor of the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News.


AIDS remains a problem. But is it still a priority for the gay community?

was down 30 percent in 2010 over the past three years, as longtime HIV/AIDS funders focused on different areas. The Arcus Foundation once gave millions to HIV organizations as part of its mission to advance LGBT equality. In 2010, the group published a report that made a powerful case for funding to fight the spread of the disease in LGBT populations around the world. But today, according to its Web site, the only domestic HIV grant Arcus still makes is to Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Other funders have changed their approach to battling HIV, attempting to address larger challenges to the health and well-being of LGBT people, such as poverty and access to health care. However, the result for those delivering vital HIV services is the same: fewer grants, fewer dollars. The Gill Foundation, for instance, has given approximately $118 million in grants over its 17-year history to aid its mission of furthering LGBT equality. This includes more than $6 million between 1999 and 2007 for fighting HIV across the United States. Since 2007, however, the group’s grants for HIV services have been limited to organizations in Colorado, where it is based. Foundation officials emphasize that Gill is still funding national organizations that work to improve the health and services environment for gay people, including those with and at risk for HIV. But that is much different than directly funding those services. Why is this happening? Overwhelmingly, these foundations’ giving is decided by rich, white gay men. And these funders are among the Americans who have access to high-quality health care. If they need them, they have access to life-extending antiretroviral drugs, which have made HIV a manageable chronic illness for many. Gay donors are still giving generously to causes they believe in. While we have seen millions of dollars well spent on issues such as marriage equality and repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” somehow AIDS has fallen off, or at least moved well down, the list of priorities. From the beginning of the epidemic, progress has always come when the community has banded together. We disseminated information about HIV through gay newspapers such as the Washington Blade. We created community health organizations; here in D.C., the Whitman-Walker Clinic was a crucial early center for treatment, testing and prevention of the disease (and remains important today). And we raised our voices, forming groups such as Act Up that proclaimed the


Dorte G. Simmons, 70, a retired microbiologist and laboratory worker at Georgetown University and the American Type Culture Collection, died June 13 at her home in Potomac. She had brain cancer, said her husband, Walter Simmons. Mrs. Simmons worked at Georgetown for several years before joining ATCC, a nonprofit biological research organization, in 1995. She worked there as a microbiologist until her retirement in 2005. Dorte Gerecke was born in Halberstadt, Germany, and attended the University of Kiel in Germany. She came to Washington in 1965 to study English. She was interested in Asian art and traveled widely. She was a member of the Japanese Art Society of America and the Friends of the Freer and Sackler Galleries. Survivors include her husband of 45 years, Walter P. Simmons III of Potomac; three children, Walter P. “Pete” Simmons IV and Christine Wain, both of the Rocky Gorge section of Howard County, and Eric Simmons of Walnut Creek, Calif.; and six grandchildren. — Matt Schudel


“Fear of food : A History of Why We Worry About What We Eat” by Harvey Levenstein

author recaps, in our overindulgence and affluence. What’s worse, we’re not even original, cycling back into established patterns of worry and dismay, deprivation and overkill. Trace our attitudes toward milk and red meat, and you’ll find a pendulum swing along the lines of what Woody Allen’s character declared so perceptively in the 1977 film “Annie Hall”: “Everything our parents said was good is bad. Sun, milk, red meat . . . college.” Levenstein’s examples have a can-you-imagine-that quality. The risk of germs loomed large in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Warnings against pets and dirt filled newspaper articles and prompted thousands of New Yorkers to turn in their dogs to be destroyed — even though the city health commissioner said the animals were not a health hazard. Schoolchildren across the country were offered cash prizes for bringing in dead flies. The era begat the selling of processed and packaged foods as “clean.” 'Fear of Food' by Harvey Levenstein (University of Chicago Press) Even as late as 1940, flies were (incorrectly) being blamed for a mass outbreak of polio. Water supplies were cleaned up, but then milk become an object of fly-infested, bacterial angst. Infant deaths were pinned to “bad milk.” Levenstein says urban consumption dropped 40 to 60 percent before large-scale pasteurization was introduced and federal muscle was put in place to tout milk as necessary for good health. Lest you think germ hysteria was quaint and distant, you need time-travel no further back than the 2004 SARS epidemic and the subsequent boost in sanitizers and air purifiers — although the disease was spread by a virus and therefore not to be smote by such disinfectants. Once we found out that our processed foods contained chemical additives, natural goodness reemerged as a guidepost. Yogurt and its purported properties have cropped up again and again. Long-lived peoples in foreign lands seemed to be all the proof we needed, until an American champion of a particular diet regime died of cancer or heart disease. Throughout this slim volume, Levenstein is adept at connecting trends with famous names and fads of certain eras. He illuminates the folly of various theories but seems keener to expose the motivations and money behind health advocacy groups — chief among them the American Heart Association. In the past 30 or 40 years, medical research and the media propelled cholesterol as a villain we need to


A Scottish peregrination, with whisky, of course

flavor-forward new breweries. Over a couple of hardy Tokyo Stouts, weighing in at an impressive 18.2 percent alcohol by volume, I asked the young, bearded bartender about Scottish independence. A handful of nearby regulars raised their voices, and we spoke of past English transgressions, the economics of going it alone and how strongly divided the country is on the issue — and, of course, about beer. As Scotland draws its proud descendants, scattered across the globe, BrewDog beckons to global beer geeks like me. This is in part because of the recent race against the German brewery Schorschbrau to create the strongest nondistilled beer on earth. As it stands, the Scots are slightly behind and may have given up with their 55 percent End of History. High society Hours later, when the rain picked up again and my head started to clear, I walked off my cheerful, possibly naive thoughts of an independent Scotland on a stroll to the Greyfriars Kirk and surrounding cemetery. Here, in the 1820s, William Burke and William Hare, when not out murdering the city’s disadvantaged, stole recently buried bodies that weren’t guarded by friends or relatives to sell to the surgeon Robert Knox for his lectures on anatomy. Along with shocking the city at the time, these events would later influence Stevenson’s popular short story “The Body Snatcher.” I hit a few other sites and then made my way to the northeastern harbor along the Leith Walk, made from a rampart formerly used to keep the English at bay. Much of the area along the way had been rural in Stevenson’s youth, but it soon exploded, eventually became seedy and is now undergoing a significant revival that’s bringing desirable affordable housing, new businesses and more reasons to visit. I was meeting Patsy Henley, the mother of my parents’ neighbor, at the Vaults, a handsome tasting room for Scotch Malt Whisky Society members and their guests. A member since the early 1980s, Patsy was originally turned on to the society because of the accommodations it provides those visiting Edinburgh and, of course, the rare whiskies it bottles. Running with the idea that the cask is more important than the individual distillery, the society has been providing members with unique whisky offerings for almost 30 years. Cask 3.183, for example, is called “Beach Rugby With a Hotdog,” while 53.160’s tasting notes include “fresh slimy seaweed, sea breeze


In California’s Imperial County, asthma takes severe toll on children

“I just want to run.” For children with asthma in California, there is no place worse than Imperial County. They are far more likely than children in any other county to end up in the emergency room or hospitalized. Kids go the emergency room for asthma at a rate three times higher than the state’s average, according to the Department of Public Health. “Imperial stands out,” said Meredith Milet, an epidemiologist with the department. “There is obviously a disparity. . . . There is just a need for something to change. It should be possible for it to be different for the kids of Imperial.” A tractor stirs-up a cloud of dust south of Brawley, Calif., on a warm afternoon. Health officials in the Imperial Valley are alarmed by the high rate of asthma cases believed to be caused by the dust stirred into the air by farming and pollution. (Mark Boster/AP) Severe childhood asthma is also a major problem elsewhere in California, including the smog-filled Central Valley. Heavily agricultural Fresno, Merced and Bakersfield, for example, all rank high among the nation’s worst cities for asthmatics. Imperial County is different because it leads the state for asthmatic children going to the ER and being hospitalized, but experts are unable to pinpoint the cause. Doctors and public health officials said that a combination of whipping winds, pesticide-tinged farmland dust and large numbers of low-income families lacking health insurance contribute to high rates of asthma hospitalizations and ER visits. Whatever the reason, uncontrolled asthma and frequent hospital visits aren’t an issue just for those with the disease; many children are covered by Medi-Cal, meaning taxpayers often pay the tab for care. In Imperial County, about 63 percent of asthma-related ER visits and 67 percent of the hospitalizations, for both children and adults, are paid through Medicare and Medi-Cal. Each hospitalization costs, on average, about $16,600. The county spans nearly 4,600 square miles of mostly desert in the southeastern corner of California, just north of Mexico and west of Arizona. The county is hot and dry and depends largely on agriculture. One in five of Imperial County’s children ages 5 to 17 has been diagnosed with the chronic respiratory disease, which cannot be cured but can be managed with medication. Uncontrolled asthma can lead to hospitalization and in rare cases, death. In 2009, a 16-year-old girl died after an asthma attack. — McClatchy-Tribune


Washington area business diary for week of July 23

Short takes on the week's announcements and deals. Acquisitions Redlands, Calif-based geographic information system software developer Esri said it has acquired Arlington-based geo-location company GeoIQ. Terms were not disclosed. Bethesda-based DiamondRock Hospitality said it has completed its previously announced $495 million acquisition of four hotels from Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI. The hotels are the Westin Washington D.C. City Center, the Hilton Boston Downtown, the Hilton Burlington in Vermont and the Westin San Diego. District-based private equity fund Acon Equity Partners III said that is has completed the acquisition of Mount Prospect, Ill.-based Suzo-Happ Group. Terms were no disclosed. The company supplies components to gaming, amusement and industrial companies. Awards The Washington Women in Public Relations announced the winners of its 2012 Emerging Leaders Awards: Olivia Doherty, director of communications, Bethesda-based Hatcher Group; Laura Hornbuckle, account supervisor, District-based Edelman Public Relations; and Jennifer Myers, research director, District-based StrategyOne. Call for entries Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology is accepting nominations of Virginia entrepreneurs for its newly created GAP 50 Entrepreneur Awards. Deadline is Sept. 20. More information: www.cit.org/gap50. The March of Dimes and the Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association Northern Virginia Chapter said they have extended the nomination deadline for their Heroines in Technology Awards to Aug. 1. More information: www.marchofdimes.com/marylandmetrodc/. Contracts Fairfax-based Omega World Travel said it has been awarded a travel management contract from New York-based UNICEF. Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology said it has won a $50,000 subcontract with New Jersey-based Rutgers University to provide site support for six high frequency radar systems along the Virginia-Maryland coast as part of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System project. Private security officers represented by the Service Employees International Union have ratified a four-year contract with security contractors Admiral, Allied Barton and Securitas. The workers are to receive a 40-cent-an-hour wage increase and 3 percent increase in subsequent years. Expansions Chicago-based United Airlines announced it plans to begin daily flights from Dulles International Airport to San Salvador International Airport in El Salvador beginning Dec. 19. District-based Metro Offices, a provider of office space, said it has opened a location at the Woodland Park Office Center, 2201 Cooperative Way, Herndon, VA 20171. Alexandria-based real estate sales and marketing firm McWilliams Ballard has opened an office at 1402 14th St. NW, Washington, DC 20005. Vienna-based IT company NJVC said it has opened a 20,000-square-foot data center in Reno, Nev. Greenbelt-based


their Heroines in Technology Awards to Aug. 1. More information: www.marchofdimes.com/marylandmetrodc/. Contracts Fairfax-based Omega World Travel said it has been awarded a travel management contract from New York-based UNICEF. Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology said it has won a $50,000 subcontract with New Jersey-based Rutgers University to provide site support for six high frequency radar systems along the Virginia-Maryland coast as part of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System project. Private security officers represented by the Service Employees International Union have ratified a four-year contract with security contractors Admiral, Allied Barton and Securitas. The workers are to receive a 40-cent-an-hour wage increase and 3 percent increase in subsequent years. Expansions Chicago-based United Airlines announced it plans to begin daily flights from Dulles International Airport to San Salvador International Airport in El Salvador beginning Dec. 19. District-based Metro Offices, a provider of office space, said it has opened a location at the Woodland Park Office Center, 2201 Cooperative Way, Herndon, VA 20171. Alexandria-based real estate sales and marketing firm McWilliams Ballard has opened an office at 1402 14th St. NW, Washington, DC 20005. Vienna-based IT company NJVC said it has opened a 20,000-square-foot data center in Reno, Nev. Greenbelt-based retinal practice Retina Group of Washington has opened two offices in the District: 901 A St. NE, Washington, DC 20002; 202-331-1188, and 106 Irving St., South Tower, Suite 422, Washington, DC 20010; 202-726-4088. Columbia-based media research company Arbitron will begin measuring mobile ratings in China through its Arbitron Mobile Oy subsidiary in an agreement with China-based online measurement company iResearch Consulting. Funding Sterling-based CIS Secure Computing said it has received an investment from McLean-based Bluestone Investment Partners. Terms were not disclosed. Bethesda-based real estate investment trust American Capital Agency said that it plans to offer 32 million shares of its common stock. The company also said that it plans to give underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional 4.8 million shares. Moves IT services company American Technology Services has moved to 2751 Prosperity Ave., Fairfax, VA 22031. District-based text-messaging security company Gryphn has moved to 1707 L St. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Annapolis-based Immersion Consulting has moved to 2200 Somerville Rd., Suite 100, Annapolis, MD 21401. Bethesda-based EagleBank has relocated its Northern Virginia commercial lending offices from 8601 Westwood Center Dr. in Tysons Corner to 11911 Freedom Dr., Suite 610, Reston, VA 20190. McLean-based defense contractor Qinetiq North America


Prince William County news in brief

Potomac Health Foundation gives $3.7 million in grants The Potomac Health Foundation recently approved grants to 17 nonprofit organizations for 21 health-related projects totaling $3.7 million. The projects address the foundation’s goals: to increase access to primary health care for underserved and hard-to-reach populations, to reduce the incidence of preventable disease and illness and to address emerging health needs and foster innovative projects. Grant recipients include the Prince William Area Free Clinic, Project Mend-A-House, Manassas Midwifery, Action in Community Through Service and Matthew’s Center. For information, visit www.potomachealthfoundation.org. Two county programs win national recognition The Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue and the Gypsy Moth and Mosquito Control Program each received achievement awards last week during the 2012 National Association of Counties ceremony in Pennsylvania. The department was honored for planning for emergencies during last summer’s sesquicentennial reenactment of the Battle of First Manassas. The EMS plan provided on-site service, air-conditioned tents and advanced life support services during the event. The Gypsy Moth and Mosquito Program was recognized for its Data Management in the Cloud program. This year, staff members used computer tablets in the field to report and collect data on various insect activity in the county to make the process more efficient and reliable. Fraternity gives awards to Pi Lambda Lambda Pi Lambda Lambda won the international chapter of the year and the international social action chapter of the year awards during the fraternity’s annual conference in Minneapolis. Pi Lambda Lambda is the Prince William County chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity, an international nonprofit social and civic service organization. This is the third year the chapter received the social action award. Pi Lambda Lambda was founded in Dumfries in 2004. Project Mend-A-House sponsors popsicle contest What can you build with 250 popsicle sticks, a foam core board and glue? Project Mend-A-House is sponsoring a contest to find out. The fundraiser contest is for individuals and teams of up to five people. Project Mend-A-House provides the kits for $25. The structures may be any type of house, barn, cabin or garage and must be attached to the foam board. Buildings may be painted, decorated and landscaped. Winners will be chosen at Taste of the Town on Oct. 17. For information or to buy a kit, call 703-792-7663. — Compiled by Sarah Lane


Study finds climate change driving salmon evolution

A chum salmon confronts a dam on the Deschutes River in Washington state. Research on another species shows a bias in favor of fish that migrate early. (ISTOCKPHOTO) For salmon trying to make it upriver to spawn before a hot summer hits, slow and steady loses the evolutionary race. Salmon DNA records stretching back over 30 years show that nature has increasingly selected for fish that migrate from the ocean earlier in the year. It is among the first pieces of genetic evidence that climate change is driving the evolution of a species. Many species have changed their migration patterns over the past few decades in response to warmer temperatures. What is difficult to tell is whether the species are changing their behavior or evolving genetically — or both. Thanks to an old experiment, researchers at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks were able to confirm that genes play a role in at least one animal’s response to warmer temperatures — the pink salmon, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha. Its migration from the ocean to the river is controlled largely by its genes. In the 1970s, Anthony Gharrett was studying why some salmon migrate up Alaska’s Auke Creek a month later than the rest of the population. Gharrett selectively bred some late-migrating fish so that they would share a rare genetic mutation that had no impact on their survival prospects. This allowed him to identify the late migrators even before the migration began. By the time Gharrett ended these investigations in 1985, 26 percent of the late-migrating salmon population had the genetic marker, compared with 3 percent of the rest of the population. He continued to collect DNA from the migrating salmon population every few years. Fast-forward to 2011, when Ryan Kovach and David Tallmon analyzed Gharrett’s 32-year-long fish history. They found that the number of salmon with the genetic marker — more likely to be late-migrating fish — was relatively stable throughout the 1980s. But between 1989 and 1993, there was a steep decline in the marker’s frequency. It is now found in about 3 percent of all fish, and it is no longer possible to distinguish early- and late-migrating salmon by studying the frequency of the genetic marker in the population. The speed with which the marker has disappeared from the population suggests that something in the salmon’s environment changed between 1989 and 1993, making late-migrating fish less fit and increasing


Environmentalists target 5 Republicans who question humans’ impact on climate

polls. The League of Conservation Voters will launch a $1.5 million campaign Tuesday targeting five House Republicans who question the connection between human activity and climate change. (League of Conservation Voters) Both Buerkle, who faces a rematch against Democratic former congressman Dan Maffei, whom she defeated two years ago; and Benishek, who is running against hay farmer and former UPS driver Gary McDowell, have questioned humans’ impact on the climate. Maffei and McDowell, by contrast, say greenhouse gas emissions are helping drive climate change. During a televised campaign debate in 2010, Buerkle said that “a lot of the global warming myth has been exposed.” While she later explained that she was specifically referring to pirated e-mails from climate scientists, which came to light in an incident known as Climate-gate, she added that “the jury’s still out” on whether fossil fuel burning contributes to global warming. Buerkle’s campaign manager, David Ray, declined to comment on the question of climate change science but said that the congresswoman “has always supported clean air and clean water. She’s taken the time to meet with and listen to the concerns of constituents who are concerned about the environment. What she doesn’t support is Dan Maffei and Nancy Pelosi’s cap-and-trade energy tax that would raise electricity rates by 40 percent without doing anything to help the environment.” Benishek dismissed the idea of climate change in a 2010 interview with the conservative candidate-tracking organization iCaucus. “I think it’s all baloney. It’s all baloney. I think it’s just some scheme,” he said. “I just don’t believe it, I just don’t believe it. You know, I’m a scientist, I’m a surgeon, I’ve done scientific research papers, there’s a lot of skepticism.” Benishek spokesman Raffi Williams wrote in an e-mail, “It is troubling that Gary McDowell and his Washington allies would rather attack Dr. Benishek than explain to Northern Michigan families why he supports Nancy Pelosi’s failed policies such as the national energy tax that would destroy millions of jobs and raise gas prices.” Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, said he has identified these two races as “toss-ups,” with Buerkle’s leaning Democratic and Benishek’s leaning Republican. The League of Conservation Voters’ spending “could have an effect on the race,” he said, though he questioned whether it could “make this the kind of issue voters vote on, where everywhere else people will vote on jobs and the economy.”


Ann Curtis dies at 86; swimmer won two gold medals at 1948 London Olympic Games

Ann Curtis was widely regarded as one of the greatest female athletes of the 1940s. A swimming phenomenon, she won 34 national Amateur Athletic Union championships, more than any woman before. She lost a chance to compete on the international stage when the 1944 Olympics were canceled because of World War II — but she came back to win two gold medals at the 1948 London Games. Miss Curtis Miss Curtis’s Olympic victory was the culmination of a historic run in women’s sports. In 1944, she became the first woman and the first swimmer to receive the James E. Sullivan Memorial Trophy, an award given to the outstanding U.S. amateur athlete. The same year, the Associated Press named Miss Curtis, a San Francisco native, woman athlete of the year. In The Washington Post, her prize was announced with the headline “ ’Frisco Mermaid Voted Tops.” At the time, swimming starlet Esther Williams had recently appeared in her first aqua role in the musical “Bathing Beauty” (1944). Miss Curtis reportedly turned down movie offers to pursue her sport, but she continued to capture national affection with her radiant smile as she ascended from the pool wearing the demure swimsuit of the era. Nail polish was her only form of war paint. The International Swimming Hall of Fame inducted Miss Curtis in 1966 and included her on the “Mythical Olympic Team” of 1944 — the team that would have competed that year had the Olympics not been canceled. Miss Curtis’s father had died from wounds he receiving fighting with the Marines in the Pacific, according to an online tribute by Leslie Mitchell, a student of California sports history. Ann Curtis poses for a photo in New York, N.Y., on Dec. 18, 1944. Miss Curtis, an American gold medalist in swimming at the 1948 London Olympics, died June 26 at her home in San Rafael, Calif. She was 86. (AP) When the 1948 Olympics opened in London, the world had gone a dozen years without the sporting event. The Games assumed a symbolic importance — of the end of the war, London’s return to pageant and normalcy after the German bombing during the Blitz and, for Miss Curtis, a long-awaited chance to swim against the world’s top athletes. As the American teams headed to London, Miss Curtis was featured on the cover of Newsweek. In the 100-meter freestyle, she slipped as she dove


Nationals vs. Mets: Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman help Washington break it open in the 10th

we need.” When Zimmermann starts, they always have a chance. Zimmermann allowed one run over six innings on four hits and no walks, striking out six. He has pitched at least six innings in 20 of his starts this season, and he lowered his season ERA to 2.31. Zimmermann is not only consistent. He is dominant, and he is fighting his way, perhaps, into the conversation for best starter not only on the Nationals’ staff, but also in the entire National League. He has allowed one or zero runs in six consecutive starts, punching up a 0.95 ERA over that span. “You always want to carry it over to the next start, and I have a pretty good streak going right now,” Zimmermann said. “Everything’s been working, so hopefully it continues.” But it would not have mattered if not for the final inning. The Nationals did not record a hit from the final out of the first inning until Adam LaRoche singled with one out in the ninth. Danny Espinosa erased him one batter later with a 4-6-3 double play. Roger Bernadina Byrdak spun and fired to shortstop Ruben Tejada to start a double play. But as Bernadina slid in to second, Tejada dropped the ball, and with no outs the Nationals had two men on base. Mark DeRosa’s failed sacrifice bunt brought Steve Lombardozzi to the plate, and he ripped a single to center. Up came Harper. The crowd hurled boos at him as he stepped into the box. “Don’t roll over and turn it into a double play,” Harper said. “That was the only thing I was thinking up there. I was trying to get some backspin on something and just get it to the outfield, score the guy on third. In that situation, that’s all you try to do.” Beato started him with a 93-mph fastball, which Harper watched for strike one. Beato fired a curveball, and Harper bashed it into right field. Zimmerman and Morse followed to put the game on ice. Harper’s first at-bat in the Big Apple came after Lombardozzi led off with a single off Chris Young’s glove. The crowd greeted Harper with a smattering of boos. Young worked the count to 3-2, pumping nothing but fastballs at 83 and 84 mph. Young threw another low and inside, but neither low enough nor far enough inside. Harper crushed it. The ball rocketed off


Iranian and Israeli athletes not expected to face off in London Olympics

TEHRAN — But for Iran and Israel, two countries that have each been on edge with anxiety about the other’s actions and intentions this summer, it appears that’s not going to happen. Although Iran asserted Monday that its athletes would compete against Israelis in the 2012 Games, its team had left for London hours earlier without the one athlete who had the possibility of facing an Israeli opponent. On Sunday, Iranian authorities announced that that athlete, Javad Mahjoub, a judo champion, was suffering from a “critical digestive system infection,” forcing him to take antibiotics and cancel plans for the Games, which begin Friday. Mahjoub’s absence has led to speculation that Iran is maintaining its long-standing policy of not allowing its athletes to compete with Israeli opponents. Mahjoub himself has acknowledged going to great lengths to keep from squaring off against an Israeli. In a 2011 interview with the Iranian newspaper Shargh, Mahjoub admitted to throwing a match against a German opponent, saying: “If I won, I would have had to compete with an Israeli athlete. And if I refused to compete with the Israeli, they would have suspended our judo federation for four years.” Israel’s judoka in the 100-kilogram weight class, Ariel “Arik” Ze’evi, will be competing in his fourth Olympic Games. The 35-year-old won a bronze medal at the 2004 Games in Athens and is widely considered to hold one of Israel’s best chances of taking home a medal in London. Ze’evi told the Associated Press last month that he did not understand athletes who bring politics into the sporting arena. “When you are doing judo, football, basketball, you have to show up on the field, do your best. It doesn’t matter who you fight,” Ze’evi said. “For me, I don’t have any problem to fight against a sportsman from any country, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria. . . . I really don’t understand it.” Iran has had a stated policy for years of avoiding competition with Israeli athletes. In 2004 and 2008, athletes cited injuries in withdrawing from events in which they would have had to face Israelis. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge declared last month that those days are over. Beginning in London, he said, those who sit out events based on their opponents’ race, ethnicity or nationality will be punished. “If Nation A does not appear at the competition against Nation B, we will ask for


Oswaldo Payá crossed red lines with the Cuban government before his death

Carl Gershman is president of the National Endowment for Democracy. With the death of Oswaldo Payá, a key leader of the Cuban democratic opposition, Cuba has suffered what the writer Yoani Sanchez called “a dramatic loss for its present and an irreplaceable loss for its future.” The circumstances surrounding Payá’s death Sunday have sparked controversy similar to that caused in October by the death of Laura Pollan , the leader of the much-acclaimed Ladies in White, just weeks after she was attacked at a protest march by a government supporter. The Cuban government said that Payá died in a traffic accident near the city of Bayamo when his car slammed into a tree, killing him and another passenger and injuring two others. But Payá’s daughter, Rosa Maria Payá, immediately challenged that version, saying that the family had received information from the survivors that their car was repeatedly rammed by another vehicle. “So we think it’s not an accident,” she said, according to CNN en Español. “They wanted to do harm and then ended up killing my father.” The family also said that Oswaldo Payá was targeted in a similar incident two weeks earlier in Havana. In retrospect, they now see that incident as a warning from the regime. Why would the Cuban government regard Payá as enough of a threat to want him killed? He was one of the most prominent opponents of the Cuban dictatorship, a Catholic activist who founded the Christian Liberation Movement in 1988. He is best known for the Varela Project, a petition drive he launched in 2002 that called for free elections and other rights. That angered the Cuban government, which responded by forcing through the National Assembly a constitutional amendment making the communist system in Cuba irrevocable. It followed that with the 2003 “Black Spring,” arresting 75 of the most prominent Cuban activists that March. But the government didn’t arrest Payá, because of the international renown that he had achieved. The European Parliament awarded him its Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2002; that year he was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by hundreds of parliamentarians in a campaign led by his friend Vaclav Havel, the Czech Republic president. Unlike Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma and Liu Xiaobo of China, for whom Havel also campaigned, Payá never received the Nobel Prize. But he was an activist in the same mold


Amid energy shortages, a record first-half trade deficit for Japan

the nightmare scenario of blackouts during the sweltering summer. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has lobbied for months about the need to resume the use of nuclear power, which once supplied a third of Japan’s energy. For now, though, only two of the nation’s 50 atomic reactors are online. Many regions face energy-saving targets, handcuffing manufacturers. Japan’s trade numbers last year moved into the red for the first time since 1980, and analysts say that Japan will continue to carry a deficit until it restarts more reactors — or devises a homegrown alternative, perhaps by boosting the use of renewable fuels. According to the government statistics, so-called mineral fuels — oil, LNG and coal — accounted for 35.5 percent of Japan’s imports between January and June, up 21 percent compared with a year earlier. LNG imports were up 49.2 percent, and oil imports were up 15.7 percent. Japan’s central government hopes the energy gap is temporary. But a majority in Japan, in the wake of last year’s triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, say they have doubts about the safety of nuclear power. Noda’s push to restart two reactors in western Japan has sparked a series of weekly mass-scale protests, a rare showing of social activism in a country known for its pacifist personality. In his latest blog entry, Noda noted that he’s heard the chanting of protesters outside his office. But he also emphasized the urgency of summer energy shortages. The question of whether to cover those shortages by restarting reactors right now, Noda wrote, “is fundamentally different from the issue of how in concrete terms we can reduce . . . our dependence on nuclear power over the medium to long term.” Barclays Capital, in a research note to investors, said that Japan’s trade deficit was likely to continue until at least 2013. Japan actually posted a small trade surplus in June, in part the result of a drop in oil prices. The trade data also show how Japan is being hit by slowdowns elsewhere. Between January and June, exports to China fell 8.6 percent from a year earlier. Exports to Western Europe fell 12.2 percent. More world news coverage: - Iran and Israel not expected to face off in London Olympics - Returning migrants boost Mexico middle class - In Syria, U.S. intelligence struggles to understand opposition forces - Read more headlines from around the world


After 14 years, officials pull plug on Baltimore’s Starscape festival

we just got some bracelets from friends and walked right through,” he said.“People were passing out and stuff inside,” Symonds said. “It was really crowded; some stages, you could barely move. It was like person to person, really packed.” Robert Delong, a performer at the concert who is from Los Angeles, said that he had a great time at the event, that Fort Armistead was a beautiful place to play and that people seemed like they were having fun. But, he said, the crowds were intense at times.“There was definitely a jam of people,” he said.Ashley Suszczynski, a freelance photographer who has worked multiple festivals this summer, said this Starscape was the “grimiest” of them all.“It was so crowded, it was hard to find anywhere to even rest because people were walking all over you,” he said. “It was so oversold for the amount of space they had.” According to O’Brocki, the perimeter of the event was poorly monitored — a claim Fisher disputed — and people were sneaking in.“People were jumping the fence, which wouldn’t be hard to do, considering security was pretty lax,” O’Brocki said.O’Brocki, who was at a conference in Nevada at the time and was giving orders to his staff over the phone, at one point considered shutting down the event but feared the outcome.“We were fearful that if we just closed it down, it would possibly cause a riot,” O’Brocki said. “So we decided just to send a ton of resources down there to Band-Aid the situation.” In all, the city sent six medic units, three EMS units with an EMS battalion chief, two engine units, two hazardous materials units, one truck unit and one rescue boat to the event. Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County sent two medic units each. Some of the individual units that responded made repeat trips to the event. By comparison, the city stations two medic units at M&T Bank Stadium during Ravens games, which draw close to 80,000 people, O’Brocki said. The stadium has its own EMS personnel, but so did Starscape, he said.The difference was that members of the “mostly intoxicated” crowd at Starscape were exerting themselves for hours on end, in sweltering heat, O’Brocki said. According to the National Weather Service, it was 90 degrees at 4:06 p.m. in the Baltimore area June 9, and the sun didn’t set for another four and a half hours.Late Tuesday,


Bees help Prince George’s church raise money for repairs

out before we could start work on the bell tower.” Brewin-Wilson said the earthquake caused damage to the church, especially to the bell tower, making the church unusable. Church members have been meeting in their neighboring parish hall, she said, while repairs to the mortar of the bell tower and addition to the church move forward. For repairs to the church to begin, the bees had to be removed, Brewin-Wilson said. Parishioner and Croom resident Jeff Colburn, who practices beekeeping as a hobby, came up with a “bee vacuum” to remove the bees and collected the hives May 26. Colburn said he was able to build the vacuum using spare beekeeping equipment and a shop vacuum that he already owned. “I was amazed when I pulled the boards up [to get to the hive],” Colburn said. “I was staring at thousands of bees. It was fascinating work.” Colburn extracted the bees and the hives and moved them to his back yard. He was able to recover and process 80 pounds worth of “Holy Honey,” which Brewin-Wilson blessed and Colburn sold to raise money to help with the church repairs. “We sold all the honey at $10 per pound,” Colburn said. “This year was pretty tough [for our personal bee colonies], with the warm winter and early spring. The harvest wasn’t so good. So it was a nice surprise that we were able to get so much honey out of the church.” Meme Thomas, the Prince George’s County vice president of the Maryland State Beekeepers Association, said the use of a bee vacuum is one of the least invasive and most effective ways for moving a hive. “You literally suck out all of the worker bees, in an attempt to also get the queen bee,” Thomas said. “As long as the queen is there, the colony will continue to be viable [in a new location]. It’s actually pretty non-invasive, simple and straightforward.” Brewin-Wilson said despite the nearly $800 in honey sales — as well as $40,000 in grants from the Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission — the church still needs to raise $30,000 for the current phase of repairs. She said her church is working on arranging fundraising events in the fall and next year. To donate to the repair effort, call Brewin-Wilson at 301-627-8469 or mail St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, 14300 St. Thomas Church Rd., Upper Marlboro, MD 20772.


Brookside’s ‘Wings of Fancy’ reveals allure of butterflies

keeps coming to the event. Even his wife doesn’t understand it, he said. “I like them for their colors — they’re delicate,” he said of the butterflies. He shrugs, then points to the image on his camera’s viewfinder. He’s captured a brilliant purple butterfly perched on a macaroni-yellow flower. “I like finding things like that,” he said. Dan Babbit, director of the insect zoo and butterfly pavilion at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, thinks the human attraction to butterflies is a cultural bias. “Butterflies evolved for attraction, and they’re an approachable animal,” he said. “People don’t see butterflies as insects, a lot of the time. A lot of people see them as flying flowers.” He also points to the mythology of metamorphosis surrounding the insects. “You’ve got an animal that goes into a sleepy state with not much going on, and it emerges as something completely different,” he said. “It’s kind of like a phoenix rising from the ashes to become, well, a beautiful butterfly. People like to think about that, if you’re going through a tough time.” Dryas Julia, Cethosia cyane, magnificent owl — the names, listed on a bulletin board in the exhibit for identification, are poetic, as delicate and intricate as the patterns on the butterflies’ wings. Within the pavilion, small, seemingly nondescript butterflies fly into the sunlight, revealing the deep color that was hidden when their wings were folded. With an experienced eye, one can pick out the small differences in appearance that indicate the sheer number of species in the exhibit, many of which are native to other continents, said exhibit volunteer Nancy Lieby, 58. That sense of discovery is what inspired Bob Robbins, a curator of butterflies and moths at the Smithsonian, to devote his life to studying butterflies. “Most entomologists start by studying butterflies and later move on to another insect,” he said. “I just never moved on.” Robbins recalls a saying from an ancient Amazonian tribe: “Unfriendly people have the spirit of the jaguar. Kind people have the spirit of the butterfly.” He references the ancient Greeks, whose word for “butterfly” was “psyche,” the same as their word for “soul.” “Even they saw a connection,” he said. The butterflies in “Wings of Fancy” are confident. They land on heads, hands, cameras, lingering long enough to show off the vibrant color of their wings, but no longer. Most have a three-week life


Montgomery sees shifting attitudes on marijuana

move the state a step closer to decriminalization of the drug. Fourteen states have decriminalized the possession of marijuana, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Seventeen states and the District have some legal framework to provide medicinal marijuana to qualified patients, St. Pierre said. Although Maryland has not decriminalized the drug, the shifting perspective on marijuana soon will force police organizations to re-examine their priorities when the new laws take effect, St. Pierre said. “It ultimately is a half-measure between prohibition and full decriminalization,” he said of the laws passed by the assembly this session. “As a consumer, I would willingly take the Hobson’s choice and have the contraband destroyed and be let off with a fine rather than being dragged violently into the criminal justice system.” Regardless of state politics, the legalization of marijuana remains a matter of federal law, Frosh and Raskin said. Even in states such as California, where marijuana is decriminalized and medicinal dispensaries are in place, state-sanctioned growers still are subject to federal raids, Frosh said. “It’s still a federal crime,” Frosh said. “And it doesn’t look like there is a federal consensus at this point.” Raskin agreed with Frosh, but he added that state laws such as those passed this year are important steps toward a more reasonable marijuana policy. “I don’t think that the state should be in the business of ruining people’s lives because they either need to use marijuana as the result of a medical illness or because they have done what tens of millions of Americans, including several presidents, have done,” he said. Not everyone agrees the new laws are a positive step. Joyce Nalepka of Silver Spring — a self-described “anti-drug addict” — considers marijuana to be in much the same category as heroin and cocaine. “You can’t separate them, because once you start you’re very likely to move on to other drugs,” Nalepka said. “On top of that, it is damaging our children immeasurably. . . . Marijuana is not just a harmless drug; it is damaging to every major system and organ in the body.” A former president of the National Federation of Parents for Drug-Free Youth and founder of the Drug-Free Kids: America’s Challenge anti-drug lobbying group, Nalepka has campaigned for stricter drug penalties in Maryland and across the nation since the 1970s. She expressed disappointment


Montgomery Marines broke color barriers during World War II

More than 65 years ago, Charles Frazier and John Henry Chaney left the Marine Corps with honorable discharges and $300 apiece. Although the Montgomery County natives faced unique perils fighting in the Pacific and at home as some of the first black Marines, the men were not awarded medals for bravery. They were not praised for having the courage to stand along white Marines more than 20 years before the end of Jim Crow or asked to chronicle their experience. Recognition of those accomplishments and their struggles would not come until June 28, when Frazier, Chaney and the 366 other surviving Marines who trained at Montford Point, N.C., each were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The Montford Point Marines were the first blacks to serve in the Marine Corps after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order in 1941 requiring all branches of the military to accept people of color into their ranks, said Charles Melson, chief historian for the U.S. Marine Corps History Division. Blacks had served in nearly every American conflict before then, but the Marine Corps was the last branch of the military to officially allow them into its ranks. “To some extent, the Marine Corps was considered as the last bastion of white-ism,” Melson said. Montford Point would be home to 19,168 black Marine recruits during the next seven years, nearly 13,000 of which — like Frazier and Chaney — would fight in the Pacific Theater during World War II, Melson said. The base and the Marines it produced from 1942 to 1949 would serve as an argument for diversity and equal opportunity. Frazier, 86, of Germantown said he was born and raised near Gaithersburg. He has worked as a handyman at an automotive dealership in Gaithersburg for the past 30 years. Like Chaney, 92, of Boyds and many other blacks at the time, Frazier was the son of a farmworker and grew up believing he would be a laborer his entire life. Unlike many others, though, Frazier graduated from Lincoln High School in Rockville, the county’s only black high school. He immediately was drafted into the military after graduation in 1944 and told by the recruiter that he would be a Marine, like it or not. “I showed him my Navy papers and he said, ‘Damn those papers, you going to the Marines,’ ” Frazier said. Chaney was drafted


D.C. news in brief

St. Elizabeths East Campus to open for summer festival St. Elizabeths East Campus, 1100 Alabama Ave. SE, will be open to the public for the first time in almost a century during a summer festival from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Activities include live music and poetry, outdoor galleries and family activities and the opening of the Ward 8 Farmers Market. The farmers market will continue every Saturday through Thanksgiving. The 183-acre campus of the mental-health hospital, which was originally under federal control, was transferred to the District in 1987. In April 2010, a new hospital opened on the campus to serve local patients and federal inmates with mental-heath issues. The District plans to redevelop the East Campus as a mixed-use and mixed-income community while the federal government builds a new headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security on the West Campus. For information, go to www.stelizabethseast.com. Technology allows D.C. Jail to offer video visitation A video visitation center for the D.C Jail went live Wednesday. The center, located in the D.C. General Hospital complex, will allow inmates to speak with visitors through video conferencing. The Department of Corrections says that the new technology could double the number of daily visits from 200 to 400 and will reduce long lines for visitors, eliminate the need for pat-downs and frisking, and reduce staff costs. There have been 108 video units installed — 54 in the jail and 54 at the hospital complex. For information, go to www.doc.dc.gov. DDOT to discuss safety on 17th and 19th streets near Capitol Hill The District Department of Transportation has scheduled two public meetings to discuss safety improvements on 17th and 19th streets between Benning Road NE and Potomac Avenue SE. The meetings will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at Eastern High School, 1700 E. Capitol St. NE, and Tuesday at Pilgrim AME Church, 612 17th St. NE. The department is evaluating possible improvements identified in the 2006 Capitol Hill Infrastructure Study, including new roadway markings and signage, curb extensions (also known as bulb-outs), sidewalk ramps and traffic-signal upgrades. A final meeting will be held to review the consensus for safety improvements. For information, call 202-347-1446 or e-mail errol.williams@mckissackdc.com. Housing department rent-control seminar scheduled for Thursday The D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development is having a seminar on rent control Thursday from noon to 2 p.m. at the department’s Resource Center,


London 2012: IOC is stubbornly offensive on Opening Ceremonies

shows have more message than the Opening Ceremonies of a global event that is at least, ostensibly, supposed to promote peace and understanding between nations. (Yeah, I know, but it’s supposed to. That’s not a part of the NFL charter.) Bob Costas, who will host NBC’s coverage Friday, feels that the Israeli athletes should be honored. “Many people find that denial more than puzzling but insensitive,” he told the Hollywood Reporter last month. Costas is in a unique position. The IOC decides who gets the TV rights to cover the Games; NBC has them through 2020. And while the IOC apparently has a short memory when it comes to its murdered athletes, it has a long memory when it comes to money. So Costas will be walking a fine line if he chooses to go rogue during the telecast. Hopefully he’ll remember the late Jim McKay, whose work during the 1972 Games was as stellar as it was difficult. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if the athletes themselves took over? What if, during the parade of nations, when the Israeli team was introduced, everyone else just . . . stopped. And then stood still for 60 seconds. Short of using cattle prods, organizers couldn’t do a damn thing about it. The athletes would demonstrate, clearly, that they understood Israel’s continued pain. They would show that they have more sense, more decency than Rogge and his cronies — not a hard hurdle to clear. What can he do, send them all home? By refusing to honor these athletes, the IOC dishonors them. A moment of silence at the Athletes’ Village, a reception on Aug. 6, a ceremony in Munich next month — all of these are empty gestures because the world isn’t watching. The world was watching 40 years ago, breathless and praying, when those athletes were taken from the Olympic Village and killed by terrorists. They deserve better than that as their epitaphs. For Tracee Hamilton’s previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/hamilton. More 2012 Olympics Olympians prepared to weather whatever It’s what you wear that counts Hamilton: The dishonor of the IOC In U.S., track slumps while swimming soars Wise: The spirit of ‘Chariots of Fire’ London Eyes: Share sights sounds of Olympics Bolt aims ‘to become a legend’ Britain loves soccer, but at the Games? Photos: London is down to finishing touches Follow the Olympics live on our London Games blog


Buckyballs magnets targeted by federal suit, citing dangers for children

The Consumer Product Safety Commission filed suit Wednesday to stop the company that distributes the popular Buckyballs magnets from selling the product, a legal tactic that the agency has used only once before in the past decade. The agency alleges that the magnets pose a grave danger to children. The CPSC says it filed the administrative complaint only after New York-based Maxfield & Oberton refused to voluntarily recall the powerful BB-size magnets, which are sold in sets of 216. While these magnets have been marketed as desk toys for adults, the agency’s complaint cited numerous incidents in which children younger than 14 swallowed the magnets, sometimes after using them to mimic tongue or lip piercings. When two or more of the magnets are swallowed, they can attach to each other, ripping holes in the stomach and intestines or causing other serious injuries, blood poisoning and death. The agency said it knows of more than two dozen magnet ingestion cases since 2009. At least a dozen of them involved Buckyballs, and some required surgery, including a 4-year-old boy who ingested three Buckyballs that he thought were chocolate candy, the agency said. Retailers that were alerted in advance of the federal agency’s lawsuit — including Amazon and Brookstone — agreed to stop selling the popular Buckyballs, Buckycubes and other similar products. Ebay also agreed to take steps to remove listings of these items, according to the CPSC. More than 2 million Buckeyball sets and 200,000 Buckycubes have been sold in this country since 2009 and 2011, respectively. Maxfield & Oberton, which has cooperated with the commission in recent years to warn about the misuse of the magnets, said it was stunned by the agency’s actions. “Thank you for trying to drive a $50 million New York-based consumer product company out of business,” the company shot back in a statement on Wednesday. The magnet-distributor blasted the commission for filing a lawsuit, alleging the CPSC did not give the company a chance to make its case. Instead, the regulators asked the retailers to stop selling the magnets and gave them 48 hours to respond, the company said. These “intimidation tactics” have ruined the retailer’s base without good reason, Craig Zucker, the company’s chief executive said. He added that it is unreasonable for the agency to react in such a way to two dozen cases of misuse when more than half a billion magnets are


At Camp Moss Hollow, great butterflies emerge from tiny caterpillars

Pride Rock, an area near Camp Moss Hollow's dining hall that attracts butterflies, a tiger swallowtail, in Fauquier County, Va. (John Kelly/THE WASHINGTON POST) This was the summer of the butterflies. Dramatic yellow and black tiger swallowtails. Iridescent spicebush swallowtails. Orangey-black spangled fritillaries. The beautiful insects were in abundance when I visited Camp Moss Hollow. They fluttered confetti-like among the foliage that lines the gravel road to the camp’s entrance, welcoming visitors like nature’s own ticker tape parade. They sat on the road itself, patiently pivoting their delicate wings up and down between 90 degrees and 180 degrees. They were most noticeable on the butterfly bushes of Pride Rock. That’s a recent addition to the camp, a flat, open nicely landscaped area on a hill next to the dining hall. There are benches, a fountain — and all those butterflies. The name Pride Rock echoes Disney’s “The Lion King,” but it has more than one meaning, the camp’s director, Hope Asterilla, told me. It’s a place to gather — like a pride of lions — and it’s a place to be proud of. And it’s a reminder that counselors are proud of each camper’s achievements. This is the last column of this year’s campaign to raise money for Moss Hollow, a camp that serves at-risk children from the Washington area. When you donate you will be supporting a program that takes children between the ages of 7 and 14 out of hot, concrete canyons and plunks them down on 400 cool, green acres of Fauquier County hillside. You will help ensure that more city kids will encounter deer, snakes, owls, the occasional bear and, of course, butterflies. When I saw the profusion of colorful butterflies at Moss Hollow, I was reminded of a song I heard at Simon Elementary School in Southeast Washington. I heard it at camp, too, but it had a special resonance in the walls of that old school. A little girl was getting checked out by a doctor, courtesy of the Washington Hebrew Congregation, which has partnered for over a decade with Simon and each year sends students to Moss Hollow. Her pre-camp physical complete, her way to Moss Hollow clear, the girl started singing a song she’d learned the previous summer: Once I was a caterpillar/Now I am a butterfly/Been transformed/Been reborn/Moss Hollow is the reason why. There comes a time in life when you


Going on the offensive against cyberattacks

mobile device population will be 10 billion. “Our companies use these, our kids use these, we use these devices,” he said. “They’re not secure.” On July 10, cybersecurity experts James Mulvenon and Gregory Rattray unveiled a study that concludes “the current strategic cyber environment is fundamentally unstable.” Their message: Security concepts the United States has relied upon for decades, such as deterrence, may be weak or useless in the face of cyber-conflict, where offense dominates, preemption is impossible and assaults come at network speed. This instability is “highly dangerous” for the United States, which has “so much to lose” because it is heavily dependent on networks. If we have so much to lose, why is the response so tepid? The private sector stands at the front lines of the assault on intellectual property, especially the attacks on critical infrastructure, yet corporations are often loath to acknowledge that they have been looted, so they remain silent. This contributes to complacency. There is an urgent need for legislation to improve cooperation between the private sector and the U.S. government, which possesses valuable tools for fighting cyber-intrusions and malware. The House has acted, and compromise legislation proposed in the Senate would set voluntary security standards for companies that run critical infrastructure. The bill, though not optimal, would be a worthwhile start and should be passed. The global cyber-arms race is a reality. By deploying a computer worm known as Stuxnet in a covert operation intended to damage Iran’s equipment for enriching uranium, the United States crossed a line. Stuxnet was designed to do physical harm. What if other nations do the same — and do it to us? The U.S. government has revealed little about its offensive activities in this sphere. We think this is shortsighted. Two years ago, the National Research Council found that the government’s policy and legal framework for offensive cyber-programs was “ill-formed, undeveloped and highly uncertain.” Is it any different today? An open, vigorous debate is needed about the threat of cyberwar and the potential response. We had a decades-long debate about nuclear weapons, and it was healthy for the country and the world. We ought to bring the discussion about offensive cyber-conflict out of the shadows. Read more on this topic The Post’s View: A cyber risk to the U.S. John O. Brennan: Time to protect against dangers of cyberattack Jack Goldsmith: The pervasive cyberthreat that goes unchallenged


Modern zoos could be creating a new kind of animal: wild by nature, shaped by captivity

way as to impart to the public that they are looking at a very rare work of art. “What we found out, 10 or 15 years later, is that that’s not what the public wanted,” Krantz continues. “They wanted to get closer, they wanted to hear about it, they wanted to know interesting facts. They wanted a bond, an emotional bond with that animal.” In recent years, zoos have begun to ramp up efforts to engage the public more directly. “The buzzword in the business now is ‘connecting,’ ” says Tony Vecchio, director of the Jacksonville Zoo in Jacksonville, Fla. “Connecting kids to nature, connecting people to nature.” Keeper talks, in which a keeper at the enclosure takes questions from visitors, are a popular way to do this. The talks may touch on conservation issues (during the elephant demo at the National Zoo, a keeper reads from a script about boycotting ivory products) but are most effective at conveying a keeper’s enthusiasm. Craig Saffoe, curator of great cats at the National Zoo, cares less about teaching a particular lesson than fueling people’s curiosity. To second-graders, he describes how lions attack and kill a zebra, and eat its heart and brain. He lets them pet a golden swatch of a lion’s pelt. “Has anyone ever touched a lion?” he likes to ask. “I know you haven’t, because you’re still alive.” Saffoe, who has multiple tattoos of cheetahs, including a large one bounding into his shirt-sleeve, also gives versions of his keeper talks in the community. He recently spoke at a bar to a gathering of young professionals, who proved a receptive audience. “By the end of the evening, everyone’s hammered and I’m talking about cheetah sex, and people start yelling, ‘Show us your tattoos!’ ” A well-designed exhibit can also help connect people to the animals in a way that the “rare work of art” approach does not. The National Zoo’s O Line, a four-story network of cables that allows the orangutans to travel over the main visitor walkway between their enclosures, was years ahead of its time when it opened in 1995, says Terry Maple, former president and chief executive of Zoo Atlanta, who calls it “the most courageous bit of design I had ever seen in a zoo.” While it was being built, the exhibit had generated controversy as a radical, even risky, way to show off the apes.


Pakistan recounts how doctor helped U.S. in bin Laden operation

Jamil Afridi, left, brother of Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi, holds a a news conference in Peshawar, Pakistan on May 28, 2012. The brother of a doctor sentenced to 33 years for helping the United States track down Osama bin Laden says that his brother is innocent. (Mohammad Sajjad/AP) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A woman in her late 30s named Kate was the spy’s first handler. She had green eyes, blond hair and a British accent. Such novelistic details emerge in a newly surfaced Pakistani intelligence report supposedly based on interrogations of Shakil Afridi, the imprisoned physician who has been lauded in Washington as a hero for his role in the operation that led to the al-Qaeda chief’s killing but is branded a traitor here. “He met 25 times with foreign secret agents, received instructions and provided sensitive information to them,” states the investigative report, filed by prosecutors Wednesday in a tribal appeals court where Afridi is seeking to overturn his 33-year sentence. “The accused was aware that he was working against Pakistan.” The narrative laid out in the report could not be independently verified. The interrogations that it purports to summarize were carried out under a tribal judicial system in which Afridi had no counsel and could not challenge the evidence against him. “There is no evidence — only the prosecution investigation report, which under the law has no legal value,” Afridi’s attorney, Samiullah Afridi, said Thursday. Shakil Afridi lived in the semiautonomous Khyber Agency in Pakistan’s northwest — which the government said put him under the jurisdiction of tribal administrative officials who also are empowered to act as a court. The prison term incensed U.S. lawmakers, who at one point cut $1 million in aid for Pakistan for every year of the sentence. Obama administration officials have called on Pakistan to release Afridi. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, detained the doctor three weeks after U.S. commandos killed bin Laden in May 2011. A year later, he was sentenced for crimes against the state that allegedly included assisting a banned militant group; the bin Laden operation was not mentioned at the time. But in the new prosecution report, investigators say Afridi played a “central role” in the raid on the terrorist leader’s compound. The operation “humiliated Pakistan around the world,” it adds. U.S. has admitted to ruse U.S. officials acknowledge that the CIA used Afridi, 48, to run a hepatitis


Magnitsky Act supporters feel the Kremlin’s wrath

with many other representatives of Russia’s civil society, political opposition and independent media, I have been a vocal supporter of the legislation, urging its passage in public speeches and in private meetings with Washington policymakers. In authoritarian systems that maintain their power by stifling free initiative and free speech, the line between journalism and civic activism is not — and cannot be — as rigid as it is in democratic societies. Colleagues have long warned that my support for the bill would, sooner or later, catch the Kremlin’s attention. The timing is not surprising, as the bill is nearing passage. My case is just one in a series of “retaliatory” measures Putin’s regime has taken against Russian supporters of the Magnitsky legislation. Other examples include the recent early-morning raids on the homes of opposition leaders and a series of new repressive laws directed against Russia’s already-besieged civil society, including the 150-fold increase in fines for “violations” at public rallies and the requirement that Russian nongovernmental organizations that receive funding from abroad be tagged as “foreign agents.” That the targets of retaliation are Russian is hardly surprising: A “reciprocal” visa ban for U.S. sponsors of the Magnitsky Act would have drawn only laughter. Officials in Moscow had long promised that the response to the bill would be “asymmetrical.” The Kremlin’s blackmail must not be allowed to succeed. The hysterical reaction from Putin’s regime shows beyond doubt that the legislation hits precisely where it hurts. The prospect of losing access to the West and its financial systems (initiatives similar to the U.S. bill are already being considered in European Union parliaments and in Canada) may well be, for now, the only serious disincentive to corruption and human rights violations by Russian officials. Symbolically, the adoption of the Magnitsky Act has been tied to the repeal of the antiquated Jackson-Vanik Amendment, thus replacing trade sanctions against a nation with personal sanctions against specific criminals. Perhaps the most pro-Russian piece of legislation ever put before the U.S. Congress, the Magnitsky Act offers Washington an opportunity to speak with a unified voice and with unquestioned moral clarity. I hope that it will be signed into law before the end of the year. Read more from Opinions: Robert Kagan and David J. Kramer: A bill that cracks down on Russian corruption Sen. Ben Cardin: Accountability for Sergei Magnitsky’s killers The Post’s View: Punish the Russian abusers


London 2012: Olympians prepared to weather whatever

maybe not. “There’s every chance the Opening Ceremonies could go on in very dry conditions,” he said. Swin Cash “Oh my God, this was Seattle times 10,” she said. “It would be rainy and cold, and then stop for a while and be nice. The weather felt schizophrenic.” When she received the white skirt that is part of Team USA’s Opening Ceremonies uniform for U.S women, she inquired whether a nice pair of white pants would be an acceptable substitute. The answer was no. She then asked if there might be some sort of purse so she could stuff something warm inside to smuggle into the stadium. That was also a no. Mostly, though, she said, she’s worried about rain. “If I get my hair wet, it’s going to be poofy the next day, and we’re playing a game,” Cash said. “Women think of these things.” Mariel Zagunis “If it rains, it rains,” Zagunis said. “I’m just going to focus on not tripping and not letting the flag touch the ground.” Thwaytes, one of a team of 16 meteorologists contracted by London organizers to keep athletes and officials informed on weather conditions, said he expected cooler, bleaker weather through next Tuesday, with at least one rainy day in the bunch. “It’s looking a bit mixed but on the whole . . . not bad,” he said. “Certainly nothing compared to what we had in early June and July.” That’s when London got a record-setting deluge, caused when the jetstream that typically tends to migrate north in the summer mysteriously camped over Britain. Thwaytes said the chilly maritime weather from the Atlantic Ocean does battle for prominence with the warmer, brighter, continental effect from the east. The last two Summer Games, 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing, were characterized by such oppressive heat that the U.S. Olympic Committee took preemptive measures, such as having cooling vests provided to marathon runners to wear before their races, to lower their body temperatures so they could stave off overheating. The USOC took no such dramatic precautions this time around, according to Alan Ashley, the organization’s chief of sport performance, though thanks to a rule change regarding attire, beach volleyball players may now wear leggings and long sleeves if they wish. Athletes have “really had a chance to experiment competing in London,” Ashley said. “I think that’s actually the best possible way to do


London 2012 Olympics: In the United States, swimming has passed track in stature

infamous Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative drug scandal. More than a dozen track athletes, including Jones, were implicated in the scandal, but swimming escaped unscathed. Whether U.S. swimmers were cleaner, or just luckier, is unclear, but for sure they avoided the massive negative publicity that the exposure of widespread performance-enhancing drug use brought to track and other sports, including football and baseball. Almost a decade after the eruption of the Balco episode, many track stars roll their eyes at questions about performance-enhancing drugs. It is a sensitive — and some argue overdone — subject. The most famous U.S. track athlete to test positive since Beijing, Merritt, was exonerated of intent to cheat by an arbitration panel, which ruled he inadvertently consumed a steroid. Still, he received a 21-month ban. “I definitely feel we’re past it,” said Sanya Richards-Ross, a three-time Olympic medalist and reigning bronze medal winner in the 400 meters. “Many athletes have built a great reputation as being clean athletes. I think it’s in the past. People are always bringing up the sore things in life.” Though memory of the scandal has largely faded, no superb U.S. sprint star has emerged since to reignite excitement and capture the nation’s fancy like Phelps or Bolt. “We need to find a couple of those type of superstars — not just great athletes but great personalities, too,” said Bruce Jenner, the decathlon champion at the 1976 Summer Games. “We live in a personality-driven world.” Indeed, Phelps’s personality and his extraordinary eight gold medal quests in 2004 (he won six golds and two bronzes) and 2008 lifted an entire sport. Wielgus said USA Swimming’s budget has grown from less than $30 million during the 1996 Olympic quadrennium to $123 million during this one. Before 2000, the organization had one major sponsor, Speedo. Now it has 10. Membership is up 15 percent this four years, and the sport gets more television exposure than previously. “From 2000 to 2004, we were buying [air] time,” Wielgus said. “We don’t do that anymore.” Swimming’s challenge will be surviving without Phelps, who has said he will retire after this summer. The high-tech underwater cameras that follow swimmers from start to finish, however, and the jammer shorts that swimmers say are both more modest and hip, will remain. And, most importantly, Lochte and Franklin — and whoever else emerges during the next two weeks — likely will be back.


Bo Xilai's imprisoned wife allegedly denied access to family, lawyers

British businessman Neil Heywood. The sensational case derailed the ambitions of the charismatic Bo and triggered the most dramatic political upheaval in China in two decades ahead of a planned leadership transition this fall. There has been no specific allegation that Bo was involved in Heywood’s death and no official word on his fate. Some analysts said the fact that Bo’s name was not included in Thursday’s report suggests that he might not be charged in connection with the case. On Friday, the Global Times newspaper, which is owned by the Communist Party’s main mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, published an editorial saying that the upcoming trial — to be held in Hefei, in Anhui province — would be a test of China’s commitment to the rule of law. “It will be a landmark trial,” the newspaper said. “So far, it has sent a message to society that nobody, regardless of his or her status and power, can be exempt from punishment if he or she behaves unscrupulously, especially if he harms another person’s life.” But individuals close to Gu’s family who have knowledge of the case are questioning whether the trial, which they believe will be held Aug. 7 or 8, can be fair. They said that since Gu was arrested in April, family members have received no official word of the charges she is facing and that neither they nor the lawyers they hired have been able to meet with her. “The family can’t do anything but anxiously wait and worry,” said one person close to the family, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of restrictions on speaking to foreign journalists. The person said Gu’s family believes she is being held in a house or villa in Hefei, which is typical for high-profile prisoners. “But if so, why don’t they allow the family to visit her?” One of the individuals with direct knowledge of the case said that Gu’s mother, Fan Chengxiu, had hired two Beijing lawyers, Shen Zhigeng and Du Lianjun, who have experience handling high-profile corruption cases. Shen, contacted by telephone, said he has not been able to reach Gu. Du could not be reached for this article. But others with knowledge of the case said that Du went to the Hefei prosecutor’s office and, after waiting half a day, was told that Gu will be represented in her trial by two government-appointed lawyers from