Motor vehicle crashes: A little-known risk to returning veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan

Steven Acheson, an Iraq War veteran, at his apartment in Platteville, Wis., May 3, 2013. (Andy Manis/For The Washington Post) For men and women who have fought in the country’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, death behind the wheel is becoming another lethal aftereffect of combat. After they leave military service, veterans of the two wars have a 75 percent higher rate of fatal motor vehicle accidents than do civilians. Troops still in uniform have a higher risk of crashing their cars in the months immediately after returning from deployment than in the months immediately before. People who have had multiple tours in combat zones are at highest risk for traffic accidents. The phenomenon has been revealed by various pieces of evidence — research as well as observations of service members, veterans and counselors. The most common explanation is that troops bring back driving habits that were lifesaving in war zones but are dangerous on America’s roads. They include racing through intersections, straddling lanes, swerving on bridges and, for some, not wearing seat belts because they hinder a rapid escape. That’s probably not the whole story, however. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suffered by thousands of veterans, increases aggressive driving. Drunken driving and thrill-seeking also are more common after combat, according to a few studies and the testimony of many veterans. Steven Acheson drives his car around Platteville, Wis., May 3, 2013. (Andy Manis/For The Washington Post) If further research supports the observations, motor vehicle crashes will join suicide and interpersonal violence as a fatal, if indirect, consequence of the war on terrorism. Motor vehicle crashes have long been a serious problem in the military. From 1999 through 2012, a period spanning peacetime and the two wars, as many active-duty military personnel died in noncombat motor vehicle crashes both on and off duty (4,423) as were killed in the Iraq war (4,409). “Before suicides became the leading cause of non-battle injuries, motor vehicle injuries were,” said Bruce H. Jones, a physician and epidemiologist who heads the Army’s injury prevention program at Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Maryland. War, however, worsens the problem. Men who served in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan have a 76 percent higher rate of dying in vehicle crashes, and women a 43 percent higher rate, than people in the general population, according to an unpublished study by Han K. Kang, an epidemiologist with the Department of Veterans


Looking for signs of life in the universe

Scientist William Borucki conceived, designed and now is leading NASA’s Kepler space mission that will bring the world a step closer to knowing whether life exists on other planets. Launched in 2009 and operating today, the Kepler space observatory is the culmination of Borucki’s nearly 30 years of pioneering work demonstrating a technique for discovering thousands of planets orbiting distant stars in our region of the Milky Way. Many of these planets are the size of Earth or larger and a small portion of these exist in the habitable zone, the region around a star where water may exist. While the scientific objective of the Kepler mission is to explore the structure and diversity of planetary systems hundreds of light years away from Earth, the ultimate outcome could be even more profound. “The result of this mission will be one of the most important scientific discoveries of any century, and will forever change humanity’s perception of our place in the cosmos,” said S. Pete Worden, director of NASA’s Ames Research Center. “Kepler is showing that planets are common in our galaxy, opening up the very real possibility that life exists elsewhere in the universe.” Worden said Borucki’s intense personal commitment, scientific knowledge, exhaustive mastery of many technological challenges and sheer persistence won over skeptical astronomers and NASA managers, and made the idea for the Kepler mission a reality. (NASA Ames Research Center) By the spring of 2013, the Kepler orbiting telescope had catalogued more than 2,700 planet candidates and confirmed 114 as planets. It has discovered the first rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star; a tightly compacted six planet system; the first pair of planets orbiting a double star; several planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars; and planets as small as the size of Earth’s moon. Borucki initially published a seminal paper in 1984 that discussed the requirements for detecting presumed planets outside our solar system using photometry. This technique involves measuring the total light from many stars and looking for small and periodic dips in total luminosity that occur when a planet crosses in front of its star, the signature of a possible but unseen planetary body. As described in the paper, the project required high precision space-borne imaging detectors which had not yet been developed. In 1992, NASA solicited ideas for mission concepts, but Borucki’s proposal was rejected because the necessary detectors were


Jimmy Carter, now 88, on aging and health

In 2007, Jimmy Carter, right, and his wife, Rosalynn, left, watch as a child in Ghana is treated for a guinea worm emerging from her foot. (LOUISE GUBB/CARTER CENTER) What’s life like for an ex-president? Pretty busy, if you’re Jimmy Carter. Sporting a pair of artificial knees, Carter, 88, logs many thousands of miles each year, monitoring elections (Egypt and Libya), mediating conflicts (Sudan and Congo), building houses (Haiti). He also works on projects with a group called the Elders, or what Carter jokingly calls “political has-beens” to foster, for example, reconciliation in places where peace seems hard to come by. Although he lost his 1980 bid for reelection as president at age 56 to Ronald Reagan, Carter’s continued activity in the public sphere landed him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for what Gunnar Berge, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, called “his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Still, family and Georgia remain important to the man who was the 39th president, and especially his marriage. Carter says he and his wife, Rosalynn, never go to bed angry. “We have the same love and affection we had when we first were married,” he said during a telephone interview this spring in a voice that is still strong and very distinctively Georgian. You have been very active traveling. Is that more difficult now than it was 20 years ago? We just got back from fishing in Argentina. I really don’t have a different reaction to travel. I have never suffered from jet lag. I can sleep on airplanes. When we take off, I orient my watch to what the time is where we are going. Tell me about what drives you. What are the tricks older people use to stay wiser, a step ahead? Here are tips from an ex-ballplayer, an ex-president, a gorilla expert, a sexologist and a former Supreme Court justice, among others, via writer Laura Hambleton. Ever since we left the White House, most of our activities have been through the nonprofit Carter Center, which works in about 70 nations, 35 in Africa. We try to advance peace, human rights and democracy, and to end suffering from neglected diseases among the world’s poorest people. Rosalynn and I personally travel to the places where we think we will have


Federal Faces: William Borucki

Name: William Borucki Position: Best known for: The Kepler mission is to explore the structure and diversity of planetary systems hundreds of light-years away from Earth. Borucki’s scientific knowledge, exhaustive mastery of technological challenges and sheer persistence convinced skeptical astronomers and NASA managers of the feasibility of the Kepler mission. The Kepler orbiting telescope has catalogued more than 2,700 planet candidates and confirmed 114 as planets. It has discovered the first rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star; a tightly compacted six-planet system; the first pair of planets orbiting a double star; several planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars; and planets as small as the size of Earth’s moon. Space scientist William Borucki joined NASA in 1962. (COURTESY OF NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER) Borucki published a seminal paper in 1984 on the requirements for detecting presumed planets outside our solar system. Starting in 1992, he made four proposals that were rejected before earning the NASA go-ahead on the fifth try in 2001. It took eight more years before the launch. Government work: Motivation for service: Biggest challenge: “ Quote: — From the Partnership for Public Service For a full profile, go to The Fed Page at washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-government.


Boston bombing suspect’s friend released; California court deals blow to pot stores

from federal custody while he awaits trial for allegedly lying to federal investigators probing the April 15 bombings. Robel Phillipos was charged last week and faces up to eight years in prison if convicted. The 19-year-old was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with Tsarnaev. Prosecutors initially asked that Phillipos be held while he awaits trial, arguing that he poses a serious flight risk. But prosecutors and Phillipos’s lawyers said Monday in a joint motion that they now agree that Phillipos can be released under strict conditions, including home confinement, monitoring with an electronic bracelet and a $100,000 secured bond. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler agreed to the request during a hearing Monday afternoon. — Associated Press California Cities can ban pot stores, court rules The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that cities and counties can ban medical marijuana dispensaries, a decision likely to further diminish the network of storefront pot shops and fuel efforts to have the state regulate the industry. In a unanimous opinion, the court held that California’s medical marijuana laws — the nation’s first and most liberal — neither prevent local governments from using their land-use powers to zone dispensaries out of existence nor grant authorized users convenient access to the drug. The ruling came in a legal challenge to a ban enacted by the city of Riverside in 2010, but 200 other jurisdictions have similar prohibitions on retail pot sales, the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access estimates. Of the 18 states that allow the medical use of marijuana, California is the only one where residents can obtain a doctor’s recommendation to consume it for any ailment the physician sees fit as opposed to only for conditions such as AIDS and glaucoma. — Associated Press Kansas Wild cats seized from private farmland A tiger and two mountain lions were among a menagerie of wild cats seized from private farmland in rural northeast Kansas, where they lived in inadequate chain-link enclosures and weren’t properly fed or watered, authorities said Monday. Authorities found a tiger, two mountain lions, three bobcats, two lynx, a type of African cat called a serval and two skunks on the property. They were taken Sunday from the land belonging to a relative of the animals’ owner and were turned over to animal sanctuaries in Texas, Florida and Kansas. — Associated Press Newtown educators get Citizen Honors medals: — From news services


Council approves plan to speed zoning changes needed for Wal-Mart in Aspen Hill

A “minor” land-use plan that is likely to accelerate the opening of a Wal-Mart in Aspen Hill triggered a major debate in the Montgomery County Council on Monday, as members argued over the economic and social impact of the retailing giant. By a 5 to 4 vote, the council approved a proposal by county planners to expedite zoning changes necessary to accommodate a Wal-Mart at Aspen Hill Road and Connecticut Avenue. The measure, called a “minor master plan amendment,” is designed to bypass broader master plan reviews that take many years to wend through the approval process. The minor amendment could return to the council for final consideration in late 2014. Lee Development Group, which owns a vacant office building at the site, has an agreement with Wal-Mart to open a store if Lee can secure the proper zoning. Business leaders in the eastern-county community have complained about the blight created by the building, which has been empty for three years. Lee says there is no market for its continued use as office space. But the land-use discussion was overtaken by strong sentiments about Wal-Mart, which has lobbied heavily behind the scenes to establish the Aspen Hill location. Unionized Montgomery County employees, whose local is affiliated with United Food and Commercial Workers, have campaigned vigorously against the plan. The council’s vote came over the objections of two members who enjoy considerable labor support, George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) and Marc Elrich (D-At Large). They said Wal-Mart would place other Aspen Hill businesses, including a Kmart store and a Giant Food supermarket, at risk. Leventhal said Wal-Mart’s sheer size allows it to underprice supermarket competitors at a loss “to further its anti-competitive goals.” He cited ads showing how a $115.71 grocery bill at Giant would be just $90.50 at Wal-Mart. Elrich suggested that Giant run ads about what the county will have to pay in social services to support Wal-Mart employees who will not earn enough to sustain themselves in Montgomery. Amanda Henneberg, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said the company can offer low prices because of its efficient supply chain and relationships with manufacturers. She added that the company was “proud of the competitive nature of our wages and benefits.” But Elrich said his main opposition was to the idea of expediting zoning changes to cater to the needs of individual property owners. Elrich and Leventhal proposed a broader study of the


Charles Lane: A Baltimore jail scandal aided by union politics

Even by the standards of America’s troubled jails and prisons, the scandal at the Baltimore City Detention Center is appalling. A gang known as the Black Guerrilla Family took over the center, trafficking in drugs, cellphones and sexual favors with the connivance of at least 13guards, several of whom are bearing a gang boss’s children, according to a federal indictment. Among the many lessons from this sorry situation is one that experience elsewhere has already taught many times: Good governance is not necessarily consistent with the demands of government unions, in this case the union representing Maryland’s correctional officers. God-awful as it is, the mess at the center was not exactly unprecedented. Between April 2009 and August 2010, the Baltimore City Paper published 14 articles detailing gang-related corruption at state correctional institutions. And it was during this time that Maryland’s branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) lobbied for legislation known as the “Correctional Officers Bill of Rights” (COBR). Here’s a list of a few questionable government payouts. Advertised as much-needed procedural protection against unfair accusations of brutality, COBR established elaborate rules — including a guaranteed appeal hearing in front of a three-member board of fellow officers — for correctional officers suspected of wrongdoing. The bill says that prison managers can’t even “threaten” prosecution, transfer, dismissal or disciplinary action during questioning. It passed the House of Delegates unanimously and the Senate 44 to 2. Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) signed it into law on May 4, 2010. In the union’s view, prison administrators had “pulled the trigger too quickly” on discipline in the past, as AFSCME spokesman Jeff Pittman put it. But according to an FBI special agent’s affidavit attached to the Baltimore indictment, COBR has all but disarmed managers at the Baltimore jail. Discipline “has proven to be very difficult,” the agent wrote, and “the internal review process set up by COBR is ineffective as a deterrent to [correctional officers] smuggling contraband or getting sexually involved with BGF gang members.” These consequences may have been unintended, but they were hardly unforeseeable. Shortly before COBR was passed in 2010, the City Paper asked the bill’s chief sponsor, state Sen. Donald Munson, how it might affect the department’s efforts to purge gang-connected correctional officers. “I’ve never thought of this measure in this context,” Munson replied. “My guess is that the correctional officers who are going to be


Student found dead at UMd, police say

A female student at the University of Maryland was found dead Monday in a campus dormitory, authorities said. Campus police said the death appears to be accidental. The student was found during the afternoon in Kent Hall, police said. Details were not immediately available early Tuesday. Kent Hall is a four-story coed dormitory that houses about 80 students.


Obama delivers blunt message on sexual assaults in military

Hagel “to step up our game exponentially ” to prevent sex crimes in the military and hold offenders accountable. “For those who are in uniform who’ve experienced sexual assault, I want them to hear directly from their commander in chief that I’ve got their backs,” he added. The Pentagon, using anonymous surveys and sampling research, estimated that 26,000 personnel experienced “unwanted sexual contact” last year, up from about 19,300 in 2010, according to an ongoing Defense Department study. Military officials said they are concerned that most victims are reluctant to press charges or formally report sexual assault because they fear retaliation or ostracism from their units. The Pentagon recorded 3,374 sexual-assault reports last year, compared with 3,192 in 2011. In both years, fewer than one in 10 cases ended with a sex-assault conviction at court-martial. The vast majority resulted in minor, administrative punishments or were dismissed altogether, the Pentagon study found. In a briefing with reporters, Hagel warned that the military was being fundamentally undermined by the rising prevalence of sexual assault. He announced a series of new programs designed to assist victims and hold commanders accountable for how seriously they take the issue. “This department may be nearing a stage where the frequency of this crime and the perception that there is tolerance of it could very well undermine our ability to effectively carry out the mission and to recruit and retain the good people we need,” he said. “That is unacceptable to me and the leaders of this institution.” But Hagel and other military leaders said they opposed efforts by some lawmakers to revamp the military code of justice so that prosecutors and judges — and not commanding officers — would be solely responsible for handling sexual-assault cases. Hagel, Donley and Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, said that it was important for commanders to retain that authority. “That would just weaken the system,” Hagel said. He added, however, that he would support legislation to curtail the ability of commanders to grant clemency to convicted offenders. Welsh told senators that military lawyers would request jurisdiction in the case involving Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, the chief of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention branch. Krusinski was arrested by Arlington County police early Sunday and charged with sexual battery. Police said Krusinski was drunk about 12:30 a.m. when he approached a woman in a Crystal City parking


BrightFarms’ idea: Greenhouses that cut short the path from plant to grocery shelf

BrightFarms’ greenhouse in Pennsylvania provides produce to 10 grocery stores in the area. The company expects to open a 100,000-square-foot greenhouse next year in the District’s Ward 8. (From BrightFarms) On first meeting, Paul Lightfoot is not necessarily the one you’d pick to drag the grocery business out of the dark ages. The 43-year-old has an earnest manner and a penchant for blue button-down shirts. But he’s also food lover who regularly drives his wife crazy by combing through the pantry and throwing out processed snacks that, in his mind, don’t qualify as food. After a decade developing retail supply-chain software, Lightfoot is just as comfortable talking about “sales variability” and “disintermediation” as he is about heirloom vegetables. His brain seems trained to zero in on the tiny gaps in a supply chain that, once closed, can over time save companies millions of dollars. That is why, when he turned his attention to distributing fresh produce, he came up with a concept that would promise to accomplish two goals: allow big grocery chains to embrace the craze for local food and also improve the slow-growing industry’s bottom line. That concept was BrightFarms, a New York-based company that builds, owns and manages urban greenhouses to sell lettuces, tomatoes and herbs to grocery stores. Launched in 2011, BrightFarms already has a Pennsylvania facility that serves 10 grocery stores and has deals to build seven more in cities that include Oklahoma City, St. Louis, St. Paul and now the District. On Thursday, Lightfoot will join D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray to announce a plan to build a 100,000-square-foot greenhouse in Ward 8 that will grow as much as 1 million pounds of produce a year for local grocery stores. For years, sustainable-food advocates and environmentalists have preached that businesses should “do the right thing” by investing in costly projects for the good of the planet that would, along the way, also lead to better-tasting food. But BrightFarms isn’t relying on ethics or morality to drive its business. Growing locally eliminates the ever-rising costs of shipping produce thousands of miles. It also ensures that what is on the shelves lasts longer, which helps to reduce waste, both at the store and in a consumer’s refrigerator. All this, and BrightFarms charges the same as or less than traditional suppliers. “Our whole shtick is to provide better food that is more profitable,” says Lightfoot. BrightFarms’ hydroponic greenhouses


manages urban greenhouses to sell lettuces, tomatoes and herbs to grocery stores. Launched in 2011, BrightFarms already has a Pennsylvania facility that serves 10 grocery stores and has deals to build seven more in cities that include Oklahoma City, St. Louis, St. Paul and now the District. On Thursday, Lightfoot will join D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray to announce a plan to build a 100,000-square-foot greenhouse in Ward 8 that will grow as much as 1 million pounds of produce a year for local grocery stores. For years, sustainable-food advocates and environmentalists have preached that businesses should “do the right thing” by investing in costly projects for the good of the planet that would, along the way, also lead to better-tasting food. But BrightFarms isn’t relying on ethics or morality to drive its business. Growing locally eliminates the ever-rising costs of shipping produce thousands of miles. It also ensures that what is on the shelves lasts longer, which helps to reduce waste, both at the store and in a consumer’s refrigerator. All this, and BrightFarms charges the same as or less than traditional suppliers. “Our whole shtick is to provide better food that is more profitable,” says Lightfoot. BrightFarms’ hydroponic greenhouses — built on the grocery store’s rooftop where possible — boast no revolutionary technology. The innovation — or what Lightfoot calls the company’s “secret sauce” — is in its business structure. Though the greenhouses are built for stores, the stores don’t pay the construction costs, a huge selling point in a conservative industry where net profits average just 1 or 2 percent per year. The industry’s last big innovation? The implementation of the bar code. BrightFarms also brings in a contract farmer to grow the vegetables, so already-stressed retailers don’t have to become vegetable growers. In return, the grocers sign a 10-year contract to buy lettuce, tomatoes and herbs from BrightFarms. That is significantly longer than most other supplier contracts. But BrightFarms guarantees that over time its prices will not exceed average inflation. If future price increases follow historical patterns, its product will cost a fraction of the market rate by 2030, according to the company’s projections. That’s a huge benefit for grocery stores that are engaged in a constant struggle to respond to volatile produce prices. A freeze in Florida, where most of the country’s tomatoes come from in winter, can send prices soaring, while drought in California can


U-Md. student found dead in dorm is identified; police find no sign of foul play

A 20-year-old student who was found dead in a University of Maryland dormitory has been identified as Sarah Hancock of Bel Air, Md., campus police said Tuesday. Police said in a statement that Hancock’s death appeared to be accidental, with “no indication of foul play or a suicide attempt.” U-Md. Police Sgt. Aaron Davis said authorities would release no further information about the cause of death until an autopsy is done. Hancock’s body was found about 1:15 p.m. Monday in Kent Hall, a four-story coed dormitory of suites and apartments for about 80 students in the South Hill community of the campus. Jeanne Novotny, Hancock’s aunt, said an initial examination suggested that her niece was in “some kind of respiratory distress,” perhaps related to allergies, when she died. Novotny said that Hancock had graduated from C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air, studied at Harford Community College for two years and then transferred to U-Md. Hancock, who was just finishing her junior year, planned to be a social worker. “She loved children and wanted to give back,” Novotny said.


Could that chunk of marble be a little bit of Washington history?

marble could be valuable: “Let’s put it this way . . . a watercolor of Mount Vernon that was done by the [second] architect of the Capitol [Benjamin Henry Latrobe] sold for over $600,000. Then JFK’s leather coat sold for $600,000. Who knows where it would go, especially down in Washington, where money has a funny, different value?” David said: “What I would like to do is find it a good home.” If it’s unclear what David has, it’s perfectly clear what Margie and Bob Hughes have: one of the memorial markers that once stood on 16th Street NW and honored D.C. residents killed during World War I. It’s a 16-inch-tall concrete obelisk bearing a copper tag in memory of James Forsyth Diggs, a Washingtonian killed in action during the Great War. In 1920, more than 500 such markers were placed along 16th Street next to newly planted maple trees. By 1927, many were already in disrepair. When I walked along the route in 2010, only a handful were left, most of them crumbling nubs. The rest had fallen victim to lawn mowers, automobiles, street widening and vandals. Margie’s father, John Stevens, lived on 13th Street NW near Kalmia Road. From 1965 to 1980, he worked for the District’s Department of Sanitation. That may have been why he was on 16th Street one day and salvaged the marker. Records show that it once stood on the west side of 16th, below Tuckerman Street. “He was always a history-type person,” Margie said of her dad, who gave her the obelisk when he sold his house in 1982. He died in 1996. “He didn’t want it to get thrown away,” Bob said. Bob and Margie live in Rockville. For years, the obelisk stood in their yard. Now it’s safely tucked away inside. I’m pretty sure this is the best-preserved of any of the markers. The couple feel it should be where people can see it. I’m talking with D.C. officials to figure out where that might be. With the centennial of the Great War coming up, it’s important that tangible memories like this are preserved. What’s in your attic? I’m curious: Has some piece of local history found its way into your home or yard? Do you possess a bit of building, a memorial, a length of fencing or some other historic artifact? Tell me the details. For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.


Baltimore Symphony Orchestra makes itself at home at Carnegie festival

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Time for Three performs at Carnegie Hall's Spring for Music festival. (Steve J. Sherman) The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has played Carnegie Hall five times in the past six years — the fifth time Monday night, when it opened the third annual Spring for Music festival. And the orchestra seemed to have made itself right at home — but that was just Spring for Music’s schtick. This festival celebrates American orchestras and creative programming at low ticket prices, and it tried to build up a sports-stadium-like-fan-club ambience by having members of the hometown crowd wave banners at the appropriate moment (Baltimore’s color is purple). Gov. Martin O’Malley also offered observations from the stage about how much the orchestra does for its community and the importance of arts education. Since O’Malley has actually performed with the BSO, along with the Celtic rock band O’Malley’s March, which he founded in 1988, he has plenty of authority to say anything about music that he wants. Priming the audience to whoop and holler is not a terrible idea, and the program offered at least one clear occasion for such a response: Jennifer Higdon’s “4-3.” This concerto for the classical-bluegrass trio Time for Three was, if not the best piece on the program, certainly the one that most played to the crowd. Time for Three formed when its members were students at Curtis, the elite music school: These are, in short, top-drawer classical musicians who happen to branch out into another idiom. There’s something slightly tongue in cheek about having a leading classical composer (Higdon teaches at Curtis) write a concerto for three Curtis students who happen to have a crossover band — it’s as if all the vernacular elements were in air quotes. The result goes down easy: Higdon takes the energy that’s characteristic of all her music and tries it out with different accents, folksier twists and plenty of fiddling for the equally energetic young players. (Nicolas Kendall, one of the violinists, can barely stand still even when he isn’t playing.) And the trio, having re-donned the classical mantle, at least in part, for the duration of the concerto, threw it off again in their encore, their signature arrangement of “Orange Blossom Special” (opening with a riff on Vivaldi). Cue purple banners and whoops. A counterweight to this was John Adams’s “Shaker Loops,” another, gentler face of Americana. This early


Security chief removed from besieged Baltimore jail

The Baltimore City Detention Center is the site where scores of crimes allegedly were committed by a prison gang and correctional officers. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) The top administrator in charge of security at the Baltimore city jail has been removed from her job in the aftermath of a federal indictment accusing 13 female guards of colluding with a dangerous gang that officials said had essentially taken over the institution. Shavella Miles was the third-highest ranking official at the Baltimore City Detention Center before her removal on Friday, which was confirmed by two people with knowledge of the investigation. Her departure appears to represent the first significant fallout since the arrests last month — and the first that extends into the ranks of management. The development appeared certain to fuel more political hand-wringing in Annapolis, where Maryland Republicans on Tuesday scheduled a news conference to discuss “the failure” of Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and Democratic leaders in the General Assembly “to prevent the illegal activity taking place within Maryland’s Correction System.” State officials initially defended management of Maryland’s prison system, which operates the jail, but they also launched a top-to-bottom investigation into the facility’s staff that included polygraph tests for senior managers. Their probe followed the announcement April 22 by federal prosecutors in Baltimore that 13 female prison guards had allegedly colluded with members of the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang to smuggle drugs and cell phones into the jail. Prosecutors said four of the guards became pregnant as a result of liaisons with a single inmate. The charges include racketeering, money laundering and drug offenses. Tavon White (Courtesy of Anne Arundel County Police Department ) Rick Binetti, a Maryland corrections spokesman, confirmed that the security chief was removed on Friday, but he declined to identify Miles. Binetti also declined to reveal the results of the reviews of the two higher-ranking officials at the facility, Jail Administrator Ricky Foxwell and Assistant Jail Administrator Gwendolyn Oliver. Miles’s removal came a week after Gary D. Maynard, the embattled secretary of Maryland public safety and correctional services, said top jail officials would be required to submit to polygraph tests following the federal indictment. Miles held the position of security chief as of January, according to a state directory and recent court records. Colleagues saw her escorted from the 3,000-inmate facility north of downtown Baltimore on Friday. A call to Miles’s home Tuesday


D.C. news in brief

Mayor to hold first town hall for LGBT youth Saturday Mayor Vincent C. Gray is holding the first town hall for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth in the District from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday in the North Hall of Eastern Market, 225 Seventh St. SE. For information, contact the D.C. Youth Advisory Council office at 202-727-7968 or dcyac@dc.gov; or the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs office at 202-727-9493 or glbt@dc.gov. For translation services, call 202-442-8150. Computer training nonprofit group hosts community day Byte Back, a nonprofit group that provides computer access and training to underemployed adults, is having a Community Computer Day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at 815 Monroe St. NE. The free event will feature social media and online learning computer workshops; a raffle with free prizes, including a refurbished laptop; a DJ; and children’s activities, such as a moon bounce and face painting. Barbecue and other refreshments will be offered. To reserve a spot, e-mail dcoleman@byteback.org or go to byteback.org/community-computer-day-2. To volunteer, e-mail aluttmer@byteback.org. Transportation meeting to discuss pedestrian safety The D.C. Department of Transportation will hold the second in a series of public meetings on a federally mandated study of pedestrian safety for Pennsylvania and Potomac avenues SE, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. May 16 at Payne Elementary School, 1445 C St. SE. The study is one of several projects related to redevelopment in the larger Anacostia Waterfront Initiative Program. For information or to follow the study, go to www.anacostiawaterfront.org/penn-potomac or e-mail pennpotomac@prrbiz.com. To join the project or Anacostia Waterfront community contact list, e-mail ddot.awi@dc.gov or call 202-741-8528. — Compiled by Terence McArdle


Matt Miller: Dow 15,000 and the retirement crisis ahead

income of $50,054 — have less than three months of liquid savings. Over 30% of all households do not have a savings account at all.” Let’s emblazon these facts on our collective psyche. Millions of families who earn more than the median income have less than three months of savings put aside. Millions of people with less money are living paycheck to paycheck. Families who at least owned their own houses have had their net worth eviscerated by the housing meltdown, which blew out the backstop on which countless Americans depend. A 2011 study found that half of American families couldn’t put their hands on $2000 within 30 days if an emergency struck. As the authors wrote, that $2000 amount “reflects the order of magnitude of the cost of an unanticipated major car repair, a large copayment on a medical expense, legal expenses, or a home repair.” How do we think these families will fare when they’re not just grinding their way through a short-term squeeze but eventually trying to support themselves in retirement at anything close to their standard of living when they were working? John Edwards turned out to be sleazy in the end, but the man had a point: we’ve become “two Americas.” This divide in moods and fates is never clearer than at times when markets hit new peaks. Some of us rejoice. Most of us barely notice. The “good news” is irrelevant. A decade of hype about “the ownership society” hasn’t changed the fact that the vast majority of Americans have precious little saved or invested. Instead, years of wage stagnation, plus soaring prices for the ingredients of middle-class life (such as care or college tuition) has made the crunch— and the disconnect between the two Americas — stark. People will say we need to become thriftier, as Asian nations are. If you’re young, that’s good counsel. If you’re 59 and undersaved or 62 and unemployed it’s a little late for Ben Franklin-style homilies. The entire social and fiscal debate ignores this monster of an issue, but it’s only a matter of time. The kids are moving back home when they graduate and can’t find work. Soon, grandma and grandpa are going to be moving in, too. There’s a reckoning ahead that policymakers and the news media haven’t begun to think clearly about — or focus the public on. What’s the answer? A good place


Montgomery County Animal Watch

This was among cases received recently by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5054. That number provides recorded information on topics such as the Montgomery County Animal Shelter hours and location, adoption and licensing procedures, rabies clinics and low-cost neutering. Husky stuck with a skimpy bed: Oak Bluff Dr., 20400 block, Montgomery Village, April 23. A resident reported possible neglect of a Siberian husky whose doghouse was too small. The officer found the dog in good condition but confined in a pen that was too small per the county code. The shelter was appropriately sized but lacked required bedding. The officer left a notice for the dog’s owner. When the owner called, an animal services officer explained the issue and promised to follow up on the situation. Shelter has adoptable cats Gaithersburg Montgomery County Humane Society Rockville Aspen Hill Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Fostering volunteer opportunity — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


A more transparent battle with bird flu

IN A STRANGE TWIST of evolution, the influenza virus seems to have endless capability to reinvent itself, infecting waterfowl, swine and humans over and over again with great power and destructive force. A periodic reassortment of its genes gives rise to new variants that have not been seen before. Each time, the new variant poses a potential threat to both man and animal. Another shuffle of the deck has just occurred, leading to a new outbreak of bird flu in China, where people and fowl are often in close contact. This variant, known as H7N9, has not reached U.S. shores, but it is a reminder of the unpredictable nature of influenza. It might cause a pandemic, or settle into a slow burn for years, or simply die out. At this stage, no one knows. The uncertainty ought to remind us of past lessons about infectious disease and globalization, which remain as urgent as ever. One of those lessons is the vital role of rapid communication about an emerging outbreak. A decade ago, a virus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, took hold in China. The Communist government, which keeps a tight grip on information, responded poorly to the threat and failed to report early cases as the virus spread. It was a vivid example of the dangers of a closed society. As Mikhail Gorbachev found out after the Chernobyl nuclear accident, there are some events — spreading radiation or a virus — that just can’t be hidden from the rest of the world. This time, China has reacted differently. The authorities announced the early cases, reported details to the World Health Organization, deposited genetic sequences of the virus in an open database and shared isolates of the live virus with scientists. While China’s rulers still impose a dark curtain of censorship over much other news, the authorities deserve credit for recognizing the global demand for openness about the new bird flu virus. So far, infections have been confirmed in 129 people, of whom 31 have died. The critical tripwire that could lead to a pandemic would be sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus. Until now, there have been small clusters of people infected but not sustained transmission. Still, China is not out of the woods. Early indications suggest that this variant of influenza can infect birds without them showing obvious signs and symptoms, meaning it could spread in


Wrestling supporters campaign to preserve sport’s place in Summer Olympics

Bill Scherr chairs the Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling. The sport is vying with seven other sports for one slot in the 2020 Olympics, with an IOC hearing on the matter scheduled for May 29-31 in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press) Wrestling takes disparate forms around the globe and across cultures. But to prevail in any discipline, wrestlers need strength, the ability to gain and exploit leverage and, ultimately, a superior will to win. Those are the qualities that supporters of Olympic wrestling are tapping in waging a campaign — part political, part public relations — to preserve the sport’s place in the Summer Games. At the moment, wrestling is on the outside looking in, voted out of the Olympics as of the 2020 Games in a decision in February that left hard-core supporters and many casual sports fans baffled. The International Olympic Committee ousted an ancient sport that has been part of every modern Olympics since the inaugural 1896 Athens Games except one, and kept sports such as BMX cycling, synchronized swimming and beach volleyball. Wrestling’s only recourse is to defeat seven other sports vying for one slot in the 2020 Olympics. Its competition: baseball/softball, climbing, karate, roller sports, squash, wakeboard and wushu. With the IOC’s executive board scheduled to hear the sales pitch of all eight and vote on its recommendation May 29-31 in St. Petersburg, Russia, the wrestling community is seeking to rally supporters and win converts. Said Bill Scherr, a 1988 Olympic bronze medalist and chairman of the Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling (CPOW): “Our message to the IOC is, ‘We respect you. We respect your process. We believe it’s not the correct decision. And we will change, and change leadership, to make sure it’s an attractive sport and remains part of the Olympic movement.” Scherr said he wasn’t surprised by the decision, having been warned by IOC insiders that wrestling was at risk because FILA, its international governing body, didn’t respond in earnest to a mandate that all Olympic sports raise more private money, modernize with an eye toward boosting TV coverage, leverage social media and develop gender equity. Following the Feb. 12 vote, wrestling ousted FILA president Raphael Martinetti and hired consultants to help respond to the challenge IOC President Jacques Rogge issued as he set about reining in the bloated Summer Games and wooing younger TV viewers. Among


World Digest: May 8, 2013

AFGHANISTAN Police are accused of killing 8 protesters Afghan police were accused of killing eight protesters at a demonstration on Wednesday as the U.S.-led coalition said it had opened an investigation into allegations of misconduct by NATO troops during an encounter with insurgents. Both incidents occurred in southern Afghanistan, where violence has escalated in recent weeks following a Taliban announcement that it was launching its spring offensive. Villagers in the town of Maiwand said Afghan police opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators who were protesting raids that Afghan and NATO forces conducted in the village of Loye Karez two days earlier. Accounts differed as to whether the eight killed were unarmed protesters or militants. Ten other people were wounded. The Kandahar provincial police chief said Taliban insurgents had infiltrated the demonstration. In a separate incident, the NATO-led force said Wednesday that it had begun an investigation into allegations of misconduct following an internal report into an April 28 encounter with insurgents in Zabul province. The statement did not offer more details, and Lt. Tamarac Dyer, a coalition spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that “this is the only information we are able to release at this time due to the ongoing investigation.” Afghan officials were not immediately available for comment. — Associated Press SYRIA U.S. to augment aid to imperiled civilians The Obama administration is providing $100 million in new Syria aid, U.S. officials said Wednesday, but the money is for humanitarian purposes only and not linked to any decision on arming the rebels. The announcement will be made by Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Thursday in Rome, where his diplomacy will include a meeting with Jordan’s foreign minister, the officials said. The new funds will help support 1.4 million Syrian refugees, including many in U.S. ally Jordan, and hundreds of thousands of other civilians still trapped by the violence inside Syria’s borders. Total U.S. humanitarian assistance in the two-year conflict will climb to $510 million. The U.S. officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter ahead of Kerry’s announcement. While the cash influx will certainly be welcomed by aid groups and refugee organizations that have lamented a lack of financial support, it is unlikely to end the clamoring for lethal assistance among the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. — Associated Press 3-nation sweep detains 31 in diamond heist:


It’s apples to cider at Distillery Lane

Distillery Lane Ciderworks owner Rob Miller (left) discusses one of his ciders during the Ciderworks' monthly cider-making class. Head cidermaker Tim Rose looks on. (Fritz Hahn) Over the past few years, hard cider has gone from being a rare tap in an Irish pub to one of this country’s hottest beverages. Cider sales have risen 84.5 percent since 2011, while craft beer sales are up 17 percent, according to market research firm Symphony IRI. With Sam Adams, Anheuser-Busch and other big brewers launching their own cider lines, interest in fermented apple juice has never been higher. But as with craft beers, the popularity is bringing a new focus on smaller producers as well as the big boys. At Distillery Lane Ciderworks in the rolling hills of Frederick County, 45 varieties of apples are grown on more than 3,000 trees, just waiting to be pressed into fresh cider, and then fermented into hard cider. These ciders are very different than sweet, fizzy Strongbow or Woodchuck — they’re full of rich, dry flavors and lingering tartness. If you’re curious about cider, the Ciderworks are open one Saturday each month for visits, tastings and a cider-making class, which covers the basics of apple varieties, the chemistry of fermentation and how to brew your own cider. (The $100 registration fee includes four gallons of cider and all basic supplies, except bottles.) The tours start in the orchard, where distillery co-owner Rob Miller explains the basics of the operation, from the 50,000 bees brought in to pollinate the trees each spring to how to tell if apples are ready to juice. Then it’s on to the “classroom” — actually, chairs sitting next to a giant, 14-bushel hydrologic press — to discuss the best ways to convert fruit into a beverage that contains 7 to 8 percent alcohol. Miller and head cider maker Tim Rose lead the discussion, which moves easily between the scientific, discussing the right pH balances for tart flavors and less spoilage, and the sensory, with plenty of tastings as demonstrations. While explaining the qualities you look for when blending apples, Rose brings up the English Tremlett’s Bitter apple, and has everyone take a sip of some funky, full-bodied vintage cider. “The Tremlett’s Bitter by itself is not very good, but it provides a taste you can feel in the back of your throat,” Rose says. “Do you feel that?” We do. The


It’s apples to cider at Distillery Lane

bitter-sweet apple makes up about 25 percent of the recipe — just enough to let its taste come through. The course can be technical, but it’s easy enough for newcomers to grasp. For first-timer Michael Alexander, the cider bug bit after a particularly successful day of apple picking with his fiance last fall. “I thought, ‘What will we do with all these apples?’ I was Googling for information about making cider, and I came across” Distillery Lane. Alexander signed up for the introductory cider-making class, and the 32-year-old, who works in commercial real estate, came away impressed with the instructors. “They’re very passionate about the Old World traditions of cider, and passing that information on,” he says. He was most surprised to learn about the effects of yeast on cider, and enjoyed trying ciders made with different yeast to compare and contrast flavors. (Rose said in class that his “ongoing experiments” including trying the same cider with up to 20 different yeasts, and he provides samples for students.) After the three-hour class, Alexander’s confident his first batch will turn out delicious — once he finally tries it. “They said it could age for up to a year, but I don’t think I’ll wait that long,” he says with a laugh. When classes started two years ago, says Miller’s wife, Patty Power, many of the students were homebrewers. Now, she said, demographics are changing. “We get a lot of foodies who want to know more about cider, or want to do this for themselves.” Plus, she adds, the rising number of people with celiac disease has people turning to cider instead of beer. “In every class, two or three of the students are gluten-intolerant,” she says. Some of these are homebrewers “who can’t have beer anymore, so they think, ‘Hey, I can have hard cider.’ ” Because classes are kept to around a dozen students, there can be waiting lists. Even if you don’t get a spot in a class, cider fans are invited to take a self-guided tour around the orchard and participate in a guided tasting, which costs $5 and includes samples of four different kinds of hard cider. Classes are suspended in the fall, when all attention turns to producing cider. But Miller says he looks forward to teaching the classes every spring and summer, and guiding students to create a specific kind of cider. “We started like


History collides with local beer at the Brewmaster’s Castle

Guests at the Heurich House’s monthly beer tasting converse in the historic conservatory. (Photo by Craig Hudson/For The Washington Post) One hundred years ago, Christian Heurich was Washington’s king of beers. He owned Washington’s largest brewery, the Christian Heurich Brewery, which stood on the site of the Kennedy Center. Sales of Sparkling Stock Ale and Senate beer paid for a large mansion on New Hampshire Avenue south of Dupont Circle, which was known as the Brewmaster’s Castle. Heurich and the second of his three wives filled the home with such modern amenities as fireproof walls, electricity and central heat and decorated it with large paintings and gilded furniture. You have to think Heurich would approve of his house being used to raise a glass to the area’s best brews. That’s what happens at the Heurich House Museum’s monthly History and Hops happy hours. A local brewer serves three of its beverages and answers questions while docents lead guests on tours of the house every 20 minutes or so. (You have to go on a tour in order to sample one of the beers.) “Craft beer is such an important part of D.C. right now,” said Heurich House Executive Director Kimberly Bender. “It makes sense to celebrate local beer in a house that was built by local beers.” Of course, it helps the house, too. “House museums aren’t doing very well right now,” Bender admits. “Our normal tour concentrates on the decorative arts and the family, but these focus on the beer.” If the promise of delicious local beer gets more people through the door to check out the German axioms painted on the walls of Heurich’s personal bierstube, or his personal meat smoker, then so much the better. The Heurich House is a hidden gem of Washington. Last month’s event, which featured beers from Alexandria’s Port City Brewing, had a large number of first-timers. “We knew about Port City,” said Carrie Fox-Meyers, “but we’d never been [to the Heurich House].” Her sister, Kim Fox, had never heard of it. Their husbands are avid homebrewers and suggested the sisters might want to check out the event. “I like history, and I like beer,” explained Fox-Meyers, who works in IT for the State Department. “I like the aspect of drinking beer in a historic location.” They enjoyed beers in the ornate conservatory, near two Port City taps, surrounded by a gorgeous tiled


Military could learn from cops in sexual assault cases

Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski. (Associated Press) But Stamos, to her credit, refused. “They did ask that we relinquish prosecution, and we didn’t,” said Stamos, who has spent a career working just beyond the Pentagon’s doorstep. “Obviously, being where we are in Arlington, we have to prosecute members of the military routinely,” Stamos said. But this was the first time in her two decades as a prosecutor that the military asked for a case, and she was surprised by the request. The case was on her turf. It had been a slow night in Arlington: a stolen Buick LaSabre and a burglary in which a Dell laptop, a gold ring and $60 were taken. So cops responded quickly when the woman called for help about 12:30 a.m. Sunday. Cpl. Geoffrey Gammell of the Arlington police arrived, a man as beefy and close-cropped as Krusinski, and treated the incident with the seriousness it deserved. He booked Krusinski on a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery. If convicted, Krusinski faces up to a year in prison. Krusinski declined to comment on the case when approached after his arraignment Thursday in Arlington County General District Court. Some people say Krusinski is a familiar figure along a faded strip of restaurants and pubs in Arlington. It’s walking distance from the Pentagon and his apartment. One waitress I interviewed recognized his booking mug right away: “Oh, he’s the one who orders just sausages” when he’s been drinking. “He’s nice!” she said. “I feel bad for him.” Krusinski, an Air Force Academy graduate with lots of military medals, a $132,000-a-year salary and no public record of lawbreaking, is a guy who uses a picture of a football field as his Facebook profile photo, stays in touch with his high school wrestling buddies from Ohio, and lists sports pubs and Malcolm Gladwell books as Facebook “likes.” At one of his “liked” bars in Arlington, the folks said he’s a regular. He’s known as a nice guy, no problems. At another, the bartender told me I had to talk to the owner when I asked her if she knows Krusinski. One of her customers — a guy with his federal identification badge hanging from his neck, a pint in front of him and an unlit cig dangling from his lips — threw his head back and laughed. “As your personal, public affairs specialist, I say: Well played,” he told the


A bid on Brandon Plantation is like ‘bidding on a Monet’

troops marched from Benedict to Washington, D.C., and burned the cookhouse that was adjacent to our home,” says Jeff Secor, who owns the manor with his wife, Cathy. “It was rebuilt and attached to the main house, and you can see that they etched 1814 into the brick.” The tour also includes Maxwell Hall, one of the region’s best surviving examples of a typical late-18th-century, four-over-four-room home with a central stair passage, a gambrel roof and massive end exterior brick chimneys; and Evergreen Farm, a Victorian carpenter Gothic home on a hill overlooking the Bryantown National Historic District. Proceeds from the tour support preservation projects in each host community. For information or to purchase tickets, go to www.mhgp.org . A cottage kept at bay, until the price dropped His knowledge of the market — and a little luck — helped real estate agent Jim Lisowski of D.C.-based Fulcrum Property Group of Keller Williams Capital Properties snag a “cool getaway place” near the Chesapeake Bay for him and his girlfriend. “I had my eye on the place for months, but it was way overpriced in the beginning — somewhere in the $400,000s,” Lisowski says. But ultimately, Lisowski bought the two-bedroom, one-bathroom house for $260,000 — about a 40 percent discount. It was one of multiple listing service MRIS’s best deals of April. “There was another cash buyer I was competing with. The way we constructed our offer nudged the other buyer out,” he says, adding he was disappointed he didn’t get it for less. Lisowski says he and his girlfriend intend to keep the place, a 35-minute drive from his Capitol Hill home, and not flip it. He says he has big plans. “The bedrooms are tiny, but the living room, dining room and kitchen are all one big open room with great views of the bay,” he says. “I’m going to rip out the drop ceiling in that space and open up the vaulted ceiling, and add a sleeper sofa for extra guests. It’s got a great screened porch, too.” 98.2% AAverage sale to original list price ratio: Tip of the week Searching online for houses within particular school boundaries can be frustrating. Although nearly every Web site claims it can narrow a search based on such boundaries, too often the route ends up being “Call school board.” Edward Berenbaum What sets the search apart from the others is its


‘Crisis’ for kids of fictitious D.C. VIPs, and a headache for creator

forces for personal gain.” You know, like the producers of “America’s Got Talent.” Anyway, little Bo is now 10, which is old enough that it’s not creepy that the True Believers have decided to spring from death row a wrongfully convicted felon (Tate) because he’s the only person they see fit to be Bo’s full-time protector. Initially, Tate is reluctant to leave death row, NBC insists. We’d like to learn more about that, but it’s going to air on NBC, so there probably won’t be enough episodes before it’s canceled. So we’re just going to have to take it for granted that Tate witnesses Bo in action, levitating or telekinesis-ing or whatever, and decides he will leave death row and take Bo on the road, traveling from city to city, because it’s the only way to stay one step ahead of the sinister forces who are after Bo’s power. Tate and Bo try to fly under the radar, changing forever the lives of everyone they meet in every city they stop. No wonder NBC assures us that it will take a miracle to keep them safe forever. Did you guess that J.J. Abrams is involved with this one? You’re right! Ditto Alfonso Cuaron (“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”). ‘About’ a remake Also joining NBC’s prime-time slate: “About a Boy,” a remake of the 2002 Hugh Grant flick of the same name, which, in turn, was adapted from the 1998 Nick Hornby novel of the same name. This time, Jon Favreau (of “Iron Man” and “Revolution” fame) is directing, which may or may not be a good thing. And in this version, the man-child — played by David Walton — isn’t living work-free, thanks to royalties from a tacky Christmas tune his dad wrote a long time ago. This time, Man-Child has himself written a hit tune and is living off the royalties. Minnie Driver’s got the Toni Collette role from the film, as the wacky and sometimes suicidal vegetarian mom of 11-year-old chick magnet Marcus, played here by Benjamin Stockham, whom you loved in NBC’s short-lived sitcom “1600 Penn.” In other news, NBC has renewed its Thursday comedy “Parks and Recreation,” because it can’t cancel them all. “30 Rock,” “The Office” and “Up All Night” have already bit the dust. Also, “Whitney” has been canceled because, duh. Guided by ‘Family’ On the lighter side, having failed to hit


What’s the buzz? It’s Brood II cicadas, a sound and sight to experience this summer.

Have you heard the buzz? There’s a lot of buzz, or talk, about a certain insect that shows up once in a long while but in such big numbers that it’s impossible to ignore. But there’s also a sound, a buzzing or whirring that might remind you of a grass trimmer. Yes, we are talking about cicadas: 11 / 2-inch-long, slow-flying insects with dark bodies and red eyes. Male cicadas are the noisy ones. Their call to females fills the air with a buzzing sound. These cicadas aren’t the ones you see occasionally in the middle of the summer. These are periodical cicadas — 15 broods, or groups, that each appear only once in 13 or 17 years. This year’s batch is called Brood II. (“II” is the Roman numeral for the number 2.) They have been underground since 1996, shortly after they hatched from eggs. (Your parents might remember them or Brood X, which showed up in 2004.) They emerge in May or early June, once the soil temperature reaches 64 degrees. Brood II will appear along the East Coast, from North Carolina to Connecticut, but cicadas probably won’t show up in all Washington area neighborhoods. The heavy numbers are expected in Southern Maryland and outer Virginia suburbs. And by “heavy numbers,” we mean there might be a couple million on your block. (Patterson Clark/The Washington Post) That’s a lot of cicadas! Dan Babbitt, manager of the National Museum of Natural History’s Insect Zoo, says there’s no need to worry. “They can’t hurt you in any way,” Babbitt said. “And they don’t hurt animals.” Newly planted trees probably should be covered to protect them from egg-laying female cicadas, Babbitt said. Bigger trees may lose small branches but otherwise will be fine. Animals will see them as a tasty, protein-filled treat. Birds, mice, raccoons, opossums and other animals will eat them. “I heard lots of stories of dogs going nuts” in 2004 because they enjoyed the flying snacks so much, Babbitt said. The bugs’ exoskeleton is hard to digest, so animals may get sick if they eat too many. Babbitt says humans, too, can eat cicadas, once they’re cooked. “Roasting them was a good way to go,” he said, thinking back to 2004. “You can put them on the grill. I wasn’t a huge fan, but some people love them. It’s similar to eating a [soft-shell] crab.” If you aren’t


Can two senators end ‘too big to fail’?

percent capital reserve. For those people who complained that Dodd-Frank was too complex, let’s see how they like “the new simplicity.” Broad ideological support: A diverse cross-section of parties has found that their interests align with this legislation. Anyone who opposed the bank bailouts likes the ideas of adequate capital buffers. So, too, do those people who dislike broad regulatory complexity and the bureaucratic infrastructure it creates. Hence, support for the bill comes from a broad spectrum of political thought. By removing competitive advantages megabanks have over smaller and regional community bankers, the bill is a straightforward support of industry competition. That appeals to libertarians and consumer advocates alike. Splitting the bank lobby: Perhaps the most significant development has been among the banking lobby itself. Before Brown-Vitter TBTF, the industry responded to all proposed regulatory reform legislation in lockstep. The new proposal splits the industry cleanly in half, with the megabanks on one side and everyone else on the other. Consider the Independent Community Bankers of America , which has more than 5,000 member banks with more than $2 trillion in deposits and assets. In a news release applauding the bill, the organization urged all community banks to join the association in advocating passage of the bil. Bill Loving, the ICBA’s president and chief executive of Pendleton Community Bank, added, “This legislation will reduce systemic risk, protect taxpayers and put our nation’s community banks on a competitively balanced playing field.” Cleaving the bank lobby in two may give the bill a fighting chance of passing where prior legislative proposal had no chance. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. support: Also of note is the fact that the FDIC’s vice-chairman Thomas Hoenig, a longtime critic of TBTF banks, is in favor the legislation. The FDIC guarantees deposits when banks fail, and anything that reduces the risk of bank collapse garners its support. ~~~ The idea that two senators from opposite sides of the ideological spectrum can find common ground to attack a problem with a simple solution is novel in the Senate these days. If Brown and Vitter manage to end the subsidies to banks deemed “too big to fail,” they will have accomplished more than “merely” preventing the next financial crisis. They will have helped to create a blueprint for how to get things done in an era of partisan strife. That is a worthy goal all Americans should be grateful for.


Russia teams with MIT on Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology

Rodichenko, 24. “I have ideas of what I want to do, and I need ideas about how to do it. That’s what I want from Skolkovo.” Skoltech and MIT are creating up to 15 research centers where scientists from Skoltech and international and Russian universities will collaborate. The centers will each receive as much as $60 million — out of a total research budget of $675 million — over five years. In the first such hub, announced in April, Skoltech scientists will team up with researchers at the N.I. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics in Moscow and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands to study stem cells. Other centers will investigate infectious diseases and electrochemical energy storage. Crawley says the focus on commercial research will protect faculty members from running afoul of Russian regulations regarding espionage. Because the university won’t be engaging in classified military research, its professors won’t be in jeopardy, Crawley says. “We’re only going to do things that have open publication,” he says. “It’s not our intent to deliberately go into militarily sensitive or strategically sensitive fields.” Skolkovo’s focus on research with commercial applications has drawn corporations such as Microsoft, which will have 140 software engineers in Russia when it starts work at the Skolkovo research center in 2015. Microsoft had been looking for ways to help spur enterprise in Russia, says Alexey Palladin, a Russian American who relocated from the software company’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., to head its efforts at Skolkovo. “What’s missing in Russia is the angel community,” Palladin says. “When kids come up with a concept and need $10,000, $30,000, they don’t know where to come up with the money.” Microsoft has given out more than $1 million in seed funding to 25 companies in Russia, he says. As Crawley sees it, Skoltech, too, is just another fledgling enterprise. “This is a start-up like any other start-up, and the most important thing is time to market,” he says. “We can only sustain it if we’re successful, and the real question is how quickly we can be viewed as successful.” International prestige is one of Russia’s goals for Skoltech, much like its hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics, says Vladimir Gel’man, a political science professor at the European University at St. Petersburg. Unlike the Olympics, he says, the university will need support from politicians for decades before it can become a world-class educational


International space station springs a leak; astronauts prepare for spacewalk to repair it

the past 12 months, scientists have captured stunning images of the planets, a galaxy, a planetary nebula and more from space. Later in the day, he wrote: “What a fun day! This type of event is what the years of training were for. A happy, busy crew, working hard, loving life in space.” But it’s not an operation without risk. For starters, when the astronauts are outside the station, they will be exposed to micrometeorites, which could puncture their pressure suits. Micrometeorites also are one possible cause of the leak, according to NASA. The astronauts may also get covered with ammonia, which can be toxic if inhaled. At the end of their spacewalk, the astronauts will perform what’s called a “bakeout,” the orbital version of sunbathing, in which the sunshine warms the spacesuits and causes the ammonia to sublimate away. Then, in the airlock, the astronauts will have to test the air for the presence of ammonia before they reenter the pressurized interior of the station. During the EVA — extravehicular activity — the two astronauts will replace a unit called a pump flow control subassembly. That’s the suspected source of the leak, though no one has been able to spot it with the cameras on board the station. Because the leak is not considered an emergency and the station can operate normally even with one power system down, NASA’s approach Saturday will be cautious. “If it doesn’t look right, it’s time to say, we can do this later,” said William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human spaceflight. “Spacewalks are not trivial. We don’t do them for fun. We do them when we have to do them,” he said. “You give this team a problem or a challenge, it’s amazing how they rise to the occasion.” Thursday was supposed to be a rare “light-duty day” for the space station crew, a chance for the Russians on board to mark a national holiday, Victory Day, and also allow three astronauts, including Hadfield, to pack their personal items in anticipation of a return to Earth on Monday. But the astronauts saw small, white flakes drifting away from the station. Flight engineer Tom Marshburn is still scheduled to fly home Monday in a Russian spacecraft, along with Hadfield and crew mate Roman Romanenko, but first he’ll have to perform the six-hour spacewalk. He’ll be joined on the spacewalk by astronaut Chris Cassidy. Both


American orchestras: A time of crisis or rebirth?

to students. “We get requests for very out-of-the-box projects,” says Rita Shapiro, the orchestra’s executive director. “I don’t think we’ve ever played in a furniture store before, but why not?” The NSO is not alone; various kinds of neighborhood outreach programs are springing up at orchestras all over the country, while educational initiatives have tripled. Spring for Music reflects this theme by including orchestras both large (the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, the latter playing at Carnegie for the first time under its music director, Christoph Eschenbach) and relatively small (the Albany Symphony Orchestra), and, in the spirit of getting orchestras to engage more with their communities, encouraging their hometown crowds to come along. The Buffalo Philharmonic brought about 1,400 people to its performance Wednesday. Second, contemporary music. “The creation of a new canon for a new audience,” says Deborah Borda, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is essential to the field’s survival. No one wants to get rid of the masterpieces of the repertory, but orchestras are starting to think they need to be more flexible and reflect a wider range of tastes — and masterpieces that don’t happen to belong to the standard Beethoven/Brahms canon. Spring for Music, accordingly, encourages orchestras to program, to use an overused term, “outside the box.” And third, cost-cutting — the hot-button topic around the country as orchestras, which have frequently been drawing on their endowments to make ends meet, try to cut down on expenses. Cuts in musicians’ salaries are the order of the day, some voluntary — the BSO players to the tune of 12.5 percent in 2009 — others reluctantly, after difficult disputes. “The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra locked their musicians out for six months,” says Michael Henson, CEO of the Minnesota Orchestra. “They were able to negotiate a contract with a 19 percent reduction in pay. Indianapolis locked their musicians out; they negotiated a 32 percent reduction. The Atlanta lockout, they negotiated an 18 percent settlement. A lockout doesn’t mean you can’t negotiate.” Spring for Music’s reflection of cost-cutting is in its ticket prices: a flat $25 for any ticket in the house. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra tried the same experiment in 2007-08 to counteract audience attrition. “It had a dramatic impact in attracting new people,” says Paul Meecham, the orchestra’s president and CEO. But few orchestras can afford to keep tiprices so


‘Red Rover: Inside the Story of Robotic Space Exploration, from Genesis to the Mars Rover Curiosity’ by Rogers Wiens

Roger Wiens’s memoir of his career exploring the solar system is at its best when telling of improvisation. And Wiens has done a lot of improvising in his role as director of ChemCam, one of 11 scientific instruments on the rover Curiosity, which landed on Mars last summer. “Red Rover” is the story of how Wiens came to run ChemCam, his struggles to get it selected for the Curiosity mission and what he hopes to discover with it. ChemCam is a laser that vaporizes rocks to determine what they are made of. It analyzes the spectrum of the resulting vapor for telltale signatures of specific atoms and molecules. This technique, known as LIBS (laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy) has been applied on Earth since the 1960s; Wiens’s instrument is the first to use it on another planet. Curiosity is a $2.5 billion effort and the culmination of a successful decade of Martian exploration for NASA after the loss of two probes in 1999. The size of a small SUV and weighing 2,000 pounds, Curiosity is five times as big as its predecessors Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in 2004. Because Curiosity is so much heavier, NASA’s old airbag landing system wouldn’t work. Engineers had to come up with a new system, dubbed a “sky crane,” in which Curiosity was lowered to Mars’s surface by a winch held up by rockets, which had deployed after an enormous parachute first slowed the rover down. Curiosity’s size not only gives it a greater range than the previous rovers had but also allows it to carry a small, mobile laboratory called SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars). SAM consists of a small drill that can penetrate rocks, allowing a more detailed analysis than ChemCam, though of a more limited number of samples. The elaborate nature of Curiosity’s instruments in part obviates the need for something geologists have been lobbying for ever since the Viking landers first visited Mars in 1975: a sample-return mission that would bring rocks from Mars back to Earth. Such a mission is the next logical step after Curiosity, but NASA’s backing for it has been erratic. The agency’s unsteady support for exploration generally is a major theme of Wiens’s story. Wiens has spent the bulk of his career at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos laboratory. He tells of arriving there and finding file cabinets that “looked like they had a


Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels hit worrisome milestone

Human influence on the Earth’s atmosphere touched what climate scientists called a dire milestone Friday as concentrations of heat-trapping carbon dioxide nudged up to a level unseen in about 3 million to 5 million years — long before modern humans. A monitoring station in Hawaii recorded carbon dioxide concentrations of 400 parts per million Friday, dramatically up from the 316 parts per million recorded when the station made its first measurements in 1958. The monitor, high atop the Mauna Loa volcano, offers the longest-running record of atmospheric carbon dioxide measured directly from the air. Carbon dioxide is a primary greenhouse gas, efficient at trapping heat from the sun. The colorless gas is released from power plants and vehicles as they burn coal, oil and gas. “[The] increase is not a surprise to scientists,” said Pieter Tans, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “The evidence is conclusive that the strong growth of global [carbon dioxide] emissions from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving the acceleration.” Climate scientist Joanna Haigh of Imperial College London said the particular figure reached Friday — 400 parts per million — holds no particular significance except as a milestone. “It gives us the chance to mark the ongoing increase in [carbon dioxide] concentration and talk about why it’s a problem for the climate.” For the first time in human history, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached 400 parts per million (ppm). Scientists have firmly linked rising atmospheric carbon dioxide to higher global temperatures, which have increased nearly a degree Fahrenheit, on average, since 1950. Larger temperature increases have occurred in the Arctic. In 2009, an international agreement sought to limit temperature increases to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) by 2100 to avoid catastrophic effects on the climate. Estimates from the 1700s show atmospheric carbon dioxide at about 270 parts per million — about 40 percent lower than today. Air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice cores show that, in the past 800,000 years, airborne concentrations remained lower than 400 parts per million. And scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and elsewhere have estimated that about 3 million to 5 million years have passed since so much carbon dioxide wafted in the Earth’s atmosphere. The temperature during that period, known as the Pliocene Epoch, was 5 to 7 degrees warmer than today, with seas tens


Local Digest: Metro weekend work; video of 3-year-old’s shooting released

THE REGION Metro weekend work to affect four lines Metro work will shut down four Orange Line stations this weekend and create delays on three other lines. The Vienna, Dunn Loring, West Falls Church and East Falls Church stations on the Orange Line will be closed for Silver Line work. Shuttle buses will replace trains between Vienna and Ballston, with some buses stopping only at those two stations and others stopping at each of the closed stops. Red Line trains will single-track between Grosvenor and Twinbrook and between Rhode Island Avenue and Takoma because of platform reconstruction. Blue and Yellow Line trains will share a track between Pentagon City and Braddock Road for rail work. The work on all four lines is scheduled to end when the system closes Sunday night. — Mark Berman THE DISTRICT Video of shooting of 3-year-old is released Surveillance video captured a man shooting on a street near where a 3-year-old girl was struck in the leg by what appears to be a stray bullet as she played on an apartment balcony in Southeast Washington on Thursday. D.C. police are asking anyone who recognizes the gunman, and another man he was with, to call 202-727-9099 or text 50411. A reward of up to $1,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction. The video shows two men turning a corner near where the shooting occurred in the 2400 block of Elvans Road. One man stops, turns toward the camera and fires a gun at least three times. There is a short pause before the man fires one or two more bursts. His target, if there is any, can’t be seen. The girl was struck shortly after 6 p.m. and was taken to a hospital for wounds that were not life-threatening. Police said she had been playing on a third-floor balcony of the Forest Ridge apartment complex. — Peter Hermann MARYLAND Jury finds man guilty of sex trafficking In 2011, Jeremy Naughton, or “Jerms Black,” was an aspiring rapper, posting photos of himself partying in clubs with scantily clad women. He had recently released a single, “Da Paper.” On Thursday, a jury in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt found Naughton guilty of sex trafficking, transporting individuals to engage in prostitution, kidnapping and using a gun in a conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Naughton, 32, was running a ring of prostitutes between New York,


Curbing military sexual assault in four steps

tolerate excessive drinking or drug abuse. Benefits of such a change would likely include fewer auto accidents involving soldiers and fewer suicide attempts, as well as a decrease in sexual assaults. Second, show offenders to the door. Commanders already have authority to rid their units of any service members whose behavior undermines cohesiveness, so those who assault or harass other service members can and should be discharged immediately. In the private sector, these people would be fired for abusive behavior toward co-workers; the military should be no different. Third, provide victims of sexual assault with their own lawyers. Prosecutors can be as intimidating to victims as defense lawyers may be. In one prominent case, a victim was afraid to speak out for more than two years and steadfastly maintained that her interaction with her military trainer was consensual. The Army, Navy and Marines do not provide victims with lawyers, saying they are unnecessary and costly. But an Air Force pilot project in which military lawyers are assigned to victims has shown that women who have the benefit of advice from a lawyer of their own seem more willing to bring charges against their assailants. The military must make lawyers available to sexual harassment or assault victims in all the services — now. The defense secretary can accomplish this change with the stroke of a pen. Fourth, hire and promote more women. Half the U.S. population is female, but the share of women in our armed forces has peaked around 15 percent. It could be much higher. When Marines say they are looking for a few good men, they mean it: The Corps has only about 25 female colonels. The military should actively recruit more women. It’s progress that 25 percent of the class that entered the Naval Academy last fall was female. Qualified women who are willing to serve ought to be allowed to do so. Until women make up a greater percentage of the military, it will be difficult for women to have an equal footing in the armed forces. Changing the military’s culture, training, rules and practices sufficiently to eliminate sexual assaults in our armed forces will take determined leadership by the defense secretary and much more effort than the Read more from Opinions: The Post’s View: The military’s approach to sexual assault has to change Jessica Stern: The military must take a harder line against sexual assault


Military culture still refuses to include women

he arrived in theater, thousands of white soldiers in the division had been killed, wounded or captured. To fill foxholes and hold the line, the Army sent soldiers from all-black units to fight and die alongside units that had been all-white. Years later, when I commanded a battery in Vietnam, there was no question that black soldiers had the right to serve. Fast-forward to 2011: It had to be the most significant non-event in recent history when openly gay troops were accepted into the military’s ranks with very little institutional resistance. Why did the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy disappear with hardly a whimper? Because most in the professional officer corps recognized that we have served with homosexual soldiers for all of our careers. Until he died in 1997, my dad talked about gay noncommissioned officers who held his unit together during the dark days in Korea. During my 35 years of Army service, I worked for gay generals and commanded gay officers, enlisted men and women. It was no big deal. Many of us were glad the charade was over. But then came the news a few days ago that the officer in charge of preventing sexual harassment in the Air Force was charged with sexual battery. How, I wondered, can a culture that has been instrumental in advancing social change be so regressive when it comes to gender equality? Women accounted for about 2 percent of the military in 1972. Nearly 40 years later, it seems as if we are going backward. I asked my two daughters, who are Army veterans, what they thought. Their answers were sobering. As with the military’s acceptance of African Americans and gay soldiers, the issue does not lie with observing regulations or executive orders. This is about culture. The rank and file have yet to accept women into their community. Women have fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are no longer excluded from combat zones. But the military has yet to fully accept women or their contributions. To be sure, part of this is about sex. The chest-bumping manly culture rejects the presence of women in the ranks. Sadly, many soldiers still view their domain as a male preserve. Just before I retired and before my daughters left the service, I asked them what they worried about most during their commands. More than anything, they feared falling out of a


In rare unplanned spacewalk, astronauts hunt for mystery leak on space station

to be a possible source of the leak. They then replaced it with a spare pump that the NASA engineers had thoughtfully put on the station long ago. That pump was then pressured up. Still, no ammonia leak appeared. After stowing the old pump, the spacewalkers underwent a “bakeout” period, bathing in sunshine in an attempt to get rogue ammonia to sublimate from their spacesuits. The ammonia can be toxic inside the station, and NASA spared no effort in making sure the astronauts were ammonia-free before they rejoined their crew mates. It’s unclear if the spacewalk and the installation of the new pump has put an end to the leak, NASA officials said in a late-day news conference. They said it would take weeks of monitoring to determine if the swapped-out pump was the source of the leak. They will also continue to operate the station without the shut-down power system. But the officials were clearly pleased that the impromptu spacewalk went off without a hitch. “This was a momentous spacewalk,” a Mission Control official said when the astronauts were back in the air lock. The leak never posed a threat to the station or to the astronauts, but NASA would like to get the power system back up and running, since it provides one-eighth of the electricity to the station. “It’s really not a big deal to us overall. It shows the redundancy of the station, it shows how strong a research facility it is,” said William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human spaceflight. But he added, “I think the next failure, or the failure after that, becomes a problem.” The safety of the astronauts is the highest priority on a mission like this. The astronauts must be extremely careful not to touch anything sharp or do anything that might compromise their pressure suits. “The reason they regularly check their gloves is for damage. Even though multi-layer, even a tiny leak requires immediate haste to airlock,” tweeted crew commander Chris Hadfield as he supervised the spacewalk from inside the station. Saturday’s spacewalk gave Marshburn a chance to end his five months in space in style. On Monday, he, Hadfield and crew mate Roman Romanenko will climb into the Soyuz spacecraft, undock from the station and return to Earth, landing in southern Kazakhstan. Three fresh astronauts will rocket to the station May 28 to join the three remaining on board.


Daoma Winston Strasberg, Washinton author of mystery and romance novels, dies at 90

on a strong woman as the protagonist. Her novels included adventure, suicide, adultery, conspiracy, murder, insanity and betrayal. “The Fall River Line” — a 90-year saga about the family of a New England matriarch who owns a Massachusetts-based steamship line in the late 19th century — was reviewed in The Washington Post in 1983. “Daoma Winston is a gifted storyteller,” critic Dennis Drabelle wrote. “ ‘The Fall River Line’ is an unfailingly interesting book. What it lacks is a pattern having some organic relation to the many characters’ lives.” Few of Mrs. Strasberg’s books were reviewed, except in library journals, and none became a bestseller. Her best-known Washington-based novel was perhaps “The Haversham Legacy” (1975). Beginning on the night of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the adventure-romance unfolds against a backdrop of post-Civil War Washington and the presidency, impeachment and trial of Andrew Johnson. Other novels dealt with political intrigue in Maryland in the late 1890s and life on a North Carolina plantation immediately before the Civil War. A commentary on her work published in the 1994 edition of Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers noted that Mrs. Strasberg uses “times and events as ‘set decoration’ against which to place her characters. She is adept at painting detailed word pictures of the dress, homes, furnishings, possessions, and the demeanour of her men and women.” Daoma Winston was born in Washington on Nov. 3, 1922. Her parents owned and operated grocery stores and restaurants. She graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1940 and from George Washington University in 1944. The summer of 1944, she married Murray Strasberg, an acoustical physicist, who died in August. They had no children, and there are no immediate survivors. Mrs. Strasberg “was always very clear that writing was something she just had to do,” said Karen Roberts, a cousin of the author’s late husband’s. A look at those who died last year. Several of the novels were set in Taos, N.M., which was Mrs. Strasberg’s second home for several decades beginning in the 1950s. “I tell aspiring writers who ask me, first of all, to read, read, read,” Mrs. Strasberg told the Contemporary Authors reference work. “Then to write only what they themselves most enjoy reading. And thirdly to make a habit of writing every single day, even if it’s only a few words.” Mrs. Strasberg did not “sit around and wait for inspiration,” Mosettig recalled. “She just wrote.”


Activists demand more jobs for city residents on DC Water projects

With the District set to spend more than $2 billion over 15 years on a project to keep sewage out of local waterways, activists are pressing city officials to guarantee more jobs for D.C. residents, the people who will pay the bills. DC Water’s Clean Rivers Project hasn’t posted encouraging numbers so far: D.C. residents accounted for 80 of 381 people hired for the $330 million first phase of the project, according to March figures. Hiring for other major DC Water projects follows a similar pattern: Of 240 hired on contracts to complete a nitrogen-removal system at the Blue Plains sewage-treatment plant, eight live in the District. On an $81 million project to build a power plant at Blue Plains, three of 175 employees live in the District; 48 are Missouri residents, and 47 live in North Carolina. DC Water is not alone. Other city agencies have undertaken major public-works projects that did not create significant numbers of jobs for D.C. residents, even as lawmakers tried to boost local hiring by providing carrots and sticks. But the Washington Interfaith Network, a federation of 48 churches that focuses on affordable housing and unemployment, said that DC Water needs to do a better job of keeping money in the city that residents spend on ever-rising water bills. The DC Water figures are more discouraging because the work is being done in a part of the city with the greatest need for jobs, said the Rev. Kelly D. Wilkins, minister of social justice at Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ. According to city figures for February, the unemployment rate was 21.6 percent in Ward 8, where Blue Plains is located. “We have the highest unemployment in the District,” Wilkins said, referring to Ward 8. “In a city where we have so much wealth, and where D.C. residents are investing so much money, how are we not getting investment back in our community?” Last month, more than 800 WIN members assembled at Temple Sinai in Northwest Washington to demand action from D.C. Council members. On Wednesday night, capping a series of demonstrations at DC Water town hall meetings, WIN members packed a downtown hearing on a proposed water rate increase, demanding that the utility’s board commit to a jobs plan and other community benefits before raising rates again. “Shame on you, DC Water,” Wilkins told the board. “We’re not paying for something if we’re


Dangers found in lack of safety oversight for Medicare drug benefit

2004 to rehabilitate her back, she came under the care of Adolphus Ray Lewis, who would later become one of Medicare’s busiest prescribers. Records show that the Texas medical board temporarily restricted Lewis’s license in 1998 for improper prescribing of painkillers and that he was sued repeatedly for malpractice. But Webb’s family didn’t know that. While under Lewis’s supervision, Webb developed a urinary tract infection that went untreated and was given a painkiller in doses that were excessive and dangerous for her condition, court testimony shows. Within a month, she died. Webb’s relatives sued. During the 2008 trial, Lewis admitted responsibility for her death, testifying that he had not reduced the dosage ordered by a nurse he supervised. A jury ordered Lewis to pay$1.6 million in damages to Webb’s relatives. They later settled for a lesser amount — one of at least eight malpractice settlements in cases involving Lewis since the mid-1990s, according to court records and interviews. Yet Lewis continued to prescribe, racking up nearly 99,000 Medicare prescription claims including refills in 2010, fifth-most in the country. He wrote 46,000 more under Medicaid that same year. He declined to comment for this article. Webb’s granddaughter, Michelle Wheeler, said that though it’s too late for her family, information about a doctor’s drug choices could help others decide who should care for their loved ones. “Everybody should be able to know that,” she said. Antipsychotics for seniors In his worn Miami office, psychiatrist Enrique Casuso said he has no choice but to give antipsychotics to many of his elderly patients. Often, they are beset with dementia and have been abandoned by their families in understaffed assisted-living facilities. They may dress for work and wait in the street for a bus, he said, when they haven’t had a job in a decade. Drugs keep them safe and ease their anxiety, Casuso said: “You have to submerge them in medication to avoid a catastrophic event.” But Casuso, 74, prescribes powerful antipsychotics at a rate that other providers and experts call alarming. In 2010, he prescribed more of these medicines to seniors in Medicare than any other physician in the country — 50 percent more than the second-ranking doctor. Three-quarters of the prescriptions were for a single brand, Seroquel, which Casuso said is “less evil” and has less-severe side effects than other antipsychotics. Although antipsychotics are an important treatment for patients with serious mental


For French bakery, Washington area has the right ingredients

and stay.’ ” La Madeleine, owned by Le Duff America, a privately owned company, spends about $1.2 million to build its stores. There are 63 locations across the United States, with 10 opening this year. All of its stores in Washington will be corporate owned, while they plan to franchise some locations in Baltimore. Carolan’s studies of the Washington market include locating stores that are on the morning routes of customers, whether those customers are driving or even walking, making sure the restaurants are on the right side of the street. “So boom, you can catch them.” And La Madeleine is hoping to catch a lot of revenue. Remember this? It’s the 1971 short bus that District-based Venga bought off Craigslist for $1,000 a couple of years ago. That’s when Venga was trying to get customers to Washington area restaurants, and co-founder Winston Lord thought the gimmick might add to the fun. (The bus was occasionally sitting in the driveway of Lord’s residence in stately Foxhall.) About a year ago, Venga became a data company that helps restaurants monitor their customers’ habits. So Lord has posted on Facebook that anyone can have the bus — in return for something creative. The Buzz hears: District-based Financial Foods has taken over management of Bean & Bite, a fast-casual breakfast and lunch spot at 1152 15th St. NW. And now the restaurant has partnered with Small Comforts Bakeshop, a Maryland-based bakery owned by public relations veteran-turned-food entrepreneur Karen Sippel. Sippel is delivering pastries and other goodies daily to the shop. Potomac Law Group Carlyle watch It was August 2006 when BusinessWeek labeled the $15 billion leveraged buyout of auto rental giant Hertz a “buy it, strip, then flip it” deal that mirrored the private equity heyday of the mid-2000s. The Carlyle Group and two partners purchased the rental giant from Ford Motor Co., where it had languished as a corporate orphan and dumping ground for Ford vehicles. Seven years later, the flip is finally concluded: Carlyle last week sold the last 20.3 million of its shares. District-based Carlyle made about 2.5 times its investment in seven years. The key part of the strategy was spreading the Hertz brand beyond just airport parking lots, moving it into 1,000 new locations. “We took an iconic brand and made it even stronger,” said Greg Ledford, who led the deal for Carlyle. Factoid of the week $211B