Israel raids Palestinian TV stations

Staff members of a local private television station “Watan”, look at the damage caused after Israeli troops raided this and another Palestinian television station in the West Bank city of Ramallah overnight, seizing computers and broadcasting equipment. (ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) JERUSALEM — The military said the two outlets, al-Watan TV and al-Quds Educational Television, were pirate stations whose transmissions interfered with legal broadcasting stations and aircraft communications. The army said the raids followed “countless requests” to cease broadcasting, but the Palestinian Telecommunications Ministry said it was never notified of such interruptions. Ramallah is the seat of government of the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian officials condemned the raids as an invasion of their territory and an attempt to stifle free speech. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad visited the two stations and pledged speedy efforts to get them back on the air. He said Israeli incursions into Palestinian-ruled areas “aim to destroy what is left of the influence of the Palestinian Authority.” Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, left, visits the offices of “Watan” TV after an Israeli army pre-dawn raid in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Majdi Mohammed/AP) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called the raids a “blatant assault on freedom of the press and expression.” More world news coverage: - North Korea agrees to moratorium on nuclear missile tests, U.S. says - Netanyahu’s Iran focus reaches critical point - Iran’s underground nuclear site more vulnerable than portrayed, experts say - Read more headlines from around the world


John Thompson ends run as D.C. radio talk show host

to 20 NCAA tournament appearances, three title game appearances and a national championship — Thompson was often described as combative and controversial, a “bluff, outspoken, sometimes difficult man” as this paper described him in a staff editorial. Critics wondered whether racial issues — or profanity — would inject tension into his on-air appearances, while Thompson was such a radio novice that he talked right through scheduled commercial breaks. As his show wound down on Wednesday, Thompson was singing Bob Marley songs in an absurd Jamaican accent, turning multiple discussions into openings for racial humor, dropping dozens of curse words between segments, and looking thoroughly at ease. “I’m calling to tell you how much I love you, and I wish you nothing but the best, Coach,” CBS sportscaster and native Washingtonian James Brown said early in the show. “James, I appreciate you calling, but we have to make some money right now,” Thompson later said, cutting off the interview to go to a commercial. A cultural icon Thompson — the first black coach to win an NCAA men’s basketball championship — and his Hoyas were cultural icons in the ’80s, beloved by many across urban black America and targeted by critics of Thompson’s political stances. He famously launched an on-court protest against the NCAA’s Proposition 42, which limited the criteria for offering athletic scholarships, and dealt with racial taunts in visiting arenas. WTEM’s then-sports director, Andy Pollin, recommended the station use Thompson on the air just months after his resignation from Georgetown, despite a reputation for being combative with members of the media. Pollin thought Thompson might call in a couple of times a week; instead, the coach introduced a different side of himself, posing as “Joe the Fan,” leveraging his enormous Rolodex and outlasting hundreds of career radio employees. While Thompson’s show continued to attract younger listeners, it sometimes felt like a window back to his Georgetown days, from the music (Sly and the Family Stone, Marvin Gaye, George Strait and Alan Jackson) to the guests, who occasionally hailed from Thompson’s age group. Thompson said he wanted his show to capture the feel of the barbershop, “and I loved it for that, and I think a lot of people loved it for that,” said Clay Goldsborough, a 42-year-old native of the area who frequently called into Thompson’s show. “He was one of my childhood idols, but what I know about


Two U.S. troops gunned down on NATO-Afghan military base

KABUL – A local official said both of the slain service members were American. The shootings raise to six the number of American troops killed in recent days on military bases or at Afghan government facilities. Two of those troops were shot dead by an Afghan soldier a week ago, when a mob attacked a joint base during protests over the burning of Korans by U.S. military personnel at the Bagram air base earlier in February, an action U.S. officials have said was accidental. Two others, acting as advisers, were slain at the Afghan Interior Ministry on Saturday by a police officer, prompting NATO to withdraw its personnel from ministries. At least 10 Americans have been killed this year by Afghan security forces or militants wearing military or police uniforms. No motive was immediately given for Thursday’s slayings, and officials differed as to whether one or two men were responsible. The shootings came hours after NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John R. Allen, decided to allow the return of selected coalition advisers to some Afghan government ministries. On Thursday, a senior U.N. official in Kabul seconded a call by Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the U.S. military to discipline those involved in the Koran burning, Reuters reported. President Obama and top U.S. defense officials have apologized profusely for the incident. “After the first step of a profound apology, there must be a second step . . . of disciplinary action,” Jan Kubis, special representative for the U.N. secretary general in Afghanistan, told a news conference, according to Reuters. He said the United Nations “rejected and condemned” the burnings, adding, “It doesn’t matter that it was a mistake.” Obama’s formal apology to Karzai for the burnings had drawn criticism from political opponents, as well as some members of the U.S. military. The president defended his decision Wednesday, saying it had “calmed things down” after the incident provoked deadly violence across the country . “We’re not out of the woods yet,” he said in an interview with ABC News’s Bob Woodruff at the White House. “But my criteria in any decision I make, getting recommendations from folks who are actually on the ground, is what is going to best protect our folks and make sure that they can accomplish their mission.” Thursday’s killings happened before dawn at a base in the Zhari district of southern Kandahar, said Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi,


Baltimore Symphony hosts Women of the World festival

extreme example of an orchestra taking on nonmusical issues. But it isn’t an isolated one. “I think it just builds on what’s been happening in the field,” says Jesse Rosen, president and chief executive of the League of American Orchestras, “acknowledging that classical music inhabits a world of ideas. As orchestras are looking for more and more ways to engage more people, they’re increasingly looking at broader streams of cultural activity to plug themselves into.” Other orchestras are also thinking outside the concert hall. The Cleveland Orchestra, under Franz Welser-Most, has joined in scientific symposia on music and the brain at the Salzburg Festival and elsewhere. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is partnering with Bard College and the Longy School of Music in an initiative called “Take a Stand” to train music educators around the country. A new consortium of four orchestras — the Pacific Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the North Carolina Symphony and the Louisville Orchestra — is exploring ways to work with museums and universities to show music’s place in a wider cultural context. “What’s going on is a role change,” Rosen says. “Orchestras are looking at themselves as being responsive citizens in their communities. They do that first and foremost through the music they create. But they have capacities and interests that extend beyond just giving concerts.” Given the rather creaky way in which orchestras have tended to address social change within their ranks, Alsop and the BSO may be wise to turn their focus outward. WoW is not setting out to reform orchestras — only, modestly, all of society. Alsop hopes that Baltimore’s WoW, like the Southbank Centre’s, will become an annual event. There are plans for other WoW festivals worldwide, from Iceland to Australia. But by talking about something nonmusical, even an orchestra stands to benefit. “I think there’s a vitality that comes out of artistic organizations feeling they belong to the society they’re in,” Kelly says. “It doesn’t split their focus; it energizes.” And it’s not a bad idea to turn discussions of change into a celebration. “Having fun,” Kelly says, “is a good way to convince people that changing the world is quite a nice thing to do.” WoW festival will be held Friday to Sunday at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and other venues in Baltimore. A one-day pass to festival events (daytime only) is $10; a weekend pass is $20. www.wowbaltimore.org .


U.S. must maintain pressure on Russia over human rights

HAVING CAMPAIGNED on a platform of anti-Americanism, Vladimir Putin likely will be proclaimed the winner of Sunday’s presidential election in Russia, giving him a new six-year mandate — and likely inaugurating an era of unrest in a nation whose rising middle class rejects him. The United States, which has focused on cutting deals with Mr. Putin while largely ignoring his autocratic domestic policies, now has a clear interest in encouraging the emerging mass movement demanding democratic reform. It’s therefore unfortunate that the Obama administration’s first initiative after Mr. Putin’s return to the presidency will be to lobby Congress to grant Russia permanent trade privileges. The problem is not the preferences, per se; it is the administration’s resistance to replacing an outdated protocol for pressing Moscow on human rights with one suited to this moment. The White House is seeking the repeal of a 1974 law known as Jackson-Vanik, which links the trade preferences for Russia to free emigration. Repeal is logical for a couple of reasons: Russia, unlike the former Soviet Union, does not restrict the exit of Jews and others; and if the law is not removed, U.S. companies will be penalized after Russia enters the World Trade Organization later this year. But a bipartisan coalition in Congress is concerned about removing this legacy of U.S. human rights advocacy without addressing the abuses of the Putin regime. Led in part by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), the group proposes to couple the Jackson-Vanik repeal with a measure that would require the administration to single out Russian officials responsible for gross human rights violations, ban them from traveling to the United States and freeze their assets. This measure could be as effective in its own way as Jackson-Vanik was on the Brezhnev-era Kremlin. Unlike their Soviet predecessors, senior Russian officials crave contact with the West; they vacation in Europe, send their children to U.S. colleges and, not infrequently, transfer their money through U.S. banks. A visa ban and asset freeze would be severe punishment for those involved in persecuting liberal politicians and journalists, or extorting money from U.S. companies. That’s why the Russian opposition strongly supports the measure. The Obama administration, on the other hand, is doing its best to kill it. In part it objects to Congress mandating foreign-policy actions. (In an attempt to defuse the issue, the State Department last year banned visas for a few dozen officials


Sudanese troops massing near border, South Sudan says

JUBA, SOUTH Sudan — A spokesman for South Sudan’s armed forces said two Sudanese planes dropped six bombs in Pariang county, along the north-south border, on Wednesday afternoon. Col. Philip Aguer said that at least one oil well had been damaged and was leaking into the ground, polluting drinking water. Sudan has also been massing ground forces in a nearby town, he said. Al-Obeid Merwah, a spokesman for the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, did not return calls seeking comment. South Sudan became independent from Sudan in July, but many issues remain unresolved, including the demarcation of the border and the sharing of oil revenue. Separately, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s defense minister, the third senior government official sought by the court over alleged involvement in atrocities in the Darfur region of western Sudan. The court said it wants Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein arrested on a warrant containing seven counts of crimes against humanity and six war crimes, including murder, persecution, rape and torture. The charges cover 41 incidents, the court said. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked judges for the warrant in December, saying Hussein is among those who “bear greatest criminal responsibility” for atrocities in Darfur from August 2003 to March 2004. Sudan does not recognize the court and refuses to hand over suspects, including President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is accused of genocide in Darfur. His government in Khartoum had denounced Moreno-Ocampo’s request for a warrant for Hussein. At the time covered by the charges, Hussein was interior minister and the Sudanese government’s special representative in Darfur. He is accused of overseeing a state-sponsored plan to attack villages in western Darfur. Sudan’s government is accused of unleashing Arab militias on civilians — a charge the government denies. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have been displaced in the conflict.


U.S. probe of Koran burning finds 5 troops responsible, officials say; clerics demand trial

“For the soldiers, it will be serious — they could lose rank. But you’re not going to see the kind of public trial that some here seem to want,” said one U.S. military official. Another military official said: “What they did was careless, but there was no ill will.” The much-discussed investigation was intended to quell unrest and prove to the Afghan public that U.S. officials were apologetic and willing to make amends for wrongdoing. But U.S. military officials expressed concern that the investigation’s finding — which stops short of pinning blame on malevolent service members — might not satisfy Afghan leaders. Senior Afghan clerics, in a statement issued after a meeting with President Hamid Karzai, said: “This evil action cannot be forgiven by apologizing. The perpetrators of the mentioned crime should be put on a public trial as soon as possible.” The clerics reiterated calls for the U.S.-led NATO coalition to relinquish control of military prisons to the Afghan government. “This incident was caused due to the illegal management of the prison,” the clerics said, according to a translation of their statement provided by the U.S. military. A NATO spokesman, Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, declined to comment on the findings of the military inquiry, saying it was “still going through the legal process.” A separate Afghan investigation, which is being conducted by lawmakers and religious officials, is expected to conclude in several days. U.S. military officials worry that if the Afghan investigation clashes with their findings, it could reinvigorate protesters. “There’s a real concern there. We don’t know what the investigation will say or how the public will react,” one official said. “But we know that there’s a real interest in trying guilty parties in an Afghan court, and that’s not something we’re prepared to do.” Gavin Sundwall, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, said American officials “certainly hope” that the release of the Afghan report will not lead to more violence. A third investigative panel that includes U.S. and Afghan officials is expected to issue its findings soon. “We appreciated President Karzai’s repeated calls for dialogue and calm earlier and hope that people took them to heart,” Sundwall said. “We believe that we will get through this unfortunate period, that a decade’s worth of relationships don’t go away in a single week.” When Afghan employees discovered the partially charred Korans, they launched a protest outside Kabul


After 5 eateries, restaurateurs go retail with ‘Society Fair’

year, up 3.3 percent from last year, according to the National Restaurant Association. Virginia’s and Maryland’s sales are also projected to increase by 3.3 and 3.7 percent respectively, although those states’ statistics capture more than just the immediate Washington area. “Food is going to be the fastest-growing retail sector for the Washington market,” said Cynthia Groves, a retail consultant with Newmark Knight Frank. “It’s a town that works late, so people are out eating late.” The vibrant restaurant sector has encouraged some local restaurateurs to expand their offerings after existing locations prove popular. Ty Neal, CEO of the Matchbox Food Group, already runs four of the classic-American Matchbox restaurants, but he recently expanded to two new eateries — a new Ted’s Bulletin, a 1930s-themed spot, and DC-3, a hot dog place. Last fall, Jeff Tunks and partners Gus DiMillo and David Wizenberg opened Burger Tap & Shake next to District Commons. Jeff and Barbara Black, of BlackSalt, Black’s Bar and Kitchen, Black Market Bistro, and Addie’s, opened Pearl Dive Oyster Palace in Logan Circle. Ruthless restaurateurs In addition to Restaurant Eve and Society Fair, the various offerings under the Armstrongs’ EatGoodFood Group include a pub-food “chipper,” a speakeasy, the tavern Virtue and the rustic-American Majestic Cafe, which the group took over in 2007. It all started with Restaurant Eve, which they opened in 2004. At the time, both Meshelle and Cathal were working in the restaurant industry — she as a manager at Gabriel Restaurant and Cathal as the executive chef at Bistro Bis — and they had been dreaming about starting their own venture together for years. When they opened the half-bistro, half-multicourse Eve, they named it after their daughter, who was three years old at the time. “We had been looking for a spot for two years, and we finally found a space that could accommodate both of our styles,” she said. The way Armstrong scouts locations for new restaurants sounds like something out of a spy novel. She drives to a new neighborhood, sits in her car and watches for pedestrians pushing strollers. “Strollers show that there are young families in need of a place to go and eat,” she said. “If I see that, and that there isn’t much around, I see that there’s a need.” She allows two years in between opening new concepts in order to adequately gauge just how busy a season will


Technology and mayhem

1,000 yards under fire,” said Hacker, a curator of armed forces history. “You’re just taking a whole lot more fire — and, in general, more accurate fire. You could actually hit something you aimed at several hundred yards away with a rifle musket. With a smoothbore, you were lucky to hit your target beyond 50 yards.” The generals had learned their craft at West Point, where they had read Antoine-Henri Jomini’s theories on the science of warfare. They knew about the importance of the turning maneuver and of interior lines of supply and communication. They learned the virtues of concentrating forces and sending masses of men into the enemy’s weakest point. This was the Napoleonic orthodoxy. But in practice in the Civil War it could be suicide. The masses of men charged into a meat grinder. Technologist-in-chief Lincoln was keenly aware that he lived in a technological society. He was a modern man, knifing into the future. He experienced the acceleration of technological progress more than most Americans because of the primitive nature of his birth in a log cabin on the frontier. The telegraph came along in 1844, and information suddenly no longer moved at the speed of a horse. Since earlier in the century, the ancient sources of power — wind, water, human and animal muscle — had been to a great extent supplanted by the miracle of steam. Lincoln saw these changes and approved. He was a technophile, curious about contraptions, a student of machines. He became a promoter of railroads and an eager user of the telegraph. He was even an inventor himself. He owned a U.S. government patent, which no other president before or since could boast. He had designed a mechanism for assisting a boat across shoals. He was quite obsessed with the importance of what people called “internal improvements,” meaning the building of roads, railroads, canals, harbors. He once told his best friend, Joshua Speed, that he wanted someday to be the DeWitt Clinton of Illinois – Clinton being the New Yorker behind the Erie Canal. By 1858, the year of the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, Lincoln had developed a traveling lecture about the history of technology. “Man is not the only animal who labors; but he is the only one who improves his workmanship,” Lincoln declared in his lecture on “Discoveries and Inventions.” As president, he was technologist-in-chief. Inventors


How to get Afghans to trust us once again

American troops reveal a crisis of trust between Afghans and Americans. To rebuild that relationship, we need to focus not just on the Taliban insurgency, but also on dissolving Afghan security forces’ resentment of coalition troops and defeating the pervasive notion that our forces are in Afghanistan to destroy Islam. As an Army major, it is not my role to debate policy. However, my job in Afghanistan over the past year gave me a unique perspective on the difficulties of building trust. I was on a small team of special operators, governance experts, and Dari- or Pashto-speaking U.S. officers embedded with coalition and Afghan units across the country, coaching, advising and listening to their problems. Sometimes we wore beards and Afghan uniforms and patrolled in Ford Rangers rather than armored trucks, and often we were the only Americans on remote bases — all in hopes of getting a real sense of what Afghan soldiers thought when their Western partners weren’t around. One of the first things we learned was the power of a simple narrative, repeated endlessly by the Taliban: The coalition is here to occupy Afghanistan and destroy Islam. This message is at the core of the Taliban’s strategy; the group uses it to draw recruits, win sympathy from civilians and encourage soldiers to defect. While the Afghans we worked with protected us from harm — often at great risk to themselves — sometimes doubt would creep into our conversations: Why do you speak our language? Are you a Muslim? Why not? Do you want to take away our religion? Many of these men had never heard of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They didn’t know why we were in their country. Any coalition action in Afghanistan — no matter how accidental — that feeds the perception of a Western-led war on Islam endangers the mission and destroys trust. The smallest mistakes are amplified by the Taliban through videos, magazines, DVDs, Web sites, personal visits and other methods. A committed cadre of Taliban agents will infiltrate peaceful demonstrations to incite violence and provoke a strong coalition reaction — so that the cycle of mistrust can begin again. To defeat this threat to the U.S.-Afghan relationship, leaders at all levels must not only avoid making unforced errors but also take actions every day to convince their Afghan colleagues, then the local population, that they respect Islam. For example, just west


Ireland faces long road back to borrowing

Of all Europe’s crisis countries, Ireland has been perhaps the most adamant about pushing ahead with the budgetary, banking and other steps urged by its international lenders. Yet more than a year into its bailout, economic growth is lagging, high unemployment seems entrenched, and households and banks remain weighed down by the debts accumulated during a heady real estate boom. For all the country’s efforts to play by the rules set out under its $90 billion rescue, the International Monetary Fund said on Friday that Ireland might not reach one of the central goals: regaining enough trust among investors to begin borrowing money on its own again next year. The country’s initial progress toward returning to markets “could be fragile,” the IMF said in its latest review of the Irish program. It cites a possible future downgrade by credit agencies, a domestic economy in which demand remains weak and a damaging slowdown in exports because of Europe’s regional problems. “The prospects for regaining the substantial access to market funding that is assumed in 2013 remain uncertain,” the IMF concluded. It is a sobering conclusion as European leaders debate how to rekindle economic growth, whether to create a larger regional crisis-fighting fund and how to centralize control of national budgets. Throughout the region’s crisis, the aim has been to provide assistance when nations need it, but also to lay out policies that will wean them from international help as quickly as possible and allow them to borrow on their own again by selling bonds to private investors at market interest rates. If a nation such as Ireland struggles to “graduate” back to independent borrowing, it does not bode well for less economically dynamic countries like Portugal — and could test the promise of European officials to stand by troubled nations for as long as they need to regain market access. The amount of assistance funneled from richer European nations has taxed the political consensus on which Europe’s regional institutions depend, and none of the troubled countries has yet to turn a corner. Spain, another nation that has tried to comply with European and IMF advice, on Friday announced it would miss its deficit target this year — a revelation that came as European leaders approved a treaty committing their countries to smaller deficits. In the first months of its bailout program, Ireland appeared to bounce back, recording strong levels of foreign


Prime Minister Noda says tax hike essential for Japan's sustainability

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda speaks with the foreign media at his official residence in Tokyo on Saturday ahead of the first anniversary of the massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan's northeast and sparked a nuclear power plant crisis on March 11, 2011. (KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) Correction: TOKYO — During a 30-minute group interview with 19 members of the international news media, Noda appealed for opposition cooperation on his tax plan, which would help the country pay for its escalating social security costs and ease global concerns about its massive debt. “There is no waiting in responding to this question” of how to create a sustainable social security system, Noda said. “We’re faced with an aging society and a declining birthrate unprecedented in the history of humankind, and we cannot sidestep this challenge. I believe all the political parties fully understand this.” Noda has staked his six-month-old administration on the tax increase. He faces a deadline later this month to submit the bill, which would double Japan’s 5 percent consumption tax rate by 2015. Noda’s hope for political cooperation runs counter to recent history, and he faces a critical test in the next weeks to rally support for a bill that many in his own party oppose. The leading opposition party, meanwhile, provides an even trickier obstacle: Although its members support the more taxes in theory — the Liberal Democratic Party platform recommends the hike — they also sense an opportunity to obstruct the bill, lower Noda’s approval rating and force a snap election. But Noda said Saturday that talks with the opposition party were “beginning to jibe,” and he discounted the idea of dissolving the lower house — which his own party, the Democratic Party of Japan, controls — soon. According to reports in the Japanese news media, Noda had a private meeting last week with LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki, their first one-on-one sit-down since Noda took office. Because the LDP has power in the upper house, Noda, a fiscal hawk and former finance minister, will need cooperation from the opposition to pass the tax increase. Some political analysts in Tokyo think the LDP will agree to approve the consumption tax increase only if Noda promises to dissolve the lower house immediately thereafter. That would set off an election among equally unpopular groups; according to a mid-February poll conducted by the Yomiuri newspaper, 16 percent support the DPJ


Tech firm adds retail services, litigation campaign to drive revenue

new strategies like how to create low-end and high-end service packages and when to include maintenance with their products. Meanwhile, ObjectVideo continued to improve its technology and pursue additional patents, and in 2007, the company branched into an entirely new market: business intelligence solutions. The company started to hear from retailers who wanted more insight into buying decisions. “Retailers fear that they will become showrooms as shoppers stop in to browse but make purchases on their computers and mobile devices,” Fernandez said. So ObjectVideo began selling software packages that could extract even more complex information from security cameras, like how many customers were waiting in a checkout line and how long shoppers lingered in front of a marketing display. A new revenue stream was born. Not long afterward, a phone call from another video surveillance firm presented another opportunity for Fernandez. The other company wanted to use some patented technology, noting that it had no interest in buying the software but wanted to avoid a lawsuit. The firms eventually signed a licensing agreement, prompting a monumental “aha” moment for the folks in Reston. “When somebody calls you to buy something you’re not currently selling, that should make you look and see just how valuable that something is,” Fernandez said. ObjectVideo launched a sweeping patent enforcement campaign late last year after identifying several firms it believed infringed on its patented video technology. That meant hiring about a half-dozen legal professionals and working with another dozen outside the company, but that’s already proved a wise investment. The company started by filing lawsuits against technology juggernauts Bosch, Samsung and Sony — the last of which has since settled on agreement to license the technology from ObjectVideo. Litigation against the other two companies is ongoing, however, Fernandez’s firm has also struck a deal to share its technology with American Dynamics, another video surveillance company and a subsidiary of Tyco International. The patent enforcement program gives the company a third stream of revenue in addition to the firm’s security services and software licensing arms, and it has given Fernandez an even greater sense of security concerning the future of the company. “Businesses have to try to differentiate their revenue,” Fernandez said. “Something can happen to one sector or another just like something can happen to one customer, so when possible, you want to avoid having your business rely entirely on one source.” Follow On Small


Beard dinner will preview development of ‘Union Market’ in D.C.

R.J. Cooper from Rogue 24 is one of the area’s culinary stars that is to be featured at the June 3 dinner. (Dayna Smith/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) Developer Edens plans to host a James Beard Foundation dinner featuring a heavyweight roster of D.C. chefs at the Capital City Market in June, a kickoff for the firm’s effort to transform the dilapidated wholesale district into a culinary destination for local foodies and chefs alike. Referred to alternately as the Capital City Market and Florida Avenue Market, Edens is planning an overhaul of at least six parcels it owns or controls along 5th and 6th streets NE between Florida and New York avenues. It is re-branding the area Union Market, a historical name for the district, and hopes to create a high-end destination. The Beard dinner — to be held in Eden’s building at 1309 5th St. NE, which suffered a fire in October — could be a major step in that direction. The New York City-based James Beard Foundation, named for the famed chef and cookbook author, supports culinary education and grants prestigious awards to restaurants and chefs, for which some locals were named semifinalists last week. The foundation typically holds dinners in New York, but the June 3 “Sunday Supper” event in Washington aims to feature 250 guests with foods prepared by some of the city’s most renowned chefs, said Jodie W. McLean, Edens president and chief investment officer. They are R.J. Cooper of Rogue 24, Fabio Trabocchi of Fiola, Bryan Voltaggio of Volt, Mike Isabella of Graffiato, Katsuya Fukushima of Daikaya, Robert Weland of Cork, Nate Anda of Red Apron Butchery and Robb Duncan of Dolcezza Gelato. “Each chef will be responsible for something on the menu, but it will really be served family style,” McLean said. “It’s about community, it’s about bringing people to together, it’s about quality. And it’s absolutely a celebrating of reopening the Union Market.” Edens, the South Carolina-based developer of retail at CityVista in D.C. and the coming Mosaic District in Merrifield, plans on “preserving the authentic culinary story of the market itself and reopening it with a very high-quality market that will serve both wholesale and a retail need in D.C.,” McLean said. It has named chef Richard Brandenburg to direct “culinary strategy” for the project, and McLean said she plans to announce some operators in the next 30 days. Eventually the project


Megamarket to open sixth location in Adelphi

Aisles are being cleared and shelves are going up for Megamart Supermarket, a Silver Spring-based ethnic grocery store, to open its sixth location this April. The homegrown chain is taking over the former Shoppers Food Warehouse at 2400 University Blvd. in the Adelphi Manor shopping center in East Hyattsville. At 21,111 square feet, the store is double the size of Megamart’s average supermarket, and sits a few block away from another location that will remain open. Megamart has thrived in cities with large Hispanic populations, such as Riverdale Park and Gaithersburg, since it began in 2004. Immigrants from Latin America have come to rely on the chain for seasonings, beverages and other fare from back home. But the newest store will carry a wide selection of Caribbean, Indian and African items, said Gerson Lopez, one of four partners in the chain. “We want to take care of those communities; they don’t have a lot of options,” said the El Salvadoran grocer. “So 70 percent of the goods in this store will be dedicated to them, but we’ll still have quite a lot of Spanish foods.” Competition from Korean-owned grocers and mainstream stores such as Giant, which have expanded their ethnic offerings, has grown fierce over the years amid an influx of immigrants, Lopez said. “Ten years ago, nobody respected the Hispanic community. They’d charge 50 percent more for Hispanic goods. So we opened our own stores,” Lopez said. “There are a lot of Hispanic stores now, but they’re all doing the same thing.” Echoing Lopez’s sentiments, Ramon Arbaiza, owner of El Amate restaurant, said that despite all of the Hispanic families that call East Hyattsville home, the neighborhood lacks diverse retail options. He said that is why he opened a 140-seat white-table cloth bistro at Adelphi Manor in December. “People want a place where they can sit down and have a nice diner,” said Arbaiza, who has three other restaurants in Olney, Silver Spring and Ashton. “People kept telling me there was nothing like that in Langley Park. When Ledo’s Pizza closed ... it presented the opportunity.” El Amate serves Tex-Mex and El Salvadoran cuisine, and features a live mariachi band on the weekends. Arbaiza opened his first restaurant, El Andariego, in Silver Spring 23 years ago. He grew to love the restaurant business while working at his mom’s diner in El Salvador as a teenager. Over the past decade,


Celebrity chef opening burger joint in Largo

option. The chef kept looking. A few months later, officials at the Boulevard called him to say Reggiano’s Gourmet Market was vacating and leaving its equipment. The chef jumped at the chance and signed a lease for Timothy Dean Burger, opening March 10. “Largo has great demographics,” said Dean, who poured about $120,000 into the new space. “There are a lot of chain restaurantsout here doing good numbers.” Gourmet burgers and pizza are a departure for Dean, an acolyte of French culinary legend Jean-Louis Palladin. Fast-casual fare, however, has long been on his to-do list. “T.D. Burger had been in the pipeline for about three years, as I played around with menu ideas,” he said. “I’ve always been in fine dining, but I realized that people are just not spending that kind of money anymore.” Burgers at the new 50-seat restaurant will start at $6.50. The menu will feature selections named after politicians, including the Obama burger: topped with melted sweet Maui onions, swiss cheese, honey mustard and fresh watercress. Dean has had a number professional setbacks. His holding company, T.D. Bistro Inc., filed for bankruptcy in 2010, shortly after his restaurant in Baltimore, T.D. Lounge, shuttered. Dean reopened a steakhouse, Prime, in the same location, but sold it in the fall. Like Dean, the Boulevard, once a celebrated symbol of development in Prince George’s, fell on hard times in recent years. The center still deals with questions about safety after shootings that occurred in the early 2000s. And a series of corporate bankruptcies robbed it of Linens ‘n Things, Circuit City and Borders bookstore. HHGregg, TGI Fridays and a smattering of smaller retailers have absorbed much of the vacant spaces, bringing occupancy up to 87 percent, said Kenneth Baker, general manager at Inland Western Retail Real Estate, owner of the property. “We’re really excited about what’s happening here as the market turns around,” he said. “We’re hoping to find more innovative retailers that will add new brands to the center.” Residents, such as Arthur Turner, say the project has fallen short of their expectations, with too many restaurants (17 in total) and not enough boutiques. “Having Timothy Dean sign on is great,” said Turner, president of the Coalition of Central Prince George’s Community Organizations. “But the Boulevard is viewed as a place to eat, not a place to shop, and there needs to be a marriage of the two.”


Kettler alumni make run on apartment sites as Insight Property Group

Richard Hausler and Michael Blum became veterans of apartment development at Kettler — the area’s largest multifamily housing builder — before starting their own firm following the 2008 economic collapse. Since then, they have not looked back — maybe because they have not had time. After founding Insight Property Group in the fall of 2009, Hausler and Blum have closed deals for eight apartment complexes or development sites in the Washington area, despite only being in business for 10 quarters. The deals total 537 existing apartment units and 1,129 apartments in development, planning or construction. They have two more sites under contract. With the credit markets in shambles, Blum said he and Hausler didn’t expect to be developing property so soon. Insight, based in Tysons Corner, began with the purchase of an existing apartment complex in Rosslyn, the Metro Rosslyn Apartments, that offered future development opportunities. Then Washington’s apartment market began to heat up, a product of a turn away from home ownership, a better-than-average job market and low vacancy rates. As Blum and Hausler began to acquire more sites, they found improving conditions. “Frankly when we got into this, we thought development would be a little further down the road, but the pendulum began to swing very quickly,” Blum said. Of the eight purchases, four were of existing complexes in places as far off as Fredericksburg and Stafford, but the other four were in hot neighborhoods near Metro stations inside the Beltway, and Insight is moving quickly on them. In the fall of 2011, Insight broke ground on Grayson Flats, a 67-unit complex at 1200 N. Rolfe St., which is to replace a former 42-unit project. Completion is expected in the middle part of the year. On H Street NE, Insight acquired one of the last major development sites, a Murry’s grocery store, for $10 million and Blum said it holds a contract to buy a self-storage facility next door. In February, Insight bought a Silver Spring post office slated for closure for $7.2 million and plans to begin work this year on a $75 million, 310-unit apartment complex. Blum said investors are continuing to back Insight’s deals to the point where he and Hausler are looking to land a long-term equity partner. “We didn’t set up Insight just to flip land or be merchant builders,” he said. “We want to be in this for the long-term.”


Jerusalem String Quartet exhibits dazzling coordination

The Jerusalem String Quartet, from left, Sergei Bresler, Kyril Zlotnikov, Alexander Pavlovsky and Ori Kam, exhibited dazzling coordination at Barns at Wolf Trap on Friday night. (Vera Reider/Jerusalem String Quartet) Correction: Political protests have dogged the Jerusalem String Quartet because of its association with the armed forces of its native Israel, including at a 2007 concert at the Library of Congress. Perhaps by going outside Washington, to the partially filled Barns at Wolf Trap on Friday night, the group avoided such trouble. Foreign policy grumblings, if there were any, vanished when the group played quartets by Beethoven, Debussy and Shostakovich. This fine quartet, formed in 1993 when the members were conservatory students in Jerusalem, has made a series of recordings for Harmonia Mundi, none better than a pair of discs of Shostakovich quartets. No surprise, then, that Shostakovich’s ninth quartet stood out on this program, too, for the vigor of the interpretation, which kept one on the edge of one’s seat, and the overall quality of playing from all four musicians in dazzling coordination. The mood swung back and forth from a glowing lament in the second movement to an airheaded gallop in the third and back to mournful tension in the fourth. The fifth movement, which brings the themes back together, was a tour de force of biting tone and rhythmic precision. Tuning issues plagued the first work, Beethoven’s Op. 18, No. 2, with an over-agitated approach to the first movement balanced by a tuneful second, more bright than strident. The third and fourth movements, where the energy was mollified into bouncy fun, worked the best. Careful tuning at the interval improved the intonation in the work that followed, Debussy’s G Minor quartet, rendered not as a work of evanescent color but as surprisingly muscular music. The urgent serenade of the second movement, opening with lutelike pizzicato strikes around a raspy viola ostinato, led to the hushed benediction of the slow movement full of glassy, iridescent sounds. Downey is a freelance writer.


Safety concerns, industry changes push U.S. to rethink approach to food inspection

The agency now known as the FDA gained its modern-day mission in 1906, on the same day that the nation’s meat inspection law was enacted. Although that law barred meat from leaving the slaughterhouse or processing plant without a USDA stamp of approval, other foods were considered safe by the government and they were not subject to daily inspection. (Eric Gay/AP) Every day, inspectors in white hats and coats take up positions at every one of the nation’s slaughterhouses, eyeballing the hanging carcasses of cows and chickens as they shuttle past on elevated rails, looking for bruises, tumors and signs of contamination. It’s essentially the way U.S. Department of Agriculture food safety inspectors have done their jobs for a century, ever since Upton Sinclair’s blockbuster novel, “The Jungle,” exposed horrid conditions in a Chicago meatpacking facility and shook Americans awake to the hazards of tainted food. But these days, the bulk of what Americans eat — seafood, vegetables, fruit, dairy products, shelled eggs and almost everything except meat and poultry — is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. And the FDA inspects the plants it oversees on average about once a decade. These radically different approaches are a legacy from a time when animal products were thought to be inherently risky and other food products safe. But in the past few years, the high-profile and deadly outbreaks of food-borne illness linked to spinach, peanuts and cantaloupe have put the lie to that assumption. The FDA’s approach is partly by necessity: The agency lacks the money to marshal more inspectors. But it also reflects a different philosophy about how to address threats to the nation’s food supply: an approach based on where the risk is greatest. The agency concentrates its limited inspections on food products that have the worst track record on safety — seafood, for example — and on companies with a history of problems. It puts most of its efforts into responding to outbreaks after the fact, using genetic fingerprinting and other scientific tools to track contaminants back to their source in hopes of stopping any further spread. The USDA and the FDA are under pressure to overhaul their dramatically different procedures, in essence bringing them closer together. There’s a growing recognition among food-safety experts that the government can be smarter about tackling food-borne hazards that sicken one in six Americans each year and kill about 3,000. “We


Baltimore Symphony entertains with ‘Voices of Light’

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s 2011-12 concert season celebrating women focuses not on women composers but on a female icon: Joan of Arc, who was born 600 years ago. The season began in November with Arthur Honegger’s “Joan of Arc at the Stake” and continued Friday in Baltimore (repeated Saturday at Strathmore) with “Voices of Light,” which combines Richard Einhorn’s score for soloists, chorus and orchestra with Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 silent film, “The Passion of Joan of Arc.” Dreyer’s film served as both backdrop and inspiration, playing on the big screen above the orchestra. The film was thought to be lost to fire until 1981, when an almost-complete print of the original was found in the recesses of an Oslo mental institution. The film constantly rivets viewers with new first-person vantage points: We’re an onlooker behind the bald pates of condemning priests; we’re Joan, and even God. Einhorn honors Dreyer’s “Passion” with an oratorio that does more than flesh out the drama. The composer chose Old French, Italian and Latin for the singers because he wanted the audience to get the feeling of the words but not immediate understanding. Peabody Institute soprano Julie Bosworth and mezzo-soprano Janna Critz joined as one voice to sing Joan for their BSO debuts. Tenor Tyler Lee and baritone David Williams completed the vocal quartet, but mikes robbed magic from Einhorn’s renaissance incantations. The Baltimore Choral Arts Society gave sufficient roar to medieval slurs and raised good glorification (although one wishes the group would sit and rise quietly). The symphony’s low strings never sounded larger. Principal cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski shone in leading many a tonal line. He, his associate principal and principal bass and viola crowned the moment before Joan takes her last sacrament with grace. Oboe and flute threaded their way throughout the choral work, creating the delicacy and constancy we witness in the Joan on-screen. The relentless violin figures awakened in us the terror of the nail-studded wheel upon which she will be draped. Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conductor Marin Alsop. (Dave Hoffmann/COURTESY OF BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA) Williams tolled bell-like “Depone animos” (“Renounce your purpose”) as the soprano and alto darted silver shafts that struck the heart. Concertmaster Jonathan Carney’s raw violin work captured the ribald sword-swallowers entertaining the masses at the execution. Einhorn knows when to model on Bach and when to channel “Carmina Burana.” The greater test of his oratorio would be


Super Tuesday: Santorum would ease regulations, provide certainty

If we assume, as is often stated, that small businesses are the engine of the U.S. economy, it follows that governmental policies affecting this segment of the economy play an important role in the overall financial well-being of our country. Let’s take a look then at how a Rick Santorum administration might impact the ability of small businesses to grow and prosper. Santorum’s platform addresses five key issues — deficit reduction; credit availability and access to capital; health insurance costs; regulatory burdens; and uncertainty. In a recent survey conducted by the National Small Business Association, 44 percent of respondents ranked reducing the deficit as their No. 1 issue to be addressed by the government, up from 23 percent in December 2010. Former senator Santorum has committed to cutting $5 trillion of federal spending within five years. Access to capital has a direct impact on a business owner’s ability to hire additional employees. Historically, bank loans have been the primary source of financing for half of all small businesses. The Santorum platform does not address this issue, perhaps wisely. Many small businesses lack the assets necessary to secure bank loans, and are often considered to be poor credit risks. A small percentage of businesses avail themselves of loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, and this is not expected to increase significantly. The escalating costs of employee health care are holding down job growth, according to almost 30 percent of respondents in the NSBA survey. Santorum proposes to repeal Obamacare, replacing it with a market-based health care initiative. The operative phrase, of course, is “market based,” minimizing government involvement in the health care industry. He also proposes to implement Medicare reforms and innovation proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and to speed up their implementation to control health care costs and improve quality. This issue is at the heart of the health care debate, and of the role of government in this area. About 40 percent of small-business owners consider regulatory burdens as one of the most significant challenges to the growth and survival of their businesses. The Santorum platform calls for cutting EPA resources for job-killing regulations, and for eliminating funding for implementation of Dodd-Frank regulatory burdens. The greatest challenge to growth and survival, however, is economic uncertainty, according to 66 percent of respondents. This element is contingent on a host of factors, but at its core is


The doctor diagnosed chronic Lyme disease, but many experts say it doesn’t exist

Also, I trusted my internist. I felt as if we’d landed in the middle of a war. Pat, who had been climbing mountains a few years ago, now struggled to walk a city block. Both my internist and the Lyme specialist believed that chronic Lyme was treatable and that Pat could recover. But the standard medical authorities were telling me that this condition didn’t exist and the proposed treatment was ineffective and harmful. What were we supposed to do? In November 2010 I accompanied Pat to his first appointment at a Lyme disease clinic. During my research, I’d discovered that a state medical board had once suspended the license of the clinic’s doctor for prescribing long-term antibiotics. I felt like an outlaw entering that office — and also like someone desperate for help. Staff members ordered more tests to screen out look-alike diseases. Blood tests and a brain scan ruled out a host of conditions. Chronic Lyme disease seemed to be the diagnosis that fit. Pat was prescribed a variety of drugs to control his symptoms, plus multiple antibiotics to fight the infection. He would need to take the drugs for the next year or so. Pat started swallowing about 25 pills a day, and the pace of his recovery picked up. Searching for answers I’m not a scientist. I don’t know exactly what’s causing Pat’s symptoms, or how they’re related to the bacteria carried by a tick. In some ways I’m not surprised that doctors don’t have ready answers, because Lyme disease was pinpointed only 35 years ago (it’s named for Lyme, Conn., where a cluster of cases was first identified), and it’s still considered an emerging disease. Here’s what I do know: Just because scientists don’t understand the cause of a disease doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Back when patient-reported symptoms were all doctors had to go on, some practitioners dismissed multiple sclerosis as “faker’s disease.” Then magnetic resonance imaging was invented, and doctors could see the brain lesions that explained the symptoms patients complained about. Like those MS patients who were once called fakers, chronic Lyme disease patients are trapped in a nightmare. I see only one solution: We need to pick apart the tangled causes of this disease and find the most effective treatments. NIH is the logical choice to create a national research agenda and, in the process, set up a series of long-term,


In Pakistan, gone but not forgotten

Amina Masood Janjua is the leader of the missing persons protest in Islamabad. (Michele Langevine Leiby/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) ISLAMABAD — They huddled in small groups under a bright orange tarpaulin, seated on rugs and prayer mats laid out end to end to protect against the chilly February ground. Some of the protesters were resting, some sharing a meal of lentil dahl and naan bread, others solemnly clutching homemade posters bearing the faces and neatly scripted names of their missing loved ones. Infants and elderly, housewives and working professionals, entire families representing Pakistan’s so-called “missing persons” have set up a protest camp near the parliament here to demand answers on the whereabouts of their relatives. “People are pinning their hopes here,” said the group’s leader, Amina Masood Janjua. “We have no guns, no nuclear weapons. Our words and our grief is the power.” Her husband, businessman Masood Ahmed Janjua, now 51, disappeared six years ago. She said he was last seen in Rawalpindi, a city just outside the capital, on his way to Peshawar. Janjua is one of hundreds if not thousands who have been “disappeared” — seized in extrajudicial detentions allegedly conducted by Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, according to human rights officials. The missing are presumed by the agency to be terrorists and Islamist militants. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate is thought to be behind the seizures of the putative terrorists, because when those detained are allowed to go home, they say they were with the intelligence agencies, said Amina Janjua. The ISI denies involvement with most of the cases and when it does concede involvement, the agency justifies the seizures as in the interest of stemming Islamist militancy. Last month, the Supreme Court ordered ISI officials to produce seven of the disappeared detainees in court. The men had been tried and acquitted by the courts for attacks on military and ISI facilities but then were later allegedly reapprehended and detained by security forces. Their story was splashed across local media after the court appearance — the media even gave the group a catchy moniker, the Adiala 11 after Adiala jail where they were being held in Rawalpindi. Photos of the men — emaciated, barely alive — gave the public a glimpse into the Islamabad courtroom where a macabre iteration of a habeas corpus proceeding played out. Only seven of the Adiala 11 appeared because four had died in


Brumidi study of Capitol dome painting to go to Smithsonian

WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 17: FILE, (L-R) J. George Stewart, Architect of the Capitol; Mildred Thompson, great-grandniece of Brumidi's wife; John R. Murdock, former Representative from Arizona, and his wife, Myrtle Cheney Murdock, in Washington, DC on August 17, 1961. Stewart accepted a 30-foot scroll containing working sketches by artist Constantine Brumidi for the frieze in the rotunda of the Capitol. (Photo by United Press International) (Photo by United Press International/PHOTO BY UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL) The bidding for the Constantino Brumidi painting started relatively low on Sunday, said Chris Barber of the Skinner auction house in Boston. By “relatively low” he meant around $100,000. From there, it climbed steadily. There was at least one interested bidder in the room. Four prospective purchasers were bidding by phone. Soon, the oil study that Brumidi did for “The Apotheosis of Washington” in the Capitol dome had reached its high estimate of $350,000. The bids kept rising until only two bidders remained. When the bidding stopped, it stood at $475,000. Sold! Add in the buyer’s premium, and someone paid $539,500. “It eclipsed even what we thought it might bring,” Chris told me Monday. “It set a record by a painting by Brumidi.” Not bad for something that was last sold back in 1919 for $300. And who was the lucky — and deep-pocketed — winner? It was the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum. “We think that’s where it belongs,” Elizabeth Broun, the museum’s director, told me Monday. “We’re thrilled.” I imagine the U.S. Capitol Historical Society isn’t quite as thrilled. It was hoping someone might buy it and donate it. “I’m sure we would be happy to talk with them about lending it to the Capitol visitors center,” Elizabeth said. “I understand all the reasons they would love to have it.” The painting was paid for by the museum’s American Art Forum, a group of public-spirited art collectors from around the country. Elizabeth said the painting will go on display at the American Art Museum after conservation, it’s hoped by this summer or earlier. Now for some unfinished business. Four years ago — July 1, 2008, to be exact — President George W. Bush signed legislation granting Brumidi a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal. But there has been no official awards ceremony. This displeases local history buff Joe Grano, chairman of the Constantino Brumidi appreciation society. Joe notes that on the same day that Bush signed


Do OPM program’s e-mail issues indicate broader problems?

Are problems with the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program examples of broad failures by the Office of Personnel Management? Or are they minor mishaps, affecting relatively few and quickly corrected? The top two House Republicans overseeing the federal workforce are calling on the Obama administration to explain recent missteps with the prestigious program designed to attract future government leaders. PMF advertises itself as “a flagship leadership development program at the entry level for advanced degree candidates.” But a letter to the Office of Personnel Management, from Reps. Darrell Issa (Calif.) and Dennis A. Ross (Fla.) says that “unfortunately, recent problems with OPM’s administration of the Program threaten its prestige and the government’s ability to recruit future Fellows.” A letter to the Office of Personnel Management, from Reps. Darrell Issa (Calif.), above, and Dennis A. Ross (Fla.) says that “unfortunately, recent problems with OPM’s administration of the Program threaten its prestige and the government’s ability to recruit future Fellows.” (Carolyn Kaster/AP) Baloney, says a former fellow. “I find it ironic that they blow a simple email mistake, and what amounts to less than three days of computer issues, completely out of proportion,” said Mary Krebs Devine, who was in the class of 2000. She posted her comments to washingtonpost.com’s Federal Eye blog. “I graduated from the PMF program’s forerunner, the Presidential Management Intern (PMI) program. . . . It was, and still is, an effectively and efficiently run program. This outstanding program will not be tarnished by a simple email blunder.” The March 1 letter to OPM Director John Berry identified the blunders: ●On Jan. 23, OPM mistakenly sent 300 semifinalists, who had not qualified as finalists, e-mails congratulating them on their acceptance into the program. ●On Nov. 1, 2011, OPM sent out blank e-mails that did not identify whether applicants qualified for the in-person assessment. ●From Oct. 7-10, 2011, qualified applicants could not access the online assessment tool. Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Ross, chairman of the federal workforce subcommittee, said they are “concerned that these problems are indicative of larger IT failures within OPM, which include Retirement Modernization and USAJobs.gov.” The retirement program and the online jobs board have experienced serious technical issues. Whether they were big problems or small, certainly the January PMF mistakes caused heartburn among applicants. “Why were some individuals receiving both acceptance & rejection emails while others just received


It takes a village to build a sustainable following

of its business comes from customers at the drive-through. His goal is to promote sustainable food in the world of casual dining, where pre-shaped burgers, frozen fries and gallon-size bags of salad dressings are kitchen norms. That means not only cooking from scratch but replacing factory-farmed pork with heritage breeds raised on smaller farms and contracting with local farmers to grow staples including pimentos, peppers, garlic, onions and jalapenos — all without raising prices above what his customers can afford. Pihakis is not the first chain restaurateur to wade into these murky waters. Chipotle’s Steve Ells has proved that serving high-quality, even local, meat can build customer loyalty — and profits. But Chipotle’s assembly-line, fast-food restaurants are less costly to run than Jim ’N Nick’s, which must pay servers and dishwashers and offers a menu with more variety. Perhaps Pihakis’s biggest challenge is that his customers appear happy with things just as they are. In 2011, the Birmingham News named Jim ’N Nick’s the best barbecue in the city. The one time Pihakis did try to introduce higher-quality meat — an antibiotic- and hormone-free chicken — with a slight price hike, customers complained. Pihakis returned to his former supplier of conventionally raised birds. However, Pihakis is determined to prove that good food doesn’t have to be expensive or highfalutin. “I don’t think good food has to cost that much more to produce,” Pihakis says. “It can be scaled. And that’s the only way we’re going to get it into the hands of mainstream Americans.” Pihakis says he always knew he wanted to be in the restaurant business. At 19, he got his first job as a bartender in Birmingham, his hometown. Eight years later, in 1985, Pihakis’s father, Jim, helped him open the first Jim ’N Nick’s. Today, the chain grosses $90 million a year and has outlets sprinkled across the southeast and in Colorado. Three more are set to open this year. Pihakis caught sustainable-food fever about seven years ago after meeting Bill Niman, the founder of Niman Ranch. The two hit it off instantly and decided to drive around Alabama to find small farms that might supply at least one of his restaurants. But after days on the road, they had not found a single farmer. The severity of the situation only increased Pihakis’s resolve to do something. He began to talk with chefs and cult producers, such


3 Md. family members dead in cluster of respiratory illnesses; 2 from flu complications

arrived with the same flu-like symptoms as her siblings, including fever, aches, cough and shortness of breath, Orlowski said. Tests confirmed the siblings who died had a strain of flu virus known as influenza A, and each also acquired a serious staph infection, according to Orlowski. She said it was unlikely the infection was acquired in the hospitals because the siblings arrived coughing blood. “It’s likely they came to the hospital with the infection, which is what caused the cough and fever,” Orlowski said. The mother was Lou Ruth Blake, according to a funeral home notice that was confirmed by a county official who did not want to be identified because the investigation is not closed. Tests are being conducted to determine whether the second daughter has the same influenza virus and infection. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will determine what strain of the influenza A virus infected the family, Orlowski said. This year’s flu season has gotten off to a late start, but Orlowski said there has been an increase in the number of patients with flu-like symptoms in recent weeks. Hospital center officials are looking into at least one other recent death — unrelated to the Calvert cluster— to determine whether it was related to flu. The severity of illness and death due to flu varies widely from season to season. The very young, adults older than 65 and individuals with certain medical conditions are at higher risk for developing flu-related complications. The 2011-2012 flu vaccine will protect against the three viruses that research indicates will be most common during the season: two strains of the influenza A virus, H1N1 and H3N2, and an influenza B virus. Health officials said the department is urging people who have not yet received a flu vaccine to get one. Local officials are also asking residents to take standard precautions to prevent the spread of illness, including hand washing and limiting contact with sick individuals. Anyone with flu-like symptoms should check with a health-care provider. Maryland’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner also is conducting autopsies as part of the investigation. Medical Examiner David Fowler said Calvert health officials contacted his office Monday seeking assistance. One of the bodies was being transported to Baltimore on Tuesday for an autopsy. At least one of the bodies had already been embalmed and buried, local officials told him. The medical examiner’s office


Beer Madness 2012 begins with 32

Correction: The beer universe continues to expand. There were 1,927 breweries operating in the United States for all or part of 2011, according to the Brewers Association, and 855 more in the planning stages. That’s an increase of almost 10 percent in a year’s time. With such developments in mind, we probably could have doubled last year’s field of 64 for Beer Madness, our annual blind tasting to crown a king of the cooler, the results of which will be revealed over the next month or so. But we went in the opposite direction, condensing the pack of craft brews to 32. That made sense for several reasons, and it gave our judges the right amount of time to swish, swirl and determine a true champion. Cast a vote for your favorite beer in our online bracket. Greg Engert, beer director for the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, welcomed our tasting panel of four food and beverage professionals and four motivated Washington Post readers to his draft palace, Birch & Barley/ChurchKey in Logan Circle. Once again, we grouped the beers, which represent the breadth and depth of the brewing art in America, into four categories (based on a flavor paradigm developed by Engert for NRG): Fruit and spice. Roast. Hop. Last year’s malt category, however, was deep-sixed in favor of a niche called Crisp: an assortment of pale and amber lagers, most with lower alcohol contents and softer, more delicate flavors, that often get short shrift when placed aside the boozy, super-bitter imperial styles. “So often, people mistake intensity for complexity,” noted Engert. “Just because it hits you in the face doesn’t mean there’s a lot going on.” But would our panel appreciate subtlety? All of the breweries fit the Brewers Association’s definition of “craft.” They’re small (under 6 million barrels a year); they’re independent (not divisions of large industrial brewers such as Blue Moon or Shock Top); they’re traditional (in the sense of not using corn or rice to lighten the beer). And all of their products are widely available in the Washington area, year-round, via takeout in bottles or cans. We listened to the readers who wanted to re-create the Beer Madness challenge at home and had trouble tracking down some of last year’s bracketed brews. Out: draft-only operations such as Oliver Breweries or Chocolate City Brewing, as well as intriguing options such as Avatar Jasmine IPA from Seattle’s Elysian


Beer Madness: 32 American craft brews in the brackets

multigrain brew, made with malted barley and rye. Righteous Ale Sixpoint Craft Ales, Brooklyn, N.Y. The brewer of this resiny rye PA, with a spicy pumpernickel finish, takes its name from the six-pointed star that was once a symbol of alchemists and beermakers. Lagunitas Maximus Lagunitas Brewing Co., Petaluma, Calif. The brewery warns that this West Coast India pale ale, on the cusp of being a double IPA, may remove the enamel from your teeth. Will the second time be the charm for the 2011 Beer Madness runner-up? Burton Baton Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, Del. Immensely hoppy and strong (10 percent alcohol by volume), Burton Baton is a blend of an imperial IPA and English-style old ale that spends a month mellowing on oak before its release. ROAST Lucky 7 Evolution Craft Brewing Co., Delmar, Del. The brewery, which is packing up to move across the state border to Salisbury, Md., recommends pairing this robust porter with smoked barbecue or a chocolate dessert. Maui Coconut Porter Maui Brewing Co., Lahaina, Hawaii The brewery adds chunks of toasted coconut post-fermentation to this full-bodied porter, which is freighted 4,800 miles from the islands to your local cooler. Allagash Black Allagash Brewing Co., Portland, Me. This Belgian-style stout incorporates a special variety of dark candy sugar to smooth over the rough edges from the highly roasted malts. Existent American Farmhouse Ale Stillwater Artisanal Ales, Baltimore; brewed at DOG Brewing Co., Westminster, Md. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, gazing into the abyss, graces the label of this dark saison, a melange of chocolaty and earthy flavors. Sierra Nevada Stout Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, Calif. The brewery gained its reputation from its pale ale but it has been producing this roasty, Cascade hop-accented stout almost from its beginning. Schlafly Oatmeal Stout The Saint Louis Brewery, St. Louis, Mo. Made with flaked oatmeal and English hops, this beer is a tribute to British stouts of the 19th century that were marketed for their nutritional value. Breakfast in a bottle, anyone? Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale Stone Brewing Co., Escondido, Calif. The brewery refers to it as “liquid dichotomy,” alluding to the ebony color, caramel and coffee flavors, and a big Pacific Northwest hop flavor usually associated with paler ales. Black Lightning DuClaw Brewing Co., Abingdon, Md. This hoppy American black ale is made with roasted barley that’s been de-husked to add color and flavor while minimizing astringency.


Beer Madness: A style guide to this year’s field of 32

(Deb Lindsey/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) Tasting the 32 American craft brews of this year’s Beer Madness over the course of two separate sessions allowed us to include stronger styles of beer that we couldn’t sample in years past. Here is a style guide to give you an idea of what flavors the judges’ panel experienced with each beer. Abbey ales Ale Helles Imperial India pale ale Lager Marzen Pale ale Pilsener Porter Saison Stout Wheat beers


If knocking back a cold one doesn’t appeal, you can still tap into the spirit of Beer Madness by cooking with beer. Here it adds subtle bitter notes to two main-course dishes and to crepes, which can be filled in savory or sweet ways. — Jane Touzalin Beer Recipes: Cuban-Style Chicken and Rice Mustard-Glazed Pork Chops With Beer and Caraway Belgian-Style Crepes


The military has not done enough to diversify its leadership or stop harassment and abuse of minorities by fellow service members, lawmakers said Tuesday. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), whose nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, committed suicide in Afghanistan last April after alleged physical harassment from other Marines, angrily told representatives of the Defense Department and the military services at a joint congressional forum that the armed forces have failed to take hazing seriously. “Any claims that hazing incidents are isolated are unfounded,” said Chu, who complained that the services do not compile data on alleged cases or adequately punish violators. “The feeling that hazing is a necessary part of military life is very, very entrenched,” she added. Mike Applegate, director of manpower plans and policies for the Marine Corps, told Chu that the case involving her nephew was “inexcusable” and that the service intends to stamp out hazing “wherever it exists.” “I just don’t believe you,” Chu replied. In April, the Military Leadership Diversity Commission, established by Congress, issued a report finding that minorities are underrepresented in the leadership of the armed forces. Lawmakers expressed disappointment Tuesday at the progress in implementing the commission’s recommendations. “It sounds like there’s been a lot of talk but not enough action,” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), who presided over Tuesday’s forum, held by the Congressional Black Caucus, the Asian Pacific American Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus. “I don’t see the commitment from the Department of Defense to the seriousness of the problem,” added Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.). In many cases, Cummings said, the services have placed recommendations on standby, with more than half under review or in the process of being implemented. “Things are beginning to happen,” retired Air Force Gen. Lester Lyles, who chaired the diversity commission, told the forum. “They’re not happening at the pace perhaps that we’d like to see.” He credited the Pentagon with making diversity an “integral part” of the department’s culture and said all the services have clear, consistent diversity plans. Clarence Johnson, director of the Defense Department’s Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity, told lawmakers that the Pentagon considers diversity “a strategic imperative.” He said the Pentagon is combating hazing and regrets “recent incidents that may call that commitment into question.” “The department’s policy prohibiting hazing is unambiguous,” he added. “It is contrary to good order and discipline and is unacceptable behavior.”


Loudoun teen competes for Intel science prize

in the high-tech field. Amy Dyckovsky, a photographer, said Ari and his dad bonded over their shared love of math. Howard played math games with 3-year-old Ari on long car rides and created math worksheets to keep him engaged when he grew bored with school in second grade. When his father died of a heart attack in 2003, 9-year-old Ari, the oldest of three children, was left reeling. “Ari and I shared the worst day of our lives,” Amy said. “The hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life is to tell Ari that his dad died.” For years afterward, Ari lost enthusiasm for learning. His excitement wasn’t rekindled until he was admitted to the Academy of Science, a competitive public program based at Dominion High School in Sterling. Wolfe and teacher Duke Writer offered guidance and encouragement as Ari pursued his research. “Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Writer definitely are the type of educators who are willing to break boundaries to help someone who really is motivated,” Ari said. Writer helped Ari search for a research mentor. Of more than 60 letters they sent to scientists, Olmschenk was the only one to respond. Wolfe and Writer were thrilled to see Olmschenk teach Ari about quantum mechanics and allow him to lead the project. Ari was thriving, even if it was sometimes a challenge for him to balance being a teenager and a serious researcher. “It’s just difficult for me to go to a basketball game and really enjoy it in the same way that the other kids can,” Ari said. “I definitely try, but it’s also not as much of an interest of mine.” Ari said he has been accepted at Stanford University and is waiting to hear from Harvard and Yale. As the Intel competition approached, Ari said he was most excited to get to know the other finalists, who have already formed a Facebook group. “We talk about our projects, and about science in general,” Ari said. “It’s cool to find peers who are coming up with things that are completely non-trivial. You can see their passion and hard work.” Wolfe said he once reminded Ari about the importance of modesty. “There was a time when I told him, ‘Ari, you’re just going to have to watch that you don’t come off as arrogant,’ ” Wolfe said. He recalled Ari’s self-effacing reply. “Mr. Wolfe, I’m just a kid.”


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These were among the cases received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information on shelter hours and location, adoption and licensing procedures, rabies clinics and low-cost neutering, call 240-773-5960. Saint Bernard attempts attack: Rampant rodent Cock-a-doodle-shush! Shelter has adoptable cats Gaithersburg Pets available for adoption Rockville Germantown Partnership for Animal Welfare needs volunteers — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Robert J. Adler, database administrator

Robert J. Adler, 56, a database administrator who worked in the Washington area for about 20 years, died Feb. 1 of injuries sustained that day in a traffic accident in New Market, Md., his brother Eric Adler said. The death was confirmed by the office of Maryland’s chief medical examiner. Mr. Adler, a resident of Columbia, retired about three years ago from iSKY, a market research firm. He had previously worked at Riggs National Bank and, in the 1990s, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, where his assignments included projects related to the Hubble space telescope. Robert Jeffrey Adler was born in Nassau County, N.Y. He received a bachelor’s degree in general sciences and a teaching certificate in 1981 and a master’s degree in information studies in 1984, all from the University of Michigan. Survivors include his mother, Gwen Adler of Ann Arbor, Mich.; three brothers; and one sister. — Emily Langer


‘Social’ credit card from Barclays lets users set terms

A logo sits outside a Barclays Plc bank branch in London, U.K. (Simon Dawson/BLOOMBERG) As the financial industry faces deteriorating public opinion and a raft of new regulations, one bank is adopting an unorthodox philosophy: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Barclays this week announced that it is launching a new credit card that will use social media to crowdsource features that could range from where call centers are located to the size of late fees. The British bank said the goal is to rebuild trust among increasingly wary consumers and create a new level of transparency for credit cards. It even plans to disclose how much it makes off the card — and potentially return some of that money to customers. “Underneath it is the core tenets that people are asking for,” said Paul Wilmore, managing director of consumer markets for Barclaycard US, the bank’s payments division. “It’s simple and transparent, and people have a voice in dictating how these features work.” According to a Gallup survey last summer, a record 36 percent of Americans reported that they lacked confidence in the nation’s banks. Less than a quarter of the people surveyed said they viewed banks positively. That sentiment was crystallized in the fall when Bank of America tried to institute a $5 fee for its debit cards. Angry consumers revolted online, signing petitions and organizing a “move your money” day. Bank of America eventually backed away from the fee. Consumers aren’t the only ones lashing out at banks. Congress passed sweeping reforms of the credit card industry three years ago aimed at limiting fees and interest-rate hikes. The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it has received roughly 12,000 complaints about credit cards since opening for business last summer. One of the top issues? Consumer confusion. Wilmore said Barclays has taken these lessons to heart. “The government’s telling us three things: You’ve got to be simple, you’ve got to be transparent, and you’ve got to be fair to the consumer,” he said. The Barclaycard Ring MasterCard has no traditional rewards program but carries an 8 percent interest rate for all balances — well below the average rate of 14.25 percent, according to Lowcards.com. Late fees are capped at $25. Lowcards.com Chief Executive Bill Hardekopf said those terms are generally reserved for consumers with the most pristine credit histories. It remains to be seen who can actually qualify


Key commanders have their say on Afghanistan

Two senior American military commanders spent the past two days putting into context recent negative news about the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. At the same time, they tried to get members of the Senate and House Armed Services committees to realize that U.S. units will remain in that country long after combat troops depart in 2014. A question asked on both days: “Should the U.S. modify its Afghan strategy in the wake of those six U.S. soldiers being killed by Afghan soldiers between Feb. 23 and March 1?” “Treachery has existed as long as there’s been warfare, and there’s always been a few people that you couldn’t trust” was the way Marine Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, put it. On Tuesday, he told the Senate panel: “I’m one of those who has slept peacefully under Afghan boys guarding me back in 2001. No force is perfect.” On Wednesday, Mattis told House members that the U.S. military relationship with Afghan troops “should not be defined by the occasional tragedies.” He went on to say, “More Afghan boys have died as a result of this sort of thing in a society that has been turned upside down by the Soviets some decades ago. . . . The Kalashnikov culture found its way inside that society and violence has become too often the norm. It’s one of the things we’re trying to turn back.” But, he added, “in Afghanistan right now, it has not stopped us in our tracks.” Adm. William McRaven, head the U.S. Special Operations Command, told the senators that his troops “have not had any what we refer to as ‘green-on-blue’ incidents [Afghan soldiers attacking U.S. or NATO personnel] with respect to our partner relationships.” Another question that came up several times was President Hamid Karzai’s repeated objection to Special Forces night raids on Afghan villages in order to capture targeted, high-value Taliban leaders. McRaven told the senators that the raids are “essential” and that the high-value individuals “generally bed down at night. They are much more targetable at night. And I think if you look at it tactically, what you find is the Afghans are actually much safer if we target an individual at night because there aren’t so many people out and about in the little villages.” He also said that Karzai has been told that Afghan forces have taken the lead on night raids.


Chinese ruling party frets over a new threat: A book by an aged communist

taken by our society and country. I feel a responsibility to cry out to those who lead this country’s ruling party and to common people: we have taken the wrong road.” The party says that it doesn’t reject democracy but only its Western forms, an argument that resonates at a time of growing Chinese nationalism. It points to the National People’s Congress, which has nearly 3,000 members, allows some discussion of policy and no longer votes unanimously in favor of everything. But the legislature still invariably approves party-scripted legislation. Its chairman, Politburo Standing Committee member Wu Bangguo, is a fervent critic of what the party scorns as alien Western notions of democracy incompatible with China’s “national essence.” At last year’s session, Wu outlined a doctrine of “Five Don’ts,” denouncing multiparty competition, pluralism and other innovations as heresies that will plunge China “into an abyss of internal disorder.” Du’s book provides a detailed theoretical critique of Wu’s arguments. His conclusion: “The National People’s Congress is nothing more than a democratic signboard for a one-party dictatorship.” Criticism of senior party leaders by name is still taboo in China, and Bao, the publisher, thinks this might partly explain Beijing’s sensitivity to the book. Du’s book also hits another raw nerve: It contains a preface by Bao’s father, Bao Tong, a reform-minded senior party official who was purged and jailed after the Tiananmen crackdown. Other literary targets While ignoring Hong Kong books about the extravagant sex lives of corrupt officials and other titillating topics, Beijing has repeatedly tried to curb more sober works, usually by pressuring the authors. Bao said Chinese officials have intervened to try to halt five New Century Press titles. All but one got published, including a work denouncing China’s current prime minister, often viewed as a liberal, as a fraud. Yu Jie, the author of “China’s Best Actor: Wen Jiabao,” fled to the United States in January and said he had been tortured by Chinese security forces, in part as punishment for his criticism of the premier. Du has been spared physical abuse and has instead been quietly ordered to withdraw his book from publication. “This is such a depressing story,’ said Bao, the publisher. “The system is so intolerant of criticism it cannot even let a sick man in his 80s say what he wants to say. . . . This is why 1.3 billion people are effectively silent.”


House hunters must do their homework about real estate Web sites

Washington, DC - March, 3: Renata Ko, with her husband Jeremy and son Sebastian, used real estate web sites to conduct research when hunting for their new home. (Bill O'Leary/WASHINGTON POST) Whether you’re searching for a home, preparing to sell or just nosy about your neighbors, real estate Web sites include so many new features that they can become addictive. Instead of waiting for an agent to dole out listings on their time schedule, you can search anonymously at midnight, receive e-mail alerts about newly listed homes or open houses, see market and neighborhood reports, map recent home-sale prices, and use apps that display listing details and interior photos of nearby homes. Nearly 90 percent of home buyers used the Internet in their house searches in 2011, according to the National Association of Realtors. And even if you aren’t looking for a house, it’s easy to get sucked into these sites for their voyeuristic appeal — you just can’t help yourself from peeping into your neighbors’ listings and sales history, seeing their estimated home value (and competitively comparing it with your own), and getting a glimpse into their homes and finances. Admit it — you’ve peeked. But house hunters, sellers and real estate agents say the quality of information can vary greatly from site to site, and tension is brewing between third-party syndication sites — such as Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com — and traditional real estate brokers and agents. Brokers have complained that some of the information on these Web sites can be inaccurate or misleading. They say that outdated listings leave buyers frustrated when homes they thought were available are actually sold, and they can leave sellers angry when price reductions aren’t reported quickly. What is the biggest gripe by agents and brokers? They complain that their own for-sale listings are being used as lead-generating tools for other agents, who pay the Web sites for advertising space or buy a percentage of the inquiries related to when a user looks at a home in a specific Zip code. “Everybody looked at the Web as a great marketing tool, so they pushed everything out without thinking about the integrity of the information,” says Hoby Hanna, president of Howard Hanna Real Estate, who does business in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and West Virginia. Hanna considered removing his firm’s 35,000 annual listings from all of the third-party sites. But the eyeballs were


Prince George’s County Animal Watch

The following cases were received by the Prince George’s County Department of Environmental Resources Animal Management Group. Call 301-780-7200 for directions to the county animal shelter, hours of operation and adoption and licensing procedures. The shelter’s Web site is www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/der/amg. Attack of the stray cat: Dog jumps fence: Chihuahua in the can: Puppy found limping: Older cat gets pickup: Dog and cat adoption showcase: — Compiled by Jillian S. Sowah


In Tanzania, an American English teacher reconnects with his students

were high above the city, which stretched farther than I remembered. A nearby hill was feathered with transmission towers. I could feel the past slipping away, making room for the present. “Arusha has changed a lot,” I said. “Yes,” he said. “A lot.” *** Gerald was indeed fatter than Simon, but not quite as fat as Simon had led me to believe. As Gerald waved from down the street, it took me a minute to see the face of the boy in the face of the man. But it was there, in his smile. We were downtown, near the clock tower. Gerald was in town working on a five-story guesthouse near the stadium. On our way to lunch, the three of us crossed the street, and a car stopped in front of us. “Mwalimu!” the driver yelled. “It’s James … from Ekenywa!” James. I remembered his face. Lackluster student. Not a bad guy. I believe he exited my class with almost no working knowledge of English. “James!” I said. “What are you doing these days?” He held out a tissue and unrolled it. Inside were two big, cut pieces of blue gemstone. “Glass?” I said. “No, not glass. Tanzanite. I’m selling it.” Some cars honked behind him, and he said he’d call later and sped off. Down the street, we came to an office building, where we climbed stairs and knocked on a door. It was an auditing firm. Inside, seated at a desk covered by ledgers, was Makata, the erstwhile Ekenywa math teacher. He was so happy to see us that he left work and came with us to a restaurant, where we ate nyama choma (grilled meat), drank beer and sat for several hours, reminiscing about the old days, catching up on events, gossiping about other students and teachers, and discussing how things had changed. It was all very good to see what these young guys had become, how life had carried them down the road to something a little better. At one point, I asked something that had been on my mind. “Gerald,” I said, “do you think having an American teacher helped you with English?” “Sana!” he said. “Very much! It helped me so much! I got a B in your class, but a C in all the others. Do you remember?” “I remember you were very good in English.” “Sana.” I wasn’t sure if I


Washington sightseeing guide: Museums, galleries, monuments and memorials

ones. Have a plan: Insider tip: What’s in the neighborhood: Info: Independence Avenue and Sixth Street SW. 202-633-2214. www.nasm.si.edu. Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed Christmas). Cost: Transit: National Gallery of Art Count on seeing a bit of everything in this grand museum, which consists of two buildings (the East and West buildings) and a sculpture garden. The West Building features more traditional art (the Old Masters and the newly renovated 19th-century French Galleries, etc.), while the East Building focuses on more modern and contemporary art (Calder, Dubuffet, etc.). Have a plan: Insider tip: What’s in the neighborhood: Info: Cost: Transit: National Museum of American History This site is home to a broad mix of American treasures — from the first ladies’ gowns to Dorothy’s ruby slippers. Have a plan: Insider tip: What’s in the neighborhood: Info: Cost: Transit: National Museum of the American Indian The Smithsonian’s newest museum celebrates Native American cultures from North and South America. Have a plan: Insider tip: What’s in the neighborhood: Info: Cost: Transit: National Museum of Crime & Punishment With such exhibits as J. Edgar Hoover’s revolver and Pancho Villa’s death mask, dare we say that missing this spot would be a real, uh, crime? Have a plan: Insider tip: What’s in the neighborhood: Info: Cost: Transit: National Museum of Natural History Whether you want to see the jaw-dropping Hope Diamond or the towering Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, this Smithsonian museum is sure to dazzle. Have a plan: Tips from an insider: What’s in the neighborhood: Info: Cost: Transit: Newseum Opened in 2008, this high-tech museum offers interactive displays on the news business. Have a plan: Insider tip: What’s in the neighborhood: Info: Cost: Transit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum This museum honors the victims of one of mankind’s worst atrocities. Opened in 1993, it is one of the city’s most popular tourist destinations. Have a plan: Insider tip: What’s in the neighborhood: Info: Cost: Transit: Update March 16, 2012: A section on the National Archives was added to this story. National Archives and Records Administration The nation’s founding documents are on display here, along with other primary sources from our country’s history. Have a plan: Tourists flock to the Archives for a glimpse of the Charters of Freedom, a.k.a. the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, so don’t leave this visit to chance. To avoid being


occurs, we won’t have an elite executive corps. Lloyd Grable, McLean, formerly with the Navy and Energy departments An interview with Rep. Dennis A. Ross (R-Fla.), chairman of the House federal workforce subcommittee and advocate for a smaller workforce, touched off an online debate. The rolls are filled with millions that could not compete or hold a job as private citizens so over the years government employment has turned into another form of high-paying welfare! The Democrat welfare society is going bankrupt! They did not cut enough! After spending years working with, around and supervising government workers I can tell you for sure those people do not work. Every five government employees could be replaced by two workers. BlackSaint I suppose you worked with all 2.1 million so you can cast your black net over all of the workforce including the brains behind the guy who got Osama Bin Laden. createland The Federal Government isn’t a Taco Bell. If you want minimum wage work, then dole out minimum wage pay. The real challenge is recruiting and retaining quality personnel. Salaries and benefits attract top talent, but more so, is the feeling that you can make a difference. With the current state of vilifying federal employees, a young person with talent will look elsewhere. OldFed1 An article earlier this week reported on an inquiry by two members of Congress into problems with Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program. When I came into the program in 1998 we were selected as semi-finalists based on our résumés and our dean’s recommendation . . . however, the assessors didn’t know what résumé went with whom (or even what our names were) when we went to the assessment center so that they wouldn’t favor one over another for reasons other than the three assessments. Once there, we first took a timed writing test. Our question was something like, “Describe your accomplishments and what you learned from them.” Secondly, we had an individual analytical assessment. We were each given a controversial policy question and asked to choose a side and develop our argument on paper first, then present and defend it orally before the assessors. The third and last assessment was a group discussion monitored by the assessors and very similar to the analytical portion, except in a group of other candidates and with no preparation. This kind of assessment process is as rigorous as it gets.


Will Reid break the judicial nomination logjam?

from the prize and replace it with his country’s name, thereby likely allowing the prize to be given. The United States voted no, but African countries, an Arab bloc, and traditional democracies such as China, Cuba, Belarus, Pakistan and Russia voted in favor. Human rights groups, Western democracies and prominent African leaders such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu had strongly objected to the award, noting that the State Department constantly slams Obiang for things like arbitrary arrest and detention and and judicial corruption. But Obiang, who put up $3 million for the award (to be given over five years), kept trying, most recently taking his name off the award and just having the country’s name on it. UNESCO kept stalling, hoping he would just go away or maybe might somehow be embarrassed by charges the money came from Obiang’s preposterous looting of the oil-rich country’s treasury. Detractors cited a Justice Department effort to seize a $30 million Malibu mansion, a fleet of luxury cars, a $38.5 million Gulfstream jet, Michael Jackson clothing and other items owned by the dictator’s playboy son, who has a yearly salary of $81,000. Just weeks ago French authorities, investigating alleged embezzlement, reportedly seized truckloads of art and antiquities said to be worth more than $50 million from the son’s six-floor mansion in a tony Paris neighborhood. But, despite Thursday’s vote, the fight over the prize may not be over. Despite UNESCO’s inspired effort to discredit itself, the organization’s legal office has determined that legal problems related to the name change and other matters may make it impossible to award the prize. Washington stopped paying $80 million in dues and contributions to UNESCO after the organization granted membership to the Palestinian Authority in October. Thursday’s action sure isn’t going to help efforts to restore that funding. Knows what he likes There’s a new salvo in the ongoing turf war between the Federal Trade Commission and the chairman of the House transportation committee, John Mica . Mica has long had his eye on the FTC headquarters’ primo real estate on Pennsylvania Avenue — space he thinks is perfect for a new wing of the National Gallery. This week, his committee passed a resolution directing the General Services Administration to produce a plan for the agency-for-museum switcheroo. Meanwhile, the FTC is none too pleased with Mica’s latest maneuver — or with the underlying proposal, which calls for the